Shout

[45] Traitor

"Kagami Hatake may be the one leaking information," the new Hokage, Tsunade, glares over her desk at the jonin she has left.

Approximately 20 sit in rows in front of her, her office not near capacity. Kakashi doesn't react as she expects, he just simply continues to look lazily at her desk. He is used to it, months Kagami has been under speculation, but this attack and her accurate knowledge of it has raised alarms higher than ever.

"I highly doubt a Genin woul-"

"But she isn't a Genin," Tsunade cuts him off, her eyes sharp, "She has been trained by the Root to be a killing machine, and by the looks of this," she lifts up a file off her desk, Kagami's name scrawled across it neatly, "I won't need to even guess why she might hate the village."

Kakashi's head does slightly lift his head to her at this point, his interest peaked, "Why is that?"

Tsunade gives him a small glance before opening the file and shuffling through a few papers. She pulls out a certain one and places it on her desk, leaning forward slightly to read it.

"Kagami Hatake, April 13th, age 9, tortured for three hours and 40 minutes because of a failed mission. August 26th, age 10, tortured for fourteen days, nine hours and 36 minutes because she was identified by Shikaku Nara around the village border. The list goes on, but it would seem that Root has questionable methods of dealing with failure." The woman glances down at the ninja, anticipating a reaction.

Kakashi sighs heavily, rubbing his face. He is well aware of how the Root works, but he never thought that this could be one of the outcomes of the corrupt Foundation. Shikaku, who is sitting lazily at the back of the room leans back against the wall and looks to the roof, closing his eyes.

He remembers the day he found her. She was looking at the dead trees in the Nara forest and she wandered too close to the edge and he could see her through the trees. He had never seen her around before and was aware of run-away orphans sneaking into villages at the time. So he trapped her in his shadow possession quite easily and walked his way to the Hokage office, Kagami following his every move.

The Hokage also had no idea who she was, and immediately called for her to answer his questions, but she chose not to talk and all she did was lift her shirt slightly to show off her black foundation symbol to the two.

The rage in Danzo's eyes that day was very clear. It became obvious to Shikaku that Kagami wasn't supposed to be found or known about. That she was his secret weapon, yet he had found her wandering through his forest in broad daylight on his day off.

"Shikaku," The man looks over to his Hokage hesitantly, "Tell me what you found her doing."

The man sighs and sits up straighter, scratching his head.

"She was trespassing on Nara land, I don't think she knew about the boundary between parkland and our land." He makes eye contact with Kakashi briefly. "She was looking at the dead trees, the ones burnt in the fire."

"I assume you mean the Nara fire?" He nods, "When did it take place?"

He looks up again, as if the ceiling has the answer, "A few years ago, hm, maybe a week before the Uchiha Massacre."

The edge on the roof hardens and seems to become darker.

"Well, something may be tied in there, the culprit was never found I remember." Tsunade leans back in her chair and stares down at the folder in front of her, her mind spinning to a conclusion. "I want 24 hour surveillance of that girl."

The room shifts suddenly, eyes widening and gasps leaving mouths.

"I know we are low on Shinobi, but, I believe there is something up with that girl." She leans forward in her chair and stands up, pulling out all the papers in her folder and glancing over them. "This girl, she has been through too much to not be affected by this . . . this upbringing."