Conspiracies and problems

Opening her eyes a little wider, Tsunade murmured, "There's no way they didn't have a security plan."

"Exactly."

"Anything else?"

"I comment on how impossible it would have been for one person to wipe out all the Uchihas, much less Itachi."

"His reason?"

"He doesn't have the chakra for it... Itachi's specialty for killing was always his Sharingan, and for that I know perfectly well how much chakra is used."

"A single person wouldn't have that much chakra to use against his entire clan, even more so when you consider that they have Sharingan that protect them from his genjutsus... that boy has a monstrous deductive ability" With a dark face, Tsunade continued "You know something else?"

"He believed that Konoha was involved either because of his fear of them or for selfish reasons like stealing their eyes...I couldn't stay in doubt so I went and personally dug up some bodies."

"None of them had eyes."

"Exactly."

"I see..." Lowering her gaze while looking at the papers in front of her, Tsunade was silent for a long time and asked "Why do you say that my master and the council are responsible for these incidents?"

"Here comes the tricky part..." Pulling out another bundle of papers but this time much thicker than the others, Kakashi handed them to Tsunade and continued "Pulling the strings, I ended up discovering quite a few weird situations in the village... trade groups being imprisoned without proof and their properties being taken by the council, anbus taking early retirement to then become part of the personal forces of the council families, and there are two situations in particular that bothered me quite a bit"

"I hear you."

"All the assets of Minato-sensei and his wife, including the secret techniques of the Uzumaki and the private techniques created by my sensei, passed into the control of the council members, leaving only a small sum of money for Naruto along with a small apartment" With a bitter smile, Kakashi continued "And the situation with the last Uchiha boy is somewhat similar. Almost all the clan's techniques accumulated over hundreds of years disappeared in the hands of the council and although he was left quite a bit of money and some techniques, it's not even a small percentage of what should be his real fortune... worst of all, the assets weren't even registered so that they could be returned in the future, but they directly took everything and that's it."

"They stole both of their inheritances" In disgust, Tsunade read the reports carefully and clenched her fists tightly "What on earth is going on in that old man's head?"

"But..." Staring at Tsunade's face, Kakashi remained silent for a moment and continued "Although I don't have physical evidence of this since they were strictly guarded, I detected many much more serious suspicious situations... and unfortunately this situation has a lot to do with you"

"What did you discover?" feeling her heart stop for a moment as her pupils shrunk to the max, Tsunade asked.

"Before I came, I was on a mission that went quite well but could have gone quite wrong... the mission was listed as a simple escort mission against bandits, but I ended up facing Zabuza."

"The swordsman?"

"Exactly" Nodding, Kakashi continued "It only took a cursory investigation to know that the mission wasn't as simple as it seemed, and yet it apparently didn't get done."

"I don't understand you."

"I think they tried to eliminate them... next to me, there's the Jinchuriki and the last Uchiha, and clearly this mission wasn't what we were told it would be, not even close"

"..." Looking up as she quickly thinks about what this means, Tsunade tilted her head slightly and replied "I fail to fully understand you."

"It's not the only similar situation... lately the Hyuga had several losses where experienced ninja went on simple missions and for some reason, something went wrong and they ended up dying or disappearing"

"I still don't know what it has to do with me-" Stopping her words, Tsunade's face instantly turned pale as she dropped the papers from her hands.

"Apparently you understand" Inhaling deeply, Kakashi continued "The vast majority of the Senju clan, ended up falling into the same situations. Falling into simple missions, supposedly making foolish mistakes and even ending up missing with suspicions of betrayals or kidnappings... and I remember perfectly well that similar situations happened with the Uchiha before they were slaughtered"

"N-no... n-no it can't be" Shaking her head in a daze, Tsunade stammered as she felt a lump in her throat.

"Once may be coincidence, ten times may be coincidence, but hundreds of times that coincidentally only surround the great clans of Konoha... clearly someone was targeting them a long time ago"

"Tsunade-sama..." Standing next to Tsunade with worry on her face as she saw her trembling lips, Shizune murmured with concern.

"..."

"..."

"..."

After a long time where Tsunade's gaze constantly roamed over the papers and a myriad of emotions flashed through her eyes, she finally inhaled deeply and clenched her fists to the point where they rattled her bones.

"Anything else?" with a deep voice, Tsunade asked.

"For now, that's all."

"Because you said Jiraiya might be compromised?"

"I don't have any evidence linking him, it's just suspicions on my part."

"Why suspicions?"

"Because unlike you, Jiraiya-sama frequently visits the Hokage and his attachment to him is clear... I couldn't trust him."

"Just that?"

"My other suspicion is more of a prejudice."

"Just say it."

"You know that Minato-sensei saw Jiraiya-sama as a father and in a way he saw him as a son" Lowering his gaze, Kakashi continued "But during all these years, he never deigned to visit, even just once to Naruto, and as I already told you, that boy had nothing but suffering in the village.... In a way that motivated me to personally ask to introduce him to my team... I could not see how the son of the fourth Hokage, my sensei, was abandoned to his fate in a village full of hostility towards him".

"..."

"Of course, that has nothing to do with this, but it was enough to remove him from my list of trusted people... I hope you understand me, since I know how close you are."

"It's okay, I understand you" With bitterness on her face, Tsunade replied, then looked at the papers for a while and sighed "I see why you had to come to me"

"I don't know who else to trust in the village, and the way everything is going... I really think we will end up self-destructing... after all, we have never been as weakened as we are now, not even in the great ninja wars" With a serious look, Kakashi continued "We lost the Uzumaki, we lost the Uchiha, we lost almost the entire Senju clan and even the Hyuga clan is starting to decline due to the loss of a large part of its talented members"

"You don't have to give me any more explanations" Rubbing her temples, Tsunade was silent for a few minutes and continued "Do you have any plans?"

"Nothing... as I already told you, I don't even know who to trust since I don't know who might be involved... other than my suspicions of the Hokage and the evidence of corruption I have from the council, I have nothing else"

"Are you sure no one found you out?"

"I used this to make sure at every turn that I wasn't followed" Pointing towards his Sharingan, Kakashi continued "I even used this escort mission to escape on the way back so I could come to report to you without arousing suspicion"

"That's good..." Putting her liquor aside, Tsunade stood up and walked to the window, observing with a deep gaze the bustling street below "I'll be honest with you Kakashi... even I don't know what to do if this all turns out to be real... we have no allies and everyone might be enemies"

"..."

"You don't know how much I'd like to simply avoid this..." Inhaling deeply, Tsunade shook her head and continued with a bitter smile "But how to do that? Not only is everything my loved ones fought for in jeopardy, but even my family was directly involved and seems to be a potential victim of all this... fuck, this is really troubling"

"..."

"Tsk" Clicking her tongue, Tsunade turned to Shizune and continued "Get things ready, we're going back to Konoha."

***

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I really love beef jerky" Taking a bite of the piece of meat in his hand, Naruto muttered.

"I want a hot dish..." Lying on the ground while staring at the blue sky above her, Sakura murmured sadly "And a hot shower, and a warm bed and get out of this damn forest."

"We could go hunt some animal" Munching on his dried meat while sitting on a large rock, Sasuke commented.

"Not a bad idea-" Cutting off his words suddenly, Naruto's face turned grave for a second and he quickly regained his smile, then stretched his body and looked around casually 'Fuck, I don't see anything'.

From one second to the next, Naruto suddenly felt a tremendous murderous intent enveloping them completely, but even with his enhanced senses, he failed to detect in the slightest the direction it came from and although he would like to activate his eyes, he simply doesn't want to arouse suspicion at the sudden red light covering them.

"Sasuke."

"Yes?"

"How about we take off the weights for a while take off the weights for a while? I think we've trained enough."

Staring at Naruto's smiling face for a moment, Sasuke set the beef jerky aside and nodded "I was starting to get fed up too."

With strangeness on her face, Sakura asked "The sky will fall? Since when do you two think it's good to rest?"

"You don't know how hard it is to walk with this" Snorting, Naruto stood up and started to remove the weights from his legs, while Sasuke did the same beside him.

After a few seconds where they stacked all the weights, Naruto took the sword from his back and set it on the ground "Sakura, I'll need you to protect this."

"Is something wrong-?" Cutting off his words, Sakura opened her eyes wide as she saw something heading straight at her face from the sky and quickly turned to the side, then quickly stood up and pulled out her kunai.

Thud

"..." With his kunai in hand, Naruto stared at what fell in front of them and his gaze trembled as he easily recognized what it is.

Or rather, who it is.

There, with a soft smile on his pale, powdered face, lay Haku's head, while on his neck, the blood was already dry and with a completely clean cut.

"Kakashi made a grave mistake by leaving them alone" Appearing on a tree a few meters away from them with bloodshot eyes and with his sharp teeth exposed, Zabuza continued "But I couldn't be happier, as this means I can take my time to slowly torture them until they wish they were dead"

"Z-zabuza!" backing up a step with horror on her face, Sakura exclaimed.

"You bastard..." Hands shaking as his gaze was riveted on the severed head, Naruto clenched his fists tightly and shouted "WHY DID YOU KILL HIM!!!?"