Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

Hazō approached Akane on the rooftop of the… Shimura estate's main building. She'd moved a few of her garden's pots and planters behind a set of tarps to protect the plants against the freezing wind rolling in from the west. Now, she squatted near the edge of the roof, looking out into the hellstorm.

As Hazō stepped up to the edge, he could see more than a few of the clan's ninja watching the hellstorm, and many of the civilians doing the same from the ground. The stormwall was massive, stretching from the tips of the distant treetops to the clouds above. The clouds in the stormwall continuously rose up in a rush of white, climbing from the ground to the heavens as that hellishly cold liquid turned into deadly air. It seemed to be approaching Leaf.

Hazō crouched down next to Akane to break any lines of sight for lip-readers. He set up an Air Dome, cutting off the bitterly cold wind and leaving them in silence. Somehow, it didn't feel right to embrace her.

"Does he know?" she asked.

And wasn't that the question? That last spark of hope that he'd left her with was that he'd talk to Shikamaru, who would in turn use his credibility and trustworthiness to convince Asuma to not investigate the source of the hellstorm. But Shikamaru had made his stance clear and Asuma had made his demands. And Hazō had played along.

"Yes," he said. Akane didn't look at him, but she curled herself tighter into a ball and he could hear the sound of her spirit breaking. No, her spirit had already broken today, and Hazō had come to grind the shards to dust.

"Shikamaru and Asuma said that it's the only way we can stop the end of the world," Hazō said. "Between our clan and the Nara, we can't stop the spread of Elemental Mastery if Isan opens their borders at all. They're part of AMITY, so they'll definitely want to trade and if they ever trade jutsu, well, we know one utility ninjutsu that they're ready to share with outsiders. We can't stop that ourselves, but Asuma can."

"And how will he stop it, Hazō?" Akane whispered. "How will he make sure that five hundred people, all concentrated on the slopes of one mountain, don't share a secret that all of them know, when that secret could cause the end of Hidden Leaf? How will he make sure that not one of them leaks, when any of them could leave at any point through terrain that they know like the backs of their hands?"

"Akane…" Hazō said, wanting to comfort her, but he found he couldn't. Asuma had ordered the deaths of thousands or tens of thousands of civilians in the final weeks of the war with Rock when he'd known that AMITY would bring him above the consequences. If he would kill thousands for spite, why wouldn't he kill hundreds for the purpose of keeping the world's most deadly ninjutsu secret?

"Akane, I don't think he'll order you to do that. He wants you to teach him the ninjutsu."

"Oh," said Akane. He could feel the last few pieces of her soul crunching into dust under his heel. "Oh," Akane said again, as she realized she would have to give up the ninjutsu that could end civilization to a man with every incentive to make sure that Leaf stayed in possession of that ninjutsu for eternity.

"He wants you to see him now," Hazō said. "He'll ask you some questions, probably, then you'll be mindscanned. He wants to make sure you didn't teach it to anyone."

Akane hung her head between her knees for a moment, then slowly pulled herself to her feet. "I should go then. I can't defy the Hokage's orders."

She turned and removed the seals, disrupting the Air Dome and letting the bitter wind cut through them again.

"Wait!" Hazō said. Akane turned to him, expression dull, and Hazō's heart ached at the thought of giving her another order at a time like this, but he had to. There were secrets that couldn't be leaked, even now. "The mindscanner," Hazō said, "Asuma said they would be discreet and avoid clan secrets, but other Yamanaka in the past said that they don't always control what they see. Can you keep them away from our secrets?"

Akane made the cross-sign handseal for Shadow Clone, and Hazō nodded. "And…" he said.

Akane tapped the single MARS that was visible through the small cutout pocket of her chūnin's vest. Hazō nodded again.

Akane looked past Hazō, at the hellstorm, for a long moment. She turned. "I have orders, Hazō. I need to go."

She left.


"Hello Miss Gōketsu. Have a seat," said the goat-masked ANBU agent.

Akane bowed as she entered and took a seat on the plush couch in the comfortably furnished room under the Hokage's Tower. Several colorful couches sat around the room, a couple braziers gave off waves of dry heat that almost helped dispel the cold that shot through her bones, and an array of well-worn knicknacks gave the room a homey feel. She'd known that she would be interrogated once she was done speaking with Asuma, but she was relieved that she wouldn't be turned over to the T&I facilities they'd used to scare the younger Academy students into line.

There were three ANBU, all male (or, if any were women, they were women with tall frames, bound breasts, and impressive voice-changing seals). The one with the owl mask gestured at the three of them.

"For your information," he said, voice slightly distorted in the blank mask, "Lord Seventh has briefed us three and no one else on the details of the situation. At present, this is the entirety of the OPSEC compartment for the Elemental Mastery secret. Lord Seventh has no intentions to extend this OPSEC compartment any further, with the possible exception of sharing limited information with Lord Nara in order to assess the extent of the risk of external OPSEC breach and determine policies that might lessen that risk. Lord Seventh has already told you, I am sure, but I will reiterate in order to ease your mind. None of us know the Fire Element."

Akane nodded. There were few enough jōnin in Leaf these days that she could probably have figured out the ANBU's identity by looking at his build. Maybe it would have been a good idea to determine who they were so she could verify that they didn't have Fire Element publicly, at least. But her Academy training said never to speculate about the identity of ANBU, so she didn't.

Owl nodded, accepting her compliance. "Apologies for the masks and the general atmosphere," he said, waving at the cozy room. "Secrets of this scale require that we take all precautions."

"It's fine, sir," Akane said.

"Well then," he said, "let's get this started. We're going to ask you some questions that Lord Seventh requested us to ask. If there are any reasonable follow-up questions, we'll ask those as well. You should feel free to tell us if the questions are straying close to clan secrets, but we may ask that you think carefully about what exactly is a clan secret if our questions are related to Elemental Mastery. If it's not, you should also feel free to tell us that it's unrelated and we'll try not to push."

Akane nodded.

"And once that's done," Owl said, "I'll read your mind."




"Lords and Ladies of the Clan Council, I thank the Will of Fire that this meeting will be brief."

At Asuma's words, the various Clan Heads in the council room visibly relaxed. Leaf had been on war footing for over three hours, and if the Nara Clan was any indication, each would have made their own preparations for a defensive fight. Only three hours, Hazō noted, because Asuma had sent one of his monkeys along with the scouting team and had convened the council as soon as it dispelled itself to report. Hazō had beaten himself up for not finding a way to get Mari's advice before going to the Hokage, but in truth, the confrontation would have been forced long before he had a chance to consult with the sole member of his clan with any real political acuity.

"Lord Hokage, what exactly happened, if I may ask?" said Lord Aburame. Shino looked to the window where the hellstorm still raged. The thick, foggy stormwall rose and billowed outwards, almost as if approaching Leaf, though Hazō knew by the reports that it wouldn't come close. Messenger teams had already been sent out to evacuate any civilian villages in the storm's path if the hellstorm proved inadequately convincing.

"This was an accident, caused by a sealmaster who I have already spoken with," Asuma said. "The matter has been dealt with among the relevant parties."

Hazō clamped down on the Iron Nerve to keep from squirming in his seat as, one by one, everyone in the room turned to look at him. He scanned the room in turn, trying to look more cool and collected than nervous. Ino looked confused, Shikamaru had an expression of mild surprise as if this were the first he'd heard of Hazō's involvement, and Tsunade simply looked irritated. And of course…

Hagoromo said, "Lord Gōketsu, the briefing we received from the Hokage indicated that you weren't in attendance when the Hokage called a meeting of Leaf's sealmasters to determine if this was a sealing failure. Is that correct?"

Hazō looked Hagoromo in the eyes and replayed an old Iron Nerve motion from years ago in Mist's Academy, when all he'd needed to hide was some childhood mischief. "Yes," Hazō said tonelessly.

Hagoromo faced the Hokage. "Lord Hokage, I have to ask. Given the potential negative consequences, is it really wise to permit-"

Asuma cut him off. "The matter has been dealt with among the relevant parties. I am aware of the full details and will be taking the appropriate actions at my discretion. Your input is not required."

Asuma turned to address the room. "Thank you to everyone for your cooperation and apologies for any Clan business I may have interrupted in sounding the alarms. Your responses were impressive, and I am reassured that if trouble ever actually finds its way close to our walls, we will be quick to react and stamp it out. The Tower may call upon your forces in a limited manner for additional scouting or reconnaissance missions. I will publicly send out the order for Leaf to stand down once the storm effect subsides, but you should feel free to take actions within your clans to ease people's worries and undo your defenses.

"To our best understanding, effects of this sort have a duration measured more in hours than in days, and should not move substantially from where they originated. Rest assured, we will continue to monitor the situation and you will be informed if circumstances change. For now, you are all free to stand down.

"Dismissed. Lord Gōketsu, please stay behind."

The assembled clan heads rose and streamed out of the room. Ino paused to catch his gaze. She raised an eyebrow. What's wrong? she seemed to ask.

Hazō closed his eyes and shook his head. When he reopened them, Ino had already turned around to leave with Shikamaru and Chōza.

"What's the matter, sir?" Hazō asked once the room was empty.

"My office, Hazō," Asuma said.

They walked the distance in silence. Akane was waiting in Asuma's office, sitting still in front of the desk. At the back of the room, an ANBU agent in a goat-styled mask stood in a parade rest. Akane didn't meet Hazō's eyes, so he settled for placing a hand on her shoulder. He gave her a reassuring squeeze, then sat in the other offered chair. Asuma likewise sat with the ANBU just behind his shoulder.

"Sir, is it acceptable to discuss with another person in the room?" Hazō asked.

"Yes," Asuma said. "Goat, Owl, and Panda are all aware of the details. Before you ask, none of them have Fire Element. However, outside this room, you should treat them as if they are unaware. The only person who is allowed to disclose details about Elemental Mastery is myself.

"Or, that's true for now. If everything you've said is true about how this is repeatable, we'll need to be very careful to ensure that this ninjutsu never spreads, and that no one ever uses it to cause another event like this one. However, before we commit to fighting that war, I need to make sure that this actually is a repeatable event."

"Sir," Hazō said, "I think it may be dangerous to test it again. We'll have unequivocally established that it's in control of someone in the Land of Fire, and the threat of it as a weapon may be enough to break the AMITY treaty."

Asuma nodded. "I understand that, but I also cannot afford to commit to ending the threat of Elemental Mastery until I know that it actually is a threat. I also cannot afford to be ignorant as to whether or not this is a tool in Leaf's arsenal."

Hazō felt Akane flinch at that. "Is it necessary to use… that again, sir?" she asked, quietly.

"Yes," Asuma said. He reached to the compartment under his desk and brought out his can of tobacco leaves. "I am not a fraction as skilled a ninjutsu hacker as my father was," he said as he measured out a stretch of leaves onto a piece of paper, "but I am loosely aware of… unpredictable ninjutsu behavior, let's call it. Such behavior is vanishingly rare after the design of a technique has been completed. During the hacking? Sure, it's dangerous. Once it's done? Usually as safe as if the Sage himself made it."

He started rolling the cigarette. "I've never heard of a ninjutsu failure mode that had this scale, though I suppose it isn't impossible. Fracture effects tend to be related to ninjutsu's purpose, so it's not impossible that the cold storm came from a broken cooling ninjutsu.

"On the other hand, the strange effects weren't immediate, according to your account," he said to Akane. "So it's possible this was just a hidden function of the ninjutsu, rather than a fracture. Because these are the possibilities, we need to check." He lit the newly rolled cigarette and took a drag.

"And how can we do that and also not provoke Akatsuki into a pre-emptive strike on us, sir?" Hazō asked.

Asuma exhaled the cloud of smoke to the ceiling, then pulled a map from a stack of papers to his side.

"We'll head up through Iron," he said tracing a path on the map, "then out onto the Gaikotsu Bay. We'll find a patch of ocean no one particularly cares about. We'll verify with skywalker line-of-sight that there's no one to observe us, then we'll test it again."

"And you'll accompany us?" Hazō asked.

Asuma shrugged, then took another drag on the cigarette. "If I can without people putting things together, sure. We'll work out a story. Akane, you might need to take a week-long chakra beast extermination mission in northern Fire or something. It ultimately depends on how the clans react to this storm situation, and how long it actually takes to wind down. Otherwise, Goat, Owl, and Panda can escort you to verify it."

Hazō nodded. "Am I required for this mission, sir?"

"If the ninjutsu just works, not particularly," Asuma said. "But if there are any complications, given that you had the initial idea, I'd rather have you there to troubleshoot it. Unless you have pressing business in Leaf, you should come on this mission. Once we've verified that Elemental Mastery produces the destructive storm effect reliably, we can get started on keeping anyone else from finding that out.

"And, of course, if it doesn't do that, then there's nothing to worry about. I'll never use or share Elemental Mastery myself, and we'll have all learned an important lesson about pushing too far with ninjutsu that try to shape the laws of nature."

"I see," said Hazō. "How long do we have before we need to leave?"

Asuma exhaled another cloud of smoke to the side. "Provided the storm finishes tonight like you claimed, the mission leaves tomorrow. Perhaps the day after, if necessary. Until then, you are not to speak about Elemental Mastery with any of your clanmates, even if they ask you specifically about what happened when you left this morning to train it," he said, turning to Akane.

"I will be contacting people specifically to give them a brief on what they are allowed to know and say, but for now, simply refuse to answer any questions related to what happened out there," he said, gesturing to the storm still raging outside. "Likewise, don't tell anyone about the mission, or give even a hint that it's related."

"Now, if that's all, go rest up. It's been a long day for you two, and there's more long ones to come."

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