Danzo's single visible eye shifted to the organ player, who stopped as well.
"That's better," said Danzo. "Naruto Uzumaki's dragon contract has the chance to give our forces great mobility, greater striking power, and the ability to utterly destroy any who threaten us."
"Ah, that's good," said one ROOT member.
"No, that's bad," said Danzo.
"Uhm, how is that bad?" asked the ROOT operative.
"Because the brat is loyal to the Third, and that means the Third is somewhat in control of this resource?" asked another ROOT operative.
Danzo inclined his head ever so slightly. "The question is what to do about it."
"Oooh oooh, pick me!" said the first ROOT operative, waving his hand over his head.
Danzo regretted this, but felt he should get it out of the way. "You have an idea, Kenku?"
"We should try bribery!" said Kenku. "Throw a slinky kunoichi at him! That'll allow us to influence him without being too obvious."
"He's twelve," said Danzo, who was a little less put off by this plan. It was hardly in keeping with the usual level of Kenku's plans as it might actually have a snowball's chance in hell of working.
"Oh, well, maybe we could use trained combat cave crickets! They could play a lullaby to make him fall asleep while we-"
Danzo made a gesture. One of the other ROOT members brought out a wiffle bat and clonked Kenku on the top of his head.
"Anyone have any other ideas?" asked Danzo.
That the dragon was real and powerful beyond anything he'd even contemplated before was something he was now convinced of. The dragon had said that it was leaving, and would only return to check up on things in a hundred years or so - but that was the only part of this situation that didn't threaten to give him nightmares.
After all, Maito Gai was someone he knew quite well. Except that dragon had rewritten his reality. Kakashi had talked to a few people who knew Gai and now everyone remembered Maito Gai as Kenshiro. Maito Gai or Might Guy was now a nickname, everyone still shortened it to and called him Gai but he was now Kenshiro. Possibly the most powerful taijutsu master in the Elemental Countries.
Hourensou, a mutual acquaintance and retired jonin, remembered Gai's family. Four adopted kids, each of which learned the basics of the style to some degree. Only Kenshiro stayed and became a ninja of the Leaf. Toki, the gentlest of the four, was killed in the last war. Jagi, the youngest and most psychologically unstable, had turned missing-nin during that war. He'd abandoned his post, stole everything not nailed down, and was believed to have died in a ruined city in Wave.
The eldest, a giant of a man named Raoh, had left after Toki's death - wanting to find something worthy of pitting his strength against. He'd never been a ninja or joined the forces, so there really hadn't been much anyone could say about that.
Some, like Hourensou, felt that was part of why Gai had adopted Lee as his student. That Raoh had never shown any talent at ninjutsu or genjutsu, much like Lee. Lee, however, was dedicated to becoming a "splendid ninja" despite such lacks.
Kakashi wondered what else had been altered. Could the dragon have spoken a word and altered reality even further?
Naruto could summon dragons far far less ancient and powerful. That didn't mean they were lightweights though. Images playing out in the cavern had shown glimpses that he was putting together into a whole. When and if Naruto managed to localize the species so that they could spend all their time here, what would become of the ninja lifestyle he knew?
Naruto grinned as he went through the list, finally deciding on one name amongst all the others.
"I want to summon this one," said Naruto, pointing.
"What language is that, I can't read anything," complained Sakura as she took the book away from Naruto and examined it.
"Hey!" protested Naruto.
"It's all in some weird script," said Sakura, flipping through the book. "Oh. Here's some kind of diagram. Let's see."
"Sakura-chan, that's my book," said Naruto.
"Hmmm," said Sasuke, getting closer to Sakura in order to look over her shoulder at the book.
"Naruto, you're an idiot, if this gives you some sort of power - I'm worried you're going to screw it up and you could end up hurting Sasuke with it," said Sakura as she tried to figure out the symbols imbedded in the diagram.
Sasuke frowned slightly and looked at Sakura as if slightly annoyed by something.
If Mushu had been around at the moment, he would have warned Sakura that the book was Naruto's and that there were traps in there for unauthorized readers.
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(Posted Mon, 13 Aug 2012 21:01)
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