Orochimama

Hatake Kakashi stared up at the stars in silence. He was an hour late for meeting up with his team, so he'd need to wrap up his introspection in the next hour or so. Ordinarily, he'd have spent the time staring at the Memorial Stone. The activity didn't evoke the same feeling it used to. Seeing Obito's name on the stone now just sent his mind spiraling in questions. It made him antsy, made him feel like he had to move, to act, to prepare. Defeated the whole point of staring at the Memorial and feeling sorry for himself. He'd had to find other things to do with life. He actually FOLDED his laundry instead of having just a bin of clean laundry and a bin of dirty. It was vexing.

So, he'd starting finding new things to stare at to ponder his dark thoughts. So far, the stars were working pretty well. It could also be done from almost anywhere, so people would have a harder time tracking him down. Though clearly, he'd remained in place for too long.

"Hatake." Anko greeted as the woman came up from behind him and, without asking, settled down on the roof next to him.

"Congratulations." Kakashi responded, not turning to look at the woman and instead opted to continue to stare at the stars.

"Thanks." She said and Kakashi almost did a double take. Just thanks? No cursing? No telling him to fuck off? No insinuation of what he could do instead of thank her?

The woman had clearly gone through something by getting the seal removed.

"Pain?" He asked.

"None since it was removed. Though that hurt like a bitch." Anko responded.

Kakashi hummed, and let things lapse into silence. Anko pulled one leg up so her foot rested flat on the roof and leaned her head on her knee, but otherwise remained silent. Another unusual thing from Anko. It was why he usually avoided the woman; she was a perfectly fine ninja, but he found her to not be someone he would actively seek the company of.

They managed a full ten minutes of silence when Anko spoke again. "I imagined being free of the seal would go very differently."

"How did you imagine it?" He asked, though he already had a decent idea.

"Orochimaru's head on a spike while I dance naked around the burning pyre that contained the rest of his body."

Damn. Kakashi would have guessed a slow torturous death would factor more into her thoughts.

"Disappointed?"

"Fuck yeah." Anko answered.

They lapsed into a companionable silence again. This one lased only two minutes. A disturbing trend, it was like the woman actually wanted to socialize with him. That was not the point of this exercise, and she was quickly losing the right to brood at the stars with him.

"Do you think she is Orochimaru? Actually?" Anko asked.

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Kakashi raised an eyebrow at her, finally turning from the stars. "Why ask me?"

"You're the only one with the appropriate clearance that I could ask that doesn't have all kinds of feelings and shit about it. Plus, you spent the most time with her of any ninja. Rumor has it you even-"

"No. We are not doing that." Kakashi cut her off.

Anko got a smirk, but suppressed it. This would not be the last time he heard that allusion, but he'd mentally prepared for it. As time went on, it really wasn't hurting his reputation or anything. Plus Orochitama had appeared before a large crowd. They saw her and her whole...Orochitama-ness. Mostly stupid chunin kept trying to high five him.

"Fine. But still, what do you think? Same person? Do you actually believe all that shit about souls meshing or whatever?" Her voice was bitter, but not the biting rage filled kind. She was unsatisfied, but not rageful.

"There is enough change that I don't see it all being a lie. She is absolutely using and manipulating us for what she thinks is best, but she's had too many displays of empathy. It can't be a complete lie, if only because there would be much easier ways to lie and arrive at this same place."

Anko was quiet for a few heartbeats. "So you think she's a different person?"

"I think that the answer to that question is so philosophical that it doesn't matter."

"So...she is some souls smashed together?" She asked. Kakashi realized all at once what she really was looking for. She wanted him to tell her how to feel about this stranger. She was full of rage for someone that, for all intents and purposes, was basically dead aside from the being walking around that was Orochitama. She wanted to know if she needed to let go of the hatred, or channel it with renewed vigor.

Well tough.

"I dunno."

Her eye twitched. "What do you mean you don't know?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Exactly what I said. I don't have the answers. She could be a clone, or a daughter that he was open and honest with, or an alien that ate his brain and absorbed his knowledge. I don't know and I'll never know. Orochimaru and Orochitama are masterful manipulators and any amount of evidence will never completely wipe away all doubt about what happened. You have to decide for yourself what you want to believe and deal with your inner doubts like all good ninja do." ř

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"And how does a good ninja deal with that?"

Kakashi very slowly turned to the woman and gave her the most dead in the eyes look he was capable of. "Anko. Do I look like I figured that out?"

"Fuck." Anko said before they again lapsed into silence.

It was a new tactic from him. One that he stole off Orochitama, frankly. For a long time, he had been taught that being aloof, distant, and strong was the way to impress others and make them dance to your tune. You could be odd or tired, but you conceal your weakness so it couldn't be used against you. However, he found Orochitama used a different method to devastating effect. Acknowledge your weakness and then wield it as a weapon. Display the weakness when it gets you what you want, but in a way that shows you're aware of it so people don't think it's a viable method of attack.

It also made people shut up WAY faster.

"Well, I should get going. My cute team is probably thinking about going to get dinner without me at this point, so I'm gonna show up and guilt them when they start to leave." Kakshi said and he stood.

"You're meeting your brats this late at night?" Anko asked.

"Yeah, gotta tell them that I'm letting Orochitama turn me into a jinchuriki and that I'm probably going to be Hokage soon."

"I'm sorry, what?" Anko asked, eyes wide.

Kakashi ignored her and disappeared. No further questions answered and no way of knowing if he was just fucking with her.

xxxx

The Raikage, A, gave the report a troubled expression. This was not how he had expected things to go.

"Is there no way we can silence the messenger before they get here?" A asked the ninja kneeling before him.

Samui didn't look up from her position. "I could take care of him, but he was making a scene everywhere he went announcing that he was delivering the summons. If we take him out, it would be extremely suspicious. I also recognized him as one of Waterfall's fastest couriers. Unless we deploy a high level team, we can't be sure of a quiet kill."

The Raikage gave a disgruntled sound and massaged his forehead.

"Thank you for letting me know. You were right to drop everything and report back. Continue on with your mission." He ordered with a dismissive wave.

Samui stood up from her kneeling position, gave one final bow, and left the room.

It took profound effort for A to not smash his desk then and there. He expected movement from Konoha by now, and they hadn't lifted a finger to attack their traitor. They had done nothing about the loss of face from that sham of a carnival put on Konoha's doorstep. Was Konoha even more weak willed that he thought? He knew they tended to be a bit limp wristed in anything public facing, but this level of disgrace with no action would make their reputation plumet.

Or this new village, Hidden Tunnel, would have their reputation skyrocket at Konoha's expense. A terrible thing to give a village manned by one of your traitors. Then again, they could just be dragging their feet.

"Bee, why are you lurking in my window?" He said aloud after he got his thoughts in order enough to actually address his brother.

The large form of his brother swung into the room from where he had been perched over the window leading into the office.

"Just seein' what's up, wanted to see if you was down for having a cup. Heard you were in a meeting so I settled for some peeping."

"If you want to talk to me, come in through the secretary like a normal person!" Bee yelled.

"Hey, don't get so mad at me bro, the lobby is too slow...and doesn't have a view of some bangin' pillows."

A's eye twitched. So it had been the view of Samui's bow doing certain things to her anatomy. On one hand, he could understand the impulse, on the other hand-

"Bee. I am going to tell her you were doing that." A growled out.

His brother paled. "Hey now there, no need to be square. I came with information, no need to put me in a sticky situation."

"What information?" A asked. "I don't suppose it's also about a messenger on his way here loudly calling for a Kage Summit? If so, I just got that one."

"A summit? Ballsy to call it, I expected Konoha to wall it. Aren't they building up for a hit, a brawl, beat down and keelhaul?" Bee asked, taking off his glasses in surprise.

"At this point, I'm not sure. They called Jiraiya and Tsunade both back to the village and our spies have reported the two still haven't left. There have been a few high level meetings taking place, but I don't know anything for certain. At first, I thought they were mobilizing, but it's been too long for it to be just that." A stated as he leafed through some papers. There were some notes too that Root had also gone dark as well. Konoha's shadowy hand going dark wasn't unusual though. At least, not in the wide scale of things. They were the kind of organization that tended to spook and cut all operations suddenly and without warning. Though it could just be that they were trying to focus on integrating into positions in Hidden Tunnel.

"I might have another clue, I came to tell you, Gyuki talked to the biju. Sanbi piped up that he's not missing in action, he was grabbed for some faction and gave a warning with heavy redaction. He wasn't grabbed by Akatsuki, he's willingly bent knee and chose not to be free."

"He willingly submitted again to Kiri?" A asked in shock. From his understanding, the seal that contained the Three Tails had been almost as much about bringing pain to the Sanbi as it was about sealing him.

"No. It's somebody new." Bee said and A actually stopped for a moment. There hadn't been a rhyme.

This was serious.

A's mind began making connections. There were very few things that could tempt Konoha from not attacking Koudou while it was still forming, and a Tailed Beast would be one of them. The fear that Orochitama's new village had grabbed it in the fall of the Mizukage had been one of the major pushing factors to attack the infant village. However, if they had given it to Konoha to get them to back off- well, it still wasn't good news but it did make the value of going to war against Orochitama questionable. He was confident that Iwa would still jump in if he attacked, and he was also confident that he could win.

However, with the factor of Orochitama, he wasn't sure she didn't have something up her sleeve to make sure everyone lost. The Sanbi also being complicit had implications that had to be examined too.

"Konoha is bribed with the Sanbi and who knows what else to help spice up the deal. She's already owed favors from Kiri, and there have been some rumors of ties to Suna." A said aloud.

Bee gave a nod of agreement. "If they like to hand out a bribe, we gotta feel the vibe. Iwa might act a friend to see to our end."

A smashed his desk into splinters. "Damn it all!"

Bee was right. He had no guarantee who would hop in to aide the new village. If Konoha was successfully bribed to stay out of it, he had no way of knowing that other villages weren't too. He wasn't putting the idea of attacking out completely, but- ugh.

"Bee, make yourself useful and tell Darui to not take any new missions." He would have to go to the damn meeting and try to feel out the other Kage.

In the meantime, "And get some eggheads to figure out why she wants this shit transmitted where the whole village can see it."