Disclaimer has not changed. You want a refresher course, read the prologue and first chapter again.
Important Note: Please read the author notes at the end of the chapter
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The Phantom of Konoha
Chapter Four: Separate Paths
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Yesterday had been a less than pleasant day for Haruno Sakura, what with one teammate seriously injured and their sensei incapacitated. Understandably, she was not too pleased with her other teammate's reaction to her news. Naruto looked as if she had just announced her undying love for Rock Lee. His eyes were wide, blinking confusedly, and his jaw had dropped in shock. "Do you have a problem with this?" Sakura asked irritably. The white medic-nin cap on her head itched, but she refused to tug at it in front of her teammate.
Naruto's jaw snapped shut. "No . . ."
She had enough of his stupidity. "You're not the only one who can train." Sakura emphasized her words by pointing her finger at him. He went slightly cross-eyed, focusing on the tip of her pointer finger. "Kakashi-sensei can't train me with a broken collar bone, you're going off with that sennin who saved us yesterday, Gagami-kun won't be getting out of bed for a while, and Konoha can't spare anyone to train just me."
"But—why?" Naruto was still staring at the finger centimeters from his nose.
Sakura sighed and lowered her hand. "The medic-nin are short on people, and I have the qualities they need. Kakashi-sensei approved."
"Why?" Yakushi asked.
"Because," Sakura said quietly, "I want to be able to keep them as safe as I can. They're always protecting me—I want to be able to take care of them myself."
Naruto was looking at her strangely. Sakura folded her arms defensively. "I'll be training with you guys when you're back and Gagami-kun is out of the hospital." Naruto was still giving her an odd, measuring look. "What?"
"You look really stupid in that uniform, Sakura-chan."
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Naruto hissed as he gingerly touched the swelling bump on his head. Sakura was very strong when she was ticked-off at him. He took the steps up to Gagami's floor slower than he would have normally due to the weight of his travel pack.
Ero-sennin had said last night that he could visit Gagami before they headed out. Naruto had at first refused to go with the old pervert on his search for a "beautiful woman," but then Ero-sennin had added that he would teach Naruto a new jutsu on the trip. And that the woman they were looking for was the best medic-nin Konoha had ever had.
Focused as he was on his recent injury, Naruto didn't notice the noise until he was a few steps away from Gagami's room. From the other side of the door he could hear a woman's voice. An angry girl's voice, one that could probably even rival Sakura.
"—stupid can you be? If you'd been away from Konoha, you could have died!"
Naruto stared at the closed door, surprised. He had never heard Gagami get chewed out before. Gagami was the number-one genin rookie, first or second in every category among his agemates. To hear him called stupid by anyone other than Naruto was unheard of.
Was he hearing this right? Naruto pressed his ear to the door in order to listen better. He and Gagami were generally on good terms—unless Gagami was being a jerk—but Naruto couldn't let an opportunity like this one pass him by.
The girl—whoever she was—was still ranting. "If you can't keep your hide intact, I'll move you up in line! I'm sure Kusanagi wouldn't mind being—"
Naruto didn't have time to react to what happened next. The door suddenly slid open and a large hand snaked into the sudden gap. Naruto found the front of his orange suit in the strong grasp of an older boy. "It's not polite to eavesdrop," the boy said, stopping the female voice mid-rant.
Naruto looked up at a much taller version of Gagami with a chuunin vest. His hair was shorter and lighter and the braid a little longer, but otherwise it was a picture of what Gagami would look like in a few years. In a few years and several kilos of muscle later. Naruto wished, not for the first time, that he would hit his growth spurt.
His captor pulled on his suit and Naruto found himself yanked inside. "Hey! Let me go!" Naruto yelled, wrenching at the other boy's hand. Naruto managed to pulled away and glared at the person who man-handled him, but the boy returned the look impassively.
Before Naruto could really start up an argument, there was a strangled sound of anger. He turned around to face the woman who had been ranting earlier. I am going to die, Naruto thought with a rush of adrenaline; he knew what an angry female looked like, and this one was furious. The girl's face was twisted into a scowl that made her usually pretty face terrifying. The last time she had looked at him like that, Naruto had ended up face-first in the street. She got up from the stool by Gagami's bed and took a step in Naruto's direction.
"Oneesan?" Gagami's voice was a little too loud and slurred slightly, but it stopped the girl's movement. Naruto remembered to breathe. "Wha's goin' on?"
Gagami's sister turned back to him. "You have a visitor." Her voice was loud as well, and Naruto realized that Gagami's hearing must not be quite back up to normal.
"It's me," Naruto spoke up, wearily eyeing the girl's back. It didn't look like she was going to hit him now, but she had been absolutely pleasant to Konohamaru three seconds after punching Naruto out. She had not taken well to Konohamaru's botched transformation of her in the middle of the day in a public street and had taken her anger out on Naruto.
"We'll be back later, all right?" the girl said pleasantly, patting Gagami's right hand, the picture of a concerned older sister.
She's crazy, Naruto thought uneasily. It was like someone had flipped her emotional switch from "angry" to "nice." It's not like the transformation was that ugly . . . The only person Naruto know of that could hold a grudge that long was probably Hyuuga Neji. It had been close to a year since their last meeting, and she looked as if she wanted to kill him.
"Get better quickly," the girl said in a cheerful voice. She turned around, coldly brushed past Naruto, and left the room. The older version of Gagami followed her out silently, sliding the door shut behind them, like an Inuzuka dog following his partner.
There was silence for a long time while Naruto tried to recreate what had just happened in his mind. "Sorry you saw tha'," Gagami said, his voice still loud. "Minagi and Kusanagi, my ol'er sis'er and brother."
Naruto moved over to Gagami's side. The bandages, blanket, and IV were still in place. "So you're not the only Tsuchiya who's a jerk." Naruto felt a rush of anger and guilt as he took in again the extent of his teammate's injuries. Mentally, he renewed the promise he made yesterday.
Gagami laughed a little at that and turned his head in Naruto's direction. The bandages wrapped around his face covered the entire right side of his face and most of the left except for the cheek and jaw. Naruto realized that with the bandages his teammate couldn't see. But Yakushi hadn't mentioned anything about damaged eyesight, had he? "How are you feeling?" Naruto asked, not because he expected a good report, but because that was the expected question to ask.
"I'm a'shully not feelin' much a anythin'," Gagami admitted, slurring words together slightly.
Naruto grinned, relieved. Never thought I'd hear him sound like a drunk. "You know what happened yesterday?" Whatever's in the IV has gotta be strong.
"Sak'ra tol' me this mornin', 'fore Minagi and Kusanagi came." What was visible of Gagami's mouth turned into a frown. "I tol' 'em what happen', and Minagi—you hear' part a it."
"Yeah," Naruto said, fiddling with the shoulder straps of his bag. Some of the fabric of his jacket had bunched up uncomfortably under the straps after Kusanagi's manhandling. "What did she mean about moving you up in line?"
Gagami sighed. "Move up in suc'ssion."
"That's good, isn't it?" Naruto asked. Neji had been so upset over not being able to succeed the Hyuuga Clan that he had nearly killed his own cousin over it in the prelims for the third Chuunin Exam. Naruto had been very happy to repay that debt a month later.
"No' if I wanna a'vance," Gagami answered slowly and carefully, almost like he was reciting some half-remembered lines. "The heir'ta the clan can't go'ta the Academy. Secon' in line—Kusanagi—can't a'vance from chuunin 'til Minagi has a kid."
Naruto scratched his head, perplexed. "Why?"
"It'sa clan law—our clan makes mos'a Konoha s'plosion notes an' scrolls." He paused then, and Naruto could tell that Gagami was trying to gather his drug-slowed thoughts. "Konoha needs s'plosion notes an' scrolls, an' we hav'ta make sure tha' the line nev'r dies. Kusanagi has'ta be a chuunin 'cuz they don' get dang'rous missions like jounin i'case Minagi dies. Somehow."
"So . . . if your sister promotes you," Naruto said slowly, and idea forming in his mind, "you can't ever get passed chuunin."
Gagami was sluggish in answering. "Yeah. No' for years at leas'. She's almos' eighteen, bu' she doesn' even hav'a boyfrien'."
Naruto grinned mischievously. "And if she does promote you, then that means I'll make jounin before you do."
"Shu' up."
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"Jiraiya-sama left this morning with Uzumaki Naruto in an attempt to locate Tsunade-hime and offer her the position of Godaime Hokage."
Inuzuka Tsume, Head of the Inuzuka Clan, jumped to her feet. "He left alone?" A short woman, she had held the position of alpha female in her clan for obvious reasons. One of which was her ability to beat any enemy of hers into submission. "Without an escort and with the Kyuubi's container?"
"That is what they just said," commented Hyuuga Hiashi from his seat near the head of the low wooden table.
Tsume snarled at him from across the table, but before she could turn and pick a fight with the other clan head, Koharu, one of Sandaime's advisors, interrupted. "He refused the position and the escort," she said calmly. "And he also refused to search for Tsunade-hime unless he could take Uzumaki with him. And with the confirmation that Uchiha Itachi was the one to slaughter his clan and his memberships within the Akatsuki, it was perhaps the wisest choice to have him leave with Jiraiya-sama."
"Two S-class missing-nin were able to waltz into this village and attack with hardly any resistance," Tsuchiya Hiro added darkly as Tsume sat down. "Konoha is not safe by any standard." The only clan head who wasn't a ninja, Hiro held the unenviable position of least important on the council.
"He's right," Gekkou Hatsuyo rasped from Hiro's left. She coughed for a moment before continuing, "We don't have enough"—cough—"people to secure Konoha and still"—cough—"complete the same number of missions."
Although generally ceremonial, the council had its origins before Konoha had been formed. Consisting of alliances (or at least non-aggression pacts) between some of the strongest clans in the Fire Country, these twelve—formerly thirteen—clans had been called upon by the First Hokage to form Konoha. Within months of the creation of the hidden village and the alliances formed amongst the clans, the rest of the ninja clans in Fire Country united under the First Hokage, or under the short-lived rebel, whose final battle was responsible for the creation of the Valley of the End.
"The Uchiha has been reclassified as a missing-nin, correct?" Mizuno Toshiko asked.
The advisors looked at each other. "Actually, no," Koharu admitted from her place at the foot of the table. "Only the Hokage can declare someone a missing-nin." She didn't elaborate because the head of the table—the Hokage's traditional place—was painfully and obviously empty.
Aburame Shibi was the one to break the silence. "There still might be a spy in Konoha." He shifted slightly in order to better face the advisors. "Have there been any new leads?"
"Hatake Kakashi is still investigating the matter." Homura, the second of Sandaime's advisors, shook his head. "But I'm afraid it's going to be even more difficult now. With all of the destruction and people killed or missing after the attack, we can't be sure that the spy is alive or even here anymore."
Not long afterward the council adjourned. The first to leave was Hyuuga Hiashi, then Mizuno Toshiko. Custom dictated that the members rise and depart in order of importance and in a stately manner. Five years ago, Hiashi would have been the third to leave—the Uchiha Clan had possessed the highest position after the Hokage. But the council of thirteen had long since been reduced to twelve, and there was no Hokage.
Aburame Shibi departed next, followed by Inuzuka Tsume, Kurosaki Ijirou, Akimichi Chouza, Nara Shikaku, Yamanaka Inoichi, Yuuhi Kaishi, Gekkou Hatsuyo, and Arima Shinjirou. The last to stand were Hiro and the two advisors. Hiro quickly walked out of the room and down the stairs at a speed that was almost unbecoming for someone who was the head of his clan. None of the clan heads made snide remarks as he passed them one by one, for they knew that he was heading for the hospital to visit his son. Only duty had kept prevented Hiro from seeing his son earlier, but now that duty had been fulfilled, dignity could be shoved into a corner and ignored. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he began to run.
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Jiraiya knew that there were three types of ninja in the world: sneaky, stealthy, and stupid. He also knew that those ninja who were of the third type didn't tend to live all that long. Pocketing Naruto's frog money bag, Jiraiya wondered if he would actually be able to see the boy live to his mid-teens despite the training he'd receive.
Not only had Naruto handed over (with some fuss, Jiraiya admitted) what was probably every single ryou the boy had earned in his life, but he had also failed to notice the tiny string of characters Jiraiya had managed to ink onto the back of his orange jump suit while they traveled.
Confident in the jutsu, Jiraiya handed Naruto a few ryou and gave him instructions to return to their hotel room when he had finished spending it. The Sannin watched the boy run off through the crowd and disappear. He smiled, and then made a beeline for his destination:
Akira's Pleasure House.
Jiraiya knew that Naruto would not be happy finding out that his hard-earned ryou had ended up in Akira's hands. But the woman only took cash, and Jiraiya couldn't withdraw the necessary amount without drawing undue attention.
Research could be expensive, after all.
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The Uchiha Clan had always been good at concealment. Itachi had proved this many times himself, and this afternoon was no exception. In a shinobi village hiding on a flat rooftop was nothing out of the ordinary, but in a traveler's town in the middle of a festival it was something of a novelty. He kept his chakra signature buried deep within nonetheless—Jiraiya-sama was a Sannin—but he kept his sharingan eyes activated.
His eyes caught the Sannin's every movement as the old man entered one of the many . . . less respectable establishments in the town.
Next to him, Kisame snorted. "He's just as arrogant as Orochimaru. Does he think he's chased us away?"
"No," Itachi replied, turning to his companion. Jiraiya-sama would be occupied for a long, long time. "The mark he left on the Kyuubi's vessel is a tracking jutsu used by Konoha's ANBU. It allows the user to know where the target is at all times." Itachi turned back to the crowd below and to the orange-suited genin who was haggling with a vendor. "The technique can be canceled or modified, if one knows what one's doing."
"And you know what you're doing?"
"Yes."
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Author's notes—
Praise, as always, to Kilerkki for betaing. Thanks also to gear-chan, akai/Kiba, and squeak-chan for suggesting the names for Gagami's older siblings. Gratitude to Chev for giving me a much-needed pep talk and threatening me with a trout.
Thanks to Chevira, Archangel Rhapsody, Hikaru, starry096, Hiei's cute girl, Lukita Ravenwing, and YoungSasuke for reviewing the last chapter. I was surprised by all the first time reviewers, and I'm very grateful for your (continued?) interest. The same goes to all who have added me to their favorite lists or put me on author alert.
Comments, constructive criticism, etc. are, of course, welcome and wanted.-Phoenix