The procedural guidelines the Anbu submitted for assessing minors were thick.
The first half seemed fine.
Talent records.
Basic ability tests.
Psychological resilience assessments.
Teamwork observations.
Preliminary mission suitability screenings.
These were all things a ninja village might do when nurturing gifted children.
But as Gen turned to the second half, his gaze grew cold.
Early recruitment.
Not formally joining the Anbu.
Nor immediately undertaking high-risk missions.
Instead, assessments, observation sessions, temporary assistance, and mission simulations would acclimate gifted children to the Anbu's way of thinking ahead of time.
That rationale, in itself, could still be justified.
The Anbu needed promising recruits.
The village needed to start training them early.
The problem lay in the specific assessment items.
Loyalty under pressure.
Extreme choices.
Ability to sever family ties.
When Fugaku saw the words "ability to sever family ties," he immediately looked up.
"What is this?"
The Anbu representative's expression stiffened slightly.
"It refers to whether they can prioritize the mission when it conflicts with personal relationships."
Listening to that explanation, Gen found it all too familiar.
Personal relationships.
Mission first.
Those terms could be valid in the context of ordinary missions.
But in an assessment for minors, they became something else entirely.
They would teach children far too early to view their families as something they needed to cut off.
Especially a clan like the Uchiha.
Danzo spoke. "A ninja must be able to cut away weakness."
Shisui looked at him.
"Family is not weakness."
The Conference Room fell silent.
Shisui had spoken calmly.
Yet his words carried more weight than anger would have.
Because the Shisui of the past had been the easiest to persuade with "the village comes first."
Now, even Shisui had begun to challenge the logic that equated family with weakness.
Gen knew this was a