Chapter 20 – The Best Laid Plans

From the branches of giant willow tree an extremely pissed off Inuzuka Tsume dropped to the floor with a feline grace no one would ever believe Konoha's One True Bitch could possess. She deposited the still warm body of what had proven to be a useless enemy samurai on the ground where it promptly began twitching as the power of Mitarashi Anko's jutsu reanimated it. She'd questioned him thoroughly for information on Konoha's traitor but it had ultimately proven useless; the man had actually known even less than her. While it was rarely true what they said about Inuzuka's, most of them did not have the finely tuned sense of smell necessary to sniff out a lie, as next in line to be matriarch of the clan Tsume's nose could do it with ease. Bastard that he was (anyone who attacked her home was trash as far as she was concerned), when he'd said he didn't know anything he'd told her the truth. After that she had few qualms about slitting his throat and even fewer about the way his body was being dishonored by Anko's jutsu.

It seemed to her that while samurai were always spouting off at the mouth about how noble and virtuous the samurai warrior is and how treacherous and deceitful a ninja is, they were being awfully hypocritical. A samurai was just as quick to resort to dubious means to accomplish one of their grand and honorable designs as a shinobi was to complete a mission. In fact, as far as she was concerned that made the ninja the more credible of the two. At least with a ninja a person knew what to expect. With a ninja a person knew what they were getting, there was no false pretense of honor and glory. A ninja was going to be sneaky and conniving and probably kill some people to get your job done; a samurai would take the job and claim its righteousness all the way up to the point where he took your money stabbed you in the back and condemned you for your disreputable deeds. Both warriors were capable of devious two-faced behavior, but at least shinobi were up front and honest about it. Tsume saw no honor in the actions of the samurai killed in Konoha's forest tonight. They'd snuck into an allied country in the middle of the night intending to use a demon to do their dirty work and slaughter not only the villages soldiers but the civilians, doctors, merchants, the old and feeble, women and children too, and at the first signs that things were not going as planned, they'd all turned tail and tried to run away. If that was the samurai's idea of bravery and valor Tsume would have no part of it.

Looking back up into the trees she wondered how much longer everyone else would be with their prisoners (her short attention span was the stuff of legends and she was constantly teased about picking up her nin-dog's characteristics – Kuromaru was often offended by this, as it was by no means one of his personal traits), and considered whether or not she should go help out Hizashi's genin with their captive. She knew Hizashi's eyes were just as good as her nose for hunting out a lie, but as far as she knew neither of his students had any such endowment. Just as she was about to leap up into the branches she heard a loud yelp and a dead body flopped awkwardly from the branches above slamming into the ground. Rising jerkily the corpse took only two limping steps before falling down again, apparently its legs had been broken badly in the fall and though the thing no longer felt any pain, the bones were just too damaged to support any weight. Watching its continuous futile attempts to stand Tsume almost felt badly for the pathetic creature the samurai had become. Still staring ahead, unable to tear her eyes from the disturbingly gruesome scene, she heard rather than saw Hizashi follow, dropping gracefully to the forest floor.

"Were you able to get any information?" he asked coolly.

"No, he didn't know anything. You?" Tsume answered, hopeful that the Hyuga had been luckier.

"He claimed to be sent by the Kouukage, but knew nothing of the Konoha traitor's identity."

"The Kouukage? There's no such thing. Does he think we're idiots?"

"No, he truly believed he'd been sent by the Kouukage. Just because the man hasn't been recognized as a kage by the Five Great Nations does not mean he doesn't exist and claim the respect of Ame's people. It is my opinion that a Kouukage resides in Amegakure as far as the citizens for Rain are concerned, and that in itself is a dangerous development."

Tsume nodded in agreement, "Do you think your kids are having better luck? Should we step in?"

"I have faith in my team but I doubt their prisoner has any more useful information than ours did. And actually I would like to begin our chase for the fox before they get done, as I'd prefer that they were not involved in it."

"Hai, let's get going than," she said; understanding completely hid need and desire to keep his team out of danger. "Which way bright eyes?"

"We head north. And please refrain from calling me that."

"Haha, I'll give it a try but I make no promises."

About two seconds into their journey Hizashi suddenly put his hand on her arm and stopped her before they'd even gone five feet.

"What now?"

"Our Hokage is on his way here. He should be here any –"

Suddenly Minato was standing before them, and there was no reason for him to finish that particular sentence. Tsume had seen the Hokage use the Hiraishin no Jutsu several times before but she still managed to be impressed by the sight of it. One minute he wasn't there and the next second he was, if you blinked you could miss it, and his sudden appearance never ceased to startle her. Even her own student, Rikku, whose transportation jutsu was causing quite a fuss in the jonin locker room had a two second delay at the exit and entrance during which an extremely skilled ninja could see her and kill her; Minato had no delay, he just wasn't there at all and then suddenly he was. She noticed him looking around at the mobile cadavers wobbling about and cursed inwardly that all of the samurai had yet to be killed and Anko as bound to get in trouble for the jutsu, even though she'd managed to save the lives of all those who'd gotten involved in this whole mess.

"What the hell is going on here?" Minato asked incredulously.

Abruptly, before either jonin could answer him, the puppets all fell down dead where they stood, finally released from the Death god's control and free to move on to the afterlife. Then both Hayate and Yugao descended from the lofty tree tops and landed nimbly beside their sensei. Seemingly unaware of their Hokage's presence Yugao launched into a rave review of Hayate's interrogation strategy, not even stopping when Minato cleared his throat loudly, she plowed on babbling incessantly, totally ignorant to the proximity of her supreme commander. In fact, the chatter didn't cease until Hayate grabbed her arm spinning her around to face Konoha's leader.

"Summimasen Hokage-sama!" the girl apologized with all haste, her face bright red with embarrassment. "I didn't know you were here. I meant no disrespect. Please forgive me my rudeness, it will never happen again."

"There is nothing to forgive Uzuki-san," Minato said kindly, than looked back to the two jonin. "Now will you tell me what in the hell is going on here?"

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Minato did his best to maintain eye contact with his concerned jonin as they gave their report of events but he was having quite a bit of trouble doing so with so many distractions. Spread all around them, scattered throughout the forest, were the bodies of hundreds of samurai, bodies that just a moment ago had been upright and mobile, moving around, and undeniably motivated by some kind of mission. Minato knew exactly what could have done that to the bodies, and he also knew that very few people knew the jutsu that would do it, and even fewer that were actually powerful enough to pull it off. Instantly he thought of the two people he was sure knew it, and wondered which one of them it was.

If it was her, than the heaven seal had granted her far more power than he could have imagined. But surely it couldn't be her, surely Anko was home with Kakashi and Obito, in bed, sleeping, and not all in the same bad. So if this wasn't just some random shinobi, which he was sure it wasn't, it had to be an attack from Orochimaru. Turning his attention back to the report he was being given (silently apologizing to Tsume and Hizashi for spacing out) he heard them say Tsume's genin had carried Kakashi and Obito to Konoha General to be treated for chakra exhaustion. Kuso! He was going to kill them; what the hell were they doing out here?

"Excuse me," he interrupted. "Do any of you know why they were out here in the first place?"

Hizashi blinked rapidly before responding, obviously figuring out he hadn't been paying attention. "As I said Hokage-sama, we believe it had something to do with the samurai. Tsume received a note from her genin that they were coming here to save Mitarashi Anko from the invaders."

"Anko was out here?" Minato's hopes that the girl was not involved with the use of the Shisa Kugutsu sunk through the floor, and yet he still felt a small sense of relief. If it was Anko who'd violated the law, then it wasn't Orochimaru, and for that they should all be grateful. Punishing Anko would be a painful task, one he would not relish, but the alternative was far worse. The snake Sannin was a deadly foe, one who up until recently had been a close confidant of the third Hokage and a well respected hero of the village. As such, he had intricate knowledge of Konoha's surveillance systems, invasion and evacuation procedures, as well as information on their anti-siege weaponry and most of their more famous clan jutsu's. Now declared a missing nin, Minato considered him one of Konoha's biggest threats to security. While they had started to change their defense plans and procedures as soon as he'd left, the fact was that implementing such a large scale conversion took a lot of time. Not to mention the massive reconstruction Konoha's cave systems and evacuation routes were in the process of undergoing. Even the possibility that Orochimaru might have aligned with an enemy shinobi village was enough to have made Minato sick to his stomach. As much as removing Anko from active duty and destroying her chakra coils was going to haunt him, he was still thankful that it had been her.

"Yes, Anko and Itachi were brought t the hospital even before Obito and Kakashi. Umino Iruka carried them both through the majority of the forest before he was caught by three hostile samurai a half mile from the exit gate where Kuromaru and I found him," Tsume recounted. "I eradicated the enemy and dispatched Kuromaru to carry Itachi the rest of the way, freeing Iruka to carry just Anko and make better time."

"Then you came here to fight the remaining invaders?" Minato asked.

"That was my original intention but the threat had already been neutralized before my arrival. Mine and Hizashi's genin cell's had taken care of it without me."

"You mean to tell me that 1000 samurai assailants were wiped out completely by just you, Hizashi, and six genin?" Minato gaped in astonishment, finding it near impossible to wrap his head around, yet feeling slightly excited for the next chunin exam where his kids were going to wipe the floor with the other genin.

"That's not entirely true Hokage-sama," Hizashi explained. "While I by no means wish to marginalize the importance of the roll my students, as well as Tsumes', played in the extermination of our enemies this evening, I'd like to make it entirely clear that without the help of Mitarashi-san's jutsu it is most likely that we would all be dead."

"Do you two believe that to be the case as well?" Minato turned to Hizashi's genin.

"Hai Hokage-sama," Gekko Hayate answered. "If it were not for the support we received from the puppets I doubt very much that we could have managed to survive."

"Are you of the same opinion?" he asked Yugao.

"Yes, though it is not opinion but fact. The number of enemies we faced was too great. Had it not been for Mitarashi-san we would all have been slaughtered," the blue haired kunoichi replied.

Minato nodded his head in acknowledgement of what they'd just said; in light of this new information perhaps he could lessen the severity of her sentence. Still there was so much he didn't understand about tonight, and the jonin report had actually given rise to more questions than answers.

"When I arrived the pair f you were about to leave, yet evidence points to all of the samurai being accounted for. Where were you heading? And did you have something to do with that massive chakra signature?"

Hizashi's eyes again blinked repeatedly, only this time they almost bugged out of his head too, and Tsume's jaw dropped, leaving her mouth hanging open as if she was about to start catching flies. Obviously they had answered this question earlier in their report that he hadn't been paying attention to, and now both of them knew he hadn't listened at all.

"Hokage-sama, we had intended to go after the Kyubi," Tsume finally got her tongue back in her mouth to answer him.

"The Kyubi?" The demon fox is loose?" Minato exclaimed in shock. "How? Who did this?"

"We don't know," Hizashi responded. "And the only people who might are all unconscious in Konoha General."

"I want you all to report back to the hokage tower. I'm calling an emergency council meeting and I want all of you present, as well as the other four genin who were here tonight. I'll see you at the tower, and I know I don't have to tell you to move with all haste."

On his way back to the tower Minato ran into the teams of Hyuga Hiashi, Nara Shikaku, and Kewano Terou that he'd ordered assembled and amended his command to include having them present at the emergency council meeting as well. The more heads he had coming together on this the better he thought. He had no idea how to battle the nine-tailed demon fox and as he ran all the way back into town he couldn't help but think the village might have been in better hands if Hiruzen had not yet named his successor.

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Shaking the last bit of fatigue from his aching bones Hiruzen dressed quickly for the emergency council session Minato had called. In his haste to reach the meeting quickly he nearly bowled over Koharu as he rushed out his door.

"Damn you Sarutobi! Stupid baka! Can't you watch where you're going? I thought you were a ninja for crying out loud!" his cranky teammate blustered at him. Koharu had never been a morning person and was always ornery when woken earlier than usual, even in her days as a young kunoichi. She had only grown more cantankerous with age and Minato's summons seemed to have done little in the way of making her less disagreeable.

"My apologies, Koharu-chan, but I was under the impression that you were one of the finest kunoichi Konoha had to offer. I've heard it said that there is nothing more beautiful to see than to watch Utatane Koharu's manrikigusari death dance. I must have been misinformed, as surely a woman who can dance with a Manrikigusari when most cannot even master them enough to fight an academy student would have been able to dodge my distracted steps."

"You…. You…," Koharu steamed. "My apologies to you Hiru-chan, I should have been more aware of my surroundings, but my mind his preoccupied. The urgency of this situation has not escaped me and I fear for the village's safety when the hokage demands a council meeting before sunrise."

Hiruzen only nodded solemnly, the meeting's importance had not escaped him either, not that she had believed it would. Though nearly ancient in ninja years, Hiruzen was still as sharp as he'd been at 16 when he'd first fallen in love with her Manrikigusari death dance, and nothing escaped him.

The two of them hurried on in silence, reaching Hokage tower in moments and taking their seats to the right of Minato. The council chamber was circular in design, on one side, raised up higher than on the other, were three tiers of seating. On the top row the Hokage's chair was placed center, with the members of the High Council, elected by the Konoha Governing Council, including Koharu, Hiruzen, Homura, and Danzo, to his right and left. The second row was the Konoha Council, consisting of the heads of Konoha's most important families, and the third was made up of the Hokage's appointed advisors. Jiraiya had taken his seat in the third row, next to the empty one for Tsunade; still out of the village her seat would remain vacant a Minato refused to have her replaced, even with the council's urging. Uchiha Fugaku, Hyuga Hiashi, Aburame Shibi, as well as the Inuzuka, Kurama, Yamanaka, Nara, and Hagane clan leaders filled the second tier seats and the meeting would soon be called to order. Across from the leveled seating, several square tables had been hastily set up to accommodate the presence of the teams that had been found in the Forest of Death, well the ones healthy enough to make it anyway. Hiruzen noticed the nervousness in the genin about to give the most important testimony at the meeting and empathized with the youngsters, even after years of being Hokage, the Professor still disliked speaking in front to large groups.

Minato called the meeting to order; silence filled the room while everyone waited with bated breath as their young Hokage gave credence to the nightmarish rumor they'd hoped he'd dispel. The nine-tailed demon fox was here, and Konoha might burn. The Kyubi no Yoko was here and there was no pretending otherwise.

"How can we be certain it is in fact the Kyubi no Yoko?" Danzo challenged. "Nobody actually did battle with it correct? Maybe it is only a well done genjutsu?"

"I witnessed it with my very own eyes Danzo-sama," Hizashi offered from a square table at the center of the room. "With the Byakugan activated I was able to see all nine-tails, and had it been just a genjutsu it wouldn't have been seen at all."

"Did anyone else see it?" the crotchety High Council member demanded. "Are we to take the word of a single Hyuga, a branch member at that, on so important a matter as this?"

From his seat on the chamber floor Hizashi balked. Was his family status actually going to dishonor him in such an important place? At such an important time? This couldn't really be happening, not when Konoha was in danger.

"You doubt the word of a Hyuga? Is my brother's honor in doubt?" Hiashi's strong clear voice cut through the whispered chatter at the old man's question and Hiruzen smiled to see the man standing up for his brother. "Hizashi's record as a jonin of Konoha is exemplary and there has never been any occasion that would discredit his testimony. I, in representation of the Hyuga clan, am angered that such a question dare be even posed in my presence."

"My apologies Hiashi-sama, and Hizashi-sama," Minato stepped in, glaring daggers at Danzo. "Nobody here doubts the word of Hizashi. I am well aware of his brave service to Konoha and he has my utmost trust. The fact that the nine-tails has been loosed on Fire Country is not in dispute. This meeting has been called to determine how we can stop it and minimize the damage it inflicts. Already pigeons are arriving en masse detailing the destruction it leaves behind. The other issue we must confront is that, according to reports, we have a traitor in our midst; one we must discover post haste, before they can cause us any more trouble."

A hush fell over the room as all assembled took a minute to digest the idea that a betrayer was in their home and was most likely one of their friends. Eyes twitched back and forth errantly as gazes moved from one person to the next and every person in the room began questioning the actions and motives of everyone they knew. The suspicious nature of all ninja, usually quelled in the presence of one's fellow shinobi, reared its ugly head in a room full of allies as each and every one of them gave pause to think about any activity that could be construed as odd or borderline secretive perpetrated by their friends of yesterday.

Suspicions be damned, Minato soldiered on; determining a strategy for dealing with the demon. It had been a very long time since the last sighting of the cursed beast and of those present during the encounter only Hiruzen, Homura, Koharu, and Danzo remained alive, and none of them were positive as to how the demon could be destroyed. A better understanding of its abilities would have to be determined before a final plan of action could be decided on. As such, the council decided to form two groups: Assault and Recovery.

Three jonin Assault teams would engage the nine-tails and assess its abilities. Squad 1, Uchiha Fugaku, Namiashi Raido, and Hyuga Hiashi would attack first while Squad 2, Kato Tadashi, Kewano Teruo, and Uchiha Mikoto acted as backup, running interference when necessary to keep Squad 1 out of harm. Squad 3, otherwise known as Ino-Shika-Cho, would categorize the demons attacks and strategize a way to defeat it. This was mostly a fact finding mission, so that a permanent solution could be discovered.

The recovery teams would be entering the small towns and villages ravaged by the demon to find survivors, give immediate medical attention, and when necessary end the misery of those still alive but with no chance of recovery. Squad A, consisting of Morino Ibiki, Shiranui Genma, and Oshira Tsubaki, would travel directly north to Furi-zu; the largest town in the path of the demon, countless reports had been flown in detailing its destruction. Squad B, Sarutobi Asuma, Yuhi Kurenai, and Arakaki Ebisu, was to head out for the smaller village of Kurotori. Once secured they were to continue on to Furi-zu to help Squad A. Squad C, Kinjo Mizuki, Maito Gai, and Murakami Suzumi was to scout the landscape for refugees and other smaller destroyed villages, round them up and return them to Konoha. On route home they were to stop at Kurotori to pick up the villagers Team B marked for transport.

With a plan in place Minato turned the meeting back over to the issue of Konoha's traitor.

"No offense is meant here," Hiruzen stated before asking the loaded question. "But how have we gotten to the conclusion of one of our own as the enemy?"

"No offense is taken, Sarutobi-sama," Tsume answered, than described the battlefield conditions and samurai confession leading up to their hypothesis.

Nodding in agreement with the assessment Hiruzen than asked, "Can we speak with the two responsible for the confession? Please stand up so we might hear you better."

When the tiny blue haired kunoichi, Uzuki Yugao and the slight diminutive Gekko Hayate stood, Hiruzen did a double take. He'd forgotten how young 12 years old actually looked; how small a 12 year old genin actually was. They were so young; he almost didn't believe these were the ninja who's tortured the information out of an informant. But facts were facts, all ninja were capable of doing the most abhorrent things in defense of their village, regardless of age, and he would do good to remember it, he chastised himself. "You two spoke with him directly, do you have any guesses as to who it could be?"

Yugao looked over at her sensei for reassurance, an action that was not missed by Hiruzen and he worried about what was about to come out of her mouth. Yugao knew that admitting the man had fingered an Uchiha as the culprit was going to rein a whole lot of shit down on her head, which was why she hadn't brought it up until now, but she knew it had to be said. With Hizashi's approving nod she answered, "Hai Sarutobi-sama. The prisoner claimed the perpetrator was a powerful Uchiha, he –"

Anything else the poor girl was going to say was drowned out by the gasps and protests of all in the room. Disbelief clouded their faces and outrage contorted Fugaku's as he screamed defiance at the very idea that his clan could be involved; chaos dominated the council chamber.

"Silence!" Minato's voice boomed over all the commotion, and order was restored as all those present were cowed by the enormous chakra pressure he exuded , nearly overwhelming some of the genin in the room. "Yugao please continue with your evaluation of the situation, no one here will interrupt you."

Yugao took a deep breath, steadying herself for the shit storm about to come at her again when Hayate saved her the trouble. "As my associate mentioned, our captive said an Uchiha was working with the Kouukage. He also mentioned the man was powerful and had accomplices. While that was all the information he gave, after speaking with the third member of our squad as well as Inuzuka Tsume's squad we have to come up with our own idea of what may have occurred."

Yugao's original feeling of relief that Hayate was taking over to speak to the old cronies in the room had passed, now she was filled with resentment that he would get to deliver their hypothesis. To remedy this, she chose to interrupt and give the council the information herself. "We think the Kouukage was working with Uchiha Obito who must have had Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Itachi as partners. All three were found with chakra exhaustion that could be a result of opening a portal to the demon's dimension. Also, we believe their teammate, Mitarashi Anko, discovered their plan and attempted to foil it. Puncture wounds from snake bites on Uchiha Itachi's limbs further corroborate this theory."

"Impossible," Minato muttered, there was no way his team was responsible for this. Right?

Noticing the look of terror on his successor's face at the idea that his student's were behind this treachery, a feeling Hiruzen was very familiar with, he moved to soften the blow. "A very well thougth out conclusion Uzuki-san, Gekko-san. Before we can be certain though we need to speak with Mitarashi-san."

Minato released a breath he hadn't known he was holding, surely Ankos' testimony would exonerate his students. "Hai, we will talk with Anko when she wakes up, in the mean time Tsume and Hizashi I want you to travel to Amegakure , infiltrate the Rain village, and verify the existence and identity of this Kouukage."

"Hai Hokage-sama," The two jonin accepted their orders.

"Return home, get some sleep, you leave for Ame at noon," Minato directed. "The rest of you notify the Assault and Recovery teams and ready yourselves for battle. There is no telling if the demon will return here and we need to be ready."

A/N: A big thank you to Kaori for betaing this chapter so quickly. And a thank you to all of you who read this story. Reviews are appreciated and always treasured even if they're bad.