Chapter 10: Retrieval mission
A/N:Sorry! I'm so freaking sorry for this super late update! My USB key kinda blocked and for it to function again I had to do something and now that I can use it, well let's just say that I noticed that in the process, all my files disappeared...including my newest chapter. I'm SO sorry! So I wrote this today in the record time of 4 hours...
Today was a beautiful day, although very hot and dry, just like the entire week had been. At 8 in the morning, the streets of Konoha were already crowded with civilians going to work and a few jonin-sensei with their teams coming back from the Hokage tower, their mission scroll in hand. Some were chatting excitedly, others were silently taking the 'rooftop way'. It was one of the hottest days of the season, and business was good, though some people chose instead to remain at home, within the reach of the water seals. Those seals, another result of the genius of the second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, were designed and created with the help of one of the best seal masters known in the Elemental Nations; as the weather was harsher back when the first Hokage didn't grow the huge forest surrounding Konoha using his Mokuton, they had the idea of making a seal that would act as a refreshing factor and that would be durable enough to last through all summer.
The seal was designed in a circular pattern: it had the kanji for water written in the center to transform chakra into said element, and a few very small dispersing seals around it to turn the water into particles. Then, another layer was added to suck the hotter water particles in the air into the seal, which would make the seal 'overload' and force the cold water particles out of the seal, thus refreshing the room. This way, an extracting seal will be unneeded. But this is not all: a last layer, one so hidden that only an experienced seal master could recognize with difficulty, was added to constantly keep a certain amount of chakra-enhanced water, and another small seal that acted as a chakra detector was inserted, so that when a bigger than genin-level chakra burst was sensed, it would force all the water out, forming a chakra-filled space that acts as a barrier. But seals need chakra to function properly, and most of them are not durable; so this water seal was designed to constantly absorb a small amount chakra from the owner of the house, small enough to not bother a civilian child, and the extra chakra was stored away and then mixed with the hotter water particles that were sucked in the seal to create the defensive chakra-enhanced water. No need to say, if kept around for a few years, this simple seal can turn into quite a lethal weapon if used the right way.
These seals, although useful, were rather difficult to make; the instructions were passed down from seal masters to their students, as the knowledge was considered too dangerous for anyone else. Unfortunately, the number of seals masters had decreased greatly during the years as many died on the battlefield; now Konoha only has Jiraiya of the Sannin and his student, the rising star of the village, Namikaze Minato.
The morning sun quickly turned into an insufferable heat by noon; civilians were quick to return home, and most genins were sent back home as training was impossible unless you were ready to suffer dehydration. But not all shinobi were off duty, and so most Anbu were stuck in this hellish heat that menaced to burn them alive, and their dark clothes did not make anything easier to bear.
But all this did not affect any of the enthusiasm floating in the air since yesterday: everyone was excited to see the new Anbu team they heard about from well informed gossipers, and according to the rumors going around in their circle, they were quite a powerful bunch. Those on duty were more than happy to do their job to be able to head back to the headquarters sooner, as the newest team was said to arrive around 6 o'clock. Even the Anbu captains were not unaffected by this, and so, by nothing short of a miracle, nearly every member of the organisation was present at twenty to six, injury or not. Some of them even brought their comrades here from the hospital, bed and all the machines together. The tables and chairs had all been removed due to a severe lack of space, even if the hall had been made to be able to contain more than 500 people when needed. Really, it was only because some of them had to come with nearly everything in their hospital room that it was like this.
Each minute felt like an eternity to every of them, since a new member that was not promoted during the official Anbu exams was rare, and the promotion of an entire team was unheard of, even for the chuunin or jonin exams. Since the Anbu exams was at least 10 times harder, no wonder why the current members were so curious, namely 2 Anbu captains and a rather new member with a moon mask who was clinging on her black-haired friend who dragged her from her bed where the medics had confined her. Well, seems like this one didn't think of bringing all the furniture.
At one minute before the deadline, no one dared to even talk; at the last 30 seconds, most people even stopped breathing as they feared that they would miss something. An outsider would think that this is way too much for a few new members, but considering the situation, it was not really that unexpected. Second after second went by as the tic-toc of the clock resonated in the hall, and when the big pointer of the clock finally showed 5 hours 59 seconds, all signs of movement stopped. A fraction of second later, they began to feel a slight breeze, and suddenly, two giant swirls of fire appeared in the room, causing the Anbu to tense and some to move back a step. One was red while the other was black, a rather strange color for fire. Surprisingly, not even a scorch mark was on anything near the twin tornadoes, but even then, no one dared to approach what appeared to be fire shunshins. After a few tense seconds, the fire slowly died down, revealing two people wearing the full Anbu uniform minus the brown coat. But what had caused the gasps was not the fire. No, it was far more than that: it was the uniqueness of their uniform. Instead of wearing white armors and bandages, theirs were completely black, the material glowing in an eerie fashion in the shadows where they were standing. A hood was attached to their cloths to hide their hair. But the biggest part was that, contrarily to everyone, their masks were not painted with the usual colors that indicate the rank of the Anbu: red for normal Anbu, black for team specialist like medic-nins, and purple for Anbu captain.
The masks were plain white, and the simple view of those more than emotionless figures sent shivers down the spins of more than a few Anbu. They all knew what this meant; those people, whoever they are, are so powerful that the Hokage gave them the exceptional title of Independent Anbu: they can leave when they want, their rank is equal to the Anbu commander, and, on orders of the Hokage, they only take missions of A-rank or higher, which means that they are aware of every secrets of the village, have free access over any of their files and has the right to sentence anyone to death without having the Hokage's approval. This also means that those people are absolutely loyal to the Hokage; in the past, only 2 people had met these conditions, and even they had left the position after a little bit over two years, which is the normal surviving rate of the Anbu members. So seeing two of them at the same time was like a gift and a death sentence: if they do things right then perhaps they will get a promotion, but if they mess up and if those people are as cold-hearted as they appear to be, then they are as good as dead.
The Anbu commander though was looking at the situation in a more professional way: he had been told of the situation yesterday by Hokage-sama himself, and if what the old man had said was anywhere near the truth, then they had just earned a huge advantage in the war. On the other side, if these two turned out to be traitors, then Konoha was doomed. What was the Hokage thinking anyways, re-installing these power-houses in the Anbu faction so fast? Surely he could have started by registering them as jonins, test their loyalty and then let them climb up the ranks by themselves. Nothing could ensure that they stayed loyal to this village after all this time. After all, they did leave for more than 5 years. And in 5 years, a lot of things can happen. Who knows, maybe they already had sold information to the enemy. Well, only time can answer his questions, so for the moment, he decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.
When he looked back at the two Anbu, he realized that he must have spaced out longer than he thought, as they were already in front of him and staring straight into his eyes; he normally wouldn't allow this comportment within his men, but this is special. Looks like he'll have to get used to it since the two don't seem to be stopping anytime soon. The one on his left looked at his partner and the other nodded. Well, at least he knows which one is the leader as he doesn't have anything to difference them. They both looked at him again and bowed in a silent demonstration of respect, which he immediately responded to by bowing himself. Better not anger them if his earlier observations were anything to go by.
Then, in another wordless agreement, then turned their backs to him and removed their hoods, revealing black hair and shocking blood-red hair, all tied in twin ponytails. A small gasp was heard, but no one paid any attention to it. The one with red hair then moved his hand, placed in on his mask, and to everyone's shock, removed it in a swift movement but still keeping it in front of his face. Everyone's attention was on him, all waiting for him to lift his head so that they can see his face. And after a few seconds where everyone was holding their breath, he finally let his blank mask drop to the floor.
And all chaos broke out. More than a few had a violent reaction to her appearance when they realized that this powerful individual is actually a kunoichi. Only then they noticed the few curves that males don't have, not hidden at all by her cloths and armors. She had a very young face, a few strands of her crimson hair hiding the left side, and her visible eye was a vibrant blue that reminded a few Anbu of someone, though they cannot pinpoint who it exactly was. The Anbu captains caught more than a few appreciative glances from some of their unmasked subordinates, but chose to not say anything.
And then, the remaining mysterious figure chose to drop the bomb: she also removed her mask, revealing black eyes and a pale skin that actually had a healthy color despite the whiteness. Her face was emotionless, though some can see something akin to a frown on her delicate lips. If looked any closer, anyone would be able to see a haunted look in those charcoal eyes, as if she was already a war veteran despite her young age. No, it was far worse: they actually looked like she already had both her feet in the grave only to be pulled out by something. The eyes of someone who knew death like her backyard. And the same thing can be said about her red-haired teammate; only this one chose instead to hide her pain behind fake happiness.
'Well, this surely is going to be interesting,' thought a silver haired Anbu captain. He had decided earlier to keep his mask on even if everyone knows his identity by now, if only for the sake of formality.
But all the commotion was cut short when a scroll suddenly popped out of thin air and landed in the waiting palm of the black haired kunoichi. She opened it, looked over it with an extremely calm expression on her face and then passed it to her teammate, who wasn't so shy to show her concern by a sudden shocked look. The Anbu commander saw the Hokage seal on the scroll and understood that they had serious business, so when the two turned to him with a questioning gaze, he nodded. That apparently was the only sign they needed, as they immediately disappeared in two tornadoes of fire.
Discussion broke out the second they left, and the commander, seeing he has nothing to do here anymore, prepared to leave with a shunshin, but before doing so, he glanced at his hand. There, lying in his palm was a folded paper that reads 'Mirai'.
He smiled and left, never noticing the two Anbu who stood behind him.
''Koto-chan, I swear it's her, I'm sure of it! It has to be! I mean, her hair color is the same as mine, you saw it too! And her face shape, it's the same as my mother, and the way she was standing and...''
Mikoto listened calmly while she sipped her tea that the owner of the stand had brought. Excellent tea, so to speak. ''Kushi-chan, you were not standing right. Beside, who said it was not someone else? It's not as if red heads are common, but I've seen more than a few in my life.''
''But still! I've only ever seen that kind of bright shade in my family!'' the Uzumaki immediately retorted.
Her best friend simply sighed, used to the red haired woman's tendency to jump to conclusion. After all, they had practically grown up together.
''Kushi-chan, let's just forget that for a moment and enjoy your ramen, ok? You can still ask the Hokage after if you want...''
That remark had the wanted reaction on Kushina: noticing her precious ramen cooling, she immediately began to inhale her food as if she didn't ate in a lifetime. Well, ramen is not exactly available in a hospital, not that the nurses will ever allow it. Mikoto smirked slightly over her victory; her friend had forgotten all about her suspicion that the new Anbu being one of her clansmen. But the Uzumaki did have a point: the black haired girl looked too much like an Uchiha for her liking, an Uchiha that she didn't know. And as the heiress of the clan, there wasn't a single Uchiha that she didn't know, at least by face. An illegitimate child? It seems like she will have to investigate soon, and why not answer some of Kushina's questions on the way? But for now, she has other things to do, she thought, as she saw her best friend order another bowl of that unhealthy thing she calls food...
Meanwhile, 30 minutes after the big commotion in the Anbu headquarters, two shadows were running at a fast pace in the forest around Konoha. They were Konoha-nins on their first official mission, an S-rank retrieval mission according to the scroll they received. They knew it was to test their abilities, as they can clearly sense another shinobi following them, always keeping a 30 meters distance.
'Cleaver, but still not good enough. Just far enough to not be treated as a threat but still close to be able to follow without too much difficulties.' the taller shadow thought.
Naruto was tempted to speed up just for fun, but a look from Sasuke dissuaded her. If it was an ally, then better keep him close for this particular mission where the risks of it being far more than what they anticipated was pretty high. On these kinds of missions, it was much better to be safe than sorry. Especially when you have the feeling that the Hokage didn't give you all the details you needed to know.
Right now they were going in the direction of Kumogakure, where a small village should be located a little bit south of the enemy hidden village. They will have to be extra vigilant as the two villages are not exactly on good terms right now, and they will probably have to travel during night where it will be easier for them to hide from patrols. They should be able to arrive at the border in 2 days, 1 day less than the average, retrieve their target and be back in 2 weeks. If they are not back by then, they will be declared MIA. Not the most challenging mission ever, but good enough for a start, and if the information was correct, then this mission will be crucial for Konoha's survival. For Naruto's sanity too if her expression was anything to go by.
The first two days went by quickly; they would stop around 5 in the afternoon, eat what they can find which is usually fish or an occasional deer, take a 2 hours break, then continue until 4 in the morning. Then, they will stop near a river, find a suitable tree and sleep for 5 hours while one of them will stand guard for the first 2 hours and the other for the remaining time. Years of war had made the two young kunoichi paranoid about pretty much everything. They had to stop a few times to let their pursuer catch them since both of them were going at a phenomenal speed, actually Naruto was surprised that he's still hot on their trail. She was almost tempted to use her special jutsu to go even faster, but decided against it as it would not be fair to the pursuer, who she was almost sure was a Konoha-nin, perhaps Anbu. Hell, if back in her time Kakashi had trouble keeping up with her without his sharingan and was still listed as a S-class shinobi, and this person was still following them, then he must be very around the same level as Kakashi.
The third day went around pretty quickly, and at the end of the day, they arrived at a small village where their target was last seen. This is the best place to start. They immediately began to ask around, all in their mission cover: two sisters looking for their cousins. Not the best cover ever, but sufficient for the mission, hopefully. At midnight, they found the trail they needed.
It seems that since a year ago, a rich merchant had been passing in this village every once in a while, and he was almost always guarded by shinobis from different villages. The second day, he will always come back alone to buy some tags and exchange money. No one asked anything since his actions made their economy better than ever, but suspicions were starting to rise. Sasuke had managed to find an old woman in the streets who, having no ties whatsoever, was not afraid to tell them the entire story.
A week ago the same man came again, this time with three Konoha shinobis, the first he had brought with him. Before, it had always been the minor villages like Waterfall. There seemed to have been a fight in the hotel they were staying at, but after 10 minutes or so things have calmed down so no one said anything about it. At this information, Sasuke frowned. It's no good. If this man always came the second day to exchange money, then it means that he does his dirty work at night. There had never been a fight before as he always paid for shinobis from small villages where the level of skills was pretty low compared to bigger villages. But this time it had been a Konoha Anbu team, which means that they couldn't have gotten captured unless... that's it! Poison! In the mission scroll it said that the only medic of the team was absent due to her occupation at the hospital, so it was not impossible that they had been surprised by an odorless poison. Obviously they didn't give out without a fight, but those kind of poison are always strong, and without a medic they were as good as dead. Since the merchant wanted them alive their lives are at least safe for now. But for how much longer?
Naruto proposed that maybe they are still at the merchant's base since he couldn't have sold them yet because of the patrol that went through this village 3 days ago, and Sasuke agreed. Now they have to figure out where the base is. It can't possibly be too far since the man did not have the money to built a huge base only for himself, and did not have the men necessary to transport all the people. So they can conclude that he does his dirty business in this village right under their eyes. But where can he hide? For that, they went to a drug store and looked around, and they luckily stumbled on a map of the village that Naruto insisted on buying. As they went over it out of boredom (in Naruto's case), they found 8 identical houses that were placed at strategic points around the village: two near the gates, another behind the public school, two one street away from the biggest hotel where the fight had broke out and three other around a few well known restaurants. All perfect places to hide someone if needed and all close to a way of transport. Sasuke didn't say anything in the process and let Naruto do the thinking; she was still amazed at the amount of luck the dobe had.
They decided to act next night. Each will produce 7 solid clones and infiltrate each base. They will advance from there, taking over each base and then dispelling until the base with their target was left. Then Naruto and Sasuke will take care of that one. It should not be too difficult, they just have to keep it silent to not attract any attention: they were way too close to the enemy shinobi village for their comfort. They signed in for the night in a small inn and rested as best as they could.
Next morning, after a short shower and a breakfast eaten at the inn, they went around the village to try to find more clues. Naruto, predictably, went first in a dango shop as there was not any ramen stand around, much to her sadness. But dango will do the job too.
''Nee-san, 3 sticks of Mitarashi dango please!''
''Coming soon!'' said a young girl around her own age, with purple hair in a high ponytail.
She got comfortable and waited, and as she had nothing to do, the Uzumaki began to look around. She actually did not choose this stand randomly: it was because she sensed a familiar chakra signature that just begged for her to check out. It felt so familiar, the signature felt as if it was longing for something special, a feeling she knew quite well, and yet, it felt distant, like the person is hiding from the world. It smelled of mud and rain, and paper if it was even possible. Just as her dango arrived, a woman around her age entered the shop. When Naruto saw her, she froze. Not out of shock, but out of a mix of fear, sadness and happiness. Because the woman had blue hair with a white paper rose in it and an Ame hitai-ate tied loosely around her neck.
Because this woman is the Angel of Amegakure, Konan of Ame.
Longest chapter ever! Consider this as an apology gift.
PLEASE review!