Sup folks! Here's part two of the chapter I published last week. Hope it's good!

More Than Enemies

"Senpai, if this is about me making you another piece of furniture–"

"Ma, why would you say that, Tenzo?"

"Don't. Just – don't. I don't care if your kitchen has been lit on fire by an old lady, I don't care if your closet is being haunted, I don't care if your ninken had an accident on the couch–"

"Now, now, there's no need to get antsy," Kakashi interrupted drolly.

Tenzo stared at him with thinly-veiled suspicion. "Then why did you bring sake with you? You only do that when you want a big favor, Senpai. Like replacing all of your furniture within a day. Again."

"Ah, so suspicious." Kakashi lamented. "Can't a man cherish his favorite kohai on the rare occasion?"

Tenzo, predictably, faltered at that address. Pinching his nose, the young man sighed. "Alright, senpai. Out with it. What do you want?"

"Hm, I don't want anything but to celebrate our friendship," Kakashi told him archly.

Of course, this wasn't strictly true. In a way, this was Kakashi's latest (and last) idea to convince himself that he'd be doing the right thing by preemptively getting rid of Río. Hearing how bad Root agents were from the source. Or maybe he just wanted an excuse to get wasted, because asking Tenzo about his past was admittedly a pretty long shot.

"Well… why not enjoy a drink with me?" Kakashi offered innocently. "It's been so long since the last one."

Tenzo frowned at him. "You do realize my tolerance for some poisons extends to drugs, right?" Nevertheless, he retrieved the sake and poured two glasses for them.

"Ah, yes," Kakashi mused. "but there will be no drugging involved. Though I have to admit, I was rather surprised the first time you shrugged off cyanide inhalation like it was a piece of cake." Nothing better than a little flattery to go with sake in order to loosen the tongue, after all. Not that Kakashi was being dishonest; he usually just didn't bother with compliments.

His kohai looked at him curiously. "This favor must be pretty big if you're resorting to actual flattery." Nevertheless, Tenzo looked pleased over the compliment as he took the first sip of his sake.

"Ah, I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about." Even as he said this, Kakashi noted the compliment's effectiveness with delight, raising his glass in a nonchalant toast. "To friendship."

Tenzo rolled his eyes. "You're ridiculous. But alright. To friendship."

Three hours later, they were pretty drunk, but Kakashi still hadn't asked the question. To be honest, he was putting it off until the last second. He didn't want to bring up those painful memories of Root for Tenzo, but at the same time, he had already come this far… but was it worth it? It was unlikely his kohai would be able to say anything on the topic due to the tong seal and the inquiry would completely kill the mood…

"Senpai, just ask," Tenzo spoke up.

Kakashi snapped out of his thoughts. "Sorry?"

"You want to ask me about Root, don't you?"

How did he…? Kakashi sighed. Damn Tenzo and his all-knowing ways. Ah, well. The ninken was out of the bag now.

"Yes," he confirmed, sobering. "I'm sorry to bring it up. Do you…"

"Do I?"

"Does the name Río say anything to you?"

Kakashi had been prepared to catalog the smallest twitch, the most minute tilt of the head or hunch of his shoulders – but he'd definitely not been expecting Tenzo's reaction. At the mention of the name, his kouhai froze completely, like someone had just chugged a bucket of ice over him. Kakashi could practically feel him sober up within the span of a second. Uh-oh.

"Río… yes. I know her."

Kakashi nodded slowly. Then he frowned. "Wait – you're able to say her name? I thought–"

Tenzo shook his head. "Rio never received the tongue seal, Senpai. I can talk about her."

Kakashi's eye widened. What? She was the Root commander and she didn't have a seal ? There was no way. Tenzo had to be wrong.

Tenzo's next question shook him out of his stupor. "Why are you asking about her? She died years ago."

Died? What the…?

"Hmm… let's just say I came across the name and got curious," Kakashi improvised. "What can you tell me?" Why do you think she's dead?

Tenzo paused thoughtfully. "Well… let's just say that she was in the middle of this… very significant event… that happened while I was, uh, there . I may be able to speak a little about her, but I can't talk about it , so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to reveal, since the main thing that makes her… well her , in my eyes, was that one event. So whatever I may tell you not related to it is … wrong. Irrelevant. That's why I've never spoken about her before, even though I could. I – agh. Why do you always ask the hardest questions, Senpai?"

"Personality quirk," Kakashi supplied, even as his mind worked on taking apart what Tenzo had just told him. They hadn't discussed the topic in many years, but after being accepted into ANBU, his kohai had tried more than once to tell Kakashi the secrets of his old organization. It had felt almost like there was one thing in particular Tenzo had been trying to warn him about, something very important. Vexingly, his attempts had resulted in failure each time and a lot of pain on Tenzo's part, so Kakashi had told him to leave it be. What were the odds that it was whatever 'main thing' Río was connected to? He felt his hackles rise.

Whatever it was, he suspected that it had been one of the reasons behind Tenzo agreeing to leave the organization so easily. If Rio had hurt him… she was a goner, no questions asked. He was almost hoping she had, just so he'd feel justified in offing her, and with gusto. Then again, Tenzo seemed to think she was dead…

"Start from the beginning," Kakashi suggested. "Just give me a general overview on her if you can't get into details."

Tenzo nodded slowly. "Well, Río was already there when I… arrived. I don't remember much of that time, but she was a few years older. Skills wise, she was… underwhelming, as far as I could tell. The thing about her was that – well. We all… well, I didn't. I mean at first I–" He cut himself off, frowning deeply.

Curioser and curioser…

"Take your time; no pressure," Kakashi encouraged awkwardly.

Tenzo coughed. "Right, I… err, sorry." He took a deep breath. "I'll just… start from the beginning." He coughed again. "Back when I was inducted into Root, the third shinobi war was still in full swing. The older generation of fighters, the ones from back then, they were… the harshest of Root agents – ever. We called them the veterans. They'd been there since the beginning, the generation who'd been personally trained by Danzo. They were the agents who took the brunt of the SSS-Ranks missions during the war, though most of them ended up dying before the end of it.

"The hierarchy among the veterans was really strict; so were their rules. Crossing them was out of the question – Danzo set the course of things, but the veterans were the scary ones, the ones who could hurt you, the ring leaders – and to come back to your question, they had it out for Río. But she'd brought it on herself. She didn't respect protocol, doing things such as not wearing her mask in HQ, shutting doors in their faces on purpose and… honestly, thinking back on it, she didn't do anything huge… but back then? You don't disrespect protocol to a veteran's face. You just don't. And she did it. Constantly . She was crazy."

Kakashi's eyebrow rose. "Sounds intense."

Tenzo snorted. "I guess. I wasn't around for her initiation, but rumor had it she'd tried to off Danzo – more than once . That takes balls, especially repeat performances. Plus… I only learned about this later, but the reason why she was so high up in the ranks despite seemingly being unskilled was because of her talent for breaking out of places. An escape artist, I guess. Never saw her in action, but I do know that she broke many of our guys out of the highest security cells located in Iwa's maximum security prisons, so she ought to have been good. Some of the veterans said that her skill was owed to her many escape attempts from HQ – another mark against her. Those were just rumors though, so don't put much stock in them. There were a lot of rumors about her, anyway; some even saying that she remembered her life from before. I don't know about that, but what was clear to everyone was that her loyalty was questionable at best."

Kakashi leaned forward. That actually sounded… very promising. "Yes?" he prodded. "A disloyal Root agent?"

"It was more that no one trusted her," Tenzo explained. "Oddly enough, the only person who seemed to have any faith in her at all was Danzo of all people, which is… yeah.

"But the veterans, who controlled what the rest of us thought, more than Danzo ever did back then, seemed to think that she was biding her time before trying to kill him once again, that she'd lulled him into a false sense of security somehow." Tenzo scoffed. "Obviously, the notion anyone could manage such a thing is completely ludicrous. That old war hawk is the furthest from an idiot you can get – he must have had some kind of assurance to be so confident in her loyalty. But we were all paranoid and eager for an escape goat. Rio was that. Most of the veterans despised her on principle. But the one thing that they couldn't forgive was that Danzo let her get away with her breaches of protocol. He even seemed to favor her in an odd way, which was very out of character for him. That was the final straw."

Tenzo closed his eyes, heaved a sigh. "You must understand, Senpai, Root isn't comparable to ANBU or any other Konoha organization. It's a dark place. In Root it is a dog eat dog world, where the one thing everyone strives for – every single agent – is Danzo's attention. His recognition, his favor, his… ugh." Tenzo made a disgusted expression. "It sounds so insane as I say it now, but it was the way things were. Root is just so immersive… when you're there, that's what you become reduced to. The pressure to be loyal, to think exactly the same thoughts as the others, the fear of what will happen if you stick out – none of us wanted to be the next Río. We were taught, conditioned, pressured to want the same things, to fight, to think, to live the same way… t-to follow protocol. At any cost. I… you wouldn't understand." A long pause. Tenzo gathered himself. "But you were asking about Río. The point is, she was the outcast – the cockroach, we called her. No one would associate with her unless it was to put her down.

"I met her face to face when she was assigned as one of my regiment's instructors. She was a lot younger than anyone else who was teaching and, in our eyes, with no particular skill. She didn't deserve to be there. We were expected to hate her and doing so was easy.

"She put us through hell, senpai. Her training methods seemed cruel and pointless to us. She didn't teach us any forms, any jutsu, how to use a weapon. No. It seemed like she was just taking her inferiority, her resentment, out on us for no good reason other than that she could. We hated her so much you can't even imagine. We tried to make every one of her lessons a living hell, fighting her in all the small things, following her instructions as reluctantly as our upbringing would allow, or sometimes exactly to the letter in order to make things difficult…" He paused. There was something sad in his gaze. "Her favorite lesson was how to hide. She'd take us to the river on some days. It was freezing; she'd tell us to hold our breath underwater for minutes and minutes on end, until some of us nearly blacked out or got hypothermia – there was always this medic on hand for that – Koi – and he had to interfere almost every lesson at some point or other.

"On other days she made us fight or run with broken limbs, or forced us to deplete all our chakra and then do survival exercises. She'd restrain us with manacles at times, telling us to free ourselves, fully aware that the only way to do so was to break or dislocate our own joints. Sometimes she put us on chakra suppressors for those exercises. You wanted to know how I got my poison tolerance? She made us eat cyanide – in small doses, yes, but it was horrible all the same. Then, when we were too tired or ill to so much as think , she'd ask us questions upon questions about battle tactics and dismiss our carefully thought-out answers, giving each problem more and more restrictions until finding a solution seemed impossible, and then her own suggestions would be completely out there and unusual, throwing protocol completely to the wayside. It was completely unfair, her solutions were always so odd none of us would've thought of them. We thought she did it to be a bitch." He sighed. "She taught us many things, but they were useless and strange in our eyes, and we hated her all the more for it. We were glad when our time with her was done."

Kakashi frowned, staring vacantly at his cup. "Tenzo," he ventured. "You said that Danzo favored her. Why?"

Tenzo nodded. "Yeah… Rio usually kept her head down, and I didn't have much contact with either of them, but there was one instance where it became very obvious." He grimaced. "You know our seal? It wasn't always there. It was placed on us by one of the younger veterans. He was a fuinjutsu specialist, and… well. Many of us were getting captured by Iwa. Torture was no joke, and, though information sharing was kept to a minimum, some things had slipped – each intel breach was more dangerous than the last. I heard that Río's cell ended up breaking those guys out a lot of the time, but often it was too late. People died because of that intel. Many genin, chunin, jonin, even ANBU… and of course our own. Río's prison breaking unit was good, but they weren't fast enough… so Danzo put some guys on it – on figuring out how to avoid the information leakages. And that's when Charca stepped up." Tenzo paused grimly, took a long swing of the sake.

"Charca?" Kakashi queried curiously.

"Yes. Bloody came up with the perfect solution : created a fuinjutsu seal that would keep anyone who bore it quiet about all of the others connected to the seal, provided they weren't dead – then and only then would the seal fade. After testing it, it turned out the seal worked to perfection – held up under torture, which was the point – or so we thought. All of us received it. All, but Río. See what I mean? She was the exception – the moment she heard about the seal, she flat-out refused. Threw a hissy fit, which wasn't the norm for her (she usually knew to stay well out of our way), but this one time she didn't, made a huge ruckus in fact. Didn't let the sealers anywhere near her, ruined an entire bag of sealing paper, which was basically gold back in the war. She should've been punished for that – severely – but Danzo bent the rules for her." Tenzo sighed forlornly. "I mean, she did get whipped in the back and chained to the wall for a day – but that was tame for a disobedience punishment – and… she never got the seal. He let her off the hook. Back then, it felt like a childish whim, like her obstinacy was putting a target on all of our backs. Hindsight's 20/20 senpai, and Río had a knack for smelling trouble a mile away. Maybe it was just because she and Charca hated each other's guts, but she was the only one with enough foresight to avoid the seal. The only one."

"You're absolutely sure?" Kakashi whispered. "She didn't receive it? Not even later?"

Tenzo nodded. "I would know, trust me. The veterans made a huge deal out of it. The lack of seal just made her even more distrustful in their eyes. As for the seal itself… it was the beginning of the end. But we didn't find out about that until later. In the meantime, my regiment, the eighteenth, the one she'd been in charge of training, started getting deployed. That was my first taste of war, senpai. I was Root and emotionally… well, stunted, I guess, but that didn't make it any less horrible. Watching the people I'd trained alongside, slept alongside, eaten alongside, hated Río's guts alongside – just – just die – all around me, it was… it was…" He shuddered faintly, then composed himself. "Protocol dictated we show no emotion. Root was very strict about that, which only made it worse. Having to keep it all bottled in, to continue with the mission no matter what, to live for nothing but war and war and war, to get up in the morning knowing all I would do that day was train so I could kill more, or simply go out to the battlefield and put that training to use – it was…"

"Yeah," Kakashi said quietly. They each took a big swing of sake. "Yeah. I know."

After a pause, Tenzo continued. "But the thing is, despite how horrible it was, I found out later on that apparently we had it good. Out of all of Root, our regiment had the highest survival rates. The first month it could've been a coincidence, maybe also the second, but after a year had passed and most of us were still alive, we all knew that it was no fluke. Compared to the others, any soldier of the eighteenth was four times more likely to survive. Four times, senpai. Those odds were really, really good for wartime Root. Astoundingly good. They're even good for non-war time Root. And as such, as you can probably imagine, we quickly became Danzo's favorites. He said we were the children of war, loved to brag about it. His very best. His elite, the generation of the future. We ate it all up, were proud of ourselves – it was all so fucked up.

"But then, in an attempt to even things out, our regiment was broken apart. We were spread out into other squads, began to get partnered up with agents from other regiments. Working with them, I… we realized that things like being able to break one's own bones in a desperate situation – and doing it well – being able to fight with chakra exhaustion or even on suppressors, knowing how to survive underwater or underground for hours, poison tolerance – these were not common skills. And they were all skills every single agent from the eighteenth knew like the back of their hand; a hard lesson, but a lesson well learned.

"It became apparent to all of us that this was what was keeping us alive. It was her training that was making the difference, the training we'd all boycotted and spat on. Of course, nobody ever spoke of it. No one ever acknowledged it, or thanked her, or told Danzo or the veterans. No one wanted to admit it, almost like we were ashamed that it was her doing. Río's. The outcast. But we all knew, regardless.

"The veterans weren't stupid; they put two and two together as well. Did I mention that they called Río the cockroach because she never died? We inherited that name. Our generation – we were the children of war first – but then we became the cockroaches – they started calling us that as a threat, I think. A warning that if we got chummy with Río, they'd make an example out of us just like they did her."

"And did you heed that warning?" Kakashi asked, voice quiet.

Tenzo balled his hand bitterly. There was a long pause. "I… I was just a scared, stupid little kid, senpai," he said softly. "Of course I did. We all did. I never… none of us ever showed her anything but what could be shown. If not contempt, the kindest way some dared to treat her was indifference, and even that felt like pushing it. We never said thank you. We were too scared for that."

"Tenzo… you were conditioned to do that. She wouldn't hold it against you, I don't think."

Tenzo shook his head, as though wanting to avoid the topic – took another swing of sake, then another. Refilled both their cups. "Eventually, the war ended," he continued hoarsely. "That was supposed to have been it, the end of our problems. No more suicide missions, no more children of war if there was no war, no more cockroaches if survival was no longer a commodity. I was hopeful at first… but things only got worse instead."

"Worse?" Kakashi said incredulously.

"Yeah. Much, much worse."

"How?"

"Well… to put it simply: one day, maybe half a year after the end of the war, Danzo just… disappeared. He was gone, senpai. Gone. Just like that. No one knew where he'd gone off to or what had happened to him. No one could even begin to guess where he was. We all looked for him, to no avail. And don't get me wrong, Danzo is a right bastard, but his leaving was the worst thing that could've happened. His disappearance created a power vacuum… and Root descended into anarchy. Most veterans had died during the war. They had been Danzo's rule enforcers. Without him, without the veterans, there were suddenly no laws, no order and no rules. We were just scarred, broken, dysfunctional tools without a hand to wield them. We turned on each other. Every man on his own. There was fighting, chaos and death. It was… I still have nightmares of that time some nights. But what came after was the true nightmare: after a month of senseless death and violence, Charca came out the victor. He seized the power and took Danzo's place for himself. He was careful about it, very careful, and to the outside world, Danzo had never left. But within Root, things… changed."

Kakashi stared at Tenzo, wide-eyed. How had he never gotten wind of this? This was… this was huge . Tenzo took a strong swing of the sake again and Kakashi followed suit. The bottle was almost empty.

"Changed… how?" he asked carefully.

"It was everywhere. In the atmosphere, the fear, the callousness with which he led us… the selfishness… but the worst part was, without a doubt, the new recruiting policy. Danzo had taken children because the war system couldn't be sustained – good soldiers were needed desperately and there were none. Children were already being sent to the front lines. Danzo took them at a younger age and prepared them more, took their families away. It wasn't right, but it made sense. In a way, his strategy worked, because Root played a large part in our victory. It was despicable… but I can understand where he was coming from. After the war ended, so too did the children disappearances. We of the eighteenth were the last generation to be trained by Danzo's Root." Tenzo frowned grimly. "With Charca, that changed. More and more orphans were brought into the fold. 'To replenish what was taken by the war', he said. Bullshit. We tried to stand up to him, tried to tell him to stop , but then it became apparent we couldn't. We couldn't, senpai. We were trapped."

Kakashi inhaled. "The seal ."

Tenzo nodded. "The fucking seal. All those of us who'd been marked by it had to follow all of Charca's orders to the letter. It was the worst, worst, worst prison. We couldn't escape. But Rio, bloody Rio. Escape artist that she was. Heck. She had evaded it before it even happened – but she was the only one. She couldn't do anything; she was alone. For the first time, we were ready to fight alongside her, but we couldn't. We couldn't."

Tenzo went to pour himself another glass but accidentally tipped it. Kakashi caught it, just barely.

"You were saying?"

"Right, w-where was I?" Tenzo muttered, slightly slurred.

"Charca."

"Oh. Yes, him . Before I was taken in, the practice of erasing all the memories of children had been stopped, but with Charca, he did cruel things. Worse even. Much worse than before. He was so – so obsessed. Paranoid. He thought that – that we all wanted to betray him, you know? He pitted the new kids against each other in death matches, all so they'd only ever be loyal to him and him alone. He was… he was such a bastard . He began sending the rest of us on missions that became increasingly harder and harder. He was crazy. I thought sometimes he wanted us all to die.

"And we did. We were dropping like flies. But you know what? Those of the eighteenth, we weren't flies. We were cockroaches, and cockroaches don't die even when you step on them over and over and over. – Suddenly, it was a point of… of pride, you know. What we were. She was, I mean. Río. Not like we ever bloody told her, but we were. Proud. She was this spitfire, didn't give a damn about the rules that made no sense, she was free, she was, she was… Fuck. He killed her. I should've done something, I should've… I was such a – a bystander . I killed her."

"Tenzo," Kakashi cut in. "You didn't. You didn't. Got it? You…"

"I… senpai. We all thought she was like, like immortal, you know? It was so stupid. 'course she wasn't. But, but it was like… she just never died. Got out of any situation, always. She had made us into the best, into the survivors; in our minds, she was unkillable. Maybe not the strongest, but definitely the most resilient. Except then she died. Koi, he, he killed her."

"Koi? Who's that? I thought Charca…"

"No, like. Listen." Tenzo's eyes were unfocused. "Koi was this guy – this medic. He kept… helping us. You know, for the lessons? Río's lessons? Like, he was the medic."

"Oh, yeah. The medic."

"Right. He… Koi… after her death, he had a very important role… kept the new recruits alive, even after Charca's death matches. We bought him time; he healed 'em. He was great. Quiet, but great. I… I never got a confirmation, but I think he may have been Rio's friend. I hope he was, you know? That she had someone."

"But then… Koi? Why would he kill her… makes no sense."

"No, like. Things came to a head between Charca 'n Río. It's a long story, but bas'cally, Charca knew that, that suddenly we all were team Río, you know? Paranoid fuck. Don't know how he knew. Not even Río knew, but he did. So he sta – staged a confrontation one day. They fought, he won. Not that it was a fair fight. Anyway, he had one of the guys holding her in place and forced her to her knees, all meganomalic-like? Megamolanic? Mega–"

"And then?" Kakashi interrupted.

"Right. And then, Charca goes all like: 'take the seal, you bitch', 'cause the seal could only be given willingly. And then Rio goes like, 'not gonna happen' and then she spat in his face. The idiot. T'was too rebellious for her own good.

"Sick fuck flew into a rage 'n strapped her down. Then he started carving a – a fuinjutsu on her. Somethin' bad. Río goes ballistic and starts thrashing like crazy. She grabs his face all like – lemme go – and then this weird shit happened. Like, Charca… lost it in that moment. He began to scream. He freaks out and, jumps off her. Won't go near Rio again. Starts barking orders like mad, but he was wonky in the head 'cause they made no sense. When he got it back together – like, a moment later, she was gone. She was supposed to have been on the floor, bleeding out from the carved wound, but you know how she was – escape artist? You should'a seen Charca's face. Completely lost it. It was the best. We all started cheering, thought she'd escaped for good. But then he… he sent a squad after her… Koi was the leader. It was a direct order and Koi couldn't… he couldn't not follow it. He had to. He couldn't dis-disobey. We should've stopped him. We should've done something! None of us did."

Kakashi and Tenzo stared at each other.

"And then?" Kakashi whispered.

"Koi… he… he came back a few days later. Was carrying her corpse. Never spoke again. Not a single word."

"But that's…" Kakashi stared at Tenzo, at a loss for words. "That's insane…"

"Yeah, senpai. Yeah…" He took another large gulp.

"But, but…" Kakashi's mind churned. Río… but she was alive! So that must mean… that must mean that Koi had done something, right? He was a medic. Maybe he… he faked her death somehow? But how did he avoid following Charca's command? And where on earth had Danzo gone? Was the current Danzo still Charca? But no… that didn't make sense. From what he had heard of Río, Kakashi really doubted she'd ever work under Charca willingly. It hadn't sounded like she was such a great fan of Danzo either though… but she'd been the only one who could've gone after him, the one who might've brought him back to Konoha. Had she?

"You… you know, Tenzo…" Kakashi found himself voicing. "If – if Río had – y'know. Survived."

"Yeah?"

"Uh, what would… what would have happened? Do you think she could've – uh – could've… kicked Charca out? Taken chrage – charge?"

Tenzo took a swing of sake, accidentally spilling some of it on his chin and shirt. "Pffff… mmmmm. Dunno, senpai. Like, like yeah. Me and the guys, we supported her. Like, for sure. But… but it wasn't such a clear-cut thing. Ch-charca had his s'pporters too, yeah? So… If Río had survived, and, and somehow found a… way to turn off the seal even… it would'a been carnage. Total carnage. Root would'a died, most likely. Fifty fifty Rio's guys versus Charca's. He ind-doctrinna-ted those new kids like, like you wouldn't believe."

"So… both sides would have… killed each other. No winners."

"No winners. No Root left. Hate to say this, but that woulda been bad. Pretty bad. 'cause, like, we added a lot to the budget, you know? L-like almost as – as much as ANBU."

"Pfff," snorted Kakashi. "No way. Those guys are tiny compared to, to ANBU. Mini."

"Yeah, but senpai, like… Root don't have salt – sal – salaries… and like… we used to get assigned, like, the kindsa missions you took on. You . Back in the day. Know what I mean? But like, Root always gets those too. The 'no return freak show' missions. So like – loads of money – no salaries – f-free work, no pay, no pay to the family if you die… know what I mean?"

Kakashi nodded sluggishly. "So, it would have been bad if Root disappeared right after the war," he conceded. "Still think we should dis… disband it though."

"If only Rio was still alive…"

"But there's not much she could've done, anyway," Kakashi said.

"I guess… I mean…" Tenzo frowned. "Yeah… but like… the best thing she coulda done was… was lookin' for… for Danzo. Becuase Charca's old supporters would still… support him. And Río's supporters… would too. So no one dies."

Kakashi paused at that. Look for Danzo…? Well, if Danzo hadn't died during Charca's mandate then… Danzo coming back would've been their best bet to avoid a slaughter… wait. "Oh, fuck . So that's what happened. Río hauled him back."

"Nah." Tenzo stared forlornly into the distance. "Río died, 's what happened. T'was so long ago already. Not coming back, she isn't. No clue 'bout Danzo though…"

They both stared droopily at one another for a few seconds, though Kakashi's brain was desperately trying to complete the metaphorical jigsaw puzzle.

"But… but Charca is dead," he blurted sluggishly. "Right? He'd dead…"

"Wah…?"

"Yes. I mean it. How else… would we be talking about it?" Tenzo's eyes widened. "Think about it," Kakashi insisted. "You… you tried to tell me this before. But – but you couldn't, right? And now…"

"–I just did!" Tenzo exclaimed, springing from (and toppling) his chair. "Oh my god, senpai! I just told you! I told you everything !" They both grinned at each other. "He no longer has the seal on 'im! That fucker is dead!"

"Recon that's the only possibility, huh," Kakashi agreed with a smirk.

"Fuck! We gotta what's it called? The toasty thing?"

"Uh, kampai."

"Yeah, that."

Kakashi rolled his eyes and stared at the ceiling. "You are so drank man. …I mean, drunk."

"Pfff, senpai, like you're one to talk…" he filled both their glasses. "C'mon!"

Kakashi lifted his, grinning a little. "Fair enough." They raised them into the air jubilantly. "What are we toasting to?"

"The bastard dying?" Tenzo suggested. "Río's spittle as it hit his face?"

"I'll say," Kakashi grinned, thrusting his glass upward and managing to miraculously not swamp the table. "Cheers to that."

"Cheers indeed, senpai!" They clinked their glasses and downed the shot.

The next two hours came and went, the clock on Tenzo's wall testified to that, but Kakashi didn't really remember any of it. He regained his senses around three in the morning. Well, some of them, at least. Tenzo had moved to the couch after making weird wooden dolls that were now strewn all around the flat. He was half-asleep half-awake staring at one of his house plants dreamily. Kakashi decided to not look too deeply into that, choosing instead to go to the bathroom and splash some cold water on his face. He needed to think – this was important.

The knowledge he'd gleaned from Tenzo was invaluable. It was good to know that the Danzo they were dealing with was the actual elder, not a much younger, crueler, fuinjutsu-master version of him. Still… it seemed odd. Why didn't Tenzo know about Río's abilities? He'd described her as someone with average (for ANBU Root) combat skills and a talent for prison breaking and survival… but what about her obvious talent for the mind arts? How had Tenzo missed that ? Her last confrontation with Charca, when she had grabbed his face, had most likely been a psychic attack, but Tenzo had described it as if he didn't know what it was…

"Tenzo… what was Río skilled in?" Kakashi asked after a moment.

"Huh? Oh… I dunno. She just taught us survival stuff… we knew that she was bad at forms and traditional sparring. Bad at memorizing the moves, but she was real nimble…"

"But don't you get the feeling she ought to have had some ace up her sleeve?" Kakashi pressed. "I mean, if she managed to stay alive for so long…"

"Could be," Tenzo agreed. "I mean… I always wondered… all the things she taught us, they were dead useful and all, but where did she learn them? How did she learn them? 'cause there was no one else who taught that stuff in Root."

"You don't know how."

"No. It's something I've thought about a lot, and my only guess is – well – experience."

Kakashi nodded grimly.

In a way, he supposed that Río's mind reading was most likely the secret behind her prison-breaking. As a ninja who'd done his fair share of infiltration, he knew that war-time prisons were easy enough to break into, but a nightmare to get out of alive, with intricate maps and confusing patrolling schedules. Outside surveillance of the building could do little to prepare one for what awaited within… but if she could read the mind of one of the guards, then she would know the prison layout and the patrolling schedules, as well as any necessary information to pull off an infiltration (and escape)… so her skill in that area made sense.

Even so, his talk with Tenzo had only led to more questions than it had given him answers. For example, where had Río gone after her alleged death? What had happened to her? And to Danzo? In fact, why would he have favored someone so openly rebellious as her? Kakashi was starting to realize that there was a lot about the councilman he didn't know, a lot about Root he didn't know. Where had the elder been? What had kept him away? Had Río been the one to bring him back? How had Charca died? He was dead, right? And the biggest question of all – how much of this was the hokage aware of?

Yamanaka main house, the early hours of the morning

Yamanaka Inoichi was shaken awake by a noise outside his window. He immediately shot up from the bed in alarm, but Chihiro, bless her heart, took his hand and mumbled something that sounded like 'shigagunno'nemey'. Being familiar enough with her half asleep vocabulary, Inoichi was able to translate this to 'it's Shikaku, not an enemy' and immediately relaxed. Still, what the hell was Shikaku doing there at three in the morning?

"I'll be right back," he muttered to his wife, who was already asleep again.

Cursing Shikaku's ancestors, Inoichi dragged himself out of bed and toward the front door, opening it. His friend was indeed standing at the doors well, staring at him.

"Shikaku, what the hell?" Inoichi snapped. "Ino's party is tomorrow! You know she's been upset with me for being so distant lately and my plan to appease her won't work if I look like a zombie tomorrow!"

Shikaku rolled his eyes. "She'll get over it. Besides, you're so awfully cheerful at gatherings; it's better this way."

Inoichi glared at him. "Whatever. What is this really about, Shikaku?"

The Nara advanced further into the kitchen. "Well… I just had a thought."

"A thought."

"More like, a suspicion. There's something I need to confirm."

Inoichi's gaze sharpened. "Confirm what exactly?"

"Well," said Shikaku slowly. "I need to know anything you can tell me about your encounter with Yugao Uzuki."

Inoichi frowned. "My encounter?"

The Nara nodded, watching as his friend's expression turned thoughtful.

"Her infiltration was a nightmare for our division. And I do mean a nightmare. The intelligence units got a lot of heat for not catching on earlier, and torture and interrogation because… well. Long story short we had her and we let her escape."

"Wait… what? I hadn't heard about that."

"It was kept under wraps to mitigate the public embarrassment, but yes." Inoichi sighed, rubbing his temples. "I was so embarrassed I didn't even tell you…"

"Wow. And here I thought you were as candid as a saintly flower."

"Your sarcasm is not appreciated," Inoichi snapped, flushing slightly.

Shikaku barked out a laugh. "Alright my friend, so how did you screw up so bad that a teenager escaped from your headquarters?"

Inoichi frowned grimly. "Well, once Uzuki was discharged from the hospital after her and Hatake's return, our guys brought her in for questioning. It was the typical post-capture procedure. Hatake was still asleep on a hospital bed at that point and Uzuki, who'd woken up from an artificial coma somehow, was already up and about. In hindsight, the fact that she woke up so early should've been the first hint. Her senses must've been on high alert; there's no other explanation for it, with how banged up she was. The second hint should've been how jumpy she was when we called her in for questioning, but I thought back then that given her previous imprisonment, it was understandable. Long story short, I vacated the room she was in for just a sec, leaving Sakurawa and a few others behind. Next thing I know, I come back and the room is empty. Nobody in sight. And that was it. I never saw Uzuki again."

"Damn." Shikaku said. "What did you do when you found it empty? Were there any clues?"

"No signs of a struggle, if that's what you mean. It all looked like it was in order, so at first I didn't worry. I figured Sakurawa had decided to relocate for some reason. It's against protocol, so I was pissed… but not worried. Fast-forward fifteen minutes, having realized I can't find them, I'm running around the building shouting profanities at Sakurawa, then switched to stealth mode as I was getting increasingly worried. No one answered. My worry spread over the staff and we all started looking for them like crazy, especially Uzuki. But by then it was too late. When we found Sakurawa and the others tied up and gagged in a storage closet a while later, she was long gone."

Shikaku stared at his friend with furrowed brows. "Don't you guys restrain anyone you're about to interrogate?"

"That's the thing – we do. The last time I laid eyes on Uzuki, she was in chains and had taken a chakra suppressor."

Shikaku swore under his breath.

"My thoughts exactly."

"Eh, if it was like that… you guys couldn't have prevented it."

"That's just the thing!" Inoichi said. "Something about her was odd, I remember thinking it right before I left to get her file! I should've listened to that gut feeling. But of course I took one look at her and dismissed that notion."

"Why? Did she smile at you charmingly or something?" Shikaku asked sarcastically.

Inoichi rolled his eyes. "No, idiot. What I mean is that Uzuki looked like even a genin could beat her in a spar. A frail thing, with coltish limbs and… dunno. A girl. Still, she was ANBU and I should've known better. I should've known the way she was looking at me was weird."

"Oh? In what sense?"

"In the 'my cover will be blown' sense I imagine? Geeze Shikaku."

"You imagine? Or is that just what your logic is telling you, not your instinct?"

Inoichi frowned. "I imagine you have a reason to be asking me such specific questions?" His expression turned thoughtful. "But to answer you, I… actually don't know."

Shikaku sighed. "How do you not know? Heck, you can read minds ."

"It's not that easy," Inoichi snapped. "The first time I looked at her, I didn't pay Uzuki much mind. Her behavior was a little off, yes, but I simply assumed that the prospect of being interrogated after so long in captivity had frightened her. She looked like she'd barely hit puberty – not freaking spy material. Honestly, Shikaku, it was a busy day and I had things to do, Sakurawa was in charge of what should've been an easy interrogation on a trial basis, and I was only really there in case he botched it somehow."

"Well, botch it he did."

Inoichi snorted drily. "Yes. That he did. Till this day we have no clue how Uzuki escaped. In a way, it was almost a consolation that no one else managed to catch her either."

"Heh. Always the optimist, are you?"

A snort. "I say that now but back then I refused to show my face at work for a month, Shikaku. You wouldn't believe how many times I revisited my memories of our brief encounter. It was only then that I realized something definitely didn't add up about Uzuki's behavior, but I couldn't even be sure whether it was my new knowledge of her being a spy that made me think it."

"What do you mean?"

"As I said, it was something in her expression. The reason I didn't see it before, I think, was because I couldn't make her face out properly – it was black and blue – with a busted nose, a peach-sized black eye and bruises everywhere. You try reading into the nuances of an expression when half their face looks like a purple beachball!"

Shikaku sobered. In a way, the injuries of her face had been a big help… "It's curious that the medics didn't heal it. Could she have had an ally undercover?"

"Hold your horses, man; I already checked," Inoichi said with thin lips. "And no. Too much healing isn't medically advised, so the less dangerous injuries are often left to heal naturally. One of the medics testified that Uzuki did ask him not to heal it, but the request wasn't outlandish enough to be suspicious, nor detrimental to her overall health, so he and his colleagues let her face be."

"And yet," Shikaku drawled. "you say something was off about her expressions, despite that you couldn't make them out well. What exactly?"

"Well… I don't know," Inoichi muttered. "It's hard to put a finger on it. Maybe it was the way she stared at me… there was something emotional about it, but her body language wasn't terrified or anything like that. She was facing away from Sakurawa, facing to me despite not being the lead in the case, and her eyes didn't leave me the entire time… not for a single second. I remember being a little unnerved. It was like she was drinking me in."

Shikaku swore loudly.

Inoichi tensed. "Shikaku? What is it? Have you figured something out?"

Silence.

Inoichi tired again. "Shikaku?"

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." The Nara head rubbed his temples tiredly. "I really, really hope I'm wrong about this."

"Wrong about what, Shikaku?" Inoichi asked sharply.

His answering stare was troubled, expression pinched. He sighed. "I… I think you might want to sit down for this one."

thoughts?