Chapter 25

Packs and Pariahs

"Report."

"Danzo-sama…" An exhausted Root agent kneels before his bandaged commander, bowing as he presents the worst report of his career. "You attempts to spark war between Konoha and Iwa were unsuccessful. The kamikaze squad struck and their tags failed to detonate. All of them. I could not get close enough to discern why while they were discussing the scenario afterwards. With the explosive tactic failed and the element of surprise lost, the combination of teams 7, 10, and the students of Akatsuchi managed to defeat all units. Only I was able to return." He clenches his fist against the ground as he recalls his failure. "Amongst Akatsuchi's students were a prodigal member of the Blast Corp and a survivor of the Matsumoto clan."

Danzo's brow furls as he grows quite angry for the first time in a long time. His grip on his throne tightens. "Valuable assets in enemy hands, and we failed to strike them down young. Seeing as you failed to mention his third student, I'm going to suspect it was Kurotsuchi. Is this correct?"

"Indeed, sir."

"And now that damnable fence-sitter's family knows of my intentions, as do Hiruzen's rebellious boy and Hatake. This attack was a gamble, but it was a secure one, if not for the explosive tags somehow not working." His eye focuses on the man kneeling before him. "Where did we acquire those faulty tags from?"

"Directly from the anbu stocks, sir. I tested them myself later, and it appears they worked fine outside of the encounter. My best guess is some sort of passive ability wielded by the Blast Corp child. Otherwise, I haven't a clue why they would have failed to detonate."

Danzo grumbles and aims his cane towards the door to his left. "You are dismissed." His agents is gone without a trace in under a second. Danzo is left in silence, amidst the roots of a titanic tree from the Forest of Death, grown into paths along an enormous stone bunker. "It will take some time to develop a proper lie for Hiruzen. Thankfully, unrest in one of our former bases of operation nearby the incident will help." He rubs his jaw, feeling an old injury acting up from gritting his teeth in anger. "It's odd. Amegakure has never been quieter. It's a deathly silence. More so than Hanzo ever produced." He hums as he rises from his throne and takes his cane. "Those fools who killed him. That boy. His ambitions are too great to ignore, yet I can't get a word through that downpour as to what he's doing. If I don't get anything soon, I may need to resort to something even riskier than espionage, come the exams."

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"So let me get this straight." Naruto leans against the roots of Taki's Hero Tree with his arms crossed. "That cactus brew they stole from Shukaku actually had the Kyuubi so fucked he thought a rock formation in a sandstorm was Son Goku, and he glassed the whole sand storm cuz he thought his brother was giving him the stink eye?"

Fuu giggles as she sits across from him. "Chōmei apparently has a habit of getting her siblings wasted and just enjoying the show. Although Kokuo, the Gobi, is a bit of a weepy drunk."

The Kyuubi grumbles into Naruto's head. "It's true, he's pathetic. He never even cries over things that happened to him, he just gets sympathetic and whines about random things he's seen and finds pitiful."

"Hey, isn't Kokuo the weird fish/horse hybrid one?"

"Yeeaaaah…" Fuu leans back and kicks the air a bit. "I never got that one either."

"Naruto!" Their attention is drawn away as Kakashi calls out from downhill. "They're ready to escort us into the Hero Water Shrine. Let's move."

Naruto groans and hops down. "Alright, alright. You comin', Fuu?"

"Um…" She slowly looks away. "I'd rather not. I'm not really… welcomed most places here."

Naruto stares for a moment, but his face falls as he nods. "Right… yeah, I get that. Well, I'll come back and grab you when we're done, ok?"

Fuu smiles somberly and nods, then swings her feet up onto the titanic root she's sitting on and lays back.

As Naruto walks away with Kakashi, he peeks back somberly. "… She's treated just as badly here as I was before I met you guys… and I really don't think that's gonna change any time soon."

Kakashi nods and closes his book. "Indeed… but what do you propose we do about it? Getting her to Konoha would be difficult. She's Taki's sole jinchuuriki, a nuclear deterrent. Taking her would be taking one of their strongest units and defenses."

Naruto grumbles and hangs his head as he frantically scratches it. "I know, I know! Ugh, there has to be a way to get here out of here! Something we can leverage with!"

"Politics still isn't your strong suit, but you'll get there. We'll think of something." He puts his book away as they approach the talisman-laden entrance of the shrine, a winding hole walled with twisted roots diving deep into the core of the tree. Naruto traces his fingers along the wall. A few roots are broken, but they appear to already be healing, growing back together in new paths. The breaks appear quite rough. Couldn't have been clean cuts. If anything they were torn with blunt force, like a laceration from a solid punch to the head. But the damage was from a multitude of different angles and heights. Something whipped around and lashed at the roots with wild abandon.

Finally reaching the site of the shrine itself, it appears to be cleaned form the incident already. The only remaining signs are the broken roots and a few red stains where the bodies one laid. The roots in the ceiling are woven together and down, dripping dew into a single glass bottle. They've arrived just in time to see a single drop produced- the first drop of a new bottle placed just after the incident.

Naruto crouches to inspect the bottle more closely while Kakashi inspects the damage to their surroundings. "So, what's your take on it?"

"The nature energy here, in this room especially, is incredibly potent. I would say someone could, with a full dose, achieve about a third of the power of Hashirama for a few minutes before it kills them. Without his skill and training though, it's less effective, and this particular blend of nature energy would be closely tied to mokuton, or at least doton and suiton. Working outside those elements would be a bit wasteful. Regardless, that man was an absolute monster on the battlefield, so achieving that much sage chakra for a short time is still a significant threat."

Naruto grumbles and peeks back to the anbu. "How full was the last bottle during the incident?"

The two anbu look to one another for a moment. "Hmm... I'd say about two thirds. At least five years away yet from a complete dose."

Naruto scowls as he considers that. "About a quarter of the Shodiame's sage chakra in a single bottle. Whoever has that is one of the most dangerous people in the world right now. Unassuming at first, and next thing ya know, they could kill most elite jonin for a few minutes before they drop dead." He huffs as he stands.

"Whoever it is must have big plans for it if they haven't used it already, then." Kakashi cuts in. "Even if it's not a complete dose, it's enough to complete most jobs in a pinch." He turns to the anbu. "How many doses are currently in stock here?"

The anbu shakes his head. "Only the one Hisen drank just before he died and another currently carried by Shibuki. As best we know from the stain left where Shibuki's body was, he'd been attacked in the middle of chugging it and spilled half the bottle." The anbu clenches his fists. "The blood spray patterns there suggested his chest had been pierced and he remained there alive for a at least thirty seconds before his heart was ripped out."

Naruto shudders, but his eyes narrow. "… He wanted to study a heart that had been effected by the hero water. He left him alive, but helpless, just long enough for the hero water's chakra to reach his heart and start effecting it."

Kakashi's eye darts to Naruto. "So you picked up on that too? The heart theft was too deliberate. There had to be a purpose to it."

"Yeah…" Naruto grumbles as he starts walking out. "Are you thinking Orochimaru too? Ero-sennin and Hokage-jiji both told me more that enough about the prick to piece that together. He must have come here and memorized the location at some point."

"Possibly…" Kakashi shakes his head. "But something about that doesn't add up. He always preferred live test subjects, not organs and samples." He peeks over his shoulder and back down the tunnel. "And something tells me these anbu aren't being completely forward. Not out of guilt, but fear. They're afraid of their own theory as to who's behind it."

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Ino huffs and drops back into her seat, taking a moment to down a chakra pill and a bottle of water. "Ugh… no signs of guilt in anyone yet, but that last guy was scared. This whole assassination and theft has a big chunk of their force on edge."

Sakura side-eyes her. "Uh… duh. Their leader got assassinated. That's not something you gloss over."

"No, no…" Shikamaru cuts in. as he hunches over the table. "It's more than that. Leaders dying is something shinobi of this caliber come to expect and grow accustomed to. But there should still be more sorrow. Instead, we keep seeing fear, anxiety. It's like whoever did this meets the requirements of their personal boogeyman. Omens from an old village tale dropping on them like a vengeful god."

Asuma nods as he forces himself from his seat. "Good thinking, Shikamaru. As always." He snorts. "We should return to Shibuki and speak with him about this. He should be straight with us about what's come back to haunt them."

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"Oi, kaa-san." Kiba wanders into the open yard on Inuzuka property, where Tsuma is watching over a plethora of puppies as they run, skirmish, and some are lazy and just napping in the sun. She doesn't look away from them, but it's clear she heard her son. "The exams are comin up pretty soon, right?"

Tsume hums and smirks, peeking to Kuromaru at her side. "Alright, I guess you won that bet." She waves Kiba over. "So, Whatcha need, pup?

Kiba grumbles as he approaches. "Really gotta stop betting against me like that. Anyway, I was wondering…" He stops beside her and looks out over the playing pups. "… How do you think Akamaru and I measure up to Naruto and Yoko?"

"Hmmm… tough question." She hums. "On our clan's abilities, you far outclass him, especially seeing as Yoko lacks the physical advantages Akamaru has and the ability to use most of our jutsu. She's good at tunneling, but right now she doesn't have much else. And then there's elements. You share a secondary earth affinity, but your primary fire beats his wind, although I'm not sure about outclassing it. Akamaru's lightning gets outdone by his wind, though." She shakes her head. "Then there's everything else. On physical stamina, you're matched, but his chakra is overwhelming, for obvious reasons." Kuba grumbles. "Handling the swaths of his clones should be easy, especially with one of your new Gatusga variants. Your own chakra capacity and control have climbed considerably due to training with elemental chakra, so your control is probably better than his still. When it comes to traps, you need to develop a better eye for them, or he'll trip you up too much to counter."

Kiba huffs and hangs his head. "So right now, it's a toss-up, right?"

"Practically. But I can think of a few tricks that might give you an edge." She grins. "Since he took a few pages from us, you'll take some notes from him."

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Yoko yaps as she runs up to Naruto to rejoin him. She leaps into his arms and climbs up into his hoodie just as they reach the front door of Shibuki's place. Sasuke and Chouji are waiting there for them, as instructed, having finished their sweep of the roots. Sasuke rests his arm on his horizontal waist-mounted sheath as he stands. "Took you long enough. Anything interesting in the shrine?"

Kakashi nods. "Signs of rather malicious combat and a very odd weapon or jutsu I can't identify. Angles and scoring suggest whips, but it's far too numerous."

Naruto scratches his head. "Can't make sense of it either. But, putting some good trap defenses in there should be pretty easy. The hall into it is pretty narrow, that'll keep the array simpler, and it'll require less power. Getting it powered shouldn't be difficult if I have it feed off the chakra in the roots. The ones for the tunnel being drained won't weaken the Hero Water at all, and we'll never have to worry about the seals needing to be refueled."

Chouji's jaw drops. "Whoa, that's awesome! Those roots really have that much power running through them?"

Naruto chuckles. "Nature energy, man. I wanna master it eventually, but right now, that shit scares me." He gently scratches Yoko's head as she whines in his ear.

Kakashi steps past Naruto and puts his book away. "It is indeed fearsome. I've seen Jiraiya use it once, and the results were terrifying."

Chouji grins ear to ear. "Ok, I'm gonna have to see if we can get some root samples to take back to my clan and try to work them into new pills."

Naruto shrugs. "Ill-advised, but more power to ya." He peeks over to see Asuma returning with the remaining three genin. "How'd things go with the interrogation and autopsies?"

Ino huffs and pouts. "No guilt, but everyone was pretty freaked out. Whoever did this is someone they know and they're all terrified of."

Sakura shudders. "I couldn't look at the bodies for long, but really didn't like what I saw. And samples taken from the previous chief showed signs of plant cells. Chlorophyll."

"Ah." Naruto rubs the back of his neck. "Yeah, that'd be nature's fault. From what Ero-sennin told me of nature energy, this tree is filtering a shitload of it into the Hero Water, so drinking it makes you a sage at the cost of it basically trying to turn you into a tree."

Asuma shudders. "Well, that's unpleasant, but it makes sense. As for the bodies, all of them lost their hearts. Gutted out by something smooth and flexible, and quite long. I can't think of any tool that could possibly match."

Kakashi grumbles. "But the shinobi here recognized it somehow. A kinjutsu, maybe?"

Sasuke nods. "Must be, with a description like that. The kind that's forbidden more for how inhumane it is than how dangerous."

Asuma puts his cigarette out with a quick tap and approaches the door. "Seen my fair share of those. Let's see if Shibuki knows something."

He's halted by a Takigakure Jonin at the door. "I'm sorry sir, but Shibuki and Kumotori have requested that nobody enter the manor. They must speak in private for now."

Asuma scowls, but grunts and backs away. "We'll be waiting here for them, then." He peeks back to his team ad Team 7. He's spent enough time guarding royalty to know political strongarming when he sees it. Kakashi nods in agreement. The guard's tension and aggression is just a tad much for a simple private meeting. Kakashi's about to move, but he pauses as Yoko mumbles something in Inuzuka. He nods and focuses his ears. He already heard that insectoid flapping, and quickly determines they have someone already dropping in to assist.

Fuu hovers above the manor, silently approaching one easter balcony and through the open door. She steps as silently as possible, knowing her wings are just a tad noisy for stealth. She can soon hear an argument downstairs.

"You can't be serious! Yes, if Kakuzu has returned, it's an ordeal to approach, but you cannot expect such authoritative methods to work!"

"If Kakuzu's returned, we cannot rely on the platitudes of a cowering child to lead our people! I should have been appointed upon your father's death, and every shinobi in this village knows it!"

"But the common people will not agree, and you'll have a full-scale dissent and defection on your hands! You cannot overcome someone so vile with more violence!"

"Oh, I'll show you violence. "

"Wait, how did you get your hands on-"

"Well, my father survived a full dose save for dying a bit young, so a half dose should be fine, right?!"

Fuu buzzes through the room and grabs Shibuki, heading straight for a window and breathing out a dense blast of dust that carves through the wooden bars blocking their path. She skids to a stop amongst the Konoha teams with rage overwhelming her. Crimson chakra leaks free just as she sets Shibuki aside. "Kumotori is attempting a coup and just took half a bottle of Hero Water!"

All eyes turn to the one guard outside, and he freezes entirely, barely having time to flinch before Kakashi's embedded a kunai in his jugular. "Shibuki-sama. I suspect you wish for us to expand our duties here to halting this insurrection?"

Shibuki pants and stumbles to his feet. "Indeed, Kakashi. Eliminate them." He looks around to the rest of the two squads and Fuu. "All of you."

Asuma nods and brandishes his knuckle dusters. "Chouji, Sakura, Shikamaru, and I are on defense. Shibuki can fight, but he's the target and our client. Protect him at all costs."

"Hai!" Sakura starts running through a string of handsigns. Chouji pops the last of his chips in his mouth and his shoulder-length ponytail gets jagged. Shikamaru kneels and produces his shadow jutsu handsign.

Kakashi hums. "Ino, Naruto, Sasuke, and Fuu, you're on offense, but stick to lower-ranking targets first. Let Asuma and I handle Kumotori."

"Hai!" Naruto produces a scroll and prepares some exploding kunai to pass around. Yoko takes a few and goes underground. Sasuke draws his blade and electrifies it. Ino pulls senbon pouch with a violet label from her bag. Fuu grits her teeth and takes to the air again as she's shrouded in an erratic crimson aura.

Ino and Chouji shudder at the sensation it puts off. "What the hell kind of chakra is that?.."

Naruto mumbles. "I'll explain later, just try not to touch her right now, It'll hurt like hell." He turns his dialogue inward. "Should I be able to handle that amount right now?"

"Yes, but I advise waiting for the right moment, save it for when it's needed. Don't use my chakra as a crutch, boy."

"Got it."

As they finish gearing up for combat, the front door to the manor explodes off it's hinges. Out walks Kumotori, his beard looking a little mossy now, framing a crazed grin. He's soon flanked by a small collection of other shinobi, a few anbu and some chuunin. "Stand aside, Kakashi! I'll be leading Takigakure now!"

Naruto pull a few more tagged kunai out. "Not on your life!" he throws them, and although the troop moves to avoid the blasts- it turns out they instead release a cloud of a noxious foam in a wide array of colors. Some of them trip up from the smell, leaving them open long enough for Sasuke to rush in and slice one across the back, then retreat unharmed as two attempt to drive their own kunai into him. One guns right for Shibuki and he unloads a stream of water that slows them down enough for Ino to tag them with some poisoned senbon.

Kakashi and Asuma rush at Kumotori, performing a textbook pincer at first to get a read on him, only for Kakashi to burst into smoke and hide Asuma while the real Kakashi bursts from the ground behind him. Kumotori turns around and backhands Kakashi as he thrusts a leg out and kicks Asuma straight in his chest. "I can feel you all so clearly!" As his vision is flooded by orange, he practically ignores the clone army and rushes through to clash blades with Asuma, kunai and knuckle dusters clashing and sparking. Asuma keeps wind chakra channeled through them, but the nature energy buff to Kumotori's lightning keeps powering through and pushing him back. Every Naruto clone that comes up close is battered away with a strength-augmented kick or sliced on the backswing for each of his kunai strikes, or during dodges of Asuma's more complex maneuvers. One clone attempts to burst from the ground to strike, but Asuma's blade is guided down through it's face. Asuma then receives a swift kick to the chin and goes barreling backwards and over the crowd of clones. By now, most of Kumotori's comrades have been struck down or blasted to oblivion by the explosives Yoko had been tunneling around with.

As the battle continues, Shikamaru closely watches Kumotori's features. He's begins to liberally drool mass amounts of water over his mossy beard. His fists appear cracked and dusty. The elements are slowly overtaking him. His eyes dart to his classmates. "Ino, take a pill and get ready to chain. Clones, dive and soak yourselves, then back into the fray! Surround him!"

"On it!" Naruto's clones dive into the lake, then rush to join the battle, dripping wet. Meanwhile, Fuu buzzes down into Kumotori and throws one of his comrades as a meat missile. Kumotori spins and kicks the body aside, but he's left open for Kakashi to burst from the ground and grab him by his ankle. He holds Kumotori's ankle above his head, and thrusts his kunai for a strike to his liver. Kumotori picks his other leg up and kicks Kakashi on the wrist. The snap of it breaking is followed by a heavy thwack as he lands in a handstand, flips upright with a spin, and kicks Kakashi clean through a dozen of Naruto's clones.

"Ino, get ready!" As the clones close in, Shikamaru flips through handsigns. "Suiton: Hyōmenchōryoku!" (Water Style: Surface Tension!) The water clinging to the clones and spilling from Kumotori's mouth all chains together in hovering liquid bridges.

Ino finishes her own chain of handsigns and grabs one of the clones. "Sorry, Naruto. Raiton: Dendō!" (Lightning Style: Conduction!) An electrical current runs across the water linking all of the clones, converging on Kumotori and zapping him into a twitching mess.

"Chouji, go high!" Sakura slams her hands to the ground, using Mud Wall to instead produce a ramp. Chouji rolls up it and into the air. As he rises, Sasuke throws a plethora of kunai connected by wire up to him. Centrifugal force keeps the kunai facing outwards, and he's wrapped in them harmlessly.

Chouji grins viciously and bares his teeth- with sake leaking from between them and the gourd sloshing, half empty, on his belt. He spits a blazing mist and spins into it, shrouding his spiked, spinning form in flames. As he gets above Kumotori, Ino drains herself with her lightning jutsu and cuts off the charge. Naruto's clones all expire at once. Noticing his trajectory is off, Fuu divekicks Chouji towards Kumotori at the cost of a gash on her leg from one of the kunai. She doesn't care, enraged as she is.

Kumotori, regaining his senses from that shock, grabs the ground and rips a boulder from it- nearly merging with his hand as he swings up and smacks Chouji away with it.

Chouji disappears on contact, and Sakura huffs and drops her handsigns. "Checkmate."

Kumotori looks to his left and sees Chouji bearing down on him from a separate angle. Everything was real, but the genjutsu just displaced their positions ninety degrees to his right!

"YAKINIKUDAN HARI SENSHA!" (SPIKED BARBECUE TANK) Chouji rolls him into a burning pit for a good five seconds before he loses momentum and deflates, bouncing back and huffing as he sheds the kunai net and tosses it aside.

Naruto stares gaping from the sidelines with Asuma, still nursing his jaw after personally dislocating it. "… Holy shit, I can't believe that fucking worked!"

"It didn't." Naruto's eyes widen and he spins to find a cracked and monstrous Kumotori risen from the ground behind him. He throws one hell of a punch, barely saved by Asuma getting between them- but both go tumbling uphill and into the roots. "Enough of those damned clones." He huffs and peeks around as the remaining students raise their guard and Kakashi starts preparing a Chidori. Kumotori grunts and chains some handsigns, one of his fingers nearly breaking off in the process. "Futon: Daitoppa!" He almost chokes and sputters on the water pouring from his mouth as he inhales for it, but the following air blast is dense and combine with the water to become a fragment of a hurricane, pelting them all with rain and gale force winds. Everyone loses their footing and goes tumbling away, while Fuu's wings are punched full of holes by the rain and she spirals into the lake.

With everyone down, Kumotori slowly approaches Naruto and Asuma, sitting together against the roots, battered and bruised. Naruto struggles to push himself up, covered in welts and his brow bleeding. The maddened false sage stands just downhill, their heads level, as he raises a cracked, dripping hand. "Suiton…" The water in his clothes and mouth converges into a sharpened rod. "Mizuyari." (Water Spear)

Naruto rushes to block, dodge, something, closing his eyes in fear of this likely fatal blow-

But he hears something burst from the ground and yelp. He feels a splash across his face. Much of it is water, but some is too thick, too warm.

He opens his eyes and his gaze slowly drifts to the ground before him, finding a fox with a hole through her abdomen, bleeding out quickly and unresponsive.

"Y… Yoko?..."

"Yoko…"

And his world goes red.
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A.N.: Oh yeah. I know I'm evil for that. I also had a lot of fun coming up with that 2+ team combo! but, as I'm sure you've noticed, I was delayed a lot while writing this. That is largely due to my first nephew being born and a lot of stress popping up in my family in the aftermath. (Due to my sister's horrid fiance.) But, things are calm now, and I should have no problem with writing, recording for youtube, and even streaming a bit a lot more often now.

So I hope you guys like what I'm doing to expand on nature energy and the world's use of it. I have a lot of plans for that, and it's gonna be real damn crazy. I also have a 3rd fic in the works, 5 chapters already written, but I wanna get up to 10 before I start releasing it on a biweekly basis. It's a simpler fic, no combat, so it's easier and quicker to write. Really love writing the dialogue for it. Anyway, I'mma get back to work on the original Pokemon region for my youtube channel. The Mesopas Region is gonna be awesome!