Disclaimer – If I owned Naruto, there would be a swimsuit issue.
Spoilers – This contains spoilers for the anime and manga. Spoilers up to MANGA chapter 177(final spoiler warning will be for chapter 228 aka time skip)
This has been a broadcast of the scribbles alert system, we now return you to your regularly scheduled reading
Character list for this chapter to help keep track of them and their aliases-
Umino Iruka – Alias "Yukio" – One of our favorite MABU members
Minamino Natsumi -- alias "Ami" – ANBU woman, black hair, green eyes, age twenty one. Assigned as backup on the mission.
Kuroda Takumi – Often referred to as 'the mark' Drug dealer in high end merchandise who has had some recent activity in difficult to obtain medical supplies
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Water Runs Red – Chapter 26
Iruka woke up as the sunlit sky started to turn red. Natsumi was asleep on the futon, but started to stir as soon as Iruka moved. He stretched and stood up, grabbing his pack from where he had left it.
Natsumi sat up and looked over at him, "We should come up with a plan for contacting the mark." She stood up and walked over to where he was unpacking his bag and sorting it. Iruka was placing vials of drugs and poisons along with his medkit on one side of the couch and clothes on the other end. He was just tossing uniform parts and food and water onto the floor.
He looked up from his sorting, "Already have a plan. Do you want to come with or do you want to monitor a transmitter from here." He cracked open his med kit and started to take a truth serum from one of the vials and put it into a capsule.
As he was filling a lip piercing with the same truth serum, she spoke, "You already have a plan? I'm not staying here. I am coming with."
He nodded, "That's fine. What do you have for clothes? We're going to a bar where there are many undesirables. Drug addicts, prostitutes and other criminals will be the main patrons."
She blinked and started to pull out what she had packed. Iruka looked over the clothes, "Could be worse. Just wear the jeans and a T shirt, I need you to leave your arms exposed but cover the ANBU tattoo."
She nodded, "Of course." She walked off to the attached bathroom to get changed.
Iruka took that oportunity to get out of his uniform and slip on a pair of loose, low hanging tan pants. He pulled a small mirror out of his bag and started to examine his face. Slowly he gathered chakra in his finger. With practiced precision, he ran the finger below his right eye, carefully bruising the skin with the chakra. The skin started to bruise as he gently disrupted blood flow and bruised the sensitive tissue. He was almost done with his right eye when she walked out of the bathroom.
"What are you doing?" Natsumi walked over to him, wearing the jeans and T-shirt he had selected for her. Luckily, her ANBU tattoo was high enough on her shoulder that the shirtsleeve easily covered it.
"Trying to make a cover story believable." He started in on his left eye as she kept looking at him.
"What happened to you?" She squinted, "Are those teeth marks?" She gestured at his shoulder.
"Probably."
When he didn't elaborate, she folded her arms over her chest, "How did you get teeth marks on you like that? You're all bruised up."
He smiled, "Yeah, I am." He kept bruising the skin under his left eye, "As for how, I don't kiss and tell."
She looked surprised for a moment, then grinned, shook her head, and sat down on the couch. "So what's the plan?"
"The plan is, we are going to go in and try to do a trade for the information. Normally this guy is pretty easy to get information out of. IF that doesn't work, we're going to lure him away from the bar and drug him and get the information out of him."
"What is my role going to be?"
He smiled at her, "You're going to act pretty and play the part of girlfriend. It'll be the safest thing since then you won't be fair game for anyone else to hit on. You mission role will be to keep an eye out for anyone who is acting as his backup and to help if things get out of hand and it ends in a physical confrontation." He took out a senbon needle and placed it in the skin of his inner arm, channeling enough chakra through to bruise the skin.
"What are you doing?"
"Track marks. Very few people deal in illegal drugs without using them, so track marks are going to make the disquise all the more believable. We don't have a second chance if this goes wrong. I'm going to do the same thing to you."
She nodded and watched as he bruised up his own arms. She winced when He started to do it to her, "Do you want me to use a topical pain killer, Natsumi-san?" His voice was much softer than it has previously been, as he seemed honestly sorry for causing her pain.
She shook her head, "It's fine. It just hurts a bit. Do you have to do this often?"
He smiled and continued to mark up both her arms, letting the speed at which he worked speak for itself. She didn't press her question. Soon he had both of them looking worse for wear. He packed away various bottles of drugs in his pockets. She watched as he placed the restricted access items in the pockets of his jeans, counting how many vials he had with Konoha symbols.
When he saw what she was watching he shook one of the vials in the air, "Good old chakra powder, it commands a very high price on the black market. I have no idea why anyone would willingly use the stuff, always makes me feel like shit."
"I've never had to use it. I've been assigned it, but … we are supposed to avoid it if possible."
He nodded, "It's rarely used these days. Back during the war we went through a lot of the stuff, some shinobi even got addicted to it. Nasty stuff, I remember seeing the aftereffects of that back when I was in the academy. So if you can get away with never trying it, that's probably the smartest."
"But you said you had taken it?"
"Sometimes missions go wrong and a person doesn't have a choice." He smiled, "Don't worry, ok?"
She nodded and followed him out the door once he finished gathering up his stuff. She held onto his arm. He had pulled a dark red T-shirt on that seemed to be a little too tight, but looked good on him.
He led her into a bar, walked straight towards the bartender, and bought two bottles of beer. Handing one to her he took a quick looked around the interior of the bar. Evidently spotting what or who he was looking for, he led her to a table far in the back in a dimly lit corner. A single man was sitting at the table.
The man looked up, "It's been a long time Yukio-san."
Iruka smiled and sat down, "Yeah business has kept me in other parts but word gets around you know. You're looking like business is good Takumi-san." He pulled Natsumi closer to him and took on a very patronizing tone as if he was explaining to a three year old, "Ami-chan, this is the man I was telling you about."
She looked at Iruka, obviously confused. Iruka patted her on the head, "Now now, dear. Manners. Please tell Takumi-san that it is a pleasure to meet him."
The brief flash of anger at being addressed like that was quickly quelled and she turned to the other man, "It is a pleasure to meet you Takumi-san."
Takumi smiled at her, a slightly disconcerting smile as he appraised her more than would be standard for meeting someone. Iruka pulled her a little tighter to him, "Takumi-san, there are some interesting rumors floating around."
The man looked up, "Really?"
Iruka nodded, "It seems that people are saying you're looking for some really rare stuff. Paying top dollar. Seems you have a customer with some interesting tastes?"
"What interest is it of yours?"
Iruka smirked and leaned back in his chair, "I have gotten some good connections recently, been finding some very interesting things out there and thought they might be things you are looking for."
Natsumi took advantage of being treated like a brainless arm ornament to vaguely look around the bar. She kept her gaze looking disinterested, but was really seeing if there were any people in this place they had to watch out for. As she looked around, she saw that Iruka hadn't been lying about the type of clientele. The entire place looked seedy; it was something she wasn't used to. Even the worst places in Konoha had some sort of decency to them. Then again, a person never knew where a ninja would be in a place like Konoha.
Here there were people passed out and people obviously trying to sell themselves as well as people trying to sell things that she was sure were illegal in all the five major countries. There were even three people in the far corner of the bar having sex if she wasn't mistaken, she was trying not to look in that direction too closely.
Takumi smirked at Iruka, "What kind of connections do you have?"
Iruka leaned back, "Word has it you are looking for interesting medicinal type things, including chakra powder."
Takumi nodded, "I can't deny those rumors."
Iruka leaned over and lowered his voice so that Natsumi could barely hear what the men were saying, "I have obtained a sizable supply of chakra powder as well as some other interesting tidbits. If you tell me what you are looking for, perhaps I can set you up?"
Takumi looked around the bar before nodding, "I'm only interested in high quality."
Iruka smiled, "What I have is the best." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial, "Let me leave you with a sample of what I have. You can make sure the quality is up to your expectations; just don't go asking too many questions about how I got it." He smirked, "I don't want to risk anyone ever finding out where exactly their missing chakra powder went."
Takumi's eyes widened as he took the vial from Iruka. He quickly pocketed it before anyone else in the bar could see the vial was clearly marked with a Konoha leaf symbol. His voice was even quieter as he hissed, "This is from Konoha."
Iruka nodded, "Sure is."
Takumi shook his head, "I don't want to know how you got it, but let me make a list of everything else I am looking for." He grabbed a pen from his pocket and started to scratch out drug names on a bar napkin. He handed it to Iruka, "Got any of that?"
Iruka looked at the list and pocketed it, "Some of it. We'll meet back here tomorrow to work out the details of price." Takumi nodded and quickly left, his hand nervously dipping into the pocket he had stashed the vial of chakra powder in.
Iruka stood and grabbed Natsumi's arm. He pulled her close and leaned over to whisper in her ear, to anyone else at the bar it looked like he was kissing her neck, "OK we're going to get out of here and see how this is working. Keep an eye out for anyone following us."
He walked with her out of the bar and started to make their way towards the hotel they were staying at. On the way there, he stopped at a restaurant, "We should grab some take out." She nodded and they ordered food. They both kept an eye out to make sure no one had been following them as they waited the fifteen minutes for their food to be ready.
There was no sign of anyone following them by the time the food was boxed and ready to go, so Iruka took the food and led her back to the hotel room. Once they were inside, Iruka went straight to his pack and started to open a box.
She sighed and sat on the bed, "Well that didn't get us a lot of information. I thought you were going to try and get him to spill."
He smiled, "Patience." He took out one of the receivers and turned it on. The sound of someone walking could be heard. "That vial had a transmitter planted in it. It only has about six hours of battery life, but it has a pretty decent broadcast range, so we sit back and see what we can learn for the next six hours." With that he took out the boxes from the restaurant and handed her's to her. "Here, eat up, need to keep your strength up, this could still get messy." With that he broke apart his chopsticks and started to eat
Between Sand and Konoha
If there was one thing that Kakashi hated, it was when he got sand in his sandals. Somehow, the annoying grains always managed to find their way between his toes to get into those annoying places and bug the hell out of him. He put his sandals back on, now that he had removed every last grain of the annoying substance and finished his ration bar.
He didn't know the contents of his letter to sand, but he was well aware of the reaction his delivering it had been. When he walked up to the front gates, the guard's eyes had widened and as he was lead through the town, he couldn't ignore the whispers. Evidently, the legend of the copy-nin was well known. Even the members of the village council had seemed more than a little off balance by him being the one delivering the message.
When he over heard whispers of 'that slug woman must be serious' and 'maybe they aren't in as bad shape as we thought', it was then that he realized why it was so important for him to be the one to deliver the message. Konoha was seriously hurt, but by putting one of their most recognizable shinobi on a simple message delivery, it served two purposes. One, it gave the appearance their forces were higher if they could afford to send such a high-ranking shinobi on such a simple mission. Two, it showed that Tsunade was taking whatever dealings she had with sand very seriously.
Kakashi knew the only reason she could justify it was that he was still injured and recovering and he wouldn't be up to his best fighting form for a while still. However, these people didn't know that so his presence was a substantial show of force. Sand was a village without a leader until they chose the next Kazekage so they were at their weakest right now. If there ever was a time to intimidate the sand village, this was it.
Kakashi still had several hours of travel left to get back to Konoha. He hoped Iruka was still in town, he had been finding himself wanting to talk to him. There were things he should have said before he left, but he hadn't expected to be sent out so soon. He was normally very good at telling when people were lying and when Iruka had told him that he was falling in love, Kakashi hadn't detected even a speck of deceit.
He didn't know if he was falling in love, but he definitely had feelings for Iruka. It wasn't often he felt himself both trusting and respecting someone. The anger he felt at how his friends had been treating the man also served to prove Kakashi did have feelings for Iruka. He just needed some time to sort out what they were. As he took off across the sand again trying to get to Konoha as quickly as possible with the scroll sand had sent back for Tsunade, he found himself hoping that Iruka was going to be there to curl up next to. He really did like the feel of not being alone in bed.
Back to Iruka's mission
Natsumi was watching Iruka like he had grown a second head, "So you mean the entire plan was to give Takumi that vial so that you could listen to him?" She frowned, "How are we supposed to learn anything from this?"
Iruka stopped poking his chopsticks into the last of his dinner, "Simple. We told him things that no one should have know about this little business transactions. He didn't give us a full list of what he's looking for either. He's a good information source, so I don't want to ruin the connection if I don't have to so subtlety here is the key."
She nodded and took another bite of her fish, "But we were supposed to get the information from him as quickly as possible. He was very easy to find, so I don't see why we can't just get the information out of him... I thought you were going to drug him?"
Iruka smiled, "It ended up not being necessary. He took the vial."
"Why didn't you tell me about the vial and the transmitter?"
"Look, I am sure you are a wonderful ANBU operative, but I know your covert skills could use work. I was not going to risk you giving away the plan by showing some sort of nervousness when I handed over the vial."
"Umino-sensei." Her tone had become very cold. "I can appreciate your desire to see this mission succeed, and I fully acknowledge you have gotten information from that man before. However, I am a jônin and in ANBU, I am capable of handling myself on a mission and as the ranking member here, I demand to b e kept in the loop at all times."
Iruka looked over at where she was sitting, her back straight and her entire attitude screaming how mad she was. He was reminded of why he hated working with people he didn't know. He took a deep breath and shook his head, "No."
Her eyes widened and her nostrils flared, "What do you mean 'no'?"
He sighed, "Look, I want to get back to Konoha as quickly as possible with the information as well, BUT the way to do that is not to go rushing into this. I would love nothing more than to go beat him up, get the information, get home, and crawl back into my lover's bed. However, we are stuck here accomplishing this mission, and I have every intention of doing it to the best of my abilities. IF this becomes a combat situation I will gladly step aside and allow your rank and experience to dictate our actions, but until then, we play this by my rules."
She shook her head, "Not good enough."
He grunted, "Look, I'm in a bad mood for being out on a mission so soon after my last one—"
She cut him off, "Yeah, must suck being a school teacher. Half of Konoha's forces are taken out and all you can think about is boohoo two missions almost back to back."
"Fuck you. Yeah I didn't take the ego test to get the better rank and pay, fuck you. I've been working my ass off and I don't have the patience to deal with you, Miss I'm ANBU and better than any lowly chuunin."
Just then, voices could be heard over the transceiver. Both shinobi instantly shut up to listen to the whispered conversation.
-------------------- Notes ------------------------
If anyone feels ambitious and would like to do a recap paragraph or two to sum up events prior to just about any given chapter, I'd like to put in little 'recap' things like the story so far just to be nice to my readers. Unless everyone thinks it's a dumb idea … I just am horrid at writing stuff like that
Please review, I would love to know what people are thinking of this. The story is now in its final third.