Masked Koi: Chapter 23. "Late"

Danzo bit into a brittle 'biscuit, as they were called, with a cup of tea. He sat alone, at the very table when he'd decided against killing her. He'd debated the issue three times.

Flashback

She had only a few months before she graduated from the Academy. She sat before the stony man with childish mannerisms and didn't hesitate to sweeten her tea and simply devoured the sweets that went along with it. She licked her sugar-coated fingers, much to his very obvious displeasure, and smirked as she did so.

"What?" she asked. "I'm Hatake Koi and you're some old geezer. You someone important, like Hokage-sama or something?"

Danzo clenched his jaw and there was only a thread of restraint holding him back from striking the disrespectful girl. "I am Danzo, the Hokage's advisor. Your Academy teachers say that you are highly skilled in taijutsu, but lack any skills whatsoever in genjutsu. Your ninjutsu could use a bit of refinement and your kunai and shuriken skills are average, along with your kunoichi skills, geographical, historical, and resource knowledge being below average. Your critical thinking and analytical skills are better than most, though."

"Thanks for telling me about me. I kinda know where I stand in my class, creep," she said curtly with a long 'cookie' sticking out of her mouth like Genma with his senbon. There was a glint in her eye that could've morphed into green eyes and a bloodthirsty howl that read his soul, but he knew kids were good at failing to intimidate superior officers. It was an attempt just a tad bit less pitiful but he pinned that up to the trauma she already suffers from: her relationship with her older brother and the death of her mother and the burning of their home.

"Insolent…" Danzo muttered. There was a triumphant grin in her eyes, but she continued to sip her tea nonchalantly.

"Why'd you pull me out of class? Not that I'm complaining since you saved me from those two idiots, but it worries me that an old man took an interest in an innocent and virgin girl and took her to a café that has no other customers and treated her to an assortment of sweets, free of charge," she managed to look feminine and coy and even shifted in her seat in a very girly way.

"Do you find that your classes at the Academy are too easy?" Danzo asked, evading her incriminating words. Well, she's underdeveloped for her age so she can't possibly accuse me of sexual harassment. If she does, it'll be a cinch to cast a genjutsu on her since her skills are nonexistent in that area.

"Yeah, I guess. My teacher accuses me of doing things, like slipping worms and dead rats into his tea and shirt, but it wasn't me. I swear!" her eyes widened comically. "But those two idiots make class fun. If I left now, I'd turn into my older brother. He's nothing but a depressing jerk who doesn't know what 'fun' even means," Koi muttered. "I'm not in the mood to chit-chat with some old guy. That's what my dad's for. Why am I here? What do you want?"

"I am in charge of an elite ANBU program with a very high rate of successful shinobi. Your genjutsu skills are sure to improve or even surpass that of Seiseki's," Danzo said.

"Nah, I'll pass," Koi said, sipping orange juice through a straw. Danzo froze. What? She declined? Why? And when the hell did she get that juice?!

"Why?" Danzo demanded. Koi's eyes widened a bit at his sudden change of voice, deep and gruff and angry. She tensed a little and cursed the kunoichi class she'd been pulled out of; they weren't allowed to bring kunai or any sort of weapon because it was time to be 'lady-like' and shit. She didn't have the best grade in that area and she didn't care. Her mind raced; what could she do if this guy decided to feel her up or something? With a cringe, she chose her words carefully.

"I…I don't want to be separated from my friends," she said. She looked like a deer caught in headlights with all her confidence and insolence from a moment ago gone. Danzo felt the tables turn.

"What if they were also in my program?" Danzo asked.

"No. Ko would wimp out and then I'd be alone with Shisui and Kami knows what he'd do to me. He's better with swords and kunai than I am and those eyes…I'd be at his mercy," she blurted out. She sighed with slight pigmentation on her face and shook her head. "F-forgive me."

Danzo shifted in his seat a little. "You're sure you don't want to join? Not even if I'd tell you where your mother is or why your home was burned?" Danzo lowered his voice at the last part.

Her teacup dropped out of her hand and shattered on the floor, spilling tea and the thick syrup-like sugar all over the floor. She stared at Danzo, incredulous and angry and hurt and confused. She froze in her seat and she didn't even hear what Danzo was saying.

"…why?" she managed to force out. "They said they wanted to get even with us Hatake. They took my mom and said something about infidelity. And you're saying you know why?" Her voice shook like the sobs she wanted to let out. Her black eyes, full of mischief and taking pleasure in pushing his buttons and watch it work, watch him get agitated, had grown fearful; a wrong cord had been struck and Danzo struck gold as he sunk his kunai into the deer.

Danzo nodded. "Join my program, Koi-kun."

"I refuse," she said, closing her eyes and a 'cookie' broke in her hand. "That's enough of a reason. You probably know more than me and as much as I would like to know, I'd imagine I'd be better off just believing what I believe to be the reason for her not being here anymore. I feel like if I knew more, if I knew whatever sick lie or terrible truth you have, I'd break. What good would that do when we're on the brink of war?" she shook her head. "I'm sorry, Danzo-sama. Ask my older brother; he'll probably be interested in this kind of thing."

She stood and left quickly with a twisted kunai poisoning her open wound that was continuing to rot. Danzo decided to sharpen a few more kunai in the meantime to catch the elusive silver deer. No, he wouldn't kill her. She was still young, still moldable and would become his ROOT operative. He just had to be patient.

Only, patience wasn't the answer. The war she mentioned took him by no surprise and he prepared his kunai in his arsenal to fight as well as they could without glinting. The war turned sour and Danzo's thoughts began to change. Before he could call her back, a report that he believed for a full year and a half or so proved his order would fall upon no one.

The Kyuubi's tails swished about and flames engulfed Konoha and then Danzo felt a bit of victory; Hiruzen was dead. Danzo even treated himself to his favorite tea and didn't give any orders to anyone for the entire day.

"Danzo-sama, Hokage-sama requests your presence."

Danzo didn't mind, for once. The blonde man was a brat in his eyes but he wasn't to be not respected. Minato could kill before you blinked, faster than Ibiki could get you to slit your throat with your own poisoned-dipped kunai. Minato, as far as Danzo knew, was expecting a child. Danzo had been so caught up in glee that Hiruzen, his obstacle in everything he wanted and did, was dead. Ha!

The war hawk ambled over with a spring in his step that made a certain Uchiha boy flinch visibly and sweat a little. Danzo entered the room where he saw Minato sitting in front of walls that Hiruzen used to display his still-wet calligraphy skill with black attire and the two other Council members beside him, along with the nervous Uchiha boy.

Danzo almost choked on air when he saw a certain silver haired girl with a harried and anguished and terrified look on her face kneeling before the Hokage, who looked even more disheveled than she did.

Four years into her ANBU guarding of Minato, the long-lost Hatake girl-now-woman sat before Danzo with the same look on her face and stuffed her face until her cheeks puffed up like a fugu blowfish with sweets. She refrained from making him too agitated but she was angry and in pain and unsatisfied and wished she could cast Nishiki away.

"You'll have to make this quick, Danzo-sama. I've got two brats to train and they're bound to look for me," she rolled her eyes dramatically.

"Anyone with a brain could see that you don't like the position that you're in. You've got family you're afraid to approach and you worry about your late sensei's son and you've got Minato to protect."

The woman over to the bamboo forest with chakra pumping through her legs and a bit of panic in her heart. She leaned against a bamboo and made an effort to look as if she'd been there the entire time. She saw Hizashi, Neji, and Naruto. The latter two looked a bit worn and the former looked suspicious. She suppressed a yawn that was going to actually be a grimace and she stiffened when she sensed he was gathering chakra. Oh Kami…

He asked who she was and she responded the way she usually did. "To most, I am Nishiki, one of Hokage-sama's personal guards. I take it you are this boy's father?"

"Why're you so late?" those big, innocent, adorable eyes peered into the holes in her mask where her eyes were. An image of Danzo and his haunting words came back to her. She swallowed back a gag and smiled tightly. "It's nothing to worry about. Go on, show me I haven't wasted my time on you." The boy grinned and with a cute faux-salute, went to train.

Two years later, he was able to add something to his statement.

"You've got a lot on your plate considering the fact that the Hokage's house was breeched by a former operative of mine last night," Danzo said. "I could help you."

She gave him an incredulous look. "None of the seals were tampered with. What the hell are you talking about? If Seiseki came back, I would've known!"

Danzo tilted his head. "Oh? Koi-san, you made a bad decision all those years ago. If you had joined my program, perhaps you'd be stronger and cleverer to see this and prevent your brother from leaving Konoha. If you had joined my program, I guarantee that Kushina would not be dead and Minato would be the father that you want him to be for Naruto and you certainly wouldn't be suffering like you are now. Maybe you would've been able to track down your mother."

She pursed her lips. "If you're offering me to join your program, I refuse. I refuse not because of some silly reasoning that Shisui would do something, but because I do have too much on my plate. If I resigned suddenly, everything would go to hell. Naruto would be alone and angry and lonely and lash out and lack necessary skills he needs as Namikaze Minato's son. Seiseki is stupid and if I join your program, I'm bound to be just as stupid as he is. I want to remain Hatake Koi, or Nishiki if I must, but joining your program and throwing away the only things I could salvage so Konoha could win the war would be something even Seiseki wouldn't do. I don't have a lot of things I hold dear and I don't have a lot of time left on this earth. I can't waste my time being your puppet. I have to serve Konoha and protect it."

"But you'll waste your time being Minato's puppet?" Danzo queried.

She laughed mirthless laugh. "That man is comatose! If anything, he's the puppet barely tugging at his own strings."

Danzo sighed. If she says no to her offer after this, I swear to Kami that I will kill this damned liability. "You refused my offer and then you 'died' in the public eye. Are you sure you are willing to risk refusing again?"

She gave him a hard look and crunched on a sugar cube. "Yes." She stood and went to train Naruto and then walked him home and unlocked the door.

"I'm home…" Naruto muttered under his breath. He looked up at Nishiki, who was so horrified by what Danzo had said that she barely even had much of a reaction or anything to say to him. I've got to check the seals and ask my summons. She patted his head, so into her own thoughts that she didn't even hear him all that much and disappeared to check the house and then to check with her summons. Shisui was strangely absent, but he might be with Minato or Itachi. The boy was sick and she would visit the boy but she couldn't now that Danzo was pushing and pushing the issue of her brother and his program. A terrifying thought occurred to her: What if he goes after Naruto? Is that why he kept delaying me, to have an operative of his to watch Naruto? Kami…oh Kami. I can't let that happen. I've got to stay alive, dammit! Stop messing up everything, Seiseki! She scowled and applied a few more seals.

Oh, how he wished he had a picture of her body with a hole in the middle and lacking those imbecilic eyes that gave him a hard look and said 'yes'! He wished he'd been there to cheer Seiseki on for ridding Konoha of its defective, defiant, and dead kunoichi!

End Flashback

Danzo took another sip. Was I? He could almost see those black eyes staring at him with anger and refusal. It had been her fault she'd refused three times. She'd died in the end, for real. He was a little disappointed he couldn't have used Orochimaru's scroll to revive her and attach strings to the deer and finally make her his puppet since Shinsai had burned her body but at least she was finally dead.

"Infidelity."

So it goes. So it was summed up like that. One after another like dominoes and another candle is revealed to exist and be held up to the walls no one had known about, much less shown him.

The black-haired woman with obsidian eyes and slight wrinkles looked at her son, her real son. One of Konoha's most famous shinobi was rendered speechless and horrified. The very blood that ran through his veins was a lie and he wanted to scream and cry into his sister's shoulder because she was the only person who could ever understand his pain but she was dead because of him, again.

Sakuma glared at her older brother. "You're such an idiot, Sakumo."

Sakumo didn't say anything. He simply looked at his son and the woman from the clouds that'd been whisked into the dark parts of her government and ended up being the vessel for two of Konoha's younger Hatake. Guilt welled up in his chest and he wished he weren't so weak.

"Then why the hell was Aiko there? To make yourself feel better that at least one of your kids had a mom? That he was better and more valuable than either me or Koi?!" Kakashi demanded. "You're a bastard!" Kakashi snarled.

Sakuma coughed a little into her hand and looked at Kakashi with a twinkle of amusement in her eyes. Kakashi ignored her and focused on his father. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I-I got scared. When the house burned down," Sakumo gulped. "W-when the house burned down, Aiko's family sent that as a direct threat. They didn't like that I managed the black market. I don't know who tipped them off that I managed it because I kept my identity a secret with a henge. I think, I think they went after your sister because she possessed that bloodline trait that they thought was theirs, only for someone to tip them off that Aiko wasn't her mother. Then, I don't know how, they lured both of you out years later after finding out that she wasn't dead and then managed to kill her, and tried to kill you."

Kakashi sighed loudly, closing his visible eye, anger clear on his features even with his heavily guarded face. Noru, his 'mother', felt compelled to bring her son close, but she supposed it was best not to. He was a grown man with pride, if he was anything like his father, and was nothing but a stranger to her. She pushed away her heart that began to rip into little pieces and focused on what her next question would be. She hadn't even listened to what Sakumo was saying.

"Where's Koi?" Noru asked, Koi's eyes burning holes into Sakumo. He choked on a half sob that managed to die very quickly with Kakashi's heated glare.

"Dead," Kakashi said harshly. "Because of this bastard's favorite son."

"What?" Noru's voice wasn't recognizable with its high pitch and terrified undertone.

"Yeah," Kakashi stared at his father. "Seiseki ran a lightning-encased kunai through her gut. To protect me."

Noru stared at her son, not realizing the tears that ran down her face and shoulders that shook. "N-no…that's…But, in the war I thought…"

"She lived through that," Kakashi said curtly. "But she took that blow to protect me, again."

"She must've liked you. I'd met my niece once; she seemed like a girl that broke every rule she could get her hands on and liked to work alone. I'd never expect she would've actually cared for someone, much less her brother," Sakuma snorted. "But, that's good. She died loyal to her village, to her family. Not very many shinobi can claim both of those titles."

Kakashi ignored his aunt and looked at Sakumo with an expectant look. "You've messed up every single thing in your life. You should fix something before you get killed," Kakashi stood up from the table at the dango shop and walked away without his usual slouch in his posture and didn't reach for his book. Noru put her head down on the table and cried for the daughter she'd only known for a few months before Konoha demanded the girl back, and then Suna demanded her other child and then Konoha took away her other child that walked without a slouch and didn't reach for his book.

"Aren't you two cold?" Nori glanced at the two Uchiha boys. They shook their heads, but it looked like a nod since they were shivering and shaking so much they could barely walk straight. Their breath was pure white and their hair was a little long. It wasn't long enough for one to think they were girls, but if they didn't cut it soon, Haru woudn't be alone in reliving Academy days.

"N-n-no," they said quickly.

Nori sighed. "You two…" she took out a scroll and unsealed a thick blanket. "Wrap it around yourselves."

They nodded, but it looked like they shook their heads and did so, shaking a little less. Nori took another step before pausing on the snowy bridge in the Land of Water. The hair on the back of her neck stood up as if someone were watching her and the two twins behind her. She easily slipped into a defensive stance.

"That stance…" a woman wearing a long white trench coat and black pants and umber colored hair with some other color at the roots—maybe she dyed it—appeared from in a tree's shadow. There was an unhealthy sheen to her skin, as if she was ill. Nori didn't know and didn't care. "Looks like a crude copy. Who are you?"

Nori smirked. "Introduce yourself first, miss."

The woman gave her a funny look. "I'm Yuzura Kaki. Identify yourselves."

Nori almost scoffed. What a fake name…she must've made it up on the spot. "Nori. Those two are Sasuke and Yasuke."

The woman seemed to smile as her frown deepened. She snapped her fingers and ice trapped the three of them. Sasuke and Yasuke inhaled sharply, now freezing cold and their eyes turned a deep red. Kaki, or whoever she was, narrowed her eyes slightly. That's good. A very muscular man with an equally large sword and a scratched Kirigakure hitai-ate appeared and threw down a bomb that emitted a tranquilizing gas. The sharingan bearers were out in a moment's notice.

Because it was winter, the sun only barely rose over the horizon. The three were tied to a large rock with their hands far apart and their fingers unable to move. Their chakra was sealed away to the last drop. They awoke a few hours later feeling sore and numb and fatigued.

Kaki sat on a cushion while eating a bowl of rice with vegetables sprinkled in. It steamed in front of her face as she sat with Haku and Zabuza. She knew she had to return to the others, but she figured that these foreigners were too dangerous to let walk around.

Kaki stood and knelt by Nori, taking her chin and looking at her straight in the eye. "Why are you here?"

Nori didn't have the strength to glare back. "I'm looking…for someone."

"Where did you learn that stance?" Kaki growled.

"Hey, Kushina-chan," Zabuza started. "Leave her alone. She's not in any position to bargain anyway. Why not feed them? They've got to be hungry if they came from Konoha or something," Zabuza said carefully, knowing the wrath of the woman well. Haku nodded in agreement beside him.

Kabuto looked over at Orochimaru, seeing a ghoulish smile on his face. "Orochimaru-sama?"

Orochimaru looked at him. He suppressed a laugh. "It's nothing. I'm just reminiscing."

Kabuto nodded slowly, a little doubtful of his words, but it wasn't his business. He would let Orochimaru make the decision to tell him whatever he was thinking about and honestly, Kabuto had things to clean and medicine to grind up and other things to do rather than chit-chat. Kabuto muttered something about going to do such chores and left Orochimaru alone in his study.

Orochimaru put down his pen and sighed with content. "Kushina-chan, for once, I'm proud of you. I hope you do as well as I had intended," Orochimaru paused. "Kabuto!"

Kabuto rushed in after a few moments. "Yes?"

"Make more of Kusuri5A," Orochimaru said.

"For her?" Kabuto asked. Orochimaru's smile was as good as a 'yes'. Kabuto nodded. "I'll get on it right now. Would you like for me to deliver it to her?" Another smile. "Right away, Orochimaru-sama," the young man vanished from the doorframe and went to another part of the apothecary. Orochimaru looked up at the ceiling. You were one my most promising students. For Minato-kun to be so foolish and remarry is unforgivable, but it isn't my place to say so. It is yours.