With one hand holding a pen and scrawling away at papers atop his deck, while the other idly drummed his fingers atop the solid sturdy piece created by the first Hokage himself, Hiruzen found temptation beginning to get the better of him.
His eyes flickered towards the crystal ball sat atop a velvet cushion at the edge of his deck, all but beckoning him to peer inside.
It was the only thing in the entire village, perhaps even the world that would allow someone to peer into the depths of the Hokage Monument and see the interior of the training space deep within it.
'I had forgotten…just how much fun it was to teach a student.' the old man smiled wryly to himself.
The past week, had been a rather enjoyable time for him. Imparting what he knew upon young Daiki-kun was exciting and nostalgic all in one.
Spending time with the boy, in such close proximity over the last week…had been like spending time with all three of his students once more. The tenacity and loud mouthed confidence of Jiraiya, the snarky pride backed up by absurd resilience of Tsunade and the sheer clever genius of Orochimaru.
He was not ashamed to admit, his chest ached a little bit as he remembered those days gone by.
'Oh Orochimaru…' he shook his head and suppressed the feeling of melancholy that began to assert itself at the thought of his once most promising student.
The fear the boy, and he would always be that quiet, sad little boy to him had gained upon seeing the fate of his parents had twisted him in all the worst ways.
He was hardly even recognisable as the boy he taught years ago.
But…Daiki was not Orochimaru, not even close. While the talent was there and the greed, the deep hunger for jutsu and a fear the boy did his best to hide under a facade of supreme confidence, the difference was truly as clear as day to him.
Orochimaru could never have allowed a bijuu to have such sway over him, have his life in its hands. He would never allowed something as banal as sexual desire to waylay him from his pursuit of strength. He would never have lost his temper over a fellow shinobi putting their very body at risk using a forbidden jutsu to win a fight.
No, rather Orochimaru who had never been close to anyone outside of their team, would have simply taken the chance to study the Eight Gates in use in front of his very eyes.
Yes, while Daiki had all the best traits of Orochimaru that made him become a monster in the end, they were balanced by the worst traits of Jiraiya that made him the clown everyone once looked down upon, but what let him become the man he was today, a man who's hands he could safely leave the fate of village in should he perish.
…If the man had wanted the position at least.
These days, Jiraiya-kun was stronger than him and even in his prime, he would be hard pressed to defeat his perverted student with even his incomplete senjutsu.
Should he ever manage to master it, Jiraiya would surely have surpassed him at his strongest.
…Speaking of Jiraiya.
Hiruzen placed his pen down and sighed, "Will you stop lurking out there and come in already?" he said aloud, rolling his eyes.
A moment later, the window behind him was slid open and a chuckle echoed out as Jiraiya climbed in, "No hiding from you, huh sensei?" the man grinned at his back, "Sorry sorry, I saw this amazing chick with a massive rack just as I got here, had to take a minute to give her a looksie, total milf material y'know? She'll be perfect for my next book."
"Do try to be creative with your characters names this time, will you?" Hiruzen snorted, "Neither Tsunade nor Kushina ever forgave you for using them as the main heroines of your first two books."
"They were just playing it up, they totally loved it!" Jiraiya merely gave a booming unashamed laugh as he closed the window leaned against it, "In fact, Minato used that to spice up their time in the bedroom, actually, you could say it's thanks to me a certain little someone came about so quickly!"
"…Watching your prized pupil engage in intercourse with his wife, truly I should have had you locked up long ago." Hiruzen shook his head.
"Now now sensei, let's not throw stones in glasses houses eh?" Jiraiya retorted, "We both know you read my book and are eagerly waiting for the next instalment."
"Hmph," Hiruzen did not dignify that with a response, even if his eyes did flicker briefly down to his palm where a certain seal now lay inscribed. A much better hiding place than the old hidden drawer in his desk, "So, what brings you to see me? Shouldn't you be busy training Naruto-kun?"
That was one of the main reasons why he'd recalled the man to the village after all. It was not long ago that Naruto first drew upon the Kyuubi's chakra during his mission to Wave.
He'd wished to keep the boy from interacting with the beast for a long as possible, for when he did, it would be the start of a long difficult time, but was no putting it off any longer.
Naruto-kun, despite his heritage, did not have access to the tools that would allow him to suppress the beast that his mother and Mito-sama did.
And the more he reached into the seal, the more the Kyuubi would be able to reach into him as well.
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A few of you guys misunderstood and think the spin off I was talking about, is a different direction for this story. No, it's basically an alternate timeline that starts like 50,000 words ahead of where we are here and an entirely separate story. This is the main story, Systematic Shinobi: Multiverse Mayhem is a side story AU, so you don't need to worry the Daiki of this story itself will not be going to other worlds...except maybe the Road to Ninja one. But yeah I can't upload it here anyway so it's a moot point. Honestly I've got a bunch of other stuff I can't upload here, which is a shame.