I don't think I reacted the way I needed to. My shock, trepidation and subsequent unease at the fact that Danzō was here was something that immediately set off anyone who had the skill to notice it. A fact that was worsened by the fact that even Sasuke noticed something was wrong with the way I acted now. Sweat clung to my jacket, trailing down my back as my whole body tried to ease itself away from how tense I was. My specter was nowhere near, and that only compounded the sheer vulnerability I felt. At that moment, I was darkly reminded of the fact that I had no Chakra, little training, and was currently still a five year old. An impressive five year old, but one who was currently way in over his head. I liked to think of myself as smart. A person who could put things together even if I wasn't some great detective or anything. And the fact that every scrap of information pointed out that Danzō was a man who could not be trusted was something that made my stomach want to do somersaults. Unconsciously, I was reaching for the sword at my waist. An action that went unnoticed by the only other physical child in the room, but one that caused Sasuke's parents to inch a little closer to me. I knew it would be futile to fight them the way I was and that I should try and calm down. However, Inoichi's broken frame remained in my head, a shivering, stuttering mess of a man who had his memories rewritten. My eyes inevitably traveled to the confused Sasuke, standing stalwartly in the arms of his loving mother. In that moment, I desperately wished for their memories to be clear from any intrusion. Sasuke pouted a little, completely ruining the tense moment in my head. "What are you doing? He's not that scary." "Yes," Danzō smiled in a way that looked way too forced. "I mean you no harm, Uzumaki-san." My nod was shaky, barely even a dip as my eyes stayed locked on the man. The specter I had always relied upon for a sort of confidence was not here, and I knew that I needed it to find the jail more than I wanted to fight my way out of here. I knew my limits. They were greatly overpowered when compared to any child my age, but sneak attacks only got me so far. Itachi had specifically proved that not too long ago in more enlightening detail. However, no matter how exaggerated my abilities were, fighting here wasn't in my vested interests. That no matter how worried I was about Sasuke, he would probably be safer with his apparently doting mother than with me. As such, I made no move when the two older Uchiha's led an oblivious Sasuke away. His smile was as heart rending as I pictured when I followed a motioning Danzō away. "I didn't think you would follow me, Uzumaki-san." Danzō said, motioning towards an open door. "Didn't your caretakers ever tell you to not follow strangers?" "No, they encouraged it, in fact." I said, briefly looking through my specter's eyes. It was nowhere close to where I needed to be, but running away was looking to be a good option. There really was no way of knowing how, when, or if my memories were being changed. I refocused back on the mysterious Danzō, finding a look that seemed to shift between pity and something else. "I see, that must have been a rather… tenuous stay. Of course, I don't think my apologies would mean much, but I give you them anyways. Oh, but where are my manners, let me introduce you to someone who has been dying to meet you." There was a sort of hitch in his voice as he spoke. However, the older man had enough experience in directing the conversation in the way he wanted it. I was only able to go along with the man's schemes unless I wanted to completely disregard my cover as a scared child. The only thing I noticed was how silent the rest of the hidden complex was. There was a sort of theme of long, meandering hallways full of doors that I was beginning to understand was a staple in Shinobi secret bases. It made sense, in a way. The more variables that had to be checked, the more you could throw off invaders or the people coming to snoop for information. As a maze, it was perhaps a little linear to so long as you knew where you were going. Though, the fact that I did not only served to make the experience all the more harrowing. My tense shoulders gave away a little on the fact that my heart was hammering in my chest like a deranged rabbit. The door in front of us creaked as Danzō opened it, letting me catch a glimpse of someone who reminded me almost exactly of Hizashi. Information dawned on me as I stared at the pale man's pristine forehead that maybe this man wasn't exactly like Hizashi. The glazed eyes that I had come to associate with Hinata were also something that threw me for a loop. "You are… Uzumaki-san? The one who helped Hinata, I assume?" "Yes," I said, shifting a little on my feet. "Um, is there something you needed from me?" "No, merely offering my thanks to rescuing our heiress. Hinata is safe thanks to you." Something about his words didn't sit well with me. Like a splinter that found its way into my palm, and I had only just now noticed it. "I'm sorry, but do you know where she is? Hinata was taken by the Hokage the last I heard, and I don't think that's necessarily safe." "She is safe." The Hyūga said, brushing off the matter of his daughter's captivity like it mattered little to him. The spike of terror that ran down my spine as he turned to Danzō was something that chilled me to the bone. "More importantly, Danzō-sama, do you perhaps want to speak with this… boy, alone?" "Do not worry, Hiashi-san, I am more than capable of dealing with Uzumaki-san should he get… out of hand." Danzō said, offering me another fake smile. "Ah, do not misunderstand. I'm merely saying this to appease my friend. He gets worried for my sake; I am fairly crippled you see." I only paid a little attention to the man's attempt to make me feel better. My specter had long since reached where I assumed the jail cells to be, and had found a familiar Anbu carrying Hinata's Nuibari. There was only a matter of time before I found Hinata or Itachi to tell me what exactly is going on. However, if I was resolving to leave Sasuke here to find his brother and my friend, I wanted to see if I could squeeze out a little bit of information on the supposed mastermind of this whole debacle. It was a little risky, but who would I be if I didn't take risks every time they showed up. "Then be careful, Danzō-sama. I have no knowledge of what is wrong, but I do not think it wise to trust him. His blood has something malicious in it." Hiashi gave one final, rather foreboding, piece of advice as he left, his pulsing Byakugan locked onto my form in a way that made me feel sort of naked. However, whether the old man took his advice or not, the two of us found ourselves in a secluded room. It was an odd thing for anyone watching. A cripple old man goading a young boy into a room where the two would talk, but I had a sword and he had whatever my specter saw that stuck around his right side. There was a table in the middle of the room, two chairs perfectly across from each other. On some unknown invitation the two of us took each one, and I felt that a sort of pressure descended upon the room. It wasn't anything physical; just a sort of unease that I had been cultivating for awhile. "I can tell you are nervous." Danzō stared, taking the flow of the conversation immediately. "It is common in young Shinobi who meet their superiors. I recommend thinking of something to center your thoughts; extraneous ones always end up getting in the way. There are other methods, sure, but I find this to be the one that most… Genin tend to use it the most. It's not that hard to do, and offers fairly recognizable results." I took a moment to process his words, faltering slightly at the sudden lesson. However, I didn't know exactly what he was trying to do. Was this how he was able to overwrite memories? Bring up something to the forefront of their mind, and then take it? Honestly, I wished there was some sort of notebook with how to counter mind control somewhere. The whole situation was beginning to aggravate me. I didn't know who to trust, nor who to believe. Whether any action was dictated by their own person, or by the controller sitting in front of me. My body felt like a tightly wound spring, not getting ready to jump into motion, but to snap under the pressure. "Thank you," I finally offered, easing into a smile that rose to crinkle my eyes. "I guess I am a little nervous. After all, I'm in a room with you." Danzō didn't laugh, but I felt like there was some amusement ringing in his words. "Yes, Hinata did say you were rather… observant of the oddest things. Though, I can only now see why. Still, I believe that we shouldn't dance around the issue any longer: join me, Naruto Uzumaki." My face almost blanked at the sudden offer, a surge of wariness overcoming me. "Me? I don't see-" "Pardon me for interrupting," Danzō said, his eyes growing ever colder. "You do not need to play coy with me any longer. I want to bring back this village from the madness that has overtaken it. Hiruzen, that damned old man, is trying to usurp the control of the clans to himself alone, and the Uchihas as well as the Hyūgas are all taking the blame for his mistake. I am sure you are smart enough to understand what exactly is going on. The Hokage massacred the Hyūgas as a way to get a bargaining chip for the sole purpose of getting the Branch families on his side." I nearly believed the man. He wasn't finished, but at that sudden speech I almost believed the man who I had been distrusting this entire time. To me, that only screamed on the opposite spectrum of his case. That, and the fact that I specifically saw Branch family members before. "I can't do much against that monster. Even in old age, Hiruzen still frightens the kages of other villages, and there really aren't that many Shinobi here who can stand against him and his men. I know it is much to ask, but can you lend me a hand? All I need to do is put a seal that will make you stronger." As soon as Danzō pointed at my stomach, I knew exactly what he was going for. I didn't even wait to see if he had anything left to say. I had never seen someone throw sickening lie as lie over and over again. My face swirled into disgust, eyes looking down on him even with our differing heights. The corners of my lips dipped into a creased frown that tugged at all the muscles in my face, and it took a force of will to stop me from growling. "You're a real piece of shit, aren't you?" "Excuse m-" "Stop this display of bullshit. I don't believe a thing you've said, and I sure as hell ain't gonna give you the Kyūbi. You may think you're playing this village like a board game, but you've got another thing coming, buddy." The man honestly just looked dumbstruck as my specter finally found a familiar face chained in a cell. Sure, all pretense of geniality was out the window, and it was honestly extremely hypocritical of me to get on him about lying, but this man was playing around with people's lives like it was nothing. And then he had the audacity to go and lie about the whole thing to a child! Technically, I wasn't a child, but the point still stands. And, as soon as I got Itachi, there would be that whole other army of hidden Shinobi led by Jiraiya coming in to save the day. All I had to do was find Hinata, and maybe punch Danzō in the face a bit to save the day. The disgusting waste of skin in front of me sighed, reaching up to the bandages on his right eye before a chill shocked my system. "I had not planned to do it this way, but a single day is worth the fox." The room suddenly glowed as the walls were filled with crawling ink lines that shone over the flat surfaces. I blinked, feeling the first trickle of worry come over me as I realized that maybe my impulsiveness wasn't in the best of times. Danzō just smiled. "Now, what were you saying? I think it was something along the lines of," he pasued himself, pulled down the rest of the bandages on his face to reveal pale, almost deathly white skin that wrinkles and twisted in a way that seemed completely unnatural. The most striking, however, was the red eye in the place of where his should have been; an eye that looked almost like a Sharingan, but was shaped almost like a four-pointed shuriken instead of having three tomoe. "You've got another thing coming, b-" I vanished out of there, reappearing almost across the entire village in the same cell Itachi inhabited. Sweat coated my form as I realized how close I had been to… something. It wasn't when I had been facing enemies that wanted me dead. No, I felt more like something worse was about to happen. My thoughts were a mess of trying to calm down my beating heart as well as understand just what happened. Those ink scrawls on the walls were something that reminded me of the time I had almost been caught in the Hyūga estate; a binding seal of some sort. Whether they were there to make sure I didn't leave or couldn't leave, I was rather lucky that my specter rematerialization let me escape. However, that only brought into question what exactly was that eye? Some sort of Uchiha secret technique? A completely different bloodline? Though, I think the most important fact was that he had been about to use it on me. And I felt that I found exactly how the memory manipulator worked. "Uzumaki-san, what are you doing here?" I paused as I found a worried Itachi crouching in front of me. Startled at the chained prisoner suddenly being unbound and conscious, I hopped back a bit, bracing my back to the wall. The teen looked a little embarrassed, raising his arms in surrender. "So you used that weird teleportation trick again... I apologize if I startled you, but you looked on the verge of a panic attack." "No, thank you, but I'm alright. I just… ran into Danzō." Itachi shot to attention at the mention of the man. "Danzō? Did you see his eye?" "Maybe, yes… do you know how it works?" My hand twitched, bringing the familiar weight of my knife into my palm. The sudden influx of Chakra into my system was drawing havoc in my senses. The whole prison smelled of dirty socks and stale piss. The room was tense as Itachi's eyes suddenly flashed red, three swirling tomoe in each eye. "Did he give you an order?" I shook my head quickly, hoping the tension would ease. Itachi and I weren't on good enough terms that I would trust him, but I felt like he was my best bet in piecing together the three whole factions of Shinobi that were about to fight. Still, when the teen didn't seem to relax for a second, I was more on edge than anything. "You should be fine so long as you don't hear the order. Though, try to avoid eye contact with him; I have no idea how proficient he is with Kotoamatsukami (Distinguishing Heavenly God)." Itachi said, shifting away from me to slide something into the locked bars of the little room we were in, and a click rang through the silent room. His still active Sharingan shot back to me for a second. "Where is Sasuke?" It was instant that my thoughts drifted to my previous sentence, and at the same moment, Itachi had seen something in my features that clued him in on something. His face paled rapidly, eyes glaring over to the open door of the cell while shooting back to me. "Where is Sasuke?" He asked again, turning away from the open cell. However, I don't think there was a need to tell him the answer. Itachi just stood there, staring at me with some unknown deliberation happening behind his eyes. My hand holding the knife twitched. It was minute, but I felt like I was ready. "He should be with his parents." I tacked onto whatever thoughts he was cooking up. "Or, why are you still here when you could have easily escaped?" "I asked you to keep Sasuke safe." Itachi said, his voice trailing into a softer whisper. "And I did!" I shot back, feeling a little anger building at why we were wasting time here. "I kept him safe, okay. I'm so confused about this whole thing going on, and learning about some mind controlling mastermind behind this is all too much! There really should be no reason for me to trust you, but I did. I trusted you when you had taken my best friend from me, I trusted you to give me answers, and I even brought your brother back to his parents safely… Just, give me answers, please." The black-haired teen judged me, his eyes fading away from their angry reds before he sighed. His voice was low as he spoke, but it found its way to echo in the room like a thunderclap. "That man, Danzō, has nearly every single clan leader under his control. The same goes for almost every single Anbu." Shock rushed through my system. And suddenly the matters of Sasuke's safety became much more vague. I had expected something to this degree, but hearing aloud was a different matter entirely. What made matters worse was that Itachi continued talking as I digested the information. "The Hokage isn't really compromised, but the order for him to annihilate the Hyūgas was from Danzō. Kotoamatsukami (Distinguishing Heavenly God) is a technique that loses its effectiveness the more it is used on someone, and Danzō has been using it for absolute loyalty instead of tasks now. He mistakenly used it on the Hokage, and has been trying to accelerate his plans to take over the village due to his miscalculation. The regular clansmen aren't afflicted. Not yet, at least; the technique can only be used once per day. Though, Danzō is using the bad reputation he gave to the Hokage to undermine the Hokage's authority. He already has the backing of the civilian council, after all." A lump formed in my throat, almost begging me to fault anything he said. Instead, pieces of conversations came together, little nuances in the way people talked to each other in that little meeting with the Hokage suddenly made a bit more sense. All of it brought me to realize that I had stumbled into this just looking for my friend, and now all I can think of is wondering when I had dived too deep. "What… no, why are you here then? How do you know so much about this Koto-whatever?" Itachi pursed his lips, eying the open cell again. "I need to stay and warn the Hokage when he comes to check on me. He cannot meet up with the Uchihas and Hyūgas; they have some kind of poison that hinders Chakra control." He paused to look down at his hands. For a second, I thought I saw them trembling. "And, Danzō's eye is not his…" "I think you might want to rethink your plans…" I said, already making my way to the doors. My knife slipped between my lips before I was suddenly seeing double again. "The Hokage plans on meeting with the two clans, and I don't think he'll have much backup." The specter was already looking around, shooting through walls in an attempt to find Hinata, but when I couldn't find her, my gut churned with a thought. That damn unease was back again. "I think we both need to be there when that goes down." Itachi, for his part, stared at me. I could see a sort of unease building up inside him, and as I trusted him to tell me the truth, he too trusted me to some degree. "Then we need to move fast." He walked through the cell door, and I followed closely behind. Everything was coming to a close whether I wanted it or not. Though, I wondered when I stopped thinking of an escape halfway through my plans to rescue Hinata and punch Danzō in the face.