Danzo's Brilliant Mind

Hokage's Office (Hiashi Point of View) (The Next Morning)

Hiashi Hyuga was livid. Last night, he had gotten word from one of the branch clan members that the daughter of the Hokage developed a counter to their clan technique and was prompted by an academy instructor to explain it to the class. When he heard the full details from multiple sources, he found it absurd.

The fact that a child developed the counter was one thing. The fact it was explained was worse. Now every clan had that knowledge along with a host of civilian children who would no doubt talk about it with their parents. By now, spies from other villages probably already have the intelligence. At least, he had to assume that was the case. This needed to be handled now.

'If it weren't for those elders wasting our own trump card, this wouldn't even be a concern' he thought to himself. 'If only she weren't born to the branch clan.' His thoughts stopped and realigned with his current purpose as he saw the door to the Hokage's office.

Hiashi was a tall man with black hair, near-olive skin, and white pupilless eyes. He wore a white kimono with a dark blue sash around his waist and an olive-green haori. As with most Hyuga clan members, he carried around a very prideful demeanor.

When he got to the Hokage's office door, he knocked steadily.

"Minato, we must have words." He was trying to keep his demeanor as close to calm as possible. Minato was his friend, so he was trying to approach this with as much tact as he could. Hiruzen Sarutobi, the previous Hokage, would not have had this benefit.

"Come in." Minato called through the door.

Walking in, Hiashi stood in front of Minato's desk.

"Minato, have you heard what your daughter did?" Hiashi went straight to the point.

"I have. That said, I didn't really have much grounds to rebuke her too strongly with her being eight and all. Today was her first day at the academy and I told her to listen to and trust her instructors. She did and now this is the result." Minato calmly pointed out, shifting an understandable amount of blame on himself.

Hiashi's brow twitched in frustration. For all the Hyuga's anger, it was a valid point they had considered coming into this. Considering her background, they didn't have enough grounds to sanction her. She was too young and the event had occurred on her first day of the academy, the place where they learn those details. Although she was the Hokage's kid, that doesn't mean she was taught the mindset of ninja before the academy. That's especially the case with Kushina's non-clan-oriented mentality and Minato's civilian background. While Mikoto may be a clan head, she didn't have enough time to spend with her daughter for ninja conditioning to be an expected factor. This was all well known, so it made it very hard to lay any level of official blame on her.

Minato continued. "We've captured Mizuki, the instructor who instigated this situation and brought him to Ibiki for interrogation. I think you would be interested in the findings. Based on what we saw, he had recently met the S-rank criminal Orochimaru and was trying to earn merits with him by weakening the leaf. His intent behind this little stunt was to use the girl he suspected as the nine-tails fox's container to weaken the leaf. He had other, more disgusting things planned for the later years of her time at the academy, but those obviously won't be happening now." Minato said, his eyes cold enough to freeze the ocean.

Hiashi's eyes narrowed. Again, it was Orochimaru. To think he would have his claws on something like this. At least the main culprit's been detained. Hiruzen really should have put down his former student when he had the chance.

Minato smiled noticing the expression on Hiashi's face. He was really glad Orochimaru's name came up in the investigation. As a Hokage, he shouldn't be. As a father though, he was glad he found the perfect scapegoat.

"The anbu also found a plethora of journals in the public library detailing experiences of different types of people and their interactions with the clans. Most only had a brief mention of the interaction and a small tidbit of information. When put together though, it's quite a lot. By combining all the intelligence that we pulled from the journal, the anbu managed to piece together the mechanisms behind half the techniques for most of the ninja clans. The worst part is that most of them were certified by my predecessor." Minato said causing Hiashi's eyes to widen into saucers. He passed Hiashi a folder with his findings on the Hyuga clan from the journals. After skimming through the folder's contents, Hiashi's eyes reddened in fury.

"How can the third have certified something like this!? Why would he!? Did he really do it!?" Hiashi fired a series of questions immedieatly as they came to his mind. This was getting even worse.

"It was his signature. From our findings, we suspect that it may have had something to do with Danzo's root. The Hokage's seal was real with his own handwriting on the authorization certificate, but he doesn't remember much about the journal section of the library. Just that several unimportant books were on his desk at different points in the decades leading up to Danzo's betrayal. When we asked him to allow himself to be examined, we detected a subtle set of genjutsus that were cast on him. From the looks of it, they were so potent that he was still caught in them until just yesterday evening, when we broke the genjutsu. For something like to work on someone like the third, it would've had to be cast repeatedly over the course of years. Initially, we thought Danzo might have managed to get a hold of a mangekyou sharingan with that type of ability, that he had developed a new method of extraction and implantation. Mikoto confirmed that this wasn't the case. We currently believe it was a jutsu that root developed in secret. Our current theory is that the genjutsu was one of the means Danzo used to conduct his illegal activities beneath the Hokage's notice and that the journals were placed in the public library as a subtle means of weakening the clans by slowly leaking their clan secrets." Minato paused for a second to gauge Hiashi's reaction. By appearances, his face was as white as a sheet. Seeing the desired reaction, Minato continued.

"Truthfully, it's a cunning tactic. Clan members have a tendency to use their own clan libraries for information, so none really check the public one. On average, clans have a relative disdain for civilian libraries. There was even a subtle genjutsu cast on the bookshelves with the journals to slightly weaken the perception of any leaf ninja reading from them. It basically caused them to focus on the larger narrative of the journal rather than the details. The only clans immune to it were the Uchiha and the Hyuga; both clans are known to have the highest levels of disdain for civilian facilities in the village. We were played." Minato finished.

Hiashi needed some time. This was a massive plot and would absolutely require the convening of the council. It was no longer just about the Hyuga; it was about all of Konoha potentially being put in a very bad position.

"When's the council meeting?" Hiashi resignedly asked.

"I'll call the meeting for noon today. This needs to be handled with a swiftness." Minato resolutely said.

"Right and Minato, thank your daughter for me. It may not have turned out ideally for our clan, but the leaf village may have been saved today by this event. Even if all the secrets were leaked, at least we have knowledge of it now. With awareness of the problem, we can act." Hiashi said softly as he began to walk out the door.

"Sure, old friend. Oh, and my daughter pointed out that longbow, senbon, and medical techniques would be a good place to start building new foundational techniques for a clan with your powerful eyes. I would have to second that judgement." Minato said jokingly.

Hiashi paused. Then, he looked over his shoulder at Minato.

"I will consider it. At this point we don't really have much of a choice." He calmly said, stunning Minato.

Then, he walked out.

The next few days were a nightmare for the clans of the hidden leaf village. With the evidence of their clan secrets having been in the public eye for well over a decade, they were forced to come to terms with the fact that innovation was needed. New clan techniques would have to be developed to compensate for the outing of the old ones. Even if the kami were on their side and the secrets weren't discovered, they simply couldn't take that risk.

For Kamui, nothing much happened aside from repeated warnings from a few of the clan heirs in her class about discussing technique counters in public. Basically, they were scolded for not stopping the moving freight train in class, so they echoed their scolding to her. Truly, the start of academy life was already turning out pretty interesting.