(June, year 54 AK)
The Hokage looked over the group again and said, "Shinji, you had been injured, you should get checked in the Hospital, and the rest of you, you seem like you need a rest."
Understanding the cue, Yuta and others, except Shisui, were about to leave the office, as Shisui looked at Yuta, Itachi and Hikari and said, "Tomorrow is a day off, let's meet the day after tomorrow at the usual place."
"Yes, Shisui-sensei." Yuta, Itachi and Hikari replied and left.
As everyone except Shisui had left the office, Hiruzen's expression became a bit more serious as he said, "There is something that worries me about your two teammates from civilian background."
As Shisui continued to stand without showing any change in his expression while listening to the Hokage, Hiruzen pulled out his pipe and took a puff, then he continued, "In your report you stated that Hikari had slain seven enemy ninjas, and Yuta killed five. With all of the enemies being at least Chunins, it was no small achievement by any means for the two Genins who had just graduated recently, and through an early graduation at that, but..."
Hiruzen made a brief pause and took another puff, then continued, "You had written that both of them don't have any lingering psychological trauma after what happened, this is not typical for the kids from civilian background, not after what they were went through on that mission..."
Shisui immediately understood what Hiruzen had implied by that. Such behavior was indeed a bit abnormal, and one of the possible explanations for such behavior could be that they are some kind of trained spies. It isn't rare for the ninja villages and organizations to train kids at a very young age and then send them to infiltrate into other ninja villages as spies, things like that happen all the time.
"Lord Hokage." Shisui said confidently, "They are promising and talented young ninjas and their personalities and mental states aren't ordinary by any means. There is nothing problematic about them, nothing to worry about."
Althouhg Shisui said it confidently, he wasn't actually completely sure about it, not with Hikari at least. But before Shisui even made his request to the Hokage for becoming the Jonin instructor for Itachi, Hikari and Yuta, he had investigated both Yuta and Hikari thoroughly, he had checked and verified all and every connection they ever made in the village, he had checked and verified all the details about them from the moment they were born.
But even then Shisui didn't find anything problematic. Both their lives could be easily traced all the way to their birth, and there was not a single contact between them and any remotely suspicious individuals. They weren't replaced by some imposters either, Shisui had found their DNA's from around the time they were born and had it checked at the Hospital's lab to match with their current DNA's and it matched perfectly.
Yuta's case was special from Shisui's point of view. Yuta has a unique talent, probably a rare Bloodline, he could see into the future to some extent, and Yuta was the one who reached out to Shisui through Itachi and had put his trust into Shisui first, as he opened up to him and put himself into the vulnerable position by exposing his secret just like that, willingly, and some other things happen between them as well. So now Shisui believed that Yuta wanted to protect the village and that was enough for him to trust him, so when the Hokage implied that there might be something problematic about his teammates from civilian background – Shisiu didn't doubt Yuta at all, only Hikari.
But even if Shisui had some suspicions about Hikari, it was nothing solid or significant, and even if it would turn out that Hikari happens to be problematic after all, Shisui would prefer to deal with her himself, he doesn't want anyone else to interfere in that.
Maybe in the past, before Shisui had learned about Danzo's hostility and his close connection with Hiruzen, maybe then he would've shared his thoughts openly with the Hokage, but not now, not anymore. It wasn't like Shisui doesn't trust, or aren't loyal to the Hokage anymore, it's more like he was on guard against Danzo now, and with how close the Hokage and Danzo was, Shisui no longer could allow himself to be completely open with the Hokage.
So, it was only natural for Shisui to put a confident front and shield his teammates, both of them, Hikari and Yuta, in front of the Hokage. And if there is something wrong with Hikari – Shisui would deal with her himself when the time comes, but also, Shisui doesn't believe that there is anything wrong with her, he was more inclined to believe that Hikari just has a unique personality and a mental state like that and there is nothing more to it.
"I see." Hiruzen replied and took another puff, as his expression relaxed, he said, "If you said so, then it must be true. What a good find, Shisui, such promising young ninjas, you have a good eye for talent. Make sure to train and guide them well."
"I will, Lord Hokage." Shisui replied with a bow and left the office.
...
Later that day, someone else had visited the Hokage. The door to the Hokage's office opened, and slowly an old man had walked inside, helping himself with a cane on each step he walked to the Hokage's desk.
Hokage was writing something into the scroll and didn't even look up to see who had visited him, acting as if he was too busy to even notice.
"Hiruzen, you had become too soft, and you are making one mistake after another." Danzo slowly said in a displeased tone.
Hiruzen sighed with annoyance and said tiredly, "What is it this time, Danzo, I don't have neither time nor patience to play charades with you right now."
"The last mission of the Shisui Uchiha." Danzo said as his tone became colder, "Don't you find it a bit too convenient that he had 'made' the Mist ninjas to withdraw like that and just let them go? Don't tell me that you don't have any suspicions that the Uchihas could be colluding with the Mist? Especially now, since Kirigakure started to change its politics drastically just a couple years ago! You should allow me to interrogate if not Shisui Uchiha himself, then his old teammates, the three of them are just Chunins, it won't be hard to uncover the truth behind all of this!"
The more Danzo was speaking, the angrier Hiruzen was becoming, until he finally hit the table with his palm and shouted, "Enough! Did you lost your mind? You want me to give you Shinji and the others for interrogation? That will never happen! Did you consider how Shisui would react if his old teammates were taken by you for interrogation?"
"So what?" Danzo said loudly with a sneer, "Are you still trusting the Uchihas to this extent? You can't be serious!"
"Shisui is trustworthy and we need him, I already told you that, and it won't change! This whole suspicion of yours is ridiculous, why would Shisui collude with the Mist ninjas to begin with?" Hiruzen said heatedly, "Besides, from the whole platoon of eighteen Mist ninjas only four of them are still alive, Shisui's squad had killed the rest, how are they supposed to find the common ground after that?"
"It doesn't matter how many of the Mist ninjas died back there." Danzo replied coldly, "Don't be shortsighted, those might as well be the unwanted or compromised ninjas who were sent there to die to begin with, it is possible that they weren't supposed to survive the mission anyway, you know how things are done with the suspicious, compromised or simply unwanted ninjas. You, of all people, Hiruzen, know such things well!"
"Sigh, you can investigate whatever you want, Danzo, but don't you dare to take any of them for the interrogations, this is too far for the baseless suspicion with no prof at all." Hiruzen said with finality and then continued as he returned to the scroll he was writing, "If that was all you've got, then leave, I have work to do."
"You really did become soft, Hiruzen." Danzo said with displeasure, then said, "There is something else I want. I had read the report, it seems that those two Genins on the Shisui's team had shown some promise during the mission."
Hiruzen put away the scroll again and looked at Danzo with a firm and annoyed look in his eyes, "What do you want? I already told you that you can't have them."
"This is ridiculous!" Danzo exclaimed, "Did you see the Shisui's report? Those two's talents would be wasted in the regular ranks! Even more so, are you really insisting on letting Shisui Uchiha to have them? He already has Itachi Uchiha on his team, and now it turns out that the other two Genins are this promising and you want to let Shisui Uchiha to keep them? Hikari and Yuta performed very well during the mission, they had fought like professional ninjas while outnumbered, and they took enemy lives without any hesitation, both of them are more suited for the darkness! Especially Yuta Arai!"
"This is not up to discussion!" Hiruzen didn't budge.
"You know that I'm right, Hiruzen!" Danzo said with a firm belief in his eyes, "Yuta Arai is especially suited for the darkness, he would bring much more value while being in my Root than in the regular ranks. He had faced six enemy Chunins, each of his enemies was stronger than him, and he still managed to kill five of them and fought the last one until the end while staying calm and cold-minded at all times, knowing full well that he won't be able to win and that he was done for. And the way he had improvised by making the trap with paper tag bombs on the enemy corpses, someone like him, who could stay this calm, calculating and ruthlessly efficient in any situation, someone like him will fit perfectly into my Root."
The more Danzo was speaking, the more tired and thoughtful the expression of Hiruzen became.
'Danzo is not wrong.' Hiruzen thought, 'Yuta would be best suited in the Root, or in the ANBU at the very least. But I can't take away Shisui's teammate like that, what should I do...'
...
--- AN ---
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