The Yamanaka Clan Compound

I glareddown at the pile of paper that had arrived at the Yamanaka doorstep from the past week alone. Ever since Ino had formally taken on the title of clan head, all these random people thought they could take advantage of her to get a claw into one of Konoha's clans.

Advertisements, debtors, people claiming to be long-lost relatives and deposed princes of faraway lands begging for help…at least, thanks to our connections from our past missions in Tanyu, and Ino's new position as a clan head, we were now in the loop about the current drama more than ever. Gossip was always fun, and carried plenty of important information besides.

"So I was thinking," said Ino, "Fuu seems like such a nice person, even if he's a little awkward. It seems mean to alienate him just because he's been away for so long. I've been thinking to spend a little more time with him. You know, like a good cousin should do."

"Wow, you're such a good cousin, Ino," Naruto said. "It's almost like you're being nice just for the sake of being nice."

"People don't do that?" Ino asked, twirling her hair around a finger. "I thought the world was made of sunshine! The fairy tales say that so it must be true."

In general, Konoha and Tanyu alike were dealing with the issue of the next Hokage. So far, Jiraiya and Tsunade didn't want to do it, everyone of consequence was generally putting their weight behind Kakashi-sensei, and everyone in the loop was waiting for Danzo Shimura to come out with one of his nasty power plays at the last second.

Our lives were all a power play. A nasty power play, by people older and more powerful than we were, people who gave us no control, no information, not even a tiny hint of what they were planning to do, and yet expected our lives in return. It was not enough that they commanded our movements on the battlefield, no – they wanted everything. Down to the very choices we made.

I knew my father and her father had been up to something. Something involving Danzo, the attempted Uchiha thing, and god knows how many other clan heads.

And I would find out soon. That was a promise.

"You know, Ino, the fairytales are all correct! The world is made of sunshine. Sunshine is what producers use for photosynthesis. And then everyone eats the plants, or the things that eats the plants," said Kakashi-sensei. "And the things that aren't alive are still made of leftover stardust from when the solar system was forming. So we are made of sunshine."

"Wow. So even people murdering each other and stuff is like, just sunshine doing its job."

"Life is death, what can I say."

"You're not even helping!" Naruto accused, two of his clones emptying a large pile of scrolls on top of Kakashi-sensei's head. "This isn't even a D-rank."

Because it was unfair that I should be left ignorant of the facts. Not when my own life was in the air because of it. Not when my friends' lives were teetering on the edge of a cliff because of it. Danzo was taking advantage of Ino's father's death to weaken this missing link.

And Gaara, I hadn't forgotten him. The Suna jinchuuriki was now in Konoha's power, but not really. He was in the Yamanaka clan's power. Even without my father letting things "slip" at the dinner table, it was still obvious to me. Because even though he was under the care of Jiraiya and Yamato now, his first friend was and always would be Ino's father.

I was no expert in psychology, for strategy was my forte, but a boy in his situation – he was a foreigner, he was shy, he had difficulty in social situations: the verdict was obvious from the start. He'd be more likely to bond with individuals than vague ideas, like Konoha. From the few conversations I'd had with him, he struck me as a boy who gave his loyalty to whoever would love him, even if it meant his own self-destruction.

No doubt if he had to choose between Konoha – a village that he wasn't quite used to yet – and his personal friends – he'd choose the individuals. Had it been Danzo Shimura who had picked him up instead of Ino's father…I didn't want to think of the possibilities.

"Yeah, Kakashi-sensei, why are you even here?" another Naruto-clone demanded. "Shikamaru, go on, tell him how useless he's being."

Ino Yamanaka was a girl my age who was still grieving her father's death even if on the outside she was no longer crying, and she had more power in the palm of her hand than some shinobi villages could ever dream of wielding. For the majority of shinobi villages were now currently without any jinchuuriki.

We were all wasting so much time with this infighting, and here the Akatsuki were, picking us off one by one.

All I knew was, I refused to be involved in a game where I wasn't even allowed to play properly.

"Shikamaru!"

"What?" I blinked. "Oh, yeah. Kakashi-sensei, if you don't want to help us with Ino's mail, that's fine, but don't sit in the middle of the table we're trying to sort mail on, please."

"But large piles of paper are so comfortable…" he protested.

"You are literally sitting on top of the stuff we haven't even read yet!" Naruto growled. "Move your fat butt!"

The injustice of this infuriated me. On the battlefield, we had certain freedoms. Who to spare, who to kill, how to kill, how to execute a plan. That was the way the chain of command in Konoha worked. The upper echelons of command told us what to do, but the individual shinobi had the power to determine how to execute their missions, depending on their skill level. It was expected that a Jonin, for example, would have the maturity and intelligence needed to form a coherent and working plan according to a situation, and provide the desired end result that might fit into some piece of a larger plan.

To each man his own capacity; we contributed as we saw fit.

"I resent that," Kakashi-sensei pouted. "My butt is so not fat."

"Your skinny, bony butt then. Just move!"

But this was not the field. This was within the walls of Konoha itself. And even here we were not safe. Even here, there were people affecting our very lives, playing us like we were pieces of a game, a game with so many ridiculous rules and exceptions, a game where no one won. Because unlike in the field, they did not even tell us that we were being commanded.

Ino was in danger and I could do nothing to help her in my current position. The catch, of course, being my current position. I could fix that. It would take time, but I could fix that…

"Hey, Shikamaru, do you want to hear a riddle?"

"NO."

"Oh, come on," Kakashi-sensei grinned. "You're supposed to be smart. The brightest student of your generation, and possibly the brightest Nara in the history of the clan!"

"I'm not a fresh-faced Academy graduate anymore; I'm not falling for that again."

"Well, you're no fun. Scared my riddles are too difficult, are we?"

I narrowed my eyes. "I can solve a difficult problem just fine, thank you very much, otherwise I wouldn't be studying fuinjutsu. But this is different. It's impossible for me to puzzle out the jokes you toss at me. You can't expect me to solve a nonsensical problem with no solution."

Kakashi-sensei pursed his lips behind his mask. "That's no excuse. Life is a nonsensical problem with no solution, and you don't see me complaining."

The Aburame Clan Compound

"Remind me, why are we here again?" Tsume sighed, picking a bug off the sleeve of her coat. Though she respected Shibi Aburame as a person, she simply couldn't stand the nasty, clingy smell of insects pheromones. Those fumes were nearly impossible to wash out. Then came the issue of the other artificial chemicals the Aburame clan dealt in. Her nose couldn't stand any of that stuff.

"It's too risky for any clan within Ino-Shika-Cho to host these meetings anymore, and the Hyuga clan is too high-profile to be involved in this." Shikaku Nara told her. "If you would like to offer up a private meeting place at your own home, then by all means…"

Tsume snorted. "The great Hiashi-sama would complain."

Choza Akimichi cut in before Hiashi Hyuga could snap a reply to that, and thankfully, an argument was avoided. (How boring.) "Now is not the time to be fighting among ourselves. Inoichi Yamanaka was an integral part of our circle and now he is dead. Though we still have connections to Ibiki Morino, mostly through the Suna jinchuuriki currently under the care of his family, the man does not have access to everything. ANBU T&I; is only a small faction of ANBU Intelligence, and – "

" – and Danzo Shimura has already installed his own workers into that empty position, no doubt. I know that even without anyone telling me," Hiashi Hyuga said. "The question is, what are we going to do about it? We can no longer ask the Yamanaka to contribute to this cause; Santa Yamanaka is stretched thin and Inoichi has left behind his fourteen-year-old daughter to run the clan. She is dealing with enough as it is."

If anyone else in the circle was surprised they did not show it. Tsume, for one, had expected Hiashi Hyuga to say something like "the Yamanaka are useless" rather than that more tactful explanation. Well, maybe the man had finally learned some manners; who knew. She wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Currently, the priority is finding out who exactly Danzo Shimura supports for the position of Fifth Hokage," said Shikaku.

Someone without prior name or face could rise to control the clans, as had been the case multiple times in the past – a good case being the Fourth Hokage, and a bad case being whatever puppets the Councilman was inserting into vacancies in power at this point in time. And, as the Uchiha clan had learned the hard way, even things not punishable by law of man, like hubris, were punishable in the kangaroo courts of the gods.

The Uchiha clan. They'd been so close to figuring out the puzzle. And then Inoichi had up and died. He'd been the lead researcher in this thing, and now that was one resource gone. Whatever he had learned regarding the Uchiha clan with his snooping about the ANBU files had died with him. A ridiculous stroke of bad luck and worse timing. The gods were screwing with them, too.

It was a sad, but true reality. The clans really didn't have as much power as they seemed to have in the eyes of non-clan shinobi. They were subject to the laws of the governing bodies as much as the next man – in fact, the regulation was even stricter on the clans because they were easily identifiable bodies.

"The frontrunner is Kakashi Hatake," Tsume said, "and he has the backing of the two remaining Sannin, neither of whom want the job themselves. Who the hell does Shimura have up his sleeve to beat that?"

"That question is just asking for trouble, Tsume," Shikaku muttered. "He could still do a lot of things to discredit Hatake – he's brilliant, but unstable, and unhealthily devoted to his students. A very easy point of attack would be to exalt Hatake's skill in the field and then at the last moment point out that said skill doesn't always translate to being a proper Hokage, whose real job lies in negotiation tactics and cost-benefit analysis."

"I do not doubt Kakashi Hatake's skill in negotiation," Chouza added, "but you are correct; his internal cost-benefit analysis heuristics are inherently skewed. They completely break down when his students are involved. He cares for his comrades to the loss of objectivity."

"Still a better choice than whoever Danzo has up his sleeve," Tsume sighed, "but I agree. It would be all too easy for someone to point out the debacle with Sakumo Hatake and make some suggestions that the 'apple does not fall far from the tree'."

"As well as the trouble with Orochimaru," Hiashi added. "He is still unable to use his Sharingan or any ninjutsu. Even if he has learned the Hiraishin no Jutsu, that is not enough to be Hokage."

"That may not be a problem soon enough. I daresay Tsunade and you daughter will have him fixed by then," Shikaku said slyly.

Hiashi narrowed his eyes. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Tsume smirked. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe if you paid more attention to your 'disappointing' daughter you might realize just how wrong you are. I'm surprised that I know more than you, to be honest. For someone who professes to be so superior to a clan of smelly dog-walkers – "

"Tsume, don't bait him," Chouza hissed.

"The point is, his personality is a bigger target than any physical shortcomings. You can fix injuries given enough time and talent. The mind, on the other hand…more tricky," Shikaku intervened. And Inoichi Yamanaka is gone, was the unspoken sentence at the end of that.

"But what are we going to do about it?" Hiashi demanded, still glaring at Tsume. "It is all well and good to point out Hatake's shortcomings, but how do we ensure that someone else can't use them against us?"

"Danzo can't trap us if we've already trapped ourselves," Shibi said quietly, and Tsume jumped. He had been so quiet the whole time that she'd forgotten he was here, and they were all sitting in his house. How embarrassing.

"What do you mean by that?" Hiashi Hyuga demanded.

"If we let the Daimyo know about all these…issues…ahead of time, we have initiative. We have the ability to spin it to our advantage. What is mental instability? Creativity and thinking outside the box. What is dangerously sentimental? Unfailing loyalty. And whatever mistakes Sakumo Hatake made, young Kakashi was the one to find his corpse. If you had such a traumatizing childhood experience, why would you make the same choices that led to that?" Shibi asked. "Why is this important? Because if someone else brings up these same criticisms later, they will have less effect."

Hiashi blinked. "That's…not a bad idea," he admitted, which, coming from him, was like a standing ovation.

"Unless they've already got there before us," Tsume muttered.

"True, but psychologically, the best time to start convincing people would be a few weeks from now. Too early and people forget or become persuaded by the most recent argument; too late and they've already made up their mind," Shikaku explained. "The best time to start convincing the Daimyo himself would be in a few months. He is dependent on his advisors and will listen to the loudest one, though his indecisiveness is born more out of cleverness than weakness. After all, if his vassals believe he is easily manipulated, they'll spend more time trying to overthrow each other than him."

"Do we even have people in Tanyu, though, is the question," Tsume pointed out.

Shikaku and Chouza grinned. "Of course we do. Whose gossip-mongering daughter do you think publishes that insufferable tabloid that's all the rage in the capital right now?"

Hiashi Hyuga spluttered, face turning from pale to red to purple, and hastily shoved a very familiar garishly coloured, rolled-up magazine deeper into his sleeves.

The Hokage's Office

The Sandaime had not been much older than she was now when he had begun his first term as the leader of a ninja village. The Suna girl before him seemed intelligent enough, though only time would tell if she would survive for long in this world of theirs. Somehow, he didn't doubt it; that old codger Oonoki was still around after all.

He would have to tread carefully around her. Accidents in the courts of Daimyo were rarely as simple as they seemed. Father and sons, killed so soon one after another, and now a different relative ascending to that place. It was obvious that she had been involved in that particular little scheme. From how smugly she was behaving right now, she wasn't bothering to hide her involvement at all; she was proud of what she had done.

Which, he supposed, was somewhat clever. As a new entry to the circle of Kage – inexperience would be against her. Not just her lack of tenure, but also her age and her home village. The circle of Kage had worked fairly predictably for the past three generations; they always did their best to tear the new one apart. She would have to work twice as hard as her predecessors to get half the acknowledgment until a new Kage came along (which was going to be Konoha, most likely; no one knew what Kiri was up to). In this case, asserting her power and authority might be more advantageous to her than not, even if the normal fare for shinobi would be to hide one's true abilities.

Then there was also the matter of her being a girl. In the world of shinobi, you underestimated no one, least of all the "helpless little girls". Even Oonoki wasn't that stupid. They all recognized her as a potential threat, as trained shinobi should. And then they would use whatever they could against her, whatever made her different, to discredit her. They could not fool each other into thinking that Temari was harmless or inferior – but that didn't mean they couldn't fool the uneducated masses. Propaganda was a powerful tool, especially in business and war. The constant fight for missions and customers was as cutthroat as what they actually did in the field.

"Kazekage-sama," the Sandaime said. "I trust you found your way here well?"

"As well as I could. You should take better care of your roads, Hokage-sama," Temari said. "They're overgrown with weeds."

"Oh?"

"Well, sunflowers."

"Sunflowers?"

"I'm not kidding. The whole road is clogged with those hideous things."

"How terrible, that a skillful kunoichi like you cannot deal with a few sunflowers," the Sandaime grinned. Temari did not react.

"Let's spare the pleasantries. You know why I'm here," she said instead.

"Ah. Yes. The question of the Ichibi jinchuuriki."

"I know you have him here, in Konoha. I want him back."

The Sandaime smirked. "Your jinchuuriki…or your brother?"

Temari stiffened, but she kept her face impassive. She was talented, for her age, but she had a long way to go before she could keep up with him. "Both would be preferable," she answered.

The Sandaime stirred his tea. "And if you had to choose one?"

Temari paled for a few seconds, possibly contemplating the situation that Gaara was no longer alive, that they might have killed her brother and resealed the One-Tailed Beast into some other child. But just as quickly, she regained her resolve, and replied with greater furor than before. "Both, or no dice."

"Even if your brother is not the same man you once knew?"

"He belongs with Suna. That is all I have to say. I have nothing more to add," Temari said curtly, hiding none and yielding none.

The Sandaime hummed. "I will do what I can to set up a meeting between the two of you. But be warned, he is very different from the homicidal psychopath you sent to our Chunin Exams."

"And I will do what I can to convince the council of Suna to lend you our full support against this Akatsuki threat that you brought up in that last letter. But be warned, they, in their age and infinite wisdom, might end up…convincing me otherwise."

"Then I believe we'll just have to try harder, won't we, Miss Temari? After all, Suna did sign a treaty with Konoha, unless you mean to say your word means nothing – "

"An acting Kazekage signed that while under duress, not me. Technically speaking, as an entirely different leader with an entirely different political agenda I have no obligation to follow through with that promise. Secondly, what can you do to me in order to ensure that I do keep it? You need our cooperation more than ever now; I recommend you do not antagonize our rocky relationship any further." She angrily stood up and pushed in her chair. "Thanks for the tea."

The Sandaime Hokage watched her leave. He reached for a match, and lit his pipe. Then he spent the next half an hour having a nice long smoke, which was much more than was necessary to satisfy his nicotine addiction.

Amegakure

Zabuza and Haku had settled in quite quickly. That was good.

Itachi spared the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path one last glance before he went to join Kisame in the sitting room. No one really knew what Pein and Madara were up to – in fact, most of the Akatsuki didn't even know Madara at all. He and Kisame, obviously, as they had been approached directly by the masked man, but most of the rest had been recruited by fellow Akatsuki members.

It wasn't hard to guess, though, what all the tailed beasts were going to be used for.

Bijuu chakra was notoriously corrosive simply based on their sheer power density; it was why the tailed beasts existed in the first place – to give all of that deadly power a controlled construct. If all of that energy was released all at once…

It would be a disaster. Incompatible chakra everywhere. It was bad enough, between two normal humans – that was why so many of Orochimaru's experiements died after being given the curse seal, though to call that man a human would be stretching the definition to its absolute limit. With bijuu, there was no chance of survival whatsoever.

While there were rare people who were compatible with one bijuu – there was no one on earth compatible with all of them simultaneously. Well, maybe the Sage of Six Paths, but he was dead. Itachi would have to look more into that story.

Non-combative civilians, and untrained children, who had underdeveloped chakra coils, would be unaffected. But otherwise, everything that used chakra in large amounts would be poisoned; the more chakra a shinobi used, the more assimilated they would be to that power, the more aware their body would be of the sensation of it leaving them, and thus the more they would suffer. Every pathway in their body would shut down, bit by bit.

That would include them, the Akatsuki. But that was exactly what they wanted.

Because without chakra, the shinobi way of life would crumble to pieces.

And without shinobi, the system would not exist.

So Kisame and he were allowed to know, because Nagato and Konan trusted them to continue helping the Akatsuki attain their goal, even after knowing that said goal would result in all of their (most likely) very painful deaths. Because that was what it was. The Akatsuki was literally a massive suicide mission for what they believed to be the greater good of the world.

But for those like Deidara, who was too flighty for his own good, or Sasori, Hidan and Kakuzu, all of whom relied on chakra to retain their immortality…they would never agree to giving up their power. No, only those who were capable of the greatest sacrifices would be allowed to partake in the true secrets of the Akatsuki.

Sometimes, on very dark nights, Itachi would lie awake, thinking. Wondering if the doctrine of the Akatsuki was really worth it. Were the deaths of all those not-so-innocent people worth exchanging for peace on earth? Was the prospect of no more war worth the genocide of an entire group of humans?

On the darker nights, he'd answer yes, if I was allowed to die with them.

On his darkest nights, he'd even consider switching sides.

But only for a little bit. Only a fleeting, dark thought. Then it always came back to no.

Sasuke used chakra. Sasuke would die. Konoha would die. And even if every shinobi on earth was slaughtered, even if chakra was removed from the equation altogether, man would still make war upon his fellow man. That was just the way of the world; if chakra wasn't around humans would simply figure out some other way to murder each other. All they would be doing would be adding to the bloodshed. And then where would they be? No better then the system they had claimed to replace.

So Itachi only pretended, just a little bit, that he agreed with Nagato. It was worth it, sacrificing his loyalties for a few seconds, in order to gain the trust of something greater.