September 10th
The room was full with the leading figures of the village, men and women sitting around the large wooden table, all failing at concealing the rising tension each was feeling. Tsunade sat at the far edge of the table, facing her assembly made of clan leaders and top ranked jounin and ANBU Captains. Naruto stood behind her, as well as Shikamaru and his assistant, a young chunin boy barely sixteen with a huge pair of glasses that made his eyes look impossibly huge. On the other side of the room stood the few jonins and ANBU leaders that had been summoned to this meeting. The clans head were mostly silent, sometimes nodding at each other in polite courtesy or exchanging glances that spoke louder than words, checking their alliances and enemies before the meeting officially started.
Standing with his fellows ANBUs, Kakashi felt as an uncomfortable weight settling low in this stomach, the scene unfolding in front of him a sad replay of what he had experienced one too many times. And it was about to start again, and he couldn't help but let his lone eye wander on the faces of the meeting's participants, wondering if they would all get to survive what was to come. But he already knew the answer to that. Who would remain then, this time? Had his own call come to leave this world? He acknowledged the thought with the calmness of someone who had to constantly leave with it and with the rationality that all his years on the battlefield brought him. Yet, nothing was quite like war, he knew, and with each war that forced itself on his path, he felt his chances to see another day rise dangerously slim down. But amongst all his rambling thoughts, what worried him the most was the fate of his ex-students, the closest thing he had to a family. Is it really going to turn into a war?
Tsunade cleared her throat lightly, and all heads turned to her in a motion so smooth, one could have thought they had rehearsed it beforehand. It was almost comical. Almost.
"According to our latest reports," she began, voice clear and full of the authority of someone used to lead, "the numbers of civilians and ninjas who have fallen victims to the Syndicate in the last few weeks have dramatically increased. The syndicate members keep moving south, wandering every day further from their strongholds behind the border. In a word, they're getting bolder. With each passing day, new refugees travel to the fortified cities, in hopes of escaping the advance of the thieves and murderers. Until recently, they mostly killed ninjas that tried to interfere with their business, but we have intelligence telling they have started to randomly killed civilians, who pose them no threat to begin with. It's as if this whole thing is a game to them," she finished her voice holding an angry edge that did not go unnoticed by her silent public.
"Some of you here wish for a direct attack on Earth," she went on, "hoping to eradicate the syndicate and finally, after months and months of trouble, murders, and mysterious disappearances, have a safe border and routes that are secure for travel." She paused, locking her eyes with some of the clan heads sitting in front of her, her hazel eyes severe and unwavering. "I understand that some of you have suffered painful losses at the hand of these bandits and rogue ninjas, and I know Konoha has lost too many valuable ninjas recently while we're at peace with other nations, but let me emphasize this: an open conflict is not the solution. Violating Earth authorities' rule over their own nation will be seen as an attempt of taking over a smaller nation."
"They should have reigned in the trouble themselves," spat an old man with grey hair, the head of the Suga clan. "Earth is guilty of letting the situation escalate. We have a legitimate right to intervene," he spat angrily and few people in the room nodded their ascent. "If they do not manage to rule their own country and get rid of the rampant corruption and this damned syndicate, then Konoha has to do it, it's as simple as that!"
Stern faces and calculating glances followed his outburst.
"Maybe we should wait some more," intervened Hiashi, the head of the Hyuuga clan, crossing his arms in front of his chest, translucent eyes turned toward the Hokage. "It is too soon to declare a war given the current situation. An open conflict will bring more trouble than any of us can imagine, and once we start it, it will be out of anyone's control." He paused, the attention of his audience hanging on his next words: "Let ANBU and jounin platoons try to put an end to it and secure the border. Give them time."
"We gave them time," said the head of the Taka clan. "And the situation only worsened. It is time to take more drastic decisions! Waiting is for the cowards," he spat. "I lost my grand-daughter," he went on, a sad expression veiling his features, "who had just passed her chunin exam and was on a regular escort mission. These rats from the syndicate annihilated her team, only her jounin teacher made it out alive, barely I might add, and is now too damaged, both mentally and physically, to be cleared for active duty! Is it what you waiters are waiting for? Do you need more broken teams and dead ninjas to finally be able to take a decision?!"
About a half of the assembly nodded their support to his declarations. Kakashi felt how the weight settling on his stomach became heavier and heavier with each passing second, and was once more happy for the mask hiding his face, for he was sure he wouldn't have been able to hide how his face had paled at the mention of the teacher who had failed to protect his team… his main fear.
September 15th
Walking down the underground ANBU compound, Sakura was on her way to meeting her ANBU team, her hurried steps blessed with the grace of a ninja of her caliber only lightly hitting the floor. After having changed rapidly in an almost empty locker room, she headed for her meeting point. Room 093. On her arrival, she noticed that two of her teammates were already there. One was nonchalantly sitting on the corner of the table at the center of the room while the other was gazing at an information board hanged next to the door she had just walked through.
"Morning Pinky."
"Ashai," she nodded.
Mei didn't bother to greet her, still absorbed in reading what was on the information board. The tall kunoichi rarely engaged in small talk with them, but Sakura liked working with her all the same. At thirty, the brown-haired woman was one of the few kunoichis her age still on active ANBU duty in an elite squad largely dominated by men. She must have been pretty, thought Sakura while watching her profile, but her face was now marred with two ugly scars, two long lines cutting across her forehead and her left cheekbone. These marks probably made her look scary for the civilian passerby, but for an ANBU it was a mark of prestige, one that meant survival. Her long brown locks had been cut short after their last mission, giving her an odd look that the pinkette had yet to get used to.
Her other teammate, Ashai, was an arrogant jerk who believed himself to be so much better than he actually was. Yet, as a ninja, his speed was a force to be reckoned with. She sometimes believed he could even rival her annoyingly strong old teammates in that one area, when she wasn't busy planning ways to make him disappear of the surface of this earth. His eyes were too tiny for his face, and the constant expression of bitterness shining in them made him look like an angry snake ready to bite.
It wasn't long before their Captain stepped in the room. Shinji Nakahara. Thirty-four, active in ANBU for seven years, five of which as a Captain… and her current nightmare.
September 19th
Kakashi sighed as he read the scroll one of the ANBU underlings had just given him. It was late, well passed midnight, and the ANBU compound was mostly empty. He wasn't really supposed to get access to that kind of information, since it didn't directly concern his team, but something about Sakura's attitude lately was deeply bothering him and he had to see for himself if there were proofs behind his suspicions. It was true that Sakura had been a shadow of herself. He hadn't failed to notice her growing depression that she tried to hide behind a professional demeanor, polite smiles and curt nods. But she hadn't fooled him. She hadn't fooled any of the Team 7 members.
While he had thought her behavior was mostly due to the complexities of her relationship with Sasuke – or up until recently, rather the absence of such a relationship - and her own struggles as a young woman with growing responsibilities, he had noticed a dramatic change ever since she had joined ANBU. She had become thinner, to the point that it made her look somewhat sick. As a medic, she knew how to hide it and maintain herself on the thin edge between worryingly thin and healthy, but the dark bags under her eyes and the signs of exhaustion of her body often betrayed her best efforts. And what worried him most, were the wounds she failed to heal and scars she didn't bother concealing. As a medic of her talent, such issues could be easily dealt with, but it was as if she deliberately left them out for the world to see. Or maybe she was doing this to punish herself in a twisted way, letting her body endure the pain her mind could no longer deal with… He was just guessing there as he possibly couldn't have a clear grasp of the thoughts of his twenty-two year old ex female student. But if he had learnt something while working most of his career in the elite squad, was that the inner demons and fears of comrades were often worse than what one pictured them to be.
He could go and talk to her of course. Try to confront her and get some answers, but his instincts told him he would fail at breaking the young woman's barriers. He hoped that the recent developements of her relationship with the brooding Uchiha would shake her out of her depression, but part of him doubted it. From what he had understood, Sasuke and Sakura might have had something, but whatever that something might have been, she had gone back to hiding herself and avoiding him. Not that it was surprising given their history and their mistrust of each other. And to think he was cheering for them to become an item... How naive I am, he mentally sighed.
He went on with his reading. The ANBU Team Captain she had been assigned to, Shinji Nakahara, was renowned, aside for his deadly talents on the field, for having fists of anger that often put a strain on the people he worked with. Sakura had been assigned to his team after they had lost a member, a young kunoichi barely twenty years old, a Hyuuga if he remembered correctly. Sakura hadn't been the best fit for a replacement but since Tsunade had thought it might be better for her to not work directly with the two remaining Team 7 members in ANBU – him and Sasuke – the pink-haired female had landed there. He had promised himself that he would keep an eye on her, but there were things even he could not see, and he felt like he was missing out on something big here…
