Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Failing Twilight ❯ Chapter 10: The Program ( Chapter 10 )

Title: Failing Twilight

Author: Shadow Rebirth

Beta Reader: Rukia23

Rating: M

Warnings: Death, blood and gore, coarse language, adult themes, spoilers

Chapter WC: 4,149

Total WC: 55,532

First Written: December 20, 2008

Last Edited: January 30, 2009

Posted: February 4, 2009

Summary: Naruto had learned from a young age that life could get hectic, but all this chaos with Biju, daimyos, and psychotic missing-nin was going a bit too far. Now just throw in a fourth Great Shinobi War and you've got one pissed off seal master. AU story. No pairings.

 

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Failing Twilight

 

Chapter 10

The Program

 

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Team 7 had been working together for almost a month when they finally received their first C-rank mission. It was both less and more than they'd expected it to be.

 

"Well? Well?" Naruto asked Kakashi excitedly. "What's the mission? What do we have to do? Do we finally get to travel outside the Village?"

 

"No, it's within the Village," Kakashi said, still smiling his signature grin. His amusement only grew stronger when the Genin's faces dropped. "But don't worry; it's actually a rather prestigious mission. Shijimi, the Fire Daimyo's wife, has been in Konoha for the last week and unfortunately her pet, Neko, got loose. It's our job to find and retrieve Neko."

 

Sakura's eyebrow began twitching. "Are you telling us that that we're going to go find some cat?! This mission is only C-rank because the cat belonged to the Fire Daimyo's wife!"

 

Kakashi's grin grew a little bit more. "Not quite, Sakura. I said that the pet's name was Neko, not that it was a cat."

 

Naruto's face suddenly grew pale as a piece of information he'd picked up came to the forefront of his mind. "Uh, Kakashi-sensei," he gulped. "Doesn't the Fire Daimyo's wife have a pet tiger?"

 

"She definitely does," the Jounin replied, looking entirely too cheerful.

 

"We have to catch a tiger?" Sasuke said incredulously.

 

Team 7 exchanged wary glances. This wasn't going to end well; Naruto could feel it in their bones.

 

"Come," Kakashi beckoned. "We're going to head over to the forest where Neko was last seen."

 

As the team began to make their way towards the starting point, Naruto wasn't sure how he should feel. Annoyed? Excited? It was their first C-class after all and at least going after a tiger was better than going after a cat. But...Shouldn't there be handlers who took care of this? After all, killing a tiger was one thing, but capturing one was an entirely different story.

 

"Alright, let's get started," Kakashi said once they'd reached the head of the trail where Neko had last been seen. He was serious once more. "What should the plan be?"

 

Naruto repressed a sigh. Kakashi did this with them every time they went on a mission, no matter how simple it was. He had to admit that it was good training though; they had to come up with a plan on their own, just as they would have to while on a higher ranking mission outside of Konoha.

 

Sakura was the first one to speak up. "Naruto can have his Kage Bunshin scour the forest," she said.

 

The blonde nodded his agreement. "Finding Neko shouldn't be a problem. But how will we capture her?" Sasuke opened his mouth to reply, but Naruto cut him off with a wide grin. "I mean without roasting her."

 

The Uchiha sent him a scowl. "I was going to say that we have no choice but to knock her out," he growled. "We'll have to get close to the tiger in order to do that, so we need a distraction."

 

Tapping his chin thoughtfully, Naruto considered their options. He could make distractions easily enough, but he doubted that anything he did would distract Neko long enough for his teammates to knock her unconscious.

 

"Meat," he muttered to himself. "Domesticated as it is, the tiger's probably hungry, so it'd go after meat..."

 

"Good thinking, Naruto," Kakashi commented. "Getting inside the mind of your enemy is always the first step."

 

Sakura nodded in agreement. "We can use the meat to lure Neko into a trap," she said eagerly. "Then we can knock her out!"

 

Sasuke nodded resolutely in agreement. "Naruto," he said. "Send out your clones to search the forest and one or two to get some meat from the Village."

 

"No problem!" the blue eyed boy agreed with a smile. An instant later four dozen Kage Bunshin had been created and were roaming around. "Let's get started!"

 

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"Everyone in position?" Kakashi's voice crackled in Naruto's ear. The blonde adjusted the volume of the headset a little bit. He was hiding in a tree about ten feet from Neko, their target, and certainly didn't want the tiger to hear.

 

"Five meters SW," came Sakura reply. Sasuke's position soon followed hers.

 

Naruto took that as his signal. "Alright," the blonde said, "I'm moving in."

 

Without waiting for a reply, Naruto dropped down in front of Neko. The massive—seriously! Naruto knew he wasn't that tall, but she came up to his shoulder!—orange tiger froze, looking as though she might flee. Then both her eyes and her nose caught sight of the hunk of steak in Naruto's hand and she moved into a crouch position instead.

 

Naruto repressed the urge to gulp and began slowly backing away. Correct to their assumption, Neko hadn't had anything to eat for hours and hours. And since as domesticated a tiger she was, she was used to eating regularly, and was very hungry. Naruto knew that he could easily Kawarimi away if it came down to that, but that didn't make this situation any less daunting.

 

As if reading his thoughts, Neko chose that moment to lunge at him. Naruto turned on his heel and ran, using chakra to ensure that Neko wouldn't be able to catch up to him. Thus started a long chase through the woods with the blonde's heart pounding faster than it ever had; he' d been in some pretty bad situations before, but there's nothing quite like being chased by a hungry, four hundred pound tiger.

 

After only a minute or so, Naruto caught sight of a precipice ahead and breathed out a silent sigh of relief. They'd planned to lead the tiger here because the cliff wasn't that big—it was only a twenty feet drop that'd most likely been created by a shinobi—but it was tall enough to make Neko stop. Naruto would go over the edge, thus getting himself to safety, while Neko would stop. She'd then be trapped and, while distracted by the meat in Naruto's hands, would be easily tied up and knocked out by Sasuke and Sakura.

 

Reaching the edge of the precipice, Naruto leaped down while simultaneously channeling chakra to his feet so that he'd stick to the rock. He ran down about five feet before stopping and glancing back up to make sure that the tiger had followed him all the way to the edge.

 

Then his eyes widened in shock.

 

Neko had indeed followed him all the way. All the way. Just like him, she hadn't stopped at the edge and instead had jumped after Naruto.

 

Shit.

 

Naruto's astounded eyes watched as Neko sailed over his head and began to plummet down towards the earth. That wasn't good. That was bad, bad, bad. Just how would the Fire daimyo's wife react to finding out that they'd killed her pet, even if by accident.

 

And so of course, Naruto did the only thing he could: He left go of the cliff face and jumped after Neko. Thanks to his chakra enhanced leap, he caught up to the tiger after only a moment. He swiftly wrapped his arms around her while channeling more chakra into his arms so that he wouldn't let go. Simultaneously he activated the Kage Bunshin seal on his back, creating a dozen clones that created a chain.

 

While the clone on one end of the chain grabbed onto the cliff face with chakra, the one on the other end grabbed the real Naruto's ankles. Naruto and Neko were rather painfully jerked to a stop, less than five feet from the ground. The blond haired Genin breathed out a sigh of deep relief. With a series of pops he released all of the Kage Bunshin and dropped heavily to the ground.

 

Naruto lay still for a heartbeat before pushing himself off the ground with a groan. He began muttering under his breath about conveniently placed cliffs when a low growl next to him interrupted him. The Genin froze and slowly turned his head to look at Neko.

 

The massive tiger was sitting next to him, crouched low to the ground. All of her muscles were tensed, like a coil ready to spring. She leapt suddenly and Naruto reached up to throw her off— Only to get a face full of wet tongue and hot tiger breath.

 

"You've got to be kidding me!" Naruto cried out. He channeled some chakra into his muscles in order to keep form crumpling as Neko, who was a fair bit larger than him, both mass and height wise, placed all of her weight onto her paws on Naruto's shoulders as she continued licking his face. "Alright, alright! Enough already."

 

"Naruto!" Sakura called down from the top of the cliff. Naruto looked up and saw that his team was peering down over the edge at him.

 

"'Mm fine," the blond called up. With a grunt he finally managed to push Neko off. "Neko too."

 

Kakashi leapt off the cliff and smoothly landed in a crouch before Naruto. The Genin coughed once while waving a hand through the air to clear the small amount of dust that was stirred up in the air at the impact.

 

At the same time, Neko stepped forward, her lips pulled back into a ferocious snarl. Sweatdropping, Kakashi stepped back as well. He held his hands up, as though the defensive gesture would ward the angry tiger off.

 

"Oi, Naruto-kun, call off your pet."

 

Naruto blinked in surprise at that development—though in hindsight it wasn't that surprising, considering how she'd been licking his face like a puppy just moments before—but his face quickly split into a smirk. "I dunno sensei, why should I? What's in it for me?"

 

"Narut—"

 

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it," Naruto replied with a roll of his eyes. He reached down and began scratching Neko behind the ears. The domesticated tiger was instantly distracted by the sensation. She sat back on her haunches and nuzzled her head into Naruto's hand, almost knocking the boy off his feet. He half expected her to start purring like a house cat, but she didn't.

 

"Way to follow the plan, Uzumaki," Sasuke snorted as he and Sakura joined them at the bottom of the cliff.

 

The blond twitched with annoyance. "Yeah, because that was so my fault, Uchiha," he snapped. "Tell me, why didn't you stop her before she went over the edge?"

 

"Now, now children," Kakashi interrupted with a bright smile, "No fighting. We need to get Neko back to the daimyo's wife, ne?"

 

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Returning Neko to Shijimi, the Fire Daimyo's wife, was a little more difficult than anticipated, if only because the tiger didn't want to leave Naruto. The Genin was a little confused at Neko's abrupt turnaround from animosity to loyalty, but he supposed that saving her life accounted for it. She did seem a bit more intelligent than average to him.

 

When all was said and done Shijimi was rather enthusiastically grateful for Neko's return, up to the point that she even demanded that Naruto visit Neko again some time. Though Naruto had no intention whatsoever of doing so, he thanked her several times until her attendants finally ushered them away.

 

Kakashi gave them the rest of the afternoon off as a reward for completing their first C-rank mission. Naruto wandered away from the Hokage Tower, too tired to even care that he'd done most of the work while his teammates had sat back and watched—even if unintentionally. Before long he wound up at one of the few places other than the training grounds that he went when he had free time: The Intelligence Headquarters.

 

"Oi, Ibiki-sempai!" Naruto called as he stuck his head into his superior's office. "Do you—"

 

"Go away Naruto."

 

The boy deftly dodged a stapler thrown in his direction. "Kami," he said with a scowl, "What's got your boxers all twisted up?"

 

Ibiki glanced up to scowl darkly at Naruto. "Do I look like I'm in the mood, brat?" he snapped.

 

Naruto paused to honestly consider the question. Ibiki had dark bags under his eyes, as though he hadn't been getting much sleep lately. In fact...now that he really thought about it, Ibiki had been acting strangely recently. He always looked tired and worn out like this, as though he was doing exponentially more work.

 

The most telling sign that something was off, however, was that Naruto had had a lot less paperwork recently. This could only mean that Ibiki was doing more paperwork and the only reason he would ever do such a thing was if the paperwork was ranked beyond Naruto's security clearance. Just what was going on?

 

He left Ibiki's office without another word.

 

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Only a few days later Ibiki personally called Naruto into his office. The boy was surprised to find Ibiki in much a much more pleasant mood—well, as pleasant as Ibiki could be—than before. He wasn't sure whether or not he should take that as a good thing or not though. After all, a happy Ibiki was often a sadistic Ibiki.

 

"Congratulations, Naruto," were the first words out of Ibiki's grinning mouth.

 

The Genin instantly blanched. Ibiki never used his name unless severely pissed off or in a particularly vicious mood; usually he always called him "kid" or "brat". There was no way that this could be good. Naruto hovered around near the door, ready to bolt if necessary.

 

"Uh, thanks," the blond managed to say. "But...for what?"

 

Ibiki's smile widened further. "For your seal idea. The Development Department over at the ANBU division has been working recently to create a tracking seal based on your improved idea of the tracking chip. Just yesterday they finally finished the prototype. The whole department's been in an uproar about it; it completely revolutionizes tracking as we know it."

 

"I—...What?"

 

The Jounin chuckled. "This single new seal will make it almost impossible for missing-nin to escape," he said. "The Hunter-nin department will probably be knocking on your door soon, calling you their new god. The seal also will make retrieval of captured shinobi infinitely easier and will allow us to better monitor who enters and exits the Village—something which the ANBU will infinitely thank you for. There's never been a way to keep track of all of our shinobi like this before. Once the seal has been given to all of our shinobi, the Village's security will be unrivaled among the shinobi nations."

 

Naruto shifted awkwardly. "But...I mean, I didn't actually create the seal or anything," he pointed out.

 

"But you still came up with the idea," Ibiki countered. "And besides which, you probably could have created it had you given it the time. But that doesn't matter. What does is that the seal has been created and Konoha is much better off now because of it."

 

"...This is what you're so happy about? About something that I did?"

 

Ibiki's grin transformed into a scowl. "Don't go getting a big head, brat," he snapped. Naruto relaxed imperceptibly. Ah, now there was the Ibiki he knew. "The only reason I'm happy is because this seal makes my work a lot easier—because traitors will be easy to track and catch—not because of what you did. I congratulated you on the seal, but nothing else."

 

"...Right."

 

All of a sudden Ibiki's smirk was back in full force. "Speaking of which," the older man began, "Because this seal will track all Konoha-nin, it falls under Intelligence jurisdiction. And since it was your idea, you're going to be the director of the program.

 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Naruto protested. "What? You want me to keep track of all the shinobi in Konoha?! Why?! I already have a ton of your paperwork to take care of as it is!"

 

"You've got Kage Bunshin."

 

"That's not the point! You're just doing this to shift more of your work onto me, aren't you, you lazy ass bastard?!"

 

Suddenly there was a dangerously glinting kunai in Ibiki's hands and the Head of Intelligence's grin was twice as wide as it'd been before. "Repeat that. I dare you."

 

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The next two weeks were rather eventful for Naruto, needless to say. It was slow going at first, but before long the final project of the tracking seal had been completed and tested and the Tracker Program was fully set up. All Jounin were now sporting the seal—hidden beneath a layer of grafted skin—on the backs of their necks and groups of Chuunin were called in everyday to be given the seal. It wouldn't be long before every shinobi in Konoha was accounted for.

 

Unfortunately for Naruto, the command center for the Tracker Program had been set up in the ID base beneath the Intelligence Headquarters because of the sensitivity of the program. After all, they couldn't very well allow an enemy shinobi to get their hands of it.

 

While Naruto completely understood the reasons for the placement of the command center, that didn't mean that it didn't piss him off to have to go up and down the security chute with Ibiki all the time. Fortunately, however, he constantly had at least half a dozen Kage Bunshin manning the Tracker command center so he didn't have to go personally very often.

 

There was also one little detail that Ibiki had forgotten to mention when first telling Naruto about his new duties: He had four subdominants, all of whom were at least Chuunin-level or higher shinobi.

 

It had to be one of the most awkward situations Naruto had ever been in. He was used to having superiors, used to having teammates, and used to having associates. To suddenly have a group of shinobi who answered to him made his head reel. He hadn't expected to have such responsibilities for a few years yet.

 

"You okay, Naruto?" Sakura asked, pulling the boy from his thoughts. "You look really tired."

 

"Eh? Oh, I'm fine, Sakura," Naruto answered. He repressed a yawn as he lifted his head to look at her from where he'd been lying on the ground. "Just tired, like you said."

 

Sakura frowned. "You've been working too hard recently, haven't you?" she demanded. "You should lighten up on your training before you hurt yourself."

 

Naruto smiled tiredly. "I'll be fine, Sakura—really. Don't worry about it. I just need to get some more sleep..."

 

The pink haired girl didn't look convinced, but didn't press the issue any further either. Fortunately, the two were saved from the ensuing uncomfortable silence by Kakashi's arrival.

 

"Yo!" the Jounin greeted them cheerfully. "Sorry if I'm late, but something important came up. Something that involves you three, as a matter of fact. Follow me."

 

Without another word, Kakashi turned on his heel and began to walk out of the training ground. Team 7 shared a confused glance before walking after him.

 

A half an hour later Naruto nearly groaned when he realized that they were just going to get the tracking seals. They were led into a small room in the Hokage Tower, where a seal master by the name of Naeko was waiting for them. Naruto repressed a grin at the sight of the tiny, silver haired woman; Naeko was one of his subordinates, and the most interesting one, to be sure.

 

"Come, come!" Naeko exclaimed, ushering the three Genin into the room. "Take a seat, all of you."

 

"Um, Ma'am—" Sakura said as she hesitantly sat down.

 

"Call me Naeko-chan!"

 

"...Uh, right. Well...Naeko-chan...Why are we here? Kakashi sensei just mentioned something about a mandatory seal...?"

 

"Figures," Naeko snorted. She rocked back and forth on her heels as she stood before the wooden bench Team 7 was on. "Lazy jackass. Anyway!" She abruptly clapped her hands together loudly, startling Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto just rolled his eyes. "The reason you're here is because we're calling all shinobi in one by one to give ya a special tracker seal—more commonly known as a 'Whirlpool Tracker'."

 

Naruto openly gaped at Naeko. Oh hell no! They were not naming it after him!

 

Seeing his expression, Naeko covertly winked at him before rushing on with her explanation. "This seal allows us to track you wherever you go," she explained, "Which is especially useful in the situation that you are kidnapped or turn traitor, but is mostly just used in monitoring which shinobi enter and exit Konoha." Naeko gestured vaguely towards the door on the other side of the small room. "You'll be called in one at a time to have to procedure done. It shouldn't take more than a half an hour per person and you can leave when you're done. First up, you!"

 

Of course, Naeko's finger was pointing directly at Naruto. The blond Genin sighed, but obediently stood and sauntered into the second room.

 

"Hi hi, Naruto-sempai!" Naeko greeted, beaming, once the door had shut behind them.

 

"Naeko," Naruto replied evenly. He glanced over the new room, his sharp gaze quickly taking in the equipment there. Eventually his gaze fell on a wide-bottomed jar of ink. "Is that the—"

 

"Don't touch it!" Naeko all but screamed. Naruto flinched, but had no reaction other than that; he was well used to the woman's...eccentricity...by now.

 

"...Right."

 

In the blink of an eye, Naeko's scowl was gone, replaced with a bright smile. "Have a seat, Naruto-sempai, and we'll get started!"

 

The boy took a seat while warily eyeing Naeko. There was only one thought in his mind: 'Damn psychopath.'

 

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Meanwhile, within the Tracker Program command center in the Intelligence Headquarters' ID base one of Naruto's clones was laughing its ass off.

 

"Kami!" the clone gasped. "This is priceless!"

 

"What are you doing, Naruto-sempai?" a nearby dark haired man asked.

 

A second nearby clone glanced up from its work at the name, but quickly disregarded the conversation when it saw that that the man was addressing someone else. The first clone clamped down on its glee and turned to face its subordinate.

 

"Priceless! Absolutely priceless!" Naruto repeated.

 

At the man's confused expression, Naruto made a sweeping gesture at the wall before them. The entire space was covered by a specially designed paper—derived from chakra paper, as a matter of fact. It was an enlarged, highly detailed map of Konohagakure. All across it were small dot that were labeled with names. The special thing about this map was that the dots moved, signaling the exact position of any person with a Whirlpool Tracker at any given time.

 

The map worked because there the Whirlpool Tracker seals were constantly sending chakra signals back between the map and seal. It was like echolocation in a way, Naruto thought, but much more...digital. Minus any technology.

 

On numerous other walls in the command center were other maps just like the one of Konoha. One was of all the shinobi nations, some were of individual nations, several were of individual cities, etc. Only about half of the maps had been completed, but within another few weeks the Tracker Program would be completely set up.

 

"What's priceless?" the shinobi asked, bemused.

 

"Look! Look!" Naruto shouted gleefully. He jabbed his finger at a point on the map. "There are ten dots labeled Uzumaki Naruto!"

 

"Uh—"

 

"I—the original Naruto, that is—just got the seal a half an hour ago. He just created some Kage Bunshin and they're showing up on the map. Do you have any idea what this means?!"

 

"Well—"

 

"I'll tell you what it means!" Naruto plowed on. "It means that whenever I create a clone, that clone has a perfectly functioning tracker seal! This means that I can never be accurately tracked since I always have at least a few dozen clones formed! The only reason that only nine clones are showing up is because the rest of us were created before the application of the seal."

 

"...Isn't that a bad thing?" the man asked.

 

"Nope!" the blond said brightly. "It's just the sort of failsafe we've been looking for. If—Kami forbid—an enemy nation were able to somehow, through some miracle, get their hands on these maps, then I'll be in the only shinobi in Konoha who they won't be able to track accurately. And that is a very good thing."

 

Naruto began pacing back and forth, mumbling under his breath as plan after plan formulated in his mind. The other man sweatdropped, both amused and a little intimidated.

 

"I need to work more on my clones," Naruto muttered. "I need to develop a seal to give them more resilience. Perhaps something that helps to conserve their chakra? Or draw chakra from a different source? Maybe a revised chakra storing seal...?"

 

"You yourself are a clone," the man pointed out.

 

The boy smiled brightly in reply. "True. But that doesn't mean that I'm not still Naruto."

 

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Kage Bunshin - Shadow Clones

ID base - Interrogation and Detention Base

Konohagakure - Hidden Leaf Village/Village Hidden Among the Leaves

 

A/N: Eh, this one was a bit of a transition chapter more than anything else, though the whole Tracker Program thing was important. More action starts in the next chapter. And yes, the Tracker Program's maps work a lot like the Marauder's Map, but with some differences that will become apparent. Uzumaki means whirlpool, hence the "Whirlpool Tracker" thing.

 

About the whole Tora/Neko thing: Tora means tiger and Neko means cat. Since in canon Tora was a cat, I decided to switch things around and change it to a tiger named Neko. The whole switch with the pet type happened mostly for my own amusement, but also because it seems more likely to me for a daimyo's wife to have a pet tiger rather than a cat.

 

Thanks for all your reviews! More info on this story can be found at www(DOT)groups(DOT)yahoo(DOT)com/group/ShadowRebirthFanfiction. This includes a few comics that I did for the story when I was procrastinating...

 

--S.R.

 

"It's when we allow others to think for us that the whole world suffers." - Anonymous