Naruto Shippuden -H-: Chapter 012: Jesei's Invitation
The Knights of Dawn have begun their meeting pertaining to the events of delivering the scroll, which contained an invitation, to Naruto Uzumaki.
"I believe that things were carried out without too much of a problem?" asked Zaire Senju with a restless tone.
"Of course, nothing went too out of line, except that Sasuke Uchiha confronted me during the scuffle, I was lucky to escape alive to be honest." said Jesei as he thought back to the encounter.
"Sasuke Uchiha, last reincarnation of Indra Otsutsuki, yes, the one with the Yin Six Paths Senjutsu power." said Dreatoen without much surprise.
"Heh, he sounds tough indeed." said Lehourihm with a monotone voice.
"Naruto was amazing too, he glowed like an angel, like something sent to us from heaven by god himself." said Lunesto with a joyful expression.
"The results of Ashura Otsutsuki's chakra flowing through him, that is all, he is nothing compared to the Apathetic Judge after all." said Dreatoen with a tone of confidence.
"You are being misguided, that power is something he earned himself." said Antione.
"In any case, I have picked up a disturbance that seems to appear at the northwest end of our city every now and then, though I have yet to make anything of it." said Testuga with a look of duty.
"Keep surveying that area, Tetsuga, we do not want spies from those filthy shinobi villages tampering with our gracious city of Lazarus." said Dreatoen.
"I will do my best, sir." said Tetsuga as he looked over his scroll that he pulled out of his pocket.
"It is not certain yet of Naruto has taken a look at the contents of our invitation or not yet, but hopefully, the Hokage does not confiscate the damn thing." said Jesei with worry.
"I would not worry, Naruto will read it, it's just the kind of person he is." said Dreatoen with reassurance.
"Is that all, these meetings are always a damn boredom fest, I mean really fools!" said Andarius Reiko with an expressive gesture.
"We will wait to be briefed on our next escapade once the boss decides to leave his quarters." said Dreatoen as he walked out of the room silently.
"I guess that is a yes, hopefully Naruto will come to the city, he will like it here." said Lunesto.
"I don't even think he should bother, couldn't we just go to him, schedule a second invasion?" asked an agitated Zaire.
"No, that would be pointless, just be patient Zaire, he will come, and when he does, the most glorified battle in history will take place." said Antoine with anticipation.
"Well, in any case, that concludes this meeting, everyone return to your own stations, we will wait for any further information from our boss, just like Dreatoen told us." said Lehourihm as he teleported out of the castle.
"Finally, time to hit the beach for a while, it should only take me a few hours to reach the Land of Riptides from here." said Antoine with joy.
"I will go see the Apathetic Judge myself, we will smoke a pipe and talk about the good old days, hehehe." laughed Jesei as he also left the room.
"Yes, and I will tend to the northwest location of the city to deal with whoever has the gall to trespass on our sacred land." said Tetsuga as he ran out of the room.
Naruto and Yamato had finished construction of both the eastern and western walls of Konoha as evening had arrived.
"Thanks for the help Naruto, I will be returning to the ANBU headquarters now, you take it easy." said Yamato.
"Umm, Yamato-taicho, did you hear about this scroll I have received?" asked Naruto.
"No, not in detail, but listen to Kakashi, wait until tomorrow at eight in the morning until you read it, and in his office like he instructed you." said Yamato with a serious tone.
"I will, time to go home, bye Yamato-taicho." said Naruto as he waved at the other shinobi that were helping with the walls.
"Be careful Naruto, see you soon." said Raido as Naruto ran back to Hinata.
Sakura had finished her training for the evening and was sitting beside the three logs where Team seven took their test years ago.
"Phew, that was intense, though I should be able to master a jutsu beyond the Strength of A Hundred Technique soon." said an exhausted Sakura to herself.
"You have been out here for six hours, are you okay?" asked Ino as she found Sakura in the training grounds.
"Oh, Ino, what brings you here?" asked Sakura as she was happy to have some company.
"Some good flowers grow around here, Sai was too lazy to go out and look for them earlier, heheheh." laughed Ino.
"After what happened yesterday, I am glad that I decided to stay in shape should something like this occur." said Sakura.
"It is getting late now, don't overdo, here, I will walk with you until you get home." said Ino cheerfully.
"Thanks, that sounds good." said Sakura.
Naruto had arrived home and was greeted by Hinata, who was sitting on the bench outside of their house.
"There you are Naruto, I saw you helping Yamato build the walls back earlier today, I wanted to help, although it looked like you had it under control." said Hinata as Naruto sat beside her.
"I will be going to see Kakashi tomorrow at eight in the morning, it will be about that scroll from yesterday." said Naruto to Hinata.
"I will come with you, just in case it is a trap." said Hinata with concern.
"Okay, how about we go take a night stroll around the village, ya'know, to relieve some stress." said Naruto with a smile to Hinata.
"Oh, that sounds great, we can even stop by the new doll shop while we are out!" said Hinata as she and Naruto started to take a slow stroll around the village.
A few hours passed and it was now midnight as Naruto and Hinata returned from their walk and decided to go to bed.
"That was a good walk, sorry they did not have any of those dolls you liked." said Naruto as he started to fall asleep.
"That is alright, I am sure they will have some tomorrow." said Hinata as she also started to fall asleep.
Naruto had begun to dream of the same macabre events that he had the night prior, he found himself standing in a grassy plain, with a lake nearby and the crescent moon shining above.
"This dream feels more like genjutsu than anything else." thought Naruto to himself.
"Uzumaki, be sure to thoroughly read that scroll tomorrow, I will look forward to seeing you, I have been wanting to meet you for a long time." said a voice deep within Naruto's consciousness.
"Who is there, what the hell do you want, stay out of my head!" said Naruto as he tried to wake up.
"Relax, morning will be here tomorrow, and when the time comes, all things will be made clear, and any questions that may arise will be answered, the dawn of our Armageddon shall soon begin." said the voice as Naruto began to calm down and dream of Hinata and himself on the beach.
Morning finally came the next day, and Naruto had awakened from his sleep, to find Hinata already up.
"Did I oversleep again, no, the clock says six in the morning, I have two hours before I have to be at Kakashi's mansion." said Naruto to himself as the scroll from the three Knights of Dawn laid beside his bed.
"I know these dreams have some relation to this scroll, whoever those guys worked for must be using a jutsu to talk with me through my dreams." thought Naruto as he got up and dressed himself.
"Awake finally sleepy head, I am ready whenever you are, just be sure to comb your hair, hehehe." laughed Hinata as she hugged Naruto.
The next two hours seemed to pass quickly as Naruto and Hinata were headed towards the Hokage's mansion.
"I hope we are not late." said Naruto.
"Don't worry, we will be on time, do you have that scroll?" asked Hinata.
"Yes, I could not keep it out of my mind in the course of my dreams last night." said Naruto with a concerned tone.
Kakashi and Yamato were awaiting Naruto's arrival as eight o' clock ticked around.
"He should be here any time, in the event of a trap, make sure Tsunade knows to keep anyone away from the mansion." said Kakashi thinking of what could be in the scroll.
"Already ahead of you, she carried out that request half an hour ago." said Yamato.
"I can hear footsteps approaching the door, it has to be Naruto." said Kakashi.
"Hokage-sama, we are here." said Hinata as she and Naruto had entered the room.
"Okay then, Hinata, stand behind Yamato, Naruto, get ready to open that scroll." said Kakashi with a cautious tone.
"I will enter Sage Mode just in case a trap is sprung, that way I can react in time." said Naruto as his eyes entered the pigment that marked a true sage.
Without any second thought, Naruto attempted to open the scroll, only to find out that it would not unfold, no matter how much force he applied.
"Eh, what the hell, it will not open, huh, seems to be some kind of seal on the cover that I did not see before." said Naruto with confusion.
"I saw it, when you tried to open the scroll, even though it did not open the way you wanted, that new sign appeared on it, what does it say?" asked Kakashi.
"Hmmm, it says, Verify that you are the beautiful ...Naru..to...Uzu..makii... what the hell, Dattebayo?" asked Naruto with a comical look on his face.
"Well, you are handsome, hehehe." laughed Hinata.
"I guess these people really are trying to appeal to you, just open it anyway." said Yamato.
"Okay, I will put a drop of my blood on this sign, that should be enough." said Naruto as he lightly bit his left thumb and placed some of his blood on the scroll, finally causing it to open.
"Oh boy, everyone prepare for what may be to come." said Kakashi with a tone of caution.
Everyone in the room waited for a minute, but nothing seemed to happen as Naruto opened the scroll the find a message inside.
"It is just directions, directions and nothing more, what the hell?" asked Naruto with confusion.
"It could be directions to their base of operations, remember when one of those three men said that their boss wants to meet you, this could be the directions to get their." said Kakashi.
"Well, wherever this is, it looks to be near the Land of Stone, somewhere from one hundred to three hundred miles away, it looks like a long trip." said Naruto.
"I see, you could easily get their in a few hours if you flew their, but just travel normally, once we assemble a team of shinobi to accompany you, of course." said Kakashi.
"When do you suggest that I leave?" asked Naruto.
"It would probably be better if you didn't." said Yamato.
"If that were to happen, those soldiers would probably just invade us again, besides, this would be a chance for us to figure out what is going on with this new threat." said Kakashi with a serious tone.
"You should notify the other Kage as well, let them know of the location of this place." said Hinata.
"No, I don't think that would be a good idea, but we can at least tell them the rest of this information though." said Kakashi.
"In any case, me and Hinata will wait for you to find a suitable team to accompany me, but be sure that it is only people who are willing to come, do not force anyone too." said Naruto as he started to think about his dreams for the past two nights.
"Nah, they don't need to know about my dreams, it would not help any." thought Naruto to himself.
"Then it is settled, Naruto, you and Hinata return home for now, I will contact you later after I find four other shinobi to join you on this mission, and hold on to that scroll too, and if you would like, go over the scroll a few more times to see if you can find any things you may have overlooked before." said Kakashi.
"Yes, will do." said Naruto as he and Hinata left the office.
"I wonder who you will place on Naruto's team?" asked Yamato.
"Sakura would be a good start." said Kakashi as he heard about Sakura's newest jutsu, from Tsunade, being developed.
"What, she mastered a technique beyond what the Fifth could not do?" asked Yamato with surprise.
"Yes, and she is probably one of the most skilled jonin in our village as well, she will play a crucial role in this mission, I will notify her later." said Kakashi thinking of how far his student has came.
Elsewhere, Sakura was out walking through the village, enjoying the sun rays of the morning, when she noticed Yamato approaching her.
"Oh, hi Yamato-sensei, how is it going?" asked Sakura politely.
"Kakashi wants you to join Naruto and three others on a mission to look for those bastards that invaded us three days ago." said Yamato.
"Shanaroo, say no more, I will get my supplies ready, just give me a few minutes." said Sakura with a look of joy as she had not been on a mission for a while.
"Man, she sure is hyped up today, she could even be the key to this mission for all we know." thought Yamato to himself as he returned to the kage's mansion to learn of the other three shinobi that Kakashi had on his mind.
Elsewhere, Andarius had left the Castle of Leviticus, when he received a telepathic message from Jesei.
"Andarius, Naruto has read the scroll, I set a jutsu that would notify me when the event were to occur, and now I am certain, I will notify the other six Knights of Dawn as well." said Jesei with joy.
"That is fine m'dude, but son a' bitch, let me enjoy my time in the hot tub." said Andarius as he jumped into the hot tub, only to slash all of the water out in the process.
"Well damn, guess I might as well visit Mei, the Mizukage, I could fight her for a while." said Andarius as he was upset about ruining his hot tub.
- To be continued next time with Chapter 013...-