A/N On to the next chapter! Thanks for reading.
Hiruzen Sarutobi is a man of intellect.
Over the years, he's been called many names:
Father.
Sensei.
Some names he cherished. Other names were given:
The Professor.
God of Shinobi.
Third Hokage.
In his line of work, names meant something. Names, titles, held power. Power drew attention. Attention meant allies and enemies.
Knowing this basic rule, having witnessed Lords First and Second lead Konoha, Hiruzen understood what being Hokage meant before he was given his title—the sacrifice, the responsibilities, the power. It wasn't just the cool hat that made him Hokage.
As stated before: Hiruzen Sarutobi is a man of intellect. He respected that Names meant Power.
But along with that, Hiruzen respected that no single human being knew everything. There were forces, powers, and beings outside of human understanding. Mysteries that, even after centuries of study and exploration, could not be explained.
(He wished Orochimaru understood that. Lately, his student seemed more zealous in his pursuit of mastering different techniques. Hiruzen hoped the day never came when Orochimaru wasn't satisfied with Konoha anymore. He doesn't want to lose another student...)
That brings Hiruzen to his current mystery.
The Border Girl.
Under usual circumstances, news about an orphan found at the border wouldn't even be brought to his attention. It sounds callous, but being a shinobi meant they encountered more orphans than intact families.
Under normal circumstances, a child found injured and alone at the border isn't an uncommon occurrence. More so, when the two bordering Nations regularly clash.
Under normal circumstances, the child would just be another consequence of conflict. At most, Hiruzen would only know of her as one of the many other children taken care of by the state. Another statistic in a quarterly report.
That is, under normal circumstances.
First sign of abnormalcy: the orphan has a Name. The Border Girl.
Remember his prior point about the power of names? Apparently, the name stuck when one of his patrol teams brought her back to the village. With a name, she has attention. Case in point, his attention.
Leading him to abnormality number two: the Border Incident.
The patrol team didn't have time to investigate the scene thoroughly before they left the area. They had completed a mission and were returning to the village when they came across the girl.
Even with a Hyuuga shinobi on the team, only a small amount of information could be gathered. What information they did find pointed to a trail of pursuit, signs of a skirmish, and an explosion that warped more than 1 km of the surrounding landscape.
All of that for a burned, battered child to be their only tangible clue. The Border Girl. The fact that the girl survived the explosion at all is a miracle. And miracles don't just happen.
Some pieces fit. But some pieces didn't.
Tapping out the old tobacco into the ashtray next to his hat, Hiruzen lit his pipe with fresh leaves. Once more, he flipped through the military police report describing the incident at the hospital.
This leads to Abnormality # 3: the Hospital Incident.
Usually, an incident report, especially one concerning civilians and non-combat shinobi, wouldn't make its way to his desk so quickly.
But as with everything in this case, things weren't as they seemed at first glance. Notably, the report included information about her medical status: stable and recovering steadily from her injuries. In fact, she was ahead of their timeline for her. Maybe accelerated healing?
When the child woke up, she made more of a name for herself: two medics were knocked out, there was minor property damage, and witnesses said she used multiple chakra-based techniques. It took a shinobi, a Hyuuga, intervening to calm the situation down.
Then there was the Final Abnormality: the child herself.
Evidence suggested the Border Girl is from a clan.
First is her appearance. Her eyes are a distinct gray color, closer to silver. If she didn't have a kekkai genkai, then perhaps she came from a minor clan in the land of Rivers.
Then there's her hair: a deep red color. When Hiruzen first heard her description, he immediately thought of the Uzumaki.
However, he immediately dismissed the thought as wishful thinking. Finding a random Uzumaki after all this time would be too miraculous. And miracles didn't just happen.
Besides, there are numerous individuals and clans throughout the continent with red hair. Hiruzen can think of a few groups right off the top of his head: people in Kumo, the Sabaku and other desert families in the Land of Wind, and the Akamichi here in Konoha. So her hair color wasn't a guarantee factor.
On top of that, the chances of a survivor, or a group of survivors, from Uzushio eluding the Leaf Village's scrutiny didn't make sense to him.
Yes, Konoha searched for survivors of Uzushio after The Fall. However, searches were cut short as the Second Shinobi War intensified.
On top of that, the joint efforts of two hidden villages were against them. Hiruzen and other high-level Konoha officials have strong evidence to believe three hidden villages were involved in the destruction of Uzushio—Kiri (Hidden Mist), Kumo (Hidden Cloud), and minor involvement from Yugakure (Hidden Hot Spring).
Worse, survivors of the Fall were systematically hunted down and killed, or captured and sold into human trafficking. In the rare times a choice was given to Uzushio survivors, it was barely merciful: submit to our wills or die.
Everyone knew not to challenge a stubborn Uzumaki. It never ended well, for either side.
In the end, it proved too great for Konoha to compete against. Where their teams found hints of survivors, they arrived too late, finding only ashes or broken bodies. Echos of a once strong people, eradicated.
All of that comes back to the small child in question: at the border of the Land of Fire, a large-scale explosion, and physical features of a dead clan.
Some of the pieces fit. But some didn't.
Hiruzen sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. He mulled over this topic repeatedly since the report was brought to his attention hours ago.
Hiruzen huffed in mirth, tapping out the old tobacco from his pipe. You didn't get to his age being a shinobi without a healthy level of skepticism.
Was she truly an Uzumaki? Who was she with? And what was she fleeing from?
Well, he'd better go find out.
"It's good to see you awake, young one."
The Border Girl description didn't do the child justice. She was neither a "broken, battered waif" (comment from a sympathetic Nurse) or "a demonic hellion wrecking havoc" (one of the medics she injured—Hiruzen still can't wrap his mind around that.) No, there was so much more to her.
She is a small thing: her stature looks between 4 or 5 years old. He could see her thin wrists from here. It is hard to tell if she is petite or if she was malnourished. If the latter, then she could be as old as 6.
And her eyes… Instead of responding, the girl curled the blanket around her more, like a hooded cloak. Only her eyes peeked out. Her gaze was sharp behind her curly bangs. Instead of gray, they reminded Hiruzen more of flinty steel.
She was tense, watching him suspiciously with a wariness he's seen shinobi use.
Considering the drama from before, he'd be suspicious too if he were in her shoes. So, Hiruzen continued his previous line of conversation, trying to put her at ease.
"I'm sorry if you were frightened earlier." The truth. He gestured to the medic standing near his side. "These are healers. They want to help you feel better."
Her eyes darted to the medic nin then focused back on him. She remained tense. Ah, did she find him more threatening or calming?
Fortunately, one of the shinobi with him was collecting information for a report. He'd bring his own observations too.
"Will you let them heal you? I heard you hit your head." Most likely she had a headache. That would explain why the bright lights made her cover her face and squint. "I'm in charge of them. I assure you, no one will hurt you." Technically true. He is the Hokage, after all.
She watched him closely for several, long moments. She still hasn't verbally responded.
Hiruzen hummed to himself quietly in thought. She wasn't mute, they knew. And she could hear perfectly well, the medics thoroughly checked her over. Perhaps… she didn't understand them? That seemed to fit with her body language. It was more than caution, it was wariness akin to paranoia.
He focused on her when he heard a quiet voice. "What was that?"
She bit her lip, eyes darting around to the people in the room before looking at him. She quietly repeated her question.
"- - - - - Baabaa?"
For a moment, Hiruzen thought she had a head injury severe enough that she was speaking gibberish. But no, she spoke fine. The problem was she wasn't speaking Common, the spoken dialect of the Shinobi Nations.
This posed a big problem. If they couldn't communicate with her, they'd have to do more guessing or mark the case as inconclusive, "Child of Unknown Origin." That would make the case harder to re-open to investigate the mysterious explosion. If there was an enemy behind the conflict, it could give them a clue.
So Hiruzen tried again. "Your grandmother?" He asked back. Perhaps if she spoke more, he could decipher her words, or give their specialist a clue.
She nodded twice, leaning toward him and saying something else. "- -! Baabaa. - - - - - Baabaa? - - - - - - - -?" It sounded like she asked a question.
With those few words, he recognized the "gibberish." To Hiruzen's immense shock, the girl was speaking Uzushio's old dialect, Uzek. The language they spoke before they adopted Common.
With this, Hiruzen knew she was descended from Uzushio.
He sat up straighter, processing her words now that he realized she was speaking Uzek. It's been decades since he heard it.
Hiruzen knew it was Uzek because he had the honor of studying Uzumaki fuuinjutsu scrolls from his sensei, Tobirama's, personal collection when he was younger. Hiruzen always had a voracious appetite for knowledge (he definitely earned 'the Professor 'name).
Hiruzen even had a few lessons with Lady Mito. The "Princess of Uzushio" always welcomed her brother-in-law's students and their inquiries. At times she would speak in Uzek, translating scrolls and diagrams. Mito enjoyed these moments because it allowed her to share her family's legacy while helping to build up the next generation, much like her husband dreamed Konoha would do.
It was humbling to learn from her. Hiruzen never thought he'd hear it again after Uzushio fell.
But this raised all the more questions: How did this little girl, who speaks a dead language fluently end up in his village? Were there other Uzumaki survivors?
His mind raced in a new direction. This child was too young not to be raised by other survivors. And Uzek? That was spoken by a small group, even within Uzushio.
Mystery after mystery. And none of it makes sense.
Yet.
"Can you say you name?" Hiruzen slowly asked in Uzek. It was wrong, he knew, but it was the best shot he had. He worked hard to pull from his old memories.
She gasped, pulling the blanket further over her face. She hid her mouth, as if to silence herself.
Ah, she didn't know someone knew her language.
"I am Hiruzen." That, he said fluently. Lady Mito drilled the basic greeting into them early on. It was amusing for her, Tobirama, and other adults who witnessed the Uzushio Fuuinjutsu lessons. "And you?"
She whimpered, fully hiding her face. He could see her tremble.
He locked eyes with the medic beside him. This was dragging on. He was Hokage, his schedule wouldn't allow him to stay here all day. He'd have to pass it on to the medics and police again.
"They can help you." He spoke slowly and pointed to the medic.
They stepped up next to him and bowed, introducing themselves in Common. "Hi ojou-chan. I can help with the pain you're in"
She balled the blanket tighter around her, twisting it in her hands before slowly lowering the blanket to her shoulders.
With that, she revealed her hair. It was vivid red as described. But it was curlier than Hiruzen expected—a combination you didn't see often in the Land of Fire. With the blanket pulled down, it fluffed out to it's full volume in a mane around her head. Her curls framed her face and neck, just reaching her hunched shoulders. The light was bright, making her squint her eyes at them.
She was adorable.
There was a moment of pause, as if acknowledging that.
"Hello little one. Can they help you?" He returned to speaking Common, knowing she understood them.
She nodded, but didn't say more. With that the medic stepped up and introduced themselves. That was his time to step out.
"Wait." At least that's what he thinks she said in Uzek. Her little voice stopped Hiruzen at the door. He turned to her, seeing her at the foot of the bed, eyes wide with panic.
She looked desperate for answers. That's good, they needed answers from her too.
"Don't worry, I'll be back." He smiled at her. It worked, she relaxed. "Good night." He said in Uzek.
The girl settled back on the bed, letting the medic nin reach her.
After that, Hiruzen left. The mystery was unraveling and things were becoming clear. But still, some pieces didn't.
He sighed.
"Are you alright, Lord Third?" One of the shinobi with him asked as they exited the Hospital in a secret passage.
Hiruzen nodded. "It'll be another long night." Biwako would have his ass for not coming home for dinner. He hated to disappoint his kids…
His companions chuckled. "When ISN'T it a late night for you, Lord Hokage?"
Another chimed in, "And where you go, we go."
Hiruzen openly laughed for a short moment into the night sky. "Indeed you do."
A/N Thank you for reading! See you next time.