Naruto Chapter 99

It was eight in the evening the day after the massive defeat of Doto's forces by the Konoha team. He was halfway through the first preparations to counter the attack that would logically follow.

He had got reports of four flying thundergod seals being found in the base, which meant that they could at least determine that Naruto had been part of the ones infiltrating the fortress. Everything else didn't make sense.

The problem was, they couldn't be absolutely sure that those were the only seals placed inside the fortress. The boy couldn't be underestimated, just like it had been with his father. That could only end in defeat and Doto couldn't afford more of them in the near future.

He really hadn't expected something like this when he had heard that Princess Koyuki had been identified as Yukie Fujikaze. The best part of that was that she had been set to come to Snow Country as part of the film crew for the next Princess Gale movie.

It had seemed so easy to finally obtain the hexagonal crystal then and to finally establish his undisputed rule over Snow Country. One ninja team from Konoha shouldn't have made that much of a difference. But it had.

They had underestimated the team massively. His best ninjas were killed or captured. Even Nadare, the undoubtedly strongest of the Snow ninjas, had lost against Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze.

For the second time in his plans to take over the country from his useless brother, he had been thwarted by a Konoha ninja.

First Kakashi Hatake, the new Godaime Hokage, had saved Koyuki when she had been a child and had got her out of the country before he could lock down the borders. He had lost track of Koyuki after that during the consolidation of his powerbase and making the people see that he was now their daimyo.

And now another young Konoha ninja had prevented that he got Koyuki and the thrice damned crystal into his hands. He was sure that they didn't know the importance of the crystal, but it was infuriating.

He had increased the guards. Nobody would be able to get close to him. It was clear that he would be a prime target for the coming attack. He had also strengthened the security around the laboratory. He didn't want that his blue prints got into the hands of the Konoha group.

One day where there hadn't been any alarms about anybody being in close proximity to the labs that didn't belong there wasn't enough for them to steal anything of importance so far, but if they launched a real attack, it was only a question of time until they got in there.

And he couldn't afford that Konoha got the secret to his success. They were annoying enough as it was.

His call for back up from the Snow village was already out and the reinforcement troops of specialists that could counter the Konoha team's abilities better than the ones he had previously tasked with the job would arrive later tonight. It was an unfortunate disadvantage to having the fortress and the village being separated locally, but the reason was sound.

If somebody attacked one location, the other one could still react and act as a new headquarter for the defenders. The only reason why he had been able to take over the country was that the Snow ninjas had been unhappy with his brother's plans to reduce their numbers.

He watched from his throne how the change of guards took place. It was the normal, disciplined act. The identification of the seals on the lower arms was done as perfectly as always. It was a great security measure. Nobody would be able to sneak past those guards. And if somebody tried, they would be stopped immediately. Then he saw that is dinner had arrived.

Previously he had always taken his dinner in his rooms, but right now, he didn't have the time to do that. He needed to be constantly available to confirm plans and discuss strategies with his new leaders, as they weren't experienced enough in what they did.

He had somebody perform the normal scans of the food, the waiters that brought the food and asked for the current passcodes before they were allowed inside. Then he stood from his throne and went over to a table that was normally used for strategy discussions. A small space was cleared for him to sit down and eat in peace. He looked at the dishes and had to smile.

The cook really knew his preferences. It was clearly his favourite food, probably the cook wanted to earn points with him by serving this food at a time where he was stressed. Well, he would positively remember it.

He took the first bite and had to suppress a moan of delight. The steak was fried to perfection. The potatoes au gratin that were served with it were also delicious.

He enjoyed his meal a lot while the waiters made sure that his glass was always filled, though he refrained from drinking more than one glass of wine, as he needed to stay sober tonight.

He took some imported fruit juice instead after the one glass he allowed himself. With the climate of Snow Country being what it was, fruit juice was nearly as much of a luxury as wine was.

Then, when he had finished his meal, he went back to his throne, calling his commanders of the forces at the fortress to him. They needed to clear the plans for the night. They still didn't have full forces back, thanks to the attack.

None of the ones hit by the senbons in the neck were up for work now and the replacements that he had called in already were not used to the discipline that was practiced at the fortress yet.

Well, at least they had managed to get a large number of suits transported here. This way even the weaker soldiers had a small chance against the Konoha ninjas.

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Naruto was hidden under his mirage jutsu again. Haku and the others were waiting at the prison area of the fortress. It seemed that the screens for his flying thundergod seals hadn't included that area, which was actually quite stupid.

It was logical from a ninja's point of view to have a way to free captured comrades from the very place the enemy would keep them if you had a chance to arrange it. Naruto had simply placed two seals onto the inside of the bars of two prison cells. That got them out of sight, but still easily accessible by Naruto's jutsu.

And the best part was that, because of being underground, the seals that provided protection to the fortress and alarmed the guards to their entry, didn't work properly. It was a huge blind spot.

Especially as Neji had determined that the entrances to the canalisation of the fortress was outside of the barrier and then led inside without guards making sure that nobody could use that entrance.

While there were seals to fry anybody that touched the grills that separated the pipe leading inside from the accessible places with a huge charge of electricity, not to mention that for any non-ninja getting there would be impossible, with it being at the bottom of a steep cliff that had been secured with several traps, for a good ninja, with abilities of about chunin rank, it was fairly easy to get down there to enter.

And as a fuinjutsu master, Naruto could easily circumvent the lightning seals at the grills. His were far more advanced.

Naruto had transported Neji, Haku and Tenten into the prison area while Gai and Lee were going through the other entrance to not have their group sitting in one place in case they were noticed.

They had the counter seals on their persons that would allow them to have the electricity be channelled to the side. It wouldn't trigger any alarms that might go off if the electricity was turned off, which would let them get further inside before they would be detected.

Naruto had then flashed to a second seal that hadn't been noticed so far, one hidden under a board of the kitchen storage room. He had kept hidden and at a good moment slipped into the group of those that were working at the dinner for Doto and the other people at the fortress under a transformation.

Nobody but two people that had special security clearance were allowed to get close to Doto's food, but that wasn't what Naruto was after anyway.

His target had been the silver serving plate on which the normal plate would be put and then covered with a silver cap before being taken to Doto's throne room.

He had easily been able to carry the plate to the serving waggon and unnoticed by anybody had placed a seal under it. One that was written in invisible ink.

This would give him access to the throne room at any time, as the seal, once it touched another surface, would be transferred to it, thanks to a second formula surrounding the flying thundergod one. He really loved fuinjutsu.

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