Team Disaster: Origins Of Infamy
Summary: From the day they met to the day they made history, snippets in the lives of Konoha's infamous Team Disaster, their nearest and dearest and the devastation and chaos they cause.
Fire, Water, Wind
Part 3
Teaching the Daimyo's daughter some self defense turned out to be the best concession Madara could have ever given in to, given that on the fourth night of their stay, there was a break-in in their assigned wing, a scattered attack whose purpose was unclear beyond te fact that they had made everyone think they were after the Daimyo when a smaller unit went after Kyoko-himesama. Madara had gotten there just in time to see a grown, highly trained shinobi fall to the ground from where Kyoko-himesama had kneed him right in the balls like he had taught her - "No fair play, go for where it hurts the most without shame, shinobi play dirty, use every advantage you can, don't hesitate. You're fighting for your life. Always aim where you know for sure it will hurt and where you know you can reach." - and try to get away from the other man trying to grab her and her handmaid - Mio-san, as he now knew. Madara had yanked him back, out into the corridor and dispatched of him in a swift fashion before all but gluing the two girls to his side as he ran through the big residence to meet up with the rest of his team.
The only surviving shinobi from the attack ended up being the one Kyoko-himesama had kneed and he was now tied up before the Fire Daimyo, his chakra seals and under intense surveillance of four sensors, one of which had an activated Sharingan trained on him to watch him for lies or any tricks he might try to pull.
"He's wearing the clothing of one of the Wind Daimyo's clothing! I don't remember his face but I clearly remember that tunic, Daimyo-sama!" One of the samurai said with clear anger and disgust in his voice but Madara shook his head, refuting the conclusion.
"That man has been reported dead. Haku-san from Kiri confirmed Mito's estimated time of death to have occurred over two hours ago. Whoever led the attack had planned for the Wind Daimyo to be blamed, therefore creating discord."
"How certain are you of this?" Asked the captain of the samurai and Madara would have rolled his eyes but didn't These people didn't know he was an Uchiha, therefore they didn't know about his perfect memory.
"One hundred percent."
"Then who is he?"
"Judging from the feel of his chakra, I would say he doesn't even come from Kumo. He comes from Ame," Tobirama - or Mizu-kun as people knew him while under that mask, as of a couple of days ago - said confidently, earning himself a couple of weirded out looks. Civilians were always funny when they were trying to deal with how very different shinobi were from them. "Chuunin level at best, reserves slightly above average, no notable distinctions that might suggest a Kekkei Genkai. He's cannon fodder. There's probably a bigger game at hand."
"For now, I suggest we abandon the idea of two hidden shinobi, Daimyo-sama," Minato-sensei said gravely, bowing only his head in deference to the shocked and uneasy man. "I won't allow for my clients to be in danger if we can prevent it. Hi-kun, Mizu-kun and Kaze-chan work best as a unit that is allowed to openly communicate." Never mind that they can do that anyways, but no one needed to know that little secret of Team Disaster. "If you hesitate to use all that is at your disposal, the next incident might end with some much worse consequences than a few injured warriors. I'd rather not have anyone's lives on my or my team's hands if I can help it."
"I agree," Setsuna-jiisan murmured, putting more weight behind Minato-sensei's words with that simple two worded sentence. "We've hired them, for good money, to do their job as efficiently as they can. I think we should give them free reign on how they should go about ensuring our safety."
"If I may, Daimyo-sama, Akatane-sama, Taichou?" Mito, bless her, at least had the manners to ask before bluntly stating her opinion, which was probably why Tobirama had sent his thoughts to her for her to express them in as polite a manner as possible.
"Speak, Kaze-chan, was it? Please say your peace," the Daimyo generously conceded and Mito nodded, offering a shallow bow.
"I am of the opinion that we should remain as we are. We have not yet lost the element of surprise. It may turn out to be vital to us. My suggestion is only that Mizu-kun and I disguise ourselves as your servants in the meetings so we may remain hidden in plain sight, allowing us to respond more easily and better observe all potential culprits for this hubris."
"I must say I am more partial to this opinion, Daimyo-sama, if you would excuse me for speaking out of turn," Madara finally spoke up from where he was still standing besides Kyoko-himesama and Mio-san. All eyes turned to him, Mito, Minato-sensei and Tobirama seemingly surprised by his proper conduct, Mito less so than the other two. Mito, at least, had seen how his mother at times took him or any of his brothers aside to teach them things befitting proper behavior at the court, but she didn't know where his mother's roots aside from the Uchiha drew from. Madara's great grandfather had died two years before she moved into their house and Kaa-chan had never taken the Uzumaki princess when they'd go to visit Setsuna-jiisan. "As Kaze-chan said, the element of surprise is still ours. If worse comes to worst, it will allow us some leeway in assuring that everyone comes out of it safe with no casualties on our or your side. Her suggestion of a disguise is perhaps the best way to go about this. If we keep close to each other, we may have more people to protect but at least a scenario like tonight will not occur again, where someone might be bait and another person is actually a target."
"Sounds like a sound suggestion," the Daimyo murmured to himself and Setsuna-jiisan nodded, a spark of pride in his eyes that Madara didn't like because it was so obvious and he'd rather not deal with his team finding out now that he has noble blood in his veins. Or anyone else, for that matter. "We shall implement it for tomorrow's meeting. Or today's now, I guess."
"But what of the prisoner? Surely you can extract some information from him? Who hired him? What did they want?" The captain of the guard insisted and the shinobi exchanged unnecessary looks, when it was obvious which one of them would be doing the interrogating.
Madara nodded for show and stepped up, faltering only when Kyoko-himesama grabbed at his bicep. When he turned to look at her, she had a honestly worried and scared look in her eyes and he wondered when the hell they had become some sort of friends. Casually making friends out of everyone he meets was Hashirama's shtick, not Madara's! Still, he patted her hand in reassurance and nodded at her, making her let go so he can approach the bound man. He cast a glance at Tobirama when he felt what seemed to be a spike of irritation from the Senju but found that the other's body showed no obvious signs of his displeasure. He was a bit proud of that, as he'd been the one who had taught Mito and Tobirama to hide their body's tells so that even a Sharingan or Byakugan user couldn't immediately discern what they were feeling, whether they were lying or not. He'll have to ask Tobirama if something is wrong later, though.
"I'm going to cast a genjutsu, an illusion, and it's not going to be pretty. Please don't get scared if he screams. Mizu-kun, please soundproof the room. Kaze-chan, unbind his chakra." The redhead and the white haired ANBU-dressed shinobi moved into position while Minato-sensei came to stand behind the bound man, holding his shoulders down as though to restrain him should he react violently once he wakes up. It was for show, more or less, since Madara already had his Sharingan activated for half an hour now and was prepared for whatever reaction the idiot might have. But, once again, these people didn't know he was an Uchiha and it was as such for the best that they continued to pretend these things were necessary or according to protocol.
As soon as everything was ready, Mito unsealed the prisoner's chakra and the man surged forward, waking up at the rush of now free chakra and head automatically snapping up as he tried to attack whoever was in front of him while he was in such a vulnerable position, but that was his biggest mistake about the entire evening, because as soon as he looked up, dark blue eyes met Sharingan red, the Mangekyo swiftly blurring into place.
"Tsukuyomi," Madara whispered more to himself than anyone else and put the man under. A mere five seconds later, the man slumped, sobbing hysterically and muttering about pain, scared out of his mind as Madara let up, the five days of torture he'd put the man's mind through fading with the Mangekyo. "Who hired you?"
"Pain*sob*pain*sob* pain*gasp*"
"Who hired you?" Madara asked more firmly and the man flinched away from him, into Minato-sensei's hold. "If you want, I can go on like that for hours and hours. In just five seconds, you've experienced that hell and it has left you like a broken rag doll. What do you think I can achieve with just a full minute?" The man let out an ugly, hysterical sob, his eyes looking insane when they looked up at Madara pleadingly, beseechingly. "If you don't answer my questions-"
"Pain!"
"You're in for a lot more if you don't start talking," he growled and the man fucking whimpered but kept babbling about pain.
Only ...
Something about that ... It felt ... Almost familiar ...
He listened more carefully to the man's mumbling, let his Sharingan read the lips as he kept babbling.
No ...
No, it wasn't pain, it was ...
"Pein? Is the name of your boss? Pein?" The man stopped sobbing and whimpering and nodded frantically. Madara exchanged a glance with Minato-sensei and could feel the uneasy intrigue from Tobirama. But Mito ... The way her chakra coiled confirmed his own suspicions. "Is he the leader of Amegakure?"
The man nodded frantically again, new fear adding to the one already there. "Please, please just kill me. Leader-sama will do so much worse if he finds out I betrayed him. Please just end me."
"We'll offer you protection, in Konoha's very heavily protected prison, if you keep talking," Minato-sensei said almost consolingly, though the man didn't seem much reassured.
"If I promise to kill you as soon as you tell me everything that I want to know, will you talk? If you don't, I'll deliver you straight to Pein myself right now." A bluff, the both of those sentences. He'd never return to Amegakure unless fully encased in the perfect Susanoo, armed with his gunbai and an urge to kill everything and anything in his way to avenge his brothers and father and clan members who had fallen that day, to avenge the three Senju he had considered family despite having no blood relations between them. This man didn't need to know how big of a grudge Madara had for that place, for that man. For That Man.
"I'll talk, just please don't let Pein-sama find me alive!"
"Then tell me what I want to know."
The man did.
00000
"A new world order ... What do you think he meant by that?" It was the first thing Tobirama asked as soon as they were alone, sealing the man in a prisoner storage seal in their new shared room meant for mostly Mito and Tobirama, since Madara had his own quarters to be closer to Kyoko-himesama and Minato-sensei was sleeping in the Daimyo's closet as of tonight. Or will be, as soon as they are finished here.
"More importantly, Madara-kun, Mito-chan, you two reacted rather interestingly when this Pein person was mentioned. Mind sharing?" It may have been posed as a question but there was a clear demand for an answer in Minato-sensei's usually gentle voice. He was not used to his students hiding things from him and Tobirama didn't seem particularly pleased that he was out of the loop, either.
"It's not that we know much," Madara said defensively, crossing his arms and glaring at them properly for the first time in days now that he had his mask off. Mito's privacy seals were neigh unbreakable. No one will be able to spy on them, not with the overkill genjutsu Madara had added just in case. Aburame weren't the only ones who trained bugs and there were other interesting ways to spy on people. A genjutsu from the Mangekyo Sharingan worked on everyone, though. "It's the guy that kidnapped me, or had his goons kidnap me. I think I overheard someone calling him 'Pein-sama' and 'Leader-sama' in he few moments of lucidity I had back then."
"I overheard some of his 'goons', as Madara so delightfully described them, say those same titles in or even without his presence. He might be the Uzumaki I mentioned before, the one who kidnapped Madara and Menma-kun."
"The one that ordered the attack on Konoha that ended with my brothers-!"
"Please not now, Madara," Tobirama said gently, coming to put a hand on his shoulder and squeezing gently. "Now is not the time to lose you to your grief and loss. We would be vulnerable if we let our emotions guide us in this. One day, that motherfucker will pay, but that is not today." Madara grabbed the younger teen's hand before he could pull away and squeezed it, keeping it on his shoulder. He needed an anchor lest he drown in rage. The world was red and exceptionally sharp. He needed to calm down before he accidentally Amaterasus something.
"So the fears of Akatsuki getting involved have proven valid," Minato-sensei mused, more to himself than as a statement directed at them. "If we were attacked, maybe other Daimyos were as well. We might need to check on the others. Maybe we could form a temporary alliance so we'd all get out of this with our heads on our shoulders, because I honestly doubt the Akatsuki will just send a bunch of chuunin for a big job like this."
"They might," Mito reminded. "We killed four of their members. We don't know how many teams they had."
"Three. Suna's ninja came and collected Sasori's remains and his puppets, but there was no sign of that blond Iwa bomber you told us about," the Namikaze informed them, almost pessimistically. "Pakkun, Kakashi-sensei's greatest sniffer dog, when summoned found that the blond's scent left the site not long after you guys left. Deidera might still be among the living."
"Fucking fantastic. As if I didn't have enough annoyances to deal with around here," Madara grumbled with a scowl.
"It's not ideal but we'll have to deal with it regardless. Sorry if it cuts into your time with Kyoko-himsesama." The Uchiha turned to the Senju with an incredulous furrow to his brows because he didn't understand Tobirama's acidic tone.
"It's the job I've been assigned, unwillingly might I add." Minato-sensei at least looked apologetic at that though he didn't like how amused their resident Uzuamki appeared by the whole conversation. Was she in on something that Madara wasn't? Why wasn't she telling him if something was bothering Tobirama enough that he seemed to be giving in to his more Hatake side that he usually felt silly for? "But it turns out she's not such a bad kid, all things considered." That, for some reason, only made a growl leave the albino's throat. What the hell? "Has some bad taste in men, though. You better not breathe a word about this - I'm dead serious here - but she's apparently attracted to Hozuki Gengetsu."
" ... Oh?" Did all the tension suddenly leave Tobirama's shoulders? Like, seriously, what the hell?
"Yeah. Don't know if they knew each other from before or whatever, that's civilian business and I don't want to get involved in it, but Kyoko-himesama has a crush on him and she wanted my opinion on the matter. On whether he would find her pretty or like her if she knew some basic self defense. She's got some potential, I'll give her that. She'll never be a shinobi but she can protect herself long enough if she's attacked for a more skilled fighter to reach her in time."
"You've been ... teaching her self defense?"
" ... Yeees," Madara drew his answer out and wondered why Tobirama suddenly felt both pleased and embarrassed. This was more drama than he was ready to deal with in one night and he was an Uchiha, fuck! "That aside, guys, I think we need to seriously up our game. This was a prelude to something bigger. There's no way this was it. Shit's getting heated soon."
"Madara's right. There's been less of a period of silence between the last Akatsuki attack and this one than it has been before," Mito pointed out. "We'll need to be more vigilant."
Minato-sensei nodded in agreement. "Madara-kun, can you send one of your birds with a message for Tsunade-sama to inform her of the situation before you return to your post? I think it's best to warn her of Akatsuki's activity in case something bigger does happen and we may end up needing assistance. For now, we need to focus on tomorrow and on the fact that this might push back some of the negotiations, especially since so many more people will be in the Fire Daimyo's attendance than usual. The other Daimyo might get suspicious."
"Everyone will be suspicious. A Kumo nin had been murdered and his clothing stolen to impersonate him while attacking the Fire Daimyo's daughter while he had been under the Wind Daimyo's paycheck. Accusations will go flying and be thrown around like rice at a wedding before breakfast starts," Tobirama realistically and pessimistically predicts and they all sigh at the likely truth behind his words. Their week just got a whole tone worse.
"I'll be sending that message now. Stay safe and I'll see you in the morning," Madara waved to them and set off towards his charge's room. "Goodnight!"
"Goodnight," they called back and he just sighed again as he made it to his destination a few doors down the hall, took out a pen, a scroll and summoned a ninneko to wait for him to write his report since he hadn't actually taken any of his hawks or falcons with him. Izumi was kind enough not to disturb him and only asked for a few ear scratches when he was finished before she went off to play messenger.
He'll be going to fucking Sora-Ku after this for a bit of vacation, he swears.
Nekomata was always happy to welcome him, at least.