Chapter 31

The day had arrived.

Kankuro wondered absently if he would have to explain to Yuna and Mafumi that his father wasn't showing up for any more sessions because he was dead. No, wait… He shook his head. The news of Yondaime dying is going to be public. No one will need to tell them. They'll just know.

He wondered if he should be worried that his thoughts had already gone there: to his father dying. How to prepare. He supposed it was a coping mechanism. A way to regulate the terror he felt.

Because he really couldn't afford for his father to die. There was just no way. How would I survive? What would I do…if the love of my life died on me?

Kankuro suddenly had a whole new understanding of his father. It brought tears to his eyes. Tousan…how did you do it? How did you survive…and with your dad there to prey on you…How? How did you not break? How did you not commit suicide? How did you not…die?

After breakfast, his father announced he was going. He stood from the table. "Shimeru and Chounin will be here soon to pick us up."

Baki and Jiraiya nodded. They'd come over for breakfast for once, to be ready for today's rendezvous.

Yondaime looked across the table at his children. "As well, Aio and Josei will be guarding you for the duration of my absence." He had already explained to Gaara and Temari about the plan, as soon as Baki and Jiraiya showed up earlier in the morning. "I will summon them now."

He took out a bell from his pocket, a round little bell on a string. He rang it. It made no sound.

All the same, two people appeared in puffs of smoke, appearing a split second after the silent ring of the bell. One of them was slim and willowy, much like Yondaime himself. The other was tall and muscular, the same height as Baki but a little narrower around the shoulders. They both bowed deeply.

Jiraiya raised his eyebrows. "That was quick."

Almost as one, the two bodyguards straightened.

The tall, muscular man bore no visible weapons, but was dressed like any jonin from Suna: turban-style helmet, wrappings covering his neck and hands, a gray flak jacket over a sand colored long sleeved shirt and martial arts pants.

His eyes, though, were kind. Kankuro had always liked Josei's eyes.

Josei's partner, Aio, wore black garments, like most of the Puppet Corps, but he had also wrapped his head in layers of white fabric against the sun. A bold black design stood out on his face, transforming him into some undead-inspired creature from a kabuki play. His dark, clever eyes gleamed mischievously.

"We are here to serve you, Kazekage-sama," Josei said.

"Yeah," Aio said, dusting his shoulders off unnecessarily. "What's up?"

Josei cast him an annoyed glance.

He grinned in response.

"You are going to be guarding my children," Yondaime said.

"We always guard your children," Aio said. "What's so different about today?"

"There may be grave danger," Yondaime said. "I am going to meet a representative from Sound. Sound is an organization seeking to call us ally in the war against Konoha."

"Sound, huh?" Aio frowned. "I've never heard of them."

"Neither has anyone else," Baki said. "They're new. The only information I was able to gather was through ANBU contacts. Sound is a new ninja village residing in the former Land of Rice, which they have conquered."

"Baki and Jiraiya are going to accompany me," Yondaime said. "Together, we are going to do our best to get to the bottom of this."

"Yeah, we don't want a war," Jiraiya said. "It stinks. And we're gonna find the rat who stinks the most and show the Council his true face. There's nothing in it for Suna to go to war with Konoha. We're allies."

"War sucks," Aio agreed.

Yondaime smiled. "Then you'll agree to be here and do your part of the plan."

"We will," Josei said. He bowed again. "Of course."

"I only got one question, though," Aio said.

"Shoot," Jiraiya said.

"How come we're not coming along?" Aio asked. "The main action's not gonna be here. It's gonna be where you guys are."

"We don't know that," Yondaime said. "I would rather that you stay behind. This whole meeting could be a ruse; a way to guarantee my cooperation by kidnapping my children, for instance. My anti-war sentiments are no secret."

Aio pouted. "Fine, fine. But it still sucks that you're not taking us along."

Kankuro had to smile at that. Like most puppet masters, Aio could be blunt. The appreciation for the theatre they were taught, for layers and for masks, often resulted in an attitude of honesty with those they respected. Radical honesty, even.

Josei bowed. "Forgive him." He paused and straightened. "Although…I agree with him. I am worried about you."

"Well, I'll be there," Baki said.

Josei glanced at Baki guiltily. "Yes, of course, sir."

"But we know how to protect Yondaime better!" Aio propped a hand on his hip. "We're his bodyguards! How come we're not coming along?"

"Because I need to see these Sound people," Jiraiya said.

"So?" Aio said. "What's stopping you from coming along with us?"

"Because," Jiraiya said. "Yondaime already agreed to an escort of four people."

"Yeah," Aio said. "So, me, you, Josei-kun, and Baki. That makes four."

"I have assigned you to this location with a purpose," Yondaime said mildly. "I trust you with familial responsibilities more easily than I do Shimeru and Chounin. It is nothing personal…merely that I know you will do better than your comrades in guarding my children."

Yondaime gestured to his three worried children. Temari was obviously worried and unhappy. Kankuro couldn't say he was hiding it much better. Gaara stood with his arms crossed, his expression unrevealing except for the shadows around his eyes.

"So I wish for you to remain here," Yondaime said.

"We understand," Josei said.

Aio pouted. "But I don't have to like it."

Yondaime rolled his eyes and smiled. "No, of course not," he agreed.

That was pretty much the only way to deal with Aio.

"Yondaime's a pretty tough guy," Jiraiya said. "He's been through a lot. No way is this the end of the tale."

Baki smiled ruefully. "You and your story metaphors."

"Always." Jiraiya grinned. "All the world is a stage, and we are but players." He gestured grandly. "A famous person said that. Betcha know who."

Baki shook his head. "I couldn't begin to guess."

Jiraiya snorted. "Then you need to go back to school. Jeez…I thought everybody knew that guy."

"No," Baki said mildly.

Jiraiya rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I'm gonna teach you all the basics, so we can at least hold a conversation. Culture, Baki! Culture!"

Kankuro thought the silliness of this conversation was probably in proportion to how worried Jiraiya was. God… His stomach was tying itself into knots, and his father hadn't even left yet. Dad…be okay.

They bade formal farewells. He and his siblings saw their father off, Shimeru and Chounin appearing in a flash to escort their Kazekage alongside the disguised figures of Baki and Jiraiya. Oddly, when their features were covered, they were twin-like. Same size, same height. Baki was only distinguished by the way the wrappings of his turban covered his eye. Both of them had wrapped their scarves all the way up to their eyeballs, eliminating their faces from view.

Unlike Josei and Aio, Kankuro could never get a read on Shimeru and Chounin. They were dressed identically in standard gear, except with white martial arts jackets on underneath their flack jackets. That extra layer of clothing was the only thing that distinguished them. Both were fairly tall, though not as tall as Baki or Jiraiya.

Kankuro felt bad for not quite trusting them with his father. But he always felt their heart wasn't in it, like it was with Josei and Aio. He knew why Josei and Aio took their job personally; his father had broken down in front of them. What made them better than Shimeru and Chounin seemed like a thing of circumstance.

Still…

Kankuro couldn't shake his uneasiness.

xXx

They trekked across the desert at a steady pace, not straining themselves. Shimeru and Chounin led, and Yondaime walked with Baki on his left and Jiraiya on his right.

Looking back across his life, Yondaime had never expected any of this. As a small child just trying to keep up with his classmates and please his father, he'd thought merely of making genin someday. Once he made genin, he was home less and less often, until he was a chunin with his own bachelor pad and a girlfriend. Sort of. He'd found it nearly impossible to juggle his job and his girlfriend and his family responsibilities to visit his parents, until Karura had moved in with him. Or tried. It had only lasted two weeks before he confessed how much he hated his apartment, and he moved in with her instead. An unusual arrangement in Suna, but then, his life had gotten progressively stranger.

Yondaime shook himself and gazed about the desert. It was a bright day, the kind of day one needed to be careful about or suffer blindness. Hot, windless, like walking into the mouth of an enormous beast. Oven-like. The desert was featureless to outsiders who were unable to comprehend the sea of sweeping dunes. In the distance, a dark smudge signified the Head Stone. It was swathed in rippling heat currents, the famous inspiration for the idea of mirages.

People said your life flashing before your eyes meant that you were about to die.

He sincerely hoped it was a myth.

Because he couldn't help but think about Karura. In the past, whenever something dangerous and political happened, she was there to support him. He would not have caved to Minato's and Jiraiya's urgings if Karura hadn't responded with determination to make him Kazekage after his uncle. He had been shocked when Karura sided with the Leaf outsiders. 'That's the best idea I ever heard!' she'd said. Ironically.

And for a while, she had been right. Things had been good. With his new power and responsibilities, he managed to dodge his father for months at a time. When he did have his father around him, it was only in a room with a dozen other people or more, as part of official dinners and public events. Karura had children. Smiling, adorable babies, a boy and a girl, that she was happy to bring into the public eye to show how beautiful they were. He was the picture of a young Kage: wife, small children, calm and poised for every situation. Never showed any worry.

Then Karura died, and his world broke. Shattered into pieces that cut his hands like shards of glass when he tried to pick them up.

And it was all one blurry nightmare until the day that his father died. Then he found himself standing over a casket, wondering why his father looked so peaceful, so harmless for once.

He'd never cried. Just buried the body as quickly as possible, as per Suna custom. Cremated. There was a kind of revenge in burning such a person down to a handful of ashes and burying them in the ground. No more of you, he'd thought.

Then the nightmares began, and he began crying himself to sleep every night with a glass of plum wine. Or two. Surely not more than three.

Finally, Kankuro had come into such a night, and…somehow…started to pick up the pieces that had cut his hands. Kankuro could do what he couldn't do.

Yondaime sighed and glanced about him, at his guards and his special escort of Baki and Jiraiya. Things will be okay…because everything has to be.

He was not about to give up everything he'd had. Not about to leave his children fatherless. His village Kazekage-less. He would succeed.

xXx

When they neared the Head Stone, a group of three men were standing in the shadow of the towering statue head. Two of them had pale hair. The third was shorter than the two others, and had dark hair.

At their final approach, the men stepped out of the shadows. One of them, a young man with glasses and his hair pulled back in a ponytail, stepped out in front and bowed. "Kazekage-sama."

Yondaime inclined his head in return. "So you are the representative of Sound."

"Yes, Kazekage-sama." The young man straightened. "My name is Kabuto. Formerly of the Yakushi clan; no more." He smiled. "Also, Kabuto is but a nickname. I cannot remember my real name. Nor my parents."

"An orphan," Yondaime guessed.

Kabuto bowed. "Yes, Kazekage-sama."

"Tell me more about Sound," Yondaime said.

"Sound was formed for the furtherance of justice," Kabuto said. "Our lord has taken us in from our various cruel circumstances and offered us a brighter future among his people. Together, we have established for ourselves a new ninja village, one that is just and wise, wherein everyone works together for a common goal. Unlike the other ninja villages in the world, everyone is equal. Underneath our lord, we all can realize our full potential."

"Why is your lord interested in attacking Konoha?" Yondaime asked.

"Because they are unjust," Kabuto said. He furrowed his brow. "Is that not enough? Is injustice not something to be fought wherever it manifests? Konoha is inherently flawed and deserves to be destroyed." He shifted, and suddenly his face was angled into the sun in such a way that his glasses gleamed brightly.

Yondaime took in that speech while reserving his opinion. "What is your personal stake in this?"

"Personal stake?" Kabuto smiled and raised an eyebrow.

"Everyone has a personal reason for doing what they do. I want to know yours." Yondaime gave Kabuto his most dignified look. "My goals are to protect my children and my village. I would like to know the goals of my allies."

Kabuto bowed his head, then nodded. He gazed off to the side in a respectful gesture of submission to Yondaime's authority. "My village was attacked, and I was taken to Konoha. One of the only refugees left alive, along with a handful of other children. I grew up in Konoha, under the care of a man named Yakushi. I took his name as my own…only to discover that the village I belonged to was destroyed by Konoha themselves. My village was a civilian village, a beautiful village that posed no threat. A village in Fire, a village Konoha was supposedly sworn to protect. My life had been a lie. The worst kind of lie." At that, his voice dropped out of its stoic recital and vibrated with emotion. The sunlight gleamed off of his glasses so brightly it was dazzling, rendering his expression unreadable, but Yondaime thought that the show of emotion was genuine.

"How?" Yondaime asked. "How did you come to know this?"

"My eyes were opened by our great leader," Kabuto said. "He has also suffered the injustices of Konoha. Of favoritism. Of disdain. He who has founded our great nation wishes to find justice for all those who have been oppressed and abused by the ninjas of Konoha."

Yondaime turned to the man beside Kabuto. "What about you?"

The man stepped forward and bowed deeply. "Kimimaro, Kazekage-sama. A humble servant of our lord." He straightened. "I am dying, Kazekage-sama. An illness which has passed down the line of my family for ages. I came to Konoha seeking help. The legendary expertise of the princess Tsunade. They told me that there was no way to find her. A clear lie. I am but a humble traveler seeking to be healed, and they turned me away. To die. In horrible pain."

"I had heard that Tsunade-hime cannot be found," Yondaime said.

"A lie," Kimimaro declared.

"How do you know this?" Yondaime asked.

"Our lord," Kimimaro said. "The only man willing to heal me. He alone works on a cure for my illness."

Yondaime turned his attention to the last man in the group. "You?" he asked softly.

The young man gazed at him steadily. No emotion. "I lost my parents," he said. His voice was musical, low. "Konoha's fault, of course. If it hadn't been for the decisions made by Konoha's top officials, my parents would have lived."

"So you all have suffered at the hands of Konoha," Yondaime said.

"As have you," Kabuto said.

Yondaime inclined his head. "So you say. But I myself can find no evidence of Konoha underbidding my village."

"Ah." Kabuto smiled ruefully. "That is indeed the problem with not trusting the great lord we follow as intimately as we do."

"Yes," Yondaime said. "Perhaps I should meet him."
Kabuto's smile widened. "Perhaps you should."

Yondaime nodded. "Very well, then. Please convey my wishes to your lord. If we meet and discuss this alliance in person, and I am able to judge for myself whom my perspective allies are, we may find ourselves on the same side against Konoha. Otherwise…" He shrugged. "You see, I have my village and my children to think of. Anything less than a guarantee of veracity about what your lord has told you could never convince me to risk the fate of my village. Konoha is a powerful village, with powerful connections. And also an ally."

"I see, I see…" Kabuto bowed deeply, and then straightened.

Yondaime had the impression that Kabuto's glasses shone with mischief, though he knew it was merely the sun.

Kabuto and Kimimaro stepped aside, allowing their youngest member to come forward. He stepped into Kabuto's spot and appraised Yondaime with an air of cold calculation, smiling slightly. "I am the leader of Sound."

"You?" Yondaime couldn't say he wasn't surprised.

"You are but a child," Shimeru said, seeming stunned.

The young man laughed.

Yondaime's skin crawled at the sound. He wanted to warn everyone, but he didn't know how, or about what. Some sense of wrongness or danger tingled in the back of his head. A finely honed instinct he'd counted on as he grew older. Not just in battle, but also to avoid his father's worse moods.

"I travel in disguise," the young man said. "It would not do to be accosted and assassinated while doing my good works." His smile grew into a smirk. "After all, I am an important man."

"I understand," Yondaime said. "I am only interested in one thing: the proof that Konoha has been underbidding my village."

"Proof?" The young man smiled widely. "You shall have it."

He peeled off his face.