Chapter 13   - Reactions

Inside the Hokage tower, Hiruzen could be seen happily smoking his pipe. He has had a rather good day. He, by some god's miracle, managed to finish all the paperwork for today before the sun went down. He couldn't even remember the last time that happened. Unfortunately, the silence was quickly broken by someone hastily knocking on the door.

"Hokage-sama I have something urgent to report"

'That is Kakashi's voice. Wait! Kakashi is in a hurry? Is Konoha about to collapse?'

"Enter!"

The door was quickly opened and a man with a doglike ANBU mask hastily entered the office.

"Hokage-sama please activate the silencing seals."

Hiruzen grew even more panicked at that. Although he didn't know what was going, he quickly activated the seals to prevent everything spoken in here from being heard by people outside the room.

'What is going on? Have the other 4 Big nations decided to team up and attack?'

"The seals are up. Tell me what's going on."

"Hai Hokage-sama. A new book has been released. It wasn't written by Jiraiya-sama, but people are claiming, that it is of even higher quality than Jiraiya-sama's."

"…"

"…"

"Are you absolutely certain about this?"

"I don't know whether it is really better or not, but it sells at a rate comparable to Jiraiya-sama's book."

"…"

"…"

Hiruzen kept pondering his next step but quickly concluded what to do. He took out a scroll and started writing something on it and then, tossed it towards the dog-masked ANBU in front of him.

"S-Rank. No one sees you. No one hears you. Four copies. Dismissed."

"Hai, Hokage-sama. I will not fail"

Kakashi quickly turned around and hastily left the Hokage building. He had an important mission and he is willing to put his life on the line to accomplish it,

'Comparable to Jiraiya's book, huh? I can't wait. Seems like my day got even better. I wonder who the author is? I might need to make another S-Rank mission to get my copies signed.

Meanwhile, in another corner of the Fire Nation, a huge man with long, white, spiky hair was reading the new bestseller with a perverted expression on his face. While reading he would occasionally let loose a burst of, especially creepy laughter. This man was the author of the Icha Icha series, Jiraiya of the Sannin.

Was he angry that competition for his book appeared? Of course not. He was, after all, a man of culture. The more people spread that culture, the better. It certainly helped, that he enjoyed the book himself.

'I should definitely try to find the author. As fellow men of culture, we can probably share a lot of inspirational stories with each other. I wonder why he used Red Rose as a pen name? He should have gone for something more manly in my opinion. Oh well, I will just ask him about it directly when I meet him in the future.

Meanwhile, Danzo Shimura couldn't care less about the newly released book. He was currently sitting deep inside his Root headquarters and was busy brooding.

'What is going on with these damn twins? By now the rumors of them being the reincarnation of the Kyuubi has spread through the whole city and yet, they are completely fine. Yuna, the older twin, somehow deflects every situation before it can even start, while the younger one doesn't seem to be interested in leaving that flat at all. He prepares a mob to bully the girl, she casually evades them. He has some people insult her just loud enough for her to notice, she doesn't even twitch. He tells the shopkeepers to not sell her anything, she just uses a henge and starts shopping without a care in the world. Worst of all, she can apparently give the root agent following her the slip whenever she wants to, and every time she reappears, her money reserves are filled up again. He even told one of his root agents to sneak into their flat to find out what's going on. The result? Nothing. Her brother seems to be perfectly fine with just playing around with a bowl of water while the girl is just lazing around.'

What Danzo doesn't know, however, is that Yuna noticed someone slip into the room. If that root agent had made a single suspicious movement, Yuna would have slit his throat without a second of hesitation. Her cover be damned.

'Sh*t, they are supposed to be desperate by now, but there are no signs of this at all. I even had them kicked out of the orphanage. A week or two of living on the streets should have made them malleable enough. Yet, that damn girl somehow managed to coax the Henge no Jutsu out of one of the ANBU's following her around. And a day later, she somehow has enough money to rent a flat. Worst of all? That damned name she used to rent it with: Biyuku Muzukia. Rearrange the letters a little and you get Kyuubi Uzumaki. Very funny. How does she even know about that? And why do I get the feeling, that this is an attempt to mock me? Whatever. There is currently nothing more I can do. Guess I will lay low for now. My next chance should be during their academy days. Failing every single test, while everyone is mocking them should wear them down quick enough. For now, I'll put my focus on the Uchiha clan. Shouldn't be that much longer until they are ready for harvest.'

Danzo couldn't help but clench his right arm in anticipation of what he is about to receive after he manages to get rid of the Uchiha clan.