Things in Sunagakure had gone from tense, to frightening, to worried, to relieved and then back to Tense in three days. Gaara had been attacked twice, abducted, murdered, his body returned in the hands of his friend Naruto, and then revived. The Godaime Hokage had looked him over for any signs of damage, and besides the fact that he was dead less than a day ago, he seemed in fine health. Sasuke was resting and recuperating from his use of Katon: Rasengan, with Haku keeping an eye on her boyfriend. Naruto had taken his Mother to see Gaara so they could go over everything that Naruto learned during the Chuunin exams. While neither really had a connection to the Sandaime Kazekage, they were grateful for the support of the Sand nation and all that they were willing to do for the family of their strongest leader. Anko had just left to check on Sasuke, mostly to see if she could catch her son and Haku in a compromising position and Naruto had plans to go through what little was left from the Sandaime, when Gaara pushed a rather thick stack of papers in front of him. Naruto cocked an eyebrow in question before he began to peruse the document.
“As you can see this was done behind my back and I know what they intend to do, but I thought you should be aware as well.”
“What's this part at the end about? It seems really weird; it's just a swap, isn't it?”
“Apparently Jiraiya-sama found out about the negotiations and alerted Hokage-sama. That part is her doing I was told.” Gaara responded, eyes going back to what work he still had to do. Naruto kept reading over the document amazed at its contents.
“How fast was this done? It had to be finished in the past couple days, right? I still don't get this; it's really bad on your end, why did they agree to it?” Naruto had finished reading and had committed the contents to memory. Gaara just smirked; he wanted to see the look on his friends face when he learned the truth.
“They agreed because they knew how I would react to this. I concur with you, this was drawn up far too hastily on your end of the stick and instead of gaining anything, you will actually get nothing. Unlike the Konoha council witch has a well documented history of trying to steal power from the Hokage; our village council is more of an extension of my authority. They have learned to predict how I will handle things like this, and they have more to gain if things go as they are now.”
Naruto's barking laugh cut the short silence. “You got that right, you know, I still don't know how this worked, but I have to admit that it's pretty bad for us.”
Gaara just snorted at the comment and returned to his work, while Naruto headed off to find any of his father's things.
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“Look, it's real simple; you go in and ask if Sasuke-kun knows where Naruto is. If they ask just say that Tsunade-sama needs him. It's fool-proof!” Haku chirped as she tried to convince Hinata to go looking for her long time crush. Eventually the Hyuuga heiress broke down and agreed, although her face might remain the same shade of red for the rest of her natural life. Sasuke was lying in bed, though he didn't want to, and was very surprised when the shy girl walked into his room. Ok, technically, shoved would have been a better description, but he wasn't going to split hairs.
“Um, Sasuke-san, would you know…that is…um…could you…is there any way…”
Sasuke sighed at how flustered the kunoichi was and tried to repress a laugh. He had seen very little of her, what with the exams and then the retrieval mission going on, but he knew that she was much stronger than in their younger years, and here she was, reduced to a blithering mass.
“Haku put you up to looking for Naruto, didn't she?” His question was met with a silent, but nodding Hinata.
“He went with Kaasan to see Gaara, if he still there or not, I don't know.”
Hinata stood there in a state of shock. That hadn't been so bad after all. She was about to mutter thanks and back out of the room before she overstayed her welcome when Sasuke interrupted her.
“Can I offer you some advice?”
“A-a-advice?” She stuttered for the first time in a while
“About my brother.” What little red had left her cheeks returned faster than the Yondaime Hokage. She quickly began stammering before Sasuke held up his hand.
“Look, I don't profess to know everything that goes on in that tiny head of his, or even what he's doing, and I certainly don't claim to be some kind of match maker, but it's clear that you're worried what would happen if you did something forward and he turned you down.” She was nearing a fainting spell if he kept reading her so accurately, Hinata thought she would die.
“But, he could have Tenten over me, why would he even pick me?” It came out as a fast, and pretty loud exclamation, after which, the heiress immediately slapped her hands over her mouth in embarrassment.
Sasuke actually smiled at her admission. “True, Tenten does seem to be showing a newfound interest in him, but she has done as much as you have in actually doing anything about it. You've both just kind of…danced around him, not really doing anything, and if either of you want to stop this cold war, you'll need to act before long, or…I dunno…Ino will end up with him.”
Hinata began to blabber random fragments again, mostly having to do with Tenten or Ino or her own fear and Sasuke was forced to listen to her for the duration of her little tirade before he deemed it necessary to interrupt her.
“Hinata, relax! It's not as impossible as it sounds; just go by the Kazekage tower and…”
“BUT WHAT IF I MESS UP? WHAT IF HE DOESN'T LIKE ME…OR WHAT IF HE SAYS NO? Oh god! I don't know if I could live with that…” Perhaps she had finally admitted her own fears to herself, but Sasuke could see the corner she had just turned.
“Hinata it - Hinata…HINATA!” He seemed to catch her attention as she quit babbling and once again clasped hands over mouth. “Don't worry about that. That's on everyone's mind when they do something. You can't worry about what might happen and how much it might hurt if you get rejected. You can fall in love without falling, now can you? Hmm…I think I heard a song like that once… `You'll never fall in love, if you don't fall at all.' Pretty wise, don'tcha think?”
It wasn't until Hinata was out of the Hospital and halfway to the Kazekage's office, that she realized what Sasuke had said…and how much he had been right.
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“That was pretty evil of you, to force her to do that you know.” Sasuke addressed Haku who had hidden herself behind a genjutsu when Hinata walked into his room.
“Yeah, but we both know that if she puts it off anymore she'll miss out and Tenten will get your brother.” The brunette shimmered into view and sat down next to Sasuke who had closed his eyes in thought.
“Is that really so bad? I have nothing against Hinata but…does it really matter who `gets' him? Either way he'll end up with a strong girlfriend.”
“I guess not…” Haku seemed to have a pout on her face. “But I really wanted Hinata to get to him first!”
Sasuke laughed at the expression on his companions face. “Riiiiight and it has nothing to do with the fact that she's your best friend or the bet going on between my mom and Kurenai.”
Haku adopted a shocked façade. “Why….I'm shocked that you would suggest such a bias!”
“Whatever you say…whatever you say.” Sasuke rolled his eyes in fake annoyance.
The ice mistress let out a giggle before beginning to baby Sasuke and look over him in retaliation for that remark.
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“The remaining jinchuriki are well protected, perhaps too well right now for us to capture right now.”
“There are only two of them remaining and there are seven of us, what's not to like about those odds?”
“Karin, be patient…the remaining vessels have made a kind of peace between themselves, something we didn't plan on. It would be unwise to storm Konoha when they have two sannin, two jinchuriki and some very special ninja.” Orochimaru soothed his subordinate, now the medical specialist for the organization.
“For now, it doesn't matter.” Hideaki's voice commanded respect and all conversation and debate ceased instantly. “After sealing so many demons, we do not have the power to go after the remaining two, let alone seal them if they are subdued. For now we will sit and return to our usual roles. Orochimaru, you will return to your village and continue your preparations. Karin, you will accompany Zetsu to gather information about the defenses of Konoha. Now that the final two prizes reside within their walls, they will be even more obstinate than usual.” The two stood and left the Akatsuki's base along with Orochimaru.
“Itachi, Kisame, I have separate tasks for you two. Kisame, now that Jiraiya knows who we are, there is no need to keep his spy network intact, they will go underground. Find as many as you can and eliminate them. We no longer care about his movements so we can sever that connection.” The former Mist ninja smirked at the future blood he was going to shed and exited quickly. “Itachi…your brother has become powerful.” Though it was not a question the leader took a pause, as if waiting for a response. “I have the utmost confidence that you are still the strongest of the Uchiha clan, but I think it is time that we made sure of that…by making you the last member of the Uchiha clan.”
Itachi's face showed no emotion, just as it had when he murdered the majority of his clan. Soon that word, majority, would be replaced with entirety.
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Hinata never made it to Naruto after she spoke with Sasuke, and now they were leaving Sunagakure to return home. The entirety of the group that went after Gaara had recovered and was escorting the Hyuugas back to the village. She had been on her way to find Naruto, but was sidetracked when she saw Neji making out with…the thought of these two particular individuals together was a strange thought, but Hinata decided, if you thought about it, they really did make a good pair. Now there were too many people around to even consider talking with Naruto, let alone ask him to go out with her.
The group had made good time, considering how big they were, and it had only taken an extra day to get back to the outskirts of the village and Naruto and Sasuke were a bit anxious to get home for the first time in over a month and a half. The walls of the city had come into view and so had the guards who were stationed there. As they walked into the village streets, Tsunade was held up by one of the guards. Whatever he was whispering to her was obviously making her mad, if the way her fists clenched was any indication. She headed to her office with a scowl etched onto her face. Anko quickly grabbed her sons and followed after the Hokage, both wanting to know what had happened, and making sure that Tsunade didn't do anything stupid.
When the Hokage stormed into her office, it was surprisingly full of bodies. These were the more important members of the Village Council. There was Danzo, the old man who had once been considered for Sandaime Hokage, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura, the former teammates of her Sensei. There was also a rather large contingent from the civilian population, even though they had very little impact on shinobi related matters.
“WHO'S BRIGHT IDEA WAS IT TO KICK OUT THE NINJA I OFFERED AMNESTY TO AND THEN JAIL SHIZUNE WHEN SHE TRIED TO STOP YOU IDIOTS!” Yep, she was definitely pissed off and although they couldn't see her, Anko and company could easily make out what had set off the Hokage. They skidded to a halt behind the enraged blonde in time to hear the response from one of the civilian council members.
“As a council, we decided that it was unwise to have Kumogakure shinobi in our village, after all, they could easily make an attempt at the Byakugan again, without the Hyuuga's most powerful warriors in the area, it would have been all too easy, besides, we have enough problems with one demon vessel in our city, why should we present an even bigger target and house two of them?” The member had a smirk on his face as Tsuande's anger abated; obviously she had seen the power of the council.
“Naruto, take Sasuke, go find your friend, Anko, go get Shizune. If she's in any kind of unrest, take her to see Sakura and then get back to me. I won't stand to see this kind of abuse.”
“Hokage-sama! We have made ourselves perfectly clear on this matter! That jinchuriki shall not set foot in Konoha; it is what's best for the city!” The council pleaded, only the three former ninja had withheld their opinions.
“You forget Tsunade-sama, that the council has the ability to overrule you on matters of Village security with a simple majority vote.” Danzo was the first to speak up of the three established advisors to the Hokage. “I'm sure you've noticed that the number of council members in this room is exactly fifty-one percent. We don't need a full session of the legislature to pass acts in the absence of the Hokage. However, since we respect you so much, we decided to wait on the final vote until you returned, you see, we have a number of proposals while you were away.”
Any color in Tsunade's face faded to nothing at this news.
“First off, Konoha is from this day forward neutral in all matters regarding the criminal organization Akatsuki, in so far as they commit no trespasses against us. All those in favor?” Every member of the council raised their hand and affirmed their resolve. “Very well, next order…” Danzo continued to list off laws that were supposed to `protect Konoha.' “…a curfew of nine o'clock shall be enforced for all civilians and any ninja under the rank of chuunin, not assigned to duty or returning from a mission.” Again, a chorus of affirmative responses went up amongst the crowd. “Item number three, no ninja under the rank of jounin shall knowingly be given a mission that would conflict with the curfew enacted by the previous act.” Hands were raised in acceptance, and a lone one went up in dissention. So far Tsunade was getting politically man handled. “Finally, Konoha will have no relationship that includes protection, housing or caring for anyone of demonic relation or any known collaborators with those people.” As the last round of hands went up, Tsunade snapped.
“Well it seems that we have overruled you today, Hokage-sama, we expect these new laws to be enforced post haste.” As some of the figures tried to leave, Tsunade began to laugh in an evil tone.
“Make me.”
The exodus stopped. “I'm sorry Hokage-sama, I thought you just said `make me', obviously I was mistaken because you have no recourse left to you in the matter of a council override.
“You heard me correctly. I refuse to enforce these `laws'. In fact, I think I'll do my best to break every single one of them, starting with the last one. Nii Yugito, Mitarashi Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Mitarashi Anko as well as anyone they wish, are more than welcome to stay within this village for any amount of time they wish. Of course, feeding, housing and clothing are pretty expensive these days, so that might be a problem…I've got it! I'll take the money out of the operating expenses that the Council would have gotten.” The look on Tsunade's face was one of pure triumph, one she rarely ever had. Some of the council members tried to make a come back, but they were out shouted by Koharu and Homura.
“That's insane! How will the council operate? We are too important a body to be without funds!”
“It's quite simple really; I don't expect you to operate…at all. I'm disbanding the council immediately.”
Danzo chuckled rather loudly. “You are as terrible in politics as you are at gambling. You have no power to disband the council, not even in war time. Your threat is empty.”
“I suppose your right, I can't disband the council.” This gave the members a reason to smile. “But, I do enforce all the laws in this village, and I will not allocate a single second of manpower or any money to enforce any measure passed by this council. You have made your `laws', now enforce them yourselves!”
Tsunade walked from her office, a smile gracing her features, finally after so long, the council was in their place. She had noticed Anko at the back of the crowd with a healthy looking Shizune. Looking her assistant over, Tsunade was happy to note that she hadn't been injured in any way.
“I'm fine, Tsunade-sama, I was only in prison for a couple hours. I'm more worried about the Kumogakure ninja; they were run from the village on threat of death if they didn't leave. If Akatsuki knew this than-“
“They do.” Tsunade let out a sigh. “Or at least, I'm pretty sure they do. The council knew about Yugito being a jinchuriki, and I know you didn't tell anyone, so unless one of her teammates ratted her out, than one of the council members is probably a spy for the Akatsuki. Not even Jiraiya could get any solid information on her.
It was going to be a long first day back for the Hokage and the revelation of a spy amongst their numbers was just another black mark that she had to take care of.
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Yugito and her team had been run from Konoha and although they had been promised protection from the Akatsuki, there was nothing the Hokage could do about an internal revolt while she was away. They had been far away from the main village and were nearing, what was hopefully, the center of a deep forest. It was with a sudden movement that her teammates turned on her and tried to ambush her. She easily saw it coming and avoided the attack by simply ducking out of the way. Her two teammates, though strong for genin, were absolute morons and didn't anticipate the speed at which they swung their swords. Without her body to slow them down, the swords continued on a deadly path and the two boys ended up killing themselves. Had it not been for the appearance of Zetsu and Karin, Yugito would've laughed at the comedy of the situation.
The black and white plant man had risen up from the earth before the demon vessel, while Karin had snuck behind her on a stream that was running away from the village. Before either party could attack, Iruka appeared behind the blonde girl, covering her back.
`I couldn't even sense his chakra coming in!' Karin thought as she looked over the kindly school teacher, thinking him familiar. Suddenly the truth brought her mind to a halt.
“YOU! I'LL FUCKIN' KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID!”
Yugito was confused. What could this chuunin have possibly done to a member of the Akatsuki?
“I remember you…from that day…there was so much screaming…so much pain! No one could stop them from dying…you wiped out the entire village every single one of them, dead! That's why, until I was the only one left alive, they would only refer to you as the `Dolphin that kills'. Do you know how long I had to hear that name? Three hours…it took three hours for the last one to die…three hours of screaming. Never has such a short time left such an impression. Even Itachi took the equivalent of three days when he tried to break his brother…I guess your just better than him at ruining a childhood.
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(A/N: Um…here it is…it's really prettyboring, but I'm hoping that by leaving with a cliff hanger than I'll be more inspired to write the next chapter. As you can see, Hinata's starting to make a move forNaruto;Sunagakure did something that Gaara thought interesting enough to show Naruto. Tsunade flexed her political mind abitand Iruka is apparently responsible for the deaths of an entire village. How? Why?Also, Akatsuki is moving ahead, and now it Itachi that's out to kill Sasuke…wait…what?
Thanks to everyone that reviewed the previous chapter, especially those who did it in the last couple weeks, you're really the ones that drove me to finish this. Please review, if for no other reason than to tell me what you think about it.)
