Team 7: A Retelling
By: Tellemicus Sundance
#11: Citadel by the Mountain

Rikuzentakata, near Mt. Akago
Five days later, late evening…

The citadel of Rikuzentakata hadn't always been such. It had once started out a humble village in the valley beside Mt. Akago in a region of disputed lands. Centuries before the ninja villages were formed, the lands of Hi and Yu quarreled over the ownership of Mt. Akago, and thus the village. It wasn't until the Hi Daimyo sent one of his most trusted Shogun to the village and built it up into the powerful citadel that it now was. After only a few minor skirmishes against the then ninja of Yu, Mt. Akago officially became Hi no Kuni's northeastern border. The stewardship of the citadel had since been passed down the generations of the original Shogun's family line.

It was dinnertime at a small café in the market of the city. A group of three children were having a quiet meal as they ate. It was such a mundane scene that none of the other customers paid them much more than a passing glance, which was just what the three wanted. They purposely didn't lean towards one another and start whispering, since whispers had a disconcerting ability to be noticed and overheard. They just casually ate their rice, roasted fish, and small glasses of water. In fact, given the rowdy commotion that most of the other customers doing, they were practically invisible.

Team 7 had arrived at this citadel just the previous day and immediately began scouting out the area. Only now were they meeting together to share their findings. Tellingly, none of them wore anything to mark them as Konoha ninja or ninja in general to the general populace. Only an experienced fighter who knew the signs to look for would be able to see that they were born, bred, and highly-trained fighters.

"This city's under some heavy surveillance," Sasuke said as he idly chewed some rice. "On every street, upon every rooftop, and all the surrounding walls, I've seen armed and armored guards patrolling. And all of them are carrying some kind of spear-like weapon of a design I don't recognize."

"Me too," Sakura added in, sipping her cup of water calmly. "I've tried to talk to some of the residents about it but they always clammed up and change the subject onto other things. I've also peeked into the school. Many of the children are being trained in swordsmanship and the samurai virtues. And, unless I'm mistaken, they're being taught that all ninja are evil-incarnate."

"And the palace is locked up tight," Naruto said, putting in his own research with a calmness that was almost unnatural. "Guards man the walls all day, every day. The gates are closed unless for special visitors who have a pass signed and stamped by the Shogun or someone of similar stature. And the guards don't seem to be afraid of using brute force to keep unwanted or unscheduled visitors away."

Sasuke and Sakura just stared blankly at Naruto for a few moments before the Uchiha finally asked, "Do we want to know how you came across this information?"

Naruto just grinned cheekily. "Probably not."

Quietly thinking on these discoveries, Sakura sighed as she said, "I think this mission is above our pay grade…again."

"This is easily an A-Class subterfuge mission," Sasuke agreed, his face strictly neutral to hide the smug satisfaction he was feeling. Quickly turning serious before his teammates caught on, he continued, "However, it does seem that there's something foul happening here. Maybe the Daimyo's suspicions may have not been entirely unwarranted after all."

His teammates nodded in agreement. Stealing a couple of scrolls among many may have been a relatively easy mission, but this apparent cult of the Shogun's and the man's seeming paranoia towards all things ninja had just made this incredibly harder to pull off. Add in the fact that this Shogun was some type of revolutionary weapons designer who'd most assuredly have his own specially designed and installed defenses around said scrolls… Yeah, this was definitely an A-Class mission. Why the Hi Daimyo felt that it was only worth a C-Class was anyone's guess.

"Did you happen to learn anything about the Shogun's scrolls while you scoping out the palace, Naruto?" Sasuke asked, picking at a piece of fish.

Humming in acknowledgement, Naruto's frown was easily noticeable to his friends. "It turns out that the Shogun keeps all his designs locked away in an underground vault in his warehouse down by the river. And that the only way to open the vault's door is with three keys hidden somewhere or on someone in the city. My guess is that the Shogun himself and the captain of the guard each have one, but I don't know about the third."

"That does pose as a problem," Sasuke acknowledged thoughtfully.

Then, with a loud cry and crash, a large armored body was thrown through the air and landed upon their table. As the man's weight crushed the table and scattered their meals, all of Team 7 shouted out in anger at the rude disturbance to their meal and discussion. But none of the other patrons or the man himself paid any attention, merely continuing with the rowdy brawl that had broken out during their conversation. Ducking back behind another table, Naruto knocked it over and crouched behind his impromptu shield, joined quickly by his teammates.

As he was peeking over the table's edge, quickly ducking back under as a discarded plate flew overhead, an idea hit him. "I've got an idea."

"What is it?" Sakura asked, her attention mostly on the fight and sighing in relief as a team of city guards finally arrived to break up the fight.

"I'll get arrested," Naruto said, ignoring his friends' disbelieving glances as he continued. "Then, while they're focused on me, you guys can search the palace and get the keys. I'll break out of jail and join you after the guard captain comes by to interrogate me."

"You know, as ideas go—" Sasuke was momentarily distracted as a knifepoint shot through the upturned tabletop mere inches from his face. "—that is easily one of your worst ones yet."

"Do you have any better ones?" Naruto demanded as he stood up and stepped away from them, preparing to join the fray. Seeing their annoyed, defeated head shakes, Naruto grinned widely, "Don't worry, I'll see you guys at the after-party tomorrow night." Turning to the still raging fight between the drunkards and the guards, he shot forward yelling, "LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED, BABY!" Promptly decking a guard in the jaw and disappearing into the maelstrom of fighting bodies.

Quickly gathering up what little of their meal they could, the other two quickly ducked out of the side door and started walking away. They were completely ignored by the fresh wave of guards who were rushing forward to the café to break up the fight.

"I really hate it when we have to work with Naruto's half-assed ideas like this," Sakura grumbled.

"At least we're not crawling through the sewers again," Sasuke pointed out. Turning to Sakura, he said, "Naruto called dibs on the captain. I'll work on the Shogun. If my guess is right, the third person with the key is probably someone who's close to the Shogun, maybe a servant or a concubine."

Nodding easily, Sakura and Sasuke quickly turned and walked away at unhurried paces, disappearing into the crowds.

Unnoticed by the trio of conspiring ninja or the brawling crowd, a man dressed in common civilian clothes sat at the back of the diner and had witnessed their interactions the entire time. But because he seemed to have the majority of his attention focused on his own meal and the orange book in the hand, no one had noticed him.

"Devious and resourceful little brats," the man said to himself. His name was Bekkou, Chuunin of Konohagakure, and the observer selected to oversee Team 7's performance.

On the surface, they acted like many other genin teams, childish and undisciplined. Yet once they got started on the actual mission, they had transformed into rather impressive ninja, almost like experienced shinobi. When they'd split up after arriving at Rikuzentakata, he made sure to briefly observe each of them in turn while hiding from the city guards. But, despite his modest attempt, he was quite sure that the Uchiha had almost sensed his presence. Probably around the time that he realized just what kind of situation the citadel was in and the considerable number of guards and soldiers that were filling the streets.

"Scared me for a moment there," Bekkou said to himself at the memory. Then an almost spiteful grin crossed his face as he mumbled, "Maybe there is some truth in Kakashi's bragging about his team's prowess." Looking down at the orange book in his hands, a flush crossed his face as a quiet chuckle forced its way out. "And his taste in literature isn't that bad either."

"IS THAT THE BEST YOU LOSERS CAN DO?!" an all-too-familiar loud voice yelled from the midst of the fight. "COME ON! YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT, CAN'T YOU?!"

Looking at the fight that was, despite Naruto's best efforts, starting to wind down, Bekkou couldn't help but frown at the numerous guards that were present. All of them bore the same strange weapon. The fact that he didn't recognize it was enough to put him on edge. He didn't like the feeling of repressed aggression he was picking up in the guards and soldiers of this city either. It was like they were all trained to become ferocious beasts and were preparing to march out to war within a few days.

That was something else he didn't like about this mission. When the Hokage had explained the mission to him, he had said that the Daimyo felt that the Shogun was starting to grow too ambitious. The Daimyo wanted to remind the Shogun of 'his place in the world' without issuing an assassination order was the original reasoning behind this mission's C-ranking. But it would seem that the Shogun was either more ambitious than the Daimyo gave him credit for or the Daimyo's information of the Shogun's activities was horribly out-of-date.

A loud explosion of sound instantly distracted Bekkou from his thoughts, causing his attention to snap to the source of the noise instantly with his hand reaching towards his concealed weapons pouch on instinct. There, outside of the diner, stood at least twenty guards, all leveling their weapons into the crowd threateningly. Standing at the forefront of the line was a samurai who was holding his own, smaller version, weapon aloft. And the source of the loud noise quickly became apparent that it had come from the weapon, if the large but quickly dissipating smoke cloud was anything to go by.

"That's enough!" the samurai yelled, authority clear in his voice. "Cease and desist or you will be detained for severe corporal punishment!"

"Holy hell!" Naruto yelled as he pointed accusingly at the samurai, drawing everyone's attentions. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT THING?!"

"And who are you?" the samurai demanded, his annoyance quite obvious.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto answered immediately, without even batting an eye. "What the hell is that thing, some kind of 'boom-boom stick'? And why the hell'd you have to go and ruin the party?! It was just getting good!"

The samurai just stared coolly at the chatting blonde, waiting patiently for him to run out of steam. Bekkou could tell by the slight narrowing of his eyes that the samurai had quickly noticed the defined muscles, well-held and balanced stance, and callouses in the boy's hands. The samurai probably already knew what the blonde was.

"Arrest him!" the samurai ordered to his men, confirming Bekkou's suspicions.

Naruto's indignant yelp and leap to freedom to dodge the approaching guards only confirmed the samurai's suspicions. Especially considering that the boy had jumped over three meters straight into the air and was now hanging by one hand from a window sill above them. "What the hell is that for? I didn't do anything wrong! Why're you trying to arrest me, ya topknot pussy?!" If the situation wasn't so tense, Bekkou might've chuckled at the blonde's potty mouth.

"Make ready!" the samurai called out to his men behind him. All of the guards pointed their strange weapons at the blonde, who just stared questioningly down at the line. It took all of Bekkou's self-control to not shout at the blonde and order him to dodge what was obviously going to be an attack. "Fire!"

A series of loud explosions and puffs of smoke shot out of the ends of the hollow weapons. Due entirely to his experienced eye from years of ninja training, Bekkou could see a number of round projectiles get launched out of the weapons at high-speeds. Speeds that even some of the most experienced ninja could scarcely hope to match. The barrage of projectiles slammed into the blonde, who cried out in pain from being riddled with lead balls…

…and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Wow!" Naruto's voice called from the rooftop of a shop on the other side of the street. The collection of guards and samurai turned and stared in surprise up at the blonde, all of them wondering just how he'd managed to get there without them noticing (Bekkou was among them as well). Sitting upon the edge of the roof in a leisure position, Naruto continued, "So that's what those things do! You know, you really shouldn't point those things at people. You might hurt someone or give them the wrong idea!"

"GET HIM!" the samurai yelled at the guards, who were hurriedly trying to reload their weapons. "Arrest him!"

Bekkou couldn't help but shake his head as he finally stood up and moved to leave. Naruto clearly had things well in hand here. Perhaps it was time to see what the other two were up to.

Rikuzentakata Hot Springs
Two hours later…

It had taken a bit of time for Sakura, but she finally felt confident that she'd found her target. After she'd split from Sasuke, Sakura had quickly traveled to the palace. She didn't try to enter it, that'd have been risky and unnecessary. Instead, she climbed up a high tower near the palace walls and put a bit of chakra into her eyes to sharpen her eyesight. Her vantage point gave Sakura a surprising amount of visibility of the interior.

Thirty minutes into her survey, she watched as Naruto was escorted in chains into the dungeons. 'Only thirty minutes? Naruto-kun must've gotten bored of them trying to catch him,' she thought amusedly to herself before returning her attention to the palace itself.

She watched the Shogun go about his usual late night activities, paying particularly close attention to how he treated his servants and concubines. In her observations, she saw that there were two particular concubines that the man seemed to favor above all others. One was an attractive redhead and the other was a staggeringly beautiful brunette. It was a gamble, but she was putting her money on the brunette.

That was why Sakura had followed her once she left the palace. The woman was apparently considered almost like royalty among the populace who greeted her reverently and warmly. After the woman browsed through what few market stands were still open for business at the late hour, she finally headed to the public hot springs. This was a golden opportunity that Sakura just couldn't miss.

She followed the woman inside, languishing in the comforting waters for a few minutes as she studied the woman to make sure she wasn't hiding the key on her person, which she wasn't. Then, after a sufficient amount of time had passed, she casually pulled herself out, dried and excused herself, heading for the dressing room. Dressing quickly, she rifled through the concubine's clothing and found what she was looking for in a hidden interior pocket. Sakura smiled demurely as she walked away from the building. Bouncing lightly in her pocket was a very strange-looking key, the one that she'd filched out of the concubine's clothes.

In a way, Sakura felt almost annoyed at how easy her theft went. She really wanted to push herself as a ninja. But this particular job had been so easy, it was pathetic. It had been much, much easier than her 'training' back in Konoha had been!

Sighing, she turned and walked into the shadows. Once safely cloaked in their comforting darkness, she leapt up into the branches of a nearby tree before flinging herself out onto the nearest building's rooftop. Navigating buildings in the dark was never easy, especially if you were trying to remain hidden and incognito. Thankfully, at this hour of the night, most of the people on the streets had retired to their homes and, excluding a rare few, most people rarely ever looked up.

Spotting a canal up ahead, Sakura grinned when she saw a rather familiar shadow hidden upon a lamppost that was nestled near the canal. As she was approaching him, Sakura noticed what he was staring at so intently. There, floating leisurely down the canal, was a rather extravagant boat. It was clearly a personal boat of some high official. There were two men manning separate oars that were gently guiding it through the canal waters, an armored guard standing on the bow, and a small structure towards the stern that had semi-transparent drapes concealing the interior. Even from where she was standing, Sakura could hear the girly squeals of a lady in ecstasy. The boat was lazily drifting downriver, unknowingly approaching a ruthless predator.

'Oh no,' Sakura thought as she slowed and came to a halt on a tall building that was overlooking the entire scene. 'Is he going to do what I think he's going to do?'

To her morbid fascination, the red-eyed predator launched himself off the lamppost like a hawk taking flight. Silent as a shadow, he fell before landing upon the guard at the bow, a kunai sinking into the back of the man's neck as he knocked him over and off the side of the boat. The impact jostled the entire boat haphazardly. The two oarsmen were quick to jump up, unsheathing katana and rushing towards the small assailant. Snatching up the fallen guard's discarded naginata, he swept it forward with a chakra-enhanced swing and knocked the two katana from the oarsmen's grasps and into the canal.

Continuing with his swing, Sasuke lashed out with the long handle of the pole weapon, tripping his opponents. With one hand, he grabbed one man and heaved him overboard where he quickly disappeared below the waters. As he was doing this, he exposed his back to the other oarsman who drew a dagger and tried to charge the boy. But Sasuke merely jabbed the butt of the pole back and slammed it into the man's face. The blow stunned him more than long enough for Sasuke to kick him hard in the crotch and gently nudge the crippled man off the other side of the boat as well.

Erupting from behind the curtains was the Shogun, Oda Nobunaga. He was a middle aged man, currently half-dressed, with a samurai topknot tied atop his head. With a wild swing, he tried to cleave Sasuke's head off with his katana. Using his Sharingan, Sasuke easily ducked under the slash, grabbed the extended arm, and pulled, dunking Nobunaga's head over the edge of the boat and into the water. After several moments of having Nobunaga struggle to lift his head out of the water and free his captured arm, Sasuke finally relented and allowed the Shogun to gasp up some air.

"What do you want?" the Shogun demanded in a feeble voice after his gasp for air.

"The key," Sasuke said shortly.

"N…Never!" Nobunaga promptly found himself dunked under the surface again for his defiance.

Hearing a slight rustling of clothes nearby, Sasuke swept the naginata to the side, jabbing its bladed end towards the face of the attractive, nude redheaded concubine. It was a wise choice since she quickly froze in place, the dagger in her hand raised threateningly in the air.

"Don't," Sasuke advised coldly. "That'd be a terrible career choice." The woman nodded hesitantly as she started shaking in fear, dropping the dagger before returning to her place behind the curtains.

Lifting the drowning Shogun out of the water again as he struggles began to weaken, Sasuke almost smiled when Nobunaga reached in his clothes and withdrew a key. "Y-You mean th-this key?" he whimpered pitifully.

Snatching the key, Sasuke idly whacked Nobunaga behind the head and sent him tumbling overboard. Discarding the naginata, he jumped off the boat and walked lazily ashore across the canal's surface.

"You enjoyed that," Sakura said in an exasperated voice as she dropped down beside him.

Sasuke returned her accusation with a sneer that was entirely too pleased with himself. "Maybe…"

Rikuzentakata Dungeon
The next morning…

"…zzzz…Ramen…zzzz…" the chained blonde mumbled lovingly in his sleep. How the boy could possibly sleep when he was chained in an upright, standing position with his arms suspended in the air by a pair of chains dangling out of the walls was anybody's guess. Still the boy slept on. "…zzzz…"

Marching into the torture chamber that the boy was being held in came four men in armor and armed with swords and their muskets. Among the four were Shogun Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Captain of the Guard. Though normally he was dressed in extravagant robes, this morning Nobunaga wore his more comfortable light armor and was carrying both his katana and wakizashi.

Nobunaga was many things, but stupid was not one of them. After the theft last night of his personal key to his weapons vault, Nobunaga had realized that his citadel had been infiltrated without his knowledge and he'd immediately put all his guards on high-alert. The fact that the thief had been a young boy made it entirely too obvious that he was being plotted against by a team of ninja, genin most likely. Though he had yet to hear from his concubine, Kitsuno, but he was certain that her key had also been stolen or gone missing. All remained was Toyotomi-san's key to be stolen before the damn ninja could safely enter his vault, which was why he'd ordered the younger man to remain close to him at all times.

Alas, Nobunaga was entirely positive that this miscreant child that his guards had captured in a pub brawl last night was one of the ninja who'd come to ruin him.

"Wake up, gaki!" one of the guards ordered as he hit the blonde kid in the side of the face.

"Awww!" the child whined impetuously as his eyes opened and filled with awareness. "Why'd you have to go and wake me up now?! I was just about to get to the part where I took a swan-dive into the biggest—"

"Silence!" the guards barked as they stepped to the sides, allowing Nobunaga to approach the captive with Toyotomi at his back. "You're in the presence of Shogun Oda Nobunaga-sama! Show some respect to the man who's going to be deciding your fate!"

The blonde turned the brightest set of blue eyes Nobunaga had ever seen onto him, taking in his appearance with a mere glance. "Hey, old man! Could you tell these bastards to let me go already? My arms are starting to go numb!" Either the blonde was a master manipulator or he was a disrespectful fool who blatantly ignored the scowl of anger that crossed the Shogun's face at the 'old man' remark.

"I expected more from a ninja brat," Nobunaga snapped, glaring coldly at the blonde. The blonde just gave an exaggerated bow as best he could from his shackled position. "I don't suppose you could just tell me where I might find your three teammates? Then we can simply skip the weeks-long torture I'm planning to put you through to get the information." As he was speaking, Nobunaga moved off to the side where there was a table covered in various instruments meant to cause extreme pain and torture.

"Uh…three teammates?" the blonde said, cocking his head in confusion. "I don't know where you get your information, but Uzumaki Naruto works alone!" That comment caused all four of his captors to smirk or quietly chuckle. No ninja ever worked alone, unless they had a death wish.

"Young ninja, you are very, very arrogant," Nobunaga said, instantly suppressing his amusement at his cocky captive. "And foolish. It's a wonder my samurai took so long to catch you."

"Haha! No, you didn't! Hehehe!" the blonde laughed, giggling almost uncontrollably at the last remark.

"I beg your pardon," Nobunaga said, turning to look back at the blonde.

"You didn't…catch me." Even as he said it, the blonde's cocky, jovial attitude vanished as an air of concentrated focus enveloped him.

"And just what are you doing here?" Nobunaga asked, somewhat snidely.

"Catching you," the blonde said with complete seriousness.

This comment caused the Shogun and his samurai to laugh out at the arrogant ninja. Nobunaga knew that most ninja were quite strong, but that strength only came when they focused their chakra. Thus, with his arms held apart and preventing him from forming handseals, Nobunaga felt every bit as confident as his men that the blonde was just bluffing.

Grabbing the chains that held him prisoner, the blonde gave a mighty yank, pulling the chains and their anchors forcefully out of the walls and instantly freeing him. Quickly, the blonde brought his hands together into a handseal and ten identical clones of the blonde popped into existence.

Nobunaga was not a fool. He knew when he was outmatched. That was especially true considering that he had not been in a battle for over ten years and had foolishly let him skills and strength deteriorate as he focused more time on his research and inventions. It was for these reasons that he quickly turned and fled back up the stairs, out of the dungeon to sound the alarm, and leaving his three men to their fates of being pummeled or killed at the hands of the freed ninja.

And, indeed, none of them lasted more than a few minutes before Naruto slipped away, the third and final key in his pocket.

Outside the Palace

Bekkou was leaning against the corner of a shop down the street, nonchalantly chewing on a piece of venison jerky as he watched the crowd of people going about their morning rituals. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched and listened to the commotion that was starting to take place in the palace.

Then, as one last cart was allowed to cross the threshold before the gates were slammed shut, he saw a familiar blonde dash out of the shadows and slip underneath it. Had he blinked for a mere second, he'd have missed the smooth transition as Naruto expertly positioned and held himself to offer as minimum a profile as possible. The gate guards were either untrained rookies or quite complacent because they didn't spare the cart anything more than a cursory glance into the empty back before allowing it to leave unmolested.

Despite himself, Bekkou shook his head in exasperation at the guards. They must've known they were holding a ninja captive and they didn't even consider altering their normal routines to take into account the unexpected? That was naïve stupidity on their part, and one of the reasons why ninja thrived in most parts of the Elemental Nations.

Continuing his observation, he saw that Naruto waited for the horse-drawn cart to be pulled several city blocks away from the citadel before he decided to flee his impromptu escape vehicle. Quickly sliding out from underneath it and into a nearby alley before anyone noticed, he waited a few seconds before calmly exiting the alley and joining the crowd, disappearing within it quickly.

"That kid's crazy," Bekkou commented to himself, shaking his head in exasperation. "But I suppose if he wasn't, this little scheme wouldn't have ever worked so smoothly."

Sunagakure
Same time…

The blazing sunlight of early morning did nothing to offer reassurance and even less for a promise of a new day. But what it did do was something that Kakashi just couldn't help but immensely grateful for. It threw up a blinding light that caused his opponents to flinch back out of reflex as their eyes attempted to adjust. It caused the faintest of hesitations in their unified assault. A hesitation that cost them dearly as Kakashi charged forward and rammed his Chidori through the torsos of three consecutive ninja.

Feeling the heat of an approaching Shakuton jutsu, Kakashi put on a burst of speed and sprinted ahead, dodging the flaming magatama by the barest of margins. Seeing a protective rock outcropping a short distance away, he made a dive for it, rolling across its sandy surface and tucking into a ball as he crouched behind it. A split second later, a momentary flare of light and a wave of heat told him that his magatama had impacted with the rock and exploded on contact, sparing him a gruesome fate.

"This is getting intense," he muttered to himself as he peeked over the rock with his Sharingan to survey the battlefield.

As far as battles go, this one was comparatively tame in comparison to the massacres he'd seen in the Third Ninja War. But he had to admit that the Shakuton clan was putting up a surprisingly strong fight and was regularly able to repel most advances that the Konoha and Suna task force made. Even though all they were fighting for was a mound of rocks, the 'mound' held one of the few natural water springs that Kaze no Kuni had access to. With a steady source of water, those ninja could hold out for weeks at a time, even in the desert.

"Kakashi-senpai!" a voice called out. Glancing over, Kakashi caught sight of the Suna-nin, a puppeteer from the looks of it. "We're falling back! Kazekage-sama wants to try another negotiation."

"Hai!" Kakashi responded as he quickly joined the Suna-nin and made his own escape. As he fled with the rest of the assault force, Kakashi couldn't help but sigh in relief. Thank goodness his cute little genin didn't have to see carnage like this yet.

(Author's Note) Shout out to animefan29 and BandGeekNinja for helping me with this chapter. I deeply appreciate all the help you've given me, guys!

So, who can guess just what kinds of weapons those samurai and soldiers are using? I'd be greatly surprised if no one could guess correctly! Especially if no one can see which movie reference I used in this chapter.