Hiruzen practically stumbled into his office very late the next day.

Last night had been a nightmare.

Danzo had somehow implanted an enhanced version of Hashirama Senju's cells into himself, and then multiple Sharingan (because of course the severed arm Uchiha Sasuke had brought in in a nearly-blind panic belonged to Danzo too according to the cells found in said arm) and they still hadn't woken him from… whatever he was under.

In truth, Hiruzen suspected a Sharingan-induced genjutsu… but he didn't like those implications. Still, he'd be contacting Itachi himself got get to the bottom of this if he had to. That was one of the two explanations he could come up with at the moment, and thus he would have to look into it.

Thankfully, the other potential explanation was sitting on the windowsill of his office reading a familiar little, orange book as he entered.

"Shame on you, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said as he flipped a page. "I know one of my vices is being late, but I didn't think it would rub off on you."

Hiruzen had to take a deep breath at that. Part of him found Kakashi's comment amusing. Part of him found it highly disrespectful and annoying. He was running low enough on patience that the latter seemed to be winning. Well, that and the fact that he really didn't want to have this conversation with this particular ninja, but didn't have much of a choice. The man was involved due to his eye and his student.

Instead of getting angry or even laughing, though, Hiruzen just plopped into his Hokage's chair with a soft groan. His back hurt so much… growing old was not for the faint of heart.

He looked over to see one concerned eye staring at him and decided to just get this all over with.

"Where were you, last night, Kakashi-san?" he asked.

Kakashi blinked and then slowly, as if he expected an attack, put his orange book away, eyeing the Hokage warily. "Guy managed to drag me out to a bar and we had one of our… competition nights – by no choice of my own, I guarantee. I finally convinced him to head home around two in the morning."

So, around the time Hiruzen had been woken.

"Can anyone else vouch for you?" The Hokage asked. Not that it mattered with elemental and kage bushins, but it could help.

The silver-haired jounin's expression turned suspicious. "Yes. I can give you a list if you like."

Hiruzen nodded. "Please do."

"Hokage-sama," Kakashi started slowly, "what happened?"

Hiruzen sighed again. Then he explained everything: Danzo, the advanced Senju cells, the severed arm, both Danzo and the arm randomly appearing, the loss of Danzo's left eye (that was likely a Sharingan), the traumatized genin that they would have to explain everything to now (Hiruzen had every intention of throwing Danzo under the bus with that one), and all the implications thereof – everything from a spy to Sharingan-induced genjutsu to Danzo's multiple kakkei genkai theft and thus treason, along with having to look into everything the man had done up until that point (which meant he'd have to look into Root, and he was not looking forward to that).

Once he finished he sat back, reaching for his pipe and preparing to light it. He saw Kakashi open his mouth out of the corner of his eye.

"You are not allowed to say, 'I told you so,' on pain of me leaving this hat to you."

Kakashi immediately closed his mouth with a clop and said nothing.

Good.

Then he finished lighting his pipe and put it in his mouth, taking in a breath of the sweet weed he preferred. It went a long way to relaxing him, as short as the fix would be.

Then he turned his gaze on Kakashi again.

"Uchiha Sasuke is currently in the hospital being treated for shock. Later today, he will begin his mandatory mind-healing sessions with Yamanaka Inoichi. During those sessions, Yamanaka-san will begin to prepare him to eventually receive the truth about Itachi, which he will be told when he is mentally able to handle it."

Kakashi's eye widened. "Truth, Hokage-sama?"

He didn't groan, but it was a near thing. "Apparently, Itachi killed his clan because they were planning a coup that would have destroyed Konoha. He was ordered to do so by Danzo."

The silver-haired Jounin was not, by any means, stupid. He read the subtext, put two and two together and then Hiruzen had to look away from the horror and subsequent disappointment.

"That is an S-class secret."

"Yes, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said quietly. Good thing Hiruzen had dismissed his ANBU once he'd gotten Kakashi's denial that he'd been the one to attack Danzo.

"Team 7 will have to, officially, be on suspension for the next several weeks."

Kakashi's blank expression didn't change. "Yes, Hokage-sama." Oh, he was really upset if he'd reverted to ANBU mode instead of his lazy, sharp-tongued quipping mode. Hiruzen rubbed his temple. To be fair, he kind of deserved Kakashi's ire.

"We also have to look into this. Someone attacked Danzo, and I need to know who – yesterday. As such, you will be required to see T&I later today."

A subtle flinch, but completely understandable. That was never something any ninja wanted to hear.

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Inform the rest of your team. You can train them once you are cleared again. If you are not cleared, I will arrange something else. They will be taken care of, I promise." Not that his promises meant much, these days.

No emotions or reaction. "Yes, Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen took another breath of his pipe and ignored the headache building behind his eyes. "Dismissed."

Kakashi vanished. He didn't walk over to the window and jump out, like he'd taken to doing lately, but outright disappeared with a shunshin. Just like when he'd been an ANBU. Hiruzen made a subtle chakra fluctuation so the current ANBU waiting nearby would tail the silver-haired jounin until he showed up at T&I.

Then he once again lamented his lost retirement. It was hard to remember a time when he'd actually been good at this job.

xXx

Naruto grumbled as he shuffled along, kicking rocks, hands in his pockets. He hadn't noticed exactly where he'd gone, and thus hadn't realized he'd ended up back at the training ground where he'd passed the final genin test yesterday.

"Naruto," a voice had him looking up and he met Indra's single eye. That managed to chase away a lot of his gloom.

"Hey, Indra-san!" he said with a grin.

"What's wrong?" the man asked.

Naruto's face fell again. "My team was supposed to start missions today, but something happened to Sasuke-teme and Kakashi-sensei said that we'd have to work on our own training for the day. I know we're supposed to have graduated, finally, but this doesn't feel like graduation! We were supposed to start missions today! Instead the teme's in the hospital and Sakura-chan ran off to get him some sort of get-well present and now I'm all alone… again."

"Ah," Indra said. Then he seemed to think for a second. "You… don't know what D-rank missions – given to new gennin – are… do you."

He didn't say it as a question.

Naruto frowned. "Well, aren't we supposed to rescue princesses and protect the Damiyo and stuff?"

Indra blinked, then closed his eye and shook his head. "D-rank missions are easy missions in the village that basically equate to chores."

The blond just stared at the older Ninja.

Then, after several seconds: "WHAT?!"

The older man held up his hand and walking stick placatingly. He opened his mouth as if to explain, but then closed it again and seemed to think about it. Then he gestured for Naruto to come forward.

"Would you give the Hokage hat to just anyone?" he finally asked.

The blond froze in his tracks, looking affronted. "Of course not! It has to go to the strongest ninja! That's why I'm gonna earn it one day, dattebayo!"

"How do you prove you're the strongest ninja?"

Naruto opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out because… he'd never really thought about it before.

"By winning fights and… fulfilling missions?" he finally answered.

Indra nodded, "Partially. You also have to earn the trust of your fellow ninja and likely several clans."

"Oh," Naruto replied, then thought about it. He frowned. "How do I do that?"

"That's something you have to figure out on your own."

His frown deepened. "Oh."

"Fulfilling missions is a good start, though," Indra conceded. "But you can't become Hokage if you're not alive to do that. Would you want to send Sakura up against a whole group of missing nin?"

Naruto shook his head, worriedly. She might get hurt!

Indra nodded in agreement. "Right now, she isn't strong enough and doesn't know her team well enough to fight off something like that. When you leave the village, you have to completely trust your team. They will save you when you come across threats you can't handle."

"I can handle anything!" Naruto said, trying to sound sure, but it came off as shaky.

"There are threats even the Hokage can't handle," Indra responded dryly.

Naruto felt his eyes widen. "Nuh-uh!" he protested angrily, "Hokage-jiji is the strongest!"

Indra shook his head sadly. "He's a very strong ninja – one of the strongest – but he's also old, well past his prime and tired. Most of the other Kage would give him a run for his money, and there are a group of S-class missing nin who could be very problematic for any village, not to mention Orochimaru and—"

"Wait, who?" the blond butted in, wanting to defend his jiji more but not knowing who these people even were.

"Orochimaru is a sanin, a missing-nin and the Hokage's student. He's one of the strongest ninja in the world and is likely just as strong as – if not stronger than – the Hokage."

Naruto didn't know what a 'sanin' was, and hadn't known Hokage-jiji had even had a student. But still…

"He's still not stronger than Hokage-jiji!" Naruto insisted, almost desperately.

Indra sighed, then came over and squatted down in front of the blond. "My point is that there are some very real threats outside the village – threats even the top Jounin would have problems with. Those are the kinds of threats you have to survive to even get a chance to become Hokage. So, of course they won't send newly-minted genin outside of the gate until they have had more personalized training that can help them survive. D-rank missions, like weeding gardens and painting fences, are controlled activities that can prepare you for the real world."

"Weeding gardens?!" Naruto yelped. "How does that prepare us for missions outside the village?" he asked, angrily.

Indra shrugged. "Well, if someone had a water jutsu, they can practice using that to water gardens and gain better control of their jutsu. If someone has an earth jutsu, they can use that to try and target only certain weeds, just as in a battle. Then they can pick off their enemies and leave their allies alone. What jutsu do you know that could help you weed gardens?"

Naruto, to his credit, paused and thought about it. It only took him about twenty seconds to light up in realization.

"Kage bushin!"

Indra nodded. "Very good. And knowing how weeds can differ from food can help you survive if you're lost and don't have any rations.

"Every D-ranked mission is potential training. It's up to you to figure out how to use those missions to your advantage, get to know your teammates and the jutsu they're good at, then learn how to use them together for the fastest and most advantageous way of completing the mission."

Well… Naruto supposed that made sense, although he still felt like Indra had shaken his entire world. And there was also one other problem…

"But we're not training right now," he said (and he wasn't whining… he wasn't).

Indra looked around as if expecting to see someone else. "Oh." Then he stood and rubbed the back of his head. "Do you… want to train… with me?"

Naruto's eyes lit up and he nodded eagerly.

Then he paused. "Wait… how good of a ninja are you?" he asked suspiciously.

The man's expression turned dry again. "I'm a Jounin."

Naruto immediately brightened again. "Oh. Okay! What do we do first!"

The man raised an eyebrow. "We stretch."

The blond groaned. "But I stretched this morning. Iruka-sensei said to stretch every morning."

"It won't hurt you to stretch again."

Naruto let out a long-suffering sigh. "Fine."

xXx

Indra, it turned out, knew a lot about fighting. He told Naruto to take a stance and then just sighed and shook his head when he did.

"Naruto, where did you learn how to fight?"

The blond frowned, confused. "The academy."

"Who taught you, specifically?"

"Mizuki-sen… oh."

"Right," Indra replied, still shaking his head. "Make a hundred kage bushin. We're going to get these bad habits taken care of by the end of the week."

Naruto frowned in confusion again. "Why would kage bushin help with that?"

Indra just blinked at him for several seconds. Then his face screwed up like Naruto had said something that outright pained him.

"Okay, make one kage bushin for now, and I'll show you."

Shrugging, Naruto did as he was told. Then Indra took the kage bushin to the other side of the training area, and whispered something to him. The kage bushin looked affronted, but then Indra's hand whipped out so fast Naruto could barely follow it and the bushin vanished in a puff of smoke.

After a few seconds, the original Naruto looked affronted. "Oi! You take that back! Ramen is the food of the gods!"

Indra just stood there, one hand on his hip as he stared at Naruto. "How did you know what I said?" he finally asked.

"Well you said…" then it clicked. "Oh. Oh!"

The older ninja nodded sagely. "Whatever your kage bushin learns, you learn."

"So what do you mean 'take care of' bad habits?"

"Make a hundred kage bushin, and I'll show you."

He proceeded to make every single Naruto take the correct stance, then go through the 'most basic kata in existence' three times before he had them all dispel. The blond blinked as all the information came back to him. How had he not noticed that before?

"Do the kata again," Indra said.

Naruto nodded and went into the stance. It felt far better and more fluid than it had before.

"Better. Do it three times, then make a hundred clones and do it again."

"Why just three times, Indra-san?" he asked. "Why not go for longer?"

"Because we have to go slowly at first to make sure your instinct is to do it the correct way, and I have to double check that. By the end of today, you will know the first academy kata very, very well."

Naruto thought about that. "Oh," he finally said, then nodded. "Okay, Indra-nii! Thanks!"

It was hilarious to see the older man stutter.

At the end of the day, Naruto sparred his new friend. It was amazing how much more easily he could move now that he knew the right forms. He still wanted to fall back into old habits though, so Indra told him he had to go through that kata with ten clones every morning. Naruto sighed, but agreed. Then they stretched some more and Naruto went off to Ichiraku's. He had enough for two whole bowls tonight! It wasn't as much as he wanted, but it wasn't bad either.

He went to bed feeling far better about the day than he had after he'd met Kakashi-sensei and Sakura that morning.

xXx

Hiruzen managed to get some sleep that night (despite having even more paperwork than usual) and hoped that life had settled down a little into something more normal for Konoha.

Yeah, no.

That very much ended when Yamanaka Inoichi stormed into the room looking about ready to tear the entire Hokage tower down around him.

"Hokage-sama," he said, obviously restraining himself and making sure to act politely, albeit barely. "Why was Uchiha Sasuke never given mandatory mind-healing sessions before? Especially after the massacre?!"

Hiruzen blinked. Because what? That had been news to him. After something as traumatic as losing one's family, therapy was mandatory, especially for children.

Frowning, he took the folder in Inoichi's hand and flipped it open. It seemed he was indeed correct. Uchiha Sasuke's mandatory mind-healing sessions had been waved off. And, of course, the person who had waved them was blacked out.

Hiruzen resisted the urge to rub his forehead.

With a sigh, he rose to his feet and walked to one side of the room, placing a hand on the wall. It retracted into itself and a doorway opened, revealing the Hokage's private records room. He strode through it, looking for the Uchiha file cabinet, then rifled through the folders until he came across Uchiha Sasuke's. He opened said folder to find the exact copy of the page Inoichi had just handed to him. Then, with a mutter and a small channeling of chakra, a poof of smoke appeared above where the blackout had been, revealing the information underneath.

He closed his eyes, rubbed the bridge of his nose, then shut the folder and turned back around, walking back into the office and handing said folder over to Inoichi.

"I didn't know," he said. "I thought he had."

Inoichi opened the folder and looked at the name and all the new information. His stare turned stony, and then he looked back up at the Hokage.

"Shimura, again?"

Hiruzen didn't bother with a response, simply taking a seat and getting back to work.

Inoichi took a deep breath, apparently calming himself, before he spoke again.

"Why would he do that?"

"My guess is that such an action would either support Itachi's narrative or undermine it."

"Support Itachi's…" the interrogator paused, then took another breath. "Let me guess: Shimura was behind the Uchiha Massacre, too, and he either blackmailed or framed Itachi."

Hiruzen looked up at Inoichi and nodded tiredly.

The blond actually closed his eyes and visibly went through a Yamanaka mind technique… twice, if the Hokage wasn't mistaken.

Eventually, the mind-healer calmed down and spoke to Hiruzen, voice steady. "That boy is a ticking time-bomb. He is so focused on chasing after his brother, avenging his family and his utter need to be the best now because otherwise he'll never catch up to Itachi that I cannot approve him for active duty. At best he's a flight risk. At worst, he could snap harder than Itachi did… allegedly."

Hiruzen sat back, smoking his pipe again and frowning. "What do you recommend?"

xXx

AN: Don't expect updates to happen this quickly. I have so many other stories right now... *headdesk*

Including my own! Hoping to get it up on Vella soon. :D