Chapter 18 - ArcIIii: Internal Conflict- Chapter 3

The ANBU agents burst through the classroom doors to find the entire group of kids cowering in the corner. In the front of the room, there was blood. In the corner, Iruka was holding a kunai to someone’s neck.

“I captured the intruder. He’s not dead yet,” Iruka managed around gasps. That kunai I put in my leg is really hurting. It’s gotta be hurting Ryouko worse, though. But just a little closer…

The ANBU agents both stopped.

“Shameful, Iruka. Did you think your trap would catch us? A B-Ranked Ninjutsu at that?”

Iruka narrowed his eyes. “What? The Four-Square Bomb Release? Don’t be ridiculous!” Iruka indicated the four seals on the floor. “Against ANBU? I tried it against Ryouko! He stepped around it.”

“I don’t buy that, either. Ryouko’s too smart for that. So tell us- how DID you capture him, Iruka?”

Both agents fell at the same time, their heads smashed together. Ryouko glared at their limp forms, not feeling at all bad. If they were traitors, they had it coming.

“Nicely played, Iruka. We’ll have to move ahead with my plan. I can trust you to get the kids to Sunagakure; that much I know. But I‘m interested in the information you have, first. Anything at all…”

Iruka thought hard. But finally, it struck him. “Anko! Genma and Raido, too. They’re in the Forest of Death! I doubt the ANBU agents went looking in there yet. They might know more. I just know that Danzou assumed power a day ago, and that Lady Tsunade hasn’t been heard from.”

That didn’t bode well. Tsunade would never take such a thing in silence. And on top of that, she didn’t disappear without a trace. She couldn’t have.

“Iruka, assume the worst. I’ll create a diversion to give you time to get out. Don’t trust anyone in ANBU, and take anyone who isn’t at least a mid-level chunin with you. You should be meeting Sunagakure troops halfway here, if they agreed to help.”

Ryouko looked around, seeing the scared kids. He looked at them, seeing a few steady sets of eyes staring back at him. Eyes that didn’t waver. The eyes of strong, young up-and-comers.
“You three!” Ryouko pointed to two boys and one girl. “Your job is to take care of your classmates. In fact…boy, Lady Tsunade would hate this…but…”

Ryouko threw all of them a kunai knife and a chakra cigarette.
“Don’t use it unless you have to. Keep yourselves and your classmates safe. Move quickly.”

Ryouko reminded Iruka to stay here until he heard the explosion. What THAT meant worried Iruka.
--

“There he is, get him!”
“No, he’s over there!”
“Stop him!”

Ryouko’s three Shadow Clones bounded around the village, drawing all kinds of attention to themselves and just being a pest in general. So far, they had burned ANBU agents with cooking oil ‘stolen’ from Ichiraku, with well-placed fire jutsus to add that crispiness; They had smashed windows of the most corrupt places in the village. Ryouko knew where Danzou lived, and he deliberately had a clone go there and take a page out of Naruto’s book. There was now a giant and incredibly nasty caricature of Danzou.

Ryouko’s himself was in the Forest of Death, ready to meet with three Special Jonin who could help him out. He was surprised to find that they weren’t alone- Shizune was with them. To his surprise, he found that the four wanted him to be in charge.

“You got a good look at the village- we’ve been cooped up here,” Genma muttered, kicking at a tree.

“Yeah. It’s just like last time!” Raido snarled, punching a rock.

Ryouko remembered that they had been there with Lord Third Hokage, and they had been helpless that time, too. He could understand their frustration. He felt it himself. Shizune was the only one here who outranked him, but she didn’t seem to be in any condition to make decisions. She just kept murmuring about how she should have protected Tsunade better. That left Ryouko, the youngest and least experienced, to control the situation. First order of business…

Ryouko pulled Shizune into a tight hug, stroking her back and muttering kind words.
“Calm down, Shizune. It’s fine; we’ll make this work.”

The lack of honorific stunned Shizune- as Ryouko had meant it to. He was usually such a stickler for rules that him leaving an honorific off was a good enough surprise to stop Shizune’s tears.

It was at this point that Shizune began to see Ryouko’s potential. He wasn’t falling apart when things got hairy. He was checking on the others, making sure they were okay. And he had already struck a blow to Danzou.

Now I understand why he’s supposed to protect those two…
But if their protector has this kind of strength…and those two are supposed to surpass him…How strong will they be? Naruto and Sakura…

“Alright, there’s really only one option here. The way I see it, we need Lady Tsunade to show up- once the village knows she’s alive, they’ll support Danzou less. That’ll force Danzou to act. And from there, we can stir the pot and cause more unrest. Add a few more people to our cause. And once reinforcements from Sunagakure arrive, we’ll make a strike at Danzou himself.”

Shizune had been the last to leave. It was still fresh in her mind:


“Go, Shizune!” Tsunade ordered, surrounded by her own ANBU agents. One hand glowed with a blue energy- chakra scalpel. The other hand was balled into a fist- deadly force.

“I can’t leave you, Lady Tsunade!” Shizune protested, reaching for the hidden string in her sleeves. Once she yanked that cord, needles would fire from a hidden pouch on her wrist. After that, she’d have time to spout her poison jutsu.

Tsunade gave Shizune a glance. “Go. Now. I can take care of myself. It’s the village you need to protect now. Get your squad and go! NOW!”
[/i]

Shizune gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. Ryouko was right- she had to get a hold of herself. Ripping her hair out and sobbing wouldn’t do anyone any good now. And for all she knew, Lady Tsunade was still alive and well. She couldn’t forsake that hope yet.

“Right. So right now, I’m the biggest pest to Danzou. So I’m going to irritate him a little more.” Ryouko looked back toward the Hidden Leaf. “One of the agents I knocked out told me that Danzou really doesn’t like me. That means he is at least a little worried about me. So the best way to do this…”

Using a Shadow Clone Jutsu, Ryouko made two of himself. From there, the clone transformed into Shizune.

“I’m coming, Lady Tsunade!” the clone said in a perfect imitation of Shizune.

Raido lit up, finally getting it. “I get it! That clone is going to play Shizune, trying to rescue Lady Tsunade! And then Ryouko is going to go another direction while the heat’s off him.”

Ryouko nodded. “You got it. Now, Sunagakure should be-! Ah, there’s their answer!”

Ryouko bit his thumb and used a summoning Jutsu. Instantly, Yo-O was in front of him, in a compact form.

“Sunagakure reinforcements are en route. They will arrive in one hour’s time. Your two charges are closer, approximately twenty minutes away. With them are two Sand Jonin.”

Ryouko considered his options, using a kunai to mark the bark of a tree.
“So if I move now, I have to last twenty minutes until I let them capture me…IF I can do that. That’s not good enough odds… With the Shizune clone, that’ll cut the time a little…still too close. And I don’t have any safe way of…! Perfect!”

Ryouko dug into his pouch, extracting a small scroll. He quickly inked down a message.
“Give this to the Fire Daimyo. After that fire (see previous chapters), I think he’ll help. And if it’s his forces coming to the rescue, the Sand helping us will get a boost. And, finally, Danzou will have messed with someone he can’t win against. You can bet he’ll see to it that this little coup de tat is kept quiet- we can’t have people thinking the Leaf or their leader is weak.”

He thinks like this, but he’s not even a field commander? If that plan works, we’ll avoid a public relations nightmare! Impressive he could think of that in the heat of battle. I’ll have to make sure he gets a desk job, at least…
Shizune smiled, thinking of how frustrated Ryouko had been for years. How frustrating things had to be for him now. And yet, now his dedication shown through more brightly than ever.
He’s grown up so much. I wish things would work out for him.

“No…that won’t work,” Ryouko muttered. “If the Fire Daimyo finds out Lady Tsunade was overthrown, he might remove her from power altogether. No, this will have to be our fight… Shizune, I DO have a friend who can help. Yo-O, take Shizune to Kekkou-Ji temple. Shizune, all you need to say is: I need to speak to the Miko, Asuna. It’s a matter of life or death for the ‘Heaven’s Temper’.”

“Huh? That makes no sense!” Shizune protested. “Tell me what you’re going to do first!”

Ryouko reached inside his own stomach, holding the knotted end of a black cord.
“You have a right to know that much, at least.”
--

Naruto, Sakura, Kankuro, and Temari raced at top speed through the forest that connected their two villages.

“No traps yet…we’re lucky.”

“Ryouko’s probably given them something to think about,” Sakura commented. “I had a bird’s eye view of his clones kicking the crap out of a good number of agents. But that won’t last…”

“This is so messed up!” Naruto protested, kicking extra hard off a tree branch. “I mean, we might have to kill our own villagers? Why would people just change like that? And why when we left?”

“It must be that royal couple crap.”

Naruto was shocked to hear that. “They’re taking that seriously? I wasn’t even taking it seriously!”

Temari kicked off a branch, deep in thought. “Wait, didn’t you say they made Ryouko your teacher?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Naruto replied.

“Then they’re going to gun for him, first, before coming after you,” Kankuro finished for Temari. “I don’t care how much he’s improved- no way one guy can hold off a village.”

They all hurried up after that. Kankuro had no great deal of love for Ryouko, but his sister treated the boy like something of a cousin. Temari’s friend’s were Kankuro’s friends.
--

Shizune and the others recoiled a little, having just heard what Ryouko was going to do to himself.

“It can’t be helped. And once I’m caught, I’ll give them something to think about. Something to worry them. By then, reinforcements will have arrived.”

“But that’ll kill you! And you don’t have that priestess to heal you, either!”

Ryouko nodded. “I know. It’s a risk. But there’s also the chance that Lady Tsunade will be wherever they take me- IF they catch me. Either way, it’s our only chance.”

Ryouko left them at that point, before one of them could protest again. He couldn’t let anything, not even the most sensible argument, slow him down. He had one chance to make this work, for the village’s sake.

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