Tsunade frowned at that point and spoke softly, "If I were Danzo I would've found a way to plaster the cursed tongue eradication seal on Shikaku… why has he not done that yet?"
Kakashi nodded and spoke equally softly, "Danzo has already applied the cursed tongue eradication seal on Shikaku."
Tsunade and Shizune's eyes widened at once as Tsunade rapidly questioned Kakashi about the state of things. "Then how…"
Kakashi smiled and spoke quickly while keeping Tsunade and her disciple Shizune in suspense for longer, "Humour me for a second. The Third Hokage had taken in a disciple before he died."
Tsunade winced at the reminder of the death of the Third Hokage but kept her emotions under control "A disciple? Who? Was it one of the newly graduated kids? A genin who showed potential even in times of peace?"
"Actually… the boy dropped out of the academy and began his humble beginnings by joining the I.T department as a book keeper and a data entry specialist since he was deemed unfit to become a shinobi by his teachers at the academy."
Tsunade frowned, confused and slightly baffled. "What did 'he' see in him then?"
Kakashi nodded and explained quietly, "The boy was caught in an assassination event that was targeted at me, which he survived by blowing up the intruder using explosion tags. The Third met the boy then and it turned out that Haruto had a good head on his shoulders for research and he'd made a decent contribution to the village already by inventing a software to help make graphs. So the third Hokage put him under protection and lo and behold, it turns out the kid had talent in using the scorch release kekkei genkai."
"Scorch release…" Tsunade mumbled the words, letting it linger on her lips for a few seconds before she asked, "And what does that have to do with Shikaku not being affected by the seal? Did sensei know of the cursed tongue eradication seal and teach the boy some counter measures for it?"
"No. That was all him alone. Danzo immediately plastered him with the cursed tongue eradication seal when he came into power to control me and to keep an indirect leash on Naruto, the fourth hokage's kid."
Tsunade's eyes widened as she suddenly connected the dots, "He broke free of the seal!? Why don't you use the method he used to free the Hyuga kids?" Tsunade asked with clear surprise.
Kakashi shook his head at that point, "The method he invented uses the shadow clone jutsu to create a false persona inside the mind. As you can see the prerequisite is to have mastered the shadow clone jutsu to make it possible… and that's hard to teach to a bunch of three and five year olds. Shikaku barely mastered it in time to be able to defend against Danzo's schemes."
"A kid who dropped out of the academy thought of that? Where did his head go when he was inside the academy?" Tsunade asked bewildered as Tonton oinked to remind Shizune not to squeeze her too tightly because of her surprise.
Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, "I guess sometimes it takes a real threat to one's life to awaken one's talent."
"Hmmm… do you have the jutsu that the kid invented? It might help me improve the counter seal I created a bit more."
"Yes… I do." Kakashi nodded and quickly grabbed a scroll and an inked brush from the shelf and began to note down the directions he'd seen in Haruto's notes a few weeks ago before handing it over to Tsunade.
Tsunade glanced over the scroll once and immediately pointed out an issue with the jutsu, "This is risky for whoever performs it. They might develop a second dominant personality inside their mindscape that will clash with their own. And the longer they leave the jutsu on, the stronger the personality will become, eventually overwriting their own or even 'killing' them in some way."
Kakashi nodded, "Shikaku-san noticed almost immediately after trying out the jutsu too. Fortunately Inoichi-san has been treating him for now and Shikaku-san has been using the jutsu sparingly while he's with Danzo or with any of the rebels."
"What about the kid?" Tsunade asked with a puzzled expression and Kakashi made an even more confused expression than hers, "Somehow… somehow… the kid is not affected by the side effects of the jutsu… perhaps he figured out a way to deal with it? We don't know and I haven't asked him yet."
Tsunade frowned and spoke calmly, "Let me go meet him."
Kakashi immediately shook his head, "Not possible. Firstly, it's terribly hard for you to roam around the village, secondly the kid is too well protected by Danzo's ROOT agents for us to infiltrate without anyone detecting our presence."
But Tsunade was not Tsunade if she didn't take a no for an answer.
"What if the kid's a spy working for Danzo and he already knows about this loophole in his cursed tongue eradication seal and has been playing with all of you?"
Kakashi didn't have any response to that. After all he couldn't say he had a gut feeling that Haruto hated Danzo just as much as he hated him at this point, could he?
Eventually Kakashi sighed and spoke anyway, "I'm sure Haruto is not a spy… he's just too simple of a kid to play the role of a double agent."
"Is that all you have? A feeling that the kid's not a spy? Have you forgotten about the deaths of your Sensei and his wife? You think a random person killed them without having inside information?"
Kakashi's face instantly turned sour and bitter.
He took a deep breath in and then sighed softly, "Alright… I'll take you to his house tomorrow in the morning when the shinobi patrolling him are following him to his training in the I.T department."
"What does he learn at the I.T department? Torture? Is Danzo teaching kids torture now?" Tsunade asked with a modicum of disgust.
Kakashi sighed again, "To turn Naruto into an emotionless jinchuriki he can control easily, Danzo even ordered for Naruto to be taught torture, I taught him all the skills myself before Danzo tested them on that. However, they aren't learning torture anymore, they've graduated from it, it turns out that Haruto has talent for medical ninjutsu, so I'm having a colleague of my teach it to him."
"Talented in medical ninjutsu you say… just how good is he for you to say that he's talented?" Tsunade asked with interest.
Kakashi nodded and explained, "I heard he mastered the Scabbing jutsu in a few minutes."
"A few minutes?!" Tsunade's eyes opened wide, "Even I took longer than a few hours to do it… you said the kid, Haruto, he dropped out of Academy because he didn't have the ability to become a ninja? Who were his teachers that were so blind? Or did someone replace the kid using a forbidden ninjutsu to infiltrate Konoha?"
Kakashi shook his head still trying to dissuade Tsunade from meeting Haruto, "As far as I recall, Haruto's personality has stayed consistent ever since I've met him."
"And did you meet him before he left the academy?" Tsunade pointedly fired.
Kakashi sighed and shook his head.
"Fine then. I'm going to visit the kid tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll do it in a disguise so that the kid doesn't realise it's me. I'll have a little peek into his mind and then quietly leave while he's unconscious. He won't know a thing from beginning to end."
"A peek into his mind… I'm not sure how much he'll appreciate that…" Kakashi mumbled, but he didn't do anything to stop Tsunade after all their plan was at risk and Haruto was indeed a weak link.
"Trust my skill. The kid won't know a thing. And if he does, you can blame it all on me." Tsunade said with some pride in her expression.
Kakashi nodded and let it be.
***
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