AN: So, the comments for chapter 18 were globally positive but the response was rather timid. Oh well, I can't hit the mark every time. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
As a warning, there is no need to tell me "this does not work that way". In this chapter, I modified some canon facts and some accepted fanon ideas and if I did it, it's because the implications were overpowered. One example, often seen in fanfiction: the easily made, portable chakra suppressing tags. If such a tag existed, you have to realize one would only need to just trap the hell out of a place, bring the fight there, and then bam, goodbye overpowered ninja. Orochimaru? No problem. Akatsuki? No sweat. See the problem with it now? Certainly, I could ignore that fact and still make Naruto fight like a retard but that's exactly contrary to what this fic is. So yeah, all in all, a few important changes here and there.
Be warned, here in this chapter is another reason this story is rated M.
There was a reason a kunai to the throat was an efficient menace, even for a shinobi and especially when another shinobi was holding the knife. It was a bet of whose reaction time was the sharpest and when the edge of a blade was pressed against tender flesh, it was a bet anyone would hesitate to take.
As unlikely as it was, a seasoned jonin could die to a genin if the less experienced ninja was the one holding the kunai. All that was needed was a twitch, a breath too loud, a tension in the shoulders, and the blade would slide across the neck to carve a new smile of the bloody kind.
The Substitution jutsu was of little help either if the hostage was at the mercy of an experienced ninja, for they would undoubtedly sense the build-up of chakra necessary for the technique to happen. At this distance, even without hand signs or any other tell, no one needed to be a sensor to feel chakra being moulded.
Tiger was a seasoned jonin, had been a ninja for as long as his memories could go back, and so had found the one solution to escape a normally deadly chokehold with a nearly hundred per cent success rate. One needed to be a very good ninjutsu user and had high chakra control to pull it off, two things Tiger was and had.
The "trick" to the method was something only ninja interested in jutsu theory realized alone, as anyone would never even consider it a point of interest.
When using a jutsu, the goal was to mix and mould the chakra as fast as one could, to release the jutsu as fast as possible. So no one asked themselves if there was any point to moulding the chakra slowly.
It was a hard thing to do. Chakra was a very volatile kind of energy, even more so when moulded, and it relentlessly tended toward a "grounded" state; one achieved either by the release of it as a jutsu or simply by allowing it to dissipate back into the ninja's coils.
Building up the chakra slowly enough so that even an average sensor could not detect it without losing control of it was one bitch and a half, even for Tiger, but the ANBU squad leader succeeded nonetheless.
From the corner of his eyes, he saw Naruto getting savagely knocked out. Time seemed to stop as he watched the boy slowly fall, nearly unconscious from the blow. Tiger replaced himself with a chair, using a more advanced version of the Substitution jutsu that allowed the user not to simply switch place but to appear more or less where they wanted in a certain radius around where they had initiated the technique.
There was some kind of explanation about how space and time did not tolerate two objects using the exam same space and how to take advantage of that but the man did not care.
Both his arms morphed into thorny vines that wiped the two ninja holding his subordinates hostage, maiming their armed hand cruelly. The two men grunted and both were headbutted violently by their captive before their knives could even hit the ground.
Tiger saw Dog go down on her knees, red blood seeping from her open throat, and swore. He had not been quick enough. With a leap, he found himself at the teenage girl's side, his hands already finished with the seals, and slammed his foot on the ground.
A bubble of water condensed around him and Dog in less time than a man needed to blink. The air in the room dried up completely and someone bellowed "down!" when the water exploded.
Tiger looked down at the Inuzuka. With an Olympian cool, the girl had weaved the necessary hand signs and was healing herself, her palms glowing jade green. The man nodded once. The knife probably had not that cut deep.
Turning his attention back to the situation, he took stock of it in a glance. He could see Cat, a thin line of red on her throat, holding a kunai in each hand, weaving and dancing around two guys who could not get close. All around the room, it was chaos. His Suiton: Detonating Water Sphere had thrown around men and treasures alike. One henchman, the one who had been nearest to the attack, was dead and bathing in his blood, every membrane in his body caved or torn by the pressure burst. The rest was quickly getting up, some swaying on their feet and looking around confusedly, blood coming out of their nose and ears, or already circling him.
"Stop, you animals! Stop!" came the furious voice of Yubaba. "Stop this fight or the young one dies!" She threatened with authority.
Tiger froze and slowly turned to where Naruto had been downed. He had apparently received another solid hit or two to the skull if the blood flowing from his scalp was any indication and was sprawled, face against the floor, moving sluggishly, one enemy ninja pressing the tip of a kunai at the base of his cranium. The squad leader swore again, audibly this time. The boy was far from him. Very far.
It should not have been like this. The Bathhouse was supposedly a neutral ground and they should have been sent on their merry way. Yubaba had not allowed him time to think, she had refused negotiation for some reason.
The man lowered his arms and the vines slithered around Cat, immobilizing her. Tiger distractedly noticed she had blood dripping from her ears and reported his attention to the old lady. The elderly woman was anxious about something. She had pretended to not know about Otogakure but something was wrong. He had not yet reached a conclusion on what it was but it smelled fishy.
Despite her boast, Yubaba had no reason to break her neutrality and cross Konoha. The woman was greedy and her establishment and its rules brought her too much money for her to endanger it. Either she was confident she could keep detaining and possibly killing his team a secret -and that was a big mistake on her part- or there was something else. Someone had a mean to pressure her.
Tiger raised a brow. That was not anything he expected but it was a logical conclusion to reach. There was also this problem with fuinjutsu, Naruto, and this Veil, whatever it was. Was there a barrier surrounding the Bathhouse? There was something to exploit here. He just needed time.
"If we stand down, do you swear not to hurt him?" Tiger asked in his monotone, careful to keep a perfect poker face.
"Yes, yes, that's what the deal is in this kind of situation. Men, detain those three cretins and lock them away somewhere deep. Feed them some chakiller to keep them docile." Yubaba barked. "Haku, feed the boy some of it too and tie him up. We have some things to discuss."
Naruto opened one eye groggily. His head hurt and he felt like hurling whatever was in his stomach. His mouth and throat were dry and for some reason, he could not move without pain flaring up everywhere in his body. Finally, he felt weak, weighed down, sick. He had never been sick, ever and concluded he had been poisoned. He did his best not to groan and kept his breathing steady and silent.
He had to take stock of the situation first and he soon realized it was not bright. His thoughts process eventually cleared enough for him to assess a number of things.
Number one, he had fucked up. Cat had assured Tiger that it was inevitable but if he had not allowed his impatience and frustration to get the better of him, he would have kept his questions discreet and the bunch of wannabe assassins would not have been after them. Number two, he had fucked up. For reasons unknown even to him, he had not warned his squad about whatever barrier fuinjutsu was securing the perimeter around the Bathhouse. He had assumed they knew about it and did not care. Assuming was the height of stupidity in their line of business.
True, had he told them about it that he would not have been able to say much more, as he could not tell the role of the barrier anyway. However, it seemed it mattered very much somehow if Yubaba's last words to him held any truth.
She needed him and it was about sealing and she had detected his Uzumaki blood through the barrier. He had no idea how such a feat of sealing was possible but there was no denying it.
Overall, he had fucked up. Naruto took a silent minute to mentally kick his own ass and berate himself. He did not allow himself any self-pity: not only was it not his way of doing things, he clearly did not deserve it.
Still faking sleep, the boy willed his poor brain to think. What was the best course of action? Considering he was firmly tied, that his chakra was poisoned, and that his head was lancing him painfully, gaining time seemed like a good idea.
Yubaba needed him, alive apparently otherwise he would already be dead. There was a fifty-fifty chance she hoped he had some skills with sealing. Deciding he liked the odds -he had never been much of a gambler anyway- he opened his eyes.
"Got your beauty sleep, boy?"
Naruto opened his mouth to answer something but could only grunt.
"Haku, water if you please."
The boy felt a straw being introduced between his lips. He sucked on it greedily and water inundated his throat. Naruto felt like he was coming back from the dead. He drank for a full thirty seconds before nothing came out of the straw anymore. The boy sighed in content, nodded to the older green-haired boy who stood by him and focused his gaze on Yubaba.
"Now young man, we are going to talk."
Naruto resisted the urge to scoff or scream something idiotic. He dearly wanted to know the fate of his three teammates but a part of his brain supplied that they were probably alive if only as mean to "encourage" him to do whatever would be asked of him. The boy nodded.
"You are of Uzumaki descend," that was not a question, "and I'm in need of the service of a seal master. The deal is simple: you fix something for me and you and your little friends get out free."
Naruto frowned. "What guarantee-"
"You'll get none because you are in absolutely no position to receive any. You have my word and you'll be happy with it."
Naruto growled in anger and bared his canines at the old woman. "I can sabotage your ass so hard your grandmother will feel it. I want to see my companions." The boy grunted with contained anger.
"You watch your tone boy!" Yubaba bit back."You are tied up and powerless. You get to work and I set you free and the first signs of sabotage I see you and your little friends are all dead. Understood?" The witch threatened with a grating tone.
Naruto glared, only for the old woman to glare back. "I see them now and I do your thing, no question asked, take it or leave." The boy retorted with a scoff.
Yubaba snorted and blew a massive plume of smoke through her nose. She hummed absentmindedly for a few seconds, watching the cloud dissipate slowly before she turned back to watching Naruto. Without a word, she rose from her chair, walked around her desk and stood right in front of the boy.
Naruto did not see her hand move. He only felt the burning pain of her slap on his cheek. The old witch could hit hard, very much so.
"Bad young boy, you need to learn to behave."
The boy growled but another slap threw his head sideway as blood invaded his mouth from a busted lip. Yubaba had some heavy jewellery on her fingers.
"You need to learn to respect your elders." The old woman said, striking Naruto once again. "You need to learn to not demand anything from your host." Another backhanded slap drew a long cut across Naruto's right cheek. "You need to learn when to obey." She punctuated this one with one last strike that achieved to massacre his lips.
The boy glared defiantly and spat a mix of spit and blood and Yubaba's overly large forehead. "You need to ask politely." He said with a grin.
The old woman sighed. "I hoped I would not have to go that far. Youngsters these days, don't know what's good for them," she mumbled, turning back to her desk and taking an ornate wooden box.
Naruto eyed her wearily. Was she going to torture him? After being beaten black and blue by the training golems, his pain resistance was rather high but it was not something he wished to experience.
"Do you know what's inside this little chest?" The boy slowly shook his head. "Of course you don't, that was rhetorical. Now let me open it." And joining motion to speech, Yubaba opened the case.
Naruto's eyes widened despite himself as he saw three bloody pinkie fingers in the box. He felt himself go pale.
"I heard your leader like to cut those who don't answer him. I imagine the Inuzuka heal the damage afterwards. I was ready to give them this piece of flesh back if you cooperated but I think…" Yubaba glared meaningly at Naruto. "I'm going to burn those fingers."
Naruto coughed in horrified surprise and screamed at his captor. "What?! No, wait! I'm working for you! Don't-"
Without heeding his plea, the old woman threw the cut fingers inside the fireplace of her office and motioned for one of her guards. The man sped through hand signs and a fire jutsu erupted from his mouth, burning the flesh to ashes.
The boy swallowed thickly and tore his widened gaze away from the flames to the old witch.
"You sneeze in a way I dislike and I cut a piece from them. Do I have your cooperation yet?"
Naruto forced himself to lower his eyes, swallowed his mounting fury, and nodded. He could go berserk right here and now, give in to the smouldering desire to tear into ribbons the ridiculous, ugly, stupid, mean little witch who stood in front of him. However, emotions would not help him right now, he needed a cool heart and an even cooler head. He had plans to make and people to rescue. As long as he cooperated, he had time and he had to make the most of it.
The old woman was going to pay. He would get his teammates out and then, he would cash a check with Yubaba's name on it and he was going to make sure it would be more than she could afford.
Naruto's face was lifted by his chin and Yubaba's glared at the boy, who kept his eyes carefully listless. "I didn't quite hear you, boy."
"Hai, you have it."
The old woman had a wicked smile and cackled. "Good. Good! Excellent! I love it when people are reasonable. Guards, take him away for now and watch him carefully."
Two ninja took Naruto under his armpits and manhandled him up before they walked away and out of the office.
Yubaba whirled around and sat at her desk, where she took a handful of paper. "You all can leave me alone." She ordered without looking up to the three men still in the room, who obeyed wordlessly, closing the double door behind them.
As she heard the telltale bang of the heavy panel of mahogany close, Yubaba relaxed in her seat and took a long drag off her pipe. Suddenly, a body appeared from the shadows, melting out of it like a ghastly presence.
"Yubaba-sama, pardon my asking but… Is that wise?" The seaweed green-haired boy asked his master.
The old woman chuckled. "Do you doubt me, Haku?"
"I admit I do not understand your move, Yubaba-sama."
"Yet it's easy. The Veil must be fixed and this boy can do it."
"Are you not afraid he'll make good on his threat? No one here can vouch for his work. Threatening him did not appear to be the best solution for me." The boy hazarded in a prudent tone.
The old witch simply chuckled. "Tell me, Haku, when would we have met someone who knew of fuinjutsu again if we had allowed this boy to go?"
The boy hesitated for a second. "I do not know, Yubaba-sama."
"Odds are, never. We should not have even met him in the first place. I could not let him go yet I had to find a way to have him work for me. Remind me again, what those four were looking for?"
Haku knew full well it was rhetorical but answered anyway. By now, he had probably pieced everything together. "Information on Otogakure. Something that we do not possess. Given that they are affiliated ninja, they would have been expensive to buy, even more so considering Konoha's reputation. So the option left was to capture them."
"Precisely."
"You made an enemy out of Konoha by doing so. Was that worth it?"
"Once the Veil is secure once again, this will be of little consequences if everything goes like I expect it will."
"It has been trumped once already, Yubaba-sama. What makes you sure it won't happen again? Plus, if the boy works on it, he'll be able to deactivate it."
Yubaba gave the boy a whizzing chuckle. "Oh, Haku. You don't think I'll let him leave alive do you?"
The boy could not answer to that. "Are you certain it won't cost too much?"
"The Veil is worth anything!" Exclaimed Yubaba suddenly, smoke billowing from her nose and ears, her face going red. "Anything, you hear me! I won't allow my baby to be threatened again! I won't allow us to be at the mercy of anyone!"
Haku recoiled slightly and bowed hastily. "I meant no offence Yubaba-sama. You just gave your word and I'm concerned it would damage our reputation."
Yubaba breathed deeply then scoffed. "Pfff, my words? It's been a long time words have lost all value in Yugakure. No, he will work his Uzumaki magic and then we will kill him and Konoha will accept it because we will give them what they were looking for and more."
Haku's eyebrow rose. "I fear I do not understand, Yubaba-sama."
"My dear Haku, do you think Otogakure -whoever those bastards are- somehow broke the Veil to threaten me and my baby for fun?" The old woman asked, a tad condescendingly. "No, of course not. I believe their leader knows full well what business happens in my Bathhouse and I'm quite sure they planted some spies here and there. All of our men are suspects."
Haku blinked. He had envisaged the possibility of course but he had scanned the men under his command and, as a gifted sensor, had not felt any discrepancy. "With due respect, Yubaba-sama, I-"
"Tested all your men, yes, you told me but you did not scan our entire personnel, you couldn't."
The boy stood silently for a minute until the solution came to his mind. "You are setting up a bait."
"Indeed, Haku. As sneaky as they may be, no one will be able to sabotage the Veil two times in a row, not when we will be on the lookout for them and expect them to try. If Oto wants to stay here undetected, they cannot allow a seal master to fix the barrier."
"So the Uzumaki boy is a bait you hope Otogakure will target and overextend by doing so," stated the boy plainly."
"Precisely. I'm counting on you to keep the boy safe and capture whatever scum Oto sends us alive for interrogation. No one fucks with my grandson."
Haku bowed. "As you wish, Yubaba-sama."
The old lady nodded and waved him away. "Yes, that's my wish. Now get back to work and be ready to hunt the bastards."
The boy maintained his bow for another second before he exited the door. He had been chasing after ghosts for more than five months now. He had nearly lost his head when someone claiming to be sent by Otogakure -a new power no one had ever heard of- had infiltrated the Bathhouse, somehow bypassing the Veil and so Haku's notice, to plant a note in the mistress' grandson's chamber. It had taken a lot of convincing to stay alive and prove the Veil had somehow been sabotaged.
Now he had something to work with. He wondered if this mysterious Otogakure organization would take the bait. He just had to tread very carefully for if he were to fail, his mistress and her grandson would be in danger. Also, he would lose his head and he liked it very much on his shoulders.
Tiger looked at his left hand and at the missing finger. The man sighed; losing his pinkie meant Naruto was alive and they would stay so for as long as he was needed and that was all good news. He would have prefered not losing his pinkie for it.
The ANBU leader shrugged. He supposed those were the risks and missing a finger was nowhere near a career-ending injury so all was good.
Now if only he could generate enough chakra and mould it so as to activate his contingency plan, Tiger would be a happy camper. Unfortunately, the potent drug circulating in his organism kept him from doing so.
It was standard procedure to drug a captured ninja up to his eyes to keep them docile and unable to use chakra. "Chakillers", as the kind of poison was named, messed up chakra flow badly. It could, however, not be used in an offensive way as it was only stable as a liquid that needed to be ingested.
Another way was for a seal master to compose a chakra suppressing seal on the captured ninja but apart from the dead Yondaime and his master, Jiraiya of the Sannin, no one was capable of doing it.
Fuinjutsu was that complicated and even then, it was not miraculous, as far as Tiger knew. There was a good chance the suppression would end up being so complete, it would kill the prisoner anyway.
Chakillers were a safe, cheap bet to use on any jonin and chunin, the dosage becoming much more complicated when it came to genin due to their lower chakra tank. No one ever bothered to capture genin, though. They did not know enough.
The ANBU mulled on all that, all this wonderful knowledge that was entirely useless to him right now. The debilitating decoction was already in his bloodstream so forcing himself to puke would be useless and he had been carefully tied up as an extra security measure anyway.
Their hosts were wary of them and did not underestimate them. He would have felt a minute pang of pride if it had not led to the situation being so annoying. With a sigh, Tiger focused on his chakra again. Eventually, the drug would wear off and he would have a small window of opportunity to activate his fail-safe before some guard came and drugged him again.
He had not been able to activate the contingency plan after the little skirmish, too afraid his light flex of chakra would have been mistaken for an attack. Naruto could not afford a kunai through the skull: that would kill him, jinchuriki or not.
He could have called their bluff, seeing as they apparently desperately needed his skills as an Uzumaki but he had two other teammates to think about, one who had nearly died to a sliced throat, the other who had lost her hearing because of his own jutsu.
He supposed he had been lucky no one had seemed to identify his use of Mokuton. The office had been plunged in smoke and obscurity, his assault had been sudden and extremely quick, and his Detonating Water Sphere had not made things any better but he had expected someone to say something. The fact no enemy had talked was a small favour from Fate he was not going to refuse.
His "gift", as bastardized and unnatural as it was, did grant him faster healing capabilities and higher poison resistance and he had noticed his dose of chakiller had not been higher than the standard one administered to a jonin.
He just had to be patient and keep on trying.
Naruto scowled. He had been thrown in a cell, cold, humid, and dark and told he would begin whatever his task was tomorrow. He wondered for a second why he was not being put to work immediately but came up with answers he did not like. He rather focused on how he was going to get his teammate and he out of here.
He still felt sluggish but less than earlier and the more time was passing the better he became. His chakra still felt messed up, poisoned. He had access to way less than he was used to having and he could actually feel the Fox' chakra being filtered by his seal and merged to his.
Normally, he had so much and the process was so slow that it felt like a drop added to an ocean. That he could feel it was telling of the sad state of his reserve. Its flow was also rougher than ever. He had the impression his control had been shot back to what it had been before his ANBU training.
Too bad for his captors though, because Naruto Uzumaki did not need his full reserve nor good chakra control to create a Shadow Clone. And since a few weeks, he did not need hand signs anymore. The boy smiled as he looked on the shackles that were keeping his fingers from moving. The smile morphed into a grin. "Suckers," he thought.
He could make Shadow Clone and that was mighty good new but now he had to plan for a bit. The boy inhaled deeply. It was nothing more than a prank. He could do it. It was not different than stealing Jijie's hat from right under the old Hokage's nose.
Except that this time, he did not know the lay of the place, would be ruthlessly killed if caught, and it was not a hat he was trying to steal but his teammates.
Failure meant death and the realization descended upon the blond like a cold trickle of icy water, freezing his spine and heart. He had one shot at it and failure was not a possibility. Naruto refused to acknowledge what would happen if he were to be caught. He was going to save them.
First and foremost, however, he had to know where they were. The Bathhouse, he had discovered, was even larger than he expected, the massive rock it was standing on carved deeply and keeping many secrets.
Focusing on his chakra, he willed it to obey him. The life energy was strangely reluctant but the boy did not relent and gritted his teeth. His chakra was his and his alone to do what he wished with it and he would not allow some old hag and her stupid poison to do anything about that. Beads of sweat soon pearled on his forehead and his breathing grew ragged from the effort he was deploying to mould the chakra correctly. One could say many things about the Shadow Clone jutsu but it was certainly not an easy technique, especially with a chakra system shot to hell. Naruto started humming to keep himself from faltering, the boring sound helping him concentrate.
With a puff of smoke, two clones appeared, free of bindings but looking uneasy. Under the sheen of sweat, Naruto smiled. His replicas were affected by the poison -the substance did affect chakra after all and the clones were just that- but they would do. They had to. With a nod, the original sent them on their way.
The two clones faced the door and looked at each other. One shrugged and, forming a ram seal, got an intense look of concentration on his face. Naruto observed carefully, hoping the poison was not messing his clone too much. They would need a very specific skill he had developed to get out of here, one that was only available to his clones, one that was nowhere near finished, but one he was proud of nonetheless.
With another poof of smoke, the clone seemed to collapse on itself and morphed into… A small, black ball. The original blond sighed in relief. Shadow Clones being constructs of chakra, he had theorized that they could probably further shape themselves into solid objects via a modification of the Transformation jutsu. It was possible. Incredibly complicated and maddeningly hard but possible nonetheless: the black ball laying on the cell's ground was proof of that.
The other clone took the ball and simply dropped it through the tiny barred window opened in the room's door, before using a substitution to switch place with it.
Naruto grinned happily. He had a clone inside the place now. Suddenly, the ball went up in smoke and the boy instantly grimaced when he received the "memories" from the ball-clone and fought back a shudder.
Being deprived of view, hearing, taste, touch, smell, everything, being basically a consciousness chained to boundaries one could not even test was a dreadful experience, no matter how short it was. The boy had to swallow thickly to shake the nightmarish sensation of being lost inside a narrow expense of stifling nothingness. Shaking off his discomfort, Naruto decided to meditate. Maybe the exercise would help his system purge the poison faster.
Outside the cell, the clone lost no time and, after checking quickly if there was no one coming, kneeled in the hallway he was in to focus. It took him a full minute to do what he normally could accomplish in under a second. Like so many switches, his tenketsu collapsed on themselves and shrunk and the night undetectable wisps of chakra he was still naturally exuding wrapped around his frame, forming the Chameleon Cloak jutsu.
In the blink of an eye, the clone was invisible to view, smell, and chakra sense. The replica took a deep breath and began his march. He had a lot of ground to cover.
The next day, Naruto was roughly woken up, quite early too as if being manhandled was not enough, and once his eyes had been covered by a piece of perfectly black cloth, someone guided him through endless hallways to a very large room plunged into darkness.
His view was given back to him and he could confirm what his sensor ability had informed him of already: he was guarded by no less than eight ninja who did not seem like they were joking around. Given that he was still poisoned -earlier that morning, they had forced him to ingest some sort of acrid tasting liquid that Naruto had nearly choked on- he would not dare to attempt anything, even with his left hand free of its binding.
With his chakra going haywire, there was no telling if he could even create any Shadow Clone quick enough to overwhelm his opponents, not taking into consideration that he had no idea of their exact strength and still had not found his teammates.
Now was not the time to act. Naruto had to be patient. It was not something he liked, not something he was used to, but he refused to fuck up again by being impatient.
The blond returned his attention to the large room he was in as a boy slightly older than him -Haku if he remembered right- was lightning torches for everyone to see a bit clearer. The dancing flames of the burning sticks slowly revealed a pattern etched in the one, giant, smooth block of marble that constituted the floor.
Naruto felt his fuinjutsu switch engage despite himself and marvelled for a bit at the masterful composition, his eyes roaming from haikus to prongs and back to haikus. He had never seen such a large array. He knew there was a barrier around Konoha and the array had to be several times bigger to cover the entirety of the town but Naruto had never laid his eyes upon it.
The boy wandered in the room aimlessly, taking in the artful details only someone versed in the sealing arts could appreciate. The daring of one poem, the beauty of one fractal, the mindboggling balance of it all in one actually working piece of art-science.
"This is what we call the Veil," informed Haku in his clear, warm voice. "It detects and registers all who cross the bridge or the waters that surround the Bathhouse."
Naruto nodded. That was the central part of the array and one that was not difficult to identify for him. He was not at the level of whoever had made it -nowhere near that if he had to be honest- but he had scribbled and composed enough to recognize the main components.
There was a seal locking away the identity of each visitor, invited or not, another that locked away the sensing ability of a ninja, and one that melded the two locks together. Naruto smiled: this was the reason he loved fuinjutsu. No one ever said the things sealed had to be material. The art allowed the wildest of things if the practitioner could find the appropriate fractal and poem combination.
An ordeal more often easier said than done, obviously.
"Some five months ago, it was somehow breached and has not been functioning well ever since," the boy continued. "We need you to find what was broken and repair it."
Naruto raised one eyebrow. Those guys really had no idea how the array even worked. There was no need to sabotage the array itself to enter without being detected: with the appropriate composition in a mirrored fractal, one could lock away their identity first to keep the Veil from doing it, he mused with a small smile. The boy frowned suddenly. Haku assured it was not functioning properly anymore and that meant something had been tampered with then.
Naruto turned to face the older boy. "How do you know it's not working anymore?"
Haku smiled ever so slightly. "I'm the Veil's sensor. Until five months ago, I could pinpoint exactly who was entering and leaving the Bathhouse. It took you entering and exiting the barrier several times before I recognized you. It's like this for every visitor now and our security is failing."
Naruto nodded. "I see," he said before trailing off. It felt underhanded but there was a way to sow discord in the enemy's ranks already. The boy hesitated half of a second before mentally shrugging. They had played low, he would too. "Well, I know how they entered to sabotage the array," claimed the blond boy, his voice as neutral as he could manage.
Haku turned toward the younger ninja with a calculative gaze. "Do tell."
Naruto frowned slightly at the order but complied. "They created a seal mirroring this part," he explained as loud as he could, pointing at the centermost bit of fuinjutsu. "The only way to go about it was someone giving them a picture of the array. You have a traitor here."
The older boy stiffened, looked at his subordinates from the corner of his eyes, who were all equally frozen before he hissed threateningly. "I know what you are trying to do, you little scum. One more word and one of your teammate loses his tongue."
Naruto simply rose his hands in surrender. "I'm silent as a grave." He internally smiled. The seed of mistrust was planted, as expected. ANBU had made him a good liar and a decent gambler apparently.
As he expected, Haku had threatened him but the older boy had not called his bluff, meaning he did not know enough fuinjutsu to do so. There was more than one way to trump a sealing array like the Veil; he had just explained the easiest and most probable scenario but certainly not the only possible one.
The blond chuckled to himself. And they wanted him to fix it? They were probably counting on him being too afraid for his comrades. Honestly, Naruto was but he knew Tiger, Cat, and Dog could survive having their pinkie cut off, and now he was certain that there would be no one to call him out on his sealwork. As long as he kept his captor's suspicion low -by pretending to be cowed and afraid- he could do pretty much as he wanted. The Pranking King of Konoha would make himself known to Yugakure it would seem.
For the three days that followed, Naruto fell into a routine. He was awakened early in the morning to be drugged and dragged around blindfolded to the seal room. He could feel that things were tense and Haku often glared at him. The blond only smiled to himself seeing as his plan appeared to be working.
The lunch breaks were long and he was drugged again then but thankfully, his afternoons were short for some reason. Naruto was not sure why they did not force him to work days and nights, or at least faster than he was now. Maybe they were afraid of him exhausting or killing himself. Or maybe they were delaying with some kind of purpose in mind but Naruto could not piece it together. If the defensive system of his own house failed, he knew he would spare nothing to have it fixed as quick as possible.
As soon as he was returned to his cell, the boy would lose no time to repeat what was already becoming a ritual. He created two clones who would then do their little escapist trick and explore the underground levels.
The Rock under the Bathhouse was larger than the boy had expected and even after three entire nights of mapping he had still no idea where his teammates were kept.
It was on the fifth day of captivity things changed. When Naruto awoke a minute before his guardians would come, the blond could not keep a large smile from blossoming on his face.
His clone had spent the night in a most fruitful way, meeting unexpectedly with another clone. A clone of Tiger.
The wooden construct, which had been planted -literally, in the form of a tree- in the entrance garden as soon as they had arrived had morphed back to its human form when a pulse of chakra had informed it that it was time and had sought its master, homing on the original ANBU like a guided kunai.
The replica had reported since twenty four hours already and was looking for Naruto but Naruto had found it first. The wooden clone immediately brought the shadow construct to the commanding officer, who had offered the boy a small but proud smile before giving orders.
The blond could not help but feel relieved. His teacher and he had gone over Naruto's plan and Tiger had re-worked parts of it and ironed out the kinks. The young initiate now knew he had something solid to go with and that at least one of his comrades was in the known. He had yet to found Cat and Dog and that was slightly worrying, however, having discovered his team leader meant one less teammate to look for.
His orders, for now, were simple: keep mapping out the maze that was the Rock under the Bathhouse, find Dog and Cat, and plan for possible escape routes. At the rate he was going, the blond estimated he still needed two to three more days.
The attack occurred the second night after Naruto found Tiger. The blond had informed his captain that he had a strange schedule that made no particular sense to him and the older man had confirmed it. Yubaba and her men were planning something and Naruto would probably be in the middle of it. Apparently, as the seal master fixing the Veil, he was also an unwilling bait. That was the reason he was not tasked to work on the sealing array as quickly as he could: Yubaba was hoping someone would bite and she was dangling him in plain sight.
Naruto, as he had become wont to do these last few nights, was meditating more than sleeping, trying his best to purge his system from the poison that still kept him relatively weak while staying alert to his environment. That was the disadvantage of those substances: if they were not immediately deadly, one could adapt over time -normally an extremely long time- by circulating the life energy again and again, clearing it in the process.
Naruto thanked HSRB training for the knowledge.
The fact Naruto could even adapt that quickly was, however, due to the Kyuubi. He could feel the overly potent chakra of the bijuu be completely unaffected by the chakillers so Naruto had, with a great deal of care, tugged at the minuscule tether of alien chakra seeping into his coils via the seal and directed its flow everywhere, dissolving the energy little by little into the entire length of his coils rather than allowing it to just immediately merge with his personal reserves that were lying in wait within his Gate of Wonder.
The boy exited his meditative state long before the one he could feel coming for him was within view. Naruto hesitated. Whoever was walking down the hallway carried an intent that spelt death for him, he had no doubt about that.
What he was not certain about, was whether or not he had to shout for help. If he did, he would have to find a convincing excuse to justify a ruckus in the middle of the night. He did not want any enemy to be clued in on his sensory ability. If he did not yell for assistance, he would have to take care of his assailant alone, drugged, and without any weapon.
Also, if he were to survive, he would need to find a convincing excuse as to the corpse that would end up laying around in his cell.
Deciding to play it safe, the boy inhaled a deep breath and readied himself to shout when he felt a second intent following the first.
Whoever was following his assassin around, they were after the assassin, not one of their an ally. That had been the reason Naruto had not detected them at first. The boy exhaled deeply and hesitated for a second before he lay on his pallet, regulating his breathing to fake sleep. He was not finished with the Veil so he would gamble on whoever it was that was following the hitman to interfere before the attack.
A second after, the blond opened his eyes with a mischievous smirk on his face.
On second thoughts, maybe he could make this a hell for both parties involved. Jumping on his feet, the boy approached his door and, taking a deep breath, banged the thick wooden panel, shouting for the guard in post at the end of the hallway.
"Hey!" He yelled in a drawn-out manner. "Can I have some water please!?"
Naruto smiled in satisfaction. He could feel the assassin quickening their walk toward his cell but the shadow was suddenly gaining on them.
"Suckers," he whispered when the rumour of a fight erupted at the edge of his psyche, the whirling emotions of both fighters scratching at the door of his mind.
Straining his ears, he perceived the sounds of people fighting as silently as possible. Unfortunately, the low ceiling of the tunnel, carved from the Rock, happily reverberated the clangs of steel meeting steel and the muffled groans of two men going after each other.
Naruto smiled slightly at the possible -if admittedly convoluted- innuendo. He would be safe for tonight but if his would-be-assassin was captured and knew things, his own workload would pick up for real, which meant his time left to find Cat and Dog would be reduced.
The boy shrugged. Maybe the hitman would know nothing.
The work on the Veil did not change the next day nor the day after and Naruto deduced the assassin had either escaped, knew nothing, or was a tough nut to crack. His routine, however, was modified as he was from then on transferred to a different cell every afternoon, why exactly he did not know.
The annoying part of it was that his watch had been reinforced. Things went on for another four days, during which he had to work harder to trump the vigilance of his guards and eventually discovered his two missing teammates. Drugged with chakillers, one hand tied-up to keep them from weaving hand seals, and scantily dressed, they had been forced to work as hostesses in Yubaba's bathhouse.
Naruto positively seethed at the discovery and barely managed to not blow his cover by kicking the door of his cell down and starting the escape plan immediately when the Shadow Clone's memories came back to him. Only the knowledge that his entire team was counting on him not to blow a fuse helped him to maintain his calm.
The administered dose of chakiller not enough to keep him down anymore, he only made a discreet dent in the wall in the end before he sent a clone to report his finding to his team leader. Tiger nodded, commended Naruto on his level-headedness, and confirmed the second part of their plan, giving him the go-ahead. When morning came, the original blond could not keep a happy smile from blossoming on his lips.
They were getting out of the Bathhouse soon.
Sometimes, Cat positively hated her job.
"The things you do to keep safe," she thought for herself as she delicately squeezed the erect member of one of Yubaba's henchman, bringing the head to her lips and giving it a sloppy kiss.
The man was quite drunk, she had made sure of that, and she was working her magic to make him putty in her hands. A kunoichi did not need chakra to dominate a weak-willed man, alcohol and a bit of flesh were amply sufficient.
"So~" she drawled seductively in a husky whisper, as she softly dragged her scantily clad body across the man's naked torso, blowing lightly in his ear. "Yuzu, you were telling me Baba was worried?"
"Ohhh," moaned the man, lost in the sensation procured by the slow massage of the woman. He squeaked when Cat squeezed a little too hard. "Ye-yeah, sugar." He relaxed as Cat's hand returned to gentler ministration, helped by her tongue. "Totally mad about those bastards, ya see?"
"Bastard, mhm?" She hummed aloud before one again snaking up the man's body and whispering in his ears. "What bastards, Yuzu darling?" She asked, grinding the silk of her panties against his sex.
"Those, who, oh Kami yes…"
"Tut tut tut, Yuzu," Cat stopped moving suddenly, pinching a very specific point to keep the man from his orgasm. "Bad boys don't get any. The good boys who answer questions, however…" She licked his ear and bit the lobe lightly. "They get to cum."
The man looked at her with eyes somehow both glazed by the alcohol yet betraying a jittery kind of desperation, an urge for sexual release. "O-oto," the man swallowed thickly, moving and grinding his hips desperately, his legs trembling with tension. "Otogakure. They got to her grandson. But we got them."
"Go on..." suggested Cat, revealing her sex and pushing her lower lips against the man's member.
Yuzu groaned desperately, incapable of penetrating the object of his desire as the woman on top of him kept careful control of his movements.
"We... We captured a mole." The man tearfully stuttered, his brain overloaded by endorphin. "Tomorrow! Tomorrow he is gonna lead us to his boss! Please!" Yuzu sobbed.
Cat smiled and deposited a light kiss on the man's lips before she slid back down, engulfing his member in her mouth and rolling her tongue around it, her fingers releasing the pressure point as she withdrew.
With a desperate cry that sounded almost painful, the man twitched and released his orgasm on her face. Exhausted, he watched with lidded eyes as the woman once again seemed to slither around him. He fell asleep as she gently pinched his neck. He would wake up happy, satisfied, and with a very fuzzy memory of his night.
Cat rose from the couch and stretched before she frowned. It had been hard and dirty work but she had something, at last. Yuzu had not made it easy and she had needed to deploy all the treasure of her imagination to get him to the point of strategic pillow talk.
He was a ninja and one of Yubaba's captain after all. Any lesser target would have been a waste of time if league easier to break.
She was simply better than him. Cat addressed a silent prayer to the Flame in thanks for attending the seminar on seduction at the insistence of Anko. It seemed so stupid at the time but here she was, glad she had brushed up on that kind of skills recently.
The woman breathed deeply, absentmindedly suckling on her finger. The last week and a half since their capture had been unpleasant but it was certainly not the worst captivity she had experienced. Granted, she had only been captured once before so she did not have many points of comparison.
After their little showdown in Yubaba's office and their subsequent surrender, Cat and Dog had been offered to work for the Bathhouse or get chopped into bits. Naturally, the woman and the teenage girl had accepted, the alternative not something they envisioned for themselves.
Drugged with chakillers and one hand discreetly bound by wire, the two woman had been given a uniform and tasked with working as hostesses, serving all kinds of wines and spirits to a wide variety of visitors, some more touchy-feely than others.
At least, they had not been forced to do anything degrading, prostitution was something only those willing would do and it was also valid for them, despite their status as prisoners. The serpentine ethos of crime barons was an object of fascination for Cat. For Yubaba, dealing illegal opioids to her clients was entirely fine but forcing a girl to sell herself was not. Not that she was complaining but the moral boundaries were so random.
Anyway, Cat had refused to be useless. Trusting Naruto and Tiger to plan something -a trust that had been rewarded just yesterday when an impossibly invisible Naruto had contacted her-, she had endeavoured to gather intelligence on their temporary foes. She had quickly pinned her target and had begun a dangerous game of seduction. The man -Yuzu- was certainly not stupid, qualifying as a good chunin ability-wise. He had been one of the two to hold her back, with the help of a comrade, in Yubaba's office.
So Cat carefully dosed her approach, a tenth subdued, a quarter impressed, a third open to ideas, a hint of defiance, and a few touches here and there of meek and shy. Men absolutely loved to dominate after all, in most of the case at least. After five days of an ever-evolving dance, she eventually serviced him for the first time, ramping up from there, exerting more and more control during their short meetings, making him run his mouth more than he should have.
Yuzu was a good chunin but she was a good jonin and she knew her stuff. Konoha's T&I section were some of the best and ANBU beneficiated a lot from their lessons.
The intel was interesting. Yubaba knew of Otogakure, was being threatened by them, and if Cat was right, it was all linked to the mysterious Veil they wanted Naruto for. Yubaba had nothing on her enemies, otherwise, she would have negotiated something, yet she seemingly had the opportunity to learn more.
Cat smiled. She absolutely had to communicate this info to her leader. She hoped Naruto would come again tonight. It was risky but the chance was golden.
Suddenly, she realized her index finger was in her mouth and spat with disgust. She did not know how Anko could swallow that.
Hiruzen Sarutobi took the cup of sake in front of him and, looking at the little ape squatting before him, held it to toast with the summon.
"Health and prosperity," wished the old man to the capuchin.
"To you too, Friend-summoner."
The man and the ape both smiled and drank as the Hokage kept processing everything he had learned. Chichi -the monkey- had travelled three times between Konoha and the Great Mother Shrine, relaying the findings of Ibiki and his helpers.
After the first report, Hiruzen had chosen to expand the chief interrogator's stay. The old ninja wanted to understand his former teammate's plan, wanted to know what Danzo knew exactly.
The fact Ibiki firmly believed -he was not sure but probability he was right was extremely high- that Danzo had orchestrated the Academy sabotage possibly in order to get Naruto in ANBU was… Disconcerting, to say the least.
His old teammate had never hidden behind falsities: Danzo was rather open on a number of things, philosophically and politically, and Hiruzen knew it was because he wanted to. The man had no qualm about planting a dagger between your shoulder blades and was pretty much direct about it, as far as body language and veiled intent went.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was a shinobi and therefore, had no qualm either about the wedding of daggers and shoulder blades and hence, Danzo had had a healthy respect for him. They had also been teammates and as such, there was a mutual trust.
They had also been at each other's throat concerning a fair number of subjects and only the balanced views of Dragon had tempered their fights. Hiruzen Sarutobi was a shinobi indeed but he believed strongly in the Will of Fire, in the necessity of its ethic and moral.
Firstly, they were a stopping power to the might of ninja, who would have been cruel rulers otherwise, squashing un-chakra'd people under their boots. Secondly, justifying the means by the ends was a surefire way to make enemies. Thus, Hiruzen had done his best to spread the Will of Fire to the surrounding nation, doing his utmost to convince Kage and Daimyo aline that everything was to gain if only they stopped thinking in terms of competing countries, opposing villages, and hostile groups.
His hopes had been dashed big time by the Second War and he had allowed Danzo and the Daimyo to convince him of the necessity for the Third but at least, he had kept a leash on the atrocities.
Danzo did not believe in any of that. Or rather, the man believed strongly in the Will of Fire indeed but refused to consider for a second that it could spread further than Konoha. Hiruzen's old teammate had a very clear cut view of things: only the village mattered, the rest was just that: the rest. The negligible quantity, those who did not count, the others, them. Never us.
Hiruzen could understand that. It had been the way their sensei, Tobirama Senju, Nidaime Hokage, had been. So the Sarutobi never blamed the Shimura; tried to convince him yes, argued with him, very much so, but never blamed him
Then, with the genocide of Uzushiogakure, Danzo had gone off the deep end. To protect the village, it was not enough anymore to trample enemies and bystanders alike. No, to protect the village, sacrifices were needed. To protect the village, they had to murder a part of it.
Hiruzen knew who had died in the last stand of Uzu and so had closed his eyes. He himself had been horrified and worried where he should have been firm and brave but he had closed his eyes. Allowing Danzo to sacrifice a minuscule part of the village to save the greater number. Allowing the fourth ANBU company to take root. Betraying the Will of Fire.
Sake swirled in the Sarutobi's cup and he noted Chichi was eyeing him with a grave face, no doubt feeling his melancholy. Hiruzen smiled wistfully at the little summon.
After the Kyuubi's attack, Danzo had immediately identified Naruto as a fantastic deterrent whereas Hiruzen could only see a child. That had been the greatest of their fallout -almost ironic considering Hiruzen had not done much for Naruto in the end- and a few years later, his old teammate had tried to assassinate him. Hiruzen, in the name of their old friendship, had stayed his hand, and the Daimyo himself had asked for a lenient sentence. He knew he risked Danzo fomenting another plot against him by doing so but he accepted. He had lost too much and killing his once teammate would have been the last straw for his heart.
And now, now Ibiki was providing him with some disturbing conclusions and Hiruzen did not know what to make of it. Yet. He had informed Dragon and the man had tasked some absolutely loyal men of his to go through the old Root archive and scour the underground for a possible, undiscovered base.
His read on Danzo was less than perfect. The man had spent a long time in the shadows then had been exiled. Maybe his banishment had changed him. Hiruzen wanted to believe it was possible. Still, the question remained: why did Danzo want Naruto in ANBU? What was he so afraid of?
The Hokage frowned and rubbed his temples. Why was his old teammate an ass and not more forthcoming? Why the need for secrecy?
Hiruzen sighed and downed the rest of his sake. It was time to recall the troops; he had amputated his forces from some of his best jonin along with three very promising genin teams. He could not prolong their mission any longer.
"I ask you to play courier one last time Chichi."
"I'll be happy to be of help, Friend-summoner."
AN: Holy Cow, did I just give Danzo some kind of backstory? I legit did not see it coming and I'm writing this story! Sometimes, you have to let it carry you. Anyway, I think Naruto was cool in this chapter. I mean, he turned invisible, explored the dungeon he is kept in, found his squad, prepared their escape... I think that was cool. Tiger and especially Cat were cool too. Warning: no need to hate on Cat, she is a kunoichi in ANBU, her body is another weapon.
Explosions come next chapter.
I've honestly no idea how the softer kind of action is appreciated so leave a review! Remember that I feed on them and given how big this chapter is, I'm starved!