Chapter 28
Chapter 28
Sakura kept herself hidden as she watched the Uchiha compound with her sharingan active behind her armored tiger mask. She wasn’t under her henge, the difference in height wouldn’t normally be an issue but tonight she had to be at her best so her natural height it was. For the last three days nothing had happened but she knew it would be tonight, after all every light in the district was on. All of the Uchiha were in the village.
‘We can’t call it in until things start.’ Inner supplied bitterly and Sakura suppressed the urge to growl. She could tell something was off. The lights of the district twinkled slightly, many of the Uchiha homes relying on seals since the district had limited electricity. It wasn’t fair, how they’d been shoved away from the village, forced to live as outcasts and barred from the graveyard were their ancestors rested. The ghetto was an insult meant to offend and Sakura’s chakra burned in her core as she kept it carefully suppressed.
The smell of blood wafted over her nose and Sakura’s gaze scanned the buildings before her. Her sharingan couldn’t see any illusions but if she was up against another sharingan, and if they were stronger then her, they’d be able to fool her eyes.
“Kuchiyose no jutsu,” Sakura whispered and pressed her hand to a nearby branch. She wasted no chakra and not even a cloud of smoke accompanied the arrival of a white tiger the size of a warhorse as Sakura darted forward. The summons didn’t question her, simply following in her tribe’s chosen empress as Sakura vaulted over the ghetto’s perimeter wall, the distinct feeling of genjutsu washing over her.
“Kai,” Inner and Outer muttered in unison, Sakura’s chakra ripping apart the genjutsu with pinpoint precision. Her tiger landed behind her and Sakura found herself in the center of a massacre. Bodies littered the streets and the smell of burning flesh and steaming entrails assaulted her nose. Immediately, she pulsed her chakra into her ANBU tattoo, alerting Tsukiko the attack was on.
A thunderous roar resounded over the bloody ghetto and Sakura turned just in time to see her tiger summons engage a masked man. The tiger’s claws ripped through the man, only to come away clean. Lightning crackled through fur and blinding light bathed the street in white blue.
“Empress, intercept Itachi I will hold this one.” The tiger rumbled and Sakura shot the man a look. His chakra was a mess, laughing and crying, happy and miserable. It was also drenched in a hatred so black that it sent shivers of fear down Sakura’s spine. She didn’t argue, the tiger was stronger then she was so it only made sense she’d face down the weaker threat.
Without a word, Sakura left, thunder, lightning and roars fading away as she crossed the Uchiha district at high speed. Itachi was at his home or rather the clan leader’s home, though there were no other chakra inside the building. The confined corridors of the home prevented her from drawing her scythe but Sakura still had her wakizashi and quickly drew it, chakra igniting along the blade and compressed as dense as she could manage. Izumi was better then her at this technique but the chakra conductive metal metal of her sword made up for Sakura’s inexperience.
Pushing open a door into the home’s main sitting room, Sakura saw Itachi standing over two corpses. Uchiha Fugaku and his wife Mikoto both lay face down, bleeding from strikes to the back of the neck. They were clean kills, executions and it was painfully obvious the two parents hadn’t fought back, unwilling to harm their child. Fire boiled through Sakura’s veins, her sharingan burning in her eyes as she met Itachi’s gaze, her mask the only thing hiding her rage.
“Itachi, what have you done? Is it the genjutsu? Kotoamatsukami?” Sakura demanded and stepped forward, her foot shattering the wooden floor beneath her heel. She hadn’t kept up with Tsunade’s strength training and while her chakra reinforcement allowed her to be far stronger then any ordinary child, she couldn’t quite manage the sheer force she had during the chunin exams. A mistake, she’d been too afraid of the pain and now she was under equipped for the fight she was facing.
“I decided to eliminate them. The politicians were taking too long, they were going to start a civil war.” Itachi’s voice was dull, not quite dead but it was a near thing. His chakra was subdued, nearly blank and Sakura’s rage burned white hot. She knew what a doll soldier looked like and Danzo had the gall to get his hands on her family. Tiny fingers shook as they gripped the hilt of her wakizashi, indents forming in the leather and wood underneath due to the sheer force of her hold.
“You know I don’t believe that.” Sakura said softly, her anger turning the world crystal clear. She just had to crush Itachi, beat him down and bring him back to his senses. Then she would kill the Hokage, the council of elders and anyone else involved in this mess. “Itachi, I’m going to break you.”
“You can’t manage it.” Itachi replied, coolly, his calm confidence standing in stark contrast to Sakura’s bone shattering wrath. The two Uchiha locked eyes, Sakura’s sharingan hidden by her mask while the heir that had been turned against his clan stood with his face uncovered, but his mind shrouded by illusion.
Sakura could hear her heart thundering away in her ears as she pushed her chakra deep into her muscles and bones, threaded it through her ligaments and ran it along each and every neuron. Itachi was stronger then her on his worst days by simple virtue of age. They both trained hard, but Itachi had been training longer, had more experience and he was an Uchiha by blood providing him deeper chakra reserves. The pair both sparred with the same people in the modern age and while Sakura had the ancient Uchiha, as the heir to the clan Itachi surely knew everything she was taught. In short, there was no way she should win this and yet Sakura would not back down.
The clouds that had been shrouding the moon pulled back, silver light spilling in through the window and illuminating the blood splattered room, raising the curtain on the battle. Sakura shot forward, her wakizashi glowing emerald with her chakra while Itachi’s suddenly blazed white. Their swords met and Sakura felt her chakra meet Itachi’s before his slid right through, severing her blade. Sakura immediately flickered, leaving an after-image clone behind which twisted her sword before vanishing, binding Itachi’s blade as he cut through it.
Kicking off the ceiling, Sakura came down on Itachi, intent on driving her fist into his skull and knocking him out quickly. Itachi leaned backwards, his sword slipping from his grip as he spun. Sakura touched down and substituted with Mikoto’s corpse as Itachi’s foot rocketed towards her face. Neither combatant reacted as the dead woman hurtled out the screen door onto the street, both far too focused on taking down the other prodigy.
“You’re fast,” Itachi noted, his voice colder then before. He wasn’t nearly as unaffected by Sakura’s disrespectful use of his mother and for a moment she felt the flames within his chakra before something crushed them down and stamped them out.
“Itachi please, it’s not too late. Sasuke is still at academy, they’re doing night time target practice. There are others still alive in the compound, Izumi is in the Senju-” Sakura was cut off as Itachi reached into his pocket and pulled out a carefully tied knot of hair. Icy fear replaced Sakura’s rage momentarily as she took a careless step forward. “No, Itachi did you?”
“Konoha’s roots have need of her. She is alive.” Itachi’s chakra burned for a moment, his hand trembling briefly before he placed the hair back in his holster. Sakura didn’t attack him, unwilling to as he fought against the effects of Kotoamatsukami. “You will be joining her.” Itachi followed his words to Sakura, arriving a moment after the sound graced her ears. She ducked his punch and caught his low kick with her foot, chakra keeping her attached to the ground even as her bones and muscles screamed under the force of Itachi’s blow.
A kunai slid from the teen’s sleeve and Sakura watched in the frozen world of the sharingan as it carved a line across the skin of her shoulder, narrowly missing the muscle. Gathering her chakra in her core, Sakura spun, mimicking Hawk’s signature defensive move and a spinning dome of chakra erupted from her body. Fugaku’s corpse was hurled through a nearby window even as the floor was torn to shreds, the tatami mattes coming apart in a cloud of dust and grinding the wood beneath to dust.
Sakura’s fingers flew through the seals for her signature jutsu. She might not be an Uchiha by blood, her chakra might be of earth and water but her soul was fire. A ball of deep blue flames erupted from Sakura’s mouth, bathing the room in scalding heat and blinding light. Sakura felt Itachi’s chakra spike as he met her attack head on with a fireball of his own, burning white hot but easily twice the size of what Sakura had managed. The two attacks collided with a deafening boom and flames spilled outwards, igniting the home and burning with a ferocity that only chakra enhancement could create.
Both shinobi were forced to substitute, debris being thrown into the inferno in their stead as they touched down on the street outside the main house. The home burned like a torch, orange and gold flames creating pools of brightness amid the darkness of night. Sakura watched Itachi, she could tell his chakra was low, because even though he’d had help, taking down the entire Uchiha clan wasn’t easy. Reaching for her scythe, Sakura drew it off her back, gripping the weapon as Itachi pulled out a storage scroll and summoned a fresh katana.
“You’re strong, Konoha will need that strength once I am gone, however you lack discipline. With your skills you could have escaped me but instead you attacked.” With every word, Itachi’s chakra dulled then burned, as if he was fighting himself. Doom hung in the air between them and Sakura tried to hide the fear suddenly bubbling up in her chest, threatening to steal what little breath she had left. She’d never been so visibly outmatched in a fight, not since her very first battle. The Uchiha never sent her to the front lines and guarded both her and Madara zealously during battle. In the present, Bear and Shisui had ensured she had never been in a situation she couldn’t handle during her tenure in ANBU.
“Reinforcements are coming,” Sakura said, voice shaking slightly. Itachi didn’t react, instead his chakra sharpened and she braced herself.
“Not in time.” Itachi’s words were short and concise. His movements and slash even more so. In an instant, he crossed the gap between them, his blade slicing through the wood of Sakura’s scythe. The tip dug into her mask, parting the porcelain armor with ease thanks to the chakra burning along its edge. Sakura felt steel ghost over her skin, opening up the thinnest of paper cuts as the mask began to fall away. Inner yanked her chakra away from her eyes, not willing to risk their life on the chance that Itachi wouldn’t consider her an Uchiha if he saw their sharingan.
“Tsukuyomi,” Sakura felt the world fall away as Itachi spoke the name of his jutsu. Her limbs were suddenly restrained, her armor gone and the Uchiha compound replaced by black concrete walls and darkened tunnels. Angry red light spilled from seals overhead, creating a twisted rendition of reality easily recognizable as a genjutsu.
“Kai,” Sakura pulsed her chakra and yet the illusion held. The world suddenly snapped into focus as a blank masked ANBU walked into view. He towered over her and Sakura struggled at her restraints as she pulsed her chakra a second time without any change.
“Recruit, you will refer to me as Instructor. When I give you an order, if you understand it you will say orders understood and accepted. If you do not understand it, you will say orders unclear, requesting clarification. No other answers are acceptable, is that understood?” The masked man’s voice was chillingly blank and Sakura knew what she was seeing.
This was the process Itachi must have went through, Shisui to, along with every other victim of Shimura Danzo. They had their emotions beaten out of them through a combination of physical conditioning, mental torture, genjutsu and eventually even self inflicted genjutsu that removed their sense of self. The process was so thorough it reached their very chakra.
“Kai! Kai! Kai!” Sakura screamed, each pulse stronger then the last but none of them having any effect on the genjutsu.
“Incorrect, 012601, prepare yourself for discipline.” The Root instructor droned and Sakura screamed as he drove a blade through her shoulder. A second blade was thrust into her stomach followed by a third. “You will be disciplined every time you fail to comply.”
Sakura felt the illusion shake as she collapsed onto the ground, her restraints vanishing as she bled out. Inner was fighting back, hammering away at the genjutsu but she was just too weak. Itachi was five years their senior and was a true prodigy. He was born with the blessings of a powerful chakra pool, training from the moment he could walk and he was every bit as smart as she was. Worse, he knew how to use his kekkei genkai while the knowledge of the Hagoromo and Inner were utterly lost in this time period.
“Recruit, on your feet. Failure to comply will result in discipline.” The instructor ordered and Sakura snarled, jumping up and pulling her arm back. If this had been reality, she might have had a chance but this was Itachi’s world and as a sword materialized form thin air and drove through her shoulder, she spun onto her back right as Inner slammed another fist into the illusion. Momentarily Sakura saw a red sky with a black moon overhead, Shisui’s mangekyo spinning lazily at its heart, then she hit the ground and screamed as more blades pinned her to the cold floor.
***
Naori touched down in the Uchiha compound at the tip of the spear. Thunder and lightning mixed with the growl of katon and the roars of a white tiger summons. A man wearing an orange mask spun out of the way of the tiger, the eye hole of his mask falling on Naori and a choking killing intent filled the air. Bearing her teeth instinctively, Naori stared the man down, her Mizu heritage on full display.
“Beast, what are you doing in Konoha? It is quite far from the ocean where your filth belong.” A deep voice came from the man and his chakra was stifling. It was a vast ocean and utterly wrong. The tiger he’d been facing was covered in blood and upon seeing Naori quickly dismissed itself, having only stayed out of sheer loyalty to her pink haired student. Faced with all of this, Naori didn’t hesitate, her eyes spun into their mangekyo form and her chakra immediately came to life.
“Kagu-tsuchi,” was Naori’s curt answer as butterflies of sapphire blue light fluttered into existence around her, dark swirls of black outlining the edges of their wings and bodies. The masked man let out a deep chuckle as he saw the mangekyo swirling in her eyes and Naori felt his chakra intensify.
“Not just a beast but a doujutsu thief as well, which member of your clan did to kill for those eyes?” The man asked, taking a step forward even as Naori’s chakra pulsed out the ANBU sos signal, calling in reinforcements.
“Is that why you’re here?” Naori forced herself to be level headed. She had never liked the Uchiha, was never welcome among their number but even if she didn’t consider them family seeing the clan murdered was a bridge too far. She’d grown up in Mizu no Kuni during the second and third wars. She’d seen hell time and time again. Konoha had been far more peaceful, the blood kept away from its walls and streets with only the Kyubi ever breaching its defenses. Clearly, that was no longer the case.
“Of course not, I have no need for your clan’s eyes.” The man replied and Naori braced herself for battle. She could feel the tension building in the air and saw the moment her foe seemed to distort. Chakra swirled into existence behind her and only a timely substitution saved her life as he cut through the front door she’d switched places with.
What followed was the hardest battle of her life as the masked man came after her. He was stronger, faster, more precise and clearly more experienced then she was. Naori fought with all the fury of the isles and all the fire of the Uchiha and yet every jutsu, every slash and trick, all of it was meaningless against her foe. Fortunately, she was only the lead member of her squad and the other members soon reached the battle, turning the impossible 1 v 1 into a full on melee.
More ANBU arrived a minute later and Naori knew eventually their foe would exhaust himself. The man swept his eyes over the burning ruins and then met her gaze.
“It seems you’ll survive the night,” he drawled before space twisted around him. Naori stretched her senses out and pulsed her chakra just in case but the street remained silent. A young ANBU with shoulder length purple hair in the exact same shade as Naori’s made a quick series of hand seals then let out an audible sigh of relief.
“He’s gone,” Uzuki Yugao announced, her voice shaking slightly as relief spread through the three teams of ANBU the man had ended up fighting. The fact that none of them had even put a scratch on him spoke of exactly how unreal his skill had been.
“Move out and secure the district. Stay together and don’t separate. Sensors keep an eye out for that chakra signature. I’ll alert the barrier teams of the threat.” Hatake Kakashi’s distinctive voice pushed any further thoughts from Naori’s mind and she quickly moved to obey. Discovering the identity of the masked man could wait. Her student was in this hell somewhere and she needed her help.
***
Smoke stung Sasuke’s eyes as he ran through the streets. Fires illuminated the carnage, casting the corpses of his clan in stark relief against the darkness of the night. Ahead of him, he could see his home burning, smoke rising high into the heavens above and the clang of steel on steel ringing in his ears. In the distance, several explosions consumed an entire block of homes, debris raining down across the district as new flames began to burn, spreading from house to house and steadily consuming the ghetto.
‘Father, mother, brother!’ Sasuke rounded the corner and froze as he saw Itachi standing in front of a very familiar pink haired girl. The two had their eyes locked and Itachi slowly shifted to face Sasuke as Sakura wobbled and fell to her knees. Blood splattered Itachi’s form, already mostly dry and flaking off the gray armor of his ANBU flak jacket.
“Aniki? What’s going on?” Sasuke asked, taking a step forward and then freezing when the battered remains of his mother’s corpse came into view. Blood had congealed in her hair, turning it into a reddish brown mess and her face was bruised from being hurled clear of the home. The image burned itself into Sasuke’s mind as he took in a shuddering breath, tears stinging at his eyes.
“Foolish little brother,” Itachi took a step forward, ignoring Sakura as she collapsed, face slamming into the dirt road and eyes wide open yet unseeing. “Can’t you tell?”
“Everyone, everyone’s dead aniki what happened?” Sasuke could feel his body shaking and sweat caused his clothes to cling to his form. The flames burned at his skin, the radiant heat so intense it hurt but Sasuke couldn’t move away from them, frozen in place as he saw embers settling into his father’s clothes. Uchiha Fugaku was laying face down just outside the kitchen window, smoke slowly beginning to rise from his police uniform.
“I killed them,” Itachi stated and Sasuke saw Sakura twitch. The boy’s breath rattled in his chest as he shook his head, for the first time in his life terrified of his older brother.
“Why?” Sasuke’s mind couldn’t take in what he was seeing. The roar of flames and the smell of burning wood was all consuming, the visual of Itachi’s face half shrouded in shadow and utterly covered in blood had an air of unreality to it. As if he had stepped into a nightmare.
“To test my capacity,” Itachi answered and took another lazy step forward. His blade burned with chakra and Sasuke took another step back, his heart pounding painfully in his chest. Itachi was thoroughly between Sasuke and Sakura now. The girl’s arm twitched again, just long enough to pull Sasuke’s attention away as Itachi’s eyes began to spin. Shuriken whizzed through the air and Itachi turned, blocking the barrage of steel.
“Get away from him,” Sakura’s growl was inhuman as she replaced one of the shuriken, landing just in front of Sasuke as the rest of the steel stars sank into the hard packed dirt road. Sasuke found his vision of Itachi cut off, his legs having failed him as killing intent choked the breath from his lungs. From this close even though he wasn’t a sensor, Sasuke could feel Sakura’s chakra crushing down on him and baying for blood.
***
Inner was barely standing as she glared down Itachi. Outer had crumpled into a ball within the depths of their mind, unconscious and still suffering from the hell Itachi had put her through. What she would be like when she next awoke, Inner couldn’t say but she knew Outer would forever regret not helping Sasuke, so she stood between the boy and his own brother, broken sword in one hand, kunai in the other.
“You’re not Sakura,” Itachi observed quietly as Inner snarled, baring her fangs at the man who’d dared to harm her Outer. Even if he was under the effects of Kotoamatsukami, Inner wasn’t sure she’d ever forgive Uchiha Itachi for this. The man had butchered her clan, her people, tortured her Outer and turned his blade against Izumi. It was too much, she hated him with every fiber of her being even if she knew he was a victim.
“I’m Sakura,” Inner spoke slowly, unused to having a physical mouth or a body for that matter. Skin felt strange, her chakra was off and the world looked different then it did from the depths of Sakura’s mind. Still, Inner slid her feet into a stable guard and growled, letting her chakra reverberate with the noise and carry her intent out into the world. Behind her a veil of demonic chakra formed into the snarling visage of an Oni.
“Demonic chakra, truly you are a child of the isles Haruno Sakura.” Itachi had felt that chakra once before on an ANBU mission with Team Ro. They’d come across one of the seven swordsmen of the mist, Hozuki Mangetsu. The man had been a force of nature, the inhuman heritage that was oh so common among the people of Mizu fully apparent in his mannerisms and chakra. “But you cannot hope to defeat me as you are. You’re far too weak and as for my foolish little brother you’re not even worth killing.”
With that, Itachi left, vanishing into a shunshin that was faster then anything Inner could manage. The moment he was gone, she turned to find Sasuke crying silently and barely managing to remain upright. The boy had collapsed onto the street, knees torn from how hard they’d hit the ground and tears running freely down his face. Inner tried to take a step forward, intent on comforting the boy but the moment Itachi was gone the tension in her had snapped and she stumbled, black spots dancing in her vision before the world faded to black and she hit the ground hard.
***
Kakashi stood amid the ruins of the Uchiha district with his heart in his throat. In his weapons pouch, a black scrolled weighed heavy and the seal on his tongue burned painfully. This was Obito’s clan, one of the two great founding clans of Konoha and the strongest clan in the village despite what the Hyuga might say. In a single night, Konohagakure had went from the undisputed military powerhouse to a crippled nation, Kumogakure leaping past them in strength without a single shuriken being thrown between the two great nations.
‘Your orders are simple, there will be chaos tonight. The result of Hiruzen’s mismanagement and weakness have finally become too much to bear. Konohagakure no Sato needs your determination now more then ever Hound.’ Danzo’s voice resounded in Kakashi’s ears as he slipped his hand into his weapon’s pouch, fingers brushing the black scroll. He knew what he should do, Danzo’s words rang truer then ever as Kakashi looked over the burning ruins of the Uchiha district and yet he had doubts.
“Taichou?” Tenzo’s blank voice pulled Kakashi’s attention back to reality and he looked at the boy. He was only thirteen, young and emotionless, a result of the torture Danzo called conditioning. Kakashi hadn’t been conditioned nearly as thoroughly, a consideration made for his genius status. After all those who could create jutsu were rare and Danzo didn’t want to risk destroying his ‘natural creativity’ as if Kakashi’s inventions weren’t the result of hard work and endless failure. Much like his life, though with unlike his jutsu his life never seemed to find eventual success.
“We’re moving out. Come on,” Kakashi knew that three members of Root besides himself were on Team Ro. The non-Root members would be busy cleaning up the district and searching for survivors so they wouldn’t be able to interfere and the ANBU patrols had been rerouted for tonight. It was the perfect time to strike and Itachi could easily take the blame, it wasn’t like he didn’t deserve it after what Kakashi had just seen.
Pink hair fluttered past the corner of Kakashi’s vision and he saw Root ANBU carrying Tora, Haruno Sakura, away to Root’s primary training facility. The girl was a prodigy but unlike Kakashi, she was young enough for the conditioning to take easily. He didn’t envy her fate, but it was for the good of the village. Konoha needed soldiers, not dreaming fools who would only die and leave their teammates behind. Pain flared in Kakashi’s chest and his left eye burned.
He could see the ghosts of them, Obito and Rin. Both of them would be furious with him, Obito screaming and Rin crying silently, horrified by what he had become. The pain in his left eye increased and Kakashi knew that it had shifted to its mangekyo state, a burning pain radiating from the eye and screaming along his optic nerve, straight into his brain. Obito’s grief was liquid agony and yet Kakashi could see with crystal clarity, the sharingan’s evolved state making the world painfully clear.
Landing across from the Hokage’s tower, Kakashi took a deep breath and jerked when pain shot up from his palms. A sharp gasp ripped from his chest as he realized his nails had ripped through his finger-less gloves and bit deep into the meat of his palms. ‘This isn’t right,’ a voice that sounded far too much like Obito whispered in Kakashi’s ear. It wasn’t, he knew Root was wrong, an abomination but it was necessary.
‘It’s not,’ that was Rin. She had been willing to die for her village, she’d been soft and emotional and yet it hadn’t stopped her from giving the last full measure for her village. Root taught that emotions were a weakness and yet they had driven Rin to die for what she loved, her will was a thing of fire that burned bright even in her final moments. Tora had that same will of fire, a flame burned within her and Danzo would smother it, choke it out and replace it with unthinking obedience.
‘You know what you should do,’ Obito whispered in Kakashi’s ear and he grit his teeth. His pulse was thundering in his ears now, drowning out the wail of sirens and the movement of shinobi around him. Ahead, the Hokage’s tower was just a jump away, well within the range of many of the jutsu he knew. Beside him, the two Aburame prepared their assault, kikaichu clouds buzzing out of their ANBU Root uniforms and chakra utterly devoid of emotion.
Tenzo wasn’t like the two Aburame. There was some life within him, dull and weak but present. Danzo hadn’t been willing to risk him in a death match, so his heart had survived the conditioning if only just.
“Senpai?” Tenzo’s voice had the edge of a question to it and Kakashi wondered if Tenzo would stand down. The boy looked up to him, as much as anyone in Root was capable of such things. The Aburame would have to go though.
“One moment Tenzo,” Kakashi said softly and lightning sprang to life in his palm. The boy’s eyes widened in surprise as electricity danced over the rooftop and Kakashi vanished, too fast for the eye to follow.
Obito’s sharingan spun madly as Kakashi ripped through the first Root’s chest, lightning crackling through flesh and electrifying the corpse, causing it to twitch and jerk as it hit the ground, steam rising from it in a putrid cloud. The other Aburame barely managed a half step, turning to face Kakashi before his heart was burned away. Pulling his hand free from the man’s remains, Kakashi flipped backwards, fingers racing through the seals for a katon as two Aburame’s worth of furious kikaichu descended upon him.
Bright orange flames burnt the insects from the air, turning them to dust on the breeze and Kakashi landed next to an utterly stunned Tenzo. The boy looked up at him, utterly lost and confused. Kakashi put his left hand on the boy’s shoulder, the one not covered in the steaming remains of two members of his own team, and flickered into the tower before the Root ANBU nearby could reach them.
“Hound, I trust there is a reason I just saw you murder two of my shinobi.” Hiruzen asked as Kakashi reached into his holster and tossed a scroll to the hokage. Hiruzen didn’t substitute, even though it could easily have been a roll of explosive seals. Instead he unfurled the scroll, eyes moving over it and exhaustion making itself apparent on his face.
“I have reason to believe that Tora may be in need to some help. It is relevant.” Kakashi couldn’t say anything about Root or Danzo but Tora wasn’t Root, she was ANBU and he hadn’t directly stated she’d been forcibly recruited. He knew about the politics preceding her inclusion into ANBU and the last thing Konoha needed was a war between ANBU and Root. Shimura had overplayed his hand, trusting Kakashi with assassinating Hiruzen had been a mistake, though nobody else in the village had even a hope of succeeding so perhaps it wasn’t a foolish mistake.
“Uchiha Izumi and Mitarashi Anko are missing as well,” Uchiha Naori appeared within the office, a blank ANBU mask on the side of her head and her face exposed for everyone to see. Her clothes were scorched in places and covered in small cuts, shallow wounds over vital areas speaking of dangerously close calls yet she had survived. “Itachi and his accomplice escaped.”
“I see, this is troubling.” Hiruzen said and gave the woman a hard look.
“You have my loyalty, please let me have my students. It is all I ask for.” Naori bowed her head and Hiruzen’s face softened. Naori, to his eyes just wasn’t an Uchiha. The people of Mizu were vicious and bloodthirsty but they understood how to put their village first and her loyalty to her students above her clan was admirable. She wasn’t even angry, just worried.
“I will have Bear organized a recovery operation if Danzo is not forth coming. It seems it is time that I had a talk with my old friend about what is and is not appropriate within the village.” Hiruzen stated, though neither Kakashi nor Naori thought for a minute the man would receive a fitting punishment. Hiruzen was far too biased and cowardly for such things, it was why Root had been created in the first place.
Kakashi glanced over at Naori and the woman looked back at him. For a moment neither of them showed any sign of reacting, they simply starred at each other, too exhausted by the night’s events. Then Naori gave Kakashi a nod, her expression briefly grateful before she flickered away, no doubt to inform Bear of what had come to pass.