"Weak."

A single word, spoken in a deep, resonating voice that dripped with fury and malice echoed around Naruto, ringing in his ears and dragging him from unconsciousness. As he woke, the blond became aware of two sensations: a tiredness that saturated his being, making even the thought of opening his eyes unbearable, and a creeping cold that originated from his left palm, working its way throughout his body and into his core. The whiskered boy lay, too weary even to think, and the voice spoke again. "Such a pitiful whelp, to find yourself on death's door after such a pathetic display." It paused for a moment, as though considering something, before it spoke again. "At least you weren't stupid enough to submit to the snake, despite all appearances to the contrary." Naruto had the vague suspicion that he ought to be upset at the words rolling over him, but the blond couldn't quite muster the energy to process what they meant. The cold scattered his thoughts before they could form, draining his frail anger and leaving him with only his exhaustion.

There was silence for a long time, longer than the whiskered boy could fathom, as he waited for his strength to return, to be able to do something, even to open his eyes. He had spent what seemed like an eternity in his frigid oblivion with no change when the voice spoke again, still dripping with scorn and rage but tinged, this time, with grudging admission. "Tied to the life of a human and a fool. Be thankful for your damnable Yondaime, gaki." As the voice spoke, a fiery warmth began to trickle out from Naruto's stomach and into his limbs, pushing against the chill in his hand to return sensation and life that the cold had stolen away. The six-year-old was just strong enough to form a sense of gratitude for the voice's warmth before he became aware of other voices around him, raised in a jumble of stressed noise that overwhelmed his fragile thoughts, scattering them like leaves before a windstorm.

"…don't seriously think that…"

"… just saying. It's not like…"

"… say we ought to…"

"… makes no sense. Orochimaru clearly…"

"… just want to go home…"

As the warmth continued to push back the numbing cold in his limbs and mind, Naruto began to recognize the voices as those of his classmates. Kiba and Ino's voices were the loudest, but Naruto could make out the rest of his peers, as well. Everyone quieted, however, at Hinata's startled exclamation. "H-he's waking up!"

There was a rush of feet as the children crowded around their sleeping companion. The group watched as Naruto's pale face screwed up in discomfort before bleary, blue eyes cracked open. The blond tried to push himself onto his elbows but found that he was weighed down by a mass of jackets wrapped around him, effectively trapping the weakened boy. "Don't try to move, Naruto," Sakura commanded, kneeling to put her face in the bewildered blond's line of sight, her tan face pinched with care and worry. "You probably didn't pay attention to Daikoku-sensei's lessons about first aid, but people get cold and tired when they lose a lot of blood. We need to keep you warm so you can get better."

"You're cold too, though," Naruto protested weakly, looking around at his subtly shivering friends. "I can see your goosebumps. I feel okay now; you can take your jackets back."

The whiskered boy struggled, trying to extricate himself from the bundle of coats, before Sasuke spoke up. "Stop being an idiot. You've done enough of that already." The Uchiha rubbed his arms vigorously to demonstrate as Naruto attempted to glare at him. "We can keep warm like this until you can actually get out of those without help. I know it would be hard for a baka like you to do, even normally, but we might show you how, if you ask nicely."

Naruto opened his mouth to return Sasuke's insult, but he was distracted as gentle hands began to re-tuck the jackets more tightly around him. "Please, Naruto-kun?" Hinata's soft voice cut off any objection from the rowdy blond as she knelt next to him. "Y-you were badly hurt while protecting us. Can you let us take care of you now?"

Naruto's mouth snapped shut and his eyes grew wide at the comment. No one had ever asked to take care of him before! When the whiskered boy slowly nodded, Ino piped up. "Okay, Daikoku-sensei told us that rest is important when you're recovering from an injury. You stay here, and we'll go over there and plan what we're going to do." As she spoke, the platinum blonde waved the group to the opposite side of the small room.

"You can talk here," Naruto offered, his voice notably stronger. "I feel loads better, already." To demonstrate, the blond wriggled in his nest of jackets, moving much more confidently than even a moment prior. "What were you talking about?"

"You being an idiot, among other things," Shikamaru responded flatly as he flopped down on the floor, apparently content to take the young Uzumaki at his word. Expertly ignoring the glare that Ino sent his way and her insistent gestures to move further from their injured friend, the young Nara explained: "Apparently, Orochimaru is someone we don't want to tick off."

Seeing that Shikamaru had no intention of obeying her, Ino relented, and the group settled in a rough circle on the floor around Naruto. "That's right!" the Yamanaka heiress chided as she smacked the Nara upside the head before settling on the ground next to him. "Just because you two don't pay attention in class doesn't mean that the rest of us didn't. Orochimaru is one of the most dangerous ninja ever to live in Konoha. He's a traitor who ran away from the village because Hokage-sama found out he was kidnapping people and killing them."

Sakura nodded in agreement. "He and his teammates earned the title of Densetsu no Sannin after they fought Sanshōuo no Hanzo to a standstill during the Second Great Shinobi War. The Sannin are famous for being incredibly strong ninja who can summon animals to help them fight. Orochimaru can summon snakes and can use all kinds of jutsu. He and Namikaze Minato-sama were the two people who Sandaime-sama considered to be the Yondaime Hokage."

"So, yeah," Kiba concluded after Sakura finished her recitation. "He's a bad guy who can kill us, and you're an idiot for making him mad." Akamaru yipped angrily before snapping at Kiba's fingers, seeming to take offense to his partner's comment. "Hey, don't be like that," the Inuzuka growled back. "It was kind of cool, but it was also stupid. Even if he weren't some super-ninja, Orochimaru probably could have taken all of us. We're just kids, after all."

The other children chimed in with their thoughts about what Naruto could and should have done, but the blond was still having trouble tracking all the voices. Instead, he turned his attention inward, trying to explain to himself how he had known what to do. Nothing that he came up with truly resonated with the whiskered boy, however, even when he pieced together his peers' opinions from the bits of the conversation he could follow. How could he explain to Shino that it wasn't enough to not do lasting damage to his friends or make Sasuke understand that, as desperately as he prized the symbols of his newly earned identity as a proper Uzumaki, Naruto would sacrifice even more before he would hurt any member of the family that he was building for himself?

Before the blond could organize his thoughts, however, the discussion was interrupted by a loud gurgling. Everyone turned to look at Chōji, and the young Akimichi wilted under the gaze of so many of his friends. "I can't help it," he defended himself. "I didn't get to eat the rest of my bento, and we've been here a really long time. I bet we haven't eaten for a full week!"

As though prompted by Chōji's statement, a clanging started on the other side of the room's metal door as the heavy lock was undone. The children scrambled to their feet and retreated to the far side of the room, dragging the still-bundled Naruto with them. As they dropped the blond's arms, the door swung open, and their captor strode in, pale face contorted in a baleful grin. Upon seeing Naruto still struggling to free himself from the jackets, Orochimaru's smirk grew larger. "Most impressive, Gekage-kun. You survived. And you're awake. If your body is that resilient, you might be an Uzumaki after all, despite what your hideous hair color would suggest. This certainly merits further study…" Amber eyes left the blond to sweep over the rest of the group. "And how are the rest of you feeling? I imagine that you're cold, if you had Naruto-kun wrapped in your jackets all this time." Turning, the pale man walked back out of the room, calling carelessly over his shoulder, "Come along. It's time for us to have another little 'chat' before dinner."

As Orochimaru left the room, Naruto resumed his struggle to free himself. It took several seconds, but eventually he worked his hands free of the mess of tangled coats. He paused to examine the blood that had soaked through the formerly white strips of cloth serving as his bandages before slowly picking off the jackets and dropping them in the general direction of their owners. "Take that, Sasuke, I got out!" The blond stuck out his tongue at the Uchiha, who snorted in amusement as he donned his jacket. "Now, can somebody help me up? Orochimaru made us dinner, and I'm hungry." A sudden thought popped into his head, causing the whiskered boy to chuckle softly. "Ha, I bet he wears a pink apron when he's in the kitchen, like a sissy. That's probably why Jiji didn't want him to be the Yondaime."

"Man, Naruto," Kiba laughed as he and Chōji knelt to hoist the blond's arms onto their shoulders, "you must be all kinds of stupid to make fun of the guy who stabbed you."

The blond just grinned cheekily in response and began shuffling toward the door, pulling his friends along as they supported him. "Well, I'm gonna be Hokage one day. There's no way I'd let a creeper like that stop me." The bravado of Naruto's words was forced, and each of his peers could hear his pain and see how tired he still was, but no one pressed the issue, thankful for the blond's speedy recovery and his attempt to lighten the mood.

Outside the steel door, the children found themselves in a huge, smooth-walled, hemispheric cavern. While the first room they had found themselves in had been roughly a third as large as their classroom, this chamber could easily fit an entire floor of the academy. Small lines of script ran across the arched ceiling of the cave, glowing softly with a gentle, white light that illuminated the entire space. To the group's left, a still pond occupied nearly a quarter of the chamber, while the space to their right was crowded with large wooden crates and a stone table, at which Orochimaru sat. On the far side of the cavern, wooden posts and training dummies had been set up sporadically, roughly mirroring the layout at the academy's practice grounds.

"Welcome to your new academy," the pale man drawled as the group looked around warily. Rising, he stalked forward, relishing the subtle tensing as the children recoiled from his presence. "This is where you'll eat, sleep, and work as we seek to uncover the secrets of your clans' jutsu together." Releasing a pulse of chakra to silence the objections he could see Sasuke-kun and the Inuzuka brat forming, the Sannin continued. "This area behind me contains everything you should need to sustain yourselves for the next several months." Looking pointedly at Sakura and Naruto, he continued, "I've even been so kind as to make sure there is enough for our unexpected guests."

Orochimaru paused, as though waiting for the children to respond, perhaps to object or maybe to thank him for his 'generosity'. Silence was the only answer, and the snake summoner smirked at the clenched teeth and strained faces of his captives before continuing. "In the box immediately beside the table, I've placed your school uniforms. Tomorrow morning, I will return, and I expect to find each of you dressed appropriately. If you choose to violate our dress code, there will be consequences. We will begin our studies with an examination to see what you know before we start learning new clan jutsu." With another pulse of chakra, the pale man began to sink into the floor. "One last thing," he offered as his torso slipped from sight, "There is no way out of this space, save when I allow it. I recommend you get a good night's sleep, as we have much to do in the morning." With one last leer at the tense frames, Orochimaru disappeared, leaving an ominous wish to hang in the still air. "Sleep well…"

When they could again breathe normally, the children shared a look and made their way over to the table. "Hey, he didn't actually make us any dinner!" Chōji exclaimed in frustration as he sniffed and glanced around, trying to find a ready-made meal. When a second search failed to reveal anything, the hefty boy pulled Kiba and Naruto ahead and deposited the blond on a stone seat.

The Akimichi heir was about to make his way to go digging in the crates when Ino spoke up. "Wait, Chōji! We have to talk first, and then you can look for food." The rest of the children seated themselves at the table, and the Yamanaka heiress looked around expectantly. "So, what do we do now?"

"We figure out how we're going to get out of here!" Naruto supplied confidently. "No way am I going to let Snake-face get away with this."

"And how are you going to stop him, genius?" Kiba responded bitingly. "Orochimaru said there was no way out, and he's way too strong for us to fight. You're barely-living proof of that."

"You're just going to give up?" Naruto challenged. "Jiji and Kaka-nii and your parents are going to come get us, even if we don't get out on our own. Don't you want to tell them that you kept trying to escape and come home? We're going to be ninja after all; we can't just wait for someone else to rescue us!"

"I wasn't saying we should give up," Kiba verbally retreated, a bit sullen as he considered Naruto's point. "I just don't want to get stabbed because we picked a stupid fight we can't win."

"Orochimaru probably won't be willing to hurt most of us as badly as he hurt Naruto," Shikamaru offered, drawing the table's attention. Seeing the confused stares, he sighed in exasperation. "Remember what we were talking about before he showed up the first time? The seven of us have ties with powerful, living clans who can teach us. Naruto and Sakura don't. Orochimaru has only talked about learning our clan jutsu. He mentioned 'unexpected guests' just now as he was looking at them. I think that he was expecting to have the seven of us," here he gestured across the table at the rest of the clan children, "show up, and he got Naruto and Sakura too. For whatever reason, the person who kidnapped us must have taken them by accident, maybe because they were in our groups during the camping exercise."

Picking up on the logic, Shino continued. "Then, in Orochimaru's mind, Naruto and Sakura are unnecessary. The reason is that their pain presents him no risk or loss of what he initially hoped to gain by taking us."

Sakura's face paled notably as Shikamaru nodded his agreement, though everyone at the table looked grim. "Given Naruto's little show earlier and how he said he'd protect us, he'll probably be the first target of any 'punishment'," the young Nara suggested. "Orochimaru might switch over to Sakura, if hurting Naruto doesn't get the results he wants, though."

"So, why does he want us to change clothes?" Chōji asked as he rose from his seat and lifted the lid of the crate to draw out a tan tunic that strongly resembled Orochimaru's own garb. Scowling at the outfit, he laid it on the center of the table. "We can do our jutsu in our own clothes just fine. This looks stupid, too."

"I think I know why," Ino offered bitterly. "Daddy told me that we do the same thing in Konoha when we take an enemy ninja prisoner. We take away their clothes and give them new ones to show that they can't fight against us. He said it kind of makes them forget who they are and makes it easier to get them to do other things they don't want later."

"That's it!" Naruto shouted excitedly, cutting across the conversation as he pointed across the table at a startled Ino. "That's what I was trying to think of earlier, to tell you guys why I wouldn't cut you!" Quickly looking around the table, the whiskered boy realized that only Shikamaru's face showed any comprehension of his point, and even that was faint, so he continued. "I was telling the snake that I don't belong to him, dattebayo! Yeah, my scroll and picture were important, but what's more important is what those things reminded me of. They helped me remember that I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage. If I hurt you guys to keep that stuff safe, I wouldn't be the future Hokage anymore, because that's not what the Hokage does. I have to do Hokage things now if I'm going to be Hokage one day. So, I'm going to protect you guys no matter what, because that's what the Hokage does, 'ttebayo." Pleased with his explanation, the whiskered boy folded his arms and nodded definitively.

"… that actually makes a lot of sense," Ino admitted after staring slack-jawed at her fellow blond for a second. "It's even pretty cool. How did a baka like you come up with that?"

Naruto scowled at the insult, but Sakura spoke before the whiskered boy could respond in kind. "But how does any of that help us?" The pinkette glanced around the group, silently pleading for the clan children to have an answer. "If we don't do what he says, he'll hurt Naruto again, maybe worse this time. You almost died, Naruto, and Orochimaru seemed like he thought you were going to." The small girl shivered as she imagined getting stabbed and bleeding as much as the whiskered blond had. "If he hurts you worse or changes his mind and does that to any of the rest of us, we really will die."

"No." Naruto's voice, normally bright and happy, suddenly took on a deeper, strangely solemn tone. "I said I'd protect you all, and that's what I'm going to do, 'ttebayo. We're going home, and when we do, we're going to know that we worked as hard as we could to fight against this snake while we kept each other safe." Looking around at the scared faces, he paraphrased something he had heard Jiji say: "'Konoha's strong because everyone in the village takes care of each other.' We aren't in the village right now, but we can still act like that, dattebayo. I need all your help to figure out how we can take care of each other and work together to get home!"

There was silence for a moment as the children contemplated the blond's words. Finally, a gentle voice broke the quiet. "A-ano, I think that Naruto-kun's right." Hinata ducked her head and blushed at the megawatt grin Naruto flashed in her direction. "We need to take care of each other so that we can all go home safely."

"Sounds good to me," Kiba chimed in, his earlier recalcitrance apparently forgotten. "A pack's always stronger together." Reaching down, he hefted Akamaru off the floor and placed the small puppy on his head. "If someone else works on dinner, Akamaru and I can look around to see if we can find a way out."

"I will join you in exploring the cavern, Kiba," Shino offered. "My kikaichū can inspect spaces that are impossible for you and Akamaru to access. Together, I believe we can identify any potential escape routes from our prison."

"We girls will see what's in the boxes," Ino declared as she captured Sakura and Hinata's hands in her own. "Chōji, I see a big pot over there. Can you boys fill it up with some water from that pool? I bet we'll find some rice in these crates, so we need water to cook it in. Sasuke-kun can light a fire to boil the water, too."

"Hold on, so that's it?" Sasuke cut in as the group moved to disperse, dark eyes flashing in irritation as he gestured across the stone table at a bewildered Naruto. "All this baka has done is show that he can stab himself and make Orochimaru mad. He gave up on being part of his minor clan the same day he got into it, and he can't even stand up by himself right now. Why are you all willing to go along with what he says?"

"Oy!" Naruto cut off the indignant replies from around the table. "I can too stand up!" To prove his point, the blond placed his hands on the table, wincing as his bandaged palm pressed against the unyielding rock, and pushed himself to his feet. Slowly, he took unsteady steps around the table until he had made his way over to the pale Uchiha. "If you have a better idea, I want to hear it, Sasuke. Jiji says good ideas can come from anywhere, even someone who's being a butt like you." Blue eyes flashed in annoyance. "I didn't give up on being an Uzumaki, either. My clan specialized in fūinjutsu, and I still know how to make that seal." The blond rubbed his head with his unbandaged hand as his face screwed up in a confused sadness. His voice lost its steely edge to be replaced with a gently pleading tone as the whiskered boy tried to make his classmate understand. "I just couldn't hurt my family to protect that stuff, 'ttebayo. You're all my family, okay? Even if you don't know it yet."

"Hmph," the raven-haired boy pushed away from the table and began to lift the lid from the nearest crate to distract himself from the uncomfortable tightness in his chest. "I'll help get dinner ready, but don't think I'm going to go along with your 'happy family' plan. I'm an Uchiha, and that's the only family I need." As Sasuke turned away from the crestfallen faces, he ignored the pit that had formed in his stomach and comforted himself with the thought that his father would be proud of his decision.

"Hokage-sama"

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked up from the report he had spent the last ten minutes attempting to read to see two ANBU agents kneeling at attention on the far side of his desk. "Rise and remove your masks," the Hokage commanded, immediately setting the scroll aside to give his full attention to his wary operatives. "I need to speak with you as people, not as shinobi."

The old man's words did nothing to ease the tension in the room, but the two young men stood and removed their masks. The dog masked ANBU pulled back his hood so that impossibly spiky silver hair was free to spring back to its normal position and slid his porcelain mask over his left eye to cut out stimuli and ease the chakra drain of his Sharingan. Beside Kakashi, the weasel mask gave way to the expressionless face of Uchiha Itachi, whose gaunt, pale skin contrasted drastically with his smooth, ebony hair. "Hokage-sama," Kakashi began hesitantly, "it was quite a surprise to get your messenger hawk. We were putting the final touches on our disguises before entering the Land of Grass when it caught up with us. What happened?"

Silently, the aged leader rose from his desk and placed his hand against the wall of his study. After a brief flare of chakra, a sealing array flared to life, cutting off all noise from outside the room, and a formerly invisible seam traced out a square on the wall. Sarutobi pulled open the newly revealed vault and withdrew a completely black scroll. Closing the safe, he made his way back to his desk and set the document in front of the unmasked agents. "I apologize for calling you two back to the village just after you left," the Sandaime finally answered. "Though you would have been invaluable in our efforts to infiltrate Iwa, a new tragedy has struck, and I did not want news to reach you from any source other than myself. I have sent Yamori and Neko to take your place on the mission to the Land or Earth." The two young men nodded hesitantly as their leader continued. "There is no easy way to say this: your brothers' class was attacked during their outing yesterday. They, along with seven of their classmates, are missing, presumably taken by Orochimaru."

Both young men lurched forward at that comment, concern overriding their composure. Kakashi ripped open the scroll's wax seal and unfurled the parchment as wide as he could reach. The Hatake felt his blood run cold at the sight of Naruto's smiling whiskered face grinning up at him alongside eight other young photos. Beside him, Kakashi felt Itachi stiffen and traced the Uchiha's suddenly crimson gaze to a smiling, pale boy with the same midnight hair and eyes as the Uchiha heir.

As Kakashi continued to unfurl the scroll, the young geniuses tore through the information: parental descriptions of a proposed academy survival exercise, reports from the Barrier Division and their Messenger Branch of unexplained chakra usage and a campsite that might have been mistaken for a battleground, the hospital's diagnosis of the unconscious children recovered from Training Ground 94, updates of Funeno Daikoku's critical condition, and the morgue's findings from an autopsy of a charred corpse left at the field. Coming to the end of the document, they looked up at the Hokage, whose face had drooped with sadness as he waited for them to finish. "Hokage-sama," Itachi began while Kakashi began a more thorough reread of the scroll. "How did this happen? There are seven children here whose parents lead one of Konoha's clans, to say nothing of Uzumaki Naruto; they should have had more protection than a single Chūnin instructor."

"That," Sarutobi answered slowly, "is another part of why I called you back, Itachi-kun." Fixing his suddenly steely gaze on the young Uchiha, the Hokage spoke slowly. "Your clan has produced many of the most talented genjutsu practitioners the village has ever seen, and you excel even among them. The Sharingan offers you a tremendous advantage in that regard, though I understand that you've also studied extensively to build skills that don't rely on your dōjutsu." The Uchiha heir nodded, confusion working its way across his face, and the Sandaime continued. "You know that long-term genjutsu leave residual traces on the psyche, which can be used to identify when and how the enchantment took hold. What I need to know is if your studies have found evidence of any method by which someone could place a genjutsu and leave indicators that would incorrectly identify the source, hiding the true markers so effectively that not even Yamanaka Inoichi-dono would be able to unearth them?"

The young Uchiha stilled, contemplating the question for nearly thirty seconds before he refocused on the stern, worried face of the Hokage. Mentally weighing his answer for another second, the boy spoke haltingly. "Hokage-sama, I know of no genjutsu, save those cast with a fully-evolved Sharingan, that would be able to deceive Yamanaka-sama completely."

Sarutobi nodded slowly at the statement, despair written plainly across his face. "It is as I feared, then," the old man mumbled quietly. Shaking himself, the Sandaime reassembled his composure and regarded his subordinates. "A powerful genjutsu was placed on Funeno Daikoku-san several weeks ago, in preparation for this attack. As far as Yamanaka-dono has been able to determine, it motivated Daikoku-san to plan a survival activity for his class at one of the village's most remote, least travelled training grounds. Additionally, it led him to believe that he had requested two squads of hidden ANBU escorts for the class. The academy's administrators were similarly manipulated, believing that everything had been properly handled for this outing." Seeing the way that Itachi's jaw set and Kakashi's eye narrowed dangerously, Hiruzen allowed himself a grimace before confirming what the young men likely suspected. "When Yamanaka-dono dispelled the genjutsu and attempted to discern who had cast it, he dug through multiple false markers to find the image of a slowly-spinning Sharingan."

There was a moment of silence as the pair digested this news before the Hokage continued. "Itachi-kun, I want to believe that no one would use their family this way. However, the evidence suggests that the kidnappers had help from inside Konoha, and your testimony matches my own understanding that this level of manipulation is only possible for someone with an advanced Sharingan. This, combined with what you have previously shared about your clansmen's… dissatisfaction regarding the current state of affairs in the village, leads me to an uncomfortable conclusion. You know your clan, its members, and its methods better than anyone else I can trust. Is it possible that any of your family might have had a hand in helping my wayward student plan this kidnapping?"

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi finished rereading the scroll and reinserted himself into the conversation as Itachi lapsed into silence to consider the unsettling question. "I accept the mission to form and lead the rescue team." Sarutobi leaned back in his chair and regarded the silver-haired man, clearly expecting him to explain himself after such an outburst.

Seeing the Sandaime's raised eyebrow, Kakashi straightened to attention and offered his reasoning. "You called us back for more than just telling us personally about the kidnapping. Family tragedy isn't enough to recall someone from an active mission, especially an ANBU infiltration assignment. The world may be more peaceful now than it has been for years, but this kind of news is still far from rare." The silver-haired young man turned to regard his subordinate before he continued. "You can't assign a clan shinobi to lead the rescue. The clan heads are powerful and clever enough to lead the team, but you need them here to help strengthen village defenses and manage their clans. You also can't assign any other clan shinobi to lead the mission, because that would be perceived as favoritism and would rile up those clans whose Jōnin weren't chosen for the task. I imagine there is plenty of unrest in the village as people assign blame for this tragedy. If we assume that one of the motivations of this attack is to subvert Konoha's defenses, that tension is probably exactly what the traitors, whoever they are, want," Kakashi continued. "You could dispatch an ANBU squad whose members were known only to you, but such a brazen attack against Konoha requires a visible response. Jiraiya-sama has the skillset and the fame, but he maintains the village's intelligence network. Removing him to lead the recovery effort would leave us even more vulnerable to threats, both external and internal." The young man squared his shoulders, "I have everything you need. No clan ties, some level of fame, power to defeat most enemies, and" here his mismatched eyes narrowed, and the air became heavy with his roiling chakra, "personal motivation to see my little brother and his friends brought home." Almost to himself, he whispered, "I can't fail him. Not after he chose me. Not when he gave me one last chance."

The Sandaime's tired face softened for a moment in approval and sympathy as he regarded his soldiers. "You are correct, Kakashi," he acknowledged. "There are dozens of forensic and scouting teams scouring the countryside at this moment, though I have little hope that they will find anything useful. In order to retrieve these children, we will need a dedicated team whose sole mission is to find where Orochimaru has taken them. Once you find where my former student has made his lair, we can assemble an assault force to extract the children from his clutches." Turning, the old man regarded the Uchiha heir with an expectant gaze, "And Itachi-kun?"

"You asked me about genjutsu," Itachi supplied distractedly, thoughts still focused inward. "That was not the reason you recalled me, though. More importantly, you needed me to assess whether my clan may have had a hand in these events." The boy paused for a moment before he looked up, meeting Sarutobi's sympathetic gaze. "Hokage-sama, while I cannot provide evidence to prove his guilt, I also cannot deny that I would believe my father to have helped Orochimaru orchestrate this attack. This weekend, he advised Sasuke to avoid Uzumaki Naruto and said that we all had roles to play in the future before implying that Naruto-kun's is an early death because he 'loses control'. The chaos within the village following this abduction will likely mask any covert actions my clan might take to strengthen their position."

The air temperature in the room dropped precipitously at Itachi's revelation, and the Sandaime's face fell in disappointment. "I see," the old man replied wearily. "It seems then that I will be forced to deny Kakashi's imminent request to recruit you for his rescue operation." Straightening, Sarutobi eyed the pair, his voice assuming an air of command that had been built by long years of experience leading in the wake of tragedy. "Hatake Kakashi, your mission is to lead the retrieval effort for our missing children. You may recruit any standard-duty shinobi within the village that you see fit." The silver-haired young man bowed to accept the charge, and the Hokage turned to his other soldier. "Uchiha Itachi, you are one of the only people who might be able to dissuade your family from their current, destructive course of action. Your mission is to help me ensure that, upon the successful completion of Kakashi's mission, those children still have a home to return to."

Rising from his desk, the Shinobi no Kami flared his chakra, lowering the wards so that the bustle of administrative work beyond the door was once again audible. "Now," he led the way to the door as Kakashi and Itachi donned their masks, raised their hoods, and assumed flanking positions on either side of their leader, "let's get you both the tools you need to complete those missions successfully."