Okay, apparently late is the new on-time. I... uh... got lost on the road of life?
beta: Icescim
The Philosophy of Self
Chapter Thirteen
Tsunade's face was wan and aged somehow, though the jutsu she maintained over herself was still intact. She looked from Kakashi's face to Naruto's to Sakura's, before her gaze settled on Itachi's.
"Shimura Danzo is dead," she told them bluntly. The words sent a jolt through Itachi's body. Beside him, Naruto's posture stiffened, and Sakura inhaled sharply. "He attacked me as his subordinates attacked my ANBU, and you. While I regret that it proved impossible to stop him without fatal force, the fact that he launched such an attack in response to Sasuke's words is as much an admission of guilt as a verbal confession. And I imagine that, had we been able to capture him alive, interrogation would have proved ineffectual anyway."
She paused, watching their reactions. Itachi was peripherally aware of Naruto and Sakura watching him in awkward hesitance, but largely he was preoccupied with the rush of surprising relief that washed through him.
He hadn't known he'd hated Danzo quite so much. But the feelings of relief and… vindication that he was experiencing now made clear that he had never quite forgiven Danzo for issuing that order.
"He is dead?" Itachi breathed. Tsunade folded her arms.
"Oh yes. Quite dead," she said, the tone of her voice making clear that she had been the one to land the final blow.
Itachi took a shaky breath; his reaction to the news surprised him and overwhelmed his stoic bearing.
"Now. Even though Danzo died without explaining anything, you are here and you will explain. Everything, if you please, Uchiha."
"Yes," he replied, a bit absently. He paused, closing his eyes and collecting himself. When he opened his eyes he looked at the Hokage and said, "To begin, I want to make one thing clear, and I beg you for the sake of the Village to keep an open mind."
Tsunade lifted one dark blonde eyebrow at him. He said: "I am not Uchiha Sasuke. I am Uchiha Itachi."
She tensed, and he could sense the hidden ANBU in the room tensing as well. He kept his posture as lax and non-threatening as possible. He waited, as Tsunade's narrowed eyes watched him. Finally, her fingers tapped a staccato on her bent arm.
"I see," she said. "And how, exactly, did this come about?"
Her accompanying hand gesture was vague, but Itachi understood what she meant. So he straightened his spine, lifted his chin, and made his report.
He told her about Madara, about his orders, his family, Sasuke, Akatsuki. He told her how he had died, and woken again.
Team Seven listened closely, no doubt taking advantage of hearing the story again, this time without their shock twisting their analysis of it.
After, Tsunade remained silent, staring with an unreadable expression at each of them in turn. Her gaze lingered longest on Itachi, unsurprisingly. Finally, she propped her chin on her elbow, leaning against her desk.
"Well. Your account of the Massacre agrees with what we've read in the scrolls we've recovered from Danzo's hidden Root vaults."
Itachi jolted a little. Scrolls?
Tsunade was smirking. She flicked her fingers at the innocuous pile of scrolls at the corner of her desk. "Sorry for the subterfuge, but I felt it would be best if you offered the information on your own, without any prompting. After I killed Danzo, we traced the Root activity back to their base. I suppose I should be grateful that the old grouch kept meticulous records. But in any case, his observations of the Uchiha Clan, and his documentation of his orders to you, were brought to me about two hours ago."
Her eyebrows furrowed into a scowl. "I can't believe that bastard was running this under my nose. Tch."
"So the Uchiha Clan really was killed on orders?" Sakura interrupted, albeit softly. Tsunade looked at her student.
"I'm afraid so," the Hokge replied. Sakura nodded, once, without surprise. She subsided into thoughtful silence, as Tsunade's attention slid back to Itachi.
"My question to you…" the pause was almost unnoticeable "…Itachi-san, is: What now? What do you intend?"
"Intend?" he said softly. "Eight hours ago I still didn't know who I was. I don't have anything so well thought-out as intentions."
"I suppose I should ask it bluntly, then," she said, unperturbed. "Are you going to revenge yourself on Konoha?"
"I have never wished to do so," Itachi told her firmly.
"Then, do you wish to stay here?"
"I…" Itachi paused. "I am not sure."
"Then, Uchiha Itachi, what do you want?"
Itachi found himself shocked speechless. Want? When was the last time someone had asked him that? When was the last time he had been able to indulge in his wants?
"Tsunade-baachan," Naruto said. "He said he wants to help us find Sasuke."
The Hokage's face became clouded. "No."
"What?" Naruto said, confused.
"No. I will not allow you three to go gallivanting across the countries again chasing someone you don't even know is still alive," Tsunade said implacably.
"But—!" Kakashi slipped his hand over Naruto's mouth before the rest of the furious protest made it out.
"Akatsuki is still active, and targeting the Jinchuuriki." Tsunade looked pointedly at Naruto. "And, besides not knowing if he's even alive, Sasuke had proven resistant to attempts at retrieval. I'm not sending you all out into danger for the sake of mere sentimentality."
Naruto looked like he was about to explode. But Tsunade had switched her stare to Itachi, and was ignoring the blond.
Itachi was thinking quickly, staring back at Tsuande, knowing that she was trying to give him a hint.
"Hokage-sama," he said slowly, an idea coming to him. "If you cannot allow me to search for my brother, I will accept and respect your decision. I will instead ask your permission to hunt down the man known as Uchiha Madara, otherwise identified as the masked Akatsuki member Tobi."
She narrowed her eyes, but there was the slightest hint of a smirk at the corners of her lips. "We still aren't sure if you are trustworthy. Why should I send you out when you may rejoin our enemies?"
"Hokage-sama," Kakashi put in, clearly catching on to the game. "Team Seven could accompany him, keeping an eye on him in case he proves untrustworthy, and aiding him against Madara if he is telling the truth."
Tsunade made a show of crossing her arms and leaning back, glaring at each of them. Naruto had fallen silent, and was watching and waiting with ill-concealed impatience. Sakura was holding her breath.
"Very well," Tsunade said. "I will draw up a mission scroll and sign it immediately. When will you leave?"
"As soon as we are outfitted and provisioned," Itachi said instantly.
"Right," Tsunade said, and then raised her voice: "Shizune!"
After a pause, the Hokage's assistant came in. "Yes, Tsunade-sama?"
"Pull the typical mission pack for an extended mission, enough to equip four. Also add a full field medic's pack and four ANBU Stimpacks," Tsunade said. Shizune blinked, her eyes widening at the last item. She glanced at Team Seven, Itachi, and back to Tsunade. Her desire to question was apparent, but she withheld and merely bowed.
"Yes, Tsunade-sama." She bustled out of the office, presumably to arrange the equipment with the quartermasters.
The Hokage moved her focus back onto Team Seven. "Now. I'm sure you've noticed, but right now I am attempting to keep this… ah… paradigm shift out of the public's eye. And that includes the majority of the ninja ranks as well. Once you've gone, I will be introducing the matter in a controlled manner. In the meantime…"
"You want us to swear to secrecy," Kakashi said as she trailed off significantly.
"Yes." All trace of amusement was gone from Tsunade's expression and voice. "I know that it galls. But for now I want to keep a firm hand on this."
They had all already come to grips with the necessity of it. So they nodded, and when Tsunade brought out a document they made their oaths and signed their names. The process lasted until Shizune had returned with their supplies.
After they had taken the spoken oath of secrecy, and Tsunade had sealed the document, Shizune handed Kakashi a storage scroll. Kakashi unsealed the mission packs, medic kit, and Stimpacks and divided the materials up among Sakura, Naruto, Itachi, and himself. The med-pack, however, went wholly to Sakura.
As Tsunade wrote out the mission scroll for their Madara hunt, they sorted through their packs, strapping on things that were immediately useful and sealing away things that they might need later in storage scrolls.
"This mission will be graded S-rank, and classified. It will be sealed until such time as you complete it and return," Tsunade told them, once it had been written and they were standing before her with all their gear in order.
"Are we expected to attempt to take Madara alive?" Kakashi asked.
"No. No, I think not," Tsunade said. "He constitutes too great a threat for me to sanction bringing him into the village. No, this mission will be a seek-and-destroy."
"Understood," they said.
"Hokage-sama, if I could," Itachi said. "I have one last request. I am well aware that your answer most likely will be in the negative, but would you consider unsealing my chakra for this mission?"
A few different emotions flashed across Tsunade's face; without his Sharingan to catch the quick flickers, he couldn't quite put names to them. "No," she said. "I think not."
And then, just as his heart gave a thud and lurch—I cannot defeat Madara without chakra—she added, "But I will give the seal's key to Kakashi. He will have the uncontested authority to make decisions about your sealing… or unsealing. But only after you leave Konoha's immediate vicinity."
Itachi inclined his head, momentarily speechless with relief, as Kakashi said: "I understand."
Tsunade watched them all for a minute, then jerked her head at them. "Alright, go. I'll send a missive to the gate guards to let you out. Kakashi, stay back a moment."
Itachi bowed deeply. "Thank you, Tsunade-sama, for everything."
"Don't make me regret it," she grunted, before the door closed between them.
Sakura feels dizzy with everything that has happened. A few hours ago her only worries were Akatsuki and whether the Council was going to order Sasuke's execution. Then Danzo and Root tried to kill him right there in the middle of the trial, and then she'd found out that Sasuke wasn't Sasuke after all and was really Itachi. And Itachi wasn't evil, he was merely following orders, killing his whole clan. And Sasuke was probably in the clutches of Madara, who was actually the mastermind behind everything bad that had been going on for the past several years. And now she, Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, and Itachi were going off on a mission to take out Madara.
Yes. Her head was spinning. But her body was well trained, and walked her calmly to the front gates of Konoha. Reaction, following orders even when her higher mind was shocked.
Silence followed them. She didn't speak because she couldn't find anything to say. Words just withered and died on her tongue. Naruto was quiet because he was thinking, that much was obvious from his frown and furrowed brow. But Itachi… she thought she could sense an awkwardness in his silence, an uncertainty. She couldn't blame him; if today had been bewildering for her, she didn't know how he was managing. She kept shooting glances at him.
She didn't know how to feel, looking at him. His face was clearly Sasuke's, which brought forth so many different emotions in her. But when she looked at his eyes, she could see just as clearly that it wasn't Sasuke looking back at her. And that… it made her insides tremble. A stranger watching her with the eyes of a friend.
Could she call Sasuke a friend? Damn it, now she was going to have to ask herself all these questions again. She'd started to come to grips with Sasuke's defection, started to forgive him… but then the Sasuke that she was forgiving wasn't Sasuke. What if Sasuke wasn't as repentant as Itachi-as-Sasuke?
She reached up and rubbed her forehead, looking around for a distraction from all her whirling thoughts. Her eyes lit on Naruto's tensed face. "You okay, Naruto?"
He looked at her, then his gaze slid past her to Itachi. "You said that Madara took Sasuke."
Itachi looked at him. "Yes."
"So if we find Madara, we probably find Sasuke. You suggested a mission to track Madara only to get around Baa-chan's refusal to let us go after Sasuke," Naruto accused. "You lied to the Hokage."
To most, this would not be a problem, especially since Tsunade herself had goaded Itachi into it. But for someone who was attempting to gain their trust, and for Naruto who was rather sensitive to lies, Itachi lying like that was big deal.
For his part, Itachi didn't look disturbed at all at the accusation. He said: "No. It wasn't a lie. I fully intend to find and kill Madara. Finding Sasuke happens to fall hand-in-hand with that goal."
"So then…" Naruto said, looking not at all reassured. "So then, which goal are you putting first?"
Itachi paused briefly, and Sakura found herself listening attentively for the answer. "I will kill Madara, first. When Madara is dead, I suspect getting Sasuke back to Konoha might be easier."
"Why? Do you think Madara's done something to Sasuke?" Sakura butted in.
"Madara is very… persuasive. And exceedingly manipulative. I am afraid that, since Sasuke has not come back to Konoha after killing me, Madara has turned him against the Village." Itachi added, grimly: "At least, this is what I hope has happened."
"What?" Naruto said. "Why would you hope for that?"
"Because it means that Sasuke would still be alive."
There really wasn't much they could say to that.
Kakashi did not, amazingly enough, take hours to get from the Hokage's office to the main gate. Whatever Tsunade had needed to tell him in Team Seven's absence had only taken a few minutes, and it was only a few minutes of waiting at the main gate until he'd joined them.
As near as Sakura could tell, Kakashi was only on time when it was absolutely vital. When it was a matter of life and death. And even saying that, she could remember when they were Genin on their first mission outside of Konoha… They'd been attacked by the Demon Brothers, and Kakashi had Kawarimi'd out of sight to evade an attack. The Brothers had attacked Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, and that bridge-builder, and even though they'd been Genin against high-ranked nukenin, Kakashi had been late in coming to the rescue. Because, apparently, he'd believed them to be capable of staying alive until then.
That Kakashi was on time now had implications that made Sakura a bit… uneasy.
"Alright," the Copy Ninja said. "We're moving out."
Sakura felt a jolt of adrenalin thread through her body. Of their own accord, her fingers dropped to stroke the hilt loops of the kunai in the pouch along her thigh.
"You," Kakashi said, looking at Itachi, "will be point. I expect you have ideas of where to look for Madara."
"Yes," Itachi replied, and strode forward.