To be sure, all of the choices were good. But if he had to choose only one, Embers of the Heroic Age was what he'd fall back on. The reasoning for his choice was retively simple, too.

  At the end of the day, there was one thing that Tobio had desired above everything else. Beyond staying alive for the next few years of tumult, or rising above being just another mook in the crowd. Over everything else, he desired in this new life of his…Tobio wanted to be a hero. He'd admit that it was a fully selfish, greedy thing to want to be a hero, the hero, of a story. To take that mantle from the prophecy designated individuals, and strive for such an arrogant title. The appeal of a quiet life still rested in his mind, but to be sure, there was a part of him just as greatly hungering for some measure of glory.

  If he was going to be well-known and involved in the chaos of what was to come, by god, he'd get his fucking urels too.

  And there was nothing that'd allow him to do that better, to embody that archetype, than that singur perk. Even while Crent would prove an immediate boon to his parameters across the board, and S-Cells would provide a long-term goal for him and his descendants to chase. Neither of them nourished that wholehearted, earnest part of Tobio more than that perk.

  It might have been foolish to have it as a reason behind his actions. Nobody said he'd needed to be totally ambivalent, unbiased, or objective when it came to what he wanted, though.

  With his decision set, he pulled the mental trigger on the selection. In that instant, nothing really changed. But inside of him, Tobio could feel something new lurking. That was the best way he could describe the sheer potential he sensed, waiting in the wings for the right impetus. It'd be interesting to see the next time he was pushed to the brink, what hidden depths of might could be dredged up from inside of him. Whatever happened to him, it'd be an unpleasant surprise for whoever took him as merely a lowly Genin.

  Resting on the bed, he picked up two familiar chakra signatures ambling toward his hospital room, Tobio gnced up at Asuma, helping a beaten but alive Choji into the hospital room. The chunky boy looked like he'd been smacked around something fierce, and the mark on his arm looked as if it'd been scraped raw, but he had all of his limbs and faculties.

  Compared to what he'd been quietly afraid of, what might happen when the kid fought Gaara, that was getting off retively light.

  "How'd the fight go?" Tobio asked, as Choji cmbered onto the bed next to him, the thin frame creaking precariously as he did so.

  "I lost," Choji glumly responded.

  Asuma sighed at his side, reaching over to gently pat Choji on his head. "You gave a helluva fight. There's nothing to be ashamed of there."

  Some of the medics in the room were already heading over to attend to Choji, while Tobio's wounds were just finishing being wrapped up. Given that he could just will most of them closed, there weren't as many as they might have been expecting. His insides might have still looked like ground meat from Lee's blows, but they'd heal eventually.

  And once Lee was properly healed up, they could start to discuss a proper sparring regimen. Getting smacked around like that had been a great learning experience after all.

  "You're all good to go, if you want to make the announcements of the next stage," the medic tending to him answered.

  Much to Choji's incredulousness, as the boy shot him a boggled look. "…After all that stuff Lee did to you?"

  A low chuckle rolled out of Tobio, as he scratched nervously at the back of his head. Dried blood that'd crusted to his skull came away with the motion. Ugh. "What can I say? I'm sturdy."

  "That's an understatement," Asuma murmured, shooting Tobio a sidelong look. "Your sensei must be putting you lot through hell to get you that tough."

  "Nah," Tobio grinned, fshing white teeth and sharp canines. "I'm just built that way."

  Hopping off the bed, he gave Choji and his sensei a parting wave, heading back to the main arena floor. It wasn't long before all the winners were positioned along the front of the room, though even so, Tobio could feel eyes on him that weren't there before.

  He'd expected a lot of reactions to going all out for once. Before his fight with Lee, and Tobio had just been another civilian Genin of no note, he might not have rated much in the way of notice. Now, though, with no small amount of his capabilities on full dispy…

  The looks he got from the Jōnin-sensei were gauging, like he was a new and interesting puzzle to open. Hiruzen's eyes felt more incisive than ever, as if he'd now become another mystery to solve for the old shinobi. What really took Tobio aback were the gnces he was getting from the other Genin.

  Fear in the case of Temari and Kankuro, as if he were being lumped in with Gaara as some case of battle maniac. Maybe he was, to some degree, but what did take him aback was the quiet awe and shock radiating from the other Konohagakure Genin.

  Nothing about Sasuke's avaricious gaze felt healthy in the slightest. The Klesha roiled under the surface of his red-eyed stare, feeding whatever bonkers thoughts the Uchiha was toiling under. Naruto seemed more surprised than anything else, while Shikamaru and Shino were cool as ice, giving away very little that he could read from just a gnce.

  And Ino was-

  Hmm.

  No, that was a bag of crazy he didn't even want to peer at too deeply. Staring at the tempestuous emotions and reactions of a twelve-year-old girl was already feeling too creepy for Tobio. Taking his stance in the line-up of victors, the rest of the losing Genin who weren't too broken were otherwise up on the walkways, alongside their sensei.

  Standing before them were Ibiki, Anko, Hayate, and Hiruzen, as their proctor began to speak in earnest. "To those of you who won your bouts and qualified for the finals of the third phase, congratutions! Hokage-sama, they're all yours once more."

  With a smile, Hiruzen looked downright grandfatherly as he began to speak. "Well then…starting now, I shall begin expining the finals. As I mentioned earlier, you will conduct your final round battles in front of everyone. Each of you represents the prospective battle strength and tactics of your various nds, and so being given the capability to showcase your various talents."

  "Thus, the finals will commence one month from now." It was something Tobio had already known, but more of a surprise to the others around him.

  "We're not doing it right here, right now?" Naruto blurted out, a little confused.

  "We call this the requisite preparation period," Hiruzen expined, tilting his head ever so slightly to the side.

  "What do you mean?" Neji asked.

  Taking his pipe in hand, Hiruzen took a puff, before breathing it back up. "It's a period of time that allows us to rey the results of the preliminaries to the rulers and shinobi leaders of each nd, and to summon them to the finals. It also serves as a preparation period for you applicants."

  "What do you mean?" Kankuro asked, looking a little belligerent with his words.

  "You must prepare to understand your enemy, and understand yourself," he gestured, pointing at each person in the line-up. "During this period, you can analyze the intelligence you have gathered on your foes during the preliminaries and use it to increase your chances of victory."

  "Even though up to this point, all of the battles have been real battles, they were conducted alongside the premise that you were fighting an unknown enemy," the Professor happily taught, leaning into that age-old reputation. "However, the finals are a different story. Some of you may have ended up exposing everything in front of potential rivals, while others may have gone against strong opponents and found yourselves injured."

  "To make this fair and just," Tobio had to hold in a ugh at that, "-we give you a month. Each of you must embrace the opportunity to practice hard, learn some new tricks, and of course, get some rest."

  Honestly, chances were the moment they were out of the forest, Tobio was going to be training harder than ever. It'd be exciting, though, depending on who he fought.

  "There's one st thing we must do for the finals, however." At his words, Anko approached with a small wooden box, with a hole at the top. "There are slips of paper inside of the box Anko is holding. Each of you, take one per person."

  Going down the line, every person took one slip of paper.

  "Alright, does everyone have one now? Then, starting at the left, each of you read out the number written on your slip."

  When it came to the resulting match order, Tobio was admittedly a little less sanguine about seeing them listed out.

  "…Shit," he quietly spoke, looking at the matchings.

  Match one was Naruto vs Neji, there were no surprises there. What made Tobio spooked was the fact that the following match was him vs Gaara. He…barely paid the rest any attention, because they weren't that important, and most of his attention was on the pale-green eyes turned his way.

  And the anticipation inside of them.

  …Fuck it. A month to get strong enough to survive Gaara's bullshit? He'd survived worse.

  Hiruzen?More than any other foe he'd fought, time was the cruelest.

  Over the course of the sixty-nine years he'd lived, Hiruzen had waged wars in distant nds, lost nearly all of his children, and had unfortunately been party to some of the best and worst moments of his home. Horrors were wrought outside of his sight, giving birth to tragedies uncounted. Many of his shinobi had soared to unbridled heights, only to fall victim to new tragedies.

  He was tired of this hat and the demands that it made of him. For a time, he thought that his successor would be safe, yet even that had not been so. Under the cover of darkness, the Kyūbi was unleashed onto Konoha. Scores of shinobi were left dead in the wake of the rampage, tens of orphans, and their image on the international stage was diminished.

  However, Hiruzen felt as if they could have recovered from the damage to the vilge or their prestige among the Elemental Nations that had been soiled. The real loss was the death of his successor, who could have tied everything back together. Minato was just that kind of man, a true inheritor of the Will of Fire, in every way that mattered.

  Now Hiruzen held the hat once more, and if he were a lesser man, he'd have felt relieved for the power. As it was, he felt as if he was in a holding pattern, bearing the hat only so he could hand it off to those capable of bearing it. Those who wouldn't colpse, or otherwise fall, under the weight of the responsibilities that had pgued him for much of his life.

  Much to his surprise, however, he found that even in his long life he could still prove to be surprised.

  The Warring Cns era had been notable for proving a crucible for the various kekkai genkai that once walked the Elemental Nations. Only those that could survive the bloodbath of feuding families, assassinations, outright war, famine, disease, and worse, made it to the modern day. Even worse though, was the fact that so much knowledge had been lost.

  Cn archives had been burned, destroyed, pilfered, or encrypted with codes no one living could read. Which meant that it was difficult to nail down whether the bloodline that had manifested in the vilge was genuinely a new mutation or branching of an existing one, or merely an old Cn trait that had resurfaced after so long. Personally, Hiruzen was leaning toward the former.

  If Nakamura Tobio's bloodline had erupted before now, unless the st wielder was sin young, he suspected it would have proven more prominent in stories. The listing of his traits sounded like how civilians thought shinobi worked, rather than how their capabilities functioned in reality.

  Strength, speed, and durability that were not tied to chakra at all, like traditional taijutsu techniques and methodologies. Bones that defied all known attempts at study, let alone the medical staff's attempts at extracting bone marrow for study. Physiological manipution on par with some of what he recalled of the Blood Bone Pulse, from past wars. All of it springing from ex nihilo, it seemed.

  If they had the records of his parents to compare, that would have made it easier to track the source of young Tobio's bloodline. Yet even there, the Kyūbi's rampage had stymied traditional study there as well. Records on his apparently civilian lineage were scarce, and interviews with those who knew his parents by undercover ANBU had not borne much in the way of actionable intel.

  They had theories, to be sure, concerning his origins. Some analysts turned toward the task of updating his dossier, theorizing that his family line was born out of the Land of Waves, or the bordernds between the Land of Water and Fire. All of it was specutive ethnography at best, without other genetic matches to test against to be sure.

  His results in the first portion of the example did require a sharp edit of his capabilities once more. It wasn't as if his intelligence had not been a known element of Tobio's skillset, but apparently, they had been vastly underestimating how smart he was, or capable of analysis. Even now, his mind drifted back to the personnel specifically highlighted on the back of his test.

  Most of them were simple notations on how the various scions of Konoha's most eminent cns had managed to cheat. One of the expnations, though, was worrisome. Kabuto Yakushi possessed knowledge that one of his rank should not have, and subsequent examination of his records came up with some peculiarities.

  …For now, he'd tasked his ANBU with doing nothing but observation. But he had something of a suspicion that one of his old friends was still involved in skulduggery once more.

  If that had been the only bout of amusement that came from the Hidden Leaf's newest problem child, Hiruzen would have rested easily. However, it seemed as if Tobio was keen to rush his Hokage to an early grave, as the second part of the exams came to a close, and he presented a fully-fledged Uzumaki remnant wearing a Kusagakure headband. While the providence of their bloodline had not been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt yet, Hiruzen was inclined to believe the cim.

  Unlike most living shinobi, he had met enough Uzumaki in their heyday to glean the look of their lineage. And that specific, crimson shade of hair was once warily regarded across the Elemental Nations for a reason. Which meant that he had a new, small crisis on his hands, if a good one at the very least.

  Not being able to do more for the Uzu had been one of his longest held regrets, among so many others, over the course of his life. Being unable to save or secure much in the way of the legacy of the Uzumaki was a painful mark against his tenure as a Hokage, and one of the reasons why the Konoha forehead protectors bore a swirl at the center of the leaf. This, for all of the troubles he'd likely be borrowing against the future, was worth the hassle.

  If not for himself, then for Naruto, for Kushina, and for Lady Mito.

  The knock-on consequences of slighting Kusagakure during an official Chūnin Exam might be a little tricky, admittedly, but he was willing to run the risk. Even beyond the sentimental reasons, the Uzumaki were feared for a reason. And if young Karin inherited even a fraction of their famed capabilities, well, future generations of Konoha shinobi would benefit from the decision.

  Though he suspected their retionship with Kusa might be fraught, to say the least, if they found out. If.

  These were the various thoughts swirling in the back of his mind as they segued into the preliminary matches for the third phase of the exam. An unexpected one to be sure, but it merely meant that Konoha had a true surplus of talent this year. After giving his speech to the young shinobi, he retired to the camera room alongside Anko and some of the other proctors to watch the bouts in earnest.

  Pleasantly enough, it also gave him the chance to evaluate the other capabilities on dispy.

  For all of his burning need for vengeance and otherwise noted emotional instability, Sasuke Uchiha was managing the Cursed Mark well enough. Orochimaru's outright interference in such a noted examination drew no small amount of scrutiny, but as far as the various ANBU forces could tell, the man was gone. After all, why stick around once he'd marked his 'prize'?

  With such an impediment to his fighting skills via his compromised chakra network, a loss would not have been surprising in the slightest. Somehow, though, Sasuke had achieved a win, moving forward to the next stage. Naruto followed suit, albeit in something of an ignominious way. However, for a ninja, there was no such thing as a dishonorable route to victory, much as he might like to admit otherwise.

  Their teammate, Sakura Haruno, did not manage to muster the same luck. While her showing against the Nara heir was an excellent dispy of foundational skills, it was not enough by itself to see her through. There was a new fire in her eyes, though, perhaps pushed by the experiences that she'd survived in the Forest of Death.

  Other knock-outs from the roster were Tobio's other teammates, who did not manage to make it through. While on their own, the children were perfectly capable fighters, their opponents did not favor their strengths at all. Ami was caught in a textbook example of Yamanaka hiden jutsu, while Hibachi Mishima had the poor misfortune to fight against a skilled Aburame.

  And even then, that match was close.

  As for the remaining shinobi? Their matches seemed poised to be rather mild, considering the retively swift victories cimed by the Suna siblings or the way Neji dismantled his cousin systematically in close-quarters combat. Even then, the Jonin had to interfere to prevent a cn heir from being outright murdered in front of them.

  So far, though, nothing shown was out of the norm for Genin performances. Oh, to be sure, they'd been showing off talents and novel jutsu for the duration of the matches. It wasn't until the penultimate match that things took a turn for the stranger.

  "...Are we sure that kid knows how to use that sword correctly?" Anko asked, a somewhat dubious tone in her voice as she watched the tall child swagger into view. It was a fair question considering the sheer size of the sword.

  "I think you may be surprised by young Tobio," Hiruzen wryly observed, only keeping a sly smile on his face.

  It was an unusual weapon of choice to be sure, but all reports made it clear that the heft of the bde was rarely an impediment for the boy. In fact, by the accounts he'd received on the boy's capabilities, his natural strength made it as easy to swing around as a wazikashi, or even a shorter bde.

  "Welp, if Guy's runt wants to take that thing head-on, that's one way to filter through the chaff."

  Quietly, Hiruzen agreed. He doubted that Guy would have poured so much time and energy into Lee if the boy didn't have something that would have called for it. He'd put his faith in the training regimens of his Jonin-sensei and their evaluations of their teams.

  Though as the fight began in earnest, it did occur to him that perhaps a closer eye on what they were ostensibly training these Genin in might be warranted.

  "What are they feeding these kids?" Anko asked incredulously, as Tobio was subjected to a battery of blows, before being the recipient of a Front Lotus into the arena floor.

  For most of his peers, such a blow would have been near crippling. Certainly a strike that should have taken Tobio out of the fight. Few knew the truth behind the boy's durability, but such things were made painfully obvious as he proceeded to take staggering blows. Strikes from Guy's protege that ought to have id most of Tobio's peers low.

  Let alone the raw damage that a Front Lotus should have inflicted.

  Instead, Tobio picked himself up out of the crater, ughing all the while. Flesh knitting back together without the telltale green aura of medicinal chakra fshing over his body. It was the kind of mystery effect that his students would have adored to peel apart, once upon a time. And if that were where the mysteries ended, he would have been content to leave it there.

  Hiruzen was unfortunately deprived of such surety as the match continued.

  Between the two of them, Chakra Flow, advanced usage of the Eight Gates, the durability and speed to match the Eight Gates via an 'improper' usage of chakra adhesion, and then a fire-release Chakra Mode to finish out the fight. The fact that neither of them was dead after dispying feats that seemed more fitting for a Tokubetsu Jōnin or above was something of a miracle.

  Though it was much less surprising to him that the arena did not survive the fight in one piece.

  "Respectfully, sir, what the hell was that?!" Anko blurted out, pointing a finger at the screens. "Neither of those is Genin! Well, maybe Guy's rugrat is expinable, but Tekuno's little monster is pullin' out tricks even I can't!"

  To be sure, while Hiruzen and his son were capable of using chakra flow techniques, it was hardly a common thing among shinobi. It either required expensive chakra metal weapons, conductive to chakra, or such a superb mastery of their elements that they could do so without them. Even for all of the masterful appearance of Tobio's bde, it was unlikely that he'd been so financially fortunate as to afford one of those masterpiece swords.

  Which meant that when all other possibilities were discarded, the most likely answer had to be it.

  In comparison, the final match by itself was not that impressive. Oh, to be sure, Hiruzen saw that the Akimichi heir wisely chose when to back away, and when he was patently outmatched by his foe. The all but confirmed Jinchūriki of the One-Tail was a picture of the possible mental instability that foreign vilges brushed against with their inferior sealwork, and had the strength to make that a profound threat.

  After being thrashed about and battered, Choji wisely chose to surrender. Even if it was clear that Gaara didn't seem the most pleased to follow that order, only falling back when his Jōnin-sensei ordered it.

  With that final match, things came to a natural conclusion. But Hiruzen still had answers he'd like to some of the more exotic abilities that Tobio had dispyed. It was natural that he'd reach out to the one figure that obviously knew more about his own Genin.

  It was time to have a more in-depth discussion with Kanden-san about his problem child of a student.

  It was trivially easy to set an appointment with Tekuno in the coming days, while he was busy training his student for the upcoming exam. Merely a brief discussion, framed in such a way that it was paternal concern for Tobio, more than anything else. And Tekuno had no reason to refuse such a summons, as he entered the room.

  What he hadn't been expecting was the arrival of an interloper as well, entering at the same time.

  Frankly, Hiruzen shouldn't have been surprised that Danzo had shown up. If Tobio's showing had been less bombastic or more exaggerated for a Genin, perhaps it might have flown under the radar. Fshing an ability seemingly reted to his kekkai genkai, and some sort of fire-aspected chakra mode, however…

  Hiruzen wouldn't be surprised if there weren't quiet investigations by the rest of the Cns about this new, potent bloodline in Konoha by the end of the week. Or if there weren't sly questions being fielded concerning how they might be established in the future. A proper new Cn would be a power bloc in time, and shinobi were nothing if not capable of plotting for the long haul.

  Though he suspected Danzo's interest in Tobio y less in the realm of the political and more in his raw combat capabilities. More annoyingly, it still showed that his old friend had some sway among his communication channels even now.

  It had been the presumption that the prodigies of the Hidden Leaf y in the futures of Neji Hyuga, or Sasuke Uchiha. Tobio was a new, foreign element that Hiruzen had been working hard to keep a secret. And now, the secret was out.

  "Elder Shimura," Tekuno greeted, looking more than a little surprised at the older man's appearance. There was a particur neutrality to the way he looked at him that made Hiruzen suspect he was still rightfully wary of the old shinobi.

  After all, even half-crippled as Danzo was, few who managed to live as long as either of them remained vulnerable in any true sense.

  "Danzo," the Hokage nodded his head in greeting. "I wasn't expecting you for this meeting."

  A low, noncommittal grunt was the bandaged figure's answer. "I just so happened to be passing by, and heard tell of this meeting concerning our new prodigy."

  Two things didn't manage to escape Hiruzen's notice. One was that Tekuno held a barely restrained flinch back at the mention of the word prodigy. And the other was that Danzo still held a few more connections inside of his office staff than he would have suspected. Perhaps it was time for another sweep of the most disloyal.

  "Surprising as that may be, we're mostly getting into the meat of things now," the oldest Sarutobi expined, gesturing to the spare seat pced in front of his desk. "Feel free to settle in. I'm sure you'll have invaluable insights into young Tobio's capabilities."

  The elder of the Shimura Cn did so, settling in and gncing at Tekuno, while Hiruzen did the same. "Where we left off, I believe I was going to ask you how Tobio had managed some of his impressive feats, like the chakra mode?"

  There was a pause in the air, as Tekuno seemed to be thinking over his answer, before giving both men a very gently shrug. "I don't know," Tekuno admittedly, blithely and bluntly, which was a little refreshing in some respects. But when it came to the abilities that Tobio had put on dispy, it was an unacceptable answer.

  It was evident that such news was hardly thrilling to the present vilge elder, as Danzou's eyebrow twitched. "You don't know how your student developed their own fighting style, a fire-release modification of chakra mode, or any of the other discrete techniques they dispyed during the match?"

  With a long-suffering sigh, Tekuno closed his eyes for a moment, as if the world could come to a stop while he did so. When they opened again, the man's gaze was steely and focused.

  "I don't think there's a word for what Tobio is, disregarding prodigy. Prodigies at least have to learn, or be taught, or have some sort of growing period where the information is built on from prior facts and knowledge," the hefty Jōnin expined. "Oh sure, they develop quickly and rapidly, but most of their techniques and skills are built upon what's known."

  Crossing his rge arms across his chest, Tekuno tilted his head to the side. "Tobio does that. I can see his brain working when we spar, fixing errors in his posture and stance seconds after they happen, and developing his own personal style minute by minute, hour by hour."

  "But…?" Hiruzen trailed off, seeing the unspoken thing that wasn't being said.

  "But, sometimes there are these moments where you can almost see him wonder, 'Can this be done?', and then he just does it. No training, no build-up or practice, just making connections that you or I would never presume to."

  The Jōnin-sensei almost looked a little wistful as he said those words. "Maybe that's the difference between prodigies and the real monsters of the world. Where we can only think about what's possible, they're already breaking boundaries we didn't even believe were possible."

  "So you're saying he, what, spontaneously developed a nintaijutsu technique on the fly? Created a movement technique out of nowhere, without practicing it or knowing it'd work?" Each question seemed to strain Danzo's belief, as his sole visible eye narrowed incrementally with every word.

  Without the faintest hint of shame or hyperbole, Tekuno nodded. "That's exactly what I'm saying. I don't even know if the boy knows what he's doing is abnormal. Making jutsu and little tricks is just…second nature to him."

  Hiruzen took the moment to smoke his pipe, mostly because it gave him time to think on those words. Three people were who his thoughts drifted to, in terms of an instinctive handle on developing jutsu and experimenting on the fly. Almost as if they were an afterthought.

  The first among them was Senju Tobirama, may his soul rest in the Pure Lands. He was a man who took the established paradigms of jutsu invention and tinkered with them as a given. His jutsu-shiki designs were directly who inspired the second man that came to Hiruzen's mind, Minato.

  Minato likely would have adored Tobio's inventiveness and wondered if it also stretched to fūinjutsu. His successor was an innovator in his own right, creating seals and jutsu-shiki that they still had not been able to replicate. The complexity and confidence in which he worked with raw chakra manipution as well, to create new techniques, was daunting to most other shinobi.

  It was the third likeness to Tobio's experimentation that did give Hiruzen pause. Orochimaru had been a genuinely brilliant student, for all of his failings and ultimate betrayals. However, their observations of Tobio had proven that he could not have been less like his prior student if he had tried. There was little fear of the boy turning traitor, provided his allies were still alive.

  …If that was no longer true, well, they could revisit that topic another time.

  "Such talent…could be nurtured, under more intense apprenticeships," Danzo hedged, gncing briefly at Hiruzen. "If the boy flourishes under that sort of attention…"

  "I'll have to refuse," Tekuno simply, straightforwardly spoke.

  "With what authority?"

  "As given I'm the closest thing he has to a legal, adoptive father? Because I'm his sensei, and perhaps the only one inclined to have his better interests at heart?"

  "Even over the vilge?" Hiruzen hedged, arching a brow toward Tekuno lightly.

  The man hesitated, briefly, but the hitch in his response was noticeable enough. "...Not over the vilge, but I don't see why the vilge needs to have a divergent set of interests from Tobio's wellbeing."

  Hands out, palms up, and fingers spyed, there was something vaguely pintive in Tekuno's posture as he looked at the Hokage. "Tobio's a brilliant shinobi, a fighter, and by the time he's my age, if his recklessness doesn't get him killed, he'd be able to cut me down like a fart in the wind."

  "He's also twelve-"

  "Thirteen next month," Danzo interjected.

  Tekuno continued, as if he didn't hear the older man. "He's twelve, and regardless of whether or not he makes Chūnin, he deserves to have a life that isn't all training, or killing. Tobio should be…worrying about girls, or eating good food with his friends, or going to the movies."

  "Peace, Tekuno," Hiruzen assured him. "He'll remain under your care. Lord Shimura was merely…excitable, over Tobio's performance. Right?"

  Fixing his stare at Danzo, the older man's features rexed into something more decidedly neutral. "Of course. I was interested in a young prodigy's development, that's all."

  Whatever Tekuno's true thoughts on that were, the man was wise enough to keep quiet on them. Instead, he merely nodded. "I see. Then will there be any other questions for me?"

  "Have your other students expressed any exaggerated capabilities?"

  "Blessedly, no," Tekuno answered, before grimacing. "It feels awful to say, but their being normal Genin makes teaching them easier. Like I'm teaching a child, and not a sponge that's soaking up everything I'm saying instantly and effortlessly."

  Hiruzen could rete to some degree. Teaching Orochimaru had been much the same when it came to how rapidly his former student could devour information and manage to retain it. Compared to his peers, he'd always been a cut above like that.

  "It's a problem I know well. If you don't suspect them of harboring hitherto unknown kekkai genkai and inventing extremely novel jutsu, though, you're clear to go."

  There was a relieved nod sent his way as Tekuno made his exit, leaving Hiruzen and Danzo alone. With his oldest living friend giving him the type of stare that left no question as to what he might have truly desired. Hiruzen, naturally, gave him a simple answer.

  "No."

  "Hiruzen. I've seen the documentation of his fights and bloodline. You know as well as I do, when the other vilges discover what we've stumbled upon, they'll send reams of assassins to sy him," Danzo cajoled, trying logic at first.

  He took another long drag from his pipe, eyebrows furrowed together in thought. "Which is what his sensei is there to protect him from, not that I suspect he'll need protecting for much longer, if the boy continues to progress at his current rate."

  Of course, he knew Danzo well enough to recognize when his old friend would switch tracks. "And you see no draw in ensuring that he can live to see that potential realized, under a steady hand?"

  Sentiment, one of the few things that Hiruzen tended to be weak to. Or rather allowed himself to be weak to, in his old age. Not this time, however. "I believe that Tekuno-san is a capable enough trainer to see that nurtured, rather than whatever rigorous drill you'd enact to remove the boy from Tobio, and leave only a man."

  There was a calculus in his sole, glinting eye, before Danzo politely nodded. "Very well then. I'll retract my concerns regarding his tutege."

  For now, was practically the unspoken part.

  With that, Danzo took his leave, and Hiruzen was left alone in his office was more. His mind was swirling with all sorts of information, but as usual, the smartest thing to do would be to sit and wait. He'd never thought to become like Onoki, though in this instance, following the fence-sitter's tactics likely would prove the wisest.

  They had a month until the final matches of the exam, in truth. All of them, Tobio, Naruto, and himself, had time to prepare for what may come.

  So Hiruzen would enjoy the silence for the moment, in this quiet before the storms of whatever the Shinobi World would throw at his vilge next.