David McMillan wrote:
unmarred. "You're late, Kaida-san," Itachi stated flatly, no sign of
irritation in his voice.
...oooKAY. Did *not* see *that* coming.
I honestly figured that process of elimination would make it fairly
obvious by the end of last chapter.
Kaida ignored him, focusing on Itachi. "I suggest you make
haste. I except Jiraiya-kun to return soon, and that will make things
difficult."
SP: expect
Right.
"We'd best not attract attention, even so," Itachi responded
after a moment. "Four days."
"Very well," Kaida said. "I'll try to keep things under control
until then."
"What of your partner?" Itachi asked. "Can we expect his
support as well if it comes to violence?"
"That mercenary bastard?" Kaida replied, snorting. "I've no
idea where in the world he is."
And I have no idea WHO he his. But I'm sure we'll find out.
Not in this story. It's a minor reference to the current manga for
those who are reading it.
In one tiny hand she clutched a piece of paper, the force of her
grip needlessly crumpling the paper. She had forgotten what it was in
Double rep of "paper"
Yeah. Will fix.
"Absolutely," Midori's mother said, then she laughed bitterly.
"You need not worry that a mother's love for her child will spare her,"
she promised, and even then Midori had heard the terrible honesty in her
voice, and at that she burst into tears.
Midori's *mother,* OTOH... her I could get to hate really easy.
She's pretty hateful, yeah. She has her excuses of course, but she
probably deserves whatever the Leaf ANBU are doing to her.
Knowing that she'd get little sympathy when she arrived home,
she'd instead made for one of the places where a small child could slip
outside the walls of the Haruno Clan's compound and headed for a nearby
grove of tall trees. Beat to get the tears out of her system, she knew,
Beat<>Best
Good catch.
At the time, Midori had eagerly accepted, old enough to suspect
that friends would be in short supply at the academy. Now, Midori
wanted to snort. The Shimano Clan hailed from the islands of the Water
Country's east, and it was likely that Ren had never heard of the Haruno
Clan or its shame. If Ren had known as much then as she knew now, would
she still have become her friend? Likely not. Maybe even now she only
stuck to it because of habit and to keep the team functioning well.
Somehow, I don't think Ren's that shallow.
She's not, but Midori isn't in the best of mental states to begin with
and she just got a cursed seal from Orochimaru.
Sakura sighed as she locked the door to Naruto's apartment. The
rather brutal sparring session with Tsunade had served it's intended
it's<>its -- possessive form doesn't apostrophize.
Argh. Right.
The former Storm ninja himself was also there, though he kept
mostly to himself and gave little sign that he paid more than cursory
attention to his guests' conversation. He too had not left the building
since Naruto had awakened, claiming that it wouldn't be safe for him to
be seen either. He judged it too likely that Kaida had guessed his
involvement in the plan to remove Naruto from her control.
Naruto's "rescue" of Kakashi was a *setup* to get Naruto away from
Kaida? That's... awfully convoluted, even for a ninja.
Not really. Junhime tried to goad him into taking foolish action so
that she and her group could a) get him out of Kaida's grasp without
tipping her off that they knew that she was in Akatsuki and b) place
Kaida in a position where it would be _very difficult_ to get Naruto
back without openly betraying the Cloud.
When it became apparent that Naruto wasn't going to move with the
situation as it was, Junhime secured Kakashi's cooperation and arranged
for him to be placed in a position where a rescue was more feasible.
At this, Zeshin abandoned his pretense of not listening, letting
out a bark of laughter. "See, Hatake? He agrees with Junhime-sama and
I. The Toad Hermit had to know that he was giving the Kyuubi to
Akatsuki by leaving the boy with Kaida."
Now *this* is ninja-level twistiness. Someone's been laying false trails.
Yup. Junhime's counter-conspiracy was never as secret as she hoped, and
Kaida took steps to make sure she wouldn't hook up with others among
Akatsuki's foes like Jiraiya.
"Yes," the Hokage's adviser confirmed, glancing away from
Sakura. "That would make you my great-granddaughter."
Whooo. I'm not sure how many more of these emotional shocks Sakura can
take.
At this point, she's pretty much numb to them, which is why her reaction
is fairly mild.
All save one of her men had died at the hands of Orochimaru when
they stumbled across the missing ninja - and disastrously, three other
extraordinarily powerful ninja. One of the men in the strange black-
and-red cloaks that Jiraiya hadn't then recognized had perished as well,
but Orochimaru and the other two had escaped with the body. By the time
Jiraiya and his two companions, all badly wounded, had arrived in the
Cloud Village, the Kyuubi had begun the rampage that would end months
later at the gates of the Leaf Village.
Coincidence? Somehow I think not.
Of course not. Most likely, Akatsuki made a capture attempt that went
horribly, horribly wrong.
"You seem distracted," Sinobi Junhime said as she sipped a cup
of tea.
<blink> Gee, the last time we saw these two, they were trying to kill
each other.
Yup. Both of them because they thought the other was an Akatsuki
member, though Jiraiya had just figured that out.
Clearly, Jiraiya can be _very convincing_.
The implications of what she had just uncovered were staggering,
but it explained so much. Sakura wanted to laugh at how wrong her
conclusion, mere days old, that her neighbors' hatred for Naruto was
based on something about his family had turned out to be. It had been
the obvious answer, based on her own experience, but it wasn't even
close.
She's figured it out.
Yup.
"I can't believe," Junhime muttered, staring at a bloody kunai
in her hand.
Believe what? Was she supposed to be trailing off?
Yeah, she was. Basically "I can't believe I'm fighting Storm," or
something along those lines.
A minute later, all ten were dead. Gasping, Zeshin fell to his
knees, staring up at his rescuer. "As you commanded," he managed to
say, "I did."
The man in the red and black cloak smiled underneath his bamboo
hat. "So you did. You served well."
<boggle> Good grief, is there any *limit* to the layers of deception
and betrayal in this mess?
It is a finite amount! :)
"What now?"
"Now, there is one more task for you to perform," the Akatsuki
member said.
"What is it?" Zeshin asked.
"You have to die."
...apparently not.
Heh.
"Outnumbered, am I?" The High Priestess's hands formed a seal.
"Now," she said.
In a blur of motion, one of the Raikage's two remaining guards
pulled out a kunai and plunged it into his master's back. As the
Raikage stumbled forward, the other guard recovered from his shock and
attacked his treacherous comrade. Screaming, the traitor tackled the
other guard off the roof, leaving the High Priestess and the Raikage
alone.
This fic is going to need its own Wiki to keep track of who's betraying
who, how many times, and for whom.
Hmm... let's see.
Kaida betrays both the Cloud and Jiraiya by becoming an Akatsuki member.
Junhime betrays Kaida by forming an anti-Kaida counter-conspiracy.
Zeshin betrays Junhime by being an Akatsuki agent working (in part) for
Kaida.
Zeshin betrays Kaida by following orders from an unnamed Akatsuki member
who claims to be "his master's partner." (Another recent manga
reference, incidentally.)
That Akatsuki member betrays Zeshin by actually being Orochimaru.
One of the Raikage's guards betrays the Raikage by being another of
Kaida's agents.
That's about it... I think. :)
Kakashi laughed. "No, before that. Do you remember the bell
test?"
After a moment, Naruto nodded, remembering his teacher's words
explaining the reason for the test. "Ninja who don't follow the rules
are called scum, but those that don't take care of their friends are
worse than scum."
"I understand," the young boy said. He glanced, almost
Unnecessary paragraph break. Sug: "'...scum. I understand.' He
glanced..."
Naruto wasn't supposed to be saying the "Ninja who don't..." bit out
loud. I'll make it more clear.
Junhime's eyes widened and she spun around again. "Zeshin!"
The former Storm member stumbled into the grove, weakly
clutching at his bloody shoulder. "Hello, Junhime."
Isn't he supposed to be dead? I got a bad feeling...
*grin*
What *is* it about Akatsuki that they seem to get so many of the
sannin-and-above class ninja?
Good question. Maybe Kishimoto will get around to answering it at some
point! :)
"My victory does not depend on your permission," Kaida said
coldly as she advanced on her student, forming seals with one hand. The
night began to turn to day as lightning flashed between the clouds
overhead. "Raiton: Breath of the Thunder Dragon," she intoned, a
massive ball of lightning forming in the air of Junhime. It impossibly
hung there for an instant before descending.
"air of Junhime"? ITYM 'above'
Sug: "hung there impossibly"
Right.
The burst of thunder shook the countryside for miles around, and
even Kaida had to stumble backward, raising an arm to shield her eyes
from the glow. When she lowered her arm, Junhime stood again, a
familiar, glowing pattern visible even through her armored vest for a
moment before it faded. "Now," Junhime said, her voice strong once
more, "the real battle begins."
After a long moment, Kaida nodded. "So it does."
...Junhime wasn't kidding about any fight with Kaida being "loud and
flashy."
Heh.
It doesn't seem to me that high-end Lightning Element techniques would
lend themselves much to any sort of subtlety.
Kakashi ignored his student, kicking the corpse Jiraiya had
disturbed back over. "I only know one other person who knows that
technique," he said. "You know who I speak of."
I'm guessing that we're looking at four faceless corpses, yes?
Nah. Raikiri/Chidori-inflicted wounds. Hence "one other person" as
opposed to "one person."
"Well, Jiraiya," Orochimaru said, smiling. "It looks like you
have an important choice to make."
"Damn you," Jiraiya snarled, but he turned away from the other
Sannin, his attention focusing once more on the two Akatsuki.
Orochimaru laughed. "Very good. I'll let you handle Itachi-
kun, while I deal with Kisa-chan here."
...does it say something about the depth of the crap Our Heroes are in
that I'm actually a tiny bit glad to see Orochimaru?
Yes. Yes it does. :)
The chapter isn't entitled "The Darkest Hour" for nothing.
Jiraiya laughed as he blocked Itachi's attack and captured his
arm, the rotating chakra spinning out of control and harmlessly shoving
the older man back less than a foot. "If that technique could be copied
so easily," he said, "don't you think someone else would have done it
already?" Itachi tried to break away, but the Sannin had a firm grip on
his hand. "Let me show it to you again," Jiraiya said, a storm of
chakra gathering in his free hand. "Rasengan!"
...pheeeew. A technique that the Sharingan *can't* copy on first view?
I wonder if there are any others?
Well, it was _kind of_ copied. Itachi probably knows _how_ to do
Rasengan now. He just can't pull off channeling that massive amount of
chkara at once with enough control. At least not without practice.
It's fairly common fanon, I think, given that IIRC Rasengan is played up
as (or at least heavily implied as) being known only to Jiraiya, the
Fourth, and then Naruto when its introduced.
Recent manga developments cast some doubt on this fanon, but it's not
necessarily a contradiction and I'm free to ignore them anyway since I'm
technically not counting anything past the anime's Rice Field Country
arc as canon.
"Kabuto and Sasuke are the most dangerous," Kakashi said. "Keep
the others bust while I deal with them."
<boggle> I know Kakashi's a badass, but... Kabuto *and* Sasuke? I'm
not sure I'd want to be on that fight, even if Kakashi was in top form.
Kakashi's pretty much fighting a losing battle, yeah. He's basically
playing for time in (desperate) hope that Jiraiya will show up
relatively quickly.
"Damn it," the genin replied, not able to stop the flickers of
red chakra that were beginning to appear around him as he struggled to
stand. He could feel his teeth and fingernails sharpen, and finally
managed to leap to his feet.
He found himself staring directly into Midori's face, and he had
just a moment to realize ho the girl reminded him off before she formed
a seal and spoke. "Haruno Ninpou: Gaze of Torment."
...whoa. If there's anyone who can bulldoze straight *through* the
GoT, I'd bet on Kyubbi!Naruto, but still....
If Naruto was already in Kyuubi-mode, definitely. With Naruto only
starting to go Kyuubi and trying to keep the power on a strict leash...
that's another matter.
He still might bulldoze through it, if it was just him and Midori, but
Midori isn't alone. All Kabuto would need is a few moments with Naruto
unable to defend himself to knock Naruto out.
Kisame snorted, not turning to face his foe. "All you're doing
is giving us a reason to take the time to lay waste to your pathetic
little village like we should have done long ago."
"And how many Akatsuki would you be willing to sacrifice, hmm?"
Orochimaru asked. "I admit, there are many strong ninja in Akatsuki,
enough that if you all gathered to fight me I would die." He smiled.
"But I would not be fighting alone."
Except that Orochimaru is supposed to be scared of Itachi, all on his
lonesome.
Yeah, but he's not going to admit it to Kisame, is he?
Basically, Orochimaru is suggesting that though United!Akatsuki >>
Orochimaru, United!Akatsuki is only > Orochimaru + entire Sound Village,
or possibly even ~=, and Akatsuki would suffer unacceptable casualties
if they tried to wipe out the Sound Village.
Whether that's the case is another matter, of course.
Orochimaru laughed. "I don't think I've ever seen Itachi-kun
that scared," he said, walking toward Jiraiya. "What did you do to
him?"
Itachi? *Scared?* I didn't think that was *possible*...
Of course, if Orochimaru is scared of Itachi, and Itachis is scared of
Jiraiya, then Jiraiya ought to be able to stomp Orochimaru flat.
Obviously, the power relationships aren't so linear.
And it's implied that Jiraiya is scared of Orochimaru (else why hasn't
he dealt with him before?) and that Itachi and Akatsuki are scared of
Orochimaru too (recall that Itachi and Kisame's "we can't win against
Jiraiya" bit in canon talked about how they couldn't defeat "one of the
legendary Sannin").
I rather like the idea that all these super-ninja are pretty much all
terrified of each other, leaving them paralyzed in a MAD-type scenario
and keeping them from fighting each other directly most of the time (and
making them less than inclined to push things to an ultimate conclusion
when they do fight).
Jiraiya snorted. "I showed him a few tricks he couldn't copy,"
he said. Then he looked away. "That boy's strong," he said after a
moment. "I don't know if I'd be able to kill him without dying myself."
Mm. So, less 'scared' than temporarily rattled by the failure of his
Super Sharingan, then?
Itachi's fairly scared. He's canonically expressed the opinion that he
and Kisame couldn't defeat Jiraiya without dying, and the brief skirmish
was enough to show him that he might be right.
Shino nodded. "I believe so."
"Good work," Inoichi said. "That gave Shikaku, Chouza, and I
the distraction we needed to get out ourselves. We got here a couple of
days ago and Hokage-sama quizzed us already, so your debriefing
shouldn't be bad." He laughed awkwardly. "It can't be worse than mine
at least."
Ah, his conversation with Tsu regarding Haruno-san.
Yup.
"What about Naruto?" Sakura demanded.
"He..." Shizune trailed.
Sakura swallowed. "Is he dead?"
"No," Shizune said. She grimaced. "Probably not.
Orochimaru... took him."
Okay, so Nine-Tails Naruto *wasn't* able to beat out the Haruno GoT.
That's... not good.
See above comments on this.
Even if he did, we last saw Orochimaru in good condition heading to meet
up with his men, and he could probably handle the levels of power that
Naruto's displayed thus far.
Sakura blinked. "Shizune-sama?"
"The other thing Jiraiya-sama wants is a team to follow the
trail Orochimaru's men left and rescue Naruto." Shizune smiled. "If I
didn't let you come, I imagine you'd follow anyway."
"I'm coming too," Shikamaru said seriously.
"It's not too troublesome?" Shizune asked. Shikamaru just
grunted. "Good. You'll be second-in-command after me."
<snerk>
Hm. They must be getting pretty short on senior chuunin for Shikamaru
to pull this duty.
They are. Things were pretty badly stretched before this story started,
and they've only gotten worse since then.
Shikamaru grimaced. "Hyuuga Neji," he said after a moment.
"And Rock Lee."
Woo-hoo! The Power Players!
Neji: "Lee. You take the Haruno. I'll take the rest."
Lee: "But... her EYE! They're... so much like Sakura-chan's!"
Neji: "...Lee. FOCUS."
Heh. Won't be quite that easy. :)
"Done and done," Shizune agreed. "Prying Neji-kun loose from
ANBU training will be tough, but worth it."
Neji in ANBU? Wouldn't it have been kinder to let him finish growing a
personality first?
Would have been, but "kind" isn't in ANBU's mission profile.
ANBU guard shut and locked the heavy door behind himself. "If I were
dangerous," she said, "you'd be in trouble."
"You're in chains," Sakura said.
Which just means things might get kinky.
<whack!> Sorry, sorry...
Hee.
"I think your sister and her students left with Kabuto-san,"
Sakura said after a moment. "He said something about taking them to
Orochimaru." Anko paled. "What's wrong?" Sakura asked.
Crap. Sakura must *really* be off her game if she doesn't put the
pieces together now.
She is. She's fairly distracted by the prospect that Orochimaru has his
hands on Naruto and the idea that in the morning she's about to go on an
S-class mission with a non-trivial chance of winding up in a fight
against him.
I think we can forgive her a little missing the obvious. :)
Thank you very much for the comments!