Chapter 5: From the shadows
[Asano Yoichi POV]
I'm standing in a circular room. It's brightly lit, due to half the room being filled with windows. At the back of it, a desk is stationed, and sitting behind it is a man.
An old, wrinkled face, with a white beard and a huge hat. The current Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen.
"Lord Hokage, I'm here to answer your summon"
I state. The Hokage gazes at me for a silent second, before informing me in his worn out voice,
"Yoichi, this is regarding that student of yours"
I naturally know who he's talking about. Hokama Miyato. It's been 4 days since I personally reported the result of that mission, and I've seen the Hokage pay particular attention to the parts regarding the boy. Since yesterday, I have also noticed an Anbu always following him.
The Hokage continues,
"I have reasons to believe that he is not your real student"
He pauses for a second, seemingly to give me time to process what he said.
"The whole series of events of your mission are extremely suspicious. We haven't been able to deduct the identities of the ninjas from their bodies, and we're still unable to find the last ninja that managed escaped."
I have a feeling I know where this conversation is going. The Hokage says
"Your student, Miyato, has managed to miraculously survive a confrontation with a Chunin. If that's all it was, it could be attributed to the enemy being careless. However, he has also conveniently lost all of his memories."
Taking a breath, he continues,
"What I'm trying to say is, the body of your student is likely to be controlled or possessed by some forbidden jutsu. The story of losing his memories, it could easily be a ploy to infiltrate the village without exposing their identity"
I…know that, I've already considered these points since first visiting him in the hospital. And as careless as it was of me, I tried to ignore those points. I guess the feelings of guilt are clouding my judgement.
"Therefore I believe its in the interest of the village to get rid of this boy"
I try to interject,
"But Lord Hokage, what if he's innocen-"
"That's an 'if', Yoichi, it's a risk to the village. The real Miyato would without a doubt sacrifice himself for the village"
I pause, my mind racing. As disrespectful as these thoughts may be, I believe the Hokage to be wrong in this decision. I try one last desperate attempt.
"Lord Hokage, please give him a chance. I'm willing to supervise him, and I'll take responsibility for any damages that he does"
He stares at me deeply for a good 10 seconds.
"Alright. But, if he does anything to harm the village…"
He stops, indicating that I should finish this sentence, and I do.
"Then I will personally kill him" I say in a confident voice.
The Hokage nods and dismisses me.
The next day.
I wake up Miyato early again, just like I did yesterday.
We proceed to the same training ground, and on the way we talk a little. I take glances at him from time to time.
From the way he handles himself, its clear he isn't an experienced combatant. However, that could still be a fake front put on to deceive others.
He starts practicing the Leaf Concentration exercise again, while I lean against a tree and read a book.
That doesn't prevent me from taking glances at what he's doing.
Managing to hold the leaf in place for a couple seconds, it then falls. And then he repeats it, again, and again.
I can see him become excited every time he manages to hold the leaf for longer. Such childish behaviour… but that's exactly what makes me believe these reactions to be genuine, and not a calculated move from an enemy ninja.
However, I won't let my judgement affect this mission. I told the Hokage I will supervise him for any suspicious activity, and I will do just that.
It reaches midday, and I can see him already exhausted. Ending the training, I bring him back to inner parts of Konoha, and leave him.
That's from his perspective. Instead, I proceed to watch him going through the rest of his day.
Nothing unusual, going through various stores, stopping by the ramen place he really seems to enjoy, and then spends the rest of it in his house.
The third day goes in a similar fashion. He managed to hold the leaf almost indefinitely, only dropping it at times.
However before leaving, he asked me if he can continue training later by himself, after recovering his chakra. Interested in where this was going, I agreed.
Following Miyato as I did yesterday, I see him have another normal day. In the evening he proceeded to walk back to our usual training ground.
I watched him from a distance, where I was certain he wouldn't notice me even if he was a trained ninja.
But he still only repeated the Leaf Concentration training with some rests in between, until night fell.
The next two days were the same.
Of course I don't forget to support Hitaro and Kizue with their training every once in a while. Our team won't be getting any missions for a time, to recover from our last mission.
Every other night, I report Miyato's daily schedule to the Hokage. But his normal behaviour doesn't diminish the suspicion that the Hokage holds towards him.
The day after, I tried giving him more freedom. After getting him to the training ground, I left, watching him from the shadows. If the enemy ninja believes that he's under less supervision and has more freedom, he might slip up.
Nothing changed, other than his improvement in chakra control. He can now hold the leaf in place indefinitely, quite a good improvement for just 5 days of training.
I do the same the next day, and the day after that.
It was the afternoon, I can see Miyato performing various actions while still holding the leaf in place using his chakra.
I think back to this last week of his training. As much as I try to find any suspicious points in his actions, I can't find any.
And while at first I had slight suspicions, at this point, I truly believe he is a boy that just lost his memories. An opinion that the Hokage still doesn't share with me.
His chakra control is becoming quite good, and the Leaf Concentration exercise won't give him any more major improvements. We should move onto the next exercise.
I appear in the training ground, and approach Miyato.
I tell him
"I believe you are ready to move onto the next stage"
He smiles, a smile that shows his will to improve.
Miyato, the village might have abandoned you, but I will not.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Gamentix
Gamentix A slightly shorter chapter, with another POV, but I believe it was neccesary to show Yoichi's attitude towards the MC, and the reason for it.
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