Gifts
Tenten was an orphan as long as she could remember, and orphans have little opportunity of becoming a ninja. Something she wanted to become for the longest time. Despite what other kids and caretakers told her, she worked hard towards that dream. She even found a part time job in a local weapon shop to finance her studies.
Her efforts were rewarded last year, when she received an acceptance letter to her application into the Konoha Ninja Academy. It was the happiest day of her life. It took her one step closer to her dream of being strong kunoichi like her idol – Tsunade of Sanin.
Unfortunately, despite her best efforts, she didn't possess the same extreme strength or extraordinary chakra control as her idol. After many months of training and trying different ninja skills she discovered that she had a talent with weapons. It worked wonderfully with her part time work in the weapons shop.
She even started to work on seals recently, a must-have skill for any striving weapons expert. She was already approaching the point of expertise required to make exploding seals. It was sure to help to finance her ever growing collection of weapons.
This day was no different than others, classes just as boring as ever, she often wondered what was the point of 80% of the classes. Those had little to do with either civilian or shinobi lifestyles. The lunch went as usual until she came back to class and discovered a scroll with her name sitting on her desk.
Furthermore, it seems to be locked with a seal she didn't recognize. After asking some of her classmates about the origin of the scroll, she discovered, that none seem to know anything about the scroll. Curiously she noticed a similar scroll on Lee's desk, but before she could investigate, the teacher came back and afternoon lessons started.
After lessons Lee was the first one to approach her. He assumed that she was the one who gave him the scroll, as she were the only one in their class who demonstrated any proficiency with seals. After some brainstorming, they decided to explore two options. She would ask the weapon smith she worked for, if he knew how to unlock her scroll. Lee would ask a Jonin who took him under his wing, and was helping him to prepare to pass the academy exams without being able to mold chakra.
Making her way to a familiar weapon store, she waved to the owner "hello Kean-sama".
"Tenten-chan, how was the academy?" the kind old man replied, he was like a grandfather to her.
"Boring, as usual, no practical today, just theory. By the way, someone left a sealed scroll on my desk, I was wondering if you recognize the seal?" She handled him the scroll. The first rule everyone had to learn before learning any seals is that you do not touch unfamiliar seals. Those could be very dangerous.
Kean was surprised by the revelation, the sealed scrolls were rare, and chances of orphan like Tenten coming by one were very slim outside of high-ranking missions. He himself was never a ninja, even though he went to the ninja academy in his youth. Soon thereafter he discovered that while he has unhealthy fascination with weapons, he didn't have any particular talent or will to use one.
Soon he found himself helping in a forge as a young lad, and over the years worked himself into very proficient weaponsmith. Maybe twenty years ago he had enough saved that he could open his own shop, and had been working in it ever since. Most of the stuff he sold was made by others, as a master weaponsmith he only done special orders nowadays, lacking time and health for full time smiting. He also enjoyed the shop front role too much to part with it.
While he was in no way seal master, he had enough proficiency in it to be able to produce exploding tags and sealing scrolls. In addition, as part of the job, he knew a lot of different ninjas as well as came in contact with wide variety of seals some of the ninja used. When he saw a seal on the scroll Tenten gave him, he knew right away that it was not a simple scroll lock.
"Oh my.. Haven't seen one of those in a while" he exclaimed, getting a excited reaction from Tenten. "Oh, common old man! What does it do, tell me, tell me, tell me!" She may have been quite mature for 9 years old, which was a requirement to work with sharp weapons, but she still was just an easily excited kid. Which made him laugh.
"Haha, calm down Tenten-chan. The most common way to lock a scroll is to use chakra lock seal. What you have there is a more advanced version of that seal, - personal chakra seal. Meaning only very specific chakra signature can open this scroll. Watch" he said while channeling a small portion of his chakra into the scroll. The locking seal glowed a bit for a moment, but the scroll remained closed.
"Here, try pushing some chakra into the seal" he said, handling her the scroll back.
With a small trepidation she pushed her chakra into the seal. At first the seal glowed the same way it did for the shop owner, just long enough for doubts to start appearing in her mind of this being some cruel joke. Then, with a barely audible click, the scroll's rim opened. With a quick glance at encouraging smile from the old man she started to unroll it.
The scroll turned out to be quite short, maybe three quarters of a meter long. At first it appeared to be empty until she got to the middle of the scroll where she saw two seals, on opposite sides of the scroll. Without questions those were the most complex seals she ever saw.
"Kean-sama?" she asked nervously when she saw his wide-eyed expression.
Her words snapped him out of his trance. He glanced couple of times between scroll and her, before he started laughing, which only increased her confusion. It took a couple of minutes for him to finally stop laughing with mirth. He wiped his moisture eyes, before looking at her with admiration.
"I don't know what you did Little Bear, but it caught eyes of some real strong ninja" he told her with pride.
"Huh?" was her intelligent response.
He took the scroll from her and turned it around, showing her seals on both sides of the scroll. Both were quite complex, with the seal on the front of the scroll clearly bigger and more complex than the one on the back of the scroll.
"See those two seals on the opposite sides of the scroll?" she nodded.
"This is a two-way seal!" he said as if it explained everything.
"Huh, what does that mean? Do you know what it does?" She asked excitedly.
"Two-way seals are very advanced. It is like adding extra dimension to your seal with a whole lot of additional complexities, it is essentially three-dimensional seal written on two dimensional medium" seeing her confused look, he considered how to explain it in a way she would understand.
"Those seals are so advanced, that the number of people who can make them in Konoha probably can be counted on fingers of a single hand" this did make her eyes go wide. However, he wasn't done yet.
"In fact, this type of scrolls is so rare, that I never even saw one. I only heard about them" seeing her unblinking stare he went for the killing blow.
"Scrolls like this are usually kept by clans as a treasure, and very rarely can be seen by an outsider. It can take seal master weeks or even months just to make one" with a quite 'thump!' Tenten fell to the ground in a dead faint. This made the old weapons smith laugh again.
He gave the scroll last admiring glance before carefully rolling it back at which point the scroll automatically locked itself. He then lifted Tenten and carried her to his living room where he carefully placed her on his couch. He covered her with a small blanked and left the sealed scroll on the coffee table next to her.
(*L*)
Hiruzen Sarutobi was an old man, a very tired old man. He lived through and saw more conflict than about anyone alive. He saw three Great Shinobi Wars and countless small ones, first as Genin, then as a Chunin and finally as the Hokage.
His clan didn't provide him with any special bloodline limit, no special benefit in either body, mind or special chakra, even as far as clan techniques the Sarutobi clan was very limited. Perhaps, because of this lack of focus as a child, he was quite kind on trying many different shinobi arts, from Taijutsu to Genjutsu, from Bokenjutsu to Ninjutsu, from Kenjutsu to Sealing Arts, not even Summoning skipped his attention.
Having two legendary ninjas such as First and Second Hokages as his teachers ensured that he had goals and role models that would push him to achieve things beyond what anyone would have expected from someone in his position. He worked hard, pushing his body, mind and chakra to its very limits.
When his peers were happy to settle for 10 different Jutsus, he went for 100, when his peers settled for proficiency, he worked until he achieved mastery. When his peers worked on a single element affinity, he worked on all 5, when others slowed down once reaching their goals, he reset his goals even higher. Always working, always expanding, always perfecting.
By the time he was nominated to become The Third Hokage, his reputation could rival that of his role models. Even as the Hokage he never settled and continue to not only improve himself, but also drive the Village of Konoha to its golden age.
However, everyone has limits, and as years came and went, his aging body could no longer handle his insane workload. His emotional stability was shaken first by death of both of his mentors and role models, then betrayal by his favorite student, his wife and successor dying during Kyuubi incident, the death of one of his sons was the final blow that broke the camel's back.
Even his best friends and teammates turned on him at his weakest moments, trying to wrestle as much control and power from him as they could, instead of providing support he so desperately needed. These days, just getting from day to day was all he could do to keep himself going.
The wish of handling Konoha into capable hands, so his remaining son and grandson could benefit from the work and blood of his mentors, himself and brief successor, was the only things keeping him going. However, as years went one after another, with each potential successor incapacitated in one way or the other, before they could reach his high standards, his hopes were slowly eroding.
It was while he was contemplating his life and life choices once again, that he heard one of his stronger Jonins even before he entered the tower. It gave him just enough time to prepare himself before said Jonin entered his office.
Miato Guy was one of his most promising ninjas. One strong enough, that he considered him as one of viable candidates as his successor. While his eccentricity could be overlooked in favor of his physical strength and his Will of Fire, some of his qualities were harder for Sarutobi to overlook.
In his advanced age, he saw enough fighting to last many lifetimes, and he was reluctant these days to do anything that may result in conflict. This was one of many conflicting points he had with elders and especially, - Danzo.
In fact, in many ways Guy reminded him of Danzo. Danzo saw domination and elimination of other Hidden Villages as the only way to keep Konoha safe and prosperous. If given power he will do everything to weaken and sabotage the other villages, in fact Sarutobi strongly suspected than even now he was covertly doing just that with his branch of Root ANBU. If nothing else, he suspected that if another Great Shinobi War were to begin, that there will be more that a fair share of blame to be placed on Danzo.
The Root was disbanded by the Forth Hokage, but was reestablished under secret agreement that was pushed through after The Kyuubi incident, and before he was able to get properly back into Hokage role. He had hard time recovering from the death of his wife and the Elders took full advantage of his weakened emotional state to further their own power. Something he saw as betrayal of over 50 years of their friendship, he didn't think he will ever be able to forgive them.
Guy was not thirsty for war or elimination of his opponents, however he liked fighting more than was healthy, and considered it to be one of the best ways to understand his opponents. Despite his inhuman strength, he rarely inflicted permanent injuries, or killed his opponents, which were the easy ways to generate grudges and resentment, which eventually led to conflicts and wars.
That quality of Guy ultimately was the only reason he was still considered as viable candidate for Hokage title. In Sarutobi's eyes, the Guy's rule was more likely to result in some Chunin Exam like tournaments, than in actual wars. Perhaps it was a necessary step to reduce tension between Great Powers, he mused. For all its faults, the Chunin Exams were working, and tensions between Great Five were never as low as they were in recent years.
"Yosh, Hokage-sama, I see your flames of youth still burn brightly!" was expected and too energetic for his old body greeting.
"Guy. I thought you had another 4 days off before your next mission. What brings you to my office?"
"The most youthful endeavor Hokage-sama. I was wondering if you were familiar with this" he said, strolling to his desk and placing a scroll before him, causing him to raise an elbow.
A quick look over shown that the scroll was of average size in both width and length. He also spotted a neat written name of "Lee", as well as a blood seal on the exterior. At the moment the seal was plugged by a piece of paper, to prevent scroll from closing.
It was a well-known method among Jonin to keep locking scrolls from being closed if the scroll was not keyed to said Jonin. This caused Sarutobi to give his Jonin a quick look, as this trick was usually only employed during missions when some sealed scrolls were "liberated".
After finding nothing else of note on the outside of the scroll, he carefully rolled it open, and raised second elbow. The scroll had many, many overlapping seals from edge to edge. Using the whole surface of the scroll entirely.
He recognized some of the seals, but the design was unfamiliar to him, and the overlapping nature of the seals made it quite hard to identify the nature of the seal with simple quick examination. He then took another minute examining some of the seals trying to identify a sealing style to link it to some of the seal Master he knew, but quickly realized that the style was not familiar to him.
Wrapping the scroll back up he placed it on his desk while fixing Guy with intense stare.
"Can I enquire how did you come in possession of this scroll Guy?" he asked the Jonin.
"Certainty Lord Third! It was given as a gift to my most young-full student – Lee" he said with pride in his eyes while mentioning his student.
"I was unaware you took on an apprentice Guy"
"Unofficially Hokage-sama, he currently goes to academy, however I am planning on taking him as part of my team once he graduates" he replied with a conviction.
"I see. And were you able to determine who did give this scroll to the young Lee? I am not familiar with either design or the style used in this scroll."
"Unfortunately, no" he replied dejectedly, "it was left on his desk in the academy during recess."
"Hmm. Bear, bring Kakashi to my office. Ant, assemble team Seer to be ready for a mission. Guy, what is the background of your student?" He put his arms in front of his face. This day was going to be one of those.
As he gave orders, two shadows in his office moved and disappeared through the open window. It was troubling that there was unknown Seal Master in Konoha, able to sneak into Ninja Academy without being spotted. Seal Masters were notorious for the amount of damage they could inflict if they had ulterior motives and were given time to prepare their seals.
Guy just finished giving him a brief overview of his student, when Bear reappeared in his office with Kakashi in tow.
"Yo" was his lazy greeting.
"Kakashi, my eternal rival! I challenge you to a 500 laps race around the village, to stroke our flames or youth!"
"Huh. Guy? Did you say something?"
"Damn you Kakashi, and your hip attitude!"
Sarutobi just massaged his temples, the beginning of headache already building. He should have known better than getting Guy and Kakashi into the same room with him. Their rivalry was a stuff of legends, despite it appearing to be one way, and had caused him more than a fair share of headaches.
Hatake Kakashi was another of his promising Jonin, however life was not kind on him. He once was a prime candidate for a position of Hokage, however after suffering many losses from friends and family, his will of fire disappeared. He was still an excellent ninja, and success rate of his missions still among the best, but his inner spark was missing, and Hokage didn't want for his successor to be just like him, - a hollow shell of his former self.
"Kakashi, please take a look at this scroll and tell me what you think" he offered the scroll to his broken Jonin.
Much like himself Kakashi first carefully examined the scroll on the outside before unrolling to peer at the content. After just 10 seconds of looking inside he carefully lifted his headband which was hanging over left side of his face covering his left eye.
He took another minute carefully examining the scroll with both of his eyes, one black, and another red, with three black tomoes slowly circling inside his iris. After that he pulled his headband down over his red – Sharingan eye and spend another minute staring into space, while rest of the occupants of the room patiently waited on him.
"Damn, that is some good work" he whistled.
Just before Hokage was able to get more details, the Ant reappeared kneeled.
"Hokage-sama, team Seer is ready for mission" he said with a bow.
"Call them in" he ordered, and once the team of ANBU assembled he quickly explained the situation about the scroll, before turning to Kakashi.
"What have you discovered?"
"This design is not familiar to me, neither is the style, however the writing style indicate someone with training in calligraphy. The strokes are sure, without hesitation, indicating work of someone with experience, who knew what they were doing, rather than being a copy by an apprentice" at this he hesitated slightly, causing Hokage to narrow his eyes in alarm.
"What it is Kakashi" he asked in low voice, causing Kakashi to gulp slightly before continuing.
"The strokes are extremely precise, indicating a collapsed seal, or", another gulp, "someone with a bloodline that have high effect on precision – like Sharingan" he finished quietly to a defeating silence. Hokage was the first one to recover.
"This scroll and everything related to it is now an A-rank village secret. Kakashi, what is estimated collapsing factor?" He asked with trepidation.
"One hundred" he whispered, making Hokage curse.
"Kakashi, you are in charge of the team Seer, I want to know the point of origin and the function of that scroll yesterday! When you discover The Seal Master, DO NOT approach! Notify me at once! It is A-ranked mission! I want daily reports, the first report in 3 hours! Ant, assemble three squads of ANBU to be on standby ready to engage S-ranked thread."
"Guy, you are on extended B-rank mission until we get to the bottom of this. You are to shadow your student for any suspicious activity around him and report any findings to Kakashi. If the Seal Master turns hostile, you are to assist engagement team. Everyone clear on their mission? Dismissed."
With a quick "Hai", everyone left, leaving Hokage rubbing his tired eyes. Dear Kami, a collapsible seal with factor hundred would have been at least 100 times bigger than the collapsed seal, the size of a sizeable room, and at least 10 times more complex, as seal complexity grew with collapsing factor. He honestly couldn't tell what he would prefer, a seal master capable of doing collapsing seal of that magnitude, or lost Seal Master Uchiha. He really hoped that it was something else, as neither scenario sounded good.