She inhaled sharply, telling herself that this was necessary. She couldn't possibly hope to prevent the massacre unless she knew the date. The anime hadn't provided it so she couldn't rely on past knowledge.

Rather, she had to go hunting for information. Which was why Naruto's help had been a need more than a want. He knew exactly when Hiruzen and Danzo will be having their next meeting.

Unfortunately, it was during Academy hours. Fortunately, Ino had little to no complaints regarding skipping.

Takara wished she didn't have to drag the blonde into this but at the moment, she was her best option. No other Yamanaka past the age of nine would have agreed with her demands. Besides, Ino in particular was pretty brilliant. No wonder the girl came out top of her class every year, having a better score than Sasuke even.

"Are you sure you can do it from this distance?" she asked, looking ahead at one of the frontdesk chunin. There were two of them. One for her to take care of, and one for Ino.

The blonde scoffed in a dignified manner. "Of course. Seriously Takara, they are right there. Very close if you ask me. What I'm more worried about is people coming in and asking me stuff I have no idea how to answer."

"You wing it, I guess."

"Wing...what?"

"Just, say random things. They will get confused."

Ino nodded, determined. "Alright. Let's do this then!" she made the seal and Takara knew the Mind Transfer Jutsu was a success when her body dropped. She was careful to lean it across the wall.

Then she worked her own magic. A shadow stretched from her person, biding the other chunin to make him obey her will.

"What in Kami...?"

He never got to finish his sentence. Takara, by controlling his movements, made him grasp hold of the empty tea mug on the desk and hit himself with it.

She came out from her hiding spot, meeting Ino's concerned gaze. "I hope you didn't hit him too hard."

She grinned. "Just enough so he'd be unconscious." then her gaze softened. "How are you holding up?"

It was clear Ino was trying her hardest to maintain control over a body that wasn't hers. "Better than I expected. You are nuts, I swear." she paused, rubbing her temples. "Now go!"

She didn't need to be told twice.

Turning left, Takara reached the Hokage's office. Thankfully, the ANBU were inside and not outside, standing guard. She was smart, but she wasn't that smart to take them out as well. Dimly, she wondered whether she was being stupid. One of the masked ops could be a sensory-nin and she had read about them enough to know that even a small chakra signature such as hers couldn't get past their radar. That's just how sensitive they were to energy.

Relying on luck was...pitiful, especially for a Nara but time was running out, the tension in the village was getting worse and Takara had made a silent vow, to herself, to Naruto and to the Uchiha siblings.

Try saving them.

Passive observers were just as guilty as those responsible. Nobody knew what she knew at the moment and even if they did...Team Seven, who played a major role in winning the war were brats now, not spectacular shinobi (sans Kakashi, but he was a different case altogether). So, Takara supposed, even if say, she had a moment of temporary idiocy and desire to end up as a new toy for Ibiki to break in interrogation and told the Hokage about the future she knew would happen if nobody meddled with...the biggest threat remained: Madara.

If Itachi didn't massacre the Uchiha, he would.

And there wasn't a thing anybody could do to stop him. Not when he had Obito as pawn, not when he could control the Nine Tails and make sure this time the Leaf doesn't recover.

They needed time to prepare for such a battle. Naruto, most of all, needed the years of experience that he didn't have right now.

They needed the Sand.

The Cloud.

The Rock.

The Mist.

Every shinobi past the rank of genin out on the battlefield.

Hypothetically speaking, even if Madara had a change of heart caused by time ripples regarding his descendants and not ended them in one night, telling the Hokage an Uchiha is the one to blame for the death of Minato and Kushina, other countless shinobi and, a future war... wouldn't earn the clan of Sharingan eyed prodigies any points. If anything, he'd probably order their execution much quicker.

Madara was an army on its own.

Add his clansmen who resent Konoha for shunning them to the mix and you might as well wipe out the entire ninja system, sans a few of them, of course.

To use Shikamaru's catchphrase...

This world is such a drag.

Most plans she had come up with (those two were just an example out of many) had the same horrible outcome:

Either Konoha gets destroyed.

Or the Uchiha are massacred.

Sometimes, terrifyingly enough, both are possible.

As far as Takara was aware of, this solution she was going for might be the only one to actually save and not condemn it all to hell. Get rid of Danzo and Shisui lives.

If he lives, he uses his eye to brainwash Fugaku and the clan elders into giving-up on the coup d'état and bam, the Uchiha are saved, Itachi never takes the burden of being a martyr and Sasuke stays sane and most likely grows-up to be a happier teenager than the first time around.

As for Madara...well, Takara didn't have a plan for him yet but she was counting on the fact that if he had come and sought out Itachi once, he will mostly likely do it in this version too.

And don't we all know that he is the best at keeping up appearances out of the Elemental Nations?

Deception, a fine weapon indeed.

The brunette shook her head, knowing now wasn't the time for making another plan when even the first one had yet to be carried out. She tiptoed towards the office's door, then pressed her ear against it.

"We'd be condemning an entire clan, Danzo. A clan who, might I add, is not only one of Konohagakure's founders but also our biggest trump card, should a war start again."

"Hatake has a Sharingan."

"Don't bring Kakashi into this. He is not an Uchiha. The eye will die with him."

"Not if we implant it in somebody else immediately afterwards. His offspring, should he have one or another prodigy. Besides, Uchiha Itachi had made his conditions clear. It's not far-fetched to believe his younger brother will carry on the bloodline."

"I refuse to give the order. This can be solved without spilling blood, old friend."

There was indignation in Danzo's voice when he spoke next.

"You are putting your faith in Shisui of the Body Flicker? He could be a double agent for all we know."

"Same thing could be said about Itachi." the professor argued.

"We had Yamanaka go through his mind. I rest my case, Hiruzen. The council, the daimyo and I, have decided. Uchiha Shisui has a week. Should he fail..."

Takara's eyes widened at the sound of approaching footsteps. She cursed under her breath. Did Ino get caught? Come on you scumbag. I have to hear the date!

The sound was becoming clearer and clearer by the second but she couldn't run yet. If she did so without hearing the most important part of the discussion, her actions would be in vain.

"He has time until 30th May. We'd be doing the right thing for Konoha, Hokage-sama. Not for our peace of mind. That's what I had envisioned when I created Root."

The end justifies the means, huh?

She took off running, barely able to hide behind a large flower vase before one of the frontdesk chunin (the one she had knocked out, Takara realized with shame), saw her.

He was too busy holding a resigned, scowling Ino by the collar of her shirt to notice her poor choice of a hiding spot.

She paled the moment he knocked on the door. A few exchanged words later and her friend got dragged inside.

I should have hit him harder.

Takara mused, then sighed, knowing it was no use crying over spilt milk. She might as well take responsibility for her actions. The blonde didn't deserve to shoulder the entire blame by herself.

"Come in." the Hokage's voice sounded tired, as if he was looking up and asking the universe what other method of torture have you prepared for me this time?

He looked the part, too. Takara almost felt guilty.

Almost.

The Sandaime's sanity was a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.

You can't have the morals of a saint and be a shinobi at the same time.

At some point, they all lie. Steal. Manipulate. Kill. She had just made peace with that fact sooner than the rest. Because even Naruto, the blonde-haired goofball whose dream is noble and whose smile is bright and whose hope is endless...was, will become, she corrected herself, a trained assassin.

That aspect had been easy to overlook in her past life, easy to ignore when she was watching that universe and not being part of it.

Every ninja was a villain of somebody's else story.

There were really no heroes in the end.

Angel to some, demon to others.

Takara's own objective was to save those she knew, those she admired and loved and cared for. Not the nameless faces, not the strangers she knew nothing about, not the characters beyond redemption.

"I am Nara Takara, Hokage-sama and if you wish to punish somebody...that would have to be me." she was looking straight ahead at the elderly man. Not at the ANBU she knew were hidden in the shadows, not at the frontdesk chunin who was probably itching to strangle her for knocking him out, damaging his ego in the process. But most of all, she was refusing to look at Danzo, even just with the corner of her eye.

The reputation he had was frightening enough as it was. She didn't need to look at the real, flesh and blood version and have nightmares for months even though logic told her that she is planning to get rid of the man in two weeks and targeting someone without observing them, at least a little, would be suicide. Plain and simple.

"And why is that?"

Takara cleared her throat. "It was a game that Ino and I played. I came up with the idea. No offence to the Academy curriculum or to my sensei, but I feel that what we are learning won't prepare us as well as it should for real life predicaments. Reading is fine, I enjoy it actually but I believe there is a difference between situations written on paper and experiences you get to feel on your own skin."

That, and you'd do well to increase the quality of your security, Hokage-sama. Had we been enemy-nin, spying for information...

"Continue to explain your reasoning."

If her vast vocabulary stunned him, he did not show it. Come to think of it, Orochimaru, Kakashi, and Itachi must have been just as fluent with their speech as she was.

The scariest part though?

The ones mentioned above were actually seven years old and not reincarnated teenagers aged sixteen.

Twenty-three if I count both ages from both lives.

"The game was to see if we can infiltrate in a secured building with little to no obstacles. Of course, given the fact that Konoha is our home and that we have been inside the Hokage Tower before made things a lot easier. We knew, more or less, what to expect. Say, the Mizukage Tower for example, would be a much more difficult aim. Anyway, Ino used the Mind Transfer Jutsu, I used the Kagemane. We got caught because our stamina and chakra network is undeveloped. Paradoxically, those are the same reasons why we have gotten this far. Our chakra was out of sight and wasn't sensed by your ninja."

Silence followed her answer. Half of Takara wanted to jump out of the window right then and there, get out of the mess she had gotten herself into. The other half though, was less impulsive, less dramatic but rather hopeful and intrigued.

After all, they have no proof that I've eavesdropped on classified information.

She hadn't been caught near the door. Actually, she hadn't been caught at all and had turned herself in out of her own volition.

For the sake of a comrade.

If that didn't scream Konoha shinobi requirements, Takara had no idea what else would.

Skill and sooner abandoning the mission than abandoning a friend.

Hiruzen was pleasantly surprised. So much so, that he chuckled. "I thank Kami nine out of ten times for the Ino-Shika-Cho existing in my village only. Terrifying teamwork, I might add." he paused. "You are very clever for your age, Takara-chan. Outstandingly so and while both you and Ino-chan's strategic game is to be admired and not punished...I expect this incident to never repeat again."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." the two girls replied in sync.

"You are free to go now. I will talk with your Academy instructors."

"Thank you."

They bowed, suddenly less nervous and more cheerful. Though Takara couldn't help having a bad feeling about this...

The chunin's protests fell on deaf ears and were silenced shortly afterwards but Danzo's contemplative gaze on her person will be haunting her.

Maybe she had fooled the Hokage, but whether the same tactic had worked for the fearsome leader of Root...

It's debateable. I might as well have signed my death warrant.

"I'm never, EVER, agreeing to your plans again Takara! You are worse than Shikamaru!" Ino exclaimed once they walked out of the Hokage Tower. She sighed defeated. "This is what I get for complaining about the Nara being lazy, huh?" her voice was less loud.

Takara grinned. "Oh, come on, just look at the bright side!"

Ino gave her a pointed look as if saying what bright side, you baka.

She wasn't fazed in the slightest though. "We found out we make a great team. Besides, not everyone gets to say that they shocked the Hokage into silence." Takara nudged her in the arm.

The blonde scoffed. "Like anybody is going to believe us."

She kicked a pebble with her feet. "Doesn't matter whether they do or not. We know the truth...and so does the Sandaime. He will keep that in mind."

Ino watched her incuriously. "Do you seriously believe what we did back there is going to help us in the future?"

"I do."

But not in the way you think.


"Let me get this straight Nara..." her favourite Hyuga (notice the sarcasm), paused, pupiless eyes fixing her with a piercing look. "You want my help..."

She rolled her eyes. "I do."

I need it more than want it, Neji, but fine, have it your way.

"Not only to learn, but master an A-ranked, Nara technique..." at this, his forehead creased into a frown.

Takara hummed noncommittally.

"With a higher risk of losing your life than succeeding." He lowered the scroll he had been given to read, placed it on the table in front of them, then rubbed his temples.

She refrained from telling him that he looked like a middle-aged man whose bills just arrived. Instead, she confirmed his words. "Precisely."

"I wonder what's in that brain of yours to even consider doing this."

Knowledge of a horrible future.

She was silent for a few minutes, looking around the Hyuga backyard. The end of spring was near and so was the end of the Uchiha if she chose to sit back and do nothing. "Are you going to help me or not?"

Instead of answering, Neji asked her something in return. "Why come to me and not seek out a seasoned shinobi? Your uncle, for one."

Because you are smart enough to help me, but not to connect the dots.

Shikamaru's father, on the other hand, was capable of doing both.

Takara looked up at him, her voice sincere. "For things to work out, I don't need a Nara brain." she paused. "But a Hyuga's ambition."

She held her breath as she waited for an answer. His efficiency at mastering jutsu that he had only seen once or twice but never read about, never been taught to... was outstanding, unrivalled.

It felt like an eternity before he voiced out loud his decision. "If I agree to help you, what I say, goes, Takara."

She smirked.

"I would have been disappointed otherwise, Neji."


A/N: Hey guys! Here it is, the new update! My plot has been moving pretty slowly, I know but no longer! Thank you for reading and for the positive feedback! I appreciate it a lot. Also, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter.

TheOne320: Thank you for pointing out that mistake for me! I forgot about that difference in cultures, I'm sorry. I will have to be more careful next time.