Neji stood near the center of the room in front of Tsunade's office table, his head bowed so low that his dark hair shadowed his face. For the first time since Tsunade had bestowed him with the altered curse mark... a gamble of fuinjutsu that had granted him unprecedented strength... he could not bring himself to look her in the eye. He felt a profound burning shame twisting in his gut. Lady Tsunade had gambled her self created curse mark onto him, trusting him to act as the primary anchor and warden for their captive asset, Kimimaro. And he had failed his sole purpose.
"Tsunade-sama," Neji's voice cracked slightly, though he tried to force a discipline into his tone. "Give me one more choice. Send me back out, I will live up to your expectations this time... I swear it."
Before Tsunade could answer, Shikamaru Nara took a step forward, placing himself partially in front of Neji. His arm was tightly bandaged, his chest rising and falling in exhausted breaths.
"Don't put this entirely on him, Lady Tsunade," Shikamaru said, his usual sluggish demeanor replaced by a frustrated expression. "It was my fault for being weak. I let myself get captured and compromised the team. Neji had no choice as he had to trade the dose to keep us alive."
Shino standing quietly behind them spoke up next. His posture was sunken, his voice low behind his high collar. "Shikamaru is correct, Lady Tsunade. Neji acted under direct duress to preserve our lives. I also ask that you grant him another opportunity to rectify this outcome."
Tsunade didn't immediately reply. She slowly leaned back in her plush leather chair, resting her chin on her laced fingers. Her golden eyes flicked over the three guilt ridden shinobi.
"I expected this to happen eventually," Tsunade said quietly, her voice lacking the fiery anger they had anticipated. "Though I'll admit... part of me hoped he would choose to stay in Konoha. Maybe that was just wishful thinking on my part, even after I kept my end of the deal and refrained from launching any offensive strikes against Orochimaru."
The silence that followed was broken by the sound of the office door flunging open. A masked jounin figure stepped through, catching sight of the newly promoted Chunin and the Hyuga Jonin. The man halted, dropping his hand from his sash, and let out a long weary exhalation.
Kakashi Hatake lowered his mask slightly, pulling his hand through his silver hair as he braced himself for whatever headache was about to be dumped onto his lap. He had half-expected today to be a drag, but the situation in the room suggested something considerably worse.
Tsunade raised an eyebrow at him. "Why the long sigh, Kakashi? How was the mission to track Itachi?"
"Yeah... it failed," Kakashi sighed, leaning casually against the doorframe despite the solemnity of the room. "We intercepted what turned out to be a pair of weaker clone substitutes for Itachi and Kisame. They were fakes, and they dissolved before we could extract a single solid lead. Asuma and Kurenai were completely drained from the chakra strain, so I took it upon myself to return here and report."
Tsunade, who knew better than anyone how agonizingly thorough the Akatsuki were, didn't look surprised. "Well, Kakashi, we have good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first?"
"Let's start with the good," Kakashi replied, adjusting his hands in his pocket to look cool.
"So be it." Tsunade pulled a ribbon-bound scroll from her desk drawer and tossed it across the room. Kakashi caught it fluidly, unrolling the scroll. As his exposed eye scanned a detailed intelligence report provided by Jiraiya detailing the Akatsuki's inner operational structure, core members, and specific jutsu profiles... his eye widened in genuine shock.
"This really is good news as expected of Jiraiya-san," Kakashi murmured, his tone turned into something serious. "Then what's the bad news?"
"Kimimaro absconded from Konoha," Tsunade said bluntly. "He stole the medicinal dose from Neji after threatening to kill Shikamaru and Shino once they disbanded from Team Jiraiya."
Kakashi tilted his head, processing the information with no emotional attachment. "Is that truly bad news? He never belonged to Konoha in the first place, Tsunade-sama. It was only a matter of time before he made a move to leave. Have you told Guy yet? I don't think he's going to take it well that his student turned rogue. But what do you think actually triggered his sudden departure?"
Neji moved a little as if remembering a subtle detail from their encounter while interrogating the captured Akatsuki immortal, Kakuzu.
"He was asking oddly specific questions regarding the level of danger Orochimaru was currently in," Neji explained, his voice with lingering regret. "Kakuzu revealed that Orochimaru was once a part of Akatsuki before betraying them, and that an enforcement pair is currently hunting him down. Kimimaro must have realized that with Orochimaru in a severely weakened state, he had no choice but to return to his side to protect him."
Neji's posture softening slightly as he added, "His intentions were never to kill Shikamaru or Shino."
Kakashi, however, remained pragmatic, unswayed by the emotional nuance. "Tsunade-sama, there must be a specific reason you called me in here for this report."
"Yes," Tsunade replied, sitting up straight and placing her hands flat on the desk. "I originally had Shino plant a specialized tracking bug on Kimimaro's forehead protector which I handed it to him two years back. The initial plan was to use it to track him down, and while we were out there, reclaim Sasuke as well."
Before she could finish, Kakashi interjected smoothly, "Naruto is going to throw an absolute fit if he finds out a retrieval mission was launched without him."
Off to the side, Shino let out a quiet mumble that was distinctly audible to everyone in the small room. "Kimimaro had already suspected I would attempt something like that," Shino admitted, his head dropping slightly in disappointment. "He observed me using the female tracking bugs on Kakuzu during our fight. He stripped off his gear and left everything behind."
Shino reached into his pouch, pulling out a tarnished cloth headband and placing it onto Tsunade's desk. "This is his headband."
Tsunade stared down at the discarded metal plate, silently processing the setback. "So that angle failed too," she thought to herself. "I can't blame Shino, though. If he hadn't used the insects against Kakuzu, we wouldn't have secured half the intel we have now."