Suspicions

In the late hours of midnight, a man in his office smoked from his pipe while reading through documents. The man looked old yet strong. The man is the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

As he scanned through the pile of papers, he suddenly looked at the door, feeling two fast-approaching chakra. Seconds later, two figures suddenly appeared in front of Hiruzen, kneeling down and greeting the Hokage, "Lord Third."

Hiruzen huffed out smoke and asked, "What is it, you two? What could you be doing this late at night?"

Without wasting a single second, Minato quickly answered, "It's an urgent report, Lord Third."

Intrigued, Hiruzen asked for Minato to continue, "Hmm? What is it?"

"As we were heading home, we suddenly felt chakra deep inside the forest near the outskirts of Konoha. We investigated and found three dead Chunin ninjas. I have confirmed their names to be: Guriki, a 17-year-old male; Susato, an 18-year-old male; and Onanaba, a 17-year-old."

Hiruzen's face took on a shocked appearance, which quickly went away as he asked Minato, "Do we know the cause? Were any other villages involved?"

Hiruzen had stowed great trust in Minato, as he is one of the most promising prodigies in the Leaf Village with a trusting personality. Not only is he the disciple of Jiraiya, he has also learned the Flying Raijin of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.

However, even with all the achievements he has at such a young age, Hiruzen views him as the most promising Hokage candidate and the most trusted subordinate because he holds and understands the 'Will of Fire' better than anyone else.

Minato paused a bit and answered Hiruzen, "I don't believe other villages were involved. We would have been informed by the Yamanaka clan if there were really outsiders in this incident."

"Then what do you propose?" asked Hiruzen.

"Well… There have been missing reports in the outskirts of the village, and I believe this might be connected to it."

"I see… Inform Fugaku about it. You may leave now."

Even with the order of Hiruzen, the two just looked at each other and remained in the same place. Hiruzen looked confused, but then Minato began to speak,

"Lord Third… We might be dealing with something bigger here. The three Chunin I have talked about died without putting up a fight, they haven't even fought in taijutsu, meaning they all died in one go…"

"Hmmm, that is quite troublesome…"

Minato continued and took out a scroll from his back and summoned a corpse, "That's not all. One of the bodies we found died in a strange way, specifically the body of Guriki. The body has ten holes and… In those holes, we found splinters and some parts of wood that have been destroyed."

Hiruzen analyzed the body and confirmed what Minato said. Once he saw the broken parts of the wood, Hiruzen quickly stood up and banged his desk and yelled,

"Minato, you stay here, while Kushina and Anbu, go inform the elders!"

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Half an hour later

In a well-lit room sat four people and one standing. The four people sitting down were the Konoha elders and the Hokage: Koharu Utatane, Homura Mitokado, Fugaku Uchiha, and Hiruzen Sarutobi. Finally, the one standing was an Elite Jonin of Konoha, Minato Namikaze.

"What is it, Hiruzen? What is so important that you would call the elders at such an ungodly hour?" asked Koharu Utatane.

With a stern face, Hiruzen answered, "There has been an incident at the outskirts of Konoha… But before that… Where is Danzo?" Hiruzen looked at Minato, trying to find an answer.

Minato quickly answered, "We could not find him, Lord Third. He wasn't at his house."

Hiruzen frowned and thought, 'Don't tell me…'

The two elders, Koharu and Homura, stiffened as they heard Minato's answer. Hiruzen and the two elders were students of Tobirama, and knew each other quite well. They knew the nature of Danzo, and how far he would go to achieve what he thinks is right.

Hiruzen merely sighed and started the meeting, "We'll have to start without him, as this is an important matter."

And so the meeting began, with Minato explaining the details to the elders.

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In a dark room, filled with tanks that had people in them, a man could be found laying down on the singular bed covered in fresh and old blood.

The man was holding his white left arm. The arm did not look natural with his body, as he had tanned skin, while his left arm was white as snow. On his arm, thick tree branches spewed out covered in blood.

The man screamed and screamed, while two men watched him. One was holding a paper, recording what was happening, the second one was holding his right arm that looked similar to the man lying down.

"Did it work?" asked Danzo.

Orochimaru, with a smile, licked his lips and answered, "It did not work as intended, but it did work, I suppose…"

Danzo, getting his answer, looked at Donji who was still groaning in pain. Orochimaru noticed this and told Danzo, "You should have something like this too, but weaker. Since you wanted Donji to be used as an experiment."

"Hmph," snorted Danzo.

Orochimaru, amused, smiled and said, "By the way, you will need to seal your arms. It would be quite easy to sense that your arm has Hashirama's cells."

"Do you have a seal?"

"Yes, I do."

"Then fix him up and get the seal."

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Sorry guys, I had finals and I was getting ready for it. I'll make it up with 3 chapters for today. I wanted to do 5 but I ended up leaving the house for a couple of hours and did not have the time, because I got lazy when I got home.

Questions of the day:

What era in Naruto would you like to live in?

What region/village would you live in, in the era you chose?