Bloodline
chapter 04
isdh
Naruto snapped awake. He was in a white room. He sat up slowly, looking around.
'Hospital room. Damn they caught me again.' the hyper-active ninja thought.
But he was not alone. Looking closely he noticed that Gaara was in a deep sleep. "Sleep well, for something tells me that when we awake tomorrow, the fun really begins."
He rolled over and went back to sleep, trusting the old man to protect him from reprisal.
The Hokage, the teaching jonin; Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma, and Gai, Ibiki, and Anko stood around a table in a small room.
"And you are sure that it was Orochimaru?"
"Yes." hissed Anko, "I would know the smell of Teme-Sensei anywhere. The Gaki did well in keeping him at bay. I congradulate Kakashi on training a team able to stand up to a sannin long enough for me to get there. He is not just here to steal one of our genin, but some deeper and darker plan."
"So he is not after Sasuke?" asked Kakashi.
"Sasuke is part of the plan," Anko answered. "But Teme-Sensei liked to plan big, like an onion, each move and counter move were just covering yet another move. If you blocked one advance, he had another three set up." she picked up a skewer of dango, "I do know this, Stopping the chunin exams is not going to stop him. While the confusion of the coming and going of everyone will hide some of his movements, it will also hide our preparations as well. And even if we halted the Exams, he still would be in our midst, but we would not have the cover for our movements."
"I must ask," Ibiki's somber voice cooling the room, "If we 'Take' him, Are you going to be the one to 'work' him over?"
"As much as I want to," She shook her head. "I would lose control and either kill him, or allow him to kill me and escape." She bit into the glazed orb, chewed then swallowed. "I can not even be in the same room as him, or watching on a live feed. I fear that he might have left something in my head, something that you and the mind-walker, Yamanakamissed. But I want to see the whole thing...maybe even a copy to take home and watch before bed." her grin caused shivers to run up even Ibiki's back.
As night settled over the village, the council chambers was packed. Considering that what happened during the Elimination Round was for ninja knowledge only, it was no surprise that the whole town knew something of it...or thought they did. Everyone was whispering(well everyone who whispered, so that excluded the Hyuuga (stoic silence), the Aburame( though there was a 'buzz'), the Akimichi (though he was eating spiced crisps), the Nara (napping)...)
A tired Sarutobi 'dragged' into the room. Dropping into his chair, he listened to the murmurs of the of the varies heads of house/clan share what little they knew of what happened this last week. He smiled. One rumor in five had a grain of truth. Most were centered around the Jinchuuriki and his Biju.
Mitokado Homura called the chamber to order. Once the room was quite, Sarutobi spoke. "By now, many of you have heard something of what happened this afternoon. Not all of what you heard is true, nor complete. We will start with the important issues and work our way down from there."
"Good. Now we are are finally going to do something with that Demon Brat." A high pitched female civilian exploded into motion. Only to stop when a kunai bit into the railing near her hand.
"Naruto is on the agenda, but there are matters of a higher importance." the Hokage spoke gently. "First, My greatest Failure, Orochimaru as returned."
the room went quite. Even the bugs in the Aburame were quite.
The Hokage grinned to himself, never showing it on his face. 'Ha! That shut you all up!' taking a deep breath, "And to make matters worse, he plans on leaving here with our Last Uchiha. What he plans on doing with the boy, We do not know, but he has already marked the boy, and was seen trying to take him from the Hospital."
This sent the council into a tizzy, someone was trying to take their prized Uchiha from them.
Danzo, from his shaded corner, cleared his throat. "No doubt you have a plan in place."
"We have several." the Hokage answered. "Among them, we need to include the possibility that the village is going to be overrun by outside forces. All civilians need to be ready to move to the shelters at a moments notice. We do not know when the attack will happen, if an attack is going to happen. As these details are of ninja business, No further details will be voiced here. I will see the Heads of House and Clans privately over the next few days. With the finials of the exam coming upon us, it is good cover for us to look into increasing our supplies in-case this turns into a siege. Merchants will need to double if not triple their stock, they may use some of the caves for storage. Anbu will be made available to arrange things as needed."
"Okay." A somber Male from the civilian side stood up. "While that is a big issue, I think I speak for most of us non-ninja, We trust in you and your ninja to keep us safe. Now onto this issue with the blond freak."
The Hokage frowned, "Did you not just say that you trusted us to deal with the issues to keep you save" He chuckled at the looks on many of the faces before him. "Okay, Lets shed some light on the issues surrounding our little Naruto. Last week, he and his team came across a kunoichi from the village hidden in the grass. It turns out that the kunoichi was Orochimaru in a stolen skin. Both Uchiha and Uzumaki battled Orochimaru, both suffered drastic setbacks, ending with both of them unconscious. Uchiha has a cursed seal similar to Anko's and it is being studied right now by our best seal master."
"Today, during the elimination round of phase three, our Rock Lee was facing off against a ninja from Suna, one Gaara of the Desert. It turns out Gaara is also a Jinchuuriki, carrying the Shukaku, the One tailed Biju." the Hokage paused here to fill and light his pipe as he listened to murmurs of the crowd before him. When it grew quiet, "Lee was over matched from the beginning, but he showed true spirit, and by the end of the match, showed us just what we can do if we try. But even with his best..."
An ANBU burst into the council chamber, "My Lord Hokage, the Jinchuuriki were attacked...
Dosu was tired of being ignored, tired of Orochimaru, the Otokage, thinking him to be nothing but a pawn. He and his team had been given the task of killing the Uchiha, and do to the fact that the grass ninja had interfered, had failed. When it came apparent that Orochimaru truly wanted the Uchiha for his own purposes, that scratched him off the target list. He could no longer kill the brat, but he could beat him before the assembled eyes of the 'Kages in the finials. First he needed to insure that he faced the boy. That ment removing the boy's challenger in the first round. The sand using freak.
Dosu sat on a branch under the window to the room where Gaara of the sand was asleep. A quick burst of ultra high sound, to see if anyone was around, and the oto nin was in motion. He jumped at the window sending a burst of sound ahead to clear the glass from his path. He landed lightly as the glass tinkled about him. Channeling chakra through his gauntlet, he raised his right hand as moved to slam a sonic dagger into the sleeping form of Gaara.
He did not get two steps in, before he was caught in a web of sand.
"Hold it." a voice from behind him. "Do not Destroy the Arms."
"Why. This one attacked us." his target sat up.
"The life is yours, I just want the arm." the voice from behind purred, "I want it's toy. It is intriguing. It will help my host learn to control his chakra better." there was the sound of the sheet moving on the bed, "I do request that you either make it a bloodless kill or take outside, the smell of blood gives my host nightmares."
"You always did know how to ruin my fun." 'Gaara' stood up and looked over the Oto-nin. "Take it, so I can take my new toy out and play with it."
The other person in the room began to remove The Melody Arm from the cocooned ninja.
As the gauntlet was lifted off his arm, Dosu watched the sand crawl over his flesh like a second skin.
"Remember, we four need to talk. Have fun." Dosu saw a blond climb into the bed away from the window, and curl up, just before 'Gaara' carried him out the window and up to the roof.
An ANBU opened the door to the room and looked about. Glass on the floor, one of the beds empty, Naruto clutching a weapon that was on the arm of a visiting ninja earlier today...Not good. Then he felt a dark chakra surge coming from the roof. Before he could move, a broken body fell past the open window. Then a limp Gaara entered the room. "Do see to it that we are not disturbed until dawn." the human puppet dropped into its bed, quickly falling into the deep rhythms of sleep.
The ANBU did the only thing he could, he ran to tell the Hokage.
An ANBU burst into the council chamber, "My Lord Hokage, the Jinchuuriki were attacked."
The Hokage raised an eyebrow. "That can be considered a rash thing to declare to the entire Village Council." he sipped from his pipe. "Now tell us, what do you mean."
"My Lords, My Ladies." the Anbu bowed to the council as a whole, "On my patrol of the Hospital, Seeing as there has been one attempt on the young Uchiha today already, the ANBU guard all slain, and the attacker run off by Hatake Kakashi, As I approached the room the Jinchuuriki were placed in, I felt a cold chakra flare. Hurrying to the room, I peered in, only to see the window had been blown in, the outsider Jinchuuriki was missing and our Jinchuuriki clutching a weapon that one of the oto ninja were wearing. Before I could move either into or out of the room, a surge of , what I can only describe as dark chakra came from the roof, and the crumpled body of the oto ninja fell past the window. Trying to understand what just happened, I took a couple deep breathes. But before I could move from the doorway, the missing Jinchuuriki came in through the window, tells me to make sure they are not disturbed until Dawn, and then climbed into bed and fell asleep."
The Hokage drew heavily on his pipe, "So, Who wants to try to kill the two demon freaks now?" When no one raised their hands, he nodded. "As I was saying, Even after Lee showed us what we can do if we really try, he collapsed, and Gaara was able to reach out with his jutsu for one last attack, when Naruto threw orbs of fire from his hands, and landed between the two weakened fighters. His voice was off, and he called Gaara by the name Shukaku. He refereed to Lee as an it, but would not allow Lee to come to further harm because, and I quote; 'It is of the Village, and the Village is under my protection.' It would seem that the Oto ninja was aggressive against them, and because he was not of the Village, he was crushed by the One tailed Biju in use of the Suna ninja's body."
The murmurs returned. The stoic Hyuuga flinched, like he want to make a request or demand even...
"Of course, In the Morning, after they are fully rested, I am going to ask Yamanaka-kun to walk with Naruto, as we inspect the seal. After all, the safety of the village and its people are our highest priority. Ibiki, triple the guard around the Uchiha and the Jinchuuriki." the Hokage stood, stiffly. "Lords, Ladies, I go to rest tonight. Please make appointments for to meet with me so we can arrange a better defense for the coming month. Good night." and he was gone.