Kakashi, Haruto and Naruto all waited outside the Hokage office, waiting for the Hokage to call them inside.
Naruto was bouncing on his feet excitedly, looking curious to see the new Hokage to see if he would entertain him like the third did.
Soon the doors opened and an old voice spoke from inside the room in a no nonsense tone, "Enter." The word was less an affirmation and more an order.
Naruto went slightly rigid with fright, but when he looked at Haruto and Kakashi both looking fearless he quietly followed behind them.
Entering the room Kakashi was the first to kneel on the floor on a single knee followed by Haruto and then Naruto who copied them clumsily.
"Hokage-sama." Kakashi said calmly while looking up to see Danzo who was standing behind his desk.
Danzo looked down upon the three new entrants into his office with his lone eye looking like a forbearing demonic ancestor.
Naruto felt something ominous about Danzo so he stayed silent while trying to control his trembling. He'd seen the same look from Danzo from many others in the village, yet looking at it from Danzo truly made him feel lesser, as if he were merely a tool in someone's grasp.
Danzo walked ahead of his desk quietly, his footsteps resounding ominously as he stepped closer to the trio before he stopped in front of Haruto.
"Reveal your tongue." Danzo commanded sharply.
Haruto's eyes widened ever so slightly and his emotions fell in a swing, but he didn't let his emotions show on his face.
Yet before either he or Danzo could act, Kakashi quickly interrupted, "This is not necessary Hokage-sama."
Danzo huffed, "I decide what's necessary or not. I am the Hokage now, you're not."
Kakashi wanted to argue further but didn't find any ground to, so he offered himself up instead, "Mark me Hokage-sama… I am surely a more capable shinobi than someone like Haruto-kun."
Danzo looked at Kakashi, his only visible brow raised, he seemed to debate the idea for a second but quickly discarded the proposed idea.
'With only a seal on him, Kakashi could risk his own life to save his comrades…'
'But with a seal on his disciple…'
'He won't dare raise a finger against me.'
Danzo shook his head, "No that's not what I want."
Haruto sent a glance Kakashi's way, slightly touched that he would sacrifice himself for a person he'd barely known, but then looked back at Danzo anyway.
Danzo seemed to be getting impatient so Haruto didn't let him wait any longer.
Without opening his mouth, Haruto slipped his tongue out of it.
Danzo raised his hand and formed a few handseals quickly before slamming his right palm on the exposed fleshy tongue.
Haruto felt a slight stinging pain on his tongue, the kind you feel when you eat something hot, before something foreign settled over his tongue.
It tasted quite bitter like ink and made the feverish Haruto feel like vomiting.
But Haruto held it in since along with the ink he also felt something foreign enter his chakra circulation system.
It was cold, metallic and reeked of death and rot. It limited itself to the tenketsu in his tongue for now.
'Is this Danzo's chakra?'
Danzo lifted his hand back and rested it inside his sleeve before commanding, "Create a bit of chakra in your body."
Not left with any choice, Haruto complied. And once he was done, he nodded after which Danzo ordered again, "Circulate the chakra you just created between the tenketsu on your tongue and the three in the brain."
Haruto nodded and did so.
As soon as Haruto felt his chakra enter the tenketsu on his tongue the foreign energy already inside it mixed into his chakra and circulated along with it into the tenketsus in his brain.
Almost immediately, Haruto felt his perception shift.
What was once a scenario clouded by emotions of fear and hurt suddenly became mute and was rendered into the clear and form fitting lines of logic and intellect.
Haruto's eyes clouded over and his gaze turned sharp.
Naruto, who was on the side, felt something shift about Haruto that he couldn't quite put into words. He felt like the happy senior he knew from this morning had suddenly vanished and been replaced by a cold, unfeeling, calculating machine.
Danzo's lips curved upwards slightly as he nodded, "Good… remember, if you ever stop this circulation, the seal will activate and kill you."
Haruto only nodded once to indicate he understood.
But it seemed the shock was too great for Naruto. He immediately jumped up and shouted!
"How can you do this you old man! This is unfair! Haruto nii-san's life is not yours to command! Leave him alone!"
Danzo only looked at Naruto and smirked, his next words were simple and they froze both Kakashi and Naruto in their place-
"Haruto, kill yourself."
And Haruto complied.
Haruto pulled out a kunai out of Kakashi's tools pouch, snatching it before Kakashi could react and put the kunai against his neck, pressing it hard enough to draw blood from a thin cut against his neck.
"STOP ITTT!!!!" Naruto shouted, his limbs trembling, his eyes going in and out of focus and the whiskers on his face deepening.
"Stop." Danzo commanded, causing Haruto to pause himself from cutting open his neck in front of everyone.
Danzo then looked at Naruto and spoke calmly, "There will be monthly tests for you. If you don't pass them, Haruto will die."
Naruto's eyes trembled.
His body took in shallow breaths as he felt panic rising in his chest.
Naruto's fists clenched as he stopped feeling his limbs because his blood seemed to turn cold, his eyes stopped being the glossy blue that he'd inherited from his father and turned a sharp crimson.
Danzo noticed all this of course, but held on.
He stared at Naruto as Naruto stared back, glaring defiantly.
Just as the silence stretching thin in the Hokage office threatened to break out into violence Kakashi flickered by Naruto's side.
He pushed his hand onto Naruto's head and made the boy bend low in front of the Hokage.
"Apologies Hokage-sama. I will make sure Naruto is trained well. Thank you for your benevolence."
Danzo huffed and turned away, leaving behind one last open command for Haruto.
"Keep an eye on those two for me. I want weekly updates and updates if they plan something behind my back."
"Yes, Hokage-sama." Haruto nodded while both Kakashi and Naruto looked at him with mixed expressions.
"Dismissed." Danzo said with a finality to his tone.
***
"What have you done!!" Kushina wailed as Minato kept her from Hiruzen.
Hiruzen hung his head in shame as he looked at what Danzo was doing and how he was treating the village.
Tobirama too sighed.
Eventually in the quiet silence of the enigmatic room that was interrupted only by Kushina's motherly sobs, Hashirama spoke up.
"Do you have a way to break Haruto-kun out of that seal, Mito?"
Mito sighed and shook her head.
"I know that it is the cursed tongue eradication seal that Danzo is using, but I've never looked into such a vile seal myself before… so I don't know how it works… I have a few guesses, but it will take me a little bit of time to work out how the seal works in its entirety from scratch and even then Danzo might be using some other tricks to make the actual implementation on Haruto-kun a little complicated."
Everyone in the room sighed.
That was when Hiruzen finally lifted his head, his eyes sparking.
"I don't remember all of it, but I do remember some of the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal."
Mito's eyes gleamed as everyone focused on her.
"Based on how much you remember, we can shorten the time to about two months."
"Two months huh…" Tobirama said softly.
***
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