I forgot to apologize for the mass-edit I didn't warn you guys about, but sorry.
"You're beautiful as ever, Princess Tsunade," a middle-aged man with long white hair said as he climbed into the Hokage's office via the window. The long red markings on his face crinkled with his fond smile.
Tsunade sighed in aggravation, eyes not moving from whatever political document she was forcing herself to read. "Cut the crap. What brings you back to Konoha?"
"Ah, sorry I couldn't say in the letter." His hand went up to rub at his neck, (a nervous tic of his,) before he awkwardly forced himself to stop.
"There was a letter?" she asked absentmindedly.
"Exactly," he said flatly.
"Hm. Report." She signed the document with a flourish of her ink pen then set both items aside, focusing her attention to her former teammate. He stopped pretending to be interested in the bland books on the bookshelf and turned to her.
"As you know, tensions are rising in the Elemental Nations. Orochimaru's still operating in Otogakure, Kiri's still embroiled in a civil war, and Suna's still bitter since we killed their jinchuuriki during the invasion. They've been struggling lately. . .
"But Ame was particularly suspicious. How much have you read about my mission?"
"Not much; the council's been keeping me busy with their pointless squabbles." Somehow it didn't matter the country or village, but the rich always thought they were above actual problems, their priorities skewed to focus only on themselves.
It caused her many a headache and exacerbated her already-present drinking problem.
"Right, so basically, there's been this huge mercenary organization made up almost exclusively of rogue-nin called the Akatsuki. The leader's unknown, and I've only recently uncovered part of their motive."
"Wait, this is the same Amegakure that was run by Hanzo?" He sighed heavily, weary lines etched from history.
"The one and the same. Their economy is now thriving because of the missions they've been commissioned. Though they're still as closed-off as they've always been. . . ," he grumbled.
"Is it another Orochimaru situation? Because I don't think my liver can handle another Orochimaru situation."
Her throat seemed to dry as she said it, the creeping urge to take a few swigs from the shōchū she had stashed in her desk intensifying. Drinking problem indeed.
"Mm, yes and no. I thought it was weird because they have a lot of high-profile rogues in their ranks. And by high-profile, I mean literally all rogues in the bingo book from B to S rank, including our very own Itachi."
Tsunade paled at his words, the magnitude of the problem slowly dawning on her. To have so many high-rankers in one place was dangerous, especially when they didn't present a clear goal.
She finally motioned to one of the chairs in front of her desk, knowing that this was going to be a long talk. Jiraiya gratefully took a seat and she flared her chakra in a small seal hidden beneath her desk to cancel sound.
It wouldn't do to have this information leaked, especially if things were running like how she thought.
"Where do I start? Well, here's the recap: Sensei originally had me investigate it when it just banded together after Hanzo's defeat. At that time, it seemed to be purely motivated by money, taking up missions indiscriminately. But recently, their patterns have shifted severely: the top members go out in pairs and infiltrate villages. At first, I thought it was just to join the game of espionage like all the other villages, but it's like they're looking for something.
"I think they're after the jinchuuriki."
The accusation hung heavy between them and Tsunade had to fight down the rising hysteria. She felt faint and her stomach cramped uncomfortably.
"Princess, please tell me that you've been training our jinchuuriki well. I know that they can't be very experienced by now, but they're not going to make it if you haven't helped them out." Tsunade wanted to throw up and avoided Jiraiya's eyes. Her body didn't seem to know if it was hot or cold and she really wished she could be gambling away money she didn't have as usual.
". . . I wasn't aware Konoha had a jinchuuriki." The tension was palpable and Tsunade instantly felt ridiculous for never having considered such an important facet of the village's military.
Jiraiya looked like a fish out of water, his mouth opening and closing like he had too much to say and not enough air to say it all.
"You. . . what do you mean you didn't know we had a jinchuuriki?! Konoha's always had the nine-tails! Where else would the fox have gone if not here?!"
Her fist slammed on the wooden desk, most surely leaving a dent. "I don't fucking know! When do you think anyone tells me anything?!"
"Well, you're the Hokage!"
"Only in name!"
Their chests were heaving with emotion, the stress of the situation getting the better of them. They might have decades of experience under their belts and were the most powerful shinobi in Konoha, but they were still human.
"I didn't know," Tsunade repeated quietly.
"I thought you did. Otherwise, why were Itachi and Kisame spotted heading towards Konoha a few weeks ago?" Tsunade snapped to attention, trying to think of her enemy's motivations.
"If they were coming here, then. . . then there might really be a jinchuuriki."
"And how would you not notice this? Kinda hard not to notice a temperamental kid leaking the Kyuubi's chakra everywhere," he said, unimpressed.
"Shut up and let me think." He let out a sound of indignation at that while Tsunade started muttering to herself.
"The Akatsuki are here and we have a jinchuuriki. The Kyuubi was released 15 years ago and then. . . disappeared. Poof. That can't just happen, no one's ever managed to disperse the Kyuubi, and grandma herself said you can't kill a bijuu, only seal it.
"We have a jinchuuriki," she said with conviction.
"Look, princess, this is good and all, but as I said before: you can't just not notice a jinchuuriki! They kinda naturally stand apart from the crowd and all the other villages' citizens ostracized them. They can do things that aren't normal, even by shinobi standards," he said, shaking his head in denial.
"Then how else do you explain this?! You should know, if the Akatsuki are here, then they don't have the bijuu! I doubt our former jinchuuriki's just been walking around with the Kyuubi after having it ripped out, so what other explanation is there?!"
"Maybe it decided it's had enough of Konoha?" he said in a small voice. He seemed doubtful even as the tentative words left his mouth. She scoffed.
"Right, because the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the most powerful and chaotic of the tailed beasts, decided it didn't want revenge on the village that imprisoned it twice."
"Hey, I'm just trying to think of anything that could've happened. This is all based on a whole lot of speculation and little fact. I mean, what if another village caught it?"
A flat stare and a stony expression made him feel incredibly stupid for even thinking of such a thing.
"Think, you idiot! If someone else had the nine-tails, they wouldn't have stayed silent about it for so long, and we'd certainly be at war right now! So I have a renegade jinchuuriki that should be. . . shit, how old would a jinchuuriki normally be?!"
"I don't know! Normally, a bijuu is sealed into someone with developed chakra coils in a controlled environment with carefully vetted candidates. But I somehow doubt there was anything controlled about the Kyuubi's latest sealing." The blond rolled her eyes at his sarcasm but ignored the petty urge to start a squabble.
"You always bragged about Minato's sealing skills. Do you think he could've bent the rules somehow?"
Jiraiya gained a thoughtful look, trying vainly to remember anything about sealing from that long ago. He vaguely remembered talking about making a new forbidden seal, (the exact one his sensei activated to forfeit his own life.)
Minato would've been happy to be talking about such a thing, (he was only thinking about it because Kushina had been pregnant, right?)
Wait. . . Kushina had been pregnant. That was the very reason the fox had escaped her seal. Whatever happened to their kid?
"Start by looking into orphan survivors from the time of the Kyuubi's attack. Do you know if anyone had a special relationship with sensei as they were growing up?"
"How would I know? I was never here." Right, of course not.
"Alright, then we just gotta find this kid before the Akatsuki does. Piece of cake, right?" Tsunade didn't deign him a response.
"Do you know why Akatsuki's trying to gather the jinchuuriki? World domination?"
"Does it matter? Point is, we can't allow it to happen."
"Right, right. Next time you're going to drop a bomb like this on me, bring some junmai sake, will you?" she said somewhat jokingly. The swipe of a finger and a pulse of chakra against the silencing seal allowed them to hear the insistent knock at the door.
"Come in," she said, pretending to be deeply invested in the next document of the pile.
A jounin she recognized to be her sensei's son walked in, pale and fidgety. She motioned for him to get on with it already.
"I'm not sure if you've read my written report," he said, eyes trailing to the already high stack of papers despite it being barely morning. "But jounin Yuuhi Kurenai, Might Guy, Kakashi Hatake and I encountered missing-nin Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki early this morning, and we found a strange boy who seemed to have the powers of the Kyuubi, and. . . possibly the mokuton."
The two made brief eye contact then scrambled to their feet. How lucky that the answer to their dilemma was delivered right to them. And how amazing that this person had both traits of her grandparents.
"Did you manage to apprehend the unknown person?"
"Um, kind of. He collapsed after the battle, so Guy and I took him to the hospital. You do remember sending us reinforcements, right?" She did not.
Maybe it was because she's been mostly asleep or maybe it was the inebriation, but she hardly remembered anything of the sort. Seeing her blank look of incomprehension, the jounin just led them in silence. The villagers parted before their Hokage as the trio walked to the hospital facility.
She wanted to see their gifted jinchuuriki for herself, (especially before the likes of Danzo or any other unsavory sort tried to get to him.)
They didn't even need to check in with the front desk employee, Sarutobi having just come from the room in question.
True to his claim, there was a small ANBU squad stationed as the boy's guard, the two at the door giving automatic salutes and allowing them access. To the far side of the room was a large hospital bed where a small boy laid prone, swathed in thin, cheap white sheets and hooked up to a number of gadgets.
The slow beeps of the heart monitor kept the room from being silent and they all couldn't help but stare at this stranger they'd never known lived so close this whole time.
And despite the thick whisker-like marks partially concealed by some sort of pigment and the softer features, Jiraiya and Tsunade couldn't help but notice that he looked remarkably similar to Minato Namikaze.
Idk, I didn't really like this chapter much. I've never been too good with dialogue & it felt weird going from no dialogue to only dialogue, ya feel?
But to all who commented on the last chap, you made my day! I loved reading through your opinions and questions, just general engagement! If you'd be so kind, maybe comment how you thought the flow of this was? I'd really appreciate an outside opinion.
Have a great day!