"Alright then," Lady Tsunade nodded. "I order you all to take a couple days off. Rest your bodies and your minds."

Well. There's advice I definitely wouldn't be following: I had barely done anything! I was simply an observer and the final executioner. Hardly a part of the real fight.

Everyone else standing in the room looked weary and exhausted. I stood straight and tall.

Lady Tsunade expertly ignored my look of annoyance.

I could put the given official time off into good use, though. I hadn't forgotten my previous investigations on Kento. His absurd attitude before our last team mission spoke louder than anything he could have said directly to me.

"You are all dismissed," Tsunade concluded, eyeing Naruto's hand with worry. Her and Shizune would no doubt investigate further on his new jutsu. It was a powerful jutsu. Even I wouldn't let that thing hit me, unlike with the rasengan, which had done enough damage on it's own.

"Hey--Shikamaru!" I called out before he could disappear on me. Not that I wouldn't be able to find him, it was just much simpler this way.

He acknowledged my call with a nod, and walked away, knowing I would follow. Once I had caught up, we walked for a while in a silence. Ino and Choji walked just ahead, glancing back with curious looks, occasionally.

"Are you angry at me, Shikamaru?" I asked casually, breaking the silence.

"Huh?" He questioned. "About what?"

"Ratting on you to Kakashi, of course."

He snorted. "Well, my team and I are still here. Let me say: it makes lot more sense now why you insisted on not only planning for three people, but four as well."

I shrugged. "Well, I predicted that Kakashi would volunteer to go with you. If he didn't, you and your team would have found a way to sneak out. So really, we just prepared for all possibilities and outcomes. One of which you simply weren't aware was a possibility."

"I thought that you were thinking about coming, actually," Shikamaru laughed. "I didn't think you'd send Kakashi."

"I had... other things to work on," I replied distastefully.

"Your new technique," he stated.

I nodded. "It's coming along well. Needs a bit of tweaking and of course, there's always room for improvement," I offered. "I only got to use it once during the fight with Kakazu, in order to cut the wires away from Naruto, and it wasn't quite as effortless as I would have liked."

He smirked. "Well, let me know if you ever need a shogi partner."

I scoffed. "I'll teach you chess," I declared.

He rolled his eyes. "Nice working with you, Kuroki."

I held out a hand. He eyed it for a long moment before finally reaching out and clasping it. "Nice job, Shikamaru," I conceded. "There aren't many people I could say that to with sincerity."

"And am I one of them?" Shikamaru drawled. I laughed.

"That's for me to know and for you to figure out."

He shook his head at me as I turned and left. "Troublesome," he muttered-- but there was a lingering smile on his face.

***

"Faster!" I ordered my genin.

They were a panting mess, but continued to fight me, quickening their attacks. "Michiko! Your left side is wide open! You're too concerned with protecting your face!"

I followed up my criticism with a hard kick into her side, and she went flying backwards.

"Aisa, you're not nearly strong enough!" I exclaimed, blocking a punch and throwing him aside with ease. "And Kento!" I whirled, roundhouse kick blowing through his defense. "You're a complete mess!"

With a snarl, I straightened, abruptly ending the spar. "In a real fight you all would be dead by now!" I snapped. "Aisa, you're the best at taijutsu here, but you need to work on the strength of your attacks. Your fast, smart, and see the openings, but even if you land a hit it barely hurts."

He nodded, exhausted.

"Kento! You're completely distracted! You're stronger than Aisa, but a complete mess. Your form is sloppy, you leave yourself open, and you have no idea when or where to attack!"

Eyes downcast and red head lowered, Kento nodded, subdued.

"Michiko," I turned to her and raised an eyebrow. "You've been working on endurance training outside of my training, haven't you?"

She blushed but nodded.

"It's not good enough, yet," I told her. She sighed and nodded. "It's better than Kento's by far, and probably better than Aisa's. Y'know, taijutsu will probably never be your favorite, but you could become pretty good at it. Your style would be far different from Aisa's or Kento's though; you would do well with aiming for simple, precise attacks that takes out an opponent. It's not showy, but it gets the job done."

She nodded again, pleased this time. "Alright, sensei," she agreed.

"Okay then--" I suddenly cut myself off and glanced around, sensing someone approaching. Then, what appeared to be an ANBU appeared in front of me.

"You have been summoned," he informed tonelessly. I eyed the outfit closely before turning to my genin. "Take an hour break for lunch before coming back here. If I'm not here on your return, then Aisa is to work on the strengthening regimen, Michiko is to study the human body and what places are most devastating to be hit and work on endurance. Kento," I looked at him before shaking my head slightly. "Work on sparring against a training dummy and get your head on straight."

They all nodded before turning away, chatting excitedly. I couldn't help but notice how Kento left, despite Michiko's and Aisa's clear protests, turning in the direction of his home. A sigh left my lips before I turned back to the ANBU.

"You have been summoned," he informed me again.

"Yeah, is that so?" I asked. "Where? You're not wearing the standard ANBU gear--a tanto instead of a Katana, could you be more obvious?--so it's not the Hokage. Who summoned me, then, and where?"

The ANBU froze for a long moment, before finally replying. "I cannot tell you. Come with me if you wish to find out."

I raised an eyebrow. Can't? Slowly, weighing the risks in my mind, I finally nodded. "Alright," I agreed. "Let's go."

He grabbed my arm and transported me to the destination only he was aware of.

***

We were clearly underground. I glanced around, but the ANBU had disappeared already.

There was a slow, shuffling sound, and I studied every shadow, waiting for someone to appear. Eventually, a man with bandages covering half a scarred face, one arm in a sling, and a cane in the other hand appeared.

I recognized his face immediately. It was a hard one to forget.

"Shimura Danzo," I announced, and immediately drew my guard up in full, pushing everything away escort for my focus on this moment. This mindset reminded me of when I was the Claw, but I push that thought away, too. It was unneeded.

Danzo. I should have guessed. As the Claw, I was required to know the names and faces of all who held influence and power in each village. Danzo had never been a particular target of mine, but I knew quite a bit about him and his organization.

"Kuroki," he acknowledged, not surprised that I knew of him. "You can set your weapons down, no harm will come to you here," he said, eyeing my hands warily.

My knives had been concealed, but of course I held them, ready to attack, need be.

But Shimura Danzo was not a threat to me, nor were anyone in his organization.

"I know of the Root, Danzo," I revealed, treading carefully with my words. This had to go in my favor. I twirled my knife in my hand, before sliding it back against my hip -- sending a message. "I know how you train Anbu in secret, your methods," Of course, his methods weren't nearly as bad compared to those used by the Phoenix. "So, I assume you brought me here for a reason?"

"You assume right, Kuroki," he said gravely, almost dangerously.

"Oh," I suddenly realized. Danzo narrowed his eyes, confused by my sudden break in conversation. "You're the one. Who was talking about me. Sai is yours."

"Ah," Danzo replied. "Yes. Will that be a problem?"

"Not at all," I waved a hand. "For now. Why am I here?"

"I require someone of your... expertise," Danzo informed me slowly, clearly picking and choosing his words carefully.

"You need me," I stated flatly. "For what?"

"We recently acquired an assassin that has been threatening Konoha and the Land of Fire as a whole. Thus far, we've been unable to break the assassin or extract any information from it. We believe that your... familiarity with the subject will give you a better chance of breaking the assassin."

I furrowed my brows. I knew the assassin? I was familiar with it? "You want me to torture someone," I finally concluded, trying to draw out more information from Danzo.

"I simply wish for you to extract information," he replied smoothly. "You are far more knowledgeable about the assassin's training and state of mind than anyone here."

It clicked. "You have It," I realized. "The Claw."

Danzo watched me for a long moment before nodding. "Yes."

"It's not easy to break a Claw," I said.

"That's what you said to Ibiki and the hokage, but we both know that there is a way to extract information from these... things."

"It's impossible. For you, for Konoha," I shook my head."With your techniques... it's a joke."

"We broke you," Danzo raised an eyebrow.

"And more than half the reason you did was because I had been breaking myself," I countered. "You had a hard enough time breaking me and I was fighting for you. This is different. This one will fight back. Konoha can't break this Claw."

"Which is why I brought you."

I watched him closely. "The methods I would have to use..." I trailed, raising an eyebrow. I was testing him and he knew it.

"Unlimited boundaries," he replied, unconcerned.

"Fine," I conceded, trying to hide the hesitation. I would rather have time to thoroughly think through every possibility and course of action, but that wasn't how Danzo worked. "Take me to it."

Shadows lurked as we walked through the dimly lit corridors. Silence allowed for loud echoes of our footsteps to bounce off the walls, until we reached a door, guarded by ANBU Root. We stopped outside the door, and I couldn't tear my eyes from it.

I was shaking.

"Scared, Kuroki?" Danzo mocked with an animalistic smirk. He taunted me, hoping to ignite a particular icy fire in me that I'd attempted to put out, to abandon, upon my return to Konoha.

I tore my gaze away from the door and stared at Danzo. The look in my eyes didn't quite make him take a step back, but he did shift slightly under his robes as though grasping at weapons. I allowed a  smirk of my own to settled across my face; something I never would have been allowed to do as a Claw.

"Not exactly," I practically purred, voice low. "But let me warn you: if you let me walk through that door... You won't like what comes back out. You might find you have a hard time... Controlling it."

Danzo narrowed his eyes at me, but didn't object. "Do what you need to do," he said, waving his hand in the air-- a gesture to the guards.

I nodded. But I wasn't ready just yet; I had to go in there, fully prepared, fully composed, fully organized.

"I'm going to need a team of medics," I informed Danzo, still watching the door closely.

"Medics?" He asked despite his clear resolve to show no surprise around me.

"Of course," I murmured. "You don't want the Claw dying on us, now, do you?" I asked rhetorically.

"What will you need?" Danzo asked, smoothly hiding his widening eye as he realized what I was saying: my torture wouldn't be constrained by my need to keep the Claw alive. The medics would do that for me.

"Medics adept at the blood replenishing jutsu. A surgical circle, to keep the Claw's stats steady," I listed off, not bothering to see if he was keeping up. "Medics to heal the worst of the Claw's injuries as we continue."

"Anything else?" Danzo questioned. I tore my gaze from the door in order to give Danzo my full attention. I smiled, and he hid a shudder.

"And a couple of tools."

__________________________

Happy New Year!

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Published a little early cause gotta celebrate myself!!!

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