Inochi and Itachi left the house once his mother, Mikoto, came back from the market. Sasuke insisted on coming with them but Itachi flicked him lightly on the forehead and said his usual catchphrase " Later Sasuke".

Both decided to not discuss their theories from the interrogation session anymore. Even though they came to the conclusion that it was the killer who left Inochi at the village gates, they agreed to the fact that it was still too early to determine anything.

Both of them thus walked in silence down the road and sat down near the lake. It was sunny and gentle breeze was flowing. The weather seemed to dissolve every worry that both of them had and helped them to relax.

- "The interrogation was intense. Why was your father so keen to know about my Sharingan?" Inochi broke the silence.

- "He is the Uchiha clan leader. It falls on him to keep all the sharingan bearers under control. However I don't know why he suddenly got curious about your Sharingan specifically" Itachi did know why Fugaku was curious about Inochi's Sharingan but he did not want to ruin the weather with his worries.

Inochi noticed Itachi sighing the whole time but felt that it was probably the best if she let him relax under the sunlight rather than disturbing him with questions. "This is probably one of the last calm moments I get to spend" Itachi thought, just when he heard someone approach him.

-"What are you guys doing here?" Tenzo suddenly popped up from behind.

- "Tenzo senpai!!! We haven't heard from you for a week. Where were you?" Inochi jumped up in excitement. Inochi and Tenzo became best buds just after she joined the ANBU. Inochi loved going on missions with Tenzo as the missions did not feel to be as intense as it did with Itachi or Kakashi.

- "Where else? On a mission of course. I am lucky that it went smoothly without any troubles Tenzo gave out a relieved sigh. "Oh speaking of missions, Danzo-san is looking for you Inochi. There is a mission he wants to assign"

- "Danzo himself?" Inochi said quizzically.

- "To be honest, he is looking for both of you but only asked me to inform you Inochi."

- "Oh god, am I in trouble?"

-" I don't know. The last time he approached me, he was trying to kill me." Tenzo laughed nervously.

- "Let's go there quickly then." Itachi beckoned to Inochi and both of them left as fast as possible.

Inochi and Itachi quickly reached the headquarters and went their separate ways. Inochi entered a room with Danzo standing there with a deadly scowl on his face. Besides him two ANBU members were also present, apparently waiting for Inochi's arrival.

- "Do you know how late you are Aoyama?" Aoyama was Inochi's code name. She did not like it much as it was too long. She thus used to tell people to just call her Yama.

- "I AM SORRY, SIR!" Inochi said with a stern face and kneeled in front of Danzo. The two other ANBU shinobis kneeled too. Danzo gave a disapproving look at Inochi but soon started the meeting.

- "Not wasting any more time, let's start. Aoyama, Koshiro , Akira , all present?"

- "YES SIR!" All three of them said in unison.

-"You all are requested to carry out a very important mission. A while ago we got an anonimous tip that the three villages, Sunagakure, Kirigakure and Iwagakure have some joint terrorist group that is planning an attack on Konoha. So your mission would be to locate and spy on these groups."

-"YES SIR!"

-"Akira, you are to spy on Kirigakure. But don't set foot on Amegakure. Is that clear?"

-"YES SIR!"

-"Koshiro you are assigned to Iwagakure and Aoyama, you will be handling Sunagakure."

-" YES SIR!" The two shinobis replied.

- "Don't indulge in fighting. We are not sure of the skills of these terrorists so fighting them alone would be a terrible risk. This mission will be carried out for two months. Signal for support if you find any kind of opening for us to attack or capture them. More information about your mission will be given to you shortly."

As Danzo walked out, the three ANBU members headed out to their assigned rooms.

Inochi entered a smaller room with just another person who was sitting behind a desk. The person was clearly completely burnt out. Her desk was overflowing with scrolls and letters of various kinds and it looked like she was having a panic attack.

- "Aoyama is it?" The girl looked up from her desk and asked Inochi.

-" YES."

- "I am Shin and I will be your partner in this mission. All your information will be received by me" Shin said with a tired voice. She handed Inochi two scrolls and then continued writing some kind of letter.

-" Why are there two mission scrolls?"

- "Oh I forgot to explain. So apart from your mission of spying on the possible terrorist group, you also have a side mission. Sunagakure has a jinchuriki and they call it as their ' ultimate defense'. The second mission requires you to keep an eye on it and report everything you can find about it."

- "Did he assign me this because I have a Sharingan?" Inochi asked lazily. She hated the fact that she had to do two missions in one mission's wage.

- "Hmm I think so. Before you it was given to Akane but for some reason he refused it I guess-" Shin stopped after realising that a vital information slipped through her tongue. It was clear that she was yet again having a panic attack, just when Inochi consoled her.

- "It's okay Shin. No one heard that except me and I am not going to tell anyone." Inochi pitied Shin. It was visible that Shin was overworked and VERY tired. " Being the person in chair looks tough. Thank god I am not one." Inochi hated desk jobs. She even opted out of being a teacher because of that. She was good at paperwork, but she HATED it.

- "Thank you so much!" Shin was almost on the verge of tears. It was a long time since someone showed her some kindness. Inochi welcomed her and then excused herself. She sat down on a nearby desk and started reading the mission scrolls.

- "So the jinchuriki huh. Son of Kazekage. I hope he is not of my age." Inochi continued reading "Wait. HE IS 6!!??" Inochi was in disbelief. " How am I going to keep an eye on a child who is under security all the time?" Inochi muttered to herself while scanning the scroll. After a second she found her answer " Of course. I am going to be his babysitter" Inochi knew what trouble she might face with this mission. She was afraid that she would get attached to the jinchuriki.

- "What's the matter?" Shin asked being concerned about her newly made friend.

- "The jinchuuriki is a six year old and I will be posing as his babysitter."

-" Yeah.. so? " Shin didn't get why it would be a problem. Shin knew the types of missions ANBU root members had to carry out so this missions seemed really easy to her.

- "Shin. It's a kid. With a beast inside of him. He will probably start seeing me as someone he can trust while I will be spying on him" Inochi said while being frustrated at the mission. "If it was a grown man I still would have done it but this is just cruel. I will have to talk to Danzo-san about this."

- "Um, Danzo-sama would be out for the day. You will be able to meet him tomorrow." Shin said while being a little bit afraid at the changed demeanor of Inochi.

- "How much time do I have before this mission starts?"

- "About three weeks."

- "Ok then, I will have to positively discuss this with Danzo san tomorrow."

Inochi spent the rest of the day being a bit anxious about her decision to talk with Danzo. She had never gone against Danzo so she was quite afraid to face him. She tried to decrease her tension by training for a bit but it did not work. She had her lunch with Shin, and it only made Inochi more stressed. Around 6 pm she started heading back when she heard a familiar voice on the street.

-" Inochi-chan?"

- "Ahh Shisui-san. its been so long since I last met you! How are you?"

- "I am great! Always have been." Shisui was his usual chirpy self. "What were you thinking about though? You look very out of the blue."

-"Oh.. something about the mission I recently got from the ANBU. Not only is it like a one year long mission, but it is also against my ethics."

- "Is that so? Would you like to talk it out then?"

- "Maybe... I mean, if you were given a mission where you have to betray a child, would you do it?"

- 'Are you physically harming the child?"

- "No, but mentally maybe.."

- "Hmm... I think you should take it. It might be a good training for you too. You will learn how to betray without hurting anybody!" Shisui said with the biggest smile on his face.

-"But-" Inochi completely broke down each point on why the mission was against any basic human ethics. Shisui on the other hand gave weird but acceptable reasons in defense of the mission. Inochi became more and more annoyed as she discussed her problem with Shisui but she did not show it. She decided to stop once she reached her limit of tolerance.

- "Sorry Shisui-san but I will take my leave now. I have to meet up with Kakashi niisan."

-"Oh ok see you later then Inochi chan" Shisui waved Inochi goodbye. As Inochi parted ways with Shisui she picked up her pace.

-"Why was he SO ADAMANT about me aceepting this mission?" Inochi was spooked out of her wits. Even though she had never talked to Shisui that much, she knew that Shisui was not like any other ANBU captains. Apart from the brief interaction they had during her chuunin exams, she also knew that Shisui was Itachi's teacher and there was NO WAY Itachi would make someone, who had no respect for people,his sensei.

"Damn, this is making things so interesting.. For some reason the Uchihas have been acting weird lately. If they keep this up then in no way will I be able to stop myself from investigating the matter" Inochi thought while painfully restricting her mind from cooking up weird theories about the Uchihas.

********