Half a month later.
Hokage's Office.
Brilliant golden sunlight poured in through the window. Fine motes of dust floated in the beam, tracing out messy, chaotic paths in the air.
Sarutobi Hiruzen bit the end of his pipe and pushed a mountain of important documents aside.
The back-and-forth with Kumogakure over the past few days had produced no small number of headaches.
Kumo absolutely refused to admit to attacking Konoha's students. As for compensation, they flatly rejected the idea.
As for Yotsuki Isao and the three jonin who had intruded into the village, Kumo had already issued wanted notices for them back in their own country before the invasion.
"Rogue ninja."
One simple label erased any claim that the Hidden Cloud had deliberately provoked war.
Of course, no one involved was a child.
These little tricks were nothing more than a way to give each other some face and back off a step, so things did not escalate into an actual war.
Konoha did not want war.
The village known for its unity, Kumogakure, had already slapped a bounty on its own ninja. That alone was humiliating enough; trying to squeeze more out of them was impossible.
Besides, Hiruzen had always advocated a softer, conciliatory policy.
The only reason things had even gotten to this point was because they had attacked the Nine Tails and children, poking directly at a very raw nerve for a lot of people.
If it had been anything else, the matter would have quietly died out long ago.
He was no longer the "Ninja Warlord" of his youth.
These days he truly had become the gentle "Professor of Shinobi."
After a war, all the good things vanished.
Konoha's peace had been hard-won.
He did not want to watch anyone lose their life.
As for those who had already died because of this, sometimes all you could say was that the justice and fairness of the few always had to give way to the interests of the many.
It sounded disgusting.
But reality was that cruel.
He still remembered the time he had gone to Kumo to sign a peace treaty, only to be betrayed and hunted by the Gold and Silver Brothers, Kinkaku and Ginkaku. His teacher had been killed because of it.
Hiruzen had wanted to tear up that treaty and use war to vent the village's hatred.
But then he thought of the villagers who longed for peace, thought of the children needing food and care.
In the end, he could only swallow his anger and sign his own name.
The individual must yield to the group.
It was in that moment he truly understood the weight of those words.
Knock, knock, knock.
A steady rhythm sounded at the door.
"Lord Hokage, Lord Danzō requests an audience."
"Come in."
Click.
The door swung open.
Shimura Danzō entered, leaning on his cane. His solitary, narrow eye swept across the dark corners of the office.
Shff, shff.
The ANBU hidden in the shadows flickered into view.
After exchanging a glance with Hiruzen and receiving his wordless consent, they quickly withdrew from the room.
Thud.
The door closed behind them. One man sat, one man stood.
Sunlight streaming through the window lit the deep wrinkles on Hiruzen's face in a golden outline.
In that glow, Danzō's features seemed even darker and more vicious by comparison.
"What is it?"
"The intel you wanted."
Danzō's eye slid over the Hokage hat engraved with the character for "Fire" for what must have been the thousandth time. He pulled a file from his robes and tossed it onto Hiruzen's desk.
Hiruzen did not mind his unfriendly tone.
He picked up the file, saw the characters "Sun-Chasing Konome" written on it, and already had a guess in his heart.
"You read it?"
"In order to get that intel out of Kirigakure, another of my Root agents died. You think I shouldn't look at it?"
"Your Root has already been disbanded."
Ignoring the tic that flashed across Danzō's face, Hiruzen tore open the packet.
Inside was a bloodstained sheet that, to his surprise, turned out to be a wanted notice issued by Kirigakure's ANBU.
He narrowed his eyes and held the notice up into the sunlight.
In the top-left corner was the character for "Secret," and hidden in the background were Kirigakure ANBU's unique watermark patterns.
Beneath it was a photograph of a girl.
A silver-haired blind girl stood surrounded by ANBU masks, blood still dripping from her fingertips, her expression fragile and delicate.
Name: Taketori Hairi (identity in doubt)
Abilities: Anti-chakra detection, Kekkei Genkai Shikotsumyaku. Exact functions unknown. Capable of long-range attacks.
Primary Record: Killed three Tokubetsu Jonin.
Power Rating: A+
Last Seen: Haikawa Port (suspected to have fled into the Land of Fire or Land of Lightning)
Capture Directive: Dead or alive.
On the back of the notice, a few lines had been scrawled in blood-code, the handwriting so shaky it was almost illegible.
Below that was a neat translation of the cipher.
"Ancient unknown relic of the Taketori clan's annihilation. ANBU Captain Kuriu Shun missing. Fourth Mizukage abdicates, Fifth Mizukage Terumi Mei…"
The lines after that degenerated into a mess of strokes, impossible to read.
Hiruzen slowly exhaled a heavy stream of smoke from his nose.
The deeply lined face, speckled with age spots, gradually relaxed.
The photo, the abilities, her record, the timing and cause of the clan's massacre all matched perfectly.
Aside from not knowing where exactly her tailed beast chakra had come from, there was no longer any real question about Konome's identity.
He looked at Danzō.
"The source on this intel…"
"Is solid."
Having known Hiruzen for so many years, Danzō naturally understood what he was worried about.
"Among the three Tokubetsu Jonin she killed, one was Savage Fang's kid sister. Back then Kuriu Shun had not yet gone missing. There is no way this is some elaborate trap set by Kirigakure."
Hearing even the perpetually suspicious Danzō talk like this, Hiruzen nodded.
He finally felt at ease about Konome's background.
"Good. That's what I needed."
Hiruzen sealed the intel away and slipped it into a hidden compartment in the bookcase behind him.
When he turned back, Danzō was still standing where he had been.
"Something else?"
"We're just letting Kumogakure get away with this?"
Danzō's gaunt face twisted, his lone eye glinting coldly.
"Hiruzen, they brought the fight right into our home."
"Don't do anything unnecessary."
Hiruzen's response was light and flat.
He casually picked up another file and started reading, ignoring the killing intent rolling off Danzō.
"Heh."
Danzō let out a short laugh. He understood his old friend entirely too well.
"Wear the mask long enough and see if you can ever take it off."
"The same goes for you."
The two old men fell into silence at the same time.
They said nothing for a long while, until Hiruzen finally could not stand it anymore.
"You've been standing there half the day. If you have something to say, say it."
At that, Danzō's wrinkled face twisted, as if he had just swallowed a fly.
For a long moment, he said nothing.
Then, "That Sun-Chasing Konome… I want her for Root."
"I seem to recall someone saying he would never accept disabled people into Root."
Watching Danzō squirm, Hiruzen could not help the amusement that rose in his chest. Even his voice took on a faintly mocking tone.
Danzō's face tightened at his friend's jab, but he did not answer.
The truth was, he had received Konome's file the same day he left the Hokage's office last time.
Regret did not even begin to cover it.
He had wanted to march right back and demand Hiruzen hand the girl over, but his pride would not allow it.
That morning he had loudly declared in this very office that Root did not accept the handicapped.
His voice had been so loud that even the subordinates waiting outside the door must have heard him clearly.
If he had gone back again that afternoon with his face stretched into a smile to ask for her, even someone as thick-skinned as Danzō could not stand that level of humiliation.
On top of that, the Uchiha situation had been rapidly deteriorating.
Root and ANBU had focused most of their attention on monitoring the impending Uchiha betrayal.
Konome's matter, by contrast, was not urgent and had been pushed aside.
He had thought he could always go back and ask for her once everything was resolved.
He had not even known about Kumo's attack on Konoha at first.
He had been in Root's underground base, sealed in a secret room, sorting through sharingan and secret techniques acquired after the Uchiha's extermination.
The Uchiha clan's heritage spanned more than a thousand years.
Its history was complicated, its secret arts numerous, its hidden knowledge and rare techniques as vast as an ocean.
He had not even finished reading everything yet.
If Hiruzen had not used spies formerly under Root's command to investigate Kirigakure, Danzō would probably still be buried in that chamber, studying the Sharingan, oblivious to everything that had happened in Konoha recently.
He certainly would not have known that the blind girl he had dismissed had turned out to be this outrageous.
When he thought of a talent rumored to rival even the First Hokage, even Danzō's icy eye could not hide a feverish light.
"An elite jonin at six years old. I have never even heard of such a thing. If you put her in Root, I guarantee I can turn her into Konoha's sharpest spear."
"I will say it one last time. Root no longer exists."
Hiruzen's warning was firm.
Root had gone too far in the Uchiha affair.
Not just the civilians, even the major clans had felt a intense sense of unease.
Civilians were easy to placate.
They did not know the details.
A little guiding, combined with Konome's new reputation as a genius, and their worries had been quickly smoothed over.
But those clans with bloodlines and secret arts were not so easily fooled.
Dissolving Root and removing Danzō from his post as Hokage's advisor had not just been a punishment.
More importantly, it had been to reassure the clan shinobi and keep them from spiraling into paranoia.
"I am not here to discuss Root."
Danzō cut him off with a flick of his hand, hobbling forward to lock eyes with Hiruzen across the desk.
"You said you would hand Sun-Chasing Konome over to me."
"And you said you did not want her."
"I changed my mind."
Danzō spoke without the slightest hint of shame.
Root dismantled, his position revoked.
His power base had taken a heavy blow.
To get Konome, he had already cast his pride aside.
Even Hiruzen, who had known him for decades, was rendered momentarily speechless by his old friend's shamelessness.
But in his heart he had already made up his mind.
He absolutely could not give Konome to Danzō.
Chakra was built from spiritual and physical energies, and will was the key among them.
Root's training methods stripped a person of natural human feeling, turning them into tools who had no self, no will of their own, no ability to think independently.
Someone like that could never become a true top-tier powerhouse of the shinobi world.
If this were about some ordinary genius or if Konome's identity had been uncertain, handing her to Danzō might have been acceptable.
But their agent had paid with his life to confirm her innocence.
Now, giving a talent who could rival the First Hokage to Danzō would be no different from throwing solid gold into a cesspit.
A waste among wastes.
No matter how rich Konoha was, it could not afford to squander talent like that.
Hiruzen's skin was not as thick as Danzō's.
As the Third Hokage, he truly could not bring himself to say something like "then I changed my mind too."
"You are no longer a Hokage advisor, nor the head of Root. Even if I gave Konome to you, under what title would you take her?"
Hiruzen spread his hands, aiming directly for Danzō's weak spot.
Having been stripped of his post, calling him "former Hokage's advisor" was putting it nicely.
Less politely, he was nothing more than an ordinary elite jonin.
What status did he have that could make someone who had already killed an elite jonin willingly accept his command?
Danzō's expression shifted.
Hiruzen's words made him fully aware of how awkward his current position really was.
Root was still quietly moving in the shadows, but in name it no longer existed.
Whenever they acted, they had to borrow ANBU's mantle to move.
If Konome were placed within ANBU's structure, she would inevitably fall under Hiruzen's command instead.
To pull her into his hands, he would need some other legitimate identity.
Danzō's lone eye narrowed and flashed.
He quickly found a way to break the stalemate.
"In my entire life, I have never taken a disciple. I hear she excels at Wind Release. I can accept her as my student and pass on my teachings. You and I are both students of the Second Hokage.
Taking her as my disciple is hardly an insult to her talent.
That should be acceptable, right?"
"And if she does not want to be your disciple?"
"She will want to, whether she wants to or not. As long as you agree to let me take Sun-Chasing Konome, the rest is no concern of yours."
Danzō was determined to have her.
With Hiruzen's consent, he was confident he could find some combination of threats, bribes, and tricks that would "fit Konome's disposition."
"No."
Hiruzen shook his head and rejected him outright.
"Why not?"
Danzō's eyes narrowed, the wrinkles on his forehead cutting like knife marks.
They had known each other for so many years.
After he had lowered himself to this point, was Hiruzen really not even going to give him this much face?
Hiruzen slowly looked up and met his old friend's simmering anger.
"Because half a month ago, I already accepted Sun-Chasing Konome as my final disciple.
Danzō, you are too late."
Boom.
Killing intent and dense chakra suddenly erupted from Danzō's body.
Whish.
Rustle.
Wind pressure surged through the office, making the papers on the desk shudder and flap wildly.
"Are you going to raise a hand against me?"
Hiruzen calmly pressed a hand to the documents, keeping them in place.
Sitting calmly in the sunlight, he met Danzō's murderous stare with eyes as deep and heavy as the sea.
It was as if Hiruzen had brushed his reverse scale.
Danzō's grip on his cane tightened until it creaked.
Even the cross-shaped scar on his chin seemed to distort.
It was just like back then.
The position of Hokage had been right in front of him.
Because he hesitated for half a second, that seat had been snatched away by this lucky man in front of him.
Now they were competing over Konome, and the situation was exactly the same.
The disciple that should have been his had been stolen by Hiruzen again.
And he had the nerve to say "you are too late" to his face.
The Third Hokage taking on a final disciple, and there had not been even a whisper of it in the village for half a month.
Who was he trying to fool?
It was obvious he was just bullying him.
Back then and now both.
He had been first. Every time.
"You have gone too far, Hiruzen."
Forcing each word out between clenched teeth, Danzō turned and stalked toward the door.
He knew he had no more chance.
As he left, Hiruzen watched his old friend's back, wreathed in golden light.
In that moment, he seemed to understand the deeper root of Danzō's outburst.
Even so, he still could not give Konome to him.
Their era was over.
The Danzō who had once gone blow for blow with other villages' Kage had clearly declined.
Even that chakra he had just flared up with was visibly weaker than in the past.
They could still shoulder things for now, but another ten years down the line, who knew?
The Sannin had all left the village.
The Fourth Hokage and Kushina were dead.
Konoha did not lack jonin or elite jonin.
What it lacked were true top-tier trump cards, people who could slam the board and decide the outcome.
Kakashi, in whom he had placed great hopes, was held back by the burden of the Sharingan and struggled to break through.
Might Guy possessed terrifying strength, but his power was that of a one-time-only weapon.
Now, finally, Hiruzen had found new hope.
At Konome's current growth rate, reaching Kage level within ten years would not be difficult.
That would ensure that when he and Danzō could no longer hold the line, Konoha would not be left without a pillar, buying precious time for the next generation to grow.
Konome's greatest value was not as a spear or a shield, but as a beam holding up the entire rooftop, a pillar that could fill the blank at the very top of Konoha's power structure.
He was not fighting Danzō over a genius.
He was laying down groundwork for Konoha after both of them were gone.
Hiruzen slowly let out a long breath and lowered his gaze to the mountain of paperwork on his desk.
Before long, the rustle of turning pages once again filled the Hokage's office.
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