The Best Laid Plans
Arun
Chapter 17: Mistakes & Backstabbings!
Disclaimer: Sage Naruto!
It was high noon and the heat was stifling. Team 7 and 8 waited patiently under the merciless sun as the samurai at the head of their line took their sweet time processing travel requests.
Half an hour later, with Kiba's and Naruto's patience at an end, they were finally only a couple of bodies from getting their visas stamped.
"Damn paperwork Nazis," Naruto groused, kicking a pebble hard.
Sakura shrugged. It was the price of doing business. They were entering Wind as an official Konoha investigation team and had to go through the forms, which in this case meant standing in line for the border stamps.
Naruto snorted. He understood the need, but that did not have to mean he had to agree with it. He turned to Kiba to say something but a commotion at the head of one of the other lines grabbed his attention.
"What's going on?" he asked Sakura with a nudge and a nod in the direction of the turmoil.
Sakura shrugged again, though her eyes were focused intently on the man arguing with the Suna nin behind the desk. She was particularly interested since the man wore a badge of the courier corps on his right shoulder. The two looked like they might come to blows – which the messenger would have lost rather badly – but after a tense few seconds, the courier threw the cap of his trade on the floor and stomped out with his diplomatic case in hand.
Sakura finger-tapped Naruto on the shoulder and gestured in the courier's direction. She would hold his place for him while he struck a conversation with the man and learned what happened. Messengers were not denied entry even when two countries were at war and yet, Wind had seen fit to turn this one away. The incident was not relevant to their mission in any way, but it kindled her curiosity and she knew so would her superiors at ANBU HQ.
Naruto shook his head and walked after the fast departing messenger. Maybe he could grab a bite or two while he was interrogating the man. And if he couldn't make it back before they passed customs, he would linkup with his team later that night when they struck camp.
The messenger roamed around the small market on the Fire side of the border for a while before he entered a roadside eatery. Naruto entered the small, family run restaurant and immediately spotted the courier seated at the counter. The place was practically empty and deciding that the best approach was the direct approach, the blonde adjusted his Konoha issued forehead protector and walked up to the man.
"Is this seat taken?" he asked.
The courier turned sideways, and looked the teen up and down with a deep frown on his face.
"It's not," he said, turning back.
Naruto sat down and ordered lunch.
"Having a bad day? I'm Shigemi Hishinuma," he introduced himself, using one of his cover identities as a Konoha Jounin. ANBU and Root operators on foreign soil used covers even when not on mission. The people who mattered knew who they were and they did not care to let the rest know.
Silence.
"I reason why I'm asking is because I saw what happened back there at the border crossing."
The courier's back stiffened and he turned to face Naruto.
"Who's asking?"
Naruto gestured at his headband.
"I have nothing to say to you," the man replied. "If I have anything, I'll say it to your superiors in Konoha or better yet, to the Daimyo's representatives."
So, there really was a problem. Naruto understood that the man had every right to distrust a stranger, but he needed the information. The success of the mission hinged on Suna and Wind's disposition towards Konoha and Fire and his team's ability to make them see reason. Glancing sideways at his companion, the blonde thought he knew how to get the man to open up. Jiraiya had given Team 7 a most thorough education and one of the subjects had been on handling people the right way so as to extract useful information from them.
"If you don't have to, you don't have to," Naruto replied and slid a couple of ryuu over.
The courier gazed at the currency proffered for a couple of seconds and turned away in apparent disgust.
"I'm not to be bought," the man said in a clipped voice.
"Of course." Nevertheless, the Root operator slipped another gold coin across with a clink. This was an age-old game and the Toad Sannin had taught his students how to play it well.
The courier still hesitated.
Naruto slipped another halfway across.
"I can't break my professional code of ethics," the man muttered.
Naruto moved the coin three-fourths of the way.
"No one's asking you to. But you can gripe about your day to the owner."
The man thought about it and reached for his gold. Naruto smiled and took his finger off the last piece. When the owner bought their steaming lunch, his newfound friend groused loudly in great and intricate detail as the proprietor listened patiently.
xxxxx
Clearing customs had meant another hour spent standing on the queue and by the time Naruto got his papers stamped and reached camp, the sun had set. Also, the food was cold and everyone was ready to turn in for the night. As there was still a full day's march ahead of them and his discovery did not have any immediate implications for the mission, he ate the food and went to sleep.
The next morning, during breakfast, he told the others what he'd learned.
"That does not bode well for relations between Wind and Fire," Shino said when the blonde was done.
Naruto shrugged.
"It wasn't as if things weren't already heading up shit-creek."
"We knew that things were a little heated up on the Fire-Wind border, but why deny entry to a courier carrying a diplomatic case?" Kiba asked.
"Probably because he was carrying a diplomatic case," Sakura replied.
"They are trying to provoke an incident," Shino stated.
Sakura got a thoughtful on her face.
"Yes… unless he wasn't carrying the proper papers. Did you verify that, Naruto?"
Naruto grimaced as he chomped down on terrible tasting ration bar.
"Yep," he replied with a half-full mouth.
"We'll have to tentatively conclude that Wind is trying to provoke an incident."
"Stupid fuckers," Sasuke added helpfully.
"So we'll file a diplomatic protest and that'll make them look bad. What'll gain from that?" Kiba asked.
"Wh-what if they claimed that the courier did not have the proper papers and accused us of unfriendly acts?" Hinata asked.
"But that wasn't what happened."
"None of the other countries like Konoha or Fire these days because of our power. Truth will not matter here, I suspect. They will accuse us of belligerent actions even though we're faultless," Sasuke replied. He did not bother explaining more. His team knew what that meant.
"You imply that Kaze no Kuni is colluding with foreign powers, Sasuke," Shino observed shooting the raven-haired chuunin a significant glance. It was obvious that Team 7 had access to intel that his own teammates did not have. What sort of trouble were they walking into?
"Maybe. Danzo's only a day away and my guess is we'll know for sure when we get there."
xxxxx
Danzo's camp had the feeling of a besieged fortress. Men naked at the waist were busy digging a second moat wider and deeper than the first and the air rang with grunts at the backbreaking labor involved. Not surprisingly, given their predicament, the laborers were Konoha nin. As he passed through the gate, Naruto wondered how Danzo was managing security when a third of his men would be too tired at end of day and of no use.
A few shinobi stood guard on the wooden ramparts and Naruto had no doubt there were others that were on standby in the barracks. But Team 8 had not sensed or seen any Konoha nin more than two miles out where the Wind and Suna contingents had set up camp. That did not bode well for the morale of Danzo's men and it deprived the old General of the intel he needed to predict enemy movements.
Naruto glanced at his teammates and they nodded.
"The camp looks forlorn," Naruto spoke to their escort.
The Kunoichi nodded. Gone was the swagger and arrogance with which Danzo's troops had greeted Konoha inspectors in the past, Naruto noted remembering past intel reports. Now, they looked very grateful to see him and the others. If that wasn't an indicator that Danzo's dick was caught in the blocks, he didn't know what was.
"Yeah, we lost three more patrols in the last week. Two in a single night."
"The patrols were operating close to each other?" Sakura asked.
Their guide shook her head.
Naruto looked at his friends. Either there'd been two teams operating all along or Suna's hunters were confident enough to split their forces while going after Danzo's men. The day just kept getting better and better.
"What's Danzo's done about it?" Sasuke asked.
"That's Danzo-sama to you," the Kunoichi snapped irritably.
Sasuke grunted. He supposed he should show respect to the old cripple. For the present, at least.
"What's Danzo-sama done about it?" he rephrased himself.
"Pretty little. We've lost a hundred men in the last month. Whoever's out there is very powerful and we can't send enough men out because of those two damned regiments and those Suna-nin bastards. The men are near mutiny."
"I suppose that makes sense," Sasuke said doubtfully. What had happened to Danzo's supremely well-trained force of killers, he wondered. This was not the force reported as fearsome in the intel reports back home. Maybe Danzo had not brainwashed as many people as the Hokage's office had feared. If he'd expended most of them in suicidal assassination missions against Suna's elite, it explained the reality they'd discovered in his camp.
Their guide took one last turn and led them to a large but utilitarian tent.
"Danzo-sama's meeting a Wind diplomat," one of Danzo's aides said nodding to the Kunoichi. The man was dressed in plain shinobi garbs with no indication of his rank. "He instructed me to send you in as soon as you entered the camp. Wait inside and do not disturb until he's finished with the diplomat."
Teams 7 and 8 nodded and entered.
xxxxx
The Kaze no Kuni diplomat was a forceful man, who was secure in the belief that his person was inviolate and that he had everything going for him. He conducted himself aggressively and even though he was in the middle of Danzo's camp surrounded by the latter's killers, he spoke down to the crippled ex-nin. Listening to his speech from one corner of the room, Naruto wondered if the man was a brave idiot or just another run-of-the-mill nincompoop that wore a bureaucrat's uniform.
"We do not have control over what happens to you and your men," the official said in response to Danzo's complaint about his murdered men. He was sticking by the official Wind line on the subject. "If your men can go raping and looting, then they most certainly can live with the retaliations our civilians visit upon them."
"Civilians don't butcher men like mine were," Danzo retorted. It galled him to confess the gory nature of the deaths inflicted on his underlings, but with Kakashi's spies around, he had to look as if he was trying to get his point across in a reasonable manner.
"Obviously," the diplomat pushed ahead, overriding the old warhawk's protest, "you can neither control nor protect your own men, which says things about you and your village. No, Wind country has had enough of your depredations on our poor but brave citizens. You would do well to remember that you are a guest in our land."
"We have evidence that the murders were committed by trained shinobi," Danzo reiterated.
"So you say. Am I supposed to believe you when Konohagakure and Hi no Kuni have so much to gain from your accusations? No, Kaze no Kuni will not abide it. However, in the interests of fairness and to prove our innocence to the world, we are willing to subject ourselves to an investigation conducted by a neutral third party…"
Danzo's eyes narrowed at the slip and the diplomat, realizing his error in judgment, clamped down. He knew he'd unwittingly confirmed Danzo's suspicions. Wind a secret ally against Fire and as a result, grown a backbone.
"That's how it is then," the old cripple said with an indulging smile. The fool of a diplomat could not know how big a favor he'd done Danzo's cause with that slip. Now that the idiot had blurted out the truth before Kakashi's spies, the Godaime would be left with no choice but to send reinforcements. As much as the Hokage feared the former Root supremo becoming too strong, he needed Suna and Wind weakened, and Danzo was the only one who could do it. "I'll of course pass on your suggestion to Godaime-sama. We will wait for his decision."
The diplomat nodded silently. He could not hide his regret about his indiscretion, but Danzo had no doubt the man would recover his balance in moments and surge back into the attack again.
"Now," the veteran shinobi said, intent on provoking the man further, "that we've set aside the issue of the dead patriots, I would move on to the issue of the positioning of the 5th and 11th regiments so close to my base…"
"Absolutely not," Wind's representative said in a tone of voice that left no room for doubt or argument. "They're here to protect the civilian populace. They remain where they are."
From his vantage point behind the diplomat and beside his teammates, Sasuke stopped picking his teeth for a moment. He shot a little grin at the man's back and chuckled his appreciation for saying that lie with a straight face. Wind's official stance might have held some weight if their troops were positioned anywhere near population centers. But seeing as the units straddled the only paved road to Fire in that part of Wind as well as the sole watering hole large enough to support a large party of men for thirty miles and were so far removed from civilization that they needed dedicated mule trains to supply their comestibles thrice a week, it was not.
The Uchiha's actions drew the attention of his teammates, who glared at him. In reaction, with nothing more than another shake of the head, he went back to concentrating on his toothpick.
While Sasuke was interacting with his teammates thus, Danzo took the Wind envoy's argument in stride. It wasn't as if he'd expected the other to make concessions or even compromises. The diplomat did not know it, but the sole purpose of this conversation was for the benefit of Kakashi's spies, after all. He wanted them to impress the Godaime about Wind's intolerable conduct in their reports and the necessity of sending reinforcements quickly to regain control on the ground.
"Perhaps you can have the shinobi complement reduced. I'm afraid there might be run-ins with my men when they go out foraging…" Translation: If you don't move your men, I'll have mine kill them and claim it was an unfortunate misunderstanding.
"Wind expects Konoha shinobi within its borders to exercise due restraints. Suna obviously cannot be blamed if anything untoward happens." Translation: If you attack Suna-nin and claim it was an accident, we'll take steps to ensure that your men have more accidents befall them in return.
The meeting continued for a while longer with both men issuing vague threats. The Wind official threw a lot of outright insults and insinuations at Danzo, who ignored them utterly and continued to bait the man. Finally, the two exchanged insincere toasts for friendship, peace and prosperity, and the diplomat left. Danzo waited until the eye was out of sight before turning his attention to Teams 7 and 8.
"Jounin Aburame Shino, and Chuunins Haruno Sakura, Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto reporting for duty, Sir," Sakura announced as she and the others snapped to attention.
Danzo cast an appraising eye over the six.
"Kakashi's brats and Kurenai's darlings," he muttered thoughtfully, massaging his chin with his ever-present cane resting against his leg. "The Godaime had finally seen fit to send me some decent help, I see. You got your billeting done?"
"No, Sir! We came to report as soon as we walked into camp, Sir," Sakura replied.
Danzo nodded.
"You want a briefing immediately or do you want to see to your billeting?"
"The briefing first, Sir!"
Danzo seized his came and walked to his desk. His aide slipped out on some task as he did.
"The situation is simple enough," he said once he slipped into his seat. "The men I send out on patrols into the countryside are butchered like animals. I'm down forty-seven KIA and another thirty-four MIA in the last month. I've lost thirty in the last week. My surviving three hundred are close to mutiny. It's a wonder they haven't done so already. Any other unit would have under these circumstances.
"As to the tactical picture, I'm penned in by three Wind regiments as well as an estimated two hundred and fifty Suna-nin. You would have seen two of those regiments on the way here. The third blocks the highway to the capital. There may be more shinobi in the countryside, but that's pure guesswork on my part. In essence, I'm trapped."
Sakura nodded.
"Can you tell us about the attacks, Sir?"
"All except one were surgically executed ambushes by skilled ninjutsu users. The perpetrators are between ten and twenty in number. There have been more attacks in the east and generally less time between attacks, leading me to suspect they're encamped somewhere in that neighborhood. Of course, I could be wrong."
"And the exception, Sir?"
"That was a bloody massacre. There was nothing more than pieces of flesh strewn around of that patrol when we found it two days back. Unfortunately, I couldn't contain the news and it spread throughout the camp, which is one reason aside from being cooped up in the camp why the men are so upset."
"You suspect it's a different team that did this?"
"Oh, there's no doubt. The attack happened in the west on the same night as another in the east."
"Couldn't they have split up their forces and chosen a new modus operandi as part of their strategy?"
Danzo shrugged.
"Possible, I suppose. But unlikely. My men aren't weaklings and I'd wager it'd take more than your ordinary run of ninja to bring any of them down."
Sakura nodded.
"I hope you caught the windbag's slip back there?" Danzo asked.
"Yes, Sir. We're probably dealing with foreign shinobi and not nukenin."
"It's critical you find out who's helping Kaze no Kuni and Sunagakure."
"Yes, Sir."
"You need anything?"
"Yes, Sir. I would like the autopsy reports of the dead men as well as your authorization to cut open some of them again."
"Granted."
"We will also need a guide, Sir. Preferably someone who knows the area and is knowledgeable about the massacres."
Danzo nodded absently. It wasn't as if he was going to let them roam around his territory without someone to watch over them, anyways.
"We will also need the latest intelligence reports on Wind and Suna troop movements, Sir."
"Done. Anything else?"
Sakura thought about it.
"No, Sir. Nothing that strikes me at present anyways," she said, turning a questioning glance at her teammates. When they did not say anything, she turned to Danzo and continued, "If that is all, Sir?"
xxxxx
"We're dealing with a Jinchuuriki, Guys," Sakura said as soon as she walked into their tent.
Naruto and the others stared at her. Sakura me their exasperated stares and finally noticed the stranger in their midst. She'd been so tired because of the autopsies and had been so preoccupied with thoughts of the Jinchuuriki that she'd made a cardinal mistake. The man stood up to greet her.
"Sakura, this here's our liaison, Ishimatsu Shintani," Naruto introduced the stranger. "Say hello to Sakura, Shin."
"Greetings, Sakura-san," Shintani said.
Sakura nodded acknowledgement.
"Did I hear you right, Sakura-san? There's a bijuu here in Kaze no Kuni?"
Naruto caught Sakura's eyes and shrugged. The cat was out of the bag and there was nothing to be done about it but to live with the consequences.
"Yes, that's right, Shintani-san."
"Please call me Shin. All my friends do," the man replied. "I guess this means that one of the other villages is involved for sure."
"Yeah," Sakura replied before slipping into silence.
"Anything else, Sakura?" Naruto asked. It was like Sakura to blame herself for anything that went wrong – though it really was her fault this time around – but they could not afford the traditional one day of recrimination before she turned around here. The more they learnt, the more it became clear that Suna and Wind's betrayal had caught Konoha off-guard again because of Danzo's incompetence or connivance and time was fast running out. In fact, things were so bad that he was going to have to send a warning to the Godaime through toad-mail this very evening.
"Yeah. The perpetrators are skilled at earth and fire Justus," she replied, casting a look at Sasuke.
The Uchiha scion grinned and rubbed his hands in anticipation. He knew what the news meant for him with his lightning affinity.
"Finally," the maniac said, shaking his fist at the heavens. "I get to kick a fucking bijuu in its nuts all over the place."
"Dude, we're talking about a Jinchuuriki," Kiba corrected him.
Naruto put his hands on Kiba's shoulder and when he had the latter's attention, shook his head.
"Don't disturb him. The idiot's in his happy place."
Team 8 looked at Naruto strangely. Really, how powerful were Team 7 to not even be perturbed by the thought of facing a demon host?
xxxxx
Danzo looked askance at his informant. He hardly believed his ears. Surely, this was fortune smiling on him. It sure felt like he was basking in her radiance.
"Say again?" he asked just to be on the safe side.
"Whoever's helping Wind lent them a Jinchuuriki," Shintani repeated.
Danzo's smile became blinding in its intensity. Finally, he could get his hands on a jinchuuriki of his own. This really was one of the happiest days of his life.
"Thank you, Ishimatsu," he said, dismissing the latter.
Once the man had exited, he turned to his aide.
"Send out two dozen of the Sixty," he said, referring to his hidden reserve of completely brainwashed shinobi, trained to be utterly loyal to Danzo and his cause. They were the most trusted of all the men under his command – Konoha didn't even know they existed – and they wouldn't hesitate to storm the gates of hell for their master. "And get me that Jinchuuriki alive. At all costs."
"Yes, Master."
xxxxx
The 5th Regiment guarded the watering hole – really a spring – on the road to Fire. It was just past four in the morning when most of the camp was asleep and even the guards were drowsy when a toad bigger than a man floated to the surface. Out of its mouth emerged a hand, then another, then a head and finally, half a torso.
"Thanks, Gamakichi," Naruto whispered.
Gamakichi did not reply. His voice had a lot of bass and might attract unwanted attention.
Silently, Naruto pulled an oilskin pouch out of his shirt. Gingerly, he opened it and pulled out a water-soluble capsule a couple of inches in length and two centimeters in diameter. Inside, there was a crystallized cocktail of germs that gave a bad case of the runs, courtesy of Tsunade and her coterie of researchers in Konoha. If Wind thought that stationing a regiment close to a large body of water guaranteed water security, they would learn better in a couple of days when most of their camp got a bad case of dysentery. After all, there was no wood to heat water in the neighborhood and Wind – but curiously not Suna – frowned on booze.
xxxxx
Kakashi stared at the letter from the Wind Daimyo that lay on his desk. It was disturbing that it did not say anything about Danzo's men in Kaze no Kuni. What was even more so were the demands in made in very strong language for the return of the Shukaku to Suna.
That was unprecedented.
In the three years since he put on the cap, there had been many polite requests for the one-tail from time to time. However, the Wind Daimyo had never pressed the issue because there was an unspoken understanding that Konoha would not return the beast. While Kaze no Kuni had never been happy with the arrangement, they had no other option but to live with it. Now, something had happened that Leaf and Fire were not privy to which had resulted in a U-turn in their policy.
There was also Naruto's report, which lay beside the Wind Daimyo's to consider. Sakura had discovered traces of bijuu chakra during her autopsy. That definitely ruled out any Suna nin and infinitely complicated things for Fire and Konoha. One did not a bring a Jinchuuriki into play anywhere – certainly not on foreign soil and certainly not loan said host to another power - unless one was dead serious about honoring one's commitments.
Kakashi had no doubt now that Wind had switched sides and he'd sent his children to be fed to the meat grinder. He could not recall them because Danzo was penned by Kaze no Kuni's regiments and Suna's unknown benefactors. And he could not send them reinforcements because the hammer would fall on Fire hardest and he needed the strength to withstand the first blow.
"Thanks, Kosuke," the Hatake told the toad who'd delivered the message.
"You want I should carry something back for Naruto?" Kosuke asked.
"Only this. There'll be no reinforcements and that they're on their own."
"They're neck deep in trouble," the summon replied.
"My hands are tied, Kosuke. Tell them that I have every confidence in them."
Kosuke nodded and reverse summoned himself.
He heaved a sigh and stretched for his letterhead. Time was of the essence now and he needed to get his forces on the alert soonest. But even more important, the Fire Daimyo needed to know that war was upon them and they were going to face the full brunt of the tempest alone.
xxxxx
Author's notes:
Review please? LOL
Hope this chapter was likeable even though it was most politics and intrigue. There should be action starting from the next chapter – well, I plan to get to the action part by then, anyways.