Will of embers

Chapter 16

Kakashi couldn't believe he got used to helping the Third Hokage with the paperwork. The job that he cursed with every part of existence was now kind of relaxing. It was still just organizing, so it might not be as soul-sucking as the work the Third Hokage did, but he still couldn't believe that he started liking it.

All his work consisted of separating the papers into various categories. He would put letters into different piles, which mostly consisted of requests, demands, and garbage. There were way too many nobles inviting the Third Hokage to their children's or even their birthdays. They had no common sense that the Third didn't have time to do such things.

Well, they might not believe that after seeing the Third training with his new student. Maybe because he was a genius, Kakashi couldn't understand why the Third went to such great lengths teaching Yamato basic things. The Third trained Yamato in basic taijutsu, like punching, kicking, and blocking for hours on hours.

Kakashi learned this stuff in a couple of days when he was a kid, and Yamato also seemed to have mastered it by now. But the Third continued to teach him that. Kakashi didn't want to overstep his bounds, but he couldn't stop watching the Third. The training was just too weird for Kakashi. At first, the Third would be clumsy, no better than Yamato and then he would improve together with Yamato.

Minato-sensei never lowered his skill to match that of his. But maybe it was an effective method since Yamato was quickly learning everything that the Third taught him. It just seemed to be a lot of effort for basic skills. And even after seemingly learning these skills, the Third would continue training him as if he was trying to see if he had missed anything or not.

"Very good," The Third did look oddly satisfied with Yamato's progress. He even seemed to be proud of it. "Let's have a rest, and then we are going to learn how to handle throwing weapons."

The Third could have left Yamato to the training by himself, yet he didn't. He was with Yamato at every step of learning. Kakashi didn't know how to feel about it, but he was sure if he weren't used to helping the Third with his paperwork, Kakashi would have given a piece of his mind to the Third for leaving all the work to him. But Kakashi couldn't blame the Third when he saw how Yamato was happy.

A smile never seemed to leave Yamato's face. Knowing what Yamato had experienced, even if the boy didn't remember it, Kakashi felt bad for him. So, he took it upon himself to make sure he was alright and had all the help he needed. Yamato was in all-purpose new to the village, and he had no one. No family nor any friends. Well, Tsunade Senju would come to visit him once in a couple of days, but that was it.

"Kakashi-senpai," Yamato waved as he saw Kakashi. "Are you going to join us for lunch?"

"Not today," The Third said before Kakashi could. "You have to visit the hospital for your checkup."

"Urgh," Yamato didn't like hospitals; more precisely, he didn't like people doing tests on him. "Will Aunty Tsunade be there?"

"Of course, she was the one to ask for you," The third smiled and patted Yamato's head. "Go on now, and don't cause too much trouble. Kakashi will take you to the hospital."

Yamato could only tolerate Tsunade Senju doing the test, or at least for her to be present. Kakashi suspected that Yamato's trauma made him like this. Even if he doesn't remember, sometimes the feeling doesn't disappear. Kakashi could sometimes see how Yamato would suddenly become uncomfortable around strangers. He had major trust issues. Or maybe it was anxiety. Kakashi wasn't sure.

…

"Everything seems to be fine," Tsunade Senju said as she read out the results of the tests done on Yamato. "Don't forget the diet I told you about, and don't push yourself too much. I will be not pleased if I see you here before our next meeting in two weeks."

"Yes," It didn't seem that Yamato was listening as he fidgeted around, looking extremely uncomfortable, surrounded by various medical equipment.

"You can go," Tsunade noticed it, too, so she quickly dismissed him.

"Let's go," Kakashi didn't mind looking after Yamato; it wasn't that much work anyway. "We will get some walnuts on the way back."

"Yay!" Immediately, Yamato seemed to have cheered up after mentioning his favorite snack.

The boy was weird. Kakashi didn't know anyone else whose favorite snack would be walnuts. It just didn't make sense. Especially children his age. Well, Kakashi didn't like sweet things either, so maybe it wasn't that weird. And walnuts were quite nutritious and healthy. But still, who eats bags upon bags of walnuts? Nobody likes them as much as Yamato.

"Ka. Ka. Shi!" As much as Kakashi liked to show the village to Yamato, he certainly didn't like to be interrupted, especially by a certain bowl-cut and thick-eyebrows-wearing boy who would rather walk on his hands than his legs. "Fight me!"

"No," Kakashi sidestepped Gai and walked away with confused-looking Yamato following close behind.

"Just wait, Kakashi," Gai walked with his hands as he turned to Kakashi. "Once I finish this 10-kilometer run on my hands, you won't be able to refuse my challenge after seeing my physique."

Kakashi had to admit Gai's confidence in himself was on another lever than anyone else's. Only his dedication to training surpassed his confidence. Yamato looked between Gai and Kakashi with a confused look and muttered to himself something about 10 kilometers run on his hands. Kakashi would rather return to the Hokage office, though.

"Yo, Kakashi," Kakashi was reaching the limit of meeting people for the day. "How are you doing?"

"What do you want, Asuma?" Kakashi wasn't close enough to Asuma to make small talk.

"Why so cold?" Asuma smiled but quickly folded upon Kakashi's lone eye glaring. "I just thought that maybe you have free time and would like to have a spar with me. But since you don't seem to be in the mood, I will forget it."

"Asuma, Kakashi," What was this? A class reunion?

"Kurenai," Asuma quickly greeted Kurenai Yuhi. "How is it going?"

"I am well. I'm sorry that you didn't manage to pass the Jonin exam, Asuma." Kakashi was quickly losing energy as he looked at two blushing teenagers. "Who is this, Kakashi?"

"Yamato," Kakashi pushed Yamato in front as he was done interacting with people for today. "He is the Third's student."

"What?" Both Asuma and Kurenai asked with agape mouths.

Kakashi just nodded and left them be. Yamato took a minute to look between them, and Kakashi decided he didn't want to explain himself. Kakashi will have to apologize to Yamato later for leaving him behind. Not wanting to bump into anyone else, Kakashi quickly returned to the Hokage office. There, he found the Third using his shadow clones to finish the paperwork.

…

"Finally," Hiruzen said, putting down the last piece of paperwork and relaxing in his chair. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Yamato. We will do some basic ninjutsu and call it a day."

Yamato, who was waiting with Kakashi for Hiruzen to finish the work, perked up as Hiruzen mentioned training. Hiruzen completely understood how Yamato felt. He was as excited about training as Yamato was. With the memories of teaching the Sannin, Hiruzen was quickly learning the basics—but not as quickly as Yamato.

He couldn't understand Yamato, but he seemed to learn everything super easily. This made Hiruzen very focused and dedicated to training, as he couldn't lose to Yamato. It was his only opportunity to learn those things without anyone suspecting him. He couldn't let people think that he was worse than his students at the things he taught.

Still basics were just basics in the end. But he couldn't discount them either. While body transformation jutsu and illusionary clone jutsu were pretty useless to Hiruzen, body flicker and substitution jutsu were great. And finally able to train with them in the open and not cooped up in one room let him reach novice level in them.

And his basic taijutsu was getting better and better each day. Since taijutsu was the only thing that Hiruzen was able to train while still restricted in his room outside anyone's eyes, he progressed well. Using his shadow clones to fight each other, with one using bo-staff and another basic taijutsu, was a great method. Of course, he had to make sure that no one was in the house while he did that, as he didn't want to explain the noise coming from his room.

But soon, that won't be necessary. Every time he had free time, Hiruzen would study fuinjutsu. He almost finished learning the noise-canceling seal. He would, at most, need another week or so before he could use it. It was a good thing that he got access to everything he wanted to learn, but it was quite bothersome how secretive he had to be.

He still couldn't understand how others were able to notice each other while they were hiding. Hiruzen tried many times to learn how to perceive the ANBU surrounding him, but he failed every time. Well, they were ANBU, so if their hiding techniques were bad, it would cause different kinds of concern to Hiruzen. But they were the only ones he could try to find while they were hiding, as no one else would dare to hide in Hiruzen's presence.

"What's on your mind?" Hiruzen asked, noticing that Yamato was less concentrated than he usually was.

"Sensei, how do you make friends?"

What a loaded question. Hiruzen guessed that Yamato would sooner or later start asking these questions. He was just a boy trying to adapt to a new world around him. Still, how can he answer such a question? Even in his previous life, he didn't really have many friends, and he had no idea how he became friends with people. He just hung out with them, and that was it.

"Just be yourself," Hiruzen struggled to find the right words but still tried to answer to the best of his abilities. "Be kind and considered to people around you, and if they are worthy of your friendship, they will be your friends sooner or later."

As much as Hiruzen found it easier when Yamato was distracted, as it gave him the opportunity to repeat the lessons he taught so he could understand them better, he couldn't lie to the boy. Hiruzen knew well how hard it is to adapt to a new world. At least Yamato should have a chance to make a life in this world since Hiruzen didn't have such a chance.

"Let's review what we learned today and call it a day," Hiruzen said, as he was also getting tired and easily distracted.

Hiruzen could tell that learning the basics, let him control his strength and speed better. It was still nowhere acceptable for shinobi standards, but he finally could see a road he should walk. If he continued like this, he was sure he would reach acceptable mastery of his skills. But the question was if he had enough time.

Danzo was silent, and that was never a good thing. Well, nothing related to Danzo was a good thing. But this time, Hiruzen had a bad feeling. It probably had something to do with him letting Orochimaru live. He was starting to question his doubts, but he made his decision. He felt that Orochimaru had a reason to be alive, and the system wanted to keep him alive, too, for some reason.

As much as Hiruzen didn't want to be dependent on the system, as he barely understood it, so far, it hadn't led him in the wrong direction. He would rather trust the system than whatever Danzo said. It would be great if Hiruzen could trust himself, but he was still new to this world and, more precisely, to this political world.

He could only hope that the Konoha council wouldn't try to backstab him. Hiruzen was still the head of the village. And he knew that as unlikely it was, he was the best choice to lead the village as those who wanted to take power were psychopaths or warmongers or power-hungry who would use the position for their selfish reasons.

What a fun crowd. Hiruzen really wished that Jiraiya or Tsunade would take the seat. But the former would rather peep on hot baths, and the latter had many problems with the shinobi system and still hated it. If Tsunade weren't so stubborn, she would have realized that if she took the seat, she would be able to change things. But she wouldn't listen. Kakashi was his last choice. Otherwise, he would have to wait until Itachi was grown up, and that would take way too long for Hiruzen's liking.

"Oh, sensei, there you are." As Hiruzen was finishing up with Yamato, Jiraiya popped out of nowhere. "I see you are with the youngest."

"Jiraiya-senpai," It sounded weird to Hiruzen when Yamato called Jiraiya that, but Jiraiya seemed to enjoy it immensely.

"Did you find anything?" Hiruzen has sent Jiraiya on a mission to find Yamato's homeland and see if anything remains of his past.

"Sorry, but not much," Yamato was disappointed. As much as he tried to hide it, he wished to know more about who he was. Hiruzen sighed and told Yamato to go home for the night.

"What did you find?" Once Yamato left, Hiruzen asked. He was getting better at reading between the lines. Not much meant that there was something.

"All I found was that in a little town, not far from the village, an orphan infant disappeared about ten years ago. The infant had brown hair and almond-shaped black eyes. It could be just a coincidence, but the infant's disappearance was a mystery. No one knew how he disappeared, and no one knew anything about it. People even started talking about a serpent who comes to take children away in the night if they misbehave."

"They couldn't be more right," It was quite a dreadful legend. A serpent? It couldn't be a mere consequence. "Almost ten years ago."

"I know; Orochimaru was doing this under our noses for ten years, if not for more," Jiraiya looked equally part of disguised and angry. "I still can't believe it."

"Take some time off," Hiruzen offered, as he couldn't have Jiraiya so distracted.

Jiraiya had to accept what Orochimaru was. He had to think things through on his own. There wasn't much Hiruzen could say else. He only hoped that things would continue to be as peaceful as they are right now. And he can patiently and steadily improve his skills and the village. Step by step, he was sure he could achieve his goal.

A.N. Like the other stories, I will start posting the rest of the chapter I have of this every day.