Chapter 71

Naruto exited Tsunade's office, his mind working furiously. If Sasuke had managed to kill Orochimaru, even though weakened, it was safe to say that the Uchiha now posed a credible threat to any shinobi in the field. Now that his name was about to be entered in the Bingo book, people were bound to go after him. His sharingan would have undoubtedly gotten more powerful since their last meeting, and depending on what tricks Sasuke had in his arsenal now in addition to the power of the cursed seal, Sasuke could potentially take on any shinobi below S-rank and win.

He paused and stepped aside as a shinobi nearly barreled into him in his rush to get to the Hokage's office. Raising an eyebrow, he wondered if he should be concerned.

"Urgent news Hokage-sama! Yakushi Kabuto has been assassinated!"

Naruto's mind screeched to a halt. Kabuto had been killed. That shouldn't have been possible, seeing as he was placed under the heaviest guard at T&I. ANBU constantly guarded the place 24/7, and it should have been impossible to sneak by them. Kabuto was a high value prisoner, and a treasure trove of information. He had been brought to Konoha so that the T&I could suck him dry of all the information he had bottled inside. His capture was one of the biggest successes Konoha had had when it came to the snake Sannin.

Deciding to think upon this later, Naruto proceeded to his home. He had a mission to prepare for.

Tsunade nearly trembled with rage as she inspected the scene inside T&I with Jiraiya, her ANBU and Ibiki. The latter kneeled behind her; head bowed. He himself was angry that someone had managed to sneak into his department and kill his prisoner, without him knowing about it until the job was done. For a branch of ANBU that was proud of their impeccable record when it came to managing prisoners, this was completely unacceptable.

"Ibiki."

"Hokage-sama?"

"….how did this happen? And under your watch too?"

Tsunade didn't scream, but she didn't need to. The entire place was saturated with her killing intent, enough to make even the ANBU on site sweat beneath their masks.

"I take full responsibility Hokage-sama. I assure you that my department will investigate this matter thoroughly, and we won't rest until we-"

"That you will Ibiki. You have no choice in the matter. You will not only investigate the breach in security, but you will build it back from scratch. Ryu!"

The commander of ANBU stepped forward. Unlike the entirety of ANBU force whose masks were based on animals, the commander wore the mask of a mythical beast. Not even the ANBU knew the identity of their commander, except for the Hokage. The ANBU commander also never made public appearances because their existence was hidden from even the jonin. Nobody but the ANBU forces and the Hokage was to know of their existence. Of course, it was assumed, and undeniably so, that the commander was a kage level shinobi and nothing less. It was a requirement, after all. Not only that, but the commander was a person who knew more secrets than even the Hokage.

"Hai Hokage-sama!"

The voice that came through the mask was distorted in order to protect the identity of the commander. Not standard issue. "I want to know who was behind this debacle, and I want to know it ASAP. I also want to know why the ANBU couldn't find the assassin. I want no stone left unturned. Am I clear?"

"Crystal clear, Hokage-sama."

Ryu knew better than to disappoint his leader. His job wasn't to ask questions, but to obey each and every order assigned to him. And he would deliver. This was a black mark on the ANBU, and it wouldn't be tolerated it until it was scrubbed clean. His ANBU were in for remedial training sessions, and painful ones at that. To think ANBU under his watch were not able to detect the assassin until it was too late…such incompetence was unacceptable. Heads would roll if he even heard a whisper of a mole within his organization.

"Ibiki, we need new security. You will be working with Jiraiya to create new seal arrays for security. Any questions?"

Ibiki's eyes flickered to Jiraiya's for just a moment before he responded. "I mean no disrespect to Jiraiya-sama, but word has it that Uzumaki Naruto has surpassed you in fuinjutsu. Wouldn't it be better to have him on board as well?"

"My apprentice would not be a part of this operation, Ibiki. Yes, it is true that he is a sealing master of a caliber that has surpassed me. His mastery of the Hiraishin no jutsu is a solid testament to that. But he has an S-rank mission coming up, so I think it's better if we leave him to his preparations." Jiraiya answered with folded arms.

Ibiki gave a quick bow. "Hai, Jiraiya-sama."

As Ibiki and Ryu left to start their respective investigations, Tsunade turned to Jiraiya. "Who do you think it could be?"

Jiraiya pursed his lips. "I don't have anything concrete right now, and let's not talk about this in the open."

Tsunade scowled and started to walk back to the office. "Dammit! We were so close to having him reveal Orochimaru's plans! We already have enough information about other villages that they would throw a riot if they were to know what we know about them. A little more time and we could have gotten some real information!"

Jiraiya sighed as he followed her. "Time is our greatest enemy, Tsunade. However, I believe that Kabuto's intel wouldn't matter much now, given that Orochimaru is dead."

"I'll have to think more on this. There's got to be something we can use."

Jiraiya nodded as a small smile crossed his face. "While you go and sulk, I'll head over to Naruto's for a chat. I want to see what he managed to come up with regarding Anko's cursed mark so far."

Tsunade frowned in confusion but then realized. "Ah, you don't know, do you?"

"Hm?"

Tsunade let a smirk cross her face, feeling a tiny bit proud that for once she knew something that Jiraiya didn't. "Naruto already removed the mark from Anko."

Jiraiya's head whirled around to stare at her. "What?!"

Tsunade made a sound of fake surprise. "Oh, you didn't know?"

A twitch developed under Jiraiya's eye as he stared at her, her eyes full of mirth. "And he didn't tell me….."

"I'm sure he'll tell you over dinner…now that I think about it, I think I'll come along with you."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at her. "Don't you have to brood over the mess made by T&I?"

Tsunade groaned, rolling her neck upwards. "Right now, I could use a break."

Needless to say, Naruto was surprised was when both the Sannin showed up at his door. "Yo Naruto!"

The blonde jonin gave them both a weird look but stepped aside, nonetheless. Five minutes later, all three of them were sitting inside in the living room drinking tea. Jiraiya released a sigh after finishing his cup. "I'm glad you remember how I like my tea, Naruto."

Naruto shrugged it off with modesty. "I'm your student, aren't I?"

Tsunade nudged her former teammate. "I don't remember you liking this particular blend of tea, Jiraiya."

Jiraiya shrugged, not telling her anything. Naruto shook his head, but then turned to Tsunade. "So, what brings you to my home?"

Tsunade set down her cup. "Just visiting. Can't we do even that?"

"So it's got nothing to do with Kabuto's death?"

He deadpanned at the sharp looks he received. Tsunade was outright glaring at him. "Where did you hear that?"

"Where do you think? Tell your," he made air quotes, ""office shinobi" to tell you your messages discreetly, not announce them to the whole tower."

Tsunade cursed under her breath while Jiraiya snickered. "Never did like those office shinobi anyway. Nothing but a bunch of lazy idiots."

Naruto folded his arms. "So, how did an assassin make it past all the security in T&I? I thought the ANBU were supposed to be the best of the best."

"ANBU are looking into that. That's all you need to know right now."

Naruto nodded, contemplating mentally just how someone managed to get past more than half a dozen ANBU without getting caught. It wasn't until he remembered how he used to break into ANBU for stealth practice that it hit him. The weight of how easily he would sneak inside the headquarters. Back then it never struck him that his success meant there was a very big hole in their security.

"-and I've asked Jiraiya to work with Ibiki to design a new set of security seals."

Naruto drummed his fingers on his leg. "Do you need any help?"

Tsunade shook her head. "No need. Just concentrate on preparing for your mission."

"Alright. At least tell me you've got suspects?"

Tsunade rubbed her forehead tiredly. "Nothing concrete yet."

Naruto tilted his head. "There has to be something. It can't be Orochimaru, for we know the man is dead. And we can rule out any other of his subordinates, for they shouldn't be smart enough to plan an operation like this."

Jiraiya lifted an eyebrow challengingly. "Why not?"

"Because if there was a subordinate of Orochimaru who has the spine to plan and execute his master's assassination, all to protect secrets, right inside one of the big five villages, we would have known. And an assassin that is better than our ANBU? Shinobi like that don't go unnoticed by the others. While we're on that, it can't be any of the other four villages either." Naruto speculated.

"And why not? There could be a possibility that the others got the wind of our source of information. Or that they knew that Kabuto had dirt on them." Tsunade challenged him.

Naruto shook his finger at her. "Kabuto has proven himself to be a master in infiltration. I doubt the others even knew about him. Heck, we didn't know until we fought him and Orochimaru together. If the others knew just how important Kabuto was to Orochimaru, they would have put in effort sooner to get rid of him or better, capture him for their own sake. Because nuke nin or not, Orochimaru has pissed off nearly every shinobi village in the world. They would be trying to get rid of him as well, but they just don't put in as much effort as we do."

"Suna is our ally, and they didn't know about our reconnaissance mission. We can rule them out. Iwa and Kumo are out as well; I know for a fact that no one saw us capturing Kabuto and even if they did, I doubt they saw him as a person of interest. Kiri is keeping itself on the downlow, as they're still recovering from their civil war. They wouldn't want a mess on their hands this soon. The smaller villages wouldn't dare infiltrate the land of fire, much less Konoha unless they believe they have what it takes to challenge us in a war. So that leave us with…."

Jiraiya didn't show it, but at the moment he was very proud of Naruto. He had systematically cut down the suspect list one by one, all backed up with solid logic. Jiraiya hadn't just trained Naruto in combat, but he also taught the blonde how to gather information, how to use the information accordingly, how to work with the information he already has, and make logical deductions. He taught Naruto how to work with his spy network too just in case he needed to in the future. For years, Jiraiya had been gathering information on other nations and their villages as part of his work as a spymaster. He had made a lot of notes on how they worked, what weak spots they had, what kind of bargaining chips could be used etc.

And now, all that studying was being put to good use. Of course, Jiraiya had already narrowed down the suspects in his own mental list. He let Naruto speculate to see whether the blonde would arrive at the same conclusion as he did.

Naruto pursed his lips as he considered the last option on the suspect list. It seemed very unlikely to him, but all the other possibilities had been eliminated. "Given that no other nation or village has the resources or the motive to go after Kabuto, this leaves us with…Konoha."

Tsunade's eyes narrowed dangerously. "What are you trying to say?"

Naruto nodded, knowing that she was thinking the same thing. "I'm saying that there is a possibility that this could be an inside job."

There was only one person in Konoha who could be considered shady, even by shinobi standards, but even Tsunade was hesitant. "Do you mean Danzo? Sure, he ran Root but I don't think even he would go that far to kill a POI to Konoha. He would know better; Kabuto was more useful to us alive than dead."

Naruto shrugged and spread his hands. "Why do people have other people killed? Some do it out of revenge, some do it for the sake of theft of an important item, but most people do it because they feel threatened. Kabuto probably knew something about the skeletons in Danzo's closet, and Danzo knew this too. So it would stand to reason that he could have had Kabuto killed in order to protect his secrets….but it's all speculation at this point."

If Tsunade was still holding her glass, Naruto was sure it would have shattered due to the strength behind the fist that she was making. Even Jiraiya had discreetly scooted away a little.

Naruto might have said that he was just speculating, but saying it out loud really made sense to him that Danzo was the best possibility. Of course, he had no evidence, but Danzo was too good for that. The man had been a shinobi for as long as the Sandaime and had a very dark reputation.

Tsunade nodded to herself. Naruto's speculations made sense, even if he didn't have the proof to back them up. His speculation of Danzo's motive lined up with what she knew about the man, and he also had Root ninja working for him. It was possible that he sent one of them disguised as a regular ANBU to perform the kill.

"You make very good points Naruto. I'll look into the possibility."

She was going to have his ass dragged to her first thing in the morning. And given how chummy Danzo was with Homura and Koharu, that made them suspects by association. On the side, this mess actually gave her a pretty good reason to investigate into the elders as well. Maybe if she was lucky, she could find enough evidence to boot them out.

"Actually Hokage-sama, I have a request if you don't mind?"

"Oh?"

"I want access to Uchiha Itachi's file."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow back. "To prepare for the mission. What else?"

Tsunade contemplated his statement for a moment before she stood up. "Come by the office tomorrow morning and we'll talk. Thanks for the tea and goodnight, Naruto."

Naruto stood up as well, a little confused. "Not the answer I was hoping for, but see you tomorrow I guess."

Jiraiya turned back and winked at him. "Don't worry Naruto. She's just in a bad mood."

"Yeah, I can understand why." Naruto dryly replied.

He saw them jump away and closed the door with a sigh. It seemed that Temari wouldn't be coming home tonight after all.

Looks like it's Uchiha's turn now. I say it's about time.

Naruto's head jerked up at Kurama's sudden voice. You're awake? That's novel.

Ha! It's been a while since you've done anything interesting. Why the hell should I be awake when your daily routine would only bore me to sleep?

It's not boring! It's important!

Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.

Naruto huffed as he proceeded to the bedroom. Sometimes it's hard to tell that you're a centuries old creature with the way you act.

Human affairs hold little interest to me. But the Uchiha…it's personal when it comes to them.

Out of curiosity, do you hate all of them?

…there is only one person that deserves my complete hatred, and that is Uchiha Madara.

I can understand why, but-

Others are plain irritating pests. I don't hate the people; I hate how the Uchiha corrupted the power of the Sharingan.

What do you mean corrupted?

But Kurama would say no more. Naruto could only ponder on the words of the bijuu as he went to sleep.