A.N.B.U.

Chapter Thirty-Six: Asking for help

"So... what really brings you here ?"

"We've come to seek help and guidance from Iga for a very complicated mission..." Shikamaru started, hesitating and almost slurring his words.

"We need to convince an old ally to come back to the village and-"

"You need Tsunade to return home to your place so she can heal your wounded and kickstart the hospital program ?"

Our hero was abruptly interrupted by Ombre, who apparently had decided to create chaos every time she spoke.

"Strike One, Ombre... Now let them finish or you're going directly to strike Three ?" Hogo-sama said, abruptly...

"Fine... Don't listen to your intelligence service and listen to the words of a wannabe traitor and his boyfriend..."

"Wannabe traitor," Shikamaru said looking very confused.

"Boyfriend!?" They both looked at each other intensely before turning abruptly away from each other... Hiding a blush... They weren't boyfriends, right? They both silently looked deep into themselves while chaos was ensuing outside.

"Ombre, go find a corner, now !"

"But... But?"

"No buts! Corner, now!"

Ombre slowly walked over to a corner of the room, the furthest away from them actually... Like she wanted to avoid whatever was coming next... The two ANBU captains were silently confused by the whole corner thing but decided it best to drop it for the moment and stay at their current task... Trying to recruit help for their mission to get Tsunade back to Konoha relatively unharmed and cooperating.

"So is it true what my 'intelligence service' said ?" the older ninja asked with a big smile on his face like he knew something our heroes did not...

"Well yes, but actually..." Shikamaru trailed off as he felt a cold gaze from all the people in the room...

"Since when has Konoha ever needed help... I thought ANBU was the pinnacle of the world and that your village was the only true ninja village of the land of fire, disregarding us and our mortal enemies, Koga..." The one with the two blades on his back continued in a fiery rant about what Iga had done to help Konoha without ever receiving thanks or compensation...

"That will be all, Lame, thank you" Hogo-sama's voice was scarily blank... It was devoid of any emotions and let people wonder what was really going on.

The now-identified Lame seemed ready to argue more but he turned his head and looked towards Ombre who was still kneeling in a corner and decided it wasn't worth it...

"So, as Lame said, we're not really on good terms with Konoha and we feel like the only reason you are here is that a certain Ibiki-chan decided it was a good idea to mend the villages' relationships by sending a jinchurinki to beg for help... Don't give me that look, we all know that you're a jinchuriki... It wasn't that hard for Ombre to figure it out, Naruto-Kun, or should I say, Fox-san?"

Both ANBU captains now felt extremely bad and looked at the different ways to get out of this obvious trap their leader had sent them to.

"Ombre?" The Hogo's voice was full of mischief and made everyone in the room shiver...

"Yes?" She asked... For the first time since they got here, the two heroes felt what could only be described as fear in Ombre's voice...

"You will accompany them in their quest and you'll be sure to return victorious so that Konoha will have a debt to pay for us... Also, you will bring Ibiki-Kun here, I don't care how... Just no diplomatic incidents and without harming him too much..." He then turned to the two ANBU captains and said "You will also come back here once your mission is done so we can finally see if Konoha's ANBU is as strong as people really think it is..."

"What if we refuse your offer..." Shikamaru said

"Well... Good luck on being called traitors in your village for creating a diplomatic incident that would severe the poor ties we have with Konoha for good."

With that ultimatum floating in the air the two were led out by Flamme. they knew her to be Flamme because the young Kabarejji had gently told them everybody's name on the way out... So the last one, who had stayed silent during the whole exchange, was Rivière... And apparently, Rivière and Flamme didn't really like each other because when Flamme had stood up to go pat Ombre on the back before leaving the other nin had broken their silence to swear under their breath...

As they left they heard some arguing them some "thud" before hearing the faint noise of somebody crying... They hurried outside the tower and back into the streets of Iga.

As they walked, the experience was a lot different than the first time they had been here as people stopped to congratulate Flamme about stuff and tell her how much of a great job she was doing. That was a great change of pace from when they had first arrived in the city and a welcomed one at that...

They were brought in a small, cheap hotel and then left to sleep because Ombre would be there in the morning to pick them up...

~Luciolle24

AN: I just wanted to say How Happy I am for the 100k readers of my story... It feels awesome to know that people are out here, enjoying what I write and having fun with my stories... I might do a little Q&A chapter in a few months so feel free to leave your questions here so I can answer them in a future chapter... As for the pairing, as you might have noticed I've started hinting at different new pairings for the story as it continues. As always Have fun, and have a happy new year (can't believe it's been 5 years since I've started writing ANBU... It's been such a wild journey... I cant' wait for what the future might bring... )