Oof. Bit of a delay here. Sorry. Straight to it then.

Chapter 13

"You're still going to hide this from him? For how long?"

"Hiding isn't really the right term. If and when he needs to know on a conscious level, he'll know. Until then…he is a citizen of Konoha. If Tsunade orders him returned I would likely comply. The less he is aware of, in that case, the better." Danzou fingered the small, ornate box in front of him reflectively.

"And if they ask for those, now that they've discovered they're gone?" The heavy-set man motioned to the box with a stab of his index finger. "They're all up in arms, you know. Folks from the lab are milling about like their heads are on the block. The old hag has no subtlety about her at all; anyone in a mile's range has heard about this so-called 'confidential' issue."

"That's an entirely different matter. For the time being, they still own Umino. But I won't give them that which doesn't truly belong to them." He sheathed the box back into the leather pouch, slipping the belt it was attached to back around his waist under his robe. "It would truly be a cold day before they find a way to remove this from me."

"It sounds like your new man has been going backwards."

"There's a rebounding of sorts that occurs. It's because he's too old for this. He's doing much better than I expected, but…it will never be a true conversion. I can disassociate him and seal most of his personality, and that's only because I have his complete cooperation. I suppose we'll see then how well that's going to work. It's not like the days when we brought them up from birth. Even Sai was incomplete because he had familial connections before he began training. But it's not a total loss - I'm convinced that he will perform his prime function and do it well. We won't be able to take him as such - but once he's fully localized, I have an enormous amount of work that he can do for me. He isn't terribly powerful, I doubt he'll improve much more at this point - but brute force is not his specialty anyway."

"You can't wait much longer. And now they're likely to be suspicious. They're bound to come here looking."

" I know. But this is the third try, Ugoi. The last time we nearly lost him altogether. Without the right perceptual paths these hosts just aren't able to stand up to the strain, and eventually he ends up hanging half in and half out of this strata. He's got over a hundred half-lives that he's collected that I can't exorcise because his chi still won't let them go. I need to place him in a proper vessel at some point if he's ever to have the sanity as well as the presence to rule."

"You'll never get a Hyuuga, the clan has the main house too well protected and the branch members are sealed. The Uchiha that remain are all erratic to point of being deranged already - I seriously believe that they were never up to the infusion of that bloodline limit into their clan anyway; I think it's the very reason the Hyuugas have resorted to inbreeding. All of the Kahaidas are dead and gone. If there are eye users in Mist I'm not aware of them. Just who do you think would be 'proper?"

"I looked into the Hatake bloodline…the natural occurrence of the trait isn't found anywhere, yet Kakashi has been able to withstand a single eye for quite some time."

"He's old. And I wouldn't say his mental profile is exactly unblemished," the shorter man snorted, running a hand absently through his sparse gray hair.

"Just so. In the end, I haven't found anyone suitable. But we're out of time. So that's why I have to settle for turning Umino into our retrieval agent. First, I'll send him out to get something for now. Then, I'll make our mission his life mission. I'm confident that I can prepare him in such a way that, when I imbed this goal, he will fulfill it regardless- even if Tsunade calls him back. He will always be searching no matter what. It's just a question of whether he's doing it full time for me day and night, or if he's doing it subconsciously while he's out on Konoha's petty errands. He'll comb to the end of all the known lands, and if there's a match to be had, he'll bring them to me."

Danzou looked across the table at his comrade and smiled. "After all these years, you'd think we'd have this village straightened out."

"If this plan succeeds, we may yet have our day in the sun once more." Ugoi gave his ample belly a pat. "One more turn at the reins. We'll show those fools how a real ninja village should be governed."

"Yes. I'll even give them a choice. They can remain loyal to my Konoha…or I'll let them join Jeninki's village!" he grinned.

"You're too much," Ugoi chuckled. His old bones creaked as he rose from the table. "Let me know if you need anything, eh? Anything at all. When you finish with this nin I'd like a look at your work. And I'm very curious to see that business with his face. Always something interesting when you're around, Danz. My snooping around that old bat's tower isn't much by comparison. You make me feel like a lazy old coot."

"That's because you are a lazy old coot. But it makes for a convincing impression when they see you every day sunning yourself and dozing on the bench in the Hokage's courtyard like some addled rest-home refugee. Just keep up the good work. I'll be in touch, Ugoi."

Danzou showed his old co-council to the door. The heavy-set, gray-headed man adjusted from firm balanced stride to unsteady, bow-legged wobble as soon as he grabbed the walker in the entry and started out the door. With a wink he shuffled with great difficulty down from the porch and over the uneven sidewalk to the gate.

Once he was alone again, Danzou returned to the training room to set up the next day's procedure.

Time was closing in and ready or not, his trainee had to be finalized now. He was softened and shredded and very close to having his unique characteristics free-floating in his psyche. The level of disconnection from the shinobi's survivalist instincts had to be enough that when he sealed up all that was adrift, what remained would be nothing but obedient soldier, hardened strength and calculating reason. It wasn't true ROOT, the captured and sealed elements would take a very long time to atrophy and die off completely; for now they would be in more of a long-term paralysis. But the net effect would be the same in the short run.

If only the tanned nin had a stronger chakra system he would have been a suitable vessel for now. But Danzou didn't find his inner gyroscope to be true, and any imbalance would be magnified a thousandfold under the pressure of the procedure. A strong chakra system was vital in the event of logic error or a breakdown in the suppression of the host's emotional energy. At every compromised possession, Jeninki's mind was getting further misdirected. Last time he had run amok for quite some time and gotten himself terminated before Danzou could intervene to get him back on track. The attempt to visit Hidata in jail came a few hours too late and hopefully went unnoticed in the carnival of confusion that followed his escape. The added suspicion should have had them hot on his doorstep when they discovered the eyes had gone missing.

He placed the strapping by the table, mentally ticking off the supplies needed in the order they would be administered. From the cabinet, he fished through a number of vials and found the correct preparation. He decided on oral administration; the effect was just as strong but permeated the body more slowly. He wasn't as young and quick as he once was. This procedure would take a bit of time. The priming chemicals had been taken this afternoon and the effects were dramatic and immediate. He had planned to retain Umino overnight; the solution hit his system hard, as expected. But the man showed remarkable fortitude in putting on a normal façade and leaving on his own power. By morning his system should have stopped fighting the invasive chemical agents and his health would seem normal anyway.

Everything he needed was laid out eventually, except for the one most vital element. With a narrow blank scroll he returned to the room he had just visited his friend in. Once settled with a fresh cup of tea, he lanced his palm with a sharp blade and cupped his hand to hold the fluid.

Dipping the brush in his palm, he worked in peaceful concentration, bold brick-red strokes forming the sealing spell, the loyalty and silence bonds, and the failsafe orders. His characters were not as fluid and artful as they had been when he was younger, even he had to admit it.

But writing with the chakra arm was more and more of a challenge these days. It was almost as difficult to use as the eye. It impressed upon him how important it was to move ahead. If things didn't progress soon, he might not have long to enjoy the new regime before the end of his days.

xxxx

"You really don't make a hell of a lot of sense, Pak. Maybe this thing you do warps your perceptions."

"Look, I know what I saw."

"No you don't. You said yourself…"

"Don't twist my words. I can't put a name to what I saw. Doesn't mean that I didn't see it."

"Eh. We could run it by Tsunade, I guess. I can't think of anybody else that might know about this."

"Tell her, then. I'm almost glad I couldn't go through with it. It's disgusting to watch. I feel filthy through and through."

"I don't know. Shadows and chakra, I might think of some explanations for that but…Danzou's not enchanted, Pak, get real. Admit it. Your spying method has some serious bugs in it. The old man's been missing an arm and worn the wraps on his head since long before I ever laid eyes on him."

"Something was up."

"Maybe he sensed you were there and threw a genjutsu; maybe he was using one on Iruka and it got you too. That's probably it; maybe you were seeing what Iruka was seeing, and also seeing reality. That would make sense. The blood was probably part of the illusion."

"Maybe." Pakkun sighed, a little relieved at the logical explanation. "So it's just a head game."

"Yeah. That must be his method. The thing that gets me, though, is the eye."

"Well, you keep yours covered. Maybe it's the same reason he keeps his covered."

"Exactly. If it's an Uzingan, and he's using it for the training, we ought to be able to expose that somehow. If I could get him face-to-face, I might have a shot at detecting it. A Hyuuga should be able to with no problem."

"For a head game, this is rough stuff. That teacher looks like he's taking a trip in outer space. You're not going to have much left to save if this guy keeps blasting him like that."

"The purpose in sending him in there was to expose Danzou's training methods, no matter how ugly they are. Sending him in blind was Tsunade's idea so he'd be more susceptible. This is his mission. And ours. No options, just orders." None of this was particularly surprising or alarming to Kakashi. It was pretty consistent with Tsunade's suspicion, much like the mission in the prison. Not that being sent to be damaged and endangered was unique to Iruka; most missions sent the shinobi to certain peril. It was just that, although refusal was really not an option, one usually knew all there was to know about what they were getting into. Iruka didn't even know this was a mission this time. It was a disturbing trend, one that had Kakashi not only feeling resentful over the deceptions to this man, but a little suspicious himself now when he thought back on some of his past assignments. One needed to have full trust in their superiors, but not blindly. He wondered if the powers that be had thought the repercussions through on this.

They were interrupted by a dove that landed with a thump on the windowsill, tapped the glass three times and then fluttered away.

"Iruka's home this early?" Kakashi frowned and checked the clock. It was still the afternoon. "He never gets in before dark."

"Maybe it was too much for him. I tell ya, it made my skin crawl. If he bolts or goes crazy and offs that old monster he'd be better off."

"Are you up for one more trip? Go get a look for me and see if you can figure out what's up with his being at home. I need to make contact and this might be a good time for it if he's alone."

Iruka was indeed home; but he seemed to be very ill. That was the unexpected message from Pak. Kakashi made his way to the apartment in a flash and banged on the door to no avail.

He knew better than to just go in. Once upon a time, he made it a personal challenge to see if the trap and seal combination existed that could keep him from getting into Iruka's apartment at will. He strongly suspected that he would be flirting with death if he tried that now. Yet if Iruka was inside too sick to make it to the door…well, he'd be forced to find a way in.

"Umino!" He hammered hard on the wood, purposely obnoxious and loud, suppressing a guilty smile at the sound of something crashing to the floor. Probably that ugly painting Anko had given Iruka back in her art therapy days as a thank-you for his sympathetic shoulder and ear. Kakashi had wanted to burn that thing every time he looked at it.

The latch clicked and he stopped pounding. Cold glassy eyes peered at him through the opening as the door drew open steadily to about a foot.

"Hey! Where the hell have you been? We're supposed to hit the sparring field when you have free time."

"Is that what you thought? Your error." Iruka looked at the foot in the doorway. His head was throbbing and his face was burning, but the mask did have its advantages. His controlled voice revealed nothing. "You don't really think that will work."

"Well, I was hoping," Kakashi said brightly.

"How sad for you."

"Sad? You feel sad for me?"

"Sure. Why not. Whatever you like to think. Just move the foot before I send you away without it."

"Sheesh. So if not today, when do we go at it?"

"We don't."

"I only meant training."

"So did I."

"Come on. You can't be that afraid that I'll put you in your pl…"

"Move!" Iruka snarled and raised a hand, pulsing chakra in a sweeping force into the copy-nin's chest and slamming the door when it shoved him back and away.

Stunned, Kakashi regained his balance quickly enough that he stayed upright. The sudden shot hadn't been telegraphed at all.

Inside, Iruka's shoulders rounded with the weight of his illness and he cast a look at the fallen painting before heading back to drop on the bed and wait for his fever to break. He didn't have the energy for a verbal, mental or emotional sparring match right now, and Kakashi was usually all three rolled into one. He pulled the mask back off and set it on the bedside table, hoping for the dubious relief of dropping into another disorienting stretch of sleep.

Kakashi saw no wound on Iruka's throat, nor did he detect any healing. Genjutsu, then - definitely. One hell of a genjutsu that sucks in a disembodied ninken that the caster of the jutsu is unaware of.

Unless he was aware. That thought was troubling.

xxxxx

Iruka's hand fell away from the bedside table and the mask. Kakashi's appearance was already forgotten in the effort to deal with the poisonous feeling in his veins.

The ceiling was doing slow half-turns to the right. The flu, it was kind of like having the flu, right at the point where the fever is highest. His limbs were heavy and the world was swimming; it felt like his brain was attempting to fight its way out through his eyes and ears.

The training session was a blur. He probably had homework but couldn't remember for sure.

He'd been feeling bad in the training room, and Danzou had given him something for it and sent him home. More weakness, more failure. How did that compute? He'd been successfully withstanding tortures and endurance tests beyond anything he'd ever heard of…how could he be this weak at the same time?

Those questions repeated endlessly without hope of an answer in the crawling discomfort of his mind and body.

When he slept it was in small snatches , permeated with flashes of provoking images. All of his meaningful memories were boiling to the top, immersing him in them without allowing any control to slow or stop them.

It seemed like the fever would never break. But shortly before dawn, the stinging tide began to recede and by his usual rising time Iruka was able to stagger to the shower and get ready for his day. His mind was still cloudy and he was exhausted, but Danzou had ordered him to report no matter what. No sick days in ROOT, apparently.

He took three deep breaths, infused his body with the same control he used to endure the training sessions, and went out the door. To all appearances, he managed to look no different from any other day.

Kakashi's little wave and greeting were ignored as usual. The memory of the previous day's visit popped up unexpectedly; Kakashi had come by looking to train when he was sick. Idiot, Iruka thought. I told him I had no time right now.

It seemed that the copy-nin was around most days. That was unusual, Kakashi was the premier jounin and went on missions constantly, hauling in lots of revenue for the hidden village. It hadn't occurred to Iruka that he might be recuperating from something and actually be needing to train to get back in shape. Perhaps he would ask the next time the silver-haired shinobi bugged him for a match, instead of just assuming.

As soon as that occurred to him, it brought his rambling thoughts to a halt. The idea that he would befriend Kakashi again stunned him with its unexpected appearance. Where did that soft spot for the heartless bastard suddenly re-emerge from? It must have been the fever, that was it. He was smarter than that now. There was nothing to contemplate where the copy-nin was concerned, period.

Once he had progressed to the wooden gate, the blue-masked jounin's thoughts all returned front and center to this place of metamorphosis. Everything looked just as it had yesterday morning - but something felt different today. As he released the gate and stepped in, a shock went through his chest. A seal had not released completely. He recognized the irrelevant sensation as pain and made the hand signs in a even, deliberate manner to complete the release and then re-apply it after he passed.

Danzou was at the front door waiting, watching his moves with the seal he'd booby-trapped. The shock-trap with its pain had been absorbed as if it were nothing, even though it came as a complete surprise. All of Umino's actions looked to be right. It was time to go forward with the next stage of the plan.

"Come in, we've no time to waste since you left early yesterday."

"I am sorry, Danzou-sama."

"No need. Just hurry along."

Since their meeting on the first day, this was the first time Danzou had come to get him at the door. Of course, yesterday was the first time he had been unable to stay to the end of the day, and that was why he was being greeted and made to rush now.

Or so it seemed.

"Strip down to pants and on the table," Danzou ordered as they entered the room. Iruka began to comply and a hand caught his. "Take this first."

Without hesitation, in spite of the reaction to the last dose this man had given him, Iruka swallowed the yellow liquid down in one gulp and placed the empty cup back in the waiting hand.

His eye twitched at the sight of a bundle of straps on a tray table next to the examining table he was preparing to station himself on. He went to set his shirt on top of them and the old man snatched it away, motioning for him to take his place on the cold steel.

As his flash of realization had warned him, his mentor was shaking out the straps and preparing to secure him with them.

"Danzou-sama, have I done something wro-"

"Silence." Quietly spoken, it was an order nonetheless. "You will not speak unless I direct you to. When I ask you a question you will answer with the truth. Your function is to remain here and follow instructions. Other than that, you are already doing what you will be doing: resting and listening. Understand?"

"Yes." The room was starting to loosen up on its moorings. A touch of fear trickled down his spine when the first strap was cinched. Despair began to deflate his bravery. Panic was rising.

Danzou methodically placed the remaining restraints, mindful of the growing unease. The potions were working properly. This dose was much more effective already, tearing away the careful self-control and conjuring up an emotional maelstrom to the surface. The body on the table was beginning to tremble ever so slightly, he noted with satisfaction. A light sheen of sweat was appearing already.

This was going quickly, almost too quickly. "Breathe deeply." With that, the old man's true and chakra hands dug behind Iruka's head and released the buckle, stealing away the blue mask.

A wrist jerked up against its strap.

"Enough of that. I said be still."

A low growl was eminating from the tanned throat. Perhaps the dose was a little rich. It was going too far too fast.

He would have to intervene before this went past undoing. It was time to drop the false image; the extra effort to maintain it could not be afforded. He removed the wraps from his head and leaned over his student, ignoring the gasp at the sight of his true eye.

Instead of the genjutsu eye, the Uzingan spun to lock in the thoughts of its beholder. Such a wellspring of emotion here, an uniquely large amount. It impressed him a bit than a man could get control as well as this shinobi had when saddled with such a heavy load of ingrained emotion. Had he seen this up front, he probably would have rejected Iruka as a candidate. But, he would have been wrong. This was going to work just fine.

He used his power to restrain and slow the emergence, helping to ease the reactions to seeing the Uzingan as well.

"You are fine. My power will assist you. I am not insane as your former cellmate was. This eye is a difficult power for most to bear; it can drive the recipient quite mad. You yourself would collapse under the pressure, so I cannot give one, much less two, to you. Now that I see into your depths I'm twice as sure of it."

The man continued to quake in distress on the table, but the disobedient movements to get free subsided. The faceless nin could not control his emotions, and that was fine, this condition had been manipulated purposely. But he had to retain control of his actions. Those controls had to remain separate, because to seal any element of movement during this procedure would be disastrous to his performance afterward.

There would be no effective memory of this once he finished. The new and improved Umino would not reveal Danzou's methods, as he had avowed at the beginning of all this. Any old heartfelt loyalties would be sealed away with his 'heart', to wither and die over time. The old politician was growing more curious to see the final result of his work. The things he would ask of Iruka were vital to his plans, so the end result of these efforts were more than just an issue of ego or experimentation.

Danzou forced himself to start, with the reluctance that comes just before immersion into a task of great effort, concentration and difficulty. Iruka was ready. His time for preparing and observing for readiness was far too short, but he couldn't afford to wait. Mindless panic was cresting, the first of the elements he would segment off and seal. He would not need some of the equipment he'd laid out; his subject had been quite sensitive to the evocative powers of the drugs and no torture or shock would be needed to squeeze the festering first elements to the surface.

With hand signs and a touch to the scroll, he worked through panic, revulsion, hatred, anger, fear and greed. A surprising volume of shame and distrust came far earlier in the usual order of these things. Pride and vanity, copious amounts of sadness and loss, lesser elements of cruelty, jealousy and lust, all fell to the sealing with no traces left behind. At each step, the tension and reactivity on the steel table lessened. That is, until he reached the last of the elements. Then, antithetically, resistance increased enormously. He had reached the substantive lifeblood of the subject's emotional soul.

Like a taproot, the deeply imbedded feelings of belonging to family, needing security, and love in its countless facets tended to be the most central to the core of personality and well-being. Yet, as liabilities in the shinobi world, they were also the most forcefully repressed. Iruka had been cranking down continuously on this part of his emotional make-up since his early years, and the difficulty in excavating it was proportional. This was far and away the hardest part. Danzou channeled his energy and awareness into the Uzingan and forced his way in to work in concert with the drugs, with his subject fighting him every step of the way. The lip service and the conscious effort to cooperate up until now was sheer farce at this level. No one yet had given this up without a battle royal; even the infants placed in their care waged a shockingly formidable war to remain intact against this measure.

Without the drugs it would have been impossible. As it was, it took the better part of an hour of all-out attack to finally isolate the last of it. He sealed the final elements away twice, knowing they were the hardest to keep contained, and then cast a paralysis over all the contents of all the seals. It was done. He sorely needed to rest , but a nagging sense of urgency kept him at it. The loyalty bond was no big deal, nearly a standard feature of the vows of membership in both ROOT and ANBU. The glaring exception, that he was applying it from the outside to a shinobi too deeply in shock to know what was happening, was beside the point. He'd already avowed to become ROOT. There was no time for the now-meaningless ceremonies of acceptance associated with that vow.

Now this next step…this was why he had spent so long getting the scroll just right. The specifications for this mission were very detailed. The abductions had certain unique specifications, some of which would require judgment and analysis on Umino's part, without alerting him to the involuntary nature of his assignment. Danzou would imprint the scroll into his subject's subconscious; but it had to be vital, always there to be triggered, not just gathering dust with the grayed, emotion-laundered facts of the shinobi's past. The Uzingan came into play, infusing it with a touch of Danzou's own chakra. As long as he remained alive, the mission particulars would stay active in the background, ready to activate to the forefront under the right conditions.

Then the last orders. As exhausted as the procedure had made him, he nearly skipped it. It took sheer determination, but he managed it in the end. The failsafe order. If the mission were discovered, if something went wrong, whatever the situation - if Konoha discovered Iruka's true mission - he was to terminate himself at all costs, taking as many Fire Country loyals with him as possible. Only a reversal by Danzou would deactivate it. Even if his mentor died, Iruka's failsafe order would remain in effect for some time afterward. In fact, the death of his mentor was the alternate trigger to activate it.

xxxx

"I know you're involved in something right now, Moreno, but you should be aware of this first. Go on, Kakashi. Tell him what you've found out." Tsunade ignored Ibiki's impatient scowl and steepled her fingers to await the reaction to Kakashi's information.

Her primary jounin was doing a good job in the face of these difficult odds. The intel the ninken had gathered meant more to her than Kakashi knew, and would be even more meaningful to Ibiki. It sounded like their time was running out on every front.

As she expected, the words relayed in Kakashi's studied drawl of insolent boredom impacted Ibiki immediately.

Tsunade didn't wait for his response, already aware of the fire it just lit under him. "When are you doing the search?"

"I have everything ready. I'd like to send for the jounin and move on this now."

"Exactly. Who are you utilizing?"

"Puma, Shiranui and Hyuuga."

"Which Hyuuga?"

"Neji."

"Good choices all. Execute your orders now, Ibiki. If you find that you need more jounin, send up an alert. This cannot wait."

With a nod Morino was gone.

Kakashi looked Tsunade in the eye.

"The ends justify the means," he said coldly.

She looked startled as he voiced the rebuke she had been preparing to deliver in her own defense. It irritated her immensely.

"As you've evidenced yourself, many times," she snarled.

"I suppose." Yes, his own methods were often less than moral, upright, or humane. She had him there.

"Look, Kakashi, you're doing a good job on this, and it's far from over. Go get some rest and make sure you're available when Umino leaves Danzou's today. Keep him in your sights. I expect that he will start doing work for that man outside of his compound any day now, and I want to know what those missions are. Just steer clear of Ibiki's operations. Now move out." Tsunade picked up a scroll and began working on it as if he were already gone.

Kakashi gazed at the top of her head for a few more moments until the urge to kick the desk out from under her passed. He teleported away with a sharp report.

tbc