Murder, Talk no Jutsu and Other Easy Solutions

In Which Several Robberies Happen, and Sai Becomes Relevant

Maria gently closed the door of her apartment, so as to not wake the boys sleeping within. She felt her resolve for what she was about to do steel itself as she ran to the rooftop of her apartment complex. She knew it was risky to mess with ROOT this early in her stay, but she needed proof of Itachi's innocence to get Sasuke off the path of revenge. Reaching the rooftop, she opened the door and walked onto it, taking a deep breath. She was ready, the only problem was...

She had no idea where the hell any of the ROOT bases were, or which one had information on Itachi.

'Probably should have thought this through more... but I made a promise to Sasuke. Can't go back on it now.', she mused internally, before smirking. She had an idea.

Before she had fallen into Naruto (literally), Stolas had taught her how to open portals on her own without the grimoire. The grimoire made things easier, sure, but she didn't need it to go anywhere. Or to find things.

Reaching a hand out, Maria closed her eyes and cleared her mind.

"Take me to Itachi Uchiha's final mission report.", she said with absolute certainty. A few seconds later, a purple rimmed portal opened to what appeared to be a ROOT base hallway. When she saw what she had accomplished, Maria's smirk returned.

'Here we fucking go.'

Maria took off running down the hallway. She didn't stop to gauge it for threats. If there were any, she would deal with them when the came after her. She didn't want a fight, she wanted the report.

Eventually, Maria reached a door that read 'files' in kanji (again, praise be to her Uncle Husk for teaching her the Japanese language). She reached to open it, but was halted when someone called out to her.

"Who are you?", the innocent sounding voice of a young boy asked. Maria slowly turned her head to look back at him, and was shocked to find the boy's face familiar. It was a preteen Sai, holding a small notebook in one hand and a brush in the other.

'How the fuck did I end up at the one base he would be at?!', she screamed in her head, before giving the boy a small smile. The Sai she was looking at was much smaller and much more expressive than the one in the anime.

'This must be him a little before or a little after Shin's death.', she thought.

"Who, me? I'm nobody.", she answered, hoping to Satan he would buy it. Unfortunately, he didn't.

"That's not the right answer.", Sai said with all the creepiness of a haunted doll as a kunai dropped into his hand from his sleeve. Maria frowned when she saw the knife.

'Or maybe it's a lot after.', she corrected herself, before raising both her hands up in surrender. She was a good assassin, but she barely knew any shinobi stuff. She wanted to avoid a fight, even if it was with a tiny version of Sai.

"Hold on a second, kid! Don't you want to get out of here?!", Maria said, frantically waving her hands back and forth. Sai looked at her in confusion and tilted his head.

"Get out of here?", he questioned. Maria nodded.

"Yes, get out of here. You don't want to be in ROOT, right? Well, my name's Maria di Angelo. I'm here to take it down, but I'm gonna need some help.", she told him. Sai looked up at her with hope shining in his eyes, but he soon forced it down like he did with every other emotion and scowled.

"Many others have tried to take down ROOT and failed. Danzo-sama has always put a stop to them. What makes you think you'll be any different?", he asked scathingly, but he wanted to know if she had a way to succeed. He hated the things he was forced to do. He wanted out of Danzo's grasp, and maybe if he was lucky, this girl could give him that. Maria grinned at him and put her hands on her hips.