*Fire Crackling*
Being around nature somehow has a calming effect on people. You can be in the middle of war or unsure of what decisions to make when given a choice and it somehow will take a weight off your shoulders. Which path to take? One might save a lot of lives, but at a price of angering another village and the leaf was not ready for another war. As I continue to meditate while hovering in the air, droplets of sweat from the immense pressure it takes to even take a single step in the air. I drop towards the surface of the lake and touch it for a single second. As ripples begin to form from my touch, I once again take off.
People think that being still and to have emptied your mind of all thought is equivalent to having achieved nirvana. The ultimate state of knowing within, and the truest way to meditate. That couldn't be further from the truth. Only when you can clear all thoughts and focus on your true goals while in motion and even while in the middle of conversation can you truly say you mastered the art.
The other choice is a much easier choice, do nothing, but would that truly be the better choice potentially letting thousands potentially die to disease and injury. While thinking of previous causalities from the third war my body starts heating up subconsciously and as I grit my teeth I burst into flames, scorching the environment around me and making the water evaporate. As I see trees and plants start to die around me I shake my head and I cancel my fire form. I fall towards the ground.
"I guess finding inner peace won't be happening today." I say as I absorb the fire from the campfire and begin to pack my things.
I know deep inside whether I want to or not, once I bring this information to Hiruzen, he will undoubtedly make me continue with my research and experiments. Hell the council will probably make it a mission I cannot refuse.
As I continue to walk back towards the village I make my acceptance with the situation at hand. I can only think of my uncle who died in the Kyuubi attack. As I remember the fox I clench my hands hard and blood starts to spill. Why the hell did he make me stay back and why did he have to sacrifice himself to create an opening to subdue the beast. As much as I respected Minato I can't help but feel that he is responsible for the last of my family dying. As I push those dark thoughts out of my head I remember his last words to me.
Flashback
Everywhere I turned my head blood was being spilt. People were being crushed as the demon rampaged throughout the village. Its feet and tails were crushing man, woman and children alike with its massive form. Shinobi rushed towards the beast only to be either vaporized or flung back like a bug.
"Everybody stay with me!" I shouted to my squad and they yelled out "yes Shinryu-sama!"
Already for an hour we have been fighting the beast indirectly. As a little girl was about to be crushed in a clearing, I flame-flashed in front of her and blasted a torrent of flames towards the leg, knocking the beast off balance.
"Quick Kenji, take her while the demon's distracted!" I shouted to one of the Jounin under my command.
"Yes sir!" He replied as he grabbed her and shunshined away.
I turned my face towards the clearing and see a lot of people dead, too many, but not any more people alive.
"Everybody this sector is clear, come to me right now!" I tell my team as I see the Kyuubi rising and looking dead at me and kami if looks could kill…
The beast raises it smoldering hot fist and directs it towards my group at a lightning quick speed. As it approaches, all the building around me shatter like glass and rocks turn bright red while vaporizing. Before it reaches us, I quickly use my flash-flame to teleport us to the other side of the village. As the fist reaches the ground it leaves a crater the size of a lake. When it withdraws its fist and sees no blood it roars a bloodcurdling scream and unleashes immense killing intent into the atmosphere for all to feel and hear.
On the other side as we help evacuate the last sector of civilians and genins, I hear the scream in the distance.
"Huh you think he's angry he missed." Yamada, one of my allies said to me with sarcasm.
"For all the strength a demon carries it doesn't mean shit if he cannot catch you that is why speed is fundamental towards the life of a shinobi. You can be the fucking Sage, but if you miss you're nothing." I said as I observed the crazed beast running through Konoha and knocking building off the ground like plates off a table.
"I'll drink to that…that is if we even survive this thing." Yamada said while unsure of himself. "I mean it's the dream of every shinobi to be able to die for the village and I would give my life a thousand times over for the Leaf, but… will it actually mean anything. I mean look at that fucking monster." He said while pointing at the beast. Multiple shinobi, high ranked ones at that, rushed the monster and were killed in an instant. "I… just don't want my life to be worth nothing." He said with a look of deep shame on his face as he stared at the ground.
We all zoned out deep in thought of the absurdity of it all, I mean how the fuck did this thing even get loose. I thought the reason why even had a Jinchuriki was to keep the bloody fox contained. What the hell happened to the Uzumaki girl, I swear if she went berserk and let this monster loose not even Minato would be able to stop me from ripping her heart straight of her chest. I was never one of those who really trusted the Jinchuriki in the first place or believed in the risk of it all. Don't get me wrong I'm not like those idiots that think the containers of the beasts are actually beasts themselves, even a child with any knowledge of seals could tell the kunai from the scroll. No I meant the potential power that they held. The most dangerous shinobi weren't some Kage or some clan with a secret jutsu, no it was someone that has been pushed to the edge. Someone who has snapped and decided that life wasn't just worth living and wants to push that ideal onto others forcibly. The life of a Jinchuriki was hard, you were constantly accused of being a demon and both verbally and physically abused by the very people that they are protecting. Not only that, they are completely and utterly isolated not forming any kind of connections to people that they might want to fight for, something that could very well push the beast back with willpower. I have always advocated hiding Jinchurikis somewhere hidden, where the people around them wouldn't know what they are and have them being tailed by a squad of highly trained Anbu who could put their feelings aside to focus on the mission.
As I'm deep in my thoughts a body that has been bisected soars past our heads. I suddenly wake up from my daze and look around me. When I look at my team, I see doubt, but also determination in their eyes.
"Look guys *releases long breath* it may not be an ideal situation, but at least we got as many people out of harm's way as could, didn't we?" I see some nods. "Our fate may seem obvious if we face the beast, but look guys make no illusion it is our duty to at least try to fight the fox." I say while narrowing my eyes at my team, some of who flinches.
"Shinryu-sama I'm sorry for before, but just how the hell is this thing even out?" Yamada asks with a face of sorrow at the loss the beast has brought upon.
I look him in the eyes and answer. "You guys are all elites so you know that Kushina is the Jinchuriki, so that only brings me to either two conclusions that either she somehow died and the beast got reborn again."
"But wait doesn't it take weeks to months for the beast to rematerialize? It hasn't even been three days since I last saw Kushina at that ramen stand." Kenji another of the members of my team stated.
I take a deep breath and answer him. "Yes it take some time to come back, much more than a few moments, which brings me to my second theory, that she or someone else has unsealed the Kyuubi and the only one who really has access to the seal is Kushina herself much less actually be able to tamper and break it."
"WHAT THE FUCK! That bitch after we trusted her and everything she goes behind our back and puts a knife right through us. The story of the scorpion and the frog was fucking right, someone will always sting you because it's in their fucking nature." Yamada practically screams while turning bright red, almost to the point of turning blue.
"Calm down Yamada, she is just a possibility, there are other people who have the sealing knowledge who are also close to her. There's Jiraiya for one and even both present and past Hokages have substantial knowledge on sealing. Then there is the fact that it may have been someone from another village. After all it hasn't been too long since the end of the war. There is a lot of people mad at the fact that Konoha seems to have won the war without having really won. The rock for one did unleash their Jinchurikis in traps that even caught Hokage Minato before. It is possible that they did do something to Kushina, so for now even with the hatred raging through all of our hearts we have to keep calm and not jump to any conclusions." I say with fire in my eyes.
*Slow clapping*
"Well said nephew, as expected from someone with actual brain in this village where there seems to be a vast lacking of." My uncle jumps out of the flame of a tire that was burning and has a wide smirk on his face.
"Uncle what are you doing here shouldn't you be with all the other clan heads in the bunker strategizing?" I questioned as I raised my eyebrows in confusion.
"Well nephew that's the thing…the leaf is barely hanging on, it hasn't even been one year yet since the end of the war and yet way too many of our surviving shinobi have fallen in battle. Even if we do survive, at this rate when the rock and cloud figure out about this attack presuming they're not the ones behind it, are definitely going to throw our peace contracts into the fire and piss on the ashes." Said my uncle with a grave face. "The Hokage has returned, it seems as if someone attacked Kushina and that is why the demon is loose."
One thing is guessing that might have been a possibility, experiencing it as a truth is another, but that cannot be all.
"Uncle surely that cannot be all?" I questioned.
He turned to my team. "All you there is a camp of Genin five kilometers from here towards the west, Yamada you are a sensor so you shall guide them there. Once there you shall guard and protect them as those young Genin very may well grow into Jounins that we very much need."
As they were about to protest he put up a hand and stopped them. "No arguing you will listen and go there at once." He let off a massive amount of killing intent that dropped us all to the ground holding our breaths. "Now go!" He shouted as they all ran and shunshined as fast as they could. He turned to me while I was still trying to catch my breath from the experience.
"What the hell old man." I said while breathing heavily.
"As I was saying Kushina was attacked, but the thing you didn't know was that she was pregnant, and before you ask no only a handful of people know and yes the father is who you think it is. We were prepared for the pregnancy taking the same precautions as Mito Uzumaki did while she was pregnant. We set her up in a room that was monitored by the most trusted shinobi, hell even Minato was there, but somehow some bastard who was wearing a mask that had swirls on it. I can't tell for sure, but I swear I saw the eyes flash red for a second." My uncle said while pulling out a pipe and taking a deep drag from it.
"Are you saying what I think you are saying?" I say with my eyes widening.
"Yes the Uchiha in the past were said to be able to control the nine-tailed beast with their Sharingan, you know as well as me how sour the relations with that clan has been ever since Madara. Don't get me wrong I don't think the Uchiha as a whole are responsible I think that maybe someone was brainwashed by some paranoia and decided to become a 'hero'. Anyways, we don't have time to discuss whoever might or might not be behind the attack, the fact was we were attacked by someone with the knowledge of breaking a tailed beast seal and no current Uchiha even comes close to having that knowledge. Only our clan and the Uzumaki clan has knowledge like that, without including key individuals like Jiraiya and Minato." My uncle said while staring me in the eyes, I somehow had a bad idea what was going to happen next.
"Wait so you said Minato came back and told you and the other clan heads about the details, but that doesn't explain why you are out here." I told him with gut sinking feeling.
"Hanzo look at me. You know very well as me why I'm here. It's time for me to use that technique." He said while staring at me with sadness in his eyes for me.
"You can't! You just can't I mean…I just mean…" I trailed off trying to think of an excuse.
"Listen Hanzo! I am going to use the final flame technique of our clan, it is enough to kill all the tailed beast together, much less just the nine tails. The only problem is that if I kill it, it will only reappear to wreak more havoc. No I have to instead subdue it." He said with determination in his eyes.
"That technique, you know to use it for more than one minute will kill you and you won't even leave ashes behind much less a body. Uncle Hiro, you know using the final flame is essentially a suicide technique even if it isn't. Look I know I don't really say this often, but I really don't want to be alone without you…" I said while my eyes started to get red, but I wouldn't let any tears fall.
Uncle Hiro put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Listen Hanzo it's not just me, Kushina and Minato will need to seal the demon into another host while I subdue it, they will be sacrificing their lives as well. Whatever happens know that I will always love you, using this technique will kill me in body, but never in spirit." He touched my heart with his finger. "I will always exist for you in here." He said with tear rolling down his face. "But that is beside the point, listen to me careful Hanzo, one of our ancestors had a scroll and book full of techniques to combine several herbs and liquids together to induce nature chakra and our special techniques to create potions of varying degrees, from losing a bit of weight to even granting the ability to fly for a short amount of time and some can even heal lost limbs. Do you understand the value and possibilities of such a book?" My uncle questioned.
"If such a magical book exists then why the hell was it ever lost, and how come you know about it?" I questioned him, completely sceptical of his claims of such a book existing.
"You may not believe me, but it does in fact exist and the reason why you never heard about it was that the info was on one of the scrolls that only the clan head is allowed to read. When I heard about it from your father Tanaka before he passed when you were but a child, he told me that apparently every clan head since two hundred years have been passing the knowledge of the book down. It was lost a long time ago in the middle of the clan wars, two hundred and twelve years ago when our clan got attacked by three tailed beasts at once, as back then it was extremely hard to seal them into people and even then the beasts would find some loophole in the seal to break out or take over. So we got attacked and our clan left everything behind, we of course managed to take all our techniques and valuables, but the book was sealed deep in our compound and we didn't have time to take it with us as we ran. When members came back everything of value was taken whether it was our gold/jewelry or our chairs. Worst of all the book was gone and our ancestors were in the middle of war and the best time for the other clans to have attacked would be right then when they were weak after an attack by tailed beasts. So they did not look for the book and when they got into a position of security once again the trail for the book went cold. All these years knowledge has been passed down with hope that the book may one day return to its rightful owners. I thought I would never see it in my lifetime, but during the war, when I was in Kumo on a mission with Minato to kill the Raikage, while he was fighting him, I dealt with everybody else and managed to fight my way into the village and I sensed a book with our chakra radiating off it. It was like it was calling to me trying to draw me in. In the end I couldn't just leave Minato to die so I left and returned to his side. I don't know how the hell it ended up in Kumo, but it did. My plan was to somehow return, but with the death of the Raikage and Minato ordering a retreat I never got the chance. I was always going to find a way to get it back, but it seems now I can't. I will at least die easy knowing the book was found and there is still a Shinryu left to wield it." He said with tears in his eyes.
"But if it was in Kumo, how come they didn't ever use it?" I asked.
"They didn't use it because the techniques can only be used by our clan, even the Sage wouldn't have been able to use the techniques in the book. No doubt they probably thought it to be fiction when combining two herbs together only to make tea instead of elixir."
"…"
"Promise me you will get the book back, it is my last wish." When he said that my eyes threatened to burst, but I kept my emotions in check.
"I promise you." I told him while looking at the ground. I couldn't bear to look at him right now.
He walked over to me and we stared at each other for a minute before he grabbed me and embraced me tightly and said, "I love you Hanzo, I never had any kids because of my duty to this village, but I always thought of you as my son, when my brother died you were only three years old and I knew I had to be something more than just an uncle, something more than someone who would just train you to make you strong. I had to show you love, care and understanding. I don't care if you saw me as a father, if you did or did not I would never even have thought of loving you any less. To me you will always be my son. I'm sorry that our last conversation had to be one filled with sorrow, I truly do. Just promise me one thing, live for me. Live your life to the fullest and be happy."
He took off his necklace and put it around my neck.
"You are the head of our clan now and the responsibility to protect Konoha now falls on your shoulders Hanzo, be the spark the lights up all the fires in your comrades hearts, I know you can." He says as he starts to walk away.
"Goodbye Hanzo." He teleports away and I finally feel tears running down my face, the salty taste getting in my mouth.
"Goodbye…father." I say while teleporting away.
In the distance I can see a huge explosion and then in its wake a giant flame demon the size of a mountain appears and almost pierces the Kyuubi causing it to scream and holds it in place. Next thing I know a flash of light appears and the Kyuubi disappears as well as the flame demon.
End Flashback
That was when I was fourteen years old. Only fourteen and left without a family. Even though I had it better than the orphans who didn't even know their families for a second. It has been two years since then and I have recently turned sixteen years old.
After the attack, somehow we managed to keep the Kyuubi incident a secret from the other villages for a whole six months. You may ask yourself how that was possible. Simple they trapped all the merchants in Konoha and all the civilians as well. The only reason to leave the village was to do missions and there sure were a lot of them. In fact Konoha forced every ninja to take constant missions ever since to make it seem like they were not affected by the attack and to show the other villages that they were still a threat. In fact only till about two months ago did they really start calming down as we just got an additional five thousand Genin in the ranks, all being trained to be Jounins, not just cannon fodder.
The Fourth Hokage ended up sacrificing his life and Hiruzen Sarutobi stepped back in to fill the role of Hokage once again.
I've always thought about my uncle's last wishes, but since I was an elite shinobi I couldn't refuse missions and was always out, but since things have calmed down since then, I know I'll have to bring this information to Hokage and the council and no doubt they'll be pissed that I kept something like this from them.
Once I got back to the clan compound, using the pendent on the necklace that my uncle Hiro gave me, it unlocked a passageway to room filled with stone tablets with details of the book and what it could do. My uncle wasn't joking when he said it could basically produce miracles. With the book back the Leaf could undoubtedly be the strongest of the hidden villages. It could bring thousands of shinobis with injuries that made them retire back into the forces.
As I continue to walk towards the village, the gates come into view and I see two young teenagers manning the front gate. They were pretty young to be Chunin, but I reached elite Jounin status at fourteen so it wasn't exactly that uncommon.
"Shinryu-sama." Kotetsu nodded in my direction.
"I assume you managed to clear your head." Izumo asked me.
"Kotetsu, Izumo you really cannot condemn yourself to standing here for hours on end every day. If I were you I would seriously consider asking the higher-ups for a change in position." I told them while shaking my head at their waste of talent.
"Nah I would rather much live a boring life than die during an exciting one and you didn't answer my question." Izumo responded with some sass in his tone.
"I didn't exactly clear my head, but I did come to a conclusion." I said while walking away from them and into the village while shaking my head.
While walking through the village I saw kids running through and playing games with their friends. Most were fantasying of being shinobi, not even knowing what it truly meant to be one. Sure throwing balls of flame was fun, but not when it was aimed at another person.
I soon pass 'the' orphanage. The one that holds the demon child. Even though I know he is not responsible for all the death and destruction, I just can't help but feel bitterness towards him. I seriously cannot believe that Hiruzen the idiot that he is, he actually made a rule that says no one can talk about the fact that he is the demon container and the people being the great 'geniuses' that they were linked his birth to the fox disappearing and him being born. Not only that, it seemed someone leaked info on him being the demon holder. Did that idiot not realize what he caused, by not explaining what a Jinchuriki was and that Naruto was the sole reason that the bloody fox was contained he created great animosity between Naruto and the village. Even though he was just two years of age the civilians would try to kill him daily even though he was but a child.
I shake my head and continue on towards the Hokage's tower where council meetings were usually conducted. As I pass on in, I sense the many Anbu hiding in the walls and the ceilings. I never really got why the Hokage even bothered with having them as anyone who could actually fight their way this far in the village would cut them down in seconds. Most of those Anbu were only actually Chunin level after all, no matter what most people thought. There was no way that Leaf could ever spare Jounin as a glorified bodyguard.
As I enter near the council doors I can already sense that everybody was already here. Crap that wasn't good, even Tsume showed up before me. I gritted my teeth and pushed the doors open. As I walked to my seat all eyes were glued to me. Everyone but Skikaku had their eyes glaring at me in annoyance. He was just amused.
"Hanzo-kun I'm pleased that you've decided to grace us with your presence at last." The third Hokage said as he drew a puff of smoke from his pipe and looking more than a little annoyed that I kept him waiting. "I mean this council was only set up today because you said you had something to tell us all. Something that Hiro-dono told you before his sacrifice to save the Leaf village and its people." He told him with respect genuinely in his eyes as he and the others truly did respect my uncle for what he did.
"Ha hah." I said while rubbing my head. "Sorry to keep you guys waiting, but I had some business to attend to."
"And pray tell what that might be Shinryu-sama?" Hiashi asked me while raising his brows and got damn does that look creepy with his blank eyes. I once told him that if this shinobi business doesn't work out then he's got a career in movies as a villain while laughing, he didn't think it was that funny.
"Well you see I was feeling kind of stiff so I…" I looked around and saw them all giving me blank looks so I quickly just decided to get to the point. "A-anyways, I called this meeting to discuss something my uncle said to me while passing so it all goes back to this book..."
Timeskip
"What the hell if such a book exists then there is no doubt, Hiruzen we must make it a priority for our village to retrieve it." Koharu said with wide eyes.
"She speaks the truth, with those potions thousands of shinobi could be redrafted into the forces, it would certainly make a hell of a difference for Konoha." Homura stated while pushing up his glasses with a single finger.
"Why the hell didn't you reveal this information sooner, this could be considered a crime to withhold information like this! What if the book is lost or those cloud shinobi figured out its secrets." Danzo said while glaring at me.
"First of all if you can remember what I told you only members of my clan can use the techniques in the book and second of all when the hell was I supposed to tell you. When we were cleaning up bodies or having a funeral for my uncle without a body because he didn't leave one. No how about when every Jounin was forced practically by you to take long S-ranked missions outside the village constantly not even being allowed more than four hours of sleep before the next mission. How about when I had to bury my friends who were attacked while out on missions!" I practically shouted at him, I always did hate Danzo, he was a first class bastard that was always scheming.
"Hanzo calm down!" The Hokage ordered me.
"Whatever." I said while looking away.
"You still didn't answer his question." The Hokage said while narrowing his eyes at me.
"I didn't say anything until now because the book is in Kumo, do you think if we walked in there so close to the end of the war we wouldn't have been pulled right back into another war. Hell we still are technically at war with them as no true peace contracts have been signed, only stalemates. Even then I had no opportunity, the book was the last thing on my mind, I had to bury my uncle who don't you forget sacrificed his life for you" I said with venom in my eyes while pointing at the Hokage. "All of you. He took your place as the one to hold the Kyuubi while he was being resealed, don't ever give me that shit again." I said while glaring at everyone and Hiruzen had the decency to at least look a little ashamed. Danzo just sneered and looked away.
"You can't keep on bringing that up every time we get into an argument." Hiruzen said while sighing and looking away. I agree that I was kind of milking that fact whenever I got the chance. It did save my ass out of quite a few punishments and let me get my way more often than not.
I sighed and Shikaku decided to finally speak up. "Look however Hanzo should have proceeded you have to agree we could never have wasted resources at that time as we were weak and certainly not strong enough to face the hidden cloud as the rock would undoubtedly join forces with them to ensure our destruction. The important thing is that Hanzo brought the book up now. We have to weigh the possibilities, to send one of our own ninja to Kumo or to use one of our spies under Jiraiya." He said while sitting up straight in his chair.
"I could go…" I began to say.
"No! There's no way that you could ever sneak into Kumo, you're listed as one the highest people in Kumo's bingo book especially after your time in the front lines. There is no way they wouldn't recognize you or your chakra signature." Hiruzen spoke up.
"That leads us to our second point everyone who could sneak in and manage to escape with the book would be detected as Konoha shinobi and declared as an act of war. That leaves the spies, but no doubt they are already being monitored constantly and if they were to break pattern suddenly it would alert red flags." Shikaku stated while stroking his goatee.
"So what do we do then?" I asked.
"If I may interrupt, isn't there a peace conference with Kumo scheduled coming up soon." Choza said while eating chips.
"You genius! Yes that puts so many possibilities on the table. It was scheduled for two years from now and in Konoha, but we can try to negotiate to change the location to Kumo and send an esteemed clan member over there as a good show of faith. Basically telling them that we trust them enough not to take the member hostage. We could move the date to the end of this year and tell them we just desire peace. Hanzo, I think you should be the person to go." Shikaku said to me while his mind was racing with scenarios.
"Me, but I thought I would stick out and be labeled as an enemy." I stated.
"No that was back then, now you have a reason to be there. What amount of trust would Konoha be giving Kumo be bigger than offering peace with the last member of the legendary Shinryu clan. Besides if anyone else were to even go, I doubt they could find the book in time and you did say that your uncle could sense it which probably means that you could too." Shikaku said while shaking his head up and down.
"That does make sense I guess, hmm using the Kumo peace conference as a way to steal the book." I said while agreeing.
"But be careful no doubt those bastards will try to do something once you get there." Shikaku warned and I nodded understanding.
"Does everyone agree to Shikaku's suggestion?" The Hokage looked to everyone and when everyone nodded he spoke up again. "Then it's decided. Hanzo you will retrieve your clan's lost artifact under the guise of brokering a peace treaty with Kumo. You will be expected to be able to take the book without them figuring out and have the signing of the treaty being successful at all costs am I understood." I nodded and he continued. "Good I will be making this a S-rank mission and the book and this mission a s-ranked secret as well not to be discussed until it is retrieved." He said as he stamped some papers. "You will be given till the end of this year to train and relax while in preparation for this mission. That is all, council dismissed."
Everyone responded with. "Yes Hokage-sama!" and left.
I could only think how complicated my life was going to become.