XXVII: The Storm
"What's your plan?" Kakashi asked Shikaku before using his Sharingan to cast another genjutsu on the Root member, knocking him out completely.
Shikaku walked over to the trio of children sitting in the corner, kneeling in front fo the Hyuga girl. "You're Hinata, right?"
The child was trembling, to the point that she could only answer with a nod.
"Are you able to use your Byakugan?" Shikaku asked.
Hinata nodded once more.
"Good, then I'd like to ask you to do something very important for me," Shikaku said. "Do you think you can do that?"
Hinata blushed, twiddling her fingers. "Will-will it help Naruto?"
Shikaku chuckled. "Is that what you're worried about? Yeah, it'll help Naruto, and it'll be a big help to the rest of us too."
"I'll do it," Hinata said.
"Then follow me," Shikaku said before standing and walking to the center of the room. "Inoichi, come over here."
"What do you need?" the Yamanaka Clan Head asked as joined his old teammate.
"You're telepathy can't be jammed if you're in physical contact with the receiver, right?" Shikaku asked.
"That's correct," Inoichi answered. "Though I don't see how that helps. We wouldn't need to use telepathy if we could touch anyone inside the headquarters."
Shikaku shook his head. "You're not connecting to anyone in there, you're linking two people in here." He pointed to Hinata and Kakashi.
"What's the plan then?" Kakashi asked.
"There's someone down there who's blocking Inoichi's attempts to contact the Hokage," Shikaku explained. "But with the Byakugan, we might be able to single out the person who's jamming his telepathy." He looked down at Hinata. "Do you think you can manage that?"
The young Hyuga nodded.
"Then Inoichi can communicate that information to you, Kakashi," Shikaku continued. "And you can take them out."
"Let's do it then," Kakashi said. He walked over next to Hinata, while Inoichi put a hand on each of their heads.
"Byakugan," Hinata said, activating her Kekkai Genkai.
Kakashi closed his eyes and began to see through Hinata's eyes via Inoichi. It was surreal. Like looking through a Sharingan, but sharper and more expansive in scope, with a greater level of clarity and detail. But Hinata was in the driver's seat, shifting her focus through different parts of the mob surrounding the Military Police Headquarters.
"What am I looking for?" Hinata asked.
"I'm going to reach out with my telepathy technique," Inoichi replied. "When I do, whoever it is that's stopping it down there will block it with their own jutsu. You should see their chakra flare up."
"Got it," Hinata replied.
"I'm starting," Inoichi stated and Hinata began scanning through the crowd. She stopped on one figure, the blue lights of their chakra network beginning to glow brighter.
"I think I have it," Hinata said.
"Got it," Kakashi replied, breaking away from Inoichi's touch and running out of the room.
"Wait," Hinata said. "The person standing next to them, there's...something wrong with them. It's like parts of their body don't belong to them."
Kakashi didn't hear her, he was already leaping from the roof of building, making the descent down to the mob below.
"We'll have to deal that later," Shikaku said. "You did a good job, Hinata, but I need you to stay here now, got it?"
The Hyuga girl nodded in response.
"Jun, stay here with the kids," Shikaku ordered. "Make sure they stay out of trouble."
"Yes, Sir," the Uchiha woman replied.
"Inoichi, contact Lord Hokage as soon as you can, we're going to have to make this quick," the Nara Clan Head continued. "Choza, you and I are going to do some crowd control."
The Akimichi Clan Head stood and picked up his staff. "Right, let's do this!"
Itachi was sitting in his mother's office, watching Naruto as he sat in the corner. The boy was fidgeting, shifting his weight back and forth as he sat.
"I'm sorry," Naruto said.
"Sorry?" Itachi asked. "For what?"
"For...causing all this trouble," Naruto replied. "I just wish I knew why all these people keep coming after me, you know."
Itachi sighed as he heard this. He could understand Naruto's pain. He was just a kid, he shouldn't have to suffer through this. But there was no changing the fact that Naruto was a Jinchuriki, and that meant something. As much as Danzo was wrong on so many things, he was right about one. Naruto couldn't be treated like a normal kid. But that wasn't the same thing as treating him like a monster or weapon.
"Listen, Naruto," Itachi said. "You don't have to be sorry. We're all doing this because we want to."
The Uzamaki boy looked up at the Uchiha Clan Head, surprised to hear him say that. "But-"
"Besides," Itachi interrupted, "if you really are sorry, the best way for you to apologize is to become stronger, so that we can rely on you instead of the other way around."
Naruto paused, taking in Itachi's words. Then he smiled. "That goes without saying. I've got to become strong if I'm going to be Hokage, you know!"
Itachi regarded the grinning boy before him for a moment. "Very well, then. I'll be watching you."
The sound of the door opening caught Itachi's attention, however. The Hokage was standing at the threshold.
"Something happened?" Itachi asked.
The Hokage nodded in response.
"I need to go, Naruto," Itachi said as he stood. "Stay here," he added before walking out of the office.
"Did something happen?" he asked once the door was closed behind him.
"Yes," the Hokage answered. "Inoichi has contacted me. Now is the time we confront Danzo."
"What about Naruto?" Itachi questioned.
"Your mother will stay here to protect him," the Hokage said, glancing over to where Mikoto was waiting, leaning against a nearby wall.
"Let's go then," Itachi replied.
The Hokage nodded and turned to walk out the front entrance of the Military Police Headquarters. Itachi followed, the pair approaching the doors that were, at this moment, being held shut by members of the Military Police as civilians from the mob outside were trying to pry them open.
"You can stop now," the Hokage said in a reassuring, almost fatherly tone. The police men stopped, turning at the Hokage in surprise. The village leader walked past them, opening the door to the outside and stepping through the crowd of civilians as they parted before him. Itachi followed, looking at the faces of the mob around him, all shocked to see the Hokage walk out under his own power. The small crowd parted to reveal Danzo standing in the midst of a sea of Root members, separating the civilians who had managed to get through to the front door from those who still stood around the outer perimeter.
"Your man has killed my favorite Yamanaka, Hiruzen, it's not going to be easy to replace him," Danzo said, gesturing to Kakashi, who stood nearby with his hand through a Root member's chest, no doubt having pierced it with his Lightning Blade.
"Enough of this, Danzo," the Hokage ordered. "Stand down and surrender, or I will be forced to deal with you myself."
Danzo stood silent for a moment before he started yelling. "The Hokage is not himself, the Uchiha must have cast a genjutsu on him! Men, stop the Hokage before the Uchiha use him to take over the village!"
All at once the Root members surrounding Danzo, probably counting around two dozen, began charging at the Hokage. Itachi glanced behind at the civilians who had been trying to force their way into the headquarters. They exchanged confused and uncertain looks with each other in light of the situation unfolding in front of them.
"Lord Hokage!" Itachi yelled. "We need to move!"
The Professor smiled in response. "No need for that yet."
Suddenly Choza Akimichi appeared overhead, standing several stories tall and towering over the surrounding buildings. He held out his arm, casting a great shadow over the area. Then the shadow turned a solid black and tendrils of darkness began to uncoil from within it.
"What is this?" Itachi asked as the tendrils began wrapping themselves around the different Root members, lifting them up and pulling them away.
"An Ino-Shika-Cho combination," the Hokage explained. "Using Choza's massive shadow as a base, Shikaku extends the range of his techniques while Inoichi uses his sensory and telepathic abilities to allow them to target enemies that would otherwise be out their line of sight. The village is stronger than the sum of its clans, and the Ino-Shika-Cho is an excellent example of that."
Soon the area was cleared of the Root members, who were pinned down by solid shadows that doubled as a barrier to keep the mob at bay.
The Hokage turned to the civilians standing by the door. He smiled at them, a warm expression, like a kind grandfather. "Please, go inside. The police will look after you." Looking at the village leader with awestruck expressions, the civilians began to file into the headquarters, ushered in by the Uchiha clan members who only recently were barricading the doors against them. Now only Danzo, Kakashi, Itachi, and the Hokage were standing in front of the headquarters.
"It appears that I need to even the odds a bit," Danzo commented before taking off with the Body Flicker Technique. He was fast, but not as quick as Shisui. Itachi barely tracked him with his Sharingan.
"Kakashi, look out!" the Uchiha yelled.
The Copy Ninja turned, igniting a Lightning Blade as Danzo bore down on him.
"Too slow," the Root leader commented, forming a sword of wind chakra around a kunai. The moment it came into contact with the Lightning Blade Kakashi's jutsu was dissipated in the face of its elemental weakness. The ANBU member twisted out of the way of the strike before leaping backwards to land beside Itachi and the Hokage.
"Are you alright?" Itachi asked his mentor.
"Yeah," Kakashi answered, even as blood dripped down his arm and off the tips of his fingers. "It's a good thing I had the Sharingan, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to dodge the worst of it. Probably would have lost my arm. Though, I can't say that I expected him to have a Sharingan of his own."
Danzo glared at the Hokage and the two ANBU members, that red eye peering at them from between the bandages that normally covered it.
"Did you kill Kagami back then, Danzo?" the Hokage asked.
"No," the Root leader answered. "But I decided that the power of his eyes was still needed, so I took one of them from his corpse. Like everything I do, it was for the sake of the village."
Sarutobi frowned in response. "What makes you think that desecrating the bodies of dear friends in necessary for the village?"
"You wouldn't understand, Hiruzen," Danzo replied. "You've always been naturally gifted, someone who earned the title 'God of Shinobi' almost as a matter of course. But for the rest of us it is necessary to find strength from whatever source we can. Besides, one of your favorite ANBU is no different from me."
A pained expression found a home on the Hokage's face. "That situation was different and you know it. He received it as a parting gift from a dying comrade, he did not steal it from a friend whose body had already gone cold. You've always been one to go too far, Danzo, and I spent too long letting you do so. But that stops now." The Professor pulled off his Hokage robes, revealing the Military Police armor he was wearing underneath. "I am ending this, Danzo!"
The Root leader pulled one of his arms from his robes, revealing a number of metal braces inscribed with seals. "It is time to show the lengths I have gone to match you, Hiruzen," he said as he started undoing the bolts on the braces, letting them fall to the ground with heavy clangs.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" the Hokage yelled, two copies of him appearing in puffs of smoke before running to wider positions on either side of him.
"Water Style: Cutting Current!" the original yelled before an intense, concentrated stream of water burst forth from his mouth.
"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" Danzo responded, creating an earthen barrier to block the water attack.
The Hokage performed a quick series of hand signs as he continued his water jutsu, causing a burst of electricity to run through it and destroy the Mud Wall on the other end. Danzo blocked the now unimpeded attack with his hand, unable to move.
The two shadow clones, now in their positions, began performing a series of identical handsigns. "Earth Style: Great Barrier Jutsu!" they both yelled before slamming their hands on the ground. Massive walls of earth sprung up from them, curving to meet each other on the other side of Danzo, surrounding him on three sides.
The original paused his water jutsu and the clones began preparing their own techniques.
"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!" the one to the Hokage's left yelled, shooting the more powerful version of the standard Fireball Jutsu at Danzo.
"Wind Style: Air Bullet Jutsu!" the other clone yelled, firing a large round of wind chakra from his hands.
The two attacks met, creating a massive inferno that engulfed Danzo. The earth barrier acted almost like an open furnace, concentrating the already intense flames into a smaller area. At the same time it was also a sort of chimney, redirecting the fire upward towards the sky, away from the nearby people and buildings. For a single brilliant moment there was a pillar of flame that towered over the area, nearly as tall as Choza in his super-sized form.
Itachi watched, wide eyed. He knew that the Hokage were powerful, but he had not imagined the extent of it. This wasn't just a show of strength, it was the greatest demonstration of elemental ninjutsu Itachi had ever seen. He remembered how, when unrest began brewing within the Uchiha Clan before they began planning the coup, some members would complain that Itachi's father Fugaku had been unfairly passed over for the position of Fourth Hokage. But Fugaku Uchiha had never been on this level.
"This is a battle beyond us right now," Kakashi commented. "Best thing we can do right now is wait and watch for a chance to strike."
"Yeah," Itachi agreed, studying the exchange through his Sharingan.
The flames subsided, revealing an unharmed and unmoved Danzo. "You've lost a step, Hiruzen," the village elder said. "In your prime you would have used more powerful jutsu for that fire-wind combo, and an extra pair of Shadow Clones to make the Earth Style barrier without having to waste time switching between techniques." The bandages around his bound arm slipped off, revealing pale white, unnatural looking skin and a number of Sharingan embedded in his flesh. "Perhaps now I can finally catch up to you."
"What have you done, Danzo?" the Hokage asked. "Where did you get those?"
"I didn't kill anyone for them," the Root leader replied. "They're clones, shadows of the real thing that have almost none of its abilities."
"An experiment this twisted," the Hokage began. "It could only have been the brainchild of a mind as sick as Orochimaru's. You were helping him with his inhumane experiments before he was banished from the village, weren't you?"
"Like I said," Danzo responded. "Most of use have to find strength where we can, no matter the source."
Itachi studied the Sharingan studded arm, his stomach churning at the sight of it. Then he noticed one of the eyes, located on the palm of Danzo's hand, was closed shut.
"He's using Izanagi!" the Uchiha Clan Head screamed.
"What is that?" Kakashi asked.
"A secret forbidden jutsu of the Uchiha Clan," Itachi explained. "It essentially acts as a genjutsu that is cast on reality itself, allowing the user to freely bend it to their will for a short time, at the cost of one of their Sharingan being sealed forever."
"I see," the Hokage commented. "And he had those cloned Sharingan implanted in his arm so that he could use such a powerful technique without the usual drawbacks. That will be difficult to overcome." The Professor bit his thumb, drawing blood before applying the bloody fingertip to the palm of his other hand. "Summoning Jutsu," he yelled, performing the handsigns and slamming his hands on the ground. "Monkey King Enma!"
A giant white haired ape, musclebound and taller than the average man, appeared in a cloud of smoke. "What is it, Sarutobi?" it asked, peering out from beneath the Leaf headband it wore. "It's been a long time since you last summoned me. Hm? Is that...Danzo?"
"Yes," the Hokage replied. "Things have taken a turn for the worse. We must defeat him."
"Ha!" the Monkey King laughed. "At last! Other than that brat Orochimaru, there's never been anyone I wanted to beat down more than that man!"
The Hokage took a deep breath. "Perhaps you are right. I've been too willing to look the other way from his misdeeds, it seems." The God of Shinobi's expression hardened. "Come, Enma! Transform!"
"Right!" the Monkey King replied before turning itself into a staff and flying into the Hokage's hands. The Professor charged forward at his old comrade, weapon raised.
Sasuke watched through the window as a huge pillar of flame rose up into the sky, lifting his hands to shield his face from the heat and light it was giving off.
"What's going on down there?" he asked. "We have to go see if Naruto's okay."
"You heard Lord Shikaku," Jun said, standing by the door. "You kids stay here, where it's safe."
"But..." Sasuke began.
"You're not going anywhere, Sasuke," Jun ordered emphatically. "Not only would I be disobeying the Jonin Commander, I wouldn't be able to face Lord Itachi if anything happened to you."
The young Uchiha boy pouted and stomped back to his fellow academy students.
Shikamaru was sitting against the wall, eyes closed with his hands behind his head. "Just calm down, Sasuke. We learned what's up with Naruto, now the adults are going to take care of whatever it is that we stumbled into."
Sasuke glared at the Nara boy. "That isn't good enough."
"What, you want to go out there?" Shikamaru asked, opening his eyes to give Sasuke a confused glance. "You're crazy, man."
Sasuke stared at his classmate, silently expressing his dissatisfaction as he lips slowly curled into a sneer.
"Fine," Shikamaru said, sitting up. "Choji, help me out."
"How?" the Akimichi boy asked.
"Just be ready," Shikamaru replied.
Hinata twiddled her fingers nervously, as she averted her gaze to the corner of the room. "Are you sure...that you should really be doing this?"
"No," Shikamaru replied. "But this one's not going to give it a rest." He jabbed a finger in Sasuke's direction. "Frankly, I'm not sure whether helping him will be more of drag than not." Looking over his shoulder at Jun, he added. "Hey, can you help us with something?"
The Uchiha walked over from her position by the door to kneel next to the group of children. "What do you need?"
"Just for you to stay still for a bit," Shikamaru replied before forming a hand sign. "Shadow Possession Jutsu!" His shadow darkened and stretched out, combining with Jun's. She attempted to pull away but was paralyzed by the Nara boy's technique.
Shikamaru grimaced. "Hurry, Sasuke! I can't keep this up nearly as long as my dad!"
"Right!" Sasuke replied, who leapt to his feet and started running for the door. He could see that already Shikamaru's jutsu was starting to falter.
"Choji!" Shikamaru yelled.
"Got it!" the Akimichi boy replied. "Partial Expansion Jutsu!" His hand suddenly grew several times in size as he put it on top of Jun, pinning her just as Shikamaru's Shadow Possession Jutsu broke.
Sasuke didn't look back as he ran, turning the corner out the doorway and into the hall. He ran and ran. He didn't know exactly what he was running to, nor what he would do when he got there, but he knew that he had to hurry. He could not let the world pass him by, he knew that in his heart.
He didn't think about how long his companions could hold his clanswoman down.
"Just keep her down, Choji," Shikamaru said.
"Sure thing," the Akimichi replied, keeping the pressure on Jun.
"Are you sure this was the right thing to do?" Hinata asked.
"No, but..."Shikamaru replied. "What's done is done, even if it's a drag."
Jun turned her head to look at Shikamaru. "What do you think you're going to accomplish?"
Shikamaru shrugged. "You'd have to ask Sasuke."
Jun sighed in response. "I'm going to have to apologize to your fathers for this."
"What do you mean?" Choji asked.
The young Uchiha woman blinked and activated her Sharingan, their two tomoe spinning in her red irises as the power in her eyes came to life. She turned her gaze to Shikamaru and when their eyes met he fell into her genjutsu.
"Shikamaru!" Choji yelled as his friend collapsed to the ground. He turned to the Uchiha under his hand and fell into her trap as well. As he lost consciousness his hand returned to normal size, freeing Jun.
The Uchiha stood and looked at Hinata, considering her for a moment.
"I'm sorry," she said with a sigh before casting a genjutsu on her. The Hyuga girl collapsed to the floor beside her classmates.
Jun turned and ran out of the room in pursuit of Sasuke.
