Disclaimer: While the idea of MABU is mine, the characters are not my creation as much as I wish they were. I do not own Naruto
Time Line / Spoilers: This takes place during the time skip and contains spoilers for events pre time skip as well as a few just slightly post time skip. If the MABU universe does diverge from cannon (Manga) possibility, I will make note of it when it happens.
Warnings: Language, Violence, Sexual situations, Sex of a probably Hentai and Yaoi nature. Same basic warnings as Water Runs Red.
Beta by: HGirl69
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Sand Stained Red – Chapter
Gaara frowned at his siblings from behind the large stone desk in his office. He pressed his hands to the cool marble top as he stood. Walking past the Kazekage robes that were hanging in the office, he glanced towards the curtain of sand blowing outside his large window. The last violent remnants of the storm scraped against the glass as the storm slowly died. "So you are telling me that one of the Hokage's personal assistants is in my hospital, and that you have reason to believe he is an undercover special operative?"
Temari glanced at Kankuro before walking over to the window herself, "We'll know more once the team from Konohagakure gets here, but it looks like that is the case. His name is Kamizuki Izumo and he is definitely the Hokage's personal assistant. The evidence for the undercover assumption is very compelling." She gestured to where the reports from the doctor were still resting on the hard marble desk.
Kankuro leaned up against the wall, "What are we gonna do once the leaf guys get here?" He was frowning as he watched his two siblings.
Gaara paused and seemed to think for a moment, "We'll keep them all under close watch. I don't think they would be spying on us, but it is a possibility and we can not risk the village's safety." He frowned as his brother and sister left the office. The alliance with Konohagakure was important to his village, but if this man represented a threat to its safety, he would have to be dealt with -- severely.
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As the sun rose over the desert landscape, Maito Gai led his three students though the dying remnants of the once impressive sand storm. Guards wearing cloth masks to keep the sand from their faces met them at the gate and escorted them to the hospital. It was exactly what was expected from a retrieval mission. What met them when they reached the hospital, however, was not.
The guards escorted them through town and led them to the secured ward of the hospital, but as soon as they passed the door and its seals, they saw the Kazekage standing in the hallway, flanked by his siblings on either side of him. For just a split second, the redheaded Kazekage's eyes widened as he saw exactly whom it was that Leaf had sent to retrieve the chuunin. Blue-green eyes met brown as Gaara looked at Rock Lee. He had not expected to see the boy again. Although they had parted on good terms after their working together to defeat Kimimaro, he knew damage of the type that his own powers had inflicted in the Chuunin exams could not be easily forgotten – or forgiven.
The three sand siblings stood facing the four from leaf for a moment before Gaara spoke. "We have identified the shinobi. He is Kamizuki Izumo, and if our sources are to be believed an assistant to your Hokage."
He watched the looks of surprise pass over three of the four Leaf-nin. Obviously, their sensei had not informed them about the suspicions of whom they were going to find in Suna. Gai nodded to the Kazekage, "We are honored that you have taken a personal interest in the well being of our comrade. This is a testament to the strength of the bond and dedication between our two villages."
Kankuro just raised an eyebrow as the green clad jônin struck a pose and gave them a thumbs-up gesture. "Uhh, yeah. Why don't you tell us –"
Gaara cut off Kankuro with a simple raise of his hand. Temari took a step forward to address the Leaf group, in matters of diplomacy she was often the mouthpiece. "There is a very important matter we need to address; the council has been pressing for answers about why exactly an unauthorized Leaf shinobi was found within Wind borders. Of course we trust the bond between our villages…" She let herself trail off as she gave Gai an inquisitive look.
Maito Gai nodded, "Of course. The truth is that we do not know either. Is he in any condition to be answering questions?" He stood straight. In all honesty, he didn't know what the Chuunin was doing in Wind country. Tsunade had simply informed him that it was possible that the found shinobi could be Izumo and she hadn't told him more than that. Of course, Gai was not as stupid as people sometimes thought he was. He may be loud and brash and inclined towards long declarations, but he had seen enough war to know a few things. He definitely knew there were things going on in Konoha that he did not know of.
For the past year if not more, Iruka, Kotetsu and Izumo frequently disappeared. The official explanation was that they were on 'courier' missions. He wouldn't have known the frequency of the departures if it weren't for his close relationship with his eternal rival. Kakashi was often left alone on weekends with excuses of Iruka being off on a mission with either Kotetsu, Izumo or occasionally Anko. Once Gai realized that, he started to keep track of the four. They were gone from the village much more than one would think, even given the lack of capable shinobi after the sound attack. His questioning about the matter hadn't gotten any answers, but then again he hadn't asked directly – he knew this was a matter for discretion. Since the night nearly two years ago he found out that Iruka worked for Ibiki, he knew something was going on that he didn't know about. He just did not know exactly what it was or how widespread.
The official records were that Izumo had been on a simple courier mission to the Mist village – the exact opposite direction as Wind country. To find that the chuunin had surfaced in Wind country three months later and wounded was a red flag. Something was not adding up and Gai was not sure if he should try to find out what was really going on. He hadn't worried his students with such matters of course. To them this was a simple retrieval of an injured Shinobi from an Allied village.
Temari glanced back at Gaara and waited for his nod before leading everyone towards one of the hospital rooms. "There was an unexpected complication to his condition yesterday when he used some sort of jutsu on himself. He wasn't in any condition to use that much chakra so he hasn't been conscious since. He had one brief spell of coherence a day or so after he arrived here. He said something about having been in Rain country but was rather unclear." She paused as she reached the bedside of the Leaf-nin. Her brothers followed her, but kept their eyes on the contingent from leaf.
Gai walked over to Izumo's bedside and looked down at him, eyes widening as suddenly the chuunin's eyes opened. Izumo's dark blue eyes met with Gai's dark brown as the injured man spoke. "I need to get a message to the Hokage. Rain and Sound." He paused; talking was obviously still very difficult for him. "Scroll. I need a scroll. You need to get this information to Konoha."
Gai quickly took out a scroll and handed it to Izumo. Before he could grab a pen for the man, Izumo had sliced open his finger on his tooth and was writing in blood. Temari and Kankuro walked forward as if to see what was being written, but stopped when Gai's three students formed a wall between the bed and the sand siblings.
Izumo knew he had little time, and wrote quickly. He knew poor penmanship would be forgiven considering how important the information in the scroll was. Just as Temari was starting to raise a fuss, he closed and sealed the scroll. As the seal glowed with a pale blue chakra, Izumo relaxed. He handed the scroll back to Gai, "Tsunade knows how to open it. No one else will be able to."
As Gai took the scroll, he looked down at it. His eyes registered the seal that covered the scroll, and then he looked back at Izumo. The seal proved the man's suspicions that something was going on behind the scenes. The seal was sloppy, very unlike the chuunin's normal seal work. However, the seal was still viable, and Gai could still recognize it after having seen so many like it back when he was a chuunin in the war a decade and a half ago. It was a MABU seal. As Gai's hand tightened onto the scroll, the chuunin in the hospital passed out.
Temari walked past the three Gai's three studentsgenin, forcing her way to where the jônin was standing, "What is in that scroll." She had dropped the diplomatic niceties.
Gai held out the scroll, "I can't open it. No one here can open it. This seal can only be opened by the current Hokage and no one else." Her eyes narrowed at him as Gai continued, "The trust that Sunagakure has placed in her Ally will be noted in my report to Tsunade-sama. After the deceit brought about by Orochimaru."
Her eyes narrowed. Bringing up the joint Sound & Sand attack on Leaf two years ago was risky, but he had to get this message to the Hokage. Temari looked like she was going to argue, but Gaara stepped forward. "We will allow the message to be sent. However, I must request to know if this involves my village as soon as that information is known."
The Kazekage's terms were quickly agreed upon and Kankuro lead Gai towards the Aviary to attach the scroll to a messenger bird. Gaara left the room without another word; he had his duties to resume. Temari was left with the three studentsgenin and the unconscious Chuunin. Her eyes narrowed as she watched them. "I will arrange lodging for the three of you and your sensei. Someone will be by to escort you there." Without waiting for a response, she stalked out of the room.
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As the woman left the young Leaf shinobithree genin, Ten-Ten looked at her teammates. "Did something seem really off with how Gai sensei was reacting to that scroll?"
Lee gave the girl a puzzled look, "If anything were wrong, Gai-sensei would have told us. We are his team!" He struck a pose and a large smile.
Completely ignoring Leethe other male genin, Neji looked at Ten-Ten. "The scroll had a very powerful seal. Whatever he was writing was infused with Chakra. I couldn't make out the message; the only thing I could make out was the signature on the seal. It was only two characters, 'Ma' and 'Bu'."
The girl looked puzzeled, "Do you have any idea what that means?"
Lee walked over to them, much quieter now that the subject had slipped from Gai and onto other matters, "Ma Bu? I've never heard of anything that could stand for."
Neji was looking serious. The others looked at him. This was not one of Neji's silences where he just didn't have anything to say. This was a silence where he was thinking of something. Ten-Ten looked up at the stoic Hyuuga, "What do you know?"
"Neji! You must tell us." Lee was almost bouncing with the need to know.
"It's just rumors." He seemed unwilling to give more information, but he could tell by the looks of both teammates that he was not going to get any peace until he told him what was going on. "It's rumors, from back during the war with Stone."
Ten-Ten closed in on Neji as the three members of team Gaigenin huddled in a secretive meeting of hushed tones. It was rare for Neji to mention anything that far back in the past. Whenever he brought up something so old, it was always involving his family and normally an incredibly juicy bit of knowledge.
The Hyuuga's pale eyes darted to the door before looking back at his teammates. "Byakugan." He activated the Byakugan in order to make sure that no one could sneak up on them before whispering. His teammates were perfectly still and quiet, ready to listen. Whatever the other man was about to say was going to be very secret. It was an unspoken rule amongst them that these things were never mentioned outside of their group.
"Back during the war, many members of the Hyuuga branch family were ANBU members. It was the first war where branch members achieved the elite ranks. The honor was normally reserved for main house members. However, I had an aunt." He paused to shift his feet slightly, "According to the official documents she was just a chuunin working for the Torture and Interrogation unit in an administrative and support capacity. About a year before the end of the war, she didn't come back from a mission. When they buried her body, it was as a jônin. The official story in the Hyuuga history is that her bravery in her last battle was determined to be worthy of a posthumous rank increase, as a show of how she died protecting the village."
Both other genin nodded. Such things were not unheard of. Battlefield rank increases to the dead in time of extreme danger were not unheard of. They knew this is not what the Hyuuga was going to tell them.
He swallowed before continuing. "Of course this seems like a believable story. However, details of this heroic mission have never been added to the Hyuuga history. It is exactly the type of thing the main branch loves to include. They love showing how even a branch member is better than other clans in Konohagakure. The history of that woman remains blank though. While that is suspicious enough in itself, when I was younger I found a trunk with her name on it."
While most outside of team Gai had never heard the Hyuuga genius say this many words, the other two knew he loved to tell a good story about his family, especially if it involved deceit on behalf of the main house. He looked at them, pausing for a moment, "When I opened the trunk, there was a mask."
Ten-Ten gasped, "She was ANBU?"
Neji shook his head, "The mask was not an ANBU mask. It was a plain white mask with two characters on it… 'Ma' and 'Bu'."
Ten-Ten gasped and turned to look at the man they had been left with. When he had made the scroll and given it to Gai-sensei he hadn't seemed like the mild-mannered easily forgotten chuunin he was supposed to be. Seriousness like that in a shinobi often meant power, but a chuunin who mostly did paperwork should not be that confident. "Neji? You mean you think there is a connection?"
He nodded, "After seeing that mask, I did some research. It seems there is a covert group. I couldn't find out anything about them beyond that they exist. Evidently the fourth used to use them in times of war." No one missed the slight emphasis on war.
All three looked back at the man on the bed, quietly thinking over what they had learned from Neji. They were startled from their watching when Gai strode back into the room. "Team. We are going to be here until we get an answer from Konoha. We will be setting up watches. Neji, you stay here with Izumo-san, Ten-Ten and Lee, come with me. Temari-san is going to show us to the quarters we have been assigned." Without any more words, Neji was left alone with the chuunin as the others left to get situated.
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Although the trip to Sunagakure had been difficult, once they were there, things were surprisingly easy. Ten-Ten had been assigned her own room in the small three-bedroom suite that had been given to the fire shinobi. Lee and Neji would be the only ones sharing a room. Perhaps this was the nicest accommodations that Ten-Ten had ever been given on a mission. She had been getting some rest in her room before her shift watching Izumo started. She was supposed to be sleeping, but her mind had been racing as she tried to figure out what was going on. Between Neji's story about 'Mabu' and the tense silence as Temari had led them to their quarters, it was obvious something was up. Gai-sensei was even quiet. The man had never been quiet except when one of them was in critical condition at the hospital or in the midst of the worst battles that they had seen on their hardest missions. A talkative Neji and a silent Gai-sensei always meant trouble in the worst possible way in her limited experience.
She managed to get a few hours sleep before leaving to relieve Lee from his shift at the hospital. They split the watch into four shifts, each six hours in length. She was a few minutes early, but she knew Lee would feel compelled to explain in detail about how exciting his shift was. How that boy could make sitting in a hospital room for six hours sound like it was vital to the defense of Konoha, she had no idea.
Finally, she was alone in the room with the unconscious chuunin, so she took the seat next to his bed and started to work on some scrolls. She had been working for several hours and was expecting Gai-sensei soon to relieve her when she heard a soft voice, "That seal is wrong."
She spun around to look at the half-awake chuunin. She hadn't thought he was awake, let alone that he had a view of her scrollwork, but somehow the man had managed to roll to his side to see what she was doing without her noticing he had woken up – let alone had moved in the bed. Her eyes widened, they were right. This man was not an ordinary chuunin.
"Izumo-san, Should I get someone?" She stood up, not bothering to think of the scrollwork she had been doing. She didn't know what she was supposed to do if the man woke up; the doctor had said he'd be out for days.
He shook his head, "No, I need you to do something, Ten-Ten-chan. It's very important and I need you to be very quiet while you do it."
She nodded, "Yes." Doubt flashed across her face, she normally only took directions from Gai-sensei or one of her teammates.
He just nodded at her, "What I need you to do is take the syringe from the top of the medical waste bin over there, carefully, and see the small clear bag on the IV stand with the yellow and orange stickers?" When she nodded, he continued, "I need you to remove what is in that bag by using the syringe but make sure you only pierce the top of the bag, and then fill it to the same place it is now with the contents of the large bag of saline fluid. Can you do that, Ten-Ten?"
She looked from him to the IV stand. He was asking her to replace the strongest of the three painkillers with saline fluid. Of course, it made sense. That painkiller was also a sedative. No ninja ever wanted to be sedated if he didn't have to be. He was a leaf-nin and higher ranking than she was. She stood quietly and went to follow his directions. When she was done, she walked back to his side, "Gai-sensei should be here shortly."
He nodded, "Good. That's good. He's Kakashi's friend. Your team has the Hyuuga on it. This is good. Did he get the scroll sent?" He was looking at her with eyes that were surprisingly clear considering all the meds he was on.
She nodded, "They sent it by bird to Konoha almost a day ago. It should be there soon."
He nodded again, "Good. Ten-Ten? This is very important. When Gai-sensei gets here, I need you to let him know he needs to wake me up without anyone else knowing. If you can't get the message to him safely, its better to not deliver the message at all. Do not think of Sand as our ally right now, all right?"
She nodded. She didn't like how this was sounding. If this meant the alliance was questionable, it put them all in a dangerous position. "Are we in danger?"
He reached out to take her hand, "A shinobi is always in danger. However, yes, there is danger here. I don't know exactly yet where and who, but I need you to be very careful." He paused for a second, "I'd rather ask you to do this than your sensei. If I don't make it back to Konoha, can you tell someone something for me? It's a personal message."
She felt fear grip her. The idea of danger here was bad enough, but for a shinobi showing the level of ability that Izumo was to feel the need to entrust someone with a personal message in case he didn't make it – that meant this was very serious. She nodded, "yes."
"If I don't make it back, I need you to find Kotetsu and tell him I am sorry and I love him. Just that. Can you?"
She nodded, her lips slightly parting as she breathed "Yes". She had been expecting something else. She had heard rumors of course that those two had a thing, but 'things' were common place. Your last personal message in case you died, however, was not the stuff of 'things', that was love. "I promise. I'll tell him."
He smiled at her as he fell asleep, his hand still gripping her reassuringly. She sat back down next to him to await the arrival of her sensei. Her enjoyment of their nice rooms was gone -- this was serious.
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Thank you for reading. As always, I would appreciate if you took a moment to write a review.
