The Best Laid Plans
Arun
Chapter 14: A von Braun for Konoha
Disclaimer: Why can't the US government help me with a bail out?!
Luck was with him. He'd not only evaded Akatsuki, but also made contact with the surviving remnants of Orochimaru's experiments in one of the last surviving safe houses.
In addition, he'd avoided capture by Konoha ANBU. It wasn't that he wanted to escape Leaf's clutches, but he wanted to surrender on his own terms rather than fall into the hands of Konoha's finest while they were still well and truly pissed about events in the past. Especially since chances were about even on that front that the captor would choose to slit his throat in payment for dead colleagues and claim field exigencies afterwards. All that was left to do was find someone senior enough with the smarts to understand the enormous windfall to be had for Fire and Leaf from the goldmine of knowledge he carried on his shoulders.
And he knew just where to find such a man, having espied his quarry with his companions by mere chance at a cheap diner yesterday evening.
xxxxx
The three members of Team 7 lay sweating rivers and gasping for breath. Reality sucked – as apparently, did they - but they couldn't deny fact. Especially when their master and antagonist for the present, Jiraiya, wasn't even breathing hard at the end of the spar.
"Kids these days have no endurance," the sannin complained aloud, staring down at his students in mock disgust. Secretly, the master spy was impressed by Team 7's performance in the morning workouts, but he was a miser with praise. There were very few achievements in Jiraiya's book worthy of a pat in the back and the brats were months away from their first one.
Team 7 was less than impressed by their prowess, however. In many ways, Jiraiya was a kinder teacher than Kakashi had ever been, and easier going to boot, but his lessons were lots tougher. They hadn't felt so inadequate since the first few days of training as genin.
But Jiraiya was only getting started on his tirade. By rote, it was the same annoying speech he'd used with that sorry brat Minato and his team. Designed to irk students, he'd changed it a little so as to reflect ground realities. Seven days into their mentorship, Team 7 was familiar enough with the content to have memorized it.
"Oh, Sensei and the Godaime must really hate me to stick such a bunch of losers on me," the sannin moaned theatrically, striking a kabuki pose to highlight his despair. "Why in my day…"
"Genin shit gold, peed floods and farted cyclones," Naruto grumbled, reciting Jiraiya's standard diatribe from memory. Sasuke and Sakura threw their glares into the mix.
The retaliatory knock on the blonde's head was loud enough to be heard many yards away and left a bump in the head to serve as a reminder not to interpret their teacher. Team 7's glares at their tormentor grew venomous in their intensity, but Jiraiya ignored them. Or remained oblivious. For all Team 7 knew, that smile the sannin sported now could be because of some perverted thought that'd surfaced in his shallow mind.
A few seconds later, Jiraiya shook himself out of his stupor and wiped that smile and a bit of drool off his face, lending credence to the perverted thoughts theory. The revelation didn't really surprise Team 7. They had learnt that their new sensei was an even bigger lecher than Kakashi.
"You understand what the problem is, don't you?" Jiraiya asked in a serious voice. Maybe, he thought wryly, shooting his petulant looking godson a gentle look, the kids could do without the standard speech for the next few days. That way, it'd be all that more annoying when he started using it again.
Nodding, Team 7 pulled themselves up for the formal debrief of the exercise.
"Sasuke and Sakura, you don't have enough chakra to sustain the levels of intensity you fight at for long periods. Sasuke's seal helps some in this regard, but it's nowhere near close enough to what's needed. Naruto, you have the chakra, but your control is atrocious."
"You're a sannin," Sasuke pointed out. "We can't hope to defeat you."
"And we've done well against others with the training Kakashi-sensei gave us," Sakura added defensively.
"You did," Jiraiya conceded instantly, "but there are nearly a hundred S-rank nin out there and they're all endurance demons. Some are loyal to their village and some not. But that's beside the point, which is that you will be required to face them sometime or the other."
"We're genin," Sakura protested. "You can't expect us to face S-rank nin by ourselves."
The pink-tressed kunoichi ignored the glares both her teammates shot her at her words. Neither Sasuke nor Naruto liked to be told that anything was beyond them, convinced, as they were, of the invincibility of youth.
"A genin is the father of the jounin," Jiraiya retorted.
Team 7 had no real honest answer to that. It was the truth, after all.
"I'm your teacher because the village expects you to become accomplished S-rank killers in time for the coming war," the sannin elaborated. "ANBU school will cram you with all the skills you'll need to survive and once they are done, I'll equip you with all the necessary tools it takes to hunt S-rank nins and survive unscathed. Both the Third and the Fifth are in agreement on that goal."
Team 7 exchanged a glance between themselves. This was certainly news to them.
Jiraiya nodded, content that the brats understood. They'd put themselves through hell just to be sure they didn't disappoint Kakashi now.
"We won't be having these sessions from tomorrow. We'll be crossing over into Rice and there're still remnants of Oto around. We'll need to conserve our energy in case we run into them."
A brief pause.
"So, whose turn is it to cook breakfast?"
xxxxx
Anko carefully read the note the hawker/spy had slipped her at the market in the secure environ of a public bathroom. The instructions were precise and the action detailed required at least six experienced operatives to execute by the book. Her first problem then was that she was the only Leaf ANBU around as far as she knew. HQ, in its infinite wisdom, was once again overreaching itself with objectives whose scope and ambition beggared belief.
But the undercover special jounin took the impossible orders in stride. She would execute them or die trying. If she succeeded, all good and well, and if she failed, she wouldn't be around to take the flak for failure. Still, she preferred being alive to dead, and as she tore up the message and dreamt up plans for the operation, she confessed to herself that she needed to find a way to achieve the mission critical objectives – of which there were three – or it was most definitely going to be the latter. Not just for her but a lot of other brave souls from the corps.
Twenty minutes later, as she was feeling constipated of ideas, the answer came to her in a spark of inspiration. The solution, as her ex-teacher – may the denizens of hell feast on his rotten, goat raping, diseased soul forever – used to say, lay in misdirection and a generous application of fire. She'd make a trip tomorrow to one of the caches that her very thoughtful superiors had created long ago for just such a rainy day and she'd be all set.
Soon, Tea would learn all about special operations and tactical flexibility, and why having all your eggs in one basket is no way to run things in either war or peace.
xxxxx
The last of the hundred seventy passengers boarded the merchantman. Soon after, the first of three ships set sail out of Fire's premier harbor. The official destination of its voyage was Suna. In a little while, its sister ships would follow suit within the hour headed ostensibly for Wave and Stone. But the innocuous seeming passengers weren't.
Later in the day, the three ships rendezvoused over the horizon and set sail for the real objective where their human cargo would execute their commando raid.
xxxxx
"Karin, isn't there something you can do?" Juugo asked, sounding rather sane for the moment.
Karin shook her head. She was gifted in the medical arts, but Kimmimaro's consumption was something even Kabuto had given up as hopeless. And the Yakushi was infinitely more talented than she was at healing.
Juugo stared forlornly at the gasping form of his friend. He knew that the clammy, musty atmosphere of the underground safe house was responsible for the worsening of Kimimaro's symptoms. But there was nothing to do about it.
Konoha, which had appeared weak and deserving of ridicule for so long, had proven decisively in the last month why it was the strongest hidden village on the field of battle. The vastly reduced numbers of cursed seal bearers and destroyed Oto bore emphatic testimony to the fact. Any Oto nin – be they normal or cursed – who dared venture outside had been set upon by teams of Konoha ANBU. The Leaf shinobi split the fools from their comrades and defeated them in detail, crushing them with a combination of numbers, brawn, smarts, ruthlessness and guile that was fearsome to watch.
In the end, after enough of the idiots had died, wiser heads prevailed. They convinced the survivors to remain ensconced in the hideaway and bide their time until situation on the outside became less dangerous. That was two weeks back. Events since then had proven them right in their decision, for they and their dependents were alive to crib about their sodden accommodation and their others who'd opted to stay in the open weren't.
Unfortunately, while hiding from Leaf nin had worked rather well for almost everyone concerned, Kimmimaro's failing health had taken a turn for the worse in the unhealthy air inside the cave and the bone-wielder lay at death's door. Only his indomitable will kept him tethered to the world, though even that will was failing fast.
"We have to get Kabuto," Juugo said, his voice laden with pain and distress. He glared at Karin, daring her to say otherwise.
Except for Karin and two others, the room's occupants inched away from the unstable young man. When the mood struck him, Juugo was easily the most murderous of a murderous lot and no one wanted to mess with him.
"He'll come when he comes," Karin responded, staring down the progenitor of the cursed seal before the killing fancy overtook his mind. She was afraid like the others, but she knew that the more nervous he got, the crazier Juugo became. So, in the interest of self-preservation, she wanted to ease away his anxieties.
"I don't want him to die," Juugo muttered in distress, staring down at the ground and blinking back tears.
The others inched back even further. Juugo was exposing a part of himself that he'd never shown any of them before. And different around him usually meant a gory death. It really was time to get the hell out of dodge.
Karin ruthlessly suppressed the cold spike that shot down her spine and put an arm around the cursed bloodline wielder. Juugo looked at her with something akin to wonder. No one had ever treated him thus. Other than Kimimaro, that is.
"Let's hope he'll get here soon enough," she said, squeezing his shoulders and grabbing him in a comforting hug. She did it in the hope the maniac would relax at her action because she knew they were all for it otherwise.
Unwittingly, with that act of kindness, she also sealed her reputation as the baddest motherfucker of them all among the witnesses. And surprisingly, Juugo relaxed, which further convinced everyone present that her mojo was very powerful.
xxxxx
Under the light of stars, half-hidden by the thick canopy in this portion of the woods, a maniacal grin blossomed on Anko's face as her shovel hit the box lid. She patiently cleared the earth and hauled the family chest wrapped in waterproof canvas out of the hole. Applying chakra and running through the unlocking seals in quick succession, she slammed her right hand on the seal matrix and the lock clicked open.
Inside, she found two thousand note batches of high quality explosive and incendiary seals – the good stuff she'd come for. She helped herself to a few hundred of both, along with kunai, shuriken, field rations, medical kit, chakra and blood pills and various other goodies in a storage scroll. Then summoning her favorite snake, she had it swallow the sealing spool and banished it. This way, if she was stopped by a patrol on the way back to town, she could act the part of a lost young woman and get away even if they searched her.
Finally, she locked and sealed the chest, and she returned it to its earthly grave, taking care to hide the leftover dirt in an old bag that she threw a hundred yards away from the burial site. Finally, she spread undisturbed dirt and leaves over the freshly covered pit to cover her activities and began the long walk back to her apartment and her paramour. She took her time as there was no danger of her lover waking up. She'd drugged him asleep earlier in the day just so that he wouldn't stir awake in the middle of the night and find her missing.
xxxxx
Team 7 lay side by side on their stomachs with their knees in the air on a meadow unmindful of the midday sun over their heads. Sasuke lay in the middle, a twig of grass in his mouth and Naruto and Sakura flanked him on either side. A grasshopper jumped into the air and landed on a bright green leaf of grass mere inches from Naruto's face. The blonde swatted at it when it jumped again to land on his face and with a yawn, turned to face his teammates.
"Pinky," Sasuke said aloud.
"Hmm?" Sakura replied sleepily.
"The old fart seem good to you?"
Sakura looked at the Uchiha in disbelief.
"You saw how hard he trains us, didn't you?"
"But he hasn't taught us anything new."
Sakura turned to lie on her side facing Sasuke.
"Yeah, so? Techniques aren't everything. You and Naruto know more techniques than me and I beat you a third of the time."
The comment earned her a glare from Sasuke. Team 7 hated to lose and of the three, the raven-haired genin hated losing the most.
"Well, we need to be getting stronger."
"We're plenty strong already, Uke. We're candidate ANBU and we haven't been genin for a year."
"He is out there," Sasuke replied, alluding to his brother. "We need to get stronger."
Sasuke himself looked a little surprised by his statement. Before Team 7, with no one to consider family, vengeance for the Uchiha massacre had been a very personal affair that he wanted to share with no one. Things were different now. Team 7 was family and a very tightly knit one at that and he wanted them by his side, basking in their approval even as he ripped out his bastard brother's heart.
Sakura nodded. She understood her teammate perfectly. Her eyes caught Naruto's and she saw him following the conversation intently.
"And we will, Sasuke," she said, turning back to face him. "Jiraiya-sama taught the Yondaime and look how that turned out."
Sasuke nodded.
"I'll grant you that," he acknowledged. "He better train us as hard though."
Sakura nodded.
"I'm sure he will. What brought this on, anyways?"
"Nothing. I was just thinking."
Sakura nodded again. The topic at an end, she wondered where next to guide the conversation. She used to discuss family with Ino, but with both Sasuke and Naruto being orphans, she didn't want to go there. They weren't interested in girls – and she didn't want to have that talk with them, anyways – so that left training or gossip.
"You think Kakashi-sensei's been named Hokage by now?"
Sasuke shrugged.
"He should have. Today's Wednesday and Kakashi-sensei said he was going to be pronounced Godaime publically on Tuesday."
Sakura nodded and became silent, plucking a small clump of grass of the ground.
"Who's going to cook tonight?" she asked after a minute.
Sasuke glared at her.
"What do you mean 'who's going to cook tonight?' It's your turn."
"I'll trade you a day's chores if you'll do it."
"Three days."
"I'll do your weekly laundry."
"You don't have to do anything at all except put the clothes in the washing machine."
"And take them out and hang them out to dry."
"Throw in pressing my clothes and it's a deal."
"After we reach Konoha."
Sasuke nodded, a smile on his face. As a matter of fact, he had a huge pile of laundry that he'd been meaning to get to for years.
Sakura smiled as well. Her teammate didn't know it, but she knew girls who'd pay to get their hands on his wardrobe. In fact, she'd make them pay.
"Deal."
"Deal."
"Could you do my laundry as well," Naruto quipped.
Sakura glared at him.
"It'll only be four pairs of pants and shirts."
Sasuke sat up.
"That reminds me. How come your wardrobe's so empty?" he asked.
Naruto stared at him meaningfully. Even still, it took Sasuke to understand the obvious.
"So who took care of you when you were a kid?" Sakura asked in a quiet voice.
Naruto stared into the horizon.
"I was at the orphanage till my ninth birthday and then I had to leave it. I've lived alone since then," he said.
Sakura gasped. From the glares Naruto got from many civilians and the muttered complaints she'd heard them whisper, she knew that her teammate had a harsh childhood. But to think that they would kick a defenseless boy out of the orphanage at nine… It simply boggled the mind.
"They kicked you out?" she asked aloud.
Sasuke looked rather uninterested by the question, but if Naruto knew the look in his eyes – and the blonde knew his teammate – someone was going to get hurt at the orphanage. Team 7 took care of its own.
Happy to feel so loved, Naruto looked Sakura in the eye gravely.
"No. I beat the crap out of the two bullies who tried to give me a very special birthday present two days early."
Sasuke snorted in amusement. Sakura blushed at having misread the situation so badly.
"You were that good even then?" Sakura asked, sounding impressed.
"Nah. I'd been only training for two years by then. I was nowhere close to where I was even before we became genin, but I was light years ahead of those two. So, I got a free scrapes and I gave them both black eyes and kicked them in the balls. Many, many times," Naruto replied with a small grin on his face as he relived fond memories.
Sakura winced. Sasuke grunted.
"You were a right bastard even then."
"They'd beaten me up for the previous four birthdays just because they could. I was merely returning the favor and showing them how it feels like to be beaten when you're down."
Sasuke tensed up again at the implication that the orphanage had neglected Naruto.
"Oh, relax, Sasuke. These things happen. There were forty children at the orphanage and only three caretakers."
"They should have punished the SOBs the first time."
"One of them was that bastard Ichiro. I don't think he's ever listened to anyone ever. The other was that prick Micheru. If his parents ever whooped him, it didn't do that asshole any good."
Sasuke and Sakura nodded. They knew of the two bullies all right. And they even vaguely remembered rumors that some blonde kid had beaten them up pretty bad. It was just that they'd never connected the dots before.
"The kids at the orphanage were afraid of me after that. Probably because after I got tired of kicking them in the balls, I took a stone and started hitting them all over the body with it until my arms grew tired. So, old man Hokage gave a good scolding and pulled me out of the asylum. That's one of two good things that happened to me that birthday."
"The other?" Sakura asked, even though she had a hint what Naruto was going to say.
Naruto laughed aloud.
"Those two bastards probably won't be able to father children and pass on their stupidity to the next generation.
"So, my laundry?"
xxxxx
Jiraiya paid for the bottle of hot sake and poured himself a nice saucer of the good stuff. He had just taken a well-deserved sip when a stranger slid into the seat next to him.
"Jiraiya-sama."
Jiraiya turned to face the man with a frown on his face. He hated having his evening drinks interrupted by men. The company of women was always welcome, of course.
"Why shouldn't I kill you where you stand?" the sannin asked, wiping the frown off his face and replacing it with the cold mask of an accomplished killer. He recognized the intruder and was not at all pleased to see the traitorous asshole in this bar.
Kabuto smiled disarmingly in return, making sure that his hands were on the bar top. He didn't want to give the master spy a reason to feel threatened – never mind the older man could swat him aside like a fly – and risk compromising his mission. Jiraiya was arguably the most powerful of the sannin in battle, after all, Orochimaru-sama's arguments to the contrary notwithstanding.
"Because I've turned a new leaf?" the late Orochimaru's aide replied jovially. Seeing that the other did not appreciate the humor, he amended, "As things stand, I'm a dead man walking. I came to propose a deal to rectify the situation."
"I doubt you have anything that'd have either Konoha and Hi no Kuni pardon you," Jiraiya replied, sounding uninterested.
"I was the Sannin Orochimaru's primary research assistant. The body of knowledge that I carry between my shoulders is enormous. Konoha will find it very useful in the troubled times ahead."
Jiraiya was suddenly interested, but he couldn't let Kabuto know that. The traitor wouldn't have come a calling if it were the only playing card he in his hands. Not when Konoha's operators were hoarding Orochimaru's research like bees do nectar. And Jiraiya definitely wanted the best possible deal possible from Konoha's viewpoint.
"That'd maybe get you a pardon for all the spying you did, but Konoha's plenty strong on its own. And we've recovered a wealth of information about Orochimaru's research. Not good enough."
Kabuto nodded, but the slight tensing in his shoulders left him. He knew the game and the sannin's words meant the other was willing to deal. Signaling the barkeeper over, the spectacled medic ordered a single saucer of sake and took a sip as Jiraiya poured himself a couple more.
"Perhaps," he admitted. "Which is just as well that I come offering the last survivor of the bone wielder line in return for my life and freedom."
Jiraiya shrugged. Yes, Konoha loved bloodlines, but not enough to let a traitor like Kabuto go.
Kabuto took note of the sannin's uninterested reaction and knew it was time to throw one of the big bones on the table.
"I can give you information about Akatsuki."
Jiraiya's heart skipped a beat. He knew about Akatsuki, all right. And he believed that nothing good could ever come out of the association of ten S-rank missing nin. For Konoha or anyone else. Certainly not when said bunch were very interested in bijuu in general and jinchuuriki in particular.
"Oh?" he quipped. The fact that Kabuto brought up Akatsuki meant the medic was aware he knew the name and was interested in them. So, he didn't bother trying to deny the organization's existence. That'd compromise his negotiating position.
"Yes. I have with me the ring Orochimaru took with him when he 'left' the organization."
Jiraiya smiled inwardly. That wasn't the way he'd heard it. Itachi, god bless his traitorous, sociopathic soul, had done one of the few good things in his misbegotten life when he thoroughly kicked Orochimaru's ass out of Akatsuki. But the Toad Hermit admitted to himself, he had never heard about any rings. The way Kabuto spoke, they must be pretty important.
"Konoha will want the ring, of course," he said even as he asked himself, why would a ring be so important?
Kabuto nodded. He would be glad to be rid of the ring to speak the truth. After they struck the deal, that is.
"I have it in a safe place. You can have it if you pardon me," he replied with a satisfied smile.
"Konoha will also need the identities of Akatsuki members."
"Easily done," Kabuto agreed, happily. Then, as a none-too-subtle reminder, "I don't know all of them, but all that I know about them is yours. If you pardon me."
Jiraiya nodded, shaking his head at the second blatant reminder from the other. Kabuto must be in a tight spot to act like that.
"It's almost enough to clinch the deal," Jiraiya replied, "but I need something else."
"I'll deliver twenty B/A-rank nin. Their loyalty to Orochimaru is questionable and they might be willing to make Konoha their home, circumstances permitting," Kabuto replied. Some of the cursed seal bearers, Kimmimaro being the biggest of them, were hardcore Orochimaru supporters, but surely, Jiraiya didn't need to know that now. Especially when Kimmimaro wasn't going to pose a problem to anyone in a few short days once the poison Kabuto had fed him as medicine completed what the consumption began.
"Let me guess, they all hated the prick. What did he do?"
"Conducted experiments on them and gave them variations of the seal he gave Sasuke. These are all advanced users and a few have the potential to become S-rank nin."
Jiraiya smiled. One bone wielder, he wasn't sure about, but so much new blood… Yes, Konoha wanted Kabuto, all right!
"You give me those nin, the ring, the intel you have on Akatsuki, and your brain for Leaf to pick, and we have a deal."
"You speak for the Sandaime?"
"Godaime, now. Sarutobi-sensei has abdicated in favor of Hatake Kakashi."
Kabuto nodded.
"Of course, if you try to screw me over, I'll kill you."
The spectacled medic nodded again. Such was the price of doing business.
xxxxx
The principal naval port of Tea was protected by patrols up to three miles out at sea at night. During the day, the watch on the lighthouse kept an eye out on the seafront.
Even with a very small crew of three, the patrol boats were cramped and the construction was shoddy. The job itself was thankless and dangerous, with a boat disappearing every few months. Every so often, a piece of wreckage from one of the missing boats would wash ashore identifiable by the unique materials used in the hull. As near as anyone could figure it, the hulls had simply come apart for no reason whatsoever. This created a lot of resentment among the sailors and was a big morale problem that the Tea Navy had long neglected to address.
On this cloudy night, the chief in charge of Patrol 7 squinted against the glare of the searchlight at the telltale against the dark horizon. His intuition told him something was there out on the edge of his vision, but in the damned dark, he couldn't be sure. He turned to his crew. One had his hand on the throttle of the outboard, ready to make a run for it and the other had the signal flare grasped lightly in one hand. His bow and quiver of arrows lay by his side untouched, as did the Chief's. In the event of a sighting, their first responsibility was to shoot the flare to warn his compatriots in the harbor that the fracas was afoot and only then try their best to survive.
"What's it, Chief?" the steersman asked in a whisper.
The chief held up his hand to still further speech. The steersman clutched the throttle and rudder tighter. So passed the next few minutes.
Finally, the chief relaxed and heaved a sigh of relief.
"It's nothing. I thought I saw something and…" he started before trailing off. Having turned to face his men as he addressed them, he gaped at their decapitated heads and the porcelain mask wielding stranger standing over their corpses.
His surprise was fleeting, however as his head rolled off with a splash into the water and his body followed close behind. The dark night hid well the splatter and spray of blood as the ANBU wiped her blade and returned it to its utilitarian sheath. Seconds later, the lone operator was joined by another thirty-odd of her compatriots and she joined them as they trotted towards the harbor entrance less than eight hundred meters away. Her group was but one of six that'd water walked more than a mile from the three merchantman moored out at sea to fall upon the cream of the Tea Navy in the next few minutes.
Searchlights and vigilant crews didn't stand a chance against both the byakugan and the maneuverability that the ability to walk on water gave shinobi, after all.
Everyone knew that ports were vulnerable to attacks from the sea by shinobi and harbors were usually protected by ninja and patrol boats, but without Cloud, Tea did not have the nins to put out at sea at night and do all the other things that needed doing. And while other nations had tried this tactic with varying amounts of success, it was Tea's weakness in the nin department combined with the knowledge of the fleet's movements from Anko's intelligence reports that gave Konoha's planners the confidence that a preemptive strike using ANBU from the sea would be very successful.
xxxxx
The seals were all in place and the teams had avoided detection so far. It was time to cause some mayhem and teach the Tea pussies lessons in manners.
So, as the second hand counted down to zero, the ANBU spread out, heading towards the barracks where the off-duty marine security complement was billeted as well as the various other offices across the base.
At precisely four in the morning, the seals struck to the screws on all the moored warships exploded. The explosions flooded some of the ships and set them against the shallow bottom, but the rest survived with varying degrees of damage to the hull. The screws were all lost, of course.
Seconds later, the explosive seals on the roof and walls of the marine's barracks exploded as did the lighthouse and the signals station. The latter was merely to cover tracks as the operators were long dead and the messages stolen by Leaf ANBU. Intel officers waited on the ships out at sea to examine them.
xxxxx
Namba was snoring softly with his left arm wrapped around Anko's shoulders when the thump of explosions woke them both up. He pushed the covers aside and made to sit up but fell back clutching his throat as he slowly choked to death from a crushed larynx.
Anko slid out of bed and without so much as a glance back as her lover choking to death under the covers, she summoned her favorite snake and had it cough out the scroll she'd had it swallow earlier. With calm and poise, she unsealed the scroll and set about adorning her armor and weapons. Her own explosive seals were pasted on all the major thoroughfares to the port and ready to blow at a moment's notice, which she did just before she stepped into the night to join her compatriots at the base.
Instantly, a hundred explosions rocked the town, as bridges blew, and houses and shops alongside all major streets went up in smoke and flames.
War that Tea had tried to help visit on Fire had come home with a vengeance.
xxxxx
Author's notes:
Long break between chapters. Plenty of reasons for that, but real life and laziness take almost all the blame.
Anyways, Konoha and Kabuto. Kabuto and Konoha. Also, cursed seal and Konoha. Sounds nice, doesn't it? LOL And Team 7 as S-rank killers. Now, we're getting somewhere. Finally. ROFL
Who wants me to off Kimmimaro in the next chapter?
Finally, happy birthday tomorrow to me!