Chapter Text
“So,” Shikaku stated, putting down a white stone “How is the clan?”
They were midway through a game of Go now, and neither of them had talked much aside from the initial greetings. The Go parlor Shikaku had suggested they meet at was in an out of the way civilian neighborhood, empty enough to give them privacy, but crowded enough that they wouldn’t draw any attention with their conversation. It was a perfect place to talk with his brother without any nosy shinobi, or worse, clan members, eavesdropping.
Ikoma glanced up from the board to look at his brother. It was strange to see him in clothes befreit of the clan symbol. Stranger still to see him look so healthy. His face wasn't as gaunt and the bags under his eyes not quite as dark as they had been during the month long cold war between him and their father. Obviously living with Yoshino and her fantastic cooking was doing wonders for his brother’s well being.
After studying his brother for a few more seconds, he answered, “They’re still upset, if that’s what you’re wondering. But you’ll probably be welcome on clan grounds in another month or so.”
Shikaku snorted. “If I show up in a month Dad would probably find a way to disown me all over again, if he didn’t first make me walk into the forest to never return.”
Ikoma placed down his own stone as he thought that over “...I’ll let you know when he’s on a mission.”
His brother studied the board without replying, so Ikoma continued “The clan is doing well, though. We almost didn’t have enough of the nerve stimulant to send to the hospital this week, but we pulled through at the last minute. Other than that it’s been business as usual.”
Shikaku nodded. “And how about you? I know these past few weeks must have been hard on you, considering…”
Considering the clan heirship just got dumped on you with no warning, Shikaku meant. Considering you were never meant to have this job. Considering there’s a war you’re fighting and now you’re expected to do your incredibly important job on top of memorizing a million asinine clan rules Dad never fully taught you because he never really considered you for heirship.
Ikoma shrugged. “I’m fine. A bit busy with missions on top of everything else, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. Dad did teach me some things growing up in case you died, you know. You don’t have to worry.”
It wasn’t the most honest thing he’d ever said, but Shikaku didn’t need to hear about his stress levels. It would only make him feel guiltier. Not that Shikaku should feel guilty. Ikoma understood his position more than Shikaku even realized.
“If I was worried about how you’ll do as clan head I wouldn’t have stepped down. I know you’ll do fine. But I’m sure you’re not having much fun right now. I am sorry about that.”
“No you’re not,” Ikoma deflected as he placed a stone, continuing his atari, “You’re just thrilled you’re not the one with all the work for a change. But it’s fine. I understand why you chose to do it.”
The two brothers fell into a comfortable silence as they approached the end game, each of them focusing on the board and their moves. It wasn’t until Ikoma was bemoaning the awful shape of his left corner that Shikaku decided to speak again. “Dad’s not making you marry Junshi in my place, is he?”
Ikoma coughed abruptly, “What!? No! Dad’s not— I mean maybe if I didn’t— but that’s not the case, because there’s… I mean…”
Ikoma took a deep breath to steady himself, glancing out the window to collect his thoughts. Telling Shikaku about Kanatoko was the entire reason he’d arranged to meet up. If he couldn’t tell his brother without becoming a mess, how was he going to handle the rest of the clan? Determinedly, he met his brother’s amused stare. “I have a girlfriend. I want to ask her to marry me. But I don’t know how happy Dad or the elders will be with me.”
“Really? You managed to look away from your books for more than a minute to see a girl?” his brother teased, “I thought that may have been why you’d been leaving the house so often, but I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Oh shut up Shikaku! From what Inochi was telling me Yoshino had to hit you over the head with a boulder to get your attention.”
“It really wasn’t as funny as Inochi thinks it was.” Shikaku grumbled, before becoming serious. “But you won’t have to worry about Dad. You’re the only viable heir he has right now, and unless you’re marrying a Kumo nin the clan’s just going to have to accept whoever you choose. It’s not like you have a betrothal to break and get disowned over.”
Ikoma nodded. He knew this, intellectually. He knew his father would even approve of Kanatoko in theory. She was from a minor clan, sure, but the clan was known for being formidable and she herself was a tokubetsu jōnin. On paper there was no reason for the elders to be upset about her.
Except for the small fact that she was already two months pregnant with his child, that is.
Ikoma had met Kanatoko Kurama the way many shinobi met; on a mission, where they had been put on the same team for a two week long live-capture of a pair of runaway merchants who had been revealed as spies. The mission itself had been hellish, including a two day long trek through a swamp, a sudden torrential downpour while they were sleeping, a group of Kumo nin forcing them to lose their lead, and a run in with a drunken traveling circus he had since blocked from his memory.
Though it was easily the most miserable mission he’d ever been on, the company had been excellent. The couple their team had been tasked to capture had split up, and so too had their team, leaving Ikoma alone with a Kurama he’d never worked with before.
The first few days went by quietly. Kanatoko was efficient, curt, and near silent as they tracked their quarry, which suited Ikoma just fine. He was terrible at small talk, or jokes, or anything social, really.
It wasn’t until they were bedding down for a few hours rest when Ikoma found himself breaking the amicable silence between the pair, “Is that Oda Sakaguchi’s new book?” He asked, gesturing towards the novel Kanatoko had retrieved from her bag, “I haven’t been able to read it yet, is it as good as his last one?”
Kanatoko didn’t glance away from the book as she replied, “So far I’m liking it. The main character isn’t as funny as Ryou was, but he’s not as frustrating, either. The ninja fight scenes are terrible, though.”
Ikoma snorted. “Aren’t they always? The only author who’s ever written a halfway believable fight scene is Jiraiya. And doesn’t that just say something about the deplorable state of good ninja literature.”
She looked up then, eyeing him interestedly, “You read a lot, then? What genres?”
Ikoma perked up. Talking about books was perhaps the one thing he felt confident about, “Oh, I’ll read pretty much everything from the classics to contemporary. I love historical dramas like Sakaguchi’s work, but my favorite books tend to be the more psychological and introspective works.”
Kanatoko shut her book, “I love those kinds as well! They take up at least eighty percent of my collection. Do you have a favorite?”
“It’s hard to pick, but I read No Longer Gold a few years ago and the carefulness of the prose and how masterfully the author wove in the themes of loss and redemption made me fall in love immediately.”
The interest in Kanatoko’s eyes dimmed, “Oh.”
Ikoma blinked, “What’s that mean?”
“It’s just,” she rolled her eyes, face more expressive than it had been all day, “that book is boring, depressing, and dripping with so much pretentiousness that I think the author spent the entire time writing it with his head up his ass.”
He met her stare, indignant, but always thrilled to debate books, though there were tragically few people with which to do it with, “Most of the more introspective books out there follow similar themes, and No Longer Gold does it best. What’s your favorite then, if you don’t like something so archetypical of the genre?”
“I don’t mind the themes, I just don’t like the way that book handled them. My favorite has to be A Private Affair. It doesn’t wallow in self pity and go nowhere, but has an unflinching look into the consequences of putting one’s selfish dreams over the lives of others. That, plus the artistry of how the plot threads tie together, it’s outstanding.”
Oh, good, a book he could talk about. “It’s predictable, rushed, and has a main character so unlikeable I wanted to jump into the book and kill him myself. If you think that nonsense is somehow better than the masterpiece that is No Longer Gold then something is wrong with your literary analysis.”
“Oh, I’ll show you literary analysis you overblown book snob. The entire point of A Private Affair is that Tori is supposed to be unlikeable, and if you missed that then you missed the entire point of the novel.”
Despite her harsh words there was a glint in her eye, one that had told Ikoma she was enjoying this discussion just as much as he was.
He responded in kind, “Making me hate a book on purpose doesn’t make the author any less of a hack.”
“A hack?!? If you want to talk about a hack how about we talk about the way your preferred author spends over 100 pages trying to make the reader feel as sad as possible, and then absolutely nothing else happens.”
“That’s not what happens at all!” Kanatoko stoked the fire, which was beginning to dim and sighed, “It figures that the first person I’ve met who’s read Sakaguchi has otherwise terrible taste. Next you’ll tell me you also liked The Eagle of the Tree.”
Ikoma sputtered indignantly, “How could you even compare those two books? The Eagle of the Tree is a rushed, cliche ridden nightmare that ruined a perfectly good premise by making the characters idiots. No one in their right mind would like that drivel.”
“And yet it’s made its way onto multiple best-seller lists,” Kanatoko pointed out bitterly, “because apparently, no one is in their right mind, and thinks an author killing off the most interesting character in the second act before their character arc has resolved is interesting, rather than frustrating.”
Ikoma groaned, “I was so upset when that happened! Haru was the only reason I’d made it that far in the book to begin with. I almost stopped reading, afterwards.”
“Well, you wouldn’t have missed much,” Kanatoko said as Ikoma shifted himself closer to the fire, “Why didn’t you?”
“Morbid curiosity.”
She laughed. Ikoma grinned, and together they tore the novel to shreds until it was time to sleep.
Their spirited discussion lasted for the rest of the mission, filling their downtimes with debate, analysis, and laughter as they discussed other novels. Despite Kanatoko’s flawed understanding of No Longer Gold and the brilliance of it’s lengthy prose as it pertained to being a metaphor for the suffering of mankind, they found that they did have many other shared favorite, and un-favorite novels in common.
Their discussion wasn’t just about books either. Being a Kurama, Kanatoko also had many opinions on art. “I just don’t see the appeal of suibokuga,” she’d told him eight days into the mission, while crouched near a river, cleaning the sake and paint out of her hair as best as she could with a trick water jutsu, “Just using black ink for your work is so boring, and it limits you. Give me colorful stuff over dry ink any day, you can express so much more.”
“Sometimes the limitation leads to stronger emotional responses,” Ikoma pointed out while futilely trying to clean his own vest and face, “In suibokuga the artist has to capture the whole spirit of the subject using as minimum lines and shapes as possible. It’s an expressionistic art that captures the unseen, and personally I find it beautiful.”
“You would describe it like that, wouldn’t you, Nara-san,” Kanatoko teased while getting up and using a quick drying technique on her hair, “I guess, if you think of it a certain way, your clan techniques are sort of like suibokuga.”
“Not really. The Nara clan techniques don’t have anything to do with art.”
“I know that!” She rolled her eyes, “But the way you can move your shadow, it looks a little artistic. My point is, the Kurama clan gets to be more colorful than you, and you’ll see me painting interesting, colorful art before boring old suibokuga any day. Now let’s go, I wanna finally get this guy before I have to paint us to look like clowns again.”
It was the most fun Ikoma had ever had talking with anyone who wasn’t his brother or his late genin team.
Evidently Kanatoko felt similarly, as after their mission had been completed and their targets sequestered off to T&I she had dragged him, muddy swamp covered uniform and lingering burning smell and all, to her apartment, where they spent the night definitively not catching up on all the sleep they’d missed during the mission.
Their relationship continued along that vein for some time. They ran missions (both separately and together), talked about books, and slept with each other. It was casual. Just a couple of eighteen year olds having fun. Nobody even knew they were sleeping together, as neither really had many other living friends and neither wanted to get their families involved in something that wasn’t serious.
He didn’t even tell Shikaku he’d made a new friend, as he’d be sure to see right through the pretense and bug him about it. Just this once, Ikoma wanted someone in his life that wasn’t also connected to his older brother. For a while, anyway. Shikaku was already eyeing him with curiosity every time he came home late, so he’d figure it out eventually. But, for the time being, he had Kanatoko and their easy, uncomplicated friendship all to himself.
Until eventually their relationship stopped being one of friends-with-benefits and grew to become something more. Ikoma wasn’t entirely sure when it had happened, but he realized one day, shortly after his nineteenth birthday, while in the middle of discussing the use of in media res as a brilliant or lazy writing choice in Fukuzawa Yukichi’s latest novel, that he was in love.
Actually telling Kanatoko this was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences of his life. He didn’t want to somehow ruin what they had, because Kanatoko made him happier than he had ever been. Then one night, while they were hanging out in her apartment, drinking a bit too much beer and laughing while reading excerpts of Jiraya of the Sanin’s latest pornographic monstrosity to each other he found the courage to blurt out how he felt.
She had laughed in response, which made Ikoma’s stomach drop, but then she cradled his face with both hands, face flushed with both alcohol and emotion stating “If you think I can listen to you discuss in depth the various ways how The Lily and the Sea used flowers as a metaphor for violence and not fall in love then you really are an idiot.”
She kissed him then, and even if it wasn’t the first, fifth, or even fiftieth time it somehow felt like a beginning.
The days following his confession had been spent in delirious bliss. The pair made plans for telling their respective families. Of the dinners and introductions that would then follow. They would go out on official dates, after that. Not just reading books and then not reading books in Kanatoko’s apartment or having a friendly coffee together. Then two things happened almost simultaneously; Shikaku was disowned and Kanatoko found out she was pregnant. And all their plans were ruined.
Kanatoko was one of a few Kurama to have a rare chakra condition called Chakra Destabilization. This condition meant that any molded or directed chakra applied to her would become unstable and break apart much more quickly than normal. This had some significant advantages in the field; genjutsu and chakra techniques like the Hyuga clan’s Jyuuken were almost entirely ineffective on her. But it also meant that unlike others, even her own molded chakra would break apart eventually. So jutsu that were permanent on others, such as Tsunade’s Menstrual Block, would have to be reapplied on a monthly basis.
His girlfriend was in tears as she explained this all to a frozen Ikoma, who had yet to so much as blink since hearing the news. “I promise I had no idea,” she pleaded between deep breaths “but- but apparently the jutsu isn’t effective the first day it’s applied, so-so even though I kept track and I was careful, and I promise I was careful, I- I’m pregnant anyway.”
Ikoma’s shock made him unable to respond. “Please, Ikoma I promise I didn’t do this on purpose, I’m not- I’m not my mother. Please. I’m not- I didn’t! I don’t want to trap you. I swear. If- if you don’t want to acknowledge this kid, or-or you don’t want them to be your heir. Or if your clan will be mad I promise that’s fine but please,” she was fully sobbing now, curled in on herself and not looking at him, “I don’t wanna lose you! You’re the best thing to ever happen to me but I also don’t want to lose this baby. I can’t- Please don’t make me choose. I love you. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ve ruined everything but I-”
Ikoma finally snapped out of his shock to move, collecting her sobbing form in his arms and smoothing at her hair. Kanatoko wailed, any ability to speak gone as she cried into his chest. “You haven’t ruined anything Kanatoko,” he promised as he gently guided them to the couch “I believe you. I know you didn’t do this on purpose. I’m not going anywhere. I love you too.”
They sat on the couch for a while, Kanatoko’s sobs quieting as Ikoma continued whispering calming platitudes into her hair. Finally, after he had time to really process what was happening and his girlfriend was no longer crying, he spoke again. “I’m going to acknowledge this kid as my own, and make them my heir. The clan probably won’t be happy. They won’t believe you and will accuse you of running a honeypot on me,” Kanatoko’s breath hitched again, “But we’re going to come up with a plan. Nara are good at planning, and you’re no slouch either, even if you always seem to think you can stay up all night reading and be fine for your 6 o’clock shift“
Kanatoko gave a hiccupy laugh at that. He placed his arms around her stomach and gave her hair a kiss, “They’ll have no choice but to accept you- to accept both of you. I love you so much, Kanatoko. I’ll do everything I can to make sure you stay with me for as long as you want to.”
“I love you too, Ikoma. Thank you,” his girlfriend was silent for a few minutes, regaining her composure, before continuing, “I’ve got to say, you’re taking this a lot better than I thought you would. When I saw those two little lines on the stick I don’t think I moved for another hour. Have you just always wanted kids or something?”
Ikoma let out a small laugh that sounded a bit manic to his ears, “Ahh, no. I’ve never even thought about it. Having kids was always Shikaku’s job.” he paused to reflect on his current emotional state, “I’m just still in shock, I think. Tomorrow it’s probably going to be your turn to comfort me through my nervous breakdown.”
Kanatoko snorted, then moved so she was sitting next to him, their thighs pressed together, “I’ll do my best. I don’t think I’m exactly emotionally stable myself, just yet.”
Ikoma moved to intertwine their fingers. “I don’t think either of us are expected to be, considering. We’ll just have to get through this together.”
He squeezed her hand in emphasis. Kanatoko sighed, then moved to rest her head on his shoulder. The couple were silent for the rest of the night, both of them too overwhelmed from the news and their emotions to talk much more.
After a week and multiple emotional breakdowns from the pair had passed, they were finally ready to move forward. They were in her apartment, as usual, when Kanatoko sat up straight, looked him in the eyes, and said, “Well, you were right that first day, when you said we’re going to need some kind of plan. We need one as soon as possible, if we want to come up with some way to make our clans not angry at us. What are you thinking?”
Ikoma closed his eyes to order his thoughts. “Well, our clans are going to be mad at us no matter what. Mine especially, considering how angry they are over my brother. But my father will have no choice but to accept you, because I’m the only heir he’s got, unless he wants Shikaku back. And I don’t think the Kurama would mind having strong links to the future head of the Nara clan.”
“So the real problem is going to be the baby, which we already figured.” she concluded.
He sighed. “Yes. Even if both clans will accept us, it’s highly likely the Nara would have you give the child up, or at least disown them and leave them with your clan. We need to stop that from happening. The best thing to do would be to make sure they can’t keep this secret, but I’m not quite sure how to go about that. Neither of us really have anyone we could tell outside our clans.”
“Well,” Kanatoko began slowly, “The Nara clan head has a bunch of political enemies, right? If one of them were to find out about me, then they wouldn’t allow the child to be swept under the rug, and so any decisions the Nara make would have to be done publicly. With all the scandal surrounding the clan right now, they’re not going to want another, so your dad will likely be forced into accepting us.”
“That’s brilliant,” Ikoma praised, “It won’t be exactly as cut and dry as that, but making the child not a secret goes a long way in helping us achieve our goal. The only thing is,” he slumped down on the couch, “I don’t know the best way to do that. It’s not like I can just walk on over to Haruki Hyuga and say ‘Hey, I have a girlfriend who’s pregnant with my bastard child, have a good day!”
Kanatoko snorted. “Yeah, I think you’ll have to be classier than that.”
He groaned “I’m so terrible at politics. And talking to people. What we need is someone who isn’t terrible at them. Someone who we can trust to be on our side, no matter what. Who can help make this plan airtight, because there are still a bunch of things I’m not sure about. We need-”
“-Shikaku.” The two of them nodded in unison, then drew their heads together to further plan.
And so it was their plans that lead him to this spot, losing horribly to his brother in a game of Go as he worked up the nerve to tell him what was going on. Shikaku himself wasn’t prying for information about his ‘mysterious girlfriend’ so he had likely worked out that Ikoma was working himself up to talk about her. His older brother always took the patient approach him, as he knew Ikoma would get around to telling him what was on his mind eventually, which was something he was grateful for.
Something he wasn’t grateful for was his brother’s trap making his stones in the left corner unsalvageable. He’d have to hope the win-condition he’d set up on the right would work better. Honestly, Ikoma was better matched at go than shoji, he should be playing better than this. It was just ever since he had learned about the baby, they and Kanatoko were always somehow on his mind.
His mind just constantly went from being worried about them, to worrying about the elders, to thinking of more mundane things. Would the child have his mother's black hair or his own dark brown? Or maybe they would have some genetic throwback and the hair would be completely different. After all, the Kurama clan had a lot of variety in their appearances. Would it be a boy or a girl looking up at him with genetically probable dark eyes?
And, speaking of, what were they even going to name the child? They would have to have a ‘Shika’ name, that much was given, but what? None of their favorite authors or artists had names that started with Shika. Maybe he should just choose something simple, like Shikamaru for a boy and Shikako for a girl? No. That was far too boring, Kanatoko would never agree to it. Besides, those were names his brother would come up with, not him. Shikanidaime perhaps? Yes, that had potential. Kanatoko would love it, and it was unisex besides, so he wouldn’t have to think of anything else.
It was funny, how he was so willing to think of a name for his child when he had been putting off his own impending name change for weeks.
Shikaku placed his next white stone on the right. Yose. Ikoma cursed, there was no coming back from this. He had to stop thinking about his future child or he’d never win at go again. “I resign.”
Shikaku nodded in acknowledgement. “It was a good game. Though it would have been better if you weren’t so distracted. Do you want to talk about what’s going on before our next round, or do you want to start playing first?”
He should just say it and get it over with. He knew Shikaku would support him. If there was one person Ikoma could count on to always have his back, it was his brother. So why was this so hard? Steeling himself, he glanced out the window, took a deep breath, opened his mouth-
And his eyes caught sight of the messenger hawk before he could say anything.
Ikoma closed his mouth and sighed. Sometimes the Hokage had the worst timing imaginable. “Unfortunately,” He gestured out the window, “I’ve been given a mission to report for, so one game is all I have time for today. I promise when I get back I’ll tell you everything. I want you to know before I tell Dad and the clan elders.”
Shiaku looked at the hawk and frowned, obviously wondering what mission would require the Hokage to call for him personally. But Shikaku was a jounin and in ANBU, he knew better than to pry. “Alright, I’m looking forward to it. You’ve got me curious now. Good luck on your mission.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you later.”
Going to the Hokage tower to report gave Ikoma plenty of time to clear his mind and re-orient himself in preparation for his mission. It was something he’d gotten used to in the past weeks. Because it wasn’t enough for his personal life to be thrown into chaos; his current mission was also serious, and of the utmost importance.
There was a traitor high in Konoha’s ranks, and Ikoma was going to find them.
He had noticed little things at first. Supplies and provisions going missing, and numbers reported incorrectly. Then, as he followed the paper trail he started noticing more. Certain missions gone wrong when they shouldn’t. Intel not going through proper channels. ANBU going missing when they shouldn’t have. A decline in children with potential from orphanages entering the academy. When he looked at them separately it didn’t seem too dangerous, but when he linked the facts together it painted a dire picture.
Connecting the pieces of information together was a hard task, but Ikoma wasn’t a Nara for nothing. His finished analysis of the data at hand had worried the Hokage greatly. He had ordered him to keep his knowledge to himself, and that he would send for them when he was needed to pursue more leads. Which, apparently, was now.
Someone was already in the Hokage’s office by the time Ikoma got there. He did a subtle double take as he took in the bandaged form of Elder Councilman Danzou, a severe look on his face. As soon as Ikoma stood at attention the Hokage activated the privacy seals and spoke “Welcome, Ikoma. I’ll get right to the point. After going over your research I’ve found troubling confirmation to many of your conclusions. I asked my trusted advisor, Danzou to look into things further, and today we’ll-”
Another seal in the corner of the room began flashing, and the Hokage cut himself off. “Excuse me, this is too important to ignore. I’ll be back shortly.”
The man hurried out of the room, the ANBU on security detail following him, and the two were left in the office to wait. After five minutes of an increasingly awkward silence Danzou spoke. “You must have been very busy these past few weeks, with this mission on top of your new position as clan heir.”
“Yeah, it’s been pretty busy,” Ikoma said, relaxing his shoulders, “with the new clan duties on top of other things.”
Ikoma knew enough about Danzou to know the man loved gossip too much not to pry. He was right. “Other things? Is there something else going on in your life?”
Ikoma now had a choice to make. Danzou Shimura was one of his father’s biggest political opponents. They were always at odds with each other. He was certainly a person he and Kanatoko were considering telling the secret to. He had wanted to wait for Shikaku’s advice on how to handle this, but now, well, Danzou was right here, in the room. How likely was it that such a perfect opportunity would present itself again?
Steeling himself, Ikoma answered “Well you see, there’s this girl, Kanatoko Kurama, and we’ve been dating for months now-” Well, they’d been having sex for months now, but Danzou didn’t need specifics, ”-and we didn’t tell anyone. But Kanatoko has a rare chakra disease that runs in the Kurama clan, and it makes the Menstrual Block jutsu ineffective, and now she’s pregnant.”
There was silence for a moment before Danzou spoke, “I see. That must have been a very unexpected complication on top of everything else.”
“Yeah, it was a big surprise, but I’m really happy. I haven’t told my father or clan yet though,” he squared his shoulders and looked Danzou firmly in the eyes, “So if you could keep this a secret until I tell them that would be great.”
Danzou inclined his head, “I see. You’re telling me this so that when you inform your clan they won’t be able to keep it a secret. That’s a very smart move. If you are given enough time to hone your political skills, you might become a very formidable clan head. You can be assured that your secret is, for the time being, safe with me.”
God he was awful at hearing compliments. The reason he and Kanatoko worked so well together was they both used loving insults instead. “Ahh, thanks very much. I appreciate it.”
“I also congratulate you for your upcoming progeny. I’m sure a child born with your intelligence and a Kurama’s versatility will be a great asset.”
Fortunately Ikoma was spared from having to answer by the reappearance of the Hokage, who entered the door looking harried. “I apologize for the wait. As I was saying earlier, after Danzou reviewed the information he did his own investigation. Though some of the information you gathered is fortunately explained by classified ANBU activity, Danzou found that the rest turned up some worrying results. Danzou, if you would?”
Danzou pulled out a file, and handed it to Ikoma. “My own investigation into your discoveries has turned up what I believe to be a central location to the mole. Furthermore, evidence suggests that Cloud is likely behind most of this.”
The Hokage gave him time to look through the files and take in the information provided before continuing, “Your S-ranked solo mission is to investigate this area, with all the stealth possible and report your findings. You know what to be on the lookout for, and It’s imperative we don’t give away to the mole that we know what’s happening, or they’ll go to ground and prevent us from rooting out the rest of the organization. You are to begin this mission as soon as you leave. Is that understood?”
Ikoma nodded. “Good, now, unless Danzou has anything else to add you are dismissed. Danzou?”
The elder paused briefly before stating, “It’s a very good thing that you’ve brought these matters to my attention. Indeed, anyone being able to parse through all this information and come up with these conclusions should be praised for their attention to detail and desire to protect the village. Keeping things secretive was also vital, as now we can take the time to ensure the correct people are found culpable of treason.”
He paused, and lit the file Ikoma had given back on fire, before continuing ”I trust that the next actions you take will be equally vital in protecting the foundations of our village.”
(Ikoma wouldn’t learn until he felt the kunai slit his throat what Danzou had really meant by that.)