Sasuke

Looking at what remained of his old mentor's, teacher's, and would-be parasite's body. The only thing that remained was white skin, and bubbling purple blood; pooling on the blanket. Sasuke felt an odd form of relief. Orochimaru had truly thought he could take over his body, and Sasuke had allowed him to hold that belief for three years.

Orochimaru should have learnt from trying to take over an Uchiha's body from that man. Instead, he was free to watch his body get weaker and weaker, until he couldn't even get out of bed without help. Let alone keep an eye on what he was doing, but Sasuke never had a guard follow him around.

Unlike what he told Kiyoshi and Sakura, he was never going to let that snake take control of his body. Not now, and definitely not three years ago. Either way, Orochimaru had taught him everything he had been willing to in the last three years. It was time to move on, continue training until he got his revenge and killed his target. Along with anyone who got in his way.

"Which one are you?" Kabuto asked glasses falling down his nose as he dropped the medication tray, tiny white pills bouncing on the floor. Sasuke didn't say anything, just a smile on his face as his other so called teacher ran to his master's door. Sasuke would let him see what was left, before showing him Orochimaru's weakness and his death.

Kiyoshi

Tsunade looked like she was in the room by herself when she opened the door, but Kiyoshi hadn't meant to come to the Hokage tower this late. If she was correct Shizune would be at home, asleep, since it was midnight. She had learnt over the few months that Tsunade found it more peaceful to work on paperwork during the night then day.

She believed that her attention wouldn't be divided between who was talking to her, and making sure she knew what she was signing. Kiyoshi didn't want to know how much had been passed without the previous Hokage's knowledge.

"Kiyoshi?" Tsunade asked her light blonde hair pulled into low ponytails, brown eyes looking into her blue ones. "Is something wrong?"

"I've gotten wind of rotten roots under the great tree," Kiyoshi said. A simple code, one that Tsunade, Jiraiya and Orochimaru had created before the start of the Second Shinobi War. One that Jiraiya had taught her when he started training her to take his spot in his spy network. One that she wouldn't be surprised if Tsunade had taught Sakura. "It's for the best, if the shadows moved away with the moon."

"Of course," Tsunade said. Kiyoshi sighing as the ANBU left the room, security seals activated mere seconds later. To be safe, she checked to make sure there were only two signatures in the room, and that no one was around the room to overhear their conversation.

Kiyoshi didn't want Danzo aware that she was catching onto his games, that she was planning his end. She found those pushed into a corner bite harder, then those who thought that they were still in control.

"I've got caught wind of Danzo's plans," Kiyoshi admitted. There wasn't a point to beating around the bush, Tsunade was the closet thing Kiyoshi had to an aunt-figure. Giving her a sad smile, as she picked at her orange jumper. "He plans to kill you, and a handful of your most loyal shinobi. He plans to become the sixth Hokage before his death."

"What?!" Tsunade asked punching her desk in half. Kiyoshi knew that it wasn't the first time that Tsunade had to replace her desk in the last week alone. She also knew that while Danzo had been Hiruzen's friend; he still hated that he became the Third Hokage over him. That he hated Tsunade for being the granddaughter of the first, a man who was known for his kindness. Wanting to build a village that supported tram work as a strength and not as a weakness. Along with being the great-niece of the second, and the student of the third.

Kiyoshi had been keeping an eye on the old mummy since the Uchiha Massacre, even when Jiraiya took her out of the village to train for three years. Danzo was a bitter old man, to the point she wouldn't be surprised that he'd hate Tsunade for once healing the fourth when he was younger.

"Are you sure?" Tsunade asked after she got over her shock. Or at least she looked like she was over it, for now, Kiyoshi was worried that she might break her own bones as she sat back down in her own chair.

"I'm sure," Kiyoshi admitted. "I've been keeping an eye on the Old War Hawk since the Uchiha Massacre."

"Did Sarutobi know about this?"

"No, I wasn't foolish enough to bring it to his attention."

"They were old friends."

"He was growing blind in his old age, I didn't deem it necessary to stress him out any further."

"What are we going to do about this?"

"We?"

"Kiyoshi, you came to me as soon you found this out?" Tsunade asked. Her tone was threatening as Kiyoshi straightened her back. "Didn't you?"

"Of course," she said not blinking an eye at her threat, she changed her plans as soon as she found out about his plans.

"Then we're the only ones who know."

"And we're the only ones who will know."

"Kiyoshi -"

"Hokage-sama, that isn't what I was getting at," Kiyoshi said as she put her hands in front of her, allowing her jumper's sleeves to cover her hands. "They're going to act in three days, and I'm going to kill them."

"But you're only one person," Tsunade said. Smiling at Tsunade, Kiyoshi ignored her annoyance at her clothing. Sure, Kiyoshi never really minded the colour orange, but even she had to admit she was wearing too much of the colour. Sure, they fitted 'Kiyoshi Uzumaki' to a 'T'. Along with any child that Kushina had, but they would never suit at her at all.

"I've been keeping something from you, along with the third keeping it from the village," Kiyoshi said, it was her secret. Something she had been keeping since she was four-years-old. "Now I think it's time that you know, I only hope you understand the reason why we did it."

Sasuke

Tracking down that man would be hard, Sasuke knew that for a fact. Even the snake had trouble tracking him and his partner down, almost like whoever group he was with, just disappeared in the wind. Listening to the rain from his hiding spot, he leaned his head against the large rock behind him. This cave had been the first thing he found when it started pouring down with train, it gave him a minute to think.

To clear his head. Sasuke knew that he would need a team, through it couldn't be like the one he had in the Leaf Village. He would be in charge, not some one-eyed pervert who couldn't even bother being on team.

Kiyoshi Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Kakashi Hatake. They might be some of the only people he even slightly respected back then. Even if Sakura cared more about her appearance then her own training. In the end, all she was good for was random bits of information, and even then she didn't know everything about the shinobi world. Still, he didn't need a walking book worm then, and he didn't need one now.

But that meant he was surprised when he had seen her when they broke into Orochimaru's lab with those two strangers. Sakura looked strong. She's been training under Tsunade, and it was starting to show. Made him believe what he had read about Sasori's death. Then he could respect her for removing someone out of his way.

Kakashi on the other hand, he had a feeling that would always have the least respect for. He would always show up three hours late, giving them the worst excises to the point that he was sure that Kiyoshi would have came up with something better. He wasn't there when Kiyoshi and Sakura found him, instead of the new faces that been there. A teenager with black hair and eyes, along with a man with brown hair.

Kiyoshi was the person Sasuke tried not to think about if he could get away with it, since she had been the person who confused him the most. At first, he couldn't stand her, he had thought she was weaker and dumber than Sakura. The only good thing about her at the time was that she wasn't one of his fan-girls. Her hair had been kept to her shoulders when he left, but now it was almost down to her hips.

She had treated both him and Sakura like they were her younger siblings since Team Seven was founded. More then once she would act more mature then normal before acting like a complete immature air head. He had never thought deeply about her actions, but now that he did, none of them made any sense.

Like when she would glare at her orange jumpsuit, even through she declared more then once to love the thing. He had heard soft mutters of 'torture', 'Kushina', and 'too much orange', along with her words at their last battle. Where he had left her to die without a care in the world.

'I'm sorry little brother. I've failed you, and I'm so sorry.'

Sasuke hadn't thought about that battle for years, hadn't crossed his mind until he had seen her again after three years. He hadn't wanted to think about it, those words made it seem like there was more to her then he thought. More to her than being a dead-last who had failed the final exams two teams before passing. But now he was alone and bored, that's when his mind always seemed to remind him of those words.

Of her actions.

"I'm the older one," he whispered looking at the scrolls he had started to pack away in the last few weeks. It had information he stole from Orochimaru, everything he had on the Leaf, he took everything because he never had the time to look for one file.

Kiyoshi

"It's lovely night, isn't it. Danzo?" Kiyoshi asked the Old War Hawk in front of her, she had successfully tracked down all of his bases. Her last target was the base he was using to lunge the attack on the Leaf Village.

She wasn't meant to know where any of Danzo's bases were, but even then, Danzo sat calmly behind his desk. Rows among rows of scrolls around him. That was something she'd have to wait to deal with, for those in the Leaf Village. It wouldn't do to have innocent children pay the price of that demon's actions, which were high enough given how long he had been pulling the wool over everyone's eyes.

Either way, she was sore and tired. For her clan and the people he had used for nothing other then his personal gain. She would no longer ignore it, for those children and agents she had to kill to keep Root hidden from the world, Kiyoshi would kill Danzo. It was wise to keep her distance from the man, since Shusui and Itachi had warned her about him. Since she had learnt of his involvement of the Uchiha clan's fall.

"It truly is a lovely clear night," Kiyoshi continued her hand still on her katana, she made sure her tanto's strapped to her upper thighs just in case. "A lovely night to get rid of rotten roots, and treacherous bastards. Danzo, are you ready to die?"

"As if you can kill me," Danzo said while taking the bandages off his eye, showing her something that made her blood boil. She was sure his arm would be worse, they belonged to one of her cousins but she knew who's eyes he wished his had. "You'll be under my control soon enough."

"That doesn't work with the Nine-tails sealed away. I'd soon spend the next thousand lifetimes in Yomi than help you take another living being's free will away," Kiyoshi said. "I'm also too old for your little mind tricks, don't bother your tools to your dirty work, they're all dead."

"How do you think you can kill me? After killing a thousand man?"

So, she miscalculated the numbers of her victims, this wasn't the only base she had hit tonight. She could only guess her kill count was higher than even Danzo knew. "That's why I can't stand you and Root."

"They were only to protect the Village."

"Why don't I show you a secret?" Kiyoshi asked, mentally thanking Kushina for teaching her as many seals as she could. For leaving her notes for keep teaching herself when no one was around, no one was watching her and she had do much time to herself over the years. "Don't worry. You won't be telling anyone, this is one I've hidden for years."

"You think I'll hide something from the village?"

"Of course," Kiyoshi said as she dropped her illusion and looked at him with crimson red eyes, three black comma's on her iris'. "After all, dead man tell no tales. Tell no secrets."

Sasuke

Looking at the information that he had stolen from Orochimaru, it might have been around three years out of date. But for the information that he needed, that didn't matter how old it was or when it was collected.

His family history interested him, since they had information from even the Clan War Era and now, he was getting information he hadn't know when he was young. He didn't know Mum had a miscarriage before having that man, it looked like it was the same miscarriage that would end her carrier as a shinobi.

Before she became a mother of two, it looked like she was known the 'Crow Maiden'. For both her use of crow summons, and the fact she was a sign of bad luck for those she was sent after. That she had trained that man in the same summons, years before he was born.

"Guess that's where he got it from," Sasuke whispered. When she was alive he never asked her to help train him, he'd always asked his father and that man. Now he wished he had asked when he was a child, since it looked like she was stronger than his father when she was active. She even knew some thing that Orochimaru didn't know, since they were created by her and some lady named 'Kushina'.

Kiyoshi

"Guess you were wrong," Kiyoshi whispered as the sun started to break through the horizon, she had clones sealing away everything in Danzo's rooms. It had taken her all night, but she had removed Danzo and his rotten roots. Not only that, but no one would know about his crimes. No one would suffer from the knowledge that their children had been pulled away from by something they thought would keep them safe.

That their children had been put through such hard training that even members of the ANBU unit would fail to keep up. That they had been brain-washed to the point that their own lives didn't matter anymore. Kiyoshi would never put any parent through that, no one should know that their child had been tortured like that. Let them believe that village's demon had killed them, the demon fox in human skin.

Danzo had been a hard one to kill, but it became easier once she had cut his arm off. Burning it with black flames so no one else could use her family's Kekki Genkai again. No one should be allowed to use the dead like that, use her family like that. He should be glad that it was her who saw, not Sasuke or Itachi; both would have tortured the man more than she did.

Pausing she put her illusion back on while dropping her Genjutsu, no one knew she could use. It was like her skill in sealing, the only difference was that Genjutsu wasn't her best ability even if it was at Chuunin level at best. Tsunade had promised to send a ANBU team after her, it was better for everyone for her to be seen as the village.

Even if it did take a bit of arm twisting for Tsunade to agree to her plan, it was for the safety of Kiyoshi's godfather and godmother's home, Tsunade's grandfather's dream. Now she would be like Itachi, forever on the run. No one knowing the truth until years after her death.

By then, it wouldn't matter. Kiyoshi Uzumaki would make a forgotten name in the village's history books.

"What the?" a woman asked. Her purple hair was familiar, but she knew that it wasn't Anko. No, her hair was much too long for that. Most likely, she had been one of Kushina's former students who had always given her strained smiles when she spotted her on the streets. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I was testing my strength, don't you like my present?" Kiyoshi asked while preparing to use one of the fourth's seals to get away. She wouldn't fight them if she didn't have to, Kiyoshi had killed enough people that night. "I'll give you three guesses and if you get all three wrong, I might just have to add you to my body count."

Sasuke

After reading Mikoto's, he read his father's before sealing it away. From the way the man acted, Sasuke thought he'd be stronger than he was. That he would have known more, but it turned out that wasn't the case, Mikoto was the stronger of the two and he wished he hadn't been so blind as a child.

Even back then he wouldn't have learnt much from the man, in fact, Sasuke was sure he'd learn more from Kiyoshi then from him. At least, how to pull a prank before getting away from the ANBU wearing neon orange of all colours. He didn't want to know what would happen if she started wearing black.

No, at the moment he'd keep Mikoto's and Kushina's scrolls handy. Both were strong and taught each other things. From what he read they were on the same team since they had been children, always having each others backs.

That man's scroll had surprised him. He knew he had been strong, but he didn't know that he was that strong so young. He had been a genius born once in a generation, but he had already killed one of those, even if Orochimaru was in his sixties and withering away from illness when he did, before closing that man's scroll a photo made him stop.

One of the figures was that man as a child, a young girl standing next to him with a smile on her face. She looked like Mikoto, turning the picture over, it read 'Itachi and Mina Uchiha' and 'Mina's third birthday'.

He didn't know a Mina Uchiha, but looking through as many scrolls as he could on the Uchiha Clan as it continued to rain. It looked like she was his older sister, but she hadn't been killed by that man, no she went missing during the Kyuubi attack sixteen years ago. Picking up Kiyoshi's picture from her first year at the Academy, he compared the two. Something about the shape of their faces was similar.

"Mina Uchiha, Kiyoshi Uzumaki," he said looking at their scrolls. There was a connection between the two, he had a feeling there was. But he didn't know what it was, nor did he know if he would ever find it. "Mina and Kiyoshi."