บท 102: Meeting, Message and Departure
________ POV Narration________
Danzo growled as he punched the desk in front of him with unrestrained fury.
"That god-damned assassin!"
He was currently underneath Konoha, resting inside the Root's operational base built underneath the Kage building.
In front of him were two masked Anbu, kneeling on the ground after having reported the situation with the 'Jinchuriki Saviour Plan'.
It was a rather simple scheme, to allow the Sand village to attempt a kidnapping, and send one male root agent to save her.
The strategy was to slowly sway her in order to have feelings towards said male member, and also make her join the Root.
That way, Konoha had assurance that their foreigner Jinchuriki would be completely tied to their village, and Danzo himself would also have complete control over the nine tails.
It was a flawless plan. He had even placed dozens of Root Members to stand by and surround the place in case one Root Member failed.
The kidnappers had no real chance of escaping. Their entire operation was only possible because Danzo took a risk and asked one of his disposable agents to take down the barrier for a minute.
Said agent was already dead. He had committed suicide on Danzo's orders.
He was already titled a traitor to the village anyway. There was no point in him living as he had outlived his usefulness.
The problem was that his death was now in vain.
Not only had his plan failed, it had failed miserably. To add another problem to the mix, Kushina was saved by another Genin that used to be her classmate.
Said Genin also just happened to be Jirayia's student, who was both a Sanin and Hiruzen's student, so Danzo couldn't act against him.
'At the very least there's a chance she'll be tied to Konoha with this...'
The bigger worry was the Jinchuriki starting to look up to Ken, who had killed all of his men in cold blood.
The Root would need a few good years to make up for the losses it had occurred in just one minute.
The Root Members had likely thought Ken was one of the kidnappers, or maybe they wanted to get rid of an unknown third party.
It was hard to tell for Danzo, the leader of that squad had made the decision to engage Ken on his own. He couldn't really be blamed either, as Ken was wearing a civilian disguise at the time.
That didn't mean Danzo didn't resent them for wasting their lives so easily.
'What a waste of resources, those lives could've been better spent doing something more productive for the village.'
Danzo was somewhat ignorant of the fact that it was his plan all along that had gotten the agents killed.
They had only acted on orders and worked to 'save' the Jinchuriki after things took a weird turn.
But Danzo didn't actually care for their lives. To him, they were nothing more than mere resources, so he didn't even feel the need to take the blame for their deaths.
'I need to get rid of that annoying assassin as soon as possible, but there's nothing I can do for now. I'll have to bide my time.'
Before, he could've just ignored the Asassins' machinations and tried to steer clear of him, keeping to himself and tending to the village. But now?
Danzo couldn't possibly forgive the assassin for killing that many root members. And even more importantly, he couldn't allow there to be even a slight chance that their Jinchuriki fell for him.
It was a possibility, after all, the mind of a young girl worked in mysterious ways.
Minato may have saved her initially from the reports they gave, but it was Ken to clean everything up and actually save them both in the end.
So now Danzo needed to take care of Ken, or at least build some scenario to make the little girl hate Ken.
'... This just gave me a lot more work than I thought it would...'
As Danzo sat there, lamenting on his ever-increasing workload, Ken and Fugaku were already reporting the situation to the Hokage.
Well, Ken was doing the reporting, and Fugaku was just listening with a serious look plastered on his face. Though the Blind Assassin assumed that was his default expression.
"So you're telling me those shinobi might've been unrelated?..." The Hokage stood in front of Ken as he took in the report, he no longer felt the need to sit down.
He cupped his beard in one hand, his face showcased a grave expression. At least it felt grave to Ken, who nodded to answer his question.
"They most likely are unrelated... They didn't wear clothes that were all that dissimilar, but that seal on their tongue gives away the fact that they weren't the same group..."
His words caused the Hokage to nod once more.
"Now, let us not jump to conclusions too quickly... There is currently no physical evidence of this seal ever existing. The corpses are still being examined, but you did say they disappeared."
Fugaku decided to interject at that point. His input was also not exactly helping Ken all that much.
"I guess you'll just have to trust me on this one. I am only here to warn you in the first place, I have no relation with this whole situation." Ken shrugged, not willing to argue much with the Uchiha Leader.
But Fugaku seemed to have taken some issue with his words.
"Now, I wouldn't claim that you are that trustworthy... You did leave your home unannounced at an undisclosed time, you are very much suspicious." Fugaku scowled slightly at the assassin.
Ken was honestly surprised to hear such a forward accusation.
Usually, Shinobi tended to keep things more on the 'down-low'. But it seemed Fugaku didn't care much about talking politics with Ken.
Thankfully, the Blind Assassin had already prepared himself for questions regarding his integrity.
"I only left my home when after the barrier fell, I wanted to check things out myself.
I couldn't have left unnoticed earlier because of the number of people keeping an eye on my temporary residence.
It's not like I ran into that Jinchuriki and that Minato brat by mistake, I was tracking them down before your shinobi even noticed Kushina was missing..."
Ken's words were certainly logical, a thought-out response.
Fugaku only narrowed his eyes at the Assassin's words.
He realised that he was now unable to try and pin any more blame on Ken under those circumstances unless he was also willing to claim that their Shinobi were beyond incompetent and Ken was lying about the time he had left his residence...
There was also the possibility of Ken doing something more besides tracking down the kidnappers due to curiosity. But Fugaku had no way of proving that.
In the end, the Uchiha leader just sighed, looking back at the Hokage who shook his head.
The small black scroll/The transformed Monkey King: Enma, on Hiruzen's table also trembled slightly, signifying that their guest seemed to be telling the truth.
"Fine then... We'll leave this issue at that. This is an internal matter, so I'll personally thank you for your help, the Leaf Village is indebted to you." Hiruzen was the one to end the discussion once and for all, bowing slightly towards Ken.
Fugaku also sighed, bowing his head slightly as well. He needed no introduction about how important the Jinchuriki was for their village.
Although Fugaku was a prideful and sceptical person, he wasn't foolish.
Ken had also helped him by making sure she came back safe, the intruders making it that far into their village was a huge oversight on the part of Uchiha's Military Police.
The Red Dot had helped clean up their mess, which was something he did of his own volition.
"I appreciate the Leaf's gratitude. I hope that you are able to see this investigation through to the end."
Ken received their bows with a nod, signalling the both of them to raise their heads quickly, which Fugaku appreciated greatly.
"Well then... I will get to work with the investigation Lord Hokage."
After that matter was over, Fugaku also left. He had only taken Ken to see the Hokage because the matter of the infiltration was something he was very much invested in.
But he knew that the Hokage had other matters to discuss with Ken as well, matters that didn't concern him in any form or way.
The Hokage understood that, so he just sighed and nodded to the Uchiha Leader, who left in a hurry.
Ken didn't react much to him leaving, he was still very much split on what to think of the Uchiha Leader.
But he didn't dwell on it too much, instead, he turned to the Hokage.
"I've heard that Jiraiya has already arrived back in Konoha... Earlier than expected?" Ken was told that he'd have to wait a bit more for the Toad Sanin to arrive back in Konoha, which was why he was given a residence in the first place.
"Well, he did make his way here a lot faster after hearing that I had a personal request for him." Hiruzen also finally walked around his desk and went towards his chair, sighing as he did so.
He had a lot of things on his mind, he just hoped that the matter with Ken wouldn't bring the Leaf Village further issues.
Although he did have the feeling that the favour they now owed him could prove to become an issue in the future.
The Hokage shook his head as he was about to sit down, only to be stopped by Ken, who grabbed his wrist, his eyes widened as his other hand already prepared a hand sign.
Enma, his summoned beast, was also reacting, preparing to jump into action at that very instant, but Ken's next words managed to almost floor the two of them.
"Lord Hokage, your skin is strangely smooth, how old were you again?" Ken's tilted head and strange question weirded out the Hokage greatly.
Enma had to stifle his laughter but stopped himself when noticing something strange...
Ken was rhythmically tapping the Hokage's wrist, seemingly writing something there. The Hokage's eyes also widened as he felt that, he quickly started making out the words as he responded to the odd question.
"I am only 48, so my skin hasn't gotten to the point of wrinkling yet... Do I look that old to you?" His answer was honest, but he was more so focused on the meaning of Ken's written words.
"Oh, you don't look like anything at all to me Lord Hokage... You just sounded older, I think..." Ken then let go of the Hokage's hand, before taking a step back and tilting his head once more.
The Hokage nodded, both to the message he received and to Ken's actual words.
He could feel the Anbu above them stirring slightly, all of them had likely noticed Ken's approach and were placed on alert by it.
But Ken's tall body had likely obstructed them from seeing what he was actually doing. Enma was just lucky to get a good angle on it.
As Hiruzen contemplated on those things, as well as the message itself, someone else entered the room.
"Teacher, I came as fast as I could, is he here already?" A rambunctious and lively voice entered Ken's ears as he also turned his masked face around to greet the newcomer.
A man with long spiky hair, and a leaf headband on his forehead, he was also dressed as a regular Jonin.
He wore clothes that he had reportedly worn into the war against the Rain Village and Hanzo, well they were at least similar, Ken hoped the Sannin had more than one pair of clothes.
Although he was hearing his voice for the first time, Ken needed no introduction to know who he was 'looking' at. It was Jiraiya, in the flesh.
"Jiraiya! I'm glad you made it back so quickly. Our client was expecting you already..." Sarutobi quickly got over his musings, quickly pretending that the previous exchange with Ken had not happened at all.
"Greetings Jiraiya of the Three Sannin, my name is Ken, most people know me as the Red Dot, however... It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Ken still decided to greet the man, as he was unsure whether or not he would be recognized.
He had already looked up who Jiraiya was as a person and knew more about him than he knew even about the Hokage.
So he assumed Jiraiya wouldn't be able to recognize him on sight alone, as he wasn't the smartest person in his group of three.
Surprisingly, Jiraiya seemed to instantly know who Ken was.
"Oh, the bounty hunter?! You are the one asking for my help, that's unusual..." Jiraiya scratched the back of his head with a confused face.
'I guess I shouldn't trust rumours so much...' Ken sighed as he crossed his arms and turned back towards the Hokage.
"I believe it is for the better that we do the mission briefing here, Lord Hokage, you may need to convince him after all..." Ken said as he walked over to the Hokage's desk and leaned on it.
Jiraiya looked a bit confused, but he didn't protest, he just also crossed his arms and walked over to the Hokage's desk, prepared, and somewhat excited, to hear out what someone like Ken could ever need from him.
"Long story short, I need to meet the Toad Sage of Mount Myōboku. And you are the only person that I know of able to make such a thing happen."
The assassin got into business right away, not wanting to waste the time of any party involved in the mission briefing.
Jiraiya was visibly surprised he blinked a few times before opening his mouth and asking the obvious question.
"And why do you need to meet him? You seem to have mastered Sage Mode already..."
Jiraiya was certainly intrigued, he could feel Nature's Energy around Ken. He could feel it revolving around the assassin constantly, which was strange, to say the least.
Jiraiya himself had yet to master Sage Mode properly, he was already at the point of sensing Nature Energy.
"I need to learn more about myself, and this Sage Mode you speak of." Ken's answer managed to almost make Jiraiya fall backwards.
'Are you fucking kidding me?! The most perfected sage I've ever seen, so perfect that I'm sure he'll blow the pants off of Ma and Pa, needs to learn more about Sage Mode?!'
Needless to say, Jiraiya was more than intrigued at this point. To the point where the Hokage's word of approval wasn't even needed.
Although, just by him being there, he provided Jiraiya with the assurance that Ken didn't have any nefarious plans. Which was the whole point of requesting the mission through him.
The Assassin had banked on the fact that Jiraiya trusted his master/teacher. And that seemed to have paid off, as the Toad Sannin smiled and accepted the request.
"Ok! I can get you there, to Mount Myōboku, I mean. I'll speak to the Toads to let you meet the Great Sage too." Jiraiya immediately patted the assassin on the back, hooking his arm around him and pulling him out of the office while waving back at his teacher.
"Teacher! I'll be off for a few days I think! Take care of your health!" Jiraiya shouted while still pulling the assassin out of the room.
Ken hadn't expected such a casual interaction, but he didn't resist, as he did want to go to Mount Myōboku, and that was exactly where Jiraiya was dragging him.
So the assassin also just decided to wave back to Hiruzen, also pointing up for the Hokage to see before Jiraiya slammed the door to his teacher's office.
And just like that, Hiruzen was left alone in his office.
Well, as alone as he could've been with a squad of Anbu hiding on the wooden posts above his head.
Hiruzen just sighed as he turned his head to his paperwork. His mind was not focused on it however, he was now back to thinking about the message Ken had sent him.
' 'Anbu possibly with seal above us', huh?'
Hiruzen didn't need more context to understand what Ken meant. They had just been talking about the Kidnapping incident after all...
He also didn't think Ken had any reason to lie to him. He wasn't quite as sceptical of Ken, especially not after the assassin had proven to not have any bad intentions by saving Kushina.
Now, the Hokage had a few things he could suspect were happening.
One: Foreign Shinobi had infiltrated the ranks of their Anbu and were still there despite the failed kidnapping. It was a rather stressful thought...
Two: It was also possible that Ken had felt it wrong, he didn't write in a confident language, which was most likely deliberate.
The Red Dot didn't strike Hiruzen as a person that did things without them being deliberate. So that meant Ken was only informing him of suspicion.
But Ken was also renowned as a really good sensor, so it was a credible source in a sense.
And there was also the third and last possibility, which made the Hokage feel much more tired...
'Danzo is up to no good, huh?...'
The Hokage couldn't help but sigh, pretending to be slumped in more and more paperwork that was already piling up on his desk.
'The next few weeks will be very busy, won't they?'
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Heyaa, Veganmaster here again with a chapter. Kinda late, but that's becoming the usual innit?
Things have been a bit tiring as of late, but I should be fine. Work's been a bit more stressful and I have less and less free time too, so that's nice.
Anyway, imma keep writing cuz I still love doing it :)) My schedule will eventually fix itself too
Discord, again:
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