“Bang!”
The door to the Hokage Office was suddenly blasted open, and a one-eyed figure leaning on a cane walked in.
[Image]
Anyone who dared to break through a door like this was undoubtedly Hiruzen Sarutobi’s good buddy—Danzo Shimura.
Hiruzen Sarutobi puffed on his large tobacco pipe, slowly exhaling rings of smoke: “Danzo, how many times do I have to tell you, you need to knock before entering the Hokage Office.”
He had a bit of a headache; having his good buddy act like this was one thing, but crucially, his three disciples were the same way.
Jiraiya liked to crawl through windows, Tsunade kicked doors open directly,
and Orochimaru was even more outrageous, appearing and disappearing like a ghost, suddenly speaking out of nowhere with a swoosh and startling an old man like him.
And not a single one of them ever learned their lesson!
What did they all take the Hokage Office for?
A restroom?
Come and go as they please?
“Don’t sweat the small stuff!” Danzo Shimura waved a hand dismissively.
“Right now, we’re talking about Uzumaki Mirai.
Being able to use the Adamantine Sealing Chains at age 7, this kind of talent is unprecedented!”
“He must be sent into the Root!
I will train him into the strongest weapon to deal with Tailed Beasts!”
Hiruzen Sarutobi frowned: “Mirai cannot enter the Root.
He is also a Nine-Tails Jinchuriki candidate!”
“Furthermore—this kid’s talent from the Uzumaki Clan is exceptional.
I’m more inclined to seal the Nine-Tailed inside his body.”
“Having a girl be a Jinchuriki is still too…”
Not every woman was Lady Mito, and certainly not every woman’s husband had the strength of Hashirama-sama, able to effortlessly handle Tailed Beasts at will.
One point that must be considered with female Jinchuriki is that they are most vulnerable during childbirth, which easily causes the Tailed Beast to break through the seal!
These were all things he had to consider as the Hokage.
Therefore, Hiruzen Sarutobi was more inclined towards having Uzumaki Mirai act as the Jinchuriki.
Danzo Shimura strongly agreed, remaining true to his original intent: “Then let him be it, but he must still be sent into the Root!
I will train him into the ultimate Tailed Beast weapon!”
Hiruzen Sarutobi felt a bit of a headache.
This good buddy of his wanted to take everything he laid eyes on into the Root—could he even hold that much before trying to take it?
“You don’t need to think about Mirai.
There is no way I am adding a Jinchuriki to the Root.
A Jinchuriki is also a member of our village; they should be influenced using bonds and the will of fire, rather than treated as a weapon!”
“Hmph!” Danzo Shimura was clearly dissatisfied.
“Hiruzen, this naive idea of yours simply won’t work at all!
If it weren’t for my Root protecting it, Konoha would have long been buried alongside your decadent ideas!”
Hiruzen Sarutobi’s face darkened: “Get out!”
Danzo Shimura turned and left immediately, leaving behind a single sentence.
“Hiruzen, you will regret this!”
“Danzo, I am the Hokage!”
“Bang!”
The door was slammed shut once more.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat in the Hokage desk chair, holding Uzumaki Mirai’s intel in his hand, his expression shifting uncertainly within the rings of smoke.
After a long while, he let out a murmur: “Call Teacher Kishimoto Akaseki over here.”
“Hai!”
A figure flashed past in the darkness and vanished—this was the Hokage’s direct subordinate unit, the Anbu.
Soon, Kishimoto Akaseki was brought over.
Seeing the expressionless Hokage, he, who was merely a Chunin, couldn’t help trembling inside.
“Hokage-sama, I wonder what business you have calling me over?”
Hiruzen Sarutobi revealed a warm smile: “It’s Kishimoto, don’t be nervous.
I brought you here because I want to understand the situation of those two transfer students in your class.”
“I heard they got into a fight yesterday?”
Cold sweat broke out on Kishimoto Akaseki’s forehead!
Good grief, what on earth was Uzumaki Mirai’s background?
Summoning parents got them Lady Tsunade, and now even the Hokage-sama was personally inquiring about it.
Good heavens!
This wasn’t like slotting two students into his class; this was like shoving two ancestors in!
Hiruzen Sarutobi exhaled a puff of smoke, which slowly rose within the afternoon pillar of light.
“You don’t need to be nervous.
I just want to hear the true perspective of you, their homeroom teacher—just tell me honestly about those two kids.”
Kishimoto Akaseki swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
He had originally prepared a set of official talking points: “They are both very well-behaved,” “unity and friendship,” and “the will of fire is deeply engraved in their hearts.” But upon second thought—
could he possibly gloss this over when the Hokage-sama was personally inquiring?
He gritted his teeth and decided to take a gamble.
“Hokage-sama, to be honest with you—that child Uzumaki Mirai…
is a thorn in the side!”
Hiruzen Sarutobi raised an eyebrow without interrupting.
“As soon as he arrived in class yesterday, he made a joke of his self-introduction and argued endlessly on the podium with Uzumaki Kushina.
After class, because the other students gave them nicknames, this kid directly took action and bound a dozen or so students in a single move.”
When Kishimoto Akaseki said this, even he felt it was absurd, and he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“I was furious at the time, thinking that beating up classmates on the very first day of school was simply unacceptable.”
The corners of Hiruzen Sarutobi’s mouth turned up slightly, his pipe spinning a circle between his fingers: “Then what is your view now?”
Kishimoto Akaseki took a deep breath: “But Mirai had a reason for making a move; a few thorns in the class mocked him first, and he kept his actions measured without hurting any of the students.”
Are you kidding me!
Don’t think I didn’t see that flash of a smile at the corner of your mouth, Hokage-sama!
And Lady Tsunade’s attitude as well.
If I really spoke ill of Uzumaki Mirai, would I die?
Most definitely!
His tone gradually grew serious.
“And did you know, Hokage-sama?
Before Uzumaki Mirai made his move, that boy Minato Namikaze tried to mediate, but nobody listened to him at all.
Mirai only made a move because he was pushed to that point.”
Speaking up to this point, Kishimoto Akaseki was somewhat impressed himself.
“A 7-year-old child having this kind of Chakra control, and this kind of sense of restraint…
Hokage-sama, I, Kishimoto Akaseki, have taught for over a dozen years, and I’ve never seen anything like this.”
The wrinkles at the corners of Hiruzen Sarutobi’s eyes smoothed out, revealing a hint of an approving smile through the smoke.
“What else?”
Kishimoto Akaseki grew more and more enthusiastic as he spoke: “And that Uzumaki Kushina!
Although her grades are a complete mess and she slept through theoretical classes all day long—when people gave her nicknames and mocked her in class, she stubbornly held back and didn’t resort to violence.
Moreover, both of their dreams are to become Hokage.
Presumably, before coming here, they had already felt the influence of the will of fire.”
“When the whole class jeered at her as ‘Red Pepper’, her face turned completely red, and her fists were clenched so tight, yet she stubbornly didn’t talk back or fight back.
Hokage-sama, out of 7-year-old kids, how many could pull off this level of self-control?”
Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly nodded, tapping the ash from his pipe against the edge of the desk.
“Kishimoto, you observed very carefully.”
Kishimoto Akaseki quickly bowed: “I wouldn’t dare say that.
It’s just that as their homeroom teacher, one always has to put a little care into every child.”
Hiruzen Sarutobi stood up, walked over to the window, and looked at the carved heads of the First Hokage and Second Hokage on the distant Hokage Monument, his voice low and gratified:
“Uzumaki Mirai is impulsive yet measured, with astonishing talent yet without wantonly harming the innocent; Uzumaki Kushina has a fiery personality yet can endure and restrain herself for the sake of entrustment…
They are both good kids.”
He turned around, the gloom on his face completely swept away.
“Teacher Kishimoto, I will have to ask you to put in extra effort for these two children.”
“Especially Mirai—that temperament of his where ‘whoever provokes me, I’ll hit back’ isn’t very conducive to making friends.
Guide him more, but don’t smooth away his sharp edges either.
Konoha needs Ninjas who follow the rules, but it also needs the sharp edge to break the rules.”
“They are both new sprouts of our Konoha.
You must let them know that wherever the leaves of Konoha dance, the fire will burn!”
“Education on the will of fire for the children brooks no delay.”
Kishimoto Akaseki bent his waist even lower: “Hai!
Please rest assured, Hokage-sama!”
“Alright, you can go attend to your business.” Hiruzen Sarutobi waved his hand, sat back down in his chair, picked up his pipe and took a puff, a paternal smile on his face.
After Kishimoto Akaseki walked out of the office, Hiruzen Sarutobi muttered to himself in a low voice: “The bloodline of the Uzumaki Clan, combined with this disposition…
Mirai, oh Mirai, I hope you can take over Lady Mito’s burden.”
Between Uzumaki Kushina and Uzumaki Mirai, Hiruzen Sarutobi leaned more toward Mirai.