We are each but a quarter note in a grand symphony ~ Guy Laliberte
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"Crap!"
Already tense, Naruto's sudden exclamation had me freeze in place, kunai blossoming in either fist. When no immediate threat appeared, I let out a shaky breath and wondered, not for the first time, just what the hell we were doing. Two newly minted Chunin and a Genin, and not a clue what we were up against.
The more I considered it, the more uneasy I grew. A full town destroyed, all the people taken away. You'd have to be confident to do that in the middle of a country full of ninja, and what would you need with that many prisoners? Test subjects… something in my mind whispered and I really, really hoped Orochimaru was not involved here. Our last run in with Sound ninja had not gone so very well for us.
If it was, we weren't doing anything. We were gathering information and getting the hell out of here, to let someone else deal with it. Probably, we should skip the first step and move straight to the second even if it wasn't Hidden Sound, but it was a day travel back to the Land of Fire and by the time help got here, there might be nothing left to help.
"One of my clones was just ambushed," Naruto continued, sheepishly, steadying his own footing. "Four guys in some weird armour."
It would be pretty damn coincidental if this wasn't our mystery attackers.
"Which way?" Shikamaru asked calmly.
Naruto gestured to the side. "Over by the canyon thing. Not far, I guess."
The trail we were following wasn't going to go anywhere, and we had no idea what was at the end of it. A lone squad might be more manageable. Might. If they had attacked Naruto, they obviously knew we were here now, which meant security would get tighter, which would make infiltration harder-
I was already thinking in terms of 'how to do this' not 'is this a good idea', wasn't I?
"Let's circle around," Shikamaru said, coming to the same conclusion. "We don't want them at our backs when we find wherever they've taken those people."
And an initial engagement with them might yield as much useful information as finding the base would. It would, at least, give us an idea of who.
"What kind of 'weird armour'?" I asked, hoping that Naruto had a little bit more information.
He shrugged, taking off again. "I don't know. It was kinda like samurai armour, I guess. It was just weird."
It wasn't very informative, but interesting in its own way. Ninja, generally, didn't tend to wear armour. Padded clothes, yes, even light ceramic plate, but nothing heavy. It didn't make much sense, in terms of cost-benefit. A well trained Chunin could dent metal with a punch, for starters, and even a Genin could be precise enough to aim for the joints. That wasn't even counting what jutsu would do to it. Additionally, it was heavy, inflexible and slowed you down and a ninja's best defense was always 'don't get hit'.
It was a pity Naruto didn't have more information, but a little bit was better than nothing.
The instant they came into view, Naruto launched himself forward, leaping down to the ground to confront them.
"Hey!" he roared. "Just who do you think you are?"
Shikamaru and I followed, landing lightly behind him in an arrow head formation, and took stock of the situation. As Naruto had said, there were four of them. Three were identical, wearing the same dull brown armour and pointed helms, carrying the same spiked mace as a weapon. Their chakra was odd, slightly off and unbalanced, but different enough to tell they were individuals and not clones. The fourth was more interesting, wearing shined silver plate over greens and blues, and a cape backed with red. His helm covered most of his face, but there was faint surprise as he turned to see Naruto.
"Didn't we," he asked slowly, voice a steady monotone, "already kill you?"
An interesting question, given that shadow clones didn't leave bodies. Sloppy, to not have expected a feint or trap.
But to me, more interesting was what I heard. Just on the edge of hearing, that faint sound I had been hearing for so long was becoming louder. No. Not louder. Clearer. As if, should I just listen closely, there would be a tune, a melody, a song…
It was slightly worrying. More than slightly, I amended to myself. It wasn't genjutsu, and I doubted I was hallucinating something so specific, harmless and constant, and yet the others couldn't hear it.
Usually, if I was feeling something that others could not, it was chakra. But that was more a feeling, a knowing, than something that could be conflated with sight or sound or touch. I might have described chakra in those terms, metaphorically, but it wasn't like I ever mistook it for one or the other.
So I… didn't know what it was.
I didn't know what it meant, either. If it had just been now I would have associated it with these people. But it had started days ago, and I could sense them, so I would have known if they were following us for so long.
It was a bit of a conundrum.
Naruto launched himself forward at the leader, a sudden burst of energy with two clones fading into existence on either side. It was a straight forward opening move, forceful, but I was still surprised when, at the last minute, the leader pivoted, neatly avoiding the attack and lashing out with pinpoint accuracy.
It reminded me of Lee. Efficient, clean, minimal wasted energy. And fast, too.
Then I couldn't observe anymore, because the other three had turned to join the fight, and we could hardly let them gang up on Naruto.
It wasn't my best fight. I could admit that. I was … distracted. By the sound I could hear, trying to listen and find it, hear it changing and straining to understand what it actually was. That kind of split attention could be lethal in a fight, it could make your reactions a second too slow, keep you off balance, cloud the best course of action until you made mistake after mistake.
It was luck that it didn't come to that. Well. Luck and Shikamaru. Naruto might have been caught up in his own fight, but Shikamaru covered me, working around my mistakes, directing us all until all four of them stood bound in our Shadow Possession Jutsu.
"What-" the leader rasped. "What have you done to me?"
I could feel him straining against the Shadow Possession, pushing and twisting, but it was nowhere near the level required to counter it. After so many opponents that had been able to, I was almost surprised.
"Tie them up," Shikamaru commanded Naruto tersely. Naruto scrambled to comply, dragging out ninja wire while the two of us manipulated them into position.
"Who are you?" I asked, crouching in front of the leader, once Naruto had secured them all. He wasn't wearing any insignia, not anywhere I could see. That didn't prelude him being a missing nin but it still didn't add up quite right.
I reached out to carefully remove his helm, hoping that being able to see his face would make questioning easier. And –
red
-I breathed out slowly, carefully, matching the same pattern as before, trying to ignore the involuntary hitch that had happened. I put the helmet on the ground, hands resolutely not shaking. It had only been a second, maybe two, just a brief moment of blankness.
His eyes were red.
For a second, I had seen Sharingan. They weren't, though. They were a different shade of red, a second ring circling the pupil, similar to Kurenai-sensei. The knowledge didn't stop the sharp spike of fear, the racing heartbeat or the dryness of my throat. It had been completely and utterly unexpected, caught me off guard and thrown me for a loop.
"My name is Temujin," he said stiffly.
Shikamaru was watching us – no, he was watching me, eyes eagle-sharp. He'd seen it. He'd seen it during the fight and he'd seen it now and I needed to keep it together. We had a prisoner to question. I needed to keep it together.
My ears were ringing.
No, they weren't. I was still hearing the song.
Shit. I needed to keep it together.
"Temujin," I repeated, aware my pause had lasted too long. My voice scraped out, husky, but it didn't falter or wobble. Good enough. "What were you doing here?" It was a less than inspired choice, but I was scrambling. None of us were exactly trained in interrogation, beyond basic Academy theoreticals. If he didn't want to talk, I didn't think we were going to be able to make him.
He ignored the question. "That power you used… what was it?"
Sometimes, even the questions that people asked were enough to tell you things. This questions had to be one of those. While civilians didn't tend to understand chakra, this man was no simple civilian. So. Who was he, then?
Also, the fact that he felt confident enough to ask questions, to demand answers, even though he was tied up, said something too. He felt confident. Whether it was in his ability to escape, or the certainty he would be rescued, he still felt as if he retained the upper hand.
Naruto made a soft 'huh?' sound behind me, confused at the question.
"Where are you from?" Shikamaru asked, appearing by my side and taking over the questioning. He tucked a hand under my elbow and chivied me gently out of the way. For all that his movements were full of the same easy grace as usual, his grip was tense.
I stood, and didn't stumble – I had too much control over my body for that – and took a few steps away. I felt lightheaded, like the world was just a little bit distant. It was fine. It was fine.
Naruto was watching me with a furrowed brow, he knew something was up, even if not what. Naruto might have been oblivious, and a little dense, but he wasn't stupid. Especially when it came to his friends.
Next to him was the pile of weaponry and gear that he'd taken from them when restraining them. It wasn't much - Temujin's gloves and sword, some thick bracer from his arm, the spiked maces – but it was more interesting than just standing around aimlessly, and I didn't really want to let my mind wander. Not right now.
Just breathe. It'll be okay. Nothing is happening.
The gloves were plated, well made and jointed so that they didn't restrict movement. The thick bracer had a retracting shield in it, which was incredibly interesting. I made a note of the design, before I set it aside. The sword, though. That was the most intriguing piece. Because it was familiar.
Swords, here, were very, very rarely double sided. The classic katana shape, with a single cutting edge or sometimes only a sharp point for stabbing movements, and variations thereof. Even Kubikiri Bocho, for all its size and brutality, had only a single edge.
This was a broadsword. Or close enough – I was hardly an expert at European medieval weaponry. Which… where did they come from?
It was well made, but the handle was ornate, with a large red gem fixed in the center of the hilt. I wasn't an expert on gemstones, either, but it was odd. Not a ruby. Not a garnet. It had a very consistent colour, no lines or waves or distortions. It almost seemed… artificial.
I tapped it gently with a fingernail, not sure what I was expecting to find. But the second my finger came into contact with it, I knew that there was something. I flicked it, with a tiny whisp of chakra and a single pure, clear note rang out, joining the song – no, the symphony – that was on the edge of my hearing.
I glanced around. Neither Shikamaru nor Naruto had noticed, but the captives were all looking in my direction. Right.
It is to do with them. This stone… they can hear it too. It's to do with chakra, too, but they don't know that. Or they don't call it chakra.
"Problem?" Shikamaru said, glancing in my direction. He might not have heard, but he could tell that something had happened.
"That may," I said, a tad sheepishly, "have just sent out a signal as to where we are."
"Almost certainly," Temujin agreed, blandly, the first thing he'd said since asking what chakra was. Shikamaru and Naruto's combined efforts hadn't really yielded anything other than frustration. I had tuned it out, I realized with dull surprise, hadn't even been listening to them.
"Troublesome," Shikamaru sighed, looking like he wanted to roll his eyes.
"Don't sound so smug, jerk," Naruto said, scowling at Temujin. "I don't care who's coming to rescue you. We'll beat them too. What you did to that town just isn't right."
"It was necessary," Temujin said, eyes cutting towards him.
"The hell it was!" Naruto shouted back, pointing aggressively at him. "How can you even say such a thing?"
His jostling apparently awoke the ferret in his backpack – funny, since it had stayed calm during a fight – who poked its head out the top and then slithered out with a lithe motion. I saw it and dismissed it. Right now, I couldn't have cared less for our original mission.
"Hey, don't-!" Naruto squawked as it ran down his leg, grasping at it and missing. The ferret darted away from him and, instead of disappearing into the forest, slithered around Temujin and popped up on his shoulder.
Temujin hardly looked impressed.
"Leave it," Shikamaru said tiredly. "We need to finish up here and move." He ran a hand through his hair, obviously calculating the best course of action. We didn't want to stay, if reinforcements were coming. We'd won this fight, quite handily, but we had had the advantage of surprise, and risking a repeat wasn't a good idea. We'd gotten some information from Temujin, but the big questions 'where are you from', 'what are you doing' and 'what happened to those people' remained unanswered.
I met Shikamaru's eyes, wondering just how much he meant by 'finish up'. We weren't equipped to take care of prisoners, especially ones with abilities we didn't understand. It rankled to let them go, but the other option was very final. I could probably do it – a ruthless part of myself I didn't particularly appreciate – but I doubted Shikamaru could and Naruto certainly would never allow it to occur. In some ways, this very much mirrored the situation with the Sand Siblings at the end of the Exam Invasion, but this time we didn't have the upper hand.
I nodded, setting the sword back down with the rest of the things. My fault, for being too careless. Tempting as it was to take it and deprive Temujin of his weapon, if it was trackable then that was an insanely stupid idea.
"I could summon a toad," Naruto offered. "Take them with us."
Shikamaru considered it, then discarded the idea. "If they can be tracked, then there's no point." He glanced at me, question in his eyes.
I shrugged. "Possibly," I agreed. The stone was key. But it wasn't the source, was it?
I strode over to the other captives, ignoring Temujin. Conversation wasn't getting us anywhere, and now our time was running out. Physical inspection would have to do. I didn't really expect to learn very much from it, but then I tried to remove the helmet from the first man and couldn't.
"Interesting," I noted, as my hands failed to find a catch to release it. I examined him, much more closely. "I think they're some kind of … golem. Not clones but more like puppets."
Interesting and worrying, that.
They weren't automations, clearly. They had been capable of responding, adapting, and reacting during the fight. They had some governing intelligence. They had chakra, however strange it was.
They had red eyes, same shade as Temujin, same shade as that blasted stone. It might have meant something. It might not. Having almost expected it, I didn't flinch this time.
I didn't know of anywhere that had jutsu like that. Clone jutsu were a dime a dozen, and Hidden Sand was the acknowledged master of puppetry, but this was something else altogether.
"Do you feel that?" Naruto asked, frowning at the ground. He was flexing his toes in his sandals, minutely shifting his weight.
I didn't at first, then abruptly, I could. Vibrations.
"Earthquake?" Naruto asked, uncertainly.
It wasn't impossible. But Land of Rivers wasn't exactly earthquake territory.
"Let's go," Shikamaru said.
We jumped into the trees, leaving the four captives behind. But we didn't go far before Shikamaru signaled and we doubled back, hiding ourselves in the leaves and waiting.
The vibrations grew worse, stronger and stronger, until we could hear the crashing of trees as something felled them.
"What is that?" Naruto gaped, as something pushed up the valley towards where we were.
I had to admit that I had no idea. It looked like a giant bulldozer, done up steampunk style. It was huge, towering above the trees, moving at a fair pace and creating huge amounts of destruction.
It didn't come close, so we didn't see that much of it, but we stayed in place and waited. Eventually, a woman in similar armour to Temujin appeared through the trees, followed by a cadre of the golem-men.
She seemed to find the sight of Temujin bound amusing, stopping to speak to him before letting him free. His reply was short and clipped, not friendly but not antagonistic either.
We waited until they were gone, then slid backwards, taking ourselves in the other direction for a bit more security.
"We need to send a clone to the border," I said quietly. "We need to let them know."
Neither of them argued.
"Will a clone make it that far?" Shikamaru asked.
I blinked. I hadn't even considered. I didn't think they had limited distance.
Naruto considered it, then shrugged. "I don't know. I've never tried. But I'll send a toad too." That way, the message would still get through.
"I'm surprised they haven't noticed already," Shikamaru said. "It's not exactly subtle."
"They probably have," I agreed. "But unless it starts heading towards Fire Country…" Hidden Valley was nominally allied with both Konoha and Hidden Sand, being that it lay between the two. That had both advantages and disadvantages, when it came to sourcing help. In this case, it probably meant that Konoha wouldn't interfere until they received a written invitation, or unless the culprit was Hidden Sand.
Or – hopefully – if a known mission in the area became entangled. Konoha looked after its people.
"What a drag," Shikamaru sighed. He rubbed a hand across his face. "We should probably follow that thing." He sounded decidedly unenthusiastic about that idea.
"They'll be expecting us," I said, though I didn't know how much that would actually effect. It appeared to be a mobile fortress, which meant they expected to be able to fight off attackers. On the other hand, they hadn't known about chakra, which gave us the upper hand in more than just combat.
"Follow it carefully, then," Shikamaru amended.
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The first shinobi on the scene have a responsibility for reconnaissance, and to provide up to date information and intelligence for reinforcements.
That was the general gist of one of the many ninja rules. It was generally applicable to things like discovering enemy camps, sneak attacks and emergency situations, where you didn't have a lot of Intel to begin with. That was pretty much the situation we had here, so our course of action was pretty clear.
We'd already given it a good shot, with Naruto's Shadow Clones searching every which way. That left the three of us tucked away on a cliff face, observing the stronghold as it travelled.
By nightfall, it had stopped, unable or unwilling to continue in the dark. I imagined it would prove difficult to rescue if they accidently drove it into a river, or toppled it down a canyon.
It proved a good opportunity to observe, as the golem-men went to and fro, setting up perimeters and clearing away debris from the outside of the stronghold. Yet more returned to the base from other directions, and I was almost resigned to the idea that there was probably more destruction in those places.
"There's like a whole army of them!" Naruto hissed.
A small army, maybe. I wasn't exactly certain on what terms to use for a certain sized unit of soldiers. Ninja had squads, or divisions, and very little in between. A platoon? A company? Regardless of what name you called it, there were a lot of them. More than the three of us could handle if it came to it.
"They won't do anything important outside," I said quietly, as we observed. If we truly wanted to learn anything we'd have to go in.
Which would be tricky. Intelligence gathering was an art, which was why there was a whole division responsible for it. Basic observation like this accounted for a fair amount, but to get more we'd have to infiltrate.
There were a lot of ways we could go about it. With transformation jutsu, passing a visual inspection was trivial, and we could simply walk in. However, that didn't supply us with codes or security protocols, and a simple conversation would be enough to blow our cover.
There was the extremely risky path of getting inside simply by being taken side – allowing yourself to be captured and manipulating the situation into a positive outcome. That wasn't exactly an amateurs game, though.
But we could likely get inside without being seen. We'd been following them for hours, watching them from a distance, and they hadn't shown any signs of noticing us. We'd just… sneak.
"Has Team Ten done any infiltration work?" I asked.
Shikamaru looked at me sideways and shook his head. That was a pity. Ino-Shika-Cho teams were optimized for information gathering, though that didn't always mean infiltration. It would have been nice to have someone with experience in the situation.
The cat fortress hardly counted.
"What are we going to do?" Naruto asked eagerly. He was itching to do something, but he'd been surprisingly patient about it so far. I wondered if the fact that he was currently using clones had something to do with it – some sense that he was taking action, not just waiting for something to happen.
Shikamaru steepled his fingers and stared at the stronghold. It wasn't quite his 'thinking pose' but the intention was clear. "'Kako," he said hesitantly. "Are you going to be able to do this?"
I blinked. "Yes," I said, automatically.
He looked at me. Okay, so I hadn't put the best foot forward this mission. I'd made a mistake. A few mistakes. But I wasn't-
"Yes," I repeated, more firmly.
"Alright. 'Kako and I will go inside and investigate. One through the main doors, and one in through the upper balconies." That would involve scaling the outside – without being seen – and then hoping that some of those windows up there actually opened. Tricky. "Naruto, you need to be our lookout. If something happens, and we need to get out fast or whatever."
Naruto might have looked a little disappointed at the order, but he didn't argue it.
"And if things start exploding, that's probably your cue to come and rescue us," I added, only slightly joking.