Disclaimer: Naruto, his friends and the world he lives in don't belong to me but to Masashi Kishimoto. I write this story only for my pleasure and I don't make any money with it.

Chapter Thirty-Four: The Third Letter

Sasuke kept looking for an opportunity to tell Naruto that they were invited to a dance class for same-sex couples, but none arose. On the next morning, a new letter from Sakura arrived, this time without an extra envelope for Sasuke. It felt weird: He was not particularly eager for a renewed declaration of love from her side, yet the idea that she might have shifted her affection to someone else, Naruto for example, troubled him. He sat on Naruto's bed and watched him anxiously for any change of expression while Naruto read the letter.

Naruto thought little of Sasuke when he opened the letter. It would contain news from Sakura, news from his village, news from his friends. The only reason why he hesitated while he unfolded it was the fear of bad news, which in all likelihood he would find. He began to read:

Dear Naruto!

Thanks for your letter! I'm always glad to hear how you are doing and to hear that you are well. I am also happy that you managed to persuade Sasuke to stay with you. I wish I were with you in that place you are staying at and not in Konoha where the situation is getting worse and worse.

I should not complain, however, as I am better off than most other ninjas. I am not sent on missions as I am needed in the hospital, meaning that I am overworked and exhausted but not severely wounded from a mission that went wrong, which happens often now as Danzou keeps sending teams that are too small or too inexperienced.

I have discussed the matter with Kakashi, asking him whether we should not decline missions and tell the clients that they have to wait, or ask another ninja village, but Kakashi told me that this is impossible – declining a mission means to admit that we are weak, and sending them to another village means that Fire Country is no longer able to protect its citizens. He reminded me that under Tsunade when Orochimaru had destroyed the village, we did the same, and that it turned out almost fatal for Chouji and Neji. The only difference is that the destruction caused by Pain is far worse so that it takes longer to undo it.

What's beyond my comprehension, however, is the fact that Danzou has decided to challenge Cloud over some outpost somewhere in the wilderness. It borders neither to Fire Country nor to Lightning Country, it's in a mountainous region where agriculture is impossible, it does not allow to control any important town or river, it's just a fortress and a stragetic outpost that may be useful in case of another war. It was assigned to Cloud in the most recent peace treaty but traditionally it belonged to the Leaf. He's already sent a mission to spy on the fortress, a mission I only know about because one of the squad members ended up in my care.

There are days when I return home and can do nothing but fall into my bed. My mother will see that I eat before I sleep, and she insists that I have breakfast every morning before I leave for work, otherwise I would have long starved to death, just out of lack of time for eating.

I am now confident that my new boss has no idea of medical ninjutsu, so that I feel more relaxed again about cheating and making the state of health of my patients appear worse than it is. Some days ago when we discussed one of my cases I talked some scientific sounding rubbish, and he kept nodding, pretending he understood everything. The same goes for the special unit I wrote about in my last letter, the one whose task it is to provide healthcare for the members of Root. They keep coming to me for advice. Twice I even had to check on Danzou himself when something went wrong with his immune system. They tried to cover it up, but I could not help noticing that he is filled up with drugs to repress an immune reaction and with antibiotics to make up for it. I've seen this only with people who've had a transplantation.

Naruto put down the letter.

"We might ask Sakura to poison Danzou", he said. "Then you'd have your revenge."

"How?" Sasuke asked.

It turned out that he did not even know that Sakura was a med nin. Naruto had to explain to him that under Tsunade's tutelage she had become very proficient.

"She might confuse two medications. Or give him a dose that's too high or too low. She'll be able to cover it up, I'm sure, making it appear as if his immune system got out of control, but if it gets known she can always blame it on her exhaustion. It would have been Danzou's own fault, ultimately, as he has made her overwork herself. We'd also avenge those poor devils who got killed on missions that went over their heads."

Sasuke was still recovering from his surprise.

"You don't mean this seriously, do you? Have Sakura poison Danzou with all the risk on her shoulders and us do nothing?"

"Why not? You'd get your revenge, you'd stay alive, and we could return to Konoha."

"But they would not necessarily appoint you Hokage. Those Elders might favor someone who insists on shutting you up in some secret place."

He thought a bit more. "Forget it. I want my revenge but not like this. Not just some girl disposing of my enemy."

"You insist on slaying an old man with your own hands? Why should this be more honourable than poisoning him?"

Again Sasuke had to think. "I want him to know it's me. I want the whole village, the whole world to know that it was me. They shall know it's not possible to murder the Uchiha clan and keep it hidden forever and never pay for it."

Sasuke had always loved melodrama, Naruto thought.

"You certainly demand a lot", he said. "Find a way for you to kill the current Hokage of Konoha and make it known to all the world, and still not get killed for it."

"I don't care about not getting killed. It's you who insists that I stay alive."

"Certainly I insist", Naruto said, rather irritated. Had they not discussed this before?

Sasuke was actually not as opposed to staying alive as he used to be. However, he enjoyed hearing Naruto say that he did not want him to die.

"You love challenges, don't you?" he said smiling. "And anyway: Did you not promise me a memorial for my family, and my brother's name inscripted into the stone that honours those who sacrificed their lives to the Leaf?"

"I did", Naruto answered, silently agreeing that asking Sakura to poison Danzou would not do. "So you will have to wait until I have an idea for a better plan."

Sasuke did not answer: Having to wait for a better plan had its benefits. Naruto returned to Sakura's letter.

ANBU has been merged with Root. Yamato is very upset about it; when he met me and Kakashi at Tsunade's place he complained bitterly that ANBU is no longer what it used to be, dominated by members of Root, who are now more numerous than regular ANBU, and more and more missions are of a kind that formerly would have been accepted only by Root, killing people who apparently haven't done anything wrong, just because the clients want them dead. Formerly it were always political reasons that made the Hokage agree to an assassination, and he'd rarely agree to the assassination of innocent people. Kakashi says that Yamato is naive and that under Danzou too people are assassinated for political reasons, it's only that Yamato does not understand these reasons, and if he did, he would not agree to them. It's true, however, that more people get assassinated now.

Sai has the same impression. I have told him of your suspicion that Sasuke's family may have been murdered on orders of the top echelon of the Leaf. He and I have set out to find documents that might prove it. We have had a look at the archives in the Hokage Tower (Tsunade has told me where they are) but they do not contain the proceedings of any meeting between the Saindaime, the councillors and Danzou where the murder of the clan was decided. Actually there are no proceedings of any meeting between these four people, it's always only the Sandaime and the councillors. Danzou is never mentioned, at least not as present at those meetings, there are however notes written in pencil on the margins of documents as "inform Danzou!" or "ask for Danzou's opinion!" Also we haven't found anything about a rebellion being planned by the Uchiha clan.


Yet while we have not found any unambiguous proof that the massacre was ordered by the Leaf Sai insists that this is neither proof that there wasn't any meeting where the massacre was decided. Maybe these meetings took place but were not properly recorded. Maybe the proceedings of the meetings were considered classified information and, unlike the regular archives, not accessible to everyone belonging to the Hokage's staff. They may be found elsewhere. Sai has also pointed out to me that it is suspicious that the massacre is never mentioned in the proceedings.

He has shown me a secret place in the rocks of the Hokage mountain that contains the archives of Root and ANBU. They are about all the people they've been spying on, and it's still in use, more than ever before, as Sai told me. He himself is adding to it, but he won't talk about it. "Nothing about you or Naruto", he said. "Only trifles, so that Danzou won't get suspicious."

He hid inside and let me in when everyone was gone, and together we checked several of the hidden corridors, and one of them led to the hall that contains the files on the Uchiha clan. It was a nightmare: Shelf after shelf of reports, all on one family. It seemed as if they'd never end, but Sai took it upon himself to measure the room: It's 112 metres long and 78 metres wide. It's still huge and I still feel the horror of the realization of how many information has been collected during the seven years between the kyuubi's attack and the massacre. Sai had a closer look: He says that before the kyuubi's attack there had been reports too, though fewer.

It's still disturbing, and it made me wonder whether the other clans were spied upon as well. Or normal families as my own.

But this means that even though we cannot confirm that the Uchiha clan was murdered on orders of the Leaf we can confirm that it was spied upon. We have begun to get an overview over the accumulated information. We soon hope to find evidence whether the clan was busy preparing a rebellion.

Sai is sending you his regards, and he also asked me to give his regards to Sasuke. Shikamaru's mother is sending her regards too, and also Kakashi and Tsunade. I think that's all the people who know that you have escaped from the village – no, wait, there's some more people now: Hinata and her father. I had to tell her – I did not plan to. By chance it was just after I had checked up on Danzou that she and her father came to ask for an audience, and I had the opportunity to listen to them too. They asked Danzou about you, demanding permission to see you and talk to you. Danzou repeated that they should not worry about you as you were safely hidden away, but they insisted on talking to you to have proof that you are still alive. Danzou got angry and threatened them, saying that if they did not trust his words and his judgement he would consider them as traitors whose priority is not the safety of the village but some selfish interest in one single person.

I ran after them to comfort Hinata and we sat down at Ichiraku's place. Hinata was crying and Hiashi explained to me how he had understood that Hinata was serious in her love to you, even though he had found her public declaration of love rather distasteful, and that he was now going to support her and help her gain your hand so that the embarrassment of her declaration would be resolved in a marriage.

I was a bit surprised. Hinata is nice and loves you, but I find it weird that they are certain that you would marry her. I was not aware that you had ever taken any interest in her. But you would do well with her, I think.

After some time she recovered from crying but when I asked her whether she felt better she broke into tears again and told me I was a hypocrite, trying to comfort her now but remaining silent when she and her father spoke up to Danzou. She said I was a coward and did not truly care for you and did not deserve your love. I have never seen her like this, all upset and crying.

I thought it best to inform her that you are well and alive. I trust that your secret is safe with her. She sends her regards and her love and wants me to tell you that she hopes that you are doing fine. I hope so too.

Give my love to Sasuke! Whatever he says and does, I will never cease to love him.

Take care!

Love, Sakura

Naruto put down the letter and looked at Sasuke who had been watching. He passed him the letter:

"Some of what she's written may be of interest to you."