Reiji stopped in front of the Hokage building for a brief moment before stepping inside. The place was busy as always, shinobi and civilians moving through the large hall with stacks of papers in their hands, conversations blending together beneath the constant sound of footsteps against polished wood. Nobody paid attention to him. A few people brushed past his shoulder without even sparing him a glance, too focused on their own work to care about a kid like him.
His eyes moved across the room before settling on the reception desk near the far wall. A young woman with blonde hair sat behind it, blue eyes lowered toward a pile of documents spread across the table in front of her. She looked barely older than twenty. Reiji approached slowly before clearing his throat.
"Excuse me?"
The woman lifted her head and immediately smiled when she saw him.
"Ah! You should be Reiji-kun, right? I was notified you'd be coming."
She turned in her chair, opening one of the drawers behind her before rummaging through several papers. After a few seconds she pulled one free and handed it over to him. Reiji took it between two fingers, his eyes lowering toward the address written across the page.
"Your assignment today is to help clean an old storage room and sort the documents inside. Someone else will come later to move everything afterward."
Reiji stared at the paper for another second before exhaling through his nose.
"What a chore…" he muttered, already annoyed. "You don't have anything more interesting than this?"
The woman gave him an apologetic smile, though it was clear she found his reaction more amusing than troublesome.
"No can do. Those are the orders you received."
Reiji clicked his tongue quietly under his breath before folding the paper and slipping it into his pocket. Without adding anything else, he turned and left the building.
***
The address led him toward one of the older districts near the edge of Konoha, far from the busier streets closer to the center of the village. The buildings here looked abandoned for the most part, remnants from an earlier period of the village that nobody had bothered maintaining properly.
The building looked ancient. Most of it was wood, the dark exterior warped from years of rain and neglect. Part of the roof sagged inward badly enough that it looked ready to collapse under a strong gust of wind. Dust-coated windows reflected the afternoon light weakly, and weeds pushed through cracks in the stone foundation near the entrance.
"Seriously…?" Reiji muttered while glancing back down at the paper to confirm the address again. "I have to clean this place?"
The structure was massive. Even from outside he could tell it stretched several floors upward. Sorting through everything alone would probably take days.
He sighed before pushing the old door open and stepping inside.
The interior was dim, only thin beams of sunlight slipping through cracks high above and cutting through the darkness in pale streaks. Dust particles drifted lazily through the air wherever the light reached, disturbed slightly by the movement of the door behind him. The silence inside the building felt strange compared to the noise of the village outside.
Reiji's footsteps slowed naturally as he moved deeper inside.
Rows upon rows of archive shelves filled the room ahead of him, tall enough that some nearly brushed the ceiling. Scrolls and old records were stacked everywhere in uneven piles, many of them covered beneath thick layers of dust. Some shelves leaned slightly to one side under their own weight. Others looked one bad impact away from collapsing entirely.
His eyes lowered toward the floor.
Reiji narrowed his eyes before staying still for a moment, quietly listening.
The building creaked softly around him as the wood settled with age. Somewhere deeper inside, something shifted almost imperceptibly.
Reiji's gaze moved toward the darker section between two rows of shelves before he slowly stepped farther into the room. Behind him, the old door creaked shut under its own weight with a dull thud, cutting away most of the remaining light and plunging the archive deeper into darkness.
He advanced between the towering shelves at an unhurried pace, his eyes moving calmly from one side to the other while his senses stretched outward. The narrow rows created countless blind spots. Too many places for someone to hide comfortably.
Then he stopped.
His head turned slightly toward the shelf on his left.
At first glance there was nothing there beyond dust-covered wood and stacks of aging scrolls disappearing into darkness.
Reiji smiled faintly.
The silence shattered without warning.
A deafening crash exploded through the archive room as the entire row of shelves Reiji had been watching erupted outward in a storm of splintered wood, loose paper, and choking dust. The impact tore through the narrow aisle like a charging beast, shelves collapsing one after another beneath sheer brute force. Heavy wooden frames were ripped apart and thrown across the room while old scrolls burst open midair, their contents scattering like snow through the darkness.
Something massive barreled straight through the archive rows where Reiji had been standing only an instant earlier.
Wood cracked violently. Support beams groaned. Dust rolled across the room in thick waves as the figure continued its charge through multiple rows without slowing, smashing through shelves as though they were made of straw before finally stopping near the far edge of the chamber.
For a few seconds, only drifting dust remained.
Then the shape inside the destruction straightened fully.
A large man stood in the middle of the ruined archive lane, his broad body partially covered in rough layers of stone armor that wrapped around his shoulders, forearms, and chest. Bits of broken wood slid from the rocky plates as he snorted once and slowly looked around the room, searching through the dust-filled darkness.
Above him, hidden among the upper support beams near the ceiling, Reiji remained perfectly still.
He crouched low atop one of the massive wooden crossbeams supporting the upper floor, his fingers pressed lightly against the aged wood to stabilize himself. Dust floated around him in slow spirals, disturbed by the destruction below. Through the gaps between the beams, he studied the giant quietly.
Strong.
Absurdly strong, judging by the destruction alone.
But subtle? Not even remotely.
When Reiji had entered the building, the shifted dust on the floor had already given away someone's presence. The man had tried covering his tracks afterward, but the disturbances were sloppy once you knew what to look for. Even his breathing had been audible in the silence of the archive room if one listened carefully enough.
Which meant one of two things.
Either the man was incompetent—
—or he was meant to be seen.
Reiji's eyes narrowed slightly.
A distraction.
He twisted sharply behind the beam at the exact moment a violent storm of kunai and shuriken tore through the darkness toward his previous position. Metal shrieked against wood as the projectiles buried themselves deep into the support beam, some punching entirely through one side before stopping inches from his face. The thick pillar shuddered under the barrage, now bristling with blades like the back of a porcupine.
Reiji stayed pressed against the opposite side of the beam, calm despite the sudden attack.
The giant below wasn't alone.
His eyes flicked toward several embedded kunai near his shoulder. He pulled two free smoothly before adjusting his grip around them.
I seriously need to start carrying weapons properly, he thought irritably. Every time I leave the house I end up stealing someone else's.
Keeping low against the beam, he glanced toward the direction the projectiles had originated from. The archive room remained almost entirely dark beneath the thick dust clouds, but faintly—just faintly—he caught a metallic glint deeper between the shelves.
A mechanism.
Reiji's body stilled instantly.
He pivoted violently just as another kunai shot toward the side of his skull from behind. Steel collided in a burst of sparks as Reiji intercepted the blade with one of the stolen kunai, the impact jolting sharply through his wrist. The force behind the strike immediately told him the difference in physical strength between them.
A gaunt-looking man had appeared directly behind him atop the beam, his narrow frame balanced with practiced precision despite the unstable footing. Bloodlust burned in the man's eyes as he pressed forward aggressively, trying to overpower Reiji's guard before he could regain momentum.
Reiji shifted his footing instinctively along the beam to absorb the pressure, the aged wood creaking beneath both their weight. The opponent was stronger than him physically—not overwhelmingly, but enough to matter in close quarters.
His lungs expanded slightly as chakra gathered in his chest.
Cold spread along his throat.
Then the man's jaw moved.
Reiji's eyes sharpened instantly.
The attacker spat a cluster of senbon directly toward his face at point-blank range.
Reiji immediately cut the chakra flow to his technique before it could release. Instead of forcing the attack through, he let his body drop backward off the beam entirely, tilting his head just enough for the senbon to whistle past his cheek close enough that he felt the air shift against his skin.
The world inverted around him as gravity seized his body.
Still falling, he caught movement below.
The giant was already charging.
The massive man crossed the archive floor with terrifying speed for someone his size, chunks of broken wood splintering beneath his feet while he raised an enormous spiked club over one shoulder. Dust exploded outward behind him with every step.
Too fast.
Reiji's body was still suspended in midair with limited room to maneuver when the giant swung.
The club descended like a collapsing wall.
The force behind it distorted the air itself before impact, enough that Reiji felt the pressure against his skin even before the strike reached him. If that thing connected directly, his skull would cease to exist.
At the last possible instant, he twisted sharply in midair, rotating his hips and shoulders together to alter his trajectory by inches rather than meters. The spiked club roared past his body close enough that the displaced wind tugged violently at his clothes.
And in that tiny opening—
Reiji drove one of the stolen kunai directly into the thick wooden shaft of the club.
His fingers locked around the handle instantly.
The momentum nearly ripped his shoulder out of place.
For a split second his entire body was dragged sideways through the air alongside the full force of the giant's swing, the speed tearing him across the room fast enough to blur the shelves around him. Then, at the precise moment the swing reached its widest arc, Reiji released the kunai.
The accumulated momentum launched him violently across the archive chamber.
He rotated midair several times to bleed off speed before planting both feet against the far wall. The impact cracked the wood beneath him and sent pain rattling up through his legs and spine despite the chakra reinforcing his footing.
Reiji exhaled slowly while clinging sideways to the wall.
His shoulder throbbed faintly from the strain.
That was probably stupid, he admitted internally while flexing his fingers once to make sure the joint still worked properly.
Below him, the giant ripped the embedded kunai from his club with an irritated grunt while the thinner shinobi landed silently atop one of the partially collapsed shelves nearby.
Two opponents confirmed.
And at least one hidden support mechanism somewhere in the dark.
Clinging sideways to the cracked wall, Reiji finally allowed himself a brief moment to breathe.
Dust drifted slowly through the archive chamber around him, thick enough now that the lantern light barely reached across the room anymore. Entire rows of shelves had been reduced to splintered wreckage during the first exchange, broken scrolls and shattered wood covering the floor beneath the giant's feet.
Reiji's eyes moved carefully between the two men below while his mind continued piecing the situation together.
The large one was obvious. Enormous physical strength, reinforced with some form of Earth Release armor durable enough to smash through shelves without slowing down. Fast too, disturbingly fast for his size, though his movements lacked refinement. He fought like someone used to overwhelming opponents directly.
The second man was the opposite.
Lean build. Precise footing. Hidden weapons. Senbon concealed inside the mouth. He had reacted instantly the moment Reiji began gathering chakra for Hyōsoku earlier, interrupting the technique before it could fully form.
That part bothered him.
He knew what I was about to do, Reiji realized while narrowing his eyes slightly.
Which raised another problem entirely.
Who exactly were these people?
Mercenaries? Rogue shinobi?
That was the strange part. They looked determined enough to kill him, or at least stupid enough to try, but he could not understand how men of their level had managed to get this close to him inside Konoha without fear.
At first glance, they had seemed dangerous. The larger one especially had the kind of size and presence that could make someone hesitate for a moment. With surprise on their side, that might have been enough.
But now that the surprise was gone, the impression was already starting to crack.
They were not much.
Trouble for normal people, certainly. Maybe even trouble for a genin if they panicked or let themselves be caught off guard. But against an actual shinobi? Against someone who had already seen their first move?
No. Not really.
Which raised the obvious question.
Why were they still attacking him?
Were they desperate? Overconfident? Or did they simply have a death wish?
Reiji's gaze flicked briefly toward the dark entrance of the archive room behind the destruction.
And somehow they had known he would be here.
That was the part he disliked most.
This assignment had come directly from the Hokage administration building barely an hour ago. If these men were waiting specifically for him, then someone inside the village had informed them beforehand—or this entire mission had been prepared in advance from the beginning.
Neither possibility was comforting.
Still attached to the wall, Reiji tilted his head slightly before raising his voice through the dust-filled chamber.
"Hey, guys," he called casually, his tone almost conversational despite the ruined room around them. "How about we stop this before things get awkward? I don't know if I interrupted some kind of romantic meeting between the two of you, but if that's the case I can respectfully disappear and pretend none of this ever happened."
The thinner man stared at him silently for a second before answering in a flat voice.
"I'm afraid you're going to die here, kid."
Reiji sighed dramatically.
"But I'm a poor child," he replied with a look of exaggerated disappointment. "Do neither of you have even a little compassion?"
The giant moved first.
The floor shook beneath his weight as he surged forward again, smashing directly through another row of shelves instead of going around them. Thick wooden frames burst apart under the impact while entire stacks of archives spilled across the floor behind him. Dust exploded outward in violent clouds as he forced a straight line through the room toward Reiji's position like a battering ram given human form.
At the same time, the thinner shinobi vanished into the chaos created by his companion.
Reiji lost sight of him immediately.
There it is, he thought calmly.
Reiji's eyes shifted once more toward the distant entrance.
He could leave.
If he disengaged now, used the upper beams for movement, and escaped through the hallway before the thinner shinobi circled properly, there was still a decent chance he could reach the village and alert the authorities. Against unknown opponents with unclear motives, retreat would normally be the smarter decision.
But as the giant tore another shelf apart beneath him and the room trembled from the impact, Reiji felt something else settle quietly beneath his thoughts.
Curiosity.
The corners of his mouth lifted faintly.
No matter how he analyzed it, neither man had shown anything overwhelming yet. Dangerous, yes. Experienced enough to kill ordinary opponents quickly, certainly. But their rhythm was already becoming readable. The giant committed too much weight into his attacks, and the thinner man depended heavily on distraction and pressure from his partner to create openings.
Reiji pushed himself lightly away from the wall, landing atop a partially collapsed shelf with barely a sound.
Cold chakra stirred quietly through his body.
I can take them, he thought.
Cold mist curled steadily from between Reiji's joined palms as he pushed chakra through his lungs and channels in controlled pulses. The temperature around his hands dropped rapidly, thin layers of frost spreading over the broken wood beneath his feet while he launched himself forward again. Dust still rolled heavily through the ruined archive room from the giant's earlier charge, reducing visibility between the collapsed shelves to shifting silhouettes and scattered movement.
Reiji didn't focus entirely on the large man rushing him.
His eyes kept moving.
Watching the dust.
Watching the gaps between shelves.
The thinner shinobi had disappeared again the moment the giant resumed attacking, which meant he was waiting for another opening somewhere inside the chaos. Reiji could already feel the rhythm behind their coordination now.
The giant lowered his center of gravity and surged through another ruined shelf, fragments of wood exploding beneath his shoulders while the spiked club dragged splinters across the floor behind him. At the same time, Reiji caught a subtle disturbance deeper within the dust cloud to his right.
A storm of kunai burst through the haze an instant later, blades spinning violently as they tore through the drifting dust toward his torso and throat. Reiji exhaled sharply.
"Hyōsoku."
A concentrated stream of freezing air erupted from his mouth, the temperature dropping so abruptly that frost spread visibly through the air itself. The incoming kunai lost momentum almost instantly as layers of ice formed over the metal mid-flight. Several dropped heavily onto the ground while others shattered apart after striking debris hidden beneath the dust.
Reiji never slowed.
He continued straight toward the giant.
The massive man saw the cold stream coming and crossed his rock-armored arms in front of his face, clearly intending to bulldoze through the attack directly. His mistake wasn't underestimating the power of the technique.
It was assuming the attack had been aimed at him.
At the last possible second, Reiji flicked his head sideways and redirected the freezing current downward instead. The icy breath swept across the shattered wooden floor directly in front of the charging giant, instantly coating the dust-covered ground beneath the man's next step in a slick layer of frost hidden beneath the smoke and debris.
The giant planted his foot.
And lost it completely.
His balance vanished instantly beneath his own momentum. The massive body crashed sideways through the ruined aisle with enough force to snap another shelf apart upon impact, scrolls and broken wood exploding upward around him.
Reiji accelerated immediately.
There.
An opening.
He crossed the distance in seconds, cold chakra condensing visibly around his palms as he aimed directly for the giant's exposed head. Against someone this physically dangerous, prolonged exchanges were pointless. Freezing the brain or throat would end the fight instantly.
Then movement flashed from his blind side.
Reiji dropped low without hesitation as a kick tore through the space where his head had been an instant earlier. The thinner shinobi emerged from the dust with precise timing, using the giant's fall to cover his approach exactly like before.
Persistent little bastard.
Reiji pivoted sharply on one foot while reaching upward at the same time. His hand locked around the attacker's extended leg just below the knee.
Cold exploded outward instantly.
Frost spread violently across the man's limb, ice racing over muscle and skin fast enough that the shinobi cried out in shock as the freezing chakra invaded the flesh beneath.
"Annoying," Reiji muttered calmly.
Then he struck.
Rather than punching directly, he twisted his hips and drove the reinforced edge of his forearm into the frozen leg with brutal precision. The impact shattered the limb instantly.
The sound was wet and horrific.
Bone fragments, blood, ice, and torn flesh burst outward together in a violent spray across the ruined archive floor while the severed lower leg spun away into the debris. The thinner shinobi screamed, collapsing sideways as his nervous system struggled to process the sudden destruction.
"Brother!"
The roar shook the room.
The giant exploded upward from the wreckage almost immediately, rage drowning out whatever caution he'd possessed earlier. Broken shelves snapped beneath his feet as he charged blindly through the debris field, club already swinging before he fully closed the distance.
Reiji didn't retreat.
Didn't panic.
He simply grabbed the wounded shinobi by the collar and pulled him directly into the incoming strike.
The giant realized the mistake too late.
The spiked club connected with catastrophic force.
The wounded man's upper body simply ceased to exist upon impact. His skull burst apart instantly while his chest collapsed inward beneath the sheer weight behind the blow, blood and shattered bone spraying violently through the dust-filled room.
The force launched both bodies backward through another row of shelves.
Wood exploded around them.
Reiji rolled across the debris beneath the corpse before planting a hand against the floor and forcing himself upright again. Pain rattled through his shoulder from the impact, but nothing serious.
Across from him, the giant stared at what remained of his companion in stunned disbelief.
"Brother…" he breathed hoarsely. "What did you do?!"
Reiji let the ruined corpse slide from his grip with a wet thud onto the floor.
"You really weren't the smartest growing up, huh?" he said dryly while straightening.
The giant roared again and charged.
Reiji watched him carefully this time instead of moving immediately.
Then the club descended.
Reiji allowed it to hit him.
The weapon smashed through his torso and head in a violent eruption of blood and flesh, the impact spraying gore across the shattered shelves behind him.
The giant froze.
Only for a hand to settle lightly onto his shoulder from above.
"You can't even detect a basic genjutsu?" Reiji asked quietly.
The giant's eyes widened.
Reiji sat crouched atop the man's shoulders, his smaller frame balanced carefully against the unstable stone armor while two frost-covered kunai gleamed in his hands.
Then he drove both blades downward.
The frozen kunai punched directly through the giant's eyes before the man could react.
The scream that followed was animalistic.
The giant staggered violently through the archive room, swinging blindly in every direction while smashing apart shelves and support beams around him in pure panic. Reiji had already pushed himself away, flipping backward through the drifting debris before landing lightly several meters away atop a collapsed shelf.
He watched silently.
The giant clawed uselessly at his ruined face while stumbling through the wreckage, his attacks growing weaker with every passing second. Blood poured between his fingers while the stone armor coating his body slowly began cracking apart as his chakra control collapsed under the pain.
Eventually the man's movements slowed completely.
His knees hit the floor heavily.
The rocky armor dissolved piece by piece from his body, revealing a bald man beneath whose scar-covered frame trembled weakly from exhaustion and shock.
"Kill me," the man rasped.
Reiji remained still for a moment, studying him carefully.
"You already knew who I was," Reiji said calmly while stepping closer through the debris-covered floor. "You knew my techniques too. So who sent you?"
"Kill me."
The same answer.
Reiji frowned slightly.
As he approached, the blind man kept his head lowered, blood dripping steadily from the ruined sockets where his eyes had once been. He didn't even attempt to defend himself anymore.
Reiji stopped directly in front of him.
Then drove a brutal kick into the man's liver.
The impact folded the larger man sideways instantly. A broken gasp escaped his mouth as he collapsed onto the floor clutching desperately at his stomach while his body spasmed violently from the pain.
Reiji calmly joined his palms together again.
Cold mist began escaping slowly between his fingers.
"I can destroy the rest of your limbs one by one," he said quietly. "Just like your brother."
The man stiffened.
Reiji lowered one hand toward the man leg without touching it. Frost immediately began spreading over the skin and fabric beneath the invisible pressure of the cold alone.
"Don't worry," Reiji continued, his tone almost conversational. "I'll freeze the wounds shut afterward. You won't bleed out. Eventually you'll just be a trunk with no branches left attached."
The man shivered violently.
"So," Reiji said while the frost continued spreading higher along the leg, "are you going to speak?"
"There's no need."
The voice came from behind him.
Reiji froze instantly.
A sharp chill ran across the back of his neck as every instinct in his body screamed at once. Someone had approached close enough to speak directly behind him without him sensing even the slightest movement.
Reiji turned slowly.
And his eyes widened slightly for the first time since the fight began.
"Shimura-sensei…?"
Danzō didn't answer immediately.
He simply stood there in the middle of the ruined archive room, unmoving despite the dust still drifting through the air around him. The dim light filtering through cracks in the ceiling painted sharp shadows across the older shinobi's face, emphasizing the calm indifference in his visible eye.
" What's going on?"
"What do you think?" he replied at last.
Before Reiji could answer, movement exploded behind him.
The blind giant suddenly lunged forward with a roar, rage twisting his scarred face despite the blood still pouring from the ruined sockets where his eyes had once been. His massive arms reached wildly toward Danzō's throat, fingers clawing through the air with enough force to tear flesh apart if they connected.
Danzō didn't even step back.
His expression remained completely unchanged as he calmly raised one hand and formed a single seal.
The effect was immediate.
The giant's body locked violently in place mid-charge. Every muscle seized at once before his entire frame began trembling uncontrollably. Dark markings spread rapidly beneath his skin like ink bleeding through paper, jagged seal patterns crawling across his neck, arms, and chest while the man collapsed onto the floor convulsing in agony.
A strangled scream escaped his throat.
Reiji's eyes narrowed instantly in recognition as he stared at the spreading formula.
"The Coffin Seal…"
"The same one used on dangerous prisoners and criminals, yes," Danzō replied calmly before glancing at him from the corner of his eye. "You seem familiar with it."
Reiji's expression hardened.
"You start researching seals when you discover one was placed on you without your knowledge."
A faint smirk tugged briefly at Danzō's mouth.
"Still upset about that, hmm?" Danzō asked, the faintest trace of amusement touching his mouth. "You seem to believe that seal was a sign of Konoha's lack of trust in you. That it meant the village had rejected you."
Reiji's eyes narrowed at once.
"Don't change the subject," he said flatly. His fingers flexed once at his side, still sticky with sweat and drying blood. "What exactly is happening right now?"
For a moment, Danzō only looked at him.
Behind them, the giant twitched weakly against the floor, his breath coming in wet, broken pulls. The ruined archive room creaked around them. The smell of old paper had been swallowed by the sharper scent of blood and broken wood.
Danzō's gaze moved slowly over the destruction, unhurried and almost detached.
"Nothing particularly complicated," he said at last. "After reading your report regarding the kidnapping incident in the forest, I became curious about what you were truly capable of."
Reiji let out a humorless laugh. "So I'm some kind of animal for observation now?"
"No," Danzō answered immediately. "You are a valuable asset."
The words should have sounded better than they did.
Instead, they sharpened the bitterness sitting in Reiji's chest.
"Valuable enough for the Hokage to throw away for six months doing garbage chores?" he asked.
"Are you bitter about that?"
The calmness of the question irritated him more than the question itself.
"Who wouldn't be?" Reiji snapped, anger bleeding openly into his voice now. "Everyone already knows I don't belong in that academy anymore. I should have become a genin a long time ago, but every time, the higher-ups make the same excuse." His arm cut sharply toward the carnage across the floor. "Too young. Too inexperienced. Do I still look too young to you now?"
Danzō studied him for several seconds.
Then he answered softly.
"No. You do not."
Reiji stilled slightly despite himself.
Danzō turned away from him, his visible eye drifting across the ruined chamber. For the first time since he had appeared, something faintly resembling nostalgia passed through his expression. It was not soft exactly, but distant, as if he were looking at something far older than the wreckage in front of them.
"When the First Hokage founded this village," Danzō began, "one of his greatest wishes was to spare children from the suffering created by adults. Konoha was meant to become a place where the young could grow safely, away from war, until they were strong enough to face the world beyond it."
His voice remained even, almost reflective.
"But war came regardless. Violence always does." His eye shifted back toward Reiji. "Hiruzen still carries that dream. More than he should, perhaps. The fact that he refused your early promotion was not because he considered you worthless. It was because he considered you a child of the village, no different from the others."
Reiji's jaw tightened.
Danzō noticed. Of course he noticed.
"He knows you are talented," the older shinobi continued. "But making an exception for you would open the door for others. Other talented children. Other prodigies. Other students whose clans or parents would argue they are ready as well. And little by little, the dream our teacher helped build would erode further."
Reiji's mouth twisted.
"We already graduate at ten now," he said. "I think it's too late to pretend anyone is protecting childhood."
Danzō gave a small nod. "You are right."
That surprised him more than Reiji wanted it to.
"Dreams remain dreams," Danzō said, "and when they are forced against reality, compromise becomes necessary." His gaze settled more heavily on Reiji. "Right now, I am willing to make one."
The room seemed to grow quieter around them.
"The Hokage carries the hopes of the village," Danzō said. "But hope alone is not enough. Not when every major nation watches Konoha for weakness. Not when peace exists only because enemies have not yet decided the price of war is worth paying." His voice hardened by a fraction. "The village survives because some people are willing to do what others cannot."
His eye fixed fully on Reiji.
"And you could become one of those people."
Reiji stared at him warily. "What exactly are you talking about?"
"I am offering you an opportunity, Homura Reiji."
Danzō's voice remained measured, but there was weight beneath it now. A promise. A trap. Perhaps both.
"I can train you personally during the remainder of your punishment. Instead of wasting months carrying boxes and cleaning forgotten buildings, you could become stronger. Stronger than you would become by following the ordinary path laid before you." He gestured calmly toward the destroyed archive room. "You could become someone genuinely valuable to Konoha. Someone indispensable."
Then his tone flattened.
"Or we can pretend this conversation never happened, and you may return to your assignments."
Reiji said nothing for several seconds.
The offer hung between them, heavy and obvious. Too obvious.
"You planned this from the beginning," Reiji said at last, his eyes narrowing. "Ever since the punishment was announced."
Danzō did not deny it.
"Does the Hokage know about any of this?" Reiji asked.
A faint amusement touched Danzō's expression. "Hiruzen did not tell me to approach you."
Reiji waited.
"But he also did not stop me."
His frown deepened. "Why?"
"Deniability," Danzō answered, as if the answer should have been obvious. "Konoha possesses two faces, Reiji-kun. One stands in sunlight, where the Hokage inspires the village openly." His gaze darkened. "The other operates beneath it. Necessary. Unpleasant. Responsible for decisions the Hokage himself cannot publicly touch."
Reiji snorted. "Incredibly inspiring speech." His eyes remained cold. "So what? You want me cleaning up the village's filth until I become disposable too?"
Danzō raised an eyebrow.
"If I wanted a disposable operative, I would not be wasting my time here."
Reiji said nothing.
"I am offering you a path where your potential does not rot unused." Danzō paused briefly. "Take the Namikaze boy, for example."
Reiji went still.
Danzō saw that too.
"Talented," he continued. "Exceptional, even. But still bound by the expectations surrounding him." His visible eye locked onto Reiji's. "You could become far more dangerous than he ever will."
The words landed harder than Reiji wanted to admit.
Danzō's voice lowered slightly. "And no, I do not consider you disposable. Quite the opposite. What I need is not another invisible blade. I have those already. What I require now is someone visible. Someone exceptional. Someone capable of standing close to the village's future while still being able to make difficult choices when necessary."
Reiji's fingers curled faintly.
"You are special, Reiji," Danzō said. "Special enough to leave a mark on this village's history, if properly guided."
Then, quieter.
"This is your opportunity to restore your family's prestige."
Reiji's jaw tightened.
"To make your father proud," Danzō continued, "and make your grandfather regret abandoning you both."
For several seconds, Reiji said nothing.
Then a small laugh escaped him, hollow and without amusement.
"I know you're manipulating me."
Danzō nodded once without shame
"Everyone manipulates someone," he replied. "The only question is whether you profit from it."
Then he extended one hand.
"And you already know the answer."
Reiji stared at the offered hand while Danzō waited patiently, neither pressuring him nor insisting. Somehow, that made it worse.
Reiji understood exactly what was happening. Every word had been chosen carefully. Danzō had taken his frustrations one by one and laid them out like tools on a table. The academy. The punishment. The whispers behind his back. The way adults kept deciding what he was allowed to become, then acted surprised when he hated them for it.
And the worst part—
the truly infuriating part—
was that Danzō was not entirely wrong.
Reiji's gaze drifted across the archive room. Broken shelves. Torn scrolls. Frozen blood. Bodies cooling beneath the dust.
This was reality.
Not classrooms. Not lectures about patience and teamwork. Not old men telling him to wait because waiting made them feel righteous.
Violence existed whether the Hokage approved of it or not. The world did not become kinder because children were told to close their eyes. And the people who survived that violence were rarely the ones who waited politely for permission to grow stronger.
His jaw tightened.
Part of him wanted to refuse out of sheer spite. The trap was obvious. This was not generosity. It was recruitment. Control. Danzō had looked at him and seen something useful, and now he intended to shape that usefulness into a weapon for the village.
But another part of him—the colder, uglier part—could not ignore the opportunity placed before him.
For the first time in years, someone was looking directly at him and saying:
You are ready now.
Reiji exhaled slowly through his nose.
"…You really know how to talk to people," he muttered bitterly.
Danzō's visible eye remained calm. "I know how to recognize potential when I see it."
Reiji stared at the offered hand for another long moment.
Then he reached forward.
Their hands clasped firmly.
For the first time since entering the room, Danzō smiled properly. It was not large, but it softened the lines of his face enough that, for one brief instant, he looked almost younger.
"Good," he said quietly.
Then the warmth vanished from his expression as if it had never existed. His gaze moved toward the blind prisoner still writhing weakly across the floor.
"Kill him."
The room went silent.
Even the prisoner seemed to freeze.
Reiji looked at Danzō for several long seconds. The older shinobi returned his stare without blinking.
Then Reiji looked down.
A kunai lay half-buried beneath splintered wood near his foot, its handle slick with dust and blood. He bent, picked it up, and felt the weight settle into his palm.
He walked toward the wounded man.
The prisoner did not try to crawl away. Perhaps he no longer had the strength. Perhaps he understood there was nowhere to go. His chest rose in weak, ragged pulls, blood dripping steadily onto the broken floor beneath him.
Reiji stopped in front of him.
For a moment, he looked down at the man.
Then, without hesitation, he drove the blade straight into his heart.
The body jerked once.
Then went still.
Reiji released the kunai and stepped back.
Danzō approached from behind and placed one hand on his shoulder.
"From this moment onward, your involvement with me does not exist," he said quietly. "You will speak of it to no one. Not your comrades. Not the Hokage. Not even your father. The organization you are entering officially has no connection to Konoha whatsoever."
Reiji remained silent.
"I am trusting you without placing a seal upon you," Danzō continued. "Normally, that privilege would not exist."
His voice sharpened.
"Do not make me regret it. Betrayal or disclosure will be treated as treason. Are we understood?"
Reiji nodded once.
"You will receive secret training during the remainder of your punishment while publicly continuing your assigned duties." Danzō paused briefly. "Your mission classification will be S-rank."
Reiji's eyes widened slightly before he could stop them.
Danzō's mouth curved faintly.
"Be proud, boy. You are likely the first academy student in history to receive such responsibility."
Reiji hesitated, suspicion returning through the surprise.
"What mission?"
Danzō looked directly at him.
Then he answered.
And for the first time since the fight began, genuine shock crossed Reiji's face.
***