Hatake Kakashi sat on a rooftop in the morning sun, looking directly down onto the village square. He had been thinking. He had a lot of time for that now. Hell, without his team to train, missions or- he pointedly insisted to himself- Iruka, he had nothing but time. And for the first time in days he felt that he had a clue. The previous day he had taken Naruto to Ichiraku's after leaving the hospital. Determined to stuff the boy with so much ramen that at least one of them would feel better.

While he was there, half listening to Naruto's plan to make himself his favourite teacher's favourite again, he had realised something. It wasn't him.

Yes he had mastered the blood limit of the sharigan, and yes he could use it to change memories, but only the memories he knew. There was simply no way that he could have altered Iruka's memories of Naruto because he didn't know what they were. He wouldn't know where to look for them because his eye, Obito's eye, had never seen them. Genma was right, he did not and never would hurt Iruka. The realisation almost restored his sanity.

He touched the throbbing eye through his headband, it wasn't his eye. He needed information, and there was only one person in Konoha who might have the answers to his questions.

Kakashi found Sasuke in the genin training field, battling one of his own clones. But a clone made taller and older looking, like an older brother. He blasted the clone as soon as he saw his teacher. Then stood silently, some might even say insolently, waiting for his sensei to come over to him

"I thought you weren't gonna be here today."

Kakashi didn't waste the effort on a fake smile, he knew that Sasuke would see through it anyway.

"I came to talk to you, you must have heard about Iruka-sensei?"

The boy gave him a dark glare and looked at the ground.

Kakashi hadn't really expected an answer. "Did you know it was sharigan attack?"

Sasuke looked up coolly. "Did you get tired of him?"

Kakashi pointedly ignored the goading. "It wasn't me Sasuke, and I don't think it was you either."

The boy twitched and his stare intensified. There was only one other sharigan user.

The copy nin moved closer, letting Sasuke feel the danger pulsing through his chakra.

"His memory was tampered with. He doesn't remember me at all, or Naruto." He paused, letting it sink in. "Could your brother do that?"

Dark eyes darkened even more.

"How would I know what my brother can do?"

Sasuke answered flatly even while feeling the glow of a certain… satisfaction. He had never acknowledged his jealousy towards to other orphan boy over their teacher's affection. He'd told himself that he didn't need to be loved, didn't want it. But it had still rankled.

The man pushed further. "There must be some things your family knows about the sharigan that no one else does."

"I don't have any family, I thought you knew that."

There was just a little too much control in his voice.

Kakashi took a deep breath. He wasn't about to be put off now. "There must be records of some kind, surely?"

Sasuke stared down the copy-nin. He had no business asking questions, dragging up old pain.

Then something inside him gave in and he blinked. If Itachi was involved then he needed to know about it. He didn't care what his brother was doing, what nasty intrigues he was caught up in, but knowledge was power and his revenge would demand all the power he could get.

"Memory masters, they're called memory masters. I read it in the family archives. Some Uchihas had an advanced ability, they had a way of using sharigan hypnosis to see into memories. I mean really see, everything. They could make people remember anything, even if they'd totally repressed it, or they could seal away memories completely, forever."

Kakashi's heart sank. To break the seal, to get the old Iruka back, he might have to make a deal with the enemy. He wondered if Tsunade knew that too.

"Could your brother be a memory master?"

Sasuke thought for a moment.

"It's not very likely. It's a bloodline skill, there've never been any in my branch of the Uchiha clan."

Kakashi ran his fingers through his hair and scratched the back of his head. "Then there must be another sharigan user out there, and when I find him I'll kill him."

"Hmm." Sasuke grunted, eyes fixed on the ground. His rare moment of sharing seemed to be over.

But then he stared up at the man next to him wide eyed, and suddenly he looked like the child that he should have been and never was.

"It's a curse you know, the eye. My clan's curse, worse than this one." He touched the side of his neck. "You should get rid of it. You have a choice."

"What?"

Even the cool copy nin was shaken.

"It was a gift from my dearest friend, it's my greatest strength.

Sasuke looked away. "Gift, curse, they're the same. Like the two sides of a coin. It just depends who's using it and why. You think it makes you strong but it makes you weak too."

He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Just hope you don't meet someone who knows how use it against you."

Kakashi put his hands on his student's shoulders and bent down to his level, forcing the boy to look at him.

"Sasuke, are you trying to tell me something?"

But the brief flash of innocence had gone from his eyes.

"No, nothing. It doesn't matter. It's just… just, remember what the sharigan did to my family."

Sasuke wriggled out of the grip then walked away. He didn't hurry but he didn't hesitate either, as if that was exactly what he had intended to do all along.

Finally Kakashi had a clear course of action. Well not exactly clear, but he did know that he had to find this so-called memory master and find out how to break the seal on Iruka's memories. It wouldn't be easy, in fact it might be damn near impossible while he was still forbidden to leave the village. He was still being watched much too closely and he couldn't risk incriminating himself or he would loose the freedom he still had. Then he'd be really screwed. Shit! Was there someone who would be willing to search for the sharigan user for him? Someone he could trust completely?

Lucky chance. He saw a man coming towards him on the long narrow street. Too far away for him to feel his chakra, but there was only one shinobi in Konoha who walked with that provocative graceful saunter. Genma-san, he would be perfect. And he was reckless enough and fond enough of Iruka to take the risk. Kakashi quickened his pace towards him.

Suddenly the man ahead stopped and stooped down, as if picking something up off the ground. As he bent down Kakashi noticed that Genma's hair looked unusually pale, even allowing for the glare of the bright midday sun. At the same time the figure seemed smaller and slighter than it should be, although the distance made it hard to judge. As Kakashi was wondering who else it could be, the man froze and turned towards him slowly. Had he just noticed the copy nin's attention? Moving as if suddenly jolted into action he tossed the object he had picked up onto the side of the road and vanished.

In a few seconds Kakashi covered the ground to where the man had been standing. There were no lingering traces of chakra in the air, suspicious in itself for someone in their home village. He looked around for the discarded object.

"What do you have there?" A voice said behind him as he picked it up.

He didn't need to turn to know who it was. "Dead snake Ibiki-san." He said offering it to him.

The interrogation expert took it as if it was a length of rope. He fingered the walnut sized crater in the centre of its head.

"Looks like it was killed by boys throwing stones." He suggested handing it back.

"You don't think it's significant do you? You know 'graves and snakes'."

The grin on Ibiki's face looked so out of place that Kakashi backed up a step.

"Hatake-san, I'm reasonably sure that Iruka-sensei wasn't attacked by a dead snake."

Kakashi ignored the put-down, his mind was working double time trying to fit the puzzle pieces together.

"There was a man too, didn't you see him?"

Ibiki's expression turned to ice.

"Itachi?"

kakashi shook his head thoughtfully.

"No, not an Uchiha. Blond."

Ibiki looked around then pointed out a small bar on the next corner. "Let's sit down and you can tell me about it.

The tiny bar had to be the most unpleasant in the village. But it was empty, dark and therefore private. The acrid smell in the air was made up of equal parts sake, stale smoke and vomit. Half groping through the gloom, they found the most isolated table, in a corner at the back and sat down. With a small cringe Kakshi noticed that the light shade over the dim bulb above them was so dirty that it looked as if it was covered in brown fur.

By the time the tea Ibiki had ordered arrived, kakshi had described the man he had seen in as much detail as possible. He hoped this would count as an official report and spare him a trip to the mission room. That place held too many memories right now.

He stared at the teacup that was placed in front of him, there was no way he was even touching anything in a place like this. Torture must have dulled the other man's senses however, or strengthened his stomach. Ibiki picked up his cup and sipped the dull liquid indifferently.

"Think he was from sound?" Kakashi asked.

Ibiki shrugged.

"Seems an obvious guess. But who, and why, and how the hell did he get in past the gate?"

Kakashi nudged his headband up a fraction of an inch and leaned back so that he could see with both eyes.

"What have you found out about the other sharigan attacks?"

The interrogator's lack of reaction told him all he needed to know.

"Same pattern. Beaten, no memory of it. Two before Iruka and two more since. All of them screaming about the kyuubi. The whole village is on edge, it would only take one of them running around to start a panic."

The sharigan flared slightly. Kakashi leaned forward to cover it before it gave him away, bristling with indignation. Two since Iruka. Fuck, then they had to know he was innocent. Had the ANBU shadows gone? Had he been too busy going through hell to notice?

"And you didn't think to tell me this?"

The big man slowly finished his tea.

"You didn't need to know."

Kakashi was on his feet in an instant.

Ibiki's hand was on his sleeve almost as fast.

Gripping the fabric tightly, he spoke quietly but pointedly, with something in his voice that Kakashi had never heard from him before. It might almost be kindness.

"I do care you know. About Iruka, the village, hell even about you. I do what I do to protect them. Just like you do."

Some of the tension left the Kakashi's body. Ibiki noticed and relaxed slightly too.

"Sit down, I want to ask you about the Uchiha kid's seal."

In the copy nin's mind two of the puzzle pieces came together, but they still didn't fit. Sasuke had Uchiha eyes and Orochimaru's curse. But the boy didn't have the control to hurt the teacher, not like that. And he'd sealed the curse himself.

He sat back down and looked across at the scarred face.

"I saw him today, he seemed fine. Well at least the seal seemed fine, I didn't notice anything wrong."

What would it take to break it?

At least this was a question Kakashi knew the answer to.

"Like any seal it can be overcome by strong enough emotions. Any emotion will do it, it's the power that counts.

"Then with that cold little bastard were probably safe." Ibiki ended the sentence with something between a smirk and a sneer.

This time, when Kakashi stood to leave, he let him.

Kakashi stood outside the bar, breathing deeply to purge the foul air out of his lungs.

He should check Sasuke's seal and make sure that it wasn't showing any strain.

He should see Naruto and warn him about the mood in the village.

He should see the Hokage and demand to know what the hell was going on.

He should find Genma and find out what was happening with Sound.

His feet turned towards the hospital.