Kakashi jumped over rooftops to reach the Hokage office quicker, disregarding his wounds to rush to deliver his report.
As such, Kakashi entered the Hokage office without even knocking on Hiruzen's door, causing a great deal of surprise to the old man.
But since Hiruzen was already waiting for the report regarding Hiruko having moved the body to a different location, he was not too surprised, he simply assumed that the ANBU had already found the secondary location and suppressed Hiruko.
He assumed that Kakashi got his wounds from the fight.
Only Kakashi's next words stumped him.
"Hiruko has been killed, Lord Third."
"Killed? What!? How!? Who did it!? Explain from the beginning!"
Kakashi nodded and began to explain everything.
"Hiruko doesn't seem to be connected to the disappearances of the children, Lord Third… he simply took Tatsuya Uchiha to the attached secret office in the R&D department and nowhere else. We observed to see if he would transfer Tatsuya Uchiha somewhere else again but he did not and was about to kill him, so we revealed ourselves to stop him."
"When we revealed ourselves to stop him, he turned against us and used a peculiar seal to absorb our chakra and weaken us. Haruto-kun during this period was also under some kind of genjutsu technique which he broke through when he was ordered to kill us after we were weakened. When Hiruko was distracted with absorbing Tatsuya's Chakra using a peculiar seal on his palm after that, Haruto fought Hiruko to a stand still and cleverly used the clone explosion technique to explode and kill Hiruko."
"Hmmm…is that so…" Hiruzen frowned, picking up his smoking pipe to take a whiff.
Several thoughts ran through Hiruzen's mind in that moment.
Haruto getting the Clone Explosion jutsu from somewhere or inventing it himself and Hiruko's genjutsu on Haruto that went unnoticed even when he was in the room with Haruto earlier or even Hiruko's confidence in turning against the ANBU while he was inside the village.
But most importantly of all, his thoughts circled back towards the one key piece of information about Hiruko that made a few pieces of the puzzle fit together.
'A seal that can steal away chakra and weaken the body…'
'Where did he get such a jutsu from?'
'Did he invent it himself? But nothing on the file says that Hiruko is a genius sealing master… in fact he likely doesn't know much else beyond the basics…'
'Did he hide his capabilities so successfully from the village?'
'...or…'
Another possibility arose in Hiruzen's mind as his thoughts wandered.
'Or he got it from somewhere else recently…'
'He made a new ally… which gave him the confidence in being able to escape from the village along with this new chakra stealing jutsu…'
'...Jigen?'
Hiruzen's features morphed into a frown.
He quietly stood up, surprising Kakashi.
"Kakashi, you go to the hospital and get yourself healed."
"Yes, Hokage-sama…" Kakashi nodded as Hiruzen walked past him, his ANBU trailing with him in the shadows.
***
Jigen sat in the fancy garden of the house where he was allowed to live temporarily while sipping tea.
Suddenly he heard loud knocks at the door.
"Hmmm…?"
'So the Hokage is finally here…'
'Saves me the trouble of having to look for him…'
Jigen got up from his seat in the garden and stood up to open the gate for Hiruzen.
"Hokage…" Jigen said dropping all pretenses.
Hiruzen looked at Jigen with a calm yet steady evaluating gaze before he spoke, "So you already know…"
Jigen nodded calmly, "The seal was linked to me… I found out as soon as it happened."
"Is that so…"
The two stared at each other for a few seconds before Hiruzen opened his mouth again.
"I request you to come along with us for a little bit of questioning Jigen-san… can you do that for the Leaf Village?"
Jigen smirked.
"And if I don't? Are you going to stop me from leaving?"
Jigen was really angry at this moment.
He'd lost a perfect vessel.
His one chance to reincarnate after all these thousand years was lost because of the orders of a stupid Hokage.
"It seems I will have to get serious…" Hiruzen said with a frown. His muscles tightening under the tense battle pressure that erupted between them.
"I doubt it…" Jigen said calmly. "After all… you're already dead…"
"Huh!?" Hiruzen only managed to choke out a gasp before he collapsed to the ground on his knees.
The ANBU hiding in the shadows all froze.
They didn't realise when, or how or even from where, a black rod had impaled Hiruzen's heart.
With a cough of blood, Hiruzen fell flat, his eyes wide and his heart already exploded.
His eyes burned the image of Jigen looking down on him like he was trash as only a single question rang in his head.
'What have I done!?'
"FATHERRRRR!!!!!!!" An ANBU operative shouted out loud before rushing towards Jigen. "The rest of you take the Hokage to the hospital and leave!!!" The man shouted as he came face to face with Hiruzen's killer.
"Father?" Jigen said calmly, "How peculiar… you're even weaker than him… do you really think you'll stand a chance against me?"
Jigen never moved from his place.
He simply raised his hand slowly putting the ANBU operatives all around on guard, and in the next second, several black rods pierced out of the ANBU operative's chest.
He too collapsed beside Hiruzen in a pool of their blood.
Shock wrote his face just like his father's as they both passed away into the afterlife without even realising how they were attacked.
"Good… at least now I feel a little calmer…" Jigen said calmly as he looked at the other ANBU still staring at him in shock and fear.
Some were trembling unconsciously, others still hadn't processed the fact that the Third Hokage was already dead, only one had realised the gravity of what had happened so he ran.
Running was the only thing he could do.
Running was the only thing he could think of.
And so he ran.
He ran to warn everyone else about the magnitude of chaos that had just been unleashed upon the leaf village.
***
'I hope nothing goes wrong with the Otsutsuki joining in on this mission…' Haruto thought to himself while on the hospital bed.
Kakashi had come to lie down beside him so they were buddies now.
But since Kakashi was busy reading Icha Icha Paradise, Haruto didn't have anyone to talk to.
Instead he used his mind's eye to enter the Template Inventory Space.
"Edward-sensei!!!!" Haruto shouted out loud as soon as he got there causing Edward to shiver.
"What?" Edward asked casually while cleaning his nails.
"I finished the mission… didn't I?" Haruto asked with a goofy smile on his face.
Edward's brows twitched.
His peripheral vision caught Megumin bouncing on her feet and looking equally as excited as Haruto if not more.
"What was the mission again…" Edward said lightly but Megumin responded immediately, "It was for Haruto to invent a new jutsu! If he did that you said you would accept it!"
Haruto on the side nodded vigorously.
"Hmmm…" Edward dragged out his opinion on the mission but then finally sighed, relaxed and nodded, "Alright… I accept the clone explosion technique as a new jutsu invented by you… even though it probably already exists…"
"YAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Haruto shouted with excitement.
Except, the next immediate second he collapsed onto the grassy lands of the template inventory system twitching.
"Haruto!!! What happened to you!!!!" Megumin shouted as she rushed towards him.
***
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