"There's only seven of us, including the Hokage," Mitokado said, voice taut with tension. "There's no way..."

"They don't know our exact location yet," Utanane said, always the voice of reason. "We should lie in wait for them and take them by surprise, giving us a chance to escape."

"That won't work," Kagami said heavily. "Someone will have to lure them away."

"A decoy, eh?" Torifu said, snorting. "Whoever it is, they won't survive."

There is a heavy pause in the clearing. No one looks at each other.

"Well, it might as well be me. It takes a lot to overcome the strength of an Akimichi clansman!"

The others look solemn - except for Lord Tobirama. He's smiling a bit, and Torifu is glad he will see that smile one last time before his own death.

"That won't be necessary, Torifu. I will be the decoy; you six must return to the village to lead it into the future..."

now

"How long are you going to keep me here?"

Danzō was remarkably calm for a man currently bound, sealed, and caged in a cell reserved for only the most dangerous prisoners. It wasn't unexpected, however. Danzō had always had an appetite for self-improvement; probably why he and Hiruzen got on so well. He'd grown up from the boy who'd explode at the least little obstacle in his path into a man with endless patience and calm. Torifu had thought it inspiring, once; now, after crawling through the catacombs hidden under the village for hours on end, he found the change in demeanor more than a little disturbing.

"Not much longer, now," Torifu stated with finality. "We've already found your books, and Jiraiya has been forcibly recalled to look them over. I'm here because I want to know the reason why."

Danzō blinked a bit - at least he did with the eye that wasn't swollen shut.

"I beg your pardon?" he asked. To a cursory observer, he looked bewildered and more than a bit lost. It was an excellent performance, Torifu would give him that. Danzō had always been absolutely superlative at playing dumb, or lame, or just a bit thick: perfect bait to draw enemy shinobi out, unaware that Torifu and Kagami were hidden to the side, ready to flank the enemy. Kagami had died many years ago, and their teamwork had never been quite the same - too disparate in power and range, too difficult to find a way to work together as they had before.

If it was painful to consider the fact that Danzō was treating him like an enemy; it was even more painful to look back and realize that he'd started doing it years before, and Torifu simply hadn't noticed. Torifu had always prided himself as one of Tobirama's more observant students, and it hurt to realize that he'd missed something obvious all along, something he might have repaired if only he'd been paying attention.

"I know about Yakushi Nonō," Torifu irritably replied. "So stop playing dumb and talk."

then

Tsunade was eating dinner with Kushina and Shizune when she felt an intruder trip the third set of alarm wards of her home. Tsunade just rolled her shoulders back to silence the alarm, then lifted her soup bowl to her lips so she could slurp down the rest of the broth. She only got to eat with the girls maybe every one day out of every seven, and Tsunade was well aware of the importance of sharing food with one's family. Her own mother had always been very particular about that as a bonding activity, and now, with the benefit of age and experience, Tsunade couldn't say she was wrong.

Anyway, that particular set of wards had been a joint project between her and Orochimaru, a year ago when they'd returned to the village from the war. She'd been a little bloodthirsty at the time of creation, so the intruder wasn't going anywhere; they would need medical attention, more likely than not. Her uninvited guests could wait until she had time to deal with them properly.

"Thanks for taking us out for lunch, auntie," Shizune chirped happily, pushing her empty bowl away. Kushina didn't pause as she slurped down what remained of her sixth bowl, but then again, Tsunade didn't expect her to - the girl had inherited the Uzumaki tunnel vision in full, and then some.

"You're welcome, Shizune," Tsunade replied, combing her niece's dark hair off her face with her fingers. The girl just waited patiently under her hands, looking up at her with shining eyes. It was sweet, and more than a little flattering, how much the girl looked up to her. "Now, why don't you and Kushina go to that new moving pictures theater off in the second ward? People keep telling me how good it is at work."

"Yeah, Namikaze saw it with Shiokawa and Taniguchi," Kushina said, finally turning towards Tsunade as she rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. "He's been nagging everyone to go and see it too; says he wants to talk about it, but can't until we see it first."

"Well, here's your chance," Tsunade said and held out a 5-sen note to her cousin. "Take Shizune, have a good time. Go to Grandmother's house afterward; I'll meet you there later and we'll make it a girls' night."

"Girls' night, huh?" Kushina said, violet eyes unexpectedly shrewd. Tsunade hadn't known the girl very long, but it hadn't taken much time at all to see Kushina was smarter than she let on. "All right, we'll see you then. C'mon Shizune, let's go! I think the afternoon show starts in twenty minutes."

Tsunade kept an eye on the two girls as they walked in the opposite direction, and then turned toward her own home near the center of the village, on the outskirts of the old Senju grounds. Not many of the clan still lived there; not many of the clan still lived. But there were enough of her family still alive for the place to still feel like a home and not a haunt. Not many people were out and about at this time of day - everyone was on missions, or running errands, or inside napping through the summer heat.

Tsunade's house looked quite ordinary from the outside. It looked quite ordinary on the inside, too. Such was the nature of a deadly trap. The first wards were keyed to the boundary lines, the second to the lintels of her doors and windows, and the third wards were keyed to the fusuma rails. Tsunade had used her native lightning nature to set a trap to shock any intruder not keyed to her home - and that was a very small list. Orochimaru's little ANBU protégés were still cursing his name for using her house as a training challenge - not a single person had managed to breach all five levels yet, and he could be quite creative in his punishments for failure.

So Tsunade had expected to find yet another unconscious body to lug out of her receiving room, but nobody was lying there on the ground there. Actually, someone had been there - several someones, Tsunade realized as she peered at faint scuff marks on her floor - but they'd been dragged further into her house. Not ANBU, then; if they could still move, they knew better than to try and beg for treatment from her after failing a test. They'd have crawled back to Orochimaru by now for punishment.

Fists at the ready, Tsunade carefully walked into her dining room, only to stop short. Four men were tightly bound and harshly gagged; all four were propped against the interior wall, and Yakushi Nonō was kneeling in the precise center of the room. As soon as she saw Tsunade, the other woman genuflected deeply, touching her forehead to the floor.

"Lady Tsunade," she murmured. Her voice was just as Tsunade remembered from the last time she'd heard her: a little sweet, a little solemn. It had sounded through the battlefield like a temple bell. "I'm sorry to invade your home, but I've been given orders that conflict with my current mission. I was hoping you could clear up my chain of command?"

now

Of course he wouldn't talk. That would be the easy path, and Danzō never took the easy path if he could help it.

"I would ask if you have a seal on your tongue, like the men Tsunade turned over to me, but we already checked," Torifu said, smirking a little. "It's a brave man who inks his own tongue and seals his own secrets; you really went all out. That's something I've always admired about you, you know."

Danzō didn't move, but it didn't matter. Torifu could feel his full attention, focused completely on him. The potency of his glare felt a little like being speared through the gut.

"I've always admired your intensity of purpose. It's a shame you've used it to suborn my powers, but, well, I suppose I have only myself to blame for that. When I ordered you to create ROOT, I thought I was bolstering our manpower through alternate means; I didn't think I was giving you the power to create a private army. I certainly didn't give you the authority to divert my soldiers from their assigned tasks, so I'll ask once again: tell me about Yakushi Nonō."

then

Tsunade entered ANBU HQ the way she always did - through the publically accessible "front door" in the seventh ward. It was a rather boring looking administration building innocuously titled "Department of Public Health and Sanitation", which offered a rather good explanation for all the mild-looking chuunin going and out of the building at all hours of the day and night. It helped that the Hokage had declared a public campaign to eradicate cholera in the next five years; made Tsunade's coming and goings all the more ordinary, given that she was spearheading the effort.

"Lady Tsunade," the clerk at the front said attentively. "I wasn't expecting you at this time of day-"

Tsunade didn't even bother to look at the clerk before striding through the doors to the rest of the compound. Dan, walking by her side, was struggling not to laugh. Nonō, on her other side, was less amused, not that it was easy to tell on her dull, plain face. Tsunade truly could not remember the last time she'd met someone with the ability to feel so innocuous and easy-to-overlook; she'd met civilians with more presence! Obviously, Danzō could not be allowed to get away with poaching her medics, but she could see why he wanted the other woman's skills so badly...

"Goodness, I haven't seen an attitude like that since the last time we visited the capital," Dan said, still trying to hide his smile. "I know you don't treat the orderlies at the hospital like that - is there a reason you're doing it here?"

"The orderlies know better than to cross me," Tsunade said in a brisk tone, never once breaking pace. "Every person here thinks medical care is beneath them; kindness will just encourage them. I want them to fear my wrath instead."

"I guess that explains our increased compliance rate over the last few years," Dan mused as they turn a corner into a stairwell. "Are you sure it doesn't have anything to do with your quarterly budget showdown with Danzō?"

Tsunade lifted one shoulder carelessly, still walking down flights and flights of stairs, deeper into the earth. "I can't confirm or deny that," she said, but she didn't bother to hide her own smirk. "Anyway, we're almost here."

"And where is here?" Dan questioned, a little skeptical. "I've been to Orochimaru's lab before; it's in the medical research wing of the hospital, on the second floor."

"That's just his public work area," Tsunade said. "He and I both have labs here, and in other locations, for work that is too...delicate for outside interference. If he's not here, we'll check those next."

"Is there a reason I don't get a special lab?" Dan wondered aloud.

"Dear, when you want to play with Class Three limited substances, you're free to join me," Tsunade says lightly, pushing open a door with her shoulder and walking through. "We just started working on a new toxin from castor bean seeds. Slow-acting, incurable, and easy to produce: all things Lord Torifu is currently interested in."

"I'll pass," Dan said with a grimace. "I would prefer to work with the new trainees. I think you should, too - I've found more than a few you might be able to train in taijutsu."

Tsunade halted in front of a plain wooden door, before turning to look back at Dan. "I'll look them over next...Wednesday. I have a meeting with the council at three, but I'm free after lunch until then - time enough to look our prospects over. You should come, too, Nonō; bring your apprentice! Both of you might learn something."

And with that, Tsunade turned back to the door and briskly opened it. There were seals on the doorknob, but they were quiescent under the chakra in her hands - just the standard ones used all through the complex. On the other side of the door was Orochimaru, already at work for the day, and at his side...

"Isn't that Nonō's apprentice?" Dan murmured at her back. It certainly looked like Nonō's apprentice, a young boy with the gangly look of someone finishing a major growth spurt. He was rather ably assisting Orochimaru in what looked to be a standard dissection. Nonō had already rushed over and grabbed the boy, clutching him to her body with all her might. A part of Tsunade twinged at that, but only a part; most of her was simply glad to reunite the master and student.

"Tsunade?" Orochimaru questioned. "Dan? Has something gone wrong?"

"Oh, I was hoping you could help me find a wayward apprentice - I see you already found him for me, however," Tsunade said, shrugging. "Would you like to explain why you recruited him the first place? Last time I checked, ANBU had age minimums for a reason."

now

"You know, you might have gotten away with your assignment poaching if you'd stuck to anyone other than the medics. I empowered Tsunade to oversee the whole reform of the structure, and she really does take her responsibilities seriously," Torifu stated. "And she's not afraid of you, either. I'm not sure she's afraid of anything."

Danzō huffed a bit, finally letting the mask drop. He pushed himself up against the bars of his cell and finally looked Torifu in the eye, a sour cast twisting the lines of his face into something almost unrecognizable.

Almost.

"Why bother asking if you already know the answer?" he asked bitterly. "I reassigned Yakushi because she was one of my original recruits - she could do more good in spycraft than she can in running an orphanage."

Torifu let the final bilious word echo around the room. He didn't speak until silence had settled back around them, muffling even the irregular sounds of Danzō's labored breath.

"You could have spoken to me about it," Torifu replied, voice taut. "We could have discussed the matter and come to a decision together. Didn't you learn anything from our teacher? Or were you simply repeating the words without truly hearing the lesson? Teamwork requires trust!"

now

It had been nearly twelve minutes since they'd started running, and most of Tsunade's first-hand knowledge of ROOT could be summed as a) well-trained in infiltration protocols, but b) absolutely terrible at frontal assault and c) surprisingly good stamina, as well as d) excellent infrastructure. When had Danzō had the time to build all this stuff, anyway?

"During the war," Orochimaru heaved, looking a bit peaky. "When they were building the shelters, you know-"

"Well, now Danzō's insistence on overseeing the infrastructure fund makes sense," Tsunade said, barely out of breath. On the other side of her, Dan was starting to pant as they ran down the corridors, and Tsunade made a note to have him attend her taijutsu seminars as well. Nonō, at least, was keeping up. Kabuto was cradled safely within her arms, of course - a child couldn't be expected to keep up with four senior jounin sprinting all out, not that Nonō would have allowed him to try, anyway. "I just thought the bastard was embezzling it for prostitutes or drugs - you know, something normal."

"No such luck," Orochimaru said, coughing a bit. Make that two for Tsunade's future taijutsu seminar. "It was all coming here, instead. Another fifty feet, and we'll come out at the third ward entrance; they won't follow us into the streets."

"Good," Tsunade grunted, and put on a burst of speed, punching the door clean off its hinges, Nonō and Orochimaru right on her heels, Dan covering their retreat. All three of them scattered to the side as soon as they cleared the door, and Tsunade spun around and threw the door right back at the opening, slamming it shut. Nonō's little boy gasped at the display, clearly amazed, and Tsunade grinned, flexing a little for her audience.

"Impressive, isn't she, Kabuto?" Orochimaru said smoothly. Nonō was frowning deeply at him, clearly still upset about his part in her student's kidnapping, and she twisted her body in front of the boy, blocking him from Orochimaru's view. "I did say Konoha's medic-nin are our greatest strength."

"Stop trying to flatter me," Tsunade snapped, turning on him in a split-second. "I'm still angry with you. You and I are going back in to clean this mess up, and Dan-"

"-is coming with you, of course," Dan said. Tsunade didn't need to see his face to know that he meant it, too: she'd heard that particular tone before, mostly when they'd done the long, hard work of convincing the Hokage their plan to revolutionize the Medic Corps was both feasible and necessary for victory in the war, and then many times later when they met with the Council, again and again, pushing through the reforms necessary for change. "But I won't leave Nonō and Kabuto without some protection, at least. Now that we're in the village proper, I can utilize one of my other techniques."

And with that, he bit on his thumb and made the seal for the summoning contract. In a puff of smoke, a baker's dozen of pigs poofed into existence around him, all of them dressed in exquisitely tailored clothes and snuffling anxiously. One of them, a large boar dressed in a fine green surcoat, started grumbling at him, and Dan knelt down to murmur back to him, smiling softly as the pig nuzzled the palms of his hands. Kabuto was petting one of the other pigs, a rather pleasant looking female with a red coat and pearls. Her eyes were half-closed as she grunted with pleasure, and the boy looked simply ecstatic as she leaned against him.

Orochimaru, Tsunade saw, was rolling his eyes at the scene. She flicked him in the ribs with just a hint of her strength, and he subsided, a bit sullenly in Tsunade's considered opinion. Obviously, he still wasn't aware of just how pissed she was; that was fine, she'd have plenty of time after they found Danzō to make it explicitly clear. He was going to be on her shit list for years, at this point. Not as many as Jiraiya, still wandering around the wasteland called Rain for some kind of stupid penance, but a good long time, at least.

"All right, we're ready to go," Dan said decisively, and all around him, the pigs transformed into exact copies of Nonō and Kabuto. A shell game, but one he and the pigs were well-practiced at. Tsunade had seen him pull the same trick multiple times during the war, and it was a rare shinobi indeed that was able to find the hidden target. As one, all the Kabutos climbed on the Nonōs' backs. It would have been perfect, if only the actual woman hadn't spoken.

"Tsunade - if I don't see you in an hour, I'm getting the entire on-call surgical rotation and coming after you!" she said, a fierce light in her eyes, and all the false-Nonōs grumbled in unison before pulling her to the center and milling about. Once again, the real Nonō was lost in the crowd of uncanny mimics, and in another moment, all the Nonōs took off for different parts of the village.

"Not very clever, is she?" Orochimaru said acidly.

Tsunade just grinned indulgently before looking at him sidelong. "Oh, I don't know: she was smart enough to come and find me, wasn't she?"

Dan laughed before turning back to the door, the little pig with the red coat and pearls trotting after him. Tsunade tugged at Orochimaru's arm, pulling him back towards the entrance. A couple of ROOT agents were already lurking behind it, and Tsunade had no intention of letting them escape and warn Danzō of who was coming for him. Another quick kick-punch combo at the pavement and Tsunade sent a piece of it flying towards the precariously placed door. The ROOT agents didn't have a chance: they were all slammed against the corridor wall once the door went through the lintel.

"You know, if Jiraiya were here, it would be just like old times," Orochimaru mused as they walked through the thoroughly ruined lintel.

Tsunade looked at Dan and his pig, triaging the ROOT agents for treatment, and then looked back at Orochimaru, catching his eyes with her own.

"I think this is better than the old days," she said sincerely and smiled at him when he took a startled step back when he heard her words. "Now we'll have a cool story to rub in his face when he comes home."

"Orochimaru, you wouldn't happen to have anything that belongs to Danzō on you, would you? Something with his scent?" Dan asked absentmindedly, chakra-cloaked hand resting against the side of one agent's head. "Because TonTon here would love to help us find him."

Orochimaru held Tsunade's eyes another instant, and then he smiled back, and Tsunade's own smile turned into an all-out grin. Like she'd said: better than the old days by far, even if she was still pissed at him.

"I'm sorry, Dan, I don't have anything on me, but if you check the one in the middle, he might have his orders for the day. If he bled all over them, there are other people we can check."

Tsunade popped her knuckles and leaned against the wall while Dan and Orochimaru started picking through the agent in question's gear. Twenty minutes since they'd started running. Tsunade planned to wrap this up within the next half hour. After all, she'd promised the girls they'd have a night out, hadn't she? And Tsunade never went back on her promises.

now

After Torifu's last shouted exclamation, the cell was silent for a good long time.

"Well, I can't fault the Senju girl's technique," Danzō finally ground out. "It's flawless at close range."

"I suppose it doesn't help that she had her husband and teammate with her, to cover any gaps in the coverage," Torifu said, deflating a bit. Danzō was never going to tell him why he betrayed him; it was possibly he didn't even know himself. ROOT's recruitment thus far had been scattered and ineffectual; hardly a hallmark of Danzō's work over the years, and no one else had any amount of clout in the organization, not even Orochimaru. "But I'm sure by now you've already dissected the whole battle in your head, trying to figure out how you could have won."

"I couldn't have," Danzō replied. "Not against all three of them."

Torifu sighed deeply but didn't bother responding. It was clear Danzō didn't even understand why Torifu was angry. That was an issue for the Master himself to address in the afterlife, if such a place even existed. Torifu had always hoped it did; he'd always thought Master Tobirama, of all people, deserved to end up in a good one.

"Tsunade," Danzō said suddenly. "You've already decided she's going to be the Fourth."

"Can you think of a better candidate?" Torifu says curiously. "She's a war hero; her techniques have revolutionized the medical field, and she's personally done more than any genius general to minimize casualties, both on the battlefield and off. Our forces have been depleted, to be sure, but the war is over, and we have time to recover, mostly because of her and her husband."

"No," Danzō whispers. "She's the best choice; she'll do what needs to be done."

And for the first time all night, Torifu smiled at his old teammate.

"You know, I'm honestly glad you said that," he said sincerely. "I'm angry with you for being an utter fool, but I'm still going to miss you when you're gone."

"Yet I am still being executed in the morning," Danzō said bleakly.

Torifu huffed out a sigh and nodded once with purpose. "Yes. You were creating an army under my very nose, Danzō, one loyal only to you. And the things you were teaching them... well, I can't imagine Master Tobirama would be happy. He would never have accepted this if he were still alive."

But Danzō was silent and still, his good eye still focused on something through the wall, on a vision Torifu could not see.

"You're a traitor, but in the morning, you'll have the same choice all traitors do - by your own hand, or mine." Torifu didn't bother to make sure Danzō was looking him in the eyes; the other man can still hear, no matter that his face was turned towards the wall. "Which will you choose?"

later

He chose to die by his own hand, of course. A sharp blade and a swift cut were the only kindnesses Torifu could give him. The head would go on public display, no matter what. Treachery, of all possible crimes, cannot be borne.

Originally posted on AO3 on 9/4/2016. Otherwise known as my attempt to deal with the ROOT issue in a more sensible way.