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Hiruzen hung up his hat on the coat hanger and relit his pipe, retreating to his office until Shikaku and the others had formulated the initial plan for his review. After being pulled from his house, he wanted a moment away from everyone's eyes to process the new information.
"Come in," he said.
There was a knock on the door; Stag and Fox entered the office.
"How is it going down there?"
"Raven has finished giving them the run-down of what he saw in the agent's mind," Stag said.
The objective was to find ROOT's base of operation, but Raven had managed to see a few more things about the base in the process before the agent's mind gave up. Ideally, they would supplement their knowledge with additional reconnaissance, but given the short timeline, they had to make do with what they had, and anything was better than nothing.
"On second thought, I'll be participating as well," Hiruzen said.
They had decided beforehand that he wouldn't be participating in the operation, but now that they had the location, he couldn't help but feel that he had to be there to see that Danzo was dealt with. He still regretted allowing Orochimaru escape; he didn't want a repeat of that mistake.
"Out of the question," Stag said, taking a tone no one in the Hidden Leaf would dare take against the Hokage. "We were very clear about this before the last time you forced your way on a field operation," which was when Hiruzen had led the attempted capture of Danzo. "If you want to join a field operation, then you need to get on with finalising candidates for your succession."
No event carried more weight for the Hidden Leaf than the selection of the next Hokage. Given there were no term limits, selecting the leader of the Hidden Leaf meant deciding its future for many years to come.
Technically, anyone could throw their name in the hat to become the Hokage. However, there were only two to three candidates with any legitimate chance of winning, and the sitting Hokage approved all of them with the guidance of the Leaf Council of Elders, the highest-ranking jōnin commander, and the two ANBU commanders.
In the case of the Fourth Hokage selection, there were three candidates: The Yellow Flash, Namikaze Minato; The Snake Sannin, Orochimaru; Wicked Eye, Uchiha Fugaku. All approved by Hiruzen for the consideration of the Leaf jōnin, who would vote to choose their next leader. The Hokage wasn't allowed to disbar those not approved by him, and thus the existence of other candidates who had gained some traction: The Shinobi of Darkness, Shimura Danzo; and Leaf's All-Seeing Eye, Hyūga Hiashi.
However, the Hokage was allowed to name his preferred successor.
For the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama, that was his younger brother, Senju Tobirama. For the Second Hokage that was his student, Sarutobi Hiruzen. And for the Third Hokage that was Namikaze Minato. All the preferred candidates went on to become the Hokage, which gave the position of preferred candidate serious weight.
And that was especially true in the case of Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had been the Hokage for as long as every other Hokage combined. For most people—bar the year-long short stint of the Fourth Hokage—Hiruzen was the only Hokage they knew. And while the traitorous turn of Orochimaru and Danzo's ROOT had harmed his reputation, he had still led the Hidden Leaf through two Shinobi World Wars; nurtured the Legendary Sannin; and his, at that time, controversial choice of Namikaze Minato as his preferred candidate was now lauded as the only correct choice.
For those reasons, the Leaf jōnin cared about who he would have as his preferred candidate for the Fifth Hokage.
Having been through two wars, Hiruzen always made his preferred candidate's identity clear to the Council of Elders and the ANBU. The candidate changed through the years, but he always had a name in case of his death. However, after reassuming his position after Fourth's death, he had avoided naming who he wished to succeed him.
"… I told you who I want to succeed me."
"And as Lord Jiraya has said every time you ask him, he doesn't want to wear the hat. He didn't want it back when you asked him to be the Fourth; he doesn't want it now," Stag said.
"Then I don't have a name."
Hokage-ANBU Commander—Father-Son—stared down at each other.
"Let's not let things get heated." Fox interrupted the tense situation. "I agree with Commander Stag, Lord Hokage. We're already heavily invested in this operation; adding you to the mix would over-leverage. I implore that you allow us to take care of this; the group gathered is among the best our village has to offer."
Hiruzen breathed a sigh and fell back into his chair.
"Very well," he said while rubbing his aching temple.
———
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"Hey, what do you think they're talking about up here…"
In the war room, Inuzuka Gaku leaned on the back legs of his chair with his feet upon the table. He stared at the ceiling with his hands behind his back. Others looked at him, but hearing his breezy tone, no one really replied to him.
"Oye, Utsuse. Take a look up, will ya."
Across the table sat Hyūga Utsuse, discussing something with a strategist around a map.
The Hyūga clan was divided into the main house and the side house. The main house was made up of seven lineages that could be traced back six centuries. The Hyūga clan head was always chosen from one of those lineages. Utsuse was the current generation head of one of those lineages and was in contention for the Hyūga clan head before Hyūga Hiashi selected to be the clan head.
"And why would I do that?"
"Bored."
"You want me to peek at the Hokage because you're bored?"
"Come on, as if you guys aren't doing that all the time," Gaku said with a toothy, provoking grin.
She finally looked up from the map and gazed at him. The others in the room also turned to them; while everyone was nervous, the jōnin in the room looked on, expecting some entertainment. Even though nobody could prove it, everybody knew—or at least assumed—that Hyūga were always watching.
"That is about as true as the Inuzuka shinobi fucking their ninken. Now I say that, maybe there's some truth to it," Utsuse said with a thin smile stretching on her face.
"Now, look at that. Don't you have a mouth on you? I respect that," Gaku said before barking out in laughter, before a bored look reappeared on his face, but not before a twinkle sparkled in his eye when he saw Utsuse glance up towards. "Curious, aren'tcha?" he grinned.
Utsuse responded with an eye roll before returning to her matter at hand.
"Yo, Yuhi! Put me in a genjutsu, will ya? Do you have something fun, like a circus show?" Gaku said when he saw Kurenai walk past him.
On the opposite end of the room, Nara Shikaku and Akimichi Choza were discussing matters.
"Why does he always have to rile people up?" Shikaku said.
"Don't worry. That's just his way to break the ice. And he knows his limits," Choza said and then laughed when he saw Kurenai put something on Gaku, who quickly released it with a peeved look on his face, but it did make her laugh. "Quite a collection of people you got here. I see the Uchiha sent Sayuri; they must be serious."
"Danzo killed Uchiha Shisui and stole his eyes. They have to be serious," Shikaku said, looking at a woman in the corner, commanding the attention of a third of the room as she gave orders and suggested improvements on the plans. "If not for 'Weasel' already involved, I'm sure Fugaku would've been present in the room."
"Who are you planning to put her together with? She has that temper of hers," Choza said.
The ten jōnin in the room were going to be paired as they would lead the operation from the front.
"I'm thinking about Aburame Shibi," Shikaku said, looking at the Aburame clan leader sitting in the corner. Like Choza, he was the only other clan leader in the group. The Aburame clan considered Shimura Danzo the number one threat towards the Hidden Leaf. "Doesn't matter whatever temper she has if it just fizzles against an unflappable wall."
"Good choice. He's a good man," Choza smiled.
"Oh, I didn't know you knew him personally," Shikaku said. As clan leaders, they ran in similar social circles, so they knew each other in a professional capacity, which wasn't much, given how reclusive most Aburame tend to be.
"I ran into him at the parent-teacher meetings."
"Ah…"
"You should attend more often."
"That's more of Shikamaru's mother thing."
"Who am I getting paired with?" asked Choza, chuckling.
"You'll be looking after Yamanaka Kawamochi. She'll be the comms of the entire group; can't have her go down for any reason," Shikaku said. Out of everyone in the room, Choza had the most experience fighting alongside a Yamanaka. "Hyūga is going with Yuhi."
Choza nodded as he picked up the heavily redacted files of the operatives on Weasel's team. He saw that they had a Hyūga on the team because byakugan was mentioned under the special skill questions. He picked up another file. "Oh, this is the guy who fought the jōnin with a clone."
"Hmm, yes, Ratel; he's Weasel's special guy. He's running ANBU's anti-ROOT efforts. Apparently, very good at his job," Shikaku replied. He hadn't met the man, but had heard much about him through his meetings with Weasel.
"That, he is indeed." The two clan heads turned around to see Hiruzen behind them with a smile on his face. "None of this would've happened without Ratel and his team."
Both of them bowed their heads.
"Lord Hokage.""
"Are we ready with the initial draft, Shikaku?" Hiruzen asked.
"Yes, Lord Hokage."
"Then let's start as soon as possible," Hiruzen said as he passed them by with Stag and Fox following in after him.
"All three of them are here," Choza said after a moment.
"Hmm, what?"
"Look at that."
Shikaku looked and saw Sarutobi Asuma, one of the ten jōnin, walking towards the Hokage and Stag.
"Father and both of his sons on the same mission, especially something of this magnitude. How often does one get to have an opportunity like that… I'd like to work with Choji one day like this."
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