A.N.B.U.

Chapter Twenty Three:The Chunnin Exams (part 6)

The hot water had helped with our young hero's darkest thoughts, unfortunately, that left plenty of space for the doubts he had tried so hard to banish... Part of him knew that the attack had been planned somehow, and he couldn't help but wonder why Dragon-sama hadn't seemed that angry like the father figure had known beforehand that the attack was going to take place... It also didn't make any sense that he was being accused of not being thorough in his mission. He HAD called the gamma squad, he had done what was expected of him... Somehow he knew that Morino had led him here so that he would come to those conclusions himself, somehow he also knew that Ombre hadn't used her full potential. He wasn't sure how he felt about that... The final pieces clicked and he stormed out of the room, he was set on confronting Dragon-sama and then he stopped dead in his tracks. Had he been set up? Had the night in solitary made him mad or had he finally opened his eyes?

As he rushed in the corridors his mind kept wandering... He wanted to be wrong but knew in his mind that he was right... That Konoha was a lot darker, a lot harsher... Long gone were the academy days in which you were told killing was supposed to be done only when completely necessary... Long gone were the lessons about compassion, about care, about the dangers of violence... He felt bad having kept part of that ideal... He was supposed to know better, he couldn't help but remember Morino laughing when he angrily did an essay on compassion and the benefits of telling the truth... He remembered all of TI laughing... He had written about how kick-ass ninjas didn't believe in kindness or compassion... He had seen Iruka's eyes light up when the older nin had read his 4 pages essay on why it was better if ninjas DIDN'T show compassion, of course, the teacher had to punish our hero but the young ex-anbu had made sure to let the captain know about his distaste for the academy cursus... Having to copy a few hundred times: "I shouldn't write essays about being psychopathic and wanting to hurt people" had almost made him decide to take up Morino's offer for pain tolerance training... Until he remembered he really didn't like pain... The older nin had shrugged and had told him he could just have a few Ombre clone copy it for him while he was being tortur-I mean trained by the TI expert...

As he kept on walking through the dark corridors of HQ he knew that barging in, demanding answers, and being an idiot would just send him back to the darkroom he just came out of... He needed to be careful and behave correctly. As he wandered the halls he saluted a few of his comrades, some from Gama and a few from Ro... No one made any commentary on his quick pace or his still-wet hair... A.N.B.U. had never been a very curious bunch, people knew better than to ask questions, and asking questions to a captain was considered bad manners. He followed the markings on the walls and finally arrived at the office... He didn't want to knock, he was scared about what his superiors would do, scared about being right about as much as he scared about being wrong...

As he knocked and was led in by an authoritative: "come in!" He felt like a small child, he small, scared, child... Dragon-sama looked up from his paperwork and gestured for Kistune to sit. Our hero slowly went over and carefully sat on the uncomfortable chair. His worries kept on rising to alarming levels and he was almost trembling in a mixture of fear and anticipation.

"Do you know why I asked you to come ?" The older and wiser nin had said calmly. Our hero noticed the lack of emotions that were so common in the eyes of his superiors, which contrasted the most with yesterday's disappointment.
"No sir, sorry sir." He tried to hide any discomfort from his voice, he wanted so badly to make his "father" proud.
"You're here for multiple reasons Fox, the first being one you probably guessed all alone, appearance had to be kept, a mole is among us and you needed to be punished so our plans wouldn't be discovered... This brings me to answer the question you won't ask, Yes... Yes, we did make sure the Uchiha was marked by Orochimaru, the curse mark is a very valuable asset and we will use it to our advantage..." As he said those words, he continued filling in the paperwork and gestured for kitsune to fill in some concerning what had happened 2 days ago... The pieces finally clicked inside our hero's mind, it explained everything, every small detail, and more... This had all been planned and made possible by Konoha's brightest...

As he exited the office he felt relieved, his record hadn't been stained and his superior wasn't angry with him. He would be getting a few "punishment" nightly sessions in TI... Most likely playing poker with the staff and pretending to be getting destroyed... He made his way back to the hospital and took his shadow clone's place, as he lay down he looked over at a "sleeping" Ombre... She slowly turned towards me and signed:
"So, how was your night?
- I hate you...
-Of course" she signed back... "So? You don't feel too bad about the fact that you were punished for no reason...
-Nah... Not really Konoha comes before my comfort...
-of course, well... You were right though... Your team does look like they aren't the brightest bunch"

As she finished signing, Kakashi entered the room and looked at them...
"You guys are doing better? Neh Naruto... Mind telling your sensei why you went and battled a huge snake with another team while your friends were fighting Orochimaru ?" He asked with a close eye smile...
"Umm sensei... I had to go and then I just remember seeing a huge snake and those kick-ass ninjas fighting them datebayo..." He was definitely screwed...

~Luciolle24
AN: well this chapter took ages to be published 'cause I hit a massive writer's block... I knew naruto had to have a few doubts about Konoha after that to strengthen his resolve... He needed a wake-up call and I needed to introduce Ombre better... What better way than to make her his ally in a life-or-death situation...