Could Uchiha Fugaku still keep the clan in line? Send Itachi to talk sense into them for a while.
Tap, tap.
Sarutobi Hiruzen drew on his pipe, thoughts drifting.
Might Guy began his report. "Yesterday, Konome tested her chakra at Ningu Mantendō. The paper showed she was born with all five nature types."
Mm.
If the Uchiha revolt, Root has all five nature types at the ready too.
Five, five… mm?
What five-nature Root?
Hiruzen's train of thought jumped the tracks. After a heartbeat he snapped back. "Who has all five nature types?"
"Konome," Guy answered as if it were obvious.
He only knew taijutsu and did not care much for nature transformations. He just knew the gift was rare. In all of Konoha maybe only the Third Hokage and Kakashi had it.
Guy might not grasp the weight, but Hiruzen did. In shinobi battles, elemental matchups decide fights again and again. There were countless cases of winning out of your weight class by playing to the chart.
All five natures meant you could counter whatever the enemy threw at you.
That was why Kakashi, though not the absolute best at any one thing, could hang with almost anyone through coverage and versatility. Hiruzen himself had taken it further, weaving the five into huge compound Release techniques.
Without a bloodline limit he still ranked near the top of the Five Kage. Being born with all five was a special constitution no weaker than a kekkei genkai.
Add Konome's seal-less Water Release and you had a pseudo dual bloodline.
What if she could cast the other four without seals too?
That would be terrifying. With a big enough chakra pool she would be a one-woman artillery piece.
Hiruzen's mind raced. The more he thought, the more likely it seemed. His back straightened from the lazy slouch. "Go on."
Seeing that the payout looked close, Guy did not dawdle. "This morning she learned the Leaf's Strong Fist. Her taijutsu is very strong."
"Hold it."
The untrained intelligence man was cut off again.
"How strong is very strong?"
Guy thought it over. "She hits harder than I do. Speed I am not sure. Her body is much tougher. If I do not open the Eight Gates, I doubt I can break through her guard."
When he spoke of taijutsu his tone grew heavy. He recalled the kick from earlier. He had put everything into a Leaf Strong Whirlwind and she had stopped it on her forearm. He had gone numb down one side from the recoil. She had acted as if nothing had happened. The small frame felt compact and weighty, like rebar wrapped in concrete, solid in a way a human body should not be.
So her physical specs were that high too.
Hiruzen put the Uchiha file aside and focused fully on Konome. A five-nature ninjutsu battery whose taijutsu eclipsed her ninjutsu, blind yet moving without a hitch, which meant her sensing was no joke.
A true all-rounder.
Now he was interested. As one of the few true generalists in the shinobi world, he felt a tug of kinship with a girl who might be even more gifted.
"Continue."
His voice climbed, the excitement plain.
Spurred on, and eager for his pay, Guy hurried on. "I taught her the Eight Gates this morning. With no training at all she opened straight to the fourth Gate, the Wound Gate. According to Kakashi she can keep the life energy from leaking. At peak her chakra reaction is brushing elite jonin. I think she still has room to spare."
Silence.
The office fell still. Following the Third's order to stick to the headline points, Guy had dropped thunderbolt after thunderbolt until Hiruzen was dazed. It was a lot to swallow.
Clack.
Whoof.
Smoke in and out. The bite of nicotine snapped the Hokage back. He set down the pipe, eyes complicated. "Guy, bring me the written report."
"Okay."
Guy passed it over. Along with the shocking talent, it recorded some background Konome had told them over breakfast. In her telling she came from a small jutsu clan in the Land of Water. For reasons unknown, Kirigakure's leadership discovered a treasure hidden by her clan and sent ANBU to wipe them out and take it. Her parents and kin died. She alone survived. To escape pursuit and avenge her family she had come to Konoha in search of power.
She had salted the tale with bits lifted from contestants on variety shows in her last life. It was stirring and sad. Others might not know, but it had moved Might Guy to loud tears. Kakashi had listened without buying it wholesale, yet his guard had slipped a notch.
Hiruzen read slowly, filtering out what Guy had already said and weighing the life story. The outline held together, though a few details were vague on purpose. He could feel what she had chosen not to say.
He did not mind. In the face of talent like this, minor blemishes did not matter. He was willing to believe this was the truth.
When he first met Konome he had hoped to catch a misstep and stop her if she threatened Konoha. Now it was different. Her gifts surpassed anything he had imagined. Even at Hashirama's age she might have outshone him.
If they could turn a genius like this toward Konoha, her future value could easily eclipse that of the Uchiha, who were currently feuding with the village and flirting with rebellion.
The cleaner Konome's background looked, the more he liked it. As long as she did not harm Konoha, he could live with whatever backstory she claimed.
If once he had considered asking the Yamanaka to read her memories, now he had dropped the idea. You do not go rummaging in a prodigy's head. What if you broke something and she turned out like Might Guy. Who would fix it?
A person's value shapes how others treat them. Konome's gifts warranted his care.
"If only she were born in Konoha," Hiruzen murmured. That would have been perfect, root and branch of the Will of Fire. He even toyed with taking one more student before stepping down.
He thought of his own pupils. Tsunade had inherited the Senju arts. Jiraiya followed the toads of Mount Myoboku and trained in Sage Mode. Orochimaru, five natures like himself, had learned a fraction of his ninjutsu craft, and then gone very wrong. None of the three had taken up his adamantine staff style with Enma. Konome's five-nature gift plus her overwhelming taijutsu fit his transmission like a glove.
The more he imagined it, the more it stung that he could not act on it. He tasted the bitter edge of smoke and forced his covetous heart still. Until her origins were clearer, he could not take her as a disciple no matter how much he wanted to. The Hokage's students are by default candidates for the hat. If she turned out to be a problem and still reached that stage, he would be unable to face the First and Second after death, and he would fail the villagers who trusted him.
He dared not gamble.
The office held him and his thousand thoughts. His face seesawed from clouded to clear. In front of the desk, Might Guy scratched at his pants, anxious. After he got his fee he still needed to run to the mission hall before all the good jobs were gone. Watching the Third's old face knot up as if wrestling with the choice of a lifetime, Guy grew more and more puzzled.
Wait, is Konoha's budget really this tight? Does paying out a mission bonus require this much soul searching?
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