Chapter Thirty-Seven

"We learn by chess the habit of not being discouraged by present bad appearances in the state of our affairs, the habit of hoping for a favorable change, and that of persevering in search of resources." - Benjamin Franklin

Yamato

Why hadn't Sasuke been there? Yamato probably should have gone to retrieve the last Uchiha before rushing off to Naruto. Even though Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto teased and fought all the time, they were great friends. They were sort of like he and Kakashi, enjoying giving one another a hard time.

It was always good to have a friend who was willing to challenge you and point out the error in your ways. Kakashi tended to take that to an infuriating level, but Yamato felt that he was a good friend for the Hokage – occasionally putting the Hatake genius in his place.

He went over the Sasuke's house where an annoyed Uzumaki Karin opened the front door. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" she snapped. "Go bother someone else."

"Is Sasuke there?"

Karin rolled her eyes. "You sent him off on an ANBU mission just the other day. Did you already forget?"

Yamato blinked at her in surprise. "I did?"

Karin rolled her eyes again and slammed the door in his face.

Yamato wandered over to Yamanaka Chika's apartment next. The woman was Naruto's ANBU captain and was someone he could trust. She might know what was going on.

Slipping in through her bedroom window, he watched her sleeping form for a moment before grabbing her shoulder and shaking her awake. "Yamato?" she muttered, still half sleep. "Come back to bed."

He chuckled amusedly, before shaking her shoulder again. She whined, "I'm tired. We can do it again in the morning."

"Chika," he whispered, continuing to shake her. "Wake up."

Her bright green blinked open. "Yamato?"

Yamato sat down on the bed next to her. "Quit talking in your sleep and listen to me."

She blinked and said, "Talking in my sleep?"

He smirked and whispered in her ear, "Where you dreaming about me, Chika?"

He was so smooth.

She sat up and he watched transfixed as one of the thin spaghetti straps of her silk nightgown slipped off her shoulder. Chika wrinkled her nose at him. "Why are you disturbing my beauty sleep? You're back early. Couldn't stay away?"

Yamato slid his hand down her arm in a light caress. He kissed a line down her jaw and whispered before claiming her lips, "Naruto cut the Kage Summit a little short, luckily for us."

Chika turned her face to the side, so his kiss landed on her cheek instead of her mouth. "Quit trying to seduce me and just tell me what's going on," Chika ordered. "What's Naruto done? He hasn't caused an international incident has he? Damnation! I should have gone to the Summit too. You and Kakashi can't keep him in check at all. He walks all over you."

Yamato sat back disappointed. He hesitated for a moment, not sure how to spin Naruto's unsealing so that Chika wouldn't freak out. "He announced that he was going to unseal the Kyuubi and then—"

"He what?!" Chika yelled, jumping out of bed and pushing Yamato out of the way as she ran to her closet to put on some clothes. "We have to stop him! This is just the sort of stunt that you could expect from him."

She was halfway into her pants when Yamato said, "It's too late. He's already done it."

Chika tripped and fell backwards, legs tangled up in her pants. Yamato ran over to catch her in his arms before she fell. "What do you mean he's already done it? Where is he? Kami, is he-"

"He's fine," said Yamato pulling her to her feet so her front was pressed tightly to his. Her warm body always fit against his so well. In the two or three times they'd been lovers, he'd memorized every wonderful curve of her body. He knew that he shouldn't have given into the passion he felt for her, but he was human first and her boss second. "He survived. I don't know how he did it, but he's fine."

Chika wrapped her arms around him, her body trembling in relief. "Thank, Kami!"

He ran his hands up and down her back comfortingly. "I wanted to ask you something else."

She glanced up at him, her eyes shining. "Yes?"

"Do you know anything about the mission that Sasuke and Hinata's team has gone on?"

Her eyes betrayed a flash a disappointment before she wondered, "What do you mean? What mission?"

"Sasuke's ANBU team is out on a mission that neither Kakashi nor I authorized."

Chika's eyebrows drew up in surprise. "But how is that possible?"

Interlude

Rising from the bed, the dark haired man looked back at the blonde haired beauty tangled in his bed sheets. With her hair spread across the pillows and the sheets wrapped around her waist, he thought her a vision. The sunlight from the window was strewn across her bare breasts.

Pulling on his pants and shrugging on his mesh undershirt and black long sleeve shirt, he walked over to sit beside her the bed. He ran a hand through her blonde hair, smoothing it back from her face so he could see her one last time.

She was too young and too beautiful to be taking on some of his cares like this. It was selfish to ask this of her, but she had come to him seeking this. He placed a hand of her flat belly where already their child was growing. He could sense it in the flicker of chakra beneath his hand.

"Itachi?" whispered her voice husky with sleep. "Is something wrong?"

"No," he whispered back. "Go back to sleep."

She sighed and stretched, sitting up in the bed. The white sheets fell to pool in her lap. Her too blue eyes were still foggy with sleep and her blonde hair was a messy halo around her face. She reached a delicate hand towards him and he let her pull him in for a kiss. It was tender and sweet, not like the fire and passion of the previous nights.

Pulling back, she looked up at him. "I'm never going to see you again, am I?"

"I'm sorry."

Her smile was bittersweet. "I wish it didn't have to be this way. You're a good man; you shouldn't have to die like this. Your brother will never forgive himself when he finds out the truth."

He gathered her beautiful body into his arms. She rested her blonde head against his shoulder. He said, "It's the only logical progression. I've taken things too far and it's the only way that I can right it."

"But you don't need to—" the girl began.

He ran a hand down her arm, saying, "I'm dying. It's only a matter of time before I succumb. In this way my death won't be in vain, I'll be able to rid my brother of Orochimaru's influence." She looked down at her hands unhappily. He lifted her chin so that she looked him in the eye. He smiled softly at her. "You're the only thing in my life that I've done right."

"Oh, you did me well," she winked at him.

Laying a hand on her belly, he said, "I'm sorry that I won't be around to help raise our baby, but I know that it'll be happy and healthy with you as its mother."

"I don't know the first thing about raising an Uchiha baby," the girl chuckled.

He chuckled, "I'm sure it's not much different than raising other babies. You'll do fine."

She sighed and shifted out of his grasp. He felt empty without her in his arms. She lay back against the bed, smiling up at him. "Surely you don't need to race off to pound Sasuke right this minute?"

He gazed down at her, muttering, "I find myself losing my nerve."

"Meh," said the girl. "I'm just sexy as hell and you can't help yourself."

He laughed. "You're a rare woman, Yamanaka Ino."

He tossed his long sleeve shirt over his head before tugging off his mesh undershirt. He kissed his way up her body, lingering on the flat plane of her belly where his children were already growing, before he got to her lips. She wrapped her arms around him with a happy sigh.

Hatake Kakashi

He slipped on a shirt and shorts and kissed Anko on the forehead before wandering into the kitchen. Sitting at the table, he put his head in his hands. Something didn't feel right. The entire ordeal with Naruto unsealing the Kyuubi had made it impossible for him to sleep.

The feel of Anko's fingers running through his hair and massaging the back of his head brought him back to himself. He glanced up at her, hugging her closely to himself. She had slipped on an old robe; her slippered feet hadn't betrayed her presence. His head rested against her breasts and he took a deep breath.

"I almost lost him today. I almost lost him as I lost Minato-sensei."

Anko brushed the hair out of his eyes and titled his head to look at her. "He's going to be fine. Everything's alright."

Sighing, he wondering, "But something still doesn't feel right. It's like I'm missing some important detail."

Anko slid out of his grasp and went to boil some water. She sat down in the chair across from him. "What are you thinking about?"

"I don't know. I usually have Shikamaru put these things together for me," said Kakashi.

Anko grinned widely. "It sounds like your strategist has had something else on his mind for the last couple weeks."

Kakashi grinned back at her. "A pretty blonde something else that I caught gasping and moaning in his lap tonight."

Anko giggled. "I caught them in the stock room in T&I a couple weeks back."

Kakashi smirked. "I remember that we went through a similar honeymoon period when we got together."

Anko winked at him. "You make it sound like we're an old and boring couple. We still do plenty of crazy things, thank you very much."

Kakashi laughed. "Can't deny that. But I will admit that my chief strategist has been a bit preoccupied with his wife lately. I guess that's what I get for giving the job to some randy seventeen year old."

The kettle whistled and Anko stood up to pour two cups of tea. She set the two cups in front of them and sat back, waiting for the tea to finish steeping. "I guess you might have to actually think for yourself for a change. You can't get by doing absolutely no Hokage work forever, you know."

The copy ninja groaned. "When is Naruto going to take over?"

Anko crossed her legs and sat back in the chair. "So what are the pieces that don't add up?"

Kakashi sighed and picked up his cup, looking into it. It had steeped long enough. "First of all there's the whole thing with the bijuu. The other kage say they're not involved."

Anko picked up her cup and blew on it. "Then who else could be?"

Kakashi shook his head. "I'm not sure. Then there's Sasuke's ANBU team. I hadn't realized until Naruto mentioned it, but they're gone on a mission apparently. Yamato followed up about it and they're definitely out of the village on a mission."

Anko raised an eyebrow. "You're a little young to be going senile. Don't you or Yamato have to authorize all ANBU missions?"

"We're supposed to," muttered Kakashi. He glanced towards the window. There was a strange tapping noise that was distracting as hell.

Anko frowned. "You don't think he's trying to run away again?"

Kakashi shook his head. "I think it's worse. ROOT might be involved." Standing up from his seat, he moved to the window. "Can you hear that?"

Anko stood up and put a hand against the glass. "Something's tapping. Can you see anything?"

"It looks like a….it's one of Sasuke's hawks!"

Anko opened the window and the bird flew in. He held out his talon where Sasuke had slipped a note.

Dog,

I'm taking a vacation with Dove. We're hoping to get some bird-watching in. Apparently the Eagles around here are something to be seen. We'll probably be back in a couple days; I hope this won't land us in Hot Water with the Daimyo.

Hawk

Kakashi sighed in annoyance. "Of course Sasuke doesn't trust anyone enough to not send coded letters, the little pest. Well he's suspicious of Shinju and he's looking after Hinata. That's good. They're going to the Land of Hot Water."

Anko plucked the note out of Kakashi's hands and skimmed it. "What does he mean by the Daimyo?"

Kakashi rubbed his eyes. "That means they're going to the Yakuza mansion rather than Yugakure."

"Is that bad?" wondered Anko.

"I don't know."

"We have a group investigating Yugakure don't we?"

"They're late reporting back and they haven't activated their—" Kakashi paused at the strange whirling sound coming from the little paper seal he kept hidden in his bookcase. He and Yamato had similar ones scattered around their apartments and offices. Running into the living room, he tore the books off the shelves and took out the seal. "Someone's requesting a reverse summoning."

Kakashi applied chakra to the seal and Anko jumped back as a man appeared in front of her.

Shiranui Genma collapsed at her feet, groaning a clutching a wound on his leg bleeding heavily. Kakashi fell to his knees in front of Genma and moved the man's tired hands to apply pressure to the wound. Anko ran for the medi-kit.

Anko came back with several yards of gauze. She knelt next to Kakashi to wrap Genma's wounded leg, trying to lessen the bleeding. "We need to get him to the hospital," she told her lover.

Genma grabbed Kakashi's wrist and said, "It's worse than we thought, Kakashi."

"Aoba and Raido?" wondered the Hokage.

Genma let out a groan as Anko tied off the bandage. "They're both dead."

Anko sat back on her knees and looked at their friend in horror. "What happened?"

Genma looked up at Kakashi. "We found the ROOT army. They're in Yugakure, like Shikamaru predicted. But it gets worse. They're making – they're making jinchuriki, Kakashi."

"They're what?" gasped Anko. "How is that possible?"

Genma's eyes were watery and his face was streaked with dirt and blood. "That's what I went to find out. It's the only reason I survived. Aoba was killed first. He infiltrated the village but we never heard what information he discovered. We only received word that Yugakure's shinobi force was the remnants of Danzo's army.

"Raido and I went in next to learn more. We saw them, Kakashi. We saw them summon the one and the two tails and seal them into two shinobi."

"Oh Kami," said Anko.

"But how could they do that?" wondered Kakashi. "Did they have summoning contracts?"

Genma shook his head. "I went to go find out that, Raido went to follow the people who sealed the bijuu. I found a storage room with nine vials of blood. Three of them were empty and two of them were being used. They were marked Uzumaki Naruto."

"Shit," said Kakashi. "I hadn't thought that they would use Naruto's blood to summon the bijuu. He's signed all the bijuu's summoning contracts after all. Shit!"

"Come on, Kakashi," said Anko. "Let's get him to the hospital. Hurry!"