Mafia
alt-title: Copycats, copycats everywhere
"Seems like every morning we wake up and another noble's dead."
"Shhh! Don't say such things!"
A rumpled Team 7 had been assembled at dawn, due to an urgent court order from the palace calling on Lady Hinogawa.
They'd been met by the new crown prince upon their arrival, surrounded by a large group of guards. Even the crown prince himself was armed.
Neither he nor the lady said anything as he led Lady Hinogawa and her retinue through the palace, but Team 7 could hear the whispers.
Sakura saw Naruto almost stop walking as he tried to eavesdrop and walk at the same time, Kakashi-sensei's warning push on his back the only thing that reminded him that they were supposed to absorb such things impassively.
The corridors were filled with people, an anxious energy filling the air that turned on the group as they walked through. She couldn't tell if the attention was focused on the daimyo's new heir or Lady Hinogawa. On meeting the angry eyes of a young nobleman, she shivered.
Or on us, she amended.
It felt like they'd been walking for hours, but they finally came to a stop.
The prince paused at the doors, hand braced against them. He looked to Lady Hinogawa for the first time.
"I'm sorry."
Lady Hinogawa's face was impassive as he pushed the doors open, revealing the daimyo and his wife, seated side by side.
The familiar round face of Lady Shijimi was drawn with weariness, a weariness that seemed to have even inspired some empathy in her demon cat, which perched at her side with an uncharacteristically concerned air.
The daimyo seemed to be faring no better, sorrow seeming to have lined his face even deeper.
"My lord." Lady Hinogawa sank to the ground. Sakura fidgeted, feeling compelled to do the same.
But Kakashi-sensei remained standing, so she did too, level eyes staring straight ahead. A quick peripheral glance revealed the expected fact that Naruto and Sasuke were doing the same, along with an unexpected fact that had her own eyes focusing on the tableau in front of them. Sasuke's eyes were activated.
"Kawane, it is with only the greatest regret that I must inform you that Kawagu Hinogawa, Head of Hinogawa house, Lord of Takahishi and the Western Estates, is dead."
Lady Hinogawa bowed her head. From behind, she looked very small kneeling before the two royals.
"Kawaru was the first to find him. Forgive him for not being here. It has been very hard on all of us."
Lady Hinogawa opened her mouth as to speak, but was interrupted as Lady Shijimi spoke.
"It has been confirmed that the manner of death was like that of our own Kiyo-kun."
The icy tone of voice was clearly not directed at Lady Hinogawa. The daimyo pinched his brow as the lady continued.
"It seems my dear husband can no longer ensure safety in his own palace."
"This is a conversation for later, my love."
Lady Shijimi turned to her husband with a stricken smile that looked ghastly on her drawn face. "Is it? My son is dead. And due to your negligence, the boy I raised as my own is dead. Their deaths are at your feet."
"Don't blame me for this, woman."
"I blame you."
The daimyo turned from his trembling wife. "Kawane, you are dismissed. We must speak another time."
She rose and they left, leaving the sounds of the slowly elevating voices of the two behind them. The prince, who'd been waiting outside, met them as they emerged.
"They've been like that since..." He shrugged.
Lady Hinogawa inclined her head, as close as a noble could get to a shrug. "It's not been an easy time for any of us."
"Kawane, I know this isn't the best time, but would you-"
"I have to go find my brother, Hiro. I trust your request can wait."
He turned his eyes to the floor. "Of course. I sorrow for your loss."
"As I yours."
Lady Hinogawa swept by Hiroyuki, leaving him looking a little lost in her trail as she set a brisk pace towards the chambers kept in the palace for the Hinogawas.
When they arrived, she paused at the doors.
"Please stand guard outside. The situation is sensitive so I cannot invite you in, but I beg you to stay as vigilant as possible."
The door shut behind her and Sakura let out a breath that she'd been holding since the outburst from Lady Shijimi, trading a wide-eyed look with Naruto.
Sasuke crossed his arms.
"Nothing about that made sense. None of these nobles make sense."
Kakashi-sensei leaned against the wall, his single-eye languidly scanning the ceiling.
"Hmm?"
"The daimyo, Lady Hinogawa, even Lord Hiroyuki. Neither of them are actually grieving, or even shocked. Kiyomasa dying, Kawagu dying, none of them are acting like they lost a loved one. All I picked up there was tension."
Sakura chewed a nail. "Not his real son?"
"Not her real brother, we know that." Sasuke leaned against the wall, a miniature version of Kakashi-sensei. "That was supposed to be an interrogation session."
"Maybe they're just putting up a front right now since they're still in the palace. They are politicians, after all." There was a reason Lady Shijimi, a Konoha native, kept returning to the village to assign little D-ranks. It was well-known that she hated the cold, calculating nature of the city.
"You can't hide it like that, not from the Sharingan."
Sakura met his eyes, still glowing red, and believed it. She looked down to the floor, starting to feel like maybe Lady Hinogawa had low-balled them with 1 million ryo.
A vase that cost significantly more than a million ryo smashed against the wall as the purple-haired Guardian stared impassively ahead. The daimyo had a pretty good arm for a sixty year old.
"Explain this. How did he die? Did you do it?"
"My lord, you know none of the Guardians would act outside of your orders."
"Then how?" The usually kindly lines of the daimyo's face were set in anger.
"We only defend you, my lord. We have heightened our defense protocols given the situation, but we were given no indication that Kawagu might be a target."
"Hinogawa's death means the young fools will be at our throats. The Hinogawas might rise up full force, and I wouldn't blame them."
The daimyo seized the golden seal that sat on his desk, hurling it at the wall.
He stood there, chest heaving, with his back to the Guardian who, unlike any other Guardian, had specialized in assassination.
"I saw the body, don't try to fool me. It was the same sleeping death I saw on Kiyo's face. It was your technique. This was the Hokage's plan, I consented to it. I have the letter he drafted right here."
He crumpled up the now-useless arrest order on Kawagu for Kiyomasa's assassination, throwing it at the ninja. It bounced harmlessly off his chest as the daimyo sank into his chair, head in his hands.
"I sacrificed my son for this."
The Guardian bowed his head, though the daimyo couldn't see.
"There is a ninja in the palace that knows all of my techniques, my lord."
The daimyo raised his head. "You're trying to blame the copy ninja." His face was turning a dull red. "You forget that that was my plan, our plan, in the first place. Kiyo dies, Sharingan no Kakashi goes home, Kawagu Hinogawa goes down for killing my boy . To bring those young hot-headed fools fighting against themselves instead of against the crown. And now you try to blame this on the copy nin. The copy ninja is under the hire of a mere girl!"
"My lord, no Guardian laid a finger on Kawagu."
"You're a fool if you think I'm willing to be mindlessly pulled this way and that by the whims of that fool the Hokage-" the daimyo caught himself. But surprisingly, the ninja didn't show any visible reaction to his outburst.
"I don't disagree with you, my lord. But I assure you this is no action from the Hokage. I warned the Copy Nin about any further action the day before. The team has been acting irregularly from the moment they acted against the Hokage's orders and decided to stay. There is even word that the Copy Nin and the young Lady Hinogawa have been romantically linked. The Copy Nin has long been suspected of being unstable, and I believe this may be directed by the Lady Hinogawa. The Lady Hinogawa is not without her own plots, separate from Kawagu's foolish plans for war."
The daimyo's head jerked up. "What do you mean?"
The nin inclined his head. "The Hokage is keeping a close eye, my lord."
"I order you to tell me!"
"We have not been able to piece together this plan as of yet, my lord. But the Lady Hinogawahas a kunoichi in her employ that has been posing as a slave woman for some time."
The daimyo turned purple briefly, but pulled himself together. "I don't need to know this plan then. Apprehend her. Apprehend him. All of them, including the genin. I demand an explanation from the Hokage, along with a new plan." He turned away from the ninja. "Note this: Konoha's blood will be split as well if we enter another war."
The nin bowed, then disappeared.
After directing the genin to invisibly follow Lady Hinogawa, Kakashi finally found Toru, who'd been mysteriously missing the whole day the day before.
But here she was, stirring soup in an empty kitchen, as if she'd never been gone.
"I think you know why I'm here."
She looked at him, then past the doorway he stood in to check that he was alone. She kept stirring.
"Hello, Copy Nin. Here to take me away?"
He crossed his arms and leant against the doorframe. "Is there cause to?"
"I think you're the only person in the palace right now who can point the right finger. After all, everyone else thinks it's you."
"Is that why she fought so hard to keep me here? Was she planning this the whole time?"
"I don't presume to know all her plans." She sipped some soup. "I'm just a tool."
"A tool that I'm going to have to bring in to the Hokage, nukenin." Kakashi lifted his forehead protector to reveal the Sharingan. "We'll talk there."
Toru lifted her hands. "Listen, you don't-" A plume of smoke appeared between them, and Kakashi dove in, expecting to catch a fleeing Toru, but unexpectedly slamming hard into Shinau's broad chest, sending the Guardian sprawling to the side, only narrowly missing the soup. Shinau wrenched himself back up, surveying the scene before him.
"I see, Kakashi... you know I'd held out some hope that you weren't trash after all. It's nice of you to let me know how wrong I was so quickly." Blades sprang to his hands. "You're both under arrest."
Kakashi raised a kunai in return, albeit reluctantly. "Wait, Shinau-"
Toru produced a blade from nowhere and thrust it at Shinau, a smooth motion that belied the fact that she hadn't been an active kunoichi for years. Shinau met her blade with his own.
At the clashing sound, more Guardians shunshined in, drawn by the unmistakable sound of a ninja fight, the first one in the Capital for decades.
It was too late to avoid a fight. As he engaged in battle, Kakashi reached out his chakra, looking for his genin. He later told himself that was why Hitoru, that rat bastard Anbu kouhai of his, was able to catch him from behind, and bring darkness crashing down on him.
Let's see some actionnnn