A Hokage's Farewell

The night was falling fast on the dormant Hidden Village of the Leaf, Konoha. The inhabitants of the village were mostly asleep, with the occasional drunk exception stumbling through the streets. The leaf ninja slept on both their ears, with no fear of war or of a surprise attack. Ever since the attack from the Kyuubi seven years ago, the situation between the five big Villages had stabilized in a grudging peace. While Konoha and Suna were allied on paper, everyone knew they were not a big fan of the other. On the other hand, Kumo and Iwa both hated the leaf village with passion, but all of the Villages knew that another Shinobi war would only weaken them and open them to the threat of the smaller villages, always hungry to take the main ones' place.

It explained the sight of the Hokage, the Village's leader and their strongest shinobi, walking down the streets. He was smiling down at a young kid who jumped in the air beside him, completely enraptured in his retelling of his day.

"… So then I walked up to the stand, and I talked to the man behind the counter. You should've seen him Old Man, he had almost as many wrinkles as you!" shouted the blond kid, his orange shirt and black shorts clashing with his gold locks.

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, simply smiled at the young boy. The fact that anyone would actually attack this boy was unbelievable to him. He was aware of the view the grand majority of the village had taken toward Naruto. They were either completely stupid or blinded by heir hate. Only some had understood the real meaning of the word jinchuuriki. It wasn't just the civilians either. His ANBU had to arrest multiple genin and chuunin for attacking the young boy. He had to create a special brigade in the ANBU to watch over him. Hell, the council had discussions about the boy almost weekly. Those were almost always started by the civilian representatives. They always had the goal to pressure Hiruzen to not allow Naruto to enter the academy. Weirdly enough, Danzo always vetoed those propositions, citing that Naruto was a weapon that had to be used, not feared.

While Hiruzen didn't like the characterization of Naruto as a weapon, he understood his point. The kid had the strongest demon known to man sitting in his gut. He would have to eventually receive formal ninja instruction. He would need to be able to access this power, if only to protect the Village. Jinchuuriki were becoming ever more present in the ninja world. In fact, during the last war, Kumo was feared because of their jinchuuriki, B. There was also the case of Yagura, the new Mizukage. No, Naruto was going to have to learn how to use it, if only to be a deterrent against the enemy.

But before sending Naruto into the pain-filled way of the ninja, he would leave him to live his youth, explore his city, meet other kids, hopefully develop attachment to the city he would one day have to defend. There was no urgency, and robbing the boy of his childhood could do more damage in the long term.

They arrived at the beginning of Naruto's neighborhood. He could see from the corner of his eyes the faces of the village's multiple crooks, drug dealers and other parasites that lived in this part of the town. He had half a mind to send his ANBU to arrest them, but he also knew that this wasn't the time for that. Arresting a couple of petty bandits was useless and a waste of his ANBU's time.

So while they neared the park, he ground his teeth and refrained from breaking his promise if only to clean out the filth out of the city.

Naruto ran ahead entering the park with a big whoop. Hiruzen winced, the sound had probably woken up some of the neighbors up. He looked around swiftly, and relaxed once he saw that the area was mostly shops and restaurants, with very few houses.

As he entered the park, Naruto was already sitting in his balancing chair, waiting to be pushed like the other kids were by their parents.

Hiruzen walked up to Naruto noting absent-mindedly that the park was pretty silent. In fact, excluding the couple of underworld criminals they passed, not a single soul could be heard or seen.

It puts the Hokage on his guard enough to make a discrete signal to his ANBU captain following him around. They would check over the neighborhood and report directly to the Hokage. Satisfied with this plan of action, the Hokage pushed the squealing child on the chair, his eyes looking dearly at the kid having fun in front of him. It was honestly endearing to his heart to see such a young kid completely innocent, finding fun in such a small thing as being pushed on a balancing chair by his grandfather figure.

The boy represented exactly the reason why he had fought all these years, and come back from retirement to continue as the Hokage. This innocence, a happy child such as he, was deserving of all the attention he could get. This was the face of someone who hadn't yet been traumatized by the horrors of the war, and as such, validated everything he had ever done. For people to be able to exist free of all of these memories made everything worth it. Protecting the Village had been the hardest job he had ever done, but also the most fulfilling. Even with all the ramblings of trouble, he was happy. Happy that his people were prospering and happy.

Lost in his thoughts, he felt too late the other presence in the park, its familiarity almost hurting the Hokage. Before he could utter a warning sound, a horribly familiar sword pierced his back, surging through his stomach on the other side. The shadowy man ripped the sword out in a clean stroke and fazed back to the darkness where he disappeared, his sadistic grin shining for a second in the moonlight.

Hiruzen wobbled on his feet, his hands clutching his now gaping wound. Blood sprayed on his robes. It didn't take long for Naruto to become aware of the Hokage's wound. He began to panic, demanding to know what went wrong and what he could do to help. The Hokage fell to the ground, his back crashing smoothly on the grass. He could already feel the numbness beginning to invade his mind, his body shaking from the weakness he now felt. Weirdly enough, the pain of the first impact with the blade had mostly disappeared, leaving place to a calming sensation. The stab must have cut something important.

He knew death was upon him.

However, before leaving he had to talk to Naruto one last time. The crying child was standing in shock beside him. He couldn't stay here. He would have to leave. He always knew the effect his death would have on the village. He could see it happening from here. His killer would never be found, and even if he was found, there was no one in the Village that could pose much of a threat to the man. There was also no one that could replace him, other maybe than Danzo. With him killed in the middle of the Village, the population would all but beg for a more militaristic Hokage. He knew that the peaceful Konoha he loved so much was all but gone already.

His killer knew that. He was way too intelligent to not know the consequence of his actions. He had no idea what he had to win by provoking the creation of a powerful Konoha, but this man schemed and was the brightest of the bunch.

No, the future was pretty bleak for Konoha. And Naruto would feel the worst of it. Danzo would train him, break him and create another one of his emotionless robots in his service, only he would now have the strength of the Kyuubi behind him. This wasn't something the world was prepared to handle any day soon. Especially not the young boy in front of him.

So as Hiruzen choked on his blood, his respiration becoming harder each time, he raised a shaking hand in the air, grabbing Naruto's hanging hand.

"N-Naruto" he rasped out, "Y-You must leave t-this village behind you. Run, go out and don't come back. Promise me only to become the strongest shinobi you can." He made a few handseals, making a big scroll appear beside him. "Here, take this scroll; when you are ready, open it. Never forget your roots and where you came from. Never let your will of fire burn down, no matter how bad everything looks," his breath was now a whisper, "Godspeed my son."

Naruto stared at the Hokage's face for a couple of seconds before nodding, his face still completely white. He then vanished from Hiruzen's vision, probably running toward the gate. It would be closed at this hour, but that had never stopped Naruto. He had done what he could to influence the future of this Village before his death. He only hoped that Naruto would be fine out there. The outside world wasn't the exactly best place for a boy like him to grow up in. But he had faith that with the tools he had just given Naruto, he would come back to Konoha as a strong and honorable Shinobi.

Faith. It had saved him in his darkest times and in his darkest of them all, he would find comfort knowing that his Will of Fire would continue burning even if someone tried to put it out with bucket loads of water.

And for that he was grateful. He let himself go, welcoming death with open arms. As the darkness took him, he turned is mind toward the Ones that came before him, wondering if they would greet him as one of their own.