章 68: Chapter 83
"So you're telling me that I look like Hamura Otsutsuki ."
"Yeah, except your hair is more red. And no spikes on your head."
Haru sighed internally. "And you learned English from the Otsutsuki twins. I don't suppose you could tell me why the Sage of Six Paths and his brother know a language from a different world?"
"No?" Isobu shrugged internally. "It might have something to do with their mother maybe?"
A groan tumbled out of Haru's mouth, startling the confused shopkeeper he was standing in front of.
Offended, the middle aged man spat out, "Is there something wrong with my fruit?"
"No. I'm going to leave now." Haru backed away rapidly, chastising himself for not being more careful when talking to Isobu in public.
The new jinchuriki was currently exploring the town of Tanzaku, the seediest hole in the entire of Fire Country. It wasn't a dump but it definitely wasn't somewhere you wanted to raise your kids. Haru was putting good money on a certain woman being inside one of the myriad gambling dens that surrounded him.
A pair of attractive women in loose kimonos whispered as he passed by them on the street. Being thirteen was a curse, Haru remarked to himself as he stole glances from under his hood.
Seeing a distracted outsider, a dirty street urchin bumped into the coated boy. Instead of finding a wallet however, the adolescent girl in rags was tripped and slammed into the ground with the boy's hand around her throat. She coughed and groaned in pain.
"I'm not in a good mood right now. Please leave me alone," Haru spoke gently as he rose from a kneeling position and began to walk away.
"Yeah, just fucking walk away… asshole…" the girl sputtered from the ground.
Ino Yamanaka stood before the Sandaime in the Hokage's office. Next to the Sandaime was an old man with bandages covering his arm and one of his eyes. Behind her was her father who was standing at attention.
Sarutobi cleared his throat and spoke, "Yamanaka Ino, please describe your relation to the missing nin Haru."
Ino could not meet the Hokage's eyes. "He was my friend, Hokage-sama."
The man next to the Hokage grunted and asked, "Is it true that he taught you some kind of language or code that is not part of Konoha's standard communication protocols?"
Ino looked to her father, who nodded in encouragement.
"I guess so. It didn't seem like anything suspicious. It was just something to do during class in the academy. I thought it was interesting," she shrugged. Judging from the faces of the old men, she didn't think that she was being implicated in anything regarding her ex-friend.
Sarutobi groaned and cleared his throat, "Ino-chan, what I am about to explain to you is an S-class secret and must not leave this room. Do you understand that against your honor as a shinobi of Konoha, you must not repeat what you are told here tonight?"
The two elderly men peered at the girl sitting nervously with her father standing at attention behind her. Ino's mouth twitched before she answered confidently, "Yes, Hokage-sama."
Sarutobi's face did not lighten at her answer. He merely explained, "This regards your young friend Haru. Since he was young, Inoichi and I have suspected that there was something unusual about the boy. Reports from the orphanage he grew up in and several shinobi who…"encountered" him in their duties mentioned that Haru was ingratiating himself with an important and impressionable village asset. Fearing that he might be an enemy infiltrator, I ordered Inoichi to examine Haru's mind for any signs of foul play. What he found was much stranger than anything we expected.
"Apparently Haru has had visions of an apocalyptic future in which all of Konoha, nay all of the elemental countries, are destroyed or enslaved by immensely powerful forces. Haru himself seems to be aware of some of the events fortold in his memories, however it was unclear from the mental probing where this foreknowledge comes from. As you know with memories this deep, it is possible he is only able to access these memories through dreams or in fragments.
"It might be possible that Haru's visions were merely the product of a deranged mind, if only they did not match an ancient prophecy handed down to us from the eldest shinobi toads. It speaks of the end of the world at the base of the great tree. Unable to ignore this terrible portent, regrettably, I ordered Shimura Danzo, this man, to abduct and investigate Haru.
"A series of events occurred in which Danzo-san received an eyeball from Haru which granted him a limited ability to see future events, collaborating the prophetic visions we received from the boy's mind and proving that Haru maybe be the child of the prophecy who is destined to either save or destroy this world. Except for the fact that Haru has claimed another boy to be the child of the prophecy."
Danzo's eyebrows furrowed and he coughed into his hand. "With that foreknowledge, I sought to dissuade the traitor Orochimaru from murdering the Hokage and instead convinced him to join forces with Konoha to fight this coming enemy."
Sarutobi continued, "Currently, Haru is acting on my orders to accomplish what he feels is necessary to prevent calamity from befalling us all. His current status as a missing-nin is simply a cover to allow him to move freely throughout the elemental countries."
Danzo stood up and placed his hand on the Hokage's desk to steady himself. "Despite having the ear of the Hokage, that boy has chosen to keep secret the exact details of his plan, simply stating that he has left you, Ino dear, everything that you need to know."
Inoichi handed Ino the notebook that Haku had delivered to her from Haru. "Ino…"
The Hokage then asked the confused blonde girl, "Yamanaka Ino, for the good of the village, will you please tell us what message Haru has left for you?"
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