A Different Scroll

by Enei Emmu

A timeline branches wildly away from its proper alignment. Many things change, and yet others stay exactly the same. A thousand years into the divergence, ten-year-old Hinata befriends Naruto. Complete.

65. The White

Opening - Revolution Dualism by Nana Mizuki and TM Revolution

X

A gust of snow-laced wind blasted past a team of four shinobi hiking across a frozen plain, and the kunoichi at the back of the group groaned loudly in annoyance. Among the four, Sakura was the only one not bundled up in a cloak or long coat, and although her sturdy leather shinobi gear was helpful, she was regretting not bringing a cloak now more than ever.

At the front of the group, Naruto stood with his leather coat wrapped around him, with the Hokage's ceremonial hat serving to protect his head from the icy wind whilst also concealing his ears, which he still wasn't fond of. Likewise, his tail was tucked up under his coat, kept warm and out of sight. Only his boots could be seen below the coat, and they were a familiar shade of orange.

At his side stood Hinata, now wearing a loose, heavy lavender coat with white sleeves and a hood of the same shade, which was currently raised against the cold wind. Like Naruto's coat, hers reached past her knees, and little could be seen of her outfit underneath it.

On the other hand, Sasuke had chosen not to modify his clothes along with Sakura. His charcoal-grey cloak had been more than enough to keep him warm on his previous trip to the Land of Iron, and it would serve this time as well.

"Ugh... I totally should've brought that damn cloak... stupid stupid, for Kami's sake, it's standard-issue! I already had it; it's just sitting in my closet at home, cha! STUPID!"

"...We could trade if you want," Sasuke suggested. "My cloak for your leather jacket."

Sakura considered his offer, but before she could reply Naruto spoke up. "No need for that; we're gonna stop here."

"Hn?" Sasuke glanced around, which was easy to do since they were standing on an open field buried under snowdrifts of varying depth with no trees in sight. A massive, almost black thunderhead was being carried in from their right by the wind, and it promised a horrendous blizzard. "Right... all we need to do is find a point where the snow layer on the ground is thinner."

"Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked shortly.

"On it. Byakugan." she rubbed her freezing cheeks, then added, "If we pass over three snowdrifts to our left, there's a point where the snow on the ground is only five inches thick or so. Will that do?"

"It'll work just fine; let's go." Sasuke headed in the direction Hinata had described, shortly followed by the other three Konoha-nin. Hinata pointed to the spot when they reached it, and Sasuke stood on top of the thin layer of snow with his hands in the Ox seal. As he continued the seal sequence, his wings grew from his back and his skin darkened to a deep grey. "...Chidori."

"Oh," Sakura murmured in understanding as Sasuke crouched and stabbed his lightning-wreathed hand into the earth before his feet. The lightning attack screeched as it discharged into the ground, vaporizing its way deeper into the earth and leaving a smooth, round tunnel in its wake. With the added power of Sasuke's seal, the tunnel was easily broad enough to stand upright in, although its downward slope would still make it a somewhat uncomfortable shelter.

"Nicely done, Sasuke," Naruto grinned, and followed the Uchiha into the newly formed cave. Sakura and Hinata shortly followed.

"Jiraiya-sensei taught me that a few months ago," Sasuke replied. "You know by now that I've been to Iron once before, and I've been planning to better deal with surviving in an environment like this." He came to a stop near the end of the tunnel, and glared at the wall. "Amaterasu." Black flames bloomed into existence on the wall, immediately warming the rest of the cave but not providing any light.

Sasuke wiped away the blood on his cheek, then spoke up. "Those flames won't go out unless I make them, but they also won't spread until I tell them to." Sakura, meanwhile, produced a storage scroll serving as an extensive survival kit and lit a small round candle with a match. "And now we have light as well. Thanks, Sakura."

"No problem," she set down the candle and slumped against the wall of the tunnel, rubbing her upper arms. "Ah, I feel warmer already..."

"Mhm," Hinata agreed, and both she and Naruto shed their heavy coats.

Under his leather coat, Naruto's new outfit showed a renewed love of the color orange. He was wearing a formfitting long-sleeved shirt of orange chainmail, under a Konoha flak jacket dyed black. The normally red spiral on the back was neon orange on his. His pants were black, but his boots and the tape wrapped around his calves were proudly orange, as was his belt. He had taken to wearing a kunai holster again, also orange. Lastly, the fabric of his forehead protector was now orange, while the metal plate bearing Konoha's sigil was painted black.

Hinata, on the other hand, had replaced her brown digital camo armor with a dark blue bodysuit of sturdier-looking synthetic fabric, with pale lavender swirling designs entwined around her arms and legs. Although the swirls looked to be no more than a decorative embellishment, they were in fact the newest version of Tenten's barrier ninjutsu armor, cleverly hidden in plain sight.

Sasuke and Sakura both seated themselves on the other side of the candlelight, and Sakura watched as Sasuke unfurled a pocket-sized scroll from his pouch after shedding his cloak. "...Sasuke-kun, what's that you're reading?"

"Jiraiya's next Icha Icha manuscript," Sasuke deadpanned.

"EEEEEEEEEEEH!?"

Sasuke openly chuckled at her reaction, then shook his head. "I'm kidding. It's actually Tenten's analysis of the Sword of Totsuka."

"O-Oh... Sasuke-kun, don't scare me like that. You really had me going for a second." she peered down at the scroll, intrigued. "Is it okay if I read it too?"

"Hn," he shrugged.

Okay, here we go. You lent me this thing so I could look it over and figure stuff out about, so I thought you'd at least want to know what I learned... The first thing I looked for was a way to identify the maker of the sword, and you're gonna like what I found. On the end of the hilt there's a tiny engraving that says 'Totsuka.' Everyone assumes that 'Totsuka' in this context means that the length of the blade is ten times the length of your hand, but that engraving is definitely the smith's signature. This guy's name was Totsuka.

I did some digging around, looking for any famed ninja by the name or alias of Totsuka, and where each of them lived. Then I asked Itachi where he found the sword in the first place, and cross-referenced the two. I only found one match, a fuinjutsu master who died about four hundred years ago, Totsuka Uchiha.

After I found that out, I started inspecting the materials of the sword. There's nothing special about the gourd sheath, and the only notable feature of the hilt is a simple seal on the end that keeps the sake blade attached to it. Other than that, they're just a bottle and a stick. That means all the cool stuff is going on in the liquid part of the sword.

At this point I was working under the assumption that this guy, Totsuka Uchiha, really was the one who made the sword, which meant he probably used his fuinjutsu skills to do it. The Second Hokage knew how to apply a seal to a liquid, so it's not impossible that someone else could do it too.

At first, all I could find out was that the sake making up the blade has been continuously fermenting for over four centuries now. Even if it wasn't weaponized, drinking it would kill you, so don't get any ideas... Anyway, when I couldn't find any seal on or in the sake, I knew I'd have to get help from someone with a doujutsu. Since I was already supposed to meet Hinata to give her her new armor, I got her to look this thing over with her Byakugan.

I was right; it's definitely fuinjutsu. There were legible patterns of chakra flowing through the sword, but it was impossible to read the seal script because it was all moving around in there. That's when we called in Haku, and had him freeze the sword hoping that would stop the seals from flowing. It did, and then we actually started getting somewhere.

There are two main components to the seal, and the obvious first one is what makes the blade take and keep its shape whenever it's not sheathed in a container large enough to hold it, which has to be made of an inorganic material like metal, or a dead organic material like the gourd.

At its core, the other seal in the Sword of Totsuka is actually just a storage seal, but Totsuka added some extra stuff to it. Inside the seal, there's no light because there's no light source. Totsuka also filled the seal with an alcholic vapor from the sake that makes it somewhere between hard and impossible to breathe. Most importantly, the way the seal flows around also means that the environment inside the seal is unstable.

Think of the most confusing, jumbled around mess of hallways or tunnels you can comprehend. It's about a hundred times harder to make sense of than that, and it moves around every few seconds. It's impossible to find your way to the entrance point of the seal, so only the wielder can unseal anything or anyone trapped inside.

Now, here's the funny thing. The 'fittings,' if you will, the bottle and the stick handle, were both pretty poorly made. They've been preserved over the centuries; they haven't rotted or broken or anything, but why go to the trouble of making such a versatile, deadly weapon and then attach it to a freakin' stick for a handle?

It took me a while to come up with a decent theory. This Uchiha guy needed a sword as deadly as this one, but all he had at the time was a bottle of sake and a stick. So he just pieced this legendary weapon together and went into battle with it, and it was probably no big deal to him. At any point after that, he could've replaced the fittings, so either he really didn't care about the sword or he died before he got the chance to do it. I thought maybe he was killed by whoever he needed to fight with this sword...

But that's not possible. Totsuka died peacefully at age seventy-two, senile, almost completely blind, and with a long-standing drinking problem. So he survived the fight he brought this sword into, and then just left it as it was. Then everyone who owned the sword after him never tried tampering with it, because none of them knew how it worked... And that's where we come in. For the first time since Totsuka made this thing, we know how it works, and we can modify it.

So as you can see, I replaced the old stick handle with a shashka hilt like you're used to, and sheathed it in a more streamlined bottle so it's more comfortable against your back. I didn't try making any changes to the blade, since it was the only part of the sword that wasn't made out of junk. And frankly, a lot of that fuinjutsu went right over my head, so I didn't want to mess it up.

In short, your ancestor was a badass. Have fun with the awesome legendary weapon he made with a bottle of booze and a stick, and then never gave a crap about for the rest of his life. See you at the Kage Summit!

At the end of the scroll was a small storage seal, which Sasuke opened when he and Sakura were done reading. The modified Sword of Totsuka appeared in his hand, and he inspected Tenten's upgrades. As she'd written, the hilt was now very similar to the shashka he'd wielded for three years, and the bottle was a cylindrical steel flask with the end rounded smooth. "Hn," he hummed his approval, and mounted the weapon behind his back where it belonged.

"Tenten will probably want to look for more fuinjutsu and weapons that this Uchiha created, now that she knows he existed," he noted. "But I've had direct access to all of the Uchiha Clan's records for years, and I've never seen his name before. If he created weapons like this sword regularly, then we'd know. The Uchiha in particular would probably still have a few of them, and everyone in the clan would know his name. He'd be a legend on par with Madara."

"So... what? He just made one awesome legendary sword and then retired?" Sakura questioned, confused. "Why?"

Sasuke shook his head. "Tenten's research showed that he was a fuinjutsu expert, so he likely spent most of his life making seals, not ninja tools. He made the sword under unusual circumstances, and if I had to guess, I'd say he made it to kill the target of his Curse of Hatred. The Uchiha don't have a very impressive collection of fuinjutsu, but the seals we do have might've come from him."

Hinata stood then, and made her way toward the entrance of the cave. "Um... Sasuke, making a shelter with your Chidori was a good idea given the circumstances, but there's still a problem with it. We can't seal off the entrance to the cave, because we'd run out of air through the night. But if we leave the entrance open, the snow from the blizzard will seal off the entrance anyway, while we sleep."

"Hn..." Sasuke nodded slightly. "So what are you suggesting? I know you can solidify your water jutsu into ice, and in theory you could build us another shelter that way, but..."

Hinata nodded back. "I have another idea." She raised her right hand in a half-Ram seal before her mouth, and called, "Hollow Water Dragon Bullet." Without the speed and force normally present in the jutsu, she blew out a water construct that slithered through the air before her and grew, hissing as it flew out of the entrance.

There, she brought it to a stop, with its mouth open in a snarl and half of its body still residing within the cave. Its flanks had grown to fit snugly against the walls of the tunnel, and Hinata froze it in place there. She then melted the tail end of the dragon, leaving its upper body emerging from the cave and rearing up over the ground.

"The mouth of the dragon will let in some air for us, and it's above the ground so it won't get buried by the storm. That should be enough," she explained, "I... think. It's not like I've ever tried this before, so I can't be sure it'll work."

"I think we'll at least notice if the air starts getting thin," Sasuke noted. He stood and produced a small, thin scroll from his pouch, then unfurled it and unsealed a heavily insulated and padded sleeping bag, which he promptly crawled into. "We'll probably wake ourselves up instinctively if it turns out that way. I'm not worried about it."

X

"Hm... how did that get there?"

Mifune lifted the gleaming katana in his lap to more closely inspect its edge. While most of it was still razor-sharp, there was a small dent in the edge, deeper and narrower than it should have been. From a glance, Mifune could tell that someone had used this sword's edge to block their opponent's cut. The attacker had also made a mistake in putting too much force behind their swing, resulting in a deeper dent but likely also throwing them off-balance.

So Sanjurou won his match, then... Mifune shook his head in resignation. But he still parries with the edge of his blade too often, and Akari still puts too much force behind her swings... her sword likely has the same sort of dent on its edge. He smiled sadly. At least they're enthusiastic about their training...

He sheathed the blade and set it aside, then drew Akari's instead. "Just as I thought... you children..." the dent on Akari's katana was deeper, and there were a few shallower dents on the edge from where she had attacked with excessive force, but Sanjurou had parried with the flat of his own sword instead of the edge.

He sighed as he sheathed her sword as well, and took one sheathed blade in each hand as he stood. The room around him was lit only by the rising sun through the east window. In the wake of the blizzard that had raged through the night, the air was beautifully clear. The north wall of the room was covered by a collection of katanas sheathed horizontally with their edges up, each belonging to a different student of Mifune's.

He laid Sanjurou's and Akari's swords back into their proper places on the shelf, then took up his own sword which was resting near, but not quite at, the center of the rack. Kurosawa's distinctive guard was rectangular and white with a golden edge, and the wrapping on its handle was white. The blade was perhaps four inches longer than a normal katana, and slightly thinner as well.

He slid the sword into his belt, then turned around to survey the room, which was growing brighter with every passing second as the sun continued to rise. "Thank you for waiting," he spoke up. "You didn't have to be so courteous, but I appreciate it. You can show yourself now."

"You knew I was here the whole time..." It was a man's voice, but not a very deep one, and he sounded amused. He rose up out of the tatami-covered floor, implausibly sending ripples across its surface as he did. He was clad in a Konoha ANBU uniform, complete with a white cloak to show that he was a squad leader. Strangely, he was wearing it open with the hood down, showing his short, spiky green hair. Across his back, he carried two identical straight swords with broad blades and plain-looking hilts.

"You wield a sword in each hand; that's an uncommon tactic," Mifune observed. "Those swords look specially made for it, however." he examined the ANBU mask his newfound enemy wore, which was marked with a bright green slash from the top right to bottom left. The painted-on mouth of the mask was styled in the likeness of a cat's smile, and through the eyeholes, Mifune could see the man's yellow eyes.

It was when he reached up and drew one of his swords in each hand, however, when Mifune finally showed surprise. "You aren't human, are you?" he questioned, gesturing vaguely toward the creature's impossibly pale hands.

"Not human? That's a really rude thing to say." the ANBU drew his swords and leveled the right-hand one at Mifune. "If I'm not human, what else could I be?"

Mifune shook off his thoughts, settling his right hand into place on Kurosawa's hilt. "Very well. If you won't tell me the truth, I'll just have to cut off that mask of yours."

The Konoha ANBU dashed forward at the same time as Mifune, raising his right sword high overhead while preparing to stab forward with his left. Only once the two reached each other did Mifune draw his sword too quickly to be seen. He slapped aside the ANBU's left-hand stab first, then blocked the downward chop from his right blade.

"Your swings are too forceful." The ANBU was leaning forward slightly, having put his weight behind the chop, and this meant that Mifune was now supporting some of his foe's weight. "It's a beginner's mistake..." the samurai murmured as he suddenly crouched down, allowing the ANBU to stumble forward as his support was lost, "...and very understandable..."

He snatched the ANBU's right leg with his left hand, and lunged forward even as he sprang back upright, throwing the ANBU over himself as he stood. He spun, and slashed through the man's neck as he lay stunned on the floor. "...but it still has consequences, despite your valid excuse." He glanced at Kurosawa's tip, satisfied that it was still clean. The blade had finished its cut before the ANBU's blood could touch it.

"You are not a Konoha-nin." he glanced down at the masked man's pale, slashed throat, which still had yet to bleed and was already healing. "And you aren't human either. Your healing ability could be explained as a kekkei genkai of some sort, but your eyes, skin and hair don't resemble that of any living human I've ever seen. Green hair isn't impossible, and neither are golden eyes, despite their rarity. But your skin is impossibly white, in fact, I doubt it's even real skin."

"Not real skin? Not human!?" the thing disguised as an ANBU leapt to its feet, then spun to face Mifune with its yellow eyes glinting dangerously. "You know what, old man? I don't like you!"

Mifune stepped back, light on his feet and calm as he blocked the creature's increasingly rapid slashes. It's not just getting faster, it's definitely using proper kenjutsu moves now. He darted back, letting a thrust fall short of his belly by several inches, then swatted it aside before parrying the monster's other sword. It's a very aggressive style focused on slashing moves with rare, occassional thrusts, always with the left-hand blade. It's focused entirely on moves that use two swords in tandem. Strange... But what's much stranger is that initially, it came at me with absolutely no skill. That, I can't make any sense of.

The old man gave a brief, quiet sigh, then went on the offensive against the fake ANBU. Almost immediately, the white-skinned creature began to retreat from Mifune, but not before the samurai saw and seized a chance to cut cleanly through its neck, this time completely decapitating it.

The head thumped into the floor and the body collapsed next to it, but neither piece of the creature spilled any blood. Mifune checked the blade of his sword, confirming that it was still clean before he slid it back into its sheath. He then stooped to pick up the creature's head, and pulled off its mask.

The deathly pale creature was grinning at him, even though its yellow eyes were glassy and lifeless. Mifune flinched slightly, and after a moment he let the head drop from his left hand. In his right, he turned over the white and green mask it wore, inspecting it from all sides. It's... not a real ANBU mask, he noted with some relief. That means this creature didn't kill a Konoha ANBU to take his or her uniform, but it also means that whoever sent it crafted a fake ANBU uniform for it.

That implies that this creature's master intended to frame Konoha for this attack, whether or not I survived. However, this... thing botched the plan horribly by letting me discover that it wasn't human, and then killing it.

Mifune dropped the mask as well, shaking his head slightly with confusion. But when the battle started... I still don't understand why it attacked with such poor form. Whoever taught it that kenjutsu would've certainly trained it to not make such mistakes. It was as though it had forgotten years' worth of training, and only remembered it all partway through the battle. That's just not possible.

At least, not by the standards of a human, Mifune thought as he turned and left the training room. Despite how angrily it denied my observations, that thing clearly wasn't human. He strode out into the hall and kept going, his left hand resting on Kurosawa's hilt. The creature didn't bleed, even when I cut off its head. From what I saw, the inside of its body was the same solid white as its skin; it was more like a sculpture than a living being.

"M-Mifune-sama?" A timid-sounding voice spoke up behind the shogun, who whirled with his right hand flying toward his blade's hilt. He relaxed visibly when he recognized the young samurai and his ever-present stutter, something the boy had been born with. "S-Sorry to bother you, but K-Kazekage-sama just arrived. He's w-waiting at the gate."

"Ah, perfect." Mifune smiled. "I imagine he'll want to know about this... I'll meet with Kazekage-dono. Takasu, sound the alarms. Notify everyone you meet that an imposter ANBU infiltrated the city, and he may not have been alone."

"Yes sir!" Takasu answered firmly and quickly so his stutter was less likely to interrupt him. After a brief pause, however, he questioned, "An A-ANBU, sir?"

"It wasn't a real shinobi," Mifune repeated. "In fact, it wasn't human. Make sure the samurai know about that." he turned and left, and Takasu quickly did so as well.

It took Mifune several more minutes to cross the city and reach the gates, which had been left shut in the Kazekage's face. Mifune frowned as he ordered the gates opened. We just left him and his guards out there standing in the cold. If we'd let them inside, perhaps had them wait by a lit hearth, it could've been better, but as it stands Kazekage-dono will probably be angry about this.

When the gates opened, however, Mifune found himself staring not at a frowning Kage, but at a sizable hill of black dust, more like powdered coal than sand.

"...What... is..."

The hill opened, and four shinobi stepped out. At the front of the group was a girl in a black spandex bodysuit with a half-mask of the same material, carrying two swords, one of which looked about ten times too heavy for a samurai to wield. She, however, showed no signs of noticing the massive weight on her back, and in fact she was all but skipping cheerily through the gates. Mifune briefly wondered whether the girl was always this happy, or if something had actually happened recently that was making her so upbeat.

Next, an older teen skulked out of the hill, clad in a voluminous black robe with a hood that shaded the upper half of his face. What was visible of his face was painted with deep purple swirls of war paint over a pale yellow base. He loomed forward out of the darkness, and it didn't take much for Mifune to conclude that the boy was intentionally acting like a flat manga villain; no one could possibly look so evil without really trying for it.

The man in the black robe was cuffed upside the head by the third shinobi to emerge from the hill, a woman wearing a black zipped jacket with a broad white sash from her right shoulder to left hip, and a pair of loose white hakama pants. Her blonde hair was woven into not one, not two, but four spiky ponytails. Mifune immediately noted the laughably massive gunbai she was carrying on her back, most likely affixed to the sash through chakra control.

The ninja in the robe flinched, and the aura of doom and suffering around him lessened as he stopped working to project it. The shadows under his hood became less opaque, and his gait became more relaxed.

The fourth and final ninja to emerge from the hill did so with his own weapon already in hand, and Mifune recognized it as a comparatively ordinary wakizashi. For a moment the shogun was put on-edge by the apparent threat, but it didn't take long for him to recognize the total lack of killing intent in the man's bearing, and he hesitated long enough for the black sand to all flow and vanish into the wakizashi's guard at which point the young man sheathed his blade.

With his attention no longer drawn to the weapon, Mifune then examined the young man wielding it. He was clad in a loose tan robe of heavy, worn but still sturdy cloth, and Mifune hesitated to think of it as a kimono because of how very informal the outfit appeared. Along with the robe, he wore a sky-blue scarf wrapped around his neck and jawline, just barely reaching up enough to obscure his mouth at the moment.

However, he was also wearing a blank white haori over his robe, and the distinctive headpiece marking him as the Kazekage covered almost all of his scarlet hair.

"...I'm... sorry to have kept you all waiting," Mifune bowed politely. "I'd like to say that I might've gotten here faster, or perhaps the gates might've been opened for you immediately, if things had been different..."

Gaara very slightly tilted his head to the side, a gesture so subtle as to be almost invisible. "If things had been different?"

Mifune shrugged. "Some ten minutes ago, I was attacked by a humanoid creature disguised as a Konoha ANBU," The Kazekage's eyebrows rose, "And my samurai are sounding multiple silent alarms in response. The creature was likely not working alone."

"You managed to capture or kill it," Gaara stated.

"Yes," Mifune replied, although he did note that the Kazekage hadn't asked a question. "I killed it."

"We need to examine the body."

Gaara's statement struck a clean, even balance between the slightly submissive 'Please take us to the body,' and the more imperative 'Show me the body.' It was not an antagonistic demand, but it also allowed no argument. They needed to see the body, and therefore Mifune would not deny them, even though he plausibly could.

Mifune nodded. "Follow me." as he turned to lead them into the snow-wreathed stone city, he went on, "Kazekage-dono, if I may ask, why did this subject draw your attention so quickly?"

"The four of us were attacked by a team of alleged Iwa ANBU. However, none of them used any ninjutsu whatsoever. Instead they relied on a variety of exotic bukijutsu styles, and when it became apparent that their weapons couldn't overcome my team's array of ninjutsu, they retreated. We came to the conclusion that this was an attempt by Akatsuki to turn all five of the Kage against each other, along with the Land of Iron of course. However, without a body, we were and still are unable to prove anything."

"Ah... so the other four Kage will likely be attacked this way as well." Mifune's face hardened. "Kazekage-dono... how many false ANBU did you face?"

"Two cells of three," Gaara answered promptly. "And you only faced one," he then realized with a frown.

"Which I assume means there are five more of these creatures lurking in my city."

"Possibly." they all remained silent for a few moments, but the Gaara spoke up again. "My decision stands; we need to see the body before something happens to it. One of the remaining five could recover it, leaving no evidence. And as you said, these creatures aren't human and we have no way of knowing what happens to their bodies once they die. For all we know, they might turn to dust or explode."

"My samurai are capable of dealing with the other creatures, assuming there are any, of course," Mifune replied. "They won't need us to intervene directly... but even so, do you have any way to make their search go more smoothly, Kazekage-dono?"

Gaara nodded to Temari, who pulled her gunbai over her shoulder and stopped walking alongside them, crouching down slightly. "My sister can fly above the city and direct wind attacks at any ANBU she sees, revealing their locations to your samurai on the ground."

Mifune hesitated, but only for a moment before he agreed. "That should be helpful." Temari jumped into the air and soared away, seating herself on the massive fan as she did.

"Mifune-dono," Gaara spoke up again, "I understand that this decision isn't easy for you, trusting Suna with as much as you have already. I want you to know that I'm grateful, and that your trust isn't misplaced."

"Well, these are rather specific circumstances," Mifune noted. "We're currently under attack by an enemy that is clearly trying to frame Konoha and disrupt the Kage Summit. As Suna is strongly allied with Konoha, it's very understandable that you'd want to analyze the body in hopes of identifying Konoha's newfound enemy, and therefore your own." he paused, and added with a grim smile, "Although this is really just a formality. We know who has the most to gain from disrupting the Summit."

"Akatsuki," Gaara agreed. "But we still don't know what these things are. They're not human. They didn't use any chakra-based powers at all, so I doubt they're demons. And they're nothing like any summoned creatures Suna has ever seen. That's one of the two reasons we need to get to the body; to determine what we're up against."

"And the other is that we need to keep the body," Mifune realized.

"Because the other four Kage were likely attacked by the same creatures, and we need proof that we're being turned on each other by Akatsuki, that these ANBU aren't real," Gaara answered. "That's the most important part of the problem. We can't just assume that the other Kage know this was a trick. Any of them could show up here expecting to declare war on another in retaliation, and we need solid evidence to avert that catastrophe."

"I see..." Mifune fell silent in thought, and his left hand unintentionally went to Kurosawa's hilt. He plucked at the white cloth wrapped around it, and his thoughts darkened with worry. The odds are in our favor, he decided finally. If there are more of the creatures here, I believe at least one will be subdued by my men. And if there isn't, there's no one to retrieve the corpse of the one I killed.

In the worst-case scenario, however, the remaining creatures could retrieve the body and immediately flee, leaving no evidence. If that's the case... the Fourth Shinobi World War will be a disastrous mess that will end in Akatsuki's total victory.

Mifune only relaxed when at last they came to the training hall, which seemed to take a hundred years, and the body of the pale creature was still there. Aside from the fact that a young tree was growing out of the corpse, there was nothing amiss about the scene.

Gaara stepped into the room without hesitation, drawn to the tree immediately. "Kankurou, what can you do with it?"

Kankurou swept into the room with his robes billowing behind him like a thunderhead, and answered, "I can probably get him to move around and channel a bit of my chakra, if you're thinking what I am."

The Kazekage nodded. "There are only two people known to have experimented with the Wood Release like this. Despite their differences, Danzou does operate under Naruto's command, and with Konoha's protection as his goal. That only leaves Kabuto."

"Right," Kankurou agreed, and raised his hands over the body. His fingers shifted slightly, and slender threads of bright blue light shot from his fingertips into the body of the pale creature. The monster moved hesitantly, twitching only slightly on the floor, but that was all the man in the robe needed from his puppet. A moment later, the body fell still again and Kankurou produced a small slip of paper from deep within the folds of his robe, tucking it between the creature's cold fingers.

"If this thing had chakra, it had a nature affinity," the puppeteer stated for Mifune's benefit. "It might not have had any chakra, after all it didn't use any jutsu on us, in which case the tree growing out of it might not be connected to the Wood Release. But if it does have the Wood Release, then we'll know for sure after this. That'll help in the future, since we know the enemy has a good supply of these things."

The scrap of paper in the creature's hand twitched a few times, then was lost as something green began to grow around it. The sapling was at first completely green, but as it grew up to a height comparable to the creature itself, its bark hardened and turned grey-brown.

"...This confirms that they have the Wood Release, which means the enemy can't surprise us with Wood Release jutsu later; we'll know to expect it. It also confirms these things came from Akatsuki and not one of the ninja villages, or even someone new. No one else has the means to create something like this." Gaara nodded to Kankurou. "Keep working; see what else you can learn."

Kankurou nodded back, and the thin streams of chakra flowing from his fingers brightened slightly, twisting and waving slightly. The pale, headless body on the floor moved sluggishly in response, but not in an attempt to actually sit up or move anywhere. "Its bone and muscle structure is pretty close to a human's... but it doesn't seem to have any internal organs, at least none like a human's. It only has one round lung, and that seems to be there just so it can speak. It doesn't have any blood to be oxygenated, or even a heart, so I don't think it needs to breathe."

"If it doesn't have any human organs, does that mean it has no stomach?" Mifune asked, puzzled. "Then how does it sustain itself?"

Tenten pointed to the tree growing out of the thing's abdomen. "My guess is photosynthesis." She folded her arms and cast a thoughtful gaze at the detached head of the creature. "Assuming it even has a brain we can recognize, it's probably not much like a human one. I don't think we're gonna get anything out of it, even if we show the head to a Yamanaka."

"By the time we got it to Konoha," Kankurou answered, "the brain would already be too far gone for a Yamanaka to get into the mindscape. If Hokage-sama is on his way with a Yamanaka, then maybe, but he'd still have to get here within a few hours. Even then, we'd only be able to get a few blurry, confusing memories."

"At least we have the body," Mifune interjected. "With this, we can prove to the other four Kage that none of them are turning on each other. If we can capture one alive, however..." he turned toward the door, "...that would be even better. We could interrogate it, and present it to the other Kage as well."

"Mifune-dono," Gaara spoke up, "Do I and Tenten have permission to search your city for the enemy?"

No sooner had he asked than a flash of blue light flared up from across the city, shining into the room through the windows. All eyes immediately turned to the light, and Tenten was the first to make her way to the window. She peered out and scowled at the sight of two brilliant blue explosions, at opposite ends of the city.

"There's two of them," she spoke up. "Mifune-dono probably wants to stay with Kankurou and the body, so Gaara, you and I should each take one."

Standing next to her, the Kazekage replied warily, "We both know those aren't Wood Release jutsu. We don't know what we're going up against."

"I fought a Bijuu head-on last week," Tenten quickly shot back. "You think I should be scared?"

"I'm scared," he clarified. "Both of us will be fighting alone this time, and I just..." he trailed off hesitantly, then stepped in and kissed her. After a few silent moments, he pulled away and murmured, "Don't get hurt out there, Tenten."

"I won't," she sighed, exasperated. "I promise. So when I'm done out there and I come back looking for you, if I find out you're the one who got hurt, I'm gonna be so pissed." Gaara nodded and smiled sadly. "I mean it, Gaara. Whenever something like this happens, you get all overprotective and stupid and I love you."

He kissed her again, briefly, before letting her go. "I love you too."

The next moment, Tenten was already dashing along rooftops and drawing Soujihonou, aiming herself at one of the blue explosions. By now it had already begun to dim, and Tenten found herself growing curious about what had actually caused it. Gaara was right when he asserted that it wasn't a Wood Release jutsu, and thus it likely wasn't from the pale creatures, which meant that Akatsuki had sent someone or something else into the Land of Iron.

She glimpsed movement within the dimming blue fireball, and her grip on Soujihonou tightened. She whipped the blade forward even as she continued to approach her enemy, extending the blade of fire chakra to slash through the light at an enemy she couldn't yet see. When she came to a stop on the nearest still-standing rooftop to the fireball, she stopped slashing wildly and lowered Soujihonou to her side.

A massive, undulating blade of translucent blue chakra sliced through the air toward her, and she threw herself backward to dodge past the end of its reach. She landed in a crouch and wreathed herself in her sleek black barrier, and she managed to spot her opponent within the blue flames.

Floating within an armored blue Susanoo, Madara Uchiha grinned smugly back at her, and raised both of his swords to attack again.

Please Review!