Two chapters in one day? I must be a wizard or something!
Nah, I'm just sulking over rejection... But hey, inspiration comes in many forms right?
The Leaf Village stood in utter silence for the remainder of the night, her ninja had covered every inch looking for possible threats. Her leader stood watch from the top of his mansion, and firefighters worked to put out the flames of the attack.
During the midst of the attack, Ino had decided it was time to ramp up her interrogation. Using every bit of knowledge she had in the Yamanaka clan's Ninjutsu to pry as deep as she could into the leader's mind. It was however riddled with traps and false memories that made it nearly impossible to sift out an actual story. The man had memories implanted from different villages and time periods, some of which put him in the same place at the same time.
Nevertheless, Ino and her four assistants worked deep into the night, carefully sorting the fake memories from the real ones and avoiding all the traps that had been set in the man's mind. By 5:00 in the morning, she was able to call the Hokage with a final verdict.
"Clearance SS" Ino spoke into the phone, which was a direct line to the Hokage's office. As head of the Intel Department, she had access to information up to SSS Rank, one below Naruto's K Rank. However, when calling she always stated the classification of the Intel she was about to share.
"Clearance K, any news?" Naruto seemed like he was on edge.
"The leader belongs to a group known as 'The Fighters for a Unified World', We suspect that their objective is to topple the Governments of all the nations on the continent and establish a new order" Ino's hand was shaking slightly.
"Hence, why they're so eager to kill me" Naruto responded.
"Not just you, many powerful people are on their list" Ino hesitated "Including Gaara, and Killer B"
"They weren't in the book?" Naruto's disbelief could be heard over the phone.
"Multiple books probably, to limit the amount of information that could leak"
"Ino, write a briefing and send it to Shikamaru, Kiba, and Sasuke"
"Got it"
Bolt was happy to finally have been allowed to go home, granted his house was now surrounded by armed guards... but at least he was home. Having slept in the bunker, Bolt was too awake to sleep, so he decided to see if he could go train.
"Can I leave?" He asked the Rabbit masked man.
"Yes, I'll escort you" The man looked down at Bolt "Where would you like to go?"
"Do you have to?" Bolt was annoyed, did he really need someone to stand guard over him?
"Yes, on the orders of Commander Konohamaru" The Rabbit man said.
"Konohama-" Bolt was annoyed, so this was Konohamaru-sensei's idea! "take me to the woods from last night"
"Of course, after you"
Bolt walked towards the woods, all the time being followed by this man. When he got there, he wasn't surprised to find Guy already there... he was a bit surprised to see Sarada however.
"Hey, what's up?" Bolt waved as he approached the group.
"Who's that?" Guy asked, referring to the ANBU agent on Bolt's tail.
"Hmm... He's Mr. Rabbit" That's what Bolt had decided to call him.
"Mr. Rabbit? Bolt, that's a member of the Anbu Black Ops, not a character in some dumb cartoon" Sarada complained, as usual.
"Ya, but he has a rabbit mask" Bolt argued, knowing full well it would only serve to make Sarada angry at him..
"This is true!" Guy pointed at the mask the man was wearing.
"It's to hide his identity" Sarada continued, seeming fully intent on killing Bolt's fun.
"Like, he's a secret agent or something?" Guy questioned, confused.
"He is a secret agent!" Sarada yelled, while slamming her axe into a tree.
"Like spies?" Bolt asked, slightly intrigued.
"Spies?" Guy asked excitedly "Hey, Mr. Rabbit are you really a spy"
*silence*
"He's not going to answer you!" Sarada yelled "But, yes ANBU agents carry out all sorts of missions... including spying"
"I want to be an ANBU" Guy laughed while kicking a tree for training "What kind of mask would I get?"
"You're not cut out for it" Sarada stated, while toppling over a tree.
"Are you a spy?" Bolt asked Mr. Rabbit, curiously.
"No, I am a member of the Hokage Bodyguard Unit assigned to guard you" Mr. Rabbit's testimony sent a bit of a shock wave through the group.
"From?" Guy asked first, even though it was an answer they all wanted to know.
"Clearance?" Was Mr. Rabbit's only response.
"Clearance?" Guy repeated "What does that mean?"
Sarada sighed "Basically speaking, you're not important enough to know"
Bolt had lost interest in Mr. Rabbit for the time being, mostly because the guy was pretty quiet and wasn't going to tell them anything anyways. So, Bolt decided to practice his Wind-Style. After about 14 attempts however, he had only managed to cut about halfway through a few random trees.
"Maybe that Jutsu just isn't powerful enough?" Guy proposed, unaware of the Hokage's prior success with it.
"No, I'm just not good at it" Bolt whined.
"So, get better" Sarada chided him, haven knocked down 6 trees during Bolt's practicing.
"How?" Bolt continued to whine "Who else knows how to use Wind-Style?"
Shockingly, Mr. Rabbit raised his hand.
"What is Bolt doing wrong?" Sarada asked, seeming to be taking joy in the young-blonde's failures.
Mr. Rabbit turned to face Bolt "You're spreading the wind out too much, causing it to lose strength. Try to focus it into a thin blade of concentrated power"
"Huh?" Bolt responded, utterly confused by the answer.
"Basically, flatten the height of your Air Gun so that the wind is in a smaller area" Sarada translated for Bolt.
Bolt spent the next half hour focusing on the way his chakra left his body. He imagined a scythe of wind slicing though trees rather than a brunt of wind blowing them over by sheer force. Then, when he thought he had it down, he tried again.
"Wind Style: Air Gun" The wind exited Bolt's mouth in a thin line, slicing down five trees instantly. It was still a far shot from his father's Air Gun, but it was progress nonetheless.
"Whooo!" Guy screamed excitedly "That was the power of youth!"
"Not bad... for you" Sarada claimed, but she seemed to be rather upset.
Sasuke had arrived at the Bounty Hunter's camp early in the morning to find it utterly deserted. Meaning that they had realized their location had been compromised either during the attack, or before it. Sasuke reasoned that they must have figured it out during the attack, because their attempt to free the prisoners should have been to protect their base of operations. Or, the group had rotating bases similar to Orochimaru's hideouts and had chosen to move before the attack to avoid repercussions. The final possibility was that they had been given a false location by the prisoners, and this was a trap.
Sasuke began to snoop around the area, looking for clues to the gang's whereabouts. There were a few empty tents left, and various supplies that were of little intelligence value. After about 15 minutes of searing the camp, Sasuke concluded that there had been around 40 residents at some point. He reasoned this based on the number of people a tent could hold, and the number of dead grass spots on the ground. Indicating that there had been about 20 tents here, and that they had been here a while. In fact, the embers in the fire pits were still warm.
As he was about to leave the area, the elder-Uchiha felt an influx of chakra in the area. Seconds later, a barrier surrounded the camp. Meaning that this had been a trap all along...
"Target acquired, Sasuke Uchiha" One of the hunters outside the barrier shouted into a hand radio.
"You think this can hold me?" Sasuke laughed to himself, while releasing an obscene amount of chakra.
Cracks began to form in the barrier's walls, as Sasuke's dense chakra increased the pressure inside. It took about half a minute for the barrier ninjutsu to fail completely
"Target lost, retreat at once!"
"And who's target am I exactly?" Sasuke asked, while holding the Bounty Hunter up by his throat.
Naruto was sitting behind his desk, reading over the briefing that Ino had sent him with Shikamaru. The information was kept in a purple folder, with "SS" typed on the front.
"The Fighters for a Unified World?" Shikamaru questioned the name.
"How can they afford these bounties?" Naruto asked, wondering how some fringe group could muster this amount of money
"Either they're lying, or the group is being lead by some very wealthy people" His adviser explained.
"Who would fund this?" The Hokage asked.
"Either Feudal Lords from smaller nations, or wealthy business men"
"Business men, who have hit a ceiling in power?" Naruto prompted.
"Exactly, many business men resent the Feudal Lords wealth because they inherited it as opposed to earning it" Shikamaru explained.
"Then why attack me?" Naruto asked, unsure of his role in all of this.
"Simple, the Leaf Village is part of the Feudal Lords power... and you are the seat of that power"
"Doesn't this mean Kakashi-sensei is in danger too and Grandma Tsunade?" The Hokage asked, more concerned about his predecessor's safety than his own.
"Who do we have capable of guarding them? Not that they'll like it." Shikamaru asked.
"They have their own personal guards, so they might be okay... see if Sai can take some time off to help"
"Sai is in charge of all of our foreign ambassadors, are you sure you want to distract him with this?"
"We'll be taking that over, we need to keep a close eye on that now anyways" Naruto said.
"Right, anything else?" Shikamaru asked, while writing things down on his clipboard.
"How's the police investigation going?"
"Kiba should have some answers soon"
Sarada had left soon after Bolt had begun to make some real progress, utterly annoyed with her own lack of it. She returned home to find her mother buried in paperwork at the dining room table.
"What's all this?" The young-Uchiha asked, not used to seeing her mother bring work home.
"I have to overlook all of the case work for the injuries we took in last night, the Hokage wants as report as soon as possible" Her mother groaned, not even looking up from the pile of papers.
"What happened last night?" Sarada asked, still wondering what was the reason she had been lead to a bunker and why Bolt was being followed around by Black Ops.
"Can't tell you... Top Secret"
"Is it the reason Bolt as a rabbit masked man following him?" Sarada asked, wondering if the two events were connected.
"Rabbit mas-" her mother paused "Can't tell you"
"Why!" Sarada was getting annoyed.
Her mother just sighed "Because, certain things have to stay a secret to keep you all safe"
"Okay" Sarada sighed in return, realizing she was the one over reacting.
"So, how did your day go honey?" Her mother asked, finally looking up from her paperwork.
"Mom, I want you to train me!" Sarada yelled, after remembering the lack of success she had.
"I can't, I have too much work to do" The pink-haired woman sighed.
"Always so serious, honestly you're no fun at all Sakura" Tsunade had apparently snuck into the house at some point and was in the process of pouring herself a drink.
"Lady Tsunade!" Sarada watched as her mother greeted their guest in a frantic, and panicked manner.
"Lord Fifth?" Sarada asked.
"So, your old mother wont train you?" The blonde haired woman teased. "Then let me"
"Aren't you like... 80?" Sarada asked, confused because the woman looked 22.
Sarada regretted her comment when she received a fist to the head.
"67! But I look great!" The former Hokage bragged.
"That's because you're using a Jutsu to hide your-" Her mother's comment was ended by a fist to the head from the former Hokage.
"Let's go" Tsunade grabbed Sarada by the arm, much to the girls displeasure.
Kiba was standing at the blast site, as detectives from the Konoha Police Force ran around everywhere testing samples. While supervising the inspection, he also had to oversee the Feudal Lord's protection detail... which was proving to be a large pain in the ass. The bastard was complaining that his tea wasn't hot enough and that he didn't have a proper view. Because in fact, he had no view, he wasn't allowed near the windows. Which of course had been painted over black, so that no one could see inside the house.
"Report?" Kiba asked as an Anbu Agent appeared by his side.
"Getting restless, and demands to be moved to another location" The Eagle faced member reported.
"Ask him if he'd prefer I shove his ass in a underground bunker" Kiba scoffed.
"Sir?"
"No, tell him we are working diligently to provide better accommodations" Kiba rubbed his hand into his face.
"Are we?" The agent questioned.
"Hell no, his ass can stay where it is... he just can't know that" Kiba smirked.
"Yes, Sir"
Kiba continued to watch over the investigation, after about another hour, the Chief Detective came to him carrying a white folder, meaning the Intel had yet to be classified. Kiba sifted through the folder, and read the findings from each of the detectives. In order to keep everything as secretive as possible, each detective conducted a specific part of the investigation and it was up to Kiba to piece the whole thing together. When he did, he returned to his office and slipped the reports into a Purple "S" rank folder, before calling Naruto.
"Clearance?" Kiba groaned into the phone, in annoyance of the stupid protocols.
"K, What did you find?" Naruto asked, in a hurried tone.
"It was a chakra bomb, tied to a person..." Kiba started his report.
"A suicide bomber?" Naruto seemed stunned.
"No, it seems as if he was forced into it... there are no signs this man was a ninja"
"How do you know?" The Hokage seemed confused already... which was never good when explaining things to him.
"Coroner said so, something about muscle mass and their Chakra points never having been opened... it was most likely a civilian held hostage... they probably threatened his family or something"
Kiba could hear Naruto slam his fist against the desk over the phone. "Anything else?"
"The bomb was detonated remotely via a chakra transmitter, most likely by one of the people who attacked the Intel Building last night"
"Got it. Thanks" Naruto hung up the phone.
Bolt was a bit stunned to see Sarada return, after she had walked off randomly. Even more so, he was surprised to see who she returned with.
"Great-Grandma Tsunade?" Bolt questioned, and then regretted.
"Who are you calling a 'Great-Grandma'!?" The old woman asked, when punching Bolt in the head.
"Sorry" The young-blonde stammered out an apology.
"Now then" The old-hag continued. "This is how you throw a punch"
"I already know how to-" Sarada stopped when she noticed that Tsunade's Punch had leveled about 30 trees.
"Whoa" Bolt was happy at that moment, that she had held back when punching him.
Bolt watched quietly as Tsunade explained to Sarada what she did and how to do it. Eventually, it was just him and Guy sitting in the grass watching Sarada punch trees. It felt weird to just watch someone, and it felt especially weird for that someone to be Sarada. She rarely ever spoke to him without a twinge of disdain in her voice, and yet for some reason Bolt kept feeling more drawn to her the longer he watched her train. The young-Uzumaki decided that sitting around was a waste of time... this was mostly a lie, his true intention was to distract himself from the odd feeling welling up inside of him that he couldn't identify or describe.
Bolt faced towards some of the less decimated trees, and started weave his hand signs, while imagining a blade made of wind slicing through the path in front of him.
"Wind-Style: Air Gun!" Bolt released the chakra from his mouth, with all the force he could muster. He watched as the wind sliced through about 8 or so trees.
"Like father like son" The old-blonde chuckled.
"How?" Sarada asked, she seemed confused by the jab
"His chakra control sucks" The old-hag paused "That's why you'll be a stronger ninja than him" She turned to Sarada.
Bolt was annoyed now, his nervous feeling from before had turned into a competitive anger. He focused on welling up all the chakra he had, and expelling it in one shot. Then, he did.
About 12 trees fell that time, with two more having significant cuts in them.
He simply look at Sarada and smirked, having issued his challenge.
At some point, Sasuke decided that the Bounty Hunter was of little use to him. The elder-Uchiha didn't exactly want to kill the man, but he couldn't bring him back to the Leaf and put the village in more danger.
"What am I going to do with you?" The dark haired ninja asked.
"Don't kill me!" The Bounty hunter pleaded, like the coward he was.
"Wouldn't dream of it" Sasuke dropped the man onto the ground "You're now one of my spies"
"Huh?"
Sasuke didn't answer the man's question, instead he placed his hand on the man's forehead and placed a sealing technique in the hunter's head.
"What was that?"
"A jutsu that lets me read your mind, analyse your thoughts and if I want... destroy your brain" He stated, with no emotion in his voice.
"What do you want?"
"Simple, go back to your group and report to me every night" Sasuke paused when he noticed the mans confusion "Just think something in your head, and I'll pick up on it"
"Yes.. got it" The man said before running off.
What Sasuke didn't tell the Hunter was that he had to be in a certain range to pick up thoughts, meaning that he would have to tail the man anyways. It was still useful to have someone on the inside, under your complete control however.
Shikamaru was wishing the day would just end already, currently he was sitting in Naruto's office discussing how to inform the other nations of this issue.
"We can't call a Five Kage Summit without drawing some serious attention" Shikamaru noted, trying to put the idea of the table before Naruto tried to run with it.
"What about going through each Nation's ambassador here in the Leaf?" The Hokage asked.
"It would involve too many people in this issue..." Not that Shikamaru had any better idea at the moment.
"What about calling them?" Naruto paused, having realized what Shikamaru would say next "Someone could tap it"
"There's only one option on the table... the old fashioned way" The adviser stood up, and grabbed a blank scroll of the shelf.
"Get me four Jonin, and draft some S Rank Mission assignments" Naruto instructed.
"Right away" Shikamaru left the office and walked down to the Jonin Standby Room.
When he entered the room, there were only about three people there. Most of the Jonin were helping with the village lockdown, meaning Shikamaru would have to find one more. Currently in the room were:
Yuudai Kimura- A Veteran Jonin, under the 5th, 6th and now 7th Hokage. He was an elderly man, around 47, that Shikamaru didn't quite care for. However, he was an expert at covert operation and had spent 4 years as an ANBU agent.
Rokuro Takenaka- Not quite the kind of person Shikamaru wanted for this job, the guy was lazy, a quality Shikamaru appreciated given his own laziness... but not one he really wanted in a S Rank Messenger.
Kaede Shun- The rookie of the group, Naruto had only appointed the Kid as a Jonin a year ago. He was only 16, which while impressive, did not make the elder-Nara too eager to hand over an S-Rank document.
It's not like Shikamaru wanted to go out of his way to learn about these people, but he figured it was part of his job as Jonin-Commander to know his subordinates.
"You three, have a mission" He announced to the room. Yuudai was reading a book, Rokuro was napping on the couch and Kaede was eating.
"Anything Good?" Yuudai grumbled, not even bothering to look up from his book.
"Sounds like a lot of work, If the Jonin-Commander is coming here personally" Rokuro complained, having been awoken from his nap.
"Probably something S-Ranked then" Kaede noted, while taking a bite out of his cake. Shikamaru was a bit impressed, the kid might actually be one of the smarter ones in the room.
"You're are all to deliver messages directly to the Kages of the other Five Great Nations" Shikamaru instructed, to mixed reactions.
"Directly? Now that's something" Yuudai looked up from his book, seeming moderately impressed.
"Can I take the Sand? it's the closest." Rokuro sat up on the couch, and was slipping his flak jacket on.
"I'll go wherever you want me to" Kaede had put down his food, and was gearing up. Now, this was the kind of kid Shikamaru could grow to like. Someone who did what was asked, without asking why.
"Report to the Hokage's office in an hour" Shikamaru instructed, while picking up the phone in the room.
"Got it" Mumbled Yuudai
"Okay" Rokuro grumbled, half-asleep
"Yes Sir!" Kaede piped, seeming overly excited.
Once the three had left, Shikamaru dialed the number for ANBU Headquarters.
"Hello?" The receptionist asked.
"Connect me to Mirai Sarutobi please"
"May I ask who's calling?"
The elder-Nara sighed "Jonin-Commander Shikamaru Nara, Adviser to the Hokage" He really hated to title drop, but he couldn't waste time with all of the ANBU formalities at the moment.
Tsunade was both baffled and not surprised that Bolt and Sarada's competition had gone on this long. In an hour, they were at 25-25 in tree counts. They had their father's stamina for sure, however both of them were nearing the end of their chakra supplies.
"Not bad" Bolt smirked "betcha can't get to twenty six!"
"Watch me" Sarada then punched a tree, sending it flying into the one behind it.. meaning she now had 27.
"Wind Style: Air Gun" Bolt seemed to barely muster the chakra necessary to knock down two more trees, but was able to tie Sarada.
"Here I go" Tsunade watched as Sarada went to punch another tree, but cringed slightly as the poor girl spit her knuckles on the bark... she was out of chakra.
"I win" The young-blonde bragged as he formed his seals and Tsunade could tell the same thing was about to happen to him. Sure enough, the kid only produced a tiny breeze.
"You're both done... It's a tie!" She screamed at them both, slightly annoyed that they both inherited their father's lack of understanding of the idea of 'giving up'
"Soo... much.. YOUTH!" Guy yelled, throwing his hands up in the air at the same time.
"Youth?" Tsunade chuckled to herself "this is like deja vu"
Naruto sat behind his desk, as the four Jonin Shikamaru had assembled filed into the room. This wasn't exactly the team he had hoped for, but there was nothing her could do on such short notice. Naruto laid out the four messages on his desk.
"Deliver these directly into the hands of the Kages" The Hokage instructed, while pointing to the scrolls.
"And if we run into any difficulties?" Yuudai asked, while holding his scroll.
"Destroy the message at all cost" Shikamaru instructed, and Naruto felt his stomach sink.
"What village am I going to?" Rokuro question, in a very lazy tone.
Naruto leaned forward in his chair, and read off the instructions:
"Rokuro, your going to the Village Hidden in the Stone"
"Yuudai, your going to the Village Hidden in the Mist. Be extra cautious, and look for anything suspicious on the way"
"Kaede, Your going to the Village Hidden in the Sand"
"Mirai, Your going to the Village Hidden in the Cloud"
Naruto handed out a message scroll to each of the four messengers, after sealing each with the Five Kage Sealing Jutsu for extra safety.
"What exactly am I looking for?" Yuudai inquired.
Naruto handed him the briefing folder on The Fighters for a Unified World.
"Why do I have to go all the way to the Stone?" Rokuro whined, and Naruto glared at him causing him to apologize immediately "Sorry, sir"
"Everyone except Yuudai, is dispatched" Shikamaru waved, and the three Jonin dispersed.
"This is some... heavy shit" Yuudai looked up from the folder "excuse my language"
"Forget it" Naruto waved off the disrespect "There's also this" The Hokage then gave Yuudai the folder on the Water Lord's capture, and death.
"So, you want me to be on the lookout for these 'Fighters for a Unified World' or whatever?" Yuudai had lit a cigar, something Naruto hated... but seeing as how he was asking the guy to take on a deadly mission at the moment, he decided to ignore it. .
"Yes, we believe they're active in the area" Shikamaru took the folders back.
"Got it" Yuudai confirmed, before leaving the room.
"So, now we sit and wait?" Naruto asked, rhetorically.
"Yea, we sit and wait" Shikamaru sat down in the chair opposite Naruto's desk.
Dunno why I'm on an original characters kick... oh well
Also, I'll get back to the fluffy, happy stuff soon... I promise