Scarlet Justice: Full Blossom – ep. 17
"Status Quo"

"So we have ourselves a few problems."

Today's meeting was unscheduled, with Jiraiya traipsing into town and demanding that we talk about his recent findings.

One of the problems he isn't going to mention out loud is that he didn't recognize me with my back turned in the hallway. As a result, the exposed right side of his face is currently red with heat.

"I'll bet," Tsunade says. "You earned that one."

"Shut up. Seriously."

"Maybe now you'll learn your lesson. Doubt it, but it's always nice to have some hope."

He grumbles and pouts at that. The left side of his face from the bottom lip upward is covered by a black mask, obscuring some sort of spectacular injury while it heals. Tsunade mentioned earlier that we would find out what exactly caused it in the course of this meeting, as he hasn't even shown it to her. I settle against the desk behind me, which Hiruzen sits behind while smoking away at his pipe. Standing with us is Kakashi, who is enjoying his literature as usual. There's also someone standing outside the door, with chakra that I recognize.

It's just the five of us in here for now. Tamaki and Imari are taking care of other business, which was what opened up this time slot for us in the first place.

"Problem number one is your favourite jinchuuriki and mine, Naruto. I've got something to show you, and it's serious business." Jiraiya removes his vest, placing it over the nearby chair. His arms start to come out of the sleeves on his robes.

"I see that you've decided to add even more sexual harassment to your list of crimes," I say.

"Would you pipe down already?"

"Go fuck yourself, Jiraiya."

"I really oughta-"

"Sorry, but who was the one putting their hands on others without permission?" Tsunade asks smugly. "Don't think you have a leg to stand on, buddy."

"If he does that again, you can consider it literal," I warn.

"Children, please settle down," Hiruzen says. "I know things are tense after Jiraiya's...unauthorized contact earlier. But we should get into these important matters as quickly as we can. Please resume your demonstration, Jiraiya."

"Thank you, Lord Hokage." He glares at me before lifting up his mesh shirt. "I've taken near fatal damage twice in my life now. The first was a long time ago, courtesy of Princess Senju over here. She saw me conducting research and took it upon herself to...shall we say, interrupt."

No clarification is needed, as Tsunade has told me the story before...and we all know what Jiraiya's so called research tends to entail in any case.

"The second time was much more recent." Jiraiya removes the mask covering the side of his face.

"..."

"Won't be any permanent scars on the face, and thank god for that. The rest of me...not doing so great in that aspect."

Marks and what look like burns rake across the left side of his face. They go around his eye, but just barely. And in the middle of his chest, a massive, star-shaped scar that has branches spreading outwards.

"Took everything I had to make it out and suppress the chakra. If I hadn't, we'd be in a lot more trouble right now."

"Naruto did...that?" I ask, disturbed. "How? Why?"

"We, ah...got ahead of ourselves. Or at least I did," Jiraiya says as he starts to put his clothing back on. "Naruto was making great strides in controlling the chakra of the Nine Tails. So I called up Gerotora to tweak the seal a bit more. Obviously he was against it, he always is, but I got him to agree. Oh, right. Gerotora is a scroll toad, and he happens to be the guardian of the scroll that acts as the key to Naruto's seal. Minato left that key to me, after he inscribed it onto Gerotora."

"I suppose that's why you're so insistent on taking care of this yourself. If the Fourth left it to you, he believed that you could figure things out as needed," I say.

"Exactly."

"But you screwed up this one," Tsunade says.

"You could call it that, I guess. Sometimes experiments don't go the way you want them to. Anyhow, Naruto can remain in control up to about two tails now, pretty big improvement from earlier."

"It was a problem the last time when he got close to three, so that's honestly reassuring," Kakashi says. "Which just raises the question of how he did all that to you."

Jiraiya puts on his mask again and sighs. "Four."

"Jiraiya...that's nearly half way," Hiruzen says with concern.

"Yeah. And it's not a pretty sight, let me tell you. At three tails, Naruto's control and consciousness get shaky. Once he hits four is where the real mess starts. His mind gets overpowered by the rage and hatred, which allows the fox to start taking control completely. It's not just mental changes, either. All of you in here know about that chakra shroud the fox gives him to use. It's a defence of sorts, but it also continuously damages him. He has that healing factor, but once he releases four tails worth of power, it can't keep up. His body becomes severely damaged, and blood from where his skin peels away starts to mix itself into the shroud. Essentially, he ends up as a skeleton for the demon fox..."

"You mean to say that he takes on the Nine Tails' appearance physically, as opposed to just having an aura that mimics it," Hiruzen concludes.

"That's about right. It looks a lot like close-fitting armour...you can see him in there, but it's definitely a more monstrous appearance all over."

"But you managed to seal that power back up," Tsunade says. "He looks fine enough, but...I'm guessing that there are bad side effects you're gonna tell us about shortly."

"He heals well enough when the chakra shroud disappears, but...that healing is slower after reaching that threshold. And if his body has to keep doing that, it won't last long. He could very well die if he's pushed too far too often."

"Like with Akatsuki," I say.

"Minato's seal should be able to limit this behaviour in the future," Hiruzen says.

"About that...we have a problem there, too. See, I can get Gerotora to tighten the seal every so often, but that won't change that fact that with every passing year, the seal itself is weakening. Eventually it won't matter what we do, and the Nine Tails will be able to exert its full influence on Naruto. That's why we need to figure things out now, and why I took the risk of loosening the seal in the first place."

"You were Lord Minato's teacher. Surely you know why he did such a thing?" I ask.

"His intention was to have Naruto control the power of the Nine Tails, though I couldn't tell you for what purpose exactly. But it's why he only has half...and why the seal was constructed so deliberately."

"The gap in the two Four Symbols Seals, then."

"Right. Aside from that, there's really no turning back now. Whether it's the passage of time, or Akatsuki, something is going to push Naruto in the wrong direction. I've been giving him lessons on how to tamp down his anger, but we're seeing more and more of the fox's power bubble up from him at once. We might have to consider two worst case scenarios. First and most immediate, that the Nine Tails is fully released back into the world, meaning that Naruto dies, and a bunch of people along with him. Second, and only a little less troubling, is that we have to lock down the fox completely inside of him, and cut off access to that power. It means that we lose whatever Minato was trying to accomplish, that the Leaf loses a major asset, and that he's in even more danger from the freaks in Akatsuki. I don't think Minato put that fox inside of Naruto as a simple means of containment, not with everything that was at stake back then."

"So what can we do in the meantime?" I ask.

"Got that covered." Jiraiya knocks on the entrance to the room and it opens a moment later. A young man wearing the standard Leaf outfit, with short brown hair and dark eyes. His forehead protector is a rare sort, the same as Tobirama Senju used during his time.

"This fellow goes by a few names, but from here on he's Yamato to us. Used to be in the Foundation and knows our pal Kakashi here from his time in the ANBU."

I see. So this is that Kinoe person who was mentioned all that time ago.

"Very nice to meet you, senpai."

Mm. Respectful, quite neat, calm too. Impressive, especially considering what he must have gone through. "It's nice meeting you as well." We shake hands and he has a firm grip. Good. I can also confirm that his chakra is indeed the same as that of the Founder. Although...it's different from that of Obito's still. I wonder why that is...

"Lili and I talked about it a while back, so she knows the play," Tsunade says. "The other part of the key comes from Grandfather's necklace. The kid's got it on him now."

"I was wondering about that," Kakashi says. "Something like that would be immensely valuable, wouldn't it?"

"Three mountains worth of gold, or so the legends say," Hiruzen says. "It was also a key component of Lord Hashirama's power, assisting him with the capture and control of the tailed beasts themselves."

"So the plan is to use Yamato's Wood Release in conjunction with the necklace, in order to suppress the power of the Nine Tails completely," I say. "But if I'm right, the crystal on the necklace is merely an amplifier for already existing power. I believe our friend here is aware how far down the scale his strength is compared to the Founder's."

"It would be a very bad idea to overestimate myself in that way," Yamato says with a smile. "The aim would be to suppress Naruto's power early, well before we got to a high number of tails and the heavy transformations that accompany them. If Lord Jiraiya was nearly killed with four tails released...well, I don't know how much better I would do."

"I see."

"Conventional seals are going to be worth less and less as time goes on...due to the fact that I'm not going to reset progress on the Eight Trigrams seal," Jiraiya says. "He needs that power to deal with Akatsuki. Yamato is going to be assigned as the alternate commander of Team Seven, and he'll be with the team for parts of Naruto's training. I also can't stick around the village forever, since there's a whole lot of work to do tracking down Akatsuki. This is the best we can do right now, at least until I figure out how to teach Naruto to use the full power inside of him."

"A stopgap, then," I say.

"A little dismissive, aren't you?"

"Hardly. You almost got yourself killed, and our next best option is suppressing the tailed beast's power before it gains momentum – we can't even stop it in its tracks definitively. This is far from a rosy situation, and so I won't pretend it is."

"Mouth off all you want, but I doubt you have a better solution to all this."

"You would think so."

He raises a brow and I stare back at him, saying nothing.

"Disagreements aside," Kakashi interrupts, "now that we have our Naruto contingencies in place, I assume we'll be moving on to the other parts of our agenda."

Jiraiya nods. "Akatsuki is moving, and from what I hear they have some fresh blood. No info on who exactly, but they sound dangerous enough. A few clients have been hiring Akatsuki for extermination missions and wiping out entire towns and settlements. Reports of uprooted structures and desiccated bodies. There's also an uptick of activity in Wave. Combine that with that pretty brazen attack on a major hidden village, and it's safe to say that we're on a timer here. The spies they have here aren't doing much, and I suspect some of them are keeping an eye on me specifically. So my moving around will help keep some heat off the village. Also, sensei...I know it might be a hassle, but could you keep your advisory team off my back a bit?"

"I have started my talks with the councillors, yes. Rest assured, you will have room to work as you desire."

He lets out a satisfied breath. "Great news."

"Akatsuki's aggressiveness on various fronts will also destabilize this village and others if they are allowed to move as they please," I say.

"Is there something you have in mind to curb their advance?" Hiruzen asks.

"A few things. One is to keep ahead information-wise, and the other is to adopt an aggressive posture ourselves. Knowing what we know, we should do our best to move against them at every opportunity. That will mean sending our regular forces to investigate and crush any Akatsuki-influenced uprisings."

"If we appear too aggressive, it'll just end up backfiring in the end...really is a problem for us, isn't it," Tsunade says. "Can't just tell people not to use the cheaper services. Larger organizations like the Leaf will have a pretty consistent customer base, but I think that it'll become top heavy. That could make a couple of areas ripe for civil unrest, which Akatsuki can take advantage of."

"The daimyo aren't interested in addressing this financially at all. They simply don't see a reason to worry as things are," Hiruzen says while refilling his pipe. "Until Akatsuki becomes a clear and present danger to them and their subjects, they would rather have things continue on as normal."

"And even then, they're reluctant to hand over extra power to shinobi leaders," Kakashi points out. "I think by the time we can show them evidence of threats they need to pay attention to, it'll be too late."

"Akatsuki hires their own contractors, you think?" Yamato asks.

"We've confirmed it through Miss Kotowari," Hiruzen says.

"I see. That adds another layer of deniability, and makes it harder to bring to the attention of the feudal lords. They would just see business happening as usual, and when it comes to the tailed beasts, those are just more shinobi matters to be left alone."

"We know there's one tailed beast in the ocean to the east...I think we should schedule some reconnaissance around that area, to keep on top of things," I suggest.

"Noted. I will have our naval units prepared," Hiruzen says. "Is there anything else for now?"

"Nothing on my end. I'm gonna keep plugging away, hopefully see if I can track down this Pain fellow who is supposedly running the show. You're sure that you heard the name Konan from Kisame?" Jiraiya asks me.

"I'm sure, yes. Is that a name you recognize?"

"It's tickling my brain just a bit...maybe someone I met in a fight, or at a bar. Probably the latter if anything, since this is a woman we're talking about. I'll let you know if I pick up anything about her, or the goons she's leading. But I'll see you guys around, so stay out of trouble while I'm gone." He starts to leave before stopping. "Right, one more thing. We've been keeping the Foundation off our back, right? The very last thing we need is extra pressure from Danzo right now."

"He is being kept at a distance. Next steps will be discussed as needed," Hiruzen says.

"Got it. Then I don't need to say much else. Catch you guys later."

"We can adjourn this meeting, then. Lili, would you mind staying a while longer?" Hiruzen asks.

"Of course, my lord."

"Alright, time to head out. You guys take care," Tsunade says.

"Do you have time to answer a few questions, senpai?" Yamato asks Kakashi.

"Sure, sure. It's been a while since we've had a chat. We can go over our team basics..."

Finally, it's just myself and the Hokage alone. I take a proper seat on top of his desk while he pours out cups of tea.

"I apologize for a few things. The fact that this won't be a proper tea break, and for Jiraiya's actions earlier. Aside from the physical discomfort, I imagine that it was a bit embarrassing."

I sigh and nod.

"Well, we can take care of that in time. I'll have another talk with Jiraiya to remind him of proper etiquette. Hopefully it sticks this time..." He hands me a warm cup of tea, and I nod my thanks. "There are a great deal of things to look after, but we can continue with the main ones from this meeting. The Fire Country Lord is indeed reluctant to act at this point in time. Which frankly is better for us than the alternative. Too many external influences surround him, and ultimately he will choose the viewpoint that persuades him the most. In our case, if a large enough crisis were to occur, we could see his support go towards the conservative faction."

"Danzo and your friends on the council chief among them," I say.

"Yes. Of course, on a personal level, he favours Jiraiya for the next Hokage, if he should be chosen."

"Hm."

"As long as I stay around, it would be enough to keep the scales balanced in your favour. But the man is extremely fickle, so nothing is guaranteed as a result."

"Speaking of conservatives, have you gotten the news from Koharu yet?"

"We did speak, yes. You wanted to use Anko for a certain mission?"

"My plan is to have her infiltrate the organization as a sleeper agent," I say. "I'll put Itachi to work on that end as her handler. Of course, we still have to ask her...but with all of the tools at our disposal, it seems like something we can do to stay one step ahead of the enemy."

"Where do you expect her to be placed within the organization?"

I sip some tea before answering. "I don't think she'll be in the inner circle, with the remaining S-Class members. But I suspect that she'll be close enough to the top and the leadership that she can send information back to us. Also, we can take advantage of some assumptions if they are present. The connection to the snake kingdom, if discovered, would be a potent temptation." I close my eyes. "The thing is that I would be putting her through repeated mental conditioning, such as with the Sharingan. I can't go around treating her like a doll, even if it would be beneficial to us."

"She has been doing much better the past few years, especially with Orochimaru gone. As always, nothing is guaranteed, but I think that she would be eager to help us and would be in a good enough state to perform her duties."

"That's good to hear. We'll formally talk about it soon, together."

"Yes." Hiruzen drinks some of his tea and sighs. "Koharu and Homura are out of our loop, and I have kept it that way since I first suspected they were in communication with Danzo. Erika did some investigating and confirmed that this was the case by way of recordings and documents. Though I know you must have realized it from the short meeting you had."

"I did. What are your thoughts on Naruto's development?"

"The ideas you presented were good, but this recent report by Jiraiya has me a bit worried. The Nine Tails' chakra is becoming more influential and more potent, to the point where the full transformation is not that far away. And shinobi life can be difficult at times...if frustration keeps spilling out, not even Yamato might be able to stop what comes next. He will also be needed in the field as a skilled jounin and former ANBU. I agree with the suggestion that we keep Naruto moving so as to help thwart Akatsuki's plans, but still..."

"And Danzo?" I ask delicately.

"..." He sets down his cup and folds his hands. "There is nothing we can do at the moment, but...I am keeping an eye on him as best I can. If there is a need to escalate matters, I will let you know. He, along with others in his circle, are becoming increasingly bothered by Akatsuki's advances. The Fire Country Lord does not see their point of view just yet, but one or two more incidents will be enough to scare him into following the conservative line." He looks at me. "It's not yet time to take the actions you're thinking of. And...as foolish as it is, I hold out hope that he will change, and see things my way in the end."

"You've always been that way. It's what made me fall for you, after all," I say with a smile. "If it's what you want, then I'll wait until you give the order. Then, and only then, will I start my final advance."

"Thank you, Lili."

"Of course. Anything for you, oyaji."

"Information regarding Akatsuki has been sent to the requisite villages, but aside from Sand heeding Jiraiya's warning to some extent...there hasn't been much cooperation. Mobilization of forces has occurred, such as regular tours into Hot Water Country by the Hidden Cloud, and encroachments into the special zone that was once the Hidden Sound. The occupation there is a headache that the lower rungs are skilled enough to deal with, and shouldn't have much of an effect on geopolitics as a whole. Some nonsensical incident or nose thumbing will make the headlines, surely..."

"So it shouldn't be a catalyst for anything worse currently."

"It seems so. If anything changes, we have rapid communications enabled. But we are also working to settle things so that we will eventually gain control of the area. Slow work, but steady."

"And have we discovered anything new about our masked menace?" I ask.

"Nothing that could help us just yet. I can only guess that with Lord Hashirama's cells within him, his capabilities far eclipse any models we can create. The upper echelons of Akatsuki are nearly impossible to make contact with by any means we have."

"Hmm...do you know if Kakashi has completed that jutsu yet?"

"I haven't had time to ask him, which is an error on my part. Perhaps you could look into it for me?"

"I can do that."

"Thank you."

"If we don't take Obito out of the picture, it won't matter how many members of the organization we dispose of. He can start again, and peace may very well be lost. It's not a desperate situation yet, but I worry a little bit. Akatsuki wants the tailed beasts for something, something beyond simple world domination. Why else would they be working so hard to undermine the foundations that the shinobi powers stand on, as opposed to just crushing them militarily with the power that will be at their disposal? It's not something done for convenience."

"Yes. They seem to want to bypass the influence of the daimyo completely," Hiruzen says. "Perhaps they want something beyond controlling the world."

"They're not an entirely organized bunch, from what Itachi has told us. We know that they're tied together by the promises of their leaders, Pain and Obito. Obito seems content to wait in the shadows while this Pain person guides the group from an unknown location." I finish my tea and set the cup down. "There really isn't much we can do without more information, then..."

"Unfortunately not."

"Then I suppose we will have to proceed with the same patience as always. We can do this. We've done great things before." I lean over to kiss him on the forehead. "Thank you for your faith in me, oyaji. I won't let you down."

"I've always known," he says, smiling back. "I'm looking forward to the moment you change this village, and the entire world."

I nod and let myself down from the desk, shaking out my hair before leaving.

"We'll find some time to ourselves soon enough. Take care, Lord Hokage."

"Yes. Goodbye for now, Miss Kobayashi."

I leave the office and close the door behind me. My hand lingers on the handle for an extra moment before sliding off.

"Akatsuki...everything else besides that."

I have a strong feeling that they're going to get their hands on at least one tailed beast, and that will be problem enough. The Hidden Rock has been hiring them to supplement their regular forces...there's no way that the mercenaries will avoid taking advantage of that. And given this country's military strength, the others might see our warnings as just another disinformation tactic, something to get them to lower their defences.

It really is a mess on all sides.

"..."

But I meant what I said before. I intend to keep my promise, and carry everyone through this crisis as it comes. I won't be doing it alone, but I will be fighting at the very front. It's my duty above all else.

"Patience...right."

I let out a breath and finally turn from the door, heading out.

Okay. Time to get back to work.