Musings

NOTE: I don't own the anime/manga Naruto either!!!  Feel free to ask questions, I'll do my best to answer them.
SPOILERIFIC!!!
Title: Seal Shatter
Time-line: AU, Naruto: Chuunin Exams
Genre: General/Drama
Rating: PG/PG-13

Seal Shatter – Chapter 9: Broken Peace

            The Hokage was beyond annoyed with Hatake Kakashi.  He had grudgingly accepted the fact that the silver-haired man would never be on time for anything.  But this was just crossing the line.

            Sasuke had missed the deadline for reporting to the final exam tournament.  Normally this would count as a forfeit for the Uchiha.  However, there was a great deal of anticipation to see Sasuke, the son of the deceased Uchiha clan leader and younger brother of the clan’s murderer, fight in the tournament.  So, in order to satisfy the masses (and several important dignitaries), and to avoid punishing Sasuke for his teacher’s chronic tardiness, Sasuke was not disqualified and the tournament got underway without his arrival.

            Naruto’s match had been fantastic.  The Yondaime was well aware that he was biased, but he didn’t care.  It had been a suspenseful match, which pleased the crowd a great deal.  Naruto had won, kept his little promise, and not gone berserk with that flare of demonic chakra—which pleased the Hokage.

            But Sasuke’s match with Gaara was supposed to follow Naruto’s match with Neji, and the Uchiha boy still had not arrived.  Again, he should’ve been disqualified, but the Yondaime bent the rules once more.  And the Hokage’s irritation with the man who supposedly had been his student burned hotter.

            Shino’s match with Kankuro should have followed Sasuke’s skipped match, but Gaara’s older brother unexpectedly withdrew from the competition.  That had been very worrisome.  Kankuro had seemed very confident and was clearly skilled enough to have advanced to where he had in the exams.  So why had he withdrawn mere moments before his match was to begin?

            Regardless of Kankuro’s inexplicable forfeit, the tournament continued with Shikamaru’s bout against Temari.  Although not as flashy as Naruto’s fight, the Hokage found Shikamaru’s performance just as entertaining.  The Nara clan was known for producing fine strategists and Shikamaru was no exception.  His brains handily outdid the Suna kunoichi’s brains and her punishing winds.  Even though he had quit at the end, the Nara boy’s chances were very good for being promoted.

            If he gets a high enough score to get promoted, I can’t wait to see his face.  The Yondaime’s amusement died quickly, because with the conclusion of that match, there was no more stalling for Sasuke.  I have to remember to have Kushina-san help me come up with a suitable punishment for Kakashi-san…

            The Hokage swallowed a sigh and prepared to declared Uchiha Sasuke disqualified to move the tournament along—

            There was an excited stirring in the audience and the Yondaime glanced down to find that Hatake Kakashi had finally made his dramatic arrival with his student Uchiha Sasuke.

            …I’m still going to punish him.  Kakashi-san is a grown man and an experienced ninja; he should know how to be on time.  To almost ruin his student’s chance for advancement…irresponsible and unacceptable.

            The Yondaime Hokage quietly seethed in his seat while trying to hide his ire from the Kazekage.

            He was able to set aside his irritation for later as Sasuke finally entered the arena to face down Sabaku no Gaara.  The crowd was hushed and tense in anticipation as the biggest fight in the first round—one of the last Uchiha against the deadly child of the Kazekage—was moments away from beginning.  Gaara loosed some of his sand…and then Sasuke blurred into motion.

            The Uchiha boy was fast—much faster than he had been before.  And it quickly became obvious to the Hokage that Sasuke was utilizing elements of Rock Lee’s fighting style, which he had copied with his kekkei genkai at some earlier point.  With his vastly increased speed, his hard-hitting taijutsu, and the predictive abilities of his Sharingan, Sasuke quickly got around Gaara’s sand and started doing the red-headed boy some mild damage.

            It almost seemed to be a blow-by-blow repeat of Gaara’s fight with Rock Lee.  The Hokage watched as the same moves had the same result on the Suna boy.  And Gaara seemed to notice this too, which led him to do something different.

            Gaara wrapped himself in a sphere of sand, generated a sand globe that seemed to be an eye…and then apparently just sat there.  Sasuke tried to attack the sphere, but spikes of sand grew out of the surface of it and tried to skewer him.  The Suna genin wouldn’t come out or attack, and the Konoha genin couldn’t deal a single blow.  It looked like a stalemate.

            And then Sasuke backed off, scaled a side of the high-walled arena with chakra, and started to gather lightning to one of his fists.

            He taught him that?!

            The Hokage was hazy on the details of ninja combat and skills.  He mostly operated on instinct for the most part and couldn’t recall the fine details of what he was doing or how (except with seals; he really liked those and they seemed more like art than something that was intended to kill another person).  But he worked enough with his former student to recognize one of Kakashi’s signature moves.

            The Raikiri is too high-powered for a genin, even one like Sasuke.  It must be the Chidori then…

            Straining his ears, he could hear the distant sound of crackling energy masquerading as thousands of chirping birds.  The Hokage blinked, and almost missed Sasuke darting into motion.  With the aid of his Sharingan, the Uchiha got in close, dodged around the sand spikes, and slammed his jutsu into and through the shell of sand.

            There was silence…and then Gaara screamed.

            So Sasuke’s scored a real hit.  The Hokage frowned at Gaara’s extreme reaction.  With the way that he’s screaming, it’s almost like he’s never suffered any real pain before.  But that can’t be right.  …Maybe he’s just surprised that someone got through that sand cocoon of his.

            The atmosphere seemed to darken and Sasuke tried to free his arm.  After a bit of struggle, he succeeded…and pulled something out with him.  It was an ugly yellowish tan color, a marked difference from the sand of the protective shell.  Whatever it was lost its grip on Sasuke and quickly retreated into the cocoon.

            That thing…what was it?  The hair on the back of the Hokage’s neck prickled.  Could that have been that demon…Shukaku?

            But then the sand shell collapsed revealing a bleeding Gaara on the ground.  The wound didn’t look serious, certainly not serious enough to make the boy collapse.  The red-headed boy sat in a pile of limp sand, clutching at his head, and looking to be in some kind of pain.

            …Is he having some kind of psychotic break?

            It really looked that way.  Gaara didn’t seem aware of where he was or what was going on.  Sasuke didn’t know what he should do.  And the proctor, Shiranui Genma, chewed on his senbon needle and scowled at the whole scene.

            I guess that’s it—

            And then it started snowing feathers.

            What the—

            Pain.

            Pure agony burst from the seal and stabbed deep into his brain.  There was no slow build-up, no gradual escalation.  It was zero to full-blown migraine in an instant.

            That had never happened before.

            There was an explosion of smoke—

            Someone had grabbed him, yanked him upwards—

            Scaly things coiled around him like ropes…

            He had to get away, had to escape, but he couldn’t.  To use his Hiraishin no Jutsu—to use any sort of escape jutsu—he needed to focus.  And he couldn’t focus; it hurt too much.

            There was no escape.

            …Snakes?

            The scaly coils were snakes.  Large snakes with strangely patterned scales.  Summon snakes.

            Blinking against the burning, stabbing pains, he squinted at…the Kazekage?

            The Kazekage stood on the red roof tiles with his back to the Hokage.  The leader of Suna shed his blue-and-white hat, and then his blue-and-white robes.  And then he turned around and peeled off his face.

            Golden serpent eyes leered back at the Hokage maliciously.

            “Hello Minato-kun!  It’s been such a long time…”

*** 

            Tenzo—codename Yamato—broke the genjutsu as soon as he noticed it and immediately rushed towards the Hokage.  He’d been stationed at the fighting arena in order to deal with Sabaku no Gaara should the boy get out of hand.  But the Suna Jinchuuriki was out of commission (his building demonic chakra had collapsed to nothing) and now his leader needed his ANBU.

            He was too late.

            The Yondaime had been hauled to the roof of the stadium building, and four young mystery ninja formed the corners of a square barrier ninjutsu.  One of the other ANBU tried to charge through it before it had stabilized, but he was shocked severely and repelled.  There was no getting through.

            Through the grayish distorting haze of the barrier, he could see the Hokage limp and bound by serpents.  There seemed to be no reason for their leader to not fight back or escape.  The Kazekage stood nearby on the roof…and shed his disguise to reveal the rogue Sannin underneath.

            “Orochimaru,” Yamato cursed behind his mask.

            But if Orochimaru was the Kazekage, where is the real Kazekage?

            Shunting aside the question (and a good dozen others), Yamato focused on the situation in front of him.

            Yondaime-sama…why hasn’t he escaped? 

*** 

            Kushina hated to admit it, but she almost fell for the “snowing feathers” genjutsu that some jerk cast over the entire stadium.  But she shook it off and broke the illusion’s hold over her mind.  All around her the civilians and the lesser ninja slumped over in genjutsu-induced sleep, and she pretended to, too.

            While she was slumped over in false sleep, she kept her senses alert.  She caught a glimpse of a turban-wearing Suna-nin prowling nearby.  And then there a ninja with a musical eighth note—an Oto-nin—that darted past her.

            It’s one of the worst-case scenarios, she thought grimly as she slipped her Leaf hitae-ate out of an inside pocket of her light vest and loosely tied it around her neck.  Oto is an enemy.  Suna is back-stabbing us.  And they’re working together to try and cut Konoha’s throat.

            Easing one of her concealed kunai blades into her hand, she carefully watched and waited…and lunged at the back of a nearby unsuspecting Oto-nin.

            He never knew what hit him.

            She hadn’t been in the field in years.  She hadn’t admittedly kept her training up the standards of a field ninja of her rank.  But she trained with Naruto, she kept in shape, and she retained the experience.  In this emergency, it would be enough.

            Releasing the corpse, she retreated towards the back of the stands.  With a solid wall at her back, there was no way someone could sneak up behind her.  And if she could find some Konoha-nin to join up with, all the better.

            As she vaulted up the stair-step rows of seats she tried not to think about Hinata and Kiba.  The strange ANBU had carried Hinata off for treatment and Kiba and his puppy had followed.  The Inuzuka boy had briefly returned to the seats to watch Shino’s match, and when it didn’t happen he left to check on the Hyuuga girl.  He hadn’t come back.

            She’s in the stadium infirmary.  He’s still with her.  They’re fine.  Focus on the present!

            Kushina managed to knock off another Oto-nin, and a Suna-nin, before she Kawarimi’d away from an enemy attack, reappearing on one of the higher balconies where the dignitaries sat to watch the fights.  Her new position gave her a great view of the various small skirmishes going on in the arena and stands below.  It also gave her a glimpse of part of the red-tiled stadium roof.

            What’s that?  She frowned and squinted at a grayish rectangular pillar of…something…that rose off the rooftop.  A…barrier?  But why?  What for?

            Shrugging it off, she left it for the ANBU to deal with and looked down again to try and determine where she should go next.

            There’s Kakashi, she noted.  …And Gai.  And look at all those ninja who are trying to kill them…

            Might as well head in that direction.

            Before she ditched her spot on the balcony full of snoozing nobles and their entourages, she looked towards the Hokage’s balcony where the Yondaime and the Kazekage sat.

            It looked like a small bomb had gone off there, and there was no sign of either ’Kage.

            Crap.

            While she had held her distance from the Yondaime in the earliest days of his reign, and before that after he’d stumbled back into the village with that damned seal on his forehead, Kakashi had spent most of his time trying to be his addled sensei’s shadow.  After she had found herself drawn back to the mind-wiped Hokage’s side, Kakashi would occasionally drop by to talk with her about the old times.  And sometimes he’d share little horror stories of trying to deal with his precious sensei who didn’t know him anymore.

            When it was discovered that the future Yondaime still retained his ninja skills and abilities, it was necessary to test him to see how much he could still do and how well he could do it.  And the best way to test that was to engage him in practice spars.  This led to a lot of problems…

            The confused man didn’t want to fight.  He had to be coaxed into sparring with other ninjas and he was always terrified of hurting his opponents.  When he was sneak-attacked with no warning, he would react instinctively and appropriately for a ninja.  But once he had subdued his attacker and it caught up with him that he had hit or hurt the person, he would immediately fall apart and start apologizing.

            Reacting that way in actual combat was a good way to get killed, and so he had been pulled from active field duty up until the time that he’d been installed as the next Hokage.

            If he gets into a tight spot where the ANBU can’t protect him, he can run away.  He still can use the Hiraishin.  He will run away and let the rest of us handle this…

            She shook her head and dropped from the mid-level balcony to work her way towards Kakashi and Gai.

            …Please run away.