The Hokage sat in front of his crystal ball watching mournfully as the masked stranger from Amegakure led Hatake Kakashi's Genin team to a local boarding house that was known to put up foreign shinobi during the Chunin Exams. Danzo, who was usually the sort to join in with Koharu and Homura when they demanded that he ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING, stood strangely silent. His lone eye was flicking over the scene, drinking in every detail. Jiraiya, who stood on the Hokage's right, watched as well until a familiar looking crow flew into the window and spat up a small scroll.
Jiraiya popped open the scroll and winced.
"What is it?" Sarutobi Hiruzen and his teammates/advisors asked in unison, proving they were a touch more similar than they usually let on.
"Got a really rare warning from a certain agent. Told us to back off because the one who snatched Minato's student's students is a top shelf, near-immortal, S-Class missing-nin who's fucking with us because he knows he can get away with it." Jiraiya replied. "Certainly responsible for at least one Kyuubi attack, reputedly responsible for the Vally of the End, and able to single-handedly destroy Konoha without the assistance of the Kyuubi if it should come down to it."
"Are you telling us that Uchiha Madara was the one who stole Sasuke and Naruto?" The Hokage asked incredulously.
"Either that, or a Uchiha who has done a very credible job of posing as him. Credible enough that people who've met this Madara are willing to believe it's him and are scared shitless of him." Jiraiya replied.
"That explains how Hatake's team was taken from him so easily." one of the Councilors who'd been blaming Kakashi for having lost his students up until then said. "Hatake Kakashi is a High A bordering on S-Class, but he isn't S-Class."
"Order everyone to avoid antagonizing that team and to keep their distance for now." the Sandaime replied. "The last thing we need is Uchiha Madara or someone who is just as good as deciding that Konoha needs a little redecorating with ninjutsu. That, and as long as he's amusing himself by pretending Naruto is his student, he isn't doing things like breaking open a certain seal and setting the Kyuubi loose on Konoha."
"You know that nobody is going to take those children's defections lightly. Especially not their former classmates who I may remind you are all participating in the Chunin Exams." Danzo replied.
"I know." the Sandaime sighed, knowing full well that children, like Team 7's former classmates who'd grown up with them for instance, had great difficulty divorcing their emotions from the situation. The were many fully trained adults who had the same difficulty as well.
"There's also the small matter of what we're going to do about those children should any of them actually manage to survive whatever game their kidnapper is playing." Homura added.
"I've taken some steps to protect their careers. Which is about all we can do at this point." the Hokage replied, knowing what his former teammate was getting at since he'd known him almost his entire 68 years and cutting him off at the pass before he started bringing up the specter of a supposedly disbanded project that went by the name of Root. "I have them listed down as being on a long-term infiltration mission. While there will be many who will suspect otherwise, nobody will be able to prove that those three weren't planted in Amegakure in order to get information on the notoriously reclusive village that no Konoha nin has been able to enter in over a decade."
"You are entirely too soft and trusting Hiruzen." Koharu said.
"I may be, but Hashirama also had a soft side, and it was his willingness to trust the Uchiha that led to the founding of Konoha in the first place." the Sandaime countered.
"And, we all know where that led." Danzo darkly reminded him.
"We're here!" Team 7's captor shouted cheerfully as he stopped in front of a boarding house that was run by a mean old lady who'd always looked at least twice as old as the village to Naruto's young eyes.
"We'll have to get ourselves situated quickly because Sasuke needs sleep." Team 7's captor said as he headed to the front door of a building Naruto had never set foot inside out of fear of its owner.
"So, we're back to that again." Sasuke grumbled. "Still pretending not to talk to me even though you just did five minutes ago, despite whatever promise you made to that bastard."
"Oh," "Tobi" said. "So, Sasuke would like to see Tobi break the rest of his promise to Itachi-kun, would he? Tobi wonders which of Sasuke's little school friends Sasuke would like to see die first when Tobi destroys this village."
Sasuke stiffened as he began to realize that whatever "Tobi" had promised Itachi, it was probably the only thing keeping him and everyone around him alive and unharmed. However bad Itachi was, however insane Itachi was, this "Tobi" character was far, far, worse.
"Sasuke's lying!" Naruto quickly yelled. "I never heard you say one word to Sasuke! You never broke your promise, so you don't need to...to..."
"Don't worry little Jinchuriki-kun. Tobi won't break your seal in the middle of Konoha. Tobi's a good boy and he always keeps his promises and Tobi absolutely loves his little student!" the man who called himself "Tobi" said cheerfully, yanking Naruto in for a hug that kept his arms pinned in a position that prevented Naruto from reaching into the kunai pouch that was strapped to the man's leg and grabbing a weapon from it.
Sasuke and Sakura didn't fail to notice how everyone on the street froze and rapidly paled or that there was absolute terror in the eyes of all, including those of a battle-scarred Jounin who had been about to walk into a local pharmacy which was located directly across from the boarding house.
"Welp, time to go inside so Sasuke can get his beauty sleep!" the man who called himself "Tobi" said, as if he hadn't noticed everyone's reactions to what he had said.
"Uh,...Um...Sir?" Sakura asked, finally finding her voice.
"Sakura-chan," Team 7's captor said, an edge of something undercutting the sweetness of his tone. "Tobi is certain that Tobi has asked you to call him sensei. Tobi is certain that he's asked you lots of times."
"S...Sensei, why are we staying at a boarding house and not an inn?" Sakura finally asked.
"Because Tobi is certain that Tobi and his lovely students will be staying in Konoha for a month." the man who called himself "Tobi" replied, an undercurrent of promise that horrible things would happen if the team didn't stay in Konoha for the month that he was anticipating lacing his tone.
None of "Tobi"'s "students" were looking forward to the prospect. On top of spending an entire month with "Tobi" thanks to the rules governing the Chunin Exams, there was the prospect of spending an entire month in their own village wearing the symbol of a foreign village and all that came with it. Even Sasuke, who normally didn't care about the people around him and what they thought of him wasn't looking forward to the prospect. Though his thoughts centered more on what his clan would've thought if they could see him now than how the villagers who had been entirely too cloying since he'd become an orphan would start treating him.
"Man, I can't believe you knocked him out." one of the members of the team that had been sent out to search for Team 7 alongside Hatake Kakashi said to the man who was carrying said Hatake who was completely unconscious at the moment.
"I can't believe that Kakashi got so far gone that I could knock him out." Tenzo replied primly.
"Considering what's waiting for him back in Konoha, he's definitely not going to be a happy camper when he wakes up." the first man replied, severely understating things.
"We can only hope that he'll save it for the man who took his students." Tenzo replied.
Umino Iruka couldn't believe what he was hearing. There was no way that Naruto could've defected. Not now, after Naruto had refused to defect after the one damning secret that had been hidden from him for his entire life had been revealed to him. Not now when Naruto was finally something approaching happy and actually had friends rather than people who would let him tag along with him during their own rulebreaking. Not now. Maybe in the past, but not now.
Deciding that he had to see for himself, Iruka went to the place that rumor, rumor that was being spread through the normally reliable shinobi rumor mill, stated that Naruto and his team were staying with their mysterious "sensei" whom the village shinobi had been discreetly ordered to keep well back from. Being a shinobi, and not, well, Naruto, Iruka calmly and quietly walked into the front door of Ogawa Katoki's boarding house and stated that he was visiting some of the residents rather than storming in and demanding answers. Naruto, Sakura, and a complete stranger dressed in black aside from an orange spiral mask with a single eyehole and a long green scarf who was somehow drinking tea through said sold looking mask were seated in the main dining area of the boarding house.
Both Naruto and Sakura were wearing Amegakure Hitai-ate rather than their Konoha ones. Neither child looked happy about the situation they were in. Deciding to test the reactions of his former students whom he'd known for years to see what it would tell him about the apparent defections of a pair of students he would've been willing to bet his life were completely loyal to Konoha only a week before, he steped more fully into the doorway of the dining area, allowing his former students to see him. Sakura, upon spotting him, looked like she wanted to curl up and die from the shame he was experiencing. There was an utterly bleak look in her eyes as she faced someone who was more than a passing acquaintence for what looked like the first time since she'd gotten back to Konoha only a couple hours before. Naruto however, Naruto looked hopeful as he held up the Konoha handsign for kidnapped, proving for the first time that he knew more than just the rude ones. It was almost as if Naruto had expected him to rescue him despite the fact that he hadn't been able to save the boy from danger since that cock up that had served as Naruto's graduation.
Whether or not he'd been pretending not to notice him, Naruto and Sakura's captor whirled around to see what Naruto and Sakura had been looking at as if he hadn't been aware of Iruka's presence previous. The man's body language expressed surprise for a second before he sprung up from his seat at the low traditional table and walked over until he stood within arm's reach of Iruka, his body language both simultaneously threatening and amused.
"Hiya squirt! You've grown!" the man who was clearly holding Naruto and his teammates against their will exclaimed as he reached out and attempted to muss Iruka's hair like he was a small child, Iruka's normal ponytail just barely managing to hold.
As Iruka backed up, instinctively pulling and raising a weapon as he did so, he found himself thinking about how the only person who used to do that to him outside of his family had died when he was eight.
"Oh, look! You want to play ninja." the foreign shinobi said, speaking to him as if he were a child. "I guess it'll be even more fun now you're a real ninja and not a little Academy brat playing with paper shuriken!"
The man vanished before Iruka could react, and before he could turn to face the presence he almost immediately felt behind him, a hard kick to his back sent him sprawling on the floor. Before he could rise, he felt the weight of the foreign shinobi on his back. As he raised his kunai to strike backwards, one of the sandalled feet that had been planted in his back stomped down on his wrist, hard, and kept stomping until he was finally forced to drop his weapon, convinced that several bones in his hand and wrist were broken.
"Hmmm." the foreign shinobi said in a false considering tone that seemed strangely familiar. "That wasn't as fun as I thought it would be."
"You've still got a long way to go before you can beat me shrimp!" the man continued as he sat down on Iruka's back, apparently completely unconcerned about any retalitory strikes Iruka might launch despite his injured hand.
As the man sat there, Iruka found himself flashing back to a to a time when a small squirming boy he used to be back before the Kyuubi, back before...Everything, was being sat on by a laughing pre-teen Chunin who'd said the exact same thing to him every time he'd found himself in that exact same situation. Why he was remembering that long-dead Uchiha that he'd used to look up to now, after all this time, he didn't know.