You accept?
"Yes." Tenten nodded.
Why?
"I understand that you are a goddess of battle skill," said Tenten. "That my accepting this basically allows you to put your foot in the door, sorta. I also know that you basically need some kinda shrine made."
This may put you in danger.
"Ninja," said Tenten.
You'll have to keep the full extent of your abilities hidden until you have a jonin-sensei. There are dangerous watchers, and one person by themselves is their preferred target.
"Yeah, I know. I heard some ANBU already grabbed Arano-san," said Tenten.
They were not ANBU.
"Sir? Why exactly did you have Arano Uzumaki taken by your ANBU?"
The Third Hokage paused and regarded the Chunin.
"I'm not questioning your orders, sir," hastened the Chunin. "It's just there were several of the children present and if there was reason to suspect the priest of doing something inappropriate..."
The Third Hokage put his pipe down carefully and considered the chunin. "Arano Uzumaki? The priest? What makes you think it was done by ANBU?"
"The descriptions from the children," said the chunin, getting more and more nervous.
"Mizumi Akiyama, right?" asked Sarutobi Hiruzen. He knew most of the ninja under his command, but details were a bit harder to remember with the ones who rarely did anything remarkable. "Spider. Chameleon. Check out the shrine. Mantis - I want the ANBU Commander here as soon as he can get free."
"Sir?" not-quite-eeped the chunin as three ANBU appeared out of nowhere and then vanished again.
"You are one of the Academy instructors, correct?" asked the Hokage. "Your concern for your students is entirely appropriate. Now - which children were present?"
Children had been questioned by interrogators who knew how to draw out information without actually suggesting anything to them. Which was trickier than it sounded.
The Third Hokage generally preferred a sort of grandfatherly role when he was around others.
Those who saw him after the collected information had been given to him - they saw the veteran of two shinobi wars who was entirely capable of fighting the other Kage-level ninja to a standstill if not outright demolishing them.
"A civilian who has been of great assistance to the village has been kidnapped," said the Third Hokage. "Four individuals dressed as ANBU appeared and threatened several children by referring to 'unfortunate accidents' that could end their young lives. Despite several of them being clan heirs. Now. Does anyone want to tell me WHY a chunin only concerned for her students was the only one to bring this to my attention? No? Well, then. Find the priest. Find out who these ANBU are who are not operating under MY authority. And-"
BOOM!
Hiruzen Sarutobi felt the ground ripple, followed by the air pressure changing. "Massive storm coming out of nowhere?"
Ibiki Morino cleared his throat, speaking up after the Hokage's eyes flicked to him. "Ino Yamanaka indicated that the priest was the 'real deal' - someone who'd actually met the gods. If such was true and not just overwork then someone might be-"
There was a flash of lightning so bright it momentarily blinded all those looking towards the window of the Hokage's office.
The thunderclap rattled the window sufficiently hard that the reinforcing fuuinjutsu brightened into full visibility.
The Hokage pointed to the rising plume of smoke. "I'd suggest someone investigate before Susanoo decides to get less subtle."
Danzo Shimura was not a survivor of two wars and a Kage-level ninja for nothing. On seeing where a bolt of lightning had somehow struck one of the hidden entries to his base, crawled up it, and fried every cloaking genjutsu concealing this section - he knew that his own personal escape was a priority.
"YARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed one of the interrogators.
Danzo paused at the sight, never having seen anyone's brains literally leaking out of their ears before.
He was just here as a shadow clone anyway. He dismissed himself so as to have a perfect alibi.
Nothing would be left tying him to that base. It would take time to rebuild it but he had contingency plans in place for just such an emergency.
"Danzo has five witnesses to say he was nowhere near there."
"Right," said the Hokage flatly.
"There was no evidence that Danzo was actually behind it. Every scrap of evidence that WAS there was from Orochimaru."
"Right," repeated the Hokage.
"Everyone there was dead, some sort of fuuinjutsu which caused their tongues to swell up and choke them when we arrived," continued Kakashi.
"Yeah," said the Hokage. His gaze was completely unamused as he turned it towards his most trusted members of ANBU.
"What do you think?" asked Kakashi of the non-ANBU in the room. He'd currently stepped down from the program in order to have some decompress time.
Arano Uzumaki opened one eye to regard Kakashi. "You have an ominous face."
"Eh?" asked Kakashi.
"What I can see of it anyway," appended Arano.
"I was expecting more along the lines of some vague priestly mumblings about 'gods may be angry' or something," confessed Kakashi.
"Oh, they're pissed all right," said Arano. "It's a mortal thing though and they aren't supposed to do too much in that regard. I understand Susanoo got reamed out for it. Not that he cares - he claims he gets into trouble enough for three other gods when he's NOT trying to do it."
Kakashi was silent for a moment. "You know. I always did like that particular deity for some reason."
"You're speaking to them now?" asked the Hokage, somehow having thought it was necessary to do that at the temple.
"No, just hearing the occasional editorial comment," said Arano. "Normally they only communicate when there's something particular one wants to say or when I'm communing at the shrine. Right now - I haven't empowered any general priests and I'm the only surviving cleric able to do that. So they got concerned when ROOT kidnapped me."
"So it WAS them," said Hiruzen Sarutobi.
"Oh yeah, it was," agreed Arano. "I understand this whole secret society doing secret things in a hidden base with multiple agendas is typically a ninja thing. Doesn't make it any less of a pain."
"Well, I can see your point," admitted Kakashi.
"Though some of those methods? Electrical cables with a raiton technique? Slicing along the nerves in the arms using chakra scalpels? Burning the soles of my feet? In order to get information from someone who is unable to actually LIE?" Arano shook his head.
"Empower?" asked the Third Hokage, the earlier comment raising a red flag. Or at least a yellow one.
"I mentioned that before," said Arano. "When I mentioned it to the Fourth he'd said something about wanting more research on it before I did anything. Mainly because of the whole 'compromised loyalty' thing. Some people don't like the idea of any of their citizens being loyal to anything but their village or themselves."
"So it would be a potential point of conflict of interest?" said Kakashi, seeing that.
Arano shrugged. "If one is a 'specialty priest' one simply accepts that there are times when one literally has a 'mission from a god' or 'goddess' depending. The cleric just swears to a particular deity over the others - and receives particular benefits and 'jutsu' directly from that deity. Susanoo-no-Mikoto, as a vocal example, would give a specialist some resistance to lightning-nature chakra and some skills relating to water. His missions would likely be in keeping with his own agendas - so maybe beating the crap out of some Jashin worshippers or something like that. General spellcaster priests are the same thing but no single deity - less powerful jutsu or spells but a wider range."
The Hokage was silent for a few minutes, deciding to table the 'go after Danzo for undermining the Hokage authority' for a time when the village was NOT severely undermanned and underfunded. "What kind of loyalty or missions are involved with this?"
"I'm a bit surprised with this," admitted Arano. The priest straightened up. "Both with the volunteering, the authority given, and the acceptance part."
Kakashi shrugged.
Pakkun cocked his head. "Why would you be surprised?"
"A lot of the jutsu available to a priest require some sort of gesture and you don't have hands," pointed out Arano.
"Oh, I thought it was because I'm so short," said Pakkun.
"No, size of the body wouldn't matter to the gods," said Arano. "And your spirit is definitely not small."
"Well good," said Pakkun, relaxing a bit. "I'm working out various jutsu by the way. I've almost got a basic clone, water-walking, and tree-climbing."
"Very well, Pakkun," said Arano. "You were accepted, so remember to meditate or pray - you'll know which is appropriate."
"Already got that," admitted Pakkun.
"No missions or restrictions?" asked Kakashi.
"Meditation at dusk," said Pakkun. "No missions. I gain an affinity for lightning-nature chakra and I'll have one spell I can use at present. Hmmm."
"I'd suggest a healing spell if it's available," said Arano. "They're awfully handy in your line of work."
"Hey, ojii-san!"
"Naruto. How was school?"
"Boring! How can you learn anything when it's all talking about this or that?! DULL!"
"Ah." Arano went back to making ema - the little wooden plaques that were used for wishes of some minor kind like passing an exam. The Konoha Ninja Academy was close to their exams for this year, so he was expecting a fair amount of business in both the ema and the paper charms - omamori.
It paid the bills.
Naruto was bowing in greeting to the shrine and then to one of the pillars. Each represented one of the Japanese pantheon, or one of the Norse deities involved, or one of those Seven Wanderers.
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(Posted Thu, 04 Jun 2015 16:07)
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