The Zero Tails Jinchuriki #21

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Konoha, Land of Fire

–Kenta Senju–

It was the next morning, and he had already met up with the Daimyo’s convoy, informing them about his presence and how he was going to remain hidden all the time during the journey. If it was not obvious before, he did not really like being in between many people and it suited him just fine to just shadow the convoy up until the Capitol.

He was given a 10 hour grace period, to rest in the Capitol before he was to start his journey towards the border. He did not know if Orochimaru would still be there but over the course of the last two days, they had received another two reports of either Orochimaru or his team members being sighted, which was as transparent as bait could get.

Sarutobi was a lot more convinced of his strength now but still warned him that of his three students, Jiraiya was the strongest but Orochimaru was the hardest to capture or kill. Sarutobi clearly did not say it out loud but being a rogue shinobi from Konoha meant that he would be well within his rights to go all out,  and try to kill Orochimaru during their encounter, even if he suspected that to be something that would create a rift between him and Sarutobi.

He did not give that particular line of thinking much thought because it was all in the future. And hinged on him actually killing Orochimaru, something that even Jiraiya thought to be an impossibility, without an elaborate ambush in which they catch Orochimaru alone and vulnerable, something that was clearly not the case here.

So, with that out of the way, he stood on top of the Village Walls, waiting for the Daimyo to arrive. It was very early in the morning and they were scheduled to leave in about an hour but to his normal senses, he could not sense the beehive of shinobi activity that would commence throughout the village whenever the Daimyo travelled through it.

The village took that very seriously. Shutting down roads, entire markets, stopping people from leaving their homes, forcing them to close their windows, and more were just some of the measures that Konoha took to safeguard the Daimyo. After all, they needed the Daimyo just as if not more than he needed them.

They were not as lawless as Kiri to have multiple lines of Daimyo killed or injured whilst being in Kiri.

He took in the sight of Asuma Sarutobi, arriving late, later than all the other members of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, which was not taken well by many members of the guards but being the son of the Third Hokage meant they could not do anything to him, not without rousing the wrath of the highest authorities of both the arms of the Land of Fire.

Stilling and entering Sage Mode, he noted that Tsunade was awake, and in her hospital room, despite being fine physically. Shizune was not in the hospital but in one of the staff quarters nearby. He wondered how Sarutobi would handle her situation, given the note he left for him last night, after the ANBU left.

More than that, he wondered how he and Jiraiya would confront Tsunade because that was going to happen after the Daimyo left and Kenta was not going to be there to listen to their conversation.

He just hoped that they were successful in their endeavour and did not have to force him to track Tsunaade down once more and force her back to the village. That would be less than ideal.

More importantly, he wanted to figure out yet another thing that had been bugging him ever since he came here. He now knew about the underground tunnels that covered a very large area beneath the village, hidden deep underground. They were mostly for sensitive movement, and were largely used by the ANBU, with secret entrances on all sides of the village.

That much he could sense and understand as well, but what he couldn’t understand was the structures beneath the tunnels. Dug deeper than even the tunnels which were already very deep. Even then, that was not the suspicious part. Maybe they were special bunkers or storage for even more sensitive equipment.

Things that he had no business looking for.

The suspicious thing about them was the fact that he could not look into them. For the first time in many years, his senses had failed him, even with Sage Mode. No matter how hard he tried to focus, his senses could not figure out what was inside of them.

They were littered in Fuinjutsu seals, that much he could tell and the quality of them must be very high to block his senses which meant that Sarutobi either knew about it or sanctioned it himself.

Up until that point, it could have been plausible that it was a village secret that he had no business looking into. He would have backed off at that point, if not for a single minor detail, something that most people would have missed.

The commotion in the market that day, where the fake drunk shinobi brawled with a member of the Uchiha Police Force, all the while making accusations against the Uchiha Clan, trying to incite violence against the clan for not standing up to the Nine Tails, and even some wildly inaccurate ones being that the Uchiha Clan was responsible for the death of the Yondaime Hokage.

The hero of the village, killed by someone from the Uchiha Clan? The clan that was forced to only act in a rescue capacity? Yeah, those small things would have added up and in the court of public opinion, the Uchiha would have already been declared guilty, putting increasing pressure on the already stressed appointment of Sarutobi as the Hokage once more.

That same shinobi, along with a dozen others who he had sensed in the village, the ones that gave off similar cold, empty chakra feedback to his senses were the only ones who were going in and out of those black holes to his senses. 

Not all the time, since these different shinobi also lived in the ANBU quarters, took missions but sometimes, they also went to those places. So far, he had already counted 60 distinct chakra signatures coming and going from that place, the chief of them being Danzo Shimura, Elder and member of the Advisory Council to the Third Hokage, before the Yondaime was appointed.

It was all very suspicious but for now, he had let it be because he had more important stuff to do and also because there had not been a peep about the Uchiha Clan being traitors for a while now, as if the person behind them had stopped fanning the flames.

All of that painted a picture of someone very high up on the totem pole targeting the strongest clan of Konoha, and since he was part of Konoha now and actually given authority, he could not let that slide.

Those black holes were one of the things he wanted to discuss with Jiraiya, since the man must have clearly sensed them as well but he simply did not get the opportunity to do so, with Tsunade and having to explain his reasoning to Sarutobi who clearly did not appreciate that.

He sighed as the Sage Mode fizzled away, leaving behind an empty feeling. He could never get used to the sudden loss of senses, as if he had become half blind. It used to take him seconds to get used to the sudden loss of sensory input but over time, he had been able to shake it off.

A second’s delay and hesitation during the day to day life was fine but if it happened during a battle? He was as good as dead. Sometimes, he realised that it was better to not enter Sage Mode for that boost if the battle was going to be one of attrition.

With the Sage Mode gone, he looked down at the gathered entourage and smiled as he jumped and landed in the forest. He’d already informed the entourage so the Daimyo should know he was around.

Jumping lightly, he laid down on one of the larger branches, keeping an eye out for any large activity since the Daimyo had a ninja entourage whilst walking towards his actual entourage, which was…opulent but then again, this was the Daimyo of the single strongest and wealthiest nation, so it was kind of expected.