Twist Of Fate

"Ji-what?" Adell had never heard of that term until now.

"It's a word for humans who have an incredibly powerful demon sealed inside of them. The demon gives the owner power and two become linked. So if should the human die, instead of being released, the demon dies with them." Levante said. Then added to Adell. "Just in case, you might want to keep your demon heritage hidden. Best not to take any chances. Only real worry if any of them can sense demonic energy, Ignis could be handwaved as being what we talked about since she's half and half."

"Hope you're right. I really don't want to end up sealed inside someone."

"It's doubtful most would so much as tried to seal you, as kill you." Levante paused, thinking on it. "In most cases. I heard the village Hidden In the Moon has half-demons inside of it, so its not as black and white."

Akuma frowned slightly. "It's actually a word that means literally, 'Power of Human Sacrifice.' Not a pleasant word, but it fits. The host of the demon is alive, yes, but there is a pattern of them being alone and unloved, treated as weapons or just as a scapegoat. Konoha's, a shinobi named Naruto Uzumaki, was just alone. No friends, no family. Suna's, Gaara of The Desert, had assassin's sent after him by his own father for most of his childhood. Me, things were more like they were for Naruto, though I actually got beaten half the time. 'Jinchuriki' sacrifice their happiness for the sake of others." He shrugged a bit.

Adell was disgusted with what he just heard but he couldn't think of anything to say. What could he say? Most of the others were of the same mind as Adell. If anything, they should be treated as heroes since they were the ones keeping some powerful demon locked away inside of themselves. He didn't pretend to understand people.

Akuma noticed the looks, and smiled. "Nice to know that people like me and the others aren't going to be mistreated by everyone. Then again, I never thought you guys would hold that sort of thing against anyone..." He trailed off as the other guard returned, out of breath and sporting a bump on his head.

"The Hokage will see you now..."

"She was asleep, wasn't she." The guard just nodded. "Paperweight?" The guard nodded. "Gotcha. Sorry about that, but at least it wasn't a chair or something dangerous. COme on, guys, we're heading to the Hokage Tower, near the back of the village, where the Hokage Faces are on the mountain." He pointed to the massive faces for emphasis.

Guess she woke up in a bad mood. Adell shrugged, and then followed after Akuma with the others, keeping a reminder of his words in mind. This was probably going to be a very interesting meeting if there ever was one.

Adell and the others didn't know how true that was.

As they traveled through the village, they got strange looks. Most people just seemed curious. SOme ignored them completely or gave polite nods. Some looked at Akuma warily. For the most part, it was a pleasant trip. Aside from the moment when two men in green spandex suits came out of a building, and Akuma quickly herded the group down an alley to a different street, panic on his face, as a shout of 'Gai-sensei!' echoed behind them. Soon, they reached the tower, and Akuma started to lead the way up to the reception desk just outside the Hokage's office. THe woman there smiled. "It'll be just a moment, Lady Hokage is just finishing up a meeting."

"Thanks for having us." Garnet said politely, a bit curious of what this Hokage looked like up in person and up close. Akuma's description of her hadn't been all that flattering but he was likely exaggerating a bit(or a lot). Before she judged somebody, she liked to at least meet them up close in person before reaching her own conclusions. There were exceptions to this of course, depending on what it was about.

After a bit, there was some yelling from inside the Hokage's office. It sounded like two elder people trying to to talk over a much louder, younger sounding woman. After a bit of this yelling, there was a heavy slamming sound, and everyone went quiet inside. The doors opened, and two very disgruntled looking people, a man and a woman who appeared to be in their eighties, approaching ninety. The two looked over the group, and openly glared at Akuma, who just smirked. "Greetings Homura, Koharu. You two are looking especially wrinkly today." At this, Koharu, the woman, turned up her nose at Akuma.

"Greetings to you as well, Akuma. You are looking especially monstrous today. Tell me, lost control lately and killed any innocent people? Perhaps devoured families?" Akuma's grin widened at Koharu's words.

"Aw, come on now, Koharu. You know the only person I'd ever even think of eating is you." At this, Homura spoke up, icily.

"Akuma, I don't know why you are here, or who these outsider's are, but I'd like it if you were out of our village as soon as possible. I'd hate it if something were to happen to you while you were here. Or perhaps you'll reconsider our offer to be a Konoha shinobi? You'd have plenty of protection then."

"I believe I told you before where you could stick that offer."

"Then I suggest you be careful. Some people are not as tolerant of your kind as we are." With that, the two people walked briskly off. Akuma just shook his head.

"Old fossils..." He went to the door to the Hokage's office, and pushed it open.

"Charming people." Levante said, the sarcasm and disdain in his voice palpable after the two of them left. "Reminds too much of some of the many asshats at the councils. Old, stuck in their ways with a strong sense of self entitlement and worth. Wisdom isn't truly universal with age. In short, like a typical so-called 'noble'. They wouldn't know what noble meant if you beat them to death with it."

Then he shrugged. "My little side rant aside, lets get this over with.." Then he and the others went to follow after Akuma.

As they stepped in, it was to find Tsunade Senju, Godaime Hokage, sitting at her desk, hands folding in front of her mouth as she glared at the desk. She only barely glanced up at everyone. "...Akuma, and friends. To what do I owe this pleasure during such an inconvenient time?" She wasn't trying to be rude, but she had alot on her plate right now, and her tone was distinctly annoyed.

"Ah, pleasant as always, Lady Tsunade. Bad day? I heard you were woken up earlier than you'd have liked, but didn't expect you to be this irritable."

"I just had to deal with those fossilized idiots demanding that I keep one of MY shinobi in the village, for protection. They have no right ordering me around, especially about shinobi affairs! And for his safety? That's bullshit and they know it! They could care less if he died, they are only interested in saving their own asses!" Tsunade was nearly in a rage at the end, and Akuma just watched her, before sighing.

"Oi, I know what you mean, you know that. It'll be fine, okay? The Akatsuki won't be a threat to Naruto anymore, okay? Me and my friends here will be helping take care of them. Akatsuki very likely are the ones who kidnapped two very precious people from them. I'll let you guys take it from here." He stepped aside, and Tsunade turned her attention to the others, raising an eyebrow.

After that display and being 'on the spot' Garnet was the one who choose to speak first. "I'll try to make this as short as possible. My name is Garnet Brunel. Not too long ago, me and my friends found ourselves dragged into the world of ninja." She sighed. "This..group that you call Atasuki took some of our own. The only thing in common is their heritage, Sydney is a little girl who's half demon, and Rozalin is a full demon. You see, from what we heard they seem to be gathering a lot of half-demons..for something. Of what, we don't know."

She took another breath, shaking her head. "So..knowing so little of this, we came here. Because despite not knowing, we no longer had an choice the moment they decided to take them for their own ends."

Tsunade seemed surprised when Garnet openly admitted to being friends with demons and half-demons, but nodded slowly. "I see. Well, it seems we have similar ends then. One of my shinobi is a young man named Naruto Uzumaki. He's a jinchuriki for the Kyuubi, strongest of the tailed beasts, and Akatsuki has tried several times to capture him, so they can extract the Kyuubi for their use. Which would kill him, by the way. Now, I see Naruto as family. He's more important to me than even the village, understand? So it's in my interests to get rid of anyone that would try to hurt him."

Tomoya nodded. "I understand completely. So, we work together to deal with these bastards permanently, right?" At this, Orihime cringed.

"You mean... kill them?"

"Yes, kill them." Tsunade looked directly at Orihime, who she'd already pegged as the weak link of the group in this area. "That's the world we live in. Someone is trying to hurt or kill someone you love, you get them first. The only enemy that isn't a threat is a dead one. I hate war, and killing, but I will do whatever it takes to protect those I love. Wouldn't you do the same?" Orihime was visibly uncomfortable but, after a moment, nodded. "...Good."

"So do they have any area they might hang out at or does this group travel around a lot?" Reizo was thinking of how harder it might be if they bounced to place to place. If they stayed in one area, even if nobody knew exactly where said area was, it would make things much easier in the short and long term.

But if they were found out, more then likely they would move since they seemed to be highly wanted in the ninja world.

Tsunade sighed. "It's believed they have several hideouts, and almost never meet in one place at the same time. We are gathering what information we can, but it's also believed they have a spy that's letting them know when we get close, or even sabotaging us. It's slow going, but we are getting somewhere, at least. We've managed to take out several members of Akatsuki in the past, though it was far from easy."

"Better then nothing." Garnet said, thinking. "Do you have any information about any of the members abilities or powers? Something to work with is better then nothing at all." There was also the issue about lodging, but this place seemed to have more then enough room to accommodate them all.

Tsunade responded by opening a drawer on her desk, and pulling out a file, which she set on her desk. "Everything we know is right in here. Of those people listed, most are dead, other's neutralized. Kisame, Itachi, Kakuzu, Hidan, Sasori, and Pein are all known to be dead. Konan went back to Rain Country, after giving her support to Naruto, and we have no idea what's happened since with her. Deidara is believed to be dead, but we aren't entirely sure. Hidan is alive, but buried under several tons of rock, and in pieces, the immortal freak. Then there is the supposed head of things, a man claiming to be Madara Uchiha, who should be dead, and the rest are just suspected members."

Emanulle didn't know any of them and neither did the others, save Akuma. But if they did some reading they would know a bit more then what they did before. Knowledge was one of the most important things when you were battling almost completely unknown beings. Ninja's weren't anything new to him, but these 'Charka' users were. From what he could tell some far, the energy could best described like a mix of magic and Ki energy.

"..In the mean time, I guess we have no choice but to wait." Adell didn't want to wait.

"We'll get our chance." Levante said simply, even if he was of the same mind. "Where will our group be staying at present?"

Tsunade shrugged. "I'll authorize some vouchers for you all to stay at the hotel. As for money... how much Ryo do you have at present?" Akuma spoke up then.

"THey don't have any, they are from outside the Elemental Nations. I'll pay for everyth-"

"No you won't. After what you've done for Naruto, you don't pay for anything unless it's big. So I'll include passes for you all that will get you free service at restaurants, the hot springs, and other amenities."

Garnet and everyone else was extremely grateful for this and thanked the Hokage for it. They were helping, but that didn't mean she had to do what she did. At least there was one more thing they wouldn't have to worry about in the mean time. Nobody was too picky about where they ended up at. The whole mission and goal was to rescue both Rozalin and Sydney after all.

Tsunade just waved them off, starting to look around her desk. "I'll have someone bring the passes and vouchers to you in about an hour. Until then, explore or something... hm, wonder if Shizune found all my sake stashes..." Akuma chuckled, and led everyone out of the room.

"Alright, what do you all want to do right now?"

Garnet tried to think for a moment. "Maybe just taking a tour would be fine. I'm really not sure what else all we can do here." That was true. The others didn't know their way around or what to expect here. It was a ninja village though, so there was bound to be something worthwhile to do around here.

Akuma shrugged. "I can give you a tour, I guess. Can't show you the training grounds without special permission though. They are offlimits to non-shinobi generally. Safety issues. If only the Chunin Exams were going on right now. That THAT would be a sight for you guys. Well, the finals would be."

"..The chunin exams?" Adell pronounced the word, letting it roll off his tongue and digest. "What exactly are those? Like a tournament or something?"

Akuma nodded. "Sorta. It has three parts. The written part, the 'survival/mission simulation' part, and the 'combat' part. It tests the Genin, the beginning rank for shinobi, to see if they are ready for Chunin level. Chunin are squad leaders in missions. Jounin is the next rank, and they are the one's who train Genin, and do various other important roles."

"Huh, sounds interesting, if not dangerous." Adell noted. He really didn't have too much to say about it for the most part. He was probably going to talk to Kieth when they got some downtime at this hotel. It wasn't like he was an empath or anything but he knew his friend and something was bothering him even if he tried to hide it.