The Wanderers
Chapter 46 – The Land of Fire
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, the ground would show battle damage.
***Previously-On***
In their village community by the sea, Kakashi and Konan had peaceful lives together, having found a respite from the constant fighting of their lives. However such a thing was not meant to last, as Senju Jito appeared at their door and convinced them that he needed their help in the war. The two of them followed him to the Land of Earth, where Kakashi followed Mikoto's scent in an attempt to find the Uchiha matriarch. To their surprise, they found Sasuke and Fiore instead, and they were taken to Cascading Flow after discovering that Mikoto was dead. Jito spoke to Elika and formulated a plan of attack to cripple the Quiraji war effort.
Infiltrate the Land of Fire, find the converting facility and shut it down.
With Sasuke and Fiore in their team, the squad of five prepared to move out.
***End Summary***
They had been set up in the camp for the night before they left for the Land of Fire, but Kakashi found sleep difficult to find within their tent. Beside him Konan slept soundlessly, her chest rising up and down with each slow breath. She could always sleep easily.
When they had finally finished their fight, both she and Fiore were battered and bruised, and laughing at each other while they lay on the ground. Kakashi hadn't been sure what to make of it, but Konan had assured him that she had no issues working with the staff-wielder, and Fiore made a similar sentiment. He wasn't sure what to make of it, but was glad that they had sorted out whatever potential antagonism they had towards each other.
Figuring that he probably wasn't going to get any sleep anytime soon, Kakashi stealthy got out of the bed and covered up Konan affectionately. He scratched at his face and walked out of their tent into the cold air after throwing a shirt on.
Looking around the quiet campsite, he saw Sasuke standing near the armoury, running a cloth along the katana he had used in the previous battle. Kakashi walked over and nodded to his old student in greeting.
"Couldn't sleep either?"
Sasuke grunted and looked down the line of the blade, blowing on it as he continued to oil the blade.
"I don't sleep much," he said, throwing the cloth to the side and running the blade into its sheath.
"Oh?" asked Kakashi with a raised eyebrow. "Troubles with the missus?"
Sasuke shook his head as he put the sheathed sword onto his belt, "She's hardly my 'missus', but no. Fiore had a lot of steam to blow off, and that's her problem. I just don't sleep much these days."
"I know what you mean," said Kakashi with a sigh. Despite having just come back from semi-retirement, he already felt that terrible weight on his shoulders, the same he'd been carrying since the Third Shinobi War. It was something you never truly get rid of.
"What do you think of the Senju's mission?"
Kakashi shrugged, keeping his hands inside his pockets to protect them from the cold. "It seems reasonable. The main thing is working together and getting the job done."
"Hn." Sasuke turned and looked directly at Kakashi's face, "You still haven't said how you lost your Sharingan."
Kakashi hesitated; he wasn't sure how to explain it himself. "I almost died when we were fighting at the Hidden Sound…and then something happened and I didn't die. When I came to, my Sharingan was gone."
His old student frowned, he hadn't heard of anything like that happening before.
Itachi claimed to have told him all he needed to know about the Uchiha bloodline and its abilities, but his elder brother had lied to him in the past, so Sasuke only took his word at face value.
"You aren't sure whether it was taken from you or not?" Despite how he might feel about his clan, he knew how bad it would be if a Sharingan fell into the wrong hands.
"I don't think that happened," said Kakashi. "I've still got Obito's eye, just without the Sharingan able to be activated anymore."
"Hn." Sasuke indicated to a small tent to the side of the command tent. "I should get back."
Knowing his old student wasn't one for too many words, Kakashi let him go, watching the Uchiha adult walk across the camp to his tent. Being a rebel army, they had guards posted everywhere, and he was surprised at the level of respect they gave Sasuke as he walked past.
Would the same have happened if we had been in Konoha? Coming back from those Exams, Sasuke had been teetering on the edge of his frustrations. It's strange to think, but this situation was perhaps the best thing to happen to him. He's found a place to call his own.
Looking up at the dark sky, Kakashi watched as a few dark grey clouds slowly came together to form a larger cloud. It didn't look like it was going to rain, but Kakashi sort of wished it would.
We shouldn't have left that village. We may have been living in ignorance, but we were happy.
Jito had been expecting a large amount of resistance from Fiore when they set out the next morning, but to his surprise the spiky haired girl simply nodded to him and walked beside Sasuke as they left Cascading Flow's base camp.
No-one came to see them off, and besides a few higher level commanders in the rebellion, very few knew their true destination.
Besides Kakashi, Konan stretched out her arms before turning to Jito as they walked along a rock-covered road. "So, how are we going to travel there?"
Jito pointed down the road with a finger, "Since we are shinobi, it shouldn't take us more than a few days to get to the border from here. We'll need to move as quickly as possible, since we've already lost so much time in the past."
Sasuke motioned to the woman by his side, "Not all of us are shinobi, Senju."
Pulling out her wooden weapon from her hair, Fiore jumped into the air and landed on the newly transformed plank of wood, crossing her legs with a grunt.
"I won't have a problem keeping us with you guys."
Sasuke smirked while the others just nodded, understanding somewhat what her abilities were like. Jito couldn't keep the strange shiver from his back every time she transformed the wood as if it was nothing. Having been his nephew, Jito had experienced the First Hokage's wood ninjutsu first hand, and they were as similar as they were different.
"Any room for me on that?" asked Sasuke with a smirk.
Fiore glanced around at her floating wooden platform for a few seconds before turning to her partner with a completely straight face, "Nope, totally full up."
Sasuke glared at her for a second before turning back to the road, "Not my fault your ass takes up that much room."
The Cascading Flow warrior merely shrugged and floated beside him on her wooden platform, scratching at her arms with a sleepy look in her eyes.
"You never quite mentioned what happened to the Land of Fire, Jito," said Kakashi as he walked up to stand beside their guide. Jito had been particularly brief in telling them what had happened to him since they last worked together, but Kakashi had been able to tell the Senju warrior was holding back.
"I didn't think you'd want to hear it, since none of it is good news," he replied quietly.
"Jito, I am risking both myself and the person who means the most to me on your information here. Konoha is gone, and it isn't coming back. We all know that. You need to tell us what we need to know."
The old warrior sighed, Kakashi was right. He'd been fighting so long he had forgotten that part of being in a team was trusting others. His capture had given him a very linear perspective on the Quiraji situation.
He turned to the group and motioned for them to stop, calling them to gather around a small smooth rock nearby as he laid down the map he had showed Elika.
"This is our target," he said, pointing to the Land of Fire on the map. "Since destroying Konoha, the Quiraji have been using it as both a beachhead and a staging area."
Konan frowned and indicated to the borders with her painted nails, "But the border to the Land of Fire is massive, surely they can't protect the whole thing."
Jito shook his head while the others leaned in to look at where she was pointing, "They can, and they are. From what I've seen, the majority of their forces not engaged in battle with the other shinobi villages are protecting the border on every side. If we can punch through, we won't face that much resistance, but it's that initial issue that is our main concern."
Analysing the map, Sasuke indicated to the large area of ocean connected to the Land of Fire's south border, "Couldn't we approach from the sea? It would be far harder to patrol than the land masses."
"I had thought of that, but it appears as though that was how the bulk of their force arrived here in the first place. I'm not sure from where, or why the Land of Tea has been unaffected so far, but approaching on a boat is actually the most dangerous route."
"So we go through the Land of Grass and punch our way through their defences? That seems highly dependent on the enemy soldier's competence, Jito." Kakashi was sceptical of the plan; it seemed far riskier than he thought Jito was capable of creating. They had no real target, no intelligence on the enemy force, and were intentionally diving into enemy territory. If it wasn't for such a good reason, Kakashi wouldn't take the mission on general principle.
Jito nodded, he recognised how insane the mission was. However, the reason he had gone to Cascading Flow in the first place was for this reason. "I know that, but we have a trump card of our own."
He motioned to Fiore, who was still floating on her piece of wood with a blasé expression on her face. The others looked over at her, not understanding what he meant by her being their trump card.
Sensing their questions, Jito quickly explained. "The Quiraji don't have the ability to mould chakra. They have physical and spiritual energy like everyone does, but like Lady Fiore here…"
"Just call me Fiore, Senju," she interrupted
Jito coughed awkwardly and continued, "Like…Fiore here they can't mix the two together, and we can use that to our advantage."
Next to the floating girl, Sasuke nodded as he recognised the plan. It was similar to the one the two of them had used to infiltrate the Land of Earth's Daimyo's building, though their roles would have to be reversed.
Fiore understood the general idea quickly too, and her face grew into a wide smile when she knew what she would be doing. "Alright Senju, let's hear this plan of yours."
Jito knew he would never get her respect, but it still bothered him to hear someone a third his age speaking to him so rudely. Regardless to her tone, Jito outlined their plan of infiltration.
Fiore stood in the middle of the tree line, looking over at the small collection of soldiers standing on the border to the Land of Fire. It hadn't taken them too long to reach the border, and despite her misgivings with their guide, she had to admit that his plan had substance.
Though she wished she didn't have to wear such an outfit to do her part.
Having captured and taken out a small scouting party that had ventured beyond the border, Fiore had recoloured one of the Quiraji robes and now wore the blood coloured cloth over her regular leather armour. Her normal violet eyes had been replaced by a set of contacts to give her a steely icy look, that she was highly amused by and planned on keeping once they returned to Cascading Flow.
On the border to the Land of Fire stood fifteen Quiraji soldiers, who appeared like normal soldiers not unlike the men she had worked with at Cascading Flow, but there was an aura about them that unsettled the wood user.
They were standing guard and looking through the area carefully, their group was shielded by the tree line, but there a lack of communication between the Quiraji soldiers. They weren't joking around or acting like soldiers normally would when their bosses aren't around.
If Fiore hadn't been concentrating, she wouldn't have picked the second group of Quiraji soldiers camped a hundred metres away from the border into the Land of Fire, one that appeared to be easily able to reinforce their companions without much effort.
They were armed with a variety of swords and blades, and despite standing fairly rigidly she was able to tell they would be comparable opponents if they were to engage in battle.
However that wasn't part of the plan.
Cracking her neck before adjusting her leather armour underneath her robe, Fiore walked out into the open.
"Oi! Make some damn room!"
The Quiraji soldiers were immediately alerted to her presence, but upon seeing her blood red robe they relaxed slightly and kept their weapons at their side.
Walking behind Fiore with their hands shackled together by her wooden weapon were the other four of her group, with each of them looking beaten and dejected.
Fiore had pointed out to Jito that they wouldn't be terribly convincing if it didn't look like she had kicked the stuffing out of them before capturing them. He had been forced to agree with her on that point.
"How goes the border?" asked Fiore to the group of Quiraji soldiers, trying to put on a gruffer voice than she normally did.
Behind her, Sasuke snickered slightly but kept it to himself as he recognised how similar Fiore was acting like her mother during their charade.
One of the Quiraji soldiers stepped forward towards Fiore, sheathing his long sword and staring at her suspiciously, "Where are you taking these prisoners? We have no orders about shinobi moving towards the stronghold today."
Using the intelligence Jito had gathered on some of the organisation, Fiore reached out and grabbed the soldier's collar, hoisting him up to her face.
"You'd dare question one of Sensou's chosen?! I should shove your head on a spike!"
The soldier stared her down for a second before nodding and reaching up to push her hands away.
"I meant no offence, Lady. We have been instructed to…"
Fiore smacked away one of his hands and walked past him, "I don't care about your orders. My master wants these shinobi rats yesterday, so let's get this over with."
The soldier nodded with an angry glare and motioned to his soldiers to push the prisoners through to the other side.
Fiore tapped her foot impatiently as they checked them for weapons. When preparing for the caper they had hidden their obvious weaponry in scrolls that Fiore had on her person, while Konan had no need for weaponry.
Despite being shackled by Fiore's wood, Sasuke still chided to being patted down for weapons. Surely if they had been captured that would have already been done, but for the ruse he put up with it.
He could have done without Fiore's amused gaze however.
Konan did her best to ignore the shameless way the soldier was patting her down, though she was happy that Kakashi was getting angry at her treatment despite trying to keep his emotions under wraps.
The head of the border patrol nodded when the inspections turned up nothing of interest, turning to their captor with a serious gaze. "They are clean. Where are you taking them?"
Fiore rolled her eyes and wrenched her wooden prisoners forward, "To my master's laboratory, where else? Can we get this moving? She isn't the most patient of people."
Hiding his expression from sight, Jito struggled to stop himself from wincing at what she had just said. Fiore was improvising at this point, but she had just said something that went completely against his experiences with the Quiraji leader.
The border patrol leader seemed to notice, but ignored it and turned to the prisoners with a hand on the sword at his belt, "So, which one then?"
Fiore frowned; she had no idea what he was talking about. Regardless, she had to keep up appearances. "I don't care."
He nodded and looked over the lowered faces of the prisoners. "Well if you are looking for a reasonable head to sit on the border as a reminder…there are a few candidates…"
The wood user's eyes immediately flared up as she realised what he meant, and without missing a beat she moved to his side while the others kept their heads down, trusting the young girl to do her bit.
Fiore indicated to the Senju at the front of the group, "He was the most troublesome, so he'd be the most fitting sacrifice."
The elder Senju's body froze when he heard that, but before he could say anything the border captain scoffed and turned to Fiore.
"Don't joke around. You know our orders; we have to take this sort of thing seriously. Just because Shouri isn't around to enforce his own ruling doesn't mean we shouldn't follow it."
Behind the leader Fiore clenched her fists in frustration; this wasn't going well at all.
He looked over the prisoners, grunting as he moved past Sasuke and ran his eyes over Kakashi before shaking his head and finally ending on Konan. She had some makeup that made her look slightly beaten up, but anyone would be a fool not to notice that she was striking woman.
The Quiraji soldier looked over her with approval before turning to Fiore and indicating to the Akatsuki member. "She'll do fine. Take her head and one of my soldiers will take it to the fence with the others."
Fiore glared at him through her icy blue contacts, this wasn't going to plan at all. "Well…I'm hardly in a position to do that, am I?" She indicated to the wooden locks that held the prisoners together.
"Ah, fair point." He withdrew his sword from the sheath on his belt and took a step back while holding the blade with both hands. "Make sure she doesn't move."
A thousand plans ran through Fiore's mind as she watched the blade almost in slow motion. From the distance she was from him she could have struck the soldier down, but before she could manipulate her wooden weapon she saw that it was already over.
The soldier's sword fell to the ground as he looked down at his chest in complete shock. "What the hell…"
Sticking out the back of his body was Kakashi's lightning covered hand. It had gone straight through his chest as splinters of wood showered the two of them from him breaking out of Fiore's wooden bonds.
The other Quiraji soldiers seemed momentarily shocked by the action, and in that second Fiore took advantage of their hesitation and broke off all the bonds, freeing the other three shinobi so they could fight them off.
Sasuke immediately drove his foot into the face of a nearby Quiraji soldier before reaching out to catch a small scroll that Fiore through him, releasing his sword to cut down another soldier.
Being the least able to fight the Quiraji, Jito still fought off two of the enemy soldiers with his bare hands, using taijutsu to disable them while keeping an eye on the other group in the distance.
Kakashi pulled his hand out of the patrol leader and turned to Konan, who could only stand in shock at what she had seen. "Are you okay?" he asked, concerned.
"I…" It took Konan a second for her to remember that she was a shinobi, and this wasn't the time for her to be spacing out. She nodded slightly to her partner and using a short burst of chakra to leap into the air.
A pair of paper wings appeared on her back as she began to collect explosion note-covered sheets of paper in a large winged bird, turning her floating form towards the group that had become aware of the battle happening beneath her.
She immediately directed the bird towards the group, and the projectile sped towards them with as much speed as she could manage, but just before the technique stuck at the group she saw one of the soldiers disappear into a small crack in the air.
His comrades however were vaporised in an instant inside the explosion though.
A full minute later and the battle was over, with Fiore cracking one of the Quiraji over the head before resting on her wooden staff with a disgusted look on her face.
"What do we do now?" asked Kakashi, wiping his bloody hand on his jacket.
Jito bit at his lip, that hadn't gone to plan at all. He didn't know that the border patrol would have been so easy to overpower, but from what Konan had indicated, their presence was now known to the enemy.
But first, he had a bone to pick.
Walking over to Fiore, he reached down and grabbed her by the shoulder of her shirt, "What the hell was that before?!"
"I was trying to make up for a crap situation, Senju! It's not my fault if your intelligence sucked!"
Jito glared into her eyes angrily, but before he could say anything else he felt Kakashi's hand pulling him away from the young girl.
"Don't blame her, Jito. You know as well as I do she meant nothing by trying to choose you. If she had been forced to go through with it…you know why…"
The elder Senju glared at him for a moment, before he realised how short-sighted he had been. Out of their group, he was the weakest against the Quiraji, since he could only use genjutsu, which they were immune to. She had been thinking of the mission, not of her personal grudge against him.
He still hadn't quite figured out how he felt about her and her mother, regardless of their feelings towards him.
"Well…she didn't have to look so damn happy about it at the time."
Fiore glared back at him, but Sasuke came up beside her and pulled her away, motioning for her to take out her contacts.
Konan floated slowly back down to the ground as her paper wings dispersed, "Do we press on?"
Their leader nodded, wishing he hadn't just made a fool of himself. "The Quiraji may know of our intrusion, but we are in too deep now. Even if we were to turn back, they would hunt us for as long as they have the men. We have no choice but to continue."
Fiore turned around again as Sasuke held onto her wooden staff, one contact lens in her eye with the other on one of her fingers, giving her a particularly frightening look. "Well that's just great. Any other bright ideas?"
Behind her Sasuke sighed and reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, "Fiore…"
"We need to move out, before they send troops to our location." Jito indicated towards the eastern horizon, "We won't have much time before they come for us, so we need to be ready."
Kakashi and Konan both nodded grimly, they understood what it was like to be hunted. Fiore shrugged off Sasuke's touch and took out her other contact lens, dropping them onto the ground before throwing off the uncomfortable robe and moving into their previously agreed upon formation.
Taking up his position behind her, Sasuke struggled to hide his concern for the young woman. She was temperamental at times, but it was clear to him that what she told him about the Senju hadn't been the whole story. If they got a chance, he would ask the Senju what happened, since despite being informed by both Fiore and Elika, he found it hard to believe the clan had done something like that.
They weren't the Uchiha after all; they didn't betray each other like that.
***A Day Later***
Konan slowly came down to the ground, dispersing her paper wings and breathing out slowly to recover from the chakra use.
"How many?" asked Jito quietly.
The Amegakure shinobi shook her head and pointed to an area hidden by a dark set of trees. "At least thirty…all armed to the teeth. They saw me."
Jito swore under his breath and pulled out a kunai, indicating to the rest of the group. They'd been moving as stealthy as they were able to under the cover of darkness, but the Quiraji soldiers were relentless in their pursuit.
This was the fourth group to find them in as many hours.
"Just how many soldiers do they have to throw at us?" asked Kakashi as he clasped his hands together into a handseal. While his stamina was greatly improved without an activate Sharingan, the constant battles were wearing them all down.
The Quiraji warriors came out into the dark clearing and sped towards them with unsheathed weapons, several of them holding their hands together in a similar manner to Kakashi.
Konan bit at her lip and collected a small group of paper in one of her hands, "More converted shinobi…"
Seeing those soldiers pitted against them hit one of the sensitive spots in Jito's stomach, since he'd been a part of that process during his capture. "How are we going to handle this lot?"
As the one with the largest chakra reserves, Sasuke walked to the front of the group and put up a hand to stop the others. "Let me try something."
"Nothing showy, Sasuke. Some of us need to rest like normal people," said Fiore behind him, leaning on a nearby tree.
Sasuke didn't say anything back, but merely smirked and clapped his hands together.
The back of his cloak nearly exploded off his back as he produced a massive amount of chakra, causing the three shinobi who hadn't worked with him for as long as Fiore had to stare in amazement. They could see the blue outline of the chakra surrounding him as he sped through the handseals of his technique faster than any of them could track with their eyes.
If I had my Sharingan I'd know what he was doing, thought Kakashi, though judging from the chakra output he doubted he'd be able to replicate it. How you've grown, Sasuke.
Fiore sighed and took a step back from her Uchiha partner, "Well if you're going to do that…"
"What is he doing?" asked Konan, wondering why Fiore was slowly backing away from Sasuke.
"Something I told him specifically not to do. You guys might want to shield your eyes."
The Quiraji soldiers and converted shinobi came within a hundred metres as Sasuke's companions did as Fiore instructed, though they didn't quite know why.
Sasuke completed the set of handseals and spread out his fingers so that they were pointing at the oncoming enemies.
With their eyes covered the others couldn't see what he was doing, but judging from the chakra output they figured it must be something flashy.
To a point, they were right, just not in the way they thought.
Tiny strings of chakra that were barely visible to the naked eye ran from Sasuke's fingers and attached themselves instantly to each enemy coming towards them. The Quiraji didn't seem to notice, since Sasuke was forced to use his Sharingan with the technique in order to get the accuracy he required.
"Hijutsu: Naibu no Kokuhyou (Secret Technique: Internal Damnation)," he whispered.
A pulse of chakra ran from his hands to the enemy soldiers along the strings, and a second later he cut off the connection and turned around to cover his own eyes.
Seemingly unaffected by his technique, the Quiraji soldiers jumped at him with their weapons raised, but exactly two seconds after Sasuke said the technique's name, it activated.
Even though all their eyes were shielded, the flash of light that appeared when Sasuke's ninjutsu activated was practically blinding.
After another few seconds, Fiore rubbed at her eyes and opened them slowly, resisting the urge to go over and beat her partner over the head. She wasn't the type to do that, but this kind of situation warranted it.
"What part of not-showy did you not understand, Sasuke?"
Letting his own eyes recover, Sasuke motioned to the battlefield in front of him. "What? They are gone, aren't they? You've never complained about that in the past."
"I complain every time you do it! It's a stupid technique, and it hurts my eyes!"
Sasuke shrugged and walked over to the other three shinobi, "Well then I don't listen when you complain."
Fiore just shook her head, "Pain in my ass…"
"Can we open our eyes now?" asked Kakashi, wanting desperately to know what Sasuke had done and how many enemies were left.
"Hn," was his reply from the Uchiha shinobi.
The three shinobi opened their eyes slowly and nearly gaped in amazement at what they saw.
In front of Sasuke was a massive crater a few feet deep, still smouldering from the technique he had performed.
Of the Quiraji soldiers and converted shinobi, there was no trace.
More frightening than that, was that there hadn't been any sound at all. It appeared as though there had been a massive explosion, but besides the blinding light that had accompanied it there was no way for Kakashi to even begin to understand how he had done it.
"Sasuke…what did you do?" he muttered in amazement.
The Uchiha waved off his question and pointed to the ground, "Can you get us underground? That technique takes a lot out of me."
Kakashi frowned; he knew many Earth techniques that would allow him to do such a thing. It took him a moment before he realised that Sasuke was telling him that they could rest underneath the battlefield. If they covered their tracks well enough, they might be able to convince the Quiraji pursuers that they died in the 'explosion'.
Clapping his hands together before placing them on the ground, Kakashi began his work, while Konan came up besides Sasuke and asked him the same question her partner had.
Seeing that Kakashi was getting it done, Sasuke turned to her and stared at her amber eyes for a moment. If his old teacher trusted her, then that was good enough for him, but for an Uchiha there were degrees of trust that were difficult to surpass.
"When I was a Genin…I suppose I still am one to be honest…anyway, during the Chuunin Exams I fought a puppet-user from Suna. I copied his puppet-controlling technique with my Sharingan, and used it to transfer a special type of chakra into the enemy's bodies."
"That kind of technique shouldn't work on Quiraji, since they don't have chakra for you to exploit," commented Jito with a frown.
Sasuke shook his head, "That's not how it works. My chakra takes on a mix of fire and lightning elements within their blood stream, not their chakra circulatory system. It then explodes once the mixture is volatile enough."
"That still doesn't explain why there was no sound," said Konan.
Beside her partner, Fiore indicated to the massive crater in front of them, "There was sound. It was just contained within that radius."
Standing up from the ground, Kakashi stepped over the small opening he had created beneath him.
"You covered the area with your chakra, right? Otherwise the explosion would have been far larger and would have taken us with it, correct?"
Sasuke smirked, "You haven't lost your touch, Kakashi." He indicated to the hole, "Is it ready?"
His old teacher nodded, "Yeah. I'll cover it up when we get inside, and make some more air holes so that it is breathable."
Jito watched as the four of them worked in collaboration to lower themselves into the opening underground Kakashi had created. When he'd set out on this plan, he hadn't been sure what to expect. But the fact that they were worked well together was enough for him.
Maybe this will finally pay my debt. Midori…I've kept you waiting for so long…
oOoOoOo
Kakashi's underground burrow was fairly deep underground so that they could avoid detection, and as such there was no light whatsoever.
As they slid down, Jito reminded them that it would be too risky to say anything while underground, which meant that until they were sure it was safe to resurface.
It was a long wait.
***Seven Days Later***
Fiore was the first to pop her head out once Kakashi and Sasuke had made a hole back to the surface. She let out a long breath of relief when she saw that there was nobody in the nearby vicinity.
"We seem to be clear, for the moment," she said as she tested her feet on the ground.
"Oh thank god," said Konan with a sigh as she emerged behind Fiore. "Any longer in there and I think I was ready to explode."
Dusting himself off, Kakashi chuckled and reached out to pick off a piece of rubble from her Akatsuki robe, "I don't know what you are complaining about, you slept for most of it."
Konan glared at him but there was no malice as their other companions reached the surface behind them.
Upon reaching the surface Sasuke immediately began looking around the area with his Sharingan. "I can't see any enemies within range, though without the ability to use chakra the Quiraji soldiers are difficult to see with my Sharingan."
Jito nodded in agreement, the sun had just begun to rise over the horizon. "We seem to be in the clear for the moment. That was a good idea, Sasuke. You have the makings of a good shinobi."
Sasuke didn't say anything in response, and went about dusting himself own. After working with him for such a long time though, Fiore could tell he was flattered by what Jito said, he was just too proud to admit it.
"What do we do now? We don't have pursuers anymore." Kakashi stretched out his fingers; he had gotten far too stiff during the last week.
"I say we go in as far as we can, and take out as many of them as possible." Sasuke's blood was up from so much inactivity. He was spoiling for a fight.
There was some evidence of a large group of soldiers having been around the area, but they were long gone by their calculations. There didn't appear to be any tracks for them to follow, but they were determined to complete their goal.
Jito pulled out his map and looked over, tracing a finger over his assumption of their current position. They hadn't made it too far into the Land of Fire, since they had moved fairly slowly on their first attempt.
"I think our best chance would be to capture one of them and force them to talk."
The others of the group all stared at Fiore, admitting she had a point.
"They don't break easily," said Jito, remembering some of the missions he had run with Mikoto before they had separated. "It's like they are programmed or something similar."
He folded up the map as Kakashi shook his head and indicated to the way they were originally going towards. "If we find a holding and attack it, we may be able to find some information on where to find this place you are looking for."
"That's as good a plan as any, I suppose." Jito didn't really feel like the leader of the group, but that wasn't particularly a bad thing. "Let's get moving before a patrol finds us."
The three shinobi nodded in agreement and prepared themselves to move out, while Fiore hopped into the air and landing on top of a floating wooden platform. Having sat down the entire time underground, she decided to surf her way beside her companions.
As they moved through the Land of Fire deeper into the enemy grips, the three Konoha shinobi remarked at how different and yet unchanged their old home had become. They were nowhere near the crater of Konoha, but even the forests that populated the Land seemed less lively than the last time they had been here.
They moved quickly along the ground Sasuke moved further up the group to run beside Jito at the front.
"You have questions," said Jito as he eyed the Uchiha beside him.
Sasuke nodded, "I do."
Jito indicated for him to ask, curious as to why the young shinobi had been staring at him the whole time.
"I want to know what happened between you and Elika."
"By the sounds of it, you already know what happened," said Jito quietly as they moved past an abandoned partially destroyed temple.
Sasuke glared at the Senju warrior, "I want your side on things, since you were there. These people are very close to me, and…"
"I understand," finished Jito. He turned around to look at Fiore, who was picking at her teeth on top of her wooden platform beside Konan and Kakashi.
He let out a sigh and turned back to Sasuke, "I don't know if you know this, but my father was the Second Hokage."
Sasuke nodded; anyone that knew anything about the Hokages could see the resemblance.
"I had several siblings, but my older brother is the one related to this story. You have to understand, unlike many clans, the Senju didn't have a law against marrying civilians. We prized love above everything else."
"That makes sense," said Sasuke, though he didn't quite agree with him. The Uchiha were like the Hyuuga in that they almost always married within the clan, to keep their bloodline pure. Though without a specialised doujutsu or technique it made sense for the Senju to be less strict than the others. His mother and father had been such a marriage, one to keep the Sharingan safe.
"My brother's wife was a beautiful woman, but she was a civilian. When they had a child, everyone was ecstatic that she would inherent my brother's abilities. He was a very strong shinobi, and could have challenged Sarutobi for Third Hokage."
"That was Elika, wasn't it?"
Jito nodded grimly, "Yes, it was. When we discovered that she had no ability to use chakra, my father was very clear on how the laws of the clan worked. Once she reached a certain age, we gave her a choice."
"And she left." That was the extent of what Sasuke already knew. But he knew there was another part to the story, one that Fiore and Elika didn't know about.
Jito nodded with a grim expression, "Yes, but that isn't all. My brother was furious about my father's decision, and challenged him for leadership to the clan, so that he could bring his daughter back. He was willing to sacrifice himself for his daughter's safety."
Sasuke jumped onto a nearby branch as they moved into a large forest that was in the more northern part of the Land of Fire. "Really? I never heard of that happening. Did the Second Hokage kill his own son?"
Leaping beside the Uchiha shinobi, Jito shook his head grimly and turned slightly as he thought he saw a figure in the direction they were moving towards. "As with any clan challenge, it was to the death. We had just been brought into a time of war, and as the Hokage he couldn't be risked in such a challenge."
Jito stared down at his hands with a sad expression; he hated it when he remembered that time.
Beside him, Sasuke's eyes widened when he realised what he was telling him. "He made you fight him? That's…"
"Unbelievable? I don't know about that. Despite how much I loved my brother, I had a duty to the village. At that time…I thought that it was the right thing to do."
The two of them stopped running as they came to the edge of the forest, it was getting late and they needed to be at full strength the entire time they were in enemy territory.
"So you blame yourself," said Sasuke, standing up straight near the top of a large tree.
Jito nodded, pointing to several areas around them for the other three to take up position. "Justifiably. I've lived a long time, boy. I've made plenty of mistakes, though well-intentioned. I am the last of the Senju, just as you are the last of the Uchiha."
Sasuke's eyes twitched slightly and he turned to the older warrior with a shake of his head, "I'm not the last. My brother Itachi is still out there somewhere as well."
"Is he now?" Jito smiled as he remembered how Mikoto had described her two children, "That's good to hear."
A paper clone of Konan appeared behind the two of them as the original scouted the area for Quiraji hunters. "Are we camping here for the night?"
Jito turned to her with a nod, "We need to reserve our strength. There should be a staging point within a few hours, so this is a good place to rest."
She nodded and dispersed her clone, while Jito turned to Sasuke with a serious expression. "I would prefer it if you didn't mention that last bit to Fiore or her mother. They are aware that I was not against Elika's exile, but I would prefer they remain in ignorance."
The young Uchiha frowned, he didn't like the idea of deceiving the two of them, but he understood why Jito would ask such a thing. Not only was it a display of trust in him, but also that he trusted the last family he had to him.
Sasuke wasn't going to betray that trust. "As you wish."
Jito sighed in relief and jumped down to the ground level to set up a small camp for the night.
***The Next Morning***
The five companions skipped to a halt as they came upon a large building complex at the edge of a ravine. Kakashi recognised the area as a village that he had stayed in once, though it looked like it had been completed remodelled to fit a more military purpose.
"Something's wrong," said Fiore as she looked over the area.
Beside her, Konan nodded in agreement, "This isn't what I was expecting…"
"Sasuke, can you scan the area with your Sharingan?" asked Jito, trying not to think of the fact that the Quiraji likely killed all the civilians to make this place a staging area.
"Won't they be able to sense the chakra use?"
Their leader shook his head, "Only if they have converted shinobi that have sensory abilities. And considering what I'm looking at, I doubt that is the case."
Sasuke's eyes flicked over to their red state as he stared at the area in front of them.
Scattered along the ground within the complex were dozens of bodies, wearing the same regalia and weaponry as the Quiraji soldiers they had taken out before. There didn't seem to be any indication of what had killed them, though the dents in their armour would suggest that it had been recent, only in the last hour or so.
"How did we not hear the sounds of fighting?" said Kakashi with surprise. Something like this should have made quite a racket.
Sasuke couldn't see anything with his Sharingan, but considering they didn't have chakra it wasn't too surprising to him. For a moment he thought he saw a glimpse of something in the corner of his eye, but it vanished before he could focus on it.
Fiore crawled down beside Sasuke, "Can you see anything?"
He squinted his red eyes, trying to find that strange thing he had seen, but again it eluded him. "There's something…but I can't quite track it."
The others couldn't quite see it, although Jito felt something strange was coming towards them. He knew that there weren't any shinobi left in the Land of Fire, they had been hunted down completely.
After nearly a minute Sasuke merely shook his head and stood up, deactivating his Sharingan. "I can't see anything at all. This is a waste of time, we should keep moving."
"This is still a valuable source of intelligence. We should have a look through the bodies and the buildings," said Jito as the others stood up as well.
They nodded in agreement and went to move out, but Kakashi put up a hand to stop them. He wasn't one to do things on base suspicion, but there was something that didn't sit right with him.
He snapped his head across as he heard the sound of a shoe leap off grass, but it disappeared as soon as he tried to find it.
"KONOHA…"
Kakashi's eyes widened and he rapidly turned to the others, "Get down!"
They all did as he said, except for Fiore who simply brought up her wooden weapon to form a shell around herself. Virtually nothing was able to get through her wooden shield, and as such she fell into the habit of protecting herself with it.
"ZANSHU!" (Decapitation)
A green blur sped through the air and made a scythe motion across the area where their heads had been before they had ducked, slamming into Fiore's shield with such force that it almost knocked her down to the ground.
The blur skidded to the ground and went to make another pass, but Kakashi leapt to his feet and put up his hands, "Wait! Lee!"
Stopping himself from attacking again, the green-clad figure slowed to a halt and stood up with a surprised expression on his face.
"You guys…"
Picking himself up from the ground, Jito didn't hide his surprise as he moved towards the taijutsu master, "Lee! You're still alive!"
Taijutsu specialist Rock Lee turned to Jito and broke out into a wide smile, "Jito-san! It is good to see you again after so many years. How have your travels been?"
"Of all the people…" Sasuke groaned as he got up from the ground, before moving over to Fiore to check that she was okay.
Behind her wooden shield Fiore walked around and gaped at the massive dent Lee had put into it with his technique. "Maybe I should have ducked like the others…" she muttered to herself.
In the past two and a half years Lee hadn't changed too much from the last time Kakashi and Sasuke had seen him, though he had grown taller than Kakashi and seemed to look far more like Gai than he would have thought possible. Lee still had all the scars he had accumulated during his torture, and he could tell the other Konoha shinobi were surprised at his visage.
"What are you guys doing here?" he asked, crossing his hands across Gai's flak jacket.
There a serious tone to his voice that surprised Kakashi, though he kept that to himself. "The better question is why you are here. This is enemy territory, Lee. Have you been here the whole time?"
Looking over the area around them and the bodies on the ground, Lee shrugged and turned back to them, "Not the whole time, but a fair amount."
Sasuke looked over at the bodies in the complex behind them. Judging from the wounds, it looked like it was Lee's work. Despite himself, he clenched his fists with a slow grin.
Where once he had resented Lee's progress, now he had to admit he could appreciate his work. He clearly needed to work harder to catch up again.
"It seems we have a few things to speak about, don't we?" said Lee, looking over the surprised group with a serious gaze. "Even in our travels, you guys look very strange."
"Are there any enemies left?" asked Fiore, bringing her wooden weapon down to a small stick. She figured him to be an ally from their interactions, and that was good enough for her.
Lee shook his head with confidence, "Not in this sector. I've cleared out this whole area."
Kakashi's eyes widened, Lee sounded completely different from the last time he had spoken to him. He was colder, though he could tell that underneath the exterior he was still the same Lee from before.
Popping out from behind Sasuke again, Fiore looked up and down at the Konoha shinobi with suspicion. She hadn't met anyone that even looked like him, but judging from the damage he had done to her wooden shield she guessed that he was very strong. A part of her really wanted to see how strong he was, but that would have to wait for another time.
When Lee saw Konan and her robe he didn't display any obvious emotions, but she could tell due to the slight shift in his stance that he was not comfortable with her presence. She wasn't quite sure what his issue was, but it would have to wait for later.
"Was there anything of use in there, Lee?" Kakashi wanted to ask him a thousand different questions, but he had to focus on their current mission.
The taijutsu specialist shook his head, "I wouldn't know. I just took them out, I didn't ask them questions."
Judging from the speed he had demonstrated when he attacked them, Kakashi figured he must not be wearing his weights, which meant that he'd likely been fighting at his full strength the whole time.
"How fast are you these days, Lee?" asked Sasuke at the back of the group.
Lee cocked his head at the question and disappeared.
"Fast enough for the time being," said Lee from behind Sasuke, causing the Uchiha to jump in surprise and spin around with a scowl on his face.
On the other side of the group Fiore barked out a laugh with her hands at her hips, "Haha, that was brilliant! Do it again!"
Sasuke glared at his partner and attempted to will her to explode while Kakashi walked up to Lee with an impressed look on his face.
"You must be faster than last time, particularly without your weights on."
Lee frowned and indicated to the leg warmers on his green spandex. "What are you talking about? I still have my weights on."
"Bullshit. No way you are that fast without taking them off," said Sasuke stubbornly.
With an uncharacteristic smirk, Lee shrugged and put his hands on his side, "I can't take them off anymore. I can't react quick enough to keep up with my body. I keep falling onto my face."
For a few seconds Sasuke just stared at him, until he rolled his eyes with a scoff and turned back to the rest of the group. "What's next?" he asked to their Senju leader.
"Nice to see you haven't changed, Sasuke-kun," said Lee with a smile.
Jito considered the situation for a moment before turning to the others, "You four, look through the bodies to see if there is anything we can use. I want to speak to Lee for a moment."
Kakashi and Konan both nodded and leapt down towards the complex, while Sasuke and Fiore ambled down with little evidence of any motivation.
As they left Lee watched them with a calculating gaze before turning to Jito and offering him a hand, "It is good to see you, Jito-san, it truly is."
The old Senju shinobi took his hand gladly; he owed Lee his life from two years ago. "What are you really doing here, Lee? Still looking for your friends?"
Lee shook his head, "No, I found who I was looking for. I think you know why I am here, though. We discussed the idea before."
"Ah, that. You are taking the one man army idea to an extreme, don't you think?"
"As you said before, I alone have the ability to do this. Every Quiraji that I take out here, every soldier that doesn't make it to Suna or the other villages, is one more that my friends don't have to fight. I have a duty to keep them safe."
Jito smiled slowly, he had matured nicely from the boy who had wrenched himself out of the Quiraji stronghold. "Would you like to join us, Lee? We could certainly use your help."
"It would be my pleasure! I look forward to working with you!" Lee's serious expression almost immediately shifted to overexcitement, which was pretty jarring to see from Jito's position.
In response Jito simply grinned and indicated to the battlefield behind them, "Let's join them, shall we?"
Lee put out a hand to stop him however; there was something that bothered him and he turned serious at the thought. "I have a question that needs answering, Jito. Why are you working with a member of the Akatsuki? Why is Kakashi-sensei so trusting of someone from that organisation?"
"I do not know, you would have to ask him," replied Jito. "Do you have a problem with the Akatsuki?" The Senju shinobi didn't know too much about that organisation beyond what Kakashi had briefly told him, his focus had purely been on the Quiraji. Shinobi killing shinobi hadn't been his problem at the time.
"One of their number was the one that killed my teacher. While the perpetrator may be dead, I cannot forgive the Akatsuki." Lee's eyes focused slightly as he remembered that time.
"So you still hold that grudge, Lee." A clone of Kakashi appeared from behind a nearby tree, walking towards the two of them with his hands in his pockets.
"I have no interest in forgiving the Akatsuki, Kakashi-sensei," said Lee with an angry stare. "And neither should you. They killed Gai-sensei!"
"That wasn't Konan, and you know that. I know Gai was like a father to you, but he taught you better than that. If you have a grudge, so be it. But I warn you, do not attack her. I will intervene before you do so."
Lee stared at him for a moment, "I would not attack her like that! All I am expressing is disquiet to working with her. That is all."
The clone of Kakashi frowned, he understood Lee's position but he hadn't expected such maturity from him.
They all must have grown up without us noticing.
He sighed and ran a hand through his silver hair, "I wonder if the others grew up as much as you have…"
Lee's expression changed back to his usual smiling self, "Oh, most definitely. Once our business here is concluded I'm sure Sakura-san and the others would love to see you again."
"Sakura is alive?! What about the others?!" Kakashi's clone nearly stumbled as he tried to get Lee to tell him about the others. Having been primarily occupied fighting his rebellion; Sasuke hadn't had any information on the others from Konoha.
"Of course! Not just Sakura either. Shikamaru, Ino, Kiba are also alive and well."
Kakashi's clone sighed in relief, since finding Sasuke he had held onto hope that others had survived as well. "What about Naruto? Is he okay?"
"I'm sorry, I don't know. I haven't heard anything about Naruto-kun or Hinata-san."
The three of them turned as they saw the others returning from the complex. Kakashi stared at his clone for a moment, and once it dispersed a wide smile grew across his face.
"What is it?" asked Konan, noticing the rapid shift in expression.
Kakashi shook himself out of it, looking over to her, "I'll tell you about it later."
"Did you find anything?" asked Jito, though he suspected he already knew the answer.
The four of them shook their heads, though they hadn't searched for long it had quickly become clear that they wouldn't find anything concrete to use. Sasuke and Fiore had rifled through the bodies trying to get an understanding of who they were fighting against, but beyond finding several converted Mist shinobi and some unusual weapons they were completely clean.
It was strange though that they didn't find any personal effects on them either, and that fact bothered Sasuke more than he thought it would. Even before the village was destroyed, he had worn his Uchiha regalia with pride, yet these Quiraji soldiers were more like drones, with no real personality driving them.
"No documents, maps or anything that can tell us where we need to go," said Kakashi with a sigh. "If they were receiving orders, they must have gotten them orally from a commander."
Beside Jito, Lee nodded with his arms crossed, "That's how the Quiraji do it. Their command structure is designed so that their leaders can manipulate the soldiers to the most basic level."
"So we are back to square one then?" asked Fiore, doing her best not to stare at Lee's ridiculous-looking eyebrows.
Jito stared out over the complex; he'd been hoping to find some kind of lead in such a place. He was extremely grateful that they had found Lee, he hadn't accounted for that, but having another fighter meant nothing if they couldn't find their target.
"I guess we have to keep looking. I want to spend as little time in here as possible."
"That's wise," said Lee. "Their hunter squads are particularly vicious, once they get on your trail."
"Speaking from experience?" asked Sasuke with a smirk.
"I am, Sasuke. It hasn't been easy living in here." He turned to Jito with a raised eyebrow, "What are you looking for, out of curiosity?"
"The place where the converted shinobi are processed. We want to take it out, and maybe even one of the Quiraji commanders in the process."
Lee's eyes unfocused for a few moments before he reached into his flak jacket and produced a small notepad. Flicking through the pages he let out a grunt of approval when he reached the page he was looking for. He snapped the notepad shut and put it back into his flak jacket.
"I know where that is. I'll take you there; it isn't too far from here."
Several of the group eyed him with suspicion, while Jito smiled and clapped him on the shoulder, "You are a lifesaver, Lee. With your help, I'm sure we can stop this threat."
"How do you know of this?" asked Kakashi.
"I've been working in here for two years, Kakashi-sensei. It's a major hub of their operations."
"Well that works out perfectly," said Jito. "If we can take that facility out, that will be a serious blow to the Quiraji army. We might even be able to turn the tide if we do this."
"I have one condition," said Lee seriously. "If there is a red haired woman with evil-looking eyes, she is mine alone to fight."
"Sensou…" Jito remembered exactly who Lee was talking about, but by the tone in his voice it wasn't just because of the torture she had done to him. There was a pain in his voice, and an unquenchable anger too. "Why do you want to fight her yourself? She's far too dangerous to face alone."
Lee's eyes betrayed some of his motivation, but he covered it up quickly as he stared at his Senju ally. "My reasons are my own, but that is my condition. Do you accept?"
Jito wasn't sure whether he'd be in a position to argue with the taijutsu specialist, so he simply nodded and indicated for Lee to show them the way.
Tapping his shoulders before cracking his neck, Lee pointed to a small section of forest far off into the horizon, "The facility is a ways through that way, and there shouldn't be too many patrols just yet. If we move quickly then we might be able to get there before nightfall."
He turned to make sure everyone understood, before turning back and vanishing in a single movement. Both Fiore and Konan groaned while Kakashi merely chuckled at Lee's enthusiasm.
"Doesn't he realise we aren't that fast?" grumbled Sasuke as they jumped off the ravine to follow him. "I swear he's only gotten more eccentric…"
Author's Note:
I don't really have much to say about this chapter, except that it should be clear what the next chapter will be about. If there is still some confusion as to the Senju situation, please let me know, since I wanted to try to convey that clearly, while still letting you guys form your own opinions about the matter.
Please review and tell me what you think. I try to take each review into account, and believe me I read them all. Tell me what can be improved, what you liked, what you didn't, everything. I'm a writer so I'm always open to criticism.