"More and more of these reports..."
Hiruzen Sarutobi groaned audibly. For the past few days, he'd been dealing with the allegations that the Hidden Rock had been developing massively powerful weapons far beyond the reach of any ninjutsu. Details about these weapons were scarce, but the stories of whole forests and mountains razed to the ground in an instant were unsettling enough as is. He supposed this was more Danzo's area, but felt this was something he had to deal with personally, as a leader. Besides, a small group of Iwagakure scientists was hardly a huge threat. Tracing the actions of Orochimaru was more important for the moment. As the Hokage was lost in thought about his former student, there was a knock on the door of his office.
A voice rang through. "Mitarashi here to see you, my lord."
He sighed. "Is it important?"
"She demands to be seen immediately, Lord Third. And won't speak to anyone but you."
He steeled himself for whatever she might be bringing. Another Jonin dead, maybe? God, that was all he needed.
"Send her in."
She practically exploded through the door. Her clothes were filthy and she was sweating profusely. She looked both terribly excited and panicked at the same time. Sarutobi glared at her for a moment before motioning to a chair opposite his desk. She took a few seconds to compose herself before sitting down.
"Anko Mitarashi," He said, rather formally. "You're back from your mission in the Land of Grass Already?"
She took a deep breath. "Yes sir. the mission event exactly as planned, except there's been a discovery."
The Third shifted, his interest piqued. "A discovery?" He asked.
Anko nodded frantically. "A person- A boy- A ninja, that is. A-A boy from the Hidden Rock. We found him unconscious in a field, he had been knocked out. He also had a letter on him, Lord Third."
He stood, and began to pace backwards and forwards behind his desk. "So you're telling me," he began, raising his voice slightly. "That, during this time of political strain between our nations, you insisted on taking a prisoner from the Hidden Rock, rather than returning him home, or simply leaving him there? What's gotten into you?" He was becoming angry with the Jonin. "I've told you before about making decisions like this. You have to look at this big picture."
But Anko was shaking her head. He produced a small piece of paper from her jacket. "Before you accuse of taking a prisoner, sir... I think you ought to take a look at this." The Third unfolded the letter. The handwriting exceptionally neat, but the letter appeared rushed. Anko explained. "We found it on the boy and decided to bring him in. He's currently regaining consciousness downstairs. Please, just read the letter." Begrudgingly, he began.
"To whom it may concern,
If you are reading this, it means you've found our little accident. Our mistake. The boy was nothing. No more than an annoyance. Until we found the thing he has. It's a Kekkei Tota, but none of us really understand it. It's driving me mad and it's about time I confessed.
I'm from Iwagakure and I'm the scientist heading up the high-tech rocket research program. Sometimes we use prisoners to assemble the rockets and missiles we design. The kid was one of those prisoners, but when he finished building his first missile, he made the damn thing move. No launcher, no catapult, nothing. We decided we had to investigate him for science, so we had him build another. This time, it didn't just move, it fired. Plus, it near blew a hole in the side of the testing room, and he wasn't even scratched. The thing is, with the kid making it fire, the power of the explosion was ten times what we engineered it to be.
So, rather stupidly, we decided we could use him as a weapon. For a test, we told him to work his magic on the (REDACTED) Rocket.
Sarutobi glanced over the rest of the paragraph. It was just a mess of black ink, indicating redacted data. In other words. Information too awful to see. Only the final lines of the letter were still readable.
"I still blame myself. I still have the nightmares.
We just couldn't kill him. His gift, it's too rare. But we don't want him. If you find him, good luck to you. And DO NOT let him near explosives."
Takumi Kobayashi, Iwagakure Explosive Research Division
At the bottom was the Tsuchikage's seal of approval. The Third Hokage sighed. "They were building Missiles, eh? Highly experimental technology, highly dangerous... but this boy. Take me to him, Anko. I'm very interested in what he has to say for himself."