Three Pt2

History Lesson

"She's fast…I mean, she was just there and then…NOT!" Naruto said in awe.

"She wasn't The Jinsoku for nothing, Naruto." Sakura said with a roll of her eyes.

"Jinsoku?" Naruto asked, thoroughly confused. Everyone turned to stare at him. Did he miss the whole history lesson on Konoha?

"Yes, she was The Jinsoku of the Three Hokage Guardians or the Yogo-Sha." Tsunade informed him. Then decided she may as well give him a short history lesson so that he knew who he would be dealing with. "Seventy-five years ago the Senju clan and the Uchiha clan founded this village. You know the basic history right?" She asked, hopefully. The kid wanted to be the Hokage; he had better know something. He nodded his head vigorously. "Well...Shoko was one of the first settlers.

Before the village was founded, she was taken in as a baby by Uchiha Rido, who at the time was the Patriarch of the Uchiha clan."

"Wait a second...I though Uchiha Madara was the original patriarch." Sakura butted in. She was one hundred percent sure that Iruka-sensei had said that as well as the history books.

"Hai. Madara was the head of the Uchiha clan by the time the truce was signed and the village founded." Kakashi chimed in from over his book. He had been on the same page for a while now. He remembered a time when Obito and he used to beg Shoko to tell them stories of her past. She only ever told them battle stories though. She had never mentioned childhood stories. When it came to her personal past, Shoko had always been less than sharing.

"Rido was Madara and Izuna's father. He was also the murderer of Shoko's entire clan. Not much is in the history books about it but when I was a little girl she used to tell me stories over pocky when I would catch her breaking into the bakery." Tsunade laughed a little at the memory. "She told me that, though Rido had spared her and raised her as his own, he still very much despised her clan. He did...things to insure she was never able to use her clan's kekkei genkai as well as to insure the Kobayashi clan died with Shoko.

When she got older she began experimenting with jutsu, searching for a way to cheat time. Immortality. I don't know how the jutsu works or even why she strove to become immortal. I doubt anyone does, actually. And I doubt anyone ever will.

Many years later, when she turned seventeen, she was wed to Uchiha Izuna. The same year she perfected her immortality jutsu and the same year Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama made a truce and founded the village.

From the moment the Shodai was chosen there were 'Yogo-Sha'; bodyguards for the Hokage. Always three. The first and more than likely the leader, was called The Kashikoi, the most cunning of the village. The second was The Tsuyoi, the strongest. The third was The Jinsoku, the quickest. The elite of their kind. During the use of the Yogo-Sha, both the Tsuyoi and Kashikoi were replaced twice.

Shoko, being immortal and having yet to be surpassed in speed by anyone in the village, remained The Jinsoku until the Yogo-Sha were no longer used, having been replaced by special ANBU teams handpicked by the Hokage. I'm not sure why the Third chose not to use them. He had made that decision, soon after he'd been chosen for Hokage and never offered a reason."

"Okay, well then why was she in prison?" Naruto asked. Tsunade sighed and debated whether she should just scrounge out a history book for the kid.

"When Orochimaru was just a genin, Shoko had taken an interest in him," Jiraiya began. Naruto scowled at that. How could anyone find him interesting? "She offered to take him under her wing while he wasn't training." Jiraiya glanced over at Tsunade who had become quiet at the mention of their old teammate. He sighed. "They spent a lot of time in the labs and she taught him everything, or…most of what she knew. He got greedy though so The Third…our sensei, went to Shoko and voiced his concern with her, hoping that if he couldn't make Orochimaru see sense then she could. She ignored him though, or perhaps she confronted Orochimaru. Either way, rumors began and claims were made.

Almost a month after Minato became Hokage, The Elders tried to have them both arrested and tried for unlawful experimentations but Minato denied their requests because he trusted Shoko. They were extremely close and I don't think anything would have made him doubt her.

Soon after, the Kyuubi attacked. Shoko and Orochimaru's only immunity left with the death of the Fourth. The very night the Fourth was kill, they were both arrested. Sarutobi Hiruzen was voted back as Hokage and just two days after the attack, Orochimaru and Shoko were tried for the experiments. Shoko ultimately pled guilty, threading some story about keeping Orochimaru in the dark while she did all the horrible things that they pinned on her, when really, it was the other way around. She was thrown in the pits while Orochimaru walked. Once she was gone, he took a turn for the worst, realizing he would never get the immortality jutsu and I suppose the presence of Shoko had made it difficult to do…what he did. With her gone he became less discreet and only a few months later The Third confronted him in the labs. That was when he defected."

"Wow, so if she hadn't taken the blame then…

"Sasuke would still be here…" Naruto said, cutting Sakura off. Everyone looked at him once again in bewilderment. When did he get so perceptive?

"No Naruto," Jiraiya said sternly. "At any time during that trial either one of them could have easily escaped, including Orochimaru. He would still have sought Sasuke out and Sasuke would still have left. Shoko was only doing what she thought was right."

"How do you know she wasn't involved?" Sai asked. Tsunade looked at him, he had probably known all about Shoko. Danzō would have made sure to instill in them that she was an enemy of the village.

"Shoko never really strove to…learn all she could. She was sort of the lazy, I guess. The only reason she knows as much as she does is because it was all picked up from her long life. She didn't have the same goals as Orochimaru. Shoko was more knowledge seeking than power seeking. Curious to how things that interested her worked. Her immortality jutsu had already been completed a long time ago and she had never been suspected of delving into the dark arts to keep the jutsu going or for anything else." Tsunade told him.

"Shoko had mentioned to Minato that Orochimaru had been avoiding her, only a couple months before the attack but they had assumed it was because she had refused to teach him her immortality jutsu." Kakashi said.

Jiraiya sighed, "It was essentially the same with The Third. When the time came to kill him, he couldn't bring himself to do it, just as Shoko couldn't let him go to prison."

"Well when they realized she was innocent why didn't they let her out?" Naruto asked.

"I was wondering the same thing." Sakura added, thoughtful. "They didn't just let her sit in prison for fifteen years because she covered for Orochimaru when she really didn't know he was bad in the first place…did they?"

Tsunade suddenly looked slightly ashamed. "The Elder's-

Sai cleared his throat. Tsunade looked at him, questioningly but he didn't say anything. Oh right, he wasn't able to say anything about Danzō. "Heh, I should have known it was mostly Danzō's doing that kept her in there." Tsunade said with a shake of her head. "From the moment she was thrown in there, there was no clearance to enter that far past the Interrogation HQ. Not even Jiraiya or I could see her. Her name wasn't to be spoken and no one was ever allowed to ask about her. I don't know why The Third kept her in there or why Danzō would have wanted him to."

"That answers about 12 years' worth of my question. What about the three years you've been sitting behind that desk?" Naruto asked her. He was angry that an innocent person had been treated so badly. Not just an innocent person but someone who had actually helped build his village and fought for it.

"Naruto." Kakashi warned. "I'm sure-

"No, he's right." Tsunade said, reaching around to massage her neck. "I was never…" She sighed, "I was just angry that she allowed Orochimaru to become what he is. I blamed her. I guess I still do. She could have stopped it but she was just too blinded by 'her greatest student's' potential." Tsunade shook her head in disappointment. "She was in complete denial."

"We all were, Tsunade." Jiraiya said, rubbing her back.

"Yeah, we were, weren't we?"