Standard Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or Naruto. As always, please forgive any spelling or grammar errors.

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xXx-Chapter 28-xXx

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The tower was a bit maze like as she and her team and her father's team were lead through it by Yuko Nakano. It would be really easy for someone who didn't know the place to get lost, which Quinn assumed was the whole point. Their guide, however, seemed to know every twist and turn in the tower and in no time at all leads them into a large room.

Waiting inside, surrounding a large table covered in maps, are a couple of high ranking samurai in full O-Yoroi armor as well as four jōnin. One of whom was a woman about her mother's age, a large Naginata strapped to her back and in red shinobi armor. She had messy black hair pulled back into a loose pony tail and a pretty face that was marred by two large scars, one running from the top of her forehead down through her left eye to her chin and the other one crossing it, going from her left cheek, under her eye, across her nose and under her right eye, forming a scarred and slightly grotesque cross on the left side of her face.

"Lord Nara, I wasn't expecting you," the woman speaks up, her voice was strong and carried through the room, and was a little deeper than you would expect. "Not that I'm complaining." She says with a confident smirk.

"Takeko, it's good to see you again." Shikaku says. "We got word you could use a little help."

"I won't turn it down, so far there has only been a couple of skirmishes, nothing too big, so that's good news. Unfortunately we still have no word on Ms. Yamata."

"That's where my team comes in, if you can get us a last known location, and possibly something that holds her scent, my team and I can handle the rest." Hizashi says.

Takeko nods her head, "I'll see what we can find, as for her last known location, around here." She says pointing to the map.

"That will have to do." Hizashi says, "If you will please excuse us Lord Nara, I believe my team and I should prepare."

Shikaku nods his head, "I may wish to speak with you later, please don't leave without informing me."

"Of course." Hizashi then bows to the rest of the room.

"I'll see if I can help you track down something that belonged to Ms. Yamata." Yuko says, moving to leave with them.

"It would be greatly appreciated."

"Um… Hizashi…" Quinn trails off uncertainly.

Hizashi gives her a smile and nods his head, granting her permission, before him and Hana leave with Yuko. Yugao deciding to stick by her student's side for now.

"Lord Nara, with your permission too, I'd like to stick around and make myself useful to you." Quinn says.

"If you're sure you're up for it then yes, please." Shikaku says, glad to have Rin at his disposal for the time being.

"Don't put yourself out too much. You do have your own mission to attend to." Her father says.

"Don't worry, I'll keep her honest." Yugao says with a grin.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Takeko asks.

"Genin Rin Yamanaka."

"Yamanaka?" Takeko asks, looking at Inoichi.

"My youngest daughter."

"And a real asset that we should utilize while we have her." Shikaku says. "And of course her sensei, Yugao Uzuki."

"I know who Yugao is, how are you kid?"

"I'm well sensei, you?"

"Sensei?" Quinn asks.

"Takeko was my first sensei, she did for me what I'm doing for you, got me ready for the chūnin exams."

"No offense intended generals, but can introductions and reunions be put on hold, we do have a war council to plan." One of the Samurai says.

Shikaku nods his head, "You are correct, we do have some planning to do, our primary goal here is to prevent a war." Shikaku then pulls out a scroll sealed with the Hokage's signet. "By order of the Hokage I am now taking command of East Castle and our forces here. Our main goal is to preserve the peace if at all possible, but prepare for war it is not."

"Sensei, general?" Quinn signs at Yugao.

"Jonin are given the honorary title of colonel, while chūnin hold the honorary title of lieutenant. This is to help avoid confusion and dissension when shinobi forces work with non-shinobi personnel. Your father and uncles, however, are clan heads as well as jōnin, so they are granted the honorary title of general instead." Yugao signs back.

"I see, what about genin?"

"Corporal, usually."

"The first thing we need to address is what happened during the retrieval process of Nami Yamata." Chouza says, "I think if we can work from there, it will help us get a better understanding of where we stand."

"Agreed." Shikaku says, turning to Takeko.

The older woman sighs, "Honestly, just rotten luck on our part. The boarder is pretty much on lock down on both sides, however some merchant travel is allowed, though papers are hard to come by and even harder to forge. One such person who works for us however, is the servant in the household of the lord of the Land of Groves. The three lords of the annexed lands and their households are responsible for the largest portion of travel between the borders, and is also probably how they're handling their spy network as well. Though proving it without starting an incident like this one is difficult. This servant acts as a go between for Nami and a madam in a nearby town, the madam is in our pocket and relays the information to us in exchange for various immunities, protection, and other benefits. It's a system that has worked. When we got word that Yamata was requesting an extract, we acted quickly and sent two extraction teams along previously planned routes known only to myself, Nami Yamata, and the team leaders."

"Are we sure that there was no traitors among them or that the information of the route wasn't compromised in some way?" Inoichi asks.

"No sir." One of the jōnin answers. "I was one of the team leads who had knowledge of those routes and I can assure you there was no compromise from our end. I'm… I'm also one of only two people in those teams to survive."

"I'm sorry for your loss." Inoichi says, "I'll want a debriefing with you and the other survivor at a later time."

"Yes sir."

"I can assure you that there was no compromise as well, at least not on our end." Takeko says, "As I said, it was just bad luck. We've done a pretty good job of memorizing the enemies border patrol routes, we know when to move and when to stay put when we need to cross the border. Unfortunately, there were Kumo shinobi nearby the extraction point, we're not sure why but we speculate that it was training exercises. They stumbled upon our forces and unfortunately, the encounter resulted in only two survivors from the extraction teams and Nami Yamata was forced to flee deeper into Lightning territory to avoid capture. Unfortunately things happened so quickly that we barely had time to shore up our defenses, let alone go search for her, worse still, we later learned that among the enemy encountered, Yugito Nii was among them."

"So she's the jinchūriki huh?" Shikaku says, at least now he knew which one he was dealing with.

"You don't sound surprised sir, a jinchūriki does complicate things." Another jōnin says.

"I was made aware of their presence before we arrived, I just wasn't sure if it was Yugito Nii or the Raikage's brother, Killer B., Rin?"

"Yes sir?"

"If you would?" He asks, motioning to the maps.

Quinn nods her head and walks up to the map, focusing on it she releasing the hold she kept on her gift, allowing herself to be bombarded by everything. From the sheer numbers, to their individual strengths and emotions. She allows her senses to carpet the area, gaging the strength and the location of the enemy forces, she then focuses herself and does her best to translate the information she was getting down onto the map and into something her uncles and father could use.

It takes her a few moments, sifting through moving and hiding shinobi, many of whom were trying to suppress and hide their chakra signatures, it was much harder than just noticing everyone in her nice, semi-peaceful village. Still at this range it really doesn't take her long to pick up everyone, especially the stronger shinobi among them. A few of them really stood out, and of course there was the jinchūriki overwhelming her senses. As similar as it was to Naruto, it was also quite different in some ways. It was always noticeable with Naruto and the monster he contained, but this jinchūriki was much more… potent, was the only word she could think to describe it. Like the monster was closer to the surface.

Quinn reaches over and grabs a stray pin and she pokes it into the map, "This is where the jinchūriki is currently located, as well as the highest concentration of possible jōnin shinobi. The rest of the forces are spread out here, here, and here in the greatest concentrations, though we do have shinobi moving between these areas. This isn't counting the various other soldiers and samurai out there as well." Quinn finishes, placing a final pin.

"Lord Nara?" Takeko asks.

"Yes?"

"Assuming her information is correct, we also need to consider something else as well."

"How quickly they assembled their forces." Chouza answers instead. "They've already mobilized an army, they've been waiting for a moment like this."

"Which means, they want a war." Shikaku finishes.

"For international support they'll at least pretend to negotiate. Make us out to be the main aggressors, Iwa is just looking for an excuse to attack and if this does become a war we'll probably be forced to fight it on two fronts." Inoichi says.

"Possibly three." Shikaku says. "Suna's a wild card right now. They may help us, stay neutral, or…"

"So, how do we stop this from happening?" Takeko asks.

Shikaku turns to look at Yugao, "Yugao, you and your team cannot fail. Rescue Nami Yamata, or kill her and dispose of the body, there can be no evidence that she was ever in Lightning. She's the spark that Kumo needs to justify their war. If they lose her, they'll likely back down."

"Yes sir."

"And if they don't?" Quinn asks.

"Well, that's what we're here to determine." Shikaku answers, "I can't negotiate until I know what they want, but I can plan a defense."

"We should probably head out sooner rather than later sir." Yugao says.

"You are correct, meet up with Hizashi immediately and head out as soon as possible. I was thinking of asking Hizashi to stick around but recovering Yamata is the most important thing right now." Shikaku says.

"Takeko?" Inoichi asks.

"Yes Lord Yamanaka?"

"Are there any tunnels that they can use to sneak past the enemy, otherwise, it'll be up to us to make a distraction." Here Inoichi looks to Shikaku, "I think we want to avoid that if at all possible."

"Agreed." Shikaku says, though he was already working on a push their forces could do to provide an opening for the rescue team.

"Yeah, there is a tunnel it leads out of the castle, pretty well hidden." Takeko says, "Yuko knows where it is, she can lead them there."

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xXx-Scene Break-xXx

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"Hizashi." Yugao calls out to him as she and Quinn make their way over to their team.

"Yes?"

"We've been ordered to head out immediately, it looks like you will be coming with us." Yugao says.

"Hmm, very well. Your timing couldn't be better anyway, we just finished going over the maps and Yuko was able to get us an old scarf of Yamata's."

"The scent's pretty weak." Hana says, "However, my guys are well trained, if we can get on her trail they'll be able to pick up her scent."

"Yuko?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Takeko said that you would be able to take us to one of the tunnels that leads out of the castle."

"Yes ma'am, I was just telling Hizashi about them."

"Then let's not waste any more time, is everyone ready?" Hizashi asks, looking around before his eyes land on Quinn.

Quinn gives a nod of her head, time to get started. They just had to be quiets, smart and fast. They could do this, they had to do this, she was not going to allow her father to fight in another war, not if she could prevent it.

"Then let's move out. Yuko, if you would please lead the way."

"Yes sir."

As they follow Yuko down deeper into the keep, San makes his way next to her and rubs his head under her hand. She doesn't say anything, but she does scratch behind his ear. Quinn looks over at over at Hana who gives her a grin and a thumbs up.

This was it, she was really going on her first mission, and like so many other things in this world of hers, failure was not an option. Not one she could live with anyway. She had always been terrified that her actions and failures would somehow hurt Ino or Naruto and Sakura, but now she was in a position that she had never really considered before. If she failed here, her father was in grave danger. Uncle Shikaku would have to retreat and her father would be left here to hold the line.

No, she wouldn't fail, she was Quinn Fabray… she was Rin Yamanaka, failure wasn't an option. She would rescue her mother's teammate, she would avert a war and she and her father would go home safely. That was it, she had to believe in that outcome. The other wasn't acceptable.

They head keep heading down finally finding themselves in what was obviously the castle's dungeon. It actually looked like what Quinn would expect a dungeon to look like, cold, damp, dark and dirty. It was currently empty and Yuko leads them down to end of the cell block to the last cell. She then reaches up and presses against one of the stone blocks in the wall, there's a shifting rumbling sound of heavy stones rubbing against each other for a moment, and then the part of the wall swings out, wide enough for one person to squeeze through.

"Just follow the path, it'll go for a couple of miles, but it exits out in Lightning territory behind the enemy lines. From there, I guess you'll be on your own." Yuko says, "If you need to come back through this way, the door easily opens from that side, just apply a little pressure."

"Thank you, we should be okay from here." Hizashi says.

"Good luck." And with that, Yuko turns and leaves.

"Well Hana, you thought you should be the one to go first." Hizashi says with a teasing grin, none of them were eager to enter the cramped space.

Hana rolls her eyes, but does move towards the opening, one of her dogs moving in front of her the other following after.

"I'll go next." Yugao says, following behind Hana.

"I guess that means I'm next." Quinn says, not eager to go into the creepy old dark tunnel.

Hizashi stops her for a second before she goes in, "Don't worry, everything is going to be fine. Just stay close to the rest of us, we can do this."

Quinn doesn't say anything, but she does nod her head, grateful for the attempt at least to make her feel better. But in all honesty Quinn knew she wouldn't be okay until all of this was over and everyone was safe.

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xXx-Scene Break-xXx

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The tunnel seemed to go on forever, twisting and turning, the only light provided by a small flame that Quinn was keeping active. "You are the fire jutsu expert." Yugao had said with a grin. Quinn had rolled her eyes at that but complied, not only was it an E-Rank jutsu, but a fire one at that and so it used up almost no chakra.

Even for a squad of fully trained ninja they moved quietly, the dusty stone surrounding them seemed to absorb even the smallest of sounds, negating any echoes and muffling their movement. Whoever had built this had obviously known what they were doing and it had been built to last. Quinn however couldn't wait to get out of there and judging by the emotions of the people surrounding her she wasn't the only one.

Quinn wasn't claustrophobic but this place seemed to just close in around on them. Her thoughts drifted to her father, she couldn't stop worrying about him. She wanted him home, safe with her mother and her sister… except, her sister wasn't home safe right now either. She was out on her first C-Rank mission and so were Naruto and Sakura.

Ino had told her that she needed to start having more faith in them, and Quinn really wanted to but, here she was on her first mission, with a war about to start, sneaking behind enemy territory to try and rescue someone who may already be dead. If this is what her most important people had to look forward to then all the faith in the world wouldn't matter and nothing she did to protect them would matter. And yet here she was, because she had been told this was the best way she could protect them and yet it was already starting to feel pretty hopeless.

No, thinking like that wouldn't help, being distracted wouldn't help. She needed to focus, she needed to have faith in her father and her sister and her friends. It wasn't pointless, what she was doing, what she was sacrificing, it had to matter. And her father, Ino, her friends, they were all so strong. They would be okay, she had to believe that, and she needed to be okay for them too.

"We're nearing the exit." Hana says, "The scent in the air is starting to freshen."

"About time, how much further?" Yugao asks.

"Ten minutes, give or take." Hana says.

"Sensei."

Yugao looks back at her, "Yeah kid, what's up?"

"There's a shinobi team approaching the area." Quinn says, her brow furrowing as she gets a better lock on them.

"Alright, Rin put out the flame. Hana, you'll have to lead us out the rest of the way in the dark. Everyone move silently and be ready for combat. Surprise is our best weapon at this point." Hizashi says.

"Rin, how strong are they, can you tell from here?" Yugao asks.

Quinn nods her head, she really doesn't want to answer because this wasn't going to end well, she could feel it. Every single fiber of her old world's morality was screaming at her to turn around and just walk away. Forget all of this, forget being a ninja, forget the fighting and violence and just walk away. However when Quinn answers her voice is steady and calm and void of any emotion, belying the inner turmoil that she was feeling. "Yes."

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xXx-Scene Break-xXx

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Quinn was praying harder than she ever had in her entire existence, even the fear and despair that she felt when she was in the middle of that car wreck dying paled in comparison to the fear she felt now. She watches as Yugao sensei slowly draws her katana and she can sense Hizashi channel chakra into his eyes and hands while Hana does the same to her hands as well, causing her nails to harden and turn claw-like. And almost automatically, as if her body were reacting of its own volition, independent of what her mind and heart wanted she drew her own katana as well.

If they would just leave, if they would just move on this could be avoided, but they weren't. They had barely exited the tunnel, which was cleverly hidden behind some brush when a team of Kumo ninja entered the clearing. They hadn't noticed them at all yet and why should they have, they were only genin.

Like Naruto, like Sakura, like… like Ino. There was jōnin sensei with them as well but he had failed to notice the danger that surrounded him and his team. The danger, she scoffs internally, as if she wasn't a part of that. Each of her teammates and her sensei were tense, but resolved, they couldn't wait and there was no surefire way to sneak past them. They were hidden now, but any movement other than retreating back into the tunnel would get them noticed.

Time was not on their side, it had been three, nearly four days since the failed extraction of Nami Yamata, who was wounded and behind enemy lines. Her recovery was quite possibly the only thing that could prevent a war with Kumo from igniting. Her father's life, countless lives depended on her team's success. They had to move, and they had to move now and so Hizashi made the call, if the Kumo team didn't move out, and soon, her team would strike.

"Man when I heard we were going to be taking a C-Rank mission near the border I thought it was going to be much more interesting than this!" One of the genin, a boy with spikey green hair wines.

"What we're doing is important." Another boy, this one wearing a bandana over his head says.

"Yon is correct. By mapping out these supply lines now, if war does start our side will have an advantage that could save a lot of lives. It's important that we do a good job and that we take this seriously." The sensei says.

"I know that…" The first boy grumbles, "I just thought… I mean come on, don't you guys want to see some action and show those leaf jerks that they can't push us around!"

"We'd just get in the way." The girl speaks ups, she had long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail that reminded Quinn painfully of Ino.

"Would not…" the first boys grumbles quietly, though he doesn't sound like he believes what he's saying.

"Besides, with my big sis there it won't be much of fight." The girl says, her voice equal parts proud and smug.

"She is pretty cool isn't she?" The boy in the bandana agrees.

"Yep!" The girl chirps happily.

"Stay on task team." The sensei says, slightly exasperated, but he doesn't look frustrated, more indulgent than anything, like he's said that sentence a thousand times.

"Yes sensei." The boy in the bandana and the girl chorus together, before pulling out maps and beginning to mark them.

The green haired boy however says, "But sensei, we've been at this all day!"

The sensei sighs before looking at each of his genin who are gazing back at him hopefully. "Alright, finish mapping out this area and we'll set up camp here tonight." He says, smiling when that gets a cheer from all three of them.

Quinn however feels her heart break at those words. She glances at each of her teammates and she can sense the regret coming from each of them, but that doesn't stop them from getting ready to strike. She catches her sensei's eye and Yugao signs at her "Remember your training, make it quick."

Quinn forces herself not to swallow nervously, any sound before the attack, even something as quiet and innocuous as that could give them away. She lightly adjusts the grip she has on her blade, readying it for a slashing motion. Please God, or whoever exists out there, I know you're real, I wouldn't be here if you weren't, please, don't let this happen, don't make me do this.

But it was too late, Hizashi is the first to move, it's a fraction of a second before the rest of them, but it signals her team to go. Quinn's would like to say that her body just reacted, that this was all mindless muscle memory and training on her part, but it wasn't. She was hyper aware of everything she was doing. It wasn't a blur, time didn't seem to disappear in a blink, in fact it seemed to slow down to her. Giving her ample time to memorize the scene and how it played out. There would be no forgetting or suppressing this, she knew she would remember this with crystal clarity for the rest of her life.

Hizashi strikes first, his open palm slamming into the sensei's back right where his heart was, a small gasp like the wind getting knocked out of him escapes from the man's lips, his eyes wide with shock and pain as he collapses to his knees, heart stopped, dead.

Yugao strikes next, almost simultaneously with Hizashi, her blade piercing the spikey green haired boy's chest, going through his heart. Killing him before he could even become aware of what was happening.

Hana was next, she rushes forward the two of the three brother's close behind her. The boy in the bandana barely gets out a confused "Huh?" Before Hana has his head in her hands and she snaps his neck.

Then there was her, she went last, hesitating for half a second behind the others, she rushes towards the blonde haired girl. The girls blue eyes are just starting to widen with horror as her mind catches up with the speed in which she sees her team die, she turns just in time to see Quinn reach her. Before she can make a sound Quinn brings her blade forward and around in a powerful and fast sweep. The weeks of training with Yugao-sensei coming to bear.