Hidden Depths

Revelations

They were encountering operatives with more and more frequency as they made their way deeper into the underground base. Quite often they were no longer given the option of side passages to avoid them either. But resourcefulness in the face of the unexpected was a half a shinobi's job.

Not that his solution was unheard of before. It was just... difficult without the use of chakra. While injured. In the dark. With no idea of where exactly the ceiling was, or what it was made of. Well. Perhaps taking risks was the other half of a shinobi's job - at least his. Not that he would ever admit it.

The first time he'd sensed shinobi coming their way from opposite directions with no way to turn off into a side passage, there were only a few options to consider. Truthfully there'd been more than a few, but he didn't count the ones that would definitely blow their cover. Like taking out one of the approaching groups and assassinating anyone they encountered afterward. Alright, he'd definitely considered it - but not seriously. And he hadn't seriously considered using the trick he had up his sleeve either. That was more of a one time deal, and he hadn't wanted to destroy his plans for later by wasting it there. The other option had been fairly risky. He still hadn't seen what the limits of his injured body were. Oh, who was he kidding, he'd thought - the state of his body had never stopped him from doing anything. Gai had probably never done it without chakra but it relied on stamina and strength - it was practically made for Gai. There were of course the other factors to consider but... Within seconds of feeling the trap he came to a stop and reached out to Gai to convey both the presence of the trap and his intentions. Up, he signed, then pulled out two kunai to explain the how of what he had in mind. Sticking to the ceiling with chakra was only a matter of chakra control. Doing it without chakra was a bit more complicated. Kunai, fortunately, were more than just aerodynamic throwing knives with convenient finger rings. They were their portable handholds and anchors for spontaneous climbing and crouching in strange places without chakra. Gai tapped his hand to show he understood, which was good since there was no way for him to demonstrate without chakra or light, and he signaled that he would go first to see if the plan was feasible.

Quickly he checked the wall with the back of his hand to make sure it wouldn't crumble or compress under his weight. Satisfied, he ran up the wall a couple of steps before kicking the wall to vault to the other side of the tunnel. The nine feet that gave him was enough to get him to the ceiling and he thrust one of his kunai into the ceiling. He didn't even pause in his actions to see if the kunai would slide into the material of the ceiling or if it would obediently stay sheathed there. Swinging his weight on it he twisted to implant the other kunai in the ceiling and planted his feet against the wall, so that he faced the ground hanging on the kunai from outstretched arms. He idly mused as he felt Gai follow him up that crouching on ceilings was easier in corners. And with chakra. Gai no doubt, was reevaluating his life in view of things that could be done despite the lack of chakra. He resigned himself to the questions he would be battered with once this was over; few things would deter Gai from possible training opportunities.

Silencing his body's protests through experienced force of will, he focused on the operatives and was pleased to find that they'd taken to the ceiling just in time. Two of them passed underneath them within a few moments. He pondered how easily they would have been discovered if they had been using lights as he waited for the next group to pass. The tunnel wasn't high enough to get away with that 'people rarely look up' crap even if it wasn't unrealistic. But without light... He supposed that with the way Root operatives were so attuned to the dark, probably more so than most shinobi, they had the advantage here. No doubt they were all competent at fighting relying on mostly chakra sensing and their other senses.

It was just too bad for them, that it happened that the two people that decided to infiltrate Root were the two things that they hadn't anticipated. He and Gai were as comfortable in the dark as they were - well, he was, but Gai had a natural talent for stealth, made a habit of training in the dead of night, and was following his lead, so it was pretty much the same thing. And most of all, they were suppressing their chakra instead of masking it.

The simple fact of the matter was that no one suppressed their chakra. Stealth was typically about hiding from the other senses and applying the various ingenious ways of masking chakra from sensors. An alert, high level sensor and a few specializations could see through these but those were extremely rare. Chakra was never given up because it limited the abilities too much; it was taken for granted. Gai was one of the few shinobi that focused on increasing his physical strength, stamina, and speed outside of chakra; thus, he wasn't nearly as reliant on chakra. By default he'd been dragged along as Gai's 'rival.' Not that he'd protested when it helped to compensate for his lower chakra reserves and suppression let him, for all purposes, be completely invisible. Exactly the way they were now to Root. The bucketload of inside information probably didn't hurt anything either.

A single operative passed under them from the opposite direction of the other two and his gut clenched. On many of the teams he'd been on this was the part where his teammate would spring back into action thinking the danger past, without waiting for his confirmation, and instead found themselves dropping in front of their target. It took several moments for him to acknowledge that Gai wouldn't do the same, and he found himself more relieved than he should have been; Gai had always been better on the respecting other teammates roles front despite having as much trouble on his genin team as he had. He dismissed it as the oddness of leading Gai rather than acting as equals when the last two operatives in the area passed under them.

They had barely passed out of range, when he dropped to the floor and immediately dashed off. Despite knowing that only a few moments had passed, the lack of action was letting his mind wander more than it usually would. There was another presence approaching but the gap was just large enough that he would rather risk it than stay still any longer. Gai was at his side in a moment and he berated himself. This wasn't a solo mission and Gai was... mini at the moment; he wasn't the only one that he was endangering with his risks. Being irritated that mini-Gai could easily catch up to him at his current speed was a sign that he needed to consider the other more when he acted, not a reminder that he was currently injured and weak. He forced himself to focus on the mission and the team; his brain could have it's meltdown later. Which included not pushing himself to go any faster despite the unreasonable feeling of being challenged.

Internally, he sighed. The night was far from over.

The ceiling became a frequent recourse for them over the next while as more people started to head further into the base. The increase in traffic was irritating him, but he deliberately drowned that with curiosity. They slipped into a gap in the procession to find out where everyone was headed. But only a few moments later they broke off into the first side passage he came across. Apparently they weren't too far from the stream of people's destination. He had felt the edge of a gathering crowd and that was not someplace he wanted to get corralled into. Even the small part of the gathering he'd felt had many more shinobi than the couple dozen or so they'd come across so far.

The unease he'd felt at the amount of living quarters they'd passed intensified. How many shinobi did Danzou have? After Root was shut down, he was killing off half his numbers as part of the brainwashing. Clearly from the scene they'd come across he had already begun to practice that method. But surely when Root was still official and he could freely recruit he wouldn't have used that method so often? How many kids had already died? And if there were this many operatives where had they all gone by the time Root was disbanded? Was the Sandaime aware of how many operatives Root had right now?

Whatever they were gathering for was now only a convenience for them to take advantage of. While not all of the operatives had joined, it seemed as if the majority of them had; despite being in the heart of the base the tunnels were relatively empty. Moving now with additional purpose he stopped to check every seal he sensed, looking for ones that would denote storage or weapons rooms. It was more of a guessing game than anything. The seal he had opened earlier had been meant for higher level operatives, but a storage room would be open to more ranks than that. Not all ranks, but there was no way of knowing exactly how many.

He found a seal that fit somewhere in that range fairly quickly and made quick work of the counter seal - it was even less difficult than the last one. The other side of the door was dark but he was fairly sure that it wasn't a storage room. Not willing to waste time investigating, he was about to pull out, when a sound stopped him short. It was just outside his hearing range, but his instincts told him it had been the sound of fighting. Wary of finding another scene he still couldn't help but head toward the sound. Soon he could clearly hear metal clinking off metal, slightly distorted as it carried down the hallway they were in. A few bends later revealed two chakras and a faint light. He relaxed slightly as he realized that the two were training, their chakra's steady and nonviolent. The clashing stopped and he stole a glance around the last corner before ducking back. The hall lead out onto a sort of underground training ground. It was similar to the other room except that it had less of the feeling of a stage. One of the shinobi had headed into another room where he had caught a glimpse of a weapons rack - a storage room. Bingo. The other shinobi was sitting down on the edge of the dim light apparently settling into meditation.

He restrained his wicked mischievous impulse to pass right under their noses to get to the storage room. That would be extremely risky even for him, but two people would be pushing it. On the other hand, leaving Gai out of range of any sort of contact with hostile nin between them was not at all appealing. Undecided he turned to Gai for his opinion. He waited long enough after he signed the situation that he wasn't sure if Gai had understood him. It was actually lucky Gai had caught any of the signs so far at all - but Gai tapped back in confirmation then signed Up; he would wait here. He allowed himself a grin.

He breezed past the meditating shinobi with a malicious glee; supposedly he was at his most aware right now. Of course, he didn't literally breeze past him, but he slipped by close enough that the man should be ashamed of himself. Ducking into the storage was risky with light illuminating the doorway, but the meditating shinobi had his eyes closed, and the one in the storeroom was far from the door. He ducked in, then quickly took to the shadows on the top shelves, careful not to dislodge anything. He could hear the other one now, rummaging in what sounded like a box of blades. Occupied. He turned his attention to the contents of the storeroom, thanking the shinobi for so thoughtfully providing light - he had not been looking forward to doing inventory in the dark.

Not that he was particularly interested in their actual inventory so much as the quantity of their stock. Despite most shinobi buying and maintaing their own equipment, the divisions always kept a stock prepared to equip at least three quarters of their forces. If not twice that. Shinobi tended to go through equipment like ... well, not like water, but they went through it fairly regularly. Kunai especially tended to vanish. He always thought that making kunai would keep him well off if he ever retired from the shinobi life. But what he was really counting were the things that didn't get replaced often: the metal arm guards, tantou, and the like. More durable and less likely to become unretrievable during a mission. He got rough estimates on the items in each aisle before moving on the next, only forgoing the last where the shinobi was apparently still trying to find the right blade.

He did the numbers as he checked to see that the other shinobi was still meditating. There would be a few other rooms like this one distributed across the base, at least two. He slipped back out the doorway. On the low end they could have just restocked and had more than normal and was necessary, on the other end they could be waiting for a replacement shipment and were running low. Either way, their numbers were far higher than he'd expected - even Anbu didn't have those numbers, at least not while he was a member.

The rattling turned to light swishes just as he moved out of hearing range and he couldn't help sneaking up behind the meditating shinobi. He needed to focus on something else. And it was the perfect opportunity to start setting things up for the future. The nin froze as the tip of the needle he'd picked up brushed against the back of his neck. Very carefully modulating his voice, to something deeper, that barely left his lips before dying, he whispered into his ear. He was gone as soon as the last syllable had left his lips but his victim remained still for several moments. He cackled gleefully, wondering if the nin would be able to figure out his trick. He'd left the needle balanced on the back of the man's shirt just resting on his skin. As soon as he moved the needle would be unbalanced and would most likely be lost. But until then it would seem as if he was still there. Perhaps giving him time to react to his words.

He slipped back around the corner into the tunnel and kept moving when Gai joined him. He had set it up so that his actions would be mistaken for another Root operative - specifically the other one in the room that had fallen silent just as he made his move - but it was best if they got as far away as possible. Just in case.

Finally in the true depths of the base it didn't take much longer to locate his ultimate goal; the door was marked by the highest level version of the entrance seal they'd encountered so far. No doubt while it was occupied the seal wasn't active, but it didn't matter either way; he scrawled out a counter seal after tracing the lines of the seal. He was getting faster at this. Stepping into the room turned out to be rather tricky. He cursed as he realized that Danzou probably had another component linked to the seal that canceled all the traps in the room when he entered. But he shrugged it off - traps were easy enough to avoid. They found all of them on their way around the room, along with a desk and a few shelves. But none of it was protected so he didn't bother with it. He paused in the center of the room for a few moments before he felt the static chakra of another seal. It was incredibly faint - it most likely would need to be replaced soon. The sign of frequent use only confirmed that it was hiding what he was actually looking for though.

The seal was behind what was most likely a map, and he carefully checked to make sure there were no markers in place that would reveal if it was moved by anyone other than Danzou. Childish, but Danzou was paranoid and the simplest things could often be the most effective. Finding nothing he moved it aside before tracing the new seal. It wasn't like the others but it was incredibly basic - it's strength was clearly in secrecy - no one would find it if they didn't already know it was there. Or if someone could sense static chakra. The door revealed and open, Gai slid in behind the map and they scrupulously made sure it fell still before they closed the door behind them. A few paces revealed that they were in hallway of some sort, but it wasn't long or twisty, and had a single corner on the end that would block the other door from view of the entrance if there was light. The urge to cackle filled him, but it was driven more by the urge to fight the tension, than how close he was to Danzou's most prized records room.

He passed his hand over the door and found the seal soon enough - it was large and centered in the middle of the door as was predictable for a large seal. As far as he knew Root only had four master level seals - all of which he had the counter seals for. If this wasn't one of them he would be in trouble. In the case that Danzou had taken advantage of being an official subdivision of Anbu and had seals commissioned from within Konoha then his counter seals would be useless - Danzou would have changed any seals that the Sandaime would have been aware of as soon as he figuratively moved Root underground. He had only traced part way through it before he recognized the familiar pattern. There were variations like all the others had had, but the counter-seal would work. He should've figured that Danzou would never use any seals under Sarutobi's eyes, even with the extra cost of dealing with a seal maker outside of the village.

He took his time tracing the seal and building a good visualization of it before he set about brushing out the counter seal, making sure the modifications he needed to make were clear. A seal of this level had multiple layers that needed to be taken into account. And if he made a mistake he had a very clear idea of his fate - Danzou hadn't been stingy with the traps on this one, nor merciful.

The seal needed his full attention, so he had Gai sitting next to entrance, keeping alert for any nearby chakras in his place. It wasn't ideal because Root's dampening seal restricted Gai's range to only a handful of meters, but he had worked with less.

He finished and carefully applied the counter over the seal. Unlike on the other, lower grade, seals, this counter seal needed to remain continuously active for proper nullification. So he left Gai where he was and the door open as he slipped inside. He turned his mind fully on his task, Gai's heart rate the only other thing he was aware of. Unable to make noise, visible signals over distance, or alert each other through chakra it was their only way to communicate. A steady heartbeat was something that could only be picked up on if it was already being focused on - a minute increase would likewise be undetectable unless someone was listening for it. That would be the only warning that Gai would be able to give him if he sensed something. He made a note to make sure and teach Gai another method of communication if they ever did something like this again.

As expected the room was full of scrolls. He didn't even need light at this point, the static chakra of their individual seals clearly identifying their presence. He didn't let himself be relieved that they were really there. There had been no reason to believe that Danzou had access to the Sharingan's eidetic memory at this point. He was almost positive that it wasn't until the successful transplant of Obito's eye into a non-Uchiha that Danzou had recruited Orochimaru's assistance. Nor was there any reason to think that the file room wouldn't contain the really important information. Even after he obtained the Sharingan Danozu had still maintained records or he wouldn't have kept the sealed vault.

Ignoring his worries he performed a preliminary check to confirm that there were several different seals. He didn't have the time to check each individually but he randomly checked enough until he was satisfied that he had found each distinct seal. There were two of higher grade, but one of them had five variations - most likely the operative seals for mission reports. He traced out each one and was pleased to find them all familiar enough that he would be able to modify their counter seals. It wouldn't be easy but it was possible. That meant there were six counter seals that would take as long as the one for the door. He spared a thought to be thankful he'd memorized the counter seals, made by far more skilled individuals than he, with the Sharingan - his skills wouldn't have been up to this without that base to work off.

He pulled out the storage scroll he'd prepared for this. It contained as many scrolls and as much ink as he could get his hands on, on such short notice; hopefully it would be enough. There were two seals that he needed to finish to call this mission a success. Both were high level, but the first would be a matter of time and patience and higher lever modifications while the second... The second was built on theories and hopes and his own admittedly amateur skills. He started to work on the first one, working from the base outward. It would copy all the scrolls currently inside the vault without even opening them or triggering their seals.

Incorporating the counter-seals was the most time consuming part, but he was careful to make sure they interacted properly with the chakra dampening component. Even if the seal didn't collapse, the dampening component could still fail and alert Danzou. He had strong suspicions that the dampening seal on Root's base had been connected to something that worked very similar to a sensory barrier. No doubt Danzou was the only with access to it, but he couldn't rely on Danzou not being near it to notice that initial chakra burst in his records room.

Finishing the last line he sensed the flare of chakra as it activated. He waited but Gai's heart rate didn't change as it would have if he had sensed anything. Satisfied that if Gai couldn't sense it well within his range then the dampening component had worked, he poured the first pot of ink over the scrolls. He watched in fascination for a moment as the ink seemed to gain a life of it's own and began to slither across the scrolls leaving words in its wake. He noted that the information wasn't his just yet; many of the scrolls would be written in code, including Iruka's most hated enemies: chicken scratch and illegible handwriting. One would think Shinobi that could easily forge signature would be able to extend their abilities to making their reports legible - but as he was one of those lazy bastards it would be hypocritical of him to complain. He moved on to the next task with a sigh.

With another scroll spread out before him, he didn't let his uncertainty slow his movements. Even trying this was going to be extremely risky - but this was the seal that truly made this mission worthwhile. This would give him constant updates on Danzou's actions. Every scroll that was added to the room would be copied and sent to him. At least, that was the plan. Connecting a pair of scrolls to allow instant communication, would allow it to work - if he could modify the seal to allow the scrolls to work on either side of the seal barrier in the room. Just a bit of manipulation of space-time - no big deal. It wasn't like there were any dangerous repercussions that even seal-masters were wary of. He tried not to think about it. A few more entirely experimental modifications, to prevent silly things like the seal activating while Danzou was still holding a scroll, and allowing him to feed chakra to it from the paired scroll, and theoretically, the seal itself was complete.

Physically leaving the scroll was perhaps the easiest problem and he was relieved to finally turn to it. Danzou, paranoid bastard that he was, would notice if a single thing was out of place. He was just glad he didn't leave dust everywhere to catch people that way. Probably thought anybody with chakra would be able to avoid that with ease. Hah. So mixing his scroll in with the others was out; as was attempting to stuff it in a corner and hoping it didn't get seen. Fortunately, he'd come prepared for this and had a trick up his sleeve. He'd made a nice, pre-drawn earth-style seal-jutsu with a dampening component just for this eventuality. Unfortunately, since Gai did not have an earth affinity he could only use Gai's blood as ink for part of it. In order to finish and activate it he had to use some of his own chakra infused blood to finish and activate the seal - chakra he really didn't have to spare.

With the seal system and the paired scroll finished he found a nice corner that was out of direct sight of the main path, no harm in being overcautious after all, and, after a pause to brace himself, bit his thumb to swipe the last lines into the seal and activate it. The scroll disappeared into the wall with a flare of chakra leaving the seal dead. For several seconds he simply stayed there, making sure he hadn't passed his limits, only moving to slip the paired scroll into a pocket. When he turned away to check on the progress of his first copying seal he was able to disregard the dizziness and the heavier feel of his body. But his uneasiness grew as he watched the last words appear.

He had taken too long. Danzou had no doubt been the one to call the meeting. It was a given that he would stop by his office afterwards. How long had it been since they had left the gathering? As if summoned by his thoughts Gai's heart rate changed and he jolted into action. He had the scroll tucked away and was out the door lifting the counter seal off in a blink. Gai arrived at his elbow at the same time and he signaled him up with his unoccupied hand, before following himself. The action was trying but he ignored that and focused on his senses. There were three people in Danzou's office - standing around the desk if he remembered the layout right.

The dampener stripped away most of the detail but he was fairly positive the one closest to the hidden door - to them - was Danzou. He cursed their low voices - what reason did uber paranoid shinobi have to mutter in the heart of their top secret base?There was no way of knowing whether they were talking about new recruits or if he was receiving a mission report that would need to be filed. The latter was not preferable.

The two others left and he steeled himself for possible action. He hadn't decided yet whether he would try to take Danzou down or just make a break for it. Maybe they were close enough to the door that even with light he wouldn't notice them? He couldn't count-

The man that had to be Danzou left a moment later. He felt him pass out of his range and he dropped to the floor less than gracefully. He couldn't quite believe he'd left - or that he'd been there at all. Gai's hand was on his shoulder before he'd realized that he'd almost blanked out. Straightening from his crouch, he refused to feel embarrassed, and signaled Gai that he was nearing his limit. He'd anticipated this and warned his accomplice accordingly. He had hopes that this wouldn't end in Gai giving him a piggyback ride. But if they needed to take to the ceiling again, he was resigned to it.

The path back took only a little less time than it had to reach Danzou's office and it was fortunately fairly clear. They were able to head directly back instead of meandering between the tunnels but lost time by the need to go slower. By the time they encountered other shinobi they were able to simply duck into another side passage as they had at first.

Lack of people had him worrying that they'd stayed past dawn, but when they were finally back under the sky, it was only just beginning to lighten. They hadn't even taken a few steps outside the barrier before Gai was insisting that he carry him the rest of the way. It probably said something that he couldn't gather the energy to protest; he drifted off before they'd left the area, only coming back to awareness to place a seal on the scrolls and pull off his mask under the covers.

Anymore of Danzou's revelations could wait 'til he woke.

Note: As usual this has not been edited; please let me know of any mistakes.

Unexpected Companions, where I'm putting Gai's POV (finally!) is now up as well. Only one chapter so far (2.6k words) but I have more material that hasn't been covered in Hidden Depths waiting to be typed. (Update 3/2/2014: Chapter two is also up now.)

If you're having a difficult time picturing them crouching on the ceiling let me know and I will attempt to draw what I have in mind.

I included a lot of information about sealing in this because I couldn't help myself, let me know if you have any questions, because I tried not to dump all of it into the story.

(Update 3/2/2014: I received a wonderful review from Magnusrae that pointed out some problems in this chapter. I have made some changes accordingly, especially in the scene in Danzou's records room with all the sealing. Hopefully I have done their advice justice and the story has improved. Thank you very much!

Another thing that was brought to my attention was that it seems strange that Danzou wouldn't notice that his seal of his traps hadn't been deactivated/disarmed. So some changes have been made clarifying that as well that I will summarize here.

Kakashi didn't disarm the traps, merely avoided them. Like thieves in the movies dodging the lasers.

The seals weren't deactivated. The counter-seals temporarily nullify their effects. Most of the seals were simple barrier types so he simply had to use them once to bypass the barrier - it would be sealed to the next person to pass by. The high level seal is more complicated and would react even after he had passed the boundary. So he leaves the counter seal on top of the seal to continuously nullify it. He rips it off when Gai warns him they have company.)

Also, I had some goals I was trying to accomplish relating to Kakashi so please tell me what you thought of him this chapter! (or any chapter)