"Report." It wasn't the first time Kakashi had been to a Village Council meeting, he had even attended officially at the Council's request once rather than from the shadows as an ANBU, but the mood of the room was so different from almost every one of those occasions it was startling even to one as relaxed as he was.
"Based on new evidence found by the preliminary examination, an attack was carried out on S-rank Konoha asset codename Fox on the night of academy graduation, almost 48 hours ago." This piece of information from Ibiki was new to Kakashi, who had been informed of the pertinent details when the attack was discovered, and judging by the small twitches and eye movements of the assembled Shinobi he wasn't the only one.
"The asset has been heavily tortured, both physically and psychologically, and if it weren't for the asset's special condition the torture alone would probably have been enough to kill them. With almost 36 hours of no medical treatment other than their own healing ability, many of the assets wounds have become infected even with other influences limiting their spread." It was something that would have brought amusement on literally any other day, given the Sandaime's law it was still treasonous to openly discuss the Kyuubi's imprisonment inside Naruto, and some of the descriptions that had to be used to talk about it in meetings were hilariously complicated.
"Which begs the question Commander Tora, where were the ANBU who were meant to be guarding asset Fox?" The question from Sarutobi wasn't for his benefit, Kakashi imagined even some of the civilians present could guess that from his face, but Tora answered with the same relaxed manner that even Kakashi envied at times.
"11 members of squad 12 have been arrested due to dereliction of duty and treason charges, one member is still on the run and squad leader Bull was killed resisting arrest." That got everyone in the room's attention, though given the general results of being charged with treason in any hidden village, going down fighting was probably considered an easier way out by the somewhat brash man that Kakashi remembered training when he had been in ANBU.
"Squad 12 are not the only implicated group in this attack, based on testimony by several new trainees at least half of the numbered cadre may be compromised to a similar level." That brought a snarl from the normally composed Hokage, though he managed to rein in his intent to a small spike, which meant it was news to him as much as it was damning revelations to the rest of them.
Contrary to popular belief, including many of those sat in this room, ANBU weren't all one mass of cloaked and masked individuals. Including the Hokage's guard, there were 4 distinct groups of ANBU, divided by skills and experience as much as age or record.
At the base you had the basic ANBU cadre, which the other ranks called 'the numbers' given they were the largest and most dispensable section of the Spec Ops group. These were the least skilled or newest members of ANBU, and were generally separated into squads and left with the important but not vital jobs pertaining to village security or border patrol. If a member of the cadre was noted to have particularly improved on their initial intake skills at the regular performance reviews that took place, then they might receive an offer to compete for a place amongst the 'elite' ANBU teams.
Denoted by mythological creatures or figures as team names, these teams were commonly referred to as the Mythos section of the ANBU organisation, denoted by small kanji somewhere on their masks related to their individual teams. These elite were the true shock and awe force the village used when it really wanted to sort out a situation quietly and efficiently, and you had to have been one for at least five years before you could even be considered for an ANBU captain position.
"And nothing was reported? Surely this has only been a recent development, but the kage ninja assigned to monitor them must have noticed something..." Shikaku Nara's relaxed observation merely made the deliberately rigid stance of Tora all the worse.
Kage ANBU were those whose existence owed itself to the phrase coined by the 2nd Hokage, 'who shadows those who work in darkness?'. They were the ANBU version of the Torture and Interrogation department, and until now Kakashi himself had only ever met one of them in person, as far as he knew anyway.
"It is unconfirmed, but the kage department are currently considered compromised as well, Inochi-san is currently collecting the identity files from their assigned safe boxes so that a select group can bring them in for questioning." It was clear that Tora was struggling to stand the embarrassment every subsequent word was heaping upon her, even if the problem with the kage weren't actually her problems directly.
They were a department onto themselves after all, reporting only to the Hokage or particular ANBU captains if they felt it pertinent.
"So our main ANBU force is crippled and the 'ninja beyond reproach' are potentially traitors amongst our own populous. If it weren't for the fact that the general ninja force have no idea about the depth of the damage this would be worse than the Uchiha massacre." Let it not be said that Sarutobi couldn't sum up a situation in a short and concise way, and with the information about the kage Kakashi now understood exactly why he was here.
"We will deal with this debacle in a moment. But first, and I cannot believe I'm saying this, we need to deal with the bigger issue than dozens of our ninja abandoning their posts." At this point the Hokage took a deep breath, obviously doing his best to separate his personal feelings from his mind before he continued.
"We have our first confirmed code black attack since the Uchiha massacre, and on one of our most vulnerable targets at that, one that wasn't meant to be public knowledge. What do we know? And more importantly, what don't we know." Tora spoke almost as soon as the Hokage stopped talking, though Kakashi couldn't help but mentally point out that the lack of secrecy was mostly the aged Shinobi's fault, not that he would dare say such a thing out loud.
"Target is currently in surgery, though they aren't confident enough to say he'll make it given his injuries. In addition to the large amounts of a poison cocktail in his system, the volume of which was almost triple what would kill a normal Shinobi, there were also traces of psychotropics and hallucinogens we have characterised as a Kusa blend that was a favourite in the third Shinobi war." A couple of the civilians in the room were looking green in the face already, which Kakashi knew from Tora's body language was only going to get worse, something that lit the fires of anger in his own belly.
"It is clear that the subject tried to fight back though, given the location of the confrontation and two of the targets fingers, the altercation took place inside the flat itself. This means either the attacker broke in and that is what alerted the target…"
"Or Genin Uzumaki let the attacker in, probably under a henge as someone he knew and trusted such as myself or Chuunin Iruka." The Hokage seemed to have a weight settle on his shoulders at this, but waved Tora to carry onwards.
"Target lost both index fingers, probably when trying to form a handseal for a jutsu, initial analysis shows this injury was a single clean cut through both fingers as well as a minor injury to the boy's chest. This implies that the attacker was a sword user of some kind. Even after losing two of his fingers the target engaged his attacker, from this point it is hard to distinguish between injuries obtained during the brief fight and the ensuing interrogation/torture that occurred, but we can confirm he obtained three broken ribs and a stab wound to the right thigh in the short confrontation that nicked his femoral artery and scraped against his femur. Once the target is stable the T&I department have requested a keyhole surgery of the wound to see if there are any deposits or marks on the bone that could give the characteristics of the weapon." Something that wouldn't help Naruto's immediate recovery but it wouldn't be the first time Kakashi had heard of similar operations being carried out, chances were that the attacker had cleared the scene of any evidence so what they could find on or in the boy's wounds would be vital to working out what happened.
"To summate the injuries gained during torture/interrogation, the target sustained the following: Stab wounds to the lower abdomen with three piercing either small or large intestine; broken fingers and toes in a manner that lead to multiple breakages in each digit; skin removed from the lower half of both arms to the elbow; removal of right lung without anesthesia along with broken and removed ribs to allow for extraction…" At this point one of the civilians bolted for the doors, obviously forgetting that they had been sealed for the Council meeting as he slammed right into them and bounced off them, the vomit he had obviously been doing his best to hold in forcefully expelled from the impact and splattering over him, the floor and the door.
Thankfully the Hokage was not known as the god of Shinobi for nothing, his knowledge of jutsu extensive even outside of the fields of direct combat, flipping through half a dozen seals without a sound. The smell of vomit barely reached Kakashi's sensitive nose before a minor wind jutsu provided a breeze to move the smell towards the secure ventilation ducts in the ceiling, the Hokage following up with a water jutsu that caused the vomit to coagulate together into a disgusting blob before dropping into a bucket that one of his personal ANBU seemed to have brought purposefully for this meeting.
"Wani, remove Councilman Uhara and escort him to his home, just make sure to impress upon him that the details of this meeting are of course classified until the information is released by the Hokage tower." The fact that the subject of this meeting would probably never be officially released went unsaid, but the Councilman was gone 5 seconds later and Sarutobi obviously decided to avoid having any further incidents.
"I think it best to avoid any further detailed discussion of the targets injuries, and we will have to wait for confirmation from the Medical department before we can get a functionality prognosis for the target." There were several small shifts of people's heads as they glanced at the empty Council chair designated for the head of the Hospital Med-nin department. Dr Yakushi had taken personal control of the surgery on Naruto given the level of his injuries, and from what Kakashi had heard before the Council meeting started he had called in every department head serving under him to assist.
"Which leads us to threat assessment, immediate response actions and damage control. Commander Tora has offered me both her resignation and requested exemplary suicide for the failings that have occurred within the ANBU department." Sarutobi waited exactly three seconds after this particular revelation to continue, allowing the shocked gasps of the civilians and the more controlled reactions of the ninja members of the Council to simmer down.
"I have of course, rejected both requests, with potentially a third of the department under investigation I need someone I can trust in charge. Any concerns?" Despite it being a military dictatorship, Sarutobi liked to have honest opinions from the Council about his decisions, as this incident proved none of them were above missing things and making mistakes.
It was one of the things that had made him an excellent Hokage, though given his currently thunderous mood it was unsurprising that anyone offered to be the one to debate this issue with him. After looking round the room for a moment longer the Hokage turned to Kakashi and looked him dead in the eye, which meant they were probably getting to the reason why he had been called here in the first place.
"Jounin Hatake, step forward." As much as he liked to occasionally play up his lazy side Kakashi knew that it wasn't the time, taking three steps forward and saluting.
"Hokage-sama." The Hokage had obviously been expecting something from him, as a ghost of a smile crossed his face faster than most could have possibly perceived it.
"I need you to lead the combat team we are sending to bring in the Kage when their files have been retrieved, there can be no mistakes and no-one can catch wind that there is something wrong." Silently and without the usual bullshit paperwork that normally had to be done when investigating an internal suspect, just how he liked to do his work.
"Understood Hokage-sama, who is on the team?" As Usagi and Hato appeared on either side of him, Kakashi understood exactly how high this particular avalanche was falling from, and exactly how fucked these 'ninja above reproach' were going to be when they found them.
"Until we can clear more people, your team will remain as it is now, though once we have identified Kage members then you can recruit others at your discretion." And with that determined, there was only one thing left for Kakashi to ask, even as he started to fall back into the mannerisms he had let slip since leaving the elite ninja force 5 years before.
"Hai Hokage-sama… When do I begin?"
!"£$%^&*()_+
30 minutes later and the Council had finished their discussions and departed, other than the exhausted form of Dr Yakushi who had arrived just before they had wrapped up the meeting to announce that Naruto had survived the initial surgery and was currently in the process of having his index fingers reattached. There was nothing they could do about the removed lung though, as whoever the attacker was had either disposed of it or taken it with them.
Before Hiruzen could get too concerned though, the good doctor had announced that there were signs of Naruto's chakra starting to concentrate in that area, which based off experiences with previous containers was a sign that Naruto might have inherited the same strong regenerative powers his great grandmother had. Not that Dr Yakushi knew that, the man rambling on for a few seconds about what such a strange phenomena could mean before running out of steam.
Still, even with the hope that the Kyuubi's chakra might regenerate Naruto's lung, the range of injuries had gone beyond what Tora had revealed to the Council. It was a sign of how much the attacker hated the boy for what he contained surely, something that made Sarutobi regret ever revealing the boy's condition. Naruto would probably be up and about in a few days, though whether he would be able to recover enough from the attack to become a functional ninja was an entirely different question.
"You approve?" It was a little rhetorical to ask such a question,as any disapproval would have been vocally and stubbornly brought up in front of the Council.
But both 'wise' men liked to keep to the protocols of such conversations, even if neither of them needed them, if nothing else it kept things relatively civil.
"Enough that I didn't feel it worth engaging the masses to discuss the minor details." Danzo Shimura was sat at the back of the Council chamber, a position that allowed him to see as much as the Hokage could, though it was the furthest position from the door.
An acceptable trade off Danzo had always said.
"I assume you knew nothing about this breach in security before today?" Danzo was always almost impossible to read, but Sarutobi felt certain that the man meant every word of his surprisingly emotional response.
"If I had, then their corpses would have been cooling on the floor before I came to report it to you. For Kami's sake Sarutobi, they left a target in the open that could destroy a good portion of the village if pushed the wrong way, and it isn't just going to be the ANBU who we have to worry about!" The grizzled veteran was the most pumped up Sarutobi had seen him in years, but there was nothing like a threat to his beloved village to get him wound up.
Sarutobi could guess at what Danzo was getting at with his last statement, but decided indulging the man's passion and merely gestured for the one eyed man to elaborate.
"These ANBU will have been walking the village when they are known to be on duty, hanging out in Shinobi outlets and bars, as well as with their families. And no one reported anything amiss. Some can claim ignorance, especially if some of the Shinobi are subtle about it, but every Shinobi bar has lists of which teams are on or off duty for security purposes, a law we put in place after the disaster in the second Shinobi war." Sarutobi remembered the law, and the incident that preludes it, like it was only a few months ago.
One of Kumo's greatest infiltrators managed to get through Konoha's security systems, and then managed to murder 7 high level Jounin and Chuunin by dressing as an ANBU and hooking up with them when their guards were down, something that very nearly saw the village collapse into paranoid mob rule before she was caught.
"So what do we do now old friend?" Sarutobi already had a plan, but it would be interesting to see whatever Danzo was cooking up inside that devious strategic mind of his.
He had been neglectful of his garden, and that meant that some weeds had thought they could take it over and pervert it to their own disgusting guises. Now was the time to take the shears and show those foolish members of the younger generation what happened when laziness and greed prevailed over duty and honour.
And for the first time in almost forty years, Sarutobi knew this would be a bloody harvest he would not regret reaping. Konoha and its inhabitants were the legacy of him and his beloved sensei's, and he would cut down the brambles and pull out the weeds that threatened its future, even if he had to get his own hands dirty to do it…
A/N: Another chapter without Naruto actually being involved, but as with most of my stories once the main character starts it rarely deviates from them again, so setting the scene in this case is a good thing to do from everyone else's perspectives.
So we have my explanation of the ANBU set-up, a non-exhaustive list of Naruto's injuries, and an unofficial culling of Konoha's Black Ops ninja. Now I just need to decide quite how public/extreme Sarutobi's reaction is going to be, what is going to be going on with the rookies during this period and of course, what the hell is Naruto going to wake up like.
Thoughts, ideas, comments. As long as they aren't completely negative they will be considered :)
Defias out!