A/N This interlude takes place while Tetsuo is away on his first mission out of the city, between Genin 4.10 and 4.11. Readers from a while back will notice that they've seen this chapter before. It's been polished up and made a bit nicer but the details are largely unchanged. You don't need to re-read it if you have before, though it should be noticeably better this time around.

Beta'd as always by Bob Saget, who is getting increasingly good at adding in improvements.

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Interlude Sarutobi Hiruzen

The Hokage sat at his desk, freshly drawn privacy seals glowed a cool blue before him as the sunlight streamed in from behind. He faced a horror as old as civilisation. For centuries mankind has fought it in a million battles of a thousand strokes, yet with every passing year it grew stronger. Proud backs had been bowed and idealistic fighters jaded. The enemy was insurmountable and never ending.

Paperwork.

Currently his attention was held by two identical scrolls with identical broken wax seals depicting stylized storm clouds, and three small notes. One note informed him that the scrolls were safe and lacked chakra, poison, or any of the other subtle tools of the shinobi art. It also informed him they lacked a trackable scent or any other means of finding the original sender of the scrolls. The second explained that they had been dropped off separately an hour ago, just after lunch, by two different disadvantaged youths who claimed to have been paid to follow the instructions of a short, masked figure. The youths were awaiting questioning. The third told him that the two chuunin who had received and opened the scrolls had volunteered to stay at a security post within the building as a show of loyalty, which had saved him the bother of ordering them held. He made a quick note to find some minor way to show his appreciation. It rarely hurt to reinforce good behaviour.

The door made a carefully tuned noise as it opened, unobtrusive but still loud enough that it would be heard. A tanned man with two long curving scars across his face entered. The visitor's eyes glimmered as they darted across the room, his bearing low and dangerous. Dark hair was pulled back into a jagged ponytail and ears held silver rings while his chin sported a sharp goatee.

"Shikaku," greeted Hiruzen seriously, skipping the normal greetings. "The contents of this scroll include multiple S-rank secrets. I do not need to tell you that they can be shared with no-one."

Nara Shikaku, jounin commander of Konoha, decided to comment on the most obvious sign that something was amiss. "You're not using your normal privacy seals."

"My reasoning will become clear, I'm sure," his words were slow and ponderous with a certain indefinable weight to them. To him, it was as if each syllable cleaved away at the possible futures where things could remain the same. Branches were lopped away from the routes that allowed the relative peace of these last 5 years to continue, until the only paths left were filled with strife and the looming spectre of war. "I would have your assessment be untainted by my own conclusions." He heaved a sigh, and for a moment the man felt every day of his 68 years. "I am afraid I cannot be impartial in this matter, so I would hear your thoughts. Sit, read."

As Shikaku read, the Hokage stoked his long pipe and and paid careful attention to his reaction while appearing to look over his own copy of the scroll. There were truths in there that could be taken badly by a clan head, and the Ino-Shika-Cho clan bloc was a powerful force within Konoha. Though he believed he had made the right decision in bringing this to Shikaku, there was no way of truly knowing how he would react.



For the eyes of the Hokage of Konoha only

From the desk of Arashi

I hope my timely message 8 years ago informing you of the Kumo Affair will lead you to give my words the weight they deserve. I do not, however, expect you to believe everything I have to say outright. Trust, but verify. I have therefore ordered the intelligence I will pass on to you according to how easy it will be for you to make sure I am telling the truth.

If you have a means of ensuring privacy, I suggest you do so now. Your ANBU and staff are likely infiltrated and I cannot guarantee that there are no Hyuuga among the enemy. If you use privacy seals I cannot guarantee they have not been subverted.

The Nara jounin commander inhaled a soft breath before turning back to the scroll, his movements deliberate.



You will obviously want to keep watch upon those members of your staff who have had access to this scroll, particularly if the second seal is broken. If this information were to fall into the wrong hands it would be disastrous. I have sent two scrolls in the hope that if one is lost or otherwise diverted the vital intelligence will still reach you. If you have received only one scroll, then you must hurry.



The rest of the scroll had been sealed behind a thick line of red wax, which was broken. "Non-standard method of sealing scroll. Cultural or individual affectation?" Shikaku mused aloud. "They were secure?" He asked.

"So far as we can tell," Hiruzen replied. "There is no sign of them being re-sealed and all personnel to come into contact with them are being held. Now, refresh my memory on this Arashi."

"Arashi. Unknown if alias or real name. Gender unknown. Shows up almost a decade ago with valuable intelligence about imminent kidnapping of Hyuuga heir," Shikaku spoke with staccato rhythm, laying out the facts. "Short figure suspicious. Possibly either dwarf, student, transformation technique. Any experienced intelligence worker would pick a more imposing form to better intimidate the messengers, which questioning revealed he or she had no problems with doing last time. Possible intentional misdirection. Assumed dead or inactive after 8 years."

"Now take into account that he showed up with exactly the same description as last time."

"Could be anyone. No guarantee the short figure is even Arashi anyway, could be a second go between. We checked the academy students last time on the off-chance one was bribed but none showed an influx of money. Could also be deliberate misdirection to throw us off the scent of a person who was or is legitimately short," Shikaku sighed. "We both know the transformation technique makes this anyone's guess."

"Very well, continue," Hiruzen gestured at the scroll.



The first and quickest for you to verify is the repeated bloodline theft and treason of one Shimura Danzo. Beneath the bandages covering his right eye is the Sharingan of Uchiha Shisui. Beneath the gauntlet covering his arm are up to ten more, taken after the Uchiha Massacre which he ordered Uchiha Itachi to carry out in order to pre-empt the coup - in defiance of your orders.

Hiruzen's practiced eye caught a slight inwards movement of the shoulders as muscles pulled fractionally tighter.



The arm itself has been implanted with the cells of Senju Hashirama by Orochimaru. This may be unpalatable and hard to believe, so I implore you again to verify my words for yourself. If you believe him innocent, it would be simplicity itself to check his arm or eye and put your mind to rest. If he is guilty, you cannot allow him to continue unchecked.

Should you choose to do so, take precautions. Shisui's eye has the ability to command a person to do or believe anything. It cannot be resisted, though it also cannot be used more than once a day. It would therefore be inadvisable to meet him in person, as he could simply command you to believe him innocent and have your shinobi stand down. With the 10 eyes in his arm he can cheat death 10 times through use of Izanagi. The Hashirama cells grant him regeneration and a crude wood release. Finally he has a suicide fuuinjutsu upon his chest which will kill anything within its radius upon activation. It's radius is likely to be between 4 and 7 metres.

Next is the continued operation of Root within the village under the leadership of Shimura Danzo. Members likely make use of tunnels beneath the village and can often be distinguished by a seal upon the base of their tongue, which does not allow them to speak of Root operations to people who are not themselves Root. Their recruitment practices are deplorable. Children are taken at a young age, brainwashed, trained in combat and encouraged to bond with a fellow recruit. As a final graduation test, they are made to fight what is likely their only friend to the death. They are treated as expendable and primarily perform missions too distasteful or high risk to be assigned by normal Konoha authorities. It is likely they have infiltrated ANBU, and it is possible that they would have defectors or sympathisers within your staff. Though fully Root trained agents tend to stand out as a result of the emotion deadening process, that does not preclude him from also using more conventional agents. If you can find one Yakushi Kabuto, he is an ex-member of Root. He is likely also an infiltrator for Orochimaru.

There is a high likelihood that Orochimaru's village of Sound shall stage an invasion of Konoha during the upcoming Chuunin Exams. It is probable that they either have or soon will have subverted, puppeted or otherwise controlled the Kazekage and plan to add Sand forces to the invasion attempt. Sand would likely go along with this as a response to the Wind Daimyo cutting their budget. Their jinchuuriki Gaara is powerful but has a fragile mental state as a result of isolation, repeated attempts on his life by Sand shinobi, his inability to sleep and an imperfect seal allowing his biju to rage at him continuously since his birth. However, there is a high chance he could be reformed or turned provided a properly sympathetic figure.

Moving on there is Akatsuki, of which Orochimaru is a former member. An organization of S-Rank missing nin hostile to Konoha, based in and directed by the current ruler of Amegakure. Their goals require them to obtain a large quantity of funds. They are led by Nagato, otherwise known as Pein. He is a user of the legendary rinnegan whom Jiraiya trained along with Konan and Yahiko prior to the civil war where they defeated Hanzo the Salamander. Unfortunately the three were very close, and Yahiko was killed by Root members in leaf headbands, giving Pein a deep seated hatred of Konoha despite his former teacher's affiliations. If made to feel cornered Pein has both the power and the willingness to literally destroy the entirety of any hidden village -Konoha included - by himself. Because of the perceived betrayal, I would counsel you against sending Jiraiya to talk to him.

Known members include Uchiha Itachi, Pein's six puppet bodies, Konan, Kakuzu, Hidan, Hoshigaki Kisame, Deidara, Sasori of the red sands, Zetsu, and Obito Uchiha –currently known as Tobi. Kakashi will probably be quite surprised that his old team mate survived the cave in. You should warn him, however, that this is not the boy he once knew. He has been possessed by the undying spirit of Uchiha Madara who plans to conquer the world through use of an ancient and powerful jutsu.

The following is a list of more detailed information about these and other potential threats.

The pages that followed were a goldmine of information. Descriptions, combat ratings, abilities, weak points and tentative psychological profiles for some of the most powerful shinobi in the elemental nations. There were large gaps and areas that were clearly labelled as speculation, but it was outweighed by the sheer utility of the intel. This was the sort of knowledge that was not acquired without someone dying. Shikaku had other priorities though, as was to be expected of a family man.

"The Uchiha Massacre was intentional?" He asked, tone deadly serious. "And they were planning a coup when they died?"

"As I said," Hiruzen's voice was iron, crashing down from the heavens. "Multiple. S-rank. Secrets. Root was officially disbanded after the massacre, as Danzo's punishment for going behind my back. Had they not been planning a civil war it would never have been allowed, and he would have been executed." He stated into Shikaku's eyes unflinchingly, the grandfatherly act set aside. That the Nara clan would remain safe so long as it stayed loyal was left unsaid, but understood by both parties. "Now. Your assessment?"

"If accurate this information implies a large, sophisticated, hidden and effective spy network that we were completely unaware of. Could it be a defector from Danzo's organisation? They clearly wish for him to be removed, it could be a personal grudge." Shikaku's narrow eyebrows drew together. "I can corroborate many of these details, too many. Others can be looked into. Some of this... there should be no way to know this information without large breaches in our security."

"It could be an elaborate trap," offered Hiruzen. "Get us to corroborate a lot of small details so we believe a big lie. What do we know about Akatsuki?"

"A group by that name has recently been taking and turning in unofficial bounties. Mostly small fry so far with the occasional big fish. Their numbers appear to be small at this time. We know they operate in Fire, Iron and Grass, but they could also be doing so in other parts of the elemental nations and we've simply missed them. Distinctive cloaks of black with red clouds. Possibly to make them harder to distinguish when they don't wear them. The intelligence that we have is not inconsistent with a small number of highly ranked missing nin raising funds."

"If it is actually headed by an old student of Jiraiya," Hiruzen pondered carefully as smoke trailed up from his pipe, "then this could be trying to poison the well when we consider possible diplomatic contact. Similarly, if we go barging in demanding to search the Kazekage for mind control seals we could cause a diplomatic incident with our strongest ally. If we concentrate our forces in Konoha during the Chuunin exams in preparation for an invasion, we would be vulnerable to attacks at our border posts."

"We can't discount the possibility, but they could get the same effect far more cheaply. There's no need to give us all of this. The fact is that if they do want to damage Konoha, releasing information about the Uchiha Massacre to the various clans would be a far simpler method. And an 8 year set up time? That's an odd length of time to wait, though I've seen stranger. It's more weak evidence in favour of a Root defector, if they were on constant missions between then and now. It would have to be someone higher up in the organisation, someone with access to a lot of their intelligence. But that would mean Danzo knew about the Hyuuga incident and didn't tell us. Why wouldn't they mention that too? Unless they believe this to be enough information and don't want to implicate themself." Shikaku recognised that he had come to the end of that thought chain and refocused. "What happens," he asked dangerously softly, rolling the words around his mouth. "If the information is accurate? It makes a reasonable point, much of this can be quickly corroborated or disproved. We would be subtle of course, no need to make waves and create an exploitable opening if this is a trick."

"I worried that you might say that." Hiruzen replied, emotions tightly reined in.

"I know that you two have been through a lot together, but if this information is correct then he has betrayed the very foundation of this village while withholding vital information." Shikaku's voice was measured, steady, inexorable. "You know as well as I do that the clans banded together for safety from bloodlimit thieves as much as anything else. You know," he paused significantly, "exactly how they would react if the information were to come to light."

"Very well," The Hokage was beaten, but he still had the pride not to show it. "You may assemble a strike force, we shall proceed as if the information is accurate. You may not take him into custody unless you have proof of his guilt, he attacks first or he resists attempts to bare his eye or arm."

"It would be best to do it when he comes to the tower to speak with you. I will have to think up countermeasures for an ultimate genjutsu. Perhaps a decentralised command structure..."

As the tactical details flowed over him, the Hokage mourned the loss of the man who was once his closest friend. He wanted to disbelieve, but the facts fit what he knew too well. There were too many secrets that no-one should know. Why couldn't you just stay down, Danzo? Was I that bad a kage to you? Was I that bad a friend?

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A/N The letter in this update was intentionally written from my memory of the series and nothing more, leaving out many details that I have learned since Tetsuo got split off. It represents almost everything Tetsuo thinks he knows about the situation, apart from a few key details he has held back and one or two points he has intentionally fudged to be more believable. If there are inaccuracies, do let me know so there can be a decent chance for them to backfire in a suitable manner.

Yes, he does think that Madara is possessing Obito. His foreknowledge isn't amazing, is largely based on fanfiction and is rapidly running out. He intentionally did not tell them that Akatsuki is hunting Jinchuuriki.

In related news, sod the rails we're going off-roading.