Apologies for yesterday's false update – I was trying to fix something in the first chapter and accidentally uploaded it as a new one.
But, here's chapter two.

Thank you very much for your kind reviews, they're truly inspiring!

Chapter 2. Partners in Crime

A few hours earlier…

The first thing Sasuke found quite strange as he approached Land of Fire was a very long line of people that started about a mile away from the border. Or, to be precise, a massive crowd spreading chaotically between countless caravans and tents placed all over the territory near the border checkpoint. So, pulling the hood of his cloak on more tightly, he squinted a bit, studying the environment carefully.

Apparently, the numerous shinobi that were now tightly guarding the large gate far ahead of him were not letting anyone through. Every now and then a bunch of people would get escorted to the other side, but for the most part, everyone was just waiting. Some of them were sitting inside tents, others were just settled on the ground, and a few of them were napping in their sleeping bags. In other words, the border was pretty much closed. And the Uchiha had no slightest idea why – in fact, he couldn't recall a single time it had happened in the past, making it even more confusing.

As he walked past countless people, commoners and ninjas alike apparently waiting for their turn to be allowed to get in, he tried to focus on what he was hearing around. And they all were speaking a lot, so it wasn't a very difficult thing to do.

"...I wonder if it's ever gonna end… this doesn't make any sense!"

"To think they'd shut the borders completely like that over something nobody even understands! Hmpf, what a bunch of idiots…"

"Well, that's politicians for ya, they act before they think all the time, duh…"

"Hey, be fair at least, all of the great nations did the same thing!"

"Yeah, but it's been like that for what? Weeks now? Did it help shit? Nah! They just–"

Sasuke frowned. So, the borders were indeed closed, and it wasn't a temporary thing. Just what on earth was happening?

He paused next to a group of Sunagakure shinobi who were having a rather quiet discussion amongst themselves, not paying enough attention to notice him or any other bystander.

"That's ridiculous, man! Isn't Konoha our closest ally? They should at least give us the pass, not like we came here for a shitty chat, this is important," drawled one of them bitterly.

"Well, Midori, we aren't a diplomatic group either. And knowing how severe the situation is with the epidemic, you should respect these precautions. Do you want to get infected? Doubt it," said the tall man who was apparently in charge of their group, looking at his subordinate with a very strict face…

The Uchiha's mismatched eyes widened under the hood. Infected? Now that he didn't like at all. Was there a plague outbreak? The last case he'd heard about had happened way prior to his birth, and even that one hadn't caused such havoc as far as he knew.

"Nah, but is it even a disease? Who the hell knows what it is?" The kunoichi named Midori rolled her eyes, putting her hands on her sides and sighing impatiently. "All we really know is that some people lose their ability to regenerate chakra, and the science nerds say it's a permanent thing, but we don't even know that for sure, and–"

"Well, I'll ask you again: do you wish to become one of these people?" their commander interrupted her, beginning to sound aggravated as well.

"Seriously, Midori-chan, it's better to be safe than sorry," said another kunoichi carefully, putting her hand on Midori's shoulder apologetically.

"Meh!" The other kunoichi rolled her eyes, glancing in Sasuke's direction but not recognizing him as he was just casually leaning on the fence a dozen yards away from them, looking away yet listening carefully. "I just don't like how stupid the whole thing is and how clueless we are. All these big decisions like closing the borders are hurting our countries even more, and we're already ears deep in shit as we are. Chakra or not, gotta make some money to keep our bellies full, y'know?"

"I know just as much as you do, Midori. This is the whole purpose of our mission – to keep some connection channels between Suna and Konoha functioning despite all this mess. The trade must continue, or else we're all doomed."

"Right, right, but still–"

Deciding that he'd heard enough, Sasuke moved past them, slowly approaching the gate. None of it sounded reassuring. It turned out Konoha was indeed in trouble, and not just his village – every major one as well. Perhaps he was actually coming back just in time, he thought. But in order to help the situation in any way, first of all he had to speak with Kakashi and Naruto as soon as possible. From how things appeared to be so far, the Uchiha wasn't even sure if there was anything he could do. But, his presence certainly wouldn't hurt anybody in these circumstances – after all, things seemed to be far from being nice and peaceful these days.

"Back off! Back off, follow the queue, kid!" the chubby shinobi at the gate barked as Sasuke came close. He looked to be in his late forties, wearing the Leaf's headband and being clearly out of shape, and his rank was definitely not above genin. In other words, just a regular worker rather than a serious security force. And the others around him appeared to be in the same league.

They were just keeping the crowd away, this obviously wasn't supposed to be a serious defense force in case of an invasion. And at least in this part, Sasuke found it somewhat relieving – they weren't expecting an open attack. Then again, the Uchiha didn't know if there were more fortifications within the country itself which remained to be seen.

"I need to get in. This is urgent," said Sasuke, coming close to the guards.

The other people who were trying to get inside were now getting agitated as well, insulting the Uchiha and repeating what the Konoha shinobi had told him in meaner ways.

"We've been here for days, go back and wait in the queue like everyone else!" screamed a woman with an infant in her hands.

"Who do you think you are?!" yelled someone else from another side of the road.

"Hey, I told you to back off! You're causing a commotion here now," the gatekeeper said, looking at Sasuke sternly. Even though he was obviously angry, you could tell that the man was extremely tired as well and he just wanted to keep everything in order. Unfortunately, there clearly weren't a lot of personnel available to make sure the guards had equal shifts. As such, most of the shinobi here were probably doing double and overtime shifts.

However, the gatekeeper did take note that somehow this young man standing in front of him was a bit different from the rest of the rabble that was trying to pass the border, and only that did motivate him to go the extra mile.

"Please, we understand everyone currently has 'urgent' business inside the country, but we cannot forego official procedures for entry. Lately we have been getting increasing numbers of cases where people are afflicted with this... whatever this is," added the aged genin, looking at the crowd behind Sasuke's back. "Lots of refugees too."

"I'm a Leaf's ninja," said the Uchiha quietly, though unsure if he even could call himself one at this point. Back when he'd just left the village four years ago, he'd been pardoned for his crimes, but he hadn't bothered to ask Kakashi about his current rank, if he had one at all.

"Yeah, there's plenty of ours in this camp too. Unfortunately, these rules apply to everyone. Sorry, we can't do anything about it. Hokage's orders." The guard shrugged, leaning on the gate – there didn't seem to be anyone they would have to let in at the moment.

"I've been away for some time. What exactly is the cause of this?" asked Sasuke calmly. Obviously, he knew he could just break in by force, but he didn't think it would be a wise thing to do without having a full understanding of the situation at least.

The chubby ninja smirked nervously.

"Eh, where the hell have you been then? On the moon?"

"Well, kid, it's kinda a tricky question to answer," said the other Leaf ninja who'd been quiet until now, stepping closer to them. "It started a few months ago, nobody knows exactly why and where it came from. Hell, no one even knows what it is. But for whatever reason, people all over the continent began to lose their ability to regenerate chakra. Like, they just wake one morning and figure they don't have any left. Strange, isn't it?"

Sasuke frowned. That indeed sounded very strange to say the least. He didn't even know what could possibly cause it to happen. It was common knowledge that chakra was a replenishable energy generated by any living body. Sure, some of them could generate and utilize relatively a lot while most normal people barely had any, but this principle of regeneration was universal. What made this alleged disease even worse was the fact that once a person spent all of their chakra, they died. This was another piece of textbook information available to any genin. And to be unable to restore it at all…

"Does it affect everyone or just some people? How exactly does it spread?" asked the Uchiha, looking at the other man.

"Wish I could tell ya. We only know that apparently anyone can be affected. Some people are fine today, and then tomorrow they'll wake up as empty as they went to sleep. Officials believe it's some sort of infection, but eh, who really knows? Not us for sure." The second guard shrugged, a nervous laughter escaping his mouth.

"I see. How long would it take for me to get through?" In truth, Sasuke didn't really see anything yet. This was just as confusing to him as it was to the hapless couple of genin in front of him. Still he knew what he needed to do, and wasting his time here wouldn't help his cause.

"Your destination is Konoha, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Then I'm afraid it would take at least a full week. Could actually be more, but not much longer than that. There's a similar control post at the village's entrance, though, so you know…"

"Thanks."

The Uchiha turned around and began to walk away, gritting his teeth in irritation. As far as he felt, his chakra was completely fine, but then again, he hadn't used it in quite some time. Perhaps it would be wise to save it just in case he had this 'infection' without knowing. In other words, he had to avoid using any big moves in the meantime. So, using his Rinnegan to teleport directly to the village was probably not a sound option, just like flying over the land using his Susanō – not to mention that it would be unlikely to go unnoticed this way. Tricking a bunch of genin with his genjutsu and sneaking past them probably wouldn't be too hard, but he'd already drawn too much attention to himself – people were still glaring at him and it probably wouldn't stop anytime soon.

Thankfully, he had another option that seemed viable. So, as he distanced himself from the camp just enough, hiding behind the thick trees of the ancient forest, he bit his finger and summoned a huge hawk, jumping on top of it right away.

"Ascend as high as you can and fly directly to the village."

The bird chirped loudly and obeyed his order, instantly allowing the ninja to feel the pleasant cold breeze brushing his long dirty hair and caressing his face gently. He hadn't realized he'd missed this feeling quite a lot.

But the joy of freedom the flight was giving him didn't last for too long as a thick stream of grim thought began to fill his mind. From everything he'd seen so far, Konoha wasn't doing as great as he'd thought it would. With this mysterious chakra problem apparently spreading across the nations, it looked like the situation would only be getting worse in the foreseeable future. He wasn't sure how things were in the village itself, but if he had to guess, the situation had to be problematic at least, if not to say dire. Hopefully, his former teammates were alive and able to fill him in.

But first, he wanted to take some time to assess things on his own.

It was already well past midnight as he finally landed on top of the Hokage monument, standing now on the stone-carved head of his former master, Kakashi Hatake. The Uchiha eyed what was once his home village down below, frowning even more than he had throughout his journey over Land of Fire.

At the first glance everything really appeared to be fine. Sure, the settlement wasn't lit up as brightly at night as it had once been prior to its destruction by Pain, but it still looked very much alive. He could even see a few people roaming the streets here and there; nothing was on fire, there were no fights going on, but something didn't feel quite right as he studied the territory with his eyes.

Some of the buildings looked half-ruined, and a closer examination made it obvious that it hadn't been caused by a recent attack. Rather, they had stayed like that for some time by now, possibly months, and nobody bothered to repair them. What made it worse, these were relatively new constructions, meaning they weren't just some abandoned remnants of the old Konoha.

Another thing that caught his attention was the uncomfortably quiet atmosphere. Sure, it was night time so it wasn't supposed to be all that noisy and chaotic. And yet still, as far as he could remember, back in the years the village had been noticeably more active at any time of the day. Now, it almost seemed like people were for whatever reason scared to go outside. Maybe because of the epidemic? Did the quarantine apply to the village itself as well? The Uchiha wasn't so sure.

And finally, it was the messy state of the streets themselves. Broken boxes here and there, the dirt and dust, even some homeless people sleeping right on the sideways. None of it looked good.

Just what the hell happened here?

He jumped off, eventually descending to the square at the front of Hokage's residence. Carefully looking around, he slowly moved from one alley to another, trying to get a better understanding of the situation at hand. But to be honest, it wasn't helping him much. Nothing was happening around, so his trip across the settlement was as monotonous and depressing as it could get. So, the Uchiha was about to turn around and head straight to Kakashi's office when someone's strong yet not very big hand gripped his forearm tightly, making the shinobi freeze and activate his Sharingan at once.

Turning around to look at the person who startled him, the Uchiha was met with a stern look of a familiar face. Her light blue eyes were staring directly into his Sharingan, as she apparently figured she had nothing to fear – it was unlikely Sasuke was here to attack them. Still, Ino's grip tightened for a bit as her eyes narrowed at him.

"I knew it. It was you," said the kunoichi as she released his arm. "The village is in a sorry state at the moment, but we still make sure not to spare resources on our defenses. Tsk."

The woman closed her eyes, rubbing her temples in annoyance. Fortunately, something strange was still noticed by the watchers when Sasuke passed through the invisible chakra barrier surrounding Konoha as he landed in the village. Despite him knowing the password to go through, it was still an unusual way to enter, especially at night. So, the report about it came straight to her, which gave her some time to try and find him on her own. She sighed, now having an even more tired look.

"While you're still considered a Konoha shinobi, given your reputation you should be more careful with an unlawful and unannounced entry. Especially when the whole country is in a quarantine." Having been on her legs all night and day before, she decided to take this opportunity to relax a bit, using a nearby box as a seat. As much as Ino wanted to continue lecturing her ex-love interest, she decided to go straight to the point. "Why are you here, and why didn't you enter the country and the village through normal means?"

The question sounded a bit too demanding – Ino's job was now rubbing off on her. But in truth, that was more of her own curiosity rather than an attempt to fulfill her work responsibilities.

"Yeah… sorry," said Sasuke, though not expressing any remorse whatsoever. "I've been out of touch for some time, didn't know about the quarantine and all that." He lied, looking away for a moment as he heard someone's footsteps in the distance before returning her gaze to her tired face. "Am I in trouble?" he asked, almost sounding amused – the corners of his mouth twitched, giving away the tiniest of smiles. To him, the situation was as ridiculous and ironic as it could get. Interrogating him like that, did she seriously think she could do anything to him? He didn't want to believe she was that stupid.

And yet, while he definitely couldn't say that the Yamanaka was someone he was glad to encounter after all these years, her sullen expression as she looked at him now was rather relieving than worrying. She'd clearly overcome her past crush on him, but at the same time wasn't exactly hateful either. Besides, they had known each other for a long time, but at the same time the two of them had never been close. This was a perfectly balanced option to find out what was happening here lately by asking some questions back to her.

Ino frowned, as though reading his mind, although he knew she wasn't using any jutsu right now.

"You are trouble," she replied, taking a pause, wondering if she should attempt to take him into custody and let the Hokage office know about his return. Yes, the Uchiha was pardoned and officially there's nothing wrong with him being here, but... "You haven't answered my question. Even if you didn't know there's a quarantine, going out of your way to break it doesn't really excuse you. The meaning of the word kinda advises caution, and I doubt you hadn't heard of it on your way here. It's a hot topic everywhere."

"I flew directly to the village. Had no idea," he snapped, his face as impassive as ever.

Normally the blonde jōnin would immediately apprehend someone breaking the quarantine rules, especially if it's an ex-fugitive. But the kunoichi decided to forget about that for now. Having these conflicting feelings was only feeding into her already troubled mind. She shook her head, wiping the drop of sweat off her face. Maybe he really didn't know after all. Seeing as how the unexpected guest wasn't aware of what's going on, Ino decided to explain as much as she could.

"As you may or may not already know, there's a strange illness currently going through the Five Great nations. Although, calling it an illness is a bit of a stretch. In truth, we don't really know if it's actually a biological thing like a virus or an infection, or... If it's something else entirely. It affects only those who practice any kind of shinobi arts, basically anything that has to do with chakra release. After a few high-ranking shinobi were affected, the Shinobi Union decided to close the borders for all five Great Nations, introducing a strict quarantine." She paused, letting Sasuke take in all the information. At this point Ino relaxed a bit as she finally had an opportunity to take her mind off her job for a bit. "However, that's only half of the truth. In reality, the quarantine serves other purposes as well. I'm sure you noticed how our country and village have become... worse. As you can imagine, things didn't go so well after the war ended. Some territories were affected more than others. As such, economic and environmental issues started popping up. When this strange illness appeared, it just made things worse. I'm sure Shikamaru would be able to tell you more, but basically, we're on the verge of another war right now. And this time for a pretty basic reason – resources and further survival." The young woman finally finished, pausing to let Sasuke ask any questions if he had any. And of course, still waiting to hear an answer to her question – why he was here.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed at her ever so slightly.

"I'm sure that me peacefully walking in without permission is preferable over me wiping Konoha off the map, don't you think?" he asked in a completely casual tone. Although he had no hostile intentions whatsoever, he didn't appreciate being scolded like an academy student either. Especially not by someone like Ino Yamanaka.

"You seem to be laboring under the delusion that I ought to... What was the phrase? Play nice," he continued, "Well, I can tell you this: I decided to, for now. But I might as well change my mind." He looked into her surprisingly stoic eyes for a few seconds before deactivating his Sharingan and looking away, suggesting that they would now move on from the topic of his intrusion.

"I figured that the village wasn't doing well," he muttered. "That's exactly why I'm here. Where's Naruto? What is Kakashi up to?" He asked the questions that mattered the most to him right now. Because with how things appeared to be at this point, it certainly didn't seem like these two were fully in control of the situation even in their own village, not to mention globally.

The kunoichi eyed him for a moment, her facial expression showing a mixture of disappointment and amusement.

"Threats? Now that's the Sasuke I remember. A man of extremes." Ino let out a short laugh, shaking her head. Standing up from the box, she stretched her back muscles. There really was no point discussing this further, and if he was taken into custody, he could always use his powers to escape and no one would notice.

For a moment there she wanted to start another argument. Why would he think that his presence here could help anything and not make things worse? But then she immediately removed the thought, this time being upset at herself. As much as the Uchiha was a wildcard, having him on their side could actually affect things in a positive way, especially with a war coming. Though just as likely, things could get only worse from it.

"Naruto is currently doing errands for the Hokage office, out of the village. As much as he doesn't want to, currently he's the biggest political piece we have here in Konoha and kinda our trump card in many ways. The Sixth utilizes him in that sense. And as for what Kakashi-san himself is doing..." Ino crossed her arms on her chest, thinking of the best way to formulate her thoughts. "He's doing everything he can to make sure the village doesn't fall apart." She finally said, deciding to be diplomatic. In truth, knowing what she knew about the deep state of the village, combined with the bits of information she managed to get from Shikamaru every now and then, the kunoichi didn't really know what was going on in Hokage's head at the moment. Some of his recent decisions made no sense to her. Sure, every hidden village was in a crisis those days, but sometimes the orders Kakashi issued hurt a lot more than they helped.

"Naruto should be back in Konoha this afternoon, and Kakashi-san is held up in the Hokage's office. But in all honesty, he's not the only one making decisions for the village right now. Due to how bad everything is, we had the opportunistic old men of the Hyūga clan reach for power in some areas. To be fair, I think they may actually be more helpful than Sixth in some sense."

Sasuke remained silent for a while, weighing out what she was telling him. It didn't escape his eye that Ino wasn't very pleased with whatever policies Kakashi was sticking to as the Hokage, yet she was apparently still loyal enough not to express much of it. Though maybe it was just because she knew Sasuke was his former student, and she had no reason to trust him either – the Uchiha wasn't exactly sure. On top of that, It was pretty hard to imagine Naruto acting like a political figure. But then again, that's what their version of Hokage was meant to be anyway, so the Uchiha figured he shouldn't be too surprised. The latter part of her explanation, however, was puzzling.

The Hyūga clan. He wasn't particularly familiar with them, frankly. Sure, he knew some basic things about them, and he also knew they'd had a certain political role in Konoha back in the years. But with the Uchiha and Senju still in power, that role had to be minor and they hardly had any influence before. Was that changing now, with the stronger clans having gone extinct? Well, that would only be natural and predictable. But something in Ino's tone made him feel uneasy about it.

"Reach out for power?" he finally said, "The way you're saying it makes it sound like they control the village nowadays," he reasoned, frowning. Again, back in his childhood he'd never heard of any kind of significant rivalry between them and the Uchiha clan. And yet, remembering how arrogant and snobbish they usually came off as… Somehow, he was pretty sure they wouldn't appreciate someone like him, a relic of their former superiors, coming out of the shadows all of sudden and interfering with their goals, whatever they could be. "Who is in charge in the clan? I'd like a word with them too," he added, returning his eyes to Ino.

"Yeah. I don't know where you've been these few years, but the time when everyone was aligned with a single goal and loyalty to the Kage is over. Not just here in Konoha – everywhere. The Hokage's office has to play nice with anyone who has power and resources, and that is the Hyūga clan here in the village." Ino paused, wondering if she was saying too much. Fortunately, due to her position she had managed to avoid the now mandatory cursed seal for all Intelligence Division workers. The same one that had been used by Danzō in the past for his ANBU Root shinobi.

"As for the current head of the clan, that would be Hiashi – Hinata's father. Though you probably don't even remember her." She smirked, but then her eyes widened a bit. Mentioning her name made Ino think of something else entirely. And although the thought felt completely absurd to her right now…

"Having a word with him won't be that simple, however," she continued carefully, looking at her former classmate. "I know you go where you please, but barging into the Hyūga enclave would have dire consequences for the village and probably for yourself too. Yes, as bad as things are – they can get worse. But!" Suddenly the young kunoichi smiled and clapped her hands enthusiastically. "It's your lucky day, Uchiha-sama..." she stretched the last word with a teasing tone. "I can arrange an audience with Hiashi-san, or a secret meeting if that's more up your alley... However, I'm gonna ask you for a favor in return."

Ino was now grinning. Taking her mind off her job really did wonders, as she now sounded more upbeat and her body language became more animated too, resembling her old self now more than ever.

It wasn't noticeable in the twilight of the early morning, but Sasuke's face paled just a little bit at the tone of hers. He didn't like it. He really didn't like the way she was sounding now. It both reminded him of a more childish version of the girl as well as something way less innocent he could feel was going on in her head. She was already scheming and trying to manipulate him, and she was doing it quite blatantly. Still he decided to hear her out – whatever it was, it couldn't be too hard for someone like him to deal with.

"Oh yeah? And what kind of favor is that?" he asked, peering at her searchingly. On top of everything else, he wasn't very pleased with what she'd said prior either. To him it all sounded like Konoha was quickly turning into some sort of an oligarchic shit hole where money and power were the only two things that mattered.

Then again… Has it really ever been any different? He wondered grimly. All these pompous ideological tirades of the likes of Naruto and Hashirama Senju… Maybe it'd always been just a facade their underlings merely used to feast on their leaders' dreams for their own selfish goals? In that case, had the Uchiha himself been all that wrong back when he'd wished to crush this failing system? Not like his teammates had managed to reform it into something better anyway…

"Come on now," she drawled playfully, nudging him with her elbow. "You know how it works. Accept the terms, and then we talk details.'' Honestly, the young woman didn't expect him to play along. She was a bit surprised, but pleased at the same time. "Well, what do you say, we have a deal?" She leaned closer to him. She felt herself becoming a bit too eager about this, but the kunoichi couldn't help it. On the one hand this would greatly help with the problem she and her friends were facing, but on the other hand... Something less noble in her just wanted to see everyone's reaction if Sasuke actually agreed to do this. If one wouldn't know better, they could say it was a sort of sadistic curiosity on her part.

"Sure, we have a deal," he said in a pretentiously nice tone. Naturally, there was no need to explain that he would just get out of said deal if he wouldn't like the conditions.

"Excellent! I hope you're a true man of your word, Sasuke-kun." She grinned slyly once again. Ino decided not to let out all the details just yet as this would assure he would go through with it and wouldn't be able to back down at the last moment.

"Long story short, you will need to be in a certain place at a certain time and make sure you're under a transformation jutsu. Not much more than that, really. By the way, why don't you do the latter part now? So that we make sure you stay incognito. Oh, and try to mask your chakra print as well. Wouldn't want anyone knowing it's you under that transformation."

Sasuke sighed, raising his only hand and forming a seal of transformation. With a silent poof, he turned into a slightly older-looking bearded man with short brown hair and a deep, ugly scar crossing his left eye that was now covered with an eye-patch. After all, he didn't want his Rinnegan to be shown to anyone in case he'd have to use any of its abilities which he knew might break the illusion inadvertently. His clothes remained the same though, making the ninja look like a homeless middle-aged wanderer – he figured it would be a perfect cover as someone Ino could've arrested in the streets.

"Now what?" he said in a stranger's deep voice, looking at her.

The blonde jōnin smirked and grabbed his arm, and they both started to walk out of the back alley.

"All in due time, my partner in crime." She said with a very serious face, making it sound even more ridiculous than it already was. Sasuke could tell she was clearly having fun right now. "First things first, let's find my assistant, he should be somewhere nearby. He'll escort you to one of our apartments we use for surveillance. You can get cleaned up there and rest 'till the evening."

The Uchiha didn't say anything, just walking along the young woman and noticing that the sky was already beginning to brighten as the morning was coming upon Konoha. He wasn't sure what he was getting himself into, but the idea of getting a place to catch a breath and rest for a while suddenly didn't sound all that bad.