Important A/N: During the assault quite a lot will be happening simultaneously, so I'll follow different characters with overlapping time segments. Also, many people will be dying and I will detail a few of them closely. And then there are the sex slaves that need rescuing. This story is 'M' for a reason! It shouldn't bother most people, but it might bother some. Use your discretion.
oooooo
Naruto's hand was beginning to cramp. Considering the fact that it was transference pain from his clones, it was telling of how many times they had made a basic storage seal over the last hour. Kakashi wanted to take everything in Gato's office and let the intelligence officers sort it out back home. Considering the multi-national size of Gato's empire, the jonin thought it was better to err on the side of excess when it came to storage capacity. So, while the four fleshy ninja went over the assault plan, a gross of clones were cranking out storage seals.
Every once in a while one would pop; possibly just out of boredom, Naruto-prime mused. Because of that, Naruto's hand was gradually becoming sore. The blond paid half attention to the plan as it was repeated a fifth time; privately he was thanking his stars that clones usually popped before they could get any painful injuries. He usually didn't run into the pain problem, as it was pointless to have clones body build. If he ran a bunch through the same kata for a few hours, enough of the same muscles would tire, which could be painful when they popped. He had quickly learned to switch things up frequently. So, while it wasn't impossible to get sore from kage-bunshin, it was uncommon enough for Naruto to be annoyed whenever it happened.
"Naruto, pay attention."
"Sorry sensei, it must be the blood loss."
"What are you talking about dobe?" Sasuke asked, looking him over for injuries.
"Oh, I'm just kidding. Sensei told me to make as many storage seals as I could, so it took about a pint of blood to mix with all the ink. I'm fine, my clones are just trying to piss me off, and it's distracting me."
Sakura snorted, "Most people don't get into literal fights with themselves, you know."
' *Yawn* Maybe he has multiple personalities like us?' her annoying alter-aspect pondered as it awoke.
'Damn it! You've gotten me in enough trouble already! Where have you been?' Sakura mentally hissed.
'I'm your survival instinct. It was in your best interest that I disappear for a while. I helped a few times though, I'm just being subtler.'
"Ugh, I've had it up to here with you! Get out of my thoughts!" Sakura shouted at her alter ego, before turning her attention outwards again.
She noticed everyone looking at her. "I didn't say that out loud, did I?"
Naruto and Sasuske nodded.
"Oh."
"… I think you're going to have to explain it to them," Kakashi softly stated. "In fact, I think it would be good for all of you to share some of your uncomfortable truths."
His students frowned at him and looked at one another.
"Should we really rock the boat right before a big fight, sensei? We work pretty well together right now, maybe we should wait until after the dangerous mission…" Naruto said anxiously.
"There's always going to be a next dangerous mission, Naruto. Do you two think you can fight normally knowing that Sakura has a voice in her head?"
Sasuke tried to lighten the mood, "She was a fangirl, I've known she was crazy for years," he said, winking at Sakura.
Sakura grinned weakly. "I'll explain. It's better than the two of you thinking I'm crazy and hear voices in my head… Basically, I have a minor blood limit that was recessive in my lineage until it woke up in me. I have a split personality that in my case essentially personified my survival instinct. It sometimes fights for control when things get dangerous. For a while, I thought that Ino and I had successfully gotten rid of it, but it's more tenacious than a cockroach."
"So during our test, it was controlling you?" Sasuke asked worriedly.
"Probably, I know it took over when I froze up when sensei threw the kunai at me. It just wasn't quick enough to get me to dodge with the state my body was in at the time."
Naruto looked pensive while Sasuke prodded the subject some more, "So if it's your survival instinct, and it takes over, will it keep you alive if it means abandoning one of us?"
Sakura looked shocked, then worried.
'Hey! Wake up! Did you hear that? Please tell me you wouldn't do that, right?' Sakura pleaded mentally.
'It's very unlikely. You will almost always have better chances when your whole team is alive. I can't swear it'll never happen, but it would be the last thing I'd try. On top of being inefficient, you'd probably try to stop me. Which would get us killed while we struggled for dominance,' inner Sakura explained.
Sakura winced and summarized. "She said very unlikely, I'd try and stop her and get myself killed, so it would be counter-productive. I swear I wouldn't let her do it though!"
The boys frowned, while Kakashi decided to make an appointment with the Yamanaka when they returned.
"Eh, it's not that big a deal," Naruto shrugged.
"Really?" Sakura asked; Sasuke looked at him dubiously.
"Yeah, it's not like your brother killed your entire clan, leaving you the only remaining member, or the Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi into you as a baby in order to save the village, giving you super human abilities while the townspeople you helped save spat and swore at you during your formative years…"
Kakashi face palmed.
"HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT… Wait, what?"
"Sorry Sasuke, the general outline of your tragedy is well known gossip. How your fangirls never learned I have no idea."
"People gossip about it! What the hell! … No, wait… go back to the bit about the Kyuubi?"
"You're a jinchuriki?" Sakura asked curiously.
Naruto and Kakashi shared a look of interest at the surprisingly well informed question.
"Yeah, I am. I'm the first one in known history for the Kyuubi. Yondaime was the first sealer good enough to do it. Hey, don't look at me like that; I'm still Naruto! Remember that talk we had when you crashed on my couch? My tenant can't take over my body, or speak in my head."
Sakura looked apologetic, relaxing her body as she calmed down.
"Actually, Naruto, there's a possibility it might start communications with you. We've been rather surprised it hasn't tried while you were meditating."
Sasuke and Sakura tensed again at the idea.
"Really? Well, I have a lot to say to it, maybe I'll have to find it and curse it's furry ass out!"
Silence reigned for a few seconds before Sasuke started laughing. "Only you, Naruto, would search for the Kyuubi in order to insult it."
The other ninja smiled at the picture and chuckled.
"See, that wasn't too bad, was it? Now you all know each other better, and can become closer as a team without these secrets between you." Kakashi explained.
"Wait, just because we know the basics of what happened, Sasuke hasn't shared yet," Naruto garbled.
"Well, since everyone seems to know anyway, there's not much of a point is there, Naruto?" Sasuke asked heatedly.
"There's got to be more to it than is commonly known. Everyone else shared, it's your turn Princess," Naruto urged.
"It's private, and traumatic to think about."
"You saw it happen?" Sakura asked gently.
Sasuke sighed. "Damn it, fine. I came home from academy, expecting to bother my brother into practicing some minor skill as I usually did." He paused, snorting. "He almost always begged off, saying he had something important to do. He was usually telling the truth too, the bastard. Anyway, I entered the compound. It was quiet; if I had had another year or two of training I would have known something was wrong. But I was just a kid."
Sasuke's voice was tense, as was his whole body. Naruto was starting to regret pushing him into telling the event if just recalling it was this stressful.
"I saw some blood splatters, realized something was off, but I started to run home instead of leaving the compound. My parents would be able to fix it, right? As I went farther into the compound, I saw bodies of relatives I had known. I panicked and ran faster to get home to safety."
"Sasuke," Sakura interrupted, "Stop. It's ok, you don't have to finish."
Sasuke had been shaking slightly, eyes closed. Hearing Sakura, he seemed to loosen up a bit. He sighed, opening his eyes. "Yes I do, I need to finish. It will become obvious that my memories are suspect, but the next bit I'm certain of. I entered our house to find Itatchi and my father about to kill one another. Mother was horrified, and as they clashed, she tried to get between them. She stopped them temporarily and they talked about something, I can't remember. I think it was about the direction the clan was headed. Itatchi replied to Father, who attacked. Itatchi was quicker, but somehow Mother was faster than either of them. She intervened again, but… Dad ran her through while Itatchi was able to strike around her and kill father. I yelled out, of course. All three of them saw me before Mom and Dad died. Itatchi… It seemed he looked ashamed, but after what he did next, I'm sure he wasn't.
"I freaked out of course. I couldn't believe what was happening, what had happened. Itatchi had killed my parents, but I couldn't accept that my brother had done such a thing. I yelled and pleaded. I punched his legs while he just stared at me. Finally, he addressed me. He told me the secret of the Sharingan, and explained he was trying to awaken the dormant abilities in them. Everything is sort of jumbled together, but Kami, I remember him making a stupid joke about getting enough experience points to level up his eyes. He told me to push myself, and face him once I was strong enough. To live focused on revenging myself on him and to remember the misery he caused." Sasuke shook his head. "I don't know, he stopped making sense after a while. Then his eyes changed, he used the ultimate genjutsu to make me relive the last hour over and over again, occasionally switching to other methods of torture. I woke up a week later in the hospital. I learned what else had happened that night later."
…
…
"… Well fuck." Naruto declared. "Now I have to get you into a strip club."
Sakura looked confused for a moment, before she decided to punch him on principle. Naruto frowned, but didn't dodge this time. Sasuke half snorted at the interaction, but seemed pretty out of it still, as Naruto held his bleeding nose, and Sakura rubbed her fist in consternation.
"You've left some of this out when discussing it with your psychiatrists, Sasuke," Kakashi remarked.
Sasuke nodded. "True. I didn't explain everything here either. There are some things I'll probably take to my grave, rather than letting the name Uchiha get sullied more than it has been already."
"I noticed. You and I need to speak more. There are things I can help explain, and perhaps things you can explain to me. The secret of the sharingan-"
"Is one of the things that dies with Itatchi and me, if I can help it at all."
"I see. Still, we need to talk. But afterwards. Perhaps Naruto was wise to suggest we postpone baring our souls till after the mission. I didn't expect you to give more than a synopsis of your ordeal… Still, what is done is done. Naruto, how many seals have you prepared?" Kakashi asked.
"Um, 1,500 five-pounders, give or take. And twenty fifty-pounders," Naruto replied nasally, though his nose looked almost healed already.
Kakashi closed his eye and let out a sigh, "I didn't mean for you to make that many. Can you make a storage seal that can hold other storage seals?"
"Not yet, I buy those still."
"Fine, I'll make a few. I guess we need to call it a day. Let's get some sleep so we can wake up fresh on time."
The genin nodded and headed to their bedrolls. It was still only about four o'clock pm, so there was plenty of time to sleep, assuming they could.
"Well, at least with all the training the last few days we'll fall asleep quickly," Sakura cheerfully complained. "Obviously we needed it, but I wish your clones hadn't thrown the rocks so hard," Sakura chattered, trying to find an innocuous topic.
"Yeah, cheeky bastards. On the other hand, if it didn't hurt, you wouldn't have been nearly as motivated to dodge better. Still, sleep sounds nice."
"Hnn."
As they slid into their sleeping bags, Naruto apologized. "I'm sorry for pushing you into reliving that, Sasuske, if I had realized…"
"Stop. You didn't make me do anything. I choose to explain. You had better get us into the Venus though…"
Naruto laughed. "At least he didn't mess up your priorities too badly!" he joked.
"You guys aren't seriously trying to get into a strip club, are you?"
"Yep! Just because Sasuke is fangirl-shy, doesn't mean we aren't healthy young males! Hey, if my plan works, you and Ino can join Tenten at the male revue place she was talking about."
"Oh really… I mean, um, what about your g- future potential girlfriend? What would she have to say about this?"
"I imagine any girl I'd date would understand the need for Sasuke and I to bond in such surroundings, and to be okay with it as long as I behaved myself. Heck I might even be lucky enough that my girlfriend would not only give her blessings, but try and join Sasuke and me…"
"Whoa, you'd have to be really, really lucky for that to happen," Sasuke said thoughtfully, as Sakura seemed to have a coughing fit.
"Ah, but see, I'm cursed with lots of luck. Really bad things happen to me, and really good things happen to me. It generally balances out. I get randomly picked to have the Kyuubi stuffed in my stomach. Good news, I get super powers! Bad news, most of the town hates me, and I had assassination attempts before I was even a year old!"
"People tried to assassinate you while you were a baby?"
"Well, I didn't know it at the time obviously. I found out later. Oh, Sakura, this is why the Hokage and I are buddies. Since I was an orphan, and yet a VIP of immense value, he was my distant grandpa growing up. Someone had to make sure the can of whoopass loved Konoha, so he wouldn't open himself up and let the primordial King of Beasts stomp around."
There was an awkward pause as Sasuke and Sakura examined that statement from a few angles. They were interrupted when a disembodied voice spoke from the center of the room, "Don't ever think the Hokage doesn't love you Naruto. I won't lie and say we didn't need you sane and happy, but the Old Man loves you more than you would expect."
"Sensei? You know Wind Whisper? Oh, of course you do. Nah, I know Jiji loves me. Do you listen in on us all the time?"
"Not all the time, but today was rather exciting, I wanted to make sure everyone was okay. You should get to sleep though."
He got several grunts in reply, and the three ninja turned in. They still had things to think about, but they were able to sleep eventually.
oooooo
Kakashi woke his students at one a.m. Groggy and weary-eyed, they marched into the kitchen to eat some leftovers that Tsunami let Kakashi warm up for them. After a quick equipment check, they were soon leaping from tree to tree on their way to their target.
oooooo
2:57 A.M. – Operation 'Gato-B-Gone': T minus three minutes
Normally on a mission of this scale, ninja used walkie-talkies or other comm tech. It was expensive, but often communication was the difference between success and failure. Having not planned for this situation, and therefore not having any comm gear, they had to rely on clone power.
Three members of team seven squatted on three branches, each one nearest their assigned watchtower, along with a clone. The fourth, Naruto, was alone on his branch, not needing a clone to receive messages. Kakashi signaled his clone, which disappeared, spreading the message to the genin it was time to strike. The four ninja stealthily sped across the open ground around the fort, and climbed up the walls. They would take out the four lookouts before heading to their assigned tasks.
oooooo
-Naruto's POV-
Naruto peeked over the edge of the viewing platform, kunai at the ready. He had come up the side of the tower, and the sentry was looking perpendicularly to him. Being cautious, the blond performed the wind whisper technique, making a soft noise on the far side of the tower. As the sentry turned, Naruto ran up the rest of the way and grabbed the man's head, then twisted, expecting a snap.
"Huh? What the hell-" the guard managed, before Naruto sliced his kunai through the sentry's carotids, one after the other. The man got out a moan before going slack. Naruto held the body away from him as the neck gave a very brief spray of blood before copiously running down the man's front.
"Someday I'm going to stop trying things I've seen in movies," Naruto swore. "Ugh, my hands are covered. How am I supposed to fight like this?"
Frowning, he sliced the back of his victim's shirt off and wiped his hands and weapon dry as best he could. Mostly clean, he waited a minute for everyone else to make their kills, before running down the inside of the wall and once again wrapping himself in the image of a mercenary. He headed towards the nearest barracks, where he was tasked with taking out as many sleeping targets as he could before any alarms were raised. There were fire bowls with the remains of logs still burning, and several groups of mercenaries were spread out, huddled near the light, playing dice or cards. Apparently the camp was never completely quiet. The gamblers would look at Naruto briefly before returning to the game.
Making it to the nearest barracks, Naruto opened the door and entered. It was a two-story building, and Naruto snuck through the downstairs hall, counting beds. Thankfully, the beds weren't bunks; that would have made things difficult. He frowned; trying to think of how to silently eliminate someone on a top bunk, then shook his head. Getting a count of occupied beds, the blond went upstairs and counted again. Once he had both totals, he made that many copies of himself and sent one over each bed. He made an extra copy and had it pop. Moments later, each of his clones made a coordinated stab through the larynx, using chakra-boosted strength to go deep enough to slice or crush the spinal cord. Most of his targets died in less than a minute, without waking up or moving at all. Not every clone had been able to do perform the technique perfectly though, as there were all sorts of body shapes present in the barracks.
The clones tried to ignore the minority of men who tried to gasp or struggle for a few agonizingly slow seconds before there wasn't enough blood in their brain to do anything but allow the body to bleed out.
oooooo
"Naruto, I want you to take out the majority of the men. They'll be asleep, the only problem will be doing them quickly enough that one won't arouse the others. You are uniquely gifted at taking out multiple targets at once, so it is a good fit."
"Crap."
"Sakura, you will be tasked with the safety and medical treatment of the slaves. They probably won't trust a man, and are likely injured to one degree or another, so you fit the bill doubly with your medical training, even if it's just rudimentary so far."
"I see Naruto's crap and raise a damn."
"Sasuke, you'll be in charge of getting anything and everything in the office into a storage seal. This is very important, as missed information could mean we miss parts of his operation, and then we won't be able to clean it up as efficiently. We also need to find any liquid assets he has stashed away in a safe. Once the base is ours, the rest of us will help, assuming there's as much as I expect. I know it sounds boring, but we need to secure the data."
"Hnn."
"Meanwhile, I'll be cleaning up strays that are still awake, as well as having a 'chat' with Gato. Don't worry about him; I'll take care of it. Besides the slaves, assume everyone in the fort is an enemy, and don't leave any survivors. I imagine some of them may only deserve jail time, but they knowingly signed up with Gato. We don't have the luxury of finding out who is guilty of what."
Kakashi continued; "I'll speak to each of you alone about your tasks in more detail," Kakashi said, creating two shadow clones of his own, proof that he was almost completely recovered. They led the three genin to separate rooms.
Kakashi spoke again once they were alone, "Naruto, I know you don't want to execute these men in their beds, and that is partly why it needs to be you. Out of the three of you, you have the sturdiest psyche. You are whacky and zany and in many ways just weird, but you have a remarkably stable mind for all the bizarre quirks it has. Sakura is more normal, but she is still fragile. Being directly responsible for the survival and care of the women will boost her mentally long after the disgust of what she sees in the whorehouse wears off…" Kakashi paused.
"I've gathered that you know some of what happened to Sasuke?" he asked.
"Some. Much of it was public knowledge, whether it was supposed to be a secret or not. I think he saw some of his clan slaughtered. Add in the way Sasuke reacted to the comments you've made about his brother, and I think that the attacker was Itachi."
"Sometimes I think Sarutobi is too soft on civilian gossip. Kami knows gossip didn't do you any good, and it would've been worse without some of those early executions the third went through with. You shouldn't have been able to put that together, though I was at fault as well for making comments like that where you could hear. Anyway, yes, Sasuke had a traumatic experience with his brother, though he's much better. I will not have him killing defenseless men in their beds; it could undo a lot of progress he's made.
"Now you know why it's going to be you. The how is important too. If I were you, I would use synchronized strikes through the throat, trying to slice the spinal cord. Even if you don't manage that, the loss of blood pressure will have them unconscious within seconds, and dead not too much longer after that."
"Hai, I can do that, the academy had us train on pigs our final year."
"Humans are different, don't get lax. Alright, now if an alarm is raised, you are to go…"
oooooo
Naruto wasn't sure what he should do regarding the clone's memories. He wanted to get rid of them, but the fact that all of the strikes didn't go smoothly meant he needed to improve. He decided to not meditate at all and let the memories return to him as they would. He turned to a clone; "Everyone pop."
He walked down the stairs as the clones all dismissed themselves. 'It's too bad this isn't a Caverns and Cyclops game, I could loot the chests at the bottom of the beds and find some magical swords of +2 or something. Instead all I have to look forward to is killing another few buildings full of men.'
oooooo
-Sakura's POV-
Sakura scaled the tower and slowed as she approached the top. She was invisible, but she knew better than to assume that the guard couldn't hear her. She crept up slowly until she could see inside the watch nest. She almost gasped as the rough looking, smelly sentry looked straight through her. Swallowing her surprise, she crept around behind him and entered the nest. She was right behind him now. She grabbed his head with her left hand and shoved her kunai into the back of the man's neck. Her knife pierced the skin, gliding towards her target until it hit a vertebra. Sakura quickly applied some chakra strength, and the kunai slid off the bone and into the gap, severing the spinal column. The sentry collapsed, a puppet with its strings cut. She knew he'd blackout within seconds without his heart beating freshly oxygenated blood to his brain.
Sakura flipped the table over and put it on the trapdoor entrance, then laid the sentry on top. Hopefully that would keep anyone from getting up here and finding the body.
Still invisible, she swung herself over the inside of the wall and ran down it. Naruto had been able to distinguish which building was the slave house on Tazuna's map. Sakura headed straight for it, despite her distaste for what she expected to find. She edged around the small groups of gamblers and eventually made it to the target. Naruto was right, she could feel the corruption of this place in the air. Taking a deep breath, she held her kunai ready and swatted the animal skin threshold aside.
Inside, the man at the desk looked up from his book when he heard the skin shift. Another man, looking at each of the photos on the wall looked up too.
"Huh, the wind you think?"
"Unless you believe in ghosts. Now which one do you want?" the deskman asked.
"Aiko! Definitely, she reminds me of a girl from my village."
"First of all, I don't care. Second of all, I told you that the even numbered columns of girls are sleeping. They get fucked twelve hours a day as it is, they spoil too fast if we don't let them eat and rest. Pick one of the others."
"I don't care, wake her up! I want Aiko, and I'll pay you extra!"
"Come back tomorrow at noon, I'll make a reserva-ackkk glckk," the deskman choked suddenly as a deep stab wound appeared in his neck as if by magic, and it started to bleed out as he began coughing up blood.
"Fucking hell!" the other man exclaimed, grabbing his short-sword and getting into a pathetic stance as he franticly looked around the room. Before he could think about doing something smart, like yelling for help, a fist hit his throat like a baseball bat, literally crushing his ability to shout. The mercenary dropped his weapon and fell to his knees, trying to breath. Sakura phased into view, breathing deeply between the sudden action and the extended jutsu use. The mercenary saw her as she approached, and looked confused before his face turned to shock at the sight of her hitai-ate.
"I hope the akuma torture you in interesting ways once you get to hell, scumbag." She kicked him in the chest, knocking him over, then leaned down and grabbed his neck, squeezing the sides. He stopped flailing almost immediately, but she held her grip for a minute, until she was sure he was dead.
Taking a long, deep, stabilizing breath, she looked at the pictures of the women here so she would know if any were missing and roughly how long each had been here. Sakura looked down the hall; there were doors on either side, stretching back.
'Hey, mini-me. If there ever was a time I needed a pep boost, now's it!'
'You rock? Whaddya want? You aren't in mortal peril; I'm your survival instinct, not your effing cheer squad. Just go in and do what you can.'
'As usual, you are oodles of help.'
The pink haired girl opened the first door on the left. The interior was plain; there was a bed, lit by a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. On the bed was a nude young woman not too many years older than Sakura. She was asleep, and one wrist was manacled to the wall with a yard of chain. Sakura growled, but stopped herself and walked up to the woman, and then performed a basic diagnostic jutsu. The kunoichi stood over the civilian, holding her hands a few inches from her body. Performing the diagnostic was easy, even Naruto could do it if he wanted to. Understanding the feedback you received was totally different, as it was a confusing jumble of both sensations in the medic's body in the same spots the patient was injured, as well as a visual component that hovered above her hands.
It appeared the woman would be all right; she was one of the new arrivals, according to the pictures. There was a little malnutrition and some bruising around her handcuff, breasts, and privates. She had already picked up gonorrhea and crabs, but thankfully, everything was easily treatable.
Sakura stopped the jutsu and gently woke the woman. "Hey, wake up. I'm here to help you."
The woman flinched upon waking, but opened her eyes when she realized Sakura's voice was female.
"Girl, get out of here before they catch you! We can't break my chains, just run!"
"Shh! Calm down! I'm a ninja from Konoha. We're wiping out this entire base, and I was assigned to free all of you in here."
"Oh thank Kami, and thank you so much!"
Just then, they heard male moans coming from down the hall.
"Damn, there must be more men in here. What's your name?"
"Kōun."
"Alright Kōun, I'm going to go kill any other guys in the building, then I'm going to come back and free you. I just don't want you to get killed because you followed me into a fight."
"No! Please get the cuff off before you go!"
"I swear I'll come back for you, but if someone finds you free, I don't want to think about what they'll do to you. Just be quiet, I'll be back soon!"
Sakura exited the room while Kōun whimpered quietly. The kunoichi pinpointed the room that was 'in use' and wanted to slap herself. It had a lanyard around the doorknob that was obviously meant for letting people know there was a customer inside. Looking around, Sakura couldn't find any other markers on any of the rooms, so this was probably the only one. She slowly opened the door, hoping the bastard inside would be too busy to notice her.
Sakura slid in the room and nearly gagged, there was a big hairy mercenary (who appeared not to have had a shower in a month) plowing in and out of what must have been an attractive woman not too long ago. The woman just lay there and took it, having learned her lessons about interfering. She looked like she was in a trance.
Sakura rushed forward and drove a chakra-assisted circular swing into the man's chest, knocking him off the woman onto the floor, and more importantly, driving a kunai into his chest. The man stared at the metal protruding from his torso dumbly for half a moment before screaming in panic.
Sakura leapt forward and landed on his chest, nocking the air out of him and silencing his shouts. "You're really unlucky. I can't tell which of the guys in the fort were customers, so I have to take all my rage out on you!" She lifted his right leg and chambered her leg back for a kick.
"noooo!" the man whispered with what air was left in his lungs.
She pointed between his legs where he was hanging out, "Be glad I don't cut your dick off and feed it to you! The only reason I don't is it has probably got a dozen diseases and I'm not touching it."
With that said, she released her foot, smashing into his knee and making a crunching noise, a bit of bone poking out of his leg. The mercenary let out a silent scream, then went unconscious from shock. Sakura reached down and pulled her kunai out of his chest with a wet 'schlick' sound. He would probably bleed out. Even if he didn't, he wouldn't be getting anywhere for medical treatment with one leg, and would die of infection. Sakura found herself hoping a bit for the second option. She looked up at the woman to find herself being stared at in return.
"Avenging… angel…" she said in a raspy voice. "You're a… ninja. Rescue?" It sounded like she either had shouted herself hoarse, or possibly she hadn't spoken to anyone in a month or more.
"Yes, don't worry, we're going to take you to Konoha hospital, and my teammates are going to kill every last bastard in the camp."
She made a weak smile, "Good."
"Let me run a diagnostic on you."
oooooo
-Sasuke's POV-
Sasuke tossed the shuriken through the air, and watched it wrap the wire around the sentry's throat before flying back to his hand. He gave a mighty tug and held it, choking his victim. He walked the rest of the way up the tower, winding the wire around his wrists as he got nearer to the sentry. By the time he got there, the sentry was still. Sasuke checked for a pulse and frowned, then grabbed the man's throat with his hand and held him that way for a minute. Checking again, he nodded, and collected his wire and wound it back up into its pouch. Assuming everyone else had dispatched their sentry by now, he hopped over the wall and ran down it.
Once he got to ground level Sasuke slid into the appearance of the nukenin Naruto had killed on their first mission out of the village. While he had a better memory of the man he had fought, the massive stature would be too conspicuous. Giving silent thanks that he didn't need to use the solid henge, he headed towards Gato's miniature mansion.
As they had expected, there were guards posted around it, and it was illuminated by lit braziers. Sasuke smiled as he stayed out of sight and tried to imagine how Naruto would make a brassiere pun out of the situation. Snorting, he moved to the side of the building where there were no guards. This was pathetic really. The guards were just posted at the door; he doubted they even checked around the sides from the lack of discipline he saw while spying the previous afternoon.
Sasuke walked up to the window and withdrew a folded material from his pouch. Unfolding it, he peeled off a wax paper film and stuck the fabric to the glass window, where it adhered. Smoothing it down to make sure it was stuck well, Sasuke gave a stomp on the window. There was a crunching noise, but it was relatively quiet, and Sasuke kicked the window another time before cutting the adhesive out of the frame and pulling it out. Sasuke slipped in the room and laid the glass wad on the floor. He pulled out a glowstick and snapped it before taking a look around.
As was intended, he was in the office area, and now he could understand why Kakashi had made a big deal about seals. Gato had been here for over two years, and used this as his base of operations. Apparently, his empire produced a lot of data, as there were piles of scrolls and loose-leaf paper lying on desks. Along the wall there were filling cabinets, and Sasuke got the feeling that most of them would be nearly full.
Sighing, the ninja took out the big seal and released its contents, multiple mid-tier seals. Releasing the contents of one of those, he grabbed one off the stack of smaller seals and laid it on a desk, before putting a stack of papers on top of it and activating it. It was going to be a long night.
oooooo
-Kakashi's POV-
Kakashi ran up the tower casually until he got near the top, where he put a bit of effort into it. Speeding into the watch nest, he was standing in front of the lookout and had a kunai stuck in the unfortunate man's kidney before they even realized Kakashi was there. The lookout froze, then slumped over from shock, the pain of the kidney strike was so great. Kakashi finished him by slicing a carotid, careful not to get any blood on him, before hopping over the side.
Kakashi wasn't worried about this engagement, even for his students. Something would have to totally cluster-fuck before one of them got hurt. No, the jonin was already worrying about how Zabuza would react. While logically he should retreat and find a new job, the bounty on Kakashi and the anger of losing the Tazuna job might make Zabuza act a bit irrational. Kakashi pondered potential reactions as he took out three men playing dice, his body working on full automatic.
Carving a path to the main building, and sinking bodies into the ground with an earth technique, the jonin was soon outside Gato's second-story bedroom window. He slapped a small seal on the side of the building and activated it. He proceeded to smash the window in silently and jump through. After another second or two had passed, a final piece of glass hit the floor with a noise, the sound canceling seal used up.
As he walked over to the massive canopy bed, Kakashi kept a grin of anticipation off his face. He was looking forward to ending this bastard. Understanding the cycle of life, remembering the value of a life, the metaphor of fire- those were all important to instill in young ninja, and Kakashi agreed with it all. But after you were in enough operations, you could value a life and still enjoy being the instrument through which justice was brought. Yes, there were always rumors about Gato Corp, but they normally did business far from Konoha, so no one had investigated. Now that Kakashi knew that many of those rumors were true, he was going to guess that most were.
He was going to enjoy the shit out of this justice.
Kakashi grabbed Gato and slid him almost frictionlessly across the silk sheets and onto the floor.
"Oomph! Huh- what the? Who ever you are, you've got about a minute to live before-"
Kakashi interrupted him with a fist to the stomach, then slapped a strip of duct tape over the tycoon's mouth. Gato started screaming, but not much got out with the tape in place.
"I think we need to have a little chat. First I'm going to use my magic eye to rip any important thoughts you have from your head. Then I'm going to discuss ethics while torturing you. Yes, I'm aware of the irony. Then, after we've had a long, if one sided, chat I'm going to kill you. I tell you this so that you start despairing and feeling the terror now, as opposed to later." Kakashi drew back his hitai-ate and revealed his eye; he would need to be very quick with it.
"Let's begin."
"Muuuuuuumph!"
oooooo
-Sasuke's POV-
He now had a few glowsticks activated, giving off green light in a few areas as he walked back and forth from the desks to a central desk with the seals laying on it. This was boring, but honestly he was glad he didn't have any of the other jobs. Ninja weren't supposed to care for honor, but slaughtering sleeping men was not praiseworthy. And thank Kami he wasn't in charge of the slave rescue. They were probably naked, and he'd be unable not to think about it, and getting an erection from seeing a sex abuse victim would just be wrong, and… Yeah, he was glad he didn't have either of his teammates' jobs. And as much as he would have liked to pick off the mercenaries that were still awake, that came with part b: spending time with Gato.
Sasuke sealed another couple of fat folders into a storage seal. What really needed to happen was for Naruto to screw up and let an alarm sound. Now that would be fun. Well, sort of… None of the men here would probably be a challenge, but the numbers would make it interesting. Sighing and moving the seal into the 'full' stack, Sasuke walked over to the next desk to grab another stack of folders. Suddenly he heard a door open in the distance, and two pairs of footsteps approach. Thinking quickly, he grabbed all the glowsticks before throwing them in a cabinet drawer. He moved to the room's entranceway, where thankfully there was a corner before it turned into the main hall.
"I'm telling you there were lights. Someone's inside."
"Shh, be quiet. It's probably just an accounting nerd burning the midnight oil."
Sasuke rolled his eyes, watching the light get brighter, probably from a lantern, as he waited for them to round the corner. A minute later, they didn't disappoint, and he kicked the first one in the nuts before swinging his kunai towards the second guard. Unfortunately, it seemed he had some experience, as the second guard reflexively blocked with the kerosene lamp.
Sasuke had put enough energy into the swing to drive the kunai into the man's chest, so when the lamp got hit instead, it shattered, spraying oil over the guards, Sasuke, and onto the nearest desk. Guard #1 was bent over from getting nutted, and had his back catch on fire, along with the ground where there was a small puddle of kerosene.
Thinking quickly, Sasuke ducked under guard #2's swing with the broken lamp, and swept the legs out from under him while guard #1 staggered around flailing, trying to slap his back and cup his crown jewels at the same time. Guard #2 landed on the flaming puddle of kerosene, and Sasuke grabbed his shirt, picking him up and slamming him down a few times to put out the fire. Guard #1 was trying to unstrap his leather armor, having come to his senses apparently as he shouted for backup, "Intruder! Intruder!"
Sasuke stood up from slamming the other guard and took two steps towards the loud flaming idiot, spinning around and launching his foot into the man's face with a spinning kick. Ignoring the crunching sound, Sasuke watched, dismayed, almost in slow motion as the man fell back onto a desk, the flames immediately starting to lick some of the documents lying there.
There was no time to curse fate however, he rushed forward and threw the flaming guard over his back, on top of the second guard, and started slapping the papers. They were all out in a few moments, and he turned around hoping his opponents were still down.
Finally, something was going his way, as the two guards were lying in a pile, groaning and smoking with little flames here and there on each of them. Letting out a sigh, Sasuke went to slide his hand through his hair but jerked his hand back before it got burnt. Turning to a window, he saw a wet looking patch of his hair burning merrily before he started slapping it out.
Emergency over, Sasuke bent over to finish the two guards off when he heard three more pairs of footsteps running towards him. Sighing and shaking his head, he slit the two guard's throats before stashing his kunai and drawing three shuriken. "I will not have this shit happen twice," he mumbled under his breath as he stepped into the hall.
"There he is! Stop or we'll gut you!"
Sasuke flung out his right arm, then his left, then his right again, in under three seconds, launching shuriken straight into the men's throats. The lead guard dropped his lamp, which shattered on the floor and erupted in flame.
Sasuke facepalmed as he trudged forward to put it out. "What is this, comedy fucking pratfall hour? Seriously!"
oooooo
-Sakura's POV-
Sakura yawned, tired from the drain of chakra. Her chakra reserves had grown quite a bit, but using the two healing jutsu she knew as brute force cure-alls on two dozen girls and women took a lot out of her. The bruise reducing technique was actually useful as is, but thankfully none of the women had cuts or lacerations, the target of her other iijutsu. Luckily, no one else had come in, and she had all the women in the hall so she could keep an eye on the door while healing them. She had just finished checking everyone and doing what little she could to heal them. By the hopeful smiles and thanks she had received, it seemed just dulling the pain and the prospect of freedom was lifting the women's spirits greatly.
The ones who had recently arrived were mostly fine, though they would all need antibiotics and counseling. Some of the women who had been here for a while scared her in their non-responsiveness. Two of them in particular seemed to be in their own world, and wouldn't answer questions or talk at all, though they would walk if you led them. She had to stop another from trying to kill herself with the sword from the corpse in the entrance area. Sakura had the rest of the women keep her still while she took all the bodies and weapons and locked them in one room.
"Alright, I've healed you all to the best of my abilities; now I need everyone to stay calm and wait here with me until we get the signal from my teammates. Once I learn that all the mercenaries are dead, we're going to head to Gato's mansion where you'll be staying temporarily, since the nearest village sucks and has no food or lodgings. In a few days we'll escort you to Konoha, so you can be treated at our hospital. All right? Just hold on a little longer and you'll all be fine."
It seemed there was some disagreement on the last statement, but they all agreed the plan beat sticking around here. Sakura sat, facing the skin door, but also watching over the women. She wasn't going to let any of them do anything stupid when they were so close to being saved.
oooooo
-Naruto's POV-
Naruto found that by the third barracks it was easier to ignore the men's dying gasps. He wasn't sure whether he glad for that or not. There was only one more barracks to go, but it looked different then the others. Nicer, perhaps? Naruto headed towards it, regardless of the architectural differences. A breeze blew by, and he caught a foul stench. Looking into the wind, he saw a dozen outhouses, and all but one of them had a green square hanging on a hook off the front. He was glad he was in disguise still when one of the doors opened and a merc stumbled out. He flipped the red square over to green and winced, rubbing his gut.
Seeing Naruto, he called out, "Yo, you don't know who was on cooking duty today, do you? If I find out, me and some of the boys are killing every last sonofa bitch that stepped in the kitchen!"
"Count me in! I had to wait 15 minutes for my turn this afternoon, you'd have thought it was the women's line it was so long!" Naruto agreed, thrilled his plan worked. Of course, since they were doing a nocturnal attack, it hadn't made much difference, and it probably hadn't had time to do its full damage. Tomorrow they would've been throwing themselves on his kunai to end the suffering.
"Ugh, well, I'm gonna get some sleep; g'night."
"Night." Naruto palmed a kunai and walked so that they would pass one another fairly closely. They drew nearer, and he went for it.
Clang!
"Shit!"
The mercenary stood with his sword drawn, having blocked the kunai strike successfully. "I've been in prison, I know when I'm about to be shanked. What's your beef with me?"
"You've pissed off the wrong people," Naruto said, trying to keep up.
"What? I've kept my head low for years! Why would… Fuck me sideways, that's a kunai, isn't it?"
Naruto leapt forward and attempted another stab, but the man parried and returned the sentiment with a slash. The blonde leaned back just out of range before getting inside of the man's guard, the sword past Naruto. The man tried to punch Naruto's head, but the ninja grabbed the fist with his left hand and yanked on the arm, sending the merc straight into his kunai stab.
The merc dropped his sword. The two were close enough that they were practically embracing. "Well, that's the end then, I'm not living through that wound. My lung will collapse the moment you pull out your knife. Can you do me one favor?"
"What?" Naruto asked, uncomfortable with talking to the man he had just killed.
"Make it quick. Use my sword and take off my head. Give me a dignified death."
"… I've never beheaded anyone. From what I've heard, if you do it wrong it's painful and messy. I can use a wind jutsu to do it though."
"That will work. Thank you."
Naruto stepped back, and lowered the man to a sitting position, then walked several steps behind the man.
"Cutting breeze no jutsu," Naruto said under his breath, visualizing it slightly different from normal. A smaller, thinner than normal blade shot out, slicing cleanly through the man's neck, and tossing up dirt when it impacted the ground. The head fell forwards, along with the torso slumping forward from the impact.
Naruto swallowed, and turned to the final barracks.
oooooo
This was definitely different, Naruto decided. Instead of weapons and armor lying around, there were books, writing implements, and reading glasses. The shinobi picked up a book, scanning the title: Bird Country Tax Code- pt. 4 ed. 7. Looking at the sleeping occupants, they were not shaped for violence. They looked like the type of people that the mercenaries bullied for lunch money when they were kids.
Naruto scratched his head, thinking. 'Oh, they're the people who actually run Gato's business. Are they captives as well, or employees?'
Naruto silently opened a trunk at the end of a bed, and rooted around. In a sock near the bottom he found a pouch of coins, and he found a multi-tool and a knife, all signs that these weren't captives. Between that and the relatively posh sleeping quarters, these men- 'Is that a bra on that chair?' - and women apparently, were here of their own volition. Naruto went upstairs, knowing he'd need to wipe out this building's occupants too. Upstairs he found half the floor taken up by a single room.
'Hmm, big room equals important, right? Let's bend Kakashi's rules a bit and take that one captive. They'll have some intelligence besides what's on the paper trail.'
He slowly opened the door and looked inside. There was a woman in bed, and Naruto ignored the fact that she had kicked the covers half off in her sleep, instead looking around to find any clues to her identity. He found one in a framed degree from some college in Lightning Country. According to the paper, Miyaka "Kiken" Yamashita graduated third in her class, majoring in business with a minor in accounting.
'Yep she looks like the boss. Time to get to work.' Naruto multiplied, and sent the Naruclones off to take out the rest of the building. Stepping over miss Miyaka, he grabbed three zip-ties out of a pocket and waited for the clones to finish. He heard a collection of 'shunk' sounds, and grabbed the woman's wrists. He had the first zip-tie tightened before the woman was coherent, but trouble started quickly when she tried driving a knee into his groin. He raised a leg to block, and fell on top of her when she pulled suddenly.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? Gato will kill you slowly if you lay a finger on me!"
The two wrestled, but Naruto would have out-muscled her even if he hadn't been a ninja, and he quickly slipped the other two zip-ties around her wrists and pulled tight.
Standing up, and ignoring her screams and shouts of profanity, he grabbed a sock out of a bin and pushed it in her mouth, absorbing her relatively weak kicks. "Look, shut up and stop fighting or I'll kill you. Gato is dead, or wishing he was, and there's probably less than 30 people left alive in the fort. No one is coming to help you, but I'm not here to hurt or rape you. I'm not supposed to take captives, so don't make it hard or I'll kill you like the rest."
Miyaka froze, and spat out the sock, "Who are you and what's going on?"
Naruto realized now why Kakashi asked them if anyone wanted to borrow some duck tape. "You know, you really aren't in a position to demand answers. Whatever, fine." Naruto ended the solid henge as he started explaining. "Gato went too far, and we're the group protecting the bridge builder. We knew if we took out Gato and his thugs, the nukenin he hired would leave us alone."
"Why are you kidnapping me? I'm just a paper pusher!" She shouted angrily.
"True, but I'm not stupid; everyone in this building knew what this company was doing, and you all worked here anyway. He wouldn't be paying you if you were captives. And you must be the head paper pusher, or else you wouldn't have such a large room to yourself. So, your choice: cooperate, or I shove this knife in your throat and get blood all over the room," he threatened, waving a kunai back and forth.
Miyaka lay still for a few moments. "You know, you're pretty cute. How about we do this and that, and you let me go?"
Naruto blinked, then snorted and facepalmed. "Man, sometimes I wish I was evil. Then I wouldn't feel guilty for taking advantage of you. You're lucky I'm a nice guy, because there's not a single ninja that would actually let you go after you put out."
"Humph! Fine, 'nice guy', can you untie my hands so I can put on a shirt?"
"Sorry, one of the rules about captives is to never free their hands, especially if you have every advantage over them. I am going to cover you up though, your chest is distracting, and Bubblegum will try to hit me if I bring you in with only bottoms on."
"Extract information, huh? Well hurry up and get to the spikes and flames bit, listening to you talk is cruel and unusual punishment."
Naruto looked around for something to cover her, and grabbed a bra, fumbling with the catch. "You don't get it do you? I'm risking getting in trouble for bringing a captive. My orders were to kill everyone, but I'm betting you have some knowledge in your head that will make it worthwhile. But you seem determined to make me kill you."
Miyaka stopped snickering at Naruto's lack of success with her bra. "… You really killed everyone else?"
Naruto's random jiggling managed to open it up, and he grinned a moment before turning and looking her in the face. "Yes! That's why no one else has come after all that screaming! Is this just now sinking in?"
"I think it still hasn't, frankly. I know you think we're evil, but the people in this building were like a family after spending as long as we have out here in the middle of nowhere of Wave. Even if they were my subordinates."
Naruto frowned. He had wrapped the bra around her and was trying to re-do the catch. "Yeah, well, the women in the cat house probably have families too. As did the slaves Gato Corp sold to the salt mines. I've been living with the family of Tazuna, the 'last remaining speed bump' between Gato and 'control of this pathetic nation.' So I'm not real sympathetic to you or your 'family.'"
He managed the clasp again, and stepped back. Miyaka didn't seem to have a comeback for that.
"Hey boss!"
"Ahh! Oh jeez… Why haven't you guys popped yet?" Naruto asked the Naruclone standing outside the door.
"One of us realized the women Bubblegum is rescuing probably won't have clothes, so we're looting anything decent so they can have something to wear. Can you make another dozen of us in case Cyclops missed anyone outside? We're going to take the clothes and swing by the kitchen and take stuff to Bubblegum so she can distribute it."
"That's not what the plan called for." Naruto sometimes felt his life was rather surreal- usually when he was loosing an argument against himself.
"Fortune favors the bold. You know Cyclops will be okay with it, he said he'd take out any stragglers. I think you can trust Sensei to do his job."
"Don't patronize ourself… Fine, go on then." Naruto made his trademark cross, and a dozen blonds appeared, then ran out of the room.
"…You're weird," Miyaka said flatly.
"I'm aware. Come on, you and I are going to Gato's mini-mansion to find Sensei."
oooooo
-Sakura's POV-
Sakura was getting sleepy, but kept herself alert, as she was the only defense these women had. She checked her charges; it appeared they were still all asleep. She turned back to the door and her heart leapt into her throat for a moment when she saw the door-skin move. A moment later a blond head poked in, "Hey Bubblegahhh!" It jerked back in time for a shuriken to drive into the wall behind.
Sakura walked to the entrance. "Sorry Mud. I thought Cyclops was supposed to give me the signal?"
"He was, we're here to give them some clothes and food we found. Cyclops wiped out almost all the groups outdoors, and we cleaned up the rest. I guess there might be a couple guys hidden somewhere, but I think everyone's accounted for."
"Food and clothes? Great, they can definitely use both!"
"Come on guys!" Thirty Naruclones lined up, carrying piles of clothes and pots of food. "Um, are they going to react poorly to us?"
"I don't know, but they're asleep right now, so be quiet when you bring it in and hopefully we won't find out."
"Right, you go in first."
Sakura walked in, then waved the Naruclones forward. They obliged, most of them wincing when they saw the state some of the women were in.
After they had deposited their payloads, all but one of the Naruclones went back outside. He asked, "Do you want to wake them? As long as they're asleep, the problem is sort of in stasis, but they're probably hungry…"
"I don't know; it's not like I'm a rape counselor. I have no idea what I'm doing!"
"Fair enough, did anyone ask for food before they fell asleep?"
"No, but then again they had just learned they weren't going to be slaves for the rest of their lives. They had other things on their mind."
"Well I heated up the food, it'll only stay hot so long… What about malnutrition?"
"Good point, everyone has it to some degree or another. I don't know how long it took to get them smuggled here, but that would account for the recent additions. The ones who've been here longer have it worse, but it seemed whoever was in charge of this fed them real food. Probably saw them as 'investments', hope the asshole died slow."
Sakura came to a decision. "Alright, go sit in the corner by the door and look meek. I'll wake them up and see who's hungry."
"Sure thing."
Sakura walked over and started waking the women she knew were stable first, then woke up the rest once the first group was lucid. Everyone seemed to be fine, although two were still nonresponsive. Everyone else picked through the clothes and put on whatever came close to fitting, the faster ones helping out the rest once they were done. Sakura could tell some of them noticed Naruto, but it didn't seem to be a problem so far.
Once everyone was clothed, Sakura passed out the plates and spoons Naruto brought, but decided not to risk the forks or knives after what happened earlier. Everyone dug in, though the two stuck in a trance ate rather robotically. Thankfully, it looked like Naruto had brought enough.
oooooo
-Sasuke's POV-
"This is taking forever. I bet all the interesting fights are over, anyway."
Sasuke was still putting files into seals. He had heard some distant commotion, but apparently it was taken care of. Yawning, he sat down in the chair and spun around in a slow circle, slapping his cheeks lightly.
"Sitting down on the job? That isn't like you."
Sasuke had leapt up, shuriken readied, before he parsed the comment and realized it was Kakashi.
"Heh, par for the course tonight, you walk in and catch me the moment I take a break from this drudgery."
"Is that an excuse?"
"No, 'I saw a black cat and had to spin in the swivel chair three times to avoid bad luck' is an excuse."
"Oh, well then, you had better give it another spin, I only counted two."
Sasuke looked at Kakashi, before grinning and letting a snort escape. "Yes sir!"
He spun around again before standing up and stretching. "You um… done with Gato?"
"Yes. I think he was sorry by the end, but only that he was caught, not for what he had done… Oh, apparently Mud decided to step up the timetable and wipe up the few men I missed on my way here, so the fort is ours now. I turned on the generator for this building, we can turn the lights on now."
Sasuke nodded and wandered over to the switch and flicked it on after he closed his eyes. He blinked a few times before going back to the desk he'd been using.
"Interesting. Mud and… someone… incoming. Sit down and take a break; since nothing went wrong, we have plenty of time to collect the info."
Frowning, Sasuke sat as directed. He could hear the footsteps now as well.
"Cyclops, Princess, whoever's there, it's Mud. When are we voting for new codenames anyway?"
Naruto walked into the room next to a red haired woman in panties and a bra halfway on. Sasuke did not blush. He did however sigh and pinch the bridge of his nose, coincidentally covering his face. "I don't care if she did follow you home, you can't keep her, Mud."
… … …
"That wasn't bad! Keep that up, and you'll have a sense of humor in no time!"
Sasuke slowballed a shuriken at the jokester's shoulder in response. Naruto dodged easily and grinned. "But let's be serious. Cyclops, this is the head of whatever they were doing with all the paper. I saved her in case you wanted to ask some questions. Plus, she's smokin'."
Miyaka huffed, "I knew you were hentai, kid."
"Someday, your disregard for the rules is going to get you in trouble Mud. Thankfully, not today. I can use her; Gato was more a 'big picture' kind of guy. Smart, but it was obvious he delegated the day-to-day work to someone. Was that someone you, miss...?"
"Miyaka. Yes it was. I was in charge of coordination and book keeping."
"Coordination? Can you elaborate?"
She frowned. "Can I sit down?"
"Certainly. Let her go Mud."
She walked over to a desk and sat on it. "First you need to realize that although there were legitimate businesses, most of Gato Corp was Yakuza with another name. Every region had a chief, and they did whatever they pleased for the most part, as long as they gave a cut to Gato. Ugh, Gato was a cheap slime ball, but he was smart at what he did. My subordinates and I were tasked with trying to organize the various little fiefdoms so they could make larger effects in the financial markets and international trade. Increase banditry on this road here, promote a worker strike there, and suddenly anyone with thirty tons of tea sitting in a warehouse at point C could charge double it's worth."
Naruto spoke up, "Why would you work here knowing the things that went on?"
Kakashi frowned, but didn't interrupt.
"When I graduated, I found out my collage loan had been bought out by Gato Corp. I didn't know anything about them, and they told me if I worked for them, that they'd match the money I put towards paying it off. Well, I was no idiot, and started immediately. It was real businesses I worked with at first. Every once in a while I was expected to fudge some numbers here or there, but that's not unordinary. I worked my way up the ladder and had more and more responsibility. Somewhere along the line I stopped organizing corporate takeovers, and started planning raiding parties. What can I say? It was challenging work that paid well. Denial and selective perception is easier to fall into than you'd think. What are you two, 17? Ask your leader, I'm sure he's had plenty of practice at it."
The genin looked at their sensei briefly, but he had on his blankface. Not that his face was normally easy to read, what with it being mostly covered.
"Miyaka-san, can you tell me where Gato kept his safe? And do you know the bank account numbers Gato Corp used?"
"Yes to both questions… But I'm only telling if you pardon me. Hell, I'll tell you anything you want after that, I hated Gato himself."
Naruto and Sasuke frowned, staring at their sensei.
Kakashi was still, looking at the woman intensely. After a minute, he spoke up suddenly. "Have you ever heard of Morino Ibiki?"
"Afraid not. He the prison warden?"
"No, he runs the Torture and Interrogation department of Konoha. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, I'll say that trained assassins all over the elemental nations speak of him in whispers. Most of the time, he doesn't need to resort to pain to get you to talk. Sometimes, people never realize they've sung like a bird. That's not to say he won't slap you around or use a red-hot poker if he thinks it will be effective. What's your greatest fear Miyaka-san? The one you never think about, because to do so would make you drink yourself unconscious?"
"How do you know-? Damn it!"
"I can intuit that, and he has more talent in that field in his little finger than I do. He'd already know by now, and maybe a few fears even you don't know you have. Now are you certain you don't want to tell me those account numbers? We can find the safe on our own to be honest."
Sasuke interrupted. "I had to talk to the man as part of… therapy for… stuff. He creeps out even his friends, and most everyone tries to avoid the guy. Trust me, you don't want to meet him in a professional context."
Miyaka stared at Kakashi defiantly, ignoring Sasuke completely. "I. Want. A. Pardon. Asshole."
Kakashi stared some more. "Okay. One pardon in exchange for your full co-operation."
"R-really?"
"What?" both genin asked, confused.
"Yep. Don't get me wrong, Ibiki-san would love to get his hands on you, and you would talk eventually. But some of this is time critical information. You get a pardon, and you'll tell me what I want to know. Then you'll come back to Konoha and tell some more business inclined people who know the right questions to ask what they want to know. You might meet Ibiki-san under much more pleasant circumstances. Then we'll give you some pocket money so you can get a wagon ride home or do whatever you want. Your name will be added to a watch list, and if we find you in a situation like this again, you get sent straight to an unhappy Ibiki, then jail. Otherwise, you are free and clear. Deal?"
Miyaka paused, unsure. It sounded too good to be true, but there wasn't much choice. "Deal."
"Good. Hold out your arms," Kakashi said, holding out a kunai. He cut off the zip-ties while warning her, "If you try running, we won't give you the week's rent when we let you go. If you try a second time, you get bound up again. I seriously suggest not running away a third time." Kakashi pulled out a blank piece of paper from a pocket and grabbed a pencil off a desk. "Write down all the account information, and tell Princess, that's him over there, where the safe is."
Miyaka nodded and started rubbing her wrists before writing the account numbers. "It's ironic, Mud-san, that you asked me why I would work for Gato, when your organization boasts of an entire division devoted to torturing people. If I'm truly the last one alive, then your team ended over 230 lives in the span of a few hours."
Naruto snorted, "No one likes T&I, but sometimes it's necessary for security. You aren't really trying to put yourself on equal moral grounds with us, right? Gato Corp smuggled drugs, slaves, and endangered species, off the top of my head from the laundry list the locals claimed to see pass through here. You were part of an organization responsible for ruining lives for profit."
Miyaka looked up from writing, "Oh, and you ninja wiped out our base for free, I suppose? Konoha ninja are mercenaries like the rest. We were able to figure out some of the pies the hidden villages have their fingers in, since we were playing some of the same games they do. Ninja are just superior pieces."
Naruto shook his head. "What are you trying to accomplish by telling me this? I'm pretty sure I sympathized with you more before you tried defending yourself."
"Defending myself? I never claimed I was innocent. I've been trying to tell you to look in the mirror before casting stones."
"Well, we can add mixing metaphors to your list of crimes," Sasuke interjected.
Miyaka rolled her eyes and continued writing. "I just take offense at your moral superiority. How much blood did you get on your hands tonight? Granted, most of the hired blades here were slime, but I knew at least a dozen pretty well that were decent guys, down on their luck, and had to take this work to eat. And none of my staff deserved being stabbed in their beds! Well, maybe Sado, he was rather twisted, I always thought he enjoyed the darker aspects of our work too much."
Sasuke sighed, tired of the argument. "Shut up Hannibal. You two obviously have fundamental differences of opinion, and your argument is as full of holes as Swiss cheese. Mud, learn to pick your battles, she's both been traumatized and she's rationalizing her behavior. You aren't going to be able to talk your enemies to your point of view with a heartfelt speech you know."
"You never know. When I'm upset, I feel better after I've gone a few rounds with my clones. Maybe diplomacy fails because the diplomats never beat on each other before talking. I bet a lot fewer wars would happen if the Daimyos involved had to get in a cage match before war could be declared," Naruto grinned.
Miyaka set down the pencil. "Come on Princess, let's go see the safe. I hope you can crack it, because Gato would sooner have pulled his necktie till he passed out than tell anyone the passcode."
"It's 37-28-91-55-46, alternating right and left," Kakashi said as he picked up the sheet and went over it. "I'm going to relieve Bubblegum, and get all the women over here. I'm not an expert, but I know how to deal with victims better then she does, hopefully I can relax them to some extent. Mud, get to work sealing away the papers. Use as many clones as you like."
"Speaking of clones, my last set has been gathering the bodies into a pile near the outhouses. You want to use an earth jutsu or should I light them up?"
"Earth jutsu, Zabuza could likely tell there was something wrong with that much smoke. We don't want him to catch us off guard."
"Right. I'll leave it to you then."
oooooo
8:00 A.M. – Operation 'Gato-B-Gone' complete: After Action Phase T plus three point five hours
Team 7 was standing together in the mini-mansion, the sunlight coming in through the windows. Miyaka was nearby, fully clothed now, and looking dead tired as the only person who hadn't slept most of the previous afternoon. The newly free women were sleeping again in their mismatched clothes, lying on mattresses the Naruclones had drug over from the barracks. He made sure to flip them over to hide any blood, and arranged them edge-to-edge to create a large, unbroken field of sleeping area.
"Alright, I think we've done enough for now," Kakashi said, sounding a bit tired. He had been hurt fairly badly about a week ago after all. He looked at Naruto curiously, "Mud, just how many clones have you made since you woke up?"
Naruto looked in poor shape, very much at odds with his normal attitude and appearance of boundless energy. "Can't remember, Cyclops-Sir. Perhaps too many, I wanted to catalog all the resources we had at our disposal, and re-organize them from the chaos they were kept in. Also sorted all personal belongings by liquidity and value, and took stock of the food so we can give it to the locals." He let out a big yawn when he finished.
"We did good work, and you all did pretty well. We'll do an in depth debriefing after we wake up at noon. We still have some work to do, as well as take care of our guests, but for the most part, this part of the mission is over. We'll do some exhausting physical exercise this evening and get an early sleep again, then wake up early and escort Tazuna to the bridge. He knows to tell the workers not to show up, and we'll see what happens from there. Don't be surprised if Zabuza takes out his anger at the loss of paycheck out on us.
"Now, drag one of the extra beds into the corner and get some sleep. You're mattress will be next to mine, Miyaka-san, we don't want you to decide to go on a walk while we're asleep.
"Any other business?"
His students were exhausted physically and mentally, and only Sasuke even bothered shaking his head in the negative.
"Pleasant dreams then. And don't worry! I figure we've got at least a 50% chance we won't be fighting for our lives this time tomorrow!"
oooooo
End Chapter the Twelfth
A/N: (This was the original author's note that appeared with this chapter the first time I published it. However, the message I wrote is still relevant, so I'm keeping it for any new fans.)
(…)but seriously, let me talk about something that happened that really annoyed me. My first well-written criticism came in a chapter or two ago, and I should have been delighted. I had been waiting for someone to give me constructive criticism, but this person either wasn't registered, or didn't sign in.
I've been trying to respond to anyone with a serious question or comment, and I definitely wanted to talk to this individual. I could see where they were coming from in their complaints against the story, but I also felt that had I been able to discuss it with them, we both could have come away better for it.
But no, they didn't sign in, and they disliked my story enough they no longer wished to read it, meaning I couldn't add something at the bottom like this to get their attention.
My point is, if you are one of the approximately five people online who will spend the time to not only give a review, but give a detailed list of what needs to be improved, PLEASE make an account and always log in when giving a review. Because while most authors, including myself, love any type of review, people who can critically diagnose a story are rare and worth their weight in gold.
P.S. Anyone who wishes to just say "You Rock/Suck !", feel free! That's gives authors a warm tingly feeling that's awesome. My first real flame gave me a smile the rest of the day!