To Naruto these were just words of people he'd never met. But to Kakashi they were names of comrades in arms. Participants of a war that they were forced to partake in.
Kakashi's hands tightened around empty air showing how helpless he felt in the moment.
Kakashi could easily guess why Danzo revealed the names of those he was going to target very soon. It was an advance warning. A death knell meant to announce that he was moving with the reason of treason. To announce to the village that this treason had forced his hand to take revenge.
Naruto stood there with his eyes turning a sharp crimson red while Haruto stood there calmly with no emotion on his face.
Naruto was about to break his stare off with Danzo with another loud shout while ordering him to spare the three clan heads, but Naruto's outbreak was interrupted when an ANBU shinobi appeared in their midst using the body flicker jutsu.
He waited patiently until Danzo ordered him to speak, "What is it?"
The ANBU quickly looked up at Danzo and explained why he was here, "Clan Head Fugaku requests an immediate meeting with you Lord Danzo. He has some very important news to discuss with you."
Danzo's expression cracked for a second, he first looked surprised and then he looked angry at someone or something if the prominent frown on his face was anything to go by.
He looked around at Naruto, Kakashi and then finally at Haruto before ignoring everyone and speaking to the ANBU member once again, "Lead the way…"
The ANBU simply nodded and Danzo followed him out of the training ground, leaving behind everyone else.
The ANBU members carried away the man still nailed to the cross leaving behind Kakashi's team all alone in the training grounds.
"What now? Are you going to fish with us, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked Kakashi in a tone that felt like he was close to breaking down, like he needed some support at this point but Kakashi had just heard something too important to stay with Naruto exclusively right now, so he simply turned towards Haruto, "Go along with Naruto to the lakes to fish… make sure nothing happens to him while you are with him."
Haruto nodded plainly without any expression on his face, while Naruto looked on the verge of breaking down.
Still, Kakashi simply patted Naruto's head twice before vanishing in a swirl of leaves, "Stay strong Naruto."
Naruto bit his lips tight until it began to bleed but Haruto didn't seem to care much about it, he simply turned around and spoke to Naruto coldly, "Where are we going to fish?"
Naruto quickly wiped his eyes on his sleeves before turning towards Haruto and speaking in a cold tone, "I know a spot…" as he carried on walking ahead, allowing Haruto to follow him from behind.
The two walked quite a bit as Haruto keenly observed their surroundings. They first reached the edge of the village before Naruto waded through a bunch of bushes to jump down a slope and reveal a forested area.
"There's a pond here?" Haruto asked as they were going through the forested area. The number of trees was growing and the forest was turning thicker by the minute which made it slightly questionable that there was going to be any open space around there, much less a pond for them to fish in.
But Naruto just clicked his tongue, "Tsk. Just keep following me, I know where it is, this is the shortest way to it."
While they walked, Haruto spoke to Grindelwald in his mind.
"Could that earlier summon Danzo got, be related to us by any chance, Grindelwald?"
"I was about to say the same thing…" Grindelwald said positively but Megumin interrupted, "How do you know what they are talking about? Can't it be about the Uchiha Clan and the village?"
Haruto thought for a second and shook his head mentally before explaining to her and everyone else in the Inventory Template Space, "Had it been regarding the village, Fugaku wouldn't have interrupted Danzo's own works with any urgent meetings. Since that would just put Danzo in a worse mood and make the ensuing negotiations worse."
"Given it was an urgent meeting, Fugaku should've received some damning news. And currently there are very few kinds of news that could evoke such a reaction from him, either the village was getting attacked and the police force caught people doing so, which is unlikely since Danzo would've first received news of it from his ANBU guards otherwise or Fugaku received news regarding the Daimyo's assassination attempt from Shisui."
"To add to the reasoning, Danzo's expression was momentarily surprised and shocked, as if he recognised the same thing as us after which he was angry at someone or something else. It is likely that Obito informed him of the Daimyo assassination attempt beforehand so that they could collectively take down the Uchiha even more easily."
"But since Fugaku got the news first instead of him, probably from Shisui, it means that Obito failed in his mission and didn't contact him for some reason, ergo his anger."
Megumin nodded with an awed expression on her face, "Does that mean you completed the mission then!?" She asked immediately.
"I… think so? What do you think, Grindelwald?" Haruto asked the old man mentally.
"That would be a mission accomplished from my side as well." Grindelwald said unhesitatingly, causing Megumin to jump into the air before suddenly shouting out loud! "Haruto!!!!"
Because of the sudden rush of information into his mind about occlumency, Haruto felt a stabbing pain in his head as he stumbled over a root and planted face first into the brambly forest floor.
Naruto looked back and with a stick he'd picked up at some point, stabbed Haruto in the face like he was a dead bug, expecting him to move or show stimulus in some way. "You're dead? Do I finally not have to care about a tail on my back?"
Haruto twitched.
"Damn it… you're alive… would've been better if you stayed dead for everyone."
Haruto pushed himself up and wiped away all the dead leaves stuck to his face before glaring at Naruto causing him to flinch in surprise because that was the first expression he'd seen on Haruto's face ever since Danzo had branded him.
But before Naruto could retort in any way, Haruto's expression fell back into the same cold indifference that he'd always put on himself.
Haruto pushed himself up from the forest floor and stood up and grumbled, "Continue walking… you don't need to stop for every little thing."
Naruto grumbled a few words of choice himself before he started walking again.
"Did it help Haruto!?" Megumin asked immediately.
Haruto frowned a little, exercising his jaw for a few seconds to get rid of the pain he felt after falling flat on it before he spoke in his mind, "It did help. Using Grindelwald's Occlumency, I split my mind into two, one is a front for the cursed tongue eradication seal, latched on by it and forcefully held on and the other is me, free of its influence!"
"So like the clone technique but without splitting the body?" Edward asked softly in a little awe.
"Precisely…" Haruto nodded, "I created a new Haruto persona within me, sort of like activating the shadow clone technique only partially so that there's another will of me within me that is bound by the seal while I roam free!"
"Great!!!" Megumin exclaimed, "Now you can help Naruto-kun!"
***
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