(Thank you to ScarredPunLover, MetalDragon, Sunny, and KoreanWriter for their help brainstorming and editing.)

Shortly after his elevation, Orochimaru had ordered that a bulletin be posted throughout Konoha making it known that he was interested in novel applications of jutsu, and that should anybody have some fresh new idea they would like to develop further, he would be amenable to scheduling an immediate meeting.

To his disappointment, his offer had yet to be taken up. It was hardly a surprise, considering how most of the shinobi and kunoichi of the Leaf were out on the borders of the Land of Fire, far from the village and his office, but it was still disappointing. The Uchiha were still in Konoha, after all, as were segments of every other major clan and all of the under-twelves pulled back from combat duty.

So, when a vulture-masked Anbu set a scroll down on his desk first thing in the morning with a murmured, "Your schedule, Lord Hokage," Orochimaru was pleasantly surprised to see that Akimi had booked a meeting with him, with the stated agenda listed bafflingly as, "Incarcerating Barrier/Anchored Barrier?"

I wonder what he has in mind?

This was quite the pleasant surprise, as Metani Akimi was a bright but uncreative student in Orochimaru's experience. Hopefully, this new flicker of creativity was a sign that the boy was finally starting to embrace his teacher's love for jutsu experimentation and development!

Ah, yes, Orochimaru thought as the Anbu ushered his student into the office, hastily reassembling the mask of the Hokage over his increasingly eager anticipation. I remember my first attempts at developing my ownjutsu. Disappointments, every one of them! Minimal improvements on the standard forms at best, painful humiliations at worst! I will have to take care to nurture Akimi through the process, lest he get discouraged by early setbacks.

"Teacher," Akimi said, greeting him formally with a deep bow, "thank you for agreeing to see me this morning."

"You're welcome," replied the Hokage. "As you know, my interest in jutsu development is both professional and personal. I am very interested in what you have in mind with this… 'Incarceration Barrier' you mentioned.

"Besides," added Orochimaru, "I'm intrigued that you went through the process of requesting a formal meeting, Akimi. We see each other most days at scheduled team training."

"True," his student agreed, bobbing his head in acknowledgement, "but this didn't seem appropriate to bring up then.

"I mean…" Akimi pushed his glasses back up his nose, a gesture Orochimaru had long associated with embarrassment or nerves in his clanless student, "this is really only a private project, and the team only has so much of your time, so it would be selfish of me to demand you focus on me and make Anko and Nagamasa wait…

"Besides, it isn't even like I know this is actually going to work anyway."

There really wasn't any need for discretion; Anko, for example, has less than no compunction about monopolizing my time.

Perhaps he thought that was a privilege only extended to Anko? Or, Orochichimaru considered, with a private chuckle, perhaps he's wary of criticism from Anko or Nagamasa and is feigning thoughtfulness to escape having to pitch the idea in the face of their scrutiny?

"As you wish," said Orochimaru, conceding the point. Akimi's exact motivations didn't particularly matter, not when a potentially intriguing jutsu variant was waiting to be discussed. "So, tell me more about this idea of yours. Something about a barrier, I believe?"

"Correct." Akimi paused to draw himself up to his full height, pushing slender shoulders back, and then pausing again as his glasses began to slide down his nose. "As you know, Teacher, I have experience with the String Light Formation Barrier and the Five-Seal Barrier Techniques. As you also know, both of these techniques require a focus to function correctly. In the case of the String Light Formation Barrier, that focus is the shinobi using the technique, however, as you know,in the case of the Five-Seal Barrier, it is the central tag identifying the centroid of the forbidden area."

"Mostly accurate," Orochimaru agreed, "although the String Light Formation Barrier isn't focused on the user so much as it is the point the user was standing when they initiated the technique."

"But the user still can't exit the area of the technique without disrupting the barrier," Akimi stubbornly pointed out. "And the barrier only lasts as long as the user continues to allow their chakra to flow into the technique to maintain it."

"That is true," the Sannin conceded with a nod. "Go on."

"Right…" Akimi blinked, took a breath, and appeared to recall where he had been. "Right, so, in each case, the anchor is the biggest weakness in the barrier. For the String Light Formation Barrier, killing the user or otherwise incapacitating them will collapse the barrier, while the Five-Seal Barrier will collapse if either all four of the external seals are removed, or if the central seal is removed.

"But what if we could figure out some way to anchor the technique to something that nobody would want to destroy?"

The boy paused, clearly anticipating a response, but Orochimaru only gestured for him to continue, intrigued where he was going with this line of thought.

"It was the String Light Formation Barrier that got me thinking about this," Akimi continued, twisting his hands into the first few hand seals of the evoking sequence, "specifically how it applies to everybody within the range of effect when initiated. Nobody and nothing from the outside can enter, but nobody inside it can leave except for the user, who'll immediately collapse it if he does. I was thinking that, if that last part wasn't true, it'd be an ideal prison cell.

"So I was thinking… What if the anchor and the maintenance flow for the barrier could be detached from the shinobi using the technique as soon as the jutsu goes into effect, and instead transferred over to the inmates within the barrier? My thinking is they wouldn't want to destroy themselves, meaning that we wouldn't have to worry about the anchor, and their own chakra system would provide the flow needed to keep the barrier in place."

"That would be… ideal," Orochimaru said, trying to be encouraging without getting his student's hopes up overly much. "But, how are you going to go about it, hmm?"

"That's the part where I'm not so certain…" Akimi admitted, earning an amused snort from Orochimaru. "I haven't really ever used any jutsu that requires a partner… voluntary or otherwise, which a living anchor and chakra battery would effectively become after I passed the jutsu over.

"I know that the Inuzuka Clan uses a ton of that sort of technique with their dogs. It isn't really the same, since the Inuzuka are all really close to their dogs and the dogs train to fight with their masters, but they're about as close to what I've got in mind as I could think of. So, if you thought this idea had a chance of working out, I was going to go and see an Inuzuka who I know from the Academy…"

Using an Inuzuka-style bond requires a significant degree of synchronization and compatibility with one's partner, as best as I understand it, and requires the dog's trust and consent to initialize and maintain the chakra link. But if that sort of bond could be forced upon a target who could be compelled to receive ajutsuI used, regardless of their consent or thoughts about the imposed technique, self-reinforcing incarceration barriers would only be the start…

"I don't know if your idea has any practical legs, but I certainly think that it is worth following up on," declared the Hokage, reaching for a blank scroll and his brush. "So, young Akimi, here is what we're going to do. I am going to issue you an individual C-Rank mission to develop this idea further. C-Rank for now, because it will be ongoing with loose parameters, but if you actually manage to deliver something workable, I'll bump it up to a B-Rank for reward purposes."

"Thank you, Teacher," said Akimi, bowing as he accepted the scroll. "Although… how will I complete a mission independent of the rest of Team Orochimaru?"

"Well," Orochimaru hedged, "I called it a mission, but this is more of a grant. Take that scroll down to the Mission Assignment Desk; they will hand you forty-thousand ryo. Use that to get started. You'll be working in your own time, whenever the team isn't training or on missions. Take as long as you need."

"Thank you, Teacher," Akimi repeated, and then, "so… What should I use the money for? In fact, what do you think I should do next? I… haven't ever really done anything like this before."

Ah, right, first time.

"This isn't a payment," Orochimaru briskly replied, leaning back in his chair, "but rather some loose funds to help defray any costs associated with experimenting on transferring the anchor of the String Light Formation Barrier, which is where I'd advise you to start. Buy a dog,notan Inuzuka dog if you know what's good for you, or a monkey and try to pass the technique to them first. Approach your Inuzuka friend and ask for his advice, and pay him for it too so he doesn't leave empty-handed.

"Above all else, write everything down. What you did, why you did it, when, how you went about altering the jutsu, what the outcome was, how it differed from what you expected, so on and so forth. If you can, draw diagrams as well to illustrate your points. Even what seems like a catastrophic failure can be a valuable lesson with the context provided by accurate and thorough documentation.

"I will be expecting a complete report."

After the pleasant surprise that had been Akimi's appointment, the remainder of the Hokage's morning dragged on in a welter of reports and meetings with various dignitaries and representatives.

Everybody, it seemed, had news that he urgently needed to hear, and very little of it was good.

The Konoha Bank, a local institution managed by a non-ninja family but backed by a number of Konoha's smaller clans including the Izuno and Onikuma, had sent a very polite and regretful second son to inform the Hokage that the bank would be insisting on a fresh round of negotiations before further credit would be extended to the village government. Multiple lines of credit, including several backed by other banks from around the Land of Fire who were also voicing their misgivings, had already been issued to Konohagakure, the emissary pointed out, and while the interest had been duly serviced, repayment on loans taken out in the first year of the war would soon be coming due without any sign from the Hokage's Office of repayment of the principal.

A very sleep-deprived medical-nin had also appeared before him, sent by Chief Medical-Nin Shiozaki to report on the chronic overcrowding of the Konoha Hospital's convalescent and intensive care wards.

With the tenuous peace with Iwa still holding for the moment, all of the ninja under treatment in field hospitals across the burnt-over northern marches had been evacuated to Konoha, immediately swamping the hospital. The situation was made worse by the recall of ninja whose wounds had been insufficiently severe to pull them off the badly taxed frontlines. Now, the bill for that borrowed time came true as the medical-nin had to contend with poorly healed injuries and the fruits of sometimes questionable self-care or battlefield medicine.

And that wasn't even touching on the multitude of issues the young combatants recalled from the frontlines were struggling with still, even now that they were surrounded by the comforts of home and what family had survived and been freed from their own frontline posts.

All told, the medic reported, the hospital staff were experiencing great difficulty in providing care for casualties freshly evacuated from the new clashes with Kiri and Kumo while still caring for ninja in recovery.

"If you could increase the budget," the medical-nin began, the dark bags under his eyes almost purple against the pallor of his drained cheeks, "we could hire more orderlies and mundane physicians, allowing us to prioritize our more specialized care for the worst cases."

Resisting the temptation to deliver the statement from the Konoha Bank under the man's nose, the Hokage had promised to see what he could manage. As the man swayed his way out of the Academy's administration block, Orochimaru ordered one of his Anbu to shadow the man back to the hospital, lest he collapse in the middle of the road and make a scene of himself.

Then came a chuunin runner, straight arrived from the Eastern Front with a scroll in-hand bearing the seal of Jonin Commander Aburame himself.

Reluctantly, Orochimaru accepted the scroll and broke open the seal, finding, to his utter lack of surprise, nothing but more bad news.

Captain-Major Oyama was achieving fair to middling tactical victories and had even successfully pushed Kumo and the rest of the forces from Lightning out of the Mutosi Valley completely, asserting Fire control over a broad swath of the southwestern Land of Hot Springs. Unfortunately, he was experiencing great hardship in converting tactical success into anything like a strategic victory. While he had forced the enemy back, the Lightning Army had retreated in good order, without even abandoning their excess supplies or abandoning the wounded, to a new line of prepared defenses only thirty miles back. While the professional troops, their samurai and ninja,and their leaders escaped any sort of rout, the Lightning Army's leaders had left a few units behind in a sacrificial rearguard to busy the maw of the Captain-Major's army. Oyama had crushed them handedly, but nobody considered the annihilation of those offerings to be much of a triumph.

This inability to reinforce victory with victory, Jonin Commander Aburame was claiming, was a result of the continued threat presented by Kiri raiding parties disrupting the rear. Hit and run raids by small, fast-moving groups of nin were destroying supply caravans, burning villages, and massacring freshly-raised units of conscripts, restricting the flow of men and material to the battleline. This forced Konoha, in the person of Aburame Shikuro, to divert badly needed forces to the southern flank of the Front and to the interior in the hopes of intercepting the Kiri raiders.

Which is exactly the difficulty in dealing with that pack of corsairs, Orochimaru thought, disgustedly throwing the scroll down on the desk. They are fast and aggressive, correctly reasoning that the best time to hit your enemy is when they aren't expecting it and the best way to hit them is hard.

Of course, that means that as soon as they're pinned down and forced to defend themselves, they're instantly on the back foot. Not to mention that, for a group so masterful at executing ambushes,Kiriare awful at responding to being ambushed. Highly stratified, constantly afraid of their leaders and of their underlings in equal measure, hit them where they aren't expecting it and they all fall apart.

"Stick around for a reply," the Hokage told the waiting chuunin messenger, managing a level tone with an effort of will. "I will need to consult on this."

Feeling obscurely as if something else was required, just as the chuunin reached the door of the office he added, "I appreciate the prompt delivery. There is no need for you to wait outside my office. Go and enjoy lunch somewhere; tell them to send your bill to the Hokage's Office."

"Thank you, Lord Hokage!"

Before the young woman's footfalls had faded away down the hallway, an Anbu was already crouching before Orochimaru, summoned with a flick of the wrist.

"Go find Lord Fugaku; tell him that I require his attendance at once."

The Uchiha have been oh so dearly yearning for aa chance to prove their worth to Konoha on the field of battle. With the children back from the frontline as well as the less severely wounded veterans back in Konoha, the Military Police will not require their full strength to preserve Konoha's security. I could cut their garrison temporarily down to a mere fifth…

Which would give me fifty-odd Uchiha clan members, each with an activatedSharinganat minimum, to deploy to the southeastern borderlands.Alone in his office, Orochimaru didn't bother resisting the temptation to lick his lips in eager anticipation. How thoughtful of Kiri to provide that clan with a perfect opportunity to play to their strengths and to strengthen Konoha's cohesion to boot!

"Your tea, Lord Hokage."

"Thank you, Mikoto," said Orochimaru, accepting the steaming cup. "There really isn't any need for all of the formalities, though. Please, take a seat."

For a moment, Uchiha Fugaku's better half hesitated indecisively, torn between tradition and aching feet.

Custom dictated that a high-ranking visitor to a ninja clan was served only by the household of their host, both to reinforce the social bonds of hospitality and so that, should poison make its way into the visitor's cup, the lives of the hosting shinobi's family would be immediately forfeit. As Fugaku's son was only four, his wife Mikoto was the only member of his household available to pour the tea and keep the plate of refreshments stocked.

However, Mikoto was also heavily pregnant and so encumbered that Orochimaru fully expected her to give birth within the week.

It was that great weight and the pressure it put on her poor feet, to say nothing of her back, shoulders, and everything else, that decided matters. With an undisguised groan of relief, Mikoto nearly collapsed down into the chair next to her husband, joining him around the kitchen table of their home. Far from the grandeur of the Hyuuga or even the darkly appointed banquet hall the Uchiha Clan generally greeted important visitors in, and even a pace below the formal dining room of Fugaku's own house, the choice to seat their visitor where the couple regularly ate indicated the informality of this meeting. There would be no record kept, nor would it appear on anybody's official appointment book. There were only three Konoha ninja sharing tea in this room, nothing of note.

Of course, considering the identities of the three seated at the table, nobody would ever believe anything of the sort.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Lord Fugaku," Orochimaru said, turning back to face the one called "Evil Eye" by the enemies of Konoha.

"Think nothing of it," the Uchiha clanhead replied with his typical sternness. "But, would it be accurate to say that you did not just come to the Uchiha District for light conversation, Lord Hokage?"

"Sadly," breathed Orochimaru, "you are correct. This is no mere social visit. Not that I expect you mistook it for such."

"It is… difficult to imagine you on a social visit," Fugaku admitted, prompting a mildly forceful exhalation from his wife, almost certainly a concealed snort of amusement.

"True enough," the Snake Sannin readily agreed. His proclivity for occupying his free hours with further work was hardly a great secret. "In that case, to business."

"To business," agreed Fugaku. "What has brought you to my door today, Lord?"

"Hmm…" Orochimaru took a sip of his tea, savoring the bouquet and the flavor. It was quite good. "Well, there are two matters that I must urgently discuss with you, but the Hokage has only come to discuss the second matter with you.

"The first matter is, unfortunately, only between myself and the head of the Uchiha."

"...An interesting distinction," Fugaku said after a moment, his stoic face betraying nothing. Next to him, Mikoto peered into Orochimaru's pale face, her dark eyes alive with prying intelligence. "In that case, Orochimaru of Konoha, White Serpent, let us discuss the first matter."

"Shimura Danzo." Orochimaru uttered the name carefully, enunciating the syllables with the deliberation of a gambler placing a hand down on the table to answer a call, five cards all faced upwards.

Then, it was his turn to peer over the rim of his cup at the Uchihas, sampling their reactions.

Oh yes, they both know that name. That much was clear, even through Fugaku's noted stoicism. Mikoto, her face alive with the typical Uchiha impetuousness, flashed with distaste and, unmistakably, fear.

"I see that the Root's activities are far from unknown to you," Orochimaru softly observed, placing his cup down on the table and relishing, ever so slightly, the defiance of speaking that once-sealed name aloud in the company of the uninitiated. "I take it that you both have met Lord Shimura at some point or another?"

"Yes," Fugaku replied shortly, his face carved out of granite. All of the emotion he wasn't showing appeared to have found its expression in Mikoto's grimace, though.

"I see that he was as charming and personable in these encounters as I would have expected," nodded Orochimaru, his tongue flicking out from between his lips. "Well, that saves me the need for explanationsss, I suppose.

"While I was assigned to his Root Foundation, I implanted a Sharingan in his right eye socket. As the head of the Uchiha Clan, I thought you should be informed of this matter."

In an instant, the pleasant chill of the autumn afternoon plummeted as icy rage roiled from the outraged Uchiha. As before, Fugaku remained outwardly stoic, but Mikoto reflected his true emotions outwards, all indignant surprise and offended anger.

Unphased, Orochimaru allowed the killing intent to wash over him in waves, sitting placidly and politely as he gave the clanhead and his wife time to recollect themselves.

After a full minute, the fury emanating out from Fugaku ebbed away as the Uchiha leader reasserted his self-control. Reluctantly, Mikoto followed her husband's lead, but her lips remained pinched and her brow furled as she glared bitter promises at Orochimaru from across the table.

If she wasn't pregnant, I suspect she would leap across the table to throttle me, Orochimaru thought, wryly amused. As it is… Well, I could probably escape before she cornered me.

Hardly a dignified spectacle, the Hokage fleeing from a heavily pregnant woman. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

"Why…" Fugaku's voice was like a grinding stone, rough and grainy with poorly concealed emotion. "Why are you telling us this?"

Already moved past why I did it, Orochimaru noted.That saves some time. Besides, it's hardly like he needs to ask – we all must do distasteful things, if ordered. Not that the job was particularly distasteful, but the principle remains unchanged.

"Lord Danzo enjoyed a great deal of latitude under the administration of my predecessor," Orochimaru said instead. "I mean to change this. I will not continence any operation not approved and overseen by my office.

"As you might expect, the Root is displeased with the prospect of losing their operational autonomy."

"Blackmail," Mikoto surmised, almost spitting the word. "You figured that Danzo would try to blackmail you with all of your past misdeeds. You sought to circumvent him by revealing all of your wrongdoings yourself."

All? Orochimaru scoffed to himself. Hardly. Even if I were so inclined, I quite literally don't have enough hours in the day to tally all the many misdeeds I executed in his miserable name. But the one that Danzo specifically said he would try to use as a collar? Oh yes. I havenothingbut time on my schedule to reveal that particular little piece of dirty laundry.

"Quite the insightful wife you have," Orochimaru remarked to Fugaku, before addressing Mikoto. "Yes, I suspected Lord Danzo would attempt to undermine my authority before I could undermine his. Telling you that he has a Sharingan – admittedly, thanks to my skills as a surgeon – turns the issue around by revealing one of the old spider's many trump cards."

"...You said you had two issues to discuss," Fugaku pointed out, his voice almost back to its usual steadiness. "What was the second?"

"The second is a topic I need to discuss as the Hokage," Orochimaru reminded him. "Did you have anything else to say about what I revealed to you? If not, I'll consider the matter closed and move on."

Fugaku clenched his jaw shut, the lines in his brow deepening over his eyes. He breathed in and out, once, then twice, the exhalations snorting out like an angry bull.

Mikoto set a hand on his forearm, and Fugaku closed his eyes.

When he opened those dread eyes again, the Uchiha's stoic calm had returned.

"The eye you implanted into Shimura Danzo's skull," Fugaku began, "whose was it? Where did it come from?"

"I have no idea," admitted Orochimaru, voice calmly reasonable and, for once, entirely honest, a novelty Orochimaru found amusing. "Danzo arrived at my laboratory with the eye in a vial full of saline solution. It was obvious to me that it was a Sharingan and thus had been sourced from one of your clan, but who the donor had been and when the eye had been extracted are beyond me.

"If I had to hazard a guess…?" Orochimaru offered the couple his splayed hands, to show how little he could offer them in this regard, "I would suspect that one of Lord Danzo's Root agents, embedded in Konoha's ranks, harvested the eye from a fallen Uchiha on some battlefield somewhere. He probably concealed the crime by spiriting the body away for further harvesting or by mutilating the face, depending on the condition of the sam-… the corpse."

"So it was not taken from a living Uchiha?" demanded Mikoto. "You're saying that Danzo doesn't have one of our kinsmen chained up somewhere to harvest his organs? Are you sure?"

"...I said nothing of the sort," Orochimaru replied, slightly annoyed. "I simply said that I have no idea where the eye came from, nor whose it had once been. It is entirely possible that Shimura Danzo has an entire cellblock full of kidnapped Konoha nin from whom he harvests organs; it would not be out of the man's character in the slightest."

In fact, I know for certain that he absolutely had a private reserve of captured enemynin at one point, because those were the usual subjects for my own experiments, but I wouldn't doubt that he's "encouraged" a few from the Leaf to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of the village.

"But," he concluded, "I cannot say for certain that any such cellblock exists, nor that one of your clan would be captive there, nor that any hypothetical captive would still be alive at this point. I implanted the eye years ago, and Danzo is not one overly fond of leaving loose ends hanging."

"I see." And now it was Fugaku's turn to place a hand on his wife's arm, quelling the angry response she was already opening her mouth to deliver. "Thank you for… providing me with this information. We can move on."

Not much to be done now and no use ranting about it now and potentially losing future leverage, Orochimaru decided, assessing Fugaku's probable thought process. Fine by me.

"Alright," nodded the Hokage. "On to other matters, then. Lord Fugaku, in your opinion as the Chief of Military Police and the designated leader of defense efforts in the case of an attack on the village, what is the minimum garrison required to act as a defense force for Konoha itself?"

"That would depend on who is attacking Konoha, and in what numbers." Fugaku crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, seeming to consider the question. "Also, how many reservists and allied forces are available for muster."

"Assume no allies," came the prompt reply, "and assume the current population of Konoha. You can freely draw from the students, the pensioners, and any convalescent capable of independent movement, as well as any inactive shinobi within the walls.

"As for the attackers…" Orochimaru drummed his fingers against the table, running through potential threats to the village, including bandits, surprise raids from Kumo, Kiri, or even Suna, and treachery on the part of nobles within the Land of Fire. "Three scenarios: A small number of well-disciplined ninja under a skilled leader, a medium force of ninja or samurai backed by ashigaru, and a medium force of poorly-disciplined rabble backed by ninja. The first force has skill with stealth, the second force initially appears to be friendly."

"I see…" Fugaku furrowed his brow, his anger fully displaced for the moment by professional interest in the question. "So, a strike team, an army likely warranting the command of a Captain-Minor, and a bandit corps led by missing-nin. Quite the range of threats, Lord Hokage."

"We live in a threatening world," the Hokage replied with the calm solidity he recalled from his predecessor. "We must prepare to meet it."

"The bandits would be the least worrisome," Mikoto said thoughtfully, cupping her cheek in her hand. "Even with backing by deserters and rogues, the majority of the force will almost certainly be underequipped and undertrained, and will certainly be poorly disciplined. Even if their ninja allies manage to breach a wall or seize a gate, the chaff would be minimally effective so long as the defenders maintain discipline."

"And so long as a clear route to retreat is left open," her husband added. "That sort of rat will flee the moment the battle shifts against them, provided we allow it. Once they start running, the battle's over. Provided, of course, that the missing-nin with them are only the usual genin wash-outs or low chuunin incompetents, I would require no more than twenty of my Military Police to hold Konoha, backed by the children returned from the war."

They aren't children, Orochimaru almost said, keenly remembering the day he stopped being a child himself. They areshinobiandkunoichiof Konoha. From the moment they tied thehitai-atearound their foreheads, they were children no longer.

It didn't seem like the reminder would contribute anything, though, and so instead he buried those dusty, irrelevant memories and simply beckoned for Fugaku to continue.

"The other two scenarios are more difficult to assess, Lord," Fugaku said, obliging the silent order. "Both include numerous unknowns, and per your scenario, both involve elements of a surprise attack. So, only active ninja would be on hand initially, blunting the response."

"So noted," the Hokage nodded, unmoved. It was far from the first time that any of the three had dealt with insufficient information when planning missions, after all. "Continue."

"For the strike team, assuming a force of five squads plus a jonin in command, I would want no fewer than forty to pin them in place while I handled the leader." Fugaku rapped his knuckles firmly on the tabletop, punctuating his point. "That said, if Mikoto was here too, and Kushina and at least a few dozen other family members and students I could scramble together, I would settle for an active garrison of twenty-five to thirty. That's the absolute limit, though."

A full five squads just to handle an equal number of attackers?Orochimaru was incredulous, though he didn't let a hint of his surprise touch his face. That seems far too conservative of an estimate, particularly if Kushina and Mikoto are both on hand! What, does he have so little faith in the advantage of the defender, in our familiarity with our own homes and in our capacity to draw up the population?

Orochimaru met Fugaku's eyes and found no sign of give in those black pebbles, nor any hint of a bluff. He was forced to contend with the unhappy fact that perhaps his subject expert hadn't taken complete leave of his senses, never a proposition that a leader receiving an unwelcome opinion liked to accept.

Still… Both women are recognized asjoninand Kushina has her prisoner and her contract to further supplement her strength. While Mikoto has been on the reserve registry since she married Fugaku, I have little doubt she's been keeping in practice despite her pregnancy.

So, is Fugaku underrating their strength, am I overestimating something, or is expecting objectivity from the man when his wife's well-being could be on the line asking too much?

If so, Orochimaru's eyes flicked to Mikoto, who had begun to mutely police up the tea service, a clear sign that his welcome in the Uchiha household would soon expire,that indicates that Mikoto is a weakness for Fugaku. I had thought that his son was his biggest concern, but if he is so worried about the welfare of his wife…

"As you say," the Hokage acknowledged, nodding respectfully at the Uchiha clanhead. "Although I would point out that my teacher is still in residence within Konoha, as are quite a few other ninja of the past generations. But, I digress. What would it take to defend Konoha against a medium-sized army backed by several aristocratic musters and hired ninja in your estimation, Lord Fugaku?"

"Everything Konoha could give," Fugaku immediately replied. "Holding the wall against a force of that size and sophistication would require more resources than the Uchiha Military Police can reasonably muster. In such cases, the entire village would be called to arms. Hopefully that would be enough to hold out until news reached the fronts."

A reasonable answer, conceded Orochimaru,although not exactly a helpful one.

"Very well," said the Hokage, drawing himself up and placing his hands upon the table. "Thank you, Lord Uchiha, for your comprehensive answer."

"All in service to Konoha," Fugaku replied shortly, bobbing his head in an abbreviated bow.

"I asked that question because I needed your honest assessment regarding how much of the Uchiha Clan could be sent into the field without endangering our home," explained the Hokage. "Based on your answer, I think I can cut to the chase and just say, 'all of it.'"

"All of it?" Mikoto raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "Who would take charge of the defense of Konoha in that case, Lord Hokage?"

For a moment, Orochimaru eyed the Uchiha, wondering if there was some punchline he was missing.

"I would," he carefully enunciated. "In case it had slipped your mind, a kage's hat comes with a great deal of paperwork attached. Regretfully, it is very unlikely that I will have the opportunity to leave the village any time in the near future. Which means that I can keep my Anbu busy by handing the usual duties of the Military Police over to their care."

Fugaku clenched his jaw at that, sudden tension on his features. Not quite the reaction Orochimaru had hoped for.

He probably suspects that I am trying to cut the Uchiha out of their domestic power.

It would be a decent maneuver, Orochimaru had to admit. Send all the Uchiha out on a wild goose chase, "temporarily" hand the law enforcement powers entrusted to the clan over to his own loyal forces, and then let time cement the "temporary" solution into a new status quo.

"In our last meeting," the Hokage began, explaining his logic, "I promised you that an Uchiha would soon occupy a high position in the continued war against our enemies, and this is the first opportunity I will extend.

"I intend to create a rapid response force, mobile enough to reach any point in the Land of Fire within three days and strong enough to annihilate any flanking or raiding maneuver conducted by the likes of our enemies, with a particular eye on the scum from Kiri.

"Naturally, Lord Uchiha, when I wondered who would serve as the head and shoulders of this proposed unit, I thought immediately of you and your clan. If, however, you fear that the resulting unit would be overly specialized, I could see my way clear to trading several squads of Anbu to your reactionary unit in exchange for the continuing services of a division of the Uchiha Military Police in maintaining order within Konohagakure. I could also approach Lord Hiashi and inquire if he would consent to lending his skills to your forces."

Which would mean that any attempt to freeze the Uchiha out of Konoha politics would also be interpreted as an assault on the Hyuuga by everybody in the village, most especially by Hyuuga Hiashi himself. And he would most certainly not stand for any such offense.

"Would you take this assignment?"

For a long moment, Uchiha Fugaku sat quietly, brooding. Behind him, Mikoto stood, her arms over her husband's shoulders and her hands placed protectively over his chest.

And she's still glaring at me, noted Orochimaru with mild annoyance. Really, I feel like I'm being more than generous here. I haven't offered any insult to her or her clan. And if she's still upset about that other thing, well… Danzo had an order and I didn't have a good reason not to carry it out.

Besides, it was an interesting challenge to align thedojutsuwith his chakra channels to guarantee functionality. I learned a great deal about how the Sharingan operates from it, so it was hardly a total loss.

"I would need to know more about the details of this Rapid Response Force, including its composition and remit," rumbled "Evil-Eye" Fugaku, who was just as stoic as ever, though Orochimaru could clearly see the interest veining through the dark stone of his eyes. "But… I wish to tentatively accept your offer, Lord Hokage."

The Uchiha leader paused, and Orochimaru opened his mouth to reply, thinking he was done. But then, looking like he was about to swallow his own tongue, Fugaku added, "On behalf of my clan… I thank you for this opportunity to serve my village."

"Of course," said Orochimaru, rising to his feet under Mikoto's baleful gaze. "Anything for Konoha, after all."