“How long are you going to make me wait, Hiruzen?”
Hiruzen kept his eyes on the paperwork despite his awareness of the person sitting across from him for the last fifteen minutes. It was a punishment of sorts—one they both knew the reason for—and it also let him get his thoughts in order because while he’d made the summon, he was not excited about having Danzo in his office.
Alas, thanks to recent events, it was a necessity.
He brought the stamp down harder than needed and sighed. “...You’ll wait until I’m good and ready to talk to you.”
Danzo scoffed. “Things are serious enough that we’ve skipped the talk via correspondence but you still wish to play this inane game?”
“Enjoy it, old friend. Besides, “this inane game”, as you put it, seems appropriate.” He scoffed again. “Find it amusing, do you?” Leaning forward, Hiruzen clasped his hands on the desk. “Then I shall be blunt: what do you want from my son, Danzo?”
“I simply found Asuma in need of guidance some years ago. He could become a much-needed pillar for the village to rely on in the future, after all.”
He shook his head with a light snort. “...The number of times I’ve heard that line. A pillar for the village or a pillar for you, old friend?”
Danzo simply leaned back with a serene smile and Hiruzen inhaled loudly, finding no outlet for his frustration besides an equally loud exhale. The ANBU agents within the office had been dismissed thirty minutes ago, eliminating the need to keep up the cumbersome charade their friendship had become. He could not see the usual exasperated fondness in Danzo’s eyes—but, in truth, it had been years since Hiruzen felt any cheer at the thought of his old friend either.
These days, it only brought him a great deal of headache.
“I’m sure you already know why I’ve summoned you,” said Hiruzen with a resigned wave of his hand.
Danzo blinked his hazel eye and, in his usual brusque manner, he grunted, “The Akatsuki.”
“I won’t ask how you know of Kakashi’s debrief,” said Hiruzen, meeting his gaze, “it’ll only make me lose my temper. What I will ask you instead, Danzo, is what shall we do about it?”
“To my knowledge, this… new Akatsuki has been doing nothing except mercenary work.” Danzo lightly tapped his cane against the ground. “The more concerning thing is that it is a cell of S-ranked ninja. They’re unlike the Akatsuki of the past; there are no mediocre underlings.”
Hiruzen didn’t bother to hide his frown.
Danzo tilted his head with a narrow of his eye. “Fortunately, Kakashi encountered Itachi, otherwise he would have died. I’ve heard they have a pair of immortal shinobi, so it’s no surprise that the Snake joined their ranks, even if it was only a temporary deal.”
“Orochimaru, eh?” said Hiruzen, leaning back. “They put a bounty on his head a few years ago for betraying them, didn’t they?”
“In any case, we’ve no reason to believe this incident is out of the norm for them. According to Itachi, they were hired by Gato of the Gato Company to end the Land of Waves Bridge Construction project by killing its lead, allowing Gato to take ownership of the bridge. Turned that bridge builder’s dream into a nightmare for his people, it seems.”
Hiruzen pulled five sheets of paper from a folder, sliding them across his desk.
“Bingo Book entries… and of Akatsuki members at that,” Danzo muttered.
Hiruzen nodded. “A mercenary group needs renown and the easiest way to do so is to get people talking. The Akatsuki has taken on various high-profile jobs in recent years, garnering a reputation. With all the resources at my disposal, I’ve managed to gather the profiles of five reported members, all rogue shinobi: Kisame Hoshigaki of the Mist, Sasori of the Sand, Deidara of the Stone, Kakuzu of the Waterfall, and Hidan of the Steam.”
“We’ve no idea if this is the extent of its members. What of the masked Uchiha who aided Itachi in the purge of their clan?”
“What worries me is that there’s no mention of a masked man. On that front, we can only trust in young Itachi.”
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“Be that as it may, we need intel,” said Danzo, tapping his cane against the ground. “Who is the masked man to the Akatsuki—is he their leader?”
“Perhaps,” Hiruzen clutched his chin, “but I cannot shake the feeling that there is some relation between this Akatsuki and the Akatsuki of the past. This new Akatsuki is mysterious; their motives, members, and methods… it’s all shrouded in mystery.”
Danzo folded his arms. “What mystery? They share nothing with that group but their name; likely an inspiration that took root when my forces aided Hanzo’s in crushing Jiraiya’s charity project.”
“Your meddling likely had a direct hand in bringing about this more dangerous Akatsuki,” said Hiruzen without bothering to hide his frustration. “Once again, your overzealousness rears its ugly head.”
Danzo huffed. “Minato Namikaze crippled the Stone and terrified the Cloud. The Mist continues to eat itself even today and our boot was pressed against the Sand’s throat—we were winning the war.”
He looked up, meeting Danzo’s passion with dead calm. “Tread carefully.”
“You caved precisely when you should have stood tall. Waiving our right to demand reparations from the Stone for initiating the war? That wasn’t just a poor decision, it was madness; we could have come out of the war in a much better position if not for your naivety.”
“Okay.” He sighed, once again swallowing his old friend’s disrespect. “If we’re discussing madness, then what of your decision to stoke Hanzo’s greed to shut down the peace talks?”
“And bring our momentum to a screeching halt?” Danzo shot back. “It’s pure sentimentality on your part and if you truly were against my doings, then why didn't you stop me? You know as well as I that the end of the war in the Rain would have achieved absolutely nothing for the conflict would have simply moved location.”
Danzo sat back and stared at him but, instead of dragging their argument on further, Hiruzen sighed. Like the burdens he’d taken on, it was long and heavy, pressing against his shoulders.
They were here to discuss a solution, not rehash the past.
“In any case, Hanzo of the Salamander is a non-issue,” Hiruzen said, “and has been for a few years. Whoever this new Akatsuki leader is, they don’t seem to harbour any grudges towards us.”
“As always, you’re ignoring the obvious thing,” said Danzo. “This Akatsuki… they may not have any bases anywhere that I’m aware of, but Hanzo has not mentioned them at all in their correspondence with me over the years. Or are you going to tell me it’s a coincidence, Hiruzen?”
Hiruzen rubbed the back of his neck with a low yawn. “I’m not sure; Hanzo is a paranoid man. It took you very little to convince him to turn his blade on the Akatsuki. Operating under the name of vanquished insurrectionists would be the fastest way to incur that man’s wrath.”
“All of this is beside the point,” said Danzo. “As you asked me, what are we to do about it? The Akatsuki is merely a mercenary group—a dangerous one, perhaps—but not nearly enough that it warrants action… at least not in this peace you created.”
Hiruzen snorted. “Surely the irony isn’t lost on you?” He was ignored, of course, but the humour was enough to uplift his mood for the next few moments while he considered his answer. “There’s no war to obfuscate your—or in this case, our—intentions and while we could use Orochimaru and Itachi’s membership as justification in declaring the Akatsuki our enemies, there is still so much we do not know.”
“Then, what?” Danzo asked with a harrumph. “We wait for Itachi to drag the masked Uchiha madman into the light? He can’t do anything that will risk destroying his cover and simply waiting things out isn’t an option. This time, our side was just collateral but what if we weren’t and Kakashi died instead?”
“As usual, you’re being too hasty. There are too many unknowns to brand the Akatsuki as our enemies outright. We can afford to go to war with them, but why? It’s unnecessary, especially when the effort will open us to attack. Onoki is living up to his title but will pick a side of the fence to fall on if we give him cause.”
“At the risk of stating the obvious, the Akatsuki is the bigger threat right now,” said Danzo.
“I will leave the matter to Jiraiya, at least for now,” Hiruzen replied, “After all, I received these Bingo Book entries from him. In his pursuit of Orochimaru’s whereabouts, he inevitably uncovered his involvement with the Akatsuki.”
“And then?”
“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.” Hiruzen smiled. “Thank you for your input, old friend. You’re dismissed.”
Danzo stared at him as he worked his jaw. Hiruzen returned to his paperwork, aware of his presence against the crown of his head, and when the office door clicked shut, he allowed himself a low sigh. He did not doubt that Danzo was cooking up schemes of his own and if he wanted to, Hiruzen could shut down his ROOT operations.
However, the ROOT’s existence lent itself to the village’s security, especially in the current political stalemate. Calling it peace was too much—not after the Raikage’s blatant disregard for the treaties signed after the Third Great Shinobi War—but it was the closest thing to peace the world had seen in a long while.
As long as he lived, Hiruzen would see it continue till his dying breath, at least until the new generation could lift the burden from his shoulders.
“This accursed paperwork will kill me before any kunai,” he muttered.
Unlike before, there was no one to give him an earful for not doing his paperwork; that responsibility used to be Danzo’s. Despite all that had transpired between them and his old friend’s blatant abuse of his trust, Hiruzen missed his presence sometimes.
Though the nostalgia always died in the cradle.