alright, here is chapter 20! An other 10 chapters have gone by, wow, i have had such a good time with this story so far, i can only hope that you guys will support me for an other 10 chapters :D, like i did for chapter 10, i would like to give a few statistics of the story so far :P this story was started on Jan 31st, and today is March 11, so that's about 39 days, in those 39 days this story has accumulated 62 reviews almost 11k hits, with an average of 500 hits a day "had one day with 747 hits, i was VERY excited when i saw that :D" with 54k words in 20 chapters, that is a lot for only over one month :P, i am very happy and proud of the story so far, as well as my loyal reviewers, who i shall now respond too :)
xzavx - Thanks for the review, it doesn't affect there memory, actually they are conscious of what they are doing, but they just can't control there actions, i didn't even know Ino had that ability until i read it in her list of Justus :)
chickenman00712 - Thanks for the encouragement, and for the review, keep on reading :)
crsstlk - Thanks for the review, and really? well i hope this chapter makes up for it :/ also to answer the question you asked me a few chapters ago and i keep forgetting, yes, i have read and cough up to chapter 438 of Naruto, all i have to say is..wow, totally not what i was expecting, and i can't wait to find out what happens, i won't go into details here so i don't ruin it for the others who are behind :)
Well that's everyone for now, so here it is, the much anticipated chapter 20!
This chapter was revised on May 26th 2017. Most grammar errors should have been addressed (Hopefully :P) I did a few enhancements and changed a few things around but the story remained unchanged
Saving old bonds
Chapter 20 (Revised)
Shikamaru's team were moving as fast as they could. Once they had Konoha in view they knew that they were safe. But for some reason they did not want to stop running until they had reached the safety of the walls. Tenten was one of the guards at the gate and was going to greet them "Hey guys" she said with a smile, but they didn't even slow down. They just passed through. They had to inform the Hokage of what they had learned "Fine guys, thanks..." She said as she returned to her position
Naruto was in a meeting with the council members about the defenses. They were also planning the possible evacuation of the villagers if they were forced too. The doors opened and an ANBU guard entered "Hokage Sama, the team you sent to scout the enemy have returned sir, I explained to them that you were in a meeting but they claim that they have information that cannot wait"
"That is alright let them in" Naruto said as the man bowed to him and allowed them in.
Shikamaru's team bowed their heads head to show their respect "Hokage Sama, we have come back from our mission with news on the enemy, Ino was able to use her mind transfer Jutsu and get information on many things" He said
"Excellent news, I knew I picked the right people for the job. Ino, what did you learn?" Naruto asked as the council awaited her answer.
"Hokage Sama, the news I come with is not good. Their numbers are much greater then we first thought. There are well over one thousand of them" the council began to whisper hearing the news, Konoha only had a few hundred ninjas.
"Everyone calm down, please let her finish" Naruto commanded as the council stopped to allow her to continue.
"They plan to attack us tomorrow night as the sun sets. I was actually able to sit down at their strategic meeting for their plan of attack" Ino said
"You were able to not only find out when they attack but their entire plan as well? This is much more than I thought we could get, Ino you are one of our greatest spies" Naruto said with a smile
"Although she was caught and thus the plan may change because of it" Kiba stated
"I don't believe it will" Ino said with confidence
"What makes you so sure?" Naruto asked curious
"These people are very confident. They know they have us outnumbered, they think they have already won. I agree that they may change it slightly but the main plan will remain the same" She simply stated.
"Lord Hokage, are you sure we can assume such a thing?" One of the council members asked.
"I trust in Ino's intuition, please continue Ino" he said
Ino smiled feeling confident and happy that Naruto trusted her "First sir, I must begin by saying that Konoha is full of spies. They have Intel on us that I never thought they would have. Such as details on our new fortified defense and their weaknesses. And sir, they have even found out about Sakura and made her a target in order to get to you" she said
Naruto couldn't believe it "What? But I got Neji to step up security and begin searching for spies; how could they have slipped through"
"I have an idea" Shikamaru suddenly spoke up
"What is it?" Naruto asked
"Think about it, what is currently out of the ordinary right now in the village? We have security patrols; we are gearing up for war, constructing defenses. What out of these new things could be a possible opening for spies?"
"I don't get it…" Naruto said puzzled, but no one else had figured it out either
"In order for us to construct those defenses, we hired outside help since it was too much for us to do on our own. They could have easily slipped in spies pretending to be construction workers. And what better way for them to know about our defenses if they are the ones building them…"
The council began to whisper with each other again "Silence!" Naruto once again commanded "Shikamaru, I don't know what we would do without you sometime, Kiba" Naruto said directing his attention towards him "Neji, Hinata and Shino are on the top of the fire tower, give them the new information. And tell them to begin paying close attention to the outside labor force we hired" Naruto ordered
"Yes Hokage Sama" Kiba said as he left the room in a hurry, partly because he wanted to get the information to them as fast as he could and partly because he wanted to see Hinata again.
"What about Sakura sir" Ino asked "They have a captain specifically chosen to fight and capture her if needed"
"She should be evacuated with the rest of the villagers" One of the council members suggested "That way she is safe and will not become a distraction or a weakness for you my lord"
Naruto slammed his fist on the table "Do not EVER say that Sakura can be a weakness,
she is my strength, the source of my will to fight so hard" he said with anger "I know Sakura better than anyone here, and I can tell you all that she will refuse to not fight. She will not run away because her life is in danger. Plus, if they think they can capture her easily they will be in for a surprise. Sakura is much stronger then you all give her credit for, she is much stronger then she believes she is. I trust her to be able to take care of herself"
"But what if she is captured Hokage Sama?" the old women, Utatane asked "Are you saying that you would not stop fighting if her life was in danger? What if they are able to overpower her and they have a Katana ready to pierce her heart? Would you just ignore it and keep fighting? I understand your feelings my lord and I do not blame you for them. You are human just like the rest of us and I can tell you that I would lay down my weapon if someone was going to kill my loved ones, understand that we are only trying to look out for her my lord and insure that you are able to defend Konoha. You should consider sending her away, it would be different had they not known about her"
Naruto didn't know how to respond, it's not like he could tell them yes, yes he could keep on fighting if they had Sakura and threaten to kill her. If she was killed, he would lose his reason for living, and his will to fight "I…Will talk with her about it" he said simply, it was the only thing he could say for now "Ino, continue with your report"
"Yes my lord, they plan to assault the main gate with the bulk of their forces, using them as a diversion while a smaller team of elite fighters get in from another side while our forces are all on the main gate. They plan on getting in and then start attacking from the inside and in the confusion, open the gate and let everyone from the main forces in. If there plan fails, they will simply blow up the gate with a team of demolition specialist"
"Do you know what side they plan to enter from with the other team?" Naruto asked
"Yes, but since I was found out, it is possible they will pick another entrance now"
"Is there anything else you can tell us about them?"
"Other than the captains are their strongest fighters. They all have a white cloak over their Kimono's with a number on it indicating what division they are from, the vice captains have an armband with the division number on them, I assume they are also very strong sir"
"Thank you for your report Ino, you did a fantastic job, now get some rest, you too Shikamaru, you earned it. And you will need to be rested for tomorrow" Naruto said
"Thank you Hokage Sama" they said as they bowed before they left the room
The council began talking about the report as Naruto could only think about Sakura. If only there was something he could do. he sighed not looking forward to the conversation he was going to have with her latter.
Sakura was standing outside of Sasuke's cell, she told the guard to open the door. She walked in, Sasuke had not moved since Naruto had visited him. He was still in the same position, fixated on the headband "Sasuke…" She simply said "I need to do a checkup so I am coming in" she said as she motioned for one of the four guards to open the cage door. The other guards were ready for anything as Sakura stepped inside, they closed it right behind her. Sasuke had not moved a muscle "Sasuke?" she said again hoping to get a response
"I am perfectly fine, go away" he said coldly
"I don't care if you think you are fine, I have a job to do and a medical report to write up, I am not going to make stuff up or lie just because you say you feel fine" she said sternly
"Or is it just because you wanted to see me so badly that you made up this medical checkup? If not, tell me why are you the one performing it"
Sakura was starting to get angry with him "I don't need to make lies in order to see you. I could come whenever I want, but alright, you want to know why I am the one stuck doing this job? Because no one else wants to do it, everyone is afraid of you so I had to step up. I already told you Sasuke, I moved on, I am much happier now. So just be quiet and I can finish this checkup as fast as I can and then I will be out of here and you can go back to being alone in this cell" she said almost with no emotion
Sasuke could tell she was telling the truth, she had no pleasure in being in his presence. For some reason, he felt slightly sad about that. He put the headband in his pocket, Sakura didn't get a chance to see what it was exactly but she could care less. Sasuke got up and allowed Sakura to conduct her checkup. She made sure that his bruised ribs were healing correctly, she also checked on his other injuries
"Alright, you seem to be healing nicely. With any luck my next checkup will be the last one and then you won't ever have to see me again, that should make you happy" she said in a cold tone of voice, she walked back to the cage door and told the guard to open it. She stepped out and made her way out of the cell as fast as she could, she wanted to get away from him.
Sasuke had sat back down and taken the headband out of his pocket again "Does everyone really hate and fear me that much?" he wondered "Why should I care anyway?" he said as he fell back into his train of thought
Meanwhile Neji and Hinata had received the new information. Neji was mad with himself, how could he allow spies to have slipped in so easily. Kiba had also told them about how Sakura had now become a target, he blamed himself for creating a weakness against Naruto for them to exploit "Found one! Shino, he is yours"
Shino nodded as his bugs swarmed where Neji had told him and some ANBU were sent to take out or capture the spy
"Good catch Neji" Hinata said trying to encourage him
"That's only one, I am pathetic, these people slipped through my detections and now Sakura is in danger" he responded
"Hey man, they fooled us all, don't blame yourself over it" Kiba said trying to make him feel better
"That's right, the important thing now is that we know, and we take them out" Hinata added
"It doesn't stop the fact that they know everything they need to know about us, including a way to take the fight out of Lord Hokage" he responded
Kiba and Hinata both knew it would be pointless to say anything else. The only thing they could do now is catch those spies before they could do report anything else or sabotage anything
Naruto was standing in front of Sakura's door, thinking about what he would say to her. Suddenly he felt a pair of arms grab him tightly from behind, his first instinct was to elbow whoever it was and prepare to fight but he knew who the arms belonged too
"Naruto!" a voice came from behind him, it was a happy voice, a sweet voice, the voice belonging to his beloved Sakura. She finally let go so he could turn around to face her, she had a radiating smile that could melt any iceberg if she wanted too. But Naruto was unable to return the smile, he just looked into her beautiful eyes with worry "Naruto? Is everything alright? You don't look like yourself" she finally said knowing something was wrong
"Sakura Chan…" he simply said
"Naruto, what's wrong? You have me worried…"
"Where were you?" He asked
Sakura was confused by the question, why did it matter she wondered "Well, someone had to do a check up on Sasuke, and everyone else refused to do it. So, I was the only one left, so I did it and left as fast as I could, why? Is there something you're not telling me?"
"Let's go inside…" He said wanting to get out of the public eye, Sakura was starting to get worried. She had never seen Naruto like this before. They both enter the house and sat down at the table. Naruto had not said a word; he was trying to figure out how he could tell her about everything
"What is going on Naruto? You have me worried, this isn't like you" she finally said
"Sakura Chan… I sent Shikamaru, Ino and Kiba on a scouting mission…" he said with a pause, a pause that scared the hell out of Sakura
"Wait, you're not saying something happened to them, are you? Is Ino alright?" She said suddenly afraid for her best friend
"No... Their mission was a complete success" he said trying to avoid eye contact with her
"Then what's going on? Tell me! You're scaring me Naruto…"
"They are going to attack us tomorrow; they have a lot more people then we first thought they had…"
"That's horrible, but I have a feeling you are not telling me everything" she said wanting answers
"We also found out that they have planted spies and know much more about us then we thought they did, they know about our defenses and they have Intel on me, and you"
"Us?" She said slightly confused
"Yes, us, they know everything, and they have made you a target. One of them will attempt to capture you and use you to force me to stand down"
"That's horrible, how could they get so much information on us"
"They have been using the construction crews we have been hiring from the outside as cover, allowing them to go everywhere in the city without getting attention"
"Well you know that I can take care of myself, so I will be fine Naruto" She said trying to smile to make him feel better
"They are sending one of their captains after you. I know your strong Sakura Chan; I know it better than anyone. But if they were to get their hands on you…I wouldn't be able to say no to them, I would give my own life before I allowed them to take yours" he said as tears ran down his cheeks, Sakura felt horrible "You are the reason I live for Sakura Chan, if anything were to happen to you, then I would have no reason to keep going on"
Sakura had a small tear roll down her cheek but she put up a brave front and smiled "I understand, you want me to fall behind with the villagers as they evacuate, right?"
Naruto was surprised "If I knew you were safe, then I could fight without any worries…"
"Alright, for you, I will stay back and protect the villagers while you fight to protect us all" she said with a smile causing Naruto to regain his own smile "That's what I like to see, don't ever stop smiling Naruto Kun" she said as she kissed him "Well since they are going to attack us tomorrow, maybe we should go to bed and uh rest?" she said as she winked at him "After all, we don't know how long this fight will last, so we might not even see each other for a while, might as well make the best of the time we have together" She said with a grin "CHA YEAH! NARUTO GET IN THE BED!" Inner Sakura commanded
Naruto grinned at her "How could I ever refuse anything you ask of me?" he said
"Why would you ever want to refuse anything I ask you?" she said with an evil grin on her face as she dragged him into what had become their room now
End Chapter 20
Well the battle is close at hand, soon Konoha will be fighting for there lives, how will it turn out? find out soon
PS - About Sakura, please don't worry, there is a reason why i am setting her up the way i am, no she is not going to be a weakling, not at all, but she does need to be set up this way in order for my major plot to happen, and it should be coming in the next few chapters :)