Sarutobi Hiruzen exhaled a cloud of smoke as he considered the young man before him, delicately fingering his long pipe as he leaned back into his cushioned chair. One of the few luxuries allowed to the office, traditionally at least. He, personally, was fond of abusing his privileges to use his pipe even in the face of visitors who found it irritating. In his defense, he only indulged in such an act when the official had proved themselves to be especially rude, but that seemed to be a strangely common trend with most people who were given any inkling, however false, that they held authority either within this village or within his own office.

"...and this young man just 'rattled off,'" Hiruzen quoted intently the words which had been spoken to him, "esoteric and detailed knowledge on the inner-workings of not only the human soul, the internal chakra gate system, and intricacies of hand-signs, but also seemed to believe that such things were common knowledge?"

Uchiha Obito, the eternal sloucher, nodded as he reached up to scratch his head. "Pretty much, Jii-san. Squirt had that look in his eye like an academy teacher when you ask an especially stupid question."

Hiruzen nodded absently, drawing in another cloud of thick smoke to fill his lungs as he thought over the matter being presented to him. Internally, he was quite glad he'd already dismissed his ANBU guard for the evening. Given that it was New Year's Eve, he'd hoped they would take the time to spend the night with their friends and families, even if it was more likely they'd be drinking themselves to sleep or training to exhaustion. The organization attracted a specific sort of shinobi despite his best efforts.

Finally releasing twin streams of smoke through his nose, Hiruzen nodded. "Well, apart from everything else, I can say that young Kota is, in fact, correct." Obito's eyebrows rose and the Hokage allowed himself a sly grin. "The information regarding jutsu construction, at that level at least, is considered a forbidden technique. Much like how the kage bunshin is deceptively easy to perform, but will exhaust an unwary shinobi to the point of death if they overuse the technique, when dealing with the fundamentals of something even as simple as the body-flicker, it would be easy to miscalculate the parts of the technique that control movement and end up catapulting part of you in one direction and the rest in another."

Obito grimaced. "The kidwaspretty hard on both me and little Satsuki. Really read us the riot act on not trying it without adequate supervision since it could easily cause the technique to rupture and damage our tenketsu even in a best-case scenario."

"I'm glad he understands the weight such knowledge imparts." Hiruzen nodded slowly. "Granted, such knowledge is forbidden in spirit, not by actual law, and even then simply due to its danger. I'll advise you to hand down further cautions to the boy, but if it seems as though he knows what he's doing, there shouldn't be any harm as long as he doesn't carelessly teach others. If you want to read up on the process, I can point you in the direction of several scrolls in the restricted portion of the jounin's technique library and loan you one or two scrolls from the Hokage's personal collection on the topic that will give you a more detailed picture of the matter."

Albeit, none of them were quite so detailed as the lecture this orphan boy Kotaro had given on the subject, which combined with the ANBU supplier documentation Itachi had personally filed...

"I'll... have to think about it," Obito demurred politely, his eyes drifting away to the fading light of sunset. "But he wasn't just spouting bullshit, then?"

The Third Hokage chuckled and shook his head. "No, he was not. It's truly a shame that the boy's chakra system is malformed given he could derive such things from so basic a pool of understanding."

Obito grunted. "...and it's not a bloodline? Kid's just crazy smart?"

"Likely very bored as well." Hiruzen nodded. "Perhaps I'll see if we can't add a student or two to his little improvised courses or give him some form of formal recognition as a trainer." Tapping out his pipe, the older man took his time refilling it before lighting it again with a snap of his fingers. "Be that as it may, I'd like to impose on you to accompany me to the secure archives vault," Hiruzen subtly ordered as he rose from his seat.

Obito groaned, but a stern look from the old man had him acquiescing as he trailed after the Fire Shadow. Hiruzen smiled amicably at his secretary on the way out. "Chie, if you would send a hawk for Itachi-kun to meet myself and his cousin in the secure archives at his earliest convenience? Once you do so, please head home, I'll find my way to my own home once I have a word or two with these young men."

"Of course, Sandaime-sama." The impeccably-polite special jounin smiled, rising from her seat to follow his orders.

Taking the elevator down into the bowels of the administrative tower, Hiruzen wondered at how things had come to this. The duty he was about to impart on what should have been Minato's shoulders would now be laid on someone barely ready for what was to come. Pushing such thoughts away, he consoled himself with reminders that, though there might be storm clouds gathering on the horizon, the next generation would be up to the challenge. "I trust you will be enjoying the festivities with Kushina and Narumi-chan?"

Obito snorted. "You know she doesn't like that name."

Hiruzen took a puff from his pipe and shook his head. "Such a silly thing to get so caught up over, a single syllable. If memory serves, Kushina still gives Jiraiya hell over giving little Naru-chan a copy of his book."

"Even if she thought it was a sweet gift, too," Obito snarked with a grin. "I guess I can't fault obaa-chan for not knowing her daughter would spend the next year demanding to be called 'Naruto' instead of her name."

Hiruzen chuckled, blowing a ring of smoke. "...and this young man, Kotaro, he's become acquainted with Narumi?"

Obito nodded. "Apparently he's taken to helping her with her homework these days after she spent one of their training sessions moping and not wanting to go home to her mother."

Almost against his own will, Hiruzen's smile widened. "I hope her scores are getting better, then."

"It's only been two weeks, but given her marks rose by ten points on yesterday's test, Lady Kushina's talking about paying him if Naruko keeps improving. That little game he made up is working wonders for her."

"Game?" The Third Hokage asked casually, with the merest hint of interest.

Obito waved a hand, as if dismissing the topic. "Just this weird card game he slapped together with a bunch of six-sided tiles and a deck that has pictures he cut out from an old bingo book."

"Hmm... I'll have to see if little Narumi will show it off to me the next time I call on Kushina," Hiruzen temporized.

Obito shrugged. "Anyway... Lady Mikoto realized that Satsuki's been bumming meals off him and insisted on buying him a new wardrobe to pay him back. Even got him a kind of pricey kimono for tonight's celebrations." Obito grinned. "It was fun seeing the kid squirm for once."

"Squirm?" Hiruzen asked, the slightest hint of a rebuke in his tone as the elevator doors opened and admitted the two into the lower levels of the tower.

"Ehh... it's not really squirming when he does it," Obito winced, prevaricating slightly. "It's just, he goes perfectly still... like,Itachilevels of still while he tries to figure out how to get out of whatever he's being asked to do or whatever. It took me a bit to pick up on it, but even he's got a few tells."

Hiruzen hummed in consideration, keeping his thoughts to himself on the matter.

The chakra-rustle of a movement-technique dispersing drew the two ninja's attention to the end of the corridor, where a dark figure quietly pushed open the door to the stairs, nodding respectfully as he neared. Hiruzen noted with some regret that the young man was wearing what was obviously a festival kimono with various small additions to his appearance that indicated he'd had plans for the evening.

"Itachi-kun." The third nodded with a sigh. "I promise this won't take too long, then I'll let you get back to Izumi-chan."

"She understands," Itachi stated with barely a hint of his own regret.

"As my Biwako once did." Hiruzen nodded sadly, remembering the empty bed which would be waiting for him again tonight, as it had been for more than a decade now. "Would that the world were less demanding of us and our loved ones. Still, the sooner we have this over, the sooner you can return to your lives and I can follow Konohamaru about the festival myself."

The two Uchiha clansmen followed the Hokage further into the sublevels of the tower, deep into the secure bunker beneath the main structure and into the secure filing rooms for the most important mission records and highest-clearance personnel files. Eventually, after passing three checkpoints manned by partially-disabled jounin, the three men found their way into a small records room with a scroll rack on one side and a series of rectangular document bins on the opposite, each guarded by a thick wrought-iron grate that nearly sang with the powerful seals the Fourth Hokage had crafted for this specific area. As the heavy metal door shut behind them and the shinobi took their seats at the heavy wooden table in the center of the room, the Hokage activated the secondary set of chakra barriers to lock them off from the outside world for a time.

Finally, the old man reached under his arm for the bundle of documents he'd carried from his office and set them on the table. Blowing a cloud of smoke towards the ceiling, Hiruzen sighed. "If you will, allow an old man to digress a bit with a story or two in order to give you youngsters a bit more understanding of the current situation."

Obito and Itachi shared a quick glance at each other, though the latter did not echo the shrug of the former.

"Some... fifty or so years ago now, Salamander Hanzo rose from his position as the Land of Rain's most powerful shinobi into something approximating a Head Ninja as he brought the various clans of the region under his influence in the lead up to the First Shinobi War," Hiruzen said, eyes cast into the middle distance as he recalled the tale his teacher had told him. "A gifted merchant from the Land of Iron had secured permission from multiple daimyo to move goods through the various countries and across the less-than-firm borders. His name was Gato Suyo and he was, by all accounts, a genius of trade and money. Remarkably, he prided himself on ensuring that no customer ever left his business unsatisfied and made sure he could facilitate any need no matter how great or small."

Sarutobi paused and took another puff on his pipe. "Unfortunately for Gato-san, he was unaware of the fact that Hanzo had toppled the Daimyo of the Land of Rain and declared himself a Warlord. While I will spare you a more lengthy lesson on how this directly contributed to the causes of the First Shinobi War, I should mention that the result of Hanzo's actions was for several familial relations of the departed lord to pay foreign shinobi to wreck utter havoc on Hanzo's new fiefdom. This culminated in the complete destruction of the former capital city of the Land of Rain."

"So this super-merchant showed up to a burned out husk?" Obito guessed somewhat irreverently.

Hiruzen nodded. "Further, Hanzo confiscated the entire caravan and was going to have the merchant put to death on grounds of smuggling due to the fact that he had not obtained Hanzo's permission to cross the border with goods nor paid taxes. Gato Suyo begged for clemency and promised to bend his not-inconsiderable skills to any task Hanzo laid before him to earn it."

Obito winced and even Itachi grimaced slightly.

"According to legend, Hanzo was in a particularly cruel mood, declaring that the only way the merchant would earn forgiveness would be to construct him a new capital city. A proper hidden village from which Hanzo could rule all of the Land of Rain. After which Hanzo threw the man into a boggy marsh and ordered two ninja under his command to massacre the entire caravan if any more than ten of them left at a time without the previous party returning. Suyo himself, of course, was to remain until the new city was done."

"How did he succeed?" Itachi asked, his brows furrowed slightly. "Amegakure is renowned in the Elemental Nations for its advanced infrastructure, robust power and water systems, and generally high technological level."

"Truthfully, no one knows." Hiruzen admitted. "Gato Suyo managed, in ten years, to raise what is arguably thegreatest capital city of any landdespite having only passing experience with architecture beforehand and being given arguably the most difficult terrain imaginable to work with." The Sandaime's eyes narrowed at the two. "In fact, his achievements were so impressive that after Hanzo killed him to ensure he could not duplicate his results for an enemy, fragments and designs from the city were secreted away by other hidden villages, Konoha included, which we have used to create our own infrastructure and advancements from."

Both shinobi jerked a bit at this revelation.

"Though we are still unable to replicate much of Amegakure's technology, especially whatever form of technique or seal allows parts of the city to repair itself in the wake of attempts to destroy it." Hiruzen grimaced.

Itachi and Obito exchanged a significant look.

Hiruzen produced a pouch which he tapped the ash of his pipe into before reloading it and absently activating a small technique to clear the air within the room. Once done, he snapped his fingers and produced a small spark of chakra-fire to ignite the pipe again. "Twenty years following that, on the eastern continent in the Land of Sky, a minor rural noble by the name of Lady Vuruka accused a higher noble from the court of the Daimyo of the Land of Sky of stealing her poetry to present it as his own. The man, who was the daimyo's personal friend, refuted the accusation and the daimyo moved to put her to death for her baseless accusations. She begged for a chance to do something to prove her case."

Hiruzen sighed and shook his head. "The daimyo at that time was a vain and pompous man enamored of food and drink, especially the latter. He burst out laughing at the woman's begging and told her that he would grant her a single chance to avoid immediate execution, but if she failed to meet his challenge within five years he would execute her entire family, all of her household servants, and all the villagers who worked on her land for wasting his time with her lies."

Obito grimaced, having seen similar games in the court of the Land of Fire. Even if the daimyo himself had a more sensible temperament, he couldn't control every single noble within his realm. "What'd he ask her to do?"

"According to what I know of events, he reportedly said something to the effect of,'Though I am Lord of Sky, I do not hold it in my grasp. Ensure that I rule the sky itself and I will grant you all your heart desires!'" Hiruzen took a moment to allow that to sink in. "Five years later,the first of the Sky Castles took flightand the daimyo turned on his former friend to ensure the loyalty of the woman he would nameSorakage, the first and last Sky Shadow, before she was assassinated during the Second Ninja War along during the destruction of the second Sky Castle which had moved to invade the lands of Wolf and Bird to the east and south."

"I remember a few of the old-timers telling stories about that." Obito noted, grimacing. "It was decided to let Sky keep the first one as long as they kept to a treaty that it would never leave their borders since the death toll from the operation to take down the other one was so high and, without Vuruka they couldn't make any more, right?"

Itachi nodded. "The downed castle was thoroughly inspected to duplicate its secrets, but the seal-work, chakra formulas, and technology was too complicated, even if retrieved fragments are still kept in bunkers underneath Konoha should we be able to one day make use of them." He turned away from his fellow clan member and back towards the Third. "This is about the boy. Kotaro."

Hiruzen sighed out a fog of smoke and drew in fresh air from his nose. "Tobirama-sensei called them 'Dreamers,' though I've seen them addressed by various titles in other villages' recovered documentation of them." The old shinobi quirked a smile. "I do wonder if even the boy himself knows what he is at this stage of his development, though, given his lack of more…grandiose accomplishments, shall we say. It is possible he does and is merely unsure of what it means or is actively attempting not to make anything too impressive. The tales I told you were among thebetterends his kind have." He waved a hand and explained at the curious expressions on the other two men's faces. "Little Kota is either going out of his way to avoid attracting attention to himself or acting slowly and surely in such a way that his behavior can be explained away as the work of a prodigy. Rather than someone who can, by all accounts, draw knowledge and skill out of the ether for any subject they like. Even now, were it not for his recent slip I would not be completely convinced he is as I believe him to be…"

Obito crossed his arms, frowning. "So when you said that he could have figured out the whole thing with the gates and how hand-signs work earlier..."

Hiruzen shook his head. "It was simply too volatile a subject to discuss even within my office. While it is theoretically possible for an individual to divine the deeper truths of technique construction and application, in practice only those with a lifetime of experience and learning in the subject even begin to probe such things. The fact that Kotaro was able to do so at his age, with little formal training? No. His other achievements are within a comparatively narrow vein of talent and overlap enough with the records of previous prodigies that even I couldn't be absolutely sure based solely on them. This, though, is very nearly an absolute declaration of his true capabilities given in a moment of inattention. We cannot risk anyone discovering the truth of Kotaro's abilities, lest it make Konoha a target for the rest of the ninja world as a whole."

The two younger men inhaled deeply, resolve settling on their faces.

"If he is a portent of such potential danger, should we not remove him?" Itachi asked quietly even as Obito shot him a look of scorching disapproval.

Hiruzen shook his head. "No, the boy represents an opportunity of enormous potential. Individuals with his gifts have shown themselves throughout the history of our world and always proven a great boon for the side they develop strong ties to. As long as Kotaro can be kept loyal and coached to develop whatever he produces incrementally or properly secret them away until such time as they are needed."

Itachi's shoulders slumped in a barely-visible display of relief, Hiruzen being gratified once again in his heir apparent. For it to affect the stoic young man so much as to make a visible display of emotion…

Obito cocked his head. "You know... now that we're talking about this, Lady Kushina once told me a story about a guy back in Uzu a few hundred years ago and how he helped found the village. She said he was the same type of person, who could just pull random skills and abilities out of nowhere that were way too advanced for anyone else to understand." His face curled a bit. "It's usually told as a cautionary tale since the guy ended up going insane and ranting about the shadows coming to kill him before he died in a fuuinjutsu experiment gone wrong. Supposedly it's to keep clan members from studying seals too deeply and going crazy trying to figure out secrets humans weren't meant to know."

"There are many examples one could point to if one were to go digging in the correct records." Hiruzen nodded. "Still, now that you two are appraised of the situation, I'll be asking one of you two to always be within the village to check in on Kotaro daily until further notice. Either overtly or covertly. As it is, formally recruiting the boy would only draw more attention to him. Itachi, I'll ask you to seize the boy's medical records and secure them here, you're authorized to apply discreet genjutsu on anyone you deem necessary. Obito, I'll need you to evaluate Kota's ties to the village and see if you can't develop them further without drawing attention to what you're doing." Hiruzen took a long draw from his pipe. "Perhaps see if you can encourage Kushina to give him remedial lessons in sealing to pique his interest and I'll see what can be done to give the boy more space to develop things as well."

Obito timidly raised his hand a bit as if he were in an academy class. "Uh... are we going to confront him about this? I totally get why someone wouldn't be forthcoming with it, especially if he thinks he's going to get dragged off and locked up-" He shot Itachi another intense look. "-or killed, if he's a Dreamer or whatever, but... I think he's a good kid. We could just ask him up front and see if he'll work with us."

To his credit, Hiruzen didn't allow himself to dismiss the notion out of hand as he hummed in thought and rubbed his beard. "The fact that, despite his personal distaste for violence, he is willing to make tools and instruct his friends on matters there of does lend itself to the idea that he would be amenable to such an arrangement, but..."

After a moment, the Hokage shook his head. "Putting aside all other matters, I want to move slowly on this." He nodded to Obito. "We will approach the boy with the truth soon, within a year at most, but if he is anything like his predecessors he will require a great deal of resources, space, and reliably discreet personnel. That will all take time to vet, move, build... especially if we are to be vigilant against possible sabotage or discovery by another village." Hiruzen nodded to himself. "Keep an eye on the boy, do what you can to ensure that he is... if not loyal, then at least willing to work exclusively with Konoha and the Land of Fire. Friends, connections, attachments... it will be especially important for you, Itachi, to establish a working relationship with young Kotaro."

Itachi took a deep breath, then bowed his head briefly. "As you order, Lord Hokage."

Obito hesitated for a fraction of a second, then nodded to himself. "I had a conversation with the kid right before I tried teaching him the body-flicker for the first time. You should probably know…"