Chapter 7: Exchange of Information
Naruto fought hard not to give in to despair. 2 years ago it had been Neji, but now, he was the Hokage and yet he still couldn't prevent Hinata's capture, Tenten's near-death state, or the loss of his own teacher. This was a disaster. He was supposed to be the leader here, the beacon of hope and strength, and he was failing terribly. He looked up at the sound of his office door opening. Sasuke and Sakura stepped into the room.
"Hey," Sakura said gently, "We haven't seen much of you lately. Are you okay?"
"No," Naruto shook his head, "This is all going so wrong, and I'm supposed to be the one who keeps things from falling apart. How can I do that if I can't even keep the people of this village safe?"
"Don't beat yourself up about this," Sasuke told him, "This isn't something anyone's ever had to deal with before. How can you expect yourself to have a perfect way to deal with this if you've never even dreamed of it? Shikamaru couldn't even come up with a perfect plan, and you know how good the Nara clan is at that."
"None of this is because you're not good enough," Sakura told him firmly, "Not even the Fourth would have known what to do."
"I'm pretty sure the Fourth wouldn't have allowed his village to be put under siege for the last 3 days," Naruto responded.
"Stop it," Sasuke told his friend sternly, "Feeling sorry isn't going to help the situation. You're a great Hokage and everyone acknowledges it; you'll find a way to put a stop to this. We know you will."
"You've never given up before. Don't start now."
Naruto looked up at his friends.
"You're right. This isn't over yet. Gather everyone in Intelligence, and bring Sai over here too. With the ANBU in the mix, we might be able to gain an upper hand in this fight."
Sasuke and Sakura nodded with a smile, before leaving.
In the Gantrithor Medical Bay…
Kakashi opened his eyes slowly. What had happened? He couldn't remember anything. He must have blacked out after the fight. He looked up at an odd green and gold colored ceiling with its flashing lights. Where was he? Pretty sure the Konoha Hospital didn't look like that…. unless they redecorated while he was gone.
"Kakashi-sensei! You're finally awake! We were starting to get worried," he heard a voice say close by.
He turned to see Hinata standing over him, looking anxious.
"Hinata, you're okay!" Kakashi was delighted to see the missing girl.
"Yes, I'm fine. We were more worried about you. How are you feeling?"
"I think I'm okay," Kakashi tried to get up.
Hinata stopped him, shaking her head.
"Don't try to get up just yet; take it slow. Your wounds are still healing," she told him.
Kakashi slumped back down onto the bed he was laying on.
"How long was I out?" he asked her.
"Three days," she told him, "Xelios and I were starting to worry when you didn't wake up earlier."
"Who?"
"The zealot you fought with, his name is Xelios. He was beginning to worry he had wounded you too badly and you would never wake up."
"Huh, I see. Not to be rude, but why does he care? I am his enemy after all."
"Well, you did defeat his best student; honor demanded he test your abilities. I'm sure you'd want to fight whoever defeated Naruto, Sasuke, or Sakura. He holds you in pretty high esteem you know. You're one of the few shinobi he respects."
"Okay. Bring me up to speed; what's happened while I was out?"
"The Protoss are trying to batter Konoha into submission by putting them under siege. They've been building photon cannons and defenses all around the village, keeping Konoha locked down tight. Naruto and the others are putting up a good fight though; they've started to make Executor Selendis a bit frustrated by their tenacity."
"Well, it's good to know the others haven't given up the fight at least," Kakashi groaned as he sat up slowly.
Hinata watched him anxiously.
"Are you okay?" she asked him with concern.
"Yes, the wounds are just a little sore, that's all," Kakashi told her.
"If you think you can walk, you should follow me. The Praetor will be happy to know you're okay."
Kakashi nodded at the girl, and got to his feet slowly.
"All right, lead on," he said.
Hinata nodded, and she led him out of the medical bay. Down hallway after hallway, up ramp after ramp they went, steadily ascending the massive vessel. Every now and then they passed groups of Protoss, all of whom were busy repairing the ship, guarding, or transporting materials. They all nodded respectfully at the pair of them as they passed, before continuing with their work. Kakashi was surprised; if any of them were prisoners in Konoha they'd be locked up tight under 24 hour surveillance.
"Wait a moment, why are we allowed to just wander around freely like this? Aren't they concerned we'll try to escape?" he asked Hinata.
"No. They consider us more as guests than prisoners of war, so they show a lot more hospitality than normal. Besides, the ship is huge; the odds of actually finding a way out is pretty slim. Especially now that they've repaired all the tears in the ship's hull," she told him.
"You seem to know your way around it pretty well though."
"I was given a tour of the ship, and I'm allowed to go in most sections of it as I please. You get to know the place when you've spent so much time in it."
Hinata led him up one last ramp and into a large room with a ton of glass screens and a large table in the center. At least a dozen Protoss were working on the screens, and 2 more were at the table, clearly in conversation. Kakashi recognized these two: it was the female he had met during negotiations, Selendis, and the Praetor he had fought against earlier.
"Dozens of our zealots have been either gravely injured or killed in the last few attacks," Selendis was saying, "I'm just glad we recovered the technology required to give those that have fallen a second chance as Immortals. Wasn't it your expedition that recovered that technology Xelios?"
"It was. Though, if Zeratul's earlier expedition hadn't given me a foothold to begin with, and the Queen of Blades hadn't assimilated most of the feral Zerg on Aiur back into the Swarm, I doubt my expedition would have been a success."
"Regardless, we have the technology we need, and that's what matters. The minute we have our Robotics Facilities up and running again we should begin converting the willing volunteers into Immortals."
"I've already gotten the repair teams working on that right now."
"Good. I fear we will be needing them soon."
They broke off their conversation and looked up as the pair of humans entered the room. The closest thing to a smile a mouth-less alien could have appeared on the Praetor's face.
"Kakashi Hatake," Xelios greeted the masked ninja, "It's good to see you on your feet again. You had me worried for a while there."
"Well I try not to disappoint," Kakashi greeted the scarred alien.
Xelios walked over to them, and motioned for them to follow him.
"Come, allow me to show you the Gantrithor."
Kakashi nodded, and followed the Praetor with his hands in his pockets. Hinata looked at the seasoned shinobi; he had been awake for 20 minutes and already he was walking with the same mannerisms as he always did.
The 3 of them went on a long tour of the huge ship, visiting the ship's training rooms, workout rooms, observation decks, the ship's onboard library archive, and even a pool. Kakashi was surprised at the last one; since when did warships have pools? The tour ended in a large room with a lot of tables and chairs, with many Protoss around them all.
"This is one of the break rooms, for when crew members are off duty," Xelios explained.
Kakashi looked around; many of the Protoss were in pairs, playing some sort of board game.
"Is that shōgi they're playing?" Kakashi asked incredulously.
"Yes it is," Xelios looked like he would be smiling if he could, "Hinata taught us the game, and since then quite a few of the crew members have taken to playing it. I will admit, it is a very intriguing game. Do you play Kakashi? If you do, then I warn you: you should expect to be challenged quite a few times during your stay."
Back in Konoha…..
"Okay, is everybody here?" Naruto looked around at the faces that were gathered before him, "Good. First thing we need to discuss, is how are we going to deal with this siege?"
"I doubt we have the necessary manpower to deal with this on our own," Shikamaru had his arms folded, "We're going to need more people to help counter any other tricks the Protoss have up their sleeve."
"Good idea. Sasuke, send messages to both the Kazekage and the Mizukage requesting their aid."
"But, I thought the Mizukage was angry with us."
"That'll change the minute she reads that Kakashi's been captured, so make sure to put that in there."
Sasuke grinned as he nodded, then left the room.
"Now, we can't just sit around waiting for back-up to get here. We need to keep our enemy on their heels while we wait for the reinforcements to arrive," Shikamaru told them all.
"Agreed," Naruto nodded at them, "Ino, see if you Interrogation team has managed to get any information out of the zealot we captured. Sai, gather your ANBU squads, and tell them to prepare them for a major battle. Kiba, you and Shino gather every jōnin and chῡnin level shinobi you can find."
The 4 shinobi nodded, and also left the room. Naruto leaned back in his chair, sighing tiredly. He looked up at Sakura.
"How're your medical ninja doing?" he asked her, "are they able to keep up with everything that's going on?"
"Yes, they're doing fine," Sakura assured him, "With Lady Tsunade's help we've been able to keep our losses to a small number."
"That's good."
In the Interrogation Room Thanatos glared at the two shinobi who were trying to pry information from him. For 4 days straight these two humans had attempted again and again to break down his mental defenses. As if they could. What part of "I'm a telepath, I've been trained to block unfriendly entities from my mind since I was 5" didn't they understand? Fools.
'Now, let's see if my training has paid off,' Thanatos thought to himself.
His timing had to be perfect; a split-second late and the two shinobi would know something's up. He waited until the two interrogators started to attack his defenses again. As they did so, he began to allow his defense to weaken just slightly; enough for the humans to notice, but not enough for them to break through yet. The shinobi, believing they were finally starting to break down the barriers inside the young Protoss's mind, began to attack the barriers with more tenacity. Thanatos smiled inwardly. That's right you incompetent idiots, just give this all your focus.
Thanatos was patient. It was taking time, and a lot of concentration to keep the barriers weakened without letting them fall, but it was working. The foolish shinobi were just putting all their attention onto bringing down his mental defenses that they didn't even bother checking their own. These humans had the worst mental defenses he'd ever seen; he was silently gaining access to both of their minds without their notice simultaneously. How pathetic. And they professed to be good at this. Finally! Now their minds were his!
Instantly the pressure on his mind was gone, as he ripped their mental defenses aside. The pair of them could only stare in horror as he sifted through their thoughts and memories. Eagerly he found everything they knew about Konoha; its people, its defenses, and the capabilities of every single defender the pair of them knew about. Going literally at the speed of thought, it only took the young zealot a few seconds to gather all the information he wanted.
'Release me!' he ordered the shinobi.
The shinobi struggled against the command, but the zealot's hold on his mind was too strong. Unwillingly, he loosened the chains that bound the alien to the wall. For the first time in four days, Thanatos stretched his limbs, shaking the blood back into them. With a sweeping blow, he knocked the two interrogators off their feet and into the wall with a crunch.
"Naïve fools," he gloated contemptuously, "None can withstand the Templar!"
Ino walked over to the Interrogation Room; hopefully the two shinobi she had assigned to the alien had made some sort of progress. Come on, it had been four whole days. They had to have gotten something by now.
She opened the door to enter the room. Before the door was even fully open a bolt of what looked like lightning streaked towards her and hit her right in the stomach. The bolt's force lifted her clean off her feet and propelled her right into the wall behind her. It was a good thing Sakura had already finished healing her ribs, or that would have been exponentially more painful. She looked up slowly to see the zealot who had been in her custody an hour ago standing over her.
"Thank you for your cooperation," he told her gloatingly, "The information your associates have given me has been most helpful, and I promise it will be put to good use."
She glared hatefully at the alien in front of her.
"Oh don't worry, we'll see each other again soon. I need to repay you for your …. hospitality after all," he told her menacingly.
Before she could get up to stop him, Thanatos was off and running. No shinobi he met was able to stop him, and he sped past every single one without pause. It only took him a few minutes to circumvent the entirety of Konoha's defensive patrols and escape to the siege lines of his own race outside the walls.
Ino burst into the Hokage's office halfway through their strategy planning. Everyone looked up at her surprised.
"The zealot escaped!" she managed to gasp, "He's got all the information my Interrogation Squad had! The Protoss will have full knowledge of Konoha's defenses and the defenders within a few minutes!"
Naruto and Shikamaru gaped in shock. If there was such a thing as bad news, this was it.
"We no longer have time to set up a detailed attack," Shikamaru told everyone urgently, "If we don't act now the whole village is finished!"
"Shikamaru, do what you need to do. Grab everyone and provide as detailed as a strategy you can in the next 20 minutes," Naruto told his chief strategist.
"Right. Sasuke, prepare a squad of around 30 shinobi as fast as you can. Kiba, Shino, and Iruka-sensei need to do the same. Sakura, prepare as many of your medical ninja as you can spare. Sai, get as many of your ANBU squads that you can spare without risking thinning the village's defenses too. And get Captain Yamato out of retirement if you can. Lee, you and Choji are in charge of Konoha's defenses while we're gone. If things go bad, it's your job to keep this village and, more importantly, its people, safe. Move swiftly people, time is not on our side!"
Everyone spilled out of the room as fast as they could. Naruto and Shikamaru could see them all scrambling around the village to do as Shikamaru had just ordered. Shikamaru turned to his friend.
"You know, having to give orders like that can be such a drag sometimes."