Sakura, Kankuro and Jento were the first ones to arrive in the meeting room the next morning.
"Hello," said a dark-haired, pale shinobi as he entered the room. He held up his hand and smiled a genuine smile.
Sakura was talking with Jento at the time. She spun around when she heard Sai's voice. "Good morning," she greeted him.
"Have you been briefed at all about the mission yet?" Kankuro asked.
"I'm afraid not," Sai replied. "I didn't get home until late and didn't get the message about this meeting and the mission it was about until then. Otherwise, I would have tried to find out a little more before coming here this morning."
"Don't worry about it, Sai. I'm sure they are fine giving you all the details this morning," said Sakura.
"But - ," said Sai. He was a little put off wasting other people's time just so he could be brought up to speed.
"I didn't get a chance to request you as part of the team until yesterday's initial meeting was more than half over," said Kankuro. "So don't worry about us. If anything, repetition makes it sink in more."
"Oh...ok," Sai replied. "Thanks."
"Good morning, everyone," said Naruto. Behind him walked Tsunade, Shikamaru and Kakashi. They had obviously been doing some work this morning in the Hokage's office already. All of them took the very same seats they had from yesterday. "Are we ready to get started?"
"Before we get too deep into anything...," said Kankuro.
"Yes?" Naruto questioned.
Kankuro looked at Jento.
"Oh! I, um...I-I might have some additional information for this mission," said Jento.
"Information about what?" asked Shikamaru.
"Although I recently graduated from the Academy, I've known for a while that my specialty was going to be more intelligence and strategy," explained Jento.
"Well, that's good and all, but we really don't have time to...," interrupted Kakashi.
"Hold on, let him finish," said Kankuro. "Go on, Jento." He looked at his fellow Sand shinobi with encouraging eyes.
"My apologies," said Jento. "Sometimes I don't speak very well when under pressure. Anyway, one of the gifts that I have is that I have found that I can remember just about anything I've experienced perfectly."
Though he thought he had gotten his point across, the silence in room told him that he apparently had not.
"Meaning...if I've read, seen, heard something, I tend to remember it. As one of the greatest Sand puppeteers of all time, I have read quite a bit about Sasori and his background. If you are looking for information regarding him and why this rogue shinobi might have a connection to him, I might be able to help," said Jento.
"Why didn't you say so?" asked Shikamaru.
"Yes, that would be very helpful," added Tsunade.
"Fine," said Naruto. "But first, I want to fill Sai in on the basics of what we know first. That will take no more than a half hour. Then we will give you the floor, Jento."
Jento nodded his understanding.
It didn't take long at all for Sai to be given the basics of what had been going on near the Land of Fire border with this new threat. He didn't say a word as he took it all in.
"Now, we need to move on to the next thing," said Kakashi. He turned to look at Jento. "But before that, I wanted to recommend that we send a hawk to the Sand Village as soon as possible. It's something we probably should have done last night before we adjourned."
"What for?" asked Kankuro.
"Well, I don't yet know what this boy knows, but to be safe, we should get the information about Sasori sent to us as soon as possible," said Kakashi.
"Listen, Kakashi-sensei," said Naruto. "At this point, let's just see what Jento can tell us first. You're right - we probably should have sent a hawk last night. But we didn't. So if we don't get what we need from Jento, I'll send you out to prep the message immediately. At worse, this will only cost us another hour or two."
Kakashi looked at the Hokage. "Alright...if you think so."
"Now Jento, what can you tell us about Sasori and how he may have a connection to this man Kanoshi," said Naruto.
Jento looked at him funny. "Excuse me...who?"
Kakashi looked like he was about to throw a fit. Shikamaru rolled his eyes.
"You know...Kanoshi. Though it isn't confirmed, that's the name we think this new puppeteer goes by," explained Naruto. "That piece of intelligence was mentioned yesterday."
Jento sat there in silence for a moment. Then he smiled and laughed aloud. He slapped his forehead.
"What is it?" Sakura asked.
"There's no need to send a hawk," said Jento. "I think I may know who this enemy is."
Kankuro exhaled in frustration. "Why didn't you say anything yesterday?"
Sakura looked at him. "Again, I think it was when he was in the bathroom. Remember you said you were going to fill in him with what he missed when I asked if we should wait for him to continue?"
Kankuro blushed a little. "Oh...yeah."
"So Jento, please fill us in," said Shikamaru, who didn't especially like being kept in the dark about anything.
"Oh, right. During my final year at the Academy, my class did a project on how to properly do research for intelligence purposes. By that time, I had already done a lot of research on Sasori. I was, at that time, very intrigued by something that hardly anyone ever talked about," explained Jento.
"What was it?" asked Kankuro.
"Sasori's father," said Jento. "He was an important shinobi at one point, but both his mother and his son both were much more notable for various reasons. Sasori, of course, became a member of the Akatsuki and had kidnapped and killed both the Third and Fifth Kazekages. His mother was Lady Chiyo, who among other things, gave her life in the rescuing of the Fifth Kazekage."
"Sasori's father?" Sakura questioned.
"Yes. Lord Kankuro, do you even know his name?" Jento asked.
"His name? Of course, wasn't he...," Kankuro replied.
"See? No one knew much about him. Well, he was my research project. I was determined to find any and all intelligence about him. I thought that perhaps, there might be something in his history that might explain why Sasori ended up like his did...something beyond the fact that he lost his parents at such a young age," explained Jento.
"What was your conclusion?" Sakura asked.
"I did find a lot of information out about him, though I can't say that anything really stuck out as an additional reason for Sasori's behavior," said Jento. "But I did find out he was the cause of a few really interesting family secrets."
"Jento, why don't you start at the beginning and tell us everything. We don't want to miss anything," Kankuro suggested.
"Good idea," Jento agreed. "Let me start with the basic family structure starting with Sasori. His parents were named Akashi and Josei. Akashi's mother was Lady Chiyo and his uncle was Lord Ebizo."
Jento looked around to see nodding in the room. Most of those present seemed to already be aware of these well-known facts.
"I see that you are all very aware of this already. I'm sure you are also aware that Akashi and Josei died on a mission when Sasori was very young. His grandmother took him in and started raising him. She introduced him to puppetry and taught him many of her puppetry skills. Among the first puppets he ever made were the Mother and Father puppets that Kankuro here currently carries with him. They are designed to look like Akashi and Josei."
Again, a lot of nodding.
"But where does Kanoshi come in?" asked Kakashi.
"Hold on, I'm getting there," said Jento. "How many of you were aware that Sasori had a half-brother?"
"Half-brother?" Kankuro repeated looking rather astonished. "But how...?"
"It's obviously not Kanoshi," stated Shikamaru. "The ages don't match up."
"You're right, Shikamaru," said Jento.
"Wait, how come I've never heard of this?" said Kankuro.
"It's probably because, like I said, it was intended to be a family secret. I only found it by digging deep into the archives when I was specifically looking for information about Akashi. Sasori's half-brother was born to Akashi before Josei ever came into his life, and well before Sasori was ever thought of. I doubt you'd find this information by just looking into Sasori's background," Jento explained.
"So, who was this half-brother?" asked Kankuro.
"His name was Hitori. His mother was a simple villager by the name of Suri Utsukushi. They were both very young when they met. In fact, I don't think Chiyo knew about it until it was too late and Suri was already with child. Chiyo very much disapproved of the relationship. Akashi was only 16 when Hitori was born," explained Jento.
"Wow. So young," said Sakura matter-of-factly. She thought of the Chiyo she knew and could see immediately how she might frown upon this sort of thing.
"So then what?" Kankuro asked. He was still astounded that there was so much here that he never had a clue about. "Whatever happened to Hitori?"
"I continued the research," stated Jento. "Now that I found a half-brother, I thought it the only diligent thing to do was to dig a little deeper into his history as well. It turned out that Suri and Hitori were kept away from Akashi, mainly by Chiyo. Years went by and Akashi eventually met Josei, married, and together they had Sasori. The Sand financial records show that Chiyo did funnel some of her earnings directly to Suri. My guess is that this was in some way payment to stay away from her son and her family. Suri died when Hitori was 15...and when she died, the money stopped coming as well."
"That's sad," interjected Sai. "Though obviously being on your own at 15 isn't the end of the world." He knew it himself as he looked squarely at Naruto who he could tell was thinking something similar. They had both been parentless from almost the very beginning of their lives.
"It was then that Hitori joined the Sand shinobi corps," stated Jento.
"I've never heard of him," said Kankuro.
"I'm not surprised," added Jento. "His track record was nothing special. He never made it beyond genin, though he was a member of the puppet corps."
"So he knew puppet jutsu, eh?" Kankuro said aloud.
Kakashi sighed. "So where does Kanoshi come in?" he asked again. His tone was stern as if he was making the point that they still didn't know anything about the current threat.
Jento looked at him and could tell he was getting frustrated. "Kanoshi was...is the name of Hitori's only son."
"You're kidding," said Shikamaru. "Finally."
"It makes total sense," said Naruto.
"Hold on, we still don't know if this Kanoshi is the same as the threat today...we also aren't 100% sure that his name is Kanoshi," said Tsunade. "Stop jumping to conclusions."
"It was said earlier that the beginning of the mission is additional fact-finding," said Sai. "It should be easy enough to figure it out."
"If he even talks to us," added Sakura.
"Jento...is there anything else?" Kankuro asked.
"A few things... For one, I did find one reference in the archives that Hitori had shown Kanoshi some of his puppet jutsu," said Jento.
"There you have it!" interrupted Kankuro.
"...and that he never became a shinobi. In fact, all records of Kanoshi abruptly ended when he turned 18...the same year that Hitori died. I believe he must have left the village at that time."
Jento stopped speaking and the room fell quiet. "Jento, thank you for that information," Naruto stated. "You have given us a great lead to investigate."
"But what about motive?" asked Shikamaru.
"Isn't it obvious?" Jento answered. "No, I guess not. There were definitely a lot of hard feelings about Akashi. From the time Hitori was very small, the fact that they were shunned angered Suri. I think there is a good possibility that the anger she felt was passed along to Hitori and possibly even to Kanoshi."
"No matter what his true motives are, we aren't going to know anything for sure until we pay him a visit and see for ourselves," said Kankuro. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm really raring to get going."
"It's not that far to the border village," said Sakura. She stood up as Shikamaru rolled out a map on the table in front of her.
"I'd say six hours on foot," Shikamaru said as he pointed his finger at the Leaf and dragged it to their intended destination.
"Tomorrow morning then," said Sakura. "We'll take the rest of the day today to prepare. I need to buy a few kunai and shuriken at the weapon's shop."
"The four of us should meet later to make and put together an infiltration plan," added Sai.
"Agreed," said Kankuro.
"I see no reason not to leave it there," said Naruto. "I trust that you guys will do what's best for both Sand and Leaf in this matter. Be careful out there. Dismissed."