Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, considered how best to approach this situation when the individual he'd summoned finally showed up. "You're late, Kakashi."
"Well, there was this-" Kakashi stopped as he realized exactly who it was in the Hokage's office.
"Hello, Kakashi," said Rin Nohara. "It's been a long time."
Sasuke Uchiha was loathe to consider that the dead last of the class had actually pulled off a "Moment of Awesome" and done something impossible.
That said, he'd stabbed nearly through his right leg with a pencil to dispel a genjutsu.
Mito Uzumaki-Senju, wife of the First Hokage. Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage. Tobirama Senju, Second Hokage.
That the teacher had mentioned five returned from the dead had not passed him by. Was there an Uchiha among the returned? It was all going to be S-Class secrets, so how to find out?
The most obvious path was to question the one responsible - Naruto Uzumaki. The most obvious manner of doing so would be to get onto that team, however the team assignments had been apparently drawn up before this little feat.
He would have to consider a manner of doing so - as being trained by two Hokage would certainly be a means of getting strong enough to approach his goals.
Hinata was considering how best to approach the subject. Particularly without having her sanity questioned. Somehow the idea of facing her father, telling him that two Hokage had been returned from the dead, and that she had the chance to train under their authority would be well received.
On the other hand, she had the duty of reporting this to their clan head as it was something that could affect the clan as a whole. Except that it was apparently all secret.
It was all so complicated.
How to do it?
Sakura practically skipped all the way home. She was on a team with Sasuke-kun! Their jonin-sensei hadn't shown up, but he'd apparently relayed a message to Iruka-sensei that he'd meet them in front of the Academy tomorrow morning at 0800.
She was on a team with Sasuke-kun!
Oh, and the third member of the team was Ami. That loser. But she was on a team with Sasuke-kun!
Maybe Ami would fall and break a leg or something and then have to spend time away from the team. Then she'd be ALONE with Sasuke-kun!
Things were certainly looking up for her.
HOW had she ended up the 'Dead Last'?
Okay, maybe she hadn't done so well on taijutsu. Maybe her Substitution technique had slammed her into the wall. Maybe her Clone technique had gotten the nose misplaced. Maybe her Disguise technique had a couple of details off.
Damn.
But she was on a team with Sasuke-kun, validating her claim on the ultra-cool Sasuke. She just had to figure out a way to get Billboard-Brow out of the way. It was just uncool how she fawned over Sasuke! She should have the sense to bow out of the way gracefully. Or at least as gracefully as that girl could manage to do.
Kakashi sighed as he looked over the report on his team. "Well, this certainly looks like a disaster waiting to happen."
"Oh, I don't know," said Rin. "It says that the two girls are focused on the Uchiha boy. If they get the idea that to support him they have to put their personal animosity on hold - it COULD work and you'd have a team."
"Bets?" asked Kakashi.
"I'll grant you it's unlikely," said Rin, stretching. "So. If you fail them, what then?"
"The Hokage says I'm burning out in ANBU," answered Kakashi. "I disagree but he IS the Hokage. So temporary assignments until the next graduating class. The departments he put out were Academy, Courier, Intel, and Security."
"I can't really see you as a teacher dealing with first years," confessed Rin. "Courier and taking care of the messenger hawks? Not really but your dogs would probably enjoy the runs. Intel - not so much. You like being in the field too much, being trapped in a room going over reports and decoding intercepts? No."
"Right, so Security," said Kakashi, punctuating that with a sigh.
"If someone attacks the village with three Hokage and Mito Uzumaki in residence?" suggested Rin. She shook her head. "I can't see that going well at all."
"I can't honestly believe this," said Shinori, the village leader shaking his head.
Shibuki shrugged. "It says what it says, father. Hashirama and Tobirama were confirmed to be walking through Konohagakure. It was not a disguise or genjutsu. Our spy there is a tailor and was able to brush up against them. The rumor is that a genin named Uzumaki is responsible, having refined the Impure World Resurrection."
"We need to confirm this," said Shinori. "If it is true..."
"If it is true, then it is good that we are currently allies of Konohagakure," said Shibuki, the chunin still having his doubts about this.
"The Impure World Resurrection is a forbidden technique, originally developed by Tobirama using notes and references of the Uzumaki clan." Shinori leaned back in his chair and considered the ceiling briefly. "This Uzumaki child. Do we have any intel on him?"
"Not much," said Shibuki. "He was dismissed as a subpar genin prior to this development."
Shinori was silent for a few moments. "New genin. So - twelve year old boy?"
"Yes," admitted Shibuki, knowing that much and not following.
"We need more information in order to make an informed decision on this," said Shinori. "Who do we have that we can send?"
"This could be bad, very bad," admitted Onoki. "We only have the one spy in Konohagakure and I don't want him to do anything that will reveal that one. So we need to send someone to corroborate this. Someone who can suppress their hatred of that place or who doesn't hate it. Someone who can get in, then get out."
"Not many, but we have a few," said Akatsuchi. "There's a couple jonin-levels in fact. What do we do if it's true? That somehow two previous Hokage are running around Konoha?"
Onoki considered carefully before answering. "Do nothing. If they are not antagonistic, neither shall we be. Going up against both of them without knowing if they're at full strength would be foolish. Find out as much as they can and get back here with the intel. Who is the jonin?"
"Tsuchidori," said Akatsuchi. "Fought against the Yellow Flash, surrendered rather than have her squad slaughtered. Because of this, her squad survived and she was demoted to chunin. Loyal to Iwa, but has stated that she admired the Yellow Flash for his skills and strength as a ninja."
"Dori? She's still around?" Onoki closed his eyes, trying to remember. "Kenjutsu specialist, decent with Earth Release but a lot better with Lightning as I recall. She'll do and if she dies on this mission it won't particularly hurt our forces as she still gets shunned for that failure of hers. Send her. We'll list her as a missing-nin and she can try to infiltrate using that excuse."
Ay's face was impassive, showing no emotion. This caused everyone who knew him to avoid him.
Finally he called for his secretary, being unusually calm and thoughtful-sounding.
Then he asked for something which absolutely no one would have expected from him.
Paperwork.
"Nonsense. What is Konoha planning that they would come up with something so ridiculous?" said Tobi.
"It doesn't matter," said Pein.
"No, I'm sure this is a cover for something else," said Tobi. "We'll have to find out the truth before we move against them."
"Plenty of time then," said Pein. "Money and power are our main concerns at the moment."
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(Posted Thu, 19 Feb 2015 19:29)
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