The Boy in the Park
Chapter Twenty-Six
Wearing a cast was starting to trouble him. The fact his left arm had been the one to snap however made it tolerable. By the end of the first day, he had received enough signatures on it that the nurse asked if he wanted another one —just to keep up with all the people he knew.
The fun thing was, the majority of the names were Anbu masks belonging to the Torture and Interrogation department, and quite a lot had words like 'Hope to kidnap you again soon' and 'Next time, you won't get me with the frying pan' and such.
The second fun thing was that he hadn't seen when they actually wrote on it —he understood they were ninja and whatnot, but really, some had written really long prosaic words like 'We Wish Thee Well' and so on.
He hadn't actually thought he had that many people as 'friends' but maybe…maybe it was the Reverse Stockholm Syndrome? Where the kidnapper likes the kidnapped?
He shuddered at the thought, before inserting the keys into the lock of his house. Five days had come and gone, and Naruko had yet to return. He hoped everything had gone well.
He was just about to enter, when a Jounin flickered near him, one with silver hair and his forehead protector acting as an eye-patch.
"Yoh!" Kakashi said with a bright eye-smile. "The Hokage wants to see you, hold tight!"
"Wh—"
The next moment, he actually saw what happened when he was 'kidnapped'.
In a blur, the Jounin sped up and reached for the rooftops, before outright ignoring some basic physics laws like attrition or gravity, and finally reaching inside the Hokage's office from the open window.
He found himself looking first in the eyes of the Hokage, then in those of what looked like half of the Anbu corps. He felt slightly out of place…just slightly.
He blinked once. By the time he opened his eyes again, his cast filled with writings, which varied from 'LET THE FIRE OF YOUTH HEAL YOU FASTER' to 'Icha-Icha will soothe your wounds'. And he didn't know half of the people in there.
"Hokage-sama?" he asked nervously.
"Oh, Haruno-kun, take a seat. How is your arm doing?" the Hokage replied with a small smile. "I heard it was an accident, right?"
"Y-Yes," he nodded quickly as a chair appeared right behind him.
"I didn't take you for a clumsy person, Haruno-kun," the Sandaime smiled. It was that sort of smile that subtly implied: 'I know that you know that I know, so stop bullshitting me before I do something you might regret'. He just swallowed nervously.
"Accidents happen," he replied slowly. His eyes trailed around the room. Really, why the concentration of shinobi?
"Of course they do," the Sandaime smiled. "Of course," he nodded once more. "Anyway, I have called you here because you are directly related to the problem we have at hand," he said carefully. "During the second part of the test, team Seven was attacked…"
"Naruko's all right?" he asked suddenly, before biting his tongue.
"Yes, yes do not worry: all three of them are fine," Hiruzen replied with a chuckle. "No, the problem is who attacked them: Orochimaru of the sannin."
He swallowed and paled. "O-Orochimaru?"
"Indeed, my wayward student has become interested in the last of the Uchiha, and thus targeted the team."
His eyes widened in disbelief. "The sannin? He…are they in the hospital?"
"Yes," Hiruzen nodded before adding quickly, "But fret not, they're just going through a regular set of check-ups after the second test. Mitarashi-san intervened just in time to hold much of Orochimaru's attention. However since both Naruko and Sasuke passed the end of the second test, they will be participating in the finals which will take place one month from now."
He looked at the Hokage with a perplexed expression. Why was he there then? The man seemed to catch on, because he then added.
"I found it best to talk to everyone at the same time, thus the reason for this meeting. Jiraiya will return to Konoha soon, and while he will take care of Naruko's protection, I want to assign Sasuke's safety to Kakashi Hatake and a team of Anbu. There are a few compounds in Konoha where you can set up a training ground, Kakashi," the Sandaime looked towards the silver haired ninja. "You will extensively train and gauge Sasuke's loyalty to Konoha."
Kakashi nodded.
"The rest of you will increase their daily patrols. We have foreign dignitaries coming within the next weeks, and the Daimyo court itself: we cannot let a diplomatic incident happen."
The rest of the Jounin and Anbu nodded, and the Hokage quickly dismissed them before standing up and walking towards him. He swallowed nervously once more, as the Sandaime stopped close to him enough to see his eyes twinkle once. Clear sign the old shinobi was probably going to murder someone.
"This being a shinobi village, there are clear laws on what shinobi can and cannot do against civilians. I looked over your hospital records, and except for a black eye when you were younger," there was some sort of strain in his voice as he said that, "Which is coincidental with you leaving home," again, the strain was there. "There was nothing. You reported you slipped and broke your arm against the table, right?"
He nodded meekly.
"But your table isn't broken," Hiruzen said calmly. "And unless you were an old crone, slipping on a table would not break your arm's bone that cleanly. No, that was done with a pinning move taught to shinobi, so I have to ask who did that, and if you're hiding something then for what reason."
"H-Hokage-sama, really…it was nothing…"
Hiruzen exhaled. "You must understand that with Orochimaru rampant…I just need to know if you were intimidated or coerced into doing something, Haruno-kun…"
"Ah, no, no," he shook his head quickly. "It was nothing like that, really…it was probably my fault anyway, since I st— slipped."
"Oh? So you struggled," Hiruzen nodded once. "I will take your word on it and mind you, if you do not wish to accuse anyone, then I will not press charges…"
The Sandaime looked out of the window. "But a crime is a crime. To let it go unpunished is wrong."
He didn't reply, but simply looked sideways in pain. "I kept you long enough, Haruno-kun," Hiruzen said with a smile then. "Naruko should be in room two-hundred and seven at the Konoha hospital."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama."
To say he dashed out of there would be to minimize the speed he used. In doing so however he missed the slight nod the Hokage gave to a corner of the room, where an Anbu operative nodded back.
He'd have a bodyguard…and he wouldn't even know about it.