Chapter 6 - The Elder Speaks

The trip home was uneventful. Getting back, however, was noteworthy. Lee, Sakura, and Ekyt gave their report, and were subsequently given a physical examination by Tsunade, then a mental one by Ibikki. They had all passed. Ibikki looked proud, and took some time after to talk with Ekyt, which, even though Ekyt knew him and counted him as a friend, was rare.
“Heard about your nice use of the subconscious…guess you WERE paying attention. Kid, your heart isn’t stone, but it’s not soft either. Nice work.”
Coming from Ibikki, that was the equivalent of winning the Super Bowl.
Sakura and Lee were soon free to go, but Lady Tsunade requested that Ekyt stay a little longer. She poured him a cup of sake (a sure sign of something bad, if she was willing to share the good stuff), and Shizune seemed to fidget a lot, looking at Ekyt, then away. Tsunade seemed to ask a lot of questions. That was uncharacteristic enough, without the sudden ‘motherly concern’ she had.

“You’re sure you’re alright? Not injured?” Tsunade asked, fingering her robe nervously.
“Nothing serious,” Ekyt replied, a little bit of question in his voice.
“Um, well, it was brave of you to do all this…”
“Thanks, I’m just doing my job…” Ekyt was starting to wonder what was wrong.
“Sakura and Lee, hell, the whole Village mostly, they think a lot of you…”
“And I think a lot of them. The Leaf Village has been great to me,” Ekyt replied, seriously dreading what was going to happen when whatever it was they were waiting for happened. They sat in silence for a while. Tsunade refilled Ekyt’s cup. He downed it, strengthened himself, and finally piped up.
“Does someone want to tell me what this is about?” Ekyt finally asked quietly. Kakashi, Asuma, and Guy had filed into the room, along with Master Sarutobi, and an old man Ekyt didn’t know by name or face, but rather by his status as an elder.
“It seems that Elder Akira has found an…well, a law that you’re in violation of,” Tsunade began, uncomfortably.
Ekyt tried to appear only vaguely interested. “Really, now? What law? May I have a look for myself?” WHAT?! I’ve done everything they’ve asked, what kind of law have I broken? Was my genjutsu forbidden? No, no, Ibikki-sensei would have chewed my @$$ but good if it was. I used it in context, the way he taught me! Is this some BS by Ebisu?
The elder shuffled up and dropped an ancient book in front of Ekyt. One wrinkled finger pointed to a passage, while a nasty old mouth barked a single demand.
“Read.”
So Ekyt did. He narrowed his eyes as he came across the law.
“I’ve been in violation of this law for nearly four years, and it’s never come to attention before. Not to mention even I haven’t read it, and I’ve devoured every scroll and book I could find to prevent this. Why is this being brought up now?” Ekyt looked from one jonin to the other, already guessing. Their gazes were trained on the old man…and Ebisu, who had just arrived.
“Well, it seems you have illegal training! Any art, except for those that encompass the Shinobi training, is illegal. We can’t, in good conscience, keep you, now can we?” Ebisu said mockingly.
Ekyt ignored him for the moment and looked to Lady Tsunade. She nodded her head sadly, indicating that he was right. “I need your headband.” Tsunade was cursing herself for it, but she had no choice.
Ekyt pulled the hitai-ate off and, after a reverent glance at it, handed it to Tsunade.
“Well, that’s that then. I guess I have to take my trade somewhere else. Thanks for everything,” Ekyt said pleasantly, waving to the people in the room he liked. As for the other two. Ekyt couldn’t lay a hand on an elder, unless provoked.
Ebisu, however…
WHAM! Ekyt’s right fist hit Ebisu under the eye. Ebisu’s glasses went sailing, while Ekyt kept Ebisu from sailing by holding him up by his shirt. The jonin was too scared to move. The other jonin knew this was coming, and they also knew when they would step in. For now, they were playing the ‘I’m too surprised to help you, Ebisu’ card. Ekyt held him up to the wall, already feeling the jonin gently prying his hands off of the Tokubetsu Jonin currently suspended in the air by a pair of strong arms belonging to an angry individual.
“So you think you’ve finally won? Jokes on you, jackass. You’d better pray you don’t meet me in combat, because the headband I was wearing was the only thing stopping me from kicking your damn teeth in…”
Ekyt dropped him and stormed out of the office. Just before he reached the door, he threw a chair at Ebisu, breaking his nose. He laughed at the bloodshed, then threw ryo on the floor. “To pay for the damage I just caused, Lady Tsunade. Just for the record- it was worth it. If I had another chair, I could break his big jaw, too…” Ekyt glared at Ebisu, then finally stomped out the door, punching a hole in the wall as he left.
Kakashi followed Ekyt out, knowing that the former Leaf Ninja would talk with him, if prompted.


“What a load of (censored).” Ekyt didn’t use that word often.
Kakashi laughed. “It’s not like you to throw around words like that, but if it fits… Which it does. Mind if I ask where you’re headed?”
Ekyt looked Kakashi in the eye. “The Sound Village. Maybe they’ll accept me…in the mean time, sensei, could you…could you do me a favor?”
Kakashi hid his surprise at Ekyt’s answer and nodded. “Please tell Lee, Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru, Tenten, and Temari (She defected from the Sand Village, disgusted with her brothers) that I’ll miss them. And the senseis, too. And thank you for everything. I really wish this hadn’t happeneded…but I guess we have to keep moving forward, even when it isn’t the most welcome prospect. You do what you have to do.”
“You don’t have to leave, you know. But I understand why you are. You not training just doesn’t seem right…Wherever you wind up, I wish you well.”
“You too, Kakashi-sensei.”
Something fell out of Ekyt’s pocket, but he was already walking away and didn’t notice. Kakashi picked it up and pocketed it, promising to look at it later.


In Tsunade’s office, the jonin debated what to do, while they waited for Kakashi’s report. Lee and Sakura had been called in, too. The oil burned late that night, as those close to Ekyt tried to find a loophole to the law Ebisu had dug up…It was proving difficult. Even Sarutobi, the ‘Professor’, didn’t have a clue as to where to start.

Naruto and Shikamaru, meanwhile, had ideas of their own.
“We’ll drag his skinny @$$ back here, believe it!” Naruto shouted, ready to go.
“Hold on Naruto. We need a team. Us and Choji. But we’ll only leave if they can’t find a loophole.” Shikamaru never wanted to exert more energy than necessary.



“He WHAT?!” Sakura shouted.
“YOU MUST BE KIDDING! EKYT-SAN WOULD NEVER LEAVE!”
Tsunade held up hand to silence Lee and Sakura. “He had little say in the matter. Now, I need you two to promise me you won’t run off and go after him.”
“I-I can’t do that, Lady Tsunade,” Sakura stammered defiantly.
“This is a direct order, Sakura,” Tsunade warned, voice and ice cold as ice.
“I don’t care! It’s wrong, and you know it!” Sakura shouted back.
“Sakura is right! We cannot let him go somewhere else! I-I refuse to be a member of this village if this is how you work!” Lee declared, pulling the hitai-ate off from around his waist.
“I’m with you, Lee!” Sakura whipped her own headband off. Both clattered onto Tsunade’s desk.
“He could have stayed.” Tsunade told them solemnly. “But he wouldn’t have been allowed to train, or study. He chose to leave.”
“Oh, please! That old piece of s*** did this, and you LET him!” Sakura snarled, wondering where this bravery was coming from. She looked at Lee, who nodded. They both stomped out the door. Tsunade put a hand to her head, massaging her temples. That had NOT gone well…


Tsunade was soon joined by Master Sarutobi.
“You were right to uphold the law. They put you in a bad position, and you had to choose between one bad choice or the other. You made the right choice.”
Sarutobi’s words offered little solace to Tsunade. “I’ve just lost three talented ninja, all under the age of 20. And once word gets out, who knows how many more will have quit on me? The village is at it’s weakest, I couldn’t afford to lose Ekyt, let alone all the others that left with him!” She slammed her fist on the desk in frustration.
Sarutobi himself took up a book and looked through it. She’s not even aware of the predictions…Ekyt needs to be here, before he finds REAL danger. The Leaf Village is the only place that would protect him. And the obvious loyalty he inspires, consciously or not…it’s not something we can afford to lose.



In Otogakure…

Ekyt knelt before Kabuto, Orochimaru, Sasuke, and…Chakaro. Ekyt felt his face burn with hatred. He had respect for Kabuto, and even some for Orochimaru, but that was it. He was kneeling before three villains, swearing an allegiance to them that he, in no way, felt.
“I never thought that I would see the day…well, it’s welcome, to be sure. (laugh) Give him his new hitai-ate. Make him feel…welcome,” Orochimaru ordered. Sometimes, you could be charmed into thinking there was something good about him, but you had to remember there wasn’t, or it was easy to get sucked in.
Ekyt took the sound village headband, shame written all over him. He tied it around his left shoulder, holding it in place with a few pins.
“I know I’ve got some stroke Orochimaru, being the “Dragon Boy” and all. I’ve got two conditions before I work for you: One- I do NOT answer to that jackass (Chakaro). Two- I don’t want a cursed seal. Do we have a deal?” Ekyt kept his voice from wavering, although that proved to be very difficult.
Orochimaru licked his lips. “That would be fine with me. Although your second chakra would make you a candidate for a host…”
Ekyt laughed outright, stunning the three Sound Ninja. When he stopped laughing, he stared at Orochimaru, his gaze hardened.
“It’s not great, trust me. It hurts like hell to use it, and you have to summon it by letting yourself feel hate, or love, for everything. Then, all my chakra changes direction. And that hurts even worse. It feels like it would rip me in half. I don’t know what it would do to someone who wasn’t born with it…If it can seal even your curses, imagine what it would do inside your body…Especially one that’s due to deteriorate soon…” Ekyt stopped there, letting Orochimaru’s mind conjure up the rest of the sentence.
Orochimaru, if possible, turned more pale. “Take him to meet his team. And…you might as well have him see his cousin…before he dies…” Orochimaru turned to talk to Ekyt now, as Kabuto nodded his understanding. “You are now part of my elite Sound Squad. You already know Sasuke. Kimimaro and Kabuto are the others. Though Kimimaro won’t be with us much longer, I’m afraid. So enjoy your time with him, I know how hard you tried to save him…”
Ekyt tried to hide his surprise that Orochimaru almost sounded regretful to lose Kimimaro.


The Leaf Village was soon in an uproar. By the end of the day, the headbands of Tenten, Temari, Naruto, Lee, Sakura, Hinata, Shikamaru, Choji, and even Hayate were piled on Tsunade’s desk in protest. More were to come. Iruka’s headband followed, as did Ibikki’s and Anko’s. Tsunade and Sarutobi’s explanations only warranted an angry roar from the crowd of chunin and jonin. With the Leaf Village’s military strength at it’s weakest, and one of the stronger now playing for the other side, there were major problems. The only reason that most of the jonin hadn’t gone was because they knew Tsunade longer than Ekyt. Even they voiced their displeasure at the situation. But Elder Akira and Ebisu would hear nothing of it.
“He broke the law, and he is being punished!” Akira declared. He ducked as rocks and bricks came his way.
“He hit me, and you do NOT hit your instructor!” Ebisu said, smirking. A rock hit him in the mouth, supplied by Tenten. She was tossing another in her hand, with a kunai in the other.
“Yeah? Well, that makes two of us that hit you. Do you want to keep running your mouth and risk something worse? THAT was a rock, the NEXT one will be a knife!” she shouted. The crowd roared again, delighted to see Ebisu looking scared.
Akamaru leapt up onto the balcony and bit Ebisu through the nose, then pissed on Akira’s robes. Tsunade and Sarutobi weren’t the targets of attack, and though they tried to quell the crowd, Tsunade couldn’t help but laugh when Akira’s robes started to change color. Yellow really was his color.
“If you did that to a kid who’s never put a toe out of line, what’s to say you won’t do it to me next?!” Naruto shouted, along with others. “He gave everything for this village, just as much as you did! And even more than you, Closet Perv! Believe it!”
“I’m not from the Leaf Village. What’ll happen to me? You’ll give me back to the Sound Village?” Temari sneered. More yells of approval.


“It’s becoming rapidly clear that this is about more than Ekyt…if someone so close to the Hokage is gone in an instant, they all fear for themselves.” Sarutobi puffed at his pipe thoughtfully. Can’t say I blame them. If someone with loyalty like that, who’s never broken a rule, can be removed…isn’t anyone fair game? Tsunade is in an awful position, and there’s only one way to rectify it…but there’s no legal backing for it. She, and therefore, the village, are in a jam. There is no problem that cannot be solved without thought…but thought takes time, time that we do not have…
“Tsunade…He needs to come back. We need to work this out, or the Village will fall apart. All those who dropped headbands on your desk…They’re the heart and soul of this village, and will be for the next generation. We have no choice, we must break the laws the Hokage before us set, if the Leaf Village is to survive.”
“I know…but how? It’s not like we can just ‘break’ the law. There has to be some kind of precedent sent in order for the law to be broken…but what precedent can be written for this? Damn it! I don’t even know where they dug that stupid old book up! His training in other arts has saved his life, and the life of his team mates, when he’s had any! He’s gotten one raw deal after another, and now we’ve handed one of our most talented and dedicated warriors to Orochimaru on a silver platter!” Tsunade downed a cup of Sake, prompting Shizune to take the bottle away before coherent thought went away quicker than the sake.


Ekyt, Kabuto, and Sasuke walked to Kimimaro’s room. Ekyt peered in, biting his tongue. His cousin was dying. Wasn’t there anything he could do?
“Kabuto, have you thought about his disease being subconscious?” Ekyt asked suddenly.
“We’ve considered it, but his condition is physical, and it’s from his curse mark. Beyond that, there’s nothing else to know.,” Kabuto responded. The medic in him didn’t like the thought of Kimimaro dying. The traitor in him was even disturbed.
“I can check it…but I’d be contaminated myself…unless…it’s worth the risk.” Ekyt muttered to himself, before speaking to Kabuto. “I’m going to seal his curse mark, then undo the seal. That might re-boot his system. At the worst, nothing will change.”
Kabuto wanted to try that, but he had been around too long to trust anyone. He and Ekyt were the same age, and as such, didn’t pull his punches when asking his question, despite the faint mutual respect that was between them.
“How do I know you’ll make good on your word and undo the seal?” Kabuto questioned. “You could just seal his curse mark for good and walk away. I haven’t learned nothing in 19 years, you know. I’ve switched sides myself…”
Ekyt shrugged. “The guy is family. And I know the medic in you doesn’t want him to die. And you want to know what’s causing the disease, the same as me. After I do the seal, I’ll be weakened. So if I try to go back on my word, you’d have no problem killing me. You’ve seen me in combat, so you know that I’m not lying about the fatigue. Besides…he’s family, whether he thinks of me that way or not. I’ve disowned most of my family, but Kimimaro is still part of my family. And I’ll do this, with or without your permission. If it works, then you’ll be the first to witness a new healing method. If it doesn’t, well, back to square one.”
Kabuto and Sasuke nodded. The two could overpower the young man any time, so if he strayed from the plan, they could dice him up.

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