Chapter 19: Death of Corruption

When Shisui arrived at the hospital with Kushina and Minato in tow, Itachi was already halfway out the door. Confusion was written all over his cousin's face as he tried to ask Itachi where he was going, but the only answer he received from him was a vague, "I'll be back."

On the way out of the hospital, Itachi glanced up at the grand clock that hung in the lobby. Even among the commotion of nurses weaving in and out of traffic of the injured and sick, the tick tock sounded loudly in his ears.

If Itachi didn't hurry, he would be late.

Hiruzen's fingers drummed anxiously against the table as he waited for the last two members of the council to show: Homura and Koharu. Even Danzo, the suspect in question, had already shown up. Those two weren't known for being late, but then again, none of them were known for being late.

Things happened. Perhaps there was a slight delay on their way here. Under normal circumstances, Hiruzen wouldn't have been so quick to jump to conclusions, but the importance of this meeting in particular made paranoia crawl in his skin.

Hiruzen's eyes met Danzo's. Neither of them said a thing. Hiruzen turned away, attempting to distract himself with everything else in the room. He'd trust that his decades of shinobi training kept his unease off of his face.

What was the use of the element of surprise if Danzo could anticipate what he was thinking?

When Hiruzen heard the telltale sound of the council room's door creaking open, the knot in his stomach untangled itself, marginally. Only marginally because his gut feeling was telling him that something was wrong – seriously wrong yet he was unable to pinpoint what was wrong.

"Sorry, we're late," Homura said as his way of greeting. "We were a bit held up."

Hiruzen accepted his apology, gesturing for them to sit down at the table.

"Now that everyone is here, we can begin. As you all are aware, Orochimaru's hideout was busted and we found convincing evidence that he was the one who kidnapped the Uchiha children. However, there are those who suspect that you were also involved. Danzo, what can you tell us about your relationship with Orochimaru?"

Cat knelt down before Danzo in the main lobby of the Root headquarters. From top to bottom, the entire headquarters had been vacated – all Root personnel were scattered among Danzo's many secret locations.

Just a precaution if the Third Hokage decided to finally investigate Danzo. Cat honestly doubted it would come to that point, but he couldn't fault a man for being cautious.

And now, Cat was the only one left. Itachi would have been here too, if not for Cat purposely not passing on the message to the other boy. Cat didn't know what Danzo wanted with him, but Cat knew that he was up to no good.

"Where Crow?"

Cat shrugged. "He refuses to leave the girl's bedside. Even when I told him that it was your order."

Danzo scoffed. "Perhaps I was wrong about him. His relationships have made him soft. No matter. You will complete the mission regardless if he wishes to cooperate."

"What mission?"

"Assassinate the girl. I don't want anyone left alive who can testify against me."

"She's seen you before?"

"In her lucid state, who knows if she's conscious enough to remember who I am? You know that I didn't survive this long by taking any chances. I want all loose ends tied up; nothing traces back to me, got it?"

Just like you sold out Kakashi senpai to tie up any loose ends, Cat tacked on grimly in his mind. It was only a matter of time before it became his turn; Cat knew too many of Danzo's secrets.

"Understood."

Danzo stood before the council, spewing his carefully crafted lie, completely at ease that there would be no one left alive to tell the story.

Once Cat completed his mission, he would be the next person that he disposed of, along with that traitorous Uchiha kid.

On the way to the hospital, Cat intercepted Itachi, who was on his way out. Gesturing for him to follow him, Cat led him onto the rooftops of a nearby apartment complex. There, Cat didn't hesitate to inform Itachi of the mission he received from Danzo. If Kakashi's meeting with him the previous night hadn't been enough to convince Itachi to side with them, the knowledge of Cat's mission sealed the deal.

Cat didn't miss the way Itachi's hands curled up by his side.

"After he gets rid of her, we'll be his next targets. We know too much to be left alive."

"Murdering the Uchiha heir won't go unnoticed."

"Your death can be simply written off as a mission gone wrong. And even in the case that the Uchiha clan revolts against Konoha, that would play right into what Danzo wants: chaos. The more chaos the better, that means less attention on him. You know what we need to do, right?"

For the first few seconds, Itachi showed no visible reaction. When his head finally dipped to nod, Cat smiled underneath his mask.

"Inu will inform us when the council meeting is over. For now, we'll need to get into position."

When Danzo returned to the Root headquarters, Cat emerged from the shadows. Kneeling a few meters away from him, he bowed down in respect.

"The mission has been completed."

The corner of his lips tilted upwards. "And Crow?"

"Severely injured. Unfortunately he got away before I could finish the job. If I have your permission, I would like to continue searching for him. I'm sure he can't get very far with the injuries he has sustained."

Danzo waved off his request. "That won't be necessary."

Danzo darted forward at a speed that didn't belong to a man in his sixties. Yet even with speed aided by a mixture of adrenaline and chakra, that was still far from what was needed to outmove someone who was fueled by pure, unadulterated hatred.

Just as the tips of Danzo's fingers brushed against Cat's Anbu mask, a silhouette appeared behind him. Within a blink of an eye, Kakashi's blade had already sliced cleanly through Danzo's right shoulder, severing the right arm from the rest of the body. The limp arm fell to the ground with a slight plop, landing next to the cloth of Danzo's makeshift sling.

From Kakashi's position, a hint of red could be seen from where the bandages had loosened.

Collecting Sharingans just like Cat suspected.

Danzo whirled around, just as Kakashi pointed the tip of his blade at the base of his throat.

"Who are you?" Danzo's visible eye flashed angrily, the most emotion Kakashi had ever seen from the man since he met him. Good. Kakashi wanted him to feel anger. Feel fear. Feel all of the emotions that Kakashi once felt when he was twelve, locked and chained in that dank cell, after knowing that no one was coming for him.

The same kind of predicament Danzo currently was in, except Kakashi had no intentions of sending him to a jail cell.

He was sending him straight to hell.

"Someone you sent to their death long ago."

The corner of Danzo's eye twitched. "I don't know what you are talking about."

"Of course you don't. You'll stop at nothing to protect your own interests, even if it means selling out your subordinates when you no longer have any need for them. Just like what you tried to do with Cat there. We're just pawns on your Shogi board to remove as you please."

"Again, I have no idea what you're talking about," Danzo insisted through gritted teeth. "No matter. Even if you are an outsider, I'll kill you too."

Danzo surged forward, the bandages around his covered eye falling in its wake. Kakashi wasn't surprised to see there was another Sharingan there; in fact, he anticipated it. Tendrils of wood snaked around Danzo's limb, holding him in place. Charging up the lightning in the palm of his right hand, a burst of chakra to the sole of his left foot sent him flying towards Danzo…

And then Danzo was gone.

The lightning in his palms sputtered out as Kakashi whirled around to see Danzo standing behind him, arm reattached and looking completely fine except for the red tint of the Sharingan fading away.

A Sharingan power at the cost of his eyesight?

That certainly complicated things, if Danzo now had possession of his entire arsenal of Sharingans. Their only option was to continue forcing Danzo into precarious situations to warrant the activation of that mysterious Sharingan power, but that would take entirely too much chakra.

Between the two of them, Kakashi wasn't sure if they would manage as their fighting styles were more suited for quick and direct attacks, rather than engaging in long, drawn out battles.

Behind his back, Kakashi was already signaling their next attack plan while he distracted Danzo with more taunts. One by one, all of Danzo's secrets spilled from Kakashi's lips, including Danzo's secret alliance with Iwa and Hanzo, along with the long list of dirty deeds that he had done over the years.

Including his latest one: helping Orochimaru get away with the kidnapping of Uchiha and Senju children.

By now, Danzo had gotten over his initial surprise and regained his composure. The same composure that he embodied no matter what happened, no matter how close he was to being exposed for his deeds.

His lips curled into a vicious grin. "What's the point of knowing all of this if you won't be alive to tell the story?"

"You're the one who won't be alive to face trial," Kakashi retorted as he surged forward to counter Danzo's massive wind technique. The wind had been so strong that the gust chipped away at the columns of the concrete wall, sending rocky chunks careening to the floor. While Kakashi continued to dodge and duck at the jutsus that Danzo threw at him, Cat attempted to attack him from the other side, spliting his attention in half. While Danzo was completely preoccupied with fending off both of them, both products of his harsh training regime, a figure stepped out of the shadows so briefly that Kakashi would have missed him if he hadn't gotten a glimpse of the tint of a red eye.

Just as quickly as he appeared, he slipped back into the shadows again.

The corner of Kakashi's lips tipped in a victorious smirk. Pushing a Chidori through Danzo's summon, Kakashi sent it back to its world with a large poof of smoke. Taking advantage of the cover off the smoke, Kakashi darted towards Danzo's backside while his hands moved together to weave together another wind jutsu to shred Cat's wood technique.

Lightning cackled along the length of his blade. By the time Danzo noticed something was amiss, it was entirely too late. The blade was rammed cleanly through his backside, piercing straight through his heart.

Blood dribbled from the corner of Danzo's lips.

His frightened, wide eye glanced down at his arm, as if he was waiting for one of the Sharingan eyes to turn white and to witness everything becoming undone.

It wouldn't.

Too busy fighting Cat and Kakashi, Danzo had failed to notice a third enemy; the most dangerous of all.

From the moment Itachi stepped out of the shadows, Danzo had been ensnared in his top level genjutsu, one that even the most veteran of shinobis had difficulty in discerning reality from illusion.

"How?" Danzo coughed out a mouthful of blood.

The only response he received was Kakashi viciously driving the sword painfully into his backside even more, tormenting him in his last moments. Anger poured into every twist and turn. All of the pent up emotions Kakashi had bottled up for over a decade came pouring out in hot, tidal waves to the point where Kakashi saw nothing but red.

Blood red.

Kakashi was pulled back to reality when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Instinctively, he violently brushed off that hand. In the process of doing so, Kakashi had gotten an eyeful of what exactly he had done. From elbow down, his arm was coated completely with a red, sticky substance. The blade was no longer in his hands.

Danzo laid face down in his own pool of blood. The sword was jammed underneath his prone body.

Damage had been done. The wound that was once the size of a blade had now expanded to a massive hole in his chest. As if Kakashi had decided stabbing him hadn't been enough to cure his anger and decided to blow a hole through his chest with his Chidori. And then tear off every single one of his limbs. And then sever his head.

Of course, he didn't remember anything other than the surging emotions that still swirled within him. The last time he blacked out in the middle of a battle, Kakashi had woken up to a slaughtered field of Iwa ninjas.

This time, he had woken up to his greatest enemy lying at his feet, body so mangled to the point where he didn't look human anymore.

"Senpai, are you okay?" Cat asked softly behind him.

Kakashi nodded, even though he wasn't. The entire ordeal had his mind reeling, even if killing Danzo had always been part of the plan.

He lost control, again. For someone who was so used to always being in charge, losing control was such a foreign and scary sensation.

But as flashes of what Danzo had once done to him flickered through his mind, Kakashi couldn't bring himself to say that he regretted it.

He didn't.

The third member of their party joined them wordlessly. The only indication that Itachi even acknowledged Danzo's death was a simple glance at his severed body.

"You must be Kakashi Hatake. It's finally nice to meet the man behind the disguise." Ah, that was right. In his blacked out state, he must have lost control over his henge and allowed it to drop. Although Kakashi preferred to keep his identity a secret from the rest of the world, it didn't matter if Itachi found out about his true identity. Someone as clever as him would find out about it eventually.

"Everyone thinks you were killed in action."

"Then let them continue," Kakashi retorted. "Most have forgotten who I am. Only those who harbor guilt in their hearts still remember who I am."

"What did they do to you?"

"They created a monster."

Before Itachi could ask more, Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Hiruzen sama! Homura and Koharu have been found dead in their own homes!"

Dead? It was barely thirty minutes since they parted ways after the meeting. The meeting where Homura and Koharu had chosen to believe Danzo's explanation for his involvement with Orochimaru. Hiruzen remained skeptical of the truthfulness of his explanation, but he had ultimately chosen to remain silent.

Kakashi was right; he didn't have a backbone. Hiruzen had known Danzo for far too long to not be able to determine whether or not he was speaking the truth. Homura and Koharu knew it too and both of them had chosen the easy way out.

He was wrong to do so, but Hiruzen had chosen to do the same.

He was old, tired, and beyond his prime. Perhaps Kakashi was right, Hiruzen should have stepped down long ago and let someone else take over.

He was too weak. Completely unfit to be the fair and benevolent leader that the rest of the village expected him to be. His reputation preceded him, painting the illusion that he was still who had been decades ago.

That was no longer him.

"How long have they been dead?"

"Forensics took their bodies away, but their initial statement is that it has been a few hours at least. Possibly from early this morning or even sometime during the night. They'll need some more time to get a more accurate time stamp though."

That was enough. Hiruzen didn't need a more accurate time to know what that meant; his gut feeling had been right. They couldn't have possibly attended the meeting today; the two who had shown up were imposters.

Those two were dead. Danzo was probably next. And then after that…

It would be him.

Hiruzen let out a long sigh and resigned himself to his fate. At this point in life, Hiruzen always imagined that he would die of old age or perhaps he would die trying to save someone. Never did he imagine that it would be by the hands of a former member of the village, someone who should have been dead a long time ago.

Someone who he could never forget, no matter how hard Hiruzen tried.

Kakashi may not believe him, but there wasn't a single day Hiruzen didn't regret not saving him. And now it was clear that Kakashi didn't need to be saved from Iwa.

He needed to be saved from himself.

The Third Hokage was next. Itachi didn't know for sure if that was truly Kakashi's intentions, but their conversation from the night before kept looping in his mind to the point where it drove Itachi insane. There was no way he would be able to rest until he was assured that Kakashi wasn't going to kill anyone else.

Danzo and Orochimaru had been part of the plan. Unlike his reaction towards Danzo, it seemed that Kakashi didn't harbor as much hatred towards the man. In fact, Kakashi appeared indifferent to Orochimaru's presence, like he intervened simply because Orochimaru teamed up with Danzo.

When Itachi caught wind of Homura and Koharu's deaths, his heart sank. The news only confirmed the likelihood of his theory. With the newfound knowledge weighing down uncomfortably in his mind, Itachi pushed himself to move faster.

By the time Itachi found them on the rooftops, Kakashi had already made his move. Itachi jumped into the fray, using his body as an obstacle between Kakashi and the Hokage. His bare hand grabbed the tip of the blade. With the help of his chakra, he snapped the blade cleanly in half, tossing the broken end to the side. Blood dribbled down his fingertips, dripping onto the concrete.

Only when Itachi had settled into a fighting stance did he finally get a good look at who was standing in front of him.

Okami. The man who gave him nightmares for weeks as the scene of him ruthlessly killing the Daimyo replayed relentlessly in his mind as if to remind him of his failure, of his inadequacy. No matter how long Itachi lived, it was a day that he would never forget.

Okami was right. They would meet again. The only difference was that this time Itachi was much stronger. He was no longer frozen in fear; the stinging pain from the palm of his hand would serve as a great reminder to jolt him into action.

But why was Okami here? Itachi had been expecting Kakashi, or maybe even his henge as Inu, not the masked man who plagued him with nightmares…

Okami was Kakashi. The realization hit him like a packed punch to the gut, strong enough to knock all of the air out of him to render him completely and utterly speechless. All along they had been working with their enemy. Someone listed in the Bingo Book with a "flee on sight" status. Someone who killed a countless number of people, including the Fire Daimyo and his teammate.

He was the one who killed Tenma.

There weren't many times in his life where irrationality took over, but when faced with the person who murdered his teammate in cold blood, Itachi couldn't help it.

"Why did you kill him? The boy on my team from that time you assassinated the Fire Daimyo."

Kakashi cocked his head to the side. "Oh, him? He was in the way."

Disbelief was etched all over his face.

"I had no reason to kill him. I gave him an opportunity to get out of the way. He didn't take it. I won't show hesitation to anyone who intervenes." Itachi didn't miss the underlying meaning of that statement.

It was a warning. To him.

To leave before it was too late.

Unfortunately, his loyalty to Konoha wouldn't allow him to leave. Even if the Third Hokage had turned a blind eye to all of Orochimaru and Danzo's activities, Itachi still chose to believe that he had a good heart. After all, he did let Shisui and Itachi go after finding them snooping around in his private archives despite knowing they were up to no good. He did try his best to appease the Uchiha clan.

His only fault was being too soft-hearted. He didn't deserve to die for that.

"I won't leave."

"Then that's foolish of you. He's not a man worth protecting."

Hiruzen placed a hand on his shoulder. Itachi turned to face his leader, to see the corner of his eyes crinkling as he mustered enough energy to turn up a small smile.

"You should go, Itachi. This is a fight between Kakashi and me."

"But I can't leave you alone." To die, his mind grimly tacked on. Despite the Third Hokage's reputation of being extremely powerful and versatile in shinobi arts, it was no secret that his stamina had taken a blow as he grew older. In his prime, the Third Hokage would have no problem even against someone like Kakashi, but now?

Itachi wasn't too sure.

"I'll be fine." No matter how hard he tried, Hiruzen was anything but convincing. Reluctance must have been evident on Itachi's face because Hiruzen eventually switched tactics to convince him.

"Some people aren't worth protecting," Hiruzen began. "How would you feel if someone you trusted dearly betrayed you?"

Inu wasn't someone he trusted, but they worked together for so long that Itachi considered him a comrade to some degree. His reveal as Okami had stung, so Itachi couldn't imagine if it had been someone like Shisui who betrayed him.

Hiruzen didn't even wait for an answer. "I've made a lot of decisions in my life that I'm not proud of and if letting Kakashi kill me can alleviate even one of my regrets, I would gladly do it. Everyone knows that I'm beyond my prime. It's about time I let someone else take over the mantle."

"Then you can retire!" Itachi insisted. "You don't have to die to step down."

The corner of Hiruzen's eyes crinkled. "I wouldn't be able to get a moment of peace even in retirement. These decisions will haunt me for as long as I live."

Itachi didn't have any more arguments, but he found himself opening his mouth anyways. "But–"

He never had the opportunity to finish his sentence. In the blink of an eye, a lightning coated kunai had lodged itself into Hiruzen's heart. The older man slumped down the ground, a serene smile still plastered on his face. Itachi rushed over to Hiruzen's side, barely catching him before he fully hit the ground.

By the time Itachi turned around, Kakashi was gone.

End of Arc 2: The Uchiha Clan

A/N: Hi again!

This officially concludes the second arc of the fic, starting from Chapter 7 with the introduction of Itachi and the Uchiha clan children going missing (and some Akatsuki activities on the side) up to now. This is also roughly the halfway mark of the story, so there is quite a bit to go. I always thought I would end the story here, but then I realized there are too many subplots that haven't been tied up, most notably Orochimaru, so there will be more to come!

What are you looking forward to reading about most in the second half of the story? Thank you for reading and until next time!

-MM