Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, characters, plots, etc.
Prologue - Chapter 2 - Discussions
"I'm so very sorry Shikaku" the Sandaime said solemnly, "How are Inoichi and Chōza holding up?"
"Not very well Hokage-sama, losing any clan member is hard enough, but to lose a team with one of each of ours in it…" Shikaku trailed off, shaking his head slowly. He sighed. "The team was not ready Hokage-sama."
The Sandaime looked up sharply. "Shikaku, the team had completed the prerequisite number of missions, they had a Jōnin accompanying them, plus they had all exceeded at the academy."
Shikaku leaned forward in his seat, his elbow resting on his knee and his chin propped up in a cupped palm. "Sandaime-sama, the D-ranked mission prerequisite is meaningless, and the Jōnin was too busy to them out, but what I wanted to talk to you about was the academy. I think-"
"Shikaku, they were outnumbered and facing a B-ranked missing-nin, I don't-"
"With all due respect Hokage-sama, they were outnumbered by bandits. I don't fault the Jōnin, he had no choice but to engage the missing-nin; a B-ranked missing-nin would make short work of most genin teams. Bandits however, they should not pose a threat to any ninja, genin or kage. On my first c-rank mission after the academy, my genin team defeated a camp of thirty bandits that had attacked the town we had been assigned to patrol. Our Jōnin sensei was there to step in if things got out of hand, but we were fine. Inoichi distracted, I bound, Chōza crushed. So why were three promising new genin, from the same background as the three of us, so easily dispatched by seven bandits. No, my mistake, ten bandits, there were seven left by the time the sensei returned. And Shikaru, Chopu and Inota had been killed. That is unacceptable Hokage-sama, they clearly were not ready!"
"Tell me what you would have done differently Shikaku? The situation was outside their control, it couldn't be helped" Sarutobi realised too late that that question was a foolish one to address to a Nara.
"The academy, Hokage-sama" Shikaku declared.
Sarutobi grazed at his Jōnin commander wearily, "what about the academy?"
"It has slumped Hokage-sama" Shikaku answered curtly, "standards have dropped severely in peacetime, as to be expected, but they have fallen too far."
He was interrupted by a knock at the door. The Sandaime's secretary poked her head around the door.
"Excuse me Hokage-sama, I was just delivering some files an aide has just delivered for Shikaku-san" the secretary said politely, placing the files upon Hiruzen's desk and departing the office once more.
The professor glanced at the files with dread. These days just the sight of the official documents terrified him, although that may have been the large red font printed on the front. MIA.
"These, Hokage-sama, are the files of all the genin that have been killed within two years of graduating the academy over the past ten years" Shikaku stated sadly.
He removed the majority of them and set them aside.
"These are over the past five years."
He palmed roughly a dozen files from the top of the pile.
"These are from the past three years. Over the past three years Hokage-sama, we have had two genin survive past two years. Our younger generation is being slaughtered Hokage-sama and with your permission, I'd like to do something about it."
"Do you think I don't know, Shikaku?" Sarutobi snapped at the clan head. "I am the one who informs every family of every loss. More than anyone else, barring the families, I know."
"Then why has nothing been done Hokage-sama?" Shikaku asked softly.
"Because I'm old Shikaku" Sarutobi replied softly. "It has always been done that way since the founding of the village, and for the first time in so long, the nations have a tangible grip on peace with one another, and I don't know where to go from there. We're warriors Shikaku, born and raised. I remember more battles that I'd care to and more kills than I dare to. And that's not accounting for the ones I don't doubt I've forgotten. One way or another, I've lost my wife, my predecessors, my successor, both my sons, my grandson, most of my friends and all three of my students. I'm old Shikaku, my will of fire is dimming; the mind I wish was willing, but it's struggling to remember why. And my body? My greatest battle, my deadliest foe, and the one I know I could never defeat is creeping up on me and sat here, in this room, day after day? I feel like I'm just waiting for him.
"I don't want a nation to end up like me: these children have such hope, such spirit… I let standards of combat training slide in the hopes that it would encourage peace in their heart, by delaying putting a blade in their hands, or at their throats. They are our future: I was just hoping our ways could be the past." Sarutobi sat back in his chair, looking weary and, for want of a better word, beaten. He swiveled in his chair to gaze out over the village.
"Hokage-sama…they are not going to see the future without our help. War is not something Konoha wants, but we can't just lie down. So long as there are people to be taken advantage of, people are going to take advantage of them. And we can't stop them forever; soon our children will have to. They must be ready."
After waiting for a moment for a reply and receiving none, Shikaku quietly dismissed himself from the office, leaving the wizened old leader to think.
"Gai, there's nothing I can do for him!" the Sandaime exclaimed. "The boy has a physical inability to perform ninjutsu or genjutsu, and by all accounts, shows absolutely no aptitude for taijutsu. I simply cannot condone allowing him to continue, he is not ready for shinobi life." The irony of him almost exactly mirroring Shikaku's statement was far from lost on the Hokage.
Gai began to protest, in the only way he knew. Loudly. "Hokage-sama, he has as much talent as I! When I was-"
"No Gai, you were raised by your father, an excellent man and the hardest worker I've ever met bar yourself. Lee doesn't have the advantage of someone teaching him-", again, Sarutobi was surprised realising he had as good as said the academy didn't teach well at all, "-and he had not even a tenth of your drive."
"What if he did?" Gai asked quietly.
"What if he did what?" the Sandaime asked, slightly puzzled by Gai's sudden change of mood.
"What if he did have those things? I know you have been struggling to fill the third spot on my team, from what I've seen and read there are only eight promising students in this year's crop."
"Two" the Hokage said quietly.
"Excuse me, Hokage-sama?"
"There are two promising students this year. Neji Hyūga is a prodigy in his own right: I haven't seen such a gifted use of the Byakugan since his father and uncle. And Tenten: I have never seen a weapons user so adaptable and talented in Fūinjutsu as well! No, the official report declares eight to be ready to be genin, I see only two" the Sandaime declared with conviction.
'I should have seen this one coming' he thought bitterly. 'Argue with a Nara…'
"Then, why not?" Gai blurted out. "If you're already putting through six students who are unfit for it, why is one more any issue? And it's traditional for the Rookie of the Year and the Kunoichi of the Year to be paired with the dead-last, Hokage-sama."
"Because he hasn't shown that he wanted it Gai" Sarutobi stated simply. "He knows he has no talent, he professes that he wants to be a ninja, but the one branch of shinobi arts that he could become good at, he doesn't try to. No, with no conviction and no talent, he would not survive. I'm sorry Gai."
Gai opened his mouth as if to say something and then closed it again, his jaw tightening noticeably in restraint.
"If you have something to say Gai, say it. Kami knows I've been in this position long enough to be able to listen to what my trusted shinobi and advisors tell me", 'Damn it Shikaku'.
"What about Jiraiya-sama?" the green-clad Jōnin queried.
'Oh'. "What about him, Gai?" Sarutobi asked, knowing the answer, but wondering where Gai was going with this. Gai was rarely serious, but the man was one of the most capable Jōnin to ever come out of Konoha, and when the man was serious, you took him seriously.
"He was the dead-last. A fool. Talentless by all accounts" Gai shrugged. "You taught him, got him to change his lazy attitude and worked him hard, and now he is one of the only S-rank shinobi Konoha has! My father could perform no ninjutsu or genjutsu, and he fought the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist to a standoff, alone."
"It did cost him his life" Sarutobi pointed out quietly.
"No, Hokage-sama, it did not. The way you look at it, that fight cost him his life. The way I look at it, he gave his life to that fight, and he is the sole reason I am standing here now, in more ways than one.
Gai paused for a moment to let it sink in.
"Konoha is full of these stories Hokage-sama. Konoha has been built on the minds of its prodigies, but on the backs of its Jiraiyas, its Maito Dais and yes, on the back of its Lees. The boy may be talentless, but if I get through to him the way my father got through to me, and the way you got through to Jiraiya, he will be the greatest taijutsu specialist Konoha has ever soon. I swear it" Gai vowed, his face solemn and his voice strong.
Gai did not make vows lightly, Sarutobi knew. It added a great deal of credibility to what would have otherwise been, from anyone else, an utterly preposterous claim.
The god of shinobi sat with his back to his desk, staring into space. He had made a split-second decision. That was the sort of thing a teenager would do, not one of the oldest living shinobi. He smiled. The follies of youth. He had missed them.
The sun began to slowly descent behind the village, bathing the village in a beautiful hue of orange and pink. He has sent for Shikaku earlier and requested he come to his office at his earliest convenience. He knew Shikaku well, and he knew that not even a summons from his leader would be enough to make him leave the funeral.
It was one of the things that just made him love this village. Konoha was the only village that placed such a premium on teamwork and camaraderie.
A knock at his door distracted him from his thoughts. His secretary had long since gone home.
"Enter" he called.
Shikaku walked in, clad in his usual Jōnin attire, but in black. Sarutobi smiled inwardly. As lazy as Shikaku was, he was a ninja through and through, and as dedicated to his village as they come.
"You called for me Hokage-sama?" Shikaku drawled. It was hard to tell if it was a question or not, as usual from Shikaku. He had a unique way of asking a question whilst leaving you in absolutely no doubt that he knew the answer a lot more thoroughly than you did, even if the answer was only in your thoughts.
Sarutobi turned away from the window, breaking his gaze reluctantly from his favourite view. He has been thinking long and hard, after being forced into it by his treacherous subconscious. 'No matter the personal feelings, one really could be his own worst enemy, all without ever leaving the confines of his mind' he mused.
"I've been thinking Shikaku" he began slowly. "At first, I was thinking about those that had come before us, and of those who had recently passed away. Then, I had a rather interesting conversation with our resident taijutsu master. Gai is a rather odd man, but he has some fantastic opinions and views on life, don't you think?"
"I do, Hokage-sama" Shikaku replied. "What were you speaking to him about?"
"The future." The god of shinobi looked Shikaku dead in the eye, sending a shiver down Shikaku's spine. "Tell me your plan for the academy."