Shigarami was stabbed. Right through the heart; soundlessly and smoothly. Like cutting butter. It meant that a master was at the other end of the blade. He remembers his first thought was surprise at being impaled by a broadsword. Not exactly a popular ninja weapon. His second thought was trying to figure out how the hell he was assassinated -attempted assassination of course- in the middle of the most peaceful village in the world, Konoha. The expression on the Hokage's face seemed to change in slow motion from a gentle smile to utter disbelief when the broadsword impaled Shigarami. As Shigarami crumpled to the floor, he wondered what sort of torture the Hokage would put the assassin through.

A foolish foolish assassin. Skilled but stupendously stupid. Killing one of the Hokage's men in plain sight in the room that practically ran the shinobi world had been a bold choice, Shigarami decided, but utterly gutted any chances of living longer than 5 seconds.

The execution had been flawless. No preamble, no clunky genjutsu that novices depended on. A figure seemingly manifested itself behind Shigarami and without hesitation dispatched the jounin. Shigarami had only seen that sort of skill from Mist ninja trained in silent killing. Clearly he was the one and only target, or else the assassin would have gone for the more obvious choice of the Hokage.

Not that it mattered, getting stabbed. If that's all it took to kill him then Shigarami would have been dead ages ago. The assassin clearly didn't know what they were dealing with, but Shigarami gave him points for effort.

The last thought before his head hit the ground was dread at picking up all the papers that the Hokage would inevitably scatter after flipping over the table to get his hands on the enemy ninja. He would get to see his assailants cold unmoving face in two minutes when he would undoubtedly wake up...

And then Shigarami once again found himself standing in front of the Hokage, who was sitting behind his desk as if nothing had happened.

"Shigarami?"

No. No, this made no sense. Shigarami had woken up just like he had expected, but he was preparing himself for a scene of chaos and death that always followed a ninja battle.

"Shigarami, are you listening to me?"

Shigarami smirked. Clever. Extremely clever. But it still wouldn't work. He raised his hands to form the appropriate sign

"Release."

Absolutely nothing happened. The Hokage leaned forward, smirking.

"You been sleeping enough? You're the last person I imagined would go senile." The Hokage said, amusement apparent in his voice.

Shigarami's mind was racing. This made no sense at all. One minute there was a broadsword in his chest and a killer was standing in front of the strongest man in the village, who was ready to strike him down. The next, it's as if nothing happened. If what happened, either the sword or what was happening now was a genjutsu, it was an incredibly complex and incredibly impressive one.

"Release!" The Hokage now had a shit-eating grin on his face, clearly enjoying mocking the normally emotionally guarded jounin. "If this is a joke, then it's terrible. Leave the comedy to me, Shigarami," he said in a mischievous yet arrogant way that was so like him. Shigarami knew that the man in front of him was who he appeared to be.

"Lord Hokage, did you experience anything just now? A hallucination?"

"Nope. No idea what you're talking about."

"You serious?"

He snorted, "I assume that since you apparently believe we just shared something now you think we were caught in a genjutsu?"

"That's right."

"Ludicrous. This room has seals designed exactly for that purpose. They're checked every day by Anbu. Put your mind at ease."

Shigarami almost did. If he believed everything his eyes and ears told him he would have. But Shigarami had been a ninja long enough to know when to trust his gut. That broadsword, slipping right through him. That felt too real to ignore.

"I wish I could, Lord Hokage. I am not reaffirmed by your words, quite the opposite. I am more concerned that somebody managed to breach these seals you have such faith in."

The Hokage frowned. "This joke is getting really bad now."

The Hokage was a stubborn one. He had to be, it took a lot to lead this village. He was almost a larger than life character. It only becomes a problem when trying to convince him he's wrong.

"Lord Hokage, please-

"Maybe those magic tricks you always pull have finally taken a toll on your mind, eh? I can always have Ino look and see."

"Lord Hokage, listen to me for a minute!" Shigarami rushed forward and slammed his hands on the desk. He locked eyes with the Hokage, who was staring back at him equally as seriously. Shigarami briefly wondered if he had gone too far.

"What did you see?" The Hokage spoke in a low voice.

"I was stabbed from behind. In the heart."

The Hokage didn't change his expression. "In this room? Just now?"

"Yes."

"...Stabbing you in the heart doesn't kill you, does it?"

Shigarami sighed. "No, but it's not exactly enjoyable. One more thing."

"What?"

"It was a broadsword."

"You're joking."

"Never."

"So you're telling me that some assassin managed to sneak into my office, which is not being watched by amateurs I assure you, bypassed all the seals the Anbu set up, somehow got into the room without either of us noticing, delivered a mortal wound, or it would be on anybody else, but anyways. Stabbed you with a broadsword which is the worst possible assassination weapon I can imagine, all without me noticing, and vanished like the wind."

"You did notice. I saw your face as I was going down. You were ready to kill him."

"...which didn't happen, so that means there's some high class genjutsu going on. I mean on a Mangekyou Sharingan level. Or there's the simpler explanation that you are tired after a long mission and experiencing delusions."

There was no winning with him. "Yes, that is a simpler answer. But I've never known you to be a Hokage who ignores his subordinate's instincts."

The Hokage glared at him. Shigarami could almost see him thinking behind his eyes. After a moment, the Hokage started to speak.

"Shigarami, I respect you as a shinobi. I may not understand you or your techniques but God knows you've helped us out when we needed it." He paused, thinking of his next words. "Like I said, I tend to trust my own eyes and ears, but my eyes and ears have told me over the years that I can trust you almost equally. In three days when Minato has returned I'll have him check my seals again."

Shigarami breathed a sigh of relief. Minato would undoubtedly find something wrong with the seals, hopefully evidence of an intrusion. However...

"I thought Minato was sent after that missing-nin a few days ago?" One of Konoha's Chuunin decided to cut off his ties from the village after he was sent on an infiltration mission at a Land of Fire factory. He was supposed to disguise himself as a worker for a few months and then return with a detailed report of the factory standards. The client in this case was a rival business, hoping to find evidence of illegal working conditions that they could take to court and ruin the competition. What they had not bargained for was the Chuunin assigned to develop a sense of empathy for his fellow workers and lead a worker's revolt. They had tried to organize a strike, but the factory owner went to Konoha and paid for a couple of jonins to force his workers to get back to work through violent means. It had been embarrassing, to say the least, to find out that a workers rebellion had been started by an active undercover Konoha ninja. Konoha denied the request for aid subduing the workers, instead they tried to take the chuunin off the mission and back home. He didn't though, and that's when it all became violent. The factory owner had been killed by the rebelling workers, but not before he went to other ninja villages for help. The whole situation was a disaster and made Konoha look extremely bad. Minato was sent to find and eliminate the former Konoha ninja and his faction. It was supposed to be a long mission.

The Hokage smiled proudly, and spoke with a hint of humor, "I told him to take a month or so to get the job done. He says he'll be back in a week."

Shigarami scoffed. "Surely he was kidding."

"I would think so, if he wasn't who he was I wouldn't believe it. But I know that he never goes back on his word." He smiled, the kind of smile one wore when recalling fond memories. He leaned back and gazed up at the ceiling as if he could see right through the roof and was looking at the starry sky. "He sure is Naruto's son."

He then averted his gaze to Shigarami, as if he was expecting him to concur or add to the topic. Shigarami stared back with a blank expression. After all, he never got to meet the famous Jinchuuriki. He had nothing to add to all the discussion about how great Naruto is. The Hokage waved his hand, dismissing the topic.

"Anyways, Minato knows seals better than anybody. He'll put our minds to rest, I'm sure." he said with air of finality.

"Thank you, Lord Hokage."

"Now for the reason you're actually here. I'm sending you to the academy tomorrow on an unofficial mission. You're on the lookout for any standouts among the highest grade level in chakra control or related fields. You'll be replacing Iruka for the day..."

Shigarami groaned but mostly for show. He didn't mind babysitting.