Disclaimer: You should know by now that I don't own Naruto or its characters. If you ever thought I did, you're not intelligence enough to read this fiction and should hide yourself where society will not be hindered by your presence. Go work for Apple or something.
Debasing Grovel: Please, be kind and review. I'd review for you, if I read something you wrote.
Vocab: For those of you who aren't aware, "shinobi" means "ninja", whereas "kunoichi" means "female ninja". "Ninjutsu" means "ninja technique" and refers to the elemental attacks and enhancement techniques used by shinobi. Examples of this would be the rasengan, the Shadow Imitation technique, and Sasuke's fire techniques. "Genjutsu" means "illusionary technique", such as Kurenai's Tree Bind technique. "Taijutsu" means "combat technique", such as those used by Rock Lee.
Legacy
Chapter Three- The Annexation
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
-Phillip S. Dick
The fire, as though complaining that the dancing had stopped, roared and crackled loudly to spite the awkward silence that came once Kiba had finished his explanation. Naruto sat, fists clenched, tears streaming down his face, unwilling to face any one of those around him.
"You understand now," Shino finally queried, "why it is you are said to have abandoned Konoha?"
"I left for my own strength," Naruto replied through his dry sobs, showing surprising insight.
"Anything could, and did, happen to the village after you departed. You left the village to its fate and went to seek power from the Sannin."
"Shino, stop," Tenten said, more than sympathetic to Naruto. Besides, they needed him.
"Actually, he might have saved us with that act of selfishness." Kiba grinned in the darkness as the eyes of all present turned to him in confusion.
"What do you mean?" Tenten asked incredulously, now feeling a valid part of the conversation.
"Tenten, have you noticed anything about the genin from the years surrounding our graduation?"
Tenten, Lee, and Naruto all thought about this question in silence, but before they had a chance to come up with anything really profound Kiba interrupted their thoughts.
"Genius!" he declared, throwing open his arms. "Shino and I have talked about it, and we've noticed that the genius of every clan, every clan, was born between twenty and twenty-five years ago. The records call it the Genius Generation."
"Genius Generation? Who thought up a stupid name like that?"
"Tsunade-sama."
"Oh…heh…" Tenten shut up, no longer feeling entirely happy with how this conversation was turning on her.
"But anyway, it's become increasingly clear to those who pay attention," Kiba pointed out, referring in his own mind to Shino and Shikamaru, who had first brought this to his attention, "that the representatives of the older generation were comparatively much weaker than their children. I took the title of Inuzuka Chieftain at the age of fifteen. When Sasuke took over, Shino was carrying with him almost double the number of kikai bugs that his father had. Chouji's father wouldn't survive the Red Pepper pill their clan created, but it wasn't even enough to kill Chouji at age twelve! And Naruto…" Kiba's eyes turned slyly to the blonde boy who sat bewildered beside him, "your father made our parents look like insects."
"My…father?" Naruto asked, backing away from Kiba slowly for reasons even he didn't quite understand.
"Jiraiya-sama didn't tell you?" Shino asked, concerned.
"Tell me what?"
"Naruto," Kiba interrupted, not wanting to lose his audience, "your father, the Fourth Hokage, may have been the most powerful shinobi in history."
Naruto's head whirled. He breathed slowly, a trick he had learned from Jiraiya, to keep his heart rate down. Slowly, he regained his composure and turned to Shino.
"He was my father?"
"Yes, Naruto-san" the Aburame answered, worried that Jiraiya had withheld this information from Naruto.
"How do you know?"
"Records. Census. Kakashi-san knew all along and was instructed not to tell you."
"KAKASHI-SENSEI! WHERE IS HE!"
"In the village, Naruto-san, along with everybody else."
Naruto calmed down a bit. He looked around curiously, thinking over this prospect of a generation of geniuses. The shinobi around him- Lee, Tenten, Shino, Kiba- they really were amazingly strong compared to their parents. Kiba, seeing him look around, did likewise, but suddenly realized something.
"Where's Hinata?"
The others, taken from the dramatic moment that had nicely built up, began to look around. Warily, Hinata stepped out from behind a tree and into the firelight. Her white eyes were stained red. She had clearly been crying profusely, but smiled gaily as she took her seat between Kiba and Shino.
"I'm sorry, I…I thought I heard something, and I went to see what it was," she lied quietly, not bothering to look at Naruto. Her hands shook in her lap. Shino, knowing that she'd be bothersome if left in this state all night, lifted his gaze to Kiba.
"Kiba, thank you for explaining the situation to Naruto-san. Please, take Hinata aside for a moment and tend to her."
"Sh-Shino-kun, I'm fine…"
"Kiba, please." Shino's gaze remained firm behind his sunglasses. Kiba, not knowing what else to do, stood with a stupefied look and led Hinata by the shoulders into the woods.
"Oh, that's just great," Tenten moaned, reclining on the grass.
"What?" Lee asked, understanding almost everything until that comment.
"You send those two off into the woods, Hinata-chan a stir of emotions and Kiba all high-and-mighty from his little speech. Geez, Shino, next time just rent them a hotel room." Tenten pulled a twig out of the grass and threw it into the fire, ignoring Lee's disappointed gaze.
"Tenten, you underestimate Kiba," he proclaimed, his eyes closed and finger in the air as if reciting some passage. "He is an honorable man worthy to be my rival. He would not take advantage of Hinata-san's emotional instability."
"Wait, are those two dating?" Naruto asked, looking between Tenten and Lee. The pair looked at each other and blushed, quickly stammering out some half-thought rebuttals.
"Lee-san and I were just talking like friends, Naruto! There's nothing like that going on!" Tenten insisted, waving her hands to show the ridiculousness of his comment.
"Uh…I was…uh…talking about Kiba and Hinata-chan…"
"Oh," Tenten sighed, blushing just a bit more than before. "No, they're not. At least, they've convinced each other that they're not."
"Huh?"
"Kiba has insisted that his feelings toward Hinata-san are like those to his sister," Lee offered, "and Hinata-san is persistent that Kiba is merely a friend."
"Do you believe either of them?" Naruto growled, a knowing look in his eye.
"No," all three remaining shinobi replied in unison.
Yamanaka Ino stalked through the derelict, unkempt sector of Hokage Tower. In an old, dusty room, reeking of liquor and with an incomprehensible feeling of bad luck, she found a sleepy corner with a loose floor tile. She moved the tile and reached inside, and what she brought out was stunning.
Dozens of expensive, leather-wrapped scrolls, with such labels as "Advanced Theses on Herbal Toxicology" and "The Identification of Natural Variables in the Removal of Poisons." It was extremely exciting, and the daunting task of actually reading these manuscripts seemed a merry chore.
"Tsunade-sama, you're the best! No, not Tsunade, Shikamaru!"
"WHAT THE HELL!"
A shrill, frightened voice called out from the door to the unused room Ino was crouching in. The kunoichi looked up to see Sakura standing in the light from the hall, shocked.
"Oh, hello Sakura," Ino said smoothly.
"Wha…how…the…"
"Oh, these? Just a hunch. I was wandering through this part of the building, and I turned to look around in this room," Ino fabricated. She knew that Sakura didn't buy a word of it, and somehow that made the situation more delicious. "I saw an interesting-looking line in the floor over in the corner, and when I pulled at it I found this little treasure. Isn't that great?"
Sakura looked at what Ino had found. It seemed that all the scrolls were the medical texts she had hidden, nothing of her own personal possessions. If Ino could be deterred from looking any further, Sakura might escape with her life.
"Well, Ino, I'd say you've really hit the jackpot. 'Healing Reagents Formed in Garden Plants,' eh?" Sakura played along, glancing at one of the titles. "I just hope Saskue-sama buys your story."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you just happened to be in this area, and just happened to find the texts that could save his life? A little convenient."
"Well, there could always be alternate explanations, Sakura…"
"Say, Ino, whose job was it to look search this area of Tsunade's library when it was being salvaged?"
Ino froze. That was why Sakura chose this location. She could make Ino look like a traitor without breaking a sweat.
"I…see your point…Sakura…" Ino concurred slowly. "Perhaps I should just take these and go. I'm sure I could get some use out of them."
"I won't tell anybody," Sakura whispered, amused. "It can be our little secret. I'll clean up the corner, you go and stash those someplace more convenient so you can get to them easily."
"Right," Ino agreed simply to get Sakura to stop talking. She gathered the collection of literature in her arms and walked briskly out of the room, her elation properly dulled by this encounter.
"AAAAAAAAHHH!"
Once they were out of earshot of the others, Hinata's emotions burst once again. She grabbed hold of Kiba's furry coat and buried her face in his chest, weeping aloud. Kiba put his arms around her shoulders, evaluated exactly how long this outburst would last, and, in response, leaned against a tree for support. This would take a while.
"Na…Na…ruto…kun…the…he…AAAH!" she finally managed, though this was all Kiba could discern for a while. Eventually her sobs subsided, and the two figures just stood there silently against the tree. Kiba had made himself quite comfortable, brushing some of the more uncomfortable flakes of bark from behind his shoulders. Hinata had done likewise, cuddling herself into Kiba's large fur coat. The jacket he had sported as a child had gotten far too small, and this one suited him much better.
"I'm sorry….Kiba-kun…" Hinata finally whimpered out, careful not to start crying again.
"It's okay, Hinata."
"It's just that…he…"
"You love him," Kiba offered, bluntly and tactlessly. Hinata gasped, tears welling up in her eyes once again as she looked painfully at Kiba's sad, disappointed face. He looked at the ground, understanding Hinata's actions and rather angry with himself.
"No…I…I DON'T KNOW!" A deep breath later and Hinata was back to square one, screaming and holding even tighter to Kiba for she was sure she had offended him somehow. Kiba purposed to knock aside a little branch that had been in his way the first time around, and when he had he was able to comfortably rest his head against a thicker low-lying branch a few inches away. After a few moments he realized how cold he was being and, ashamed of such thoughtless actions, rested his chin atop Hinata's head. The girl's crying subsided to a quiet, sad whine, muffled by a coat of thick fur and two caring arms.
"I don't know," a distant voice proclaimed, then was swallowed once again by distance.
"Are you sure he knows what he's doing?" Naruto asked, unsure of how he felt about the perpetual quiet that was Hinata suddenly bursting out in what appeared to be desperation.
"Kiba can handle himself," Shino said thoughtfully, "and he can assuredly handle Hinata. Now, Naruto-san, where is Jiraiya-sama?"
"He was right next to me when I arrived…"
"He's not there now. Kiba and Hinata went that same way, and he would have noticed something."
"Then…where is he?"
Shino raised an eyebrow. With age usually came wisdom. "I was hoping you could tell me."
"Oh, right! Well, I guess he left…"
Shino, having exhausted what little patience he had been graced with at birth, sat on his stump and stared thoughtfully at the fire. Naruto would certainly be a fine addition to their ranks, but he simply couldn't see himself tolerating someone of such low mental facilities for very long. "Do you know where he would go?" Shino queried, feeling adventurous.
"Not really…Oh! He said that we'd go to the Sand and the Grass soon, but he never said when."
"He's probably gone to vie for political support. He's just the kind of person to think of something like that."
At that very moment, the Kosaka Hot Spring Hotel and Bar welcomed back, after nearly six years, its best customer since its founding. The local massage parlor was phoned to announce his arrival, as was their nearest sake dealer. The dark days were over. The Frog Hermit was back.
Naruto secretly suspected that Jiraiya had skipped town, but kept such suspicions to himself. He had long ago learned not to doubt the old pervert. "So, what is it you guys actually do?"
"Do?" Lee replied. "We don't do a whole lot, I guess. A supply train comes to Konoha every month or so, we raid it and take anything medical, then go back to the woods."
Naruto sat for a moment, vacant.
"Sasuke sends ANBU after us. Or, to be more precise, Shikamaru sends them to us. We fight them off. We have the tactical advantage, obviously, but after such harassment we don't have the energy or strength to do much else," Shino explained, wishing Kiba was there to supplement information for their guest. "This is enough to wear down Konoha's defenses. When the timing is right, we'll make a move on Hokage Tower and kill Sasuke."
"How? If Sasuke's as strong as you say he is then nothing is going to be able to stop him."
"The poison," Tenten said with an empty voice. "The poison makes it painful for him to move. He can't use taijutsu anymore. Even hand seals are difficult for him. He surrounds himself with Hyuuga bodyguards so nobody can tell, but he's actually gotten quite weak."
"Then why don't the others…"
"Genjutsu," Lee said, knowing Naruto's question before he even asked. "His Sharingan gives Sasuke illusionary techniques that nobody could break out of. Even making eye contact is lethal. That's why the Hyuuga are so eager to be on his side. They have a very wide range of vision even without their Byakugan, and it makes fighting without making eye contact nearly impossible."
"So, who…"
"Kiba," both Tenten and Lee said, each not expecting the other to answer.
"Kiba?"
"Yes, Kiba," Lee confirmed after a moment to clarify that Tenten was not going to answer. "He's been training with the older techniques of the Inuzuka. He can fight without seeing his opponent."
Naruto thought for a moment. "That's a pretty fragile loophole."
Lee, taken aback by the undeniable truth of this statement and rather impressed that Naruto came up with it, just nodded and shrugged.
Ino hummed merrily as she ground the various components of her plant in a mortar. The cure had been right in front of her for so long that she wondered how she could have missed it. It required some of her rarer, more expensive plants, but it was there. There were a few variables, obviously, but none of them seemed dangerous. The texts from Tsunade didn't identify any of the substances involved as particularly harmful.
She dumped the pulpy mixture into one of her flasks, flooded it with fresh water, and added a small pepper. Slowly, the mixture turned a dark reddish color, and when it had Ino siphoned the top few inches out of it into a smaller vial. This she carried to a small cage containing several white mice, none of which seemed the least bit healthy. Only minutes before they had been injected with Kabuto's poison, and they were entering the first stage of the deterioration. They only had an hour or so to live. Or, at least, they would, if not given the cure.
Carefully, Ino pushed a few drops of the herbal concoction into the mouth of every single mouse. She ran to her table and giddily grabbed her clipboard, certain that on it she would record the best news of her life.
In the four seconds she had been missing, each of the mice had entered violent convulsions. They died mere seconds later.
Ino stopped breathing for a moment. She had done everything right. This had to be the cure, or there wasn't one. Why did the mice die from it?
She got a new flask, new plants and new water. She did the same thing again. The same result. She gave the cure to a healthy mouse. Same result.
In a fit of disappointment and rage, she smashed the flask and fell to her knees, sobbing mightily. Shikamaru glanced out of a hallway window down at the greenhouse, hearing her cries. He shook his head, apologized to her in his mind and made his way back to the office.
A tall, thin figure cuddled its knees in front of a smoldering furnace. She was unbearably cold. This was the only place in the world she wanted to be and by her good fortune she was here, and yet nothing had prepared her for this assignment.
Upstairs, Hatake Kakashi paced about his room, glaring angrily out large, luxurious bay windows at every chance. A fit of hatred took him during one pass, and he threw a nearby candlestick through one of those awful, horrid windows he looked out of every day and night.
Anko heard the noise from the basement and ran through her head the obstacle course of paperwork that would get it fixed by tomorrow. When she was done she cursed and rose to her feet. Calmly, she made her way to her office and began the forms.
Day broke on Fire Country a few hours later. Six shinobi in the wilderness stirred, having rested for what few hours remained after Kiba and Hinata's return. Shino was the first to get up and immediately felt the need to eat breakfast. He took with him a small rice ball and ran off into the woods, looking for a suitable spot from which to ambush this month's supply train.
The next to awaken was Kiba, who noted the smell of Shino and rice as his leader left for the woods. The Inuzuka stirred slowly, feeling the soft weight of Hinata's arm still clutching to his coat. She had refused to leave him the night before, her internal struggles with abandonment and disownership taking the helm, had curled up on his sleeping mat and pulled his arm around her before drifting into a silent, motionless, deathlike sleep. Fearing that having her wake up with him not there would be rather damaging to this circumstance, Kiba simply lay there, waiting for her to wake up or for Shino to return.
Before Shino could return, however, Lee and Tenten rose simultaneously. They had gotten used to spending the mornings together, working to pack in silent unison. They smiled as they did this- they always smiled in the morning. Something about not having the others around made them giddy, even when the others were simply sleeping ten feet away.
When at last Shino returned, glad for having found a proper spot to ambush that wasn't nearly as obvious as their last spot, Kiba shook Hinata until she, too, awoke, and breakfast was served. Oblivious, Naruto lay sprawled on the ground, mumbling a new variant of his Ramen Song and hoping in his dreams that Ichiraku was still there. When the others had finished their breakfasts and prepared for their attack, Kiba kicked him awake and told him to prepare.
"Where's breakfast?" Naruto mumbled sleepily, sitting up and beginning to roll up his sleeping mat.
"We're out," Kiba replied in a grunt. "We're attacking a supply train into Konoha today, so we should refresh our food supplies then.
Naruto's whines were quickly dulled by Shino's gaze, which would put just about anyone in a more respectful mood. ANBU would be on high alert, and excess talking only put them at risk. That was not something Shino was willing to tolerate.
All six of them left not long after, moving quickly and silently to the spot Shino had chosen. It was ideal- a thick overhang above the road, strong enough to support all of them and dense enough to keep prying ANBU eyes at bay. Here they waited for several painful hours, waiting for the caravan and getting Naruto to keep quiet. He finally just gave up talking as the supply train appeared in the distance, making its somber way up the road. ANBU flanked the first car, but Konoha simply couldn't afford to assign more than eight to the train itself. Four walked in front and, presumably, another four watched the rear. Attacking in the middle would man being surrounded, Shino had concluded, and so a direct assault was their best bet.
"Lee, Kiba, attack on the right. Tenten, you and I will hit the left. Naruto, get behind them and keep reinforcements at bay until we've finished with the first four. Hinata, watch for traps and be ready to heal. Don't leave this spot unless we retreat. Got it?"
"Yes, sir," a timid voice replied, though slowly gaining strength to fit the need.
Kiba gave a quick nod to Shino. He liked it when Hinata didn't have to fight.
The drivers of the caravan pulled back on the reigns of their pack animals, sitting calmly as the rebels attacked again. They knew quite well that they wouldn't be harmed so long as they stayed in their seats and didn't try anything. One of them opened a book, oblivious to the flurry of activity around him.
Shino had the easiest time of things. His attacker made a single lunge with a kunai, which the nimble Aburame was not hard-pressed to dodge. The man stumbled and fell into a bush on the edge of the road, from which a cloud of kikai bugs emerged to devour his strength. Shino merely sat back and watched the other fights, the screams of his victim providing a nice background for a battle.
Tenten began, rather than charging out into the road, by hurling kunai into the fray. Her opponent dodged the majority, but quickly let out a sharp gasp as the projectiles began to return from behind him as well. Slowly, he became aware of the wires attached to the weapons, but simply could not seem to sever any of them. Steel flew in all directions about him, occasionally making contact and opening his flesh to the warm midday air. Before too long he fell to his knees, nearly passed out from blood loss. In the flurry of knives, his fading vision picked out one, seeming to curve about him. He wasn't sure why he looked at that one in particular, but out of sheer chance it was this one that altered its course just enough to drive itself through his forehead.
Lee and Kiba were enjoying themselves thoroughly on the other side. Kiba, having honed his taijutsu speed during years of isolation and persecution, had finally reached Rock Lee's level in hand-to-hand combat. The two were rivals, champions of their chosen fields, and competed in nearly everything. Lee, viewing these competitions as a necessary way to model himself after his deceased sensei Gai, was often the initiator of such challenges, which ranged from the throwing of paper shuriken to feats of strength to near-fatal knife fights. No challenge need be issued, however, when they designed to attack a caravan. Who could dispatch their enemy first was clearly the winner.
"DOWN!" both combatants shouted simultaneously as their opponents hit the dirt. They groaned in dismay, having hoped that this fight would break the tie they had maintained for nearly a month.
"Oi," Naruto called from a bit further back in the convoy, "this driver says that the medical stuff is in the second to last cart, and that the food and supplies are in the last. There's four more ANBU guarding it, apparently, but…" He looked around at the four men the group had faced. "I guess you guys don't have a problem with ANBU, huh?" He let out a little laugh that made Tenten smile and Hinata blush.
"Kiba, Lee, go finish them off," barked Shino, nursing a small wound from one of Tenten's kunai and trying, at the same time, to keep an eye out for hidden reinforcements. The two taijutsu artists ran for the back of the caravan, but Lee stopped just out of sight of the last four ANBU. He turned to Kiba and smiled.
"Kiba, what do you say we have a little fun with these guys?"
A few moments later, the four ANBU guards drew kunai to the sound of a twig snapping in the woods. One of them leapt off into the underbrush to figure out what the sound was, but came charging back out a moment later. He was obviously frightened.
"A bear," he said as calmly as he could. "There's a bear in there."
"So go kill it," said one of the other guards, helpfully.
"But…it had…a nose."
The other three guards looked at the first with growing suspicion. "So?" prompted the same that had first questioned the man.
"It had a human nose. On its face. And human hands, and sandals. But it was a bear!"
The other guards began to laugh, and the captain walked calmly into the forest. As soon as he had disappeared from sight, his lifeless body flew from the foliage and disappeared into the darkness on the other side of the road.
"Captain!" shouted one of the ANBU guards, but the first to go into the woods just stared at the spot that had sent their commanding officer tumbling through the air. He growled a bit. "We gotta kill it," he said, drawing a second kunai in his other hand. His two comrades followed suit and began to walk cautiously toward the woods. As they were passing the first guard, who appeared still to be frozen with fear, they were stabbed viciously in the neck. Mortified, the dying guards looked at their friend, only to see his face disappear in a cloud of purple smoke. The face of a grinning Inuzuka, the symbol on his forehead protector scratched out with a single line, was their last earthly vision.
Rock Lee emerged from the woods and patted Kiba on the shoulder, impressed with how well their plan had worked. He dropped the corpse of the first guard to enter the woods with the others and brushed off his hands.
"WILL YOU TWO STOP HORSING AROUND?" Tenten called from the middle of the caravan, making her way to the back to see what was taking Kiba and Lee so long. The two waved back nervously before ransacking the medical supply cart.
"How?" Sasuke grumbled, crumpling the report in his fist. "How do they ALWAYS KNOW WHERE MY SUPPLY TRAIN IS! HOW!" In a fit of rage he overturned a large nearby sofa and let out a futile shout of rage. A moment later he fell to his knees, the strain of the effort sending waves of unbearable pain through his feeble body. "SAKURA!"
Mere moments passed as Sasuke waited for his physician to arrive. Seeing her beloved in such a state, the kunoichi ran to his side and fell to her knees. "Sasuke-sama, are you…"
"THE NEEDLE!" he shouted into her face. In a flash, Sakura produced a hypodermic and injected a clear liquid into Sasuke'' upper arm. She hadn't even finished the treatment before Sasuke stopped shuddering and a look of calm took his face. "Thank you, Sakura."
"Sasuke-sama, you shouldn't strain yourself like that. What was the problem?"
Sasuke stood and threw the crumpled report at Sakura. The girl calmly unfolded it and scanned its contents, frowning. "They knew. They always know. How do they always know, Sakura?"
"All the medical supplies," she whispered audibly.
"Five ANBU dead. Three seriously wounded. One of them, a captain, would have made it if we had any penicillin to give him. Techniques and seals only go so far, Sakura, we need supplies to keep this up." Sasuke strolled to a window and looked out over the city. "There's got to be a leak," he finally said.
"A what?"
"Somebody's telling them where our supplies are coming from. The problem with hostile takeovers, like mine, is that everybody has a motive. Everybody is a suspect."
"I'm loyal to you, Sasuke-sama," Sakura offered, rather knowing that it meant nothing to him. Surprisingly, Sasuke turned to Sakura and offered a brief, condescending smile.
"I know, Sakura. Thank you. That will be all."
Sakura kept from giggling as she backed out of the room respectfully.
"Oh, we dance free 'neath star and tree with gluttony and lust.
Our masters died and so we've tried to find ones we can trust.
But apathy has taken me, so I'll take another drink,
Of ale and then we'll dance again and of others never think!"
A voice familiar to the woods rang out in reverberation. Kiba sat on the side and drummed out a beat for the others to dance by, not feeling particularly merry. He had even required coaxing to sing at all. He wasn't fond of Naruto, a fact that was becoming increasingly clear to him, and he found the rebellion's foreseeable dependence on him to be a cruel irony. He wished Tenten and Lee weren't so close so, maybe, Lee would dance with Hinata instead of Naruto. At least he knew he could trust Lee.
Hinata appeared to be enjoying herself. The easygoing mindset of Naruto seemed to tell her that everything was okay, that the past eight years hadn't happened at all and that she shouldn't stay out too late because she'd be training with Kurenai-sensei early the next morning. None of these things were true, obviously, but she desperately wished them to be, and so being around Naruto gave her a wonderful, comfortable feeling that she simply could not get over. Every now and then, though, as she danced, she would catch a glimpse of Kiba pretending that he wasn't watching her. The feeling she got from him was just as wonderful, but at the same time entirely different. From him came an overwhelming sense that, though the world was a frightening, dangerous place, she was safe from it all because he was there. More importantly, she could tell he, if not loved, then was completely loyal to her and would let nothing of the world's evil harm her.
Shino shuttered. They were a lot of drunken fools doing a lot of drunken nonsense. He could sense some conflict between Kiba and Hinata, but the amount of pointlessness he had noted that evening had already exceeded the amount he was willing to shuffle and sort through and he dismissed it as excess foolishness.
Tenten and Lee, however, simply could not pry their gazes from one another. This was another of those things they just always seemed to do together because it was better that way; the firelight, the song, the beautiful evening just was not quite as idyllic as it would be with the two of them together. Kiba, as if he were one to talk on the subject, mocked Lee often for not announcing his feelings for the girl, who obviously reciprocated them with vigor. He did this less and less of late, ever since Lee would bring up Hinata's growing affection for him. Usually, they would simply accept that they were both fools and drink to their foolishness.
To Naruto, this whole business with rebellion seemed like a very elaborate excuse for these five to hang out in the woods, cause problems and drink. He, of course, was not aware of Konoha's dwindling defenses, Sasuke's growing frailty, and the vital importance of the rebellion to the morale of the shinobi that remained in the village under fear of Sasuke's wrath. He was entirely aware, however, of the fat that Hinata had gotten some inches taller in his absence, and that she seemed to be enjoying his presence. Oblivious he danced to the throaty voice of the very man who wished him a fair distance from that very spot at that very moment.
Kiba had a profound sense of irony.
Shikamar walked about the tenth floor, the chambers of Sasuke's inner circle, looking very much as though he belonged there. His own quarters were on seventh floor, but very few people bothered to remember that as he walked by, waving a lazy wave that always made the others laugh. He didn't care much about his lethargic reputation at that moment, though. Sakura had gone to the market to retrieve various supplies from the near-empty stockroom of the local chemist to help make up for those lost in the supply train attack. Shikamaru nonchalantly entered her quarters, making damn sure nobody was watching as he did. Exiting would be tricky, but getting in was no problem if he was cautious.
Moving as cautiously as he could around the various objects, clothes and papers, strewn across Sakura's floor, Shikamaru approached a small crack in the far wall, obscured by shadow. From this he produced a small book, tied with pink string. He slid the thread off and opened to the most recent date, having already extracted as much information as he could from the earlier entries.
August 3rdIno, somehow, found my cache of herbal medical journals from Tsunade-sensei. I blackmailed her to make sure she didn't notice anything else in that storage space, but the puzzle of how she found it is one I cannot get off of my mind. I think it may have something to do with Neji, who seems to be watching everything I do despite his friendly attitude toward Ino and I. It's just the sort of thing he'd do, sending Ino in to investigate rather than telling Sasuke-sama. Neji's a good man.
I can't seem to separate the curing agent from the hemoglobin-disintegrating agent from my recent attempts at a cure, so I've scrapped it. Tsunade-sensei once told me of the healing power of other, natural toxins, so I'll have to ask Ino if she has any nightshade or hemlock I could use. Neji will question this as well, but I have the reports to back it up. It should pose no problem.
I'm getting more and more suspicious of Shikamaru. He's been under a lot of suspicion from Neji lately for the thefts of thirteen scrolls, some of which contained very high-level techniques. I heard from Mai-chan that Neji brought Sasuke-sama to Shikamaru's office a couple of days ago and accused him of sending the scrolls to the rebels through Chouji-san, but Sasuke-sama wasn't convinced. Neji was out of line- Sasuke-sama knew right away that Shikamaru didn't do anything like that. All the same, I'm not going to tell him anything important to Sasuke-sama's cure, just in case he gets any ideas.
"Oh, you think so, Sakura?" Shikamaru chuckled to himself. He replaced the string and the book, pulled a small vial from his jacket and gave the flasks in Sakura's work space the same treatment Ino's had gotten. He made a mental note to thank his supplier for managing to keep this practice feasible.
His work finished, Shikamaru stood and walked to Sakura's door. The moment he placed his hand on the brass handle, a small rattle sounded in the empty stone hallway. Shikamaru heard a quiet "Shh," from the other side of the door, recognizing it instantly as Neji's voice. Horrified, the Nara ran from the door to the window, looking down at the drop of more than thirty meters and knowing he stood a better chance with that than with Neji. He tried to force himself through the slit-like window, listening desperately to the footfalls in the hallway as Neji approached. In one final grasp at life, Shikamaru ran to the center of the room and looked around for anything of aid.
Neji opened the door to the room he knew to be Sakura's, but stopped short when he saw what was going on. Shikamaru was crouched in the middle of the floor, looking intently at a graduated cylinder pilfered from Sakura's worktable. Puzzled, he stammered out a few words.
"Shikamaru…-sama…what?"
"Oh, hello, Neji-san," Shikamaru replied, still staring at the glass tube standing on the floor. He knew he couldn't look Neji in the eyes, lest his guilt in all things be revealed.
"What are you doing?" Neji finally came up with, preparing to fetch Sasuke.
"Studying," he replied. "This room faces west, and all the other rooms are shadowed by the trees or buildings by this time of evening. I'm judging shadow length at this floor at this time of night. It's something I have to know in case we're attacked."
Neji, surprised with the comprehensiveness of this response, glanced out the window at the setting sun and then back at Shikamaru. "Does Sakura-sama know you're doing this?"
"No," Shikamaru confessed, "and I'd rather hoped she wouldn't find out. She normally wouldn't grant me access to her room, even if it were for Sasuke-sama's benefit. If we are invaded, I'll have to fight, too, you know."
"Y…yes, Shikamaru-sama. I won't say anything."
"Thank you, Neji-san. I appreciate that." He stood and smiled, replacing the graduated cylinder whose shadow he had been studying. "Well, that's all for today, anyhow, so I may as well get going. Have a nice day, Neji-san."
"You…too…"
Shikamaru left a stupified Neji in the hallway, brushing politely past the Hyuuga guard he had been talking to. Neji, seeing no crime Shikamaru could commit while in Sakura's room, simply shrugged and went back to his friend. Shikamaru was behaving oddly, and he would take note of it for later.
An hour later Sakura returned to find a small, puzzling note pinned to her door.
Sakura-sama,
Please allow Shikamaru-sama access to your room and facilities if requested for defensive purposes.
-Neji