Sorry for the long wait, but here is a super long chapter which is everything I have. Technically, this is more like one and a half chapter, but I don't want the next chapter to get too long but we'll see how it goes when the next chapter comes out. Depending on how things work, I might reorganise the content in this chapter and the next.
Alternatively, this chapter could be titled 'A Short Introduction to the History of Second Shinobi War' or 'The Inner Workings of Anbu', at least for some part of the chapter. Either way, the timeline here is messed up, I'll admit. I've never really figured out the timeline in the original series anyway, so please just bear with me and all my possibly incorrect time settings. If you are confused about the timeline setting, feel free to message me and I'll explain what I think happened.
Anyway, a huge thanks to my long-term beta Alice J for willing to do this for me after 4 months of nothing.
Enjoy!
Chapter 42 - Treasure Hunt
"What. The. Hell. Happened!" I had to pull my yelling blond friend into a dark hallway before he could attract the attention of every single shinobi in the Intelligence Division. Obviously, he wasn't happy but before he could give me his piece, I covered his mouth.
"Shh! Lower your voice first," I whispered, warning him with my eyes as I removed my hand slowly, allowing him to speak again.
"What was that giant release of chakra yesterday? I could feel you going on a rampage all the way from here, and now the Northeastern forest has been quarantined without a proper explanation." I rolled my eyes at Shun's statement. He was exaggerating, I certainly did not go on a rampage. However, I supposed that my inner emotions were more intense than I would have liked and Shun was always excellent at picking out my hidden feelings just by the sheer familiarity he had with my chakra.
"God, you are not running away from Anbu, are you?" And he was raising his voice again. Immediately, I put my hand over his mouth again.
"For the last time, don't yell!" I hissed in a harsher voice, hoping that it would drive the message home. "No, of course I'm not arrested. Even then, I don't need my presence being announced to the whole bureau."
"Why are you here, Maiko? You disappeared for a day after that shenanigan at the Naka Shrine and now you just pop up behind me creepily. Please don't make me assume the worst that can come to my mind." Annoyed, he swatted my hand away and stared at me with those accusatory eyes he often used on 'unwilling information providers'. For a few seconds, we just stared at each other as the noises outside went on uninterrupted. Eventually, I sighed.
"Someone tried to frame and kill me, or is it kill and frame me … either way, the Northeastern forest is a wreck now. I'd rather nobody knows what happened, but obviously, my chakra was all over the place. So, I'm sorry but there are a lot of things in that forest that I - and the Hokage - thought would be best kept hidden from the village." Which includes you. I didn't need to say it out loud for the subtle message to reach him.
As soon as Naruto was involved, what I could say to Shun became 'nothing', no matter how easy it was for me to confide in him under normal circumstances. Besides, with Danzō, the Uchiha massacre/rebellion, and the Nine-tail all mixed together, he really did not need to step in on this matter more than he had already done so.
He stopped asking what happened yesterday morning but I could tell that the beginning of my reply was still raising questions in his mind.
He looked at me with a complex mix of emotions in his eyes, obviously with the incident at the shrine still fresh in his head. I waited, giving him time to accept that yes, something was going horribly wrong in my life, and it wasn't a misunderstanding that could just be fixed with a few words from the Hokage.
"Does Hokage-sama know that you are here?" He asked quietly before raising an eyebrow at me. "You look like you are drained of chakra. I'm surprised he let you out unaccompanied given what's happening."
"Yes, he gave me permission … unofficial ones, but close enough." Technically, I told Kakashi and he worked for the Hokage. So if the Hokage wanted me back, I would have been dragged back to the Tower ages ago. "I need access to the archive, legal access, I promise." I held up my hand to stop him from lashing out again.
"You need to tell me who wants you dead first," Shun demanded. I wanted to protest again but he just shook his head.
"You obviously know who it is with the way you acted back at Naka Shrine and you have no reason not to tell the Hokage if he is helping you. There are only so many people that can command Anbu-like shinobi in the village and also have the power to frame you so blatantly without immediate consequences. I'm going to find out who it is eventually, you might as well just tell me." He spoke in a calm manner as if he were merely chatting the daily news with me.
For a moment, I didn't know what to say. That 'Trust me, you don't want to know' was stuck in my throat. The determination in his eyes told me that he had no qualms in fulfilling his promise of finding out the culprit, even if he knew the potential danger it may bring.
"I'll tell you who wants me dead later. Just not here, it's way too open." I bit my lower lip slightly in frustration of giving in. It would be better for me to answer his curiosity now than if he were to dwell any deeper. It would save us both the trouble, really.
"Fine," he agreed after a moment of contemplation. "The Archive room has the privacy seal, you can tell me in there. I will report to Hokage-sama after this of every document you touch. Are we clear?" He pointed a finger at me, and I nodded quickly. Just like Zebra had predicted, being left with only twenty-five percent of chakra recovery meant that the ill feeling in my body persisted, occasionally hitting me with waves of nausea. I just really, really wanted to get this over with.
Once again, we sneaked through the hallways like a pair of naughty children playing a game of treasure hunt, hoping that none of the adults would catch us.
(づ。◕‿‿◕。)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
When I told him that it was Danzō who wanted to kill and frame me (yeah, I finally sorted out the order), Shun stayed silent near the door, probably trying to sort out his own schema breaking moment as I slid my fingers over the scrolls on the shelf.
I didn't tell him the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre, nor the fact that Danzō took Shisui's eye. I just told him that Danzō wanted to kill me to let his faction of Root remain a secret after he failed to recruit me. Those things were not quite ready to be public knowledge yet, and besides, the more I told Shun, the bigger the target would be on his back. Knowing about Root might not kill him, but knowing the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre definitely would.
"So what exactly are you looking for?" He asked hesitantly and I could feel his gaze following me as I waded through the stuffed shelves.
"Something to help us disband Root. You don't actually think that Hokage-sama would let that illegal organisation continue to exist after their little shows for the past two days, do you?" I answered without turning around, "Despite the fact that he shut his eyes regarding this matter for years before this." I said the last sentence so softly that not even Shun could hear the overflowing sarcasm.
"Maiko, I hate to break it to you but I have probably seen every archived document here at some point in my life, and I would probably remember if there were any evidence against one of the Konoha elders," he said to me, unimpressed.
"I don't need a nail in the coffin; I'll probably never find it. We just need to find a place a look ..." I muttered as I squinted my eyes at the bundled scrolls on the shelf. Reason number one why I needed someone from the Intelligence Division: I had no clue as to how these piles were organised. Just for the sake of experimentation, I pulled out one of the files. Immediately, stashes and piles fell to the ground, accompanied by loud noises.
"Yeah, I don't think that's the way you want to look for it," Shun mocked with a hint of laughter. With a muffled curse, I bent down in an attempt to pick up the scrolls. That was a bad idea, seeing that I just accidentally knocked more files off another nearby shelf. How could I have forgotten, the Archive room didn't even have the budget in terms of expansion. Instead, they just find new ways to cram things in here.
"Okay, just stop! Stand up slowly, Maiko, and don't touch anything." Following Shun's pained voice, I raised my body slowly. I saw Shun opening his eyes experimentally at the wreckage and wince. With a sigh, he walked towards me. However, instead of putting the fallen scrolls back to their shelf, he just piled up all the files on the ground and swept them to the side so that they could finally reveal a small path between the shelves.
"I'll deal with those later. Just hang tight and don't make my job any worse than it is," he muttered with a sigh before turning toward me. "Do you have a date, an event, or anything, for that matter."
Quietly, I gave him a date. It wasn't a very significant date on the public calendar but from Shun's furrowed eyebrows, I knew that he recognised its significance to me.
It was the date that Shisui had died.
"I'll be back." That was his only response as he disappeared between the packed shelves.
After a minute or so, he returned with a pile of files and placed them on the floor in front me. Without further ado, we sat down on the ground and started to pick apart the piles.
"There wasn't much on that day. Fifteen missions were completed, five C-rank missions and ten D-rank missions. The patrol reports were standard and there were no reported abnormalities. At eleven o'clock that night, the Konoha Police Department was notified of Uchiha Shisui's suicide and they only had the time to submit an initial report asking for investigation before …" Before the clan massacre happened the next night, I finished Shun's sentence inside of my head.
"I assume that you want to see the suicide report?" He pulled a delicate file out of the bundle with ease and held it out in front of me.
I didn't take it. I wanted to tell him that I was over the past like he often urged me to do but I doubted that he would believe me. Even I wouldn't believe myself.
"No, can I see the village patrol reports please?" I said. He paused for a second in surprise before pulling out another one. He handed me the second file - slightly thicker and rougher in texture.
I didn't know if it was even possible to find anything out of the ordinary. Danzō was not stupid enough to leave any evidence lying around, especially if he attacked Shisui with Root agents. But I was grasping for any threads present, hoping that I could find any hint of a connectivity between the events.
I don't want to believe that something that tragic, that unfair, would just disappear like a flash of light. There has to be something left behind, some trails for me to follow.
"When was Shisui's estimated time of death?" I asked as I flipped through the boring report. Shun stared at me for a moment before looking down on the report in his hand.
"They never found the body but Itachi claimed that he committed the suicide around ten."
Sasuke said that Father usually left around nine, which meant that the meeting started around ten or eleven. Danzō would intercept Shisui on his way to the shrine, which made his operation last from nine to ten give or take. The timeline fitted with the logic but the problem was, there was no evidence to back it up other than the remaining Sharingan which could only be used as the last resort.
I looked down at the report of village patrol and gate watch, and just like Shun had said, nothing abnormal had happened. Between the time frame of eight to ten, there were no sightings of a sizable shinobi force, no sounds of fighting, and absolutely no signs of Root or Shisui mentioned.
"Are there any other reports made on that day after 2000, especially about any unusual marks left on the terrain?" I asked as I flipped through the village patrol statements again, making sure to look over each and every word in detail.
"Umm, the Uchiha Police Station submitted a report for their only search and rescue attempt to recover find any sign of Shisui, dead or alive. They might have mentions of the nearby areas." He sifted through the papers for a second before picking out a thick file. It was a photocopy of the original, no doubt. But even with the bleeding red colour gone, the small insignia of the Uchiha Fan still stared back at me tauntingly.
"What kind of marks are you looking for, exactly?" Shun asked all of a sudden.
"Dark purple marks, black perhaps. It should be quite visible, even if a few hours have passed." I said absentmindedly as I flipped through the police statements.
I still remembered the man with purple skin that had pursued me at the Shrine. Yesterday, while I was taking a stroll to the abandoned Root hideout, I passed by the side of the forest where I had emerged after the unfortunate chase from Naka Shrine. Along with the Northeastern forest, that region was sealed off by the Hokage as well. Still, the dark purple stain was clearly visible as it poured out from the forest, spilling into the sandy training ground.
The Jonin Commander told me it was a special kind of nano-bug from the Aburame Clan. Rinkaichū, it was called, and I should be glad that none it of had touched me. It looked like poisonous dry blood, to be honest. Apparently, those bugs die if they leave living flesh for a long period of time, so I wouldn't be surprised if the splash of purple blood was actually made of billions, if not trillions, of dead bugs.
Nobody who had adequate shinobi training would have missed that unless they had something to hide.
"Rinkaichū, seriously?" Shisui's eyes widened in surprise. See, with a skill as recognizable as that, one couldn't just walk off and pretend nothing had happened. Unless of course, they had an organisation behind to clean up the mess.
"What does that have to do with Shisui's death … Oh." He seemed to choke on his words, but I just kept flipping through the pages of the report without pausing to offer a more detailed explanation.
"The areas investigated in this report were not wide enough," I said abruptly after a brief examination of the report. My clan searched the potential area where Shisui's body might have ended up if he fell off the cliff. I wanted to know what happened along the path leading up to the cliff.
"Are there any other reports that might have inspected other areas, anything at all?" As soon as I finished saying that, a nauseating feeling reached my chest and I had to close my eyes to wait for it to pass. When I opened my eyes again, Shun was still scrunching his eyebrows and deep in thought.
I sighed and waved in front of his face, trying to draw his attention back to me and stop him from descending into the confusing spiral of possibilities like I had done.
"Shun, it's exactly like you've guessed, I think he had something to do with my cousin's death. But first, I need to find something that could even remotely suggest this possibility." I said to him as clearly as I could, hoping that it would stop his train of thought and direct it elsewhere.
I was already regretting saying as much as I did. It was a mistake, leaving so many clues for him like that. Because if he went any further, he might have discovered more than he should've, about things that I couldn't bear to ever tell.
A few hours ago, I had resented the Hokage for being so secretive about the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre and his adamant rule of keeping it buried forever. It wasn't fair, I had screamed in my head. But at this moment, I clearly realised that it wasn't just the world that wasn't ready to hear the truth. I wasn't even ready to let it out.
He returned his gaze to me and paused. He looked confused, unsure of what to reply. So I pleaded with him silently, telling him to just suspend his belief for one moment and let go of whatever strings of truth he might have thought he had grasped.
It was hard for him because thinking and analysing was embedded in his nature. Especially when it seemed that everything was so messy and confusing, sorting out the leads and making sense of the information was his way of keeping himself sane.
"The reports, right." He answered, still sounding slightly shaken. "I'm sorry, Maiko, the patrol reports were the only other source. The Uchiha Police Station had their own patrols and probably reports on that day as well but they were kept in the station." And Danzō has access to all of them while I don't have anything.
"Besides, Aburame Torune, that Rinkaichū user, was twelve - or eleven - that year. Danzō might not even have sent him on a mission of this … calibre," Shun added, rather optimistically.
Twelve-year-olds can do a lot, I thought, especially twelve-year-olds manufactured by Root.
Still, I had to admit, it was unlikely any of the reports would have left a trail anyway. Otherwise, my clan would have made a much bigger deal out of it. Or perhaps they had planned to, but they never got a chance.
"How long has he been Danzō's bodyguard anyway? He seemed way too loyal to him for someone from another clan." I asked instead. Out of everyone Danzō had in Root, his bodyguards were probably the only ones to have identities that could be traced - the only ones in Root that were explicitly linked to him.
The Hokage didn't have anything substantial enough that he could use on Danzō without exposing the Uchiha Massacre, and that included what happened to Shisui. While a charge relating to murder was definitely enough for the Hokage to detain Danzō for an indefinite amount of time but if the Hokage wanted to use that excuse, then he would need to provide a concrete link between Danzō and Shisui's death.
As per established, the only thing we had was the eye he stole. If Hokage were to reveal that, then Danzō would have no choice but to spill out everything about the Uchiha rebellion. I bet that if the Hokage were to detain Danzō, he would make a flashy scene that would get everyone's attention.
However, if the link wasn't about the eye and the Hokage could show that he had no idea about the eye, which should work if everything went smoothly yesterday, Danzō might not feel the need to spill out everything just yet.
After all, the Uchiha Rebellion was a double-edged sword for both of us. The rebellion, the massacre, the stolen Kekkei Genkai … while my clan was no doubt stained darker than it could ever be, Danzō was far from perfect and innocent himself. It was the last resort for Danzō. He wouldn't use it until absolutely necessary, be it to save his own guts or until I have done something horribly wrong to the village. For the purpose of keeping Danzō detained until the raid was over, just a link between his bodyguard and Shisui's death might be enough.
Whatever excuse the Hokage wanted to use, it had to satisfy a fine balance. Strong enough for the Hokage to drag it out as long as possible against all the pressure but weak enough that it gave off the possibility that Danzō could get out of it using only words.
Alas, it was all but a dream. I really shouldn't put too much hope into the idea that came to my mind while I was high on soldier pills. I had a feeling that if I were to bring this proposal to the Hokage, he would flat out tell me to stay away from provoking Danzō with anything Uchiha-related. It was just too risky before the Hokage could have more control over the narrative. Moreover, it would get even more complicated if the Aburame Clan got dragged into this.
"He's probably been sent to Elder Shimura since he was young. It wasn't uncommon for Konoha officials to recruit bodyguards from the clans. If Root were a legal division back then, the less powerful clans had no reason to decline." Shun explained in a sour tone. "It's part of our contribution to the village, implicitly agreed."
"The Aburame Clan is one of the four noble clans, I'd like to know which Clan could say 'no' if they were considered to be 'less powerful'," I said with a dry laugh. Aburame, Yamanaka … I wondered where else Danzō had collected soldiers from.
"I don't know what happened with the Aburame but the Hyūga Clan, for one, I don't think would have allowed it to happen. Of course, the Uchiha was another one." He gave me a quick glance that was anything but subtle.
I understood now, he was asking for confirmation. He thought that perhaps Danzō had tried the same thing with Shisui once upon a time as he had done with me. After all, given everything he knew, that seemed to be the most logical conclusion.
"Doesn't sound like he has given up, does it?" I said, basically confirming his speculation.
Maybe as an afterthought, Shun would realise how unlikely that was. For one, the circumstances were different. Back then, Root was still legal, therefore Danzō had very little incentive to kill Shisui even if he did indeed try to recruit him and failed to do so.
Maybe after tonight, he would realise that everything I had been telling him about Danzō's motive was full of omissions. Instead, my version of a story made Danzō sound like an overreacting control freak.
A control freak he might be but definitely not overreacting. He had chosen my most vulnerable time to strike but when I had regained my footing, he was waiting patiently. After years of walking that fine line with the Hokage, he had pretty much tested the limits as much as he could.
Except now, I would hope that the Hokage's limit was shrinking, and whatever frazzled him and his patience - be it Itachi or something else - would keep working its charm.
So for now, I led Shun on with the flawed explanation, and he was willing to be led. I'm sorry, forgive my dishonesty, and please, just let it be for now. Despite all my training, I couldn't make this lie work, couldn't get rid of the blatant flaws. So please, stop asking me to find excuses as to why my clan was persecuted.
"What are you going to do now?" Shun asked, unsure of what to do with all the reports I had scattered all over the place.
"Accept that this is a dead end and move on, what else?" I didn't mean to sound so sardonic, after all, it wasn't as if I had never seen Root's efficiency. This was not the end of a world, I supposed. Nobody had claimed the job of trying to find Danzō yet, I could always volunteer. As for whether or not sneaking into the Shimura Compound was a good idea with my current position, that was a different story.
For a few moments, we just sat there in silence. Shun opened his mouth and closed it as if he couldn't figure out if he should make a sound. As for me, I was just trying to push down the queasy feeling that was travelling up and down in my body.
The dreadful tranquillity continued, until some loud screech from the hallway leaked through the walls.
"Let me go! I will tell you nothing!" I tilted my head at the loud scream that was followed by muffled banging sounds.
"An 'unwilling information provider'?" I questioned and Shun just shrugged.
"It happens once in a while. Let me check what's going on." Quietly, he exited the room, leaving it slightly ajar. I could see the silhouette of a shinobi shaking his head at the newest nuisance in the building before Shun walked up to him and inquired in a whisper.
"You're dreaming if you think you can get anything about our village and our leader!" That was the last thing he screamed before I heard another loud bang, signifying a blunt force trauma.
However, just as I was about to pass it off as some distraction, the replay of his voice struck a chord in my mind. There was something familiar about a certain aspect of his voice, that seemed to trigger something far away.
"... I'll gouge your eyes out and present it to our Leader-sama, then I will be promoted! …"
Suddenly, a piece of memory flashed in front of my eyes and I immediately snapped my head towards the door. The sound of his voice was different so the accent was faint but the resemblance was more or less there. Moreso, it was the same feverish emotion in his voice, a mix of respect and blind belief that somehow bordered on mania which had been seared into my mind so clearly.
Just then, Shun came back. Lightly, he locked the doors and told me: "A shinobi from Amegakure, they found him wandering around the Northern village border. They are trying to probe him for information since it has been years since we have managed to capture one of them. Despite how loud and obnoxious he is, his mind was actually quite hard to penetrate with normal jutsu, so they are taking him to the holding for a deeper probe."
"How do you know he's from Amegakure if we don't have a lot of current information?" I asked, sounding more restless than usual. Amegakure was the definition of a hermit. The village size was small and the shinobi size was even tinier. Immigration and emigration were basically non-existent. Nobody wanted to touch Amegakure because of Hanzō the Salamander but at the same time, they kept to themselves and rarely provoked other villages.
Our info about Amegakure was pretty much all collected during border inspections. On one hand, it was hard to establish long-term spies in there, as proven by numerous attempts years ago. On the other hand, they didn't stir up much trouble ever since Hanzō made sure Amegakure was free from the ambitions of the larger countries. Compared to the other major villages, or even small villages around them, Amegakure was the perfect citizen, and our spies could probably be much better sent elsewhere.
"He had a piece of paper insignia on him - Hanzō the Salamander. That hasn't changed since the Second Shinobi War."
Right, the Second Shinobi War, that was the last time Konoha had ever had major contact with Amegakure. As soon as Hanzō had defeated the Sannin and sent out the message 'don't touch Amegakure', they pulled out of the war and the other major countries just decided to fight on the lands of some other unfortunate small countries.
That was almost a generation earlier than the ones of Yamanaka Inoichi.
Accents were hard to describe, emotions even more so. It was like one of those things you would only know if you had experienced it. Even if Inoichi-san had looked through my memories, there was a limit to what was actually transmitted. He would have to be really familiar with Amegakure to find the link purely by the psychotic cries I had heard on the verge of death.
Besides, Kumogakure had been pulling the same kind of trick in Kiri just a few months prior when Kiri was still falling apart and hanging Kekkei Genkai users out to dry. Blaming it on Kumo was the most likely conclusion. Of course, when Kumo decided to try and kidnap the Hyūga Clan Heiress two years later, it definitely didn't help with their reputation.
"Hey, Shun, remember that time when my brother was almost kidnapped by some foreign shinobi and they had almost gouged my eyes out? Want to guess what their accent sounded like?" I asked with a dry laugh.
"Amegakure? The Amegakure who had never so much as had a skirmish with Konoha's border patrol in the past decade?" Shun said with disbelief.
"I can't say for a hundred percent but It wasn't just the accent. Rather, when they addressed their leader, the blind devotion was uncanny. It was as if they were addressing their saviour that saved them from hell." I supposed that it wasn't farfetched to call Hanzō that. If not for him, with how the war had been raging on between Suna, Iwa, and Konoha, Amegakure might as well exist as a complete wasteland today.
Shun was about to say something again but before any voice could come out, a muffled explosion filled our eardrums.
Immediately, the training took over. I pulled out the tantō and Shun hooked a kunai over his finger. We could hear the footsteps filling the corridor with clear and organized orders being shouted over the commotion.
Shun looked at me and I nodded lightly, then he opened the door slowly, making sure not to draw any extra attention. Immediately, I could smell the faint scent of objects burning and underneath that, the metallic scent of blood.
I followed Shun out of the door, hiding my presence so that I could blend in with the first responders.
"... You two, inform the Hokage. You three, get the medic-nin. The rest of you, secure the building and check everyone's identity." Inoichi-san was giving out the orders without a pause. He didn't look hurt by what I had assumed to be an explosion, however, I couldn't say the same about the two shinobi by his feet. One of them was painted red in blood but he was still in a better shape compared to the disfigured woman on the ground. Behind them, the door to the interrogation room was wide open and the metal surface was covered with blackened burns and splatters of blood.
As people rushed passed us, Shun grabbed my arm and brought me along to Inoichi-san.
"Shishou." The older Yamanaka snapped his head around when he heard Shun's voice. Meanwhile, I was able to step out from behind Shun and take a look at what had happened inside the interrogation unit.
The man on the chair was missing a torso.
"Where did you come from? I thought you left after the shift. Otherwise, I would have called you to help before this happened." Inoichi-san pointed at the grotesque scene in the room.
Then, he laid his eyes on me and scowled. "Shun, why is she here? What were you guys doing?" He gave us an accusing look and Shun visibly shrank a little. I guessed that Shun's shadow clone yesterday didn't get past Inoichi-san's attention after all.
"Did the Ame-nin blow himself up?" I asked instead, shifting my eyes from the dead man to the injured shinobi - Correction, one injured and one dead shinobi. The woman lying on the ground no longer had movement in her chest, and the man kneeling above her closed his eyes painfully.
"Yes—wait, how did you know he was from Amegakure? How long have you been here?"
"Where did the suicide bomb come from? He couldn't have attached explosive tags on himself, and his chakra must be sealed." I muttered in confusion but the most important question was, why now?
He came here with a highly recognizable insignia - no spy would ever do that. That meant whatever he was here for required his identity to be recognized. Most likely, he came here with the instruction of finding someone and showing them the insignia to gain their trust.
If I were him and I had a suicide bomb which I could activate even with restricted movement and chakra, I would blow myself up as well as the insignia to make sure nothing was leaked.
"Takeda, the medic will be here soon, do you feel well enough to tell me what happened?" Inoichi-san knelt down as well and steadied the injured man. With multiple burn marks, he was visibly shaking from the pain.
"I can help relieve the pain, will you let me?" I asked quietly and looked at the Yamanaka Clan Head for permission. The medic-nin would be here any minute now but all the trails I would be able to gain for the moment would end here if he were to pass out from the pain.
Something was very wrong here, and my instinct was telling me that I needed to grasp the thread before it was pulled away from me.
"What are you going to use, genjutsu?" Inoichi-san glared at me with scepticism.
"Yes, the burns on his skin is overwhelming his nervous system. I can make him … feel less with a weak genjutsu." I explained, but the man still didn't look convinced. "I've been practising it for months now and I won't touch anything else."
"Fine, do it with extreme care, just to keep him from going into shock before the medic-nin is here." As soon as Inoichi-san gave the order, I kneeled down in front of the injured man.
"Takeda-san, this will help with the pain, so please don't fight it." I made sure to wait until he gave a sign that he had heard me before I let the Sharingan bleed into my irides and extended the soft yin chakra. No matter how I put it, genjutsu by essence was a dangerous class of ninjutsu, so things would get ugly very fast if he started to fight me.
"Takeda, is the pain getting better?" When Inoichi-san asked the man, I kept my eyes on him. This genjutsu was delicate, after all, I was not trying to destroy something this time. After a few seconds, Takeda nodded.
"Akina and I … took him into the interrogation room and …" He squeezed his eyes shut as if he were trying to remember the details that led up to this tragedy.
"I was setting up the seals around the room but the captive regained consciousness and bit his tongue ..." The man let out a raspy breath followed by a few coughs. Unfortunately, there was a limit of what I could do without wrecking his senses, so I didn't dare to turn up the genjutsu.
Inoichi-san's eyes were grimmer by the second. He could feel the man's pain, but he didn't stop the inquiry. Deep down, he probably knew that something was strange about the timing and location of the explosion.
"We thought he was trying to commit suicide … but we didn't expect it to activate an explosion. Akina was right next to him and …" At that point, he couldn't continue anymore. I glanced at the woman - Akina - briefly. The front side of her body was badly burned, which was consistent with the other shinobi's statement. She probably absorbed most of the explosion, which was what allowed the other shinobi to at least have a chance of survival.
If the Ame-nin wanted to conceal secrets, he would have done it when they first apprehended him. If he wanted to take down some Konoha shinobi with him, he should have done it when someone of high-rank was near him, or when he was surrounded by more shinobi - which he had plenty chances of before he was put in the interrogation unit. After all, it was just a bite away.
That left the two shinobi who were with him when he died - Takeda and Akina - extremely suspicious.
"We're losing him," Shun warned sharply as Takeda seemed like he was about to pass out over Akina's body. Thankfully, the medic-nins finally arrived with their green, glowing chakra that seemed to provide the only source of warmth in the corridor.
"Takeda-san, did you see him biting his tongue with your own eyes?" I asked after a few minutes when the medic-nin took over the job of minimising his pain and keeping him conscious. Beside me, Inoichi-san sent me a sharp glare, clearly telling me not to push the man too far. Yet, he didn't directly voice his objection.
Takeda took a few moments to think before replying, "Not with my own eyes. I was activating the seals on the wall … Akina noticed it and called out to me but I clearly saw blood filling his mouth and it was dripping down …" He looked like he was hurting just by recalling the memory with the way his scarred hand was shaking.
"That's enough. Yamanaka-san, he can't take any more questions for now." The medic-nin shut us up as she soothed her patient. "I can tell you that he will most likely survive this, so you can get your questioning done after he's out of danger first."
"Yes, of course," Inoichi-san assured as he waved us away.
"Okay, I agree that this event is strange but Maiko, I have no idea why you are here and I sure as hell didn't assign you on this case, so what are you doing?" Inoichi-san directed his gaze at me and when Shun tried to explain, he turned to him and yelled: "You shut up. All you do is try to find excuses for her."
"Inoichi-san, don't you also find the Amegakure shinobi familiar. His accent, the … attitude in his words when he addressed the leader of Amegakure?" I asked tentatively, hoping it could jog up some of his memory.
"What are you talking about? What do you mean 'also'? When did we ever have anything in common?" That last part was uncalled for, really. However, it seemed that he was willing to entertain the idea for at least a moment, so I waited patiently as the man search his memory.
"Hang on, you're talking about that time I probed your memory for the attempted kidnapping." Suddenly, he looked up. "You're right, the accent does seem quite similar, but that's a very hazy and subjective conclusion to make. You know, after that incident, your father and the Hokage turned the village upside down to find spies. In the end, we found two Kumo spies, one Iwa spy and one Suna spy. We didn't think any village other than those could have the resource to breach the Uchiha Compound. Since your father killed the kidnappers, well, as you can see, living, identifiable Amegakure shinobi in captivity is a rare species, and now he's gone as well.
He shook his head at the grisly scene down the hall and a moment later, he spoke up again. "If that old case is what you are hung up about, I can help you sort out the details later after I am done with this. You still haven't answered my question, why are you here?" It seemed that a little jog on the memory lane wasn't enough for him to forget my intruding presence.
"I wanted to look up something in the archive, so I asked for Shun's help. Although I believe I still have access to that storage, so he's not actually breaching any protocol." Technically, unless my Anbu Captain privilege was confiscated by the Hokage, I could access the documents in this particular archive, whose security clearance was way lower than the Anbu Archive. Still, I said it with utmost care so that I wouldn't piss him off anymore.
"That's the theory, yes. But as of now, I'm clearing the premise, so the two of you, get out." Yep, he was reaching the limit of his patience. Without anymore said, we nodded.
As we walked away, the Yamanaka Clan Head let out a tired sigh and turned around to check on his injured subordinate. As soon as I saw his attention directed elsewhere. I tugged Shun's arm and dragged him back into the archive, despite his silent protest.
"I'm not done yet and I'm not leaving until I am." The explosion would seal the Intelligence division for days, and there would a lot of inconveniences if I wanted to come back again. In addition, I had just seen another thread and I wanted to do nothing else but try to catch it.
Shun rolled his eyes but he didn't object. "Wait here, I'll get you the files." Quickly, he disappeared into the jungle of files.
What did I do to deserve a friend like that?
"Okay, on that day, there weren't any unusual reports in the morning. However, after 2100, there was a collection of reports from both the Konoha police and the shinobi dispatched by Hokage-sama because of the incident at the Uchiha Compound." As soon as Shun had dropped the pile onto the ground, I took the thick file on the top.
"They broke into the compound around 2100, depending on the entrance they took. The time from the gates would vary. However, if they were from Amegakure, then the closest gate would be the North gate." I muttered as I ran my finger down the page, landing on the column that indicated the location.
"The incident was reported to Hokage-sama five minutes afterwards, and by 2130, all the known entrances to the village were shut and a carpet search of the village for any remaining perpetrators were conducted," Shun added. I had never known that it was such a big deal back then that all the gates were closed for us.
I continued to run my eyes at the report, and soon, I was flipping onto the third page. However, just as I was about to flip another page, I stopped and returned to one of the previous lines.
"Hang on, if the Hokage started to issue commands at 2108, then why was one of the Anbu teams 'searching for potential suspects' at 2115." Upon hearing my words, Shun immediately turned his attention to the line where my finger was pointed at. The sighting was reported at the Northwestern border by one of the regular patrols that rarely caught anything. It was said that at the time of the sighting, the patrol had no idea what they were talking about since the orders hadn't reached that far yet but they let it go since they were Anbu. Besides, with that incident at the Uchiha Compound, their stories matched perfectly.
"Wait, is that observation being made by the village patrol? Then why am I not seeing that line on this event report?" Shun held up his file for me to check. The format was almost the same and despite some wording differences, all of the time stamps were there but that one line seemed to have been omitted.
"Why are there two reports of the same format?" I asked in confusion. Both of them were event summaries, collected from various sources - village patrol, gate watchers, Uchiha Police patrols - pooled together in chronological order, a standard way of formatting an event record.
However, the one Shun was looking at had a small Konoha insignia labelled in the right corner, but mine had the Uchiha Police emblem instead.
"I remember when this first happened, the Uchiha Clan wanted to investigate on their own, and the village let them but there was no way Anbu stopped their investigation. The Intelligence Division must have requested a detailed event record from the Police Department first out of politeness. But if you look at the date of the photocopy, the police version was submitted much later than the one from Konoha. The intelligence must have gotten tired of waiting and took Konoha's report instead but somehow, the Uchiha Clan managed to dump in the report at the last moment and the one who filed the report didn't bother to do any more checking and just kept both." Shun explained as I rubbed my thumb against the black and white fan insignia.
So that's how it was, that explains so much.
"I still don't understand, what is wrong with that one line? The Hokage must have dispatched Anbu after that, so what's wrong?" Upon hearing Shun's inquiry, I closed my eyes for a moment, remembering why replaying that sentence in my head had sent a chill down my spine.
"You don't find it strange because you don't know how Anbu works," I said as the grim realisation finally dawned on me. "We have countless drills each year dealing with each kind of situation that could occur and the response time is calculated carefully."
"In this particular kidnapping, the known perpetrators were eliminated on sight, and that news would have been brought to the Hokage when my father had sent the message. The prime threat was neutralized but there was still the possibility for other accomplices. Therefore, the state of emergency in the village was to search out any possible suspects left in the village. The standard response for Anbu would be to form a blockade around the village and start the carpet search." Against all odds, I managed to find a dusty old map of the village that was hanging on the wall and spread it out in front of us.
"The village patrol deals with the village border but Anbu patrols the more periphery side. So as soon as the order was out - which should have been when the Hokage sent the correct signal flare - those Anbu in the outer area would be tightening into a blockage to prevent anyone from escaping." I drew a large circle on the map, brushing off the thick dust which mapped out the blockade.
"Since Anbu's orders were given explicitly by the Hokage to avoid unauthorised orders, the rest of the Anbu in the village would be gathered at the headquarter, waiting for the Hokage to give his command. For the carpet search, the first area of interest would be the Uchiha Compound and the surrounding areas but the shinobi from the Police department were concentrated in that area, so it would be inefficient for more forces to be sent there. The border and village patrol would seal off the forest that lined the border and prevent any citizens from going there. One of the principles of Anbu is the precaution. In the event that the apparent threat is eliminated, we search the areas that were most vulnerable or devastating for potential follow up attacks. That means the central commanding areas and populated regions," I pointed out the locations on the map and all of them were in the centre of the village, closer to the Eastern side. None of them was anywhere close to the place where the 2115 report was made.
"Anbu would spill out from the headquarter, move into the surrounding areas, cover the centre first, then expand to the border. The same thing, after the blockade was securely formed, we close in and tighten the circle. It's the most effective way to do the carpet search and to make sure all grounds are covered systemically. So unless another sighting was spotted, the border and the area just outside of it would be the last place to be covered by Anbu. Seven minutes were definitely not enough for a team that was conducting a thorough search to reach the Northwestern border." I marked a large X on the spot where the sighting was reported.
The Western tip of the village contained very little population, so it wouldn't be the first place to be protected by Anbu. Instead, it was first sealed off and quarantined, with just enough surveillance to make sure that if any threat were found in that region, a signal flare could be sent out. After all, if the 'sandwich' formation were done right, the hidden intruders would be pushed out into the periphery just outside of the border, where a battle could take place without any villagers being endangered.
Unfortunately, the Uchiha Compound was just in that area, a small and dense compound that stood out against the scarce landscape.
"What about any Anbu teams that were just returning to the village?" Shun asked but I just shook my head.
"The order is clear, if one sees the flare outside of the village, they would go to the border blockade. If they entered the tunnel already, they should not stop until they reach the headquarter. Besides, I don't remember an Anbu exit being placed there. So if these shinobi's response to the patrol's question was 'searching for potential suspects' instead of 'reporting to Hokage-sama', either they were highly undisciplined, or they were not Anbu." We both knew that the former would not happen, which meant the circumstances were pretty much self-explanatory.
The Konoha report was the one that Danzō could tamper with but not the one from the Uchiha Police Department, not when it was still a clan-based organization where blood ran thicker than anything else. But that small difference didn't matter that much because, at that time, the Uchiha had no one in Anbu either.
"They were from Root, and they were near my family's compound. It was him, Danzō got the Ame-nins into the village and helped them into the compound, he must have secret tunnels all over the village barrier for Root use only. I need to go check out that place, there must be an exit close by." I was in a hurry, all high on adrenaline from finally catching onto a possible clue. However, before I could rush out and knock off any more files, Shun pushed me back and held me in place.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Sure, this is incredibly suspicious but why would Elder Shimura want Amegakure to gouge out your eyes when he has no motives to help that village?" Well, maybe he is just a jackass bastard who betrayed the village. But no, the answer was right in front of me and it was even more horrible than if he had just wanted my eyes.
"He wasn't aiming for my eyes; he wanted Sasuke. Whether he planned to ambush them later or if he reached an agreement with them, he never planned to let the Ame-nins keep him. But when Danzō got the message that things didn't go according to his plans, he made his agents retreat. Unfortunately, they exposed themselves due to bad timing but since those Root agents were trained to disguise as Anbu, they fit in seamlessly." Oh, the irony, turned out, he really didn't give up on finding a young Uchiha for his collection. But with how he was recruiting children from the other clans, he couldn't just take him even if he had the chance to do so. Instead, he wanted to use me as a witness so that I could point the crime towards foreign shinobi.
"That bastard! I'm going to kill―" I slammed my fist down on the shelf and shook piles of reports onto the ground. I must have been yelling at the top of my lungs because Shun had temporarily forgotten about the falling reports and covered my mouth in a hurry.
"Shh… nobody's killing anybody right now, and especially not by saying it out loud. The privacy seals in this room have a limit, you know." He hushed me at the exact moment when the door swung open, revealing an extremely irritated Yamanaka Inoichi.
"What the hell was that! Why in the world are you two still here? Did I not make myself clear?" He was ready to drag us out and was probably contemplating the possibility of imposing a lifelong ban. Then, he saw all the fallen reports in the room. The face he was making made me think that the lifelong ban was a very likely outcome for me.
"Whatever … just clean that up and don't remind me that you ever existed in this space." Slowly, he closed the door with a small clink. Well, that certainly smothered my anger quite a bit.
"I'm so sorry, Shun, do you need a pardon from the Hokage?" I thought that was the least I could do if he happened to lose his job after this.
"Not right now. But remember that offer, just in case." He was already bending down to pick up the fallen papers and I joined him a moment later.
"Is this enough for the purpose of your trip?" Shun asked as we sorted out the files.
"Yes, that was plenty." It wasn't just the kidnapping attempt with Sasuke, rather, in light of what had just happened in the interrogation room, I was very inclined to believe that the Ame-nin had come here to find Danzō.
What made it more interesting was the fact that a Root agent - I was about ninety percent sure it was that women named Akina - sacrificed her life to silence him.
Amegakure was a mistake from Danzō's past - A mistake he was trying hard to erase.
(づ。◕‿‿◕。)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
"You want to go to Amegakure - a highly secluded village with a dictatorship - and steal some secret information that dates back close to a decade and may not even exist?" Have you gone mad yet? The Hokage had left the sentence unfinished but the undertone of his sarcasm was already crystal clear.
"If you wish to say it like that, then more than half of the Anbu missions would be considered as suicide missions," I responded. The Hokage scrunched his eyebrows under that enormous hat, allowing me the pleasure of seeing all of his displeasure written brightly on his face.
"You know full well that's not our point." Right now, I could tell that the Jonin Commander came very close to rolling his eyes at me. "Inside the village, we can at least try to keep you safe from Danzō. But outside, he is untamed. If words leaked that you went out, he won't hold back in attacking you."
"Danzō has control over too many functions in this village. The only way for me to gather anything is to find them outside of the village." Or do you still not trust me even after all my attempts to not burn the village into the ground? Yep, I had definitely gotten better at stopping the words at where I wanted them. The Hokage looked down at the report which I just brought to him ten minutes ago from the Archive room. His eyes were glued to the page but I wasn't sure if that's where his mind was at.
Since I refused to sit in front of him like a child waiting to be reprimanded, I decided to pace around the room, much to the other two adults' chagrin. Just as I waited for the Hokage's answer, the window was nudged open by a tiny figure.
With the Hokage's permission, Pakkun hopped down onto the desk. Very briefly, he nodded at me and I returned his acknowledgement.
"The location marked on the report does have an unusual mix of scent trails leading to the fence but the ninkens are still trying to pinpoint the exit. Those scents are of varying degrees of freshness, ranging from a few days to a few years. However, there is just one very recent trail of scent, not any older than ten minutes." As Pakkun reported his findings, I shifted slightly. Danzō had sent someone out, despite his recent strategy of pulling into hiding.
That dead shinobi from Amegakure was a trigger, and it forced him into action despite the tight situation he was in.
"Keep up the good work, Pakkun." Upon hearing the Hokage's acknowledgement, the ninken nodded diligently before he disappeared through the window.
"The Northwestern direction … I can get the Hyūgas in that area to be especially careful of anyone appearing out of nowhere. Perhaps we could apprehend an active agent," Commander Nara suggested and I frowned at his words.
"Hyūgas? I thought they are not getting involved in this any further?"
"They don't want to get involved politically, which means they won't be making accusations at Danzō and directly taking my side to oppose him," the Hokage explained, "but asking them to join the patrol for security reasons is not above their duties."
That made sense, seeing that we had just established that the Hyūga Clan was a much cleaner place than Anbu in terms of infiltrations made by Root. Having them to keep an eye out around the village periphery for anyone strange could prevent large-scale migration of Root out of the village, at least to some extent.
"Why not follow him? Chances are, that agent is going to Amegakure," I proposed instead. Having a live agent in our custody could be useful - they were a rare species after all - but the potential benefits were limited by the cursed seal and a contaminated Anbu agency.
Finding out why Danzō had decided to respond so urgently to the appearance of Ame-nin in the village, on the other hand, was something that could lead to a lot of unexpected possibilities.
"Just so you know, this could very well be a trap. Once you're outside the village, we can't protect you. In fact, we can't even act like you're outside," Commander Nara warned as he shook his head and cast his vote of disapproval.
"Not only that, we have limited information on Amegakure. If they have indeed sent someone to Konoha out of desperation, something must be wrong in that village." I stayed silent after the Hokage had finished speaking.
The risk was out of the world, and the reward was uncertain.
"That Root agent is our information." Still, I had to try. "If this is not a trap and he was willing to send out people at a time like this, then this mission must be important for him and he is confident enough to complete it with just one agent."
One agent was more for a mission like sending a message, intel retrieval, or assassination. Either way, the urgency signified that Danzō probably knew more about Amegakure than we had ever imagined.
The assassination was unlikely since it was the insignia of Hanzō the Salamander that the Ame-nin had borne, it meant that whatever dealing Danzō had with Ame, it was initiated directly with the leader. After all, Ame was pretty much a village with a one-man hierarchy. If he had planned to silence anyone who knew about his involvement by force, then the Salamander would have had to be on his list.
With how that shinobi was silenced, it didn't feel like Danzō was going to help Amegakure, whatever form of help they requested. Therefore, it was more likely that the agent was sent to retrieve something unnoticed.
"Fine, I see your point." I let out a sigh of relief upon hearing the Hokage's words. "But as per our agreement, you are not going alone." Nevermind, you are not getting my point. The whole point of this operation is the covert aspect.
"We are short on staff, like, a lot." I didn't even want to count how many times that phrase had been uttered in the past two days. "None of you can come, Kakashi has other things to do, and I don't particularly trust anyone else from Anbu at the moment."
"Then we get some more reliable staffs." He said it like it was 'just that easy'."I do have someone else that I trust and he should be a great help. So please, be patient and wait here." Before I could get more information, the Hokage had already left the room. So instead, I turned towards the Jōnin Commander. He gave me a look that said 'don't ask me, I don't deal with this crap'.
"By the way, your brother is still at my place, and it's getting harder and harder to placate his inquiries about where you are. What do you want me to do?" The man asked as he looked at me with a blank face. Right, there's still that.
"What do you want me to say, tell him lies, tell him the truth?" I couldn't help but mock. They had made it clear that telling him the truth before this ended was ill-advised and that pretty much truncated half of my available options. "Tell me, how do I tell him that everything he believed in was a lie and that the truth is something that cannot be uttered?"
For once, the wise man seemed to be at a loss for words.
It was unfair of me, perhaps, to push all my anger onto him. After all, he was just here for the crisis management. "Just tell him I'm on a mission, a long mission. I'll talk to him myself after this is all over," I finally said.
What am I doing? The voices screamed in my head. This whole thing started with lies and omissions, so what I am doing? But I truly didn't know what else to do.
The man nodded without a word. Just like that, this room was getting depressing again.
Five minutes later, the door was opened again. Before I could respond, someone held out a stuffed backpack in front of me. I looked up, and the bear mask stared right back at me emotionlessly.
"That's all you need for the trip and he is coming with you. Trust me on this, he knows what's happening." The Hokage couldn't have been more concise on the explanation.
"You told someone else that …" I wasn't even sure what to call everything that's happening right now, not that it made me feel any less of the disbelief that came with it.
"He's your teammate, isn't he? I'm telling you that he won't be a spy for Danzō. It's the only way I'm letting you out of the village, Maiko."
I looked to my right, and Bear was still holding out the backpack, so diligent that he was like a statue. Frankly, he didn't look any less awkward than I did, so all he could do was keep holding onto the backpack.
Eventually, I took the bag and inside it, I found an Anbu mask - it was a cat.
"Take Exit 7, that one hasn't been used for a while. It takes around two days to get there, another two to get back so hopefully, the identification seal will be done by then."
I glanced at Bear one more time. I couldn't disagree with the fact that with him, my chances of survival would increase significantly. There must be something special about Bear if the Hokage was so convinced that he wouldn't stab me in the back on our way to Ame. But that conversation could wait until later. If I wanted to catch up to the Root agent, we should probably get going now.
We nodded at the Hokage's order and exited the room using the ceiling. There used to be a team of Anbu here always but the Hokage had decided to dismiss them recently.
As we moved along the dark passageway in silence, we each covered ourselves with one of those bulk-produced black cloaks. I put on the cat mask and Bear switched his mask to something that looked like a weird lizard.
"We should probably talk about this," I whispered when we were already a few hours out of the village. "This is going to be a really awkward and uncomfortable trip if we don't."
"... Now that you've put it this way, I guess we have to," Bear muttered with a sigh.
I eyed the two black dots far in front of us and said: "There are two of them."
"Yes and I thought we are going to talk—wait, what? Two, are you sure?" Bear was squinting his eyes behind that mask but it probably didn't help that much. I had to use the Sharingan to sight them and when I did, I did a double take to make sure I was seeing it right.
Kakashi's ninken had only caught the scent of one of them but my sight was clearly telling me two. Somehow, I had a feeling that even if Falcon were with me, he would have trouble sensing one of them as well.
That gave me a really bad feeling.
"Yes, there are two of them," I confirmed one more time. Barely five steps out of the village and I had already realised that we would be in a very troubled predicament.
See, we couldn't kill them on the way because that might alert Danzō of our presence if he hadn't already managed to figure it out already. Unfortunately, we also couldn't just wait for them to return and steal the information on the road because it was unclear whether Danzō's order was to retrieve the info or to destroy it.
So either way, we were stuck playing hide and seek with these two highly paranoid Root shinobi, one of which had a negligible presence that was very disconcerting.
"So, you want to tell me why the Hokage decided that you are trustworthy?" It was only after the words had left my mouth that I realised how rude it sounded, so I added immediately, "I don't mean it to be offensive but if you know everything, then I'm sure you know what a messy place Anbu has become."
For a second, he was quiet, very quiet, and I had a feeling that he was going to give me a news flash, which I could probably do without at the moment.
"Senpai said that I probably shouldn't tell you this but I think you deserve to know if you are on a mission with me. Please, don't freak out, I would never mean you any harm." He lifted his mask very briefly, so swift that I only got to catch a glimpse of that mark on his tongue.
Not a second had past and my hand had already reached the hilt of my sword.
I was right, I was definitely not ready for the news flash.
"You … You are … Were one of them." I found myself choking on the words but I managed to get some of the facts straight. One, he was in Root. Two, he was not anymore. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. I kept on repeating the mantra, hoping that the shock wouldn't turn into hyperventilation.
He's too close, one metre away, behind my back, able to kill me just by crushing my neck. But he won't. With that in mind, I pushed the half-drawn sword back into its sheath.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you. I should have given more warnings." Immediately, his politeness turned into regret and panic. He took a step back to give me more room to compose myself for which I was grateful.
Yeah, I don't think any warning can prepare me for that.
"Your cursed seal is showing, yet you're walking and talking … How?" I asked in confusion because that was not how it had worked out for Ryuu.
Bear stayed silent. From his conflicted expression, I realised what was going on.
"Your seal was never activated, was it?" I asked lightly. He couldn't answer my question in any direct way but from his facial expression, I could tell what he wanted to say.
It was a confirmation. Since Bear's seal was visible, Danzō must have added the invisibility seal after he had left.
"I didn't know it was possible for one to leave …" I really wanted to ask how but I doubted that he was in the position to give me an elaboration.
However, it seemed that he understood my desire because he rubbed his neck and said, "Mm, how do I put this. There are many things that couldn't be done with one person but they may be possible with help from others."
Yep, this is going to be a good topic to practice communication strategies on, notably about how to use vague words and read facial cues.
"Kakashi, he helped you get out?" I asked tentatively and his eyes lit up in agreement. I thought so. That explained a lot of things, I supposed, including why the Hokage had decided that he had passed the loyalty test without the need to use that identification seal which was yet to be created.
"How is that boy on your team doing?" Bear voiced his own question as we continued to traverse the forest of Fire Country following the two ghosts. A moment later, he added hastily, "I don't want to be intruding, it's just that we have a lot in common."
How's that not intruding? I guessed that I couldn't really judge since our earlier conversation was nothing but intruding. Besides, how could one be mad at Bear? He didn't get angry, he didn't get sarcastic, and he was good at his job. With all three traits, he was truly a special existence in my social circle.
"Really, did you also try to assassinate Kakashi after spying on him for god knows how long?" I blurted out without much thought.
"Um …." Right, that was also in the realm of things that he couldn't say but his expression was definitely a 'sort of', if not a 'yes and I still feel guilty about it every day'. I should have known that this is a standard procedure in Root.
"You worry about the boy," I said that as a statement and a moment later, Bear nodded.
"I do. Failure is never kind to people like us. I also know that trust is not easy for you either but for that boy, he won't have a place to be, not after this." I listened without making a sound and left the chirping of the birds and the rustling of the leaves to fill the holes instead. Then he said, "At dawn, I brought him to the Hokage's office to get his Anbu tattoo reapplied."
I whipped my head around in surprise. I did not expect him to know that and I definitely did not expect him to bring it up. The Anbu tattoo was more than just an identification. If one looked closely, they could see the thin lines that filled the overall shape of the Konoha Leaf. It was a seal that could allow for very limited communication. When the Hokage summoned us, it would glow bright red; when it was the Anbu Commander, it was a dark shade of magenta; when it was a Captain contacting their own team, it would glow a colour of crimson. Moreover, it was connected to our heartbeat, so if we were to die when we were out on a mission, the Hokage would know. However, these functions only worked within a certain range - a radius that extended about halfway into the other four major countries.
That was the best we could do with a portable seal of that size. Nevertheless, it was a link in more than one way. Reapplying a tattoo would render the old one useless. When Falcon, Zebra, and I broke away from Team Ro, we had ours reapplied and a new design was placed to establish a new link. However, if one were to retire or leave Anbu, a dud was placed on instead. Just like that, the link would be broken.
I imagined that in most cases, the action of reapplying the tattoo was done voluntarily. Most, but not always. In this case, the Hokage had asked me what I wanted to do, so I decided on a course of action for him - for both of us.
"You're judging me," I whispered, and before he could deny it, I continued, "I'm not like him. Kakashi, I mean. I can't tell Ryuu that all is forgiven, not yet. I don't have the power to tell him that he should come to my side if he has nowhere else to go because I can't actually give him a safe place to stay." Those were all excuses, to be honest. Put simply, I just did not have the courage and the heart to try. "I can't do for him what Kakashi had done for you."
"I'm not judging you and I would never compare you to Senpai. I've seen you two make very different decisions with regards to the same situation … Not that one is better than the other, they are all great." He was panicking and I was already regretting starting this whole conversation. After he paused for a moment to compose his language, he said, "I admit that I have a personal agenda. I was hoping that I could convince you to not give up on him, not yet."
"I'm not," I snapped, the irritation unmistakably leaking out of me. Who said I wanted to give up on anyone? I didn't want to be given up on when OLYMPUS abandoned me but I had no control over it, so screw that. But I didn't want to give up on anyone, even if Ryuu had been a pessimistic little prick ever since I had first met him.
"I'm not giving up on him, at least not until this is over. The tattoo, it's—" Before I could finish the explanation, Bear immediately stopped me from going any further into the details.
"No, it's okay, you don't have to tell me anything." He was shaking his head furiously. "Thank you for saying that. That's all he needs." See, how can I ever get mad at this? Damn it, now I feel bad for raising my temper.
"I make no promises. I said I'll try not to leave him to rot and die while this mess is still occurring. As for what comes afterwards … I'll deal with that when it comes." Not giving up on Ryuu during this period was because of my duty, I told myself. I had to prioritise, and dealing with emotional shit like this was not very high on my agenda list.
"Now, this conversation is over, let's move on." At this point, I would do anything to direct this conversation away from me and my inability to make a sound decision.
"How much?" I asked and when Bear gave me a confused look, I clarified. "When the Hokage said that you know what's happening, how much did he mean by that?"
"Everything that has happened in the past two days, the plan of the raid, and what I needed to know to complete the mission. Those were all, I supposed," he answered.
"And the Uchihas?" I prompted again, leaving the words vague so that it wouldn't reveal anything it shouldn't unless he actually knew what I was talking about.
He paused for a moment before finally replying, "You mean the Uchiha Rebellion?" I guessed that answered my question.
"He told you everything about the massacre? When?" I thought this was supposed to be a secret, so dark that it couldn't ever see the world, or did that just apply to me? The Hokage was only gone for five minutes before he dragged Bear into this mission and forcibly made me accept him. I didn't know exactly what he had told Bear but I doubted that five minutes was enough to explain this whole convoluted history.
"We've known the possibility of the rebellion for a while now, but that's all I …" His voiced faded as soon as he had seen the way my expression hardened and the emotions being drained from my eyes.
"Who are 'we'?" I asked, emphasizing each and every word. Bear would never include the Hokage in the use of 'we'; he cared too much about respect and hierarchy for that.
"I thought you knew. I didn't mean to—"
"Who else knew about the rebellion before this?" I cut him off relentlessly and he frowned at the slip-up. He didn't want to say but I could probably guess already.
The Hokage had said that he took teams of Anbu with him when he went to negotiate with the Uchiha Clan before the massacre. That sentence had flown over my head because my attention was caught by things that were far more distressing.
When Bear realised that I wasn't going to let it go without a clear answer, he let out a sigh filled with regret. Eventually, he started explaining.
"The night of the massacre, Hokage-sama was supposed to negotiate with the Uchiha Clan in order to pacify their intent to rebel. At that time, the tension had already risen abnormally high between Konoha and the Uchiha. A number of Anbu teams accompanied Hokage-sama as a safety precaution. The majority of them didn't know that the situation was as serious as a possible rebellion, however, some Anbu agents - mainly the captains and some of the second-in-commands - were informed of the possibility of a coup, therefore, our mission also included intercepting any attempts of violence. We were sworn to secrecy about the information because any leak could cause a catastrophic uproar."
As Bear told the most fascinating story of my life - another iteration from another perspective - I shut my eyes painfully. It made perfect sense, how the Anbu were charged with a potential elimination mission when the premise was supposed to be peace. If there was one word that described Anbu perfectly, it was 'precaution' - the elimination of a threat before the onlookers could even realise that there was one. So, was the Uchiha doomed to fall from the moment they had decided to start a coup?
"You have to realise, all we were aware of was the possibility. Besides, because of Hokage-sama's order, Captain couldn't tell you anything even if he had wanted to." Bear was trying really hard to compensate for accidentally selling out his senpai but he wasn't telling me anything I didn't already know.
No, he couldn't, and he didn't want to either. In some aspects, I supposed one could call Kakashi predictable. He might seem annoying sometimes but he would never willingly cause trouble for those whom he didn't want to.
I could see the logic. Clearly, I wasn't fit to receive that piece of knowledge. No matter how one looked at it, it was going to bring anger, pain, and trouble. I wasn't ready then, probably not any better now.
But for some reason, I couldn't stop myself from thinking back. All those moments when I couldn't figure out what I was doing about the Uchiha Massacre. Those moments where I had to decide whether I was just fooling myself, pretending that I could actually make a difference when the goal wasn't getting any closer. I looked back and his presence was emphasised every time for the past four years. I could see him there vividly - he watched and he helped when he felt like it. What else could I have asked for?
Yet, the what-ifs wouldn't go away. After all, what he knew could have changed how I viewed the world, for better or worse. But he didn't tell me, and the what-ifs became useless.
Unfortunately, as Anbu, we took the what-ifs very seriously. It was part of the job description.
"Bear, use the wood release for a disguise, now." Suddenly, I grabbed him and pulled him along with me as I moved behind a large tree.
The two Root agents we were following had moved on from the strip of dense forest into the more sparsely arranged terrain. It meant that they were out of the central zone of the Fire Country. However, just as they had moved on, one of them released a bird and it was flying straight back towards us.
Bear was only surprised for less than a fraction of a second before the wooden vines sprouted out from the ground and covered us like a blanket. From the outside, the camouflage would fit in with the forest scenery perfectly.
We kept our movements still. I looked up and glanced through the tiny slit in the wooden cover that Bear had left intentionally for the purpose of observation. A few minutes later, the black shadow flew over us before quickly disappearing out of the view.
It wasn't actually a real bird as I realised upon closer examination. It had a very distinct black outline and the white that filled the body didn't have any shades or details a normal bird would have.
The bird continued in the direction of the village without having any second thoughts for the forest below, showing that it was probably used for relaying messages instead of scouting. We waited for a few more minutes before Bear released the disguise.
I turned around immediately and scanned the area, hoping that our targets hadn't slipped away. I had already been keeping them at the edges of my vision earlier to minimise our chances of being discovered. Thankfully, the two figures were still visible in my field of vision but the details I could make out were a lot less than before.
"Come on, we need to catch up. I would prefer to have them at a more comfortable range than this," I commented and started moving through the forest before I had even heard a response.
"Wait, what are you doing ... What are you going to do?" My teammate asked in a hurry as he followed along. I was pretty sure that he wasn't asking about the mission, which meant we were still stuck on the previous topic.
"I am prioritising, which is what you should be doing as well," I answered without much emotion. In terms of processing shocking information, I would like to think that I was getting better at it. The key was to focus on the fact that there were worse things that could kill me any moment from now.
Four days, that was the rudimentary timeline for which I would have to keep myself alive outside of the village. It was a huge gamble - a gamble on time, on possibilities, and on every actor involved.
However, it was a gamble I was willing to take because I was sick and tired of just sitting in the Tower, moping over the fact that Danzō couldn't be touched. Instead, I wanted to take a chance to see if I could attack from a different angle, to hunt for opportunities that I couldn't see before.