Chapter 2:
Sandaime Hokage, The legendary ninja, known throughout the ninja world as one of the strongest and most resilient that ever lived, sat in his office behind his desk at the Hokage Mansion's administration block. Wearing his usual Red Hokage robes, he was going over his routine daily tasks of paper work, mission assignments, job requests and all other relevant stuff needed to co-ordinate a village.
However today, he was sad. Not because the work was so much or because he was alone in the office, but actually because of what day it was. For It was 10th of October, the day a great hero had sacrificed his life for the sake of his village and in doing so, had entrusted to it a new life and a great gift—a new power sealed in a new born hero in the form of a young baby. The very baby the villagers had come to detest because of that power within him, when he had no fault or had done nothing to get that power. The baby boy would never even know why they detested him.
Oh Minato!, He thought to himself, If only they understood your will. If only they would open their hearts to understand that you had given them so much. New lives, New power, all at the cost of you and your wife's life, your own child's entire future!It was Only because of you, that we got the power to balance the distribution of military strength amongst the ninja world, but these people just won't accept it. I know you wanted the village to see your son as a hero, whose birth saved them all, and you entrusted me with the task to make them understand. I passed the law that anyone who abuses Naruto, or tells him of these secrets would be sentenced to death, but I'm afraid that this hasn't stopped them from treating him as a complete stranger or sending him hateful looks, and on this day all of these feelings of these villagers become exaggerated. I have lost my beloved as well, but I don't go about blaming it on a young child…. Well….. at least the villagers don't physically hurt him.
He was in these deep thoughts, when a young ANBU operative wearing his mask and having spiky silver hair burst in through the office door. The Hokage, having accumulated years of mental training and experience, looked up calmly without startling and softly spoke to the ninja, "What is it Kakashi?" He asked him, identifying him by his silver hair.
"The Procession for the Martyred…The villagers…!" He was almost shouting and was out of breath.
"Calm down young man," ordered the village leader, "You're a fully fledged ANBU captain. Come now, take a deep breath and tell me what happened?"
"My apologies Lord Hokage," Kakashi said, starting to regain his calm composure having been scolded by the Hokage, "I just returned from my 33 mission-streak assignment and what I saw was more heartrending than any spectacle I'd ever seen in my life. I never knew that my very own fellow villagers could ever do something like this."
The Hokage raised an eye-brow, this was certainly serious, and not something he was expecting, "Go on lad….."
"Naruto, the boy, they…the whole village procession, they were throwing rocks at him, abusing him, shouting at him." He reported, "I was looking from quite a distance and those 33 missions in one go had drained all of my chakra and stamina so I couldn't go to stop anything."
"What!?" The up till now calm Hokage exclaimed with shock, "What of the boy!?"
"He managed to run away from there, the villagers chased him away through the Village gate."
"Are they still chasing him?"
"No Lord Hokage, they returned to the procession, but I can almost guarantee that they will go after him soon. He is just a kid, and they are a whole population of crazy grownups, many of whom are hunters. They certainly looked as if they wanted to kill him"
This is bad thought the Hokage Its as if the devil heard my thinking that the villagers haven't hurt Naruto physically, and decided to crush even that little piece of Minato's expectation of me. Oh Minato! How I and this village have failed you.
He then looked up to the ANBU, who was wearing a mask, but still the Hokage could tell that he was getting restless and was waiting for orders. After all he must be feeling that he is to blame since he could not save the boy or stop the villagers when they were beating him.
"Kakashi, " The Hokage began, "As you, and the whole village know that I passed the law 7 years ago that if anyone abused Naruto, they would be sentenced to death. But I suppose in the emotions of remembering their loved ones, they got out of control, and forgot the law. Now I know we cannot possibly sentence the whole village to such a fate, but we still have to set some examples so that this does not happen again. That is where you come in, you will point out the few people who hurt the boy most, and who were responsible for letting the crowd get out of their minds. In these cases, there are almost always trouble makers who set the people's emotions ablaze and everything goes to hell."
"Yes, Lord Hokage, as you wish", answered Kakashi accepting his new mission, "I was fortunate enough to see a few of these people, I can identify them and separate them for arrest. But the people will resist, and many ninja are also among them, it could lead to a fight. There could be a blood-bath".
"Yes, I am afraid so," replied the Hokage, "But we still have to do it, for the sake of the law, and even more for sake of the promise I made to Minato….We shall try to minimize the fighting. Gather the other ANBU Kakashi; we're going to need them."
"Lord Hokage, may I suggest," began Kakashi, he knew it would take too long to call for the ANBU in such a short time, so he had a better idea, "Let me just call on a few of the strongest I know. I am sure we'll be able to control it with just us and you leading us."
The Hokage got curious, and sensing his curiosity, Kakashi listed the names of the one's he was going to call, and he spoke out the names to the Hokage.
"Very well, Kakashi, I shall trust your judgment on this," said the Hokage, getting up from his chair and getting ready to move out, while doing so, he took out a small vial from his table, and handed it to Kakashi, "Here, take this elixir, It will restore your chakra and stamina. It is an extremely rare medicine and can be regarded as one of the treasures of the ninja world, it takes a decade to distill only this much. I was saving it for an extremely dire situation and I am certain that this emergency qualifies. But remember Kakashi, there's no such thing as free power. Once the elixir's effect's wear off, you'll be in for a lot of pain and exhaustion. So decide carefully if you wish to take it or not."
Kakashi took it and drank it whole without hesitation. Now he could head out without worrying about his chakra or stamina. He was going to do everything it would take to bring justice to the boy by controlling the village and then saving the child his sensei-Minato had entrusted to the village. He wasn't going to disappoint his sensei again, not after all the people he had let down during the war. Obito….Rin…..He closed his eyes and sighed, then opened them again, lit with determination, Minato-sensei, I promise. He solemnly said to himself, as both he and the Hokage headed out.
The Villagers felt proud for what they had done. In their minds, they had driven away a demon from their village, they had kept their procession safe from defilement, and they had kept their families' honor. It did not matter to them if the demon was a small child who looked innocent, who pleaded them not to hurt him, who just wanted to celebrate his birthday. To them it was a great achievement to drive away a demon which attempted to defile their procession by saying such things. If there was any small regret in their hearts, it was just that they could not manage to hurt him more, or even kill him. But no matter; they would do it if they ever saw the demon again. Yes, that would bring their families peace for sure.
The procession continued again, it was supposed to begin from the place of Kyuubi's attack on the east of the village and was to end at the graveyard at the west side. The villagers had made their way through half of their course when someone shouted and they all looked up; there on top of a building, stood Sandaime Hokage wearing the red robes all the people revered and admired so much, along with him were four ANBU; two on each of the Hokage's side. For a few moments the villagers were surprised as to why the Hokage had come, he'd never attended any of these processions before, even though he too had lost his wife in the Kyuubi's attack. But then they thought that maybe he'd finally come to join them, having thought that it's high time he did. However, both these thoughts were wrong. For the Hokage was here for a totally different reason.
"Residents of The Leaf Village," Began the Hokage, "for a long time, ever since the village's very foundations were laid; we have upholded the supreme virtues of fraternity and love amongst our people. We have always stood by each other in times of need, we have shared laughs together, and we have shed tears together. That is the will of fire that burns inside of each one of us, and that is who we are as the leaves of this village…."
What was this that he was saying? The villagers all admired his speech, but they had no idea what he was speaking about. Maybe he was praising them how they were all walking together to honor their lost loved ones .
The Hokage continued, "…..But today, I am ashamed. I am ashamed to be a leaf of this village, I am ashamed to be a ninja of this village, and I am ashamed to be Hokage of this village!"
The villagers were all shocked. Why was the Hokage saying such things? Have we done something wrong? Have we displeased the leader we all love and respect so much? These were the thoughts going through their minds. How pathetic they were to not even know how wrong they had been and what wrong they had done just a little while before.
"Lord Hokage! What is the matter?" inquired one of the villagers.
"Have we done something against your will? Or anything against the will of fire?" Asked another one.
The Hokage answered, "These inquiries of yours, they hurt me even more, for you do not even know what wrong you have done. Are you so far gone that you do not even know the difference? Well let me tell you". He jumped down from the roof and landed in front of them, the four ANBU wearing masks followed suit. "You have hurt a child! The very child whose birth saved your lives! The child of a great hero! And you all felt proud doing it. Is this your will of fire? Is this what you have been taught as the leaves of this village!?"
Understanding that he was referring to the child they had all chased away, they all went into bewilderment at what the Hokage was saying. Ofcourse they had done the right thing by hurting the kid; he was a demon, he had killed their families, and he would do it again if that power was let out. So they all said, "But Lord Hokage, he holds the demon fox inside him, he killed our families, he destroyed our village, he hurt us so much, and now he came to desecrate our procession by saying things like he wanted presents for his birthday!? Why should we not hurt him as well? We have done right!"
"I passed the law," replied the Hokage to them, "To never hurt the boy; he is a hero, and I have tried time and time again to make you people understand why that is. His father entrusted him to us, to care for him, to treat him as hero. He gave his life, Yondaime did not think twice about his own life! All he wanted was for you people to be safe, and all he asked was for you people to respect his child! But you have not only failed him, but all that you have been taught about our faith and virtues as well.
"It is time for judgment, since you all knew the law, and still chose to disobey it. The ones among you who were responsible for getting the crowd out of control, who incited others to beat the child up and chase him away; they will be arrested and sentenced to death!", finished the Hokage, laying down the law for them all.
They all were astonished to hear what he had just declared, and the ones among them who had started the stoning of the boy and who had given the speeches to set their emotions ablaze were the most worried. But since they all still believed how right they had been to do what they did, they decided to disobey the Hokage. The ninjas among them came forward to fight.
"If this is your answer, then so be it, but I shall uphold the law," sighed the Hokage, "My ANBU, arrest the ones who were most responsible."
Before the four ANBU stepped forward to carry out the Hokage's order, the ninja among the villagers all leapt at them shouting their own signature jutsu. They knew fighting the Hokage and his best will not be easy, but they will do it. They were so blinded by their emotions that they could no longer see what was right or wrong.
Their jutsus mostly hit the four ANBU, some even hit the Hokage, and they all fell screaming in pain. The ninjas of the village all roared declaring their victory. They were amazed but happy none the less at how easy it was to take down the Hokage and his best. They thought it must be because they were on the right side of the argument and what they did was justified after all.
The roars of victory soon died down as someone yelled to look up to building that the Hokage and his ANBU were standing on when they first arrived.
"How simple you people are," said a female voice; it was Kurenai of the four ANBU, "You all are already under my genjutsu. We never went down from this building. I cast it right away when we arrived, and now you're all surrounded."
Surrounded? Never came down? All of us under the genjutsu of one ninja? How was all of this even possible? It would require a tremendous amount of skill, stamina and chakra to perform something of that feat. These were the thoughts of the villagers and the ninja among them as the revelation was made to them.
Someone shouted again, and pointed to the centre of the crowd of people. Another ANBU was standing there, in a special taijutsu stance no one had ever seen before. "That's a taijutsu stance, " said a ninja, "and a very advanced one, it doesn't even belong to the village, that ANBU must have learned it from some other country, and the only one who could learn a taijutsu so advanced is…."
His words were left hanging as the ANBU unleashed his taijutsu, "Secret Art: Open 4 Chakra Gates," shouted the ANBU in the stance; it was Gai. An aura of energy surrounded him and his skin became red, "Art of the Dragon: Ultimate Whirlwind!" With speed that no one could follow, he ran around the crowd so fast that a huge tornado like whirlwind was produced, the ninja and the villagers were all thrown up into the air. Gai followed by jumping after them, and using the abundant supply of bandages he had brought with him, he tied the people up in groups of four and five before they fell down. And in this way, Gai incapacitated a few thousand of the villagers without seriously hurting anyone, but still a lot were left standing facing the Hokage.
The Villagers were bewildered at the feat they had just witnessed, they did not even have time to realize that another of the Hokage's ANBU had already invaded their ranks. This time the ANBU was wearing special knuckles on his fists that ended in short sharp blades. One of the ninjas among the villagers recognized him, the only one who wore such knuckles was none other than the Hokage's own son….Asuma Sarutobi. The villagers knew of his quarrels with his father but then again, it was not the Hokage he'd come for, it was for Kakashi.
Asuma first made a few clones to confuse the opposing ninja. With a large crowd of people, his clones will be a good distraction. As they went from clone to clone; throwing their punches, weapons and jutsus that were going right through the clones and dissipating them, Asuma got just enough time to lay down his trap. It was large enough to suppress a few more thousands of people of the village.
"I will not let any one of you harm the future Kings of this village", shouted Asuma at the huge crowd of people who clearly did not understand what he meant, as he made some hand seals, "Combination Art; Fire Style: Flame Boundary!" A small wall of fireappeared and surrounded the villagers, and then Asuma made some new hand seals, "Wind Style: Gale!" A gale appeared and added fuel to fire as it became larger, like a great fortress boundary around the villagers, now even the ninja among them couldn't escape as it was too high to jump over. Finally he made a last string of hand seals, and placing his hands on the burning fire, he muttered, "Seal!" The huge fiery boundary became still as the villagers became trapped in an extremely hot, now solid wall of fire. It was the only sealing jutsu he knew and it took much out of him since it was a combination art and required both wind and fire jutsus followed by a seal. He sat down to rest. But there were still most of the villagers left to defy the Hokage.
As this final crowd of people began to move towards the Hokage, the ninja leapt again at their leader to attack him. But their leaps were cut short as they leapt right into a wall of mud that appeared out of nowhere. The ninja got back to their fear as the wall broke down revealing a new ANBU standing between them and the Hokage.
"That hair!" said one of the ninja, "There's only one person in the whole village that has that hair, and he's one of the few hand full of people who can use three elements at once! its…..its…"
Why would he be standing against us too? His sensei was killed by that demon fox! Why isn't he on our side!? But more than being shocked at why this ANBU was not with them, the villagers were more worried about having him as an enemy, for he was one of the strongest ANBU that had ever lived.
"Kakashi!", said an infuriated ninja, "Why are you against us!? You lost your sensei, our beloved fourth Hokage to the demon boy!"
"My sensei", replied Kakashi, "would never want that his students would go hurting a little boy, and that boy is NOT a demon; he is my sensei's son, and he will be my student when he comes to the path of the ninja and I will make him one of the strongest there ever will be. I will not let anyone hurt the boy anymore!"he finished as he took off his mask to reveal his activated sharingan.
Kakashi's words and his enraged eyes were forceful enough, the people lost most of their fighting will to the sharingan's visual prowess. They surrendered to him without ever lifting a finger. So it became easier for Kakashi and the other three to separate the villagers who started the whole trouble. There were 13 in total, all belonging to different families. Their hands were bound by chakra-cuffs and they were brought before the Hokage.
"Your sentence shall be death by hanging!" He declared to them and then to everyone else he said, "Let this be a lesson to you all. No one and I mean no one at all is allowed to disrupt the peace or disobey the law. And most of all, no one is allowed to hurt the child Naruto, who is the legacy of the fourth Hokage!"
The Hokage ordered the ANBU to bring the culprits to the gallows in a few hours. In the mean time they will be allowed to say final goodbyes to their families.
It was now just over afternoon, the sun towering right over the Leaf Village and its surrounding landscape, Its rays shimmering down like gold dust between the tree branches loaded with leaves. The birds were flying over in all directions carrying messages to their respective recipients as was the trend of communication in the ninja world. The small wild animals in the vicinity of village's forest were about, some were playing with their families while some were just enjoying the sunny day.
Though all of them, these animals and birds and even the forest trees did notice something out of the ordinary—A young boy who had blonde spiky hair and was wearing what seemed like brand new orange clothes was running at the top of his speed in direction completely opposite to the village. This boy had expressions that the animals themselves have had when humans bothered and hunted them, and even though the animals were inferior life forms than humans, they somehow knew exactly what the boy must have been feeling-The Fear of man.
This boy was Naruto, a little boy of mere 7, who had been horrifically abused, beaten and chased out of his village just a couple of hours ago by the villagers, and all on the day of the most special of event of his life- to which he was so happily looking forward to. Who does such an act of cruelty? Who abuses such a tender and young life when it's just trying to be happy?
The Answer was simple…..It was man, and this was not even mankind's most cruel act for they can be far more animalistic than the animals themselves could ever be.
Must keep on running! Don't look back! Don't even stop for breath! Don't! Don't! Don't! Just keep running!
These were the only thoughts going through the little boy's mind as he was running away from the village. He was still bleeding from his head, he was still shedding tears from his eyes, and now to top it off he was also out of breath and his muscles were aching from running. He had been running for at least 2 hours now—All without stopping. His eyes were now blinded by the tears and blood, so he could not even see where he was running. He ran into a tree head first and fell down, holding his head in excruciating pain. It was already bleeding, and now the tree had made it worse.
"Damn! Damn! Damn! I hate it! I hate it all! I wanna die!" He said, as he laid there, closed his eyes and kept crying.
A shadow approached, and knelt before him. He sensed there was someone there and he opened his eyes to look up. His eyes widened with fright upon seeing who it was; a boy in his late teens was kneeling over him. He was wearing an ANBU uniform, there was a katana hanging on his back and there was the symbol of a fan on his left sleeve. He was a famous person all around the village. The prodigy of the famed and strong Uchiha;
"Uchiha….Itachi!" muttered Naruto weakly. He began to shake, fear taking over him again. Why is he here? Did the villagers send him? Is he here to kill me!? Naruto's thoughts were all messed up. He did not have the strength to get up even, let alone run away. So he just cuddled up and tried to protect himself with his arms for whatever the Uchiha prodigy was going to do him.
Itachi clenched his hand into a fist and moved it towards Naruto…..The boy was still shaking from fear. What's going to happen to me? Will it hurt to die?
To be Continued….