Blood of the Broken, Scars of the Spiral (there are whirlpools in our veins)

Chapter Twenty-Four

"Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity."

-Herbert Hoover

//

Hiruzen smiled down at Sasuke. The little ebony-haired boy looked hesitant, constantly glancing to his side, where his friend(?) usually stood. The guilt of his decision weighed him down as those dark onyx eyes looked up at him from his small face, and the boy trembled.

He hadn't wanted to give Naruto-kun over to Danzou. But after the catastrophe that had been attempting to get him to attend the Academy, reluctantly going but not applying himself, followed by the equally catastrophic attempt to have a Yamanaka perform a mind-jutsu on him while he was unconscious following the injury caused by his first instructor to help... change his mind on the matter, only for the shinobi's consciousness to be torn apart by the Kyuubi that lurked inside Naruto's mind, impossible as that should be, and then for him to reach out to the Uchiha and whisper sweet promises of comfort, dangerous pretty things that could lead to rebellion, he hadn't had a choice. Naruto had to train as a shinobi and Danzou's methods may be... questionable, at best, but they were effective.

"Hokage-sama," Sasuke said quietly, voice hoarse and bitter, and Hiruzen interrupted him.

"Yes, Sasuke-kun,," he said, smiling warmly down at the child, suppressing his guilt.

It's for the good of the village.

It's for the good of the village.

"Hokage-sama, when will Naruto be coming home?" he asked. "It's quiet without him."

The surge of guilt the little boy's innocent question prompted made Hiruzen feel like the monster he knew he was, the monster he had to be for the good of Konoha. He let none of his turmoil show on his face, however, and instead smiled gently down at Sasuke.

"Well, he was hurt very badly by some villagers," he told Sasuke, "so badly that he can't have any visitors for a little while, but hopefully soon, he'll get better."

Sasuke didn't respond, looking at him with judgmental eyes, and a bitterness a child his age shouldn't have.

Finally, he asks, "Why are you Hokage?" It sounds mocking and scrutinous, but Hiruzen responds regardless.

"I was chosen by the people of Konoha to uphold the Will of Fire in the village," he says, "That's why I was chosen."

"Naruto said only shinobi with influence get to decide who the Hokage is, and I agree with him," Sasuke said with a deeply pronounced frown. "Not the villagers."

Naruto had said that, had he? That was... a concerning belief system, if perhaps a bit too accurate. But Danzou could help correct such thinking.

"Would you like to get dango with me," Hiruzen smiled weakly, the boy shook his head 'no'.

And when Sasuke runs towards the Red Light District as opposed to the Uchiha District, Hiruzen sighs.

He was too old for this shit.

//

Naruto wasn't sure what to expect from his captors. Torture, maybe? What he wasn't expecting was for medics in blank ANBU-style masks to come in and take samples of tissue, blood, saliva, hair and fingernails, along with analysing his chakra system and scanning his body.

He'd felt less violated when the children at the orphanage were trying to kill him then he did as these people took and took from him, as if he was an object who had no agency over his own body. He had tried to channel his chakra only for it to feel like fire and lightning was crackling through him and one of the medics sharply reprimanded him. "You have suppression seals inked on your skin, Uzumaki-san," they said, "attempting to use chakra is useless and will only cause you pain."