Chapter 17: Undercurrents and Choices
The afterglow of the setting sun dyed the Senju estate's garden a warm orange-red, stretching the shadows of the eaves. When Shūji pushed open the courtyard gate, Tōka-bā-chan had her back to him, focused on pruning a bonsai pine. The soft snip-snip of the shears was especially clear in the quiet air.
"Bā-chan, I'm back." Shūji's voice broke the silence.
Tōka-bā-chan's hands didn't stop. She just gave a slight nod in acknowledgment.
"How was the assessment?" Her voice was flat, betraying no emotion.
"I passed. Special Jōnin status."
"Hn."
After a brief silence, Shūji spoke again, his voice a bit lower. "The examiners were two Anbu. One had silver hair, strong with Lightning Style and taijutsu. The other... used Wood Style."
This time, Tōka-bā-chan's movements stopped. She set down her silver shears and turned to face him. Her suddenly sharp eyes locked onto him, filled with an unprecedented scrutiny. "Did you use your Wood Style against him?"
"No." Shūji shook his head, meeting her gaze. "Only standard ninjutsu."
Tōka-bā-chan was silent. The only sound in the garden was the sasa of the evening wind in the leaves. After a long moment, a short, sharp laugh escaped her.
"Hiruzen... ah, Hiruzen..." Her voice was low. "You've gotten so old."
"Bā-chan... you already knew this Wood Style user existed?" Shūji asked.
"Hn." Tōka-bā-chan didn't deny it. She picked up the shears again but didn't resume pruning, instead just rubbing the cold metal handles.
"That child... his Anbu codename is 'Tenzō.' Before that, in Danzō's Root, he was 'Kinoe.' He is a... defective product... built from the lives sacrificed by Danzō and Orochimaru." Her voice grew low. "Though he was lucky to survive, and he can sprout some wood, compared to Hashirama-sama... he is the mud beneath the clouds. And compared to you..." Her gaze landed on Shūji again, filled with a complex, unreadable meaning. "He is also different."
Shūji's pupils contracted. Orochimaru and Danzō's Wood Style experiments! Kinoe! Tenzō! Bā-chan knew these codenames...
"Were... you involved?" Shūji's voice dropped, laced with a disbelieving curiosity.
Tōka-bā-chan's shears stilled. She raised her eyes, her gaze like a quenched blade, stabbing deep into Shūji's.
This scrutiny was even sharper than before, as if she were assessing his ability to handle the truth. The air on the veranda seemed to freeze. Even the wind seemed to detour around them.
After a long moment, Tōka-bā-chan finally spoke. "The first Hashirama Cell implantation experiments... the volunteers were mostly trustworthy people with high potential. That is to say, 'us' [the Senju]. The sacrifices were too great. The village couldn't bear the losses, so it was officially stopped."
"But, the village still wanted a way to control the Tailed Beasts. If they couldn't use their own people, they would use outsiders."
"In the end, they tacitly allowed Danzō and Orochimaru to do it. As for 'us'... since it was Hashirama-sama's cells, we were, of course, involved to some extent."
Her words were like cold hammers, striking Shūji's heart one by one, revealing the festering wound beneath Konoha's bright surface.
However, to Tōka-bā-chan's surprise, Shūji's face showed none of the violent emotion she expected. His brow was furrowed in thought, but he maintained a strange, almost cold calm.
There were no angry accusations, no disillusioned grief. Just... a quiet, as if he had already foreseen this, and was now just processing the details.
Tōka-bā-chan's heart stirred. This child's reaction was wrong. He was too composed.
A fourteen-year-old boy, hearing such a dark secret, where was the shock he should have felt? She looked at his calm profile. The desire for him to just live safely, a feeling that had grown stronger ever since his near-death, suddenly overrode all other complex thoughts.
"You..." Tōka-bā-chan's voice held a hint of probing, but her tone softened unconsciously with a hint of an elder's worry. "These things the village has done... you don't feel anger? You don't feel... disillusioned?"
Shūji was silent for a moment. His gaze went past her, settling on the stone lantern in the corner of the garden, the dark green moss climbing its side looking stubborn in the dim light.
"An individual's moral code cannot be used to restrain a massive collective that prioritizes survival and power. By the same token, you can't use it to simply judge a leader who has to make choices in a cruel reality." He paused, his gaze returning to her face, his eyes deep. "Survival and development are, in themselves, the greatest 'right.' Whether it's 'dirty' or not... depends on the final goal, and... whether there was a less dirty option available."
"Personal morals can neither bind the beast known as the 'collective,' nor can they be the only yardstick to measure a leader who is forced to trudge through the mud."
These words, like a stone dropped into a deep pool, stirred a violent ripple in Tōka-bā-chan's long-still heart.
The profound insight and almost cold-blooded pragmatism in that statement made Tōka-bā-chan realize, for the first time, that this child, whom she had personally raised, seemed... to have been completely reborn.
That composure, that understanding of the world's complexity and its cruel rules, was far beyond his physical age. A trace of true surprise, mixed with a complex, unnameable emotion, flashed through her mind.
"The village needs a power to counter the Tailed Beasts. That's not wrong." Shūji said.
"But the Uchiha clan's Sharingan... isn't it also said to control the Tailed Beasts? If the greater good is at stake, wouldn't they..."
"The Uchiha?"
Tōka-bā-chan looked at him as if he'd said the most absurd thing imaginable.
"Heh. In the fifty-four years since Konoha was founded, those 'eyes' they're so proud of have been involved in 'controlling a Tailed Beast' twice!"
"The first time was Uchiha Madara, who attacked the village with the Nine-Tails. The second time was three years ago. The Nine-Tails Rampage!"
"The Sharingan controlled the Nine-Tails again, and it rampaged through the village. We lost the Yondaime Hokage, over a dozen Jōnin, and hundreds of Chūnin and Genin who died trying to draw its attention!"
"This 'ability to control Tailed Beasts,' in the Uchiha's hands, is nothing but a drawn sword hanging over the village's head, ready to fall at any moment!"
Shūji was silent. He couldn't refute the bloody facts.
Putting Madara aside, the impact of the Nine-Tails Rampage three years ago was still spreading.
"Do I need to make a statement in response to this 'test'?" Shūji pulled the topic back to the immediate reality. His voice returned to its previous calm, as if the heavy conversation about the Uchiha had never happened.
Tōka-bā-chan's sharp gaze seemed to try and pierce his calm, to find his true thoughts. After a long moment, that same sigh, filled with endless weariness and a hint of understanding, returned.
"...Forget it." She waved her hand, as if brushing away invisible dust. "This old woman will handle it."