The Best Laid Plans
Arun
Chapter 28: Aftermath
Disclaimer: Two days early, but what the heck! Happy new year, everyone.
"Naruto."
The blonde sat silently on one of the cots staring blankly. Flies buzzed around the entrance of the building even as a swarm filled the interior. They'd been attracted to the corpses inside. Sasuke put a hand on his shoulder and gently shook him.
"Dawn's here, Naruto. We have to leave."
Naruto continued to stare and said nothing. Sasuke bit his lips. Naruto had collapsed on the building roof where he'd fired his technique soon after the explosion. The figurative blood on his hands had overcome him and he'd shut down. He hadn't spoken or responded to anything since and had to be carried down by his teammates.
"We have to leave and in the state he's in, we're not going to be using Toad," the Uchiha said, gesturing at his friend.
"But where do we go from here?" Sakura asked.
"Not Konoha for sure. I don't want to see Kakashi-sensei right now."
Sakura nodded, rolling out a map of the Elemental nations.
"Quite. That leaves linking up with Jiraiya-sensei. We'll have to track him down behind enemy lines in the middle of a freaking war."
"At least, we know his unit's general Area of Operations."
"That's well over a thousand square kilometers of area," Sakura pointed out. "We'd better start. You carry him for the first leg. I don't think he'll walk."
"Be alert. Every SOB within fifty miles is making a beeline for Kusa right now."
"Which is why you're going to carry him. We need to put some distance between ourselves and the city."
xxxxx
Jiraiya saw the sky light up in the early hours of the morning and knew the thing was done. He hadn't slept well and had gotten up early to gaze at the northern skies. Sparing a prayer to the gods to keep his godson and his friends alive, he set about composing a message for Kakashi. The Godaime needed to be informed of the successful detonation – and hopefully, the destruction of Kusa – at the earliest.
"Did you see that light up north? I wonder what that was about," someone spoke loudly enough to reach Jiraiya's ears.
Jiraiya ignored the exchange and focused on his writing. He would call a meeting and inform his team of the light's significance after sunrise. Right now, his people needed their sleep.
xxxxx
"Kusa's destroyed," Zetsu informed Pain, Konan and Madara. "The city blew up in a massive explosion."
"Destroyed?" Konan asked, shooting looks at the other two. "What happened?"
"I don't know. The Zetsu that was observing the city could not tell."
"How much of the city survives?" Madara asked. Then, he posed the far more important question from his point of view, "What is the status of the invasion's supply depot?"
If Kusa was destroyed, then Nagato's actions in Tea would be for naught. The balance would once again shift to the middle and that wasn't good for his end goals.
"The city's totaled. Very few houses were left standing and mostly on the periphery and there's a crater where the center of the city used to be. The depot was caught in the explosion as well. It's not outright destroyed, but there'd be significant loss of inventory."
"We have to assume it was an attack until proven otherwise," Nagato said.
"Who has the capability to do such a thing?" Konan asked. "Other than Akatsuki, I mean."
"Konoha's the obvious suspect. Kusa was very high on their shit list and if they had the capability, they would want a counterdemonstration to Tea," Madara pointed out.
"Was it tailed-beast bomb?" Nagato asked.
"If it had been, the Zetsu would have felt the chakra. He said he was lucky to have been facing away from the blast when it happened or he would have been blinded," Zetsu shrugged.
"Provided you were close enough," Nagato corrected.
"What manner of weapon works on that scale without using chakra?" Madara wondered aloud. "Are we wrong in assuming Konoha's involved somehow?"
"Let's not be too quick to rule out Leaf's involvement and let's leave the mechanism of the explosion aside for the present. Zetsu, where was your observation post?"
"There's a hill about five kilometers west of the city walls. The clone was using that since it overlooked road used to move supplies and shinobi to the depot from Iwa."
"Was anyone else on your hill?"
"The Kusa garrison was, of course. There was no one else."
"Are there any other high grounds close to the city? If this were an attack, it was either a suicide run or someone had to have struck from somewhere high to be sure of hitting the city center."
"There are three hills closer to the city that overlook another set of roads that connect to Hi no Kuni. All hills have observation posts on them, though the quality of the garrisons is very bad."
"Anything else that could be serve the purpose?"
"No."
"Have the other scout the three hills. If this was a deliberate attack, there should have traces left behind."
"What if the attack had come from the air?" Konan asked.
"You suspect Iwa," Madara stated.
"No, I don't think they have anything to gain from wiping out Kusa at this juncture. Maybe after Konoha had been defeated, but not before. But they do have that flying technique and the attack may have been launched from the air."
"That is a remote possibility. Those techniques are closely guarded."
"But what one man invents, another can discover. Someone else may have figured out a way to replicate it."
"True," Nagato agreed, "but if they were using flight and Zetsu hadn't caught them, then there's no hope we'll find the culprit."
"Still, I don't think we should close the door on a natural calamity," Madara stated.
"I quite agree. What are the usual suspects?"
"Volcano and asteroid," Konan enumerated.
"If it was a volcano, it was unlike any other and it's possible it was an asteroid," Zetsu noted.
Konan shot a look at Nagato.
"Asteroids could be natural or artificial."
"You don't mean another Rinnegan user?" Nagato asked, looking disturbed. It sounded impossible, but what had happened once could happen again. So, why shouldn't there be another Rinnegan user? Only, if there was one and that person was acting against Akatsuki, things were going to get real dicey real fast.
"Why not?" Konan asked.
"Why not indeed," Madara punctuated. Was there another path to Rinnegan than through the Sharingan? Then, shaking his head, he said, "This is getting us nowhere."
"Let us not get ahead of ourselves here," Zetsu cautioned. "Let my other self complete his search and report."
"Yes. Let's."
xxxxx
"Naruto's technique seems to have worked," Shikaku mused. The Godaime's war council had gathered for a meeting and Kakashi had shared Jiraiya's communiqué with them.
"It would be helpful if we had confirmation from Naruto," Tsunade said.
Kakashi nodded, absentmindedly.
"Anything on your mind, Kakashi?" the medic-nin asked.
"I was thinking about my children. No reason why we shouldn't have received their message."
"You're worried something went wrong?"
"Yeah. I'm worried."
"I'm sure nothing's happened to them, Kakashi. Even if something has, you can't help them from here. Best thing to do is to put them out of your mind for now. We have work to do and a war to oversee."
Kakashi sighed and leaned back on his chair.
"You're correct, of course. Where were we?"
"I was saying it would be better if we had confirmation from Naruto before we proceed," Tsunade said.
"Do we need the confirmation?" Shikaku asked.
Inoichi looked at his friend quizzically.
"Don't we?"
"We can tell from Jiraiya-sama's report that the weapon is extremely powerful. It must be for the detonation to be seen so far away. It appears to be more powerful than any tailed-beast bomb we've ever heard. It's clearly more powerful than the technique the Rinnegan user used on Tea capital," the Nara strategist explained. "So who cares if Kusa survived the explosion or not? We have demonstrated that we have the ability to strike deep within enemy territory and that our weapon is to be feared like no other."
"You make some very valid points," Kakashi agreed. He still looked dull, but was no longer lost in his worries.
"But we need Naruto to repeat it. And we appear to have lost contact with him," Inoichi pointed out, shooting Kakashi an apologetic look. Addressing the Godaime specifically, he said, "I'm sorry, Hokage-sama. I'm sure he's fine, but we have to consider the worst."
Kakashi nodded, numbly.
"We'd be in a hopeless position if he's lost," Tsunade noted, shooting an apology at Kakashi herself.
Shikaku shook his head and leaned forward to rest his hands on the desk.
"Not necessarily," he said, "We'd be in a hopeless position if Naruto's lost and it got out we can't replicate his technique."
Inoichi nodded.
"You suggest we should posture as if we could."
"Yes. But not too strongly."
"Of course."
"What do you suggest we should do, Shikaku?" Tsunade asked.
"We need to compose a message to Iwa and send it at the earliest. Let us avoid talking about the plight of Kusagakure since we don't have confirmation that the technique was used over the city. We will instead focus on the power of our weapon. Let them assume it was a demonstration if the weapon had missed the city or let them tremble in fear at the destruction of that well defended city in one strike. Either way, let them know terror. We will categorically state that the technique is reusable and we are very much prepared to use on however many cities we need to if they dare strike against another one of ours."
"Sounds good. We'll add that we expect Iwa to exert control over Akatsuki to our formal communication to the Tsuchikage and his Daimyo."
"Yes. And once we get confirmation of the attack as well as Kusagakure's fate, we'll go public with our own people, proclaiming this as a great victory for the cause of justice, liberty and freedom."
"We should send messengers to the claimants to the Daimyo throne in Hi no Kuni as well. A subtle threat to them to mend their ways," Inoichi added.
"I like that," Ibiki said, speaking for the first time in the meeting and sporting a ghastly smile on his face. "I really, really like that."
xxxxx
"Tsuchikage-sama, there's an emergency."
It was late afternoon, but Sandaime Tsuchikage Onoki looked up from his work, sleep written on his face. He'd put in another all nighter yesterday, to cope with the ever increasing amounts of administrative paperwork and assimilate the reports from the battlefront. As a result, he was tired, bleary-eyed and cranky.
"What is it?" he asked with a yawn.
"It's Kusagakure, Sir," the aide said, sounding pensive.
The Tsuchikage's shoulders slumped. As an enemy, Grass had been a pain in Iwa's ass for as long as he could remember. One would expect the relationship and disposition to improve once Stone and Grass became friends. In this case, one would be wrong. Kusa, the ally, was an even bigger pain in the ass with daily demands for money, resources and whatnot. Frequently, Onoki wondered how Konoha had tolerated the pompous nation for so long.
"What are they complaining about now? Have their ambassador wait while I'm freshening up. Tell him I'm in a meeting in the meanwhile."
"It's not their ambassador, Tsuchikage-sama."
"Then who is it?"
"No one. There's a high priority message from Kusagakure."
Onoki shook his head. He needed to get another aide and fire this one for not getting to the point.
"Well, get on with it."
"Kusagakure's gone, Sir."
"What do you mean 'gone'?"
"The city's destroyed in a gigantic explosion. So are most of our supplies stockpiled on the outskirts for the war effort."
The Tsuchikage blinked.
"Was there an attack?"
"The message mentions no alarm. Our people at the scene suspect an accident or sabotage."
The Tsuchikage worried a tooth and feeling thirsty, poured himself a glass of water. He downed it in one gulp and turned to his aide.
"Give me the message," he said, stretching out his arm.
"Yes, Sir," the aide said, offering the decoded scroll.
A minute passed as the Sandaime Tsukikage read and digested the very sparse report.
"So, to summarize this," he waved the scroll, "we don't know what happened to cause the explosion – the magnitude of which seems to have been many orders more than a bijumari – and we don't know whether foul play is involved. Our people have started an investigation, but know nothing for certain. They're also assisting the survivors fight the firestorm that's raging through the ruins of the city. The death toll appears to be even greater than Tea capital's and the optimistic estimation is that more than half the supplies stored at our depot were lost. Precious little of the city survives so we've lost troops who'd been pulled from the frontline and were being billeted in hotels and apartments there."
"Yes, Sir."
"The city was supposed to be proofed against fire with suppressant seals. How then this firestorm?"
"Don't know, Sir. I'll ask our people to investigate it."
"Good. Send a message to the senior officer on the ground to do an inventory of our supplies and submit a report on the viability of conducting offensive operations or defending our acquisitions within Fire. In the meanwhile, send a movement alert to our troops on the frontline with orders to hold and not mount any further offensive operations until further notice. If we can supply the invasion, we can stand down later, but if not, I'd like to get our boys out ASAP.
The aide nodded and took note.
"Cancel all meetings for the day. Summon the Kusagakure ambassador. And the council. We'll have a strategy meeting in three hours. Hopefully, by that time, we'll have a clearer picture of the situation. I'll be resting and don't want to be disturbed in the meanwhile."
"Yes, Sir."
"Dismissed."
xxxxx
Itachi and Kisame had crossed the border and infiltrated Kusa when they received the call from Akatsuki HQ. They found a quiet spot and called home with their rings, which were marvels of the highest order of sealing techniques.
Leader-sama, Itachi and Kisame reporting as ordered, Itachi thought.
Momentarily, Pain entered the conversation. So did Zetsu.
Itachi. Kisame. Your mission has changed.
What are the new mission parameters?
There's been an explosion over Kusagakure. Zetsu is investigating. You're to rendezvous with him and lend him your assistance. Further, you will try to ascertain the nature of the weapon used and report back.
Can't Kusa shinobi investigate? Why are we handholding them? Kisame thought, irritably. He had better things to do than this sort of make work.
As of sunrise this morning, Kusagakure has ceased to exist, came the biting reply. Are your orders clear?
Yes, Leader-sama, Kisame thought back.
Good. If the explosion was caused by Kusa's enemies, track down the guilty parties. Capture them if possible so that we may learn the secrets of the weapon or kill them.
Yes, Leader-sama.
Zetsu, coordinate with Itachi and Kisame.
Yes.
The connection cut out and Kisame turned to Itachi.
"I put my foot in it, didn't I?" he asked.
Itachi nodded. Kisame laughed light-heartedly.
"What do you suppose happened to Kusa?" the swordsman asked, trying to start a conversation with his partner.
"We don't have anything to form a hypotheses."
"Too true. But I bet Leaf is responsible."
Itachi nodded. He'd wanted to kill Pain ever since he learnt of the Sandaime's assassination and the attack on Tea. The strike endangered the two things he held dear in his heart of hearts: his village and his brother. But killing Pain was pointless so long as Madara and Akatsuki survived. And since Itachi wasn't powerful enough to handle Madara, Pain and the other members of Akatsuki together, he'd controlled his fury and chose to exercise patience. The news of Kusa's destruction was reward enough for his tolerance. It meant that Hi no Kuni's cause wasn't hopeless.
"They're the obvious suspects," he agreed.
"It must be the Nine-tail jinchuuriki that did it, which means your brother is involved."
"Possibly," Itachi agreed again. Kisame's arguments were reasonable.
"Aren't you excited about the chance to meet your brother, Itachi-san?" Kisame asked with a gruff laugh. "I bet he's eager to meet you."
"We will see." Changing the subject, he said, "I wonder what Leader-sama meant by capturing the perpetrators to learn the secrets of the technique. If my stupid little brother's teammate is involved, it was a tailed beast bomb and that is a very crude technique. The only requirement is that one be a jinchuuriki."
"Maybe the boy learnt to alter it some?" Kisame ventured.
"Perhaps."
xxxxx
Sasuke gulped down the water from his canteen and once his thirst was satiated, handed it to Sakura. He'd made Naruto drink some already.
"This is thirsty work," he spoke aloud, wiping his mouth on his sleeve.
"No question about it," Sakura agreed.
"Wish we could have taken one of the regular trails."
"We daren't in the condition Naruto's in."
"You're right, of course. But cross country carrying Naruto isn't a walk in the park."
"Better this than having him or us buying the farm, Sasuke. You can rest for a while if you want. I'll keep watch."
"Yeah. Just hope we catch with Jiraiya-sensei soon."
"Me, too."
xxxxx
Onoki was one very kage this evening. He glared at his aide and intel head in equal measure.
"What do you mean the fire suppressant seals were bogus?" he asked angrily.
"It seems the vast majority of seals supplied to the civilian houses were fakes, Tsuchikage-sama," the intel head reported calmly. "Our people assisting the rescue and firefighting efforts in Kusagakure have confirmed this with numerous Grass shinobi."
"Explain."
"This is what we believe happened. As you know, Kusa was a client state of Hi no Kuni and received a large sum of monies yearly from Fire to maintain their status as an ally. This allowed Kusa's military commanders and civilian leaders to live lavishly while the going was good. In the last few years, with Fire country heavily committed on multiple fronts and preparing for war, the baksheesh levels plummeted. Since Kusa's command wasn't willing to compromise on their life style, they compromised on their defense and the fire suppressant seals, which have to be annually replaced with new ones were the first to go. Apparently, they installed the genuine stuff on their military installations and sold 'genuine' ones to the civilians."
Onoki shook his head.
"That is bad."
"Our people have been encountering similar issues when doing combined operations with their Kusa counterparts. It's just that, before this firestorm, no one paid any attention to it. It's the way of things among the client states, after all."
"I knew they have been having financial problems from the way their ambassador always whinges about money, but I did not think it was that bad."
"Yes, Tsuchikage-sama."
"So, for the want of a few honest men, our war against the pricks in Fire hangs in the balance," Onoki shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder whose side god is on."
xxxxx
As Zetsu emerged out of the ground in a cluster of trees and rocks a hundred yards from the hill summit, the sweet swell of ripening man-flesh hit his nostrils. Yum, dinner served.
Zetsu scanned the area for chakra signatures, but detecting none that were large enough to indicate an adept, he cautiously climbed the mountain and entered the observation post. The closer he got, the stronger the scent of bodies in the initial stages of decay. It made him discover ten bodies inside the building with slit throats and peaceful expressions on their fly covered faces. Two were sprawled haphazardly, but it did not take a genius to tell those ninja had been killed in their sleep and their bodies dumped because someone needed their cots.
A few minutes of search found the cots on the building roof. Zetsu verified the attackers had been three in number and noted the clear line of sight from the roof to the ruined city. His senses told him that the chakra used here had been unique – a mix of human and nature – and enough had been used to leave an indelible mark on the wood of the cot.
So, the attackers had used this position to fire their technique at the city, but there did not seem to be nearly enough chakra expended to account for the magnitude of the explosion. Something had to explain the discrepancy and Zetsu meant to find out. He got down on his knees to smell the wood and that was when he noted the salt and pieces of rubber on the cot and the ground.
What does salt and rubber have to do with an explosion?
xxxxx
Onoki opened his scroll and with a muffled cough, reached for his brush.
"Let's get the meeting started, shall we?" he said. "What's on the itinerary?"
"We're to discuss the supply situation for the invasion, the state of Kusa and the message from Konoha," the aide replied.
"All right," Onoki said, looking pointedly at his head of logistics, "do we have an update from Kusa on the supply situation?"
"An incomplete one, Tsuchikage-sama."
The Sandaime nodded
"Go on."
"I'll list our status on various items. There's bound to be some error here, because these are estimates, but we can assume that most are these line items are accurate within a 10% margin of error.
We've lost eighty percent of rations stockpiled at the depot. This will not affect our troops terribly in the short run because we have fifteen days of rations stockpiled close to the front as part of our preparations for an offensive on Konoha proper. Moreover, our people can forage to some limited extent.
We've lost roughly three-fourths of our medical herb stores. This is going to have a major impact on our casualty rates once the stocks on the front run out.
Our stock of explosive tags and various seal arrays appears to be largely unharmed at this point.
Chakra pills stores are also intact.
The inventories of kunai, shuriken, wires, sandals, uniforms, etc are hit to various extents. They're still in the process of inventorying the loss and damage figures. Worst-case estimation is our troops will be wearing tattered uniforms and be stuck using somewhat inaccurate kunai and shuriken for the next four or five months while our production catches up with the losses.
The major donkey stable was caught in the periphery of the blast with few survivors. So, turnaround times for supplying units on the front is going to shoot sky high until we can make good the loses. This is obviously, the biggest issue."
"What are your suggestions?" Onoki asked.
"Seize donkeys and mules from merchant caravans for the present. Approach Ame and Kaze no Kuni to see if they will sell us their beasts for an acceptable price."
"And what price do you deem acceptable?" the Daimyo's liaison asked.
The quartermaster shrugged.
"We don't get the donkeys, we'll have to pull three regiments from the front."
The liaison nodded.
"Your advice then?" Onoki asked.
"Supplies at the front will be constrained for two months while we make good our losses of the beasts of burden. I don't advocate retreat at this time. We can curtail our offensive operations for the time being, though it will give Fire time to prepare their positions."
Onoki made a note on his scroll.
"So be it," he said aloud. To his head of intelligence, he asked, "The state of Kusa?"
"Kusa is a net liability for us from hence forth. They have lost their city, their chain of command and by our best estimates, fifty percent of their total force. The influx of about fifteen thousand refugees from the city to the rest of the country is going to cause law and order problems as well. We'll have to take care of that. It looks like we'll avert a civil war because most of their troops are on the front lines, but we don't know how long we can keep them there. They have no reason to remain there other than revenge. Even that is not going to be enough because those men and women are going to want to return to hunt for their surviving kith and kin. Further, there's the issue of pay, in that, their paymasters are pushing up daisies right now."
"What can we do?"
"We can institute a program to hunt the survivors ourselves and reunite them with their family members on the front or elsewhere. We can also pay them directly ourselves."
Onoki nodded thoughtfully.
"I can see us doing it for the duration of this war. We'll pay them at their standard rates and not at ours. We'll send instructions to our commanders to use up the Grass nin because I don't want a nation full of blooded veterans without leaders on our border once the conflict ends."
"Yes, Tsuchikage-sama."
"I'm glad that's settled," the Sandaime said. Looking over his shoulder at his aide, he said, "Now, the issue of Konoha's message. Chuunin Yuuto, could you read the communiqué aloud for us? I urge the rest of the members to hold their comments until the full message is read."
The aide nodded and read:
"To our Honorable cousin, the Sandaime Tsuchikage and his lord and master, the Daimyo of Tsuchi no Kuni,
"The turmoil between our nations has been long and bitter, stretching back decades. But through those many years and the many wars we'd fought, our armies have always respected the laws of war. Samurai killed samurai and ninja killed ninja in our conflicts. There has never been an incident where either your nation or mine targeted civilian population centers as targets in and of itself. And glad were we all for it because it meant our wars were fought honorably and our families were safe at home.
"Sadly, in the current conflict, the laws of war have been broken. The capital of Tea, which our Daimyo claims domain, was attacked in a cowardly manner. Civilians were targeted with murderous intent and thousands upon thousands killed mercilessly while they were being evacuated. The agent of this act is the rogue organization, Akatsuki, which has your support. Perhaps they thought we are weak and could not defend ourselves. We waited for your condemnation of their blatant violation of the laws of war, but you did not do it.
"So, here we stand. Hi no Kuni has carried out a demonstration of a weapon in our arsenal in the land of Kusa that is as powerful as the one used by Akatsuki to level Tea capital. We are not defenseless and we are prepared to retaliate for the destruction of our cities. For every one of ours that is destroyed henceforth, we will destroy two of yours and your allies.
"We implore you to restrain the rogue organization Akatsuki. The war they want and the war we will give you if you and they continue down your present path will have no victors.
The Godaime Hokage."
"Your thoughts?" Onoki asked.
The meeting desolved into chaos.
xxxxx
Author's notes:
Three chapters in a month. Go outside and check if the world's ending. ^_^
I hope you liked the chapter. Thanks to The Unicorn for convincing me that you can't get a firestorm in Kusa with active seals. So, since I'm the master of this universe, I decided to bring in corruption to explain it away. Why work hard when you can use corruption to explain the impossible thing? Keep reading!