Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Naruto. :(

Warning: Mn. Nothing much, I think. Hints of death, etc.

Beta: Kalafina94

Beta: silverseed

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Interlude - Omniscient - 7

"No body?" Tobi repeated, staring at Zetsu. "What do you mean there was no body?"

"We mean, when we went to look for Yagura's corpse, we didn't find it. But we found the bodies of the bandits," Zetsu said.

Tobi stood up slowly, his mind going momentarily blank. "He could not have survived that on his own and there was no one in Kiri that would have helped him. I highly doubt any of the other villages knew what was going on, much less have assisted him."

Zetsu continued to stare at Tobi, and Tobi's eyes darkened. "Tch. What an annoyance. Find him. If he's still alive, and the Sanbi is still with him. we need to find him. Soon. We can't take on the higher-level bijū without first sealing the Sanbi. Go."

Zetsu bowed his head, melting into the floor. "As you wish, Tobi."

Tobi watched him leave for another moment before turning away, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. Who could have found him?

. . .

. .

.

I glanced back at Jūgo, hesitating. Finally making up my mind, I knelt down beside him, pulling out some rope and chakra-sealing papers. After I bound his hands and feet, and placed the seals over them, I turned on my heel and sprinted in the direction of the explosion.

Leaping up onto the tree tops for a vantage point, I took a moment to gape at the destruction.

"Nao! Are you alright?"

My hands flew up to my mouth to cover my startled squeak. Yagura landed on the tree next to mine, part of his mask broken off to reveal his left eye. His clothes were a bit tattered, but other than that, he was alright. I felt myself calming at his presence. I always took comfort from being near him.

"I'm fine," I assured him. "Are you? How did you get away so quickly? And what's going on now? I was in the White World, so I was oblivious for a while."

Yagura waved his hand in a hurried dismissive gesture. "I'm fine. We ended up switching clones. I managed to take down Yamato's clone easily enough, then we tag-teamed against Kakashi's clone, and finally my clone. Kakashi headed off to assist Sasuke, Yamato went to Naruto, and I headed to you. From what I saw of Sasuke and Naruto, though, I would say Sasuke's done fine and Naruto's throwing a temper-tantrum."

I let out a relieved sigh. "I was able to subdue Jūgo quickly enough. And Sai?"

Yagura's eyes narrowed. "He ignored orders and took off in Orochimaru and Naruto's direction."

"Orochimaru said he knew we were coming," I began hesitantly, "do you think Danzō tipped him off?"

"It's possible," Yagura allowed, "and I would bet my money it was, but we can't ignore the possibility of another leak."

I shuddered at that. The implications that someone who knew about SS —and who probably knew about Yagura and the Uchiha Massacre and Madara— betrayed the village was unnerving. "I honestly hope not."

"I do, too," Yagura said. "It would be a real annoyance if we got rid of one rotten seed, to have another one pop up in its place."

Another explosion shook the scene and my eyes wandered over to the giant cloud of dirt and dust. "Should we.?"

"Not while he's in this state," Yagura said flatly. "I don't want you anywhere near Naruto when he's like that, do you understand? He's uncontrollable, irrational, and is too dangerous."

I fell quiet for a moment. "Do you want to.?"

"If he needs my assistance, Yamato will inform me. Otherwise, I would rather save my strength and let Naruto tire Orochimaru out," Yagura responded.

I nodded my head. "Right, Sensei."

Yagura jerked his head towards the unconscious Jūgo. "How was he?"

I followed his gaze. "I don't know. I think. I think he was holding back on me. It was almost like he was fighting himself for a portion of the battle. He was too predictable and too linear in his actions —it was almost like he wanted me to stop him. I I don't know why, but I feel like he's not a bad person. I feel like I feel like I want to help him."

Yagura eyed Jūgo another moment before looking over at me. "Is this your intuition speaking, Nao?"

I nodded my head.

Yagura let out a short breath. "Alright. You haven't let us down, dove. I will see what I can do for him."

Smiling brightly, I beamed at Yagura. Yagura cocked his head. " It seems Yamato has subdued Naruto, and they're away from Orochimaru. However, Sai has engaged Orochimaru."

My eye widened. "Wh-What? So soon?"

"You and I will deal with Sai. I want you to capture him with your ability and drag him to us. If Orochimaru interferes, I will deal with him," Yagura said, already sprinting away. I looked back at Jūgo one last time before I followed after him.

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My chakra was wrapped firmly around Sai. From the distance, it was an especially difficult strain on me, but I bore it. Yagura was pressed up against me, keeping my form completely hidden from any view. His eyes were locked onto Sai and Orochimaru.

"Nao," Yagura said softly, bending down to whisper in my ear, "Sai gave Orochimaru a folder. I want you to retrieve that, as well."

I clenched my hands into fists, sweat dotting my brow. My chakra moved away from Sai —still wrapped around him— and grabbed hold of the folder that was held loosely in Orochimaru's hands. It was even more difficult to hold two objects, even if the folder was rather light and easy to manipulate.

Pain blared in the back of my eyes, and I had to begin to consciously steady my breathing.

"When I say go, pull them towards us with all your might," Yagura said. "Go."

I yanked as hard as I could on Sai and the folder. The folder went out of Orochimaru's hands —not that he seemed all that concerned with it— and the Sannin's eyes snapped in our direction. Sai struggled against my hold, but I managed to keep him stiff as I pulled him towards us.

Yagura leapt out of the tree, sprinting towards Sai, and throwing down multiple smoke pellets. In a matter of seconds, the area was covered in a thick smoke.

I felt Sai sag in my hold, and I knew Yagura had rendered him unconscious. I finished pulling Sai and the folder to the base of the tree, setting them down. When the smoke cleared, Orochimaru was gone, and Yagura stood in front of Sai, holding the folder.

He had the folder opened, and I could see clear rage sparking in his only visible eye.

Wiping away at the sweat on my forehead, I let out a shaky breath and dropped to the ground.

"Wh-What's wrong, Kame-kun?" I asked, my fatigued state having me momentarily forget myself. I blinked. "I mean, Yagura-sensei."

Yagura didn't seem to notice the slip-up —or care— because he continued staring at the folder. "Danzō will die for this. ROOT will be terminated. And I think I found out how to uncover which members of the ANBU are ROOT and which aren't."

I blinked in surprise, tilting my head curiously as Yagura held the folder out to me. Taking it carefully, I looked down at its contents.

My breath caught in my throat. ANBU operatives, maskless, stared back at me. Each listing their real identity, their chakra natures, jutsus, weaknesses, everything. Yagura was right in that we could also use this to uproot the ROOT members (no pun intended), for I highly doubted Danzō would give Orochimaru the information regarding his own members.

My eyes trailed down to the unconscious Sai. "He was supposed to act as the messenger.? Messenger for what exactly, though? What does Danzō get in exchange for this?"

"What else?" Yagura muttered dryly. "Probably some whacked-up scheme to get him the Hokage title. It didn't work for the Invasion, so he's trying another route. Tch. Let's take him back to the others. When he's awake, we'll question him."

"What about Orochimaru?"

"What about him? Tsunade gave this guy the priority, and I agree with her. We can't think to act as a strong village if we can't even trust our supposed leaders. The sooner we take out Danzō, the better."

I nodded my head, glancing back down at Sai. Yagura bent down and grabbed him, deftly tossing him over his shoulder and jumping up and out of the crater. I followed behind him.

We found the trio together, looking over Naruto, who was looking a bit dazed. Yagura quickly explained what had transpired, and handed Kakashi the folder. He dumped Sai on the ground, and Yamato set to work in creating wooden ropes to hold him.

"Sasuke, go find Sai's stuff. There may be something in it we can use against him," Yagura instructed. "I have a feeling we'll be here for a while, so Nao, Naruto, set up a perimeter. Kakashi, send Pakkun back to Konoha to report. Yamato, you're in charge of shelter, and I'll watch over this idiot over here. Dismissed."

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When Naruto and I returned to the makeshift campsite, we found Sasuke rummaging through Sai's stuff, discarding things almost as quickly as he ran through them. Yagura stood a little ways from us, his back to us as he watched Sai. I didn't see Kakashi nor Yamato, but that didn't mean they weren't close by.

Sasuke paused when he pulled out a tattered book. Even from this distance I could see it had been read through quite a bit, and it certainly wasn't a published book. Interest piqued, I moved away from Naruto and kneeled beside Sasuke, tilting my head. "What's that?"

Sasuke flipped through the book, his eyes scanning it. "Not sure. I saw him staring at it earlier. He said something about it belonging to his brother."

(Gift)

"It was a gift to his brother," I murmured absently, a memory tugging in the back of my head. I moved to grab it and Sasuke gave it to me without fuss. I flipped through it. "Two brothers, both starting on different ends. They're."

Naruto, having moved over to us, frowned curiously. "The dark haired one kind of looks like Sai. so the other one must'ave been his brother, right?"

"I would assume so," I responded, flipping each page. "Look. Each enemy they fight, they take their weapons and armor, then fight the next enemy on the next page. They both start from different ends, but when you reach the middle —when they're supposed to fight each other— it's blank."

"You said it was a gift to his brother?" Yagura asked casually, looking over his shoulder at us. "How much do you want to bet it was the same brother he had to be desensitized to go into ROOT for?"

Grim silence wrapped around us, as we mulled it over.

"The ROOT really is despicable," Naruto muttered, disgusted. "Killing your brother for no good reason. The guy's an ass, but he doesn't deserve that. No one deserves that."

I resisted the urge to squeak when Kakashi appeared behind us, placing a hand on Naruto's head. "Maa. When ROOT's taken care of, no one else will have to go through that, so don't worry about it."

"How long do you think until he wakes up?" Sasuke asked, glancing over at Sai.

"He should be out for a couple of hours," Yagura responded. "Make yourselves comfortable. It's going to be a bit."

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(Third Person POV - Jiraiya)

Jiraiya was tired.

He had wanted to retire —originally planned on retiring— when Naruto was born. When Minato remained the Hokage, alongside his beautiful wife, Kushina, and they raised his godson. He would have been the stay-at-home crazy uncle that when the brat was old enough, taught him a couple of tricks. He was never meant to teach Naruto the Rasengan, and he most certainly wasn't meant to be the one to pass down the Sage arts to him.

That was supposed to be Minato's job.

But the idiot got himself killed.

It was a choice, then, between staying there and raising him, or continuing his work. Some part of him regretted not staying, but he knew he couldn't raise Naruto. He wasn't the right type, he wasn't a real family guy. Sure, the idea of retiring and becoming that kind of guy was a dream, but. but so long as a threat to his family was out there, he couldn't retire. He knew, deep in his gut, that Minato hadn't died from the Kyūbi attack. He knew Kushina's seal wouldn't have failed while she was in Konoha. Minato would have been right there with her, every step of the way, completely prepared to reseal the Kyūbi. The fact that the Kyūbi got out. and had somehow appeared in Konoha out of nowhere.

Someone had sabotaged that night. Jiraiya knew it. He couldn't physically prove it or find out who. But Jiraiya knew that so long as that person ran about, Naruto wasn't safe.

His godson wasn't safe.

So he opted out of raising Naruto, and instead focused on reaffirming his spy network and using every ounce of resources available to him to figure out what the hell happened. The only things he knew were a.) the perpetrator had the Sharingan b.) they effectively used the kekkei genkai, implying they were intimately familiar with it and giving the impression they were Uchiha, or at least close to the Uchiha c.) they knew, somehow, when and where the birth was taking place and d.) they were strong enough to essentially take out ANBU, Hiruzen's wife, and Minato.

For years, he didn't know anything more than that.

Then the whole Yagura-fiasco turned up. And what do you know? It turns out that Yagura, the Mizukage, was under an intense genjutsu for the majority of his time as Kage. And the creator of the genjutsu? Someone who was going by the name of Uchiha Madara.

An Uchiha who had a.) had a Sharingan b.) knew how to very effectively use it —and had already controlled the Kyūbi in the past c.) had a vendetta against Konoha and d.) had decades to plan and implement said plan.

It seemed like Jiraiya found his murderer.

But that wasn't all the information Yagura had heard. Yagura knew the person wasn't actually Madara, so much as someone working for Madara. Yagura had never met the real Madara in person, but he knew that the masked man and some sort of creation by the name of Zetsu often talked about him. The masked-man-who-originally-claimed-to-be-Madara currently went by the name of Tobi. Yagura also knew that Tobi had a contact in Konoha —a few, actually. One of them Tobi refused to name, something about the person being 'ignorant of his guilty loose lips', another was Itachi (who was gone now) and the third. was Danzō.

Danzō, who was one of the very few who knew about when Kushina was having Naruto, and where.

When Jiraiya found out that juicy bit of information, it took every ounce of self-discipline not to storm the traitor's home then and there and snap his neck. He knew how these things went. Someone with such political power and considered such a valuable asset to Konoha's council could not be killed without reason. Even if it was made to look like an accident, someone would cry foul and the last thing Jiraiya (or Konoha) needed was for Danzō to become some kind of twisted martyr and start a coup after his death.

And that wasn't the worst of information Yagura knew. there was more.

Sure, sure, knowing all the names, appearance and abilities of the Akatsuki members (as well as their real goal. or at least Madara's real goal. psychotic weirdo) was beneficial. but the truth regarding the Uchiha Massacre?

Even Ibiki looked disgusted at that information.

Which brought Jiraiya to what he was doing now.

Itachi slid into the booth in front of him, and Jiraiya discreetly activated the disillusioning and silencing seals —causing it to appear like the booth was empty and no noise was coming from it.

Jiraiya couldn't see Itachi's face —the boy kept his collar up high and his hat tilted down, but he wasn't in a hurry to see his face anyway.

"Hello, Itachi," Jiraiya greeted, an easy grin on his face.

"It has been a while," Itachi said, his voice velvety soft. There was a steel undertone to it, a hardened edge that reminded Jiraiya of what this boy had already gone through. It sickened the sage how far he had had to fall because of his idiotic father and Danzō. "Might I ask why you were so foolish as to want to see me alone?"

"Because I need to talk to you, alone," Jiraiya said easily, sitting forward on the table, his fingers knotting together as he rested his chin on the back of his fingers. "We need you to come back to Konoha."

Itachi did not reply right away. And when he still hadn't replied for a full three minutes, Jiraiya gave a cocky grin.

"You see, Itachi, we know. And Konoha isn't one to abandon such a loyal shinobi, not if we can help it. Danzō should not have given you that order, especially not against Hiruzen's explicit orders not to."

Itachi lifted his head, his eyes finally meeting Jiraiya's. But his eyes were not the blood-red of the Sharingan. They were a paler shade of obsidian.

So he's already going blind? Jiraiya thought somberly.

"You know?" Itachi repeated, his voice still soft.

"We know. And we want to help you and Sasuke."

At Sasuke's name, Itachi shifted ever so slightly. If Jiraiya hadn't been a master spy —trained to read and observe people— he very much doubted he would have caught the movement.

"I am listening."

.

. .

. . .

Interlude - Nao - 7

The doors opened and my eye snapped open, darting in the direction of the door. Ino looked up, giving a small start (she had fallen asleep, too). Papa stepped out, the lines on his face seeming to pop out at me, and his eyes were sunken in. He looked down at me, holding out his hand. "Nao, I need you to come with me. Ino. Ino stay here."

Ino looked ready to object, but held her tongue when she noticed how tired Papa was. I stood up, my legs stiff and my back and neck sore, and followed after Papa into the interrogation room. There was a group of ANBU scattered about the room, each positioned and ready to subdue the target in a heartbeat. Kame himself was in a chair, his head bowed, and his arms and legs bound by chakra-sealing chains. Tsunade stood to his left, Shikaku right behind her, and Ibiki stood on his right.

"I brought her," Papa said, placing a hand on my shoulder.

I looked up worriedly at him, before I moved my gaze to Kame. Kame's fingers twitched and he slowly looked up.

My heart constricted. His eyes were sunken in, and he seemed unhealthily pale. His hair was matted, and sweat dotted his brow.

"Nao," Kame said, his voice a low rasp.

I looked around at the adults, each of them eyeing me. Tsunade stared at me with a calculating glint in her eyes. I suddenly felt like I was being tested —that my reaction was being measured.

Swallowing my nerves, I moved to Kame. I felt as if I was on a minefield, every move and step I took had the potential to cause catastrophic consequences for myself, as well as Kame. I reached Kame, and gently brushed back the locks of hair from his eyes.

"Are you. okay?" I asked, my voice quiet.

Kame closed his eyes, letting out a long breath. "I will be. The reason. the reason I asked for you. is because I wanted. to thank you."

My eye widened in surprise. "What?"

"You saved my life, and you brought me here. While. while it hasn't been the most pleasant experience, in the long-run, it was for the best. I acknowledge that."

While I processed that, my mind latched on to something he said. "Long-run.? Does that mean.?" Unable to help myself, I looked up at Tsunade hopefully.

Tsunade gave a humorless smile. "Yagura-san has been privy to information that would benefit Konoha greatly, and he has offered his assistance in regards to a mutual enemy. In exchange for protection, and our alliance, he has sworn loyalty to Konoha for as long as the threat remains."

And Konoha will take his word? I couldn't help but think. I was relieved that he was alright, and that he would be staying with me, but the kunoichi side of me thought it was almost too easy. That there was more in the agreement than what they told me.

"What now?" I asked hesitantly.

"At his request, and as part of our agreement, we have included you in this circle of information. Everything we discuss from this point on will remain between us. Is that understood, Nao?" Tsunade asked, her voice stern.

"Yes, ma'am."

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