Hey guys. Haven't submitted a fanfic in over 2 years and I'm back with my first ever Naruto fanfic.
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to anything Naruto-ish.
I'm a canon supporter so I decided that I'd write a series of canon fics as a campaign for more canon fics in the Naruto archive. Canon generally means 'the norm' so what I'm trying to do is sponsor normal Naruto fanfics. That doesn't mean I'm against pairings. Pairings are perfectly fine but I've noticed a distinct lack in normal fanfics which is why I'm doing this. If you write canon fics and want to support the cause please put [canon campaign in your summary and a brief description in your fic as to why it's there. Thanks in advance to anyone who does this.
!.Manga Spoilers Beware.!
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All the remaining members of the former rookie nine headed towards the Hokage's office as soon as they received the message that the current Hokage, Tsunade, had requested to see them. They stopped in front of the door where the Hokage's assistant, Shizune, stood to greet them. Shizune knocked on the door and entered the office taking only Naruto and Sakura with her, leaving the rest of the shinobi waiting outside the door.
"Ne.. Shikamaru.. Do you have any idea why she called us here?" Ino asked her teammate curiously. He shook his head and shrugged lazily. Ino looked around at the other's with wide eyes and they shook their heads and shrugged just as Shikamaru had done. Hinata tightened her grip on Neji's jacket as the anxiety in the room grew. Neji just ignored his cousin as he knew her temperament very well.
After waiting a couple of minutes the door opened and Shizune ushered them in after saying that the Hokage will now see them. Lee smiled at the thought of reuniting with his beloved Sakura but that was short-lived because as soon as they entered the room the tense atmosphere told him that this was not the time to admire the beauty of the girl. Not that he could if he wanted to. At that particular point in time as he saw her shell-shocked figure he knew something was up and that the reason the Hokage called them was a serious one.
"Naruto! Pull yourself together." Tsunade shouted angrily. Everyone turned towards Naruto who had his eyes shut tight and his hands clenched in either anger or concentration. No one could really tell which it was. The red aura that seemed to surround him slowly faded away and Naruto relaxed and then opened his eyes. Everyone half expected him to start smiling and laugh the tense moment away but alas Naruto's face suddenly set into a frown and he closed his eyes yet again maintaining his newly relaxed figure.
"Naruto.." came the worried voice of Haruno Sakura. Tsunade cleared her throat and started speaking as soon as she got everyone's attention.
"I've called you all here to discuss a decision that I have made involving all of you present in the light of recent events. One of the legendary sannin, namely the hermit by the name of Jiraiya, has recently died in a fight against the leader of Akatsuki." Everyone in the room tensed and looked at Naruto who had also tensed at the announcement. If Naruto had his eyes open at the time he would have seen the looks of pity he was getting but he didn't have to have his eyes open to know what was happening at that point in time. The ninja's assumed that Tsunade had ushered him in before them because of this reason.
"The elders are unhappy about my recent strategy involving Akatsuki and have asked that I revise it by letting all the ninjas know exactly what Akatsuki is planning. Unfortunately under these circumstances and as your Hokage I cannot make a decision such as that which will cause more harm to the village than it will help us so that information is still classified."
"Wait a minute! Are you saying that you didn't give us the information on Akatsuki and that we've been blindly following orders without even knowing what is going on?!" Kiba's angry outburst startled a few if the ninjas but they took no notice as they were all thinking the same thing and were looking for answers. Tsunade sighed and didn't say anything. Kiba growled at her in impatience before continuing. "Are you saying that Akatsuki aren't targeting strong ninja's and attempting to overthrow the 5 great ninja village's?!"
"That is exactly what they are doing." Tsunade stated in a firm tone.
"Huh? But you just said that.."
"I brought you all here to tell you the truth about the matter. This information is classified and shall not leave this room." Tsunade paused as they nodded their heads in agreement. "Akatsuki are after the bijuu." (A/N. bijuu –the tailed demons)
"That's impossible. The bijuu have all been defeated." Neji voices his disbelief. The others nodded in agreement and then turned to Tsunade to hear what she had to say in response.
"They were defeated by having a special seal placed upon them."
"Which was exactly why they were after Gaara." Shikamaru suddenly announced. Tsunade smirked and gestured for the so called 'genius' to carry on. "The special seal that you were talking about.. is on humans?"
".." Everyone looked at Tsunade and she slowly nodded. She herself was surprised at the genius' deduction. Naruto's head dropped and he quickly turned around and headed for the door hoping no one would notice he was gone during the sudden commotion.
"Where do you think you're going Naruto? We haven't finished our conversation." Unfortunately for Naruto, Tsunade had expected this to happen. But what she hadn't expected was Naruto's reaction to her exclamation.
"You can tell them without me actually being in here!!" The dattebayo at the end of the sentence told her that Naruto was still Naruto despite his out of character outburst. He stood there for a second then hung his head low in defeat. "Gomen Tsunade-baa." (A/N. 'I'm sorry Granny Tsunade') Disappearing in a flash, as most ninjas do. Sakura hoping that the rest of the meeting will go smoothly for Naruto's sake.
"I'm going to cut to the chase. The bijuu are sealed into new born babies and those who have the seal are commonly known as jinchuuriki." Everyone's attention had returned to Tsunade when she had continued. Shikamaru's eyes suddenly went wide and he frowned in the Hokage's direction. Tsunade nodded as if to give him permission to talk.
"October the 10th.. The day the Fourth Hokage defeated the kyuubi and it's.." Everyone stared at Shikamaru who seemed to be having a bit of trouble spitting out the next words. "Naruto's birthday."
".." Sakura suddenly found the hem of her gloves incredibly interesting. She anxiously played with it as she was awaiting the reaction from the other ninja's in the room.
"Poor Naruto." Hinata said quietly. It was barely loud enough to break the silence. Kiba took this as his cue to mess up his hair in frustration. "Why didn't he tell us?"
"Everything seems to make sense now." Neji recalled their fight in the chuunin exams and understood what had happened. Not without a quick thought about the fact that in a way Naruto was cheating and he had no idea.
"Unfortunately I do not have much more time so I will tell you this. The elder's of the village have forced me to compromise with them. At this moment in time Konoha is in grave danger if Naruto is around. That's why I called all of you here. I believe that you will be Konoha's future support so I'm asking you all to accompany Naruto and destroy the threat that Akatsuki imposes." Sakura looked up to see everyone smiling and nodding and then felt a pang of jealousy. Naruto really has no idea what he does to other people. After everyone left Tsunade walked out onto the porch and looked out at the village. She smiled as she heard sniffles coming from above her. It's a good thing he stuck around.
You have good friends Naruto. You give everyone inspiration. You should have realised it by now.
"You'd make a good Hokage one day Naruto."
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I couldn't be bothered to check the grammar in this. I'll probably come back to this and check up the grammar later. By the way if anyone's read down to here and hasn't read my top comments on canon stories please read it.
Another thing.. I opened up a Naruto challenge forum so please go check it out. XD.
Whirlgirl signing out.