Chapter 6 - Of Second Chances and Orange Books.
A panicked Harry's eyes widened as he realized the extent of the situation. Where the hell am I...
The elderly man must've seen the two foreigners jaws hanging open and chuckled, much to Harry's annoyance.
Galloping Gorgons!
He heard a thump besides him, and barely even registered Sirius sitting down heavily on the smooth, wooden flooring, looking just as stunned as he felt. Hell, he could barely even string two coherent words together, so wisely remained silent, thankful that his knees had stayed locked in place, even though the rest of his legs felt like overcooked noodles. There so many questions that were spinning through Harry's stunned mind that he didn't dare speak, for fear of ending up a stuttering mess. It would've seemed rather undignified, but when had The-Boy-Who-Lived ever thought about his dignity?
With a soft swirl of his red and white cloak, the man -Sarutobi, Harry believed he was called- turned away from the pair of former prisoners, and barked out yet another word of that foreign language. It sounded like an order. Both Sirius and Harry jumped at the sudden sound, and whirled around when they heard the door they had entered through slide open again. Another of those masked people with a black hooded cloak stepped into the room, stopping to bow deeply at the doorframe. He seemed to be waiting for orders, ones that Sarutobi immediately told to him. Once the venerable man had finished speaking, he turned to Harry and Sirius, who had both used the time to calm down.
"You will be taken to temporary lodging." he sounded as if he wouldn't tolerate arguments, and fortunately (or unfortunately) Harry and Sirius were in no position to suggest something else. They didn't even know the language! The fact that two strangers not speaking a word of the local language appearing rather mysteriously was indeed a big event, and not one to ignore. "I will send for someone to take you to the location of a meeting we will be having in order to discuss what will happen to you and the boy. Is this satisfactory?"
The man hadn't elaborated further on who the "we" was, but Harry had an inkling that these would be some more high-ranking officials. Both Harry and Sirius nodded to Sarutobi, and dismissed the trio with a nod. The guard bowed once more, and indicated that the rather dazed Harry and his godfather were to follow.
A few hours later the now refreshed pair were being led from a makeshift waiting room, to the location of the fate-deciding meeting. Harry felt as if he were surely about to explode. Questions were demanding to be asked, and his now revived cat-like curiosity seemed to have doubled it's efforts.
Perhaps it is excited at another chance at life.. Harry mused. After all, it is a well-known superstition that cats have quite a few lives at their disposition, and more than enough curiosity to get them neck deep in trouble.
A small smile seemed to unfreeze Harry's tense features, but it was quickly wiped away as he saw a dull, brown door looming up ahead, down the gloomy looking corridor. The sun outside was slowly reaching halfway to its highest position at noon, rising from the horizon.
Although the duo's present guard didn't seem any talkative than the others, he did act dumber (if one may say so,) and was ignoring Harry and Sirius, just to read this curious, orange, pocket sized book. A navy blue cloth masked the lower half of his face, and the strange metal headband Harry had seen on almost all of the guards was tilted, positioned so that it covered the man's left eye. He also wore slightly different clothing than that of the masked guards. A sleeveless jacked covered his upper body, and he wore node script navy blue pants with the same open toed sandals as the masked people. A small pouch hung at his waist, making Harry wonder what was kept inside. Aside from the small shoe noises and the occasional giggle of the grey-haired guard, no other noises were heard but the muffled on goings of the city life outside the building. The guard's book must've been funny.
When the trio stopped in front of the imposing door, the still reading guard knocked lightly and opened it, waiting that both Harry and Sirius were inside the room before closing it silently behind them all. Sirius politely nodded his thanks to the man, before turning to face the rest of the room. A large round table was set up in the middle, with nine, maybe ten people sitting around. All of them looked very impressive, and the ominous silence present in the room was easily palpable, making Harry feel slightly claustrophobic.
There was one man in particular who caught young Harry's eye. Although there was nothing special about his clothing or his general look, besides the man's long, silky black hair that resembled Lucius Malfoy's (a little longer and neatly tied back,) the one thing that really stood, were his white eyes. Although his face showed Harry no external expression, the man's eyes made him shiver. They seemed like ice, but deadlier. Next to him, there was a rather beefy person, with chubby cheeks to match, but despite his appearance, there was nothing funny about him either. Or any other person in the room, for the matter.
What a chilly audience… Harry thought.
The Old man- whom Harry had heard called a multitude of different names- stood up and motioned to Harry and Sirius to sit in the two empty seats on his left. He then turned to the grey-haired guard, (with a very displeased expression on his face, twitching eyebrow and all, Harry noted,) and started yelling at him furiously, spit and robes flying. And judging from the bored and annoyed looks of the other observants in the room including the grey-haired guard being yelled at, this was not a new thing.
Once the old man had finished his angry tirade, the younger whipped out of his pocked his little, orange book, and was gone in a whirl of leaves and smoke. Sarutobi massaged the bridge of his nose, muttered something, and sat down, nearly immediately focussing back to the more pressing matter.
The meeting had begun.
"You're LATE!" Two voices -one boy and one girl- shouted at a man.
This was in fact the very same person who had been given the task to accompany the two bewildered foreigners from the guest wing to the meeting room in the main administrative building, had arrived three hours late, andto the Hokage's disgust, had arrived reading his revolting, orange pornography books. The venerable man had almost blown his top when he had seen the lazy Jounin arriving to the scene, reading that paperback book, and not looking the least bit guilty. The Hokage also knew exactly what was printed inside those innocent looking orange covers, as did almost every other person attending the meeting.
" Um. I had to help save a kid who was trapped in a flaming building and my clothes got burnt, so I had to go change-" The man, had a notorious tendency to arrive late to any place he was supposed to be, and always had the most ridiculous, laughable excuses. Of course, these didn't sound very funny to either of the three teenagers fuming at him, having heard this kind of thing so often that they were fully prepared to rip their hair out- Yes! Even the girl!
"LIAR!" The pair screamed, at the end of their nerves.
The grey-haired man seemed to once again shrug the insult off, and calmly took his battered, orange paperback out of his pocket. "Now team, we'll be trying out a new training technique." He paused for suspense "Cleaning out the Konoha river!"
"Kakashi-sensei..." A high-pitched, whiny voice groaned.
Regardless of the ground of the training area the blonde boy sat down with a thump, completely disregarding what the dusty ground would do to his precious orange jumpsuit. After all, he only had three outfits, not counting his four other miscellaneous shirts, socks and undergarments. His face was shaped in an agonized expression that even the coldest mother would have trouble resisting. The proud boy was practically begging on his knees, but still his teacher didn't do or feel a thing. Kakashi's unfortunately high resistance to this sort of thing was at such extravagant levels because he was a pervert.
-And his nose was currently buried in his orange Icha Icha Paradise.
Peering at his blonde student, he book marked the page he was on with his thumb and pointed the way to the river, his uncovered eye upturned, expressing his happiness that day. "Your job Naruto, not mine."
"Aaaww. Kakashi-sensei…" Naruto begged, ignored even by his own teammates. This seemed to be a frequent occurrence. "Couldn't be do just an itty-bitty C-Class mission? I'm sure even Sakura wants to do one too..."
The pink-haired girl was unhappy at being (once again) dragged into the conversation. "Naruto. Just shut up and do what Sensei tells you." She huffily re-arranged her red outfit, flicked her hair, and turned towards the third and last Genin member of the team with an adoring look in her eyes. "Sasuke-kun doesn't want to be kept waiting."
Sasuke, the black-haired boy dressed in navy blue nondescript clothing, didn't even bother to reply properly.
A "Hn." which could have easily been a no, or him clearing his throat was the only answer, and was translated to an affirmative yes by Sakura, who then turned to Naruto and shoot him the I-was-right-and-you-aren't look.
Growling, the now standing Genin stood and started walking sullenly, followed by his teammates; the pink-haired Haruno Sakura and the silent Uchiha Sasuke. This recently formed trio of mismatched children's teamwork was disastrous, if awful at best when it came to missions. This currant clean-the-Konoha-river mission was going to be no different. Sakura, being the only girl, had a crush on only one of the males of the cell and it was only natural for the lucky one to be Sasuke. Sasuke himself didn't talk, apart from the occasional "Hn." He was as secretive and silent as they get.
It was up to Kakashi to force them to work together, and work he made them do.
Kakashi of course, sat on his spot-on-the-boulder, and meditated the out come of the chapter he was reading in his beloved Icha Icha Violence. This by his standards (only) was supervising his Genin team. Naruto could have drowned, and the Jounin would have remained on his boulder, still reading his little orange book.
His ruminations about Chapter Thirteen (titled "Ayame's Date") could have rambled a long time, if not for the questions that nagged him about the strangers. They, strangely enough didn't speak a word of Japanese. This alone was astonishing. The other conspicuous things were their clothing, looks, that they didn't seem to carry a single weapon, (concealed or not) and the fact that they walked so noisily spoke volumes: these people weren't ninjas. Perhaps merchants or some other remote profession, but what kind of merchant in Fire Country didn't speak Japanese?
Sarutobi - The Third Hokage's name. He has other names that he goes by: Old Man, The Teacher Hokage, The Third, Hokage-sama, Sarutobi-sama. Etc. He is a kind, elderly man, and probably not the strongest of the village any more, but he is the Hidden Leaf's chosen leader. (The Fourth Hokage was killed defending the village, and so The Third had to take his old position back.)
The Fourth Hokage - The Fourth, The Fire Shadow, Yondaime. Not much is known about the deceased Fourth Hokage. The Fourth sacrificed his life to seal Kyuubi, the Nine Tailed fox demon into a child, and to save Hidden Leaf.
Hatake Kakashi - Ranked a Jônin Instructor, has previously been part of an Anbu team. A true genius. Possesses the Bloodline Ability Sharingan, hence the nickname "Copy-cat Kakashi." (Acquired) Loves to read his perverted orange book.
Icha Icha Paradise, Icha Icha Violence? - Come Come Paradise, Come Come Violence, and an unknown novel, are all part of a trilogy (or series) that is the favourite of many-a- Konoha Shinobi, Namely The Third, Kakashi.. The Cover of said books is orange, and they are pocket sized, for the readers' convenience. The author is the famous Sennin Jiraya, one perverted old man, but very powerful.
Sharingan - A Bloodline Abillity that allows the user to "see" his/her opponent's actions ahead of time, and also allows them to copy and learn taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu. Only the Uchiha Clan posses this ability, and Uchiha Sasuke is the last living Uchiha to remaining faithful to Konoha. His brother, Itachi is an S-Class Missing-Nin because of his slaughtering the Uchiha Clan. Hatake Kakashi's best friend (an Uchiha) gave him one of his eyeballs on his deathbed, and Kakashi possesses one Sharingan eye. (His left.) There are different "levels" when using the Sharingan: No "comma" marks, One, Two, Three. (I am unsure of the higher levels.)
Fire Country - An area of the "Naruto World" where Konohagakure is located.