Orochimama

I had much to prepare for. We would be moving rapidly soon and I had to notify various parties of time table changes.

"Guren. Tatewaki. Make sure you're somewhere in the village in a very public place when this goes down. With your teams. They will leave you alone long enough to compete in the hidden village, but keep an eye out. A few other parties might take advantage of things and injure you or your teams." I ordered.

"Yes ma'am!"

"Of course."

"Kabuto. Get a message off to Mei. Tell her to be ready to move." I continued. "Also give me an update on patrol patterns so that I can plant something in the village before we leave."

"Yes ma'am." The grey-haired man stated.

"Jirobo, have the flyers been made?"

"Yes! One side proclaiming the event tonight and the other posting a schedule for more shows, auctions, and events through to the last day of the Chunin Exams."

That was how much of the day went. Coordinating plans and overseeing adjustments all while making sure the sudden influx of ANBU and jounin at the fair didn't see me. It wasn't hard, but it was annoying. Even if I could disguise myself, I couldn't afford to seem too in charge of things. They couldn't get away with attacking Sound so publicly, but they could get away with attacking one of their Missing Nin.

"Make sure that everyone is rested. We have five hours till the show starts. Mandate a nap time if you have to. We can't have anyone going into this tired."

"Tayuya, keep an eye out still for the special guest. I cannot stress the importance of this job enough." I said as I gazed at the girl.

"Yeah, yeah. You got it." The redhead stated.

"I'm serious Tayuya. This is important." I said as I kept eye contact, my voice calm but with the tone needed to convey it's seriousness.

"Yeah. If he shows up, I'll see him." Tayuya promised.

I gave a nod. Her task was not one that would make everything fall apart if not done, but it was probably the most important of the tasks I handed out.

"Kidomaru, did we receive those letters from the Daimyo of Valley Country and Hill Country?" I asked.

"Yes ma'am!" He stated, standing at attention.

"Excellent! Send a response letter telling to them to announce tomorrow. And my outfit? Is it going to be done in time?"

"It'll be close, but I think I can get it done." The Spider Summoner promised, bringing a wicked grin to my face. I was looking forward to that. I had never gotten to cosplay before and this felt similar to that. Though maybe dressing up for a Ren Fair was more appropriate? Either way, I planned on making the outfit quite famous.

Maybe infamous. Time will tell.

"Great! We can do this. Lets just avoid any slip ups for now. Don't tell anyone else that there is a change of plans until near the end of the play. Slowly trickle out and have them leave en masse when I make my appearance. I'm going to try and get an ally to cover your exit."

The last few details were hammered out and we all took turns leaving the tent at random intervals as to avoid drawing attention.

"What if he doesn't show?" Kabuto asked.

"Then I'll have to find another way to get Danzo." I answered shortly. Not out of any irritation, just that it was the only real answer I had to the question. Danzo was clever and most plans I could enact had a high chance of the man escaping to fight another day, or worse, turn it around on me to make me look more guilty to Konoha.

"Very well. So we have planned for everything?"

"Unless a real curveball comes our way." I nodded, "Now, I'm off to kidnap a child to entice them for a favor. Ciao!"

I got barely an eyeroll before disappearing. Kabuto was growing used to my innuendo and bizarre statements.

That was no fun.

xxxxxx

Gaara had to give one thing to Uzumaki Naruto. He made Gaara quite sure that he wasn't somehow hallucinating everything that was going on. Not out of any sort of comfort or anything, just that he was quite certain he could never imagine someone like the loud blond actually existing.

"Then Luke was all like psssh, vwoom vwoom, argh! And then Vader was all 'I know what happened to your dad!' and Luke was all like-" On and on the boy went, speaking to a rather bratty child that had run up to them earlier, completely ignoring Gaara as he did.

Which was fine, since Gaara was still trying to figure out how in the fuck the blond managed to get him to show up at this ramen stand and confront the bizarre feeling of not yet wanting to kill the Uzumaki despite honestly finding him quite annoying. He was annoying but something about his manner made the irritation disappear quickly? It was odd. Perhaps it was the way his eyes looked painfully familiar at the oddest moments.

"Then they flew off, barely alive, and the bad guys actually won! Kinda. They'll get em next time." Naruto finished as the starry-eyed child gazed up in wonder.

"Oh man! I have GOT to see that last one!" The child stated, practically vibrating in excitement.

"Then come. Easy. It's not like they're stopping people." Naruto replied before beginning to shovel ramen into his mouth.

"Grampa won't let me! I keep asking him and he just wants to play stupid board games. I hate board games!"

Irritation flooded Gaara and he spoke before he even realized what he was saying. "Then go. Or do what he says and don't go. Stop whining about it or I'll kill you." Gaara stated, though without the general flood of killing intent that usually came with such a statement. Habit was the reason he said it mostly. He'd probably only maim the kid if he kept complaining.

Naruto gave a dramatic hum and held his chin in consideration for a few seconds before he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Seems pretty easy to me! You just sneak out and go anyways!"

Konohamaru's face flashed through several emotions. Doubt, sadness, anger, until finally it settled on mischief. "Yeah! I'll sneak out and meet you!"

As the two began planning, it dawned on Gaara that he was present for what was, effectively, a plot to kidnap the grandchild of a foreign power and it would probably be best for everyone if he were to just not be around.

"Thanks for the ramen." The words felt odd on his tongue. How long had it been since he'd said thanks in a tone other than malice?

"Bye! I'll see ya tomorrow!" The blond yelled before turning back to the child.

Konoha was...odd.

The past few weeks have been emotionally challenging for Gaara. The voice in his head. His one companion. Was gone and he was beginning to think that the voice had nothing to do with his mother. After all, the voice was gone, but his sand still obeyed. His sand didn't thirst for blood. His mother's gift still protected him. Not only that he found interacting with people sometimes pleasant. He'd even had breakfast with both his siblings that morning and they only jumped away in fear one time. He was willing to accept that his life might be better now, even if he did owe it to-

"Ara ara! Is that a smile, Gaara-kun?"

Gaara froze and turned, his sand shifting minutely under his control. In the alley way, mostly hidden by shadow, a form leaned against the wall and slitted eyes gazed into his own. "You."

"Me!" The woman chirped.

His father had questioned him at length about his interaction with this woman. He gave warnings about her power and her manipulation and stated that if she ever were to attack him that he should run and let others die defending him.

His father had never said that before.

"Oh come now. No need to be so tense! I won't bite." The woman promised as she continued to just lean against the wall. Leaking no killing intent and taking the most non threatening posture one could take while still standing.

Yet he still found himself afraid; and curiously, in the same measure, happy to see her.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"A favor. Just a small thing. I only need you to summon a small non-lethal sandstorm when Episode VI ends. Shortly after the author of the play takes the stage."

"You want me to attack Konoha?" He asked. Because that's what it was. If he summoned a sandstorm on a location filled with Konoha ninja it'd be the same as attacking them. It would be regarded as an attack.

"Oh heavens no!" The woman said clutching at her chest. "I want you to create it on the other side of the fair grounds. Away from Konoha. It's for the Sound Ninja's to run away into. All within the bounds of the agreement I have with your father."

That...could work. It would be viewed as helping an ally rather than attacking. He didn't much personally care about the political situation going on, but being complained at by his father afterwards would be a pain. The question was, which would his father prefer he do?

"I see you're conflicted. That's fine. Bring it up to your jounin sensei if you need to. Do it or don't do it. I can handle things, but your assistance would make it smoother. I would appreciate your help if you are willing to give it."

"And if I don't agree?"

"Then I pout about it." Her eyes began to dampen and her lip briefly quivered before it morphed into a smile. "That's it. No repercussions. No threats. I'm just asking for you to do it as a favor."

A favor? Favors were for friends. Allies. Favors were things to be recalled at a later date. With a person of this woman's power? That was quite valuable indeed.

"I will think on it." Gaara stated simply.

"All that I can ask." She turned and began to walk deeper into the shadows, stopping only for a moment to say, "It's nice. Seeing you make friends and smile."

He opened his mouth to deny that he hadn't made any friends, but it died in his throat. He didn't think he had but he couldn't bring himself to say it for certain either.

"Goodnight, Gaara-kun. Pleasant dreams."

Then the woman was gone. Leaving him with him with questions and more emotion than he was really planning to deal with that night.

How irritating.

XXXXXX

"I'm here to watch you. I'm not a fucking servant." Sakon grumbled as he looked at the syringe being held out to him.

"Stop whining and just get it done." The blonde woman snapped at him as she held a hand over the spike of bone that Kimimaro had grown out of his leg at her request.

"Fine." He snapped the vial out of her hand. It was filled with a cloudy white liquid that she had gotten from the bone user's spine. He walked the three feet over to the Slug Sannin's assistant and placed the vial on the table next to her. The girl had several such vials in front of her and was alternating between picking one up with a glowing hand and jotting down some sort of notation on a piece of paper.

"Are you guys almost fucking done? Entire teams of medical personnel have been looking after the cripple here for years. I doubt-"

"Tsunade-sama!" The black haired bitch interrupted.

The woman stepped over and looked at the notations the girl was making with a critical eye before standing up straight.

"Ha! Got it!" The blonde woman rushed back to the patient and began to place small slips of paper on his body. A moment later she produced a brush and began to paint a seal on each paper.

"Huh? What did you get?"

"Did you find out the source of my illness?" Kimimaro spoke up as he retracted the bone he had sticking out back into his leg.

"Yeah, you're not sick." Tsunade said dismissively as she continued her work.

"I assure you, I am."

"What Tsunade-sama means is that you aren't suffering from a genetic defect, virus, or bacteria." Shizune stated as she too walked over to begin painting the seals on the bone user.

A cold feeling began to fall over Sakon and his mouth suddenly felt very dry. They found out? This fast?

"Then what is it?" Kimimaro asked in curiosity.

"You've been poisoned." Tsunade jabbed a finger into the bone-user's side. "Some foreign body got inside your bone marrow. Probably because you stick it out there for everyone to do who knows what."

Sakon willed himself to remain calm. He'd managed to stay calm in the face of Orochimaru's anger before. This washed up has-been was nothing to fear. So what if she had some supposedly legendary medical skills? It was best to act as normal.

"You managed to get yourself poisoned without realizing it? So much for being Orochimaru's strongest." Sakon sneered.

"It was subtle." Tsunade continued her smooth brush strokes. "Something managed to get inside his bones. Something quite difficult with his bloodline. It was a foreign body of some sort. It's propagating in his marrow. The body can tell something's wrong there, but the poison is actually coming up as bone marrow of someone of his blood type. His body can't identify it as what's hurting him while at the same time it's fucking up his production of red blood cells. Whatever this is, it's damn impressive and subtle."

"I didn't think that was possible." Kimimaro stated, brows furrowed. "I've been sick for so long I can't think of a particular interaction that might have caused this to start."

"Doesn't matter. I'm about to purge it now. Then you just need some bedrest and a couple weeks of some iron heavy meals and you'll be right as rain and then I get to go back to drinking and pretending none of this ever happened."

"You'll still want to take it easy for at least three weeks. Light amounts of training will be okay, but nothing that leaves you feeling dizzy." The assistant piped up.

Sakon started to step back. His fear telling him to run. Telling him that they could figure out that it was him that poisoned Kimimaro. That he had been leaving a bit of his own bone marrow, suffused with his Cursed Seal Form's chakra, inside Kimimaro's bones. That he had been slowly and meticulously making sure that it was him that was the head of Orochimaru's guard. That it was him that was the strongest. That he had made Kimimaro weak so that he could take the position of the strong.

But he couldn't.

If he ran, there would be no rock he could hide under. He would be hunted down and killed and there would be nothing he could do about it.

His best play would be to stay and act like nothing happened. To act the same as he had the entire time they were there. So, he committed.

"Yeah, yeah. Very nice; you're curing the idiot. Hurry up and finish, I'm fucking starving." Sakon stated as he leaned against the wall and doing his level best to project an air of casualness.

The two women finished applying their seals. The Slug Sannin checked over the work. Then with just five minutes of work, they pronounced Kimimaro cured of the years of work Sakon had put in. They were also leaving notes in the medical files of how to identify the issue again. Then the blonde popped open a bottle of sake she had hidden on her while the assistant wrote down foods to avoid on a slip of paper.

Just like that.

"Alright. You're done. Now get the hell out." Sakon ordered.

"Don't need to tell me twice." Tsunade stated before walking out the door.

Sakon hesitated at the door. Looking back to see Kimimaro staring at his hands with a stupid far off look on his dumb face muttering "I'm cured? I'll live?"

Sakon turned away from him in a huff. He had shit to do and it'd probably be best if he didn't seem too interested in Kimimaro. For now.

"We shouldn't try again." Ukon whispered from his back.

"Yeah, we need to lay low for-"

"No. We won't do it again at all. Too suspicious. Things are changing. Orochitama doesn't handle infighting the same as Orochimaru. We won't try again."

Ukon was telling him? Ukon never decided plans. He advised. He asked. But he generally let Sakon decide how things would turn out. But this? He didn't say they shouldn't. He said they wouldn't. He wasn't asking. He was telling.

And that pissed him off.

"Fine! Whatever. We'll do it your fucking way." He yelled loudly.

"Problems?" The two up ahead turned to look at him at the yell.

"Nothing. Just keep going." He grumbled.

Tsunade didn't need to be told twice. Meanwhile, the assistant hovered around until Sakon caught up.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"None of you're fucking business." Sakon snapped.

"Oh." Her eyes dropped down and an awkward smile graced her face. "I wasn't actually talking to you. I was talking to your brother. He...is your brother right?"

Sakon looked at her, mouth agape as his brother's head turned on his neck to look at the assistant.

"I'm fine. Arguments come with being siblings." He stated.

Ukon actually talked back? What the hell even was today?

One thing was for sure. It wasn't a fucking good day.

xxxxx

There were benefits to being partnered with Kisame. He stayed very professional in most every situation. He respected Itachi's personal space more than most. He kept good personal hygiene. However, there was one thing in particular that was immensely useful to Itachi.

"I wonder why they made the thing out of kunai and shuriken?" Kisame wondered aloud.

Kisame would often just note things aloud. Obvious observations usually, but quite often it was small things that were helpful to Itachi, what with his failing sight. The fish man's observation made it so Itachi didn't need to give an obvious squint at the sculpture to see its finer details. Advertising failing sight was a poor idea for a shinobi; particularly a shinobi as wanted as Uchiha Itachi.

Though Itachi did often question if Kisame noted the obvious aloud because he had noticed Itachi squinting, or if it was just in his personality. He couldn't say. The relationship between them was an odd one. They trusted one another in a fight but they also both knew that it was quite likely they would one day kill each other. They were both traitors after all, after a fashion.

"So do we just find someone that looks important and grab them? Or do you wanna grab food and watch the show first?" Kisame asked. "Might give us some idea what the hell Orochimaru is up to."

Itachi considered it. They were on the doorstep of his former village and it would ordinarily be reason for caution, however, Danzo had given him permission to be in the area and had mentioned he would run a little interference. Any Hyuga watching the area was probably Root. With that taken care of, he and Kisame could probably go unnoticed for quite some time. Itachi had long since mastered a subtle illusion that made it difficult for people to notice their presence, and only the most skilled jounin would notice something was off. And even if they did, there were numerous ninja from every village here.

It was a risk to spend time here, but it was a small one.

Ordinarily he'd be inclined to leave. To not take the risk. However, as he looked around, he came to the conclusion that there was much to be gained by staying. The fair was a trap, obviously, but the method and style of it was unique. How one laid a trap was one of the biggest indicators of priorities and mindset.

"We shall stay for a bit longer."

"Good! I was eyeing the liquor they have for sale. I've never seen some of the brands before." Kisame began walking towards one of said stalls.

This fair was quite the display. He would have written the whole thing off as someone doing random things for the sake of randomness. The artwork made him reconsider. This was someone's project. They were trying not just to say something, but gain something with the art, music and games. Distractions, for sure, but by itself it said something about the character of the person who put this together.

They understood fancy. They understood the appeal of something sweet being eaten while listening to new unknown music. They understood the temptation to play one more time and perhaps get the prize to impress the girl you were with. They understood the appeal of a stiff drink and a gripping story.

The number of people that understood and appreciated all that while still being a ninja of note? It was small. Itachi wouldn't think of it.

And neither would Orochimaru.

"Hey, have you seen this?" Kisame said on return, holding up a bottle filled with an amber liquid. Itachi couldn't make out the writing at a glance, but he did see the half dressed drawing of a woman on the label. "Jewel Tequila, apparently, it promises it'll make your clothes fall off."

Itachi stared at Kisame unamused. The downside of working with the swordsman was his sense of humor. When he wasn't laughing at brutally mauling someone he was laughing at toilet humor and sex jokes. The lowest forms of comedy.

"Aw, come on! Don't be like that. Especially since I got this so you can get your MILF snake to-"

Itachi glared and Kisame held his hands up in surrender. He was getting so very tired of that joke.

"Come. I have acquired tickets for us. We should secure a seat in the back." He intoned.

"Yeah. Sure. Do you want me to grab some of that stuff while you grab the seat?" The Mist Ninja stated, pointing to something advertising Fun Nel Cake.

"Why would-" Then he cut himself off as his nose caught the sent wafting from the stall. Of something deep-fried and covered with a sweet syrup. Chocolate and strawberry options he believed. "I will secure the food. You secure the seats."

"Heh. Fine, but bring me one." His partner walked towards the big top tent at a sedate pace. Flowing through the busy crowd with a subtle grace.

He and Kisame sat in silence after that. Just listening to the noise around them and watching for threats. Several ninja seemed to note their presence but made no move to identify them or interact with them. Most just moving themselves away. All the while, Itachi found his eyes continuing to drift back towards Sasuke.

He had no idea what to do to keep the boy safe. It was probably best for now that he make no contact since it seemed like he was functioning well with his team. He could see from his just sitting there that his brother had grown quite strong for a gennin. His rate of progress was satisfactory so long as Danzo wasn't pushing to move on the boy. He would just have to keep an eye on him while he was here so that Orochimaru didn't make an attempt at getting the sharingan an easier way.

Then, the play began with thunderous music and Sasuke sat up straight and his eyes glued to the stage, a look of restrained excitement on his face.

Perhaps the grief over this Orochitama nonsense was worth it after all.

xxxxx

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