[ P R O L O G U E ]
Godaime looked down at the ANBU summaries at her desk with a small frown knitting her eyebrows together – they were only children! And yet they had years of experience in Black Ops – assassinations and sabotage mostly, but a bit of information gathering as well according to their profiles.
Observing the young ninja's blank and emotionless faces as they stared back at her from the papers Tsunade couldn't help to think very ill of Danzou who had moulded these children into instruments – mere tools to an end – rather than let them be people.
"Is that them?" Sandaime asked as the older Hokage made his way across the study's floor over to their shared desk – accepting the paper sheets from his younger colleague when he reached his destination and sank down into his chair.
"He was always a sneaky bastard," the man muttered – surprising the woman as he thumbed through the documents before setting them back down at the desk.
"His recommendations are excellent," the Third explained to his perplexed successor, "Rei fits best in Team Gai, Sai in Team Kakashi, Kan in Team Kurenai and Atsuko in Team Asuma – he's letting us know how well he has observed and how accurate his information is."
"Hai," the woman agreed and felt the strong urge to get righteously drunk on sake – she definitely needed it with all the politics flowing around in the air.
.
"Whaa?" Naruto whined as the two Hokage informed the Rookie 11 and their sensei about the additions to their teams, "we don't need a new member – Sasuke will be back!"
"BAKA!" Sakura countered seconds later with a hard hit to the blonde's head – reminding the village's two leaders very much of a certain now well developed female and white haired Sannin.
"All teams are getting a new member – not just us!"
"Sakura is correct," Sandaime agreed, "although Team Kakashi will also get a temporary member for the time being until Sasuke can be retrieved."
"Whaa?" Naruto whined again, but wisely chose to keep his big mouth closed this time when Sakura shot him a fierce look.
"Team leaders will meet their new members tomorrow and introduce them to their teams," the Third said as if the blonde never opened his mouth, "we'd like to speak to you in private now as well – the rest of you are dismissed."
.
"Something wrong?" Kurenai asked the moment the last of their subordinates had filled out of the spacious study and the Genin-sensei were alone with the Hokage.
Tsunade sighed and inclined her head to her older colleague to explain the situation: "I shouldn't tell you this, but you should be made aware; neither do I know if you are familiar with a faction within the ANBU known as Root – it is a bloc Tsunade and I have no control over since its jurisdiction is given to a man named Danzou through the Village Council."
The gathered Jounin blinked at this disclosure – the ANBU was traditionally the right hand of the Hokage and the Council could only make suggestions – the revelation was alarming to say the least.
"Danzou is an old political adversary of mine from the time I took over as Sandaime Hokage – our philosophies differed greatly on how a village should be run. You could say he is more militaristic than I.
"The point is – the Council has positioned it thus that the new members of your teams will be assigned from Root ANBU."
There was a reaction among the gathered – strongest with Kurenai who widened her eyes and opened her mouth slightly, but they were all troubled.
"There will hardly be any age difference between the new members and your old teams," Sandaime continued, "since they are all the same age as Gai's team, but you shouldn't let this fool you – they are all Jounin and S-level ninja trained to be instruments of the ninja way rather than people performing the arts."
"But they're just children!" The mother instinct in Kurenai voiced shocked and was greeted by a sad nod as well as an affirming noise from Tsunade.
"Danzou has had them trained since early childhood though," the female Hokage replied, "they're most likely more socially inept than even Kakashi."
The mentioned Jounin gave a lopsided smile beneath his mask – only visible on the upside-down U of his uncovered eye.
"What are their specialisations?" Gai asked sanely – very unlike his public display of blind enthusiasm.
"Here," Sandaime handed over the profile sheets to the taijutsu master, "there are lists of completed missions there as well, but consulting their medical records we've been able to determine it's incomplete."
"Oh?" Asuma inquired for his father to elaborate on the statement, which Tsunade readily did instead:
"There are mentions of old injuries that doesn't fit with the reports we've been given. Two blaringly obvious examples are firstly the remnants of a spinal injury that Sai's records list as an unlucky fall, but damage like that couldn't have been caused by a fall alone – the other is the extensive scarring on Atsuko which has been explained as 'training accident', but is quite likely the results of extensive torture."
Kakashi accepted the latter mentioned's file and couldn't hide the widening of his eye as he took in the scarred face – he had seen it before, but covered it up with an offside remark about a slight likeness to Asuma to which Kurenai actually giggled and agreed only to receive a faked glare from the stocky Jounin in question.
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"They'll probably add an older Genin or Chuunin to our teams," Tenten said after a long silence as the Rookie 11 reached one of the unoccupied training fields.
"Someone with more battle experience than us," Shikamaru surprised his peers by volunteering while making himself comfortable against the trunk of a large tree – looking up at the lightly clouded sky.
"I wonder if we know any of them," Hinata managed to voice her musing in a tiny whisper.
"Their youthfulness will shine like a beacon in the night!" Lee exclaimed at the same time – effectively drowning out the female Hyuuga's quiet words and Tenten thought that she would at least get to share the joy that was Lee and Gai with someone new come tomorrow.
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