"We need to recall as many of our forces as possible and send out our scouts to the boarder." Danzou said clearly over the side talk and comments at the counsel table. Right after returning to the village, all man and women involved were told to keep their traps shut about everything they had seen and heard until the village decided what to do and the Hokage called a meeting of the Jounin Counsel, most of whom had been at the site and didn't need a briefer on the situation. However, what the situation exactly was wasn't exactly agreed upon.
"Taking up such a clearly aggressive action will not help us endear ourselves to the other villages. We need to take our time to confirm Kumogakure's stance before we throw away this chance of peace." The Hokage said with a shake of the head.
"I would think that their stance is clear enough. They came here under false pretenses and spat in our eyes as we offered them peace." Uchiha Fugaku said, his arms crossed. "It is no secret that Kumo never honored the agreement to decrease the size of the military after the Third Shinobi War. As much as I wish for peace, they cannot be trusted. We need to take action to defend ourselves."
"We can't be sure that this man's actions represent what Kumo really wanted." The Hokage's son, Asuma said, trying to back up his father's position. "He could have been acting independently."
"Does the fact that he was their representative in the peace talks not say that he represents them!" Stone Lee said, more loudly than most of the others. "We cannot be idol! Quick action is needed if we are going to achieve victory!"
Aburame Shibi shook his head. "Large actions draw attention. But small ones might go unnoticed. We should send small groups to gather intelligence."
"So we are suppose to just sit here with stupid grins on our faces when we should be preparing for war?" Inuzuka Gaku said, baring his teeth, his dog like features becoming more apparent with his anger.
"If there is a war, then we've already lost." Everyone went quiet at Nara Shikaku's depressing words. "Things have changed since the last war. While Kumo's strength had been growing since then, ours has taken a serious hit. Maybe if it was five years ago we might stand a chance, but as things are, its hopeless. The Fourth is dead, our all powerful jinchūriki has been replaced by an untrained four year old, Some moron decided to ostracize the White Fang so hard he killed himself and our Legendary Sannin have all either turned traitor, left us to sulk, or gone off to who knows where chasing skirts. The village has never been weaker. Meanwhile, Kumo has been rounding up new bloodlines and natural resources left and right and now has two jinchūriki. The only reason Kumo went to the peace conference is because they don't fear us at all and there was more money to be made through cooperation than this cold war we've been in since the end of the hot one." He gave a long sigh. "How troublesome."
Akimichi Chōza gave a grunt of agreement through a mouthful of potato chips. He was grateful to be invited into these meetings, but they might as well not have bothered. He knew his position was in the heavy lifting department and not the brain work, so he usually just stayed quiet. However, he was not a man that was too proud to admit when his old Nara partner was right and they should just act out the cowards.
"War isn't an option, which is why we need to be considering the more immediate matter at hand. What are we going to do about the witnesses?" Shikaku continued. "If we let Kumo question them, then there is no doubt they will find out everything. What do you think they would do when they found out about little the Hyūga girl and Ena boy?" Hyūga Hiashi, who had been silent since the beginning stiffened at the mention of his daughter and her friend. "They get confirmation that not only do we have two five year olds of such unbelievable talent, but also that one might possess the power of the Path of Asura."
Some eyes shifted at the mention of Kuroshi's supposed power. They had all seen it, the two copies of the sword that could not be there. The impossibly powerful barrier he had called up in the blink of an eye without the use of hand signs. The thousands of swords dissolving into shiny blue fragments as the boy lost consciousness. The way his body healed at such a rapid rate as to make his injures nearly gone before he was even back to the village, not even leaving a scar on his body to show that a golfball sized hole had once been in his side. They had always known that he was strange, but no one had ever had a clue that the boy was capable of such things, no one save the Hyūga girl, Hikaru.
At first, Hikaru had tried to stop them from approaching the boy's body, going so far as to use non-lethal jutsu to push back one of the medics that wanted to tend to him. They had all believed that she was in shock and too confused to realize that they won't going to harm him, but after a member of the Nara Clan restrained her so that they could get to the injured child, they began to think that she was trying to stop them from seeing the child's healing abilities.
One of the Inuzuka clan who had been the one to find the child after his entire family was crushed during the Nine Tails disaster confessed that the boy hadn't had a scratch on him that day, even though an entire building had caved in on him and his family. He had assumed that the boy had been lucky, but now this made them second guess that. Every small strange thing that the boy had done over the years suddenly had new meaning in light of this revelation.
"We have not conformed whether or not Kuroshi-kun truly has any connection to that power. It is best if we do not let our imaginations get ahead of ourselves." The Hokage said with a frown.
"Doesn't matter what is true or not. It only matters what people think or worry might be true. What would you do if you were them, Danzou, if you heard that a short term allie had something like the Path of the Asura, but that it was nothing more than a child at the moment?" Shikaku said, looking to the War Hawk.
Eyes went to Danzou, some hoping that he just won't say it, but he did. "I would make sure that he never grow up to become a possible threat to the village. If it was me, I would arrange to make sure that both him and the Hyūga girl died." Danzou said, as if it was the most natural thing in world, to talk about murdering children. A few of them still had the human decency needed to feel disgusted, even as they saw the reasons behind it. Hiashi almost looked livid at the mere idea. Few could recall ever seeing him as angry as he had been that day when the Kumo ninja had attempted to kill his daughters and their friend.
"If we let the witnesses live, and they tell, then those two kids will make it onto every underground Bingo Book within the month. The girl will probably be at least a B-rank target, the boy would definitely make S-rank." Shikaku said in that way he had. He was giving the truth, no matter how ugly or disgraceful it was.
"No one would put such a high bounty on children." Kakashi commented with a wide eye. No one responded to him, they all had paled a bit at the through.
"We have to kill them. They would die sooner or later anyways. Whether or not they were ordered by the top to preform this mission, they failed. They would die for either performing an act of treason or failing a mission of this magnitude." Shibi said, getting many voices of agreement from the other Jounin.
"Its not that simple." Shikaku said with a shake of the head. "How troublesome." The Nara's team membered looked even more uncomfortable. Two uses of 'How troublesome' in one conversation. This never was a good sign.
"Mind explaining. Not all of us are geniuses like you, Shikaku." Asuma said with a worried smile.
"We kill the witnesses, then Kumo will make martyrs out of them and use it to convince their people to do an all out invasion. They will deny that the attack on the kids ever happened and it will be a hit to our allies who would then need to deal with the political bullshit involved in helping us when we look like the instigators." Shikaku said bitterly.
"But what about the one who wasn't at that fight! We can use him as a witness! He will be our proof that the kidnapping happened, but is unaware of anything to do with the Path!" Stone said loudly.
"Then we are depending on a witness we have no idea whether or not they will even give true testimony, and whose voice probably doesn't count for much." Shikaku said, shooting down the suggestion. "He isn't only a Gennin, he was also not born in Kumo. His accent isn't right. I'd guess he was a refugee who simply moved into the village and became a ninja to make a living."
Yamanaka Inoichi sighed pulling out a piece of paper and handing it to the right for it to be passed around. "As usual, he's right. Nura, no clan name. He became an offical ninja at the age of ten because of his talents but never managed to get promoted beyond Gennin. He would get half way through his Chunin exams before failing because he wouldn't fight girls. Goes against his principles to hurt a girl of personal gain. His rank is extremely low, he doesn't seem to have any close friends since his teams always left him behind when they became Chunin, and he has no family to speak of. His word won't mean jack shit." The blond intelligence officer admitted.
"So we have to choose between going into a war that we cannot win and placing two innocent children in harms way." Yūhi Kurenai said. The woman did not look happy. She was still young and a new Jounin, not used to having to make such calls.
"There is another way." Shikaku said, though he didn't seem to be jumping for joy to share it. "In shōgi, if one wants to open up a path for there more valuable pieces to take the board, then they have to use another piece as bait."
"A scapegoat." Danzou said, catching the man's meaning.
"Kumo is big into the blood for blood. If we offer them a head on the chopping block, one that they would want to see, they would overlook the deaths of so many of there ninja." Shikaku conformed.
"Can't say that option is any more appealing than the others." Kurenai said with a sigh.
"I'll do it." Everyone looked shocked at Hiashi. The head of the Hyūga sat there with eyes closed, a look of acceptance on his face. "That is what you meant, wasn't it? A head valuable enough to make them over look their dead ninja to get it. What head could be more valuable to them than the head of the Hyūga clan, with its famous eyes?"
"Hiashi, you can't be serious." Gaku said with his mouth dropped open.
"This is my clan's shame, my daughter's safety, and my debt to the boy who rescued my children. If my life is the price then consider it cheep." Hiashi said calmly. There were words of protest all around, about how unreasonable it was for him to have to sacrifice his life when they had done nothing wrong. But eventually they were all silenced.
"Enough!" The Hokage demanded, quieting the group. "We will make a final decision on the matter in two days. That should be enough time to think things through and get all the information we can out of the witnesses. Remember that not a word of this is suppose to spread. If the witnesses are in the end going to be killed, it is best if we can claim that they were never taken alive." The Jounin nodded in agreement. "Then everyone dismissed, except for you Hiashi-san, I need to have a word."
The ninja all filed out until only the village leader and the head of the Hyūgas remained. As the old man leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, Hiashi had a feeling he was in for a long talk.
"Regardless about what happens, we need to look towards the future and hope it is a future where our children can be happy." The old man mumbled before opening his eyes again. "We will need to plan for their future."
Rin new that Shirou was awake before his eyes ever opened. She could see as his magic circuits opened up to preform a full body Structural Analysis and take stock of his condition. Then, he took a much sharper inhale, and tilted his head to the side, cocking an ear.
"Seven guards, two out side the door, two down the hall, three in the rafters." He mumbled before opening his eyes. He was lying on a bed in a hospital room, Rin sitting in the chair next to his bed. They must not have been able to stop her.
"Not taking chances, are they?" Rin said with a nod.
"You alright? How's Hinata?" Shirou asked her.
"Hinata-chan's fine, she's in the other room, they gave her some medicine to calm down and put her to sleep. She's shaken, probably will need some therapy, but she'll be fine." Rin said. "As for me, nothing worse than a few bruises that were taken care of it a second. You were the only one who really got hurt bad."
"Ah, thats good." Shirou said, he immediately regreted saying so as Rin hit him hard on the head.
"No that is not good, Shirou!" She said angrily, putting her hands on her hips and standing on her chair so that she could appropriately lean over him. "You shouldn't be so stupid Shirou! If you had just taken Hinata like I had told you to then you wouldn't have gotten so hurt! They wanted me alive, but they could have killed you Shirou, and I mean killed you so that you actually do die! You aren't always going to be able to dodge the bullet like you did today!"
"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" Shirou repeated again and again, trying to shelter himself from the angry girl. He didn't really understand what he was apologizing for, but experience had taught him to apologize.
Rin continued to glare at him for a few seconds for good measure before giving a short sigh. "What a mess. I wish you had just killed that bastard the moment he opened his stupid mouth. Now people think that you are some kind of incarnation of a godly power... god of they only knew." She began to rub at her temples. "So many root-be-damned witnesses. I don't have a clue how I am going to get you out of this one, Shirou."
"How bad is it exactly?" Shirou asked hoping to get a better idea of his situation.
"We are in a world full of mystic powered mercenary assassins who are all constantly at war with one and other and you just cemented yourself as a first class power house. Ninja as a superstitious lot, and a name like 'the Path of the Asura' is bound to attract attention the same way your Reality Marble would in a room full of magus." Rin said, shaking her head. Shirou did not like the sound of that. Most magus would have tried to strap him down to a dissection table if they knew about the secret to his odd magecraft. "It might be even worse than that. The Six Paths hold the same meaning to most ninja as the Five True Magics hold to magus. The mention of it could cause some kind of frenzy."
"Should I be running for my life?" Shirou asked honestly.
"So long as the village decides to grant us protection and open war doesn't break out, we should be safe, but the second we set foot outside of the village all bets are off. The real issue we have to worry about is how the village itself is going to react to you. I'm protected by the Hyūga family name and the treaties that exist between my family and the village. You on the other hand don't have such a luxury. Most likely they will try to use you in some fashion or other, either as a weapon or as breeding material." Rin said off-handedly. Shirou couldn't help but flush at how casually she said that second one.
"The Unlimited Blade Works isn't a genetic trait." Shirou said quickly trying to fight down his flush.
"I know that, but they don't. And considering we don't want them trying to carve you open, it is better if they don't find out." Rin said giving Shirou a disapproving look, as if she thought he wasn't taking things seriously enough. She jumped down from her position on top of the chair and started shaking her head again. "I'll try to think of something. You just say here and rest, and try to keep your head down as long as you can. If people ask you about your abilities, you don't know anything for sure and you don't explain any of how they work."
"But I'm already heal..." Shirou's mouth shut tight as Rin activated her eyes of binding. The magic itself was not strong enough to effect him in the slightest anymore, but the look still had power.
"You will stay here and rest!" She ordered him, Shirou having to nod in silence, not wanting to provoke her. "Good." She said, before starting to make her way to the door, but she stopped before going through. "Oh, and Shirou," She said looking back at him with a slightly shy smile. "Thanks for coming to my rescue."
With that, she left, leaving Shirou in his hospital bed, wondering just what she was going to do. He concluded that he probably didn't want to know.