His days blur together until time seems to lose all meaning. Has it been a week? Has it been two? How many months has he spent in Blossom Berry Mountain, nestled within the Stone Palace, learning what the monkeys have to teach?
More frightening than not knowing is not caring. He loves it here. He has always loved the Village Hidden in the Leaves, it is his home, but there is something about the Mountain that speaks to him. He feels as comfortable here as he does back in the Village, and truthfully that terrifies him. He treasures his Village, never could have imagined that anything could come as close to his heart as the family of his home, and yet there now resides a special place for the Mountain as well.
"Well of course!" Koji replies when he explains his misgivings. "You're a Sarutobi; you belong with us! But you also belong in the Elemental Nations. It's not easy belonging to two places at once. It's why most Sarutobi Summoners choose not to spend much time at the Mountain. They end up wanting to stay!"
"Well who wouldn't want to stay with me?" the Monkey King replies when Hiruzen brings it up one day after he has finished his training. They are sitting on a rock jutting out from a ledge at the edge of the valley, looking out at the sky beyond. It is the spot they do most of their talking, on those days where the Exemplary Sage who Comprehends Paradise deigns to speak with him. "My home is nearly as great as I am. I was shocked that your grandfather had the strength of will to stay for so long and still manage to leave. No one has stayed so long as he has."
Hiruzen doesn't interrupt, because he learned very early on that one does not simply interject with their own thoughts when the Monkey King is speaking. But he can't help but wonder when his grandfather had ever come here, and how! His grandfather's name was not listed upon the Summoning Scroll!
"Sarutobi Asuma was a great man, and you should be proud to have him for a father. I just wish he came to visit more often, though it doesn't surprise me that he won't although he managed to leave the last time he was here, he almost did not. I would think if he came again it might be a permanent move."
"He isn't my grandfather, sir."
"Oh? Has it really been that long? Asuma Sarutobi is your grandfather's father?"
"He is my grandfather's grandfather."
The King is quiet then, for a long few moments. Hiruzen worries that he may have upset him, that he may be ejected from his training prematurely. Instead, the Monkey King sighs. "I had known it was a long time, but what is a few decades to an immortal? The lives of humans are so short as to be almost inconsequential. I feel they truly would be insignificant were it not for how brightly some of you burn. Be wary, young pupil, that you do not burn so brightly or quickly that you run out of fuel prematurely."
They sit in silence for a few more moments, Hiruzen waiting for his new mentor to bring up a some new, hopefully more comfortable topic.
"Tell me about your lineage, child. I would know of the Sarutobi who had shunned our ancient pact."
"I do not know why Asuma's child, my grandfather's father, never signed the contract. I also never met grandfather Daichi or his father Ichiro. They were killed in the final skirmishes of one of the great wars back before we had Villages" Hiruzen leans back against the stone and allows his eyes to close as he brings forth the powerful images he's always imagined of those great battles long past. The bedtime stories of his youth, once held in such awe and reverenc, are now tinged with more than a fair bit of scorn born of careful consideration. Having war loom on the horizon makes epic battles feel less heroic, and more somber.
He took a breath, and then continued, "My father, Sasuke, was raised by his uncle, Eiji. Eiji always warned him about the great and powerful nature of our monkey allies, telling him bedtime stories, which were eventually passed down to me. Eiji said his father had forbidden him from signing the scroll as the younger sibling, and Daichi had not yet reached the age of majority. Hiruzen fists clench as he prepares to tell the Monkey King of the next bit of this history.
"Mere months before my father would reach his majority, which would let him assume his role as head of the clan and sign the contract, Eiji struck a deal to enter the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Part of the deal Eiji made on my father's behalf to join was that my father Sasuke wouldn't sign the contract. There are stories that abound the Land of Fire, and likely beyond, telling of your skill and might. The other families were wary that we might call upon you and the rest of the monkeys to wrest power and control of the Village for ourselves once all the clans were contained within one location." Hiruzen hopes that a bit of flattery may go a long way towards pacifying the rage he's sure the Monkey King will feel at being used as a bartering chip among humans.
It doesn't seem to soften the blow at all, unfortunately.
The growl that escapes the King's mouth makes Hiruzen's hair stand on end and he rushes to assuage him, "every family had to give something like that up! The Senju and Uchiha each contributed heavily to our stores of knowledge on jutsu and healing, openly available to all residents. Medicine and strategy books written by the Nara, recipe books and chakra theory from the Akimichi, psychology from the Yamanaka. We all made sacrifices of secrecy for the greater good!"
"Hmmmm. I'm not so sure your Village is such a good idea. It seems to take from the Clans all their secrets, but what does it give in return?"
"A home," Hiruzen utters softly, before he even realizes he's spoken. "A place to belong and live in harmony, in peace, unfettered by the fear that has plagued us for so long."
Hiruzen hasn't quite lived his whole life in the Village. He remembers brief flashes of his early childhood, as the accords of the Village were being struck. He remembers even more vividly the fear that gripped him as he held on to his mother when she sung to him as a young child and whispered him promises of his father's return. He can clearly see the relief that etched itself onto her face every time she heard his call of "I'm home," upon his return from a skirmish or a battle with another clan.
"Where has that peace gotten you, then? How long has it lasted? Is not your coming war so terrifying that you risked the peace you cling to by breaking the accord your father's uncle set? How long after the war has passed will they wait until they ask you to break you contract with my people?"
Hiruzen must be imagining the bitterness in the old monkey's voice, so he ignores it in favor of answering. "Technically, I didn't. The agreement was specifically that my father wouldn't sign the Contract. Besides, my sensei is the brother of the Hokage, and the Hokage recommended I come here himself! They wouldn't ask me to break my Contract with you when they were the ones who asked me to sign it in the first place!"
"You place that much faith in your Village, then?"
"Of course!"
"I suppose we shall have to wait and see how things play out."
Hiruzen's days proceed larch Ely in that manner. A strict training regimen of genjutsu, taijutsu, ninjustu interspersed with long, sporadic conversations with many of his fellow monkeys, and often with the King himself.
He is subjected to so many horrors and so many subtle manipulations of his own emotions while training in genjutsu that he begins to question who he is, on a fundamental level. His tutors do not give up until he's positive of himself. He no longer jumps at shadows that seem too long but dispels them with ease and quickness. He experiences such sweet joy and bliss that he quakes at the addictiveness of a properly cast Genjustu. He wonders at how the Uchiha, with their special eyes, ever manage to live in the real world when their perfect fantasy lies so close within reach.
Genjutsu is not and never will be his specialty but he will, in the words of his trainers, "be adequate or be dead." They have him practice and perform as many jutsu as he can, and even more that he can't. He knows the underlying concept for so many techniques, but many of them are beyond his grasp to perform. There is a particularly embarrassing moment when he attempts to ensnare one of his tutors in an advanced and fiendishly difficult genjutsu. He has talked it up as the move which will even the score for all the terror they subject him to, yet when he attempts it, it merely fizzles. He is not skilled enough to grasp the ghostly image and overlay it on reality.
On those few instances when he dispels shadows in the dark which stretch ominously and yet they don't disappear, he is subjected to brutal physical training. He is the best in his clan at their taijutsu style the Monkey Movements, so much so that he has assisted in teaching some of the younger members of the clan when they are first starting out. Even though he has spent considerable time learning as many styles as he can under Tobirama and Hashirama, he has always considered himself something of the local expert on the Monkey Style Taijutsu. He had expected to be able to keep up easily on Blossom Berry Mountain
How wrong he is.
His trainers teach him that he was foolish to ever consider such a concept. Not only are his techniques inadequate by their standards, he does not even know the advanced moves! When they begin teaching him they place him with the children who are still just learning, and it rankles. Still, he puts his head down and powers through, working himself into an exhausted, unconscious slumber every night until he is considered acceptable.
He watches, envious of the monkeys who are learning the sister styles to the Monkey Movements, many of which require the monkey to achieve a sage state. Hiruzen has seen Hashirama slip into a similar state a time or two and it is as awe inspiring as ever to see someone become so at one with nature that the changes manifest upon their body.
He is not invited to join them, however, and he does not ask for it. He has bigger concerns. Namely, that the damnable apes won't let him join in on any ninjutsu practice! At least, not in any meaningful manner. That is truly where his strengths lie, in his opinion. Certainly, they will sit and discuss the basics of techniques with him, allow him to scrawl out upon so many scrolls the jutsu-shiki he has worked with his sensei Tobirama to learn and understand. He knows the hand-signs of so many different jutsu, has the knowledge of how they work, but has not yet been able to unlock their secrets enough to master them. When the monkeys all realize he has the knowledge, but not the ability, they allow him to expand upon the teachings he received from Hashirama on how to perform jutsu of all five nature elements. Hashirama had likened it to the taijutsu trainings they had worked on together where Hiruzen endeavored to learn at least the basics of all the styles known in their Village.
Unfortunately, the monkeys laugh at his description when he explains it. Hashirama had made so much sense when he had described the way you take distinctly separate styles, but merge them all under the umbrella of Taijutsu. The way you need to stop seeing them as separate, but instead see them as one. A holistic approach that had brought him from a single sputtering earth jutsu to go along with the many fire techniques he could perform to now having at least one reliable, powerful technique of every element.
He most certainly does not sulk after being laughed at, but he might admit to being less enthused than normal at their evening meal.
The Monkey King visits him the next day to ask about the theories he has been explaining. He blushes furiously, but does his best to explain it, hoping that maybe a mind as great as his can understand Hashirama's genius!
"That's absurd," is the Monkey King's actual response, and Hiruzen hangs his head lowly.
"Hashirama is one of the best shinobi I know. How can you call his theories absurd?"
"He makes a good attempt. All things being a part of the natural world, all things being one, it is a sound idea. But fire will never be wet. Water will never burn. Wind shall never crumble, and the earth shall never blow freely. Lightning strikes as it will, bending to no master. You must understand them each for what they are before even considering understanding them as a whole."
"But aren't they all different aspects of the same thing? Don't they all represent a fraction of the sum of nature?"
"Nature is wider and deeper than you could possibly fathom. There is a reason that he who becomes a sage does not automatically learn to perform any elemental jutsu he wishes. Likewise, someone who forces his chakra to be in tune with all five elements is not automatically a sage."
Hiruzen sits and mulls this over, discontent with the fact that once again, the Monkey King is right. Hiruzen is learning so much, but it can be more than a little demoralizing to realize just how far behind he really is.
"What is your standard for an exemplary ninja?"
"Hmm?" Hiruzen rouses from his contemplation at the abrupt question from his sometimes mentor. "An exemplary shinobi, eh? Do you mean in general, or for me specifically?"
"I do not care for any other warriors, only of the ones I teach. I ask for your standards."
Hiruzen wants to respond quickly and earnestly, but forces himself to still. He lets his thoughts mull over the question.
What would make him an exemplary shinobi?
Obviously, he desires to be the best. But what might constitute the best? Should he desire to beat Hashirama or Tobirama in a fight? They are the best that he knows.
Should he strive to be able to protect his Village? But what might that take? So nebulous a concept would not satisfy himself, let alone the Ruler in the Stone Palace.
How does he quantify being the best?
"I should like to be able to perform any jutsu known within the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Then, I will be stronger than any single shinobi in the village, strong enough to protect all of the members of my home."
"You should like to?" The King quirks a simian eyebrow at him, mocking in its height.
"I will be able to perform every jutsu known within the Village. Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Ninjutsu. If it is not a bloodline talent, I will learn it. I will master it. Even those that require a bloodline talent, I shall endeavor to master, if not to perform then enough to counter. That shall make me an exemplary shinobi, and with the skills of my entire Village residing solely in me, I shall be able to protect my Village and all the precious people in it."
"An expected answer, but a good one nonetheless. Tomorrow we include the staff in your training regimen, in addition to philosophy. Work hard, child."
Hiruzen's days continue to pass in a blur, but now his head swells and aches as much or more than his muscles. He has spent hours discussing the nature of shinobi, the nature of the world they live in, the nature of everything with Tobirama and Hashirama, with Danzo and with teammates. Yet not a single one of them thinks so twisted or in so many corkscrews as a monkey does. They make acrobatic leaps and flips from topic and theory as easily as they leap from branch to branch.
His palms gain new callouses from the weapon which is thrust upon him. And though they teach him new things as fast as he will learn them, they drill him endlessly on the most basic of the shinobi arts.
Hiruzen is beginning to seriously worry he may be spending too long on the Mountain. Does time move more quickly in the Elemental Nations than it does on the Mountain, is that why the Monkey King thought his grandfather's grandfather might have been his grandfather? Are his friends and family out there now, fighting the war in his stead, dying while he trains in safety?
Has the war already ended? Has he missed it entirely?
He has little time for such thoughts, but in the dark hours of the night before exhaustion sweeps him away he lies awake and these insidious fears threaten to devour him until he is drowning in terror.
Finally, finally, on the day when Hiruzen has almost given up on the idea that he will ever be allowed to learn ninjutsu from the monkeys, the Monkey King takes him aside once more.
"Sit, young one, and meditate with me."
They sit upon the ledge overlooking the waterfall which seems to fall off the mountain and into nowhere, the place where most of their chats occur.
"Connect with your chakra as you meditate. Tell me, does it settle differently?"
"It feels like a campfire, crackling merrily, rather than the forest fire of my youth. It is calmer, more under control than it has ever been before. It feels as though it has grown deep, rather than wide."
"I did not ask you how it feels, child, I asked how it settles. Weigh your chakra, feel it's balance."
Hiruzen ponders the odd request, not one he's ever received before, until it strikes him. Of course! Chakra is made up of both spiritual and physical energy, and those two energies swirl together in a dance within him.
He reaches deep to that pool of chakra which ebbs and flows within him, and allows himself to wade deep into it. How does it balance?
Is it too light? Too heavy? Does it fight against him or move in tandem?
Other than the faint crackling of heat he usually feels, he realizes he can hardly feel his chakra at all. It is obviously there, but it flows so smoothly through his pathways that he feels as though he would almost forget it was there. He channels some, just to experiment, and it comes as easily as breathing. In fact, he finds himself falling into a meditative breathing technique naturally, and the chakra he channels seems to naturally move in time with his breath.
He opens his eyes to see his monkey mentor smirking at him.
"It is in balance, almost perfectly so. My spiritual and my physical are in harmony."
"Your training regimen has been designed to do so. Your yin and your yang are in balance and stronger than ever. If you do not possess Heaven, gain knowledge and be prepared. If you do not possess Earth, run through the field and seek strength. You lacked both in sufficient quantity and had a distinct dependence upon your physical nature. We have ground that out of you. You should find few non elemental ninjutsu or most any genjutsu truly out of your reach now."
With the quickness of one who is given great news too good to be true, Hiruzen's hands fly through the signs needed to cast one of the more difficult genjutsu he knows, the one which got him laughed at when his tutors had first been gauging his skills.
Genjutsu: Living Inferno! he thinks as he sees the ghost of pitch black flames appear before him. He grasps the illusion tightly, giddy at his success as it settles over the Monkey King.
"A good first attempt, I think," the Monkey King allows, calm as you please as though he doesn't have a genjutsu ensnaring him which makes him believe he's being burned alive by unquenchable black flames!
Hiruzen is still amazed every time the Monkey King shows just an ounce of his never-ending prowess. "I can see it, of course, and you do a satisfactory job simulating the feeling of being burned. Yet I cannot smell the acrid scent of smoldering fur, nor can I taste the cloying smoke that I see. Remember, ability and mastery are two separate things. You must still practice any jutsu you can cast until it is perfect, and then until it becomes effortless. If you forget two such simple parts of genjutsu, I may need to speak with your teachers to ensure your education has actually been progressing as I've been told."
The genjutsu is dispelled, and Hiruzen realizes he just held the Monkey King under a genjutsu! Where his fur was burning! Apparently not a very good one, but he still feels the sharp pain of fear that he has gravely over stepped.
"If you so choose, this will be the end of your training. You are better than you were, and I know you worry for your people. You have a war to fight. I have had my seers gaze into the crystals, a technique we do not employ often, and we see that your Village is safe. We cannot see the future, though. We do not know how much longer they have until war breaks out, and every day they seem to tighten their security and fasten their armor tighter in preparation for war. I surmise your Hokage's Summit was not successful. If you wish, however, we have one last thing we wish to teach you."
Hiruzen holds his breath, uncertain what it will be but eager to find out what else they have to offer to entice him to stay.
"Ninjutsu." Hiruzen admits, to himself at least, that he is at least a tad bit dejected that the answer is not "sage arts." It is only a fleeting disappointment, though, for the joy at the prospect of learning to truly master the five elements, to be able to make good on his promise of learning every jutsu his Village knows, it tempts him like none other.
"The journey shall be difficult. More difficult than anything you have ever attempted. Your ancestor Asuma, the most recent Summoner we have had and the greatest we have trained, never succeeded. He only ever mastered three of the elements. I do not wish to get your expectations too high either. You shall never be able to wield the elements as seamlessly as I do, without hand-signs. But if you succeed in this trial, which I have faith that you will, your chakra will transform as easily to the other four elements as it does now to fire. No technique shall be beyond your grasp, and your knowledge of hand-signs will be a boon to you in your conflicts against other human shinobi."
"What must I do, Exemplary Sage who Comprehends Heaven?"
"You must undergo the Trial of Five Phases. You must understand and become one with each aspect, turn your chakra forcibly to each until there is no difference between you and the nature you wish to master. Do you accept?"
Hiruzen doesn't even need to think before he answers, "I do."
"Then let us begin."
With that, the King Behind the Waterfall, the Ruler in the Stone Palace, the Exemplary Sage who Comprehends Paradise pushes Sarutobi Hiruzen off the Mountain and into the waterfall leading out into the great unknown.