Chương 22: Watched.

The second all of the chakra escaped from Haruto's control and his focus stopped being fully on the chakra in his palms, his senses registered something else. The Chakra that had floated away was still under his senses. He could feel it exactly as it floated away and rode the currents of the room, making a mental map of the world around him. Although that sense was fast fading as the chakra went out of range and was diffused even further, Haruto managed to glean some insight.

'So sensing works like this?'

'... I can currently sense about four meters around me clearly before the chakra floats out of range…' Haruto noted after opening his eyes and matching the rough range of his new extra sensory perception with his sight.

'How does one increase their sensing range then?'

'Is it also with better chakra control?' Haruto looked at the pile of sand and gravel on his table and sighed audibly.

'... no use forcing this then…'

'I guess I have to start from the beginning.' Haruto picked up the basic chakra textbook and walked back to the kitchen on the second floor where fresh ingredients were stocked before making himself a quick meal and settling in on the table to have some food for the night. Before focusing on the textbook once again, Haruto's thoughts wandered.

'Why did White Zetsu attack me that day…'

'Did I already do something that is against Black Zetsu's plans?'

'Does it have a way to detect that I'm an abnormal entity in this world and that I shouldn't exist?'

'No… nothing in the anime indicates Black Zetsu having such abilities…'

'But then why did it send a White Zetsu to attack me?'

'Did someone travel back to the past like the Otsutsuki and inform Black Zetsu that I grew up into an unsolvable threat?' Haruto frowned, unable to think of a simpler reason since his creative intelligence was working against him, giving him all sorts of hyper imaginative scenarios making him miss the basics.

'Hmm… if Black Zetsu truly wanted me dead he would've sent Obito after me right? Simply teleport into my room and stab me with a kunai, or even just whisk me away into the Kamui dimension inside Obito's Sharingan?'

'Kakashi told me that an Uchiha attacked him, that has to be Obito… so Obito used himself as a diversion to get Kakashi away from the fight so that White Zetsu could kill me?'

'Why not just directly teleport to me and finish me off? Maybe because he didn't want to show his ability to enter and exit Konoha undetected?'

'Hmm… but what about when no one's watching me now? He can kill me off now, can he not?' Haruto suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

'But if Obito doesn't simply teleport into the room and kill me that means he is afraid of his ability being leaked… which means that I'm being watched!!!!!'

'Who's watching me? ANBU or ROOT?'

'And why?'

'... are they afraid that I planned the attack on Kakashi with the Uchiha?'

'But then why don't they just read my memories and be done with it? Why not just send me to the I. T department to get all the information from me? Why send precious ANBU or ROOT members to watch over me?'

'Unless… I have some value for them in some way?' Haruto frowned, deep in thought.

'What value could I have for them?' Haruto thought back to the things that had happened in the past few weeks and an idea suddenly sprouted in his mind.

'Did my 'I have a dream' speech work as talk-no-jutsu for Hiruzen?'

'Did he really believe my bullshit? To such an extent that he sent ANBU to support me?' Haruto looked out of the window as he ate his ramen.

'Are they watching me right now?'

'This means, I can't train too much without revealing my strength… if I do that I risk being sent on missions where Obito might show up again and kill me for whatever reason he wants to get rid of me.'

'Or can I?'

'They don't know that I know the Shadow Clone Jutsu yet… which means that I can perform a switch out in the bathroom and send my clone back to bed while I leave my house and go train in the forbidden forest or something before coming back and meeting up with the clone in the morning…'

'Or even better! I can send the clone out to train for me during the night before it dissipates and gives me all the knowledge it has gathered in secret.'

'That way I can keep gathering power in secret while I find ways to serve the Dark God and complete the Templates he sends my way to grow even stronger…' Haruto's eyes gleamed slightly. He looked back up at the window and peered outside at the trees. There were ANBU or ROOT shinobi hiding in there that he didn't know about but he stayed calm and collected before standing up and going to the sink to wash his dishes and take a good night's sleep. Tomorrow was a new day and he would be joining the R&D department.

He was excited to see how many new jutsu he could access there and soon fell asleep in the comfort of his new fluffy bed.

"What? The boy survived!?" Obito asked with all the rage shimmering in his eyes.

"How!?"

"Apparently the boy stuffed explosive tags down White Zetsu's throat and exploded his body, Obito-sama." Black Zetsu spoke softly with a bowed head.

"Call me Madara! Did they get the body? Do they know it was White Zetsu that attacked the boy?"

"No Madara-sama… luckily White Zetsu's body was completely destroyed in the explosion and the resultant fire…"

"I see… what about the Uchiha then? Did the village still blame them?"

"Yes, Madara-sama… the village still blames the Uchiha for the attack but they've denied any involvement as always…"

"Did Hiruzen not punish them?"

"He tightened the ANBU keeping a watch on the Uchiha Compound but did nothing else Madara-sama…"

"Damn it! That damn Hiruzen! Why is he so spineless! He keeps spouting the Will of Fire all the time and now that a comrade of his village is hurt all he does is tighten the watch on the Uchiha? Where's the will of fire in that?" Black Zetsu remained silent. Ever since awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan Obito had become impulsive and prone to anger easily. All he could do during those times was remain silent and offer his silent support like a newly wed couple.

'If these damn temperamental Uchiha were not necessary for the plan to resurrect mother. I would've wiped them off the face of the Shinobi world by now… damn Uchiha!'

"Izuna-sama… why would the Uchiha attack Haruto-kun?" Kushina asked Izuna innocently. Izuna himself looked puzzled. After Kakashi had told Haruto that an Uchiha had attacked him, everyone had had the same question since then. What beef did the Uchiha have with Haruto?

"Perhaps the Uchiha wanted to regain Kakashi's Sharingan that Obito had gifted him and all this was a ploy to trap Kakashi?" Minato offered, unconvinced by his own explanation. Sakumo shook his head, "That can't be the case, if that were true they wouldn't have sent someone to kill Haruto-kun after the fighting between Kakashi and his enemy was dragged away to another location."

"Perhaps those Uchiha that betrayed big brother and didn't follow him when he left the village know that Haruto-kun is working with big brother and they want to kill him because of that?" Izuna offered.