Naruto the Scarecrow

Chapter 21

Hiruzen Sarutobi stood on the balcony of his office. It gave people one of the best views of the village. Hiruzen was the picture of calm, watching the day go by while having a pleasant smoke. Hiruzen's thoughts however were anything but calm.

He thought back to the mission report he had gotten from Kakashi. 'This news about a strange transformation is disturbing. The lab said that Amp couldn't give a user a transformation of any kind. It was just a chakra steroid.

'Kakashi was so lucky that he didn't lose any of his team. He would crumble and probably request to resign as a sensei. I hope he doesn't take this too hard.

'From what Reo said, the Stone and Cloud daimyo control the black market. Is this a new way for the 'real' rulers to exercise control over the people?'

Hiruzen was tempted to just assume that to be the case but just this morning he had gotten information that cast doubt on that theory.

Even though they had been the genin team that Hiruzen had sent out first, Guy's team was the last to return from their mission to search for traces of Amp. Guy had taken it upon himself to not only search the villages assigned to him, but every village located in the northern parts of Fire country. It had taken them an extra week to return.

When they had, Hiruzen had gotten Guy's mission report. At a village just off the border, they had run into a genin team from Grass. Though the Grass had been friendly at first, things had turned sour when they realized Guy was searching for Amp.

A fight had ensued and one Grass genin had been captured. The captive genin was apparently linked quite heavily with the new drug. Something about a unique aspect of her chakra. She had been brought back to Konoha for questioning.

Her name turned out to be Karin Uzumaki and she wanted nothing more than to remain in Konoha. Word had spread like wildfire across the nations about the return of a boy named Naruto Uzumaki, son of the Fourth Hokage. Karin had heard Naruto's name and wanted to meet the only other Uzumaki she had heard of. Hiruzen knew that he would have to hold a full debrief with the girl at a later date but the small amount of information that she gave turned out to be quite interesting.

When the fight had broke out, Karin had put up only a token resistance fighting Ten-Ten. Karin said that her village was jealous of the Great Nations and desired to be seen as their equal. Karin's blood was a vital part of Amp; Apparently her Bloodline gave the drug the 'kick' to buff the chakra system.

What cast doubt on his theory about the Daimyo being behind it was when Karin told him about Grass forming an alliance with the new village Sound. Karin thought that Sound would probably want the same as Grass but she wasn't sure. The only thing she was sure about was that Sound was behind the creation of Amp. Karin was sure since she had been taken to secret facility in Sound and had her blood drawn.

'Is Stone secretly bankrolling Grass and Sound? He can't take direct action so he strikes from the shadows? Or does Sound have its own agenda? I wish we had more information on them but Sound is rather secretive. If Sound does have its own plans, it means that I will have to keep an eye on their genin when we hold the Chunin Exams later this year.'

Too much was happening, too quickly. Hiruzen wanted nothing more than a foe in front of him that he could fight. Having kept his village as far from the political scene as he could in the past, Hiruzen lacked the experience fighting on this vastly different but very real battlefield. Softly spoken words could deal more damage than a kunai. Hiruzen ordered one of his ANBU to bring Danzo to see him.