Danzo Shimura was not a man of regret. He was a veteran of numerous wars and he had sacrificed too much, lost too much, to even allow himself to feel regrets. Their weight would be crushing him otherwise.

Hence, Danzo Shimura didn't regret losing his left eye and his right arm in defence of Konoha. He didn't regret having led the ANBU division for close to thirty years under the command of Hiruzen Sarutobi, his old rival, and doing less than savoury things. He didn't regret lobbying "protocol Root": it had been a sound plan. In theory.

The one thing he did regret was being so blindingly convinced of its efficiency when all indicators had been in the red. Making emotional retards of young children had not worked. His old rival had been proven right for the wrong reasons but proven right nonetheless. The young recruits inducted in "protocol Root" had been trained extremely harshly with the objective of making them reflexively compartmentalize their emotions. The few who hadn't turned into murderous psychopaths and been executed as a result went to make good chuunin-level shinobi.

But that was it. Smothering their emotions had killed their drive, their creativity, their initiative. It had killed their Will of Fire. And Danzo was faced with the one regret he allowed himself to feel; the knowledge that, had these children been groomed the normal way, many could have made jounin.

Undoubtedly, many would have failed to go anywhere but all the same, they would still be alive. Probably not shinobi but Danzo couldn't in good faith say that people were of more use to the village dead than they were while being alive. Simple mathematics, really: any of the sacrificed recruits could have become a contributing member of society, have children who would have been enrolled in the Academy and so on.

Those death were as many futures snuffed.

Danzo Shimura eyed one of the few ninjas who had survived the protocol and entered service. The youth was a black-haired boy with black eyes and pale skin. His face was devoid of any emotion. He couldn't properly feel them anymore anyway.

"Sai," Danzo began, remembering the temporary codename given to the boy. The protocol - no, he had even robbed them of their name. The children had been nothing but numbers, any traces the civil society had of them thoroughly erased. Danzo couldn't call the boy by his true name as he had no idea what it even was. A way, the old Warhawk knew, to distance himself from he was doing to them, those children of Konoha. His sensei would have beheaded him.

"Yes, Danzo-sama."

"As you have been informed, protocol Root is being collapsed." His program had been disavowed long ago by Sarutobi but both men had agreed that returning emotionally impaired black-ops shinobi to normal society just like that would be both impossible and dangerous. "You will integrate the regular shinobi forces under a new master. You will obey him as you obey me. Is that acknowledged?"

"Yes, Danzo-sama."

Sai had been chosen to replace the Uzumaki in Team Kakashi after the jinchuuriki had been pulled from the formation. In a twist of logic, placing Sai with two emotionally withdrawn peers had made sense. Kind of. This iteration of team seven had been a weird, weird social experiment Danzo himself would have advocated against, had he known what his Hokage had been planning.

But Hiruzen had been very clear as to what would happen to Danzo if he concerned himself with Naruto Uzumaki and as much as his rival had mollified with the years, Danzo had no doubt the man would have made good on his promise to scatter him to the four winds.

In any case, team seven had just been disbanded and now Sai was once again without guidance.

"His name is Inoichi Yamanaka. He will help you get accustomed to life in the light. Your duties as a shinobi will be reduced while you get acclimated."

"Yes, Danzo-sama."

"Sai?"

"Yes, Danzo-sama."

"I'm not "sama" anymore, Sai. Try to live well."

This momentarily stumped the boy, Danzo could tell. The conditioning had never been properly completed with "Sai" and so the boy still allowed some strong emotions to shine in spite of his control. Which was good, considering he would soon be encouraged to show more and more.

"Yes, Danzo-sa… Danzo-san."

"Good. Dismissed."

Sakura Haruno was lost as she had seldom been. She brushed her pink hair for them to cover her large forehead, a tick she thought she had lost long ago after Ino had helped her beat back the bullies. She was holding her headband, the sign she was a shinobi, and her green eyes were riveted on it.

Team Kakashi was no more. Everything had gone downward ever since Naruto had been pulled off the team, a few months ago.

No, she corrected. Naruto had been pulled off a hostile environment, one she had contributed to creating along with Sasuke Uchiha, her second teammate, and their sensei Kakashi Hatake. The Hokage had been very clear on that.

She had protested at first. Everyone treated Naruto like they did. Naruto was loud, obnoxious, could be berated, used for a self-esteem boost at any time because Naruto wasn't like them. Naruto was supposed to be treated like less.

He was the pariah. That was how Sakura had been raised. That was what her parents and her family, her teachers, the entire village had assured her again and again. That was ingrained in her, much like washing her hands before eating, being polite to the elderly and everything else.

Hence why, when the Hokage had admonished her for her treatment of Naruto, she was perplexed. It was like saying to her that she didn't need to say "thank you" for someone helping her.

Plus, she had all the right to hit Naruto. The blond was so annoying, damnit, asking her relentlessly on dates when she was after Sasuke's attention. She couldn't bother with him, the pariah, if she wanted to enter the good graces of the prince.

When she had explained all that, the Hokage had seemed absolutely horrified. With infinite patience, he had then simply asked her if she would think it normal if any other boy her age were subjected to that.

She had immediately said no, horrified before her intellect had done the rest. If it weren't okay then why was Naruto treated like that? Why was he shown such disgust? No, not disgust, disdain. And strangely, fear, as she thought about it. Two emotions that shouldn't coexist.

She remembered his pranks but they couldn't explain it. Pranking caused people to be annoyed, not fearful and disdainful. The Hokage had given her no explanation, saying that Naruto didn't deserve to be on the receiving end of such treatment, period, that he was like anyone their age and that what the village had done was basically a crime.

A crime the Hokage didn't even know how to punish.

Sakura had protested once again. She trusted her parents - what child did not? - and they couldn't be so misguided that they would do such a thing. They were shinobi of Konoha, chuunin both and they believed in the Will of Fire. What they did to Naruto, there was a reason for it.

But as she had said that, her brain once again didn't let the matter rest. What could ever justify something like that? What could she answer to the Hokage, the very first defender of the village's ideology, when the man himself was saying that her parents, who she loved dearly, were mistreating someone her age from the same village?

Sakura stared at her headband. It had made her so proud once but now, all she felt was a great shame.

AN: Before you ask, yes Danzo is still Konoha uber alles, he is just less myopic and asshole-ish about it. Also, no, the Root training program doesn't work. Making emotional retards of people in hope of making better soldiers will simply turn them into psychopaths. End. Of. Story.

AN2: I will not make "Meanwhile" chapters about Sasuke. Because one, I'm not sure how to write about mental issues and two, Sasuke isn't a character I've much interest in. If he heals, he heals but it'll be behind the scenes.

Leave a review?