NOVPUB
316 Not What It Looks Like
It wasn't until a week later for word to reach Konoha about the attempted assassination, which was just in time for Hiruzen Sarutobi's return from visiting the Fire Daimyo. Quite a few of the ninjas and civilians didn't believe what happened and knew it was a setup, only they assumed it was the Kazekage of the Hidden Sand Village that was behind it. n𝚘𝚟𝚙u𝚋.co𝚖
It was only the civilian council, the heads of the principle clans, and the Hokage himself that knew the truth. Someone had switched the letter for a fake, one that had much different wording than the one Hiruzen had approved. If that wasn't enough, they had also dosed it with a contact poison to ensure that anyone that touched the papers after it was opened, would die a long and painful death.
“Do we know who arranged the switch?” Hiashi Hyuga asked.
“Not yet.” Iniochi Yamanaka said, tiredly. He had been going through people's heads non-stop for the last few days and only came up with a few clues. “All we know is someone altered the Hokage's orders to send Ibiki himself out to supervise the Chunin hopefuls, which never should have happened.”
Hiruzen sighed at some of the inner workings of his office being manipulated to pull off such a stunt. It had been bad enough for him to be yelled at like an errant child by the wife of Fire Country's king, or Daimyo, mostly because he had ruined such a profitable business. The fines were harsh and paying double the company's yearly revenue in compensation had been a huge cost that the village had barely afforded.
Then Hiruzen had returned home, only to find out that his own son had been caught in a crime, breaking into the Kazekage's home for some reason, and was captured and used as a bargaining chip to get a reaction out of the Hokage.
“With the policy to never question official orders, Ibiki gladly went as a supervisor.” Fugaku Uchiha said. As head of the police, he had a lot more contact with both the civilian side and the shinobi side of the village. “The last time we spoke, he thought he had earned a reward for his hard work and it gave him a short vacation from his paperwork.”
Everyone in the room nodded at that, since they all would have accepted it that way as well. A few days travelling, two to three weeks to look over the developments of the latest Chunin graduates and see the potentials for next year's exams, and then a few days travelling back. It was barely a vacation at all, considering some missions away from the village could take anywhere from a week, to a month, to a year or so to complete.
“It would also let him update some of his more out of date files, too.” Iniochi added and nearly everyone nodded their heads. “When was the last time we bothered to send anyone to the Land of Wind, anyway?”
“Too long.” Hiruzen said, sadly. If he had known exactly how long, he might have arranged something a few years ago, just to maintain friendly contact. As it was, that ally had been left ignored and had grown distant enough that their first reaction was to accuse their representatives of trespassing when they went to visit.
“So.” The speaker for the civilian council, Katou Tsubaki, broke the silence. “What do we do now?”
“What is the public's reaction to what happened?” Hiruzen asked him.
“They think it's a ploy by the Hidden Sand Village to hurt Konoha for ignoring them.” Katou answered. “It's definitely gotten our attention and none of it is good.”
Hiruzen fully agreed with that. He also knew this was a huge mess and he wasn't sure how to get out of it. On one hand, it was his son. Despite their different ideologies on what a shinobi was and what they meant to the village, he was his flesh and blood. On the other hand, someone had set him up to be put into that position and there were a few too many coincidences coming together to ensure something bad happened.
Whomever had arranged it had known official procedures, changed Ibiki's orders, managed to somehow switch the letters, and not get caught. It almost seemed like an inside job, except everyone had been vetted and none of them failed the loyalty questions. How had they been compromised and how did they get away with it?
“Will you be responding to their demands?” Hiashi Hyuga asked with a frown.
Hiruzen held in his disappointment at the man's animosity. He hadn't trusted Hiruzen fully after he had tried to conceal his daughter's failed kidnapping to maintain peace between Konoha and Kumo. They still hadn't been able to regain peace with each other, even years later, and it was because the Kumo representatives had been caught committing a crime on foreign soil and were imprisoned instead of getting off with only a warning.
The old man barely stopped himself from gasping when he realized the similarities, only it wasn't a kidnapping that was the crime and was an assassination instead. However, both were representatives of their villages visiting another village, no matter the reason, and they were caught breaking the law. However well it fit, Hiruzen didn't have any proof that it was an agent of Kumo that had done it.
“What is the Kazekage demanding?” Hiruzen asked instead of voicing his thoughts.
“You're not going to like it.” Katou said and handed over a small scroll.
Hiruzen accepted it and unrolled it to read it. As he did so, his eyes squinted and he fought to not let his anger show. He wasn't successful as everyone in the room watched him as his composure started to crumble. His hand was shaking slightly as he rolled the scroll up and handed it back.
“What forces do we have available to mount a rescue mission?” Hiruzen asked instead of saying what he thought of the demands on the scroll.
Fugaku Uchiha handed him two scrolls, one with active troops and one with resources that could be deployed if necessary, which pulled them from other missions.
Hiruzen read both and his lips formed a thin line. “These are the best estimates?”
“For an immediate mission with no prep time? Yes.” Fugaku answered.
“What if you had a week to prepare?” Hiruzen asked.
Fugaku crossed his arms and closed his eyes to go over the figures in his head. “If we put a temporary halt on the city's patrols, we could get three entire skirmish squads ready and within Suna in nine days total, so two days for deployment if we had a week to prepare.”
“We already used up one week of the three used for the Chunin exams.” Hiashi said. “There are only two weeks left before exams end.”
“If we can't do it before then, then it won't matter how much time we have to spare.” Iniochi added.
“They won't keep the other Konoha supervisors and students as hostages too, will they?” Katou asked. Both he and the rest of the civilian council looked hopeful.
The heads of the clans exchanged looks and they all shook their heads, knowing what would happen if the rescue mission failed. The Kazekage of the Hidded Sand Village was only concerned about the Hokage's son as a bargaining chip and the rest would be useless drains on food and resources to keep for any length of time.
“Do it.” Hiruzen said and stood. “I refuse to openly declare Konoha as a betrayer or to apologize for not changing our ways by not helping Suna when they needed it. Our own people would hate us if I uttered that falsehood.”
Everyone nodded, because that would be exactly what would happen. Despite Konoha being the richest and safest village in the Elemental Nations, the Fire Daimyo himself would disband them if the Hokage ever said something like that statement. All trust would be lost and all their shinobi would have to leave, either becoming missing-nin or defecting to other villages.
Hiruzen looked at Fubaku Uchiha. “Get my son back. The Kazekage is being unreasonable and won't give him up without a fight. I want you to give him that fight as quietly as possible. Full stealth and concealment. We need the blame shifted away from Konoha.”
“Understood.” Fubaku said and he would order their shinobi to wear another village's uniforms and outfits.
Hiruzen ended the meeting and sll the clan heads stood, bowed slightly to him, and left without further comment. The Hokage nodded at the civilian council and left the meeting room as well. He had a lot of paperwork to do and a response to send to the Fire Daimyo about the hostilities happening in the Land of Wind and how it had come about because of the same company he had been shouted at for ruining.
*
I felt proud as I helped and watched over the three Kazekage's children while they learned how to become phenomenal ninjas. Tsuru was in her element and imparted her considerable knowledge to her eager students. Akiko was always right there to heal them when they strained themselves and their muscles and bodies quickly adapted to the intense training regimen.
Yui was also there with me as she tweaked the training plans as the kids advanced through the course and she had to adjust for their accelerated learning speed. It kept us all busy, since changing the facade on the Kazekage's mansion only took a few days and we were only pretending it needed the entire three weeks to finish. That way, we could concentrate solely on the children and their training.
Temari and Kankuro really appreciated it, too. Gaara on the other hand, just went along with it, because he had been following orders since he was a toddler. He was also benefiting from it the most, since he had the most amount to learn in such a short time.
Of course, I had shared my teaching power with Tsuru and part of my healing power with Akiko, which made the training go that much faster, keeping everyone on their toes. Akiko was also asked to pop by the hospital in the evenings to tend to their sick and bedridden patients. I went along, just to make sure there weren't any unnecessarily suffering people or they had anything contagious.
I also checked in with Asuma to see how he was being treated and his cell looked like a suite at a fancy hotel. I was surprised to discover that, and it seemed Asuma was as well. A quick poke at his mental processes gave me the impression that he had fully expected to be nearly beaten to death every night and healed the next day.
Honestly, I thought so as well, since this world was a fairly brutal one. I mean, they trained children to murder for money, to protect the people, and for the village. All of them did. Some even were much more brutal about it and slaughtered any failures, rather than let them wait a year to try again. Idiots.
The Chunin exams were going well, too. Nearly all of the contestants were getting high marks, in both the written exams and were about to pass the second stage. The final week would be a single elimination tournament and the winner would automatically pass without needing a review of their performance.
I suspected that the people in charge were going to pass everyone, just so the Hidden Sand Village would be seen as the better option for sending their shinobi to and raise their threat levels. It wasn't an easy pass; but, it was a guaranteed pass, and I thought that was a much better way to encourage people to visit.
“That's break time!” Tsuru called out.
Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara immediately dropped to the floor mats on their backs and panted heavily, making Tsuru laugh.
“Akiko, if you would.” Tsuru said magnanimously and waved towards the children.
I went with her and she healed Temari first. I handed the now quite muscled blonde girl a snack and a water bottle filled with a nutrient potion.
“Th-thank you, Naruto.” Temari said, her face slightly red.
“You're cute to blush over a younger boy.” I joked and her face went beet red.
“Don't distract my students, you little flirt.” Tsuru said and scooped me up to nuzzle my neck and tickled me, making me laugh, because she was really good at doing that. “Go help Gaara.”
“Okay, okay.” I said and kissed her cheek. She put me down and I went over to Gaara and saw a look of envy on his face. “You know Temari does the same thing to you, right?”
Gaara's eyes went to his sister and her blush looked even redder. He smiled and nodded, happy to have his own source of loving cuddles. I chuckled and pretended to perform a jutsu and touched his arm to heal him, then handed him a snack and a water bottle.
Tsuru, Akiko, and Yui sat down and I handed out snacks and bottles to them and sat down myself. We were in a group and Tsuru discussed with them how their progress was impressing all of us and that they would all be ready by the end of the week for the graduation exam.
This made all three of the Kazekage's children grin and they looked quite happy, especially since I had already arranged for them to be set as a team together and would be assigned their uncle as a sensei. He was an easy-going man and he loved the three of them, even Gaara, despite the little redhead being a Jinchuriki since he was born.
“So, when are the disguised Konoha ninja going to attack?” I asked Tsuru.
The tall blonde bombshell looked thoughtful. “If it was me, I would take the time to prepare first and would move at my best speed to get here, wait a day to rest, then attack in the middle of the night.”
“An hour after midnight, before the guards change. They'll be tired and lacking full awareness of their surroundings.” Temari offered.
Tsuru lightly clapped and the girl looked pleased. “That's exactly right. It gives the best chance for success.”
“I wonder if they'll send a squad or two?” Akiko asked, curiously.
“I'd send a primary, a secondary, and a tertiary.” Gaara answered, surprising his siblings.
Tsuru gave him a light applause. “Go ahead and explain why.”
Gaara blushed a little and did so. “One squad for the rescue itself, the second for ensuring the first succeeds by delaying any responses, and the third to cause a distraction somewhere else in the village.”
I joined in on the clapping, as did Yui and Akiko, and I turned to look at the side of the room where a small mechanical bird stood in the rafters. “Did you get all of that, Lady Chiyo?”
The bird looked startled and let out a squawk, despite being a constructed puppet. It didn't take off or tried to leave the training room after being caught spying, though.
“At least we don't have to warn the Kazekage ourselves.” Tsuru commented with a laugh.
“He is totally going to overwhelm them.” Temari said, proudly.
“Will he use them as hostages or political pressure?” Yui asked.
“Pressure. Father doesn't need any more hostages.” Kankuro said, his voice sure.
Silence fell as we sat there and thought about that.
“The next few days are going to be interesting, aren't they?” I asked and the others nodded. “Do we want front row seats or should we keep out of it?”
“We are definitely keeping out of it.” Tsuru said and stood. “We don't want to be seen by either side or to be associated with the incident at all. None of us need that kind of trouble. Agreed?”
“Agreed.” We all said, even Gaara.
“Great! Back to work, you three.” Tsuru said and ushered the three students to their feet and back over to the training equipment for them to gain more strength and dexterity.
None of them complained or groaned, because they knew we were doing our best to train them as quickly and as safely as possible. We also did it with as much care as we could, which they had never gotten from their own trainers and teachers before. It was a novel experience for them and they thrived under Tsuru's teaching methods.
