Chapter 14: The Path of Intelligence

It didn't take long before Naruto and his friends found Kurenai and Lee at the same spot he left them.

"There you are! We were so worried once the alarm was sounded and you didn't come back immediately." Kurenai exclaimed in relief.

"And you have our comrades in tow. Truly your stealth skills are a youthful asset to the Hidden Leaf village!" Lee proclaimed with fervor.

"Aahh! Hairy caterpillars are crawling on his brows!" Ino shrieked. Luckily the bandits' had moved too far away in their search to hear her at this point. Sakura, while not startled enough to shriek, did hug her best friend and shake from being grossed out by the bugs on the boy's face.

Kurenai rubbed her eyes in embarrassment. "They're not insects, Ino. They're his eyebrows."

Sakura and Ino, both calming down from being startled by the odd appearance of the green clad genin, had to question themselves within their minds about how and why anyone would look like that?

"Are they not youthfully trimmed and kept? I make it a point to keep them presentable at all times!" Lee declared proudly. Everyone was weirded out this time by that odd statement.

Shino thought in bewilderment. 'This one makes little sense. Be that in appearance or his statements.'

Turning to Kurenai, Naruto reported. "The alarm sounded after we were already gone, we just had to go the long way around to get to you."

"Is everyone in one piece?" Kurenai asked, looking each former captive over, looking almost like a doting mother hen.

"We are perfectly fine, Kurenai-sensei." Shino answered stoically.

"Yeah, but we wouldn't have been if not for Naruto's timely rescue." Sakura added in a shiver.

"Why? What was... no. They can't have been that monstrous?" Kurenai said, horrified.

"I-I'm afraid at least two of them were." Ino confirmed, still shaken.

"Were, being the word." Naruto commented darkly.

"Good job, both in rescuing our friends and dispatching those... animals." Kurenai praised.

"Don't insult animals, sensei." Shino said.

"Did you joke or actually mean it?" Naruto quipped.

Before Shino could reply, Kurenai announced. "Alright, enough talk. We've accomplished what we came here for. Let's get out of here and head back home and tell Hokage-sama where these bastards can be found. Or at least the last known location."

They all nodded and they started their trek home, with ninja speed.

Back in the Leaf, with Yokai and the Hokage.

The Hokage had just entered the dedicated room for Yokai's operations. Codenamed simply "HQ".

"The strike force has been sent to the given coordinates. I fear, however that even with our advanced notice the bandits may elude us if they are skilled enough." Hiruzen informed Yokai.

"Didn't you include an Inuzuka in the force?"

"I did, I even included a Hyuuga for additional scouting support. It remains to be seen just how crafty these bandits are."

"Speaking of the bandits. This makes two for three shinobi missions disrupted by prepared enemies. I can't help but suspect that the cause for the second one is the same as the first."

"The 'Org', huh?"

"Exactly. The way the ambush was planned and executed, not to mention the tactical retreat they executed was too well planned and organized, even for a bandit group with Genin and Chunin level missing nin."

"Meaning the Org is a likely suspect behind the band of bandits."

"That's not all, Hokage-sama. The bandits must've known stuff in advance. They knew it was going to be a Genin squad with a lone Jonin teacher. And they went for the Genin. I believe, for some reason, the Genin were the true target all along. But to continue my thought of their knowledge..."

"Allow me to finish, they could have an insider feeding them information."

"Yes." Yokai agreed gravely.

"And if it is possible for them, it's possible other factions have their agents within our walls. Operating undercover and gathering information, perhaps even subtly sabotaging."

"I assume you have protocols for situations such as this?"

A now very angry Hokage turned to Yokai and simply said. "I do, indeed." Before turning and leaving the room.

Yokai looked at the notes and information gathered by Naruto and Shino on the table, which doubled as a map of the elemental nations.

"Good job, Naruto, Shino." He murmured with pride.

He then opened a different channel.

"This is Yokaikage. Are you there, Washi?"

A moment later, the response came. "Washi reporting, sir."

"Status regarding our setup?"

"All basic and most intermediary facilities are up and running. It should be at full operational capacity within a couple of months."

"Status of mission control?"

"At the ready, sir. It was completed yesterday and we await the first mission to begin operations in earnest."

"Very good. Washi, because the first mission has already presented itself."

With the Hokage

Hiruzen Sarutobi had just entered and taken his seat in his office. Mulling over the information he had learned, he considered the best course of action.

While he was not lying when he said he had protocols for dealing with insiders and spies, they all came with risks. Risks of tipping the targets off and scaring them into hiding or even slipping away entirely. This is even with caution and patience woven into the protocols' execution. The Hokage couldn't simply order both a campaign against foreign spies and a campaign against an insider at the same time as both targeted different kinds of information related threats.

Spies are, by definition, foreign agents conducting espionage to gather information and/or plant misinformation, perform subtle sabotage and even kidnappings or assassinations. The latter, however, was also the most risky proposition for a spy since it had the drawback of drawing attention to them unless done in a masterful way to make investigators think it was an accident or natural causes. This was, of course, under the assumption that their mission entailed lingering in the village after the fact.

Insiders are traitors. Individuals who are supposedly ones you can trust, most likely even known for a long time as a friend or brother and so on and so forth. These traitors, like the former academy teacher Mizuki, have their own reason or agenda for betraying their home village. Like the spies, they can act as information gatherers and saboteurs and all that, however they are able to move more freely due to their potentially high level of access to sensitive areas. This comes with an additional problem when attempting flushing them out and catching them. There is a risk of them catching on to the fact that their "comrades" are on to them and are on the hunt, making them keep a low profile.

This problem is prominent enough when dealing only with an insider, but when you don't know which kind you're dealing with, which unfortunately is most of the time, you cannot perform both kinds of hunts without all but guaranteeing at least the insider, if any, finding out about it.

Then there's the additional risk of the insider working WITH a spy or more and through the insider the spies could learn of the hunt for them, making them escape before being caught.

You might think that hunting for an insider, even if none are really there, may still flush out any spies. You would be wrong. The methods used to catch the insider focus on weeding out traitors through careful situational manipulations, i.e. traps, to catch them in the act, beginning with the prime suspects closest to the source of the information breaches. Meaning that if certain information can only have been found within certain sources, then that source and its surroundings are the natural focal point for the initial, if not the only, investigation.

If no one is found, then one proceeds from there until the suspected traitor is found or the process of elimination reveals that there most likely was no traitor, the traitor is too elusive or too many suspects for a feasible method of elimination. In essence, it's like a pebble and a pond, the ripples being the search radius until the criminal/-s are caught or the waves spread too far from the impact point.

Hunting for spies takes something of a reverse approach. When spies are confirmed or strongly suspected to be within the village, a form of subtle martial law is put in place to secure the village, corner to corner. No one gets in out without a much more thorough, and invasive, check of each person and no one gets out, period, until the hunt is concluded. Then a force of ANBU along with Hyuuga members and trusted Jonin, when available, are dispatched to hunt down all persons not of Konoha for a thorough investigation.

Once cleared, said persons are either set free outside of the village or sent to temporary accommodations, most often the siege shelters with some furnishings to make their stay comfortable, until the situation has been resolved.

On top of the problems already mentioned, both approaches puts a strain on the people or the loyal members of the shinobi forces, respectively.

After careful consideration of the available information, Hiruzen concluded that someone on the inside must have fed information to one or several outside recipients. Both incidents occurred due to specific mission details being used against them. While not as obvious in the Wave incident, which very well could have been compromised even before the client arrived in the Leaf, the caravan incident on its own all but confirms that a leak lies within the mission distribution office. And the odds of the leak being a foreign spy was rather small due to the security surrounding it. The odds are much more in favor of an insider.

In normal cases, betrayals are made on the behalf of a rival village the betrayers feel more aligned with, such as Kumo (Cloud) or Iwa (Stone). Betrayers do so in hopes of gaining favor from the kage of the village in question before their eventual defection. In short, personal gain or profit are the main reasons for turning traitor, with revenge for some perceived slight or several being far from an uncommon factor as well.

But why would an insider betray the Leaf for a band of rogue ninja and their subordinate thugs? There was no gain or profit that the Hokage could discern. That would put revenge for something or another as the sole reason. If Naruto was part of the Genin squad, it, sadly, would make more sense since hatred of him is still abundant in the village. But he was not. If a general revenge scheme was the cause, then there were more juicier options to choose from that would benefit other villages. This... benefited virtually no one.

Then the Hokage had an epiphany. Recalling the report Naruto gave both him and Yokai regarding this "Organization", he remembered that they were all about information gathering and manipulations.

Information. Quite possibly the most valuable commodity in the world. With it one can marshal armies towards strategically sound locations, gain a healthy profit in businesses, catch infiltrators or infiltrate a place easier or simply predict the weather and much more.

Furthering their goals, whatever they were, the Org has for Kami knows how long stepped into the realm of manipulating missing ninja like pawns in some enormous Shogi board. The missing ninja, such as Zabuza, never realizing they were the unwitting pawns and soldiers of this groups' machinations. Ironically, Zabuza and others like him deserted their villages to escape taking orders from leaders they don't agree with, or simply hate taking orders altogether, yet still find themselves at the whim of others and not even realizing it simply because the format of the orders isn't what they associate with the hierarchical structure of a hidden village military.

But back to the matter at hand. It was conceivable that the Org had presences in one, several or even all the villages and are conducting very subtle operations within each village. And since the Org has contacts of some form or another with seedier elements across the Elemental Nations, it stands to reason that missing ninja and now simple bandits as well are under their influence.

Proceeding with this line of thought, the Hokage contemplated what could be the reason for this possible move of theirs. To weaken the future generations mentally, numerically or something? But that would, or should only be of interest to rival villages. And considering the intricacy of the secrecy the Org has established and maintains, Hiruzen doubted any of the other hidden villages are even aware of them, much less trying to deal with them, or making deals with them.

If they are a truly neutral party as they appear to be, then they would also be equal opportunists and approach us with deals if that was the case. What possible gain could they stand to get from interfering in simple Genin operations? Hiruzen wished he could learn the possible effects on the other villages this Org has inflicted. Though he suspected that, if he could learn it, he'd find they have similar problems as him, only he feared that among the various Kage, he, alone, was aware of the cause.

If he were to attempt informing the other Kage of this shared problem, most of them, the village hidden in the Sand included, would scoff at the idea and either not believe him or dismiss them as a minor nuisance not worthy of notice. He'd even venture to guess that old Onoki of Iwa would add an insult by saying that he, Hiruzen, was paranoid not to mention weak for seeking help against what should be considered as nothing more than a proverbial tick. Even though Hiruzen would not be seeking help by doing this, but help his rivals and allies by making them aware of the situation.

Pride and obstinacy, how sweet yet dangerous they can be to the ones possessing them, and to the world around them.

Shaking his head to rid himself of his mental tangent, the Hokage got back on track. 'While I can't figure out the why, I am convinced of the how.' The eldest of the Sarutobi clan thought, nodding to himself.

He was about to call for Yokai to join him in his office when the very man he wished for knocked on the door and entered when prompted to.

"Ah, Yokai-san. I was just about to summon you."

"Indeed?"

"Yes, you see, I had a thought strike me a few moments ago. I think you were completely right that the Org is behind the bandit group."

"Yes?" Yokai asked, knowing there was more coming.

"But what we failed to account for is this. What if the Org is so well established that they have a hand in all but every bandit group and missing ninja out there?"

"That would be an unsettling fact."

"No, what I fear is what's truly unsettling."

"Oh?"

"The Org might have presences in this very village, perhaps all the villages, and are conducting various clandestine acts. Such as feeding one of 'their' groups the information needed to stage such an ambush, while making seem like a regular convoy ambush gone wrong?"

Yokai's eyes widened a bit before narrowing in deep consideration of the possibility that was laid out before him.

"So it isn't merely the Org's bandit group benefiting from a random traitor from the Leaf. But in reality both ends are manipulations of the Org? Quite possible, but to what end?"

"That is where I am stumped, Yokai-san. Yet I can't help but feel it in my old bones that my conjecture is correct."

"Agreed, too much makes sense for the idea to be dismissed easily."

Hiruzen shared his other thoughts on the matter with Yokai. After a while, the leader of the Leaf asked,

"So, what do you make of this?"

Yokai looked at nothing in particular as he thought of what to say. "First off, if the Org has presences in each village, then they have been around for a very long time and had time to establish themselves frictionlessly in each village. This would be a sign of incredible patience. For an organization to have that indicates it is hereditary in nature. Its goals either in constant progress, gaining wealth and/or power for instance.

Or the goal is unattainable but they are in denial of it, or it has yet to reach fruition and in the meantime bides its time while continuously gathering information and resources. The fact they are so well kept secret suggests they have rarely acted on a large scale or otherwise significant manner on the information they have gathered, at least that we know of.

Regardless, through their insiders they are, apparently, able to orchestrate practically whatever they wish. But they are careful to the extreme. Patient to the point where if anyone ever suspects anything, the suspicion will be nothing but a mere memory before long because they don't make moves within short enough intervals for people to make the connections.

Second, their latest action against that caravan escort is troubling. We'd need to research historical mission archives for similar discrepancies, but I suspect they will be rare. Now, however, they've been more active than what their profile suggests. I'd like to view the other villages' mission reports or incident reports for similar discrepancies or things otherwise indicative of Org operations."

Yokai then looked directly at the Hokage. "Which actually brings me to what brought me here. My people have finished establishing our own mission control and I sent out a bunch for information gathering of our own, mainly in regards to this Org. Do you think we should infiltrate and gather what I mentioned from the other villages?"

The Hokage shook his head. "I, too, would like to know if they have suffered Org sabotage. And while I cannot stop you from doing what you feel you need to do gain that knowledge, I have to advise against it. Things are tense as it is between all villages. Getting caught could spell disaster, or be the spark that eventually starts a global conflict even if the infiltrator's origin was never established."

"With all due respect, Hokage-sama. The Org's actions could spark wars and they'd probably not suffer from the conflicts. Perhaps they even gain somehow from it. Fear of conflict should deter us from doing anything comparatively not worthwhile, of course, but in this case I feel we need some kind of solidification of our theories if not outright confirmations in order to be able to take whatever next steps are necessary."

"Perhaps we should first deal with our present insider before we decide anything else?"

"Why? They need to be dealt with very soon, certainly, but..."

"Yokai-san, I almost lost two teams of Genin, on top of that some of them are clan heirs..."

"..."

"..."

"Dear Kami..." Yokai whispered out loud, his face pale.

"That could be it..." The Hokage's was of a matching color.

"This wasn't simply about doing a bit of harm to the future of the village's shinobi force."

"But to surreptitiously strike a critical strike at the clans future leadership, not to mention overall clan morale."

"And we'd be none the wiser to the fact, we'd supposedly think it was simply unfortunate circumstances."

"All the more reason to rid ourselves of this cancer of a insider." The Hokage growled, though not at Yokai.

"If I may say so, you and your people should handle that. My people are newly established and as such we are untouched by this Org's influence, not to mention my people's ways makes it much harder, if not impossible for the Org to establish themselves within our society as they have here and potentially elsewhere. For now, we'll spearhead the effort of learning all we can about the Org. You focus on cleaning house and then we can think about working in concert on this matter. Does that sound agreeable to you?"

"Hai, it does. But take great care when you enter into foreign territory, the last thing we need is for relations to reach a breaking point."

"Hokage-sama, discretion is our way of life, not just a profession. We'll leave no trace we were ever anywhere."

Nodding in acceptance, the old Sarutobi clansman said. "Very well, good luck to you and your operatives. Can you lead them from here? You may want to be here for Naruto's debrief."

"I can and will. I have no intention of leaving anytime soon. Let me know as soon as Naruto arrives."

"Certainly."

Yokai then stood up and bowed in respect before leaving to tend to the first real spy operation his people had conducted in many generations.

Hiruzen pressed a button and ordered his secretary to bring him someone. After a while, the person arrived.

"You summoned me, Hokage-sama?"

"Yes, I have a mission of utmost importance for you."

Raising an eyebrow, the person asked. "Indeed? What would you have me do, then?"

"I have reason to believe we have an insider feeding active mission information to outside entities in order to disrupt said missions and even harm our shinobi in the process. Your mission is to find out who this is and remove them and bring them to me, alive. Be aware there may be more than one individual doing this."

"How have you found this out?" The person asked, mild surprise in their tone.

"I've simply seen a disturbing pattern and come to this conclusion."

"And so you've come to me for help." The person stated, smugness could be heard in their voice.

"I've called for you to perform your duty to your Hokage and your village! Never speak as if you're my equal, Danzo! You lost that right long ago."

"Forgive me, Hokage-sama. It has been some time since you specifically asked for me in this capacity. I am a bit unused to being in this particular position, you understand?" Danzo apologized in a repentant tone, but Hiruzen heard the insincerity behind it.

"I'm sure you're not used to taking orders nowadays. But I am also sure you're perfectly at home giving them." The Hokage sarcastically remarked. "You have your mission orders. Find the insiders and bring them before me. And I warn you, Danzo, do not go overboard in your mission. I want surgical precision and clean results. If you don't heed me, I will take it as insubordination and you know what I will do with you then. Do you understand me?"

Danzo knew what his leader meant and that he was deadly serious. "It shall be done, Hokage-sama. And it shall be to your liking. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a mission to perform." He said and went out the door.

'Loathe as I am to admit it, you are the only person I can trust with this mission, Danzo. For all our differences, we both love our village. You perhaps even more in your own, fanatical, way.'

With Danzo

'Someone is leaking mission information to outsiders. I'm disturbed that I never found this out, but Hiruzen did. Although it could be a simple paranoia if all he has is mere coincidental data. Regardless, I approve, Hiruzen. Now to find this filthy traitor. Or traitors, as the case may be.'

After a while of walking, Danzo reached his "office". This was located underneath the surface of Konoha, in the vast, complex sewer system beneath it. Despite being located in the sewers, the environment was clean and free of odors or noise. The room, or rather, the series of rooms that formed a secret base of operations was the headquarters of a clandestine, even for ninja, force of ANBU like operatives. They were ROOT. A force of highly trained and experienced shinobi that, arguably, were effective in their profession due to their indoctrination.

Said indoctrination demanded the removal of the ability to feel emotions. The only other thing crammed into their brains is absolute loyalty to the village. However, in reality, Danzo has made it so that obeying him in everything equates to performing their duty to the Leaf in every way, every time. No matter the nature of their mission.

In short, Danzo was the commander of a hidden army that, while acting on behalf of the Leaf, was far from desirable due to its methods of training their recruits and achieving results. Hence when Hiruzen ordered the disbandment of the force many years ago, Danzo secretly kept a handful of men and had his army grow slowly by "acquiring" orphans or individuals of interest.

Danzo's increasing lust for power and war, as well as his cold indifference to anything and anyone not of the Leaf, as well as paranoia, has seen him order atrocities and cruelties that has actually come to bite him, or more precisely the Leaf in the backside. Danzo all to easily dismisses the near non-existent part of him that told him that he was responsible for them, even going as far as telling himself that it actually justifies his actions and his calling for more of the same in order to protect the Leaf from any and all enemies, even if they are only perceived as such.

Collateral damage was of no consequence to him. Even if that damage sometimes consisted of Leaf casualties. The "greater good" for the Leaf had to be done after all, and in his mind, it was all that mattered.

"Torune, Fu!" He called out to the seeming emptiness of the room. Instantly, two kneeling forms shunshined into existence before him.

"Your orders, Danzo-sama?"

"I just came from Hiruzen's office. He has reason to believe that the mission office is suffering from a traitor that feeds classified active mission details to outsiders."

Danzo scowled lightly at them, which was as good as a heated glare considering it was Danzo, a man always in control of his emotions, if he even had any.

"How can it be that he came to even suspect this but we were unaware of this breach?" He inquired darkly.

Torune and Fu glanced inquiringly at one another before Torune responded.

"We have had no reason to suspect any breaches there, sir, given its satisfactory level of security. Additionally, there was never any indications that anything was amiss with the reports or the mission developments."

"None, you say?" Danzo asked, unconvinced. "Then how come Hiruzen suspects there is a mole within the office?"

Again, the two glance at one another. This time, Fu answered. "That is unknown to us at this time, sir. It is possible he's being paranoid."

"Paranoid?" Danzo said, as if he didn't know the word. "Paranoia is fourth life sustaining element for a shinobi, Fu. Food, water, air and paranoia. Without these, no shinobi lives long. I'm disappointed you forgot that fact."

"Yes, sir." Fu bowed his head in apparent shame.

"I may not approve of Hiruzen's methods as Hokage. But I certainly approve of caution, even if it turns out to be unnecessary. We should, however, be thankful if it turns out to be nothing but paranoia. A breach there could be a symptom of a worse breach elsewhere in the village. But that is a later worry. For the time being, I task you to find the traitor or traitors and remove them like weeds, roots and all. You may go about this as you see fit, but you have two parameters to follow without exception."

"Yes, sir?" Torune asked

"The first is like always, never do anything that compromises ROOT or myself. The second is that the targets must be taken in alive and in interrogatable condition. That means only less-than-lethal methods and gear. Understood?"

"Perfectly, Danzo-sama!" The two chorused.

"Very good, once captured, bring them here under blindfold for temporary incarceration. They are to be brought to Hiruzen for interrogation as soon as possible."

"Should we perform our own..."

"No!" Danzo answer, interrupting Fu. "Hiruzen will question them whether they have been interrogated already. And if they answer in the affirmative, Hiruzen will come after me once he's done with the captives. Any information we could possibly learn has to be learned from the interrogation our Hokage will put them through."

"If I may, sir? Hokage-sama might not allow your presence for it. How are we to acquire the intel?" Fu inquired.

"I believe he will allow me to be present. After all, I'm the arresting shinobi. It would appear odd for him to deny me, even considering our relationship. However, it is a prudent question. No doubt there will be a report about the interrogation. Should he deny me, consider the order already given to locate and copy the information. That would be a mission most suitable for your skillset, Torune."

"Hai, Danzo-sama."

"You have your orders, carry them out!"

"At once!" And with that they vanished. After a moment, a new individual made themselves appear in their place.

"I have not called for you." Danzo stated simply.

"No, sir. But I heard you speak of a possibly worse breach if this turns out to be one. Should we not begin counter intelligence operations already?"

"No. While I may have given that order if I was Hokage, I cannot do so now without putting myself and ROOT at unacceptable risk of being discovered, not to mention risk tipping off any spies or traitors." Danzo considered something for a moment before continuing. "But it would be prudent to make preparations for the eventuality of such operations becoming necessary. Hiruzen will no doubt marshall his own mole-hunt force if he gets confirmation of this potential mole. We cannot meddle with that in any way. But the moles might be in contact with spies from other villages. And that, we can look into, even if Hiruzen does as well."

Danzo stood up after writing a scroll with orders. "Give this to operations." He handed the unsealed scroll to the man. "Once you have done so, Sai, you are to take part in our preparations for counter-intelligence, and later in them as well once they start, if at all."

"Right away, sir!" Sai bowed before leaving.

Once outside the office, Sai read the scroll while walking. The scroll was unsealed, so it wasn't sensitive information, just a general order. It detailed the recalling of operatives from missions classified as "non-essential" as well as the order to begin preparations for counter-intelligence ops, which included mission assignment of squads ahead of time where applicable and reservations of and later distribution of supplies for said squads. Not all squads were to be sent out at once if the operation was to begin, certain squads were to be held in reserve for related assignments that required additional information before deployment.

Rolling up the scroll once more, Sai turned a corner and continued the down a hallway that lead to ROOT Ops.

'Danzo's will be done.' Sai thought.

With the Hokage

The oldest Sarutobi sat in his chair, facing the village. The rising sun's rays striking his red and white hat, casting a shadow on his grim visage.

'Should my fears prove well founded, the Org will rue the day they meddled with Leaf affairs and lives. Whatever you truly call yourselves, your hostile intent is evident. You better prepare for war, because I sure as hell am. You have no idea of the forces arrayed against you. You have no idea of the dragon you have awoken.'