Chapter 75: Shinobi Council! Part-1
{Shinobi Council, Konohagakure, Land of Fire}
{1:12 PM, 1st July 78 Yrs}
Kakashi arrived at the council room in the Hokage tower, while normally this room is used for holding meetings and other political debates but right now it was under the command of Shikaku who was coordinating the war efforts. Kakashi looked around the room there were a lot of ANBUs waiting for instructions as Konoha started driving out the invaders, Kakashi knew Shikaku was busy but this was something that couldn't be ignored.
"Shikaku-san," Kakashi greeted, he noticed that a lot of people scanned Naruto standing behind him in relief.
"You found him good I was about to organize a search party after the cleanup," Shikaku responded before he focused back on going through the reports.
At the same time, Danzo walked up from his corner and asked, "What about the Ichibi Jinchuriki, is he secured?"
"No I have no idea where Gaara is and I didn't technically find Naruto, the guy who kidnapped them came back and dropped Naruto on top of the Hokage Mountain." Kakashi had no idea what Danzo's angle was, he probably wanted the Ichibi for himself.
"Did you detain him, did he match any descriptions from the Bingo book?" Danzo asked, he looked absolutely calm on the surface but Kakashi sensed something off about him.
"He knows the Hiraishin..." Kakashi spoke.
The noise in the room stopped for a brief moment, everyone paused and stared at Kakashi like he had just proclaimed that he was gay.
...
The silence stretched for a long time before Shikaku turned to an ANBU next to him and ordered, "Get me Inoichi tell him to let Chouza handle the cleanup he needs to get here as soon as possible."
Everyone started moving slowly and this time it was the two elders that came up and asked, "Was it really the Hiraishin are you sure?"
"Yeah," Kakashi unsealed a tree bark that he ripped from a tree near the Hokage mountain, although the seal was barely visible it was still like a glowing sign to his Sharingan.
Danzo leaned forward to look at the seal he tried to decompress the seal but it didn't work the seal didn't budge. He furrowed his eyes and then looked towards the Kyuubi container, "So he took you somewhere else but where?"
Naruto didn't like the looks he was getting from everyone so he shouted to calm down his nerves as soon as he was addressed, "Somewhere in the Land of Hot Springs."
Shikaku paused for a brief moment, his mind went through several scenarios before he spoke to another ANBU, "Tell the Sealing department to be ready, Kakashi I need you to find Jiraya-sama he should be around-"
"No need I'm here," Jiraya materialized from behind the door that Kakashi just came through, he looked like moving water before he released whatever jutsu he was using and for the first time everyone noticed the presence of a Kage-grade shinobi that was lurking nearby.
"Jiraya-sama, please be prepared to seal the Ichibi just in case," Shikaku spoke, he had stopped focusing on the war efforts now since Suna and Oto shinobi were just running away anyway Konoha can give a little leeway into not chasing after them. Especially now that there was an unknown shinobi capable of using the Hiraishin running around the elemental nations.
"Is the seal active Kakashi, can the Sharingan help in finding these seals," Shikaku asked.
"Yes it is easy to spot them with a dojutsu, though it would not be easy to destroy the seal, it took me quite some effort to remove a seal that he used to escape," Kakashi answered.
Shikaku nodded and continued ordering, "Go and bring Hiashi in here..."
Shikaku finished giving orders and the room finally moved, while the elders, Danzo and even Jiraya were higher ranked than Shikaku. In times of emergencies like invasion or war, the commander was the most important person.
"Pervy sage," Naruto greeted Jiraya who smiled in relief at the blond-haired brat. The peaceful atmosphere lasted for a moment until Inoichi walked into the room, he was a bit puzzled at the sudden summon so he headed straight to Shikaku to inquire about what happened.
"Good you're here," Shikaku turned to Inoichi and spoke, "Can you gather your elders and get the Mind Reading Amplification Machine ready?"
Inoichi nodded with a puzzled look but Shikaku ignored it and turned to Jiraya-sama, the unasked question was clear on his face and Jiraya nodded.
"Let's go Naruto there is something we need to do." Jiraya took Naruto with him and Inoichi followed the two of them after receiving a nod from Shikaku.
"Kakashi, get Guy and be ready to support Gaara just in case," Shikaku spoke and Kakashi vanished in a shunshin.
...
"What a drag..." Shikaku commented for maybe a hundredth time today as he thought about whatever repercussions today's events might bring to the shinobi world. Just Gaara being missing would strain the relationship between Suna and Konoha enough that a full-scale war could break out any second.
"Do you really think he would unseal the Ichibi in the middle of Konoha," Koharu asked she was still reeling from the whole ordeal of today. Just half an hour ago they retrieved Hiruzen's body, and now another unknown threat was rising who had a very important shoji piece that could result in more damage to Konoha's military.
"It has happened once," Shikaku replied, he was feeling a little restless and helpless he had almost no information to predict his opponent's strategies that's why the first thing he thought about was to use the Mind Reading Amplification Machine to allow Inoichi to take a look into Naruto's memories and give him more information to work with.
'How the hell did someone outside Konoha manage to get their hands on the Shiki Formulae for the Hiraishin anyway, isn't it supposed to be tightly locked under security? I remember Yoshino gushing about the complexity of the seal itself so it is unlikely that someone managed to reverse engineer it through one of the Fourth's kunai...'
Shikaku's thoughts kept bouncing between various scenarios but there was nothing he could do right now but wait...
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