*Tries to hide behind excuses* *Realises I have none*

While I was writing this, I realised that 4 is an unlucky number in Japan because it is associated with death, and the Forest of Death is also known as Training Ground 44. Cool, huh?

"Alright, you're free to go!" The medic practically sang. Somehow Tenzo suspected her good mood had more to do with their soon-to-be absence than any selfless joy at their successful recovery. Constantly catching your patients making escape attempts out of the window couldn't be fun, especially when the patients were accomplished members of the ANBU and so they were pretty damn good escape attempts.

Come to think of it, that was probably why they were being released in the first place. 'Replacing bed sheets after they were used to abseil down 7-story drop' probably didn't feature in the annual budget.

Not to say that Tenzo didn't feel plenty of relief on his part, too. He, like most shinobi, despised hospitals. The hospital smell, constant observation and gross food (which ranked somewhere below sawdust and above ANBU emergency rations) were enough to drive anyone insane after a few days. Spending a few weeks such a place had to classify as cruel and unusual punishment.

There were other reasons he hated hospitals, but he tried not to admit those, even to himself. Deep down, in the corner of his mind that still shook with fear, they reminded him of other places, places just as sterile but with a lot less anaesthetic, where needles contained substances much more sinister than painkiller, where the needle came closer and nopleasestopdon'tnopleaseSTOP!

He pushed the thoughts away, because it was far easier to pretend that they weren't even there. And nobody needed to know that his hatred of hospitals went anywhere beyond the ordinary, so he pulled all the right muscles to make a smile and spoke like nothing was wrong.

"That's it guys. We're outta here!"

Rosha watched worriedly out of the corner of his eye as Tenzo flashed them all a not-quite-true grin. It was a convincing fake, for all ANBU were proficient actors, but it couldn't fool someone who knew him well enough to notice the difference. There was something in his expression that made his smile look more like a twisted mask, and a hardness in his eyes that belied his happy countenance.

A week after they had been brought in, the medics had given up on saving the mangled mass of flesh that used to be Rosha's arm and amputated it. Nobody blamed them – perhaps the Slug Princess could have done it, but she had left the village and it was beyond the abilities of ordinary shinobi. In fact, it was testament to the skill of the Leaf's medics that he and Yuugao had even survived their battle with the less friendly Sannin.

He made to run a hand through his thick, dark hair, a nervous habit from before he could remember, and it took him a while to remember why it didn't work. Just another part of him that was gone with his arm. Like his career, and his team, and cooking and jutsu and ballroom dancing a thousand and one things that he could think of and probably even more that he couldn't.

He suppressed a sigh and exchanged grins with the rest of his teammates. As they stood up to leave and continue their self-imposed mission to uncover the truth behind the Massacre, he felt a kernel of bitterness appear.

Why do I have to be the one that stays behind?

I threw myself in front of Taki, I saved him.

Why isn't he the one left as a goddamn cripple?

Rosha quickly pushed the thoughts down, disgusted with himself. He watched as Tenzo, Yuugao and Taki turned their backs on him and walked to the door, pulling it open. They were already back to their usual banter (without him, the darker part of his mind whispered). Suddenly, in Rosha's eyes, the simple doorway became a portal to freedom and he watched as his only friends stepped through it without him. As they left, he noticed that Taki tried to hide the sad, worried look he gave his most vulnerable friend.

Rosha shut his eyes. He didn't need their pity.

Yuugao basked in the soft yellow light of the late afternoon, as it cast her surroundings a gentle golden hue. There was a bird or two in the trees outside the hospital, she could hear. Their constant squawking would be considered obnoxious by most, but she sighed in contentment at the difference between this mundane scene and her past few weeks of sterile, white light and constant beeping of machines. She made to sit on a nearby bench, moving like a well-oiled machine, until her torso was pulled in just the wrong way and her wound sent a line of fire down her chest. She winced, and flopped gracelessly onto the hard metal surface. She chastised herself for forgetting about her wound, and resolved to take it into consideration in the future. Her two teammates followed her lead and sat on either side of her.

"Well." Tenzo began the conversation awkwardly. "Since we're finally out of the hospital, we need a new base of operations."

Yuugao frowned slightly. All ANBU teams were assigned a bunk room in ANBU HQ, and Team Ro usually held their informal meetings there. It was the obvious choice to operate from in this self-assigned mission of theirs. Tenzo knew this as well as she did. So why was he asking for suggestions? "Why not just use our room in HQ?" She ventured cautiously. As she waited for his reaction, she noticed that Taki was watching Tenzo as intensely as the lynx his mask depicted. Clearly his thoughts had roughly followed hers.

Tenzo hesitated, and then appeared to make up his mind. He didn't look around furtively, he was far too skilled and professional for that, but Yuugao had known him long enough to notice that he was making sure they weren't being listened to. Her curiosity piked. "You guys do realise that what we're doing is more than just questioning the Hokage, we're accusing him of a cover-up. And whatever it is, it's something big. Like, 'decimation-of-one-of-the-Leaf's-founding-clans' big. And you both know that HQ has some of the tightest security in the village. A mouse couldn't sneeze there without them knowing about it. Do you really want to risk talking there?"

Yuugao felt her blood run cold. Tenzo's words changed things. This was no longer about simply trying to find out more about the fate of their captain and friend. Tenzo was acting as though the Hokage couldn't be trusted. As though the Hidden Leaf itself was their enemy. This wasn't just insubordination, this was toeing the line with treason!

And the worst part of it was that Tenzo was right. A corner of her mind whispered that if they got caught, if they ventured too close to the truth, perhaps this conspiracy was big enough to warrant silencing their investigation in the most permanent of ways.

She berated herself for her paranoia and turned her thoughts to more practical issues. "What about the captain's old apartment? If we get caught there, we can just say we were going through his belongings for anything that might benefit the Leaf." She suggested reluctantly.

Taki shook his head. "No good, if the captain's involved in this conspiracy they'll be watching his old haunts, too."

For a few minutes ideas were tossed into the air, only to be beaten down just as quickly. Finding a place they could be invisible under the eye of an omniscient village was proving to be far more difficult than they first imagined.

"The Dented Shuriken?" Taki asked, referring to one of the shinobi-only bars frequented by jonin.

"Do you really want to discuss our investigation surrounded by the most vigilant and paranoid people in the village?" Yuugao said dryly. Taki's quite the tactician in battle, but as soon as you're safe he'll miss points so obvious they might as well be doing the tango in front of him. She shuddered as she remembered a particular incident involving a prank, some bright pink hair dye, an absolutely ruined training field and a very, very angry ANBU Commander. She still hadn't quite forgiven Taki for getting the patrol schedule so utterly wrong on that one.

Suddenly, Tenzo grinned. "I've got it!" He exclaimed. Yuugao eyed him warily, not willing to get her hopes up. "Training Ground 44!"

"You want to plan surrounded by giant tigers and-" "It's a training ground, they'll be other ninja there-" Taki and Yuugao began to protest, but Tenzo interrupted them.

"No, no, hear me out." He said excitedly. "I'm talking about the tower in the middle. Accounting for Yuugao's injuries, it should only take us an hour and a half or so to reach it, so getting there won't be too much of a problem." Yuugao internally winced at being the one to slow the team down. "And you know how they normally use that place for the chunin exams?" He continued. "I was on bodyguard detail for the Hokage last exam, and I noticed that the Intel department always watch the exams closely to see if foreign genin let slip any new information or techniques when they think they're alone. The entire forest is under surveillance with hidden cameras, and the monitors they're connected to are in the tower. The only place not monitored is the tower itself. The setup looked pretty permanent, too, so I doubt they'd take it down afterwards. We'd have hours of warning if anyone arrived in the training field, plenty of time to make it look like we'd been training."

Yuugao had to agree the plan was more than sound – using the Leaf's formidable surveillance system against them was nothing short of brilliant. "A problem with a lot of our ideas is that it would be suspicious if we visited them too often." Taki added enthusiastically. "If we use the Training Ground 44, nobody would question a group of ANBU frequently using it. Especially since we just lost two of our members, anyone would assume we were training to adjust to our new team dynamic."

"So as long as we train a little afterwards to keep up appearances, nobody will suspect a thing." Yuugao concluded triumphantly.

An hour and forty-five minutes later, twilight was casting its grey pall over the Forest of Depth, making even the lightest parts of the forest seem ominous and its shadows nearly tangible in their blackness. Even the blood-red spire that tentatively poked out from the canopy in the dead-centre of the forest seemed dull and muted in the grey light. During this time, when the world wasn't sure if it was night or day and every shadow seemed to be alive, a ninja was truly in their element.

In the tower, three such ninja sat around a dusty table that took up most of the room, leaving little space for a few equally dusty filing cabinets. The room was made to appear even smaller by the screens covering two of the walls that allowed the inhabitants a window into the comings and goings of the Forest. Taki wasn't too surprised at the misuse – after all, when the chunin exams were over, why would anyone venture to this insignificant room tucked away in the upper echelons of the tower? He pushed his musing to the side – he had more important things to focus his mind on right now. There were only three of them now, and he refused to let his friends down.

"The first thing we need to do is work out who's in the know. We can't afford to try and pry information out of someone who doesn't have a clue what we're talking about, and risk them telling the big brass about our questions. We have to be careful, and we have to be precise." He waited nervously for their response, feeling unusually awkward among his two close friends. He had seen it happen many times among other ANBU teams – the captain suddenly leaves the team, and the power vacuum he or she leaves tears apart even the closest of comrades as they all struggle to take charge. To his relief, both Tenzo and Yuugao nodded, willing to both accept his input and let another start the conversation.

Relieved, he continued. "The Hokage, obviously, is one. But he's already made it pretty clear that he won't be answering our questions. The captain's obviously involved somehow, but trying to contact him would effectively be suicide. So who else knows?" His piece said, he let the question hang.

Tenzo spoke up first, hesitantly, like he was about to break some great taboo. "Danzo."

"What makes you think that?" Yuugao immediately asked.

"During my years in his service, I was involved in several conspiracies whose end goal was the death of particular Leaf ninja," he elaborated, clearly reluctant to speak about his time in the shadowy organisation, "even targeting the-" Tenzo was suddenly cut off as his mouth kept moving but no words would form. An expression of pain came over his face, and he started to spasm wildly in his chair. Taki and Yuugao were on their feet in an instant, placing Tenzo on the floor and removing anything from the area that might hurt him.

"Tenzo? Can you hear me?" Taki called, panic coating his voice. Yuugao looked on desperately, feeling utterly useless. Without Rosha, their medic, there was nothing they could do as their friend twitched and writhed on the dusty floor.

A minute or two later, as Taki was prepared to sprint for a medic, secrecy be damned, the seizure ended as quickly as it began. Tenzo lay still on the floor, covered in dust and panting harshly. "Sorry about that." He smiled weakly. "I forgot about that blasted seal again. The one that bars me from revealing classified information about you-know-what."

"Do you think you need to go to the hospital?" Taki asked worriedly. "We can continue our discussion later."

Tenzo shook his head determinedly. "No. I refuse to let Danzo get in the way of this investigation. I'm not his puppet anymore."

"It's not about letting that mummified bastard win, it's about your health!" Taki cried exasperatedly. "If this happens whenever you phrase a sentence wrong, who knows what kind of long-term damage you'll do to yourself?" He drew breath to continue, but Yuugao shook her head slightly. He followed her gaze down her arm to rest on her hands.

He has something to prove. She signed behind the table. He needs to show himself that he's a free man, not one of Danzo's soldiers. He needs to know that Danzo's hold on him is gone for good. Let him do this.

Taki realised that in these kinds of circumstances, Yuugao was superior to him in reading people and analysing the reasons behind their actions. It was what made her a brilliant infiltrator, and an even better friend. He felt a surge of guilt at his presumption that he'd known what was best for Tenzo. He closed his mouth with an audible 'pop' and gently helped his friend to his feet with no further protest.

Once the chairs had been pushed back into place and they were all reseated, Yuugao spoke up. "So you can't tell us any sensitive information about ROOT." She restated seriously. Tenzo nodded jerkily, still sore from his ordeal on the floor. He supposed he was lucky the most serious injury was the blow to his pride. "But," she continued, "what about answering yes-or-no questions. Would that trigger the seal?"

Tenzo considered the suggestion thoughtfully. "I don't know." He finally answered. "I guess we could give it a shot."

He saw Taki frown at the idea, and waited for his inevitable protest. For a few seconds, Taki seemed to battle with himself until his expression become one of forced neutrality and he reluctantly nodded in agreement. Tenzo mentally raised an eyebrow, wondering what caused his usually outspoken teammate to change his stance on the issue. He strongly suspected his more empathetic, purple-haired friend had something to do with it, and resolved to thank her later.

His focus jolted back to the conversation as Yuugao continued. "So going back to what you were saying earlier, Tenzo," she said, delicately skirting around the subject of his seizure. "was the ninja Danzo tried to have killed a member of the ANBU?" Taki and Yuugao pushed back their chairs, ready to keep watch over him if the ordeal repeated itself. Tenzo steeled himself for the worst, and firmly shook his head.

One second passed. The only sound was the cries of the nocturnal predators in the woods below them.

Two seconds. A gust of wind wandered through the open window and brushed his face.

Three seconds. Still no sudden pain, no loss of control.

Tenzo grinned. It had worked. Taki whooped and pumped the air with a cry of "Take that, mummy-man!" Yuugao preserved her dignity and limited herself to a contented smile.

And so began the oddest conversation of Tenzo's life.

"Was the ninja a jonin?" A shake of his head.

"A chunin?" Another shake.

"A genin?" Shake.

"A tokubetsu jonin?" Shake again.

"A member of ROOT?" He kept shaking, ready for them to continue.

Yuugao frowned in confusion. "But that's all of the ranks in Konoha." Tenzo shook his head, waiting for one of them to work out what he knew but couldn't tell them.

"There's only one rank left." Whispered Taki, his eyes wide. "Oh my God…"

Tenzo smiled to himself, relieved that they'd gotten it.

"Tenzo," Taki raised his voice, trying and failing to suppress a tremor, "did Danzo try and kill the Hokage?"

He finally nodded.

As Tenzo nodded his affirmative, everything Yuugao thought she knew about the Hidden Leaf shattered and crashed to pieces at her feet.

Danzo tried to kill the Hokage. The leadership of the Leaf did not follow the ideals of the Will of Fire.

Danzo tried to kill the Hokage. The Hokage did not command the loyalty of all of his subjects.

Danzo tried to kill the Hokage. The Hokage was neither all-seeing nor all-powerful.

Danzo tried to kill the Hokage. All was not well in the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

Ever the professional, Yuugao forced her shock to the corner of her mind and forced herself to consider only how this information would affect their self-assigned mission, and came to a comforting realisation. "This changes nothing." She stated firmly. "Going to Danzo was never an option anyway. If the Hokage discovered us, he would stop our investigation, sure, but Danzo would probably have a much more permanent solution to the problem we pose, and we can't risk death." Tenzo and Taki nodded in agreement.

Suddenly, something bright white flashed past the window, and the trio were on their feet in an instant, excuses dancing on their tongues and fingers itching towards their weapons. It was only when they heard the low call of an owl that they relaxed and smiled wryly at their paranoia. She looked down and saw that the tower was surrounded by a deep circle of black, the bright moonlight illuminating parts of the canopy and lending the whole forest the semblance of a dark, choppy ocean. Night had well and truly fallen. As she gazed at the entrancing landscape, she saw the white speck of the owl soaring above its domain, searching for the tell-tale rustle that would betray it's next meal. Like a Hidden Village, she mused, whether or not it survives another day depends on its ability to gather information.

And then, in a flash, it came to her.

"Jiraiya!" She cried triumphantly, turning back to the table where her teammates were already seated. "The information we're looking for, the mechanics and reasons behind an event, is the bread and butter of the Intel department. And Jiraiya is not only the Hidden Leaf's spymaster, but also one of the Sannin and the student of Lord Third – if Lord Third confides in anybody, it would be him. To be honest, I can't imagine him not knowing what goes on behind closed doors."

Tenzo nodded enthusiastically, relieved to finally have an answer. "What's more," he added, "I've heard that Jiraiya was a close friend of Kakashi's father. I wouldn't be surprised if he was taking a personal interest in the Massacre."

"But like you said, Yuugao, he's Lord Third's student." Taki countered doubtfully. "Wouldn't he just report our questions to the Hokage?"

"We'll just have to be subtle. Asking him directly would give us away for sure, but if we just ask for some information that's relevant to us it should come across as a team trying to adjust to having lost a captain and a medic. Also, considering that we were involved in the circumstances leading to Orochimaru's death it's pretty reasonable that we want a bit more information about that, too. He won't outright tell us, but hopefully we'll be able to pick up something indirectly from his answer." Even as she said it, her treacherous mind conjured up everything that could go wrong with their farce of a plan, and she worried about just how long that list was.

Not to mention the only reason they had to suspect that not all was as it seemed with the Massacre was Kakashi's erratic behaviour and the Third trying to cover up the identity of Orochimaru's killer. For all they knew, Kakashi was just insane and whatever this conspiracy was, the Massacre wasn't involved.

But hey, they were Team Ro. Doing the impossible and working off next to no information was practically their job description.

The three ANBU looked at each other and nodded.

"Jiraiya it is." Tenzo confirmed.

Not the most dramatic place for conspiracy, Yuugao thought, but it'll do.

If you're kind enough to review, did I place too much focus on OCs? Is the plot moving too slowly?

Well, it's late. Sorry. I can only warn you that as time passes, my workload will increase and this will probably become more common. I'm a lot busier than I was a year ago.

On a more positive note, I've decided how this fic is going to end (although not the entire series of events leading up to the finale).

Your recommendation of the week is 'Tale of the Setting Sun' by PK Samurai, in which Naruto has the bright red hair of the Uzumaki and is as much of a genius as his father. It's a step above your usual Strong!Naruto fic and I really enjoyed it.

ThePlotBunnies is signing out! (I don't actually log out after I post a chapter, so I don't even know why I say this…)