A Leader's Burden

Toa's House (Reina's Point of View)

Hearing her father's confusion, Reina hesitated. From his demeanor, he truly didn't seem to understand why they would be suspicious of him.

'I hope our findings were wrong…' she thought to herself in worry.

"Father…., on our way back from Konoha, we found some… troubling intelligence that we'd like to clear up before we continue the rescue efforts." Reina stated, her voice saturated with discomfort.

"Oh..? And what would this new intelligence be? I'm guessing it's related to either Orochimaru's purpose or his preparations for our village if you're bringing this up now." He asked, his expression unchanging. If he bore any discomfort, he didn't show it.

The room was silent. Reina sat there for a moment, her eyes burrowing holes in the floor, trying to think on how to ask the next question.

Seeing her new friend struggling, Kamui moved to speak, but was stopped by a look from her sensei. It was only reinforced when Yugao shook her head. From what she could interpret, her sensei believed that Reina needed to do this herself.

Finally, Reina looked her father straight in the eyes and asked, "Father, why did you betray the clan? How could you betray our trust?"

The question was followed by another bout of silence.

The man didn't react much. There was no gasp or jolt. His face simply shifted from the kind smile to a surprised shock with eyes slightly widened, and finally to a sharp scrutinizing look. Silently, his eyes burrowed into his daughter's as if he were taking her measure.

"Are you sure you want to hear this?" He asked, knowing full well what her answer would be.

"Of course." She stated firmly.

"Fine." He started, pausing to put his thoughts in order. He began, "I'll have to start at the beginning. It all started a little less than two decades ago. I was already clan head at the time. One day, I woke up to find a dagger at my throat and a pale-faced psychopath grinning madly at me. It was terrifying to say the least. It didn't take much to figure out who it was. Everyone knows who Orochimaru is after all, even if he had only just defected back then."

Hearing this, the others nodded in agreement. The man's face was shown as a critical graduation requirement as a person to stay away from, especially for the clan-affiliated shinobi. The Three Legendary Sannin were also known by their prominent entries in every nation's bingo books, especially Orochimaru.

Toa continued, "I won't go into the details. I'm sure Konoha can dig through my mind themselves. What I will make clear though is that I didn't have much of a choice but to make a deal to reduce the damage. This is not me making excuses but informing you of the reality of the office you are about to assume. Being a leader of men often requires you to make undesirable sacrifices, especially when you aren't strong enough to fend off the wolves.

"In my dealings with Orochimaru, I had a measure of leverage in the fact that he needed this operation kept secret to prevent Konoha from interfering. On the other hand, his power was simply greater than anything we could muster at the time, or even now. Technically, I could have sought help from Konoha at any time, but with one of their elders being in league with the man, I simply couldn't trust them, and any other villages were much worse options. There was also the matter that even if Konoha was trustworthy, rescuing our clan would have come at a significant cost, especially when the only man that could save us without worry was stuck in the village as its Hokage." He said, receiving a knowing nod from Yugao who understood their concerns.

At the time, Konoha was indeed unstable. If it weren't for Lord Fourth's overwhelming combat potential, political prowess, and Danzo's outing as a traitor, she shuttered to think what a cesspool the village would be, especially after recent events. It was clear Konoha, and perhaps every major village, had house cleaning that needed doing.

"In short, the deal was to provide the man with Kocho Clansmen periodically. The number turned out to be about one or two annually, which was a bargain all things considered. It was lucky for us that the man had other projects he was more interested in at the time. It also helped that Ana, one of the contenders for the member with the strongest Kocho inheritance was his long-term, mobile test subject, so the others were experimental controls at best, decreasing the total number of sacrificial clansmen. That's what I've been told at least." He explained tiredly, though a tinge of relief could be heard in his voice. It was clear to everyone in the room that the man had struggled with this secret for a very long time and was glad to get it off his chest.

Yugao and Kamui were silent. Yugao had been in the ANBU for a long time, so things like this weren't new to her. On the other hand, Kamui had known a lot of this information from her memory plundering. While she had a hard time believing someone would sell out their own family, she simply didn't have a personal context to draw from regarding being powerless. The only reference she could draw from was Suzune's memories or even those of the scientists before they became degenerate scum.

Reina, however, was visibly struggling to keep her composure. Tears flowed like rivers down her face at the words coming from her father's mouth. Her arms were crossed with her fingers digging into her skin hard enough to draw blood. In fact, Kamui could smell traces of the girl's poisonous blood from her seat. If they hadn't received the set of antidotes from Reina at the start of this mission, both her and her sensei would have taken distance long ago.

Taking no heed to his daughter's discomfort, the man continued, "Everything was going as good as it could be under such circumstances until the part where the sounds four came in. They broke our deal. According to them, Orochimaru is finished with his Kocho-based experiments and needed one final labor from us.

"With what you've already been able to find, I'm sure this isn't much of a surprise to you, but the labor they spoke of was to use us like cattle; they're milking us."

With that, he paused his tale and looked around. Seeing no signs of surprised, he shook his head and continued to the conclusion.

"I've no illusion that he won't kill us after they've received all the benefits they've came for. That's why I threw caution to the wind and sent you out with the mission for Konoha. We had no other avenues."

Finishing his story, Toa took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and leaned back into the chair, his gentle smile returning to his face. His story was told. He would not ask for forgiveness or even provide any input on his daughter's judgement of his actions. As long as his clan's safety was assured, he would gladly pay any penalty that was required of him and with Reina being the clan heir, it was her duty to see him face the justice he was long due; family ties could not pardon him.

Looking at the relief clearly shown by her father, it was obvious to not only Reina, but Kamui and Yugao that this had weighed quite heavily on Toa's chest for quite a while.

'I wonder what it's like. To have to sacrifice your own family, the people that trust you and smile back at you every day. I-I don't think I'd be able to do it, regardless of how necessary it is for the family's survival.' Kamui thought to herself.

Yugao reflected as well.

*Sigh* 'I wish I could say this story is unique, but it's all too familiar. People having to sacrifice comrades to save as many lives as they are able. It's a lose-lose situation. The new generation of Konoha may not recognize this, but Konoha used to be like this during Lord Third's reign, especially with Danzo receiving near free reign to conduct his twisted acts.

'The only reason it's gotten as good as it's gotten is Lord Fourth's overwhelming power and the large number of S-Rank shinobi in the village. Hopefully there won't come a day where Konoha's forced to return to that type of thought process.' Yugao pondered to herself.

While the two Konoha Kunoichi pondered on the larger picture, Reina's thoughts were a bit more personal.

'He isn't even trying to ask for forgiveness. If I didn't know any better, I would think that…. H-he wanted to be brought to justice. That he's wanted it for a long time but was simply waiting for the looming crisis to be averted. It's strange…, but as he is now, he looks 20 years younger than when we first arrived. The stress must have been overwhelming.' She thought to herself in realization.

Seeing her father tell the story and his relaxation after the fact, she would've had to have been a blind genin not to notice the man's need for this farce to end. Realizing this, any tension that Reina may have had, disappeared. Although she was still furious at her father, she understood.

With a swift motion, Reina's elbow flew and rammed into Toa's gut. The motion was quick and efficient. If there were normal genin in the room, they wouldn't have even seen the motion.

"Ack!" In reflex, Toa cried out and his upper-body assumed a fetal-like position. *Cough* *Cough.

In his younger years, a blow like that wouldn't have hurt all that much. In his current condition though, that blow hurt quite a bit.

Releasing a soft chuckle, Toa looked up to his daughter with his gentle smile back on his face.

"I deserve that." He stated self-mockingly.

"Yes, you do. That said, I want to thank you for everything you've done for the clan as its head. Maybe it's just the fact that I don't want to hate you father, but I forgive you." She said softly causing everyone else's eyes to widen in astonishment.

"Rei— "He tried to retort but was interrupted by a raised hand from his daughter.

"Don't mistake my meaning. As the new clan head, it is my responsibility to ensure that justice is served, so you're not likely to live past the week. Part of this will likely include bringing your crimes to the public and having a public trial as is our custom. I just wanted you to live your final days knowing that as Reina Kocho, the individual, I forgive you." Her tone started serious but mellowed out toward the end.

With that, his astonishment faded, and he leaned back into the chair.

"Well in that case, don't worry about me. Do your duty as head and serve justice. As a little side note, I made sure that part of the mission documents submitted to the Hokage contained the sealed clan archives. It's an extremely powerful sealing paper that's locked with the key being your blood specifically. I left a note to the Hokage with the details. In short, don't worry about taking anything in the escape attempt." He explained.

The three kunoichi nodded, grateful that there was another variable that they didn't have to worry about.

With that, Reina glanced at Kamui and nodded toward her, prompting the girl to get up from her seat and move toward Toa. With that, Reina got up as well, slightly confusing the still seated man.

Kamui's eyes switched to the sharingan and peered into Toa's. Despite the uncomfortable feeling of Kamui's chakra seizing control of his mind in a standard Uchiha genjutsu, he didn't resist. It didn't take very long since she was only looking for any knowledge he had on other traitors or plants within the clan. Finishing her search, her gaze shifted to Reina.

"Unless his memories were altered, it doesn't look like he knows of other plants. Be careful though. They may have planted some without telling him. It's what I would do if I were them." Kamui stated, eliciting a nod from Reina.

Reina's gaze turned to her father.

"Toa Kocho, you are under arrest under charges of treason and will be transported to Konoha for trial by the clan."

Hearing that, the man's smile didn't falter. In fact, it grew brighter. Then, the smile faded into a slight frown as his fingers gripped his chin out of habit, indicating his sinking into his thoughts.

"One last thing…" he slowly stated, getting the three Kunoichi's attention. He continued, "Be wary of the sound four, they're – "

*Thud*

The man was interrupted by a strange arrow ripping through the center of his chest, straight through his spine.

"Aahh!" The man roared in pain as he collapsed on the now punctured couch, a tunnel of flesh giving a clear picture of the arrow's travel through his body. Shards of his spine could even be seen scattered behind him

In an instant, Yugao body flickered next to him, placing a scroll to his chest. Her reaction time spoke to her long years of experience in these types of situations. Obscure Kanji markings spread across Toa's flesh to restrain him. A purple flash later and the man was gone.

The scroll itself was an invention Minato created. It's a prisoner's scroll. Within seconds, it would restrain critical capture targets and teleport them to special cells in the most secure part of Konoha's prison. As soon as it was used, the Hokage would be notified, and the prisoner would be treated for any fatal injuries and held until a decision was reached. In this case, the man would be held until Reina returned to pass her verdict as the new clan head. Even if he was the old head, the fact that the scroll was used on him in the first place would be telling enough.

Each ANBU was given a complex key sealed on their stomachs similar to a jinchuriki's, which was bound to each special scroll like this one. It made the scrolls impractical to steal since they would be useless to anyone but the intended user. For this mission, they had five scrolls available; one the fourth assigned to Yugao and the others made by Kamui during their preparations. When they started, Kamui and Yugao both had two, while Naga was given the fifth. Reina didn't get one due to her being too weak to effectively use one during combat.

While Yugao secured Toa, Kamui willed a scroll to her hand from her sealing sash. Although her reaction time was a little slower than her sensei, it was compensated for by the quickness of the unsealing method of her sash. With a quick influx of chakra, an invisible pulse of chakra went out across the village. Everywhere it traveled, the markers she had placed on the Kocho clansmen turned into subtle beacons. When it hit the scroll they had prepared back at their initial hiding spot, it glowed for about five seconds before every Kocho clansmen in the village, including Reina and Naga, were spirited away deep into the fog swamp.

In short, within seconds, both the prisoner and the Kocho were secured.

"Damn it fat ass! I told you we should have killed them earlier!" A crass tomboyish female voice was heard from outside the house.

"Tayuya, you know a lady shouldn't – "A deep masculine voice mellowly rebuked.

"Would you two shut up. They've helped the Kocho Clan escape. We need to kill them before they do so as well. That said, they don't seem very wise if they're still here." A higher pitched male voice interrupted, stopping the hostilities between the two.

"Juggernaut Palm!" The deep voice roared.

Within seconds, the house was ripped off its foundation by a crushing force and scattered into the wind, forcing Kamui and Yugao to have to brace themselves from the force of the shockwave.

Once the dust settled, the two opened their eyes to find Jirobo who was standing closest to them after his power punch. Right behind him were Sakon, Ukon who currently appeared dormant on his back, and Tayuya.

"Looks like we weren't as stealthy as we thought." Kamui muttered to her sensei.