Shinobi rule #25 - A shinobi must never show their tears

Slumped at her desk, Tsunade leaned back to take more swigs of sake. She was blind drunk, long since passed her tolerance level. It was hardly appropriate given that she was in her office; but she couldn't help but revert to her coping mechanism to help deal with grief. Right now, even Shizune didn't have the heart to stop her.

Today was one of the rare days in which she had little on her schedule, one of the few days she could find solace within the day from her full time position as hokage. It wasn't supposed to be the day she found out her apprentice and the man she knew she would eventually choose as her successor had been killed.

It was a little past noon when Yamato came barging into her office, that alone set off alarm bells. Yamato was renowned for maintaining his professional disposition, it was that calmness and composure that allowed him to remain objective and rational at all times, perfect for an anbu operative. She knew that if Yamato of all people ignored protocol and forced himself into her office then it must be important, and potentially time-sensitive.

Tsunade quickly dismissed the chunin whose responsibility was to deal with visitors and her anbu, who were nearby, ready to respond at a moments notice if Tsunade gave the order.

She didn't waste time with pleasantries, "All right Yamato, i'm listening; what is it that's so important? I'm assuming you just returned from your mission with Naruto and Sakura?"

A simple B class escort mission, not a problem for shinobi of their calibre.

Yamato lost his earlier urgency, seeming hesitant, but eventually spoke. "Naruto and Sakura are dead. They were killed by Sasuke."

Time seemed to stop for Tsunade, hearing but being unable to comprehend what she just heard.
Quickly coming back to her senses, her hand swung down onto her desk, the force causing neat stacks of paper to fly off. "What do you mean they're dead!? Tell me what happened Yamato, don't omit a single detail!" She bellowed.

Yamato tensed at her reaction, but immediately composed himself, switching to what Tsunade dubbed his `anbu mode', he stoically began his report, eliminating inflection from his voice. "The mission was a disaster. Roughly five miles from our destination we were attacked by six shinobi masquerading as traveling merchants, their skill ranging from low chunin to high jonin. Our client was working with them, he joined them in battle.

They managed to split us up and prevent us from regrouping. Each of us had the upper hand, Naruto's clones providing me and Sakura with back-up. Our victory seemed assured. We had dispatched five of them with no significant injuries. Then Naruto, who was barely within sight having just finished dispatching his opponent, was shouting, screaming Sasuke's name. He must have seen him either during or after his fight, me nor Sakura had the luxury of preventing him from giving chase, the two remaining jonin class ninja intercepting us.

Naruto probably thought we'd have an easy time with them and then pursue him, but they were tough, much tougher than the other five. It wasn't a battle we could finish quickly, we couldn't afford to be reckless against them. After we dispatched one I told Sakura to track Naruto and make sure he doesn't engage Sasuke, I was confident I could win in a one on one.

The battle was tougher than I anticipated, the enemy had frighteningly large chakra reserves. By the time I was finished, I took off in their direction. I'm not sure which of them it was but they left markings on the trees providing me with directions. When I got within hearing distance I could hear Sakura's voice."

"Please Sasuke, I don't want to fight you! Me and Naruto will never come after you again; please, just leave us!".

"After she finished that sentence she entered my vision, as did Sasuke, who was shunshining towards her as she had her back turned, futilely trying to heal naruto. I was too far away to intercept him. I shouted a warning, but it wasn't enough. He finished her in one blow, a chidori to the heart.

I was about to pursue Sasuke while he was weakened but with fortuitous timing his comrades arrived, proclaiming themselves as team Hebi. They seemed strong; leaving me little chance of winning four on one. I had no choice but to retreat, I was unable to secure Sakura's and Naruto's corpses."

Throughout his tale Tsunade's face remained as an emotionless mask, her hands tightly gripping her clothes. She had remained silent throughout his report, not wanting to miss a single detail. She could feel a lump forming in her throat, she forced out a response, trying to keep her voice from breaking. "I see. We'll debrief fully later. Tell the chunin on duty to cancel all of today's remaining appointments. I'm sure you know, but this information has the potential to destabilize our village, it needs to be handled with care. Don't tell anyone except for Kakashi, he'd never forgive me if I kept this from him. Also… don't blame yourself for everything that happened. Dismissed."

"Understood, Tsunade-sama." Yamato replied quickly, his tone remaining stoic.

Seeing Yamato exit, Tsunade's resistances ceased. She couldn't prevent the tears from escaping. A sense of guilt creeping up on her, if the mission was screened more thoroughly then this wouldn't have happened. They wouldn't have been ambushed and Yamato would have been able to keep Naruto under control.

As always, rigorous background checks were done; but they aren't perfect. It's impossible to screen every mission to perfection. Despite knowing this, she still felt partly responsible. How could she not? Two of her closest friends are dead. The escort mission was due to be completed close to Iwa's border, given their poor relationship with Iwa Tsunade wouldn't be surprised if they were responsible. But Tsunade wasn't stupid, if they were, there would be no way to prove it. Moreover, it could easily be someone else trying to raise tensions between Iwa and Konoha by framing them.

Yet something seemed off, it didn't make sense. If it were Iwa, or someone framing them, why would they look to sabotage a single B rank mission, it seemed like a major waste of resources.

Naruto or Sakura wasn't originally assigned to accompany Yamato this mission, it was a last minute change, had the enemy known they would have sent stronger and more numerous shinobi. Had that been the case she could understand why they'd do it: to weaken Konoha by killing or capturing their Jinchuriki. But that wasn't the case, so why? Tsunade could only see minimal benefits to killing a three man cell.

Regardless, she'd ponder the matter later. For now she had to remain strong and summon her council, after that… she would mourn.

After exiting Tsunade's office and informing Kakashi, Orochimaru entered his temporary home in Konoha with a smile. Sasuke was far stronger than he anticipated, but Orochimaru always had contingencies in place, after all, he couldn't afford to die until he accomplished his dream. He couldn't find himself to be too upset at his defeat to Sasuke, since he was lucky enough to secure a mokuton user for his new vessel.

Orochimaru was surprised when his spy working in Konoha's anbu informed him that his most recent captain possessed the mokuton. He wasn't aware that one of his experiments was a success. He acted quickly to reap the rewards, failing to defeat Sasuke left him with little time remaining in his current vessel. After learning of Yamato he assigned the spy with one duty: track him when he next leaves Konoha on a mission, sending a shadow clone to keep him updated on his location. He was confident his spy could pull it off, after all, he was a uniquely gifted sensor, making tracking Yamato's chakra signature without detection an achievable task.

From that it was child's play to follow the directions consistently given to him via clones. He was certainly surprised when he discovered that Konoha's Jinchuriki and Tsunade's apprentice were accompanying him, it made things slightly more difficult, but it was well worth the effort.

The Jinchuriki was far stronger than in the past, surprisingly so, but he was still weaker than Sasuke. Defeating him was also made significantly easier by capturing Sakura and using her as a hostage, needless to say Naruto made a poor ninja. Had been pragmatic he could have sacrificed Sakura and perhaps had a chance of victory. But he was bound by his worthless attachment, as expected of Jiraya's disciple.

He knew that Tsunade cared for them, therefore he thought by pinning the blame on Sasuke they'd send out a squad to either kill or capture him, either would ultimately lead to Sasuke's death. If he were captured, he would be confined until it was decided which branch of T&I would handle him, during that time infiltrating T&I in Yamato's body and killing a defenseless Sasuke and assassinating whichever unlucky anbu agents that were assigned to guard him would be a simple task. After that, it would no longer be worth staying in Konoha.

Of course he considered the possibility that Tsunade has matured during her tenure as the hokage and would deem the resources required to retrieve or kill Sasuke too much to spare. But he figured nothing ventured nothing gained, he had already come out of this ahead, considering he'd weakened Konoha and obtained a more than suitable vessel.
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Tsunade was resolute in her refusal, Kakashi knew that she wouldn't budge. She said that a team would be sent in an effort to retrieve the bodies, and that would be the end of it. That left him with no choice, tonight he would leave the village to avenge his students.

Kakashi wasn't ignorant to the hypocrisy of his actions, he remembered the time he lectured Sasuke on why one shouldn't be consumed by revenge, telling him that the path of revenge never ends well, and that even with success it'd leave him with nothing. Pathetic. Even after that speech about knowing what it's like to lose somebody he can't help but want revenge, the desire for vengeance consuming him. Despite meaning and believing every word he said revenge seemed like the only option.

Despite Kakashi's disapproval for Sasuke's desertion, he never truly begrudged him for it, always having faith that after he achieved his revenge he would try to return to the village if at all possible. Now he feels like a fool for that belief.

Throughout his time with team 7 he became attached to each of them, vowing to protect them. Now that they're gone if only feels right to make their killer pay, everything else seems insignificant in comparison.

Currently Kakashi was situated in his apartment, contemplating how he wanted to go about his desertion. Tsunade trusted Kakashi immensely, but given how heated he got with Tsunade, he had to consider that there was a small chance that he was being monitored lest he do anything reckless, like say, leaving the village. Moreover, it's possible that after learning of Naruto and Sakura's death Danzo would consider him a flight risk

Although the chance of the latter was also very small. Shinobi danced with death of a daily basis, coping with loss professionally is expected of them; he doubted that Danzo would suspect Kakashi of doing anything rash enough to justify monitoring him. Kakashi had more than proved his loyalty to the village, and whilst he certainly lambasted Tsunade, he gave no indication that he would consider going rogue.

Regardless, as long as there was a possibility it was important to take proper precautions. Better safe than sorry after all.

Kakashi waited until dusk, then made his move. He couldn't detect anyone nearby, but that meant little, as despite his keen sense of smell, he was a poor sensor. Creating two shadow clones, he had one leave, then after waiting a short amount of time had his other shadow clone follow the first, to see if it was being tailed.

After an appropriate amount of time, both clones dispelled themselves, informing Kakashi that he seemed to be in the clear. The problem would be if he was being monitored by a sensor, as they'd know he was still inside and thus not follow the clones. Then again, given the nature of shadow clones they wouldn't know which is the original, so they might have felt the need to give chase. This in addition to the fact that his clones found no byakugan user within the vicinity, or anyone else for that matter, made him think that the chances of him being monitored were slim to none. If he was going to go today, he would do it now.

Remaining vigilant, Kakashi stealthily approached the village gates; given the time, the only activity within the area was at the gates themselves, where there were two chunin on duty. Once he was close enough, Kakashi applied a simple genjutsu on the chunin, eliminating himself from their vision, allowing him to walk straight out without detection.

Kakashi always said that having Chunin guard the village gates was a recipe for disaster. Then again, their real role wasn't to guard the village from shinobi, there was the barrier surrounding the village that detects entry for that. Their real role was to serve as an administrative function to log coming and goings in and out of the village, and relay orders to ninja returning from duty.

But still, given that it was the only road out of the village you'd think they'd assign more competent ninja.

After exiting the village gates Kakashi traveled at a fast pace, wanting to exit Konoha's main sphere of influence quickly, as he wanted to avoid fighting with his village comrades if at all possible. He didn't relish the thought of encountering them as a missing-nin.

After running for five minutes he noticed that there was an anbu squad on patrol. Slipping past them was easy enough. They were aiming to eliminate threats going towards the village, not shinobi coming out of it. On the off chance that the squad had a sensor then there was the possibility that they'd recognise Kakashi's chakra signature, but that was fine too. Right now he was a loyal Konoha shinobi, they would merely assume that he was heading out on a mission.

Tomorrow when it's noticed he's missing they'd probably be asked about him, but by then he'd be long gone.
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A/N: Is "shunshining" correct? It looks so wrong.
If you're interested in SI fics then check out my other story :)