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The Hokage's Office was the most prominent building in the Hidden Leaf Village. It consisted of the immediate staff of the Hokage, as well as multiple levels of support staff reporting to the Hokage.
Takuma arrived there early, at nine in the morning, and was asked to wait until the Hokage was ready to meet. He was put in a private waiting room, where he sat for the next four hours until someone came to fetch him. Luckily, he blocked out the whole day for the meeting because he knew he would be pencilled in the gaps between schedules.
However, before he could meet the Hokage, he was first taken to another room where a group of ANBU were waiting for him. They were the Hokage's ANBU. An undisclosed number of units that existed outside the department hierarchy and served directly under the Hokage. They handled a part of his security alongside general protection and ran operations directly ordered by him.
One of the operatives tapped the sheet metal table and said, "Submit your weapons."
Takuma didn't show any resistance and emptied everything he had onto the table.
An operative pointed to a box wrapped in a tan sheet of wrapping paper. "What's this?" he asked.
"A gift for Lord Hokage," Takuma said as he was being patted down. "You can open it, just don't tear the wrapping paper."
"You brought a gift?"
"Yeah, why?" Takuma asked. He consulted with Maruboshi because he was unsure what to give the Hokage, who could afford anything he desired. Finding a gift was more stressful than thinking about the meeting itself.
"No, it's nothing," said the operative, exchanging looks with the others.
The gift was soon cleared. However, it took three ANBU-nin working together to wrap the gift back into its paper neatly.
Soon after, he was inside the Hokage's office. As he waited for the Sarutobi Hiruzen to finish a conversation with his staff, he looked around. He looked up at a section of the wall on his left; he could hear operatives hidden in the wall, trying to be as quiet as possible.
Compared to the offices of high-ranking shinobi he had seen, the Hokage's office was relatively simple. There were no valuable wall ornaments or ornate furniture. In its place were the photos of the other Hokage, bookshelves, cabinets, maps, and a large desk with ample space.
It was too functional. Even Takuma's office had a few things that were nice to look at.
It felt like the office of someone who didn't want to be there.
"Welcome, Ratel," Hiruzen smiled from behind his desk. He was dressed in his official attire—a haori with a red, full-length kimono that was tied using a white sash. He hadn't changed much since they met a year ago, but he seemed a bit thinner.
Takuma immediately knelt and bowed his head. "Lord Hokage."
"If I remember correctly, you're part of Tachinid's Inquisitor Unit... Why are you wearing assault squad gear?" asked Hiruzen.
"I find it comforting, sir," Takuma replied. After running with the squad at Inahara, he instructed the inventory manager to order an assault unit version of gear and covered the difference out of his own pocket.
Hiruzen chuckled.
"This is for you," Takuma said after Hiruzen told him to get up. "A humble gift from me."
"A gift? Well, colour me surprised. This is the first time an operative has given me a gift when I summoned them." Hiruzen smiled broadly as he received the wrapped box.
"Eh?" Takuma uttered in equal surprise as he stepped away from the desk after giving the gift. He instantly realised what had happened. Barbary had screwed him over.
"A puzzle?" Hiruzen said as he stared at a three-hundred-piece puzzle set of a view overlooking the Hidden Leaf Village.
"It's for you to do alongside the Honourable Grandson. Something to complete during your time together," Takuma said, trying his best not to show how flustered he was.
Initially, he wanted to go with an artisanal tobacco blend because Hiruzen was an avid smoker, but Maruboshi explained that people like that would be too picky about their preferences and instead reminded him about Sarutobi Konohamaru and suggested giving something that would help an old man connect with his grandson.
Hiruzen gazed at him and then at the puzzle in stunned surprise. Takuma almost couldn't handle the silence, but from the smile on the assistant's face, he felt he was safe.
"Thank you. It's the most thoughtful gift I've received in recent memory," Hiruzen said with a warm smile.
Takuma simply bowed his head.
"You're transferring under Weasel," Hiruzen said as he carefully put the puzzle set into a drawer.
"Yes, sir. Captains Weasel and Tachinid both agreed that it'd be better that way."
"You've gotten even more involved with ROOT since the last time we met," Hiruzen said. Takuma tried to glean some information from his expressions, but the old shinobi gave nothing away.
"It turned out that way. My lieutenant says that I've a knack for finding them."
"And the two captains seem to agree." Hiruzen nodded. "What do you think about ROOT?"
"They are a cancer that needs to be treated before they can spread and do more damage than they have already done," Takuma said, feeling his nervousness fade. He was much more comfortable talking about work.
"And how would you go about doing that?"
"In my opinion, we must pursue them openly, aggressively, and purge them while they're still establishing themselves. Agents are the most tumorous, but they're still limited in number. The other side of the problem is informants, suppliers, and known collaborators—anyone that would give them the faintest chance of coming back."
Hidden Leaf's current approach for taking care of ROOT was to do it silently without raising much noise. The village didn't want to air their dirty laundry in public. It was partially due to embarrassment; it was Hidden Leaf's biggest internal screwup in recent memory. But it was also a way to not seem weak in front of the peering gaze of foreign powers by maintaining the outward appearance that ROOT and Danzo's expulsion was a trivial matter.
They didn't want other hidden villages to think this was an opportune time to pressure them. Takuma also agreed with that because he knew that if other hidden villages decided to target Hidden Leaf through covert operations, ROOT would be the first one to lend their hand in a bid for power.
Giving a war to a warmonger like Danzo would be like helping him grow. However, his thoughts had begun to change recently.
"We shouldn't care about not looking weak. We should appear strong," Takuma said.
"There is a difference." Hiruzen nodded.
"Perhaps it's crass, but we should openly threaten those who dare to help ROOT by making an example of those whom we find. That way, we instil fear in the hearts of those who might have a thought about trying to benefit from this internal conflict by taking the option off the table."
Takuma saw Hiruzen thinking about his words. To be honest, he was taking a risk by speaking like this. Anything he said would reflect on Itachi, who was soon going to be his direct superior. If Hiruzen didn't like what he said, and that affected Itachi in any way, he risked damaging his relationship with his new captain.
"We aren't the Hidden Rain," he said.
"Hidden Rain?" Hiruzen asked, confused.
However, now that he had already taken the risk, he would rather go all in instead of folding his card.
"They allowed a threat like Akatsuki to grow to the point where they can't get rid of it. We are not them. We are the Hidden Leaf. We are the oldest and strongest village in the land. ROOT will not become another Akatsuki because we will crush them before they even have a chance."
There was a silence in the room as the Hokage pondered. No one made a noise until he was done.
"I can see why Weasel poached you, Ratel." Hiruzen smiled. "Is there something you need to do well in your new position? Congratulations on getting promoted to a squad leader."
"Thank you, sir." Takuma bowed his head. It wouldn't look good for Itachi if he found that his new subordinate was asking the Hokage for resources. "Captain Weasel has been quite accommodating, I couldn't ask for more, but..."
"Yes?"
"I'm forming my own squad. I wonder if you have any recommendations."
Hiruzen was surprised once again.
———
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A barn on a farm on the outermost edge of the Hidden Leaf Village, beyond the wall, looked like any other on the outside, but on the inside, it had been turned into a mission centre. A group of men gathered around a wooden table with enough splinters to satisfy a porcupine
"How much have you found?" Kon asked. It had been a few hours since he had arrived in the Hidden Leaf Village. He looked at the team members who had been stationed at the village and had been keeping an eye on the target, and felt anger bubble from inside.
They were lucky because they got a favourable assignment while he was pushed to the backwaters, even though he was better than every single one of them. None of them had managed to climb high up the hierarchy of wherever they were placed and were still waddling in the middle; if he were in their space, he would've done a much better job at them.
"The target's name is Takuma. We have been following him for a few months and know the locations of his work and home, schedule, friends, and acquaintances. There's enough information to plan an operation," an agent replied.
'I'll be the judge of that,' Kon thought. "Where does he live?"
The agent showed the location on a map of the village. The home was inside the wall, but it was right near the edge.
"It's isolated enough. Let's hit him there," Kon said, feeling excitement thrum in his heart. He couldn't wait to burn the bastard's house and destroy everything he owned.
"We can not. The target's home isn't a viable location. He doesn't live alone."
"Who does he live with?" Kon asked with a frown.
"Genin Maruboshi Kosuke," the agent said, handing him a file.
"A genin?" Kon scoffed as he received the file. "Why the fuck would we be scared of a genin? What's going to happen—"
Kon went silent as he read past the introduction section of the file.
"We will all die," the agent said, bluntly.
Kon crushed the file in his rage-filled grip as he glared at the threat assessment section and knew that they would indeed die if they even stepped into the shadow of the house.
"You should rest," said the agent.
"What?!" Kon looked up and was about to burst, but his words died in his throat when he saw how the others were looking at him. Their eyes were looking at him as though judging him to see if he was worth following. Even though he was the leader of this operation, the village was their territory. If they stopped cooperating properly, he wouldn't be able to run a clean operation.
He needed to maintain his position as leader and ensure that they followed his orders.
"Very well," Kon replied calmly, even though he was boiling from within.
Power meant everything in the world. He needed power to rein in these worthless agents, and he needed it to kill the little bastard that had ruined his life.
'It's okay,' he told himself as he felt his stump of an arm ache.
Lord Danzo had granted him great power to accomplish this mission. He needed the agents to run a clean operation, but the success of it was already guaranteed.
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