Chương 18: I Spy, You Spy, We All Play Spy Spy.

"So he 'was' a spy after all!!!" Tobirama grunted animatedly.

"How do you know that Lord Second?" Kushina asked softly since she was more worried about Haruto bleeding out in his room from the explosion that had just occurred.

"He hid the evidence of an enemy shinobi entering his house and attacking him. Why would he do that if he had nothing to hide. He likely recognised the enemy shinobi as his friend from whichever village he's from and didn't want him to be interrogated or have his memories read."

".... I don't think so Tobi." Mito suddenly interrupted Tobirama's insights.

"Hmm…?" Tobirama looked confused for a second, looking at Mito, asking her to continue explaining what she'd noticed.

"While I agree the boy recognised the enemy. I don't think he hid it because of his ties to the enemy. But because the boy's afraid of Danzo… after all, the boy clearly said he was afraid that Danzo would get the body and all hell would break loose. Why would he be afraid of Danzo and not the I. T department where he works?"

"Danzo was on my team. I remember the kid well. He was devoted well to the Will of the Fire and to the betterment of the village. There can't possibly have been anything wrong with him. Clearly the kid's a spy! Haruto clearly didn't want some information that the enemy had to fall into the hands of the village." Mito shook her head at that point.

"Danzo had changed when I was still alive, Tobirama. I suspect he was involved in the fall of Uzushiogakure." At those words, silence fell in the enigmatic room. Kushina's fist balled in anger while Hashirama's muscles groaned like anchor chains pulled taut. With the topic having been brought up again after it was ignored several times before, Hashirama didn't want to let the matter go anymore, so he quickly asked his question, "What happened Mito?" Mito looked at Kushina and then sighed openly.

She walked up to the sofa in the room and sat down on one end before finally explaining her sudden accusation.

"Uzushiogakure was a small country. They didn't have a Daimyo overseeing them and only had a shinobi village. This gave them unprecedented freedom in carrying out their business without the restrictions that the other shinobi villages face, like taxes. Uzhushiogakure was growing to become a wealthy and prosperous village despite its small size." Kushina nodded, "I remember several merchants visiting the village daily.

Since we were an island nation we traded heavily and most of our daily goods came from outside the village. As I grew up, I remember the village's trade growing to include new spices, clothing fabrics and even certain technological items."

"As Kushina said… Uzushiogakure was prosperring… but it was because of this that it came under the radar of the five great villages and the Daimyo's of the various countries that didn't want to see it progress. But there was a problem. The Uzumaki clan were masters of sealing techniques. Their barriers were top notch and with their several kekkai genkai they could easily detect intruders inside their village who had bad intentions and weed them out."

"Then how did they fall?" Hashirama stressed, pain in his voice. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Tobirama too looked on with a confused gaze. Mito sighed and continued.

"A month before the sudden war on the Uzumaki was declared, Danzo visited the Uzumaki with his entourage of ANBU shinobi. It was just a routine visit to show Konoha's strong ties with the village, but I suspect that Danzo tampered with the seals during that visit."

"Tampered with the seals? What makes you say that?" Tobirama asked boldly.

"When the war on Uzushiogakure was declared, I remember them asking Konoha for help. I was a part of that meeting. We had all expected Uzushiogakure to hold out for about three months on their own given their advanced sealing barriers. It was the time Konoha would take to gather enough troops to go support their friends." Mito took a deep breath in and exhaled at that moment as her eyes turned firm before she spoke in a harsh tone.

"However, before Konoha could gather its troops, we learnt in the better half of a month that Uzushiogakure had collapsed under a joint assault of the four other Great Shinobi villages." Everyone in the room was shocked while Kushina was teary eyed. Tobirama quickly calmed down before he pressed his question further, "That still doesn't prove that Danzo did anything. Did you sense his malice through the Mind's Eye of Kagura technique?"

Mito nodded her head, "There are three pieces of evidence I have for blaming Danzo's involvement in this scenario."

"Oh? What are they, Mito?" Hashirama asked softly, noticing the anger with which his wife spat Danzo's name.

"Firstly, before Danzo left for Uzushiogakure he'd asked for me to visit the village with him and convince the village to lend us a talented Uzumaki child to become the next Jinchuriki. I was against this idea since I believed that a good jinchuriki could only come from the village they were in, one that had made bonds in the village to balance the hatred with love. So I rejected him. That was the first time I sensed malice in him."

"Secondly, when it was turn for Konoha to gather forces to send to defend Uzushiogakure, Danzo was the strongest proponent against the principle of supporting our closest friends. That was the second time I sensed malice within him."

"Thirdly, but most importantly of all, when Kushina escaped the imminent destruction of her clan and first came to Konoha, she told me about something that she didn't realise was very important."

"Important? I did?" Kushina asked, slightly puzzled. Mito nodded, "Yes, Kushina told me that the village was looking forward to important talks with the other villages soon regarding sealing matters." Tobirama's eyes instantly widened.

"No way… so that's why…"

"Yes, I suspect Uzushiogakure was going to offer their services in sealing the tailed beasts properly into their jinchurikis to the Great Shinobi Villages. This would have been done to increase their ties with the other villages and give them a strong position of negotiation to keep their safety with the other villages."

"I suspected that Danzo learned of this during his visit and decided that it would strengthen the other villages too much and hence he decided to betray Uzushiogakure's long developed friendship with Konoha."

"And when I brought this matter up with Danzo, he vehemently denied it, but I felt the strongest wave of malice from him in this regard." Everyone in the room sighed with disappointment. Tobirama placed his hand on Kushina's shoulder before apologising on Danzo's behalf, "I'm sorry my student brought you the pain of losing your loved ones." Kushina shook her head.

"It's alright Lord Second. My anger is directed towards Danzo, not towards you." There was silence for a while in which Hashirama tried to open his mouth to say something comforting to Mito but he simply sighed and sat down beside her.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't there when you needed me the most." Hashirama said with his head hung in shame. Mito chuckled and brushed his hair before shaking her head too.

"It's alright. I had other bonds in the village to keep me strong. And Kushina had survived that hellish assault, so as long as our lineage is still alive there's hope for the future." A harmonious atmosphere suddenly took over the room and even Izuna found himself being swept by it, but it didn't last long.

"So Danzo's bad… yet that doesn't prove that Haruto's not a spy. In fact such knowledge should be highly confidential, yet he seems to know that Danzo is not a good person. Clearly he's not ordinary, he's a spy. Why else would he destroy a perfectly good spy's body?" Tobirama asked again.