Disclaimer: Refer to chapter 1.
AN: Chapter title: An Interesting Proposition
"Legate." Naruto offered a nod to the armored Uchiha outside his room, a late-night message from Caesar the only reason the Legate had readied his second set of armor so quickly. His freshly cleaned sword laid at his side for now, that task of rendering the blade spotless once more having been the focus of a better part of his night in truth.
"Caesar." Sasuke pushed himself off of the wall and his Sharingan appeared in the blink of an eye. He cocked an eyebrow. "You truly wish to meet with Silver Fang so early?"
"I wish to see my Legion's oldest foe." Naruto chuckled as he walked down the hall, Sasuke joining him at his side. "The rest of the First is close to the village I expect?"
In truth, only the three nearest Centuries of the First Cohort had moved to reinforce the Fifth. They, like the rest of the Centuries of the First Cohort, had been ordered to double strength by Caesar himself in preparation for the invaders fleeing, of needing to hunt them down. The Legate's order to cease marching and secure the outlying areas had come before the other seven could move, could reform, and head to the village. Once he was sure the threat was gone with both Sound and Sand Shinobi either fleeing or surrendering and beasts of the Snake Sannin cut down to the last, he had recalled the order and exchanged it for Caesar's own calling for the First to march to the village. The Centurion of the First had contacted his force and split them into two, drawing into the village from two directions as two forces.
He had stated he would provide one final sweep to secure the village from any possible stragglers.
"They shall be here within the day." Sasuke drew a scroll hanging from his belt. "The latest message places their arrival near midday if not earlier. The Centurion of the First is eager to relieve the Fifth and your Praetorians of their duties Caesar. He seemed somewhat upset that he was not able to stand with his brothers yesterday."
"Such a thing is understandable." Naruto did not summon his Praetorians to him as he walked out the tower nearing completion, halting them with a simple gesture of his hand and returning them to their posts. "The Fifth endured heavy losses he no doubt believes he could have prevented, saved his brothers from the beasts that came upon them."
"I do not believe anyone could have stopped what happened at the gates." Sasuke still did not enjoy thinking back on the battle with the monsters, of the savagery of the beasts that had attacked the Legion's Fifth Cohort. "Those things were no doubt Orochimaru's living weapons."
"They are things we should have expected." Naruto paused, took a moment to quell the rage wishing to burn free through his veins. "It is not a mistake either I or my Legion shall make again concerning the White Snake."
"I have no doubt the Snake will know your Legion's wrath Caesar but it will not be anytime soon." Sasuke had paused with Naruto, his Sharingan told him of the rage burning hot in his veins, rage he forced himself to control. "For now, he will believe he is victorious but he will learn the truth of this world: All will bow to the Uzumaki Empire you craft or shall fall to the blades of the Orange Legion you have forged."
"Yes." Naruto's rage was replaced with something else, something that was more useful than rage: focus, clarity, drive. "He, like all others, will know why I call myself Caesar, why my Empire shall be the greatest this land shall ever know." He brought his hand up, looked on as the Chakra of the Kyubi burned to life upon it. "He shall be the first to learn how dire it is to cross my Legion, to dare to declare oneself my foe. He will be one of the first to fall, to learn of the true depths of a Caesar's fury, of the wrath of my glorious Orange Legion."
"The Fifth will be eager to draw their blades for you that day Caesar." Sasuke spoke truthfully as his own hand came to the hilt of his blade. "I will be glad to stand by your side on that day as well." His Sharingan burned, the temptation to draw his blade free was nearly enough to overwhelm him. "I will enjoy killing one of the Legendary Sannin."
"I believe anyone would but such a feat is not easy." Naruto locked eyes with his Legate and grinned. "I am sure you shall be up to the challenge given time."
"I have no doubt." The Legate matched his grin with his own.
Away from the two Genin with plans for the future, Kakashi's sole visible eye slowly blinked open. He took a glance to the bottle off to the side and concluded he may have drunk too much last night. He had a slight hangover that he would have to deal with as he threw his legs over the side of the bed. He took a glance around the room and found Gai snoring on his own bed, Asuma and Kurenai had at some point drawn the hospital blankets up around them to fall asleep together, and Yugao seemed to have had a particularly strong desire to cuddle from her hold on Hayate in their shared bed.
He was happy to see the smile on her sleeping face.
It was about time she had something she could enjoy.
He silently rose from his bed and walked out the room.
His plan was simple. Step 1: Head to his apartment to get a change of clothes, personal hygiene, etc. He wanted to get the grime of battle off of him before he got any more used to it. Step 2: As much as he dreaded it, he would need to check on his three students. He had heard about Sakura being alright last time Asuma saw her with most of the other Genin but he had to see Naruto and Sasuke as well. He knew they were both alive and relatively unhurt but that was it. He had heard a lot of things about the Uchiha since the attack had ended and needed to confirm them. He also needed to speak with Naruto. Step 3: He had to assess the damage. The Hokage would likely be calling him into his office sooner rather than later and he wanted to make a general game plan for when he did.
Maybe the old man had even changed his mind at last? Maybe he saw Naruto for how dangerous he was?
'Like that would ever happen.' Kakashi closed his visible eye and sighed as he perched in an open window, one the hospital staff had learned to leave open with their Shinobi visitors' preferred method of travel taken into account. A few too many had crashed through a few too many windows when they were kept closed.
By his last count, the hospital had at least three windows usually left open now.
In no time at all, he was unlocking the door to his empty apartment.
Well, he would have unlocked the door if it was actually still locked.
'Sloppy.' He drew a kunai from the pouch at his thigh as he sent a Shadow Clone inside from habit. The clone held a kunai of course obviously. He stepped back into a nearby shadow, merely waited to see what happened to the clone as his free hand came up to his Forehead Protector.
Whoever was inside his apartment wasn't the best at this, didn't notice the tells he had left at his door this morning. Small things, a silver hair trapped in the frame that had fallen, a thread or two that had been peeking out from underneath the door and now blown away, they would have told him someone was inside even if they bothered to lock the door. Such a mistake gave him two options:
The first was rather simple: A rookie was inside, scared after the invasion, in shock maybe, and trying to kill the infamous Kakashi of the Sharingan.
The second was possibly just paranoia: A Shinobi not in the right frame of mind. Driven to finish a completely suicidal mission, possibly actually attempting suicide via the enemy, out of whatever motivated them.
Out of the two, the first was preferable. He could handle a rookie, put him down, and deal with the body once he was dead. The second was, to borrow a Nara's favorite phrase, too troublesome to think about. It would be a mess if things turned out in his favor and a disaster if they didn't. There was no in between.
A stick pierced the wall next to him, thrown with expert aim.
A second, third, fourth, a whole storm it seemed followed. All of them aimed for the wall next to him and taking the form of a familiar emblem. It should be familiar at least, it was the symbol of the Hidden Leaf after all, the same he so proudly wore on the plate over his eye.
He dismissed his clone and stepped through his open door.
"Hey Anko." He lifted a hand.
She managed one of her own. Kakashi took note of the fact that she didn't exactly look like she normally did. The blue hair was a major change for her after all.
"Kakashi." Ibiki was also inside, offered a small nod to the Jonin. He had replaced his coat with a new one it seemed. "You're out of the hospital earlier than I thought you would be."
"Would you believe me if I said I got lost on the way to my checkup and ended up back here by accident?" Kakashi was a little surprised when Ibiki actually chuckled at his excuse.
"Maybe." The head of Konoha's Torture and Interrogation department turned his eyes towards the covered window in the apartment. "I wish I was here on good news Kakashi but there's not much of that going around so soon after the attack."
"I can't say I'm surprised." Kakashi closed the door to his apartment and stepped further inside, Anko glancing to Ibiki and raising a blue eyebrow.
"The Barrier Team was on high alert on orders from the Hokage himself the past few days and had a few things of note to report. All of them concern your student, Naruto Uzumaki." Ibiki drew a scroll out of his pocket and tossed it to the Jonin who caught it with the expected ease. "We've accepted the information he knew about the attack by now but his movements don't make sense to anyone who looked at them. He neither moved to intercept the enemy or get his clones out of the way. We we're hoping you could enlighten us to what he was thinking."
"I probably can't help you there." Kakashi dropped down to take a seat on his recently purchased couch. He opened the scroll and his visible eye glanced over the information on it. "I don't know the why behind half the things he's done since he's been part of my team. Same with the Uchiha who follows him around so much."
"We considered that but you're still our best chance without outright asking him why he did nothing for so long. If it wasn't for Hayate getting to the hospital and asking for a Yamanaka we would only have had suspicions to work off of about the attack." Ibiki moved over to the window, glanced out at the healing village outside. "I still don't know if we should thank him or curse him over all of this. His clones may have saved the village for all we know but he also willingly withheld critical information from the village. I've seen other Shinobi imprisoned, outright killed, for less."
"That was during war." Kakashi rolled up the scroll and set it to the side for now. His recollection of the invasion was limited, restricted to secondhand accounts from the other Jonin while they talked and drank. He knew about what happened after he had blacked out, about Naruto's clones evacuating the stadium, of the Ichibi emerging and running from Naruto a while after and the Genin chasing after it, the Uchiha defending a shelter of civilians, he had even heard about the two large groups of clones, Cohorts Naruto had called them, that had emerged from the stadium and swept through it after the Ichibi had run off.
And he had of course heard about the monsters that tried to charge through the main gates, the monsters stopped only because of Naruto's army.
But that was it, he had only heard about it. Sure, Asuma, Kurenai, and Gai had been his sources but he couldn't call any of his friends unbiased and copious amounts of sake had been involved at that point as well. Yugao had been around when Naruto had called out his army, had personally delivered two of the Kazekage's children to the Hokage, but she hadn't seen most of the attack because she had headed off to the hospital afterwards.
"What happened after I blacked out?" Kakashi looked to Ibiki for an answer. The scarred Shinobi didn't provide any answers.
"I've got to get going. I've got prisoners to interrogate and I've probably let too much paperwork pile up while I've been here." Ibiki moved away from the window, something he knew Kakashi had reinforced to make breaking through it too much of a hassle to bother with. He tossed a trio of scrolls to Kakashi as he walked across the room before he lifted his hand in goodbye. "I'll no doubt see you another time Kakashi."
He left through the door.
Kakashi glanced to Anko.
Anko glanced to the door.
"Feeling any better?"
Anko turned to him and one of her blue eyebrows was raised, her face was very expressive in asking him 'Are you being serious?' while one of her hands swept down her body. There hadn't been any improvements to her condition since he had last seen her at the hospital. He shrugged his shoulders at her unasked but obvious question. She rolled her eyes before she decided she was tired of standing and dropped into the seat next to him.
"Still can't talk?"
"I can." It was painful to speak. The grimace that crossed over her face was more than enough for him to know it hurt.
"You're better off than when I last saw you at least."
"Better off?"
"One of the last times I saw you I thought you were dead."
The apartment of Kakashi Hatake lapsed into silence at that point, neither of the two Shinobi knowing precisely what to say anymore. One was still wondering why she was here. The other was more than used to the silence.
Something poked the side of his masked face several moments later. Kakashi used his one visible eye to glance down and see the stick responsible for the deed just as it poked him again.
It was dango and he could just catch a glimpse of the small smile on Anko's changed face as she poked him for a third time.
He snatched it from her loose grip before the fourth poke could come. He was also grateful for it. He didn't exactly remember the last time he had eaten something since the invasion minus the Soldier Pills he knew he had downed at the hospital. His memory of the morning before all of this wasn't very clear. He could just remember being at the stadium.
Fighting Pakura.
Failing.
Blacking out.
"So…what happened in the stadium after I passed out?"
Anko stiffened in her seat next to him.
"You don't have to talk about it if you don't feel like it. I'm sure everyone just wants to put yesterday behind them and move on." Kakashi knew when to avoid a conversation. He had actually been an expert at avoiding them in the past, able to hide away behind an ANBU Black Ops mask whenever he was questioned.
It had been a both a blessing and a curse.
"I-I want to." Anko's voice was a whisper. Her body, if slowly, relaxed next to him. "I just don't think now's the best time." She was focused on the wall ahead of her, the plain wall that Kakashi hadn't ever bothered with painting or hanging anything from. He had little reason to since he was the only one who lived here.
"Don't push yourself to talk about it if you don't want to." Kakashi laid a hand on Anko's shoulder. "For now let's-Is something wrong?" She had stiffened again, an abrupt one that was usually the result of fear.
Someone knocked on the door.
"I have to go." She didn't give him a chance to protest, to talk at all really. She was already out the window.
Kakashi made a note to clean up the broken glass later.
The masked Jonin would also be speaking with Anko again.
For now, he rose and walked over to the door to his apartment.
His visitor honestly surprised him.
"Sakura?" He had expected to have to find her in the village later.
"Lee's sensei told me you would be here." Sakura managed a smile as Kakashi's single eye swept over her, his search for any injuries obvious. "I just wanted to check in and make sure you were alright after…"
"Mah, I'm fine." Kakashi waved his hand off to the side, as if brushing aside his many injuries, the pain that still plagued his body after Pakura's ambitious attempt to kill him. "I was planning to check in on you later day but I guess we can talk now since you're here." He stepped aside and Sakura stepped into the apartment. He spared a glance to the dango sticks still in the wall.
'I'll have to take those out later.'
He closed the door.
'And fix the holes in my door.'
"So that is what Mitarashi has become?" Naruto observed the transformed Tokubetsu Jonin as he and Sasuke came to a stop outside the apartment of Silver Fang, saw her fleeing on the rooftops in a trenchcoat and mask that would have Shinobi and civilian alike mistake her for a member of the ANBU Black Ops moving through the recovering Konohagakure.
He knew it was not the case.
She was hiding what she had become, no doubt she was in fear of causing a panic, of being attacked by fools who didn't understand.
"Legate, let her know I wish to speak to her before this day is over. You are dismissed to inform her." Naruto spared no further time on Mitarashi as the Uchiha gave a nod before he followed after her. A Caesar was left alone, free of his guard and his second in command for however long it took him to chase down Mitarashi.
He continued on his way to his destination.
The Hokage awaited after all.
The man in question remained in deep thought. The meeting that laid ahead of him, with one of his most promising Shinobi, with a possible threat in the future, a threat that would exist outside of the village.
"What a mess this has all become." Hiruzen Sarutobi wished to do nothing else but to rest, to forsake this meeting, to push it off, but he could not. He needed to speak with the boy, needed to do so much more, but he needed to speak with Naruto above anything else at the moment.
He could not help but wish for simpler days, wish for the days when he had taken the boy to Ichiraku's in his spare time, could enjoy the excited company of such an excitable child. He could not deny his desire to see a return to what things were like such a short time ago, a handful of months really. He wished he could return to days where he did not need to think of Naruto Uzumaki as a possible enemy.
But he could not.
He had to perform the duties of the Hokage, to safeguard the village, to embody the Will of Fire so many had given their lives for.
The knock he had been expecting made him want to sigh.
"Come in."
He looked and saw the smiling face of Naruto Uzumaki and the memories that hit him were as painful as any blow he had endured. He felt as if his heart had been run through by a cold blade.
"Sarutobi-jiji, you wished to see me?"
"Indeed Naruto-kun. I wanted to offer you an interesting proposition."
AN: And the fallout continues with Naruto going to see the Hokage (and sending Sasuke to go talk to Anko for some reason, again, how does his mind work?) and Kakashi got the chance to head home.