-That night at the Hokage Tower-
Hiruzen's desk lay jumbled with piles upon piles of the student's test this semester, it was all students that ranged from freshman to children that would become his new subordinates. He had yet started on reviewing Koharu's whole report regarding their performance and was waiting for his evaluation, a few had stamps on their cards that his former teammate had necessarily imprinted, these stamps indicated that the students have knowledge and capabilities well beyond their year and were put on a small pile entirely, separated from the other takers who didn't have the stamp. His eyes gazed upon the file, he opened it up to read the names of the prospective students. Hiruzen was interested on flicking through it, it was the only thing that interested him from the dull pile at the very least.
Some kid named Anko Mitarashi, apparently a war orphan from the previous war. According to Koharu, a talented kunoichi that she wanted to take on as a student herself along with a civilian Rin Nohara, if he allowed to do so, not that he was against it if it was students from the latest year, however, both were still freshman students. She said she would make quite a difference in his forces after she was done training the duo, he would see it to believe it he mused and kept it aside to reconsider it although his morals were against it since he wanted for the girl to enjoy her childhood. Nonetheless, Hiruzen knew of the circumstances of the unstable situation on their borders...
"Deciding who'll be advancing?" An eerie voice spoke by his side, making him glance up before resuming on his work with a curt nod, not at all disturbed by the arrival of his comrade.
"Indeed." He spoke calmly while he blew a smoke.
"Why call me then? I have work to do Hiruzen." The voice drawled out sternly, electing Hiruzen to shake his head unbothered.
"I want to hear your opinion of a matter regarding the academy students this year." He stated bluntly making the cross-chin scarred man to raise an eyebrow; however, his expression was in contemplating.
"Say what?" Danzo seemed to be unpleasantly surprised by this. "You called me here for this? You know I've got more important matters to attend to."
Hiruzen kept his silence as he pushed the file to him, whom Danzo caught deftly as he opened it up. He skimmed through it, after he finished, he looked up with slightly widened eyes, the first ounce of interest which he showed when he entered the office:
"Twelve students... So many from just a single class of freshman?" He felt skeptical even with all his professionalism, glancing at the names of the top two students on the freshman class, which he himself had kept an eye on for quite some time, and he presently had no qualms with them being advanced to a grade or two, he could potentially recruit them to his ROOT, toughen them up nicely through his training and make good use of them for the village as a whole, although the rest were where he felt skeptical. "Was Koharu being biased on her report because of them being a class of children from the shinobi clans?"
"She wouldn't do that." Hiruzen spoke in denial, already expecting this query from his old friend. "You know how stern that woman is when it comes to Konoha's best interest, if she didn't find these children suitable then she wouldn't have put stamps on their report." Danzo nodded in agreement with a grunt at that.
"This is a bit shocking then, this is a first."
"First time for everything." Hiruzen smiled genuinely. With all the skirmishes happening at their border, the Hokage and his associates haven't been feeling quite good as of late, news like this was a good form of comfort in the chest.
Danzo read the names on the file with renewed scrutiny, he spoke with a low voice afte a short while. "Kajirama Ogata, Kakashi Hatake, Obito Uchiha, Rin Nohara, Asuma Sarutobi, Kurenai Yuhi, Shitō Akimichi, Ensui Nara, Santa Yamanaka, Akio Inuzuka...?" He looked up from the file with a dubious tone. "An Inuzuka? Furthermore, it's a bit far-fetched that a kid named Might Guy and that lass Mitarashi Anko, I know she had a bit of genius within that girl when you dragged me on watching the academy's entire Taijutsu lesson, but still…"
"I can understand the rest reposed of their respective clan's aid I guess, but these three - Might Guy, Anko Mitarashi and Rin Nohara, their statuses are civilians, Hiruzen." Danzo narrowed his eyes like a hawk, inferring his suspicion as he spoke. "These lot are suspicious. I'll have them under close observation by my men lest they may be spies sent from other villages to test the waters of our military might."
"Surveillance isn't necessary." Hiruzen shake his head. Before his comrade could interject of his words knowing how stern he was, he continued assuring. "I've been keeping tabs on Kajirama for quite some time whenever he wasn't at our compound actually, heck he even spends most of his time outside, it left me and my wife wondering what that brat was doing, so I had spied on him a few times with the use of my handy Tōmegane no Jutsu [Crystal Ball Technique]. And guess what I've found?"
Hiruzen didn't hear any response from Danzo, but he knew without looking that he was staring at him to go on, so he continued. "These kids within that file were pretty close with one another: as far as how I make of it when I monitored Kajirama's daily activities, except for that child, Might Guy, they had a place near the Uchiha and our clan's compound that they trained on everyday which they built themselves within a forest, so I presume they had been mingling around for some time now."
"Oh? That's quite an interesting clique." That made Danzo raises an eyebrow as he commented softly, not troubling himself anymore of the chosen civilians he fixated on watching. It wasn't because of his stern and cautious behavior that he suspected them of such, his aforementioned statement still stands, but with friends in a form of clan children, if they really were close, then they may had exchanged notes and techniques with each other that weren't too much of a secret, like the Clone Technique [Bunshin no Jutsu] for example. Nevertheless, for children that were prone for mostly not loving the idea of studying to actually do it was still surprising, so it was commendable that these numerous bunch had achieved the things they've knew so far.
It wasn't that Danzo's doubts of mistrust he expressed initially were worthy to blame. After the Second Shinobi World War, the Elemental Nation appeared to be at peace on the surface, however, conspiracies hidden within the peace were starting to bloom. If one were to take into account the undercurrents happening all around the national borders of every single hidden village that were involved because of certain conflicts happening between their shinobi's personal and business affairs, the council of Konoha had been keeping an eye out vigilantly for every given situation that may pose a threat to their people, as such, Danzo's suspicion wasn't unreasonably spoken, which Hiruzen understood why he had spoken of those words formerly.
"A collection of little children that comprised of clan members that most of came from several of our formidable clans. Considering that these group of children still haven't fully developed, not to mention that it's far from such seeing how young they were stated on the report, when expertly trained, there's no telling what they would become on the future as Konoha's to-be-shinobis.'' Danzo voiced out to Hiruzen, who scrunched his brows together slightly from the underlying meaning behind his words. Danzo continued with no worry; one could even deduce some expectancy within his tone as he spoke. "Hiruzen, I'm willing to train these children in my organization. They'll become great assets to Konoha-"
"They're kids, Danzo." Hiruzen interjected as he raised his head to make eye contact with Danzo, which lasted for a few seconds. He softly sighed as he got up. "I'm not saying this just because it is my grandson and his friends we're conversing around. No matter how brilliant they shine, kids should remain as kids, and I would make it remain that way." He loved all of Konoha, Hiruzen held the children of the village especially dear, believing they are the village's future and, as such, must be cultivated and protected. Although he had been training Jiraiya's son and his own for quite some time now so that they may be ready for what's to come in the future, they aren't ready, or so he believed.
Danzo already half-expected for Hiruzen to disapprove. The latter has been pretty 'delicate' with his decisions as of late, it wasn't that disconcerting for his colleagues at the beginning, but as time passed, his soft ways had slowly made him a reputation of being a pacifist, something the Konoha Council spends much of its time trying to rectify. The Darkness of Konoha didn't back down, however. "A war is coming Hiruzen, all the other villages are becoming restless, and you know that, now isn't the time to be soft and think about the age of our people. They are inspiring shinobis of Konoha, no matter how young it is inevitable for them to participate in this war… Even your grandson and son." Danzo showed a frown, and his voice was starting to rise. "With the aid of my training in ROOT, they'll be much more prepared for it."
"It is still a no Danzo, no matter what reasons you're putting forward in my office." Hiruzen was adamant, and Danzo knew that the former wouldn't change his mind on the matter, his kind nature may have been the cause of it, but this behavior was also the reason why he was able to force his rival/friend on founding the organization - ROOT.
ROOT was a recently established secret organization, carrying out missions that Danzo believed would benefit Konoha. Because of its core views as 'the unseen ones who support the great tree of Konoha from the depths of the earth', some of the missions were less than respectable, such as eliminating individuals that were considered potential threats simply for expressing their disagreement for Konoha, despite not actually having done anything against the village. The organization's top priority was its secrecy, and most of its mission were carried out in the dark – autonomous of Konoha's Authority, bar the Hokage, who could influence Danzo's actions on the organization's activities.
In a shorter explanation, ROOT- was a more ruthless subdivision of the Anbu under Danzo's control. They handled the dark side of Konoha's actions, which Hiruzen was unable to properly execute with his views of life. That's why, he allowed Danzo to form an Anbu faction of his own, to settle operations and matters he couldn't do himself, but Danzo could with his expertise, this forced the Hokage to give Danzo utmost authority over missions in their gallery for executing, however, only those A-Rank missions and above, or orders from Danzo – which he was requested of by Hiruzen. There are also two expectations which Danzo have for it, but it required great planning and complete secrecy on his part – one was something for his life-long desire, and the other for his cooperation with Hiruzen's student, Orochimaru, which was recently brought to him by the Sannin a week ago, and both required exceptional shinobis under his wing...
Their staring contest lasted for a few minutes until Danzo harrumphed deliberately as he left with a few parting words with sarcasm in his tone. "Since that's your decision, I'll loyally comply Hokage-sama."
While his thoughts were saying otherwise.
'If I can't train children from the academy. Then I can always 'create' worthy ones with the help of your student's peculiar research Hiruzen...'
The Sandaime Hokage watched his old friend's retreating figure as he inwardly shakes his head, thinking nothing much out of it. He and Danzo might have a few arguments over certain matters because of their contradicting philosophies, the old Sarutobi still believed they wouldn't harm each other no matter their differences, they had after all knew each other for most of their life.
However, Hiruzen was oblivious to the fact that even though Danzo still viewed him as his comrade, his covetous desires outweighed the attachments they had formed all the years they've known each other. It wasn't simple rivalry, but a significantly more ill objective towards the other individual's property.
Once this ill objective becomes a reality, Hiruzen would by then be doomed; it'll stick with Hiruzen for the rest of his life – or if he would even be able to live in that reality.
…
[That same day – Night time]
Kajirama was sitting cross-legged on his mattress, on his lap was a fuinjutsu scroll containing fundamental elements and components on the obscure art. He was attentively reading through it with concentration.
He was still on the fundamentals of Fuinjutsu, there's numerous formula and elements Kajirama still have to learn even though he could now create simple seals that didn't require much difficulty except calligraphy. The more Kajirama learn knowledge around the art, the more he realized the reason why not many shinobis were willing to learn it despite how effective and powerful it was. His father's teachings and a few from his grandfather made Kajirama realize that – when learning the art of Fuin[Sealing], one not only needed talent, but dedication and optimism too, without these strengths, one wouldn't be able to continue on as they would prefer to focus on learning their current specialties and be unable to completely learn all the fundamentals of Fuinjutsu which would make one ineligible to learn even the most basic intermediate techniques. Not to mention that Fuinjutsu had no limit as it correlates with the mind and one's creativity.
As these sudden thoughts came to his mind, Kajirama smile wryly. He had never regarded himself as smart or imaginative, and dedicated. However, he knew that learning the art would be piece of cake for him, not in the terms of learning it with fast speeds, but learning it with wholeheartedness. Ultimately, he was by all certainty, a book worm, or with a much better term, an individual with the love of learning, especially learning subjects that piques his interest. Fuinjutsu was one of it.
Additionally, the prospect of carrying the title of a fuinjutsu master was very fascinating to Kajirama. Currently, he wasn't even qualified to call himself a novice, he was more of a 'learner' than one. There are differences between the two, in the form of completely learning the fundamentals of the art.
However, he knew that Fuinjutsu practitioners had high status in the world. Major Hidden Villages often fought over a true fuinjutsu master's help and aid.
In the entire Elemental Nation, a fuinjutsu practitioner had the most unique and special profession. There was a simple reason for that: many matters concerning war were inseparable from fuinjutsu practitioners.
For example, practitioners of the art can create a sealing technique that could seal Kyubis[Talied Beast] which were regarded as disasters that even Kage level shinobis feared encountering, a technique that could turn the tides of war when used right against the enemy fronts.
However, there was only a small number of fuinjutsu masters in the world. They were known to be very rare as there might not be one practitioner even among a thousand shinobis.
Kajirama cracked his neck using his hand. ''Learning Fuinjutsu might be hard, but I'm still young, others my age can't even do a simple jutsu like the Bunshin, so I have enough time, hopefully, to be able to learn the advanced stuffs.''
Kajirama was saying this because he wanted to become like his father, he was his role model, he wanted to become strong like him. And it was because of one reason and one reason only... To receive praise from him. The absence of his father most of the time made Kajirama yearned for such simple gesture, that's one of the reasons why he wanted to learn Fuinjutsu.
''I'm stuck though...' Kajirama eyed the problem which he was dwelling on for quite some time now. It was a problem that was missing a solution, he had already formulated the correct calculation and application needed, but he was stuck on the most vital part – After determining the application required that came from calculation on a certain Fuin Jutsu[Sealing Technique], when one brushes ink on a calligraphy paper and write down the necessary Kanjis, one had to apply a certain component to it, and that is the 'release and the execution part' of the jutsu or the battery that powers the seal's trigger point.
Obviously, chakra was the trigger that powered the Kanjis. As one writes down line after line of Fuinjutsu from the calculation and morphed it with the language of Kanji which holds multiple different forms for sealing and then expose them to chakra. The chakra would run through the 'program' and executes the command it finds. And, like a programming language, the smallest, simplest mistake can spell disaster. Instead of your programming failing to compile or run, things might turn explosively violent - if you're lucky.
"What the hell is the final Kanji formation needed!?- Ugrrr!!" It was the most basic technique, Kibaku Fuda [Explosive Tag]. Even though he could always search the answer of the final component in the next pages, Kajirama didn't want to do that, he wanted to correct it on his own.
"Had I skipped passed on learning a few basic Kanji Formation or something?" Kajirama thought of a possibility. "But I can say for sure I have not though... Then what is it."