Chương 35: Hunted by the Hidden Leaf ANBU
"That was a warning Gaara, leave before I get serious," threatened Migaki.
"Really? Last I checked genjutsu and kunai are about all you can manage. Besides, using wind style in here would only create a disaster," I said tauntingly. Migaki's eyes narrowed, obviously not happy with my truthful assessment. Then again, I hadn't seen her fight all that much. I closed my eyes and allowed my Particle Sensor Jutsu to make up for the loss of my vision. I didn't want to get caught up in her genjutsu again, who knows if Shukaku would help me escape it again.
"Closing your eyes again? So predictable," said Migaki. I felt her rush forward with a kunai in her right hand. She obviously still didn't understand everything about my sand shield, after seeing Rock Lee get through it she thought she had a chance. Migaki wasn't Lee though, she wasn't even close to his speed.
"Don't change it if it isn't broken," I told her. Migaki stabbed her kunai forward but my sand shield easily blocked it. She then lunged to the side to try and get around the sand shield but that was hopeless. Migaki tried again and again while I just stood there with my arms crossed. I could hear her growing more and more frustrated while her movements also became more rash.
"What are you even trying to do Migaki? I could crush you in an instant, this is pointless. Not only did you come alone you put yourself in an area where using most of your Jutsu would only damage the archives," I criticized. It just didn't make any sense to me, why not wait until I was outside and ambush me? Instead, she waltzed into a confined space and said hello before attacking.
"Shut up, you have no idea what you're talking about," she screamed. She lunged forward again but this time I grabbed her with my sand. I didn't have time for this but Migaki's actions had me baffled. She had made every bad decision she could have made when planning this out. Migaki pointlessly struggled against my sand as I wrapped it around her until only her face was visible. I still didn't dare open my eyes, her genjutsu was too big of a risk.
"Looks like you beat me," said Migaki with disgust. I flinched, since when did she give up so easily? Then everything began to fall into place. She said she had seen Baki and me talk outside, meaning she had obviously been spying on us. Migaki wasn't matched up against me for the chunin exams final, she already had seen me fight extensively anyways. She had nothing to personally gain by watching our apartment which brought me back to what I had asked Isori in the Forest of Death. He had begrudgingly told me that both Toziwa and Migaki were also working for The Foundation. Piecing together everything that had happened so far, I would bet good money Danzo had sent her to watch me. Isori and Toziwa were still hospitalized, which half explained why she was here alone. The other half was easy to guess, she didn't want to be here.
"Who sent you," I asked. Migaki flinched and I then knew I was correct. Danzo must be getting nervous about my actions, especially since I knocked Isori's teeth in.
"I can't say," said Migaki firmly.
"What do you mean you can't say? It's pretty evident you don't want to be here," I said. Why wouldn't Migaki admit it was Danzo? She kept advertising her gaze and looking down when she talked.
"I just can't Gaara, now are you going to let me go or what," she said with what sounded like shame. That's when I saw it, right at the end I noticed some black marks on her tongue. It was the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal, a seal placed on almost all members of The Foundation to ensure absolute secrecy. Migaki must have had one forcefully placed in her by the way she was acting. All of the stuff she had been spouting moments ago, all that confidence, had been fake. Migaki was supposed to be observing me and then reporting back to Danzo probably. Instead, she had revealed herself and gotten captured by me to defy Danzo without him knowing. I opened my eyes reluctantly, this was quite a risk.
"I'm sorry that whoever has their grip on you made you follow me. Thank you for not calling for backup," I said calmly. Migaki's eyes finally darted to meet mine, many emotions flickering across her face. We stood in silence for a moment as I allowed Migaki to process what I had just said. This fight, if it could even be called that, was over. I felt bad I couldn't directly help her or even say I knew it was Danzo but then I would only make myself a bigger target. It irritated me that Migaki had this seal placed on her while Isori didn't, that had been apparent when he had revealed it was The Foundation that was after me. Maybe Danzo trusted him more than Migaki, probably due to having Isori completely under his control.
"As much as I hate to say it, you need to make it look like you beat me. Otherwise, my superiors will know what I've done," said Migaki regretfully. I glanced around uneasily, how was I supposed to make it believable? I didn't want to throw her around with my sand, that would just be prolonged torture. At the same time, I needed to leave her somewhat injured. After a few seconds of awkwardly looking around, I found the perfect answer.
"My apologies for what I'm about to do," I quickly told her. Migaki barely had time to frown before I threw her into the air with my sand. The poor Uchiha girl soared through the air before crashing into the barrier at the center of the room. Migaki let out a short gasp as the barrier gave her a big zap for knocking into it. She was tumbling away from it, unconscious on the ground. I cringed, that definitely hadn't been very nice of me but it was over with now. Now it was time to leave, though I decided to give a short look around before I left. I didn't dare touch anything while looking around the tall shelves. Many of them overflowed with scrolls, I wondered how the shelves didn't topple over with how many were stacked on them. After not finding anything that really stuck out, I made my way back to the center of the room where the barrier still dimly glowed. Migaki was also still lying on the floor, she would be out for a while. I watched the barrier for several minutes, wondering what could be hidden inside of it. Maybe I could break it open when I came back tomorrow night.
A sudden tug at the edge of my conscience made me freeze. The figurine I had given Temari had just been crushed. All thought of the mission left my mind, only Temari mattered to me now. Sand basically teleported from my gourd to under my feet. The sand lifted me up and then carried me quickly across the room and through the doors. I rode it just like a wave, standing on top with my arms outstretched to help maintain my balance. I flew through hallway after hallway until I finally reached the final set of doors that led outside. Before I reached them, they burst open and Temari rushed inside. She slammed the doors behind her quickly and rushed toward me.
"Temari! Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, I crushed the sand thingy to get your attention. There is Hidden Leaf ANBU outside, we need to get out of here," she exclaimed as she ran up to me. I cursed, someone must've seen us, or I tripped a sensor while snooping around the archives.
"Hop on," I ordered while making a spot for her one my can't wave. Temari hesitantly leaped on and I wrapped sand around her feet so she wouldn't fall off. She yelped as I shot back in the direction of the archive, zooming through the same hallways I had just been through.
"What are you doing? We need to get out of here Gaara, you're just taking us back to the main archive," Temari complained worriedly.
"We need to complete the mission. They will have this placed locked down by the end of tonight and under heavy surveillance for several weeks. We grab some scrolls and intel now or we don't at all," I told her firmly. Temari opened her mouth but stopped and simply gave a groan of disapproval instead. I ignored her and contained onwards until I was right back in the main archive. Migaki was still unmoving on the ground thankfully. Temari frowned at the unconscious girl and gave me a look of confusion.
"What exactly were you doing in here," she asked.
"I'll explain later, right now you need to rush around and look for any of the stuff Baki-sensei told us about," I told her. Temari nodded and ran quickly in between two shelves, disappearing from view. I turned my attention back to the translucent barrier that glowed dimly. It had been too risky to mess with it too much before but now that the ANBU were coming for us, why not break into it? I moved my sand to surround the barrier, large spikes forming in the air at my command.
"Sand Spike Barrage," I said as I sent each of the spikes slamming into the barrier. They would hit and then bounce off but I simply sent them flying straight back into the barrier. The spikes turned into blurs and the barrier was almost completely shrouded in spikes slamming into it. Loud bangs echoed throughout the room, the barrier making strange crunching and cracking sounds. A massive shock wave suddenly exploded from the barrier as it finally gave out, it wasn't designed to take so many attacks at once. I withdrew my sand back into my gourd and stepped through the dusty haze. The barrier seemed to have been hiding a multi-sided shelf that was loaded with scrolls of varying sizes.
"We need to get going Gaara," said Temari as she rushed up beside me. A backpack I hadn't noticed she was wearing was now overflowing with scrolls from its top flap.
"Just a minute, look over these scrolls and grab anything that might be interesting," I instructed her. Temari paused as if to disagree but then followed my order and began searching the circular shelf. I searched as well, grabbing and glancing at the dusty scrolls. A large scroll caught my eye near the top of the shelf, one that look very similar to the scroll that Jiraiya wore. It was black with golden and silver eagles drawn on the outside, along with several other animals. The other animals were wolves and what looked to be some kind of lizard. These two animals were much drawn much smaller on the scroll in a light grey instead of gold and silver like the eagles. The eagle designs were in the middle of the scroll, one side silver, and the other side gold. Using my sand I snatched the large scroll off the top of the shelf and brought it to me.
"What is that," asked Temari as she watched me look the scroll over.
"I'm not totally sure but I'm taking it, it looks like it could be useful," I told her.
"It's too big, for you to carry, I'll take it," she said as she snatched it from my hands. Right as she did, I felt several disturbances in my Particle Sensor Jutsu throughout the building.
"Come on, the ANBU have finally gotten inside the building," I told her grimly. We both rushed to the nearest door before I stopped. Glancing back, Migaki still lay in the middle of the room. Leaving her there could be troublesome if these ANBU weren't from The Foundation. I quickly picked her up with my sand and set her on too of one of the tall shelves. Hopefully, the ANBU wouldn't look up there when searching the room.
"Are you done? We need to leave," said Temari with concern. Her eyes darted to the two other sets of double doors that lead into the large room.
"One moment," I said as sand came pit of my gourd. The sand wrapped around both of us in the form of a cloaked robe. Everything but our faces were covered by the sand cloak. Mine left out my gourd so I could still bring sand out from within it. In the current lighting, you could vaguely tell the cloaks weren't made of cloth but outside it would be impossible to tell in the darkness.
"This feels so strange," said Temari with her face twisted in discomfort.
"Let's go," I said as I grabbed the handle. Right as I did there was a crash from across the room as one of the double doors violently swung open. I grabbed Temari and pulled her through the doorway, not daring to look back and see how many ANBU had just rushed into the room. Sand poured out of my gourd a d formed back into the sand wave I had ridden early. Temari hopped on and I immediately sent us rocketing down the hallways. I sensed dozens of people interfering with my Sand Particle Sensor Jutsu, they were flooding the building in search of us.
"What's the plan when we get outside? There will most likely be Hidden Leaf shinobi or ANBU out there," Temari questioned.
"If there is, I can't use my sand to attack them. They won't be able to tell what it is from far away but if they get too close they will know it's me," I said with gritted teeth.
"Gaara, it doesn't matter if you use it or not since you still have your gourd strapped to your back. They will know either way," said Temari while rolling her eyes.
"Yeah, and they will know it's you because of your nonstop attitude. I'll cover my gourd with some sand, let's just try and stay on task," I remarked bitterly. I covered my signature gourd with sand in a way that it now looked like a box instead of a gourd. I was starting to run a little low on sand left in my gourd but I didn't want to summon more. It would take too much time to recall it if we were in a pinch. We continued onward through the endless hallways in silence. Eventually, we made it to the final doors that would lead outside. The ANBU was hot on our trail, less than two hallways away. I gripped the food handle from atop the sand wave and turned to Temari.
"Whatever happens, don't fall off," I told her firmly.
"What do you mean don't fa-,"
I burst through the doors with my sand wave, moving as fast as possible. Temari get a small yelp as she was yanked along with me. We shot down the street outside of the Hidden Lead Archives, various yells from far away sounding. I didn't dare look back, I simply kept moving farther and farther away.
"They are right behind us," said Temari as she desperately gripped the sand wave.
"Try and take a few out then," I told her plainly. Temari grunted and shakily got her iron fan out.
"Wind Style: Wind Scythe," said Temari as she sent a wave of lethal wind towards our pursuers. This continued for several minutes as I got farther and farther away from the village center. We were now approaching the main gate to the village, which was closed. In the corners of my vision, I could see ANBU flickering in and out of my view as they dodged Temari's attacks. Our options weren't looking very good, how were we supposed to get out of this one? Using my sand I formed two large cylinders and slammed them into the gate that led out of the village. The large doors weren't made to keep things in, they were designed to prevent a force from the outside from entering. This is why it only took a few seconds for the lock to buckle and the gates to swing wide open.
"Where the hell are you taking us," Temari shouted from behind me.
"I'll let you know when I figure that out myself," I shouted back to her. We raced out of the village and straight into the surrounding forest. I weaves through the trees as kunai whizzed past us, Temari deflecting any of the ones that would have hit us.
"Earth Style: Rushing Canyon," yelled a voice behind us.
The ground underneath the sand wave suddenly began to crack and split apart. It got wider and wider, making us fall. Temari let out a scream but I quickly turned my sand wave into a platform for us to stand on. I watched as the ground below my platform continued to split and widen until it formed a small canyon.
"Gaara, watch out," yelled Temari. I whipped around to find a Hidden Lead ANBU standing on the platform with us. The ninja unsheathed a long katana from his back and slashed at me. I felt my sand rush to protect me but I stopped it and instead drew a kunai to deflect the sword. If this guy saw my sand shield, we would be found out as Hidden Sand ninja. The masked ANBU man swung his sword again, and this time I dodged. I then lunged forward to try and stab him but a female ANBU suddenly leaped onto the platform and caught my hand.
"You're done for," said the women coldly. I didn't dare speak, my mind racing with possible escape routes. The woman and the man both suddenly twitched, the woman's grip also loosening on my hand. Both of them crumpled to the ground to reveal dozens of senbon in their backs, dripping with poison. I glanced around and found that several other ANBU were falling to the ground around the destroyed clearing.
"What is going on," said Temari with wonder. The few ANBU that we're left retreated, many of them grabbing their comrades that had needles in them. A figure suddenly launched from the trees and landed on the platform with us. Temari and I both stepped back in caution of whoever the person might be.
"This is why you should have brought me in the first place," said an all too familiar voice smugly. It was Kankuro, with slung on his back. It seemed that Kankuro had gotten him back working again.
"The senbon, I take it that is the work of Crow," I asked him. Kankuro nodded proudly while we both looked at the two ANBU that layer unconscious on the platform.
"Baki-sensei and I noticed some ANBU rushed towards the archives. We realized what was going on so he sent me to find you guys. It was pretty easy with all the ruckus you guys have made," he explained. I barely listened, I was too busy eyeing the trees around us. The ANBU wouldn't be scared off that easily, Kankuro may have caught them off guard but they would be back any second now. Without warning, my sand platform jolted forward at my command. Kankuro and Temari wobbled and hung on for dear life. The two ANBU simply fell off and but the ground. They weren't our concern anyways, in sure the other ANBU would come and take care of them in a bit.
"What are you doing Gaara," said Temari with annoyance. I didn't answer, I was too focused on weaving through the trees. I made us get lower to the ground, mere feet from it actually.
"Get ready to jump off when I say," I told them. I didn't hear anything from either of them but I imagined they both weren't too happy about my order. I brought the platform to a grinding halt which caused both Kankuro and Temari to fly off of it. I guess they didn't need to worry about jumping. I swiftly hopped off the platform and retracted my sand back into my gourd except for our disguises. Speaking of disguises, I created another sand clock for Kankuro while he lay face down on the ground.
"Get up you two, we need to move," I said bluntly. They both groaned in response and slowly got up.
"Next time, I won't even come to save you," said Kankuro with irritation.
"Yeah, you can do the mission by yourself next time," added Temari.
"Quit whining, let's go," I said as I began to sprint away. Temari and Kankuro scrambled after me and eventually caught up. Temari was a little slower since she had not only the backpack on but had slung the Eagle Scroll over her shoulder.
"Where are we going," asked Temari.
"We will stop when we get about a mile or two away from the village. Then we will hide out here until tomorrow morning or when Baki contacts us," I replied. With that, we continued on our long dark journey through the forest in utter silence.
----------------------------------------------
After who knows how long of running and leaping through the trees, we stopped at the densest bunch of trees I could find. There were several trees toppled over that made convenient supports for us to place branches over in a makeshift hideout. We had very few rations between us since we weren't exactly prepared to be roughing it out in the forest for a night. Hunting was out of the question too, it increased the risk of being spotted and a fire would give away our location. We passed around what little food we had, some crackers and exactly three rice balls for us to share.
"Well, this certainly isn't how I imagined tonight going," remarked Temari bitterly. Doing a quick survey of our surroundings, I had to agree with the kunoichi. We were currently sitting on some logs we had pulled over, under a canopy of tree branches we had snapped off from nearby trees. The space was roughly a twelve-foot by ten-foot space. Kankuro was yet again tweaking with Crow's mechanisms, probably nervous ever since his last patch job had failed him during his preliminary. Temari was leaning back on a tree with her eyes closed, seemingly trying to sleep. My eyes eventually made their way to the large Eagle Scroll. Something about it piqued my curiosity. If my memory served me correctly, Omoda had mentioned that the Eagle Sage had a scroll like this. He had also said that the Hidden Lead could have it in their possession. The design on the outside of it, excluding the wolves and lizards, was almost identical to the Eagle Staff. I got up and walked over to the scroll, picking it up.
"What are you doing with that old thing," asked Kankuro, not even bothering to look up from his work. Temari cracked a curious eye open at Kankuro's question, also wondering what I was going to do with the scroll.
"I want to see what's inside of it, something about it just makes me want to look at it," I told them truthfully.
"Whatever, just don't damage it in case it might be useful. You can just call that your personal gain from the mission, since Baki said we would also benefit," Temari said as she closed her eye. Kankuro nodded and mindlessly continued checking out Crow.
"You two should read over some of those scrolls too. Kankuro you can research those bugs that creepy guy uses and Temari you can look into how that Shadow Possession Jutsu works," I told them. They simply shrugged and ignored my advice which made me sigh. These two could be pretty hopeless sometimes.
"Whatever," I told them as I stepped outside of our dark little canopy. Outside of our extremely dim flashlights that I had allowed, no light was permitted. Too big of a risk of being spotted but it also meant I had to blindly stumble around in the dark with my small flashlight giving only a little light. Once I was a few yards away from Temari and Kankuro, I sat down and opened open the scroll. The inside was almost identical to Jiraiya's summoning scroll, with large vertical boxes where previous people had signed their names. This one only had two signatures, unlike Jiraiya's which had several. I opened the large scroll further to find stunning pictures of a beautiful mountain, with graceful eagles at the top of it. Wolves and lizards occupied the lower portion of the mountain in the picture, much smaller and fewer than the eagles.
"That is Cloudtip Mountain," said Shukaku suddenly, which made me flinch. The tanuki hadn't spoken to me since my match with Lee, which had left me with far too many questions. Now, he had finally woken up from his nap, or so I assumed.
"Shukaku, can you tell me more about Cloudtip Mountain? Do you know how the Eagle Staff and Eagle Scroll are connected to this mountain," I asked him.
"I'll tell you as much as I know, but even I don't know everything about Cloudtip Mountain. The eagles that reside there are very secretive and didn't like it when I tried scaling their mountain," grumbled Shukaku. The only question in my mind that I had now was why Shukaku had tried to scale this mountain, as well as how a bunch of eagles had made him regret it.
"Cloudtip Mountain is inhabited by various species, all of which can talk like you and I do. The rulers, or the strongest on the mountain, are the eagles. They can use chakra and Jutsu just like you do Gaara," said Shukaku. These eagles sounded very similar to the toads on Mount Myoboku. They could also use Jutsu, such as genjutsu.
"How big are these eagles," I asked.
"Most of them are what you expect, but some of them are bigger than buildings. One of them is actually a little smaller than me in my natural form," said Shukaku with annoyance. If I had to guess, I would say that the huge eagle he had just mentioned had a large role in kicking him off the mountain he had tried to scale.
"How does this connect to the Eagle Sage," I asked, getting straight to the real point of the conversation.
"Well, I'm guessing on this part so best with me. The eagles probably taught who you are speaking of how to become a sage, which is someone who uses nature energy. This summoning contract scroll you have is probably how he summoned the eagles to fight for him. He could have also summoned those barbaric wolves and lizards that live on that mountain," said Shukaku with disgust.
"What's up with that, why are there wolves and lizards on the mountain too," I questioned. Shukaku let out a sigh of irritation, he obviously didn't like explaining all of this.
"Because they are allowed to live in the mountain by the eagles. That mountain is an oasis, a place of refuge. It resides on the far western side of what you humans call the Land of Wind. It is surrounded by nothing but a mostly barren wasteland, without that mountain almost none of the creatures there would survive. The eagles may be arrogant, but they aren't evil enough to wipe out the wolves and lizards. They live in an uncertain peace for the most part," said Shukaku bluntly. Sounded quite complicated, I imagine it wasn't easy for all of them to share a single mountain.
"What do you think I should do with the scroll, should I sign it," I asked blankly. Shukaku paused as if giving the question actual thought which was surprising. I had honestly expected him to not care at all.
"If you attain the power of the eagles, or even the ability to summon them, you will become stronger. They have a wealth of information, they see everything. I will not tell you what to do but I thought I should at least tell you what you would gain from signing that contract," said Shukaku seriously. Shukaku and I both went silent for almost a whole minute both I decided on what to do.
"If I sign this scroll, you won't be mad with me," I finally asked Shukaku. Shukaku snorted, which gave me the answer I was hoping for.
"I won't be mad at you if you sign the contract with those pretentious eagles. You are free to make your own decisions," Shukaku said.
"Thank you," I said softly. I sensed Shukaku flinch, tensing up for a moment inside my landscape before nodding.
"It's nothing," he said nonchalantly. Shukaku then retreated further back into my mindscape, leaving me in peace.
I took my right thumb and bit down on it hard, resulting in blood dripping down my thumb. I carefully wrote my name on the scroll, so as not to mess it up. I waited a few moments, unsure if the scroll needed time to process before I tried the summon anything. Then, I prepared to use the Summoning Technique like they had shown us back at the academy.
"Summing Jutsu," I said quietly as I slapped my palm to the ground. A small puff of smoke exploded in front of me before disappearing to reveal an eagle. It was regular size, with gold streaks running through its feathers and massive claws.
"What is going on? Who are you and how have you summoned me," said the eagle with a deep, smooth voice. Its eyes gave me a piercing glare, an angry one at that.
This wouldn't be fun to explain.
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