Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Category:
Fandom:
Relationships:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Collections:
We die afen and afen, Heliocentrism — a Dreaming of Sunshine recursive collection
Stats:
Published:
2020-09-08
Words:
1,078
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
34
Kudos:
1,493
Bookmarks:
279
Hits:
13,165

An Abundance of Treason

Summary:

"When did it start?"

When she spoke, it was in the same even tone she'd been using since she'd been brought to the interview room. "You'll have to be more specific."

Yamanaka Inoichi raised an eyebrow. "You have intimate knowledge of multiple instances of major treason against the village?"

"Yes," came the unexpected reply, blunt and without hesitation.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

"When did it start?"

Nara Shikako stared calmly across the interview table, barely even seeming to recognize that the man sitting across from her had more successful interrogations under his belt than literally anyone else in Konoha. To any outside observer, it would seem more like she was having a casual chat with a favourite uncle than being a prisoner under interrogation. When she spoke, it was in the same even tone she'd been using since she'd been brought to the interview room. "You'll have to be more specific."

Yamanaka Inoichi raised an eyebrow. "You have intimate knowledge of multiple instances of major treason against the village?"

"Yes," came the unexpected reply, blunt and without hesitation.

Inoichi stared at his prisoner, who didn't look even slightly discomfited by her circumstances; either she had incredible emotional control, or—far more worryingly—she was convinced he posed absolutely no threat to her. Since he considered himself a capable shinobi, he was unused to being basically dismissed as a threat; even the most naïve of academy students would be nervous at finding themselves interrogated by him.

When he felt the silence had stretched long enough that he was sure she wasn't going to offer anything unsolicited, he decided to speak once more. "Who would you say is the greatest threat to the village at this time?"

"Shimura Danzou." Again, the reply was immediate—her tone unchanged.

"You accuse a member of the Advisory Council of treason," Inoichi replied as though a shiver hadn't crawled down his spine at the mere mention of the name.

Shikako nodded. "His position is exactly what makes him the greatest threat; he plots the extermination of a clan and would enable the treason of others under the belief that he alone knows what is best for Konoha."

If Inoichi weren't so experienced, he might've swallowed nervously at the certainty with which she spoke of such horrifying concepts. "Which clan?"

"The Uchiha," she replied straightforwardly; her blink rate had been steady for their entire session, which was starting to unnerve Inoichi a little.

His eyes narrowed as a thought occurred to him; this was technically none of his business, but he had a suspicion based on things Shikaku had told him. "When did you fall into the Black most recently?"

"Just over 68 hours ago," Shikako replied in the same even tone she'd been using the entire time, and Inoichi felt like this whole conversation just fit into place.

Interrogating a Nara in this state was a mixed bag; on the minus side, she was exceedingly unlikely to volunteer information or elaborate on her answers, but on the plus side, there was a chance he might get information out of her that she might not otherwise share, simply because keeping it secret might feel less important. Fortunately it wasn't so recent that she couldn't be bothered to even answer any questions, or he'd not have gotten anything out of her at all.

"When does he plan to act?" Knowing the timeframe they had to prevent the extermination of one of the founding clans would be vital to containing the situation.

Shikako's response came as a surprise. "That depends on the current date."

Inoichi frowned; that almost sounded like the kind of fishing response that Nara 'damaged' like this wouldn't be able to make. If she knew when he was going to make his move, then she should've just said that date, instead of trying to give a relative time. Unless—of course, the very first and most unbelievable answer that they'd nonetheless had to provisionally accept because there seemed to be no other explanation for her presence: she was from the future. Without knowing the current date, she couldn't know which action was currently planned to be implemented, because it might be in the past. An annoying answer, but in keeping with what he could tell of her personality under the effects of the Black and the vagueness (in hindsight) of his question.

So, he clarified: "Assuming he has not yet taken any action against the Uchiha clan in specific, what would his first step be?"

"PsyOps." Her reply was typically immediate. "He would begin to pit the village and the Uchiha clan against one another, to make them distrust each other. The civilians and other clans would be made to feel that the Uchiha enjoy unearned privileges, while the Uchiha would be made to feel like the rest of the village is plotting against them."

That time, Inoichi did swallow nervously; it fit all too well the pattern he'd been seeing over the past few months. "And after that?"

Shikako paused, the first time she hadn't immediately replied, and Inoichi saw the error in his question. He'd meant Danzou's immediate next step, but Shikako was probably trying to summarize the entire rest of the plan.

Before he could speak to clarify, however, she began speaking: "Following an attack by the Kyuubi—" and Inoichi blanched at the implications of that "—where the tailed beast would be seen to be under the influence of a Sharingan, the Uchiha clan would be exiled to an isolated district, kept separate from the main population; despite being ordered—by Shimura Danzou—to hold back from the fighting, their relatively minor losses would be seen as a sign of collusion. With the loss of the well-respected Fourth Hokage, the Uchiha would be—to varying degrees of explicitness—blamed for his death."

Inoichi opened his mouth, unsure of quite what he wanted to say, only for Shikako to keep talking. "8 years after the Kyuubi attack, Uchiha Shisui would be ordered by the Third Hokage to use Kotoamatsukami to stop a coup being plotted by the Uchiha clan; Danzou would ambush him and forcibly remove one of his eyes. After giving his other eye to the clan heir, Uchiha Itachi, Shisui would commit suicide; Itachi would then, under orders and with the help of a missing-nin claiming to be Uchiha Madara, wipe out the totality of the clan minus himself and his younger brother, Sasuke."

Inoichi stared, unable to think of what to say first. Finally, he got up and left the interview room without a word.

Outside, he was met by his protégé, Morino Ibiki, who raised an eyebrow and said, "Get anything good?"

Inoichi stared unseeingly at the wall for a few moments, before finally focusing his gaze on Ibiki and saying, simply, "No. I need to see the Hokage immediately."

Notes:

The details of the events Shikako describes were done from memory, and may not completely match up with DoS canon; if so, we'll just pretend it's an AU. I only looked up a couple vital things to make sure I wasn't accidentally inventing them from whole cloth (e.g. Danzou ordering the Uchiha not to directly fight the Kyuubi was in the anime).

It's also intentionally unclear when, exactly, Shikako travelled back in time to (beyond it being pre-Massacre, but late enough for Inoichi to be there). Basically, pick whichever point in the timeline you think it'd be most fun for it to take place in, and pretend that's when it happens.