V
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Author's note:
Motivated by a certain reviewer who put a few please into the comment section, I have finally decided to finish this chapter dedicated to an organization that was represented a bit too monolithic in general.
Monolithic in the sense that I don't buy it that 100% of its members are fanatically loyal to their glorious Führer and totally incapable of independent thought and critical thinking, which are by the way both features that increase your combat effectiveness immensely, not, absolutely not.
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Arc V Chapter VI
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It was just a normal day, a day like any other in the life of Nara Satoshi. A shinobi history normally didn't care about. A shinobi whose fate was frankly unimportant. But history did care this time.
Satoshi was one of the many. One of the many faceless ninja Konoha had who worked tirelessly behind the scenes. One whose name wasn't known across the lands and spoken in fear by his enemies provided that they even knew him, which was rather unlikely not to say totally illusory.
He wasn't a Sannin, a White Fang, a Minato, a Kakashi, an Itachi, or a certain girl he had the fortune as well as the misfortune to serve under. Well, technically she wasn't that famous yet. But give her a few years and she would be, undoubtedly.
She had the necessary intelligence, as a Nara he could testify that. The strength, he saw what she could do. And certainly a *cough* healthy *cough* portion of self-confidence, which summarized her pretty well in his opinion. Asami; in defeat, unbeatable. In victory, unbearable. And the rest of the time a little weirdo. Satoshi nodded mentally, especially the last part was true. You practically never knew what was going on in her chaotic mind.
Anyway, he wasn't one of these people. And he knew that he never would be like them, such was the destiny of most shinobi and it sadden him from time to time. Instead he was a simple man of modest goals, the definition of Konoha's abundant mediocrity.
At least, he was an ANBU which meant he wasn't totally worthless, only insignificant in the great scheme of things and compared to grandees of his time. "Stupid genetics and their Kekkei Genkai", Satoshi murmured angrily while passing a variety of empty training facilities and unused barracks. He had a destination and some were expecting him.
And what knew even less people, he was a member of Root, and a quite high-ranking one too even after all these years and their impromptu "official" dissolution, which was less official than you might think.
Sure, on paper they didn't exist anymore, they were now fully integrated into the ANBU and not an autonomous faction. But otherwise, nothing significant happened. No detentions, no demotion, no investigations, no serious consequences, nothing. As if they had never existed to begin with. However, they were all still there and they all had retained their positions.
Honestly, this case was a typical Hiruzen, a lot of talk and no action. Or did the Hokage truly think that an organisation that had operated for years behind his back and even tried to assassinate him would cease to exist from one day to another only because the Hokage himself said so? Okay guys, it is a shame but sadly we have to close down Root. Why? Well, because. Anyway, you can all go home now and see you tomorrow.
It was clear that it wouldn't work and as matter of fact it didn't work, Root was still there and active. Not as openly as in the past but nonetheless. Which wasn't as bad as it sounded. Granted, Root had a bit of a dubious reputation. Okay, correction, a very dubious reputation and admittedly not without reason, thank you Danzo. No seriously, thank you Danzo.
And no, their favourite activity wasn't pushing helpless grannies down the stairs and stealing candy from children. No, they were busy people and had only time to do that on Sundays and Saturdays. And maybe on Fridays between 9:00 and 18:00 when they had a free day, otherwise no.
Joking aside, not every one of them was inherently evil by virtue of simply being a member of Root, albeit sometimes this assumption wasn't that far from the truth.
As some critical members with a little bit of common sense, really, not that much was necessary, had predicted correctly, the way Root trained their younger recruits tended to have a variety of, surprise, surprise, undesired side effects on their psyche and produced overall mixed results, *cough* a bunch of mentally unstable and highly aggressive psychopathic killers with little understanding of the word restraint *cough*.
But hey, who could have thought that crippling children emotionally and letting them kill each other could be a bad idea? Oh, yes, he did and several other ANBU. And miraculously they were right, it was an idiotic idea.
Anyway, as mentioned above, reality was complex, more like a picture dominated by shades of grey and beyond the classical distinction of black and white. Among them were also genuinely good people. Humans who fought and died for Konoha like every other shinobi. Satoshi sighed. Unfortunately, the majority of Root ANBU made the other good 10% look bad.
Slightly annoyed, the Nara opened the door and entered. Perhaps, he should quit and search for a less troublesome post, some quiet desk job in the Hokage tower. As far as he knew, they were recruiting at the moment.
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"Morning, everyone", Satoshi yawned and joined the eight other Root shinobi. He sat down and expected some kind reply by the rest of the round table, which apparently didn't come though. Instead, he noticed that the general mood wasn't the best judging by their dark looks on their faces. Had someone died here?
What the watchful Nara also noticed was that everyone brooding over an unknown file, a file that was lying directly in front of him too and had the innocent title "deployments orders". You didn't have to be a genius to make a connection between the two.
Ignoring this stinging ominous feeling, the ANBU cleared his throat," Ahem, Noriaki, what are these?"
The shinobi furrowed his cynic eyebrow," What are these? Isn't that obvious, Satoshi? These are what they are, deployment orders and the reason I have called in this lovely meeting."
"Yes, I can tell that much. The question was more like, what are they about and who are they from? From Danzo?" anticipating Noriaki's response, the ANBU grabbed the file and quickly flipped through it. Maybe, he would get now an answer why every single member of Root was put on standby for the entire last week. And as usual, Danzo and his loyal messenger Fu didn't tell them anything particular, only some cryptic be prepared for god knows what and don't ask questions, very motivating.
Noriaki suddenly began to smile in an uneasy way, "Danzo? Not really. It is true that Fu has given me them together with a "special" package from Danzo, but they are not from him. Someone else has written them."
He didn't like the sound of the word "special", he didn't like it at all. And based on everyone's reaction, neither did Subaru, Natsu, Yoshitaka, Renzo, Mitsu, Tamae nor Kinuye. Because in the end Danzo himself was rarely the one who had to pay for his "special" decisions, and not everyone under his command was a mindless drone eager to be discarded at any moment. Satoshi knew perfectly well that the moment the situation turned hot the slow old man was usually quite good at being the first one to run and would drop them all like a hot potato to save his skin, like back then in Ame.
Satoshi's smile briefly faltered," Huh, someone else?" The Nara continued his quick review. So they were going to encircle the invasion force and annihilate them afterwards, interesting. A bit risky but nonetheless interesting. Especially, the task that was given to them.
Honestly, he had never seen or heard the term "barrier troops" before. It seemed that their primary role was to keep a friendly eye on nearby units and "maintain proper discipline and encourage fugitive elements to return to their designated combat units". Seriously, who was the mastermind all this? It obviously wasn't Danzo. It wasn't Hiruzen, too cautious and was never the great strategistin general. It wasn't Shikaku, too conservative for such a move.
"So, who is it then?" Satoshi had seen enough and focused now fully on his counterparts.
Subaru provided him one of his typical cryptic answers," I think you might know our little princess."
Her? That limited the options a lot and he already had an uncomfortable suspicion who. Why didn't he see that before? Now that he thought about it, it was obviously her. And there was only a single person who carried this specific epithet, and proudly too.
"I know her?"
The not so stoic Natsu crossed his arm and joined the discussion among colleagues," Yes, you know her and as far as I know …"
Satoshi sighed heavily while drumming with his impatient fingers on the table, "I am well aware that you three enjoy playing this kind of I know that you know that we don't know that the secretary of the Hokage knows things with me. But could you finally stop these stupid games and give me the fucking name instead?" Seriously, it was always the same with the tree. Ask one simple question and you got nothing.
The veteran Noriaki reacted with smiling disappointment," That is unfortunate. But isn't it the duty of every proud ANBU to utter as much cryptic nonsense as possible without having the faintest clue what we are talking? After all, we have a daily quota to fulfil, Satoshi."
The ANBU continued melodramatically," And what would the common people think about us? What would they think if we, the venerable ANBU, suddenly started to use comprehensible language? Imagine, sentences a normal illiterate Genin could actually understand instead of classic smug stock phrases like "according to plan", "as anticipated, …", "don't intervene, your help isn't needed", "get out of here and let the professionals take over now"."
"What would they think then", he imitated a clueless Genin," Uhm, wait a moment, perhaps these ANBU are humans like you and me and not so special as they always claim to be, aside from being total assholes."
"Aren't you dramatizing a bit?" Satoshi stated critically.
Noriaki shifted his eyes towards him," Don't you think we have a reputation to protect? Otherwise we would be nothing more than a bunch of overrated and overpaid Jonin with fancy masks and code names."
What a drama queen, completely exaggerating as usual. The Nara rolled his eyes visibly and replied more realistically," Not would be, we are overrated and overpaid Jonin with fancy masks and code names."
His colleague countered laughingly," Yes, that is absolutely true, we are. But the entire point is that nobody beside us ANBU has to know that. At least until everyone present here has already retired, what happens afterwards is a problem for the next generation." Everyone else at the table nodded affirmingly, except for him. Okay he nodded too, but only slightly.
"Uhm, ehm… never mind, forget it", there were more important things than the blatant misuse of Konoha's defence budget. But they weren't the only ones, the Army and ONI, not to mention every other organisation, embezzled money too. Therefore, he assumed it was kind of ok, somehow.
The Nara sighed, "Anyway, then who do we have the honour to serve under?" Immediately the mood in the room shifted, the difference was notable.
Noriaki's smile faltered and he rubbed the bridge of his nose," Subaru, could you please take over."
"Sure, sure."
"As the rest of us already knows, our commander is her haughtiness Asami herself", finally someone provided him with the desired information, it only took him half an eternity, applause, applause. So he was indeed right but it didn't explain this subtle gloom of impending doom.
"And what is the problem then? In my experience, she is quite capable, albeit her concept of leadership is sometimes slightly "unconventional"."
Subaru remained silent and Natsu came to his aid. The shinobi leaned back on his chair and took a breath," You see, Satoshi, it has nothing to do with her capabilities… although. No, scrap that, it has everything to do with her capabilities, sadly."
No, no, no, no, no. No. Satoshi had an uncanny feeling where this was going and he didn't like it. It reminded him too much of Ame, the luckiest escape he had ever made, and a certain Rinnegan wielder. "Uhm, I can't follow."
Natsu looked into his eyes," I know. The problem is not our "official" mission."
No. No. No.
"What is problematic however, is the unofficial part of our assignment, to be more precise one of Danzo's beloved special missions."
Oh, come on. This was not fair. Why was it always them who got this suicidal missions? Yes, they were Root ANBU but he didn't subscribe for this shit. This was Ame all over again. Hopefully, this time without a red haired maniac who was trying to beat him to death and without getting your fucking soul eaten.
Natsu and stood up and marched towards him to hand his present, a folder, thin and light.
"What is this?" Satoshi asked for the dreaded confirmation.
Overcoming his temporary depression, Noriaki looked up again, towards him" Our real objective, our primary target, and the necessary information to kill her."
In an incomprehensible sense of detachment, the ANBU took possession of the file. But it wasn't his will, it wasn't him who did that. His hands touched the soft paper. But he didn't feel anything. His eyes looked at the single pages focused on every minuscule detail. But he didn't see anything.
Separated from his physical body, Satoshi was the observer of his action without being part of them, captured in a state of transcendental happiness. Either that, or his mind was unable to cope with reality at the moment. Based on his assumption, the latter was more likely.
He turned to the first and stared at her picture for the following seconds. He didn't hope to find anything specific. He only found a cute little girl and not the natural calamity she was instead. In general, she appeared to be quite harmless based on the picture.
"Asami, Asami", Satoshi murmured her name while studying her vita and a lot of useless data. Although she firmly protested that black wasn't a "real" colour according to the notes below, black was apparently her favourite one. Really surprising, who could have predicted that,*cough* everyone with a minute of life time knowing her *cough*?
"What did you say before? We need to kill her, right?" the ANBU targeted Noriaki albeit the question was more directed to everyone in this room. The Nara wanted to make a point.
"Yes."
"We all know who this Asami is?" he was calm.
"Yes."
"Furthermore, we know what she is potentially capable of?" he was still calm, no need to worry.
"Yes."
"And we know that the probability is high that nobody will survive this, right?"
"Nah, that is quite pessimistic. Let us say, it is more like a 50-50 chance depending on the circumstances."
Satoshi put the notes aside and gave his counterpart his best stare, a mixture of scepticism and sarcasm," 50-50 and depending on the circumstances? I will let my men know that. "Don't worry only half of you will die today, and if you are lucky you are not one of them." That is highly motivating, isn't it?"
"Anyway, now my last question. Considering everything I have mentioned before, why are we even doing this?"
Noriaki furrowed his surprised eyebrow, and so did the rest of their little group," What do you mean?"
Satoshi explained in a conciliatory manner," Sure, we all here are a part of Root and other various thingies. Like you and me, some since the beginning, some since a few years, and some have only joined recently."
"But from a motivational standpoint, why are we doing this? As a matter of fact, I have no problem with his Danzoness deciding to fuck around with someone else. However, how should I put it, couldn't he do that on his own, alone, and preferentially without getting us involved as collateral damage?" the Nara asked in a sweet suggestive tone. After all, it was worth a try, and with a bit of luck on his side he might even succeed. He could see it in their eyes, he wasn't the only one who wasn't all too enthusiastic about this special mission.
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"I think Satoshi has certainly a point, hasn't he? What is your opinion, Noriaki?" Subaru was the first to join his side while the Nara was looking interestedly at the rest of their little group. What would be their reaction? And how many would follow his example?
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Noriaki cleared his throat," Ahem, now that we have concluded this discussion, let us return to something more productive. How do we kill her? Any suggestions? Because aside from his typical and very creative "engage the target" and classified information like what her favourite food and phrase is, Danzo hasn't given us, as usual, anything more concrete."
Satoshi ignored his question as he was still recuperating from his previous defeat. To summarize, his personal rebellion had failed after he had lost the vote 4 to 3 with two abstentions. A narrow defeat but nonetheless a defeat. Thus his proposal of "adapting a more neutral stance in this confrontation" was rejected, dammit.
He had assumed correctly that Subaru and Mitsu would side with him and three diehard Danzo supporters Yoshitaka, Renzo and Kinuye against him. But what he hadn't expected though was Tamae as well as Natsu deciding to abstain and Noriaki stabbing him into the back when he needed him the most. Satoshi clicked his annoyed tongue. This was the trouble with free votes, you never knew how they would turn out beforehand.
" Kill her? That is quite easy. A bit old-fashioned perhaps for these modern times, but simply find something sharp and pointy and stab her right through the chest. Ideally, somewhere around here. I can guarantee you it will work", Natsu picked up the question and pointed on the area around his heart. Easier said than done.
Everyone else however gave him a slightly patronizing look and the Nara crystallized their collective thoughts," Thank you for your contribution, Natsu, but I don't think Asami will do us this favour and die peacefully by walking accidentally into of our kunai. Or it is at least rather unlikely, I mean extremely unlikely."
"Do you have a better idea then, Satoshi?" Natsu asked calmly unimpressed by his previous reply.
"No, I don't", the Nara countered bluntly.
"What do you mean you don't?"
"I mean what I say, I don't. I don't have a better idea. That doesn't really matter however as long as every idea is necessarily a shitty one. There is no solution to this problem", Satoshi's voice betrayed his inner resignation.
Noriaki furrowed his curious eyebrows," Explain?"
He sighed heavily," Aside from reading a few lifeless pages about her, have you ever met Asami in person, Noriaki? Has anyone of you ever met her in person, seen her fight, stood at her side? No, you haven't.
Satoshi paused briefly," But I have. and I can assure you the girl isn't someone to be taken lightly. Asami has an entrance in the bingo books for a specific reason, and certainly not for her good looks. Ultimately, Asami is a S-class Kunoichi and you should therefore not forget a simple fact. If we fuck this up she will murder us all without hesitation. And then we are all dead.
Not the kind of dead like in these ninja novels you read when you were young where you comfortably lie on the ground and stand up after a few seconds like nothing happened. Or like in the case of the character that get revived ad infinitum after each chapter because the readership likes them and the author doenst have the balls to them let die in peace. No, I mean dead dead, finito."
His words still lingered in the room and had a visible effect on the other participants," Anyway, the point is. No matter what we do we should be careful and keep in mind that we are playing here with the fire, one that can easily turn into crispy chips."
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"Thank you for your observations, Satoshi, we will keep them in mind", Noriaki stated smilingly.
"Yeah, yeah, hopefully", the Nara dismissed him a wave of his hand and what came afterwards. He had done everything he could to avoid this fate and in a certain sense he had enough now. Perhaps, he should indeed abandon the sinking ship before it was too late.
His common sense told him to do so, and his common sense had disappointed the Nara rarely. Nobody would miss him if he was for example ill on the day of the invasion. Some kind of very contagious disease he had contracted with a long menacing sounding name. Something like pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, very nasty stuff, his Iryo-nin advised him to better stay at home.
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Asami deflated her cheeks and returned to her serious look enriched with a touch of ever present benevolent suspicion.
The girl addressed two of her auditors, three if you included the dog," Joking aside, does anyone still have a question? Because this will be the last time you see me personally until the Chunin exams and on that day time will be a relatively precious resource. And I don't the intention to waste it on answering silly questions. Therefore, ask now or regret it later."
"Alternatively, you can still contact Fumihiko who will be available for additional information", without turning around, Asami pointed at the Chunin behind her. Or to be more precise, she simply pointed past her shoulder and was hoping that he was standing somewhere there. Although she couldn't be that far off as she could determine his position by his Chakra.
In the background, Fumihiko waved with his hand and smiled in way that appeared to be rather forced than voluntary. A detail which demonstrated Tsume as well as Shibi who again was the dominant actor in this relationship, poor boy.
Finally, someone held up a hand. And it was surprisingly the stoic Aburame with their beloved monotony," Yes, I have one."
Asami wore a happy expression," I am listening."
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