"Multiple Nara Jonin are taking missions out of the village?" Danzo asked suspiciously, "What's so noteworthy about that to make it to my desk?"
The ANBU kneeling in front of his desk bowed deeper before explaining, "Hokage-sama the Jonin taking up these missions are retired Jonin of the Nara clan."
"Hmm… retired Jonin? So Shikaku is finally contacting someone… but who? Jiraya? He's not going to answer him… or is it Tsunade? But she won't be of any help either…"
"Should we stop our investigation into this matter then Hokage-sama?" The kneeling ANBU asked politely.
Danzo sneered and shook his head lightly, "No. Capture some of those Jonin alive and bring them to the I.T department."
"I'll send the word Hokage-sama." the kneeling ANBU member said softly before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.
Danzo sat calmly at his desk in the shadow of the Hokage's office with a brush clutched between his fingers as he continued signing on the scrolls that needed his signatures.
"Hmm…? A mission for hiring civilian staffers to clear data? What's that about? It was requested by Haruto Hayashi… Hmm… I'll ask him about it the next time I see him."
***
"Huh? You want us to fish?" Naruto asked Kakashi with a strange expression on his face.
Kakashi, who was standing outside the I.T department along with Naruto and Haruto, nodded firmly. "Fish and catch fresh fish. Don't let them out of water and keep them alive until you bring them to me. About five fish each should do."
"Will we have grilled fish the day after tomorrow?" Naruto asked, confused but also drooling slightly at the prospect, forgetting to remain cold and unfeeling for just a moment.
Kakashi shook his head softly, "No… we won't be having grilled fish… but if there is any excess edible fish left the day after tomorrow we might make some time for it."
"If we aren't going to eat it, what are we going to do with it?" Haruto asked in place of Naruto, but his expression was much colder and his tone harsher, as if accusing Kakashi of wasting his time by not letting him study more about the great Danzo-sama by using the recent books that had been released for all shinobi to understand the greatness of the current Hokage better.
Kakashi frowned slightly but then sighed and explained himself, "We'll be learning another important facet of torture starting the day after tomorrow. Iryo-jutsu, or in other words Medical Ninjutsu."
"Medical ninjutsu?" Naruto questioned with suspicion. "Are we going to learn how to heal people just so we can torture them for longer?" Naruto asked in an irritated tone.
Kakashi nodded, "Precisely."
Naruto shivered involuntarily but Haruto only nodded thoughtfully, "I understand…" Haruto said calmly before turning around and walking away.
Naruto stayed behind with Kakashi, looking at the man for a second before stammering out a question, "...Ka- Kakashi-sensei… are you looking for a way to free Haruto?"
Kakashi's eyes locked onto Naruto giving him a dangerous glare. "The Hokage-sama's wisdom is unquestionable. Whatever he does is for the betterment of the village. You must learn to obey his decisions, unquestionably."
Naruto looked at Kakashi's glare and matched it with his own glare in return, and after the two had a stare off for a few seconds, Naruto broke eye contact first with a click of his tongue, "Tch… I knew you were unreliable the second I laid my eyes on you."
With that Naruto too made his way back home.
***
Danzo looked at the shionbi captive forced to kneel in front of him, an old man with white hair peeking out from under his headcap, with disdain before turning to his captor.
"Has he said anything yet?"
"No Hokage-sama… the captives are proving slightly hard to crack… they are all battle hardened and won't say a thing about what other missions they were carrying out while leaving the village."
"Please! Leave me alone!!! I swear!! I wasn't carrying out any other orders!!! I'm a loyal shinobi of the leaf village Hokage-sama!!! I have given myself to the three wars that the village has gone through!!! Please spare me for any crimes I might have committed unknowingly." the captive pleaded with tears in his eyes as if the pain in his limbs was getting unbearable.
Danzo grabbed the file that the captor was holding, flipping through its pages a little until his gaze landed on something interesting, it was at this point that he smirked.
"So… your grand son's name is Shikadai…" Danzo said in barely above a whisper, yet silence instantly returned to the cell they were standing in.
"....You wouldn't Hokage-sama!" The old shinobi kneeling on the floor gasped in shock and surprise.
"According to the file he's going to turn four years old this month…would be bad if he stayed three forever would it not?"
"DANZOO!!!!" the old man shouted with a ferocity that was reminiscent of a wild animal, of a tiger ruling the forest with its roars.
The ANBU members instantly drew kunai and placed it against the man's neck, waiting only for a word from Danzo to off his head.
But it was at that point that Danzo raised his hand calmly to stop the lynching.
"Speak or your grandson will be indicted into ROOT… who knows, maybe his first order will be to take his own grandfather's life..." Danzo bargained.
The old man kneeling on the floor looked at Danzo with the utmost of hatred and hostility. He went on to the extent of trying to pull his hands apart from the boards they were nailed to, causing the nails to dig into his wounds further and make him bleed freely.
"Lay a single hand on him and I'll ask the Buddha to curse you with downfall on the other end."
Danzo only sneered in response before ordering the man, "So speak."
The old man closed his eyes, his eyelids feeling heavy with the weight of betrayal before he opened them again, "I was tasked with contacting Jiraya with the scroll I was given so that we can break the cursed tongue eradication seal."
Danzo's eyes widened in surprise. "Where's that scroll." He asked instantly.
"I buried it before I was caught."
Danzo looked at the captor and simply nodded in his direction to convey his orders, his face pale and his hands trembling slightly.
The Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal was the cornerstone of his rule over Konoha, take it away and his palace would crumble under its own weight with its members taking off his head before even the first stone fell.
Danzo stood there in the prison cell feeling cold and unprotected, as if there was a blade pressed against his neck and not the neck of the captive who was kneeling on the floor.
'How did the seal manage to leak?'
'Did someone infiltrate into ROOT headquarters and break into my office and steal the seal?'
'Jiraya? No… they're contacting him… so who!?'
It took a couple of hours that felt like an eternity to Danzo before the ANBU member returned with a yellow scroll.
Danzo immediately unfurled the yellow scroll and checked its contents. And then sighed deeply in relief.
'This is a cheap copy… most of it's wrong… as if someone guessed the seal instead of actually knowing about its contents…'
And then Danzo felt anger.
'How dare…'
'How dare they even think of trying to overthrow my rule!'
***
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