Hey. Been a while. Got sick again, then had to work a lot, then MSI started up, and, well... I didn't really feel like writing.

Despite that, write I did. So, without further ado, here's chapter 6.


Chapter 6: Fallout


Adorned in a rather standard combat outfit, a simple Leaf Jonin Vest overtop a dark blue undershirt, Orochimaru sat calmly in the middle of the interrogation force's main work room. Surrounding him on all sides were ninja of various caliber, ranging from the members of Ino-Shika-Cho to high-ranking Anbu officials, to a few faces he knew less well, interrogation experts, likely, and even the Leaf council.

Or, well, the two remaining members, anyhow.

"Then… once more, now that more of us have arrived," Shikaku, who seemed to have taken the lead in asking the questions here (and looked to have aged five or so years in the last twenty-four hours thanks to it), ran a hand down his face with a shaky breath. "Could you repeat the events you said took place over the last few weeks and months and tell again of the actions you took last night inside of the Root Compound. Those actions that led to the extinction of both the entire Root Force, and to the death of their leader, Danzo Shimura."

Everyone in the room, including those who'd already heard the story once, which was only a few of them, stared directly at him. Some not at his face, but at his uniform, which was stained black with long-dried blood, recoloring the once vibrant colors of the Leaf's Jonin ensemble into something dark and grim.

It suited him more if he were honest about it.

The fact that said thought made a piece of him squirm… still felt unusual.

"As many times as is necessary."

Before he could begin, two more figures burst through the door at the back of the room, looking rather exhausted, as if they'd been awoken rather recently.

His fellow Sannin both eyed him oddly… differently than they had recently. Almost like…

Like they had before he'd tried to change.

"Ah, Jiraiya, Tsunade." He greeted the both of them with a cheer that was rapidly beginning to feel more and more false. "It's good to see you. I'd expected you earlier, truthfully."

Tsunade stayed silent, even as Jiraiya gave a smile in response that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Yeah, well, forgive me for not expecting you to go and blow-up Root while I slept through a hangover, man."

Ah… Orochimaru's throat felt dry as he forced himself to swallow and nod at the man's comment.

"Well, there were extenuating circumstances."

"I assumed."

"Orochimaru was going over said circumstances once more when the two of you arrived." Shikaku nodded his way. "You're welcome to listen in, you both have the necessary clearance."

His fellow Sannin nodded as they each took a position near the back of the interrogation chamber, even if he did not really feel he was being interrogated, though he supposed that was the benefit of being the Hokage. Everyone here was giving him the benefit of the doubt that he'd done what he'd done out of good will, in the interest of the Leaf Village.

And he'd have to make it sound like they were right.

"Well then, I suppose I'll repeat myself somewhat by discussing the very beginning. Knowledge that I became aware of a few weeks ago." Orochimaru cleared his throat, before looking up at the group of onlookers. "Danzo Shimura approached me with an idea he'd come up with. A way for the both of us to have power beyond our wildest dreams within this Leaf Village."

Those who'd already heard this simply nodded along. A few checked their notes they'd begun taking earlier, before seeing that he was simply retelling what had already been told. Tsunade and Jiraiya, however, had not yet heard this, and so were both caught unawares.

"Wait, hold on, Danzo approached you with an offer of… power?" Tsunade asked skeptically.

"Indeed. Though, well, perhaps I've worded that poorly. He approached me with an idea, one which would lead to the both of us acquiring power. That idea… was for me to aid him in the assassination of Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage."

Tsunade and Jiraiya both went wide-eyed at that, the latter even going so far as to jolt harshly, almost as if finally waking from the hangover that had up until that moment been lording over him.

"That's… that's insane!" Jiraiya shouted, before receiving a few curt glances his way, causing him to quiet himself somewhat. "I mean… what could Danzo possibly gain by killing the old man? They were friends, weren't they!? Comrades?"

Tsunade was silent, but it was clear similar thoughts hung among the forefront of her mind.

"I believe he assumed that by removing Hiruzen, his largest obstacle towards ruling the Leaf Village how he always thought it should be run would be gone." He explained, sitting back somewhat in the metal chair he'd been given. "More than that, though, he believed I was the key to his plan. That I would aid him in killing Hiruzen, and granting him, essentially, absolute power over the Village."

"That's ridiculous," Jiraiya shook his head. "Even if he'd killed old man third, we wouldn't have suddenly gone along with his ideals! We aren't idiots! We'd have overthrown his sorry ass and brought him to justice!"

"I believe," Orochimaru cut his friend off before he could grow too heated. "He intended to pin the blame on another. In my opinion, he'd likely have made it be the responsibility of the Hidden Stone Village. His idea was to have us so deep in anger and rage that we couldn't see through the veil of lies he'd drawn before our eyes."

Far from what he'd have suspected, it was Tsunade of all people who lashed out at that, slamming her hand into the metal wall beside her and causing nearly the entire plated-steel construction to buckle in on itself.

"That absolute…" Tsunade ground her teeth together. "He'd have us run back into yet another war, all so that he could claim power in the Village!? After what happened to Dan, to Nawaki… to so many others…"

Ah…

Orochimaru understood the woman's anger now. To hear that Danzo was entirely willing to potentially doom their Village (even if their odds in a war against the Hidden Stone were, perhaps, more favorable than the other way around) to satisfy his own ego likely didn't sit well with her.

The fact that Orochimaru was working, largely, on guesswork as to just what Danzo intended to do after killing Hiruzen… well, such a thing didn't particularly matter.

So far, his words were having the desired effect.

And that was all that mattered.

"And you came across the entirety of this plan by playing along, correct?" Shikaku moved him further along, his arms crossed over his chest.

The Shadow clansmen had been giving off an aura of distrust since the start of these proceedings. Orochimaru himself had been unable to get a real read on the man, either. Truly, he was an enigma, and if there was anything Orochimaru didn't need right now, it was uncertainty.

Still, he couldn't exactly do anything about that right now, and so he acquiesced to the man's request, and continued onwards.

"Indeed. I initially put off accepting Danzo's request and took the time to ponder the weight of what I'd learned. Of course, this was a major figure of the Leaf proposing the assassination of a former Hokage. To call it simple to navigate, well…"

"AH!" Jiraiya suddenly shouted out, pointing right at him, "That's why you called us all to dinner! To get advice about this!"

He nodded, seeing no reason to twist the truth when it came to something like that.

"That was a while after I first received Danzo's proclamation, however. A good few weeks later."

That was a lie. The time between him having received Danzo's intel and acting on his plan to destroy Root entirely and allow them to take the blame for his actions had been around a single week, but spreading it out longer would allow him to blame anything that might come up later painting him in an unflattering light on Danzo.

Truly, the man would prove far more useful to him dead than alive.

"What did you do during the interim?" Shikaku questioned him, his expression never once faltering. "I assume you weren't planning on going along with his plan?"

"Obviously not." He lied smoothly. "Even so, aside from my own testimony, I feared that without proof of Danzo's wrongdoings, I would not exactly be believed. My story is, even I will admit, rather hard to believe."

A few heads in the crowd nodded, even as Jiraiya and Tsunade, who both evidently trusted him rather implicitly (even if such faith was rather misplaced) seemed disgruntled by that.

"And so, I spent the last few weeks gathering proof of some of Danzo's misdeeds." Orochimaru stood, drawing a scroll from out of his vest, and placing it in the hands of Shikaku. "Inside there, you will find several listed locations, each of these leading towards hidden laboratories within the Leaf Village. Most of the evidence within each has been entirely destroyed, or were left abandoned when I found them, but the chakra signatures inside each will lead to Danzo and his ilk."

The true masterstroke of his plan, Orochimaru had designated a few of his older laboratories to become evidence in this little operation of his. Acquiring Danzo's chakra to stick the blame on him hadn't been hard at all. After all, he'd been around the man rather often, for many, many years. He had more than a few hairs or other biological matters to choose from when marking each of the bodies within.

And, well, if they were to find some small traces of Orochimaru's own chakra within, why, those could very easily be pinned on his own investigations, the investigations he'd just revealed to them he'd been doing to try and pinpoint evidence that would lead to Danzo's guilt.

He smiled, even as he allowed himself to push even further, to slather Danzo's name with even surer proof.

"I'm sure, also, that you will find quite a few of the missing people's that the Anbu have been investigating for the last year or so."

This time, Shikaku's expression did change. He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he read out the information on the scroll, before passing it to a masked Anbu behind him, who seemed to be part of an internal investigations unit. The man disappeared after partaking of the scrolls contents for but a moment, evidently heading out to investigate himself.

"To think a monster like this was hiding under our noses this entire time." Shikaku shook his head. "Once you finish your report, we can begin working on identifying those people who've gone missing. Hopefully, at least, that'll give some peace to those who've been wondering about them… though I doubt anything truly can."

Orochimaru tried not to allow those words to bore into him, and yet his stomach felt like it was being ravaged by a spiked flail. Even so, he forced himself to continue.

"Once I felt I'd gathered enough evidence, I entered the Root compound on my own. As I was planning on using both high explosives to thin the Root numbers, and my own massive summon, I told no one of my plan, nor did I bring any backup."

Jiraiya groaned. "You're a real idiot sometimes, you know that? Assaulting an entire compound on your own… Danzo's no easy foe. He's easily a Kage level shinobi."

Orochimaru just smiled. "He was a Kage level Shinobi. Luckily, I was able to slay him without completely destroying his body. It should still be in the bowels of Root. Of particular interest is the high-level seal he applied to most members of his organization. I believe this kept each and every member of Root entirely loyal to him. They could not speak or act against him in any real way."

Shikaku nodded. "Which is why you chose to eliminate every single one."

He smiled at Shikaku's words; the man having given him an easy out. "I had no real choice. Had I any other, I might not have acted as I did."

Shikaku nodded, before once more shaking his head and sighing.

"Alright, well, we'll alert the rest of the units who need to know. For right now, we need to prevent the civilian population from figuring out anything's wrong. We want to keep this information from getting outside the Village for as long as we can. Don't want the Earth or the Cloud acting on our weakness while we're still cleaning up our own messes."

Orochimaru hummed in agreement, even as he stood up, and brushed himself off somewhat.

"Well, if we've finished here, I really do need to change." He gestured to the almost blackened uniform, so drenched in dried blood. "And I imagine you will all be rather busy in the coming days as well."

Shikaku hummed affirmatively, stashing the scroll Orochimaru had handed him away inside his vest, before gesturing to a few nearby Shinobi who were still around. "Agreed. Good luck with your duties, Hokage. I can't help but imagine things are only going to grow busier."

He laughed as he passed by the man, headed towards the door, flanked on either side by his fellow Sannin, who each looked towards him uncertainly. "Yes indeed."

"I'm sure it will be quite busy indeed."

/-/

Having put on his normal Hokage robes and talked Tsunade and Jiraiya into giving him some time on his lonesome, Orochimaru finally found himself alone in his office, his body decompressing after the day he'd just had.

He'd yet to sleep since the previous morning, which meant he'd been awake now for nearly thirty hours, given it was now just passing midday.

He'd been awake far longer than this during sting operations in the field, going days, hell, weeks without more than an hour of rest in between missions. But now… well, he'd grown weaker. Physically, this time. He'd had a cushy desk job (even if signing paperwork was a thousand times worse than tailing a suspected spy) for too long, to the point that even a day and a half without sleep was waring on his psyche.

He would need to sleep, only…

Later.

For now, he had to identify any potential holes in his plan.

He'd done well, that much was for certain. No one had immediately suspected him, other than Shikaku, who'd seemed completely balanced between suspicion and cooperation for the majority of their little meeting before. Still, he felt that by the end, he'd had Shikaku on his side, the same as all the others, so he considered that loose thread tentatively tied.

Jiraiya and Tsunade, despite their seeming initial misgivings, hadn't had many problems with him as they'd been walking, merely asking him the details of the battle. He'd been honest with them, telling them that Manda had done most of the heavy lifting against the Root soldiers, while he himself had cleaned up Danzo.

That had been a battle, admittedly. He'd underestimated Danzo's capabilities in a straight fight. The man's strange summon, the creature he'd called the Baku, had amplified his strong wind techniques to almost freakish levels, allowing him to slice massive cuts into Manda's normally impenetrable hide. And the Sharingan he'd possessed, while not fully matured, had allowed him to face Orochimaru in hand-to-hand combat.

Luckily, the two of them had been able to finish both of them off before too long, utilizing fire techniques to fill the creatures lungs, and then striking Danzo down with the Kusanagi blade.

And now… now it was over. His plan had come to pass, and it had been pulled off near flawlessly.

Not a hole to speak of.

He felt his lips curl up, victory washing over him as he allowed himself to truly relax.

The door to his office creaked open, and he opened his eyes to see just who it was had–

Hiruzen stared back at him, wearing an expression that was far too loaded for him to truly read in the second or two he had before he found himself asking "Ah, Sensei. It's good to see you. I assume you've heard what occurred last night?"

Hiruzen nodded his head, his gaze never falling away from Orochimaru's. "I did. I heard that, in order to save me from an assassination plot, you killed Danzo, and every single member of Root. That you exterminated them to the last."

The way his master had formulated that sentence… had Orochimaru pausing somewhat.

He did not sound particularly… proud.

"Indeed." He confirmed, finding himself sitting up straight almost subconsciously. "Danzo had been planning to assassinate you for quite some time. Because the two of us worked together at times in the past, he seemed to think I would side with him in such an endeavor."

Hiruzen hummed indifferently, which had the hairs on the back of Orochimaru's neck standing up.

His former master was many things, but apathetic had never once been one of them. If anything, it had been the opposite. Hiruzen, the negotiator. Hiruzen, the peace-talker…

Hiruzen, the weak.

But now… now the way the man listened to him explain his actions sounded completely unlike himself. It sounded completely unaffected, almost callous.

"Is something the matter, Sensei?" He found himself asking, knowing that something was, but unable to simply call the man in front of him out for it. "You seem… quite unlike yourself."

"I suppose… I am processing events."

He… yes. Yes, that made sense.

To hear that his former best friend, the man whom Hiruzen had chosen to lead the Leaf alongside, had chosen to betray him in such a manner… why, of course he'd be upset. Even more so upon learning that he'd intended to conscript his most trusted student to his side.

"Tell me, Orochimaru, what drew you to your conclusion? That Danzo had to die?"

His eyebrows drew together, and he answered honestly. "I fail to see the meaning of the question."

"Why did you not simply tell me?"

The question was so sudden, so out of nowhere, that Orochimaru found his lips flapping without any sound to back them up for a good few moments.

"What?"

"For what reason did you hide this plot from me? From the Leaf Village?" Hiruzen looked directly into him at that, his stare growing more and more piercing every second he continued to peer at him. "Was there some reason that you, and you alone could bear that knowledge?"

Yes. There had been.

Because if he had revealed Danzo, Danzo would have revealed him in turn.

It was merely a thought. Not at all something he'd said aloud. Not at all a confession of the sins crawling along his back. And yet, as he found himself still caught in the ceaseless gaze of his former master, he couldn't help but think the man must certainly be capable of reading his thoughts.

And he realized in that moment that he had no excuse.

What could he say?

'Ah yes, well, of course, I could've informed you of the assassination plot on your life, given you're one of the strongest ninja in the Leaf, and certainly more than capable of assisting me. But I didn't really want to bother you. Why? Oh, no reason, really,

I was just far too busy thinking about whether or not I wanted you dead.'

His hands trembled, and he understood in that moment something that had been eating away at him for months and months.

Hiruzen knew.

His instincts, honed for years and years on the battlefield where life was at best cheap, at worst meaningless, screamed at him something they'd been trying to say for weeks now.

He had to die.

Hiruzen had to die.

Didn't he?

Didn't he have to die!?

So why? Why hadn't he just helped Danzo!? Why hadn't he just gone along with the man's plan, become more and more powerful, become immortal!?

Why hadn't he just told Anko to stay at home, or given her another sensei like he'd initially suggested? Why hadn't he just gone off on his own that day, when Tsunade and Shizune asked for his help? Why hadn't he just ignored Hiruzen's words as they gazed out along the sunlit Leaf. Why hadn't he just ignored the way Jiraiya's words had made his stomach squirm?

WHY!?

Why had Orochimaru of the Leaf, the very scum of the earth, suddenly decide he wanted to be a good person!?

But he couldn't say a thing.

But that didn't change that he had to.

And so, completely uncharacteristic of himself, completely uncharacteristic of everything he'd ever stood for…

He lied.

"I simply… didn't think of that."

He wanted to go back and time and rethink those words the second they'd left his mouth. Those were quite easily the most infantile, the most heinously idiotic things he could've said, perhaps that he'd ever said.

And yet, they were out. Gone. Beyond his reach.

Hiruzen's expression didn't so much as twitch.

"Ah. A lapse in judgement, then? Was that all?"

"I…"

No… he couldn't crumble so easily. There was something. There had to be something.

He realized in that moment that there was. Something that had the part of him that had once been 'all of him' hissing in glee, and the rest, which had been growing these past few months, squirming with anxiety.

Don't. Something tried to say.

But he didn't listen.

And so, as he'd always done, he lied again.

"I simply wanted to protect you, my teacher." He looked up into the man's eyes, trying his best to make his voice sound genuine. "I worried for you, and I wanted to do all I could to shield you."

The only thing said sentence did was make the expression on Hiruzen's face furrow further.

"I see, I see. And you thought the best way to protect me was simply to not tell me anything. That it was to assault Root all on your lonesome. To kill Danzo Shimura, a man I'd known since I was a boy; to slaughter every single member of Root to a man…"

The man's eyes were impossible to look at, his gaze one Orochimaru could not possibly meet.

"All to… protect me?"

He opened his mouth to speak, but his voice did not come.

He'd never felt like this. Never, not in all his years, had he ever felt so laid bare. So horribly exposed.

"I know you often hate my tendency to spout poetry whenever I find the opportunity, but I find myself remembering something I heard a very, very long time ago. From the men who taught me."

His throat was dryer than the deserts of the Hidden Sand, and he could only through sheer willpower alone force himself to meet his master's gaze.

"One's colors are at their truest when they are backed into a corner."

Nothing.

He had nothing.

And Hiruzen just stared at him. Not angrily, no, for that would've been expected, that wouldn't have been enough to make his stomach crawl, his heart ache.

No, it was the way his eyebrows drew together, the way the light in his eyes dimmed somewhat. It was the way he regarded him so differently from how he had been recently. He didn't even need to say anything. No words came from out of him to double down on his earlier statement, no follow-up finishing statement… nothing. Just…

Just that raw disappointment in his expression.

It shook him to his core.

He needed to do something. Anything.

"Master, I–"

"That will be all, Orochimaru." The man cut him off almost mercilessly, turning away from him and towards the door at the opposite end. "I'm sure you've important duties of your own to attend to. Clean-up crews to organize, investigations to plan to see what other heinous crimes Danzo was guilty of committing." He watched the man shake his head from behind. "I shall leave you to it."

Orochimaru stood from his seat, reaching out desperately, like some pitiful child, to try and stop the man, but once more, his voice would not come.

And it was only made worse by the way that, as Hiruzen opened the doorway before him and stood within it, he paused.

Just for a moment. Just for a single, solitary second. Like he was waiting for something…

Like he was hoping for something.

And then the moment passed.

And there was nothing.

The former Third Hokage, the negotiator, the peace-talker, the weak, sighed tiredly as he closed the door behind him.

Orochimaru fell into his seat a few seconds later, without the energy in his body to sit up, or to even start on the already building stack of papers relating to yesterday's incident that were piling up on his desk.

No. He simply sat in silence, resting his arms across his desk.

Just sort of…

Absent.

And he wondered… sort of quietly pondered…

If the guilt washing over him now would ever truly subside.

/-/

The next week or so went by in a blur.

Orochimaru himself received many a memo about the discoveries that the Anbu Black Ops, along with some higher ranked Shinobi teams, were making as they uncovered 'Danzo's' laboratories all across the Leaf Village. How inhumane the experiments that had been carried out there truly were, how much of a devil Danzo had always been.

Said laboratories contained the bodies of many who'd gone missing in the last few years, effectively solving the Anbu's highest priority missing person's case. Along with that, the Sharingan that Danzo had possessed had been linked to a young Uchiha who'd disappeared outside the Village a few years ago, solving yet another mysterious disappearance. The Uchiha clan, and the many families who'd been able to finally obtain some semblance of closure, sent their regards his way, thanking him for uncovering the truth, even if they lamented the fates of their fallen loved ones.

Reading the messages of thanks did nothing to calm his already spiraling mental state, even if, technically, nearly everything was going according to the plan he'd set out for himself.

Well… everything, it turned out, except for what seemed to be the single thing that actually mattered to him.

He placed his head in his hands, rubbing and stretching the skin on his face as he tried to take out some of the stress he was dealing with upon himself. Orochimaru let out a drained breath as he stood up from his desk, to which he had been practically tied to for the last week and moved out into the halls of the Hokage Building.

He really didn't have a destination if he were being honest. He was simply walking. It was better than being trapped within the confines of his own skull, alone with only his thoughts to comfort him.

The secretary at the desk downstairs greeted him as he passed by, though he hadn't the heart to say anything to the woman as he pushed open the doors and out into the evening sun of the Leaf Village.

Nothing was different. That was what struck him.

Despite the way that the world seemed to claw at him from every angle, assault his senses and fray his mind, the Leaf Village was exactly the same as it'd been just a few weeks ago, before he'd made his… decision.

It was he who had changed.

And yet the people around him, oblivious to it all, greeted him no differently. They ignored the blood caking his hands, the entrails that hung about his shoulders, wrapped tightly around his legs, hounding his steps. They said hello, and good evening, and many other niceties as they passed him by. Others approached him more familiarly, some of the children he'd run into on occasion over the past few months.

For them it was the same as any other day.

They didn't see a thing out of place about him. He was the same as always.

He was their Hokage.

The very thought made his stomach writhe and squirm uncomfortably, in a feeling that he'd begun to gradually realize the identity of…

Guilt. A horrid, seething mass of guilt.

He walked further, past the common's, and into the shopping district, where he seemed to always find himself these days. If Orochimaru were being honest with himself, he may've been able to admit that the reason for such a thing was rather simply that he enjoyed the atmosphere of the place.

The way merchants and customers crowded around, trying to get the best bargains and deals they could (going both ways), the way children ran through with their allowances, or Genin with the spoils from their first missions. It was just…

He supposed he might call it alive.

And he'd never really been one to care before, but now…

He found his mood improving ever so slightly as he passed through, even finding energy enough to return the greetings of the few he passed by who called out to him.

By the time he'd managed to make it through to the edge of the shopping district, and approach some of the more residential areas, he was… not better, but at least managing.

Of course, then, something had to happen.

"Lord Orochimaru?"

He wasn't particularly surprised to hear the voice that called out to him, given that, perhaps subconsciously, he'd found himself only a block or so away from the man's home. Even so… there was a part of him that desperately wanted to run away, even as he turned, and met the man's bewildered expression.

"Tondo." He spoke evenly.

"Er… yeah." Tondo scratched the back of his neck rather awkwardly, before letting out a rather unbecoming yawn a few seconds later, which he apologized for immediately. "Sorry, sir. The Danzo investigations have us all run ragged. I'm sure you yourself can understand that."

"I… Yes. I can."

Tondo smiled at that, before seemingly having a thought. "Hey, do you have any plans this evening? I'm sure Akari and Yugao both wouldn't mind having you for dinner!"

He wanted nothing less.

Truly, all he really wanted was to retreat into the earth, to form a burrow like the snake he was, and sleep away his worries.

And yet, seeing as how that wasn't entirely an option… well…

"I… suppose I could be convinced to accompany you."

Tondo barked out a laugh at that as he gestured for Orochimaru to follow, almost like the two of them were… friends.

"You could just say 'yes', y'know."

/-/

The Uzuki's was much the same as it'd been the last time he'd been by, which was to say it was a rather quaint family home, fit with amenities aplenty for all of its inhabitants. It suited the Uzuki's and their rather down-to-earth natures.

He… liked it.

Dinner was different this time. A mix of greens that seemed like a rather healthy meal, and even though he'd always considered himself a carnivore, well, it was still rather delectable. He said as much to Akari, who'd been the one to cook this time, and earned a proud smile in return.

It must've been obvious, however, that he was not at all feeling well, for it didn't take very long for Tondo to clear his throat and address him personally.

"So, uh… you look like you're dealing with something, sir."

He hummed, though said nothing, trying his best to avoid having this conversation at all. Even if a part of him recognized that perhaps talking this out would be good, well… Years of avoiding his problems hadn't exactly been erased with just a few months of trying to do better.

And the whole 'trying to do better' thing was why he was in this mess in the first place, or, well, feeling like this, anyways.

"I just… well, I was assigned to lead one of the units who investigated the laboratories Danzo had set up, and–" Before Tondo could say anything else, Akari's hand came to rest on his arm, and the two shared a silent conversation in a single look as the mother gestured towards their young daughter, who looked inquisitively between the two of them. "And, well… avoiding going over specifics for rather obvious reasons… I can certainly see why you might be bothered. Lord knows some of what was down there bothered me."

The man wasn't exactly right, though he supposed he appreciated the sentiment.

"I just…" Tondo paused for a moment to seemingly think of what to say. "A few months ago, you protected Akari. She was in danger, and you helped her. Prevented… well, I don't really want to think about it."

Tondo probably meant to help with that comment, and yet instead his words only sent his stomach spiraling within him.

"I just want you to know that… even though some of the other ninja might call you 'creepy' or 'closed-off'…" He smiled honestly, and it was that honesty that had his emotions once more going haywire. "You'll always have allies among the Uzuki's. You're our Hokage, forevermore."

He opened his mouth to try and say something, and yet, just as had happened a few days prior when talking to Hiruzen, he found nothing coming out from between his lips. It was for an entirely different reason this time. Not from realizing someone had doubts in him, but from realizing, instead, that someone had implicit faith in him.

And somehow that felt worse.

/-/

Anko Mitarashi smiled as warmly as she could manage to her parents as she stepped into the living room. The two of them seemed happy enough just seeing her outside of her room, let alone actually engaging with them.

What she'd seen… what those Earth Ninja had done… it still stuck with her, even a few weeks later. It still clung to the inside of her head, the images flashing up every time she closed her eyes.

Still, like her master Orochimaru had said, she was trying to, above all else, move past it. She would be getting some professional help from a therapist and had been doing her best to lean on her parents for assistance. She'd told them much of what she'd seen down there, and they'd supported her as best they could, despite neither of them being ninja themselves.

At the very least, for right now, there was dinner to partake of. She walked into the kitchen and began loading food onto her plate. She took more than was probably necessary, given her abnormally large appetite, which her dad kept telling her she would pay for one day when she didn't have her youthful metabolism.

She didn't really believe him.

She found herself laughing at something her mom said as she invited her to sit down, and Anko nodded her head as she began to make her way out of the kitchen, and towards the dining room table.

And then something inside her head broke.

The plate that had been held firmly in her hands mere moments before shattered along the tile floor below her, the food she'd prepared falling with it.

Even as her parents rushed over to her and asked her what was wrong, Anko couldn't quite pay any attention to them.

Because…

Because she remembered.

End Chapter 6


Dun dun dun!

Almost to the end of Act 2 here, and then we enter the final section of WIMTLF. Probably... four chapters left? I think? Maybe one more, maybe one less. Really just depends on how much I'm writing here and there.

Might be a bit longer on the next chapter, given MSI is on, but I'll try to get the next one out in three-ish weeks.

See you all then!