The Contract

Chapter 34

Decades Ago…

"Didn't I tell you not to worry, Inojin?" Shido smirked as he lounged on the sofa, tossing back a gulp of the sake his host had provided. "There is nothing to fear, my friend."

Inojin, the tall, well-built blond jōnin commander just scoffed at his partner. "This coming from the man who hounded me at every stage of the plan? Who repeatedly forced me into late night meetings just to verify that our actions hadn't been found out?"

"I did all that to ensure that we wouldn't be caught by the fools who think they understand anything." Shido replied in a faux-snooty tone. "You were just being a lazy bitch."

Staggering to his feet, the slightly tipsy Yamanaka sketched a mocking bow. "Well what now, oh great Uchiha-sama?"

"Well, thanks to a few, well placed members of my clan who share our mutual… disappointment with the way things are run in this village, a rumor has been building up." The Uchiha smiled darkly as he recalled the news his agents had delivered to him two nights prior. "It seems someone let slip the tiny detail of Konoha's alliance with Uzushio and all the benefits those swirly bastards provide the village in terms of our defenses. Now, with the Nidaime dead thanks to our little tip to Kumo,* relations are at an all time low making it the perfect time for the Raikage to build up an alliance that will crush the natives of Uzushio." He paused to take another sip of his drink. "We intercept communications, forcing Uzushio to go extinct and then we gather our forces and rip through the remnants of those that murdered our 'allies'."

"Simplicity; now there's something you don't usually see in a plan construed by Uchiha Shido." Inojin barked out a sharp burst of laughter. "So, we ruin the Senju powerbase even further and, during the upcoming war we repeat our tactics?"

"Essentially." Shido conceded. "However, we need to find our replacements."

Inojin nodded. "We're getting too old for this: we need people that can carry the torch." He sat back and mulled the problem over in his mind. "Any options?"

"A few." Shido answered a tad slowly. "I'm trying to figure out how we can verify their loyalty to our cause but I do have high hopes for them…"

END FLASHBACK

‹‹‡››

"Hokage-sama, here are the reports of our findings from analyzing the remains of Akasuna no Sasori's remains."

Tsunade acknowledged the man's words with a nod and gestured with her pen to her inbox tray while still perusing the draft she had sketched out to deal with a pending problem the Housing Committee had -yet again- tabled before her. As such, she was mildly surprised when she -having deemed her work fit to be tendered at the next Council Meeting- dropped the draft only to see the man standing before her, the report still clutched in his hands. "Something wrong, Shio*?"

The dark haired, nondescript looking man bowed deeply. "I apologize for my insubordination, Hokage-sama, but there are things that I wish to discuss with you regarding our findings."

"Let's hear it then." Tsunade stated her calm tone not giving away a hint of her unease. Sarugaki Minaka -codenamed 'Shio'- had served as the head of the Data Analysis branch of the Cryptography department for well over a decade. In that time, he had been christened the 'Ghost' by the minority that knew of him in the Village: the man hated leaving his department, believing that every second spent walking about was time wasted not analyzing a string of text or the other. The Hokage was the only person he reported to directly and even then, it was to deliver his reports and head back to his beloved assignments.

For him to stand patiently and wait was as much of an anomaly as Naruto not inhaling his first bowl of ramen after a week.

"As you are aware, Hokage-sama, the Crypt-Analysis section has spent the past three weeks conducting investigations into the recovered remains of Akasuna no Sasori's puppet body. Officially, Shoyu and Miso led the teams conducting these investigations while I supervised." The man stated as he pulled out specific pages from the report and handed them over. "Officially, this setup never changed. Unofficially, however, this arrangement lasted until midway through the first week at which point my chief subordinates worked on the parts that made up Sasori's puppet's body while I personally handled this section." He handed a labeled diagram over and Tsunade had to withhold a gasp. "The leftovers of his cranial cortex."

"The puppet's brain."

"In crude terms, yes." Shio shrugged. "However, as far as Shoyu and Miso have determined, the technique he used to recreate his own body in the form of a puppet did not translate to him having a brain as well as a heart. In fact, seeing as the Self-Puppet technique was likely a modified version of the Human-Puppet technique he used on the Third Kazekage, we believe that the only reason he retained his heart in his Self-Puppet technique was that the Human-Puppet technique could only be performed by a human and Sasori couldn't maintain his connection with his soul if he fully became a puppet."

"So he kept his heart and created the cortex?"

"We believe he had it commissioned from a member of the town he destroyed."

That made more sense than thinking that the ex-Suna shinobi had created such a ridiculously complex piece of fuinjutsu: few outside Suna knew the site of the Puppeteer's rampage and the murder of whoever created his artificial brain certainly seemed like a twisted enough reason for him to destroy a whole town.

"Whatever the case, the information I recovered from the cortex demanded your attention." Shio pointed at a specific file which she swiftly perused. "Sasori has spies within the Village."

"Either we've been too lax with our counter-intelligence efforts or our enemies have gotten smarter."

"Definitely the second, Hokage-sama. The technique he used to gain informants is, for all intents and purposes, a poor-man's variant of a Yamanaka technique Tonkatsu identified as the False Life. Where the Yamanaka technique plants a deep seated connection between the caster and the victim to ensure that every action of the victim is to the benefit of the caster, Sasori's technique implants subliminal codes that, when triggered, subsume the victim's will to the desires of the caster."

"So the victims are spies, they just don't know it."

"Essentially."

"But how the hell did a rogue Suna nin figure out how to fabricate a variant -poor man's or not- of a Clan technique?"

"Orochimaru."

The reply lit a cold blaze of rage in the Hokage and it took less than a second to connect the dots. "That bastard… He worked with Sasori when he was in the Akatsuki."

"They were, for a time, partners." Shio clarified. "It would explain one of the fragments of data I recieved that identified Yakushi Kabuto as one of Sasori's plants."

An image of a smugly grinning bespectacled teen flashed through her mind and she suppressed the urge to ram a fist through her desk. Instead, she grabbed a slip of paper and scribbled something out furiously before slamming her seal onto the paper. "Get this to Cryptography: we're updating the bounty on Orochimaru."

A quick glance at the slip had Shio widening his normally impassive eyes. "You're tripling his bounty?"

"Tell them the added bonus is coming from my funds." She sat back with a frown. "I was told that Itachi Uchiha and Hoshigaki Kisame pretty much waltzed into the Village in the aftermath of the Invasion. I wondered how that was possible, after all, records show that the patrol rosters were changed following Itachi's crime."

"You think…"

"It's very likely and would explain why a group that had people like Sasori, Itachi and Kisame didn't just hunt his ass into extinction: bastard was selling intel on us." She nearly growled out the last statement. "What else?"

"The identities of Sasori's plants -those I could obtain from the fragmented cortex- have been listed out with my recommendation on what steps we should take."

"Thank you for bringing this to my notice. I'll file the permission slip later but right now I need you to get to the T&I section and organize a round-up of the names on that list. Do it in whatever order you think is best but ensure that we have a working report of how much of their will has been subverted by the end of the week. Have Inoichi draft in his best mindwalkers if neccessary."

"Understood."

"One more thing: Ibiki has been working on the captured Akatsuki member, Deidara-"

"You need me to collate the acquired data and cross-reference it with whatever I have discovered from the cortex to see if there are any leads we can work on." The man nodded and got up. "I'll get right on it, Hokage-sama."

‹‹‡››

Having searched through most of their usual haunts to no avail, the last thing Kurotsuchi expected was to find her target mere moments after she had given up.

'Of course, that's just normal when dealing with him.' She thought as she cut through the foliage surrounding the training ground she had spotted him in. 'I wonder what he's doing, though… I'm not used to seeing him just sit around without Screamer or Diva around.'

Drawing on every bit of stealth she possessed, the Iwa kunoichi inched closer to where the blond shinobi sat, cross-legged and deep in meditation…

"I know you're out there Size Queen."

…or so it seemed.

"Gah, fuck!" She swore as she walked out to meet him. "What, are you also a sensor now?"

Naruto just snorted as he straightened his legs and stared at her approaching figure. "Hardly. You just had the shitty luck of walking into a jutsu testing ground."
"Tch. Figures." She plopped down beside him in an undignified heap. "You learning a new technique?"

"I'm creating a new technique." He corrected. "It's a work in progress I'm temporarily calling the Naruto no jutsu."

The raven haired Iwa kunoichi couldn't repress her sarcastic snort. "Narcissist much?"

"It's a working name." He rolled his eyes at her. "Anyway, the idea is for me to sort of release a burst of wind-natured chakra and have it hover in a sort of dome around me. Whatever gets into the dome 'pings' my chakra and sends a clear image back to me."

Kurotsuchi whistled softly after hearing his explanation. "Damn Matchstick; you'd be pretty fucking hard to beat if you ever got that up and running." She paused, having thought of something and then amended: "Well, if you ever get it up and running over a respectable range."

The blond just threw his head back and laughed. "I just knew you'd figure out the glaring problems in a pinch." He calmed down and sighed. "Yeah, I'm having issues with the distance right now: the farther range, the longer it takes me to figure shit out. At the distance you were when I called out, if you'd thrown a kunai with a decent amount of power and I was relying only on the technique… well, I'd be seeing the inside of a clinic right now."

"Yeah well, there's also the fucking terrifying part of keeping the dome moving as you move, especially when you need to either use a shunshin or a substitution."

"Oh God don't remind me!" His voice sounded muffled as he had dropped his face into his hands. "Even getting it to work while walking is going to be a bitch."

"And somehow, I feel good knowing that you're going to suffer." She smirked.

"Bitch."

"Why thank you." Her smirk grew slightly before dying off. "Can I ask you something?"

"No village secrets."

It was a running joke between them, Tenten and Ino inclusive, where they'd say something along the lines of 'I have a question…' and either herself or the Konoha nin would reply in the same vein. However, for the first time, she truly wondered why they hadn't ever tried to pump her for information.

"Why have you been so… civil to me? I mean, it's good to know that I'm not being interrogated with every statement… it's relaxing even…" She paused to gather her wits before forging onward. "But… if our roles were reversed… I can't promise that you'd have the same courtesy extended to you. I mean, we're literally worst enemies! Iwa hates Konoha's guts and you guys hate us for instigating the alliance that cost you a vital ally in the Uzumaki! So why the hell are you guys treating me like a fucking diplomatic envoy?! No, I've seen envoys treated worse -hell, I've treated envoys worse! You guys, from day one, treated me like I was your friend!"

"Aren't you?"

Naruto's reply, simple as it was, floored her.

No, more than the words, it was the honesty in his words… the sincerity that was so blatant it was almost palpable… that was what took the legs right out from under her.

'He really does think of us as friends…'

"Kurotsuchi, I don't know what you've come to see since Tenten and I brought you here but I hope it's been nothing but sincere friendship because that's what this has been to me: a true friendship born from a chance encounter." He leaned back on the tree and smiled. "I'm not trying to advertise Konoha or anything -because trust me, the underbelly of this beast is fucking filthy. I just want you to know that the whole 'village rivalries' and stuff… they were created in times of strife… times of war: yes, my dad ripped a hole in your village's militia but then your village started the war which itself had its roots in another Village… it's a fucking cycle, Kurotsuchi. War breeds resentments and hate so why should we carry those bitter pills down to the times of peace where they are nothing more than stumbling blocks?" He sighed as he stared upwards at a future only he seemed to see. "I really hope you consider me a friend, Kurotsuchi because to me? We were friends since you came screaming at me for 'noise making'."

For the first time since he had gotten to know her, the Iwa kunoichi's cheeks burnt crimson as she tried -and failed- to hold back her blush.

Knowing that she couldn't continue down that line, she brought up something he had -finally- admitted. "You called him your dad."

"Hmm?"

"The Fourth Hokage." She clarified. "That was the first time since I got here that you admitted to him being your dad."

"Oh, that." The nonchalant way he said it made her wonder if he hadn't grown jaded to that little fact. Then, for the second time that evening, her perception of reality took a jarring turn. "Not too many people in Konoha know about that but I figured you'd have guessed it already so there was no need to throw our connection around needlessly. Didn't wanna antagonize you."

"Wait. Not too many people in Konoha know?! What the hell are you- are you saying only a few people know that you're the son of the fucking Yellow Flash?! Their greatest fucking wartime hero? Are you serious?!"

"As a heart attack." He shrugged. "The Sandaime Hokage sealed the identity of my parents away in order to give me a bit of a safety net. He couldn't hide the news that I was -am- a jinchuriki but he could hide that one away."

"How… why the hell-"

"Are you telling me there wouldn't have been a few people back home that wouldn't have minded kidnapping baby-me in order to get revenge?" That shut her up immediately. "It may have cost me my childhood but it kept me alive so I'm not complaining."

She winced slightly at that: thanks to her relationship with her grandfather, she knew just how Han and Roshi had been treated for the startling majority of their lives and how it had affected them. The idea that Naruto had endured a similar life as a jinchuriki wasn't far fetched especially if he didn't have the 'my dad was the greatest war hero ever' buff to help mitigate the hate.

That he could still smile meant that he was either incredibly resilient or just bat shit crazy.

She was opting for the former no matter how often his random actions drove her spare.

"You're an odd guy, you know that?"

‹‹‡››

*- I'm not too certain of the action that triggered the Third War: I think it was the destruction of Uzu [prompting Konoha's swift and terrible vengeance] while the death of the Nidaime spurred the Second War. Whatever the case, I'm adjusting things such that the Nidaime died at the end of the Second War, fraying the Konoha-Kumo relationship and the destruction of Uzu simply triggered the Third.

I also tried to maintain realism with the ages of the OCs in relation to the overall story: we know that very young people can rise to powerful positions given that they have the right aptitude for such [Kakashi as an ANBU captain, Minato as a Hokage likely in his mid-twenties (if not younger), Shikamaru as an adviser to the Hokage likely in his early twenties too] and so I'm thinking Shido and Inojin got to their posts by the time they were -max- 26. If I factor in the Second War lasting -max- 15 years and an interval of 10 years before the Third War kicked off, we can put their ages at about 51 years of age; old enough to not necessarily be front-liners but not old enough to be kicked off their posts, especially not with the level of experience they'd bring to bear for the young Sandaime's reign.

This chapter should have been a part of the next but I chose to split them up in post-writing editing because the content felt too… different to have been smushed together.

Anyway, please Read & Review.