Chapter 16: A New Mission, The Journey Begins
The shinobi of the leaf and sin stand in the utmost suspense as Naruto's Rasengan stops only inches away from the center of Keinea's chest. Keinea's face glistens as beads of sweat drips down from his forehead, dropping to the ground as if in slow-motion as his fate lies in the restraint as the new and improved Uzumaki Naruto.
Naruto on the other hand has a demeanor of confidence, uncharacteristically cold and focused as he maintains the energy of one of the 4th Hokage's signature jutsu's swirling in his hand. "It's over." He says as he powers the technique down and dispels the chakra in his right hand, as he rises from his crouching position and stands at eye level with a now furious Keinea. Naruto closes his eyes as he turns his back to the sin shinobi and begins to walk away as Keinea can only stand by and watch as his opponent walks away from him, having allowed Keinea to survive the battle with no more then a few bruises and scratches.
"Damn it. He could have ended this fight easily. He was in full control . . . DAMN IT!" Keinea can only curse under his breath as he watches the confident Naruto walk back to his comrades.
Suddenly from the brush behind Maea, Toragai emerges for the first time since the night before, his hands clasped behind the back of his head as he starts a bit of a stretch as he steps out from the bushes. "Hey Maea, what the hell is going on?"
"Keinea and the loud mouth kid were just going at it over some girl." Maea then changes her demeanor to a more inquisitive one as she begins to wonder where Toragai has been all morning. "Masato where the hell have you been? We have been wondering what happened to you. You are always up early but no one had seen you all morning."
"Oh sorry about that. I went for a bit of a walk outside the village this morning. You know they say the landscape of the fire country is the most beautiful of all right?" Toragai shows an innocent expression as he looks around the area to all the leaf shinobi just noticing his arrival.
"You mean you left the village and the ANBU weren't watching you?" Maea asks surprised and somewhat suspicious.
"Nah. They were around all right but I guess since I was only roaming around the landscape they didn't bother me and I didn't bother them."
They two sin shinobi's attention is drawn back to the tense situation before them as Keinea reaches into his back pouch and begins searching frantically for something amongst his kunai. He then fumbles his hand out of his pocket holding a light blue scroll with the word "Yoshitsune" written across it. Keinea's actions are quickly observed by Toshida who watches Keinea with a stern eye.
"Don't even think about it Keinea . . ." Toshida says to himself.
Keinea bites down on his left thumb drawing blood as he then quickly opens the scroll and swipes his blood across the text on the inside, activating whatever seals were written inside. He quickly wraps the scroll back up before placing it in his teeth and clapping both hands together as he prepares to start yet another jutsu.
"Enough!" a deep voice comes from Keinea's far left. He looks over to see his brother glaring down at him with an angry look across his face as his patience for his brothers antics have finally worn out. "You know exactly what will happen if you try to summon him on your own brother. They work as a team and only as a team. If the two of us don't summon then they don't obey. Don't be stupid!"
Keinea hesitates for a moment and then switches to the seal of the boar, further demonstrating his intent to continue the summoning technique. Suddenly Toragai appears behind him and places a single firm hand on Keinea's left shoulder, drawing Keinea's attention to his newly arrived teammate.
"C'mon now little man, you heard the boss, the fight is over, now lets stop this nonsense ok?" Toragai says with a carefree smile across his face.
Keinea is not amused as he gives a quick jerk of his shoulder to remove Toragai's hand from its current grasp. But to his surprise, all of Keinea's strength was not enough to even budge the young man's hand from its current perch. Keinea looks to Toragai confused as Toragai's smile begins to fade and his look becomes more serious. Before either of them can say anything, the Hokage shows up on the scene demanding an explanation.
"That is enough, all of you!" Tsunade says as she sternly investigates the area and the damage done to the Nara household. "Shikamaru, your mother isn't going to be very happen when she gets home is she?"
Shikamaru can only sigh as all the events around him have finally stopped spinning out of control. "I don't even want to think about what my mother is going to say."
Tsunade soon turns her attention to Naruto and he in tern looks to her. "Naruto, what happened here?"
"It was a disagreement granny Tsunade, but it's over now, if we're going to be punished then I suppose there isn't anything I can say to change that."
Tsunade finds herself in shock at Naruto's admittance to the rough housing and cannot bring herself to come up with any punishment for the young shinobi. "Whatever, Naruto I don't care what caused it but it is as you said, over now. I don't want to see or hear about something like this ever happening again. Am I clear?"
"Yes Granny Tsunade."
"And stop calling me that!" Tsunade barks as Naruto smiles and begins to walk away from the household with Hinata and Shikamaru following behind. Tsunade then turns an angry eye toward Toshida. "I have granted you every possible liberty that I can Toshida . . . and yet I find one of your subordinates scuffling with one of my shinobi. Why did you not order him to stop?"
"Keinea is my brother Tsunade-sama, not my subordinate. No one on my team is subordinate to me."
"If that is true then why is it that they follow YOUR orders?"
"I told you before Tsunade-sama. Their loyalty to me is why they listen to me. I have done what I can to help them and they are all grateful to me for one reason or another. Why don't you ask Kakashi why he did not step in and stop the fight?"
Toshida's words catch Kakashi by surprise as he sits perched in a nearby tree reading his ever present copy of "Come Come Paradise". He quickly ducks behind the trunk of the tree as Tsunade then turns to locate him.
"That is a very good question . . ." Tsunade says as she rolls her eyes at the Jounins actions. "Perhaps he needs a new assignment . . . like cleaning out the pens and kennels at the Inuzaka household!"
"She can't be serious!" Kakashi's says to himself as the mere thought of cleaning up after all of the Inuzaka clans dogs send shivers down his spine. He looks down to his novel opened in front of him in his left hand and realizes that if it was not for the book, his punishment may have never been a problem. He raises his right fist in anger toward the book and shouts aloud, "DAMN YOU JIRAIYA!"
Tsunade then turns her attention back to Toshida, "I am surprised to see that your men would fight over anything, let alone something so petty. How can you explain these actions?"
Toshida looks around at his ever-present motley crew of loyal teammates and can only let out a solemn smile in remembrance of all that they have sacrificed for him. "We are who we are Tsunade-sama. When you live a life like the four of us have lived in our own ways, sometimes fighting is all that you know. Keinea's only failure in his character has been his pride. He has always been a confident fighter and shinobi in everything that he does, and his pride was seriously dented when Naruto beat him at the stadium. He simply needed to know that Naruto was the better man, even though Keinea himself may still not admit it."
"But why did you not stop the fight? Someone could have got hurt."
"There was no danger in this fight Tsunade-sama. Keinea lost the fight as soon as he made it personal. His emotions got the better of him and he was forced to come face to face with his own weakness. I knew then that he would lose the battle. Naruto's strength seems to be more then I can personally comprehend. So I find it better to not even try to measure it."
"I see. Well I must ask that nothing like this ever happen while you are here again. We cannot afford to have our shinobi squabbling amongst one another. This is a stressful time for this village, we have been on a high alert in all aspects ever since Orochimaru's invasion and just one public disturbance may be enough to send the village into an uproar. I cannot afford that."
"You have my word then Tsunade-sama that I will do everything within my . . ." Toshida then throws his voice as he directs it to the trees behind him where Kakashi remains hidden from the angry Tsunade, "AND IN KAKASHI'S POWER!" Kakashi then cringes yet again as he thinks of his possible punishment. "To ensure that something like this doesn't happen again."
"Very well then. When he comes out of hiding, tell Kakashi to see me in my office. Goodbye for now Toshida." Tsunade then takes her leave of the sin shinobi and returns to her office with Sakura following in behind.
Meanwhile, as Maea and Toragai make their way over to Toshida, who has called a gathering of the four sin shinobi, Keinea is left with a new development that has caught his attention. "Something is not right here. If I wanted to pull away from Toragai, it should have been no problem at all. But why was it that he was so strong and I couldn't break away from his grasp?" Keinea looks to his brother who is still beckoning him to join their gathering. Keinea swipes his long trench coat off to the side and then makes his way over to his brother and teammates. As Keinea walks toward the group, more and more questions flood into his mind. "And it doesn't make any sense that the ANBU would just let him go off on a little stroll, when the village is supposed to be on a high alert? And I can sense four ANBU guards still lingering around where I cannot see them. That is different from yesterday when there were six guards following us at all times, two guards per person. Not to mention Kakashi constantly following my brother. It doesn't make much sense for the leaf to lower the amount of surveillance they are keeping on us when things around here are supposed to be so stressful and volatile. Something doesn't feel right. But unfortunately we have a lot of work to do starting today and I need to focus."
As Keinea joins the group Toshida then speaks of the duties that the four of them must embark on. "All right everyone, starting this afternoon, we need to begin what we came here to do. We are going to try and find out as much information we can about the dragon and as much information we can find that might help us in destroying it. Maea and Toragai will be assigned to searching through Tsunade-sama's medical scrolls and any other information that she may have about a procedure that may help us. The two of you will search through the documents because there is an immense amount of documentation to search through, and Maea's knowledge of medical jutsu may be useful if you two are to find something."
Toshida then looks to his younger brother with an unimpressed look on his face, still angry at his brothers disobedience. "Keinea, you will be searching through the third and fourth Hokage's personal journals to see if anything can help us there. Any knowledge that either of them may have documented about the sealing technique known as the Shiki Fuujin. Tsunade-sama tells me that it was the technique used in sealing the nine-tails."
"Which of the journals should we search through first brother?" Keinea asks with a curious look across his face.
"Start with the Fourth Hokage's journal. His time as Hokage was shorter and should make for less to search through. Also he was the developer of the technique so he may have documented how the technique is used and the seals and chakra formation needed in order to complete the jutsu. Your knowledge of sealing techniques should also help if you find anything useful."
Keinea's face turns to one of confusion at his brothers last words. "If I find it? You mean you aren't going to be searching through the documents with me brother?"
"I am afraid not brother. I have somewhere else that I need to be in order to search through all the possible information available to us. I need to search through fathers records and to see if he kept any record of the technique he used to summon the demon in the first place. Only then may I be able to figure out the complexity of the seal holding the demon in."
"WHAT!" Keinea exclaims out loud as Toshida's words catch the entire group off guard. "Where the hell are you going to find fathers files? The house was destroyed years ago. There is nothing left to search through. We looked through it ourselves before we destroyed it!"
"I know brother. We searched it ourselves so we know that his documents weren't there. Which means that they must have been left behind when we moved. He probably figured he didn't need them after leaving, but I remember father taking detailed notes when I was younger and mother once told me that he has done that for as long as she had known him. So I know that they are there . . . I just have to go back there and find them."
Keinea's look of surprise only intensifies as the realization finally hits him. "Then you mean you're going back . . ."
"Yes brother . . . I'm going back . . . to the village of sin."
Meanwhile, in the village of the hidden cloud, the Raikage remains pacing back and forth in the main room of his palace. Several guards stand on alert around the room and they are all sure to remain as quiet as possible because the Raikage is in a fowl mood. Ever since departing the wave country after the festivities were brought to an abrupt halt, he has sent out numerous brigades and scouts in the surrounding areas and even smaller scouting groups into other countries all in search of Toshida and his team. The wave country has been crawling with reporters and shinobi, hunter nins and personal bodyguards all trying to make sense out of what happened, making the team from the Sin's mission to simply disappear all that much easier.
Suddenly the Raikage's impatient pacing is brought to an end as the doors of the palace's main hall open wide to show a group of five men all wearing dark blue cloaks with the cloud insignia brandished on their forehead protectors. The man leading the group holds something in his left hand as he makes his way toward the Raikage.
The Raikage breathes a sigh of relief as he see's that the shinobi have not come empty handed. "Finally Kambei, I was starting to think that you had gotten lost. You had better be bringing me good news because I am having just about enough disappointments for one day."
The cloud shinobi lowers his head in respect and lets out a sigh of frustration as he unfortunately has no good news for the Raikage. "Our search part found nothing Raikage-sama. We found tracks leading to the shores of the wave country and what looks like a camp site that was recently used. Unfortunately if they used a boat to get wherever they were going the possibility of us successfully tracking them is virtually zero. There are miles of coastline to search along just the thunder country alone. And we cannot send a large enough search party into the fire country to search all of the coastlines without drawing some unneeded suspicion from the leaf village. If we were to send a small undercover detachment into the village we would only be able to search a small area at a time and by then their trail would be too compromised to continue any kind of search."
The Raikage sits down in his decadent throne-like chair and rests his head in the palms of his hands, tired and frustrated with all of the problems being put before him. "This is not good." The Raikage thinks to himself, "If the knowledge that Toshida possesses was to get out to the public in any of the countries, I would lose all support from my countrymen and possible advocation at the hands of the Daimyo, and maybe even prison time if it was all to get out. I will not let that kid ruin my life or my career." The Raikage turns his angered attention back to the newly arrived search party.
"I want him found immediately. I don't care where you have to go, I don't care what you have to do, and I don't care who you have to use to do it. I want Akira Toshida and his teammates found or all of you will be severely punished. When you leave this palace, you will not return until you have Akira Toshida in custody, or you bring me his corpse!"
"I understand Raikage-sama. I have another development as well though." Kambei said, now stuttering and concerned.
"Well at this point Kambei it had better be good."
"I am afraid it is sort of two-sided Raikage-sama. My team met up with Seshen's team just south west of the Cloud village about twelve hours ago."
"Ah yes, and what did my son have to say Kambei? Did he have any leads as to where Toshida and his group have gone?"
"I am afraid not Raikage-sama."
"Then why the hell are you telling me this Kambei? You waste your own time and mine, SPEAK!" The Raikage stands up from his chair and towers over the now frightened shinobi as the throne stands on a pedestal several inches above the ground.
"Seshen's team found Shin-san and the missing genin from the village!" The shinobi says, having had enough of the Raikage's intimidation.
The Raikage sits back down in his chair having heard the first good news all day. "Is that so? Where did they find them? And where are they now?"
"They found the genin in one of the caves about a quarter mile into the five finger mountain ranges. They were all unconscious and still remain in a comatose state in the infirmary here in the cloud village, we brought them back with us when we returned to give our report."
"And what of Shin? I wish to speak to him as soon as possible."
The shinobi briefly cringes ever so slightly as he raises his hand revealing a cloud village head protector cracked on almost all sides and covered in a thick spattering of blood, now dried. "Seshen's team found Shin-san's body about seven miles into the same mountain range." The shinobi then pauses and takes a deep breath, lets out a loud swallow as he finishes his report. "His . . . head was found at one of our messaging stations three miles away from where his body was found. It was sealed in a package and was addressed to reach this palace. But the sending date was set to be sent after you had already left for the tournament. It seems that Toshida wanted you to receive the head just after returning home."
The Raikage lowers his head and grinds his teeth in both rage and frustration as Toshida's insulting actions prove more and more insulting, throwing the Raikage's defeat back into his face over and over again. "Thank you Kambei. You may leave now. And remember what I told you."
The five shinobi all bow before the Raikage and as they begin to take their leave of the Raikage's presence, the Raikage sternly orders that the palace hall be emptied, leaving him to be alone with his thoughts.
"EVERYONE GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" The Raikage screams, sending everyone running out of the room, closing the large golden plated doors behind them, leaving only the Raikage and several torches to light the massive hall. In the center of the hall a large fire continues to burn in large cauldron-like fire pit illuminating most of the hall. The Raikage stares into the fire for a moment before returning his attention to the bloodied head protector in his hands. With a quick swing, the Raikage sends the head protector flying across the room, landing hard on the hard marble floors before sliding for several meters before coming to a complete stop.
Back in the leaf village, Kakashi and Toshida have finished packing their supplies for the long trip back to the village of sin. The two of them stand at the large main entrance doors to the leaf village, and the sin shinobi as well as Naruto, Sakura, Gai and the Hokage are all present to see the two shinobi off.
"It will take us four days to reach the village if we keep up a steady pace." Kakashi says, to the surprise of the sin shinobi as well as the shinobi from the leaf.
"You mean you know where this village of theirs is Kakashi-sensei?" Says Sakura, still confused about her former teachers remarks.
"Of coarse he knows where the Raikou colony is." Gai interjects and offers a quick explanation to the questions being brought forth by the young shinobi. "The Raikou colony was infamous for the severe lightning storms they experienced. It made it almost impossible for anyone to travel through it. Where to you think the Raikiri (lightning edge) got its nickname?"
Kakashi winks to his former student as he sets the last buckle on his backpack. "Well then, we had better be going if we want to make good time."
"I agree Kakashi, but unfortunately it will not take us only four days to reach the colony. With the antics we pulled back at the tournament, security around the lightning country will be tripled, and they will try and kill me and anyone with me on sight."
"I see." Kakashi says as he scratches the back of his head. "What route then do you suggest that we take?"
Toshida then pulls out a map of the five countries and lays it across the ground as he shows Kakashi the route that Toshida has planned. "We will head northeast toward the shoreline just at the bordering edge of the fire country. We will then have to travel over water further northeast, staying out of range of the coastline, unless we want to be picked up by the border patrols. When we reach far enough north, we are going to run into basically nothing but thick ice. We will have to move quickly along the shoreline in an effort to reach far enough into the ice flows that we can safely move across. We are going to have to move as quickly as possible when we are actually in the thunder country to avoid detection. When we are far enough into the ice flows that we can move freely, we will arch outward, east further into the sea and then along the northern border of the thunder country. We will then move west along the border until we are just north of the colony and then move south through the mountain range until we reach our destination. The mountains are high and many, very difficult to move through, but very easy to remain undetected."
"We are heading quite a bit further north then I had hoped, and we are going to have to move across a lot of territory when we reach the northern border. What makes you so sure we won't be spotted?"
"It is too cold up there, there are no trees, no wildlife and no guard posts along the northern borders because it is simply too improbable that anyone would move along the northern borders."
"Hmmm. So cold that nothing can survive up there, and yet we are supposed to move for at least twenty-four hours along that territory?"
"Actually I would this it would be more like thirty-six hours depending on the amount of snow that we encounter."
"Well now that sounds like fun." Kakashi says sarcastically. "Well either way we had better be going."
"Agreed." Toshida turns to his teammates and says his goodbyes as he and Kakashi head out on their way. The two leap into the trees and begin making their way northeast toward the shores of the country borders. Toshida then hollers over to Kakashi, grabbing the attention of the seasoned shinobi. "Don't worry Kakashi. I already know what you are thinking. On this trip I will tell you all that you wish to know . . . about me . . . about the dragon . . . and about Tarawa Creek."
The two then continue speeding their way east at high speed, leaving the safety of the leaf village, and soon the fire country far behind them.
Back in the cloud village, the Raikage continues brooding in front of the fire in the palace's main hall. No one has entered the room for an hour, and the Hokage has not left his chair as he has remained focused on the ever rolling flames of the large fire. His attention is soon changed to a sound coming from behind him in the shadows of the massive hall. He can hear the sound of metal moving along the marble floor of the hall. The metal quickly stops moving and a brief noise of clothing like material flying through the air can be heard, ever so silent but enough to raise suspicion from the Raikage who is soon frightened as Shin's head protector lands in the fire in front of him.
"Who is there!" The Raikage demands, as his voice echoes throughout the massive hall. "I ordered this hall to be emptied and I did not want to be disturbed. Show yourself."
The Raikage searches around what he can see in the massive hall and finds only shadows and more darkness looking back at him. He quickly throws his hands together in the seal of the ram and shouts out loud "Kashoku Senkou!" (Bright light flash). He then claps his hands together sending a pulse of bright light throughout the room briefly illuminating everything in the room. As the Raikage quickly searches the room visually he sees nothing in the hall, except for a number of torches and everything that should be there with nothing unusual. No figures, no shadows, and no silhouettes can be seen.
As the light flash wears off, the room falls into darkness yet again. The Raikage remains vigilant as he begins to calm down and turns to regain his seat in the center of the room, when suddenly he can see a figure walk in front of one of the torches and then return to the shadows. The figure was that of a young man with chin length hair, spiked in the back. Nothing else was noticeable.
"Dammit! Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my hall!" The Raikage shouts out loud.
Suddenly from behind him the Raikage can hear a deep and sinister laughing coming from the shadows. As the Raikage turns around he can hear slow methodical footsteps moving toward him. As he casts of his Raikage robe, he can see a silhouette forming in the shadows, as the figure moves forward the light begins to reveal more and more. The figure wears an all black jounin style outfit with the vest and head protector but no insignia yet visible. The figure has long shoulder length hair and an earring in each ear, purple in colour and his skin is a pale white. "There is no need to get hostile Raikage-dono. You and I have something in common."
The figure's head then looks up to the face of the Raikage, and the Raikage can clearly see the bright yellow snakelike eyes and sound village head protector of the leader of the Hidden Sound village. The legendary Sannin . . . Orochimaru, smiling as he looks deep into the Raikage's eyes.
"You and I, have much to discuss."