Waiting Game

Chapter 9

"'Get rid of the Hokage'?" Kakashi echoed softly, voice deliberately muffled by his mask in a vain effort to keep me from hearing. "You're not even trying to cover up your deviance to Konoha..."

I barely spared him a glance before turning to analyze the others' reactions.

Naruto and Sakura each had expressions varying in amount of surprise and slight betrayal while Sasuke looked shocked with his jaw hanging open. He quickly erased his emotions when he saw me looking, and coughed quietly to himself before looking away with his normal aloof expression.

I felt my lips threatening to pull into a disheartened frown, but I quickly fixed it back to my own emotionless face.

"You do realize you just admitted to treason, Tsubaki, right?" Kakashi asked slowly, carefully. I nodded curtly.

"The Hokage has already been aware of my goals since I was a child, but he doesn't want me dead for his own selfish purposes," I explained nonchalantly. Kakashi didn't answer, and kept to his silence.
......
Hatake Kakashi

Age: 26

Trustworthiness: 7%. Unreliable.
......
"And what would those be?" Sakura asked, a small accusing edge in her voice.
......
Haruno Sakura

Age: 12

Trustworthiness: 63%. Slightly trustworthy.
......
"I am an asset to the village, and his future plans. Since I am not from a Shinobi clan, yet am still a prodigy, he believes that I would be ideal for infiltration and spying. He also believes that I will be able to help the Nara's for strategic planning and wishes to force me into an arranged marriage once I pass the Chunin exams," I listed. Naruto gawked.

"No way! Old man Hokage wouldn't do that, believe it!" He declared.
............
Uzumaki Naruto

Age: 12

Trustworthiness: 9%. Of course he'll stick with the Hokage; he's been taken care of by the old man all of his life, even if so many secrets have been kept from him...
............
"You've clearly never met Ibiki Morino," I mumbled under my breath. I think Kakashi, and maybe even the confused Sasuke, heard me. Oops.

Even as I said that, I had a flashback to a time where I had been tortured in an effort to make me too afraid to give out information like this. Kakashi would undoubtedly tell the Hokage about this little "deviant episode," in the Hokage's words, and Hiruzen would order Ibiki to torture me once again.

'I wonder if he even knows what purpose I get tortured for.'

Sasuke kept silent for the entire time with a firm frown etched onto his face.

'Good; the seed of doubt is placed. He is one step closer to figuring out the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre. It would be far too risky if I were to just randomly leak the true story without him questioning it, and even then there was too large of a possibility that he wouldn't believe me,' I thought. 'I suppose I could just keep dropping hints until he confronts me. It would work if I am able to do this well enough.'

My eyes lowered.

'I just have to remember that, no matter what, Sakura will always be my first priority.'

Naruto was gone again; I learned from Sakura that he hadn't been good with chakra control, and would dedicate all of his time(free or not) to train. Sakura didn't think too much of it, as she was too busy admiring Sasuke or attempting to talk to me. I had recently chosen to talk even less as I felt that I shouldn't bother Sakura with my presence. 'With no true affiliation, other than my sister, I have a more dangerous life style since Konoha is rather distant from me. And, as shown before, the human life can easily be taken from one... I was lucky to have a surplus of chakra.'