3

1

“It’s been a year and a half since Haruno Sakura proposed and launched the children’s therapy center, and they are seeing definite results. I believe they should receive a greater share of the budget for the next term.”

At this statement from Kakashi, the daimyo at the head of the table stroked his chin thoughtfully. His face said he was thinking, but Kakashi knew that he wasn’t actually setting his brain to any kind of real work. His only thought was likely a prayer that the boring meeting would soon end.

This particular boring meeting was at the daimyo’s mansion, mostly to discuss budget allocations. In addition to the daimyo, the land’s senior officials, the Hokage Kakashi, advisors Homura and Koharu, and senior members of the Anbu were in attendance. Shizune was also present as a senior member of the medical team.

“I’d like to hear a few more details about this from Haruno Sakura, but she’s currently not in the village, is that right?” It was Koharu who spoke.

Kakashi nodded. “She’s gone to Suna with Yamanaka Ino. She wanted to report the current status of the children’s therapy center to Suna’s medical personnel and exchange ideas with them.”

“If a similar system is introduced in Suna or some other village, we might be able to do collaborative research,” Shizune added, from the seat next to Kakashi. “In which case, we believe we will be able to provide even more comprehensive care for the children.”

“What will you do about the budget for the Anbu?” came a flat interjection from a man sitting diagonally across from Kakashi—Tsumiki Kido, senior Anbu member and leader of several teams. He was about the same age as Kakashi. He had a distinctive face, with an aquiline nose and sharp eyes. Next to him was a man named Magire, an aide of sorts.

“The therapy center has been given more than sufficient funds,” Kido continued. “If they have really seen solid results, then it would seem to me that they have no need of a larger budget, hmmmm?”

The sticky tail end of his sentence was hard on the ears.

“They need funds to maintain the system and further develop it,” Shizune said, sharply.

“Well then, I would appreciate it if we could also consider the maintenance and development of the Anbu,” Kido said, and turned his gaze on Kakashi. His eyes were cold. “Kakashi—excuse me, Hokage. There has been a downward trend in terms of the budget allocated to the Anbu these past two years. Is this, in the end, really the correct choice, I wonder.”

“At the very least, I think it is,” Kakashi replied.

“Ha ha ha!” Kido laughed theatrically. “I wouldn’t think those were the words of the Hokage, hmm? The Anbu are under the direct control of the Hokage. That the Hokage himself would try to pare down their budget! And you yourself are a former Anbu member, are you not?”

“I’m saying we have priorities.”

“So taking care of children is more important than the Anbu? I honestly can’t understand that. I can’t. In the first place,” Kido raised his voice. “This method of children recovering from mental trauma through talk therapy is interminable. And for that, you are training specialists. It’s so circuitous. If you’re going to treat them, simply give them some medication and free them from the symptoms of their issues.”

“Sure, medication’s another way of doing it. But the idea here is not to pick one or the other,” Kakashi noted.

“Magire.” Shizune spoke to the man at Kido’s side. “You’re a medical ninja, yes? Do you share Kido’s way of thinking?”

Magire turned his face toward his interlocutor. With his pale coloring and monocle, he gave the impression of being the academic type. “I have no intention of denying the fact that you are relieving the anxieties of the children through therapy, but considering the efficiency and certainty, I have concluded that treatment through dispensation of medication is more rational. That is all.” He turned to face forward once more.

“Efficiency. Rational.” Kido picked up where his aide left off. “Those are good words, in fact. That is what medical treatment and budgets should be. There’s a limit to how much money there is, and I believe it should be allocated to those things that are truly for the sake of the village, hmm?”

“We’re in a time of peace. The world’s not in any kind of emergency situation,” Kakashi noted. “I personally don’t feel the need to set aside such a large amount of money for the Anbu these days.”

“‘In times of peace, prepare for war,’ as the old saying goes. It’s precisely because we are in a time of peace that we must assume that there will be unrest again in the world. And—” Kido cut himself off, as if to lend an air of importance to his words. He then persisted with a cold smile. “Are we really able to say that we are at peace right now? Everyone here is aware that the daimyo and Master Homura were assaulted the other day. Naturally, the Anbu must shoulder the blame for that, given that we were not able to fulfill our duty to protect the daimyo. However, this is precisely why I believe that strengthening the Anbu is an urgent matter. Is it not?”

Clever presentation, that. Kakashi was a bit daunted. But Kido was, in fact, correct; Kakashi couldn’t find any fault to quibble over.

“Well, I think Kido’s making a sensible request…” The daimyo trailed off and turned his gaze toward Homura. You decide was written all over his face.

Arms crossed, doubtful look on his face, Homura let out a long breath. “I’m at fault too for letting those thugs get the jump on me. I realize this sounds like an excuse, but the men who attacked me were fairly competent. I have to admit that an ominous wind has been blowing through the village.”

Homura looked first at Kido, then Kakashi, before continuing. “We put together the budget for the next term with a priority on strengthening the Anbu system. Acceptable?”

2

The meeting over, Kakashi had just returned to the Hokage’s office when Sai came in.

It was evening. An orange afterglow poured into the room.

“I was attacked earlier,” Sai said, once Kakashi was seated at his desk.

“What?” Sai’s words erased his exhaustion from the meeting.

Sai informed the Hokage that on his way back from speaking with his informer and asking him to find the top-level people Sai had selected from the Bingo Book, he had been attacked by two masked men.

“They were strong. I wanted to at least secure one of them, but…”

One had fled, the other had blown himself up.

“Self-destructed…”

“But it wasn’t a self-destruction he was prepared for,” Sai asserted.

Kakashi gaped at him.

“At one point, I secured the man and attempted to question him. I gave him some bait: if he talked, I’d take his cooperation into consideration when dealing with him later. But when he started to say something…”

Something unusual happened to his body and he exploded.

“There was something like a curse mark on the back of his neck. I think that’s what triggered it.”

Kakashi brought his hand to his chin. Trying to speak, triggering a curse mark—it reminded him of a certain someone.

“It sounds like Danzo, doesn’t it? That whole thing,” Kakashi said.

Sai nodded. “It did actually resemble the method he used to bind us.”

Shimura Danzo had once ruled the Anbu from behind the scenes. He fought Sarutobi Hiruzen for the seat of the third Hokage and lost. After that, he created an independent organization within the Anbu called Root and schemed to rule the village. Sai had been a member of Root.

Danzo embedded curse marks on the tongues of Sai and the others in Root. The effect was that the instant they tried to say anything about Root or Danzo, they would become paralyzed and unable to speak.

“So then the men who attacked you were also bound by their boss’s will. Although the effect’s totally different. I mean, self-destruction versus paralysis.”

“And there’s one more thing,” Sai said. “In the middle of the fight, my attackers were suddenly cloaked in Tailed Beast chakra.”

“Tailed—” Kakashi’s eyes flew open. “Really?”

“Yes. The men themselves didn’t transform into Tailed Beasts, but their chakra increased explosively to become a robe that covered their bodies. And on that chakra robe—it was small, but it was a tail.”

Kakashi groaned. “How does someone who’s not a jinchuriki get the power of a Tailed Beast?”

“And both of them.”

“If we’d been able to examine the body, we might have learned something, but he self-destructed.”

“Which could also mean that someone didn’t want us to be able to examine it, so they set the curse mark for an explosive death.”

Kakashi closed his eyes and racked his brain. Danzo’s way of doing things, the timing of the attack on Sai, and the meeting earlier—Kakashi’s intuition was telling him something.

“Sai, did you talk to anyone about the fact that you were looking into this matter?” he asked.

“No, no one. Why do you ask?”

“If you didn’t talk to anyone, then why were you attacked?”

“What?”

“The enemy found out you were looking into this and attacked you to prevent that. So then, where did they get that information? They couldn’t have just happened to overhear you talking with your informer and decided to attack you in a panic.”

“That wouldn’t have been possible. I take every precaution when I contact an informer.”

“Then that means the enemy knew you were looking into this before you went to see the informer.”

Sai fell silent at Kakashi’s words. Finally, a small “oh” slipped out of him. “After you gave me the order here, I went to the Anbu reference room to look into the incidents.”

“The Anbu reference room?”

“Yes. There’s a record of me visiting it. Someone could learn from that record that I was interested in these incidents.”

“Indeed, they probably could,” Kakashi agreed.

“But, Master.” Sai lowered his voice. “Then that would mean the perpetrator is someone in the Anbu.”

Their eyes met.

“Actually,” Kakashi said, “I just got back from a budget meeting with the village government, and it looks like the Anbu’s getting a budget increase next term.”

“The Anbu is.”

“Mm-hmm. Tsumiki Kido from the Anbu touched on these attacks in the meeting too. He stressed how it was urgent to strengthen the Anbu now of all times. Both the daimyo and Master Homura were at the meeting, so he managed to secure a nice budget for his Anbu. You see what I’m getting at here, Sai?”

“Master, that’s…” Sai swallowed hard. Apparently, he was seeing the same potential plot as Kakashi.

“The Anbu caused the incidents, and the Anbu got a budget increase by using those incidents as a talking point. Basically, performing a part in their own play.”

Sai was speechless.

“Thinking about it like this,” Kakashi continued, “all kinds of things start to make sense. That’s why the daimyo and his advisor were targeted. If they wanted to stir up a sense of crisis among the upper echelons, then attacking those upper echelons would be the simplest way to do it. And the daimyo’s route and the guard plan that day were top secret; only the Anbu knew them. It would have been hard for anyone outside to find out the details. But if we assume the perpetrator was in the Anbu, then all of that’s neatly resolved.

“The method makes sense. A single kunai thrown. And the slashing attack too—shallow, a single long sword. If they had done any more than that, the whole village might have been called up to hunt down the perpetrator. They needed to keep the attacks small enough for that not to happen.”

“And Kido did all of that…”

“We can’t say that for sure yet,” Kakashi cautioned. “But I believe he’s guilty.”

“Kido was always said to be the person who held Danzo’s purse strings. I heard that whenever one of Master Danzo’s plans was put into action, the money needed was basically all raised by Kido behind the scenes.”

“I’ve heard that too.”

All of Danzo’s scheming and plotting—against the Uchiha clan, against Akatsuki—would naturally have required a fairly large sum of money. They had likely paid off people providing information during intelligence activities, and any kind of long-term movement or large-scale infiltration required an equally large financial commitment.

Kakashi didn’t know how much of the legitimate Anbu budget had been diverted to Root, but even with the Anbu budget, Root had to have had several fundraising routes that were Root’s alone. Kido had been responsible for one or maybe all of these. He had stood alongside Danzo, so it wasn’t a stretch to imagine the two men would have shared the idea of binding their subordinates with a curse mark.

“So the man holding the purse strings for Root comes out onto center stage once Root is gone,” Kakashi murmured, turning his gaze back to Sai. “Would you focus on Kido? Right now, he’s our best suspect.”

“Understood.”

“But if you feel you’re in the slightest danger, pull back immediately. Our enemy’s failed in an attack against you once already. They’ll come at you even more seriously next time.”

“All right.” Sai nodded and instantly disappeared from before the desk.

Once the younger man had left his office, Kakashi leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. “Lot of things going on right now for some reason,” he muttered to himself, before a communication ninja came running in.

“Lord Hokage. A falcon has come with an urgent message from Suna,” she said and handed him a small scroll before racing out again.

He opened up the scroll.

On it: Uchiha Sasuke had appeared in Sunagakure, made contact with terrorists. After negotiating, he had killed a terrorist.

“Oh, no.” Kakashi shook his head. “This is just too much.”

3

“Stand by?” Ino parroted back.

“Exactly,” Kakashi said, from behind the Hokage’s desk. “Basically, don’t do anything.”

“Don’t do anything? A fake Sasuke’s out there, you know? We’re just going to let him be?” Ino let her anger be seen.

“So then what do you think we should do?” Kakashi retorted. “Go around the village, or maybe even other villages, saying there’s a fake Sasuke and would they happen to know anything about it?”

“Well, that’s…” Ino mumbled.

Sakura and Ino had only just returned from Sunagakure. They had passed through the A-un gates and gone straight to Kakashi.

The falcon released from Sunagakure had arrived two days ago, so Kakashi knew the general overview of the situation. Once Sakura and Ino filled him in on what they’d heard directly from Gaara, Kakashi had announced that they were both to simply stand by.

“It’s best not to make any careless moves right now,” he said. “Or rather, we have too little information to move on.”

“But—”

“We,” Kakashi interrupted Ino. “We know very well that Sasuke wouldn’t do anything like that. But what would happen if someone who didn’t know what kind of person Sasuke is found out about this? People might start spreading false information—Sasuke’s had a change of heart, Sasuke’s a criminal, that sort of thing. Gaara’s decision to tell only the two of you about this and keep it within that village was a good one.”

Which was why Konoha shouldn’t make any moves at that moment, he repeated.

“You too, Sakura. Understood?”

“Er,” Sakura started. “I’m pretty sure there’s a ninja in the Anbu who can mimic chakra, right? I can’t believe he could be involved, though…?”

It was a possibility Sakura herself had rejected when they met with Gaara in Sunagakure, but she asked about it now because she wanted direct confirmation from Kakashi.

“No, no connection there. He does indeed have a jutsu that traces the chakra of his target, but he’s on a long-term mission right now. This is a weird way of saying it, but he has an alibi. So he’s clean,” Kakashi said, firmly.

“Can we contact Sasuke ourselves?” Ino asked.

“Hmm. If we could, that’d be the best thing here, but it’s tough. He tends to move as the spirit wills him, so to speak. We don’t know when he’ll stop at any given contact point, and he’s under no obligation to check in regularly with Konoha.”

“I thought so.” Ino’s face sank.

Sakura looked down at the ground.

They couldn’t get in touch with him. If they started to investigate, word would spread. Which meant that all they could do was watch carefully, just as Kakashi said.

“Of course, if the situation changes, I’ll put you two to work on it,” Kakashi said, and then added, “Oh, one other thing. I have some bad news. Mostly because I don’t have enough muscles to flex. There was a senior level meeting yesterday, and they ended up chipping away at the budget for the children’s therapy center. They’re shifting a larger share of the next budget to the Anbu.”

“To the Anbu?” Ino asked. “Why would they do that?”

“Look, the daimyo was attacked. And, well…there’ve been some other suspicious things happening in the village. So the people at the top think we should shore up the Anbu.”

“What are these suspicious things?” Ino pressed.

“Sorry, now’s a bit… When the time comes, I’ll definitely tell you everything.” Kakashi held up a hand as if to beg forgiveness.

“Don’t move, when the time comes—Master, you’re being awfully evasive.” Ino frowned.

Kakashi offered a bitter, somehow dejected smile in response. “Don’t hold it against me. Things change when you’re Hokage.”

Once Kakashi dismissed them and sent them home to get some rest, Sakura and Ino left the Hokage’s Residence.

“You look pale. Are you okay?” Ino asked, when they parted ways.

Sakura said she was fine, but when she got home and looked in the mirror, she did indeed see a worn face there. Part of it was exhaustion from the nonstop trip to Suna, but more than anything, it was a reaction to what Gaara had told them about Sasuke.

Come on. What are you doing, Sasuke…

But even if she tried to protest, Sasuke was somewhere where her voice couldn’t reach. The words she wanted to say but couldn’t, the things she wanted to do for him but couldn’t, settled inside her, a lump of longing.

She threw herself onto her bed. The cool sensation of the sheets caressed her cheeks before she rolled onto her back.

She touched her forehead with her index and middle fingers.

I’ll see you soon.

Thank you…

His words sprang to life in the back of her mind.

But when is soon, Sasuke, she murmured to herself.

4

On the other side of the thick glass, a group of Kido faction medical ninjas were standing and working. Some were shaking test tubes, others measuring this and that, still others packing purple capsules into boxes.

“It’s going well?” Kido asked Magire beside him, as they watched subordinates packing boxes of capsules.

“It is. It appears that we will safely reach this month’s quota,” came Magire’s level voice in return. “That is all,”

The facility was a research institute Kido had built outside of the village. Here, under Magire’s direction, they could research new medications and produce them for distribution. The facility was underground; the building above ground was a brick storehouse, camouflage. Naturally, the only ones who knew about the underground facility were Kido’s faction.

“What’s the state of the culture medium? Is he crying about how he wants to go home?”

“He does not weep. In fact, given that he is being kept half-conscious with medication, the feelings of the culture medium are not apparent. That is all.”

“Is that so?” Still some bad ones in this world. Kido grinned as he changed the subject. “Anyway, the budget meeting went well. It was almost anticlimactic.”

“However, Hatake Kakashi may have realized that we were the ones who carried out the attacks on the daimyo and his advisor.”

“It doesn’t matter if he did. Actually, if he was the sort of man who didn’t notice that much at least, he wouldn’t have lived long enough to become Hokage.”

This was not just sour grapes; Kido really believed it didn’t matter if Kakashi suspected them of anything. The attacks on the advisor and the daimyo were, for Kido, nothing more than a test.

A Tailed Beast drug.

The results had been superb. Just as Kido ordered, assassins—abilities enhanced by the Tailed Beast drug—had thrown a kunai next to the daimyo, lightly slashed at the advisor, evaded the pursuing guard ninja, and fled the scene quite admirably. Kido had then used those attacks as a pretext to secure a budget increase for the Anbu.

We can use the Tailed Beast drug. Kido could feel the power of it. And this meant two things: they could use it for the dosed human beings and for political strategy.

But Hatake Kakashi was a serious opponent, one he must not let his guard down around. Kakashi might have had his eyes sleepily half-closed most of the time, but his intuition was sharp when it counted. After all, he already had former Anbu member Sai at work.

“Seems Sai’s still sniffing around at us,” Kido said.

He had sent two assassins after Sai the other day, but received a report that they had failed. One of them had self-destructed, which meant he had likely broken under questioning.

Kido had done the same thing for the attacks on the daimyo and the advisor as well: set curse marks on all the assassins before releasing them. Only the ones who accomplished their mission and returned to him could have that curse released.

“The failure of the other day,” Magire began, “was because my own estimations were incorrect. I sent two people with one tail, but their own skills and chakra were apparently insufficient. That is all.”

“Well, it’s fine, I suppose,” Kido said. “They failed, but it will serve as a warning. And if it comes down to it, we can simply send some with more tails.”

They couldn’t let their plans be set back at this stage.

So much money that the village’s budget paled in comparison…

They still had a little ways to go in order to get there.

Pretty great, huh, Kido? Now you can go to the academy like everyone else.

Yeah. Thanks, Dad!

The memory came back to life unbidden in the back of his mind, and Kido’s face froze.

“Money. More money…” The curse in his heart found its way to his voice and slipped out of his mouth.