Title: Mentality of a Missing-Nin

Summary: He is a Nara, loyal to a fault, none of them had ever betrayed the Village before, but he killed their allies and ran off into the night. Now he's joining Sasuke against them and even the most stubborn of friends may have lost faith in him.

Fandom: Naruto (manga/anime)

Characters: Shikamaru, Tsunade, Kakashi, Konoha leaders, Sasuke and Sound mentioned

Pairings: none

WARNING: Ninjas, secrets, betrayal, manipulation, spying, questions of loyalty, and even more betrayal.

Disclaimer: Neither Naruto nor anything else worth anything belongs to me, I currently live in a small town in rural Zambia, Africa, I don't even have most of what I do own.

AN: None of this is Betaed; I'm the only one who's edited it so sorry for any mistakes. Also all my Naruto fics are old, mostly from even before Shippuden came out in the USA, and my mother found the flash drive they're on and sent it to me thinking it was a different flash so now I'm posting them, mostly without many/any edits.

Mentality of a Missing-Nin

Part 10

"We are attacking Sound in their stronghold in four days time." Tsunade announces to the gathered War Council. She has of course not invited those Raven tells her are feeding reports to Sound, or the ones Moth has found giving information to their other enemies. "They have spent months hiding and planning but Sasuke's forces will be at their weakest, with many out on missions, when we strike."

"You are completely sure your information is accurate?" It is of course Hiashi, the Head of the Hyuga Clan, who questions her source, he was doubtful originally when she claimed to have a reliable source working their way up the ranks in Sound. It seems that even after almost two years of reliable, accurate, information he still doubts.

"Two months ago that scouting party from Sound was exactly where we were told it would be. Three weeks before that we intercepted a liaison to Sound from Mist on his way back to Mist exactly when and where my informant told us he would be. After two years of completely true information you still question my source?" She doesn't tell him of the weekly reports, only Moth and Ibiki know of those, and she is the only one who knows of all the details the reports contain. The ravens have brought her complete dossiers on every single one of the Shinobi pledging their loyalty to Sound. They brought her every last detail she might ever wish to know about Sound. These she hands out now.

"These are complete profiles of every ninja associated with Sound. I have battle plans, commonly used moves and strategies, training methods, preferred weapons, strengths, weaknesses, back-up plans, and blueprints of their fortress." As she lists them off she lets each one, a stack of battle plans, a roll of blueprints, slam to the table on top of the previous pages. It hurts to leave Shikamaru's profile in the stack with the rest but he is still a Shinobi of Sound, Sasuke's second in command at this point if all reports are accurate. "My spy has spent two years working towards this battle, ferreting out every little scrap of information and sending it to me. As soon as Sound developed a new poison for their suicide pills I received the exact formula and details on how to mix an antidote. I trust my source in Sound more than I trust you. You may be willing to die for Konoha, but could you live amongst our enemies for us? Could you leave behind everything you know to spend years infiltrating Sound deep enough for them to trust you with this much information? It takes true devotion to live a lie for your Village."

Maybe she's losing her temper a little as she thinks of her lost General. A few of the Clan Heads are looking a little like she's managed to make them feel insulted, and Kakashi looks supremely amused which never bodes well. Thankfully there's a tapping on the window. When she recognizes the main raven she receives reports from she opens the window and lets her in. The raven has never told Tsuande her name because, "Names have power, and you wouldn't pronounce it properly anyway," or so she claims.

"Good to see you're getting ready," she drawls in her usual cynical manner. "I'm here on behalf of the one who holds the contract with my clan and is spying on Sound to give the final report before you attack. There's the usual report, for your ears only Hime, and a few bits I'm sure you wouldn't mind me sharing now."

"Go ahead," Tsunade nods respectfully to give the raven summons the floor. The raven clan is notoriously picky in who they will accept a contract with. As some of the most intelligent and mischievous birds they will only accept a bond with someone who proves their own intelligence is worthy of the raven clan. It is pretty commonly known that those with a raven summons tend to be geniuses and often make great spies. Tsunade often wonders if perhaps had someone convinced Sasuke to bond with a summoning clan like the ravens before he defected this might all have been avoided, certain clans tend to be a grounding force. Ravens in particular are known to challenge a Shinobi to use their intelligence to its greatest potential, while warning them off of 'stupid' decisions like following an insane, sadistic, power hungry, psychopath like Orochimaru.

"All alarms will be disabled thus the forces opposing you will be more likely to come out in a trickle as they wake. If after the initial battle with the guards on duty you are very quiet and use the blueprints we've brought you it should be easy enough to sneak in and capture or kill most of those left in Sound as they wake. Sasuke's second in command will already be incapacitated and will not join any fights. Sasuke himself will most likely be delayed, if not completely prevented from joining the battle as well. Side doors here and here," she hops over to the blueprints and points them out with her wing tip, "will be left unlocked. A strike one hour past midnight would be best, it's long enough after the guard change that those going off rotation will be back in their beds but still leaves you a few hours before another guard change." She continues, hopping around and pointing with wing and claw to emphasize. Eventually she grabs a stick of charcoal in her beak and uses it to draw where the Sound forces will be on the maps.

"And, one man was able to gather all this, was able to promise all of this is accurate and will be done?" It's an elder this time, an old man who hasn't seen battle in decades and might never have been involved in the espionage side of things.

The raven cocks her head and stares at him in silence for a moment, her beady eyes boring into him and leaving everyone seated around him feeling as if she could see into their minds if she wanted. Then she tosses her head back to squawk out a laugh. "A single person was able to gather all this information and more. It came from spending two years doing everything necessary to gain the trust of Sound. One who claims our clan as their summons must be intelligent enough and tricky enough to do all this, otherwise we wouldn't have accepted the pact."

While your ANBU mask and code name do not always correspond with your summons, like Mouse, another member of Raven's squad, who is bound to the ferret summons clan, it is clear in this case how Raven was named.

Read and Review because I've got all my stories already, I don't need to post them, but if someone likes one or asks for more then I'll post more for them.