By seven o'clock in the morning, Iruka has finished preparing his lessons for the day. The day's planning is on the blackboard, his books are open on the relevant pages and lying on his desk, his students' homework is lying in a box on the floor.

Iruka has finished his preparations, but it'll be another hour before his students are here. Which means he has plenty of time to visit Naruto.

Yesterday's visit had occupied his thoughts for the entire rest of the evening, and he'd actually lost some sleep over it. His sudden sympathy towards Naruto had rattled him quite a bit. The more he thinks about it, the more he feels like it was never fair to hate the kid in the first place. Naruto sure hasn't made it easy to like him, but Iruka's dislike towards him doesn't actually have much to do with the Nine-Tails' presence. The Nine-Tails is fully unrelated to Naruto tearing out pages of his textbooks or shoving mud down the backs of people's shirts.

All of that is to say… If Iruka ignores the fact that Naruto has the Nine-Tails sealed within him… Then Naruto actually reminds Iruka a lot of himself at that age.

Which is a complicated idea. But it's true. Iruka used to be an annoying loud-mouthed lonely little brat like Naruto. The one thing that straightened him out was the Hokage's faith in him, but Naruto clearly doesn't connect with him like Iruka did. Iruka doesn't know where he himself would've ended up without someone who helped him. He doesn't want to imagine where Naruto will end up without someone helping him.

So, well. Now that he's prepared his lessons, Iruka'll be off to Naruto's apartment to make sure he doesn't perish. He hopes the kid likes mediocre miso soup, because Iruka made far too damn much of it and it's all for him.

He's busy pulling his backpack onto his back – the multiple jars filled with miso soup inside his backpack make it pretty heavy – when there's a knock on the door to his classroom. Quirking an eyebrow, Iruka sets his backpack back down on the floor. Last time he checked, he was alone in the building. Did one of his colleagues start their day early as well? Maybe a student?

He walks over and opens the door – revealing not one of his colleagues or students, but instead an old man and an ANBU shinobi.

"Good morning, Iruka-sensei," the old man says. "I was hoping to find you here. Do you have a moment?"

"Danzou-san." The greeting comes out flat. It catches Iruka off guard to suddenly see Danzou in his classroom – the man never seems to go outside. Iruka has never spoken to him, though he knows that he used to be politically powerful and that Hiruzen doesn't seem to like him much. Iruka quickly shakes himself and tries to sound less blatantly impolite. "What's, uh, what's this about?"

Danzou smiles at him. It's not a warm smile. "I wanted to ask you some questions."

"Is it urgent?" Iruka asks, shifting on his feet. "I was just about to…" …to go and visit Naruto, was how he'd planned to finish that sentence, but something tells him it's wiser to keep that to himself. "Never mind, actually. Come in."

Danzou sits down on Iruka's desk chair, resting his hand on his cane. He looks Iruka up and down, as though judging his worth. Iruka is suddenly quite aware that he's about fifty years younger than Danzou is. He doesn't like that feeling very much.

"What did you want to ask me?" Iruka asks. He finds himself instinctively puffing out his chest in an attempt to seem more mature. It's a childish thing to do. In the corner of his eye, he sees that the ANBU is closing the blinds in front of the windows.

"I hoped you would be able to shed some light on a mysterious occurrence we encountered," Danzou replies, forcing Iruka's attention back to him. "You see, this morning, one of my ANBU reported back from an out-of-village S-rank." He nods his chin towards the ANBU, who has returned to his side. "I discovered that her memory had been altered with genjutsu."

He pauses, as though expecting a reaction from Iruka. Iruka isn't sure what kind of reaction he's expecting. "That sounds unpleasant," he replies belatedly, not quite managing the sympathetic tone he aimed for. "If you've come to request my help with undoing the genjutsu, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong person. I'm not an expert in the field-"

Danzou shakes his head. "I have already managed to undo the genjutsu myself. The reason we have come to you, is because my ANBU tells me that the person who cast the genjutsu wore your face."

Iruka can feel the ANBU's eyes on him, staring from behind her mask. Panic rises within his chest – that specific type of panic he always gets whenever he's accused of something he didn't do. He hadn't been in this situation since he was a kid, and the feeling makes him feel suddenly very small.

"There's got to be a mistake," he starts, but Danzou holds up his hand, cutting him off.

"I am not accusing you of putting her under genjutsu," he says calmly. "The genjutsu was cast by a Sharingan. What I wanted to ask you, is whether you have recently been in contact with someone who bears the Sharingan. If we knew of a Sharingan user who knows your face, that would help us understand who attacked my ANBU."

Iruka is fairly sure Danzou is screwing with his emotions – startling him, then reassuring him again – on purpose, to show his power over him. It's difficult to stay polite after that realization. "I don't know anyone who has the Sharingan," he replies. "Nobody who's alive, anyway."

"I understand that Uchiha Sasuke is one of your students."

"He hasn't awakened his Sharingan yet. If that answers your question."

"It does not," Danzou says with a little smile. It's not a hostile expression, but the lack of hostility somehow makes it more offputting. "But that's okay. If my suspicion is correct, you wouldn't remember meeting the Sharingan user, anyway."

Iruka's polite smile is a little strained; he's starting to get really tired of Danzou making no sense. "I'm sorry," he says, though he's not sorry, "I'm afraid I don't follow."

"You don't need to. If I'm correct, I shall explain it to you." He beckons Iruka closer. "Step over here, would you?"

Iruka hesitates, but he sees the subtle shift in the ANBU's stance and he decides not to hesitate for too long. He moves closer to Danzou, awkwardly.

Danzou, meanwhile, loosens the bandages around his right eye. Iruka doesn't realize he's watching nervously until Danzou glances up at him and asks, "Has nobody taught you that it is impolite to stare at your elders?"

"Sorry, sir." Reprimanded like a child in his own classroom. Iruka looks away, silently fuming. He continues watching from the corner of his eye, both as an act of rebellion and out of curiosity.

Danzou removes the bandages from his face. What he reveals is a Sharingan, embedded in the scarred right half of his face. Iruka only barely keeps himself from reeling back in surprise. He doesn't have the time to fully figure out why, but the sight of the red eye fills him with dread.

Iruka is sure he's being impolite in some way by reacting with poorly-hidden shock, but Danzou doesn't seem to pay that any mind. Instead, he hums thoughtfully and leans forward, eyes darting across Iruka. Iruka is pretty certain he's examining his chakra signature. It makes him feel a whole new level of scrutinized.

"Just as I thought," Danzou murmurs. "A very powerful genjutsu has been cast on you. Your memory has been altered, just as my ANBU's was. Such a genjutsu could have only been cast by a Sharingan user."

Iruka's eyebrows shoot up. "Excuse me?" he asks. "When-?"

"It must have happened some time ago," Danzou says. "I will try to undo the genjutsu – that will give you back the memory of what happened." Danzou's Sharingan finds Iruka's gaze. "Hold still, and do not break eye contact."

The red eye spins suddenly, and a sharp ache shoots through Iruka's skull, a sensation similar to hitting his head. His vision abruptly goes white.

In the pale nothingness, a memory is dragged from the depths of his mind: pouring rain, the light of his flashlight, the smell of mud and old blood. He remembers crawling down a narrow tunnel in the middle of the woods, that night he was looking for the missing-nin that killed those two jounin. That night he and his fellow teachers searched for hours in the storm and found no sign of the missing-nin at all.

Except… he did find something. Now, he recalls how he reached the end of the tunnel and found Kakashi of the Sharingan, infamous Konoha missing-nin.

And he recalls finding Naruto there with him. Naruto, who tried to defend the missing-nin. Naruto, who later sent him back to that same hole in the ground to feed his dog-

Iruka's mind connects the dots fast. The dog-

"Well?" Danzou's voice pulls him from his head. He has closed his Sharingan. Iruka blinks forcefully, raising a hand to rub at his aching head. "What do you remember?"

Adrenaline flows through Iruka's veins. Should he lie? If he told the truth, the whole truth, the consequences for Naruto would be very severe. He'd decided he wouldn't let Naruto go to jail. How far is he willing to go for that?

"Excuse me," he mumbles, trying desperately to buy himself some more time to think. He screws his eyes shut and grinds his hand against his temple, drawing from years of experience of faking illnesses to get out of boring classes as a kid. "Bit of a headache."

"I understand that," Danzou replies, tone neutral. "I asked you a question, boy."

The strongly-implied annoyance in Danzou's voice is the last push Iruka needs to not give this old man the damn satisfaction. Iruka will think up a punishment for Naruto himself. Konoha has no business applying its laws to a ten-year-old – a reckless disobedient little moron of a ten-year-old, admittedly, but a ten-year-old regardless. A kid who likely doesn't have the slightest idea of the trouble he's gotten himself into. Konoha has no business sending said kid to jail.

Iruka opens his mouth to speak – intending to only tell Danzou about Kakashi of the Sharingan – but, inexplicably, Danzou holds up his hand to cut him off.

"Don't speak," he says coldly. "You have wasted enough of my time."

He makes an almost-unnoticeable head movement at the ANBU. The next moment, the ANBU is already standing behind Iruka, twisting his arms onto his back.

Iruka shouts, despite the fact that no one will hear him. He thrashes in the ANBU's grip, trying to wrestle himself loose or push her backwards or anything, really. She is far stronger than he is. He manages a single satisfying kick against her shin before she forces him onto his knees.

He's directly within Danzou's line of sight now, unable to move. Reflexively, he squeezes his eyes shut – but calloused fingers force one of his eyes open.

A red eye stares directly into his, and the next moment, he's talking. He can't explain the feeling, but all of his distrust towards Danzou has suddenly disappeared. He can't remember why he hadn't trusted him earlier, hadn't told him the truth earlier.

"The person who used genjutsu on me was Kakashi of the Sharingan," he says, his voice sounding cheerful to his own ears. "I stumbled across him on October 20th, when I was looking for the missing-nin who killed the two jounin. Uzumaki Naruto-"

He has the inexplicable urge to bite his tongue, to keep himself from talking, and he briefly considers giving in to the urge before continuing anyway.

"Uzumaki Naruto was with him. Naruto was helping him."

Danzou frowns at him, thoughtful. "You appear sure of the Jinchuuriki's intentions. How do you know?"

"Well, you see, to the outside world, Kakashi has been posing as a dog. I never knew Naruto was taking care of a missing-nin, but I did know that he was taking care of a dog." He huffs an exasperated laugh. "I'm not even surprised, at this point. Naruto somehow always gets himself into even worse trouble than I could've imagined-"

"That is not relevant," Danzou cuts him off, and Iruka snaps his mouth shut. "Tell me what you know about Hatake Kakashi. Why did he use genjutsu on two Konoha shinobi? What is he planning?"

Iruka clears his throat, briefly distracted. That headache from earlier has returned, and worse than before. "I don't know."

"Is he a threat to Konoha?" Danzou demands.

"I don't know," Iruka replies, blinking against the blurring of his vision. His head is killing him. "I mean, he can't be that big of a threat- I'm pretty sure he's injured- And the Hokage seems to know about him and isn't doing very much to get rid of him-"

He cuts himself off with a shudder – he's really cold all of a sudden. His tongue feels numb in his mouth.

Danzou grabs his chin and forces his head upright; Iruka hadn't noticed he'd been slumping forwards. "Is that all you know?" he asks. "If you know something else, you must tell me now."

Iruka's jaw clamps shut tightly at that – he does know more, but he shouldn't say it. He can't remember why he shouldn't say it. He just knows it's important to keep his mouth shut.

But Danzou leans forwards and stares into his eyes with that Sharingan – the only thing in Iruka's vision that isn't blurry – and the words are pulled from Iruka's mouth anyway.

"He's in Naruto's apartment," he blurts out, and he immediately sags in the ANBU's grip, his head pounding and his vision flashing white.

Danzou closes his right eye and gets up from Iruka's desk chair. Iruka can't see him clearly, but he can feel Danzou's gaze on him. "I suppose that was too much for him," Danzou says to the ANBU, his tone disinterested. "Well, no matter. I know what I need to know. Let's go."

"What do we do with him, sir?" the ANBU asks. "Shall I take him to the hospital?"

"His fellow teachers will find him in due time," Danzou replies, his tone impatient. "Let them handle it. If he's right and Hiruzen is involved in this, then he mustn't find out that we are investigating Hatake. We should avoid drawing attention to ourselves."

The ANBU lowers Iruka to the floor at that, surprisingly carefully considering the way she'd manhandled him before. The room tilts dangerously around him at the movement. Iruka squeezes his eyes shut against the sudden dizziness.

When he opens his eyes again, Danzou and the ANBU are gone. They really just left him there, lying on the floor in his own damn classroom. He'd like to be annoyed about the sheer disrespect of it all, but there's so much else going on inside his head that he can't even muster up the emotion.

Danzou knows what Naruto did. Because Iruka told him.

The kid is going to jail – possibly even get caught in the crossfire when Danzou inevitably sends for Kakashi to be detained – and there's nothing Iruka can do to set it right. Judging by the blinding pain in his head, the loss of control over his body, and the ANBU mentioning taking him to the hospital, Iruka suspects the interrogation technique Danzou used overwhelmed his brain somehow. He's not sure how long he'll be out of commission for, but he really can't imagine that he'll be well enough to sprint out of here in time to prevent Naruto's arrest.

He also suspects, and this is even more alarming, that he won't remember his and Danzou's conversation for much longer. Danzou is trying to be sneaky, after all, so Iruka assumes he didn't just overlook the fact that Iruka could snitch on him. Whatever technique it is that he used on him, it'll probably prevent Iruka from telling on him to the Hokage.

A couple of weeks ago, Iruka would have been okay with this. It's not really any of his business what Naruto does in his spare time, anyway. The less he's involved with Naruto's trouble, the better.

But, now, regardless of everything he'd thought about Naruto in the past-

Iruka decides that he has to do something to help.

He rolls himself onto his stomach and drags himself over to the blackboard. Each shaky movement worsens his piercing headache, but he makes it. Out of breath, he sits up on his knees, grabbing for the chalk.

As his vision darkens, he scribbles out a message on the blackboard in lopsided characters:

Tell Hiruzen:

Danzou knows about dog

Naruto is innocent

Keep Naruto sa f e

The chalk falls from his fingers, and that is the only warning he gets before he loses consciousness.

In the empty staff room in the empty Academy building, Danzou sits on a chair, thoughtfully drumming his fingers against the handle of his cane. This morning has turned out quite a bit more interesting than he had anticipated. More tiring, too. It has been some time since he last used his Sharingan this much.

His ROOT agent has occupied herself with closing the blinds in front of the windows and checking for cameras. She returns to him quickly. "All clear, sir," she says, and Danzou acknowledges her with a nod. "What are your orders? Shall I go back to headquarters and assemble a team to go after Hatake?"

"It is not that cut and dry," Danzou replies. She bows her head. "Hiruzen, in his ever-lasting incomprehensibility, has decided he does not want Hatake dead. No matter what actions we take towards Hatake, we must keep our own hands clean."

Hiruzen has been silently tolerating the continuing existence of ROOT since the Uchiha Incident, provided that ROOT's actions are for the good of the village. Danzou is not certain whether Hiruzen would consider Hatake's death a good thing.

Hiruzen and his eternal subjectivity, his passiveness… There is a missing-nin loose in Konoha. A missing-nin who murdered two of their best jounin. A missing-nin who, if that Iruka boy is correct, has been hiding in the Nine-Tails' Jinchuuriki's apartment. He may have been working on gaining the Jinchuuriki's trust for the past weeks, possibly with genjutsu. He could be planning who-knows-what with their village's most powerful weapon.

At any rate, there is no doubt that Hatake's intentions are malicious. The fact that he is a former comrade does not change that, though Hiruzen likely doesn't see it that way. Because he is sentimental. Because he clings to a decade-old memory of a promising, troubled shinobi and refuses to see that the shinobi has grown up into an enemy.

If Danzou gives the order to kill Hatake, Hiruzen will react as though Danzou has killed a friend. And, fiercely protective of his friends as Hiruzen is, he would not let Danzou get away with that. He could take away what little power Danzou has left.

Danzou does not like taking that chance. He must find someone else to take the blame. Someone who could have reasonably acted independently, so that there is no trace of ROOT's involvement. Someone who has a powerful enough motive to fulfill their task without the need for genjutsu – because genjutsu could be traced back to Danzou, could pose a risk to him. Someone skilled, yet disposable, so that little harm will be done to Konoha's shinobi forces if Hatake ends up killing this person.

"The two jounin that were killed by Hatake," Danzou says, and his ROOT agent snaps to attention. "Their brother is an experienced shinobi whose anger Hiruzen has been trying desperately to soothe. Find him and offer him a chance at revenge. Tell him what Iruka told us."

She nods. "I assume I should hide my identity?"

"Naturally," Danzou replies. She uses a henge to disguise herself as a chuunin, unrecognizable as one of Danzou's agents. "Tell the brother to assemble a team," he continues, "but have him be quick and quiet about it. I want Hatake dead before the morning is over. They can keep his corpse after they are done; I do not need his bounty. No matter the circumstances, though, they must bring me his left eye."

His agent nods again, and Danzou waves his hand, dismissing her. She leaves with a Body-Flicker.

His plan has been set in motion, and the odds seem in his favor. Danzou has had a fair amount of success with letting others do work for him. And Hatake is injured on top of that. This should be an easy win, and if it's not, Danzou will set up a new plan with whatever new information he gains from their loss.

Perhaps, if the plan works, Danzou will reveal himself as the mastermind behind it all. Hatake Kakashi will be dead, the Jinchuuriki will have been rescued from whatever ghastly plans Hatake had, and Konoha can leave the murder of two good jounin in the past, all thanks to him. And Hiruzen will be exposed as the loon who allowed a missing-nin to roam free in the middle of their village. Perhaps then, their village will see that Hiruzen is just nothing but an old kook and dethrone him like they should have done years ago.

Well, one can dream. Danzou pushes himself to his feet, a small smile of anticipation pulling at one corner of his mouth.

He quite looks forward to Hatake Kakashi's death.