After paying the fees and collecting her textbooks, Konome Taketori was assigned to Iruka Umino's class.
Once Mitsuda-sensei saw Konome's name and Guy explained the situation, their misunderstanding vanished.
Konome was very pleased with the placement.
Ever since the Second Hokage founded the Academy, Konoha's school for shinobi has carried heavy political meaning. Its purpose is to cultivate non-clan ninja, break the great families' monopoly on jutsu, and gradually boil the frog by weakening clan influence within the village.
At the same time, only those who study at the Academy receive a Konoha shinobi registration number and become official, on-record ninja of the village. Every clan head must be a registered shinobi.
Do not underestimate that rule. However strong an unregistered ninja may be, he is not of Konoha and cannot draw on village resources. Once you have a number, the Hokage can assign you missions directly, and you are obliged to obey his command, which sharply reduces the autonomy of clan shinobi.
In the past, clans could function completely apart from Konoha. Many raised private soldiers who did not have to heed Hokage deployments.
Now every major clan's successor must appear at the Hokage's school and obtain a shinobi number. The clans retain a measure of independence, yet the Hokage gains indirect control over those private forces.
Consolidate authority, bring in new blood, forge bonds. Let rivalry from childhood identify future leaders so that the contest for the Hokage's seat need not end in mass bloodshed.
It is no exaggeration to call Tobirama Senju's founding of the Academy a stroke of genius. His political mind was every bit the equal of his talent for forbidden techniques.
Now that Konome had entered Iruka's class, she had stepped into the inner circle of Konoha. If she could subdue her classmates and become the uncrowned ruler of the room, she would naturally emerge as a standard-bearer of the next generation. Whatever stain clung to her as someone who fled from Kirigakure would be eclipsed by overwhelming talent. Once she grew strong enough, questions of background would be meaningless before absolute power.
Method and scheming are stopgaps before one becomes strong. Konome had not forgotten why she came to Konoha. Power is the root of all things.
By the time Konome and Guy left the Academy, her name was already everywhere on campus. Six years old with jōnin-level strength. Liquid, effortless Water Release without hand seals and frighteningly heavy taijutsu. She had defeated a faculty jōnin in a straight fight before even enrolling, setting a record since the village was founded. Most striking of all, she was blind. Everything about her was a headline.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had already been keeping an eye on Konome, and as headmaster he received the report at once.
In the Hokage's office, smoke curled in the air. Hiruzen set his pipe on the messy desk and pinched the fresh dossier between his fingers. Inside was basic information on Konome Taketori.
Name: Konome Taketori.Status: origin formerly unknown, now the adopted daughter of Might Guy.Appearance: about one meter thirty, a blind girl whose eyes are covered with a black cloth.Abilities: excels at Water Release and taijutsu…
Aside from the newly exposed ferocity of her taijutsu, the rest matched what Hiruzen already knew.
Taijutsu. Water Release. Together they pulled his thoughts across the sea from Fire Country to the Blood Mist, a land forever shrouded in fog.
Kirigakure… is that where she is from?
Those eyes wrapped in black cloth, that air of secrecy, were nearly identical to the Mist-nin he had met. Kirigakure has more kekkei genkai clans than any other village. A new handseal-less Water Release passed through blood would not be strange. A bloodline user hunted down and fleeing to Konoha would not be strange either.
The more Hiruzen thought on it, the more plausible it felt, and the more troublesome. The girl's talent and strength were top tier, but what most impressed him was not her power. It was the acuity of her political instinct.
On her first day she somehow got Might Guy to adopt her. On the second she registered without delay, made a scene at the Academy, and cemented her status as Guy's daughter while making her name. Guy, who knows almost no ninjutsu and at most should be a tokubetsu jōnin, had been force-promoted to full jōnin in the public mind.
All the village's upper echelon knew the truth. Might Guy was one of Hiruzen's loyalists. Now every clan that watches the Academy would understand that Konome was Guy's daughter, which meant she stood behind Hiruzen himself. To the leadership, even if Hiruzen had only met her once, she already looked like a prodigy of the Hokage's faction.
A civilian-born shinobi, extraordinary talent, the Hokage's inner circle. On paper her template was disturbingly close to the Fourth Hokage's. If she bonded with the heirs of the great clans at school, this rootless outsider might someday be eligible to contend for the Hokage's seat.
How frightening.
A chill ran down Hiruzen's back. An unknown with unknown aims, perhaps from the Mist, with a path that might lead to Konoha's highest office. The dream the Uchiha had never achieved across generations, even having co-founded the village with the First Hokage, this child had sketched the outline of it in a single day.
He drew on his pipe. Smoke drifted from his nostrils.
Guy had handed him a real dilemma.
Hiruzen's suspicion that she hailed from Kirigakure hardened. Only the Mist, who had once watched Might Duy kick four of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen to death and still had not fully rebuilt that infamous squad, would truly understand Guy's potential. She had not only boarded his ship. She was angling for the secret of the Eight Gates.
Clever girl.
Hiruzen found himself admiring the blind child. His three students had inherited his prowess with ninjutsu, but not one had inherited his political mind. The world is full of powerful hotheads. A talent who couples brilliance with brains is rare.
Cool-headed, quick, strong, adept at Water Release, silver-gray hair like frost. For a moment he thought he glimpsed a shadow of the Second Hokage in her. Not likeness in truth, but an echo in spirit. For two people who share no tie to give Hiruzen the same feeling was no small thing.
A knock and a guard's voice came from outside.
"Lord Hokage, Elder Shimura requests an audience."
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes, steadied himself, and slid Konome's folder beneath the Hokage hat on his desk. "Send him in."
The door opened with a click.
A one-eyed, black-haired old man hobbled in. His left arm hung in a sling. He leaned on a cane with his right hand. His right eye was bound in bandages, his left eye was a narrow slit, and an ugly cross-shaped scar split his chin. The sour, venomous air he carried needed no introduction.
"What is it?" Hiruzen rubbed the corner of his eye. Another one-eyed cripple with a cane. Between that and Konome, the motifs were starting to rhyme.
"Sarutobi, the Uchiha are close to breaking."
"So am I."
Shimura Danzō wasted no words. He went straight to the point.
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