THE THIRD HOKAGE
"... 5 of my best goddamn ANBU, Hiruzen. I'm sure I don't have to inform you what happened the last time that… demon got into the village!" Under different circumstances, Sarutobi would likely be pleased at how easily his indifferent demeanor had gotten under his rival's skin. Hell, he still had to hold back a smirk at the red-faced Danzo Shimura stomping across his office.
"Your ANBU, Danzo?" Ok, Hiruzen couldn't quite stop the smirk from slipping out this time. He had to pull one over on Danzo every chance he got these days, and this was truly a rare occasion.
Danzo put on one of his award-winning sneers and spat on his carpet in disgust.
If he wasn't alarmed before, Hiruzen certainly was now. He knew from Danzo's lack of secrecy regarding Root that the matter at hand was of top priority to the village's safety. On the other hand, he really had to get his licks in while he could.
"Very mature, Danzo. I'm sure the carpet will be less offensive to you next time around".
Danzo grabbed the Hokage's desk, pulling his face closer to Hiruzen's calm visage.
"Mature? Can't you understand how dangerous this is? Are you really that far-"
The Hokage wisely chose that moment to fix Danzo with a stony glare, communicating just how serious he was.
A somewhat pacified Danzo settled down in a chair opposite Hiruzen's desk, leaning back in wait for his next words.
"I want the full mission report, right here, right now". Danzo gave a light snort at the request, but replied nonetheless.
"From who? All the mission operatives are dead or in critical condition. the only oral report I have was from an agent off of Kami knows how much morphine".
Danzo sat back in his chair, patiently awaiting Hiruzen's response.
"Get your coat on, we're going to the hospital"
The Hokage had to deal with a solid 3 more hours of passive-aggressive conversation with Danzo before one of the Root ninja finally woke up.
A few nurses swarmed the badly injured kunoichi, performing diagnostics and shouting orders across the room.
"Why is she in a public hospital, Danzo? Are you going public with Root?" Hiruzen would admit he only added that last bit to see if he could bait a reaction. Sadly for him, Danzo didn't even sneer at the joke, he just turned towards Hiruzen with a face of stone.
"The demon happened to kill three of our finest medics, I didn't have the resources to care for them. Root was already dangerously low on medic-nin, the Kyuubi brat was just the nail in the coffin."
Sarutobi's smirk dropped off of his face at the mention of Naruto, and he turned away from Danzo in sudden melancholy.
'Naruto. What happened to you?' Hiruzen felt the pain of his loss two times over, once for Minato's son, and once for the boy he failed to raise and care for.
After all the murders he had ordered in his lengthy tenure, all the tortures and lies, nothing kept him up at night like what he had done to Naruto.
The worst thing was, the Naruto in his dreams and nightmares never let him hate himself. He always smiled that lovely wide smile, then gave him a bone-crushing hug and said:
"I forgive you, Jiji!"
Hiruzen flinched at the memory, and Danzo gave him a curious look.
Ignoring Danzo's apparent amusement, the Hokage stood and motioned towards the now unattended Root ninja, receiving a nod from Danzo as he too stood up.
Walking up to her bedside, Sarutobi cleared his throat to direct the kunoichi's attention towards him.
"Hokage-sama?" The woman's voice was flat, barely shifting in tone enough to indicate that she was asking a question. The woman stared at Danzo in unexpressed confusion, and then shifted her attention back to the Hokage.
"Mission report, now." His tone didn't brook any argument, and the Root shinobi turned over to Danzo for confirmation. Danzo gave a quick nod, and the shinobi sat up and began to explain.
"We located the container during a separate operation entirely, a mission to monitor the militarization of Kumo and keep tabs on possible aggressive actions on part of the Raikage. During our mission, a… comrade of mine" Her eyes flicked to Danzo, who motioned for her to continue "Aburame sensed the container after we made contact with our informant, on our way back, we changed objectives and moved to capture the container in accordance with Root directives".
Sarutobi mulled over the information, before asking his first question.
"And was he given any communication? Any indicator that you were not there to harm him?"
The kunoichi paused for a minute before shaking her head in the negative. Danzo bristled at the newfound information, but stayed silent.
"Anything else that could help us ascertain his attitude towards Konoha?"
The kunoichi shook her head again, but this time Danzo opened his mouth to speak.
"This doesn't prove anything, Hiruzen. The boy was in Kumo for fuck's sake, his loyalty is non-existent".
Sarutobi let out a dry chuckle at that. "Why would he be loyal, Danzo? He hasn't been here since he was 7. It was our job to provide for him and we failed, now we have to hope that the consequences don't ruin our chances all together".
Danzo turned to glare at the Hokage, a small growl escaping him before he spoke.
"Are you still wallowing in self-pity, Sarutobi? Don't act like we stopped you from taking care of the boy, you can't blame your decisions on me".
Danzo flinched from the killing intent the Hokage was leaking, but still held firm.
"I'm leaving, Danzo. If you find anything else about this incident and don't tell me, I'll burn your little fucking roots to the ground".
Hiruzen stormed back to his office in a special kind of rage.
'Fucker made me late for my meeting, good thing it's with Kakashi then'.
To Sarutobi's utter shock, Kakashi was 2 minutes early to the meeting, with 2 of his prospective Genin in tow.
Kakashi crinkled his eyes in amusement at the wide-eyed Hokage, before pointing to the clock.
"You're late, Hokage-sama".
Resisting the sudden urge to punch Kakashi, Sarutobi sat down and observed the two uncomfortable academy graduates behind Kakashi.
The Uchiha boy was attempting to act bored, but kept shooting side glances at the Hokage and Kakashi. The civilian girl looked out of depth, and was much less stealthy in her staring than the Uchiha.
"Hilarious, Kakashi. I can't hold back my laughter". Hiruzen added an exaggerated eye roll for effect before settling behind his desk.
"I trust you know why I called you here?" Kakashi took a second, and then nodded in acknowledgement.
"You're putting Team 7 on hold, because of… special circumstances regarding our third member".
The two academy students looked even more confused, the Uchiha no longer tried to hide his dumbfounded stare at the Hokage.
"You can still perform D-ranks, but they can't pass the Genin test without their 3rd member".
Haruno perked up at that. "So those D-ranks won't count if we were to fail the test?"
The Hokage nodded, and the civilian girl looked a little put out by the bad news.
"Sasuke, Sakura, you guys can wait outside" Hatake ordered. The two students sent a last confused glance, but still followed the command.
"I heard the news." Hatake's voice had a cold tone to it, the same tone he had used to report Naruto's disappearance all those years ago.
Sarutobi knew Hatake didn't blame him for Naruto's disappearance, but the coldness in his voice still felt like daggers slicing into his aching bones. The smile had long since left Hatake's face, now his eyes sat cold and lifeless like the Root kunoichi from earlier.
"We don't know anything about him, Kakashi. For all we know-" Kakashi held up his hand to stop him, before letting out a weary sigh.
"I want to see him, Hiruzen. I want to see Naruto".
Neither of them noticed the wide-eyed Sasuke listening on the other side of the door.
