Chapt. 31

The two teams sat on the crest of a mountain overlooking a massive complex that was an amalgamation of ice and metal. It had been twelve hours since they'd arrived and set up camp by burrowing into the hard snow.

"Have you finished mapping out the fortress?" Kakashi asked Hinata and Ino.

"For the most part sensei," Ino mumbled. "This place has more hidden tunnels than the village. Several don't even have guards. There is, however, a large compliment of ninja in there. Maybe two hundred."

"So around half of the nations forces," Kakashi sighed. "How many of them have armor?"

"A dozen of them," Hinata replied.

"That's good news," Kurenai said as she joined them. "That means that those are the only senior ninja they have."

"Or the ones most loyal to Doto," Kakashi mused. "A good idea to make your retainers the most powerful. It might mean that Doto isn't as in control as he'd like to be."

"And the princess?" Kurenai asked.

Hinata's head twitched minutely as she looked around the inside of the fortress. "There are hundreds of prisoners in the cells under the fortress. There is one person up in the tallest tower who matches the princess though."

"Is it her?" Kakashi asked gently.

"I believe so," Hinata replied. "However, their technology makes confirming anything there iffy at best. Large parts of the place are covered in the same technology as their armor. It's, quite irritating."

Kakashi and Kurenai got up and went outside the hide. Kakashi pulled out his spyglass and raised it to his eye. "I don't suppose you also find it horribly cliché to have the princess locked in the tallest tower?"

"Mildly," Kurenai smiled. "Though it is wiser to stick her in the air than a cell underground. We could easily use earth techniques to get to her."

Kakashi chuckled. "Very true. I often forget we can do things like that. Too many assassination missions I think."

"Don't worry, Kakashi," Kurenai giggled. "It happens to the best of us. Though I'm surprised that you slipped up on that thought."

Kakashi shrugged.

Minato took his seat at the head of the clan meeting table. A new chair was being formed by the chair Kushina was occupying. The council watched the ANBU sculpt the chair up from the floor, ending with a snowflake symbol on the back of the chair.

A second ANBU opened a door on the right side of the chamber, and Haku was admitted and led to this new chair. She traced her fingers across the snowflake design and smiled, much to the other clan leaders amusement, before she sat down.

"Haku we the clans of Konoha bid welcome to you and thank you for bringing the future of your clan to Konohagakure," Minato stated. "Your clan will be seated in that chair next to the Uzumaki until there is no longer anyone fit to hold it."

Haku stood and bowed. "I thank you for this welcome to my new home. It's a great change from being on the run and has been quite comfortable and welcoming since my arrival several months ago."

The other clan leaders applauded cordially as the short ceremony ended. Haku blushed at the attention from the twenty other individuals around the table.

Minato cleared his throat to get the council's attention. "Now that we have that good news out of the way, what news do we have on the hunt for Danzo?"

Tsume Inuzuka stood up and rolled a scroll to Minato. "Not much still I'm afraid Minato," she sighed. "We have several dozen squads involved in the hunt. Most of them include members of my clan, the Aburame and the Hyuga. We lose their trail about fifty miles south of the village. The diagram on the scroll is found on a pattern of stones, though there is a part missing since we couldn't get the area to activate."

Minato looked up from perusing the scroll. "It's part of a summoning matrix. You would need the proper activation symbols in order for it to work. The matrix on the stones is only the first portion, the destination or starting point that is. Anyone could make use of it to head for any other location it connects to. You would just need the proper symbols it coordinates with."

"So we could only use it if we had any of the relevant off sites?" Hiruzen asked.

"Essentially," Minato tossed the scroll onto the table. "So that was a dead end."

"Yes, it was," Tsume bowed before sitting back down.

"Hiashi? Shibi?" Minato questioned.

Shibi Aburame stood next. "The squads under my command have found the same series of matrices in the same fifty mile radius," Shibi sat down having stated his findings.

Hiashi didn't even stand. "I report much the same."

"Right, so we'll need to assign demolition teams to demolish those sites," Minato rubbed his eyes. "We'll need to keep looking for anymore of these types of setups. The village needs to be searched as well to locate any that might be inside our walls. That will include clan holdings, I'm afraid. We can't leave something that will allow enemy forces to so easily penetrate our defenses."

"Should we lock down the village, Minato?" Shikaku asked. "Though if we do, it might start a panic among the civilians."

"No, we don't need to panic the populace again so soon," Minato sighed. "I doubt we'll find anything inside the village since Danzo ran out to one of these out lying sites. Be discreet and don't let the civilians know what is going on."

"How is the Daimyo's search for traitors in his court?" Fugaku asked.

Minato ran a hand over his face. "Not well. He refuses to use anyone from the Yamanaka clan help. He doesn't want those that are loyal to him to see this as an inquisition."

"Foolish," Choza grumbled. "For all he knows, another coalition of the territorial lords is raising another army."

Shikaku shook his head. "Minato has had met set jonin teams to keep track of most of them. All of the ones who have had some form of contact with Yoshinobu as well as some who have openly disagreed with the Daimyo's latest ideas."

"This, endeavor, to protect the Daimyo," Fugaku raised his voice, "has tied up a decent portion of our home jonin."

"That has been mitigated by having some of the ANBU chunin take positions among some of the guard stations." Shikaku sighed. "It should only be a few more weeks until this is over, and we are being paid handsomely for our help as well as other considerations we've been asking for."

Looks of interest spread across most of the council.

"Which requests?" Hiashi asked the question on all their minds. "We have several hundred."

"Ah, I have the list here," Hiruzen dug out a scroll. "First off, we have been given mining rights in portions of Yoshinobu's former mining zone. Also we get greater scope in our ability to trade with the other villages. He is giving us more autonomous control of the villages in our immediate region, essentially making the Hokage a full member of court."

"And giving the village a stable form of income via the taxes we'll collect from those villages," Minato smiled. "Not that missions don't give us a good income, but when missions are slow or non-existent, it'll mean we have less to worry about."

"Like in times of war?" Inoichi guessed.

"Exactly," Minato nodded. "This will be classified beyond the need for anyone outside of this room to know."

"Finally," Hiruzen broke in. "He's allowing us, if we have the need, to double the amount of active ninja. Outside of war, that is, when we use the large amount of reserves we have available."

"So we could have a larger standing army, pissing off Iwa in the process," Inoichi chuckled. "That sounds like an ironically bad idea."

Haku turned to Kushina as the other clan heads started to argue. "Is it always like this?"

Kushina giggled lightly. "Only most of the time. Since most of the clan leaders are male, they feel the need to, butt heads as it were."

Tsume snorted from her seat, indicating she'd heard the conversation.

"Sensei?" Sasuke spoke up. "Why aren't we rescuing the princess?"

Kurenai looked back and smiled at him. "Well, if you remember the princess informed us that the Rainbow Glaciers have a secret related to that crystal she wears. Kakashi and I agreed that Doto will eventually drag the princess here to revel in his victory."

"We could have just rescued her from the fortress," Sasuke groused.

"Sasuke," Kakashi spoke tersely. "Most of this nations ninja were located inside that fortress. There is noway the eight of us could have taken her out of their successfully. Out in the open we have a better chance. Doto, won't bring that many of his minions with with. There's also the added bonus that if we arrive first we can improve our advantage."

"Tch, that's boring," Sasuke pouted.

"Sasuke-kun, what the sensei say is true," Sakura said soothingly from beside him. "Now shut up and keep running."

Naruto looked over at Shino and smiled. "How do you deal with those two all the time?"

"I ignore them unless it's necessary," Shino grunted. "It makes life easier."

Hinata and Ino giggled at that information. Sakura glared at the two boys and turned to Sasuke, who seemed bored with the whole thing.

"Your team really needs to work on it's teamwork issues, Kurenai," Kakashi muttered.

"Would you rather my students were like yours and all slept together?" Kurenai shot back scathingly.

Kakashi thought about it for a moment before shuddering. "God, I might be sick. Please never mention that again."

Doto Kazahana laughed as he stared at the mountain scenery from where he stood on his airship. Tonight would be his great victory. He would finally unlock the vault that held whatever his fool brother had spent their clans entire fortune on.

"That stupid ass made it easy for me to take over because he drove the country itself to the brink of poverty," he glared at his niece, who was chained up in a corner.

Koyuki glared back at the man who had ruined her childhood and growled out something unladylike that was lost in the thick gag.

"Don't worry dear," Doto sneered at her. "Ill make use of you soon enough. I'll put you on trial soon and a few days later you'll be painfully executed."

Koyuki's eyes widened in fear at the words, never believing her uncle would actually kill her. She'd thought that if she could sign something saying she would never come after the throne, she could go back to her life as an actor. Now though, it seemed the only way forward was to overthrow her uncle and take back the throne. She looked into the dark eyes of her uncle and saw no compassion there at all.

Doto turned his back on the young woman and returned to looking out the window. "With the money your gather hid at the glaciers, or better yet weapons that be there. I'll take over the smaller nations around us and make 'my' nation great."

Koyuki rolled her eyes, it was the fourth time she'd heard this speech. 'Seriously, are those ninja Sandayu hired doing something to rescue me?'

Naruto smacked himself in the face again as Sasuke started bitching about how bored he was. He did his best to ignore his best-friend's issues and raised his binoculars back to his eyes.

"Gah, this sucks," Sasuke raged. "We should have just busted into the fortress and rescued her."

"You honestly think it would have worked?" Naruto sighed. "Eight ninja, only two of whom are jonin, versus what, two or three hundred? You're not thinking clearly Sasuke."

"Bah, they're backwater ninja," Sasuke grunted dismissively. "Their highest level ninja is like our genin."

"You really need to stop being so overconfident," Naruto chided. "It might kill you some day."

"Tch, I'm an Uchiha."

Naruto lowered his binoculars and looked at Sasuke in pity. "Please tell me you're not turning into one of those."

"What?"

"I said please tell me you're not turning into one of those, "We are the supper elite, Uchiha,'" Naruto sighed. "You'll turn all of our friends against you."

"How could that happen?" Sasuke snorted derisively. "All our friends like me."

Naruto shook his head slowly before raising his binoculars back to his eyes. "They mostly tolerate you for my sake. If you'd tone down the 'mighty Uchiha' schtick, they might like you even more," Naruto chuckled a bit. "Though being Sakura's whipping boy does earn you points with Shikamaru, and all the other Nara men."

Sasuke's face darkened slightly. "Not funny."

"Wasn't supposed to be," Naruto snorted. "Oh, wait, I see something." He started playing with the dials. "It's the airship."

Sasuke sighed forlornly. "I'll call the sensei."

"They're headed right for the glacier," Naruto said tracking the ships progress. "That thing moves rather quickly considering we've only seen this thing here. Actually for such a backwater area, this country is bizarrely technologically advanced."

Sasuke looked over at Naruto with an eyebrow quirked. "Okay, I'll bite."

"Think about," the blond grunted. "The ninja armor, that train thing we heard about and this airship. Where are they getting all of it?"

"Scientists?" Sasuke shrugged. "What does it matter?"

"A poor nation," Naruto growled, "with next to no way to earn money outside of tourism, has the ability to get this technologically advanced."

Sasuke shrugged his indifference.

"Someone," Naruto looked over at the Uchiha, "is using this place as a field testing area for new tech."

Doto walked through the door in the inner most room on the airship. He stopped in front of a pale man in a black robe with red clouds.

"Are you enjoying all the gifts we've given to you?" the pale man asked.

"Yes, Lord Orochimaru," Doto bowed to the renegade sannin. "Your organization has been exceedingly generous. Was there anything else you wished of my nation."

"Orochimaru licked his lips with his absurdly long tongue. "No, you have assisted us well enough. I have been sent to remind you that payment for our gifts is due."

Doto shivered slightly at the ever present feeling of dread emanating form the other man. "Of course lord. I'm on my way to secure my brothers secret now. I should have it soon."

Orochimaru started to chuckle as his visage disappeared from the figure in front of Doto and the person that replaced him collapsed to the floor.

"Those people are entirely too scary," Doto wiped the sweat from his brow. "I should have never allowed them to help me in the first place."

A knock on the door caused him to jump slightly. "What?"

"We're beginning our decent onto the glacier," one of his underlings shouted through the door.

"Very well make the preparations," Doto shouted.

They watched the airship descend slowly toward the basin. It was a rather impressive sight, the balloon being one hundred meters in length with a large metal boat hull attached to the bottom roughly half the length and width of the balloon.

"Are they close to any of the arrays?" Kakashi's voice broke over the radio.

"They are just passing over the border of the first one," Hinata's voice spoke next. "However they'll miss it and land somewhere in the second ring of arrays."

"That's the ring with the gravity seals, right?" Kurenai's voice came next.

"Yeah, it'll double the weight of anything in the zone," Naruto muttered. "Do you want me to activate it right away? Or should we see what they do first?"

The radio was silent as they watched the airship descend another fifty feet.

"Wait and see what happens first," Kakashi finally replied.

"Right," Naruto answered as several ropes were thrown out and ninja started sliding down. Each ninja worked the same series of hand signs before starting to pull on the ropes helping to guide the ship down.

After it landed a door on the side opened and they watched Doto stride out. He was followed by a team of ninja dragging Koyuki with them. The small group left the area of the ship and headed straight for where the shrine was located.

"As soon as Doto's group leaves the area of the seal array, activate it," Kakashi ordered. "Hinata, can you tell if any of them are equipped with the armor?"

"Only Doto does," she replied.

"Right, Kurenai, Shino and I will deal with Doto and his group," Kakashi said. "The rest of you apply the counter seals and secure that airship."

The rest of the team answered in the affirmative and started to move. Naruto began by setting off the field array and followed after Sasuke, who had already started toward the ship. They watched as the ninja guarding the ship started to panic and some even attacked the others.

"Sakura has them under an illusion," Sasuke shouted while running through some hand signs.

Naruto raced through his own and shot an air bullet into the fireball Sasuke had shot off. Concentrating, Naruto spread the blaze out and watched as it swallowed up several of the guard ninja before being put out by the melting snow.

Kurenai put the men guarding Koyuki under a rather heavy illusion while trying to ensnare Doto with it as well, but his armor just shrugged it off. Unfortunately Koyuki's piercing cries alerted her to her mistake and she swore profusely as she ran to release the princess.

Doto swung his arms up to attack, only to pause as swarms of bugs engulfed his men.

"Fuck, an Aburame," the dictator growled before jumping back as Kakashi emerged from the snow in front of him. Doto's eyes widened as he saw the lightning chakra encasing Kakashi's hand and moved quickly to dodge it. He quickly swung his arm up again and shot off a funnel of black wind.

"That's different," Kakashi muttered. "Never seen black wind before."

Shino appeared to the left of Doto and sent his bugs sweeping in at the large man, who didn't move an inch as he shot out another pulse of black wind that split the attack down the middle. Shino though used this to his advantage and used his now two clouds of insects to sweep in from both sides.

Kakashi also saw an opportunity in the move as he darted in from behind Doto hoping to use Shino's assault as and opening. He thrust forward with the kunai in his right hand, aiming for the middle of the man's back. He wasn't surprised though to watch as the armor turned the armor turned the blade aside.

Doto laughed madly as he shot several more black funnels around himself, one errant gust slamming into his own squad of ninja, killing them instantly. His laughing stopped instantly though as he noticed a decided drop in his armors strength.

"You ask yourself how?" Shino stated blandly. "It's because I can."

"That's not possible," Doto raged. "This armor was supposed to be able to stop any kind of attack."

"But they're not attacking," Kakashi spoke from behind the despot. "They are feeding off the chakra your armor emits."

Doto was about to turn and attack when a lightning encased hand crashed through his chest. "Damn... it... all..."

"Well, that was more annoying than it should have been," Kakashi grumbled as he pulled his arm free. "Good job, Shino." Kakashi looked through Doto's pockets until he came up with the crystal pendant and walked over to the altar.

"There's a hole in that this thing appears to fit," Kakashi shouted to the others. "I'm going to give it a try, so look out."

Naruto and his group were just leaving the airship when the air outside suddenly warmed noticeably and the snow started to melt.

"I'm not the only one seeing this am I?" Sakura asked in confusion.

The others shook their heads slowly only to stop and gape as a great wave of chakra and heat swept past them and the land came alive.

"Oh, fuck this," Naruto grunted. "I'm calling shenanigans, Kakashi."

"I know what you're saying, Naruto," Kakashi's voice trembled in shock over the radio. "What you're seeing is happening."

The rest of the mission went smoothly as Koyuki assumed power. The native ninja, seeing their leader dead gave in and swore loyalty to their new leader. Sandayu and the remaining samurai came out of hiding and swore their fealty to Koyuki as the true heir of their nations assassinated Daimyo.

The coronation went with only the small hitch of Doto's supporters trying to break away from the rest of the country. Koyuki was able to reason with the men, though she was planning to replace them as soon as she was able.

The airship she gave to the Konoha ninja that had helped her, having no wish to keep the reminder of her uncle around. Kakashi in particular was for the idea after finding the body of a man in black with red cloud patterns inside.

"So," Ino smiled at Koyuki. "Are you going to miss acting?"

"Don't worry," Koyuki smiled back cheerfully. "I'm not giving up my dream of acting." She reached into a pocket and pulled out a script with an orange cover. "In fact I already have the script for my next roll."

Naruto and the kunoichi could only gape at the cover in shock. Kakashi and Sasuke though had stars in their eyes, joyous at the sight of it. Shino adjust his glasses.

"Can I have your autograph?" Kakashi asked pulling out his copy of Make out Paradise.

Taken aback, Koyuki started to laugh at the situation before pulling out a pen and signing the book.

to be continued.