The Moon Fell Asleep in my Arms
I do not know about the dates of ANY events in Naruto expect Oct 10th. I am simply using my godly author powers to declare that two days after Nagato's defeat is Naruto's birthday.
If you are confused, I am sorry. My writing is a mess in this.
Summary : The village was bestowed a miracle in the form of Naruto having Nagato revive them from Death. And Konoha was infinitely lucky Tsunade woke up the next morning. Canon Divergence.
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"Ah," the Great Toad Sage said suddenly. "I had it wrong."
The toads tore their gaze from Naruto's confrontation with Nagato. "What did you got wrong?"
"Not Child," the Great Toad Sage stated. "But Children."
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"So," Tsunade began, "I will get you anything for your birthday."
"I want a whole mountain."
"I cannot buy a whole mountain, brat. I do not have the resources. You won them three years ago and you have broken it."
"Then why'd you open with that kind of preliminary?!"
Her fingers reached out to flick him on the forehead, but since it was his birthday, she refrained doing so. "Meh, I left out the 'someday'. For now, I'll just leave you with these." She handed him a scroll.
Predictably, the orange nightmare grinned in excitement. "What's this? Are you finally giving me a super cool jutsu that will leave mass destruction?!"
"You and explosions," Tsunade sighed fondly. "No, it's not. But it is something cool though."
Putting down the gifts he got from his friends on the way to the Hokage's tent, Naruto waved the scroll in the air, eyeing it. "It must be something lame, if you think it's cool." He put an emphasis on you.
"Brat!" With a swift punch to the head which he avoided due to sheer experience (╮(︶▽︶)╭), Tsunade ordered him to unseal its contents. With a puff of smoke the Hokage's "desk" (it was just a mat) was now covered with worn textbooks and scrolls and if Naruto wasn't mistaken, his father's kunai lying innocently on top of the neat pile.
Tsunade's eyes softened. "It's the pervert's journals."
"His spy journals." Naruto hoped his voice didn't crack. He wasn't terribly insistent in avoiding the topic of his sensei, but Naruto felt that it was best to mention his name as less as possible – considering it was the teammate that Tsunade had lost when she let him fight Nagato alone and Naruto had—for a time—unreasonably blamed his death on her when he heard of the news.
Tsunade blinked. "He let you read them?"
Naruto gave her a shrug. "I managed to sneak on him when he was lusting on a lady in a brothel. At least I thought he was, it turns out she was his spy."
"And he caught you, obviously."
"You don't have to say 'obviously'. You sound like you're betting on it and actually winning, granny."
"You're getting too good at evading questions lately. You've read them?"
"No." Two Naruto clones were formed, and they took the books and scrolls and scooted away to a corner to read them over – the three-pronged kunai was quickly stored inside Naruto's storage seal. "He wouldn't let me. But he did make me make my own." The boy frowned. "This isn't just a gift, is it? What are you fishing? Please be blunt, granny. I don't want to deal with mind games on my birthday. My brain needs to relax at least 24 hours every 365 days."
Tsunade rolled her eyes, mouthing him to be 'whiny'. "I want you to take up the mantle of Konoha's spymaster."
Naruto—and his clones—became completely still in that unnatural way Tsunade had never seen any other human being can achieve. And she held her stare against his gaze. His eyes were still his usual ice-cut blue, and not with pupils that thinned and whites that burst into the color of vibrant blood he had used to stare down at her, raging over Jiraiya's death.
When she had lost that unseen fight, she knew she'd lost future fights as well, such as now. Tsunade looked away first – then her heart softened when Naruto's features softened as well. "Ero-sensei couldn't be Hokage because he's the spymaster, dattebayo."
"I'm not asking you to quit your dream." Tsunade stated, then added, "Dumb brat." Naruto prevented a smile. "You are the only one he had groomed for the position. We have other spymasters too, but their networks are miniscule compared to Jiraiya's. Only you could inherit it, Jiraiya introduced you to his spies, didn't he?"
"Hmm," Naruto didn't confirm her verbally, knowing Jiraiya gave her reports of their activity log every week during his training trip. "I've been maintaining it just fine with my clones' help. Why would you ask me to go full time?"
Tsunade closed her eyes and dropped the bomb. "Fourth Shinobi World War."
Naruto's jaw dropped. War is—to be honest, becoming a little too familiar right now. Sound's invasion. Constant intelligence counter attacks. Traitors turning up. Three tails' rampage. Nagato's assault. But no one in their right mind would wish for another World War. Kage leaders try their best to prevent war—along with preparing.
Unlike his childish dreams, shinobi wars aren't conventional. They were also called Secret Wars. Unlike most children's imaginations—led by 'ninja' movies and glorified tales of their families—ninjas aren't soldiers. They specialize in stealth, secrecy, and assassination. Not outright war.
Maybe he'd be more excited in his youthful ignorance. But that was before he had infiltrated Iwagakure. An army of ninja and kunoichi departing to protect their families, only to bring news that they all died by one man. Shinobi Wars involve counter intelligence and constant assassination and ambush attacks crippling enemies silently before they even realize it. His Dad merely—maybe easily—wiped them all off openly.
"Are you—" Naruto bit his lip immediately. Of course Baa-chan wasn't joking. Wouldn't ever. Not about this. She's the top medic in the entire elemental nations who had to attend funerals day by day for years, her clan diminishing gradually until she was literally the only Senju alive. "Is this about Sasuke kidnapping Eight tails' Sacrifice?"
"How did you come across that information? That Kumo team only found out three days ago and came here yesterday. I was still in coma. Did Sakura tell you?" Tsunade narrowed her eyes. It's possible for Sakura to be shaken by the news Team Samui had delivered to her, Shizune and Kakashi (after given proof that no, Konoha is not insulting the Raikage by refusing an audience, our kage really is in a coma). Though she prioritized the girl's training as a combat medic, she didn't neglect her training to keep her mouth shut.
Naruto smiled sheepishly. "Had a clone henged into a pebble on the corner there listening in." Naruto indicated the patch of dirt in the tent that weren't successfully covered by the mat they were using.
The pebble, after getting the mental command from its creator, popped into smoke.
"That Kumo team were loud."
Tsunade shook her head. "It's too bad your clones leave a loud pop of smoke and released a lot of chakra to be detected. If not, I could have had you sneaked inside Kage offices as a stray paper or something."
"Yeah," Naruto formed a seal and another clone popped into existence. It walked towards Tsunade's paperwork and henged into an unassuming pen. If Naruto concentrated hard on a link with one of his clones, they could exchange memories without the clone requiring itself to be popped from existence (A method Naruto had developed after 8 weeks dedicated solely to meditating). But it's too bad they only last a day due to constant chakra output in maintaining the henge and suppressing the output to be undetected. "So, is it?"
"In part. I'm going to tell the Council after this little celebration. A message had arrived this morning — the Raikage is calling for a Kage Summit."
"A Kage Summit? You mean, he's calling all the kage to a meeting? I didn't think that's possible!"
Tsunade's eyebrow creased in irritation. "I see you're still neglecting reading history."
"But it's boring, Baa-chan! Genin are forbidden from the jutsu part of the library!" Because more genin go missing nin than chuunin or jonin. Naruto can understand that, and also the fact that genin, even most chunin, don't have the chakra reserves to use high level techniques so even if they know powerful ones, they can't even use it—but he can but no, the library won't bend rules. Stupid Council never approving him to be chuunin! "My clones can't take all those fancy words and either get distracted to shadow someone else or gut themselves with a pen!"
"Brat, you have to know these things if you want to get my seat! You don't want to sound like an imbecile to the Raikage or others. And—for Shodai's sake—now it's too late, our library has been destroyed and—don't look so happy about it!" Tsunade squeezed his cheeks hard.
"Itai! Okay, okay, fine! I'm sorry!"
"Remind me to spare an hour to teach you history! And have your clones write them to revive our library back."
Deeply despaired, Naruto groaned. "I have to do it with my neat writing, don't I?"
"Extra." Tsunade huffed.
"Extra trouble with the summit taking place at Tetsu no Kuni?"
Tsunade blinked. "Brat." As if it explained everything.
Naruto spared her a grin before sobering up. "Killer B's team were rowdy, the red head—Kumoi and Omoi I mean—and careless. 'I've never been to Land of Iron. Raikage-sama's sure about going there for the meeting?'" Naruto quoted, "or something along those lines, according to my plant at the onsen they visited on the way here."
"I see. Then you should know what our problem will be with his choice of location?"
"From all the other great villages, Konoha's the furthest from Tetsu no Kuni. We're—we're weak." Naruto admitted that bitterly. "We can't even be called a Great Village right now. We're just a settlement full of people with no food at all." Except for the storage scrolls every ninja have on their person—thank God Shikamaru quickly found a solution to their food problem yesterday. And
Yamato-taicho was a blessing. The ANBU Captain was now overworking himself building up houses for Konoha's residence. The bratty ones that wanted a customized house were ignored. They needed to finish building up shelter in case of a storm or something equally disastrous so people will just have to content themselves with a one-room wooden hut or a tent. "We'll be the most vulnerable one if we go to that summit. Who knows if the other villages are going to take advantage of the fact that Konoha's Hokage is still not in the village by the time the other kages are back."
When a Kage wishes to meet with his or her fellow Kage, he notifies the others of a time and place to convene as well as how many bodyguards they may bring. Travel and mission restrictions are placed on all shinobi who will not be attending the meeting in the days before, during, and after so that no village can work against another while their Kage are gone.
The problem; all the other Kage will have arrived in their village hours before the Hokage arrived back.
"Damn it, Ero-sensei's codes is as hard to decrypt as ever!" A clone cried out but Naruto and Tsunade ignored him.
"You're correct. This timing is the worst. Akatsuki could be using another mass destruction technique right now and we don't have Pain—" Tsunade caught Naruto's vacant expression, and she corrected her words, "Nagato reviving all casualties again. Our ANBU captain is tired doing reconstruction. Almost all of our chuunin and their summons are stretched in keeping the borders else some smartass decided that taking a chunk of our land is okay. Our jonins are busy fishing out spies our enemies have been sending after your fight 2 days ago. Yesterday was the only day we can afford to rest our energies. We're going to be busy non-stop after today's council meeting with the Daimyo."
Naruto's eyebrows rose in alarm.
"Yes, we're safe enough for the Daimyo to set his foot on Konoha. Something you would know if you 'go full time'." Tsunade teased. Then she became visibly upset. "Not to mention Danzo. We are infinitely lucky that I woke up from my coma quickly. Imagine him having this afternoon's council meeting without me."
Naruto grimaced. After finding out that Danzo had brainwashed Sai and his brother and forced them to kill each other in a useless test, he had pried Jiraiya to stop filtering things that had to do with the supposed most esteemed man in Konoha after the Hokage herself. "Yeah." He checked his wrist watch (there are no more clocks in Konoha right now). Just shy of 9 in the morning. They've been talking for a full hour now. "When is the meeting?"
"10 AM. Danzo had called for it ASAP, right after you arrived back on Kakashi's back yesterday morning in fact. Probably itching to pin blames and wanting to be approved as Hokage with my condition." Naruto whatever irritation he had of the man Tsunade had it ten times worse. The man makes it his mission to undermine the Hokage's decision and was very unpopular amongst ANBU. "It's a good thing the Fire Daimyo insisted on delaying the meeting until today, fearing another attack and knowing that Konoha can't keep him safe yet. I've already dispatched Asuma and Cat to escort him."
Asuma, because he was an ex-Twelve Guardian and someone the Daimyo trusted. Cat, or known as Yugao Uzuki otherwise, because she was one of the top ANBU who was the second-in-command after Kakashi and Yamato. Or, maybe because she was the type of woman the Daimyo liked. Strong, classically beautiful, with long silky orchid colored hair that every royalty women envy.
Naruto figured Sakura's rose colored hair could run Cat out of her money on that – had she not cut off her hair in some attempt to prove her maturity.
"Any ideas for how we're going to be fixing our delicate situation—think and bring it up later. I'll be taking you to join the council meeting, Oh Hero of Konoha."
An inane smile crossed his lips. "First meeting with the old man's crones. 'Am so not looking forward to it, dattebayo."
"As Namikaze Naruto."
"I refuse." Naruto cut her off before she could say anything else. His voice was cold and icy, and it reflected on his eyes. "I'm not going to let you—I get it, moral boost and stuff. But that's way too weak for a reason. No, Baa-chan."
"Moral support is crucial right now Naruto. You just said it, we're weak. Your victory over Pain—Nagato is a cause for celebration and I'm thankful that we don't suffer a single casualty over this attack that has robbed us of our entire village. But you're not a dreamy kid anymore Naruto. You also know this will be getting worse very soon. Our only food right now is small rations and dry fruits our ninjas kept in storage scrolls. We have no blankets but giant leaves. We have no more medical equipment. Disclosing your birth right will not only boost morale, but also increase your sway in politics. You're not particularly smart, but you're very clever and have quick wit, you give great ideas to solve our problems but you know your opinion is not going to be heard without heavy criticism of the council because of your age, brash headedness, past foolishness and silly jumpsuit."
Naruto scowled at the reminder that she had burned his orange jumpsuits, forcing him to start wearing darker clothes.
"I'm hoping that your lineage will be a surprising show of strength—I'm hoping to bring you as my second in the summit."
Despite his joke of ignorance, Naruto was aware of what the Kage Summit is. A gathering where the dumbass of a Shodai gave away Tailed Beasts as a sign of something as abstract and insignificant as goodwill—or what Kyuubi had told him. The number of bodyguard were either one or two or three. Being a Second means you're the strongest person your Kage trusts with their life.
He hated Tsunade's tactic that always involved in making him feel guilty. "I'm sorry, Baa-chan, but there is no way in Nine Hells am I letting my parentage get out. You have a good idea of how much work I put to accomplish anything." His voice hardened. "I will not have people simply expecting great things from Namikaze Naruto and write off my hard-earned achievements – dare dismiss me as just a genius."
"Please, Naruto."
"I already have my Dad's face, eyes, hair, even body stature." Naruto continued. "Let me keep my Mom's name."
Tsunade sighed heavily. "Alright. I won't push you about it. But I'm still telling you to take up Jiraiya's mantle. I'm going to attend the summit to convince them of Akatsuki's threat, to direct the Raikage's aggressiveness to something that deserves it. Akatsuki's goal to collect all the Tailed Beasts have only been discovered recently, and it's creating a cluster fuck of mess on things. Intel have already intercepted some messages suggesting war supplies. I'm going to be the last one arriving back home, while the others will have been freed of the mission ban and be free to sneak some attacks on Konoha ninjas that are still not allowed to take missions or travel outside the village. I'm going to be leaving in three days, leaving my ninjas starving with ever diminishing food because they're not allowed to go outside the village to hunt else they break all treaties and have green lit a legal war. I need someone who can keep tabs on things back home, on the roads, in the summit with me so I can relay discreet orders. I need someone who can disguise themselves as civilian hunters and bring food to our village. I need someone to be able to handle any assassination attempts on our key players without letting the enemies know that they are Konoha nin."
Naruto's eyes were pained from her rant. "Kyuubi won't stop insulting you. Fine, fine. I'll have the clones and my spies—however few they are, set up." Naruto sighed. "We never did have our epic duel. Ero-sensei has always wanted to go all-out on me one day. Guess we'll compete by seeing if I'll be a better spymaster. I feel screwed already. He's 50 years ahead of me."
Her hand reached out and messed up his fluffy, spiky lemon colored hair. "For a few years. I'm not asking this for forever. Konoha really can't afford to be blindsided again."
Naruto pouted and attempted to fix his hair. A futile attempt. It didn't look any different to her. "And before I forget." She threw an arm around his neck, and she rubbed their cheeks after kissing him sloppily there. "Seventeen! Now I can get you to drink sake with me without feeling guilty!" She slammed a large bottle of expensive booze she had sealed up in her tattooed seal, much like Naruto's. "Let's drink, brat!"
"Baa-chan, you just woke up from your coma yesterday!"
In the next moment, a familiar haze passed by Naruto's eyes, and he could 'see' a memory of hearing Sakura being told to alert Tsunade of the council meeting.
Naruto had tagged some clones using his unique solid henge as little things in his friends' pockets—disguised as obscure things that they won't be needing to throw at an enemy nin. The henged clones were able to see and hear as if they were normal clones, even though they were henged into solid inanimate objects. He had reverse pick-pocketed them without their knowledge. So that should one of his friends ever got attacked with a cheap shot, his clones can pop out and take the shot for them. Naruto had felt guilty about invading on their privacy all the time, but then he found out that Shino kept tags on his own comrades with his bugs probably constantly, so.
Naruto took the bottle of sake out of her hands and hid them behind Tsunade's back.
"Tsunade-shishou!" Sakura called out from outside the tent. A slight shift of his chakra allowed Naruto to break the silencing seal he had put up around the tent per Tsunade's request when she called for him to celebrate his birthday (which he, and probably everyone in the entire village, had forgotten due to the attack). "It's time for your first meeting with the Council! Will you be alright?"
Tsunade waved away her apprentice's concerns. "My health is fine. Give me a moment, Sakura."
Sakura gave her a nod and closed the tent.
The woman sighed and sealed her prized sake back as Naruto's clones sealed up Jiraiya's items back and tossed it to their creator, popping out of existence.
"Baa-chan?"
She looked down at the paperwork, considerably less than what she usually had to deal with and back at Naruto's clone that had henged as a pen. "Yes?"
"I'm sorry about the necklace."
She grunted and ruffled up his hair some more. "I gave that to you because I want to believe that it wouldn't kill someone precious who wore it for 24 hours. You managed almost four years." She smiled. "Come on, brat."
I'll be honest, I'm not sure I'll ever update this. I prefer writing out a younger Naruto where I can go crazy with the plot twists rather than here. I'm one of the few(?) that don't approve of the training trip. It's a major contradiction to what Naruto's trying to convince Sasuke: he wants him to come back home because home is where he can get stronger but then he gets out of the village? The threat of Akatsuki sneaking in Konoha isn't strong for me. Naruto was left behind in an inn, and Itachi and Kisame easily waltz in knocking on the door. Pretty sure he'd be safer if he's in the village - and have more time training rather than being dumped by Jiraiya.