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The link is also in the synopsis
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The convocation ceremony began with the headmaster's speech, and he seemed nervous on stage despite doing this every year. There were a whopping seven heads of clans sitting in the audience—not just any clans, but the Leaf's major clans—all looking at him. In the end, he wrapped up his ten-minute speech to a crisp six when he realised that none of them seemed interested in whatever he had to say.
"Students," the headmaster's voice echoed across the auditorium hall. "You've endured until your bodies grew stronger, mastered the foundational arts, and proven that you're ready to bear the weight of your bright future. Yet your education remains incomplete until it is recognised by the one who carries the highest burden of our village."
He turned ninety degrees, extending an open hand toward the alcove where scarlet and white robes shone in the shadows.
"To formally grant you the mantle of the Leaf and confer upon you the emblem of our strength, I humbly invite the Lord Hokage to do the honours."
Hiruzen stepped onto the stage. He wore the broad, flared haori and the crimson headpiece of his office. His weathered face bore the creases of a man who had outlived two great wars and seen his chosen successor die protecting the village, yet his posture remained as solid as the stone monument carved into the cliff that could be seen outside the window.
The room stood up in respect as he took his place behind the podium. He asked them to sit down but did not begin immediately. Instead, he let his gaze drift slowly across the ranks of the students—their faces flushed with a mixture of raw ambition, nervous energy, and untempered youth.
"Look down at your hands," the Hokage began, and the auditorium fell into stillness. "For years, those hands have been trained to hold steel, to mould chakra, to trace the patterns of survival. You have been told that a shinobi is a weapon for the village and country—an instrument of deterrence, precision, and force. You have been tested, and every one of you has earned your place today."
He paused, resting his hands on the polished edge of the podium.
"But do not confuse the weapon with the reason it is forged. The village is not merely a hub for mercenaries. It's an agreement and promise to the children in the park, the baker who wakes up before everyone else, the farmer who feeds us, and the elderly whose hands are now spent, that we would keep them safe. That is, to me, the Will of Fire. That may not mean the same to you, but I hope over anything else, I hope you'll find what it means to you…"
He reached into his robes and pulled out an ancient, rectangular steel plate engraved with the carved spiral and leaf. It had long lost its shine, had darkened in the grooves, and was even dented in places.
"When you take your forehead protector and tie it to your body, remember that you're not receiving an ornament. You are accepting a shroud of responsibility. It means that from this hour onward, your blood belongs to the Leaf, and the safety of the Leaf rests upon your shoulders."
The children didn't fully understand his words, but the shinobi in the audience felt emotional because, for many of them, the Third Hokage had been the one to confer their protectors upon them when they were young, and now their children were about to receive them from the same man. They glanced at their children and wondered if they were feeling the same as they had felt all those decades ago.
"By the authority of the Third Hokage of the Hidden Leaf, I declare you shinobi. Step forward without hesitation and claim your steel."
———
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"I'm proud of you, Shino."
"Thank you, father," Shino replied, with a rare hint of satisfaction in his voice. The boy wore his spotless forehead protector across his brow, the dark blue cloth sitting above his dark glasses. His hands were tucked deep into his pockets, his chin pulled down though there wasn't a high collar on his kimono—a mirror of his father in every line.
Even as Shibi gazed at his son and felt truly happy that his son was finally a genin and was about to start his journey as a shinobi, the hive underneath his body refused to still. They had been settled since the morning, but the conversation with the Uchiha clan head had triggered chaos within his body.
"You adjusted the knot correctly," Shibi said, his voice soft beneath the din of the crowd. He reached out, his fingers brushing against the steel plate, adjusting it gently.
"I practised," Shino murmured.
A faint smile tugged at the corners of Shibi's mouth, hidden entirely by his collar. Just for a moment, the crushing weight of the inquiry and further revelations receded behind the dam of fatherly pride.
"We will eat at the south terrace tonight," Shibi said, placing a firm hand on Shino's shoulder. "The seasonal cicadas have emerged in the grove. You will observe their moult, and we will mark the day properly."
"Yes, father," Shino replied, and then waited for a moment before asking: "May I invite Torune?"
"If you can get him out of his greenhouse." Shibi was amused when he saw Shino suddenly look worried about whether he could do that. "Don't be worried. I'm sure that he'd love to be a part of your big day, son."
A single bug crawled out from Shino's collar, fluttering its wings once in a tiny, quiet burst of joy.
Then, a brush of cloth against Shibi's elbow. It was barely a touch, but he felt the faint prick against the base knuckle of his thumb, followed by a tug on his sleeve. He did not turn his head as he slipped two fingers beneath the fold of his cloak, pinched the narrow slip of parchment, and absorbed it into his sleeve, where a few bugs grabbed onto it, freeing his hand, just as he saw someone come by to give their congratulations.
A couple of minutes later, he glanced down at the note: Classroom 12. One hour. Private. It was written in a very specific code and had the Hokage's specific seal printed on the corner in miniature.
Shibi stood motionless for a few seconds.
Beside him, Shino turned his head slightly. "Father?"
"How about you hurry along home, Shino. I imagine Torune would require a few hours' notice before he is ready for a social gathering," Shibi said evenly, though the words tasted like ash. "I'll catch up with a few people here before I head home myself. I may take a detour, but worry not, I'll be home before the sun touches the tree line."
Shibi watched him walk away into the crowd to find his mother so they could go home. The joy was gone, but beneath the guilt of lying to his son, a focus took its place. An impromptu and off-the-record summons from the Hokage could be the lifeline the Aburame needed in the moment as the inquiry was threatening to rip the clan apart. If he handled this correctly, he could steer the blade away from his clan.
An hour later, Shibi stepped into Classroom 12.
The sub-building had been emptied. The hallway outside smelled of chalk and floor wax; inside the room, the low, late-afternoon sun cut across empty wooden desks in bars of amber and dust.
At the far end of the room, seated sideways on an instructor's stool near the chalkboard, was the Hokage. His unlit pipe rested between his fingers, his eyes focused on a scratch on the sill where some student had carved a lopsided Leaf insignia into the grain.
"Lord Hokage," Shibi murmured, lowering his head in a measured bow.
He could feel the presence of his guards nearby and out of sight.
"Jōnin Shibi," Hiruzen said, his gravelly voice sounding loud in the barren classroom. "Jōnin Toridasu has requested to look at the protected evidence that was seized from the Aburame clan and make a comment on it at one of the future inquiry sessions."
Shibi's eyes widened, and he stepped forward. "Are you going to allow it, Lord Hokage?" Even though Toridasu had the authority to look at the evidence, the old jōnin would refrain if the Hokage requested it.
Even though the administration accused the Aburame clan of engineering the chakra pest infestation, nothing had been proven yet. There was still some time to reverse it all and get out with relatively minimal damage, but if Toridasu accessed the evidence, he would have no choice but to take it into account when drafting the panel's final report.
It would find the Aburame clan responsible and liable; they would recommend to the prosecutors who to hold responsible, the extent of their responsibility, and what they should be charged with, along with appropriate punishment—there was a judge on the panel for that very reason.
The prosecution didn't need the inquiry panel's help on that. Shibi knew, for a fact, that a prosecution team was preparing for the court case as they spoke. However, once that report went public, the prosecution wouldn't be able to pull their punches because if their charges weren't at the same level as the recommendation, it would cause outrage over conspiracy and collusion.
There would be no coming back after that.
But there was still an opportunity to wrap this up behind closed doors.
"I plan to, yes," Hiruzen nodded.
"Why must we go about it in such a way, Lord Hokage? There are other ways to deal with this."
"Would you have cooperated if we dealt with it privately?" Hiruzen asked, and Shibi couldn't give him an answer. "Would you have admitted fault, or would you've used the hiden jutsu laws to seal the court records and proceedings so none of this would leak out, and then fought to the bitter end to avoid as much responsibility as you could…? I didn't want it to go this way, but you forced my hand."
"Is this about the Daimyo? I understand he isn't happy, but if we had kept it under wraps and eliminated the chakra pests before anyone could find out—"
"Even now, I don't hear you assume responsibility or even hint at it. All I hear is how your clan could've avoided responsibility," Hiruzen said with a disappointed look on his face.
Anything Shibi wanted to say died in his mouth. The Aburame clan was responsible, but he couldn't admit that. Not right now. Even if he wanted to, it wasn't a decision for him to make alone. It would affect the whole clan, and he had to talk to them before making any decision.
The current strategy was to defend themselves.
"Yes, I could've avoided getting humiliated by that immature man. It was humiliating to placate him." The barely hidden anger in Hiruzen's eyes made Shibi nervous. "But first Danzō and ROOT, and now this, have made it clear that I've been too lenient in my desire for peace. I admit, ROOT was partly my fault, and probably that's what bolstered others' ugly greed and ambition… It's only fair that I take actions to fix my faults. It's just unfortunate that I can't think of a way to go about it any other way."
"Lord Hokage—"
"Make no mistake, the Aburame will be held accountable. And it will be done in the plain light of day, so there is no hiding from the fallout. All that remains to be seen is whether you accept the consequences of your clan's action with honour, or abuse the power that this village gave you to evade responsibility to the end."
"And what about the village's abuse of power? Will we be treated fairly, or will we be made an example for others?" Shibi asked, knowing that he was in no position to talk about fairness when his clan's actions hadn't been fair to thousands. However, if they were going to consider cooperating, they had to know how they'd be treated. They were shinobi; not fighting a threat went against their core.
"Do you want fairness?"
Shibi didn't know if he had an answer to that because there were already whispers calling the Aburame clan's action traitorous, and even fairness would be disastrous if they were treated as traitors.
"You may leave, Jōnin Shibi. Think carefully about what was talked about here. I've made my position clear. How the future unfolds depends entirely on the Aburame clan's actions," Hiruzen said.
Shibi didn't trust himself to say anything that would change the situation, so he left immediately. The day was supposed to be joyous—a day he wanted to remember for the rest of his life, and from how it went, he was going to remember it for the rest of his life, just not in the way he wanted.
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