Chapter Three: the Dragon and the Boy

She remained motionless for a long time after Danzō left, staring at the spot on the stairs where he had disappeared. Every time they interacted, which over the previous four years had been almost never, he left her with more complicated thoughts, dark pinpricks which turned into gaping holes the more she tried to ignore them. He always knew exactly where to whisper in her ear to make her start doubting herself and the people around her, until everybody became a potential assassin in the dark or conspirator against her. Manipulation was what he thrived in, one of his greatest skills, and she was angry that she allowed herself to be led by him every single time. Her emotions always had been her weakness.

When she'd been brought to the Leaf Village ten years ago, nine years old and writhing in agony from the horrific burns that had mutilated her body, Danzō's voice had been one of the first ones she'd heard, the single comfort in the delirium of pain and infection. She'd thought he was the Golden Dragon, Ōryū, himself, speaking to her from the centre of the world. When the Uchiha clan rejected her, citing that her mother, Yadorigi, had betrayed them and that Hanami was nothing but one of her many mistakes, he facilitated her entrance into the Ninja Academy himself. She had thrived because of his guidance, desperately waiting for him to bring her into the Foundation, but then Lord Hokage had intervened, sending her into the Anbu with Itachi, her teammate, the son of her mother's brother, and placed them on a team with the two people who would reinvent her, Kakashi Hatake and Tenzō. Danzō's anger had frightened her, and he had abandoned her, claiming she was a wasted opportunity. Then, after that night

Rain… blood… so much blood. She ran, the rain mingling with the tears on her face, the last tears she would ever cry. The trail was faint, but she knew he had left it deliberately, left it for her… She could sense him ahead and quickened her pace, her sword already gripped tightly in her hand. He was waiting for her. She thought she would be strong, thought she could bring him back… but she collapsed to her knees in front of him, the blade skidding out of her hands.

"Why did you do it, Itachi? Why did you do it?"

Nothing had been the same since.

She stepped over the crumpled bodies on the floor in order to take a closer look at the table and its contents, picking up one of the scattered papers, but still Danzō's words plagued her. Oh? And what exactly do you think he will do about it? She knew he was trying to get under her skin, playing off her doubts that Hiruzen Sarutobi was an effective leader, but those doubts were so strong, and all it took was a little spark to get the fires going.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had been Hokage of the Leaf village for forty two years, with a small gap when he had retired to make way for the Fourth Hokage, only to return a year or so later when the young man died. Elevated to his position by Tobirama Senju on the night of his death, Hiruzen was beloved by the ninja and citizens of the Leaf Village alike, he had led the village through a further two world wars, brokered the peace that had lasted for over a decade (even though it was false), and nurtured the new generations of shinobi throughout the years. People called him the "God of Shinobi," but he was kind, selfless, all of the things the story books said a good leader should be.

And therein lay the problem. That was the sort of leader a fairy-tale required, not a military society. No doubt, she respected Lord Third to a point, and had benefited from his clear favouritism of the waifs and orphans of the world, but she was beginning to lose faith in his leadership. He refused to act when needed, preferring to watch, wait for things to happen naturally rather than influencing things to go in the village's favour. He had allowed the Uchiha incident to play out, his naïve hope that it would all work out in the end leading to the annihilation of an entire clan, refused to acknowledge the warnings regarding the actions of his student, the Sannin Orochimaru, who murdered an unknown amount of children in his insane quest for immortality. Even then, it was rumoured that he hadn't been able to raise a hand against his former student and had let him escape. Hanami herself was where she was today in part because of his leniency. Five years ago, during the conflict with the Land of Peaches, they had captured Captain Kakashi, and she had disobeyed every order given to her so that she could bring him back. The story was somewhat famous, but the fact of the matter was that she had absconded from the Anbu, disobeyed orders from her seniors, risked the peace treaties with the other ninja villages, and killed many, many people. Chief Zō had screamed for her immediate execution upon her triumphant return, but Lord Hokage had smiled, waved him away, and promoted her a Jōnin instead, naming her amongst the most elite ninja in the world.

A strangled gasp brought Hanami out of her reverie quickly. One of the Foundation bodyguards was still alive and had regained consciousness, twitching hideously as the reality his crushed bones and organs began to dawn on him. Without glancing away from the paper in her hand, she drew a knife out of her kunai pouch, and almost absent-mindedly embedded it between his eyes. The twitching stopped.

A quick scan of the papers didn't yield much in terms of clues of Naruto's motivations for stealing the scroll. In fact, it appeared that Danzō was telling the truth, and really had just been taking the opportunity to have a look whilst everyone was preoccupied. There were plenty of mission reports, mostly Anbu-related, and the scroll he had attempted to take was a list of decommissioned operatives, but nothing much else. She began to circle the room, her seeing eye darting for evidence of further tampering or the Naruto had been here at all. She could not stop thinking about how all the safeguards had remained untouched, that is was impossible for an academy student to have got through without setting any of them off. And where were the two chūnin guards who were supposed to stand outside the entrance to the archives day and night, there had been no evidence of their presence whatsoever? It was infuriating how Lord Third refused higher security for the archives, stating that he trusted his people, and that no document was truly restricted if the need was great enough. She scowled as she moved through to the back room, where the Forbidden Scrolls were kept. Why didn't he just turn the all the village's secrets into a damn library, if they weren't important?

The door to the back room was looked via a keypad, but as an Anbu captain she was required to know what the code was. The door hadn't been forced, and when she pressed a few buttons to check the records, it only showed one entry in the last couple of hours, entered correctly. This had to be Naruto, if Naruto really was the one who they were after, and somebody had clearly given him the code, there was no way he would have been able to find out that information himself.

Inside, not a single thing appeared out of place, except for the cabinet containing the missing scroll, which was open and obviously empty. Nothing else had been touched, and when she activated her Sharingan, there were only the faintest of chakra signatures on the other cabinets, meaning that they hadn't been touched for quite some time. Further inspection of the empty cabinet showed fresh scrapes around and inside the keyhole; the lock had been picked. Out of everything she had seen so far, this was the only thing she was certain an academy student would be able to do, and the fact that it had been done so poorly only reinforced the idea that a student had made the attempt. There was no way this was as straight forward as everybody was claiming.

Slow down, Kakashi's voice filled her head, in the way it often did when she needed guidance, plan your next move carefully. He'd said this to her during the first mission she had completed with Team Ro, and she often needed to think back to it.

It couldn't have been what really happened. Naruto, a young boy still at school, and not very good at school either, had somehow accessed the hokage residence, got rid of the guards at the door, passed all the traps and safeguards in place without setting a single one off, known where to find the scroll without having to search, known the keycode to get in, and known exactly which scroll to pick out? Then be able to escape without being caught? Not a chance. Either somebody else had committed the crime, or somebody else was involved, pulling the strings from the side-lines. But why?

It had to be somebody who already knew the code, but who was there that knew the code that wouldn't be able to walk right in and take the scroll, if they wanted? What was the importance of Naruto in all this? Why was he needed at all? That was the outlier; any jōnin in the village could have bypassed the security and taken the scroll themselves, and probably been able to do it without anybody finding out until the archives were next accessed. Why use Naruto?

All Anbu masks had a tiny radio system embedded in the porcelain, so squad members could communicate with each other over long distances. She activated it,

"Tenzō?"

The radio crackled emptily for a moment, and then,

"I hear you, captain."

"Team up with Sumūzu. Go to the administration building and find the records of every shinobi who has had access to the archive's keypad code in the last few days," The codes changed weekly, and it was still four more days until they would change again, "The Uzumaki boy might not be our true target. Start with the Chūnin first and work your way up; I want you to locate every one of them and see what they can tell you… Use force if you have to."

"Understood."

There was nothing more she could do here, other than change the keycode and dispose of the mess she had made on the floor. She typed something new into the dial and closed the door behind her, satisfied with the reassuring click. At least nobody would be able to sneak back in without having to blow the whole door out entirely.

Getting the bodies out was going to be a problem. The traps would make it very difficult to haul them up the stairs without triggering something, and it was a lot harder to dodge things when you were weighed down. She crouched in between them, rummaging through their pockets to see if they at least had anything interesting. It was a shame, really. Danzō had clearly brought along two dogsbodies to make a quick distraction if he was caught, nothing more than cannon-fodder. Easily expendable, even easier to replace, the fact that he had left them here in the first place probably meant he wasn't concerned about any secrets being discovered from them. They had nothing of note.

Fire would have been the best way to destroy them, but it would also have destroyed the archives. She reached down and withdrew the two kunai she had used, the one in the table and the one in the skull, wiping the blade clean on the victim's cloak. She'd killed them in self-defence, and there was nothing that would identify her or Danzō, as long as she took the Foundation masks with her. Somebody else could sort this out.

She tucked the masks under her arm and left the archives, making sure to tread on both the bodies as she went.

When she exited the building and made her way up to the roof, the night was beginning to fade, and light creeping on the horizon. She would need to locate Naruto quickly; it was likely that once the real perpetrator had finished with him, they would kill him to cover their tracks. There had been no news to say that he had been found yet, and to her that made it obvious that we wasn't in the urban part of the village. The quickest way to search would be from the sky.

The blue scroll at her hip hung there permanently, often unnoticed by most people, whether she was in uniform or otherwise. She unlatched it and shrugged off her cloak. The seal emblazoned on her back and across her shoulders could be seen beneath the straps of her armour, standing out even more starkly than the red tattoo on her upper arm that signified she was a member of the Leaf Anbu. Kneeling on the ground, she rolled out the scroll in front of her, revealing an identical seal to the one on her back. Around the sides were hundred of signatures, all signed in blood. Hers was the last one on there. She kept a small blade inside the protective plates on her glove, and she drew it out now, not even blinking as she made a neat slice across her thumb, which was scarred with dozens of other neat lines. Placing her palm flat down on the scroll, she commanded,

"Summoning jutsu: Dragon King Aoshun!"

Pain exploded down her back as the seal blazed, but she remained upright, fists clenched to prevent herself from screaming. The skin across her shoulders bulged, and something burst out of the seal in a stream of smoke. It lurched into the air, howling, and then fell back to the ground, thrashing until their shared pain subsided.

Danzō hadn't called her the Dragon Princess for nothing. It was a dragon, its snakelike body writhing, thousands of iridescent scales attracting the rising sunlight. The crest that flowed like a main down its head and back was black, so dark it was almost unfathomable, the effect increasing the more you tried to look at it.

Breathing heavily, sweat running down her face, Hanami held up her hand, blood still spilling down her thumb,

"Aoshun!"

The creature stopped its rolling, and brought its enormous face close to hers, the two fronds that hung down from its nose dangling in her face. His eyes were blacker than his mane, two lanterns of onyx that eyed her steadily and she reached up tentatively, her fingers dusting his chin.

Hanami Hoshikusa, The dragon's voice was deep, but if another person had been standing beside them, they would not have heard it, for the voice was for Hanami and Hanami alone, You are quite different since the last time you summoned me. How long has it been since we last met face-to-face?

"Nearly two years," She had had her reasons, "I don't look that different."

I didn't say you looked different, child, I said you seem different. Have you truly not needed me for so long?

She ignored his questioning and pulled her cloak back on, her back sore from the release,

"We have a job to do. There's a boy we need to find, and I need you to fly me so I can search from the sky. I don't think we have a lot of time, if any time at all."

The dragon continued to stare at her, those impossible eyes staring straight into the heart of her body, and for a moment she thought he might not comply, but then he did so, dropping his shoulder so that she could climb onto his long neck. Despite the time that had passed since she'd last ridden him, she remembered exactly how to position herself; knees squeezing into the sides, body flat so she could reach up and grasp his mane. When Aoshun moved, it was like a snake, not a bird, his body weaving from side to side, which made riding him a difficult skill to master. Even now, she felt the hint of nerves as he took off into the sky.

Some time ago, His words filled her head, I felt everything go dark within you, a nothingness that even I couldn't see beyond. We were disconnected from each other somehow… what happened during that time?

"Nothing," She said it too quickly, glad he was preoccupied with the flight so he could not see her face, "It was nothing."

It was not nothing.

It was hard to lie to a being that shared your body, knew your thoughts as well you did, especially when what he was referring to was a time of deep, deep shame. She couldn't even remember why she'd done what she did, not because she had blocked it out, like so many other things, but because it was simply gone, a perfectly blank spot in a sea of darkness.

"Its not important anymore," She told him firmly, "I've moved on from it now."

They lapsed into silence. There had been a time when she would have gone through the pain of summoning simply to tell him about her day, or to curl up to sleep next to the warmth of his scales, but that time, like so many others, had passed.

Hanami had never enjoyed lengthy explanations of things that could be summed up quickly, and whenever people asked her about Aoshun, the mysterious summon that had been passed down her family for thousands of years, she tended to tell them just that; that he was nothing more than a dragon with whom her family held a summoning contract. The truth was far longer, and more complicated than she had time to explain. The Hoshikusa clan, her family, were descended from the first humans to walk the earth, or so the story went. Nomadic in nature, they viewed the entire world as their home, following ancient paths that few trod, keeping to the warmer climates in the winter months and colder ones during the summer. Deeply religious, they followed the way of life known as the Kami-ryū, although the rest of the world called it "Dragon Worship." The Hoshikusa believed that the Golden Dragon, Ōryū, and his wife, the Silver Dragon Leizu, had shaped the world from a ball of fire and flame, which still resided deep in the core of the earth, and watched over it from their thrones on the sun and moon. Their four sons, the Dragon Kings of the sea, were the guardians of the planet, remaining hidden on the earth, sleeping deep beneath the oceans where they could not be woken. They were named Aoguang, Aoqin, Aoshun and Aorun. The dragon Aoshun had been more interested in the developing humans than his brothers, and after an act of bravery by one of Hanami's ancestors, formed the summoning contract. Of course, the Aoshun she rode now wasn't the true form of a god, but a small piece of his soul separated from its anchor and attached to whoever in the Hoshikusa clan held the scroll, who became the vessel. That was how the seal appeared on their backs, and it was a process that was painful to say the least. Hanami's father, the king of the Hoshikusa people- there had been a reason Danzō had called Hanami a princess as well- had carried the vessel before her, and it had been intended for her brother Naoki after he died.

But Naoki had died first. Then all of them had died. Except for Hanami.

No… Those were the thoughts she pushed out immediately, the things she never wanted to think about. Her grip must have tightened around Aoshun's mane because a moment letter the dragon jerked his head in discomfort. She opened her mouth to apologise, but then her radio crackled to life once more,

"Captain? Captain do you copy?" It was Tenzō.

She covered one ear to quieten the roaring of the wind, "Go head."

"We've got him."

She sat up straight, and was immediately forced back down again by the motion of the dragon's body,

"Already? Where do I meet you?"

"The southwest woods."

"Copy. I'll be right there." Before she could relay the directions to Aoshun, he veered in the direction Tenzō had instructed, picking up to a speed that made her eyes water. She was thankful that it was still early in the morning, for some of the villagers might have been somewhat distressed to see an ancient dragon soaring over their homes. It was one of the reasons she didn't summon him so often now, that and it threatened to identify her.

As they neared the southwest woods, it was clear why nobody had been able to locate Naruto before now. They were the largest untouched woods in the village, a maze of twisting oaks that grew closely together, but it also held no strategic advantage for somebody trying to escape. It was a ways from the nearest gate, and easily surrounded, so unless your only goal was to hide out for an hour or two and give yourself up, it made little sense to run here. Nothing about this whole scene made any sense to Hanami as they began the decent over the wood in wide circles. She could see a small clearing in the centre that had what appeared to be human shapes inside, and lowered they got the clearer it became. She could see Tenzō, Sumūzu, Yugao and Tamashi, as well as three others she couldn't quite make out.

"I'm going to jump," She told Aoshun, "Its too small for you to land there." Two years rang like a bell in her head, "If… if you wanted to stay out for a while, I won't end the summons." She also didn't want anybody to witness the pain.

I will go to the water, I think, He sounded so sad that for a moment she reconsidered her decision, but then he added, The taste of fish… I have very much missed the taste of fish. I would like to taste fish again.

It seemed even ancient dragon gods only thought with their bellies. She gave him a gentle scratch, and felt him vibrate with pleasure, like a giant cat,

Are you ready to jump?

She had already let herself fall from his back, the air rushing past her as she plummeted to the earth. As always, the thoughts began the moment the ground drew near… if she just let herself fall… she wouldn't feel a thing… it would all be over. But then what would be the point? She'd never feel her blade cut through another throat or taste the fear of her target. She'd never feel the intense pleasure of him… She hit the ground and rolled to lessen the impact. If there was one thing to stay alive for, it was that.

The first thing she saw was Tamashi standing over a man she vaguely recognised as an academy instructor, healing a pretty nasty wound on his back. A bloodied shuriken, one of the clunky large ones she didn't like using lay in the grass beside them, clearly the cause of the injury. Tenzō and Yugao were standing guard over a second academy instructor, who had been bound by Tenzō's wood release. The man looked like he'd been hit by a stampede, his face swollen and bruised, blood seeping from his nostrils and mouth. He looked to be out cold.

"Captain!" Tenzō stood to attention as she approached, "I'm afraid you missed all the fun."

"I take it this is the one actually responsible?" She squinted at the face, trying to recognise him through the twisted features, "You did a good job on him."

"It wasn't us," Yugao shook her head, "He was like this when we got here. It was him," She pointed over Hanami's shoulders. Sumūzu was heading towards them, the Forbidden Scroll slung over his shoulder, followed closely by a kid in the brightest orange tracksuit she had ever seen. He was gaping at Hanami, wide blue eyes shining with excitement,

"Was that a dragon, lady? Did you just ride in on a dragon?" He'd grown a bit since she'd last guarded him, but this was definitely Naruto Uzumaki. He raced up to her and clung onto the front of her cloak, "Can I ride your dragon? Pleasepleasepleaseplease?"

"Naruto says Mizuki here promised him he'd be able to graduate if he was able to learn something from the scroll," Sumūzu gently dislodged the kid from Hanami's cloak and handed the scroll to her instead, "Turns out he just wanted it for himself."

Hanami studied the scroll closely. It was the Scroll of Seals, called as forbidden all the way back in the First Hokage's time because of the dangerous jutsu it contained. What could Mizuki have possibly been able to do with it? The techniques contained in this scroll were all forbidden and would have taken even a jōnin a long time to master.

"Do you know what this is?" She addressed her question to Naruto. He shrugged, completely uninterested,

"Just some scroll, I guess. I tried to read it, but it was really boring, so I just learned the first jutsu I saw. Can I get a dragon too?"

"You learned a jutsu from this scroll?" She repeated, "In just a couple of hours?" It wasn't possible. She knew a handful of techniques, most of them taught to her by Danzō, and the simplest one had taken days for her to perform successfully.

"Its true," Iruka had struggled to his feet, assisted by Tamashi, wincing in pain, "He almost beat Mizuki to death using the Multi-Shadow Clone jutsu. There were hundreds of them." He groaned and collapsed back onto the grass.

"Hundreds?" She knew that jutsu well. Unlike the normal clone technique, which created an image in the image of the user, a shadow clone was a solid creation, capable of the same damage, but at a cost. It required the user to split their chakra equally between themselves and the clone, effectively halving their chakra for every clone they made. Hanami's chakra was substantial, and at best she had been able to create forty two, but it had left her bed-ridden for a week afterwards. For this kid to have learned this jutsu in one night, then created hundreds of clones, and not only still be walking, but positively brimming with energy… she handed the scroll back to Sumūzu, "Take this back to Lord Hokage and inform him that everything is under control." And then to Naruto, "It takes a lot of chakra to be able to perform that jutsu. You must be a very powerful ninja."

She was only playing a part, but still, the boy coloured, and nodded vigorously,

"I'm gonna be the hokage one day, believe it!"

Mizuki was starting to come to, judging by the incessant groaning coming from his direction. His eyes were so swollen by Naruto's assault that it was hard to tell if they were open or not, but moments later he began struggling violently against his wooden bonds, kicking his legs into the ground in an attempt to gain enough leverage to sit. Hanami motioned to Tenzō, and more wood snaked up from the ground immediately, trapping Mizuki's legs together and preventing any further movement. He cursed loudly, and a tooth fell out of his mouth. Naruto laughed hysterically,

"Gee Mizuki-Sensei, I bet you're feeling real stupid right now!"

This proved far from helpful. Mizuki's face, the areas that weren't bruised, blazed red, veins popping out in his effort to break free and tear the boy limb from limb,

"I'll put an end to you, you filthy brat!"

"Iruka-" She beckoned to the academy instructor, who was on his feet again. Tamashi had done a good job; Iruka was pale, but it looked as though no further damage had been done than the wound to his back, "Take Naruto back to the village. This is an Anbu matter now."

"R-right," Iruka nodded, and placed a commanding, but protective hand on the kid's shoulder, "Come on, Naruto. I'll buy you all the ramen you can eat, okay?"

The boy had looked crestfallen when he realised he wasn't going to see Mizuki get even more roughed-up for his crimes, but at the mention of ramen he brightened considerably, and clutched at his sensei's flak jacket,

"Can I get extra pork?"

Iruka chuckled. "Anything you want."

"Alright!" Naruto set off in the direction of the village at such a pace he almost tore Iruka's arm out of its socket, "I'm gonna order the biggest bowl they've got! Later, loser!" This was directed at Mizuki as they passed him, who said nothing, but shot a look of unadulterated hatred at their retreating backs. Just as they were about to exit the clearing, Naruto paused, and ran back a few steps, "Hey, dragon lady?"

Hanami couldn't help but smile,

"Yes?"

He flashed a brilliant smile, almost splitting his face in two,

"Next time, I want a ride, okay?"

It was likely they would never meet again, so what did it matter? She gave him a thumbs-up, something most uncharacteristic,

"Sure thing."