A/N: For those of you how have been following this story as it updates, this is the right chapter. I just combined some of the first chapters that were really short, so I didn't delete anything and you don't have to go reread the story. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto/Naruto Shippuden! Anyone read yesterday's manga chapter...?

Chapter 13:

Secrets Revealed: Hindrance

The door opened and a man stepped in closing the door behind him.

"5th Hokage, it seems you have been keeping things from me lately. Things concerning the release of the young Tonbo Uchiha," he said.

Tsunade remained quiet.

"I hope you understand what it is you have done. Do you really know who she is and why she was put away?" he asked.

Tsunade half ignored his question out of distrust. "Danzo."

"Princess Tsunade, I have been aware of Uchiha's release for quite some time now. I want you to be aware of what it is you have done."

Tsunade held up her hand, "First, I want you to explain why you took so long to confront me about this. If you knew, why did you wait to come here? I let her out six weeks ago."

"It took time to put all the pieces together," he began. "None of my men saw you release her. Since I had believed you didn't know about her existence, I never concerned my men with watching the entrance. The first signs we picked up on were the ANBU members who were taking care of her walking around town, filling out job applications."

Tsunade narrowed her eyes. She had been careless to think that all of those women would go unnoticed by a man such as him.

"Logically you would have brought her to the hospital, but I had no way to confirm that. You surely would never be so naïve as to put her in an ordinary room and treat her like every other patient."

Tsunade momentarily wondered if there was an underlying insult in his words.

"I deduced that it would be unnecessary to have my men staked out in front of the hospital as it would take time for the girl to recover enough to leave and there would be evidence of her having left as soon as she did so. Three weeks went by until the first confirmed sighting of her was with Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka. It appears they went shopping and ate lunch together before Uchiha went back to the hospital."

I never authorized that! Tsunade thought to herself. She closed her eyes in a moment of frustration but held her composure.

"It was that night that some part of the Uchiha's hidden power awakened within her momentarily."

Tsunade straightened herself up abruptly before blurting out her train of thought in slight urgency, "So you felt that?"

Danzo stared at Tsunade with a blank expression on his face. Darn! Tsunade relaxed her back a bit as she realized that her actions might have given away the fact that she, herself was worried about what the girl might do.

However, Danzo paid no mind to Tsunade's sudden outburst and continued on casually. "I, myself was not in the area at the time and was astounded when I heard that my men had been so paralyzed by fear, they could not even come to alert me. That is the only reason I did not show up on the scene."

"So you were told afterwards, and just their descriptions of the sensation they felt were enough for you to figure out what it was?" Tsunade questioned.

"When you've felt something so penetrating once, you do not soon forget," he gave as an answer.

"I see," Tsunade said shortly in order to allow him to continue on without telling him to do so.

"It was after that when I ordered my men to stake out the hospital, which soon proved fruitful. My men reported seeing you and Kakashi Hatake go to the intelligence center and enter a sound proof room. Although they could not hear what was being said, I had no need for them to. I knew that the girl didn't die and there would only be one reason why you would bring Kakashi of all people to a place such as that," he stated matter-of-factly.

Tsunade frowned at his response. She had indeed made the right decision in going there, but with a man like Danzo, it didn't even matter.

"Four days after that was when she was spotted leaving the hospital. She was speaking with Sakura Haruno and there was mention that Uchiha would go 'home'. It wasn't difficult to decipher where 'home' was."

"So your men followed her home?" Tsunade stated more than asked.

"Not yet, it wasn't until early the next morning that my men actually found her in the Uchiha district," Danzo corrected simply.

"Oh really? Why is that?" Tsunade was a bit surprised.

"I'll get to that later," was Danzo's response.

Tsunade leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms defiantly but did not verbally express any objections.

"The girl was found on the rooftop of the house previously own by Fugaku Uchiha. I've had 24 hour surveillance on her since then. And as if it wasn't clear enough, it became painfully obvious yesterday when I was given these." He pulled some papers out of the sleeve of his kimono that were each folded in thirds as if ready to be put into envelopes.

He began his approach to Tsunade's desk in order to hand them to her.

"What are those?"

6:05am

Kakashi walked up onto Tonbo's porch and reached to knock on her door. Before his hand could make contact, Tonbo swung the door open but didn't even give him a glance.

"You're late," she said in a flat tone. "Which means I'm late," she added as an after thought as she let herself fall onto her butt to put her shoes on in front of the doorway.

"I brought you breakfast," Kakashi said as he watched her put a shoe on the wrong foot and then take it back off.

"Thanks," she said as she stood up while pulling the back of her second shoe over her heel. "I'll eat on the way," she told him after finally looking up.

She reached out for one of the rice balls he had with him, but he moved his hands further away from her.

Tonbo blinked once as she was taken aback before frustration flooded her. "Kakashi, I really need to go! Gai will make me run extra laps around Konoha, or do extra vertical push-ups, or even do vertical push-ups while walking on my hands around Konoha!" she said all in one hurried breath.

"If you're already late, a few more minutes won't make a difference. I have something else for you," he pulled the three envelopes he had out from under his arm. "I was asked to give these to you and was told they were important."

Kakashi then handed them over to Tonbo as she sighed. "What are they?" she asked when she noticed the outsides of the envelopes were blank.

"I wasn't told. Open them," came his reply.

She tore each of them open one by one. "Hospital bill... electricity bill... water bill." Tonbo groaned, "I guess you don't really know what adults have to deal with until you deal with those things yourself."

"They're all just bills?" Tsunade looked up from them.

"Copies, actually. The only reason I ended up with them is because the hospital didn't know where to send the medical bill, and both the electrical and water companies didn't know who to charge. If you really wanted to conceal her whereabouts, you should have put more effort into planning accordingly," Danzo spoke harshly.

Tsunade's frown only deepened. "So then, back to why your men didn't find her until the morning after she left the hospital," she changed the subject.

Danzo glanced out the window briefly before turning his gaze back onto the princess before him. "Very well then. Like I said earlier, the first confirmed sighting of her from my men was where Haruno and Yamanaka took her shopping. During that time, although Uchiha never noticed, the other two had. They both repeatedly looked over their shoulders and were both able to sense them despite my mens' training."

Tsunade hid her smirk behind her hands which she folded in front of her face.

"Neither girl took any action against my men though. The day ended without conflict. However, that was not the case the day Uchiha left the hospital."

There was a fight? Tsunade wondered.

"For various reasons, I decided it would be best if I only had one man tail her..."

Sakura walked out of the front doors of the hospital with Tonbo Uchiha by her side. They stopped before the road and exchanged conversation.

"Tonbo, where will you go?" Sakura was curious.

"Well home of course!"

"Well then tell your brothers I said hi, okay?" Sakura smiled.

"Of course," she confirmed. "I better get going, I'll see you later Sakura!" Tonbo ran off in the direction of her house waving back at Sakura.

"Yeah, I'll see you soon!" Sakura called after her, waving.

As soon as Tonbo was out of earshot, Sakura turned her attention upward, into the trees across the street.

"I don't know why you're following Tonbo... but if you don't go in the opposite direction she went, I'll be forced to come after you," she stated warningly.

There was silence for a while and no movement was made.

"I'll warn you, I'm not the type of person to be subtle during a fight. You don't want to cause a scene, do you?"

There was another moment of silence before there was a flash of movement so fast, if Sakura had not been watching that place intently, she wouldn't have been able to notice it. Whoever the man was, Sakura was now satisfied that he had gone away from where Tonbo was going.

She turned on her heel to head back into the hospital. She stopped right before entering the doors to say one last thing.

"Keep on running," she said quietly. And then she went inside.

So that's what happened, Tsunade thought after listening to Danzo reiterate what he was told by the man he had follow Tonbo.

"She wasn't seen again until later that day when she went into town. My ROOT member followed her while she went grocery shopping. Perhaps it was by chance, but she also happened to go into the Yamanaka Flower Shop where Ino Yamanaka happened to be working at the time," he continued.

"Welcome to the Yamanaka Flower Shop! May I he—, oh hey Tonbo!"

Tonbo turned around to see Ino, much to her surprise. "Ino?"

"How many will you want?" Ino asked.

Tonbo thought about it. "Three," she said.

Ino smiled and took three dahlias over to the front desk and trimmed the stems with her scissors. She wrapped them up and tied a bow. "It's on the house," she handed the flowers to Tonbo.

"You don't have to do that, I don't mind pay—"

Ino cut her off, "Tonbo, you couldn't even force me to let you pay. It's called a favor, and it is okay to accept it."

Tonbo smiled, "Thank you very much!"

"I'll see you later!" Ino called as Tonbo walked to the door.

"Yeah, see you later," Tonbo waved before leaving.

Ino frowned and walked towards the door. She opened it and looked outside. They're moving! she noticed and she quickly sprang into action, the door slamming shut behind her.

She formed a hand seal and aimed the window her hands made. "Mind Destruction Jutsu!"

A body seemed to trip and then disappear behind a rooftop. Ino panted loudly as she tried to recover from the strain. Guess I haven't quite mastered that technique yet after all.

"It only took that much for him to loose Uchiha in the crowd."

"So Ino's been working on a new technique? Sakura will want to hear about that," Tsunade said mostly to herself.

Danzo chose to completely ignore her and continue on with his story. "Then in the evening, she was sighted asleep in the cemetery. The man following her had to wait a few hours before she was woken up by Shikamaru Nara."

He sat down facing her. "I'm Shikamaru Nara," he stated.

She inwardly sighed, "My name is Tonbo."

"So then what are you doing out here anyway?" he asked without being sensitive.

"Just visiting, I guess I lost track of time and fell asleep."

"Do you want me to walk you home?" he asked. Despite his overall lazy and uncaring appearance, he still seemed genuine.

"No thank you, but I really should be getting home," she got up and started off in the direction of her house.

If she gets hurt on the way to her house, I'll probably regret not chasing after her. But I just sat down, getting up would be so... troublesome. He sat there thinking.

As he was doing so, his shadow was slowly creeping across the grass and up a tree. He caught the stalker in his shadow so that the man couldn't move.

He turned to look at the name on the grave out of curiosity. When he read the name, his eyes widened.

No, it can't be. That's... impossible. He leaped up to his feet and gave the man in the tree a piece of advice.

"If you follow either of us, I'll consider you a threat." He then released his jutsu and dashed in the direction she headed.

Tsunade couldn't help but smile with pride in the three of them. "It sounds to me like your men need more training."

"I'm already dealing with them," Danzo stated without a hint of mercy.

"I see," Tsunade replied.

"Early that morning, she was seen on the rooftop. She sat their alone until Kakashi Hatake showed up. Of course it was expected that he, being a former member of the ANBU black ops, would notice anyone in the vicinity no matter who they were."

"I'm glad even you believe that," Tsunade put in, but was promptly ignored.

"For the next few days following that, he made sure that there was someone with Uchiha at all times to keep her follower at a distance. He even staked out her house at night. After a few days of watching her watcher, I believe he figured out that the man wouldn't do anything to her. So he started going back to his apartment at night again."

So Kakashi was spending so much time with her because he knew she was being followed? He even refused a mission that week, Tsunade remembered.

"After that, he still made sure she had someone with her during the day. I can only assume that his purpose was to make sure that she, herself didn't notice that someone was following her."

"If Kakashi knew someone was following her all this time, why didn't he tell me?" Tsunade mumbled under her breath.

"I would think that to be obvious," Danzo got Tsunade's attention back. "It's because he couldn't be sure whether it was you who sent the man to follow her or not."

Tsunade was taken aback, but said nothing in response.

"I think it's fairly obvious that even you have doubts of whether you can trust her or not. You're questioning your decision to let her out."

Tsunade bit her lower lip.

"Everyone else had similar thoughts as Kakashi. They seem to have had a silent agreement between anyone who noticed, that they would not discuss nor alert Tonbo Uchiha about all the odd things surrounding her. Everyone is just waiting to see if anyone will take action. They are all still trying to form opinions of the Uchiha girl for themselves," Danzo explained.

Damn! was Tsunade's only thought.

"Others who noticed include Maito Gai, and Neji Hyuga with his byakugan. The only people who still haven't seemed to notice are Tenten, Rock Lee, and Tonbo Uchiha herself. I believe it's probable that everyone besides Kakashi is trying to decide whether it's a good thing that someone is following her or a bad thing. Until they decide, I doubt you'll hear anything from them."

Tonbo hung her head trying to think of a way to come up with enough money to pay all her bills. Her shoulders slumped with the further realization that there was no way she could pay off all her bills anytime soon.

Kakashi took notice of her demeanor. "Tonbo, don't you have to get going?"

Tonbo immediately straightened herself back up. "Yes, I—" she turned towards the door and then turned back being unable to decide what to do as she was in a hurry.

"Here, how about this." Kakashi took the bills from her and traded them for a rice ball. "Now go on, I'll put these on the table for you.

Tonbo smiled, "Thanks Kakashi." She started to run off to training ground three where she knew Team Gai would be waiting for her.

Kakashi turned to go inside but stopped to give a last second, knowing glance at the trees.

Tsunade gave a sigh, "So... what did you want to tell me about her? What's the real reason she was put there?"

"So you are interested after all. Will my response effect your opinion about her?" Danzo asked already knowing what her answer would likely be.

"That depends on what your response is," she stated firmly.

"Of course," Danzo gave a nod of understanding. "There are many factors that went into this decision. I personally wanted to have her join the ROOT program. The third immediately objected of course. The only way we could convince the third was by telling him it was for her own protection."

"Was that a lie?" Tsunade asked.

"Not entirely. The fact that it would protect her was merely something extra. It protected her not only from being killed or kidnapped, but also from being used as a tool. It is true that if people had found out about her abilities, she would have easily become a target and a prize, but that knowledge could also have easily lead to war."

"War?" Tsunade echoed.

"Bringing her into the equation of power between nations would have upset the balance that has been so carefully fabricated. Konoha would not only have the nines tail but also someone with the power to control others."

Tsunade nodded her head. Everything did make sense to far, but she did not like where this was leading.

"I wanted to use the girl's power for the sake of the village. With her power, she wouldn't need to kill anyone. She could control the minds of others, and the best part being that there is no way for a person to tell that there mind was ever being controlled even after she stops controlling them. If you have control of the head of the beast, the rest of the body follows. The only people she would need to control are the Kages."

Tsunade was shocked at how easily he could say such things. "And how do you know so much about her power?"

"That's simple. The women who were living there with her weren't just former members of the ANBU. A couple were medical ninjas, biologists, physicists, one was a chakra properties specialist and there was also a historian. None of them were there just to take care of her, they were each handpicked by myself to study her. I had them learn as much as possible about her," he explained.

"But one of the women came to my office and told me about an incident when she was eight. She acted like she didn't understand what had happened to her," Tsunade subconsciously raised her voice.

"I had instructed each of them that if someone were to come to release her, one of them should tell whoever came that story as a warning of her power without actually revealing what her power is."

"Then did you lock her away to create a chance to study her because the third Hokage wouldn't allow you to turn her into your tool?!" Tsunade sent him a glare.

"No, one of the biggest reasons was because she killed a Leaf shinobi," Danzo stayed as calm as ever.

"What?" Tsunade couldn't control the slight hitch in her voice.

"The circumstances in which it happened are unclear and there was no way to prove whether she had probable cause to kill the man or not. However, she killed him nonetheless. She claims to not remember what happened that night."

"So then... is she really dangerous?"

"That all depends on her mental state. Though I believe there couldn't be a better person to watch over her than Kakashi Hatake."

Tsunade lowered her gaze slightly and refused to speak.

"She could be perfectly safe, or she could be deceiving you along with Kakashi. Just keep in mind that if she does decide to turn against us, I don't see a way we could stop her," Danzo spoke with finality.

He turned to take his leave but Tsunade called out to him. "Wait. Do you know where her birth certificate is?"

He looked back at her over his shoulder. "Yes, it's among the other classified documents." He paused, "Are you wanting to know who her biological parents are?"

"I assume you already have that information. And I also assume that you won't tell me their names."

"You would be correct," he stated simply and left out the door.

A/N: Ehhhhh! So much dialogue! Please Review! :D