"We can't have a child, so you want to adopt a child we found in some crystal peach pit?"
"Look at him. He's so cute with those blue eyes and yellow hair. And that's clearly a ship of some kind."
"Fine. We'll name him Minato then, for if that's actually a ship - then he's reached a safe 'harbor' with us."
"So," said Hiruzen Sarutobi, tapping a folder. "This is the rookie of the year?"
"Indeed," said Danzo. "He is a very promising ninja, despite his reluctance to kill."
"He had very little problem with that when Kushina Uzumaki was kidnapped by those Kumo nin," said the Third Hokage, revealing that he DID know of the new genin.
"Which is why he is a promising ninja and not simply excellent," countered Danzo. "A ninja should be a blade to wield against enemies."
"He's a protector more than a weapon," said Hiruzen Sarutobi. "Yet in a war, I have no doubt that he could prove to be even more formidable than he is now."
"That damnable Yellow Flash," said Onoki.
"You knew what he was capable of before the War started," said Raiki. "He can be hurt, but it takes quite a lot. It is FAR easier to ecape him, simply running away without taking hostages or harming noncombatants will allow even the most basic genin to survive an encounter with him. Harm those he knows or cares about though - and we've got only a few who have a chance to stop him. Your own Dust Release could likely do the job."
"IF he stands there and lets it hit him," pointed out Onoki, looking at the map with its various markers and counters. If they couldn't secure an area within Hi No Kuni, the best they could manage was a stalemate. "We shall do the intelligent thing here then."
"We let Kumo go first?" asked Raiki.
Onoki smirked. "Yes and no. We let it be known that we're temporarily falling back to treat our wounded and concentrate on cutting supply lines going into Hi No Kuni. We also let Ame and Kiri have their turns, putting a few rumors out so both forces attack at the same time. Konoha's forces will end up being spread thin."
"And then we attack Konoha?" asked Raiki, the tone of his voice indicating he didn't care for the idea at all.
"And then we cut our losses," said Onoki. "Ame, Kiri, and Kumo will suffer heavy losses or take down the Yellow Flash themselves. Either way - we come out ahead. Either we end up the strongest remaining village, or we rid ourselves of that bothersome thorn."
"It couldn't be helped," said B.
"Someone faster than me," said Ay. "This cannot be tolerated."
The two Kumogakure ninja looked at the disarray of their attack squad and frowned, taking the exact same pose despite being of very different sizes.
"It's some kind of bloodline," said Gerein. "His body is saturated with chakra, speeding him up the way your raiton speeds you up, Ay-sama."
"That's why you were brought along," said Ay. "Can it be duplicated?"
"Emulated," admitted Gerein. "He is like a tailed beast in the amount and density of his chakra. Nor could we manage to get any samples of his blood to steal that bloodline. Even with a wind-chakra enhanced blade, his skin wasn't cut through. The wind-chakra spear we used hurt him though, but it cost us four jonin to do that much. So we might be able to work out something similar, but it will likely be inferior. Fortunately, he is just one man. No one else shares that Body Of Steel bloodline."
"If it dies with him, that's all well and good, but what if it breeds true?" asked Horu, the medic glancing up from where he was binding wounds.
"Your point?" asked Ay.
"There is more than one way to acquire a bloodline," pointed out Horu.
"No, we are NOT attacking Konohagakure," said Onoki. "If this is a trap to lure us out, they could do great damage to us. Let Kumo attack if anyone's going to attack."
"People have started calling you 'the fence sitter' you know," said his sister-in-law, leaning on her cane.
"Better than calling me 'the late Onoki'," replied Onoki. "So the Kyubi appears out of nowhere and attacks Konoha. After a great battle, the Yellow Flash gives his life to kill the beast. A little too pat. I'll believe it when the Kyubi reforms. Otherwise it's just a trap."
"You suppose he could have really killed a tailed beast?" asked the sister-in-law. "Anyone else, I'd say no. Him though?"
"Not going to rule it out, but I doubt even that one could kill the strongest of the tailed beasts," said Onoki.
"He's hated by half the village. I'm his godfather, he should come with me."
There were a half-dozen people that Hiruzen Sarutobi trusted completely, but then trust wasn't something that was generally done in the ninja world in any case.
Jiraiya was one of those he almost completely trusted.
"Out of the question for now," said Hiruzen Sarutobi. "All those who hate him know is that he's associated with the Kyubi. I think most of them don't even know enough about the seal to consider him as anything but the Kyubi itself."
"All the more reason for me to take him with me," said Jiraiya, slightly mollified by the 'for now' part of that response. "When?"
"Another two years in the Academy, he'll be eight then." Hiruzen set something on the desk. "If he's anything like his father, that'll be when things start to get harder to conceal. So two years to get that sort of thing straightened out, then back here for the remainder of the Academy."
Jiraiya scowled at nothing in particular.
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(Posted Thu, 04 Sep 2014 18:23)
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