First of all, I am so sorry for going missing. This chapter was supposed to be up before September but I didn't finish it. Then real life stuff kicked in, so to adjust for it, I took a break from this site. I had finally finished this during the winter break, so here it is.
Anyway, it's been a long time, a summary of the previous chapter: Danzo happened and stirred up craps for Maiko. Lots of truths were uncovered, the stress was overwhelming, emotions were running high. Maiko finally convinced the Hokage to do something providing that she would present proof that Danzo really did take Shisui's eye, and the Hokage convinced her to stay put for a moment and deal with Root first. That was seven in the morning, and this chapter was the rest of that crappy day.
Thank you all for the reviews and messages during my time of absence. I will definitely respond to those as much as I can for the next couple of days.
Beta'd by Alice J.
Chapter 41 - Trailblazer
"Okay, I know I've said it multiple times, but your priority is to protect yourselves. Upon the slightest sign of danger, go back to your dimension. Of course, I will be on the lookout as well, but when I give even the slightest sign, I really mean it," I said to the wolves loping beside me. Despite my emphasis on the word 'slightest' multiple times, all I got was a chuckle and a snort.
"Don't worry, we understand," Fuyuki reassured me, "we are the ones who finalised the plan with you, we understand the risks."
"I know, it's just that I don't want to leave you two with just …" I waved at myself "... this."
"But your other plan is idiotic. This is much better," Zansetsu cut in mercilessly. After a sigh from me and yet another chuckle from Fuyuki, he added, "we are not just your average fighters. We are summoning creatures that transcend time and space, and a good general should be efficient and comfortable with deploying her troops in the way that maximises all their abilities."
I nodded, knowing that it was the end of the discussion and he would chew my ears off if I blabbed any further.
It wasn't long before we took a turn and ventured into the western forest. I scanned the scenery in front of me: sparse seedlings popped up from the rather bare ground with wild grasses and low shrubs adorned the fields here and there. Immediately, I knew that this used to be a well-kept field, but was abandoned years ago and was left to its own pace of natural succession.
"Is this it?" Fuyuki asked quietly as she trotted next to me.
I looked down at the crooked square that was hidden among the grassland. A moment later, I raised my head and turned to my surroundings. Despite the covers of the wild plants, I could see signs of traps, all rusted and defused. Eventually, I responded, "Yeah, this is it."
"It could be nothing or it could be something, but either way, we've got nothing better," I said as I bent down to examine the entrance to the darkest operation in this village which was supposed to have been swept clean years ago.
I fished out an explosive tag from my pocket and pasted it on the lock. "Scatter," I warned before all of us flickered away and the bomb ignited.
The metal cover was blown off immediately and landed a few metres away from the hole. A moment later, we all converged back at the entrance, staring into the black hole below with uncertainty.
Then, without wasting another second, I jumped down.
"Oh look, they have a freaking bridge in an underground base. Why do I feel like they have more funding than Anbu?" I asked - not to anyone in particular - as I landed on the said bridge.
"Smell anything alive in here?" I asked my summons as I leaned on the bridge railings. There were five underground stories beneath, the size comparable to half of an Anbu base. It was amazing that they had managed to keep this alive underneath the bright appearance of a village I had lived in for fifteen years.
"Not currently, but the human scent is stale and faint, I would say about three days to a week old." Fuyuki's words made me snap my head up.
"Only three days? This place should have been abandoned for years, no one should have access to this place."
"Not according to my nose."
This time, I let out a laugh. It wasn't the best news in the world since it couldn't prove anything other than the fact that Danzō's Root had been here long past their expiration date. It wasn't useful, but it was reassuring to me.
No one could say what this … chaos I had determined to stir up would lead to, but for better or worse, things could not remain as they were. This rotten core had remained underground for too long and it was still expanding. Things needed to change and I was at least trying to change it.
Suddenly, I felt the floor beneath me shaking and immediately, I looked around for the source of the quake. Zansetsu howled ferociously and landed beside me with a thud. His claws were stretched, muscles flexed, and armours readied.
"They took the bait," he growled through gritted teeth. Immediately after that, a wall was blown open one level down, hurling chunks of metal right at us.
Wasting no time, I took out a kunai and hooked it around my finger. Before the smoke even cleared, I deflected a dozen shurikens as I took a few steps back to somewhere more stable than an old railing - only to discover that it wasn't very stable after all since three kunai wrapped with those familiar explosive tags landed right in the middle of the bridge.
"Fall back!" I yelled as I flickered to the end of the bridge. The blast flung me off the solid ground but fortunately, my landing was cushioned by a wall of warm soft furs. As I shook my head clear of the ringing sound from the explosion, I grasped onto the fur and adjusted myself to sit on Fuyuki's back. When I refocused my eyes again, the mid-section of the bridge was gone.
"Do you hear that?" Fuyuki whispered to me and like she said, I could still hear a series of rumbling sounds even though there were no visible blasts occurring. I pulled myself further up on her back and saw just in time that six people were running on the narrow corridor hanging off of each underground level. But they weren't coming at us; they were moving away, basically ignoring our existence.
They didn't take the bait. I'm not the one they want right now.
"They are disconnecting all the exits in this place," I muttered as I connected the dots. They were collapsing and sealing off all the openings whether in or out of this place. Finally, Root had decided to come back and finish what they were supposed to do years ago and it wasn't because the Hokage had ordered them to do so.
"Stop them if you can, but the discussed plan is still on," I ordered as a series of faraway explosions still resonated in the background. Quickly, I got off of Fuyuki's back and jumped onto the railing, eyeing the trail of six who had scattered on the levels below us.
You're not the only one with explosives, I thought as I shot a paper wrapped kunai, and it was successful in halting two of the black-cladded people. Without a second thought, I jumped down to the level below and landed on a roll.
Before I could even get up, the metallic flash I saw reminded me to whip the kunai straight up until it met with the tantō, leaving a scratching noise and a trail of sparks. I guided the tantō an inch to the left and let it strike the ground.
I reached out immediately, grabbing his wrist, pulled him down, and flipped him over. I got up as the Root agent landed on his back. Before I could make a further move, I could see, as if in slow motion, a thin wire reaching over my head, descending down to my neck.
I grabbed the wire with my hand, a sudden wave of irritation going through me. Ignoring the sharp string that was cutting into my gloves all the way to my flesh, I sent a jolt down my fingertips. The tension on the string lessoned, so I plunged the kunai behind me.
The feeling of pushing a blade into someone's flesh came a moment later. Before I could push it deeper, the figure behind me dropped the wire and flickered away. Now, I had a strong suspicion that the agent ran away not to escape the kunai but more to get out of the way of the fireball flying towards us.
With no hesitation, I grabbed onto the railing and swang down to the level below. Imagine the pleasant surprise when I managed to kick another agent in the chest and landed on Zansetsu.
"You better be following the plan if you have the nerve to stand on my back," Zansetsu warned as I bend down and smoothly inserted my blood-stained kunai into one of the holsters connected to a belt hidden inside of his armour.
"Of course," I muttered as I pulled out another kunai and launched myself upwards again to catch the person who shot a fireball at me.
Fuyuki was doing a fine job of delaying the advancement of the other agents, but that was all she could do. There were limited rocky materials inside of this base and since we still had no idea where they were heading, all they had to do was scatter to evade.
Meanwhile, I was this close to driving a kunai into someone's flesh. The strike of the elbow, then a duck and turn, followed by an upward swing of the kunai. The blade drew blood, I could smell it. However, the puff of smoke signalled the activation of a replacement jutsu. It was an instinctive hunch coupled with the sight of an ink-filled paper that forced me to react before my brain even fully registered the action.
I jumped off the railing using as much strength as I could while the blast chased me from behind. What followed was a three-stories-tall free fall before I managed to stick a shuriken tied with ninja wire between the railings two stories above me.
I formed a half tiger seal in a rush and managed to send off a grand fireball, but in less than a second, I felt the wire in my hand suddenly snap, cut by a projectile. The second free fall didn't last very long since I was picked up mid-air by Zansetsu before we landed on the bottommost level. Let's just say that his legs were more suitable for crash landings than my bones would ever be.
As I was sliding another used kunai into his hidden holster, I looked up and saw the aftermath of my fireball. It had crashed behind three agents who had been giving Fuyuki a hard time as she struggled to deal with them. The crash gave her just enough breathing room to disengage herself. I could see one of her paws being covered in blood, but probably not hers, given that one agent who had already gotten way past her had a nasty slash down his or her stomach. In fact, the bloodied agent opened a door hidden in the stone wall as all the others converged to that location from the left, up, and below.
He whispered: "Fuyuki's got one, I've got another. Now you just need two more, shouldn't take very long."
Good, because I can't do this for very long, I thought as I whistled, successfully catching Fuyuki's attention. She caught my eyes for a second before promptly disappearing. At the same time, Zansetsu jumped into the air and threw me off of his back, propelling me towards the two who had not gained any torn clothes or bloodied cuts.
I landed on the railing, ducking instantly before I could even secure my footing. The blade that sailed over my head took a sharp turn and almost sliced my hand off. Ignoring the unsteadiness, I reached out, grabbed the agent's wrist and slammed it on the railing.
I could hear the crunching sound of the bones breaking in the background as I threw the kunai aimed at the agent's chest but it was dodged swiftly. Just as the projectile scratched his skin and embedded itself on the wall, I held tight onto the railing and kneed him in the face with as much strength as possible.
Half of his body was hanging over the railing by the kick. Before he could gain his balance again, I landed on the ground and aimed a spinning kick at his neck, sending him tumbling over the railing.
I didn't have much time to celebrate the victory because I had to take a few steps back to lessen the blow when the other agent caught up and started to hack at me with a tantō. Immediately, I whipped out another kunai and started defending myself.
It was going well, I could see an opening right after I landed a good kick on the agent's rib. The problem came after when the previous one that I had kicked off the railing suddenly appeared like some kind of giant bird as he ascended while shooting wired shuriken at me.
A few were deflected, but half a dozen followed as they flew in front of my face, torso, legs as well as behind before getting stuck in the wall on my right. The wires were weaved through the iron bars making up the railings so when the agent ran away, he was also pulling the wires taut.
The web of wires was stretched in front of me and behind, trapping me in a cage where the glistening lines were sharper than they looked.
My priority was redirected again when I felt the chilling wind as a sharp blade penetrated the web. I raised my kunai to halt the blade that was dangerously approaching close to my eyes. Straightaway, I reached out with my other hand and slapped down on the agent's sword grip and pushed it right onto one of the wires.
I slid his wrist across the wire with brute force, leaving a trail of dripping blood on the silver wire. Though, props to the agent who ignored the pain and kicked me instead, forcing me to let go and defend myself.
I braced the kick with my arm guards, but my arms still felt like they could snap at any moment. However, it seemed like the agent didn't feel like hanging out with me because he flickered away at the first chance. Since Zansetsu had ditched the agents he was holding up in order to come to my aid, all of them except the one I was holding up disappeared into the exit.
Catching the moment when the agent's back was facing me, I pulled my bloodied kunai out of the wall and swiped another clean kunai on the section of wire covered in blood. I threw the kunai at Zansetsu who turned his body and allowed the kunai to slip through his armour. With a poof, he was gone. His job was done.
When I turned my attention to the exit again, I was just in time to see the blank mask that turned to face me one last time. An explosive tag landed next to my feet before the last agent disappeared.
Well, that could have ended in a more pleasant way―bam!
The remaining feeling of being blown apart vibrated throughout my body. Instinctively, I grabbed onto the closest thing next to me - the rim of a cardboard box - to calm myself as I gasped for air and for a sense of reality.
I closed my eyes for a long time as I regained my composure and when I opened my eyes again, I found myself facing a pair of eyes filled with concern and scrutiny.
"I know that reaction. Where were you?" Kakashi asked, not wasting a single beat.
"I was at Root's old underground base before my shadow clone was blown up." I combed my hair back with my fingers and returned my gaze back to the scroll at hand. However, Kakashi snatched away the scroll without hesitation, displeased with my attempt at brushing this conversation off as small talk.
"Fine, I was just there checking it out in hopes of finding something relevant."
"Or hoping that they would find you," he added with much disapproval.
"It's not like we have much to go on at this point. Anything is something," I defended immediately. "I confirmed that they were still using that place and today while I was taking a tour, they came to seal off any pathways, probably in hopes of disconnecting the paths from that place to other unknown locations they have."
"I couldn't stop them with just a shadow clone and two summons," I said with a hint of dejection. Before Kakashi could make another comment, I continued, "However, I did get something else."
With a light nick on my thumb, I let the summoning circle span out on the floor. A moment later, my two wolf companions stood in front of me.
"Good to see you again, we haven't seen you for a whole minute!" Fuyuki said, still playfully sarcastic despite the dripping blood on her foreclaw.
"Good to see you, too," I said, grabbing a glove from one of the dozens of card boxes and wiped the blood off of her paw along with pieces of fabrics that got caught on her claws.
"Get your things off of me." I glared at Zansetsu and proceeded to walk to him after I dropped the bloodied glove on the table made out of card boxes between Kakashi and me.
"I need an explanation. Now," Kakashi demanded, quite reasonably in this current situation.
"Remember when you said that the tracking of Root's new base was not going well because we virtually have nothing except for Ryuu? Well, I got you some blood samples and fabric from six currently active Root agents. I know that they spend most of their time out of the sun like gophers, but they've got to leave the base, even just to go out for missions." I dropped the belt with four kunai and the bloody pieces of fabric that were stuck between Zansetsu's armours in front of Kakashi. I even picked the dullest kunai with all kinds of bumps on them so the fabrics would be caught on them, even though they were horrible projectiles.
I mouthed a 'thank you' to both of my companions before they vanished again. Then, I sat down again and closed my eyes for a second to calm the dizziness from such a large drain on my chakra reserve.
"It should help, right?" I asked, staring at him hopefully.
"Yes. If these agents are active enough, I should definitely be able to find something. I'll work on these as soon as Pakkun and the pack is back from their current search. Thanks." For once, he sounded uplifting and hopeful.
"But," his tone suddenly turned harsh, "how did you recover the chakra enough to pull this off? Shadow clone, summons and god knows what else. When I checked on you two hours ago, you said you didn't even have enough for the meeting." I was hoping that discussion wouldn't turn up, but I couldn't say it wasn't expected.
I stayed silent and shifted my eyes to anywhere but his. Kakashi didn't let up, though. He scanned the room until he set his sight on the jar of opened soldier pills in the corner and just like that, I could feel mild anger leaking out of him.
"Are you out of your damn mind? You do realise that you've just had an injection of soldier pills yesterday and now you're onto another box? Your heart could have stopped right on the spot due to overdosing on these stimulants." I could tell he was containing himself so that he wouldn't punch and subsequently break the makeshift table.
After the anger, it was the mockery. "What, the rules of life and death don't apply to you? Or do you plan to compare stamina with hundreds of Root agents and see who lasts longer? Go ahead, take the easy way out." He pointed at the box of soldier pill in the corner. "I guarantee you that you won't get the chance to take the fourth dose."
I fought the urge to shrink back and forced myself to look at his furious eyes, hoping that my sincerity was clearer this way. "I won't ever do it again. My mind wasn't in the right place." I paused and added after another thought, "I'm sorry for deciding this on my own."
I must have chosen my words right because the anger faded a little. "This is never happening again, remember what you promised. The card of desperation only works this one time and truthfully, it shouldn't even be an excuse at all." I heard him saying, "like you said, we are all very busy, therefore we can't be distracted by your health complications if they could be avoided."
"Absolutely," I answered immediately.
"I'm going way too soft on you with this one, but I just can't stay angry at you given …" he said while glaring at me with a sign of warning, "Anyway, go find a medic later when the crash comes and I hope it's memorable." With that, Kakashi returned his attention to the scrolls as if they were fascinating.
Ten minutes of silence was all that I could handle before the dead air drowned me. "Anything interesting in that scroll which you are intensely staring at?" I asked, testing the waters. I could totally understand if he didn't want to talk to me but there was no point boring himself over those painfully off-topic scrolls from my family's vault.
"This is apparently your family pedigree. Unfortunately, there's nothing interesting unless you count the fact that there were many second cousin marriages," he said blandly before picking up the scroll he took from me earlier, "and this is supposedly a map to a hidden treasure buried somewhere in the Thunder Country."
"Well, the date on that one can pretty much be considered prehistoric, so if my clan didn't recover that five generations ago, then I just might consider going on a treasure hunt once I'm penniless," I muttered. Just like that, I watched Kakashi dump it in one of the boxes marked "useless".
So far, we have three boxes of scrolls. About twenty were in the 'yet to read' pile, ten in the 'useless' pile, and precisely two in the 'might be useful' pile. One was the scroll on Mangekyou Sharingan and the other was the scroll detailing the construction and layout of the Naka Shrine in addition to the basement.
Somehow I had the feeling the shrine was more a place to store all of the out-of-date materials that just wouldn't fit in the compound. It was hard to discern any value Danzō would have for these scrolls aside from the two we had picked out.
"That genjutsu with delayed activation you were talking about, perhaps Danzō learned it elsewhere and it has nothing to do with your clan. There are infinite possibilities of jutsu in this world and Konoha only knows a portion of them, it's more likely if Danzō had found it through other sources." I listened to Kakashi talk as I grabbed another scroll from the 'yet to read' box. A moment later, he did the same.
We had established that Danzō could enter the Anbu facility for a chance to cast a genjutsu on Falcon. Anbu headquarters was a place of safety for us, it granted relief for Anbu agents, psychologically and physically. We were surrounded by countless safety measures and agents we had fought alongside with. Except that now I couldn't even say for sure that I could trust all of them.
It was plausible that Falcon was being tricked, therefore allowing Danzō the opportunity to cast a genjutsu on him. However, there was still a period of a few hours where he was in a crowded bar with many shinobi in the vicinity. Concluding that everyone in there was influenced by Danzō was going a bit far even for me.
The only thing I needed to connect the dots for that incidence was his knowledge of a proper genjutsu that could stay dormant for a few hours. So far, identifying that particular jutsu had been unsuccessful.
"I'm just proposing the possibility that it was simply something that Danzō had thrown out to sidetrack us. You're already through with the Uchiha's archive on Sharingan genjutsu and if this jutsu was found elsewhere, then the Jōnin Commander can treat this as a normal investigation with proper resources. You weren't able to assess the genjutsu properly with your chakra system so fucked up, but I assure you that it was easy to dispel." Kakashi's explanation was sound, logical, and based on experience. Yet, I just couldn't shake off the feeling that I would regret leaving this matter unattended if I didn't figure this out soon.
See, what happened with Ryuu, I could understand. However, what happened to Falcon, I couldn't.
"We have already devoted a lot of time on this, and by the looks of it, it's not going to end anytime soon. We are already extremely short on staff and we have to consider the possibility that Danzō wants us to waste time on the smokescreen." I stared at the unopened scroll in my hand as I processed his reasonings. It was true that these scrolls were a pain to read. The writings were hard to read, hardly ever in chronological order, and it wasn't like each one had an abstract for the summary. However, I still proceeded to open the next scroll and laid it down flat.
"I know, but in addition to that genjutsu, I'm also concerned with what he might use against me in the future, things he could have learned from the vault," I said, quite stubbornly, I imagined. "If you need to go take care of other strings of information, I'll be fine on my own."
"No, I'll stay here for a little longer," he said without missing a heartbeat. Then, he looked at the clock. "My packs probably need another twenty minutes to finish their current run. They are more effective in handling scents than I would ever be by a hundred times. To be fair, I was just there to fight off Root."
I raised an eyebrow at that statement. He definitely did more than just scaring off the Root agents, but there was no denying that the pack could handle it much better. Canines were just more talented in the olfactory department than humans.
"However, I do want to go revisit the old Root base. The tunnels may be collapsed but I might be able to dig up something before Danzō's seals block me of any chance of going further. We may not have complete tunnels, but the accessible parts may point us in a general direction of where to look next." Upon hearing Kakashi's plan, I nodded thoughtfully. After a pause, he added, "If his base is still close to Konoha, then there are only so many locations that he could have built at while evading all detections." Well then, it looked like sleep might be a luxury for us in the next few days. Without another word, we dived into the inspection of my family scrolls.
The silence didn't last very long and this time it was on me.
"You know, I've had quite some time to think about how I got where I am before you came here and joined me on the paperwork." I suddenly spoke up after flipping through three pages of ancient clan history. "The progression of events - mainly Danzō's aggression towards me - have been insane."
"He had a use for me yesterday. He wasn't planning to kill me, but after one unsuccessful recruitment to Root, he went batshit crazy. I'm sure he tried the same with you once upon a time, did he try to destroy your reputation, freedom, and any shred of sanity you had left?" I asked.
"Not to the same degree, and definitely not in the same time frame," Kakashi answered me after a pause.
"Exactly, he didn't need to go so far. If he had just left me alone then, I certainly wasn't free enough to go find trouble with someone so deeply involved in the government." At this point, I let out a mocking laugh. "He practically forced me to discover the truth, and I'm starting to think that it wasn't just because he's sadistic and wants to watch me struggle."
"So what are you thinking now?" Kakashi asked. After a period of silence, I spoke up again.
"I'm thinking he was afraid. Afraid that if he didn't act quickly enough, something bad will happen. Something worse than the trouble I'm causing him right now." I drew in a deep breath, letting the conviction replace the uncertainty in my voice and finally said, "I think he was afraid of someone, or something, but that was not me, nor the Hokage. In fact, I think that someone is not even in the village."
"Itachi. You think he is afraid of Itachi," Kakashi concluded. Bullseye.
"When he tried to recruit me, he emphasized my revenge and repeatedly reminded me that he could help me kill Itachi. I'm pretty sure that my existence to him before yesterday was a weapon that he could pit against my brother. Look at the whole picture, before yesterday, there were only five people who knew what really happened that night of the massacre as well as the cause. Itachi was the only one not in the village; the only one he couldn't control." Maybe because I've gotten a bit more excited to finally be able to string some of Danzō's possible motivations together, I stood up and started to pace the room.
"I wouldn't say that you can definitely kill him, but you do have a high probability of critically injuring him. Now, to keep up the appearance, Itachi would probably critically injure you as well, and Danzō only needs to clean up two injured Uchiha …" Suddenly, he paused and locked eyes with me. In that second, I felt like all my thoughts were exposed.
"But you already thought that part through, so what are you really considering right now?"
I sighed, knowing that nothing smelled more eager than an undying desire. "Do you think … do you think Danzō has obtained Itachi's location already?"
The air had gotten thick and still as the selfish desire broke through the facade of logic and reason.
"I don't know." That was the most honest answer I could have received. After that, he didn't tell me what I should or shouldn't do, didn't even warn me that it was a dangerous topic that could sidetrack everything we had been doing so far.
"And that's enough of me. We have plenty to deal with inside the village to be distracted by speculations." In the end, I was the one that forced myself to close the topic. Having finally remembered what I was doing before, I sat down again and started to move through the scroll.
"But, if I were the Jōnin Commander," I looked up in surprise when he suddenly spoke up, "I would tell you that the possibility of Itachi coming back has more uncertainties than the benefits at the moment. It would only serve to complicate things more than it would solve."
Oh right, Kakashi had to report back to the Hokage. He needed to relay back everything that had happened here, everything we had found, and everything we had discussed.
"I couldn't agree more. Like I said, it was merely speculations and I wasn't counting him in the equation anyway. I don't need him to save my ass, and I certainly don't have the time to sit and wait," I said, somehow feeling a bit more annoyed than I'd like to be. It was as if the thought of potentially seeing him again makes my own stomach twist in discomfort.
After that, I was determined to immerse myself in the wonderful world of 'prehistoric' Uchiha stories. It wasn't an easy job, but Kakashi didn't question anymore. It seemed that he already knew that it was one of those things where only I could figure it out. That and the fact that I would probably throw the next person who claimed that they could advise me on my family problems straight out of the window.
Twenty minutes later, Kakashi left after reuniting with his pack. I could tell he was still a bit angry but I did bring that upon myself. I promised him before that I wouldn't burn myself away recklessly, yet not even a day had passed and I had already thrown that to the back of my mind.
When it was around seven in the evening, Commander Nara finally came knocking on the door.
"He's here." Calmly, I followed him out of the storage room and locked the doors quietly.
When I returned to the Hokage's office, I saw the Hokage and the Head of the Hyūga Clan discussing something quietly. Technically, I saw 'Hyūga Hiashi' return to his compound an hour ago through the hallway window, but now, I could clearly confirm my earlier suspicion that the earlier 'him' was only a shadow clone sent home to create the outer appearance.
As soon as I walked in, the stoic Clan Head stared at me with an expression that was mixed with a lot of things. Silent judgements, disbelief, skepticism … It made me wonder to what extent the Hokage had told him about the lead-up to this event.
"You are setting foot in a dangerous place. It's not too late to back out." I turned my face slightly to see the stoic man with pearly white eyes standing beside me.
He was worried, I could tell that much. Not about me, but about the future of this village after what I had planned to do was done. Whether I won or not, the village was going to change, and he had to think about the position of his clan in this change. The only things driving him to agree to this was the Hokage's invites and the faint curiosity he had towards my outrageous claim.
"Thank you for agreeing to do this, Hyūga-dono. I am already inside the dangerous place now, so there is really no turning back," I answered and after that, the Hyūga Clan Head gave me one last look before disappearing into one of the hidden doors where the Anbu guards would normally hide behind. As soon as he was inside, it was as if his presence had disappeared. He had masked his chakra ever since I walked in, maybe even before that.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and before the Hokage could say "Come in", the door had already swung open, allowing the entrance of the second character of this whole farce.
I could feel an overwhelmingly heavy aura expanding rapidly from the Hokage, covering the room in a split second. Everyone in the room could feel it, I guaranteed it, because the air was suddenly thicker and harder to breathe in as I stood rigidly beside the Hokage's desk. Whether he was doing it to further hide the Hyūga Clan Head's presence or to prevent the two of us from breaking into a fight at first sight, it worked.
The tension finally lessened when the Hokage tapped a button on his table, activating the most expensive, complicated privacy seal in this entire village. Now, we were isolated from the outside.
"Hiruzen, you wanted to see me." He was probably the only one in this village who dared to call the Hokage by his name in the presence of others. "What is the meaning of this."
"Danzō, sometimes, enough is enough. Yesterday's mess has gone too far, farther than what can be tolerated. It was a good thing that Maiko is willing to resolve this peacefully before any more damage is done. Therefore, I asked you to come here for a compromise: let bygones be bygones." As the Hokage explained the plan with firm words, Danzō laid his eye on me with such distrust and disdain. Well, the feeling is mutual.
After a long assessment, I had no doubt that he had reached the conclusion that all of it was bullshit, at least, what the Hokage-sama had said about me. See, the nice thing about making the Hokage call the meeting was that his personality matched well with the fake topic of the meeting. Danzō, who had all the arrogance in the world, thought that he understood the Sandaime so well; that he could control him just by exploiting the Hokage's benevolence. He had every reason in the world to doubt me, but he had no reason to doubt the Hokage's intentions.
"I am under the impression that she had some very harsh opinions about me." Danzō's eye was still locked on me. This time, I was very aware of the hidden Sharingan under his bandage, staring at me, no staring through me, and it made my chest wrench in discomfort.
Try not be frazzled, try not to feel exposed, and most important of all, try not to rip his head off in front of the Hokage.
"She understands the risks and consequences, Danzō, and you should be able, too, considering you know more about the costs and benefits than anyone." The Hokage eyed both of us with harsh indifference. Danzō stayed silent for a while, not answering immediately.
Ah, now I could feel it, how unstable this balance of power was placed. The obvious case of disrespect should be a clear sign. Before, no matter how much Danzō tried to shake this scale, to test the limits, the scale would seemingly return to normal as if it was the natural equilibrium. The Hokage didn't need to do anything except to spit out a few harsh warnings. However, was it really a natural progression because the Hokage's authority was absolute, or was it because Danzō was balancing it carefully?
It took me an embarrassingly long moment to break out of my train of thoughts and to realise that everyone in the room was looking at me. Right, it was time for my act. "Prove it to me that you can follow your end of the bargain," the Hokage seemed to say; "Let's see how much you can lie," the spider seemed to mock.
"Right. Elder Shimura, from Hokage-sama, I have understood the reason of your distrust, and I assure you that what happened before won't ever happen again." Oh, polite words might not hide my hatred and spite, but at least some part of it was true. It was only until halfway to the sentence that I realised that I was shaking ever so slightly, unable to keep the calm I promised myself I would have.
Oh, why the hell not, I thought, suddenly deciding to throw in the towel. It would work better for me. This would give him the impression that I was a dog on a leash - the Hokage's leash - because I needed protection more than anything. "So like Hokage-sama said, I wish that we can put this whole misunderstanding behind us, and none of us shall hinder each other again."
I am so sorry, Mom, Dad. I am so sorry that I have to say that.
"That shall be seen. What happened to all the spunk and fire you had when you refused the arrest?" He narrowed his eye and mocked me immediately. It took all I had to not burn him into oblivion with Amaterasu. It was tempting. So damn tempting.
"Hokage-sama has talked some sense into me. Besides, Elder Shimura, I don't want to cause any trouble, for you, or for my family. So I hope that whatever has happened over the last few days can cease." I hid my fist behind my back and dug my nails into my palm so that I could finish saying the self-degrading words sprouting from my mouth. It was a lie, a disgraceful lie, an undignified lie.
From Danzō's unimpressed expression, I would say that he knew it was a lie. I hope my emotions were selling; I hope he thought this was a necessary lie forced by my situation; or a lie solicited by the Hokage for the sake of my safety and the village peace.
He didn't need to believe me, that was not the point of this meeting. The point laid behind that hidden room.
"I hope you have better acting than that. What happened to the sincerity in that apology?"
Oh, you have got to be kidding me! A part of me screamed internally. Glad to see his goal of driving me crazy and murderous hadn't changed one bit. Just go with the flow, the logical part of me chanted inside my head. This was the perfect timing, the perfect progression of rage.
I blinked, so suddenly, that it startled both Danzō and the Hokage alike. When I opened my eyes again, the tri-petaled flowers took over the dark irides. They locked so perfectly onto Danzō's slightly widened eye before the man in front of me froze immediately. Trapped, unable to harm others, so easy to kill.
So easy to kill.
"Now, Hokage-sama," I said immediately. I couldn't move my eyes because I would need all my attention on the target in front of us.
All around me, the privacy seal was suddenly released. Now, all of us were free to be surveyed. Despite the lack of any apparent motion in this room, I felt the skin-crawling sensation of being surveyed by the Byakugan so closely.
One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. Every moment felt so long. I wanted to ask so badly if he had seen it: The proof of Danzō's wrongdoing; the proof of my right to vengeance.
Vaguely, I heard a light, barely audible knock coming from the other side of the wall. Immediately, the Hokage reactivated the privacy seal and ordered me, "You can release the hold now."
I didn't.
Four seconds … five seconds … "Maiko, release the jutsu. We had a promise, and all of us are doing our part in it."
Yes, but a cooperation only works when both parties benefit. You can't blame me for not trusting you to complete your part of the bargain, because hell, I don't even know how you're going to do it.
Six seconds … and then, something snapped inside.
If one compared all the streams of chakra as strings connected throughout my body, then my web had just snapped.
Immediately, the hesitation stopped and I closed the jutsu. I whipped around so quickly until I was faced with the dark blinds covering the window. I blinked once to closed the Mangekyou and to hide that disappearing petal. My body was shaking, not of rage, but out of the feeling of illness and discomfort.
"That's enough! There's no need for this, Danzō. You got your proof, she resisted doing harm to you. You know as well as I do that her Clan's history is not the only thing that can't get out. Your actions this morning are outrageous, and I wouldn't be the only who thought that." I heard the Hokage say in the background, but with my back turned, the feeling of being scrutinized against was even more prominent.
"Calm down, Maiko," the Hokage warned.
"I am calm. Very calm," I said, biting each and every word as I turned around slowly. I was not calm, but for a very different reason than before.
I had no chakra left to do anything. I had carefully calculated my chakra expenditure so that I wouldn't be immediately exhausted after the meeting, but I ended up wasting more than I needed on Kannon Bosatsu because I had hesitated. Perhaps in hindsight, if everything worked, I would be grateful for this choice. But at this moment, I just felt angry and regretful for not doing anything when I could have.
"I do believe that this … misunderstanding can be solved. As long as you have learned your lesson from your clan's history; and from the past few days." Is that a threat? That is a threat, and I have no doubt that he means it.
"What happened yesterday won't happen again, no matter whose hand it was by. That, I assure you, Hiruzen." He glared at me, or more exactly, my eyes one more time before he nodded to the Hokage and opened the door.
My eyes followed him until he was almost out of the frame. So unexpectedly, I saw the Danzō that was just talking to me turn into a puff of smoke.
"Did you see that?" I asked lightly, not trusting my vision right now.
"He sent a shadow clone," the Hokage confirmed. This is when I pat myself for not hacking his head off earlier, I thought, it's too bad you can't just charge him for being disrespectful.
I took a few steps back until I was leaning against the wall. The 'low' of that second dose of soldier pill had hit, and I was definitely not feeling so great right now.
"Hyūga-san, I believe it's time to tell me your findings." Upon hearing the Hokage's voice after a long pause, I turned around to face the Hyūga Clan Head stepping out of the hidden cell. I managed to lock my gaze onto that pair of Byakugan, those eyes that had seen the answer to all. Tell me, I wanted to yell, tell me what you have seen. Hyūga Hiashi took a deep breath and finally, he spoke up.
"Hokage-sama, according to his post-war report, the right side of his body was greatly damaged from the right arm, up the shoulder, and all the way to his eye. Nothing should be running in those parts, and it was true up until the shoulder. However, in his right eye socket, I have indeed detected a very large amount of chakra flow, and it continued until it was abruptly stopped at the nodes in his right shoulder. It would have been impossible for chakra to pass through that tenketsu if his eye had really been damaged all those years ago like he had said, let alone this enormous amount. The chakra flow resembles Kakashi-kun's left eye. The only explanation I can think of for this unusual phenomenon was an eye transplantation. A Kekkei Genkai eye transplantation."
The Hokage leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes painfully. However, I let out a breath that I didn't even know I was holding.
Did you hear that, Shisui? Did you hear those words? After all these years; after all that you had done for me, I can finally give you justice.
Ah, I had never thought someone would get even close to Orochimaru on my personal list to kill, but apparently, Shimura Danzō just broke the record.
"Have I done enough 'convincing' for the day, Hokage-sama?" I asked lightly, waiting for an answer from the man who had promised and had the ability to give me the great support in the upcoming battle I planned to fight.
"Yes, Maiko-chan. I was wrong about Danzō, and therefore, I will take the blame for letting him commit this atrocity right before my eyes." Yes, you should. You had all the warnings, yet you never acted on it. This kind of betrayal doesn't disappear that easily, but he was not the one that I should be fighting right now.
"Hiashi, I ask you to keep this information quiet for the moment. There may come a time when I will ask you to disclose all that you've seen today to the public, so treat your memory with caution. Danzō― Shisui's Mangekyou Sharingan not only has great genjutsu powers, but it can also control others' minds." The Hokage warned the man about the dreadful abilities Danzō stole from Shisui. I wasn't sure that just by knowing about the ability could protect one from its powers, but like all techniques, more information meant more precaution.
"I'm going to have to ask you to hide a little while longer while I send your shadow a message asking him to discuss something." The Hyūga Clan Head nodded respectfully, then he started to walk towards the door. However, before he was completely hidden, he paused and turned to the Hokage one last time.
"Hokage-sama, I am doing this because you had asked me, but the Hyūga Clan can only provide so much. I'm truly sorry for what happened with Uchiha Shisui," he glanced at me for a second, "but the Hyūga Clan won't be involved any further than this."
"I understand, Hiashi. I won't be asking for the unreasonable as well." The Hokage said with sincerity and the Hyūga Clan Head nodded once more before disappearing from the room again.
This is all great, can I leave now? I would like to walk back to my dingy little storage room before waiting out the painful backlash of the drug.
It was the reactivation of the privacy seal that stopped my plan. I turned to face the Hokage's solemn face and realised that he still wanted to discuss something. Then, I remembered.
"Any chance you are having doubts, second thoughts, random or maybe seemingly logical feelings of wanting to let him go and kill me instead?" I asked as quickly as possible, and when I saw the strange look he gave me, I pointed to my right eye and said, "Just making sure."
"No, not currently. Even if I do, I acknowledge that this is not just my decision alone and I've run the village long enough to know that one should always question a sudden change of mind before following through," the Hokage promised.
If one really wanted to claim an advantage about our Hokage's indecisiveness, it was the fact that he didn't take extreme actions easily. If my experiences had anything to tell, it was that it took a freakishly large amount of evidence and reason to convince our Hokage to step out of his neutral zone. I just hoped that this trait of his wouldn't change when up against Danzō's illusions.
"The shadow clone means we don't have his location right now, and I'm guessing you want him isolated when you do your raid?" I then asked, ignoring the discomfort that was swelling inside of me as much as I could. It was as if every single cell in my body were screaming, craving chakra like drug addicts.
"That's correct. It would be best if we could separate him from Root for as long as possible. I could do this again, but we need to make sure it was the real him that showed up."
For a moment, I just wanted to get this over with and I almost burst out "send him in and I'll plunge a knife into him to check". It was a good thing that I actually ran that through my head first.
"Can we talk about this later?" That's all I said because the current me was not capable of doing anything related to scheming. To be truthful, I doubted I looked very radiant and energetic right now.
The Hokage sighed and nodded in understanding. "There was one last quick thing, then you can go. It's about that Root spy on your team, I thought I should get your opinion before deciding what to do with him."
Really? I hate that topic as well, I thought in my head. "Do whatever you think is appropriate, he's out of my jurisdiction now," I answered instead. At this point, I think the Hokage clearly knew that I wanted to be out of this room as quickly as possible, so he let me go.
I pushed open the door, and immediately, I felt that the world was turning upside down. Quickly, I ran down the hall and turned the next corner I saw, hoping that it would lead me back to the storage room.
I felt like I was on the right path, but then again, every path in this tower looked pretty much the same and it was really hard to concentrate when it felt like my insides were being sucked dry.
This was what happened when one used up loads of chakra that didn't come by natural means. My body wasn't allowed enough time to recuperate on its own schedule, instead, my system of chakra production was forced to work over time. Now, it was dried up and decided to go on a strike and in response to that, my body, which had been spoiled by the chakra supply up until now, decided to protest as well.
The higher you reach, the more push you give it, the harder you fall. Now, my body was craving another pill, telling me to bring it to the cliff above water level to avoid the terrible feeling of being drowned. But I didn't need someone yelling at me to tell me that that was a no go. Another stimulation would make my system burst open and every harm I had managed to avoid on the second dose would definitely come if I caved in for the third.
Just have to wait it out, I thought in determination as I tried to figure out which door would lead me to my hideaway. The third one to the left? Maybe the second one? Third or the second because I'd really hate to walk that extra distance to another door …
"Easy there." Someone caught me and prevented me from sliding down the wall like some slime.
"Whoa, he really made you come here," I mumbled in awe when I realised it was Zebra. He put one of my arms around his shoulder and forced me to stand up and walk until we reached one of the doors on the left. The room had a hospital bed in it as well as a shelf for hanging the IV bags.
That was when I realised that I was not even in the right corridor.
"Well, glad you know it wasn't by choice," Zebra said in a monotone. "The danger of taking consecutive soldier pills - as we know since we all learned it on the first day of Anbu - lies in its 'high' and 'low'. Since you obviously got through the 'high', luckily, I'm here to help you through the 'low' - which would be a pretty abysmal 'low' if I got my information correct."
The sarcasm in his words was profound, but I didn't even have the energy to roll my eyes. Zebra pulled out a bag of IV from somewhere and hooked it up to the drips. After quickly checking to make sure it worked properly, he poked a needle into the back of my hand and attached it to the IV tubes.
"This is nutrient water, it will help you feel a tiny bit better, but not by much." As soon as he was done that, he made me lie on the bed.
"This, on the other hand, will make sure your chakra system returns to normal tomorrow morning," he said while his hands glowed a light shade of green. He hovered his hands over my chest - where the core of our chakra system lies - and allowed the warm medical chakra to comfort my overworked chakra nodes gently.
"I hope you are feeling horrible right now," he said, "and I hope you remember how horrible this feels so that you're never going to do this again."
"No, I won't," I said in a daze. He was right, this felt horrible.
"Was Hound still mad? I really need him not to be mad at me right now," I asked, and after another pause, I added, "I mean, he said communication is the key."
"Good, you must be feeling really horrible because that sentence makes no sense," Zebra commented as he moved the medical chakra down my torso. "Actually, let me first ask you about something else." I turned my head slightly towards him and waited expectantly.
"He showed me your first medical record containing what he claimed was the first dose. I could tell that the component of that dose was not potent enough for an actual soldier pill. Is that why you decided that a second one was fine?"
I thought about it for a minute and answered, "I guess. I know I haven't been the most willing patient, but I do know what my body is feeling. After that first dose, the effect wasn't very prominent and the 'low' wasn't as bad as what I had felt previously. Nevertheless, it slowed my chakra recovery rate and I needed chakra badly."
There was only so much time the Hokage could ask the head of the Hyūga Clan to wait in the Tower, so the Hokage had issued a statement to Danzō to demand that he either came to see him by seven or he will send out Anbu to hunt him down. Danzō arrived as expected because he couldn't afford to let what had happened to go public.
It had been around five when I realised that I might not have enough chakra for the meeting. Even if I did, it would have been a close call and I hadn't been sure how long I would have to use Kannon Bosatsu for. The cost of chakra for every extra second would have increased exponentially.
So I took the pill, realised that I had more than I needed for the meeting and planned the tour to the old Root Base accordingly with my summons.
"I agree, the first dose wasn't potent enough and that's why you got away with the complications at the 'high' this time around." Zebra nodded, but I had a feeling that there was a 'but' and there was indeed. "But, did you consult with a medical professional? Because I would still tell you no because no one, not even a medic-nin like me can be sure of the line between 'not potent enough' and 'enough to kill you'. Be honest, was there another way to achieve your goal?"
I was silent for a moment and eventually, I nodded. I could have gone to the Hokage and asked for more time, and he may or may not have given it to me, but I guess we would never know now.
But you see, that was the problem. I could apologise to Kakashi in honesty, but I could not convince myself that my hate and mistrust for the Hokage was unjust.
"I remember the last time he was this mad at you was after our run-in with big bad Orochimaru," he said and I let out a frustrated sigh. Immediately, he objected, "Don't whine, I don't like that memory either but it's important, so let me finish." I swallowed my protest when the medical chakra suddenly became more intense for just a second.
"What occurred during that event was that you let your emotions get the best of you and that skewed your judgement and reasoning," he paused for a second, letting the words sink in.
A moment later, he said, "My conversation with you just now, it tells me something different. It tells me that your observations were keen and your reasoning was logical. Your judgement was definitely there, but even when you had other options, you just chose to evaluate your health and your life as something secondary. This is way scarier. "
"Now, when I said 'less costly', I don't actually know whether it was or not, but according to the reaction of our old captain, I'm guessing that the other option doesn't involve people dying or the world burning if you don't take another soldier pill."
As I stared into the green glow of the medical chakra in a daze, I realised that Zebra was waiting silently for some kind of response. "Oh, you wanted an answer for that?"
"No, it's fine, just leave me alone and let me imagine the worst." I just loved my teammate's sarcasm. They reminded me of the good old days, which was technically yesterday. Gosh, I thought this ordeal had been going on for ages.
"Well, I guess nobody would be dying and the world wouldn't be burning if I had found another way," I said tentatively. Then, after a second thought, I added, "At least not directly or immediately, according to my current knowledge."
"Great, I shouldn't have asked." With that being said, Zebra went back to the healing.
About five minutes later, he piped up again, "You asked me if he is still angry and I'm telling you: not anymore. It's more like he's frustrated, which happens a lot when dealing with you."
"What a convoluted way to answer my question," I couldn't help but comment.
"My point is, he's mad because he can't change how much value you put on your own life. I think I just gave you the solution to your communication problem."
"I didn't ask for one."
"Yes, you did. You said and I quote 'I really need him not to be mad at me right now'."
… "I don't sound that stupid."
"Yes, you do." I glared at him once before flopping my head back down onto the stiff mattress. Time to play 'I heard nothing", I supposed.
"I'll let you in on something though. If Hound had reacted this way to you years ago, I might have called him hypocritical. Hound was also handing out pieces of his lifespan as if they were sand grains. He was achieving the best of the results, of course, but the processes were not for the faint of heart."
"Those actions declined a bit with time since the post-war violence wasn't so prominent anymore, but I saw the greatest change when you joined - when he was forced to act like your mentor. What an interesting role model you picked. I'll let you figure out the rest."
I didn't need to. What Zebra was trying to say was already pretty clear to me.
In the room illuminated by the soothing green luminescence, I lost track of time. With nothing else to focus on, I could distinctly feel the symptoms being relieved. Zebra stopped the healing when he had felt that his medical chakra had done the best it could, and indeed, the pain had considerably lessened and I felt like I could finally think straight again.
Automatically, my mind went to the meeting, Danzō, the Hokage and all that jazz. It was like a pre-wired route had been programmed to direct all my available resources onto the Danzō problem.
Technically, forcing Danzō to come in real person was not impossible. The most direct solution would be for the Hokage to be more authoritative and pushy. After all, he was still the Hokage, if he had wanted, then he could very well hunt Danzō down or demand that he came for whatever excuse the Hokage could come up with. But the problem - probably the Hokage and the Jōnin Commander's biggest concern, was what to do after that.
The Hokage's image was built to be benevolent and fair and it worked, it gained him support from many. However, similarly, Danzō was popular as well with those who had a stronger view on the village's military development. Also, his story of rising from a small clan to such a high position made a popular figure within the numerous small clans in the village. He was also handling a lot of affairs between the village and the Fire Country Daimyō, making him a very valuable liaison with the Fire Country officials.
Without a proper excuse, detaining Danzō would be a highly controversial action. What made it even more so was the fact that the Hokage had to force him to injure himself or slap on a chakra restraining cuff on him to check if he was a shadow clone or not. Not only would the Hokage be getting an earful from the rest of the council, he would also be bombarded with questions from our prime customer - the Fire Country.
Perhaps, the Hokage could stall and stall until he had the proof for Danzō's involvement with Root and that the Root was doing treasonous activities. However, that could take an indefinite amount of time. Paper trail was unlikely to be left behind, and the people could only be cracked when the solution to the seals on their tongue was found. The worst-case scenario, the connection between Root and the treasonous activities was not strong enough. The Hokage had only known of Root's continued existence, as for who was running it … Well, I knew it, he knew it, but it wasn't definitive until we could get someone talking. After all, it wouldn't be the first case in history where a supposedly dead organization was revived by another leader and went wild.
If, in the rare case where Danzō had indeed pulled off some magical strategy and wiped himself clean of wrong deeds, then the Hokage's reputation and support would be damaged, maybe even beyond repair. This was, unfortunately, something I had to consider as well since he was technically my only protection umbrella in this village. Also, there was also the chance that the pressure from the council, clan heads, and the Fire Country got too much that the Hokage had to release Danzō before his raid could even begin.
We all wanted him under our custody so that whatever cleanup he had to do with Root could at least be minimized. But if the Hokage were to forcefully detain him, it would be his last option and he would do it right before the raid. This was to ensure that Danzō could interfere as little as possible and that the raid could finish and at least produce some results for the Hokage to continue detaining him until more evidence could be found. The Hokage knew that, and Danzō definitely knew as well. Perhaps that was why he was creating more roadblocks for Kakashi's tracking mission so that he could delay the raid as long as possible.
The Hokage's goal was determined upon the completion of Jiraiya's seal and Kakashi's tracking skill. Gave him time, he would definitely succeed. However, my goal was determined upon how much incriminating evidence that would result from the Root raid, and the more time Danzō could run free before the raid, the more chance of it all going to hell in lots of unexpected ways.
And the Hokage wonders why I'm so doubtful of his plan, I complained in my heart. With the amount of crap the Hokage and the Jōnin Commander had to deal with on a daily basis, I would probably be the only one who would try to solve this issue with all her heart.
Suddenly, I had a click in my mind. It wasn't a very promising idea at first glance, but it was a start and I had been thinking of doing it for a long time (okay, it had only been one day, but I felt it was longer). Before I could spring into motion though, Zebra immediately stopped me and prevented the IV tubes from being ripped out.
"Is rushing and running all you can do? Slow down, there's virtue in patience. At least wait until the IV is done." He stared at me accusingly and I muttered a 'sorry'. I had completely forgotten about the needle in my skin.
I was trying, really trying, not to rush things. Normally, an operation like this could take weeks, maybe days if it was urgent enough and had the resource. However, a normal situation would definitely include more than four people, two of which had very busy schedules. I knew that the solution was not going to come by in one day but the anxiety was driving me crazy, especially when it felt like I was the only one who could be screwed over by and actually cared about this factor of time.
"What time is it?" I asked. Zebra thought about it before motioning the number eight.
"Fine, how much chakra do you think I can get back in … let's say, seven hours?"
"Even with all my help, twenty percent, maybe twenty-five if you're lucky." I furrowed my eyebrows at that news. Normally, seven hours would guarantee at least sixty to seventy percent of the recovery, but I guess it was to be expected with the side effects. Good enough.
"Wait, where the hell are you rushing off to again?" Zebra asked, clearly showing the disapproval of my inability to stay still.
"A very peaceful walk, there, you can report it back if you need to." I couldn't help but sound a little defensive. I hated to be paranoid about everyone, but I had to given what had happened with Ryuu and Falcon. Whichever way he was going to interpret that sentence, it was up to him.
Zebra was far from stupid, it took him a very short amount of time to detect the defensiveness. He took it very calmly because it was natural for us to take missions that were not for everyone's ears. A true comrade respected that.
"I don't need to do that." He pointed at the window and immediately, I realised what he had meant. Unbelievable. Yet, all he said was, "Trust me, I'm saving you from having another conversation," before leaving the room, probably with no intention of ever coming back.
With no other options, I let out a sigh. I should have noticed this earlier and I would have if I hadn't been so distracted. Also, whoever it might be, he did bring someone who was going to stick a needle in me. It wouldn't be him at all if he didn't take the responsibility to supervise this.
I grabbed the IV shelf and walked to the window and opened it without any hesitation. The sun hadn't completely fallen yet, and with the countless bright lights from the streets, it coated my entire view in a shade of light orange. I turned my head to the left and saw the lone figure sitting on the rim of the building. At that moment, I couldn't help but say, "Why did you go back to the old window creeping days? I thought you were over that phase."
Kakashi turned slowly until I could see his face with a raised eyebrow that told me he was not at all impressed. A bad conversation starter, got it.
"I need to go check on a friend before his work ends, but he's been assigned the night shift for the week. Root is withdrawing, you could feel it as well and twenty-five percent is enough for me to run away if anything were to happen." I explained, "Like usual, I need to start fixing another problem that has arisen. I just want this to be over with. It's only been one day, and I'm already whining like it's been a century," I muttered as I stared in the direction of the sunset. It was as if the sun was just stuck there, unable to move past the horizon.
Sure, there were countless reasons as to why I had wanted to rush this to the finish line, but the most important of all: I was so afraid to give Sasuke an answer. I, better than anyone, would know that the answer, the truth wasn't enough. I wanted a solution, and so would he. But currently, I had none, and I would continue to be afraid to look him in the eye until I did.
"Don't we all." His words seemed to melt into the background, fading along with the sunset.
"Anyway, there's that. So if I go missing, you'll know where to pick up the trail." After all, he was really good at that.
The sun wouldn't stay stuck. Soon, it would move past the horizon and prepare to rise again tomorrow morning. Despite my best efforts, time would continue to flow. Therefore, there was no reason for me to get stuck on this day as well.