Two Attacks

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, the Village Hidden in the leaves.

June, x787.

After sending away the Anbu who came to investigate the spike in magic power after Irene released her [Soul Armament's] first seal, Alfonzo and Elicia quickly made their way towards Irene's room to congratulate her. With the use of [Magic Power detection], both Alfonzo and Elicia were aware that Irene had regained her humanity based on the changes in her magic power signature.

Unfortunately, they could not celebrate Ireen's achievement for long. Or rather, Alfonzo could not, as he was supposed to leave the house to continue his work on the village's training grounds. He did, however, promise to prepare a feast for Irene once he returned for the evening. Naturally, all those living in the house were ecstatic to hear the news.

Meanwhile, reports about Irene's spike in power reached the desks of Hiruzen and his advisors quite quickly. While Koharu and Homura were relatively unbothered by the news, Hiruzen raised the danger level of the group of visitors. However, he had no intension of poking a sleeping lion.

The only one among the Hokage and his advisors who had a different thought on the matter was Danzo. His thoughts were along the lines of either controlling such power or destroying it completely so that an enemy could not get their hands on it. Luckily for Danzo, though, he was able to determine that he was thoroughly outclassed by the explosion of magic power. So, instead of doing something that would have undoubtedly doomed the village, he focused his plans on getting Alfonzo under his control.

Unfortunately, as Alfonzo had yet to show of his power while in the village, Danzo had no idea about the extent of his power. The only thing he had to go by was the report Guy had submitted nearly three years ago. Still, with such incomplete information, Danzo was ready to put his plans in motion.

"Yeah, this shit is natural." Alfonzo said to himself while working on the upgrades for the Village Hidden in the Leaves' Seventh Training Ground. "Suddenly Kakashi is called away for something important. Then, as soon as he leaves, all the Anbu who have been watching me suddenly disappear, too."

As Alfonzo muttered to himself, currently, he was on the Seventh Training Ground, with Riot and Bedlam released, without anyone monitoring him. However, thanks to his work ethic, he was diligently completing his job.

A few moments later, a shinobi wearing a featureless white mask appeared next to Alfonzo.

"Come with me, Alfonzo Marcus." The shinobi ordered in an emotionless tone. "Your presence has been requested."

"By who?" Alfonzo asked without looking in the shinobi's direction.

"You shall find out when we arrive." The shinobi replied. "Now, no more questions."

"Yeah, no thanks." Alfonzo said, still not looking in the shinobi's direction. "That's not how this works. No one in this village has the right to order me to do a god damn thing."

Hearing that, the shinobi did not respond. Instead, another nine shinobi, each wearing a similar, featureless mask, appeared to surround Alfonzo. At the same time, a barrier popped up around the area, cutting off a three hundred fifty square foot area from the rest of the village.

"Oh, a barrier, huh?" Alfonzo mused as he lowered his hands and stopped creating the metal he had been burying under the surface for the training grounds upgrades. "Hmm… from what I can feel, it should block off magic power leakage to the outside. So, you guys plan to knock me out and drag me away after I refused, huh?"

With that said, Alfonzo glanced at the ten shinobi who surrounded him. Then, he shook his head in disappointment.

"*Sigh* It looks like whoever is pulling your strings really under estimated me, huh?" Alfonzo asked in an exasperated tone. "If they think ten A-Class wizards, or Jonin as you're called in the village, is enough to take me down, then they're really not very well informed."

Without responding to Alfonzo's words, the first shinobi to approach Alfonzo lunged at him with a short sword drawn. Then, in a blur of speed, the shinobi swung the sword to injure Alfonzo non-fatally.

"*Sigh* This is pointless." Alfonzo muttered as the shinobi's sword stopped only an eighth of an inch away from his skin.

*Bang!*

Then, before the shinobi could react, Alfonzo whipped his right arm towards the shinobi's head. And with the sound of impact, the shinobi was sent flying before hitting the ground and rolling to a stop.

["Hey, Alfonzo, maybe you should reseal us."] Bedlam said after checking the state of the downed shinobi. ["You don't wanna kill any of them by accident, right? I mean, we all know these are Danzo's guys. Don't wanna give him any ammunition."]

"That's probably a good idea." Alfonzo muttered under his breath.

At the same time, the liquid metal covering Alfonzo's hands and forearms cascaded downwards before taking the form of Riot and bedlam in their tonfa forms.

["Fuck that guy!"] Riot shouted angrily. ["If he's sending his people to die, we should give him what he wants!"]

Ignoring Riot's angry outburst, Alfonzo sidestepped an incoming wind blade. Then, he rushed towards the rest of the surrounding shinobi.

"Not this time, Riot." Alfonzo replied. "That guy can twist black into white. And I really don't wanna have to fight my way outta the village. Especially with Lici pregnant."

Meanwhile, back at the residence, Elicia raised an eyebrow at the same time the barrier on the Seventh training Ground went up.

Currently, Elicia was sitting in the residence's living room with Ireen and both women were enjoying a cup of tea that Ikaruga had prepared.

"Looks like someone is doing something stupid." Irene said after taking a sip of tea. Then, she turned her attention towards Ikaruga. "*Sigh* I never realized just how good your tea is, Ikaruga. To think I would have missed out had I not taken Alfonzo's offer."

"Thank you for your praise, Miss Irene.' Ikaruga replied with a polite bow.

"Anyway, should we go to help the kid?" Irene asked after setting her teacup on the table

"No, Fonzie will be fine." Elicia replied casually. "We should probably let Kakashi know what just happened, though. We can let him know about our group of intruders, too."

"*Sigh* It's too bad we won't be able to get any information out of them, though." Irene said while shaking her head gently. "As soon as they were wrapped up in your threads, they all bit down on some kind of suicide pill."

"I know." Elicia said, mimicking Irene's action of shaking her head. "Still, we need an explanation for this from the village."

"Would you like me to find Mr. Hatake?" Ikaruga asked politely.

"Yes, please." Elicia replied.

With that, Ikaruga bowed her head politely. Then, in a burst of speed, she disappeared from where she stood.

"This village's leader really can't be so stupid that they would attack us in broad daylight, can they?" Irene asked curiously.

"I doubt it's their leader." Elicia replied. "It's probably someone in the village who wants to make use of Fonzie and all his inventions for whatever reason."

'This has Danzo's fingerprints all over it.' Elicia thought to herself as she continued to reel in her bound attackers.

["Yeah, and once we get to see them, I'll bet they'll all be wearing plain white masks."] Scylla replied.

'Oh, I have no doubt about that.' Elicia replied internally. 'I'm just curious to know what Hiruzen will say to talk his "best friend" out of this situation.'

["Well, I don't think it will be that easy for him, this time."] Scylla replied. ["It looks like Fonzie is managing to keep all his attackers alive."]

'We'll just have to wait and see.' Elicia said while shrugging internally. '*Sigh* If I were at my peak, there would be even more evidence of Danzo's actions. Because they would have never been able to kill themselves if I were. But I wouldn't trade this little one for the world.'

As she had that last thought, Elicia smiled lovingly as she began rubbing her abdomen. And when she felt the gentle kick coming from the inside, her smile widened. Meanwhile, after hearing what Elicia had to say, Irene simply nodded. Then, she picked up her teacup and took another sip, seemingly without a care in the world.

Meanwhile, about fifteen minutes later on the Seventh Training Ground, Alfonzo had gotten back to his work. At the same time, a total of ten shinobi, each with a featureless white mask were piled up next to him. And while each one was unconscious, they were all restrained with metal, anti-magic restraint harnesses and matching metal mouthguards to keep them from biting down on suicide capsules.

"Well, it looks like Lici was able to take care of the ones attacking the house." Alfonzo said with Riot and Bedlam once again coating his arms while he worked. "It's too bad she was unable to stop them from committing suicide. If she weren't pregnant, they would have never stood a chance though."

["If Irene had helped, there would have been nothing to worry about, though."] Riot added in a disgruntled tone.

["Yeah, but if she had helped, there's a good chance that part of the village might have disappeared."] Bedlam said with a chuckle. ["Ever since joining Fairy Tail, when she feels like it, she takes the concept of collateral damage to a whole new level.']

As Bedlam said, Irene, ever since she started taking quests as a Fairy Tail wizard, has caused as much collateral damage as Cana, Gray, Erza, and Natsu combined, despite the fact that she only causes property damage on every fifth quest she takes.

["Anyway, I'm surprised it took so long for that guy to send his goons after you."] Bedlam said after shaking the thoughts of Irene's property damage out of his head.

"It's probably because he got to the end of his rope about opening up the signal receiver." Alfonzo replied while continuing to work. "I actually thought he'd set off the alarm before this happened, though. I guess the old mother fucker is smarter than I gave him credit for."

"Well, what do you expect from someone who orchestrated the genocide of an entire prominent clan?"] Riot asked with a scoff.

"*Sigh* I guess you're right." Alfonzo replied while once again dispelling Riot and Bedlam's release states. "Anyway, I guess we need to make a trip to the Hokage tower to let Hiruzen know what happened. And it looks like our guide has finally arrived, too."

At that moment, Kakashi, accompanied by a squad of Anbu, the same Anbu who usually kept watch on Alfonzo while he worked, appeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Hey, Kakashi, can you teach me how to do that?" Alfonzo asked nonchalantly once Kakashi and the Anbu appeared.

"*Sigh* This is gonna cause a lot of work for me, you know." Kakashi said in a disgruntled tone while ignoring Alfonzo's question. "I know you were only defending yourself, but there's gonna be a lot to investigate, what with two groups of unidentified shinobi showing up, attacking our guests, and committing suicide when their attacks failed."

"Yeah, I can imagine." Alfonzo replied with a shrug. "But's probably gonna really fucking suck."

"Sigh* You have no idea." Kakashi replied while shaking his head.

"I guess it's a good thing that I kept my attackers from committing suicide, then." Alfonzo added with a smile. "In fact, if Lici wasn't pregnant, she could have done the same. But she's gotta take it easy, you know. Her due date is less than two months away."

Hearing that, Kakashi's visible eye widened in surprise. At the same time, the squad of Anbu visibly tensed at the news, as well.

"Well then, I guess thanks are in order." Kakashi replied. "Thanks to you, we'll be able to find out where these ninja came from. Now, if you'll just hand them over to the Anbu, they'll make sure they get to the T&I Department."

"Torture and Interrogation, huh? That's the department Anko works for when she's in the village, right?" Alfonzo asked with a smile. "Yeah, I heard about that place vaguely. Sounded like somewhere I wouldn't wanna end up. As for handing over the prisoners, I'd rather not. I'd rather take them there myself. Never can be too careful, right?"

Although all the shinobi present were wearing masks, Alfonzo could tell that they were all frowning at what he said.

"Look, it's not like I don't' trust you guys, but they got all of you to leave before attacking me." Alfonzo said, shrugging once again as he did so. "And that sounds like an inside job to me. One ordered by someone pretty high up, too. So, I'd really like to make sure that the prisoners get to their intended destination."

Hearing that, Kakashi and the Anbu were all surprised. They were supposed to be a form of hidden surveillance. However, Alfonzo made it clear that he was aware of their presences. And that was something that hurt their pride, as they were some of the best the village had to offer. However, they knew they could think about that later. They would just have to mention it during their debriefing with the Hokage. Then, they were sure Hiruzen would be able to come up with a countermeasure.

"*Sigh* I guess I can see your point." Kakashi replied. "Well then, if you would follow me, we can drop off the prisoners at the T&I Department. Then, we'll head over to see Lord Hokage. I'm sure he'll want to talk to you about this incident."

"Sure." Alfonzo said as he made the metal restraining his attackers levitate. "Lead the way, I'm sure I can keep up while making sure that the civilians don't see these guys."

As he spoke, Alfonzo gestured over his shoulder towards the retrained shinobi. Then, under the gazes of Kakashi and the Anbu, they all slowly faded from sight while Alfonzo used his [Electromagnetism Magic] to bed the light around them. Then, after Kakashi nodded, the entire group vanished from the Seventh Training Ground in a burst of speed.

Meanwhile, the mastermind of the two attacks, Danzo Shimura, was in his base waiting for news from his two squads of Root Ninja on the tasks to abduct Alfonzo and Elicia. However, before he could hear back from either team, another shinobi wearing a featureless white mask appeared in front of him on one knee with his head lowered respectfully.

"Lord Danzo, a summons from the Hokage has arrived." The masked shinobi said in an emotionless tone.

"What in the world could Hiruzen want at a time like this?" Danzo asked in an irritated tone. Then, he continued as he stood from his seat. "Very well, when the teams I sent out return, put their captives in separate cells. And make sure that their magic power is sealed. I don't want them causing any trouble while I'm away."

"As you command, Lord Danzo." The masked shinobi replied, still in that emotionless tone.

At the same time, Danzo slowly made his way out of the Root's underground base and headed for the Hokage Tower to see what Hiruzen could possibly want to meet him for.