Sorry for the long delay! If anyone is left out there reading, here's the next installment, and thank you for reading and reviewing...
Chapter Seventeen
"Idiots. They must think he's at risk." Danzou growled as he received the initial summon. He called out into the quiet hallway, "Even! Get your gear on! Prepare to move out. Now!"
Jeninki's Ugoi came to with rough start. This body was not a morning person's, and with the strains on it, he was finding it difficult to move with any speed or grace.
"What? What is it, what?" he croaked from his doorway.
'Nothing. I just need to send Even out now. Tsunade wants him back for a mission of her own. We don't have that kind of time to play with."
"No, we surely do not," Ugoi rubbed his wrinkled face with both hands to try and perk up. He staggered a bit and had to brace himself against the wall in the hallway as a sharp pain pierced his left shoulder. Paler than before, when he tried to continue to walk, he went to one knee instead. "Danz…" his call cut off as the pain increased sharply. Slowly, he collapsed forward, gasping fruitlessly for air.
Even swiftly moved to intercept and scooped him up as he lost consciousness.
"No, this can't happen, not so soon! Even, put him back in the bed. I need to get some things, watch him for me." Danzou hurriedly returned with a bag and waved Even away. "I'll take care of this. There's no time. I may have to suspend him already, I need to hurry. Get to your mission. Transport to the old council chamber first so no one sees you go. If that causes problems with your face you'll just have to cope with it. We can't have you seen on the way out. That might have been our error last time."
The cloth mask adhered to the dampness of the healing tissue; luckily, the hard half-mask touched little of damaged area. Once outfitted completely, Even did as ordered. When he appeared in the cold, empty chamber after teleporting, an increase in the dampness and the propensity of the cloth to stick tight was all that he noticed in the way of change to his face.
The morning air was clear and cool, and he darted out in low profile, using his natural skills instead of his chakra to begin his journey. At the moment, secrecy was more important than speed, and speed was going to be unavoidably slow anyway until the twenty-four hours were up.
He made it out of the initial perimeter completely undetected within the hour as the sun cleared the horizon, marking the start of his mission's first day.
xxxxxxxx
"Damn." Tsunade raked her hair back from her forehead after reading the reply returned with the condor. "This is getting more complicated by the minute."
Ibiki stepped up and took the note, shaking his head.
"He says Iruka's on a training mission. That he left two days ago and isn't projected to return for another three weeks at least. It's a lie, of course. You just saw him return." Tsunade explained to Kakashi.
"He saw an unidentified man in dark armor," Ibiki corrected, motioning towards the copy-nin. "Iruka never said he was ROOT, or we could easily have implied that it was him without arousing suspicion. But if Kakashi knew his identity, then we'd have to have a damned good reason for killing his captive. We can't just come out and call him a liar, because we can't admit to Kakashi's knowing anything about who he saw."
"So he's probably still in there. I can't think of a reason why Danzou would hide him, unless it's to conceal the fact that he's given him the eyes," Tsunade said.
"Then what are we holding back for at this point?" Kakashi asked. "Let's go in."
"Because all of this is conjecture. We haven't been able to establish for a fact that he even has the eyes in his possession." Ibiki lectured impatiently.
"Why else would he want a live prisoner right now? We have enough circumstantial evidence…"
"To what? Prosecute him? We don't need evidence. We just need the be certain that we're correct. The consequences of busting in there and being wrong are going to be dramatic. Politics, whether you like it or not, still have the power to interfere with the way this village's shinobi are managed. And if you think you've been made to act under orders you've disliked before, wait until you carry them out at the self-centered whims of the councilmen. Because Danzou will be able to show this as an abuse of power if we're wrong. He'll use it to propagandize for his cause to re-assert control over the Hokage jurisdiction." As Tsunade spoke she rapped the desktop, turning over the possibilities.
Kakashi smiled suddenly. "Man, I'm slow today. Of course we can find out exactly who is in there. Pak can go in, in his stealth mode, and look around. He might be detected - but what will they detect? Just a bit of life force - he can't be identified. And he just needs to do a once-over and get out."
"Well then, what are you waiting for? Make it happen, now."
Shizune appeared with fresh tea and the professional shinobi took great pains not to yawn or appear tired. It wasn't the lack of sleep so much as the stress. They all felt sluggish and frustrated.
x
Pakkun's report to Kakashi was not what they expected. The two conferred quietly, and Kakashi presented the news to Tsunade.
"Iruka really isn't there. Danzou is taking care of Elder Ugoi. He appears to be very ill, maybe on his death bed. Maybe we're completely wrong about this. Pakkun had no trouble looking around, and he checked out the whole place. I guess Iruka could have left as soon as he reported back in, and got out without the bird spotting him. It would be pretty easy at his level." Kakashi was shaking his head, motioning to the pug to wait with him.
Tsunade groaned and barely resisted the urge to fling the carefully prepared bogus scroll out the window. Instead, she slipped it into a holder and called for Shizune.
"Lock this up. Then go home and rest. I'm going to catch a nap right here, so the rest of you get out. Kakashi, hit the field and start tracking Iruka as soon as you're able. I want reports sent back every day. Be on you highest guard if he received the transplant. Make no assumptions. Ibiki, have someone take up the watch over Danzou's until Kakashi reports back. Go ahead with your team meeting and start running down those long shot ideas. If the transplant hasn't been performed and we can just get through a few more weeks, this whole mess will disappear. Until then, we'll remain on high alert. Now, everybody out! And true emergencies only for the next two hours." The ANBU bowed and moved to escort everyone out while Tsunade tipped the chair back and rested her heels on the edge of the desk, reclining and already closing her eyes.
"I had a team meeting slated for today already. Shiranui's overdue, I'll be a man down until he reports. We'll work around him until he gets back," Ibiki said, turning to leave.
"I'm going to check in with the perimeter control monitors to see if I can get a direction of travel and I'll be leaving straight from there." Kakashi added, moving to follow.
"I'm still not convinced that this is an encouraging sign," Ibiki called back from the doorway. "We're not clear of this yet."
Tsunade waved him away without looking up and breathed a heavy sigh when the doors fell shut.
Oh, for the powers of the Third and his crystal ball. She would have to do some research and try to learn the secrets of his vision when this mess was cleared up.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
It was time to commit to the land of first choice. Sand, Sound or Mist. Sand was last choice per the master, and Mist nin were not as readily flushed out. So Sound it would be, then. There were known pockets of Sound rebels to the far west of the Sound village proper. It was among the areas marked on the mission maps to avoid unless specifically assigned to a sortie in the area. The nin there must surely be secure in their dominance of the area by now. They would not be as likely to expect company.
The quiet of the heavily wooded area was to his benefit; Even's skills in moving in silence were long-established. They were first ones he perfected upon returning to the field after his disfigurement, long before joining up with ROOT. His razor-sharp hearing was a natural trait, honed over many years in the classroom. No one would hear him coming; but he would hear them, he had no doubt.
He traveled without incident, diverting away from a group of Konoha traders; and later, a mission team of three Konoha shinobi dragging a sack of something that was chakra concealed back to the village. By the time the daylight was fading, he made his camp for the night and checked his face in the polished metal of his largest shuriken. It looked raw and sore, just the way it felt. But it did appear to be trying to heal. The edges were producing a thin scabbing, something the damaged flesh had never tried to do before.
It only concerned him in that the scabs would be stiff and might limit his movement somewhat, reducing his efficiency, if only temporarily.
Danzou's reason for restoring his face seemed false, but he couldn't yet determine what the real motive might be.
No matter. He pressed himself into the two hours of intensely concentrated sleep that would provide him with sufficient refreshment for the next twenty-two hours of action. This would leave him extremely well rested and ready for anything. By awakening he would have full use of his chakra, and woe be to the next rogue nin to come into his sights.
xxxxxxxxx
"Kashi-kun," leered Yori, grinning at his post next to the thrumming nerve center of the perimeter monitor. His hands withdrew from his work station, which caught the eye of his neighboring attendant. "Cover my area for a minute."
"Yori - I wasn't sure if you were still stationed here," Kakashi smiled back. "It's business this time, I'm afraid."
"Hmph. It's been too long. What is your business here, then?"
"I need to review the egress for the last forty-eight hours. I'm looking for a jounin or above, probably on the back side, doing a teleport or a slip-through. I need direction of travel and time."
"Nothing much on the backside yesterday. There was a blip here early this morning," Yori pointed to the holographic diagram and replayed the minute disturbance. "No foreign presence detected, though."
"Time?"
"This was around six in the morning."
Kakashi nodded. That would be about right if Iruka was still there when the first message was delivered; he could surmise that Danzou had dispatched him to avoid turning him over to Tsunade. With a time and at least a point of departure, the copy-nin was on his way, calling Pakkun along for some good old-fashioned rabbit hunting.
xxxxxxxxxxxx
The wee hours saw the end of Even's compressed restoration sleep, and he was able to move in darkness to locate a possible target for his first recon mission into a rogue nin enclave. He conjured up a small lizard avatar to be his eyes, sending it scuttling straight in among them.
It was a small group, only fourteen souls, four of them companion women, a child, and two elderly men. One kunoichi, which gave Even a moment's hesitation - were kunoichi acceptable candidates? Until he was able to ask, he assumed that they were not, since it hadn't come up. That left the six male ninja to scrutinize.
They weren't much to look at, but after eliminating three for obvious physical disqualifications, he had three solid possibilities.
The tallest, strongest man was busy helping one of the companion women. The outline of the flowing robe suggested a decent physical specimen, but it was difficult to tell under all of that material. He moved without any sign of hesitation, his motions were deliberate and sound, and his strength was evident as he lifted the heavy load with ease and patiently waited for the woman to decide exactly what she wanted done with it.
His shaved head was remarkably clean and unscarred.
The ROOT shinobi nodded to himself. Fortune was with him, an excellent candidate right off the bat.
Fortune turned, however, as the alert man sent a foot out and smacked it down on the darting lizard. Instead of the crunch of tiny bones, the pop of the dispelled chakra alerted him immediately.
"Intruders!" he shouted, flinging the supply sack aside and shoving the woman. "Alert the others! Take cover!"
A broad beam of harsh chakra flared out, searching; Even met it in full sail instead of hiding, advancing straight on and bursting through the underbrush to meet the scowling nin's glare.
His opponent did a double-take at the unfamiliar armor, not sure what level of opponent was bearing down in him. Even's swiftly-launched six-armed snare was growing in size as it spun towards him, and he shot straight up, barely in time for the black webbing to deflect harmlessly off his heel. He moved over the dark-clad man and stayed at the treetops, launching a barrage of hundreds of small needles from the band on his left wrist. His eyes narrowed in concentration as the man below somehow dodged them all, a feat not unlike running though the rain without being wet by a single drop. The seriousness of his situation hit home immediately. This was a highly skilled ninja, an enemy capable of taking down his entire encampment.
His promised to lead and defend the others had been tested before. As the other shinobi piled into the clearing, flinging kunai and working up their defense jutsu, Kotai shook his head. They had nothing, even with their advantage in numbers, that would challenge this man much. He shot a wide, flat wall of pressure down and watched closely.
Even had no sense that he was in any danger. His most powerful opponent, the bald nin, was above him, and had taken a conservative, defensive stance. The rabbling ninjas below were coming in a collected group, sending up showy shots to put him on notice that they were a force to be reckoned with. They seemed to be under the mistaken belief that he would be off put by their number and their strength. He summed them up easily and while he did not underestimate them, he rated them as manageable.
He deflected away their tentative first wave of attack, keeping a watch on the one above.
"What do you want here? Identify yourself!" snarled the old man. He seemed secure in his comrades' ability to defend their turf, standing near the front of the groups without any obvious weaponry.
The masked nin had come to a halt, and still in a stance prepared for attack, tipped his head down to see them more clearly through the mask. The slight blue tinge to their skin was something he had not seen through his avatar. If they had the Okami bloodline, their chakra powers had inferior capacity.
He let his pause continue, and he did not react when Kotai dropped behind him in stealth. He waited and spun at the last moment, blocking the singing blade with a steady hand. The other nin's flesh was clearly blue-tinged; Even ripped away the blade and flung it so that it embedded into the tree a bare inch from the old man's nose. His mind had already rifled through the bingo books and come up empty except for the kunoichi. Her price was too low to justify hauling a cap around this early in the game; he applied capture force to the man who was now carelessly close and flung him into him own people. Behind the momentary curtain of the flying robes Even seemed to disappear.
The riled group began to launch a return volley, it took a good fifteen minutes to finally realize that Even had not taken cover, gone on the defensive, or sought another angle of attack; he was long gone.
He moved along silently, tendrils of chakra carefully seeking. If this was a common hideout of Okami rogues, he needed to keep moving. They were not suitable prey, and they had few, low book values.
He decided to change direction and head further west, into slightly higher elevations. In the mountain passes, some of the more established outlaw groups held to easily defended territories on outcroppings and in cliff-wall caves.
He passed a peaceful satellite village, a small cooperative of farmers separated from the main civilization by a rocky, barren stretch of land interrupting the continuity of the fertile countryside. There were some strong men there, in perfect health, and he detoured to watch them briefly. They were not rogues but law-abiding, productive citizens; easy prey, if he decided to take one. But the chakra development just wasn't there; it came as a surprise to him that these people were out here without any shinobi defense. He stood in their midst and with just a bare touch of chakra stealth moved through them completely unseen.
He took that to mean that he was far away from any threatening outlaw groups, or they would be long dead.
He left at a faster pace; the further he had to go to complete his mission, the longer it would take to get back. He didn't detect the lone shinobi lying motionless in the rushes until the scent of human blood jerked him to a halt. That scent was oddly familiar.
He knew the wounds were grave just from his instincts. He parted the tall reeds and saw the familiar red-on-green of a Konoha uniform. He recognized the broken metal protruding from the shoulders and hips; the man had been held captive and had broken the barbed restraints that held him tethered, usually suspended above the ground to prevent just such an escape.
He carefully rolled the man face-up, noting discouragingly that the ragged uniform was muddied, thoroughly soaked and ice cold in addition to being darkened with blood.
He nodded in affirmation at the bruised face of Shiranui Genma. It made sense, the jounin often operated alone on assassinations. This mission might have been a success in the strictest of terms; often assassinations went awry after the deed was done.
He scooped up his fellow soldier as his mind made the calculations as to how much time this would cost him and how obligated he was by traditional code versus the set of priorities given him by his new leader. His hands radiated life-enhancing power into the limp body as he walked, wasting no time in cooing over the man to attempt to wake him. He found higher, dry ground with sufficient cover and placed Genma on his back, face up. The broken ends of the barbed hooks would be pressed slightly into him in this position, but his back had looked relatively undamaged otherwise. As Even straightened to look, his guess had been correct. The shinobi had been tortured, and it was largely damage to his throat and chest that had brought him so close to death.
Even's steady hands pumped specific amount of chakra healing into the exact points of severe injury. In thrifty increments, he healed the very worst of it efficiently with a small percentage of expended energy. It would be more painful in the short run, but he needed to be prudent. He had a long, difficult mission ahead. He had no intention of cutting it short to take this man home.
He took a moment to consider the metal barbs. They were not life-threatening per se. They would be more of a bleeding risk out than in. A conventional field removal would be crude and more likely to cause further damage, and he could not justify the wasted power to jutsu them away properly.
He dribbled water from his supply into the dry lips, just enough to moisten it. The eyelids were starting to flutter, first a little, then a lot.
The strange mask hanging over his helpless, pained body alarmed Genma, even in his limited consciousness. The armored hand came down and pressed over his mouth to silence him, then slid up and eased him back into sleep. There was no real point to having him awake.
He lifted his former colleague and with stoic resignation backtracked to the peaceful farm village. He henged into Kakashi before striding into the first group of people he saw. The copy-nin was widely known and somewhat of a folk hero among the masses in many places. If they recognized him, it should afford him enough cooperation from these non-Konohan people to be reasonably certain they would either see to the jounin's recovery until he was mobile or deliver him to the gates themselves.
A young boy spotted him first and ran in a panic to a nearby doorway; Even supposed that Genma's severe injuries would work in his favor as far as getting cooperation quickly.
A man in common cloth and wire-rimmed glasses came out nervously to meet him.
"My comrade had been injured. I must ask your assistance."
The bespectacled man seemed tongue-tied, one hand worrying into his sandy mop of hair.
"I am Hatake Kakashi. You are..?"
"Oh! Your name is familiar. I'm sorry, my name is Mimishu Haru. I am the lead constable and medical officer for our village."
"Where can we take him?"
"Right this way." Haru lead him, glancing constantly over his shoulder, back into the small building he had emerged from. The boy darted out past them and kept going as soon as they opened the door to enter. There was a desk, an examining table, a file cabinet and a rack of weaponry. Apparently this was the small settlement's military, medical and administrative headquarters, all in one room manned by one soul. "Place him there. This looks severe; it's a little out of my league. But I'll see what I can do."
The silver-haired shinobi nodded and looked at him with a steady, intense one-eyed stare as he placed Genma on the table. It made Haru very uncomfortable.
"What has happened? This is torture?" Haru asked, even more upset. Trouble of this nature had a tendency to spread. His village was ill-prepared to deal with the sort that would inflict this kind of punishment.
"So it would appear. I found him this way a fair distance from here. We were not on a mission together. You should preserve him as best you can. Konoha will reward you for you trouble if you do. Either deliver him back to them, or alert them so they can come for him. I must go."
"No, wait! We have no defenses here. If whoever did this comes looking for him, we won't be able to stop them, and we have so many innocents here that might get hurt!" Haru pushed his glasses up higher on his nose. "Hataki-san, I beg of you! Don't…"
"You will manage. Konoha is in your debt." With that, Even turned and left, closing the door on the next stuttering protest.
He supposed it would have been kinder to have henged into Kakashi before Genma saw him and became frightened, possibly thinking that he had been recaptured. But it didn't make a material difference in the fact that he'd preserved the ninja's life and brought him to a reasonable chance of safe return to the village. The ROOT nin had preserved a valuable resource for Konoha, and now he had his primary mission still before him, one he had elected to delay.
It had occurred to him that Danzou might be displeased and disagree with his actions. It was for that reason he so abruptly cut his act short and left to double-time it back to the higher region. This time he went to the rushes and began tracking Shiranui's blood traces back to the source. Surely, whoever had done this to a Konoha nin was fair game for the taking.
tbc