A Shift Between Dimensions

Enemies in Shadows

Naruto, the Seventh Hokage, was disturbed as he stood in the doorway of the ransacked scroll room.  There was a lot of very valuable information in this room.  They had an ANBU standing guard over it at all times; yet, they had incapacitated and murdered him.  He looked at Shikamaru who was cursing beneath his breath as he smoked a cigarette.

"We won't have an idea why they did this until we see what all was stolen," Shikamaru muttered.  "That will take some time.  What a drag."

"It doesn't look like they took any of the secret scrolls... What the hell were they after then?" Naruto asked with a bad feeling rising up in him.  "It doesn't make any sense."

"They were after something very specific," Shikamaru said after a moment.  "We should probably keep this under wraps until we know what all was taken."

"Agreed," Naruto said with a nod of his head.

A few hours later, Shikamaru came into his office with an uneasy expression on his face.  "We did an accounting of everything.  The intruders took a number of scrolls in regards to our Shinobi."

"The personnel files?" Naruto stared at him in shock.

"Yes, everything that is documented about them.  Konahamaru's, Iruka's, and Kakashi's.  It is safe to say that whatever they are after directly relates to them.  Those scrolls contain everything about them, their Jutsu's, strengths & weaknesses, family history past and present.  Everything someone would need to formulate the best way to subdue them."

"We better let them know," Naruto said with a frown before calling out to the ANBU on duty.  "Send for Konahamaru, Iruka, and Kakashi."  The ANBU nodded his head before leaving quickly.  "None of them have been involved in anything together for quite a while.  Iruka hasn't been on missions since before I was a kid.  Konahamaru and Kakashi makes sense, they've both racked up a lot of enemies but Iruka... The only people he pisses off anymore are irate parents."

"They do have one thing in common," Shikamaru stated flatly.  "They married women from another world."

Naruto stilled, "Wait.  Are you saying that it might not have anything to do with them but their wives?  Why would anyone want to harm them?  They don't have any enemies here."

"It's the only commonality which means that it has to be in relation to them."  Shikamaru glanced out the window.  "It could be the fact they are from another world.  It isn't like that detail hasn't slipped out, especially after that huge wedding Kakashi and Sarah had.  There are people like Orochimaru who would want to experiment or exploit that in some way.  Speaking of which... he has been requesting rather adamantly that he wants to meet Sarah ever since he watched the wedding on television."

Naruto scowled, "Absolutely not.  I don't know about this mystery group but I know enough about him that I'm not going to allow that to happen."

"I told him as much.  Kakashi would never allow that."

"He says it's important," Shikamaru smirked.  "Probably wants to examine her and see what differences she has to us."

"I've released a lot of his restrictions but I'm putting my foot down on that.  There can't be anything good that comes out of his interest."

A knock at the door preceded Iruka coming into the office about the same time that Kakashi arrived at the window and came in.  Only Konahamaru had not arrived.

"Yo, what's wrong?" Kakashi asked as he dropped onto the carpet.  "I was just about to slip into the Hot Spring with Sarah when you called.  I'm supposed to be on my honeymoon."

"We had a burglary in the scroll room," Naruto responded.

Kakashi stilled and narrowed his eyes slightly.  "What did they steal?  One of the Secret Scrolls?"