A Wanted Man

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

June, x787.

After discussing the incident with Hiruzen, Alfonzo decided to tag along when Hiruzen went to the T&I Department to check his work. And he had to say that he immensely enjoyed the surprised expression on Hiruzen's face when he saw the interrogators getting information from the prisoners as if it were nothing.

And when all ten of the shinobi Alfonzo captured revealed that Danzo was the culprit behind the two attacks, Alfonzo smiled. However, this smile was enough to make all the hardened shinobi in the room take a step back in apprehension.

"Hey, Lord Hokage, do you mind if I bring Danzo in to receive his punishment?" Alfonzo asked in an eerily calm tone. "And I promise that he'll still be alive when I do. I won't be able to make any promises about the condition he'll be in, though."

Hiruzen's first instinct was to deny Alfonzo's request. However, when he saw the unadulterated fury in his eyes, he felt like that would be a bad idea. So, he put on a stern expression and nodded his head.

"Usually, I would refuse your request." Hiruzen said. "However, I know what it's like to have someone target your loved ones. So, I'll make an exception. But please, bring him in alive. He needs to be tried for his crimes."

"Got it." Alfonzo replied, his blood thirsty smile widening as he did so. "Oh, and you should probably announce that there is a warrant, or whatever you use here, for Danzo's arrest. That way, he'll probably run away and I won't have to worry about damaging anything in the village when I take him down."

Hearing that, Hiruzen paled immediately. Alfonzo's statement made him remember that Alfonzo was a member of fairy Tail, a guild that tended to cause a lot of collateral damage, even if that amount had dropped significantly over the past five years, or so.

'After feeling his power in my office, I have no doubt that he could destroy a significant part of the village if he were to fight with Danzo.' Hiruzen thought to himself. 'At least he's aware enough to make a reason to have the battle outside of the village.'

Little did Hiruzen know, Alfonzo is fully capable enough to keep the property damage to a minimum while fighting Danzo. However, because Danzo targeted Elicia, Alfonzo intended to let himself go quite a bit.

"Of course." Hiruzen replied. "Just give us the time to spread the word. And a little more time after that for Danzo to escape, something I'm sure he's capable of without getting caught."

"Sounds good." Alfonzo replied. "Until then, I'll head home and see how Lici is doing. And when I feel that enough time has passed, I'll start the hunt."

Although Hiruzen was unsure how Alfonzo would track Danzo, he did the sensible thing and nodded his head. Truth be told, Hiruzen did not think any of his Anbu would be able to track Danzo if he really wanted to escape unseen. But he had no intention of mentioning that, considering this the last mercy he would give his old friend.

Alfonzo, on the other hand, left the T&I Department after getting Hiruzen's confirmation before making his way back to the temporary residence.

When Alfonzo arrived, he found Elicia and Irene sitting in the living room and chatting about parenting while Ikaruga waited on them. And after hearing the conversation, he could not help but smile a genuine smile.

"Hey Fonzie." Elicia said with a smile after noticing Alfonzo. "How did it go?"

"They found out who the culprit was." Alfonzo replied. "However, if they had attacked anyone else, it would have probably remained a mystery."

As he spoke, Alfonzo shrugged his shoulders before making his way over to Elicia's side, sitting down next to her, and pulling her into a hug. Meanwhile, Elicia smiled brightly as she leaned into the hug.

"What do you mean?" Irene asked curiously.

"Oh, all the guys that attacked had what the shinobi call [Seals], a kind of [Word Magic], on their tongues that would not allow them to talk about their superior." Alfonzo explained, drawing both Ikaruga and Irene's full attention. "But I carved sigils into their tongues that negated the effects of the [Seals]. I'm sure Irene could have done something similar with her [Enchantments], though."

"Yeah, if I could have brought the ones who tried to break into the house in alive, she could have." Elicia said, sounding a bit downcast.

In response, Alfonzo hugged Elicia a little bit tighter before kissing her on the top of her head.

"Don't worry about it, Lici." Alfonzo said with a loving smile. "We all know you could have done that with no problem if you pushed yourself. But shit heads like that aren't worth putting any strain on your body while you're carrying our child."

"*Sigh* I know." Elicia replied while snuggling into Alfonzo's embrace. "Still, it would have made that Danzo guy look even worse than he does now."

With that, Alfonzo continued comforting Elicia. Meanwhile, Irene, who was watching the sugary sweet moment, could not help but feel a bit of envy.

'*Sigh* that poor excuse of a man that I used to call my husband was never that gentle with me.' Irene thought to herself while watching Alfonzo and Elicia. 'I guess that's what happens when you marry someone for political reasons.'

["Perhaps you could find yourself another husband, now that you are human again, Irene."] Belserion replied from Irene's inner world. ["And this time, you can find someone you truly love."]

'*Sigh* Although that sounds nice, Belserion, I'm definitely not ready for that step.' Irene said. 'Besides, I already have enough emotional baggage to deal with.'

As she had that thought, Irene could not help but smile fondly when an image of Erza popped up in her head.

'I have to deal with my other emotional entanglements before I think about anything like that.' Irene continued.

["I understand."] Belserion replied.

Meanwhile, a number of Shinobi were running around the village putting up wanted posters of Danzo, greatly surprising all the civilians and shinobi who were not in the know. That also included all the kids from the academy, who were currently on their way to Alfonzo and Elicia's temporary residence to continue their training.

"Hey, guys, look at that." Naruto said loudly after seeing an Anbu paste a wanted poster just outside of Ramen Ichiraku.

"Geez, Naruto, stop trying to trick us into getting Ramen before we train with Ikaruga." Sakura said in an exasperated tone. "It's not gonna work this time."

"No, Sakura, this time I'm not trying to go to Boss Teuchi's place, I promise." Naruto said, defending himself.

"This time Naruto is telling the truth." Shikamaru said while pointing at the wanted poster. "It looks like something big happened."

Hearing that, all the kids turned in the direction Shikamaru was pointing. And when they saw the wanted poster, they were all shocked.

"Danzo Shimura, isn't that one of the village's elders?" Choji asked while reaching into a bag of potato chips. "Is this some kind of mistake?"

"I don't think so." A boy with black hair wearing a large grey coat with a high collar the covered the lower half of his face and sunglasses said while pointing to an identical wanted poster on the opposite side of the street.

The boy in the grey coat was Shino Aburame, another one of Naruto's classmates. After seeing that he was the only one of the kids in his class with any potential that had been left out of whatever was making the others stronger, he eventually asked one of them, Hinata, what the secret to their fast growth was.

And Hinata, being the kind-hearted girl that she was told Shino what everyone had been doing after school. However, she also mentioned that he should speak to Naruto about it. Since Naruto was the reason that they were getting the extra training.

Hearing that, Shino, having already made up his mind, directly walked up to Naruto and asked if he could join them. And to Shino's surprise, Naruto agreed immediately. And the reason was simple, Apparently Elicia had secretly observed their class one day. And she told Naruto to let Shino join if he wanted to because she saw his potential.

Naturally, the bit about potential was completely made up. Although Elicia had indeed observed Naruto's class at the academy and saw that all the Rookie 9 were head and shoulders above the rest of their class, the reason Elicia extended the invitation was simply because of the fact that Shino was a member of the Rookie 9, and nothing else.

"Wow! Now that I look around, those posters are everywhere." Ino said while looking around in wonder. "I wonder what happened?"

"It doesn't matter." Sasuke said in his usual grumpy tone. "We're not strong enough for it to matter anyway."

With that, Sasuke stopped paying attention to the rest of the group and continued making his way towards Alfonzo and Elicia's house.

"*Bark!*" The puppy who always accompanies Kiba, Akamaru, barked after Sasuke.

"Hey, I'm not letting you get ahead of me!" Kiba shouted as he, too, started moving again.

"*Sigh* What a drag." Shikamaru said in a lethargic tone. "Sasuke's right, though. This isn't something we need to be concerned with---"

"Hey, you two wait for me!" Naruto shouted, cutting off Shikamaru. "I'm not gonna let you guys get better than me! I'm gonna be the Hokage one day, you know!"

"*Sigh* What a drag…" Shikamaru repeated in an even more lethargic tone.

With that, the rest of the group followed Naruto, Kiba, and Sasuke.

Meanwhile, back at the temporary residence, Alfonzo stood up from his spot next to Elicia. Then, he stretched as he prepared to leave the house.

"Anyway, I guess I need to get going." Alfonzo said with a smile. "I need to break into Danzo's base. I bet there's all sorts of juicy information and incriminating evidence in there. And I wanna present it all to the Hokage."

"Remind me to never become your enemy, Alfonzo." Irene said while shaking her head with a smile on her face. "You don't just want him dead, you wanna ruin his entire legacy, don't you?"

"Uh… Irene, you've already been Fonzie's enemy before, remember?" Elicia pointed out.

Irene only shrugged casually in response.

"Remind me to never do it again, then." Irene said.

"You know, being my enemy isn't that bad." Alfonzo replied. "But if you're trying to hurt the people I care about is when you should be worried."

"Yeah, I can see that." Irene replied.

"Anyway, Lici, can you cast [Hiding in Plain Sight] on me?" Alfonzo asked. ["I can tell that Danzo is still in his hideout. And I'll need it to steal everything right out from under him."

"Of course. Elicia replied as she looped a thin thread around Alfonzo's wrist. "there ya go."

"Thanks, Sweetheart." Alfonzo replied with a smile. A moment later, his smile turned blood thirsty. "Now, let's start the hunt."

"Oh, if you're going to steal some data, you should take this." Irene said as she took off her hat before pulling a satchel out of it and tossing it at Alfonzo. "I [Enchanted] that bag so that it can hold enough items to fill up this room completely. You won't feel the weight, either."

Hearing that, Elicia's eyes lit up like torch lights.

"A bag like that would come in real handy for shopping." Elicia said excitedly. "Irene, if I give you one of the bags I made, could you [Enchant] it for me, too? And of course I'll pay you for it. Just let me know how much."

"Sure, and you don't' have to worry about payment." Irene replied. "considering how much Alfonzo has done for me, I could never think of taking payment for such a trifle."

"Absolutely not!" Elicia replied strongly. "A wizard should always be compensated for their efforts. And you're no exception to that rule. So, just tell me how much it will cost."

Like that, Elicia and Irene began to bicker over the price for one of Irene's [Enchantments]. Meanwhile, Alfonzo, with the bag Irene gave him in hand, started making his way to the entrance of the residence.

"Well, I better get going." Alfonzo muttered. "Naruto and the others should be here soon. And I don't wanna hear any questions about where I'm going."

About an hour later in the Root base, Danzo had just finished his preparations to make some changes to the barrier surrounding the village when he was interrupted for a third time by one of his shinobi.

"Lord Danzo, I have two things to report." The shinobi said, his tone just as emotionless as every other Root shinobi.

"Speak." Danzo ordered.

"Yes, Lord Danzo." The shinobi replied. "First, a large amount of the documents in the storage have gone missing."

Hearing that, Danzo scowled at the shinobi giving the report.

"by a large amount, what do you mean, exactly?" Danzo asked.

"Nearly all of it." The shinobi replied.

Immediately, Danzo's magic power flared, putting pressure on everything in the room.

"How is that possible?" Danzo aske angrily.

"Unsure." The shinobi replied. "I came here to receive orders."

Though the correct course of action should have been obvious, Danzo trained his Root shinobi to follow orders so strictly that unless they are given permission to, they will not act at all without orders. Thus the shinobi coming to ask for direction when it was found that all the records in the record room were missing.

"*Sigh* Search the base from top to bottom." Danzo replied after exhaling his anger and irritation in that sigh. "Find any clue you can. Summon all the sensors available for the search."

"Understood, Lord Danzō.' The shinobi replied. However, he did not stand to carry out his orders.

"What's the matter?" Danzo asked, his irritation rising at the sight of the still kneeling shinobi in front of him. "Why have you not left to carry out my orders?"

"I have another matter to report." The shinobi replied.

"Out with it, then.!" Danzo ordered.

"Yes, sir." The Shinobi replied. "The Anbu have been hurrying around the village pasting these on every wall and light post."

As the shinobi spoke, he reached into his clothes and pulled out a copy of Danzo's wanted poster. Then, he handed the poster to Danzo.

Immediately, Danzo snatched the poster out of the shinobi's hand. Then, he looked down and began to read it. However, after seeing its contents, he froze. Seeing his face on a wanted poster, he did not know how to react for a few moments. Never in a million years did he ever think Hiruzen would put out a warrant for his arrest.

"What is the meaning of this!?" Danzo asked angrily, his magic power flaring once again.

"Unsure." The shinobi replied while trying to resist the pressure from Danzo's magic power. "Would you like us to investigate?"

"No, we can worry about that later." Danzo replied as he stood from his seat while reeling in his magic power. "For now, gather as much as you can in the storage scrolls. We need to leave the village as quickly as possible."

"Understood." The shinobi replied, understanding that the new order superseded the one.

With that, both Danzo and the Root began to move in preparation to escape the village.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Danzo, there was a third person in the room while the shinobi reported to him. Though, this person, Alfonzo, was still under the effects of Elicia's [Hiding in Plain Sight] spell. And for the entire time Alfonzo was in the room with Danzo and the Root shinobi, he was patting the bag that was hanging off his left shoulder.

"That's right, Danzo, run." Alfonzo said quietly as he watched Danzo leave the room in a hurry. "As soon as you're far enough away from the village is when the real fun begins."