Ripple's of War

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I own the OC's.

I sat there for awhile just staring at the blade in my hands. I looked over every small detail.

"Hiroaki-san, I don't mean to interrupt but we have things to discuss."

I looked over at the Sandaime and really took him for the first time since I had arrived. "Even now he looks old and tired.."

"What did you wish to talk about Hokage-Sama?" I asked, still replaying everything that had happened.

"I wanted to personally thank you for bringing the information that you did. Konoha is eternally grateful for your sacrifices."

I looked down. "Any shinobi would have done the same Hokage-sama."

"It is a high honor that Orochimaru decided to finally take on an apprentice. He was around your age when I took him and the other Sannin as my students." Hiruzen smiled.

The Hokage puffed out smoke. "How are you doing, Hiro?"

"I'll be okay." I looked at the blade in my hands.

"As a Genin of Konoha, you are technically considered an Adult. That means you don't have to bend to the will of anyone except your shinobi superiors. Do you have a place to stay?

"No."

"Why don't you come with me tonight. A few people will be coming over tonight to my compound. You can stay at the Sarutobi compound until we can arrange better sleeping arrangements."

I looked at the Sandaime, studying his face. "Thank you, Hokage-sama."

The old man smiled. He got up and picked up a scroll next to his desk. He walked over and placed it next to me. "Your hand"

I put my hand forward, and he cut my palm. The blood began to dribble and he placed it on the scroll. The scroll glowed and opened the small lock it had on it.

"Your uncle got these things for you as well. Open the scroll somewhere when you're alone. For now, your time is your own. Come back to the tower at sunset." The Hokage ruffled my hair and went back to sit down.

An hour

Hiroaki found himself on top of the Hokage mountain, staring out over Konoha. "I can see why Naruto loves this view." He sat there quietly watching as the citizens and fellow shinobi went about their day. Hiroaki stood up and grabbed the scroll that had been behind him and he jumped off to go to his favorite training place.

After awhile he arrived and sat in the small clearing. He unpacked the scroll and opened it. Sending chakra through the scroll, it faintly lit up and *POOF*. 4 smaller scrolls appeared in front of him, along with a note.

You will always be a Hyuga. Never let anyone tell you otherwise.-Hiashi

The small scrolls contain your clothes, various shinobi equipments, the rest of the Main Branch Hyuuga training, and Ninjutsu training.

The rest of the scroll contained information to a personal bank account Hiashi and Hiro's mother had started in his name.

Hiro looked at the things in front of him and the tears began to leak out again.

Hiro was beginning to put back the scrolls when he noticed one last piece of paper. He looked at it and picked it up. The piece of paper seemed to be blank until he noticed that the paper seemed to be covered in what seemed to be gold dust. Adding chakra to the paper the words began to appear.

Hiro read it over and over again for what seemed to be hours. The letter was a rather simple thing. It was a letter from a man named Rasa. It was addressed to his uncle Hiashi talking about the death of his mother at the hands of an Iwa ambush.

Hiro had never been told how or when his mother had died. He was simply told that his mother had passed away on a mission. He was required to visit the grave after the funeral had been held.

Hiro finally resealed the scrolls and letters away and that's when he noticed someone staring at him from a tree. The small figure dropped from the tree and approached him. " Is it true?" the small boy said.

"Is what true?"

"The rumors everyone is talking about. That you killed all of those children."

"They tortured me for days, Itachi. They healed me for days. They made me stay awake for the entire time. They were going to kill me. Kill us. Your family. Your friends. They wanted to kill more of us Itachi."

"Your welcomed at the Uchiha Compound. Father has told me to find you and invite you for dinner tomorrow night. You're not alone, Hiro-kun." Itachi disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Sunset

Hiro was jumping from rooftop to rooftop in an effort to get away from the countless number of people trying to talk to him.

"HEY SLOW DOWN!" a shrill voice came from behind him.

Hiro instantly recognized who it was and slowed down immediately. "Hello, Anko-san. Its nice to that you aren't injured."

Anko kept speeding toward him and tackled him to the ground with a massive hug. "I HEARD WHAT HAPPENED! WE WERE SO WORRIED THAT YOU HAD HAD DIED! WHEN WE HEARD THAT YOU HAD CAME BACK TO THE VILLAGE WE WERE SO RELIEVED BUT WHEN YOU DIDN'T SHOW UP FOR CLASS THE NEXT DAY WE THOUGHT THE WORST HAD HAPPENED!"

Hiro was still on the floor hurting from the steep fall.

Anko quickly got up pulling up, Hiro in the process.

Anko finally spotted the Hitai-ite on the floor. Hiro saw it on the floor and picked it up. He wrapped it around his forehead. "Holy shit! You're a genin now!?"

Hiro looked at her with something resembling confusion. "Yes." He began walking away from the loud mouthed purple headed banshee.

Anko ran along behind him and continued to pester him. "How?! Kenta and I didn't receive any promotion!"

Hiro looked at her and anger flashed for a moment. His step hesitated for a brief second. "You haven't heard. Go ask people. Everyone can't seem to stop talking about it." Without another second wasted, Hiro poofed out of place and disappeared.

A few seconds later the seemingly slow Kenta landed breathing hard. "Wh-y did he leave?" He asked huffing out long breaths.

"Not sure."

Hiro stood on top of the Hokage Tower silently waiting for the Hokage to come out of his office. He didn't know what to do. He seemed lost and a feeling of dread began to resonate in him. Had his chances in this world been ruined because he didn't slow down enough? From early on in this life he hadn't bothered to hide his "genius", he had pushed and pushed constantly for more than they would give him. He had been bored with not much to do in this world.

With chakra as an added bonus he found himself able to think quicker and more focused than he had before. Now, Hiro had pushed too far. He had isolated himself even more from the clan, he put himself in the war he had wanted to avoid, and now he found himself in the clutches of some of the more dangerous people in this universe.

And for what had he done it for? He had been bored suling around with the other children. He wanted to learn more and be more than he was. He exposed himself in a very dangerous time in the shinobi timeline. He had made himself an instant enemy to an entire nation for the rest of his life.

Hiro had grown tired of waiting outside and decided to make his way into the Hokage's office. He leapt down and went inside the massive doors. A blast of cool air hit him as he went inside. After he climbed a few stairs he finally reached the office. Not seeing the secretary outside he went in and knocked out the door.

After a few moments he heard a bellowing voice telling him to come in.

The hokage's day had been excruciatingly long this particular day. After being in meetings the entire day he just wanted to sit down and read his favorite little orange book.

He heard a knock on his door and he told them to come in. The person walked in slowly and went forward.

"Ah, sorry Hokage-sama. You wanted to see me?" the tall blonde man asked.

"Yes, Minato-kun come in, sit down."

Minato went and took a seat in one of the chairs.

"I'm sure by now you have heard of what to come correct?"

Minato nodded.

"I want you to lead the forces when we launch the ambush."

Minato looked surprised and put a hand on the back of his head. " I won't let you down hokage-sama. But, If I may ask, why me?"

Hiruzen gave a small chuckle. "You are an exceptional shinobi. The strongest, Konoha has to offer. The Will of FIre burns brightly in you boy. No one else is qualified to lead this expedition."

"What about Orochimaru-san?"

"He was injured in his attack and retrieval of the info."

Before he could say anything more, a knock was heard at the door.

"Ah, my apologies Minato-kun. I'm expecting company. Come in!"

I opened the door and instantly froze. I hadn't expected to see him. The Yellow Flash of Konoha.

He just stared at me and flashed me a smile before he went on his way.

The Hokage came up to me and ruffled my hair. He lead me further inside and then went to gather a few things before we left.

The night had gone rather quick. The Sarutobi compound was rather large and had many people walking about at night. The hokage was revered here. Everyone stopped and came to him to pay their respects and to meet me.

Once inside his house, I meet his wife, Biwako. A very nice lady. She seemed like a very caring old woman. She was polite as a person could be. We sat down to eat and Hiruzen asked me numerous amounts of questions about me and my opinion on the state of things. After dinner, Biwako excused herself and Hiruzen invited me into his den.

He sat down and for the first time of the night I really saw how tense he always seemed to be. No doubt of the constant worry of his village being at war brought on many negative effects to his person. " Please sit down. I have a very serious request, I have to ask of you. Tell me. Has Danzo approached you to join Root?"

I looked straight at him and saw the very serious demeanor he now sported on his face. "Y-Yes, Hokage-sama. He extended his offer and left before I gave an answer."

Hiruzen sighed. He took a puff from his signature pipe and looked back at me. "What are you going to do, Hiro-kun?"

I took a few moments to think and I simply looked at him and told him that I simply didn't know.

"Why did you become a shinobi?"

"I never really had a choice. Clan responsibilities demanded that I became one."

"Going forward, Do you even want to be a shinobi in the field? It would be simply for me to assign you with responsibilities in the village. You don't have to be out in the field."

"Really?" I said with a surprised and confused tone.

Hiruzen gave a small smile, and replied, " You have helped the village enormously. You gave of advanced warning of an imminent invasion. You could have saved this entire village. You helped save countless lives. The village is indebted to you Hiro-kun."

Hiruzen stood up and looked back down at me. "I want you to come back to the tower tomorrow. Tell me what you want to do. The room directly across has been made for you to stay." He walked away and left me alone in the den. I started to just look around and really think what I wanted to do. I wanted to get stronger. Except here was the hokage giving me another route if I so wished to do something else.

I went to the room and just sat down. I looked around and found the scroll that Hiashi or Hizashi had left for me. I laid down and closed my eyes and let the darkness take me away.

3 A.M

A shadow was seen leaving the hospital and blurred through the night. The tall shadow leapt from rooftop to rooftop and was making it's way to the Sarutobi Compound. The shadow looked like a white blur from a distance.

Eventually the blur landed on top of the main house. There was another figure there already waiting in the darkness. The only real thing visible was the faint ember inside of what looked to be a pipe.

"Sensei."

"He will more than likely stay in your apprenticeship. Before the force leaves out to meet the Iwa force, I need you to take him and Two ANBU and meet with the Kazekage." The figure pulled out a small scroll from inside his robes. "Get him to agree to reinforce us in the battle. When you secure the forces. You need to immediately leave and join attack the Iwa force from the west flank. Minato will lead a sizable force from the east. You have roughly less than two weeks before we estimate their force cross into Hi no Kuni."

The shadow gave a small smirk in the darkness and began to sink into the building before he was stopped by the other man. The glowing eyes of the shadow were staring up at Hiruzen.

"Don't let Hiroaki onto the front lines. Keep him far away from the battle."

A/N: Welcome back readers! First off I just want to apologize profusely for not updating these past couple of weeks. Life decided to throw me a curve ball by having my laptop suddenly die. I lost around 10k words I had written for this story. So as you might figure, I lost a lot of inspiration to continue writing until I happened to stumble across a story named Dragonfly by Kettobase. If you haven't read it, I do recommend you do, it's a good read that is very well-written. Long story short, I got inspired to continue writing this story. Additionally, the Third Shinobi War Arc is coming to its end in the next two chapters. The story will being to pick up pace after that and begin the "New Hokage" story arc.

If you have any questions, please leave them, I will begin to respond to any questions you might have in the PM's.

Question: What angle do you think the sandaime is playing at?