Ino Yamanaka stood stoically in the corner of the Hokage's office, as ANBU guards tended to do. Currently she was simply thankful to not be Shikamaru Nara.
"This is bullshit," Jiraiya growled angrily, "We're about to send two more members of this mission into Danzo's hands and we still don't know shit. It's been months already."
"Like I said in my report Lord Hokage, Danzo has kept me at arms length, he's more suspicious than we anticipated."
"And let me guess, you talked for an hour again today and still haven't managed to gather much information on his missions, infrastructure, potential identities. Another waste of time."
'Well, today was a bit more interesting than our previous talks have been." Shikamaru said monotonously.
"I'm ecstatic to hear all about it," Jiraiya responded in a grated voice, and Shikamaru's mind traveled back to earlier in the day. He had actually already written an entire report on it to turn in, but Jiraiya didn't seem to be in the waiting mood, so he opted to pull it out and read the report aloud to him.
Shimura Compound 21:45: I was summoned by what appears to be the same ROOT operative as always.
"Welcome, Shikamaru." were the first words he spoke to me tonight. Just like always, he didn't greet me by my real name until the other ROOT operatives were well out of earshot. I gather this is a dehumanization tactic. He makes you feel closer to him by using your real name, but withholds your true identity from other members, only using codenames when there's multiple of us. He wants them to be as faceless as possible, probably so that we don't hesitate to betray them at any time should he order it.
"Evening Lord Danzo," I finally responded back after seating myself across from him.
"I trust you've done what I asked you to." he replied back to me.
He had ordered me to observe, the red-light district of the village, although for what reason I hadn't figured out yet, so I opted to ask him, hoping he wouldn't take my question as disrespect, "Yes Lord Danzo, although I struggle to understand the purpose of this assignment."
"That is understandable, for now just tell me what it is you observed throughout the week."
"The first two days of the week seemed rather calm, there was a spike in crime on days three and four. By the last three days unease and tension were everywhere, crime practically skyrocketed."
"Just as I expected from you, even most other ROOT would not have caught that much in only a week's span of time. Now the reason for your observation is very simple. ANBU has a very-lax surveillance of the red-light district. Just as they do of Konoha in general. For decades I've had ROOT taking care of it, keeping it from becoming too dangerous, and seeping into other parts of the village."
It took everything I had not to narrow my eyes, ANBU presence is not so bad in the red-light district. ANBU regularly watched the area and prosecuted individuals, for Danzo to consider it lax meant that he must be doing some aggressive policing in the area.
Danzo continued, "Recently ROOT has been spread thin and we've been unable to police the area this week. I wanted to take the opportunity to show you how important our work is, beyond the Hokage's scope."
There it was, we're still playing this game. He keeps testing to see just how far my own criticisms of the administration go. I played along all this time and I wasn't about to stop now, "I see. It would be troublesome if we left policing to just ANBU. You'd like me to take over?"
Danzo groaned in approval, "Yes, it's a very delicate job you see. You need to be invisible to even ANBU surveillance to complete it. They're always too slow on the money Shikamaru, waiting weeks to find evidence on someone, weeks to prosecute them. We're more hands on than that."
He looked at me dead in the eyes. I could tell he was searching for something. Any type of break, any indication that I felt he had gone too far, but I held his gaze as I responded, "So you'd like me to narrow down undesirables and take them out before they become a problem,"
I noticed approval creep onto his face, "Yes, and to give you an idea I've already narrowed down two individuals I want you to take care of." His hand slipped into a folder and pulled out two photos. One was a mugshot of a man I recognized as a local pimp. The second photo however was much more sinister, it was a photo of a shinobi. It took everything I had to remain stoic.
"Recognize them?" he asked.
"This is Kirichi," I said as I pointed to the mugshot. "He owns both a brothel and a dispensary. I recall early in the week his brothel was getting a lot of buzz. Apparently he was letting both the girls and the clients use his drugs during their–services. It was only a few days before that portion of the street was in chaos. He has no control over them and he doesn't care.
And this is Touya, he's a chunin. He started hanging around bars recently, been saying a lot of stuff about the Daimyo and the Kages, lot of arguments started. Everytime he gets kicked out of the bar for starting fights, but he just goes to the closest bar after that, gets drunk and starts the whole thing over again."
"I want you to fix it," His tone was firm, but I couldn't decipher it completely. It seemed like he was asking me to kill a leaf shinobi, but didn't want to make it explicit.
"Understood, I'll take care of it," was my response, and he dismissed me shortly after.
Jiraiya sat there, clearly deep in thought as he considered the contents of Shikamaru's report, "So now we know for a fact he's taking police matters into his own hands."
"This is insane," Ino cut in, "You basically just agreed to killing another Leaf Shinobi!"
Before anyone could even say anything there was a buzz on Jiraiya's desk that made everyone silent. "No worries, it's Team 7. It will be safe to keep discussing," Jiraiya informed them.
"Are you seriously going to do it? Lord Jiraiya, are you really going to greenlight this?" Ino continued.
"Greenlight what?" came the voice of Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura behind him and clearly ready to turn in their own mission report.
"Danzo has given his first real orders to Shikamaru," Jiraiya responded, "and they're not pretty."
"We knew from the start it would be like this." Sasuke chimed in, "We can't fold now."
"He pretty much asked me to murder Touya, name ring a bell?" Shikamaru asked.
"Touya? He's a friend of my family. He's got a daughter and nobody else really," Sakura said.
"Ughh fuck." Shikamaru groaned in disgust.
"C'mon this is insane, I mean he didn't outright tell you to murder him right? Maybe there's another way?" Naruto asked.
"This is basically a test, like Sasuke said, the first one. We can't just hide in a corner now." Jiraiya told them all.
"Well what are your orders gonna be then Pervy-Sage?" Naruto asked.
"I don't know. This really is shit. Ino could be right, maybe we don't have to kill Touya, but even if we pull off that miracle he'll probably order more unjust murder." the Hokage said.
"This is how the guy thinks, we need to show him we think like him. If it wasn't me he would have gotten someone else to do it. Maybe Touya's fate was already written, if we interfere with it we'll just be hurting ourselves." Shikamaru said.
"That was really cold Shika," Ino said.
"She's right," Naruto agreed, "Say you do this, take a father away from her daughter, where do you draw the line? Where do we draw the line?" Naruto said the last part with a steely look at both Jiraiya and Shikamaru.
Both shared an uneasy look, unable to answer Naruto's question. Jiraiya broke the silence first, "In the following days, Kiba and Neji will be in his ranks anyway. Let's just see what type of orders he gives them before we decide on anything concrete."
Kiba Inuzuka, kneeling across from Danzo Shimura, was scared. Not because he was deep in espionage, not because the man before him could probably kill him at a moment's notice, but because this was nothing like Shikamaru's reports suggested. Shikamaru's reports had told a tale of chilling and covert meetings, but never with this level of tension.
Danzo Shimura was much more menacing to look at in person. While not particularly tall, everything about his aura was dominant. The heavy set brow, deep wrinkles, even the x-shaped scar was more intimidating than the photo suggested. The features gave a glimpse of a man who had probably seen and done more unpleasant things than even most veteran shinobi. Despite some frail features nothing about this man was frail, Kiba could always faintly hear Danzo's steady breathing, never wavering. Every movement the man made was deliberate, not once did his hands shake, or stumble when doing something.
When he spoke, Danzo's voice was clear, deep, and steady, with seemingly very little effort he could project his voice incredibly far. If you happened to look in his eyes it was even worse. Well, actually, just one eye. Danzo had bandages around his left eye and forehead. Jiraiya and Shikmaru were almost certain a sharingan was hidden behind it. In one way Danzo did remind him of the other individual who hid a sharingan. Kiba had only had the privilege of seeing Kakashi in serious battle mode once, during a mission they were on. He recalled looking into Kakashi's eyes back then, even without the killer intent, the scowl Kakashi Hatake made was enough to intimidate most shinobi. One look into them and it felt as though Kakashi had already planned multiple different brutal ways to kill him. Of course, Kakashi softened up and returned to regular lazy expression soon enough. Danzo did not. Looking into Danzo's eyes was like looking into the eyes of a bloodlusted Kakashi, except they were always like that. Even with only one of his eyes being exposed it was still just as intimidating. None of this was mentioned in Shikamaru's reports, and Kiba was beginning to wonder what he'd gotten himself into.
Shikamaru was also treated closer to an equal in the reports, what Kiba was experiencing now was unadulterated submission.
"You understand, do you not, of the implications of this position, and the dedication it requires?" Danzo asked in his commanding tone.
"Yes sir," Kiba responded with no hesitation.
"Words mean very little in ROOT. There's a mission you need to complete to prove your dedication to our movement. . . ."
Sasuke and Sakura sat perched in a tree, eyes laser-focused on a tunnel that led underground. They'd sat there for a while, staring down like hawks, and it finally paid off when their target appeared. A hooded figure sprinted outside of the tunnel, the quiet commotion of a few other ANBU running after them. The pair wasted no time diving down and intercepting the hooded figure, who launched a flurry of weapons at them. It was of no concern to the pair however, as they didn't even bother to dodge and went straight pinning the shinobi down. Their target struggled uselessly trying to escape their grasp as Yamato and Yugao emerged from the tunnel as well.
"Hawk, Groundhog, good job." Yamato said as Yugao pulled down their captors hood.
"There you are," Yugao said, looking dead in his eyes, "Thought it'd be easy to commit treason?" she taunted.
"Fuck you," the shinobi replied. Yugao struck him, causing a gash to appear and blood to run down his forehead.
"Not a nice thing to say to someone," she responded sarcastically. "You know how it works, tell us how much damage you've done."
"Why should I tell you a thing? What's that gonna get me from you? Damn village never gave me a thing anyway. What you think you have something to take away from me? I was born an orphan and shoved into this little mercenary business called the hidden village, I never had anything to lose in the first place. So you can skip your questions, I'm not answering them." The contempt in the man's tone ran deep, and they had difficulty keeping their composure.
Yugao only grunted in annoyance, "That's what they all say, T&I's gonna drag it out of you anyway, and if they find out you lied after being caught they're not gonna be nice to you. So how about you save yourself some future heartache and just answer our questions."
The man stared a moment, never dropping his scowl, and simply spit on the ground.
Yugao sighed in annoyance, "Can't say we didn't warn you," and she took out a scroll with a seal on it, forcing it into his mouth and tying it around his head. "Take him away, we'll clean up here and head straight back," she told the pair, who dragged him off to a nearby tree to further bound and blindfold the man up.
"I'll hold onto him," Yamato said when he and Yugao reappeared from the tunnel, and took their captor, before they all departed.
"This our life now? Being Hunter-nin?" Sakura whispered to Sasuke as they catapulted through the forest.
"We keep being assigned to these, so probably." Sasuke replied.
"So weird that Danzo hasn't taken interest in us yet, especially you." Sakura said.
"Who knows what goes through that scoundrel's head. Anyway, it doesn't matter, I actually like it like this. Hunting rouge-shinobi."
"You're not waiting to be assigned to a specific one are you?" Sakura asked cheekily despite the dark territory she just turned the conversation to.
"I'm absolutely waiting for that." Sasuke responded, and there was a few minutes of silence after that.
"I wouldn't mind being Hunter-nin either. We're pretty good at it so far." Sakura finally said.
Sasuke turned to look at Sakura, not that she could really see his expression through the mask, "As long as we stay together." he said to her, and Sakura was once again thankful the mask made it impossible to see her blush.
In the dim room of the Hokage's office, surrounded by her comrades, Ino Yamanka struggled to think how she ever thought Monday's meeting was tense. Because this meeting was infinitely more tense.
"Look I'm not gonna ask you again, what were the details of the mission Danzo assigned to you." Jiraiya said angrily.
"I don't know what mission you're talking about, or why you called me here. Don't you have more important things to do anyway? The south-side of the village is deteriorating rapidly and you haven't assigned any more ANBU to it." Kiba responded hotly.
"Excuse me?" Jiraiya replied in shock, his eyes narrowed on Kiba while the others looked at each other in confusion.
"I don't understand why we're in ANBU if you don't give us any real missions." Kiba's voice rose rapidly, "You think being Hokage is some fool's job? You think you can spend your days perving on women instead of doing your job?"
Before Jiraiya could respond Kiba had begun to move towards him. The rest of the ROOT-infiltration division had already anticipated this though. Shikamaru and Naruto grabbed Kiba from both sides while the rest readied their weapons.
"Ino!" Jiraiya barked.
"Yes sir?" Ino asked.
"Check his mind, something isn't right."
Ino didn't hesitate to pace ahead of the desk and perform her Mind-transfer jutsu on Kiba. It was only a few moments after performing the jutsu that she returned to her body. "There's something disturbing his chakra system. I can't get a good look at his memories, especially the ones with Danzo." Ino continued to exam Kiba for a moment.
"His mouth!" both Ino and Sasuke said it. Sasuke who had activated his sharingan to get a better look.
"Yes, I think it's a seal." Ino said.
Without even receiving the order Kakashi materialized in front of Kiba, grabbing him by the face and forcing his mouth open. In a bizarre next move, Kakashi pulled Kiba's tongue out of his mouth, immediately running chakra through it and exposing a seal that lit up bright purple. Kiba let out a sound of agony before kicking Shikamaru straight in the leg. His arm dove into his weapon's pouch and it was only the swift response of Neji that stopped Kiba from slicing his own stomach open.
"What the hell is happening," Shikamaru said through a cough.
"Danzo must have done it." Jiraiya said and stood up abruptly, only to have Sasuke and Sakura appear at his sides in a defensive position.
"Be careful Lord Hokage," they said to him.
"EVERYBODY SHUT UP," Ino yelled, "His mind is completely compromised, we can't freak out and we need to be extremely careful about how we approach this next. Kakashi don't tamper with the seal until I've taken another look."
"You sure about this kid?" Jiraiya asked and looked her in the eyes. Ino nodded confidently and Jiraiya decided to listen to her. "Alright everyone listen to Ino, we can't risk inviting her father right now."
"Shikamaru, bind Kiba now." Ino ordered.
Shikamaru did as he was told. "I warn you this is exceedingly difficult. He's pouring every ounce of strength into maiming himself," he spat out.
"Sakura, disarm him. Disarm Neji, Kakashi, and me as well. We can't risk him being near weaponry." Jiraiya head shot up as the door to his office opened, "Not now Yamato,"
At the front of his office stood an extremely upset Yamato, "But I-"
"Explain it afterwards Yamato, you're supposed to be guarding this building," Jiraiya snapped, nearly losing his temper.
"Forgive me sir," Yamato managed to let out before shutting the door.
Ino didn't waste a moment paying attention to Yamato's interruption, "Naruto, Neji, I don't care that he's been disarmed or that he's binded, hold him steady. Sasuke, your job is to guard Kakashi and I."
Sasuke nodded and went through a series of hand seals, activating his Lightning Chakra mode and standing by the pair.
"Kakashi, I'm going to connect our minds, and then swap with Kiba. The rest of you just have to standby." Ino said before she closed her eyes and went into focus was able to calm down for the next three minutes as Ino stood still. The only noise that could be heard was Kakashi's ocasional tampering with the seal, and Shikamaru's quiet cries of pain.
Ino finally spoke out of nowhere, giving everyone a mini-heart attack, "Just hold on a little longer Shika,"
"I'm. . . . running out. . . . of chakra," he managed to say between heavy breaths.
"Just until Kakashi is finished," she begged.
"He's pushing so hard," Shikamaru replied. For another 15 seconds everyone watched, heart rates once again sky high. Shikamaru finally let out one last scream of agony before falling to the ground. Ino was violently pushed back into her own body, also falling to the floor. Kiba snapped back awake, desperately trying to catch his breath.
"Were we fast enough?" Ino asked from the floor.
"Yes we were Ino. Good job you two," Kakashi praised.
"Couldn't have done it without you," Ino replied softly as she was held up by a worried Naruto.
"Sasuke, you go swap with Yamato. Ino, Kakashi, one of you tell me what the hell just happened." Jiraiya said.
"What happened is Danzo showed us his weapon." Kakashi began, "When we looked into Kiba's memories, we found he treated Kiba far differently from Shikamaru. Different to the point of putting a seal on his tongue to prevent betrayal."
"That's what Yamato must have been freaking out over. Speak of the devil," Jiraiya said as Yamato entered the office.
"Forgive me Lord Hokage, I should have been able to warn you about the seal." Yamato said solemnly.
"Nonsense Yamato. We know what he did to you. Your memories are all broken, even T&I independently verified it." Jiraiya replied.
"I know but, it was like, the moments before it happened I could almost tell. I should have been able to warn you, it could have cost Kiba his life."
"Seriously, don't beat yourself up over it." Jiraiya ordered, "Your loyalty isn't questioned here."
"Yes Lord Hokage." Yamato said.
"As I was saying," Kakashi continued, "The seal compels the user to keep ROOT secrets at all costs. Before applying the seal Danzo did have a lot of negative things to say about you. From our vantage point I couldn't tell if genjutsu was involved, but whatever the true nature of it was, the Kiba we saw earlier was cracking under the pressure."
"And what about Kiba now?" Jiraiya asked.
Ino, who Naruto had to assist to stand, responded, "It's really hard to say. We managed to keep the seal intact, not visibly tampered with, but to maintain Kiba's state of mind is going to take constant upkeep. Even then it's a risk."
"We need to keep him together at all costs," Jiraiya said.
"Forgive me Lord Hokage, I compromised the mission." Kiba had finally gotten up.
"Are you sure you can keep your head in the game?" Jiraiya questioned.
Ino answered for him, "We need to be especially careful. We should keep him at arms distance, only interacting with him in short bursts. If the mission and betraying Danzo is on his mind too often it could, trigger the seal and cause another outburst."
"You plan on taking responsibility for that?" Jiraiya asked.
"Yes sir, and of Neji too. Danzo will likely try the same thing on him."
"I'll hold you to that . Next is Shikamaru." Jiraiya said, but Shikamaru was still on the floor, snoring.
Ino threw a stapler at him, "We all know you're awake dumbass."
Jiraiya laughed for the first time all night, causing Naruto to also smile. It was hard to see his teacher becoming more and more uptight and serious all the time.
"Alright, alright," Shikamru bemoaned as he stood up. "Someone should escort Kiba out of here by the way, if we're going to continue this conversation. I already know what you're going to ask. Why didn't I get sealed?"
"Precisely," Jiraiya said as Sakura shooed Kiba out of the room.
"I knew from the start he was being too open with me. I was sort of expecting something like this would happen. You saw the way Kiba broke, whatever mind-altering abilities he has, they clearly have some sort of limits, maybe a scarcity to their use. It's probably risky to use something like that on me, when I'll be surrounded by other similarly intelligent people at home."
"What if it isn't that. What if it's a test?" Kakashi chimed in. "We know he's paranoid. What if he suspects something?"
"If it is, it would be a pretty good way of throwing us off," Shikamaru responded. "I'm not sure if I buy that though."
"Well Neji is next. If he uses a tongue-seal on Neji that means they're probably standard practice." Jiraiya said.
"If that happens, that might confirm I'm a special case." Shikamaru said.
"When we looked into Kiba's memories, we saw that Danzo's already assigned him a mission." Ino said.
"Then Shikamaru is almost certainly a special case. He knows how smart you are. He might be playing some sort of long game or have ulterior-motives with you. Regardless, we're going to go ahead as if this incident didn't happen." Jiraiya said.
"Understood Lord Hokage," everyone said in unison.
"Ino, Kakashi, I'm going to assign you to a decoy mission sometime around Kiba's ROOT mission. You're to use that mission to tail Kiba and keep him from falling under Danzo's grasp.
As for the rest of you, we're not going to meet like this for awhile. Revert to more covert information exchanges. This incident highlights how high-alert Danzo is about even the most secret things in this village."
