Souls [Part-72]

Her story was hard to believe. She had left out a lot of parts, but he felt as though he already had enough of a shock with getting to know just how her powers worked.

"How was the Second Hokage like?"-Shisui

Veronica glanced at him before telling him about Tobirama. He didn't miss the way her voice was a bit sadder, she probably never learned to hide her emotions in her voice properly since she never spoke much.

"Why did you save me?"-Shisui

"I wanted you to live."-Veronica

The answer was instantaneous. It was as though she was stating an obvious fact. She said it as though he should've known about it already. He slightly laughed at that and laid down on the grass. Her mindscape was calm.

It was weird, but there was no one there other than his family. He guessed he liked it like that. He just wished some more people could've joined him with Veronica and Matatabi.

"You know, Itachi would've liked you."-Shisui

"Well, I did sort of raise his brother."-Veronica

He realized that she liked talking. Even if she gave curt responses most of the time, she liked speaking. He felt a bit grateful for Matatabi for being there with Veronica.

"I suppose so. But, even if you didn't, I think he would've gotten along with you."-Shisui

"I see."-Veronica

The conversation continued for a while, before he exited her mind and decided to call it a day. He would need time to think about what she had told him.

She glanced at the man, not a boy anymore, and activated her dojutsu. His soul was much more fiery than Sasuke's. While Sasuke's crackled while burning, and was prickly at times, Shisui's was like a forest fire. It would burn and burn, and leave nothing but ashes when it died out.

It was fragile as well. She felt as though if she tried hard enough, it would be so easy to break him. She could break his heart and then slowly break his mind.

'I don't like myself.'

--- --- --- --- ---

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE GONNA LABEL HER A MISSING NIN?!"-Naruto

He had never sounded so angry, hurt and shocked. Minato slightly apologized to him in his mind before looking at him straight in the eyes, his expression stern.

"Genin Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, Veronica has been missing from the village for about an year now and was suddenly seen kidnapping a jinchuuriki. The facts state that she has abandoned the village and made an enemy of Takigakure. That is more than enough reason to label her a missing-nin."-Minato

There is also the possibility of her working together with the man Kakashi had fought off that day but he didn't speak it out loud. He motioned for Genma, who was standing to his right, to get Naruto out of the Hokage office before he could get in trouble.

Sighing when his office was finally quiet and empty, the ANBU guards not being included, he finally relaxed and thought of the present situation. There was the organization Akatsuki his sens- no, Jiraiya, had reported about which although had not done anything to make him be wary of them but the sudden formation of such an organization especially in Ame unsettled him.

He couldn't see why nin who have been known to work alone would work together so suddenly.

Sighing once again, he wrote a coded and short reply to Jiraiya to keep an eye on them for now and report all of their activities to him and him alone.

He then moved on to think about how much bounty should he place on Veronica. She was a mystery of her own to him. Her sudden appearance in Konoha years ago, her disappearance, the day before of her reported disappearance when Danzo had been discovered and then her kidnapping a jinchuuriki and to return only the dead body of Fuu.

From what he had seen from the remnants of the seal on Fuu, even he knew that the only solution he would be able to think if he was present that day with Naruto, would be to stop the bijuu's teleportation to wherever the seal was connected. He would need at least 6 to 7 months to be able to study and draft a full fledged counter seal. It was likely that Veronica had done just that as well.

But, how did she come to know of Fuuinjutsu? How did she know the flying raijin? How was she able to learn a new style and adopt it into the Hatake style so quickly? What else had she been hiding? Was there a spy in the village supplying her with information? Had she been the spy?

It could be that she had wanted the beast for herself and tried to teleport him to wherever she wanted, this theory would cancel out the theory of her working with the masked man.

There were many questions and no answers could be found. Not a single piece of information on fuuinjutsu or any other jutsu had been stolen or touched in the archives. So just how did she get the information?

Were children just being born with random knowledge these days?

Minato groaned a bit before deciding that he would let the council handle Veronica's bounty for now. It would also get them to think and believe they still had some sort of power in the village.

Stretching a bit, he decided to go home after finishing off his last stack of paperwork for the day. He still needed to talk with Kakashi, and Sasuke and Naruto... Perhaps even Sakura would need some comfort.

--- --- --- --- ---

Itachi had gotten a letter, which was surprising in itself as nobody really sends letters to missing nin especially those who have committed mass murder.

What was more surprising was the slight tailed beast chakra that he could sense when he had finally decided to open it. His eyebrow twitched slightly as he decided to activate his sharingan to see if there was any trap.

None was there as he had expected. But he still proceeded with caution. Paranoia was an old friend of his.

The contents were disturbing. Very much so. He shunshin-ed himself further away from Kisame and hid in a cave he found. He would rather not break down in front of his partner, even if the shark man was likely to just leave him alone.

He wondered for the nth time if life only thought of him an nothing more than a toy.

Taking in a breath, he sent a clone to meet with Kisame and another one to replace the first one, in case anything happened. He did not have much time before he would need to return, but if the place in the letter was real and nearby then he was more than willing to check it out.

His expression did not change when he was met with nothing.

"Didn't think you'd reach this place so soon, 'Tachi!"-Shisui

It was shocking to see him alive, and older. He hadn't died that day, Itachi had suspicions of another Uchiha surviving but he would've never imagined it to be Shisui.

Itachi's mangekyou looked Shisui in the eyes as the man stared at him with the same smile he had always seen him wear.

He was alive.

Alive, not dead.

There were no missing eyes. No bleeding eye sockets. He wasn't bleeding out. He was alive. Shisui was alive.