DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. (Though the OCs are mine!)
Webs of Deception
Chapter Twenty
Mysterious Disappearances
Sasuke leaned up against a wall in the Hokage's office, like he usual does when he has to be within the room for any period of time that's longer than necessary. His eyes were locked on the masked fox pacing back and forth in the office. The tense atmosphere mostly flowing off of Naruto in waves.
But the tenseness radiating off the other didn't really bother him because he, himself, was already tense. Half of that tenseness resulting from the information he's learned from the blond and the past week and then the other half because of this woman named 'Asuka'. This one little name that could cause a variety of levels of jealousy within him. And he had no foggiest idea who this person was and yet she could conjure up such emotions in him.
Though it might have something to do with how nervous Naruto was with the idea of telling whoever she was to him. Which means--to him--that she was someone very important in his life after he left. And that idea didn't sit well one bit with him. How important could she have been?
Tsunade quietly sat behind her desk--mostly half asleep. Not having any idea why this meeting was called. Naruto refused to say anything about it until the others were here. But, of course, that didn't stop him from barging into her office and waking her up from such a nice slumber. Where she was dreaming of swimming in a half full bottle of the best sake. A lazy smile formed. Yes, such a wonderful dream.....
Seconds later, the rest of Akuma, Neji and the fox; Daiki transported in various styles into the increasingly crowding room. Neji went over near Sasuke and stood while Akuma were standing where they appeared once they entered the office.
The dragon mask of Miki was the first to speak, his features half-heartedly scowling at the blond that was pacing."What the hell's going on?! Bringing us here when we could be doing something more important! And Daiki informing us no less! Wait, isn't he suppose be at Yuugure(1)!"
Kyoko huffed and rolled her eyes at the first half of his comments, 'Like drooling on the papers he fell asleep on.'
At first, Naruto didn't take notice of the others arrival. His mind was worriedly on the fact that the people of Yuugure were gone. And several times he's had to mentally force himself not to automatically leave Konoha and go to Yuugure from the moment he found out. But he knew that he couldn't just act on impulse. He's learned the hard way that, that never worked.
He stopped in his pacing and wrenched off his mask and hood. Figuring that no one else was going to enter Baa-chan's office at this time of night. "We have a situation on our hands." And before he could continue on with his explanation of said situation, Miki yelled, "Oh god, who died!"
All eyes turned to him with annoyed expressions. Though most of them couldn't be seen because of their masks but the white haired male could probably feel them. "What!" he exclaimed. "It's perfectly logical conclusion in our line of work!" Turning his head to the side to show that he was one that was right and the others were just mean.
"Naruto, continue if you would." Itachi said calmly as he took his mask off like Miki didn't say anything at all.
Miki took his mask off before he scowled at the older Uchiha. Wanting to make sure he saw it. Kyoko and Ruri followed suit with only the removal of their masks. Gaara, on the other hand, kept his on as he stood silently at the end of the line. He just didn't want to remove it anywhere other than there temporary safe house. Or if he was alone with Neji but that was a given and the only other exception with removing his mask.
"No one's died.....I don't think....." muttering the last part mostly to himself. Praying that wasn't the case at all. He cocked his head to the fox sitting by the side of Tsunade's desk. "Daiki tell them."
The five tailed fox nodded curtly before explaining, "The others and I were patrolling and watching over Yuugure like Naruto-sama instructed us to when an undetected chakra surge filled the village. Resulting in all of the villagers to disappear without so much of a trace."
"All of them?!" unbelievably asked Kyoko while the others were mostly stunned into silence.
"All of them in a four miles radius. We even check the village seven miles away to see if it affected the whole island but the villagers there were still present. So we concluded that the Yuugure village was the only one affected by the chakra surge."
Kyoko lowered herself into a nearby chair. Tears gathering in the corner of her eyes at the thought that something bad happened to the people that lived there. Many of those people they considered friends.
Itachi brought his hand up to his mouth in silent contemplation. Running everything that Daiki said over in his head. Though no logical explanations came to him because with the information they received nothing seemed to make any sense. He didn't mean though, that there wasn't any sense in it at all because there was, but not in a way--that he could come up with--that seemed possible.
"Was there any indication of who did this? Even in days prior before this occurred, was there any suspicious people within the village?" Itachi asked to see if there was any kind of connection to the group they just recently stole from.
Without having to think it over--because he becomes particularly anal with the security of the village when Akuma was away on......business--Daiki answered, "No, Itachi-san. Only the regulars entered and left the village the past month. I'm ninety-six percent sure that no new faces appeared among the village while Akuma were away. And no distinct symbols or messages were found indicating an enemy of yours were responsible."
"Are you suggesting that the group Ouroboros was responsible for this?" Gaara asked Itachi in monotone voice.
"It would make sense." Naruto chimed in, "It's too damn much of coincidence that this happened not to shortly after we stole all there information."
"And we don't believe in coincidences." chorused Miki, Kyoko and Ruri.
"But we can't let that overshadow our minds from all the other possible enemies that could be responsible for this." stated Itachi to make sure that the others and remind himself not to become narrow minded.
"Even if Ouroboros or any other possible enemy did this, then how did they succeed in doing so?" Ruri asked before anyone could start speaking again. "Something of that magnitude would need enormous amounts of chakra. And if whoever is responsible for this actually managed to have access to this amount of chakra, then Taichou's foxes would have been able to sense it if anything was happening far before the incident occurred."
By this point Naruto was already back to his pacing. "Yes yes yes, I know that!" he snapped out of pure annoyance about Ruri stating the obvious negatives of the situation.
Sasuke watched the several conflicting emotions pass the blond's facial features like it was an open canvas. Revealing that this village meant a lot to him. Obviously more than Konoha ever did. And for some reason, it hurt to know this. Maybe it's because he hasn't let the fact that Konoha betrayed the blond in the first place, to sink in yet. Or maybe he doesn't want to admit to himself that, that village might have someone that means more to the blond than he ever did........
Naruto paced a couple more rounds before facing Tsunade, "Baa-chan.....Since I prefer to keep my sparkling record of completing missions, I have a bargain to make to you." Tsunade lifted a tired eyebrow and showed some amusement at this. But through this tiredness, she was intrigued because she didn't know why he was even bargaining. The reason for this was because she would practically let him do anything he wanted as long as it didn't involve killing everyone in the village or destroying said village.
"I know you requested the whole of Akuma to protect the chuunin exams but you're gonna have to deal with only half. Since Ruri-chan and I are already being forced into a plan; 'Tachi, Miki, Kyoko-chan aaannd if you don't mind giving up Neji for a little bit, are going to need to go to Yuugure for some recon."
Unexpectedly for the blond, Tsunade burst into a hard fit of laughter.
Naruto blinked in annoyance at the older woman's timing on humor. This was definitely not the time for it. "Oi! Baa-chan! What the hell is so funny?!"
Through heavy pants of trying to regain her breath, she said, "Ohh just amusing that you would even bargain. I would of let you do it without that whole speech of yours." The left eye of Naruto's twitch. Saying with a dull and irritated tone, "So you don't mind lending Neji, huh? His byakugan could be quite useful in this."
"Like I care. As long as he doesn't mind."
The Akuma leader averted his eyes to Neji to see his answer. Which came as a nod from the brunette and, "Of course. I would be glad to help you Naruto."
And with that, Itachi pulled his hood up and secured his mask back on. "Then we might want to get going. The faster we get there the quicker we'll know how to get the villagers back." Hardly happy that he was stuck with the two obnoxious members of his team. He turned his head and addressed number one Mr. Obnoxious, "Miki, get Neji-san a cloak."
Without any acknowledgment that he heard the older Uchiha, Miki reached into one of his pouches and pulled out a sealing scroll. As he unrolled the scroll he bit his thumb until it bled. Smearing the blood on the word 'Cloaks' that was written on the open scroll in one swift stroke. And in a poof of smoke a black cloak appeared. He tossed the large material to Neji. Who caught it effortlessly and began to put it on.
As Itachi, Miki, and Neji were heading to the door and Kyoko was standing from the chair she dropped herself into, Naruto informed, "Daiki's going with you." When this was heard by the fox, Daiki rose onto all fours ready to retrieve his orders. Naruto continue talking to his team, "He'll be the fastest route to send anything important back to us and vice versa." Then he turned his attention to the fox, "That means you listen to 'Tachi and report back to me if anything unexpected may occur."
Miki scoffed, "Expecting something to happen to us?!" he asked sarcastically.
Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "Call it the paranoid side of me. I would like to know if any of you were in trouble as soon as possible. Not a week later." Pointedly looking at the white haired male.
"Still hasn't let that one go....." muttered Miki under his breath as he lifted his hood and re-attached his mask.
Naruto smirked knowingly of what the other said. "And why would I let it go when I can always bring it up to make good points in arguments." Then he chuckled when he received a audible growl and a glare from the other male as he was the exited the office. Neji exited close behind after giving one last glance at the raccoon mask of his lover.
Kyoko stood in her spot for a long moment before running over to Naruto and hugged the older male around the waist. Unaware of the glare directed at her back as she said dejectedly, "Take care of yourself Naru-chan! Don't get sick while we're gone!"
Naruto patted her head a couple of times while reassuring the young girl, "Mou Kyoko-chan, I'll be just fine! Don't worry 'bout me!"
Kyoko pulled back and nodded, giving a cheerful smile in return to the blond. She turned on her feet and headed to the door. Pulling her hood and placing her mask back on as she gave goodbyes to everyone that was staying behind. Then she left out of the open door of the office, following the path of Miki and Neji and leaving Itachi to catch up.
Before Itachi left the room just like the others, Naruto called out to him and gesture for him to come to him. The both of them moved from earshot of the other occupants of the room. This action being focused intently by onyx eyes. Who watched the exchange of words between the two. Wondering what could be so important that Naruto didn't want it to be heard by any of them. But the blond's hand moving up and rubbing the area that that tattoo was located, answered it. 'Her again?' he thought bitterly.
With one last nod to Naruto's personal request, he turned to leave. And when he stood in the doorway, he gave a curt nod to the others as a farewell before leaving and closing the door behind him.
Silence settled upon the five persons left within the walls of the Hokage's office. Naruto quietly walked to the chair that once sat Kyoko and slumped down into the not so comfortable piece of furniture. A tired sigh following and the flexing of his neck, "God, this has been a long day." he said, trying to ease the apprehension his body was feeling.
"Tell me about it." grumbled Tsunade, "I dealt with Kyosuke most of the day. Who knew a little boy could have as much energy as he does."
Ruri giggled and Naruto chuckled, all to familiar with the energy of the brunette boy. "I woke up with the prospect of training Jun. Oh what fun, dealing his arrogant smart-ass self. Oh.....!" remembering what Neji informed him of at the end of the training, "Neji. He said you wanted to see me."
Tsunade's expression fell with being reminded of this. "Yes, but I think it can wait until tomorrow." 'It's not like those old fools are going anywhere.'
"That bad uh?" he asked with a lifted eyebrow. And with a slight shrug of his shoulders, he continued with, "You might as well. My day can't possibly get any worse."
She gave him a look that said, 'Are you sure about that?' but told him non the less. "The council members want to see you and your team."
A dead weight of extremely tense silence followed that comment. No one daring to speak in fear of igniting the blond's fury that was bubbling just below the surface. Naruto's jaw flexed with barely contained anger. "Well congratulations Baa-chan, you just successfully made my day worse." Each word spoken strained to get out between his clenching teeth. The specks of red within his sapphires becoming more prominent as he fought to keep his anger in check.
"I told you it could of waited." Her voice calm, like the blond before her desk wasn't about to explode molten larva.
"What do those fucking old farts want now? To also destroy the little bit life I have now?"
"Brat don't take that tone with me!" her own patience running out faster than normal because of the weariness she felt. "It wasn't my idea that you meet with them. They decided it on there own."
"Like so many other things." he muttered with enough volume for everyone in the room to hear.
"I know you're still bitter with them but--"
"Bitter?" Naruto interrupted, the grip on his mask growing tighter. "Who says I'm bitter? I'm FURIOUS!!!" He all but screamed before calming his voice down once again. "But not bitter."
"Yes, you're angry." Forcing her voice to sound as calm as she could make it go. "But you have to understand that Akuma is the most dangerous mercenary teams around now. And unfortunately, that amount of risk to the safety of Konoha requires a meeting with the council."
"The safety of Konoha? If I wanted to attack Konoha, I would of done so a long time ago. But you see, a part of me still loves Konoha. Though that definitely doesn't include most of the villagers living in the village." Pausing and zoning out for a moment before shaking his head out of his minor stupor. "That's not the point though. The point is, it's my home village. And no matter how much I would like to listen to that other part that hates Konoha with a fiery passion, I just can't bring myself to attack the village I was born in. Even though most of the population believe of me to be a merciless killer."
"That was sweet and all Naruto but......you still need to meet with the council."
"No." he down right refuses to see those wrinkly old fools. Who think they know it all but only really want to put the blame on innocent people that couldn't of done what they accused said people of. Yup, he knew he was ranting right about now. But he didn't really care. These people were the first that he's ever despised with every single--and he means every single little bit--of fiber in his being.
Her last shred of patience was a hair's length from snapping. "Brat....." she said with slight exasperation as her hands massaged her temples. "......this isn't my choice."
"I said no." he told her flatly and in a commanding sort of tone.
Snap.
That was just Tsunade's patience breaking. Her hands slammed against her desk and rose to her feet in an intimidating manner. Under the brunt force of her strength, the desk buckled and broke into many pieces. Toppling everything that was stacked on top of the wooden surface to the floor in a complete mess.
The noise that came with the brutal smashing of her defenseless desk caused Ruri to flinch a little. Sasuke and Gaara kept their impassive stoic masks in place as they both watched the violent exchange between the two blonds. Neither willing to get between them at risk of some major bodily damage. Mostly by the Hokage, who would probably be less merciless than Naruto.
"I not asking you Naruto!" Was the simple phrase the she yelled at the younger blond. Her eyes flashing that she was not kidding an ounce.
Naruto's own eyes narrowed dangerously, "According to Konoha, I'm dead! Meaning have no obligations to follow your orders, Tsunade-sama!" The iciness of his voice sent shivers down the spines of the occupants in the office. His body rising from his sitting position in the chair and standing to his feet. He turned and began walking to the door. And as he pulled his hood up and secured his mask back on, he yelled over his shoulder, "For all I care, the council members can kiss my ass and if lucks on my side, DIE in the process!"
He left after this was said with a loud slam of the office's door. Which split the wood down the middle and caused Tsunade to grumble obscenities under her breath about having to replace yet another door. She sat back down in her seat and crossed her arms under her large breasts. Not bothered at all--at the time--that she just destroyed another desk of hers.
"I'm sure Taichou will come around eventually." Ruri said tentatively. Doubting her very words as they came out of her mouth.
Tsunade sighed at the other female's attempt to lessen the tension in the air. She knew that the brat wouldn't change his mind about something like this. Those councils members took his life away from Konoha. That bias decision caused so many repercussions for the blond boy, which--in the long run--resulted in him losing himself. Breaking at one point so badly that there was hardly anything left to put back together.
No, there is no way that Naruto would change his mind. Those members caused him too much pain to do so.
'Great.....now to think of some kind of excuse to throw at them.......'
1) Yuugure-Nightfall
A made-up village located in the O' Uzu Island. The Akuma chose this village to live in when they aren't on missions and want to relax.
