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Entry tags:

zz old game: naruto

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Who: Sasuke and Obito
When: Sept 8th, midday
Where: Chez Obito
What: Screwy information is everywhere, and Sasuke wasn't born patient. Continued from here.

Sasuke had taken Obito at his word. He'd sent the message nearly as soon as he'd left the hospital and had spent the time in between hearing back to locate a copy of the gossip rag that had left Adela half-blinded. It had been infuriating to pay for it -- not least when his own name and the names of relatives graced most of its ludicrous claims -- but he was holding a copy in one clenched fist when he knocked on his teacher's door.

"Sensei?" He called, listening for any telltale sounds of movement. Obito had said now, but it was probably entirely possible he'd been held up somehow. That mostly meant that if enough time passed, Sasuke was just going to break in through a window.

He glowered at the door, waiting.

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While he thankfully had a designated window for that, it wasn't needed this time and he came hurrying up behind him. "Oi oi don't break down the door." He reached past him and pushed it open. "In."

It was a near thing, but Obito arrived a scant moment before Sasuke had decided to turn around and head for the closest window. The door had barely shut behind him before Sasuke had rounded on his teacher and Kage, voice kept low only by virtue of tight control.

"I just had to tell Adela that she'd be alright when someone's stabbed her in the eye, sensei," he said, and maybe it wasn't fair for him to sound angry at Obito, but -- but it was that or try to track down whoever had put together that worthless magazine and dangle them over the edge of a cliff until they repented every mistake they'd made from birth to the moment they'd decided to publish.

"What the hell is going on?! Why would anyone believe that piece of trash enough to -- to attack a Chuunin in the shadow of her own village?!"

He reached out, catching Sasuke by the shoulders and turning him bodily to point him further into the house. "When I said in I meant past the doorway." His tone was quiet though, and he toed off his shoes after releasing the boy.

"It's not okay Sasuke. It's not that it was believed that worries me, people always believe things, it's just a matter of how many do. What worries me is that anyone managed to reach her. I'm taking care of it, but that unfortunately doesn't mean I can fix what happened to her."

He gestured into the house. "Shoes off, livingroom, I'll be there with tea, which you're going to sit and drink, in a minute, got it?"

"Everything in that magazine was garbage," Sasuke spat, shoulders tense despite the way he allowed himself to be propelled into the sitting room. Only a rigourous clan upbringing made him line his shoes up neatly to the side of the entryway before he made his impatient way to pace next to the couch instead of sitting in it.

"Whoever attacked her not only managed to get through village security, he knew her schedule enough to attack when she was alone," he said, frustration evident in his tone. "And that stupid gossip rag is local -- you'd have to be trying to get information on Konoha-nin to have read it!"

That was, at least, what he'd gotten from the first newsstand he'd stormed to and demanded a copy of the magazine he'd ignored up until now, even after seeing Uchiha plastered on it more than once.

"It made it to Kiri at least, so it's not as local as it seems." He let out a soft breath and gave a shake of his head. "I've had to take care that Gai and Kakashi have an eye on them since Adela's situation because I don't want someone taking a shot at them, Jounin or not, before the security breach that let this happen is fixed."

He was making the tea as he spoke, able to see Sasuke from his position while he put it together, taking a deep breath and staring intently at the kettle. "Someone in the village hasn't been located yet, if they're helping orchestrate. I sincerely wish I could believe that wasn't the case. I can't after this."

He brought out the tea as soon as it was ready, putting it on the table in the livingroom.

To Kiri -- why would the personal lives of Konoha-nin be of enough interest to people in Kiri that someone would deliver it out that far? It was the next question on the tip of Sasuke's tongue until he processed what Obito had said next, a hint of embarrassed colour starting over his ears despite the anger still very much present. Those rumours had absolutely not been what Sasuke had expected to read, even in a trashy magazine like that.

"Have you heard of any threats against Kakashi-san or Gai-san?" He finally settled down at the table, though his fingertips continued to drum an impatient pattern against the side of the cup Obito set out for him. From what Sasuke knew of Kakashi, at least, it was highly unlikely that being under watch was something the man would put up with for long, which made this a less-than-ideal situation for everyone involved.

"If there were a Konoha-nin working on this magazine as a joke, you'd think they'd have come forward after this attack to confess," he said, glaring into the tea. "Their remaining secret makes their motivations suspicious."

He settled once the tea was passed out, then sipped at it, using it to keep himself from fidgeting overmuch. It wouldn't soothe Sasuke's nerves to do it. "I haven't, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. They're both elites, which means they already have enemies. Something like this is often seen as an excuse to act on that ill will."

He swirled his cup, watching Sasuke for a long moment before continuing. "As for motivations... it's nearly impossible to say. Sometimes, civilians are the ones you have to watch out for, and they aren't even under cover for another country. Once the forces have been worked over, we'll start to carefully look over the civilian contingent."

Enemies were something collected by all high-level nin, but to combine a professional grudge with personal information was just -- low, Sasuke decided with a curl of his lip. And in Adela's case, there was very little chance she had a long enough missions resume to have gathered personal enemies on her own merit.

That train of thought derailed abruptly when Obito mentioned civilians, Sasuke's eyes widening after a moment of stunned contemplation. It was a powerful remnant of growing up surrounded by Uchiha, the easy dismissal of civilians as little more than convenient resources for goods and services, but obviously civilians took part in espionage against each other -- some significant portion of missions had to do with that sort of thing.

"But ... what interest would Konoha's civilians have in spreading misinformation about any of us?" Even for purely entertainment purposes, Sasuke couldn't understand why someone would go to the trouble of coming up with ideas ludicrous enough to stir curiosity.

"Civilians have interests in things that are really of no concern to shinobi. However, sometimes we get civilians who believe that the shinobi are there strictly to be at their service. There's not to say we're not dealing with that now." He stared into his cup for a moment, pressing his lips together. "It is something I've been keeping a careful eye on."

That much Sasuke certainly agreed with, given what little he understood of the civilian way of life; and as for Obito's second comment on civilians, every shinobi had run into an entitled disaster of a client before. Sasuke could still distinctly recall the deep irritation of his last mission to Grass and the way both families involved had thought of employing ninja as nothing more than extra-fancy pieces in their ridiculous human-sized chess game.

"Then there are really two overlapping networks of information to keep an eye on," he said after a moment, sipping his tea with a deeper frown. "And that's just within the village ... unaffiliated ninja have their own network, too, don't they? And their information travels more fluidly."

He paused, trying to work out how civilian information would travel most effectively from town to town and country to country. "Civilian merchants? They travel for business most of the time, it seems.

"How do we keep track of all that?"

"Coordinated efforts. The Yamanaka keep an eye on the civilians in-village as a whole and keep up to date on what is relevant with them, while the shinobi gossip circles cover the common rumors that circulate. Those in the intel division bring me anything of concern or relevance. We have some people on the outside who work extensively gathering information beyond the village either as ANBU assignments or long term recon."

A moment passed while Sasuke absorbed the information, leaning back into the couch with his tea forgotten between his hands. He'd known about the intelligence division, of course, but it hadn't occurred to him that shinobi intelligence was as complicated and needed to sort through information as petty as civilian rumours to compile a full image of what was going on.

All that, and yet ... "But even with all of that, nobody expected that gossip rag? Nobody thought it was enough of a risk?"

"It honestly isn't that big of a risk. It's still rumors, and rumors fade and get overridden. This just took the rumors to more people and we were unprepared. It won't happen again. If another comes out, we'll handle it securely."

"Isn't there some way we could prevent the next one from coming out?" Sasuke frowned, looking up at Obito. "Surely now that it's been printed once, we can find out who did it in the first place."

"And then we make it look like we're afraid of the paper. It becomes a weapon. No, better we put in a few safeguards, things they can't print about, and leave them working for us instead of against us in a place where we can't get to them."

That made more sense than Sasuke liked to admit, his dissatisfaction at the solution clear in his expression. "How can we enforce the safeguards? Have someone infiltrate their staff or something?"

"Sasuke. I hate to be the one to have to break the illusion you seem to have here, but there are plenty of ways a shinobi can enforce rules they set in place. Besides, any other major village is likely to be a lot more strict than we are."

He blinked before growing thoughtful -- but thoughtful with an unhappy line forming between his eyebrows. "If they're based here ... I mean, we can just ask, but what kind of consequences would work without making it look like we were bullying civilians?

"Or --" He straightened suddenly, frowning. "Benefits? Rewarding them for toeing the line would make us vulnerable ..."

"Killing them off would be the first line of defense in other villages, but how do they get their information? Who do they go through? Do they have someone in the ranks? If not, do they just make things up? If they don't know what's at stake, they will Sasuke, and the village will not be put in danger because of it. Things like this have a tendency to grow if you kill off one piece while uncertain of the whole thing."

"Of course we can't kill them," Sasuke said, startled at the suggestion -- civilians, probably, given that the way shinobi schedules worked out would make it difficult for any one group to produce something regularly as the magazine had promised. Unless they had people embedded in shinobi ranks, which ... still begged the question of what exactly they wanted out of it.

"So -- then, how would you determine how extensive their information system is, if they're not just making things up?" He asked, brow furrowed. "They didn't just invent what was in the magazine; there were grains of truth in things, even if they were tiny. I had spoken to most of the kunoichi I got connected with, for example."

"That's just it. All of those were rumors already free-floating in the village. That they got consolidated only means that someone has a finger on that pulse." He shook his head on a soft sigh. "You have to look at them as an untrained ward, not an enemy piece."

"So, what -- if we're lucky, they're just a gossip with a writing hobby?" Sasuke directed his frown out the window this time, as if glaring into the night could possibly reveal just who had the amount of free time on their hands to produce the magazine.

"No, if we're lucky this is someone we can train into a wieldable protection."

"Ah --" Sasuke blinked, the lightbulb finally going off. It had never occurred to him to use an annoyance as an asset before, not least because -- "But what if they do turn out to have hostile motivations?"

"Then they will be dealt with." His tone was gentle, but firm. Clearly he had no intent to allow a hostile force linger in his village.

"So the first course of action is still to figure out who," Sasuke sighed, though he relaxed somewhat into the couch, remembering his cooled tea to take a belated sip. "What hints do we have already?"

"The nature of the rumors and the degree of sensitive information conveyed."

He made a face at that, glancing up at Obito. "It was basically just a slightly higher level than an Academy rumour mill, but someone has actually gotten hurt as a result."

"And what information does that give you?" He tilted his head, watching him intently.

"... that they don't have access to really sensitive information?" Sasuke leaned back into the couch with a flop, staring at the ceiling with a frustrated sigh. "That's almost worse, that a Konoha-nin got hurt because of someone who doesn't even have access to meaningful secrets."

"Yes, isn't it? I'll make sure that the matter is taken care of, and we'll use these clues to focus in on the troublemakers. It's usually those that don't mean harm that do the worst kinds of damage."

He snorted, inelegant and ill-amused, rolling his head to the side to send a look askance at Obito. "Don't we all get trained specifically in handling information, at least a little bit? How does it work out that people who aren't trained do the worst harm?"

It was halfway a rhetorical question, and it told in the exasperation in his tone, but the apparent immediate course of action in front of him was too close to 'wait and see' to soothe an impatient nature.

"Having training means that we, as shinobi, have aims when we use information. Someone with no aims has no end desire and thus doesn't bother to control what happens. You see?"

"That explains the Academy, then," Sasuke grouched, stopping just short of grumbling an addition irritated civilians as well. "So for now we'll -- what, just wait until we have more to go off of?"

"For now we follow up the leads they gave us and find them, of course. There are already people on it."

"Who's on it? The Yamanaka?"

It was highly unlikely that either Ino or her father would give up information simply because Sasuke asked, but it probably wouldn't hurt to look into it all the same.

"They're one of the groups focused on it, yes." He inclined his head, amused that he was fishing. "It's not really your skill set at the moment, did you want to get into it?"

"It seems like it's more important than I thought," he muttered, though it wasn't quite agreement so much as a complaint. "How would you train for that sort of thing, anyway?"

"You learn to be social or know people who are, typically, to start." He laughed at the look on his face.

"So ... spending a lot of time with amateur gossips until you become a professional one," Sasuke rephrased, drier than the desert. "Normally, you know perfectly well I'd be completely uninterested, sensei."

"Who said anything about amateur?" He was grinning though, delighted with the look his student was sporting.

"Professional ones don't sound better," he pointed out, but sighed. "I trust that you have the right people in the right places already."

"Yeah, I do." He leaned over, ruffling up his hair. "SO stop worrying so much."

"I didn't say I was worried," Sasuke protested, ducking out of the way of that would-be ruffle with the instinctive speed of long years of practice. "I'm just angry that something like that happened over something so stupid."

"That's the worst kind, really." He shook his head. "Satisfied it's all in hand though?"

"I suppose," he said, though there was still dissatisfaction written in his features; less at what he expected Obito to do in response to the magazine, now, and more at the fact that what had happened had happened. "I guess you want me to wait and see how they handle it?"

"That's right." He flashed him a grin, then settled in to feed his student while he had him.

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