Despite the secretary making feeble attempts at turning me away, I went into the Hokage's office anyway. My first impression of the office was that it was relatively Spartan. The office itself was dimly lit, but there were little to no personal effects around. As I scanned the room, I saw quite a few things. The first thing I saw were the portraits of each of the Hokages wearing traditional clothing, with serious expressions on their face. It was kind of… I don't know, was it possible to be both humbled at the sight of power while also being reassured because it showed they were human? Whatever the case, there were also several bookshelves filled to the brim with books and scrolls. Finally, there was the giant desk in the middle that said "Fire" in the middle. At the desk was the Hokage, looking down and reading a scroll while absentmindedly smoking from his pipe. My nose wrinkled as a result of the smell. Due to his frequent smoking, the room smelled a LOT like tobacco. In fact, the walls are probably stained with the smell of smoke by now. Bleh.

"Hokage-Sama". Hiruzen looked up and his eyes darted over me. I have little to no doubt that in that moment he assessed if I was a potential threat, my abilities, and about fifty different ways to kill me. I wouldn't expect any less from the Professor and the strongest man in the village. However, his serious face morphed into a pleasant expression as he smiled and said my name fondly so as to acknowledge me. Behind us I could hear footsteps coming in at a rushed pace.

Out of breath, the secretary came up and while breathing heavily started gasping out "Y-you can't be here." After regaining her breath, she continued. "Hokage-sama is a very busy man, and you can't waltz in here as you please!"

The Hokage let out a low chuckle and raised his hand so as to pacify her. "Now now Ayaka-chan. Haru was correct when he said I had been expecting him. He'd been in the hospital you see." Standing up, he began to clear off his desk before looking up again. "Ah, Ayaka-chan, was there something else you needed?"

"N-nothing. Hokage-sama." She said, now flustered. She turned around to leave before turning around to face us again. She adjusted her glasses and read from the notebook. "Ah Hokage-sama, you asked me to remind you of your meetings. You have a meeting in one hour with Utatane-sama and Mitokado-sama about the-"she stopped suddenly, looked at me, and readjusted her glasses. "Er- you have a meeting with Utatane-sama and Mitokado-sama in one hour. Also upon conclusion of that you'll have to finalize and sign off on all of the mission reports from today." With a huff, she turned around and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Upon the exit of the Sandaime's secretary, I took a seat in front of the Hokage's desk while I waited for him to finish clearing off his desk. After a few minutes of relative silence, the Hokage finally sat back down and looked at me.

"Well Haru, I'm glad to see you're out of the hospital. You look well." He started kindly. He then took a few moments to relight his pipe. He inhaled deeply and then exhaled the smoke to the side of us so I wouldn't get a face full of smoke and tobacco. At least he's considerate even if he's still smoking in the same vicinity as me. After about a minute of that, the Hokage put his pipe back down before devoting his full attention to me. "I apologize, I know it's bad for my health, but we old people often get stuck in our ways." He gave me a small but sincere smile. "Now, what would you like to talk about?"

"Well, Hokage-sama, I was hoping that we would be able to discuss my situation as far as being a Genin was concerned."

"Ah yes. If I recall correctly, you were apprenticed to Inabi-kun." He fiddled with some papers that were on his desk, and then continued with a frown marring his aged face. "Well that is before… Anyway, the question that I'd like to ask you first is: What would you like to do? It would be easy for us to make a decision, but I would like to hear your input, if you have any that is."

"Well, I actually thought about this for quite awhile and I've decided that I think it would be most beneficial to both me and to the village if I were to join a 4-man team."

The Sandaime scrutinized me with a raised eyebrow. "Are you sure Haru? I am sure there would be a great deal of Jōnin in the village that would be more than happy to take you as an apprentice."

I closed my eyes, breathing in and out, slowly. I opened my eyes to look at the Hokage. "Yes sir, I am sure. I honestly think that as it stands, I'm too much of a liability to go into the field for a C-Rank mission. Ultimately, I think that I will benefit by having peers and comrades to watch my back as I watch theirs. After all, based on what I've heard and what I've seen during my stay at the hospital, I'm fully aware just how dangerous this world can be." I paused for a moment before continuing. "Furthermore, I hope to be placed on a team that won't treat me any differently just because I'm one of two remaining and loyal Uchiha. I don't want favoritism, I don't want special treatment, I want to be able to survive." I finished resolutely.

The Hokage picked up his pipe, inhaled deeply and let out a giant cloud of smoke. At my statement, he switched between scrutinizing me and looking at various papers that were strewn around his desk. After several agonizing moments in which I was treated to complete and utter silence, he stood up. He walked away from his desk toward the open window that faced the Hokage monument. He stood there, gazing upon the monument for several more agonizing minutes.

Then, several things happened. As he turned back around, he faced me with a, serious and apathetic expression. As soon as he turned around, I felt what I could only describe as a "pulse" as shadows leapt from various parts of the room. Before I knew it, a figure had landed on the desk in front of me. The figure had a stylized mask of an animal and leapt at me with a kunai. Time began to slow down. Everything became unbearably lucid. I was panicking. I felt completely and utterly helpless as I had no idea what to do. My body was yelling at me to survive but I could only watch as the kunai came closer and closer to my face, ready to penetrate my skull and kill me. I was frozen stiff, and no matter how much I willed my body, to do something I just sat there, waiting to die. "This… this isn't fair! Please! Can anything, something save me!?" I thought desperately. The kunai came within an inch of me before stopping completely. I could feel a trickle of sweat falling down my face. The tension in the room was palpable. The adrenaline was pumping through my veins as I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. I could hear my heart going a mile a minute. In the corner of my eye on both sides, I could see kunai pointed at me. Without even turning around I could tell, there was one to the back of my head as well. I felt another "pulse" similar to one before. Without a sound, the figures with the animal masks disappeared. The Sandaime walked forward, inhaling and expelling more tobacco from his pipe before sitting down.

He delicately placed his pipe on the desk as he faced me looking apologetic and guilty. "I sincerely apologize for putting you through that Haru. Your behavior upon waking had been… suspicious to say the least." He paused to gauge my reaction and despite not seeing too much of a difference he continued on. "Your behavior now is the complete opposite of what your behavior was prior to the coma. Of course in the medical field this isn't unheard of, especially with amnesiac patients." He began to rearrange and clean up the mess made by his ANBU. Before looking back up, the age more evident and pronounced on his face now. "Unfortunately, as you stated before, this is a dangerous world. It isn't unheard of for… enemies of the state to attempt to place one of their agents in guise of one of our own, so as to weaken the village. Staging attacks like these are but one of the ways we've used to vet out potential spies, after all, a trained agent would have been able to react to some capacity." He sighed deeply and rubbed the bridge on his nose. "Again, Haru, I'm sincerely sorry that we had to do that to you. It was not my intention to do that when you entered, but nevertheless it helped to confirm your identity."

It took everything I had so as not to clutch my heart and hyperventilate. I was just now recovering from the shock- if you could call it recovering. I'm sure I was staring at the Hokage wide-eyed. That was completely and utterly terrifying. I was utterly helpless and what's more there was nothing I could do if the Hokage wasn't bluffing. If he wanted to kill me, he could have just done so without any sort of struggle or even a fight from me. This just further cemented what I knew all along.

I need to get stronger.

"I… its fine." I managed to choke out after a few minutes. "I… can understand your concern. That was…" I trailed off.

"Excessive?" The Sandaime chuckled without mirth.

"…Yeah. However, I hope you realize that this doesn't change what I said earlier. If anything, this reinforces what I said and decided."

"Fair enough. However, I do believe that you can benefit from weekly sessions from a member of the Yamanaka clan. In fact, I think your new sensei may even be able to help you in regards to that."

My eyebrow rose at the sound of this. So the Sandaime already had plans for me in the scenario that I wanted to be on a team. Well, I might as well push my luck. "Hokage-sama, you said my new sensei… Do you already have a Sensei and team picked out for me? That was rather quick, wouldn't you say?" I said in a rather clipped tone.

This time, the Hokage did chuckle with mirth. "Perhaps it's your youth Haru, but you don't make it to my age in this world without some planning. Anyway, to answer your question, I arrived at multiple outcomes, and thus, had contingencies and plans for each."

I narrowed my eyes at that. Call it paranoia, but if he was telling me this, this meant that he didn't consider me a threat in the slightest sense of the word. How dare he? After all, it was his inability to negotiate and ability to be swayed by his teammates to the death of the Uchiha! It was his fault he couldn't rein in Danzō! IT WAS HIS FA-

"Haru?"

I snapped out of my stupor. That was… worrying. "I- I'm sorry Hokage-sama, I'm not quite sure what came over me there."

The Sandaime studied me for a few moments, before taking another drag from his pipe. He looked down at some papers for a few moments before looking back at me. "In any case, you are to report to room 345 of the Academy tomorrow morning. I understand you're still unfamiliar with Konoha since waking, so if you simply follow Sasuke to the academy when he goes in the morning, you shouldn't have to wait too long for your new team and sensei to arrive. Now, is there anything else you'd like to discuss Haru?"

"Actually Hokage-sama, I'd like to talk ab-"and before I could finish my statement, we heard yelling coming from the lobby area. I cocked my eyebrow at the Sandaime who returned it. If we can hear the yelling then whoever's yelling definitely has a set of lungs on them. Soon after, we heard a thump. Soon thereafter, with the yelling continuing, we heard footsteps coming from the hallway before the bespectacled secretary from earlier came in, flushed.

"H-Hokage-sama! Please, can you assist with dealing with the dem-" she cut herself off upon seeing the Sandaime's face and then making the connection toward me. "Er, what I mean to say… could you PLEASE assist in dealing with… with… THAT BRAT."

The Hokage let out a sigh before looking toward me apologetically. "I'm sorry Haru; I believe the remainder of our conversation will have to continue another day." He stood up and left the room, his Hokage cloak billowing about him. I stood up to follow him out of the room and into the lobby where I saw something… or rather someone I hadn't anticipated seeing for quite awhile.

In front of me stood a blond haired, blue-eyed brat, dressed in a black shirt with a red swirl, and green goggles. He was glaring daggers at my younger cousin who was returning the glare with equal intensity.

In front of me stood the Child of Prophecy, the one day fated to be Savior of this World, and the Number One Hyperactive, Knucklehead Ninja, Naruto Uzumaki.

Of course he was 7 and acting like a complete and utter brat, but still, it was a little humbling to see him. Nevertheless, not wanting the situation to escalate I let out a sigh and stated to Sasuke "C'mon, let's get going. You still have to show me how to get home… wherever that is." Before I could go out the door however, Naruto slid in front of me and looked up at me with accusing eyes.

"Oy! Are you the bastard's big brother? Why is Sasuke such a bastard? Does that mean you're a bastard too?"

I looked at him a little dumbstruck. He really doesn't like Sasuke or know the definition of tact. It took everything I had to not laugh, and even then I failed. I burst out laughing and despite the looks I got from everyone (except Naruto, who despite looking somewhat confused, looked ecstatic that he made someone laugh). I patted Naruto on the head and fixed him with a grin. "I'm Sasuke's older cousin, Haru. I'm a Genin too. Grow strong eh? That way, you'll be a worthy rival for my little cousin."

Before giving Naruto a chance to respond, I walked out the door past him and Sasuke soon followed. As we were heading down the steps, Sasuke was pouting at me. After a few moments when it was clear I wasn't going to ask, he finally spoke up. "Hey… Haru, what was that all about? Why'd you give that loser the time of day?"

I simply smiled at him. "Well Sasuke… that kid's got something to him, you know? I think he'll grow to be strong."

With another pout and a scoff, Sasuke childishly replied to me. "I doubt it. That was Naruto; he's the dead-last of our class. He can't even do the basics without struggling!"

"You never know Sasuke… people can surprise you."