Danzo looked down at Hiruzen, who was putting his pipe to his lips. They were alone in the Hokage’s office.
“Six months since he joined the Anbu, hm?” Hiruzen said, exhaling smoke.
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play dumb. I’m talking about the boy you have your eyes on.”
“Hmph!”
Occasionally, Hiruzen spoke in this sort of roundabout way. “He’s carrying out his duties faithfully.”
“I see.”
“Didn’t you come to talk about him?” Hiruzen had seen through him. For Danzo, who hated more than anyone to have his own thoughts read, it was deeply difficult to endure.
He made a move in return. “It appears you have an Uchiha directly under you now, hm, Hiruzen?”
Hiruzen brought the pipe to his lips, looking at though Danzo had poked a painful spot.
Danzo ignored the look, and continued. “I hear you’ve removed Uchiha Shisui from his regular duties, and given him permission to move at his own discretion and judgment? And that, in name at least, we have another Uchiha in the Anbu.”
“Shisui wanted me to give him the freedom to act. I simply opened the road to him.”
“So now the Hokage is listening to the whims of a mere ninja?”
“I simply took into consideration the feelings of someone worried about the Uchiha clan.”
“If you give the same consideration to the circumstances of every single person, the village will fall apart.”
“I know. I don’t need you telling me that!” Hiruzen shouted, revealing his irritation. “How about you stop beating around the bush, and tell me already? What exactly have you come for today, Danzo?”
I should really stop torturing him already, Danzo gloated in his heart, before bringing up the matter he had under consideration.
“Just as you have one of the Uchiha clan under your control, I should like one arranged for me.”
Hiruzen made an obviously disgusted face the instant the word “control” left Danzo’s mouth. Once he had finished listening, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly as he looked at the other man. “You’re saying give Itachi to the Foundation?”
“The thought never even entered my head.”
“Don’t play dumb.”
“I am not playing dumb,” Danzo asserted.
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes, measuring Danzo’s sincerity. The countless creases around the corners of his eyes deepened. “What are you thinking, then?”
“Why not promote Itachi to team leader?”
“He’s still only eleven.”
“And Anbu team leaders are to be thirteen or older,” Danzo said, a thin smile spreading across his face. “You do have that rule there somewhere, hm?”
Hiruzen got an uncomfortable look on his face. “The Anbu are a division supporting the central pillars of the village. The team leaders who rule over them must have sufficient judgment. Thus, the requirement that they be at least thirteen.”
“Sufficient judgment. Itachi already has that.”
“That’s not the issue.”
“Age and the like are meaningless before actual ability.” Danzo’s firm stance pushed Hiruzen into silence. “Are the rules that important, Hiruzen? The dissatisfaction of the Uchiha clan is already a nearly untenable situation. In order to break through this status quo, we need someone in a position to make effective use of the will of the Foundation, and someone connected with you. A mere Anbu ninja won’t be able to avoid the orders of his team leader. Promoting Itachi makes it easier for him to move.”
“You’re saying put him between you and I, without having him belong to the Foundation?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. No one in the Uchiha clan can match the abilities of Itachi and Shisui. If we can win those two over, it likely won’t be difficult to prevent the explosion of their clan. Just as you gave Shisui special privileges, it is necessary to give a certain amount of the same to Itachi.”
“But eleven is simply too young to lead a team.” Hiruzen was wavering.
One more little push … “Then, what if he were twelve?”
The third Hokage did not respond.
“Itachi’s publicly disclosed age goes up a year, and that neatly takes care of the rule, don’t you think?”
“Let me think about it a little more.”
“Understood.” Danzo was certain. Hiruzen would definitely consent.
“How’s school?” Itachi asked his brother as he wet his throat with some cold juice.
“It’s way better to train here like this with you.” Sasuke smiled, looking up at Itachi from the bench where he sat, clutching in both hands a can with droplets of water forming on it.
“It’s way better to train here like this with you.” Back when he had first started at the academy, Itachi had said the same sort of thing to Shisui. Once again, he felt keenly how alike he and his brother were.
His mission finished early, so he decided to train with Sasuke once he got home. Because Itachi couldn’t spend too much time with him normally, he actively tried to create opportunities. And the time he spent with Sasuke soothed Itachi more than anything else in his life. Sweating together with his little brother, he could escape his everyday troubles.
When did it start being like this?
Lately, whenever he saw Shisui, all they did was talk about where the clan was headed. It had been who knew how many years since they trained together. Even talking with Izumi, his attention ended up focused on her feelings, and he couldn’t stay free of obstructive thoughts. He knew he was too involved there, but he couldn’t help it. In the end, it was only when he was training with his brother that he could just be himself, without thinking about anything.
“Is school boring?”
“No, it’s not, but …” Sasuke mumbled, staring at the opening in his can.
Itachi had a pretty good idea of what his baby brother was thinking. “Is it that your skills and thinking are too different, so things aren’t going too well with your friends?”
Because it had been like that for Itachi. He had been able to do everything better than everyone else, so the other students in his class had seemed very much like children. Their way of thinking, and the way they faced things, had been too juvenile; he hadn’t been able to talk with them with the same sense of values. He wondered absently if it wasn’t the same for Sasuke. He felt like his brother shared the same awkwardness he did when it came to interacting with people.
“I don’t especially want it to go well or anything. I mean, those guys, their ninjutsu and their schoolwork are just totally no good.”
“What about Naruto?”
“Huh?” Sasuke’s eyes widened at the unexpected name that came out of his brother’s mouth. The gaze he turned upward to Itachi was clouded with surprise.
Itachi himself was surprised. He didn’t know why he had said Naruto’s name. The child with the golden hair who was the same age as his little brother had simply popped into his head.
“He’s a total disaster, no matter what they make us do. And he’s always finding a reason to bug me. He’s super annoying.”
“So, Naruto bugs you?”
“I don’t think about him at all, but then he’ll come over to me, and start complaining and stuff.”
If his little brother’s position at school was no different from Itachi’s when he had been there, then Itachi assumed the other students gave Sasuke a wide berth. While they acknowledged his abilities, none of them truly tried to befriend him.
However, Naruto walked right up to Sasuke.
The boy boasting he would be Hokage came back to life in Itachi’s mind. That poor child with the Nine Tails in his body; no one wanted anything to do with him. Despite this, he had unshakeable faith in his big dreams. His bearing, his way of talking, everything about him was the polar opposite of Sasuke.
But when Itachi imagined the two of them together, it seemed strangely fitting. “He comes over to you because he’s curious about you. Be nice to him.”
“I can’t be nice to a kid like that.”
“It’d be nice if you could someday,” Itachi said, placing the palm of his hand on Sasuke’s head.
“There’s totally no way!” Sasuke shut his eyes tightly, his nose crinkling up, and gritted his teeth.
Unconsciously, Itachi burst out laughing at the funny expression. His little brother relaxed his face, and also started to laugh.
The warm evening passed peacefully.