Chapter 108: The Encounter
Foundation Headquarters
Danzo was anxiously waiting for news.
After what felt like an eternity, a Root ninja appeared.
"Did you get her?" Danzo asked eagerly.
But the ninja's words were bad news.
"My lord," he said, "Elder Sarutobi noticed the anomaly with the Jinchuriki and has gone to investigate, along with the heads of the Ino-Shika-Cho clans. Also, there was a battle in the Forest of Death. A fire has broken out, and the Barrier Corps has detected a breach in the barrier."
Danzo's breath hitched. "Have the Cloud's men not come out yet?" he asked. "What's taking them so long?!"
"I do not know, my lord," the ninja said, shaking his head. "The last message from the breach was ten minutes ago."
"Dammit!" Danzo slammed his fist on the wall.
"Keep investigating! And report back!"
Sakumo Hatake, with two squads of ANBU, and Hiruzen Sarutobi, with the current Ino-Shika-Cho trio, a total of thirteen people, leaped from the village walls and sped towards the fire in the Forest of Death.
This was clearly not a simple forest fire. They had no time to investigate the barrier, no time to send out a reconnaissance team. Finding the Nine-Tails was the top priority.
The disappearance of the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki was a major crisis.
After the war, all the nations had been secretly developing their Jinchuriki. Though, in theory, all five of the great villages had a tailed beast, who wouldn't want more? And so, there was a great deal of mutual suspicion. Konoha had always guarded its Jinchuriki very carefully.
The matter of the Jinchuriki had always been handled by Hiruzen. The Fourth Hokage, Sakumo Hatake, had only been vaguely aware of it. If the Jinchuriki were captured, the consequences would be unimaginable.
The thirteen of them were all elite, and they moved at high speed, the trees a blur on either side.
Hiruzen's face was ashen. He had been meeting with the Ino-Shika-Cho clan heads when the news had come. The situation had been so urgent that he had just brought them along.
"Fourth!" he said to Sakumo as they ran. "Did the barrier facility in the Hokage's office show anything?"
"No," Sakumo said, his voice grim.
Hiruzen's face grew even darker. He had been Hokage for nearly twenty years. He knew that even a failure of the barrier itself should have been displayed on the monitoring system. If even the failure wasn't showing, then the person who had broken the barrier either had an intimate knowledge of its workings, or was one of the people who controlled it.
He quickly ran through a list of possible suspects, and the more he thought, the more his anger and shock grew.
They soon reached the fire. A large area had been engulfed in flames, which lit up the night sky.
In the center of the fire, a figure, who seemed to have just finished a battle, was holding a golden-haired figure in one hand.
"Who are you?"
In the roaring flames, the figure slowly turned. With his strange, twisted smile, he took their breath away.
The golden-haired figure he was holding was unconscious. There was a large, spiral-shaped mark on his chest. Though there was no blood, he looked to be seriously injured.
Hiroto, though he appeared calm on the surface, was panicking on the inside. In the final Rasengan clash, his superior ninjutsu skill had given him an easy victory. As for why his opponent also knew the jutsu Dana had taught him, he had no time to think about it now. He had recognized the Third and Fourth Hokage.
He had been given their portraits to memorize before the mission. And Sakumo was wearing his incredibly cool Hokage robe and hat.
He threw Minato to the ground and ran.
But the Konoha ninja were not about to let such a suspicious person get away. The ANBU quickly moved to intercept him.
"Earth Release: Mobile Core!"
Hiroto slammed his hands on the ground, and the earth began to tremble. A series of square stone pillars shot up from the ground, like the keys of a piano, blocking their pursuit.
A cold glint in his eye, Sakumo disappeared. In an instant, the stone pillars in front of him shattered. They had barely slowed him down.
Hiroto, behind the pillars, was terrified. He leaped high into the air.
"Wind Release: Pressure Damage!"
A violent gust of wind shot from his mouth, slowing Sakumo's advance, and Hiroto used the recoil to accelerate his escape.
Hiruzen went to check on the fallen ninja. He recognized Minato. He had graduated at the top of his class a few years ago. At the time, he had been thinking of having Jiraiya take him on as a student. But then the war had been lost, he had been facing the pressure of stepping down, and Jiraiya had gone off to travel the world. He had forgotten all about it.
But the priority now was to find the Jinchuriki. He left an ANBU behind and the others continued the pursuit.
Hiroto stumbled on, wishing he had three more legs, desperately running in the agreed-upon direction.
A short while later, he reached the edge of the barrier. In the distance, he saw a field of dead Konoha ninja, but no sign of his teammates.
Sakumo was close behind, his speed incredible. Just as he was about to bring his sword down on Hiroto's head, he felt a sense of danger.
He immediately aborted the attack and dodged, just in time to avoid a sneak attack.
"Tsk," Kyohei said, landing. "I thought I had him."
Samui and Blue Bee also emerged from behind a large tree. "You're too naive," she said. "This is the Fourth Hokage, the 'White Fang of Konoha.' You should be grateful he didn't counter-kill you."
Hiruzen and the rest of the team arrived. They looked at the unfamiliar figures.
An ANBU with the Byakugan activated his eyes. "My lord," he said, shocked, "one of them is a Jinchuriki!"
Hiruzen's face was grim. "Who are you?" he demanded. "Where is the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki?!"