Sengoku museum Time: 11:03 Am
"Is everyone accounted for?" Zabuza asked one of his men.
"All except one." Came the reply.
Zabuza froze. Turning his malevolent eyes on his subordinates,"You have 1 minute to convince me not to rip your head off your shoulders."
The man swallowed audibly. He knew for a fact that the threat wasn't an empty one. Zabuza lead his men using a combination of charisma and terror. He had personally seen him behead his own followers for incompetence. The less said about the traitors the better. Most of them had volunteered for the cause but it was Zabuza who made sure they stayed. He knew he had to talk fast if only to give himself any chance to survive this. "There were 30 students who walked in. 29 are accounted for and are being held in the gallery."
"You are not exactly making your case stronger here you know, if you are telling me its a kid that is unaccounted for." Zabuza taunted maliciously placing the muzzle of his weapon under the man's chin. "You have 30 seconds."
"He must have separated himself from the group during the tour." The man stuttered. "Give me 10 minutes and I will have him here."
Zabuza eyes went blank at that and he pulled the trigger, the result being an empty click. The man huffed a sigh of relief before without warning Zabuza smashed his face with the butt of his weapon. The man collapsed on the floor spitting blood.
"The only reason I am leaving you alive is because I have no one to replace you with at the moment. So you can thank your lucky stars, while I go and clean up your mess." Zabuza said his voice dripping with contempt, leaving his man groaning in pain on the floor he walked into the gallery where all the hostages were being held. It had been 15 minutes since the operation had begun. Everything had gone smoothly but now this snag no matter how small was annoying the hell out of him. He didn't like variables like this. But he will see to it that it is neutralized.
The hysteria which had gripped his hostages had given way to acceptance for now. Good for them, a little more of that and he would have started shooting.
Walking into the gallery he saw the hostages visibly cower at his sight. He couldn't suppress a smirk at this. Good, he thought fear should keep them in line. But he had bigger things to worry about at the moment. Walking to the front of the group he addressed them.
"Well we have a full class here." Zabuza said in a jaunty tone."All eager to learn. But " Zabuza paused for effect. "The class isn't exactly at full strength is it? One of your number is playing truant, and that just won't do..." At this one of his men approached him and whispered something in his ear.
On processing the information his man had given him, he approached Rei. Sitting on his hunches so as to get to her eye-level. Rei flinched at this. "Well it looks like we have a winner. So, sensei it seems like one of your students isn't here. Care to enlighten me as to where he is."
"I don't know." Rei replied in a muted tone not meeting his eyes.
"Well that was highly irresponsible of you wasn't it?" Zabuza said in a sardonic tone. "Teachers like you are the reason the system is going to the dogs."
"Please..... please." Rei was almost sobbing now.
"Hmmm... I really wish I could let this go. But I need to make an example or things will never get better. I am sure you understand." Placing his weapon on her temple he decided to squeeze the trigger. "You're fired."
"Wait." A voice spoke up, halting Zabuza before he could blow her brains out. He knew this would work.
Removing his gun he swallowed his smirk and turned to the owner of the voice, a wild haired, brown-eyed boy.
"Yes?" Zabuza said with a hint of malice in his voice.
"He went to use the washroom during the tour." The boy said.
"How long ago was this?"
"Just before... you know." Kiba said and Zabuza caught his meaning. Just before they made their move. Just great all this planning and it unravels because one brat doesn't have control over his bladder. The universe must really hate him.
"All is not lost sir." Said Gozu one of his more competent underlings. He along with his twin Meizu were Zabuza's most trusted men. . "Its just one boy. Its not like he can get out of here. Nor can he contact anyone else. The jammers have taken care of that."
Zabuza let out a sigh Gozu was right. What could one boy do afterall? But still the boy was a variable and he didn't like surprises.
"Be that may, for now get the others to look for the boy." Zabuza ordered.
"Yes, sir." Gozu replied.
Kiba felt like a dirt bag right now. He was betraying his friend. The fact that he did it to save his sensei's life wasn't making him feel any better about it. He just hoped Naruto could stay hidden long enough for help to arrive. What they would do to him if they found him didn't even warrant thinking.
"Don't beat yourself over it." Came a voice from his right and Kiba was surprised to see it was Baki who obviously had seen his distress over what he saw as betrayal to his friend. "You did what you had to do." Baki said placing a hand on his shoulder. At this one of their captors shouted a warning telling Baki to shut up. Baki removed his arm but his eyes held Kiba's for a little longer, a message of comfort in them. Kiba nodded back at Baki indicating his appreciation.
XcX
Anko stepped out of her car. A look around told her of the gravity of the situation. Nearly every police officer in the city was present there. Right now they were busy setting up a perimeter.
"Sergeant Mitarashi." A voice greeted her. Turning around she saw that it was another Sergeant who had addressed her.
"Yes sir."
"Follow me. The boss has requested your presence."
He led her to Morino Ibiki the Superintendent of her ex-department. A tall intimidating man with twin scars running diagonally across his face. The scars were the results of an undercover operation gone horribly wrong. There were some who disputed it though. Rumour was that Ibiki blew his own cover so as to get the information that was vital to the case leading him to gain the moniker of 'The Shark' due to his dogged pursuit of any clue as a shark would pursue a drop of blood in an ocean for his prey. As an interrogation specialist Anko had only the greatest respect for Ibiki who had been her mentor ever since she had joined the force before she was transferred to Special Assault Team.
"What's the situation sir?"
"36 hostages excluding the Governor. The perpetrators number unknown, though estimated to be more than 10. Its been more than two and half hours since the situation arose."
"What's our plan of attack sir?"
"We have none." Ibiki replied grimly.
"I am sure I misheard you sir, but I was sure I heard you say we have no plan of attack."
"You heard right Sergeant. We have no plan of attack."
"Permission to speak freely sir."
"Granted."
"What the hell Ibiki? What are you playing at?" Anko screamed at her mentor.
Ibiki gave her a levelled glare expecting this reaction.
"You tell me." Ibiki said offering Anko his place along with a pair of binoculars. One look was all it took for Anko to feel like an idiot for doubting her Ibiki as the reason they didn't have a plan of attack became clear to her. The museum was surrounded by 500 yards of open lawns, making getting an infiltration team in impossible. Lack of buildings or any elevated areas in the vicinity put snipers out of the equation as well. Seeing the situation in front of her Anko couldn't help but summarise the situation rather eloquently.
"Shit!"
"I thought so." Ibiki said grimly.
Handing the binoculars back to Ibiki, Anko walked away trying to gather her thoughts. Her brain refused to come up with a plan which wasn't suicidal. Whoever these guys were they were good. If only she could get some one in,if only for logistics. Her thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of her phone adding to her annoyance. Checking the caller id told her that it was an unknown number. Deciding to ignore the call in favor of the situation in hand she cancelled the call. But before long her phone started ringing again. She ignored it a second time, the third time it rang Anko answered it.
"I hope for your sake that you are either a hostage or a terrorist, cause if you aren't either.."
"Well good thing I happen to fit one of the criteria then." A voice interrupted her from the other end. Anko froze forgetting all about the hostage situation, about Ibiki, about everything. Of all the people who could have called her, he was the last person she expected this from. It wasn't everyday that Anko was struck speechless.
"Na...Naruto." She stammered.
"You are a hard person to reach Anko san." Came the sardonic reply.
One hour ago
Part of Naruto was still wondering why he was doing this. He could let the events play out, keep in hiding till they are rescued or they are let go following a negotiation. But another part of him felt responsible. He should have seen this coming. The signs were all there and he had ignored them lulled by the security of civilian life. He didn't know what he could have done to prevent this situation, but the fact that he had ignored the signs alone counted as a failure in his book and he wasn't trained to fail. So he would make this right any way he could. So far he had managed to avoid the guards while keeping an eye on them. There were 15 of them. The exits were lined with C-4 explosives. As far as he could tell the detonator was primed to receive microwave signals. He couldn't deactivate the bombs without getting caught, but if he could somehow get close enough he might be able to change the frequency for detonation. But even that seemed impossible at the moment. He had come up with a plan. One of the shorter guards was within an inch of his height. He could infiltrate this group. He had spent the last hour or so observing his mark. The fact that all of them had face-masks made his job easier. Well time to get to work.
His guard was relatively relaxed. After all the plan had gone flawlessly so far. Now if only they could find the missing boy. But then one pubescent boy was hardly worth the trouble as he couldn't make any contact with the outside world. In another 12 hours they would be out of here with enough funds to fuel their coup. So engrossed was he in his thoughts that he didn't notice the shadow land behind him. He didn't notice it creeping behind him. He did notice the fingers that enclosed around his throat though. But before he could do more than widen his eyes, the fingers had already crushed his windpipe. He died a quick but painful death.
Naruto dragged the body away. He had two minutes at most, before they figured something was wrong. Dragging the body he pushed it inside one of the sarcophagus in the Egyptian gallery. Hurriedly pulling his clothes on over his own. The man was built more heavily than a 14 year old. So Naruto left his clothes on to make up for the bulk, put on the mask and he was ready. Picking up the weapon he was ready to pick up the patrol.
He made his way to the hallway. Modifying his voice to match it with that of his unfortunate victim, he spoke into the radio.
"This is Alpha-1 reporting. Hallway 3 is clear." He waited for confirmation with bated breath.
"Roger that Alpha-1. Keep your eyes out for tangos as well as for the kid. Zabuza's ready to burst a vein if the kid isn't found soon."
Naruto froze for a second on hearing that name. It was a name he was familiar with and it didn't bode well. He knew it was asking for too much when he expected his life to be easy.
"Copy that." Naruto spoke into the radio.
Approaching the doors with the explosives, he started his work on them. This will take some time, though he hoped to be done before someone came to check on them. It took 3 minutes to make one circuit around the museum. There were 3 of them patrolling the floor. Which gave him one minute to finish what he was doing. He needed only 45 seconds. He wasn't trying to deactivate the bombs after all. He just needed to change the frequency, so that Zabuza couldn't detonate them.
Naruto had changed detonation frequency of the bomb by his 6th round of patrol. It had gone smoothly enough, and the others didn't suspect a thing. After nearly 20 minutes of regular patrolling Naruto was feeling a little lost. Deactivating the bombs was as far as he had gone in his planning, which while crucial didn't help the situation much. The bombs were there prevent anyone escaping and there didn't seem to be any possibility of that happening any time soon. So while he had successfully derailed plan B wouldn't make much of a difference if plan A succeeded. He decided to make contact with the cops who were milling outside the compound. Using the binoculars he had found on his victim he gazed out into the compound, and seeing the familiar figure of Mitarashi Anko made his decision for him. Though at the moment he didn't know how. Someone was scrambling the signals making mobile phones useless. While a portable signal scrambler could kill the network of all phones within 15 yards. To do this over this large an area required you would need some heavy duty equipment. Equipment which would require constant supply of electricity. Something like the guard room, which was used to monitor the cameras inside the museum.
Deciding to follow this line of thought Naruto made his way to the guard room.
"This is Alpha-1 I am gonna go check the basement for activity." Naruto reported.
"Roger that."
Walking to a soda machine he grabbed a couple of cans of coke and knocked on the door to the guard room.
"Come in." Came a high reedy voice.
Naruto walked in to find a thin bespectacled man, in his late twenties hunched over a laptop attached to various paraphernalia.
"So how is it going?" Naruto asked.
"Well its all boring for the moment. Scrambling the signals of all the cell phones in the building. Its child's play."
"That is why Zabuza keeps you around. You are useful. Coke?" Naruto offered
"Why thank you. You military types are so uptight. Atleast one of you is approachable." He said popping open the can taking a sip."Aahh...that hits the spot."
"So how long is the range of this thing?" Naruto asked the man.
"This baby covers nearly 500 yards. Need to keep her juiced up though unlike the battery operated ones ."
"Of course. No blind spots I suppose."Naruto said keeping his tone nonchalant.
"Any electronic device outside this room is about as useful as a pebble." The man said before chugging the rest of the drink and burping loudly.
"You really watered down your drink." Naruto said faking amazement.
"Yeah back in my college days I used to be known as the soda chugging king." The man said pride evident in his voice.
"You don't say." Naruto said popping the second can. "Prove it then. Bet you 100 that you can't chug this down in 20 seconds."
"Won't need more than 15."
The man took 13 seconds.
"Wow you are the man." Naruto said in an awed voice.
"Flattery will get you everywhere. I will still need the money though."
Naruto groaned as he placed the money in his hands. It wasn't that big a loss. It wasn't his money anyway.
"You don't mind staying here while I make a trip to the toilet do you?" The man asked him. "Zabuza will have my hide if he learnt that I left."
Naruto barely suppressed a smirk at the successful conclusion of his plan. The room being a chilly twenty degrees didn't hurt and the soda just sped the process.
"Sure man go ahead take your time."
As soon as the man left the room. Naruto took his cell and began dialling the one number he hoped he wouldn't ever have to use. But once he dialled he found that she kept cutting her calls. On his 3rd try she finally answered.
"I hope for your sake that you are either a hostage or a terrorist, cause if you aren't either.."
"Well good thing I happen to fit one of the criteria then." Naruto interrupted her.
"Na...Naruto." Came the eloquent response from the other end.
"You are a hard person to reach Anko san." Naruto said not being able to help his sardonic tone. He knew he was taking a big risk. But he had run out of choices. There were lives on the line here. He had made his choice and he was ready to live with the consequences.
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Chapter end notes: Finally some action eh? What is Naruto planning? Will he be able to save the hostages? What are Zabuza's designs? All this and more next time.