(A/N) Oh? what's this? An update that's what :D (please don't yell at me for the wait I swear I meant to update this sooner lol)
Also, please tell me if I got the ages/timeline right cus' I'm still not entirely sure about either.
So, more is revealed this chapter about what's going on in the timeline and what the boys' plans are but have patience if you have any confusion as this is only the 4th chapter and not all the details have been explained. You guys are as much in the dark as the characters XD
Warnings: Er, does Orochimaru count as a warning?
Read, review, and enjoy!
Hiei signaled to the other ANBU captain to circle around their targets' base. The silver-haired teen nodded and vanished with the rest of his team.
The two teams had been sent to follow the Sannin, Orochimaru, whose actions had been getting increasingly more troubling since the Kyuubi's attack.
The Hokage had seemed very weary when he gave the two captains their orders.
Now, the ANBU, Hokage, and the other Sannin, Jiraiya, were closing in on the private labs Orochimaru had sequestered on the outskirts of the village.
The entrance was blatant, the Sannin having had full permission from the Hokage to do his research. Hiei could see the Third stealing himself against what he might find inside.
With a slow intake of breath, the Hokage set Wolf's squad on the perimeter as a secondary defense. Hiei's squad was sent in before their leader to scope out any traps in the way.
He could already smell the rot and decay, though it hadn't yet become obvious to the others with less sensitive noses- the only one capable of detecting it beside himself on this mission being Wolf. Hiei signed this information to the others before continuing on. He couldn't help the ironic smile that formed behind his mask. Yusuke and Kurama had had far from a few doubts that he would be able to properly coexist with a group of humans, not to mention lead them.
Well, his group of humans had grown on him. They were much less annoying than a civilian and knew how to take orders and work as a cohesive, competent unit. That was more than he could say for the old Tantei, who hadn't been able to go five minutes without arguing with each other or complaining about something.
They came to a split in the underground building and Hiei sent two of his team off in one direction and the other half in the other with orders to search for condemning information. This left himself, the Hokage, and the Sannin to take the middle path, coincidentally from where the smell was the strongest.
He could see the Sannin growing more uncomfortable as they breached further into the base. Hiei knew the white-haired man had been teammates with Orochimaru- and the Hokage their Jonin sensei.
He scowled. They could easily be blinded by their previous loyalties and that could only complicate things.
They came to a steel door, all the more foreboding in its simplicity. Hiei nodded to the Hokage and shoved the door open, ready to jump back in the case of traps.
The three entered the room and froze. Hiei could hear a muffled choke from Jiraiya. Lining the walls were a number of grotesque mutilated bodies; they were clearly the missing people. This was from where the smell permitted. And at the center of it all was the snake Sannin himself, still standing over a body as if he hadn't even heard them enter.
Hiei could see the Third tense beside him and pulled out his blade for the inevitable fight; he waited for his orders.
At the sound of the blade being pulled free, Orochimaru looked up and finally appeared to notice the crowd, "ahh, sensei. Jiraiya. I wondered if you would ever come here. I'm glad you seemed to have made it unscathed passed my traps."
He spared a brief glance at Hiei but dismissed him as unimportant.
"What is the meaning of this, Orochimaru?" The Hokage knew what he was looking at; he just couldn't believe it of his favored student.
"Research, of course, as you gave me permission to do," his smile declared he had full knowledge of the perverse loophole he'd slithered through.
"What could you possibly be researching that required butchering Konoha citizens?" Jiraiya shouted at his former teammate.
At this point Hiei sent a silent radio message, (they'd set up a coded system that didn't require actually talking through the thing so as to preserve radio silence using a form of Morse code), to his squad telling them to reconvene. He received a response from the first team of Deer and Tiger but the second was quiet. Hiei narrowed his eyes, they couldn't possibly have fallen to any of the traps, unless... that path may have contained more of the Sannin's important experiments or notes.
He brought his attention fully back to the conversation- that he'd only been listening to half-heartedly; after all, you've heard one evil overlord monologue you've heard them all.
He'd stopped listening after Sensui.
They seemed to be finished talking anyway and Hiei saw the Hokage's signal to attack. He grinned; it was about time. He darted forwards, sword flashing out and at Orochimaru's middle. The body Hiei sliced through was the one Orochimaru had been cutting open and Hiei growled. He'd switched with it and had probably been planning that move from the start; else he'd have never dodged Hiei.
He cracked the Jagan open a bit and hastily jumped back, cursing inwardly, "Hokage, he's not here, that's a clone."
Their radios crackled to life and the team they'd left up top alerted them to the escaping Sannin.
"Dammit, Orochimaru!" Jiraiya shouted at the sickly grinning clone before sharply turning and giving chase.
The Hokage tried to stop him but the suddenly attacking clone kept him busy. Hiei determined that there was nothing available for switching with before resuming his assault, careful to work around the Third.
He saw his moment when the Third forced Orochimaru into a hasty skip backwards with some relentless taijutsu. Hiei appeared at the Sannin's back and thrust the sword through his heart.
The clone collapsed into mud, leaving the two fighters to collect themselves. Hiei slid his sword away, watching the Hokage's haggard expression without comment.
The old leader sighed as if he were the one defeated, "Go find the rest of your squad, Monkey, and report back here. We will leave Orochimaru to Jiraiya and instead clean out this base."
He flung his arm out in dismissal and Hiei was gone.
"You had so much potential, Orochimaru. Where did I go wrong?"
Hiei drifted back through the hallway and nodded at Deer and Tiger when they joined him, "Ox and Lamb haven't responded yet. We're going to assume they were compromised and proceed with caution."
They made their way back to the split in the hallways and turned down the path to the right. Hiei kept his Jagan open, scanning for any hidden traps. He spotted a few dismantled ones his ANBU must have found and a few open doors to empty rooms. Through this all he felt the ground begin to slant downwards the farther they went until he was sure they were beyond the original building's specifications.
'The snake must have dug this using an earth jutsu.'
It wasn't until he came to a single door, partially left open, at the end of the hallway that he slowed to a stop. The demon strained his already keen hearing and, not sensing anything, opened the door fully.
He clenched his jaw to keep the shock from showing, feeling the remainder of his team tensing minutely as they surveyed the room.
It was filled with children, at least sixty of them. All were in states of some type of mutation that left them with what looked like wood forming from their bodies. Most were in test tubes, some were laid out on tables and others simply left on the floor in corners.
That was when Hiei spotted Ox and Lamb. They were both lying on the ground before a tube at the back of the room and looked to still be breathing. He cautiously approached, watchful for what had knocked them out.
When nothing moved at him by the time he reached the tube, he crouched down to check his comatose squad mates' conditions.
"They appear to just be unconscious," Hiei frowned in consternation, why were they unconscious?
Then he glanced up at the blue, softly glowing tube and realized the child inside was still alive.
He swore inwardly and reached out to find the tube's release mechanism. His fingers froze centimeters from the glass surface when his eyes detected the faint seals carved into the glass and sudden comprehension dawned on him.
"Deer, Tiger. They were knocked out when they touched the tube. Bring them back to the surface and take them to the hospital, then return here to search the lab."
They left and Hiei spared the eerie tube a solemn glance, then sprinted back through the passage towards the Hokage.
When he reached the room the other ANBU squad was there collecting samples and storing them in seal-scrolls. He found the Third standing near the desk at the far wall, shifting through the notes left there.
He tilted his head in respect when he gained the man's attention before relaying his information, "You may want to come with me, Hokage, my team found something that requires your attention."
They and two from Wolf's group went back to the basement room. Hiei gave them a brief summary along the way, then mentioned the reason he'd asked for the Hokage: the seals.
He may have been able to disable them himself- though that was more Kurama's thing- but he preferred to leave a matter as delicate as this to someone else.
They arrived at the room. Hiei watched in muted interest as the Hokage's face turned to one of horrified recognition at the sight of the wood mutations.
"This can't be," he murmured. A few of the ANBU shot quick glances to each other, conveying their confusion.
Hiei just began walking back to the tube, hoping the others would follow without him needing to say anything. They did, thankfully.
There were sharp gasps from the group who hadn't expected someone to still be alive and the Hokage set to work on the seals. The seals themselves were altogether uncomplicated. Hiei surmised the Sannin either hadn't expected or cared whether someone wanted to open the container and had only set a basic paralysis seal in defense.
A moment later a still unconscious pre-teen slumped out of his containment cell, shivering and choking on the liquid that had surrounded him.
The two from Wolf's squad quickly bundled up the trembling form and transported away.
Hiei was left with the Third to go over the room. The excitement was over, it seemed. All that needed dong was the tedious task of taking inventory of the base.
"Let's begin then."
Hiei nodded and set to work.
Kurama settled himself comfortably into a fluffy chair near the back of the library.
He lightly plucked a book off the stack he'd collected and set at his feet and began to indulge in one of his more favored pastimes: reading.
Reading was his job, seeing as neither Hiei nor Yusuke could bring themselves to waste time on books when they could be doing better things- although their definition of "better" was broadened to "anything but reading".
The fox had been the one to make his way through the history of Konoha, and everything else that might help them blend in better. Hiei could always take the information from somebody's mind but all too often people didn't even know for themselves everything the three dimension-hoppers needed.
He was currently browsing through clan histories- and what they said about the Hyuuga was only slightly terrifying, (a.k.a. very disturbing)- and wondering how such interesting mutations had occurred.
A soft sound alerted him to the fact that he was no longer alone. He smiled behind his bangs, unhurriedly flipping to another page; ironically summarizing the Uchiha clan.
A small child looking to be about five years old with short black hair and the crest of the Uchiha gracing his shirt peeked out from behind a bookshelf at the redhead. By the amount of chakra he had Kurama would place him at Chunin or high Genin, very talented for his age and probably one of the last in generation of wartime prodigies. The poor Uchiha was trying for emotionless but hadn't yet gained the required experience in guarding his expressions and his hesitance showed through.
Finally, Kurama looked up, smiling gently at the boy, "Yes? Was there something you wanted?"
Seeing he was caught out, the boy emerged from behind the shelf and pointed at Kurama's book stack, "You've got one of the books I was looking for..." He trailed off, his eyes darting to the side when he couldn't finish the question.
Kurama's smile widened, "And which book would that be?"
"A History of War and Peace in the Shinobi World." His finger indicated the third book down.
Kurama gave the incredibly thick book a brief glance before pulling it out of the pile and handing it to the young shinobi, "Why would you want to read this book? It doesn't look like very light reading."
The boy paused before answering, probably not used to talking to others outside of his clan and team, "I want to know if it's possible, peace, that is."
The age-old fox could see how badly the child wanted to believe in the ideal of peace. But he had never seen such a thing long-term and told the boy so.
But, "I have seen happiness. Even in times of war we can be happy. We just have to work for it and fight to protect it from those who would see us unhappy. That's the truth of the world."
The boy frowned and looked like he wanted to argue but decided against it. Instead he thanked him for the book and left Kurama to go back to his reading.
'Odd child, but very interesting.'
He turned his eyes back to where he'd left off in the book, mind now thinking about the Uchiha. The few that came to his shop seemed to him to be regular shinobi, albeit with an unusual eye dojutsu.
He had only seen it once and had been intrigued ever since.
When the shinobi had had it activated, he'd felt an odd pulling sensation on his mind that sent off warning bells. The fox had been able to ignore it but the fact that it had such an unheard of effect on him when he wasn't even the shinobi's target was worrisome.
He'd done as much research as he could and had asked Hiei to do some of his own research but nothing had come up.
Kurama knew he was limited by the fact that he wasn't a shinobi and was thus restricted to the civilian area of the library. He also knew the Uchiha kept their clan secrets close and it was likely even fewer of them knew the very best kept ones.
He'd just have to keep searching, something would come up that could answer his question.
If nothing else, he would get through the entire library and know enough to begin his plan to release the Kyuubi.
(A/N) So? Good? Bad? Funny? Boring? Let me know :)