Hiruzen's brows raised slightly, "Missing children in the village? Why am I only hearing about this now?"
While Konoha was a big village, almost city-like in its size, missing children were still rare. The only times a kid went missing was when they slipped past the walls or into the forest of death where they were mauled by a bear or something more dangerous.
The last time multiple children had gone missing, it was Hiruzen's disciple Orochimaru conducting experiments on them in secret and he too was discovered because of the same incident.
All in all it was incredibly rare a child went missing in the village that couldn't be located once again. And for multiple children to go missing, it was no small matter.
"Hokage-sama… the police headquarters recently got a new graph making tool that let them catch onto the missing children… without it they would've remained in the dark because this time the missing children were orphans from the overcrowded orphanages in the village with underreported cases."
"Graph making tool?" Hiruzen nodded in understanding, he hadn't realised that Haruto's little inventions would be so helpful. Although this data didn't narrow the suspects down by a lot it was a start. That was when Hiruzen noticed Kakashi's body language softening, as if he were confused and wanted to speak about something.
Hiruzen put his smoking pipe on and urged Kakashi, "Speak freely. Nothing is interfering with us here."
Kakashi nodded, although his ANBU mask hid his expression he still appeared to relax considerably.
"Hokage-sama… during my time in ROOT, I came across a shinobi who could use wood release."
Hiruzen's eyes shot wide open.
He nearly choked on his pipe before coughing a little and regaining his bearings.
"Are you sure about that?" Hiruzen asked, emptying his pipe on the ashtray. If one of the children in Orochimaru's experiments had survived, and was living well… then… it opened up the door to a lot of other possibilities he did not like.
Kakashi nodded.
"Do you know anything else?" Hiruzen asked calmly, but the intention was clear, he was slightly numb to Kakashi having hidden such an important fact from him until now.
Kakashi thought for a moment before shaking his head, "I'm unsure of anyone in the village working with Wood Release at the moment Hokage-sama. But if Danzo-sama succeeded once, I doubt he would wait to replicate it once again."
Hiruzen nodded. "You may leave, Inu. Also inform Haruto Hayashi to come to Training Ground Seven as usual."
Kakashi nodded and used the body flicker jutsu to vanish from the office.
'Can the children be saved?'
'Is there enough time or has too much time already passed?'
'Is it Orochimaru once again?' Hiruzen thought frowning. He was getting a bad feeling from this case, but he softly chose to suppress it.
'Did Orochimaru make contact with Danzo once again… even after he defected from the village?'
'Or did they never break contact in the first place?'
'To kidnap children once again… Minato was lenient with Danzo the last time it happened because there was no proof… will there be proof this time?'
'Danzo's getting bolder and bolder…'
In the empty space that remained, Hriuzen spoke to his ANBU in hiding.
"I haven't paid Danzo a visit in a long while, arrange a visit to ROOT."
"Yes Hokage-sama." An ANBU operative appeared before Hiruzen and then vanished away using the same body flicker jutsu as Kakashi.
'I'll send a clone to the boy's training… it should be enough to handle it…'
'It might be a little less intelligent than me, but it'll do for now.'
***
Haruto finished his quota of work for the day, as he inspected the system to see if the model was being trained perfectly before packing up his things for the day.
Right as he left the R&D department however he came across Kakashi, "Come to training ground seven today after supper." Kakashi said while looking slightly distracted.
Haruto didn't notice Kakashi's distraction since he was a little distracted too.
'Who'll win between a full powered Kakashi and Edward?'
The answer was obvious, but Haruto learning to fight from Edward currently felt slightly bad for his sensei and wanted him to win instead.
Haruto blankly nodded at Kakashi and went home to finish his supper, ramen, before heading towards Training ground seven.
Only as soon as Haruto arrived at Training ground seven and spotted 'Kakashi' there he frowned in thought.
'Why's Kakashi's tool pouch missing the crack on its button? That button looked on its way to splitting like Moses himself had parted it but now it's fine?'
'Does he use a different pouch while training me?'
Slowly Haruto noticed other errors too, like Kakashi's hair being parted slightly differently than when he'd just seen it, the bandaging on his fingers being slightly off and a little loose, the wear on the headband looking a little too old.
'Is Kakashi just using a clone to teach me or…'
'Is someone using the transformation jutsu to pretend to be him?'
'If yes, then did someone do something to Kakashi?'
'Is this a test?'
'Wait… I remember that his earth wall didn't have dog heads on them the first time he taught me…'
However in spite of all the questions running inside his head, Haruto's face remained impassive, an expression his clone had practiced in front of the mirror after reading a chapter on the transformation jutsu and its practical uses.
It was at that point that Hiruzen spoke up.
"Something wrong?" Hiruzen asked tentatively when he found Haruto standing at the entrance of the training ground for a little too long.
Haruto managed his expression and put up a false persona of feeling shy and confused as he looked up at Hiruzen while producing a few scrolls from his pockets.
"Kakashi-san… I was wondering if before we began our training today you could help me out with verifying something."
"Oh? And what would that be?" Hiruzen asked while accidentally raising his hand to stroke his goatee since he liked being depended on before stopping midway, an action that was in Haruto's sight and gave him several ideas as to who the person on the other end could be.
'A goatee… is it Asuma?'
'But why would he need to hide his identity and use Kakashi's identity?'
'The Third Hokage?'
'...'
A metaphorical bell rang in Haruto's mind.
'Is he using Kakashi's identity as a cover to avoid everyone gossipping about me and him? Also as a cover from the spies in the village that might be interested in the disciple of the Third Hokage otherwise…'
Immediately an idea formed in Haruto's mind.
Haruto quickly stepped forth and handed over the scrolls to Hiruzen.
"Kakashi-san, could you check his scrolls to see if the medicinal bath in them is harmful to me?"
"Hmmm? Medicinal baths? Where did you get that from?"
"Oh! I got it from Hiruko-san in exchange for giving him some of my Scorch Release Chakra. He said that since he was researching kekkei genkai and how to transplant it onto different shionbi it would help him immensely."
Hiruzen's eyes widened as Kakashi's report from earlier reappeared in his mind.
'I do remember the boy trying to do something like that for his research… but I remember approving it because it only needed chakra infusions between different shionbi…'
'Did he run into a road block and team up with Danzo? Is he helping Danzo with the wood release experiments once again?'
"Did he tell you something else Haruto-kun?" Hiruzen asked in a slightly panicked tone.
Haruto frowned internally.
'Why would the Third Hokage ask me if I know anything more about Hiruko? And so panicked at that?'
'Is he already under suspicion?'
'Or is Hiruzen only afraid I'd come in contact with the dark side of the village a little too soon? Human experimentation?'
Haruto pretended to think for a while before nodding to test the waters.
If Hiruzen truly suspected Hiruko for something then the information he was about to give out could be used as a trap, but if it was just a passing question Hiruzen would ignore it.
"He did? What did he say?" Hiruzen asked softly, his tone more controlled than before as if having controlled his emotions.
Haruto looked into Hiruzen's eye and repeated the words he pretended Hiruko had told him, "Hiruko-san told me that the perfect Kekkei genkai for him would be someone from the Uchiha clan, but since they wouldn't subject one of their own to the experiments he would settle for my Scorch Release."
Hiruzen's eyes widened as pieces clicked together in his head.
'Hiruko's been kidnapping children to work with Danzo since he's got the sharingan!? Or maybe he's just trying to lure an Uchiha police officer to capture their sharingan?'
Haruto, who was studying Hiruzen's expression carefully, nodded inside his mind.
'It seems I was right…'