Naruto : Domination: Chapter 83
( 12th November, year 13 AK )
( Kakashi POV )
The Hokage's office was a circular room, with a tall library behind the desk where Tsunade Senju was currently sitting, nursing a cup of sake while her eyes roamed over countless reports. At her left, in fact, stood an impressive pile of paperwork, the same bane said to bring ruin to all the Kage of the Elemental Nations.
By the jittery drumming of the Hokage' fingers on the edge of the cup, Kakashi could tell that she was less than joyful at the prospect of having to go over that many reports and orders before the workload of the day could be called 'completed'.
The door Kakashi came through had been modified with a sturdier wood panelling not long after the Sandaime's death, but the twin, tall windows on both sides of it had been maintained, both because they flooded the room with light and because the ANBU needed a privileged road to access their Kage.
If Tsunade ever took some time between her cups and paperwork, she'd know that the left window allowed the one sitting at the desk to see the mountain with the faces of the previous Hokage, while the right one allowed to keep an eye on the roof of the Academy.
Kakashi remained still in his slouched position, even if his arms were kept behind his back, knowingly exposing himself to several lethal attacks from his Kage should she decide so.
It was a tradition from the first years in which the Kage had to interact with shinobi from other clans, and it had been accepted as the proper way to greet a superior in which you had the utmost faith.
Tsunade's fingers stopped drumming on her cup and she made a twirl in the air with her left pinky, causing all the ANBU in the room to vacate it quietly and swiftly, closing behind them the windows and remaining on guard duty to stop other sudden messengers for the Kage who wished for a private talk with Jonin Hatake.
"The next time you wish for a private meeting, I suggest being actually sneaky about it." she grumbled while putting down her empty sake cup.
"Mah, mah, I am me, and so I'd never rely important information in any official manner." Kakashi eye-smiled to the well-endowed woman in front of him, knowingly ignoring her unimpressed stare as he lifted his head-band, immediately opening the eye beneath.
Instead of the red and black Sharingan that Tsunade expected to see, there was a regular eye. It was a beautiful one, with an ice-blue iris that seemed to almost mirror the world it peered upon, but nevertheless not what should have been there.
"I'm guessing that you haven't suddenly learnt how to turn it off, and I'm going to assume that only the one that took it knows, otherwise I would have other whispers warning me of this paper-bomb you dropped on my lap. Anything else that I should know?"
"It was Daiki."
Tsunade's frown deepened as she poured herself another cup of sake: "Of course it was." she muttered.
"He told me that he was acting on Sandaime-sama's orders."
Tsunade gulped down the liquor without a wince, returning to study the Jonin in front of her with a predatory gaze that she didn't often use: "Saru-sensei would have made Jiraya aware of such orders, or left a message for me in his office, Kami knows that we have used unique methods of communication before and that he was sharp enough to foresee his own death."
"Daiki also is acting under the speculation that 'Konoha's Higer-ups are compromised', his words not mine."
The cup in Tsunade's hand was filled once more while she rose from her seated position, her balance perfect despite the liquor she was attempting to drown herself into. She took two steps towards Hatake and trailed with medical-chakra clad fingers the orbit of Kakashi's newest eye: "At least he did a clean job here."
She put the cup into Kakashi hands while she leaned on her desk, her hand instinctively grabbing the jar of sake from where she had been keeping refilled her cup: "I never met the upstart,
"Difficult to read." Kakashi tilted his head, thinking to the few meaningful interactions they had: "If you don't think plausible the existence of orders from the Sandaime, maybe he is acting under the speculation that the Sandaime himself was compromised."
Tsunade' eyebrows rose openly at that: "And how would he have discovered this 'compromising position' of higer-ups he never even met? Saru-sensei's council wasn't a public one. Still isn't, to tell the truth."
Kakashi lowered his headband and drank what the Hokage had left in his hand, trying to not think that someone else had his eye.
"There are better ways to ensure dissent, aren't there? A vague 'the higher-ups are compromised' sounds a bit out there, doesn't it?" Tsunade mused.
"And his disappearance with Orochimaru never truly sat down well with me, now he's alive, and my traitor of a teammate hasn't been seen since, it's even possible that the snake took the upstart's face, it's a trick he used to great success before."
"It was Daiki, Hokage-sama, of that I have no doubt: the way he fought, the way he felt." Kakashi couldn't deny that.
The Hokage hummed: "As I said, you know him, your opinion?"
Kakashi shrugged, he had been trying to put together an answer to that question since he awoke in that cave: "There are several options, obviously. One, what he's saying is somewhat true, even if I doubt that Sandaime-sama ever gave him orders not shared with Jiraya-sama or you, Hokage-sama, it's still a possibility.
Two, he's a traitor working with Orochimaru, the latter's fascination with the Sharingan is hardly a novelty, but it doesn't fit with leaving me alive. Three, he wanted that eye and everything he told me is to throw us off his tracks."
"Yes but there are elements that you haven't considered." Tsunade added, "Your chakra is no longer being constantly drained, even minutely, by your teammate's Sharingan, which gives you greater endurance. This leaves Konoha with one of her best shinobi capable of being deployed immediately.
Were he a traitor, it would have been infinitely easier to simply kill you. For now, nobody knows that you no longer have that eye, but it will eventually leak, this will lower indefinitely your threat rating, we both know how foolish that is, and will bring a Shitstorm on Daiki that I can hardly conceive."
Tsunade walked back to her seat, where she slumped briefly against the high back of the chair, taking a deep breath: "Now you know one thousand jutsu, if we are to listen to your nick-name on the Bingo Books, and are free to ration your chakra."
The Hokage freed a clear sheet of paper where she started jotting down notes: "Shizune is your medic from now on, you'll see her once a week since I haven't the time to do so personally, for the next month, you'll eat following what I wrote here, and train in the Hokage Training Ground, I believe Minato showed you how to get in?"
She rose her head in order to see Kakashi's tentative nod before returning to her note-taking: "In two weeks, I'll punt you into the ground, and I want to see what you're capable of when giving it your all: you were hailed as a prodigy, grow up to that title, adapt your fighting style to the absence of your Sahringan, test your stamina.
You'll give an oral report to Shizune after her tests, which are to be kept without a paper trail, and that she'll refer orally to me, and only me. By the time this information gets out, you'll be ready to take advantage of it."
Kakashi's mind abandoned all of his musings regarding Daiki as he started to look at the sheet of paper he was being offered like it was a snake ready to strike. When it was handed over, he picked it up with the tip of his thumb and pointer finger, his only exposed eye-widening horrifically as he read the coded orders on the paper.
"You may go." Kakashi carefully folded the paper before placing it inside of his flak vest, and he turned to leave when the Hokage's voice sounded behind his back.
"Oh, and Hatake? If you don't do exactly as I say, I will find the time to become your medic, which will cause a great deal of annoyance in me, and an ever greater deal of pain in you."
...
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