Chapter 13: Liberation
When they got back to Tazuna's house, it was to find a very worried Naruto waiting on the porch for them. His dishevelled clothing suggested that he had been training, but the map spread out on the floor meant that he had been distracted by other clones popping.
"Sasuke, Sensei! You're okay." Naruto jumped to his feet, his eyes scanning both of their bodies for injuries.
"Ma, such a worry wort." Kakashi waved him off.
"How's your map going?" Sasuke questioned before Naruto could shout at Kakashi for dismissing his concerns. He'd likely been very hyped up and concerned since the moment his clone had popped, especially since he had been the only member of their team to actually face Zabuza and he knew the sort of speed and deadliness the sword user used. Sasuke would suggest some training with Naruto that night so he could work off his worry – sometimes sitting on the side-lines can be more stressful then actually taking part in a fight to the death.
"Oh, um… well… we might have a problem?" Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Tell me what you know." Kakashi requested, coming to lean against the wall in a position that allowed him to see the map Naruto was working on, while Sasuke came and sat on the porch steps.
"Well, while I was searching the Island, I looked into the food situation because the old-man said that people were starving. There are four different farms on the island, and each of them are being heavily guarded by Gato's people so that no one else has access to the harvest. All the fishing boats are all anchored and under guard so no one can go out fishing. People are skeleton thin and starving, there are children sleeping out on the streets and the adults just aren't in any position to help them, cause they're just as starved." Naruto was frowning, clearly unhappy about the situation.
Sasuke remained quite as she watched her team mate. She wasn't entirely sure what his life had been like, but she did know that Ichiraku Ramen was the only restaurant where he could be consistently served food and that the grocers would over charge him if they served him at all. Faced with the prejudice of the village, it was not against the realm of personability that he had experience with starvation, or even living on the streets.
"From what I was able to overhear, they lose around three or five people every day to starvation. There are only six elders left, and the population of children has already been halved." Naruto emphasised how bad it was for the people.
"Did you manage to get eyes on Gato and the rest of his thugs?" Kakashi questioned without letting his opinions on the matter show.
"I found two large bases but there are always thugs patrolling through the villages to maintain control." Naruto pointed to two different points on the map. "The one closer to the port is where Gato is and is in a manor house. I've snuck in some clones to map the place and see where the people sleep and what they're doing in there. The second base is in a manmade clearing and consisted mostly of tents and three newly built cabins – although one of those is a bathroom."
Kakashi hummed thoughtfully. "Numbers?"
"Base two has around four hundred. The first base has seven hundred. And then there is another thirty or forty people patrolling." Naruto wrote numbers over where he had said there was a base, before writing the number of guards typically found in each of the five 'villages' on the island.
"So, around a thousand two hundred thugs." Kakashi narrowed his visible eye as he thought over their situation. "We need to tread carefully here. I can handle that number of thugs, but you will be overwhelmed by such a large number. And we don't want to make the situation worse by ending up with a hostage situation."
"How long do think before Gato decides that he isn't going to wait for Zabuza to return?" Sasuke questioned. Once Gato stopped waiting, they would have to be prepared to act whether their backup turned up or not.
"Optimistically, three days." Kakashi answered. "Naruto, continue sending out clones to gather information. You hear or see anything; you tell me immediately. I will also be doing recon, so that we can come up with an informed plan."
"Of course, sensei." Naruto agreed immediately. Creating another series of clones to send out, although he had one of them dispel in order to convey the meeting to the clones that were already out and about.
Over the next few days, when they weren't at the bridge, they were training. Kakashi would leave a clone at the house to train whichever combination of the two that was left there, while the other student would accompany the real Kakashi to the bridge. He was focusing on improving Sakura's throwing and stamina since they didn't have time to work on her strength, and also putting her through dodging exercises. For Naruto, he was putting him through intense training with both his taijutsu and Kenjutsu to make sure he could use both in battle alongside his clones – pounding tactics into his skull alongside his skills. For Sasuke, he worked on improving his speed as well as putting him in combat against Naruto so she could learn how to properly fight more than one opponent and keep her reflexes sharp.
Each night, after Naruto had given the report of what his clones had found, Kakashi would disappear, returning only when at the end of the first watch (which was typically the one that Sasuke took). He didn't tell them what he was doing, or what he had discovered. He properly wouldn't tell them until he had come up with a plan to deal with the situation – if the thugs had all been in one base, he would have killed them all by now, but because they were split up such wasn't an effective plan.
Five days after they took out Zabuza, Kakashi finally had enough waiting. The Chunin back up should have already arrived by then since it only took just over a day to get to Wave at full speed – which they should have been moving at once Kakashi's message made it to Konoha half a day after he sent it. Naruto had overheard a conversation that Gato had with one of his 'middle men' about hiring a team of five from Iwa which included two Jonins and three Chunins. A team which they wouldn't be able to beat even if Kakashi took on the two jonin on his own because it would leave each of the three genin facing a chunin each which Sakura wasn't ready for and there was a chance that Naruto's lack of experience would act against him. Sasuke had a chance of taking down one chunin on his own, as he had already proven, but if he was worried about protecting his friends and helping them fight their opponents then he might fall as well.
"We take down Gato and his organisation, tonight." Kakashi announced solemnly after ordering Tazuna home early and corralling his genin into the room they had been given.
"What do you need us to do?" Sasuke asked simple, without hesitation. He unpacked all the weapon's he had brought and began checking them over to make sure that they were combat ready – even the back-up one that he had packed but not had use of during their training, and the ones he had taken from Haku. That was the thing Kakashi liked about Sasuke, he got straight to the point.
"Sasuke, did you pack any poison?" Kakashi questioned.
"I've got a vial of paralytic. And a small amount of belladonna-based poison which I can coat my senbon with, but I didn't want to start building a poison immunity without supervision. Which means I don't carry many poisons with me, just the two which I also have an antidote for." Sasuke answered simple, pulling the large vial of paralytic from a storage scroll, along with a smaller vial with deadly poison.
"Hmm." Kakashi hummed thoughtfully. He didn't carry poison with him unless he was working for ANBU, at which point he carried a single vial of very deadly poison which he sometimes coated his weapons with. But against a large number of enemies, poison was the genin's best bet.
"Okay, Sasuke you will be taking your paralytic and going to base camp two. Introduce it to their water supply. Anyone you don't catch, take out. Then you are to go to this village," he unrolled the map Naruto had been updating and pointing to the village closest to the base camp.
"Hai, Sensei." Sasuke nodded solemnly, continue to go through his supplies and repacking them. Although, he dipped an entire pack of senbon in the deadly poison he was carrying and they were secured to his thigh.
"Naruto, you will be making four groups of clones. Group A, which will be forty of you, will go with Sakura and liberate this village." He tapped the village which had only fifteen thugs, most of which were guarding the crops that were planted by it. "Group B, of which there will be fifty clones and yourself, will be taking out the thugs in this village. Make sure to take out the ones in the hall first." He tapped the second largest village where the majority of the nobles used to live and their yearly fate used to be done. "Finally, you will send twenty clones with one of my own clones to the fishing village. I will be taking out the manor myself, but our clones will round up any thugs which are loitering, making sure they don't make a last-ditch effort to take the civilians or destroy the boats."
"We won't let you down sensei." Naruto raised his chin proudly.
"We will free the people." Sakura agreed, even if she wasn't completely confident that she could kill someone.
"Sakura, fight at a distance. Don't engage in close combat unless you have no choice. Naruto, fight smart. We don't want your clones dispelling as we clear out the villages." Kakashi warned.
"Of course, sensei." Naruto and Sakura nodded their acknowledge.
"We leave once the sun goes down. Prepare yourselves. You will kill tonight, and you cannot hesitate because it could mean the death of an innocent. Sasuke, you will need to head out immediately in order to drug the water supply." Kakashi looked seriously over his three genin, worry in his eyes.
It was common for genin team to 'cut their teeth' by taking out any bandit problems which had popped up in fire country, but it wasn't something that was typically done in their first month as genin. Sasuke had already had to kill twice, but he would be doing something completely different by assassinating those he had rendered helpless. If Sasuke couldn't handle it, he would have to go to the second base himself and take out those he had paralysis before the poison wore off and they could cause trouble. Naruto didn't have a personality which would allow him to take a life easily, which meant if he didn't freeze in his task, he was going to be facing quite a lot of trauma – especially since he would have quite a high kill count because of his clones. Sakura, he had no idea how Sakura was going to handle this, but she was the most typical of all his genins so he was hopeful that she would handle it the same way as the majority of the forces did.
Either way, he would be booking all of his genin in for a psychological evaluation when they got ack to Konoha – this had happened to soon in their careers and they also had to deal with the knowledge that they had been abandoned by their comrades; his little students weren't stupid, they knew that it shouldn't have taken this long for reinforcements to reach them. Although, he wasn't sure if Naruto and Sakura had truly realised what that meant yet, even if he knew that Sasuke had realised the truth since he had been glaring angrily in the direction of Konoha.
"We will be meeting here? Or the manor house, sensei?" Sasuke question, getting up as she put the last Kunai away.
"Meet here." Kakashi ordered. "I don't want you to deal with the people. The moment you've completed your mission, return. Naruto, leave ten clones to guard Tazuna and his family."
Sasuke nodded solemnly now she had all the information she needed to complete her mission and meet back up with the team. She grasped Naruto's shoulder in a reassuring gesture, nodding once to Sakura before she left to get into position.
When she had been a solider, Jane had never been given an assignation mission, although she had killed a few soldiers during rescue missions; soldiers, who had been armed and who would have killed her had they the chance, but who didn't have the chance to fight back. During her time as Jane, she had a confirmed kill count of thirty-two, although it was possible that some of the enemy soldiers she had injured died from their wounds. In the last week, she had already killed two men – one off whom was still a child – but she was about to kill more than four hundred men. She could just paralysis them and allow Kakashi to take that burden, simple taking out the ones in the village who could fight back, but her paralysis only works for five minutes on a typical adult which meant that the thugs would be up and running before Kakashi would be able to deal with them. And four hundred men could do a lot of damage to the village, since they would know they had been attacked.
She couldn't allow that.
Every man in this base was guilty of rape, murder and terrorism. They had subjugated an entire people, forcing them to live in fear and poverty, with children starving to death in the streets. Her morals wouldn't allow her to walk away when there were innocent people who needed her, innocent people who couldn't fight back.
It was a simple matter of cloaking herself in the camouflage genjutsu, a handy technique that she had discovered while going through Shisui's notes, so that she could sneak past the guards and into the camp. There were four large tubs of water which had been cleaned and purified, prepared for each day, which the men drank from. Carefully, Sasuke loosened the top of each of the tubs and put ten drops of the paralytic agent within before tightening the lid. Once the poison had been introduced to each of them, she headed to the tree line in order to hide and wait for the effects to begin to show.
It was half an hour after she drugged the water that cups were pasted around with their dinner meal. Within seconds, more than half the camp had succumb to the paralytic. Seeing no better chance, Sasuke started launching senbon in rapid succession at vital points.
When she ran out of senbon, Sasuke left her hiding place in the trees and engage the thugs in battle with her kunai. They had recovered from the surprise of her sudden attack, and tried charging her, but it was clear that these men weren't used to fighting as a group and regularly got in each other's way as she span and darted around them with deadly precision. In under three minutes, anyone who hadn't been paralysed was dead, which allowed her to go among those who were still alive and slit their throats in a painless death.
Before moving on to the village, Sasuke collected her senbon – not bothering to clean them but unwilling to leave so many of her supplies behind. She also freed the group of women that were being kept for 'entertainment'. Directing the woman to the fishing village – which would be where they could get medical attention – Sasuke headed out to complete her second task. Unwilling to think about her actions until her mission was done.
In comparison to the base, the thugs in the village were easy to take down. Once she'd killed the first three, the other fifteen came running at her angrily. Not all of her blows were quick killing blows, but they were all incapacitating blows – the men of the village came out and killed those who lay on the floor unable to fight back.
Nodding once to the people, Sasuke disappeared into the mist – heading back to the house at a run.
Sasuke was the first to complete her task, sneaking past Naruto's clones she headed to the shower so she could get the blood off her person. Her clothes were relatively easy to clean, using the soap that she had prepacked, she had the blood out of the fabric quite quickly because the blood was still wet. With her clothes hanging from the sink, and her weapons in a pile waiting for her to deal with, she turned her attention to cleaning her body. It wasn't until she was washing the blood out of her hair that what she had done caught up with her and she ended up being sick.
Four hundred and eighteen lives, which brings her kill count to four hundred and twenty within her first month of being a ninja – on her first mission no less. A hundred and thirty-three of those lives had been men she had paralysed, unable to defend themselves as she took their lives. She was twelve! She shouldn't have such a burden already. The burden of being responsible for taking the lives of others, for deciding that they will not live to see another day.
At what was worse, she didn't even feel guilty for having taken so many lives. She was upset that she had to do it, guilty that there wasn't another way, but this was the world she lived in. A world where it was killed or be killed, or watch those unable to fight be killed. This was the life she had chosen to pursue, and those were the consequences. Her kill count was going to get very big over the cause of her career, especially since she was a mercenary now. But she needed to come to terms with it, find a way of coping. Jane's commander had recommended a hobby to balance the deaths she dealt with daily. Sasuke already gardened, but with the rate of deaths she was going to cause, she needed to give something else. Plants gave her means of creating and maintaining life, but she needed another outlet – perhaps a creative one? One which allowed her to give to the world and express her emotions? Art, or pottery, perhaps. Aika had been a renowned artist from the Uchiha family, using her Sharingan eye to capture beautiful and tragic images in order to cope with the traumas of which had ended her career.
Once her emotional reaction had passed and she had gotten control of herself, Sasuke finished her shower before getting changed into her spare mission clothes. She took her clothes back to the room they shared and hung it up to dry, grabbing her cleaning kit from her mission bag and heading out to the porch to work on cleaning them.
"AHHH" Tsunami cried in shock as she was passing through the kitchen.
"I apologise for startling you, Tsunami-san." Sasuke bowed formally, glancing to the Naruto clone who burst into the room. "It's fine Naruto, Tsunami wasn't expecting me to turn up. You can dispel, I'll guard the house."
"Nah, we're fine. We will wait for Boss to come back. We'll run the perimeter." The Naruto clone smiled brightly before heading back out.
"Tsunami-san, I'll be outside if you have need of me." Sasuke bowed, before heading out. She settled at the point of the porch over the water so she could use the water to clean her weapons before drying, sharpening and polishing them.
"Sasuke!" a pale Sakura was the next to return. She had a couple of blood splatters on her clothes, but it seemed she had managed to avoid close combat. The two Naruto clones who had been escorting Sakura dispelled when they spotted Sasuke.
"Sakura, go, have a shower and get some rest. I'll wake you when Kakashi comes back." Sasuke offered s compassionate look to her traumatised team mate.
"I… I don't think I can…" Sakura stuttered, tears forming in her eyes.
"Go, shower. You'll feel better once you're clean and had some rest." Sasuke promised her. "You did well."
Sakura nodded robotically, before she followed her orders and headed into the house.
Naruto and Kakashi were the next to turn up, nearly twenty minutes later. Sasuke was half-way through her weapon supply when they emerged from the trees. Naruto had more blood splatters that Sakura, but none of the blood seemed to come from him. Kakashi had what seemed to be a comforting hand on Naruto's shoulder, but the boy was relatively composed – pale and a bit shaky, but he seemed to have pulled himself together.
"Sakura's upstairs. I've sent her to bed." Sasuke glanced between her sensei and team mate. "Is it done?"
"It is, all hostile's have been neutralised. Your mission?" Kakashi questioned.
"Complete," Sasuke confirmed.
"Naruto, why don't you go and get some sleep." Kakashi gentle pushed Naruto towards the door.
"Okay," Naruto's shoulders slumped, his normal energy lacking, as he followed Kakashi order which had been hidden as a suggestion.
"Sasuke." Kakashi folded his long limbs down into a seat next to Sasuke, his eye glancing over the pile of clean weaponry and the ones which still needed to be done.
"Sensei," Sasuke returned simple.
"You should get some sleep as well," Kakashi suggested.
"You know, Naruto and Sakura are lucky. They had to fight their opponents, and now they're too tired to really take everything in. They get to go to sleep, and when they wake, they will have had time to start coming to terms with everything." Sasuke spoke softly, continuing the repetitive actions of cleaning so she had something to focus on. "Killing an opponent who can and is fighting back is very different to killing one you have already rendered unable to fight back."
"I know." Kakashi agreed. "I never wanted you to have to deal with such so early in your career. But you know what, I am going to tell you what my sensei told me: We are ninjas, and in battle or on mission, we have to kill to protect those that can not protect themselves. I refuse to regard taking the life of a criminal, or someone who would harm or take a life without second thought, as murder; it's more like putting down a rabid animal. As long as you can feel remorse for what you have done, you haven't lost your humanity."
"Remorse?" Sasuke repeated, softly. That made her feel better, she decided. She could feel remorse about the taking of lives without feeling guilty about the same. She was a ninja; her duty was to protect her precious people and her village first. Remorse wasn't the same as guilt. Remorse she could live with without it taking chips out of her soul, the same way that guilt would have done.
"I take it you collected all of Gato's contracts so that Konoha can take control of his resources?" Sasuke changed the subject.
"Now, why would I have done that?" Kakashi questioned.
"There is a lot of money to be had in the legal trading that Gato was involved in. Konoha can always use a boost in its coffers, especially since the last war. By taking control, we don't leave a vacuum for someone else to come in and replace Gato, someone who could be worse than the him." Sasuke explained thoughtfully.
It was standard procedure when they took down someone who owned land or a company. Once they returned to Konoha, and the intelligence department had the chance to go through the paperwork, they would send someone to take over the base. Just as they would send someone to renegotiate the contract – although the payment would likely be considered 'paid' because of what they took from Gato, but it was likely that the Wave Dynamo would want to set up new contracts with Konoha – like protection and security contracts since they didn't have their own ninja force. "And we can also take over some of the illegal goods trading and use it to boost our spy network."
"Good thinking, as long as no one knows which trade roots we've taken over exactly." Kakashi nodded his agreement.
"Intelligence will be happy with us, giving them plenty of work." Sasuke muttered.
"Well, happy may not be the operative word." Kakashi hummed in amusement, pulling his book out to read.
"What are you going to do about the back-up?" Sasuke questioned once she had finished cleaning her equipment and put it away.
"Oh, I'll think of something." Kakashi giggled in a distinctly malicious way.
"Those who abandon their comrades are trash." Sasuke quote, quirking a slight smile at her sensei.