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Konoha Advent
Disclaimer: I am a college student on financial aid. I don’t own anything and neither do I have the rights to Naruto. All characters of Naruto are the property of Masashi Kishimoto.
Summary: A member of the Elite Nine Younin, who surrendered their existence to attend to the Hokage’s beck and call, Caine was the most powerful and the Youngest of the Nine. When several Konoha-nin mysteriously disappear, Caine is summoned from her S-class Mission and partnered with ANBU Captain White Wolf to seek out the missing Konoha-nin. Can she hide her civilian identity from the perceptive White Wolf and still evade the enemy that stalks them at every turn? Fem!Naru KakaNaru
Prologue
The Hidden Village in the Leaf had three leaders, the Ruling Council who were the heads of the Twelve Major Clans of Konoha, the Shinobi Council who were the three most powerful ninja beside the Hokage outside the Sannin, and the Hokage him or her self. The Ruling Council checked the power of the Shinobi Council who checked the power of the Hokage, who checked the power of the Ruling Council.
Unknown to anyone, however, there were a group of ninja whose power rivaled the Hokage, and they were the Nine Younin, whose lives were dedicated to the beck and call of the Hokage, for they were the extensions of the Hokage’s limbs. Their existence was such that they only existed at the word of the Hokage, and outside of their own ranks, only the Hokage knew of their existence, and even then, they bore codenames, codenames that they inherited from their predecessors, to tell them apart…
Clad in blood red, the Nine provided a check for the powers outside their village, killing off defectors who were too powerful for even the Hunter Ninja to pursue, scouring the continent for possible threats to their village, spreading rumors and chaos to draw away the eyes of rival villages so Konoha could have peace, collecting and recording all possible information about the abilities of as many ninja as possible. They were the embodiment of the Fire Shadow, and were the most powerful and talented shinobi in their respective fields. They were unmatched in power, speed, and cunning, and of all the previous generations of Younin before them, the Younin who guarded the Hidden Village of the Leaf in the last years of the Sandaime and the early years of the Godaime would be the most powerful and deadly because that generation’s Caine was a Jinchuuriki.
She opened a single heavy door at the top floor at the far side of an antechamber and stepped inside. The door closed soundlessly behind her as she walked to the desk at the back of the circular room where the old man sat, the conical white and red hat of the Kage laying on the table beside him while he studiously went through the pile of paperwork in front of him.
Sarutobi did not react to the light yet tightly controlled presence in the room. The faint scent of steel and the earthy scent of the forest mixed with the coppery scent of both stale and fresh blood brushed lightly over his senses. He did not fear this person, and neither was he wary of it, for this girl was one of his Younin, the youngest and most powerful of the Nine Guardians of Fire whose sect had been established by the Shodai Hokage in the early days of Konohagakure no Sato’s birth.
The Nine were the most powerful and loyal of Konoha-nin, and had discarded their previous existences for the sake of the village, and in the case of the Younin known as Wanyuudo, would drag their own good names in the mud to hunt down criminals or protect the village. There was little that the Younin would not do for the sake of Konoha, and they would unhesitatingly kill an infant child for the sake of the village if ordered to. Only the Hokage and the other Nine knew of them, and only they knew of the cruelties the Younin had committed or of how heavily the memories of those acts weighed upon their souls…
Sarutobi mentally shook away his wandering thoughts and signed the document with a flourish, set it and the brush aside, and looked at the girl in front of him. A pang of self-loathing shot through him as he looked at the girl behind his desk clad in the Younin’s blood red. Little more than eight years old, the Younin known as Caine was the youngest and most powerful of the Younin, and she had seen and committed acts that would haunt and break older and more experienced ninja.
“Caine,” Sarutobi said softly.
The girl shifted her balance slightly and cocked her head inquisitively to the right.
“Will you talk?” Sarutobi asked.
Caine’s balance shifted again and her head tilted at a defiant angle. Sarutobi could not help but sigh. The Younin had been trained to be silent, they would not speak unless something could not be conveyed with body language alone and a majority of the time, they spoke with the intention to intimidate. It wasn’t uncommon for the Sandaime to find himself having a seemingly one-sided conversation with his Younin who participated only with body language or hand signs.
“You are aware that the Uchiha Clan was massacred late last night by Orochimaru?”
Caine shifted, crossing her arms over her chest in a gesture that said quite clearly, “Get on with it!”
“Wanyuudo, who is perhaps the only member of the Younin who still maintained his original identity, is leaving the village. He will be ranked under his birth name as an S-Class Missing-Ninja. On the other hand, there is the trouble about his younger brother. The boy is unstable, and I cannot trust any ordinary child to do this without accidentally letting something slip.”
Caine shifted her right hand to press an index finger to her cheek as though in thought, then nodded.
Sarutobi blinked. Caine’s childhood in the village had not been the best of experiences. That she would willingly return to that existence was surprising, but then again, she was a Younin, and the Younin were people who would face the seventh level of hell for their village.
“Thank you,” Sarutobi said, “You will become Uzumaki Naruto, and you will ensure that Uchiha Sasuke remains loyal to the Leaf while continuing your normal duties. Be sure to periodically update me on your progress.”
Caine nodded and vanished without smoke, flickering, or chakra residue. There was no sign that she had ever existed inside the room…
Over thirty Konoha-nin had gone missing in the past week, among them two genin teams and a squad of ANBU. She sighed. Even Jiraiya was having trouble tracking down the culprits, so the only hope were the Nine, only three of which could remotely be spared for this mission. Wanyuudo, who had been an Uchiha, was out of the question as she needed him to remain where he was lest the Akatsuki take them by surprise. Caine, she needed as she was the only person who would be able to keep Uchiha Sasuke inside the village, even with a level two curse seal and the six trigrams blue ginseng suppression seal that Vallewida had slapped on him while he was unconscious. Io and Vallewida, obviously were out of the question as Vallewida was a medic-nin, and Io was a Blade Master with a passing understanding of seals, and both were working on removing the Curse Seal and monitoring the last Uchiha.
“Caine!” she snapped.
One of the three figures vanished and reappeared beside her. “Hokage-sama?”
“Where are Nadil, Gakutennou, Hiyohime, Duran, and Manatsu?”
“Nadil-san is currently in Lightening Country investigating a report about the Raikage gathering and mobilizing the Cloud forces for reasons that are currently known only by Nadil. He should be back in a week. Gakutennou is currently in Rice Field Country, keeping surveillance on Orochimaru with his apprentice Nika. He would return to Konoha and leave Nika to continue surveillance if Hokage-sama were to summon him also. Manatsu is on her way back from Earth Country with the documents that Hokage-sama had requested from our contact there, and should arrive in three days. Hiyohime is in Wind Country, tracking the progress of the Akatsuki rumored to be there, and Duran, who was in the Eastern Continent cut communications last night because of some emergency. It is unknown when communications with him will be restored,” Caine said.
“What do you think of Vallewida’s ability to as a Younin and if worse came to worse, would she be able to keep Uchiha Sasuke in line on her own?”
Caine frowned, a faint sense of unease at the Hokage’s line of questioning. “Vallewida is a medic-nin of the highest caliber. Her skill in medicine is only outmatched by Hokage-sama’s. Vallewida’s taijutsu may not match Gakutennou’s, she should be able to hold off Maito Gai. If worse comes to worse, Vallewida has the seals which she learned under the Yondaime’s tutelage, therefore, I have no doubt in Vallewida’s abilities as a Younin, and even less doubt about her ability to keep Uchiha Sasuke-san in line if necessary.”
“And Io?”
“I would doubt my own loyalty to the village before I doubt Io,” Caine said. “Io’s seals may not be the most powerful, but they are effective. His mastery over blades of any sort is unmatched. I do not doubt Io’s ability as a Younin, nor do I doubt his ability to contain Uchiha Sasuke if he should become overly rambunctious.”
Tsunade nodded. “Very well, Caine, you will be reassigned to a SS-Class mission.” The Godaime pulled a scroll from her desk and tossed it to the red clad teenager. “The details are in that scroll, and you will be accompanied by ANBU Captain White Wolf.”
Caine’s eyes widened fractionally, then a blank look crossed her face and she bowed. “As Hokage-sama wishes.”
Tsunade nodded and barked, “Vallewida! Io!”
The last figures in the shadow vanished. A dark haired woman and a dark haired man with dark circles under his eyes, both clad similarly to Caine in blood red appeared beside the teen. “Hokage-sama?”
“Vallewida, Io, you will be taking over Caine’s A-Class mission of watching Uchiha Sasuke. This change is effective immediately. Caine, you will surrender the mission scroll to Vallewida ASAP, is that understood?”
Caine bowed “As Hokage-sama commands.”
“Very well, dismissed!” the three Younin vanished.
He was also known as the laziest jounin sensei among all jounin sensei, and it was a surprise that the only genin team he had ever passed had ever turned out as well as it had. As a matter of fact, it was easily the most unbalanced team that Konoha had ever seen, with the top rookie genin in that graduating class, Uchiha Sasuke who was obsessed with revenge against his brother, a crazed fangirl, Haruno Sakura, who wanted nothing more than to get into Sasuke’s bed and bear his children, and the Ramen obsessed Dead Last Uzumaki Naruto, who was the village outcast.
Genin Squad Seven was the most successful of all genin teams, and was the team to beat, because they were taught and led by the legendary Copy-ninja, and because they had the Uchiha genius. Also, Team 7 was notorious for taking on missions that were high ranked, after all, not many genin could boast of having taken on A or B ranked missions. Team 7 was also legendary for their status in the ninja world, each having been singled out by the Legendary Sannin, Sasuke by Orochimaru, Sakura by Tsunade (though she was so much selected by Tsunade as Sakura begged and Tsunade accepted after Naruto spoke on her behalf), and Naruto by Jiraiya, though Naruto had had to bribe Jiraiya for the tutelage that she received.
In the end, the team had fallen apart badly. Sakura was in need of a serious attitude adjustment, and her lack of training made her easily the worst kunoichi that Konoha had ever seen. Sasuke had attempted to defect to the Sound, only to be brought back bloody and beaten by none other than Naruto. In fact, the only reason why Sasuke had yet to be stripped of his ninja status was because of Naruto pulling rank and intervening on his behalf, not that anyone realized it, and Sasuke was not shunned because once again, Naruto stepped in, and knowledge of Sasuke’s attempted defection was limited only to one ANBU patrol who had seen the retrieval team set out, the retrieval team, the back up team who picked up the retrieval team, and the Hokage. Of course, the Younin knew of it as well. Naruto was possibly the only member of Team 7 who was really evolving, much to Kakashi’s ongoing embarrassment.
Well, that wasn’t completely true. Sakura was growing in maturity and skill under Tsunade’s tutelage, and while her maturity was coming along slowly, she was evolving. Sasuke was stagnating, fighting the suppression seal at every chance, attacking the ninja who stood guard over him at every possible moment, and exploiting every opportunity to escape Konoha, only to get dragged back by either Naruto or one of the three mysterious shinobi clad in a blood red variation of the average jounin uniform, one of whom, to Sasuke’s anger and envy, was about his age.
Team 7 had been Kakashi’s greatest success as well as his greatest failure.
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