“How would he compare to my grandfather in the future if he were able to fully mature?” My sensei asked seriously.
“I honestly don’t know, there’s too much information about natural sages that has either been destroyed or hidden. What I do know though is that he would at the very least match Hashirama. You yourself have likely realized this already no?” the slug asked and my sensei nodded.
“All of the villages higher ups are of the same opinion, he’s grown so powerful at such a young age that we had no choice but to acknowledge that he would likely reach my grandfathers level in time.” she said honestly.
“I suppose that was why I have been getting special treatment then?” I asked and she nodded.
I was of course referring to how I was never ordered about or conscripted into any mission like any normal shinobi could be. While technically doing nothing but medical missions fulfilled ones obligations no normal shinobi would ever get away with actually doing so, the village wouldn’t allow it. The fact of the matter was that unless you joined the hospital as a full time Iryonin any shinobi that graduated from the academy was classified as a combat unit and treated as such.-
Refusing to take other types of missions would only result in you getting conscripted into them anyways unless there were circumstances involved that stopped you from being eligible like a lost limb or something like that. The fact that I hadn’t had bugged me for a while now but this certainly explained it. The higher ups of the village had taken steps to try and keep me happy since no one wanted to see a threat on the first Hokages level spiteful with the village even if that outcome was unlikely.
I was a shinobi so naturally i was aware that I could be conscripted for missions at any time, it was part of the job. While anyone else might get angry or upset if it happened after they thought to cheat the system cleverly it was something I expected to happen and thus wouldn’t care all that much. I like to think I was a reasonable person and not quick to anger but I suppose I did hold grudges for stuff.
“As nice as it is to have gotten my sageness off my chest and out in the open it doesn’t actually change anything. I always was a sage, the only difference now is that you know about it.” I said tired of talking about the matter.
“I suppose that is true but you said you wouldn’t have told me if it wasn’t for an enemy discovering it, they must have been able to escape if you are so worried about the news getting out.” my sensei said and I nodded.
I then went on to describe the thing I had branded while I was hiding and the extremely powerful stealth ability it had. I also spoke about Kakuzu and the immortal I fought and my suspicions that at least the immortal was still alive somewhere if not both of them.-
“That is a concerning discovery as if the thing is as hard to detect as you say then we are looking at the possibility of a major security breach in the village.” My sensei said seriously.
“I will need to ask the other sage beasts but I also don’t recognize anything that uses natural energy like that, yet clearly it must be quite old to know what a natural sage is.” the slug said sounding concerned.
After that it was finally time to get me filled in on all the stuff i missed and oh was there a big one in that debrief, Sasuke had gone rogue. He’d apparently left to seek more power from Orochimaru which was just as stupid an idea as it sounded. Unfortunately all the higher ranked shinobi were out on mission at the time so a group of my classmates were sent to retrieve him, it didn’t go well. The four shinobi who took Sasuke got taken down but the cost was that three of the four who fought them were on the brink of death afterwards.-
Lee had in the end gone through the operation in the meanwhile and made a full recovery before rushing to help. If it wasn’t for Suna helping out he and Shikamaru might have died as their opponents were poor matchups for them. Shikamaru fought with a sound based genjutsu user and Lee fought with a survivor of the Kaguya clan that had the Shikotsumyaku which was an unusual kekkai genkai that allowed the user to use their bones as weapons and was widely considered the ultimate ability for taijutsu.-
It was an ability that hard countered Lee’s fighting style since none of his attacks caused any lasting damage as the user of the ability simply created an armor of super hard bone under their skin that stopped any internal damage. Ironically it was Gaara who had saved Lee and defeated his opponent. The jinchuriki had apparently turned over a new leaf after getting a firm talking to by Naruto previously. Personally I was more interested in what the tailed beast thought compared to the red haired sand user but that was not something I could learn without seeking the guy out myself.-
Anyways Naruto and Sasuke fought at the valley of the end and Naruto lost which meant Sasuke succeeded in leaving though it was VERY close. I wasn’t honestly all that surprised at this turn of events since i had long since seen it coming and had even warned Kakashi and the third Hokage to watch out for it but they failed to prevent it at all. There had been a noticeable ramping up in aggression in the Uchiha ever since the tournament that had eventually led to this outcome. I didn’t particularly care though as the guy was free to make his own mistakes.-
Other than that there was nothing new that I didn’t already more or less known about such as Danzo’s death and the root being disbanded and it’s research destroyed or integrated as appropriate. I also admitted that I was responsible for the wretched state Danzo’s body was in and even explained how I did it which my sensei found to be ironic. He had that arm and those eyes in a mad grasp for power but they ended up being the cause for his downfall in the end as he wasn’t able to handle intense combat in that state.