The Best Laid Plans
Arun
Chapter 31: A Roll of the Dice
Disclaimer: Gold is worthless. Trust the central banks on this. They've kept faith with us so far. :)
It was morning twilight when a gaunt and tired looking Itachi crossed the border of Ame. He made enquiries at the first house he ran into and then followed instructions to the nearest village. He ordered a hearty breakfast at the village inn and waited.
One of Pein's avatars found him at a quarter to twelve. The villagers flocked to their god to lay their hands on him and to greet him, and Pein bore their veneration with good humor for a little while before he excused himself begging more pressing duties and desiring privacy.
Thus, when Pein settled down before Itachi, the inn was empty with the owner and his two serving hands guarding the entrance and exit.
"Where is Kisame? I did not sense him with you." Pein asked without preamble.
"Dead, I think," Itachi responded.
Pein stared for a moment.
"How? What happened?"
"Disease. Don't know what it was. He fell ill and then I did. This was about three weeks back, I think. I'm not sure. What day is it?"
Pein told him.
"Three weeks back then." Itachi went into paroxysm of coughs.
"Go on," Pein said when the Uchiha recovered.
"It hit us both very bad, but Kisame was worse off. I don't know why. Nothing ever got to him and I was always the sick one of us both. But by the end of the first day, he was delirious. I tended to him for two days before I fell sick as well." Itachi paused to gulp down some water. "I don't remember what happened afterwards. I regained my senses six days back in the evening. Kisame wasn't in the camp. I waited three days for him, while I got my feet under me again, but he did not return. He'd left his sword behind, as well as his other stuff, but he didn't come back. "
"Why didn't you report in earlier?"
Itachi held up his left hand to show an empty ring finger.
"I don't know what happened to my ring. I couldn't find it in the campsite. It could be lying around there still, I suppose. I was too weak to do a proper search, you see."
Pein sighed.
"I suppose you left Kisame's sword behind as well."
Itachi nodded.
"When everything else is so screwed up, why should this be any better?" Pein muttered to himself. "Fine. Can you make it to the capital on your own?"
Itachi looked unsure.
"Alright. This is what we'll do. You'll secure transportation from this village and make your way to the capital. It shouldn't be another two or three days before you get there. I expect you to be bedridden for another couple of weeks afterwards. But that's as it will be. In the meanwhile, I'll send Zetsu out to hunt for Kisame, and recover his sword as well hunt for your ring. Hopefully, we'll get it back."
"Yes, Pein-sama."
"I expect you to report for debriefing the morning after you check in."
"Yes, Pein-sama."
"See you in the capital, Itachi."
xxxxx
"Thanks for seeing me at such short notice, Hokage-sama."
"Your report convinced me of the urgency of the situation, Inoichi. Do you wish refreshments?"
Inoichi nodded once.
"Yes, a little sake, if you'd please."
Kakashi signaled his ANBU and one of them served the Intelligence specialist his drink. Inoichi took a little sip of the warm liquor and let out a sigh of satisfaction.
"Excellent as always," he said.
"So, how are my students?" Kakashi asked.
"They were fine when I left, Hokage-sama. They told me they'll be reporting here to you within the next couple of days."
Kakashi smiled at that very positive report.
"Naruto's fine?"
"He's still not his usual self, but he's much better than he was before."
"Good. Good."
"And Jiraiya's command? How does it?"
"Their morale's very high and they were raring to have a go at the Iwa jinchuurikis. They're set to go on the offensive and spread mayhem behind enemy lines as soon as we give them the word."
"Excellent."
"And how is Cabbage?" Cabbage was Itachi's codename in ANBU before the Uchiha massacre. Itachi himself had chosen the name because his favorite food was cabbage and onigiri with seaweed.
"He left for Ame three days back."
"Do you think he'll be able to convince Akatsuki with his story?" Kakashi asked.
Inoichi shrugged.
"If anyone can do it, he can. He is still as great a prodigy as when he left Konoha."
"Still, I would like to hear your thoughts on the subject."
"Well, we practically spent the last couple of weeks getting him ready for his infiltration assignment. Your girl Sakura was especially helpful in that regard with her medical skills. First, she eradicated his tuberculosis and then cured most of the major damage to his lungs. There is still some scarring there, she reports, but he should have better than 90% of his lung capacity available to him now, which is leagues ahead of what he had before. Additionally, she has supplied him with medicine to increase his lung efficiency at capturing oxygen by about 8% for use when it is time."
"How would that affect his combat readiness?" Kakashi asked.
"Given his age, his skills and the fact that he was an absolute monster in battle before Sakura healed him, I'd say he'd be lay waste to whomsoever opposed him on the field."
"Excellent. What else?"
"We spent a week decorating the campsite to Itachi's satisfaction. Anyone Akatsuki sends to investigate his story should be convinced of it because we went through a lot of trouble getting the look and feel just right."
"A bit of a taskmaster, is he?" Kakashi grunted a chuckle.
"Yes, so I'm told. But in the end, even Itachi was satisfied and then Sakura started on him again. This time, to infect him with one of Kabuto's and Tsunade's house specials, K-1S1."
The Hokage grimaced. This he had not expected as there had been no mention of it in the report. He knew of this particular family of engineered virus, though he could not recollect what this particular strain did. Still, what he could recall off the top of his head was bad enough. This was another secret that had better never see the light of day or there'd be hell to pay.
"I did not authorize the release of weaponized virus into the wild. And I'll have the head of whoever did it. What on earth was Sakura thinking and was Itachi out of his mind to volunteer as a carrier?" Kakashi barked, his voice a little shrill. To his guards, he said, "Get Tsunade and Kabuto from their labs. I want to talk to them."
Inoichi looked like a deer caught in headlights.
"Maybe we'd better wait until Tsunade and Kabuto are here for a detailed report," Kakashi replied, calmer than before.
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
"You can skip this part and continue on with the rest of your report."
"Once Itachi was infected, he waited until the initial symptoms developed and then set off by himself to the Ame border. He said that he would make contact with the Akatsuki leadership from there and I came here."
"Wasn't he concerned that he'd sent both his ring and Kisame's to us? Every report I'd read on the subject was emphatic about the importance the Akatsuki members placed on their rings."
"He wasn't. Said he'd blame his illness for losing it. He said that once he was back at his camp, he was going to use his Tsukuyomi on himself to convince his mind that was what really happened."
"All right. I..." Kakashi paused at the sight of an ANBU materializing out of the wood.
"Yes, Captain?"
"Tsunade-sama and Kabuto-sama are here to answer your summons, Hokage-sama," the ANBU officer replied.
"Send them in."
The ANBU nodded and melted into the wood again. A few seconds later, the office door opened and the two researchers were chaperoned in.
"Good afternoon, Kabuto, Tsunade. A pleasant day isn't it?"
The heads of Konoha's research and medicine wings shot questioning glances at each other.
"Yes, it is, Hokage-sama," Tsunade volunteered.
"Well, it damn well is not. I mean, it was a pleasant day until ten minutes back, but it is no more. You know why? Because Inoichi here tells me you gave one of my children a bio-engineered weapon for use in Ame. Imagine my surprise on hearing that particular factoid as I don't remember authorizing such an use. So, no, it is not a pleasant day for me and if I don't get a good enough answer from either of you soon, yours will turn out a whole lot worse."
"I don't remember sending any bioweapon to Sakura," Tsunade answered.
"Neither do I," Kabuto concurred.
"Well, somebody better confess before I lose my patience," Kakashi threatened.
"The hell. Inoichi, what did you tell him?" Kabuto asked.
"That Sakura shot Itachi with K1S1 before he left for Ame."
Tsunade sputtered. Kabuto shook his head.
"You idiot," the two of said simultaneously. Then, as Kabuto waved her on, Tsunade spoke. "You colossal twit. Are you going senile in your old age?"
"Enough," Kakashi barked. "What the hell is going on? You'd better have a good reason or you will keep a civil tongue in my office while addressing my other commanders, Tsunade."
Tsunade shot a venomous glare at Inoichi and Kakashi.
"He reported wrong. And if you'd read the reports we send you, you'd know the K1S1 is not a bioweapon. It is an attenuated vaccine for one of the viruses in our labs. While the immunity is developing, the subject has a high fever and their lymph nodes swell. Other symptoms may include dysentry, and general muscular weakness. Since the virus has never been used in the wild and the mission parameter required the subject simulate an unknown pathogen, we decided to use it."
"Ah."
Tsunade's glared even more.
"Next time, get someone with brains to serve as your eyes and ears on the field and while you're at it, better start using that useless pile of fat between your ears yourself."
Kakashi smiled a fake smile. If he'd read the situation so badly, then the fault lay entirely at his feet. Perhaps the stress of war was getting to him as well...
"Are we excused?" Kabuto asked.
"Yes, you are."
Once ANBU ushered the two out, Kakashi turned to the Yamanaka and shook his head.
"Well, that was one embarrassment I could have done without."
"Er..."
xxxxx
Black Zetsu was miffed.
"I hate it when this happens," he said to White Zetsu.
"Like I don't know," White Zetsu retorted. The two of them had followed Pein's instructions and scoured Itachi's and Kisame's area of operations until they'd identified their campsite. But there was a problem. He wasn't the first person to find it. And going by the smells of the site, he wasn't even the ten person.
"What do we do?" Black Zetsu asked.
"We'll have to track," White Zetsu said, "whomsoever destroyed the camp."
"And find where they took the Samehada," Black Zetsu completed the thought.
"But first," White Zetsu started and his Black half continued, "we need to find the ring."
They shot one long gaze around the campsite.
"Too bad the site is so ruined," White Zetsu said in a suffering voice that was picked up by his counterpart, "we'll never be able to tell what happened here."
xxxxx
Fifteen kilometers from Itachi's camp...
The Kusa jounin who commanded the platoon that had discovered Itachi's carefully prepared campsite glared at the idiot subordinate who'd thought it was a nice idea to loot the weird sword.
"You incompetent cretin," he scolded, "what on earth were you thinking when you unwrapped that sword."
The subject of the jounin's ire, a chuunin of two summers moaned in pain. The sword had eat so much chakra in the bare second it had been in contact with his skin that he was lucky to be alive. Not that the luck would last much longer if they did not manage to staunch the bleeding from the severed artery in his hand, which was the other gift of the sword.
xxxxx
"Colonel, our scouts report Iwa troops advancing towards us," Saigo Takamori's aide de camp reported on awaking his superior.
"Strength and disposition?"
"About seven kilometers due north and estimate a reinforced battalion of samurai and shinobi."
"I guess they've gotten enough of their feet underneath them that they're comfortable testing the waters. Is Shinsuke awake?"
"Yes, Colonel. He was in the command post when a runner brought the report."
"Very well. Tell him to prepare our forces for march in an hour. Send the scouts and the screening forces ahead. I'll complete my morning ablutions and join the team in the command post."
xxxxx
"What's the plan now?" Madara asked.
Pein threw up his hands in disgust.
"I don't know. Send Sasori and Deidara into Grass. Don't think we have much of a choice there."
"Yeah, me too. Do you believe Itachi?"
"I sensed no hesitation from him when he answered my questions."
"He is a shinobi and a prodigy at that."
"I'm aware, thank you," Pein spat, "Which is why I've sent Zetsu to confirm his story and to hunt for Kisame."
"Good. Because this stinks some to me. And I don't want us to blindly trust Itachi."
Pein raised an eyebrow.
"You brought him into the organization."
"Nevertheless, I have my concerns. I don't think he'll willingly subject himself to a mind search if I were to do it, but perhaps he'll submit to you."
"Perhaps. We'll do it during his debriefing."
xxxxx
Sandaime Tsuchikage Onoki stretched and clutched his old hips in pain, grunting at the sensation of a red hot nail shoved into his flesh and bones.
"Tsuchikage-sama, are you all right?" Onoki's chuunin aide asked.
"Of course, I'm not all right, you fool," the Sandaime replied. "Oh, my aching back!"
"Maybe you should do the reports later?"
"I'd rather get it over this now," the oldster replied, grunting at another spike of pain as he moved his abused back once again. "Now, where is that next report?"
"Here, Tsuchikage-sama."
The Sandaime mumbled as the chuunin unfurled the scroll and laid before him.
"Shine some more light. I can't see very well."
"Yes, Tsuchikage-sama."
"So, our logistics situation has improved much in the frontline, hmmm... And we plan to test the enemy's defenses for a week or so along very axes to judge their combat readiness. Everything's on schedule and we're ready to commence large scale operations in another week."
xxxxx
Oe Temmu was a broken man. And it shone on his face. Not only had the vast majority of samurai who weren't sworn to his clan refused to support him, but as their representatives had made abundantly clear, they wholeheartedly supported the Godaime Hokage's position.
Worse still, they'd showed up at his door accompanied by Hatake Kakashi's ninjas as a calculated insult. They'd then laid the law to him - him, the step brother of the late Daimyo and the rightful ruler of Hi no Kuni - and forced him to surrender his household troops as well as his wife and kids. The leaders of the household troops had been stripped off their titles and holdings, and the common soldiery split into small groups and assigned to garrison duty in the capital under the watchful eye of the leaf nin.
"It is just too big of a humiliation, Lord," the elderly samurai who commanded the visitors spoke kindly once the palace had emptied of Oe Temmu's family, soldiers, servants and hangers on. "And too big a loss of face."
On his knees, Oe Temmu glared at the samurai as he waited for the ink on the rice paper he'd written his jisei, the death poem, to dry. The only bright side to the whole affair was that he'd been informed that the other claimants were meeting or about to meet the same fate themselves.
"It is for the best, Lord, for the nation," the samurai said aloud.
Oe Temmu spat at the samurai's feet. He was only going through with the seppuku for fear of what the shinobi would do to his wife and children.
The samurai chucked.
"It's getting late and I have better places to be. Can we get on with it?"
Casting one last glare in the oldster's direction, Oe Temmu opened his kimono and reached for the ornate tanto prepared for the ritual. His fingers had barely touched the cloth wrapped around the blade when his kaishakunin's blade swung down, neatly cutting his neck but for a thin strip of skin so that the witnesses wouldn't be subjected to the sight of a rolling head.
It was, as such things went, as good a seppuku as could be had under the circumstances and everyone agreed that honor was satisfied.
xxxxx
"Now, that's a sight for sore eyes and brightens up my day considerably," Lt. Colonel Beppu Shinsuke said jovially, sheathing his sword. He waved to the retreating enemy and shouted at them. "Put up a better fight next time, assholes, because this sure ain't it."
"Having fun, are we?" Colonel Saigo Takamori asked.
"Verily so," Shinsuke agreed. "It feels good to beat their ass finally, even if this was merely a reconnaissance in force."
"Yes. Now we'd better get back and prepare. Because if they're starting to probe again after so many days of peace and quiet, it means the hammers going to fall somewhere."
Shinsuke smiled predatorily.
"Let them come. Let them come."
xxxxxx
"What have we here?" Sakura asked as she plopped next to Naruto.
Naruto shot his teammate a smile and went back to plucking the leaves off the grass.
"Morning to you as well, Sakura."
The kunoichi gave her friend a brief hug, which was returned and ran her hand through his hair.
"You need a haircut, buddy."
"Yes, mistress."
"What are you staring at?"
"Nothing."
"Then what's on your mind?"
"You're not going to go until I tell you what's on my mind, are you?" Naruto asked, shooting his friend a look.
Sakura pulled at his ears playfully.
"You're so smart. How did you guess?"
"Smartass."
"So, once again, what's on your mind?"
"I'm thinking."
"About what."
"About Itachi."
"Oh!"
"I was thinking that if anyone's going to make decisions about sending me to my death or sending me to end someone else, I want that person to be like Itachi."
"Why?"
"Because I had this conversation with Shikamaru before we left for Kusa and he said that... that everything is so screwed up because everyone cares about what happens to them and no one thinks about what's good for all people everywhere."
"Well, of course, they aren't going to think about people they've never met or talked to before, Naruto. Why should they?"
"I agree with you, Sakura. I don't care about what happens to some far off dude in the ass end of nowhere, but I think caring for yourself or your family alone is also wrong."
"Draw the line at the clan?" Sakura pondered aloud, then shook her head. "No, that doesn't work. Look where all those clans who refused to lend or receive assistance from others back when the villages were being formed ended up."
Naruto nodded.
"So maybe the clan isn't where you should draw the line."
"What about the village?" Sakura asked.
"But a village is too small to defend itself. Just as a clan is. The hidden villages, for all our power, survive only because we have the resources of the nation to draw on."
"Because we depend on the nation for food, metal, clients, strategic depth, and so much more."
Naruto nodded emphatically.
"Exactly. They depend on us to protect them and we depend on them because without them, we'd end up where Suna is today."
"So, loyalty to the nationstate is the ultimate answer. Loyalty over clan, village and family."
"Yes, it's okay to be loyal to all those things, but we can't put their needs ahead that of the nation for we all end up being the losers in the end."
"But the current status quo was established by the Shodaime and obviously it hasn't provided the answer to the question of peace and prosperity. I mean, there is still so much pain and suffering going around."
"Yes, it is. Shikamaru said it's because power is concentrated in the hands of a few because of bloodlines and chakra. And we're ever so willing to sell ourselves to the highest bidder."
"And not the saint."
"If you want to put it in those terms, yes. We don't work for saints."
"Good thing because we'd all go hungry if we did. But would your saint be willing to order someone who deserved to be put down like a loathsome beast? Because there are plenty of animals in the world and we ninja cull their ranks. Not always and even when we do, we don't do it for the common good, but we do cull them."
"Yes, and that brings us back to where we started. In this imperfect world, with all its evils and pains and joys and sorrows and love and hate, I'd rather follow someone like Itachi then the bunch of vermin who lord it over the rest of Hi no Kuni from the capital. Because though he may not fit the dictionary definition of a saint and though he has made plenty of mistakes, he's done so much for the common good. Even now, after all the pain that Leaf has inflicted on him, he goes to throw away his life once again so that we may all be better off."
"Ah! I understand now. You want our leaders to be such selfless characters."
"Yes. Selflessness. And only selflessness. I'm okay with them being dumb shits."
"Really?"
"Well, not if there's one prince and he's a selfless, dumb shit. But I mean a bunch of them working together for the betterment of the people. Like the council we have advising the Hokage. In that case, they needn't all be dumb shits."
"Bordering on treasonous talk there, I see," Sakura chided playfully.
"Is it treason to want good leaders?" Naruto asked.
Sakura shook at him.
"Man, you really are sold on this idea, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am. I've been thinking about this on and off for weeks now while we'd been stuck here and Itachi's selfless act helped gel my thoughts."
Sakura nodded.
"Okay, wise-guy. Let's continue with our conversation since your heart is so set on it. You want selfless ninja saints for our leaders."
"They can be selfless samurai saints, too. Or from any walk of life for that matter."
"How do you select them?"
"From jobs that obviously place them at personal risk but serve the common interests of the people."
"Professions like shinobi, samurai, you mean?"
"Yes."
"But we're born to it, Naruto. And though the samurai like to pose as if they do it for the honor, they're whores for money and power all the same."
Naruto nodded.
"Which is the problem. For every Itachi who does it for a selfless reason, there're a dozen assholes who do it for the money, the rush or the joy of killing."
"And them's not the ones we want anywhere near the seats of power," Sakura said, echoing Naruto's thoughts.
"Precisely. And that is where I'm stuck at present," the blonde conceded.
"Too bad, because I think you're onto something there."
Naruto smiled and rose to his feet.
"I hear the call for breakfast. We can go find Sasuke and have breakfast, just the three of us," he said, extending his hand to his friend.
"You mean, like old times?" she asked.
"Like always," he replied with a grin.
xxxxx
"Raikage-sama, the report from the negotiations with the Leaf representative has been on your desk for a week. I think the Daimyo would like to have your input before the end of the year."
A, the Raikage glared at his aide. He was going to teach the uppity bugger a lesson one of these days.
"I'd already had a look at it. What of it?"
"The Daimyo wants your input."
"About how we should proceed? As if that's not the easiest thing in the world. We wait and see which way the wind blows when the campaign resumes on the Earth-Fire front. If Fire wins, we negotiate reasonable terms, else we claim Rice."
"I'll send that as your response."
"Yes. You do that."
xxxxx
Itachi breathed a sigh of relief as he lay down on his bed. It had been far too long and the stress of infiltrating Akatsuki all over again was too big a pain. He was glad that his part in the act was over. Now, all he had to do was wait and see if they bought his story, which would be the best possible outcome.
And if they did not? Well, he was in Pein's abode now, the nerve center of Akatsuki, and if wanted to get him, let him. He'd make them pay a steep price for his blood.
xxxxx
"Did his story check out?" Pein asked Zetsu without preamble.
"Well, the campsite was trashed by some Kusa nin, but his sickness isn't faked and his blood work shows a profusion of an unidentified antigen."
"So it checks out."
"As much of it as can be verified," Black Zetsu responded.
"Keep an eye on him for the next couple of weeks. If he makes a false move..."
"I'll report everything to you."
"Dismissed, Zetsu."
xxxxx
Author's notes:
It's been almost a year since the last update. Don't even have the excuse of work or a writer's block this time around. I lost interest in writing for a while there as work, life and raising a beautiful little girl left me just enough time in a day to read, which I did. A lot.
Anyways, here's the latest chapter. Itachi's successfully infiltrated Akatsuki again, and the war on the Earth-Fire front is going to start anew. Lightning's waiting on the sidelines as any opportunist would and Kakashi may be losing his edge after better than three years of running Fire's wars on multiple fronts. And Naruto has the seed of an idea in his mind. God forbid.
As always, comments are welcome.