AN: Chapter title: Recruitment

"Praefectus Uzumaki, inform your Praetorians of the following: I'm placing you under my command until Caesar's return. The First Cohort will be responsible for his security while he's away. They are aware of their new orders." Sasuke pressed down on his earpiece as he headed towards the exit to the tower's sublevels. "Find me the locations of the Clan Heirs Caesar and I met with yesterday. I need to speak with them. Preferably before I begin traveling with the Daimyo today."

"Praefectus Uzumaki will meet you outside the tower Legate." One of the Praetorian Centurions answered him. "Hmm, it seems you're in luck. Ino Yamanaka is approaching the tower. She has Haruno with her."

"Really?" Sasuke stopped. "Clear and path and open the gates for them. I'll meet them there."

He took out his flask, downed more than half of it before he went to go greet his two guests.

If the situation was different, he would have looked forward to whatever amusement he could drag out of taunting Yamanaka over whatever reason she was coming to Caesar's tower. For today, he would need to work to appease her. He didn't have time to waste.

He spotted the two of them as they walked into the tower while he stepped up onto the ground floor. The Legionnaires posted at the entrance didn't move to seal the door once more at a command from the Uchiha to the Centurion in charge of the group. The Centurion spared him a glance before he turned to his Legionnaires, kept them in order as one or two moved to protest.

"Ok, I've got some questions and you're going to answer them!" Ino made her demand abundantly clear the moment she spotted Sasuke, marched over to him. "Got it?"

"Fine. If I can, I'll answer." Sasuke shrugged, crossed his arms. "First question please."

If he wasn't so pressed for time, he would've found the look on Yamanaka's face hilarious and likely tried to taunt her about it. Ino seemed to have thought he wouldn't give in so easily, seemed to have been caught off guard by his easy acceptance. An elbow from Sakura, felt through her Flak Jacket, snapped her out of it.

Suspicion entered blue eyes.

"Really?" She didn't seem to believe him. He didn't blame her. He enjoyed taunting her, taunting all of them really.

"Yes." The Uchiha sighed, resisted the urge to rub at his temple. He settled for taking another swig from his flask and began walking. "Follow me. Ask your questions. I don't have time to waste today." He headed towards the still open doors, stepped out of Caesar's tower.

The Praefectus Castrorum was waiting outside, a pair of Centurions from Caesar's Praetorian Cohort with him.

"Legate." He offered the customary salute of the Legion, Sasuke quick to answer it with his own. Blue eyes looked over his shoulder, were crimson for a moment when they caught sight of the two behind him. "Why are they here?"

"For reasons beyond you. Now, you'll be with me today until it's time for me to escort the Daimyo around the village. You know how this is supposed to go today." His Sharingan appeared in his tired eyes. "Don't make any mistakes. Neither I nor Caesar can afford to fix them."

"I will follow Caesar's command." The Praefectus Castrorum said no more. If didn't have such discipline, he likely would have growled the words, showed his irritation at the insult from the Legate.

The Dojutsu vanished as Sasuke turned to Ino and Sakura. "Do you have a question yet?"

"The Daimyo?" Ino seemed to be having trouble taking in that information. "Why are you going to escort the Daimyo today? That's Asuma-sensei's job! He's part of the Twelve Guardian Ninja!" She was quick to follow after him at least when he began walking, seemed to want an answer. "How do you even know the Daimyo?"

"I wish it was his job. Caesar and I met with the Daimyo and the Hokage after the promotions were over with. The Daimyo took a liking to the idea of walking around the village for the next few days with me as his guard. And I'll also be stuck leaving with him to the capital." He began leading them out the district.

Sasuke took note of how the Praefectus Castrorum and his Centurions followed behind him, all three ascending to the rooftops to do so. The three were already seemingly in a heated discussion, didn't raise their voices but none of the three seemed happy with their new duties. Only the Centurions openly showed such a thing, a distaste for listening to him.

'Great, another thing to deal with.' As long as the Praefectus Castrorum kept things professional, Sasuke could at least put some faith in his plan working. Caesar had already prepared a handful of messages for not only the Praefectus Castrorum but for the Primus Pilus of the First, Fifth, and Sixth Cohorts of his Legion. The Second, Third, and Fourth would be continuing their current duties with no change.

The new orders from Caesar would go into action by tonight, yet another timer the Uchiha found himself on today.

He didn't need any of Caesar's Legion finding a way to ignore his orders, reinterpret them if they arrived too late.

With what he had to look forward to over the next few days, he didn't need any other headaches to deal with.

"So the Daimyo just has you to show off or something? Why? You were a Genin until yesterday!" Ino still seemed disbelieving of such a thing.

"Yes. It doesn't make any sense and it'll be a living hell for me. Next question please." Sasuke resorted to his flask once more, downed another mouthful of the instant coffee.

It was far from the best coffee he had ever had. An odd mixture of not bitter but also not sweet, an aggressively bland tasting drink above all else.

It at least did its job well, would work to keep him awake at least.

"This fits his personality. The Daimyo doesn't do a lot of things that make sense. Kakashi-sensei told me what it was like to guard him and it sound awful." Sakura spoke up, seemed to curtail any more questions on the Daimyo from Ino. "He's a bit of a…we're lucky he has really good advisors."

"And how do you know any of that?" Ino came to an outright stopped, stared at her friend. "Asuma-sensei doesn't even talk about that kind of stuff with us."

"Oh…" Sakura suddenly found the ground more interesting. "I-I just overheard it. Kakashi-sensei wasn't really talking to me, he was talking with some other Jonin. They wanted to talk to him about stuff and it just came up. Everybody is talking about it."

"Really?" Ino pressed her, intense blue eyes focused on the pink haired Genin.

"Yeah. Kakashi-sensei was talking to someone about it." Sakura's hand began playing with her hair, she was only fidgeting more and more as Ino stared at her.

"Normally, I'd love to leave you two to talk but I can't exactly do that right now." Sasuke grabbed the two by their shoulders and moved them.

He didn't have the time to waste today.

His use of the Body Flicker was successful in saving him time. Consequently, it made Shikamaru Nara, Kiba Inuzuka, and Choji Akimichi all simply stare at him at his sudden arrival with the other two.

"Stay here." Sasuke stepped away from Ino and Sakura, ignored the glare sent his way by Ino, the relieved look on Sakura's face as her friend's focus shifted, and pressed down on his earpiece. "Praetorians, I need to know where Shino Aburame is. Now."

"His Clan Compound." The response was curt and concise. The Praetorians closed the channel a moment later, returning to whatever they had been doing before.

"Dammit." Sasuke took out his flask once more, settled on downing the rest of it. He spared a glance to the four he did have, considered on what to do.

"Is something happening?" Shikamaru was wary of Sasuke's presence, likely suspected something thanks to Caesar speaking to him yesterday. The Uchiha personally considered him a poor recruit but he had Caesar's favor for whatever reason. In this case, it wasn't his place to judge Caesar's decision.

"No. Maybe. Just stay in a group for now." Sasuke shook his head. He turned to the Inuzuka. "Inuzuka, I need you to come with me."

Sasuke didn't actually give Kiba the chance to respond, leaving with him as Akamaru was suddenly dislodged from his place on his head, hit the ground with a yip. The ninken was visibly confused about what had happened, sniffed at the air as he looked around, whined.

"Oh you poor thing!" Sakura was almost instantly on the ground with the abandoned ninken, gathering him up in her arms, rubbing his fur. Akamaru sniffed her for a moment before he burrowed into her hold, let out a miserable whine. "Don't worry. He's going to be back. He's just gone for a while. He'll be back." She rubbed at the distressed ninken's fur, did her best to console him.

"Yeah, don't worry. He'll be back in no time." Choji crouched next to her, patting the distressed ninken. He was burrowing into Sakura's hold.

'Weird.' Choji noticed the behavior he had seen a few times before, something Akamaru usually did with other Inuzuka or their ninken. He never knew Sakura hung out with Inuzuka so much, was around them enough for that kind of scent to rub off on her, stick to her like this.

"He didn't tell you anything?" Shikamaru kept an eye on Akamaru as he spoke with Ino, looked for answers to what was going on.

"Just that he's supposed to be guarding the Daimyo today." Ino huffed, let her annoyance show. "I was going there to get some answers with what's going on with that Karin girl from yesterday when he showed up. We're walking and the next thing I know I'm here."

Sakura only continued to console the distressed ninken, Choji's familiar presence helping the dog with his partner so suddenly gone.

Away from the Genin and Chunin he had gathered, Sasuke continued to drag Kiba towards the Aburame Clan, was doing the rather complicated balancing act of suppressing his Chakra in between burst of it to increase his speed. He was tempted to use his Sharingan to put the protesting Inuzuka under Genjutsu but thought better of it.

After their encounter during the aftermath of the invasion, he didn't know if Aburame had trained his bugs to detect Genjutsu.

He'd rather not risk it when he was intending to ask the Aburame what he intended.

"Let me go dammit!" Inuzuka finally managed to pull himself free of his hold, left the Uchiha holding nothing but his jacket.

"What's your problem?" Sasuke refused to admit he stumbled when he came out of the high speed movement, had been more reliant on his Chakra sticking him to the ground then his own skills. If he admitted he stumbled, he would have to admit he was exhausted. Which he wasn't.

"Where's Akamaru?" Kiba tried to make sense of where he was. He was embarrassed to say it but Sasuke had been moving too fast for him to keep track of anything. He was with the others one minute and was moving the next.

"What are you talking about?' Sasuke tugged at his hood, expected to hear a yelp from the dog always there or on his head.

He heard nothing.

He didn't grab anything.

He had forgotten the dog.

"I left the dog…" Sasuke was speaking to himself. He wanted to slap himself for such a misstep, such an obvious mistake. "I left the dog." He took note of the jacket in his hand.

He dealt with the Inuzuka with a look from his Sharingan.

The Genjutsu was simple, would keep him here but not make it obvious he was under it. He had settled on an argument about the dog, him going off to get it.

"How the fuck did I forget the dog?"

He vanished as quickly as he could.

'This is ridiculous. I'm not that tired. I've done more with less sleep.' Sasuke fumbled for a moment but drew out his flask once more, refilled it with water as he moved. He dropped another handful of pills in, popped another handful into his mouth and began to chew. He nearly spit it out at how awful it tasted.

He washed it down with coffee, grimaced at the taste but carried on.

In no time at all, he had reached where he had left them. Without being burdened by Inuzuka, without bothering to try and suppress his Chakra, he made excellent time. He nearly plummeted off of the rooftop he stopped on but his foot stuck to the side of the building with Chakra.

He scanned the group from the rooftop.

Akamaru perked up from Sakura's hold, sniffed at the air.

"Do you smell him?" Sakura followed Akamaru's line of sight.

Sasuke had already launched himself down, snatched the dog up by the scruff of his neck.

Akamaru immediately started barking at him, the ninken trying to bite or claw at him no matter how useless it was to try. Sasuke promptly stuffed part of the jacket into the dog's mouth to keep it quiet. He spared the group a Sharingan backed glance, more of a glare that was filled with no shortage of a threat, a promise.

"Stay here." He vanished once more.

He hurried back to where he had left the Inuzuka, made sure to keep the wildly flailing dog at arm's length.

He promptly stumbled on a rooftop halfway there, suddenly found himself moments from hitting the ground. He recovered, obviously, but he dropped the dog in favor of throwing both his hands out, launching himself back to his feet. Akamaru promptly spit out the jacket and began to growl, barred his teeth at the Uchiha. Chakra was gathering around the ninken, Sasuke unclear on how to counter the dog, how to even read his movements. It was impossible for the dog to beat him without the Inuzuka but he didn't trust himself to chase him down if he decided to run off.

While the Sharingan gave him ample abilities, one of them being predicting an opponent's moves, he was unfamiliar ninken. Their bodies were too different from humans for him to read the same way, react to the minute twitches he could so clearly see courtesy of the Dojutsu.

"You don't want to do this." He held out a hand. "I…I made a mistake when I left you." As loathe as he was to admit to doing such a thing, even to a dog, he didn't need the headache chasing the dog would cause. "I'm taking you back to him right now." He met the eyes of the dog.

The ninken still growled, stilled seemed remarkably angry, but it was less tense than before.

He settled on dropping to a knee, kept his hand outstretched.

His other was busy, discretely preparing a bundle of thicker than normal wire strings. If the dog tried to run, he would simply capture it, subdue it with force, and deal with the consequences later.

The dog finally chose to let out a sharp bark before approaching his hand.

He could see the Chakra gathering at his paws before he leaped onto his arm, settled on the shoulder of his Flak Jacket.

He slipped the wire string away.

He also breathed out a sigh of relief.

'One headache averted.'

He put himself back on course, remembered where he had left Kiba and was quickly back.

He was glad the simple Genjutsu was still in effect, was easy to remove as the dog leaped from his shoulder and landed on Inuzuka's.

He didn't wait for the two to get reacquainted, grabbed the Inuzuka when he shoved his drool covered jacket into his hand and vanished from the street once more. He made sure he kept track of the dog this time, didn't risk separating the two and starting this mess over again.

He just needed to get them to Aburame, drag him out, and then drag the two back.

This would be easy.

The Legate didn't realize it, but he was being watched by a familiar silver haired Shinobi.

It would either be a mark of his failing skill or a sign of the Chunin's growth in skills if the Uchiha managed to detect him.

'Just what are you up to Sasuke?' Kakashi had been following him since he had split away from Sakura.

He had intended to talk his student out of going into the heart of Naruto's army with the Yamanaka but had thought better of it once he had seen the two being all but escorted to the tower. He had decided to see how this developed, decide on what to do once he had more information.

Now he was simply asking more questions.

He had figured the Uchiha was heading off to either the Inuzuka Clan or to the Aburame Clan for Inuzuka's last teammate he just couldn't understand the why of Sasuke's latest action.

'And still no Naruto.' He had checked the tower from a distance, tried to spot the blonde in a sea of lookalikes with no success. 'What is he up to?' He knew the Hokage had spoken with the blonde Chunin yesterday but didn't know much about what. All he did know was that Sasuke had come out with the Daimyo, that Kaien expected to see him tomorrow.

He withheld the urge to sigh, to allow his irritation at this lack of information show.

He was a professional and it was best to treat this like another job.

It didn't take long for him to realize that he couldn't view this from a distance, that he couldn't take himself out of a situation he was heavily involved in.

'This is going to be a mess.' He moved to keep Sasuke and the Inuzuka in his sight as the Uchiha moved. 'I shouldn't have let the two of them leave yesterday, should've gotten answers on why he attacked those Hidden Grass Shinobi, why he's holding one hostage.' It was hard to see the red-haired girl as a hostage from how Naruto treated her, how she looked at Naruto more as a savior when she thought no one was watching.

'No one's telling the whole truth right now.' Kakashi decided to let Sasuke leave, figured he had time to check on the Chunin and Genin the Uchiha had gathered in one place.

"Yo." He offered a raised hand as he made his appearance in front of the group.

Sakura's face lit up at his presence, relief that he was here.

He didn't know how he should feel about that, what he should feel about that.

Not after Obito and Rin, how disastrously it was so painfully common for those who believed in him, who trusted him.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura all but ran over to him. "I thought you said you would be out on a mission today!"

"Ah that?" He had forgotten he had told her that last night. "It seems I've been given a new one that takes precedent. Something involving Kaien-dono." His eye swept over the gathered Chunin and Genin, his mind putting the new pieces in front of him together with the rest. He was managing to piece things together, create a clearer picture on what was happening. At least, he hoped it was.

"That reminds me." He was sure they didn't know about the new mission he and the others had been placed on. "You all should find something to occupy your time. Asuma and Kurenai are both going to be occupied for the foreseeable future with a new mission."

"Asuma-sensei already told us he's going to be guarding the Daimyo." Ino's blue eyes looked at him with suspicion. They flickered between him and Sakura. "Why are you doing it?"

"I wish I knew." Kakashi decided to move on from this conversation. "Moving on, what are all of you doing with Sasuke today?"

Ino definitely had a poor opinion on him from the way she was looking at him with blatant suspicion.

"Don't you already know?" Her words only proved that idea of his.

"Ino, don't be mean." Sakura gently admonished her friend. She turned back to Kakashi. He still didn't know what to think about the smile on her face, the trust in her green eyes as she looked at him. "We were going to talk to Sasuke about what happened yesterday with that Karin girl. He brought us out here after he talked about guarding the Daimyo today." Worry came to her eyes. It was unfamiliar to see worry for him from anyone but Gai, Kurenai, and Asuma. "Did you know he's going to head to the capitol with the Daimyo later?"

"That's information to me." Kakashi added it to the growing picture in his head. 'That may help answer some questions.' He looked over the group once more, the fact that Shikamaru was one of them. "Did he make any of you an offer?" He wasn't really speaking to the group anymore.

"Not yet." Shikamaru must have come to a similar conclusion as Kakashi had just done. It didn't surprise him from the way Asuma talked about the Nara. "Should we expect one?"

Kiba let out a shout when he nearly fell from the rooftop, Sasuke not releasing his hold on his returned jacket. Shino Aburame had managed to prevent a similar event from befalling him on the Uchiha's other side, was as at ease as he could be with the solid hold the Uchiha kept on his collar, the fact that his hand was partially covered in Lightning Nature Chakra.

It had been a clear warning to the Aburame not to try anything with his kikaichu.

"Silver Fang." Sasuke released his hold on both the Genin and the Chunin. He seemed content to ignore Kakashi as his Sharingan swept over the group. "I see none of you left." He dropped down from the rooftop. He withdrew his once more refilled flash after he landed, downed a mouthful of the aggressively bland coffee. "This will hopefully be the easy part."

Sasuke pocketed his flask and tapped a seal in his sleeve. With a surge of Chakra, the contents of the seal were released.

The Uchiha held a half dozen scrolls in his hand.

"I'll make this quick as I'm on a timeline." He decided to hand out the scrolls as he spoke. "I can't leave Caesar's Legion unattended but I have no choice but to do so with this Daimyo business. It'll occupy too much of my time, take me too far away to lead effectively. With Caesar already gone with the Toad Sage, the Legion will lack a leading figure. If neither of us are there, the Legionnaires are much more likely to do something drastic and unneeded." Shikamaru didn't open his, simply stared at the Legate. Ino hesitated for a moment but opened the scroll in her hand, quickly reading over it.

"Are you seriously offering us a job?" Shikamaru could only continue to stare at the Uchiha, something approaching disbelief, audacity, at what the Uchiha had just done.

"I don't have many options here." Sasuke shrugged his shoulders, couldn't offer much more than that. "Believe me, if I could do it, I wouldn't be doing this."

"What's so bad about you and Naruto leaving a bunch of clones alone?" Kiba asked the obvious question once he finished reading over the simple offer. "And what's up with the Tribune thing?"

"That would be your positions you…" Sasuke stopped himself from saying something he couldn't afford at the moment. He rubbed at his eyes. "Listen, I just need to know if you accept or not. At this point, I'm debating just going to try and learn the Shadow Clone Technique and save myself this headache."

"Don't be so shortsighted Sasuke." Kakashi patted him on the back, the Uchiha not having the energy to glare at the Jonin as Caesar likely would. "With how much time you'll spend with the Daimyo, a Shadow Clone will definitely give you a headache."

"…It would be worth it." Sasuke said no more, Kakashi only offering his student another pat on his back. He turned back to the gathered Genin, chose to ignore the Jonin once again. "If its worth anything, Hinata Hyuga has already accepted the role."

She hadn't actually but he held no doubts on how she would respond to his offer.

While he disliked it, her scroll had been personalized, Caesar had given him the authority to…imply certain things with it.

With how the girl acted around him, he was sure there was nothing Caesar could ask of her that she wouldn't give.

"I'm sure that'll be something they'll take into consideration Sasuke. For now, I think you need to give them time to think it over." Kakashi wasn't giving him a choice. "How about the two of us go have a quick talk? It looks like we'll both be guarding the Daimyo and you need to know some things."

The Uchiha seemed ready to protest before he stopped himself.

He merely took out his flask once more, downed the rest of it.

'I have a feeling this day is only going to go downhill from here.'