literature

Konoha Children's Crusade Chapter 35 Part 2

Deviation Actions

cas42's avatar
By
Published:
2K Views

Literature Text

    *******


    The looting and rioting had died down in the weeks following her refusal to take that stupid seduction mission that had triggered it all. That didn’t make the Hidden Leaf any safer though. There was still crime, and old-feud fired violence, and there were huge swaths of Konoha that weren’t safe to walk alone, but on the whole, that rabid, raging burst of pent up rage and destruction had run its course.

    And in its wake, the Civilian ANBU had come marching through the streets and alleyways of the Leaf, making arrests, and trumpeting to all who would listen what a wonderful job they were doing keeping the peace. Some of the people arrested definitely deserved it. There were several gangs that were put on trial, and even a smuggling ring or two. But the majority of those who had warrants written with their names on them had taken part in no crime other than having led their respective streets, keeping them safe through the recent rioting. The exact wording on the order was: ‘Refusal to acknowledge, and possible usurping of, the Council as the ruling body of Konoha.’ Some instantly bowed under the pressure, swearing allegiance to the Council. Those that didn’t act fast enough, found their precincts surrounded by Civilian ANBU while Shimura clan shinobi marched in step, down their streets, smashing what little glass was left in the windows after the previous riot, and hauling people away for questioning.

    The man at the vanguard of these raids was a giant civilian ANBU wearing a dragon mask. Sakura recognized him from that running fight from when the council had sealed off the hospital. The dragon masked Ryu-san was the type of field commander who liked to lead his men from the heart of battle. He was very skilled at taijutsu. His colossal form striding into the fray, smashing aside hastily erected barriers and kicking down doors, pummeling all who opposed him into submission with a few mighty blows, had struck fear through all those who resisted the council’s will.

    Except for Lee… Of course, he couldn’t wait for the opportunity to test his taijutsu skills against this monstrous man.

    The overwhelming show of force was enough to bring a sizable chunk of Konoha under the Shimura clan’s control. But there were some areas, sometimes backed by a specific clan, sometimes not, who fought back.

    The few newspapers still printing in Konoha (under the Council’s control of course) plastered their front pages with pictures of the aftermath of these fights, printing in blazing huge headlines how the leaders of these ‘rebellious elements’ were the puppets of shadowy, unnamed foreign powers determined to undermine Konoha from within. The papers warned those living in those areas that unless they submitted to the rightful rule of law, they would be crushed ‘as traitors to the rightful government of Konoha, with no mercy and no quarter.’

    Many of those ‘rebellious elements’ hadn’t been defeated, and as time passed, dissension against the council and the heavy-handed tactics the Shimura clan was using had only caused rebellious sentiment to grow and spread.

    Sakura and company had been taking full advantage of that sentiment and had been helping it spread where they could. Aside from the Inuzuka clan, and the larger clan holdings which were maintaining some semblance of sovereignty, there were now four solid islands in the Hidden Leaf proper village where the Council’s advances had been pushed back. The largest of them centered on the Sarutobi neighborhood. The Sarutobi clan, banding together with a diverse group of various shinobi neighbors, had managed to thwart all advances of the Shimura clan and Root ANBU ‘patrols’, and had even succeeded in ‘capturing’ a few streets out from the council’s control.

    The next largest was a burgh containing shinobi of minor clans and some of mixed clan parentage. While the shinobi and kunoichi in those areas may have come from unions that hadn’t... well... met with overwhelming approval by their respective Clan Heads, that didn’t make them any less skilled. This area was mostly able to hold their own against any incursions.

    The remaining two areas were much smaller and constantly under pressure from Root probing assaults and looters. They were populated by a few clanless shinobi and a lot of civilians. Sakura had spent a significant amount of time trying to convince Tsume Inuzuka that it was in her clan’s best interest to prop up these smaller areas... the more areas in Konoha that successfully resisted the Shimura clan, the more would see their success and be more likely to join them… and the more areas that showed dissent, the harder it would be for the Council to focus its military might on one target. There had been a large push by the council a week ago to take these areas. The added shinobi forces had been the only reason these neighborhoods were still outside their control.

    Unfortunately, spreading their limited numbers of fighters around like that turned out to have its disadvantages as well.

    When the Shimura forces initially barricaded the Akimichi clan holdings… Sakura, Tenten, Neji, Tsume, Jiro… Everyone assumed they were just trying to get the Akimichi to surrender. None her friends and allies made the connection right away that, with all the attacks occurring in the Land of Fire’s surrounding farmlands, by keeping the Akimichi’s gates closed, the council and their lackeys now had the ability to starve out the rest of Konoha.

    With the added burden of the refugees, it didn’t take long for food to run low in the Inuzuka compound. Heck, it didn’t take very long for food to run low in the whole village. The Akimichi were the major food distributors and producers of Konoha.

    They were cut off from the largest granary storehouses... the fruit and vegetable distribution center for all the major markets, two out of Konoha’s three meat warehouses, and the only dairy in a hundred kilometers.

    And it quickly became clear, that by spreading themselves so thin, defending these other islands in Konoha, running patrols to keep streets safe, Sakura and company were unable to mount an effective assault that had much of a chance of breaking the siege.

    The situation wasn’t critical yet, nobody was actually starving, but people were starting to go hungry. In the Inuzuka holdings, the meal sizes had gotten noticeably smaller. Tsume was starting to complain and make pointed comments about how if her clan wasn’t busy playing at being guard dogs for a bunch of whiners who didn’t have the guts to protect what’s theirs, they’d easily have had enough shinobi to break the blockade… of course that would come at the loss of protection for the less stable regions of Konoha... Sakura and Tenten had so far managed to talk her out of it, but the Inuzuka clan head’s patience was wearing thin.

    There just weren’t enough shinobi to go around. Kakashi-sensei, Maito Guy, Genma Shiranui... many of the active jonin whose loyalties would have supported Tsunade, had been conscripted by the Daimyo into defending the Land of Fire against the invading dragons.

    Sakura was doing everything she could to try and find more shinobi to be on her side. She had gone begging to every other hold out against the council’s rule and tried to mold them into some kind of organized opposition. She had met with Jiro Inuzuka several times, asking for him to intercede on her behalf, tell the Daimyo that the older jonin were needed here, or better yet spare a few ANBU… anything other than leaving the Shimura clan in their position of superior strength, slowly tightening their hold on Konoha.

    No matter how much she ranted and raved at the Commander of the ANBU, his answer was always the same, “I can’t afford to be seen playing sides. I have to be a good little boy and follow all the commands the Daimyo gives me. I have enough problems right now trying to keep that Uchiha in my cells and out of the hands of the Council… What do you think their reaction would be if I suddenly started disobeying direct orders from the Daimyo himself and started supplying shinobi to help you out with your objectives?”

    “Oh? Like they don’t already suspect that the commander of the ANBU is helping out his own clan?” Sakura had asked sarcastically .

    “Don’t be stupid, of course they do.” Jiro had said with a shrug, completely ignoring her sarcasm. “They can suspect all they want… but they won’t be able to make a move against me unless they have an overwhelming amount of concrete evidence… Open your eyes girl, the only reason things have calmed down right now is because everyone is trying to figure out where they stand before they make another move.” He gave Sakura a sour smile. “We’ve got quite a bit of good fortune in that the Daimyo and the Shimura clan have had a poor history ever since that time Danzo tried to force his way into being the Sixth Hokage. As far as the Daimyo is concerned, I’m the best person in the Leaf who he can trust to honestly deal with these attacks. If the Council makes me suddenly disappear, His lordship will start to ask very pointed questions… They aren’t powerful enough to risk offending the Daimyo… yet.” He leaned forward. “I’m doing what I can for you girl… I’m moving heaven and earth to keep a Tsunade shaped hole for you to fill… as long as the Daimyo is satisfied that I’m doing all that I can to stop these dragon attacks, he won’t press the issue that we need a new Hokage… and to do that, I need shinobi… experienced shinobi.”

    “So why aren’t you grabbing and sending out the Council's’ shinobi? They still have plenty of civilian ANBU!”

    Jiro gave her a small chuckle and a quick thin lipped smile. “The Chairman of the council of elders is flooding the capital with paper, endlessly petitioning the Daimyo saying that they need to hold their reasonably sized force of civilian ANBU in reserve, to keep down the civil unrest no doubt caused by the Hokage. They are constantly bombarding the Lord of the Land of Fire with some far fetched stories about a certain mutinous kunoichi and her band of thuggish supporters… They way Eiji Shimura talks about the situation, you’d think you were starting a new cult of Jashin right here in Konoha.”

    Jiro chuckled to himself for a moment before fixing her with a stare. “Don’t you worry though. The Daimyo has his own set of eyes and ears here in our fair village. As long as you can keep your little opposition movement here on the quiet side, it looks like Eiji is just jockeying about for more power… they expect that sort of game in the capital, but if things start getting too violent, and the Daimyo catches wind of it…”

    “I’m doing everything that I can to keep the opposition non violent!” snapped Sakura. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re kind of being attacked both politically and militarily! People are starting to get frustrated with the situation. Not only do they have to worry about the raids on the Inuzuka territories that are being carried out by suspiciously well armed and well trained ‘looters’, and ‘ruffians’ but they are having their livelihoods being destroyed by their fellow citizens!” Sakura gave an exasperated snort and flopped down in a chair. “Do you want someone’s storefront? Their land? Want to diminish their clan’s status? Just accuse them of being a traitor, and the council will come down on them like a ton of  bricks… Who knows... I’ve heard that if you suck up to Eiji Shimura enough, he may even ‘reward’ you with the seized goods or property! How am I supposed to stop something like that if I can’t fight back!?!”

    The ANBU commander just watched her calmly over folded hand while she ranted. “Finished with your little tantrum?” he asked when she was done. “Good. Things are bad, I’ll agree with you there, but I didn’t suggest you take up this role because I wanted to watch you make matters worse. Tsunade always told me what a smart girl you were… I’m sure you’ll figure out some way around it.”

    But however bad it was inside the Leaf Village, it was worse out in the rest of the Land of Fire. She heard the stories from the steady stream of people coming in to the Inuzuka lands looking for food and for shelter… They told stories of whole towns and villages emptied, but even worse was the destruction of the farms. Hunger was starting to run rampant throughout the Land of Fire and refugees were starting to flood the larger cities, the ones being protected by soldiers and shinobi.

    To sum it up bluntly, in the past few weeks things had gotten very complicated… Complicated and busy.

    Weeks ago, back when she first assumed the leadership role of the opposition, and taking care of the refugees, she was expecting most of her duties to consist of either being a medical nin, or doing minor administrative work. She was hoping that people would be organized enough to take control of their own problems and deal with their own issues.

    Boy, was she wrong.

    Sakura’s typical day started (assuming the previous day technically finished before she went to bed that is) with a quick tour of the medical tent. There was a constant stream of people making their way into the Inuzuka lands, be they Konoha citizens seeking safety, allied shinobi wounded in minor clashes with the council, or refugees from the Land of Fire begging for asylum, food and shelter. Talking to, and then treating the wounded often gave her a good idea of the difficulties she would be facing that day.

    If she was lucky, she got a quick meal before she went off to interview the newcomers. She always made sure to have an Inuzuka hound with her when she conducted these meetings… The dogs had managed to sniff out three Root infiltrators so far. It took some convincing on her part for Tsume to let them go, but she did… only after stripping them of all their equipment and belongings… and clothing… and letting the dogs chase them around and around for the better part of three hours or so… but everyone else was let in, once they agreed to follow the rules.

    The morning to mid-afternoon was a chaotic whirlwind series of meetings with various other opposition leaders in Konoha. Neji, Lee, and Tenten would escort her back and forth, all around Konoha as she tried to coordinate movements of shinobi, shipments of badly needed supplies, and in general trying to keep things as calm and as orderly as she possibly could.

    And then there was the night time. Sakura had no guaranteed rest then. After the sun went down, she would take one more round through the medical tent, before heading back to the small guest cabin she shared with her parents. After a quick supper, during which she would do her best to either deflect or ignore her mother’s commentary, she would head up to her room and pour over that slowly growing stack of books that she was ‘borrowing’ from Tsunade’s private library.

    She was very proud of that pile. It was one of the few concessions she had managed to wring out of the ANBU commander. Every few days she’d have a visit from Tsume who would wordlessly hand her another random assortment of scrolls and books. Some she remembered, some weren’t that useful right now, many helped her to learn more about sealing jutsu and its many applications… She hadn’t yet found the one she was looking for… the one that would give her some clue as to where to find ‘the Mouse’.

    Whatever else she was doing, at any moment of day or night, she would have to deal with the various crises that popped up: summons from Jiro Inuzuka, messages from Shino regarding the hunt for Tsunade, arguing with the Sarutobi clan, negotiating with other smaller, non aligned clans, trying to nudge them slightly closer to her point of view… the point of view that they needed to hold out against the advances of the council, and however they chose to resist, it had to remain ‘peaceful’.

    It was a lot harder than she thought it would be… there was a lot of resentment… there were a lot of people who starting to feel the same way Tenten did. Sakura found herself making promises she knew she didn’t have a chance of keeping, just in the hopes of keeping the village from exploding… These days the two biggest promises she was making were 1) Tsunade would return, and 2) She would bring them food.

    As the weeks went on, more and more people were caring less about Tsunade and getting more concerned about the food.

    If she was lucky enough, on an average day, before the sun was setting, she would return to the Inuzuka compound and still have time to help out with setting up the new refugee camps... she’d already had to dig four new latrines, and tomorrow she had plans for starting a fifth.

    Sakura didn’t mind the digging that much. In fact, as a medical-nin, she felt much much more comfortable doing some ‘messy job’ that a typical shinobi would shy away from, than she did leading people into battle. She was used to collapsing at the end of the day, covered in blood and filth, but knowing that she had done her best to make the world a slightly better place.

    She much preferred digging latrines than attending all those meetings, dealing with all those logistics, having to listen to Leaf citizens from all walks of life who somehow expected her to be able to take care of everything… Citizens who, if they felt she wasn’t meeting their needs fast enough, had no shame in saying: ‘Well, I guess we’ll just have to see if the Council will give us the attention we deserve...’

    Digging was easy. Use the shovel, move some dirt around, and presto! The job was successfully done! Leading her friends into a fight where they could get hurt, or worse… that was just something she was not that comfortable doing.

    But… if she had to…

    Sakura sighed… That fight in the ANBU Interrogation and Holding center still haunted her… Every life she had ever taken did… it just seemed so… wrong… wrong to everything she was, everything she had trained for.

    It was you or them, Inner Sakura darkly whispered inside her head. Do you think those Root ANBU would be moping about, feeling guilty if they managed to kill you? Do you think that Tamago guy would be giving you a second thought? You took down five ANBU! That just shows how powerful you’ve gotten…

    With ghostly fingers, her inner voice turned her head, directing her gaze to Neji and Lee... over Konohamaru’s team… Tenten has a point you know… If you were to give up on this silly notion of non violence, you would have more than enough strength to fix Konoha... all by yourself…


    *******


    Sakura shuddered as a chill went through her. “It’s just the rain,” she lied to herself. She turned away from that inner dialogue and back to the issues at hand. There were bigger questions involved here... questions that went far beyond those of the strategy for this one particular battle. There was far more at stake here than just her little group of friends, the Inuzuka clan, and a bunch of homeless, hungry civilians. As her influence had spread throughout Konoha, things had gotten political, and that had added an extra dimension to every choice she made. If they withdrew now from the Akimichi compound, how would their allies view it... As a strategic move or as cowardice? If they fought and lost, would people still view them as plucky upstarts, or would their hard-won allied clans flock back to the council? What would happen if they fought and won, but at a heavy cost of casualties? Would the hungry people be grateful, or would scenes of parents missing sons and daughters, and children mourning parents turn public opinion turn against them? Would they lose the appearance of being a small local problem and start to look like a political threat to the Daimyo?

    Sakura started listening to the various conversations around her again. “... not enough to matter,” Tenten was saying quietly to Kijo. “In order to get close to matching this bunch, we’d have to call up practically every shinobi in the Inuzuka holdfast... We know the council has more men than us… Hell, for all we know they’re planning to stage a counterstrike against the Inuzuka clan holding while we’re attacking here!”

    “What if we got the Akimichi to coordinate with us as well?” Sakura asked Tenten, gesturing towards the surrounded compound. “Ask them to make a sortie and run some interference on them from behind? Do you think that would make enough of a difference so we could get in, fill up a cart or two, and get out safely?”

    Tenten turned and looked questioningly at Neji. The Hyuga nodded and once again activated his byakugan. “There appear to be about seventy, give or take,” he said quietly. “Excluding the children and those who are very old or injured, I would say they have forty or so that are either active shinobi, or close enough to being active shinobi that we could count on them in a fight.”

    Tenten turned back to Sakura. “Look, I’m not saying that if we could get forty Akimichi on our side, it wouldn’t improve the odds some… The problem is, these council guys were already expecting to duke it out with a bunch of giants. If a gang of the Akimichi come charging out the gates as soon as the fight starts, it might not freak them out as much as we hope it will… I’ll bet the Root guys will still fight us.” Tenten shrugged. “And there’s too high a chance that if we fight… we lose… Plus, on top of that there’s the problem of getting a message into the Akimichi compound to let them know we’re out here and we need them to fight.”

    Sakura thought of Sai, waiting back in the clearing, he insisted on accompanying her on this mission, begging for some way to prove his loyalty to her once again. Most of her friends thought she was being foolish, bringing him along like this, but she had to test him somehow. Maybe it would be worth it to lengthen his leash a little bit more, let him air out his ninjutsu so to speak? “I think I know how we can get a message to the Akimichi, we could use Sai’s messaging jutsu…” she started.

    “Great! Let’s put our trust in the guy who already betrayed you once because he was working for the enemy… nothing risky there,” interrupted Tenten gesturing to the rainy heavens, “but sending a message still won’t solve the bigger issue of how we’re going to get in there, force them away from one of the gates and keep them off of our backs long enough that we can get away with enough food! We’re only going to get one shot at this! A few measly packs full aren’t going to be worth it it, we need carts full of supplies! We just won’t have enough shinobi available to pull the damn things and keep the council’s allies off of whoever is doing the pulling!”

    “What if we asked for a few volunteers?” Sakura asked. “Get the fastest and strongest of us to…”

    “I will gladly perform this task for you Sakura-sama! Leave it to the magnificent green beast of Konoha!” Lee said proudly. “I shall pull those carts faster than the fastest racehorse! I shall run like the wind! I am stronger than the strongest ox! My mighty thighs shall… Ouch!” he yelped as Tenten cuffed him across the back of the head.

    “Shut up about your mighty thighs! And keep it down! We’re in enemy territory! You’re being too loud again!” she hissed, giving Sakura a baleful glance.

    “What about dogs?” piped Kijo again. “Could we substitute manpower with dogs?”

    “Dogs?” said Tenten. “Don’t get me wrong, Nin-ken are great and all in certain situations, like scouting and in small unit hit and run tactics, but we’re talking about a full on assault! The Inuzuka clan just doesn’t have enough trained Hounds to make a difference in combat against this many men.”

    “Trained hounds, no,” said Kijo. “But for every hound that passes Nin-ken training, there’s at least ten that wash out… You’ve seen them running around the compound. Why don’t we use them?”

    Tenten gave her a look. “Um, because by definition, they are untrained? Who is going to give them commands? What’s going to prevent them from sniffing trees or whatever?”

    Kijo rolled her eyes. “Don’t you get it? Just because they aren’t used to being under fire doesn't mean they’re useless! There are a couple of Inuzuka who can get them to do what they ask… My Aunt Kira for example, she has this jutsu where…”

    “Kira Inuzuka?” said Tenten slowly, “Older kunoichi, eye patch, works in the mess hall?”

    Kijo nodded eagerly “You’ve met her?”

    Tenten tried to keep her face professional but couldn’t keep the distasteful frown from crossing her lips. “Yeah, I have... ‘met’... her,” she said coldly.  

    Sakura winced internally. She heard about their encounter from Lee. Tenten and the older Inuzuka woman’s first meeting had gotten off on completely the wrong foot when Kira had offhandedly made a rather suggestive remark to Neji. This was followed by a lewd observation, two off color jokes, and a dirty limerick. When Neji quite firmly told her that he wasn’t interested in her advances, Kira proceeded to teasingly hound him, asking why not?

    Neji broke after an hour. “Because, I have a Girlfriend!” he had exploded, indicating Tenten, much to the bun haired kunoichi’s blushing chagrin. Despite the fact the secret was already more or less out, Tenten and Neji were still trying to keep their relationship quiet.

    Kira had left Neji alone after that… She was too busy pestering Tenten for all the intimate details of their relationship.

    Tenten’s words practically had ice on them. “If that’s who you’re going to tout as our salvation then we just might as well...”

    “No no no, sempai!” insisted Kijo. “Aunt Kira is just… she just has this... thing about Hyugas… she’s always trying to take them down a notch.”

    Tenten’s mouth twisted into a scowl. “Take them down a notch? That’s not taking them down a notch! That was flat out insulting! If she wants to take them down a notch she should…”

    The Inuzuka girl turned to Sakura, “Sakura-sama? Will you tell Tenten-sempai that she needs to assess the tactical value of my Aunt’s jutsu… please? It will be able to help, and I’m sure she won’t make any rude remarks! Well, at least not more than one or two...”

    Sakura was also getting tired with how everyone was starting to attach the highest honorific to her name. She was having enough problems with hero worship from some of the younger shinobi already. Case in point: Kijo, a recently qualified veterinarian had insisted that she leave her medical post to accompany them in this venture. “Look… Kijo… Tenten and I planned out this little mission… I’m not sure if we should...”

    “I wouldn’t be insisting so much if I didn’t think it would help Sakura-sama!” Kijo pleaded. “Trust me! You haven’t seen the way Aunt Kira has with those dogs! They may be wild, but they’ll listen to her! It could be just the edge that we need!”

    Sakura sighed and shot a sidelong glance at Tenten. “We do need the supplies. We could use any reinforcements we can get Tenten, even rude ones.”

    Tenten rolled her eyes. “Fine… I’ll talk to her,” she said very reluctantly. “But at the first stupid comment she makes, I’m walking away.”

    Grinning, Kijo grabbed her arm and started to pull Tenten back towards where the rest of the shinobi were waiting. “You made the right choice here Sempai,” she said to Tenten. “Trust me, Kira may take some time to get used to at first… but once you get used to her jokes, she’s really fun! There was this one time, she and Jiraiya the Sanin got into a dirty limerick contest, and she…”

    As they started to wander away, Sakura leaned towards Neji and Lee. “Since when did Kijo start calling Tenten ‘sempai?” she asked out of the corner of her mouth.

    Neji shrugged distractedly, once again surveying the siege line with his byakugan. “Tenten’s taken to mentoring some of the younger kunoichi in her free time… it kind of caught on.”

    Lee sighed deeply and clasped his hands theatrically to his chest. “Isn’t it wonderful Sakura-san? Tenten is passing along the hot blooded passion of Gai-sensei’s power of youth to a younger generation!” He beamed at the shadows of Tenten and Kijo flitting through the woods. “Someday, when I finally retire from this shinobi life, I vow I will do the same! I will return to my dojo to teach full time, doing my part to better the youth of tomorrow.” He clenched his fist, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I will make sure Gai-sensei’s proud way of the ninja will be forever…”

    Neji silenced him with an upraised hand. “Lee, that’s enough… Sakura, we have incoming.”

    She tensed and looked towards the Akimichi stronghold. “We’ve been spotted? Where? Are they headed this way?”

    Neji gently took her shoulder and pointed behind them. There was a wisp of dark cloud buzzing its way through the misting sky. “Shino checking in again,” the Hyuga said in a matter of fact voice. “Maybe this time he’ll have some good news to report.”

    “We can only hope,” Sakura grumbled under her breath. So far everything Shino had to tell them was less than optimal: The Land of Fire was in trouble, too many of those dragons were invading...Naruto couldn’t use his Nine Tails chakra mode to help them in the search, it attracted the beasts like moths to a flame… They couldn’t stay too long in one area, the dragons constantly seemed to be after Naruto… and always, there was no sign of the Hokage, no hint as to where she was being kept prisoner... or was ‘hiding in shame’ as the Konoha newspapers kept insisting.

    Shino’s message swarm swooped in and attached itself to the trunk of the pine tree, as out of the way of the rain as it could get. “Is there a message?” Sakura asked them. The beatles buzzed together in a soggy mass, sulking at having to fly out in this weather. “Well?” Sakura prompted again.

    Slowly they separated and formed legible if not slightly squiggly kanji characters. ‘Found promising lead. Should reach town of Hokorippoi Tani in a day or two. More then.’

    She heard Neji exhale beside her. “Still no sign?” he asked with a lilting tone of discouragement.

    Sakura couldn’t blame him. After this many weeks she was beginning to lose hope as well… not that she could show it, not with everybody watching. Borrowing a page from Tsunade, she gave him and all the other shinobi pretending not to be listening a self-assured smile. “Shino said they have a lead,” she forced herself to say confidently. “Team eight is one of the better tracking teams out there. I’m sure they're on the trail... this time.”

    Neji shrugged and just turned away. Sakura couldn’t blame him. There were far too many false leads, far too many strange coincidences and dead ends… almost as if someone was laying out a series of carefully designed security measures to prevent someone from finding Tsunade’s true location.

    It was annoying little coincidences like this that partly kept her hope up that the Hokage was still alive.

    The sound of hushed voices made everyone look up. Tenten was chatting excitedly with Kijo and the extremely erudite ‘Inuzuka’ formerly known as Sai. The bun haired kunoichi flopped down in the wet pine needles next to Neji and gave the group a huge grin. “Are you guys feeling lucky? Because I am! I am feeling so lucky that I think I should go out and buy lottery tickets… If anyone in Konoha was still holding a lottery that is.”

    “Okay,” said Sakura leaning forward. “Tell us why we’re lucky.”

    Tenten held up hand to ask her to wait and instead turned to Neji. “Correct me if I’m wrong Mister Hyuga,” she purred at him, “but there are no members of your clan currently enrolled in the Root ANBU… correct?”

    Neji lifted an eyebrow, a little confused at the question. “No. As far as I know there are no Hyuga in any ANBU, official or otherwise. With the establishment of the early warning corps, many Hyuga shinobi found a more satisfying way to serve the village… one that would let them maintain their clan ties… Why?”

    Tenten turned back to Sakura. “The Inuzuka are with us, and the Aburame, while technically neutral, are willing to support us in anything that doesn’t involve fighting, right?”

    “Right,” agreed Sakura, “but I don’t see…”

    “Tunnels, Sakura-sama!” squeaked Kijo.

    Tenten nodded, still grinning. “Going underground is the answer. It solves every issue we have!” She held up her fingers and began counting them off. “One, we won’t have to fight our way in or out. Two, we don’t have to worry about taking enough food out all at once or using carts, we can set up a constant flow of supplies. Three, we’ll have a ton of dogs at our disposal to help us dig…”

    “So, we can use the dogs?” Sakura asked.

    Tenten winked and held up another finger. “Four, It will be a lot easier to get a bunch of the untrained hounds to dig than it will be to fight in an organized fashion…” She clenched her fingers into a fist. “This could work! I mean, we’ll still have to be careful that we don’t alert anyone in the Root camp… but this actually has a decent chance of succeeding!”

    Lee applauded. “Excellent Tenten-san! Gai-sensei will be so proud when he returns from his mission defending Konoha from those dastardly dragon invaders!”

    Tenten rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t all me, Kijo was the one who insisted I consider the dogs.” The young chunin blushed.

    Sai raised a hand. “It was my mentioning of the Root transport system that criss crosses underneath Konoha that gave Tenten-san the idea of tunnels,” he added somewhat timidly.

    There was a pause as the rest of her friends all turned to Sakura to see what her reaction was going to be. “Thank you Sai,” she said giving him a quick smile and a nod. “Your input is exactly what we needed… but right now we’re also going to need your help. As soon as the rain stops, do you think you could get a message inside the Akimichi compound? We’re going to want to coordinate this tunnel thing with them… and since it doesn’t look like we’re going to be in a rush, begging for supplies, we should probably ask them if there is anything they’d be be willing to trade in exchange for feeding the village.”

    There was a cough from Neji. “I happen to know that the Hiashi-sama would be… grateful for any additional food security that could be supplied to Konoha in the current situation.” He glanced around at the circle and stopped with his gaze on Sakura. “If you would permit me to inform him of this development, I am certain he would be willing to financially assist us with any demands the Akimichi might request.”

    “That is incredibly kind-hearted of him!” stated Lee, with a thumbs up. “Your Uncle is a generous soul!”

    “If he’s being generous, it’s definitely only because he sees some advantage in it,” Tenten muttered under her breath. Neji stiffened at her biting remark.

    “If Hiashi-sama wants to help out, that would be wonderful. Tell him… the same thing goes for any other clans that might be interested,” Sakura stated loudly, shooting a significant glance at Konohamaru. She wanted to head off any accusations among her fair weather allies that she was playing favorites. “Kijo, how long would it take for us to get this tunnel started?”

    The Inuzuka chunin grinned. “We can start as soon as I get back to where the rest of the main group is.”

    Sakura nodded once. “Great.” She spent the next hour giving orders, who was going to stay here and work on the tunnel, who was going to keep watch, who was going to share this piece of news with the other clans, who was going to accompany her back to the Inuzuka clan holding… She left Tenten to supervise the tunnel, and had Lee and Neji come with her back to the makeshift medical area in the refugee camp. It was getting past time for her rounds.

    Lee chatted away as they ran, doing his usual banter. She watched Neji the whole journey back. He didn’t quite seem his usual stone-faced self. Sakura wasn’t sure how to exactly describe it but he seemed… distracted. She jogged closer to him. “Hey Neji?” she asked quietly, “Since I am apparently going to have to negotiate with Hiashi-sama sooner or later about this food thing… is there anything going on I should know about? Was Tenten’s comment accurate?”

    Neji was silent for a moment, then he shrugged. “More or less. A good number of Hyuga who would normally be staying in their countryside villas have come to stay in the clan compound as of late… It would reflect poorly upon Hiashi-sama if his household were not up to par with expectations. Some added supplies would not be amiss.” He coughed into his hand. “The Head of the Hyuga clan can hardly appear to be neglecting the proper forms of hospitality to his fellow Head family members. He would lose face and respect. ”

    Sakura nodded. That made sense, but Tenten’s animosity to the head of the Hyuga clan did not. She decided to pry a bit further. “Has Tenten ever met Hiashi-sama?”

    Neji looked away. “Once… but that was a long time ago.”

    “But not recently?”

    There was just the tiniest involuntary hunch to Neji’s shoulders. “Hiashi-sama has been... very busy.” He swallowed. “Much too busy to meet with the clanless teammate of a branch family member.”


*******

Chapter Thirty Five, part two of the fan novel Konoha Children's Crusade

Naruto Characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto

Links:

© 2015 - 2024 cas42
Comments0
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In