"talking"
'thinking'
flashbacks or reading
(author's interjections) –I will try to avoid this too much
If I use anything else, you can just guess
Disclaimer: I'm looking in a mirror, and I'm not seeing a Japanese man named Kishimoto, so I must not own Naruto after all.
Even Half a chance
27-year-old Uzumaki Naruto is in trouble.
10 years ago, the Akatsuki obtained the last biju, the Kyuubi.
5 years ago, the organization began starting wars among the smaller countries.
As of 2 years ago, many smaller nations had had fallen, and Akatsuki controlled the shinobi industry in Iwa and Kiri. Kumo accepted Akatsuki control soon after.
Last year, the Leaf had accepted a flood of refugees from the Sand. A few months after this, Temari and Kankuro had arrived supporting Gaara between them and with only 20 shinobi of the Sand's force remaining.
5 months ago, the Akatsuki came to Fire Country. Despite everything, they weren't ready for the assault. Not ready for Deidara's bombs, or Kisame's blade, Itachi's eyes or Zetsu's cannibalism. Konoha was ready to fall.
'My precious people, I've lost so many of them. What kind of Hokage am I?'
The Rokudaime looked up to take in his surroundings. Hatake Kakashi lay in a hospital bed unconscious from overuse of the Sharingan. Nara Shikamaru, covered in bandages, lay in the other bed feigning sleep. These were two of the most intelligent ninjas that Naruto knew, and they still came back hospitalized. Without the rest of their team.
'How can I protect them from this?'
So few of his old comrades were left. So many had gone before they deserved to. Sakura, having been there at Gaara's resurrection, and having had Chiyo's technique used on her, had recreated Chiyo's resurrection technique and brought Naruto back after the kyuubi's extraction. He had woken up to Sakura's form slumped over him, and Sasuke standing over them, silently crying at having lost the only people who really believed in him. O great irony, the Hokage's apprentice gave her life for the village idiot, and the Uchiha Avenger gained the Mangekyo Sharingan, only to find that he would gladly trade it back. He still hit Naruto over the had for scaring the crap out of him when he came back to life all of a sudden though.
'Why?'
Neji, following in his father's footsteps, defied his lowly fate and sacrificed himself in defense of his family-the cousins and uncle that he scorned so harshly as a child. The Hyuuga complex had been caught in one of the many explosions caused by Deidara and his 'art'. Tenten and Lee retrieved him from the rubble of Deidara's playground. Tenten is now the only sane, non spandex-wearing member of Team Gai. Although, drowning one's grief in ANBU assassination missions is hardly good for one's mental health.
'Why this?'
None of Kurenai's team 8 still lived to fight. Shino and many of his clansmen were lost to Zetsu of the Akatsuki, when he simply appeared in the middle of their home. Kiba flew into a blind rage at this and on his next mission, when Tobi made an appearance, Kiba attacked blindly. Tobi, despite being the idiot of the Akatsuki, was still a formidable foe. Back-up was sent in time to save Kiba's life, but Akamaru was too far gone. Kiba was distraught at failing to protect his dog. He committed seppuku, not being able to stand having done such a thing to his precious companion. Hinata and Kurenai, though still alive and well, no longer took missions. Hinata devoted all of her time to the hospital, working to save people. Her gentle manner and powerful eyes made her an excellent and preferred medic. Kurenai herself fell into depression after the losses of Shino and Kiba on top of her previous loss of her lover Sarutobi Asuma. Her mind, her one great weapon, could no longer employ the powerful genjutsu that she was known to weave. She was pulled from the roster of active jounins in fear that she would be unable to fight. Added to this, her one consolation of her time with Asuma, her 12 year old son, was a high level chunin where in peacetime he would only have just graduated from the academy.
'Why did this happen?'
The Ino-Shika-Cho formation was still intact, the only group of the Konoha 12 to remain so. Ino was a part of old Ibiki's torture and interrogation squad, also serving occasionally as a field medic. She was adept at both. Chouji was as well as could be expected. He was a brawler, and as such, saw a lot of death on the field. Shikamaru was one of Naruto's top 'strategy people' His ability to predict and out maneuver the enemies' tactics made him invaluable. Of course, after a disaster like this last mission had become, it would take a week or so of healing and Temari's bullying before Shikamaru would be ready for service again. Shikamaru still had trouble coping with leading his comrades to their deaths.
'Why did any of this happen?'
The Sand Siblings had been torn apart as well. Gaara, though surviving the escape from Sand, seemed broken. His chakra was low, not replenishing itself, and many days he would simply not wake up. Kankuro had, upon arrival in Konoha, given Gaara to the medic-nins and ordered his forces back toward Sand. Temari had refused to follow his plan of guerrilla warfare and stayed with Gaara. Kankuro had not been heard from again. Temari could only be found in three places most times. In battle or training-venting her rage and grief, in Gaara's hospital room-mourning the fate of the Sand and her little brothers, or wherever Shikamaru was-drawing and giving support as needed. An entire shinobi nation torn down to one active kunoichi and her unconscious leader/little brother.
"N-Naruto-kun?"
A quick turn toward the door of the room revealed Hyuuga Hinata.
"Yeah Hinata-chan?"
"Are you alright, Naruto-kun?"
Naruto stared at her for a moment. "Sure, I'm fine Hinata-chan! There's nothin' I can't handle, believe it!" A pause. "Why do you ask?"
Ever predictable (to anyone but Naruto) Hinata went from worry, to a soft smile, to blushing, and then fidgeting.
"Oh, um… you just seem tired is all, Naruto-kun." She mentally continued with, 'and sad. Naruto-kun, I wish you didn't feel that you had to hold all of that sadness in. It helps… to share your pain.'
"Ah, well there's always something else to do, so I probably don't sleep enough, but really, I'm fine! You worry about everybody enough without worrying about me too!"
"I'm very sorry Naruto-kun, but visiting hours are over and Kakashi-sensei isn't going to wake up soon, so you should go home. It's late and you really should get some sleep." 'But I know that you'll keep holding it in, because even though you're not a failure anymore, you're still a proud man.'
"Ehh?" Naruto glanced out the window. "Its dark out?! You're right Hinata-chan its really late! Thanks for coming to get me, I'd of just sat in this chair all night!" Naruto hopped out of the chair and gave Hinata one of his huge fox grins. "G'night Hinata-chan" He then passed her and disappeared down the hall. Hinata watched him go.
'Naruto-kun you wear such a brave face… but I've been able to see through that mask for years.'
qpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqpqp
After leaving the hospital, Naruto made his way to the Hokage tower. 'Hinata-chan's nice and all, but I can't afford to sleep. I need to end this.' He strode into his office and sat at his desk.
'Alright. The attacking force consists of Deidara, Zetsu, Itachi and Kisame. We took out Tobi already, but the longer this goes on, the more likely that he'll be replaced. All of our civilians have been evacuated, and our supply lines will dry up soon. It has to be now.' He stared angrily at the wall as if it was Kisame sneering at his weakness. 'But what can I do? I've tried everything already. What more is there? How am I supposed to beat four super-powered S-rank criminals with advanced bloodlines and scores of kinjutsu?'
"Kinjutsu!" Adjacent to Naruto's office was the Hokage's private study. Not a place that Naruto himself spent much time in. The previous Hokages had amassed a large collection of technique and informational scrolls in this room, including summoning scrolls, and various ninjutsu and genjutsu. The Third in particular, had practically collected scrolls of ninjustsu, and a lot of them were classified as kinjutsu, being highly dangerous. The problem with kinjutsu was that they were classified as such because they were highly immoral, or because they were dangerous to the user as well as the intended target.
'There's gotta be something in this place I can use!'
He found a scroll on the theory of the chakra gates that Gai and Lee use, several scrolls that must have been saved from the ruins of Orochimaru's lair (which were really interesting if you forgot the part where you're messing with dead peoples' bodies and souls), several summoning scrolls-including old man Sandaime's monkey summoning scroll, several A-class wind techniques-which he picked up, and the Scroll of Sealing that he had gotten the Kage Bunshin techinique from as a child. He grabbed this too. After all, he only ever learned one technique from it. He also picked up some scrolls dealing with the common battle tactics of Mist and Stone.
qpqpqpqpqpqpqpqp
Dawn found him sprawled on the floor, surrounded by open scrolls and several empty ramen cups.
"Hey Naruto!"
"Naruto where are you?"
Naruto groaned. 'I don't want to get up Iruka-sensei!"
The dark haired man poked his head in the library, wondering why Naruto was actually in the library.
"Baka! I'm not Iruka-sensei you moron! How'd you get to be Hokage if you can't even tell people apart? They should have given me the job after all!"
Apparently it was time for Naruto to open his eyes. "…Konohamaru? What are you doing in here? And why are you so loud?"
Konohamaru snorted and came to stand in front of Naruto. Naruto decided that if he was going to be awake, he might as well start getting up. Konohamaru watched his progress. It was almost saddening to think that this sleepy-eyed blond was the Leaf's greatest ninja.
"You're not much of a morning person, are ya Boss?" he asked, reverting to the name he used for Naruto when they were young. "You do know you were supposed to lead a jounin meeting at 9:00, right?" He watched panic cross Naruto's face before he continued with, "But I wouldn't worry about it too much now, 'cause it's already 11:00."
With this wonderful reminder that he was, in fact, the Hokage of Konoha, and that he had responsibilities as such, Naruto's brain finally kicked in and remembered why he was asleep on the floor of his private study in the first place.
"Hey Konohamaru! Could you do something for me?"
"Yeah, I suppose I could, What'cha need me to do?"
Naruto jumped over to his desk and started writing. "I need you to find all of these people and tell them to come to my office A.S.A.P." He handed the paper to Konohamaru "It's urgent. If they ask why, just tell them I'll explain when they get here. Come back when you're done, you're in on this too. Got it?"
Konohamaru looked up from the list. "Got it Boss!" he poofed into a cloud of smoke. Two seconds later, he could be found running across the rooftops to his first stop, list in hand.
Naruto, leaning back in his chair, was still thinking. 'I really should go and do damage control on that meeting I missed. And maybe go to the hospital and try to boost morale a bit.' A course of action decided, he locked up his study, left a note on his door, and went to meet his doom at the meeting hall.
Half an hour later:
"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" Maito Gai and Rock Lee smashed yet another door upon their arrival in Naruto's office. Only to find …nothing. Hadn't Naruto called them there? This required investigation. Perhaps their brave, youthful Hokage had been kidnapped! Again? But no, there were no signs of a struggle. Wait, yes there were! The door had been kicked in!
"GAI-SENSEI!"
"WHAT IS IT, LEE?"
"NARUTO-KUN'S DOOR HAS BEEN KICKED IN! OUR MOST YOUTHFUL HOKAGE HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED!"
"WELL THEN MY YOUTHFUL STUDENT, IT IS OUR DUTY AS NINJAS OF THE LEAF TO SAVE HIM! LET US FIRST SEARCH THE CRIME SCENE FOR CLUES TO THE KIDNAPPER'S IDENTITY!"
Both beautiful beasts began searching (searching, ransacking, tearing apart, what's the difference) Naruto's office until Lee thought to check the remains of the door. Maybe they could find a scrap of fabric or blood to get the kidnapper's scent! Of course he would have to recruit someone else to make use of this information, but he would worry about that later
"GAI-SENSEI I HAVE FOUND SOMETHING!"
"YOSH! THAT IS MOST EXCELLENT LEE! THE SPIRIT OF YOUTH SHINES BRIGHTLY IN YOU!" (cue the 'good guy pose') "WHAT IS IT THAT YOU HAVE FOUND?!"
"I BELIEVE IT IS A RANSOM NOTE GAI-SENSEI!"
Lee held out the 'ransom note' and they read it.
When Tenten came in 15 minutes later, they still had not recovered from their facefaults. She stared at them curiously, and noticed the paper in Lee's hand.
"Gone out for a bit, be back soon. Lord Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto" there was a crude drawing of Naruto in hokage attire giving a victory sign.
qpqpqpqpqpqpEND CHAPTERqpqpqpqpqpqp
more A/N-Please don't send me flames for killing your favorite character. Its kind of late for that and it won't do you or them any good. Other than that, whatever you want to say is fine.