AFTER DARK | naruto

58 | ambushed!

"I think you'd find hearing me out worth your time." Kakashi spoke, you could already see the smile he usually had.

"And why is that? You're only here to save someone from your own village, and I'm not in the mood to listen." The Raikage refused. "If you're not going to give her up, then someone of your caliber should be enough to take her place!"

"I understand where you're coming from, but killing the future Hokage would lead to political warfare, don't you think?" He replied smoothly. You wondered why you ever doubted him in the first place.

"Future Hokage?" The Raikage repeated back. "What happened to Danzo Shimura? He was asking the question that you were thinking of, as well. You heard that Danzo was Hokage now, so you made Shisui tag along for some sort of vengeance.

"I have as much information on him as you do, whether you chose to believe that or not however, is on you." Kakashi spoke. "He took over the role as Hokage and went missing, so it's my job to step in." He said.

You had half the mind to spit out the truth, but you bit your tongue. If you did speak, the guy over you would probably snap your neck or something. And anything that came out of your mouth wouldn't convince the Raikage of anything.

"That's convenient," The Raikage spoke. "Just when he decided to play mind games during the kage summit, he's gone missing. Do you play me for a fool?!" He scoffed. "I doubt someone of your caliber would go down without a fight, anyway. But I'm not in the mood for a fight. The world is already on the brink of war." He said.

Kakashi was silent for a moment. You could already tell that Naruto would be tagging along, and thanks to Diaval, you knew that Lee and Neji were, too. How humiliating... You wondered what they were thinking.

Of course, Kakuju knew what they were thinking. And he did you the honor of saying. 'The one with that balloon head is mentally crying. The one with the foggy eyes is annoyed.' His vague answer was almost worse than not knowing what they were thinking at all. 'And the entire group thinks he's lying about war."

"That's exactly why I think we should extinguish any bad blood between our villages." Kakashi answered him, he had a good recovery even though he was unaware about the war that was the horizon. What horrible timing. If he did have to fill the role of Hokage when the fourth Ninja war was on the horizon, it would prove difficult. "I'm sure you already know about the [Lastname] Clan. Instead of killing her, and the two of our villages losing valuable assets for the war, how about a compromise?"

"I've heard of that clan doomed with death. What compromise are you thinking of, including the dead into the equation?" The Raikage answered him, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Well, their Kekkei Genkai proves useful. Simply put, she can revive your dead loved one." Kakashi said. You were sure that the Raikage already knew that he probably just didn't know that you were one of them. Or more appropriately, the last one. Maybe it would have been better off if he didn't learn that at all.

"Well, I heard there was one more." Darui spoke, "I thought they'd be in Sunagakure, though. Not in the Hidden Leaf village."He said. And he had a point—your clan was from the Sand, not the Leaf. You were starting to think that the only reason why you were allowed into the Leaf at all was because you came from such a clan. If you weren't a [Lastname], would they have ever let you in?

Well, it was a bit too late to think about that now. You toughened your self, and spoke. "I'd love too, but..."

The Raikage turned to you without letting you finish. "But what?!"

"Your brother... He's... Not dead." You said, a bit strained due to being restrained by the neck. You weren't sure what overcame you in that moment, but you spat out what was possibly your biggest lie yet just to save your own skin. "I knew we were fighting a clone, so... I just let him go." You wouldn't be surprised if someone like Kakashi caught onto that lie. And it would be more surprising if Neji didn't realize—you could even bet that he could tell what someone was thinking with those observational skills of his. Whether they knew you were lying about 'letting him go' or believed that you were lying about Killer Bee being dead was beyond your concern.