Tobirama/Kakashi - 7
Theme: 080. Why?( fanfic100)
Warnings: Written on a phone and unrevised like whoa.
Kakashi found Tobirama leaning against a wall in the corridor outside the Hokage's office. The white-haired Senju looked worn down and frayed - possibly from not having slept at all since the attack on the Senju house, two days ago.
"Are you all right?" Kakashi knew that Tobirama had been working extremely hard to find out more about the assassins.
"Not really." He sighed. "I'm not getting anything out of the bodies of the assassins left behind. Whoever they were, they were smart enough not to wear anything that might identify them."
That's not what I asked...Kakashi wanted to say. "Have you asked for any help from the other clans or do you think the attackers may have had inside help from one of them?"
"Hashi wants to be cautious..." Tobirama said pausingly. He then tilted his head to stare at Kakashi, as if just realising that his friend was part of "another clan" and not a Senju. "I mean, we're not leaning towards that possibility, but..." he tried to save.
Kakashi smiled softly, feeling more for the other's obvious exhaustion than worried about any inadvertent offense to his family's integrity. Laid back as Tobirama was on a regular day and no matter how freely he shared potentially humiliating stories about the village's leadership with friends, he was still sensitive to how trust was the foundation upon which Konoha had been built.
Time for a change of subject that might cheer the other man up.
"Nawaki has been asking about you. Tsunade's been sort of babysitting him and he says that her games are dumb and that he misses playing with you."
Tobirama laughed, slouching a little further against the wall. "And you've been guarding them while they're at it, huh? Man, am I ever envying your job right now."
"Want to trade?" was Kakashi's immediate response. "Just tell me what needs to be done and I'll do it, while you spend the afternoon with your niece and nephew."
Tobirama lifted his head at that, but the look he fixed on Kakashi was one that spoke of his not being convinced that the Hatake was serious.
"I mean it," the teen insisted. "You haven't rested in days and I'm not that incompetent that it's entirely outside the realm of possibility that I'll turn up something new," he concluded, teasing.
Tobirama smiled and, if at first he looked like he was going to say no again, he then paused to really ponder Kakashi's offer. That he was having such a hard time even processing the pros and cons of going through with it really said something about the state he was in. The kid was right: he was worn out and he was not doing anyone any good by not admitting that he had reached the limits of his endurance.
"You know what? You're absolutely right. All the information on the attack is on my desk, in my office. Just tell the ANBU at the door that I sent you and they'll lift the security wards for you."
"Good. And Tsunade, the Terrible, and Nawaki, the Newt, are downstairs at the lobby. They're all yours," he said sweetly.
***
It felt good to be responsible for no one but himself again. Not that Kakashi had had a lot of experience taking solo assignments, without Obito, Rin and Minato there to support him, but the simple fact that he did not have the responsibility of defending someone's life was liberating.
While perusing the data sheets Tobirama had collected on his desk, an idea started to form in his head that he wanted to put to the test.
There had not been any villagers outside to see which direction the assassins had approached the house from, so Tobirama had focused exclusively on what little there was to be found on the bodies themselves and, clever as his hypotheses were, they kept leading him to a dead-end. Reddish particles of dust on their clothes, a tan more pronounced than what was perhaps typical of Konoha, a type of black ink masking the weapons' metallic shine that contained ingredients not usually found in Fire Country... all of these and more indicated that the assassins had come from outside the village, but there was no way to know for sure. They could as easily have been out on a mission and picked up some foreign supplies.
No, the only one that had been truly unique and might offer them some insight had been the ninja that had tried to kill Tobirama. Blood-red sclerae, luminous green eyes and a technique unlike anything they had ever seen. Someone fitting that description was sure to attract attention.
Had he been from Konoha, everyone in the village would have known about him. Rumours always spread and uniqueness always generated rumours. If only Tobirama had had a way to consult the gossip that circulated on other villages, he would have had a lead on the strange man's identity.
The Senju had no way to do that, but fortunately for them, Kakashi had access to resources that the other clan did not have.
Nicking his finger on the edge of a kunai, Kakashi ran through the hand seals required to perform a summoning jutsu. Out of the smoke, there came sleepy-faced Pakkun.
"Yo," the little pug greeted its master.
"I need to ask you something, Pakkun." Kakashi skipped the greetings in favour of getting to the point, as he always did when there was a mission. The little dog took it as a sign to be alert. "How hard would it be for you to get in contact with other dogs that aren't a part of your pack?"
Summon animals or not, trained in ninjutsu or not, dogs were still dogs and they were everyone's favourite household pet. If Pakkun could talk to some of these dogs who lived abroad, that might give them an idea of what their owners talked about while in their presence.
"It shouldn't be hard. You know us dogs, a smell of each other's butts and we're friends for life."
Kakashi grinned. Then I'd like you to try to find out if anyone out there is talking about this certain ninja..."
***
Three days later, a knock on the door to the Hokage's office interrupted yet another conversation between the two Senju brothers about the assassination attempt that was going absolutely nowhere.
"Come in," Hashirama called, relieved for once about the distraction.
"Pardon the interruption, Lord Hokage," Kakashi said, as he stepped through the door. "I have the name of the ninja who led the attack on your home the other night."
Both Hashirama and Tobirama leapt out of their chairs in shock.
"What? How?" Tobirama wanted to know.
"I asked some friends of mine if they had heard anything."
"And...?" the Hokage prompted, dreading the answer, if the pinched look on his face was any indication.
Either the assassin had been from Konoha, in which case they had a treason to deal with that could fracture the fragile bonds of trust holding the peace in Konoha together, or the assassin had been from another village, which could mean plunging them back into a bloody war like the one they had put an end to by forming the villages in the first place. It was hard to decide which scenario was worse when both had the same possible outcome.
"His name is Kakuzu and he's from Takigakure."
Continue...