Chapter 6: Dangerous minds part 3
Konohamaru fought as hard as he could under the blood, he grabbed Both of Orochimaru's arms with his hands. Planting his feet at the bottom of the tank, he pushed up, trying to lift his head out of the liquid. Beside the fact he was literally going crazy under there, he was ready to pass out from lack of air.
Finally Orochimaru let go of him, too suddenly though, instead of just coming to the surface regularly Konohamaru jump out with all his strength. He grabbed on to Orochimaru by the waist, but immediately lifted his hands to the man's neck. Konohamaru lost control of himself for that moment, moving so frantically and quickly that Orochimaru didn't realize what happening until a blood soaked Konohamaru was attempting to strangle him.
'Fast little' Orochimaru grabbed Konohamaru by the head and pulled him out. He was about to drop him back in to the tank but he flinched when the cage to the ventilation shaft next to the tank flew past his head.
"What's wrong Gai-sensei?" Lee asked.
Gai had to glance back to see which one asked, there was no defiant way to tell the two Lee's apart unless looking at them. This time it seemed it was the Lee from the past. Shikamaru even had problems telling the two apart though he didn't seem to want to, there was some solace in the fact there was two Lee's now.
"Something's not right..." Gai looked around the darkening skies of Konoha, more storm clouds had spanned over the city from the east. They were thick enough to rival the last Chakra infused storm that hit Konoha, in a way it was the same storm because this one and the ones that follow in the next few weeks were directly caused by it. Luckily meteorology technology was advanced enough to tell them that the storm came in waves, it was going to get much worse bit they could prepare.
But that wasn't it, though he could barely see anything with the clouds already covering the sun he still looked around for the change. The 3 of them were out side where the Garage used to be, attempting to salvage what they could on Gai's day off... He lifted his hand to his chin thoughtfully "It's my day off..."
"Yes? What dose that have to do with anything?" Shikamaru asked, he was laying peacefully on the grass taking his break.
"It's my day off...it's never this quiet on my day off." Gai's gaze slowly drifted up towards the sky while he thought.
Shikamaru and Past Lee looked over at Future Lee, who only shrugged in confusion. "It's not quiet, there's a storm right over us." He pointed out, the howl of the wind was starting to become almost deafening along with the distant thunder rolling over them.
Something seemed to click at the moment, Gai immediately realized what was off about this moments. "Your right Lee the storm is almost directly over us." Gai reached behind him and pulled a radio off his waist band, it was green with a few different buttons knobs along with a retractable antenna. It's most defining future was the round green screen showing radar, it could be set to detect anything from motion to missiles.
It wasn't detecting anything right now.
"So why don't I hear my radio." Gai flipped around with the switches and knobs attempting to get a signal.
"The reception's probably bad because of the storm." Future Lee said with a shrug, he didn't see what Gai was getting so worked up about.
"That's just it." Gai shook the radio a little and extended the antennae. "If reception is blocked because of a natural force it should play the emergency broadcasting system as a warning. But it's not working anymore...It's charged, it was working when a looked at it 20 minutes ago."
"That is kind of strange. Let me see." Future Lee was handed the radio while Gai reached for his Cell phone.
"If mine isn't working then maybe I can get information from Kakashi's." Gai hit the eight button on his speed dial and hoped it worked. "Strange, my phone is still getting reception."
"Hello." Kakashi's voice rang through the receiver, he seemed to be in a good mood.
"Kakashi? It's Gai, is your radio working?" That radio was standard issue for Bomb Squad and Leaf Special Forces members, it was weather proofed and usually carried a powerful signal.
"...No."
"This can't be a coincidence, mine isn't working either. It's completely dead."
"Hmm..." The radio's transmissions and radars all came from one central location that relayed the data. The only function that worked independently was the motion detector and it wasn't of much help now though even that wasn't working. Kakashi could be heard working with his own radio on the other side. "I'll see what I can do." Kakashi hung up.
"This is strange..."Gai seemed pretty adamant about this issue "I have a really bad feeling about this."
"Are you sure, this could be nothing." Shikamaru reassured.
"Call it an intuition." Gai drew his keys out of his pockets and walked toward his new car which was intentionally similar to his old one.
"You might be right Gai-sensei." Both Lee's said at the same time, both of them following.
Shikamaru sighed, slowly pulling himself on to his feet. 'This is so bothersome.'
Gai might just have been on to something.
Kakashi tossed his radio into the backseat of his car, it was useless now, he couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it before. As a Member of the Bomb squad he couldn't turn the radio off, anything could come up at any time. That much had already been proven. So he should have realized something was wrong when he didn't hear the EBS or at lest the annoying dead pan tone that played when no other device that could give or receive transmissions was in range.
He should have heard something, but it turns out it wasn't even functioning. That was not a coincidence, a person with as much skill as Kakashi knew that.
He hit his first button on speed dial. "Iruka, where are you?"
Iruka could tell by the tone in his voice he wasn't in his usual playful mood "My base, why?"
"Is your radar and radio working?" Kakashi asked.
Iruka looked up toward his blue jet "I'll check but why wouldn't it be?" Iruka didn't wait for the answer, he climbed up the ladder into the open cockpit he was preparing to get into anyway. Before Kakashi called he was about to move the plane before the storm hit.
Iruka went through the usual motions of start up, sequencing each switch and button with the ease of many years of training. Though this time the usual didn't happen as it usually did, he didn't hear the cracking of the radio starting or the initial beep of the radar coming on line. Every radar signed into a centralized node at Konoha's National Defense and Armed Forces Authority Center at start up. That way it was easier to control, modify or jam signals to specific parameters.
"Strange, it's not working." Iruka said, trying to initialize their start up again.
"None of them seemed to be working." Kakashi said in a contemplatory voice.
Iruka looked around, all of the other pilots had move they're plane's off the lot before the storm hit. He was the last person there. "I'm close to the NDAFA, I'll go check it out." Iruka started the engine and decided to fly with out radio and radar support, it wasn't like either of them helped him navigate around the city which he already knew by heart.
"Kakashi, did you find anything else out?" Gai asked. His destination wasn't too clear, he wasn't sure if he needed to go to one place or another yet.
"Iruka went to check it out, I'm going to follow him." Since Kakashi was driving he'd be about 20 minutes or so later then Iruka who was travailing by air.
"Alright, tell me when you've got something." Gai said before hanging up and putting the phone safely back into his pocket.
"So where are we going anyway?" Past Lee asked.
"I have to check something out at KPD, see if they're equipment is working properly." Gai made a sharp turn to the left at the next intersection, he was quite impatient.
"If your going to the police department I'll meet you there." Future Lee said "I want to check something first." He was vague on the details but it didn't matter, Gai stopped and let him out anyway.
"Alright, I'll wait around for you." Gai promised before heading off again.
Iruka landed in front of a hanger sitting outside the 5 story building, there were rows and rows of them, not all of them holding aircrafts and not all of them could be seen. Some of them were underground, they could be indicated by a large red line where the gates would open. Iruka landed at the closest one to the back door and climbed out. "I'm sure they're running a diagnostic right now."
He didn't think much of it when he climb the stairway to the double doors, he also expected it to be unlocked since it was only 10:47 in the morning. In fact the whole building was on fire emergency lock down, the fire shutters were down. Iruka pulled out his Cell phone and called Kakashi back.
"Kakashi, something is off. The fire shutters are down and locked." Iruka said.
"Check it out." Kakashi encourage.
Iruka nodded and reached under his shirt where his Gun was holster. Since he was air force and his jet was his main weapon, he only got a Hand-gun for emergency situations but it would do. Iruka pressed the barrel against the glass about where the fire shudder lock was and fired one shot. The glass shattered into countless shards and the fire shutter rolled up and opened the back corridor.
The sprinklers where on though there was no fire and the alarm wasn't going off. More importantly a security guard was laying dead against the wall . Iruka lifted his phone as he ran over to the man "Kakashi! A found a dead sentry at the back door, the fire shutters were down and the sprinklers are going off but the alarm isn't. It's probably why the Fire department or any emergency workers aren't here yet." 'This doesn't make sense, why would the shutters be down and locked but the alarm doesn't go off, and why is this man dead?'
"Alright, I',"
Iruka pulled the phone away from his ear and looked over it, it seemed the water got to it. "Damn." He tossed it aside and looked back towards the man, he couldn't do anything for him yet except find who did this. Iruka took the spare clip off the man's waist and ran toward the end of the hallway. He jumped and kicked the door open before pressing himself against the wall and peeking out from behind the corner cautiously.
He found nothing but a large room full of cubicles, apparently one of the many offices that sat just behind the front door lobby. Iruka ran over to the water soaked phone in the cubicle right ahead of him, picking it up quickly to call for help "Line's dead." And so was the man who this office belonged too, covered in thick blood from a head shot that had been spread out into a large pool because of the sprinklers . He knew that this had to be a team effort of 20 or more very skilled men, no less would be able to clear out a 5 story building without letting one person escape or call for help. Cell phones weren't allowed here, they would have helped these people.
Iruka looked up in almost a flinch like motion when the lights flickered, the long florescent bulbs flashed 2 times and went out completely. Leavening Iruka in complete darkness except for the emergency lights that kicked in covering everything in red light. "Great...I'm in for it now." Iruka clinched his gun as he walked quietly through the halls toward the doorway on the opposite side of the room. It was hard to see smaller objects with only the red glow of the backup lights to illuminate his path.
Bang! Bang! Iruka immediately lifted his gun towards the doorway near the source of the sound, speeding up his pace as he ran into the next room. He was in the center of the building, this area only served as a segway to other areas of the faculty. There were 5 different hallways all leading in different directions and an overly large pillar in the center of the room where two elevators and a stairwell were stationed.
In front of the door leading to the stairway were two people, a man in a suit with a handgun who apparently worked here by the ID card on his chest and another man in a suit that held a high caliber assault riffle which had fired it's last round. They both ended up killing each other, shooting in vital areas. "What's going on around here..."
Iruka heard another louder sound from below, the sound of the left elevator ascending past this level. "Someone else must be downstairs..." It would be wiser to check down stairs first since there was no way out on any other floors beside the first and basement. He knelt down by the man with the empty handgun and took the ID card off his chest, now that he had the right credentials he was able to swipe the card through the reader and watched the right elevator open.
"What!" Gai nearly shouted once he heard what was happening. "You can't be serous..."
"I'm on my way now." Kakashi said on the other end of the line.
"I'm out side of the KPD, I'll get him some help." Gai said, stopping outside the precinct though he was parked so hurriedly that he was blocking half of the traffic. Gai did have a tendency to rush things on rare occasions when there was an emergency. "You know what this means don't you?"
"Who ever attacked NDAFA took every system radar in Konoha down to get us off guard." Kakashi's voice was in that rare dead serous monotone, something was happening and they might just be the only ones who figured it out yet.
"We're going to have to hurry, I have a bad feeling about this one." Gai said before hanging up and jumping out of his car followed by a curious Shikamaru and Lee.
"What's going on?" Lee asked, pushing through the department doors behind Gai.
"From what I've gathered, the city may be under attack." Shikamaru looked around the marble floors and walls of the KPD while being sure to keep up with Gai. Lee seemed to have no problem doing so but Shikamaru wasn't nearly that fast. He barely had enough time to take in what he saw because it seemed like the moment they steeped into the door they were heading up a the spiraling main staircase.
Gai quickly made his way to the third floor with out so much as a pant, he had no problem walking into the door that lay at the top where the Chief of Police resided.
"Chief Irons (Anyone catch where I got the name?), we have a serous problem!" Gai shouted almost dramatically, leaning over the man's desk until he was a few inches from his face " Konoha's NDAFA is under attack."
When he heard that he ignored how close Gai was for the moment and focused on what he said. "What! When! How!"
"I don't know just get over there now!" Gai shouted.
Irons flinch and grabbed the black radio sitting on his desk, usually it was always in contact with dispatch, now it was just silent. "What the hell!"
"Who ever attacked is jamming radio and radar."
"Damnit! How do you expect me to get any men on the scene if dispatch can't get in contact with them." The Chief pounded his fist into the desk in frustration, From Police, to the Fire department, To EMS, and the armed forces. The main means of initial communication was through radio, there where other but they'd never really used them.
"Figure out something." Gai pulled back and began walking out of the room.
"Where are you going?" The Chief asked, he needed all the help he could get.
"To make a phone call."
Iruka pressed his body against the elevator wall as it traveled downward, he was sure to keep his back just off of the panel so he didn't accidentally hit any buttons and end up on the roof. It was hard to hide his presence since the elevator wasn't exactly silent and was hard to miss.
Iruka took a deep breath when he felt the elevator slow to a stop and a small ring sounded to farther announce he presence. The doors rolled open, followed by prompt gunshots that flew right past him. From the rate of fire he could tell it was a semi-automatic weapon, something he could handle. He could also see a laser sight, not that it made much difference.
The shots stopped once the doors were all the way open and it appeared no one was inside. Still Iruka waited, he knew the person on the other side was doing the same. Maybe if he waited long enough the person would dismiss it as nothing and leave, but like in everything else today he didn't have that kind of luck. The elevator doors were closing.
'Now or never.' Iruka pivoted on his left foot so that he was facing the door and dived through. He flawlessly rolled on the ground outside the elevator, coming to a stop on one knee and held his gun outward. Luckily he had landed behind a desk so the man couldn't fire on him just yet, Iruka turned around, on one knee he held the gun over the desk and resisted the urge to gasp "Ka-Kabuto!"
Of course he recognized Kabuto, he worked directly with the president. Kabuto on the other hand had no idea who Iruka was and had no problem firing a few shots at him. Iruka dropped back down behind the cover of the desk "I don't understand, your the one who did this!"
Kabuto didn't answer, he only moved slowly towards Iruka with the obvious intent to kill. Iruka rolled from behind his nearest cover landing on one knee and with gun outward toward Kabuto, he fired at his hand but Kabuto stepped to the side and fired a shot to his head. His only saving grace was that he faltered a little and the bullet was only able to grace his cheek. Iruka winced, letting out a sigh of relief from the closeness, it was obvious that he wouldn't be able to take on Kabuto in the open, his shooting skills weren't good enough for that.
Iruka climbed to his feet and strifed backwards behind the desk, a few more shots just missed him as he did so. "Why would you do something like this?"
"Come on, it's not that hard to figure out." Kabuto jumped on to the desk, veering over the edge with his gun pointing down towards Iruka, but when he got there Iruka had already aimed his gun towards him. Both of them fired, Kabuto striking Iruka in the heart while Iruka fired two shots into Kabuto's torso in random places.
Kabuto fell back off the desk, landing flat on his back. He lifted his hands to his suit coat and pulled it off of himself reveling the faint image of a bullet-proof vest under his shirt. Iruka invertedly rolled to the side, climbing up on to his hands and knees. He wore his vest over his cloths were they were visible, he still couldn't help but wince at the sting of being shot from near point blank range, it would surely leave a mark.
Climbing to his feet, Iruka looked past the desk over the velvet tented room only illuminated by the glow red emergency light. What made it even harder to see and hear was the constant rain fall of the sprinkler system, this was really going to be a challenge. "Your the president's assistant! Why would you kill all these people for no reason!" Iruka shouted, he of course knew that a Kabuto came prepaid for this and shots to the mid-area wouldn't work.
"Hmph! President's assistant, Why would I want such a meaningless job. I don't even want to be here!" Kabuto flipped on to his feet, charging at the desk where Iruka was on his knees. He jumped over the wooden furnishing, drawing his leg back and sending strong kick to Iruka's face. The man felt on his back, sliding backwards on the slick ground while drawing up his gun. Iruka opened fire, but was only able to release one bullet before Kabuto steeped to the side to avoid it and ended up in a shady area out of Iruka's view.
"What dose that mean?" Iruka fired into the shadow, the flash of the gun gave him a snapshot of Kabuto's position but by the time he fired the second one the man had moved.
"Exactly what I said, I hate this place." Kabuto's voice indicated that he was still in the same shadow, but Iruka still couldn't seem to hit him, he was way to quick.
Iruka saw a quick flash directly to the left of him where Kabuto somehow managed to get with out him noticing. Reflexes forced him to roll to the left instead of a regular flinch, and he barely made it, the bullet smashed into the ground inches from his head.
He rolled behind the central pillar where the elevator resided, stumbbing on to his feet with a little trouble on the water before pressing his back against the wall. He was starting to get cold, Sprinkles mixed with Central AC was enough to make him feel like he was freezing. One of many things on his mind as he looked around the room basked in red light. "I saw one of your men upstairs, there's no way you could organize all of this by yourself." Iruka called out, dropping the empty clip from his Handgun and loading his remaining one followed by a swift pull of the slide.
"Who are you working for?" Iruka stepped from behind the pillar with gun outward, just in time to see Kabuto backing up towards a pair of steel double that led to a lift that traveled to the base's underground hanger and storage. It was already on this floor and all Kabuto had to do was press the button, Iruka wouldn't let that happen.
He pulled the trigger, firing of a few rounds toward Kabuto while a few of them hit the panel with the lift's button. It rolled open just waiting to be boarded, yet Kabuto had no choice but to move out of the way to avoid being it. Iruka may not have been as skilled as him but he still had good aim, if he ran for the lift now he would be hit. "Your not very bright are you?" Kabuto said, diving to the left as a bullet just passed over his leg close enough to rip a small amount of fabric from his pants.
'He just called me stupid...' Iruka fired a few more shots at him as he landed behind a large control panel with a proportionately large screen. Of course all of them were blocked by the machine while Kabuto waited for his time.
"Orochimaru of course, why else would I come all the way from the Sound country?" Kabuto said, peering past the machine and retuning fire to Iruka.
Iruka was forced to press his back against the wall while the bullet's came inexplicitly close, the first two actually scorched his cheek slightly but was quickly eased by the falling water, "Damnit! I should have known, no wonder you jammed the radio and radar waves And the fire lock down was started but the alarm wasn't going off." Iruka crouched down slightly as he turned the pillar's corner to find Kabuto of course inching his way towards the door again. Iruka opened fire while Kabuto tried too, he found out a little too late that he was out of ammunition and was shot in the right shoulder. He was force to reclaim his cover behind the panel.
"What are you planning?" Iruka shouted, firing another round when he saw Kabuto glace around from behind his cover. Though he missed Iruka's shots were doing damage, that much became apparent when a strange sound came from the panel. His Bullets were damaging internal components and water from the sprinklers had begun seeping in. It started to sizzle and crackle, volts of electricity spanned over the controls like flashes of lighting.
Smoke billowed out of the machine, more strange sounds radiating. "Damnit, No!" Kabuto glanced back over the control panel that had been set to jam the radio and radar. 'It's too early!"
Iruka heard a small blip as his radar came back on line, he pulled it from his waist band and looked at the circular screen. "Oh my god..." Right now it was set to monitor high altitudes which was usually his default setting because he was a pilot, it had been a gift from Kakashi and made a good back up radar just in case. But right now it was showing him something terrifying, moving in from the east were hordes of enemy aircrafts 'It was a surprise attack...'
Iruka put it back and veered around the corner to see Kabuto heading for the lift again through the red tented smoke. Iruka ran after him weaving through the desks and consoles after the other man who was already inside with the door closing. It didn't seem like he'd make it, but Iruka did have one advantage over Kabuto and that was speed. Iruka dashed for it, increasing his pace before he dived forward, his body sliding through the doors and landing on the other side with Kabuto.
"Damn you..." Kabuto growled in frustration, kicking the gun out of Iruka's hands before he could get up. It didn't go far though, the space was the length and width of two standard elevators leaving little room to fight in.
Iruka reached back and tried to take hold of the gun just out of his reach, only to unexpectedly curl involuntarily by a swift stomp to his stomach. Kabuto knelt to the ground and attempted to pick it up but Iruka grabbed him by the leg and pulled him back, Kabuto fell and slide down so far he and Kabuto where face to face. Both of them were reaching for the gun with one hand and holding the other back with the other.
"There was a sound spy right under the president after all...No wonder the sound was doing so well." Iruka said in a strained voice.
"We would have done just as good if I wasn't here." Kabuto said fiercely, feeling as if his pride and loyalty were being tested.
"No you wouldn't have, everyone knows the Sound is weak." Iruka pushed a little harder, wondering when the elevator would stop, hopefully soon, Kabuto was starting to over power him.
"If the Leaf is anything like you then this attack should wipe Konoha off the map." Kabuto smirked. Iruka grunted and sent a knee into Kabuto's stomach. Kabuto blocked it with his knee then lifted his foot and kicked Iruka in the stomach with a blow strong enough to make him hunch upwards, but in doing so he gave him that last inch need to grab the gun just as the elevator stop and the doors rolled open.
Iruka lifted the gun towards Kabuto but got a swift kick to the side of his head before he could fire, that gave him just enough time step out of the small space and push the button to send Iruka back up to the last floor. Iruka took the blow and rolled out of the door before it could close completely.
"Who are you!" Kabuto said, frustration evident in his tone.
"Umino Iruka." Iruka used the wall to climb to his feet, reaching back for his radio/radar...He tried the radio but the waves were still being jammed, they would be for some time with the panel upstairs broken 'No...The radio wave's are still being blocked and the controls fried...Kakashi, hurry!'
