-28-Get the party started-
-28- Get the party started-
-Anko-
Ibiki crossed his arms in front of his chest. “That’s 2 out of 3. What about you?” He looked at Shang.
The man shrugged and ran a hand through his gray hair. “I’m simple. I’m just in it for the fun and the action.”, he said but Anko could see that he wasn’t being honest.
Rumi confirmed her suspicions, when she scoffed loudly. Ai hit Shang’s shoulder and scowled at him. “Stop trying to be funny, you jackass.”
Rumi smiled at their antics before turning to the Konoha Shinobi again. “Shang is part of a special force unit that is responsible for the safety of our borders. But sometimes one of them gets sent with a trueseer whose visions concern another country. And since he’s Ai’s best friend the Council sent him with us.”
Ai had caught Shang in a headlock by now. He turned to them, ruffling his friend’s gray hair with his free hand. “He can be a prick, but he’s one of the best weapons masters in our tribe. We’re lucky to have him, even if his manners are non existent.”
Shang freed himself and scowled at the other man. “At least I don’t sleep with everything that has legs!”, he growled out.
Ai lifted one perfectly shaped eyebrow. “Really?”
Rumi sighed and put up her hands to interrupt the two young men. “Guys, stop. Or I will have to send you two out of the room.”, she said sternly. She turned back towards the Konoha ninja, when Shang and Ai settled down again. “They like to bicker. Gets them excited they say. But they actually get along really well. Like I explained, Shang was sent with us when Ai and myself decided to follow our visions here. After we arrived we took our time to blend in with the people of the village, find a job that gives us the opportunity to have enough free time to still follow our leads.” She explained. “Shang joined a group of traveling merchants that travel to the villages near Konoha to stock up on weapons and then come back to the village every two or three weeks to sell their products.”
“We stay close enough to Konoha that I can be here in three hours tops. Or I would have had to pick up another job.”, Shang said and sat down on the desk.
“I joined Madam Rija’s house because it’s a great place to gather intel. Horny Shinobi tend to be quite talkative.” Ai said, leaning on Shang’s shoulder. “And they don’t suspect a Geisha to gather this intel. And Rumi was able to get a job in the Village Archives.”
Anko looked at the young woman. She grinned at Anko. “I file documents for everyone who comes in and deliver them if someone requests them. I’m invisible like this, which is a huge plus. That’s how I learned of the startings of the problems with the Uchiha Clan.”
“Problems?”, Shizune asked, leaning forward in her seat.
Ai nodded. “Yes. We learned that the Uchiha were systematically pushed out of the positions where they were able to make decisions. That’s why they even started to think about rebelling. And since it was the only real clue we were able to gather we wanted to start with this incident. Which was good since we learned that our visions are actually connected.”
Ibiki looked at the two of them. “How so?”
Rumi blinked once. “Danzo has his hands in most of the shady operations in Konoha. Like the Uchihas’ exclusion and the rebellion itself.” She smiled at Anko. “Like I said. He is like a spider.”
Anko nodded pensively before she spoke up. “I think I get most of the picture now.” She looked at Ibiki who nodded in confirmation. “There’s just one more question I would like to ask.”
“Shoot.” Shang said, tilting his head in a silent question.
“In Rumi’s vision Danzo had several Sharingan and he was able to use them. Do you know how he got them?”, she asked.
A shadow crossed over Shisui’s face and Rumi put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “We don’t know for sure, but we have a valid guess.”
“Which would be?” Ibiki asked.
Rumi breathed in once before she answered. “When he attacked Shisui, Danzo tried to take his eyes. So I would bet that he stole these Sharingan.”, she said.
Tsunade gasped out in horror. “S… stole?! How… how could he?! That’s high treason! If he were found out…”
“But he hasn’t been found out. And he’s been acting like this for at least a decade.” Ai said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “We thwarted a few attempts on Uchiha, who had awakened their Sharingan, over the years following the attempt on Shisui’s life, but it’s been going on for far longer than we have been staying in Konha and we are just 4 Shinobi. We can’t be everywhere.”
Ibiki hummed. “So you’re saying that he has Sharingan even now.”
Rumi shrugged. “We can’t rule out the possibility. And I like to be prepared.”
Tenzo nodded. “Agreed. We should proceed as if the spider had several Sharingan in his possession.” He blinked a few times before looking at Rumi in wonder. “How… why am I able to talk about it freely?”, he asked.
She smiled brightly and lifted her arm. A golden tattoo shimmered in the light of the lamps. “Those are seals that prevent your mind from being controlled in any way. We activated them so they protect you for now. You will get your own later, Ai prepared them for you. We can’t overwrite everything on his seal but we managed to circumvent some of the orders he stored in the seal. As long as at least two of us are close to you you will be able to talk about the Root. When all of us are here we might be able to make it possible for you to talk about your memories in the future. But we need to look into that.”, she explained.
Tsunade looked at Ai. “That’s a handy seal.”
He smiled, showing his teeth. “It’s a family technique.” He turned towards Rumi. “Well, now that we have them on board, what’s the plan?”
“We need to work on several key steps simultaneously which is why I wanted to involve you guys. We need a testimony from Orochimaru about a report we found in a Root base about two months ago. I would like you to locate him, Tsunade-sama, Shizune-san. Aks him to come back, under a disguise of course. And if needed we can pull him in by force.” She pulled out a scroll from her pouch and handed it to the Sannin.
Tsunade opened it and scoured over the contents before she blinked up at the young Kunoichi, her mouth slightly agape. “Is… is this for real?”, she asked.
“That’s what we want to find out. And with Morino-san, Mitarashi-san and myself on board we should be able to tell if he is honest.”, Rumi said.
“What does it say?” Anko asked.
“It… it is a detailed report of the experiments run on both you and Tenzo. But here it states that Danzo was the one to carry out the inhuman research. And Orochimaru tried to keep you alive.” Tsunade said, handing the scroll over to Shizune.
Anko paused before turning to look at Rumi, who had a calculating look in her eyes. “We found more than just this scroll. If what’s noted in there is true than Danzo blamed quite a lot of cruel research on Orochimaru. And he never defended himself. I want to know why if it is true.”
Anko looked at the ground. “It would explain his melancholic smile.”, she said. Rumi tilted her head in a silent question. “He would sometimes just smile really sadly when I yelled at him that he was a monster.” She turned to look at Tsunade and Shizune. “I would like to know the truth. So please…”
The two women nodded. “We will bring him in. No matter what we have to do for that.” Tsunade confirmed. Anko smiled at her.
“Okay. Next up, we have Mizuki. We suspect that he was placed in the Academy to look for more recruits. I want Ai and Morino-san to question him and find out anything you can.”
Ibiki grinned at her. “I’d be glad to. We can’t let these guys get their hands on our young.”, he said. Then he turned towards Ai. “How do you want to start?”
“I got a few clues from him when I put him into our holding cell. We can start with the ones he had on the Jinchuriki and another instructor who was supposed to push him to stealing a scroll with forbidden techniques.” Ai said, still leaning onto the desk.
Anko gritted her teeth. “Danzo wants to get a hold on the kid?!”, she hissed out.
Rumi sighed. “Seems like he and the other two Elders are the main reason he is treated as an outsider in the first place. And I would guess that it’s the same for them as for the people we met in Suna.”
Tsunade looked at her. “What do you mean?”
Shang let out a low growl. “There are a lot of people who don’t see the Jinchuriki as people but as weapons. And weapons would be used.”, he said.
“Until they break.” Rumi continued in a sorrowful voice.
The silence that followed was deafening. “No…” Tsunade whispered finally. “I can’t… no… they can’t!” Rage was building up in her eyes.
Rumi turned to look at the Medic. “We might be able to protect him if we take Danzo out of the picture. I heard that the kid is your godson as well as the Spymaster’s. And we read the Council’s verdict, so we know why you or anyone who would actually want to protect him, can’t get close to him.”, she said.
When Tsunade hissed in anger, balling one hand into a tight fist, Anko turned towards her and asked: “What kind of verdict?” What were they talking about?
Shisui looked at her in surprise. “You mean no one ever told you? Do you know about it, Ibiki-san?” Ibiki tilted his head in a silent question. “The Council forbade everyone who was friends with Naruto’s parents to ever have contact with the boy.”, he said. “So everyone from the big Clans was just taken out of Naruto’s life like that.”
Anko startled. “Wh… why would someone do something like this?!”
“Officially they wanted to ensure he had a ‘normal’ childhood. Way to go, they just managed to make him into the most shunned kid I have ever met.” Shang said with a slight growl in his voice.
Anko blanched and thought about the kid, she knew that he was friends with Minaru. “No wonder he pulled so many pranks.”
Rumi nodded. “That’s very possible.” She looked at Tenzo. “Could you help Shang and Shisui? We need someone to play decoy. We can’t have him notice that we’re investigating his underlings.”
Tenzo looked at Rumi’s teammates. The two nodded in confirmation. “Roger. We can do that.”
Rumi finally turned towards Anko. “That leaves the two of us.”, the young blond said with a bright smile. “We’re going to take a trip down memory lane.”
Anko snorted in amusement. “Let me guess. Taichi’s memories?”, she asked.
Rumi smiled again. “That’s the main goal, yes. But first I need to learn everything I can about him so I can find something I can start with when I try to enter his mind. Makes things easier. I can check the archives since I work there anyway. Could you ask around? He should have some friend who know about his habits.”
“Sure thing. You can count on me.” Anko nodded.
“How can we contact you guys when we need to?”, Tsunade asked.
“Most of the time you can come by the archives, I work the day shifts. Apart from that…” She lifted her arm, showing off her golden seal tattoo. “Remember these? When we need to meet up and you can’t come around or we should go to a more secretive place, send Chakra into these. Everyone who has the seal will be able to feel it.”
Tenzo stiffened and looked at her with wide eyes. “So they are similar to…” He interrupted himself.
Ai smirked. “My family invented all of the seals that the Taiyokuro are using.” He pulled several seals on paper from his obi.
“What is the Taiyokuro?” Tsunade asked, when he handed her seal over.
Rumi smirked. “I guess you can call them the Rayani’s Anbu.”
Anko looked at the three young Shinobi. “So I was right. You guys are Rayani, just like Minaru-chan.”
Ai and Shang looked at each other. “So that’s the kid’s name?”
“Yes, it is. So you already know about her?” Anko asked.
“We’ve seen her around. And we are able to sense her Cat.” Rumi explained. “That’s how I noticed that she is a Rayani.”
“I like the kid. And I noticed that she ran into some issues with her Clan training lately. Maybe you can help her out, being Rayani yourselfs?”
The three Rayani looked at each other for a moment. Then Rumi sighed heavily, shaking her head. “I’m afraid that won’t be possible.” Seeing the remorse in the younger woman’s face immediately doused Anko’s rising anger.
“Why not?”, she asked the blond.
“Two reasons actually.” Shang said, lifting one finger. “First, from what we heard about her, the girl’s a Kebir. We are Janah. That’s like asking a Hyuga to help an Uchiha train his Sharingan. The tribes have quite different techniques.”
Anko blinked before breathing out heavily. “Damn.”, she muttered, hanging her head. “I had really hoped you could help her.”
Rumi smiled sadly before looking at the other Janah. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright. Was worth a try. What’s the second reason?” Ibiki asked.
They fell silent for a while. “It would be dangerous for her to be connected to us.” Ai finally said.
Tenzo looked at him. “Danzo’s already got his eyes on her. And she was in his clutches for longer than I would feel comfortable with.”
Rumi shook her head. “He wasn’t talking about Danzo”, she said, her eyes sharp as daggers.
-Minaru-
-The next evening-
After she had finished her daily training with Shikamaru, Choji and Asuma-sensei, Minaru returned to her apartment - and it was still new to her to own a nice apartment like this one. Most of the ferns were growing like crazy - much more than they should probably. And like she had planned she had also started cultivating several herbs - both poisonous and healing. She made herself some tea, before sitting down on one of the windowsills, looking out over the woods.
Setting the cup down next to her, she crossed her legs and looked up at the starry night sky for a moment. Then she closed her eyes and let herself sink into her mindscape to sort more information into her memory shrine. She sat down at a small pond in the woods and let the information flow through her and sent every piece to the right room in her memory shrine. The little golden lights that were her memories circled her until she picked one up and sent it towards the shrine. After a few minutes she felt someone sit down next to her. Without turning around she smiled at the familiar scent. “Thanks for your help in coming up with our cover story.”, she said and reached for a new light - information about the tribes. She sent it to the memories about her Clan.
A soft laugh filled the space around them. “So everything turned out well?”
Minaru nodded. “Yes. They are going to help. And they even swore an oath to keep our secrets.”
“Perfect. Then it was worth it to spill a few of our secrets. You will need their help.” Akane reached into the pocket of her coat and pulled out a small clay pipe. After lighting it she leaned back, blowing smoke rings into the air around them.
Minaru looked at her aunt. “My head's still spinning from all the new information.”, she said. As if wanting to prove that fact, a few more lights hovered over to her and started circling her. She scanned them for a second before sending them on their way.
Akane chuckled and put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into her chest. “I can imagine. It’s normal for most of us Rayani, but we grow up in our own society and don’t have to learn it after being away for years.”
Minaru nodded. “How are the other ones doing?” The rest of the people were bound to Raya’s family were included in her lessons about the Rayani.
Akane smiled. “Better than I thought actually. A lot of the people who joined us had way more trouble blending in. But you still have a lot to learn. Sometimes I don’t know where to start.”
Minaru dipped her feet into the pond’s cool water, letting her thoughts wander some more. Akane fell silent as well, seemingly content with just sharing the time with her niece. Minaru flexed her toes and looked at the small waves she created, before she spoke up. “Akane-oba?”
“Yeah, kitten?” The older Rayani had laid down with her eyes closed. She opened one of her eyes now to blink at Minaru.
“Can I ask you for a favor? It’s… a pretty big favor, so you just have to tell me if it’s too…”, she rambled until Akane pushed up on one elbow and placed a finger on Minaru’s lips.
“Just spill it, kitten.”, she said with a bright smile.