Over the course of his admittedly short career, Otonashi had become an early riser. For whatever reason and he personally blamed karma every one of his team leaders had been the early-morning type. Departures before dawn were normal. Although, he had never required a guard to go to the gate before, not that he should really complain. Considering the complicated history between Konoha and his own village he was just happy that he was allowed to participate in the attack.

Glancing over at his pink haired escort he tried to start a conversation. "I kind of thought Naruto would be the one picking me up."

Sakura shrugged which was almost imperceptible in the predawn light. "He's in a bad mood."

"Really," he questioned disbelieving. Granted adding up all the time he spent with Naruto it was actually a very small fraction but, the blonde had always seemed happy even when he had been in that field hospital.

Unfortunately, Sakura wasn't a morning person like himself and allowed the beginnings of their conversation to die a slow painful death. They continued on in an uncomfortable silence until the massive gate came into view with a small group at its base.

He recognized Naruto right away but, his friend didn't even raise a hand in greeting. In fact he even seemed to be glaring at him. That was strange and he tried chalking it up to him being nervous about the mission. The only other person he recognized was Sasuke. Dressed in black except for his vest he blended into the shadows like he owned them. The remaining three were unfamiliar.

"Alright we're all here now." The unknown vest wearer spoke up. "I have seniority here so it's troublesome but, I'm in charge until we meet up with a superior." He sighed as if this was the most difficult thing in the world. "Why don't you explain why we're departing ahead of everyone else?"

Otonashi blinked before he realized that he was referring to himself. "Um yeah, Kumo is committing a small force to this attack too. I'm supposed to be there contact."

"With that said let's head out."

Their leader turned and he had to call to his back, "Could I have some names? You know in case I have to address one of you as something other than hey you."

The teen turn and pointed to himself, "Shikamaru," he gestured to his two companions, "Ino and Chouji. You already know everybody else."

He turned to his blond friend curious why everyone was so abrupt with him but, Naruto seem to be deliberately not looking at him. This was strange but again he blamed it on the mission. It wasn't like they were being unprofessional just unfriendly.

The first two hours passed uneventfully and silently. After their first fifteen minute break a conversation finally broke out but he seemed frozen out of it. Annoyed he retreated within himself and went over what he needed to do in his head. Unfortunately, that was a short list.

After making contact with the force from his village he was back to being an ordinary chunin, which was almost a relief. All he would have to worry about than was a bunch of Sound ninjas doing their very best to kill him. That made him wish he had more poison with him. Doing a quick calculation he estimated he had at best five doses so, he would have to be careful who he used it on.

After midday they crossed a river. From that point on they were in the Rice country and proceeded on in silence. They ended up following a small tributary only letting it out of sight when there were signs of civilization.

The sun set early in this land slipping behind the mountains casting a shadow over the land. Shikamaru called a halt to take note of several landmarks. "This is the spot. We will set up camp here but, no fires. Two hour shifts in groups of two until we attack. The enemy cannot spot us so be on your guard." He turned to face him and for the first time Otonashi noticed how much his head look like a pineapple. "Where is your rendezvous spot?"

"Maybe a mile upstream I'm not exactly sure."

"Go," he gestured with a nod of his head.

Otonashi thought quickly and added, "I need Naruto to go with me."

The chunin hesitated for a second before asking, "Why?"

"Like you said we can't be seen. He's a great force multiplier one minute there is one of him and the next there's fifty." Silently he patted himself on the back for his quick thinking.

The temporary leader seemed to consider this for a minute and turned to address Naruto with a raised eyebrow. His blond friend at least that's what he still thought of him as crossed his arms and huffed like a child, "Fine."

Yeah this was going to be a fun walk he thought to himself. However, he wanted to talk to him and it was the only way to be alone with him. After a few minutes of silence it was Naruto who broke it. "What's the rendezvous spot look like?"

He smiled to himself thinking what his friend's normal reaction would be. "Up ahead there is a sudden bend in the river. It is distinguished by a large dead tree that still stands and is the color of bleached bones."

"That sounds weird. It should be something simple."

"Well it has to be something pacific since we can't exactly give a street name or something." Naruto's only response was a guttural grunt. Moments later they did find the spot and both came to a simultaneous stop. "See," he tried to gloat but his companion didn't rise to the bait.

Instead he created three clones and had them set up a perimeter. The blonde was about to join them when Otonashi grabbed his arm. "Have I offended you or something? Because you've been acting like a jerk to me and so has everyone else. If there's a problem we need to resolve it after all we will be watching each other's backs in a few hours."

Naruto pulled his arm free and smeared, "You know what you did."

The Kumo ninja blinked in astonishment. "Okay you're acting like my girlfriend now. Pretend I know nothing and you won't be far from the truth."

In hindsight he really should've seen it coming. The blonde spun on the ball of his foot and knocked him to the ground with a punch that could have gone through a wall. "You lied to me."

"What are you talking about?" He demanded rubbing his jaw.

"You always made it sound like Kumogakure was different. That they treated Jinchuriki differently."

"We do. There's a whole clan dedicated to preserving the two tales, that's no secret."

"Then why are you using him as a hostage," Naruto demanded.

Suddenly his friend's abrupt change in attitude made sense and truthfully it pissed him off. "Whoever told you that did they also tell you that it was your Hokage that chose the hostages? Did they also tell you that some of the other hostages include two Ayers of founding clans? Well did they?" He took his friend's silence as an answer. "It's because we value him that he's a hostage. The whole purpose of giving you hostages is to ensure we won't betray Konoha."

Naruto's face usually gave away his emotions but, this time it seemed to continually shift from one emotion to the next. He took a shot in the dark. "Were you thinking of defecting or something?"

The blonde smiled, "Konoha is my home and always will be."

"Yeah I figured you would say something like that. So, what did you say to them to give me the cold shoulder?"

Naruto scratch the back of his head nervously, "I just said you were an ass."

Otonashi smiled, "They must be good friends."

His friend blushed which he found funny and the blonde tried to change the subject. "Girlfriend? How come you haven't mentioned her before?"

It was Otonashi's turn to be embarrassed. "It's an on-again off-again thing."

"Who is she?" Naruto asked raising an eyebrow.

"Me," the voice came from behind Naruto who had blocked her approach from Otonashi. Tilting his head to see around the orange obstacle he smiled nervously. "Hi Shiori, um how long have you been there?"

Shiori a former member of his genin team smiled slyly one of Naruto's clones at her side. "Just long enough to hear you to gossiping." She shifted her focus to the Konoha ninja and tossed him a scroll. "That's all the intelligence we have on the target. When you want to finalize the attack plans we are encamped a half-mile west from here." Her eyes flicked back to him, "who are you staying with?"

He had to think for a minute before he could answer. "I should probably stick with Konoha just in case something comes up."

She nodded and turned to leave, paused and said over her shoulder, "A simple courier mission um? Looks like it got complicated."

Before he could respond she disappeared into the woods and Naruto turned to face him, "What was that all about?"

"Well I couldn't tell her I was going on a secret mission for the Raikage could I? I really didn't think she would be here."

Naruto dispersed his clones and helped him get to his feet. "No, I mean you two how did that happen? I thought you two didn't get along."

Otonashi side, "That's a long story and it all started when I stole some pocky from her bag."

Kado Uchiha used to spend hours exploring the compound he lived in. It had been a link to his pass that he knew little about and that he had always wanted. Nowadays though he could pass by the empty houses with as little thought to the previous occupants as either of his two companions had. He glanced over at his smallest teammate who as always seemed oblivious. "Are you going to tell us why you invited Hanabi to sit with us?"

Ranmaru smiled deceptively, "She was lonely and everyone needs a friend."

"And you just decided you would be nice to her today?" Hoshiko demanded stepping in front of him.

"Yes," the small boy said trying to go around her but she grabbed his arm stopping him yet again. His eyes flicked over to Kado but, he was curious to and provided no help. Silently he surrendered and straightened. "You two know how my eyes are supposed to be kept a secret, well the Hyuga found out."

The youngest Uchiha stared in shock at this revelation. He had known about his eyes for awhile of course even before Ranmaru had been assigned to his team. He had befriended him at the Academy simply because he knew what it was like to live in a village where everything was new. Konohamaru and his friends knew about it too for similar reasons. Still, none of them would have told and it was such old news he doubted any of them even thought about it. Then a thought occurred to him. "That would be a reason to avoid her."

Ranmaru shook his head his long hair emphasizing the subtle movement, "Sakura says they don't know everything but they will try to find out more."

Suddenly his friend's plan made sense. Sometimes it was better to have a spy you knew about that you could feed information to then constantly looking over your shoulder. It was a little manipulative for his taste but, then again it was better than the alternatives. The family he had never knew seemed to have a low opinion of the Hyuga and he would admit that was coloring his opinion of them.

Hoshiko seemed to come to the same conclusion and she let Ranmaru's arm go. "Okay I get it but, you should have just said that in the first place. I mean it's obvious that Princess think she's better than everyone else."

"Hey I wasn't lying." Ranmaru insisted jumping in front of her. "Nobody likes being alone not even you Hoshiko. I know you pretend not to like people but, you're here with us right now and we're just going to hang out. Not to mention that you like Moegi and," he paused and a mischievous grin crossed his face "you had that crush on Udon for awhile."

Even in Kado short life he had seen many amazing things. He had seen heat lightning dance across the plains of his former home country and watched as his sensei had summoned a snake as tall as a building. Right now though the only image that could possibly rival the joy he took in Hoshiko's seething face of emotions was that of Sasuke giving a bath to that pug dog he could summon. Her mouth worked but, no words came out. There was no way he could resist, "Udon that's a surprise. I should tell him you know to help you two get together."

She spun to face him. "I never mentioned, it was," turning back to Ranmaru she spoke her first complete sentence. "I'm going to kill you!"

His friend who definitely had a will to live started running pursued by a very angry kunoichi who was shouting threats that were simultaneously inventive and quite possibly anatomically impossible. The youngest Uchiha followed but had no real interest in getting involved.

Ranmaru ran but as he turned a corner he stopped abruptly and Hoshiko ran into him. Lagging behind Kado managed to avoid the pile up and glanced down the street to see what had distracted his friends.

Near the entrance to the main house a figure stood facing the wall. His first thought was that he must be a thief but, he would've hid since they hadn't been quiet and besides that cloak he was wearing was pretty distinctive which was dumb for a thief. "Hey, you're trespassing," his hand drifted to where he kept his kunai.

The man in the cloak didn't acknowledge his words and instead reached a hand out to touch the wall. Kado suddenly remembered what was there. It was a small hole right in the middle of the Uchiha's family crest. He remembered it simply because it was the only obvious damage that had never been repaired. When he had asked Sasuke about it, he had simply shrugged it off which meant I don't want to talk about it.

"I would've thought he would have fixed this like he did with everything else. I guess I don't know my brother as well as I thought." The man turned his head to face him revealing two Sharingan removing any doubt of who he was.

The youngest Uchiha froze at the sight of this prodigal son returned to the scene of his most heinous crime. Itachi slowly turned his body to face his trio of opponents. "It's nothing personal but I have to kill you now." With those words delivered in an emotionless monotone he started towards the three genin.

Kado tried to draw a weapon. He tried to run. He tried to blink but, his muscles seem paralyzed as the world around him seemed to turn red. His teammates didn't seem to be affected as they charge foreword. He cursed himself as he couldn't even shout a warning to them. They were dispatched coldly and efficiently. It was almost beautiful as Itachi used the barest amount of movement and didn't even break his stride.

Then he was only steps away and suddenly Kado could move and he flung his arms out wildly as nothing in the world suddenly seemed right. Powerful arms pushed him down and he suddenly realized he was in a bed.

"Calm down your okay. It was a Genjutsu your okay."

He recognized the voice as the Hokage but, that made no sense. Why would she be anywhere near the Uchiha compound? Then his mind caught up with everything and he realized he was in a hospital.

"How do you feel?"

The question gave him something to concentrate on and he did a mental check. "I'm fine."

"Good. Kakashi take over from here. I have to go have a discussion with the head of security."

The way she said it silently made Kado happy he was already in the hospital. When she left he turned his attention to the Jonin who stood next to his bed. "What happened?"

The man had a serious air which seemed unusual for what he knew about him. "Itachi tried to kill you."

"I know that, why am I not dead." Kado exclaimed with all the pent-up terror he felt.

Kakashi took his outburst in stride and simply leaned away to avoid the flying spittle. "Well your teammates saved you or to be more precise Ranmaru did. As soon as he realized that a Genjutsu was being used he created a cloud of smoke and more importantly through an exploding note."

"He killed Itachi!"

"No, no. That would be nice but no." He shifted his weight uncomfortably. "He threw it and the explosion and resulting smoke brought more attention than Itachi was prepared to deal with. By the time we got there, he had already left. Ranmaru had already pulled Hoshiko out of the Genjutsu and was working on you but couldn't succeed." He paused for a second to allow Kado to register everything he had told him.

"So, Ranmaru was able to neutralize the Genjutsu by himself?" That really did make him feel pathetic.

"Not really. He claims that he didn't notice the Genjutsu. Out of curiosity I tried to cast one on him myself with his eyes activated and it didn't work. So, we want to know. Did Itachi have his Sharingan activated and what can you remember about the Genjutsu?"

The small Uchiha fought for a minute to remember his memory fuzzy. "I think so. I didn't think to activate my own so I can't be sure. As for the Genjutsu, I just thought he killed my teammates and was about to kill me."

The cyclops nodded and turned to leave but, paused to say in a reassuring voice, "Don't worry I am sure Sasuke won't be too upset over the loss of the building."

"What?"

"I thought I told you. When Ranmaru threw the exploding note it landed inside of a building. When it exploded what wasn't destroyed in the blast was consumed in the fire before it was doused. Really it was quick thinking on his part."

With that Kado was left alone. He covered his eyes with his hands and groaned wishing that Itachi had killed him. When Sasuke found out what happened, he was going kill him or worse have him help rebuild the damn thing.

Masakazu sat on a veranda that overlooked a small garden enjoying a late meal. He had never been much of a drinker but since his recruitment he had been finding more and more comfort in sake. Not that he had truly gotten drunk he had enough self-control and pride to prevent that from happening. Of course his self-restraint was not stopping him from taking a perverse pleasure in running up the bill on his new employers. He had probably already spent more Ryo in the past few days then he will earn working an entire year at the inn.

It serves them right for making him hurry up and wait. He had arrived here well within the allotted time and at that time he had been prepared to die but, the longer he sat here and waited the more he thought about how to get out of this alive.

They claimed they could get him close enough to kill their Hokage and ordinarily he would jump at the chance. Of the individuals that could be blamed for his lord's death she was at the top of the list along with the Raikage. It had been those two who had united the hidden villages although briefly against his lord. If they had attacked them individually he was sure victory would have been theirs.

His mind traveled back to those exciting days when victory seemed assured and honorably had. If things had only been a little different the world would be a very different place than it was right now. A few more troops, a little more political interference by their secret allies and he would've been in an army marching towards Konohagakure instead of slithering in like a snake.

Killing this woman would be satisfying but, he had no intention of doing it. If these people thought that he would become their willing marionette than they were going to be sorely disappointed. As soon as he saw this woman he would throw herself at her feet and tell her everything he knew. At the very least this would result in a purge of the guilty parties but, with a little luck it might turn into a full scale civil war and that would be true vengeance. Raising the small saucer cup to his mouth he smiled.

"You're certainly living it up."

The voice had come from his left and it took all of his discipline not to jump but, instead turned slowly to face his unwanted guest. He was fairly tall and seemed to have something almost like a topknot but without the shaven crown. Of course because he was a coward he wore a mask that looked vaguely like some sort of animal.

"Why don't you take a seat and share a drink with me? This stuff is supposedly the best they have and your boss is paying for it." Part of Masakazu's mind told him he was being petty but, it wasn't like these men deserve respect. They wouldn't even do their own dirty work.

The Man showed no sign of irritation and just allowed the comment to pass with no sign that he even heard it. "You will have your chance for revenge tomorrow. There was an incident today in the village and the security has been doubled at the gates and the walls."

"Incident," Masakazu interrupted. "Was it something that you arranged?"

"No, a well-known criminal penetrated our village security and was chased off."

"And to think we lost to your people. You must've had demons on your side." He must've hit a nerve with the last comment as the man visibly had to restrain himself.

The man seemed to count silently to ten before continuing. "Your cover will be that of a representative of the Marsh Country."

"And why am I pretending to be from there?" He was starting to enjoy irritating his guest.

"Long ago that country had a hidden village and it was small but wealthy. During the second Great War it chose the wrong side and was destroyed."

"Such a tragedy," he interrupted.

"Shut up," the man finally snapped. "Even though this hidden village was destroyed its treasury was never found. You will claim that a map has been found that lead you to this spot. The potential profit from this mission would be extraordinary and the Hokage will have to meet with you in person. I have left appropriate clothes for you in the closet. You will be able to carry your swords openly and the map we have provided will be large enough to conceal your other weapon."

Despite the fact that Masakazu did not have any intention of carrying out this mission he did see an opportunity to gather information. "The guards will let me just pass with no problem?"

"You will be given papers that will allow you to past the guards at the gates. As for access to the Hokage there will be only one guard and he is one of ours." The masked man paused for a minute before continuing, "It should take you an hour to get to the village from here so be ready to depart by ten. Somebody will be here to assist you with the last minute preparations."

Masakazu turned to make another snide comment but, the man was already gone. He shrugged and figured at the very least he could say there were three traitors within the ranks. It would be better for them to think there were dozens but, given the caliber of people he was dealing with he might end up in an interrogation chamber and if that happened well he wouldn't lie.

He picked up the white sake bottle and weighed it in his hand. It was mostly full so he emptied it onto the ground.