Author's note: This chapter took a little longer to post because I'm on a family vacation and had no free time. This is also my first attempt at a fight scene so please, criticism is appreciated. Hope you guys enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 3: Doing it all over again
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Kira clashed with Kakashi with his kunai matching him blow for blow. Kakashi was on the offensive and making wide slashing attacks with the occasional thrust when he saw the opening.
Telegraphing one attack in a grand manner, only for it to be a feint, Kakashi landed a solid kick on Kira and sent him reeling back. Sheathing his kunai Kakashi charged towards him. Kira saw him coming and made two shadow clones with the seal to flank him.
Kakashi met the three blondes in battle and quickly dispatched the clones with Jabs to the throat and face. The real Kira was having a hard time matching the Cyclops in a pure taijutsu battle so he made another clone to rush him.
Kakashi saw the clone coming and sidestepped and tripped him before realising the clone didn't burst in smoke. Sensing something was wrong he immediately jumped away before the clone exploded with a great deal of force behind it. Kakashi deadpanned at the blonde, already hating the idea of fighting someone with exploding clones
Minato was on the sidelines observing the match with a critical eye. He sighed and remembered his conversation with Kakashi the previous day.
Flashback:
After Naruto and Kira both had left the office, Kakashi landed again. "What do you think Kakashi?"
"He seems to have proven his identity and his story might check out, but we still don't know his motives. We know he might be from a different universe, but we still don't know what his personal agenda is."
Minato frowned. "You're right. He's a loose cannon right now, and what more he's a jinchuriki of the highest caliber ever seen since the Sage. We can't take this lightly. The reason I chose you to test his skills in the spar is because I want you to push him to the farthest you can, and not get hurt yourself. Don't do anything permanent, but make him draw out as much of his skills as you can."
Kakashi nodded and Minato continued," I'll be putting you off the active Anbu list for now, you're to resume your Jounin duties with an extra A-Rank mission starting tomorrow. You are to keep a close, watchful eye on one Namikaze Kira, determine his motives and if he's fit to be a part of this village. You are to be his Jounin mentor and partner with him on the first few missions I send him on." Minato finished with a stern look. Kakashi bowed to him and looked down, before asking,
"Do you think we can trust him?"
"That remains to be seen, but for the moment I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. That doesn't mean that this mission is in any way less severe in nature. You are to carry out your mission with utmost attention to detail. This mission is very sensitive in nature and I expect you to bring me results." Minato looked at Kakashi with a gaze that reminded the Cyclops of his wartime days. Anyone who ever says that Minato was the most friendly person ever had clearly never been in a mission under him. He was a slave driver. Period.
Kakashi nodded, "I will carry out your orders to the letter the Hokage-sama. I'll bring you weekly reports until you deem fit." Minato nodded and returned to his paperwork and Kakashi returned to his guard position.
End flashback
Kakashi created two clones with himself and charged with his makeshift team towards the blonde. The blonde in question made 11 clones and charged, prepared to overwhelm the silver haired ninja. The teams clashed and only resulted in a blonde massacre before Kakashi realized that the original was missing from the fray.
Casting a wary eye towards the treeline Kakashi spotted shuriken flying towards him. Dodging them all he stood his ground and waited.
A short while later 5 clones rushed from the treeline towards him brandishing large kunai with a green haze emanating from it. Kakashi rapidly made hand seals while jumping back and shouted "Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu!"
A large fireball launched forward from the silver haired shinobi's mouth and quickly enveloped 3 of the advancing clones before heading on to the forest and exploding in a burst of flames.
The advancing clones reached Kakashi and tried to slash at him with their wind enhanced kunai while Kakashi did his best to backpedal and Dodge, as blocking a wind enhanced kunai was pointless.
During this time the original Kira had appeared and was trying to blindside Kakashi from his right side. Kakashi sensed him coming and with a leg sweep caused the clones to fall before finishing them off and jumping away, facing Kira, ready to counter whatever the blonde would do.
Kira looked at Kakashi and began his own set of seals, which Kakashi recognized as a wind style jutsu. "Futon: Daitoppa!" Kakashi recognized the jutsu but wasn't prepared for the sheer power that Kira put behind it and failed to dodge it completely, ending up with small cuts all over his arms and being thrown back.
'Alright so he is a chakra powerhouse. He lacks the finesse and proper control to fully utilize his massive resources but the level of techniques he's using, he can simply get by with overcharging them. He knows his strengths and weaknesses and is using whatever knowledge he has to win. Not a bad head on his shoulders for tactical situations, but lacking majorly in taijutsu skills,' Kakashi summarised in his head. From what he had seen, Kira was easily Jounin material, but he wanted to see more of his skills and decided to continue the battle.
Kakashi recovered from being thrown back in midair and landed with his hands going into his kunai pouch. Quickly launching some kunai with deadly accuracy, he forced the blonde to move and not let him push the advantage. Convinced that the blonde was far enough he threw a smoke bomb and disappeared.
Kira saw this, cursed, and tried to sense Kakashi, without coming up with much. The man was a captain level Anbu, he would be downright impossible to track. He was about to rush into the forest when he felt something grab his legs, and pull him down to his neck in the ground. A moment later Kakashi emerged from the ground with a kunai to his throat. "You fought well." He eye smiled.
Kira looked at him and grinned, before saying, "Boom."
And following suit with an explosion that shocked Kakashi and threw him back.
The original Kira, meanwhile, threw several kunai and launched an empty palm strike behind them, which gave them a green haze and launched them much faster, straight into an airborne Kakashi.
Who immediately got replaced by a log which was splintered and shot through.
Kakashi landed a few feet away and simply asked, "When?"
Kira replied, "The smoke bomb" and grinned.
They nodded once and then charged at each other again, prepared to end this fight.
Kakashi knew he was at an elemental disadvantage but he pressed on with a lightning charged kunai and faced Kira with his wind enhanced kunai.
The pair clashed with sparks flying everywhere. Kakashi immediately realized that he won't stand much chances in front of the wind enhanced kunai and instead jabbed into the openings to shock Kira. Kira, who realized a little too late that the constant shocks were focused towards his arms, was surprised when his kunai wielding right arm suddenly turned limp for a moment, which was all Kakashi needed to nick him in the neck.
Kakashi jumped back and stated, "Alright that's enough. You have shown enough skill as a shinobi to pass as Jounin. Your fighting skills certainly match up, but your jutsu repertoire needs to expand. Your tactical thinking is noteworthy but you rely on clones a little too much. That could prove fatal in a fight with a sensor or someone who can figure out where the original you is. You also need a lot of experience in the other parts of being a Jounin, which fortunately I'll mentor you through."
Kira listened to Kakashi's verdict and smiled. He was happy that Kakashi himself would be mentoring him, and that he also got an explanation of what things he needs to focus on. When Kakashi was finished with his explanation, they both noticed Minato walking towards them, followed by a very giddy looking Naruto.
"That was awesome! I didn't know you could shoot fireballs Kakashi-san! And what was that technique you used? To just trap Kira inside the earth like that! It was so cool." Naruto began to compliment their battle before Minato ruffled his hair and told him to calm down. Naruto looked irritated at having his hair messed up but he agreed and stopped.
"Namikaze Kira. I have seen enough to determine that you are easily Jounin level in terms of fighting. As Kakashi said, you'll have to train in other aspects of being a Jounin, but you're off to a good start. I can back your reinstatement to Jounin to the council, added you complete a few missions in the field to get experience as well as proof of your skills." Minato explained with a passive face. Kira listened to it all before grinning, excited at the prospect of finally making Jounin.
'The 18-year old war hero, who saved not only his village multiple times but also possibly the world, is still a genin' The Juubi laughed in Kira's mind. He knew that the blonde was easily Jounin material but the humour was not lost on him when he had seen every one of his teammates outrank him in the field.
Kira ignored the Jab made by Juubi and waited for Kakashi and Minato to finish their talking. After a minute or so, Minato said, "You'll have to attend a council meeting today in 3 hours time. You'll be presenting yourself in front of all the members of the ninja council and the advisors. You should feel lucky about not having to deal with the civilian council in your first meeting." Minato snickered and then turned around, "Well I'm going back to the tower. Don't be late this time Kira." He glared at him before disappearing.
"Well Naruto, where do you wanna go? Should I escort you home?" Kakashi asked Naruto with a smile. "Can you please take me to meet Sasuke? We were supposed to meet today," Naruto replied happily.
Hearing Sasuke's name Kira couldn't help but stiffen. It was a painful memory, and a very painful realisation that he'd have to see him again. He might be misguided and used, but he was still his best friend.
Pushing aside his thoughts on the matter for a later time, Kira decided to leave the training field as well. He had just 3 hours to kill so he couldn't exactly start any training.
Everyone that he knew were just kids at the moment, and he didn't know many people that would be around his current age right now. He finally realised that he needed to gather some Intel about the differences between his old world and this new one. With that in mind he decided to leave for the library to scope out as much information as he could.
Shimura Danzo was sitting in his ROOT office with his bandaged and unreadable face. His absolute abhorrence of emotions still failing to make him not frown.
His spies had informed him of a blonde ninja that was a splitting image of the Hokage, was in a meeting with said Hokage. He didn't know about the contents of the meeting because of his privacy seals and the fact that they were unbreakable. His frown wasn't because there was an unknown ninja, that he can always get information on whenever he wanted. What confused him was that the person was using an old Anbu codename, which was an enigma for him.
Dragon, when active, was a mystery even for the most secretive man in Konoha. The war hawk absolutely refused to believe that there could exist any single ninja in the village that would have so much potential and be unnoticed by him. His only guesses as to who could be the Anbu in question was Minato, because he couldn't think of anyone else that could pull off that many S-Ranks without dying.
Danzo was almost convinced that it was Minato but then this nobody shows up at the village and claims the title for himself, with the Hokage's supposed backing. If that person operated within the village even for the slightest time possible, he would know. Yet that person drew blanks no matter where he looked or who he asked.
His own personal records, which had all the noteworthy shinobi from all over the world, also brought up nothing. If there was a shinobi in Konoha that was worth looking at twice, then Danzo would know him.
And yet, that person was an enigma which only grew more confusing with the appearance of this unknown factor.
Danzo glanced at the messenger entering his office before returning to work. "Danzo-Sama, Hokage-sama has called a meeting for Jounin reinstatement of one Namikaze Kira. The meeting will start in about 2 hours time." Danzo didn't acknowledge anything and the messenger bowed and left the room.
Seems like he would get answers sooner than expected.
Kira had spent almost all his time in the library looking for recent affairs information. His point of interest was from around the kyuubi attack, to the present.
He had found lots of interesting pieces of information that equally confused and amused him. The most important piece of information was the Uchiha civil war.
The civil war was orchestrated by the Uchiha elders. The civil war divided and killed most of the clan, and all that remained was a few families. They went from being the contender for the strongest clan in the village to one of the weaker ones just because of sheer lack of numbers.
The civil war took place because the Uchiha elders wanted to rule Konoha themselves. They had planned to murder their clan head, and then the Hokage to usurp control of the village. The cause of the civil war felt very suspicious to Kira, as he was sure they were not stupid enough to believe that they could do all that in a ninja village and have it not backfire. Whatever remained of the clan, only remained due to timely interference of Anbu, the Hokage and Itachi Uchiha.
Itachi Uchiha was still a missing-nin in this timeline, but the actual problem was that he was driven to defection by his clan itself. His best friend Shisui Uchiha, and his would-be girlfriend Izumi Uchiha had been the victims of the civil war. While Shisui had gone down fighting and his body never recovered, Izumi had been killed in her sleep. Itachi was enraged, and while still having a better control of his emotions and the mind to target the right people, he didn't take any prisoners that day.
Kira had guessed that he might be a part of Akatsuki again, but this time he may truly want to harm Konoha. He would have to discuss this with Minato.
Another interesting piece of information he gathered was that Jiraiya had been an active part of the village for the better part of his life, instead of roaming the elemental nations. He still maintained his spy network, but he was a lot more grounded to Konoha and had been an active member in the village.
The last major thing he noted was something he was particularly proud of. The Hyuuga incident was much better handled in this world. When the Raikage had denied all the accusations and demanded the body of Hiashi Hyuuga to compensate the killing of his ninja, Minato had stood stern and did not bend over to the Raikage's demands. His single letter of argument contained his signature tri-pronged kunai and the letter which stated that whenever the Raikage calmed down and decided to talk things out he would just need to throw the kunai to start the international delegation graced by Minato himself. While this was a rather bold move, the only message this was meant to send was to remind the Raikage who exactly he was trying to push around, and that Minato could teleport to Kumo whenever he wanted.
The end result was that the Raikage had backed down and there was only bad blood between the villages, no open hostility.
Kira was going over all this when an Anbu messenger landed near him and nodded.
Kira nodded back and they both used shunshin to reach the Hokage tower, where the meeting regarding him was about to start.
The council chambers were full of the all the needed people. The clan heads, the Anbu commander, the advisors and finally the Hokage himself were all seated in their respective places.
Kira entered the council room and gave a small bow, "Did the council request my presence?"
Minato addressed the entire council and said, "Yes Kira. We are gathered here today to discuss your reinstatement in the village ranks, and your rank at the time." He gave a pause. "Namikaze Kira, you were sent on a long undercover S-Rank mission which supposedly failed. You were deemed KIA around 5 years ago, after about 2 years of silence from your end. Is all that has been said true?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama," spoke Kira.
"How did you escape, and how did it take you 4 years to get back to the village?" asked Homura, a member of the advisors.
"Homura-san, I was captured and kept in a drug induced state for the entirety of my imprisonment. Due to the nature of the information, I cannot disclose how I escaped or where I escaped from, but Hokage-sama has heard the full story and backs my decision to keep it that way. My apologies for the lack of detail." Kira replied. 'Ha look at you, buttering up the council like a filthy politician' Juubi snickered in his mind and Kira had to do everything he could to keep a straight face.
Hiashi Hyuuga, the head of the Hyuuga clan, looked over to the blonde ninja in front of him with a critical eye. For all intents and purposes, his backstory and explanations were suspicious and flimsy at best. The only reason he had the benefit of the doubt was that he had the Hokage's backing. Still, Hiashi couldn't shake an uneasy feeling he got from the ninja.
Homura frowned but nodded at Kira's less than satisfactory answers and the Hokage moved forward, "Your identity was destroyed upon your being deemed KIA, You will be registered as a Jounin and will be given a monthly stipend to cover your expenses for the next 6 months. The council may now discuss." Minato finished and leaned back in his chair.
Kira sighed and faced the clan heads and Anbu commander. The clans: Aburame, Akimichi, Nara, Hyuuga, Uchiha, Yamanaka, and Inuzuka; were all the main part of the ninja council, being the major clans in the village. There were other minor clans but they were a part of the village council, and not the ninja council.
The clan heads all looked at him and it was Shibi Aburame who spoke first. "Kira-san, my Kikaichu have been vary of your chakra levels since you entered. Is it safe to assume that you have more chakra than normal?"
"Aburame-sama, I am a ninjutsu-specialist and do have vast resources. My chakra reserves are currently above Kage-level and are supposedly still growing. The trade-off is that my chakra control is beyond abysmal." Kira explained, getting raised eyebrows from everyone.
Shibi nodded returned to his motionless, emotionless staring.
Tired of the pointless questions, Hiashi decided to address the obvious question in everyone's mind. "Kira-san, how are you related to the Hokage and why do you have whisker marks on your face, reminiscent of our young jinchuriki?"
The other clan heads were somewhat stunned by the usually calm Hyuuga's blunt question, but were more interested in the answer themselves.
Kira honestly expected this to be the first question he would be asked, and had prepared beforehand.
"Hyuuga-sama, Hokage-sama is just my clan member. I didn't grow up around him and I've never known him on a personal level. That said, I was very surprised that he grew up as strong as he did. The whisker marks is wrongly attributed to the jinchuriki status I'm mistaken, it's actually a marker for our clan. The ones bearing the whisker marks usually have titanic chakra reserves, and only show up once or twice in a few generations. For little Naruto to bear the whiskers and the kyuubi, he must have chakra more than me and half this room combined when he grows up." Kira explained with a happy look.
"I have never heard of such a thing, Kira-san." This time it was Shikaku Nara who spoke up. "I find it hard to believe that such a massive chakra-boosting bloodline would go unnoticed."
Kira answered with a sad tone, "It's true, Nara-sama. It shouldn't go unnoticed, but there need to be people who wield it to make a name. My entire clan was killed in the last war. We were never really a ninja clan, and as such couldn't put up much of a fight. I fled the village and escaped with the basic skills I had and landed in this village." He answered with a sad smile.
Shikaku nodded and then asked again, "Why does no one recognize you? Surely another Namikaze in the village would've drawn attention. I'm the Jounin commander of the village, and yet don't seem to recognize you."
"I was drafted in the Anbu black ops as soon as I showed potential for it. My records -before being erased- were flimsy as is, and it was easier to draft those kinds of people into Anbu, rather than people who, if went missing, would cause problems." Kira answered, having thought of this question too. He had gone over his basic questions that he thought he would be asked, so he didn't have to think much.
Shikaku stared at him. This was the perfect answer to neither raise suspicions, and give information. The Anbu does indeed target people who have less than concrete records. The ninja in front of him either was telling the truth, or knew enough about the village to pass as it's member.
"You said you were a ninjutsu specialist. Elaborate on your other skills," ordered Fugaku Uchiha. Kira nodded and began, "Obviously I'm rooted in stealth and espionage. In combat, I'm a ninjutsu specialist with specialisation in Futon. I have apprentice level skill in fuuinjutsu and apprentice level sensory skills."
Tsume Inuzuka whistled. "Kid's got the full package, eh?" Kira grinned at her, while she returned a fanged grin of her own.
The rest of the clan heads were also impressed, but it was nothing to write home about yet. The skills Kira mentioned were good enough for a Jounin recommendation, but not so impressive as to garner attention, which was just what Kira needed.
Kira had no doubts that most of the people in the room could kill him in a fight. Now, if he went Juubi mode then that number would diminish greatly. Currently, he thought only Minato could defeat him in Juubi mode. He didn't really know enough about the clan heads to figure out who would win.
"Your combat skills are enough to warrant your promotion, but combat isn't all that a Jounin does. Being a Jounin is a symbol of the village's prime ninja. I suggest you be prompted to special Jounin for the time being, until you prove your worth in all the required fields." Spoke Danzo in a quiet tone.
Kira frowned a little. What Danzo said made sense, but the fact was that the lower his rank was, the more pressure he could be put under. He was sure Danzo was only undermining his rank to find a way to interrogate him, and get answers. Kira knew Danzo wanted to know about Dragon, and how he escaped Danzo's notice for all this time. Still, Kira thought he deserved Jounin rank after all he had been through.
"Danzo-sama, I understand your doubt in my abilities due to there not being much records of it, but I assure you that I can carry a Jounin rank with all the necessary requirements. If you still need further convincing then I have already requested Hokage-sama to place me under the direct supervision of Hatake Kakashi to train as a Jounin. I hope that is enough." Kira explained dryly. From his point of view, being under a senior Jounin was enough training.
"I think that's agreeable," spoke Shikaku. "Kakashi is one of our best Jounin, and if he personally vouches for Kira and his abilities, I think it's fair to grant him the rank."
Minato who was calmly listening to it all nodded and agreed. "It's true. I planned on having Kira train under Kakashi, and do a few missions before officially granting him the Jounin rank."
Everyone seemed to agree with the plan, and Danzo himself nodded and sat back, signalling his backing out. "It's settled then. Namikaze Kira, you will be granted a temporary Jounin rank, effective immediately. You will be supervised by Hatake Kakashi, and will report directly to him. As soon as you complete 3 B-rank or higher missions, and Kakashi passes your progress, you will be granted your Jounin rank." Minato said with an authoritative tone.
Kira bowed and stood back up again, "Thank you Hokage-sama. I will not disappoint you."
"Since the subject of the meeting is over, the council is dismissed." Minato said and stood up. Everyone else followed suit and slowly began to leave.
Hiashi approached Kira as everyone was leaving, "Kira-san, unsurprisingly, I'm curious about you. Minato is a very close friend of mine, and he has never mentioned anything about you," he said in a flat tone. "I'm not accusing you of anything, just telling you that the Hyuuga will keep an eye out. The only reason I'm not openly doing anything, is that I trust Minato's judgement. Do not give me a reason to act." He finished with a slight amount of killing Intent, before walking away.
"Whew, that was rough. I didn't expect him to be such an asshole even with his brother alive." Kira said under his breath. 'He's an asshole to you because he doesn't trust you. He's the head of the strongest clan in the village, after the Hokage he feels like it's his duty to protect the village. Obviously he doesn't trust you and your pathetic excuse of a backstory' Juubi shed some light on Hiashi. It did make sense when Kira thought about it.
Kira gave a heavy sigh and walked out and into the streets of Konoha, having no further plans for the day. He would start training with Kakashi tomorrow and he didn't feel like independent training at the moment.
He went to his usual spot at the top of the Hokage monument to think. It was too long since he had suppressed his feelings. He needed to come to terms with them. He needed to understand that these people weren't his friends, these people weren't his teachers, these people weren't his village. He died every single time he remember those. 'Brat, don't beat yourself over it. You've come here to protect them. To save what you couldn't. Don't disgrace the memories of your people."
Kira felt broken. His one mission in life was to protect his precious people. His nindo, his identity, his self was lost.
He was in the middle of his existential crisis when he just said, "It's not a good idea to sneak up on a ninja."
A moment later a figure walked up behind him and stated calmly, "You're in my spot."
"My apologies," Kira said and prepared to leave when the figure sat beside him. "I never said you had to leave, just that you were in my spot."
Kira noticed the person beside him and saw a woman of about his age who were chain mesh body suit under a tan coat and a short skirt. She had a brown hair in a spiky ponytail and had a box of dango with her.
"Rough day?" She asked him. "You could say that," Kira replied with a heavy tone.
They both sat in silence for some time before the girl asked, "Wanna talk about it? It's my job listening to people talk."
"You're a therapist? Or a spy?" Kira asked sarcastically.
"I'll let you take a guess," came an equally snarky reply. Kira smirked before settling back into his saddened visage.
A few more moments passed before Kira opened up, "I failed. I failed everything I ever stood for, I failed my life's purpose. I don't know what I'm doing any more."
The girl listened to him with a blank look, before looking over the village. "You're still alive. The village is still there. As long as you, a ninja of Konoha lives, while Konoha still stands, you will always have a purpose."
Kira considered her words with a slight bit of resentment. He didn't appreciate having his existential crisis sidelined so easily. "It's not that simple."
"Sure is. You said you didn't have a purpose. That headband sure says otherwise. You might have failed yourself, but you haven't yet failed the village," she explained. "Take a break, breathe and think about your loss. Personal failures are depressing as hell, but you need to move forward as long as you can."
Kira heard her. He understood her. Her words made sense. Yet his mind didn't want to understand her. He didn't want to face the reality right now. He wanted to cry. He wanted to scream. He wanted to let everything out and just explode.
"Don't." Came a sudden warning from the girl. "An emotional outburst will just give you a temporary relief. You need to come to terms with it in your own time, not force out everything and hit reset. That's why I'm telling you, breathe. Take your break."
Kira considered her words for a few more moments and sighed again. He was in too much shit and he was too tired for it all. He did need a break, badly.
"You seem to know a lot about all this. I'm going with therapist." Kira tried to divert the topic.
"I do see the worst of people, but I'm no therapist," she grinned.
That's when it hit Kira. That grin reminded him finally of where he'd seen it before.
Before him, sat Anko Mitarashi, the snake mistress of Konoha, former apprentice of orochimaru, and the torture specialist.
"You're a T&I specialist." Kira blankly replied.
"And you just suddenly remembered that. Spill blondie, where have we met before?" Anko asked.
"Nowhere. I just recognized that grin, I saw you around town a couple of times-" Kira blocked a sudden punch from Anko.
"You came in town yesterday and I returned today, you've been in the council chambers since morning, and you're not a professional spy to lie to me," Anko spoke. "I can understand not telling me stuff, but don't lie to me unless you're sure you can do so." She pulled her fist back.
"Information gathering is my speciality. I'll find out what tangents we might have had, Kira." Anko grinned and got up.
"Remember though, breathe, or you'll fuck yourself up even more. You don't want that at your young age," she mocked him one last time before walking away. "I'll see you around town. If you feel like talking more, find me."
She glanced back one last time before disappearing, and leaving Kira alone with his thoughts again.
'You got the hots for her don't you?' Juubi mocked him. 'No damnit, she's the first person I didn't have to think 100 times before speaking to. It's just calming to do so after walking on eggshells for so long'
'Whatever you say brat, she's out of your league anyway' Juubi laughed at his disapproving grunt. 'I don't care furball. I'm not trying to seduce her' Kira answered and got up himself.
He left the Hokage monument and walked towards the village, hoping to get some food before heading to his house. He'd talked to Minato after spending the first night at the residence and moved to an apartment near where he originally lived. Partly because of the nostalgia, and partly because it was the only thing he could afford.
Minato Namikaze was in his office, dealing with paperwork the best way he knew, by cursing the hell out of it.
He was disturbed from his usual dread by a chuunin rushing in his office
"Hokage-sama! There's an emergency!" he screamed.
Minato looked up and motioned for him to go on. "Hokage-sama! The team we sent to inquire the disappearances have just sent a distress message! They have reason to believe that Orochimaru is involved and are requesting backup for their mission!" The messenger seemed hysteric.
"Calm down first," Minato said and frowned. This was serious. "Get me Kakashi and tell him to get Kira and report here now."
The messenger nodded and ran out. "Bear," Minato said calmly. A moment later an Anbu with a bear mask landed in his office. "You're to accompany Kakashi and Kira in this mission, wait for the other two for the official debrief," Minato ordered.
If there was Orochimaru involved then this mission would be very dangerous. He knew it was a gamble sending in Kira, but he was willing to take his chances. Minato was looking over the mission file before his eyes widened.
The team requesting backup for a supposed Orochimaru situation, was led by Uchiha Hiro, one of the few Uchiha who had unlocked the Mangekyou.
