Chương 125: An Offer You Can't Refuse.

Haruto stood once again in the position of an unwanted spy, this time in the Hokage office, looking at Danzo's request for Itachi with a frown on his face. He'd put his real body to sleep and exited it after some thought to go and check out what Danzo was doing. And apparently he was right to do so.

'So Danzo wants to kidnap me and Itachi as weaknesses for Kakashi and Fugaku?'

'But what does Shikaku want from this?'

'Does he want us to kill Danzo or something? Taking him by surprise since we're implanted with the cursed tongue eradication seal?'

'Damn… having Leglimency would be so helpful right now…'

'But which yamanaka can I contact to invade my mind and resist it without exposing myself?'

'If I steal Tsunade's body and go to some Yamanaka and claim that I want him to peek into my mind and then stop him, will that finish the quest Grindelwald?'

'Sure… as long as it's your mind that he's peeking into.' Grindelwald shrugged after a short pause since the plan was so strange. But Haruto still sighed.

'If only it were so easy… where do I find a Yamanaka for this? Do I go ask Shikaku to set up a meeting between me and some Yamanaka? It's not like he'll listen to me since Tsunade will be right there floating in my face and screaming at me to give me her body back.' Grindelwald smiled secretly at this but no one noticed it except Unohana who simply whispered, "You're being so troublesome."

"He just needs to think a little harder." Grindelwald responded kindly and Unohana nodded. Haruto watched as Danzo branded Itachi with the Cursed Tongue Eradication seal and sent him away with some ROOT agents before sighing softly.

'Itachi showed the same expression as Shikaku, like he was in pain. He hid it well but if you know what you're looking for you can see he was just pretending to be under Danzo's control.' Haruto floated away from Danzo after that since there was nothing more for him to do here.

'I wonder what my clone is doing… why hasn't he finished the research for today yet?'

A few hours ago, Haruto's clone stopped in the forest of death with eager eyes.

'Since I don't have a soul… I can only capture a few subjects to perform the necessary experiments.'

'This place should have plenty of them.' Haruto's clone had already transformed into a different person totally using the transformation jutsu and it looked so flawless that instead of a stumbling young boy, stood a brash bald looking old man with various tattoos chewing a stalk as if he were some gangster. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

This was to prevent anyone from recognising him even if they spotted him, for example if there were sensors in the forest of death or the ANBU performing patrols to check if someone had infiltrated Konoha through it.

'Alright! First priority… catching something good without dying.' Haruto's clone climbed a tall tree and began to scout the area for caves. If he didn't find any caves he would simply go to the next tree and search from there. Only-'Wait a second… is that… a Zetsu?' Haruto's clone's eyes widened. The white zetsu hadn't noticed him yet it seemed, but Haruto had noticed the obvious white bodied creature searching around the area for something.

'What is he looking for?'

'... I can't go closer… or he'll notice me… do I just inform the main body?'

'... no the main body is probably in the interrogation and Torture Department right now… popping myself will be useless… I better watch the white zetsu closely until I know that the main body is free… the Chimera Jutsu Experiments will have to wait…' So Haruto's clone used the transformation jutsu once again and turned into the tree bark behind it to pretend to be a part of the tree and make it very hard for anyone to notice him.

White Zetsu soon began moving around the base of the forest and Haruto continued to follow it from the top of the trees. He moved slowly to not be noticed and whenever White Zetsu looked in a different direction, the clone would rapidly close the distance.

'It feels like a game of red light, green light…' Eventually, the White Zetsu stopped in front of a random rock on the ground and smiled eerily. Haruto stopped too and paid close attention to what it was doing. The White Zetsu quickly lifted the rock and climbed into the space underneath it.

'There's a secret tunnel underneath that rock? Where does it lead to?' Luckily the White Zetsu had left the rock behind itself open, allowing Haruto to get a full view into the tunnel. However, since it was a little dark inside the tunnel, he failed to clearly observe whatever was inside it.

'Should I go closer?' The clone debated only for a few seconds before it was forced to abandon the idea completely.

'Hiss!!! Orochimaru!!! What's he doing back in the village?' Raising his hands at odd angles, the already transformed clone pretended to be a tree branch barely evading detection as Orochimaru scanned the area before closing the rock behind him as he returned inside the tunnel. The clone carefully moved closer to the rock, hanging from a tree right above it as it carefully observed it for any signs that might have told the White Zetsu that it was a special rock.

'Hmmm…. The zetsu was looking over here somewhere… aha! There's a snake etched into the rock here!' Haruto quickly went back a few trees away and stood there patiently like a tree branch.

'I'll keep track of them for now… and when I have the chance… I'll investigate just what Orochimaru is doing here.'

'Could he be resurrecting Madara here?'

'... no Black Zetsu wouldn't just casually hand over the body to Orochimaru without supervision… and a White Zetsu definitely wouldn't qualify as supervision.'

'Could he be after Itachi already?'

'... whatever… let's wait and watch.' Time slowly passed and soon it was deep into the night.

'They've not come outside for so long!!! Are they baking a cake in there or something?!?'

'The main body should've become free now right?'

'I'll dispel then-' Only as soon as the clone was about to dispel itself by stabbing itself in the thigh a sharp pointed object was placed at its throat.

"Move and you're dead." The clone dared not to move, but inside its mind it was already cheering!

'While the cake was a lie… Who would've thought I'd get the opportunity to chit-chat with Orochimaru and ask him a few questions so… intimately.'

"Tell me… who are you… I'm quite interested in how you found this place." Orochimaru ordered. The clone said nothing for a few seconds until Orochimaru pressed the kunai deeper causing it to suddenly become a blabber mouth–"I was simply lost on the way of life when I noticed a shinobi I did not recognise in the forest of death… I simply followed it and here I am…"

"Who're you?" The clone pretended to release the transformation jutsu, creating a lot of smoke in the process before transforming into someone else, someone very recognizable.

"Kakashi of the sharingan…" Orochimaru whispered with distaste.

"Could you put that blade away Orochimaru-sama… I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse."

"Ho…" the blade went away and Orochimaru spoke kindly, "Given your reputation… I'll at least hear you out… so speak… hiss…"

'Kakashi' turned around and spoke boldly, "I know about the cursed seal that you placed on Anko… I know what it does to your soul…" Orochimaru's face morphed into a frown, it seemed just about everyone nowadays seemed to have access to his greatest secrets, he was about to say something in retaliation but Kakashi beat him to it.

"I can fix it for you… but at a price of course…"