Hey I'm back
Bold is for jutsu
italics For inner thought
It had been eight years since the Kyuubi attack, and life had been climbing only up since then. There were a few problems, of course, the biggest shock being the Uchiha rebellion that was plotted but fortunately stopped.
The whole mess had been building up since the Kyuubi attack occurred, and the rumors going around had gotten to the clan. The usually withdrawn clan had all but isolated themselves in their compound, worried about its members.
Itachi, Fugaku's eldest, had reported what was happening to the Hokage, and they had worked together to fix the issues before everything spiralled out of control.
An issue the Uchiha were complaining about was that they couldn't find Shisui. All of them had originally chalked it up to him being his usual self, but not even he would stay away this long.
All they could find for clues was his missing Anbu gear, no notes or anything. Itachi also was clueless to where he could have gone, even though they were very close friends. His Anbu commander said he had checked back from his mission but that was the last he had seen of him.
The second problem that had all but ran out of Konoha before anyone could do anything about, was Orochimaru. There had been word of people going missing and experiments being found, so many reports had been pointing to the snake Sannin as the perpetrator.
When the assault squad with Jiraiya as the leader was assembled, word had reached Minato that the snake had caught wind of what was happening and fled just as the news had come. With the wind.
The minor issue that had popped up that almost caused another war was Kumo, they had sent a Political envoy for more trade talks. This envoy they had sent turned out to be a ruse, as they tried to snatch away the Hyuuga heiress, and Kumo was mad at the Hyuuga for killing him.
When they had demanded that the envoy's killer be handed to them, Minato had refused outright and said they could try to get him. The Raikage had come to Konoha in order to apologise for his council, for sending out orders without his permission, even saying that he liked the response.
Of course, after that, the man had said he was still too thin, and should up his protein. After hearing a no, he had gone back to Kumo saying how all you need is a bit more muscle.
Kushina and Minato had made some news in the time that had passed, as Kushina had given birth to two children. While some would say they were overprotective parents, those who knew the cause, said it was justified.
Yashima was the name they had decided for their beautiful daughter, who had all the coming signs of an Uzumaki, vibrant red hair and skin that seemed to be on the almost snowy side, with a beautiful set of purple eyes to match her mother.
With everything that his daughter came to be, Minato was a little (a lot) jealous that Kushina got a near carbon copy.
Minato got his silent wish granted when their second child, Menma, was born bearing a high resemblance to himself.
The only thing separating him from Minato was the same that separated Kushina and Yashima, whiskers, three faint but still noticeable lines running horizontally on each cheek.
Currently in the hokage's office, Minato and Jiraiya were discussing the recent whispers that were being heard about a new hidden village being established in the Land Of Rice Paddies. "I am telling you Minato. Villages don't just pop up out of nowhere, there's usually some political stirring then some whining, so I'm saying we should keep an eye on it."
Minato just frowned and looked down in thought.
"While I agree with you Sensei, I do not think that anything big will come of this. How about this, Sensei, if you hear anything else noteworthy come up of concern by any means, I want you to look into it. Just know I can't dedicate any shinobi to this. We are just regaining what strength we lost from…. You know what." Jiraiya only nodded in resignation.
"You want me to keep looking for him don't you?" Looking up at his sensei and his quasi father, he nodded with almost hollow eyes. For all the powerful leader he was, he still faulted himself for Naruto's kidnapping.
"Minato, c'mon, Kushina and I always remind you that it was not your fault, okay? There was nothing you or anyone else could have done."
Looking down, all Minato could do to try and contain his anger was strain his fists, feeling the raw anger and hatred bubbling up as he stood up.
Jiraiya raised his eyebrows and watched as Minato pounded both of his fists into his desk making his paperwork fly to his feet and around him, coming so close to breaking the table but not quite. "THEN WHOSE FAULT IS IT!" Jiraiya grabbed him by the shoulders with both hands, shook him enough to get his attention but none too gently. Looking him in the eyes and calmly saying.
"Not yours, Minato. Hell, you could blame me for being out of the village at the time, or for crying out loud the guy who summoned the Kyuubi out of Kushina"
Shaking his head violently, Minato argued. "I wasn't fast enough sensei and that's that!" Not one to let things like this keep going he started walking to the door.
"You did all you could Minato right?" Seeing a reluctant nod he continued. "There's nothing more you could have done, just look forward to what you have with Yashi-chan and little Menma. I'll try to find Naruto in the meantime but I won't promise anything." With that statement he had left And the moment the door had closed he slid down his chair relaxing his posture.
Root headquarters was usually a quiet place, only interrupted by the sparring sessions that were held occasionally. Today, however, was special for a certain set of shinobi as they were being assigned a mission, and everyone in Root always looked forward to serving the leaf. Inside the barracks were two particular members studying away at some scrolls.
"Sai, we have orders coming from Danzō-sama today." The pale partner turned to look over. "Do you know when Danzō-sama will be here?" The child asking the question was a young boy of just about eight years old with black straight hair and eyes almost whole in color, dark and showing little emotion. "Negative: I was only told today we will be getting orders." He chirped.
This slightly more expressive member of the partnership was Naruto Uzumaki or as he was only known as in Root, Inari.
Inari had straight white hair with two bangs hanging on either side of his face framing his two ocean blue eyes, still glimmering with a tiny amount of excitement at the prospect of a mission. The birth markings he had announced his ancestry still standing proud, a crimson against his skin. Whiskers dark enough to get you to look at them, but not enough that you could only focus on them. Leaving him with a rather intricate face.
Both Sai and Inari stood at around average height for their age and wore the mandatory Root equipment, grey armored plates strapped on their chest and wrists with black pants. Both of them had the standard tipless tanto's all Root members had, making them fit in.
The doors to their barracks were opened just after Inari had finished his sentence, revealing Danzō. Immediately they had both put their scrolls down and moved in front of Danzō and kneeled "Inari, Sai meet me in the debriefing room in five minutes."
Taking the time to clean up their living space before they left, they made it a little bit early so they had to wait outside the room. Seeing the doors open and two other Root members walk out they waited for the signal to go inside. After a few seconds had passed they could hear his voice call them in.
"You summoned us Danzō-sama?" Inari queried the moment everyone had settled into the spartan room they used for these types of things.
"Yes, I'll be taking some time away from Konoha and I need you two to act as bodyguards for me. Fū and Torune are away on a vital mission, and I would like you two to escort me as I want you to become accustomed to the man who I work with. Any questions?" Turning to his left, he pointed at two duffle bags on the floor.
"These will also be coming along with us. I expect you to guard them just as well as you would me, understood?" Seeing the nods, he turned to face them, putting a right hand on Inari's gloss of white hair and Sai's contrasting but still neat hair.
"Yes Danzō-sama." They chorused in unison, Inari raising his head a little so he could look up at Danzō. "May we know who this ally of ours is so we may prepare?" Danzō turned to look at Inari, hiking up his eyebrow a little at the question.
"No, I have known this individual a long time. Let's say we both profit from our agreement."
Not questioning it, the Root shinobi nodded. "But we will be meeting a Kage, so I want you two to cause no problems. We also will be needing disguises as other than Sai, our group would be readily recognizable. I will be going by an alternative name that will be decided upon the road."
Turning to behind the desk, Danzō grabbed two cases, passing them to the pair and he let them open the cases to see their disguises.
"Inari, your disguise will be that you're my son, and we're traveling around from the land of waterfalls to the land of hot springs. Sai, you will be my nephew who is visiting from Kusagakure. I myself will be a minor travelling merchant. If we come across any civilians, I'll cast some genjutsu or make an excuse to drive them off. If a shinobi won't leave us alone, I'll do the talking, understand?"
"Yes Danzō-sama."
"Dismissed, be back in half an hour."
Nodding, they agreed in synchronization, before they grabbed the two duffle bags full of the unidentified valuables that Danzō-sama had told them to guard. "Inari stay behind for a second." Inari had frozen still at those words, his mind going a mile a minute. Did he forget to do something? Did he not hold the kneeling position correctly again? Was he not supposed to ask about this mission? Was he to go for his seal checkup again? He hated those, the seal always burnt after, he hoped it wasn't that.
"Danzō-sama, did I do something incorrectly? If so, I will accept any punishment you deem necessary." For a fraction of a second, Inari could have sworn, but Danzō-sama said not to do that, that Danzō seemed to have a little drop in the outer corner of his brow. Usually an indicator of sadness or a similar emotion, but Danzō-sama said emotion made us weak.
"No Inari I want to commend you." Seeing the confused look in his eyes he continued. "You tried to prepare for the situation ahead of being in it. That's the type of thinking I want all of Root to have, so we can all serve Konoha better." Seeing the contemplating look in Inari's eyes all he did was reach out and put his hand on Inari's head and left him with five words.
"Keep up the good work." With that, Danzō left the room, leaving Inari to his thoughts.
After standing there deep in thought, he was shaken out of his mind by someone grabbing his shoulder. Turning to look, he saw it was Kan. Kan was of the shorter side for his age of twenty-ish, he wore a blank mask when in the field but without his mask he was fairly nondescript. Grey hair and a strong round jawline with thick eyebrows that crowned his wide open silver eyes, giving a serious look to his face. "Inari. Why are you standing here?"
Surprised at being caught idling, and more surprised that he had no reason, he left while telling Kan, "I was just leaving, nothing more." Grabbing the luggage given to him, he left for his and Sai's barracks. Taking his time in walking back, he considered the mission at hand.
Arriving at the barracks he saw Sai already had his disguise ready, he thought he should do the same. Opening his disguise bag he saw the essentials for himself; hair dye, makeup to cover his whiskers and clan markings, and a new set of clothes. Looking over at Sai, he saw he now had brown hair, almost a dirty blonde color, and was wearing what some merchants would call lower class clothing.
To them it was just another uniform.
As it was almost time to leave, Inari looked at his materials more closely, he saw that he had near a yellow, color of blonde for his dye and a middle class yukata with a deep auburn coloring on it. Shrugging at the uniform choice and lack of storage, he put it on while making sure it was worn correctly. Seeing that Sai was done putting on his clothing, he sat down on his cot. "Sai, do you want to get your dye put on first or mine?"
"I'll go second, you need time to dry so we can apply your facial disguise."
Nodding at the logic, he moved to the bathroom to the sink bowing his head over it so there would be little mess. Having Sai apply his product to his hair he wondered how this was gonna come out. Getting a tap on his shoulder, he moved his body back and swapped places with Sai mirroring the process that occurred prior. Reading the box while sitting for a second, Sai turned to Inari and showed him the description.
"Keep in mind we have to avoid alcohol as that will take out the stain."
"Is that what it is this time? Last time we chose a water based dye and that's all I could smell."
Smiling, Sai stood up and grabbed the face makeup. "That's probably why Danzō-sama switched it, got tired of your complaining." Naruto getting up after seeing what Sai wanted to do moved to his bedding and gave him a look.
"I did not complain that much, you complained more about how it was getting in your eye, with your short hair." Both boys shared a smile after that, knowing that they can't smile around anyone else but they only wanted to smile around each other, the only reason being they are brothers and enjoy what they have.
"Let us go, it wouldn't be good for us to be late for a mission with Danzō-sama, just because your face paint took so long."
Grabbing the bags Danzō had told them to bring and guard, they made sure to turn off their lights and close the door. Organization and routine were what made Root so stable, and a guiding hand from Danzō.
Meeting Danzō in the mission prep room, they saw he was ready with new robes of a brown color giving him a plain looking outfit overall, his eye patch was swapped out for a common black eye patch. The scar that so many people knew Danzō for was covered by face paint, and his hair was of a light greying color.
"You two have everything ready? We might be a few weeks, I'd like to keep it as short as possible but one cannot predict the future."
Watching the two check everything over and see nothing missing, they set off, out of one of many hidden tunnels from the base. Sprinting as fast as they all could while staying together, only stopping once they reached a road that was commonly used for traveling merchants.
"So where are we travelling to Danzō-sama?"
Danzō turned to look at Inari with one raised eyebrow, wondering if he should tell him yet, deciding it would be best if they knew he stopped and watching them stop he started talking.
"We'll be meeting an old acquaintance of mine, Orochimaru the Snake Sannin. He and I have been…..partners for a long time, he was the one who gave Kinoe the Mokuton.
Clenching his jaw at the particular memory of losing everyday against him, he could only hold that in. Danzō just shook his head at the fact that it was a rivalry between the two and he was getting worked up over it.
"Inari, I know I have always been more lenient when it came to emotions with you due to your status but you must not let feelings get in the way of being a shinobi. Sai, I ask that you continue to help him with this, and your book. What would you do if I asked you to destroy it?"
Inari could only look down in failure at this, his whiskers hidden by his blush of embarrassment. Sai looked at Danzō confusedly as to him the answer was obvious.
"I would do as asked Danzō-sama, as I would and always Will."
Humming for a second, Danzō started walking without saying a word. Seeing no reason not to, Sai and Inari started walking as well, Sai switching which shoulder his bag that Danzō told him to guard rested on.
"So if I ordered you to kill yourself right now, you would?"
Being rather shocked at the question, Sai hesitated too long for Danzō. "Yes, I would only ask where you want me to."
"Then right here, right now."
Inari was rather confused. Everything had been going well so far, only being reprimanded by Danzō-sama for showing anger openly. The confusion he felt stemmed from the fact Danzō-sama was doing this needlessly, as a Root shinobi was always ready to die for Danzō in any way he wanted, not unnecessarily like this.
The most confusing factor was the twisting knot he felt inside. His heart felt like it was wringing itself out, his two most prized people doing this.
Stopping and turning to look at his two pupils, he started his speech.
"You see? This is why emotion is a weakness, what if Inari was mind swapped with a Yamanaka and they were going to assassinate me? Would you kill him then, or after he already had his blade in my neck?."
"I would stop him before that Danzō-sama!"
"This is good to know, now let us carry on before it gets dark out." Trudging along after being reprimanded, the pair of rookies hurried after their master.
Arriving just at an inn just as it was nearly dark out, they stopped outside before stepping in. Stopping his two subordinates Danzō spoke.
"We'll be renting a room but that's just a cover story. Thankfully no shinobi stopped us on our way. You two will be getting changed into standard gear and I will be as well, then we'll be sprinting the rest of the way so we will be there by sunrise, understood?"
"Yes, Danzō-sama." Hearing the synchronous reply he went into the inn. Danzō was doing his best to act calm for the attendant, from what he could tell they were having a rough time getting a room for the three of them.
"I want you two to leave the talking to me, you two lack the certain…...flow that comes with socializing." Danzō thought about the problems that could arise from this issue, humming to himself he decided that nothing too terrible could come from this slight.
Elsewhere all around the Elemental Nations, several people had sneezed at the same time.
All thinking the same thing, someone was talking about them.
Hatsu was having a rough week so far, and it was only Wednesday. On Monday he found out his wife was sick with a rough cold, Tuesday the debt collectors came by and said next Thursday they'd break his legs if he couldn't pay by then.
Today itself was turning out to be downhill too, because when he woke up this morning the first thing that happened to him was falling down the stairs.
Hatsu was feeling pretty good then when an elderly man and two children walked in, a pretty odd looking old man but the other two children seemed…..off somehow.
Having been a businessman this long and knowing that opportunity always comes, he jumped at the opportunity.
"Hello there and welcome to my inn, I have a few rooms open and if you like, we also have an onsen." Smiling with the delivery of his sales pitch, he looked at the children this elderly man had with him. Obviously they were his family, judging by how they were looking at the older gentleman in almost reverence.
"Hmmm do you have a room for three? My son and nephew also want to visit the onsen while we're here, and I think these old bones could use it -haha-." Smiling at the friendly tone, they worked out a payment, but Hatsu was shocked when he saw the amount of ryo he was given.
"I-i'm sorry sir, it seems you've given me a little too much, here I'll give you some change back." Reaching into his pocket, he seized up the two children were locking eyes at his own, the glares making him move at a snail's pace.
"No it's fine, I was just giving you a tip for the friendly service. You are okay with this, right?" The only thing he could do at this moment was nod to the nice old maan. The second he nodded and had his hand out of his pocket, the children went back to acting like normal kids, and he could move again.
"H-here's your key. P-please enjoy your stay." Having the key taken out of his hand he watched as the three left. Hoping That their stay wouldn't be any more stressful than this.
Oh well, at least he had enough to fix the problems he was having with medicine for his wife and most of the debt he had. Nodding all it took were two strange kids and a seemingly nice old man.
Reaching their room from the main entrance, they stuck their key In the lock and took their first step in. The room was small but not terribly small, where they'd be cramped together.
"I know I said that we'd be taking off right away, but I'd like to take some time for relaxation even I'm getting tired at my age." Both Root trainees were surprised they always thought Danzō-sama was the perfect shinobi. Sai was the first one to speak up, Inari almost beating him.
"If this is what you wish for Danzō-sama, but I do not think you are any less the perfect example of a shinobi." Almost looking at Sai with annoyance in his eyes he nodded in the background.
The bath house wasn't anything spectacular but it was cozy. The hardest part was telling them that there's two different sides to most onsen. In Root they had mixed showers to make both genders not care about the opposite sex, and save money.
Not getting it but not wanting to question Danzō, they followed. Sai and Inari went into this strange place, questioning everything and looking for entry and exit points. Keeping a kunai with themselves just in case of any attackers, at a remote inn, on a long way from any village.
"I've come up with a change in plans, me being away from Konoha could lead to some suspicions so I will be leaving as soon as possible. You two will stay and train with Orochimaru as Inari can go all out training with the Kyuubi, Sai can learn more seals from Orochimaru as well."
"If that is what you wish for Danzō-sama, Sai and I will represent Root to the best."
"I expected no less, but I'm glad you'll try anyway. Inari, from what Orochimaru and I were sending messages, it seems as if he has picked up a member of the Kaguya clan. This member may be able to tell you some info on your clan's Kekkai Genkai, you would become a very useful weapon if you had it."
Hmming in response, Inari thought, how much of a difference would it make?
"Alright I think it's best if we take off now, Orochimaru would be at his best if we were on time."
Getting out of the onsen, they passed by the cleaner, who offered the two children a candy, thinking that children would take candy. After looking at it suspiciously, Sai grabbed the one already unwrapped by the lady and gave it a taste, giving a nod of safety to eat Inari took one as well.
What would go down in history as the strangest sight for that housekeeper, was what Inari thought would be the normal way of eating a plastic wrapped candy. Taking the whole candy, Inari shoved it in his mouth and started crunching it down, and swallowed it.
Sai gave Inari a thumbs up at what he thought was good acting like a child. Danzō only facepalmed at the scene, noting the stillness of the cleaner and the look of horror, he cast a genjutsu to make her think this was some weird daydream. A loud hacking and coughing came shortly after, and Inari spat out a plastic wrapper. Seeing the confused look pointed at him, Danzō could only point at the nearest garbage can.
Right, these two are the ones taking over after I die. Great.
"Alright, we're looking for an Oto shinobi. This is the village that Orochimaru has founded, their symbol is a musical note, but they'd be a fool to wear it to meet us. Keep an eye out."
Taking a walk down an alleyway, a group of five older, shady looking characters came out, all of them carrying some sort of weapon; be it a knife or a bat.
The most courageous one, the leader if you would call him that, stepped forward. His ugly mug mostly hidden by the dark shadows of the buildings on each side.
"Hey old man!" Ignoring the growl. "I see you're wearing some fancy clothes, seems ya got lost down our street, now you have to pay the fine. Ya dig? How about the bags you got the brats carrying? That'll be enough. And we'll let ya go, eh?"
Danzō could only sigh, was it the cane that made people think he couldn't handle himself. Honestly he thought it gave him more presence. This situation is rather annoying. It seems that there's nothing good to distract them with to cast a genjutsu.
"I don't think I'll be doing that, my family and I will walk out of here and you can return to this feeble attempt at robbery." Trying his best not to cause a ruckus, he tried it the Hiruzen way, with politics and reaching into people's hearts or whatever he always said.
"I don't think you heard me old man." Hearing a growl he turned to the source, a child of average height. "You got a problem little man? What's wrong, daddy didn't get you anything and now you wanna go home?"
Sai could only huff and take a step back, grabbing Inaris' pack that Danzō gave him. Inari turned to look at Danzō giving him what most Root shinobi would call puppy eyes, to anyone else it was essentially a stare off.
"Are you sure we cannot leave without any payment? It would make this a lot faster."
"Maybe what you're not getting is what we'll do. Hey Josuke, pass me your beer." Taking the beer from his 'friend', he took a swig of it, before violently slamming it down on Inaris head.
Looking up at Danzō, he cackled. "You see old man? We don't hesitate. Ahaha! Now give me your shit before that's the nicest thing I'll do to ya."
Danzō looked at Inari, saw that the hair dye was a little messed up by the tiny amount of alcohol in it. He looked into Inari's eyes, saw the bloodlust, looked at Sai, and both of them just took a couple of steps back.
"You have forty-five seconds to finish, Inari. You have to clean up after too."
Like the Gods themselves had released chains on the devil, Inari smiled. He could get rid of some of that bloodlust from when they called Danzō-sama an old man.
That was all the warning the thugs got before shit hit the fan. Like a devil possessed, Inari went after the leader of the group, smiling sinisterly. Sending a kick to the inside of his right leg and breaking it out, the man toppled and that's all it took for Inari to stomp on his throat. One down ,Inari thought, forty more seconds.
Jumping at 'Josuke' he saw the whites of the man's eyes before he dashed under his left arm, dashing the swipe from said arm, climbed his back and wrapped his arms around his neck. Twisting like the lid on a jar he hopped. Two down, thirty-eight seconds left.
The lost element of surprise would make the next three take more time, but also made things more fun in Inari's opinion, although Danzō-sama preferred quiet operations. Leaping at the man who had a knife, it seemed to be an everyday butcher knife, he knocked it out of his right hand. Grasping the now free hand, he twisted, making the man fall to a knee.
Palm Striking him in the center of the nose, pushing the entire bone up into his brain, he was dead before he hit the floor. Three down, twenty-two seconds left. Seeing the other two thugs frozen in fear, he sprinted at them, dashing to the right one last second. Toppling the rather small man over, Inari kept punching his hands away.
The thug was wondering why he wasn't dead yet from this demonic child.
He felt true relief when his remaining partner in crime wrenched the child off of him. Well that's what it seemed to be at first until he clambered all the way up the arm that grabbed him. Reaching the face of the man that rudely pulled him off, according to plan, he grasped his head and aimed his thumbs. Leading to a gorey demise. Four down, ten seconds left.
The last guy was crawling away crying, but this info mattered not to Inari, as he was deep in the bloodlust that came from every battle. This was the downside of being a part of the Kaguya clan, he had yet to see an upside he would later think.
Right, the man crawling away, Inari was short on time, so he thought to go with the simple. Grabbing a bat quickly, eight seconds, he ran back, seven seconds. He swung and hit, the thunk of the bat against bone ricocheted to his ears, six seconds, hearing a moan he swung, but now he knew it was over. Four seconds, too bad there had to be no blood. It would have been a lot faster.
Wet drips hinted at Inari coming, and the smell of alcohol on him.
"Four seconds Inari, not bad for no blood. Sai, would you help your comrade with sealing the bodies?" Seeing Sai move to the alley but Inari moved in front of him he got a little confused. Until Inari bent his head down a little, his face moving to make a smirk but quickly stopping it Danzō gave a quick look around.
Seeing nobody watching, he ruffled Inari's hair, almost stopping as soon as he started, coughing he looked away.
"We better get those bodies sealed up right away. I'll go look for our agent we're meeting." With this, the two walked separate ways, both a tiny bit happier. Inari for satiating his bloodlust and getting his hair ruffled by Danzō-sama, and Danzō for his agent being loyal to a fault.
In the alleyway, Sai was huddled over there, two bodies already sealed. Working on the third, Inari hopped in after wiping some of the alcohol off his whiskers.
"You need to learn to control your bloodlust, Danzō-sama sees it as a weakness. He doesn't know how to get rid of it yet, though."
"We can't help that some goons didn't treat Danzō-sama with respect. I only gave them the last lesson they'll ever need." Sai could only shake his head at this. His brother was so hard to reason with sometimes.
"Sai, Inari I found our guide so you have five minutes." Rushing with the last two bodies, they walked out of the alley.
"Inari, wear something to cover your head for now, your natural hair color is showing. This is our guide, Guren. Orochimaru said she is one of his most capable shinobi."
Looking at the mentioned nin, she was of average height for her apparent age. Her unique style of hair color and style makes her stand out a little, with two short bangs framing her face, and a spiky ponytail. Two dark eyes seemingly judging everyone and thing.
"Orochimaru-sama told me you'd be bringing two guards, I'm assuming these two here are them?" Seeing a nod she continued. "Alright, I'll lead the way to Oto, just make sure you're ready, it's quite the walk."
AN: well I said before that I wasn't the fastest and well I meant it I'll still try to update as fast as I can but uh please leave a review or criticism it really helps a lot. :)