Chapter 13

-Dilemma

A shadowy figure stands alone in a cave, projecting himself using some type of jutsu. He appears looking rainbow-ish, all his features distorted by the shadowed façade. Two more figures appear, looking the same as he does.

"Kakuzu. Hidan," The man acknowledges.

Both of the figures nod to him, confirming their indentities. Soon enough more figures begin to gather, eight of them standing around in a circle.

"You're all here," The first man says in a static-y distorted voice, "We begin soon. Assume your positions and be ready to make move on the jinchuriki. The Akatsuki will not fail. Soon enough, the world will know – pain."

"Right," One of the figures says, "We're about a days journey from the village. There shouldn't be any problems."

"What about the sucker from the leaf village?" Another figure asks.

"He will be the most difficult to grab but he shouldn't be an issue. Focus on getting the easier targets first, Hidan. Dismiss," The leader says before everyone disappears one by one.

*

Shizake arises early in the morning, taking a quick shower after doing some morning warm ups. He prepares to head out for the day, grabbing his ninja sandals and putting them on. Opening a drawer, he grabs his ninja pouch and attaches it to his pants, securing the holster steadily. The Uchiha is about to put on his armored chest piece when he hears a knock at the door. He squints his eyes, suspicious of whom it could be. Peering through the peep hole, he sees two jonin, the two from the first mission Team Kari was assigned.

He opens the door, "Kotetsu? Izumo?"

"Yeah. Lady Hokage has summoned you," Kotetsu says.

"Understood," Shizake replies.

"Casual attire. Also she told us to give you this," Izumo says, handing Shizake a standard blue Leaf Village headband.

Shizake squints his eyes, confused about the odd request. Closing the door, he holds the headband in his hands, running his fingers along the metal plating. I never got to hold one of these seeing as I was truly never a genin, but why did they give this to me? He then thinks back to when he was first assigned as a captain. Lady Tsunade told him he would be inserted into chunin and jonin level missions occasionally to retain anonymity among the ANBU. The Uchiha puts the ANBU armor back up on its rack inside of a large dresser, closing it shut and locking it. The boy then grabs his cloak off of a chair before tying the headband around his forehead and quickly exiting the apartment, eager to see what sort of mission he is about to receive.

He quickly rushes over to the Hokage mansion, heading straight to the Hokage's room. Upon opening the door he notices two students from his childhood, Hinata Hyuga and Kiba Inuzuka along with his big white dog, Akamaru standing beside him. They look at him confusedly, faintly recognizing his face but not being able to put a finger on it.

"Shizake, you're here," Tsunade booms, sitting down at her desk with her arms crossed.

"Yes, Lady Hokage, I came as soon as possible," Shizake answers.

Tsunade examines Shizake, noticing he received the headband. She unravels the mission scroll, scanning it over with her eyes.

"There's been a series of bank robberies in the south western district. So far, nearly five hundred thousand in Ryo has been stolen. Our finest detectives have been on the case and they've figured out which bank the robbers are about to hit next. We're not sure at what exact time they'll hit it but we know it's going to be today. I'll explain the rest quickly since we're wasting time just by being here. You're going to be working with Kiba and Hinata today seeing as Shino is out on another mission. I want you to capture the perpetrators, alive." The fifth Hokage says clearly.

"Yes ma'am," Shizake replies.

"Shizake here will be team leader, coordinating you two, Kiba and Hinata, and your tracking skills. Now go."

All three of them bow, exiting the Hokage mansion and quickly heading over to the southwest area of the village. As they're running along the rooftops, Kiba and Hinata join up side by side with Shizake.

"Shizake...Uchiha?" Kiba asks, Akamaru barking assuredly after him.

"That is me, yes," Shizake replies monotonously.

"Man, it's been ages since I've seen you. I can't even remember the last time."

"Yes... I haven't seen many people from the academy much these days."

Kiba scratches his head, the three of them leaping to another building, "What've ya been up to this whole time?"

Shizake clears his throat, quickly preparing an answer, "I've just been accepting what missions I can from the Hokage, and doing some other work for her."

"I-I remember," Hinata speaks up, "Didn't you say Shizake helped you, Naruto, and the others to try and retrieve Sasuke, Kiba?"

"Y-yeah..." Shizake says, defeatedly.

Hinata cups her mouth, "I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that!"

So considerate, Shizake thinks,

"It's okay, Hinata, really. I've been able to hone my skills, trust me, I've had my fair share of fights."

"Now I remember! You appeared for a brief moment before charging ahead of us," Kiba says.

"I apologize for that..."

Kiba grins, "It's okay, buddy. He's your family, I would've done the same thing!"

"Arf!" Akamaru barks, solidifying Kiba's statement.

"Thank you... but still, I left you behind, all of you. I cannot atone for that."

"Hey cheer up, man. Besides, I'm sorry we couldn't get him..."

"You and Akamaru put your life on the line to help. You did all anyone could ask of you."

"Thanks."

"S-so I heard you caused a scene at the Hyuga compound yesterday..." Hinata quietly says.

"What did ya do?" Kiba obnoxiously asks.

Shizake ponders upon yesterday, the images of Nitatchi being tortured flashing through his mind, bright as day. He reluctantly nods his head, answering Hinata.

"I-is Nitatchi okay? I heard Lord Hikoge went pretty c-crazy with the cursed seal..."

"He'll be okay. Hikoge is a mad man who abuses your clan's power," Shizake angrily says.

"I-I know... I don't agree with our methods," Hinata sadly states.

"Then why can't you do anything about it? Why can't you convince your father to rid of it?"

"H-he is hard to get through to...but I think he's slowly coming around. Neji has really helped the situation but he's out on missions a lot of the t-time."

"I see. Hopefully it's done with for good soon."

Hinata nods her head, almost fearing the fiery resolve radiating off of the Uchiha. All too many times she has seen Neji tortured with the caged bird seal. Although, after the chunin exams father saw where Neji's heart was and stopped using the seal. Still, a lot of the clan in the main branch still abuses it.

The three of them land in the familiar area of the village, scanning around and looking for any clues. They notice a building, the front of it completely blown away. The massive gaping hole is receiving reparations, citizens building scaffolding around the area so that they can begin.

With that being the only clue, Shizake looks to his teammates. He gazes downward, looking at the large white dog next to Kiba.

"Hmm... we should have Akamaru sniff the site to see if he picks up anything," Shizake says.

"You're right, I've trained him to sniff out all sorts of things. Lets go," The Inuzuka says, running forward with his dog.

Akamaru sniffs around the site, mainly around the edges of the massive hole in the building. Hinata looks around with her Byakugan, scanning for any trace of chakra residue or anything of the sort. Shizake's Sharingan picks up nothing from the site, but the Uchiha isn't surprised seeing as his Kekkei Genkai isn't really meant for detection on a small scale.

Akamaru growls, barking something to Kiba and us. The fanged boy runs over to where his pet is, sniffing the sight as well.

"Blasting powder..." Kiba says.

Hinata deactivates her Byakugan, jogging over to where the Uchiha and Inuzuka are standing.

"Which means they didn't use jutsu or even bomb tags," Shizake says.

"This was the first bank they hit?" Hinata asks one of the citizens working on the building.

One of the workers holding a hammer stops mid-swing, looking at the young Hyuga girl.

"Yeah...those rotten bastards. They're lucky no one was close to where they blew the building up," The man says angrily.

"How did they get into the vault?" Kiba inquires.

"Hrm...that's the part I'm not too sure about. The vault suffered no damage."

Shizake squints his eyes, "So then why was there a need to blow half of the building to shreds?"

"Look kid, if I knew the answer to all this I would tell ya."

The Uchiha nods his head, motioing for Hinata and Kiba to follow him back outside.

"We should head to the bank Tsunade told us to go to, can't waste any more time here," Shizake states, "But...before we go. I want to ask the two of you something."

"What is it?" Both Kiba and Hinata ask.

Shizake stops in the middle of the dirt rode, turning around to the two ninja behind him. Dark worries plague his mind, seeing as this is the first time he's worked in this setting. That is, working with two people from his childhood. The only place he is comfortable with is leading his own squad in the ANBU since everyone is so familiar with one another. But these two... would they trust my leadership? For all they know, I've been gone the past few years due to my time with the ANBU.

"Do you two...trust me?"

Kiba scoffs, "What kind of stupid question is that? Of course we do! You're our comrade."

Hinata nods in agreement at Kiba's statement, confused as to why the Uchiha asked such a question.

"Just needed to ease my mind, that's all. Lets move," Shizake says, leaping on to a rooftop along with Kiba and Hinata in tow.

As they land on the street a few blocks over, the three of them spot the bank noted in the mission agenda. Shizake notices that for now everything seems tranquil, which means that the robbers haven't hit the building yet.

"We should head inside, question some of the workers there." Shizake says.

The three of them walk inside of the bank, teller windows lined up along the back wall. Behind them sits the vault, a massive metal contraption sealed tight. The trio walks up to one of the tellers, a young woman, who looks at them confusedly. She has neat blue hair, large strands hanging all around her head with another portion of her hair sitting atop the braids.

"What can I help you with?" The teller cheerfully asks.

"We wanted to question you about the bank robberies that have been going on. Maybe see if you know anything," Shizake says.

"Oh...yes. I've heard about the past few that were hit. I have friends working at one of them. I can't believe nobody has caught them yet but hopefully you guys can," The lady explains.

"The one a few streets over was blown open with blasting powder while the vault remained unscathed, know anything about that?" Kiba interjects.

"B-blasting powder? I haven't heard about that yet. That vault though...unscathed you said? How odd..."

"Yeah..." Shizake trails off, looking around at the other bank tellers, "Thank you for the information."

"Anytime."

Deciding that there's nobody left to question, the three men squad heads back outside, deciding to stake the place out for a while. They sit on the roof opposite of the bank, using a wall that sticks up as cover to hide.

"Hmm..." Shizake mumbles.

"What is it?" Hinata asks.

"The vault... I can't stop thinking about it. Just how exactly could they get inside without using any kind of jutsu, explosives, or anything?"

"I'm not v-very sure. The answer will come to us soon hopefully," The girl softly says.

"It's leading me to believe something... that maybe this is an inside job," Shizake states.

Kiba scratches his head, "What do ya mean?"

"Think about it, the thieves blow the building apart. Amid all of the chaos, someone there who knows combination to the vault sneaks in and grabs all the money they can. The thieves are then able to escort that person out safely."

The Inuzuka rubs his chin, "That's a bit of a stretch... couldn't the thieves just force one of them to open the vault?"

"You're right... I suppose it was a bit of a stretch. It might just be that these guys are ruthless," Shizake says, slumping against the wall.

"W-we can't rule it out though, anything is possible. Especially considering the different types of ninjutsu out there in the world," Hinata calmly states.

Kiba clenches his fist in determination, "You're right, Hinata. I guess we just have to be prepared for anything!"

An hour goes by and still the team hasn't spotted anything suspicious of the sort. The only thing that caused a commotion was a dog doing its business on the front porch of a shop owner's shop. Of course, this caused Kiba to chuckle while Hinata just shook her head in an embarrassing way. The squad takes turns keeping a lookout on the bank, each of them using their powers to try and spot anything out of the ordinary. Hinata looks for any odd chakra signatures with her Byakugan but to avail. The same happens for Shizake and Kiba too but still, they continue to sit there through the afternoon.

Kiba rubs his stomach, petting Akamaru as well, "Man...I'm getting hungry."

"We've barely been out here for more than an hour, Kiba," Hinata says.

"So?! It's lunch time."

"Quiet down, we need to keep our ey-"

KABOOM!

A fiery explosion along with a heavy rock of the ground interrupts the Uchiha. The three of them horrifyingly look over at a huge pillar of smoke rising off of a building several blocks from their current position. Shizake's ANBU instincts kick in causing him to stand up quickly while motioning for Kiba and Hinata to follow. They quickly race over via rooftop, their hearts pounding in anticipation.

"Damn it, we must've been spotted while we were asking questions!" Shizake yells, fighting through the wind, "We can catch them if we hurry up, lets go!"