Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
"I worry there is something broken in our generation;
There are so many sad eyes on happy faces."
— Atticus
The night is cold and long as he sits here looking out over the village, his pipe dangling from his lips. Old winter sinking its teeth in my bones.
How many more winters are left in me? He'd thought of retirement once, as though he could escape the inevitable fate of both the hokage before him, and the short reign of the young man after him.
It looks more and more like an impossibility.
The Hokage lives for the village, cuts away pieces of himself for the village, protects the village, makes hard choices for the village, loses friends for the village, and in the end, there's no retirement from that, despite Biwako's dearest hopes.
Biwako is gone now. It has been years, though he half suspects that nothing will dull the ache appropriately.
The village demands that the Hokage die for the village as well.
After so many winters, it might even be a blessed rest, if not for the question of who he would pass this hat onto next.
He looks at the generations that come after, and see children in the place of the adults he knows ought to be.
Even Jiraiya. Even Tsunade. Even Orochimaru.
He looks at the Shodaime's granddaughter and sees a child running away from her grief the only way she knows how.
He looks at the report telling him that Jiraiya educated orphans in Ame about survival skills — now those self same orphans have created an organization of their own — and he sees the boy who'd never had any survival instinct himself.
He looks at the scientist in his lab across the village and sees the inquisitive boy who'd asked why about everything.
When had they grown up? When had he grown old?
He sighs, sweet scented smoke billowing about his face, obscuring the moonlight on the rooftops for a moment.
Only an empty house is left to him now that Asata has moved out, and Asuma went on assignment to the capital.
In some ways, he worries about his younger son. The village had asked for his time more than his children ever did, and he doesn't quite know where he went wrong with Asuma.
There's fire in his younger son that his elder had never exhibited, and in the deepest moment of the night, there are times when he worries that it will consume Asuma. His younger son seems to have lit himself with with the embers of the cigarettes he smokes. Rebellion for rebellion's sake has never bred anything pleasant, and ashes are ashes.
All ash is the same. It doesn't matter what has burned down. It'll all blow away in the wind.
He rather hopes he doesn't live to see Asuma burn down. He rather hopes that Asuma never burns down.
But hopes mean very little in the end.
The smoke cloud about his face dissipates.
He turns away from the window. There are footsteps on the stairs, the slow tapping of a cane and shuffling steps.
He'd been expecting an old friend anyway. Best this conversation happen now.
Inuzuka Kaito dies in the early hours of one April morning of what is apparently an accident in RnD. Minato consults him instead of bringing the suspicions directly to Danzo, who is only one level below them in the Tower.
Hiruzen heaves an internal sigh. For all that he believes Danzo would never do anything without reason, Minato has a hard time believing the same.
It's the generational gap. The young and the old do not have the same vision. Danzo had opposed Minato's candidacy and now there is an uneasiness between them that neither of them seems committed to mending.
So now he goes down to sort out the tangled threads of this problem.
What caused such a division? It is not as if he doesn't question it. Danzo had loved that young man like a son. But he can look past the initial shock. He can look past the shock, because he knows his oldest friend well.
He can see the problem from all angles. He knows there are reasons, for Danzo never does anything without reason.
His old friend and teammate sits facing the door, a pot of tea on the table before him.
That's the first indicator that this decision, and decision it was, didn't come easily. Shimura Danzo doesn't like to drink tea.
He'd always spoken of 'his boy' with such pride. What changed?
They'd fought before Kaito was sent to the Iwa border. It had been the only big fight Hiruzen's ever heard of between them. But that had been years ago now. He hasn't heard of any other fights between them.
Recently, their relationship had been icy. He hadn't heard a word about Danzo's boy in ages. He almost misses the days when Danzo would say something or other about his 'boy.' They'd always been such little things — his cooking is passable now; he has learned a new kata; he has grown four inches in the past half year and needs new clothes. It was a nice reminder that under his gruff exterior, his best friend had a caring heart.
Icy relationships are not a reason for murder.
Hiruzen watches him from the other side of the table, considers the shaking hands Danzo hides by setting them against the desk.
Whoever said that Shimura Danzo has a heart of stone is a liar. A horrible horrible liar.
"Inuzuka Kaito died in the hospital early this morning." Hiruzen pours himself a cup of cold tea. "What have you done, Danzo?" Give me reasons. Give me your reasons.
I have faith that you thought this through.
"What you can't do."
That tells him nothing except that Danzo is more hurt than he thought. Or at least, he's bitter again.
Old friend, what is there to be bitter about?
We all have our own struggles with living.
"I gave up my boy for this village."
It was a choice then. Konoha or Kaito.
And in Shimura Danzo's mind, Konoha would win every time. He still doesn't know why.
Why was it a choice?
"So I thought correctly. You did kill him." Minato suspected too. Give me a reason, Danzo. I don't want to think of you like you're a monster. I know you're just a man.
A man who's been my friend for more than 50 years.
Minato had been disgusted, had seemed like he was on the edge of making a decision.
Hiruzen had stopped him, had known there were reasons.
"The imposter who came back from Iwa killed him." Danzo reaches into the sleeve of his haori and pulls out two scrolls. "I merely ended the charade."
"He'd been replaced by a spy?" That is unexpected…
He had not thought that there was anything wrong with Inuzuka Kaito. The spy must have played his part perfectly then, to fool everyone except Danzo.
For goodness's sake, the man was married to an Inuzuka and best friends with a Nara. How easy would it really have been to replace him? Why would Iwa want to…
Inuzuka Kaito works in Research and Development. As Shimura Danzo's apprentice, he has clearance access to all the records of new projects. All of Konoha's research. All the new developments and advancements since wartime were at Inuzuka Kaito's fingertips.
Of course if Iwa could get their hands on that, they'd jump to do it in a heartbeat. Onoki is always militant, always looking for a chink in Konoha's armor, always ready to wage more war. He has seen enough of war to not want to court more of it, but Onoki doesn't share his views.
None of the great nations do.
How much had the spy leaked? How long was this going on?
How much of Konoha is in danger because of this? When and where can he expect an attack to come?
"The evidence says so. The mind walk said so. What was I supposed to do, let the mole continue to leak information because it wore a face that I knew?" He sounds so resigned.
Inuzuka Kaito has been dead a long time then. Danzo's boy has been lost to everyone a long long time, and that hurts no one more Danzo.
"But you don't want anyone else to know about it." No, Danzo never liked that sort of thing, that show of weakness. Since he had bothered to deal with the problem himself, it's likely he doesn't want anyone else to know about it.
Hiruzen tucks the scrolls away. There's evidence here he needs to read and discuss with Minato. There's so much still to do.
"There's no reason to tell anyone. The information breach was contained." All he sees is Danzo's stooped shoulders, the sadness and grief in the defeated line. Who said Shimura Danzo was heartless?
They'd been young once, and Danzo had helped him win over Biwako.
Kagami had dragged Danzo out to a bar to "get him laid" so to speak, and they'd all realized that their friend wasn't particularly interested...in anyone.
Which was fine really, just a bit odd. Maybe that's where the idea that Danzo was heartless came from.
He hadn't understood Hiruzen's interest in love and marriage, never fit that into his worldview, but when Hiruzen showed up on his doorstep drunk and sad, it had been Shimura Danzo who sat him down and said some wise words he still remembers now. Don't wonder. Just do it. It'll never get done otherwise.
So he won't wonder about how much Shimura Danzo's done for Konoha. He'll just believe it.
"Besides Minato, no one needs to know."
Minato dies. Minato dies, and he spends a long time staring at the hat which mocks him from its place on the table.
Did he truly think he could escape this? Why had he been so foolish as to believe that?
Minato dies and Biwako dies and Kushina dies and all he's left with is a hat he doesn't want, an infant and three old friends too old for all their jobs.
It hurts like hell.
He's too old for this job. Biwako's been saying so for a long time, saying they ought to take the years they have left because there's so much of life that they'd never enjoyed, and wouldn't it be better to quit now when he's ahead?
You've lived longer than most shinobi, Hiruzen. It's time to take a rest.
I want to see you more often.
Your sons want to see you more often.
Come home to us?
And he'd agreed.
He'd hung the Hokage Hat on a peg on the wall, passed it on to another, younger head.
He'd thought it finished, his days as a shinobi were finished, over, done with. He'll spend his days doing the bare minimum of mentorship for Namikaze Minato, and then dote on his eventual grandchildren.
Maybe he'll die in his sleep, peacefully, in a village he'd served for so many years.
He rests his aching head on his hands for just a brief moment, scrubbing his face tiredly. For just one moment, he'd like to act like he's tired instead of putting on a brave face.
"Are you fine?" He hadn't even heard Danzo come in.
"No." They've been friends for too long. Danzo hadn't asked to know the answer. They both know the situation isn't fine, but still, he asks because the act of giving and receiving truth has to happen sometime from someone.
It can't be masked and hidden forever.
Shinobi might have no emotions, but shinobi are only human and humans have emotions.
"Konoha has been weakened." The weight of the words hang in the air, too long, too sharp, too real. "Severely."
The last word makes his shoulders slump further. "I know."
"The village wants you to take back the hat."
He lets out a shuddering breath. "That's the only solution isn't it?"
Jiraiya's grief has climbed to dizzying heights.
He doesn't expect his student back soon.
When he raises his head and straightens his shoulders, Danzo's still watching him, dark eyes flat.
It is only grief that makes it so. There's been too much loss this year.
Nara Ensui has become something of a headache. For one, it is rather unprecedented to let a jounin handpick a team, and for another, the Head of Crypt has work to do. Far more work than someone who ought to have a genin team.
Still, if there's a way to persuade Nara Ensui to not pitch a fit when he doesn't get things his way, he hasn't found it yet.
"It seems that Ensui wants to take a genin team this year." He knocks his pipe against the ashtray in a vain attempt to clean it to the best of his ability before filling it back up with tobacco leaves.
"It seems?" Koharu raises one sharp eyebrow at him. "That boy's been practically screaming his intentions from the rooftops."
Yes, it's a very badly kept secret.
Nara Ensui has been running around asking after the state of the genin teams this year, with a special emphasis on the friends of his best friend's daughter.
If he didn't know it was only rumors, he'd blame Danzo for the current state of affairs. Someone said that Danzo had asked about Inuzuka Hana's friends in the chunin breakroom one day while Nara Ensui swung by, but Danzo doesn't visit the chunin breakroom period, so that idea was probably just someone's overactive imagination.
"The question is," Homura mutters "whether or not we humor him."
Of course they shouldn't humor him. It would set such a bad precedent among the other jounin. They'd all start thinking they could pick and choose their teams on a whim too.
But, but, does he want an overworked Head of Crypt or no Head of Crypt at all? He wouldn't really do it.
He'd hand in his two weeks notice and then continue coming to work like clockwork after he's gotten over it.
"Give him the team he wants." Everyone turns to Danzo, who'd been silent on the matter thus far.
In the silence, you could probably hear a feather float through the air outside the window.
"Danzo, you've gone mad." Koharu sighs. "We can't let Nara Ensui anywhere near the field. He's impossible to motivate when he isn't in Crypt. That's the whole reason he ended up there in the first place."
Yes. Nara Ensui had decided on Crypt a long time ago, and almost every other position he'd been saddled with seemed to want him gone as soon as possible. His stint in Intel, in T&I and in RnD didn't last long.
"Not to mention, it sets a bad precedent for other jounin sensei to pick and choose their students." Hiruzen steeples his hands and stares across the table.
What are you thinking of, Danzo? Is this about Kaito again?
Talk to your goddaughter if you must, but why does her genin team matter so much to you? Not even Kaito's genin team mattered to you, and you had full control of his education then.
Danzo meets his eyes firmly. I am not backing down. Do what you will with that, Hiruzen.
"Nara Ensui has never been sane enough to be reasoned with." Danzo taps his fingers on the table, taking a sip of his sake before he continues. "And clearly he's bound and determined to get the genin team he wants. It might be easier to give him what he wants than to have him suddenly quit the forces altogether."
Oh, so he's heard about that threat too.
"You think he will?" Hiruzen chuckles. "I think he likes his job a little better than that." I don't think Nara Ensui's willing to give up and let his wife bring in their only income. I think he's a little prouder than that.
Not to mention, Yamanaka Kihona is not the type to cater to the whims of a loafer.
"He'll threaten to." Danzo stares into his sake cup as if it holds more answers than it really does. "And you should know him well enough to know that he's capable of every threat he makes."
"Still, it's bad precedent to let jounin sensei move teams around." Homura sighs. "And yet, losing the Head of Crypt would be such a blow."
It would be. There's currently not a replacement for the Head of Crypt.
He'll have to look into that actually. No replacement for a position is a bad situation to be in.
He ignores the thought that there's no replacement for himself at the moment either. There's no one to be Hokage if he just falls asleep and doesn't wake up.
He won't think about that for a long time coming.
"I'll make a decision at the meeting tonight." Hiruzen pushes himself away from the table. "If Danzo's right then I might as well give him the team. It's not as if our current system is built on years and years of effort when it'll crumple like wet paper in the face of a motivated Nara."
Danzo snorts. "The young never respect the institutions of their elders." He also rises to go.
Somewhere, there's an irony in this. They hadn't respected Tobirama-sensei's teachings in some aspects either, but that was for the betterment of Konoha in a new era.
This just speaks of rebellion for rebellion's sake.
"If might be simpler just to disband Team Six." One of Nara Ensui's students is already a Chunin at age 11, and the rest are not far behind.
Maybe it's time to ask Nara Ensui to let go of his students, the same one's he calls his children.
Students are not your children. You'll only get yourself hurt with that in the end.
He'd hurt himself with that in the end. He'd loved his students like his children, and all it had gotten him in the end was two of them off to the ends of the earth, one of them in a lab, and two grown sons he still doesn't know.
There's a lot of hurt in the world for a sensei who loves his students too dearly and too fondly, like how Nara Ensui loves Team Six.
"You want to do what exactly?" His oldest friend does not sound pleased.
Hiruzen figured he wouldn't be. Danzo's never been particularly pleased about the state of the world, especially whenever it comes to Inuzuka Hana and her education.
"Disband Nara Ensui's team." They've been talking about this for a while now, but Danzo seems to want clarification. "We were talking about that, correct?"
"Why are we disbanding his team again?" Sometimes, his oldest friend gives him headaches.
If he truly cared about Inuzuka Hana's education, why watch and wait from the shadows? Why not just take an active interest in her education?
Instead of throwing the responsibilities onto Nara Ensui, why not just take her under his wing?
The man's exhausted enough.
"I need him to finish his work in Crypt before he kills himself out of exhaustion. We needed that information from Kiri decrypted yesterday." Hiruzen sighs. There's some sort of bloodbath in Kiri, a change of power that Konoha's Intel Division still hasn't pinned down entirely, largely because people keep dying while attempting to relay the news. "And we also need to find a Sensei for Uchiha Itachi before I do something about Minazuki Yuki."
The Uchiha want the man's blood. He'll have to never take another teaching post after the regrettable accident which left one genin dead and another one retired.
Only Uchiha Itachi remains an active duty shinobi.
"The simple solution is to merge the two." Koharu offers. "Find a new sensei for them."
"Or give them to Minazuki Yuki." Homura sighs.
"Over my dead body." Danzo snaps. "You will condemn my goddaughter to that man after you bury me." Rarely does Danzo hate someone. Rarely does Danzo tell people that Inuzuka Hana is his goddaughter. Most of the time, Koharu and Homura can forget.
They startle now upon remembering the fact.
Hiruzen has never been able to forget.
"No one's giving more students to Minazuki Yuki." He massages his temples. "Danzo, stop acting like Homura's holding a knife to Inuzuka Hana's throat when you haven't even spoken to the girl you're trying so hard to protect." He swings his gaze around to Homura. "And furthermore, Homura, stop coming up with lazy solutions to our problems. Minazuki Yuki is unfit and ought to be used as fodder for Iwa's bomb squad for running away from an attacker, damaging Konoha's reputation, and abandoning his students to their deaths."
That's what he'd prefer to do, but waste not want not.
Minazuki Yuki is still a perfectly good active duty shinobi. So they'll send him on a long patrol of an unpleasant border until the Uchiha forget about him.
There's a long pause in the air as everyone tries to figure out how to proceed. "Or you could find someone to be deputy head of Crypt," Koharu steeples her fingers together. "And merge the two teams and give them to Nara Ensui. He's been doing a good job training students."
Bless Koharu. Bless her really.
Despite not wanting to put more students in Nara Ensui's path, at least Danzo will be appeased, the Uchiha will be mostly appeased, and Nara Ensui might not throw a fit.
Why must I always settle for the path of least resistance to keep the peace between all these factions?
He's not really fond of the squabbles and passive aggressive nature of these little spats between his friends, between the clans, between the nations — tensions threatening to boil over, moments of clarity amidst the fog.
So he settles for the current situation.
Nara Ensui gets to keep his students. Danzo gets his goddaughter far away from Minazuki Yuki. The Uchiha get a competent teacher for their clan heir.
Everyone's happy more or less.
The tensions under the surface though, that riptide pulls deep, like a forest fire smouldering under a pile of leaves. It might look placid on the surface, but just a few layers beneath that calm mirror a war still rages.
They'll never leave the war.
"Does it have to be Inuzuka Hana?" He asks, though he knows the answer to this question already. Another child when ROOT has taken so many promising children already. That is not to say that there's not plenty of children left to pick up defending the village in different ways.
Then again, there's plenty of children who'd joined ROOT much younger.
He squashes the thought that none of the other children had been a candidate to lead ROOT in the inevitable future where Shimura Danzo passes from this world into the next.
His oldest friend isn't known for changing his mind.
If Danzo says that it's going to be Inuzuka Hana, it's going to be Inuzuka Hana.
His friend stares idly at the cup of sake in his hand, seemingly considering something. "Years ago, I made my boy a promise."
Phrases of this sentence stand out to him. My boy. A promise. Five years after the betrayal, Danzo still calls Inuzuka Kaito 'my boy.'
Would I offer Asuma the same if he ever turned against Konoha?
Would I have the guts to kill him?
The likely answer is no.
In that, Danzo has always been more firm and sure of himself than Hiruzen ever believed himself to be.
He's sentimental, he supposes, in a way that Danzo is not. Still, if there's anything that he knows, it's that promises might be carved in stone for Shimura Danzo.
If it's a promise, then it's a promise, and it'll endure to the end of time.
We're friends aren't we, Danzo?
Of course we are. It's a promise.
Once, long ago, two boys had made their promises while the world prepared for war. Now, more than fifty years on, that promise still rings true.
A little older, a little faded, a little chipped and bruised, but the promise is the same. Inuzuka Hana will come to no harm in Danzo's shadow unlike the enemies of Konoha.
Perhaps that is where she is meant to thrive, rather than stagnate as she has done now, settled into routine as a desk ninja.
"You promised to be her godfather, not her shishou." There's a world of difference between those two words nonetheless.
For all his preoccupation with Inuzuka Hana's education, Hiruzen despairs of ever getting Danzo to even have a conversation with the girl that normal godfathers would have with their godchildren. They've never shared a meal or went for a walk or even talked together.
"I promised to keep her safe." Danzo raises an eyebrow at him. "What better way than making her feared?"
There's nothing he can say to that. He chuckles. "I wasn't saying that I'd disagree. I merely wondered."
"Don't wonder. No use in wondering. The only way something gets done is if you do it." Danzo rises, knees creaking, a firm grip on his cane. "It's late. I'll let you go home."
The last he sees of the so called darkness of shinobi is his back, as his friend creaks his way down the stairs and levels of the Tower.
Whatever lies in the future, one thing's for certain: Shimura Danzo's going to raise a holy terror. Inuzuka Hana's destiny is that of one fearsome woman.
But might that erase the child she already is?
Everyone has to leave childhood behind sometime.
He switches off the lights when Danzo leaves, sitting in the shadows, smoke from his pipe curling about his face. No point in going home now when it's already so late.
Another night at the office isn't out of his ordinary routine.
"She is strong but she is a child
She is a child
She is a child
Take the world off her shoulders
Children should not have to fight
To be young."
— M.H.W, Yuki, Age Thirteen
A.N. So we get a Hiruzen POV. I dislike him more than I dislike Danzo, but that's another story. This is about 4.5k of interesting relationship dynamics and a tired old man who attempts good things and fails on all accounts.
As it is, end of semester is closing in, and I have no idea when I'll next update. I promise though, I'm not dead. It's just been rough recently. 3K of Ch 78 of Bloodless is written, I just hope to finish about 5 more scenes in it, so it's going to be a bit before I update, at least I think so. At this point, I've given up on predicting my updating ability.
Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, followed and favorited. Everyone makes my day brighter.
~Tavina