whether or not I still have a sword hanging over me, if you get my meaning.
"
Why don't I have a harder time believing this is happening? "… You know what, Mister Masanari, I'm not sure I do get your meaning. Please elaborate.
"
Hanzo looked at him worriedly. "You know… them.
I couldn't say what you'd even call them, The Spooks? The Anbu's Anbu? The cleaners, the stealers, the nin-that-must-not-be-named, you know the ones. "
Fugaku casually walked around the office, incidentally stopping to lean right against the wall that Danzo was hiding behind. "That's quite the theory.
"
"Yes, it truly is," Hiruzen carefully didn't let his mood slip. "Quite the leap to make from just that suspicion, however.
"
"Suspi- Lord Third, at least half the village knows about them. "
Fugaku was suddenly holding Danzo's wall in place with his chakra-coated foot. Hiruzen hoped the man was just being overcautious.
". .
. Describe your thought process.
"
"… I guess? Even the blackest of Anbu have days off and can be contacted by their family through official channels, however delayed. So when academy students or genin get recruited only to vanish off the face of the earth without such official channels being available, parents tend to notice.
They also tend to notice when they're being stonewalled through said channels for literally the rest of their lives. The lack of non-disclosure agreements is another glaring sign.
I hate to say it, but when the occasional baby shinobi goes missing in action, don't be surprised if the parents assume it was the nin-who-must-not-be-named instead of the official story. "
Oh, how it must burn Danzo that he didn't eliminate this man as he clearly wished he'd done now. "I suppose those assumptions are reasonable, however unsupported.
" How far past my boundaries have you gone, Danzo, if the general population can see through you now? "Is that all?"
Hanzo looked to Fugaku now. "I'm sorry to cause offense, but this policy of inserting certain high-status children into Anbu for the express purpose of propaganda does its own part to convince people that Anbu aren't the real Anbu.
"
Fugaku crossed his arms with a glare. "Are you questioning my son's competence?"
"I'm answering your and the Hokage's question. Don't kill the messenger, please.
"
Fugaku grunted, irritated but not murderously offended. "… You say the civilians all know about this?"
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"I don't know about all, but a lot of us, yeah. Were we really not supposed to?"
Did he really just ask that? "Mister Masanari… if such an organisation existed, and if I, the Hokage, was unaware of it or did actually tolerate its existence, why would you possibly assume it wasn't supposed to be a real secret?"
"Well… because it's treated like one of those polite fictions only you lot are allowed to be coy about? In my experience, people generally treat it like the Jinchuriki Taboo but… well, there was never an actual decree about it. Which makes sense if it's rogue or a secret among black ops secrets, not mentioning it is the done thing, obviously.
But this 'let's abduct people and hope they don't notice' approach has an expiration date, and it must have passed ten or twenty years ago at this point. It's the fatal weakness of any clandestine faction with high turnover, everyone knows that.
"
Everyone knows that, repeated over and over in Hiruzen's mind. Everyone knows that, everyone knows that, everyone knows-
"If the nin-that-must-not-be-named only recruited from Anbu it wouldn't be so obvious, but they don't. So we try to keep mum about it up until we're overwhelmed by panic or grief.
Or, well, booze. Then we commiserate.
"
"And yet," Fugaku said silkily. "Despite it being such a sprawling crisis as you claim, not one complaint has passed my desk.
"
Or mine, but then again how much reach does Danzo have if-
"Because we're not allowed to complain?" Hanzo's tone, damn him, was as unhappy as it was resigned. "We all knew what we were signing our kids up for when we moved here.
Or we thought we did. It's not like we have input on whatever 'strategic benefit of one genin' means, or get to see how that compares to our other contributions to the village.
We tell ourselves the village just claimed its due earlier than we expected and try to move on with our lives, praying we'll hear from our children again someday. Those who can't cope with that leave.
Or kill themselves. "
And that, Hiruzen thought bleakly, was the most damning thing Hanzo had said since he first met the man. Has the spirit of the Will of Fire truly been perverted to this degree?
"How did this not filter up through the ninja grapevine?" The man asked when neither of them could find anything to say, sounding every bit as baffled as Hiruzen felt. "Our outdoor venues aren't exactly segregated.
Then again, it took me five years, and in the end I only got my say because Naruto happened to… well, whatever's been going on with my damn wall. "
"This is all I wanted to know," Fugaku suddenly declared, pushing away from the wall and making for the door. "I'll be back to discuss plans at your pleasure, Lord Third.
We'll explore options on our end until then. " Hiruzen's heart leapt, was the man actually agreeing to-? "I think I'll look into this matter as well, and try to find out how many of those families who left actually got to where they're going.
Personal interest, you understand. "
Hiruzen's heart promptly sank down again. You just had to end on a sour note, didn't you? Damn that man.
The door opened and closed, leaving the Hokage and Hanzo alone with only the Anbu and Danzo's hidden presence for company.
"So," Hanzo said. "Am I being executed?"
"Mister Masanari. "
"Yes, sir?"
"You are dismissed. " The man was too surprised to move.
"Rest assured, there are no outstanding orders for your elimination. " Surveillance was a different matter, but Hiruzen really just wanted to have someone else doing that for a change.
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