The Path to Hokage
Prologue.
Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine.
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Iruka-senseis' words barely registered in his head.
'A ninja of konohagakure...'
"Let's celebrate at Ichiraku's" Iruka added, grinning at his student.
The sheer joy on the boys face was indescribable as he threw his arms around the wounded Iruka for a hug.
"I won't disappoint you Iruka-sensei I'll make you proud of making me a ninja, believe it." Naruto proclaimed in between sobs.
"That was an advance B-Rank Jutsu Naruto, how could I not make you Genin?" Iruka laughed out "Which reminds me, let's return the scroll to Hokage-sama. Whadya say Naruto?"
Naruto simply nodded and with a grin he added "Believe it!"
They never even realized that Mizuki's body was gone.
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Sarutobi put his Crystal Ball away. Naruto was happy and that always made him happy but that had been an immensely close call. He almost rushed into the forest himself once he found out where the boy was.
A sudden chakra flare signified an ANBU precence. It was a tradition that dates back to the time of the Second Hokage. Each ANBU upon initiation were given a certain amount of Chackra to flare right before they make their precence know. It was up to the Hokage to memorize which chakra signature to care about and which one they feel are unimportant. Regardless they know an ANBU is coming before most others and that only added to the Hokage coolness.
"Come out Rooster " The Hokage muttered
—-—-—
Naruto burst into the office unannounced,
"Hey Old-Man" Naruto screamed not noticing there was a meeting going on between Lord Hokage and an ANBU.
The ANBU was dismissed the moment the Hokage saw his surrogate Grandson.
"Report Iruka-San" The Hokage commanded.
"Hai, Hokage-Sama. I was woken up at..." Iruka went to give his debriefing while Naruto was trying to listen. Eventually he got bored and sat in the chair thinking of the events that transpired. From being fooled by his sensei to learning that he somehow held the deamon fox to saving Iruka-sensei with his super awesome jutsu. He then started thinking of all the cool things he could have done that could have made him cooler and his brain soon blurred the lines between imagination and reality.
"I expect a full written report tomorrow Iruka-San," The Hokage turned his retention to Naruto "This will be classified under a B-ranked mission and the both of you will be paid accordingly-"
"Yatta! Naruto first mission - Capture the traitor Mizuki - Complete!" Naruto exclaimed.
"If that was the mission you would have failed. Think of it as - Return the forbidden scroll" The Hokage corrected.
"Why would I have failed Hokage-Jiji?!" Naruto questioned, moaning in displeasure.
"Think Naruto" Iruka said, displeased at himself "You're a ninja now and you're going to be Hokage someday, you can't just be strong you must be smart and cunning".
Seeing a chance to give his grandson advice he wasted no time.
"That is right Naruto it's time you learnt that being Hokage means more than being strong. It's also about being politically efficient, being able to see underneath the underneath, preserving the will of fire and strategy, to name a few. I know you will be Hokage but if you want to surpass any other Hokages you must be able to think like a ninja." Hiruzen explained.
Naruto was taken by supprise at the fact that his sensei and his Jiji casually admitted that he would be a Hokage. It almost made him cry. But he didn't cry, he thought on it and realized.
"Damn it we left Mizuki-Teme, what if he wakes up and escapes!" Naruto screamed.
"These are the things that a ninja must think about Naruto- don't worry my ANBU dealt with it while Iruka was debriefing, which you would have known if you paid attention." The Hokage pointed out.
Naruto pouted.
"Dissmised," The Hokage said, and as an afterthought added "Iruka help Naruto collect his money and teach him how to use it. Consider it a D-rank mission and you will get paid accordingly,"
In The Hokages mind he thought of this as extra payment to Iruka for being there for Naruto.
In Iruka's mind he sadly wondered if was the only Chunin doing D-rank missions.
Naruto thought this was the first time a chore was considered a mission and snorted.
—•—-—•—-—-–—-—2—/\—
Konoha Jounin Journal Entrant 266943-Kirito Izikawa
Submitted by Kakashi Hatake
Level 7 Clearance or Higher Only
Kirito Izikawa is born to a peasant family in Kusagakure. No clan background confirmed. He arrived to the village gates at approximately 5.37 am alone at the age of 9 years 2 months 3 days. His birthday, for future reference, is the 19th of June. He claimed that his parents were murdered by rogue ninja and his parents dream was to be merchants in Konoha, which is why he came to Konoha- to carry on their dream. After Suha Yamanaka tested his mind and found it 'stable' he was integrated into the village with an orphans fund set-up and him going to civilian school to start his life. He applied to join the academy stating that his time at civilian school was unsatisfactory. He was sponsored by the Official Orphans Ninja Sponsor of Konoha and failed his 'true' graduation test and had to retake the academy for remedial training. He had failed because of his team mates, therefore the recently deceased special Jonin Igawa Rogu, after 1 month of remedial training, took him as an apprentice. He made Chunin the third Chunnin exam after his graduation. For the next year he faded into the background and took part in/led of minimum 2 C-ranks, 1 D-rank a month. After a year of being Chunin he applied to join ANBU. He was harshly turned away without testing by the Chunin receptionist of the Official Orphans Ninja Sponsor of Konoha. He applied for a meeting with the Hokage which was scheduled within the next month. Eventually he had a meeting with the Hokage and informed of him being denied a sponsorship for the ANBU program by the Official Orphans Ninja Sponsor of Konoha and requested the Sponsorship of the Hokage. The Hokage went through his reports and found him unsatisfactory for the ANBU program. Kirito managed to convince The Hokage to personally test him. After the test the Hokage updated the documents and personally recommended Kirito not to join ANBU. Upon Kirito's insistence to join the ANBU program, The Hokage and Kirito made an unorthodox compromise. Kirito Izikawa was to become The Hokages bodyguard until he was found worthy enough to join ANBU by the Hokage. He was given the mask 'cub'. It was reported that the main rewards gained by Kirito was Level 5 Clearance, The Hokages guidance, and 6 Hours of free time that could not be found if one joined the ANBU. It is reported that Kirito was ready to join the trainee program at the age of 15 but he used his then current arrangement to grow in strength and intelligence for an extra year. He joined the ANBU trainee program at the age of 16 and was asked to keep his mask for the remainder of the program. In his final ANBU test he was the top trainee of the five new recruits. His time as an ANBU proved him to be ruthlessly efficient, charismatic and excellent at snap decisions. During his 3 month revision period, he was awarded the mask 'fox'. He was tested subtly to where his loyalties lies and thus far he has proved to be extraordinarily loyal to the Leaf. He has a mission success rate of 83% when on the mission and 92% when he leads one. It is noteworthy to mention that he has a 97.14% mission succes rate when paired with Kakashi Hatake. He spent his first 9 months on Team Zeta with Captain Hatake. After 3 months under Captain Uchiha he was transferred due to the Uchiha incident. His next 2 years on Team Zeta were led by Captain Tenzo after Kakashi Hatake retired. At the age of 19 he was captain of Team Sigil. During his Tenure as Captain of Team Sigil his most noteworthy achiebment was rescuing the Fire Daimyo's favourite Daughter from a ninja mercenary force called Shōkaki and single-handily eliminating them. He recently retired from ANBU and took his place as a High A-rank Jonin.
Master of Subtle Ninja Arts, Fuinjutsu Master.
Journal Entrant-266943
-End
-—-—
Emergency Jonin-Sensei meeting
"Hokage-Sama with all due respect this is ludicrous!" Kakashi loudly pointed out.
"Hokage-Sama please I beg you to reconsider, what we were planning earlier was better" another Jounin shouted
"The council will go nuts, besides I want those two. I specifically asked those two " Kakashi said "Did you even think about this!?"
Currently the Hokage was rubbing his temples from the headache his Jounin gave him. How could this happen to the Hokage of all people?
Flashback
"Come out Rooster"
"Hokage sama" said an ANBU materializing from thin air bowing before his Hokage.
"What do you want Rooster?" The Hokage muttered, completely uninterested.
"The forbidden Scroll of seals was stolen and I attempted to retrieve it." Rooster responded coolly.
"Baka! A Genin did your mission for you. I might just demote you back to being my bodyguard"
"I'm aware, I was there," Rooster took a step forward and left a scroll on the Hokages table "they forgot to bring the prisoner so, I played cleanup"
Then the Hokage became serious.
"Thank you Rooster, now if you could kindly explain to me-if you were in that area-why you didn't help Naruto against the traitor?" the Hokage asked with an undertone of a warning.
After a few seconds given to gather his words Rooster said:
"I was... Curious about the boy and the high chance of biased information if I asked someone else made me want to formulate my own opinions of him. I wanted to see what kind of person he is" Fox said all the while staring straight at The professors eye "There is no better way to find what kind of person someone is, than when they face death."
The silence that stretched out for all of ten seconds following that was broken by a weary sigh from the professor.
"What did you think of him?" The Professor curiously wondered aloud.
"He has potential as a ninja. I actually saw him practice the Kage Bunshin for half a hour. The drive that he displayed is not found in much ANBU, let alone an Academy student. Though I attribute this to him having a goal. To try and work his way up the ranks of our village until it's epitome is admirable."
Satisfied with the evaluation Hiruzen changed the subject,
"Why are you wearing your uniform, Kirito" The Hokage asked.
"Because I like it" Kirito answered.
'You think you can give cheeky answers to me and get away with it do you Gaki? Well let's see how you like it when I break your calm,collected little mask' The Hokage thought darkly.
"Do you still believe that ANBU should compete with each other." Hiruzen Sarutobi asked his former ANBU.
"Yes." Was his simple response.
'Hook' was what Rooster subconsciously thought.
"What you must learn my Baka-student is that The Will of Fire is all our village needs to thrive."
"Permision to speak freely Hokage-Sama."
"Hmm... I don't know you say some mean things if I give you permission... You know what, no!"
Silence stretched on until Kirito formed a response
"The Will of Fire is important Hokage-Sama. I understand, which is why I didn't tell you to forget about it. I want you to give our ANBU incentive."
"Really. And how exactly would you give them 'incentive', Kirito? By making them fight for more power." Then the Hokage stood up and started clapping "Wonderful idea Kirito-Baka." The Hokage was obviously trying to get a violent reaction out of Kirito.
What should be said about Kirito is that he is a Master of the subtler arts of being a shinobi. He could kill you without you realizing you died. He can infiltrate heavily fortified defenses without as much as a dead body signifying he was there. His genjutsu's were subtle and layered. His misdirection makes other villages think he is barely an A-Class threat. And of course he could manipulate.
So when he saw a way to lower the Hokages defenses as well as make it feel like the Hokage is winning - he took it.
"Permission to please speak freely" His voice was slowly giving away emotion.
"Granted" Pleased with himself for what he has done so far,The Hokage answered slowly, intentionally.
"DAMN IT OLD MAN! TAKE ME SERIOUSLY!" Kirito raised his voice, which was interlaced with visible frustration, he said this while taking off his mask to show the Hokage the pure frustration on his face.
He had a young face with the ANBU look -slightly broken and an apologetic look- accompanied by slightly long deep black hair and deep blue eyes. Unlike some ANBU he had a smile lines that look like they will shine every time he smiled. The frustrated, Angry face made him look like a whiny brat, To The Hokage - Very funny.
'Bait'. His real purpose for meeting with the Hokage was so close to being achieved.
Mentally the Hokage was proud of himself while Kirito was calming down.
"Without twisting everything I say in the worst possible scenario. I want you to promise me that you will listen to me with an open mind and at least consider what I have to say. All I want you to do is have an open mind and actually think about it for a few minutes!"
A small barely noticeable nod from the Hokage was all Kirito needed.
"ANBU shold be the greatest ninja in the village. The only people stronger should be former ANBU operatives. And the only ANBU weaker than Jonin should be Trainees. The ANBU should be the elite of the elite. They should be the ones who protect Konoha from underground, external and internal threat. Not the police force, not Root, No! The ANBU are a huge load of wasted potential because of lack of motivation within the forces. I suggest a system. A system where hard work and results are rewarded. A system where training facilities are readily available, where training is encouraged, where completing three A-Rank missions flawlessly will be recognized and publicized within ANBU ranks to earn peer respect. Where unsuccessful, stupid or insubordinate ANBU will be dropped after 2 warnings. After the first warning, publicize the failure and have a team actively encourage improvement in the member! After the second warning he will gain the option to have a 2 month training break, where the Black Ops Member will be confined in an underground ANBU training camp for improvement. The initiation will include a full mental check for issues such as jealousy or other such mental deficiencies by an unbiased Yamanaka specialists. If any mental issues are found a Yamanka specialist may attempt to resolve the issue. If the issue can't be resolved that Trainee will be dropped. The current system works but we can improve upon this system.I suggest a system which encourages hard work, discourages insubordination and allows the Will of Fire to burn brighter!" The ANBU operative Fox, Kirito Izikawa, A-rank Jonin of Konohagakure finished.
The Hokage was contemplative and then slowly nodded saying,
"I want a written report by the morrow. You and I will find holes in your plan and fix it. I apologize for not taking you seriously Kōhai consider myself owing you a favour." The Hokage was known to settle his debts so Hiruzen thought that will satisfy
Kirito smirked. 'Sinker'
"I would like to be the leader of team 8 which will include Genins; Hinata Hyuuga, Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki.
Flashback end
'That's how it happened, I remember now' the Hokage thought bitterly.