The child was not well, but I had hope that he would be ok.

As I looked at Aoki, his brow furrowed and focused, echoes of memories long past resurfaced in my mind.

I have been a student, a teacher and a leader during my long life. I take pride in the fact that during each of these phases, I have developed myself using the lessons I learned along the way to be an asset to the village that I hold dear to my heart.

I once believed that I had moved on from my role as a teacher when I donned this hat, and that that my duty as a leader was finished once I had passed the torch to Minato; it seems that both were false.

Aoki needed guidance, he needed a teacher.

When I looked at his face that displayed a maturity beyond its years, I didn't just see Aoki… I saw my students.

The boy was smart as a whip and dedicated as well, a dangerous combination if nurtured correctly. In him I saw the seriousness that Orochimaru had from a young age, the ANBU I stationed to look over him reported that since arriving, he had not missed a day of training. Training that was not enforced, encouraged or even taught, but training that he had taken on himself to do, I was highly impressed.

I remember chuckling at the sight of Aoki teasing Sasuke as I watched from my crystal ball, his joking attitude reminiscent of a certain toad sage I taught; although he was much less crude than Jiraiya, I had to admit. I think they would've gotten along nicely… if Jiraiya were to restrain some of his habits that is, he isn't good company for a child, lest Aoki pick up certain undesirable qualities…

Ahem. My point remains…

The boy was unique. I can count on my hand the number of children who exhibit the same level of awareness that he does, even less when you exclude clan children whom I have no control over.

Considering his history I assumed one of two things would happen when he had been left in Tomo's hands, he either revels in the freedom he has and cocoons in the safety provided by myself and the village, or he takes matters into his own hands and tries to improve himself.

If it was the former I could perhaps rest and treat him as I would any other child of the leaf, with a few preferential treatments due to what he's been through of course, but it wasn't, Aoki was the latter. Some would've turned a blind eye to it but with my experience as the leader of the village, I knew that it was an important characteristic of the boy's that I cannot ignore.

Many ninjas who exhibit similar levels of talent at a young age can end up in vastly different positions once they mature. Someone who is a career Chunin and stays at that level for the majority of their life and a Jounin in the upper echelon of that rank could have similar levels of talent, but in terms of strength and competence, they are worlds apart. Why does this phenomenon occur?

One word, mentality.

Every human being, in this world or any other, has limits imposed on them from birth, limits that no matter how hard they work, they can never go beyond. The height at which their body can reach, the speed at which they can run, the weight that they can lift; even something as arbitrary as the level of beauty a person can have is determined without their control.

However, barely a tiny fraction of the world ever reaches its limits as they seldom put more than the average amount of effort that others do, meaning that those born exceptional and those born normal stay that way, the difference between their strength only widening as the talented grows.

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The one thing that can make someone with average talents into a fearsome force is their mentality. With a powerful enough force of mind, the one thing not constrained by birth, you can transcend what most would've achieved with the cards you were dealt. My instincts were screaming at me that Aoki's mentality was not one shared by many, I do not know for certain, but I believe that he has a powerful mentality, or at the very least, the potential for it.

That, in combination with his history and unique physiology, can be… volatile.

As much as Danzo and I disagree on many issues, the uncertainty he has concerning Aoki's future is one that I also share, I do not know what will become of him if put into the same environment as normal children from the Leaf… add to that the fact that his history and suffering is in part caused by me… I concluded that Aoki and his future are my responsibility to bear.

I must do my best to nurture Aoki well and ensure that he grows into a strong ninja who possesses the will of fire as all residents of the village should.

The boy was still trying to come up with a few questions to ask me, only a few moments had passed but he had recovered remarkably well for someone who has just learnt as much as he had, his resilience is praiseworthy.

"Gramps." He called me to attention, breaking out of the stupor he was in.

"Yes Aoki, ask away and I'll do my best to answer," I said with a reassuring smile.

"First before I ask more questions, I need more information… what was blanked out on the sheet? I can see that some parts are missing" he asked with a serious expression.

I had to stop a smile from creeping up my face. The boy asks for more information to form better questions as opposed to asking me one of the many thousand queries he has blowing through his mind, truly an interesting child, unfortunately, I cannot oblige.

"I can't answer that my boy, I apologise." I had to break it to him.

Orochimaru's implantation of the eye was a mystery I had yet to solve. Reading his studies I learnt that he hypothesised that by implanting an eye capable of a Dojutsu before it was awakened, when it acted as any other civilian's eye; if the new owner fulfils certain conditions they could awaken the eye naturally and use it as if they had it from birth.

No successful trials were recorded but it was a unique study that I had never seen explored before, apparently, this always resulted in the eye behaving as one without any special abilities. It seemed that the way in which Orochimaru injected cells into "Subjects" possessing a transplanted eye was also different, done in ways to increase the chances of the Dojutsu naturally awakening.

I scoured through all of Orochimaru's findings on Aoki that we were able to recover, but no matter how much we searched, there was not a single recording of which clan's eyes Aoki possesses. I had the idea of perhaps using his red eyes as a way of possibly learning this however, if I were to find clans that possess red eyes when the Dojutsu is not activated, maybe it is within that clan that the eyes were taken from.

Sadly, the previous Logs I read stated that the boy's eyes changed colour when injected with Tobirama Senju's cells, this means my previous plan was impossible, and the mystery was heightened since the eyes natural colour was not recorded.

Even though this means I have less information, I am silently thankful.

No matter which clan the eye originally belonged to, once it came to light, chances are that a political maelstrom would come of it. Whether it was the Uchiha, Hyugas or even a clan that existed out of the leaf, it would bring us trouble. In particular, I hoped that Aoki did not have a Byakugan, that would be most troubling considering the measures that the Hyuga take to preserve the eye, such as the vicious seal they use.

'If it is the Byakugan… I would have to replace it.' I thought, praying for such a situation to not occur. The best possible scenario is that it comes from a clan not within the Leaf, although it would still be trouble, if Aoki is valuable enough at the time the situation arises, I could convince the elders to let him keep it… no, if that were the case I would ensure that Aoki would keep the eyes, he deserves that much at least.

'But that's a thought for another day…' I thought.

"But gramps, I need to know!" he insisted on finding out.

"I'm sorry child, it is out of my hands…" I said regrettably. It was amusing to see how he changed his facial expressions while we talked, he grew quite upset when I said no but changed into a sad face to perhaps gain my sympathy.

'He might have talent in negotiations if he's trying to manipulate others at this age' I thought, silently chuckling at the boy's attempts. Genius or not, he was still a child.

"Argh… fine. Then tell me, the cells that they put in me, what are the effects? Please tell me in detail gramps!" he asked after giving up on me relenting.

This was a good question, one I was happy to answer.