Disclaimer: Refer to chapter 1.
AN: Full Chapter Title: A Sage Training a Caesar: Day 16!
"Hinata." The voice of Hiashi Hyuga stopped the Genin cold. She did not turn around to face him but it was not out of defiance. Her wound from the Chunin Exams was still too tender to allow for such movement. The Branch House member responsible for her care aided in turning her around a moment after her father spoke, staying mindful of her wound thanks to eyes just like her own if not stronger. The doctors had been clear that she should not move abruptly less she cause further damage to a wound that would already have a difficult road of recovery laid ahead for her.
The antidote Kankuro had been forced to provide wasn't as effective as the medical staff had hoped and the effects of the poison he had used had weakened her immune system considerably, it had almost been outright fatal. She had to be exceedingly careful the entire time since the injury. If the wound, still raw from the mainly ineffective antidote, became infected the resulting infection could possibly kill her. The doctors had been clear that her body couldn't handle the shock of it.
"Yes Father?" Her hands were clasped in front of her and her eyes were focused towards the ground. The Branch House member, after making sure she remained healthy, bowed with her head touching the floor. She did not dare raise her head for fear of Hiashi punishing her.
He had been especially irritable with members of the Branch House after learning of Neji's performance in the Chunin Exams. An unspoken boundary had appeared between the two and would not be fading away anytime soon.
"Know you disappointed not only myself but the Clan with your pitiful performance in the Chunin Exams."
"I know Father." Her eyes remained focused on the ground, focused on the stray hair of the Branch House member bowing, seeing the minute trembling she knew her father saw as well. He may even sport a small smile at a Branch House member knowing her place so well.
"Remember your weakness shames the clan." Hiashi spoke no more to her. She did not expect him to speak much beyond those words to her and she was happy that was the case. The less he spoke to her was for the better for them all in the end.
"I know Father." It was truly one of the only responses she could give. Any other and he would punish her, be reminded of her many failings and punish her despite her injuries.
She knew, deep within her heart, he would not care if she died because of what he would do. She knew he would not care if he dealt her a crippling injury in his fury, blinded by his hatred at things far beyond what she could directly control. He would more likely rejoice that a weak heiress had died. Her sister, her much stronger sister being most important to Hiashi, would take her place as heiress of the Hyuga and have the love he had never given her.
And then he would begin to hate her sister as much as her. Neji was genius like no other and Hanabi could not measure up to someone like him no matter how hard he pushed her.
He turned away from her after a moment of looking at her in what had to be disgust before he left down the halls. Hinata remained where she was standing with her head bowed and eyes focused on the floor for several minutes longer regardless of his continued absence for her sight. She had to be sure he was gone.
"He's gone." She spoke to the Branch House member at her feet and she slowly rose her head from the floor, her Byakugan active once more.
"Do you still wish to depart Hinata-sama?" She remained on her knees.
"Yes." She rose to her feet and waited for Hinata to begin moving again.
Hiashi was very clear. His daughter was to be escorted by a Branch House member at all times for her own protection. He considered her pathetically weak now, considered her unable to fight even an Academy student with a chance of victory. He did not care that she was wounded, that she had come so close to a victory that she would have never gained a few months ago. He did not care about anything but the fact she had lost her match and Neji had not only won but used techniques that should be restricted to the Main House.
He was embarrassed one of his daughters, his eldest and heiress of the Hyuga, failed where a Branch House member succeeded.
Or he was angry at Neji's own prodigious skills. Maybe he was angry that Neji mastered a technique that had taken him years to begin to learn with the best of teachers. Perhaps he was jealous of his nephew's genius, the reminder of how he had gained his position.
Hinata knew the story of her long deceased uncle rather well after all.
She was focused deeply on her thoughts as she stepped through the door with aid of the Branch House member. She didn't notice the familiar face that was seemingly waiting for her.
"Hinata." The voice from the side almost made her jump but a soothing hand from the woman next to her, no doubt aided by the healing techniques that had been the reason she had been ordered to be her escort in the first place, made her still and her body relax before any harm could come to her. A huff of air not dissimilar to a snort came from next to her. "I should have known I would scare you."
"N-Neji." Hinata's eyes remained on the ground. The prodigy of the Hyuga Clan had every reason to hate her and her fear was not an easy thing to hide. "I-I didn't think you would still be here when you have a match to prepare for in the finals."
"Fate has already decided that battle. I'm not concerned about it." Neji did not need his Byakugan to know Hinata was afraid of him and a part of him, the part of him that made him attack Yoroi far beyond what was reasonable, relished such a thing. He enjoyed the fact that the girl in front of him was so afraid of him that she was nearly trembling at his mere presence. "I'm here because I want to speak with you."
Neji's eyes turned to the curious eyes of his fellow Branch House member.
"I can watch over her for you Hina." He received a nod and a small smile from the woman before she wordlessly departed. Hinata did not let her terror get to her as she saw her escort leave. She forced down her panic when Neji offered her his arm and she accepted it.
"I-I'm surprised you want to talk to me." He spared her any strain and was slow as he guided the two down the roofed walkway.
"You need to stay away from Naruto Uzumaki." Neji was not someone to waste time. He did not allow Hinata time to react either. "I will either cripple or outright kill him in our match in the finals for the way he looked at you during the First Stage." Neji was also someone who remembered things well. "Your father will also no doubt dislike him."
"I-I-" Hinata could not speak the defiance she felt. She wanted to say she did not care what her father thought, that she did not care what he wanted of her, but terror took hold of her. Neji was with her but she felt as if her father was watching her now, waiting for her to show defiance to crush it. He could very well be monitoring her with his Byakugan.
Neji could even be reporting to him.
She could not be defiant. She could not speak such words and expect to avoid punishment.
"I understand."
She could not be defiant until the eyes of her father no longer watched her every move.
"That is good news to hear." Neji came to a stop and she was forced to do the same. He did not pull away from her but it was clear who he was waiting for. During their brief walk together, they had rounded a corner and the Branch House member that was assigned as her caretaker, Hina, approached them from across the compound.
Neji and Hina seemed to have planned the encounter.
'You're wrong Neji.' The Hyuga prodigy wordlessly handed her off to Hina. 'Naruto is going to be the one to beat you in the finals no matter what you think. He's far stronger than you.'
"RASENGAN!" Naruto threw his hand forward, the swirling mass of Chakra screaming through the air before it struck the tree in front of him. The bark was destroyed as he drove his hand into it, the trunk warped under the fury of the rotating Chakra, and at last the mighty tree fell with a crack like thunder and struck the ground with enough force to make it tremble.
That tree was one of many Naruto had practiced his perfected Rasengan on.
A blue haze leaked from his hand and he chuckled as eyes so similar yet so different to that aimless haze looked to his hand. He almost seemed to marvel at it, marvel at the power he now held, literally, in the palm of his hands. He looked at it and he began to laugh.
"No wonder the Fourth Hokage made great use of such a technique as the Rasengan." He had learned the history of the Rasengan from the Toad Sage as he had mastered it and perfected his use of it over time. Even now, a new Rasengan formed in his palm with the soft whirl he had grown to associate with the technique. "This is the perfect technique."
"I wouldn't go that far." Jiraiya spoke up from next to his blonde student. "The Fourth Hokage never did complete it after all."
This gained a Caesar's attention.
"What?" He was not asking a question, he was demanding an answer and Jiraiya knew it.
"I meant exactly what I said Naruto." Jiraiya fired back his answer and pushed off the tree he was leaning again. He held up his hand and the Rasengan took shape with a soft whine. "The Rasengan, a technique already so powerful, can become a true force to be feared if one was to complete it. It's a tremendously difficult task through. Not even the technique's creator, the Fourth Hokage, could manage it before he died. He died young but it's important to realize that not even the man who knew all the ins and outs of the technique could manage to truly finish it beyond the basics. At the end of the day, the Rasengan both you and I use is an imperfect version."
"Impossible." Naruto lifted his Rasengan into the air. "This technique is too powerful to be something incomplete."
"The technique is power because the Fourth Hokage was a genius, a man able to create techniques that requires no hand seals but were incredibly powerful regardless. He rewrote the rules with his intelligence and made the Rasengan as the basis for a greater and more powerful technique." Jiraiya grew his Rasengan to a greater size with a surge of Chakra, forming the Giant Rasengan. "Imagine a technique as powerful as the Rasengan but somehow even more powerful."
He did not let words speak for him anymore, he turned and decided to give a demonstration instead.
"Great Flame Rasengan!" Before he struck the large tree, he shot out a stream of fire, the Rasengan quickly being consumed as it fed the flames even as it drew them towards the center. It grew and condensed the fire until it had become nothing but a miniature inferno.
He struck the tree and the world before him turned into hell.
"Incredible…" It was all Naruto could say as he beheld the ash of the once mighty trees, reduced to nothing before the might of the Rasengan. A dozen had been turned to nothing but a dark covering of ash on the ground, the might they held worthless against the fury of the Rasengan.
"It is incredible." Jiraiya folded his arms over his chest. A proud smile adorned his face. "I haven't been able to perfect the Rasengan myself but I've been able to combine it with some simple techniques to make it much more powerful. It's my dream to see it perfected one day but, at the rate I'm going, I don't think I'll ever manage to finish it."
'If a man cannot complete such a technique, a Caesar shall do it.' It was a silent vow in that moment. Amid the crackling of the fires that burned before him, the soft breeze, and the leaves that fell from the treetops to the forest floor, he made his oath without words.
A soft whir from behind him drew Jiraiya's attention.
"Come Toad Sage, let us see whose Rasengan shall triumph!" Naruto held the mastered Rasengan in front of him, his grin at the results of his training clear. Jiraiya could chuckle, his mind focused on both the past and the present once more before he turned to his student. The Toad Sage did nothing but form his own Rasengan in front of him.
Both charged the other, Naruto's speed impressive for someone his age. It was especially impressive in the armor he wore.
Jiraiya knew it was incredibly heavy.
'I wonder just how fast you are without it, Naruto?' Jiraiya couldn't help but let that question come to mind. 'Are you just like a yellow flash to the poor bastards fighting you?' Such a thought, another reminder of the past, brought forth a melancholic smile to his face. 'Do you take after your old man with that speed of yours?'
"Alright kid, time to see if you've really mastered the Rasengan!" Jiraiya charged his student and Naruto did the same.
"I'll prove that I've surpassed you Toad Sage!" The two neared each other and the inevitable clash drew closer and closer.
"RASENGAN!" Two voices cried out together as twin spheres of Chakra clashed.
"Jiraiya is a failure." From his office, Hiruzen sighed as he observed the clash from his crystal ball. He turned away from it and ended the technique. He wanted to argue, to deny it, but he found he could only agree with the words of one of his oldest friends. "He was supposed to observe his abilities and provide a report and he's hardly managed to do that satisfactorily. The boy should be removed from him before he grows any more in power or the fool teaches him another of the Fourth's techniques."
"There is nothing I can do now. Jiraiya will train the boy no matter what I do, even if I forbid it. He'll concoct some reason or another to keep the boy with him and the boy won't argue now, he knows what he can learn from someone like Jiraiya." Hiruzen did not smoke like he wanted to or begin to drink like he should. He needed to remain focused on the task at hand. "The best option is to keep him busy after the Chunin Exams, prevent him from directly managing his forces and do the same with Sasuke Uchiha. They're both all but guaranteed for promotion and Chunin are expected to tackle far more missions than any Genin. I can think of several places to send him to, places far away from the village and from his army."
"It won't work Hiruzen." Danzo Shimura remained in front of him, his one visible eye expressing his disappointment. "We both know just how powerful this blasted Kinjutsu of his is and how versatile he's been able to make it. Those Praetorians don't leave his side within the village and it's likely a small army will follow him out of it. If his actions in Waves are to be a baseline…" He did not continue.
"…more lands will come under his control, perhaps even willingly." Hiruzen finished for him. "The more lands that fall under his control, the more power his Empire will possess and his army will grow larger and larger."
"And then he will eventually take lands by force, annex any he sees fit, and send his armies to conquer them." Danzo gripped his cane too tightly. His knuckles were chalk white. "If we allow this to continue, allow him to continue unopposed, he will eventually be too powerful for any of the Five Nations to stop and then what will happen Hiruzen?" He did not allow his old friend time to respond. "Can you let him continue now, keep telling yourself it is nothing but a boy being a boy, when you know how it will end?" He was cruel because it was a necessity to the survival of the village.
"We are not certain that is how this will end Danzo." Hiruzen was not speaking like a blinded fool. "Naruto possesses a loyalty to the village I have never questioned even as an Academy student, possesses a passion for his dream like no one else, and I've never known a boy like him to be so callous to simply disregard the singular focus of his thoughts for years. He'll do questionable things but I have no doubt he'll remain loyal."
"The Naruto Uzumaki you speak of is not the same Naruto Uzumaki we are dealing with today." Danzo did not shout, did not scream, those words. He reached to his side and placed a folder on Hiruzen's desk. "This-" He gestured to the folder. "-folder contains two psychological analyses. One is of Naruto Uzumaki two days before his graduation from the Konohagakure Shinobi Academy and the second was taken ten days after the Second Stage of the Chunin Exams concluded in full."
"What is the point of this Danzo?" Hiruzen was a rather good multitasker as he could both read over the documents and converse with his old friend.
"You will see my point Hiruzen. Simply read." Danzo leaned back in his seat. "If you do not, then I will clarify it for you. I'm sure your old age has made some things simple in your youth rather difficult."
"The only thing age has given me is a stronger liver." Hiruzen continued to read over the first analysis, the Yamanaka behind it coming to a similar conclusion as anyone else would.
Naruto Uzumaki was far from a genius. He was impulsive, reckless, and hyperactive but was also rather crafty. He carried an intense desire for attention and used pranks to garner such a thing. He was friendly if a bit dim when it came to exactly what to say or how to act. He wore his heart on his sleeve and believed in his personal creed without fault.
"What is this supposed to tell me?" Hiruzen sat the first report down and moved on to the next. He didn't go past the first page. He flipped to the back page before moving to the first analysis and opened it to the back page. The signatures placed there, Santa Yamanaka identical. It was a man he trusted to not only work for the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force but take on vital intelligence missions. "This…this is not possible."
"Those reports tell you of two different people, correct?" Danzo did not sound proud as he spoke. "The first no doubt tells you of a boy far from a genius, impulsive, reckless, and hyperactive. He is crafty and uses pranks to gain attention from others. He is friendly and wears his heart on his sleeve, living his life by a personal creed that does not need to be repeated now." He reached for the second and wordlessly flipped it to the first page. "The second is of an unquestioned genius who is manipulative, prideful, and charismatic. He is able to draw all attention to himself with nothing but his stance and leave even his enemies questioning if he's not as powerful as he says. He is obsessive with the idea of owning things and views even people as nothing more than objects only he is allowed to possess." Danzo did not allow his friend time to think as he flipped the first analysis to the first page and showed Hiruzen the photos, the headshots identical if not for the expression. The subject of one was smiling and the other's face was blank. "Both of these analyses were performed by the same man, Santa Yamanaka, and you have never questioned his reports before. He is trusted."
"What. Is. Your. Point." Hiruzen did not look at the photos, he looked into the single visible eye of the man he called his friend.
"I have made it." Danzo leaned back in his seat, his eye never leaving Hiruzen's. He would not back down from this. "The Naruto Uzumaki we are dealing with today is completely different from the Naruto Uzumaki you saw as your son in the past. That Naruto Uzumaki is, for all intents and purposes, dead."
"No he is not." Hiruzen looked away first. He closed his eyes. "Yamanaka have been wrong before and even if he is right this means nothing. We both know the importance of keeping up a public image. How can we be sure he's not doing the same?"
"If you ask me a question like that allow me to reply in kind: How can you be so blind Sarutobi?" Danzo did not move from his seat when Killing Intent flooded the room, he pressed onward without pause. "Is it because the boy calls you Sarutobi-jiji? Are you blind because you care more for the boy who can damn this village to war than you do for your own flesh and blood? Are you afraid of seeing what you're allowing to run free once again?"
"He is not Orochimaru!" His anger bested his self-control when he allowed it to enter his voice, allowed his hands to curl into fists. "No one is as monstrous as him."
"My agents have uncovered something interesting in Waves." Danzo took a hand off his cane and reached into his robe, drawing out a bundle of photos. "Naruto has developed a passion for executing those he deem stand against him." He unbound the photos and slid them across the desk. "What exactly counts as going against him is a long list."
Hiruzen glanced down and did not allow himself to be sickened at the crosses bearing corpse after corpse. Each was more gruesome than the last, men and women, some Hiruzen recognized from Bingo Books, hanging to die. Some were lucky, a spear put through their chest while others could look at the camera, their eyes telling their suffering. Some seemed to be in the midst of begging for death.
"My agents showed them the mercy Naruto Uzumaki would not."
"Why?"
"Why? What why are you asking of me Hokage?" The title should have been spoken with respect but now there was no trace of it, almost pity in the voice of the one who spoke took hold instead. "Why am I forcing you to see the truth of that boy? Why am I forcing you to see the extent of his ambition? Why am I forcing you to think for once when it comes to the Jinchuriki of the Kyubi no Kitsune!" Anger entered his own voice. "Why am I doing all of this? The answer is another question Hiruzen and it is simple: Can you let more blood rest on your hands because of the same inaction you took more than a decade ago happening again! Can you excuse yourself of the same guilt again and ignore what you're inaction has caused once more!"
"Do not speak of that Danzo." It was all he would say. He did not speak on the true problem. He could not speak on the true problem.
"You confronted Orochimaru personally and let him escape. It is a fact that will be remembered by history." His eye, if ever so slightly, softened. He leaned forward in his seat. "Don't let history remember you twice for the same mistake Hiruzen."
Danzo Shimura rose and left the room.
AN: Remember. AN at the end.