Life in Konoha's ANBU by Shezza

Chapter 39: The Coup: Part I

For the next two days, Uzumaki Naruto kept his head low and tried his very best to avoid interaction with anybody. Kakashi had put him on the couch, and Naruto took one of the very few opportunities he could to sleep in and have an uneventful morning. By the time he got up, Kakashi was long gone, and Naruto would grab something to eat and head out to one of the training grounds. He knew that Training Ground 14 was listed as 'under maintenance', but he also knew that the genin who had been scheduled for the job had been redirected elsewhere, and that nobody was scheduled to clean it up for at least a week. He had it all to himself.

Naruto used those two days to prepare himself for war. He had finished his After Action Report and sent it to the Department of Intelligence so that people far smarter than he could analyse it. He doubted that anything new would come out- all it would confirm was that Konoha had a problematic security leak, mission information was being handed out to their enemies, and a black-ops team was running around somehow avoiding all of the patrols and tracking teams of Hyuuga, Aburame and Inuzuka shinobi, while still being able to plan and execute dangerous missions.

On the third day, he met with Sarutobi Hiruzen in the Hokage's Office. The two shinobi were alone, and both the Jonin Guard and the ANBU were conspicuously absent.

"Things are in motion, Naruto," Sarutobi told him. "Our loyal forces are moving, slowly but surely. Come, it's time for us to bait our enemies in."

The two quietly departed from Konoha without any fuss or fanfare. Naruto was dressed in his ANBU armour and mask, and his utility belt carried more weapons than he usually carried. He managed to sneak in an extra reel of explosive tags, just in case he needed them. Sarutobi wore the ceremonial robes of the Hokage, the white and red cloth flapping as the two powerful shinobi jumped from tree to tree, heading south towards the capital city of the Land of Fire, Kanoshi.

Halfway in their three hour journey, the two had to stop. Sarutobi leant against a tree, sweat mopping his brow as he went into a fit of loud, hacking coughs. He was almost bent over at the waist, panting harshly, while Naruto stood in the background, fists clenched but leaving the Third Hokage to his own devices. Even he couldn't tell if the coughing fit had been genuine, or if the old man had just been putting on a show for any observers. Nonetheless, nothing happened, even though Naruto was on the lookout. Had the enemy operatives wanted to assassinate them, now was the perfect time to do it.

Unless it was too perfect, and they were suspicious.

Or maybe they weren't even there at all.

Regardless or not whether they were being watched, Naruto and Sarutobi continued their journey and arrived at Kanoshi early in the afternoon. It was the largest city that Naruto had ever seen, with walls that scaled at least fifteen-metres in height, bigger than many summons. Large towers had been built into the walls, manned by men wearing the colours of the Fire Lord. Beyond the walls, sweeping farmlands stretched out for hundreds of acres, small clusters of towns. A large river ran nearby, and Naruto could see the irrigation trenches carved into the land, carrying the vital water to the necessary crops. Undoubtedly much of that water was carried into the city itself, serving the needs of a large population.

Both Sarutobi and Naruto approached the city at one of the more discreet entrances, away from the main roads and the hundreds of carts that entered and left every hour. Despite some hard looks from the men standing guard, they were allowed through without incident.

Inside, the capital city of the Land of Fire stretched out for kilometres. Tens of thousands of people- hundreds of thousands even- must have lived in those narrow, cobbled streets. Houses were packed together, sometimes so squashed it was difficult to tell when one house ended and another began. The streets were full of milling people, men, women and children moving about in the thousands on their different errands. Smoke rose into the air from one section of the city, bringing with it a faint yellow haze and a revolting smell of pollution. The noise was almost unbearable, the sound of people yelling, children giggling, babies crying and livestock braying uselessly making Naruto flinch.