A/N: Hello again! I'd like to thank those of you who welcomed me back, it was lovely ^.^ But enough about me, here's the next chapter for you! As always I hope you enjoy the read and let me know what you think, as long as it's not too flamey of course :)
The meeting room was already rife with a serious atmosphere, thick enough to make it almost unbearable, and the briefing hadn't even begun. Sakura, Sai, Tenten, Shino, Naruto and Kiba were all now seated around the rectangular-shaped table, some fidgeting in their seats while others wore a grim expression, already anxious to see what the briefing will mean for their fates. Shizune was standing by Tsunade's right side, while an ANBU Black Op was on her left, acting as a bodyguard in case the meeting was interrupted by someone, namely The Manipulator.
Tsunade's eyes were squinted as she scanned around the room to see if everything was in order before starting the meeting. She could see that most of the teens were anxious for it to begin, but she knew better then to rush such a crucial event.
While Tsunade was mentally preparing for the meeting, Kiba finally realized that Tenten, of all people, was sitting in front of him on the other side of the table. He instantly remembered the semi-sexual dream he had of her, but kept telling himself:
It was just a dream Kiba, just a dream... There's no way she's The Manipulator! How the hell could she just sit there if she was?!
Kiba reassured himself that it couldn't be Tenten, but kept an eye on her nonetheless, mainly to make sure she couldn't somehow molest him like in the dream. His thoughts were interrupted by Tsunade looking ready to begin the meeting.
"Welcome, everyone. Most of you already know why you were summoned here, and I hope you prepared for it accordingly. However some of you don't know, so I'll explain the purpose of this meeting in the simplest way."
Naruto and Kiba were now almost ready to burst with the anxiety of it all, as they were now completely focused on Tsunade to learn of what happened. They saw Tsunade look over to them with, what looked like, pity. It was now clear that this was gonna have a bad effect on the two boys, but they've had enough time to prepare for it now, or so they thought. Tsunade sighed slightly, and then took a deep breath to announce the news.
...
"Hinata Hyuga was Kidnapped by The Manipulator."
...
Naruto looked down to the table. He heard her words loud and clear, but said nothing.
"W-What?" Kiba looked shocked, his voice breaking.
Tsunade was surprised by Naruto's reaction, as she'd normally expect him to be the one yelling and demanding to go look for her ASAP. She put that thought aside though as she progressed with the briefing.
"I know this has come as a shock, to all of us, but it's crucial that we remain calm and vigilant in the face of such adversity. This meeting is for that purpose, as now is the chance for us all to consolidate what knowledge we have and come up with a plan to bring Hinata back."
"But what knowledge do we have?" Shino spoke out. "We have nothing to go on. How can we find whoever kidnapped her, when we don't even know who we're dealing with?"
Tsunade could see that Shino was cynical of the productiveness of the meeting, which couldn't be blamed as it was his best-friend who were kidnapped. She knew however that he needed to be positive for it to be productive, so she then thought about trying to persuade him about the Meetings potential effectiveness.
"Shino, I know things may seem grim, but why would I call a Meeting if we had truly nothing to go on? Although yes, the Manipulator is elusive, we have been working hard to find out as much we can. For example, Naruto and Kiba may have just brought back something worth looking into, am I correct boys?"
Naruto and Kiba were surprised by Tsunade's psychic assumption, as the pendant and data-book just proved her point. Shino's cynical expression was now almost lifted, becoming more hopeful that they actually do have something to go on.
"Y-Yeah, I think we may have something Lady Tsunade." Kiba replied, feeling the data-book in his hands as confirmation.
"You see Shino? Not only that, but I've already spoke with Shizune about where Hinata could be, which I'll discuss shortly with you all."
There was an instant relief of pressure in the room, as hearing the Hokage say that made the hope for finding Hinata more realistic then before.
"Now that we got the introduction out of the way with, it's time we get on with bringing forward any clues, evidence or ideas concerning The Manipulator. I'll get things rolling first, as I'll tell you all what me and Shizune discussed earlier."
Tsunade pulled a crumpled note out from the stack of papers in front of her, which she then placed closer to the center of the table for all to see.
"This note was what Shizune found earlier this morning while on a scouting run by the north-east border of the Fire Country. It was what confirmed Hinata's disappearance, as she was also on a mission in that territory. We believe it was written by The Manipulator directly."
Slight gasps were heard by Tenten in particular, who was still completely oblivious to Kiba's spying eye.
Sakura however didn't understand how Shizune found the note in such a vast territory. "Where exactly did you find it though Shizune? I mean it sounds pretty far-fetched for it to be found in such a huge area by chance!"
"My mission took place through a series of roads and villages, so I had to pass through populated areas. It seems as if The Manipulator, or one of his subordinates, had figured out where I was heading based on my overall route, so they delivered it to me by a Messenger Bird, just like any other note or letter."
"B-But still, how could they have known where you were in the first place? I thought missions were confidential!"
Tenten answered for Shizune, "It seems that The Manipulator must have a lot of connections for him to track Shizune down, and that probably includes spies..."
"Tenten is probably right. The Manipulator has shown incredible influence already, such as by almost destroying Amatores with a mercenary army within less then a day of knowing Naruto and Kiba would be there..." Tsunade confirmed Tenten's point.
"I already discussed this with you all, bar Naruto and Kiba before the meeting, so I'll repeat again what the Note had described. It says that we have 48 hours to find Hinata before The Manipulator, most probably, kills her. It's rather cliche, but dire nonetheless. Depending on how this meeting progresses, we will either go this evening or tomorrow morning at dawn after another meeting."
"Well we should obviously go this evening Baa-chan! We don't have any time to lose!" Naruto began his almost normal bout of shouting at her which, in a roundabout way, made her feel better to see he was now more energetic then before. However, her anger vein still managed to flare, as his impatience was also the most annoying trait to her.
"Silly Naru! The Hokage is trying to say that, if the meeting is very productive, we might go later. But if not, she'll need more time to strategize and try to acquire more evidence over night. You really are dense, aren't you little fox?" Sai decided to pitch in, his patronizing smile putting Naruto on the verge of a Kyuubi rampage.
"Why you-"
"That's enough for now guys, we need to give more of what we know!" Tenten tried to break up the forming argument.
"You're right, but what exactly do you have that we can use?" Kiba replied harshly to Tenten, not thinking she was of any use in the meeting. She looked taken back by Kiba's passive aggression, but knew that by retaliating it would just be wasting time, putting Hinata in more danger.
"Actually, I have the list of Recent Rogue & Missing Ninja that Lady Tsunade ordered me to find." Tenten said as she retrieved a plastic wallet with paper documents inside of it; the List of rogue ninja she just mentioned. Kiba was honestly surprised she had something to bring, so he admitted internal defeat and put his paranoia to one side, for now.
"You do Tenten? What were your findings?" Tsunade sat forward, now intrigued to hear the report.
"I found out that there have been at least 3 missing or rogue ninja within the last week. They are Aaroniero Mayuri, Anko Mitarashi and... Ino Yamanaka."
"Ino's gone missing?!" Sakura gasped. The others looked just as shocked, especially for Naruto, as on the night that he was attacked he suspected it could of been her, which puts her down now as a real suspect.
"According to this? Yeah, for over a week now..." Tenten replied gloomily.
"Well if Tentens report is accurate, and Naruto's description of his attacker that night is taken into account, Ino is now definitely a suspect at this point." Tsunade spoke almost rhetorically to herself, trying to fit some of the pieces together in her head. She knew, however, that finding out who The Manipulator was were a secondary objective of the meeting, and actually finding out Where he/she is with Hinata is the primary objective. But since most of the clues are aimed at who he/she is, she thought it best to try and figure out their identity before anything else.
"Despite the primary aim of this meeting in finding out where Hinata is being held, I feel we should first figure out who we think The Manipulator is, so we can predict where they might be hiding Hinata." Sai commented after seeing Tsunade in deep thought, almost taking the words from her mouth.
He continued, "I have a data-book to see which Shinobi among the three are most capable in-"
"I appreciate you being proactive, Sai, but I already know of the combat and mental abilities of those three missing nin." Tsunade interrupted Sai's dialogue, which almost made Naruto laugh at seeing Sai's trump-card clue being deflated.
"Hey, baa-chan."
Naruto gained Tsunade's attention, albeit strangely, as he didn't seem to be spouting a smart-ass comment or begin shouting about going to the rescue already. Instead, he was looking down to the table in what looked like reflective thought, which Kyuubi described as something quite evolutionary when it concerned Naruto.
"What is is Naruto?" Tsunade was now interested in hearing Naruto's response, as his mannerisms hopefully meant it was something actually meaningful.
"I know this is unlikely, but was the note signed by any kind of signature we can decipher?"
Wait, of course! It was signed with Initials! Tsunade's mental light-bulb shone brilliantly, only just realizing that the initials in the note would obviously be a huge clue to who The Manipulator actually was. She picked up the note in-front of her again, and read the bottom of it.
"A.M, A.K.A The Manipulator"
Oh crap, this just complicated things even more!
Tsunade's internal happiness was cut short as she realized that, if this was to coincide with Tentens report, there were two possible suspects with the Initials of A.M: Aaroneiro Mayuri and Anko Mitarashi.
"You raised a good point, Naruto. But the trouble is that there are now two suspects if going by this and Tentens report, but also Ino if going by her report and your description of your attacker... Kami, this is where it will become complicated. We'll need more evidence or clues to sift these three suspects apart, as right now it could be any one of them, and that would drastically affect our rescue effort for finding Hinata."
"So there isn't any raw evidence to where she could be? I thought you said you discussed with Shizune where Hinata could be baa-chan?!"
"We did, and it's now invalid judging from our new findings just now. We thought that she could of been held inside the Village somewhere, which would of been smart for The Manipulator, as it's where we'd least expect to send a search party for obvious reasons. But since the suspects are all missing nin, and we can't detect their chakra within the village, our previous theory is now useless Naruto."
"Cha! The Manipulator's probably confused us this much on purpose, and I bet he/she disguised their-self as Ino during the night they attacked Naruto!" Sakura shouted, annoyed at the mind-games they're being subjected to.
"Sakura, I know Ino is close to you, but don't assume that it wasn't her that night Naruto got attacked. Maybe it was a disguise, but we don't know that for sure." Tenten tried to correct Sakura's bias, but understood how she must of felt, having to consider one of her best-friends as a suspect.
...
The room fell silent for the first time in well over an hour, all of the attendees, including Tsunade and Shizune, were dead silent. They all loathed this silence, as it was one of confusion; not quite knowing where to go next with the knowledge-gathering or the meeting itself.
"L-Lady Tsunade?" Kiba broke the pregnant silence.
"What is it Kiba? Do you have something we can use?"
"Well, not me, but I think Naruto does."
Tsunade looked over to Naruto who, at first, shrugged dramatically and gave a filthy look to Kiba for supposedly embarrassing him. Naruto didn't realize that he had in fact acquired a possible clue from his mission, which he forgot about during his "Mind like a sieve" moment as Kyu calls them.
"The pendant dumbass!" Kiba whacked him on the head, snapping him out of his dumb response.
"Ohh right! hehe..." Naruto gave his trademark nervous laugh of defeat as he fumbled around his trouser pocket for the broken pendant. He finally picked it out and placed it in-front of him on the table for Tsunade and the others to see. Tsunade pulled it closer to inspect it, and instantly felt a strange, almost nostalgic chakra surrounding it.
"Naruto found it on the ground after we killed the bandits at Amatores, he said he felt the same chakra on the pendant that was on me after I was possessed." Kiba explained what they knew of the possible clue, while Tsunade became more and more interested in it.
Hmm this is interesting, no doubt about that... I feel it's more useful then it first appears. Sai should know how to find out more about this.
"Sai, I'd like you to inspect this amulet and see if it holds any importance." Tsunade handed the pendant over to the artist-nin. His eyes were now scanning the pendant, while turning it on its side and back to front, trying to get a feel for it.
My my, this pendant really is quite special... Kami knows how Silly Naru and Growling Mutt could have found this!
Sai tried his best to see if it held any secrets from him, but even his detective skills in the Foundation didn't help much here. He somehow felt though that it was still hiding something, but he didn't know how to unlock it.
"I'm sorry Lady Hokage, it would seem that I can't figure out much about this strange pendant." Sai passed it back to Tsunade.
"But" he continued, "I feel there's more to it then meets the eye!"
"I thought as much... Naruto, is there anything else, at all, that you know about this pendant? Both me and Sai know that this must be hiding something, so is there not anything else you can help us go on for now?"
"Give it here granny, let ME take a look at it!"
"Wait, are you saying you didn't look at it before Nar?" Kiba turned to Naruto.
"W-Well of course I did!... kinda..."
"My Nar really is a dense baka!"
Naruto's eye twitched, but decided to just ignore the snickering dog-nin. He looked at the pendant and, as far as the eye could tell, it was a pretty standard item, besides how old it looked. But he and the others could sense it was special perhaps on the inside, so he asked Kyuubi so see if she knew anything.
"Oi Kyuubi, you know we think there's something up with this pendant thing, what can you tell from it?"
'I can't tell much unless you let me see if for myself dobe! Let me take control for a sec.'
"Eh fine, but don't go killing Sai just 'cause you got the chance!'
'Oh don't worry Kit, i'll save that for another day...'
Naruto let Kyuubi out of the seal and she took control of Naruto's body. Naruto's eyes were now crimson red, which alarmed most of the other people in room. They calmed after a few seconds as they realized this wasn't exactly a killing rampage by Kyuubi, but rather her trying to help them figure out the supposed secret of this pendant.
"Hmm..." Naruto's voice sounded rough and almost feral, thanks to Kyuubi's control. Tenten was close to fainting from it all, never before seeing Naruto like this face-to-face.
"Don't be such a drama queen Tenten." Kiba scowled at her.
"S-Sorry It's just that-"
"Wait a sec."
Naruto, or Kyuubi rather, caught the groups attention as the pendant started to glow slightly green. The green energy looked like Chakra, which Kyuubi instantly recognized as being like The Manipulators.
"Is that?-" Sakura caught on too that it was similar to the chakra found in The Manipulators poison.
Before Sakura could finish her sentence, something was wrong. Naruto's hand holding the pendant began to shake, now spreading to his arm.
"N-Naruto?!"
"N-Nar, Are you ok?!"
"Shizune! Get hnm th-..."
"W-What the hell is happening?! Their voices make no damn sense anymore, and why are they moving away? What's going on Kyuubi?!"
Before Naruto could hear Kyuubi's explanation, he began to fade out of his own consciousness. He could still barely hear voices, but now couldn't even make out who they were or what they said. Strange colors assaulted his peripheral vision, then he finally fell to darkness.
A woman, no older then 25 perhaps, was walking through a strangely familiar setting. A huge corridor that stretched out for what seemed like an eternity.
Her appearance was distorted somehow, like shown on a damaged film, but far more supernatural. The colors were vaguely blurred, her hair an indescribable shade of brown or purple. She wore what looked like an over-coat, but the colors were too distorted to make out what they were.
A giant door opened, and two silhouettes were all that was visible. One, the woman who stood her ground by the door, and the other, a figure swathed in dark.
Fire raged, covering the entire room. Kunai were thrown, and punches were too.
The woman was now in chains in another room, which also looked eerily familiar.
"W-Why him?!"
Her voice broke through the silence, but nothing was heard after.
Green energy flowed towards her; her form becoming even more distorted. She was struggling as much as she could against the dark figure in-front of her, but it was in vain. The green light reached her, and her hair now turned to a lighter, almost white shade.
Her struggling stopped, she was now released from the chains and kneeled before the dark-figure; looking like a completely different woman. She stood back up, and exited the chamber.
"Naruto."
Whose voice is that? And what the hell's happening? It's so dark I can't even tell where I am...
"Naruto!"
I... see something now, is that?-"
"Wake the hell up Naruto!"
Naruto shot up from what felt like the hard floor, seeing 7 people crowded around him like hawks. His vision began to return as he made out Sakura's large forehead first of all; her being the one who shouted at him. He then realized he was still in the Meeting room, and that he really was lying on the floor.
"Are you Ok Nar?! We thought you had a seizure or something!" Kiba hugged Naruto tight, hard enough to almost choke off his air supply.
"Y-Yeah I'm fine... but what happened, baa-chan?"
"You completely passed out after violently shaking. Kiba was right, we think you were having a seizure, but you seem to look fine right now..." Tsunade looked confused to why Naruto was already looking stable, but thought back the the beginning of it to see if she could figure out why.
This is definitely odd, as most Shinobi who have seizures tend to have a fluctuating chakra network after, but his seems completely normal... wait, could it have not been a seizure?
Tsunade, being titled the greatest medical nin in the world, was almost always 100% correct with every diagnosis she made. She was bewildered to what else could of caused Naruto's loss of consciousness, as it showed all the symptoms of a seizure with the violent shaking etc. But then she remembered seeing green chakra emanate from the pendant just before it all started.
Wait, could it be?...
"Naruto, did anything strange occur while you was passed out?"
"Y-Yeah..." Naruto looked vacant, almost too much in his own thoughts to cater for Tsunade's questions.
"Well what happened? Did you see a vision or hear something of some sorts?!" Tsunade began to interrogate him, feeling that this was perhaps the jackpot secret of that pendant.
"Y-Yeah..."
"Tell us what you saw Naruto! This is crucial!" Tsunade was now shouting, desperate for Naruto to tell them the possible breakthrough.
"There was a-uh..."
"A what? You have to come out with it Naruto or t-
'Why is she getting quieter? Is it just her or is my hearing getting worse? W-What's going on Kyu?'
'K-Kyu?'
'Kyuubi?!...'
Naruto couldn't hear anything now, and his balance was also starting to deteriorate. He fell back onto the floor and saw once again the others gasp and flock around him, just before his vision was about to fade. He couldn't even hear Kyuubi anymore, which worried him the most. The last thing he saw was Kiba shaking him, with what looked like tears falling down onto the blonde's whiskered cheek. Now there was just darkness, but this time there wouldn't be any more visions like before, but only uncertainty.
A/N: Well there you have it folks! Hehe let me know what you thought of the chapter, and what you think is gonna happen next! This story is twisty at its core, so expect to see more drama before you get to the end of it! Til next time :)