*Chapter 13*: Interlude: From the Shadows
An apology to all my readers: Chapter 12 is still not done. I know I said it would be finished today, but I've had a few Real Life issues crop up, and to top it off, that little bugger is LONG. Rather than give you all a half finished piece, I'm putting this up to let you know I haven't forgotten. I'm planning on having it up by Wednesday. AND SO... I grant you this small interlude... May you find it... Interesting, and enlightening.
Interlude 1: From the Shadows
The night was cool and crisp. A hint of dampness hung in the still air; were one to leave a kunai in the dirt tonight, by morning it would be beaded with tiny droplets of dew.
No kunai will be dry tonight, thought the phantom as he slipped over the compound wall.
The incoming shinobi had made a flurry of hand signs; then, where he'd held nothing before, shuriken appeared in a mass before him. The first of the guards on the other side raised his eye to the sudden motion over head- his mouth opened, but no sound came out of it as dozens of shuriken impacted his body, cutting his vocal cords, shearing away strips of skin, embedding themselves in his lungs and liver and heart. He was quite dead before he could hit the ground.
Two other guards heard the body fall, and as they spun to face the fallen inja, the invader summoned a metal staff from nowhere. The heavy metal pole spun once, flying from hand to hand as each hand not currently holding it formed seals alone, and at one point in the half second sequence they would have sworn the pole itself bent double.
"Metal Style: Double Edge seeks the Soul!" Said the invader.
Both guardsmen shrieked as their weapons, both in hand and those still holstered, warped and twisted back on themselves. Metal edges dug into flesh, turning inwards, seeking their vital organs. In seconds, both men were unarmed, every shred of metal on their bodies having wormed its way inside them. Not that a state of disarmament was significant to either of them. They were dead, gruesomely so, but mercifully quite insensate to anything.
The ninja grimaced at the screams. I must be out of practice... I knew I should have been more active these last few years. He scaled the walls with both feet and one hand, making no whisper of noise louder than a falling leaf onto grass. the staff he kept slung over one shoulder, out of the way but still ready for attack.
Inside the main building, he scanned quickly right to left, and frowned. Been many years since I have been here... But if I remember correctly, the room I am looking for is two doors down the hallway...
As though called by the thought, the door in question opened, and out stepped a ninja in metal straps and buckles. His face was bandaged over, and two eyes peered out from between them.
A happy occurance. The invading nin thought. This may be wrapped up faster than I thought.
He began forming seals again, the staff flying from hand to hand. "Metal Style: Double Edge seeks the Soul!"
His counterpart's eyes widened in surprise, but he countered quickly. "Metal Style: Aura of Stillness!" His metal buckles and weapons convulsed once, then remained still.
The two of them eyed one another in the dark hallway, no other sounds to be heard. "You've gotten slow, Sarutobi."
The invader smiled and chuckled lightly. "What's your excuse, Gendo?"
"You know that they'll have you killed for this, Hokage or no." Gendo replied.
Sarutobi snorted. "As with all missing nin." He responded. "But also, as with all missing nin, first they have to find me. But enough. You have information I need."
"And I would care... why exactly?" Asked Gendo nonchalantly, as though he had no concern for facing down the most powerful ninja in Konoha.
"Because I will get that information from you, one way or another. I'm no Morino Ibiki, but I do manage."
Gendo nodded. "So the choice for me is between a quick death and a slow one, yes?" Gendo asked.
Sarutobi shrugged. "As ANBU Root, you have done more damage to this village than a host of invading shinobi. Damage all the more insidious because your presence is expected, and your position as ANBU makes you seem incorruptible."
"Very well then... I choose... OPTION 3!" Gendo cried, as interconnected tomoes spread across his skin, in the shape of branches and trees. Vines and branches erupted from both sides of the hallway, launching themselves at the aged ninja. Curse mark? Thought Sarutobi to himself as the plant life closed in. And wood style jutsus... none since the Niidaime...
Gendo snickered as there was silence in the hallway. "Caught you off guard, eh old man?" His chuckle was cut off with a grunt of pain as he looked down, incredulous, at the gory butt end of a metal pole extending from his guts. "Or.. not." He said with a gasp.
"Foolish boy... Did you never absorb the lesson from your classes, that metal jutsus defeat those of wood?" Sarutobi asked. "But it pains me to learn Root has taken up with Orochimaru."
Gendo knew he was a dead man. There was no time for him to get his mortally wounded body to a medic nin, even were he able to move full speed. The only thing holding his guts in his body was ironically the pole still in the wound. "They haven't. I'm slaved... to his will."
Sarutobi nodded, holding the pole as still as possible to avoid paining the man further. "Then tell me, quickly. Where is Danzou's true office?"
Gendo laughed, then shuddered at the pain the motion caused. In as few words as possible he told him.
Sarutobi sighed. "Then rest, now." With a hand practiced and experienced, he drove a hard palm heel strike into the base of the man's skull. The crunch of bone was loud in the hallway.
Sarutobi took the ceremonial headress of office from his head, and looked at it sadly, before taking a kunai and gouging the metal plate across the leaf symbol, before tucking the whole thing underneath the body.
Beside him, the metal staff returned back to the shape of Enma, the Monkey King. "You know, old friend, that there is no going back, now."
Sarutobi nodded. "That point was passed long ago. And now, like a cancer, that which is killing Konoha must be excised." "They'll brand you a traitor."
"What matter a title?" Said Sarutobi. "Even as Hokage is a title, so too is traitor... And what I do, I do for the survival of Konoha, no matter what others think on the surface. To be a ninja is to see the secrets within the secrets, and regardless of my legacy, I shall protect Konoha as best I can."
Enma noded and vanished, and moments later, Sarutobi left the building as well.
Konoha slumbered on- none would find the bodies until morning.
End Interlude.
AN: Not as sudden as you think. If you don't understand immediately, go back and reread the other chapters- I've been dropping hints for a while now. To those of you who saw it coming, well, I'll admit subtlety is not my strong point. Hope you enjoy chapter twelve when it's released.
-AXENOME