Chapter 257: Never Break Character
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"Shut up, Hokage."
Thirty people flinched.
"You don't have the authority to enforce Mist law," Captain Zabuza sneered. "If you so much as lay a finger on me, that's your diplomatic incident right there. In a room full of people."
A none-too-polite reminder that if Jiraiya used violence, the friendly fire could be catastrophic. It was true that Jiraiya was the only Kage with an invitation to the Gōketsu games night, but the room was packed to the rafters with elite jōnin, senior chūnin, and the crème de la crème of the genin from across the Elemental Nations. The military power gathered in this room was enough to raze a medium-sized civilian town, and it was dwarfed in importance by the military and economic secrets stored in so many of those brains. If Captain Zabuza and Jiraiya came to blows, everyone else in the room would be dead in seconds and the effects would reverberate across the Elemental Nations for years.
"Here are the facts," the ultimate hunter-nin raised his voice.
"It was a trap. And the ones who set us up, the ones responsible for all this—"
The door slammed open. Captain Zabuza whipped round instantly, sword in hand.
An apparently unarmed man stumbled in, looking like he could fall over any second.
Thank the Sage and all his many brothers.
Jiraiya flicked his eyes to one of the ANBU, and the woman took off at a dead run. Aunt Ren would be here in minutes. Hazō almost regretted not inviting her.
Until then, all Jiraiya had to do was take whatever the man was about to tell him and use it to stall for time. Child's play for the master diplomat.
"Sunohara?" Jiraiya asked with a confused frown that probably masked massive relief. "What could be important enough to make you come all the way here in person?"
"They've taken Gaara," Sunohara said heavily. "We are out of time."
The world seemed to slow around Hazō. A tiny part of him wondered if this was what it was like to be Keiko, to bury oneself in the Ice and see the world as fracture planes of possibility and razor-sharp angles of probability. The thoughts flashed through his mind—mere images and intuitions encoding what would have taken hundreds of words to explain using words and logic.
Item one: Captain Zabuza + invitation-only event. Timing due to intention + choice, not accident. Disclosure of secrets = seeds of chaos, political upheaval. War. Cities burned, crops devastated. ("Although it may be possible to crush your opponent's stronghold, a wise ninja will instead burn the fields.") The Battle of the Gods on every tongue, fury in every eye.
Why? Triune possibilities: Aunt Ren's command. His own will. A figure in the shadows.
Aunt Ren's command?
A future: Aunt Ren, Leaf treaty in hand, crowds cheering. Alternative: Fragments of paper on the floor, Aunt Ren in chains, gloating of the warsharks and disgust of the moderates.
The past and the future: Weeks spent horse-trading with Jiraiya to create alliance. (Without actually using the word 'alliance', but the rose still blushed.) Aunt Ren negotiating as sharp as a fishwife in the marketplace, but in good faith. Agreements reached. A grudgingly-smiling Jiraiya shaking her hand with his right, holding the treaty in his left. Hyūga Hiashi, the Clan Council and the Merchant Council at his back, face sour at the need to offer approval. Mist moderates doing the same for Aunt Ren while the warshark party howled in impotent fury.
Subconclusion: Not Aunt Ren's command.
His own will?
Lessons at the Academy, shining example held up for every student: Captain Zabuza, the distilled essence of a Mist ninja. Loyal beyond death to Mist. Deliberately cause it harm for no reason? Inconceivable.
Possibility: Captain Zabuza. Fury / grief / unbalance / disharmony. Rage at the idea of Aunt Ren shaking hands with the people—with the man—who had killed so many of his friends. The Captain: ice and calculation like unto the Mori but proactive and determined. Everyone had a limit, and the quiet ones snapped hardest. Witness Keiko.
Subconclusion: Captain Zabuza here purely of his own accord? Laughable but possible.
The figure in the shadows?
Possibility: Words from the dark, "Ren is selling us out to those Leaf monsters in order to secure her position and we must save Mist from her machinations." Highly feasible.
Conclusion: Captain Zabuza was here to destroy the alliance, probably at the behest of one or more senior Mist politicians, against the clear wishes of his Kage, and he was being partly driven by his grief and anger.
Item two: How could he be prevented from doing so?
Actually, first things first.
"Dispel," Hazō mumbled, making the single handseal to activate the technique that would break any genjutsu. He sent a momentary silent prayer to his ancestors that he would please find himself standing over a gaming table while another genin cheated wildly.
Nope.
He glanced at Jiraiya, hoping against hope that the Sannin had an answer.
Jiraiya met his gaze and gave a millimetric shake of the head and the tiniest possible 'wait' gesture with one hand. Hazō nodded slightly and turned back to the unfolding drama. Despite that, his brain continued turning over possibilities for action, desperately searching for an answer other than the first one that had leaped to mind.
"Who took Gaara?" Jiraiya demanded.
"It sounds crazy," Sunohara said, cringing slightly. "You won't believe it."
"Ten ryō says I do."
"They wore black and red cloaks and they came out of the sun on...dragonback."
"Oh, come on!" growled a Sand jōnin. "Sunohara, this is no time for one of your jokes."
"It's not a joke, Captain! I swear it!"
The jōnin sighed. "He's a prankster, but he's usually honest," he said to Jiraiya and the room in general. "And he has to know this is not the time or place." He turned back to the messenger. "Look, what do you mean about 'dra—'"
"Enough!" shouted Captain Zabuza. "More Leaf treachery! It was—"
For a split second, the mental image of a groan flickered through Hazō's mind. This was going to haunt him, he just knew it. Still, you had to dance when Fiddler Night played the tune.
"You traitor!"
Utter shock stopped Captain Zabuza in midword. There was a moment of appalled and astonished silence throughout the room. Dozens of eyes, including the very angry ones belonging to the world's greatest hunter-nin, were suddenly riveted on Hazō as he stepped forward, fists clenched and face twisted in the Iron Nerve's perfect rendition of the most furious expression he had ever worn.
"What is wrong with you, Captain Zabuza?! Do you know what's going on here?! Peace! People from across the Elemental Nations, coming together to have fun. Tonight is a tiny little baby step towards peace throughout the Elemental Nations, towards uplifting civilization, and it's thanks to me. You can't stand the idea of me succeeding, can you? The idea that me and my team got away, that you hunted us for a year and a half and never even got close. That we made you look like a fool, time and time again. That's enough to make you betray your Kage?" He turned to the room at large. "Fine, I'll tell you before he can, and I won't twist it like he was going to. Yes, it was a trap! Mist sent us on a suicide mission, but it was really a trick by Shikigami, a jōnin who wanted to build a new village with himself at its head. My team and about thirty others went missing. Captain Zabuza and others came to the swamp in Fire where we had taken refuge and they killed everyone...except me and my team. We escaped and we survived, in the wilderness, for a year and a half while Captain Zabuza hunted us. We found the Pangolin Summoning Contract and bargained for Leaf citizenship. And yes, Leaf broke every norm of ninja law. They accepted missing-nin. They created a new clan from criminals and traitors. They stole bloodlines. And now Aunt Ren is negotiating with them and it made Captain Za—"
Captain's Zabuza's fury crashed down upon him like a tsunami. Everything became howling blades and blood-drenched storms. A wave of demons tore at Hazō's flesh and buried him beneath their weight, crushing him flat so he could not breathe or struggle or even think.
Far off in another world, a world in which he had a body, he felt that body collapse to its knees, then fall forward. He was blind and deaf, but he felt sure that he was screaming. Or perhaps gasping for breath. There was no way to know.
Still. Gasping or screaming, drowning in pain and terror, buried in darkness or not, Hazō had braced himself for exactly this. From the first word of his 'impassioned speech', he had known he would find himself in the hell of Zabuza's will. That had been the point: to grant Jiraiya a legal justification to act.
Momma's words echoed in the howling darkness: "It's focus. If you can't beat somebody's diffused will with your own, then you have to go the other way and focus on a single thing as hard as possible."
Even as he had played at rage and arrogance and naïve idealism, Hazō had been holding tight to his single thought: He had to save Gōketsu. Captain Zabuza's information would bring the death of everyone he loved, and that could not happen. He didn't need to win, he just needed to give Jiraiya a justification to act and a vaguely plausible story to explain why he had needed to. And that meant finishing his speech.
Hazō, Resolve (20). Tag: "Ready for You" (+3). Invoke: "Creative Idealist" (+3). Invoke: "Lists and Plans" (+3). Invoke: "(Formerly) Marked for Death" (+3). Invoke: "The Hokage is My New Dad" (+3). Invoke: "Team Uplift" (+3). Stunt: "Forged in Fire" (+4 due to Thousand Yard Stare points). Dice: +6. Total: 48
Zabuza, Intimidation (A lot): Thousand Yard Stare points (+?). Dice: ?: Total: ?
Hazō's mental stress track is full. He takes Mental/Social Consequences: Mild ("Wet Myself") and Moderate ("Nightmares by Night and by Day"). He also has a Mild Physical Consequence ("Lightly Concussed") from smacking his head on the floor.
NB: 'Forged in Fire' usually does not apply to Resolve checks, but it seems appropriate in this situation. Also, Zabuza did not burn Fate Points or use Aspects because this is a fight against a genin and he could not possibly have thought it would be necessary to make that kind of effort.
Zabuza, Intimidation (A lot): Thousand Yard Stare points (+?). Dice: ?: Total: ?
Hazō's mental stress track is full. He takes Mental/Social Consequences: Mild ("Wet Myself") and Moderate ("Nightmares by Night and by Day"). He also has a Mild Physical Consequence ("Lightly Concussed") from smacking his head on the floor.
NB: 'Forged in Fire' usually does not apply to Resolve checks, but it seems appropriate in this situation. Also, Zabuza did not burn Fate Points or use Aspects because this is a fight against a genin and he could not possibly have thought it would be necessary to make that kind of effort.
Somehow, far off, his body carried out the plan he had made before he began speaking, back in the Before Times when the world made sense and reality was something other than pain and fear.
"How much...did they...pay you?" he gasped.
There was a thundercrack and the darkness disappeared, leaving Hazō shuddering on the floor in a puddle of his own urine.
o-o-o-o
"Hazō? C'mon, bro, wakey wakey. Eggs and bakey, time to wake up."
Hazō groaned and pried his eyes open to find Noburi crouched over him, the glow of medical chakra around his hands and a worried expression on his face.
"It wasn't just me," Hazō mumbled, squinting his eyes closed as the light of the chakra scorched them.
"Uh-huh. Whatever you say, man. Can you open your eyes for me?"
"I needed to sound arrogant," Hazō whispered. "Angry, stupid kid acting out. But it wasn't just me. It was the whole team. It was all of us that made tonight happen."
Noburi snorted. "Seriously? That's what you're worried about right now? Now open your eyes and let me check your pupils or I'll bring out my acupuncture needles."
Hazō forced his eyes open with the same effort required to push a cart of bricks uphill. He couldn't help but squint as Noburi brought the light closer, but he managed not to close them completely.
"Left pupil is dilated," Noburi said. He glanced over his shoulder. "He's probably concussed. He's got some bruises from when he fell, but otherwise he seems fine."
Keiko stepped forward into Hazō's field of view. "That was extremely foolish, Hazō." She paused, then smiled very slightly. "The next time you deliberately attract the killing intent of an elite jōnin, please ensure that you sit down first. Your plans are dangerous enough without damage to your brain."
"I'll remember that," Hazō mumbled. "Imma sleep now."
"No you aren't!" Noburi said, pulling him upright. "C'mon, you have to stay awake. You can't sleep with a concussion. You need to stay upright so your brain can settle back into place, and I need to soak your head in mud in order to ground the harmful spirits into the earth. If not, they'll settle in your brain and damage it."
"Ungh." Hazō managed to sit upright...and then promptly bent forward and puked everything he'd ever eaten into the bowl that Noburi had wisely pre-positioned.
"That's good," the apprentice medic said, nodding. "You're getting the bile out. Now come with me. We need to get you outside into the fresh air and get your head in some mud before the spirits do too much damage."
"Thought you could...ugh...sterilize wounds?" Hazō lumbered to his feet, wiping the vomit from his mouth with his sleeve.
"Sure," Noburi said, slipping under his brother's other arm and supporting him towards the door. "Physical wounds. Medical chakra is a balance of thought and spirit, so it opposes spirits of the flesh and drives them out. It can't touch spirits of the mind. Those need to be sucked away through a connection to the earth." He pushed the door open with one hand; both he and Hazō flinched at the freezing air. "If this were decent weather I would say you should strip down and soak your entire body, but when it's this cold we'll have to settle for just your head."
He helped Hazō to a small leanto that Cat, one of the ANBU, had set up on the lawn. The woman had laid out a bedroll and was now pouring boiling hot water on the frozen grass at one end of it. She stabbed and stirred the ground vigorously with a kunai in order to turn it into mud.
Hazō whimpered. "Can't it just be my feet?"
"Sorry, bro. The spirits will be concentrated around the injury and we don't want to pull them all the way down through your body. Lie back."
Hazō half-sat and half-collapsed onto the bedroll, too dizzy and nauseous to help much as Noburi and Cat helped him lie flat and lay his head back into the cleansing mud. Keiko stood by, watching and clenching her fists at her lack of ability to help as Noburi gently scooped mud up and spread it across Hazō's face and hair, taking care to get plenty of it in his ears.
Hazō winced at the cold. A spike of blindingly white agony blotted out the world for an instant and then he came back to find himself gasping.
"I know it sucks, bro," Noburi said, keeping one hand on Hazō's shoulder and one on his forehead. "It shouldn't take long. Mind spirits are fragile; they can't stand the touch of earth. I'm scanning you now and I don't feel much in the way of flesh spirits...they caused some minor swelling, but I've driven them out and it's starting to go down."
Cat spread a massive pile of blankets over Hazō and tucked several hot water bottles under them. Hazō cried out at the contact; the bottles felt scorchingly hot on his skin and the mud was so cold he worried his skull would crack.
"Will he be all right?" Keiko asked after a few eternities.
Noburi hesitated a moment, eyes closed as he concentrated on what his chakra was telling him. "I think so," he said at last. "Okay, that's probably enough. Let's get him back inside and cleaned up."
o-o-o-o
"What happened, anyway?" Hazō asked, shivering despite the hot bath he was soaking in. It had taken ten minutes of careful washing to get all the mud, vomit, and urine off of himself, and now he was soaking in a hot tub. Cat was sitting in the corner, silent as a stone, with a naked sword across her lap. Noburi and Keiko were sitting on the edge of the tub around Hazō.
Noburi snorted. "You mouthed off until Captain Zabuza got pissed and crushed you like a bug. Somehow, you still managed to speak a few more words. He snarled and took a step towards you. Then Jiraiya just...moved, and suddenly there was a hole in the wall and he and Captain Zabuza were gone."
"Sure wish he'd done that a few seconds earlier," Hazō griped.
"He could not have. You enraged Captain Zabuza to the point where he focused completely on you for one moment. With the pretext of protecting his son against someone who had broken Exam Truce, Jiraiya was able to attack without fear of diplomatic consequences. And, with the Captain's attention diverted, Jiraiya was able to land his first attack without being dodged or giving opportunity to have the relevant intel shouted out. Had you not done what you did, Captain Zabuza would most likely have disclosed his information." She paused, eyes flicking to Cat for a moment before visibly deciding to continue. "Had he done so, I estimate that World War Four would have begun before morning. If not, within at most three days."
"Yay. Go, me." Hazō shivered, the heat of the tub not yet overcoming the cold in his bones.
The door of the bathing chamber swung open and Cat was on her feet, standing between the tub and the door with her sword extended. She lowered it a moment later and bowed.
"Thanks for watching over them, Cat," Jiraiya said, nodding back. "Give us the room, okay?"
The woman bowed again, sheathed her blade, and stepped outside. The door closed softly behind her.
"Kid, that was the bravest, stupidest, most brilliant thing I've seen in a good long time." Jiraiya grinned, crouching down so he could be at eye level with Hazō. He put his elbows on the rim of the tub and rested his chin on his folded hands. "Seriously, that took balls of steel. Well done."
"Thank you, sir," Hazō said to the slightly blurry form of his Clan Head. He blinked several times, forcing himself to focus. Jiraiya was wearing a fresh robe, part of his hair was gone, his knuckles were bleeding, and he sported a massive shiner on the left as well as a bandage that stretched at a rakish angle across part of his forehead and down to his right cheek. "What happened?"
"Stabby Zabby and I danced a bit, then Ren and the other Kage showed up. We debriefed Sunohara and now everything's in a tizzy. Akatsuki kidnapped Gaara, and it looks like they now have a complete set. Once we heard about Gaara, I ponied up the fact that Naruto had been kidnapped by the same people. That got the other Kage to admit that their jinchūriki have all been taken over the last few months.
"Once that was out in the open, we all started pooling our information. Remember when I came home so whacked out on Akimichi stimulants? That was when me and a couple others captured 'Team Bloodrage', which is one of the stupidest and most emo names I've ever heard, and brought them back to Leaf. The Yamanaka peeled those kids like a bag of potatoes, and that gave us their handler. Capturing that guy was the mission that I sent Noburi and Kakashi on."
"Aw, man. You had to tell him," Noburi griped. "I was having so much fun lording it over him."
Jiraiya snorted. "Yeah, well, suck it up. Anyway, Bloodrage's handler wasn't that highly placed, but he knew enough. Combine that with the intel that Orochimaru sent me in the board game and what the other Kage knew and we have a location: Nagi Island. We're confident that that's where Gaara was being taken, which means that the other jinchūriki are probably there as well. Mist sent Sunohara on ahead with the message so that we could start getting organized, but there's a strike group a few hours behind him. They also sent a messenger to Leaf, and I expect that there's another strike group coming from there. They should all be here in a few hours. They'll need to sleep for a bit, but as soon as they're ready, me, A, Ōnoki, Rasa, Hyūga, and basically every elite jōnin in the world are going to come down on Nagi Island like a ton of bricks. We'll get Naruto and the others back and kill the sons of bitches who took them." His eyes got hard for a moment. "Especially Itachi. After what he did to Naruto, I'm going to burn him to ash."
Hazō shuddered and even Keiko looked nervous.
"I am glad that there is progress," she said after a moment. "What would you like the three of us to do?"
"We had thought about bringing you along, actually. Not to fight—the idea was that you would stand well back and send in the pangolins. We decided against it; you would be a priority target and your tessera are good, but they're not S-rank. They wouldn't add enough combat power to justify the risk to you." He flashed her a smile. "Ain't lettin' nobody hurt my shy little girl.
"No, the three of you are going to go back to Leaf. The other genin will go with you, with the chūnin as bodyguards. Once there, Hazō will take up the position of Acting Clan Head until I return. I'll be sending my will along with you just in case I don't. It basically leaves everything to the clan, minus a few bequests."
The smile that he'd been wearing faded away. "I'm not sure who is coming with the strike force, but it's pretty likely that you won't be the only genin serving as Acting Clan Head. Try not to get into too much trouble. Don't make any long-term contracts, alliances, or marriage arrangements. Listen to Mari if she is stable and ignore her if she's still compromised. Keep Kagome on a leash and don't let Fifi off the property."
"Yes sir," Hazō said, nodding wide-eyed. He paused, licking his lip in thought. He glanced over at his sister. "Keiko, I'm sorry for bringing this up now before talking to you about it. I had planned to get your evaluation once we were back home in a lower-pressure environment, but I need to do it now." He turned back to Jiraiya. "Sir...before today, I had been thinking about going to Isan after we got back. There's something like five hundred ninja there with completely unique sealing and ninjutsu traditions, and they spent centuries guarding and venerating the Pangolin Summoning Scroll. I'm guessing that Keiko is something like their messiah, and she'll have a lot of political weight. Isan will probably be opening up to the world soon, and if we were able to manage that process we could gain a lot."
Jiraiya blew out his cheeks in thought. "That's a good idea," he said at last. "Ballsy, proactive, with high potential reward. You're off to a good start as Acting Clan Head. On the other hand, it also carries some serious risks. Like, potentially clan-ending risks.
"A lot depends on what happens on this mission. The people going with me are heavy hitters, but the known members of Akatsuki are in our weight class and I don't even want to guess what their other members are capable of. It's absolutely certain that not all of us are coming back, and no matter what happens it's going to destabilize the Elemental Nations for a few years."
The Sannin paused, thinking, then made eye contact with all three of his children in turn. "You three are everything I could have hoped for as family. You are smart, brave, and phenomenally skilled for your age. I couldn't be prouder if you were my own flesh and blood."
He pushed himself to his feet, his face ceasing to be the vulnerable parent and becoming once again that of the Clan Head and Hokage. "My best advice is this: Don't go to Isan for at least a week. If things turn out well, I'll be back by then and we can gather intel and make a plan. If I'm not...Hazō, you're in charge and you'll have to use your best judgement based on the situation you find yourself in. Listen to Keiko and Noburi. Listen to Mari if she's stable again. Ino-Shika-Chō are allies; treat them as such, but remember the difference between 'ally' and 'friend'. If Shikaku doesn't come with the strike force, or if he does and then survives the mission, be careful. He's smarter than all of us put together, so try not to let him get too many hooks into you. If Naruto makes it back, adopt him into the clan. The two of you can sort out who is going to be Clan Head, but he's the one you should put forward for Hokage when the time comes. He's got the popularity and the power, and he'll listen to you."
He smiled and clapped Noburi on the shoulder. "Keep working on the Mega Water Dragon Bullet Spike of Doom, kid. It's a good move for you, even if you needed a little more practice with it before the tournament."
Noburi laughed. "Rub it in, why don't you?"
Jiraiya chuckled and squeezed his son's shoulder, then turned to Keiko.
"Keiko, you're the only one in the family with any logistics or economics skill, so I'm counting on you to keep the clan solvent. And try to keep Hazō out of trouble, would you?"
"Yes sir," she said, nodding firmly. "I will not let you down."
"Never crossed my mind that you might. Hazō...take it slow for a few years until you settle in, but you're going to be amazing."
He surveyed them all one last time, then gave them a smile and a nod. Seconds later, he was gone.
XP AWARD: 10
Author's Notes: The update only covered a couple of hours, but I loved writing it. The plan was fun, exciting, and not overspecified. At least as importantly, I got to exposit things that the QMs have been working on literally since before the quest began, all the way back in the initial worldbuilding.
The plan called for talking to Jiraiya about Operation Murder, an idea that centered on taking a bunch of Summoners to the Seventh Path and then having the Crow Clan reverse-summon Itachi into an ambush. The plan (very wisely) specified that this should happen under high OPSEC, which wasn't an option given what was happening. I considered having Hazō disclose it anyway but decided against it. Operation Murder requires several days of setup time, as the various Summoners need to travel from their summoning point to the mountains where the Crows live. It makes perfect sense before the information on Nagi Island turned up, but at this point Jiraiya knew where to go and he had all the backup you could ask for, so it was smarter to go directly.
Vote time! What to do now? Options include:
- Decide to simply go with the flow, in which case (unless @Velorien wants to do something different) we could just time-skip back to you being in Leaf.
- Seek out Ikeda or other foreign ninja. (It was part of this plan but there wasn't time for it.)
- Get with ISC and the rest of the Leaf contingent to plan your trip home. Will you go direct, or do you want to try to talk people into a sidetrip of some sort?
- Seek out Jiraiya. It's clear that he's not leaving for hours, possibly even a day. (The strike forces have to arrive and then rest.)
- Seek out Aunt Ren.
- Take care of any business you have remaining in Mist.
- Write in.
Voting ends on Wednesday, April 18, 2019, at 12pm London time.
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