A World Full of Monsters

by Fahad09

When I was first reincarnated I did the very first thing any self-respecting man in my place would do. Check to see if I still had my balls. I did. The next thing I did was try to get my hands on some power. True Power. I chose the Rinnegan. And if I had to kill a few people along the way to get it, well, there was a war going on. No one will notice an extra body or two turning up.

12. Chapter 12: A Cat's lot in Life

Chapter 12:

A Cat's Lot In Life

---

"I can't believe it."

Shikamaru didn't so much as glance up at me when I dumped another stack of books onto his desk. Instead, with a tired sigh of long-suffering, he picked a random book from the pile and began wrapping it with simple brown wrapping paper. Completely plain paper except for a tiny dog's paw printed on one corner.

Once he was done he passed it along to his left to where Naruto was sitting, who grunted as she took it, before reaching for another book to wrap.

Naruto set the wrapped book down before her, carefully examined a list she had propped up on her left before picking up an ink brush and began to write.

Out of us all, Naruto had the best handwriting by far.

Writing with an ink brush always felt wrong in my hands, the proper method the brush was supposed to be held and flow always felt too much like drawing for me to get right. Even after a solid decade of being forced to write with a brush my handwriting still looked like something a chicken would scratch out than actual letters.

While Shikamaru was better than me, a low bar to clear, he tended to get sloppy when it came down to writing the correct details. One number wrong and the books would end up going to the wrong address, and considering what we were delivering that would have caused a slightly larger stir than you would normally expect.

That left the responsibility of printing out the addresses to Naruto.

Under her steady hand lines began to form, the brown paper soaking up the ink as the brush danced across its surface, leaving behind neat flowing lines and smooth curves. The names she wrote down remind of me calligraphy, more a work of art than mere penmanship. It was barely the work of a minute before she was done and she set the package down to one side, only to start all over as Shikamaru passed her another wrapped package to write on.

"No, I mean I literally cannot believe it." I reiterated as I walked to a nearby wooden crate and pulled out another stack of books. "How could someone like Kakashi own a bookstore of all things?"

Surrounding us were dozens, if not hundreds of wooden crates, stacked so high they nearly brushed the warehouse roof. Each crate filled to the brim with books. And printed on the side of each wooden crate was the logo of 'Pakkun's Bookstore' - a dog's paw print.

It had been almost two full days since I found out and still I couldn't bring myself to believe it.

That Kakashi, the lazy, porn-loving, ever late Hatake Kakashi, owned not one, but an entire chain of bookstores in Konoha. That alone should have pushed the limits of my incredibility but when you stacked on the fact that it was a successful chain of bookstores, it made me feel as if I had fallen down a rabbit hole without realising and ended up in wonderland.

Konoha had a lot of business run by ninjas.

Some were clan run, others were the works of individuals, but if you walked through the streets of Konoha you would be hard-pressed to find a shopping street without at least one shinobi owned store.

It wasn't that hard to understand why.

Say what you would about the profession, but being a hired killer paid really well. And ninjas that managed to survive long enough to retire often ended up with more money in their hands than they knew what to do with. I guess with the abundance of free time and more money than they could ever hope to spend, many ninjas would try their hand in running their own businesses – often with mixed results.

In the cut-throat world of business, it didn't matter if you were a literal expert of cutting throats, you'd be eaten alive at the first slip. Being a master of stealth and espionage was all well and good but if you had no idea how to balance your books, or how to effectively promote your products in a highly competitive market you were nothing but fresh prey to the sharks of capitalism.

Which was why more often than not those businesses tended to end belly up.

Not always though.

Every now and again you end up hearing about a success story. The Yamanaka Clan's flower store or the Akimichi Clan's world-renowned restaurants were good examples. And now apparently so too was the Hatake Clan's bookstores added to the shortlist of successful businesses started by Shinobi, better known as Pakkun's Bookstore.

"Are you really that surprised?" Naruto made a face as she picked up a copy of one of the books and held up to me. "I thought it was obvious that the pervert would own something like this."

Gripped in Naruto's hand was a green-covered book with the words 'Icha Icha – Make love, not war' printed on its surface. The latest book to the best selling Icha Icha series, with this new addition revolving around the gripping tale of an Izuraya Mihom, a Kunoichi of Kawagakure - the village hidden in the river - and how she decided to end a war through love instead of death (aka seduction), or so I gathered from Kakashi's gushing review.

It had only been officially released onto the market for a couple of days but it was obviously going to become another big hit. Already the sales had broken records and were still growing.

That was where we came in.

The only thing, literally the only thing that made sense in this entire debacle, was that every branch of Pakkun's Bookstore came stocked with the entire collection of Icha Icha books. Each store had an entire section dedicated solely to the franchise. They were actually Konoha's exclusive supplier for the books, and Kakashi had somehow managed to strike a deal with Jiraiya to make it so.

In other words, every single copy of the books in Konoha had to pass through one of Kakashi's stores at one point or another.

And guess who needed an extra set of hands to help deliver the newest shipment.

Normally he wouldn't have been able to get away with it. There were laws in place preventing Jonin Instructors from abusing their power. They couldn't just go around ordering their team to do manual labour for them for free, had they tried then they would find the Hokage's foot-stomping down on them. Hard.

However, like all laws, it wasn't perfect.

There were loopholes and workarounds. To someone both devious and morally bankrupt enough to take advantage of them, they might as well have not been there. And as I had the recent misfortune to discover, there were absolutely no laws preventing a Team Instructor from hiring out his own team for personal missions so long as they went through proper channels.

And Kakashi, being the type of prick that he was, was only too happy to abuse this loophole.

Which was why we had spent the last few days running from one side of the village to the other, dropping off what felt like countless copies of the newest Icha Icha. Turns out there was a massive hidden fan-base for the series here in Konoha but – unlike our shameless Sensei – most people were too embarrassed to be seen publicly buying a copy.

That was where Kakashi's genius came in.

Pakkun's Bookstore revolved around the concept of privacy. Discretion was key.

Customers would stop by a branch of Pakkun's Bookstore, pretend to buy a copy of some random book and while at the cash register would quietly place an order to have a copy of Icha Icha be delivered to their homes on a later date. Discreetly of course.

All books delivered were delivered in plain packaging to hide their contents from any prying eyes.

And there were a lot of orders.

Even after two full days of prepping and delivering them, we weren't even halfway done.

For the last two days, we spent our morning here, stuck in a warehouse packaging and labelling books, only to spend the rest of the day running from house to house hand-delivering them to customers. We couldn't even take advantage of Shadow Clones, Kakashi forbidding both Naruto and me from using them for some reason.

Kakashi claimed that our work was meant to double up as training. Not only would this help as a team-building exercise but by personally travelling through every street in Konoha – and I mean every goddamn street, I wasn't exaggerating the size of the hidden Icha Icha fan-base – we would familiarise ourselves with the layout of the entire village, a skill that would prove invaluable in future missions or in the event the village was ever attacked.

It was all bullshit of course. Reasonable sounding bullshit, but still bullshit.

Kakashi just needed some cheap labour to deliver his goods and we just happened to be available. Well that, and I was also halfway convinced that he fed off the suffering of children. I swear there better be some kind of legitimate training or team-building exercises behind all of this because if I ever find out for sure that the only reason he banned the use of Shadow Clones was to watch us suffer I was gonna sick Naruto on him.

"Oh come on!" I was brought out of musings by Naruto's groan of exasperation as she stared down at the list of customers, "He's a pervert too? And here I thought he was one of the cool ones."

This wasn't the first time Naruto snapped at seeing a name she recognized.

During our first day prepping packages, it seemed like Naruto would erupt every other minute or so as she spotted a name she recognized. Which there was a surprising lot of.

I don't think she'd ever be able to look at Iruka in the same way ever again.

The stink-eye she gave Shikamaru when she spotted his father's name made me eternally grateful that none of my relatives were on the list. Well, none of my direct relatives anyway. The Hyuuga was a large clan, it would have been more surprising than not to not find a single Hyuuga one the list. Thankfully though the few we had run onto so far were distant relatives who I rarely ever interacted with.

It would have been … awkward to say the least if I found out that my dad or god forbid my mother had brought a copy of the book.

As the saying goes, people can get used to anything, and as time wore on Naruto's reactions steadily began to diminish as she adapted to the fact that a lot of her adult acquiesces read smut on the sly, and now she would only let loose a low grumble whenever someone she knew cropped up on the list.

Which made her latest outburst a bit of a surprise.

Hauling the latest pile of books out of the crate, I brought them to Shikamaru and set them down on the desk before walking over to Naruto and glancing over her shoulder to see what the fuss was about.

It took me a full second to spot the name Naruto was staring at, and another second to fully grasp the implication. And when I did, I felt a wicked smile bloom on my lips.

"Naruto," I spoke, never taking my eyes off the name as I did, "I'm calling dibs. I want to deliver this one personally."

"You sure?" Naruto turned her blue eyes up to me, before shrugging. "Fine, it's not as if it makes any difference anyway." She then turned back to the list, giving it a distasteful look. "Still, I never thought he was a pervert too. He seemed so nice too. Is every man in the village a closet pervert or is it just a coincidence that almost all of my classmate's dads are on this list."

"Oh, Naruto," I felt my cheeks hurting from how hard I was smiling. "It wasn't her dad that ordered the book, it was someone else."

"What?" she blinked, turning to look up at me in surprise. "But Hikaru, his name and address is written right here."

She pointed to the spot on the list, where their name and address was clearly printed out in plain black and white. Though unlike every other customer on the list, there was no first name there, just their last.

And knew precisely why.

Naruto frowned down at the name again, a thoughtful look on her face. "But if it's not him, then who is it for?"

---

Hurried footsteps could be heard coming from inside the house as someone ran down the stairs. I could hear them yelling out 'I'll get it' as they rushed to the front door, and I barely had the chance to take my hands off the door after knocking before it was swung open, revealing the nervous eager face of one Ino Yamanaka.

"Hello," She chirped, nervous energy rushing her to speak, "are you here to deliver– Hikaru?" Ino exclaimed, her rapid-fire chattering came to a grinding halt as she finally took in the sight of me.

For a few seconds, the blonde girl stared, her pale blues blinking owlishly, obviously confused. "Hikaru, what are you doing here?"

"Hello, Ino," I said warmly, brushing aside her confusion as I gave her the widest, shit-eating grin I could manage.

She tensed, like a rabbit spotting the shadow of a hawk passing overhead, her survival instincts no doubt warning her of danger, but before she had a chance to do anything, I acted. "I have a package to deliver for you."

Reaching down into the backpack I had set down by my feet, I pulled out a plain brown package – the Icha Icha volume that I was sent to deliver to this address – and held it up before my face. "Care to guess what it might be?"

For a long moment, Ino starred in honest bewilderment between the package and me, her eyes leaping between it and my face several times, unable to understand until something appeared to click in her head.

I could see the exact second it dawned on her, her eyes immediately widening to saucers while her face turned a shade so red that it looked she caught on fire.

That memory, of a blushing Ino dissolving into a stuttering mess, will warm my heart for many years to come.

---

They called Konoha a village.

And perhaps, once upon a time, it was one but that wasn't quite true anymore. Konoha had grown since its founding. From its humble beginning of the union of two clans, it quickly grew into something never before witnessed in the entire history of the Elemental Nations.

A Hidden Village.

What began as a collection of huts had expanded into something that more reminiscent of a town, or even a small city, than it did a village. In terms of Shinobi alone, Konoha's population easily surpassed the ten thousand mark. With the civilian population added to the mix that number would easily quadruple.

The term Hidden 'Village' could no longer accurately describe what Konoha had become but as most things tended to do, the name stuck. It made a sort of sense I suppose. Konohagakure no Sato meant the 'Village Hidden in the Leaves'. The 'Town Hidden in the Leaves' didn't have quite the same ring to it.

The point being was that Konoha had rapidly grown since its founding, and with it, so had the number of missions it received.

There was a time not too long ago when the number of missions the village would receive in a day could be counted with the fingers of one hand. Back then every single mission was handled by the Hokage himself, who would either accept or reject each offer personally on behalf of the entire village before assigning the approved missions to a team he would have personally handpicked.

Those days were long gone.

Today there were dozens of individuals working fulltime around the clock, whose sole job was to keep track of the massive influx of mission requests Konoha received. It was they who met the clients, negotiated a contract before assigning an available team to complete it.

Only important clients, such as the Daimyo, were ever exempt from this process.

In theory, this meant that the Hokage no longer needed to involve himself in the daily grind of missions assignments, freeing up a lot of time that could now be spent on far much more crucial matters. However Sarutobi, always the sentiment sort, loved to personally get involved with the daily lives of his Shinobi whenever he could, and would take time from his busy schedule to personally assign missions to his men. During certain times of the year, it wasn't an unusual sight to find the ageing Hokage handing out the missions to newly minted Genin, spending a couple of extra minutes to spare them a few words of encouragement.

Tiny things like that were what made the village as a whole see Sarutobi as a father figure instead of just a leader, or perhaps it was a grandfatherly figure these days.

It was, I suppose, a way for him to get to personally know his newest recruits, to remember their faces and get a feel of them. But of course, even he couldn't do this all the time. There were simply too many. Even had he tried to limit himself to just fresh Genin, we were just too much for him to handle alone.

Which was why he would limit himself to meeting new Genin teams for their first couple of mission assignments. After that, the new Genin teams would head to the 'Assignment Center', located in one of the lower levels of the Hokage Tower, whenever they needed to pick a new mission as most other teams did.

Most being the operative word.

Our team was one of the exceptions. Every mission we took we personally received from the Hokage. Every day, instead of stopping by the Assignment Center, we climbed the steps to the top of the tower and headed to the Hokage's office to report the completion of our last assignment or to receive a new one.

Some people would have called it favouritism, others may even go as far as say it was nepotism. Personally, I called it common sense. No matter how many times people tried to convince themselves otherwise, we were not all equal. An Academy student barely managing to keep up with the rest of his classmates was objectively less valuable than a promising student blazing through the coursework with ease. A child born to a Clan of ninjas gifted with a powerful bloodline would always be given more attention than an ordinary child coming from a civilian family.

They were right to do so.

People could call it whatever they wanted, but the simple fact of the matter it wasn't favouritism that saw my team standing in front of the Hokage almost every day. It was pragmatism. And if ninjas were anything, they were pragmatic.

To treat a team with two Clan Heirs, both of whom were considered to be geniuses in their own regard, along with a Jinchuuriki of the most powerful Tailed Beast as if they were just any other random Genin team would have been the height of stupidity.

No one had ever accused Sarutobi of being stupid.

So when we found ourselves lining up before the Hokage in his office that morning, with the old man sitting behind his desk, chewing on the tip of his unlit pipe with his usual genial smile sitting on his lips, no one thought anything unusual of it, it was just another day for team 7.

No one but me that is.

I had been counting the days since my unexpected encounter with Danzo, and it had been fourteen days. Exactly two weeks. And while it was entirely possible that nothing unusual would happen today, that we'd pick another random mission from the Hokage and be sent on our way, as usual, I didn't believe it.

Say what you will of the man but Danzo had never struck me as the type of person to fail to deliver on his promises.

---

"I still can't believe you kept that cat, Jiji."

Said cat meowed from where she lounged atop of the Hokage's desk, lazily turning its head to glance at Naruto in apparent surprise. Or at least, I thought it was in surprise. It was kinda hard to tell, these days Tora always seemed to have a surprised expression plastered on her face.

The Hokage chuckled and ran a hand over the cat's back before scratching behind its ears, "I don't see what's so hard to believe. Tora here has been a wonderful companion for an old man like me."

In response Tora began to purr and pressed her head into the Hokage's fingers, clearly enjoying the treatment.

Though you could never tell by looking at her face.

Even now, so long after the… incident the poor cat never fully recovered from her ordeal.

Oh sure, she looked healthier now that the bandages covering her bottom half were removed. And she could walk again, though not perfectly. Her hind legs appeared to have gained a permanently bowlegged, making her take wide exaggerated steps whenever she walked, like a cowboy from one of those old westerns. And her tail remained permanently pointed up, straight and ridge as an iron bar.

I had never once seen her tail lower from that position, not even when she slept.

But if you wanted any real proof that Tora never fully recovered from her ordeal, all you needed to do was look into the face of the tiny white and orange cat and stare at its unblinking eyes.

Her soulful blue eyes were held permanently wide open, so round that they appeared like golf balls that were about to roll out of her eye-sockets. That, along with the way her eyebrows were still raised up to her hairline, gave Tora a constant look of surprise.

No, really, every time I looked it at her she gave the impression that someone had just suddenly shoved their fingers up her...well, you know.

Even now as she purred in contentment under the Sarutobi's nimble fingers her soulful blue eyes remained wide open, never blinking.

It was kinda freaky to watch, to be honest.

There were monks who believed that true enlightenment could only be reached through pain and suffering. That by bearing through the worst the world had to offer without succumbing to hatred, you would achieve an understanding of the true nature of the world that escaped most men, allowing you a glimpse of what laid past this mundane reality and into the next, supposedly a nirvana of some kind.

Some of the more superstitious Shinobi in Konoha believed that was what happened to Tora.

They claimed that Tora, in her moment of suffering, had reached enlightenment and caught a glimpse of Nirvana. Which was why she never blinks anymore. Through her enlightened eyes, the world she sees around her was so blissfully beautiful that she could not bring herself to look away and block the sight even for a second, not even to blink.

Or at least so they claimed.

Personally, I believed the reason why she kept her eyes constantly open was to make sure no one tried to sneak up on her and shove their finger up her ass ever again. But that was just me.

Naruto glanced between the purring cat and the Hokage before shaking her head and dropped the topic.

It had been almost four weeks since the end of our first disastrous D-rank mission, the now infamous Tora incident, and since then the tiny cat has become something of a common sight in the Hokage's office.

As expected, when we told the client of Tora's fate she took the news...rather poorly.

Madam Shinjimi, the Daimyo's wife and Tora's original owner was an obese lady with a shrill voice and far too much makeup. She was also as stubborn and pig-head as they come, all too used to getting her way. So when the time came to deliver Tora to her and she found her precious cat in such a poor state she demanded to know what happened to it, ignoring all our attempts to convince her that she really, really, didn't want to know.

Naturally, she didn't listen to our advice and so, as the team responsible, it fell on our shoulders to tell her what happened to her precious cat.

I swear I felt the entire floor shake when the tub of lard fainted.

An hour or so later, a pale-faced and much subdued Madam Shinjimi was seen being helped into her carriage that would take her back to the capital. Without her cat. It appeared that after our rather detailed explanation to the fate that befell her precious pet, she could no longer look directly at Tora without fainting.

Literally, every time she caught so much as a glimpse of said cat she would immediately turn a pale white and faint.

In the end, after repeatedly consoling the understandably distressed woman, it was decided that it would be best if she and Tora parted ways. And thus, Madam Shinjimi returned home leaving poor Tora behind. But for once luck was on Tora's side because she ended up finding a new home almost immediately.

Being the soft-hearted man that he was, Sarutobi took pity on the poor creature and ended up adopting her as a pet. Now, normally that would have been impossible. The very same reason why children were sent to retrieve Tora would have prevented the Hokage from adopting her; Tora was a Nekomata.

As a Nekomata, Tora could sense the true nature of an individual. Specifically, she could sense any ill intent or corruption in them. She was so sensitive to it that Tora fled from Madam Shinjimi's household because the presence of so many corrupt Nobles and bureaucrats was too much for her to withstand for long. Now imagine how it must have felt like to live alongside ninjas, professional assassins who constantly lied, manipulated, tortured and murdered people. Hell, Sarutobi himself had once played a part in the genocide of an entire Clan. In all honesty, our presence should have sent her fleeing in terror the first chance she got.

However, it quickly became apparently clear that Tora no longer gave a shit about our so-called 'ill intent' anymore.

It wasn't hard to understand why. After surviving an unexpected anal virginity removal treatment via Kakashi, I doubted something as mundane as 'murdering back-stabbing ninjas' could scare her.

Hell, I wasn't sure if she could even feel fear anymore.

No seriously, the thousand-yard stare she kept giving everyone in the room paralytically screamed 'you would not believe the shit I've seen'. It was a look you'd expect to see only in the broken eyes of veterans from the worst wars, not on the face of a tiny fluffy cat.

Even I couldn't muster much of a reaction from Tora anymore.

Once, just the sight of me caused her to become petrified with fear. Now it was as though she barely noticed me. All she ever did whenever she caught sight of me was to give me a quick once over, before snorting in dismissal and looking away, eyes still wide open as golf balls from the horrors she had lived through.

Only Kakashi seemed to be able to draw out any kind of reaction from her these days.

Now normally, that would have been the end of Tora's story. But as it quickly became obvious, there was absolutely nothing normal about this cat.

Somehow, and don't ask me how because even I didn't fully understand it, Tora ended up becoming something of a mascot to the Hokage.

Apparently every ninja and Genin that ended up standing before the Hokage's desk over the past couple of weeks took note of the unusual feline sitting there, and soon rumours of the Hokage's new pet began to spread. And whether it was out of pity or maybe even respect for a fellow survivor, Tora's popularity among the ninja population soon skyrocketed. People even began selling merchandise of the cat as she turned into some kind of fad. Just last week I saw Hanabi cuddling up to a plush doll of Tora out of all things.

Either way, by the end of the month since her adoption, Tora had ended up becoming the unofficial mascot to the entire Village of Konoha.

I swear, sometimes it felt as if this entire world had gone mad.

"Anyway," Sarutobi stopped scratching Tora's ears and turned his attention back to us, "I do believe you're here for a reason."

Lending down, Sarutobi reached into an open drawer from his desk and pulled out a dark green and black coloured scroll before holding it out towards us. "Team 7, for your latest mission you are to-"

"No."

The refusal cut through the air of the office, leaving a stunned silence in its wake.

Sarutobi blinked once before turning to give Naruto a perplexed look. "Excuse me?"

"I said no." My blonde friend repeated, firmly planting her feet shoulder-width apart and crossing her arms before her chest, a familiar stubborn glint in her eye as she gave the Hokage a glare. "I'm not going on another D-rank mission and you can't make me."

The old man chuckled at her reaction. "Now Naruto-"

"No."

"Naruto, you can't just-"

"No!" Naruto held her arms before her in an 'X' shape and made a sound that reminded me of a game-show buzzer. "No way, no how. I don't care what you say to me Jiji, I'm not doing it anymore. I'm done, finished! I'm not going on another crappy D-rank mission even if it kills me."

The ageing Hokage appeared to be more amused by my blonde teammate's adamant defiance than anything. "Come now, Naruto." Setting the scroll on his desk Sarutobi leaned back into his chair, eyes twinkling merrily as he looked on his surrogate granddaughter, an indulgent smile clear on his lips. "D-rank missions can't be that bad."

Naruto just crossed her arms and sent him a baleful look. "I delivered porn Jiji."

Sarutobi couldn't quite restrain a wince.

"Ah, I suppose you did." He relented with a reluctant nod after a moment before levelling Naruto with a hard stare. "But sometimes Naruto, being a ninja means doing work you don't want to do. The life of a shinobi is not always a glamorous one. While, yes, there may be times that we are sent on dangerous or even exciting missions, more often than not you'd find yourself assigned to jobs that you may find… distasteful, to put it mildly. Even so, it will be your duty as a ninja of the Leaf to complete those missions regardless of your personal feelings. As a young kunoichi, it's best that you learn this lesson here and now rather than out in the field."

Despite the solemnity the words were delivered, Naruto appeared unconvinced as she crossed her arms and sent the Hokage a disappointed look. "To your home." she said, "I had to deliver porn to your home."

The Hokage had the good grace to blush at that.

Yeah, I didn't think he completely thought things through when he assigned that particular mission to us.

Behind the Hokage, sunlight poured through the row of windows and filled the room, illuminating the office and granting us a breathtaking view of Konoha. Being one of the highest structures in the village meant that we could see almost everything from here. Something that Shikamaru, as usual, was all too happy to take advantage of.

From where he stood to my left, on the opposite side of Naruto, the lazy genuine was slouched over as he blankly gazed out the window, clearly unwilling to muster up the effort, let alone the interest, to get himself involved with the conversation. Instead, the slouching boy was lost in some daydream as he stared at the clouds drifting by.

As for the 'responsible' leader of Team 7, he was leaning on a wall not too far behind us, flipping through the pages of his latest book while occasionally releasing a creepy giggle. Kakashi hadn't even glanced up as Naruto continued to reject the Hokage's offer of missions, too engrossed in his book to bother, most likely all too willing to leave it up to Sarutobi to deal with her.

While all this was happening, I remained quietly standing by Naruto's right side, forcing myself to remain still and not fidget least I brought undue attention to myself. It wasn't that I felt uncomfortable in the Hokage's presence, far from it. Due to my proximity to Naruto, I had ended up spending a lot of time around the old man, so much so that any nervousness I may have felt speaking to the leader of the village had long faded away. Besides, Sarutobi had such a grandfatherly air about him that I would have felt right at home in his presence even if I had been a green awe-struck Genin meeting him for the very first time.

So no, it wasn't Sarutobi that was bothering me, rather it was the lack of Danzo that had me so on edge.

A small part of me had expected him to be here, standing by the Hokage as his plans unfolded just as he wanted. In hindsight that was absurd. Danzo was never the type to act out in the open. He was the kind who stuck to the shadows so much that you could never know for sure if he had a hand in something or not.

What made it worse was that I knew that he could have been hiding in here with us and I would never know it. There were so many hidden panels and niches in the Hokage office that an entire squad of ninja could be hidden in them and we'd never be the wiser. Actually, there probably was a squad of hidden ninjas in here with us. The ever-present yet never seen Anbu squad that guarded the Hokage day and night were no doubt hiding somewhere over our heads, but as they were always here they didn't count.

I itched to activate my Byakugan at the thought of Danzo being nearby, to open my sights to any hidden dangers, but I couldn't. Not here, not when I was in the Hokage's office standing before the man himself, not without a good reason.

So left with no other option, I stood by Naruto's side and tried my best to keep my emotions off my face.

It was at times like this that I was truly grateful for the apathetic mask that all Hyuuga's seemed to instinctively know how to wear. Had I been into any other clan, the blank face I wore might have been seen as a sign of nervousness, but as a Hyuuga, it was just considered part of our natural expression. Our own version of a 'resting bitch face'. And I shamelessly took advantage of that fact to help me hide my nerves without appearing out of character.

"-But Jiji, I want to do something more amazing. Not babysitting or delivering someone's porn. So find us something more ninja-like or else we're not doing it. And don't try to trick me, Jiji," Naruto pointed an accusing finger at the man. "I know my rights." A self-assured smirk grew on her lips as she smugly crossed her arms in triumph. "You can't make us take a mission unless we want to. Hikaru said so, so it must be true."

Even as I fought the urge to face-palm, I couldn't quite keep the reluctant grin from making its way to my lips. Only Naruto would try to put my comments on the law – that of a mere Genin – above that of the Hokage himself.

After shooting a quick glance to the blonde, I turned to look at the Hokage to gauge his reaction, and it was clear that the old man must have felt the same way I did because he glanced my way, one of his eyebrow arched, and we shared a look of mutual amusement at the absurdity that was Naruto.

After a second Sarutobi shook his head and turned back to Naruto, hands steepled before him in an attempt to cover his smile. Not that it did any good, what with the way his eyes seemed to all but light up with hidden amusement from under the brim of his hat.

"Is there nothing I can do to convince you to take this mission Naruto?" He asked, nodding towards the mission scroll sitting on his desk, but Naruto refused to take it and shook her head adamantly. The old man gave a theatrical sigh as he picked up the scroll. "Very well then, if you insist on it that strongly I'll grant you a C-rank mission instead."

"Jiji, I already said – wait, what?" Naruto cut herself off in the middle of her tangent as she registered what he said.

A tiny quirk appeared on one corner of his lips, "I said you've won Naruto. Your team has already completed the minimum required D-ranks new Genin teams need to qualify for their first C-rank. I suppose if you feel so strongly about it then there is no harm in granting you a C-rank."

Going by the look of stunned disbelief that was plastered on Naruto's face, I don't think she actually believed she would get her way despite how stubbornly she fought. Slowly, the reality began to sink in and her expression was replaced by a wide elated grin.

"YAHOO~~!" Leaping in a fit of joy, Naruto threw one fist into the air before spinning to me. "You hear that Hikaru? We're getting a C-rank mission! A C-Rank! We're going to be doing real Ninja stuff, like rescuing a princess, or fighting an army or -"

"It is a shame though," despite the soft tone, Sarutobi's voice still managed to be heard over Naruto's chattering. He looked down at the green and black mission scroll held in his hands. "After all the trouble I went through preparing a B-rank mission for you, only for you to reject it."

I swear you could hear a pin drop from how quiet the room suddenly became.

Naruto, who had frozen in place mid-celebration, stiffly rotated her now pale white face towards the Hokage. "...Say what now?"

"And here I was so certain you would have wanted it." Sarutobi carried on speaking to himself, pretending not to notice Naruto's reaction as he looked over the scroll in his hand. He let out what was clearly a fake sigh, "But I suppose there is nothing I can do about it. As you had so adamantly pointed out to me, I cannot force you to take such a dangerous B-rank mission."

From the opposite side of Naruto, I saw Shikamaru stir. He was still in his slouch but his eyes no longer held their glazed disinterested look. It was a subtle thing, the way his eyes swirled onto the Hokage, but to anyone who knew him could tell he was paying attention now.

Naruto, on the other hand, looked like she just found out that her favourite pet had died. "But...But...you didn't say anything about a B-rank."

"I was going to but you never let me finish." Sarutobi tried to reply nonchalantly, but as he caught sight of Naruto's devastated expression he had to lower the brim of his hat to hide his smile. "Then again, I cannot rightly blame you for refusing to accept the mission if you felt you were not up to it. Rather, I must commend you for it. Knowing what your limits are and refusing to take a mission that you felt was beyond you took a level of maturity I did not expect from you Naruto. Well done."

"Still," He admitted as he pulled open a drawer and began to lower the scroll into it. "It is a pity that after all the trouble I went to set it up for you, you'd reject it. I suppose I must look for another more qualified Genin team to complete it instead-"

Naruto's hand slammed her onto the Hokage's desk so hard it bounced off the ground.

"Give it to me." My blonde teammate spoke, voice devoid of any emotion. "Give it to me now."

Sarutobi paused to look up at Naruto with feigned surprise, completely disregarding the deadly look she was giving him. "But Naruto, I thought you didn't want it."

"Don't mess with me old man!" Naruto growled as she inched her way closer to the Hokage. And by that I didn't mean she walked around the desk, the girl was literally clawing her way over the desk on her hands and knees in an attempt to get to him. "Give me that damn scroll!"

The Hokage soon found himself gripped by the front of his robes by four and a half feet of enraged blonde. Despite being manhandled by a Genin – an act that would have been considered high treason in any other situation – Sarutobi just chuckled affectionately at the girl.

"I take it that you've changed your mind then." He tipped his hat back, "In that case allow me to ask you again. Team 7, will you accept the B-rank protection mission to the Land of Waves?"

"YES-YES-YES! WE'LL TAKE IT!"

The windows literally rattled in their frames, sending a flock of birds fleeing to the air from a nearby tree and caused what sounded like every dog in the village to howl in pain.

Years of experience from hanging around Naruto gave me a rough idea of what to expect from the blonde when she heard the offer, so before she had a chance to so much as open her mouth I already had both my hands firmly pressed against my ears.

And if the way Shikamaru winced in pain and clutched his ears was any indication, it was a good thing that I did. My fellow teammate shot Naruto a half-hearted glare before he looked away, muttering something under his breath about loud women and hearing loss.

Had it been any other time Shikamaru would have found himself receiving a cuff to the back of the head from Naruto for the comment, but our resident blonde either didn't hear him or was too excited to care from where she was standing before the Hokage.

"Naruto, calm down." The ageing Hokage gave his surrogate granddaughter an indulgent smile, "I know you're excited but you can't just accept a mission without thinking about it."

"What is there to consider?" Naruto shot back, grinning way too widely at the news, all her previous anger gone like mist under the morning light. "It's a B-rank mission, Jiji, a B-rank! Of course, we'll accept. Why wouldn't we?"

"Because this is a B-rank mission Naruto. I don't need to tell you that it will be nothing like you've ever experienced before. The danger is real and it won't be you alone who would be put at risk. Therefore the decision is not yours alone to make," Sarutobi removed his pipe from his lips and pointed the stem at the rest of us, "It is your entire team's. As such, I will not approve of this mission unless every member of Team 7 agrees to take it."

Immediately Naruto released the Hokage to leap off the desk before turning to face me, wearing the most pleading, puppy-eyed look she had. Her eyes actually seemed to grow a couple of inches in size as she looked up to me, teardrops reflecting off the sunlight glistening in her eyes.

Naturally, I knew she was faking. And just as naturally, I folded.

"Fine," I caved, any lingering doubts I had about involving myself with Danzo disappearing in the face of eagerness. "Well take the mission."

"Alright!" Naruto cheered, proving my suspicion correct as her pitiful expression was immediately replaced with excitement. "We're going on our first B-rank!

"Wait! I object!" Shikamaru interjected, raising his hand in the air as he did so. "I don't remember agreeing to-"

Without even bothering to look his way, Naruto raised up her foot off the ground and stomped down.

Hard.

A tremor ran through the entire room, sending all the furniture shaking. When they finally stopped rattling a couple of seconds later, Shikamaru slowly lowered his sights and glanced downwards, just in time to see Naruto remove her foot off the ground, revealing a rather detailed impression of the soles of her shoes imprinted deep into the stone floor.

Looking down at the crater – only millimetres away from the edge of his toes – Shikamaru swallowed loudly and, very wisely, lowered his hand. "...I withdraw my objection."

"Excellent." The Hokage said, easily ignoring the blatant strong-arming of our teammate. I suppose he had his share of experience with dealing with unmotivated Naras. "Then seeing that you are all in agreement, I hereby assign Team 7 to the mission."

At this point, Kakashi finally glanced up from his book. "Wait, doesn't anyone want my opinion?"

"No." Naruto, Shikamaru, me, and even the Hokage replied as one, all of us giving the grey-haired man a deadpanned look. Hell, I think even Tora glared at him. No matter what, we all knew we'd be better off without asking for his input as Kakashi would somehow find a way to make things even worse.

Seeing this, Kakashi just shrugged and returned to his book.

"Now Team 7," The Hokage turned to address the rest of us, "your assignment will be to escort the client, a bridge builder by the name of Tazuna, to the Land of Waves-"

The Hokage spent the next several minutes going over the details of the mission with us, and I wasn't too surprised to discover how different it was from the show. After everything I had gone through so far, I would have been astonished if it had gotten it entirely accurate rather than the other way around.

On the surface, it wasn't too different from what I remembered but the more I listened, the more apparent it became that for all the superficial similarities this was an entirely different ball game.

For one thing, Konoha was very much aware of Gatō's involvement in the Waves, along with his desire to prevent the bridge from being completed at any cost. Another difference was the overall objective of the mission. Rather than simply guarding Tazuna, our primary objective was to secure a trade route between the Land of Fire and the Land of Waves. And with Gatō's chokehold on the ports, the only way that objective could be completed was via the construction of the bridge that Tazuna had been working on.

I paid rapt attention to all of this, mentally noting all the differences and filing them away in my mind so that I could better scrutinize over the changes later in private.

"-you are to meet your client at the main gates tomorrow morning at 7 am sharp." After finally providing with all the basic information he felt we would need, Sarutobi began to wrap up the briefing and held out the mission scroll towards our Sensei, who had been engrossed with his reading the entire time. "All the necessary details for the mission have already been written in the scroll."

Snapping his book shut, Kakashi pushed himself off the wall and approached the waiting Hokage at a lethargic pace. Slipping his book into his side pouch, he reached out to the offered scroll with his other hand-

*BANG*

- Tora sat up straight, startling all of us as she slammed her ass onto the desk so hard it rattled. Kakashi paused for a moment to glance at the cat, only to find her blankly staring back at him with wide-open eyes. After a second our Sensei shrugged and took the scroll from the Hokage's outstretched hand, easily ignoring Tora's behaviour.

It wasn't as if this was the first time Tora behaved this way around Kakashi, and I doubted it would be the last.

It seemed that Kakashi was the only person who still seemed able to scare Tora anymore, as whenever he got too close to her, she would immediately press her ass against the closest solid object she could find. Not that I could blame her. If I had gone through what that poor cat had, then you'd bet your last dollar that I would make sure I had something solid between my anus and Kakashi's fingers whenever he was around.

…What the hell is wrong with my life that I can think of that sentence and be completely serious?

---

Despite the sunlight pouring through the window, none of it seemed to touch the room. The warmth of the morning rays failed to reach past the glass panels, it's light unable to diffuse the gloom that gripped the place, rather it only seemed to deepen them as the shadows they created grew darker.

Beneath the shadows of his hat cold eyes peered out, the warmth they held just seconds ago missing, locked onto the door that the three children and a young man had walked through.

It was as if with their departure the grandfatherly old man that they had been talking to had departed with them, and now what sat in his place was someone entirely different. A creature infinitely more jaded and ever so very weary.

Nothing remained of the man that a little girl called Jiji.

Here sat the Third Hokage, the Sandaime, the God among killers.

And it was there, in that quiet empty room, that the Sandaime asked a question.

"Are you sure of this?"

There should have been no one left to answer.

Kakashi had long gone, taking his charges with him, and even his ever-present Anbu guards had left their post at a signal from the Hokage. There was no one left in the room but he.

Someone answered anyway.

"Of course."

It was like the slow ticking of a clock, the rhythmic tapping of his cane that heralded his arrival, the only noise from the otherwise silent intruder, leaving no question to his identity. With silent steps he drifted from the shadows, appearing in the room like a spectre, bandaged arm cradled in his robes.

"For this, we cannot send anybody else." Danzo hobbled over to the seated Kage, still playing the role of the cripple even now in the privacy of this office, away from prying eyes.

"There are others." The Sandaime contradicted, voice flat, not so much cold as sterile, "Perhaps not as suited or capable but-"

"-But nothing." Danzo lowered himself into one of the vacant seats before the Hokage's desk, the tip of his cane cradled in both hands. "Momochi Zabuza may not be the most powerful Shinobi the Mist has ever produced but he comes close. As an assassin, he is nearly unparalleled. In the land of waves, surrounded on all sides by his element, in a terrain he has grown familiar with, any team we send will either be ripped apart or incur such losses that it will be little more than a pyrrhic victory. If we desire any chance of flushing him out without suffering heavy casualties we need to send someone capable enough to both track and subdue him in a one-on-one confrontation. The only individual that suits our needs and is not currently involved in a crucial mission is Hatake Kakashi."

"I fear," Danzo carried on after a moment's pause, "that our failure to anticipate the recent developments at the Waves has left us ill-positioned to react to the situation. We have little other choice."

"What of your precious Root?" Hiruzen demanded, still not taking his eyes off the door. "Can they not take care of this?"

"No. I have none stationed in the Wave at the present. At least none that can hope to fight the likes of Zabuza and come out alive. The majority of my operatives are primarily infiltration specialists, Hiruzen, you know this. They were never meant to engage in open combat and are ill-equipped to handle someone of Zabuza's calibre. The precious few that are, are currently stationed elsewhere, and I can't risk recalling them from their current assignments without compromising both them and their missions."

The words Danzo spoke were not something Hiruzen hadn't heard before. He had been told the same thing by the very same man himself a little more than a week ago when the situation was first brought to his attention. But if Danzo felt any disgruntlement at being forced to recite the information for a second time he showed no signs of it, his single working eye continued to observe his Hokage's stone-faced expression as he spoke, whose eyes had remained locked onto the door.

When he finally finished speaking, a silence drifted between the two.

Danzo, content to wait for the other to break it first, remained seated in his chair while Hiruzen appeared to not even have noticed Danzo had finished speaking.

At long last, what felt like a small eternity later, the Sandaime pulled his eyes away from the door and set them upon his oldest friend. "…And there was no one else we could have sent?" Though he already knew the answer, Hiruzen felt the need to ask anyway.

"And pray tell, who?" Danzo questioned plainly, "Who else is there? Jiraiya perhaps? Or maybe you'd like to call back Tsunade once again? The first is missing, again I might add, while the other is more likely to spit in our faces than agree to help. No old friend, there is no one else available to us."

"There is Tenzo." Though Sarutobi looked doubtful at his own suggestion. "Though I suppose we can't afford to risk exposing his abilities so early."

"No, we cannot." Danzo agreed. "Even if we were willing to, I'm not confident enough in his ability to accomplish this mission. Tenzo, powerful he may be, but the Demon of the Mist had survived far worse in the past. We need someone to guarantee success without incurring any losses, which is what makes Hatake so suited for the task. Both S-rank ninjas and those who can fight them are rare even in the best of times, and these days certainly aren't. Hatake is one of the very few we have left, he is too valuable an asset to keep off the field for long. Already my spies tell me that his absence has been noted, and if he were to stay away for too long I fear that others may see it as a sign of weakness."

The illusion of Konoha's power, something that the two of them had spent almost every day of the last twelve years trying to maintain. Since the night the nine-tailed fox broke free from its prison.

It was impossible to completely convey the scale of devastation Konoha had suffered that day. It was the single biggest disaster the Leaf had ever suffered bar none and even today, over a decade later, the village has yet to recover from its wounds.

To put it plainly, Konoha had barely managed to survive as a nation afterwards.

The demon fox had killed so many of them, devastated so much of their population, that the Leaf simply did not have the numbers to sustain itself, not when they had yet to recuperate the losses suffered from the war. Had any of the other villages ever learned the true extent of the damage they had suffered, Konoha may very well have ceased to exist.

The only reason they managed to survive for so long was because the other villages were plagued with their own set of problems. The remainder of the Five Great Villages had also emerged from the same war Konoha had, suffering even greater losses than the Leaf, and even beyond that had their set off worries occupying their attention to pay much mind to what happened elsewhere.

The Mist were embroiled in a civil war and were far too busy killing each to take notice of their old enemy's weakness. The Sand were not only allies to the Leaf but they also suffered from their own internal issues. A scarcity of fertile land meant they lacked the resources to sustain a larger population, keeping their numbers the smallest out of all the Great Villages. Coupled with deteriorating relationships with their Daimyo, along with troubles controlling their own tailed-beast, meant they could ill afford to take advantage of the weakness of others. The death of their Kage a couple of years back only exasperated their issues.

The Stone suffered the biggest losses out of all the villages during the war, and from the Leaf no less. And while eager to take revenge, they were also skittish, the lesson taught to them by the hands of the Yondaime the last time they pointed their blades at the Leaf was not so easily forgotten. So while they may have wanted vengeance, they were not willing to commit themselves to another war against the Leaf unless their victory was certain.

Out of the Five Great Hidden Village, it was the Cloud that presented the greatest risk to Konoha. They, out of all the Hidden Villages, were the only ones in the right position to take complete advantage of the Leaf's weakened state, and they almost had. It was only thanks to the back-breaking effort from the survivors of the Kyuubi's attack that managed to stop them from trying.

In the face of the devastation they suffered, the Shinobi of Konoha refused to show any weakness. Despite the steep drop in the numbers, the village continued to maintain the status quo. After but a single day to recover, Konoha had resumed accepting missions, taking every assignment offered to them by clients, sustaining the same level of activity they had before the attack. And though it took every Shinobi and Kunoichi left with four working limbs – sometimes not even that – working double shifts to make it work, they managed to pull it off.

All so that they may show the world that though Konoha bleeds, it was still strong.

And it had worked.

The almost instantaneous recovery after the attack had cast doubt on the extent of the damages Konoha had sustained, making those willing to take advantage of their moment of weakness to hesitate and falter. And though there were a few probing attempts from other villages, such as the near-disastrous Hyuuga Incident by Kumo, Konoha had managed to maintain a strong enough presence of strength that none were willing to risk a full out war with them.

And now, after so many years, Konoha was almost restored to its former glory.

They were close, oh so very close. Just a little more time and children born after the Kyuubi attack will become shinobi in their own right, ready and able to take the place of those who had fallen that day. But they were not quite there yet. They needed more time, just a little more and the illusion of strength that they had tried so hard to maintain will become a reality. But till then, the old guard had to maintain their vigil until the new generation was ready to take their place by their side.

"And the children, what of them?" Hiruzen asked, getting to the heart of his distress. "Leave them behind, there is no need to involve them in this."

"I disagree." The one-eyed man said in reply. "There is every reason to involve them. The experience will be good for them if nothing else."

"Not if Zabuza ends up killing them it won't!"

"Hatake won't let him," Danzo stated assuredly, easily disregarding the killing intent being levelled his way with practised ease. "Zabuza will be too busy fending him off to concern himself with others."

"You know Zabuza isn't alone Danzo." Hiruzen pointed out. "The Demon Brothers, what of them? Kakashi can't be everywhere and do everything while fighting Zabuza at the same time. He will not be able to protect the rest of his team while he fights."

"Other than Zabuza, the rest won't pose any real threat." Danzo waved off the concern. "They're riff-raff. Nothing more than a thugs and Rounin." A tiny sneer actually appeared on Danzo's lips, the only expression to grace his face so far, as if merely speaking the word left a bad taste on his tongue. "Gato is far too fond of his money to willingly part ways with more of it than he has to. The only people in his employ worth noting are the two that Zabuza has brought with him, and the Demon Brothers are barely C-rank Ninjas. If even that. Against a Jinchuuriki that can multiply herself and survive any injury short of decapitation, an up-and-coming prodigy with eyes that can see danger coming from miles away matched with the pragmatism to run away when needed, and Shikaku's boy, who appears to have inherited both his father's intelligence along with the inclination to avoid any danger or hardships."

"I have absolute confidence in their abilities to keep themselves alive." Danzo actually sounded as if he meant it. "They may lack the skills to actually aid Hatake in the mission, but they needn't have to. Hatake can handle Zabuza alone. The children need not do anything other than survive."

"Why, Danzo? Why do you want to see them on a battlefield so strongly."

"So that they may have their eyes opened." The leader of Root replied. "We both know that all the training we put them through in the Academy is meaningless the moment they set foot on a battlefield. For all the decades we spent developing skills and training techniques, we have yet to discover a way to prepare someone for their first taste of battle, their first encounter with death. So many promising students had walked out of the Academy doors only to die by a kunai held in the hands of some drunken bandit because they ended up freezing when they should have acted. In the end, it simply meant they lacked what it took to survive as shinobi. The only way to find out for sure if they have what it takes is to throw them in the fire, and see if they manage to walk back out. You know this is true."

"But not this soon." A hint of something could be heard in the old man's voice. "They are still children Danzo, only twelve, we can afford to wait for them to grow a little longer before sending them into something like this."

Instead of answering right away, Danzo stared at his Kage, his one eye seemingly able to something that no one else could. After a time, in an almost gentle tone of voice, he spoke. "Do you recall what happened that last time you trained children, Hiruzen?"

The reminder brought a grimace to the Hokage's face, forcing him to look away, his already grim expression darkening even further.

That has always been a sticking point between the two.

Once, a long time ago, Sarutobi Hiruzen had been given three bright pupils to train. The best of their generation, each showing more potential than almost any other student to have come out of the Academy since its founding. The three, while different, were all brilliant in their own way. Orochimaru, a well behaved obedient child who excelled in almost everything he tried his hand in and soaked up knowledge like a sponge. Tsunade, a Senju, with control over chakra that, even as a child, was as near damn perfect as anything either of them had ever seen before or since, matched with a passion and intelligence that left no doubts she would achieve great things. And finally was Jiraiya, who though lagged far behind the other two academically and in the other more traditional fields of the Shinobi arts, had shown clear signs of hidden genius and untapped potential in Fuinjutsu along with a flexibility of thought that surprised even the two.

All who looked upon the three knew they would one day become great, if only there were given the chance.

And they were.

The children were given to the care of the Sandaime, the greatest living Ninja that Konoha could call its own, and it was under his guidance that they bloomed, his teachings bring out the greatness locked inside of them. The potential that they shared was carefully grown and cultivated into genuine talent, producing something that had never been seen before or since.

A team composed entirely of S-rank ninjas.

Once Hiruzen would have taken pride in that knowledge. That the three children he had met so long ago, who he had come to think of as his own son and daughters, had grown so strong and achieved so much. But now the bitter reminder left him feeling empty, none of old pride anywhere to be found.

What should have been his greatest achievement had instead become his greatest failure.

And his greatest living shame.

He had been given the best of a generation to train, so they may learn all the skills and strength he possessed. And he had, he succeeded in teaching them to be strong.

In body at least.

It was forging their character where he had failed.

Till this day it was his greatest regret.

One had abandoned her home, leaving her comrades behind to their fates in order to live a life of decadence, gambling away the last of her family's fortune and drinking her life away. The other could be found gallivanting all around the world, never remaining in one place for too long before disappearing to somewhere else, rarely ever returning to her home village, and now more famed for her perversion and skills as a smut writer than her abilities as a ninja.

As for the last?

The worst traitor the Leaf had ever seen since Madara. An inhuman abomination as likely to kill a child as he would an ant.

That was the fate of the three children given to him.

The minds of all three were broken. While the war could have been partially blamed for the result, Hiruzen could not find it in himself to agree. He was not so unaware of his shortcomings to put the blame entirely on others. He was the responsible for them, it was he who raised them, and for all three to become like this.

Who could he blame but himself?

The aged Hokage shut his eyes, the only outward sign of the now-familiar ache he felt fill his chest. He knew he had always been a failure as a father. His son never failed to remind him on the rare occasion they met.

Perhaps that is why when he tried to be a teacher, he had failed at that too.

He refused to take any other students after. No matter how many times he had been asked, he denied any request to start a new team. He refused to subject any more children to his failures.

He had been reluctant to allow Danzo any students for much the same reason. While he would not stop him from finding villageless orphans and other unfortunates to instruct, he refused to subject any child from his village to his training. As much as he trusted his old friend to do what was needed, he feared he would go too far in his zeal to fulfil his duty. So while he allowed him to play a part in training his Anbu, he kept him far away from the truly innocent children.

But like most things, circumstances had forced his hand, and he had been forced to grant his old friend a single student from his village.

The results spoke for themselves.

From the three Hiruzen had been given, one a traitor, one a drunkard that had abandoned her village and the last is almost never seen, doing whatever caught her fancy.

While the one child he had given to Danzo was Uchiha Itachi.

The results were clear.

Hiruzen had tried and found himself wanting as a teacher. Though he held no ill will towards his old friend, it pained him that he had proved to be such an inadequate teacher that Danzo of all people had proven to be far superior.

Sometimes he felt as if the Heavens were laughing at him.

"Did you not promise me a free hand to mould these three?" Danzo asked rhetorically, not even bothering to wait for an answer before he carried on. "Then please old friend, stand aside and let me do what I must."

"I gave them to you to be trained, not killed." Hiruzen replied, heat managing to seep into his words, the first sign of emotions leaking into his voice from his otherwise sterile tone. "If I allow you to proceed, they may die."

"They may," Danzo allowed, nodding. "But that is a risk we all share. No one who bears the name of 'shinobi' can expect to do so without putting their lives at risk. The only difference with these children is that they will experience this truth earlier than most." Danze paused, before adding. "At least from the current generation. We were younger than even them when we first experienced battle, or have you forgotten?"

"No Danzo." Hiruzen sighed as he recalled his own childhood. He couldn't even believe they had ever been so young anymore. "I have not."

"I understand your reluctance old friend, believe me, I do. This is a risk that they must take, but not for nothing." Danzo assured. "In exchange for the danger they will experience, I will make them strong."

"And what if you don't? What if this plan of yours ends up failing you in the worst possible way? A single slip, one misstep, and they will lose their lives. What will you do then?"

"Then we do what we have always done. We move on and begin anew with the next group. The weak fall and the strong survive, that is the reality of the war we find ourselves in."

"We are not at war, Danzo." The Hokage reminded, "Not anymore."

"Tell that to the troops that keep dying every day on the field." Danzo turned to look over Hiruzen's shoulder, at the sight of the sprawling village of Konoha. "To the people living within the walls of the Village we have enjoyed a decade of peace, but to us who have to protect their peace, our war has never ended. In shadows, the battle between the Hidden Villages continues to wage, unseen by all who walk in the light. As it should be."

Silence returned and took hold between the two as Danzo took the opportunity to look over the village he had sold his soul to protect, taking in its beauty.

"You know we have no other choice Hiruzen." The words were almost kind, and as Danzo turned his sights back to his Hokage, he wore a look on his face that might have been mistaken for concern had it belonged to anyone else. "Too many mistakes have been made, we cannot afford to take our time any longer. You are dying."

Hiruzen quietly chortled, amused despite himself. "I'm hardly dying."

"But you are." Danzo denied. "As a Hokage, you are most certainly dying. Slowly, every day, little by little you are dying. Each passing day sees you grow weaker, your limbs frailer, your legs no longer seem to move as fast, your hands not as certain as they once used to be, your eyesight not as clear, and every morning finds you more weary than the last."

Danzo levelled his gaze to his oldest, and perhaps only, friend. "You are dying old friend. We are running out of time, we have already suffered too many failures as it is. We cannot afford to take our time any longer."

Hiruzen sat silent for a time, his gaze once again returning to the door. Danzo said nothing, content to wait and let his old teammate think. At long last, the ageing Hokage sighed, "But this?" He asked, looking every bit of his six and a half decades, "You may end up breaking them old friend. They're still only children."

"What else would you have me do?" Danzo asked, holding his hands open. "Coddle them? Have them trained within the safety of these walls on training mats with blunted weapons, never exposing them to any real danger, only to watch their potential wither and fade? Is that what you would have me do?

"Being raised in a place of absolute peace, never exposed to danger can kill a child's growth just as surely as a dagger to the throat would. Kindness may make a child strong but too much of it can stunt them just as easily as cruelty could, perhaps even more. They need to be exposed to the hardships of the world hidden beyond these walls if we ever want them to meet our expectations. You know I speak the truth, you have seen it yourself, that the greatest among us have all had one thing in common. We all knew war as children."

"...Perhaps." The Hokage relented. "But doesn't mean I have to like it."

Danzo stared at his old friend for a long time, seeing something there he did not expect to find. "Ah, I see." Danzo muttered quietly to himself before raising his voice. "Are you sure you're not letting your sentiments for the child cloud your judgment, old friend."

"No." The Sandaime shook his head. "No." He repeated. "I knew Naruto's fate would be this the day Minato sealed the Kyuubi in her. As much as I wished it to be otherwise, there is nothing I can do to change it."

"It was not the Jinchuuriki I was speaking of."

Hiruzen stiffened, his expression turning frigidly cold. "...Exactly what is it you are implying, Danzo?"

The tone was spoken in warning, like a drawn knife.

"The resemblance is uncanny, I must admit." Danzo confessed, carrying on as if he had not noticed the threat that hung between them. "Not so much in their features, perhaps, in that regard, they are certainly different, but in everything else?" He raised one shoulder in a half-shrug, "I can not blame you, Hiruzen, if you see him in the boy. Not when the similarities are so clear for all to see."

Hiruzen stared at Danzo, back straight, eyes smouldering.

Then, like the puffed out flame of a candle, all the rage in him disappeared, leaving him feeling weak, tired and so very old.

"...I admit I keep seeing Orochimaru in him. When he was still…" Hiruzen grimaced in pain. Even after all these years, despite becoming too familiar with the sensation, the sting of his betrayal still burned as freshly as the day he had found his student in those sewers.

To realise what the boy he had come to love as a son had become.

Hiruzen shook his head, clearing his mind from that particular train of thought. "It is hard not to see him sometime when I look at him. Not when there is so much of the good I used to see in the boy."

The bad too, went unspoken.

Shutting his eyes, Hiruzen could still see him, as clearly as if he had stood before him – not the man he had become but the boy he had once loved. And every time he looked at the young Hyuuga that had latched onto his surrogate granddaughter, he could not help but see him in the boy.

The fates were cruel, to have a reminder of his greatest failure dangled in front of his face.

They were so very much alike.

At times it was surreal looking at him, the boy could have passed as the son of his old student were it not their eyes and the tone of their skin.

Their prodigal talent, the way they spoke, the unnatural maturity they held themselves with – even among the children of shinobi -, their fascination with chakra, their cunning, the unsettling air they unconsciously gave out that would have set them apart from their peer even if their talents had not. Even the way they style their hair was not too dissimilar.

Then there was his adoration for his family – his mother and sister in particular – that reminded him of how Orochimaru would cling to his parents. A mama's boy, that was what Tsunade used to call him. And she would have been right too, were it not for the fact that he clung to his father just as fiercely.

For better or for worse, Orochimaru had always been a pure child. He threw himself fully into anything he did fully, either loving something completely or not at all. No half measures, he would obsess or disregard, no middle ground.

Then the day came when he stood before his parent's grave, both lost on the same day, and Orochimaru had come face to face with the death for the very first time. Not the risk of dying, but the inevitability of it all. The inescapable fate that awaited us all in the end.

It terrified him, and that purity was twisted into something else.

What is this?

Ohh! That's the skin of a white snake, it must have been hard to find.

I've never seen something like this.

Haha, to be honest same with me. That's something very rare you don't get to see often.

...Why is it white?

Hmm...no one really knows. No one even thinks about that. For a long time now, the white snake has symbolized the image of good fortune and rebirth.

Good fortune and rebirth…

The fact that you found it here at this grave might be some sign. Maybe your parents have been reincarnated somewhere...so that someday...they may meet a grown up you.

...When will that be?

...That I don't know.

'Perhaps,' Hiruzen thought to himself the thousandth time, 'if he hadn't said that to him he would not have become what he is today.'

How could he have known the consequence of his actions? He had been trying to comfort a grieving child. If he only knew how his words would end up spawning a monster, he would have held his tongue.

And now, a second child appeared before him, a perfect reminder of his greatest mistake. Was this a chance for him to fix past mistakes or a warning that history would repeat itself?

Hiruzen glanced at the cat sitting on his desk, who was staring blankly at the wall, ignoring their presence. It did not slip his mind how this tiny cat had reacted to the boy's presence. While the Kyuubi may have been sealed and its presence muted, for a Nekomata to react so badly to a child of only twelve was unnatural. It cemented to him like nothing else could have that he had not been merely imagining the similarities between the two and that the boy may hold more in common with his old student than just the obvious.

Were it not for the clear attachment the boy held for Naruto, he may have been more worried.

It didn't take a genius to see the incredible level of genuine affection the pair shared for each other, it was as clear as the sun in the sky for anyone who bothered to look. And he had been watching the pair for over six years now. He had no doubt in his mind that either one of them would rather cut off their own hands than harm the other.

It was for that reason, above all others, that had Hiruzen convinced that the boy was no danger to the Leaf. So long as he had Naruto to keep him anchored, along with his family, he doubted he would ever need to fear Hikaru walking the same path his old student had.

Besides, Konoha had more than one mentally unstable Shinobi in their roster that still remained loyal to their home. Setting Danzo aside, anyone who met Maito Gai could attest to that. But even that knowledge couldn't completely erase his fears. He knew all too well how cruel the world can be.

What would happen if one day, Hikaru were to return to the village to discover he had lost his family to an attack?

What would happen if he woke up one day to find that Naruto had fallen in battle?

Would Hiruzen find him standing before a grave, like he had once before, consoling another grieving child? And this time, would a white snake happen to shed its skin on the grave?

No matter how unlikely it was to happen, Hiruzen could never allow that come to pass. Konoha had already spawned one abomination under his watch, he will not allow it to create a second. It may have been that very reason above any other that had swayed Hiruzen. The reason why he allowed himself to be persuaded by Danzo and granted him his request to take over the boy's training.

If there was anyone who knew how to tame a monster, it was him.

Clearly, Hiruzen could not trust himself to handle it. Not after the last time.

"But his resemblance to my old student is not why we are here today." Hiruzen said, returning to the topic at hand with a shake of his head. Raising his eyes to Danzo's, who remained seated across him, who appeared to be unmoving as a bolder and every bit as unfeeling.

Seeing the determination in his face, Hiruzen knew what must be done, no matter how much he wished it was not so.

"Very well," Releasing a tired sigh the Hokage gave his reluctant consent to his oldest friend, sinking back into his chair. "I will leave this matter up to your discretion."

Danzo nodded solemnly. "Thank you."

And like that, the tense atmosphere began to dispel.

Picking up his pipe from where he had abandoned it on his desk, Hiruzen's well-practised fingers swiftly pushed a pinch of tobacco into it before lighting with a flick of his fingers and a bit of elemental manipulation. Raising the lit pipe to his lips, he took a long drag before puffing out, letting the smoke drift around him in a comfortable haze. Danzo on the other hand just remained seated, cane held in his hands, content to remain where he was.

The two friends fell into an easy, familiar silence.

For all the unpleasantness of the topic that passed between them, both now and over the many years that they worked with one another, the two trusted each other in a way that could not be put in words. Enough that these two veterans of war could completely relax in the other's presence.

How could they not after all they've been through? They have fought by the other's side too many times, trusted one another with too many secrets not to feel comfortable in the other's company.

For a moment there they sat, two friends, both old, one bathed in the morning light shining through the window behind him, the other, seated across from him, hidden in the shadow cast by the former.

Just as they have always been.

"If you'll excuse me," after a long time Danzo stirred. Pushing himself up with the use of his cane, he gave his Hokage a causal bow, "I still have some final preparations to finish before Hatake leaves."

With a nod of dismissal from his old friend, Danzo turned around and began to hobble towards the door, the rhythmic tapping of his cane following all the way there. His hand had already gripped the door's handle by the time the voice reached him.

"Danzo." Pausing, Danzo turned to look over his shoulder at Hiruzen, who was leaning back in his chair, eye facing upwards, staring at the drifting smoke, pipe in hand. "What if they die?"

"Then," He stated calmly, as if he was speaking of the weather rather than the lives of children under his care, "we will have learned something of use - that they never had what it took to meet our exceptions. If that proves to be the case then it would be better to learn of this now, than waste more time and effort training a worthless investment. Live or die, either way," he turned back to the door and pulled open, "we would have gained something of value from this."

And with that, Danzo, the Shadow of the Hokage, stepped out of the office.

Now alone, Hiruzen remained seated in his chair, staring up at the ceiling with a vacant expression.

If he could he would have probably remained like that for the remainder of the day, dwelling in his own thoughts, but unfortunately, that was not to be. Even with everything that was happening with Team 7, he still had other issues that required his attention.

There was never any rest for either the wicked or a Kage.

So with another tired sigh, the weary old Hokage straightened up in his chair and went back to work. But before he could turn his attention to papers piled on his desk, he felt something nudge his arm. Looking downward, he spotted Tora bumping her head against his arm, either trying to provide comfort or simply demanding attention.

He never could quite tell with cats.

Nevertheless, grateful for the distraction she provided he chuckled and gently reached out to scratch behind one of her ears, earning a delighted purr from the unblinking cat.

"Do you ever feel like you've been shafted?" He asked his feline companion, his thoughts lingering on his recent encounter with Danzo.

The cat seemed to immediately still under his fingers, freezing in place so completely it almost was as if someone had hit the pause button. Slowly, Tora swirled it's head and turned its wide-open eyes to stare up at the Hokage with a deadpan look.

"Oh, right." Sarutobi grimaced, "Sorry."

---

*Chapter End*