The Undesired Second Chance

Chapter 44: Closed Door Meetings

The privacy seals in the walls automatically swirled to life as his office door clicked politely shut, and Sarutobi Hiruzen—leader of his village, the third Hokage, a man feared and respected across the Elemental Nations—just... stared at it, for a long moment. He wasn't truly seeing the door at all, his mind more focused on other matters, on memories.

Some were recent.

Others were... markedly less so.

He again pictured that unexpected update he had just gotten from young Minato—how the shinobi had been standing, right in front of his desk, not quite frowning but with honest worry in the line of his shoulders. It had been so similar to that earlier meeting with Uzumaki Kushina and the young members of the newest Team 7, unsettling inferences and all.

Except, of course, that the pursuit-and-capture Minato had detailed to him all but proved those alarming conjectures to be true.

The young jonin plainly loved and trusted the village, to have so readily brought their own investigation forward, especially considering what the findings implied. But also, to have even found and faced that concerning truth in the first place, Minato had not let that trust blind him.

Not like Hiruzen had done.

Lacing his fingers together, he rested his forehead in his hands with a heavy sigh. Although he had been toying with the idea of retiring in a few years, he did not really think of himself as an old man—even if, by shinobi standards, he certainly was. But at this moment he could feel every day, month, year of his life weighing down on his shoulders: every unquestioned moment, every inaction, pressing with the force of uncomfortable truths realized.

Hiruzen knew he had been lenient with his old friend, his once-rival.

He hadn't thought that could be a problem.

To be honest, even now, he wasn't sure there was a problem. In all likelihood, Danzō had made the right choice. If he had learned something new that could potentially put the village at risk, he was certainly correct to detain the individual in question until they could get answers.

But... why hadn't he reported his action to his Hokage?

Why hadn't Danzō told him?

(One of his oldest friends?)

That's what worried him.

He should have been informed. It's technically possible that the record simply hadn't reached him yet, had been shunted somewhere in the non-critical stacks of paperwork and lost for the moment. Not to mention, there's any number of perfectly justified reasons Danzō would purposefully delay his report.

Perhaps he simply did not think it was worth bringing to his attention immediately, or maybe he simply didn't wish to come forward without more answers, or—

Hiruzen sighed, pushing back his chair to stand and walk to the window.

He was doing it again.

His old friend had his reasons—surely he did—and it was not Hiruzen's place to make excuses for him. No matter how much he had been doing that lately, without even really noticing.

That had to stop.

With deliberate purpose, Hiruzen moved to prepare a summons—setting out a scroll, ink, and brush on his desk. It was already getting fairly late, but he needed to hear from Danzō directly. Then he would get his answers, and learn what had really happened and why.

(And begin to untangle the snarl in which he'd found himself.)

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