A duty held by darkness

by SortaCore

He wasn't wearing these clothes a few seconds ago. And what were these scrolls in his hand? / A twelve-year-old is ordered to infiltrate Konoha and observe a certain naïve shinobi. By himself! / Canon Narutoverse with minor time-travel. Mostly OC-centric.

36. Distortion of truth

A Duty Held By Darkness

Chapter 36: Distortion of truth

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AN: Welcome back to the story guys/gurls. It's been a while. Months and months actually.
Last chapter post was 29th of March. It's exactly 6 months later, 29th of October.
…I'm not sure how my subconscious did that.
Enjoy the chapter. It's 17k words, which is pretty big!

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Inoichi was rinsing the fertilising powder off his hands and suppressed a flinch as someone entered his shop. Still a bit jumpy. Yūrei's surprise Summon had spooked him majorly, and now every person that he sensed set him off.

Ironically, Yūrei traditionally had no chakra presence at all, so he normally couldn't be sensed... but that just meant if he took the seals and masks off, Inoichi wouldn't recognise his chakra at all, so everyone was a threat. But Yūrei had long gone.

But the logic didn't sink into the emotional centre of his brain… because logic and emotion couldn't work like that. The only solution was to continuously reject the idea he wasn't safe and mentally decide he was, until his subconscious finally engrained that habit by itself.

The Yamanaka head flicked the water off his hands and headed to the counter, perturbed when he saw the visitor waiting for him. Hatake Kakashi, infamous novel in hand, and his bored look firmly locking away his distraught past and over-alert senses.

"Well, I can guess you don't want plants or psychology, so how can I help you?" Inoichi smiled. If it were plants Kakashi would have brought them to the counter, if psychology he wouldn't have fixed his expression so carefully. Kakashi didn't like psychologists, but then any ANBU walked on eggshells around Yamanaka. After all, one bribed mind-reader and an ANBU's head would spill with all sorts of S-Rank secrets and personal matters alike. To say nothing of the trauma they could unlock.

Kakashi's tone was as carefully expressionless as his voice, and as expected he cut straight to the point. "I read you had to interrogate Yasha. Can I talk with you about him?"

Inoichi's greeting smile slipped and he nodded. "Come to the back."

The two jounin moved to the back at a calm pace. Kakashi blinked and glanced around the garden. "Oh? You've redecorated."

"Yep," Inoichi agreed simply. The clan gardens, ironically enough, was where Inoichi was meant to feel safest. After the Summon, he no longer could, so he had rearranged a lot of the garden so the memory's visual trigger of one of the most terrifying moments of his life was less prominent. He was also very certain there was no Summon seal anywhere on his clothes, skin, or the ground nearby; he'd been very thorough with his checks. He had even hired a Hyuuga.

The two sat on garden chairs by a table, the large open garden fulfilling Kakashi's subconscious desire to have an easy escape route and clear line of sight. Kakashi did appear relaxed, though.

"So, Yasha, where do I begin?" Inoichi drummed his fingers on the table in thought.

"I know about his ANBU reports and what's made of his psychology. I understand his mindset," Kakashi sliced away most of the topic. "What's your personal opinion on him?"

Inoichi frowned. "He's a very dangerous kid. His bloodline and mindset turn him into someone who can be violent without a shred of remorse, and kill people quickly – probably a whole group in one shot.

"Of course, with dental records and the like, we can still identify the skeleton left behind, but he can disintegrate the bones as well, just with more time. Psychologically…" Inoichi sighed, summing it up, "He's someone with social anxiety, toggled sociopathy, extreme manipulative tendencies, a rare and deadly bloodline, trauma, and control issues. He is triggered by child abuse, hates child neglect, he's already killed three or more people, and his mind is all but inaccessible to any method of interrogation."

"Triggered by child abuse and neglect, huh…" Kakashi mused, "So he doesn't like Konoha for the shunning that's been happening to Naruto?"

Inoichi nodded shortly. "Got it in one. But he's smart enough not to generalise, he knows even a majority opinion isn't every person. So if, for example, he dislikes jounin in general, he'll give each one he meets a chance."

The Hatake nodded. "And his detachment complex, what does that mean for his relationship to Team 7?"

"You mean…?" Inoichi realised, eyes widening.

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Yep, I'm saddled with him, along with a certain blond and an Uchiha emo."

"Please, don't call Sasuke an emo. It's crude. He's traumatised by what happened," Inoichi rebuked automatically, mulling that new team arrangement over. Trauma wasn't something to make light of; it made going for help that much more embarrassing. "I don't see what the Hokage was thinking, breaking tradition, but okay."

He leant forward, but the silver-haired jounin had already tucked the book away at some point and his attention was fully on the Yamanaka head. The Yamanaka spoke calmly. "Naruto isn't a problem. Yasha to some degree seems himself as someone playing a game, in which the entire world is the board.

"As such, Naruto, being a piece he can easily manipulate, is akin to having the queen on a chess board, or a gold general in shōgi. It's easy to send Naruto anywhere and get him to do anything because he trusts Yasha so much.

"As a result, Yasha will treat Naruto properly, because child abuse will set him off and because he's so easily manipulated. However, due to his history and nature, he'll punish disobedience severely and trim Naruto into size with a mixture of emotional manipulation and physical violence. From his childhood, when he witnessed abuse, he saw a child getting overpowered physically to gain control over them… so likewise, if his control is tested, he may well default to physical violence to respond. He won't like that he did it, and while this is a form of abuse, his underlying intention is for Naruto's benefit."

Kakashi held up his hand, a hard look in his eye. "Wait, so his benefit is to be Yasha's dog?"

Inoichi winced. "I wouldn't quite put it that way. From Yasha's perspective, while the chess queen is a powerful piece, it's very vulnerable, and ultimately useless without the player. So he will protect it by making sure it will follow his orders exactly and that Yasha knows where Naruto is at all times, and what he's thinking of. He won't want harm on Naruto; he'll actively prevent it in fact."

Kakashi nodded curtly. "No point having a broken puppet," he summed up a bit more harshly. His eyes trailed to the side in thought, before he brought himself back and gave Inoichi a piercing look. "And what about Sasuke?"

Inoichi sighed. Kakashi had a very low view of Yasha at this point – maybe it was right to have it, but as Yasha's sensei, it wasn't a good idea. Maybe Kakashi could hide it, but Yasha was very good at reading people. "Well, Sasuke was assisted by Yasha after Itachi left, so he owes him a…"

"Oh?" The silver-haired jounin flipped his hand up and cut Inoichi off again, leaning forward. "I hadn't heard that detail."

"Oh." Inoichi blinked. He didn't know? "I shouldn't really tell you then, but I think for the sake of the village you're better off knowing."

"Yeah, yeah, get on with it." Kakashi was about as likely to betray Konoha as Tsunade was to give up on gambling and they both knew it.

The Yamanaka head continued. "Basically, a powerful genjutsu was placed on Sasuke, one that altered time by compacting three days' worth of experiences into a few seconds. While the exact physical change is unknown, Sasuke was given a loop of seeing all his relatives die, repeatedly. While this wasn't a problem the Yamanaka could deal with, since the experience on his end was over in seconds, it was the aftermath that was the problem."

"The aftermath?" Kakashi repeated slowly.

Inoichi spread his hands. "The brain isn't capable of handling three days' worth of emotional trauma without rest. Even three regular days without rest would be pushing it. The stronger the emotions you feel, the stronger the memory you create; so trauma for that length results in a record of nearly all of it. So with three days of that, after the genjutsu ended Sasuke lapsed into a comatose state where his body attempted to recover, but mentally, his subconscious was processing and recording all the experience.

"If a Yamanaka had jumped into his head at that point, they would be in a dream world, at the mercy of whatever Itachi would have him experience. They wouldn't be able to do much other than be added to his recorded memories as his brain kept processing them. He'd still be in a coma. If we had forced him to wake up early, the memories would be getting processed while he was awake, meaning he'd be seeing flashbacks in every direction. It was beyond our abilities."

Kakashi nodded slowly. "So Yasha's mind abilities and natural genjutsu breaking…"

"Yes, the combination did the trick. Yasha was capable of breaking him out. It wasn't instant, though. My theory is he has a mental technique that forces a state of normalcy, a state of wakefulness in order to read thoughts. The swarms force Yasha out of abnormal thought patterns naturally as a self-defence mechanism; by going into the recording of a genjutsu, the swarms activated by 'dispelling' it, cancelling the processing and recording process."

Kakashi scratched his head, trying to grasp it. "So he basically cancelled the genjutsu-flow memory by forcing the brain to resume normal chakra flow?"

Inoichi nodded. "Something along those lines, yes. Yasha's swarms automatically cancel out genjutsu, and since he was inside a genjutsu experience, they tried to cancel him out of that as well. Sasuke still had to respond to him, but since he did, their consciousness joined briefly and the influence of Yasha's chakra flow broke him out of the genjutsu as well, just like when you inject chakra into a teammate to break them out of a genjutsu.

"By merging with Sasuke's mental environment, his swarms took control of the conscious state there, and whenever the genjutsu loop attempted to reoccur, the swarms forced it to normalise, dispelling each new iteration, and all the iterations remaining were dispelled in seconds."

"That's pretty impressive," the other jounin mused.

Inoichi hummed. "It would be if a person had done it, but Yasha didn't really do anything. His swarms did it all for him, on automatic. Yasha himself probably never saw anything of the genjutsu Sasuke was seeing, since the swarms would have protected him from its effects."

"Still…" Kakashi sighed, and then realisation hit him. "So Sasuke is indebted to him now…"

"Yep. Besides that incident, Sasuke has been put on a path to gain power by Itachi, and since Yasha has an intimidating bloodline, Sasuke will naturally assume Yasha's stronger than him." Inoichi waved his hand airily. "Of course, that's not the case; bloodlines aside Sasuke is far stronger, in taijutsu, techniques, pretty much all the methods. However, with the bloodline, Yasha has an instant-kill method, high intimidation, regenerative ability, he's genjutsu-proof, has a telepathic technique, and of course there's his experience in manipulation."

Kakashi dismissed the overpowered status breezily. "In battle he can't use regeneration, it takes too long; and his intimidation and use of bloodline draws attention. If he goes against someone with a Katon technique and his insects burn up, a Suiton and they're washed away. He has difficulty hiding himself and he's not ninjutsu-proof."

Inoichi nodded agreement. "Definitely not, and Sasuke is an Uchiha, so he most likely has Katon affinity. Unless Yasha wants to kill him he'll lose against Sasuke in a fight; he's not fast enough to keep up in taijutsu or dodge larger ninjutsu, and he doesn't have a particularly strong body."

Kakashi leant back with a sigh. "Well, that's reassuring. He's easily overwhelmed despite his bloodline."

A few seconds passed and Inoichi let the prodigy process the information, before prodding him. "Okay, is there anything else?"

"So Sasuke owes him a big favour and Naruto's his bitch," Kakashi summed up airily, making the psychologist frown at the crude wording. "And, Ino's his girlfriend."

"What?" Inoichi recoiled, then groaned. He spun, gazing back out over the garden and freshly-planted flowers. "Yep, I know that much. I've tried to talk her out of it, but ever since Yasha saved her life, twice, I can't exactly get rid of her perspective of him."

The Yamanaka head sounded resigned. Kakashi considered asking Inoichi about what he was doing about it, but it wasn't really his concern. If Inoichi was aware of the problem with Ino, and aware of Yasha's iffyness, then it was fine.

"But now you're Yasha's jounin-sensei, maybe you could influence him…" Inoichi turned around and blinked at the empty seat opposite. Kakashi was such an asshole sometimes.

"Dad!" Ino called from the hallway, stepping through into the gardens. Recently, Inoichi had been in the gardens more often than not. She could guess why.

"Hey sweetheart." Inoichi smiled at her, then took in her serious expression. "…What's on your mind?"

Ino flopped down in the seat opposite him, her whole body language screaming agitation. "It's about Yasha, dad."

"Right." Inoichi nodded, inwardly relieved she was finally addressing it. He was a bit perturbed about the timing so close to Kakashi, though.

Ino counted off each statement, whacking a finger onto her palm with each. "Asuma-sensei doesn't trust him. Shikamaru says his dad is scared of him. And you keep telling me he's bad news. What's so wrong with him then?"

Inoichi sighed. She was asking him the same thing Kakashi had, and judging from her attitude, she was finally ready to hear it. "You know about psychology. And obviously, I received this in confidence, so this should be kept private; strictly between us two." He analysed her expression and came out with it. "He has a detachment complex, and a control complex."

She was shocked. "What?"

"He has a constant desire to be in control, and he does not feel attached to reality enough for things that happen in reality to matter to him."

"I know what it means!" Ino snapped, outraged, confused and upset. Actually, she didn't really know what she was feeling. "Why? What happened?"

"He was involved in child abuse when he was younger and he ended up killing the abusers."

"Oh." Ino's gaze dropped to the floor and suddenly Yasha's berserk state made complete sense. A control complex was common if a traumatic experience occurs outside of your ability to control it. It was a defence mechanism – if you're in control you're safe.

"He's not safe to be around, Ino. His bloodline is so dangerous he calls it Death Release. You saw what happened that night someone… tried something on you."

That night was, to put it mildly, scary. But the implication was… Ino recoiled. "You think he's just playing with my emotions rather than actually wanting to be my boyfriend."

"It's very likely," Inoichi said gently, but firmly. "He has a control complex, if for some reason he wants to control you, he would use any method possible to do so."

"Um…" Ino didn't know what to think. Yasha had protected her… but he had covered his own tracks the first time. He was strong and confident, and she still couldn't think about that kiss in the Academy without blushing. He was hot too, and yes, a bit dangerous, like all shinobi, but maybe that bit was something bigger than she thought.

Maybe her dad was right. He might have saved her just because it had triggered him. Maybe he would have killed her.

An icy feeling crept up her spine. Why wouldn't he? Her father, mind-reading clan head, couldn't get into Yasha's mind. He was one of the few people that could actually get away with killing her.

Yasha had called her out on blackmail, and then distracted her from questioning what the blackmail material actually was by kissing her. If that was why he did it, it was devious.

Yasha had said he could love any girl.

He didn't say he loved her. He said he could. And he said anyone.

Like all of them were equally possible. Like she wasn't special to him.

Stunned, she sat with her mind reeling, not noticing when her father quietly stood and walked back into the store to give her room to think. Yasha hadn't even said he loved her, and right then, in that moment, he had the courage and romance enough to kiss her – but not to say those words?

Were those kids really that important to him that he'd play with a girl's feelings? Was he that sort of person? Even with a past like that, it wasn't something Ino could forgive. She stood up abruptly, deciding on the spot she was going to confront him.

As she was about to stalk out the front door, Inoichi's call stopped her dead.

"Ino." Inoichi's tone was flat. He emerged from the side room, fixing her with a stern look. "I hope you're not about to go and test the control of someone with a control complex."

"Yes, I'm going to tell…" Ino's angry retort trailed off as she re-evaluated. That was stupid, now she actually thought about it. It'd be as clever as telling a pyromaniac your house feels chilly. It'd trigger Yasha in the worst way possible. Well, second worst way, after child abuse.

She needed an adult, a jounin who could take her away if he freaked out again. After the demon experience she knew if he was triggered she'd be overwhelmed in an instant.

But if Yasha's secrets were significant – and they would have to be for him to go to this extent to hide them, he was no idiot – then Ino didn't want anyone else hearing about the secrets, any jounin included. Yasha wasn't dumb, and he did have quite a lazy streak; the fact he was doing this childcare all by himself, refusing help and covering things up, that was significant. Ino had seen him quit taijutsu match with 'sudden stomach pains' and so she knew he didn't put in effort if he could get away without it.

Even though quitting taijutsu could get him mocked by the other boys, just like babysitting, he did it anyway.

The best idea was to just figure out what he was doing with those kids, without him knowing. Then she'd know what to do; to confront him or leave it with him. Without knowing the reason behind the kids being secret, or Yasha going to such measures, it'd be stupid to go through with confronting him.

She nodded at her father, resolved and calmer now. "Right, Dad. Don't worry, I won't do that."

"You better stay safe, Ino," Inoichi ordered her sternly, a ghost of a smile flickering as he relaxed. "Last thing I want is to ground you again."

"When I'm on a team?! Daaaaaad."

---

"So, you want battle plans, then," Shikaku hummed, moving a piece forward idly.

The Hokage nodded, brows set. "He's not someone we can take lightly."

"No, he sounds like he's well fleshed out." Which was high praise coming from Shikaku. "Infiltration, assassination, kenjutsu, fuuinjutsu, genjutsu, Sharingan, Mangekyō, five elements…"

Worse than fighting Itachi? On par, that was for sure.

Ten minutes passed until Shikaku spoke. "The things that we need to be concerned about: Firstly, his lack of presence. We won't be able to find him. When we're engaged in battle, he will need to be tracked expertly, which requires Hyuuga or Inuzuka, and of course radio communication.

"His weak point is his chakra level and his affinity. Regardless of his capacity, if he goes all out to take down an attacking force, he will run out of chakra quickly. The Sharingan lets you force your body's chakra into duplicating a recording of someone else's, but it doesn't remove the strain of using an affinity you're not used to. If we attack him with his natural affinity, with combo attacks, he'll be unable to overcome with the same chakra, and be forced to use a draining affinity, which will exhaust him."

Hiruzen nodded. "So, using a single Katon [Fire] would mean he could probably override with his own Katon. So we need multiple Katon users with an attack he can't overwhelm, and force him to use Suiton [Water] against it to cancel it out."

"Ah." Shikaku held up a finger to interject. "Not quite. It's not guaranteed he's a Katon affinity. He may be Uchiha, but his exact lineage is uncertain. The trust thing means no one ever tested his DNA; they took his word for it. Besides, while the majority of Uchiha have fire affinity, it isn't all of them."

The Third Kage nodded again, acknowledging. That was quite the oversight. "At any rate I'll be sending Jiraiya in to tackle him. He'll be able to use Sage Mode to track him, and he can easily outlast him, even if Yūrei has equivalent reserves, since Sage Mode adds a lot onto it."

Shikaku moved a piece again. "Actually, I'd keep Jiraiya back until he's weakened, or maybe not use him at all except for tracking Yūrei. After all, Yūrei has that trust genjutsu, and it's nearly instant in casting onto someone. Whether it drains Yūrei or not, you don't want Jiraiya having it; him suddenly dismissing Yūrei or worse, turning on the rest of the team. Unless you can disable any possibility of a genjutsu with seals or Sage Mode naturally prevents it, up until the last second you risk someone, or potentially multiple people, turning on you with newly-installed trust genjutsu activating."

Hiruzen nodded a third time, agreeing with the master tactician. "We'll need some considerably powerful shinobi there; ones capable of doing damage or dragging out a fight against Yūrei, and ones capable of taking down those shinobi."

Shikaku frowned. "Or, you could just give the kill order. Genjutsu naturally cancels if the caster dies. As soon as someone's turned on you, authorise Yūrei's death."

Hiruzen tapped his chin again, looking reluctant. "I'm hesitant to do that. We won't know his motives."

Shikaku sighed. Hiruzen's passivity was, for once, misplaced. "Hiruzen-san, you just can't afford to keep him alive. Give him any chance to explain and he could genjutsu you. Capture him and jump into his mind and you risk whatever fuuinjutsu and self-applied genjutsu he's set up." Shikaku waved his hand tiredly. "You cannot trust this man to explain himself."

Hiruzen shook his head. "I can't even trap him. If he sends a Kage Bunshin, it'd be impossible to distinguish from the real deal, since chakra amount won't be visible. If he has a Summon trick set up, it's even harder."

"You'll need four, up to six ANBU squads," the Nara suggested. Konoha only had eight squads total, so Hiruzen looked a bit perturbed. Shikaku clarified quickly. "It's a lot, and if he couldn't turn people on each other just Jiraiya could take him on, but that's how it is."

The master strategist chopped the table with each statement. "Hit him hard and fast so he can't plant trap seals, drain his chakra levels protecting himself with non-affinity chakra, and keep him down." He fixed the Hokage with a focused look. "Every second someone is near him, you risk that genjutsu. He must be kept too busy to concentrate or gather the chakra, and ideally, you need to cycle the attacking teams so that he can't work out whether to cast a genjutsu on a particular person or not. If they pull back immediately the trust may be planted and made useless immediately." Then he sighed, leaning back. "Of course, this problem is eliminated if we have a counter to his genjutsu."

"Hmm…" the Hokage mused, as his mind caught onto something Shikaku wasn't privy to. 'Itachi is still loyal, and he has a significant Mangekyō genjutsu ability as well. He used it on Sasuke, and caused him to experience three days' worth of trauma in seconds. If he uses that on Yūrei… assuming he can under whatever seals Ghost has on himself… then Itachi has three days' worth that he can use torture or whatever methods to wring information out of him.

'And because it lasted only seconds in the real world, there's a good chance if Yūrei has anti-genjutsu seals, they won't activate in time to save him. A seal that takes half a second to notice a genjutsu and kick in to release it will still leave Itachi with several hours of interrogation.

'At the very least, it will weaken Yūrei, but I'd have to smuggle Itachi into the attacking force… unless I get Jiraiya and Itachi alone to attack. Itachi communicates with Jiraiya already. At least, let Itachi make his mark, then have Jiraiya attack the weakened Yūrei while Itachi retreats, then send the ANBU in and swap them with Jiraiya, hiding him to the background so he cannot be genjutsu'd. And the ANBU stay far back enough to not know of Itachi's presence. It's not a bad idea.'

Of course, he shouldn't tell Shikaku the details behind Itachi. Even if he did, there weren't any more players who knew Itachi; the Nara head wouldn't be able to add much to the strategy knowing Itachi was on board.

"The strategy is relatively simple," Shikaku said calmly. "Sending in a strong team then replace them with another strong team, constantly; that will stop Yūrei from using his Mangekyō genjutsu. He won't know who to place it on – even if he manages to put down one team, there's still another team incoming.

"Hyuuga ranged attacks would be instrumental, too, and of course there's the various clone techniques. However, with someone good at assassination, even to the point of using needles, the clones won't last long. Anything bar Shadow Clone will be see-through as well."

Hiruzen moved a piece. "Nara would work too, to hold him down."

Shikaku shook his head slowly, scratching his head with a finger. "I'll be unsure about that. If we're attacking, the Nara will take the impact momentums. And I can't tell what his seals do for his shadow; while it's very unlikely they're affected, connecting it with someone else's may be dangerous. He's had ample opportunity to test seals on Nara and use implanted trust genjutsu to get them to forget it ever happened.

"And more than one Nara on the same shadow, even with radio, will still be interfering with each other's control. They'd be tying each other down as well as him. Plus, there's the same problem as with Yamanaka: his no-presence seals make targeting harder. The Nara will have to see him and have a few seconds to connect their shadows – without him seeing them. For Sharingan users, a chakra attack will be visible from the start – particularly in his case, as he keeps it activated constantly."

"What if I have a strong taijutsu user attack him first?"

Maito Gai, while wearing the guise of a simpleton, wasn't stupid. However, he would allow Itachi's presence if the Hokage talked it over with him privately and convinced him that Itachi and Hiruzen formed a truce over a mutual enemy – that way Hiruzen could hide that Itachi was doing it out of loyalty.

Gai would rant about youthfulness of working together to defeat evil while internally musing about how unusual it was a missing-nin worked with his home village. But Gai was as loyal as they come and enemies wouldn't expect S-Ranks from someone who'd never been in ANBU, so the secret about working with Itachi against Yūrei would never be forced out of him.

Plus, while using the Gates, the body's mental state was so out of sync, high on adrenaline and running excessively fast, it actually formed a protection against incoming genjutsu. You'd have to be a user of the Gates to cast a genjutsu on another user; it's too difficult to understand the abnormal brain process.

Of course, a powerful genjutsu could get past that, but you'd still have to be exact in your aim of the genjutsu so it hit them… and exact aim on someone who was ridiculously fast was a pretty unlikely thing to begin with. Sharingan or not, you couldn't overcome that much speed.

Chalk another up to be in the initial attack.

Actually, the same principle would apply to the cloak around a Sage user. Hiruzen made a note to talk it over with Jiraiya. If the Sage chakra could provide genjutsu protection, the Sannin might be enough to take on Yūrei alone… with some ANBU teams on standby just in case.

Trust genjutsu was the main issue; Jiraiya could handle an ANBU captain alone otherwise.

---

"He's not here," Itachi said flatly, unsure whether to curse or be happy Orochimaru had vanished.

"No shit," Kisame grunted. "Never liked that creepy bastard."

Yūrei frowned, reaching into his coat. He pulled out a scroll, and threw it on the ground, activating it.

Itachi raised an eyebrow as he mentally corrected himself. 'No… just "activating it" isn't right. He didn't just shove chakra in… he put it in in a certain pattern, like a password. So, he prevents people from stealing his scrolls. The caution Yūrei has extends to all his weapons. As expected of someone who's betrayed every commander he's ever worked with.'

The scroll began to unfurl, words forming on it, what looked like a list. Yūrei's eyes swept over it.

"He's further than ten miles from here already," Yūrei sighed, incinerating the scroll with a small blast of Katon chakra. "At this point tracking him is impossible for me. Do you guys have any tricks?"

'I specialise in taijutsu and ninjutsu, large area attacks, not tracking,' Kisame thought, rolling his eyes – rolling internally, there were S-Rank Konoha-nin in front of him after all. Relaxing on a potential battlefield even for half a second was a good way to die quickly. "Samehada can't detect him, and there's no trail, so I'm out."

Itachi had swept his eyes over the scroll and froze when he saw the contents. It was a list of names, a big list. At the top were Yūrei, then Itachi Uchiha, White Zetsu, Kisame Hoshigaki, Konan, White Zetsu, then a few others.

Numbly, he replied to Yūrei, only his ANBU training ensuring his demeanour remained unchanged by his internal shock. "I'm sure he's covered the conventional ways. I don't sense him, either. Unless his ring has a locating seal on it…"

"I wouldn't think it does," Yūrei sighed. "And if it did, he'd disable it. He's a fuuinjutsu user as well."

Itachi recalled the list. It looked like it worked by order of proximity to the seal; whoever was closest was at the top. Naturally, Yūrei was first, the act of activating the seal requiring him to lose his invisibility to the seal itself – or maybe the scroll detected the chakra within itself.

Zetsu was right after his name, which meant somehow Zetsu was between Itachi and Kisame… underground? No, there was there two White Zetsu… which meant… there was a long-term clone?

A White Zetsu clone was either following or attached to Kisame or Itachi. 'Is that how I'm being watched? I thought it was just Kisame… but apparently Zetsu is invisibly following me too. Either underground or tiny. He's a plant, so it'll be difficult to pick him up by scent… maybe he has seedlings or spores form…' Itachi mentally cursed as his chakra senses and Sharingan gave him nothing. 'Damn it, I can't detect him. Kisame seems trusted by Akatsuki already, more than me anyway. The only person who can detect him is… Shisui's murderer.'

"You two want to grab a bite?" Yūrei asked, standing up and dusting his coat off. "Since we're all together for once."

Kisame looked on in disbelief. Yūrei was the most unorthodox shinobi he'd met. First the impromptu game of poker with bandits, now he dismisses an opponent like Orochimaru and wants to go eat with some S-Rank missing-nin from random countries.

Yūrei strode past, clapping his hand lightly onto Itachi's tense shoulder, whose eyes had evolved into Mangekyō pre-emptively. Then Itachi paused as a thought hit him. Yūrei had activated the scroll, and then turned slightly to the side, putting the list of names clearly within a readable angle.

He never actually expected to find Orochimaru with that scroll. He wanted Itachi to see the contents.

He was warning Itachi about the trackers.

This invitation to have a meal was actually an invite to share something else. A scroll, some hidden ANBU signals; possibly even throw him into a genjutsu to tell him something… maybe he'd remove Zetsu himself.

Unlikely, though… if Zetsu had some sort of seal on him, that'd tell Akatsuki exactly when he was removed/killed, and then the meeting with Yūrei would be right about that time.

No, a paranoid person like Yūrei would make sure telling Itachi about the Zetsus happened by apparent chance – so he'd tell Itachi exactly where Zetsu was planted and let him remove it in his own timing. If Zetsu was tiny, he could presumably stay that way indefinitely, perhaps due to his half-plant nature, not needing to eat. It wasn't certain if he could communicate with the main Zetsu without activating a technique, and it wasn't certain if his status was monitored.

There wasn't really a need to remove it immediately, since it took a lot for Itachi to not detect an assassin, and Zetsu wasn't exactly strong. Even if Zetsu was just holding a really long type of Henge and could reappear in full size in an instant, and Itachi was asleep, the Uchiha was still confident his Sharingan and reflexes would give him plenty of time to deflect it. There was a lot of ANBU training for that, to be a light sleeper.

Depending on the location, Itachi could get an enemy to destroy Zetsu during a fight; a small sliver of skin loss or burn was worth being clean of spies. Though, it'd be difficult finding someone strong enough for an S-Rank like Itachi to falter; mistakes from an experienced S-Rank during battle were extremely rare. Bandits were so low-level a single handful of shuriken from Itachi would take care of a group; if one of those cut Zetsu off him that'd raise instant suspicion.

On the other hand, most S-Rank attackers would be capable of killing him with one strike; if Itachi kept looking for ways to make himself vulnerable, chances are, that vulnerability of a-few-millimetres-deep cut in the hands of an S-Rank enemy will become a wrist flick or some way to extend the strike into a few inches deep. An S-Rank would know how to handle the Sharingan's prediction – simply suppress all muscle twitches before you flick – and Itachi wouldn't see it coming.

Free of spies, but free of life too.

Oh, but that would be bliss…

Itachi mentally slapped himself and brought himself back to the present.

He was confused as to what to feel about Yūrei. On one hand, he knew that Yūrei killed Shisui – yes, on Danzō's order, but Yūrei had full capacity to ignore that order and even make Danzō forget he ever gave it, since the genjutsu he had on Danzō was more than capable of that – and Danzō wasn't even allowed to order the death of a loyal Konoha member. But Yūrei had done it anyway.

Yūrei was also one of those who slaughtered the Uchiha. He did so remorselessly, not caring that they were Konoha members, that they were of his clan, or all the ways they were similar to him or why he should keep them alive. He killed them as easy as cattle, and he offered to become a missing-nin without any sort of fear.

Arrogance? Self-confidence? Or just a general apathy to the concept of death, even his own?

Itachi found it hard to shut down his response to killing someone, as a pacifist; but when he was in ANBU, he had always wanted that part of Yūrei, the ability to switch off emotions.

But as an enemy and a betrayer, it was one of the most horrific things to know about your enemy.

Guilt, remorse, concern, all alien concepts to Yūrei. He won't even think about the worth of the potential life he was cutting short. A mother and small child were as easily killed by him as an old man who already had a fulfilled life.

It didn't seem human.

This was a truly wretched world, that in it the strongest humans were the least humane.

He considered. 'Yūrei has information he wants to tell me, let's put aside emotions and loyalty for now and hear him out. With Kisame and apparently Konan around, he's not going to attack. Akatsuki have no reason to attack me either.'

In the time it took Yūrei to step past, Itachi had thought all of that. Itachi gave a small sigh for effect and spoke neutrally, without any sort of inflection, just going along with it. "Alright."

Kisame was slowly hardening to the bull that Yūrei just kept coming out with. "Fine," he agreed as well.

Several hundred metres above them, Konan scratched her head (quietly). Yūrei… a textbook unknown, un-malleable character. Of course, S-Ranks weren't very malleable typically. If they were, it'd be easy to capture or beat them; just push their buttons and while they're seeing red they'd make mistakes.

Normally, there would be some weaknesses, but a S-Rank would already know better than to fall for them. Everyone had their buttons, but the S-Ranks just had sufficient self-control for their buttons to not be a weak point.

Whereas Yūrei had no buttons at all. There was just no information and no attribute of his that could be exploited. There was simply no inclination in any direction; no sob story, nothing forsaken, since there was no real history. There was no importance placed on anything in his past. He even slaughtered his entire clan and didn't even care about it. No motives, no history, nothing to work with or have as ammo against him.

He was as blank as Sasori's puppets.

Frankly, she wasn't sure if Madara had let him in because Madara saw through the ruse, or just because he was too strong to leave loose, like Orochimaru. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, was the saying. Enemies are easy to observe if they're right next to you.

Orochimaru had finally shown his true colours: his desire to learn all techniques would leave him turning on Akatsuki at the drop of a hat. Not at all surprising, but it was still something that had needed testing. If he had managed to take down Itachi, there was little doubt Nagato would be next on his list, for the Rinnegan, then the Sannin would systematically destroy what was left of Akatsuki, simply because they were too strong to enslave as his underlings, or too hostile to be left to roam free.

Madara saw it all coming, of course. He was no fool; he had seen wars and betrayals almost since the beginning of shinobi.

Konan reported in to Pein, speaking calmly. "He's gone. None of the three or me can track him."

Pein frowned. He'd hoped the four combined would catch him, but then again, of all the Sannin, Orochimaru the Snake was the most slippery. "Hmm. Did you see his method of escape?"

"No. It may be a Reverse Summon, invisibility, or an underground technique."

"Okay, how are the three working together?"

"They mostly dismissed it. None of them are trackers, and Orochimaru wouldn't be amateur enough to leave anything just anyone can follow anyway, unless it was a trap. However…" she squinted, "it looks like they're heading into Grass. From the sound of things, they're going for a meal together at Yūrei's request."

"Interesting. Kisame is loyal, and the other two betrayed Konoha. Follow if you wish… which knowing your distrust of Yūrei, you do." She could hear the grin tugging at his face.

"You bet I will," she replied flatly.

"Well, contact me if you find anything, but don't stick around too long. On the off chance they noticed you, sticking around too long will tell them you're not there just as a response to Orochimaru's attack."

Konan rolled her eyes. She wasn't an idiot. "Hai."

---

Ino neared the place she saw the kids in, and analysed it. Still a rundown building – not so damaged it wasn't structurally safe, but it looked like it had a fair share of leaks. She looked through the grimy window and hummed thoughtfully.

The kids were in there, all playing about, some reading, others just playing with toys and games with each other. Max age nine at a guess, and at least one too young to even crawl who was lying on a baby mat on the side, a female toddler bending over her.

Yasha, a kid who had suffered child abuse, given free rein over some younger children. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

In that sort of opportunity, you could repeat the abuse to lessen the blow of the memories of it happening to you. Projecting, that was the term. It was a coping mechanism of sorts – if someone did it to you, and you do it as well, it becomes normal, so you feel normal – or at the very least it becomes the next kid's problem, the last link in the chain.

Or alternatively you could ignore the opportunity, and do the right thing; but then the fact it could so easily have not happened to you as a kid would frustrate you. There was the chance of letting yourself grow bitter that it ever happened – curse gods, the memories, the person who did it, the world itself…

Obviously Yasha had a detachment complex, which meant he just didn't care that it happened at all, consciously anyway, and he did kill the abusers, which meant revenge had happened already. But he wasn't exactly stable and abuse was a very hard thing to remove from your system.

It was entirely possible he was abusing these kids. Perhaps not as a regular thing, but during fits of rage…

Yasha wasn't in the building, which made her frown. So they were unmonitored for a good part of the day. Judging from the eight-year-old's looking around and keeping tabs on everyone, he was in charge.

Seriously, an eight-year-old in charge. No, some sort of intervention needed to happen here.

Ino left the side of the building, looking around carefully, but no sign of anyone in the streets. Looked like Yasha wasn't about. She didn't want to confront him alone, not even in front of the kids. He'd already demonstrated a knockout technique and some sort of demonising power-up. The kids could easily be convinced she was some sort of spy or attacker using Henge after he killed her.

Although, her Dad would know exactly who hurt her if she vanished after that conversation, but Yasha wouldn't know that her Dad would know, so he'd attack anyway.

Who could she get to tag along with her, someone she could trust to watch her back, overwhelm Yasha if it came to a fight, and keep quiet about the whole thing? There was her new sensei Asuma, Iruka-sensei…

Shikamaru and Chouji weren't going to be able to overwhelm Yasha, but they could stall until real help arrived. Yasha was a stone-cold genius, much like Shikamaru; anyone who could enter the Academy with just a few months to go, yet gain a high pass for that short period, and you're meant to spend four years there… they would have to be a genius.

Asuma seemed to know Yasha already, as did Iruka. Asuma was wary of Yasha, so he wouldn't be taken off guard, but he seemed to get along with Yasha anyway… so Yasha would be intimidated but Asuma would be familiar enough to Yasha for him to be comfortable.

The next thing was to work out a way to communicate with Yasha without Asuma overhearing, yet having Asuma close enough to jump in. Yasha deemed keeping those kids secret serious enough to knock her out… and perhaps emotionally manipulate her, she still wasn't sure on that… she had to respect his privacy on the matter.

If it was just Yasha being over-cautious and over-controlling, then she'd have no qualms spilling the beans on the children and relieving him of his unnecessary and frankly suspicious babysitting duty, but on the off chance it wasn't…

Asuma would do. Although she still wasn't completely comfortable around Asuma – that night had made Ino more wary of people she thought she knew – after a while she'd get him to keep an eye on her, and she'd confront Yasha.

Of course, there was her dad, but he wouldn't let her go near Yasha, and if he did he would definitely be looming over them, so for privacy that option was out the window.

Give it a week or two, and then confront Yasha with Asuma watching on. Sounded good.

---

"Hi, can I have milk tea and some biscuits?"

"Hai," the waitress stammered at the black-masked ninja.

"You guys?"

"Regular tea for me," Itachi said calmly, giving the faintest smile to reassure her.

"Same," Kisame grunted disinterestedly.

"Yes, sirs." The waitress scurried away.

"Oi." Yūrei called after her, making her jolt. "Relax, we're not here for anyone. We're not starting anything."

Itachi nodded slightly in agreement and Kisame just glared stonily at the wall opposite.

"Yes, sir," she sounded slightly reassured, and carried on to the kitchen area.

"Heh." Yūrei turned back, smirking under his mask. "Right-o, guys. Kisame, never really introduced you two. Itachi, Kisame, and vice versa." He gestured vaguely.

"Pleasure," Itachi said dryly. He knew Kisame from the ANBU black book anyway.

"Likewise." Kisame seemed to have gone into a stupor from Yūrei's weirdness.

"Itachi, I have an update on Sasuke again."

Itachi stiffened, forcing himself to relax as Yūrei passed a small scroll over, roughly the size of a finger. He took it and opened, feeling it suck a small part of chakra out. The arrays activated in a sparkle of chakra circuits, and the paper… did not catch on fire as it could have.

Written to the side was "Team 7, under Kakashi Hatake. Sasuke Uchiha, Uzumaki Naruto, Yasha".

"As I expected, but this is still unusual," Itachi replied nonchalantly, jamming chakra into just the right part to short-circuit it and activate the fire chakra. He was deliberately vague so Kisame wouldn't get anything valuable. 'That level of information isn't too hard to gather. Any desk chuunin would need to know it.'

"Yep. A bit untraditional." Yūrei nodded, eyes trailing the scrolls as it self-incinerated.

"Who's this Sasuke?" Kisame asked out of the blue.

Itachi suppressed a frown at the S-Rank's interest. "My younger brother."

Kisame nodded shortly, digesting it. "You get on well with your brother?"

Itachi lied as he had to. "Not really. He wants to kill me, and I want a challenge."

Yūrei rolled his eyes. "Not many Uchiha with Sharingan left, after a few people kinda wiped out the whole clan."

Blade in the heart crying heart is aching

Itachi scowled. "Not a good day for me."

"They deserved it."

"That's enough, Yūrei." That was about as civil as Itachi could reply, as flashbacks of killing the children went through his head.

"Sore spot." Yūrei smirked. Itachi glared at him, then realised his mistake when Yūrei's Sharingan spun.

The world paused around them.

"Okay, Itachi." Yūrei stood up from the table. Itachi stood too, his eyes morphing to Mangekyō in preparation. "Relax, it's a low-level genjutsu, you can break it easily. I have additional information that's easier to communicate in imagery."

Itachi paused. "Go on."

The environment morphed around them. Itachi found himself outside a rundown house in a street.

"In here." Yūrei peered through the window, and Itachi followed, his Sharingan thankfully recording every second as he saw seven Uchiha playing together, a couple reading books. The illusion was complete with Sharingan recording – definitely genuine.

Yūrei smiled slightly as he observed as well. "I'm sure it's obvious to you – actually I think we discussed it – but these seven are doing fine. Yasha is taking care of them and his nature is making him very protective too."

"His nature?" Itachi said, straightening.

Yūrei shrugged. "Well, he suffered child abuse while in an orphanage when he was younger." Itachi winced. "He won't let the authorities know they exist if he can possibly help it. And trust me, he's very good at finding ways out of things."

Itachi frowned, accepting it. "And you know there was a Zetsu on me?"

Yūrei nodded. "Standard policy for newcomers, I expect. You are a little hard to figure out… me too. But in my case, I'm a seals master; a seal to clean my clothes burning off a few Zetsu is a good enough excuse. Every time I get them I burn them off, they just have to deal with it. They would send one to follow me, but their underground movement isn't faster than me sprinting, so overall, no observers for me. Bar other Akatsuki members, of course."

Itachi nodded. Made sense. "Right. Any idea of Zetsu's techniques?"

"The seed is roughly this size." The space morphed in-between Yūrei's finger and thumb, and a tiny white cell appeared. A sphere as wide as the white part of a fingernail, a few millimetres at a guess. "Don't ask me how all that genetic data and intelligence lives in that, I have no idea."

Itachi shrugged. "Well, it's not necessary to know. Where are mine?"

"Don't know exactly, but there's probably on your shoes, and on the back of your knee or near your shoulder-blade, where they're hard to see and remove. They're resistant but not proof to elemental ninjutsu, and incredibly difficult to hit with taijutsu. Environment genjutsu does work, but trying to hit them is nearly impossible because they don't have a real brain to pattern off. Sharingan genjutsu may work, but that'd require them to look at you," Yūrei reeled off. "I know they record the environment somehow, but I'm not sure what senses. They don't drain chakra and the chakra they do have is heavily compressed. When they eventually grow to full size, they're extremely weak, about high genin at best."

"Alright, thanks," Itachi said begrudgingly. He still couldn't read Yūrei, and it wasn't just the presence-hiding skills. His manner of general disinterest persisted regardless of the scenario. "Do you have any extra information on Konoha," Itachi blinked and added, "…or the kids, or Sasuke?"

Yūrei hummed, nodding slowly. "Sasuke's doing well. Like I said, Yasha broke him out of the after-effects of Tsukuyomi. So it's not as bad as it could have been. He hates your guts like you wanted…" Itachi suppressed a flinch, "…but because Yasha's in his team and promised to help him with killing you, he's working with him – integrating into Team 7 properly and starting to build relationships there. They passed the bell exam, so they'll be starting missions in the next few days."

"Anything else?" Itachi pressed, at this point more concerned with finding out the limits of Yūrei's information sources.

"The kids have toys, food, drink; they're healthy, bouts of cabin fever but Yasha plans on moving them to orphanages once the hubbub over the Uchiha incident dies down. Hopefully, a few months. Yasha was running low on cash, but I sorted that out."

Yūrei was offering a lot of information freely – information not hard to grasp if they had an informant in Konoha, chuunin level or lower possibly. Itachi moved on quickly. "And Akatsuki, tell me their goal."

The Black Mask shrugged. "Not much to tell you. Pein wants to rule the world.

"His plan is to gather money so the land of Rain prospers and can build defences, trade and the like, collect all the Bijū for a weapon of sorts – possibly something that combines all their power somehow. He plans on using that weapon at a given country's call; say Fire hates Kumo, then goodbye Kumo. Then the people who knew people in Kumo are all weepy, and sob stories go around about war, and once people have finished blasting their countries to pieces there's peace.

"Until they go to war, and blast each other again. Eventually people will have a more permanent peace brought about by mutually assured destruction."

Itachi scratched his head, mulling it over. "But… wouldn't people just be reduced to smaller wars? Agree not to use the weapon?"

Yūrei shrugged. "Assuming a limited war worked – after all deception is one of the best strategies – maybe Pein will fire it at both countries as soon as they take up arms."

Itachi nodded slowly. "But then if a tyrant takes over Rain, it's not peace, it won't be used to keep war away, just to ensure lordship. Pein has to die sometime."

"Well, it is still peace," Yūrei pointed out, "It's just not very comfortable peace. Instead of fear of the weapon, it's fear of the wielder, which isn't that dissimilar. Probably a lot of innocent deaths. But if you kill everyone who's innocent, you have no one to rule. But yes, to be honest, I'm not sure Pein thought this through."

Itachi's shoulders dropped. "You're kidding me."

"He has a god complex. Probably thinks he's immortal or something. Basically, the bearer of Rinnegan is an idiot."

Itachi blinked. The Rinnegan was a legend of legends, and Yūrei dismissed it like it was a crown worn by a spoilt brat. 'So, Yasha is moving the surviving Uchiha to orphanages…' Itachi started as he realised something he should have noticed earlier. "If they're in orphanages, Danzō…!"

"Ah!" Yūrei waved it off briskly. "Don't worry. He knows about Danzō and Root."

Itachi recoiled. Very few outside of Root knew of it. "How?!"

Yūrei smirked. "We have mutual friend who has a very good information network. He told Yasha about Root before he sent him to Konoha, so Yasha wouldn't get caught up in it. In fact, he told him about what the Uchiha was leading up to. Yasha predicted Danzō's actions and there you have it, his managing to save seven kids and go completely unsuspected by everyone."

He was definitely a prodigy to predict an emotion-suppressed man like Danzō. Itachi probed for more information. "The same man who is giving you information on Konoha?"

"Not exactly a man, but yes." Yūrei nodded. Itachi's subtle change from 'friend' to gender-specific was not lost on him. "I recorded that scene with the kids way back, so there needs to be another form of staying up to date. At any rate, he is the reason us two know what we do – our respective missions are to the same goals, but we didn't really know of each other. I put two and two together once Yasha turned up out of the blue, and my suspicious were confirmed when he was sent to T&I and the name Zack was chucked around. We didn't have to interact, otherwise he would have come to me, so we didn't."

Itachi nodded, things slotting into place. That's why Yūrei helped Yasha save the kids, yet didn't bother saving the Uchiha. He was acting his part, and Zack hadn't bothered telling him to stop the massacre in some way. "Ah, so the same person sent you both, but separately? Does he not trust you two?"

Yūrei smirked knowingly. "On the contrary, he trusts us both perfectly. His information-gathering technique is undetectable, and can see into areas you wouldn't expect. He doesn't even have to be near. So he knew both of us extremely well."

Interesting – he was not considered a man, but Yūrei referred to him in masculine. It was either a boy, or some half-plant thing like Zetsu. But Zetsu was pretty much unprecedented in nature, and there was no chance he was working against himself. Yūrei must have met Zack to determine the oddity, and an ANBU captain following a boy seemed very unlikely.

Unless Yūrei just disliked being predictable. Made sense. If he liked being unpredictable, he wouldn't like being watched. Yūrei would be the type who would do something that seemed against an objective, but actually be working for it, just so what his real plan was remained unpredictable. He wouldn't compromise a mission (100% success rate spoke for that after all) but he'd be happy to toy with all the mission stages to obscure the end goal.

Wait…

100% success rate wasn't exactly correct. Itachi gradually shifted his stance. "Why did you kill Shisui?"

Yūrei blinked, taken aback by the topic switch. "He died on a mission, as Danzō wanted. Danzō wanted his eyes. The infiltration was successful, like the Hokage wanted."

Itachi scowled, tensing. "Don't play with me. You didn't give Danzō his eyes."

Yūrei nodded slowly. "I didn't."

Itachi took a step forward, and Yūrei tensed in readiness. Good, so there was a good chance of beating him. Caution meant Yūrei was in danger. "Did you take them?"

"You could put it that way," Yūrei replied offhandedly, stance shifting.

Itachi stilled his emotions and let his eyes evolve. Then he paused again. Yūrei's response was… odd. "And why wouldn't I put it that way?"

"And cut," the Black Mask said flatly, and the reality dissolved around them.

Itachi blinked as he arrived back into reality, his real eyes evolving to catch up with their genjutsu form.

Yūrei used that brief interval to look away, before Itachi could resume the eye contact and throw him into Tsukuyomi. "I hope that information makes you happy."

Kisame blinked as Samehada growled softly and moved slightly under the bandages. Something had changed in the situation. The two had gone quiet briefly then suddenly they were at each other's throats. Sharingan genjutsu going on? He slowly shifted in his seat, arm moving closer to the handle of the sword. Chances are they weren't going to attack him, but crossfire was dangerous, particularly in confined places, and particularly between two S-Ranks.

Itachi scowled, his entire body hovering between battle-ready and relaxed as he tried to make a decision. "I'd prefer more information."

"Well, you're welcome to visit Konoha and find out yourself," Yūrei said flatly.

He was closed off, in body language, tone, wording. Itachi tutted, eyes briefly moving to reanalyse the scene. The diners were carefully not looking at them, all focusing on their own meals. All three S-Ranks had moved in their seats slightly, all ready for battle. There was no killing intent yet, Itachi wasn't that sloppy, but the atmosphere had rocketed in tension.

If he went for Yūrei now… Kisame would likely just stand clear, since it had nothing to do with him. But attacking in a restaurant Yūrei had picked… bad idea. Yūrei was a seal master and this may well be a shadow clone anyway.

Frustratingly, Tsukuyomi would have worked if Itachi had managed Mangekyō eye contact. Seals and shadow clones wouldn't make Yūrei proof against Tsukuyomi, just resistant. A genjutsu could be released with a seal, and a shadow clone would pop if tortured too much, but an illusion that expanded time would mean there was still significant time to access the mind before the strain popped it. True, time would be limited in Tsukuyomi to less than three days if the chakra network destabilised or a seal disturbed it prematurely, genjutsu would last maybe a few hours minimum, but this was info on Shisui.

But now there was no chance of Tsukuyomi being applied to Yūrei. If anyone knew better about looking in the eyes of someone with Sharingan, he did.

Attacking him now would do nothing but cut off the only source outside of Jiraiya about what was happening in Konoha… and the only source to the Uchiha survivors. Even the Hokage didn't know about them. And it would leave whatever he did with Shisui gone forever.

It wouldn't help.

It wouldn't.

It took quite a while for that logic to finally sink into him and calm him down in front of the person who had murdered his closest friend.

"Are you two okay?" Kisame asked cautiously, right arm having moved to the handle of his sword.

The waitress came back, hesitating as Itachi slowly evened out his expression.

"We're S-Ranks for a reason, Kisame, are any of us really okay?" Yūrei spoke airily, but his voice still had that inflection, an emotion Itachi couldn't place.

"Point," Kisame acquiesced, a small smile appearing, but his stance not relaxing in the slightest.

"I could force you to calm down, Itachi…" Itachi blinked as he recalled why Yūrei was booted out of Konoha, "…but let's remain allies. While we're in Akatsuki, at least."

Kisame's eyes shifted to Itachi to view his response.

"Fine," Itachi agreed slowly, and very begrudgingly.

"Your tea… sir?" The waitress was watching the exchange warily.

Yūrei glanced at her, and her eyes glazed over. She walked over, put the plates down and walked back out.

Kisame picked up his tea, sniffing it, sipping, then drinking. Itachi duplicated, both of them having similar poison-checking training. Yūrei's profile didn't match with a poison attack and it was clear the restaurant choice was as random as his choice to go to a restaurant. Hell, Itachi had worked with him quite a few times on missions – it was always a weapon, even small ones.

Kisame finished quickly and put his cup down with a clink, his other arm dropping from his sword handle with a sigh. "Yūrei, why did you call us two here? Was it just to piss off Itachi?"

Yūrei blinked, and then smiled. "Well, no. I just wanted some tea."

"You're not drinking," Kisame pointed out dryly.

"No one can see my face."

"Then why did you order it?" Itachi pressed, feeling a bit more respect for Kisame. Apparently the shark-man didn't care for Ghost's aura of mystery.

"Well, on that, my lips are sealed." Yūrei smiled, laying a paper seal on the desk, putting the tea on top of it and activating.

The seal was a reverse-summon. Itachi mentally cursed as Yūrei's meal vanished. That meant this Yūrei was not the original after all.

"Are you somewhere else right now?" Kisame guessed, a grin appearing as he worked it out.

"Probably," Yūrei answered cryptically, a small smirk appearing.

"Clever move," Kisame allowed, eyes darting to Itachi. "Itachi looked a bit upset with you."

"Oh, that wasn't the point," Yūrei dismissed the praise. "I just never show my face… and it's rare I ever show my original self either."

"You could have sent it to a clone," Kisame considered. "Covering up that you're the original."

"That's true. It'd make Itachi here desire to fight me less. But is it worth it to delay the enjoyment of the tea to stay alive?" Yūrei mused, gazing into the distance.

Itachi blinked at him slowly, raising an eyebrow. "…No?"

"No," Yūrei agreed firmly.

---

Naruto scratched his head, watching with a heavy expression as Yasha strode off. To be honest, he was looking forward to a meal at home, a victory meal after the first day of missions. To be fair, he hadn't actually asked Yasha to be home today, but it was puzzling how Yasha put no weight on the things Naruto found important.

There was something about Sasuke that made Naruto want to be his rival, and surpass him. There was this urge inside. Maybe it was just because Sasuke was the top of the class… but it felt more important than that. Naruto normally had good instincts, and these were pretty strong urges.

To be honest, Naruto kinda wanted to surpass Yasha too. Yasha was really super clever – he had strategies, and secret techniques that Naruto had no idea how they worked or where he got them from. He could move so fast, it was amazing – even if he had seriously injured himself using that speed, it said quite a lot that he was willing to risk that sort of damage to let the team pass.

And he stood up for Naruto in a heartbeat. As soon as there was anyone starting to confront Naruto, Yasha would immediately engage and become ten times more intimidating. He had this sort of… focus. Sasuke did the same thing, all the time. Their eyes would narrow and they'd concentrate on the opponent. You could sort of feel it.

But with Sasuke, it was focus to win. He was determined to win. But Yasha's battle aura was far more bloodthirsty; it felt like he wanted to tear them to pieces.

There had to be a lot of darkness in someone for that sort of aura to be so readily available. Naruto didn't like to think about it, but it was true nonetheless.

Naruto sighed, turning back to walk home. In contrast, now he considered it, Yasha never gave off that aura during the Academy spars. He was never serious with them. Made sense.

Yasha was odd that way – he was this weird mix. It was like he was two people – one cool, calm, smart, caring, and the other angry, controlling, possessive.

Yasha was thoughtful about Naruto, and he was really kind to kids – that babysitting mission for example. Naruto knew Yasha had babysat a few times, but he was really good with kids. He got Miyako quiet in seconds, every time she cried. And Naruto had seen the face Yasha had made at her when he thought no one was looking – it was this wearied, loving look. For some reason, it made Naruto's heart ache.

Yasha paid for Naruto's food, drink, clothes, rent… and Naruto still remembered being called an idiot by the half-asleep brunette for offering to leave his apartment… the apartment Naruto didn't really have a right to be in.

Yasha cared for kids, so much it was obvious what his big secret involved. Only kids invoked that sort of response from Yasha – who else would he be going out to feed with his extra food?

His housemate thought everything over so much, but sometimes Naruto got the impression Yasha wasn't honest with his own feelings. He did the right thing, but he lied to himself about the reason why he was doing it. He took on the role of a bad guy, a monster – he smiled whenever he was called any nickname Naruto hated, like it made him happy to be called a monster, a demon, a devil, or when he was told to rot, he just grinned sadistically.

Yasha did all the actions a good guy would do, but always with the cover story of an evil reason. He insisted on being in the middle, some sort of grey. If he did something bad, he justified it with a morally-good reason. If he did something good, he justified that with a morally-evil reason. He was experienced enough with words to twist things in the complete opposite direction of the truth, so you could never work out what his true intention was.

Yasha wasn't straightforward about what he wanted to be. If he wanted to be a good guy, why didn't he just be one?

And if he wanted to be evil… Naruto frowned. Could he really be that? Surely he was too kind for it.

Naruto wasn't really sure what to make of him. Most of the time, he thought Yasha wasn't certain himself why he was doing something. Yasha seemed only happy with being unquestioned – he'd have such a spin on things he could call black white and white black. He insisted on being completely ambiguous about what his true motives were.

That's probably why he was fine with being called something evil. He never really got upset at that, because to him it was just as true as calling him something good.

When he was insulted, he just smirked, like he knew something that they didn't. Naruto remembered when he was much younger, he had once cried for hours when someone had been really mean to him. Yasha would have just brushed it off with that smirk.

But surely he couldn't be happy pretending to be evil. He was really kind under all that – Naruto could tell if funds had run out, Yasha would be making him a portion at home and eating nothing himself. He put others first all the time.

It hurt to see him get insulted and agree with it. No person should be called a monster, especially not someone that kind. It made Naruto angry to think about it, but there was no way he could talk Yasha out of it. Yasha would spin the whole conversation around, and make him feel like it was a pointless concern.

Naruto paused. "Wait… I'm the same," he realised, his eyes wide.

He was fine with being hurt, he was used to it, but Yasha being hurt was another matter. He had seen him on the Hokage monument on that night long ago, near death, attacked by his own bloodline.

Naruto's fist clenched tight unconsciously. He would never allow something like that to happen again, he'd definitely fight to protect Yasha.

And on Yasha's side, Yasha was fine with being hurt – he ignored injuries during battles, insults he accepted breezily – and he couldn't stand Naruto getting hurt. He'd stand up for him, give off such an aura most people ran just from that, and then if they stayed hostile, he'd fight to defend him.

They were mirror copies.

Naruto blinked in shock, his mind blown from the realisation. A slow smile grew on his face. How did that even happen? He thought he was completely different to Yasha, but they had something in common.

Although, true, Yasha wasn't going to spend the night at home (most likely anyway, but he was kinda unpredictable), it was definite that they would have more time together now they were on a team.

Yasha was even thoughtful enough to spend time with Sasuke trying to bring the team together. While Sasuke looked really awkward during the meal, it was definitely a good thing it had happened. There was more of a trust and comradeship between the three now.

Sasuke had even helped with setting Yasha's leg during the bell test too. …That scream had made Naruto's heart stop. He didn't even know how he had gotten out the swamp as fast as he did – it was all a blur of fear and anger at Kakashi.

Kaka-sensei was alright to him now, if a bit weird and lazy. He seemed a bit sad too, a bit like everyone else on the team. All three had this sort of hidden darkness in them, a morbid sadness.

Naruto frowned. He had decided to move past the sadness and make everyone recognise him. But Sasuke had no happy ending. His entire clan was killed, by two people. Naruto didn't even know how to regain happiness after something like that.

And Yasha… he had apparently killed child abusers. He had seen someone getting abused.

Maybe he was abused. Naruto's stride froze. "No…"

Suddenly the distrust of everyone, and extra care for kids, made perfect sense. But no… Yasha was too strong for that… Surely he couldn't have been…

The Uzumaki shook himself violently. No, something like that couldn't have happened. With Yasha's bloodline, it was impossible. The insects took care of every injury and attacker – they could attack and shred anything. They even apparently took care of diseases… apart from the stomach bug.

Speaking of which… Naruto turned, frowning, wondering whether to quickly run after Yasha and check how he felt. He did throw up in the morning and the middle of the day. Oddly, though, he seemed fine. But wandering off at odd hours by himself… it was weird how he was still doing that despite his illness.

For some reason, Naruto had the impression the two things were related, the puking and the odd hours. If he could, he would help with both, but Yasha seemed to blithely ignore injuries and diseases, and be fine with running himself into the ground. He insisted on not getting help, because that sort of thing he didn't really care about.

The Uzumaki wasn't sure what to make of it. He really wanted to investigate, but Yasha had never liked it when Naruto tried to help him uninvited. Every time, he'd act oddly, like he had expected Naruto to do nothing, and Naruto had actually disappointed him with trying to help.

Naruto always felt frustrated about that, but it was part of Yasha's personality to handle things his way, so he couldn't really do anything to change it. Yet Yasha had never told him to do anything significant. It was almost like Yasha didn't trust him – no, to put it more accurately, it was more like Yasha was treating him like he needed to be protected.

But he was a shinobi! When would Yasha trust him?!

Rather than confront Yasha and argue about it – Naruto knew better than anyone how well Yasha could argue people into things – the blond resolved to make himself more useful. It was frustrating to admit, but every other member of Team 7 appeared more competent than he was. By comparison to their calm efficiency, Naruto had to admit he stood out like a sore thumb.

It wasn't his fault. He felt a titanic amount of energy constantly – it made him constantly want to move, and move quickly. But the harder the Uzumaki tried to prove himself, the more things seemed to go wrong. He tried painting the fence quicker than Sasuke, and rather than efficiency, it became a mess – even when he'd finished the paint bucket was in just the wrong place to royally screw things up. If Yasha hadn't moved so quickly, he would have been covered with paint.

When the baby pooped itself, Naruto wasn't sure what to do, he didn't want to touch it. Once again Yasha stepped in.

At least Naruto wasn't alone on that – Sasuke looked just as nervous with the baby as Naruto had been. The Uzumaki smirked at the memory. Sasuke's widened eyes and holding the baby at arm's length, it was comical to remember.

He climbed the steps to his apartment, still musing. When it came to a task, Naruto could at best be equal with Sasuke, and Yasha went at his own pace, which was sometimes a better result than both of them, sometimes worse.

How could he prove his worth to Yasha? He had hoped to show off his Kage Bunshin, but even in the exam, it was useless against Kakashi. And Kakashi wouldn't even let him use it during missions – much to Naruto's annoyance.

But there was only two things Naruto was particularly good at – Henge, and Kage Bunshin.

Neither of them were that helpful outside of beating up bad guys. Naruto still struggled with kanji – although he kinda knew quite a lot of them from usage, the fact they all had multiple meanings had mostly eluded him. Most kanji were made up of other kanji, but only a particular combination and pattern worked to produce another kanji – there was at least five ways to write "some", and picking the right meaning but the wrong kanji, as a component of another kanji was wrong … Putting bird kanji over a tree kanji meant gather, to one side of the tree meant sweet oak or mallet, put a couple extra lines and it meant authority or rights… It was highly confusing.

Memorisation wasn't Naruto's skill set by any stretch of the imagination, so he wasn't faring well.

Although with clones he could improve his battle speed by fighting himself… or several of himself… it was very hard to gauge his own level. Which meant if there was any progress gained, it wasn't obvious.

Yasha had come up with two styles of fighting by himself, with no one teaching him. Slip Style was one of them, Naruto forgot the other. It kind of made Yasha look elegant – he sort of smoothly slid around any attacks.

He unlocked the door and stepped inside, by default checking for explosive notes, but they were gone.

Oh yeah, that black-masked ANBU had removed them. Naruto grinned. Maybe he could find that ANBU and get him to train him? But he'd never found an ANBU's hideout.

But that was before. Now that he had shadow clones… "Yosh! I'll find one of those ANBU and get them to train me, dattebayo!" he decided cheerfully, fist pumping, before his hands set into a familiar cross pattern.

---

Sasuke sighed as the supper cooked in front of him, a smile forming unawares as he thought over his first day as a genin. Yasha had performed very well – surprisingly good with kids. Hadn't he babysat for a while? Before Itachi…

Anyway, it was a good thing he was on the team. Now that the first day was over, Sasuke felt a bit more relaxed around Yasha. And it was annoying, but he had been the one to grab the bells.

And he was the type who could read anyone's weaknesses. Sasuke frowned. 'Does he know my weaknesses? Do I have some I don't know of?'

Naruto also could pull his weight, and for some reason, he had more of an urge to beat Naruto than Yasha. There was this inner urge to beat him, making Sasuke rise to every challenge Naruto gave.

The odd thing was, when Yasha had said he would beat Sasuke without using his hands, Kakashi had merely said "not in the village, Yasha-kun". He didn't even question whether he was capable. Sasuke smelled a rat.

What was his bloodline again? Flesh-eating insects. Sasuke frowned. Well, if they could attack anything he wanted, Yasha would only have to mentally order them to attack.

In that case, Yasha was completely overpowered. But that didn't make any sense… during the bell exam, he didn't use them. Unless he simply didn't want to…

Yasha was always secretive, though. He held his cards close to the chest. He planned for the future battles before they happened; didn't reveal any tricks he could get away without revealing.

Made sense… Yasha was relatively new to the village after all. He didn't really know any of Team 7, bar Naruto. He was lazy in battles and overly cautious – maybe even paranoid. Sasuke wasn't sure if that was a good trait. He would have called it a bad one easily before that night, but now… he wasn't sure.

Still, Yasha had promised to help him kill Itachi. And if he could control his insects like that, then depending on how dangerous they were… it could be a piece of cake.

He did pull super-speed out of nowhere, so who knew what the full extents of his abilities were. Maybe he had a super-strength ability as well. One could only guess.

'But,' Sasuke scowled, flipping the food over, 'regardless of whether Yasha's more powerful, I'm still going to be landing the final hit.'

Although, Sasuke doubted Itachi would even face off with Yasha. He seemed quite adamant that his younger brother was going to be the way he "tested his power". If Yasha was with Sasuke and Itachi directly told Sasuke to attack him one-on-one, Sasuke would tell Yasha to stand aside.

And Yasha would do it. He had some semblance of honour under all that misdirection; he was very fair with how he did things. It wouldn't be much of a friend to deny Sasuke the battle his life has been built towards.

As Sasuke tipped the pan into a plate, he was struck with a thought. Did Naruto really know Yasha? The blond was an idiot, that much was obvious – but while not admirable in the ninja world, he stated his mind honestly, and you needed honesty in an ally.

He spent more time around him, so could Naruto see through Yasha?

Yasha wasn't honest… or at least, it was difficult to say if he was, but he was fair. Sasuke knew he could trust him to be that. When Yasha offered to train everyone else, the results of that were pretty much equivalent for all the genin in Team 7. Yasha got more of an award, as he achieved the genin rank, but then it was completely his techniques and strategy that won him the bell. The other two had been floundering in a swamp. So it was only fair he get the rank.

The rules of the bell test were clear from the beginning. 'Although,' Sasuke snorted, 'Yasha still managed to find a loophole.' He snickered, and then a thought hit him. '…No, actually, two loopholes.'

But when Yasha was told he couldn't give everyone equivalent rewards, so despite their efforts Sasuke and Naruto would fail drastically – he chucked the bell away in disgust at the unfairness.

Sasuke always had a strong sense of justice, even before that night. All three boys knew that they were going to go back; they knew it was the right thing to do, and Yasha would have refused to be a genin even if Kakashi had forced him. Yasha seemed to have the same emphasis on justice that Sasuke did – maybe that was why the two hit it off in the Academy despite not much talking.

From what Sasuke could make of Yasha, he was fair, lazy, deceptive, powerful, and deviously clever. A person could watch him for weeks and still not have a full picture. He'd make a good ally, simply because someone who was a dark horse to his teammates would appear even worse to an enemy.

With Yasha, he gleefully played off that knowledge; sadistically rubbing in the lack of knowledge. Of course, it was very irritating for the allies he did that too, but for an enemy, it would be nerve-racking as well. Thankfully, Sasuke had yet to be Yasha's enemy, and he wasn't sure he ever wanted to be. He got the impression that even in a fight to the death, Yasha wouldn't use every technique he had.

But when Yasha had said he'd met one of Sasuke's family, and they'd asked Yasha to take care of him… that was dumbfounding. Not because it was a lie, but because it couldn't be. It was too obvious to be one, and it benefited Yasha nothing to say it in that moment – Yasha had the bell, and was crippled, he wouldn't turn Sasuke on him while he was defenceless. Even if he was testing Sasuke in some way, he wouldn't say such a horrific lie.

And Yasha had a good sense of justice. It just didn't fit.

Sasuke pulled cutlery out of a drawer and moved to the dining room, the clock echoing loudly in the empty house. He knew why it didn't fit. What Yasha was saying had to be true.

And if it was true… there was the question of who said it. Sasuke frowned as he ate.

Actually, now he considered it, who could have had the opportunity to speak to Yasha? It made no sense. His father and mother had been home when they died – Sasuke winced at the memory – and with his dad being chief of the police force, that was odd from the start. So Itachi and Yūrei had managed to pull the whole operation off so silently Fugaku didn't know about it, or he knew what was coming and refused to fight his son.

Either way, Yasha would have no reason to be near Sasuke's home. But then the only other member of the family outside the house was…

Sasuke choked, coughing violently, his eyes wide. Could it be…? Wait… "take care of Sasuke"? Could Itachi have ordered Yasha to keep Sasuke alive until they finally battled?

Gulping down some water, he coughed a few more times, eyes watering. If that was the case… why would Yasha hide it? Well, being scared of Itachi made sense. Powerful or not, Yasha was no match for Itachi. If Sasuke were to die, it'd be obvious what Itachi would do if he had threatened Yasha.

Come to think of it… hadn't Yasha said "Itachi didn't attack me because my bloodline made it obvious I wasn't Uchiha"? Why didn't Yasha simply say his older brother didn't attack him because Itachi never saw him?

They must have met.

And if they met, there was a possibility that they talked. And if they talked, it was likely Itachi did threaten him.

So… Yasha was going to protect Sasuke because Itachi threatened to kill him otherwise. 'That explains why Yasha offered to help me kill Itachi so easily – if his own life is at stake, it makes perfect sense.'

Everything slotted together, and Sasuke couldn't help but wonder if he'd sussed it out exactly. Of course, there was a chance Yasha lied, or that he did meet with his parents. It'd have to be while Itachi was about to kill them; they wouldn't say something like that otherwise.

The Hokage throwing an S-Rank status on the identity of who said that was bullshit, any idiot could tell that. If it were true, Yasha wouldn't mention the message at all. Plus, knowing which dead person said it wouldn't change anything.

'Unless… it wasn't a dead person.' Sasuke's eyes widened.

In other words, Itachi. Would Yasha withhold who said it otherwise?

Yasha could use who said it as a bribe, but just a name wasn't really worth much for that. If he had said the person and not the message, that would be a significant bribe. In fact, he could have obscured the message more than he did, and still used it as a bribe.

Something along the lines of "your mother gave me a message, so I have to look after you". That wouldn't say what the message was and Sasuke would have been very curious.

Either Yasha was working for Itachi willingly to protect Sasuke, or he was threatened into doing that (something like "Sasuke is my way of proving my strength. If he dies early, I'll be coming after you").

It'd take quite a preparation to get Yasha to spill if it was a threat. Yasha played things very close to the chest by default – he was used to concealing information. He did it to levels that weren't even necessary.

So the best idea… was surprise. Confront Yasha looking like Itachi, and seeing how he reacted. If he freaked out, his mission to protect Sasuke was obviously Itachi threatening him. If he didn't, then…

'No, that won't work.' Sasuke cursed inwardly. Itachi was an S-Rank missing-nin, Yasha's ally or not. He had no business being in Konoha, and Yasha would obviously react with apprehension. If they were working together voluntarily, Itachi would still have to put up a front of not working with Yasha around any other Konoha folk.

So Yasha would expect to be attacked if he saw Itachi. At any rate, someone who slaughtered their own clan wouldn't be too far from doing the same to someone they were allied with anyway.

Sasuke poked at the remains of his food and sighed. Somehow, he'd lost his appetite.

---

In another part of Konoha maybe five minutes away, A certain dark-haired boy frowned, striding with his hands in his pockets down the street.

Yasha had calculated it was more likely right now than ever for him to be getting followed, but he hadn't seen anyone tracking him. But he was well aware of mental biases; confirmation bias (you place more importance on what you see that lines up with what you expect) and availability bias (you think what you see is the most valid perception of truth), so he ignored the strong desire to assume no one was there.

He scratched his head, still pondering as he made his way home. Observers weren't a problem, as long as he could have at least one room where they would not physically see him or sense his chakra while he sneakily made a shadow clone. Hopefully his bathroom would be good enough, ignored by them – small, one door, no windows.

Maybe.

It might be an idea to clone in various public buildings out of sight. That way, if the observers did manage to observe his entire apartment around-the-clock, they'd still never see him cloning. He'd have to pick a building at random and have a long list, or they'd just bug the one he was going to use in advance. Everyone had some form of schedule; Yasha didn't like being predictable, but even he kept things organised.

A Henge'd-tiny clone was enough to bug a building, which made things a problem. It may be an idea to leave a clone lying around the next place he was going to clone – giving him the benefit of a longer period before the former clone expired, and knowing if anyone was tracking him around.

Going to random public buildings would be odd behaviour, though. It might increase his heat.

The Death Release carrier wondered if flooding the room he was in with his insects would conceal his actions. Or destroy any other parties' electronic/Henge'd bugs.

Were his insects smart enough to attack anything out of the ordinary or anything from dangerous observers?

…Yasha frankly doubted it. They even attacked him during the times he used them. If that wasn't unintelligent targeting he didn't know what was.

To be fair, having a weapon hurt the wielder was probably the wielder's fault, but Yasha was fairly certain if the insects were intelligent, they just weren't communicating that fact to him, so it was their fault again.

No reason to get distracted though.

The fact was, just one person seeing a Yasha clone, just once, and the entire possibility of doing things secretly was gone from that moment, to say nothing of raising dubiousness about Yasha's normal behaviour beforehand; all that time before when he might've been doing something else at the same time.

In short, people's ability to trust him would plummet. Under no circumstances could Yasha be seen cloning, or have two of him in the same place. Even as a matter of life or death – it wasn't simply his life at stake after all. There was seven kids depending on him to be secretive. If it was life or death, they would survive; Keito would be smart enough to go to the Hokage once they ran out of food and money.

And maybe Ino would visit them. Yasha scowled. Probably she would, even if it were just to inform the kids their beloved carer had kicked the bucket.

And then the beans would spill… Oh, how would they. She'd Yamanaka their secrets out of them in an hour max. Toddlers just couldn't keep secrets.

Maybe she visited them today?

Nah. Unlikely she was that bold. If she did Keito would block her out. Yasha had told him often enough about the problems of Henge and that no one would ever visit their place on legitimate business. He wasn't dumb enough to let anyone stay around, and if she did visit Yasha would be told as soon as he got there.

Or maybe it would be Naoki who blocked her off? Yasha snorted.

Ah, Naoki. Where to begin. Freakish intelligence, and apparently knowledge of E-Ranks as well as large chakra stores to match. Still easily tricked (thankfully), and apparently not completely familiar with how things worked in the real world, so at least she didn't have knowledge that was unusual. Yasha could still manipulate her, but points of note: she had Henge, she had high intelligence, and she was a loose cannon.

There were reasons to keep and to kill her.

Right now, killing someone he'd gone to the effort of rescuing because she might do something stupid was premature. He'd confronted her about her unnecessary public exposure; now he just had to see how she reacted to his confrontation. If he could control her properly, then there wasn't a problem, but if she didn't respect his authority, he couldn't keep her around.

Yasha had clearly blown her away with his perceptiveness. Hopefully, she'd feel too much like she'd get caught to do any more sneaking around. At the very least, he'd curbed that desire.

But he'd just have to wait and see.

---

Orochimaru scowled as he made his way to the nearest hideout, his stride slow and deliberately calm. Itachi was too strong, Yūrei almost definitely more so, and Pein probably even more still. The only hope for a decent doujutsu that wasn't grafted was Sasuke.

And there was definitely going to be some delicious satisfaction when he beat the crap out of Itachi in Sasuke's body. He'd bide his time, though. He'd act like Sasuke was trying to gain control the whole time; and if Itachi ever managed to pin him down, he'd leak a snow-coloured snake and make Itachi spare him.

Oh yeah, Itachi had feelings for Sasuke. Who knew what kind, but that sick bastard had killed his entire clan, yet couldn't kill his younger brother. Normally someone reserved their strongest feelings for their mother, or father… not their younger brother. But human relationships always eluded Orochimaru, you couldn't put a figure to them or nail down a multiplier in power, yet Konoha gave the impression friendship was the same as a power boost. From a scientific perspective, at best it was a stamina boost.

Kabuto had reported the team arrangement as expected, and was standing by for orders. Team 7 looked heavily overpowered – a Jinchūriki, a Death Release carrier, and the last Uchiha.

Was the Third trying to impress everyone at the next Chuunin exam by destroying every opponent? There wasn't a single team set up for the Chuunin that powerful, bar Suna and their Jinchūriki with his two easily-chuunin-level siblings. Orochimaru was genuinely interested as to what Hiruzen was thinking – such a display wasn't like him at all; it was an act even worth respect.

Depending on how Kakashi trained the team, all three could get extremely powerful – for genin. At any least, their team will become very interesting. Kakashi was ANBU captain, and at one point was the captain over Itachi; maybe he even worked with Yūrei at one point.

Sasuke should get very powerful, particularly if Orochimaru did go ahead with his plan to get Suna in a war against Konoha. If that were possible, Sasuke would definitely be heavily trained, otherwise Kakashi could be lulled into developing him slowly and focusing more on teamwork than power – urgh – and Sasuke would be weak, which meant it'd be easy to take over him, but very bad for capacity once taken over.

Stealing Sasuke's body would gain Itachi's attention in some way – someone that dedicated to their younger brother wouldn't leave him unmonitored – so it was best he take it in a state powerful enough to control it. Unfortunately there wasn't much time in a body that wasn't prepared to receive him – the constant inner battle eroded at the time Orochimaru could retain his hold on the body.

If he could draw him away with lures of power, or convince him of Konoha's weakness, that would be ideal.

And preferably, he ought to capture the Jinchūriki in the process. It might be difficult trying to pull the Bijū out into someone useful – and Orochimaru didn't trust anyone else with that amount of power – but last resort he could get some genetic material from Sasuke and implant the Bijū into the offspring.

Uchiha Jinchūriki… you don't get more powerful than that.

But, he'd have to make it look like the Uzumaki died. Otherwise Konoha would be sending out armies before he managed to harness the power. Konoha's upper ranks were completely lost to his location, since Jiraiya's spy network only found a couple of Orochimaru's hideouts, but Danzō would be able to do some serious damage.

Planting agents into the Land of Sound would be very Danzō. So Orochimaru would have no choice but to keep all his minions where they were just before he got Konoha on his case. Preparation to evacuate or protect against invasion force wouldn't do.

Plus, even if Danzō's infiltrators were watching, all Orochimaru needed was to go to an empty hideout, and Danzō wouldn't even bother disclosing Orochimaru's bases he knew of to Konoha. After all, why waste Konoha's forces with invading bases Danzō knew the Jinchūriki wasn't even in? His infiltrators would report as much.

Uchiha Jinchūriki… well, Rinnegan would be nice, but one step at a time. He had to keep an eye on Akatsuki – Sasori's belief that Kabuto was still his spy should help with that. But Sasori's remote technique had yet to release, so until then there was no info on Akatsuki's movements as Kabuto had yet to meet with Sasori.

But since it would release when Sasori needed an update on Orochimaru, for watching Akatsuki that was sufficient; Orochimaru would know that Akatsuki wasn't deciding to pursue him seriously until Kabuto's seal finally released. It was Akatsuki's trump card.

Orochimaru knew the gist of Akatsuki's plan: First, gather cash via mercenary work. Second, gather Bijū for a massive weapon. Third, world domination.

None of those objectives really required them attacking the Sannin that betrayed them. He had no Bijū, so he had nothing they needed.

Orochimaru regarded his Akatsuki ring briefly, but dismissed it; the sealing ring wasn't too important to Akatsuki, as there was one without a wielder, and they hadn't been hurrying to find a person to give it to.

But if he caught the Uzumaki Jinchūriki, then there'd be an obvious reason for them to attack him. And if Itachi caught wind of Sasuke captured, then… well, it'd be interesting. Pein wouldn't let Itachi's feelings get in the way of his world domination plan. Besides, Itachi was one person, he couldn't possibly hope to track down Sasuke alone, Pein's approval or no.

Hell, Jiraiya had been trying for years to track down Orochimaru, using a whole network with his pervy novels as funding, and he found nothing.

Orochimaru didn't appoint anyone but the ruthless and loyal as his underlings, and his bases were always far from civilisation or surrounded by hostile terrain. There were few prisoners that managed to escape just the base itself and the environment would ruin any attempt to go far, and none managed to live after they were caught.

If no one even went into the public, there was no chance of spreading information.

So, Itachi was out. Sasuke it was. Now the interesting question was how to go about it. There was enjoyment to be gained from training Sasuke and letting him fight Itachi alone, but Itachi apparently wanted Sasuke to attack him, if the rumours and hints were correct.

'Ideally, Sasuke should become my subordinate, but with Uchiha pride that's not going to happen easily. I must lure him with power, if nothing else an Uchiha will want that.' Orochimaru licked his lips, smirking, and a small frown crossed his head. 'I can taunt him about his inferiority to Itachi. Then the question is, what should I do with his team… a Jinchūriki would be useful for many reasons, even just a sealed up one, but if Akatsuki come down on me in full force I will be permanently running from base to base. Even I can't handle that many S-Ranks. They'd corner me.'

The frown became a scowl. 'Hell, as much as it pains me to admit it, I couldn't handle Itachi, and it stands I wouldn't be able to handle Pein or Yūrei. Yūrei gives off the impression that he's worse than Itachi. I'll have to ignore or kill the Jinchūriki. Unless he can be taken without any fingers pointing my way.

'Kakashi I can't do anything with, he'll destroy the Sharingan before I can pluck it out his head, and he's an ANBU captain, I'll have to confront him outside Konoha alone or he'll just stall until backup arrives. And finding him outside Konoha alone just isn't going to happen. Even if it did, it's not worth the effort for a single eye. Now if he had dual, I'd think about it, but…'

With a hand seal he disabled the seals covering the area, and the candles' seals flicked on. He paced onward, still plotting. 'Danzō won't budge about giving me a few Sharingan, even with luring Mangekyō in front of him… in fact that disinterested him. He knows about how to get Mangekyō. I have theories about what grants Mangekyō, and genetics are probably a good part, which would explain why Itachi's keeping Sasuke alive.'

Passing a couple of trapped doors, the Sannin came to a real one, and pushed it open. No one was meant to be in this base, so the stale air was a relief.

Finally, there was the Death Release kid. He was lethal, manipulative, and very interesting to the Snake Sannin – intriguing bloodline aside, his personality was desirable, and he was known to be prodigy. Passing the Academy in just a few months was pretty unusual – even though the Sannin considered the test pathetically easy, it was unusual both in performance required, and the fact the Hokage allowed it.

Manipulating a manipulator would be a pain, so Orochimaru decided he'd have to figure out Yasha's mindset (i.e. what he wanted), and give him just that, openly, no nefarious subplots or undertones. If it was obvious what the Sannin was doing, Yasha would be straight with him too, and Orochimaru would need a honest answer about whether Yasha was in to further Orochimaru's cause or not.

Manipulators play the long game just as easily as the short ones; it's extremely dangerous to have someone who was dubious like that. For years they could serve you with not even a snide comment about you, then next thing you know you're dying from poison.

It was why the Sannin had such a hard time trusting Kabuto, and he was nothing short of perfectly loyal – according to his snakes, the other people the Sannin had, and all the occasions Orochimaru deliberately gave very dangerous information to him and checked to see if any third party acted on it. Kabuto had yet to spill anything to anyone.

The Sannin couldn't risk threatening or bribing Yasha into it with his own offer. He had to let Yasha set the deal, otherwise the boy wouldn't be convinced and he'd backstab Orochimaru, without hesitation, without indication. His intelligence was unusual, and reading people…

Frankly, Orochimaru was intrigued as to whether Yasha could manipulate his men better than he could, or if the knowledge of relationships was truly worthless. As a scientist, the idea interested him.

'Everyone has their price… and if Yasha treats people like cattle, he'll make a good officer for me.'

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AN: Note the way Orochimaru and Yasha treat people is very similar. A scientist is used to analysing test subjects, and Orochimaru most of all with his human experiments. Yasha built that analysing ability as both as a self-defence mechanism to predict hostility, and to depersonify people – if you can predict someone you can obscure the validity of their free will, making them more of a NPC than a player.

That's not to say real life people aren't predictable because they have free will. Everyone has their habits and their baseline personality IRL.

Someone programmed to value warrior pride above all else isn't that dissimilar to Vegeta. Wave something about fighting someone strong or boost his ego and you know the results – you can wrap him around your little finger.

Orochimaru simply doesn't understand people and relationships, and once he established that being nice meant he wasted more time on people for insignificant results, he gave it up. It's cheaper and more time-saving to rule with fear, as people will work longer hours for free, which means more resources for himself.

But he doesn't understand relationships, so he thought nothing of betraying the Sannin team, Konoha, society's morals, and look at how he interpreted the relationship between Sasuke and Itachi. I'd give his interpretation merit, since I've never known someone who loves their sibling more than their own mother – in cases where the mother wasn't abusive – but canon Naruto didn't even have homosexuality, so a relationship like that seems pretty outside the scope. Unfortunate for all those people who write fics supporting that… pairing.

Anyway, enough dankness.

Please review – it's what spurs me to work on this. Recommend to fellow fans or the like. Re-read for the subtle foreshadowing and triple meanings, for the hints to Yūrei's real identity, or the Shinigami's real one, question the timings of the past events, and the differing mental personalities and how each person has a different take on the newly arrived Yasha.

I'm not going to abandon the story, but currently there's not enough response for me to move paid hours or what's left of my free time to it. As a result, my writing of this is… sparse. My muse is disinterested, and it wants shiny things. Things that don't have much response aren't shiny enough. It's not a conscious decision; there's just not much subconscious desire to write the story.

If this chapter made you think, please write a review. It's greatly appreciated.

Mucho loveo, ~SortaCore