~8~

"What do you think?" Danzo asked, still somewhat impressed that Sai lasted more than an hour before completely losing consciousness under the illusion of death.

He wondered what went on inside Sai's head within those moments. Danzo never had any intention to have anyone at Konoha village assassinated. He simply wanted to see if Sai's newfound loyalty could be broken. He admitted to himself then that he would have been disappointed if Sai chose someone else's life over his own. Danzo trained him after all. He would have not suffered anyone who valued his own life more. It was something he had to prove to himself through this measure that he knew he had to undertake in the first place. The fake death was a pre-requisite to Ikioku's technique.

"The memory since you assigned him outside is too large to be completely removed without causing him major brain damage," Ikioku said. The two old men were standing beside Sai's unconscious form laid out on what looked like a long lab table in a well lit room where various medical and ninjutsu equipment were stacked on shelves that lined the four walls. The room had no visible exit.

This laboratory was built in secrecy under Danzo's guidance just like many of the chambers that exist within Root's command post. Therefore, the entryway was built either on the ground or behind fake walls. This time, it was under a wheeled desk by the wall behind the two men. Ikioku, who was led into this room blindfolded, had spent the better part of the day examining Sai's brain with his clan's forbidden technique, specifically taking note of the parts where certain memories were located.

"What do you mean by brain damage?" Danzo asked in turn.
"It means you might as well kill him if you really intend to take this entire part of his memory out. A year is just too long, the memories are spread out. Removing only part of it will render the jutsu useless. It will be easier to take out his entire memory instead."

Danzo's eyebrows narrowed. No, he did not want his entire memory removed. That meant taking out his Anbu training as well. He only wanted to get rid of anything that had to do with his association to Uzumaki Naruto starting from the time he was ordered to assassinate Uchiha Sasuke up to the present. Ikioku's proclamation was not what he wanted to hear. He went out of his way to hire a shady clan's services in order to get his asset back to the way he was before he was tainted by the outside world's dangerous influence. "Is that really all you can do?" he asked without any attempt to hide his disappointment.

Ikioku lifted his hand to his chin, waited a moment then faced Danzo with a serious expression. "Danzo-sama, I did say we have been making some improvements to our jutsu, haven't I?" Danzo didn't speak. He finally caught on to what this shrewd little man was getting at. "But..." Ikioku continued. "it will be very difficult. Very difficult-"

"How much?" Danzo asked bluntly.

"Ah Danzo-sama, it's not that I want to charge you extra but-" Danzo cut him short. He had no time to play games.

"How much?"

"Just fifty thousand more. You must realize-"

"Done! Get on with it."

"Let me first explain, my lord. I cannot remove this boy's memory."

"What? Then what did we negotiate for just now?"

"Forgive me, please listen, I cannot remove his memory but I can place a kind of barrier that will seal away his memory and prevent it from being accessed. It will be like the memory is not there."

Danzo realized he'd been had. He saw no real difference between the first option and the second. He made it clear from the beginning he wanted Sai's memory out of the way; whether it was sealed or completely removed did not matter to him. This old man just conned him into shelling out an extra fifty thousand ryo. He calmed himself and decided the extra expense was fine as long as the goal was achieved.

Ikioku was somewhat disappointed that he was not given the chance to explain the intricacies of his technique. He was proud of his clan's secret jutsu that surpassed even that of the famous Yamanaka clan of the Leaf. He was the best when it came to delving into the human brain.

But no matter, he succeeded in getting more for the extra effort; it was his intent in the first place. He placed his hands on Sai's forehead and streams of purple light began to travel from the tips of his long fingers into Sai's brain. Small clips of that light settled between the chambers containing the memories that Danzo deemed destructive to his cause.

~9~

And so Sai surveyed his wrists and tried to remember what it was that scared him just then. He flipped his hands so that his palms would face upward then he flipped them back down again. His hands looked normal to him. Maybe it was just his imagination.

He wasn't a prisoner, he failed on a mission and he woke up in this chamber after being unconscious for a week. What that mission was, he might find out later. It was either to assassinate an identified threat or a surveillance mission to gather crucial information.

In any case, he was saved by Danzo-sama. He lay back down on the bed and tried to sleep but he was already fully conscious. He would just have to lie there and wait until he is summoned.

Then he remembered something and so he bolted right up. He walked toward the desk and began to survey the things on top. His picture book, where was it? *It was his only important possession. He always made sure it was with him. It was a picture book he made consisting of drawings of himself and his brother. No, he was not really his brother. He was just someone he grew up and trained with; someone who died quite early.

The picture book was unfinished. It had blank pages in the middle. He did not know how to proceed after that point^ but it didn't matter. He wanted to see it again. It wasn't on the desk. He looked under the bed and under the mattress. Not there. He must have lost it during that last mission. If it was so then it's lost forever. He sat back down on the bed with resignation.

The moon was high now that the beam shining through the window provided enough light. There was no need to turn the lamp on. He lay down, closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind. "It shouldn't matter", he thought. "I exist for the mission. I have no possessions. Where will you find a root with a picture book anyway? He would be saying that to himself a few more times in the days ahead.

oOoOoOoOo

Tsunade stood staring at the window behind her desk. Once again, that blasted Naruto had the cheek to march into her office and demand that she produce Sai. She threw him out with a big kick in the butt. She groaned. "Darn Sarutobi-Sensei for letting that Danzo have full authority over his unit."

She respected the Third but he was just too soft-hearted at times. She would not have been compelled to accept the post of Hokage if he did not die at the hands of his former pupil, Orochimaru. "Until the very last moment," she mused, "he must have still been trying to find a way to save Orochimaru from his evil ways and so held back when he should have fought with his full might from the beginning." And now Danzo's proving to be a problem.

She conceded that Root, being composed of specially trained shinobi, had played a significant part in protecting the country. However, Danzo's extremely right-wing policies left a bad taste in her mouth, not to mention the questionable methods in training the people under him.

There was no available data but Tsunade was aware that Root shinobi had dwindled in number since its formation more than fifty years ago. There's probably less than forty now, maybe fifty. Sai is likely the youngest and no new recruits since, as far as she knew.

Many years ago, parents complained that their children who went to train in Root were not allowed to come home or make any contact with family members. Recruits came in droves but it seemed only a handful would go out on missions. The others never came out of the training grounds. Parents demanded to see their children only to be told that they died in the line of duty.

*When an Anbu dies, even an Anbu belonging outside Root, he is never recovered-such was the accepted condition for the profession.^ But even then, Root's policies were too much for the parents. Danzo was forced to pull out recruits from the village orphanage to avoid troublesome protests as a result. Training had gone smoothly since and the number of Root shinobi grew for many years until new orphanage administrators refused to hand in any more of their wards.

Continue to Part 10