Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. This is fanfiction, after all.
Forests beyond the Great Naruto Bridge, Wave Country – April 12, AK 22
Ranmaru was annoyed and irritated despite knowing that it had all been a part of the plan. Sai did not have to insist on leaving that stupid note.
Ranmaru looked down at the crumpled note in his hand.
Hey Dickless,
Meet me at the Great Naruto Bridge at 8 p.m. Perhaps if you had a dick, it might have been named after you.
- Phoenix
Even though it wasn't directed at him, Ranmaru was still upset. If Sai needed proof, then Ranmaru could have made a show of being angry in front of the Konoha team. There was no need to question his manhood.
Ranmaru wanted to smack himself in the head. His sensei, his sempai, and Sai all constantly made his life hell in some way. He sometimes wondered why he followed them at all.
It was getting near the appointed time and Ranmaru was quickly racing towards the Great Naruto Bridge at the fastest speed he could using only physical abilities. He didn't want to unnecessarily waste spiritual energy even though he had that in spades.
There would be traps and three—four if Sai were to be counted—elites to escape from. He would need every advantage he could get.
Ranmaru landed near the bridge, threw the note down to the ground in "anger" (as he was instructed to), and looked around.
Ranmari often heard his teacher imitating Sasuke's attitude and decided to put that knowledge to work.
"Where is the fool who destroyed my hideout?"
He made an extra effort to sound constipated, which was exactly how Naruto sounded whenever he imitated Sasuke. Ranmaru was almost certain that the legendary ninja didn't speak in such a way and chalked it up as Naruto insulting Sasuke as part of their petty rivalry, but Sai had confirmed that Sasuke Uchiha sounded even worse. In Sai's words, Sasuke spoke as if there was "a long rod stuck in his anal cavity."
Ranmaru mentally shrugged as he remembered the strange smile on Sai's face as he made his remark. Whatever…I'm not sure if they're trying to make fun of me or make fun of Sasuke, but if they are willing to compromise their plans by telling me false information, then that's their problem.
In any case, the voice alteration device in Kokuten's mask garbled much of his voice, so there probably wasn't too much to worry about.
Boom!
Ranmaru wasn't in any immediate danger but he quickly switched with a projection as soon as he felt the explosion going off some ways ahead of him.
He took a deep breath to calm his mind and immediately activated the spirit field.
Explosive tag on the rock twelve meters away on the left, a trap seal set to release weapons one meter to the right, enemies blocking off my escape back to the Wave Country.
Sai must have convinced his team to try to chase Kokuten towards the Land of Fire where they had more options to use. In Wave Country, the Konoha squad couldn't use too much force for fear of scaring the citizens and damaging the landscape too much.
It was also likely that they thought that Kokuten was wary of entering into one of the big nations.
Wait, no… he thought as he activated his eyes to improve his awareness. There's a sealing array on the ground. I can see the chakra running through it. I'm not all that skilled in fuinjutsu, but that's definitely some sort of barrier seal. He focused a bit more. It looks like all the traps are set to draw me into that area.
The only person with knowledge of fuinjutsu on the ANBU squad was Sai.
Sai must have gone all out with his seals because he knew that Ranmaru would be able to see through them all. If Sai didn't put in such effort, his teammates would doubt him. Ranmaru couldn't count on Sai to bail him out of this situation. Sai had to maintain his cover at all costs.
Ranmaru ducked under windmill shuriken that one of the ANBU operatives threw and then twisted his body to dodge the stream of snakes that flew towards him.
He quickly took out his staff.
"Chidori Current!" Ranmaru shouted, dissipating the ink ropes that had bound him. Sai must have used that particular technique to get him to use that specific technique. Technically, his electricity was tinged the Raikiri blue and not the Chidori yellow like Sasuke's but he doubted that his enemies would notice the difference in the heat of the battle. Ninjas, while cautious and observant, were just as susceptible to being tricked by their own biases as any normal person. It was something that Ranmaru had learned from his sensei. They suspected that Kokuten was Sasuke and were looking for information that confirmed that belief.
Ranmaru flipped back towards the bridge and land in a defensive position. There were no traps on the bridge, as the Konoha squad wouldn't dare damaging the lifeblood of another country.
"That technique!" The man with the raven mask exclaimed as all four operatives landed a few meters away from the bridge. "It's definitely Sasuke Uchiha!"
Ranmaru would have snorted at the show of emotion. ANBU operatives were supposed to be efficient, deadly, but most of all, unemotional. Yet, this man was openly showing his shock. He must have been a new recruit.
The yin user swept the Star Staff in a semi-circle in front of him. "Chidori Senbon!"
The four easily jumped back to dodge the electric needles.
Ranmaru was tempted to flood the area with his illusions as was his habit, but the goal was to fool the squad into thinking that he was Sasuke. He needed to be judicious about how he used his best techniques. If it were any other squad, Ranmaru would take off at this point, but this squad had the famous Shikamaru Nara on it.
There was no way that Nara was going to think he was Sasuke from just those two techniques. He had to act a bit more. Chidori variants; check. Next up was the Sharingan.
Ranmaru grabbed his staff like a sword and covered it in lightning chakra and charged forward.
His spirit field gave him incredible awareness and it was almost as if he was taking a light walk in the part as he weaved in and out between all the different attacks. He made sure to move as a Sharingan user, making sure to never get hit or acting surprised by any one attack. He didn't know too much about the Uchiha's taijutsu, but he did know how to do one thing that the Uchiha were famous for.
Using a ki feint to land right in front of the operative with the raven mask, Ranmaki jumped and kicked the man's mask off and put the man in a genjutsu. The mask that Ranmaru wore as Kokuten prevented anyone from seeing his eyes, but it wouldn't take much to assume that Kokuten kicked off Raven's mask in order to make eye contact from behind his mask.
Ranmaru inserted a subtle genjutsu into the man's mind to convince him that he saw the tomoe of the Sharingan.
Sharingan; check. He briefly wondered if he should risk using massive illusions of the Susanoo or Amaterasu techniques. Those would all but confirm that he was Sasuke, but such large illusory constructs were also easier to break.
Suddenly, his vision was completely clouded by the shadows that rose up around him.
Ah, I see. They're trying to limit what my "Sharingan" can do.
Except Ranmaru's eyes were not the Sharingan. His eye techniques easily pierced the shadows. Furthermore, he had the spirit field telling him where everything was. The shadows were not even a minor inconvenience. Ranmaru immediately cut through the three snakes heading towards him and used another ki feint to land right behind the person who sent them out. He slashed with his lighting blade at the woman with the kappa mask before she could react.
"ARG!"
He quickly tagged her with a Reverse Dispersion Seal to prevent the woman from being able to use chakra again. She was injured, but the injury hadn't been severe enough to take him out of the fight completely. With the Reverse Dispersion Seal, she would no longer be a factor.
Ranmaru quickly made a ki projection once he noticed that he couldn't move—the shadows were binding him—and transferred himself to it while letting his original body fade away into an illusion.
"That's two down," he said in the garbled voice of Kokuten as he put some distance between himself and the two other operatives.
They were beginning to figure out his fighting patterns and he couldn't risk being exposed as someone other than Sasuke Uchiha. Whether he convinced the Nara or not was a moot point. He was only lasting this long because of his yin techniques. He needed to run soon or risk capture.
Ranmaru pointed his lightning blade/staff towards the other two. "Neither are dead, but next time, I won't hesitate to kill you. I want answers. Why have you destroyed my base and called me out in this infantile manner?" He gestured towards the note that was still where he had thrown it down.
The one with the dragon mask, presumably Shikamaru, stepped forward. "It has come to our attention that you have taken actions against our village."
Ranmaru chuckled. "Do the actions include attacking those two pieces of trash?" Ranmaru pointed at the two other operatives who were now unconscious on the ground. "I consider that self-defense. After all, you provoked and attacked me first."
"You attacked one of our advance squads that we had sent into the Land of Hot Water. You have destroyed several of our outposts at our borders. You have cut off our supply lines to and from other countries," Dragon listed out.
"And?" Ranmaru said in an offhand voice. "Shall I list the wrongs that Konoha has done over the years?"
"Irrelevant, we're the ones asking the questions."
He scoffed at that answer and decided to say something Sasuke might say. "Oh really? For example, what is your opinion on the truth about the Uchiha—"
Ranmaru flipped back and covered himself with the Raikiri Current as shadows rose up around him again. He cut through the first eight tendrils, jumped over the next two, and ducked under three more before getting annoyed.
He swept the area around him with his staff. "Fire Release: Flame Eruption," he chanted.
A pillar of red flame erupted from the ground and burned away all the shadows and all the nearby traps that he had carefully been avoiding.
"Collaboration Technique: Muddy Water!"
Ranmaru cursed as his fire technique was easily overwhelmed by the mixed water and earth technique from Sai and Shikamaru.
He switched with yet another projection to escape quickly as two ink tigers, bit down on his—now his illusion's—arms.
Flipping backwards on the bridge, he kept knocking back various projectiles thrown at him and ran towards the Land of Fire as the two remaining squad members tended to their fallen comrades.
Hokage's Office, Konoha – April 15, AK 22
"Mission aborted," Dragon said wearily.
"At least you came back alive," Kakashi told the squad. "That in itself is a miracle. Sasuke's not the type to escape a battle like he did. There must have been something on his mind. In any case, did all of you place the seals that I gave you on your mask?"
Dragon nodded. "Yes, what were they for anyway?"
Kakashi gave him an eye-smile. "It's a new seal that I invented to foster better communication. It'll help you in relaying how the battle went. Here, watch. I'll perform a modified version of the Third's Telescope Technique so we can get a visual." Kakashi held out his orb and then placed his hand on the large screen that Shizune had brought in. "All four of you place your hands on here so we can get as complete of a view as possible. Think of battle and this technique will collect your memories on that."
"Sure," Dragon walked up and placed his hand on the crystal ball.
Kakashi nodded at the other three—Phoenix, Kappa, and Raven—to do the same, although Phoenix appeared to pause for a moment before he complied. After they were done, Kakashi pulled his free hand into a hand sign.
"Memory Telescopic Technique!"
The seals on their masks activated and glowed the same color as the crystal ball.
After a few seconds, the orb and the screen glow together and the entire battle was up on the screen.
Ignoring the awed whispers, Kakashi watched the entire battle, shown in four different points of view. He gaped when he saw the Chidori variants come up.
"That was where we had visual confirmation that it was the Uchiha prick," Kappa muttered. "Lord Hokage, did you have to teach him that annoying technique? He's become even more of a pain with it than you were."
Kakashi ignored the jab. He didn't have time for Kappa's jokes right now. He replayed the scene and saw the masked man scream out Chidori Current. However, the technique the man use wasn't a Chidori technique. It was a Raikiri variant.
"There's something wrong here," Kakashi murmured, more to himself than anyone else.
"What is it?" Dragon asked urgently. "Did you figure out something from just that?"
"This technique that he used. That's not a true Chidori variant."
"What do you mean? Can't you hear it? You can hear the chirping sound!" Raven exclaimed. "It looks exactly like your technique!"
Kakashi shook his head. "That's exactly the point. It looks too much like my Raikiri. A few years after I developed the Chidori, I improved upon it even further. It's the blue lightning that was eventually labeled as Raikiri. Sasuke, however, was never able to manage the Raikiri. He was never a power fighter until much later when he developed his Mangekyo Sharingan. When I taught him that technique, he was still a genin and more of a finesse type of fighter. The Raikiri involves compressing the chakra five-fold beyond that of the Chidori. That's how the lightning turns blue."
"Maybe Sasuke learned it on his own. The hand signs are the same, after all," Phoenix commented. "And as you mentioned, Sasuke did eventually become a power type."
"It's possible," Kakashi acknowledged. "It looks far too much like my actual Raikiri, however. I'm not sure Sasuke would have been able to replicate to that degree."
"Chidori. Raikiri. Does it matter all that much? It's not like anyone else can make something similar to your techniques," Dragon inquired.
"I suppose you're right," Kakashi admitted. "Those techniques involve my own special brand of body activation too, which no one else in the world besides Sasuke was able to fully master. The Raikage would be able to do it of course, but I think he has a bit more pride than to try and reverse engineer the Hokage's techniques."
"There were other things that made it likely that it was Uchiha, Lord Hokage," Raven gestured. "Look, you can see him able to predict all our techniques and dodge with minimal effort. He also put me in an ocular genjutsu after he kicked my mask off right there," he pointed at one of the four points of views where the sky was now showing, "There's no other reason why he would do that unless he was using the Sharingan. It has to be Sasuke Uchiha."
Kakashi crossed his arms. What Raven said did make sense. The masked man made a deliberate effort to kick off Raven's mask. And there was no other bloodline that gave anyone the predictive ability that the masked man was currently showing. If it were Sasuke, then his predictive ability was now more advanced that what it had been five or six years ago. It almost seemed like he was omniscient.
Dragon asked him to rewind. "Aside from that, there were other questions, too. Look, there!" He pointed. "He's capable of such high speed movement that he can create afterimages. Right there was when I thought I caught him with my shadow."
"And that fire technique there," Kappa added. "It's not quite the black flames of Amaterasu, but it's still a strong fire technique."
Kakashi nodded. "He must have been trying to conserve energy for some reason. It might be tied to why he escaped."
"This just leaves us with even more questions," Dragon muttered. "I still don't understand why he just tagged one of us with those damn seals and then ran. He probably could have finished us off. We thought we caught him in a trap, but he was able to bypass everything."
"Speaking of which," Kakashi asked. "I barely saw any traps being sprung. What traps did you set up?"
"Multiple barrier seals," Phoenix replied. "And one level-9 zodiac seal. If Uchiha were to land at these points," Phoenix pointed at various areas on the screen, "he would have been trapped inside an unbreakable chakra barrier that has the ability to stop even space-time ninjutsu."
Kakashi looked at the other sealing elite. "A zodiac seal?" he gasped in surprise. "When did you have the time to actually set that up? You also need twelve people to hold the barrier in place. Only a master could hold a zodiac seal alone."
Phoenix pulled out several paper tags. "I carry around pre-prepared self-sustaining tags. Obviously, the barrier won't last more than ten minutes with these paper seals instead of twelve sealing experts, that should have been more than enough time drain him of his energy."
Kakashi looked carefully at the designs that Dragon was showing him of the layout of their traps and saw signs of multiple chakra draining seals drawn on the ground. "Almost all the traps were designed to get him into this one area. Yet how did he escape all of these traps? This is ridiculous."
"The Sharingan can see the color of chakra," Kappa offered. "Maybe—"
"No, I know," Kakashi interrupted, "but with everything going around him, he shouldn't have been able to focus too much on the ground. It's almost as if he already knew where everything was before walking onto the area. On top of that, it's strange that Sasuke ran away. He never runs away. Things are just getting more confusing. It's almost certain that it is Sasuke, but there are a lot of questions I want to ask."
There was silence at that.
And it wasn't good news at all. Sasuke, or whoever the man was, hadn't even shown the tremendous power that was reported by Team Hanabi. If what they were saying was true, then Sasuke was even more skilled than they had imagined. He was stronger than any S-rank known in the Elemental Nations.
This didn't bode well for any of them.
"As of now, all operatives from foreign lands will be recalled. We can't risk any of them running into Sasuke. He seems loath to operate inside of the Land of Fire, so we'll use that to our advantage for now."
"But Sixth, that will tank our economy! You can't be serious about this."
Kakashi shook his head. "It'll only be for a few weeks. We'll just have to buy time until Naruto gets back. I'm going to send him out the minute he gets back. He's our ace after all. All of you except Dragon, dismissed! Shizune!" he called out as the three ninjas walked out, "Call Ibiki for me!"
"You sure this is a good idea?"
"What other choice do we have?" the Hokage said in a regretful tone. "I rather not risk lives by recklessly sending them out. We almost lost a former heiress to the most prestigious clan in the village."
"They could have been in the wrong place at the wrong time," Dragon insisted. "We'll be making a lot of people suffer from the economic shock. Crime rates will go up and people at home may die as well."
"It's only for two or three weeks. I think you're overstating the economic damage, Dragon."
"Kakashi, a lot of the civilians live from paycheck to paycheck. You're understating the damage here. Furthermore, the clan heads aren't going to be happy once they hear of this."
Kakashi resisted the urge to curse in frustration. While Konoha was different in that the government had plenty of checks and balances, it also made it difficult for the Hokage to do what was necessary, especially if the necessary actions were painful.
He sighed. He never should have agreed on becoming Hokage.
"We have an emergency fund that we can dip into," Kakashi finally decided. "We'll set up a safety net for those in need of money. That should get us through the next few weeks."
"Naruto again, huh?" Dragon murmured while shaking his head.
"Hm?"
"We were only able to set that up because Naruto was taking a ridiculously high number of dangerous missions."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Your point?"
"We're too dependent on Naruto, Kakashi. Right now, you're throwing the village into potential chaos because you don't think we can take care of this problem without Naruto. You're justifying that action and supporting that action with safety nets that Naruto set up. We can't keep using Naruto as our means to solve every single problem."
"What would you have me do?" Kakashi said a bit heatedly as he stood up. "The problem is that we can't do anything without Naruto. I could send out Gai to face Sasuke and the only thing we would get out of that is his body returned to us in a bag. Gai might be able to beat Sasuke with all eight of his Inner Gates open, but that still wouldn't change the fact that he'll come back dead."
"People die, Kakashi. You know that," Dragon argued. "We all know that. It's what we signed up for. I know that you're haunted by your own past and don't want anyone to suffer the same thing, but you can't realistically hope for a near zero percent casualty rate." Dragon shook his head. "And that's not my point. I'm not blaming you. I'm blaming the village system."
"What do you mean?" Kakashi sat back down wearily. After half a decade as the leader of Konoha, he could finally understand why the Third was always mentally exhausted.
"We always revere our past and current heroes. We build heroes up as legends that will succeed above all. That belief has seeped into our way of life. At the first sign of trouble, we immediately look to our heroes to bail us out. In the past, my father told me that when the Kyuubi attacked, the first thing everyone did was to ask where the Fourth was. When Orochimaru attacked, we immediately look to the Third to bail us out. During Pain's invasion, we were all shouting for Naruto to save us. It was the same in the Fourth War when we looked to the kages and resurrected Hokages to fight for us. We've stopped taking care of our own problems. The next generation is supposed to surpass the previous generation, but can you really say that that is what's happening?"
Kakashi thought about that. What Dragon said was right. While there were more ninjas in the forces than in the past, there were fewer elites. The strongest of all the kages were all past kages. None of the current ones could hold a candle to the masters of the past.
He decided to think about it later. He needed to focus on the immediate problems.
"Dragon, look. I understand what you're saying but we really need to focus on short-term problems right now."
Dragon sighed and nodded. "Agreed. I'm assuming that you wanted to discuss our thought about the conspiracy in the Hyuuga clan."
Kakashi nodded. "We're just waiting for Ibiki to drop by."
As if on cuee, the door opened.
"Lord Hokage," he turned to see Ibiki, who had just walked in. "I'm here. I see that Dragon is back."
"Yes, Kakashi and I wanted to discuss your thoughts on something."
"From your memo, I'm guessing that you're suspecting a conspiracy within the Hyuuga clan?"
"That's what we're worried about," Dragon explained. "No matter how you look at it, none of this makes sense. Naruto and Hanabi never had contact before."
"Frankly, Dragon, much of my work is involved in counterespionage against other villages not problems within the village," Ibiki said with a frown. "There is work being done against spies in the village but there's no way we can simply infiltrate a clan."
"We're not asking you to, Ibiki. We're just trying to pool whatever intelligence we have. The story goes like this: We received requests asking for Naruto to be married to heads of two separate countries. I then promised Hiashi to help him try to sucker Naruto into marrying Hinata so that Naruto wouldn't have the headache of being involved with another village and well to help him receive some love for a change. Kami knows that the girl loved him a lot and that Naruto needed something different than what Sakura gave him."
Kakashi never approved of his two loyal students dating. To him, it felt like Sakura was trying to keep some piece of her past alive by being with Naruto. To have him continually shower her with attention probably reminded her of the time when they were Team Seven.
Sakura had never come to terms with the fact that Team Seven would never be complete again.
"And Naruto refuses, which was expected, but he then asks for Hanabi, a girl he never really met before. There were a lot of other girl he could have asked for if not Hinata," Dragon finished.
Kakashi added, "It's just strange that he could be so agreeable to something we knew he would hate. On top of that, the Hyuuga girl accepted without a thought as well. You would think that the two were secret lovers all this time."
Ibiki frowned. "So you're assuming that the Hyuuga clan somehow put an unbreakable genjutsu on Uzumaki?"
"Yes, or something similar to manipulate him in a subtle way. Naruto is too loyal for a bribe or anything like that," Dragon said. "At this time, we're thinking of fuinjutsu. After all, the Hyuuga clan has the Caged Bird Seal to control their own clan members and is skilling in the sealing arts. It wouldn't too much of a stretch to think that they had a seal that could subtly alter thoughts and actions. If we want to extend this conspiracy even further, than we would argue that members of the Hyuuga clan were the ones to attempt to kill Sakura."
Ibiki was one of the ones who had the security clearance to know about Sakura. Kakashi wasn't too excited about letting more people into the fold, but Ibiki was their best bet at trying to figure out who the culprit was.
"Ah yes, that Haruno girl."
"The only thing that links everything together is fuinjutsu. Fuinjutsu was used to put Sakura out of commission. Fuinjutsu was used to create that marriage contract that Hanabi was able to sign. We believe that if there is a conspiracy, fuinjutsu may have been used to manipulate Naruto," Kakashi remarked.
"I'm not too sure," Ibiki grunted. "You said Uzumaki requested Hanabi, right? Not the second-born princess of the Hyuuga clan?"
Kakashi frowned as he remembered the meeting. "You're right. He called Hanabi by her first name."
"Then that means he's familiar with her. I know the kid's a punk, but he's polite when he needs to be. He wouldn't be throwing out names of people like that unless he met them at least once before. I doubt any subtle seal manipulating Uzumaki would cause him to go out of character to that degree. Nor would the Hyuuga clan want someone to refer to one of their princesses by her first name in the general assembly without some sort of honorific or title."
"So we're back to the secret lovers theory again?"
"Yes, as far as anything concrete goes. My counterespionage operatives, who pose as civilians in the village, have seen the former Hyuuga heiress sneaking out at night during the last three months. Now, since they didn't want to be caught, they couldn't follow her. We initially just thought that she was out trying to do some late-night training, but in hindsight, it may be possible that she was seeing Uzumaki in secret late at night."
"How late are we talking about?"
"Midnight, or even later."
Kakashi whistled. "Whatever she was doing, she definitely did not want anyone finding out."
Ibiki nodded. "That would be something she would want if she was sneaking into his mansion to spend part of the night with him. Think about it. Her sister was in love with Uzumaki. Her own clan was notorious for not liking Uzumaki because of his brashness and lack of respect for tradition. So it would make sense that she would see him only when there was no one else was around to see it."
Dragon interrupted. "And that would be somewhat consistent with what Ino told us. Ino said that Naruto knew that Sakura was still alive. If Naruto had started seeing another girl, it would make sense that he wouldn't threaten village security to demand Sakura's status be revealed to the public. Kakashi, perhaps we have been overthinking this."
Kakashi still felt uncertain about the issue. Naruto wasn't one to simply abandon his love for Sakura like that. There was something he was missing here.
"But that doesn't rule out a conspiracy either. We really don't have fuinjutsu masters in Konoha anymore so we don't exactly know the limits of the sealing arts. We have elites and experts who all specialize in a specific subcategory of fuinjutsu but no true masters. The Hyuuga have multiple elites who deal with mental manipulation and emotional control. So they really might have found a way to subtly control Naruto's feelings and thoughts. In fact, if Hanabi was really seeing him, she may have been the one to put the seal or seals on him as well."
"Sixth," Ibiki said after slapping his hand on his forehead, "are you listening to yourself right now? Why would they risk their stronger heiress to go after Uzumaki in that manner when their weaker heiress already loves him? She would have been the perfect candidate to use to get to him. She's expendable and no one would even think anything of it if they saw her near him." Kakashi was about to open his mouth to say that Hinata would never do such a thing, but Ibiki ignored him and continued. "I know that you might say that the first heiress would never do it, but if they had such a seal they could use to manipulate people, then you can be sure they would have used it on her first. Sorry Kakashi, but I'm just not seeing concrete evidence or motivation."
Dragon decided to step in at this point. "Well, we considered this: the Hyuuga clan would slip their strongest heir in a few generations into the seat right next to the Hokage and would either manipulate him or assassinate him. Let's agree for now that manipulation, at least one that doesn't take away free will, isn't too much of a problem, considering that there is some influence inherent in a marriage. In fact, we too were trying to manipulate Hiashi into agreeing to some of our future proposals by using his greed for the seat of Hokage. We were initially more worried about assassination."
"The Hyuuga would assassinate the Hokage and have the wife act as interim leader for some time while an investigation was going on. They would slip many proposals favorable to them by during that time," Ibiki murmured to himself. "Thus that would be the motivation."
"That's what we thought."
Ibiki shook his head. "Doesn't sound feasible to me. I don't think the Hyuuga clan elders are foolish or desperate. That isn't a good enough motivation, Dragon. The positives of having an interim leader for about six months are minimal and the costs of pulling this out are insanely high. All of the clan elders would have to be crazy to gamble like that," Ibiki argued. "Think about what the Hyuuga have to gain if they sit down and just be patient. Uzumaki's brat will have the blood of four different Hokages running through his veins. It will be the blood of five once Uzumaki becomes Hokage. It's likely that his brat will end up becoming Hokage as well. And all the Hyuuga need to do is just sit around. If anything, I'd be worried about a plot the other way around."
"You mean a plot from Naruto?" Kakashi asked curtly.
Ibiki nodded. "Kakashi, don't take offense at this, but I'm supposed to be highly suspicious of everyone. You yourself said it is strange that Uzumaki, who was so deeply in love with that Haruno girl, to go out of his way to request another girl? We're currently ignoring the possibly of fuinjutsu given our prior conclusions so let's assume that he's not under the effects of a mind-controlling seal. Genjutsu wouldn't be an option because a person casting it wouldn't be so stupid as to make him so out of character to make him abandon a person he loves. And let's not forget the fact that most genjutsu techniques are almost completely useless on him once he actives his Kyuubi Mode. Any genjutsu user would have had to count on Uzumaki not using Kyuubi Mode for weeks or even months which would be stupid considering that he regularly takes S-rank missions. It's impossible for anyone to control him."
"So what are you saying?" Kakashi said carefully.
Ibiki had to know that he was treading on hot water here. Kakashi made it clear that he didn't like it when people gave Naruto a hard time. Naruto may be unintelligent at times, but disloyal he was not.
"I'm saying that if I had to come up with a conspiracy it would be that Naruto is playing us all by acting like an idiot. This would be a brilliant move on his part. He strengthens his own clan by marrying the strongest kunoichi around his age and ensures that his offspring will be force to deal with by having a mix of two incredibly strong bloodlines. With the same move, he weakens the strongest clan in Konoha and a clan that has always disliked him for years. It even goes further still because he plants one of his supporters—the first heiress who loves him—into the head seat of that very same clan. Naruto does all of this to ensure a permanent line of Hokages from his family and set up a dynasty."
"There are other strong bloodlines in Konoha," Kakashi remarked. "He didn't have to specifically choose the Hyuuga bloodline."
"Oh? Which ones?" Ibiki said sarcastically. "The Kurama are physically weak and any offspring there would only detract from the vitality of the Uzumaki bloodline. The Nara, Akimichi, Hagoromo, Sarutobi, and Yamanaka all have hidden techniques, not bloodlines. And would you want your children to be rolling around in the mud like the Inuzuka or teeming with insects like the Aburame? As far as bloodlines go, Konoha has lost its place as the haven of special people once the Senju and Uchiha died out. If I were Uzumaki, I would see that power vacuum and be looking at a chance to make my clan, one with a bloodline strong enough to rival the Senju's physical strength, one of the leading clans of the village for years to come."
"But Naruto doesn't think that way. He has no interest in power."
"Right. That's why I said if I were so inclined to come up with a conspiracy theory. I've had my eyes on that kid ever since he was a genin. The kid is much smarter than people give him credit for. But I agree. Uzumaki doesn't seem like the type. It's just that I don't think the Hyuuga clan would be so crazy as to betray the village like that. They're nothing like how the Uchiha clan once was."
"Then what about Sakura?" Kakashi asked, "We know for sure that it was an attack, a fuinjutsu attacking the brain, something that the Hyuuga are good at, as we already agreed."
"Well," Ibiki said with a frown, "that one I can believe. Parts of the sealing array that we've uncovered in Haruno's mind appear similar to the Caged Bird Seal. The experts and elites, however, I talked to seem to be in agreement that the common symbols on both are because they each are placed on the brain rather than any special connection between the two. But still, I can see how the Hyuuga clan would want to remove Haruno to get their shot at placing their heiress next to Uzumaki. There's motivation, but hardly evidence. Don't let your emotions get in the way of rational thinking, Kakashi. The Hyuuga elders are assholes, but that hardly makes them traitors."
Kakashi paused at that. As Dragon said, it may very well be that they were overthinking this issue. Heavens knew that he was overworked and stressed out. He really needed to take a vacation.
"Thanks Ibiki," Dragon nodded. "We're still somewhat suspicious of the Hyuuga clan, but what you said is enough to give us pause to consider other possibilities."
Konoha General Assembly, Konoha – April 15, AK 22
Kakashi wanted to bang his head on his table. Again. It seemed that the job of being Hokage was way more trouble than it was worth.
It was the fifteenth of the month, which meant a general assembly among the clan heads and the other elected council members.
"Preposterous!" Chouza Akimichi shouted. "There's no way the Akimichi clan would allow such a thing in Konoha! We swallowed our pride when the Second offered the Uchiha clan the sole jurisdiction of a domestic police force independent of the Hokage, but we will not stand for another clan to receive such blatant favoritism!"
"Lord Akimichi, perhaps you haven't seen what is going on in our village today. Despite the outward appearance of strength, we are barely keeping everything together," Hiashi Hyuuga explained smoothly. "We need to find a way to relieve the pressure from our conventional forces."
"I agree," Shibi Aburame consented in a neutral tone, "While our forces have grown in the last six years to beyond what they were before the Fourth Shinobi World War, the economies of the countries in the Elemental Nations have only grown more. While the ninja villages took a drastic hit, the countries did not. The demand for ninja services only continued to grow during a time when half our forces were dead or out of commission. We are still short on manpower relative to the demand around us."
"I agree as well, but I would like to know why we should not continue using ANBU as we have done in the past?" Reina Hagoromo murmured. "While ANBU doesn't have a specific division for policing the general public, ANBU operatives have maintained the peace within the village after the untimely demise of the Uchiha clan."
"ANBU may be a specialized force, but all ANBU operatives are still part of the conventional forces," Kaien Tsuchigumo responded.
"Indeed," Hiashi agreed, "that was the purpose of my proposal. Crime rates within Konoha are at an all-time low. I believe the ANBU operatives currently patrolling the village streets are better off out in the field. We can sufficiently enforce peace using our reserves. It will keep our reserves trained and in shape as well."
"No one disagrees with you, Lord Hyuuga," Tsume Inuzuka replied. "We just don't trust your motivation."
"My motivation?" Hiashi frowned before clenching his fists for a few seconds. "How dare you?" Hiashi said in a soft yet frigid voice. "You are accusing my clan of treason. My clan has split more blood than all of yours combined during the Fourth War," Hiashi said in that same dangerous tone. "Don't you dare question where our loyalties lie!"
"We're not accusing anyone of treason," Unkai Kurama responded calmly, "but you're proposing that the Hyuuga clan be given special powers within the village. No matter how you look at this, you must admit that this appears like a power grab."
"But at the same time, what better clan is there to police the village?" Gendo Shimura asked out loud. "The Byakugan would even be better than the Sharingan in rooting out domestic criminals. In my opinion, the Hyuuga clan should have been given jurisdiction of the Konoha Military Police in the first place."
Kakashi felt that he had enough of this. He was tired of listening to the same talking points over and over again. The vote was a tie. Akimichi, Nara, Yamanaka, Inuzuka, and Kurama were against while Shimura, Hagoromo, Tsuchigumo, Hyuuga, and Aburame were for reviving the Konoha Military Police. The Sarutobi abstained, most likely to avoid offending their Akimichi, Nara, and Yamanaka allies, even if they supported the proposal, and since Naruto was absent, the Uzumaki clan also abstained.
Kakashi technically had the tie-breaking vote, but he generally liked to have consensus on motions. A good Hokage always had the consent of the governed.
Even though Hiashi was not causing nearly as many headaches in the general assembly as he did in the past before Hanabi married Naruto, Hiashi still brought a ton of grief. Fortunately, Hiashi was nowhere near the dangerous man that Danzo was. It was only that Hiashi simply thought the Hyuuga could serve the village better than any other clan.
Konoha put economics and civilian welfare ahead of anything else, including military operations. Hiashi constantly tried to shift more resources to the military side—albeit for defensive purposes, unlike Danzo who supported a expansionary militaristic approach—saying that Konoha needed to be able to protect itself. Kakashi wondered if it was arrogance or difference in philosophy. Simple arrogance they could all deal with, but if Hiashi had a different and dangerous type of philosophical belief on how a village should be run, then there could be a problem. They did not need a variant of Danzo.
"Lord Hiashi," Kakashi calmly explained, "As happy as I am that you're looking out for my best interests and while it is true that ANBU is overstretched, it isn't a good idea to give one clan sole jurisdiction of the Konoha Military Police. How about a compromise?"
Hiashi looked intrigued. "Yes?"
"I will agree to a Konoha Military Police," Kakashi said, raising his hand to silence the protest from the opposition. "However, I will not give the Hyuuga clan sole jurisdiction over such an independent military force."
There was silence at that. Everyone had assumed that one clan would be given the role of managing the independent department. Now that the Hokage was proposing spreading the power around, there were whispers among all the clan heads with the two confidants they were allowed to bring with them from their clans.
"Lord Hokage, how necessary is this?" Chouza asked curiously. "The Akimichi clan wouldn't be completely opposed to the plan if there was justification for it. Just how short are we on manpower?"
Shikamaru decided to speak up. "I have the fortune of working in the Hokage's office and have seen the records. It is…" Shikamaru paused for a while here, "understandable that Lord Hyuuga would bring this proposal up. Lord Uzumaki, who is also his son-in-law, had to go on thirty-eight consecutive S-rank missions—most of them solo—In the last two years alone because of our situation. With Lord Uzumaki taking up the bulk of the most difficult missions, Lord Hokage was able to assign ninjas to other easier missions. However, Lord Uzumaki has finally decided to exercise his right to demand all his vacation days. Furthermore, he has been assigned to be a jounin instructor. The missions he would have taken will now fall on many of our other ninjas."
"Thirty-eight?" The Unkai asked in disbelief.
"Solo?" Reina said with wide eyes. "That's…that's…"
"That's…that's ridiculous!" the Chouza finished for her. "How is Lord Uzumaki not insane yet?"
"Some would say that he is insane. The pranks, the ramen, and God knows what else," Kakashi muttered before a round of chuckles were heard.
"What about some of our other S-rank caliber ninjas? Can they not pick up the slack?" Inoichi's wife asked.
Kakashi groaned before realizing that the woman was only a chuunin before she retired. She probably wouldn't know too much about the active ninjas or how the ranking system was set.
"We have two other S-ranks in our village: myself and Gai. Three if you count Temari Nara," Kakashi murmured. "Gai had been running high-rank missions as well. He's not quite on the level of Naruto, but Gai has soloed five in the last two years. I myself cannot leave the village without good reason. Temari Nara is an S-rank as well, but while she is loyal, she can't be given such dangerous missions because of what it would do to our relationship with Suna in case of an accident."
He didn't say that Temari was too connected to Suna and couldn't be given sensitive mission out loud because he didn't want to offend Shikamaru, but the message was there underneath the surface.
"What about our A—"
Kakashi cut the person off to explain further. "When I said that Gai soloed five missions, this was, of course, in addition to the other A-rank and S-rank missions that Gai performed within a squad. As for Naruto, he soloed most of his missions. I should remind you that even soloing one S-rank mission is an amazing feat that had only first been done by each of the legendary Sannin. Even the Third did not attempt to solo an S-rank until the Second Shinobi World War when he had absolutely no choice." He turned to Hiashi again. "So I do understand where this proposal is coming from. Once again, I would like to reiterate that I understand your position and thank you for your concern. But it is true that the opposition raised fair points as well. It would be unwise to give one clan too much power within the village."
Kakashi carefully observed the Hyuuga clan head and noted Shikamaru doing the same when the Hyuuga clan head appeared to be reluctant. There still was something very strange about how Hanabi and Naruto ended up together. He and Shikamaru were still keeping their eyes opened for any possible conspiracy by the Hyuuga clan. He felt incredibly guilty at suspecting those in his village of treason, but that was one of the jobs of the Hokage.
"Very well," Hiashi finally said. "I will lend my support this amendment."
"Good!" Kakashi said in a light but cheerful tone. "Now let's vote!"
As expected, the motion passed with near unanimity.
Once it became obvious that the power would be shared, each of the clans wanted a part of the pie. In the end, it was agreed that the council itself would appoint the chief of the Military Police once every year and that the chief would directly report to the general assembly once every month during the meetings. To appease Hiashi, it was agreed that he would be the first chief of the revived Military Police.
Kakashi groaned when he saw someone stand up to bring yet another proposal to the table.
"Ahem," one of the civilian representatives said. Kakashi noted that there was another civilian representative who was seconding the motion. "We have something we would like to bring up on behalf of Konoha's Fourth and Seventh Districts."
There were twelve districts in Konoha to match the twelve noble clans. Normally, the civilians didn't talk much since most of the matters discussed involved ninjas and didn't have official voting power, but they still represented the civilians and were an important part of the legislative process.
Kakashi turned his attention to the man. "Yes?"
"First, we wanted to bring up the matter about the rumors around the town."
"Rumors?"
"There has been talk of a command that was sent out earlier today. Is it true that Konoha is no longer taking mission requests from foreign countries?"
Kakashi sighed. He had hoped to avoid this at this meeting, but it seemed like the civilians got word as well. The ninjas understood that emergencies were needed and Shikamaru had a notice sent out to all the clan heads explaining the situation to appease them. But the civilians often saw the world through rosy glasses.
"Yes, it is true."
As expected, there was uproar from the civilian side. Even some of the clan heads let their displeasure show.
"This is ridiculous! You are willing to destroy our economy?! What could possibly be so important that—"
Kakashi let out a bit of killing intent to subtly make everyone in the room sweat. Unlike the Third, he was willing to use force to get what he wanted. And he would never take disrespect lying down.
"An S-rank missing ninja slaughtering our ninjas in foreign lands isn't a good enough reason for you?" There was a deadly silence after that. "To you greedy pigs," Kakashi spat out the word, "the lives of ninjas may be meaningless as long as your businesses run properly, but to many of us, ninjas are our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, fathers, and mothers. I prioritize saving lives of my villagers."
"Who is this missing ninja?"
"Classified," Kakashi replied curtly. "But according to our reports, he is so strong that even Naruto might lose against him." There was another pause at that. The thought of their strongest ninja since the First Hokage losing in battle was sobering. "Now then, is there any serious proposals or concerns?"
(AN: All the Hokages were the greatest at something. First Hokage = strongest, Second Hokage = the best water user/fastest at the time, Third Hokage = most knowledgeable, Fourth Hokage = fastest, Fifth Hokage = the greatest medic, Sixth Hokage = most number of ninjutsu)
No one wanted to talk after that but another civilian representative slowly stood up after mustering up her courage.
"We wanted to talk about the Clan Preservation Act. Lord Hashirama Senju put this clause in to protect clans from becoming extinct. Furthermore, it is common amongst nobility to take more than one wife. Lord Uzumaki is the last of a clan and is also a noble. We civilians wish to have the opportunity to offer our daughters to Lord Uzumaki."
Kakashi mentally groaned as he shelved any thought about the masked man and the Hyuuga clan away in a corner of his mind. Everyone in the village was treating Naruto like a golden ticket to prosperity. Even though it was rather annoying, Kakashi didn't blame any of them. Naruto was the legendary Golden Sun of Konoha, one of the strongest ninjas in Konoha's history. Pride, dignity, none of that mattered when it came to vying from trying to get some kind of political advantage. Many of the villagers had done the same when Sasuke was young and in the village as well.
It was going to be a rather long night.
Even when out of the village and away, his student found a way of giving him grief.
Damn you, Naruto. You're always the source of my problems.
Konoha War Room, Konoha – April 16, AK 22
"Shizune, if you will."
"Yes, sir," she answered dutifully. Konohamaru looked at the Hokage with curiosity as Shizune handed out folders to the twelve people in the room before sitting down in her own seat.
It was the unofficial mission control of Konoha, an elite group made up of the Hokage (Hatake), ANBU Commander (Dragon), Jounin Commander who was also the head of the Combat & Tactics department (Yamato), and the heads of the various departments in Konoha's military including Intelligence (Morino), Communications (Ino), Border Patrol (Gai), Research & Development (Uzuki), and Supply & Relief (Shizune). The others—himself, Kanden, Lee, Sai, Shirakumo, and Mitarashi—were either senior commanders in the normal forces or vice-heads of the aforementioned departments. With the exception of Naruto and Hanabi (who were on a honeymoon) and Temari who was currently getting checked up at the hospital, everyone in the room collectively were the entirety of Konoha's active A-rank and S-rank ninjas.
The Hokage picked up his own manila folder, "Now, I am sure all of you are wondering why I called every active domestic ninja on our roster at A-rank or higher into one room in the middle of the night. Well," he paused, "minus our high profile newlyweds who are probably in a room of their own right now."
Konohamaru couldn't stop himself from snickering at that despite the disapproving looks the women in the room gave him and the Hokage.
"Oh man, I'm going to have so much material to use to make fun of little Hanabi when she gets back," He chortled. "Big Brother told me some of the things he had planned to do. Just a warning to you all: don't be surprised if you hear her calling him 'Master' when they get back. Naruto said he was going to 'tame' her and make her a nice submissive wife."
"Oh?" The Hokage threw him an interested look. "Perhaps you should relay some of those to the new editors of Icha Icha. I wouldn't mind reading about some of the creative ideas that Naruto comes up with. Although, if you think about it," the Hokage crossed his arms in mock seriousness, "Hanabi already declared her intent to be submissive with what she wore at the wedding. Do you think they could have…?"
Konohamaru gasped. "Of course!" His brother must have shown Hanabi such a great time the night before their wedding that Hanabi decided to reward him by—
"Ahem!" A purple-haired lady coughed.
Konohamaru rolled his eyes at Uzuki. Why did women have to be such prudes?
"Joke aside," Dragon, the hooded ANBU commander, stood up. No one aside from the Hokage and the ANBU sub-commanders knew exactly who Dragon was. Konohamaru had personally gone through the list of A-ranks and S-ranks to check if any of them were Dragon, but that line of investigation had produced nothing. After all, someone could always produce a shadow clone for meetings to throw people off. As far as they knew, Dragon could be a shadow clone of the Hokage. "Lord Hokage has called all of here to discuss several unknown threats to our village security and safety. Note, this is a list that ANBU has put together independently from the Intelligence and Espionage department. Now, let's turn to the first one in the file."
Konohamaru opened his file and saw the data profile and picture of a cloaked man named Taiyou no Kuroi Kokuten. Skimming quickly, he saw the man was classified as S-rank, with advanced skills in every single ninja art and tremendous chakra levels thought to rival lower level bijuus.
He raised an eyebrow. "Dragon, how accurate is our information? A bijuu? Are you serious? They haven't been seen since the last war! They were supposed to be sent to another dimension!"
"The information that Intelligence and Espionage collected goes very well in like with what ANBU has discovered."
"How is our intelligence on this man so complete?" Uzuki inquired. "If this Kokuten is as strong as suggested, how were there any survivors to tell the story?"
"I'll answer that before Ibiki does," Dragon commented. "Kokuten hasn't killed a single member of our forces. Jounin Hanabi, Special Jounin Lee, and Jounin Tenten battled him directly, while I personally took some of my ANBU operatives to track him down in the past week. He's a slippery fellow, but we managed to find out that he has deep ties with the revived Oto. Furthermore, from what we managed to gather from some of Oto ninjas we killed, this Kokuten is a big supplier for the current leader there."
"Oto?" Uzuki asked carefully. Konohamaru sighed. It had been a decade ago, but the woman was still hung up on the fact that her lover had been killed. To this day, the exact perpetrator had not been found. Sand, and especially Temari, was suspiciously keeping silent on it, but there was no evidence to prove anything one way or the other.
"I already told Lord Hokage this, but he has come up on our radar," Morino murmured, "because he has been seen by our covert operatives in the Land of Rice Fields. We weren't able to infiltrate Oto, but we have operatives in the country that have heard whispers of a cloaked man. And from the enemies we captured, some were all too willing to sing about this Kokuten being strong enough to demand the Oto leader not to make moves that antagonize the big five countries and the great villages.
Gai nodded. "We have also noticed activity on parts of our border around the small countries near Oto. There had been lots of unyouthful activities in the Land of Rice Fields that led to an investigation and subsequent discovery of Oto. It is being led by Kabuto, Orochimaru's former apprentice. But it is as Department Head Ibiki says, there is no suspicious activity in the big five countries."
The Hokage interrupted. "Interestingly enough, you'll find that Kabuto is second person on file. However, we'll get to him in a bit. Dragon has a theory that I believe all of you should hear."
"ANBU has reason to believe that Kokuten is Sasuke Uchiha," Dragon said slowly.
There was a small pause. Then…
"What!?" Ino yelled out incredulously. "Sasuke? But he's been missing for over six years!"
Dragon merely crossed his arms. "Well it appears that Sasuke Uchiha is now back."
"Well, shit," Yamato muttered.
Konohamaru didn't blame him. While Konoha freely released Sasuke from service, in exchange for a truce, no one was ever quite sure if Sasuke truly gave up his vengeance. It was said that Sasuke wanted revenge because he felt that Konoha had intentionally marginalized him and did not accept him as the Hokage. Konohamaru wasn't sure if he believed the story or not, but just decided to let it go. Sasuke wasn't his problem.
But now, it seemed like Sasuke was making a move to challenge the ninja world again. While Dragon did state that Sasuke hadn't taken the lives of any Konoha ninja—Konohamaru glanced at the second sheet in front of him—it appeared that Oto had and had done so with weapons that Sasuke provided. The number of casualties was still below fifty, mostly new chuunin eager to prove their worth and rushing to their deaths, but it still wasn't something they could overlook.
"The last Uchiha? Ibiki and I did manage to obtain some information on his fighting style, but there's nothing there to confirm that it's Sasuke," Mitarashi added. "It would have been easy to confirm his existence with the snakes, but it appears that Sasuke terminated his contract with them long ago."
"When we encountered him, he did a good job of using a variety of techniques so he would be hard to identify, but we found a few key elements over the last two months that led us to suspect that it's Sasuke," Dragon stated in a monotone voice. "You'll see it in the file."
"High speed taijutsu, illusions without hand signs, powerful fire ninjutsu, and a lightning shroud similar to the Chidori Current?" Shirakumo murmured. "That's hardly enough evidence to claim that it's our renegade Uchiha. For all we know, it could be someone trying to mislead us."
Konohamaru didn't agree with the man, but the Shirakumo was known for being deliberate and looking at things without bias. But Dragon was said to be even a better strategist than Shikamaru. If Dragon concluded it was Sasuke, then that's where Konohamaru would put his money.
"There are not too many people outside of Konoha who know my Front Lotus well enough to dodge when I am moving with even one of the Inner Gates opened. This man dodged while I had four open," Lee piped in. "Even with the Sharingan, it would have been fairly difficult to dodge unless he knew the move was already coming before I performed it. It would make sense if this Kokuten was Sasuke."
"Damn," Kanden whistled, "he managed to completely evade your Front Lotus? That some ridiculous speed."
"That's not all," Lee frowned. "Hanabi Hyuuga, well…I suppose it's now Hanabi Uzumaki, managed to pierce his mask with her Byakugan just as she blacked out and managed to get a glimpse of his eyes. She noted that they were red."
"Sharingan…" Morino muttered.
Dragon nodded. "He also made a point to comment on the girl's eyes. Such a statement is characteristic of what Sasuke would say."
Shirakumo frowned. "Still, the evidence is circumstantial at best."
Dragon nodded once more. "I agree. Don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that we are absolutely sure that this is the last Uchiha. For example, we notice in our encounter that this man uses a staff, something that Team Hanabi did not observe during their fight with him. Furthermore, the chakra pressure was nowhere near as potent as described in the reports by the members of Team Hanabi."
Lee frowned. "This Kokuten has shown a remarkable ability to control his aura at will so I wouldn't place too much stock in that. He could have been misleading you there as well."
"Agreed. What might complicate matters even further is that there may be two people masquerading as this cloaked man, or it may not be Sasuke at all. But Lord Hokage and I feel that it would be dangerous to assume the opposite as well. For now, we will say that Kokuten is suspected tobe Sasuke. That is why we send out that order recalling all our forces in foreign lands. Be on your guard."
"The identity of the person isn't too important at this time. If you run into a cloaked man with a black mask, while on a normal mission with a squad, just flee on sight," the Hokage ordered. "First of all, we still don't know if Kokuten is hostile to Konoha. We may not have to worry about him at all. Furthermore, this is not an enemy that any of you can take on, even with a full squad. I'll be sending out an advanced team, composed of only those in this room, but just from the reported chakra levels alone, our only bet might be to have to send our ace after him," the Hokage grumbled in mild frustration, "after he stops having fun in bed with a hot wife while I'm stuck with this damn hat. Ugh. I really need to get laid. I wonder if Shizune would be willing to keep me company tonight."
It was so quiet that they would have been able to hear a pin drop.
"Ah," the Hokage said in a nervous voice, "did I say that out loud?"
Konohamaru nodded silently as did everyone else in the room.
He counted in his head while chortling silently.
Three.
Two.
One.
"WHAT?!"
Chaos erupted. Gai was holding up a Shizune who had fainted—probably intentionally to avoid even more shame—in embarrassment, while Yamato and Sai were holding back a furious and indignant Uzuki and Ino. The entire room was filled with shrieks of anger from the women and full-blown laughter from most of the men.
Uzuki had somehow managed to pull free and had pulled out her sword.
"Everyone!" Dragon interrupted in a stern voice. "Calm down. It's just a damn joke! Act your ages! And besides, who gives a damn whom the Hokage sleeps with or fantasizes about? Just do your goddamn jobs."
There was a bit of silence. Dragon was right. Everyone was overreacting just a bit.
Morino took over from here. "That's it for Kokuten and Sasuke. We're moving on." There was some shuffling of pages. "As mentioned, Oto is being run by Kabuto. As of now they are the more direct threat. Our operatives have discovered that, as already mentioned in Kokuten's file, Kabuto gets regular shipments of strange seals, which are designed to nullify any external chakra. The user is also prevented from using ninjutsu or genjutsu, but has an advantage in taijutsu because the seals are able to nullify even incoming taijutsu attacks."
"Lee." Dragon queried. "You are the only one here to have fought with a person using these seals to augment their abilities. My squad faced seals that decreased the opponents abilities."
"It is as Department Head Morino says," Lee said thoughtfully, "None of the ninja arts are effective against someone with these seals on. The base talent of the user I was fighting didn't seem to be too high, but it was difficult to stay out of his reach. Even one hit shaves off a huge chunk of a ninja's reserves. Later on, when the cloaked man appeared, he mentioned something about the seals having limits, however."
"The only thing we know is that this Kokuten's fire attack that used up more than an A-rank's entire reserves had been above the expected threshold." Dragon added. "So these seals can be breached. It might be safe to assume that Kokuten has these seals on as well. But Phoenix and I were able to force the man to dodge our technique instead of nullifying it. Collaboration techniques become exponentially stronger with the addition of more people and may be the best bet. However," he added, "it is still recommended to use weapons to harm rather than chakra."
"I'll look to it so that one weapons user is sent on every team that heads in that direction," Yamato agreed, "and send in a notice to all the active ninjas to brush up on weapons techniques."
"It's a pain in the ass," Dragon added, "especially since we ninjas use chakra more than we do weapons, but I guess it's a good time to start making our forces a bit more well-rounded."
Konohamaru smiled in glee. He would enjoy teaching Naruto's brats about weapons. Those brats had it coming with all the pranks they kept pulling on him.
AN: A quick update. Hopefully, the next few updates will come quickly as well.
I'm just glad I'm done with the damn "filler arc," if it can be called that. Basically, the last few chapters were "what was going on in Konoha while Naruto and Hanabi are on their honeymoon" arc. Got so tired of it, that I just added the first half of what was supposed to be the next chapter. It worked out because it flows better with this chapter than the next.
Now it shifts to Naruto and Hanabi again for a few chapters for the final part of their honeymoon, which ends up being in the Land of the Moon. Honeymoon in the Land of the Moon. How fitting, right? And considering just who is in the Land of the Moon right now, it won't just be fluff although I won't hold my breath for a Naruto-Sasuke showdown just yet.
I have an interesting idea for a couple new stories (well one new one and one adopted from another writer). I'm debating on whether I should start them. Either would be more popular than this one, at least from the get go, and definitely be more fun/less challenging to write, but I really want to finish this one before I start.