Danzo Shimura sat in silent meditation within the suffocating darkness of his private chambers. His solitary window stood open to the open-air patio outside, offering a commanding and unobstructed vantage point overlooking the bustling business center of the Hidden Leaf Village. A grand roof, constructed of dark, layered shingles, dominated the majority of his view. Two statues of koi fish adorned either side of the slanted architecture, their carved scales catching the ambient light. The pale moon hung massive and luminous in the night sky, framed between the two sculptures.

  Danzo slowly opened his single visible eye. The darkness of the room seemed to coalesce into the kneeling form of a Root operative, the masked shinobi maintaining absolute stillness. If an average citizen did not know better, they would assume the man had been kneeling there for the entirety of the evening, nothing more than a mere shadow cast by the moonlight. Danzo spoke, his voice stern and clipped, cutting through the heavy silence of the room like a sharpened blade.

  "Report."

  "Lord Danzo. Jonin Amon has relocated his Genin team to one of our hidden safe houses situated within the borders of the Land of Snow, sir."

  "Hmm." Danzo released a long and drawn-out sigh that carried the weight of decades. "The only logical reason he would execute such a defensive maneuver would be if he believed he would not be able to protect them in the coming conflict. Has he himself joined them?"

  "Negative, sir. He remains separated from his team."

  "Hmm. Leave my presence for now. I will contact you with further instructions once I decide on our next course of action."

  "Sir."

  In the literal blink of an eye, the operative vanished, leaving Danzo completely alone in the cavernous room once more. He stood up slowly, the aging joints in his body protesting the movement. He made his way across the wooden floorboards toward a small, unassuming decorative case resting on an elegant cabinet. He reached inside and extracted an object wrapped tightly in dark cloth. Holding the bundle with a bizarre sense of reverence, he made his way out onto the open-air balcony overlooking the sleeping village.

  He unwrapped the fabric with deliberate care. The cloth fell away to reveal a customized kunai. It possessed a unique three-pronged blade and complex sealing formulas etched deeply into the handle's heavy metal. Danzo lifted his gaze from the legendary weapon to stare at the Hokage Monument carved into the distant mountain. He focused his singular eye upon the stone visage of the Fourth.

  Years ago, on a bright and relentlessly sunny afternoon, Danzo pushed open the wrought iron gate leading to the front yard of the Hokage estate. It was an action he had performed hundreds of times before during the long reign of his old teammate. The ANBU operatives guarding the perimeter had long since ceased pretending to care about his unannounced entries. They did not even bother to make themselves known from their hiding spots within the lush foliage. A cynical part of Danzo wanted to reprimand them for their apparent laziness, but if the guards tasked with protecting the leader of the village didn’t feel comfortable enough to relax in the heart of their own territory, then truly no one in the world could be considered safe.

  Making his way up the cobblestone path to the front door, he sensed a strange pattern of movement he was not accustomed to feeling in this location. Danzo had to physically stop himself from pushing the door open as he usually would.

  The new tenant swung the wooden door wide open. His spiky yellow hair and tall stature provided a stark contrast to the hunched and weathered form of Hiruzen Sarutobi. A petulant part of Danzo wanted to shout and demand to know why this young upstart was occupying the house of his oldest friend, but Danzo knew the answer perfectly well. The torch had been passed.

  "Ahh, Lord Danzo. To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?" Minato Namikaze asked, his voice dripping with his trademark charm and a completely relaxed attitude.

  "You sent Amon away." Danzo skipped any hint of pleasantries.

  "Oh, I am sorry. I did not realize you two were so close." Minato smiled as he stepped away from the doorway, leaving the path clear for Danzo to let himself inside. "The Hidden Sand Village is not that far away. I am sure you two can still exchange letters as pen pals."

  Danzo walked into the foyer, projecting an aura of anger while simultaneously acting as comfortable as if he owned the property himself. His eye darted around the interior of the house. The traditional wooden furniture that Biwako and his own late wife used to constantly fuss over and arrange was entirely gone. In its place sat new and stylish furniture that he recognized from the covers of modern lifestyle magazines. His own daughter owned the exact same set of porcelain plates that currently sat stacked off to the side of the opened kitchen cabinets.

  "You are not even officially inaugurated as the Hokage yet, and you are already sending a highly valuable asset behind enemy lines entirely alone," Danzo growled, turning his piercing gaze upon the blonde ninja.

  "Okay, well first off, the next time I see Amon, I am going to make sure to tell him that you think so highly of his skills," Minato replied with a bright grin. "And second, you and the other village elders explicitly agreed to send him as an ambassador to the Sand. Amon and I simply decided it was a better tactical choice for him to depart sooner rather than later."

  "The elders operated under the assumption that he would travel with a fully equipped team and a dedicated support staff!" Danzo raised his voice, letting his anger show. He possessed absolutely no patience for such young and arrogant bravado from a man who had barely warmed the seat of power.

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  Minato responded with a frustrating mixture of his usual charming nature and a suddenly dead serious bluntness. "We both know what you truly mean to say is that you wanted to send spies and babysitters." As quickly as the blunt and commanding nature of the Fourth Hokage appeared, it vanished again in the very next second. "I know you have your strategic concerns regarding the parameters of the mission Amon is undertaking. But the appearance of a lackadaisical method is absolutely necessary for his success. I am the new Hokage. The other nations view me as young and naive. The Sand will assume this solo diplomatic mission is born of a youthful and trusting nature. They will believe the gesture is genuine and will take whatever Amon says to them at face value."

  "Do not pretend that I am fooled by whatever diplomatic nonsense the two of you concocted," Danzo sneered. "I know Amon simply wishes to fool around and show off his little parlor tricks to a captive audience. He is going to give the Sand Village access to new ninjutsu techniques. This will make them far more capable and self-reliant. Amon will make it infinitely harder to deal with them when they inevitably become a threat to the safety of this village once again."

  "Amon is giving the Sand Village more reasons to choose peace," Minato countered smoothly, his blue eyes unwavering. "He is ensuring they do not become a threat to the Leaf in the future."

  "They are a village comprised of ruthless ninjas, deceptive spies, and all-around killers," Danzo stated, his voice hard as iron.

  "And once upon a time, they were merely traveling puppeteers and desert entertainers. People change over time, Lord Danzo. Villages can change as well."

  "The life of a valuable asset is in grave danger because of the reckless behavior displayed by both of you. Despite his impressive accomplishments during the recent war, he is still just one single man entering the hostile heart of a foreign military power. He needs a dedicated security team watching over him."

  Minato threw his hands in the air in a gesture of exaggerated surrender, capitulating slightly to the words of the older man. "I will freely admit that I initially shared your exact concerns. That is precisely why Amon and I engaged in a brief sparring match before he departed the village."

  Danzo felt a jolt of genuine shock. He had heard absolutely nothing about this altercation through ROOT, but he refused to let his surprise show on his weathered face. "You left your personal security detail behind for this spar," Danzo stated, once again utilizing his heavy accusatory tone.

  "I know, I know. But it is terribly hard to wait for my guards to catch up with me sometimes. I am trying to teach them to keep pace, but they are such slow pokes. Amon tells me I have been spoiled with incredibly talented students in the past, and I am starting to believe him."

  "Well, you sparred with the man. I trust that you emerged victorious."

  "Oh yeah, it was a totally one-sided affair. He did not stand a ghost of a chance. I barely worked up a sweat," Minato spoke, his words dripping with a false bravado that completely failed to sound convincing.

  "And this supposed victory inspired you to send him off alone?" Danzo pointed out the obvious flaw in the logic. Claiming such an effortless victory was actively working against the argument the young future Hokage was attempting to make.

  "Well... okay... perhaps it was not quite as easy as I claimed," Minato conceded, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "But Amon is the perfect man for this specific job. He can more than handle himself in a hostile environment."

  "And exactly how strong do you believe he truly is?" Danzo asked. He was genuinely curious to hear an honest assessment from a shinobi of Minato's caliber.

  "Well, if I am forced to rank the most powerful ninjas currently residing within our village, the absolute most powerful is my lovely wife, Kushina. She is the undeniable love of my life, and I would never in a million years speak ill of her combat prowess. I thank my lucky stars every single day that I get to see her beautiful smiling face."

  "I can hear you down there!" Kushina shouted from the upper floor, where the sounds of shifting cardboard boxes indicated she was busy unpacking their belongings.

  "Oh! Honey! You are home! I had absolutely no idea," Minato lied through his teeth, his voice cracking slightly.

  Kushina poked her head over the wooden railing of the staircase to look down at the two men standing in her foyer. Her vibrant red hair framed a face caught between amusement and profound annoyance. "Amon broke my dear husband's leg and nearly punched his head completely off his shoulders."

  Minato looked visibly shocked by the blunt words of his wife. "Hey! Hey now! She is exaggerating the details! And just to be perfectly clear for the record, I won that fight!"

  Kushina blew a loud raspberry, the rude sound echoing loudly in the large house. "Yeah, right. You only won after you summoned Gamabunta to help you squash him flat."

  "And I won!" Minato repeated, pointing a defensive finger upward.

  "Maybe you did. But human knee caps are not supposed to bend forward like that." Kushina turned her sharp violet gaze toward the older man. "Hello, Grandpa Danzo. Do not worry your head about Amon. Grandma Mito taught him incredibly well. Even though Minato technically won their little brawl, Amon was the one who healed his shattered leg immediately afterward."

  "Hey, I nearly died in that fight!" Minato protested defensively.

  "I know! I cannot believe I would be forced to marry Amon after he killed you in a spar. Imagine how terribly hard that situation would be for me to navigate."

  "You would not have to marry him if I died!" Minato squawked, his face turning a brilliant shade of pink.

  "It would be so profoundly difficult for me," Kushina continued, ignoring her husband completely and placing a dramatic hand over her heart. "Do I marry him after the funeral ceremony or before it? Do I buy another expensive wedding dress, or do I just use the exact same one I wore last time?"

  "You are not marrying anyone at all after I die! It is completely against the rules! Especially not Amon!"

  Kushina let out a theatrical gasp of mock horror. "How incredibly cruel of you! To force me to live as a young and beautiful widow for so many, many, many decades after your inevitable tragic passing."

  "I am still very much alive right now!"

  Kushina let out a bright giggle and retreated from the railing to go back to unpacking her boxes, leaving the two men standing alone in the sudden quiet of the foyer. Minato looked back at Danzo, his expression a mix of sheer embarrassment and absolute devotion.

  "She was completely kidding about remarrying after my death, by the way."

  Danzo did not speak a single word in response. An incredibly awkward silence fell heavily between the two of them.

  "My wife loves me very much," Minato added unnecessarily.

  More suffocating silence filled the room.

  "Just in case you somehow got a different impression from that exchange," Minato stammered, rubbing his neck again. "We are very happily in love."

  With a dismissive huff of breath, Danzo finally spoke. "I will leave the matter regarding what to do with Amon entirely up to you. Try your best not to misplace the faith I am placing in your judgment." Danzo turned his back to leave the house, but he paused with his hand hovering over the brass doorknob. "How exactly did you manage to defeat him?"

  "Oh. Well, you have seen Amon fight in the past. You also possess his detailed battle reports from his time serving as the personal guard for the Daimyo and from his deployments during the war. Our sparring match only lasted a total of five minutes. I threw absolutely everything I had in my arsenal at him and eventually managed to hit him directly in the chest with a giant Rasengan at close range. After that final strike, I secured the victory... but."

  "But what?" Danzo prompted, turning his head slightly to see a sheepish and slightly awed smile form on the face of the young Hokage.

  "After the fight concluded, I was completely drained of chakra and completely out of it. I went straight to bed and did not fully recover my strength for several days. Amon, on the other hand, fixed my shattered leg on the spot. He healed the rest of my severe injuries without breaking a sweat, then went right back to work his normal shift at the village hospital. Later that same evening, he went back and fixed up the entire landscape of the training area where we fought in order to make sure we did not leave behind any evidence of our battle." Minato raised his hands to make air quotes for the last part of his sentence. "Believe me, Lord Danzo. Amon can more than handle himself out there."

  "For the sake of the village, I sincerely hope you are right," Danzo said softly. He opened the heavy wooden door and stepped out into the blinding sunlight.