Thank you again to ShipperTrish for her betaness!
Chapter 12:The Best Laid Plans…
Nakamizu Hiroto stretched out languidly on a brightly upholstered recliner, revelling in the cool breeze that filtered through the trees into the courtyard of his oversized stately home. A platter of exotic fruits and cured meats to his left and a large decanter of fine red wine to his right had a wet grin forming all over Hiroto's face. Really, there was no better way to enjoy the warm humid summer nights in Takigakure. Only the synchronized grunts and shouts echoing off the tall brick walls around him broke his sublime peace of mind. Plucking a grape from the spread of edible heaven next to him, he rolled the small piece of fruit back and forth between his large fingers before throwing it at the head of his nearest target.
The target in question caught the marble sized projectile with expected ease before calmly stepping away from his training partner and turning his gaze upon his would be attacker.
"Is something wrong, Nakamizu-sama?"
"Do you really have to do that here?!" he bellowed to the group of men performing an intricate series of katas on the large cobbled courtyard before him.
At once all the men present stepped out of their choreographed routines and dropped into low elegant bows.
Again, the man nearest to him spoke up. What was his name anyway? Kenda? Kenta? That was it! Kenta.
"Nakamizu-sama, with the doubling of guards since the incident at the training base, we are finding it hard to find open spaces to train without drawing attention to ourselves."
"Well, aren't you supposed to be guarding something or killing something or looking after my girls?" Hiroto replied with an airy wave of a thick chubby hand.
"The next rotation isn't for another hour." Kenta replied patiently.
"Very well." Hiroto sighed long and hard. "Carry on. Just stop all that shouting and bellowing. I can barely hear myself think."
"Yes, Nakamizu-sama." Kenta bowed before turning back to his partner and falling easily back into the fluid sparring routine.
Aside from his own personal guard, Hiroto hated ninjas. They were dangerous, unpredictable, violent, and cost the earth. He had a good mind to sack the lot of them if it wasn't for the insistence of their presence by Kuma and if there was ever a man Nakamizu Hiroto hated, truly hated,it was Kuma. The man was all of those things and more. He was intimidating, irritatingly quiet, and ever so slightly creepy, but he was also going to make Hiroto ridiculously rich and subsequently that would make Takigakure ridiculously rich and Hiroto was no fool. Wealth meant power and stability, something that his country had not had an abundance of for at least two decades. It was only a matter of time before a weak, small hidden village like Taki found itself crushed by the immense powers pressing in on its borders from all sides and for the hundredth time since all of this mess started, Hiroto found himself justifying his actions. Taki needed this and when all was said and done, Hiroto felt sure that he would be exalted as a hero and not a traitor.
It was during this line of thought that Hiroto felt the familiar prickle of fear needling into the base of his skull and chastised himself irrationally for summoning the devil with only his thoughts.
Kuma stood by his side watching his men silently dancing through the precise movements of their katas and did not bother to announce his arrival by any other means than the heavy aura he exuded.
For a bloated and pampered civilian, Hiroto was growing quite adept at sensing Kuma's presence and although Hiroto tried to hide how affected he truly was by that presence by shoveling yet more food into his canyon of a mouth, Kuma still noticed the way Hiroto's eyebrows pinched up in the middle and how he drew the green velvet expanse of his robes a little tighter around him.
"Hiroto," he began without preamble, "The next group are ready to commence secondary training."
"Ah. Where will you be training them now that…err…"
"Our last location has been compromised? Here."
"Here?!" Hiroto squeaked in disbelief. "But…but…"
"Yes, here. You have quite enough space. Don't worry yourself. I'll keep them on a short leash, but you may want to find another area to enjoy your afternoon indulgences."
Finally, Hiroto turned to face the man standing beside him and instantly wished he hadn't. Cold empty eye sockets stared back at him from the polished contours of the mask, its red painted tear lines a striking contrast to the pearlescent primer. Hiroto shuddered, marveling that no matter what the lighting conditions, those masks always seemed to glow.
"Of course, Kuma." he replied in a flat tone, resigning himself to the situation.
"Good. I bought a little something to keep you occupied." With a snap of his fingers a woman was brought before him. She was, as usual, staggeringly beautiful with fine, delicate features and as with all the others her expression was dull and lifeless.
"Say 'hello'." Kuma instructed.
"Hello." The girl intoned in a small pleasant voice, smiling a textbook smile down at Hiroto.
Without much interest he asked, "Another dud?"
"The mark didn't take. She won't have long." Kuma replied, pushing the fabric of the girl's dress up over her bare hip and presenting Hiroto with a flash of creamy smooth rump.
Reaching out, Hiroto traced the mark with one finger, following the inflamed contours of its design before smoothing his hand across the girl's arse and giving it a firm squeeze.
The girl gave an automatic moan, deep and throaty while leaning into his hand, but all the while her face remained impassive, frozen in that strange half smile.
Hiroto studied his gift and gave a sharp nod of acceptance, retracting his hand and reaching for his wine. At least Kuma knew how to placate his host.
"Shit." Kakashi whispered, readjusting the dial on the binoculars and leaning further out of their sanctuary. One hand absently thumbed the note from Tsunade hidden deep in the pocket of his flak jacket.
"What?" Sakura hissed back, swinging her legs back and forth into the void in an attempt to stem her frustration. It was a childish action, but made her feel like she was actually doing something.
Another minuscule shift beside her and another quietly mumbled "shit" had her upping the pace of her rhythmic fidgeting in an attempt to irritate an answer out of her team leader.
Sensing her increasing annoyance, Kakashi gave her a quick stern glare and turned his gaze back into the binoculars, speaking quickly in low hushed tones.
"My intel seems a little inaccurate in terms of the numbers we would be facing, as well as the level of talent at the enemies' disposal. They're all Taki ninjas, mostly jounin and chuunin rank. They've got an ANBU with them and from the way he moves he's not just playing dress up. I can only read one half of the conversation because of that damn mask. Our orders are to eliminate all threats to Konoha. I didn't count on ANBU being part of the equation or the fact that we might have to wipe out at least twenty Taki ninjas. Even with the current circumstances that will be seen as an act of war."
"Surely the daimyo knows about this? He'd have to be a fool not to see what's going on right under his nose."
"He doesn't know. It's not unusual for a man with Hiroto's status to have hired help. Even if our actions tonight are traced back to Konoha and seen as an act of aggression, the daimyo is aware that Konoha can crush Taki. We just don't need to lose any more of our allies. Konoha's relationship with the countries this far north are strained at best, so we'll have to be subtle."
Another moment passed and then Kakashi spoke again. "Although I think we've definitely located our main target."
"How can you tell?"
"He fits the description: large, rich, and an arsehole. Trust mercs to give colourful, but accurate descriptions and I think we just secured evidence of his involvement. Here, take a look at the girl."
Grabbing the binoculars, Sakura shifted up the branch so that she could align herself with the small opening in the foliage to look down into the courtyard. It took awhile to locate the area she was supposed to be looking at and longer to adjust the binocular's settings and bring the image into focus, but when she did she could clearly see the distinct tattoo of an orchid sitting high on a young girl's exposed hip. Sakura growled when a thick hand started fondling the girl's behind and snapped her focus to its owner, instantly letting out a tiny cry of shock.
"What is it?" Kakashi hissed beside her.
"I…I…"
"Sakura?"
"That's definitely our target. The fat guy in the robes is definitely Nakamizu Hiroto." She whispered back, covering her mouth with a shaking hand.
"And you know this how?" he asked her with raised eyebrows, the Sharingan glowing dimly like embers in the darkness.
"Back in central Taki when Naruto, Sai, and I went out drinking and I…err…threw up on you." She grimaced at the memory. "Well, we got into a bar fight and-"
"Wait, wait. Are you telling me that Nakamizu was the 'filthy toad man' who 'touched you up'?" Kakashi asked with wide eyes.
"…err…yes. I didn't realize that at the time, though. He said he wanted to 'secure my attentions' for the evening."
"Huh. Well that makes sense. For all intents and purposes he does control eighty percent of the entertainment business here in Taki."
"Entertainment business?"
"According to my sources he owns almost all the brothels, bars, and casinos here. He was probably on the lookout for some new talent. Was he alone?"
"No, he had three ninjas with him, escorts or bodyguards I guess. Brothels? I didn't think Taki would allow something like that!"
"Taki has a rather different viewpoint of the roles of women." He muttered. "From here he appears completely civilian, but I can't stretch my senses out with an ANBU in the area. We'll be located in no time."
"He was definitely civilian. I was drunk and if he was a ninja he would have been able to block my mean right hook or at least try…Wait! He's leaving!" Sakura said, passing the binoculars back over.
Kakashi pressed them back to his own eyes and watched as the ANBU, Hiroto, and the young woman ventured back into the large manor.
"What did you mean about different viewpoints, Kakashi?"
"Taki, despite being a large village, is actually very small in terms of manpower. They don't allow kunoichi in their ranks and women in this society are expected to stick to traditional roles: domestic work, producing heirs, and entertainment."
"Entertainment." Sakura mumbled bitterly.
"Yes, dancers, singers, and whores. Because of its lack of power, Taki relies on its lax entertainment laws to encourage outside interest. It caters for the tastes of men from stricter countries. This makes up for the lower number of missions available to them and keeps the economy flowing. Taki has always struggled to compete in the ninja business because bigger, stronger countries surround it. They rely on training as many as they can just for defence."
"But wouldn't they have more strength if they had kunoichi? It seems ridiculous cutting your shinobi force by at least a third just because they have old fashioned views on women."
"Well that won't change anytime soon. Their views on disallowing women are strong ones. They believe that in battle women are a risk to their male counterparts because instinct pre-programs males to be automatically overprotective of their female teammates often leading to risk taking, bad judgment, self sacrifice, and so on. They also view a woman's stamina and strength as well as their resilience to harsher conditions as inferior."
"But that's ridiculous! I'm a woman and I could punch a hole through an eight foot thick wall better than any man I know and Tsunade can punch through a twenty foot thick wall!"
"I know, I know!" Kakashi sighed, holding his hands up pleadingly. "But generally those observations are correct and before you call me sexist, I also think that they are overlooking the benefits of training kunoichi. For one, as a woman your chakra control is often better. You're less likely to go storming into a situation unprepared and you are, depending on the situation, often the best candidates for espionage. And Taki is suffering for its viewpoints. Their top clans have become weak and diluted over the years. They've lost many of their signature jutsus and they tend to think that only the males' genetic coding is of value, so they breed indiscriminately. Subsequently, their attacks have remained strong in some areas, for example, their use of water jutsu, but weak in other varying styles."
"So all these girls…If they had originally come from Taki anyway they probably wouldn't even be missed."
"It wouldn't surprise me. It would be foolish to overlook the fact that Hiroto just happens to have access to hundreds of women on a daily basis, probably young girls without families just trying to get by."
"But if the shinobi of Taki are so genetically weak, how come all the girls we've seen have such awesome supplies of chakra? What are they doing to them?" Sakura asked, voicing the question Kakashi himself had been wondering.
"I don't know."
Just at that moment, the ANBU reappeared from one of the doors facing onto the courtyard, dragging the struggling body of a young girl behind him and for a second he seemed to pause and look right at them, his gaze piercing up through the leaves and branches, black hollow pits staring up from a waxy iridescent surface and then the spell was broken and he strode on, manoeuvring with ease despite the girl valiantly digging her heels into the cobbled surface. He disappeared into another door.
The group of shinobi still training in the courtyard didn't even acknowledge the girl's pleading wails for help.
"Don't you want to find out?" Sakura whispered, her face contorted in horror and her eyes still glued to the door the girl had been pulled through.
"We stick to the plan. The change of guard should be in about forty minutes, then we enter into Hiroto's chamber through the balcony window which is located on the far side of the manor. There, I'll implement a sound suppressing jutsu. You'll need to keep your chakra completely suppressed to avoid the ANBU detecting us. If he does, you need to take Hiroto and get out of here as fast as you can. I'll deal with the ANBU and meet you en route back to Konoha."
"But Kakashi-sensei, those girls need help and who better to help us understand what we are up against than one of the victims?"
"Nakamizu was the contact I was given. He's the person who we'll press for information. Sai risked a lot to get that name to us." Kakashi said sternly.
Sakura looked down at her hands ashamed, but then fixed her features in steely resolve. "But Kakashi-"
"Saving the girls is not our mission. Eliminating the threat to Konoha is." He bit out harshly, knowing from the determined set of her features that she wasn't going to just let it go.
"I hate to be the one to point this out, but those girls are the threat to Konoha. Don't you think we should find out what we are eliminating first?"
Kakashi sighed.
Snippets of conversation floated up from the group of five chattering ninja milling around in the crater below.
Even from his hiding space high above them in the canopy, Tenzou was awestruck by the scene of absolute devastation that stretched out before him. Despite the visual obstruction of the dense foliage and heavy darkness, the signs of the enormous explosion were blatantly obvious to someone as attuned to their surroundings as Tenzou was. The forest was, after all, more or less a part of him. Placing a gloved hand to the trunk of the tree he was comfortably squatting in, he sent out tiny indistinguishable threads of chakra probing and assessing the scale of damage. The trees in the surrounding area were almost screaming in agony, the natural flow of their energy disrupted and dying, their trunks charred and burned, their leaves scorched and heavy with the clinging residue of ash. Pushing his senses out further into the clearing and nearing the edge of the gaping wound in the earth, he began probing the ground, trying to discern from a distance how compacted the soil and debris had become.
"Did you feel that?" one of the ninja below whispered, looking around the area wildly, hand already inching towards his weapon pouch.
Instantly, Tenzou's breath caught in his throat as the ninja's hissed question snaked up on the breeze. Quickly retracting his chakra, Tenzou melded seamlessly into the trunk of the tree and waited.
"Feel what?" another spoke up, his voice colored with annoyance.
"Shh…I think someone's out there."
"Aww, is widdle Naoki scared of the dark?" came a mocking baritone.
"As if enemy ninja would be stupid enough to return to the scene of the crime. Idiot." Another of the group spoke up.
"But-"
"Why would anyone bother attacking this piss poor excuse for a training compound anyway? It's been disused for how long, Kazuki?"
"Over seven years." A deep gravely voice relayed. "Maybe longer. I took my chuunin exams here over ten years ago. Big underground arenas, sitting unused for nearly a decade. Sad."
"Do you get the feeling we're missing something here?"
"Yeah, but the ground's still too hot to start digging and it's too dark to work. We should just report back and send another team later."
"Can't we just cool it down with a water jutsu?"
"And risk a landslide of thick muddy topsoil? Brilliant idea, Naoki. Why didn't I think of that?"
"Point taken."
Tenzou waited patiently until the five chakra signatures faded from detection before separating himself from the absorbing comfort of the tree.
Fist clenched pointing upward at a ninety degree angle at the elbow, Tenzou signaled silently for his teammates to hold their positions and created a wood clone from the palm of his hand, which branched and twisted until an exact replica of himself was standing beside him on the thick bough.
The clone nodded once before falling silently to the forest floor and disappearing from sight.
Raising his hand to point his index finger skyward, Tenzou made a series of circular movements above his head and within moments two figures landed gracefully alongside him.
"So, Captain," came the hushed whisper of his female companion. "What's the plan?" Her midnight purple hair fell like a shroud across her shoulders, giving the delicately painted owl mask the appearance of floating in thin air.
Tenzou thought for a moment, considering the best course of action. Readjusting his gloves silently, he lifted his hands to form a familiar seal and felt his concentration shift as his clone dispersed and its gathered information filtered back to him.
"The Waterfall ninja have definitely left the area, but we can't be sure they won't come back. Owl, I want you to keep a parameter patrol of four hundred meters around our target area and let us know if we have any unexpected company. Cougar-" he said, shifting his gaze to study the grinning cat mask, "I'll need you to stay close to me as I work, make sure nothing takes me by surprise."
"Sure thing, Captain Beaver." Replied Cougar easily with a two fingered salute.
Tenzou heard Owl tut in disgust quietly before dropping onto the forest floor in the same silent manner Tenzou's clone had.
"How many times do I have to tell you it's an Otter!" Tenzou hissed with as much indignant venom as he could muster while gesturing wildly at his mask with pointed index fingers.
"Well it should be a Beaver, after all-"
"If you even dare finish that wood joke I will use one of your senbon to staple your tongue to your oesophagus. Is that clear?"
"That's not even possible."
"Are you sure?"
There was a silent gulp and then a slightly miserable reply. "I forgot how much of a hard-arse you are to work with."
"And I forgot that working with you is like working with a horny, mentally retarded monkey."
"Heh, I've kinda missed this, you know? It's just like old times."
Despite his best efforts, Tenzou couldn't stop the small grin forming under the snug porcelain.
"Yeah, me too. Now let's find those kids."
As the shinobi that had been guarding Nakamizu's manor for the last five hours and fifty eight minutes waited patiently for their comrades to relieve them of their positions, two figures darted across the emptying courtyard unseen and unheard and slipped though one of the four doors that opened into various parts of the manor.
They found themselves at the top of a flight of stairs that seemed to lead down into a basement of some sorts. Instantly, the smell of disinfectant assaulted their senses.
"Can you smell that?" Sakura mouthed at Kakashi who only nodded back glumly, whispering a single word that Sakura knew was one of his only fears.
"Hospital."
Slowly, they descended and became more and more aware of the pulsing thrum of chakra pushing at their senses. Lots of it.
"This is definitely the place." Sakura whispered, stepping off the last step and into a large rectangular room with white walls and two long rows of hospital beds.
The room was lit not by bright sterile strip lighting like Kakashi had expected, but by the dim flickering of television screens.
As they walked silently through the room, Kakashi counted twenty four beds. In each bed, except two, lay a girl strapped down by thick leather restraints on each wrist and foot with wider triple belted fastenings across her waist and hips. Each of the patients' stared glassy eyes into the cluster of small screens stationed only inches above their faces, their ears covered with large black headphones.
Sakura ventured forward to one girl who showed no awareness of their presence.
Kakashi caught Sakura's arm with a gloved hand and let out a low, stern "Careful..."
Gently, she brought a hand to the girl's bare arms and shook her gently. When the girl failed to respond, she leaned in closer, removing the headphones and whispered quietly into her ear.
"Can you hear me? If you can hear me, blink twice."
The girl remained silent and her eyes unblinking.
"Kakashi, these girls are practically catatonic!"
Walking forward, Kakashi lifted the set of headphones and listened intently while kneeling down to watch the small flickering screens. Images of blood and gore cycled past at high speed on one screen. On another, stills from standard ninja training manuals flashed past.
Lifting his headband to allow himself time to digest the high speed images, Kakashi noted that one screen in particular seemed to be repeating a chapter on chakra theory over and over. He knew because he had studied that textbook himself a very long time ago.
Another of the screens showed some of the most aggressive pornography Kakashi had ever seen, so much so that even he felt a little revolted. The flickering screens seemed to meld together until a jumping mosaic of sex, violence, discipline, and technique seemed to twist and turn around him, all the while the headphones chattered, overlying instructions too indistinct to make out.
It wasn't until Sakura's hand griped his shoulder and gave him a none too gentle shake that he was snapped back to reality and dropped the headphones to the bed with a look of shock.
"I said 'What is it, Kakashi?'" Sakura repeated for the third time, her eyes full of worry. "You okay? You kinda spaced out on me for a moment there."
"Brainwashing." The Copy Nin intoned with his usual indifference, now fully back in control of his composure.
"Brainwashing?!"
"Yes. They're being conditioned, reprogrammed. The screens are feeding information into their brains and both audio and subliminal messaging is being used to reinforce these lessons. They're teaching them to fight, teaching them to infiltrate."
"But that's crazy!" Sakura hissed.
"No, it's not. It's something I haven't seen practiced for a long time, but it's a way to teach people complex tasks in the quickest time possible."
"I understand you can learn how to cook a soufflé by watching the cooking channel, but teaching girls with presumably no experience how to be a ninja? That's insane! It takes years to master even the most basic of ninja concepts. Why else would we be taught from four years old!" she said, shaking her head in disbelief.
"It only takes years to learn because you need to function on other levels. You need social skills, you need ambition and faith, and you need more than just a task or mission. These girls are just husks. Whoever they were before has been stripped away. They don't need years to learn techniques and concepts because there's nothing else getting in the way: no opinions or personal feelings, no residual memories, no inhibitions, just empty gray matter ready to absorb everything thrown at it like a sponge."
"If they have no social skills, how have they been infiltrating Konoha unnoticed? From what we've seen of them they've been aggressive and foul mouthed, but not without basic social skills!"
"Their social skills are programmed, Sakura. Every response, programmed."
"And the sex thing? Back at the base they were all eager to drop their panties on command!" she said, feeling her face heat up.
"Well…They are supposed to be able to infiltrate. Kunoichi have to be able to use other means of persuasion other than fists and roundhouse kicks and I also doubt Hiroto would just give up his girls without some benefits other than just money."
"How do you know so much about this?"
"Doesn't it look at all familiar?" Kakashi said, looking at the bedridden girl with a sad expression. "The vacant smiles, the lost expressionless eyes?"
"Sai." Sakura whispered, thinking of her lost friend. "It's just like how he was before, before Naruto helped him remember." Then, a look of comprehension crossed her features. "THIS! This is Root's involvement!"
"It looks that way."
Standing in the enormous crater, Genma whistled long and low. Assessing that they were indeed alone, he pushed the cougar mask up and wiped his brow on the back of his gloved hand, reflexively placing a thin, familiar piece of metal between his teeth to stem his anxiety.
"Tenzou…this is…well, it's all fucked, isn't it? I really don't see how-" he fell silent, taking in the enormity of the destruction surrounding them and shifting his feet as the heat from the ground bore into the soles of his feet, the bottom of his black ANBU issue sandals starting to melt into a gummy mess.
"What are our orders, Genma?" Tenzou said back, his own breath slightly short in the blistering heat.
"To bring back those kids no matter what." Genma reiterated.
"Exactly."
Genma watched on in silence as a thin sliver of wood worked its way beneath the boulders searching for a weak spot to exploit.
He understood what Tenzou was saying, he really did. After all, he had been in Kakashi's squad, too, and had been ingrained with the same fierce philosophy that anyone who ever worked under Kakashi adhered to: "Never abandon your team. Teamwork is everything. The team comes first."
People who didn't seem to understand this concept never lasted long in Kakashi's team and often found themselves reassigned if not demoted within a week.
Kakashi the friend was good humored, lazy, dirty minded, and slightly reclusive.
Kakashi the ANBU captain was a terrifyingly efficient, inspiring arsehole.
But Kakashi the ANBU captain with a grudge against you? Well, it didn't really bear thinking about.
For all the teasing words and playful insults directed at an easy target like Tenzou, Genma really couldn't remember ever being in such a strong and disciplined unit as he had been serving under Kakashi and alongside Tenzou and Yugao.
Naruto and Sai were both members of Kakashi's team and both had worked with Tenzou in his non-ANBU capacity several times. Add into the mix that the Hokage herself cared deeply for the Kyuubi container and the fact that both boys were, after all, Konoha shinobi made Genma, by proxy, a member of their team.
With a defeated sigh, he turned back to his friend and would-be-captain who had widened the wooden wedge considerably so that now it was about half a meter square and making slow, but steady progress down into the earth.
"Okay, what can I do to help?"
Running her hand across the prone girl's body, Sakura gently probed with the smallest amount of chakra she dared.
The patient's own chakra flared and tightened in response, its pure unhindered energy causing Sakura's chest to tighten.
She looked over to where Kakashi stood guarding the stairs.
"It's amazing." She murmured quietly. "It's like what it feels to be around Naruto when the Kyuubi has a hold on him."
"Hurry it up, Sakura."
She turned back to her work again, following the overloaded chakra pathways down to their source, a blisteringly hot area centred on the girl's hipbone.
"Oh Gods! Kakashi, the tattoo…it's a seal! It's as if it's wedging their chakra gates open! That's the source of all this energy! But it makes no sense, leaving even the smallest crack open in their chakra system would kill them." She heard a heavy noncommittal grunt behind her and rolled her eyes. "I know, I know 'hurry it up,' but it's like with Rock Lee's Reverse Lotus. If left open for too long it will literally eat them alive. These girls, all of them, will be dead inside six months even if they were already capable ninja. Assuming some of these girls are civilian with no developed chakra highways at all, they'll burn out in weeks if not days. It's fascinatingly cruel."
"Upsetting, isn't it? Unfortunately, with only a limited supply of girls at our disposal there really is no way to ensure all the girls make it past basic training."
Sakura spun around at the unfamiliar monotone of another man's voice.
There, standing over the prone form of her former sensei, stood the ANBU from the courtyard, his fingers curled around the hilt of a long katana.
Sakura barely had time to register the growing pool of blood around Kakashi's shock of silver hair before the mask appeared directly before her, crowding her vision and dominating her body space. She had barely even begun to identify the swimming feeling in her stomach as fear before the world folded in on itself once more.
*
Ah! Bangs head against table. Hard chapter to write! thank you for all my reviews last chapter and for putting up with my short but fun torture of Iruka-sensei, I hope you all enjoyed this one. SlinkyM