Eventually, thankfully, Haruto did not walk back home in his underwear that day.
A month passed in the routine silence of the mundane as Haruto continued his daily life as a worker in the ANBU interrogation and torture department.
Time passed slowly in those days, with Haruto quietly working to study the various receipts and bills on his computer to figure out if any underhanded shenanigans were taking place so that he could punish them rightfully under the banner of the Dark God.
Today was another meaningless day, as Haruto awoke and performed his daily ablutions before settling down for breakfast.
Only-
'Huh?'
Haruto found himself confused momentarily when he noticed a thin piece of paper on his table as if it had slipped in through the gap underneath the main door the night before.
Haruto looked around the house quietly, as if waiting for intruders to jump him the second he bent low to pick up the paper, but nothing of the sort happened.
'Did you hear anyone sneaking about last night, Megumi?'
'No…'
'Hmm…'
Haruto bent slowly and picked up the paper in a swift and fluid move before quietly inspecting the room once again.
Only when he was sure that there was no other person in the room did he calm down and he began reading what was on the paper.
'Perhaps it's only one of those promotional pamphlets-'
The thought froze in Haruto's mind when his eyes lay on the first few words.
'Mission : Find traces of funds being siphoned from the Konoha orphanages.'
'Reward : Chakra Circulation Method for basic Medic-nin.'
Haruto gulped audibly when he read those words.
It took him a moment to break out of shock before he quickly crumpled the piece of paper and ate it up!
The oil based ink used in the current era tasted terrible, but it didn't stop Haruto from completely swallowing the piece of paper.
'Who sent me such a thing!' Haruto screamed inside his mind as if what he had just received was just a curse from an outer god.
'....you shouldn't do anything rash yet Haruto-kun, they might still be watching.'
Haruto nodded and quietly made his way to the table where he'd prepared some ramen for himself.
It took him a few seconds to calm down, but he managed to hold himself in and quickly stuffed himself to the brim with home made comfort food.
Haruto acted completely normal after that.
While the thought in his mind lingered about what the short letter meant and its consequences, Haruto didn't show any of it outwardly. He quietly paced from his house to the office before entering his cubicle and patiently beginning to work on digitizing his files for the day.
'Did someone send me that letter to test me?' Haruto wondered, casting a glance of suspicion on all his various colleagues at the I.T department.
'After all, only they know that I'm trying to learn about Chakra and improve my chakra control by reading the academy issue textbook.'
'It wouldn't be a long shot for them to make the jump that I'm trying to get work as a medic-nin in the Konoha Hospital like the other dropped out genin in the village.'
'...or perhaps it was that job recruiter? What was his name again?'
'Erm… Hirakawa… something… Hirakawa Tatsuhiro?'
'Only he knew about me applying for the Konoha Medical Department Medicine Staffer.'
'And he's the only outsider who knows I currently work at the I.T department.'
'Oh… doesn't my academy teacher know too since I remember telling him right before I left…'
'Then that means basically everyone at the academy probably knows since gossip like that would've spread like wildfire in the academy.'
'Wait… then doesn't that by extension mean that everyone in the village possibly knows that an eight year old is working in the Konoha I.T department?'
'...not exactly a great start if it could've been anyone…'
'...Hmm…'
'Do I ask someone for help?'
'But who do I even ask… I mean I ate up the proof on impulse!'
'Who'll even believe what I have to say now?'
***
"See! I told you big brother! And you didn't believe me!" Tobirama said with a vindicated look as he spoke to Hashirama who had a disbelieving look on his face.
He couldn't believe it for the life of him!
'An eight year old is a spy?'
'But… why!?'
'Isn't the village giving him enough?'
Hashirama frowned and then muttered, "Perhaps someone killed his parents and he bears a grudge against the village for that…"
Everyone heard Hashirama's small voicing of support for Haruto but at this point no one had the will to believe him.
To them all who had been through the rigors of the world of the shinobi, to them all who knew exactly how treacherous the world of the shinobi was and could be, it was clear as day that Haruto was a spy.
Still since Mito was Hashirama's wife and because something about the situation bugged her, she raised a valid question, "But why would they want to know about orphanage funds being skimmed off?"
Kushina too nodded, "Exactly… wouldn't it be better to you know, know more about the finances and expenses of the village in general like knowing how many shuriken and kunai are being purchased by the village to fund its ANBU unit or even the Chunin and Jonin of the village?"
Minato frowned at that question, not because it was rude since it questioned their senior's judgement but because it did make some sense.
'What would an enemy gain from knowing which orphanages in Konoha were underfunded?'
But Tobirama even had an answer to that question. It seemed like he was well prepared and had been waiting for this moment to showcase his vision.
"Because underfunded Orphanages mean negligent caretakers and that means that you could raise those children to spy on their own village with very few bribes. A simple gift here or there, a simple scroll about chakra would go a long way in showing those kids that someone out there cares for them, and since that someone is not the village, they'd happily and loyally work for the briber instead."
Tobirama smirked since he was finally proven right as everyone else looked at him with a glimmer in their eyes.
They couldn't believe such a thing was possible, but if the great Tobirama Senju was proclaiming it to be true, it had to be true right?
"What do we do then? Do we use our thought insertion ability to help Haruto come back on the right track?" Kushina asked naively.
But Tobirama vetoed the idea almost immediately with a simple, "No."
When everyone looked at him to understand what the reasoning for the veto was, Tobirama explained quietly, "Let's wait and watch… if Haruto drags himself in a deeper mess, we can catch multiple people at once and clear the playing field to benefit Konoha."
At this point everyone agreed, even Hashirama who felt slightly guilty using a child like this agreed. He had to, since cleaning Konoha up so that other kids in the orphanages weren't used was a bigger priority and more in line with his vision of the Konoha he had when he had established it.
All for the greater good.
***