Naruto Shippuden: girl from whirlpools

Capture p2

Chapter Twenty-One: Capture, part II

Gekko had been having quite a bad week so far. Her commander had been kidnapped, his replacement seemed to think she was some kind of indentured tea lady instead of a jonin, and she had looked up her symptoms in the medical encyclopaedia and she definitely had mountain syndrome and about two weeks left to live if her self-diagnosis was correct. It was not with pleasure that she was called forth to report yet another failure to all the Higher-Ups who'd arrived at their small outpost looking for answers and accountability. The search and rescue squads couldn't trace their missing commander and every day that passed was making the a dead trail even colder.

It was as the new commander was turning to her, no doubt to ask her to fetch everyone another round of tea, when something extraordinarily heavy landed in her lap and her vision filled with blond.

"Sorry!" Minato called apologetically when she careened across the room, wheezing as she rummaged through her pockets for her inhaler. A circle of astonished faces stared at him, and looking around he realised he'd appeared in his own cabin in the middle of some kind of meeting. His desk had been swept clean and turned into a conference table, and besides Gekko and Yuuhi he counted his substitute, three ANBU captains minus their masks and one Hatake Sakumo sitting beside his very own sensei – the latter of whom appeared more amused than astonished. Judging by all the papers on the desk they were very engrossed in search and rescue plans.

"A little help, please," he said, motioning his bound hands at them.

Sakumo was the first to get over his surprise and stood up. "Cut him loose."

Yuuhi drew a kunai and carefully severed the straps cutting into Minato's wrists, but even when they fell away and the raw welts beneath were laid bare he had trouble extending his fingers. Pain shot through every bone and tendon like fire. One of the ANBU captains of the medical division came forward and immediately began to ease the wounds with his cooling chakra.

Another of the ANBU captains rose from her seat beside Sakumo. "How good of you to join us," she said, perplexed. "We were just discussing you."

"Organising a party to celebrate – I mean, commiserate your disappearance," said Jiraiya with a devious twinkle in his eyes.

"Sorry to spoil your plans," Minato responded.

Sakumo interrupted them impatiently. "Your report?"

"I was being held in a Kumo base about twelve miles away to the north-east of here. Initially they were attempting to exchange me for Uzumaki Kushina though when that failed they attempted to interrogate me."

"Yes, we got the strange ransom note," said Jiraiya, relaxing back in his chair. "The Hokage didn't think the terms were very agreeable. Sorry about that. I told him not to worry, I had every faith you'd fight your way out eventually."

"What rubbish!" the ANBU captain exploded at him. "You've been running around like a headless chicken all week! When you weren't shouting at the new recruits and reducing them to tears you were off sobbing in a corner yourself!"

"Libel!" declared Jiraiya furiously, springing upright again.

Sakumo's sharp tone cut through the room once more. "That aside... Minato, your return is a great relief and we can talk about this more tomorrow after you've rested and recuperated. Right now it is our job to mobilise a force quickly and move in on this base. Even though Kumo no doubt sanctioned this, they've officially dissociated themselves with the ones responsible, which means we can deal with them as we wish. Kumo needs to be shown what happens when they kidnap our people and try to extort us."