Chapter five
1
Sarutobi Hiruzen sat at the tiny dinner table, mildly contemplating how the golden rays of the morning sun seemed to make the blonde hair of the child sitting across from him glow with a radiance that was breath-taking.
The thirteen year old boy before him yawned, turning a page of the book he read as he did so.
Behind him, the sounds of Konoha's citizens preparing themselves for a new day drifted in through the balcony door of this tiny apartment.
The sigh of contentment practically sang its way out of the old man, as the warmth of the tea he was sipping spread throughout his chest. It was these small moments that his long life had taught him to cherish. Moments where he and this boy who could be considered a grandson in all but blood, sat in companionable silence, merely enjoying the sweet comfort brought on by the other's presence.
The boy yawned again and Sarutobi's features moulded themselves into a soft scowl.
"Naruto, you need to sleep," he said.
"Sleep is for the weak," was the rapid response.
A flick to the blonde's forehead had the boy seeing stars, but once his vision cleared and it did not sting as much, he spared the Hokage a short glare before glueing his eyes to the book once more.
Sarutobi sighed once more, this time more similarly to a parent worried for their child. "I did not think you would find my pupil's book that entertaining."
Naruto replied, barely taking his gaze off the page, "I know, right? I just don't get how the main character can be so happy all the time, so...idealistic. Jiraiya-sama creates the most impossible situation where any normal person would realize their limits. But the main character busts his way through with this 'never give up' crap!"
"You don't like that?"
"It's not realistic!"
"And yet, the need for sleep is not strong enough to make you put down that book." Sarutobi observed with small grin.
"Well...you know...if anything, he knows how to write a good fight scene," Naruto mumbled, but the red that coloured his cheeks spoke volumes more than his last sentence.
The old man could not resist the chuckle that escaped his lips, all the while filing away the little pieces of information this conversation had brought him. Naruto's use of the word 'idealistic' worried him slightly. At the age of thirteen, what was meant to drive you, if not your ideals?
He would have picked up the conversation again, perhaps stolen the little blonde's attention from the book with promise of ramen, when a feather of chakra brushed against his mind. He opened his mind to it and a single sentence echoed across his thoughts.
"Sakumo Hatake has returned."
2
An hour later found the old man thrust back into the role of the leader of this village of ninjas, a role that made his aging heart ache with grief and regret at the sight of a boy about Naruto's age on a hospital bed. The boy's torso, just below the diaphragm was thick with bandages, but his face betrayed no pain as he breathed through an oxygen mask.
"You saw everything?" he asked his old friend.
"Yes," Sakumo confirmed openly, as they spoke in a room just as tightly secured as the one they had held Kakashi in minutes earlier.
"Did he do this?"
"No...not exactly...he did not."
"Tell me, from the beginning." Sarutobi said, getting right down to business. Sakumo only nodded before he began, betraying no discomfort at the situation. From his tone of voice, right down to his body language, the more obvious guess would be that he was just loosely involved in this very serious matter, when in reality, he may or may not have had a hand in its conception, pun intended.
"At 2000 hours, the mission began. Sai," he said, reffering to the boy sleeping soundly before them, "and I infiltrated the paper mill and assassinated Gatou without significant incident. By the time we eliminated the target, no guard was even aware of any disturbance."
"I moved away, while Sai waited for the...'boy' to wake. Once he did, Sai said all we had instructed him to, and then fell back to my position. Through his ink constructs he observed what happened in the factory afterwards and related the events to me."
At this point, Sakumo fell silent, his wrinkled features settling into a thoughtful expression. Sarutobi noted this but never said anything, only asking that Sakumo continue.
"I concluded that the boy is a threat, too dangerous to be kept alive."
A grim atmosphere seemed to settle in this secluded hospital room and for a moment only the beeps of Sai's heart rate monitor broke the heavy silence.
"Did you kill him?"
"No, cirumstance forced me to stay my hand." Sakumo answered, so mechanically that even Sarutobi was unsure of just what feelings were behind that sentence...if there were any feelings at all behind that sentence.
"Explain."
"The boy is considerably skilled, more so than we could have ever imagined. Advanced nature manipulation, more so with lightning than earth; skilled with bladed weapons, both projectiles and the sword; exceptional taijutsu and proficient in genjutsu. His Sharingan, he uses it well, but not like most Uchiha."
Sarutobi nodded in deep understanding. Sakumo often told young Uchiha Anbu recruits that he would do his best to teach them not to wait to see their opponent's attack or they would die in the attempt. It always quickly worked to sober up any who were drunk on the 'power of their eyes'.
"That leads me to why I think he is truly dangerous: his intellect. His fighting style revolves around manipulating his enemy. He will either confuse you through perhaps robbing you of your senses. Or he will mislead you into believing you are superior to him, or that the advantage he held is lost."
"I understand," Sarutobi interrupted Konoha's foremost authority on Special Operations. "This worries you. Since he has the skill to hurt us, whether or not he has the intent does not matter."
Those words were like a hammer, slamming down onto this very delicate situation, threatening to smash what little was left of one of the two ninjas' patience.
"Sarutobi...perhaps you do not understand the gravity of the situation." Sarutobi could barely detect the minute traces of anger that seeped into Sakumo's tone.
"No, I do not. Years of service to this village as its Hokage has shown me that for such a situation, the unknowns are still too many for the full gravity of the situation to sink in," The Hokage countered, fully turning to face the man who until recently had been the last Hatake. "However, I do understand you. I've known you for decades after all. I know both the Hatake Sakumo who was looking so forward to having a happy family and the Hatake Sakumo, or what was left of him after everything was stripped away from him."
If Sarutobi had slammed a hammer down on the situation before, this time he had flexed his shoulders, spit into his palms and swung the hammer right into Sakumo's face with all the momentum of a shunshin dash, if the Hatake's expression was any indication. Sarutobi had once thought he would never see such an expression on his friend's face ever again.
Sakumo opened his mouth and would have sputtered and stammered over his words in the anger that had seemingly consumed his entire being, before he realized just how that would end. Instead he fought back the emotion that allowed it to simmer just beneath his skin. It did not stop him from giving off the appearance of a volcano that was about to erupt. "You...have no right to bring that up now," he forced out.
"As your Hokage, I have every right. I can look at this objectively. Were it possible for you to look at this objectively too, you would have no trouble bringing it up. Had you handled this as efficiently as you usually do, this boy, a child, would not have been knocking on death's door today, I'm sure. Sakumo, look at him. I took one look at this boy and knew this mission was a complete failure."
Silence.
"I want you to explain what happened. I do not need any personal opinions, pleas or judgements. Only facts. I order you, as Hokage."
"As you wish, Hokage-sama," Sakumo inclined his head to his Hokage, without missing a beat, as if they had not just been at the centre of ground zero of an emotional outburst only seconds ago. His mask of impassiveness had returned in all its plain glory, only marred by the throbbing vein on his forehead.
"After Sai left the boy, he was immediately attacked by two of Gatou's rogue samurai. He initially showed some disorientation, but they were dealt with soon enough. He played dead, stabbed the first one in the gut. He distracted the second one before stabbing him in the back of the head, though not before the second one raised the alarm."
"As expected, Gatou's remaining thugs followed. He hid Gatou's body and transformed into him, fooling the thugs into believing their boss had just survived an assassination, and that the ninja had retreated only because of the alarm."
"Gatou's mercenaries, were there none among them who was even slightly suspicious of him?"
"None that Sai noticed. However, while Gatou's thugs were of...rather limited intelligence the boy's impression of him was almost perfect."
There was only a short pause to show that Sarutobi turned this information over in his mind, before he motioned for Sakumo to continue.
"He made sure none of them were close enough to touch him, and once in the narrow confines of a hallway, he quickly performed an earth technique to call up spikes from the ground. An effective use of the jutsu, but its manifestation was sloppy. Some spikes were blunt, or they did not come up fast enough. There were however, sufficient casualties to level the playing field."
"The jutsu caused the hallway's collapse and the remaining combatants fell into the main chamber of the factory."
Sakumo outlined the rest of Kakashi's exploits upto the confrontation with Zabuza. He was keen not leave out the boy's use of strategy, his use of the Sharingan eye in the dark and the lightning jutsu that had been used. His leader had demanded it of him after all.
Sarutobi absorbed all the information like a sponge, its possible implications rushing through his mind, the same thing Sakumo had doubtlessly already done.
An original lightning jutsu? The way Sakumo described it made it seem similar to the Third Raikage's infamous jutsu. Did that make the boy an agent of Kumogakure then? But how could they have gotten their hands on a Sharingan? They had gone through the records and unless that eye was ancient, then it should not exist.
There had to be some other clue.
"Momochi Zabuza and the other masked ninja, do you have any idea of who they may be working for?"
"None at the moment."
"Any chance that the boy knows either of them?"
"No," he repeated, "unless the whole thing was magnificently staged, but from what I observed that seems highly improbable. I only came to this conclusion after it was all over. At that point in time, I sent Sai to join the boy. This move had two purposes. If the boy and the others teamed up to eliminate Sai, I would engage them personally."
"If they did not?" Sarutobi asked, though the answer was already clear in his head.
"Sai was to somehow kill or incapacitate the boy in the middle of battle and recover the body or perhaps just the head so that we do not lose this Sharingan eye."
Sarutobi felt a deep sigh coming. He told Sakumo to complete his verbal report.
2
In the pale light of a full moon, Zabuza's eyes looked over all that were present.
"Suddenly its become a kid's party," he muttered, "Well princess, mind telling me why you're messing up my fun time?" looking at the one who had just cast the wide area jutsu.
"Momochi, you are urgently needed elsewhere. You have been ordered to move to the original meeting point to receive new instructions. You're partner is already on his way there." her voice was strong and firm, yet very feminine. Anyone who heard that voice was going to have a hard time taking her seriously and that was likely the intended effect. But a hunch told Kakashi that he should definitely not take that view. After that jutsu, he simply could not find it in himself to relax at the sight of her.
"Those instructions can wait, I'm sure," Zabuza replied, as he spun the impossibly large sword about himself nonchalantly.
Her voice cut across the surface of the water, clear as day. "No, it cannot. I will take care of these two. They were already dead the minute they laid eyes upon me."
As Zabuza quite literally scratched his head obviously taking great pains to determine his next course of action, Kakashi took a step back and the girl took a step forward.
Conditions known only to Zabuza and the girl seemed to win over demon of the mist in the end. "So be it. I'll go."
His final words were for Kakashi and his Anbu agent.
"Damn, do I feel sorry for you guys," he cheerfully said, grinning under his mask. "Just make sure you watch out for her-"
"Momochi!"
"Alright fine, fine, I'm going," he relented with a gruff cheeky chuckle before disappearing by way of the body flicker jutsu.
Kakashi turned to his short Anbu supervisor for this clusterfuck of a mission. "We should run, or call for your backup now!"
The boy beside him also took a step back as the girl now held the spear in a menacing stance. "This was not planned for..."
Kakashi's Sharingan eye twitched. "What?! There's no back-"
And suddenly she was between them in the blink of an eye, dousing them with water from her quick charge.
Her spear which was longer than she was tall, traced a diagonal circle around her. The spear point looked to slice his head open while the other end moved for the anbu's feet. Kakashi barely leaned back in time, but the Anbu was sent splashing into the water, barely keeping himself afloat with a quick application of chakra to his palms on the water's surface.
That was not all she had though because in one smooth coordinated movement, her hand was in his face.
She did not attempt to grab him. For a moment, her hand with her palm facing outwards just hung in front of his face. Because of his Sharingan, she might have as well been moving in slow motion though. Between her fingers, he could see her face. The near supernatural clarity of the Sharingan allowed his vision to pierce the darkness of the eye holes of her mask. The pale moonlight was all the light he needed.
There it was; concentric black circles against a purple background.
Experience, the most effective teacher, told him the whole terrible truth about just what technique she was about to use.
A force burst outwards from her palm, which at that range would surely have caved in Kakashi's skull, had he been even the slightest bit slower.
Fortunately he was not, having practically blurred out of place as he jumped up into the air right above her, his calves burning with the effort to propel himself upwards that fast.
The anbu had recovered his footing by then, drawing a short sword whose tip was flat, making for a rectangular double edged blade. He swung at her but she blocked with her long spear and right before his eyes, the shaft of the spear was suddenly not as long as it should have been. Her weapon was definitely not of the average variety.
He filed this information away, and jumped back as she kicked out at him. The girl had to jump back herself as Kakashi came back down sword cutting through the space she had been standing in.
Kakashi did not let her rest. She had use Almighty Push just now, he was sure of it. If she was anything like Pain, then this was the time to attack! During the break between her uses of the devastatingly powerful jutsu.
Her guard was up just as fast. Sword and spear flashed between the two, sending sparks flying into the water. The anbu joined a few seconds later, and she found herself beset by attacks from two fronts.
The strikes came in fast and furious, high and low, wide swipes and straight thrusts, designed to wear her down and rob her of any opportunity to counterattack.
With Kakashi on her left and Sai on her right, the former copy nin was growing more sure of their victory by the second. She had not used the technique Pain had called 'Almighty Push' yet, so her cast time had to be longer. So far fifteen seconds had already gone by.
Regardless, he could read the desperation in her that grew with every passing moment. She was bound to make a mistake. He saw it three moves before it actually happened.
He reached out and grabbed his companion's shoulder, holding him back while he himself stepped forward. With the motion, he left such an opening only the most experienced would see its true purpose.
Luckily, she was not that experienced.
She seized it almost immediately, thrusting forward with the spear, right for his heart...
Only for Kakashi to sidestep at just the right moment. His own blade came up, parrying her with such force it was a wonder the spear didn't fly out of her hands.
Regardless, the opening was there, and she could not have stopped him if she tried...unless a certain jutsu was once more available for her to use.
For the second time that night, her free hand shot out, right in Kakashi's face, right before he could slice into her.
Once again, he did not even think about it. All of a sudden he was to her right, a whole five metres away from her. But that was all that happened.
There was no momentary trench in the water, as if a mighty God's fist had punched through it. There was no boom that set their rings.
Kakashi wanted to kick himself as he watched her widen the distance between them. He'd fallen for it and he had no one but himself to blame.
Thirty seconds.
Was it longer? Shorter?
It had to be longer. That was the perfect opportunity for her to use it;she could have crushed him then and there.
Even so, it stung. It stung that with that manoeuvre, she had managed to fool him completely.
When she was sure of her current safety, she raised the spear above her head and began to spin it. At the same time, the spear, which had already shown an unusual quality, split along its length until the metal that made up the shaft of the spear were joined together by bits of chain.
Kakashi had seen a few weapon called the three point staff but this was different. The way she swung it around herself, it looked like a rope with a spear head attached on one end.
With his Sharingan eye, he saw something else though.
He saw the chakra that surrounded the weapon, the way it ground against itself, the way it lended another edge to it, an edge that would cut through the strongest steel.
He moved to the Anbu agent's side just as she begun to swing the weapon.
Kakashi guessed his companion would not have noticed. Wind chakra is like that after all, being mostly invisible, and many wind specialists take advantage of shinobi who believe they are blocking an average blade with an average blade.
Her weapon moved like a whip, tracing an arc over the water. Kakashi channelled lightning chakra to his sword as he raised it.
He would have moved further but his movement was restricted by the hand that held him in place. He looked back in shock. His so-called comrade in this fight was holding him in place, using him as a human shield.
"Wha-!" was the only sound that made it past his lips before he was skewered, a full two centimetres before the blade actually touched his skin!
3
"Sakumo..." Sarutobi was this close to despair...
"There was no actual injury to his person. That was a clone, a lightning nature clone to be precise," Sakumo clarified.
"I should demote you. It was your orders that did this, but I'll withhold my judgement for now. Continue."
Appearing completely unpertubed, Sakumo continued. "The blade was coated in wind chakra and the boy was a clone. The clone destabilized and electrocuted Sai. The blade practically encountered no resistance and gave Sai the wound you see now."
"My operative collapsed into the water, but the boy, the real one, came out of the lake and carried him to dry land. I believe the clone replaced him when the unknown ninja first appeared. What came out of the water then was a clone."
"That was when you chose to interfere?"
"Right, I flared my chakra and I'm sure the boy recognized it. He looked in my direction and left Sai there, before moving to attack the unknown himself. He focused her attention on him, pushing her back through the forest."
"You did not pursue?"
"Sai was in desperate need of medical attention. I took him to the nearest town, had one of our medical ninja stationed there stabilize him, before I brought him back here."
"And you left the boy unattended?"
"...a necessary consequence."
Sarutobi turned and walked out of the room, beckoning Sakumo to follow him. "Walk with me, Sakumo." The one person who answered only to him was at his heels even before the order was given.
"The boy has not returned and I doubt he will do so, if he is still alive. He definitely knows Sai was acting on orders to kill him or have him killed. If he thinks the first thing we will do to him when he gets here is behead him and take the eye, then he will not turn up at our gates."
"Do you believe he will take this opportunity to meet with his backer since his infiltration mission failed?"
Sarutobi gave Sakumo a look. "I don't know what he will do Sakumo."
With a touch of irritation Sarutobi addressed his leader, "Sir...Sarutobi, he is not my child."
"And that is why we must know everything behind this event, and not act so haphazardly," Sarutobi countered.
"That means his current whereabouts must be known. Sakumo, you are to track him, find him and bring him back alive. Let him know he is not a target for execution first before you engage him. Let him Konoha is prepared to grant him asylum. Take a root team with you. In fact, take two. Swear them all too secrecy. The Uchiha must not know of this."
"As you wish, Hokage-sama."
"I want you to work with Jiraiya on this too. Use his spy network."
"Hokage-sama, if I am unable to bring him back alive..."
"Then you know what you have to do, Sakumo. I just hope you will not come to regret it."
"Sir, this...boy...could only ever be a threat to Konoha. All threats must be eliminated!"
The two stopped and the shorter Hokage stepped right into Sakumo's personal space, looking him directly in the eye. "Did you not feel something, when you saw him save your subordinate?"
"What was I meant to feel Hokage-sama?" Sakumo ground out.
"The will of fire perhaps?" Sakumo's eye widened. "I felt it you know, when I looked into that boy's eyes when he woke up."
"Now it could be perhaps a perfect act, but," he continued as he turned away and moved along his path, "my hunch tells me I have nothing to fear from that boy. A thousand enemies I've made as the so-called 'god of shinobi', yet that boy feels nothing like them. If he is indeed an enemy we will put him down. For now, I would like to retain the benefit of the doubt. It is just a hunch, mind you."
He gave one last look to Sakumo. "Hatake Sakumo, I believe you should be very busy now fulfilling my orders."
Shout out to Kakashi's hunches (lol) in the Naruto: the last movie and to Kyouko Sakura's (Puella Madoka Magica) weapon as C7's spear.