| After the Tornado | [Sep. 7th, 2013|12:33 am] |
[Takes place Yondaime Year 5, April 23, four days after Take the Mask, One Minute More, and Take a Number]
Minato was late for the briefing that morning, though it wasn't strictly his fault. He shouldn't have let Sagara schedule it at 0730, but with a conference with the ambassador from Rain Country set for 0900 and a shinobi's funeral at 1400 there wasn't much room anywhere else in the day. Unfortunately, Naruto demanded breakfast precisely at 0700, and a small child's schedule was even less malleable than an ambassador's. Naruto threw louder tantrums, too, when his favorite over-sugared cereal ran out.
Saya-san, the housekeeper, was mortified. Minato was impatient. Naruto was inconsolable, until a turtle-masked ANBU slipped through the kitchen window and set a bulging cloth shopping bag on the table. "It's 0732, Hokage-sama," she murmured.
Minato bit his tongue on one of the words he was trying very hard not to use around Naruto. "Thank you," he said. "Give the receipt to Saya-san, please. Bottom on the chair, Naruto. Saya-san—"
"I'll get him ready, Hokage-sama," the housekeeper promised, wiping flustered hands on her apron. She was new, and still nervous; Naruto tended to terrorize her. She tried to coax the little devil off the table and back into his chair with murmured promises about preschool and wouldn't he have fun with his friends today, and if he just ate his breakfast like a good little boy—
"'m not a good little boy!" Naruto declared mutinously. "'m a ninja!" He launched himself off the table with a ferocious howl and a butter knife. Minato snatched him out of the air just short of Turtle, smacked him on the bottom, and stuck him in the chair.
"Next time you try that on the ANBU, you might get hurt," he said, leaning over his son. "They're not your playmates. They are very dangerous, and they are here to protect you, not to let you climb all over them. If you try to misbehave, they have standing orders to restrain you as they think best until I return. Do you understand, Naruto-chan?"
Naruto's bottom lip trembled. He sucked it in, and stared down at his toes.
Minato sighed. "Say thank you to Turtle-san for bringing your cereal."
Naruto wiggled his toes, and didn't speak. He had all of Kushina's stubbornness and all of her fire, and if this were any other morning Minato could steal at least a few more minutes to cuddle him out of the sulk, but Minato was late already and Turtle was waiting stiff and anxious by the door.
He rested a hand on the small golden head, and then stooped swiftly down and kissed his son. "I love you, Naruto," he said. "Be good and listen to Saya-san, and I'll be back for dinner." He sent Saya a quick glance of apology, ruffled Naruto's hair once more, and headed out the door.
Turtle vanished somewhere between the kitchen and the outer door, back to her silent patrol. Lynx was waiting in the hall outside the Hokage's apartments, with a folder under his arm and the Hokage's hat in his hand. Minato waved off the hat, as always; Lynx sighed, as always, and handed over the folder instead.
"The captains are waiting in the large briefing room," he said, unnecessarily. "Sagara-san, Oita-san, and Shibata-san are there as well. And—" He hesitated. "Shimura Danzou, Utatane Koharu, and Uchiha Fugaku have come as representatives of the Council."
Outside of Naruto's hearing Minato could swear, and did. "Didn't Sagara tell them this is an ANBU-only event?"
Lynx lifted a shoulder. "Danzou-san seemed disinclined to wait for the Council briefing."
Danzou was being an ass, as usual, Minato translated. Well, he could deal with the old hawk. Or—use him, perhaps. Why not?
The low murmur of voices in the large briefing room cut out instantly as Lynx opened the door, replaced by the scuff of cloth and armor against the wooden floor as more than two dozen ANBU captains, three division commanders, and three village Councilmembers sank to one knee in salute. Sagara was the first to rise, but Danzou and the Sandaime's old teammate Koharu, in the front row, weren't far behind. Minato nodded briefly to them as he took his place on the raised dais. "My thanks to the Council's representatives for attending," he said, before Danzou's opening mouth could shape the words he'd undoubtedly practiced. "You'll be doing me a great favor by briefing the full Council in my stead. I trust I can rely on you to take accurate notes, Danzou-san, and supply them to Koharu-san when she addresses the Council?"
Danzou's mouth thinned into an annoyed slit. "Of course, Hokage-sama," he said.
Which took the week's most irritating task neatly off his schedule. Minato smiled sunnily and looked over their heads to his ANBU, who were settling down cross-legged to listen.
"First," he said, "my thanks to you, and the village's gratitude as well. Many of you have stood double and triple shifts with your teams this past week, guarding our village against a whispered threat. Some of you participated in the ANBU Trials and then went straight to the walls without pause for rest or food. You've taken on rookies, you've run missions, you've patrolled Konoha's forests and Fire Country's borders, and thanks to you Konoha's walls are secure and our citizens at peace."
Well, as much peace as they ever had in a shinobi village, but that went without saying.
"You all know that initial reports indicated the missing-nin Orochimaru might be behind the attack at the ANBU Trials," he continued. " We have been unable to substantiate those reports. The rogue Akiyama Jiro left no evidence behind of any connection. He did run three solo missions in the two months preceding the Trials, to northern Wind Country, Fukuoka in Tea Country, and the border of Grass, but we have no reports that he met with anyone suspect during his time out of the village. Intel will, of course, be conducting further investigation." He shared a brief nod with Oita Gennosuke.
"Our patrols—many of which were your patrols—have uncovered no unusual activity near Konoha. We still don't have reliable reports of Orochimaru's whereabouts, but that's not unusual, either." Jiraiya's only message—delivered in the middle of the night by an extremely cranky toad—was that he had a tip that the snake bastard had been sighted in Wave Country last month, and that he was following up.
For an accomplished novelist, Jiraiya's communiques from the field left much to be desired.
A squirrel-masked captain raised two fingers near his shoulder. Minato nodded.
"How far has word leaked of the...complications, at the Trials?" Squirrel asked. "If word has leaked."
"Who have you told?" Minato inquired.
A few of the ANBU chuckled. The Councilmembers frowned. Minato said, "We can't hide the fact of our heightened alert over the past week, and I have no intention of doing so. I have a meeting with the ambassador from Ame this morning, in fact, during which I plan to tell him that an attempt to disrupt a village training exercise was met with swift and brutal retaliation. Orochimaru's suspected involvement has not spread beyond ANBU and it will not spread beyond the village Council." He stared flatly down at the Councilmembers. "I trust I can rely on you for that."
The Uchiha's eyes dropped, then rose again. Koharu frowned deeper, but Danzou met his gaze without a flicker of heavy eyelids. "You can, Hokage-sama."
Danzou had been another candidate for the position of Fourth Hokage, five years ago—and for Third Hokage, years before Minato was born. He was an argumentative ass on the Council and, Minato had heard, a disturbing and disturbed man in his private life, but he was loyal to Konoha, if not to its current Hokage. He wouldn't spread sensitive information—and he wouldn't let anyone else do so, either. Satisfied, Minato looked back to the ANBU.
"As matters now stand, we have no proof of Orochimaru's involvement, no sign of his whereabouts, and no indication of further attacks. I am therefore scaling down the threat level from S to A as of this morning. We will maintain two extra ANBU teams on the wall and one on patrol for the rest of the week. If all remains quiet, as I expect it will, the threat level will scale down at the end of the week to the normal B and we will resume business as usual. Including all those missions that have been piling up awaiting your availability. So get your rookies whipped into shape, captains, and work out any kinks in your team structure now. Any questions?"
"Can we use actual whips?"
Sagara turned sharply to stare back into the ranks of captains, trying to identify the one who'd spoken. Minato said blandly, "I don't interfere with captains' training methods, Rabbit."
Sagara, who would and did, settled slowly back, with the promise of vengeance in the stark line of her shoulders. Minato bit down a grin. "If that's all, captains, you are dismissed. Councilmembers, you may direct any questions to Director Oita. Good day, and good luck."
He headed for the door with Lynx a silent shadow at his heels. It was twenty minutes to nine, and if he was quick, he'd get to see Naruto again before preschool and the ambassador from Rain intervened. |
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