The Dragon Dilemma
I don't own Naruto and Zoids
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"Talking"
'Thoughts'
/-- Scene change
)-()-( Different point of view
?-? Flash back
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Chapter 21
He watches as Naruto sleeps. It's getting close to dawn and that patrol has yet to move. He is worried, for he doubts that Naruto will be pleased about that, truth be told, he was worried about it as well. It also made him wonder why there were Sound ninjas along the way as well as Stone ninjas. 'Is there a war going on and someone forgot to inform us?' He muses as he considered that possibility.
He decides to scout out the patrol on his own, he figured he'd let Naruto sleep. He didn't see any harm in waking the blond only to have him worry about whether the patrol is going to leave soon or if they had to go through them. He also wouldn't try and talk Naruto out of that course of action. He was just as tired of sneaking around as Naruto is.
)-(Naruto)-(
He shots up and knocked his head against something also hard. "Ow!" Two voices say at the same time. He rubs the top of his head as he notices Tobi doing the same. He blinks and his already defensive, for he didn't know if Tobi has noticed Shadow or not.
"You have a hard head." A cheerful voice of Tobi states as he gets his sleeping bed off of him. "You too, if it helps." He replies and as he sits cross legged, waiting for Tobi to beat around the bush. "Either you or Zabuza and Haku waited for me at the meeting spot." Tobi pouted. "Leaf nins found out that I was in the area, plans changed." He replies. "Also, my Zoid was undergoing an evolution." He adds simply waving his hand towards Rogue Liger.
Tobi shrugs and sits down dramatically. "And here I've been doing some acutual work. It's not easy to get close to Orochimaru you know." Tobi says as he sighs and shakes his head. He perks at the mention of that snake ninja. "He's leader of Sound, right? Why would you want to kill him? I got all of the Akatsuki, other then you." He says, interested in Tobi's answer. "And you made me proud. Orochimaru use to be a member, he left the group before you were ten. He still has his ring." Tobi tells him.
He blinks in surprise, he hadn't known that fact. Though it did make some sick scents, like how that snake nin knew that he healed quickly and that he had a huge amount of chakra, larger then humanly possible it seems at times. He shivered as he remembered that encounter, especially the part where he transformed into something beast like. He shakes his head in attempt to get the memory of how powerful certain emotions had been during that time as the winged beast.
"What does this have to do with Zabuza, Haku, and myself?" He asks curiously. Tobi sighs loudly before answering, "Orochimaru has read the same scrolls as you have about that one gate. He knows where to find it as well. That's why he's getting ready to go to war with Hidden Stone. It should be beginning within the next few days." He straightens at that. 'So that's why there have been so many patrols! Now it's a race.' He thinks as he watches as the masked ninja get up and starts making breakfast. He wondered if the other two were on their way here as well.
)-(Sasuke)-(
He could feel Ambient behind him as he stood at attention before the Fifth. He still wonders why the so-called Legendary Sucker has been made Hokage, he still hasn't gotten over the simple fact that he spent a great deal of time with Ino and Sakura, searching for the woman before him, sitting behind the desk before him.
It mostly didn't help that he was standing between Ino and Sakura either. Add the fact that Ambient is still making snipe comments, things were adding up to equal a bad day for him. He did wonder why most of the rookies and Gai's team were here though. Out of the corner of his eye, he spies Chouji and Shikamaru, who had been close to Naruto before he was kidnapped by the black Organoid called Shadow.
Finally Tsunade begins the meeting, after making them wait for about three minutes. "All of you are here for a risky mission. According to our resources, Sound and Stone are about to go to war with each other. We believe that it'll begin soon, possibly tomorrow for all we know." Tsunade says, he wonders what could cause those two villages to fight, especially considering the fact that Sound is a young and relatively new village.
'More importantly, why does it matter to us in Leaf? So what if two villages want to fight, it wouldn't affect us much. Besides, Stone will most likely crush Sound without any help from any of the other villages. So what's so important that we've been summoned?' He thinks privately, guessing that similar thoughts were running through the other's minds as well.
Tsunade continues, "We want to know what's so important to Sound that lies within Earth Country that Orochimaru is willing to make war on one of the major villages." He perks up at the mention of Earth Country; he did read something concerning something being created there, but he just can't remember just what it was. He didn't have time to ponder that as Tsunade continues to address them.
He tried to focus in on the monolog but his attention wavered. An image of that Liger that's most likely piloted by Naruto, his ex-team mate. The thought of those four blades were so very different from those of the Blade Ligers he's seen. He goes over the memories of how Naruto cut off that leg that belongs to Neji's Lightning Saix. He can't believe how powerful that new Liger Zoid is and he was eager to match his piloting skills with those belonging to Naruto.
He's snapped out of his musings as the Fifth dismisses them. He follows Kiba out of the office with his two major fan girls following behind him. Once they left the building, the group begins to chat about the mission details. He catches up on what the mission is and what their part is in the over all plan. It seems that the first part of the mission entitles them to travel with a much larger group consisting of Jonin piloting Zoids. Neji and him were also going to be piloting their own Zoids for this mission as well.
They split off and head to pack for this mission. He was mindful of Ambient, for oddly enough, the Organoid was quiet and seemed to be planning something. It wasn't until they made it to his apartment did Ambient growls out, "We know where Naruto's headed." He blinks in surprise and asks, "How so?" Ambient makes the equivalent of a snort and snarls, "He's heading to that gate in Earth Country. If you had been memorizing those scrolls you've been reading, you would have put the pieces together. That gate leads to planet Zi and what's native to Zi?" "Zoids." He says in shock, he blinks as he sees where Ambient was headed. "So Orochimaru wants to control this gate and therefore he would have a way to gain more Zoids by using this gate."
He frowns and muses, "Then why is Naruto headed towards it?" "You know this human better then I do." Ambient snaps at him. He shakes his head and goes about the business of packing for the mission. He tries to put those thoughts out of his head, trying to go over the few details for his current mission.
)-(Naruto)-(
Shadow had been away from the campsite when Tobi showed up. His partner and best friend had been checking out the camp of Stone nins just half a day away. He had been both relieved and worried when he realized that Shadow hadn't been around the camp as Tobi made breakfast. Shadow appeared as Tobi napped, around noon.
In the end, they decided that there really wasn't any reason to have Shadow hid from Tobi. He had a good laugh at Tobi's reaction to Shadow. It took Tobi about thirty minutes before he finally approached Shadow and began to poke Shadow. Shadow tolerated that for a good five minutes before telling him to tell Tobi to quit it before Shadow shows Tobi what his metal jaws feel like from the inside.
It wasn't until that evening did Tobi begin asking questions about Shadow, about his relationship, and just what Shadow is capable of. He had been as patient as he could as Tobi barely gave him time to answer said question before the older nin asked yet another one. Shadow was amused until Tobi asked whether Shadow could 'breed' with another Organoid to make more Organoids.
Shadow roared and he finally got the chance to answer most of Tobi's questions. He left out certain things, like the few times Shadow and him shared dreams or about the fact that Shadow had a time limit on his bonding time with Rogue Liger. Soon after, they both went to sleep, leaving Shadow to stand guard over them.
He stretches as he gets out of his hiding spot. He had just witnessed a battle between Sound nins on foot against Stone nins piloting Zoids. The Sound ninjas all had something called a Curse Seal, this gave them busts of power and though they did destroy one of the Stone nins Zoids and damaged two others, they were ultimately killed by the Stone patrol.
He had been trying to steal a map from the Stone nins, but was forced to hide as the Sound ninjas appeared. He's lucky that nobody landed before his hiding spot or on top of it. He shakes his head at the dead bodies that lie around the ex-battle ground. It had taken the Stone ninja about three hours to collect the bits of the destroyed Zoid as well as to partly repair the two Zoids that had been damaged. He studies the dead bodies of the Sound nins.
He sighs and turns away, heading back to the camp where Tobi and Shadow were waiting at. He had to wonder if they'll be going at it alone, without any help from Zabuza and Haku. He's confident in his and Shadow's combine abilities to defeat this snake man and to pass through whatever defences that Stone has in place around the gate.
He sighs as he walks away from the dead lying about the area. He could feel the unyielding stares from the copses around him. It made him uneasy, especially considering the fact he had been privately cheering the Stone nins on, for he doesn't like the Sound leader. He doesn't doubt that he'll have nightmares about these Sound ninjas, it wouldn't be the first time faces of the dead entered into his dreams. Though this time, he would be more then willing to face them and stare them down. He knows that they were more or less dyed the same colour as Orochimaru, for Tobi had explained to him about those odd chakra tattoos that had spread across the Sound nins' skin, he's just happy none of them had level two of the cursed seal.
He makes it to the campsite and finds Tobi writing on scrolls. Both Shadow and Tobi look his way and he says, "Sound nins attacked, they're all dead though they did destroy a Zoid and damaged two others." Tobi shrugs and returns to doing what he was doing when he entered the camp. Shadow rumbles out, "He's busy creating ink summons." He looks surprise that Tobi knows how to create them and uses them; he read hints about it here and there, but never found any scroll detailing how to create them.
He doesn't both to ask Tobi any questions about where or how to make ink summons, he doubts he'll have any need of them once Shadow and him cross over into Zi with Rogue Liger. 'Actually, I probably wouldn't need any of the jutsus I've learnt when we arrive there. Though I will defiantly practice my chakra control, I wonder how people there would react to me walking on water?' He muses as he sits down under the shadow of the Rogue Liger. Trying to picture what life will be like on Zi, without any need for ninjas and for jutsus.
To be continued …