"A hearth warms but a wildfire will devour everything in its path. Too much willpower is a dangerous thing – a village of zealots is a disaster waiting to happen. We look for a spark in our ninja. The Apostate was an inferno."
–Hashirama Senju, discussing Madara Uchiha's defection
-O-
Tsunade Senju had been inside the office of every Hokage of Konohagakure, which was a rare thing indeed.
Once upon a time her grandfather had sat behind the huge mahogany desk. He would treat with visiting dignitaries, plan this new building or that new project, allocate funds, arrange missions, defuse threats and still somehow make time for his only grandchild to sit on his lap and marvel at the view from the windows. Tsunade had been too young to remember much, but she recalled gentle hands setting a heavy hat on her head and the sound of warm laughter.
The village which would become the Leaf was once a sleepy collection of farmer's houses. In the first years after Hashirama Senju and his rival-turned-ally Madara Uchiha had joined their clans and founded Konohagakure, more than half the buildings had been built by Hashirama personally, and the Hokage Tower was no exception. Back then it was smaller, of course, but so were the houses around it. Walls of polished wood were the norm rather than the exception, and so it was in the tower as well. The Hokage had looked out over his village, felt the sun on his face, and smiled, for he knew life was good.
His brother, Tobirama Senju, was very different. What was once a ceremonial and administrative seat for the Hokage and his closest advisors was turned into a bustling hub of activity. Four empty floors were filled with secretaries and organisers, and when that wasn't enough six new floors were built. The specifics had never really interested Tsunade, but somehow the architects had moved the highest parts of the tower upwards and inserted more rooms underneath. It was a fitting metaphor for Tobirama's entire reign.
The Second Hokage was stern where the First Hokage was kind. He lacked his brother's diplomacy and, although in combat he was only a hair's breadth less dangerous, high-level military strategy never came easily to him. None of that mattered, though, because Tobirama was an administrator to the bone. He turned Konohagakure from a personal fiefdom into a functioning city-state. The yearly budget tripled, then tripled again, but all that money was getting results. Tolls and taxes flowed into the village's coffers and the people shared in the wealth. Ninja could retire after two decades of service, and there was a hospital to treat serious or long-term conditions free of charge. Instead of dying on battlefields when their bodies started to fail, Konohagakure's fighters could look forward to spending time with friends and family while still young enough to enjoy their retirement.
Tobirama's office was a very different beast to Hashirama's. Visitors were being handled by the diplomatic corps. Mission assignments were streamlined and rarely crossed the Hokage's desk. The treasury processed day-to-day funding, and the Academy with its associated training programs meant hour-long daily briefings on the state of the education system were replaced by weekly summary reports. A handful of trusted advisors made up an informal council that gathered, processed and analysed the flood of information that poured into the tower, and at its center stood the Hokage himself, always ready to wield laws and regulations where the knife alone would fail.
The first Hokage had united a handful of clans behind him, but it was a transient thing kept together more by personal loyalty than anything else. Under the second Hokage, the ninja of the Leaf were welded into a cohesive whole. Konohagakure was the only village that could boast that it had never had an entire clan try to leave. Part of that change involved turning the Hokage Tower into a symbol of unity, wealth and strength, and so tapestries and maps hung from the walls, and gilded sculptures mixed with exotic gifts adorned the desk and tables.
It had been a cold day when Tsunade first learned about ANBU. Sarutobi, still just a jounin back then, had business with the Hokage and he'd taken his team along. Tobirama was wearing his formal robes and hat, every inch the ruler of the village, though he winked at her when she entered the room. At sixteen, Tsunade was a decade past the point where she'd been calling him 'Unkie Tobi', but the memory had still made her smile.
As always, Tobirama had new plans and strategies he wanted to outline. That day's goal had been to organise and formalise the so-called 'Loyalist' faction, made up of ninja who were willing to take low-paying missions in service to the village itself rather than the more lucrative assignments coming from outsiders. The Loyalists were a small but growing group, and their influence was spreading fast. The issue was, Tobirama explained, that the Loyalists were becoming a critical component of the village's safety. The faction as a whole was important now. It wasn't a group that could be shunted off into an existing department, or given to a subcommittee to manage. Their power would have to be bound tightly to the Hokage personally. He had drawn up some plans, and even come up with a name, but he wanted Sarutobi to look them over. After all, he explained, Hiruzen was Tobirama's choice for the first leader of ANBU, reporting directly to Tobirama himself.
Once Hiruzen claimed the hat from his former teacher, the Hokage's office changed again. Hiruzen complained often about the distance between himself and the rest of the village. He made the space cozy and welcoming instead of imperious and distant. While the village grew around him, Hiruzen cultivated an image as a caring leader, always ready to lend a kind ear.
It would have been easier for Tsunade if that had all been a front – if the Hokage had been running a scheme of some kind, pretending to care when all along he only sought to keep control of the village and its ninja. But Hiruzen really did want to, for example, assign some of the genin missions so he could see the children grow up.
Some of his other desires were harder to swallow.
ANBU grew from two dozen ninja to nearly a hundred, and their missions grew darker. All three of the Sannin took a stint in the secretive organisation, and none of them liked what they saw. Except perhaps for Orochimaru, who took too much of a liking to the job, and look how that turned out. Hands-on experience with some of the worst parts of ninja life was the reason that after forty years – two regular ninja careers, served back-to-back – Tsunade finally quit.
Hiruzen hadn't liked it one bit, but he didn't have a leg to stand on. Tsunade had worked twice her due, passed on all the skills that she felt like sharing, and had lost too many friends and family to count. And so she left and took up drinking and gambling to pass the time.
Visits to Konohagakure were rare in the decades that followed, and mostly involved checking in on a handful of old friends. She met Minato – the son that Jiraiya had never had, could never have – and paid her respects to him in his new role as Fourth Hokage. Hiruzen, now an advisor, looked ten years younger in his retirement. Minato hadn't gotten around to redecorating yet, and after his death Tsunade had stayed away from the village entirely.
Until a blond girl with too many ideas and not enough muscle talked her into coming home.
When she came back, ANBU was much smaller – a mere fifty ninja, most of whom served for a year or two before rotating out again. It took some detailed questioning of Jiraiya to find out what had happened, and Tsunade had been angry enough to smash up quite a nice bar on the outskirts of town. Almost half of ANBU had been moved 'off the books' into a part of the organisation that used to be staffed by civilians. The name was changed often to throw any potential spies off the scent, but a total of forty chunin and jounin were part of the so-called 'Root' division under Danzo Shimura.
Tsunade had stormed into Hiruzen's home, ready to drag him out and beat some sense into him. Instead he gave her three classified mission scrolls from his personal archive. One involved stopping a Mist plot to assassinate half the nobles of Fire Country and blame Konohagakure. The other two were less direct, but also featured village-ending threats that needed to be smothered in the crib before they could grow. The intelligence for all three came from Root's web of informants and spies, and that bitter truth was enough to make Tsunade back down.
"I sleep poorly, knowing what sins I have allowed in the name of the village," Hiruzen told her that night. "But if Root were gone I would not dare sleep at all."
It hadn't sat well then and it didn't sit well now. Any ninja village was built with the mortar of a hundred necessary evils, but Root sowed the seeds of too many enmities for Tsunade's liking. If the extent of the Leaf's hidden spy network was ever revealed, even their allies would consider declaring war. It was an argument she'd made over and over, but unless she wanted to force Hiruzen out and take over as Hokage there was no way to make that change.
As she stood in the Hokage's office once more, and saw how ancient her erstwhile teacher looked, Tsunade wondered if there would soon be another face behind the desk.
Three of the Hokage's students had learned to extend their lifespans indefinitely, each following his or her own path. Orochimaru took from others, Jiraiya had a weird pact going on with his summons, and Tsunade liked to think her method was, at its core, about self-reflection and understanding. The Hokage himself, however, hadn't managed the same. If he wanted to, he might be able to use Orochimaru's body-snatching technique. Luckily that was a level of moral bankruptcy he had never reached.
Despite Hiruzen Sarutobi's impressive self-control, he couldn't quite hide his surprise at their entrance. Behind weary eyes, the gears were already turning as he considered the situation, but Tsunade wasn't in the mood for political games. That wasn't why she had returned to Konohagakure.
"We are here to plan for the permanent retirement of Danzo Shimura from his role as Director of the Root intelligence division, following a critical failure of leadership," Jiraiya announced. It was a challenge, that much was plain for all to see, and once thrown down it could not be picked up again. The statement filled the room with a simmering brew of fury and, beneath it, fear.
For a split second, Tsunade felt the direct weight of the Hokage's anger on her, but she brushed it away. Her companions shuddered in turn as they each felt his displeasure, but none backed down. Tsunade was more concerned with words than stares. Whatever the Hokage's reply, it would show how he planned to handle their demands.
Slow but sure fingers filled his pipe, and a press of his thumb lit the fragrant tobacco. There were other herbs in there as well, carefully hidden, that would help with mental acuity and some very specific applications of chakra. The pipe's main use, though, was to stall. Hiruzen Sarutobi blew out a long stream of smoke before he spoke. His words fell like slabs of lead and not so much as an eyelash twitched. Apart from the mouth, he might as well have been carved out of stone.
"The tertiary ANBU intelligence division under Councilman Danzo, codenamed Root, has undergone a recent audit and is not due any restructuring in the near future."
Jiraiya rolled his eyes, shoulders tightening. "That's a bullshit non-answer and you know it."
"Why have you brought your friends here, Jiraiya?" the Hokage asked. There was a bite to the question, and not without reason.
Where others might have shown guilt or embarrassment, Jiraiya stood steady. "They already knew about the Yakushi boy's allegiances. All of us are here out of concern for the village. If you have a way to assuage those worries, this saves you having four separate conversations."
"And if you decide I don't?"
"If you can't convince any of us that you're right to do this, perhaps you should reconsider your choice of actions."
It was a very diplomatic way to phrase things, but that didn't make it less of a threat. The tension in the room rose.
"So I am to answer to you now, is that how this works? The office of the Hokage suborned to the whims of a quartet of jounin?" the Hokage asked.
When had their relationship become so bitter, Tsunade wondered? Long ago she and Jiraiya had been willing to swallow their anger, and obey Hiruzen even if they didn't agree with him.
"The office of the Hokage has duties," Jiraiya countered. "If you are not fulfilling them, by what right do you claim to stop us from doing so in your place?"
"My duties–"
"–are the same as those of my ancestors," Tsunade interrupted, quietly furious. "You might recall them, dearest teacher. Hashirama Senju and Tobirama Senju passed down responsibilities as well as rights, and chief among those is that when there is a gaping fucking hole in the village's defences it gets fixed. The person who let it happen is replaced. If you refuse to do that, then you ask us to bend our necks for the blade of a traitor. Orochimaru is a real threat to this village, as you should know. Keeping Danzo in his current role is an open invitation to the Forsaken Snake. Take it from someone who knew him." The ironic twist in that last sentence was missed by nobody; the three people who knew Orochimaru best were all in the room, after all.
In the silence that followed, Tsunade wondered if someone was going to break under the pressure and lash out. She wasn't sure if she would intervene, or how. Everything about the afternoon was a horrible snarl of spywork and politics that no sane person would want to get involved in, and yet the stakes were too high to sit this one out.
The Hokage sneered at Tsunade and Jiraiya, ignoring the other two jounin. "You're insinuating that I am not keeping the village safe. Because I won't agree to your staffing changes."
"Root is supposed to be near-impossible to infiltrate. Every agent is thoroughly vetted, then kept under watch by other agents for months before joining, and there are interrogations on top of that, plus regular sweeps through the ranks to look for anyone whose loyalties are wavering. They have a fucking Yamanaka! I know the two of you go way back, but face it – Danzo's too old for this. Keep him on as an advisor for a few months if you absolutely must, but he cannot be in charge any more!" By the end of his speech, Jiraiya was shouting, but Hiruzen's face was still carved from stone.
There was a knock from behind them and Tsunade wondered who could have forced their way past the ANBU guard, and why. Could it be Danzo?
The door opened and Asuma Sarutobi stepped in. That was… both better and worse than Danzo appearing, since Asuma could create an almighty political mess if he chose to do so. The tension in his frame didn't match the mild tone of his voice. "What's going on in here?"
Guy was the one to answer. "Orochimaru's infiltrated Root."
"What?" Asuma asked, eyebrows rising in confusion.
How to explain? Root was an underground network of informants that co-opted other villages' ninja. No, that sounded too clean. Root was a band of blackmailers, extortionists and murderers. Too emotional. Root was… a Leaf ninja disguised as a merchant, wheedling some sensitive information out of the civilian sister of a Sand ninja, then using that as blackmail to convince the Sand ninja to hand over data on guard schedules. The guard schedule data then allowed the targeted assassination of a weaker chunin with political connections, putting a stain on the record of the ninja in charge of the patrols. She was a promising jounin with a bias against Konohagakure but the death of one of her men meant she wasn't considered for the rank of captain, leading to the promotion of another candidate with a carefully-hidden opium addiction. Said other candidate was funding the habit by selling secrets on the side to what he thought was a Grass ninja, but that Grass ninja had also been co-opted by another Root agent. Once the Sand ninja had outlived his usefulness, a contact in Lightning received an anonymous tip-off and cleaned up the loose end, in order to collect the bounty on the man's head.
The net result: two dead Sand ninja, a marginalising of an anti-Konohagakure voice in the village's command structure, and a trove of data on Sand combat readiness. Never mind that Sand was an ally of Leaf, and that that level of meddling was normally reserved for villages at war with each other.
Root was a betrayal of every treaty Konohagakure had ever signed, a dagger held at arm's length so the blood would never reach the man who wielded it.
"Root is–" Guy began, but he was interrupted.
"I know what Root is. What I want to know is how Orochimaru got his hooks in, and why the Hokage's office is two angry words away from a fight to the death." Left unspoken was that Asuma was still evaluating whose side he should be on. Tsunade was almost as impressed by his control as she was taken aback by the lack of deference towards his grandfather.
"A senior agent in Root was also Orochimaru's creature and had been for years," Jiraiya said. "It's not an operation, he was genuinely turned. Danzo missed it and by this point the whole group will be crawling with traitors. He can't be trusted to weed them out. And your grandfather is refusing to remove Danzo from his role."
"The Hokage," Asuma stressed the words, "can speak for himself."
Hiruzen stood and placed his hat on the desk. There was a strange light in his eyes, and for a moment he just stood and watched them all. "I knew about the spy, and allowed it."
Over the next split second every single chakra signature vanished. To Tsunade's senses the room was empty, a common precursor to high-level ninja fights. Kakashi's Sharingan came out and Guy's weights dropped to the ground. Behind her, Asuma drew his longknives and moved to block the exit. She exchanged a look with Jiraiya and they split, circling their old teacher, while Kakashi and Guy approached from the front. And then her old teammate stopped and raised a hand, warning the others back.
"No you didn't," Jiraiya said slowly. "You're lying to see how we react. Which doesn't make sense, unless…"
"You wanted to know if the trust between us is entirely broken," Tsunade finished for him. It was sobering and she straightened out of the brawler's crouch she had fallen into.
The Hokage relaxed as well. The lines on his face were deeper than ever; he looked like he had one foot in the grave. "Either you would be reassured by my personal handling of the matter, or it would alarm you more. I needed to find out which it was. It's clear now that I no longer have the support of the upper echelons of the Leaf's ninja. Including, it seems, my own flesh and blood."
Despite the harsh words, Asuma was grim as he met the Hokage's gaze. "I've put the village over my family before, and I'll do it again."
"I think I speak for all of us when I say that some of your choices tonight left us disappointed," Jiraiya said to Hiruzen. "On the other hand, it's good to know that there are plenty of ninja with quick wits and a hint of fire about them."
The Hokage raised his voice. "Setting that aside for a moment, I want to know who you think Root should answer to instead."
Tsunade frowned. Something about the situation felt off to her. Hiruzen would never back down in a situation like this, and re-opening the topic of Danzo's replacement was definitely a surrender of control. So why–
"The reason I ask, you see," the Hokage continued, "is that Danzo Shimura has been dead for half an hour."
"We had nothing to do with that," Kakashi said evenly, before the information had had a chance to sink in with anyone else. He stood ramrod-straight and his Sharingan was tucked away again. The Hokage studied his face and then nodded, satisfied.
Tsunade cared more about the specifics. "How was he killed?"
"Danzo's assassination was carried out in three stages." The Hokage took another pull of his pipe. His voice was clinical as he described the murder of one of his oldest friends. "He was tracked to one of Konohagakure's underground bunkers, where he was co-ordinating with a group of Root agents. Shortly after the meeting ended and he was left alone in the room, a poison was applied that eroded Danzo's ability to use chakra. I don't know how it was delivered yet, which makes me uncomfortable. An assailant cut his throat, then removed his arm and half his face before fleeing. I suspect it was a single attacker, since there would be no need for more ninja if the poison succeeded, and if it had failed, well – Danzo would not have been slain by weight of numbers."
There was silence as they digested the information. The attack had been carefully planned and then gone off without a hitch, most likely at very short notice. The timing was suspect as well. Either someone in Root had noticed Jiraiya's snooping, or one of the four people who knew about Kabuto's status as a double agent had passed the information on. Either way, a couple of infiltrators wouldn't be able to pull off a move like that – so the Hokage had good reason to suspect either Leaf ninja were involved, or another village had riddled their ranks with traitors.
"If none of you had a hand in this, it has grave implications for the village's security. The fucking head of an intelligence division should not have been butchered in broad daylight!" He slammed his fist on the table. "In some ways, this cements Danzo's failures. But it could have been any target deemed valuable enough by our foes. It still might be, if they strike again, and unless we cut out the rot they will."
Each of them, Tsunade knew, would have different worries. Her former teammate was wondering if he'd been thorough enough in purging threats to Naruto. Kakashi was an open book in some ways – Sasuke was an incredibly valuable target for kidnapping, and every other major or minor village would celebrate his demise, so that was where his thoughts would turn. For Guy, it would be the volatile Hyuga situation. Despite his branch status, Neji could still lose an eye if he was beaten and kept alive long enough for the transplant process. That made him a tempting target for Cloud especially.
But Tsunade herself? Her closest friends had died long ago, either due to enemy action or old age. If someone tried to get at her by targeting Jiraiya or Hiruzen, it was going to go very poorly. Her goddaughter Shizune could handle herself well enough, and was part of ANBU to boot. The Hokage's wits had been honed by decades of high-stakes diplomacy but Tsunade had very few handles he could use to manipulate her by.
She clapped her hands together once, drawing everyone's attention. "A crippling failure in the village's security system is not going to be fixed in a single evening. This has been an eventful quarter-hour, and tensions are high. We can take some time to consider the matter, come up with new approaches, and reconvene tomorrow at dawn."
The group agreed it was a good idea and by the time the last of them left the Hokage's office the tension had largely faded from the air. They had the air of men and women about to tackle an unpleasant task: not an impossible job, but one that would take a lot of time and effort. Tsunade had known her suggestion would calm everyone down, but her real reason for a break in proceedings was not so innocent. She had an ally to confer with, and she doubted any of the others would allow a wet-behind-the-ears chunin into the room – or even to be informed of what had occurred. Unluckily for them, this particular chunin would find out anyway.
-O-
Konohagakure General Hospital was a home away from home for Tsunade. Over the decades it had changed, but the backbone remained the same – long hallways of dark polished wood, high-ceilinged rooms with tall windows, nurses and doctors and orderlies all rushing back and forth. And in the middle of all the commotion, for those who knew the pattern well enough, were moments of silence and stillness.
Which was a rather poetic way of saying that Tsunade was meeting her contact in the high-security morgue. Given the subject matter, it was appropriate, after all.
"Thanks for meeting on such short notice," the contact said. She skulked in the corner, cloaked in illusion. It was mostly for her own peace of mind, Tsunade assumed, since the Yamanaka girl had to know Tsunade could see her just fine. "I appreciate there's a lot going on right now."
"Jiraiya's heard about the strikes against Orochimaru," Tsunade said by way of greeting. "Or rather, he's heard rumours about the people carrying them out. I hope you know what you're doing."
Ino shrugged. "Did you redirect him as I suggested?"
"Yes, he still thinks it's Akatsuki doing the attacks. Asuma is intending to take a run at Itachi sometime soon – I don't suppose you had anything to do with that?"
The girl flinched, and Tsunade peered a little closer at her. She did not look well. Stress sat in every inch of her frame, and going by some physiological details she was suffering from chronic sleep shortage. "I have it under control," she lied.
Tsunade showed what kindness she could, and pretended to believe her. "He impressed me today, you know? The Sarutobi boy I knew once upon a time would never have stood up to Hiruzen."
"He's got a long way to go yet," Ino said, and Tsunade didn't have to be a legendary ninja to pick up on the pride in her voice.
"We can have a proper catch up another time – for today, we should stay focused," Tsunade countered. "You have your own set of catspaws, but Root needs a new leader as well, if only to purge Orochimaru's influence."
"Let's talk about the recent vacancy, then," Ino said. Even when nobody could overhear her, she was circumspect about anything even remotely sensitive. Tsunade found it rather adorable, to be honest. Anyone good enough to eavesdrop on them right now wouldn't be fooled by a few coy phrases.
"Need any help with the candidates? I can't promise much in the way of recommendations, but I can give you an in with promising folks who might not trust you yet," Tsunade offered. Her knowledge of the village's ninja was decades out of date, and she had only just begun rebuilding it, but the prestige that came with being once-and-again head of the medic-nin corps was a powerful tool.
Ino shook her head. "I picked a successor already. He's trustworthy, powerful, very organised – and incidentally the one who created the vacancy."
That was impressive. Danzo had been a cagey bastard on the best of days, mean as a mongoose and twice as deadly. Whoever killed him would be a worthy replacement.
"So what's this mystery man's name?"
"Shino Aburame," Ino said.
Tsunade looked Ino in the eyes, looking for any sign of a joke. "He's a genin."
"His team was given a field promotion to Chunin a while back," Ino corrected.
"He's barely a year out of the Academy. He's not ready for this. It's not about how smart he is, or whether he can come out ahead in a fight, he lacks experience to the point that it's crippling." Tsunade kept her voice down, aware they were still in the hospital, but that did little to diminish the effects of her lecture. She didn't doubt that there was more to the plan, but this was a risk-free way of seeing how her ally of convenience handled pressure. "You're throwing him away if you use him like this, and the sheer damage he could do – Root might not survive this! The whole damn village will be at risk, you foolish girl."
Jounin had folded like wet paper under a lesser onslaught, but Ino was cold as ice. "I know, and I agree. Which is why he'll be advised by Anko Mitarashi for a few years before he takes sole control of the department."
That… that could work, just about.
Tsunade paced around the morgue as she thought. The bodies were stowed in the rows of metal drawers, and the hospital's high standards of hygiene were upheld even here, but it was impossible to fully hide the smell. Anko would be able to run Root herself, but Orochimaru had trained her, and the man was incredibly intelligent. He would know her blind spots better than Anko herself, and would be able to run rings around her. Putting a talented up-and-comer on a leash and letting him learn while compensating for her rigidity was a clever solution to a thorny issue.
The more she thought about it, the more convinced Tsunade became that there were no better solutions on the table. It would be a tricky proposition to convince the other jounin of, but she could force it through if she wanted.
"That's acceptable, then," she decided. "What did you do with Danzo's arm and face? And why did you want them in the first place?"
Wordlessly, Ino pulled open the morgue drawer beside her. Rather than an entire body, she revealed… a sharingan eye? Tsunade crossed the distance in an instant, peering at the rest of the body parts lying on a stainless steel plank. There were at least a dozen eyes implanted in hard, wooden flesh.
"That's cold, even for Danzo," Tsunade decided after a few seconds.
Ino looked up at her. "I thought you'd be angrier. He robbed Hashirama's grave for those cells."
"He's not the first and he won't be the last. I had a rummage around there myself, once upon a time. Besides, Hashirama was Hokage first and my grandfather second. If it helped the village, he wouldn't begrudge losing a little of the Senju cancer."
"The Senju cancer?"
"It's not relevant right now, I can explain some other time," Tsunade said. In truth the story was quite short, but it would lead to a dozen other questions that she didn't want to field at the moment. The Senju clan had used wood techniques since there'd been such a clan, but it required bonding with a hostile symbiote that eventually killed the host. No more than one ninja a year tried, and only once a generation did they survive the process and make use of the new techniques.
Hashirama had been one of the few Senju desperate enough to take the gamble in recent times. He'd grafted a hundredfold the usual amount onto his chakra system and then lived for decades more before it grew out of control and killed him. The man was a legend for a reason.
"It might turn out to be relevant to something else I've got in the works. Are you sure you can't share any more information right now?" Ino asked.
"Maybe focus on holding up your end of our little deal before you ask too many questions. Unless you're just leading me on?" It was a petty diversion but it worked wonders, especially after Tsunade threw a glare into the mix.
"Of all the ninja in the world I don't want to cross, you're at the very top of the list," Ino said. Tsunade could tell she was being honest, and scared shitless besides. "I know about the things you can do. You might not leave a trail of blood, but the wreckage of those who opposed you is so much messier than mere gore could ever be."
"That's quite flattering, but I keep that quiet for a reason," Tsunade replied. She wondered which particular victim Ino had come across to be that frightened. Was it the man who had paid for Orochimaru's assassination, back when he'd still been loyal? Or the woman who'd gone after Shizune over some small slight? Normally Tsunade covered her tracks well, but it appeared it wasn't quite well enough.
"Things are progressing well on my end, anyway," the girl added.
If events were proceeding according to schedule then Tsunade was looking at getting her heart's desire inside the decade, which was rather impressive considering she'd thought it entirely out of reach. Ten years wasn't much of a wait for an immortal.
"Anything else?" she asked.
Ino collected herself and then nodded. "Hinata needs to be given more hours at the hospital. I don't care what kind of strings you have to pull, or how little Hiashi likes it, it's critical."
"I could demand answers from you," Tsunade said, tone idle in a way that made the threat land twice as heavy.
The girl shuddered, and nodded again. "It's better for you if you don't know, but you're right – you could force me to tell you everything."
Tsunade considered it for a second before ultimately turning to leave. "Remember that for next time. You've made yourself into a piece in a very dangerous game, but you aren't quite a player yet."
She left Ino Yamanaka shivering alone in the cold morgue, surrounded by the dead.
-O-
A/N: ...and we're back! After a (rather longer than planned) hiatus I've got something posted, some more written and quite a lot planned. I'm currently envisioning updating once a month although if I wind up building a backlog I'll pick up the pace. Given a range of changes in my life circumstances (most of them quite good) I have less time and energy for writing but I don't want to let this story die. No prizes for guessing the titles and POVs of the next two chapters, by the way. After that it's back to the protagonists. I'm estimating this is probably between 30% and 40% of the way through the story as a whole, but fanfiction is notorious for being hard to estimate the length of before it's finished.
