"You smell like Yashamaru, before he," Gaara was shaking a bit before looking straight at you. "Die!" He yelled and launched his sand at you.
You threw yourself over the ledge before the sand could grab you, dealing with the fall damage was better than being crushed.
But you didn't fall far before your right leg was being yanked back up again.
"Fuck," you grunted as Gaara was slowly lifting you several meters above the roof.
The match was on and there were two seconds left on your clock, running out of time here didn't mean the loss of a game, but death, so you had to find the right move.
Alright, Kabuto, your advice better help me now or I'm going to take revenge the day you decide to resurrect me with your Edo Tensei.
You quickly formed a couple of hand seals. Tiger, Snake and then pointing towards him with four fingers as you yelled out. "Forbidden Curse, Life Drain."
Tiger to charge at him, a snake to bite and four for death. It made sense in your head and it made you feel it was more convincing, but you kind of needed Gaara to see the symbolism too for it to work.
"What did you do?" He asked as the sand was constricting harder around your leg. It started to get painful, but you had to push through it.
"Do you feel your heart? It is beating faster right?" You asked planting the suggestion in his head. "Is it getting harder to breathe?"
Gaara eyes widened and he clutched his heart. "Stop it!" He screamed.
"If you kill me, it will continue until you die," you threatened. "If you become my friend, I'll stop it so none of us has to die." You tried your best smiling at him while resisting the pain.
The sand started to crawl further up your body.
"We're both the same Gaara." Redheads, green eyes, and Jinchuuriki. "Let us be friends so…" The sudden pain stopped you from continuing.
Gaara's sand started to constrict around your chest, making it hard to breathe properly and thus hard to speak. But the sand had stopped trying to engulf your body and was now at a standstill.
Wasn't this the time for you to wake up with Matabi demanding her power? It was too late for you to grab any explosive kunai, your arms caught up by his sand, and your bag had fallen to the ground. There was nothing you could do.
Why did you have to be so incredibly stupid? Dead after less than a year in this world. You had accomplished nothing. What was the point of being so paranoid? Surely there shouldn't be so hard to find a place in Konoha to figure out a plan to deal with the massacre together with Itachi and Shisui. But paranoia was a hard nut to crack. Discussing a conspiracy like that could easily cause you to disappear, or if the Uchiha figured out what Danzo was up to, you'd spark a civil war.
The pressure on your chest suddenly disappeared and you gasped for air. You started falling as the sand loosened its grip on you, but you were lucky to land in Gaara's soft sand.
You turned towards him and saw him smiling with a ball of sand in his hands. You got up, it was time to remove the pretend curse you put on him. He seemed calm and peaceful, not trying to kill you and not begging you to not kill him.
Did he finally trust you? Why delay this long?
What had gone on in his head at this moment? Was the death of his uncle less impactful than you had thought? Surely you couldn't have this much of an effect on him. You were not Naruto and had not punched him yet. Or was the real effect not the death of his uncle, but the continual loneliness after that?
"Curse removal, life drain," you said forming a bird seal, before lifting your hands up in the air, to tell the curse to fly away and leave Gaara alone.
As your hands feel down to your side again, kunai was flying at you, Gaara's sand swiftly blocked it to protect you. You really had unlocked the secret Uzumaki bloodline of quickly making friends with new people. And that without even punching Gaara.
You saw several Suna ANBU around you with their weapons drawn, approaching you with clear hostile intent as more and more kunai was headed towards you. Without Gaara dutifully blocking all of them, you'd be a pincushion now. There was nothing you could do other than to grab your bag and flee, hoping they wouldn't pursue you further. Fighting them was out of the question for several reasons. A stray kunai graced your right leg as you were jumping off the ledge. It stung a bit but nothing to worry about, it would heal up pretty quickly and if you just changed your pants, no one would be any wiser.
Your brain went on auto-pilot through the streets. You had no idea where you were going as you had paid no attention to where you were going previously. But somehow you arrived at the inn in your panicked state.
You couldn't sense anyone chasing you. It was time to relax and slow down your breathing to prevent your team from becoming suspicious of you.
Torune paid you no attention as you walked into the room and neither Kabuto nor Raidou had arrived back yet, so this was your chance to sneak into the bedroom and switch clothes to hide your encounter with the ANBU.
As you pulled off your pants you noticed that the cut had already stopped bleeding, so there was no reason to fetch the bandage. But it was a bit red around the cut and touching it caused it to burn a bit. Was that a normal consequence of your healing ability?
Better to not worry about it. You managed to survive the explosive tag thrown by Naruto and Sasuke, so this was nothing and you didn't want to explain to Raidou how you had been cut unless you really had to. You sealed away the offending clothing and headed back out to Torune.
"Are you okay?" You asked him.
Torune simply shook his head in response.
What to do? Giving him a bit of a distance seemed to be the easy way out of this, but also the cowards way out of it.
Kabuto and Raidou would be back soon and you would be on the way back home. The green grass, wildflowers and the forest on the other side of the desert would probably cheer him up again, he just needed to push through this slump and everything would be fine.
You sat down opposite of him, but you didn't have to wait long before both Kabato and Raidou was back.
"It was a close call, I was almost caught, but some ruckus somewhere else pulled them away from me. Did any of you see anything while you were out?" Sensei asked.
"I heard something, but I didn't see anything," you lied.
"And you Torune, didn't you see anything?" Raidou asked him.
"I…" Torune didn't have an answer.
"Sensei, he didn't feel well, so I told him to stay here," you said.
"Sota, it is good that you care about your teammates, but you're not doing him any favours by letting him wiggle himself out of things he doesn't like."
Was it worth arguing with him or not?
"He's not doing well on these kinds of missions," you explained trying not to get too angry. "Why are you pushing him to this, aren't the plenty of other missions we can take?"
"Sota, I'm the boss here. If I tell any of you to do something, you obey, is that clear?" Raidou asked.
"Yes Sensei," you replied softly.
"Now go and pack your stuff as fast as you can, we need to leave this place."
You nodded and went to pack your bag.
A few minutes later the four of you were heading towards the gate.
"Hold it," one of the guards yelled as you approached the guard booth.
"Is something wrong?" Raidou-sensei asked.
"Your mission here was to deliver some documents right? Let me see confirmation from the recipient?" The guard requested.
"Here," Raidou handed him a slip of paper. He looked composed and didn't seem to worry about this at all, despite it being an irregular occurrence. "You usually don't care about these kinds of things, is there a problem?"
"You've been acting suspiciously and there was an incident here not long ago. I need to check his bag," the guard said and pointed to you.
"Hand it over," Raidou told you.
The guard grabbed it from your shoulder and sat it down on the counter, and began looking through all your paper tags.
"What is he doing with that many explosive tags on a delivery mission?" The guard asked.
"It never hurts to be prepared, you never know what dangers you'll face," Raidou explained for you.
"Stop with your lies Konoha-nin. You know perfectly well that this isn't a normal amount for a genin to carry around."
"He's making them himself, he is quite a prodigy, but I've neglected to tell him that it might send the wrong signal," Raidou explained.
"Likely. Let me take a look at that sword," he said and pulled it from your back.
"Listen here, we need to get going, Torune here is not feeling well. You're wasting your time here. Let's say Sota here was trying to blow something up, why hasn't anyone heard any explosions?" Sensei argued. But the guard's face didn't change. "Please, let us be reasonable here, it is Sota's first mission, he's bound to make some mistakes."
"Don't tell me how to do my job!" the guard shouted, "I recognize this kind of sword, you can leave the village if you want, but we'll take the boy into questioning."
"Very well, I guess we don't have any choice," Raidou replied and signalled something to Kabuto with his right hand.
Before Kabuto could follow through with the order, you heard a new voice arriving the scene. "What is going on here?" You turned around and saw an ANBU agent approaching you, quite similar looking to one of your attackers.
Was he one of them? Was he going to expose you? And why did your leg start to itch so much, was this nervousness or something else? With a few subtle movements, you hopefully managed to scratch the itch without drawing too much attention to yourself.
"We were just about to bring this kid in for some friendly interrogation," the guard explained.
"Let them go," the ANBU agent ordered.
"We have evidence that he was trying to blow up something here in the village." the guard said and pointed to your bag. "It is full of explosives."
The ANBU took a quick look at your tags before putting them back in the bag and threw it to you.
"I've kept an eye on the boy while he was here and he hasn't tried anything."
"But…" the guard tried to protest.
"If you've any problem with this, you're welcome to talk to the Kazekage," the agent explained. You could see nervous sweat appearing on the guard's face.
"Thanks for clearing up, we'll get going now," Raidou said.
You turned around to leave when the ANBU stopped you. "Aren't you forgetting something Sota?"
"What…?" you stuttered.
"Your sword," he said hand and handed it back to you. "Why are you so tense, I helped you out of this situation? Or do you have something to hide?"
You were getting used to people playing mind games with you now, but that didn't mean you were good at deciphering them. He either lied about watching you, which would make no sense, or he knew and he was letting you go for no good reason.
"Nothing, thanks," you mumbled and put the sword back in its sheath.
-x-
Raidou seemed to be taking a slight turn as you left the village and lead your team to a hill of sand.
"This is why we really are here and the reason I needed a distraction," he said.
"We're bringing back sand?" You asked and you really hoped that you hadn't risked your life for this.
"Come out Hayakawa," Raidou prompted.
Out from the sand came a moustached man dragging on a bag full of scrolls and other components sticking out. Was that an antenna? And when would you learn to detect genjutsu?
"This is my team, there is no time for chitchat." Raidou paused to think. "Kabuto, carry his bag and you Hayakawa, get on my back, we need to get back over the border before they notice that you're gone. It might be a bumpy ride, so if you get sick try not to throw up on me. Torune and Sota you're in the front, Kabuto you'll be in the back," he ordered.
Torune took the lead and you followed up on his side. Your leg was starting to itch more and more but you just had to keep going. If your team got caught now, it was a round of friendly interrogation for all of you.
But slowly as the hours passed, the itching started to disappear, and you could finally relax a bit more. Sure you were running your fastest, but your stamina was never-ending and plenty of water on you to drink, so it did nothing to tax your body. Being a Jinchuuriki was something you could recommend to everyone as long as you could keep it secret.
You gasped in pain as your leg began to act up again.
"Are you okay Sota," Raidou called out from the back.
"Yeah I'm fine, but I think I need to slow down a bit," you said.
"Alright, we should be far enough from Suna now. But if you cannot keep going, tell us and we'll handle it."
"Thanks, sensei," you replied.
The slower tempo helped a bit, it put less pressure on your leg, thus dampening the pain. And over the next hour, it slowly got better till you could no longer feel any pain.
But that was a false sense of security as your foot dug itself into the ground, causing you to fall face down into the sand.
You heard them halting to a stop.
"Sota, what's going on?" Raidou asked. You could hear the worry in his voice.
"I don't know sensei," you said. "I feel fine."
"Try standing up please," he suggested.
That was no problem at all. You could get going again, but another problem arose.
"Sensei, I... I… cannot form chakra in my leg. I… I… I..." words started to get harder and your team started to get blurry.
"Alright, Kabuto, give the bag to Torune and carry him," Raidou told the others.
"Sensei, I think it's best if you take him, he's more comfortable with you. I can manage Hayakawa," Kabuto said. "I don't want him to freak out in case he gets worse."
"Alright," Raidou replied and picked you upon his back.
Things got even more blurry from thereon. All you noticed was someone filling your mouth with water at random intervals. Till you dozed completely off.
-x-
When you woke up again you were no longer in a sandy environment and you were laying on something, not too hard, not too soft. It looked like you were somewhere inside and you could make out some mushy grey walls, but nothing more.
"Sota stay with us now."
You couldn't make out who said what anymore or even who was around you, all you could see was shadowy figures around you.
Someone ripped off your pants and you could see that your right leg had turned mostly black with some purple mixed into it. And it looked like small black tendrils were growing up from it. Everything was a blurry mess so you couldn't tell was what real and what your brain filled in.
"Poison."
"Kabuto I need you to cut it off to stop it from spreading."
"No, I cannot do it. Without his leg he cannot be a ninja, he'll struggle for the rest of life."
"It will grow out again. If you don't do it he will die."
"Legs don't grow out sensei, I cannot do it. I cannot ruin his life. Let me try curing the poison first. Maybe I can save his leg."
"There is no time, the longer you're delaying this the worse it will get. If it spreads too far, it's over for him. This is an order Kabuto, if you don't do it there will be severe consequences for you when we get home."
"I'll do it, I just wish there was another way. A better way."
You started to feel soft pricking on your leg before it stopped again.
"Higher up."
"The more he has left the easier it will be for him."
"If you cut too little, you risk keeping too much poison his system. Cut it here."
"Alright sensei."
Someone grabbed your hand and then you felt something in your leg again and this time it was more than just pricking. You squeezed your eyes together.
You started to breathe faster and faster.
"Calm down Sota, breathe in and out. In… and out…" Someone started stroking hair.
You followed his voice and things started to get better.
And soon after, the ordeal was over and pricking started to take over.
"Now seal away his leg and get out of here."
"But I need to deal with the rest of the poison in his system."
"No buts, out!"
The lock at the door clicked and ninja wire coiled around you. Your forehead protector uncoiled around your head and something else hit it instead.
Your body started to burn, as you slowly opened your eyes you could see that you were engulfed in blue fire.
You couldn't breathe properly. He was burning you alive! A loud scream left your mouth and you began to wiggle around, but the ninja wire prevented you from escaping.
Rapid slamming could be heard from the door.
"STOP IT" you screamed out in pain. "DON'T KILL ME!"
"It's okay, Sota, it's okay."
"MA… TA… HELP ME!" you tried. But there was no one there.
"Please, please," your voice started to get weaker, but the fires just continued to burn and it felt like you were laying inside a furnace.
"please save…"
As you were about to take your last breath of air, the fire stopped with a touch to your head. Your body was still burning, but it was at least calming down now.
"It's okay Sota, I needed to cleanse your body from poison and this was the best way I could think of doing it. By the time Kabuto would have found a less painful cure, you'd be dead," you heard Raidou saying. Your mind was still fuzzy, but you could finally recognize people's voices again.
The moment he unlocked the door, it shot open and Kabuto and Torune stepped in with each their kunai aimed at him.
"What did you do to him!?" Kabuto yelled. "Is he dead?"
"He's fine, put down the kunai. I did what I needed to do to save him. Sometimes you just need to do the right thing without hesitation."
Both of them lowered their arms and looked towards you as you were moving your eyes around.
"This is no time to relax, I want him checked out at the hospital as soon as possible, so if you're not ready to push through it, you'll stay here till someone can escort you home. Someone else will deal with Hayakawa and the equipment we brought, so don't worry about that."
"I'll come with you, if he gets worse again, you'd need a medic," Kabuto answered.
"And you Torune, do you want to stay here or do you think you can continue the last part?" Raidou asked.
"I… I want to go home now," Torune replied.
"Alr…" Raidou tried to say but was interrupted.
"But I need some rest, I don't think I can continue right now."
"Alright Torune, we'll see you again in a few days then."
He untied you and you grabbed onto his back.
"You should try sleeping a bit, I'll make sure you don't fall off me."
"I cannot sleep, everything hurts," you mumbled.
"It's okay, let me help you," he said and put his hand on your head.
-x-
You slowly opened your eyes and you could see white walls around you. Looking around it was clear you were in a hospital, or the medical equipment would make no sense. But there were no windows, something wasn't right here. You were pretty sure you had a window last time you were here, as you could remember Itachi climbing through your window with his Sharingan glowing. Your mouth was dry and your stomach was rumbling. Had you eaten any since you left Suna?
As you turned around you noticed an ANBU agent leaving the room, had he been observing you, for what reason?
Not too long after a nurse entered the room. "How are you feeling, are you still in pain?"
"I'm thirsty," you replied.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'll get to it," she said.
Soon after the nurse was back with a glass of water which you happily chugged down.
"There is someone who wants to see you, I'll go get them," she said and left the room.
You were happy to hear that your friends decided to visit you. The door soon opened, but it wasn't Itachi, Shisui or Naruto, but rather your least favourite cyclops. You didn't need to read his non-existing facial clues to know that he was up to no good right now.
Before approaching you he turned around and put a seal on the door, probably to ensure no one else could enter.
"Sarutobi just accused me of attempting to assassinate the Kazekage's son," he stated.
"I didn't do anything," you responded. "I just thought he needed a friend."
"Friends make you weak, and he's our enemy," he sneered.
"Aren't Suna and Konoha allies?"
"They'll stab us in the back at the first opportunity, and so will we. As a Jinchuuriki your loyalty lies in the village, nowhere else."
You didn't reply to that.
"You're not telling me the truth," Danzo said.
"About what?" You wondered.
"Why did you seek him out?"
"I just told you, I thought.." you didn't get to complete your sentence before Danzo's cane hit your stomach.
"Answer properly."
You clutched your stomach. "He's a Jinchuuriki like me."
"How did you find him?"
"I asked about where I shouldn't go, so I assumed I'd find him in that direction," you said.
"So you assumed he was dangerous, why?"
"I…" that was true, how were you supposed to know Gaara was dangerous. All your experience with other Jinchuuriki didn't point in that direction. You were pretty harmless and while Naruto had successfully injured you, it was an accident and he wasn't really a big danger. If asked, would anyone here warn you about Naruto's location? No, they might dislike his pranks, but it wasn't enough to make people avoid an area, not like with Gaara.
"The only other Jinchuuriki you know is Naruto, so why think he was dangerous unless you know something more?" Danzo asked.
"I was looking for trouble as Raidou-sensei was asking for a distraction and it worked. That's why I asked for somewhere dangerous," you said. It was at least somewhat true.
"If you weren't seeking out him because he was a Jinchuuriki, how did you know he was one?" He asked.
"I lied about that, I've no idea if Gaara is a Jinchuuriki or not, I made it up. As I said, sensei needed a distraction and it worked according to him."
The cane hit you in the head this time.
"Don't pretend to be a stupid child, you are smart enough to see the fault in your logic."
"What?"
"If Raidou wanted a real diversion, he would have ordered Kabuto to do it and he would have a plan for it. There is no reason you'd think you'd need to stir up trouble. He wrote in his mission report that he just wanted fewer eyes on him, so he ordered you to walk around in the village, nothing more," Danzo explained.
How could you explain your way out of this with Danzo playing Ace Attorney, pointing out every contradiction in your testimony? What lie could you make up?
"I can sense the other Jinchuuriki. I knew who Gaara was before I meet up with him, I just needed to find him as he needed a friend. I didn't think you'd believe that I had Jinchuuriki senses, so I tried coming up with something more believable."
"So you can identify the rest of them?" Danzo asked.
"I…," you hesitated, did you want to out all of them to Danzo?
Again you were hit with the cane.
"Stop it," you yelled out.
"Let us start easy, how many Jinchuuriki do Konoha have?" Danzo asked.
"Two, me and Naruto," you said.
"How many do the other villages have?"
"Suna has one, Iwa has two, Kiri has two, Kumo has two, I mean one and Taki has one," you said.
There could be other mistakes, the Matatabi was not supposed to be in Konoha. So who knows what other switches there were.
But if you were wrong, there were no other lies to tell Danzo. He would know the true numbers, right? There hadn't been that many Tailed-Beast transactions since then. Rin had the Three-tailed beast for a while before it was sealed inside Yagura. And you couldn't know for sure if Konoha gained Matatabi in a war or if Hashirama never gave her to Kumo in this reality.
"Did Gaara tell you his name?" Danzo asked.
"No."
"So your senses told you that too?" He asked.
Why can't you think before you speak Sota?
"Yes," you said.
"Then can you tell me the host of the Eight-tailed beast?"
"Killer B, the Raikage's adopted brother."
You had to lend some credibility to your new lie and Killer B should be pretty well known, so you wouldn't tell him something he didn't know.
"What more can you tell me about him?" He asked.
"He is always rapping, but is quite bad at it," you said.
"And what form is the eight-tails?"
"Half-ox, half-octopus."
"What about the Three-tailed beast?" Danzo asked.
"Yagura, the 4th Mizukage," you said.
You felt bad for him, but there was nothing you could do right now to help him. You couldn't save everyone. And what kind of person would he be without the mind-control? Being short and cute didn't make you into a good person.
"What more can you tell me about him?" Danzo asked.
"I don't know," you said. You'd a feeling that he wouldn't let you get away with it. "Please don't hit me."
It was clear that Danzo struggled with the Japanese language as he was quick with his cane.
"What do you know?" Danzo stressed each word.
"I…" that was not the right answer as the stinging sensation in your face could testify to.
"He is controlled by Uchiha Madara," you called out in a panic.
"Uchiha Madara is dead," Danzo said, but he didn't say you were lying, which meant he was contemplating the consequences of what you were saying. Or did he already know and was testing you. If only he could say something so you could understand his thinking.
"Someone is posing as him," you said. Why did you say that? He was happy with your answer but he put you more and more on the edge.
"You know what Hiruzen will think if he hears all this?" He asked.
You shook your head.
"That you're a spy," Danzo said.
"I'm not a spy," you countered.
"I believe you, but I'm not sure if Hiruzen believes you."
"Then explain to him that I'm not a spy," you said. There was no reason he shouldn't trust you, he was much less of a paranoid bastard than Danzo.
"He doesn't trust me, and he doesn't trust you. He put that seal on your tongue for a reason."
"He doesn't need to trust you, he just has to hear your reasoning, it that is sound he should believe me," you argued,
"I've interacted with you a lot more than Hiruzen, not to mention that Root is acting in the dark, so I can see that you'd be a terrible spy. How did the last visits to Hiruzen go?" He taunted. "Last time he put that seal on you because he didn't trust you, and before that, you were dragged into the office by Kakashi for stealing his mask. If I were in his shoes, I too would have concluded that you were a spy."
"Who would I even be spying for?" You asked.
"That would be up to the Torture and Interrogation department to figure out and they won't give up before you confess," Danzo threatened.
"But there is nothing to confess to!" You called out.
"Then they won't stop."
"Please help me," you begged.
"I will, I've finally figured out how to remove that seal on your tongue and I can put my own on it," he explained.
"How does that help me?"
"I can prevent you from talking about any of this, if he sees that you're unable to talk about this, there is no point trying to extract information from you."
"I'm not sure if I like this," you said.
"It is your choice, either my seal or being stuck in T&I."
"Do I have to decide now?" You asked.
"Yes, he will ask you what happened in Suna the moment I leave. And even if you somehow make Hiruzen believe you, I won't let you back down in your room if you decline this. I need to be able to trust that you won't spill any secrets."
Danzo was right, regrettably so. You needed the protection from Hiruzen, you wanted the seal off, and if you were to protect yourself against future threats, you had to improve your seals. You just had to hope that your leg would heal, or else improving would be pointless.
You opened your mouth and stuck out your tongue to signal to him that you were ready.
The smile he gave you when picked up his tools was unnerving. But there was no pulling back now. The alternative was worse.
-x-
Hours later, after a ton of pricking and a quite sore tongue, Danzo was finally finished. And not a minute too early as the door crashed open with two ANBU agents entering the room alongside the Hokage.
"What is the meaning of this Danzo?" Hiruzen raised his voice.
Danzo seemed unfazed by the question and answered calmly, "I was taking his mission report."
"And that took several hours?" Hiruzen didn't look convinced. "Come with me to the office, I want to talk to you in private."
"I don't see why we can't talk about it here in front of the boy," Danzo said.
Hiruzen glared at him. "He doesn't need to hear everything that people say about him."
"He already knows you're keeping secrets from him," Danzo scoffed. "There is no need to confirm it and the way you're acting isn't making it any better."
Sarutobi stared at Danzo with a frown "What are you trying to do here?"
"I'm just giving him a chance to see if he can trust you or not. So what was it that you wanted to say?" Danzo asked
"You've been here for hours, and you're overstepping your boundaries. We agreed that you should teach him fuuinjutsu, not send him out on missions." The tension between them was started to get really uncomfortable.
"He was going to Suna anyway, so I decided to take advantage of the situation. He did not undermine his actual mission and from what Raidou wrote in his report, he saved the mission."
"It cost him his leg!" Hiruzen yelled out.
"If Raidou had been caught smuggling the engineer out of Suna, the consequences could have been worse. It is almost as if you're trying to find faults with me."
"Getting lucky won't last you forever," Hiruzen said.
"You're underestimating me Hiruzen, I don't do luck. Since this was Sota's first mission, I decided to check up on the mission he was assigned and it became clear that the plan was flawed. Any idiot could see that Raidou was going to get caught. So I made sure that wouldn't happen. Having him make contact with Suna's Jinchuuriki would draw attention away from whatever Raidou was doing. The only thing I didn't expect was that Suna would try to kill him for it. But I cannot take the blame for his sensei not being able to read his body language correctly. The report says that Sota was acting strangely after he came back to the inn, any competent ninja should have investigated the matter. I can hardly be held accountable for someone's else's shortcomings can I?"
"I find this hard to believe. You know very well that we've yet to gather intelligence on the current vessel for the One-tailed beast."
"What alternative explanation would you propose? I knew he was able to detect the Nine-tails within Naruto, so I wanted to see if he could sniff out someone else. We wouldn't want Suna to sneak their Jinchuuriki past us without knowing."
That was a much better lie, if only you had thought of it before him.
Hiruzen looked at Danzo, prompting him to continue.
"The mission was successful. The Kazekage's youngest son Gaara is the current host. I'll hand you a drawing of him later."
"I'm suspending your permission to teach Sota," Hiruzen said.
"You want him to go back to experimenting at home? We agreed to this arrangement for a reason."
"Without his supplies, he cannot do anything dangerous," Sarutobi said.
"You're a father and a grandfather, and yet you understand less about children than I. No wonder why all your children left you," Danzo taunted.
"Don't bring them into this."
"The boy will find a way no matter what we'll do. You're only risking more by saying no. What about we make a deal here, I will stay out of his missions and we'll keep the arrangement as before? Or will you cast him away as if he was your son?"
"Continue to teach him so this won't happen again," Sarutobi conceded. "But I'm warning you. If he gets injured because of your actions, I will inflict the same injuries on you. So make sure he doesn't lose any more limbs."
"If there is nothing more, I have more important matters to take care of," Danzo said and moved towards the door.
"One last thing while you are here," Sarutobi said and looked at you. "Sota, did you try to kill Gaara?"
" ", you tried saying no, but nothing came out. You tried again but your tongue started to burn.
"You won't get anything out of him," Danzo said and left the room.
"Open your mouth," Hiruzen ordered.
The moment he saw the seal on your tongue, his face was filled with anger. "You made a mistake allowing Danzo to put his seal on you."
You couldn't tell if his tone were threatening or meant as a warning. It felt like the former, he had lost the battle against Danzo and was taking it out on you. That was the last thing he said before he left with his ANBU, without even giving you a get well soon greeting.
But you weren't left alone for long as in came a grinning Naruto with Shisui right behind him carrying a gift basket of some sort.
"We brought dango, ramen and lots of other good stuff for you. I wish Jiji would visit me when I was sick too," Naruto said.
"Thanks, you two. I'm sorry that I broke my promise, I lost a bit," you said and showed them what little you had left of your leg."
"Don't worry Sota," Naruto said and hugged you. "I'll carry you around if you need to. You can throw kunai at the bad guys and I can run around and make sure we don't get hit."
Looking at Naruto made you think about how you didn't deserve good friends like this.