(3rd PoV)
Some time passed, and it was a new day.
Hiruzen was sipping tea in his office, while stalking the academy with his crystal ball from time to time to see if Shiori and Naruto arrived.
Yesterday was the first day of academy for Naruto's batch.
He was very impressed with Naruto. And while Sasuke wasn't like Itachi, he was still a genius in his own right.
Out of everyone else, he has the most expectations from Shiori though. Not in shinobi thing, but maintaining peace over the village.
The first thing she did was to bribe all the kids in her class with her manga. And it was most likely to make sure that Naruto doesn't face any hatred in the academy atleast.
Hiruzen patted himself on the back, thinking about the good decision he made to let them be close.
He has noticed, that most of the geniuses of Konoha have low social skills and emotional intelligence. Orochimaru, Kakashi, Itachi, Shisui...
Orochimaru has gone down a dark path and defected.
Kakashi is now somewhat not always trying to kill himself, but training recklessly to prevent the possible tragedy in the future from happening. Hiruzen is tired of Kakashi going out of commission due to electrocuting himself while trying to develop a new form of Chidori, turning the Lightning into purple, which requires a lot more frequency than normal Lightning chakra.
Shisui has committed suicide. Although Hiruzen was suspicious about it at first, but the suicide note was authentic. Even a Sharingan user can't make a copy of handwriting perfect enough to fool the R&D department of Konoha. Plus, the forensic results of the note also didn't have anything suspicious at all. Either Shisui really committed suicide under pressure, or a 12 year old Itachi is genius enough to be able to fool the whole village. Or, Hiruzen himself fabricated the note, which he didn't. And Danzo isn't that talented.
And Itachi...
Atleast until Sasuke is alive, there is no need to think about him committing suicide. Hiruzen plans to make Itachi the Hokage when he turns 20, so that Uchihas will be happy, and he will be happy as well in his retirement, playing with Konohamaru.
If only Shiori was able to see in the past, or who will start the next war. Somehow, everyone will be able to know who with the Sharingan was behind Kyuubi attack six years ago.
Since Minato didn't tell Hiruzen about him, or her, it must mean that the enemy is strong enough that even knowing about his existence will put the village in danger. Last time when Seven-Tails was killed, it took 28 years to reform, forever pulling out the Waterfall village from a major power. So the enemy is less likely to kill Naruto, since the Kyuubi may not reform in his whole lifetime. And the seal can't be opened without the key that is with Jiraiya.
Even Hiruzen can't understand about where does Naruto's seal even start.
Well, since Itachi is genius, and understands Sharingan the best, he will be the best person to fight against that man. War will start in about 10 years, and he will be 22 by then.
Hiruzen will have to make sure that Shiori doesn't make any prediction about the attacker. It's best to trust Minato.
"Where was I? Oh."
Hiruzen came back to the subject he was pondering about. Emotional stability of geniuses and important people of the village.
For Kushina, Hiruzen just knew that Minato was capable and right person, to keep her stable and make her feel at home. Because, why would kidnappers make the Nine-tails jinchuriki walk? And why would such incompetent ninjas even be able to kidnap the most important kid of Konoha?
Well, he didn't need to do much this time. Shiori is perfect for Naruto, given that he was peeking at their wholesome moments yesterday.
Even though she seems to care only about Naruto, that's fine. Naruto will care about the village, and Shiori will care about Naruto. That's enough.
And speaking of yesterday...
Hiruzen picked up Haruno Sakura's performance card. While she was terrible at everything practical, she got 99 in the entrance exam. And reading Shiori's lips, it seemed that Sakura will be the kunoichi of the year and a great healer.
Shiori hasn't told her about this girl, does this mean that she has started hiding things?
"Hokage-sama."
The new ANBU shadowing the two kids, Uzuki Yugao appeared in front of him.
"Speak."
"Shiori asked me to ask you to come to her home in the evening."
Oh. He shouldn't start assuming things about an innocent kid. Why would she hide things? Instead, it seems that the issue is big enough to call him to her home.
"Tell her that I will come."
As the ANBU disappeared, Hiruzen glanced at his crystal ball, and saw Shiori and Naruto arriving while h*lding h*nds.
...
"Kids these days..."
--------------------------------
In a darkly lit room, even though it is morning, Danzo looked over all the information his slaves collected in less than a day about a certain family.
"Arrange for them to go outside the village. And prepare some 'bandits', who happen to be chunin missing-nins from Kiri."
"Yes,Danzo-sama."
Danzo was pleased. While it needed him to kill a lot of people and waste a lot of money to find very big talents, having a seer in the village saved all the trouble he has to go through.
The girl seems capable enough to be able to be an outsider ROOT after some character development.
"Let's see how capable you are, Haruno Sakura."