Naruto was no stranger to emerging within the void by now. Any time he'd been knocked unconscious, he found himself immediately coming to in the dark, dank tunnel that was his mindscape, and he'd simply walk down the corridor to the massive bars of the seal holding back Kyubi. This time, however, he wasn't ankle-deep in metaphysical stillwater. He wasn't anywhere he was familiar with, in fact. It wasn't the seal, nor was it the much brighter representation of his mind that his mother had whisked him to before her chakra ran out.
"Where…" he lowly began before his gaze snapped downward, and he stared at his hand in shock. "Wait, my skin is back to normal??"
Lo and behold, his skin was as fleshy as ever, almost as if it had never changed to begin with. He was certain that transformations didn't carry over to mental spaces, so he was at a loss as to why he wasn't pale and scaly, but he wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. For now, he refocused on the shadowy void surrounding him, looking around for any hint as to how or why he had shown up there. Unfortunately, nothing stood out when there was nothing to look at, so he opted to just start walking. He wasn't sure exactly what it was, but something was compelling him to move in that direction, almost tugging him along to keep him moving.
As he walked, the darkness around him incrementally eased and his surroundings became clearer. There was still nothing to look at, but he could at least tell that the floor was brown. Just as well, he could faintly hear voices ahead the further he traveled, which meant that he was headed in the right direction. Encouraged, he put a pep in his step, damn near booking it toward the crescendoing voices.
"You are unbelievable, Kurama!" a husky, feminine voice remarked in clear exasperation.
"As if your ego wasn't bad enough with nine of them, now you have ten…" another said, this one far more gruff than the last.
"Sounds to me like a bunch of inferior plebs are engaging in inferior pleb activities, including but not limited to whining about the pecking order."
Alright, that was definitely Kyubi. That also meant that he wasn't alone in this space, which was great. Hurrying along, the darkness continued to fade until he slowly came upon the towering form of his tenant. He wasn't alone either, and the sight floored Naruto. Across from him were seven other titanic beasts, all of which he assumed were the other biju in the flesh. An enormous, sapphire inferno taking the form of a cat sat curiously between a nervous-looking turtle and a clearly peeved monkey with red fur. Beside them was what Naruto assumed was some kind of white horse sporting a disapproving frown aimed at Kyubi, but the expression was only accompanied by an unreadable blankness from some sort of octopus-bull fusion and the inherent unreadability of the giant slug and beetle rounding out the group.
They didn't seem to notice his approach, their collective attention and apparent agitation locked on Kyubi, who, to his credit, was matching their stern gazes head-on. His white-tipped, orange tails majestically swung as he attempted to regally prostrate himself before the others as if to emphasize his perceived elevated status before them. There he flexed, unyielding to their glares in all his self-professed splendor–
"You know I can hear your thoughts in this plane, too, right?" Kyubi growled, snapping his head around to glare directly at him and startling him to the ground.
Even on the floor, he couldn't help but snicker at having gotten under Kyubi's skin with his apparently unhidden sarcasm. It had the consequence of the other biju noticing him, however, and now he couldn't fight the shudder he felt from being the object of the attention of over half a dozen ancient kaiju.
"Who is that?" the fiery cat asked with a tilt of her head, her two tails billowing in curiosity.
"And how is he here?" the strange horse followed up, confirming to Naruto that she was the owner of the first scolding voice he heard on his way here. Gazing up at her now, her hackles were raised and her body tensed in a way that made Naruto uneasy.
"My dumbass container," Kyubi grumbled, sweeping Naruto into one of his massive tails and presenting him to the other biju before he even knew what was happening. "As for how he's here, his chakra is as much mine as it is his own at this point. Brat probably just wandered in."
Now quite literally at the center of their attention, Naruto was suddenly no better than a deer in headlights, something he knew that furry asshole, Kyubi, was relishing. "Um, hey…"
To his surprise, it was the slug with six tails who spoke up first, giddily clapping his slimy hands together. "Ooh, I love meeting new friends! Introduce us, Kurama!"
"Do not utter my name in front of a lowly mortal!" Kyubi roared, which just made the Rokubi wilt.
"Still a stick in the mud, I see," the Rokubi sighed.
"We're getting off-topic," the red monkey with four spiked tails gruffly interjected, briefly eyeing Naruto before looking back at Kyubi. "You devoured the Jubi that we all were created from?"
"A pale imitation of the original, but a living, breathing Jubi with horrifying power, nonetheless," Kyubi answered.
The Yonbi did not reply to that, only looking down in severe contemplation as he and the others attempted to wrap their minds around that. Had Naruto not been present for the ordeal himself, he might've been right there with them. The already ungodly powerful Kyubi that nearly annihilated their village ascending to a tenth tail and becoming that much more powerful was a thought that would probably kill everyone in Konoha via mass heart attack.
"Fuck…" the three-tailed turtle meekly muttered, clearly summing up the thoughts racing through everyone's minds.
"And here I was thinking that you just ate Shukaku," the odd-looking rhinoceros beetle eased some of the tension with a joke, but his perturbed buzzing and the fluttering of his wings didn't subside. "It would explain why he isn't here."
"I have no idea where he went after he ran from the Jubi attempting to take control of my container," Kyubi shrugged. "Simply be grateful that it doesn't smell like bitch in here with him absent."
"Stop being a bully, Kurama," the Nibi sharply scolded.
"Or at least allow him to be present to defend himself," the bull Naruto determined was the Hachibi from his eight tentacles muttered.
"What did I say about uttering my name in front of the undeserving?!" Kyubi heatedly shot back, but it was to no avail, as the gears were already turning in Naruto's brain.
"Kurama…" Naruto tested the word on his tongue, earning the entirety of his tenant's irate glare. "Is that your name?"
"You haven't earned the right!" he bellowed, knocking Naruto back on his ass.
"Is it truly such a big deal?" the Rokubi came to Naruto's defense.
Kyubi huffed, but his brief bout of fury had at least calmed to his usual ornery disposition. "Just because the tanuki is so devil-may-care about who knows his name does not mean I'll lower myself to the same standard. No human has earned that right, not after the mess they made of Father's legacy."
Naruto could tell that the Rokubi and even the Nibi wanted to rebut, but they couldn't refute the point. None of them could, and it showed in the gamut of begrudging agreement to blatant nodding. Naruto's mind flashed back to the explanation Kyubi gave him of their origins when they met for the first time, as well as what he could pick up about the mostly negative relationships he had with his mom and Granny Mito. Looking around at their expressions (the ones he could read anyway), it wasn't a stretch to assume that the rest of them hadn't been treated so well by humanity either.
"I'm gonna earn it one day, y'know," Naruto finally spoke up, earning everyone's attention once more as he rose back to his feet.
"What?" Kyubi asked with a quirked brow, his piercing gaze pinning Naruto to the ground where he stood.
"The right to say your name," he doubled down, completely undeterred. "I'm gonna earn it one day. We're not just partners, Kyubi. You're my friend, and I wanna be able to address my friend properly, so I'm gonna earn the right to call you by your name!"
Kyubi just stared at him. Naruto could feel the assessing gaze practically peeling him back layer by layer for any hint of untruth. Naruto didn't waver, meeting Kyubi's gaze head-on with a grin. There they remained for a very long moment under the silent but equally inquisitive watch of the other biju. That moment lasted for another agonizing second longer before Kyubi huffed and looked away from him.
"…Whatever," he lowly muttered, and then he bristled at the resulting snickering of his siblings. "The hell are you all laughing at?!"
"He's such a tsundere," the Rokubi mock-whispered to the Gobi, the horse of yet indeterminable constitution who was still eyeing Naruto with curiosity.
"I will devour you!" Kyubi barked at them.
"So you did eat Shukaku!" the Nanabi buzzed in vindication, and the snickering grew into outright laughter. Even the Hachibi, who had remained mostly blank for as long as Naruto had been there, was sporting what he assumed was a smile.
"This is why I don't ever speak to any of you," Kyubi huffed, and Naruto could have sworn that he was pouting before his expression swiftly fixed itself, his trademark haughtiness returning in full force. "None of you are worth the time of the most powerful being in existence."
"For how long, though?" Naruto questioned, and the merriment abruptly ended. All eyes were back on him, particularly the pointed glare of the Kyubi.
"Choose your next words carefully, brat," he warned, and while his tone wasn't particularly icy, Naruto knew that hell would be raised depending on how he proceeded.
"A portion of the Jubi escaped," Naruto said matter-of-factly, and nothing short of alarm jolted through the rest of the biju. "It was a small portion, but it still got out. We'll have to deal with that sometime soon."
"When were you going to tell us this, Kurama?" the Gobi demanded.
"You know now, don't you?" Kyubi shrugged.
"No thanks to you, you selfish prick!" the Yonbi shot back. "You can't just withhold that kind of information!"
"While I wouldn't have used those words exactly, Son Goku is right," the Nibi calmly chimed in. "You should have led with that."
Kyubi's dismissive attitude didn't wane, though, as he just rolled his eyes. "The brat and I will take care of it. You all just watch yourselves out there. Don't let your idiot vessels do idiot human things."
"Real reassuring," the Yonbi grumbled, dark smoke billowing from his mouth as he folded his arms.
"Well, I can at least say that mine and Gyuki's vessels are not idi–" the Nibi began before pausing to send a sidelong glance at the Hachibi. "…Well, mine assuredly isn't. I'll keep an eye on the kitten, nonetheless."
"You said only a portion of it escaped, right?" the Hachibi finally spoke up again, seeming to take the implied dig at his jinchuriki in stride. "When you regained your full power, you were eventually able to overpower the full version of it—relative to what was concocted, anyway."
At Kyubi's nod, he continued. "Then I don't see why we nor our vessels wouldn't be able to hold our own against whatever's left of it. Still, I'll make sure Bee remains vigilant."
"Any portion of the Jubi, no matter how potentially barren, is still a portion of the Jubi," the Sanbi muttered. "I think I'm going to remain submerged for a few hundred years or so. Kirigakure hasn't yet registered that I've reformed way ahead of schedule."
"Coward," Kyubi scoffed.
"A coward who's alive," the Sanbi retorted. "We do not know the status of Shukaku. If the Jubi did escape, that completely recontextualizes his absence."
"He's right," the Gobi grimly agreed. "We cannot afford to fool around with this."
"Those of us who are with rogue-nin are probably most at risk," the Rokubi sighed, the cheerful demeanor he had up to now severely dimmed. "I'll be sure Utakata is on high alert until this is dealt with."
"Fu left her village to be some snake weirdo's test subject on the promise of new friends," the Nanabi exasperatedly bemoaned, almost sounding resigned. "She barely even goes outside these days, so we should be good."
Naruto filed that "snake weirdo" comment away for later.
"Regardless, watch yourselves," Kyubi reiterated, his tone severe. "Its power may be truncated, but it's still an incredible threat."
"You've assimilated most of its chakra, so could you not just sniff it out and finish the job?" the Yonbi questioned.
"I initially assumed I could have, but I cannot get a read on its chakra signature for whatever reason," Kyubi answered. "If it's hiding, it's doing a damn good job. It'll slip up at some point, though."
"And we'll be right there when it does," Naruto supplied, slamming his fist into his palm for emphasis.
"Damn straight."
The others seemed mollified by that, if not still a little uneasy at the apparent game of high-stakes hide-and-seek afoot. The Gobi returned her gaze to Naruto, regarding him for a little longer before she surprised him by sitting down and getting closer to his level (or as close as a creature her size could get).
"I don't believe we ever got your name," she softly remarked. "What may we call you?"
It took a moment for Naruto to process what was happening before he smiled at the vaguely aquatic-looking horse. "Naruto Uzumaki! It's nice to meet you—all of you!"
Then, his building exuberance faltered, and he scratched the back of his head. "Um, you don't have to tell me yours if you don't want to. I understand if I have to earn that, too, and I'm more than willing to do it!"
Surprisingly, she returned his smile. "The fact that you've managed to worm your way into the adamantine fortress that is Kurama's heart tells me that you're clearly a special person, even if he will never admit it. My name is Kokuo."
Kurama's staunch denial went ignored as she continued taking Naruto in. "You're nothing like my current container. I can see the exhaustion plain as day in your eyes, but you're not jaded. You're not hateful. There's still hope burning within you."
"You say that like it's rare or something," Naruto chuckled.
"It's far rarer than you'd think," she confirmed. "This world can be a cruel and unjust place. It is easy to fall into the belief that there is no harmony in the universe, that the only constant is suffering."
Naruto took a minute to let her words digest. He would be a liar if he said those very thoughts hadn't crossed his mind over the last couple of months. "How do you cope?"
"It helps that we all have each other," the Nibi answered this time. "Even if we don't often see eye to eye on… well, anything at all, we can still cherish that we inherently are never alone in this existence. If or when one of us is no longer here, we will mourn them together."
Naruto nodded, understanding perfectly. It only reinforced what he had already decided thanks to his talk with his mother. He had come out of that meeting with quite a bit, but he could evaluate all of that later. For now, he had a bunch of new potential friends to make, starting with a giddy-looking slug.
As Sasuke slowly meandered toward Naruto's apartment, he found himself quietly enjoying the tentatively calm atmosphere within Konoha. It had been quite a while since he had allowed himself a moment to let the warmth of the morning sun bask over him with a relatively clear mind. He knew the moment would be fleeting; things had been far too calm since Team 7 had returned to the village with Jiraiya. Danzo's installation as the Godaime hadn't yet brought about the sweeping changes he and his teammates were silently preparing for, and it admittedly made Sasuke nervous.
Repairs to the village from the destruction caused by the invasion had been mostly completed, so all active shinobi were informed that they'd be returning to their regular activities and workloads, which just meant that genin like them could take C-rank missions again as far as he could tell. It was still early, so things could (and very likely would) still change, but so far, Konoha had seemingly returned to business as usual.
Again, time would tell if it remained that way.
Finally ascending the stairs to the top floor of the building, Sasuke moseyed up to Naruto's front door and knocked, stepping back to lean on the rail behind him with the assumption that the formerly blonde idiot would take at least a few minutes to get himself together before opening the door, assuming he was even awake in the first place. So, naturally, he was momentarily surprised when the door opened only moments later, revealing Sakura with her hair up in a ponytail.
"Morning, Sasuke," she greeted with a smile, stepping aside to welcome him into the apartment.
"Right, forgot you moved in," Sasuke muttered, stepping inside and shaking away the thoughts of just why she ended up moving in with Naruto in the first place. "You settling in okay?"
She beamed, closing the door behind him. "Yeah! It's honestly not so bad. Naruto has a spare room that he uses as a training and study room. It doesn't have any windows, but it's pretty cozy."
"Let me guess," Sasuke sighed, "he tried to offer up his room while he moved into the smaller one, and he wouldn't take no for an answer."
"Of course," Sakura giggled. "I almost had to strangle him into keeping his own bedroom. I'm already imposing on him enough; I refuse to force him out of his own space, too."
"Quite considerate of you, I might add," a new voice appeared in the small living room, immediately earning a barrage of pointed death from a very startled Sasuke and Sakura.
"Damnit, Sensei!" Sakura shouted once she saw it was just their fuckhead of a jonin casually leaning against the wall beside several fresh kunai and shuriken. "Stop breaking into our homes!"
Kakashi, the little shit, had the nerve to flash them an amused eye smile. "Then how will you all know that I'm looking for you?"
"You knock, like a regular person!" Sakura groused.
"Oh, my adorable, little genin," Kakashi chuckled, flicking behind them and ruffling their hair before they could swat his arms away. "When have I ever indicated that I'm a regular person?"
"Definitely won't argue with that," Sasuke grumbled, but any further discussion was paused when the master bedroom door opened and Naruto stepped out with a yawn.
"Huh?" Naruto muttered when his gaze landed on the three of them. "Oh, hey, Kakashi-sensei! I was wondering when you'd reveal yourself."
That seemed to take Kakashi by surprise. "Oh? You knew I was here?"
"Vegetables magically appear in my fridge," Naruto shrugged. "They have to come from somewhere, y'know, and Anko dropped by yesterday to let me know she'd be out on a mission for a week."
"That doesn't explain how you knew he was here right now," Sasuke deadpanned.
"Or why you didn't say anything," Sakura pointedly grumbled.
Naruto just let out a sheepish chuckle while scratching the back of his head. "Oh, well, I'm kinda used to all of your chakra signatures now, so I can just tell when you're around, I guess."
Kakashi hummed, clearly making a show of examining him and the two of them closely. "Well then, I must be getting rusty if my little, prodigious sensor can sniff me out. Next time, I'll swipe some of your ramen to see if you can catch me before I leave–"
"You touch my ramen, you become ramen," Naruto warned with a narrowed glare and not a hint of mirth in his tone.
"Noted," Kakashi nodded before moving on. "Now, the reason I'm here: Lord Hokage has summoned us."
A beat of silence fell over the apartment as the light atmosphere was summarily snuffed out, and the three genin met each other's gazes. Something as innocuous as a summons from the Hokage shouldn't have put them all on edge, but here they were.
"Why us?" Sasuke drawled.
"I wasn't informed," Kakashi shrugged. "It ultimately doesn't matter whatever the case."
"…Do we have to?" Sakura repined, but she already knew the answer to that.
"Hey, don't worry, Sakura, it'll be fine," Naruto stepped in, but Sasuke could hear in his voice that he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else. "So, we have to meet the new, old as dirt, shady as fuck Hokage. It can't be that bad."
Well, he was right; it wasn't that bad. In fact, it was worse.
It was one thing to look at Danzo from afar. Being in the same room with him under his cold, one-eyed scrutiny was another matter entirely. The way he stared at the three of them, taking in every detail and ruthlessly analyzing them for everything they were worth, made Naruto's skin crawl. He didn't do him the courtesy of making him feel like a show pony or a piece of meat like he did under the gazes of the chunin exam crowd or Gaara, respectively.
Danzo's gaze, on the other hand, just made him feel like a project to be worked on, or a tool to be properly sharpened, and nothing more than that. The unemotive blankness of his single visible eye pierced right through him, and he could feel whatever it was behind those bandages attempting to peel him back layer by layer.
"Team 7," Danzo finally broke the uncomfortable silence hanging in the spartan office. "It is good to finally meet you all in person. I am very impressed with what I've seen of you three thus far; a genin squad so fresh, comparatively speaking, making such strides in such a short period is something only seen in a few other squads in our village's history. Be proud, Kakashi; you've done an excellent job with your squad."
"Thank you, Lord Hokage," Kakashi-sensei said with a slight bow of his head. The three of them, meanwhile, remained silent.
Danzo's gaze scanned over them for a little while longer before he continued. "I have been evaluating your performances in the chunin exams, both individually and as a team. Exemplary showcase in the finals… curious, though, that you three were conspicuously absent during the subsequent attack on our village. Any comments?"
"They took an injured comrade to safety–" Kakashi-sensei quickly began, but Danzo raised his hand to silence him.
"I am asking them, Kakashi," Danzo interrupted, and then he minutely waved his hand, motioning for them to take the floor.
Naruto eyed Sasuke and Sakura in his periphery, and he saw that both of them were glancing back at him. Before he could somehow communicate anything to them through eye contact alone, Sakura looked back at Danzo and took the initiative.
"We chased the Ichibi out of the village," she answered without the slightest waver, surprising Naruto. "Then, we stashed our incapacitated teammate in a safe area to protect an invaluable asset to our village."
Danzo's expression remained wholly unreadable, however. "Is that your story?"
"And we're sticking to it," Sakura stood firm, almost daring him to press the issue. Naruto wasn't sure where this was coming from, but he looked Danzo right in the eye with his head held high, and Sasuke did the same on the other side of her.
Danzo regarded them once again for another agonizingly tense moment, his expression not giving anything away. Then, he threw them all for a loop by actually smirking and letting loose a chuckle.
"Very well," he said, apparently fine with letting the matter rest there. Then, he reached under his desk before tossing three chunin vests at them. "From this moment on, you three are promoted from the rank of genin to chunin."
Naruto nearly didn't catch the vest, absolutely floored by the sudden development. His two teammates were no better, shock clear on all of their faces. The last thing any of them were expecting this morning was a promotion.
"If I may…" Kakashi-sensei hesitantly began, running a concerned glance across his team before returning it to Danzo. "Were you that impressed with their performances, Lord Hokage, or is there more to this?"
"As sharp as you were in ANBU, Kakashi," Danzo nodded. "Konoha is in a vulnerable position. The invasion, while unsuccessful in uprooting the Great Tree, did manage to bend it. The loss of Hiruzen Sarutobi carries far greater consequences than merely our own grief. Even at his age, it was understood across the continent that Sarutobi was the most powerful of the five Kage, and trifling with Konoha would mean incurring his wrath."
He leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers as his gaze fell onto the ceiling. "His absence, more so than our weakened state, will no doubt have our enemies smell blood in the water. It will embolden them to strike against us. We will not allow them the opportunity."
"…What are you saying, Lord Hokage?" Kakashi-sensei questioned, but the pieces were falling into place for all of them.
Danzo straightened back up in his seat, tearing his eye from the ceiling to plant it back on them. "The days of Team 7 completing menial tasks around the village or simple escort missions to allied lands are over. You all will be sent on far more important operations across Konoha's sphere of influence and beyond. Chunin Uchiha, Uzumaki, and Haruno will be accompanying you on what you would deem, 'the frontlines,' Kakashi."
"It's far too soon," Kakashi insisted. "They've only been shinobi for six months in a time of peace. Please allow them more time to train and to gain practical experience before they're thrown into the deep end, Lord Hokage–"
"You should know better than anyone that the sharpest tools are forged in the hottest of flames," Danzo interrupted, halting Kakashi-sensei into silence. "As far as I am aware, your squad has already endured far more strife than any genin would ever normally see in their lifetimes. They've not only survived but have thrived under this immense pressure. If you believe they are still not ready, then allow this to be a baptism by fire."
Kakashi-sensei's trepidation was still evident, so Danzo continued. "To put your spirit at ease, they will always be with you or other capable jonin on these missions. With that said, it is time for them to grow up, Kakashi. They are no longer just your soldiers; they are your comrades. They will fight to protect you and this village to their dying breaths, just as you will do the same for them and us."
Naruto was… confused, to say the least. Danzo had been nothing but complimentary to them since they arrived, but he knew there was far more to this than that. Kakashi-sensei drilled into them to look underneath the underneath, and it wasn't hard to reason that Danzo wanted them on the frontlines to project strength to the other villages after Suna's betrayal; Naruto just needed to figure out why, or rather, what the real aim was.
"In addition, I will be adding a new element to your training," Danzo continued, earning their collective intrigue before signaling for someone to appear. "You may reveal yourself."
At Danzo's command, a man with short, brown hair and a weird forehead protector that framed his face emerged from the floor in a manner very similar to Orochimaru in the Forest of Death. Naruto really needed to learn this jutsu.
"This is Kinoe," Danzo introduced the stone-faced jonin, and Naruto noted the recognition in Kakashi-sensei's eye. "In the meantime between missions, you three will ramp up your training, so to this end, Kinoe will assist in bolstering your increased training. He and Kakashi are already familiar, so it should be a smooth integration."
"It's nice to meet you all," Kinoe said with a soft smile before turning his vaguely fishy gaze to Kakashi-sensei. "It's good to see you again, too, Captain."
Kakashi-sensei sighed. "I'm not your captain anymore, Ten– Kinoe."
"That is all I wished to address with you," Danzo spoke again, quickly moving past the near slip of Kakashi-sensei's tongue. "You all are dismissed for now."
Naruto couldn't get out of that room fast enough, and it didn't surprise him that Sasuke and Sakura were hot on his heels. Chunin vests in hand, the three speed-walked down the hall and out of the tower as fast as they could, not even waiting for Kakashi-sensei or this new Kinoe guy to catch up. The more distance they put between themselves and Danzo, the better.
"Naruto, you will need to leave."
That sudden declaration from Kyubi nearly stopped him dead in his tracks, making him stumble and catching the attention of his team. 'What do you mean?'
"That man was attempting to peer through your transformation. You've already been made."
Now that actually did stop him cold, and the curiosity of his team became mild alarm. He put his finger up to signal for them to wait before he turned his attention back inward.
'What do you mean he could see through the transformation??'
"He couldn't see through it exactly, but he knew one was there and tried to peel it back. Fortunately, he failed thanks to my intervention. He could not overpower my chakra."
Naruto wasn't comforted by that. 'How did he do it in the first place?!'
"The same way he was trying to place a genjutsu on you; he's in possession of one of those accursed eyes in his socket behind those bandages."
Naruto's eyes nearly fired out of his skull, but he quickly regained his composure and signaled for Sasuke and Sakura to follow him to their usual training ground. They did so without a word, vanishing from in front of Hokage Tower and bounding across the rooftops toward privacy. Naruto's mind was still in a tailspin, however.
'Danzo has a Sharingan…'
"Yes, and he already suspects you. If that wasn't bad enough, he's already leveraging another means of controlling us through that other filthy human. 'Bolster your training,' my furry, orange ass."
'You mean Kinoe? What about him, besides the fact that he looks a little funny?'
"I can sense the stench of that blasted Senju on him."
'Wait, Senju? Like Tsunade?'
"Worse. Hashirama, the only wielder of the Wood Release… at least until now, apparently."
That information raced through his mind like a missile, but it was beginning to illuminate the bigger picture. His perusal through the library and the Senju Compound taught him that the Shodai's Wood Release was one of the few things that could subdue Kyubi's chakra. If this Kinoe guy really had access to it…
'Would that still be able to affect you?'
"I'm not certain, but it doesn't affect the point. Your Godaime seeks to either control you or have countermeasures prepared for you. Very likely both."
Naruto audibly sighed this time as they exited the village proper and entered the greenery of their training ground… where a few trees lay defeated on the grass as if they had been knocked down for some reason. Shaking away the odd thought, his mind returned to the annoyance at hand. "Figures. The more things change, the more they stay the same."
"What's up, Naruto?" Sakura asked, glad to finally voice her concern.
Naruto turned to them, taking in the worry in Sakura's gaze and the intensity in Sasuke's. "Danzo. He's bad news. Very bad news."
"Yeah, I figured that," Sasuke scoffed. "I could see through his honeyed words like glass. He tried to endear himself to us because we're his newest strike force to wage the next war."
"Even worse than that," Naruto sighed, spreading his senses as far as he could to feel out any potential eavesdroppers. When he found none and received a huff from Kyubi to confirm that he didn't either, he looked Sasuke squarely in the eye. "I think he has a Sharingan."
"WHAT?!" Sasuke barked, three tomoe furiously spinning to life in each eye. Even Sakura was shaken by the revelation.
"Kyubi felt him trying to place a genjutsu on me from behind his bandages. He's… well, sensitive to the Sharingan."
"How…" Sasuke seethed through gritted teeth, and Naruto could've sworn that Sasuke's pupils momentarily bulged.
"Dunno," Naruto sighed. "Can't figure it out, either. It's also because of his Sharingan that he knows about the transformation."
"He knows?!" Sasuke balked before he paused and took a breath to calm himself.
"He didn't say anything about it in the office…" Sakura muttered.
"He also didn't push the issue about us effectively going AWOL during the invasion even though he definitely knows about that," Sasuke spoke up again, steadily getting a hold of himself. "The better question is whether he knows that you know?"
Naruto shrugged. "I can't say one way or the other about the transformation, but since the genjutsu he tried to cast on me didn't take, he might think that I'm on to him, so he probably knows that I know that he knows, y'know?"
"I will strangle y–"
"Either way, this is a dangerous situation," Sakura interrupted Sasuke before he could lunge at Naruto. "We already know that he has designs for us, and we know from Tanzaku that he will go the extra mile to surveil us in secret. I'm certain that any jonin we're sent on missions with in the future will be fiercely loyal to him as a precaution."
"We're not safe in the village," Sasuke declared. It wasn't an exclamation or even a question, just a cold statement of fact.
That statement hung heavy in the following silence within the training ground. Not even the gentle breeze gliding past them could soothe the tense atmosphere. Naruto just remained in his spot, desperately trying to reckon with how his life had gotten to this point.
It was Sakura who eventually broke the silence with a solemn sigh. "I guess that just confirms what we already knew."
Sasuke nodded. "So, what are we going to do about it?"
"We're not staying here, that's for sure," the words tumbled out of Naruto's mouth, each with far more weight than the last. He knew that there was no going back once he finally said it out loud.
Sasuke and Sakura knew it, too.
Before anyone could broach the subject further, Naruto's brow furrowed, and he looked past Sasuke and Sakura. "Someone's coming."
"Hostile?" Sasuke questioned, tensed and ready for action.
"No…" Naruto muttered before he squinted. "Hanabi?"
A soft gasp from a good distance behind them made Sasuke and Sakura turn around in time to see Hanabi excitedly sprinting toward them.
"You guys are back!" she cheered, gleefully appearing before them in no time at all with a smile uncharacteristic of all the other stiffs in her clan. "I've been coming here every day since you went on your mission!"
"Is that right?" Sakura asked, smiling down at Hanabi as she took one of the girl's bandaged hands into her own. Naruto had to admit that the joy on her face was genuinely infectious.
"What were you doing?" Sasuke asked, stepping forward to examine the obvious marks of her training.
"Oh, um," she faltered. "I, well, Anko-sensei said that when I'm training my striking speed through repeated motions, I can also work on my power and control simultaneously by unleashing my chakra in explosive bursts rather than focused jets, so I've been doing that for a few hours every day…"
That response made Sakura pause and look around. "Now that you mention it, where are the training posts?"
Hanabi looked down in embarrassment and muttered something, but Sasuke was having none of it. "What was that, kid?"
"I said I broke them all, okay?" Hanabi spoke up, folding her arms with a huff. "They went down too easily."
"…And what did you do when you shattered the last one?" Sakura probed, but the pieces were already falling into place in her mind.
Hanabi hesitated, her embarrassment returning in full force. "I started using the trees instead, but I might have overdone it a little…"
Naruto's eyes shot wide, and he looked back around the down trees littering the area. "Wait, you did all this?!"
Hanabi nearly shrank into herself in a manner reminiscent of her sister, but Naruto's excited shout stopped her. "That's so awesome! You gotta show me!"
Hanabi was thoroughly taken aback by that, but she had little time to respond before Naruto spawned two dozen shadow clones in a flash. "I wanna see how much you've improved, so give them everything you have, got it?"
"Wait, what??" Sakura balked, looking at the newly assembled gang of Naruto's incredulously. "Naruto, you can't keep going around beating up children!"
Hanabi, on the other hand, briefly had stars in her eyes before her Byakugan activated, and she lowered into a Gentle Fist stance with a savage grin. "Bring it!"
"Lord Hokage, Hiashi Hyuga has arrived."
"Excellent," Danzo replied into the intercom on his desk. "Send him in."
Moments later, the door to the office opened, and Hiashi Hyuga stepped in. His white kimono under a brown haori was as pristine as always, and his stern, unreadable countenance rivaled Danzo's own.
"You summoned me, Lord Hokage," Hiashi stated rather than asked.
"Indeed. Have a seat."
Hiashi did so, taking the lone chair in front of the desk and meeting Danzo's stony gaze.
"It has been quite the eventful stretch for the Hyuga Clan as of recently, your immediate family in the center of it all," Danzo remarked. "How are you faring?"
"The life of a shinobi is rife with loss," Hiashi replied, his expression giving nothing away. "To be a shinobi is to endure."
Danzo simply nodded. "What of the others?"
"I am not sure what you mean."
"The others within your clan. How are they faring?"
"The clan is operating as normal. We were rather fortunate to have come out of the invasion with minimal casualties, and we participated in the reconstruction efforts wholeheartedly."
Danzo's expression remained as blank as ever, but internally, he was torn between frowning in irritation and smirking at Hiashi's keenness. He was getting nothing out of Hiashi, which confirmed to him that Hiashi had some idea as to why he was really summoned. No matter; he would simply take a different tack.
"The Branch House was also involved in the cleanup efforts," Danzo probed.
"They are denizens of Konoha, and as such will loyally serve the village and work towards its betterment," Hiashi responded, not taking the bait.
Danzo leaned back in his chair. "Indeed, but I wonder for how long…"
The porcelain whites of Hiashi's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "Are you calling the loyalty of the Hyuga Clan into question, Lord Hokage?"
"Should I be concerned about the loyalties of the Branch House, Hiashi?"
"No, and I frankly find the accusation outrageous and bordering on a grievous insult to my clan."
Danzo internally smirked. This transparent attempt to make the subject too precarious to broach any further simply confirmed that he had him.
"Hiashi, let's dispense with the pretenses," he began. "A Branch House Hyuga killed both the clan's heiress and the former clan head, and he got away with it. It is foolish to believe that the Branch House has not taken notice."
Hiashi's jaw tightened. "I'm aware."
"Then you must also be aware of the Branch House congregating in secret several times since the invasion," Danzo added, seeking to gauge Hiashi's reaction to that information.
Hiashi, to his credit, did not immediately respond, instead staring blankly at Danzo in silence while he weighed his options. "...I am, and the matter is being seen to. However, you must understand that the situation is delicate. I cannot act rashly when addressing generations of percolating resentment."
"The volatility is what troubles me," Danzo rebutted. "You have dozens of security risks, whose loyalty to the clan cannot possibly be assured, potentially emboldened by the actions of their wayward prodigy."
Hiashi was about to speak, but Danzo lifted his hand to stop him before he could. "What also troubles me is that it sounds to me like you do not intend to take decisive action to resolve this brewing catastrophe. Whatever theories they may have concocted as to how Neji successfully struck down your father will most assuredly lead to experimentation. Whether or not this experimentation yields any results is irrelevant; they would have already taken steps in defying the Main House and would be far more willing to move against them entirely, and by extension Konoha. This, I cannot allow."
Hiashi sighed, but he offered no argument. "I will handle the unrest in the Branch House, Lord Hokage."
"See that you do, lest I have to step in," Danzo warned.
A lifetime of weariness had slowly been ebbing into Hiashi's countenance over the course of the conversation, but that remark brought nothing but tension. Hiashi eyed Danzo carefully, his mind clearly abuzz with activity. "...With all due respect, Lord Hokage, this is a clan matter. You do not wield jurisdiction over clan politics."
"When it becomes a present danger to the welfare of the village at large, I do," Danzo reiterated. "The Branch House is quickly becoming one such security risk. Handle it, and handle it well, because if you don't, I will."
The threat was left hanging in the office for a deeply uncomfortable ten seconds. Danzo allowed all of the possibilities to stew and fester in Hiashi's mind for the duration of the silence, and eventually, all he received was a nod of acknowledgement.
Danzo nodded in return. "That is all for now. I trust we will not have to have this discussion again. You are dismissed."
Hiashi just stood up and bowed before exiting the office without a word. Danzo eyed the door for a moment longer after he was gone, and then he spoke loudly enough for the interloper near the window to hear. "Are you going to sit outside of the window all day, Jiraiya?"
Finally being acknowledged, Jiraiya climbed into the office through the window. "Seemed like a bad time to interrupt."
"So you elected to eavesdrop on a private conversation?" Danzo replied with a quirked eyebrow.
"You could have sent me away any time you wanted," Jiraiya shrugged. "It's not like you didn't know I was there the whole time."
Danzo simply sighed. "What is it that you want?"
"What are your plans for the kid?"
"I will assume you're referring to the jinchuriki."
"Naruto Uzumaki, yes."
Danzo sent an unimpressed glance Jiraiya's way. He never understood the foolish insistence on allowing the jinchuriki an identity before he displayed any real, utilitarian value. It was more of Hiruzen's foolish sentimentality, the same sentimentality that ultimately got him killed against the student he wouldn't raise a hand against so many years ago. The same sentimentality that he passed on to Jiraiya, it seemed.
"I fail to see what business it is of yours," Danzo finally responded. "His training shall continue with some enhancements, alongside the rest of Team 7."
"I want to take the kid under my wing," Jiraiya proposed. "It would be the safest option for everyone involved."
Danzo turned to him fully. "Explain."
"The Akatsuki is finally moving," he began, his tone grave. "We ran into Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigake out in Shukuba, and they were there for Naruto specifically."
Danzo's expression visibly soured for the first time that day. Itachi had indeed been searching for Naruto, or at least that was his cover. His real reason for returning to Konoha was to send a message to Danzo specifically that he could be back in the village at any time without anyone being prepared for his arrival. The impudent brat…
"There's also the matter of the missing Ichibi," Jiraiya continued, drawing Danzo from his darkening musings. "It retreated into the desert and then vanished off the face of the planet. The Akatsuki are hunting down the jinchuriki for their biju, so it stands to reason that they seized on the opportunity to capture the weakest one. Biju don't just up and vanish like that, even if they're in the heart of the desert."
Danzo hummed. That was about what he had assumed of the situation, as well. "Troubling, indeed."
"I want to ensure that Naruto is prepared for these monsters when they inevitably come for him again," Jiraiya spoke up once more. "It would also give me time to examine and come up with a more permanent fix for that seal Orochimaru marked him with."
Danzo's gaze sharpened at that. The cursed seals on Team 7 had been a constant source of consternation for him. On the one hand, the prospect of Orochimaru's influence consistently eating away at their sanity until they were ready to serve him was utterly out of the question, so the marks needed to be sealed. On the other hand, if he could overwrite the seal's influence with an even stronger compulsion, the inherent boosts provided by the seal's transformation was a boon he couldn't look past, which was why he attempted to probe the jinchuriki with Kotoamatsukami when they were in the office earlier.
The genjutsu would not settle, however, meaning that something was preventing it from taking root in the boy—likely the Kyubi's interference. That was just another reason to have Tenzo around him at all times, and that spoke nothing of the transformation Danzo only detected because of the Mangekyo Sharingan–
"Hey, Earth to Danzo, are you listening?" Jiraiya's voice derailed his train of thought and brought him back to the office, and the first thing he laid his eye on was the large easel pad next to him with Jiraiya's name scrawled vertically on the first sheet.
"What is this?" Danzo bemusedly asked.
"This, Lord Hokage, is why you should hand over Naruto's training to me, for I have THE tried and true method of fostering prodigies!" Jiraiya exaggeratedly motioned to the pad. "I present to you the J.I.R.A.I.Y.A. System!"
"...The Jiraiya System?" Danzo floundered.
"No, no, the J.I.R.A.I.Y.A. System," Jiraiya corrected. "You have to feel it when you say it, otherwise it won't work."
Danzo stared at Hiruzen's least talented student before deciding against his better judgement and allowing him to speak just to see where this was going. "Alright, I'll bite; what is the J.I.R.A.I.Y.A. System?"
"Only the most foolproof means of creating unstoppable world beaters like Minato Namikaze; you may have heard of him," Jiraiya cheekily grinned before tapping the pad with a telescopic pointer. "It functions in seven simple steps, starting with J: justify the investment. Now, I don't mean justifying your investment; I'm talking about your student justifying the investment of their time and energy, and that is done by demonstrating your value to them, usually by way of a flashy jutsu you'll promise to teach them one day. Give them something to work towards."
Danzo just quirked his singular visible eyebrow at him again. While giving a prospective student a carrot on a stick to chase was an effective means of hooking them, it was hardly a revolutionary concept.
However, Jiraiya continued. "After you've justified the investment, you'll finally begin training them, and that is when you move on to I: instilling loyalty. The easiest way to do this is by saving their lives from an enemy during a mission. Bonus points if you take an attack for them and receive a severe wound in their stead before gallantly vanquishing the threat. The more indebted to you they feel, the better."
…Danzo wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. That was admittedly straight out of Hiruzen's playbook from their youth. Few knew this besides himself and Homura, but it was how he obtained Biwako's affection. Koharu's, as well, but that was a skeleton best left in the closet.
"Now, once you've ensured their loyalty, they will naturally start to depend on you, which brings me to R: rarify companionship. Nurture that dependence they have on you, even through manufacturing situations in which they'll need to lean on you for assistance or guidance. The trick is that you can't always be available for them. They'll need to struggle when you aren't around so that they'll feel lucky and safe when you actually are. This works best when they're orphans and don't have anyone to lean on otherwise."
There was no way this was happening right now. Was he listening to Jiraiya or Orochimaru?
"Now, if you've completed all the other steps properly up to this point, they will naturally want to spend as much time as they can with you to get the most out of their training and ensure their continued progress. But, you're not gonna do that. In fact, you'll do the exact opposite by pulling back, bringing us to A: alienate emotionally!"
Danzo was now starting to grow a bit concerned, but Jiraiya pressed on full steam ahead. "Go on lengthy missions without them. Cancel any plans you may have made with them to handle other pressing matters. Maybe an important dignitary of Kumo is on his way back to his village with information that Konoha would rather not make it back at all, and I'm one of the only people who could see that it doesn't without leaving evidence. Could be anything, really, just so long as it keeps you out of reach."
Danzo was speechless. Exactly what kind of monsters was Hiruzen raising, and why hadn't Danzo been able to do the same? These methods were far different from his modus operandi of grinding the emotions out of them in favor of completing the mission by any means, and even he had to acknowledge that they seemed needlessly cruel, but perhaps that's why he was never the one with students on the level of the Yondaime.
…Granted, Jiraiya did have two other students in his four-man cell who died during the war, so the jury was still out on this system's efficacy.
"This will get to them eventually," Jiraiya continued, unaware of Danzo's thoughts. "It always does. They'll start getting really mixed up because you're not there to guide them. They'll feel like they're hitting a wall in their training and stagnating without you. Hell, maybe they'll even start questioning their self-worth, which is the perfect opportunity to I: inspire hope. Return to them. Stop being distant. Deflect responsibility to ongoing international conflicts if you must, but make sure that they know that you're back and are here to stay.
"Reignite their confidence. Push them even further than you've ever pushed them before. If you haven't given them that cool jutsu you promised in the beginning, now is the time for them to learn it. Get them to master it. Let them smash through the glass ceiling you've been imposing this whole time, and then…"
He whacked the pad for a final time, dragging the pointer between the last two steps in the system. "Y: yank the rug, and A: abandon entirely. Once they've gone as far as you can possibly take them, set them free. You've done your job, and you've fostered a legend, so now you move on. These two steps are usually done at once, and they're admittedly far easier when the students in question are from another village, but they're not impossible to accomplish with homegrown talent."
The two sat in a long, unbroken silence (well, Jiraiya stood). Danzo stared at a grinning Jiraiya with nothing but exasperation, morbid curiosity, and above all, serious indigestion.
"Has anyone ever told you that you are most certainly a sociopath?" Danzo questioned in the most deadpan manner he could muster.
"Tsunade for a solid twenty years," Jiraiya answered without a hint of shame.
"That was so much fun!" Hanabi cheered as she vibrated out of the training ground with Team 7 in tow.
"For you, maybe…" Naruto grumbled, rubbing the phantom pains he was feeling due to the memories of his clones getting brutalized by the Gentle Fist.
"No one told you to create a torture chamber for yourself," Sasuke supplied with a smirk from Naruto's side.
"He's right," Sakura giggled from his other side. "You did quite literally ask for it."
"Yeah, yeah, bite me," Naruto groused, lightly massaging his chest over his heart to the tune of Hanabi's giggling.
"Don't get mad at us just because all of your clones got one-tapped by a six-year-old," Sasuke snorted.
"I am seven!" Hanabi heatedly informed him.
"Seven-year-old," Sasuke corrected.
"Speaking of, it's impressive that you were able to take them down so swiftly," Sakura complimented as the group wandered into a side alley. "Naruto's shadow clones are generally pretty sturdy. Even for Sasuke and I, it can take a bit of elbow grease to dispel them when he's actually focused."
"I couldn't tell with my Byakugan which one was the real him versus a clone, so I just assumed they were all clones and aimed for vitals," Hanabi shrugged. "Chakra can strengthen your body but not your internal organs."
"That is frightening coming out of the mouth of a child," Sasuke deadpanned, and his teammates just nodded in agreement. Hanabi couldn't help but preen at the praise.
"Hey, let's head over to Ichiraku!" Naruto suggested, rubbing his tummy all the while. "I've worked up at least a twelve-bowl appetite today."
"I refuse to believe that you are a human being sometimes," Sakura sighed
"Come on, please??" Naruto begged, getting down on his knees and tugging the hems of his exasperated teammates' shirts. "It might be the last time!"
That surprised Hanabi. "Oh? Are they closing down?"
Naruto and Sakura froze for some reason, and Sasuke shot Naruto one of the most fiery glares she had ever seen. Just as quickly, Naruto was back on his feet and sheepishly grinning.
"Oh, nothing like that!" He assured, appearing beside her and guiding her down the alley. "It's just, uh, well nothing important. Forget about it; let's go get some ramen!"
Blinking, Hanabi fixed him with an inquisitive look before peering back at his teammates whose expressions were equally tense. It confused Hanabi quite a bit; she could understand why the thought of the quaint ramen stand she had been patroning since meeting Team 7 closing down would unsettle a fanatic like Naruto, but Sakura and especially Sasuke's reactions were very peculiar. Going off of how silent Sasuke and Sakura were now being, she suspected that they'd remain tightlipped if she poked into what Naruto might have just let slip.
Facing forward, her eyes narrowed. Something was up with them, so she'd just have to keep an eye on them to see what it was. Sneaking out of the compound would be hard; Father was always so busy with clan matters lately, and Natsu had been equally distracted with matters of the Branch House. These outings were great to get away from how tense the air around the clan had become in recent months, so another opportunity to get away from it wouldn't be wasted.
The rhythmic tapping of Danzo's cane on the pavement serenaded his much-needed stroll through the quieter parts of the village. Whatever that was with Jiraiya back in his office had both sufficiently thrown and drained him mentally, so a bit of fresh air would do him some good.
That was how he found himself strolling down the path trailing alongside the Naka River. If he was a superstitious man, he'd swear that Shisui's Sharingan was idly thrumming in proximity to the river that acted as his final resting place. Quite ironic that he was walking alongside the river that arguably acted as the first domino to his eventual and rightful ascension to the seat of Hokage. No one would ever say the Uchiha Clan's sacrifice would be in vain.
As he strolled down the path, he eventually came upon a curious sight. Sitting huddled up on a bench was a very familiar child, one of the remaining legacies of his old friend in the flesh. Konohamaru Sarutobi clutched both knees to his chest with his scarf wrapped protectively around him, and his downcast expression would fit right in at a funeral. Then again, perhaps every day since Hiruzen's death had been a funeral for the boy.
Danzo idly wondered where his minders were, but the opportunity currently presented to him on a silver platter possessed far greater importance. Without further ado, he approached the bench at the same leisurely pace he had been walking. He made sure the clattering of his cane was loud enough for the boy to notice him coming, and when he did, his downcast expression soured into a forlorn scowl. Beautiful.
"Konohamaru Sarutobi," Danzo greeted, slightly tilting his head to present the Hokage hat in greater view to the child. "Quite a pleasure to run into you while out on my stroll. Why are you out here all alone?"
"None of your business," the boy petulantly spat, his gaze growing hotter the more it lingered on the Hokage hat and robes.
"I am the Hokage, and as such, the welfare of all citizens of this great village is my top priority," Danzo replied, carefully maintaining a friendly tone to keep up the kindly grandfather facade. This plan would not work otherwise.
The visual reminders of his grandfather's death in the form of the hat and robe were one thing, but verbally reminding him that Danzo was the Hokage now was enough to set the boy over the top. "Yeah, well so what?! You're not a real Hokage, you're just a fraud! You'll never be the Old Man! You'll never replace what my grandpa was to this village!"
Danzo just stared at the boy as he did his best to compose himself, furiously wiping away the percolating tears and sharply turning away from Danzo in a huff. Seeing the opening to strike, Danzo took a few small steps forward to stand in front of the bench before motioning to the empty space beside the boy.
"May I sit?" he asked, and when he received nothing but a dismissive grunt in return, he sat down and gazed at the watery expanse, allowing a brief but comfortable silence to roll through with the gentle breeze. "I knew your grandfather. I knew him well."
The boy's derisive snort was muffled by his knees. "Everyone knew him."
Danzo nodded. "Indeed, but he and I grew up together. We knew each other for over sixty years."
"You did?" he asked, clearly taken aback by that bit of information. The boy drew back from his knees to level him with a look of skepticism which quickly bled into acceptance. "Well, I guess you are pretty old…"
Danzo nodded again. "That I am, and I'm old enough to have known Hiruzen when he was just your age. You two aren't so different, you know. Hiruzen was a kind, spirited boy who loved this village with everything he had. He would do anything and everything for this village."
"Anything?"
"And everything."
The boy slowly brought his knees down from his chest and cautiously slid into a normal posture, but he never took his conflicted gaze away from him. "…Were you friends with my grandpa?"
"More than friends," Danzo confirmed. "We were rivals. He is the only man I have ever considered an equal, though it was not likely mutual. I could never eclipse him in power, skill, or the fullness of his heart. He and I were under the tutelage of the Nidaime, and we were both old enough to have interacted with the Shodai, and yet, Hiruzen Sarutobi is one of the most powerful and noble men I have ever encountered in all of my days. He earned the designation of 'God of Shinobi' for a reason."
"Woah…" the boy warbled, his gaze shining both with unshed tears and wonderment.
"I've seen your grandfather at his highest highs and his lowest lows," Danzo continued. "I was by his side through it all, even well after the War took my arm. All of that is to say that your grandfather's legacy isn't just your uncle, or you, or even myself. Your grandfather's legacy is the entirety of Konoha, the Great Tree that stands proud in the sun of a glorious world."
He turned to the boy, inwardly reveling in him hanging off his every word. "I wish to carry on that legacy. As the Godaime Hokage and successor to Hiruzen, I will continue his work in protecting the virtues of Konoha and her way of life. I will do everything in my power to see to it that the world that Hiruzen hoped to achieve comes to fruition."
"What world did he want to achieve?" the boy asked, enraptured by his tale.
"Your grandfather had a dream," Danzo began, "a dream where one day, the Will of Fire would burn not just within us, but within everyone. A world of peace, knowledge, and understanding free from the shackles of madness that chain other nations, the very same shackles that keep other nations entrenched in war, pain, and hatred. This insidious madness took our Shodai, Nidaime, Yondaime, and even eventually Hiruzen himself from us, and it dragged Konoha into every bloody, needless conflict along the way. This horrible madness was what sparked all three Shinobi Wars, and it is what Hiruzen had been battling tooth and nail for as long as he could hold a kunai. Your grandfather dreamed of an era of prosperity for Konoha, and for all."
Danzo readjusted his hat, tilting it back up to allow the positively transfixed boy to take in more of his bandaged face. "Would you like to assist me in making this world a reality, Konohamaru Sarutobi?"
"It would be my honor to complete my grandpa's dream!" the boy passionately declared with fire in his eyes that Danzo could one day unleash on anyone who dared to defy Konoha.
Danzo allowed himself a smirk. "Excellent."
Any and all emotions were trained out of those recruited into ROOT, willingly or otherwise. That meant that joy, sadness, anger, resentment, and the like were snuffed out, all in service of focusing on the mission and only the mission. There were to be no distractions and no mistakes—only the mission.
If ROOT-nin were capable of evaluating the pros and cons of such a philosophy, one pro would be that it made surveillance assignments rather simple. Sitting around in one place watching the mundane and dreadfully banal activities of a person of interest was far easier when you no longer had any concept of boredom. As such, the squad of ROOT-nin tasked with watching Team 7 for any hint of suspicious activities were not deterred by the sight of the team playing cards with each other after leaving Ichiraku Ramen and sending the Hyuga heiress on her way.
How the young heiress managed to give her chaperone the slip every single time they were out was beyond them, but she had even managed to vanish from the eyes of ROOT every so often without even meaning to. Perhaps Danzo would find use for her among their ranks; even taking her already impressive skill level into account, her rate of growth was nothing short of prodigious.
That was a thought for later, however. For right now, the ROOT-nin codenamed Hyo kept a watch over the team of potential threats. The fact that they had chosen to congregate in the Uchiha's former home within the abandoned Uchiha Compound rather than either of their current homes was yet another red flag to report, as it implied a desire for secrecy. However, given their newfound sensory prowess, he could not get any closer to the old home to hear their conversations in full without running the risk of being detected, nor could any of the others, so they would continue to hang back for the moment and read their lips.
Unfortunately, his attention was drawn away from his assignment by four figures blurring into view, bounding out of the trees and landing on the roof of the Uchiha's old home. There were no headbands to identify village affiliation, but their highly conspicuous, purple rope belts clearly identified allegiance to Orochimaru.
"Agents of Orochimaru attempting to make contact with the subjects–" he spoke into his comms before a blue blade of crystal pierced through his chest from behind, shocking him silent.
"There's no use, I've already picked off the rest," a feminine voice as smooth as the blade lodged through his heart slid down his ear canal. "Don't resist. Existence is behind you now, so just enjoy the silence."
The crystal blade was yanked out of his chest before another slid across his throat, and he was shoved out of the tree. The last thing he saw before oblivion took him was a pair of cherry-red lips twisted into a sinister smirk framed by spiky, blue hair.
Yo. Been a while. Hope y'all are doing well. I don't have a whole lot to say here except that I wrestled with how fully I would commit to Jiraiya being Dennis from It's Always Sunny ever since the "implication" joke. Ultimately decided to go all in with it, as you can see lol
Thanks for reading. I appreciate each and every single one of you.