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(Word Count: 2,810)
“What do you mean, Sakai’s gone?” Jiraiya demanded. Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato were beside him, looking concerned over their rival/friend. Tsunade growled angrily.
“I mean he’s been kidnapped by Danzo. You know how worried the boy was about him, I know he has him. But I haven’t been able to find any trace of him so far. I need your help to find him.” She said.
Orochimaru licked his lips. “It would make sense that Danzo takes an interest in Norihide. No one outside the village would be able to approach so easily as well.”
Dai spoke up. “I’m sorry, but why would Danzo be so interested in Sakai? He’s a talented boy, but it doesn’t make sense.”
Tsunade looked surprised at him. “Sakai never told you? Somehow, the boy was born with knowledge of the future. He’s seen some things that made him scared of Danzo. He asked us to protect him from Danzo, and we failed.”
Dai was shocked. Sakai? Seeing the future? Well, he’s always been a rather mature boy. Now that he thought about it, Sakumo was angry at Sakai for not stopping Aiko’s death, saying that he did nothing. It made no sense at the time, but if Sakai did know the future it made a bit more sense. Not that he was right, Sakai couldn’t have done anything to fix a brain tumor. It was not the boy’s fault. “I see. Did he ever mention some more hidden bases?”
“No, he never said anything about any of this.” Tsunade said, frustrated.
Jiraiya placed a hand over Tsunade’s, speaking softly. “Hey, we’ll find him. He’ll be okay.”
Tsunade's eyes, filled with worry, met Jiraiya’s and she took some comfort in his words.
“There’s no need to worry, Tsunade. I believe I know where some of Danzo’s other bases can be located. I’ve worked with him on some operations. We might be able to find him there, or find a lead.” Orochimaru spoke calmly, breaking the little moment the other two Sannin shared.
Tsunade snatched her hand away and cleared her throat, wondering what had gotten into her. She looked at Orochimaru. “Where?”
“I know of at least 5 that lie outside Konoha but there’s only 2 that are close enough for them to take Norihide to in the time that they’ve had.” Orochimaru pulled out a map of the land of fire, and marked the two locations on the map. “Here, and here.” ‘Norihide’s lucky I’ve already finished my Wood Style research. Hmmm… Neither of these bases should have anything incriminating for me. Even still, I should take some precautions.’ “It’s a 50-50 on which base he’s been taken to. If we raid the wrong one, Norihide will be evacuated farther out and we may lose him forever. We’ll have to raid both bases at once.”
“That means splitting our forces, but I agree.” Tsunade said. “You and Jiraiya should take a team of 5 ANBU to clear out this one. Might Dai and I will take another team to clear the other one.”
“No offense to you, Dai, but are you able to handle this?” Jiraiya said, looking at the forever genin.
Dai smiled wryly. “No offense taken, but I can handle this. If I have to, I have a technique that I can use as a trump card.”
“And what should we do?” Yahiko butted in. Konan and Nagato nodded fervently in agreement.
“Nothing. You three are going back home immediately.” Jiraiya said firmly.
“But we have to do something!” Konan said.
“Yeah! We can’t just sit back as our friend is kidnapped!” Yahiko said.
“That’s exactly what you’ll do! These aren’t random thugs we’re dealing with, but Danzo’s ROOT ninja. Just one of them will be too much for you to deal with, much less an entire base.” Jiraiya said.
“I hate to say it, Yahiko, but Jiraiya’s right. We’ll have to trust them to bring Sakai back.” Nagato spoke up.
“We’re wasting time.” Tsunade said. “Let’s go.”
~~ WRIN ~~
Orochimaru and Jiraiya, together with 6 other ANBU ninjas, were currently grouped together outside in a forest. About a mile east of them was the location of the ROOT base. Right now, they were making a plan of attack on the base.
"We will need to hit them hard and fast. There is no need to capture any of them for I formation, so we will be killing all of them. To start with, I will be summoning some snakes to go ahead of us and act as a distraction. Jiraiya, once they've gathered together, you contain as many as you can within your Toad Mouth Trap jutsu. After that, we will clean up those that remain. If my assumptions are correct, there should be only 30 of the ROOT ninjas in this base," Orochimaru said.
Jiraiya agreed easily. "Sounds like a plan, let's go."
All 8 of them flickered towards the base. Within seconds, they were there, the steps leading down into the underground base weren't covered or hidden, but there was a barrier that would trigger an alarm surrounding them. Knowing this, Orochimaru wasted no time and landed at the top of the stairs, slamming his hand down onto the ground with a bit of his blood. A large burst of smoke billowed out and revealed two large snakes.
Each snake was large, roughly 4 feet thick in body and 50 to 60 feet in length. Large, but still small enough to maneuver through the underground hallways.
A ROOT ninja that was on duty near the stairs immediately came out when he heard the alarm trigger, only to see Orochimaru summon the two snakes. Taking advantage of the moment of weakness in the summoning process, he drew his tanto blade and attacked, but one of the ANBU intercepted and sliced his throat.
Orochimaru shouted to the two snakes, "Go and feast on all the enemy ninjas inside! But if you see any children inside, leave them be, they are not to be touched!"
The two snakes looked at each other and grinned maliciously, their forked tongues flickering out, and they dove down into the base, ramming through the front door at the bottom of the steps as if it wasn't there.
Jiraiya and the ANBU followed close behind.
While they were following snakes to gather the enemy forces, Orochimaru took advantage of this distraction to head directly to the main offices for this base. This base was the one closest to he had worked in for the Wood Style project. There was bound to be some sort of paper trail here that mentioned it. It was the reason he chose to come here to this base instead of the other one Tsunade and that genin Dai went to.
Orochimaru only met a couple of ROOT on the way, but they were easily dispatched.
In the offices, were file cabinets full of documents. One fire style jutsu layer and all of them were gone.
Orochimaru rejoined Jiraiya and the others fighting the remaining enemies in the great hall. One of the ROOT released a torrent of mud, two of the ANBU joined together and created a large rock wall to block it. Jiraiya sent another ROOT spinning away bloodied from a rasengan. The remaining ANBU and ROOT were throwing air blasts, fireballs, and kunai at each other. All the while his snakes were whipping their tails around sending ninjas flying, crashing into walls.
It seems like due to Jiraiya capturing most of the enemy forces, the fight was already wrapping up pretty quickly. Orochimaru pulled out some kunai and joined in anyway.
Once the last ROOT member was dead, Jiraiya commanded the ANBU, "spread out and search every room."
~~ WRIN ~~
Tsunade and Dai, along with 6 other ANBU were approaching the marked location of the ROOT base. On the shoulder of each of them was a white slug, little portions of Lady Katsuyu. Neither of them were much of a planner, so they just charged right in.
Tsunade punched the entrance open, sending the steel doors flying into the dark hallway.
"Let's go!" She shouted, and rushed in with Dai right behind her.
They entered into a long dim hallway that lead into a large main chamber. There were a bunch of ROOT in the room, waiting for them to show up. As soon as they entered the room, a torrent of fire streamed toward them. Tsunade slammed her fist down into the ground and lifted up a huge slab as a shield. The makeshift wall blocked the fire from entering the hallway, and the flames splashed harmlessly away from them.
As the flames died down, Dai crouched down into horse Stance. All this time, Dai had been simmering with rage, so finally seeing his enemies, he couldn't hold himself back. "Gate of Opening! OPEN! Gate of Healing! OPEN! Gate of Life! OPEN!" With a roar, Dai burst full of energy. A green aura enveloped him, and his skin turned red.
Faster than they could blink, he flashed forward, and dropped a powerful axe kick down onto the head of the closest ROOT. The force of the blow created a crater in the ground, and the ROOT was down. Dai leapt towards the next enemy.
The only one that could track him was Lady Tsunade, but even then, Dai was only a blur.
Tsunade was shocked at Dai's speed but now she knew that he could take care of himself. "Dai!" She called out to him. "I'm going on ahead! You take care of these guys and then search down that left corridor. I'll take the right."
"OSSU!" Dai shouted in reply, neither of them looking at the other, too absorbed in their task. Dai burst through a rock wall they had raised up, smashing another ROOT.
Tsunade went ahead on her own, the ANBU staying to support Dai. She entered into a large hallway, with many doors and smaller hallways branching off. This portion of the base seemed to be designed as a maze to confuse intruders, and for those that know the layout to easily pincer them. But she didn't have time for this.
"Lady Katsuyu, please spread out and search every inch," Tsunade said to the slug on her shoulder.
"You can count on me, Tsunade." Katsuyu replied in a soft voice. Tsunade used her summoning jutsu, and a wave of smaller slugs crashed forward, and then dispersed down each hallway.
In the meantime, Tsunade started busting down doors. Various different labs, storage rooms, cells, a library, torture rooms. Any ROOT ninja she saw would instantly be smashedNo Sakai.
"Tsunade, I found him! And he's not alone! Down 3 hallways, and on the left. There's a secret passage. Down the stairs and third door on the right! Hurry!"
~~ WRIN ~~
I could only tremble in pain as the Yamanaka twisted a corkscrew into my side. It's been 4 days since I first woke up here. I was simply too exhausted to scream properly. Even if I wasn't, my throat was stripped raw.
Yamanaka Fuuto had been relentless. From waterboarding to breaking all of my fingers and needles under my nails. He even gouged a large cut around my face, from the hairline to my jaw. He had deliberately avoided my eye so that I could still see him. Lucky for me, I suppose.
The only thing that kept me from breaking was pure hatred for this man and Danzo. They killed my grandma, and tortured me. I would rather continue in pain until I die than give them any sort of satisfaction. Even when Fuuto tried asking simple questions like my name, to try and condition me to answer questions, so I never answered. It was a slippery slope.
It was hard though. Especially when he broke my hands. If I ever get out of this, my only hope of using my hands again would be Tsunade herself.
"What is this word here, Sakai? What does it mean?" Fuuto asked for the tenth time. I didn't answer, too tired to do anything but stare blankly at the ceiling. Fuuto sighed. "You insist on doing everything the hard way." And he twisted the screw in deeper.
I took a shuddering breath. Fuuto unscrewed the corkscrew back out of me, and began healing the wound slightly. The screw wounds bled too much to leave them unattended.
Just then, a white spot seemed to move on the ceiling, catching my eye. Was that a slug? I thought, confused. It was a white slug with two blue lines down its back, moving ever so slightly on the ceiling. That was when my exhausted brain finally caught up. Lady Katsuyu! Tsunade’s here!
I thought I didn't have any more tears to shed, but I started crying and laughing weakly from relief.
"What's so funny? Have you finally gone crazy?" The Yamanaka asked, irritated at the change in my attitude.
"You're a dead man walking, Yamanaka," I bit out as angrily as I could, with the hope of rescue I seemed to have gained enough energy to curse the man again.
The man scoffed. "I've had enough of this. You have delayed Lord Danzo’s plans long enough, you worthless s***. I am now giving you an ultimatum." He turned and picked up what looked to be bolt cutters. "I will ask you a question. If you fail to answer me honestly, I will use this to cut off one of your fingers. Up until now you could possibly recover from, aside from some scarring. Now I will start removing body parts."
He placed the cutters so that my pinky finger was between the blades. I gulped fearfully. Where is Tsunade? I glance fearfully towards Lady Katsuyu on the ceiling. Should I start answering to stall for time? He won't survive past this anyway.
Knowing that, I couldn't muster the willpower to remain silent as I had done before. The energy I had regained at the sight of Katsuyu vanished.
"Now tell me, what language did you write this scroll in?" Yamanaka Fuuto pointed to the scroll he had written out when he was 2.
"It’s… It’s written in English,” I said weakly. Stall for time, Sakai! “I don’t really know where it’s from, somewhere overseas I guess would be the best way to describe that place. They're Anglo-Saxon type people. Whiter skin, with rounder eyes instead of the almond shaped eyes we have. They’re also taller than we are, but we have a lot more variety in hair and eye colors. No Chakra from what I could tell.”
Snip!
“AAAGH!” I screamed as Yamanaka Fuuto cut my left pinky off. “YOU B******! I answered your question!” My mangled pinky lay there on the ground.
“No you didn’t, you’re rambling about unimportant things. English, you said? How do you rea-” Just then, the door to the room burst open revealing a pissed off Tsunade.
Our eyes meet, she sizes me up, taking in all of the damage and poorly healed scars, especially the large scar down the side of my face and the cut off pinky which was still spouting blood. Her pissed off face turned murderous and a horrible pressure seemed to crash down into the room. Her killing intent. Even though it wasn’t directed at me, I still felt fear roiling inside and I couldn’t even breathe.
“You.” Tsunade’s voice startled me out of my trance and I jerked against the bindings, startled. That’s when I felt something drop down onto my chest. Katsuyu had dropped from the ceiling above me. She started glowing green, healing me. “You’re going to tell me everything you know about Danzo’s workings and I might just let you get out of this base alive.”
“I think we both know that’s a lie, Lady Senju.” Yamanaka Fuuto answered, surprisingly calm. He flicked his eyes towards me, seeing the slug and now realizing what I had been laughing about before and why I had answered his question like that.
Tsunade flickered forward and smashed him into the far wall. The man basically exploded and the wall broke apart on impact into spiderwebs of cracks, shaking the entire room sending down dust from the ceiling. “Lady Tsunade, please remember that we are underground.” Lady Katsuyu said in her soft voice. “It wouldn’t do for us to collapse the room in on ourselves.”
“Ah.” Tsunade sheepishly pulled her bloodied hand away. “I let my temper get the better of me.”
“Don’t be sorry,” I croaked. “That was very satisfying to see.”
“Sakai!” Tsunade yelled, and raced to my side, cut apart the bindings and took me into a hug, ignoring how bloodied I was. “It’s okay now. You’re safe, Sakai. You’re safe.”
With the relief of being rescued, all of my exhaustion came crashing back down on me and I passed out.
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