Hokage: A Death Sentence
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything unique to the Naruto Universe.
"Neji! Tsunade's back! It's really Tsunade!!" Tenten exclaimed. "And she's gonna be the Fifth Hokage. Wanna go watch?!"
"Sorry," Neji replied. "Just not that interested."
-Tenten and Neji, page seventeen, volume 20 (Chapter 172 p. 10)
Chapter OneOne drop of rain fell from the plain gray canvas above. Two drops of rain fell. Three drops. Four. Five. Six. Seven, eight. Nine, ten. Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteenfifteensixteenseventeeneighteennineteentwenty!
It wasn't that the villagers didn't know how to compute it into their brains. Instead, they simply chose not to.
Black. Black amongst the cool white rain that hid the tears in Naruto and Sakura's eyes. Tenten's head hung low, hiding the sorrow she felt from loosing the one kunoichi she looked up to most. Neji's white eyes blankly stared out, trying not to believe what had happened.
If you looked to the front, you could see Kakashi standing solemnly, his head down, for once not hidden behind the famous little orange book. Maybe if you looked closely enough, past the shadows under his eyes, you could make out that the rivulets of water traveling down his face were not in fact rain drops, but salty tears.
Jiraiya stood close by, being the only one capable of bawling out loudly at such a dark and quiet event. Naruto held his sensei by the shoulder, tears of anger starting to sprout.
Tsunade was DEAD.
Killed by enemy ninja. Oh, they were going to pay alright, as soon as Naruto got the chance to fight them.
But now was not the time to be angry. Now was the time to mourn a great kunoichi who had fallen to protect her country, and reminisce her life.
Neji angled his head slightly to view Tenten next to him. Her shoulders were shaking- and not from the cold of the rain. He could tell she was holding in the sobs- the tears were already leaking out. He felt his chest constrict with the sudden realization that Konoha was in dire straits, and let out an empty and inaudible sigh. He turned back to watching impassively as the raindrops splattered off peoples' black clothing, giving them the appearance of silhouettes with blurred gray outlines.
Hinata was quivering uncontrollably, her shoulders just dead bones merely slumping down. Her eyes... the famous blank byakugan showed so much more than sorrow and loss. She was traumatized. Her eyes were wide in fear. She would repeatedly glance over her back out of paranoia. But her feet were steady; rooted into the puddle of water she stood upon. The Hyuga clan was to be the most affected.
Sakura took a step forward shakily. She still had her duty left to perform. After all, she had been Tsunade's most skilled apprentice. It was her job- at least in her own mind- to do something- to say something, anything. She steadily approached the long pedestal on which the casket of the Fifth Hokage lay. She would do honor to her master, she swore upon the gravesite. She would say something... something to make the villagers remember. Something. Anything.
Nothing.
Haruno Sakura collapsed, both emotionally and physically. She sobbed away into the rain. The rain... The rain. The rain conquered even the strongest.
The kunoichi just sat near the casket, on her knees, crying. It was... strange, not to be expected. But it was even more to be expected. Much more.
Neji, still in a state in which he wasn't fully conscious, walked up towards his kneeling comrade. Almost in a synchronized pattern, but always a step behind, Tenten followed.
For a long while Neji just blankly stared at the girl crying before him. Or was it even a person before him? He couldn't tell anymore... Everything was too gray.
When Sakura's sobs stopped, but certainly not her tears, Neji held out his hand before her and Tenten followed in suit. Sakura looked up, reached for Neji's hand with her left arm and Tenten's with her right. Slowly, they pulled her up and allowed her to stand.
"S-Sakura," Tenten whispered hoarsely, clutching said girl's hand, pulling her gently away.
It was Neji's turn to attempt to say something.
He took a deep breath, and started, watched predominantly by pale, white eyed Hyuugas. Hiashi's countenance, for once, did not have anger and superiority exuding from it, and instead had a troubled look about it. The great Hyuuga leader was not mourning for the fallen Godaime Hokage, oh no. He was past that stage. Out of respect, he did, for a few minutes, but was then immediately back to playing the role as the Hyuuga head.
He was worrying about the Kumo nin and their desire for the Hyuga eyes. His eyes.
"I...Tsunade-sama was an excellent kunoichi, who...cared about the citizens of Konoha, as if her life depended on it."
Neji seemed very out of place and distracted. He took a deep breath again, and continued, more strongly.
"She sacrificed her life for the wellbeing of the Fire Country, for the safety of the people. And...she gave her life, for the sake of mine. And for that, I am eternally grateful."
He downcast his eyes slightly and walked away from the coffin, respectfully placing a white rose on it. Hiashi shot him an approving glance, receiving a tiny nod from the prodigy. Hinata eyed her cousin fearfully as he walked past, back to his position next to Tenten.
He resumed his impassive stance, his eyes seemingly hollow. But his long-time sparring partner knew otherwise. She noticed the way he swallowed and clenched his jaw. She moved her gaze upwards and let it rest on his eyes.
She could see a ghost of tears forming.
Hurriedly, Tenten looked away, not only for the fact that she knew Neji would appreciate the privacy, but also because she feared that she would break down further if she witnessed such an event. She directed her gaze to her spandex clad former sensei and teammate and watched them support each other as sobs wracked their bodies.
Tenten knew that she couldn't do much to show her respect at this moment, but just knew she wold have to keep fighting for her village. She would help others move on... But how could she open the eyes of others when her own eyes seemed so far away from the light themselves? How? I will continue onwards. For the sake of the village, I will heal its wounds in any way that I can. But first I must heal my own.
Her own unique ceremony had started. Her hand had a mind of its own. She couldn't stop it from doing what it did. It unsheathed the single kodachi that she wore upon her waist. The short blade was the only thing that had heavenly light in this black, white, and gray mass. The kunoichi's hand raised the blade straight forward. With no apprehension, she shifted her grasp so that the blade pointed toward herself. With a single, yet far from smooth, vertical line of red traced the inside of most of her left arm. As the bleeding increased, the line grew thicker, only to be washed away upon the ground from the heavy rain. She carelessly dropped the kodachi to the ground and used the hand formally holding it to clasp over part of her wound. When she was satisfied with the amount of blood the hand had absorbed, she removed her grip and placed her bloody hand upon the side of the casket, and wrote a single, heart-filled word.
Then Tenten left the casket area.
Neji stared down at the kodachi at his feet. It had never become red, not even for a second. His hand soon became infected with Tenten's disease. It acted upon its own accord and picked up the blade. His hand shaking, he too made an uneven slash into his left arm, and dropped the kodachi in the process. With his index and middle fingers from his right hand, he traced the red line. Then, he knelt down and wrote another, but equally impressive, word with what equaled gentle brushstrokes on the side of the casket.
He then, too, stepped away from the casket.
As he passed Sakura, the disease spread. Her hand found itself grasping the blade, cutting her left arm, dropping the blade, and rubbing her right fingers in the blood. She however, just stood there for several vacant moment. Finally, when the perfect word had come to her, she too wrote it upon the casket in soft, powerful strokes.
Before she could even leave the casket's side, Naruto was already there. His eyes met hers for a moment, but soon she bent down to pick up the kodachi. Then she held it out for Naruto to take, which he did so.
Sakura stayed by the casket as Naruto wounded his left arm. Her eyes watched as he wrote a fourth word. A strong word. He then grasped the Kodachi once more in an overly clenched fist, just holding the sword. He then, very smoothly placed it upon the top of the closed casket.
Kakashi solemnly looked up at his two former students standing side by side supporting each other. He halfheartedly smiled, realizing properly that Sakura had really completely accepted Naruto as a best friend. It saddened him, to see the normally optimistic pair so depressed.
With newfound strength, he determinedly approached the casket, and proceeded with the ceremony. He slashed his left arm a dabbed two of his fingers into the wound, unflinchingly. He smeared a word beside the previous four. Casting one last look at the fallen kunoichi, he walked away.
Finally, Jiraiya slowly approached the casket, his face an emotional wreck of sadness, caring, longing, remorse and love (for a teammate, not romantic). He hesitantly traced the passed Hokage's face, and smiled sadly.
"Tsunade, Tsunade. Flat chested Tsunade."
With that, he laughed, picking up the dropped kodachi and slashed a deep cut into his left arm, and wrote the final word that would form the phrase that would eventually come to lead the six nin in their time of need.
Every single person present at the funeral cast their eyes down, in a sign of respect towards the older Sannin as he painted the last word onto the side of the casket. They collectively mourned for the last time, wishing the spirit of the great Tsunade to move on in peace.
And as Jiraiya completed the final strokes of his word, Neji's head began to feel heavy and the Hyuga found himself unable to support it. He was losing too much blood. The boy glanced at his cut arm; the bleeding had already stopped. Something else was going on.
In a flash, a single shuriken appeared and disappeared, grazing the side of his cheek. For several moments Neji just stood there like a computer trying to load too many programs at once.
The village was under attack again. His hamstring had been cut open without him even realizing it; that was what had caused him to lose too much blood and to feel dizzy. The enemy must have attacked from afar, and Neji's body was still not conscious enough to feel the pain. Or maybe the attack was meant to be painless. But either way, Neji thought that the red leaking out to the ground had been from his arm when it really had a different origin.
Lightning struck at the same time as explosive kunai rained down from above. All the ninja, awakened from their trance-like state kicked into working mode and moved all of the screaming citizens out of the line of fire.
Naruto glowered. It seemed as if the enemy was going to pay, now.
The five other nin, shocked out of their reverie gasped, and darted into action. Neji, the most levelheaded of the six reacted first, and located where all of the enemy were hidden. He mentally punched himself for not having checked earlier.
In fact, he was surprised that even Hiashi hadn't noticed. Was he really that absorbed into mourning their dead leader?
Suddenly, arrays of weapons rained down from different directions. With a jolt, Neji realized that they were being directed at him. He spun into Hakkekusho Kaiten repeatedly, deflecting all of the projectiles.
Under normal circumstances, Tenten would have smirked. Never challenge somebody with something that they've been training against for a long time. However, she was already occupied with another enemy, and he was proving to be quite a challenge. She figured that he was a high ranked Chuunin. Under normal circumstances she could have taken him out easily.
However today was not really a day that you would call normal.
"Dammit," Kakashi muttered under his breath. He had to come up with the plan… Normal villagers were on the battlefield. He couldn't live with himself if any of them died.
"All Konoha ninja, take the villagers to safety now!" he bellowed over the rising panic. "I'll hold the Kumo nin! GO!"
"Kakashi, you can't be serious," Gai sensei protested. "You can't take them all on. It's suicide."
"The priority is to prevent any Konoha blood to be spilled," Kakashi countered. "Just go! There are more villagers than ninja. We'll need every ninja we have to take them to safety."
Gai growled in disapproval, but saw the sense in Kakashi's words. He then started directing the other ninja what to do. Only the ninja that were already engaged in combat were allowed to stay.
"I'm not going anywhere!" Naruto yelled. "I'm going to grind these guys into dust for what they did! Hear that Kumo piles of shit? I'm going to kill every single one of you!"
All of the Kumo nin looked surprised at first, and changed their expression to that of a cocky one.
"Hah, are you kidding me? While all of your so called Konoha nin are fleeing, you think you, a lone shinobi can take us on?"
This caused snickers to erupt from most of the Kumo nin.
"Didn't you learn that cockiness is not the key to success?" Sakura mocked back.
"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Naruto, yelled, making hand signs, presently cloning himself around 200 times.
This resulted in the Kumo nins' expressions changing from smug expressions to those of fear.
"And I bet you fucktards didn't see that one coming, huh?!" all of Naruto's clones yelled at the same time.
The six ninja, Neji, Tenten, Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi and Jiraiya all got into their regular stances and prepared for a long, tedious battle. After all, they were the only ones left on the battlefield from the Konoha side, and they were facing off maybe 100 Kumo nin. Even with the aid of Naruto's clones, they all knew the situation would most likely turn out badly.
Tenten especially. She did not think to bring her scroll of weapons with her to the funeral, and now that she thought about it, she realized that it was a move that could lose her her life.
Neji eyed the Kumo nin and their surroundings skeptically. The six nin were clumped in an odd group, and were surrounded by the enemy ninja who, in turn were surrounded by Naruto's clones. He had activated his Byakugan already and was assessing the ways in which they could attack judging by the chakra levels of the opponents and the environment around them.
"Naruto, keep them surrounded for now. Start harassing them."
"Hai, Neji," Naruto replied, seriously.
Jiraiya nodded once, agreeing with the decision Neji had made, unable to do much more because of his grief.
"Ero-sennin! You and Kakashi-sensei can take out those losers at the front, right? They think they're all that but they're not so pummel them to SHIT!"
Kakashi half-heartily smirked and along with Jiraiya, he disappeared. He melted into the soil and Jiraiya poofed away in a cloud.
"Sakura, mess up the ground a little with your punch. Please avoid Kakashi. He's located 3 o'clock from where you're standing."
"Wakarimasu, Neji-san," Sakura said, nodding.
The group of six respected him as their leader- obviously under Jiraiya and Kakashi, nonetheless. He just had the best leadership skills.
Cracking her knuckles, Sakura got ready to perform her passed mentor's technique. The thought of enacting such a technique during Tsunade's funeral made tears prick at her eyes once again. Angrily batting them away, she slammed her chakra enriched fist into the ground, causing shudders in the ground before it cracked open. The enemies, some of whom were battling with Naruto's clones, got off balance and lost their footing.
"Tenten, with me, now!" Neji hissed, diving into the battle.
Tenten loyally followed him, covering his blind spot as usual.
"Hey, Neji. I don't have my scroll with me!" she said, fighting her opponents off with her fists and basic weaponry that she kept on her person at all times.
"It's alright," Neji said in a monotone, after Jyuukening a seemingly Genin ranked ninja to smithereens. "We just need to keep them at bay till the others come."
"Whatever you say," Tenten huffed, barely dodging a kick aimed at her neck. Smirking, she caught the offending foot and twisted it till it snapped. Satisfied with the resulting cracking sound, she pulled the ninja until he was level with her and slit his throat, successfully cutting off his cries of pain because of his newly broken leg. Too bad he died.
"Neji, is it just me, or are these merely Genin and Chuunin?" Tenten asked, taking her kill as a short break.
"Mostly, yes. But their leaders could possibly be Jounin," he replied, coming out of a Kaiten that Tenten had jumped away from to avoid.
"Genin and Chuunin? Don't make me sick."
Tenten stopped dead in her tracks, and once Neji realized his partner had stopped moving he halted as well.
"Genin and Chuunin?" the voice repeated. "All of these ninja fighting on the front lines haven't even graduated from Kumogakure's ninja academy. They're all lower than Genin."
"…Then what rank are you?" Neji calmly replied. After hearing the voice for a second time he had managed to pinpoint the location of the enemy ninja. He was between Neji and Tenten, under the ground.
"I'm the battle coordinator. And I'm Chuunin ranked by Kumo's standards."
Neji looked into the ground with his activated byakugan. He could see a coil of chakra slowly come to the surface. "Tenten, he's coming," the Hyuga whispered. She readied a stance.
The tips of silver hair slowly became visible above the surface of the ground. Slowly, they began to be revealed more and more. Then, with a sudden lurch upwards, the entire head was thrust above the soil.
It was Kakashi's head, and his shoulders were still coming up above the surface as well. He was unconscious, but had no wounds whatsoever.
Neji and Tenten stepped back in shock.
"Surprised, eh?" the voice jeered. "I found him underground in an area close to me. He put up a really good fight, I'll tell you, but in the end he lost. Couldn't kill him though. His dogs snatched him away and started taking him back up. Too bad none of them made it. I couldn't bear to have his body- alive or dead- left amongst the dirt. It's much more satisfying to direct the soil and send him back up to flaunt my victory over him."
Neji began scanning the underground with his byakugan again. It was obvious that the incredibly gifted Chuunin was still down there somewhere.
"Tenten, try your best to revive Kakashi. His chakra network is still working so I'm sure he's still alive," Neji spoke. "I'll locate this guy in just a few seconds… There! I've found him… Kakashi, and to think you had me worried."
"What's going on Neji?"
"Kakashi managed to lure the Chuunin into an area almost entirely surrounded by bedrock. No doubt he planned this out carefully. All Sakura has to do is smash her fist into the ground one more time and the rock should shift enough to completely surround him.
"…But still… For a Chuunin to knock Kakashi out single-handedly is unfathomable."
"Maybe he lied about his rank in the first place," Tenten suggested.
"No, I'm sure he didn't," Neji said, and then further explained. "Judging by what he's said to us thus far, he's a pretty big bragger. He likes to talk big. I'm positive he wouldn't be the type to downgrade his rank and use it to his advantage."
"Aa," Tenten breathed and nodded.
Shoving an oncoming wall of ninja away with his chakra enhanced wind technique, he called out, "Sakura, get over here now!"
Sakura, understanding immediately what he meant, punched the ground in the direction in which Neji had pointed. Tenten barely managed to jump out of the way and almost ended up letting her legs get pulled down by the grappling enemy nin hands under her. She landed a safe distance away, looking uncertainly at Neji's concentrated expression. Much to her satisfaction, his lips curled into one of his trademark smirks.
"It went better than planned," Neji muttered in a monotone, simultaneously killing two ninja, who had tried to approach him from the sides, with a Jyuuken to their chests without even looking at them. "The bedrock not only surrounded him. It buried him. Alive."
"Is he dead yet?" Naruto asked, momentarily coming out of battle.
"I doubt it. But he will probably suffocate," Sakura confirmed. "Bedrock is a very hard substance to mold chakra into so he will have a hard time getting out. Especially because he's a Kumo nin, not an Iwa nin."
They fought some more, easily wiping out more of their opponents. Unfortunately for them, more kept coming so all in all, they were probably fighting five hundred ninja or more. The original hundred were already dead.
"Lee and Gai are coming," Neji murmured, and only Tenten managed to catch the words. "Lee's got your scroll."
"Nice," Tenten replied, grinning. "Any more Konoha nin comin?"
"Yeah, a few, here and there."
They were interrupted by a green blur approaching them. The first kicked into immediate taijutsu mania and bashed two of the enemies' heads together, successfully knocking them both out, if not killing them. The second, Lee, approached Tenten. He looked like he was having trouble.
"Tenten, your scroll is so heavy!" Lee panted, handing her the scroll which she lifted with ease.
"Really? I never noticed," she comfortably said, trusting Neji to handle anyone who came their way.
"No! As soon as we have beaten these Kumo nin, I must punish myself for being so unyouthful as to not be able to carry a scroll as youthfully as Tenten does!"
"Shut up, Lee," Neji muttered and dove back into the enemy. Tenten could see short blasts of blue chakra causing bodies to fly everywhere.
"Naruto," Tenten said. "Could you lead a large group of the ninja a short distance away from here, please? I'm going to do my technique."
"No problem, Tenten!" Naruto exclaimed and created a few more clones to replenish the ones that were already down. Slowly but surely, he manipulated a group of around fifty or so ninja till they were surrounded by his clones and he herded them like sheep to a place a short distance away where nobody could get hurt by Tenten's projectiles.
"Arigato!" she yelled and jumped away, whipping her scroll open in the process.
Running towards the group, she bit her thumb, drawing blood in the process. She leaped into the air and whirled around, her scroll spiraling around her.
"Shouryuu: Tensakai!" she yelled, dragging her thumb across the Japanese calligraphy, picking up each weapon as she went along and flinging them down with her hundred percent accuracy.
The Kumo nin could only stare wide eyed as the weapons impaled their buddies, killing them instantly. In around thirty seconds, Tenten had wiped out the whole group. She stopped twisting in the air and flipped back to the ground, rolling her scroll up in the process.
"Good," Neji said, coming up behind her.
"What's the status?" Tenten asked, turning to look at him.
She could see the battle raging in front of her, many Konoha nin having joined the brawl by now.
"We have the upper hand."
"I see. But why are the Kumo attacking again? They just did a couple of days ago!"
Neji's breath hitched in his throat as he remembered the battle. He could picture it very vividly in his head, clearly remembering the way he was fighting alongside the Godaime Hokage.
He also remembered how she jumped in front of him to take a direct hit from a powerful ninja using a lightning technique.
"They are taking advantage of the fact that She's dead," Neji said softly.
Tenten frowned, and then determinedly replied, "Which is exactly why we should be back there killing those rotten shitheads for her."
Neji smirked and ran alongside Tenten. They both disappeared into the battle, only to reappear next to Sakura and Naruto who were respectively trying to both revive Kakashi, and prevent the body from reaching any more harm.
Suddenly, behind the four nin and the unconscious Kakashi came a huge ball of fire. Cursing, the four jumped away into the trees, Neji carrying Kakashi. Unfortunately a few foolish nin followed them. After analyzing the situation, Neji realized Jiraiya had summoned Gamabunta and performed a technique with him- the frog had spit out oil which Jiraiya had set alight with a Katon: Housenka no Jutsu. They finished off the useless shinobi within a minute.
Watching in horror, their faces illuminated by the brilliant light, they saw the enemy shinobi being burnt to crisp by the flames. Thankfully, Jiraiya had made sure that no Konoha nin were in the line of fire.
"Sugoi," Sakura murmured, entranced.
Kakashi was just stirring, and as soon as his eyes opened fully, he gasped in horror. The flames were dying down, leaving nothing but burnt land in its place. The bodies had been turned to ash.
Neji looked aghast at what had just happened. Four or five training grounds had been destroyed just like that. Tenten could not form a sentence. Naruto looked solemn for a change.
"Come," Neji muttered, and jumped down from the tree. Using his Byakugan, he scanned the area to see if anymore ninja would come at them, but only saw the backs of ninja who were fleeing the scene.
"Shit, they're fleeing."
Neji started to run after them, but was pulled back by Tenten. "Don't. We have bigger issues than that."
Scowling, he nodded his head and proceeded to contemplate the extent of the damage. The ordinary civilians had slowly started to wander back to the funeral scene, their faces grave. Young children were crying, wandering around the place, inspecting the blackened grass.
Kakashi wobbled over, moving his head from side to side, scanning the area.
"No more, huh?"
"None," Neji replied, shutting his Byakugan off in the process.
They wandered around aimlessly for the next few moments, drinking in the carnage, or what was left of it. Jiraiya had sat down on the ground, Gamakichi next to him wailing. Gamabunta had left the scene. He was unmoving, staring at a leaf.
"Ano…where is Tsunade-obaa-chan's coffin?" Naruto slowly asked, staring at the place which used to be the podium on which her open casket lay.
"Oh my god, it's gone!" Sakura exclaimed, bursting into tears.
Naruto collapsed on his knees in disbelief, Sakura next to him. Kakashi dropped his head in sorrow. The rest of the civilians stayed mute. Only their whimpers of fear were to be heard.
Slowly, Neji approached the area where the coffin used to be and bent down, looking at the ground. His Byakugan was on full blast. Tenten approached cautiously from behind him.
"What's that, Neji?"
"A piece of wood from her coffin," he muttered, sadly looking at it.
It was charred around the edges, but had survived most of the flame. Jiraiya's technique had not managed to harm it, even if it had managed to cremate the Godaime.
"It's fate, isn't it? It's the piece we signed on," Tenten said, darkly chuckling.
"Yeah."
"It's mocking us."
"Whatever."
With that, Neji dropped it carelessly onto the soil, taking only one last glance at the the dark wood with the blood smeared on it.
It read 'Strength, Life, Integrity, Power, Honor, Konoha.'