A/N: The return continues! I have been extremely sidetracked by planning a Bleach story and an Immortals Quartet story, but I am trying to resist the temptation and persevere with writing this story. Happy reading!


Chapter 53: Lie


Shikaku closed his eyes, reflecting, as he waited for the ANBU to open the door to the solitary confinement cell. It was late afternoon now, a few hours since he had found Kakashi unconscious and missing an eye. While he had been carried away, Shikaku had summoned a medic to see to Kurotsuki's bleeding eye, knowing they couldn't afford to lose her to infection or blood loss before they got the information they wanted. At the hospital, the Hokage had been treated by Sakura, and the sharingan had been placed in the empty socket. The operation had only taken place after a short but heated argument where he insisted the eye had to be tested for latent jutsu and curse seals, while the kunoichi informed him in a clipped voice that testing would result in contamination and tissue damage, and that if he did not remove himself from her operating room immediately, she would miss her miniscule window for a clean, fresh transplant and therefore have to show him the temper that she had picked up from her shishou. Reluctantly, he had settled for looking in on Kakashi once he was out of surgery and resting. With the information that the silver-haired man wouldn't wake for a few hours yet, he now found himself at Kurotsuki's new cell. It required keys from two different operatives to open and was equipped with far stronger chakra-sucking chains than the holding cell, which held her at wrists, ankles, and neck. Her surgical tools had been confiscated and she had also been strip searched. They only found three other items on her: a scroll that contained two black katanas, small tube of poisoned lipstick, and three wolf teeth that hung on a leather cord. As he walked into the room, he saw that she had dozed off. He let door shut behind him before he spoke. "Sleeping again?" he asked, "I can't argue, one of my favourite activities, honestly."

Kurotsuki was awakened by his words, looking up. "Nara Shikaku, if I remember correctly."

He stayed silent, examining the silver-haired woman now that her face wasn't half-covered with blood. She was understandably tired from the constant drain of chakra, but there was another facet to it. She looked world-weary, like older shinobi often did. There were faint creases around her eyes and mouth that spoke of witnessing injustices and surviving horrors.

"How is Kakashi?" the woman asked, bringing his attention back to the conversation.

"I don't need to answer your questions," he said calmly, "though you should answer mine. What is the sense in switching one sharingan for another? Apart from their mangekyou forms, they work the same."

"Kakashi's sharingan doesn't work anymore, does it?" Even though Shikaku fought to keep his expression neutral, she saw the minute signs of surprise. "It hasn't worked since this around time four years ago, am I right?"

He didn't want to confirm her guess, but the details were too close to the truth for it to be a guess. "How did you find out?" the man sighed. Do we have a leak somewhere?

Kurotsuki shook her head in answer, predicting his thoughts, silver hair swaying. Her hair tie had been confiscated along with her clothes, and she wore only a plain shift. "You don't have a leak. It's been a very well-kept secret. Not a soul outside Konoha knows, which means that even within the village, very few do. I congratulate you."

Shikaku shrugged. "Thanks, I suppose. But you haven't answered my question."

"Four years ago, Kagami told me She had killed a possessor of the sharingan. He could use a short-distance version of Kamui and the right half of his body had been crushed when he was young."

He froze mid head-scratch. His mind dug through the wealth of information at its disposal, looking for an explanation. There was only one thread he could grasp and it was extremely unlikely. "Obito died years ago."

"Apparently not, since he was heading the Akatsuki," she replied bluntly, "behind an orange mask."

He considered the facts that he knew, tugging his goatee. The explanation wasn't probable, but it was in fact possible. "Did you witness this?"

The silver-haired woman shook her head. "Kagami just visited to gloat about it."

Which is more unlikely, the fact that Obito survived the cave-in or that Kagami is lying about who she killed and the timing is just coincidence? He filed away the thought for later. The Jounin sat down against the wall opposite the captive. This was going to be a lengthy discussion. "Visit, you said. Your curse seal is gone, so you're no longer Kagami's host. How did you survive the strain of that?"

"I almost didn't." She pointed to her arms and legs, to the multitude of white lines, thick and thin, that criss-crossed her skin where the shift didn't cover. There were others on her face as well, barely visible in the yellow light of the lone bulb, small brushes with the business end of bladed weapons. "She gave me these, then decided to heal me."

"Why would She do that?" he asked.

Kurotsuki sighed and rubbed her good eye with a manacled hand, chain clinking. "Because we had a deal. She knew I liked Kakashi. So, She told me that if I destroyed his sharingan, She would leave me and Konoha alone." She deliberately neglected to mention their deal also included the sharingan of the Uchiha brothers, and that Sasuke's children, should he have any, were not guaranteed safety. "I think She was expecting me to kill him. Kagami just wanted to toy with me, but I saw the loophole." The woman grimaced, as if she tasted something sour. "I was selfish and took the deal." Over the years, she had come to terms with her decision, but she was far from proud of it. She watched the expressions flicker by on the other man's face as he absorbed the information.

When she was done speaking, Shikaku's gaze drifted to her remaining eye, a vibrant dark blue, capable of becoming a deadly red and black pinwheel. "The compatibility of the byakugan and sharingan was lost when Kagami left, and you chose the sharingan to keep."

"I kept the sharingan by luck, not choice," she corrected.

His thoughts turned to another sharingan user. "Do you know where Itachi's body is?"

Kurotsuki nodded. "I found him after he lost to Sasuke. I cremated him."

He tugged on his goatee. If he remembered the missions at that time correctly, a search party that had been sent out to look for Sasuke had just missed her. They had arrived at a battleground in pouring rain, with blood everywhere and neither Uchiha in sight. "And Sasuke?"

"No idea. I didn't take him." The woman watched him calmly, hiding her lie. If it was discovered that she had taken Sasuke and cut out his eyes, she would lose Naruto's, Sakura's, and even Kakashi's friendship. Not to mention she would gain a good deal of hostility from Sasuke himself. But lying was a risk she had to take, if she wanted to live in Konoha again. She remained silent, waiting for Shikaku's next question.

Looks like the Akatsuki got to him first that day. A nagging suspicion of her involvement was quelled by the thought, Inoichi can check her memories. He nodded, satisfied with her answer for the time being. "After that, you trained in medicine and enucleation. That way you could fulfil your deal without killing Kakashi. You had to learn to remove his eye without chakra, since you knew you would be placed in holding and chained upon returning here." He paused, thinking. We haven't heard anything of her since she became a missing-nin, so she didn't train in any major villages. She was found in the Land of Grass, and the nearest – possibly illicit – surgical expert would have been... "Did Yakushi Kabuto teach you?"

"You're even better than the rumors say," the woman said, impressed that he had hit the nail on the head on his first try. "He has hideouts outside of the Land of Sound. I could show you where they are, if you like. The one in the Land of Grass is gone, of course. In the landslide."

"Kabuto didn't let you leave his service. You escaped," he deduced.

She smirked. "He's not the type of employer to accept resignations. I worked for him in exchange for the medical training," Kurotsuki explained, seeing his slight puzzlement at the use of the word 'employer.' "When it was time to leave, I fortified one corner of my room and stockpiled supplies. Then I collapsed the rest of my room along with the surrounding area, so Kabuto would think that I was probably dead. I made sure the local shepherd was nearby when I set off the landslide, so I would attract Konoha shinobi."

"Then you used your sharingan to convince them to bring you back with them," the Jounin finished for her. "You got them to skip the pat down and you kept your tools with you. Your first plan was to convince Kakashi to unchain you so you could knock him out with the sharingan and operate unrestrained. But you brought a back up plan. The poisoned lipstick could knock him out if he refused to unchain you, as long as you could convince him to kiss you."

"And we both know the rest." A long pause punctuated their talk and her eyelid drifted closed for a while. "You don't have to tell me, but I'd still like to know how Kakashi's doing," she said quietly, looking at him steadily.

He saw shadows of concern on her features. I suppose it doesn't really do harm for her to know. "He's resting. Sakura said the removal was excellent work. Made the implantation and healing easy. He should be up and about in a few hours."

The woman let out a tiny sigh. "Good... That's good."

Putting his hands together in a string of seals, he extended his shadow into a broad ribbon that snaked towards the door. It snaked up the wall, covering the faint line that was the seam between the door and the wall. The room was now safe from eavesdroppers. "Now tell me, what is it that you know about Itachi?" the man asked gravely.

She shook her head immediately. The chain that collared her neck clinked as she moved. "I can't tell you."

"You wouldn't be alive to tell me if I hadn't written you that note," Shikaku informed her sharply.

Kurotsuki remembered the note all too clearly. Written on a scrap of paper, three lines of carefully chosen words had warned her that Root was going to kill her for the information that she knew. "You wrote that note?"

He shrugged. "I'd overheard the council's discussion from the floor above, and I've never approved of Danzo's methods. But I figure you owe me for saving your skin."

"I do, but if I told you what I know, that would put your life at risk."

The Jounin snorted. "I'm a shinobi too. That doesn't faze me."

"Let me rephrase that. Root will hunt you down and kill you," she told him flatly. "Grateful as I am, I can't tell you. Try another question."

He rubbed a hand over his face. He hated how troublesome it was when people returned from the dead, and this particular woman had been trouble enough when she was alive the first time around. "There aren't that many other questions that I want to ask."

"Well you're not getting the answer to that one," she maintained stubbornly. "Ibiki's torture won't get anything out of me, you know that already, and Hiashi can't contribute since the curse seal is gone."

"What sort of trouble can the information cause? Itachi is dead. Anything that comes to light won't affect him, even if it is about the massacre."

The corner of her mouth quirked upwards. "Of course. You already figured that out." She sighed. "I can't tell you because it would tear apart the village. Konoha would riot. It would destroy everything Itachi has worked for."

"Am I supposed to deduce that he worked for peace in Konoha?" he demanded incredulously. "What part nearly exterminating his own clan is supposed to help with that?"

She chewed her bottom lip, composing her answer. "There are only so many situations that would lead to that conclusion. That's all I can say."

Again, Shikaku filed away the information, to be analyzed later. If she continued to refuse to divulge the information, he could get Inoichi to pick her brain. The sensitive subject discussed, he released the jutsu of his extended shadow and let it return to its natural shape. "What type of work did you do for Kabuto?"

The silver-haired woman closed her good eye and tipped her head back against the wall, answering his question from there. "I was his anesthesiologist. He had orphans he conducted experiments on and it was my job to put them under. It's a great use of a sharingan, being able to decide exactly how long you want someone to be unconscious," she commented drily. A pained expression crept onto her face as she recalled her last four years. She had made countless children look at her sharingan and fall unconscious, then arranged their small bodies on a steel surgical table. She assisted Kabuto as he performed gruesome surgeries and tests, then took his subjects to the cells where they spent their days. The medic-nin seemed to want nothing to do with the orphans while they were awake, so it fell to Kurotsuki to bring them meals and keep them quiet. When she wasn't supervising their condition using the camera network, she would sit and talk with them, making up stories. For years, she had tolerated her macabre job, knowing Kabuto was the only person who would teach her the surgical techniques she needed to know.

The man frowned deeply and tugged his goatee. "We didn't know he was using human subjects."

"Considering Orochimaru was his sensei, I don't think it's all that surprising," Kurotsuki said, cracking her eye open to look at him briefly. "Next?" she asked, closing her eye again.

"Do you have a mangekyou sharingan?"

"Nope."

"Last one for now. What is Kagami up to?"

She shrugged. "As far as I'm aware, hanging about with the Bijuu. She's been coming by every few months to taunt me about upholding my end of the deal. I suspect I'll see Her again before winter is over."

He nodded, satisfied with her answer. "We'll get the locations of Kabuto's hideouts from you later, when you've had the chance to rest a bit." It hadn't escaped him that she had spent increasing amounts of time with her eye closed as their discussion continued. "We'll also get anything you can remember about the experiments he ran."

The woman nodded slightly without opening her eye. "Sure. Please don't punish the cell that broke protocol and brought me back with them. That wasn't their fault. I just needed a quiet way in."

"I'll see to it," he agreed. "Can you get the location of the body of the man in the orange mask when you see Kagami next?"

A snort. "I can try. She doesn't do anything She doesn't want to, really."

He stretched lazily, loosening his stiff muscles. He got to his feet and made for the door, nodding his farewell, though she couldn't see it.

"By the way, it might be worth your while to make sure anyone who's seen me keeps quiet. If the council learns I'm alive," Kurotsuki yawned, "Root would have me dead in a heartbeat."

Nodding again, Shikaku rapped on the door, signalling it was time for him to leave the cell.


As Kakashi slept, he dreamed. He remembered the moment ultramarine eyes looked into his. Every fibre of his being sang. Emotions coursed through his body: shock, anger, affection, and pure, unadulterated joy. Kurotsuki was alive.

The corner of her mouth quirked upwards in response to the stunned expression he wore. "Kakashi," she said softly. She was glad that he looked well.

"Unchain her," he ordered the ANBU gruffly. The man waited impatiently for both shackles to be unlocked and watched as Kurotsuki rubbed her wrists after they were free. "Out." He pointed the ANBU towards the door. "Please," he added belatedly, not wanting to sound too rude in his haste. He followed and set his hand on the door. "We are not to be disturbed. For any reason. That's an order."

The masked operative bowed slightly in acknowledgement. "As you wish, Hokage-sama." The stone door closed in front of his nose. Quietly, he turned to watch the hall and guard the room.

Inside, Kakashi turned his attention back to the silver-haired woman. Crossing the room in a few long strides, he dropped to his knees and pulled Kurotsuki into his arms. Her scent filled his nostrils as he buried his nose in her hair, all of its layers and intricate notes present. He exhaled into her hair, the gesture bringing back memories from years past. She was a tad cooler than he expected, remnants of the chakra-sucking chains, but he could hear her breath in his ear and feel her heartbeat under his fingertips. She was alive and she was real. His heart soared.

She returned the embrace warmly, one of her hands coming to rest at the nape of his neck, combing her fingers through the fine hair there. "I'm sorry," she whispered. Kurotsuki tugged at his hair gently, and stroked her thumbs down the sides of his neck, convincing him to release her so she could get a good look at him.

Then– then what? Kakashi struggled to remember. He had pulled away to look at her and what else? The rest was blackness. He realized he was drifting out of the blackness, into consciousness. He was greeted with the stark lighting and white ceiling of the Konoha hospital. He frowned. How did I get here? His left eye itched like mad, a decidedly disconcerting feeling since he had felt absolutely nothing from it for years. The itching morphed into a tingle that quickly faded away. Still concerned about the unusual feeling, he raised a hand to rub his eye. His fingers met smooth bandages keeping soft gauze in place as an eyepatch. Uh-oh. He sat up, mind whirring, trying to fill in the blank in his memory.

At that moment, a nurse entered the room. "Hokage-sama," she nodded in greeting. The plump woman brusquely strode up to his bed, checking the numbers on his monitor, scribbling a few things on his clipboard. Her duties done, she turned her attention him. "I will bring Sakura. She wanted to check that the eye has healed fully."

"Get me Shikaku," he said immediately, sitting up. Whatever had happened between Kurotsuki's cell and now, his brilliant advisor would have been the first to figure it out. He seized the nurse's arm. "Now," he growled, putting on his most commanding demeanour. His eye had been sightless for years. Whatever injury he had sustained, Sakura's check could wait until he figured out what had happened with Kurotsuki. "I'll see Sakura later."

The woman looked uncertain for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, Hokage-sama."

Within a few minutes, the black-haired Jounin came strolling into the room. Without needing to be told, he shut the door behind himself.

"If you've done anything to her, I swear, I'll have your head," Kakashi said bluntly.

Moving to the bedside chair, Shikaku sat and surrounded them both with a box-like shadow, keeping eavesdroppers at bay. "Calm down. We've talked, that's all." He yawned. It was only evening, but the day had been hectic. "She's in solitary and anyone who saw her has been told to keep quiet."

The Hokage exhaled, comforted by the news. "What happened to my eye?" he asked next.

He took mental note of the fact that Kakashi had asked about Kurotsuki before himself. "She took it out and crushed it." He paused, letting his words sink in, along with the unspoken chiding.

Kakashi had been stupid to go into her cell alone and unchain her. He had paid for it with his eye. True, it had been a useless for a while, but it had been Obito's last gift. There was a sudden hollowness in his chest and he knew that when he had some time to think, he would regret the loss deeply. What puzzled him currently was why Kurotsuki would ever do him harm.

Shikaku interrupted his thoughts. "Then she replaced it with hers."

"She what?!"


A/N: I think this is the chapter with the fewest scenes in it. It definitely feels odd to have such a monstrously long scene at the start, but it was all one conversation, so I decided it was fine as it was. I've got some very emotional bits coming up, and I'll have to think about how to get those done well. The end creeps ever closer. Leave me a review with your thoughts. Good night all :)