Naruto: Tango with Death

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I crossed my arms in front of me and asked, "So, what can the Owl do for you?"

Danzo tapped his finger against the metallic table, making a periodic sound to accompany his words, "For now, not much. You are a little too high profile now to gather the information I seek personally."

I tilted my head and asked, "Don't you have any lead for me to check? It's already been more than a week since the world learned of the rebellion. Are you getting old?"

Danzo showed no reaction to my teasing/blatant disrespect, and replied neutrally, "Our enemy has grabbed our heart with their claws, so we need to be careful in their cure, if we don't want our heart to be crushed. That asks for careful and precise work, something that needs time."

I nodded, and asked, "Well, in any case, you can't just be content with me sitting at home, doing nothing. Simply placing me closer to our little rats should make them become reckless, and they would be bound to make a mistake."

Danzo stopped his tapping, and then laid back in his chair as he asked, sounding interested, "What are you proposing, exactly?"

Staring back, I replied, "I'm suggesting to go to the capital, Sendai."

"You would be alone in enemy territory."

I replied with a crafty smile, "Would I?"

Danzo paused for a second, before uttering, "You want to take forces with you… You are extending your influence. I see you've got a taste for power."

I shrugged and replied, "Or maybe I simply want to be efficient. As you said, I am too high profiled to do the actual spying myself."

The enemies we were searching for were hidden in the darkness, and so we first needed to find them. And for that, we needed some of our forces to infiltrate their network, and I can't do that.

While I may be able to move undetected by all, if I didn't know what to search for, or where, then I was as good as useless. I couldn't possibly scour through the entire capital, or even the entire Land of Fire, and hope to luckily find the enemy.

So the smartest thing for me to do right now was undoubtedly to take more of an overseer kind of position, to manage my own forces to do the job I couldn't do.

As for whether I had other intentions in mind… well, I can't reveal all my secrets can I?

Besides, Danzo didn't look angry in the least as he said, "Or maybe your aim is different from power. You have your suspicions on who may be the traitors, don't you?"

I shrugged and said, "I made an educated guess, as anyone else could have. As for whether they end up being true… well, that's a matter for another day."

But Danzo didn't relent as he added, "You want some of our men to come with you, probably Anbu. This would make your mission easier, but it would weaken me, making mine harder. Would I happen to be on your list of suspects, Miss Owl?"

Still showing the same smile, I replied in an even tone, "Let's just say that no one is suspicion free in my eyes."

Danzo remained silent for a second, before asking, "If I were to give you some of our men, what would you do?"

I shrugged and explained, "As I said, mainly go to the capital to annoy them. I would also work in the light myself to maintain this country, the Daimyo seems to not be doing very good right now, so I'm sure he could use an advisor."

Danzo's eyes widened as he asked, "You want to get this close to the Daimyo's Family? And even lead the country? That makes you more suspicious than many of our suspects."

I snorted in amusement, "Anyone remotely capable is suspicious, and if we trust none of them, then the job will never get done. Besides, I have the best experience for this job, it wouldn't be the first country I run from the shadows."

Danzo groaned, "I still remember what happened to the other one you dealt with, indeed. And I don't want that to happen to us."

I rolled my eyes and said, "Come on, stop messing with me. I couldn't possibly have been at the origin of this mess, and we both know it. So, are you going to give me those men, or am I to go there alone?"

Danzo grabbed his cane and used it to get up, before looking around the room. Then, he said, "You can get 20 of our men. I want them all back."

I smiled and said, "I'll let you pick them, you know them better than I do. They don't have to be very strong, only good at spying."

Danzo nodded stiffly, so I added, "Well, it was fun talking to you, but I have things to come back to. I'll be leaving in about a week, just need to tell the Hokage about it."

Danzo's face turned a little rancid as he heard that. I had implied in our conversation that me going to the capital was an already agreed matter, as if Minato and I had already talked about it, and he had agreed.

Danzo finally growled, "I will be expecting results. Do not disappoint."

I sneered, "I never do."

And with that I walked away, feeling Danzo's eyes dig into the back of my head. I had annoyed him. On purpose, of course.

As he had said, he was on my suspects.

If there was one thing I knew about Danzo, it was that for him, the village came before everything. Unlike in the canonical world, he hadn't lost himself to power, he truly was working for the village's good.

However, because of how extreme he could be, he might end up hurting it without even realizing it. Besides, this rebellion wouldn't necessarily harm the leaf.

Although at first glance any infighting within the Land of Fire would weaken Konoha, it would only be on a temporary basis, if we played our cards well.

Since the leader of the rebellion most likely is part of the Daimyo's family, if we take care of them, our influence over the entire land would exponentially increase, and I could see several ways how Konoha could poach quite a few resources and political leverages from this.

Of course, this was on the basis we struck down the rebellion quickly, but if Danzo had orchestrated the whole thing, then it wouldn't be hard for us to crush them.

And the reason I annoyed him was not to have him become reckless, I knew better than to try to goad Danzo into attacking me for a mere show disrespect.

Instead, what I just did was a considerable show of power. Danzo was an Elder of the village, and in every interaction we've had so far, he's always had a superior stance compared to me, I always had to treat him as an Elder of the village, someone worthy of respect.

But today, I showed him that I had, or at least believed I had reached a similar level to him, not just in term of strength but also influence.

This was a subtle way of saying that I would, if necessary, take 'care' of him, if he crossed any boundaries he shouldn't, and that, is what would push him into attacking me.

Humiliating him is fine, but potentially harming him, and by extension the Leaf, as he certainly believes himself to be necessary to the village's well being, that's what would goad him into attacking me.

Of course, him being behind this was only a hypothesis, I had many more suspects on my list, and Danzo wasn't even near the top, but he was the one in front of me, so I took action against him.

And if he really is innocent, then there is no reason for him to attack me. Again, he wouldn't act against me because of a mere disrespect, he wasn't a child, and if he had nothing to do with the rebellion, then I had no reason to find trouble with him, and inversely so.

Ah, politics can really be a mind breaker.