Liability.

(3RD Person POV)

*BANG*

The Uchiha compound doors were thrown off the hinges as the Hokage made his way through them.

Not a moment later 12 anbu appeared on his sides as they kneeled down and the leader among them took a sight step forward.

"Hokage-sama, how may we be of assistance."

A shiver ran across all of the anbu as the pressure of the Hokage's chakra descended upon them. Something had impacted the Hokage's mood in a very negative way.

'It feels like he's just a step away from killing us all. Better not to ask any questions.' – The leader thought as he signaled the rest to keep their heads down and stay still.

As the pressure was lifted the Hokage took a breath and gave an order calmly.

"Yamato, take Sai and regroup with Team 7. As of this moment, you will act as my envoy to Suna. While I doubt they will do anything stupid, other villages' futures depend on our diplomatic ties failing, especially the smaller ones that form our borders. Engage as you see fit even if they belong to our 'allied' villages. I have more important issues to attend to." – Kei spoke as he flickered out of sight.

'Whatever it is, it made the Hokage recoil this much. I will have to advise Nara-dono to increase the patrols and garrisons around the outposts. Hyuga-dono can also have the clan keep an eye for suspicious activity inside the village. As for the other clans… as long as the Hokage doesn't order me to notify them, it might backfire if I am to interfere.'

"As you command." – The team leader, now Yamato, replied.

Yamato merely bowed once more and disappeared from view.

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(Shikaku POV – 20 min later)

Inside the Shinobi HQ, War Room.

Standing before a tactical map of the shinobi villages, I, Shikamaru, Hiashi Hyuga, Inoichi Yamanaka, Choza Akimichi as well as the 1 Anbu Commander presently inside the village out of the 4 were discussing hurriedly.

"If the Hokage is delegating the diplomatic mission to Team 7 it must mean that he won't be able to make it. It would be prudent to assume it is not happening on our eastern front, whatever it is. It would be wise to redirect some of our border patrols to the northwest and recall a number of shinobi back to the village." – I spoke as I kept reviewing the map.

"Shikaku, don't you think moving so many will be a little… overkill for such an obscure situation?" – Choza spoke as he looked at me.

"If it is something that has our Hokage worried… then no. How many times have we been caught unprepared before? Even if it is nothing we must be ready. If nothing happens it might mean that we were just cautious, or that we spooked them and prevented it beforehand. Either way, we are not to resume normal patrols until the Hokage gives the all-clear. We'll use irregular patterns from this moment forward." – As I finished speaking the anbu commander stated his own concerns.

"While the anbu has grown considerably more dangerous and effective… our numbers have become rather thin. As of last year, we are barely breaking even with the number of recruits and… 'dropouts'. Now that the Hokage has departed we have two dozen ready to respond to emergencies inside Konoha. I would advise to not recall our remaining anbu as their tasks are rather critical to most of our operations outside Konoha, not to mention just the time it would take to send and receive a response would be too long for any support from them could arrive." – The commander explained calmly as he flipped through numerous documents.

"Not to mention that anbu work best in the dark, whatever combat power they might provide should be easily replaced with some of our clan's elite Jonin at best." – Hiashi said as he quickly delivered a small paper to another Hyuga who rapidly departed.

I nodded along as the others prepared their own messages and moved to the next topic.

"Then to the other matter at hand. How are our seal masters in training doing?"

"Slow, too slow to participate if anything is to happen. We will have to make do with the barrier plans our anbu sneaked out during the invasion. It is up and running but given that Jiraya wasn't informed we can only count on the words of the anbu seal experts." – Choza replied, a man I could entrust with my life, as well as the head of the security team keeping the seal masters we were training to 'replace' Jiraya's influence on Konoha's shinobi forces as a seal master.

Given his constant interference and investigation on the Hokage, I would not be surprised to see his corpse showing up one of these days.

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(3rd Person POV)

Orochimaru was researching for his more… personal experiments. Something he had successfully kept hidden from everybody, trying to integrate Kei's biology into his own. Given the cells' adaptability, it wasn't hard. Rather it was so easy that Orochimaru held back for months before he decided to use it.

As he looked through a few charts, a bad feeling descended on him as he sensed a massive amount of chakra pressure him.

While being incredibly calm, Orochimaru awaited the figure to enter and as he heard the door open, he turned around as his eyes stopped below the figures for a fraction of a second before making contact.

"Kei-sama, how may I be of assistance?" – He asked calmly.

Kei's cold face merely looked at him unamused as he spoke while making his way inside.

"Kotoamatsukami implants memories and changes the way a person thinks together with it. You will probably never notice it, but it still doesn't stop you from growing beyond what I implant. With time people change… case and point, you have changed from the loyal dog that I made you become."

'So he did use that eye on me… that explains much about how I have acted, and yet I cannot tell what memories are fake even at this point.'

As Orochimaru took a small step back Kei stopped walking. It was then that Orochimaru felt something else that had so far been obstructed by Kei.

'Chakra chains, the entire room is sealed by them.' – Orochimaru thought.

"While I would have enjoyed further studying how you developed, I recently made an enemy that is quite troublesome. Given your recent behavior and what position you currently hold, I find you to be a liability."

*Crackle*

Kei spoke coldly as lightning started to dance in his right hand.