Sasuke's ears were met with the sound of a kunai clattering on concrete as he stumbled to put his sandals on. He grimaced and examined the pouch that held his kunai, noticing for the first time a hole inside of it. He turned and nearly opened his door again, but instead chose to drop the pouch and leave it. He didn't have any new ones left, and he probably wouldn't need it today anyway.

Sasuke looked up ahead at the path outside the Uchiha compound, noticing for the first time how bare the trees were. That's right, it had been three months and it was Autumn now. Three months since Kakashi put them on a brutal new training regime, even by Sasuke's standards. Two months since Ino had joined him and Kakashi on their speed training. It was strange at first, but Naruto explained that he wanted to learn better Wind Release from Asuma. So Asuma suggested that he and Ino swap spots, since Ino also wanted to up her offensive power, and Asuma didn't want to divide his attention between 4 students at once.

Sasuke had resented Ino at first, thinking she would get in his way and only hold him and Kakashi back, but Kakashi had explained that they would be using resistance seals to make it harder for them to move. This brought them down to just above Ino's speed, allowing Ino to be challenged without being left in the dust, and allowing him and Kakashi to train without rapidly destroying the training grounds, as high-intensity sparring tended to do.

Sasuke smiled as he hopped from rooftop to rooftop on his way to the training grounds, realizing that he had come to actually enjoy these sessions with Ino and Kakashi. He was worried initially that Ino would cling and pry for his attention like she did at the academy, but training was a serious matter to her. Sasuke even found that she could be like Naruto at times, which while a little annoying, held an air of comfortable familiarity allowing Ino to fit right into their training dynamic.

Finally, near the grounds, Sasuke hopped down from the roof he was on and made his way towards the forest. He found Ino leaning on a tree looking towards the clearing and tried to stretch a few feet away from her, but the awkwardness seemed to take over her and she decided to speak to him.

"He's late," she said.

"Nothing new," he replied.

"But he was doing so well lately," she whined, "he was on time for three whole weeks!"

Sasuke grunted, "Maybe he wants to keep us on our toes,"

They paused for a moment, a comfortable silence between them, but Ino spoke again, "It's just not fair you know, Asuma is never late, Naruto is probably getting a lot more training time than us."

Sasuke's eyes shot up at hers and she giggled in response as Sasuke blushed in embarrassment.

"Sorry, I knew that one would catch your attention, I just had to." she said, continuing to giggle.

"That so?" he responded, "You talk about him so often, I thought maybe you just needed your fill of Naruto information from me and Sakura today." he said with a sly smile.

It was Ino's turn to blush now as she stood and collected herself. Turning around and looking the opposite direction of Sasuke.

"Well he talks Asuma's ear off so much he's probably missing out on as much training as us. So I guess you don't have to worry about it." she retorted.

Sasuke smiled again, he enjoyed playing this game with her, and was willing to overlook her frequent attacks on his ego for it. "Well Kakashi is probably going to be really late today, so maybe you should go back over to your team and let Naruto talk his ear off to you."

Before Ino could escalate their banter, a lazy voice cut-in, "Sorry about being late, I was putting the final touches on a new technique."

"That's a new one Kakashi," Ino replied, "This one actually sounds kinda believa⎯"

"What the fuck,"

Ino quickly turned on her heel at her interrupter, it was Sasuke, wearing a very un-Sasuke-like appearance of shock on his face. The look was directed right at the direction of Kakashi's voice and she looked over. Soon enough she had a similar expression painted on her face.

"Oh so you noticed," he replied cheekily, "Yes I've been putting this together for a few months now. He smiled back at them, but today his emotions weren't being carried through a singular open eye. Today he wore his headband on his head like any other leaf ninja, looking at them with both his eyes.

Two black orbs peered back at Sasuke, not an inkling of the blood red of Kakashi's sharingan could be seen in them, leaving Sasuke in a silent panic. What was this? Why would Kakashi give up his sharingan? Did he not care about helping Sasuke develop his own sharingan? Did he not care about that promise that he had mentioned whenever anyone had tried to ask him about how he had acquired his left eye?

"Relax Sasuke," Kakashi said, worrying his student would implode.

"It's still here," he said reassuringly as he channeled chakra into his fingertips and lightly tapped his temple. Sasuke watched as a familiar deep red overtook Kakashi's eye, and the tomoe slowly spun to life.

"That's a neat trick sensei, you always complained about it siphoning your chakra all day. How much more chakra would you say you have now?" he responded.

"You won't even believe me, remember when I told you we were going to work on our chakra, and that I could probably up my chidori number from four to six?" he said excitedly.

"How many can you do now Kakashi?" it was Ino asking this time.

"Well now I can do about seven a day," he said lazily.

Sasuke nearly choked on his own spit, "Seven a day? Are you even going to work on chakra expansion at this point?" he asked.

"Nonsense, of course I'm going to work on chakra expansion. I told you guys didn't I? I'm going to be training myself just as hard as I'm training you," Kakashi paused and scratched his chin, "That being said, I'll probably be able to build up to around 10 Chidori per day."

Sasuke was beaming now. Kakashi had once again shown he was capable of taking their training to a new level, and Sasuke felt Orochimaru's tempts and promises of power linger farther back in his mind, away from his daily musings.

"Is that what's been keeping Lady Tsunade in the village?" Ino asked suddenly. Kakashi looked at her in surprise, he forgot she was smarter than she appeared.

"Yes," he began, "The basics of it are done by a seal of my own design, but Tsunade helped iron everything out and make sure it was safe."

"You've been using an awful lot of seals lately," Sasuke remarked passively.

"Speaking of seals, Ino I have some good news for you," Kakashi said, changing the subject and watching her look up at him in confusion. He held up a few seals in between his fingers.

"Oh, are those the resistance seals?" she asked.

Kakashi nodded in response, "You've gotten quite fast, they're not as strong as the ones on Sasuke's yet, but you've narrowed the gap tremendously."

Ino smiled as pride swelled up in her for the first time since dropping out of the Chunin exams.

"Can we train now?" Sasuke asked impatiently.


Jiraiya pushed his paperwork to the side as he let out a sigh. Realizing that he wasn't going to get anymore done today he lazily got off the chair and made his way to the door. Jiraiya considered going out for a drink and trying to hash things out with Tsunade, she was still in the village and things had been a bit better since the incident they had a few weeks ago.

Before Jiraiya could make any definitive decisions he swung the door open and looked down in shock. Initial shock for the fact that he hadn't sensed anyone behind the door, and then even more shock when he realized the individual under him was bleeding at an alarming rate. It was then when Jiraiya's eyes adjusted more to the dim light of the hallway, and recognized the woman below him was wearing ANBU attire. That at least explained why he hadn't sensed her presence earlier, it was rather impressive actually that she managed to make it here so stealthily while bleeding out.

"Lord Hokage!" came the ANBU's desperate voice, pulling Jiraiya straight out of his thoughts and back into action. Jiraiya kneeled down instantly and held the woman upright.

"You don't need to say anything, I'll get a medic here right aw‒"

"No!" she let out, shooting her hand out and grabbing Jiraiya's arm, much tighter than he would have expected for someone who had lost so much blood.

"No medics. There's no way to tell if we can trust any of them, there's some after me anyway," she continued in ragged breaths.

"Hold on, slow down, what's this about," Jiraiya said in confusion.

"It's about Danzo Shimura," she replied and watched as Jiraiya's face darkened in anger and understanding.

"Go on then, tell me everything."

"Throughout the years Danzo's ROOT has carried out some of the most reckless and morally black missions you could imagine, even by ANBU standards." Jiraiya nodded, this much he suspected already and he watched as the woman continued speaking, "He finds the village's most talented young, but also damaged shinobi, and coaxes them into ROOT. I was only 15 when I was initiated and I was in the darkest spot of my life. Danzo, the way he speaks, he'll say the most appalling things but weave his words in a convincing way," she paused, coughing and hacking as blood came out of her mouth.

"It's okay, slow down for a moment," Jiaraya replied as he watched color leaving her face. He had started using what little healing jutsu he knew but it was having little to no effect on her.

"Lord Hokage, please understand, he has people everywhere, even when I started to realize the extent of his manipulation, there was nothing I could do. Even Lord Third didn't push Danzo to stop. You can't trust any of the ANBU with ROOT affiliations, they might be good people, but they're loyal to Danzo no matter what. Some of them are so unwavering it's like they're under some sort of spell."

Jiraiya's face darkened even more, if that was possible. The ANBU woman began to cough and choke even more, "Even. . . . with Orochi. . . "

Jiraiya never got the chance to hear the end of her thought. He watched her eyes droop further as her breathing went from raggedy to painfully slow, until it stopped completely.

His ears perked up as he recognized the near silent, but very quick footsteps of the ANBU. "There's some after me anyway," her voice echoed in his head and he postured himself for their approach.

Sure enough 4 figures appeared at his open door, he watched as one near the back of the pack seemed to tense up ever so slightly. Had he not been expecting them he might not have picked it up, these were definitely ANBU from ROOT.

"Lord Hokage are you alright?" the one at the front questioned.

"She knocked at the door, but by the time I opened it she collapsed in my arms. Her breathing was gone and it looks like she's been bleeding out for awhile." he lied.

"My apologies Lord Hokage, she's been intoxicated and was hallucinating, she somehow managed to get out of her hospital room."

That didn't explain why she was still in full ANBU attire, but Jiraiya decided not to prod at the lie too much.

"That so?" he said with only the slightest bit of doubt in his voice, "I want a full report by tomorrow morning," he finished. He wondered how well of a lie they could put together to cover it up, before looking down at the woman in his arms. She couldn't have been older than 23, he felt his frustration bubble up. 23 years old and already dead at the hands of Shinobi life. Probably at the hands of her fellow Shinobi in fact, which added more insult to injury.

He wondered how he'd gotten into this mess. He knew his world had always been surrounded by unimaginable amounts of hatred, but having to watch this was appalling him to no end. Was this where they were at? Soldiers being murdered at the hands of their own comrades? Even as Hokage what could he possibly do to reverse a system so utterly broken beyond repair?


Kakashi ducked under a branch as he came out from the trees, a figure clad in ANBU attire, her mask tied around her thigh and her purple hair floating in the breeze.

"I thought I'd find you here Yugao," Kakashi began.

"Kakashi," she replied in what sounded like something between a statement and a question.

"Don't worry it's nothing urgent," Kakashi said as he watched her hand creep down to where her mask was. "I came here to apologize, after all was said and done in talks with the Sand,"

"You couldn't get that bastard Baki for anything." she finished for him.

"It seems as though he's too important of a figure in the Sand. I've told my genin before that revenge won't solve their problems, but I remember what it was like to be ANBU. Most don't have anyone they can be truly comfortable with, and to have that person taken away from you. . . If it was possible I wouldn't have hesitated helping you hunt him down."

She had turned to face him now and smiled, "You're the only other person I'd want by my side to do it,"

A comfortable silence passed over them as they watched the full moon, "You know, at this point you've been in ANBU as long as I have, you know you can leave right?" Kakashi says in a half serious, half cheeky tone.

Yugao looked up at him, as if she had just contemplated it for the first time, but before she can say anything in response her head darts in the opposite direction. Another ANBU appears from the side of the mountain, landing in a kneeling position.

"Kakashi Hatake, the Hokage requests your presence at once." he says.

Kakashi is surprised but doesn't show it, it was nearly 4 in the morning, whatever this was it must be serious. He gives Yugao one last look and a wave, smiling with his eyes, "Another time," he manages to say before following the ANBU to Hokage tower.

Yugao stays in her spot watching him leave. He could express so much with just one eye, two was almost overwhelming after all this time. She could only imagine if he ditched the mask too.

When Kakashi arrived he was very much on guard, well. . . .more so than the ANBU veteran already was on a constant basis. The ANBU that escorted him had brought him to the window of the office. Actually, that wasn't true, he had escorted him about 15 feet from the window and then told him to go in through the window. Kakashi had looked at him incredulously and unknowingly scared the ANBU (who was very new and had heard of Kakashi's reputation.) When Kakashi had finally entered through the window, Jiraiya had stood up, closed the blinds, on the window, and walked to his door.

Kakashi then watched as Jiraiya closed a comically large amount of locks and seals to lock the door completely.

"Are you sure you didn't eat something off Jiraiya?" Kakashi asked dropping the formalities. Jiraiya looked up with a piercing ironclad look that let Kakashi know this was serious.

"Hiruzen seems to have left us a problem, all wrapped up with a big ugly bow. To be completely honest with you, I'm taking it as a more immediate threat than the Akatsuki right now."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed as he thought of the suspects and tried to piece what was in front of him together. Jiraiya considered this a big threat, yet was confiding in him alone. His sensory abilities told him that the usual ANBU guard was significantly farther away from them than usual, in fact, there was nobody in the entire building, the closest ANBU was the one that escorted him here and left him just outside the window. Jiraiya watched as the cogs spun in Kakashi's mind.

Their eyes met and Kakashi spoke, "It's Danzo isn't it?"

"Bingo. That scoundrel was ordered to disband ROOT nearly a decade ago," Jiraiya said.

"Let me guess, he released the most exposed members like Yamato, but kept going in secret."

"I'm afraid that might actually only be the tip of the iceberg. . ."

Kakashi grimaced, ready for another headache.

"Everything I'm going to tell you now is to be considered an S-rank secret. This is troublesome, but I think I know a way we can crush this bastard once and for all."

"Are you sure, he still holds a lot of power as an elder and has connections with the Daimyo," Kakashi replied.

"Yes, but you might not like it, because those rookie chuunin are gonna be our best bet."