Now twenty one, Izu lay flat on his back within a crawl space underneath the floor between his two subordinates, Danzo and Kagami. After three years working as black operatives, all three were especially skilled at being completely still for hours no matter the circumstances. Dust fell into their faces, irritating their eyes and their noses as the occupants of the house moved back and forth above them, but none of the hidden ninjas moved an inch. They barely even breathed.

With his byakugan activated, Izu watched through the wooden planks as Tobirama, Hiruzen, Homura, and Koharu, who made up Konoha's team seven, spoke only slightly less than hostile terms with a team of four ninja from Kumogakure. As the hokage's brother, he had come as emissary to speak with Kumo's head ninja about the conditions of the current peace treaty that had already been violated.

A temporary alliance between the current seven swordsmen of the mist and the infamous gold and silver brothers had begun in the midst of rumors of a secret arms deal between Kirigakure, Kumogakure, and a mysterious backer who went by code name, 'The Eye of The Moon'.

A year ago, peace talks occurred between the five great nations during which the First Hokage distributed the other eight tailed beasts, who Hashirama managed to capture using intel from his tactical team. It seemed as if the five great nations finally found some common ground and could possibly end the first great war. However, both Kirigakure and Kumogakure remained wild cards. Kirigakure had already carelessly lost the three tails to some unknown source, and Kumogakure, not satisfied with the two tailed beasts given to them, had already attempted to steal the seven tailed Chomei from the single smaller hidden village included in the peace talks, Takigakure.

And with the rumors of both nations attempting to arm themselves further through some unknown backer, the stability of that temporary peace was already crumbling fast.

Each of the unscrupulous organizations from the two nations made themselves "useful" by facilitating this deal. It was easier for them to maneuver in the shadows while the official representatives of both nations continued the farce of peace. Even if the organizations were caught, their nations could denounce the groups, stating they had nothing to do with the treachery.

Inside of the house, Tobirama growled, "No deal." He motioned for his team to move out.

Just as team seven turned to walk out of the house that sat within the neutral territory between the land of fire and the land of lightning, Torifu's bird calls sounded from the trees outside in the surrounding forest. Izu signaled for Danzo and Kagami to move left and right, while releasing the genjutsu that he had placed on the Kumo ninja within the house. The two ninja secured their signature red and white wooden animal masks and rolled out from underneath the house.

Commotion sounded outside of the house as the ninja of the Kinkaku force, who lay in wait to ambush the Konoha team inside of the house, attempted to fight multiple of Kagami's mirror clones as Kagami fled to the brush. The clones copied the image of their attackers, creating a distraction by reflecting any jutsu back at them in equal measure. Another set of bird calls sounded as Danzo grabbed and bound the intended target with one of his curse seals. Centuries ago, the Shimura clan broke off from the Uzumaki clan taking many of the traditional secrets of curse and binding seals with them. Danzo was already the most proficient at using the seals in the village.

Meanwhile, Izu moved a small plank to reveal the hole that they had cut into the floor earlier. Releasing a smoke bomb, he pulled at the legs of the Kumo ninja, who stood confused inside of the house searching for the members of Tobirama's team, who had just disappeared right in front of their eyes. He placed a paralysis genjutsu on each of them as he pulled them through the floor, knocking them unconscious. Pushing the floor board back into place, he tied them up with the hidden mists' trademark bandages and left them in the hole. Escaping to the back of the house, he made his way through the forest to meet up with the rest of his team.

An hour later, the real Tobirama and the current team seven showed up for the meeting with the four Kumo ninja only to find the surrounding forest abandoned and the house empty. They heard a rustling sound underneath the floor as they turned to exit the house. After searching awhile, they finally found the loose floor board and discovered the enemy ninja still tied up underneath the house.

Danzo removed the gag from the mouth of the young woman who sat bound by his curse mark underneath the tree a few miles from the meeting house. "I say we use the serum now... why waste more time?"

"No." Izu replied from his perch in the tree branches above. He searched through miles of the surrounding woods with his byakugan, feeding the information back to his sharingan in order to analyze the positions of nearby shinobi and predict how much time they had before they needed to move on. "We have enough time. We will question her first. If she refuses to cooperate with Torifu, then Kagami will try, and then... only if both fail... will we use the serum on her."

"We don't torture anyone unless we absolutely have to." He looked sternly at Danzo. Izu felt like he was having to remind his student of this more and more often. Danzo saw no issue with using even the most unscrupulous methods to obtain a positive outcome. The kid was way too good at this job. "The hokage has given explicit orders that she is to be kept alive and unharmed. This is an intel gathering mission not a termination. We always give our captives the chance to talk."

Still not looking convinced, Danzo reluctantly stood up from his quarry and let Torifu move closer to the girl.

Adjusting the bo staff at his back and removing the animal mask from his face, the chubby young man pulled out a sack of corn chips and began to stuff his face. In between bites, he casually asked the young woman some questions as though they were having a nice chit chat. " So we were told that you are Ginkaku's daughter. Your name is Goi, right?"

He received no answer, but Torifu continued, undeterred.

"And you are his current right hand, as well? Pretty high up in your father and uncle's organization I am sure. Which would mean that you are likely the one who was leading that team of Kinkaku force ninja who just attempted to ambush the first hokage's brother and his team. Am I right?"

The young woman just silently looked back at him with lavender eyes. She still made no attempt to answer. But Torifu still only smiled kindly in response. "I really don't want you to have to be poked an' prodded by my comrades. If you just answer my questions, we can avoid all of that."

The girl continued to stare at Torifu. She had long silver hair like her father though her features were human and not fox like. While he chomped away, Torifu admired her, thinking to himself that she would have been pretty if she was not so dubious. Absentmindedly stuffing more chips in his mouth, Torifu looked back at Kagami and shrugged. The Uchiha with the curly black hair moved closer and crouched down in front of Goi. Torifu pointed at his comrade and said, "This is Kagami. He is an Uchiha. He is also very good at finding people's weaknesses and uncovering their deepest secrets. Obtrusiveness is his specialty. Very violating -I wouldn't suggest it."

Goi narrowed her eyes at Kagami. She finally spoke as she moved her sharp lavender eyes back to Torifu. "And what is your specialty? Eating?"

"Oh no." Torifu smiled at her again. His red cheeks becoming a deeper a red, as he thought her voice also sounded very nice. "My specialty is to make people feel very comfortable. I make friends easily. I'm by far the better choice here. We should be friends."

Ignoring Torifu, she nodded to Danzo, who had been standing underneath the tree that Izu sat in, watching quietly. A hint of apprehension formed in her eyes when she looked at the hard faced teenage boy with the scarred chin. "And his specialty?"

Torifu looked over his shoulder at Danzo. He raised an eyebrow and sighed. "Pain. Unfortunately, his specialty is pain."

Turning back, he flashed his smile at Goi and then said in a soft and kind voice, "but I'm sure we don't have to go there. Do we, Goi?"

Goi spat at Torifu and scoffed. "Do you really think I'd fall for your tricks..."

Abruptly, her head tumbled forward as she fell under Kagami's genjutsu. He said, "My turn."

Kagami was able to use portions of the Yamanaka secret technique in combination with his visual genjutsus, in order to push his victim into reliving hidden memories, even those placed behind memory blocks, while inserting himself into the visions to watch. It was not nearly as precise as his master, Kimo Yamanaka's psycho mind transmission, but his ability to manipulate their emotions while in the genjutsu allowed him to manipulate the victim into subconsciously divulging deep haunting secrets relatively quickly.

Kagami pulled himself out of Goi's memories after about ten minutes. He shook his head at his sensei. "No good. She has so many memory blocks and traumatic memories after living with a father like Ginkaku that her minds just a jumble of crimes, abuse, and humiliation. It would take days to sort through all of this in order to get to the information we need and a Yamanaka would do it better."

Izu sighed. They only had minutes to retrieve the information and leave before anyone realized they were present. And no Yamanaka was cleared for a black ops mission. Goi was far too dangerous to transport back to the village. There was no other choice. He looked down at Danzo, who was now looking up at him coyly. "Do it before she wakes up out of Kagami's genjutsu."

Pulling the vials from his medical bag, Izu handed them to Danzo. He had spent months working on these serums, using his time away from the team in his lab instead of in the hospital. The serums worked in conjunction with Danzo's curse marks. The first as a truth serum which could eventually loosen any tongue though the side effect was immense pain if the subject attempted to resist. The second was a hallucinogen that allowed Danzo to manipulate the victim's thoughts and feelings towards himself to the point of irresistible loyalty. It was only temporary, but it worked powerfully well. The third serum wiped the victim's mind completely clean of any short term memories. So after they released her, she would have no idea that Izu and his team ever captured her. But the side effect was that if she encountered them again, she would likely fear them without knowing the reason why.

It only took Danzo ten minutes to retrieve the needed information about Ginkaku from Goi. But she was screaming in pure agony by the end of the interrogation. Her silver hair was drenched with sweat. Izu leaned over her and wiped her damp forehead with a cloth, before giving her a sedative to ease her pain. "Give her the third serum now, it will allow the sedative to work quicker. We'll be gone when she wakes up."

Danzo placed another curse mark on Goi before making some hand seals and injecting her with the third serum. Her eyes rolling back into her head, she passed out again from the sedative, the curse mark, and the serum. Izu set the unconscious girl up against a nearby tree and sighed. "There has to be a better way."

Standing up and brushing off his pants, not terribly concerned about his victim's wellbeing, Danzo replied. "Why does it matter to you what happens to scum like her? She and her men would have killed Lord Tobirama if she got the chance. She'll be fine... eventually."

Kagami and Torifu looked at the girl's limp body and then looked at each other with appropriate skepticism and remorse, but neither disagreed with Danzo. Izu stood up too and scanned the forest with his dojutsu. He knew he should correct his student, but speaking to Danzo was like talking to a brick wall sometimes. "Come on. We have to go. There is a group of kiri ninja about to cross our position."

A few days later, Izu sat on a bench near a pond at the edge of the village and watched the moon's reflection ripple across the surface of the water.

He did not know how long he could work this job. He knew how important the tactical team's skills were to the hokage and Hashirama's quest for peace, but the type of missions that they were forced to do in order to achieve that peace came with a hefty price. He had been feeling even guiltier ever since the last mission. Mainly, because there was no doubt in his mind that Goi was just a victim of her sadistic father, Ginkaku. But also, because he knew that he could have easily been her... if he had not been so well protected by his mother. If Madara had ever gotten his hands on him, he would have been out there doing unspeakable things in the name of his father, too. This made watching her pain while Danzo ripped her secrets out of her mind, even more intense and unbearable than usual.

"Are you ok, Izu?" A soft voice drifted towards him. He looked up and into Ichioku Uchiha's large black eyes. He had barely spoken to her, since he graduated from the academy. She worked under Kaiya from time to time, but Izu did not have much contact with the front line battle units, particularly now that he was working black ops.

He wiped his face. He definitely did not want her first sight of him after so many years to be of him crying. "Just tired... so many sick and injured. And the war seems to have no end."

Ichioku sat down next to him and took his hand in her smaller hand. "I never told you this... but I'm glad you left the front lines to work among the medical nin."

Izu frowned. Ichioku had always been a strange girl. It was one of the reasons why he had been able to connect to her while he was shunned by most of the other Uchiha. "Really?"

"I would've been so worried about losing you, it would've distracted me from my own missions. Knowing that you are here and I can return to you when I'm finished out there, has been what kept me going even in the worse circumstances." Ichioku explained.

Turning towards her, Izu smiled down at the small woman. He took her other hand and said, "I never knew you cared that much."

"Of course I do." Ichioku leaned forward, resting her head against his chest. This took Izu by surprise. He had always had a crush on Ichioku's kindness and beauty. She reminded him of his biological mother. But he never in a millions years thought she would feel the same way... not about him.

As Izu wrapped his arms around her shoulders, the warmth of her petite frame soothed the worried thoughts rolling through his mind and he relaxed into the embrace. It crossed his mind for a second that he should warn her that he had too many secrets. That she probably needed to stay as far as possible from him. But Izu just could not bring himself do it. He had always had a soft spot for this particular kunoichi and her presence felt so good and light next to him, when everything else felt so heavy and dark.

Eiko sat around the council table with Lord Hashirama, Tobirama Senju, Kiyoshi Nara, Kazuno Senju, and Shin Aburame. Eiko had only attended this meeting at the request of Hashirama. She was curious why he had specifically asked for her to come.

"You could have warned me that you were sending in that team of yours!" Tobirama roared across the table at his older brother after Hashirama revealed who was truly behind the attack on Kumo's head ninja's escort.

Tobirama often forgot that Hashirama was actually the hokage, particularly when he was included in the council meetings. This time, he was especially irritated that he was not privy to who was on Hashirama's tactical team, which meant it could be anyone. He was mainly suspicious of the council members, narrowing his cat like eyes angrily at each of them.

Eiko was the only one, other than Hashirama, who knew the identities of the members of Izu's team. Hashirama had only allowed this after it became apparent that the more treacherous actions of the team were weighing heavily on Izu. By nature, Izu rarely talked about anything personal to anyone, but for whatever reason, he did tell his biological mother almost everything.

"It was important to keep the actual mission from as many people as possible to ensure it appeared as real as possible." Hashirama was use to his brother's short fuse, so as usual, he chose to ignore the outburst.

"I don't like acting as a decoy." Tobirama snapped.

"I understand, Brother. But the mission was a success." Hashirama offered, attempting to pacify his younger brother. "We have the location of Ginkaku's hide out and the location and time for their next meeting with this anonymous backer, Eye of the Moon. And even better... none are aware we have the information yet."

Tobirama leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest unable to come up with a response. Hashirama looked over at Eiko. "I plan to send the team in again to attempt to identify and if possible terminate this backer... But there is a good chance that in the end this will lead us back to an old comrade."

Shin Aburame leaned forward. "Who would that be?"

"The only old comrade who would work with our enemies against us." Kiyoshi Nara surmised before Hashirama could.

After the meeting ending and the others left the council chambers, Eiko lingered behind to speak to Hashirama. She asked, hesitantly, "Do you really think that Madara is the anonymous backer?"

"I'm pretty certain." Hashirama replied. "But I have no proof as of yet."

"You can't send Izu to kill his own father." Eiko set her mouth determinedly. He had asked her to attend the meeting for a reason. This was the reason. "He will do it because he is loyal to you and this village. But no matter how he feels about Madara, Izu will either get himself killed or the guilt will eat him alive afterwards."

Now Hashirama looked uncertain. "I know. But as an Uchiha, Izu could get closer than anyone to Madara -if he is the backer."

"I've been loyal to you and all of your dreams since we were children, Hashirama Senju... through everything... even against my own husband. Please don't do this to my son." Eiko's eyes burned like fire. Taken aback, Hashirama had never seen his old friend look this way. Her fierce expression reminded him of his wife.

He quickly nodded his consent. "If the team is able to identify and locate the anonymous backer, then I will take care of him, myself. It should be my burden to bear. I'm the hokage. And I made the mistake of not killing Madara the last time I had the chance. I am the only one who can make sure it is done. And I will make sure it is done this time."