Saints and Suffering: A Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 19- Interview

As Sarutobi Hiruzen and Hatake Kakashi walked through the streets of Konoha, the Sandaime started to ask a few questions to Kakashi.

  "Kakashi, I must say I am incredibly interested why a person like you seems to trust this man within such a short period time?

  I believe he has been in the village for less than 72 hours, no?"

  "It's hard to explain Hokage-sama, there's a couple different facets here, and I believe my position to be a bit more logical than you might be assuming."

  "Oho, explain then please."

  "As Shikaku said earlier, Yama was a genin, one. Two, he is currently crippled. You'll get a feeling for what we truly mean once you meet him. He has no presence whatsoever, he lacks any residual killing intent or any chakra fluctuations.

  To be honest, its almost uncanny. I saw him meditating this morning, and he almost seemed more like a corpse rather than a living breathing human."

The Hokage frowned.

  "An ability to hide one's presence to that level seems like something that would raise your guard rather than lower it?"

Kakashi nodded.

  "I would normally agree with you, but I have to disagree with you here. Its hard to explain, but if you called him invisible, you'd also have to call him blind.

  I was skeptical of him at first too, so I would level my full killing intent against him while rousing my chakra for an attack while making no efforts to hide it.

  Even a civilian would notice it, but he has never once showed a single sign of reacting. No fluctuations at all. I even tried it while he was sleeping."

The Hokage scratched his chin before drawing his pipe from a sleeve and lighting it up.

  "I'll take your word for it for now, but you must have more reasoning?"

  "Yessir, the reason I "trust" him is that he cannot actually damage anything in any meaningful capacity.

  In the same way that a jonin-sensei can prevent genin from going astray, I can monitor him while he teaches and prevent him from leading others astray.

  At the end of the day, he simply lacks the strength needed to do any damage, no matter how hidden he is or his intentions."

The Hokage frowned at the final comment.

  "What if you are underestimating him?"

  "I might be. It is possible. However, I would have to misread his capabilities as well as intentions for him to do any damage."

The Hokage continued to press.

  "That cannot be everything, surely you have more?"

Kakashi looked a little hesitant, and opened his mouth before closing it. The Hokage noticed the microexpression.

  "Say it, that's an order. I need to know why you trust this man around our children."

Kakashi tensed somewhat. The Hokage was deadly serious.

  "Yessir! It's his aura and demeanor, sir."

  "Explain further."

  "II can't sir. Have you ever had a bad gut feeling about something even though all logic pointed the opposite direction?"

The Hokage snorted.

  "You don't live to my age without a good nose for danger. Intuition is the unteachable lodestone of a good shinobi."