Edited 23/3/16: Again minor stuff.

-/-

The journey back to Konoha the next morning was rather subdued. Naruto was still trying to come to terms with what his 'Hokage-jiji' had covered up. Sasuke was stewing over who he should be angry with now. Shikako... His one and only female student had withdrawn nearly completely into herself and Kakashi was genuinely concerned about her. Naruto would come to terms with this revelation and Sasuke would adapt. He himself had seen worse things. He knew what Danzo was capable of and while it made him furious to know what Danzo had put two of his student's through... it wasn't unimaginable. Shikako...

What was he to do about her?

Her recent revelations made a lot of things that he and Shikaku had worried over clearer. It was true genii tended to either arrogance or shyness, but Shikako did not fit the profile for a timid genius. Her shyness was not a natural part of her personality - as shown by the occasional flashes of leadership and confidence her teacher's had witnessed in the academy and that he had managed to bring out. Nor was it an act to keep herself with her far less motivated twin. The reports stated she had been genuinely terrified when they discussed her early advancement - because of what had happened to Itachi? Did she fear being made Konoha's next disposable prodigy?

Then there were other things, minor things, that were not unknown but weren't typical. Despite the pain he caused her, Shikako never insulted Itachi, never expressed hatred of him. It would have been entirely natural if she had. Sasuke had confided she had half believed the Kurama girl, that she had insisted he be careful. Neither he nor Shikaku had been able to explain where such distrust of the village had come from. There was also Naruto's interesting report on her interactions with Sai. She had hinted rather strongly that she knew about Root's training.

Was that the source of her knowledge?

Danzo was not, contrary to popular belief a misogynist. He was simply very selective over his recruits and females in general did not respond well to his training methods. They struggled to put aside their feelings and their instincts were generally more geared towards emotional stability. Those he did train successfully were often far more deadly than their male counterparts and feared for it. Shikako fit Danzo's desired profile perfectly and seven was his preferred recruitment age. Shikaku would not have stood for it, but Danzo had a lot of influence. Had she picked up on Root evaluating her and become curious? Had her investigation led her to stumble on the plans for the Uchiha? Even now the village was not fully aware of the limits of her sensing skills. It was not unbelievable that she would have recognised Root signatures around the compound. It neatly explained a lot.

But it didn't explain everything, there was more to this than Shikako was telling them. And there was the issue of how she knew it.

...Definitely the issue of how she knew it, and how she knew Orochimaru knew it, and how she knew it was Orochimaru among others. It would not be easy to convince her to tell him either. He would have to coax it out slowly and hope that whatever or whoever was her information source did not lash out before he had an answer. He could not protect his students when he didn't know what the threat was.

Back to the main issue, he needed a way to question Itachi about the massacre without directly bringing up Danzo or possibly linking Shikako-chan to anything. He also needed support in this, he could not circumvent Tsunade's (and so potentially Danzo's) authority on his own. He needed help... Preferably from someone who he outranked, had suitable standing, the ability to bullshit through any questions, an understanding of the dark side of Konoha, the clearance to get away with this and who Danzo would not have had many (if any) possible unsupervised dealings with...

A smirk twitched on his lips under his mask. He knew just the person.

-/-

Team 7 had very deliberately not reported in to Tsunade immediately. Kakashi had gone himself, late of course, reported no major issues but that he'd sent his precocious students to the hospital just in case. They'd hand in their reports later that week - he promised. He'd timed it well! Tsuande had been in the middle of a meeting with some of the paper-nin and while angry at the interruption lacked the fire to truly turn that anger on him. Said students had indeed gone to the hospital, so that would check out and the reports would be handed in at some point.

In the meantime, he was hunting for his soon to be co-conspirator. He could have just done the efficient thing and gone and asked, but that would have been too obvious. His target was not generally known for his tolerance of bullshit, and Kakashi was a master at it. If he was seen seeking the man out deliberately there would be questions and while he could come up with a million excuses, the point was not to involve Shikako. So. Discrete, coincidental, casual. Obviously, the first thing he did was recruit Gai's assistance.

He snorted to himself. The challenge had given him a reason for making contact. The market place was casual enough right?

"Yo. Mushrooms?"

"Kakashi-san. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Gai challenged me."

"I'm not getting involved."

"Aw come on... You won't have to do anything. Just let me treat you to a drink."

Ibiki scowled at him, the scars around his face crinkling into a rather intimidating look. Kakashi didn't budge. Ibiki's lips twitched upwards into a snarl. Kakashi resisted the urge to swallow and twitched his eyes into a nervous smile.

"I'll pay for barbecue?"

For a second, he thought the interrogator would leave. It was an option. He could trail the man far enough to be irritating while making the discreet need for a meeting clear. Then the man sniffed. "Money up front, Kakashi."

Ok. This was happening then.