I don't own Naruto.

---

A tall man with a long ponytail could be seen walking through the streets of Konoha, white hair swaying as he walked.

This man was Jiraiya, one of the Densetsu No Sannin. His destination? The Hokage Tower.

The old Hokage had summoned him for a special meeting regarding his 'Neglected Responsibility'.

What that meant was everyone's guess.

Hiruzen was very fond of his more reliable and trusted student, ever since Orochimaru's deflection the student and teacher duo has grown closer, even if the student was rarely in the village, but still.

The sentiment was there.

What Hiruzen meant by 'Neglected responsibility' was of course one Uzumaki Naruto, he was the godfather of the boy after all.

While the title didn't carry much weight or obligation other than being the one to name the child, Jiraiya was very close to the boy's father and saw him as the son he never had. That should've counted for something.

Hiruzen was very aware of Jiraiya's service for the village as their spymaster and as such, would've never forced him to stay to raise a single child, that didn't mean he couldn't stop by sometime and spend some time with the kid, Kami knows the boy grew up lonely enough.

'He did send that Frog wallet Naruto loves carrying around.' He thought.

Maybe he was being a little harsh on the man, he just couldn't fathom the logic behind his actions after the death of Minato. Either way, the man was damn good at his job and the Hokage wouldn't argue with results.

No use crying over spilled milk.

Hiruzen took the place that he felt should've been Jiraiya's and he doesn't regret it one bit. As far as he knew Naruto was his grandchild, family means more than merely blood to him and nothing could change that.

The reason for the meeting was however more important than just Naruto.

Very few people were aware of the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre and Jiraiya -being the Hokage's most trusted advisor- was one of them.

Uchiha Itachi needed to be informed of his brother's demise and Hiruzen needed Jiraiya to get in contact with him, it would do the village good to actually learn something of the organization he infiltrated so long ago.

---

The old Hokage was busy doing his paperwork like he always was, paperwork was truly the bane of his existence.

He just couldn't figure out how Minato managed to always have a clean and free desk, on his right waiting for the meeting to start were two of his old teammates and advisors, the famous Konoha elders Homura and Koharu.

There used to be three of them but after one diminished his authority and went behind his back to order the extermination of the Uchiha by one of their own he completely lost his trust.

Trust that should've never been placed on him.

Shimura Danzo committed countless crimes on what he believed to be the greater good of Konoha, Hiruzen thought he was a petulant child obsessed with power he could not possess.

Everything's a matter of perception.

A knock on the door stopped the Hokage's musing.

"Come in." Ordered the man with his usual calm and collected voice.

Not long after the white haired Sannin stepped in the office he took a look at his surroundings, Jiraiya immediately realized whatever this meeting was about had to be serious upon noticing the presence of both elders at his sensei's side.

"Jiraiya-kun, nice seeing you use the door." Joked the old Hokage. It was true he always opted to use the window as his preferred method of entering the man's office, but he was so focused on thinking about the meeting's possible topic of discussion he didn't notice what he was doing until he was in front of the man.

"Well sensei you know me, always one for the unpredictable." The Hokage chuckled at the man's response and smiled warmly at him. It was truly good to see him again.

"We'll begin shortly, we're still waiting on someone else to sh-"

A poof of smoke suddenly revealed a silver haired man standing in the middle of the office.

"Yo!"

The Hokage chuckled again, this time at the elite Jounin and his carefree attitude.

"Oh Kakashi, it's nice to see you show up on time." The Hokage knew very well the reason behind the man showing up on time but still couldn't pass up the opportunity to jab at him.

"I decided to change things up a little as per your... suggestion, Hokage-sama." Explained the Jounin while giving the Hokage and everyone present in the room one of his eye smiles.

Jiraiya would've usually greeted the man and talked with him about the incredible work of art that is his Icha Icha book series, but his sudden appearance and the fact the Hokage was waiting on him was making the perverted sannin question the nature of this meeting.

Hiruzen seemed to have caught up on this because he immediately cleared his throat and started.

"The reason for this meeting is to discuss the recent death of Konoha's 'Last Loyal Uchiha' and the whereabouts of one Uchiha Itachi." Proclaimed the Hokage much to the Jounin's confusion.

Kakashi perked up at the name of his old colleague turned traitor. "Itachi?"

"What you're about to learn Kakashi is an S-class secret and arguably Konoha's darkest secret, the only people aware of this with the exception of two are all present in this room." Explained the Hokage, the gentleness in his voice now gone, in his place was the voice of a leader and a seasoned commander that led this village to a victory in two wars.

"Is there a reason we're telling the gaki about this, sensei?" Jiraiya understood why the boy's death was important to the village and by extension Itachi, but he failed to understand why or how Kakashi was involved in all this, he was also pretty sure Itachi was very much aware of his brother's death by now.

"Naturally, Kakashi is not only the shinobi in this village I trust the most but is also the Jounin sensei in charge of Sasuke's team."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at that.

He - of course - knew Sarutobi had tried to make Kakashi a sensei more than once; he also knew Kakashi failed every single team he ever got. Jiraiya knew his sensei wouldn't have forced Kakashi to train Sasuke just because of his sharingan which meant the Jounin willingly passed a team.

Was involving Kakashi merely a formality?

"Who are the other members of his team?"

For some reason he couldn't quite understand, the self proclaimed super-pervert was dreading asking that question.

Kakashi answered before the Hokage could, giving Jiariya a side glance.

"A civilian born girl by the name of Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto."

The Copycat ninja was aware of the man's relationship to the boy's father so he knew he would instantly recognize that name.

"Oh." Was all the response he could give.

"Back to the matter at hand, Kakashi, I will now explain to you the truth behind the Uchiha massacre and why we need to find Itachi...

"After the Kyuubi incident, rumor spread that it was an Uchiha after the attack."

"It was made stronger because the Uchiha didn't aid in battle against it. However, the truth is that they weren't allowed to because of their duty as the Military Police force required them to aid in evacuating the villagers and little more."

"Shouldn't they have been allowed to aid after they were done? It was a massive attack." Said Kakashi.

"That it was..." Answered Hiruzen with a Grim look. "Evacuating the civilians took a lot of time and effort, by the time they were done Minato had already teleported the Kyuubi out of the village."

Kakashi and his generation were forbidden to aid in the battle against the Kyuubi, the older shinobi knew it was going to be the end for the lot of them.

They wouldn't have risked the future of the village.

"What about the civilians they helped evacuate?" He asked.

"The civilian population wouldn't have been able to fully understand what was going on at the time..." Answered Koharu. "Even if they knew they were being saved by the Uchiha, that's what made it easy for the rumor to grow."

"At the time I didn't know it but I was later informed that it was orchestrated by Danzo, my former teammate." Interrupted Hiruzen.

"I allowed the trust of the village for the Uchiha to fall to the point of almost disappearing. Danzo pushed for the amount of Uchiha performing as active duty shinobi of the village to be lowered to levels around the dozens while every other was bound to the village as a member of the police and it all happened because I let it."

"They were stripped from every position of power they held and I allowed everything to happen because I was too blind to the truth lying in front of me. Nothing pains me more than knowing everything that followed was primarily my fault."

"Years of mistrust and abuse led the Uchiha to a stalemate and the only solution they could find was revolution, the Uchiha started planning a Coup d'etat and assigned Itachi to spy on us, they counted on the advantages being an ANBU captain granted him to their favor."

"Itachi however was a shinobi loyal to the bone, he along with Shisui informed us of their plans and we started working on a peaceful solution for it, they both started to work as double spies for us."

"Shisui told us of a special Jutsu he called Kotoamatsukami. It was apparently the special trait of his Mangekyou Sharingan, an incredibly powerful genjutsu he assured was both undetectable by anything other than a Dojutsu and unbreakable. He planned to use it on Fugaku to stop the insurrection from happening."

"Sadly, not long after that Shisui comitted suicide."

"I of course don't believe such a thing and I know Danzo was involved in it but have no way to prove otherwise."

"Why would he even do such a thing?" Asked a troubled Kakashi.

"That is the question, isn't it? I can't claim to understand his motives or what he wished to gain from it." Answered Hiruzen.

"Days after Shisui's demise, Danzo approached Itachi behind my back and convinced him that wiping out the Uchiha was the only way to stop a civil war from happening, I'm sure you can figure out the rest yourself."

"And Itachi..." Started Kakashi.

"Itachi was branded an S-class missing nin and was ordered to infiltrate an organization Orochimaru was a part of. The only thing he asked from us after everything he had been put through was that we took care of his brother." Said Hiruzen, answering Kakashi's question before he even had the time to ask.

"Hokage-sama I-"

"Don't Kakashi, Itachi knew very well the risks of being a Shinobi, he wanted to protect Sasuke from the dangers that reside within this village and I made sure that... danger never even got close to him."

Kakashi's shoulder tensed up, although his expression remained looking stoic.

"Don't blame yourself for this too."

"I understand." Replied the Jounin, his head bowing slightly. "But..." Kakashi looked outside the office's window, a conversation with his student fresh on his memory.

-

"Can I ask you something, sensei?" Asked Naruto seriously. Kakashi looked confused by the boy's sudden mood change but complied nonetheless, whatever it was Naruto needed to ask was clearly important to him.

"Sasuke, he- he asked me to 'avenge them..." Trailed off the boy, not sure of how he was going to ask the question or what the question he needed to ask really was.

"He meant the man who massacred the Uchiha, right? He wants me to k-kill his brother, right?"

Kakashi was completely taken aback by this, why is Naruto even asking him this? Shouldn't the Hokage be the better candidate to ask these questions?

Kakashi nodded his head slowly, stealing a glance to the fidgeting boy, "That does seem to be the case."

"Do you think I- Should I do it sensei?"

Kakashi flinched unnoticeably, he didn't want his late student's last wish to be ignored but he knew better, he knew what revenge could do to a person.

He decided he was going to be honest with Naruto.

"Revenge... interesting concept wouldn't you agree?" Naruto wasn't expecting that answer from his sensei, his head tilted to the side slightly and narrowed his eyes as if it would help to better understand Kakashi's words.

Seeing his student's struggle, Kakashi decided to explain things differently.

"I spent some time with Sasuke talking about the same thing, to him it wasn't a matter of if he should do it but rather when." Kakashi looked at Naruto and eye-smiled.

"I never managed to convince him not to."

"Why would you try to convince him not to avenge his clan?" Asked Naruto.

"Jiraiya-sama used to say hatred only brings more hatred, I always knew I wouldn't be able to convince him not to but... I had hope that I would convince him to do it differently." Explained Kakashi.

"What do you mean, sensei?"

"Sasuke only had one friend, he only had one person he was close to and that person was you." Kakashi explained further.

"Do you know why, Naruto?"

The boy shook his head.

"Sasuke's only goal was to avenge his clan, he let himself be blinded by hatred and chose to live a life of solitude for his self imposed mission." Kakashi put a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "For you he made an exception."

"So you're saying I shouldn't continue Sasuke's mission?"

"Whether you continue with his mission is completely up to you but...." Kakashi eye-smiled at him again.

"What good is the mission if we lose ourselves in it?"

-

"Sasuke asked Naruto to carry on his revenge, I believe Naruto intends to honor his wishes." Said Kakashi without looking away from the sky.

"That is... interesting." Trailed off Hiruzen. "Not much we can do about it I'm afraid, I will honor my agreement with Itachi, we owe him that much."

"Shouldn't we tell Naruto then? I'm sure he won't say anything if we explain why it's important." Asked Kakashi.

"Itachi wished to be the one to carry the Uchiha's burden, he intended for Sasuke to be the one to redeem the clan, he never said it but I believe Itachi wished to be killed by him." Said Hiruzen.

"So you want Naruto to take his place?" Asked the Jonin.

"What I want isn't important, what Naruto-kun ends up doing about it will be completely up to him, it is your job as his sensei to guide him in the right path, Kakashi." Said Hiruzen in a stern voice.

Kakashi realized what the Hokage said was true, he thought Naruto should be aware at least that Itachi wasn't an evil killer; he would respect the last Uchiha's wishes though, the Hokage was right, they all owed him at least that much.

Seeing as that topic was over, the tallest man in the room decided to keep moving the conversation forward.

"So you want me to locate Itachi and inform him of his brother's demise, sensei?" Jiraiya couldn't see why such a meeting was necessary for this task, especially because he had no doubt Itachi already knew about it. Why was he called here just to discuss that?

"Yes and no, I also want you to get every bit of information he has on this Akatsuki. Itachi hasn't informed us of anything useful about them." Explained Hokage.

So it's more than just a formality

"I understand Jiraiya-sama's place in all this but I don't really get why I am even being told about this." Kakashi was very confused, he was honored to be the Hokage's most trusted Shinobi but he just couldn't understand why he needed to be there, surely just being Sasuke's sensei didn't mean he had to know about Itachi.

"I was getting there. Kakashi, I want you to assist Jiraiya. I plan on establishing a safe way of communication between Itachi and the village; Jiraiya can't focus solely on that while there's other pressing matters he needs to investigate, you'll become Itachi's handler of sorts." Explained the Hokage.

That made a lot of sense to both Jiraiya and Kakashi, Itachi's information has been very limited so far but Hiruzen knew he would have to find a way to convey that information without much trouble, there was no one in else in the village that could take the perverted Sannin's place for this.

"There's also-"

The door of the office suddenly burst open and in walked a heavily bandaged man with a cane.

"Hokage-sama, what is this troubling news about the Uzumaki boy stealing a Sharingan?"

Sarutobi narrowed his eyes for a moment before regaining his composure, he could use this to his favor, it wasn't like Danzo to slip up like this and it was important he took this opportunity.

"Pray tell just how exactly you know about this Danzo? I seem to remember that information being a very guarded secret known to just 5 people, all sworn to secrecy, are you perhaps... spying on me?" Inquired Hiruzen.

He of course knew he was being spied on, but there was no way for him to prove Root's existence after he ordered the Warhawk to disband it years ago.

"I don't know what you're talking about, old friend, I am an esteemed member of this village, is it too hard to believe that I just happened to hear about it?" Danzo knew Hiruzen couldn't prove his accusations, funnily enough, he did just happen to hear about it when he was visiting a family member in the hospital.

It would surprise many people how much you can find out if you disguise one of your agents as a nurse.

"The boy didn't steal anything, young Sasuke was his friend and willingly chose to give up his eye before dying to replace the one Naruto lost in battle." Explained Hiruzen, he knew Danzo was playing him and decided to move the conversation forward instead of falling into provocation.

"Feelings such as friendship are a hindrance to the shinobi way-"

"I don't remember asking for your opinion, Danzo." Interrupted Hiruzen, his voice dripping venom when speaking the man's name.

The tension in the room was palpable for everyone but no one dared speak a word, they all knew Hiruzen was more than capable of handling the other without much trouble.

Homura and Koharu were... conflicted.

Before the Kyuubi incident they both were supporters of Danzo's ideals but started to turn to a more neutral ground after they saw the man for what he really was.

Koharu however completely turned over to Hiruzen and Jiraiya after Kushina's death, while they were never really close she was very fond of the red head and wanted to help her son as much as possible.

Which she did, while she never made herself present in the boy's life she made a point to make it a bit easier, that's why when Hiruzen mentioned Naruto wanted to live on his own - she provided a decent sized apartment for a single person in a shinobi building where he would always be guarded.

"I'm going to tell you this just once, if something happens to Naruto or his eye I will hold you accountable, don't try to play games with me; I would recognize your handiwork anywhere. Now leave my office, you interrupted a meeting you were not invited to."

"How rude of me, I didn't realize I was interrupting." Said the man in a voice so stoic it came off as mocking. "I'll be on my way now."

Danzo didn't lose anything in this encounter, he wasn't interested in the boy's eye. He already had more than enough Sharingan.