Impossible to Forgive

Chapter 16: Timeline

I spread out the three reports on top of the map, "Let's take a look at the timeline for all of this." I took out my scroll and drew a long horizontal line across the paper. "Here at the beginning is the formation of the Taihi Ittai and the creation of the Kisei Genjutsu. Unfortunately, we have no way of telling which one came first." I drew a vertical line down my little timeline, "Here is the first theft of the scroll." I labeled my little line as such and then moved several inches before drawing the next tick mark. "Here's the current theft." I labeled and dated it while looking at the scroll number: 03040367. If read correctly, each ANBU scroll gave you the date which it was written as MM-DD-YYYY. So, this one was written on the fourth of March. I then drew a second line and dated it the seventh of March, "And here is the second report where the ANBU squad engaged with the Taihi Ittai and three of the four squad members were lost. The next event happened yesterday on the thirteenth when the hideout was found." I drew and labeled the final mark.

Kakashi nodded, "That looks correct."

"Yes, but there are two things that concern me." I drew a bracket encompassing the area between the first theft and the second, "What were they doing during these twenty-five years? What caused them to wait this long? And my other more pressing concern: what have they done in the ten days that they have had this genjutsu?" I created a another bracket encompassing those dates as well.

"Most likely preparing for something bigger."

"That's what worries me, but what could they be planning?"

"My assassination."

My heart dropped, but just I glared at him, "You should increase your guard even further, the village can't afford to lose its Hokage right now."

He smirked at me, "That almost sounded like concern."

"I must be getting soft. I was merely thinking about the state of the village." My words sounded like a lie even to myself. "But, what I said about being guarded more heavily was serious."

"It would do nothing to help." Kakashi sighed, "I can't keep the forces that we need eliminating this threat stationed around this building. Besides, there is always the possibility of the enemy using the genjutsu against my guards. Keeping more people near me would only give them more people to use against us."

I sighed, "Even after his death, Danzo is still causing things to be more difficult than they need to be."

"Tell me about it. I can see why the Third made this a Forbidden Jutsu, but Danzo believed that the end justified any means."

"Complaining about Danzo isn't going to solve our problems, though."

Kakashi smiled at me from under his mask, "That's true. We should start putting together squads then."

I pulled out a second scroll, "I'm going to need more room for notes."

A/N: There really are no dates in Naruto besides birthdays. But, the Sage of the Six Paths died just over 300 years before the start of the series so the year (367) is based on a calendar that started during his lifetime, most likely when he sealed the Ten-tails. If there are actual dates and years given in the canon material, I apologize. I couldn't find them, but this is the system that I'm going to use for this story. For the month, Kakashi Hiden ends with Kahyo saying that spring is coming. While this is an allusion in Japanese culture to love blossoming, I took this literally so that I could have some sort of time of year for the story to occur.