Kakashi's Mistake

chapter 2

Everything is a Lie...

The choice to reveal a portion of what had lain underneath the illusion he had concocted had been one of the hardest choices Naruto Uzumaki had made in his short life. But it was probably the most necessary of decisions he realized as he silently moved through the cluttered streets of Konoha, a henge the only thing between him, recognition, and subsequent harassment by more than just the villagers, but the ones he knew that would soon be pursuing him for answers.

It wasn't that he wished to hide from them, well, maybe it was a bit of that, but it was more strategy than anything. He needed time to observe and prepare for what he knew was the subsequent reaction to the lit explosive note he had dropped into the shinobi community. There was no way his sensei, he had to resist the bile that rose to his gorge every time he used that term loosely for the silver-haired Jounin that had been his father's student, would not report it to Hokage-jiji. After all, he had blatantly used his father's signature Hiraishin no Jutsu in front of Kakashi, Ebisu, and about six other people. It was a trump card that would immediately cause people to take a look at him not as the idiot he had built himself as, but as something a lot more serious, and quite possibly a lot more dangerous.

Of course, the question would then become if the Kyuubi was controlling him. A possibility, albeit statistically slim, that could not be ignored by Konoha as a whole. The furball was the reason he was the village pariah in the first place, causing such widespread destruction and claiming so many lives in the process. No, the Hokage will summon him shortly as soon as he had gathered enough information on what had happened in the hospital, he wasn't The Professor for nothing. So he maybe had half an hour to an hour at most before the Hokage summoned him.

Normally, he would withdraw to his own private grounds, but the time frame was not good enough for such a measure, and he wanted eyes on the village to get a sense of the atmosphere before he decided on his next move.

He was no Nara in intellect, but he was capable of reading and manipulating emotions quite well. After all, he wouldn't have been able to hold the grandest of lies for so long if not for that. Being the subject of an entire village's scorn was an otherworldly educational experience that had kept him alive long enough for it to matter.

Slipping into the alleyway he glanced around, checking to see that no one was watching him, taking another moment to look up, not covering all possibilities could be deadly at the wrong time, he then quickly made a quick handsign and summoned a Kage Bunshin before using another Henge to disguise himself again, this time as a woman while his Kage Bunshin retained his original Henge look, satisfied, he slipped out of the alley way, making sure to adjust "her" clothes to look like he and his clone had done something illicit in the alley before doubling back the way he came.

It was simple, when being looked for the least likely place anyone would spend time lookig is the datum from whence you came. But the datum in question was also the location where his secondary objective was, the objective that had caused him to analyze his circumstances and realize that he could not maintain the charade if he was going to honor his word to her. So he was achieving two objectives instead of just one in this single move.

Coming to the front of the hospital, he made one more quick scan of his surroundings, making sure that no one was paying attention to him before stepping up the wall and quickly moving up and into the room of his choice.

He had made sure when he had entered the hospital before that he had already slipped in another Kage Bunshin to observe and survey the hospital. He had been able to learn where his target had been placed, a quick dispel later and he had the knowledge that he was using to effect now.

Coming to the window, he slid it open, before slipping in and closing it as silently as he could. He knew there were two Hyuuga on the other side of the door to the room acting as sentries. So secure in the knowledge that the Hyuuga heiress could not be threatened, it almost made him want to cry. Did no one understand that there were no defenses that could deter an enemy that was determined to succeed no matter what?