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IMPORTANT!!! Today was a double update, so make sure you've read Chapter 29 before you read this one. Enjoy!

THIRTY:

Sansa sipped her tea, cradling it between her hands. Before her, Danzo sat with a contemplative look on his face. He seemed unusually preoccupied, which was unusual for him.

"Is there something on your mind, Danzo-sama?" she asked.

At first, Danzo appeared as if he were about to dismiss her concerns, which she had expected, only then he hesitated.

"It is my belief," he said to her slowly, "that people are free to make their own choices in life."

Sansa blinked. "I find that quite difficult to believe," she said and Danzo's mouth quirked slightly.

"What they are not free from," he continued, as if she had not interrupted, "are the consequences that their every choice will bring. I was never very interested in studying the sciences, but my sensei was quite the researcher and I picked up a few things from him. One of which was the idea that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. I feel that this applies to more than just objects in motion. People make their choices, people act on those choices, and in return they reap their consequences for those choices."

"In an ideal world that would be true, yes," Sansa agreed, "but there are those who do not have the freedom to make choices, or whose choices are made for them, and they must then suffer the consequences for the choices made by their lords and masters."

"True," Danzo said, before giving her a thoughtful look. "Tell me, Megitsune, if you were the Hokage, what would your reaction be if one of the clans in your village was planning to overthrow you?"

Sansa did not even have to think about her answer. "There is only one sentence for treason," she said icily, remembering the traitorous Boltons, remembering the treacherous Freys, and feeling a dark loathing unfurl inside her; a vicious and pitiless thing, with no mercy to be found in its hollow, withered heart.

Your words will disappear. Your House will disappear. Your name will disappear. All memory of you will disappear.

When people ask you what happened here, tell them the North remembers. Tell them winter came for House Frey.*

"If I were Hokage," Sansa said, her voice cold as the Long Night itself, "I would put every man and soldier of the clan to death." She paused briefly, recalling that in Konoha, the women were trained soldiers– or rather, shinobi– too. "Every man, shinobi and soldier of the clan," she corrected herself.

"And the non-combatant women and children?" Danzo asked.

"I would take their gold and their titles, but I would let them live as a warning to all others in the village," Sansa said, because there was as much power in a pardon as there was in an execution. "It would be proof of my mercy and mercilessness both. They would serve as permanent warnings to the consequence of treason."

Only once had Sansa had to make a true example during her rule as Queen of the North, a massacre that had later been memorialised in the ballad "the Ice Queen of the North". She had opened the Gift to the Free Folk for those who wished to settle south of the True North, and for those clans who remained in the True North she had opened up trading posts so they may make trade with villages instead of thieving as they once had in a past she hoped to make distant and forgotten in the wake of their Dawn victory.

But it was not to be and Sansa had later cursed her naivety for believing it could be so.

A group of men from one of the villages had banded together to attack a trading post. The Free Folk hadn't been expecting it; they were women, children and youths, those who had travelled to make peaceful trade and witness for themselves what life would be south of the True North. The Free Folk had all been slaughtered and the clans shouted for justice, while the villagers closed ranks.

Sansa's rule had still been new at the time, uncertain. She had known if she did not deal wisely with the situation she would be seen as weak, her rule of the North as a farce. Sansa had had no intention of letting any see her stumble– especially not the Dragon Queen in the South, whose spies must surely be reporting to her on every aspect of the happenings.

She had sent Arya into the village in question, her many-faced Spy Mistress and her strays seeking out the information she needed. Then, with a force of her own soldiers and Tormund at her side, a guest then that she had invited to make a statement, she had had each of the men Arya had pronounced guilty dragged before her.

The one who passes the sentence swings the sword, her father had always said. Sansa was not strong enough to swing a sword. But she was strong enough to wield Arya's Valyrian dagger and to slit the throats of twenty-seven men, their hot blood splashing on her hands and dress.

"I declared the Free Folk citizens of the North," she addressed the crowd coldly as the bodies were left to cool at her feet. "I declared them under the banner of my protection. To harm them is to defy me. To defy me is treason. In the North, there is only one sentence for treason."

Those watching had dropped to their knees and Sansa's heart had ached, remembering her vow, so long ago, so convinced she had been then that love was a surer route to the people's loyalty than fear. If I am ever a queen, she had decided, with a dewy-eyed innocence that Sansa barely remembered, I'll make them love me.

And the people did love her. They did love their Ice Queen, their Queen of the North, their Queen who had refused to kneel to the dragons, who had fought for the independence that their kingdom had bled for.

But they feared her too. And it was then, with her hands soaked in blood and corpses at her feet as her people kneeled before her that Sansa understood that as much as they may love her, they would always fear her.

Across the desk from Sansa, Danzo smiled, his scars twisting and stretching as unpleasantly as always. "You always offer such an interesting perspective on matters, Megitsune," he said. She wasn't surprised. It wasn't as if there was anyone else in the Elemental Nations who was a reborn Queen of an entirely different planet.

"Traitors," Sansa replied icily and without an ounce of remorse, "do not deserve second chances."

Her brave brothers, Robb and Rickon, and her beautiful lady mother, they had all been killed by traitorous, treasonous Houses, Houses that had spat on their oaths to their liege lords. Sansa held no forgiveness in her heart for such disloyalty.

Sansa did not consider herself a traitor to Konoha, though she understood others might. She had never sworn her loyalty to Danzo, or to the village, for all they assumed it. She was an Uzumaki; her loyalty lay with Uzushio, the island nation she and her brother were heirs of, not to the village that had failed her true homeland. Sansa had made no oaths, had broken no bread, and she never would. But the clans of this village, they who had sworn their oaths, they who had given their loyalty; if they planned rebellion, planned betrayal? That made them traitors.

Traitors deserved only death.

"I do enjoy our tea," Danzo mused, placing his empty cup down on his desk. "Thank you for your insight today, Megitsune."

"Of course, Danzo-sama," Sansa said, bowing her head slightly.

She left Danzo's office with a sense of unease weighing down on her. It was clear there was a state of political unrest stirring in Konoha and while she did not care for the village itself, she did care for Naruto and she knew better than most how it was the young and the innocent who suffered during war. She could only hope that Danzo dealt with the treason– before it could turn to war.

~

Uchiha Itachi knelt before the bandaged councillor who looked down at him impassively. "They are preparing to move," he said quietly and Shimura Danzo nodded.

"Then it is time," he said. "Do you understand your orders, shinobi?"

"Yes," Uchiha Itachi bowed his head. "I do."

"Then go," Shimura Danzo said. "Go and fulfil your duty to Konoha. Go, so the village may know peace."

Uchiha Itachi went.

~

"Seven counter seals," Sansa murmured, letting her chakra unravel from the complicated twists and curves she'd guided it into, flowing freely once more under her skin. "Seven counter seals, one to go."

"You're so close now," Shin said quietly, his eyes closed as he leaned against her where they were both hidden in one of the training rooms under a light genjutsu Shin had cast. Their masks were both discarded beside them, something that would earn them harsh discipline if it was discovered but was worth the risk for a moment or two of being human. Without his mask, however, it was clear to see how exhaustion clung to Shin's thin face and Sansa could smell the sickness on him, like a rot.

"Close. But not close enough," Sansa said what they both knew. Shin's lips twitched into a tired smile, even as he didn't bother to open his eyes.

"You're going to be one of the greatest seal-mistresses alive," he said.

"Which means nothing if I can't help you," Sansa said helplessly.

While Sansa and Shin had originally taken Shin's near-permanent exhaustion to be a result of stress as they waited for the inevitable death-match between him and Koi, it had slowly revealed itself to be something far more insidious– a creeping sickness that stole his breath and poisoned his lungs, making him waste away before her.

Root didn't waste their time with sick shinobi.

Sansa and Shin both knew that there were only three options left for him– either Sansa killed Danzo and Shin received treatment at Konoha's hospital, the sickness caught up to him and he died, or the death-match was finally scheduled and Shin threw it so Koi would live.

Two of those options led to Shin's death, and only one, the most difficult and improbable of them all, gave even a chance of him living.

"I could try killing Danzo without chakra," Sansa offered and Shin laughed.

"Thanks," he said, actually opening his eyes so he could look up at her and smile, amusement crinkling his grey eyes. Stark-grey eyes, Sansa couldn't help but think every time she looked into them. It made her heart ache with longing, grief, loss and joy, made her want to cling to Shin, to bury her face against his chest and weep. "I needed that laugh."

Sansa shifted, sliding down so her head was resting in his lap, her slowly growing hair spooling out over his thighs. His thin fingers gently ran through the lengthening red strands and she closed her eyes. "I don't know what I'd do without you," she said, so soft it was barely audible. She immediately felt the muscles in Shin's thighs tense, his gentle grip of her hair suddenly tightening.

"You'll keep Koi safe for me," he said fiercely, "you'll keep him alive. You'll free him, you'll introduce him to your Naruto and you'll teach him how to live. Promise me, Fuyuko!"

Sansa let out a shuddering breath. "Of course," she vowed. "Of course I will. If– if the worst happens… I will look after him, I give you my word."

Shin tugged her hair until she sat up, leaning against him so they were sitting curled together, Shin pressing his face into the curve of her neck and they held each other with too-tight, too-desperate grips, breathing together, as one.

(Sansa very carefully didn't think about the rattle as Shin exhaled. She just focused on holding him)

~

When Sansa returned from her next mission with Kaeru, exhausted and emotionally wrought, Koi had been moved from the barracks for the recruits to the main barracks and his eyes were empty.

She didn't even have to ask. Koi had graduated.

Shin was dead.

~

Sansa wondered if Danzo should have had her fight Shin instead of Serena, if the purpose of the final fight was to kill their emotions. After Serena's death, Sansa had felt grief, such wretched grief and guilt. After Shin's death, Sansa just felt numb. Empty. When even the ancient chakra construct sealed inside her was worried, Sansa could acknowledge there was a problem.

Shin had been her constant, her closest companion and confidant, for nearly three years– and maybe that didn't seem like so long, not when she was decades old in truth, but that was nearly half her time in this world and they had spent nearly every minute of it together, they had been tortured together, Shin had helped piece her back together after missions that shattered her apart, he had carved open her skin to pick shards of glass out of her back, had brushed away her tears on the rare occasions she let them fall. They had been close as blood. They had been Pack.

And now he was dead. And Sansa didn't know how to deal with that. So she just… wasn't.

She was doing her training. She was doing her missions. She was doing tea with Danzo. She was… existing.

She just wasn't living. And she couldn't find it within herself to do so.

Distantly, she wondered if this was it. If Danzo had finally done as he said he would. If he had finally broken her.

(Cersei had warned her. The more people you loved, the weaker you were)

~

Kakashi slipped through the dark, winding streets of Konoha, exhausted and wanting nothing more than to collapse back into his bed. He'd been running back-to-back missions since Itachi had snapped and massacred the majority of his clan, sparing only the young children who hadn't even entered the Academy, the civilian women, and his younger brother. To say that it was a mess was an understatement on the same level as calling the Kyuubi Incident an inconvenience, and there was a wretched part of Kakashi that felt responsible, that felt as if he should have noticed that a member of his own squad was so close to cracking–

"Hey, shinobi-san!"

Kakashi almost didn't stop, except the girl actually stepped into his path and that was unusual for any of the street rats of Konoha's seedier corners, especially as he was still wearing his Inu mask.

Even with her sallow cheeks and pale skin, the girl had a touch of Nara about her features, in the curve of her brow, the dark sweep of her hair and the piercing dark eyes that gleamed with intelligence. She was no doubt the result of an unprotected visit to a brothel and Kakashi wondered absently if he should let Shikaku know– the Jōnin Commander would be furious at his clansman when he found out who fathered her, and Shikaku would find out.

He didn't say anything, just stood there silently, waiting for the bastard girl to speak. She frowned at him for a long moment, her head tilted slightly as her eyes swept up and down over him, seeming to catalogue every part of him in disturbing detail. Definitely a Nara. "You're Inu, right?" She asked sharply.

"…Yes," he said after a long moment and the Nara bastard nodded.

"You're a hard man ta find," she said shortly, and somehow she made it sound like this was a failing on his part. "Girl named Fuyuko was looking for ya. Now she's missing. Thought ya should know."

It took Kakashi a few seconds to really register what she'd just said. When he did, he couldn't help the Killing Intent that exploded out of him. The girl flinched, the blood draining from her face, but she stood her ground.

"What?" he snarled.

The Nara bastard grinned at him, all teeth and bitterness and nothing even slightly friendly about her.

"Yeah, she asked us ta keep an eye out for ya. Didn't want us to make contact, just wanted a sighting. That was about three years ago." She leaned forwards slightly, a challenge in her eyes. "She disappeared not long after."

Kakashi couldn't breathe, couldn't even think properly. The Nara bastard seemed to realise that and she took pity on him, leaning back.

"Naru-chan's fine," she said, and something in Kakashi's chest loosened slightly. "We take care of him," the girl went on. "Old Man Hokage keeps telling him Fuyuko's sick. That she's gotta special sorta sickness and he can't visit her, so we don't think she's dead. But Naru-chan ain't seen her in three years now, and he says the Old Man's a liar and Naru-chan's got good instincts. He knows when someone's lying so I believe him."

Kakashi forced himself to exhale, before the white spots in his vision expanded any further. "Can you," he managed to say, "get Naruto somewhere safe for the next few days? Somewhere hidden?"

The Nara bastard narrowed her eyes. "Why?" she demanded and Kakashi met her dark, intelligent eyes and smiled, even though she wouldn't be able to see it behind his Inu mask. The smile wasn't even remotely friendly.

"Because," he said, "I'm going to go find Fuyuko and I'm going to rip apart anyone in my way."

The Nara bastard smiled right back at him, just as unfriendly, something grimly satisfied in her dark eyes. "It's about fucking time," she said. "If you survive, visit Madame Ai's and say you're looking for Komorebi. Someone will take you to Naru-chan."

Kakashi nodded shortly. "Thank you," he told her. "I owe you a debt."

"You do," the girl agreed bluntly. "And one day, I'm going to call you on it."

~

Kakashi went to Tenzo. His first instinct had been to summon his Pack so they could help him hunt Fuyuko down, but that would have been useless for a trail more than three years old, and if Sarutobi hadn't sent out every single fucking search party in Konoha for a missing Jinchuriki then Kakashi already knew exactly who had Fuyuko. So Tenzo was the obvious first stop.

Tenzo knew Root better then Kakashi did; compared to the years Tenzo had spent there, Kakashi had been part of that wretched, filthy organisation for just over a year and a half. He still had nightmares about the horrific missions he'd been assigned while within its ranks; him, a shinobi who'd sharpened his teeth in wartime. Fuyuko was a child. Three years ago, she would have just been four years old. Now, she'd be only seven. What horrors had she been forced to endure in those three years that he had thought her to be safe? To be protected?

He had accepted the Hokage's ban on him going anywhere near the twins. He'd been unhappy about it, to say the very least, but after he had killed that boy at the orphanage and then served in Root up until the unfortunate incident where he was manipulated into almost being complicit in an assassination on his Hokage **, Kakashi had accepted his judgment was flawed and he had trusted the Hokage to know what was best for the twins as he could not trust himself to.

But he had been wrong.

Barely able to restrain the violence inside him, that sharp-toothed predator in his soul that howled its rage and bloodlust, Kakashi didn't bother with doors, instead swinging in through Tenzo's window, disabling the traps set there with extreme prejudice.

"Kakashi-senpai?" Tenzo blinked owlishly at him as he shuffled into the living room of the small apartment, still ruffled from sleep and wary but not quite-yet alarmed.

"Danzo has Fuyuko," Kakashi snarled, not bothering with any sort of opening to soften the blow of the words. Tenzo's eyes widened with panic and horror both before settling on determination.

"When are we going to get her?" he asked, which was exactly why Kakashi had first spared his life and then later helped convince the Hokage to have him removed from Root.

"Right now."

~

*Yes, Arya said this one, but you better believe that she told Sansa every single little detail about what she did to the Freys. And on this note, I know a lot of fics are about preventing the Uchiha Massacre, but I think Sansa would have very little empathy/pity for a clan/House rebelling against their 'liege lord' – especially as she only has Danzo's side of the story. If she knew more about the treatment the Uchiha, she might support them. Or she might tell them to just secede from Konoha like she's planning, instead of starting a civil war. Who knows?

**For those who don't know Kakashi's ANBU Arc (part of canon), during the brief period that Kakashi is part of Root Danzo plots to have Sarutobi assassinated and Kakashi is somewhat complicit as he knows about the plot and spies on Sarutobi until he realises that Danzo stopped Tenzo from fighting on the night that the Kyuubi attacked, meaning the Kyuubi could have been defeated with Mokuton and Minato might have lived. My timeline is a bit wibbly-wobbly compared to the actual timeline (there's actually about three years between the foiled assassination and Tenzo being liberated from Root and then another two before the Uchiha Massacre) but let's not be too nit-picky :)