The Darkest Secrets
Chapter Three: The Brewing of a Storm
A/N: And now we finally get into some action! Lots to be revealed in this chapter. Also thank you to Sanban and Eliana Debrey for reviewing!
Konoha village's remaining elders, Homura Mitokado, and Koharu Utatane, stood in a shadowed room deep underground, they only source of light a single flickering candle. The hooded cloaks they wore obscured most of their faces. Secrecy was almost second nature to the veteran shinobi, who had spent the majority of their lives performing questionable acts right below the Hokage's nose – though they were very careful to never be implicated if their schemes came to light.
After all – that very thing is what caused Danzo, their former co-councilman, to flee the village.
The two elders tensed ever so slightly as a human form disentangled itself from the shadows, relaxing only when it came to rest on one knee in front of them. A perfectly blank, smooth porcelain mask hid the features of the Root agent before them, and he tilted his head ever so slightly, awaiting permission to speak.
"What news do you have?" Koharu asked, her aged voice like the rustling of old papers. The agent withdrew a small scroll and laid it on the ground before them, simply replying "The hawk sends his regard," before melding back into the shadows. He was one of the few Root Danzo had left behind in Konoha, presumably for some heinous act of subterfuge and sabotage. All the two elders knew was that he had apparently been appointed to act as a liaison between them, offering only vague information.
The old war-mongerer had always been a cautious one, after all.
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Kakashi lounged on a rooftop somewhere beneath the Hokage Mountain, his face in a book. Not that he could see much in the dark. He supposed he shouldn't ditch Tenzou and make him give the report – after all, he was always kind of mean to his kohai* - but really, it was an easy mission, and the report should be easy as well. They had only been gone for a few hours, and he was a little put out that he had missed out on the team dinner.
A quiet scuffing noise drew his attention to a spot along the cliff face. He stopped trying to read and instead paid close attention to the rock wall, keeping up the guise of reading.
Then, part of the rock wall was shifting out, and a rather non-descript shinobi in a blank Anbu mask stepped out on a rock ledge, looking around cautiously before jumping away.
Interesting.
There wasn't a secret passage there that he knew of. He had the highest level of clearance in the Anbu ranks, and if there were a secret passage there for Anbu to use, then he would know about it. So he had a sneaking suspicion that this guy was not one of their own. And why all the caution? Was he meeting someone? Eyes narrowed, Kakashi quickly summoned Pakkun. The little pug appeared before him, and he silently signaled the ninken to follow the strange shinobi. He then moved onto one of the Hokage faces above the passageway, staring intently down at the opening. He didn't have to wait long. Two cloaked figures emerged and also sped away from the mountain. Kakashi gave chase, remaining in the shadows so as not to be seen, but then there two simultaneous 'poofs', and his suspects were gone.
Well damn.
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5 days later
Tsunade sat at her desk, and bottle of sake in hand. Several reports were laid out in front of her. The one nearest was a map, drawn by a Hyuuga she had sent to survey the Hokage Mountain's secret passageways.
5 days ago she was woken up from a nice little nap by that Hatake brat, who insisted that the information he had was more important than her nap. The news of unknown passages and strange meetings was troubling indeed. Who knew what else could be lurking right beneath her nose. Frustratingly, they hadn't made very much progress. Just a couple days ago she had assigned a team of Anbu to surveillance at the secret passageway Kakashi had uncovered. The Hyuuga she sent out for surveillance had identified two more passages yesterday, one of which even led outside of the village's western border. Anbu teams had been assigned to those as well. Kakashi would be taking command of all three surveillance teams once he took the required 24 hours off after his last mission.
She would have liked to put Itachi on the case as an advisor, to help her sift through the information, but he had left on a solo mission not long before Kakashi's report came in. So she had done the next best thing and put his second-in-command on it. Shisui sat perched on the corner of the desk, poring over similar reports.
They were interrupted by the sudden appearance of Yugao, the captain of one of the surveillance teams. She was out of breath, and offered only a hasty bow before moving right into her report.
"Hokage-sama! We've captured someone coming out of the western passageway! They've been brought down to the interrogations unit, and Ibiki should be working on him as we speak." She took a deep breath, straightening from her half-bow before pulling a scroll from her kunai pouch. It was covered in intricate seals. "We found this on him. It looks like he's been acting as a messenger for someone."
Tsunade grinned. Looks like they were finally getting to the bottom of things. She began to stand "Well then, this is good news-" But she was interrupted by Yugao.
"Hokage-sama," She began quietly. "The man that we captured. He reminds me of Danzo's old Root faction. Perfectly emotionless. Carries out orders and nothing else. Even has a blank Anbu mask. If that's who we're dealing with…. He won't talk. He won't be able to. As you recall, the Root members we've attempted to interrogate in the past had their tongues sealed."
Tsunade sucked in a deep breath, suddenly feeling as though the wind had been knocked out of her. If he was involved…. Well, it wouldn't be good, to say the least. It made sense though, especially with what Itachi had disclosed to her after his last mission. But no one else knew about that. And she had promised to keep it that way. It would seem as though Danzo was lurking about fire country. Not good. He must be planning something big.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a shuffling of papers at her desk as Shisui neatly stacked the reports at the end of the desk and stood. He face was perfectly blank, though his eyes betrayed his inner turmoil. Shisui was always the most expressive of the Uchiha, after all. He looked between Tsunade and Yugao, shifting from leg to leg anxiously.
She got the hint.
"Yugao, you're dismissed. Take that scroll straight to the Anbu cipher corp., and then report to Ibiki and tell him I'll be down shortly." Yugao bowed quickly in the direction of her Hokage before racing off to complete her orders.
She then turned to Shisui, who immediately blurted "Send me out on surveillance!"
She shook her head. Knowing the history between the Uchiha and Danzo – something that she had only learned when she became Hokage, seeing as it was the village's best kept secret – she absolutely could not send Shisui out after him. At least not alone.
"Two days. Two days and Itachi will be back. Wait for him and then take Anbu squad one out. I can't let you go alone, especially after –"
"Hokage-sama," he interjected calmly (she seemed to be getting interrupted a lot today), "By then, Danzo will have realized that his spy is missing. You're right, this is personal for me. Which makes it all the more fitting for me to go, don't you think?" He grinned. "Besides, I swear I'll stay out of sight. Surveillance only. I promise." He gave her the same winning smile that Naruto used to make her heart melt.
She cursed softly. He was right. Danzo would be missing his operative soon. "Fine. But you are not to engage. If the enemy discovers your location use an emergency reverse summoning scroll to return immediately to the village. Do you understand me?"
"Hai, Hokage-sama," was his solemn reply. A short burst of smoke and Shisui Uchiha was gone.
She had a bad feeling about this.
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Itachi stood in an open field, outnumbered and utterly surrounded by enemy shinobi. Their strangely hollow eyes followed his every movement, and their movements were awkward and jerky, like marionettes. They had to be under the effects of some kind of jutsu. They were all rogues, by the looks of it – but from mixed villages, indicated by the slashed-out village symbols on their headbands. A few of them he recognized from Konoha's own bingo book. They had just interrupted him on his return home from an urgent information exchange with Jiraiya.
Looks like someone didn't want him to return.
He was already heavily wounded, after taking down about half of the enemy forces. A gash across his chest was oozing a rather concerning amount of blood. A deep stab wound in his thigh made movement difficult, and another stab wound to his back had come dangerously close to his spine. He was dizzy, and his chakra was nearly depleted. This was becoming far more than he bargained for.
He only had enough chakra to put off one more large-scale jutsu – and then he was finished. It would be risky, since he hadn't fully mastered it, having little use for such a jutsu on team missions. But he closed his eyes and centered himself, feeling a horrid burn along his optic nerve as his sharingan morphed into a new form.
His eyes opened slowly, taking in a world that was so sharply defined, so very crystal clear. Everything appeared to move in slow motion, before his Mangekyo. The final level of sharingan was dangerous to its user, being born of extreme hatred or sorrow. His had developed all those years ago, amidst the trauma of the almost-massacre. Softly, he whispered the name of his most destructive jutsu. "Amaterasu."
The terrible screams of his enemy rent the air as they were consumed by a flame that could not be put out, not until its target was completely consumed.
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Shisui tailed the shadowed form of the old man ahead of him, carefully creeping through the shadows undetected – or so he thought. Some would argue that the batshit crazy grin on the old bastard's face would mean that his presence had been noted. Then again, Danzo was just plain crazy. And old.
He followed him like this for several miles, until they came to a decrepit old building covered in vines, so that the original structure was barely visible. The building was nestled in a wide crevice of earth, situated so that you might miss it if you were simply passing through. It looked as though there had once been a raging river beneath it, but a dam that he could just make out about half a kilometer down the gorge held back the raging waters.
So this is where Danzo had been hiding.
Retreating further into the shadows, Shisui withdrew his emergency teleportation scroll. He was not willing to risk a more traditional escape. Not with the precious information he now bore. He looked ahead of him one last time to ensure that the old man hadn't seen him….
He wasn't there.
A soft chuckle behind him had him whirling to face the former village elder. "Looks can be so deceiving, can't they Shisui? You underestimated me, simply by virtue of age."
As he spoke, his hand snapped out lightning fast, gripping the end of the teleportation scroll and wrenching it from a stunned Shisui's grasp. "Now," Danzo drawled. "Won't you stay a while? We have so much to discuss."
'Damn,' he thought. 'Too careless.'
But it was far too late for regrets.
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Itachi stumbled into a cave not far from the battle field, which was blessedly unoccupied. He slumped against the rock wall, breathing heavily, everything before him a mere blur. It had, of course, started downpouring as he made his way to a safe shelter in which to recover, and he was now soaked to the bone.
He had overdone it. He couldn't even summon the chakra for the tiniest fire jutsu to warm himself with.
It would be at least an hour before he even had enough chakra to activate the emergency teleportation scroll. In his slightly delirious state he nearly laughed at the irony. Some 'emergency' scroll.
He leaned back against the wall, trying desperately to maintain consciousness as he slowly bled out. Eventually, he began to grasp at any random thought to keep himself occupied and awake. The first thing he thought about was what Sakura would be up to right now. Probably working in the hospital. The thought of the kunoichi brought on a sudden surge of guilt. He had lied to her. He didn't like to do it, but he had thought it necessary. Hell, he didn't even tell Shisui, and Shisui had been involved from the very beginning.
What had he lied about again? His brain was getting all fuzzy. Oh yeah. That mission. The scroll. The seal at the top of the scroll that depicted a blood red eye, decorated with a design unique to one man's mangekyo – Uchiha Madara.
Beneath that, a short message written in a cipher that he had used only once before – 13 years ago.
He hadn't been able to read very much of it – after all, the damn thing had burst into flame – but a name within the message had stood out to him immediately.
Danzo.
The thought of any sort of connection between the two made his blood run cold. And suddenly, alone and bleeding in a cave, Itachi felt that he was very far in over his head. He began to doubt the wisdom of keeping Shisui in the dark.
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Sakura finished the last of the necessary chakra-healing on the Genin she was treating. Next, she just had to draw up the needed intravenous Decadron* to reduce the swelling in the young man's brain…. She turned to the nurse attending patients with her today, a cheerful nurse named Mai. "Mai-chan, would you mind bringing me 40 milligrams of Decadron IV?"
The nurse smiled and nodded, turning to go towards the med room. "Of course Haruno-sama! Be back soon!" As she exited the room she bumped straight into the Hokage. "Oh! I'm so sorry Hokage-sama!" she said with a bow. "Wait a moment Mai," Tsunade said. "I need you to check on the patient in 34B first. They were complaining of severe abdominal pain. Would you mind assessing them?"
"Of course!" She said with another bow. Then she turned and bowed to Sakura. "Sumimasen*, Sakura-sama."
"It's no problem, Mai." With that, Sakura headed off the med room to draw up the Decadron herself. Releasing the seal on the med room door located behind the nurse's station, she walked in and searched along the shelves for the drug she needed. Pulling down a vial, she screwed a needle onto a plastic syringe and inserted it into the vial's stopper. She began to pull back on the plunger, when suddenly, the vial cracked, liquid oozing out onto the worktop.
A feeling of dread filled her at the sight of the bad omen*. Just then, Tsunade entered the med room, her back turned to Sakura as she rummaged through the shelves. "So Mai's 6-month review is coming up. You've been working with her a lot lately. What do you think of her?" Sakura was silent as she stared down at the broken vial. She mentally began to go through the list of people she knew who were out on missions. Kakashi and Tenzou got home five days ago. She had just seen Naruto and Sasuke this morning. As far as she knew the rest of the rookie nine was grounded as well. That left Itachi.
"Tsunade-sama, when is Itachi due back from his mission?" Tsunade turned and strode towards Sakura, irritated that her question had been ignored. Then she saw the mess on the table. "Hmmm. He should be back in two days. But, maybe I should send a messenger hawk, just to check in." Sakura nodded, brushing off the strange incident. "Now, about Mai…"
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Itachi's eyes snapped open, a moment of brief panic filling him before he realized where he was. The cave he had taken refuge in swam before his bleary eyes as he blinked rapidly. Damn. He had fallen asleep. Checking his chakra reserves, he found that he had just slightly more than he needed to perform the jutsu for the teleportation scroll. So he hadn't been out for very long. Opening the scroll, he formed the necessary hand signs before slamming his hand down into the center of the intricate seal.
The teleportation scroll dropped him straight into the Hokage's office. He could report in, and then she would take care of these rather concerning injuries.
Scanning the office, he noted that it was completely empty. The Hokage was not at her desk. His vision blurred even more, his head throbbed and he swayed dangerously on his feet. The sudden expenditure of what little chakra he had left him feeling like he was going to pass out. His toes began to tingle as the injury to his back continued to bleed, and his legs felt weak. He needed to find a medic.
Turning his gaze towards the large office windows, he noted that it was nighttime. Probably midnight, by the position of the moon. Sakura wouldn't mind if he woke her. Or at least that's what he hoped. Honing in on her chakra signature, he formed the hand seals for a short-range teleportation jutsu. He could only pray that she would wake at his presence, because he was definitely going to pass out this time.
The Hokage's office tore away from him and he was deposited none-to-gently on the bedroom floor of his best friend. He saw a blob of pink rushing to his side and hovering over him.
He managed only a weak grin in the general direction of that pink blob before he finally passed out.
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Kohai – Protégé or junior
Decadron – A steroid drug used to manage increased pressure on the brain from an injury or tumor (this is what we're studying in nursing school right now. Can you tell?)
Sumimasen – A casual apology to use when you have inconvenienced someone in a small way.
Bad omen (the vial cracking) – In the Naruto anime, sometimes when bad things happen, one of the other characters will see their tea cup crack (Temari when Gaara was kidnapped, for example) It's considered a bad omen. I thought a vial would be a suitable substitute for a tea cup.
A/N: So there's definitely a lot going on in this chapter. The next chapter will be a bit slower, and will develop Itachi's relationship with Sakura a little more (although of course, we need to find out what happens to poor Shisui). So? Did you love it? Hate it? Please, please, review!
