Chapter 41
All of the members of the Akatsuki stood in their designated places, as they occupied the ten fingers of the Gedo Mazo while the statue drained Gaara of his jinchuriki, robbing him of his life.
And just as the beast was fully gone, and the body of the young Suna genin fell down and began to wither away, did the leader of the organization open his mouth.
"The mission nearly ended in a disaster," he began, as he turned towards the two operatives tasked with bringing him the Kyubi and the ichibi.
"Nearly," corrected the young red-haired prodigy from Suna, and with his puppet, lost Sasori's real form was there for all to see.
"We simply underestimated the prowess of Konohagakure's forces," he admitted their fault, as the leader nodded.
"Indeed, but I am surprised that you already predicted such an outcome, Itachi," and those purple eyes then turned towards the shinobi responsible for saving Sasori and Deidara, and losing them would have been a great blow to their organization.
Yet the disaster had been evaded, all because of him.
"It is as Sasori said," Itachi Uchiha began.
"They underestimated the might of Konoha," and there was no emotion in his tone as he mentioned his previous village.
"I did not," and his response was short and succinct, and he refused to say more.
"Well, still, we were able to recover one of the bijuu, so the mission was not a complete failure. The meeting is dismissed," and with that, the shadowy figures began to vanish one after another, until only three remained.
Pain, Konan, and Itachi Uchiha. Purple gaze let the red of the Sharingan as the leader of the Akatsuki asked another question.
"Who was that boy?"
"His name is Hikari Hyuga," and that boy was the reason for their failure. They had planned for Jiraiya, and the rest, yet his existence and prowess had come as a surprise, and it had taken the boy but one little spar to figure out the weaknesses of both Sasori and Deidara.
"And he was once rumored to be my equal in talents..."
"Is that so?"
0000
TSUNADE SENJU
The village was a mess. An absolute mess.
She had long thought that Konoha could disappoint her no more, and yet she was wrong. She was so wrong. Right now, she sat in her sensei's solar, not in his seat, which still remained empty, for as much as the daimyo and Jiraiya may wish for her to replace their sensei, she still had not made that decision.
And the more she read about the village's situation, the more appealing the thought of disappearing once more began to sound.
"This is an absolute mess," she shouted, as she closed the file and rubbed her temples.
"How could Sensei let this happen?" she asked, and the Nara clan head looked down in embarrassment as he answered.
"Many people warned the Sandaime-sama about the actions of Lord Danzo, yet despite the nature of his crimes and actions, the Sandaime-sama was always certain of his old friend's loyalty," and sensei was indeed too trusting, but this was not a mistake.
This was criminal negligence, for the more she read, the more heinous the crimes began. Crimes that the bastard had committed against this very village.
"He always did trust the bastard," she remembered, as she turned towards Jiraiya, who stood at the corner of the room reading another scroll.
"This is an absolute mess!" and for the first time he had no quip as he gave her a somber nod.
"That it is," for the one-eyed bastard had set up an entire separate force parallel to the ANBU, and if that was not bad enough, the list of his crimes included bloodline theft, human trafficking, political assassinations, treason, and the list went on and on.
She had always thought the bastard to be creepy, yet she had never considered him to be a traitor. And given the expression on Jiraiya's and Shikaku's faces, neither had they.
"Do you still think that I am the right choice to succeed sensei?" she asked mockingly as Jiraiya looked her in the eye and replied resolutely.
"I do," and she clicked her tongue as she stared at the stone faces through the window. Stared at the faces of her own grandfather and granduncle, wondering how they would feel seeing the village in its current state.
Half the village's infrastructure had been damaged, ten percent of their force was dead, their alliance with Sunagakure was all but gone, and amidst that, they had just uncovered that one of the most prominent and powerful elders within the village was a traitor to the village.
The very man who, if he had not been killed, would have become the Hokage.
"I know that Konoha has let you and your family down," Shikaku Nara began, and the man had dark circles under his eyes and seemed clearly too tired and weary as he looked to the floor.
"It is indeed too much to ask you to shoulder this burden, but the village needs you, Lady Tsunade," he began, trying to pitch her the hat once again, as she bit her lip, seeing the truth in his words.
"It needs you now more than ever, for otherwise, all of your family's sacrifices will have been for naught," and already Kumo and Iwa were probing their borders for weakness, and many within the village had feared that another war was on the horizon.
A war that they would have to fight without the reassuring presence of both her sensei and Minato.
Still, sensei had left behind an absolute mess. Danzo's death had only complicated matters, and now they wished to saddle her with all of this.
She could deny the request. She could simply get up and leave. None within the village had the power to stop her, and even the daimyo could not force her to wear the hat, yet deep in her heart she did not want to.
For she knew the truth herself, that Konoha needed her. It needed her legacy.
She closed her eyes and was reminded of all those lives that this wretched place had robbed her of. Her grandfather, granduncle, her parents, her brother, and him. Dan.
This place was responsible for taking them all. Yet in many ways, this village was their legacy as well. Their love and affection for this place still lingered in her memories, and if she were to abandon Konoha now, it would be like abandoning them and their good memory as well.
So, the decision was made.
"I will do it," she announced, cutting through the silence as Jiraiya smirked knowingly, and the pervert did know her better than anyone else.
"Thank...." yet she stopped the Nara boy, as she raised.
"But first I need to see him," she added, as his face shifted.
"I want to see the boy who killed, Danzo...." and this was what intrigued her, for she wanted to know how the boy was able to know so much, when the one-eyed bastard had been able to fool everyone.
"Where is he?" she asked as she rose from her chair.
"He is in a holding cell at the Intelligence Division," and she began to walk, and as she reached the door, she glanced back.
"You coming or what?"
.
.
.
And soon enough, she found herself standing in a dark and gloomy cell, where a young boy sat all bound in seals and chains. And she could sense something foreign and invading in his chakra. It felt wrong and evil, and as he tried to localise it, she found her gaze falling to the mark on his neck.
The seal on his eyes and mouth had not yet been removed, yet the boy was restrained so that he could not even move an inch. The first thing she noticed about him was his age and how he was even younger than Nawaki when he had died.
And to think that he had managed to not only defeat a bijuu, but also Danzo was a testament to his prowess. She had read his file as well and had heard whispers as well.
"Do you have any idea what you have done, kid?" she snarled angrily, for he had made her job a lot harder than necessary.
"I killed a traitor," he argued back, and she scoffed.
"There are many in the village who disagree with you on that," and with that she sat down herself on the little bench opposite to him, as he shrugged, or tried to at least.
"That is their choice," he replied calmly, and he was quiet for someone who had been arrested for treason himself.
"You could have stopped," and though Shikaku had yet to submit an official report, for political reasons, she knew the entire truth verbally.
"I did not want to take a chance. Not with a man like him," and while she admired his fearlessness, the boy was in far too much trouble than he realised.
"How did you know?" she questioned, and that was what bothered her the most; he did not reply at first.
"Your old teammate told me," and she had guessed as much. It was just like Orochimaru to stir up trouble like this.
"It could have been a trap?" she questioned.
"I did not have the time to think. I had to save Hinata. I couldn't break my promise to her and Hanabi," and the boy was truly an enigma, but as much as those damned old coots may loathe him, the truth was that Konoha needed him just as much as it needed her.
"Kumo and Iwa are probing our borders. The village is divided, and they want you dead for treason," and that was just the gist of their problems.
"So, are you going to kill me?" he asked after a minute of silence, and she had come here wanting to see just what kind of a person this boy was, and though she would not say it ever, she was liking him.
"No," she answered.
"But I am going to run you ragged for putting me into this mess," and Tsunade had never taken on a student apart from Shizune. And she did not have the time to train one now.
Jiraiya would soon be leaving the village along with Naruto to dissuade the Akatsuki from attacking their village once again. And with him gone, Tsunade would have need of a sledgehammer of her own.
A shinobi capable and powerful enough to complete any and all missions assigned to him or her with utmost competency. A boogeyman, just like sensei had been for Tobirama-jii, and then Minato had been for her sensei.
"You wanted to become the Hokage, didn't you, kid?" she asked, and he nodded.
"Well then, consider this your internship for the job..."
0000
INO YAMANAKA
Ino was amongst the select group of people who knew exactly what had transpired in the village over the last few days. She knew that Hinata had been taken captive by one of the village elders, and that Hikari, in his rage, had woken up and taken that elder's life, while exposing a history of abuse of power and criminality that could topple the very foundation of this village.
"He is going to be fine," and finally she felt her heart untwist at her father's words, who nodded in confirmation as he summoned her to the family dojo.
"Yes, it has been decided that Hikari kun will be let go," and that was a relief. She had been trying to meet him for days, yet her father had continued to reject her requests as they held him in the T&I building for further investigation.
"He never should have been arrested anyway," she argued,
And her father's lips thinned.
"He did commit a crime," he argued.
"That elder was a traitor. He tried to take, Hinata-chan's eyes," she nearly lashed out, and the girl had told this to her by herself, while begging her for her family's support in helping him.
"I cannot argue against that, but his actions have weakened the village. And he will suffer for them," and that made her head snap in his direction.
"What do you mean by that? He exposed one of the most heinous traitors within the village, saved Hinata-chan's life, and you are going to punish him for that," and she could not believe what she was hearing.
"It's not so simple, Ino," her father countered.
"Hikari-kun defied a direct order," and she could not believe her ears.
"What is going to happen to him?" she asked, as her fists balled up, as she realised that there was nothing that she could do again. That she was as helpless as she had been in saving Sakura all those months ago?
"They are going to put him in the ANBU for some time, at least until the things within the village have calmed down once more," and she bit her lip, knowing full well what the life of an ANBU entailed.
"It's wrong," she whimpered as her eyes began to tear up.
"It's the rules," her father argued.
"Why are you telling me this?" she asked.
"Because, given the nature of the matter, the Hokage-sama has declared it as an S-ranked secret. Under no circumstances are you to reveal the truth about what transpired that night to anyone," he warned, and now his earlier words began to make sense, for that was a warning from him.
A warning that if she were to break these rules, then even he might not be able to protect her.
"Who else knows?" she asked.
"The three of you, and six clan heads," he answered, and so no one else would know of the traitorous actions of Danzo Shimura.
"Elder Danzo Shimura was murdered by one of Orochimaru's hidden operatives. He was a hero, and his funeral will be held tomorrow. As the heir of the Yamanka clan, you will be expected there," and she wanted to scream and shout, yet she did not.
She held her tongue, as she rued her weakness once more.
"This is wrong," and her father did not answer at first before a sigh escaped his lips.
"It is, but we have no choice," and that was not a sound argument.
"I want to meet him," she asked again.
"He will be freed tomorrow. But not for long, he will soon have to leave for a mission...."
0000
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