Chapter 50

Chapter 50

Hatake Kakashi stared up at the sky with a blank stare, hoping the tranquility of the twinkling stars above would somehow find its way into the chaotic maelstrom of his mind. The day had been more exhausting than his previous one, and that had involved fighting against an S-Class ninja of his own village while running the risk of having his mind taken over or being declared a traitor by his reason for living.

They got separated and asked to repeat the order of events and the facts of matter and their thoughts behind decisions over and over to at least twelve different (and extremely high ranked) ninja that fact checked them and their information against what they were able to dig up. It was mostly formality since the Hokage believed them, but the Hokage also wasn't trusting his own mind at the moment.

All the interviews were fine. It was hardly his first time having to go through such tribulations. His issues came from a source much more personal.

"Hey, can I hide up here with you? I'm getting real tired of hearing the strongest Kunoichi in Konoha's history argue with a kid like they are both five year-olds."

"Don't meet your heroes." Kakashi droned as he scooted over on his place on the rooftop. Anko gave a snort of laughter then sat down moments later.

The two lapsed into silence as Kakashi did his best to focus on the stars overhead, the feel of the roof on his fingertips, and the smell of trees on the air. Anything to stop himself from falling back into his memories. Memories that didn't matter because the right decision was so obvious that his personal feelings didn't matter; shouldn't matter even.

He wondered if Orochitama knew?

Probably. The bitch.

"So what's eating you?" Anko asked as she leaned back against the roof.

Kakashi briefly considered telling the woman to fuck off, he barely knew her on a personal basis, but decided that someone that would shit on Orochitama's plan with him sounded nice.

"Orochitama has offered to give us the Three Tails so long as I am its Jinchuriki." Kakashi stated simply. The Hokage had given him permission to discuss the matter with whoever he wished. He probably meant Naruto, but he didn't particularly care how liberally he interpreted that permission at the moment.

Anko's head snapped to him. "No shit?"

Kakashi hummed.

"Fuck." Anko cursed and lapsed into silence, contemplating that information. Unsurprising considering the woman's complicated feelings towards Orochitama. The night again filled with the cries of bugs and the occasional hoot of an owl that was usually not actually an owl. More than half of all the bird calls in Konoha were ninja signaling each other.

Kakashi had to wonder how long Orochitama had planned this. Had the woman been scouting him for the position all the way back in Wave? It felt more probable than he wanted to admit. He wanted to accuse the woman of doing this specifically to hurt him emotionally, but it made no tactical sense whatsoever. You didn't sacrifice a Biju just to hurt a single jounin's feelings.

"So what's the issue. Aren't you already that brat's teacher? Have a problem when the jinchuriki is you?" Anko asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No. I wouldn't have blinked if it were any other Biju. It's just..." Kakashi trailed off, he spent a heartbeat deciding if he actually wanted to talk about it before continuing. "My Genin Team under the Yondaime Hokage consisted of myself, Obito, and Rin. Obito died first."

"Yeah. It's how you got your eye. I remember there was a political shitstorm after."

"Right. Well, after that Rin had gotten captured by Mist ninja on another mission. They sealed the Three Tails into her with a seal that made to break on command. They wanted us to return to Konoha and have her release a biju in the heart of the village." Kakashi stated.

"Seeing as I don't remember the village ever being attacked by the Three Tails, I guess something happened to stop that?" Anko asked.

"Yes. She threw herself on my attack. My hand plunged through her chest and she died with the seal intact, meaning the Three Tails reformed somewhere nearby and Konoha was saved." Kakashi answered.

"Shit." Anko said as the implication hit her. "So...she wants you to take the reason your teammate died into yourself. That bitch! There is no way she didn't know!"

Kakashi smiled under his mask. It was nice that someone else agreed. "I have to do it. It's too much power for Konoha for me to refuse."

"Such a big prize has to be for a great cost. What's the Snake Bitch get?"

"Konoha publicly supporting her new village and claiming a mutual defense pact. She also thinks that her village will be too scary to NOT attack if they have the Three Tails on top of the Seven Tails and all that she just unveiled. By giving it to us it also tells the other villages she's willing to play ball and be peaceful."

"Bullshit!" Anko yelled "Look, I heard that she's not supposed to be exactly Orochimaru but if any part of her is that bastard there is another reason and we can't let her have time to just set up whatever the fuck it is she's trying to do."

"Her personality...well, I'm not sure how much of her is really Orochimaru, but she's showing a lot of signs of genuinely trying to be peaceful. Her new village is in-between Konoha, Iwa, and Kumo. She'll make for an even more imposing barrier to someone starting a war. Isn't a chance at peace worth the shot?" Kakashi asked.

"No!" Anko yelled immediately before glancing down and biting her lip, "Maybe. I don't know. But you don't make a plan that counts on a viper NOT biting you! Not without you making for damn sure that you can trust it."

Anko had a point. There was a lot to gain here, but Orochimaru was a monster beyond compare. Who was to say they weren't just letting a worse problem prepare?

As much as the current plan grated against his personal feelings, he had to agree with the underlying logic of everything. The fact that Naruto kept managing to predict the Snake Woman and he insisted she wasn't bad also made him not want to write off the woman's character either. He needed a compromise. Something to test the woman's intentions.

"Anko? What is something that morally upstanding that Orochimaru would never do no matter what? Something we could demand in exchange for this deal?" Kakashi asked.

Anko looked stunned for a moment before immediately adopting a smile pointy enough to be fitting for a Kiri Swordsman. "Oh, I have a thought."

"Then lets bring it to the Hokage before Orochitama does something else outrageous to shake the foundations of the ninja world." Kakashi droned before cursing himself. He knew better than to give lines like that for the universe to fuck with.

"The creek through my land is dry!"

"Finding out why is twenty thousand ryo. And addition twenty thousand will guarantee it flows for at least the next month. Baring interference of people."

"I have gophers in my crops!"

"We can exterminate them for seventy-five hundred ryo. If you want a guarantee that your crops still alive after, it will be thirty thousand."

And so the day went, Taro taking requests, typing away on his magical box to answer all their questions. All he had to do was communicate what the box told him. Why were missions the price they were? He didn't know. How did a ninja get there in only two hours? He hadn't been told. Who decided if one of the requests wasn't something available that day? Outside his paygrade. All he knew is that he just had to do this job for three months, then he'd get two months off, and the entire three months on the road would see his food and stay in hotels was paid for by the village, within reason. He only had to be at the stand for eight hours a day and the rest of the time he was free to spend however he chose.

It was the perfect job, it inspired in him a desire to see the world that he hadn't before. He was free to try a new restaurant every day, to look upon any beautiful vistas it held, and to participate in any celebrations at the time.

He just didn't envy the guy that had to read all the requests of both himself and the several dozen other ninja also filling the same job currently.

xxxxx

Tatewaki had to consciously hold back his triumphant laughter; he has already allowed is well earned joyous and innocent laughter to take up so much time that morning that he hadn't managed to properly style his hair. None seemed to notice his glorious hair lacked the structure it normally took, but all marveled at him as he completed his purpose. He had finally been assigned a task worthy of him and he would show all the importance of his person that Orochitama, goddess that she is, had rightfully acknowledged within him!

The day had started with a low level of activity. Just coordinating among parties and verifying positions and having his minions make sure the peons in the field knew their roles. The plan he was administering was one that had been poured over by the leaders of three villages, their highest officers, and Tatewaki had been the last piece to bring it all together. He alone had managed to calculate the correct position and pathing to allow for acceptable response times whilst also not staying in a predictable pattern for enemies to interfere.

Previously, they had been deadlocked into disagreement, but he alone had managed to convince them of their glorious vision.

"Call in! Pothole. Area 207.521. Dispatching D-Rank personnel. Minimum charge. Clear?" One of his underlings shouted, a tad too loud, but who wouldn't be excited at the first call in?

"Approved." Tatewaki replied and the confirmation was sent. Such a simple order would not need his oversight in the coming days, but to begin with it was his mission to ensure everyone knew what they were doing.

Tatewaki walked over to the most impressive bit of the staging room. A map that virtually displayed the two dozen deployments out in the country waiting to respond to these requests. Each group consisting of approximately thirty-three ninja of varying strength and ability that sat ready to deploy in the area to accomplish assigned missions.

The small light that represented ninja number 256384 blinked out place and appeared as a yellow color on the map at the destined location to represent they were in route and had yet complete their mission. As the system was supposed to.

"Branch locations. Verify first movement displayed to area 207.521." Tatewaki ordered into his personal communicator. Unlike Tatewaki's minions, this one was a different communicator. The highest level of encryption possible and sent out to the five satellite locations that were set up to receive missions just the same as this location had been set up. The other ones were not manned to nearly the same extent currently, but rather were a backup should their own location be compromised so that business and communication could go uninterrupted. A genius idea by his current object of worship and future bride, Orochitama.

"Location 02, acknowledged."

"Location 03, acknowledged."

His communicator crackled in response as all the locations gave verification one after the other, making Tatewaki give a nod of approval. The maps were synched up to all locations. The technology that was being used for it was not something new, strictly speaking, but it was technology that had never been used quite like this before.

"Call in! Request for factfinding with possible solution for waterflow issues. Dried creek. Area 207.522. Pricing?" One of his minions asked.

Tatewaki did mental calculations. It was exploratory, so it would need multiple ninja. The location was in the heart of the country and in an area with a nonexistent bandit presence. Fixing the issue with a dry creek could be problematic, as it might be a weather based issue.

Tatewaki quickly paged through to the weather reports in the stated area to see if it had been getting regular rainfall.

It had. Meaning an issue of damming or a troublesome neighbor.

"Tier 4 D price for finding out the problem. Tier 1 C for solving it." Tatewaki came to a snap decision, the most important skill of his current job. They had run practices previously and the consistent issue had been that no one seemed able to both evaluate the issues of a mission and come to a decision on the mission price quickly. One had to know where to find the pertinent data in the available refrence material as well. It was a job few could accomplish and none shined as brightly as he.

"Call in! Roof repair! Class 3 residence! Area 103.824! Price?"

Tatewaki began to open is mouth to respond but found himself cut off.

"Call in! Wolf extermination! Pack unknown in size! Area 602.897." Another voice pipped up.

Simple enough, he just had to-

"Call in! Bandit camp! Red Suns! Area 425.368!" Another called.

Ah, the fish were biting. Quicker than he had expected, the first day was supposed to be slow, but he had prepared for it. Tatewaki turned to his two head minions. "Assist. Refer everything over 1 B to me for finalization."

"Yes!" The two shouted before standing up and beginning to field responses as well.

"Call in! Murder investigation! Mid tier merchant family! Area 103.825! Price?"

Tatewaki gave out a laugh that was so joyful that everyone briefly stopped what they were doing to stare at him in wonder. Truly, they marveled at such pure and magical joy. His vision, and Orochitama's, was going perfectly!