The sun was dipping low, its orange glow spilling across Training Ground 36. Itachi and Enji were resting under a tree after the intense spar.
Enji took out some dango sticks from his pouch and gave one to Itachi while munching on one.
He kept the rest between them, slightly closer to him.
He was amused and struggling to hold his laughter as he saw Itachi side eyeing the dango, swallowing hard, but not taking it as he was too shy to ask for it.
" Haah.... Who knew our aloof, cool Uchiha prodigy had a thing for sweet dango. Maybe I should tell your fangirls about it."
Enji saw Itachi's turn red from his teasing,trying to maintain his composure. As Enji continued the teasing, his brows furrowed.He felt a gaze on him.
He raised his hand slightly, wordlessly signaling to Itachi. The Uchiha's eyes narrowed in understanding, his body shifting subtly into a guarded stance.
Itachi didn't question him.Together, they moved back-to-back, their posture steady, every muscle taut.
He focused his mind, trying to sense the surroundings .
"Show yourself," Enji called out, his tone firm,towards the direction where he sensed the presence.
A resonant chuckle answered from the treeline. "Sharp. Both of you. Yasu has taught you well little Enji.Huh, what was the phrase?... 'Constant vigilance ' isn't it. Haha."
The figure stepped out from the shadows, pipe in hand, draped in the regal robes of the Hokage.
"Lord Hokage,"
" Grandpa Hokage"
Both saluted,bowing swiftly, slightly relaxing thier postures.
Hiruzen Sarutobi's smile was warm but layered, the kind of smile that carried both approval and a test. "I had come only to observe… and you sensed me. That alone speaks volumes about your growth. Most chunin would not have sensed me until I willed it."
The praise hung between them, but neither boy relaxed. That only deepened the Hokage's smile.
"You are training diligently," he said, walking closer. "I have seen your progress through reports. But reports are only words. I wanted to see for myself what kind of shinobi you two are becoming."
"You two are far sharper than most at your age," Hiruzen said, puffing on his pipe. "It warms my heart… but it also makes me curious."
"Curious?" Enji asked carefully, brows raised.
"Yes," Hiruzen replied, a twinkle lighting up his eyes. "They call me the Professor, after all. A title I hold proudly. And as a teacher, I cannot resist testing talented students."
Itachi's dark eyes flickered with interest. "A test…?"
Hiruzen's smiled,like a grandfather amused by his grandchildren. "I did not come to test your strength today. Power is only one part of what makes a shinobi. What matters just as much…" His eyes sharpened, "…is what lies within your hearts."
Itachi looked down briefly, contemplative, before meeting the Hokage's gaze. "Our ideals?"
"Precisely." Hiruzen rested his pipe against his lips, exhaling a thin stream of smoke that curled with the wind. "Tell me, Itachi… tell me, Enji… What do you fight for? What kind of shinobi do you wish to become? I wish to hear it directly from your mouths."
The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by the sound of cicadas.
Itachi was the first to speak, his tone soft but unwavering. "I want to understand… peace. Why wars happen, why the great villages go to war despite knowing the suffering and loss it causes.
Shinobi kill each other endlessly, hatred passes from parent to child, in a vicious cycle. I want to be strong enough to break that cycle. I want to stop the pointless fighting."
Hiruzen nodded slowly a bit surprised, his expression unreadable but his eyes thoughtful. "A weighty goal for one so young. That path is not easy, Itachi. But I see resolve in you. "
' It is almost impossible, even Lord first and my teacher could not accomplish it.' But he didn't want the young ones to get discouraged, so he encouraged them.
"You can achieve your dream, if you strive hard for it."
Then his gaze turned to Enji. "And you, Enji…? What about yours?"
Enji's heart tightened slightly within his chest. His adult mind wrestled with the weight of the question. He wasn't just a boy among the academy hopefuls,he was a man reborn, with the burden of perspective few could imagine.He debated whether to gain gain favour from the Hokage by spoting flowery ideals or just show his real thoughts. Finally he made up his mind.His voice came out steady, almost too steady for his age.
"I want to protect what I have," he said at last. "Family, friends, this village. The world is uncertain, cruel at times. If I have strength, I'll use it to shield those I care for. That is what it means, at least for me, to be a shinobi."
Hiruzen's eyes softened, though his thoughts turned deeper. 'One who seeks to understand peace, and one who seeks to protect bonds… together, they reflect two halves of the Will of Fire itself.'
The Hokage placed a hand on each boy's shoulder, the gesture heavy with approval.
"Both of you… are the kind of shinobi this village will one day depend on. Remember these words you have spoken to me tonight. Ideals will be tested, bent, even threatened to break. But if you hold to them, they will guide you even in darkness."
The wind carried away the lingering smoke of his pipe. The scene,it felt like the passing of a torch between generations.
" Let's leave the serious talks for later, when you grow up."
With a dramatic sigh, the elderly man continued -
" Sigh ,I feel like my old bones haven't had any excersice recently. Help me move my stiff joints, young Enji and Itachi."
With a mischievous smile,the Hokage pulled out two small silver bells from his robe, their faint jingling cutting through the silence.
"If you two can take these bells from me, I'll personally teach you a jutsu of my choosing."
Enji's gaze sharpened. "And if we fail?"
"Then…" Hiruzen's smile widened "…you'll both run errands for me every day after class for a whole month. I could use two bright boys to fetch tea, chop firewood, and grind tobacco for my pipe, you see."
"Use everything you know," Hiruzen continued. "Taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, anything at all. Come at me with the intent to win. And don't hold back."
Enji folded his arms. "So we can use everything we know, what about you grandpa? Will you also use jutsus?"
Hiruzen shook his head, chuckling. "No. Today I'll handicap myself. I'll use only taijutsu. If you want these bells, you'll have to outthink me."
Enji and Itachi let a sigh of relief. Battling the Hokage was exciting as well as nerve wracking.
Even without ninjutsu or genjutsu, Hiruzen's decades of battle experience and refined taijutsu would be formidable.
They knew they had no chance beating him, even when he was this old, and just limited to taijutsu.
But the goal was not beating him, it was to take the bells, that too, two against one.
"We accept," Enji said without hesitation.
Itachi nodded silently, his eyes sharpening with focus.
....
At the same time, beneath the surface of Konoha in a hollow maze carved into stone and reinforced with timber -a labyrinth without warmth, without any light, a masked shinobi knelt, his movements mechanical, his posture completely subservient.
At the center, on a chair,upon a raised platform, sat an old man,covered in bandages with a cross shaped scar on his chin.
One visible eye, cold and sharp as a hawk's, emotionless,scrutinised the kneeling ninja causing him to shudder .
The elderly man's face was weathered, but there was no frailty in his posture. He radiated command, authority… and menace.
A kneeling Root operative spoke, voice low and stripped of emotion:
"Lord Danzo… the Hokage was sighted leaving towards Training Ground 36 ,earlier today. Alone without any escort."
Danzo's fingers tightened on the edge of his cane. " Training ground 36? Where the Uchiha kid trains?The Hokage… wasting his time with children?" His tone was flat, but a shadow of disdain carried in it.
Danzo rose slowly, the hem of his robes dragging across the floor like whispers of old conspiracies.
"Itachi Uchiha," he murmured, his voice low, serpentine. "So young… yet already under the Hokage's gaze. Dangerous."
He stepped forward, the torchlight catching the shadows of his bandaged arm.
"That boy is special. I have known it from the start. He is talented, even among the Uchiha. He must be controlled , he'll be a strong tool."
Danzō's lips curled faintly, not quite a smile. "Hiruzen… ever the sentimental fool. He nurtures flowers in the light, but he forgets the weeds that grow in darkness."
" I heard Itachi trains with another kid.What of the other boy?" Danzo asked.
Another Root agent stepped forward, handing over a thin file. The parchment was unimpressive, the ink strokes ordinary.
"Enji Sarutobi. The records mark him as… mediocre. An orphan of the sarutobi clan. Average talent."
Danzo flipped through the report, his expression unreadable.
But then his eye narrowed.
"Yet," he said slowly, "he spars with Itachi Uchiha. His scores at the academy are perfect, his skills way beyond his peers, and only one who can match Itachi."
The chamber fell silent.
"Does this " Danzo lifted the papers, "look like the boy you have described?"
The Root operative hesitated for a fraction of a second , an error that, under Danzo's gaze, was as damning as a confession.
"…No, Lord Danzo."
" Useless. Root does not need imcompetents. Take him away to the punishment room."
The kneeling ninja shivered,but obediently let his colleagues take him away.
The file dropped onto the table with a soft thud.
Danzō's voice dropped, dark and calculating.
"Records lie. But the body does not. This child… Enji Sarutobi… there is a discrepancy."
"But…" Danzo's words slowed, deliberate, "…he is of the Sarutobi bloodline."
His eye hardened.
"Hiruzen's own kin. To touch him would be… unwise. The old fool still clings to his attachments. If he sniffed even a shadow of my hand near his clan, he would bare his fangs."
He turned, robes dragging behind him as he strode back to his platform.
"No. The Sarutobi boy is not to be approached. Not yet. Watch him from afar. Quietly. Should his growth threaten our plans… then we shall reconsider."
Danzō stood in the half-dark, his non bandaged hand tightening around his cane.
"Spread more rumors about the Uchiha, create more problems between them and the civilians."
The masked Root agents bowed their heads in unison. "Yes, Lord Danzo."
"Leave."
The Root ninjas flickered away leaving Danzo alone with his thoughts.
'…The Uchiha are already restless,Fugaku is already struggling to supress the radicals. The time is near. Once I eliminate them, I'll become Hokage, and make Konoha the greatest.'
The Root chamber returned to silence, the oppressive kind that spoke of plots buried beneath the very foundations of Konoha.