Undercurrents and Choices

Undercurrents and Choices

The setting sun's afterglow dyed the courtyard of the Senju Old Residence a warm orange-red, stretching the shadows beneath the eaves. When Shuji pushed open the courtyard gate, Grandma Toka had her back to him, intently trimming the branches of a potted pine. The soft snipping of the shears seemed especially clear in the still air.

"Grandma, I'm back." Shuji's voice broke the silence.

Grandma Toka did not stop what she was doing. She merely gave a faint nod in acknowledgment.

"How did the assessment go?" Her voice was calm, betraying no emotion.

"I passed. I qualified as a Special Jonin."

"Mm."

After a brief silence, Shuji spoke again, his voice lower. "The examiners were two Anbu. One had silver hair and was very strong in Lightning Release and taijutsu. The other... used Wood Release."

This time, Grandma Toka stopped. She set down the silver shears and turned to face Shuji. Her suddenly sharp eyes locked onto him with an unprecedented scrutiny. "Did you respond with Wood Release?"

"No." Shuji shook his head and met her gaze. "I only used ordinary ninjutsu."

Grandma Toka fell silent. Only the rustling of leaves in the evening breeze remained in the courtyard. After a long while, a scoff slipped from her lips.

"Hiruzen, Hiruzen..." Her voice was quiet. "You've grown this old already."

"Grandma... you already knew about that Wood Release ninja?" Shuji asked.

"Mm." Grandma Toka did not deny it. She picked up the shears again but did not resume trimming, merely absently rubbing the cold metal handle.

"That child... his Anbu codename was Tenzo. Before that, in Danzo's Root, his codename was Kō. He was a defective product Danzo and Orochimaru... built atop a mountain of human lives." Her voice sank. "Though he was fortunate enough to survive, and can make some wood grow, he is worlds apart from Lord Hashirama... and from you..." Her gaze fell upon Shuji once more, carrying an indecipherably complicated meaning. "He is different from you, too."

Shuji's pupils abruptly contracted. Orochimaru and Danzo's Wood Release experiments! Kō! Tenzo! Grandma knew those codenames clearly...

"You... were involved?" Shuji's voice unconsciously dropped, carrying a thread of incredulous probing.

The shears in Grandma Toka's hand stilled. She raised her eyes, her gaze like a quenched blade, piercing deep into Shuji's eyes.

This scrutiny was even sharper than before, carrying the sense that she was assessing what he could bear. The air beneath the eaves seemed to freeze, and even the evening breeze tactfully curved around this patch of space.

Only after a long time did Grandma Toka slowly speak. "In the earliest Hashirama Cell implantation experiments, most volunteers were outstanding and trustworthy people—in other words, 'us.' Later, the sacrifices became far too great for the village to bear, so it was publicly halted."

"But the village still wanted a means of controlling the Tailed Beasts. If its own people could not be used, then outsiders would be."

"In the end, they tacitly allowed Danzo and Orochimaru to proceed. As for us, since it was an experiment involving Lord Hashirama's cells, we would always take part in some way."

Her words were like cold iron hammers, striking Shuji's heart again and again as they exposed the festering sores beneath Konoha's polished exterior.

Yet, contrary to Grandma Toka's expectations, Shuji's face showed none of the intense emotional turmoil she had anticipated. His brows remained slightly furrowed. Though his eyes held gravity and contemplation, they strangely retained an almost ruthless calm.

There was no angry condemnation, no grief at shattered illusions. Only a kind of... quietness, as if he had foreseen this long ago and was now processing and understanding it.

Grandma Toka's heart stirred. Something was off about the boy's reaction. He was too composed.

A fourteen-year-old boy, suddenly hearing such dark secrets—where was the shock he should have felt? Looking at his calm profile, the desire in her heart for him to live safely, which had grown ever stronger after he returned gravely injured, instantly overwhelmed all other complicated thoughts.

"You..." There was an almost imperceptible probing note in Grandma Toka's voice, but her tone softened unconsciously, carrying an elder's concern. "Don't you feel angry about what the village has done? Don't you feel... disillusioned?" She chose a stronger word.

Shuji was silent for a moment. His gaze passed Grandma Toka and settled once more upon the stone lantern standing silently in the courtyard's corner at dusk. The deep-green moss climbing across it looked especially tenacious in the dim light.

"An individual's moral standards cannot restrain a vast collective that prioritizes survival and power. Likewise, they cannot simply be used to judge a leader who must make choices amid cruel realities." He paused, then turned his gaze back to Grandma Toka's face, his eyes deep. "Survival and development themselves are the greatest righteousness. Whether something is dirty or not... depends on what it is ultimately for, and... whether there is a less dirty choice."

"Personal morality can neither restrain the beast that is a collective nor serve as the sole measure for a leader struggling through a mire."

Those words were like a stone cast into deep waters, stirring violent ripples across the placid lake of Grandma Toka's heart.

The profound insight and almost ruthless pragmatic rationality contained in them made Grandma Toka realize for the first time with such clarity that the child she had raised with her own hands seemed to have... been utterly transformed.

That composure, that understanding of the world's complexity and cruel rules, far exceeded his physical age. A trace of genuine surprise, mixed with indescribably complicated emotions, swept through her heart.

"The village needs strength to keep the Tailed Beasts in check. There's nothing wrong with that."

"But doesn't the Uchiha clan's Sharingan supposedly control Tailed Beasts as well? If it concerns the bigger picture, then surely they..."

"The Uchiha?"

Grandma Toka looked as though she had heard something utterly absurd, her eyes regarding him like a naïve child.

"Hah. In the fifty-four years since Konoha was founded, those Sharingan they take such pride in have been involved in controlling Tailed Beasts twice!"

"The first time was when Madara Uchiha attacked the village with the Nine-Tails. The second was just three years ago—the Nine-Tails Rebellion!"

"The Sharingan controlled the Nine-Tails once again, letting it rampage through the village. The village lost the Fourth Hokage, more than a dozen Jonin, and hundreds of Chunin and Genin who died trying to draw the Nine-Tails' attention."

"In Uchiha hands, this ability to 'control Tailed Beasts' is a sharp blade hanging over the village's head, one that could fall at any moment!"

Shuji fell silent. He could not refute those bloody facts.

Madara Uchiha aside, the impact of the Nine-Tails Rebellion three years ago was still continuing to spread even now.

"Do we need to respond to this test?" Shuji drew the topic back to the more urgent reality. His tone returned to its former calm, as if the weighty conversation about the Uchiha had never happened.

Grandma Toka's sharp gaze seemed to pierce through his outward calm, searching for his true thoughts. After a while, a sigh filled with endless weariness and a trace of understanding sounded once more.

"...Fine." She waved a hand, as though brushing away invisible dust before her. "This old woman will make the arrangements."