A/N: Sorry for tardiness. This chapter was scheduled to be uploaded on the 16th, but general stupidity and workload saw to it that it wasn't.
In the meantime, enjoy Chapter Seven, in which shit hits the fan.
Child of the Fox
After a night's rest, completing the mission was as easy as walking up to the addressee's office, waiting half an hour for them to arrive, getting a signature that indicated that the scroll was deliver, sending this signature by raven to Konoha, and walking away. There wasn't a formal procedure for handing in scrolls unless the recipient was a daimyō or someone similar, and there were specially-trained couriers for deliveries to daimyō.
So, at slightly past 0845, Kakashi-sensei had sent them out to enjoy themselves in the hustle and bustle of the Solar Festival, which was already in full swing at this early hour. Within ten minutes, Naruto had decided one thing.
The Solar Festival was awesome.
They had stalls everywhere with games that Naruto had never seen, with more colours than Naruto could name and more joy in the air than he'd ever thought possible. People were smiling, laughing, walking hand-in-hand with either their beloved or their children, eating strange whispy balloons of some stringy pink substance, smelling heavily of sugar, that they ate with obvious relish on their faces, and so much more that Naruto simply didn't have words for. So focused was he on drinking in everything that Tanzaku Gai had to offer, he failed to notice an old man in a brown robe until he had crashed into him, knocking both to the ground.
"Sorry!" Naruto said quickly.
"It is of no import," the man said as he got up without too much trouble. "You were focusing on the sights, I take it?"
"Yeah, and they're awesome!" Naruto replied enthusiastically. "I never really got to take part in the festivals Konoha hosts, so all these colours and the games and the new things and the sheer joy in the air is completely new to me!"
"Konoha?" the man asked. "Then you are a ninja?"
Naruto pointed to his headband with his thumb, a wide smile adorning his face. "Yep!" he said. "Uzumaki Naruto, genin of Konoha!"
"A pleasure to meet you," the man said with a shallow bow. "I seem to have forgotten common courtesy and failed to introduce myself. I am Taryo, resident of Tanzaku Gai."
Naruto returned the bow. Kaa-chan had drilled him on etiquette even harder than Kurenai-nee had, though he hadn't really taken to applying the lectures to jiji. But jiji was practically his grandfather so that was alright, according to the old man. This old man was not jiji, however. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Taryo-san."
"The sentiment is returned once again, Uzumaki-san" Taryo said with a congenial smile. "What say you to this old-timer showing you around? Perhaps we can trade stories as we walk, the life of a ninja must be terribly exciting."
"You bet!" Naruto said with renewed exuberance as they started to walk through the fair. "Admittedly, I haven't been a genin for that long and this is my first trip out of the village, but let me tell you about the one time my teammate, Sasuke-teme, had an accident with a bowl of ramen, Tora the cat, and a bunch of salmon..."
– – – –
Hatake Kakashi, the last scion of the Hatake line unless and/or until he became a father, was rather looking forward to a few days without his brats. There were a few things in Tanzaku Gai that weren't available anywhere else while staying within Fire Country, and since travelling outside Fire Country was ill-advised to someone of his reputation without the proper preparations, he was going to milk Tanzaku Gai for everything he could get his hands on.
The list contained ten things, but only two were important at the moment. The first was Amazake, the special type of sake brewed almost exclusively in Tanzaku Gai. The only other place where it was available was, appropriately enough, the capital of the Land of Rice. It was by far the best sake in the eyes of the vast majority of the sake-drinking people, and as such it was highly desirable. Unfortunately for the sake-drinking world, only ten thousand bottles were brewed every year – compared to the literal millions of other types of sake – so prices were absurd.
It just so happened that their mission to Tanzaku Gai coincided with the very limited open sale of Amazake from the store, and Kakashi was fully intending to buy several bottles. The fact that the proprietor of the store that sold the Amazake was a contact of Jiraiya-sama and that aforementioned Jiraiya-sama had clued him into the signals for this particular contact with the added message that this informant had some information that Kakashi needed to know pertaining to one of his brats was just a coincidence.
Kakashi's attention was drawn from his near-omnipresent orange book by the tinkle of a shop's bell, the type that sounded when the door opened and closed. The proprietor, a middle-aged man that was only just beginning to have noticeable wrinkles on his face, looked at him and smiled. "Welcome to Tanzaku Sakaya, ninja-san," he said brightly. "If you're here for the Amazake, like most everyone else the past hour or so, you're in luck."
"Thank Kami-sama," Kakashi said, faking a relieved tone. "The missus would have gone berserk if I came back empty-handed."
The proprietor grinned wryly. "I am well aware of the wrath of one's better half," he said. "Just your good fortune that all the Tanzaku Gai drinkers that can afford it have their fill of Amazake already and the foreigners haven't come by yet. How many bottles would you like?"
"Five, if there are that many left."
"Your luck continues to hold, ninja-san," the proprietor said. "Five bottles are all that remain. Shall I wrap them for the missus? Maybe point you to a store where you can buy pointy presents to stave off her wrath if five isn't enough?"
"The sentiment is appreciated," Kakashi said. "But the missus is a civvie, so flowers or something similar would be more appreciated than a high-quality set of pointy tools of death."
"A civilian?" the proprietor asked as he started to wrap up the bottles in the special wrapping paper used by this shop. "Don't see too many of those married to ninja because of the threat of missing-nin. Someone of Hoshigaki Kisame's calibre can wreck some serious havoc and dispatch most any ninja sent after him."
"That he can, but the missus isn't particularly worried. Konoha has some fine shinobi, you know?"
"True," the proprietor said. "But even so, most civilians I know are not willing to take that risk. Your missus must be really something special to risk that kind of potential pain or distress."
Kakashi's visible eye narrowed. "Someone, if you will," Kakashi said sharply. The proprietor raised his hands apologetically, his left thumb raised a little higher than his right. Kakashi settled down, mollified. "She's... She's..."
"Like a cloud against the night sky that's coloured red as the sun rises?" the proprietor offered, using a rare figure of speech that described something no one had ever actually seen, despite the numerous mentions of it in literature.
Kakashi considered this for a moment. "As apt a description as anything that's one-of-a-kind, I suppose, though the comparison is rather... unique, referring to murder when we were talking about my missus."
"Comes with the job," the proprietor said with a shrug. "Breathing in sake fumes all day isn't that good for one's mental health, you know?"
"No I don't," Kakashi said with a headshake. "But I can imagine. How much do I owe you?"
"Two hundred for each."
"So a million in all?" Kakashi asked. The proprietor nodded. "I suppose it's better to be without drinking money for the next year than be without sex for the same," Kakashi mused as he counted out the money.
The proprietor laughed. "That it is, ninja-san. That it is. Thank you for your patronage," he said when Kakashi had handed over the million ryō. "I hope to see you again at Tanzaku Sakaya!"
"Sure thing," Kakashi said, sealing the Amazake in a sealing scroll. He'd give it to Pakkun for safekeeping later. He left the shop, his mind processing the conversation he'd just had and this informant's favoured way of double-talking – the kanji as it was used a few hundred years ago, rather than the current-day ones –, correlating what he'd just learned to three-month old intelligence reports from their spies in Iwa.
'Pain or distress' were both written with the same character back then, the enunciation of which had been kyū. Kyū also happened to be both identical and very close to the two popular ways to say the number nine, though the actual character used for the number was different back then.
The blood-red cloud against the night sky in the dawn was the old version of what was called a 'red dawn' by most everyone these days. 'Red dawn' was represented by '暁', read as 'akatsuki'.
Which also meant 'daybreak', which was the name of that organization of missing-nin they'd recently received word from their spies in Iwa of. Two and two made four.
An organization of missing-nin was after the Kyūbi inside Naruto.
At the corner of the street, some fifty metres away from the shop, he slumped. "Well, shit."
– – – –
Haruno Sakura was in heaven.
She may have been a ninja's daughter, she may have recently been properly training as a ninja, and becoming much more ninja-like in her view of the world – the store she was currently in had no less than twenty-eight objects, forty-one counting duplicates separately, within immediate grasping distance she could use as a makeshift kunai or garrotte, for example –, but she had been raised a civilian, and she expected that at least a small part of her would always be a civilian.
So when she noticed that the annual Tanzaku Gai festival was currently running, she thanked her lucky stars that she'd thought to bring a lot of money and storage scrolls for new clothing.
She grabbed a dress that looked absolutely gorgeous and started to put it in her basket to try on later when an indignant "Hey!" interrupted her train of thought. She looked over to the speaker and found a pretty brown-haired girl with a sharp face and brown eyes also currently clutching the dress. "Get your own, I saw this one first."
Sakura glared at the girl, metaphorical sparks lancing between their eyes, building up ambient pressure. "Oh yeah?" she asked challengingly, giving the wine-red dress another tug.
"Yeah," the girl replied heatedly, before a glint appeared in her eyes. "How about a challenge?"
"What kind?" Sakura said, still not letting go of the dress.
"The fashion kind, of course!" the girl half-yelled. "We meet outside the shop in three hours, and whoever has purchased the most dresses wins!"
"You're on!" Sakura yelled, and tugged the garment out of the other's girls grasp before she ran off deeper into the store, ignored the indignant squawk behind her as she grabbed anything that looked remotely like a good-looking dress.
Three hours later, Sakura emerged from the store to the sight of the girl with three bags of clothing standing close to her. Sakura had four.
The girl burst into tears at her loss, and she jumped at Sakura, bawling her eyes out. "What is your secret!" she half-yelled, half-sobbed. "Please, tell me! How did you become so good at fashion hunting?"
"Skills," Sakura said simply, not wishing to divulge further. The girl sobered up quickly and pulled at Sakura's arm, barely managing to grab her three bags with one arm. Sakura allowed herself to be dragged off only after she'd stored all the bags in a sealing scroll. Using sealing scrolls was so basic that every ninja of any calibre knew how to do it.
The girl gasped at the sight of the bags disappearing. "You're a ninja, aren't you?"
"So what if I am?" Sakura asked. "What's it to you?"
"That explains how you're so good at fashion hunting!" the girl said, pointing her finger accusatory. "You used your ninja magic, didn't you?"
"Chakra," Sakura corrected absently. "And no, I didn't use even a tiny bit of chakra for that challenge."
"I'll be the judge of that," the girl said. "Let's go to another store."
Sakura hummed. If she didn't go, this girl would probably keep hounding her, and if she did she'd fulfil her personal objective of lots of new off-the-job clothing. "Sure," she said after a minute's thought. "Let's go to another store."
"This time it will be I, Ayumu, that will emerge victorious!" the girl said with a dramatic pose, illusionary fire lighting up in her eyes, and stormed off.
Sakura followed her with narrowed eyes. Something about this girl was very, very wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on what exactly.
She resolved to keep an eye on this girl.
– – – –
Uchiha Sasuke walked through Tanzaku Gai with his hands in his pockets, his brows furrowed in a nasty scowl, and a steady gait. He didn't stop to talk to one of the partygoers, and they did not try to speak with him.
This was nothing special or noteworthy as far as Uchiha Sasuke was concerned. Right now, he was channelling his inner brooder and did not want to be disturbed.
Three weeks. It had been three weeks since the formation of Team Seven, and Uchiha Sasuke was honestly confused at everything to do with those two words. The dobe made no sense, and the harpy even less.
He remembered the dobe as a cheerful idiot, shouting about wanting to become Hokage all the time, wearing an eye-searing orange that had become slightly less eye-searing after his eighth, and generally being considered the Prankster King from Hell. He didn't show it, but Sasuke was secretly very amused at the blond's antics before he graduated. Since becoming a ninja, however, there had been none of that.
Oh, the blond was still cheerful, but he was no longer as much of an idiot, didn't wear orange – even though it had subtly been reappearing in his outfit as of a week ago –, hadn't shouted even once about his wish to become Hokage, and he hadn't pulled even a single prank. Instead, there had been repeated mentions to a mother that Sasuke knew was dead – the only recorded Uzumaki outside of Naruto was one Uzumaki Kushina, KIA during the Kyūbi attack.
He had considered whether it was simply mislaballed – there was only one letter different between KIA and MIA after all – , but while there was the possibility of them being related, the few accounts of Uzumaki Kushina he could find described her as a prankster, so even if the records lied he doubted that Naruto's pranking would cease if his mother had been reintroduced into his life. Yet, he hadn't pulled even a single prank in the weeks since Team Seven was formed. At least, as far as he knew.
That left the possibility of him being too busy training to prank, which was half-way absurd. During the Academy, Naruto had been one of his premier rivals, and like every good ninja Sasuke had gone to spy – 'gather information' – on his rival to get a leg up. Naruto's training regimen during his Academy years was insane. He rose at seven, trained until eight-thirty – sometimes under the supervision of one 'Kurenai-nee' or 'Anko-nee' –, ate, went to the Academy, then went back to the training grounds and trained from five to seven-thirty before he went to the apartment of this Kurenai – Yūhi, recently promoted to jōnin –, ate, and lounged about inside before he went to bed.
All except the last two points of that list under the not-so-secret supervision of one Hyūga Hinata, though he'd be willing to bet that the dobe was utterly oblivious to it. The dobe had brains, this he had shown during his pranks, but social intelligence was not the blond's – now half-blond – forte.
He bit into one of his recently-purchased tomatoes and sighed a little at the gift of divinity, savouring the slightly acidic fruit caress his taste buds. His mind re-organized itself as the crimson gift of the gods went to work filling his stomach, and focused on his pink-haired teammate, which had left him even more confused than his half-blond one.
Her first day on the team was approximately what he suspected her conduct would be, though there had been flashes of that strange serenity that she sometimes exhibited in the Academy. Ever since then, though, she had been calm, collected, and used her brains to her advantage, even when he was around. She could think circles around all of them when she was so inclined, Hatake-sensei excepted, and the only reason he won spars with her these days was because he'd been training since he was five and thus had more experience. Even if he was destined for politics before the Massacre, all combat-capable Uchiha were expected to reach at least chūnin level skill and Sasuke was no exception to this rule. Even less after the sole loyal chakra-using Uchiha left was himself.
He'd asked his mother about it, thanking whatever gods were out there that Itachi had at least spared her even if he hadn't spared her chakra, but she was as puzzled by it as he was. People didn't flip personalities that drastically that fast, unless the change was hypnosis-assisted, and even then it was doubtful.
He'd resolved to keep an eye on her. Surreptitiously, of course. No need to give her incentive to drop back to her fangirl habits.
Wait, what was that?
His suddenly narrowed eyes flickered over to a rooftop on the other side of the street. Nothing. He could have sworn that someone was there, though.
Ten minutes later, he'd had three repeats of this. The third time, he caught a hand as it disappeared from view in mid-air. He swore mentally, using words that would have earned him a good mouth-washing from his mother had she been there to hear them.
He planned his route to take him back to the hotel without attracting undue suspicion from his watcher, or watchers. He needed to tell the others.
– – – –
"... and then, Tora scratched the living daylights out of Sasuke-teme's face!" Naruto finished his long story, imitating a scratch with his hand.
"That was quite the tale, Uzumaki-san," Taryo said. "If that's just a routine mission, the life of a ninja must be terribly exciting."
Naruto shrugged. "Kakashi-sensei stresses that there are no routine missions, full stop," Naruto said. "But as far as a mission can be routine, that was it."
"Your sensei is a wise man," Taryo said. "Is this Sasuke-san always so hot-tempered?"
"Nah," Naruto said. "But, like everyone, he has his triggers, ya know?"
"Indeed," Taryo said. "I once got a one-up on a business rival by insinuating his wife had cheated on him. They were a very traditional couple, so an accusation of marital infidelity was akin to implying his romantic and sexual prowess was sufficiently bad to cause his wife to forget her iron grasp on tradition and turn from him. Needless to say, he didn't take it well."
"I'd be mad too in that situation," Naruto said. "No man likes to hear he was not man enough to satisfy his partner, ya know?"
"Indeed, Uzumaki-san," Taryo said, before drawing himself up. "This is where we must part ways, Uzumaki-san. The wife is waiting for me to join her for dinner."
"I wish you a good meal," Naruto said with a grin.
"Thank you, Uzumaki-san. Have a pleasant day."
He trotted off into the dusk, and Naruto started a little at the late hour. They'd been talking from just past nine-thirty in the morning to well into the dusk. As the man disappeared around the corner, Naruto reflected on the conversation he'd just had with the old man. They'd shared stories of his missions, the old man's job, his teammates, the man's education – Naruto had always been curious what civilian education was like –, and many more subjects, most of them with a personal anecdote of his time in Team Seven.
Suddenly, Naruto stopped and paled. He swore, loudly, earning him a reproachful 'language, young man' from a few passing elderly. He had, over the course of nine hours, revealed his teammate's general personalities, their strengths and weaknesses, the little he knew about his sensei, and what they'd been training in by way of the mission anecdotes.
What he hadn't told them was his own not-exactly-human heritage and the skills that imparted, Sasuke's family name, Sakura's MPD, and the fact that sensei had a Sharingan. The man was known as Sharingan no Kakashi, however, so that didn't comfort him nearly as much as it should in light of the situation.
He had been fished for all the information he had on his team, and like a retarded idiot he'd not even noticed. It was so obvious now that he realized what had been going on how he had accomplished this. Very careful questions, using carefully-worded responses to steer the conversation just the way the man wanted to.
Without further ado, he channelled chakra to his legs and sprinted off to the hotel they were staying at, leaving naught but swirls of dust in his wake.
– – – –
Four seemingly random people converged on an old, abandoned warehouse close to the sole ninja hotel of Tanzaku Gai. A young girl wearing a dress, an old man in a formal kimono, and two nondescript men in typical ninja attire.
"Yo, Taryo," the girl said when she caught sight of the old man at the door of the warehouse. He turned around with an annoyed expression.
"Ayumu."
"You got something?"
Taryo snorted. "The Uzumaki brat was no match for my interrogation techniques."
Ayumu frowned. "We were told to not harm them. The boss will be displeased if you had to torture the Uzumaki."
"Did I say anything about physical interrogation?" Taryo snarled. "Why do you think I took the time to make this getup without any chakra?"
"I thought it was because Uzumaki were rumoured to all be high-quality sensors. Also, what happened to your hand?" she added, pointing at the bandaged appendage.
"You may have a point," Taryo said. "I figured that just striking up a conversation would be best to get the information, and wearing a chakra disguise would take away from the focus I could give to the conversation. The hand is from the sword he carries, by the way. It's locked with seals to his blood and chakra and lashes out whenever someone who isn't he touches it."
"How'd you get that out of him?" Ayumu said. "Most people don't really offer information like that unless under threat of something."
"I faked tripping, and gripped his sword's hilt to steady myself," Taryo said with a grimace. "Next thing I know, the damned thing put a spike through my hand."
"Sounds painful," Ayumu said without much empathy in her voice. "You got any further information?"
"Oh yes," Taryo said with a wide grin. "He was strangely recalcitrant in giving up details on himself, but I can give you nearly complete character profiles for his two genin teammates."
"Hah," Ayumu said. "I've got a pretty good read on that pink-haired bint that plays at being ninja too."
"Really?" a deep voice said suddenly. The pair whirled around.
"Boss!" Ayumu said happily. The boss nodded once in her direction, then snapped his fingers. Two ninja dropped down from the rafters.
"Daisuke, you first," the boss said, pointing at one of the ninja.
"As ordered, I followed Uchiha Sasuke around. The decision was made to not make contact the way Ayumu and Taryo were doing, owing to my sub-par chakra-less disguise skills and the uncertainty whether Uchiha-san had attained his clan's famed eyes yet."
"Acceptable," the boss said. "Continue."
"Uchiha Sasuke spent the entirety of the day thinking. At noon, he purchased seven tomatoes, which he ate in less than ten minutes. He did not interact with anyone the entire time, and I have a mud clone currently following him."
"Pity," the giant said. "Still, the knowledge of a favoured food is useful indeed. Ayumu?"
"Pinky's got brains," Ayumu said. "She also appears fond of seafood, Uchiha Sasuke, and books. Additionally, she's rather observant, but she seems primarily book-smart, rather than street-smart. I'm not sure if I've been made or not, but I lean towards doubting that."
"So let's assume you were," the giant said, earning a pout from the girl. "It's safer that way."
"As you say, boss," Ayumu said.
"I do," the giant said. "Anything else?"
"Loads, but nothing that's relevant to capturing her," Ayumu said.
"It's only been one day," the giant said, turning to last of them. "Taryo?"
"Konoha Cell Seven consists of Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto," Taryo said. "Haruno Sakura is 'scarily intelligent, and really strong when she's mad', in addition to having budding skill in genjutsu. There was talk of introducing her to the medical field after this mission. She prefers setting up a stage in combat and running circles around her targets. No known chakra elements.
"Uchiha Sasuke, the last loyal Uchiha with chakra. Unlikely to have activated his eyes, but no guarantees. Fights far more direct than his female teammate, no word on styles. Not unintelligent, but gets distracted easily by mentions of his traitorous brother. Appears to have C-rank skill in Katon jutsu, as expected of an Uchiha."
The giant raised an eyebrow. "Very good, Taryo. But there is a noticeable lack of data on your target."
"That's because the bastard was more than willing to talk about his teammates, but refused to share many details about himself," Taryo said, snarling. "All I have is that he, like the other two, has been a genin for three weeks, has hunted the Konohan relative of Ōyu about as often as we did when we were genin, and that his sword is absolutely not to be touched, unless you like temporarily losing a hand," he said, waving his bandaged hand around.
"See the medic-nin about that in a minute," the giant said. "Just the sword, or also the sheath?"
"Both, according to the brat."
The giant nodded. "More than sufficient data to plan. Ayumu, get Hido. Taryo, to the medic-nin stat. Daisuke, rendez-vous with your mud clone and alert us if they're leaving."
"Ah, boss," Taryo said uncertainly. "The brat felt like Han."
"You mean he's a Jinchūriki?"
"I think so. Would make sense, with Hatake as his sensei. Only the strongest sensei would do for a weapon of Jinchūriki calibre, and there's no denying Hatake is strong."
"It would," the giant agreed. "This puts a wrench in things. The only Bijū Konoha has had access to in recent years was the Kyūbi, and nothing we have can restrain that for long."
"Can't we just take the sealing tags we have for if we ever ran into the Seven-tails and slap multiple of those on him?"
"That could work," the giant admitted. "After you visit the med-nin, go to Kenji and see if the idea holds merit. Meet back here in thirty minutes. Dismissed."
"Yes, boss," the three chorused as one, and went their own ways.
– – – –
Naruto sprinted through the streets of Tanzaku Gai towards the hotel, slowing down only to swerve around pedestrians. The rooftops here weren't really fit for ninja travel. Too many protrusions.
He saw Sasuke and Sakura outside the hotel sharing a worried expression at the same moment Kakashi-sensei came around the corner with an eye-smile on his face, his customary slump, and the equally oft-present book in his hand. Both his fellow genin were wearing worried expressions. Had they been followed as well?
"Kakashi-sensei!" he yelled. "Enemy presence!"
Kakashi's eye shot open, the slump and book disappeared instantly, and an intense aura appeared around the man. Naruto blinked a few times at the rapid transformation from lazy-looking slacker to serious nin. "Tell me more."
"Old man Taryo," Naruto said. "Fished me for information over a nine-hour period, give or take. I didn't sense any chakra from him so it took me until after the conversation to realize just how much I'd revealed."
"We'll have to work on that when we get back," Kakashi said, quietly thinking if in place of when. He registered the expressions on the other genin. "You too?"
"Interrogated, no," Sasuke said. "Followed, yes. Some sort of invisibility jutsu."
"Meisaigakure no jutsu or Tōton no jutsu," Kakashi said softly. "Much more likely the former than the latter, as the latter is developed by Jiraiya-sama. That means most likely Kusa or Iwa, Kumo a close third. Pinky?"
"Young girl by name of Ayumu," she replied dutifully. "Posed as a civilian, but was apparently able to judge for herself if I used chakra in our shopping challenge after she saw me seal up several bags I'd purchased. We went to a café after six hours or so and the inconsistencies added up. Muscles too toned for a pure civilian, stamina beyond what civilians would have, things like that."
"I see," Kakashi said. "We'll discuss more in our room. Opsec and all that."
"Understood, sensei," the three replied and followed their sensei to their room on the second floor. When Kakashi-sensei closed the door, he retrieved ink and brush and painted a seal around the doorframe.
"What's that for?" Sakura asked.
"Proximity seal. It lights up whenever someone with usable chakra enters a seven-metre circle centered around the seal. Since we're all inside when it was drawn, the seal automatically registers our chakra as accepted persons. It's sort-of risky because I don't know if the nin are within ten metres or not, but I didn't sense anyone so I think it's safe. We'll set up guard rotation during the night anyway, but this will allow us to plan without anyone knowing."
Sakura nodded her understanding at her sensei's back.
"Okay," Kakashi said once he'd finished the seal and sat down. "Naruto, what have you told him exactly?"
"Practically everything," Naruto admitted with a grimace. "The only things I didn't tell them were our family names, some of our specific jutsu, and one or two triggers."
"Definitely need interrogation resistance and recognition training," Kakashi said once again, barely loud enough to be heard by Naruto. "So we face an informed enemy. We have to assume they know where we are now, and that they have a detailed picture of what we can do. Fortunately, we know they know, but they hopefully don't know we know they know."
"So we act normally, then make a sudden break for it?" Sakura asked.
"In a nutshell, yes. We'll do one day of light training to assure the nin that we don't know they know, and then sneak off during the night, making a bee-line for Konoha. Four-watch night. Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, myself."
"You want me to sleep here?" Sakura asked, a tone of hope in her voice even as Sasuke's face contorted slightly into a grimace.
"Yes," he said simply, ignoring the triumphant look on Sakura and the despairing look on Sasuke. If Sakura hadn't been cured of her amorous behaviour by three weeks of on-and-off training with Anko, then it was far more likely to be a genuine crush initially expressed through fangirlism than anything else. Kakashi steadfastly refused to acknowledge the possibility of Anko failing to cure someone of fangirlism.
"Let's go for dinner," Kakashi said, standing up once more. "We can talk more about this mess later."
The three genin nodded and followed after their sensei, their stomachs grumbling unhappily.
Several hours later, Naruto suppressed a yawn and stretched his chakra to its limit, trying to detect any presences that felt off. It wasn't true sensing, as that required hardly any chakra and Naruto was using quite a bit of it, but it worked. Naruto could feel every chakra signature within a hundred metres, and get a general gist of their predominant emotion. However, as he wasn't sensing so much as he was using chakra to stretch an emphatic connection everywhere, there was a major drawback. Chakra conveyed a person's emotions to those who could listen to it, but using that chakra for jutsu stripped it of its emotive qualities. So while persons could be detected even if they were using concealment jutsu like the meisaigakure no jutsu since the main source of chakra was inside the jutsu-chakra shell, the moment the chakra for a jutsu left the person's immediate vicinity, only a true sensor could pick it up, and Naruto was far from a true sensor just yet.
This would come back to bite Team Seven in the ass before very long.
– – – –
Daisuke landed in a clearing one hundred and fifty metres from the hotel where one Iwa nuke-nin was waiting. "They're using the third room from the left, second floor. Don't miss."
The nin scoffed. "Please, I'm the Sniper-Nin," he said. "I don't miss."
"We'll see about that, mr. sniper-nin," Daisuke said with a similar scoff.
"Oh you will," he said. "Be amazed by the accuracy of the Rock-Hard Sniper-Nin, Ōgon!"
Daisuke rolled his eyes. "Just get on with it."
"Such an ungrateful audience," Ōgon said, flying through a short sequence of handseals and then taking careful aim. It wouldn't do to not live up to his reputation. "But very well.
"Doton: Dosekiryū!"
The earth cracked and groaned as dirt and stone rose up from where the pair of Iwa nuke-nin stood. The collective mass of mother nature ripped out by Ōgon's chakra, a good fifty kilograms, rearranged itself to form a dragon, which sped off into the night sky at the nin's silent command. One-hundred and fifty metres later, it crashed into the apartment where Konoha Genin Cell Seven with an almight racket.
The wall crumbled under the impact, and so did most of the apartment. The hotel, amazingly enough, remained standing, but such was the prowess of Ōgon, whose claims of being a renowned Sniper-nin weren't boastful.
Daisuke and Ōgon grinned as four blurs sped into the apartment, grabbed a leaf-nin each, and sped off again. It seemed even the great Hatake Kakashi could be caught by surprise.
"Adequate," Daisuke said.
"That was more than adequate, that was awesome!" Ōgon said. "You think boss will let me have some time with that girl?"
"Doubt it," Daisuke said. "The moment he heard she was a Haruno he's been acting funny. You can always go visit that chick we obtained from Wave a few days ago, because I think the boss is keeping this one for himself."
"Greedy bastard," Ōgon grouched, slumping and kicking a loose stone away. "Always keeping the choice finds for himself."
"What can you do?" Daisuke said with a shrug. "None of us are strong enough to take the boss, which is why he's the boss."
"True," Ōgon said with a grimace, not believing that he was actually agreeing with Daisuke on something. "Let's go. Maybe we can let out some of our frustrations on Hatake-teme."
"For once, you have a good idea," Daisuke said, nodding. Without waiting for his fellow nin, he channelled chakra to his legs and sped off.
"Hey!" Ōgon yelled as he desperately tried to catch up with Daisuke. "No fair!"
– – – –
Hatake Kakashi floated through the haze of semi-consciousness until he broke free of the fog. Immediately, he wished he hadn't. In an effort to keep the enemy nin, who were surely watching as that was what he'd do if he had a group, from suspecting something, they hadn't done more than put up a guard rotation.
And now, his head pounding and his body feeling as if it was burning with cold fire, he was rather regretting that decision.
Resisting the urge to open his eye and fire off cliché questions like 'where am I?' and 'who are you?', Kakashi took stock of his current situation as best he could. He was on his knees on a concrete floor, his body held upright by chains, and his arms stretched above him, held together by ropes that were presumably fixed to the ceiling. More chains bound his ankles, and they had even gone so far as to bind his thighs so he couldn't stand up. The lack of wall indicated that he had been probably been strung up in the middle of a room, rather than against a side, to give whoever captured him full access to his body.
His hands were unbound, but despite forming a Ram seal his chakra wouldn't answer his call, indicating a Fūinjutsu tag somewhere. Seals to restrict chakra were, despite their use, not easy to make. Too heavy and the target died, too light and the target escaped, and the barrier dividing these two extremes was relatively tiny. More worryingly, these particular tags short shelf-life – weather damage affected the ink which in turn affected the tuning – meant that this band of nin had a Fūinjutsu practitioner among them, which in turn implied that they were also capable of restraining Naruto.
Least worryingly – or most, depending on his detainers – was the fact that, while his body still ached from the caved-in apartment, the presence of bandages was easily noticeable. Whoever it was didn't want him dead. Just yet, anyway.
Having gathered all the data he could with feeling, he turned to hearing. A few metres away, ragged breathing could be heard. At least one other person, and he was cautiously labelling this person as 'fellow prisoner', was in here with him.
Lastly, he turned to smell. All prisons smelled somewhat rancid, but Kakashi now realized that there were odours here beyond those of sweat, vomit, and human waste. The additional scents, those of blood, fear, despair, and death, quickly saw Kakashi's initial presupposition from 'prison cell' to 'interrogation room'.
Or to use the blunter description; 'torture chamber'.
He almost dreaded opening his eye, but he needed to know for certain what he was dealing with here. Opening his eye took a little more effort than he'd have liked, it was stuck with a gum he didn't want to know the composition of, and he noted that his hitae-ate was still in place and still covering his sharingan eye.
As expected from earlier observations, the room he was in was a torture chamber – he recognized some of the metal implements from the one time he had to sit in on one of Anko's sessions – and it was made from concrete, ostensibly with sound dampening. The chamber wasn't large, at most four by five metres, but further observation was halted by the sight of the other prisoner.
Half-blond, half-crimson hair? Check. A trio of whisker marks on each cheek? Check. Sword in a sheath on his back? Check. Unlike himself, Naruto was hanging from the ceiling about a metre in front of him, and half a metre off the floor. His hands, unlike Kakashi's own, were encased in thick metal gauntlets to prevent him from making handseals of any sort. His clothing had been stripped from him from the waist up, and his chest was positively covered in sealing tags that were likely to have the same function as the tag he suspected was on himself.
"Naruto, are you alright?" Kakashi said softly.
Naruto stirred, but did little else. "'Kashi-sensei?" he slurred. "Wuz goin' on?"
"We got captured," Kakashi answered with a grimace.
"You sure did," a baritone voice agreed from behind. "You sure did, Hatake Kakashi. It was depressingly easy, truth be told. I'd expected more from a man of your calibre, but I suppose that getting caught off-guard happens even to the best of us."
Kakashi tried to look at the voice, but found that his bonds didn't allow him the necessary range of motion. "Who are you? Reveal yourself!"
It was probably stupid to make demands in such a situation, but he wasn't going to get out of this without injury anyway.
"You're in no position to make demands, Hatake Kakashi," the voice said as its owner stepped into view. "But I'll humour you regardless."
The man was large. Not just tall, but large. Not on-par-with-the-Akimichi large, but he was a heavy-set man with a completely shaved head – including eyebrows –, wearing standard brown shinobi apparel. Around his neck hung an Iwa-issued hitae-ate with a slash through the symbol. An Iwa nuke-nin.
Wonderful.
"Perhaps you recognize me, Hatake," the man said, leaning on a table. "Probably you don't. I know I wouldn't recognize my current self fifteen years ago."
Kakashi's mind was racing, trying to figure if he had met any ninja that remotely met the description of this one.
"Perhaps this will jog your memory," the giant said, reaching into his cloak and retrieving a kunai. This was not any ordinary kunai, however. This model featured a straighter blade and two blades that stuck out orthogonally from the primary blade's base. The primary blade was further covered in intricate sealing script, which did exactly as the nin intended to. "It's not smart to leave business unfinished, Hatake."
He remembered, alright. Two weeks or so before the ill-fated mission to the Kannabi bridge, Team Minato was sent out to investigate a poisoned food supply. What they found was a team of Iwa jōnin doing the poisoning, and they fought them. They were sufficiently skilled that even Minato-sensei was forced to resort to the Hiraishin to defeat them. Two of the men were undeniably dead, their heads caved in by Rasengan, while the third had taken a Hiraishin kunai to the lung. They had assumed he died – because knives to lungs tended to be lethal – and when the poisoning stopped they figured it had been confirmation that he'd died.
But apparently he hadn't.
"I would have left it at that," the nin said, planting the kunai tip-first in the floor at Kakashi's feet. "But then your precious Kiroii Senkō had to kill my father, my sister, my brother, and my fiancée during the last battle of the Third War."
"And then," Kakashi said. "When Minato-sensei died the target of your hatred was gone, but you couldn't just let go, so you went for the next best thing; the persons he considered his children. With Obito dead during the Kannabi Bridge fiasco and Rin dead shortly after during a mission in Water Country, all you had left was me."
The giant clapped. "One thousand ryō for a successful deduction, Hatake," he said. "And, had it been up solely up to me, you would have been dead already. However, many of my crew feel much more personal about your continued existence, and want to extract some prolonged payback."
"You mean torture," Kakashi said. "How dull."
To his surprise, the giant nodded. "I quite agree. Torture is for the petty or to make a statement. This will not make a statement, but will make the men and women under my command feel better. As a wartime jōnin, you know how important morale is."
"Quite," Kakashi agreed, still surprised at the civility of the man. This Iwa nuke-nin had managed to tranfer a personal hatred against Minato-sensei – a justifiable hatred, if the man's story was anything to go by – to a semi-impersonal hatred against him. Many Iwa-nin he'd fought since the end of the Third War weren't capable of that, and attacked him as if he was the one that killed their family.
The man made a few handsigns that Kakashi couldn't interpret, and a few more missing-nin entered the room, snarls on their faces as their eyes landed on him.
"Don't make the mistake of thinking that I won't greatly enjoy watching you suffer, Hatake," the giant said, before turning to his men. "Take Hatake to the central chamber and the brat to my personal one," the giant ordered. "Then have fun with Hatake. Try not to damage his Sharingan eye, and try not to kill the brat while you're moving him to my chambers. I don't want to find out if the brat's death releases the Kyūbi or not."
Kakashi's eye widened at this statement while the nin saluted and roughly unshackled Naruto, then himself, placing the same thick gauntlets on his hands that Naruto was wearing. They weren't particularly bothered by the fact that the chains banged roughly into their sides. "How do you...?"
"Shut up Hatake!" one of the nin said, smacking him upside the head.
"Know about the Kyūbi?" the giant asked, ignoring the interruption. "Simple, one of my men has had exposure to Jōki no Han, and noted that this kid felt similar."
Kakashi blinked. That had actually never occurred to him. Yet another thing they'd have to find a solution for if they survived. At this point, the only thing that could save them was them tripping one of Naruto's triggers and him going on a yōki-fuelled rampage.
"Take them away," the giant ordered. As the giant left the room, the four remaining nin grinned and dragged Kakashi further into the compound, the scents of blood, despair, and death growing stronger with every step they took.
– – – –
Translations:
Doton: Dosekiryū; Earth Release: Earth and Stone Dragon. Jutsu from an anime episode featuring Kosuke Maruboshi, one of the Eternal Genin.
Jōki no Han: Han of the Steam. His canon title is 'Jōki no Jinchūriki', but I felt that using the title with his name fit better.
– – – –
A/N: I initially had a (in my opinion) much better chapter, but personal stupidity with backups saw most of the chapter erased, and I had a hell of a time reconstructing the rest of the chapter, and I think it shows in the quality of the finished product.