Blood Ties
Chapter One: Schemes
Danzō had never been a patient man. The hokage knew this, and yet there he stood in the lobby waiting. The receptionist had scarcely given him a glance before turning back to her desk, scrawling a word and then tapping away with her pencil. Graphite tip to the hard wood, second after second, tapping and tapping. Just one quick snap and it would be done with. But he waited.
He fished through the loose folds of his robes to ensure the document was as he had left it. And it was, secure and whole, as it had been a minute before. As it would be a minute later when he checked again. His visible eye cast about the room absorbing every detail, a disgusted flicker growing on his countenance.
The lobby was infested with windows. They cluttered every wall, taller than a man and twice as wide. Through them Danzō could see flashes of dim civilians shuffling on by. Every pair of eyes glanced inward as it passed. Awed or bored or curious, every gaze swept through the windows and sparked Danzō's nerves. All this exposure would raise questions, perhaps some of these imbeciles would even remember the bandaged old man they glimpsed. Worse, he could hear them, chattering inanities beneath the clattering of leather and wood on the stone brick.
Too many points of entry, too much light, too many curious glances pouring like bacteria into an open wound. The doors were open, the receptionist warm and inviting, the stairway front and center, wide enough to comfortably hold half a dozen shinobi. Bright sunlight polluted every inch of the tower with an aura of welcoming. This was exactly why he avoided all this nonsense—with so many distractions he just couldn't understand how Hiruzen ever did work.
It was a feint, he knew. Stealth and shadow can be thrown off by mere light. Deception is the truest of the ninja arts, limited only by skill, by cleverness. Yet better than one alone is two together, and although the bright front brought prosperity Danzō harbored his doubts. Unshakable doubts, deep in his soul, deep in the socket of his missing eye.
Worst of all was the blatant pandering. Hanging between every window, were indulgent portraits of Konoha's landmarks. Bright pastels blared, a visual cacophony of sickening optimism and cheer, whitewashing Konoha's history. And there, below the visual noise, was the array of comfortable seating for the hokage's petitioners—cushioned chairs and couches all in careful view of the receptionist. Danzō could not bear to submit, even tacitly, to Hiruzen's authority and so he stood, stiff and fidgeting.
Tap tap, graphite on wood.
The noise grated, excessively so. Far louder than is should be, no matter the quiet in the room. It would be some minor genjutsu, then, Danzō thought. Sound amplification, selected, to tip his equilibrium. Hiruzen had always been rather selective in his choice of secretaries, and prone to cultivating loyalty.
No matter. With the trump in his pocket, Hiruzen could only hope to delay the inevitable. Though Hiruzen did tend to be stubborn beyond all reason, this petition nonsense would weigh the scales. At last. Until then, he would wait until Hiruzen came to him. No gain in allowing the man with the deck to see his hand. Silence was the last requirement to gather his thoughts before the confrontation. He tuned out the tapping.
But she was still there, dead center in the room. He could still see her, he was forced to see her. Unless he turned to the obnoxiously bright walls or the boorish civilians stumbling past the windows. His eye was drawn to her movement, the pencil pivoting between her bony fingers, slamming into the dark oak. And his mind quickly filled in the void. Carving through his defenses, piercing directly to his eardrums, the tap tap, tap tap, tap tap, tap tap.
Danzō rapped his cane on the wood floor and limped a few steps closer to the desk. "Miss," he growled, "if you could cease your idle tapping, I would be most appreciative."
The woman looked up, youthful green eyes betraying her intentions. Tap tap, tap tap. She quirked her mouth into a vicious little smile and set the pencil down.
"As you wish Danzō-sama. The hokage will be with you shortly. You don't mind if I write, do you? The scrawling won't upset you?"
No more. He was not some common shinobi to be cowed by sarcasm, laid low by this little nuisance. No one beside Hiruzen could stop him, and he'd given that fool more deference than the gods themselves deserved. Danzō balled his hands, wrapping his fingers around his thumbs, and squeezed until both joints popped. A holdover habit from his youth, a well-known sign that his patience had worn ragged. It galled him that Hiruzen's little game could work so well.
"I will stand no more delays, Hikari. Warn the hokage if you like, I will be seeing him immediately."
Hikari shrugged indifferently and immediately resumed her tapping. Little to do, then, but escape up the stairs. At least high above, the exposure would be reduced. Up the stairs, winding and winding, past dozens of subordinate offices, past the council chambers, to the very end. The thick wooden door creaked open a step ahead of Danzō and he found a frazzled Hiruzen smoking behind his desk. His gaze was buried in a morass of loose papers, and he did not seem to have the slightest intention of greeting his visitor.
He could at least have the courtesy to look smug.
"Hiruzen."
"Ah yes. Danzō. Kind of you to be so prompt. I am quite intensely busy, as you see."
"Yes, your secretary did imply as much."
"Ah, dear Hikari. Never puts a word out of place." Hiruzen remained engrossed in his paperwork.
Danzō stood perfectly still, allowing a tense silence to drift across the room. Hiruzen still made no move, the idle shuffle of the paper on the desk quite obviously an act. Patently absurd in its obviousness, poorer acting than Danzō had ever seen from the Hokage.
"This is no time for your petty games Hiruzen. The long-term survival of the village is at stake. This is a social crossroads, even you ought to see that."
"Can you not tell that I know?" Hiruzen's posture tensed, his chakra flared pulsing through the room with anger and dread. His gaze remained locked to his desk.
Not a show of contempt, then, Danzō realized. Fear, helplessness. Hiruzen had not invited him to verbally spar and gloat over his success, but out of genuine need. This, he could use.
"Rather than a pivot to supremacy, Naruto has become the arbiter of our demise. We were both wrong," Hiruzen took a deep breath "I was wrong. Naruto is not a symbol of victory, but of tragedy. Not a tool, but a trap."
Danzō took the opportunity to look smug. With Hiruzen's gaze locked away, he could afford it, for once.
"I warned you. There's a reason why the other villages treated the Jinchūriki as they have. Most people, most shinobi for that matter, cannot accept that the will of such powerful beings could ever be suppressed by a human ego. It seems so evident. A demon container must be tainted by the demon it contains."
"Superstition in its most base form, a complete lack of understanding of sealing, and worse, a lack of curiosity to understand it. Prejudice and ignorance should not be the basis for our actions, even if we are not the ones to express it."
Danzō clucked his tongue. A quirk of his, a dismissive noise deeper, more resonant then pulling the tongue back from the teeth, than pulling back from the roof of the mouth. Scornful in a way only he could manage.
"Though we should never hold it ourselves, if the majority believes in it. If the vast majority believes in it we must consider it. And we should use it. Beliefs are a tool, Hiruzen, like any hammer or kunai. How many times must I explain this to you?"
Hiruzen hissed. Deep yet shrill, utterly penetrating. "Until you convince me that people are inherently evil, cruel, and ignorant. But enough of this," Hiruzen waved his hand as if to cast away the conversation. A leaf in the wind. "We are here to discuss the petition."
"You cannot be seriously considering it Hiruzen."
Hiruzen glanced up from the ocean of paper engulfing on his desk. Fury smoldered in his eyes, a stark contrast to the chill of his voice.
"I don't have a choice. Have you read any of these?" He snatched up a handful of papers in his fist, crushing them. Danzō stood silent, unmoving and unmoved. His one visible eye was half-lidded, but Hiruzen knew the facade well.
"Ah, no answer. Not that it matters, really. You know, I think I can predict exactly what you're thinking. You couldn't be bothered." Hiruzen's final word was calm, but bore down on Danzō with the intensity of a roar. With an almost reflexive assault he launched the balled paper towards Danzō. The old man barely had time to step aside before it embedded in the wall.
"I don't need to read them to know their contents. I won't be wasting my time Hiruzen. Not for you, not for Naruto."
"I don't believe you quite understand the gravity here. Or perhaps you simply feel it an inevitability, or maybe even an opportunity." Hiruzen growled, deep and guttural.
Danzō was taken aback for a moment. This was unprecedented, primal fury. Nothing he could say would sway the conversation. He steeled himself for the tsunami of anger that would wash over him.
"This is no time for your scrabble for power! We may be too late. Civil War!" Hiruzen shuddered, his fury nearly beyond control. "Civil war awaits us, Danzō!"
His passion jostled the desk, allowing pages to drift away. A loose paper fluttered to Danzō's feet and he bent to it, giving a cursory glance. It was, of course, as Hiruzen described. He stepped forward, palms down and forward. A placation.
"There's always another way Hiruzen. Ask and you can consider it done." He raised the paper in his hand. "You cannot allow your soldiers to believe they can threaten treason, your control is treacherously fragile."
Hiruzen scowled. Underneath his desk he formed a series of hand-seals as he spoke. "I absolutely cannot condone murder, nor will I even consider it. You know that, I'm sure, so I can't imagine why you're asking now."
"If you want Naruto to stay safe, if you want him to assimilate into the shinobi corps, we cannot wait any longer to act. You've been too lenient Hiruzen. You are the hokage, if you bow to pressure from these fools they will never follow you again." A scroll seemed to materialize from nowhere into Danzō's hand. "Let me stamp this petty little squabble into oblivion."
A growl escaped Hiruzen's throat. "And how would you do that? Murder? Manipulation? Whatever your scheme, I will discover it and I will turn those Root pawns of yours over to interrogation. No limits. Not that you'd care, or that my threats can stop you."
Danzō clucked. His good eye veiled emotion, yet his chakra pulsed with unfettered scorn thickening the air with a ragged chill.
"Come now Hiruzen, there's no need to be so bitter. You wouldn't be involved, of course. We can't afford to have you implicated in any way." The scroll in Danzō's hand vanished as suddenly as it had appeared and he took another step forward. "But even if you knew, there'd be no evidence. They would look like accidents, a little cardiac arrest here, a carelessly placed letter there. Just mix one of your little concoctions and forget this conversation ever happened, you'll know you made the right decision when the opposition evapora—"
"No!" Hiruzen's bellow blasted his desk clear. It was a wail of noise and fury, a gale that forced Danzō back a step. Pages flailed through the air, contorting and twisting into grotesque impressions of life. One tore past Danzō, slashing a line of red across his cheek. A second passed without harm, a third grasped his arm and more followed. In moments he was immobilized, the storm of paper raging on around him.
As the storm's momentum wore thin, pages plastered themselves to every surface, black ink gazing out like a hundred thousand eyes. Dread and doom pierced Danzō from every angle, hatred and anxiety and the price of failure indelibly etching into his mind. For all the emotion flowing through his one visible eye, he remained physically serene, not a single muscle twitching under the assault.
Hiruzen frowned and raised one hand, with two fingers curled in. A wave of chakra burst from it, seemingly pulling all the air from the room, sucking the paper into a fibrous mass of hate and fear. Entirely encased in paper, Danzō's voice very nearly faded entirely before reaching Hiruzen. Only one word emerged from the cocoon.
"Dispel."
The office shattered before the two old men, revealing it to be just as it was when their conversation began. Danzō bent to grab the paper by his feet and crushed it in his fist.
"I see rational discussion is out of the question. For all that you rant and rave, you are the one refusing to see the situation for what it is. Eager blindness and petty idealism will never solve your problems, no matter how vehemently you ignore my advice."
"Advice? You think these demented ravings are advice?" Hiruzen's tone grew in intensity as he leaned further forward over his desk. "We've already tried this! Elimination is not, cannot ever be a permanent solution! There is already far more fear and distrust among the people and—worse, far far worse—among my shinobi, than we can manage. Where do you think the courage to petition me appeared from? This is desperation and exhaustion, and any more of this nonsense will only lead to instability and open our gates to invasion. Have you learned nothing since the purge? There is another way, and until we find it we must run damage control."
"Another way? Do you truly believe that Hiruzen?" Danzō began to pace.
"I do. I must, if we're to keep Konoha alive. What purpose is there to govern if your only solution is to assassinate any dissenters? That is unsustainable regardless. Someone will find out, it will only start a spiral."
"You know the purpose in it Hiruzen. Abandon this false dichotomous nonsense already, you know better than to cling to such impossible ideas." Danzō acted as best he could, but the time for dialogue was over. If it had even been in this particular meeting. Hopefully his contempt, his boredom would stay at bay.
"Peaceful resolution isn't impossible, it's the only way we're going to have stability in Konoha."
"You don't want it solely for Konoha, I know you too well to believe that. Your obsession with your legacy won't permit you to leave the world in any state but perfection, forged thus by your hand, before you die. Temper your wild fancies with reality Hiruzen or someone else will do it for you, and that may very well break you."
Danzō turned from Hiruzen, stepping silently to one of the office's many bookcases. As his fingers traced from one spine to the next. There was a particular book here, something he needed. Page 136, from the Shodai.
"Try all you like, but unless they see real consequences this won't ever stop." Danzō spoke without paying Hiruzen any mind. The hokage's breath caught when his advisor pulled a book from the shelf.
"You've read the journals and notes of your predecessors. Do you recall how the Uchiha were granted their place in Konoha? How the Nidaime stopped a revolt after the war with Iwa before it could begin? Perhaps you forgot even what the Shodai truly meant with his 'will of fire.'" Danzō opened the book to a page seemingly at random and hurled it to the hokage's desk, scattering every loose paper around the room.
It was the Shodai's recounting of the alliance of the Senju and Uchiha clans, laying the foundation for Konoha. The words were weighted heavily with regret, but the tragedy was clear. And the founding ethic of the village came through: for the good of the many, not the one.
"I remember everything I've read. These situations are not the same, and the world now is not the world then." Hiruzen felt surer of his words and his voice began to swell with conviction. "Perhaps the Shodai had no other choice, but right now we do. The Will of Fire does not mean to burn the undergrowth at every opportunity, it's to know when the time is right. Konoha is too fragile to withstand more death, more hatred. Violence cannot solve all the problems of the world, and right now what the people need, what Naruto needs, what the whole of the shinobi world needs is less blood and stubbornness, and all the good will we can muster."
"Your naiveté will be your downfall, as I've told you a thousand times." Danzō droned. He glided silently across the floor and changed the book's open page seemingly at random again. Hiruzen glanced down to check the passage Danzō wanted to make a point about, then seemed to glaze over it. He was beyond goading, after the once.
"You're right about one thing, though. The Will of Fire does indeed call for knowing the right time to burn the plants choking the life from the trees, but frequency has nothing to do with it. This hesitation you have is just your own fear of being written into the annals of history as a tyrant and murderer. You may not like to hear this, but it must be said."
Danzō slammed the book shut and threw it from the office, shattering the window. "History lies. Whoever is victorious writes whatever he wants, within the realm of plausibility. I know you think you can trust a man's journal, his private thoughts and feelings. You should know that is dangerously naive. Men lie even to themselves. That's a particular idiosyncrasy of history you should be intimately familiar with. You know the decision you have to make. I can have a list of the instigators of this abomination before the day's done. I expect you to make use of it."
In the span of a blink Danzō disappeared. Hiruzen glared where his advisor had stood. He tore a kunai from its drawer and aimed for Danzō's now absent heart. The metal blade was absorbed into the wood of the wall with a soft crack.
Danzō is a conniving old fool, we can't assassinate our way out of this. Not this time. There must be a better way.
Hiruzen hadn't requested Danzō's aid for many years, not since the purge. Drastic action had been the only possibility then. It was the only visible solution now. But they needed a far less bloody resolution—Konoha would not survive another slaughter.
He trembled in frustration. Clasping the desk did nothing but shake it as well, gripping harder only gouged furrows in its surface. A rattling started, objects trapped in drawers dancing about and knocking into one another, and the ocean of paper flowed off the wood in a waterfall of betrayal. As the layers sloughed away, Hiruzen saw the source of the madness.
It was a single sheet of paper, the ink slightly smeared and a set of greasy fingerprints hugging one edge. It was written with an elegant, flowing hand, yet lacked any unique flourish. Whoever wrote it was clearly a skilled forger, but the prose itself betrayed the author. It reeked of Fugaku's influence.
"Petition for the Execution of Uzumaki Naruto" rested boldly at the head of the page. Burning to the right in its amber splendor was the seal of the shinobi council, and to the left, the deep green of the civilian council. Two short paragraphs were below, explaining away any protests Hiruzen might raise. The Uchiha Patriarch's insight was uncanny.
Insufferable, arrogant, ignorant, damnable… Hiruzen's thoughts trailed off into a flurry of insults. None was strident enough for the traitorous Uchiha.
Despite his efforts, Hiruzen could not deny that a few of the points had merit. An execution, if properly staged, would boost morale and military recruitment. Their anger was not unearned or inappropriate, though unfortunately misaimed. However, there was a time and place for such things, and the running of the village did not qualify for either.
Gripping the desk tighter for a moment, Hiruzen drew in all the air his lungs could hold. As the air escaped in a rush, he felt some of his tension leave with it. There was still a frothing beneath the surface, but Hiruzen held it in check as he lifted the thin sheet of paper from his desk.
"So flimsy," he mumbled. "So delicate, just one burst of chakra away from oblivion. One man's ideas to bring an entire village to ruin."
Hiruzen sent a few short bursts of wind chakra through the paper, causing it to thrash wildly. It was ripping from the force of the movement, his sensitive fingers able to feel the tug of the fibers tearing apart.
Stopping just shy of shredding the paper, Hiruzen grunted and set it back onto his desk. He stood and began pacing in front of the broad window, suppressing his restless anger.
He turned to the enormous window, face before its fresh hole. The wind rushing through seemed to cleanse his tension, just a little. He stood breathing in the village air, sensitive nose picking up the smells of the village. The people, the wood of buildings, the spice of the festival and the smoke of the fireworks. The pollen of the Kyojin trees, the ripening of the fall crop, pitch of newly tarred roofs ready for the winter rains. Whatever warped ideology was corrupting the minds of its citizens, the scent, the look, the physicality of Konoha remained the same. That, at least, was a comfort.
Naruto would never be executed unless the combined council could reach a unanimous decision, which had not happened once in its fifteen years of existence, and still wouldn't so long as Danzō still had a plan for Naruto. But this barely favorable turn of events didn't blind Hiruzen to the resilience of the vengeful. Whoever had orchestrated all this would try again. Failure breeds desperation, and Hiruzen fully expected an assault on the boy. Security and surveillance would need touching up, that much he was certain of.
There was so much else to worry about, the hokage was glad to have at least one certainty. Gazing down at his village, bathed in the scarlet light of sunset, he observed his citizens. From the top of the administrative tower, every person was no larger than an ant, and the throngs milling about gave Hiruzen the impression of an anthill that had regurgitated its whole population.
As Hiruzen thought more on it, he decided the metaphor was apt. There was a celebration on after all: the anniversary of the defeat of the Kyūbi. Although he was furious at his fellow elites, he couldn't fault the people of Konoha. The civilians went about their lives as routinely and mindlessly as ants, and on days like this few had any aim. They'd adapted, celebrated courage and sacrifice in the stead of mourning, it was unfortunate that the group mentality had placed all their unspent sorrow and rage on Naruto.
They wouldn't hold hatred this intense without a guiding hand. Hiruzen thought. He couldn't be sure how it started—he'd seen a single misinformed butcher begin a chain reaction resulting in village-wide outcry. It could be anything, but the hokage had a gut feeling it wasn't ignorance and a misunderstanding in this case. The civilians always trusted his word on ninja matters, a trust that was hard-won and carefully kept.
If they don't come around… well… I'll address that if it comes to it. The hokage shook his head gently. I hope the lessons stuck.
Hiruzen's musings were interrupted by a knock at the door. He felt his heart skip a beat and quickly took a seat at his desk. Papers were still scattered about the floor, but there was no time to clean up. Only high-priority matters were ever brought up to his office without an appointment.
"Come in."
The door crept open to reveal an ANBU with vertical silver hair. His face was hidden by an animal mask, a representation of a dog, but the hokage easily recognized the young man. His one visible eye kept its focus intently on Hiruzen.
"Hokage-sama," he said with a slight bow.
"What can I do for you Kakashi?"
"It's about Naruto," the silver-haired ANBU replied in a monotone.
Hiruzen sucked deep breath through his teeth. So soon, and on the anniversary. They weren't even trying to hide from him anymore.
"How bad is the situation?"
"He's been attacked. He was able to somehow kill his assailant and escape, but we've been unable to locate him. The other ANBU on patrol are searching as we speak."
Hiruzen sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Are you sure of this Kakashi?"
"Yes, hokage-sama. I discovered the body and initiated the search. It– it doesn't look good. There was more than enough blood to get the scent, but I was too late and it was already lost in the crowds." Kakashi paused, seeming uncertain of how to proceed. "But that's not the greatest concern."
Hiruzen raised both eyebrows high and inclined his head forward slightly. The unnatural shadow that descended over his face was one of the grave.
"The assailant received multiple deep stab wounds and had both hands severed. No one sensed any of the Kyūbi's chakra at the scene, but it almost certainly had a hand in this. Even if the Kyūbi is influencing Naruto, his wounds must be severe, probably fatal. This may be a recovery mission now, hokage-sama."
Kakashi stood rigidly to attention, but Hiruzen's trained eyes could tell he was shaken. The eyes through the mask, too wide. A tiny quaver to his voice. Minute movements of the head, a show of anxiety, fear, concern.
Hiruzen stroked his beard. "The Kyūbi couldn't be involved, even a sliver of its chakra would've tipped off your hounds, there must be some other explanation." Hiruzen's voice dropped almost to a whisper. "Perhaps it could be— no, no that's not it. That's impossible, we would know about it. But then perhaps another person could have. No, there would've been at least some sign."
"Sir?" Kakashi sounded hesitant, his one visible eye crinkled in worry.
"Hmm? Oh! Right, thank you Kakashi. Yes, go at once and do not let up on the search until you've found the boy." Kakashi bowed at the waist and turned to leave the office. Hiruzen rapped his knuckles on the desk twice to bring Kakashi's attention back. "You will keep the search Classified Rank-A, only take those who already know on the search with you. The fewer who know about this incident the more secure Naruto will be."
"Only five including myself know of the incident hokage-sama. Tiger is on clean-up. Falcon, Squirrel, and Rabbit are all searching. They know to be discreet."
Hiruzen nodded once. Kakashi remained, uncertain whether to take that as a dismissal. Hiruzen smiled slightly, lopsided, just a quirk of the lips. At least one shinobi understood respect and deference.
Whether the Kyūbi had been involved in fending off the assault wasn't important, at least not now. It would keep Naruto alive as long as possible. That amount of involvement from the beast was certain. Now they just had to find the boy and stabilize him.
If Naruto hadn't come to the tower, that could only mean that he didn't trust Hiruzen enough to seek his aid. The hokage made a mental note to correct that oversight. He considered and reconsidered where Naruto would possibly flee to, determined to find the boy himself.
He turned to face his window again. The scarlet washing over the village was growing darker. If they couldn't find Naruto before sunset, that could pose a serious problem. The village needed him alive.
There weren't many places in the village Naruto would flee to, if he hadn't come to the tower. There were alleyways and training grounds littering the entire village, far more crannies than were tolerable, but Naruto would never feel safe there. Hiruzen scanned the village that lay before him, the festival lanterns beginning to make themselves visible as daylight dwindled. Abandoned buildings? Sewers? Library? School?
Hiruzen discarded every idea. They didn't have the time for this. He looked over to the Hokage Monument, hoping to find inspiration from Naruto's father. He locked his brown eyes to the dead grey of the carving's.
"I believe I know where Naruto is."
Kakashi looked at his leader expectantly, muscles coiled and ready to spring into action.
"You may go Kakashi. Continue the search as a precaution, but I believe I will find Naruto myself."
Kakashi froze for a moment in surprise, the tension in him slowly draining away, before he bowed and hurried from the room. Hiruzen did not waste a moment, disappearing from where he sat the instant Kakashi closed the door. A slight burst of air in the street next to the hokage tower marked his reappearance, startling the crowds milling about near the festival plaza. Ignoring their gawking, he immediately took off running before he disappeared again mid-step. He moved across town faster than most ninja could follow, reappearing and disappearing in bursts of air as he used shunshin no jutsu in rapid sequence.
A minute after Hiruzen left his office, he arrived near the monument, appearing silently in the forest behind it. He ran towards the forest's edge, but slowed as he neared the exit, not wanting to frighten the boy. Of course, that was assuming that he was correct and the boy was here at all. If he wasn't, he would address that problem when he came to it.
The exit from the forest was abrupt and the hokage had to shield his eyes from the direct view of the setting sun. Once his vision adjusted, he saw a silhouette near the edge of the cliff, outlined by the orange glow bathing the rocks. As he closed the distance, he could make out that it was a small blond boy and he felt no small amount of relief flood through him.
However, as the hokage drew closer to the boy he felt something amiss. Naruto was too still, too quiet. He should still have been whimpering or crying, showing some sign of his injuries. Unless he'd already fallen unconscious, which could only bode ill—if adrenaline, fear, and the Kyūbi combined couldn't keep him awake, his injuries had to be near fatal.
Hiruzen sprinted to his side, skidding to a stop and crouching reaction at all. Given a tap and a shake, stillness remained.
He gave the boy a quick once-over, and noticed a pool of blood filling the cavities in the stony face and seeping down in a red waterfall. If Naruto's position on the cliff and the sheer amount of blood were any indication, Minato's stony face would be crying blood soon enough.
This is definitely not a good omen.
He'd taken long enough. In a single motion, Hiruzen scooped the bloody boy into his arms and used shunshin to reach a nearby roof. His feet touched ground for only a moment before he burst away again.
Relief washed over him when he saw the hospital ahead. Just in time. He only had enough chakra for perhaps ten more shunshin. With one final explosion of air he appeared outside the hospital's doors and crashed through them.
Hiruzen barely noticed the hospital staff as he flew through the halls. He cursed his unfamiliarity with the hospital, but figured he was headed in the right direction. He had no idea whether it was proper or not, but Hiruzen darted into the first room he found and gently laid Naruto on the bed. The hokage didn't waste a moment, and spun to find and a drag a med-nin over to heal Naruto. Before he could take a step a young woman barreled through the door.
She all but slammed into the old man, only his quick reaction stopped a collision. She recovered admirably.
"Hokage-sama what's going on?"
The hokage inspected the young medic with a glance. Particularly of note was her badge, identifying her as new personnel, barely out of training. Hiruzen sighed in relief at her youth, though there was no guarantee she had the experience to treat Naruto.
"He's been badly wounded. I need you to heal him."
The young woman nodded before moving over to examine the boy. She recognized him immediately—only one person in Konoha had whisker-marked cheeks. His identity did not faze her in the least, though, and she immediately began her treatment.
A green glow engulfed the med-nin's hands, a preliminary diagnostic jutsu. She swept her hands over the boy's small frame, eyes closed so as to see the results more clearly. In a short time she flinched painfully, the green glow flickering. When she finally got a look at her patient she stumbled back a step and threw her head to the side, retching.
Hiruzen watched impassively as the woman wiped her mouth and returned to work, doing her best to avoid looking at the boy. It was rather grotesque, he had to admit. Most bodies burnt that badly were charred corpses. For someone to still be alive with all of their skin, except for that above the neck, burned away shouldn't have been possible. Ah, the power of a Jinchūriki.
The medic girl began to pant slightly as she did her best to heal the boy. Before Hiruzen could get a second medic to take over for her, she pulled away, wiping the sweat from her brow.
"I've done all I can hokage-sama, his chakra is too depleted to withstand the strain of medical ninjutsu. I'll bandage the wounds and give him an antibiotic, then all he'll need is rest."
The aged village leader smiled warmly at the young woman. A serious medical professional at quite the young age. An assumption, but a safe one. He'd had to heal Naruto himself a few times, as a good number of doctors would outright refuse him treatment.
It hadn't started that way, but things had gone farther and farther. And the bastards could get away with it because he needed them, and they knew it. If at some point things changed, he had quite the list. But it was only a dream. At least there was someone skilled who hadn't been swept up in the fervor.
"Miss, what is your name? If you don't mind me asking, of course."
Her eyes went wide. "Uh, ah… Nadare."
"Well, Nadare, you have my most sincere gratitude for taking care of Naruto. I know he appreciates it, even if he can't quite tell you himself."
"Thank you hokage-sama." She said, bowing deeply.
Yes, she would do nicely. It seemed she was possessed whatever faculty it took, rationality or reason or stoicism or whatever it may be, to resist the seemingly persuasive argument against Naruto. He needed a doctor who would treat Naruto on hand. A significant oversight, now that he thought it over. This novel political situation would require quite a few personnel and security changes surrounding Naruto. People more reliable, people more loyal to the village than to their beliefs.
As Nadare went about completing the civilian treatment of Naruto, the hokage pulled a chair from the nearby table, setting it next to the bed. The woman heard the noise and shot the hokage a questioning look.
"I'll stay until he wakes. It would do him good to see a friendly face."
She nodded in understanding before finishing her treatment and heading for the door. When it closed behind her Hiruzen bit his thumb and grimaced before slamming his hand into the ground. In small puff of smoke a monkey no larger than a pug appeared.
"Medata, can you take a message to Anbu Headquarters?" The little monkey nodded its head.
"Good. Find Dog and tell him that Naruto has been found and that he is safe. The search is over, but they need to take the witnesses to T&I for memory erasure. That includes all ANBU," Hiruzen paused, considering loyalties, "except Dog. I see great things in that boy's future."
With another nod the monkey scuttled over to the room's window and dashed out, leaving it open in its wake. Hiruzen, with his subordinate gone and the room finally empty and quiet succumbed to exhaustion from his intense chakra usage and fell into blissful sleep.
This is to be a complete reinterpretation of canon, just so you guys know. Everything will be changed, from history to tailed beasts to politics to characters and the functioning of jutsu. This is an AU overhaul.
I may have gone overboard by trying to avoid scene breaks, but I wanted the introduction to flow. I tried an oddity, changing perspective as the characters switched between Danzō and Hiruzen without a scene break. Let me know if it didn't work for you.
It is also important to know that I consider Naruto to have jumped the shark shortly after the time skip. There are certainly still good ideas and characters introduced after that point, but as a whole the manga decayed and I'd prefer to ignore or reinterpret many aspects of it.
For most fanfiction, everything is "like canon unless noted." This is true here very seldom, and quite often if something seems to be a deviation from canon, as it is not explicit, it is in fact intentional. Not always, but it should be seldom enough that I'd prefer a PM about these problems instead of a review. Then I can clear up misconceptions personally.
In the future, if there's anything very pertinent in an A/N I'll bold it. Everything else will be in plain text. I enjoy getting to know an author better if I like their story, so I have no problems with thoughtful A/Ns, but not everyone agrees. I do consider this introduction to the story to be pertinent, but no other A/N should be this long and other bolded sections should never be more than a paragraph.
Some of you may be nitpickers, so I'll point out some subtle changes. Keep in mind that I'm certainly not perfect, but I do keep an eye out for continuity and subtle differences.
Take Danzō for example. He has a sling in canon, always. I wrote "wrapping his fingers around his thumbs." Not a mistake, he simply doesn't have the sling at this juncture. Do try not to make assumptions. I mention the council as a major plot point—I'll expand on it, and it is a legitimate and serious political force, not a political farce loaded with caricatures.
I'm going to spell out one thing here, for now, thematically. For those interested. In Naruto, the theme of hard work overcoming genius is overturned and mutilated and discarded. I want to revive this theme as it should have been: everyone has their gifts, make the most of yours. Naruto in this story has three primary boons: bloodlines, chakra reserves, and Kyuubi. His bloodlines suit him for taijutsu, his chakra reserves for ninjutsu, the Kyuubi for [redacted].