Saying that Kakashi took it well would be a lie. He stayed still, staring at her. She explained in a low voice why she believed it was him, and while she did, he sat at the table in front of his hot plate of food, which slowly grew cold. Seina sat beside him, caressing his back and squeezing his bicep while he held his head, in disbelief. She knew he would have to tell her brothers, all of them, and also the Hokage and the others, but for now she would let Kakashi recover.
She carried him in her arms to their bed when she saw he was half catatonic. She hugged him tightly as they lay on the sheets and wrapped him in her magic. Only then did he seem to calm down a bit. Hours later, with her husband's face still buried in her chest, he spoke.
"…I don't know how to feel, honestly. Right now, I'm… a part of me doesn't want to believe it, but at the same time, now I understand a lot of things about this eye. Now it makes sense. God, why didn't I realize it earlier?"
"Because you believed your friend was dead. How were you supposed to imagine that not only was he alive, but that he would become a criminal?"
"A criminal?" Kakashi shifted to look at her face, incredulous, still lying on her torso. "Seina, if it's true, he's a traitor. Obito Uchiha… killed your parents. He killed so many people. His actions were what destroyed half the village. He's murdered countless people since then, kidnapping them and who knows what else. Damn it, he wants to put all of us under a damn worldwide genjutsu! We have to stop him."
Kakashi seemed to have recovered his strength on his own. He lifted himself from his reclining position and sat on the bed. Seina looked at him, still lying down, watching him think a mile a minute, brow furrowed. She saw him stand up and begin pacing around the room, clearly pondering something deeply. She didn't say anything because Kakashi had gone from sadness, disappointment, and denial to anger. And that, from her humble point of view, was an improvement.
"We're not going to allow it," he swore, turning toward her with a furious and slightly sorrowful expression. "Whatever happens, no matter what has happened, Obito plans to kill you, and I won't allow it. I'll kill him first."
Kakashi leaned on the bed, moving forward until he was on top of her, and kissed her violently, as if to make sure she was really there. Seina let him take off her clothes and take her as he wanted, screaming with pleasure when he came inside her for the first time. She felt Kakashi's bite on her neck, the kisses he was giving her all over her torso, especially her breasts, and his hands like pincers on her hips.
"K-Kakashi!" she cried for the umpteenth time when he came again.
She barely slept that night, but it didn't matter. If that's what Kakashi needed, she was happy to oblige. It's not like she was going to refuse a few orgasms. Still, she knew it was just a distraction.
"WHAT!?" Naruto shouted the next day when she told him exactly the same thing she had told her husband.
Naruto's expression was a mix of emotions, while Sasuke had shown surprise and then indifference. Seina calmed her brother, reminding him they weren't going to let them get away with it, while Kakashi stared at the horizon with a neutral, sad, but determined expression.
"Actually, nothing has changed," Sasuke finally said. "That guy, no matter who he is, is still our enemy."
"The teme is right," Naruto clicked his tongue, angry.
"Regardless, Itachi should know. Maybe with this new information he'll figure out something we missed."
They agreed not to do anything else. Kakashi had asked to personally inform the Hokage of the new information, perhaps because he felt somewhat responsible for not having returned for Obito's "corpse." She let him go without saying anything because she knew it was something he needed to do alone. Meanwhile, she stayed alone with her team, thinking about what they had just discovered.
"It even makes sense," Naruto groaned. "Even his new name is a play on the letters of his real name!"
"Do you remember the other day?" Sasuke asked suddenly. "Is Obito crazy, or was he really messing with us?"
"What do you mean?"
"He spoke in third person. He said that Tobi was very disappointed, he talked about 'our friend' the jinchuriki. Why do you think he said it like that, as if he were more than one person?"
Comically, Naruto and Seina scratched their heads at the same time, not knowing what to say. The truth was that now that Sasuke mentioned it, she remembered that, at the time, it also struck her as strange. Could it be that Obito was being possessed by a more malicious entity? That could explain his change in personality and why he didn't return to Konoha. Even so, it was such a remote possibility that she didn't even consider it seriously. Maybe he was simply insane. That would explain why he believed such a stupid plan like that worldwide genjutsu would work. What did he think would happen to people when they couldn't eat or drink water if they were trapped under a genjutsu for the rest of their days? Now she understood why the Uchiha clan had considered him an idiot… because Obito Uchiha was a fucking idiot.
Kakashi returned a few hours later, informing them that the higher-ups would try to find out something about Obito to corroborate his theory.
"We won't know if it's true or not for a few days, maybe weeks, even though everything points to yes." Then he sighed like a little kid. "Tsunade-sama even forbade me from using kamui. She's taking it seriously."
"You'll survive," she said, snorting a laugh and giving him a kiss on the cheek.
The matter of Obito was temporarily put aside, like Danzo's, Orochimaru's, and Akatsuki's. Or so she thought. Until her master called Sasuke and her to her office, to Naruto's anger and Kakashi's concern. When they arrived at the office, she saw they weren't alone. Standing before the Hokage were a pair of ordinary-looking men: dark hair, dark eyes, pale skin, average height, a typical ninja's build, standard Konoha attire… Nothing special in any sense. Seina wondered curiously who they were.
"Good, you're all here. Seina, Sasuke, these are Mizunoto and Kinoto. You will carry out this mission together," the Hokage began, her face more serious than usual. "We have information about a possible Akatsuki spy in Orochimaru's base. The informant, now deceased, revealed he met with said spy every so often in different locations."
"May we know who the deceased informant was?" Mizunoto asked.
"That information is not relevant. You don't need to know that to carry out this mission. The point is, I want you to go to the Bridge of Heaven and Earth, the last meeting place, and capture the spy to bring him back alive to Konoha, understood?"
"Hai!"
"Perfect. Seina, you will be the mission leader. You must depart as soon as possible. You have five days to reach the meeting point and plan a strategy. You are dismissed."
They all left the Hokage's office in silence. Seina nodded to the two men.
"See you at the main gate in half an hour."
The others vanished while Sasuke and she walked toward the gate in silence. There was something about all of this she didn't like.
"Something reeks," Sasuke said through their link, thinking the same as her. "Why did she refuse to give those two the information we extracted from Sasori before he died? Considering it's a kidnapping mission, disguising ourselves as Sasori would help us get close to the spy."
"Yeah, I found it strange too."
"Besides, why do you think she split up our team to assign us those two?"
"You don't think this is because of-"
"Danzo? It sure looks like it."
"If so, we'll have to be very careful. Tsunade-sama probably had no choice but to give in to the council and/or Danzo. Which means-"
"That those two are probably our enemies."
"Very likely. And by the way, stop-"
"Finishing all your sentences?" Sasuke cut her off mentally with a hint of arrogance, unable to hold back a brief snort of laughter.
Seina rolled her eyes. The truth was that after so long mentally connected, it was impossible not to know what the other was going to think or where their thoughts were headed. That didn't mean Sasuke didn't deserve a shoulder bump for being so irritating. They waited at the gate in silence for the other two. They arrived shortly after, so they set off toward Kusa.
"We have time, so we'll travel on foot," she said, wanting to give them as little free time as possible to plan anything.
Sasuke glanced at her from the corner of his eye but said nothing more. They both knew why she had made that decision, though it was going to be completely boring, and tiring besides. They ran in silence toward their goal. They had more than enough time to reach the bridge, so they would camp every night and stop as needed to eat or relieve themselves.
During the next two days she avoided using the magical tent, preferring not to give them permission without knowing for sure whether they were Danzo's underlings or not. As far as she understood right now, Danzo should be surrounded by undercover anbu from the Hokage, but he surely still had trusted men and women. These two, if they were his men, had to be among them. It wasn't exactly smart, after all, to infiltrate an organization from the very top. Therefore, Danzo's closest and most important subordinates were likely still real members of Ne.
She was tired of Danzo, but the truth was that now he was a minor problem. They were no longer children of 12 or 13 with only basic ninja knowledge. She didn't feel unsafe in enemy company, not even with Sasuke there, because she knew they could take them out quickly if necessary. That didn't change the fact that being constantly alert was irritating. Once they settled near the objective, she would find out who they were and what they were plotting.
"There's the bridge," Sasuke said, nodding his head forward.
They were at the top of a hill, looking at the bridge a couple of kilometres away. Mizunoto and Kinoto, not very talkative, nodded. Seina located a small clearing nearby where they could camp, surrounded by trees for cover.
"We'll camp there for the next two nights. I'd like to use the time we have left to scout the perimeter and set some traps," she said, descending the hill.
The men followed her, taking out their sleeping bags and quietly arranging their weapons and backpacks. While they ate, she explained what she planned to do to capture the spy.
"We'll divide into pairs: Sasuke with Mizunoto, and Kinoto, you'll be with me. One pair will wait on the west side of the bridge, and the other on the east side. I want that bridge full of traps to injure them if necessary, but I want them alive. My goal, obviously, is to prevent them from escaping. I'll use one of my clones, cloaked in a robe, to meet the spy; it'll carry one of my seals so I can teleport to its side quickly in case they discover it's a clone."
She would have preferred to go herself disguised as Sasori, but since they supposedly didn't know who the informant was, she had no other choice but to do it this way. She saw the others nod. Sasuke knew why she was doing it like this. She did not want to leave him alone with those two while she went alone to meet the spy, but she also didn't want Mizunoto and Kinoto alone together, because that would make it easier for them to plot something. By separating into pairs, Danzo's supposed ninjas wouldn't be able to communicate, and they wouldn't outnumber Sasuke and her by splitting up.
Of course, that didn't mean they didn't already have one or several plans prepared. It was only logical. Therefore, what she had to do now was figure out who they were and, if they were from Ne, find out what they were plotting. If it had anything to do with Orochimaru, it surely wouldn't be anything good, especially with Sasuke present. It was even possible that the mission itself was a trap to capture her brother. It would be convoluted, but possible. After all, the information that Kakashi and Chiyo found on Sasori's clothes could be fake.
When bedtime came, Sasuke volunteered for the first watch, claiming he wasn't tired. Seina lay down in her sleeping bag without falling asleep but relaxing her vital signs. She smiled inside the bag, knowing the other men were probably doing the exact same thing. She let out a trace of her magic, which crept through the grass until it reached them. She wrapped them in a sleep enchantment only she could break, and only when they were truly snoring did she open her eyes and gaze at the starry sky, and at Sasuke's red eyes.
"They're asleep, but another spell wouldn't hurt," her brother said mentally.
She cast two balls of magic to render them completely unconscious, just in case they weren't already. She levitated their backpacks, avoiding touching them with her hands, and examined them with her magic. Sasuke did the same with his eyes.
"They're not even covered in genjutsu. Pathetic."
"Only an idiot would put genjutsu on his backpack in the presence of a genjutsu master, Sasuke," she rolled her eyes. That would've sparked anyone's curiosity.
She opened the backpack and observed the contents without touching anything. They carried some food, a canteen, a small first-aid kit, ninja rations for quick use, a sharpening stone for kunai, and a couple of scrolls.
"Look at this," Sasuke interrupted her, pointing a finger at the inside of the other backpack. "Looks like a false bottom."
"Inside a backpack? Interesting, isn't it?"
That really was smarter than a genjutsu, and very curious. She wanted to avoid having to modify their memories, just in case; otherwise she wouldn't have been so careful recording their things. Even so, with her abilities, restoring something to its initial state was child's play. The only thing they had to do was remember the positioning of what the backpacks contained and avoid using chakra so as not to leave a trace. Fortunately, for her it was a piece of cake.
"Well, well… What do we have here?"
"They're reports from Konoha's anbu," said Sasuke, flipping through the pages with tweezers to avoid leaving oil marks. "Not only that. They're all the anbu who escort the Hokage. The decrepit old man is plotting something."
Sasuke was right. Why else would they be carrying that information on them? The only option she could think of was that, somehow, these two idiots wanted to deliver the documents to Orochimaru. If Orochimaru took care of eliminating the Hokage's escort, Danzo wouldn't have to get his hands dirty and he'd have an open path to the Hokage more easily.
"How did he even get all this information?" asked Sasuke, following his train of thought. "Anbu should filter out all the moles."
"Good question… The other question is, what do we do with all this now?"
They stayed silent for a while, internalizing what they had just discovered. They were once again at a crossroads. One of those that always had something to do with the pain-in-the-neck Danzo. Although she was the mission leader, it was also true that she had spent years away from the village and that the Danzo issue was a secretive and delicate matter. Honestly, she didn't have enough information to act one way or another.
"It's not like we have many options… Either we kill them and make it look like an accident, which is suspicious, or we modify the information and let them deliver it to Orochimaru pretending we didn't notice the plan, which will be discovered sooner or later once they realize it's fake, or we let things play out as these two had planned and trust that the anbu will take precautions—something worrying considering there's a mole they haven't even detected themselves."
"I don't like any of what you just said," she muttered mentally, "but I don't see another way out."
"Maybe we're more screwed than we thought," said Sasuke suddenly. Seina raised a brow in question. "Wasn't the Hokage using trusted anbu to infiltrate the orphanages and the Ne base in Konoha? If there's a mole in anbu, maybe Danzo already knows what the Hokage is planning…"
Her blood ran cold at hearing it, because Sasuke was right. Could Danzo actually know? That changed things even more, because if these two were planning to give the Hokage's anbu information to Orochimaru, and they intervened somehow, and then Danzo realized they had discovered it… What would stop him from attacking Konoha head-on? Damn it, why did everything always hang by a thread?
"This is beyond me. I can't make a decision on my own, not even with you, since we both have no idea what has been happening regarding Danzo in Konoha for the past three years," she admitted at last, realizing it was out of her jurisdiction.
"You plan to talk to the commander and the Hokage."
"That would be the most logical and intelligent thing."
"Alright. I'll keep an eye on these two idiots. You call them with your mirror."
And so she did. Tsunade-sama didn't have a mirror of her own, but Kakashi and Naruto did. If they didn't answer, she would send a clone to Konoha. Fortunately, Kakashi appeared in the mirror in under two seconds. He must have been sleeping, but he looked completely lucid, as if he had been waiting for her call.
"Seina?"
"Hi," she smiled. "I'd like to say this is a social call, but that would be a lie. Can you put me through to the Hokage or Shikaku? I'm afraid we have a big problem."
"Immediate problem or can it wait a couple minutes?"
"Not that immediate."
"Alright."
She couldn't see much in the mirror since he had tucked it into his vest pocket, but she could hear the wind as he ran across the rooftops and the characteristic sound of a secret anbu grate.
"Halt. Code?"
She knew he must be molding his chakra into the anbu secret code because they let him pass a few seconds later. She heard a couple of coded knocks on a door and then it opened.
"Tora? What is it?"
"Kakashi-san requests an urgent meeting, Tsunade-sama."
"…Let him in," the door closed behind them. "What's the problem?"
"Here," said her husband. "I don't know anything else. You can speak with Seina through the mirror."
And suddenly her master appeared, hair loose and in pyjamas. She looked serious and worried, so Seina knew she was expecting the worst. Before her teacher could open her mouth, she sighed and explained everything.
"We have a problem. These two idiots are definitely from Ne and they have a packet full of reports on Konoha's anbu. Especially your escorts…" she said, pointing the mirror toward the files visible inside the envelope.
"…Damn it. Are they dead?"
"No. Just unconscious."
"Good… Good. I need to talk to Shikaku, give me a few minutes. Tora, bring commander Ryu. Tenzo, go get Shikaku."
"Hai."
A few minutes later she heard the steps of someone who had to be Shikaku. The mirror moved, pointing at the floor, then was positioned upright. Seina could see Shikaku sitting next to Kakashi on a sofa and the anbu commander standing against the wall. At her side, Sasuke stopped scouting the perimeter to briefly observe what was happening in Konoha, so Seina enlarged the mirror and propped it against a tree trunk to free her hands.
"Seina and Sasuke were sent a few days ago on a mission to the Bridge of Heaven and Earth," began her teacher amid their silence. "Danzo approached me, as you know, intending to insert his agents into the team. Unfortunately, I couldn't refuse due to council pressure, so Sasuke and Seina left with a pair of Ne members."
"And? What happened?"
"Danzo's lackeys are carrying an envelope with reports on Konoha's anbu… especially the anbu who escort me on rotation."
"…We have a mole in anbu," spoke commander Ryu in an icy tone. "I'd like to see the files they found."
"Seina?"
She proceeded to show each file inside the envelope. She saw Shikaku jot a few things down in a small notebook while Kakashi looked exhausted just from seeing it. She couldn't see the anbu commander's face, but based on his posture she would say he wasn't pleased with what he'd just learned.
"So, the question is, what do we do with this now?" asked Sasuke, speaking for the first time in a while.
"…Good question. Without interrogating those two Ne members, we can't be sure what they're plotting," said Shikaku, leaning forward with his hands under his chin, "though the most likely scenario is that they intended to sell this information to Orochimaru or discreetly pass it to the spy so that it would reach Orochimaru either way."
"That would mean they can't let us capture the spy," her brother thought aloud, while she internally had the exact same thought.
"Correct."
"So, if that's the case, they're going to try to sabotage the mission," she muttered irritably. She looked at Sasuke. "We'll have to check the traps these idiots set."
"Another possibility is that Orochimaru's spy is a double agent, that he truly works for Orochimaru and was only playing Sasori. If that's the case… you may run into Orochimaru."
Sasuke and Seina exchanged looks before focusing again on the mirror. Silence followed while everyone seemed to think about what to do, until finally the anbu commander spoke.
"We can't allow that information to leave Konoha. My anbu would be in even more danger than they already are."
"Commander Ryu is right, which means you need to falsify those documents. If you destroy them, they'll know you found out," said Shikaku. "A falsification will buy us some time before they realize we're aware."
"I could forge the documents and use my powers to keep them from noticing," she said, then another idea came to her. "In fact, Sasuke could cast a genjutsu complex enough to keep Orochimaru or the spy from realizing it's a trap, but weak enough for me to undo. The moment I undo the genjutsu…"
"You plan to make them believe Danzo's idea is an assassination attempt," Sasuke smiled slightly, understanding her direction.
"Exactly. The information would self-destruct at that precise moment, so Mizunoto and Kinoto wouldn't know we faked it. At the same time, if we're lucky, we could pit Danzo and Orochimaru against each other."
"We'll need to distract these two so they don't see the spy undo the genjutsu. We should detonate a trap on the bridge to mask our deception," Sasuke mused. "We could use a few clones to impersonate Akatsuki and attack ourselves, 'distracting' us and allowing Mizunoto and Kinoto to hand the packet to the spy. After all, Orochimaru's spy info comes from Sasori; it shouldn't surprise him that Akatsuki would try to betray him."
"And Mizunoto and Kinoto wouldn't be surprised that Akatsuki attacked us, given that Orochimaru is a former member and I'm present. Good thinking."
"Well, it looks like you have a plan," a voice intervened, making her blink. "Not bad, not bad at all."
"Thanks, Shikaku," she chuckled softly. "It hangs by too many threads, but I guess it's better than nothing."
"No. It's actually the best you can do right now."
"I'll use this brief window to purge the department," the anbu commander announced. "We do it often, so it shouldn't surprise Danzo too much, though he will suspect something."
"Shikaku, I want you to conduct your own inspection," ordered the Hokage with authority. "I don't want a damn mole in any of my departments, understood?"
"If necessary, I'll plant a fake mole from another village," Shikaku muttered. "That would explain why we're so suddenly intent on cleaning up our ranks."
"Do it."
"We should coordinate," said the Nara to the anbu commander. "With a bit of luck, he'll pull out his mole before you 'discover' him. That way he'll suspect the operation less."
The anbu commander nodded silently. The Hokage took the mirror to show herself.
"Proceed with your new plan: ensure that information is destroyed and, second, capture the spy if possible."
"Hai."
The mirror deactivated and once again reflected their own faces. She exchanged a glance with Sasuke before turning toward the two traitors lying in their respective sacks.
"Let's go. We have a lot to do."