Chapter Eight - "Night of a Thousand Sighs"
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This chapter is an intermission chapter of sorts, with POV from four different characters that should help set the stage for the next little bit of drama in the story, as well as showing the perspective of other characters that need some time to shine in the spotlight, and who will eventually become a lot more important. Originally there was going to be a fifth scene, but I decided that the character who it was about shouldn't show up until a little later on.
The way I wrote the endings to each scene might be a bit iffy - if you don't like it, suggest something! I do edit my chapters and add some new lines from time to time, as well as the occasional new scene, so don't be afraid to click that review button.
UPDATE: As of December 28th, 2009, an extra fifth scene has been added.
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Hiruzen Sarutobi leafed through the report that he had just received from Kakashi, and his face took on a murderous look as he perused the papers he had already read through twice before.
In the past two years, the Hidden Leaf Village had lost fourteen full genin teams on missions, in addition to the countless single fatalities. Of course, there were always casualties out on the battlefields with the inexperienced younger ninjas (he could remember the day that the Yondaime, while still a Hokage-elect, had come in demoralized by the loss of the Uchiha on his team), but these numbers seemed to have skyrocketed in comparison to the past.
And now this. Kakashi's team had been ambushed by an A-Class missing ninja. Kakashi himself was at death's door, and was only saved by the intervention of a Kumo ninja, and the special drugs he had been given by Tsunade a decade and a half ago in case of a situation like the one he had reported being in. If not for that, then the village could have lost the Uchiha heir and their jinchuuriki (and unwitting Hokage's son).
The Sandaime pursed his lips together. It was a little known fact, for security reasons of course, but in the regular ninja hierachy in Konoha, there were two ranks in between Jonin and Hokage. First, there was the Elite Jonin rank - this was awarded to shinobi who had skills above and beyond the normal jonin, who would rank as high A-Rank in the Bingo Book. An Elite Jonin had authority that superseded most ANBU, with the exception of the elite Black Ops members, certain squad captains, and the ANBU Commander. They were the men who would dictate orders during a full-scale battle or war. Only six ninja held this rank at the moment, one of which was Kakashi, another of which was Maito Gai, and a third was Nara Shikaku. Above that was the rank of High Jonin, which was only given to ninjas who ranked at the very least a low S-Class, and whose orders could only be contradicted by the Hokage himself. Jiraiya of the Sannin, the ANBU Head Commander, and the Black Ops Commander were the only ones who held that ranking currently; in the case the Hokage was incapacitated, any one of the three could step up and temporarily control the village until a new Hokage was selected if the previous Hokage had yet to select one. Only the people Sarutobi could really trust held that ranking, otherwise the potential for the abuse of power was mind-boggling.
But that was getting away from the subject. Hatake should have been easily able to wipe the floor with Shirosuna no Hakko, who was classified as only a low A-Ranking nukenin. Instead, he had nearly died. Sarutobi would give the man a tongue-lashing when he got home, before ordering him to get a regular eye implant. Kakashi had relied on his Sharingan for far too long - he would have to return to regular depth perception, and start showing the skill that he had exhibited before that mission to destroy the Kannabi Bridge. Perhaps a stint in the ANBU's extensive training courses would bring him back into shape.
Still, once they got home, Kakashi would likely be unable to return to duty for at least another month, and that begged the question of who should replace Team 7's sensei. He had already written off Haruno Sakura - she simply wasn't important enough to warrant into the decision for the new teacher. No, instead he had to look at Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto. Should he get somebody who could keep training Sasuke, all the while cementing his loyalty to Konoha in the process of tempering his zeal for killing Itachi? Or should he get somebody who could keep a constant eye on Naruto, making sure he didn't become too skilled, and could control him if he got out of hand with the Kyuubi chakra?
Leafing through some jonin profiles, Sarutobi allowed himself a rare smile. Yes, there was one who could fit into both categories. He didn't have any specific skills that could be used to help Sasuke, but he had recently served a tenure as an ANBU captain, and should be able to pass some of the skills garnered into ANBU onto Sasuke. Additionally, he could not only control the Kyuubi chakra should it become an issue, but also pacify it. Yes, he would assign this man to teach Team 7, and hopefully he could keep their dynamics together and help strengthen the Leaf. Getting up, he barked out, "Kawauso."
The ANBU he called out for appeared in front of his desk, down on one knee, head bowed, right hand at his chest palm up in a gesture of servitude. "Your orders, Hokage-sama?"
Sarutobi was quite clear and concise in his orders. "Bring ANBU Codename Tora-28 to my office for a debriefing on his new assignment."
The ANBU stood up. "As is your will, Hokage-sama." With a brief Shunshin, he was out of the building, and off to the ANBU HQ, while planning to hand over the information he had just received to a certain flaxen-haired genin saboteur.
Sarutobi turned around, and sighed, looking out the window of his office at the sprawling metropolis that made up the village of Konoha. Even if he would serve Konoha until the day he died, ordering dirty act after dirty act and sweeping it under the carpet all the time, he still wished he could have stayed in retirement like he was supposed to have fourteen years ago when he stepped down, allowing the Yondaime to replace him. Neither of his wayward students wanted to be Hokage - hell, one even refused to step foot in the village - and of course Orochimaru was not an option. Both his ANBU Commander and Black Ops Commander had the skills and the prowess to do the job, but their own jobs were still far too important and too difficult to replace with good men, and it would take too long to build a public profile for them before they could step into office, knocking them out of the running. Most of his Elite Jonin had the public awareness to be in the Hokage office, but either lacked the skill, were too lazy, or had difficulties with public relations (or a combination of all three!).
He sighed again. Already he had begun to get his body back into shape, bringing one of the ANBU Commander's trusted trainers in to help him. He had to survive this upcoming battle with Orochimaru, lest his rival Danzo worm his way into office. Oh, he trusted Danzo to be ruthless and do what had to be done, but the old war hawk would likely go one step too far; he would lose any comraderie that had been built up over the years between Konoha proper and the clans, and in the pursuit of solidifying his hold over Konoha, soften it up for invasion from outside forces. As if going for a threepeat, Sarutobi let out one last sigh.
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Unknown to Sarutobi, eight hundred kilometers away, another person was also sitting over his desk, sighing in order with the Sandaime. Yahiko had several of the answers to Sarutobi's questions, but he definitely wouldn't be handing them over. Looking through reports from three separate ninjas over the mission in Wave, Yahiko was slightly upset that Sharingan Kakashi wasn't killed, but the loss of his Sharingan eye was an acceptable alternative.
More importantly, Hakko had successfully retrieved the Otter contract out of Kiri, while Aoi had managed to liberate much of Gato's wealth. While some had been handed over to Wave, a lot of it would be coming back to Ame. Wave was after all in an enviable position, being a major trading hub on the East Coast, as well as having some decent farmland and fishing. They would be back on their feet in no time. Ame, on the other hand, needed constant transfusions of cash to keep up; Yahiko had been working on getting infrastructure in the land of endless rain up to task, but it had gone neglected under Hanzo's rule. Amegakure itself used to be one big slum area, and the farms were constantly being flooded, ruining the crops. Since Yahiko's takeover, over forty percent of the city had been through maintenance or rebuilt, dams had been built to keep from flooding, and roads were paved.
But Amegakure was still a military village, and that cost money, particularly with Yahiko's schemes. Kakuzu's bounty hunters brought in a fair amount of money, but the man himself was constantly pining for more and more cash, and Yahiko knew that the Akatsuki was far too dependent on the man's talents and contacts for his own economical health. So money had to be pulled in from elsewhere to bring Amegakure back up to standard. Selling food surpluses and shipping freshwater to Suna brought in some money, but sometimes he simply would have to steal from other countries or hidden villages.
Sometimes he wondered if it was all worth it. Certainly, over the last decade and a half, the Elemental Nations had seen a 10% dip in shinobi numbers, several of the bijuu had been neutralized as possible threats to peace, and his beloved Ame was on track to rise back up in the world. However, he had to make some sacrifices - he hadn't seen his wife Konan, who he had married a decade back, or his three children, in four days! He knew running a village would suck up a lot of his time, but this was ridiculously so! He had to wonder just how Salamander Hanzo had been so powerful, even running into his late fifties at the time, could have stayed in form so well, to the point that it took Yahiko, Nagato, and Konona over two hours to finally kill the salamander summoner in their final battle. Yahiko trusted many others to help him with the administration of the village, and yet he barely had enough time to keep the skills that had allowed him to finally vanquish Hanzo at the end.
Juggling his life's work and his family was a difficult display of acrobatics, but it was one that was necessary. Still, sometimes he wished he could just ditch all the paperwork, grab his family, and leave the Elemental Continents altogether to the western lands, where they had achieved unity years ago. The orange-haired man just couldn't help it. He sighed again.
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In an office opposite of where Yahiko resided, another ginger-haired man woke up from a deep sleep. Swiveling his body around so he sat on his bed mattress, he took a deep yawn, stretching his arms out by extending them towards the heaven. Nagato was in his mid-thirties, and by now, his body had stopped growing, and he tired more easily than he would have a decade ago. Even though he only maintained two clones full-time these days as spies as opposed to the six he did when him and his comrades had first started out in ruling over Ame, the Shōten no Jutsu still consumed a large amount of chakra, and he had to sleep more than the usual to recover all his lost chakra. He hoped to finally get rid of the need for one of his separate clones within a year, freeing him up to take a bigger role in Ame.
Of course, once he finally had the stamina and chakra to do so, he knew exactly what he would be doing: he would be training his body back into form, using the Rinnegan to help him along the way. He had never had to use the Gedō Mazō thanks to Yahiko finally being able to strike the final blow to Hanzo at the end of Ame's civil war, so his body was still in reasonably decent shape, as opposed to being frail and on life support. However, it also robbed him of the chance to actually control other bodies via the use of chakra transmitters, so he could only use himself and clones as opposed to real bodies.
Still, the redhead thought as he brushed his long hair out of the way, letting moonlight shine through the window, revealing his multiple-ringed Rinnegan eyes, I must do what I can. Nagato viewed Yahiko as the greatest of them all, and had done all he could to support the carrot-top in his goals to change the ninja world, but he had a selfish desire of his own.
Specifically, he wanted to confront his sensei, Jiraiya of the Sannin. When Jiraiya had first left the trio, claiming they had become strong enough, Nagato had been forlorn - of the three, he had seen Jiraiya as a foster father the most. It made sense, considering Nagato was the one Jiraiya had specifically trained the most, because of his doujutsu. Jiraiya had, during that time, expounded on his own ideals of peace in the world, and ending the cycle of hatred, and tried to encourage Nagato onwards to finding his own way of solving the worlds problems.
And so, Nagato had laboured for many years after Jiraiya had left them behind that one rainy midsummer night, leaving nothing but a dream behind, constantly improving his skills so that they could take on Hanzo. It had been a treacherous journey, and he had lost many dear friends, but they had finally achieved victory.
Then he found out just how much of a bastard his sensei had been.
Jiraiya might have been willing to preach about peace in the world, but it seemed that he was a patriot of the highest order. Hanzo's private diaries told of intel his spies had from Konoha, of how Jiraiya had slaughtered dozens of Ame genins during the beginning of the Second Great Shinobi War, seeking to cripple Ame's next generation of ninja from presenting a threat to Konoha. Later, He had used his toad summons to destroy a dam in Earth Country in the beginning days of the Third Great Shinobi War, destroying a farming village that provided food to Iwagakure.
The final straw was when Nagato had brought Uzumaki Naruto back to Ame to convince him of the Akatsuki's goals. To find that Jiraiya had been the yellow-haired boy's godfather, only to abandon him as an orphan at birth, while simultaneously trying to forcibly bind him to Konoha's shinobi force and repress his growth, was just reprehensible.
For all of his squawking about peace, Jiraiya seemed willing to achieve peace only if his beloved Konoha would come out on top in the end, not caring about how many lives he destroyed in the end. True, the Akatsuki actively tried to sabotage any village that wasn't Amegakure or Sunagakure, but the way they did it worked to lessen the chance of war, and they most definitely strayed away from killing anybody who hadn't enrolled as a soldier or a ninja. Things that Jiraiya did was likely to invoke hostilities and possible war, just wars that Konoha would start off with being the stronger power.
There was only one thing that kept Nagato from flat-out wanting to kill Jiraiya - he simply couldn't understand why Jiraiya had taken two years out of his life to train a group of orphans from an enemy country. Certainly, when he found out that Nagato had the Rinnegan, his interest in their training picked up, but he had to have a motivation before that, and Nagato simply couldn't understand why. If Jiraiya's reasons didn't satisfy Nagato, the ginger-haired man would steel his heart and kill his sensei - as an S-Class ninja, a summoner, and a sage, Jiraiya's potential to cause devastation was far too great. If his reasons were acceptable...Nagato still hadn't decided what he would do.
It was a dilemma worthy of a sigh, which he let out.
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Watching the moon as it slowly moved across the skyline was always comforting to her. In particular was her vantage point; a thick branch high up on the Great Tree of Taki, the bark smoothed out over the passage of centuries making for a great sleeping spot, with only her and her sleeping bag. Fū didn't know why she was always dazzled and enticed by such a view; perhaps it was the influence of the beast within her.
There was a reason that Senju Hashirama had chosen to give the Nanabi no Kabutomushi to Takigakure; it was one of only two bijuu that seemed to have a particular singular habitat, the other being the Yonbi who lived in a volcano in Earth Country, in opposition to a bijuu such as the Ichibi who wandered a large swath of the deserts of Wind Country. The Nanabi had always been around the Tree during the summer and spring months, eight months out of the year. It made sense in an odd sort of way - a giant beetle was attracted to a giant tree. The residents who had lived in Taki during the Nanabi's time of freedom had an awkward sort of unspoken agreement - so long as Takigakure didn't interfere with the Nanabi's migratory path, the kabutomushi wouldn't rain destruction down upon the fledgling Hidden Village. When the Shodai Hokage had captured the Nanabi and temporarily sealed it, it would only make sense to hand the Nanabi back to Taki.
The first Nanabi jinchuuriki had been bred for warfare, and was given a loose seal to allow him to channel the Nanabi's chakra easily and manifest its form when under stress. However, it had been an unrequited disaster; although the Nanabi's use had brought Taki glory in the First Great Shinobi War, the Nanabi jinchuuriki had killed many of his allies in bouts of madness.
With the second Nanabi jinchuuriki, a sealmaster was brought in. As the years had gone by, Taki had fallen from power, and opted instead to be a passive shinobi village protected mainly by its impregnable location. The result was that the second jinchuuriki had a seal that was a lot tighter, letting him use the Nanabi's chakra only in life-or-death situations. However, he still acquired several traits of a jinchuuriki - high levels of chakra and stamina, as was common to all jinchuuriki was the main one. However, he had also been gifted with high-frequency running legs, akin to how a hummingbird could flutter its wings at a quick speeds, allowing him to cover distances in half as much time as other shinobi could. He had redeemed his scorned name with a career as a messenger and diplomat, but had always kept a strong focus on fighting - after all, he was still a jinchuuriki. He had tragically died in the Third Great Shinobi War, having saved three ANBU squads deep in Kumo territory by delivering correspondence between them, before opening up a hole for them to retreat from.
The chocolate-skinned Fū had been the most recently born child that was available when the ANBU had brought back her predecessor's body, so she had been chosen to be the third, and final host of the Nanabi no Kabutomushi, by Shibuki's father. She had grown up being treated fairly nicely, and had graduated from the academy at the age of nine with the help of some specialized training from a few jonins. Two years later, she became a chunin, and started to work as a courier nin. During her time training in Takigakure, she had become a stunningly beautiful Kunoichi, with shoulder-length lime-green hair, semi-dark skin, and pupilless violet eyes.
It was on her first vacation that she had been abducted, while traveling through Ame. There, she had met Yahiko, who had explained to her his life and his goals. Fū would be lying if she said that she wasn't taken in by his natural charisma and his ambition to achieve peace by taking away the need for war. While she was originally resistant to the idea, Yahiko had taken her on a tour through the country he lived in, and showed her what happened when war had come to Ame. Fū hadn't seen war before, living in a fairly peaceful village that was protected by its obscure location, but she still shuddered to think of some of the sights she had seen. Buildings that had been gutted by fire. Forests that had been destroyed, farmland that had been salted. Residents in Amegakure no Sato itself looked like they survived life instead of living it, and Yahiko had assured her that that was after a decade and a half of his struggles to improve living conditions.
She had agreed to become a part of the Akatsuki, and had since attended whatever meetings the Akatsuki branch in Takigakure had whenever she was around. Already she was fifty-five percent done processing the Nanabi's chakra, and would most likely be done within the next three years. Once it was done, she would have to start deceiving her leader as to her status as a jinchuuriki. It wasn't that she disliked Shibuki, or anything; no, in fact, she admired the man for his leadership of Taki. However, he was just far too passive in his duties, too willing to roll over and let things happen. If somebody actually invaded Taki, she wasn't sure if he would actually lead a defense at all or just surrender to the invaders.
Moving on in her procession of thoughts, a smile lit her face as she thought about her dear little foxy companion, Uzumaki Naruto. To be sure, they didn't hit it off that well at first, particularly with Naruto's habit of adding familiar suffixes at first contact. However, after that little incident in which she displayed her fiery feminine rage, they had managed to hit it off rather well, and soon the minor age difference didn't really matter at all to the two of them. She let out a small sigh, however, at remembering Naruto's lineage. If that ever got out while Naruto was still undercover in Konoha, the politicians there would probably try to pressure him into a political marriage and consummation. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that, or else she and Naruto would somehow have to arrange their meeting in an official event somehow.
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"Kabuto-kun!" Orochimaru yelled at his beleaguered assistant across the dim-lit chamber, while he himself was looking through the microscope at a cell sample, "What is the status on Experiment 17?"
"Experiment 17 is currently in stasis, Orochimaru-sama," was Kabuto's response. "Would you like me to get it out for you?"
"No, no, not right now," the Sannin said, waving his hand at his assistant as an idle response. "I may need some more blood extractions from it later on for experimentation; my current supply is almost empty."
"As you wish, Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto said with a mocking bow. "Is there anything else that you need?"
"Yes, yes, there is." Was the ex-Leaf shinobi's reply, as he got up from his microscope, wiping his hands on some towels after washing them. "How goes your endeavours? You are sure Konoha knows nothing of you and nothing of me?"
Kabuto shook his head. "No, Orochimaru-sama. My team has taken the large majority of the genin-level missions into Ta no Kuni for the last four years under the pretense of Misumi Tsurugi having several relatives up here that he can visit during and after missions, and I have even gone so far as to get agents to play along with that just in case higher-ups from Konoha decide to do some snooping around. Otogakure has only been in the public eye for the last six months, so they would be hard-pressed to connect us. And besides," Here he let out one of those weird mocking grins that always chilled even Orochimaru, "They would never suspect all three of us along with our jonin-sensei of being your spies."
"Kukukuku, excellent, Kabuto-kun," Orochimaru said, clasping his hands together. "And what of the invasion? Is there the possibility that our plans have been leaked?"
Here, Kabuto frowned. "It is possible that Konoha suspects Iwa of being up to something. The Tsuchikage has not been nearly careful enough in his machinations, taking a smaller amount of higher-class missions in the last few months, and I would not put it past the intelligence department of ANBU to be constantly looking for any change from the usual patterns of Iwa's missions and patrols."
Orochimaru grinded his teeth and clenched his hands into fists, as his anger became palpable. "That fool! I told Ōnoki to be more careful. Iwagakure might end up needing a Yondaime Tsuchikage soon." Forcing himself to calm, he began to deliberate out loud, but nevertheless mindful of the presence of Kabuto. "No matter, I suppose that Konohagakure would be suspicious as soon as Iwa accepts their invitation to the Chunin exams." Seeing Kabuto's surprised face, Orochimaru elaborated. "Konoha always sends out invitations to every hidden village, no matter their relations. I wouldn't doubt the old monkey to feign ignorance to lure Iwa in for an ambush, he was always ruthless like that. No matter, you are sure they do not suspect Oto of being complicit with Iwa?"
Kabuto shook his head. "No, Orochimaru-sama. The only agent we lost in the last few months was Toujo Mizuki, who knew nothing about your status as Otokage. I just recently managed to acquire some of Hatake Kakashi's initial reports on Team 7 and Uchiha Sasuke."
"Kukukuku, excellent." Said the pale-skinned older man, as he continued switching out laboratory equipment for his next examination of cell samples. "Very well, Kabuto-kun, I will expect the report on my desk within the hour. You are dismissed." However, Orochimaru wasn't done yet, as he called for the white-haired medic-nin shortly before he made his way out of the lab. "Oh, and Kabuto?"
The adopted Yakushi knew Orochimaru was being truly serious here, as he had dropped the mocking honorific he gave to nearly everybody. "Yes, Orochimaru-sama?"
"I'll kill you if you ever betray me, Kabuto-kun."
"Yes, Orochimaru-sama."
As Kabuto made it out of the lab, he had to repress a sigh. The man most certainly wasn't subtle in that regard. He was well aware that Orochimaru was quite wary of his true loyalties, having 'rescued' him from a purported loyalty seal years ago put on him by Akasuna no Sasori, but still unsure of whom he truly called master. The only reason he was able to obtain so much information on Orochimaru's operations was because he was too useful to the man to be disposed of or put on lesser projects. It was a tough game to play, having to act as a mole, double agent, and in some cases triple agent.
But it would come to pass some day. When Yahiko and Sasori destroyed the society that had built up around the hidden village system, there would be many people with knowledge of external manipulation of chakra, but little reason to use it for offensive purposes. In that environment, they would instead seek more esoteric ways to use chakra, such as the field of medicine that he, Yakushi Kabuto, was a master of. He would be able to gain access to the years of documents of experimentation into forbidden venues that had been built up by the hidden villages that were destroyed in the process. A genius, Orochimaru may be, if a bit insane, but he was merely a single man who had been working for thirty years. Konoha, Kiri, Iwa, Kumo, all of them and more doubtlessly had experiments in many different fields comprised of the work of hundreds of men spanning nearly a century, perhaps even further. When he laid his hands on all the knowledge he could, he would be able to decipher the secrets of chakra, of the bijuu, and of life. He would understand.
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And so, an intermission chapter of sorts. I know a few of you reviewers have been complaining that I'm focusing too much on Naruto - Naruto's POV is of course the main point of the story, but I know exactly where you're coming from, and I've had this planned since the beginning of the story. There'll definitely be more intermission chapters in the future, since the scale of the fic will slowly begin to expand as time passes.
I'm still not quite sure how to write Kabuto. This last scene might get a bit of a rewrite again in the future, but for now being able to become famed for his art and delving into forbidden territories seems a bit reasonable.
That said, I've passed 40k word count, so yay, I level up a category in the word count filter.
With this chapter, I'll probably be back on hiatus for a couple of weeks again before I start writing the next batch of chapters. In-between I'll likely fix up the last three chapters, possibly add a new scene here or there, and definitely add in a few new sentences here or there (this chapter in particular, since a few of the scenes I didn't quite like how I ended them, as well as the battle scenes from last chapter), so it'll be worth a re-read in the future.