Hiruzen, the three Elders, the seven Clan Leaders and Fujin sat in the council room. Since it was an emergency meeting, everyone had arrived on time. Except for Fujin, everyone looked at Hiruzen, waiting for him to start the meeting and state the reason for the emergency meeting.
Hiruzen looked around the room, meeting his eyes with everyone in the room. He started the meeting by saying, "I'm sure every one of you is curious about why I called this meeting. This meeting is due to some recent events that Fujin discovered during his mission to the Land of Hot Waters."
His tone became serious as he said, "What will be discussed today will be very important for the future of our village. It goes without saying that all the information must stay within these walls. If any information gets leaked, I'm afraid that it will provoke some countries into starting a war."
Hiruzen's words made everyone serious. Even Shikaku, who was looking sleepy and yawning until then, became sharp. Meanwhile, Danzo looked at Fujin and thought, 'This meeting is due to him as well? I still haven't discovered what happened to my two subordinates. And he is already a part of something that involves the future of the village?'
He looked at Hiruzen and wondered, 'Did Hiruzen give him some secret mission and ask him to eliminate everyone who interfered? But what mission could that be?'
Danzo was indeed confused. His ninjas had looked along the path Fujin should have taken when he eliminated the bandits. However, they didn't find any clues regarding the two missing Root ninjas. So even though Danzo suspected Fujin, he had no evidence to blame him or make Hiruzen investigate him.
Seeing that everyone in the room was serious, Hiruzen said, "In Yugakure, a ninja named Hidan went rogue recently. He killed 18 ninjas and several civilians before going rogue. He was also involved in kidnapping more than 300 civilians. Fujin was sent to hunt him down and rescue the kidnapped people, however, he arrived late.
All the kidnapped people were killed in a mysterious way, their bodies decomposing several hundred times faster than normal. And, the cave they were in was covered in a formation made of seals. Many of those seals and symbols are the ones we have never seen before. They are completely different from our usual seals and…"
He looked around the room before completing his statement, "Even I couldn't identify their functions despite studying them for several hours."
The words surprised everyone in the room. Though most in the room weren't good with seals, they all understood what Hiruzen's words implied. At the same time, everyone looked at Fujin as well. Since Fujin was the one who discovered it, that meant that he should be able to identify every seal in Konoha at the very least.
It implied that he was close to being a Grandmaster in Fuinjutsu if he wasn't one already. Except for Danzo, Shikaku and Senju Hiromasa, no one had heard about Fujin even being a SealMaster, let alone a Grandmaster. It made everyone reevaluate the young man.
Danzo asked, "Do you mean that the seals are completely different from any other seals we studied?"
Danzo looked into Hiruzen's eyes. Though his question seemed normal, it was different for Hiruzen. Both of them had looked a lot into the Uzumaki seals, be it with Uzumaki Mito's help or scavenging the village after it was destroyed. No one else in Konoha had studied seals as much as either of them. The only one who came close in this aspect was Orochimaru who was no longer in the village. To his surprise, Hiruzen still nodded and said, "Yes."
Danzo's eyes widened. He immediately understood the importance of that matter. Hiruzen placed the scrolls that Fujin handed him the previous day and said, "Fujin recorded these scrolls. If anyone is interested, you can see them."
Danzo immediately grabbed one scroll. A few others also looked into the other scrolls with some curiosity. While they did, Hiruzen said, "Due to the mission, Fujin couldn't record the entire formation. I have dispatched a squad to record the entire formation. They should be done in a few days. The cave will be destroyed to prevent the other villages from getting access to this seal."
Fujin sighed internally on hearing that. He thought, 'I was hoping that the other villages work on this too. That way I'll be able to get a lot more help in studying these seals. That said, it isn't a surprise that Hiruzen chose this. I'd have done the same if I was in his shoes. Oh well, getting help from the Grandmasters in Konoha isn't bad either. They'll be able to devote far more time to it than me. After all, researching new seals will take a long time and there won't be any guarantees of success.'
Hiruzen continued, "The knowledge of these seals and the formation will stay only among us, the Grandmasters in our village and Kakashi and the Anbu Commander. Once we record the formation, every Grandmaster in the village will be allowed to study these seals and figure out what the seals do and what the symbols mean.
Once every month or so, I'll organize a meeting for all the Grandmasters to share their findings and decide on how to progress further. If anyone has a different opinion, feel free to share now."
Hiruzen knew that there could be some obstructions. He only allowed Grandmasters to study the seals. Not every clan had a Grandmaster in Fuinjutsu. After all, it wasn't easy to reach that stage. Not everyone had the time, interest, patience or ability to create dozens of Shadow Clones and sustain them for hours to study the seals.
As he expected, Tsume said, "I have just one suggestion. Open up those meetings to us clan leaders to observe so that we may know what the progress is."
Hiruzen thought for a few seconds before nodding and said, "Alright, that can be arranged. However, any clan leader who isn't a Grandmaster will be there only as an observer. Also, the attendance of clan leaders will be optional."
Tsume nodded and said, "That's fine with me."
Hiruzen looked around the room. There weren't any other objections or suggestions. Hiruzen said, "Since everyone agrees, the meeting ends here. Once Kakashi's squad returns, I'll make copies of the formation and distribute them among the Grandmasters. Once again, nothing discussed here gets out. The meeting has concluded."
Everyone nodded and began leaving. Only 3 people didn't leave. They were Hiruzen, Fujin and Danzo, each of whom continued sitting in their spots.
Once everyone left, Danzo said, "Hiruzen, did you make copies of these seals? I want to take these to study."
Hiruzen nodded and said, "I did make a copy. However, this one was made by Fujin. I was intending to return it to him so that he can continue studying them."
Danzo was confused. He wondered, 'What is he planning by giving such an answer? Does he want to give these to Fujin and stop me from getting access to them? But what will that accomplish considering that he is planning to distribute the formation to every Grandmaster?'
Unlike Danzo, Fujin didn't miss the obvious helping hand Hiruzen had given him. Danzo looked at Fujin and asked, "Are you planning on studying these or can I take them?"
Fujin put up a thoughtful expression and replied, "I was planning to study them. It is the first time that I've seen seals that aren't recorded in our village."
Danzo frowned. He thought, 'Though I don't know what these seals do, I have a feeling that they will be very beneficial for me! I don't want to give Hiruzen any opportunity to play any games.'
Before Fujin could continue, Danzo replied, "I can study the seals far faster than you. Considering the importance of the seal, I insist that you let me study them for now."
Fujin replied with a smile on his face, "That's true. I can wait. Actually, even if you didn't say it, I was planning to let you take it, Elder. But I hope that you can help me resolve an issue I'm facing."
Danzo immediately realized. He glanced at Hiruzen and cursed in his mind, 'So this is why he said those words. He wanted me to owe Fujin one and help him out.'
He asked, "What is the issue?"
Fujin replied, "I was trying to create a Vacuum Jutsu that covers a wide range, something similar to the Great Breakthrough jutsu. Unfortunately, I couldn't create a Vacuum Core stable and large enough to do so."
Danzo immediately realized the issue. He couldn't help but think, 'I heard that he is extremely good with Wind Vacuum Technique, but is he treating it as just Wind Manipulation? Still, before I answer, I need to know one thing.'
Danzo said, "Before I help you, I have one thing I wanted to ask you as well. I heard that you had taken a few missions around 3 weeks earlier and moved south. During your journey, did you see any ninjas from the Root?"
