Part 2

Obito was startled awake from an uneasy slumber in the middle of the night. He jolted out of bed when he realized that someone was pounding on the door to the Hatake home. He ran to the door just in time to see Sakumo yank it open.

"Jiraiya, Orochimaru, come in," he said as he held the door open wide to them.

"Sorry to wake you, Sakumo," Jiraiya said as he entered. "Hey, kid," he greeted Obito with a grim expression.

"What's happened?" Sakumo asked once he'd closed the door behind Orochimaru.

"That's what we've come to ask you," Orochimaru replied.

Sakumo looked as confused as Obito felt. Jiraiya cleared his throat. "Why don't you have a seat, friend," he said.

"This could be a long night, I'll make some tea," Orochimaru offered and left the room as Obito and Sakumo both sank into chairs, bracing themselves for whatever Jiraiya had to say.

"This morning, we saw Kakashi and Itachi entering one of Tsunade's known Akatsuki hideouts," Jiraiya issued bluntly, "and we know that she's there with several members of her organization right now."

Sakumo cradled his head in his hands while Obito gaped in disbelief. Tsunade was a traitor to the Hidden Leaf, had been ever since she abandoned the village on the night of the Nine-Tails attack. It had been an overwhelming shock to all that the granddaughter of the First Hokage would turn her back on the shinobi village that he founded. The fact that she'd done it when they needed her the most was unforgivable.

Sakumo sprang from his chair and began to pace the room. "There must be a reason for this; there must be," he fretted. "Kakashi wouldn't, he-he couldn't," his eyes met Obito's, "would he?"

"No, no, Hatake-san, you're right. There must be a reason," Obito reassured him.

Sakumo nodded, and his eyes darted to Jiraiya. "Have you told Lord Third?"

"No, we came here first," Jiraiya replied quietly.

"Thank you," Sakumo replied, just as quietly. He retook his seat, as Orochimaru returned with tea. "Thank you," he repeated when he was handed a full, steaming cup.

"There's something that the ANBU agent said to me," Obito spoke his thoughts aloud as they formed. "He said that he was unable to accept that Kakashi must be his enemy, and," Obito drew in a sharp breath, "that I should never be alone with Lord Danzō." He sipped his tea and opted to keep the information about Kamui's Dimension to himself, for now.

Jiraiya and Orochimaru shared a long, knowing look between them. Sakumo spoke, pulling their attention to him. "That still doesn't explain Shisui's death."

"Shisui Uchiha is dead?" Jiraiya exclaimed, though still in a hushed tone. It was his and Orochimaru's turn to need to sit down. "How?"

Obito felt rather than saw Sakumo's eyes on him. "Lord Third only told me that Shisui was found dead with both of his eyes missing," he offered what he knew.

Jiraiya and Orochimaru shared another look between them.

"What aren't you telling me?" Sakumo asked them.

Jiraiya sighed and reached for the tea. Orochimaru's hesitation gave way more quickly. "We believe that there is more to Tsunade's defection than meets the eye," he began. "We've learned that she performed medical experiments upon the agents of Lord Danzō's Foundation, and on Lord Danzō himself—"

"Under his orders," Jiraiya interrupted with the elaboration.

"What kind of experiments?" Sakumo asked, and before either could answer, his next question burst out. "For what reason?"

"We don't know everything," Orochimaru attempted to answer both at the same time. "However, we do know that it had to do with the sharingan."

"Sakumo," Jiraiya pulled everyone's attention to him, "someone was controlling the Nine-Tails that night, and it couldn't have been Tsunade."

Sakumo shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Jiraiya, I know how you felt about her—"

"It would be impossible for Tsunade to control the Nine-Tails," Orochimaru interrupted him. "A Sharingan user caused that attack," he stated emphatically.

"No one in the Uchiha clan would've done such a thing, we were all accounted for that night," Obito was quick to defend his clansmen, a reflex that had been honed since the night of the attack.

"Exactly," Orochimaru agreed.

A heavy silence followed, and Jiraiya made it even heavier, "Lord Third has not been the same man that we have known since he resumed his position as Hokage."

"What are you implying?" Sakumo hushed his voice to a whisper.

Jiraiya and Orochimaru glanced at each other briefly. "Even we aren't entirely sure, but we found something, some notes that Tsunade left behind when she abandoned one of her hideouts," Orochimaru seemed to choose his words carefully, "about the Kotoamatsukami."

Obito knew that jutsu. "The ultimate genjutsu," he muttered, "it allows you to manipulate someone, without the victim's knowledge that they're being controlled. Because of that, and that it takes a decade for a sharingan eye to recover from it, it's forbidden."

"That period of time can be drastically reduced if one acquired the stamina provided by Lord First's cells," Orochimaru countered, "which was also among the notes of her experiments."

"Tsunade is no idiot, Sakumo," Jiraiya asserted, "she knows that we're following her. We believe that she is intentionally leaving information for us to find."

Silence filled the room once again and lasted longer this time.

Sakumo shook his head to clear it. "None of this brings me any closer to understanding why Kakashi would abandon the Leaf."

Obito looked at Sakumo and shared that man's frustration as well as shared his pain. Whether Obito was ready to meet Kakashi in Kamui's Dimension or not, he needed answers, and he needed them now.