Biding Time
Ch. 1- Chaos Reigns
Narration: Sharingan= Deus ex Machina
Talking: "Sharingan= Deus ex Machina"
Thinking: 'Sharingan=Deus ex Machina'
Ch. 1
It was a cold fall evening in the Shinobi village of Konohagakure. Its civilian population was in bed, its shinobi patrolling the village with watchful eyes. The village was peaceful and had been at a pseudo-peace for years.
Shinobi villages kept up friendly fronts with their counterparts in the other countries. This was because all shinobi villages were allied with one of the Big Five. Kiri, Iwa, Kumo, Suna, and Konoha. If say, the Kage of Kiri declared war on Takigakure, then Taki would call in its ally Konoha.
There was an unspoken agreement between the Big Five. They would not declare war on each other, in an effort to prevent each of the villages from unleashing their most powerful weapon on each other. The jinchuuriki.
They are army killers, the ultimate weapons. They are shields and swords. They are the power of human sacrifice. A jinchuuriki is created by sealing a Bijuu into a human. The process works best on children, as their body can adapt to holding the volatile chakra.
Depending on the seal That's used during the transfer process, the amount of control a jinchuuriki has over their bijuu can range from total domination to the Bijuu being able to influence and control the jinchuuriki.
But no matter how strong the seal is, there is one time where it is weakened nearly to the point of breaking. When a female jinchuuriki is giving birth. And it just so happens that on this cold night of October 10th, the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi is about to give birth in a specially prepared room outside of the village.
The room is covered with seals, all designed to pacify the raging beast sealed into the woman. There were only 4 people inside. Kushina Namikaze-Uzumaki, the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage and husband of Kushina, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the retired Sandaime Hokage and Minato's predecessor, and finally Biwako Sarutobi, Hiruzen's wife who was a trained nurse helping deliver the child.
Minato was pacing around the room, stressing out and getting even more panicked with each of his wife's screams. Hiruzen, having seen his own wife give birth twice, he could sympathize with the young man. But after a few hours, the aged kage was quite done.
Grabbing the blond Hokage, he pulled him into the next room with strength a man his age had no right to possess. "Get yourself together boy! You pacing and making your wife even more nervous isn't helping! Now calm down and act like the shinobi I named as my successor." Releasing the much calmer Minato, Hiruzen cracked a smile at hearing the screams of Kushina replaced by the cries of a baby.
Turning to a smiling Minato, Hiruzen motioned towards the room with Minato's wife and child. "It's time to see your family my son." Minato practically teleported to his wife's side. 'Maybe he really did teleport.' Hiruzen mused, thinking about Minato's Hiraishin, a technique that allowed near instantaneous teleportation.
Pushing those thoughts away Hiruzen walked in, watching the small family hold each other. Minato was kneeling by Kushina's bed, who was holding the little newborn. Kushina turned to Hiruzen, a wide smile on her face. She glowed, radiating nothing but love and happiness. But her eyes revealed how tired she was. Hiruzen knew she might sleep for the next twelve hours.
"His name is Naruto." Hiruzen looked at her in disbelief. "Kushina I know you like ramen, but naming your son after a topping is a bit much."
Kushina looked indignant. "It means maelstrom, database!" Hiruzen just nodded, not entirely convinced. "Whatever you say, dear."
"What a beautiful scene." Everyone rapidly turned to the voice. It came from a man in a long black robe. He wore a mask with a spiral design and one eyehole that revealed a Sharingan.
"You can just ignore me, I didn't want to ruin the moment." He said, leaning against a seal covered wall. Drawing a Hiraishin kunai, Minato stood in front of his family protectively. "I don't know how you knew about this location Uchiha, but if you don't leave then I'm afraid someone's going to die."
The man brought his finger to where his chin would be behind his mask. "Hm, that is accurate. But I'm afraid that I'm not going to die today Namikaze." The man charged Minato, Sharingan blazing.
Minato blocked the masked man's kunai with one of his own, trying to overpower him. "Hiruzen!" Minato called, lunging forward and grabbing the man's collar. "Guard Kushina!" He yelled before teleporting himself and the man.
Reappearing in the Forest of Death, Minato threw the man into one of the nearby trees. The masked man regained balance midair and landed smoothly on a tree, standing horizontally with basic chakra control. Minato didn't allow him to rest for even a second.
He dashed towards him, jumping from branch to branch, throwing kunai the whole time. But the masked man met each knife with one of his own, pulling them from pockets inside his robes. Landing in front of the mysterious figure, Minato jumped towards him, a fully formed Rasengan in hand.
Leaning out of the orb's way he kicked Minato in the back, sending the Hokage into a tree. The masked nin reached for a kunai but froze, before chuckling. "Well, it seems I've stalled you long enough. I've got to run." He said as if he was late to an appointment. A distortion in the air appeared from nowhere in between Minato and the masked man.
The man walked towards the distortion and waved towards Minato. Before he reached it he called out, "I am sorry about your wife, she seemed lovely." Minato's eyes widened. Ignoring Minato's reaction the man jumped into the now fully-formed portal.
Focusing on a Hiraishin marker he left on Kushina, Minato teleported, reappearing in the sealing room. Looking around he fell to his knees, overcome with grief.
In one corner, Hiruzen lay unconscious, most likely from a genjutsu. By the bed, Biwako lay dead, a kunai stuck in her stomach. On top of the bead was Naruto, crying for attention. Kushina was nowhere to be found.
Before Minato could do anything, he heard a loud roar from outside the room. Looking outside, Minato's heart sank. Standing over 300 feet tall, the Kyuubi no Kitsune in its full glory was standing in the middle of the Forest of Death.
Minato couldn't understand how everything could go so wrong. 'For the Kyuubi to be fully manifested... Its jinchuuriki would have to have been killed.' Pushing all thoughts of the death of his wife from his mind, Minato knew he had to think fast.
'There is a time to be weak, and there is a time to be strong. Right now, my village needs me.' Steeling his heart Minato ran inside and carefully picked up Naruto. "Naruto," Minato said, his voice cracking, "I love you so much. If I thought there was any other way, I would take it in a heartbeat. But there isn't one."
"You may be hated, you may be ignored. But I know that you'll overcome anything that will ever face." Minato wiped a tear from his eyes, before teleporting to a Hiraishin marker by the village gates.
His ninja had been alerted and were swarming towards the tailed beast, which was less than five hundred feet from the village. Water dragons, earth spikes, and a plethora of other jutsu were launched towards the behemoth. All to no avail.
Amplifying his voice with chakra, Minato stood forward and yelled to his men. "Stand back! I need room!" Within a few moments, all that stood between Konoha and the Kyuubi was Minato Namikaze.
The Fox noticed the sudden lack of shinobi and saw it as a clear path to its target. It roared, before running on all fours towards the village.
Quickly placing Naruto on the ground, Minato ran through the hand seals for the only jutsu that could save his village. Before the last seal, Minato gave his son one last look. "I love you son..." He whispered, his voice heard by no one but himself.
The Kyuubi was less than a hundred feet away when Minato finished the final seal. "Sealing Jutsu: Reaper Death Seal!" In a fraction of a second, Minato felt something grab a hold of something deep within himself. He watched as he was pulled out of his body, and into the mouth of the Shinigami himself.
As soon as Minato was consumed, the death god teleported in front of the Kyuubi and grabbed it by its neck. It dragged it towards the only suitable host; the newborn laying on the ground behind it. 'Sorry about this kid.' The ancient god thought to itself, before pushing the Fox towards the boy.
As the fox neared its soon-to-be jailor, it began to deteriorate into the iconic red bijuu chakra. The energy flowed into the baby's stomach, where a seal glowed bright red. In seconds the bijuu was fully sealed and the Shinigami disappeared.
The moment both entities were gone, Naruto began to wail with a passion, crying out for any to hear. The shinobi, seeing the Kyuubi disappear, jumped towards the site where Minato died. Upon reaching the location, they were quite surprised to see a naked baby with a glowing seal on its stomach lying next to their dead Hokage.
One of the jonin at the scene picked the child up and began to order the lower ranking nin to pick up dead and wounded. The ninja holding Naruto shunshined to the hospital, while the remaining ninja went through the forest picking up wounded and counting the dead.
That next morning, a meeting was called by the now-recovered Sandaime Hokage. As Hiruzen entered the room where the meeting was to be held, he watched as all the gathered parties were already arguing and debating. Walking towards the seat at the head of the long table they used for meetings like these, Hiruzen observed the people within the room.
The only people allowed to voice opinions and vote on matters concerning the village were Clan Heads, as well as both the jonin and ANBU Commanders. Hiruzen abolished the Civilian Council long ago, annoyed with how they thought they had any say in how he, the Hokage, could run his SHINOBI village.
Hiruzen sat down in his seat and slammed his hands on the table. "QUIET! ALL OF YOU!" Nearly everyone jumped back. They weren't dealing with the venerable, retired Hokage. This was Hiruzen Sarutobi, the God of Shinobi.
Seeing that everyone was now silent, Hiruzen continued. "Now I'm sure you have all heard the news by now. Minato, my successor, has fallen in battle against the Kyuubi." This really wasn't news to many as nearly every clan had been fighting against the bijuu. Even the ones who hadn't had heard from friends who were fighting about how he was found dead next to a crying baby with a seal on its stomach.
"He sacrificed himself to seal the Kyuubi into a newborn child." As expected, the Clan Heads rose to their feet, some crying for execution, others for him to be taken in by their personal clan. But Hiruzen was in no mood for any of this.
He once again slammed his fist on the table. "YOU ARE SHINOBI! Act like it!" As the room quieted down. Fugaku Uchiha rose to his feet. "Hokage-sama, if we gain custody over the boy, we will shape him into a perfect weapon for Konoha."
Other clan heads stood up as well, arguing that their own clan should be the one to take the jinchuuriki in. Hiruzen sighed, rubbing his temple. "ENOUGH! The boy is to be a neutral party, not manipulated by a clan. He will remain in the orphanage until he is old enough to live on his own. Then he will be taken to an orphanage, and no clan adopts him."
Seeing the clan heads begrudgingly agreed, he moved on to the next topic. "As Minato has died, I will be taking over as Hokage, that is until I find a suitable replacement. Now, I know you've all lost someone. But we are Konoha Shinobi! We will endure, and we will recover. May the Will of Fire live on."
And with that, the council was dismissed. Hiruzen stood up, using a shunshin to appear in his office. Walking over to his desk, he pulled out his hidden sake and special burley tobacco. "For my wife, my successor, and my men." Hiruzen whispered taking a swig of sake straight from the bottle and lighting his pipe.
Channeling chakra to a communication seal, Hiruzen called an ANBU into his office. The black op kneeled in front of his kage. "Hare, I need you to get me Jiraiya. I don't care what he's doing, I want him here."
The ANBU disappeared in a tornado of leaves, leaving Hiruzen alone with his thoughts. His mind raced, considering all the consequences of an attack like this.
The biggest was that other villages might not fear Konoha, knowing that the bijuu that once kept its enemies at bay was trapped in a child. There was also the matter of Minato dying. Hiruzen was once a god amongst men, but his time had passed. He was getting old, and Konoha's enemies would take advantage of the both the weaker Hokage, and potentially the lack of confidence from within.
It wouldn't take much for some to be convinced that Konoha was weak and to believe it to be safer to throw in their lot with another village. Hiruzen needed to appear strong and to do that the kind grandfather had to leave forever. It was once again time for the God of Shinobi.
The final problem was that people had a face for the Kyuubi. Before with Kushina, no one knew who the container was, allowing her to live a safe and happy life. Now, people knew Naruto was the jinchuuriki. That meant people had a person to blame for the Kyuubi, and other villages knew who to assassinate if they wanted to cripple Konoha.
Hiruzen stopped his train of thought when a broken-looking Jiraiya appeared in his office. "What do you want sensei?" Jiraiya spat out, reeking of alcohol. Hiruzen sighed before walking over to his student. Using a simple poison purging jutsu he cleared all the alcohol from the man.
Jiraiya let out a ragged breath before plopping on the couch next to Hiruzen's desk. "Why sensei!? How could this even happen?"
Keeping the knowledge of the mystery Uchiha to himself, Hiruzen spun a quick lie. "Kushina died in childbirth. Minato used Naruto to seal the Kyuubi.
In his tired and emotionally drained state, Jiraiya just nodded dumbly. "But the reason I called you here was that I want your sealing expertise." Hiruzen said, getting a strange look from Jiraiya.
"What for?" He asked, suspicious about his sensei's true motives. "Look Jiraiya, Konoha is weaker than it's been in a long time. We can't afford anything happening to the jinchuuriki. So you are going to put some seals on the child.
Jiraiya stood up at once, anger etched onto his face. "Sensei! How could you-" Jiraiya's words died in his throat as he felt a huge wave of killing intent coming from his sensei.
"That was an order, jonin," Hiruzen said, a dangerous edge in his voice. Jiraiya nodded. "Fine sensei, get an ANBU to bring him here."
In a few minutes, an ANBU appeared with Naruto. After he left, Jiraiya pulled some ink and a brush from a hidden seal in his vest.
"What seals?" All emotion was gone from Jiraiya, replaced by indifference. It was a trick that all high ranked ninja used, but it was just that. A trick.
Simply telling yourself that something didn't affect you wouldn't stop it. Pain can't be wished away. Especially the emotional kind. All you could do was lock it away.
But Hiruzen had been locking it away for decades, and now he felt nothing. "I want an inhibitor seal to limit chakra output. A loyalty seal that will guarantee his allegiance. A paralysis seal in case he breaks free, and an execution seal if that doesn't work."
Jiraiya wordlessly drew the seals on his newborn godson. In a few minutes, the seal master was done. Carefully placing Naruto in the basket he was carried in on, he looked at the man he once saw as a father. "Good-bye sensei."
Hiruzen sighed as one of the last people he cared for left the village. While his student wouldn't go, rogue, it would take a crisis to get him back in the village.
Looking towards the baby on his desk Hiruzen collapsed into his chair. 'I am far too old for this.'
Hello, all! I'm sorry for the long hiatus, but I've been having major writer's block. Writing gamer fics is very time-consuming for me and takes almost five times as long to do as a 'regular' story. This will definitely not be a gamer fic, and I have a feeling I won't be touching my other fics for a while.
But nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thanks for reading. Have a wonderful day.