Chapter 52
Shiori left Hinako with Genma and Zeke after finishing with dinner. She was sure that Kakashi would be home soon and until then both the ninken and their injured friend would be able to occupy Hinako's curious nature. In the meantime Shiori returned to the tea house, she had a staff to inform and duties to assign. The Chunin exams may still be another two and a half months away but they would have to order appropriate amounts of supplies right now for the weeks to come. Furthermore, the black haired civilian had a pretty good idea of what would probably be happening during the time of the exams. Truth be told Shiori was expecting a mad dash for everything the merchants had in stock to even out any shortages the establishments had. Shiori wanted to be as prepared as possible, a supply shortage would be the last thing that she wanted to deal with when she knew that Kakashi's kids were in danger.
The black haired civilian was also expecting the prices to drastically increase in response to said event, at least in the weeks before and during which all the foreign ninja and spectators arrived in Konoha. So in the mind of the young mother it was better to get the bulk orders out of the way before she had to buy additional stock last minute which could be either deficit in quality or price.
Additionally, Shiori was also developing a plan to redirect the pressure on the tea house as an eatery during the exams. It was still a rough draft and she would have to think it over some more and check a few things before she could implement anything but it made her feel better to have a plan to keep the tea house from being completely swamped with high strung ninja clients, she had her employees to protect after all.
Humming to herself Shiori leisurely climbed the stairs to the third floor where already the better part of her employees waited; the rest was closing up the tea house. It was thankfully a Thursday, that was the only day in the week they closed earlier than normal so that Shiori had an opportunity to talk about changes with the whole staff and or have damages to the interior repaired.
Out of the corner of her eyes the black haired woman saw Nami struggling with a box. With a quirk of her lips Shiori changed her path and helped her service staff member to carry the heavy box with tea cups into the third floor kitchen before the two joined the others in the packaging/staff meeting room.
Looking around the blue eyed woman couldn't help but notice that the room was beginning to become too small once more. Should they have to rehire additional personnel again they would have to start using one of the serving rooms as a staff meeting place in the future.
It was also the first time since the end of her pregnancy that all of her workers were in attendance, even those that had a free day today had come in. It was quite mind-boggling to Shiori to see them all gathered, nowadays she had a staff of over sixty people. Over SIXTY…and that was without the delivery men and Genin teams that supplied their partner restaurants with their products. Thinking back on how it all had begun Shiori had to shake her head; she had built up a business empire in four years. Her mind had a hard time wrapping around the concept; she was only twenty and already one of the most influential people in the gastronomy of Konoha. And she had done this all by herself.
Coming out of her thoughts Shiori returned her attention to her staff. "Welcome everybody. I'm sure that by now you all have been informed about the upcoming Chunin exams in a few months and from what I can see you are pretty excited," pausing for a moment Shiori looked amused at the civilians around her before she continued, "Since the opening of Mariko's we never had such a big event happening in Konoha but I'm pretty sure that we will AT LEAST double or triple our normal income in those six weeks. Let's make something clear; we will have to prepare for masses of stressed and paranoid ninja that will have limited breaks in which they all will want something to eat and a few moments of relaxation…I am already working on a solution to free up the tea house a bit but it will take some time to work it out. Until then we will have to stock up on all the nonperishable food supplies we can get our hands on, additionally I am going to negotiate additional contracts to our perishable suppliers as well. I'm probably going to have to rent some extra storage places for this anyway so don't worry about Mariko's storage capability. Emiko, I will leave it to you to compile a list with your staff of all the things you think that you will need…please hurry I want to get this out of the way as fast as possible."
"Hai, Shiori-san," Emiko said happily while she made some quick notes on a sheet of paper, two of the more experienced cooks also jotted down some words in their notebooks.
"Furthermore, I wanted to give you all a heads up. In the coming months there will be A LOT of overtime to manage. I'm sorry to ask this from you but could you please delay any holidays or free days that you wanted to take during this time period? We will be working at full capacity and I don't think I can spare anybody."
There was affirmative murmuring before the staff quieted down once more.
"On another note, I also want to test out having the tea house open for twenty four hours on a few days during those weeks, I want to see how our clients react to that. Because of the additional night work I would also like those who want to volunteer for them to inform Ai-san or Sora-san before they arrange the work plan for the upcoming month. You should probably know that the hours between twelve and five am will be better paid than normal work hours to compensate for the stress on your bodies." Shiori concluded her speech before she looked around and asked, "So…any questions?"
"Is Mariko's going to be open twenty four hours the WHOLE week after the Chunin exams?" asked one of her veteran waiters.
"Definitely not, maybe one to three days per week and only if there IS a suitable demand," The blue eyed civilian answered decisively.
"What is going to happen during the finals? Are we allowed to watch?" one of her male cooks wanted to know.
"Again those who want to volunteer for those time spans should give Sora-san and Ai-san a heads up so that the others can go if they want to, though I expect that in the evening there will be a lot of business so we will be operating with full capacity," Shiori answered.
Said man just nodded thoughtfully.
The rest of the evening Shiori spent answering questions and giving a rough outline about what she thought her employees were likely to encounter. Sometime before ten she finally concluded the staff meeting with another one scheduled for the following week. Tired but relatively content she made her way home and crawled nearly straight into bed. Kakashi was already there and he quickly filled her in on how Hinako and Genma were doing before the two drifted off into sleep.
Anko
The files that the emotionless teenager beside her had handed her were unsurprisingly thick; Danzo really had liked to keep his eyes on potential Root candidates. With a quick swipe she thumbed through the pages and froze when she hadn't even reached the middle. In front of her was the somewhat grainy picture of Hina-chan…little Hina-chan that she liked to sneak dango because spoiling Shiori's and Kakashi's kid and giving her a sugar high gave Anko a naughty kind of pleasure.
That bastard.
Anko had to control her breathing while her thoughts started to race, who else knew about Kakashi's daughter? And would they be a threat? Frantically flying over the pages the snake user's rage only became stronger, the information about Hinako was thankfully very minuscule in comparison to that of her parents and only contained the basics, apparently Danzo had either not been able to get a better look at her or he hadn't deemed her important yet. But what Danzo had collected on Kakashi and even Shiori was dangerous, hell he even had blood samples and family trees compiled for both of them, though Shiori's was quite sketchy.
The longer she read the more discomforted she felt, she knew this writing style, she had become quite intimate with it during her apprenticeship as a Genin.
Anko sat the file down and took a deep breath to keep her emotions on a leash, it wouldn't do to destroy evidence after all. With a barely controlled voice Anko called her Root assistant over and told him to skewer anyone who entered the room unauthorized. After that she took one of the underground tunnels to the Hokage tower, this was bad, very, very bad.
Anko's expression must have been quite expressive because the veteran secretary in front of the Hokage office turned white as a sheet and hurriedly knocked on the door of the Sandaime's office to announce her. With a grave voice the purple haired kunoichi was waved in.
"Anko-san, what can I do for you," the aging shinobi behind the desk asked.
"We might have a bigger problem than we anticipated," the purple haired kunoichi grounded out.
Sarutobi flicked his hands over a newly installed privacy seal before turning his attention back to the young woman in front of him. "Report."
Anko took a deep breath before she began her report, "I found the file for Hatake Hinako under potential recruits." The snake user wasn't sure if the Sandaime was aware of Hinako but this was important.
Sandaime grimaced understandingly but motioned her to continue, the short recognition that she had detected in his eyes let her relax somewhat, at least she hadn't betrayed Kakashi's secret to the Hokage.
"There was only the barest of information on her…but what I have found on Kakashi and even Shiori is…worrying...the amount of details and information is…to be honest Hokage-sama it's frightening. Danzo has had information about Kakashi's complete career as a shinobi, from the most covert S-Rank down to his first D-Rank. Furthermore, there are DNA make ups and blood samples as well as family trees in those files… along with a large percentage of his skills listed and analyzed…should these files ever come into the hands of a rivaling village we are truly fucked if that's the level of detail Danzo has on every ninja…and now comes the best part, I know that writing style…it's not in Hinako's or Shiori's files but Kakashi's file is filled with Orochimaru's writing patterns."
The Sandaime in front of her broke his pipe.
Sucking in air the Sarutobi's eyes became hard before he said, "Get the information about Kakashi's family out of the Root files and hand it over to Kakashi, he will want to be informed about it before destroying it himself. The same goes for those that are aware of Danzo's treason, the files of other Konoha ninja are to be compared to our own data before being destroyed," Sarutobi said before he took a deep breath and forcibly brought his pounding heart under control.
In all his strive to get the Danzo situation under control he apparently hadn't taken a close enough look at the Orochimaru angle though he should have, after all who else would have the skill, knowledge and ruthlessness to implant Sharingan eyes into an arm? Oh my dear old student what have you done now? Was Sarutobi's helpless thought while he reevaluated the situation and consequences.
On another note he couldn't believe how utterly arrogant and careless Danzo had been with the life of Konoha's ninja, there was a REASON why Konoha kept the information of their fighters in fragments all over the village and why the reports after skill assessments were quickly destroyed after they had been analyzed. Hell they had a coded number system and a whole hidden department to keep track of the skills of their ninja population for that reason. Writing down information no matter how useful it was to keep track of was just asking for a rival village to steal it.
"…to the rest…Anko I will have to up your security clearance and work load. You will get clearance for all of Danzo's other files to search for any signs of Orochimaru…you have proven yourself for years now and it is high time that we recognize your loyalty. What I'm now going to tell you goes no further. Because of the small size of the response team available to Inoichi, he hasn't been able to work through most of Danzo's memories yet, we are only on the tip of the iceberg and scrambling to keep the parts that Root had taken care of more or less afloat…Inoichi gave an estimate of a year until we have all of the information available. I want you to continue your first appraisal of what really happened in Root but then concentrate on getting the division up and running. Yes, searching for Orochimaru's fingerprints is important without a doubt but we have to keep up the image that Danzo is still alive."
"Understood Hokage-sama," Anko said after a second of disbelieving stupor.
She was finally getting recognition for all her hard work and this by the Hokage HIMSELF was her first thought before her giddy mood turned into contemplation. This made all a frightening amount of sense, yes there had been a lot of work going on in the T&I department since Danzo's imprisonment and subsequent death but a large percentage of her colleagues didn't seem to really know anything about the whole picture, they only had fragments to work through.
The Hokage sighed deeply before rubbing his temple, he would have liked to put this off as far as possible but apparently Anko would need to know.
"There is another thing that is probably vital for you to know…I had Inoichi keep this out of the official report about the Danzo situation that you have read because it pertains an S-classified situation but I have a feeling that you will have to know. This concerns the truth about the Uchiha massacre. I originally intended to keep this away from the Root division to prevent a blow to morale but if Orochimaru cooperated with Danzo and he somehow found out it could be very bad for Konoha."
"Hokage-sama?" Anko asked tentatively.
"Uchiha Itachi was ordered to massacre his family under Danzo's orders to prevent a coup by the Uchihas."
Anko's body stiffened while she tried to cope with what she just heard. That…she had absolutely no words for this, Coup? Order? Danzo? What the HELL?
The man in front of her sent her a grim look while she tried to regain her bearings.
"Uchiha Itachi is still loyal to Konoha and is working as a double agent at the moment."
"If Orochimaru knows that we are truly fucked," escaped Anko when she finally found her ability to speak again.
Her whole world view had been shattered once more. THIS was very bad…scratch that it could potentially bring Konoha to its knees and destroy everything it stood for. Another thought entered her mind and she hesitated a moment before speaking up.
"Hokage-sama, permission to speak freely," the snake user asked seriously, she wasn't the most well-mannered ninja around but what she was going to tell him now was a bit far out of her privileges as simple subordinate, even if she had just received an unofficial promotion.
"Permission granted kunoichi Mitarashi," the Hokage answered seriously.
He knew that he probably wouldn't like what she was going to tell him next, but he also was aware that his ninja had a unique point of view and often could point out things that he would have overlooked.
"You will have to tell Uchiha Sasuke the truth as soon as it is possible. I know this sounds like the last thing that you should do to the boy's mental state but please consider Orochimaru's personality. First and foremost he is a collector of everything rare. The more vulnerable of the two last Uchihas is going to be a more than tempting target to him and he will most likely use anything and I truly mean ANYTHING to get his hands on the boy. If he has to use his knowledge about the Uchiha massacre he is going to do it…and frankly after that any trust Sasuke may have had in Konoha will be so completely destroyed that he will be lost to us, in one way or the other."
The old man in front of her didn't betray his thoughts while he said, "Thank you for your input Mitarashi-san. Dismissed."
"Hokage-sama." Anko answered with a bow before she turned and walked out of the room, she hoped as hell that she hadn't just overstepped her competences too much.
The Hokage disengaged the privacy seal and as soon as his subordinate was gone he sagged together and hid his face in his hands, this situation was getting worse and worse by the second.
Anko's thoughts were still acting like a rollercoaster while she tried to come to grips with what she had just heard. She hadn't been close to the Uchiha prodigy during his time in the ninja corps but he had been a trusted comrade of some of her friends, to learn now that he was still loyal threw her horribly off course. Forcibly the snake user returned to her current job, now what would be the best way to inform Kakashi about the level of surveillance his family had been under? The snake user blanched slightly while she tried to come up with words. Kakashi was going to be so royally pissed. The safest way was probably to tell him in Shiori's presence, at least Anko could count on his wife to keep a cool head. And now that she thought about it, technically this wouldn't be a breach of op sec; after all it contained sensitive information about her too.