Start of Chapter 3 –
As Shikamaru walked towards the Hokage tower, he thought about what had just happened. His meeting with Itachi had brought many things into light, so many things needed to be re-prioritised, so many things need to be done. Among all of his newest problems was how he would be able to schedule all that needed to be done into such a short time. But that wasn't really what he was thinking about at the time...
"Shikamaru, wait." Itachi said, just as Shikamaru turned to leave. "There is one last thing that had required our meeting."
"What, more bad news?" Shikamaru said, Itachi didn't respond.
"Mataku, what is it? It can't be worse than what you've already told me." He said with a steady voice fixed in a bored tone.
Itachi eyed him, seeing the facade almost immediately. He wasn't his sensei and friend for nothing. Shikamaru's posture and eyes told him everything. The farce being used now was the one that he had taught him, the one Itachi had used whilst in ANBU, to him, even the mask didn't really help, the voice and body language were just as easy to pry someone's emotions from.
"I'm sorry, but the deceiver has been found" He said, pausing for just a moment as if he'd been thinking.
"At the very root of the problem."
Shikamaru's head whipped up, staring at Itachi. "What." He asked, before promptly asking another set of questions through the seal. "Are you sure? Did you actually meet him face to face?"
He only nodded.
The phrase that Itachi had used would have sounded completely different to a normal passerby, but to Shikamaru, it meant something completely different.
It meant that the spy inside of Konoha had been found. More so, the fact that Itachi named him 'root' told him a lot, it told Shikamaru that one of Konoha's most respected Shinobi and Elder had betrayed Konoha.
Danzo, being the spy made Shikamaru's list of complications even larger. Even though it was supposed to be disbanded 'Root' was once a large part of Konoha, up to sixty percent of the villages Shinobi were connected to it, whether it was politically, physical interaction or they had actually been part of it. Another eighty percent of said Shinobi are very likely to still house loyalty to Root over the village.
As the name Root suggests, this sector of tokubetsu ANBU are Konoha's roots, they held up the village and dealt with all the things that Konoha don't want to show the clients. So in short, Root is what dealt explicitly with the unofficial assassinations to benefit the village, they also dealt with any deals that need to be made with missing-nin or other civilian criminals (many things about criminals are only known throughout the criminal industry).
The Sandaime, like all the past Kages, didn't like the fact that Konoha was connected to such underhanded dealings. Though the other Kages recognised its help and allowed it to continue, Sarutobi was slightly blinded by a peaceful vision. He wanted Konoha to have a 'pure' front, so instead reasoned that Konoha would still prosper without it and disbanded it. Punctuated with an inspiring speech, most people didn't complain thinking that the Sandaime knew best and it would help Konoha in the long run, so they let it go.
But what the people didn't know was that Danzo was smarter, unlike the Sandaime, he knew exactly how Root helped Konoha, and without it Konoha would be weak. Simple as that. Konoha, with its famous 'Will of Fire' and 'Team Work' would be seen as a very weak village in terms of military prowess. While it would be a popular choice for clients, other villages and missing-nin would take it as an invitation to attack. Konoha had never seen a day without root protecting it from behind the scenes, it just couldn't work as it use to, without root clearing things up in the background, without it Konoha could be vulnerable to any coup, any rebellion, any attacks. Most of all, it would be vulnerable during war.
Although the Shinobi of Konoha were a lot nicer than most, we were all still shinobi, we still killed in cold blood, we still stole, we were still a tool to most people. But in Konoha, our Kage's encouraged feelings, and that helped us become stronger, but it also made us weaker. Having root meant that the rest of the shinobi population could live their life without ever experiencing massacres, assassinations and infiltration into enemy territory. But many of the older generation of shinobi foresaw what the disbanding of root would come to. That was when those of ANBU standards were given a whole new job description, from village protection, they were told that they'd also be involved in assassinations and would be given the most dangerous of missions.
But sadly, the Sandaime never gave out many missions of this calibre and ANBU were just given what normal jounin were given.
Danzo however, knew of the disadvantage that Konoha would be in without root. And he made the decision to continue Root secretly, most of the time during the early days of its secret existence, it was used to defend the village. Root shinobi killed any foreign ninjas with hostile intent to Leaf, this ultimately threw the rest of Konoha into a false sense of peace, that it could really live peacefully without Root.
In the beginning of Roots underground work, Danzo had become focused on showing other countries that Konoha was still strong, that Konoha would show no mercy to any that set foot on their land. Of course the Sandaime never found out, there would be no evidence and none of the enemy Kage would ever speak openly about a failed infiltration.
To put it simply, Danzo only wanted the best for Konoha, and for Konoha to have the best, they need to be the best, and the only way to achieve that would be to gain power. It couldn't be made any simpler.
But this information wasn't what most of the shinobi knew. Not even someone as smart as Shikamaru could have figured it out if they'd lived in Konoha's 'peace' for so long. Even he was deluded.
Kuso. I'll have time to think about this what to do later, I might even have to take time off active duty for a few days... But nevertheless, I still need to report this to the Hokage...Damn! I'm almost a day late. Shoot! I knew I shouldn't have thought about it during the journey back... Shikamaru thought, already channelling chakra into his legs.
Shikamaru had already returned to Konoha, so he didn't really have much longer to travel. It was only a five minute run to the Hokage tower from where he was, and with the extra chakra, it would only take half the time.
But whilst he ran thinking of the Hokage's berating gaze, the Hokage was coincidently thinking about Shikamaru was as well, whilst Shikamaru was lazy, Sarutobi knew he wasn't the type to let it disrupt his professionalism on a job. So, the fact that Shikamaru, who could have returned last night, was still not here was slightly worrying.
But still, he had faith in him, so the Hokage let his thoughts drift to a more pressing matter. Danzo.
Danzo was once again trying to twist the laws to his favour, this time he had once again brought up the subject of Naruto. It wasn't the first time he had appealed to the Civilian Council for him to either be executed or placed into a 'training program' to help 'Naruto' control the Kyuubi. Danzo had always been interested in making Naruto a weapon for the leaf, the 'training program' that he would be put through would no doubt be very harsh.
The Hokage sighed, I can only protect him so much with my position as Hokage, and there are too many people who hate him for me to properly safeguard him without showing too much favouritism.
A soft but familiar flare of chakra came from the floor, but as soon as it came, it was gone and a boy with a very distinguishable ponytail was pushed up to the surface.
"Hokage-sama" he said.
"Report."
"Fire has delivered unsettling news."
"I thought as much" The Hokage said, his hands flicking a sign of dismissal. The ANBU in the room left and Shikamaru walked towards the door. Reaching the seal on the wall, Shikamaru placed his hand in the centre of it and sent out a single pulse of chakra and the room was sealed, nothing went in and nothing went out, most importantly no sound went in or out.
"They've almost found it." Shikamaru said, repeating what Itachi had said.
"What?"
"They've almost found the statue." Shikamaru said.
"That was much faster than we'd expected." The Sandaime said, hesitating at the beginning.
"We were already behind schedule before so we need to speed everything up now. Naruto needs to be trained and the council needs to be taken care of. I thought of a solution on the way back, it may prove to be difficult for you, but I'm afraid there is no other alternative." Shikamaru said, staring unwaveringly at the Hokage. "Excuse me for my disrespect, but Sarutobi. I think it's time for you to step down."
"Oh, was that it? Sure." Sarutobi said, chuckling at his subordinates face. "You really think that I liked coming out of retirement. Anyway, your plans always come from logic and rationality, I have no reason to not agree with you, but just so that I can satisfy my curiosity, why would I need to do that and who do you have in mind to replace me? "
"Um, ok. The reason for your abstaining from your position is that you are no longer seen as a threat and you have been far too lenient with the council. You kept trying to make them see reason but they say that as a weakness and they have used that to their advantage. The civilian council especially, they have been meddling in shinobi matters for far too long. If we want our plan to succeed, we can't have the civilian council interfering with our every decision." Shikamaru said.
The Hokage in front of him sighed then nodded sadly.
"I knew what was happening when they started appearing uninvited to clan meetings. I just never saw them to be much of a threat. They hadn't interfered with any crucial things until only recently, they seem to have been spurred by something or someone, I don't know but they seemed to have picked up some nerve somewhere. Recently they have demanded to be notified of every single decision that I make. I think that it's because of Naruto making genin." He said. "Anyway, who were you thinking of to replace me?"
"I was thinking Tsunade-hime or Kakashi if we can convince him. From what I've heard about her, as long as we can convince her to return and actually want to take care of Konoha, I think she'd be a good choice, at least she'd be able to have a fresh start with the Council, they wouldn't have anything on her, like favouring the 'Kyuubi brat'. She'd have a valid reason to protect Naruto. But in the case that they still vote for the execution, well let's just say that she would definitely not hold back on kicking them out of ninja decisions. I'm sure you know but technically, Hokage-sama, the civilian council can't actually vote in ninja affairs." Shikamaru said. "As for Kakashi, he's well known and respected in the leaf just as Tsunade is, and we definitely know that the council can't overrule him on anything he doesn't want overruled, the guy has just does what he wants, he might not kick them out of decisions, but I'm sure he'd make their points invalid.
"I know that Shikamaru, but since all the meeting are scribed onto paper, if they ever get out into public, the logic that we ninja use will be slightly different from a civilians point of view. If that ever happens we may have a civil war on our hands, or maybe just the eradication of the civilians but that would pretty much ruin our economy. The civilians of our village just don't understand the sealing of the Kyuubi." The Hokage said.
"But when Tsunade or Kakashi takes over, they will at least know that they can't just barge in anymore. Especially with Tsunade, she definitely won't have any reservations when it comes to hitting people like you do...no offense Hokage-sama, it's not like it's a bad thing but...you know what I mean. She'd probably just punch them through the wall if they ever tried that... Don't tell her I said that..." Shikamaru said, scratching his head.
"You mean that she would enforce the rules more and the Civilian council will finally be out of any decisions affecting ninja which means that-hey, I'm not that reserved when it comes to passing judgement." Sarutobi said, his voice raising as he finished.
"Yes, you are, you love the village and it's people too much. I for one, don't really think they deserve so much of it Sarutobi." Shikamaru said, a stern eye staring pointedly at his Hokage. "Now returning to the original topic, I'd also like to call for Jiraiya to train Naruto, and I believe that the job of finding and retrieving more information about the statue can be transferred to her."
"Excellent, this year's students are a bit uneven because of Neji repeating a year, so I can say that Naruto needs to be placed under a separate jonin for extra training, Jiraiya also came in today to report his findings, so we don't have to wait for him to return. He will be told before the team meetings." He said, a pleased look on his face. "But I do have a question Shikamaru. Do you still want to be put on a team?"
"Hai, but only officially, I can't waste time doing D-ranks, something that Itachi had also revealed needs my attention even more, the spy within our ranks has been found Sarutobi, it's Danzo. I need to work on that even more, for now can you work out the plans for Jiraiya to find Tsunade as well? He might have to take Naruto with him though. He's kind of the only one that actually stays in contact with her nowadays. Oh, I'll also tell her about the change of what she should be looking for." Shikamaru said.
"Of course, I shouldn't be surprised that he was the one leaking information out. He's been badgering me for Akatsuki information quite just last week."
"Well, that would definitely explain where he got the information from."
"Shikamaru, I didn't give him any of the information he wasn't, so this must mean that he either had outside help or he risked being caught and then executed by stealing into a highly guarded vault in the basement of my very own house." He said.
"Right that means that he had outside help..." Shikamaru said, smirking at the Hokage's obvious sarcasm.
"Anyway, Shikamaru you're getting sorted into your teams today, and I'm going to have to brief Naruto so he's up to date, can you be present? We'll run through the plans then, come straight here after your first team meeting" The Hokage said, smiling a very familiar smile.
Shikamaru stared suspiciously at said smile. Great, what is it now...That smile after mentioning the team meeting... KUSO
"Please tell me that she's not my team leader."
"Then I won't tell you then, dismissed, and unseal the room Shikamaru."
Shikamaru's POV
I crouched down and stared through the window, the Chunin at the front of the room was giving some sort of speech about being a ninja, looking back to the student I found that not many were actually listening, including my shadow clone who was, apparently sleeping at the back.
Neji and Hinata were sitting beside 'me', both looking very bored. I chuckled but continued waiting. I needed a distraction, so I could Kawairimi safely with my clone inside, even if the teacher wasn't looking, he would still be able to sense the Jutsu being used, the stupid Jutsu was made so that your chakra had to flare out so it could attach itself onto whatever target you wanted it to switch with. Where the logs that came when you didn't have a target came from, I would never know, it had actually perpetrated several research projects but they'd never been able to figure anything out.
Turning my attention back to the classroom, I couldn't help but wonder why the class was being so quiet today. I'd been waiting outside for almost half an hour and my patience was starting to run thin. Mataku, why are they being so quiet today...Kiba do something stupid! Or even, Sakura and Ino, fight about Sasuke.
The distraction finally came when Iruka announced that he was going to tell them their teams. The whole room broke into an uproar, the girls were now screaming about how they wanted Sasuke on their team and the boys were adamantly expressing how they didn't want him on their team.
I quickly went through the needed hand seals and appeared in the room, dispelling the clone just as it appeared outside as well. I was immediately met two Chakra covered hands aimed at my stomach under the table.
"Wow, what a welcome I get." I muttered, Hinata and Neji finally realised who I was and disarmed themselves, Hinata smiling and shaking her head at the same time.
"Taichou, where were you?" Neji whispered.
I sighed, and then shook my head. "Classified. Tell. You. Later." I told them, using ANBU sign language under the desk.
Since the two only really wanted to know about the mission, we fell into a practised silence.
"Team Seven will have Uchiha Sasuke, Aburame Shino and Haruno Sakura." Iruka said, waiting a while for Sakura to stop squealing.
"Team Eight will include Hyuuga Hinata, Hyuuga Neji and Nara Shikamaru. Team Nine is still in circulation and Team Ten will include Inuzuka Kiba, Yamanaka Ino and Akimichi Chouji."
"Lastly, since we had an uneven amount of students this year and Naruto, since you came last in terms of marks, you will have your own teacher until the next set of graduates." Iruka said, sending a sad look at him. Several snickers directed at him earned some students a hard glare from Iruka though.
"Right then, you may go to lunch but be back on time, you wouldn't want your teacher to wait now would you." Iruka shouted after the running students, he himself left as well.
The three of us waited until he left before I ran up to Naruto.
"Naruto! Wait up" I shouted. "I hope you realise what this means?" I asked, Hinata and Neji sending confused looks behind me.
"Yep. Either I'm really lucky and get my own personal teacher." He paused, his cheerful demeanour dampening slightly as he spoke the next possibility. "Or it came sooner than you expected Shikamaru." He said turning to me.
Only just remembering that my teammates weren't qualified to hear this information I quickly turned to give an order. "Dismissed" I said to my 'new' teammates. "I will fill you in as much as possible later."
Hinata sighed and tugged Neji's sleeve "Hai hai, Taichou." She said starting to walk away.
Neji gave in eventually and followed his cousin, but not before telling me that they expected me to be on time to the team meeting.
"Your teammates are very trusting" Naruto said wistfully.
"I know. Naruto I'm sorry, your personal training was my idea, the Hokage was just going to put you into an older team, along with the two other Genin who were supposed to be with Neji. You can still go with them on missions but I don't think you would get very many." I said. "You'd probably be focusing primarily on controlling the Kyuubi and getting stronger. You might have to start training immediately Naruto, we were already behind schedule and now that they've almost found what they need."
"What are you talking about Shika?" Naruto said.
"Oh, right you haven't been briefed yet, you'll be briefed later on. But right now, you need to be careful, the Akatsuki aren't far from their goal."
"Hey, when am I ever not careful Shika, come on I'll treat you to ramen, and it's been ages since we've eaten together, ne?" He said, a smile already stretching across his face.
"I'd like that Naruto." I smiled back, he always knows exactly what to say to make things just disappear from your mind.
When we got to Ichiraku's, I started telling Naruto about Jiraiya and told him that he and his sensei are going to be needed at the Hokage's office after their introductions. After all the important things were said and done with we just sat and talked, the subjects varied from training to what they we thought about the teams.
Just sitting there and talking reminded me of when Naruto and I had first become friends, at the beginning of our mission, when we still had to make sure that Naruto was loyal, we never really talked, I let Hinata do most of the talking whilst me and Neji only observed from a distance. Once it had been confirmed that Naruto was loyal, we could stop worrying about Naruto being an enemy. We never told him about the mission but we told him about most other things, we were even able to find the time to have friendly spars with him.
The other two, Neji and Hinata, never got very close with him but the two of us ended up being quite friendly with each other, he wasn't as close to me as Hinata and Neji, but then again Hinata and Neji weren't as close to me as Itachi and his other student was. It was all relative any ways he was still a good friend to have. Time flew by quickly as we talked and it was soon time to head back to the Academy.
"Oi, Naruto, stop eating already, we have to get there on time. If we're late for the team meeting then we'll be late for the briefing afterwards and my teammates will try to beat the shit out of me. Hell Neji gives me a good fight on his own and Hinata is very frightening when people are not punctual. You should see her whenever we work with Kakashi" I droned, already standing. "Mataku."
Naruto hardly replied, ramen continually being shoved into his mouth as he grabbed the last full bowl sitting next to him and pulled it closer. "After this last bowl Shika." He said, although it was barely comprehensible. Just as he'd finished draining his current bowl of the broth, he seamlessly pushed the next bowl to replace the old and the empty bowl somehow just appeared onto the tabletop. The old man who ran the place just picked it up to wash as if it was the most common thing.
I looked back at him and was shocked once again when I saw that his last bowl was completely empty.
"Damn Naruto, don't you ever get indigestion" I said, turning towards him at the same time. But once I saw his smug face, I just decided to let it go. "Never mind"
"Come on Shika! We've got a meeting to get to!" Naruto said, but to me his voice seemed much further away than just the seat next to me. In fact it seemed to be getting quieter.
Shocked, I looked back to the seat. Empty.
"Naruto!" I shouted before rushing after the fast disappearing boy. Mataku, he never changes does he, always unpredictable and loud. Oh, there was also his idiocy when something wasn't important and his addiction to ramen, you can not forget that.
End of POV
But Shikamaru and Naruto just weren't quick enough.
As the two remaining boys ran quickly towards the academy, the loud knelling of a bell started to toll. The two boys stopped short and they looked at each other with pale faces, before running once again in the same direction, but much faster than before. They ran, into the building, making a right, then a left, then up two flights of stairs before making another left.
There looming in front of the two young children, was a door, white, but by no means meant it felt friendly. A small hand rose and touched the door knob, twisting it agonisingly slowly, then, placing only the smallest amount of pressure the child pushed and the door swung open.
The two were met with silence.
Whilst the child with blonde hair was only met with a shake of a head and a finger in the direction of his seat, the second had a very different situation. Once the blonde had sat down, the teacher in the front went to tell him the same. But that was not to be. As if a weight had been deposited on everyone's shoulders, an ample amount of pressure came, directed at the child and laced with the intent to kill. Everyone's eyes darted around, their bodies betraying them and refusing to move as they tried to find the source. Everyone except five people, the three students sitting in the back were perfectly fine, two were even chuckling silently. They were Hyuuga Neji and Hinata and the blonde that came in just before, Uzumaki Naruto. The teacher, Umino Iruka was also one of the few who were fine, however he was staring suspiciously at the three at the back, especially the young Hyuuga heiress who was apparently smirking whilst emitting said pressure at the slightly shivering kid at the front. Last of the few who were mostly alright was in fact the one in which the killing intent was directed, one Nara Shikamaru.
Shikamaru looked up to the back of the room, his eyes widening imperceptably as the young girl subtly shaped her hands into the forms of the ANBU standard sign language.
The message was clear.
You. Are. Dead.
At least that was what Shikamaru had imagined when he walked into the classroom, only to be glared at by the Hyuuga heiress.
"Hello everyone, my name is Sarutobi Asuma, will Team Seven please head towards training ground seven please, about ten minutes should be enough for you to get there." A man said. He was leaning against the doorway, with browned skin and a bored expression plastered onto his face. He was wearing the standard jounin attire with his hitaiate strapped to his head and a cigarette propped between his lips. But the man didn't stay for longer than was necessary and left in a puff of pale smoke almost immediately.
The members of said team however, couldn't leave in quite the same calm and collect manner, though it was only Sakura who was by this time screaming the room down while running out the door, both Shino and Sasuke were showing signs of wanting to run. And run they did when they got out of their seats. The training grounds weren't actually within the inner walls of Konoha, it was quite far from the academy, and would take approximately fifteen minutes, if a civilian ran there. Maybe less for fresh academy graduates...maybe.
The next few sensei made a similar greeting and exit, each stating the training ground corresponding with the team number, this included the sensei for Ino and Chouji. They were however, less than satisfied to find Kiba on their team, he was far too loud for their liking.
Ino and Chouji had spent more than their usual time in training this last year, so to bring up their skills for graduation, but they'd only put in enough time to get up to higher genin level, higher than most rookies, more like an experienced genin.
Their teacher was Yuuhi Kurenai, namely one of the few people who actually knew about Team Kage. Her introduction was only slightly more animated as she'd asked her team to raise their hands. There was also the fact that she had winked at Hinata and sent a knowing, almost pitying look at Shikamaru.
That fleeting moment was enough for Shikamaru's 'theory' at the identity of their teacher to realise that there was no other possibilities to hope for. And so he promptly let his head drop and hit the table, not really caring when his teammates and Naruto started chuckling.
"Why does it have to be her when I already have Hinata mad at me." He thought. "Why does it have to be Anko." Sighing as he lifted his head off the table.
The next teacher to come in was the best in terms of real socialising, since everyone else was gone and Iruka had already left for the staffroom. Jiraiya could speak freely...almost.
"Yo, which one of you is Uzumaki Naruto?" he shouted as he walked in.
"Hey, Jiraiya." Naruto said. "Why do you even need to ask anymore, you know me?"
Jiraiya's eyes widened before he pulled Naruto aside. And judging by the melodramatic hand gestures sent our way, he was obviously trying to reprimand Naruto. Key word, trying. Naruto just laughed at him and said "Dude, he's the one that called for you to be my sensei." Jiraiya raised an eyebrow and looked over to team kage.
They took it as an invitation to introductions. Shikamaru went first since he was team leader.
"Hello and welcome back, Jiraiya. My name is Nara Shikamaru and I'm the Team Captain of Team Kage. And just to clarify your suspicions, no I am not a spy and no I do not have delusions. I am, however the person who usually assigns you your assignments on Akatsuki." He said, bluntly getting to the point.
"I'm sorry, Jiraiya-sama." Hinata said quickly.
"Shika, you didn't have to tell him immediately." Hinata told Shikamaru quietly. She then turned back and once again addressed Jiraiya in a louder voice. "My name is Hyuuga Hinata and this guy next to me is my cousin Hyuuga Neji."
"Right... I don't know how you've come across classified information but you broke the law when you spoke about the Akatsuki." Jiraiya said seriously.
Shikamaru sighed and was about to tell him to go check with the Hokage if he didn't believe them, just to prove that they were who they said they were. But he was interrupted, by a flying Anko.
"HEBI-CHAN! We haven't seen you in ages." Hinata shouted, whilst running up to Anko.
"Hina, I'm off duty. You can't call me that." Immediately causing Hinata to pout.
"Yo Anko."
"Hey Shika, what have you been up to this time, I heard you went and fired the Hokage this time."
There was a blissful moment of silence in which Shikamaru hoped there would be no screaming. But sadly it was short lived, very short lived.
"He did WHAT?" Came two simultaneous cries, namely from Hinata and Jiraiya.
"Anko, get your facts right. I suggested he retire. Not I told him to get a new job. Mataku." Shikamaru said. "I'll fill you in later guys, like I said before. Classified." Shikamaru said once again, just as his team was about to ask.
"What the heck is going on here!" Jiraiya shouted.
"You should probably just go and get 'introduced' to your new brat" Anko said. "I've got my own damn brats to deal with."
"Oh yeah, before I forget, Jiraiya, after team introductions, you have briefing with the Hokage. I'll see you there." Shikamaru said right after the rest of his team had performed a flashy exit with two elemental shunshin. Anko and Shikamaru left in a similar fashion but with slightly less orthodox elements, a snake shunshin and a shadow shunshin.
AN- I'm so sorry about the last time I uploaded this chapter. I'd accidentally uploaded my first draft instead and didn't notice until I uploaded the next chapter... Which was quite a while later. So sorry.
