Chapter Text
Chapter 2: The Construction
“Appear Weak When You Are Strong, And Strong When You Are Weak.”
-Sun Tzu
Once Sakura finished the explanation about her new seal design, she collapsed into one of the chairs sitting in front of Tsunade’s desk and pushed the scroll closer to her master for review.
Tsunade leaned forward on her elbows and used one painted fingernail to flick the scroll open. Sakura used the time that Tsunade was taking to look over her theoretical work, to take a deep breath and calm down. The scroll in Tsunade’s hands contained hundreds of hours of research and experimentation, Sakura only needed Tsunade’s approval. If approved, Sakura can move onto the next phase, which was drawing the seal on a human test subject. More specifically, Tsunade drawing the seal on Sakura, because nothing says Scientist! like experimenting on yourself.
Besides, there are literally only two people in the entire village with the chakra control to manage such a sophisticated and complicated seal. One of those people were needed to monitor the seal as it was being used, and the other one was the one who it was going to be used on.
The tapping of Tsunade’s nails on the desk interrupted Sakura’s brief mediation.
“Everything looks good,” she said while glancing up at her apprentice. Tsunade placed her elbows on her desk and leaned forward to rest her chin on her hands.
“You made sure that nobody knows what you are doing, correct? The last thing we need is some old fossil trying to prolong their life span. Or someone with aspirations of being god, trying to use this technique to raise the dead or do something equally stupid,” Tsunade murmured with a glint in her eyes.
Sakura recognized that glint. That Glint meant that there was someone out there who stupid enough to try her Master’s patience. That Glint meant that Sakura needed to vacate the premises, unless she wanted to be ‘invited’ for a sparring match in the ANBU training grounds.
“I took every measure possible to hide my movements and my research. The information that I came across could lead to the downfall of entire villages if it landed in the wrong hands so I took every precaution necessary,” Sakura said confidently, trying to hide the slight waver in her voice at That Glint.
Tsunade made a scoffing sound while slumping back into her high-backed chair. Sakura jumped slightly at the noise and the abrupt movement, which she tried to hide by adjusting her position in her chair. By the knowing look on her Master’s face, her twitchiness did not go unnoticed.
“It’s not your carelessness that I’m worried about,” Tsunade said.
Sakura frowned to herself, there were times where Tsunade made cryptic off-hand comments. She never explained the true meaning behind them, leaving it up to Sakura to figure out the meaning.
“Before you can even consider having that seal placed on you, there are several exercises that you need to master,” Tsunade said. She stood up from her desk and walked over to one of the large bookcases sitting next to a potted fauna.
Tsunade slid her hand down the side of the bookcase and used her foot to nudge the pot out of the way. Sakura watched in confusion as Tsunade knelt down to pull the fauna out of the pot by its stem.
Sakura’s master fumbled around in the pot for a few seconds and withdrew with a small piece of paper in her hand. Tsunade carelessly dropped the wilting plant back into the pot, then slapped the seal on the side of the bookcase.
To Sakura’s somewhat non-surprise, the bookcase rotated to reveal another set of shelves with fewer scrolls and books on them. The village had so many secrets embedded in its different buildings, it should be a surprise to no one that seemingly innocuous objects were used to conceal secret hiding locations and entryways.
In the last month alone, Sakura stumbled across several 2 hidden walkways and 11 storage places that were abandoned after the transition from the Third Hokage to the Fifth Hokage. There was no telling what other secrets are hidden in the Hokage Tower, not to mention the entire village proper.
Tsunade went straight for one of the smaller scrolls. She picked it up, and almost casually threw it over her shoulder for Sakura to catch. The throw itself wasn’t much of a surprise since the Hokage had the bad habit of throwing objects at her subordinates. What surprised Sakura was her master’s callous way of treating a scroll that needed to be hidden. You would expect that if the scroll needed to be hidden away from prying eyes, it would be treated a little more delicately.
Sakura fingered the broken seal on the scroll in thought. The scroll was only about the size of her hand, but it was almost thicker than a clenched fist, and it smelled suspiciously musky, almost similar to the smell of boob sweat.
Before the horror of where exactly the scroll was hidden before it ended up behind a bookcase in the Hokage Tower could fully settle in, Tsunade interrupted.
“That scroll is the culmination of decades of research,” Tsunade said. “It was originally started by my grand-uncle before he assumed the duties of Hokage, and I added on after doing some research outside of the village.”
Tsunade walked back over to her desk with a little pot of tea in her hands. For a brief moment, Sakura was flabbergasted. It was rare for her mentor to willingly make herself a pot of tea. Usually it fell on either Sakura or Shizune, otherwise their master would drink sake or store bought matcha.
The Hokage settled behind her desk with a satisfied hum. She made herself comfortable by crossing her ankles underneath her desk and reaching within one of the desk compartments for a shot glass.
“Before you even think of starting on this seal, I want you to memorize everything in that scroll,” Tsunade used a napkin to clean the little glass and set it aside, almost reverently. “You also need to be able to do every exercise in that scroll without a thought. That’s the only way I will draw this seal on you.”
Tsunade picked up the tea pot and poured some of its liquid into the shot glass. It was clear.
“No one other than me and my grand-uncle are able to use those exercises, so take care of that scroll and allow no one to know its content,” Tsunade set the teapot down and fixed her student with an expectant stare.
Sakura recognized that look, that was the ‘What Shizune doesn’t know won’t hurt her or you.’ Usually Sakura tattled to her senpai anyways, but the scroll in her hands was not something that just anyone had access to. It was a worthy bribe. Turning to leave her master in peace to enjoy her alcohol break, Tsunade stopped her.
“The next time your father goes to Iron, make sure to tell him to bring me some more of this stuff.”
Worthy bribe indeed, because there are just somethings that Sakura Would Rather Not Do, and that included asking her dad for more sake. But still, the inner nerd in her was satisfied.
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About three months later, Tsunade and Sakura stood in the middle of a room in the Hokage Tower, or somewhere in the village. There was no telling where the transportation took them. The room that Tsunade brought Sakura to was not just any room, it was one of the many Hokage’s Safe, that the Hokage used to store sensitive information and dangerous techniques.
What made the Hokage’s Safe unique was its ability to ‘know’ who the current Hokage is. Through the extraordinary power of seals, the Safe allows only the current Hokage and their chosen entourage knowledge of its location and entrance into the room. After the mantle of Hokage transfers from one individual to another, the previous Hokage loses all access to any Safe, unless the current Hokage grants them power.
With the position and status of Hokage, a person has the ability to enter into any Safe in the village, and they have unlimited access to every nook and cranny that the village has. This prevents opponents of the Hokage from gaining an upper hand against the Hokage and it makes it incredibly difficult for a coup to occur.
What is not widely known, and what Tsunade told Sakura as she allowed her access to the Safe, was that Konoha was almost sentient.
While constructing the basic foundations of the village through his Wood Release, the First Hokage’s chakra seeped into the very being of the village. Every tree grown by the Hokage contained a smidgen of his chakra, as well as every Hokage after him. The trees, because of their supernatural growth rate, are able to absorb the chakra of everything living near it, if it resides there long enough.
As a result of Konoha’s century long history, the trees and surrounding forest absorbed well over a thousand different chakra, from normal everyday citizens, to the shinobi that makes up Konoha’s military, to the very nature that calls the forest home.
Using the chakra that it managed to absorb, as well as through the inauguration ceremony, Konohagakure is able to know who her leader is. The Will of Fire’s Flame knows everything that it needs to know about the heart of her leader, as well as her villagers. Which makes for some very interesting times when spies try to forcibly enter forbidden rooms of the village, only to be run through with a tree branch, merrily waving a pretty pink flower at the bloody end of its tip.
When Sakura really thinks about it, the fact that her village may be sentient is not all that surprising. Her parents always told her that there was no such thing as a corrupt Hokage because the village Knows.
“It knows when you are sleeping, it knows when you are wake, it knows when you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake,” Sakura mumbled under her breath after listening to her Master’s explanation.
Tsunade snorted in amusement as she guided Sakura out of the main room and into one of the smaller rooms off to the side.
“That nursery rhyme is still around? I thought it would have faded out by now,” Tsunade said while walking into the room. Tsunade walked over to one of the built in bookshelves and started pulling down books and scrolls to place into a box that she had brought into the room with her. Finishing with one shelf, she moved across the room to another. Scanning the titles written on the side of the books and scrolls with a painted finger, she seemingly chose things at random to add to her growing stash.
“All of this time, the rhyme was about that?” Sakura questioned. She pulled a face mask out of one of her medic packs around her waist, to secure across her face. Some of the books and scrolls that Tsunade picked up were dusty enough to make her sinuses act up.
“From what my grandfather told me, the flame that is used during the inauguration knows your intentions. It’s the very heart of the village and if it doesn’t like what it finds, it’ll destroy your soul,” Tsunade said while setting her now full box, on a table situated in the middle of the room.
“However, no one knows that the Will of Fire’s Flame is more than symbolic since it hasn’t done anything to any of the previous Hokages,” She continued. Tsunade dug around the box and pulled out the books and scrolls to place in different piles, while Sakura stood off to the side in wide-eyed horror.
Seeing the look on her apprentice’s face, Tsunade couldn’t help but laugh, “Don’t worry, there are already steps that need to be taken before someone can be considered for the Hokage’s seat. Besides, it only attacks the unworthy.”
Sakura didn’t know what to do with that information.
To find out that the village was sentient was one thing, but to know that the flame that sat on the topmost floor of the Hokage’s Tower was able to discern a person’s heart was a whole nother thing that she did not want to think about. The kind of jutsu and seals that had to be placed on the flame. The kind of chakra that was needed to maintain it everyday of the year. It was almost mind-blowing.
“Calm down Sakura,” Tsunade commanded without looking up from sorting out her piles. Tsunade waved a manicured hand around, “Take a look around the room.”
Sakura made a noise of confirmation and walked to the nearest bookshelf. The titles were faded a little, but what she could make out, stunned her. Scanning more bookshelves to confirm her suspicion, Sakura slowly made her way around the room.
Similar to other government buildings in the village, this room was circular and made out of wood. Even though the wood was over a century old, it still looked and smelled new. There was no sign of termite damage or splinters in sight. Everything was smoothed down and sparkled as if it was oiled the day before.
Every wall in the room, besides the doorway, was made up of bookshelves. The bookshelves themselves were filled with handwritten scrolls and books from before the Founding of Konoha. The information within the room seemed to be the culmination of all five Hokages. Everything from the trade routes of Suna, to the detailed notes of a forbidden jutsu was meticulously written down and stored in the room.
Sakura was floored. The inner nerd in her screamed. To be able to come and go into this room was a sign of extreme trust. For her to be able to read anything she wanted, about whatever she wanted was almost overwhelming. If she wanted, she could look up a jutsu invented by the Second Hokage, or she could read a political analysis of the impact of drought on a village on the border of Kusa by the Third Hokage. Her choices were boundless, and she had to find somewhere to sit down before she did something as embarrassing as hyperventilating or letting out a fangirlish scream of delight.
Noticing her student’s impending meltdown, Tsunade tapped the table with the book that she was going through.
“Sit down and start going through that stack,” she said while motioning to pile that was closest to a chair.
Sakura sneezed. The mask isn't as effective if she had her nose buried in a very dusty book. Sakura noted the title of the book and what page it was on before returning it to its previous spot. Slinging her travel bag off of her shoulder, Sakura sat down in the offered seat and took a glance at what was in front of her. One scroll seemed to be about nature and natural chakra, another was about the theory behind combining two natural chakra types to create another. The titles varied, but they were all about chakra and theory.
“The scroll I gave you before, was to prepare you about the stuff that you will encounter in those readings.”
Tsunade placed the last book into one of the piles, before dropping the empty box on the floor with a dull thud. The kage leaned her hip on the table and peered down at her student. The mask on Sakura’s face made it seem as if she was going on mission to excavate a site, instead of studying in a room. She had on her typical research uniform, consisting of civilian work out pants and an oversized long sleeved shirt, that Tsunade was pretty sure belonged to one of her chunin assistants. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun and she wore a comfortable pair of sandals. All in all, she looked like a harmless civilian studying for entrance exams, instead of a dangerous shinobi capable of destroying a mountain with a flick of her finger.
While Tsunade was busy being proud of raising a dangerous pink haired ninja, Sakura had already pulled out her writing utensils and several notebooks, some of which looked as if they suffered from repeated use.
“The pile closest to you is what you need to read first. After you finish that one you can move onto the others,” Tsunade said. She flicked a dust bunny away from her face with a frown. “The other piles don’t need to be done in any particular order as long as you finish one stack before you move onto the next one.”
“Once you’re finished reading and comprehending everything, I’ll test your knowledge and then we’ll begin creating your seal,” Tsunade finished.
“You will be able to enter this safe for however long I am Hokage. Remember the hand seals that I showed you, and you’ll be able to enter this building from any doorway within the village bounds.