Fugaku led me back into the Hokage's office. The clan head seemed pleased and I had no desire to change that so I kept my mouth shut. As we entered the door, he announced, "I have returned with the boy as you asked, Hokage-sama."
The Hokage looked weary as he glanced longingly at the pipe on his desk that was yet to be lit. "Thank you, Uchiha-san. I trust you and Haru have come to an acceptable resolution to this 'impugnation of clan honor' you mentioned?"
"For now, yes, although I will be keeping a close eye on him," the Uchiha said pointedly.
I tried my best not to sweat visibly under the scrutiny of both men. Thankfully, Fugaku bowed and left the office. I vaguely wondered which ninja was scarier between the two of them.
"I won't ask what that was about if you tell me I don't need to know," Sarutobi said to me as he picked up his pipe.
"It's not important," I replied.
"Please, sit down, Haru," the Hokage offered as he began to light his long, thin pipe. He took a puff and let out a sigh. He asked frankly, "So, what do you make of Orochimaru and Danzo?"
"Orochimaru is a snake and I can't see any benefit for him in rejoining the village and relinquishing control of Otogakure. He's up to something and Danzo is a fool for trusting Orochimaru, assuming Danzo doesn't have some ulterior motive for himself. This whole thing reeks of suspicion."
"I agree. But Otogakure was only established less than a decade ago and the ANBU have yet to infiltrate deep enough to provide much information. Orochimaru, as you warned, trusts only those that he has personally seen trained. I don't have enough evidence to risk a war when, on the surface, they are offering peace."
"Right...and it's not because Danzo was your best friend and Orochimaru was your student?"
Sarutobi glared at me before sighing. "As the Hokage, I cannot allow my personal feelings to override my good judgment. As much as I wish those two had a genuine change of heart, I realize that they have something planned."
"But it would be easy. Team up with Jiraiya to take out Orochimaru and hand over Otogakure to Danzo. You circumvent Orochimaru's inevitable betrayal and Danzo gets a new personal army to keep himself busy with."
Again Sarutobi sighed deeply, "I know you're young but this world...isn't as black and white as you believe it to be."
"It would be so simple. I have yet to see the downside. I told you that you die at his hands in my memories. You could change things so that doesn't happen. Why don't you?"
"Haru...are you afraid to die?" he asked me.
"...no. Not as long as I accomplish something with my death. It doesn't mean that I want to die though."
Sarutobi smiled, "Well, I'm not afraid to die either. But in my case, I've already accomplished many things in my life." He continued to talk between puffs of tobacco, "This might be hard for you to understand but all I can say is...I want to believe in the future, that our fates are not written except by our own hands. And I want to believe in my friend, that he could do what I could not."
I couldn't bring myself to argue against that. I supposed I was doing something similar myself. Instead, I asked, "Hokage-sama, what am I?"
He chuckled and said, "When you get to be my age, you'll realize that no one can answer that question except for yourself."
"No, I mean, why do I know all these things?"
The old man paused for a moment before answering, "I think that if anyone were to be a prophet, it should be someone who would do his best to make things better. Is that not you, Haru?"
"It should have been Naruto instead then. Or someone else."
"Perhaps." He drew a long breath and blew a trio of smoke rings. "But from what you've told me, it sounds like everyone else already has a destiny. Maybe that's what makes you important."
I wished that he had offered tea. I would have definitely appreciated some tea at the moment. "I'll do my best to convince Tsunade to return to Konoha."
"I'll be counting on you, Haru."
"One last thing, Hokage-sama. How is Mizuki doing? Is he staying out of trouble?"
"He is doing fine on his new team. He'll be ready on the day of the chunin finals."
I leaned back in the chair. Now all I had to do was survive the chunin exam. "Oh yeah...who am I fighting in the finals?"
"Gaara of the Sand."
I groaned internally, "There goes my chances of dating his sister."