Bit of a more mature chapter today, fair warning.
Disappearing on his 15th birthday wasn't exactly what Naruto Uzumaki deemed a good idea. Especially when most of his previous birthdays had been spent, well, alone. To leave when he'd finally built up bonds in a village where most were tolerating his presence at best, Naruto couldn't say he was thrilled about it.
"You ready?" Kakashi asked as they slipped through Konoha border's many ANBU alternative exits that doubled as traps for any enemy shinobi stupid enough to use them.
Ready? Naruto was rarely ready, and that never really mattered anyway. His mind flashed back to the hushed farewells he'd done. Sakura cried when she hugged him goodbye. It was actually the most normal reaction out of anyone. Sasuke told him that he'd "better get stronger" but it had a strangely personal tone to it. What, were they planning an insurrection together? Ino hadn't cried at all but it seemed like she had been holding her tongue the whole time. Whatever she wanted to say, she'd chickened out of it. Then there was the fourth goodbye, (other than Jiraiya, who was the one sending him on this whole expedition) and it wasn't Shikamaru, not Chouji, not even Kiba or Neji, or even Hinata. Naruto's last goodbye was Tsunade Senju.
Just as Naruto and Kakashi had left Jiraiya's office, she'd been standing there, leaning against the wall like some sort of messenger from the future. She didn't even say anything at first, just let herself get stared at. A look of apprehension was painted on Naruto and Kakashi's faces. Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Good luck kid," was all she'd ended up saying.
"Yeah I'm ready," Naruto finally replied.
Neji Hyuga's heart felt like it was about to burst out of his chest. The dim lighting of Hiashi's office suggested it was evening, but it was actually noon, on the dot. Neji had chosen to break into Hiashi's office in the middle of the day, noting that Hiashi always took Hanabi to lunch on this day of the week. Even still he could not help the adrenaline from coursing through his body, the fear that at any moment he'd be caught in his treasonous act.
What was he here for again? Oh yeah, Tenseigan. That was the word taught to him by Danzo. Danzo wanted to use the Tenseigan to lure out Orochimaru, he just needed actual proof it existed first. Neji had almost scoffed when Danzo suggested that there was an evolution to the Byakugan. Having grown up in the clan he had never been told about such a thing, and he doubted that it existed at all. Danzo insisted, claiming that Hyuga had become disconnected from the knowledge of their ancestors in the peace after the warring states period.
Despite apprehension, Neji did as he was told, and was now deeply examining Hiashi's office. He'd skimmed through every scroll he could, but the word 'tenseigan' didn't appear once. Neji was putting the last scroll in the bookcase back, when his fingers felt the tiniest inconsistency in the wall behind it. Neji leaned down, activating his byakugan to take a closer look, and found something resembling a drawer, although it lacked any sort of handle. He used his chakra to stick his fingers to the drawer, and slowly slid it out.
Three scrolls lay in the cubby, and Neji grabbed them hastily. His eyes widened in shock as he unfurled them. Illustrations of a violet pupil, instructions, everything. It was all laid out right there. Danzo was right, the Tenseigan did exist. Neji hurriedly rolled the scrolls back up and hid them in a weapons pouch he'd emptied earlier.
Perfect, now he just needed to return this to Danzo. Wait. That wasn't right, he had a mission. A mission for the Hokage. Neji felt the cursed seal on his tongue tighten a little bit and his thoughts began to cloud. Ino and Kakashi had warned him about this, to clear his thoughts when he felt the influence of the seal. Thinking too much about betraying Danzo could activate it.
But what was he to do now? Seeing as it wasn't nightfall yet, he can't meet with Danzo regardless. Well first he needed to get out of Hiashi's office, and that's just what he did. Neji walked the streets of Konoha outside of the Hyuga compound, and found himself heading towards the shopping district. He wasn't sure why his feet had led him here, the paranoia was building up in his mind immensely. Was this how Kiba had felt? Kiba must have been worse, he hadn't had any preparations from Ino and Kakashi like Neji did. Still, he couldn't make up his mind, the urge to inform Danzo was battling his better judgment.
Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder and Neji almost jumped out of his skin. It belonged to Shikamaru Nara. Oh, this was a friendly face, right? Shikamaru's lips moved, but hardly any sound came out, and he disappeared suddenly. Neji, thankfully remembered he was capable of reading lips, and that Shikamaru had told him to head to training ground 6.
Neji obeyed without really thinking about it. Training ground 6 had no clearings, and he wandered into the trees a bit before another familiar face materialized in front of him, Yamato.
"Hello Neji, would you like to head over to the Hokage's office with me?" Yamato asked.
"Yes that would be good," Neji replied and he felt the nervousness dissipate as Yamato led him through the forest.
Shikamaru had just finished the final touches on his disguise. He'd spent quite a while on this particular getup. ANBU had taught them that the more portions of a transformation were real, then the more difficult it would be to see through them. Now he was using those exact principles to escape the eye of ANBU itself. Tonight he was not Shikamaru Nara, tonight he was 'Sven' , the most intimidating transformation Shikamaru was capable of. Okay yes, it was a strange name that didn't sound like someone from Konoha at all, but if he did this correctly it wasn't going to be important regardless.
He looked himself over in the mirror once again, suddenly thankful for the grueling physical work he had been subjected to ever since becoming chunin. His larger physique was going to make this transformation much more coherent than it otherwise would have been. On top of his lowered bun, Shikamaru had elected a deep red vest, along with a sleeveless jacket on top. He'd also found a gold ring to use as a necklace. Shikamaru inhaled and mustered the best transformation jutsu he could.
It was perfect. The Shikamaru in the mirror, 'Sven' stared back at him. Several inches taller, significantly brawnier, slightly thicker eyebrows, blue eyes, and some facial hair. The long whistle of his father met Shikamaru's ears.
"You went all out, even added chest hair," his father said.
"Think it's too eccentric for Konoha?" Shikamaru asked.
"Not at all, especially in the red-light district, lots of unique characters there."
"Spend a fair bit of time there?" Shikamaru asked.
Shikaku's face went the slightest bit red, "Only for drinking." he insisted, "Anyway, you're missing something, here." Shikaku handed his son a cigarette box, putting one in his mouth and opening a lighter for him. Shikamaru inhaled as the cigarette lit and immediately begun coughing.
"Why do you and Asuma like this shit?" he asked in between coughs as he took the lighter and cigarette box from his father's hands.
"You've got about 30 minutes to get used to it," his father teased, and Shikamaru only responded with a groan. "So, what have you decided, are you going to kill him?" Shikaku said.
"Kirichi, I won't have a problem with. I don't even need to tell you how he treats those girls, or how much worse they're being treated now that a lot of the clients are high. Touya though. . . ."
"You're going to try to intimidate him aren't you? That's what this whole getup is supposed to help with?" Shikaku asked.
"Something along those lines. . . ." Shikamaru said.
"I'm sorry it has to be like this Shikamaru," his father tried.
"I can't stop thinking about what Naruto asked us, about what point is too far. Is this already too far? We already have a lot of evidence, shouldn't this be enough to take him down already?"
"If that was enough he wouldn't have lasted this long. Make no mistake son, you don't get into such a covert position of power alone. You've read the files, the Sandaime's tolerance of Danzo was disturbing, and that's just the ones we have access to. The true details of the Uchiha massacre are still virtually unknown, god knows what sort of crimes he's committed after that. Until we know the true nature of how far his influence creeps, it would be unwise to try and assassinate him or bring him to trial."
"I know I know, we don't know how expansive ROOT actually is, but what if it's like Ino said? What if that's something we just tell ourselves to justify our existence as shinobi? Can we say for certain that there's a net benefit to not going for it now?" Shikamaru asked.
"You know son, every Nara reaches this point. You're slowly realizing the holes in this shinobi system. Most of us tend to either realize too late, are too cowardly to sacrifice our comfortable lives, or realize they'll never fix it all on our own, usually a combination of all three. I don't say this to discourage you, I'm just warning you, the more you open the box, the more consequences are going to be racing towards you."
Shikamaru stood there, taking another drag from his cigarette. He had finally managed to do it without entering a coughing fit. "I was afraid you'd say something like that."
"I can see that look in your eyes, Shikamaru. You're trying to hide it from me, but I know you're not going to let this go, and you aren't the only one. I can see the way your group thinks. Remember Shika, when you open that box, hold on tight to those fellow shinobi, they're the only chance you're going to have."
"That really is a drag. . . ." Shikamaru replied.
"Most things are," his father replied, "What you need to focus on now is slipping out of here, it's nightfall already," he said pointing out the window. To Shikamaru's surprise it was practically pitch black out.
"I'll be back late, I need to report back to Danzo, and I saw Neji Hyuga with a weird look in his eyes this afternoon. I lead him towards Yamato, he's probably still at the Hokage's office, so I need to check up on him as well." he replied.
"It's good you did that, Kakashi is out of the village, Jiraiya's being stretched a little thin for next week or two." Shikaku said.
"Multiple weeks out of the village? That's strange, isn't he practically backup Hokage at this point?" Shikamaru asked.
"Yes, as much as Kakashi tries to ignore it, Jiraiya is grooming him as his successor. But the mission is an expedition to train Naruto."
"Naruto's out of the village too?" Shikamaru was now very surprised.
"You're actually one of the last to know about this, sharing information is hard these days, what with ANBU being compromised."
Shikamaru grunted in disapproval, "Whatever, I'll ask Jiraiya about it when I'm there. See you tomorrow dad."
Shikamaru disappeared through the window, navigating his way out of the Nara compound. To his surprise, he didn't feel the gaze of shinobi around him, his disguise seemed to be working just fine. He still couldn't help the nervous energy as he got closer to the red-light district. He knew for a fact ANBU surveilled the area more heavily than the rest of the village.
As he walked through the streets he suddenly noticed Touya next to him. Shikamaru side-eyed the man and noticed his gait was still steady. Okay, he could ignore Touya for now, wait till he gets drunk, before getting in front of them. Their paths diverged as Touya entered a bar and Shikamaru turned into an alleyway.
Shikamaru crinkled his nose in disgust. If there was one thing he hated, it was the red-light district. This helped when he would criticize the Hokage for Danzo's ears, but in reality Danzo's approach was just an even worse version of Konoha's already illogical one. The red-light district had existed for about as long as the village had. The village simultaneously recognized that criminalization of prostitution didn't stop it from happening, yet refused to codify protections for the women involved, only intervening when it got too rowdy and too dangerous.
Shikamaru had mentioned it to Ino once, who bravely didn't hesitate to ask Jiraiya directly why he hadn't done anything about it. It was amusing to see Jiraiya's uneasy expression when she told him that she was almost certain he'd used their services before, asking how he could sit by while knowing full well what their environment was like. Jiraiya had empathized with Ino, but had deflected. Telling her that any legislation not directly related to shinobi had to go through the Daimyo, who had bizarre views on these subjects. Thus, Konoha and (most other towns in the Fire Country) were limited in power.
As he arrived in front of Kirichi's brothel, he couldn't help but doubt Jiraiya's words. The buildings were in a state of disrepair, both men and women passed out, some were clearly delirious. Was this really all Konoha could do about it? So what if the village took control of the red-light district? Would the Daimyo even know? What would the Daimyo even say? Stop keeping intoxicated and often violent shinobi from abusing the prostitutes! Was that what the Daimyo would say? What would he do? Stop funding the village over it?
"Careful Shikamaru," he thought to himself as he swiftly scaled the wall of Kirichi's dispensary. "Are those your own thoughts, or are they Danzo's? There's almost no doubt that he's got a sharingan in his left eye." Shikamaru turned his focus back to the task at hand. He used the roof access to sneak into the dispensary's stock room. At the far end of the room, away from the entrance, Shikamaru planted an explosive seal. Up on the roof, he ran his chakra through the proximity seal that went with the explosive one, and stuck it in the inner layer of a brown cotton bag.
Back down on the street, Shikamaru braced himself before entering the brothel. Just as he predicted, Kirichi was there, acting as the clerk. There were also a few men acting as bodyguards, scattered around the place. To Shikamaru's horror Kirichi's face immediately lit up upon seeing Shikamaru. Did Sven resemble someone Kirichi knew?
"Evening," Shikamaru said to Kirichi.
"Evening, what brings you to my establishment," Kirichi asked rhetorically.
"I heard this is the best place in the village to get your rocks off," Shikamaru replied.
"That it is," Kirichi said confidently, "I take it you want a little extra?" he asked as he made an ambiguous shaking motion with his hands. Shikamaru grunted in approval as he fished for money in his pocket. "What type of girls do you like?" Kirichi asked.
"Long as they're pretty right?" Shikamaru replied. He let a hint of a smirk appear on his face as he dropped some cash on the table, along with the brown bag.
Kirichi whistled, "That's a fair chunk of change, you Northerners really play hard don't you?"
"Yeah I like the hard stuff, heard you keep it in stock here," Shikamaru responded with a fake grin.
"I've made good friends with a lot of your type, have a discount." Kirichi suggested as he handed a few bills back.
"Thanks but that's okay, how about you just keep it and deliver my things to my door? I'm sort of impatient tonight." This was going better than he had hoped, he didn't want to be visibly being served when Kirichi blew up in a few minutes.
"Whatever you say boss. Left side door five, you'll find a pretty lady waiting for you there. You can get acquainted while I fill your little friend up," he replied as he took the bag and disappeared into the room adjacent to the stock-room.
Most likely locking the money up before even serving him, pretty much what Shikamaru expected from this type of guy. He walked away, scanning the left side of the hallway for door five. He found it quickly and slipped inside.
The room had no window, a peculiar uneven foam with what resembled a cheese grater pattern covered the walls (Shikamaru figured it was for sound deadening), a plain bed, and a couple of low lights. Well at least the rooms were less visibly dirty than the rest of the establishment. Then there was the worst part of the room. A figure stood up, probably about 165 centimeters tall, teal eyes, blonde sandy hair tied up into pigtails, wearing fishnets and nothing else to cover her smooth skin. "What the actual fuck? This can't be happening right now." Shikamaru thought to himself.
The woman looked nearly identical to Temari.
"Good evening sir," she said cheerfully. Shikamaru's mind was in disarray, one half unable to think while the other did the math on just how unlikely it was that this woman looked like her. "Uhh sir, are you okay?" she asked. No, Shikamaru was not okay. He was not here to sleep with this woman, all he was here to do was stall until Kirichi was done for. This was not okay, he had not bargained for any of this.
"Ohhh I get it, you're one of the shy ones." she said as she approached Shikamaru.
"No it's just that- I uh, ordered some things for us and they're not here yet," he barely stuttered out, but it didn't stop Temari-lite from moving closer.
"Oh that's okay, sir. We don't have much time, we should get to know each other." she replied as she pushed Shikamaru against the wall. Shikamaru's brain flashed back to the summer, that last day he had with Temari, all those months ago.
The woman laid her hand on his chest‒just like she did. "What's your name?" was the question she asked, but when Shikamaru's eyes met hers, the only word his brain processed was, "Promise?"
Last time Shikamaru had slipped away, lied to her so he could start this asinine evidence-gathering mission to take down a man that any reasonable kage would have just ordered the execution of. There it was again, were those Shikamaru's true feelings about the Hokage, or was it Danzo? Had he already been influenced?
His head spun with all the thoughts and emotions that he'd been building up, he needed to de-escalate this as soon as possible. But when Shikamaru came back down to earth, there she was again, looking up at him. It wasn't her, of course it wasn't her, but it still felt like he was betraying her all over again. "My name's S‒"
Shikamaru was never more relieved to hear a minor explosion.
The girl in his arms jumped in surprise, and before Shikamaru could say anything one of Kirichi's guards had entered the room.
"Get out," the man barked at him.
"What the fuck do you mean get out? I paid for my time here!" Shikamaru replied, feigning anger.
"I don't care," the guard replied as he put his hands on Shikamaru's shoulder.
"Fine, fine." Shikamaru barked back, "Just get your dirty hands off of me." he said leaving the room. He was relieved to find that the other customers were also being forced out of their rooms. No one suspected a thing.
Shikamaru shuffled out of the building, and he surprised himself when he took the cigarette box and lighter out of his jacket pocket. His shaky hands brang the lighter up to his mouth. Of course, he could have snapped his fingers and lit a flame on his thumb with his chakra alone, but there was something more therapeutic about the lighter. The cold metal, the grating along his thumb as he spun the flint wheel, the action of bringing the flame up to the end of the cigarette.
As he inhaled, his mind snapped back to what had been going on in his room. He wondered to himself, if he would have gone through with it. Surely, he wouldn't have, but then why did he start to answer her question? His overdeveloped brain spiraled deeper into his anxieties. Would it have felt good? Would he have been satisfied? Would it have pacified the overwhelming emotions he was going through? Or would it have been dirty? Made him overwhelmed with guilt? Made him go more than once? Each one more shameful than the next? How would it feel to be with the real Temari after that?
Shikamaru shuddered, for the first time in a while genuinely unsure of whether he would have made the right decision. It wasn't like with Danzo, where he could reasonably shift the responsibility to his superiors. This was all him, no part of the mission required him to sleep with that girl, the fact that he considered it was all on him.
As he emerged from the road and back onto the main street of the red light district, his eyes were met with the sight of a man being thrown out of a bar. Getting up from the floor was Touya, just the man he was looking for. Touya half-yelled half-muttered extremities as he drunkenly moved onto the next bar that would accept him. Lucky for Shikamaru, the next bar was more of a stand than a pub, and he was able to watch Touya for a bit before approaching him. Touya ordered his first drink, and progressively started to talk more to no one in particular. Shikamaru finished his cigarette, dropped it to the ground and smothered it out with his foot before he walked over to the bar. He plopped himself directly next to Touya, and looked straight at the man.
"Yo," Shikamaru said in a hoarse voice.
"Yo to you too, how are you on this miserable evening?" Touya asked as he took another swig.
"Pretty miserable," Shikamaru replied as he took out another cigarette and raised his hand up to get the bartender's attention.
"You here to ask me to shut up?" Touya asked.
"Does anyone around here talk to you for any other reason than that?" Shikamaru shot back.
Touya genuinely laughed out loud, "Well you can forget it, I'm speaking my truth," he said.
The bartender placed Shikamaru's glass down and poured his drink. Shikamaru watched as the beige liquor rose in the glass, and listened to the delicate sound of the ice cracking. Some disgustingly morid and overly-analytical part of his brain chimed in, "It'd be less of drag to just kill him just like Danzo wants." He took his own swig as he questioned his sanity for the upteenth time that night.
"No I get it man, totally, I hear what you're saying." Shikamaru finally said.
"They chew you up and spit you out don't they?" Touya replied.
Shikamaru scoffed, "You know if you keep doing this every night they might just swallow."
The air ran cold, colder than it already was, even the bartender looked ready to distance himself. Touya slammed his drink down on the counter, nearly shattering the glass, he'd clearly taken it as a threat. Shikamaru's heart rate rose. Logically he could almost definitely take the man, in fact in the dim light of the stand he had more than enough shadow to freeze Touya in place and slit his throat before he could even scream. Despite the facts though, in the orange lights of the street, the drunken Touya had managed to look uncomfortably intimidating.
"You know, back where I'm from. . . ." Shikamaru began to say as he slowly raised his hand to his vest, and pulled out his cigarette box. He offered one to Touya, "I knew a guy like you,"
"That so?" Touya responded through narrowed eyes, and took a cigarette in suspicion.
"I knew ten guys like you, shit, I was a guy like you." Shikamaru said as he lit the man's cigarette.
"So what? You're still here?" Touya replied.
"But my brother isn't," Shikamaru said.
"Oh," Touya said.
"I'm guessing you got someone like that," Shikmaru replied, already knowing the answer.
"Yeah, I've got a daughter," Touya said eventually.
"You can complain if you want. No one should be treated like us. Forced through the mud, doing deplorable mission after deplorable mission, half of them just cause some pretentious noble fucked something up, the other half cause the kage needs to exercise dominance over some minor transgression of an enemy village," There was venom in Shikamaru's voice, and it didn't go unnoticed, "You can even try to do something about it,"
"So now you've decided I'm doing the right thing?" Touya asked.
"I'm not deciding anything, all I'm saying is it's up to you if it's worth it. You don't have to be a shinobi you know? There's a hundred other towns in the fire country. Your daughter might appreciate a different life too, especially one where her dad is home at night."
Touya glared at him and took a slow breath before responding, "Easy to say, I don't know anything other than this job."
"Easy to complain too," Shikamaru replied.
"Come here just to make me feel like shit?" Touya asked.
"How about this? I buy you a better drink than whatever that is. You and I have a good time complaining together. Then you go back home and you do your best not to spend your nights here anymore."
"Sounds good to me," Touya eventually responded.
Shikamaru was obscenely drunk. Which made it really hard to behave normally when he took the backdoor entrance to the Hokage's office and found Hiashi Hyuga also waiting to be allowed in.
"So what're you in for?" Shikamaru asked cooly.
"What are you saying boy? This isn't prison." Hiashi responded incredulously.
"Sorry I almost lost it trying to act normally around Danzo," Shikamaru said.
"Best you wait till we're inside the Hokage's office to start discussing such matters so freely," Hiashi replied.
"Oh shit! That means you're here about . . ." Shikamaru leaned in and whispered the next part, "Neji,"
Hiashi rolled his eyes and was relieved when the door was opened. Yugao's purple hair was the only thing that Shikamaru was using to navigate his way through the dark tunnels of the backdoor entrance, and thus when they finally entered Jiraiya's office and her location became ambiguous, he fell flat on his face.
Jiraiya was relieved when Ino waited until after the sound-deadening seals were activated to burst out laughing, and he joined her in laughing at Shikamaru's expense. Shikamaru struggled to get on his feet, he brought his head up and counted the number of people in the room.
"I thought we promised not to meet like this anymore," Shikamaru droned.
"Ah well couldn't help it with this." Jiraiya said.
Ino finally paused her laughing, "I cannot wait till this is all over I'm gonna tell Temari all abo‒"
"Don't talk about Temari," Shikamaru cut in, almost violently, not a hint of slurring in his words. Even Hiashi cringed at just how much venom Shikamaru had managed to spit out in just four words.
"Geez, what happened to you kid?" Jiraiya asked.
"Don't want to talk about it," he replied as he finally got up.
"Actually you have to write a report on it, in full detail." Jiraiya said with an edge of authority.
"Every last one," Shikamaru lied.
"How did Danzo not kill you?" Ino asked, "Speaking of which did you. . . ."
"Lucky for Touya he's lying in his bed instead of a ditch. Danzo actually took it pretty well, I framed it as preserving valuable Leaf assets by avoiding killing Touya. Although I did leave out the part where I told Touya he should probably quit being a shinobi."
"Bah, it doesn't matter. This'll all be over by the time anyone authorizes that release. We can lower his workload to pacify him until then too." Jiraiya said.
"What about Kirichi?" Ino asked.
"Oh no that guy's dead. I didn't get a chance to see for myself but I doubt he's even got any of his face left considering where I placed the explosive seal."
"No mercy," Jiraiya said, rather impressed, "I'm sure Danzo liked to hear that."
"Oh he loved it. I think that helped hush any disappointment he had with the fact that Touya lives another day." Shikamaru said.
"God I wish Naruto were here, he'd love drunk talkative Shikamaru," Ino said.
"Yeah I'm sure that's the only reason you want him here," Shikamaru replied in dry sarcasm, "Speaking of which, what's up with that? No one told me he was going anywhere, and with Kakashi too?!"
"Naruto needs to train, but yeah Kakashi not being here changes things up. I'll be working on Neji's seals," Jiraiya said.
"What's up with him anyway? Still looks like he's seen a ghost." Shikamaru commented.
"The ghost being Hiashi." Jiriaya said, acknowledging Hiashi for the first time since his arrival. Like clockwork, Neji became even more visibly panicked when Hiashi joined the conversation.
"Calm down you little thief, nobody's prosecuting you," Jiraiya said as he touched his finger to Neji's head.
"What have you done Neji?" Hiashi asked. Neji had a blank expression for a moment, but then abruptly appeared to gain lucidity again, much more than before Jiraiya had closed off the tongue seal.
"Oh you wouldn't believe the things this boy was taking from your office," Jiriaya teased, but this time Neji just wore a look of annoyance instead of fear.
"It was the seal, it made me think I had to be secretive about it. Forgot Hiashi even knew about this operation. Actually I almost forgot about the operation entirely, this seal isn't to be taken lightly. I can't believe Kiba's even still in active duty." Neji said.
Even Hiashi was finding some amusement in this, a sly smirk was forming, "Find anything interesting?" he joked.
"We laugh but it's actually not funny at all Hiashi," Jiraiya replied as Neji tossed his weapons bag onto the desk.
Hiashi heard the clang of the scrolls bumping into each other, "I've read every scroll in that office," he said as he took them out and started opening them, "Other than the caged bird seal there's nothing that would even remotely warrant this type of‒"
Hiashi was in utter shock. First, that there was a scroll in his office that was neglected to be properly passed down to him by his father. Second, that there not only existed such a thing as a Tenseigan, but also the details surrounding it. Third, and actually even more important than the second: Danzo intended to do something with these scrolls.
"You can't expect me to believe this is real can you?" Hiashi began to say in denial, "The Tenseigan can only manifest upon the death of the Byakugan user? After which it resurrects the user? Grants control over gravitational forces?"
"Don't look at me like that Hiashi, he found it in your office," Jiraiya said.
"If I may," Neji interrupted, "Danzo ordered me to look for any document about the Tenseigan. Not only was he sure it was real, but he was also sure that whatever powers it had, he could use it to lure Orochimaru back to the village."
"What else did he say about Orochimaru?" Jiraiya asked, suddenly much more interested.
"He was vague, he mentioned he was sick of Orochimaru messing up our plans. He didn't specify if Orochimaru was included in that 'our'."
"I figured as much. I'm fairly certain that guy has a strong connection to Orochimaru, it's one of the reasons I chose this route to take him down." Jiraiya replied.
"Heh, ROOT" Shikamaru muttered to himself, and caused everyone to stare at him.
"So what now, will this be another thing you kindly ask to go his way for the purposes of further spying on him?" Hiashi asked in clear irritation.
"Not quite no. What I want from you Mr. Hyuga, is to doctor an edited version of these scrolls. That's the one we're going to feed to Danzo."
