Disclaimer: All rights belong to Kishimoto-sensei.
A/N: Finally some breathing room... but it won't last long. I hope you guys enjoy this.
P.S. Thoughts/Flashbacks/Emphasis, "Conversation", [Recalled conversation]
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"Oh... you-... you killed someone at the orphanage you were staying." Kurotsuchi reiterated what she just heard from Rat.
Both his hands were shaking uncontrollably, his heart beating loudly against his chest. Why wouldn't they? A man was just stabbed in the eyes by these very hands.
He was told to shut out his heart. He was told to not feel anything, his strike always swift, deadly and cold. But why? Why was he trembling? Why was his heart beating so fast? What was this heat burning at his core?
What was this voice inside his head telling him to never stop? To pick up the kunai and continue stabbing at the still body on the ground?
"It was one of those tests, or so they said. If I hadn't got to him first, that would have meant I was weak, and he would have killed me. Without remorse," replied Rat, shrugging his shoulders as if what he said was mere common sense. "It was kill or be killed. That was how they raised us."
Give your enemies an inch and they would take miles. Or so he was told. But why didn't the boy before him block the hits? Why didn't he fight back? What was he doing, standing still and letting the sword strike him at his heart? Didn't he want to live?
"And you said you were five year-old at the time?" asked the Iwa kunoichi, to which Rat nodded nonchalantly.
"Couldn't imagine it?" Rat asked back, bemused by her shocked countenance. "I can't blame you though. I wouldn't either if I were you."
Their target was already captured. Why were we killing all these people? The villagers had no weapon, no way to retaliate with. They were harmless. But what were we slaying them for? What was the point of this?
He looked down at his hands. Once again, they were shaking horribly. His blade was dripping endlessly with blood, his grip loosened, weak from all the swinging. His heart burned again. He was failing his lessons. He was supposed to feel nothing, think of nothing but the mission. So, what were these lines of thought he was having right now?
But wasn't it normal to question one's action? Especially when it was questionable?
While the blond ANBU was sipping his tea quietly, bizarrely with his mask on, Kurotsuchi was shaking her head in disbelief. Of course, hearing the story of a person so young taking another's life would rattle her mind. She was still bugging her father to train her when she was five. Was that what it was like for those orphans out there like him? Because they had no family nor clan looking after them, they were sold and forced to become soldiers for the village? Did that happen often?
She had always been surrounded by her kin and friends, so she couldn't fathom the concept at all. She thought she could relate with the person in front of her. But it turned out she was totally wrong. In fact, it was silly of her to even bear that thought. They grew up in completely different worlds.
She was born into the founding clan of the Hidden Stone village. So, her goal and destiny were clear since birth, predetermined almost. Becoming a shinobi and being in line to inherit the mantle of Tsuchikage. Everything was set in place for her to reach that future. The path was already laid out there, only waiting for her to walk.
On the other hand, he was born without knowing who his parents were. His fate was shrouded in uncertainty. No one cared about him. They cared about nothing but his ability to do what he was taught to do. He had been fighting for his life and for a place in the world ever since he opened his eyes.
She had always thought that it was an honor to serve the village she was born in and that everyone became shinobi in the name of pride and prestige of their village. But for others, they were simply given no other choices.
"I still remember the orphanage owner's words whenever he came to check up on us," Rat continued, putting down his cups. "[Do not show weakness to your enemies. You have no name, no feelings, no past, no future. Only the mission.] What a cold bastard he is. He always used a cane and tended to limb when he walked. But I saw through his façade; that man is ruthless."
The ANBU unknowingly gritted his teeth as he reminisced the memory of the man who shaped and crafted the early year of the blond's life. "Luckily, I managed to get out of there."
"What about the other kids?" the Rock princess asked, though dreading the answer to her questions. "Did they survive like you?"
"Most didn't. But that doesn't mean those who did survive had had it easy ever since either. One by one, they either committed suicide or completely lost their mind." Rat replied, his voice lowered at the last part.
Silence ensued as the two got lost in their own thought bubble until Rat noticed a white animated bird flew by then alighted on the sill of the window.
"You said you got out, right? So, what happened next?" Kurotsuchi asked.
"That's a story for another day," Rat gave a cryptic reply before standing up. "I have to turn in my report for today."
"Oh, okay." Kurotsuchi stood up as well before uttering, "Once again, thank you, Rat, for-"
"It's fine. I'm just doing my job," Rat cut her off. "Good night." And like that he disappeared with a shunshin, which was something that he often seemed to do nowadays.
The pink-eyed kunoichi was left alone, pondering the blond's words. She frowned, her lips pursed. "Are you just doing your job?"
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A cloaked figure patiently perched upon a tree, his movement perfectly still as to hide his presence. He had been waiting for hours for the perfect time to strike. Finally, his target had gotten herself separated from the ANBU squad tasked to guard her safety.
A girl with short black hair, wearing a brown flak jacket and a lapel over her right thigh walked across a clearing to stand quietly on the bank of a pond. Her appearance matched that of what was listed in the bingo book.
Not wasting any time, the lurking Root agent swiftly threw a kunai with an exploding tag at his target. With deadly precision, the weapon landed near the girl's feet before going off in a fiery explosion. A second later, she leapt out of the cloud of smoke, looking a bit worse for wear.
Not letting his target escape, the Root agent immediately dashed toward his target and, with a swift motion, slashed at the girl's torso. Expecting a blood gash from his attack, the Root agent was surprised to see the girl exploded in smoke instead. Landing back on the ground, he settled into a defensive stance, preparing for a counterattack. Of course, for such a high security level personnel, that was too easy.
A few seconds went by though nothing happened. Perplexed by the lack of retaliation, the Root agent returned to his original hiding spot, but he remained on high alert for danger. Were the worse to come upon him, he prepared to trigger the self-destruct seal as was within Root's protocol to not leave behind any trace of his presence here at the crime scene.
However, right when he stepped on the tree branch, the cloaked assassin staggered, losing his balance as the wood turned into mud. Genjutsu?! How?
But it was too late for him to do anything. Too focused on his target, the Root agent didn't pay attention to his surroundings, failing to notice that the grass and leaves stood too perfectly still and that there was barely any breeze at all.
As reality distorted back, he found himself coiled up by a golden chain while another chain was strangling his throat. He was losing consciousness quickly from the choke, his airway being tightly compressed. Before he managed to activate his suicide seal, he was struck at the back of his head, and then everything turned dark.
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"Don't they teach the newbies about what I can do?" Rat muttered in disbelief, walking out into the open clearing toward the unconscious Root agent. Not that he cared anyway. The more unknown he was, the easier the work was for him. "By the way, thanks for the heads-up, Sai." Rat blurted out. The blond ANBU then turned around to see another boy with the same gear as the captured agent standing a few feet behind.
Sai replied with his tone strangely flat, "You're welcome, Dragon."
Rat scoffed, "I told you I hate that name, so can you just stop calling me that already?"
Sai just responded back with his seemingly unnatural smile, "Do you want me to call you dickless instead?"
"No no no! Just...just use my current codename!" Rat shook his head in exasperation before continuing, "Seriously, you need to work on your social skills. And stop smiling like that. It's creeping me out."
But Sai didn't comply, stretching his smile even wider just to mess with the blond. A few seconds of silence ensued as Rat removed the mask of the assassin he captured before Sai decided to ask something he was curious about. "That girl's a shinobi from our rival village who hate our guts. Is it wise to reveal that much about yourself to her?"
Rat pondered for a few seconds before grunting in indifference. "It was only half true anyway. And it's not like she would know if I was lying or not." The blond then shifted his glance back to the pale ANBU and chuckled, "Are you worrying about me?"
"Maybe."
Rat gasped in fake surprise, his hand clutching his chest in a dramatic display of happiness. "You really are a human, and not a puppet." The two then shared a laugh at the blond's silly antic, which was an odd occurrence but very much welcomed by both of them.
After catching their breath, Rat then rolled out a huge scroll on the ground to seal away the captured assassin's body while Sai looked on, lost in his own thought. "You even hinted to her about your time at that place. Only your current family beside Hokage-sama know about it," said Sai. But when Rat abashedly looked away, Sai tilted his head in confusion. "You still haven't told them, have you?"
"I cannot do that." Rat responded, guilt filling up his heart. "It must remain a secret." Some things are better left unsaid. Those were the words the Third Hokage said to the blond when he was transferred to the standard ANBU corps.
"Why?" Sai asked, still not understanding why his friend was so adamantine about not revealing his real past. Then again, only Shin and Naruto were his real, practical exposure to human relationship.
"It's part of the deal," the blond curtly replied, not wanting to delve any deeper than that.
The pale Root ANBU simply nodded, respecting his friend's decision. "But whatever it is, you'd better tell them soon."
"What do you mean?"
"Danzo is stirring up trouble again, and he's not gonna stop here. Some Root agents have recently been sent to the land of Earth, particularly Iwagakure, but I don't know what for."
Rat frowned, immensely perturbed by Sai's information. That must have been connected with this assassination attempt. Disaster always brewed whenever that old coot was involved. "Can you find that out?" the blond ANBU asked. "The sooner the better."
"I'll see what I can do. But what are you going to do now?" Sai responded. However, he got his answer when he saw Rat gazing at the Root mask in his hand. "I know what you would always do when you're curious about something. But this time please don't do anything stupid... Naruto."
"Oh, don't worry. I'm just going to let him know that I know that he knows that I know, and I'm going to react the way he expects me to react. What he won't expect is for me to go the other direction."
With a rare display of genuine confusion, Sai gave the only logical response. "..."
"Just a chat. I promise." Rat said.
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A chat was conventionally a verbal discussion between two or more people, usually conducted in a friendly manner and definitely not involving having multiple unconscious people lying about on the ground before the conversation was even started. But sadly, things did not often go conventionally with Rat.
"Finally! I thought you're just gonna hide behind your dogs' back," the blond ANBU blurted out in mockery at the person he'd come to visit.
A man with bandages covering the right side of his face soon walked out of the shadow as the sound of his cane impacting the concrete floor echoed throughout the underground tunnel. Five more Root ANBU followed behind him before joining the other seven who surrounded Rat, ready to launch their attacks at the invader.
"And I thought you'd never step foot on this ground again. What do you want?" asked the man, not at all bothered by the sight before him, his face remaining as stoic as a rock.
"Cut the crap, Danzo. You know what you did yesterday." Rat retorted, taking off the now-bloodied Root mask he had been wearing to make his way in to reveal his real mask underneath. "You also know what will happen if Hokage-sama knows about your recent order, don't you? After all, the number of your agents is already small as it is. And I've just gotten rid of five more."
The disguised blond then pointed at the five unmoving bodies, his tone laced with arrogance. No sooner had Rat said that did one of the surrounding Root ANBU suddenly charge at him with her tanto sword drawn. However, Rat anticipated that and impaled her with his adamantine chain, instantly ending her before she even got close. "Six. Is this how bad the so-called protectors in the shadow have become? Capricious and easily snapped."
"What do you want?" the leader of Root asked the same question again, this time his voice straining in suppressed anger.
"Tell me where Orochimaru is, and I'll keep my mouth shut." Rat proposed.
"Fine."
Danzo's quick comply caught Rat slightly off guard. "You're not gonna ask me why?" asked the blond, mildly bewildered.
"I don't need to," but the Darkness of the Shinobi's next words reminded the blond ANBU that shadow still existed everywhere. "After all, it's to my understanding that you now harbor a hatred for Orochimaru for killing your brother."
As Danzo expected, there was a brief burst of killing intent coming from the former Root operative. Knowing that he had pushed the right button, Danzo proceeded to throw a scroll containing the information on the Snake Sannin's whereabouts to his former agent, but not without leaving a warning. "And next time, don't come venture into a place where you won't be able to escape."
Catching the scroll, Rat threw back the Root mask he had stolen to Danzo to seal their deal. Then as silent as he had come, Rat disappeared from the Root faction's sight in a swirl of leaves, missing the subtle smirk on the Root leader's normally expressionless face.
"Why did you let him go, Danzo-sama?" asked a Root ANBU standing at Danzo's right.
"He still has a purpose to serve in these shenanigans."
"Would he keep his promise?"
"No, but it doesn't matter." The Darkness of Shinobi replied before returning to his quarter to make new changes to his plan.
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"Yeah, as if I would uphold that promise." Rat muttered to himself, scoffing behind his mask as he looked at the seal tattoo on his left arm. He then summoned a Root mask from the seal before putting it down on Sarutobi Hiruzen's desk. The blond didn't wait long to report to his leader the assassination attempted by Root.
Bowing respectfully at his leader, Rat continued aloud, "The supposedly disbanded organization Root attempted to harm the acting ambassador of Iwagakure yesterday, Hokage-sama. Fortunately, I was able to intercept in time and capture the assassin. He's now undergoing interrogation by the T&I department."
"Well done, Rat. I assume that you got intel of said attempt from your little birds." Hiruzen expressed knowingly.
"Yes, sir."
The Third Hokage nodded in content. His plan to let the two keep in contact worked out perfectly. Although it wasn't as often as he wanted because of how extremely careful and secretive Danzo was, he was still able to monitor what schemes his old friend were crafting behind his back, at least ones that required his attention.
As much as he liked to put his faith in the good of people, Hiruzen still saw the use that Danzo's Root had for Konoha. Hence why he had allowed the darker counterpart of the ANBU to exist secretly until now.
This time, however, Danzo had crossed a serious line. What the Hokage's old friend just did could jeopardize the peace effort and could even spark another grueling war between Iwa and Konoha. Hiruzen's passiveness played a part in the destruction of the Uchiha clan four years ago, which was regrettably one of his most grievous mistakes he had committed during his tenure as the Hokage.
He would not allow that to happen again, especially not when there was high enough of a tension already at the moment.
And now that he had received news of Orochimaru's appearance in the village, specifically his interference in this year Chūnin exam, every decision Hiruzen made regarding the safety of the village had to be deliberate yet decisive. He could no longer afford to show any sentiment at this point.
"Danzo will be punished for his crimes. For now, I want you to keep an even closer eye on Onoki's granddaughter. Her safety is your top priority. And no one else should know of the incident. Understood?" the aged Hokage commanded. As he looked at the kneeling young man, Hiruzen's gaze softened in guilt as he knew that he was demanding another sacrifice from the young elite shinobi. As if the boy didn't have enough secrets already.
"Yes, sir." Rat dutifully accepted his new mission. The blond had willfully decided to embrace that part of his life when he first joined the ANBU. He just hoped that his family would understand his situation.
"From now on, you will be solely responsible for the rest of her time here in Konoha. The squad currently guarding the ambassador's inn will be pulled and put to other more dire missions. The situation the village is in right now requires so."
"I understand, sir."
"Please see to it that she's feeling welcomed here," Hiruzen smiled, satisfied with Rat's answer. "This could be the chance to improve our relation with Iwagakure. I'm putting my trust in you, Naruto."
"I will do my best, sir."
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And keep her close he did. The next morning Rat decided to bring Kurotsuchi to the place that he considered the safest he could find at the moment. Machi's apartment. The place where currently three of the most elite ANBU agents frequented. No shinobi worth their skill would be stupid enough to dare blindly enter this place. Not that the Iwa kunoichi would know about it, and Rat deemed it was better to keep it that way.
"Why are we here?" Kurotsuchi asked, standing in front of the door of Rat's recommended place.
"I figure you'd be lonely staying at the inn alone. So, I'm bringing you to a place where you won't be bored." Rat replied before knocking on the door. Soon both of them could hear heavy footsteps coming from inside the apartment before the door opened.
"Oh! You're here!" said a woman with a sizable bulge on her belly. "You must be Kurotsuchi, right? I'm glad to finally see you. Rat has been talking quite a lot about you."
"Yes. Nice to meet you," Kurotsuchi smiled in response, a bit surprised at the woman's friendliness while the blond ANBU coughed uncomfortably.
"Oh, where are my manners? My name is Machi. I hope you don't mind spending time with a pregnant woman like me." The woman continued with the brightest smile Kurotsuchi had ever seen.
"No, no. Not at all. It's me who should be asking for your consideration." Kurotsuchi quickly responded before politely bowing. "Please excuse my intrusion."
"Come in! Come in!" Machi answered in kind, guiding the younger girl inside. "Aren't you coming in as well, Rat?"
"I have to check up on something first. I'll return as soon as I can."
"Alright, be careful then." Machi replied before entering the apartment herself.
After closing the door, Rat pulled out the scroll that supposedly contained the information on Orochimaru's whereabouts. He then rolled it open before cussing. "Of course he'd be there."