Shinobi Isekai!

It was Inevitable

If you could change anything about the village, what would it be?

That was the prompt for this year's essay contest, and Hiruzen Sarutobi had looked forward to reading what the academy students had written for weeks. His duties as Hokage kept him from interacting with the youth of Konoha as often as he would have liked, and the essays allowed him to see the village from a child's point of view. The prompt was one which had been set before, so he had a few ideas about what he would find. Most would likely be complaints about the academy or other students, and these he would turn over to the chunin in charge of such things; others would involve clan politics, and these he would delicately set aside to be forgotten—he could not intervene in clan affairs, no matter how much he might wish to.

Then, there were children like Hanako.

The child had settled into life in Konoha very well, and Hiruzen had noticed a marked difference in Kakashi's behavior. Gone were many of his self-destructive tendencies, and he was taking fewer and shorter missions, spending more time in the village. Hiruzen hadn't seen her, himself, since officiating her adoption into the Hatake clan, but others, particularly her senseis in the academy, had expressed amazement at her intellectual prowess. She was far from the only genius in the village, however, so he'd payed little attention to such things beyond ascertaining that she was well.

Perhaps, if he'd paid more attention, her essay would not have rattled him so badly.

Nearly three times as long as those written by her classmates, Hanako Hatake's essay tore into the heart of village politics, questioning the entire system from the bottom up and then back down. Her words were cutting, her criticisms valid, and, worst of all, her perspective foreign. If Danzo got his hands on this essay, there'd be nothing Hiruzen could do to keep him from ejecting the child from the village. At the very least, she offered up solutions to the problems she identified, and even put effort into tracing the roots of each issue, doing her best to absolve living persons of any guilt beyond complicity.

Hiruzen sighed, lighting his pipe with a minor jutsu. He couldn't pick Hanako's essay as the winner of the contest no matter how much she deserved it, because then the essay would be available to the public and Hanako would be exposed to the wrath of the council and clans.

What to do, what to do?

He looked up as the door to his office opened letting in Shikaku Nara, his Jounin Commander. At the sight of him, an idea began blooming in Hiruzen's mind.

"Ah, Nara-kun," he beckoned the younger man closer. "Come, read this."

"Hm? Are these the essays from the academy?" Hiruzen watched as Shikaku read the essay, taking great pleasure as his eyebrows climbed slowly up his forehead. "Who wrote this? Hiko Hatake? Kakashi has a kid?"

Hiruzen chuckled and leaned back in his chair. "Yes, he does. She's a precocious little thing, only seven years old and already completely disillusioned with our society. Her name is pronounced Hanako, by the way."

Shikaku let out an explosive sigh. "Seven, huh? Can't say I'm surprised, if she's Kakashi's. How troublesome."

Hiruzen nodded sadly. "Indeed. I confess, I'm not sure what to do with her. She couldn't even read three months before joining the academy, you know. Two years later and this is what she's writing. I worry she will surpass her senseis before she graduates."

Shikaku whistled lowly as he returned the essay. "Wow, all that, huh? Sounds like she could do with an apprenticeship."

Hiruzen smiled around his pipe. "I thought so, as well. Do you have any suggestions?"