6 Hiruzen

The job of a Hokage was never-ending. Hiruzen Sarutobi yawned as he returned to his office in the early hours of the morning. This was not supposed to be him. He was supposed to enjoy his retirement spending time with his family and the rest of the clan. He was supposed to relax in recompense for the long years of war and service. In an ideal world, young Minato would have been spending his time solving all these issues while Hiruzen would be resting his old bones. Yet, reality always had a tendency to disappoint.

After Minato's untimely demise, there was nobody in the village that was worthy of the office. His two students were off doing what they pleased. Jiraiya at least was still undertaking missions and looking out for the village. Hiruzen expected a lot out of Tsunade, he couldn't lie about that. He hoped that she would step into the shoes of her forefathers and lead the village to stability. But she was drowning in pain. He always thought of her as his daughter and was maybe too lenient on her. The less spoken about his third student, the better. But yet again, the reality was a disappointment. He was awake at this hour, back in his office due to his wayward student.

Even if team Ichigo hadn't found anything worthwhile from the base, he wouldn't have delayed the debrief. He just had to know how far Orochimaru had fallen. The death and misery that he indulged in due to his depravity were partly on Hiruzen's head. If he had only been more forceful, if only he had not held back, Orochimaru would not have the freedom to propagate more pain.

"Team 15, report," he said the moment he took his seat.

"Yes sir. At twenty-three hundred forty-five, we began scouting the perimeter…" he listened on as Ichigo painted a thorough picture of what they had done in the base. It seemed like the base was dedicated to weapon manufacturing. Ichigo had copied all the blueprints for it, and it looked as if they were all esoteric. The part of him that earned the title of The Professor was intrigued by how some of the prototypes specialized in amplifying sound-based attacks. Hiruzen continued to listen without interrupting as Ichigo told him about the various kinds of information he had copied. At the end of his debrief, Ichigo placed a scroll, and a black notebook on the desk and fell back in line with his teammates.

"The storage scroll contains multiple dockets that I copied with the help of my clones, sir. Although, I found something very disturbing while copying it down. I would like to bring that to your attention. I've copied the relevant data into the notebook for ease of reference," said Ichigo.

Hiruzen pondered on what he had heard. If it were a base dedicated to human experiments, then the entire thing would be a disturbing experience. Nonetheless, he would not underestimate Orochimaru's deviancy anymore, so he signaled his Anbu to seal up the room and bar entry to anyone. He then activated the newly placed seals that Ichigo had made and waited a couple of seconds.

"Before you proceed, can this information cause harm to the village?" he asked.

"Yes sir. In fact, even my team is unaware of what I found. I found it prudent to rush as fast as possible and not discuss such sensitive information out in the open," replied Ichigo as his team nodded in agreement.

"Okay. I have sealed the room, and my Anbu will be monitoring the surroundings. Team 15, treat this as an S-rank secret until I tell you otherwise. Now proceed," he said. Some might call it overkill, or him being too hasty. He hadn't yet heard what is to be said, after all. But it never hurt to be cautious. Especially after the fiasco with the Uchiha, he didn't want to take any chances.

"The notebook contains personnel information, I stole from the safe of the person leading the base. I found some alarming points on it, sir. Firstly, many members have been experimented upon. Either some sort of spliced mutation or weaponized prosthetics. The documents themselves didn't have any notes on who performed these experiments, but the leader of the base had made handwritten footnotes in these files. Most of these footnotes mention someone called Kabuto Yakushi as the operating surgeon. I recognize the name, as he took part in my chunin exams. He was a medic if memory serves right. If the Yakushi mentioned in the notes is the same one as the genin from our village, then we have another spy in our midst."

"He took part in my chunin exam too. And yes, he is a medic," noted Yakumo.

"I can corroborate. I've worked with him in the hospital a couple of times," said Hana.

"Oh. Anyway, I know that it is nothing concrete. But it was an odd coincidence to be left alone. Won't hurt taking a closer look at him," finished Ichigo. Hiruzen's mind on the other hand was running through information furiously. When Root was active, Nono Yakushi was an Anbu working there. She then joined the regular forces as a jonin captain in the medical corps, and also took care of the orphanage. He would order a search on this Kabuto to see whether it was just an odd coincidence, or if they had another spy lurking around. It always paid to be careful. The whole Mizuki nonsense sure had kicked up a hornet's nest.

"I'll order an investigation. What else did you find?" he asked.

"Another thing that I found was that most of these personnel files contained an evaluation regarding their suitability for an upcoming invasion. These files didn't mention the exact time and place, but I suspect the target to be our village."

"Your reasoning?" asked Hiruzen while flipping through the pages, checking out the point that Ichigo had mentioned.

"Some of these evaluations mentioned suitability for placement into the genin teams. The weird thing was that most of those in consideration were definitely not genin. I get that villages send ringers to exams. But this one seems odd as it is mentioned in the same breath as an invasion."

Hiruzen hummed in appreciation. That was a useful piece of information. Jiraiya had reported some interesting information about the newly formed Otogakure. They did suspect that Orochimaru had something to do with that village. But it looked like he was more involved than they had previously thought. Especially considering that Oto wanted to send genins to the upcoming exams. Nonetheless, it looked like they would need to start preparing for an invasion. He narrowed his eyes as he realized that Kabuto Yakushi would be a part of this exam as well, as usual. He would plan his counteroffensive once he went through the entire information and tried to dig deeper and see if he could find more.

"Anything else?" he asked Ichigo.

"Yes, Lord Third. The last piece of information I found alarming was the personnel file of one Shin Uchiha," stated Ichigo.

Hiruzen immediately sat straight in alarm as he riffled through the notebook, traversing through the alphabetically ordered personnel files. His blood ran cold as he reached the page containing the necessary information. Apparently, he was not a true Uchiha, just a fanatic enamored with the name. The picture of the man was unsettling. His skin was pale enough to rival Orochimaru's. His right eyelids were held open by multiple stitches, and the eye was another story in itself. The eye was a Sharingan with a pitch-black sclera. On the other hand, his left eye was a normal Sharingan. Another complication was the three Sharingan implanted on top of his head.

The further he read this Shin character's file, the more his head ached. He had multiple Sharingan eyes implanted throughout his body. The answer to why the man didn't pass out due to the sheer chakra drain was because he possessed a genetic makeup that nullified any chance of rejection in case of tissue and organ transplants.

When he reached the part about the right arm, Hiruzen almost cracked his desk. The arm was implanted with multiple Sharingan and then amputated. Orochimaru had then grafted Lord Shodai's cells onto it. Such disrespect. Merely thinking about it infuriated him on multiple fronts. To top it all off, the arm was now seemingly stitched onto Danzo's body.

His first reaction was to write the thing off as a forgery. It seemed so out there, that he initially refused to believe it. Then he seriously thought about it. What if it was true? He really didn't want to think of that scenario. In the end, the job was all about making tough decisions for the betterment of the village. He mentally began listing the ramifications of this information.

The most pressing issue was Danzo's apparent collaboration with Orochimaru. He knew that Orochimaru and Danzo worked together before Orochimaru turned traitor, but he couldn't fathom Danzo working with him after he turned traitor. The man was fanatical about the village to an unhealthy degree. So why would he work with a known traitor? But then again, Danzo's view of the world was askew. What everyone saw as reprehensible experiments would have been something that Danzo saw as developing powerful weapons for the village.

His old friend had once tried to assassinate Hiruzen himself for the good of the village. At that time, he had let him off with a warning and a promise. Another mistake, it seemed like. In his old age, he had become too forgiving.

If the arm was real, and if word got out about it, the clans would rebel. The Hyuga would then ask him what was to stop him from having a new left hand full of Byakugan eyes. They already were a pain with their thrice-damned cursed bird seal. Although, this might light a fire under them to remove the slavery part of the seal and let everyone in the clan wear a seal to protect their eyes. He was not counting on his fellow old fogies to make a sane decision though. They would most definitely be up in arms the moment they hear about Danzo's arm.

Now, on retrospection with this new information in hand, it did seem like the entire reason the Uchiha fiasco happened was for Danzo to get his hands on the dojutsu. Shisui would have stopped the clan from rebelling, but Hiruzen always suspected that Danzo had killed the boy to remove that option. He had taken things into his own hands and driven Itachi into committing the massacre when Hiruzen himself wanted a diplomatic resolution. Now though, he thought of the possibility of Danzo taking Shisui's eye for himself. Nobody had seen beneath those bandages for years after all.

After the Uchiha fiasco, the Root division was disbanded by Hiruzen, but Hiruzen still suspected that his old friend had kept the thing active. Why hadn't he ever truly put Danzo under intense scrutiny? He wondered whether it was sentimentality, incompetence on his end, or was it something else. Could he have been affected by the Kotoamatsukami? Was it why he was still hesitating? He took a deep breath and looked at the file once more.

Moreover, if Danzo was involved with Orochimaru, he might even be a part of the invasion. If the invasion's main purpose was to assassinate him and place Danzo as the Hokage, then Danzo would definitely see that as an acceptable sacrifice, as long as the village came out strong in the end. He couldn't dawdle about this any longer. The situation could be dire, and he needed to make a decision.

This could easily be a forgery, but at the same time, it could also be real. He needed concrete proof. He looked up and decided on his course of action. Ichigo had been asking him for this since forever, but he had let it go because he trusted his friend. Right at this moment though, he needed to think less like a friend, and more like a kage. He could be compromised, so he couldn't trust his judgment anymore when it came to Danzo. Instead, he would trust his other comrades who have yet to betray his trust. Once again, he needed concrete proof. Proof, that he would get one way or the other.

"Sai, step forward," he said. The tokubetsu jonin complied without a word and stood in front of Hiruzen, "Young man, tell me. What are you loyal to?"

"To the village, to the mission, Lord Third," Sai said without missing a beat. Hiruzen chuckled in response and nodded.

"So, if I were to give you a mission that is detrimental to the village, you would not take it. Am I correct?"

"Yes sir," said Sai without hesitation.

"Now, what if your commanding officer has been collaborating with traitors and is causing harm to the village? What would you do then?" Hiruzen asked.

That question seemed to stump the young man. Hiruzen observed that Sai seemed to be struggling with the answer. In the end, though, he made up his mind and answered.

"I will do whatever is required of me to ensure that Konoha is safe," he said, with a tone of finality in his voice.

"Perfect," Hiruzen said as he slid the notebook towards Sai, "Take a look at this. Go over the points Ichigo mentioned about the invasion and this Shin Uchiha."

He waited as Sai read through the information, realization drawing upon the young man's face at last.

"As you have realized, we are going to be under attack. There are known collaborators of the traitor within the village. I can't act openly against some of them unless I have concrete proof. Some of this information is outlandish enough for me to wait for proof. Will you give me the information I require? Will you help me protect this village from those that seek to harm it for their own goals? Will you protect the leaf?"

"I am willing. Yet, I can't disclose the information you seek, Lord Third," Sai said and then brandished his tongue, displaying the cursed seal that Danzo placed on his soldiers.

Hiruzen nodded in response and looked at Ichigo, who seemed to have caught on to what was to be done.

"Do it. Make sure that it doesn't alert him," he ordered.

"Finally," Ichigo said exuberantly as he clapped the shoulder of his comrade. He then summoned his fuinjutsu supplies and got to work.

Hiruzen looked on as his mind began plotting the operations that his soldiers would need to undertake concerning the new information. It was going to be a busy few weeks. First and foremost, he would need to summon Jiraiya post haste. Maybe, after all this hullaballoo died down, Jiraiya would finally spend some time with young Naruto.

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A.N: I'll say this now, I am not going to bring in any other elements from Boruto. Mainly because I couldn't stand it after watching a few episodes, and have no plans to go further than that. I only included Shin because that plotline was featured in "The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring" which was released by Kishimoto way before Boruto was released. Hence, I am fairly familiar with that specific plotline. Moreover, this provided me a way to subtly implicate Danzo, rather than have a full-blown file on him.

Also, please do keep in mind that the files that Ichigo handed over are handwritten copies made by Ichigo. Make of that what you will.

The timeline for Shin's defection from Orochimaru wasn't clear, so over here, he still hasn't made his clones yet. Also, he isn't going to play any major part in this fic apart from this small hook, I'll be upfront about that.

Another point to note is that Ao was only able to deduct that Kotoamatsukami was being used because he saw the chakra flowing into Danzo's eye and that it was the same color as Shisui's. He was able to deduct, not detect. Apparently, it was already known that Shisui could get into people's minds and manipulate them. It was stated as such during that scene.

Anyway, I leave it up to your imagination whether Hiruzen did get hit by subtle orders or not. Danzo couldn't and didn't go for a full-on change because that would be noticeable to everyone, and would bring heat upon him. Whether he did influence Hiruzen, or whether it was Hiruzen's sentimentality or senility that lead to Danzo running rampant is up to you. Either way, the result is the same.

I am going on a business trip next month, and won't be able to write much. I'll update Six Paths of Harry Potter before I leave, but both the stories will be delayed while I'm gone.

If you want to talk to me on discord, please find the invite in the auxiliary chapter.