Sealing Salientia - Chapter 49: Report - Author: PenSmoke

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor make any profit from writing this.

Previously on Sealing Salientia: A great, echoing boom shattered the night, blasting apart glass across the town. As the sound hit, so too did a blast of air, flattening and pushing everything down around him. Trees were toppled instantly, a great wind snuffed out hundreds of lights below and the entire city flickered into darkness.

Konoha
Sunday, December 31st, Year 74

Naruto instinctively raised his hands to cover his ears and instantly felt warm liquid dripping from them. His ears were bleeding, and he realized he couldn't really hear anything anymore. He looked to Jiraiya, who was moving his lips in panicked motions, but Naruto could only hear a high-pitched buzzing noise along with some warbling bass notes.

The sky darkened again as the meteor flew across the sky and disappeared over the northwestern horizon. A few seconds later, there was a smaller brightening of the sky, this time a dull red in the distance where it had disappeared. Not nearly as bright as the first one, it still was noticeable to those paying attention.

Jiraiya had already scooped up Naruto and was moving quickly, in the direction of the Hokage Tower. Naruto could see hundreds of civilians on the ground in various states on panic. Though nobody seemed to be dead, there was blood and chaos reigning supreme around him. Glass shards were smashed across the cobblestone streets, the streamers that had been hung up in celebration were lying on the ground, muddy and torn. People were running amok, and dozens of ninjas were already scattering across the town to ensure the safety of everyone.

After a half-minute of being lugged around by a running Jiraiya, Naruto was plopped into a seat at the hospital, where there were already dozens of people, with more coming in every second. It didn't look as if the hospital had suffered as much damage as the rest of the town, the chaos that was strewn outside didn't intrude upon the medical facility.

The high-pitched screaming of metal on metal in his ears was now slowly fading and the warm rivulet of crimson liquid that had been dripping down his cheek seemed to have slowed to a halt. He looked around the hospital waiting room to see dozens of others with similar symptoms, children clutching their ears and screaming, adults with their own damage but trying to calm the kids.

Catching Jiraiya's eye after the man finished speaking with a nurse, he could now hear the man speak. "Naruto, are you okay? Where does it hurt?"

"I'm better now Pops." Naruto replied. While he didn't feel completely normal yet and the ringing in his ears was still present, it was tolerable now. He could see his father figure turn a critical eye on him but a moment later seemed to be satisfied with Naruto's answer. However, it was for naught, as a moment later, the boys' left arm was encased in a vice grip as Tsunade stormed her way into the building.

"Naruto, look at me." The medic Sannin commanded.

He did so, following her prompts to watch her fingers and responding when she whispered various things in various locations around his head. After a minute, she seemed satisfied that he wasn't critically injured. Tsunade gave him a big hug, a quick pat on the head and then bustled off to talked to the nurse at the front desk to start seeing other wounded patients.

Jiraiya led him outside, through the crush of people now practically storming the entrance of the hospital. After they pushed their way against the throng of humanity moving the other direction, the two took to the rooftops to get away from the crowds of civilians that were filling the streets.

The older man looked at Naruto, saying "You head on home. I'm going to go to the Hoage Tower and see what they need me to do."

Naruto shook his head vehemently. "I want to help too! I might only be an Academy student, but we both know I'm capable of helping! Let me come." He used his best puppy dog eyes to try and coerce the toad sage.

A moment passed and a sigh passed Jiraiya's lips. Naruto knew that he was victorious but kept the pout going until the words came out. "Fine. But you're staying inside the village. No arguing otherwise." The voice was stern on the last part, so Naruto knew he wouldn't get that opportunity to alter that part. He wasn't concerned with it though, he genuinely just wanted to help.

The two turned toward the cliff face that housed the carved busts of the five Hokage and the tower that sat just in front of it. With a few hops from roof to roof, they made steady progress. Naruto noted dozens of other ninjas moving in various directions. Many were heading to the Tower, others were heading out from the administrative building, and still others seemed to be taking perches on the walls to guard the city.

As the senior ninja and the ninja-in-training landed outside the front doors, they joined the steady progress of ninja moving and getting orders from within. As they got up to one of the chunin that was passing out orders, the toad sage spoke up.

"Jiraiya reporting in, where do you need me? My son Naruto would like to assist where he can."

"Ah! Head up to the Hokage's office, Hokage-sama said that he had special need for you. Your son can… uhh…" The man fumbled for a second looked at Naruto. "Wait. You're a student, not a genin. Im sorry. You can't…" As the chunin seemed to fumble for words, Jiraiya spoke up.

"Just send him to help within town, maybe to tag along with some other chunin to assist."

Suddenly, a hand clamped down on Naruto's shoulder. "I'll take the kid, make sure he doesn't run into any trouble. I'm not leaving town either." A familiar voice spoke up and Naruto turned around to see a man he recognized. The same ninja that had led him on the mission to rescue the daimyo's cat last month stood there with a slight grin on his face.

Jiraiya seemed to look at the man, smiling as he recognized him. "Sounds good, thanks kid!" Jiraiya patted the man on the shoulder, looked at Naruto and spoke up again. "You listen to orders alright? Head home when you get tired, and I'll be back when I can." The older man quickly sprinted off to the stairs that led to the top of the tower.

The chunin that was handing out assignment shrugged. "If you want to take responsibility for the kid, you go ahead Masuya-san. Go help in the market district with any wounded civilians, moving outward into civilian housing sectors once that area is clear."

His newly appointed superior shinobi officer gave Naruto a nod as they headed out. "Ready for this?"

Naruto responded with a huge smile on his face. All he wanted to do was help those he could. "Never been more ready."

Jiraiya bounded up the stairs several at a time, navigating the curved pathways with ease. Upon reaching the top floor where the Hokage's office was, he saw the doors already open, with several other ninja already standing at attention inside. Fugaku gave him a nod when they locked eyes.

The sage looked around, finding several familiar faces, and many masked ones. The ANBU Commander stood amongst several of his troops. Shikaku Nara, Inoichi Yamanaka and Chouza Akimichi were huddled together on one side of the room, while several members of the Uchiha Police Force were on the other side. Orochimaru lounged on a chair in the back, seemingly paying no attention to the rest of the assembled crowd. Jiraiya made his way into the room, standing near his old teammate.

While he didn't like the man that Orochimaru had become, they were both shinobi of the Leaf village, which took precedence in times of need. There had been many times recently that he had wanted to haul off and punch the snake-like man for his treatment of Tsunade, but that was nothing new. He had wanted to punch Orochimaru ever since they were on a genin team together, so he was able to control the urge. Though it wasn't easy when the serpentine eyes flicked towards him lazily and the slithering coward uttered a dismissive, "Hello Jiraiya. I'm ssssurprisssed that they wanted you here." The man always knew how to rile him up.

"Can it, snake boy. More important things are at stake right now." Jiraiya muttered in response.

As a couple more ninja entered the room, Fugaku closed the doors himself a moment after the last person cleared it. He turned and walked back to his desk in a smooth, yet hurried, motion.

"I am sure that you are all aware of the reason you are here. You are amongst the most powerful jonin within the village and your services in figuring out what just happened will be the most useful." Fugaku stared into several of the attendees faces, emphasizing certain points. "We need to ensure that whatever it was that crashed to the ground poses no further threat to the village. An additional bonus would be to identify it and see if any further instances such as this are in the future. Shikaku, if you would?"

Shikaku Nara stood up and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "We are going to form several investigative teams, including three reconnaissance teams to try and track down the meteorite landing site. It crashed off towards the west, potentially near the Land of Rain or the Land of Grass. "

"The teams will be as follows. Inoichi Yamanaka and myself will stay here to co-ordinate team activity, with Inoichi setting up a telepathic link with each team leader and a backup in case of emergency. Team captains will be Gaku Inuzuka, Tenzo Kinoe, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Torune Aburame. Each team will have at least one ANBU tracker and one member of the Uchiha Police Force. This will ensure capabilities for sensory and combat if the need arises. If the object did indeed land outside of Fire Country, there could be messy international relations. Do not fight opposing shinobi unless necessary, especially if outside Fire Country."

After ensuring that his message had gotten across, he added. "It is also possible that the object broke up into multiple pieces of dissipated completely. This may mean that we are sending you all on a wild goose chase, but Hokage-sama and I agree with it is better to take the risk of finding nothing, than to not try at all."

With this, Shikaku stepped back, allowed Fugaku to again interpose his words amongst the crowd. "Good luck to all of you and may the Will of Fire guide you." Jiraiya nearly turned and smacked Orochimaru's head off when he heard the man scoff at the Hokage's remarks, but managed to refrain only because he suspected that even without a head, the snake-man wouldn't be deterred.

Jiraiya quickly received both a member of the Uchiha Police force, as well as a Dragon masked ANBU agent. Additionally, one of the gathered Yamanaka was dispatched with his team, designated as the alternate contact point. The man had bright auburn hair, tied up behind him in a ponytail that stretched down to his mid-back, wore the standard green flak jacket with dark blue pants and a similarly colored long sleeve shirt, both of which were lined with various wrappings and pockets. He introduced himself as Senta Yamanaka. Quickly assigning a generic name for communications use, the group received their directions from Shikaku.

Once Inoichi had created the mental link to each team, the different groups moved out according to the given directions. Jiraiya's team had pulled the northern-most direction of travel, with Orochimaru getting the southern-most, each team differing in travel directions by a couple of degrees. Jiraiya had hoped, in a way, to get put with his old teammate, just so he could catch him alone and hopefully beat his ass for all the snark, but that would have to be a different time.

The ANBU member of the team passed out four earpieces, which Jiraiya quickly popeed into his ear. The short-range communications devices would allow them to talk amongst themselves quietly, without jeopardizing their positions greatly. It was also highly useful for communicating at high-speed travel, as it eliminated the need to yell above the rush of the wind.

As they got to the walls of Konoha, the various groups jumped to the walls and then off them disappearing into the forests that surrounded the city. While many of the great trees were coniferous, even more of them were stripped bare of leaves from the winter weather, a brown carpet of decaying plant material coating the forest floor, against the darkness of the night. This did make high-speed travel through the treetops much easier though, as line-of-sight was far more extended than when the greenery was in the way, though it was currently limited by a lack of overall light in the area. Thankfully, most higher-level ninja, such as himself, knew how to enhance their vision with chakra in order to use what little illumination was available to see.

That was a good thing, because dozens of the smaller trees in the area had snapped off branches tangled in the lower part of the canopy, where ninja typically ran. The destruction of the passing meteor was clear to see, even at range.

Speeding through the treetops, Jiraiya heard the earpiece crackle to life. "Dragon to Team Leader Toad. Orders?"

Jiraiya responded after a moment's thought. "Travel on given bearing mark 285, team pattern Diamond Rho Alpha. Match speed to back of diamond. Continue until signs of disturbance increase greatly or completely disappear. Heading can be adjusted as needed."

A moment later, three voices spoke up in his ear. "Dragon, copy." "Mind, copy." "Eyes, copy."

Pacing out a speed that seemed to keep everyone as fast as possible, without being exceptionally tiring or dangerous in the dark, Jiraiya led his team deep into the forests. He kept eyes out for the scattering of branches, partially destroyed treetops and blasted off coniferous needles, making sure that the signs of the meteor having passed overhead were still visible. He had to adjust course three times over the first half hour, but they appeared the be following the trail properly now, as the signs of havoc were steadily, but slowly, growing.

When the first major tree that had fallen over appeared in their path, Jiraiya tapped his earpiece. "All Halt." As the other three ninja came to a stop around him, Jiraiya started to investigate the direction of the fallen tree and see if there was anything nearby that could be used as a landmark. He took note of their speed, how long they had been traveling and direction of travel and judged that they were within 30 miles of the border to Grass Country, about the same to Rain Country. As if to confirm, he could see the nearly ever-present thunderclouds flashing lightning far in the distance to the southwest as he cleared the top canopy a couple hundred feet up.

He looked out over the forests that lined the rolling hills, the thick branches visible underneath what green there was, giving the landscape an almost sparse and desolate wasteland look coated with bland brown tree bark and dead leaves against the black palette of the sky. Off in the distance the trees started to fade out in favor of prairies that would typically have long growth grains in the summer, but now were just tilled over fields interspersed between the various farmhouses with their simple lights becoming beacons in the dark that dotted the line fading out to the horizon.

He dropped back below, seeing the general path of knocked over trees mostly laying flattened down in the same direction that they had been traveling. "Gama Team, continue on bearing mark 278, following trail. Be prepared, border crossing in approximately 20 minutes at current course and speed." This was followed by acknowledgement from the team members as they continued on their path.

The other Konoha teams were not currently within visual range, so they would have to be careful to not stray too far, lest they need backup for some reason. He decided to check in with Inoichi via their telepathic connection.

"Team Gama Leader, requesting Team Kangae Leader." He sent the message out, travelling to the flicker of chakra inside his head, which instantly flared in recognition of the message. A few moments later, Inoichi's voice rattled inside his brain, which was always a disconcerting feeling, no matter how many times the mindwalker clan had been inside his head.

"Team Gama Leader, report." The voice carried the authority of a commanding officer. While Inoichi wasn't his superior in any way really, Jiraiya respected the chain of command, unlike some slimy snaky bastards.

"Changing direction to bearing mark 278, holding speed around 90, approaching Grass and Rain Country borders, no current sign of impact, destruction trail is becoming more evident." Jiraiya relayed the relevant information to the Yamanaka, who would undoubtedly give it to Shikaku Nara. He could envision the Nara moving various shogi pieces on a map of the Ninja Nations that sat inside the Jonin Commanders office, representing the various teams out on missions.

Just as expected, the response was delayed, as the data he had given was put to use. The voice inside his head responded again a couple minutes later. "Confirmed. Continue heading mark 278. Based on previously reported speed and bearing, you are approximately 17 miles from the border. Current instructions are to locate the cause of the disturbance regardless of location. Proceed with caution if you enter into foreign territory."

"Copy that. Over and out." He terminated the tenuous mental connection and proceeded to relay the newest set of instruction to his team.

As the forest faded out into the grasslands, they took to running along the ground, as there were no longer tree branches capable of supporting their bounces. This slowed them slightly, as the ground was a softer material that absorbed more force as they pushed off, but they continued the speed until they came across a wide chasm with a river running through it. Based on Jiraiya's calculations of their trajectory and the depth of the canyon and speed of the river, they were a few miles south of the Valley of the End's waterfall.

He called out for another halt, and his team stopped near the edge of the crack in the earth. The four ninja immediately fanned out in a defensive perimeter to ensure to nearby area was secure. Much to his relief, Jiraiya saw no signs of enemy shinobi nearby. Much to his dismay, though, based on the flattened patterns of the grass nearby, they still had not yet reached the impact site.

The darkness of night had given them cover for travel so far, but now the smattering of deep purples and reds was starting to reflect off of the few overhead clouds as dawn began to break over the night sky. This first light of the new year was going to be upon them shortly and Jiraiya would prefer to be back inside friendly territory before being illuminated in such a manner.

Seeing little other choice, as the signs that they were tracking pointed straight ahead into Rain Country, he signaled for his team to jump across the chasm carved out by the river below. As they landed on the other side, he swore the atmosphere got a little darker, as if the wetness that this country was renowned for instantly sunk its' way into his heart.

Deep underneath towering structures that reflected the early morning dawnlight eerily through them, creating a cascade of prismatic light to flicker in and out of existence, there was a dark, cold, basement. Not a shred of the outside world reached the depths below, where seven figures resided.

One of the figures raised his head at the sudden message that reached his ears, transmitted by the echoes of the raindrops that fell from the clouds that were ever-present across the land.

The one that had reacted slowly raised a withered hand towards to other six, though the gesture was unnecessary, as they all shared a single consciousness. A raspy voice sounded out, one sick from years of disuse and disease, barely audible. "He has returned. Go."

The six figures clad in darkened robes disappeared from the room, though not from his sight. His sight was expanding as they left, the ripples in his eyes taking in all the information that encompassed the Country that they saw during their traversal. His Country.

And he would protect it. If needed, even from his former sensei.

AN: Uh-oh. Trouble is brewing.

Already mostly done with the next chapter, just need to tweak it, as I'm not happy with some of the events in it just yet. Bonus points if you can guess what happens!

Constructive criticism welcome, hope you enjoy!