Prologue

The Sandaime Hokage was not a pushover. In his prime, it had been said that he had surpassed all his predecessors, although this was still up for debate. The only problem with Hiruzen was that unlike the previous Hokage, he did not have moments of genius and was not someone who was born for greatness. He was someone who sat firm on the pedestal he had worked tirelessly to reach.

However, even he, the genius of hardwork could realise that in times of great need, he'd have to resort to relying upon true genius, in this case, one Tobirama Senju.

This was how he found himself searching through the hundreds of parchments and research papers Tobirama had written in his youth, hoping and praying that he would find something, anything, to help him out of this spiralling hole that was swallowing Konoha.

The Will Of Fire had been a commendable concept at the start, of course. All happiness and peace. Sarutobi Hiruzen had fallen into this illusion of rest a long, long time ago. But now he was forced to stop the fire before it lay waste to the forest that birthed it.

Some while back, Tobirama-Sensei had devised a plan, trying to organise the Shinobi Corps of that era. He based his foundation on the Academy. Boosting the teaching quality, syllabus and offering specialised training. The plan, had, unfortunately been rejected by the Shodaime, Hashirama, whose opinion had a large hold on whatever Tobirama did, on grounds of causing internal conflict within the corps, based on the partitions that Tobirama had planned.

However, looking at the nostalgic, perfectly presented writing of his Sensei, Sarutobi realised that this might not have been such a bad plan after all.

—-

Hiruzen gathered the strongest and most influential of his Shinobi Corps, plus Danzo, who had been most curious about what Hiruzen had planned. So, With the attention of his own personal council, he began to spin his tale on the Will Of Fire and how it had been diminished and he basically needed to revamp the Academy for this reason. Luckily, his minions bought it, as well as Danzo.

The Academy would be renovated with the factions in mind. It would be essential for the disputes between the Factions to always be competitive, and never exceed out of bounds. He'd need new staff for the specialized Shinobi Classes. A Genjutsu Specialist, a Taijutsu Specialist, and a Ninjutsu Specialist.

However, when the matter of the certain factions that the revamp supported came up, there were many points to discuss.

Danzo supposed the cunning and sharp of mind would excel, and the other houses wouldn't be able to compete. The strongest, in his opinion.

Inoichi Yamanaka himself was known for nothing, except a few bad hacks, and being part of a team that was supposed to be good, but regarded the intelligent and acquirers of knowledge as the strongest, simply because his old pal was Shikaku Nara.

Fugaku Uchiha, the weary-eyed head of the Uchiha Clan disagreed. It was not the cunning or intelligent who prevailed, but the brave. The ones who caste away fear and stood against oppression. Those who looked at death with no fear, but as if they were reuniting with an old friend.

Last to put his two cents in, was Konoha's resident genius, and perhaps greatest shinobi ( because he held the record for most completed missions, barely pulling ahead of Maito Guy in this respect ), Kakashi Hatake, who told them quite nonchalantly that they were wrong. Strength itself was nothing. True cunning, bravery and intelligence would never be useful if they were not bonded and tied with the right motives. The strongest people were those who cared for others. Greatness belonged to those who pushed themselves further and further for people who they loved.

Most of the others in the room cringed.

Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled. And thus, the leaders of each faction were chosen. It would be a public experiment and Danzo would have no room to go behind his back.

This would lag behind Danzo's development of his Root indirectly, occupying Danzo's time with moulding the children of the future as he saw fit, but of course, under the watchful eye of the whole Corporation, just waiting for an opportunity to incriminate him, not that he knew, anyways. Fittingly running 'Hebi'. The irony was not lost to Hiruzen.

The tired looking Uchiha was a much different and equally pressing matter. He was informed by little Itachi about the rising unrest within the Uchiha Clan, not that it wasn't blatantly obvious. With this, letting an Uchiha model the brave warriors of the future would not only endear the Clan Head to the children of Konoha that weren't one of his own, as much as he would try to hide it, but it would also serve as petty insurance to the Uchiha of their worth to the Village. With them running the Military Police Force, along with holding high standing positions in the future's government, maybe he could shift the hatred of the Uchiha to a more destructible target. A cowardly move, but one which he would play as many times as was necessary. Even if the Uchiha thought that taking away their Leader from active duty was simply some plan crafted by the Hokage, Fugaku himself would realise that this was a gesture of acceptance, something the Uchiha hadn't experienced for far too long. Fugaku was indeed a brave man, hence being the House Master of 'Raion'.

Inoichi Yamanaka was not the sharpest tool in the shed but constantly breaking into people's minds, and of course, going on missions with Shikaku more than what was healthy were all contributing factors in his belief that knowledge was power. So he would play the role of leader of 'Fukurō'.

Kakashi was someone who could have possibly been the leader of any of these factions, depending upon his mood. But today Kakashi has decided to abide by one of his many motto's.

'Those who break the rules are trash. But those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.'

And so he would be taking charge of faction 'Inu'.

Of course, he had yet to tell them that they would be the leaders of the factions that the Academy would now accommodate and would be taken out of active duty acting immediately, plus Danzo. He supposed it would cause pandemonium. Taking away so many of the Village's most valuable assets for something easily dismissed as babysitting. But Sarutobi knew his King, his most precious piece on the board very well. After all, were the new generation not the stepping stones to Konoha's future?

Today was a rather glum day, with the sky covered in deep grey clouds that lit the world in a way that made everything look more detailed, with no mist, fog, or sunlight to give the illusion of freshness. that let the world be seen through a clearer microscope then usual. Everything seemed highly detailed, for once.

Somewhere in the middle of Konoha, two children sat on a bench and looked at each other apprehensively.

The intense staring contest between the two little children was rather adorable. With the little boy with orange hair hunched over and wondering how he should start the game, whereas the plain looking girl with sharp eyes looked at him in mild curiosity.

"Pawn to E4," a simple enough move by the white kingdom. The girl immediately played pawn to C5, the sicilian defense, trying to force as much development as possible.

"Knight to F3," another standard move by the strawberry. The girl would continue with standard theory. Pawn to E6.

The white kingdom now thought for a short period of time, eventually settling on,"Pawn to D4."

The girl immediately captured on D4 with pawn takes pawn. It was a simple move that came to the boy's aid now, Knight captures on D4.

The laidback girl thought about this position for a minute or so, then pushed Knight to C6, not particularly targeting white's Knight but putting pressure on the position. The boy, simply played Knight to C3.

Queen to C7, by the girl, and Bishop to E3 by the boy. What followed was a stream of quick moves based on intuition,

Pawn to A6. Bishop to D3. Knight to F6. Castles by white. Bishop to D6. King to H1. Pawn to H5. Pawn to F4. Knight to G4. Queen to F3. Knight captures bishop on E3. Queen captures knight on E3. Queen to B6. Knight to E2. Pawn to E5. Confusion, Queen to G3. Pawn captures knight on D4. Queen captures pawn on E7. Rook to F8. Pawn to E5. Bishop to E7. Pawn to F5. Pawn to F6. Knight to F4. Rook to F7. Pawn captures on F6. Knight to E5. Bishop to C4. Knight captures Bishop on C4. Queen to G8. Bishop to F8. Knight to H5. Knight to D6. Rook to E1. King to D8. Rook to E7. Queen to B5. Rook to E1 from F1. Queen to D5. Knight to F4. Queen captures Pawn on A2. Knight to E6.

"I give up. You've given me a migraine," the girl complained. She did not seem surprised however. Had they played Shogi, she would have dominated it easily. Chess wasn't her forte, however, but it was Naruto Uzumaki's. Not that it mattered at all. It was a friendly game, and even if she would much rather spend her time cloud watching, her friend had been slowly insisting that she play chess with him, and by now, it would have been even more troublesome to continue turning down the offer.

"Eh, sorry Shikamaru, but it's the only board game I can play," which was true. Naruto always managed to mess up the other games like Monopoly, Shogi, and Scrabble. He was ridiculously good at a few other games, although Shikamaru had insisted that he probably shouldn't be betting and gambling at his age.

Naruto was that one friend Shikamaru had that didn't mix with her other friends, like Choji and Ino. She was even acquainted with Kiba and Shino. But Naruto never showed up when she was with them. It wasn't as if she had stopped him from coming when the others were around. In this case, it should have been quite clear to Naruto that he was welcome in the Nara Household whenever he felt like dropping by. It was also a rather advantageous fact that Yoshino turned into a Mother Hen whenever Naruto came around. It spared Shikamaru the lectures on delinquency and lazing about all day.

One fact that Shikamaru had noticed however, was that people were different when Naruto was around. As if there was some deep agitation related with his presence. The barely concealed twitches and sneers.

This coupled with the fact that Naruto always seemed not to notice the stares. It was something that bothered the laidback Nara more than she would admit.

"Well, I guess we can play again some other day," under the uncomfortable gazes of everyone around her, Shikamaru fought to speak normally, and surprisingly, it came out more certain than she felt, for once.

"Sure, but hey, Shikamaru, you're joining the Academy in August, right?" yes, she was. It didn't help that all the grown up figures around her were also Shinobi, that she belonged to a Shinobi Clan, and the fact that all her childhood friends, sans Naruto, were also from Shinobi Clans.

She wondered, for a bit, if Naruto would also join the Academy but quickly dismissed it. Naruto was an even more laid back person than her, a Nara. He would find it far too troublesome.

"Yeah, I bet it'll be more troublesome than I can care for, but I suppose that some part of my brain wants me to be a Shinobi too, or maybe that's just how I'm programmed," that was what she felt anyway. That some part of her wanted to be a Shinobi.

She had turned away to leave when the silence that followed brought her to look back. He looked more deep in consideration then she'd seen him before.

It was a given that Shikamaru would join the Academy. I knew that. The Nara Clan was one with a reputation for producing outstanding Shinobi, particularly a large chunk of the Research and Intelligence Department. I wondered for a bit.

"Naruto…..do you want to become a Shinobi?" it was a particularly unpleasant topic, but of course, the genius that my only friend was, she caught on fairly quick.

"I don't think I do…but," it was true. Having my dreams of being Hokage mercilessly crushed by everyone around me hadn't endeared me to the goal. But it was another thing completely that the childish desire perked up every now and then when I saw Shikamaru with her other friends.

"But?" she seemed to know the truth as well as I did.

"But sometimes, when I look at you and the other kids, talking about being Shinobi and having a set goal for the future, it makes me restless. Sometimes, I think I could do it, y'know?"

"Do what?" and here we are, the surfacing dream created from my stupidity that had been buried in my gut climbing out into a few measly words.

"I'll become Hokage, I think that was it."

Shikamaru could only watch in surprise as that buried hope and interest that she had seen sometimes sparkling in the eyes of her friend came out in full. So that was it. The dream that Naruto had once sported. To become Hokage.

"You know, when I was still in the Orphanage, I used to run around Konoha shouting that 'I'd be Hokage one day' and at the time, it felt like it could happen," her friend had given up, however, at least that was the way it seemed to her, "As you can tell, I stopped then, sometime after, I don't know the exact time. Whenever it was, I stopped believing in that goal, and that was it, for a while. But when I see you guys…...well, I can't explain it that well, but I suppose the grass is always greener on the other side."

Shikamaru might have wondered, then, about the validity of that metaphor in the context, but quickly stopped, and made a sort of strangled noise.

"I think that, if you tried, you could still do it."

He looked up at her. He smiled.

"Maybe."

And they left it at that.

Sarutobi Hiruzen could not express his joy in words, when a week before the opening of the new Academy, the file of admission of a certain orange-haired child, the child of Minato and Kushina, lay on his desk, with Naruto giving a little but true smile in the photo. Something must have happened, then, to get Naruto to change his mind. He thanked whoever did so, wholeheartedly, and a small piece of guilt and doubt lifted itself from the Hokage's heart.