As is his manner of coping, Kakashi throws himself back into his work the moment the morning's mass funeral ends. It was held at daybreak; a simple ceremony that left the cloying scent of incense in the crisp morning air and the salty taste of tears at the back of the throat.

"She had just one job," grumbles a scathing voice somewhere behind a neighbouring house's half-collapsed wall. "But she couldn't even do it. So much for Uzumaki seals."

Blinking sweat out of his eye, Kakashi looks up from the cement foundation he is smoothing with a trowel. Beside him, Rin has her arms crossed over her chest and her feet planted in the wet cement, a scowl growing on her face as she glares at the pair of civilian women walking by.

Oblivious to their audience, the other woman continues to whisper under her breath. "I heard it escaped when she gave birth."

Her companion's face twists in disgust. "Then she should have known better than try for a child in the first place! Risking the entire village like that..."

'Kushina doesn't deserve this kind of condemnation.' The thud of Kakashi's trowel falling onto the grass stalls the anger curling hot in Sakumo's stomach. In the shadow of the half-constructed house's skeleton, Kakashi's face is darkened with fury as he stands. His chakra sparks into static, skipping down the back of his arm and tripping over his knuckles.

"Ne, Hatake-san," his supervisor calls from his seat on a cross-beam. The old civilian eyes the blue lightning fizzling along Kakashi's hand nervously. "You alright there?"

Kakashi shrugs stiffly, sparing the man a fake eye-smile before smothering his chakra back to quiescence. The two women have turned the corner and disappeared. "Just thought I heard something," Kakashi mutters, still glaring daggers after them.

"Ridiculous yapping, that was what it was," Rin growls. "I can't believe it!"

"Um, if you want a break—"

"It's fine."

"—there seems to be someone waiting for you."

Kakashi whips around, only to see none other than Shimura Danzou standing on the narrow dirt road behind the house. The bandaged man smiles, an expression that might have been friendly if not for the person it is attached to. "A moment of your time, Kakashi?"

"O-of course, Danzou-sama."

As Kakashi hurries over to join the elder, Sakumo stares. The little stutter, the innocent widening of his uncovered eye, and the relaxed openness of his body language... It had all fallen into place so quickly. If Sakumo had not seen for himself the outrage that had filled Kakashi that night in his apartment, he would have believed that Kakashi was flattered to have Danzou seek him out.

Behind a sympathetic grimace, Danzou is observing Kakashi closely. "I'm sorry you had to hear that."

Surprised gratitude lights up Kakashi's eye before dulling into a smouldering anger. "You don't have to apologise for their ignorance, Danzou-sama. They don't... They don't understand the burden that Kushina-san carried for them."

"Indeed. It's a thankless job that we have. When there's peace, everyone takes it for granted, but when there is war or disaster, we are on the chopping block. Even our fellow shinobi..." Danzou scoffs derisively, shaking his head. "They turned against your father so quickly too, didn't they?"

Sakumo tenses, blood quickening with anger. "Using me, huh," he fumes as he draws up beside Danzou, scowling. "You damn old fox." Kakashi glances at Danzou from the corner of his eye, expression shuttered.

"War was going to arrive anyway," Danzou continues in a tone of mild irritation, "but they wanted someone to blame."

Kakashi bows his head as if in thanks, and Danzou pats his shoulder in a grandfatherly way.

The elder has a cunning way with words, but Sakumo believes fiercely that Kakashi is just as smart, just as shrewd, and just as determined as Danzou himself. Even if he does not have the benefit of long decades of life experience, Kakashi has matured much over these few years. He'll be able to recognise the old war general's manipulations. He must.

"I wanted to speak to you, actually, Danzou-sama." They've come to a stop at the edge of the district, where a chain-link fence bows under the weight of a mass of wisteria. The cultivated purple flowers separate the civilian residences from the training grounds beyond, where the forests grow dark and untamed.

"Oh?" Danzou murmurs, tucking his hands into his oversized sleeves. His staff has been impaled into the ground beside him.

Kakashi's gaze is distant, lost in the shadowed forests beyond the fence. "I went to Minato-sensei's home several nights ago. I saw all the Mokuton around it. Sandaime-sama said it was the attacker's, but then that can only mean two things..."

"Either a betrayal from our own, or a theft of Konoha's jutsu," Danzou finishes seriously. "I am glad we have this opportunity to speak candidly. You deserve the truth, Kakashi." He sighs deeply and Kakashi straightens in all alertness. "As his student, you must have known that Minato and I had our... disagreements. But I have no doubt he was a good Hokage. If there was anything I could have done to save him, I would have done it. Even if Hiruzen would have been unhappy with my project, I should have gone ahead all those years ago..."

"What project?" Kakashi asks, interest colouring his tone as he gives Danzou a measured look.

Danzou regards him soberly. "The revival of the Shodaime's lost Mokuton no jutsu. Other than a truly powerful Sharingan, it is the only way that the Kyuubi can be controlled. The attacker must have known this and stolen the Shodaime's DNA." A flash of frustration deepens the lines on his face. "That project — in the end, I conducted it in secret, but by then it was already too late." His single dark eye fixes on Kakashi, narrowed with regret. "The Mokuton user under my command now is still too young and his jutsu too weak. If Hiruzen had not interfered, I would have been able to train a stronger Mokuton user in time to prevent this tragedy... And your sensei would have lived. Even if the Kyuubi had escaped, we would have been able to control it."

The revelation leaves Kakashi visibly shaken, grief and doubt swirling in the depths of his gaze. It's hard to accept the deaths of loved ones, but the loss is made doubly worse knowing that it could have been prevented.

"It could be him!" Rin exclaims, the purple markings on her face stark against her pale skin. "If he's lying about his Mokuton user's strength, then it could be him! Didn't Kagami-sama say the attacker was white and green with spiky protrusions? We'd be able to recognise him for sure."

Sakumo nods. "I'm sure Kakashi is thinking the same," he says, even though there's always the niggling of doubt. It's hard to tell when Kakashi is so immersed in his acting.

"If it's really Danzou..." Rin smiles, and Sakumo is reminded of how Kushina makes her smiles one part beautiful and nine parts threatening.

But there's also an equal chance that Danzou is speaking the truth about his Mokuton user. Neither situation can be taken lightly, because unquantified threat or betrayal puts Konoha at risk either way.

Danzou thumps his clenched fist against the handle of his cane, driving it deeper into the earth. "Now, someone from in Konoha - or worse, someone from another nation - has managed to do what we have not been able to. We have already taken a serious blow, and yet we do not even know who our enemies are. If they strike again..."

It goes without saying that Konoha will suffer even more greatly. Perhaps, it will even fall once and for all. If such a situation truly arises, they might need Danzou and his ROOT. The silver-haired teen looks up at the taller man with worried, dutiful eyes.

"That is why, Kakashi..." Danzou concludes in a quiet, private tone. "I need you in my organisation, ROOT."

Sakumo and Rin both stiffen and behind his mask, Kakashi's mouth pops open in shock.

A/N: Next up, dastardly Danzou demands a dangerous and dubious deed.