Chapter 9
Aftermath
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In the Hokage's office stood four figures, clearly all terribly exhausted and drenched from the unrelenting downpour outside. Hiruzen sat at his desk with wide eyes as his pipe hung loosely from his mouth. He was…surprised to say the least. It was a dark day for Konoha as well as a confusing one now that Team 7 had given their extensive mission report.
"I will take the scroll with Hayate's body as well as the Iwa ANBU," said the Sarutobi grimly. "I will see to it that he receives a proper funeral and burial, while the enemy will be handed over to Ibiki. Your sensei was a great shinobi and a great man, loyal to his village. I will have to tell Yugao…"
"Actually, jiji-san, we've decided that we will," interjected Naruto. "As Hayate-sensei's students and the ones that watched him go, we feel it's our responsibility to tell her."
Seeing the serious looks on their faces and the nods from Shisui and Itachi, the old man conceded. "Very well. Now about you, Zabuza Momochi…"
In a sincere show of humility, the ex-Kiri ninja got on his knees and bowed lowly before the Hokage. "I willingly submit myself to any kind of interrogation, torture or imprisonment you wish to put me under. I will tell you all I know about Kiri and anything else you may wish to know. All I ask is that you give me safe haven, and if I may be so bold, I request that I may train these children and be their sensei."
Everyone in the room was shocked at this. Submit to interrogation? Be their sensei? Confusion permeated the minds of everyone in the room.
"I will send for Ibiki, because that information will be valuable, however, we will certainly not be torturing anybody that is willing to freely give information as that is not the way of this village. Your cooperation will necessarily give you safe haven. The second request…will be much more difficult to grant. I will need to convene the council in order to decide whether you should be accepted as a Konoha shinobi, and given your track record, which is less than stellar, that could be an issue. But I will do all I can, I assure you."
"Thank you very much, Hokage-sama. I will not forget your kindness."
"Of course. Now you three, be on your way. You certainly deserve the rest. I'm very sorry about Hayate. He will be sorely missed."
The three brothers drearily nodded to their Hokage, then to Zabuza and exited the room. Soon they were outside the building and walking abjectly about the village, which now resembled a ghost town thanks to all the people who had sought shelter to avoid the dark skies and heavy downpour. The boys were indifferent that they were being drenched and were then chilled to the bone by the accompanying powerful gusts of wind. All they could think about was their sensei, the second father, the caring teacher, the beloved shinobi. Like the raindrops falling from the sky and hitting the ground, Hayate had lived a lovely life, but in the end it was just like so many others and it ended far too soon.
This hit Shisui particularly hard as he thought back to a conversation he had had with his other sensei.
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(Flashback: Months earlier)
Shisui and Obito sat in their normal training ground, taking a break.
"This world is a cursed and evil place, Shisui. You know this, yes?" the ANBU said, totally randomly.
The younger Uchiha simply nodded as he looked about at the tranquil scenery surrounding him. "Looks are so deceiving," he sagely observed. "Like that finch over there. It appears to be just a peaceful, beautiful part of nature, innocence personified, when in reality it is no better than a ruthless lion, waiting for the proper time to strike and devour its prey."
As if on cue, the small, beautiful bird, with its golden breast and burnt orange beak, swooped down from its perch in a mighty oak tree to snatch a worm off the ground.
"The survival instinct is an inherent part of nature, and being that humans are animals, we carry this same instinct within us as well," the boy continued. "Compassion is a luxury that very few can afford."
The older man was obviously impressed. "You carry wisdom well beyond your years. You know, then, that building connections to others will only lead to pain and sorrow?"
At this Shisui looked into the distance thoughtfully for a second before answering. "In the shinobi world, the only reality is that your loved ones, especially when they are shinobi themselves, will very likely die. But the pain of never loving or being loved, in constant fear of the possibility of the ones you love dying, is so much greater."
As Obito pondered his young pupil's response, a certain blonde-haired ninja and his black-haired accomplice came around the corner into view. "Shisui, my NIG! There's a bunch of hot babes down at the lake and Itachi and I were gonna work our 'magic'. Can you come?"
Shisui looked eagerly over to his sensei, who couldn't resist as he thought of himself at that age. "You've done well today, go ahead."
"Thank you, Obito-sensei!" exclaimed the boy as he eagerly ran off to meet his friends, leaving his teacher to ponder all he had said.
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Now the words his sensei had said resurfaced to slap him in the face. When Shisui had said those words, he didn't really have any idea what he was saying. He had always assumed that it would affect other people, but never him. But here he was, mourning the loss of his sensei, someone who he never imagined losing.
Without meaning to, or perhaps subconsciously, the group eventually stumbled onto their usual training ground, the one they used with Hayate. Their eyes gazed emptily on the field, which was now covered in mud from all the rain. Without a thought they walked out to a very large oak tree which was rife with marks from all manner of weapons and jutsu, but was still standing. Naruto began kicking the tree, grunting from the amount of force he was giving.
The two Uchiha silently stared at their friend for a minute. Soon Shisui began kicking too, and before long Itachi joined as well. They felt the bruises forming on their feet but didn't care. They were letting out their pain.
Some distance away, a figure crouched and watched them, going unnoticed by the three. His long, white mane was drenched and matted against his back. Jiraiya worried about his adopted son and his friends. I want to bring them home, but that might not be best right now. They just need some space. So the Toad Sage disappeared with a puff of smoke.
After what felt like hours, the grunts coming from Naruto began to be choked with tears, and not much longer after that the boy collapsed into a heaping mess of tears. Waterfalls fell from both of his eyes as all the agony he had been holding in over the past few days came out all at once. No, not just the past few days- all these years, all the nightmares coming from the fox, the pain of never knowing his parents, everything he had ever dealt with, all poured into this.
The two Uchiha watched their brother emptily. "He's gone," Naruto choked out. "He's gone."
Suddenly Shisui grabbed him by the collar and picked him up. "You know what, Naruto, you're right he is gone! But guess what? He's never coming back, ok? Crying isn't going to do anything, so stop being a bitch about it!"
The jinchurikii couldn't bear to look his friend in the eye, but the tears continued to fall despite his shame. He knew Shisui was right.
"Shisui, back off," Itachi warned his cousin. As the called-out cousin turned to face him, Itachi saw that his sharingan was active, but it was no normal sharingan- it was a black four-point pinwheel, set against the usual red background.
"Whatever," the older one countered, dropping his blonde friend harshly and speeding away on his own. Filing away the thought of his cousin's eyes for later, Itachi approached Naruto.
"You're not being a bitch, Naruto. We all have different ways of dealing with grief, yours happens to be crying and his happens to be lashing out. Don't be angry with him. We will all move on eventually."
Naruto was shocked. "How can you say something like that? That we'll just 'move on'? Didn't you care about him at all?" he accused.
Itachi was offended and his harsh look showed it. "Don't you dare say I didn't care for Hayate-sensei. I loved him just as much as you and Shisui did. I'm hurting too, but I'm thinking about it in a much different way than you. Just think about what he would have wanted for us, and you'll come to peace with it." After silently gazing at his friend with pity evident in his eyes, Itachi went off to find his cousin, leaving Naruto in a sobbing heap, his tears swallowed up by the unrelenting rain.
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"The only upside to this fiasco is that Ansu died in the fight and I didn't have to kill him. Raito, you're the new commander of Iwa ANBU," Onoki said, clearly having just recovered from a violent fit of rage.
"Thank you, Tsuchikage-sama. I will not fail you."
That's what they all say, the old man thought tiredly. I'm getting far too old for this. I've gone through what, 4 ANBU commanders in the past month? Tiresome indeed. "That is good to hear, Raito. Dismissed."
With that the new commander melted into the floor and disappeared without a trace. Onoki rubbed his head and called for his assistant to bring his migraine pills. Tiresome indeed.
Suddenly a girl with short, black hair sporting the standard attire of the Iwa-nin consisting of a red uniform with her right sleeve missing and a lapel over her right leg, fishnet tights and a skirt over them popped in without a knock. Onoki spoke first.
"Kurotsuchi, how many times have I told you to knock before coming in here?! It's disrespectful to just barge in like that!" he yelled with righteous anger at his granddaughter.
"Yeah, whatever gramps. I had to rush over here as soon as I heard about the ANBU commander and his whole squad getting slaughtered when they tried to kill the Yellow Flash's kid. What was up with that?"
The old man rubbed his head again and took another two pills. Everytime he heard that name, the Yellow Flash, it required a pill, and every time he interacted with his granddaughter in any way, it required a pill. So damn tiresome.
"Well, Kurotsuchi," he responded after downing the medication, "we have no earthly idea what the cause of death could have been, as the bodies were utterly mutilated and burned in some weird way. All we know is that every drop of blood at the scene was ours and not theirs. It could not have been more one-sided. It also seems that they've captured one of our own."
"Wow, sounds rough. Ready to give up that hat to me yet, gramps?"
The Tsuchikage couldn't help but chuckle at her passion. "Not quite yet, not quite yet."
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After a few hours, Naruto and his Uchiha friends had come back together. Despite Itachi's best efforts, there was still a bit of tension between Naruto and Shisui, as they were both proud people, but it was nothing they wouldn't forget before long. Besides, what they had to do was much more important than any kind of temporary animosity between them.
They all stood before a normal-looking apartment door. After sharing a nod, Shisui knocked on the door a few times. After about a minute, a beautiful young lady with vibrant purple hair answered the door and her eyes landed on the young ninja.
"Oh hey, guys! You're back from your mission? Come on in, it's pouring outside."
The three brothers shuffled into the apartment, squelching all the way, but didn't sit, as they sensed that they wouldn't be there for long. Meanwhile, Yugao continued her questioning as she took a seat on a plush couch.
"So did you guys just get back?"
"Yes, just a few hours ago."
Yugao was disturbed by the somber mood of her guests before she finally asked the question she had been wondering since they arrived. "Hey…where's Hayate-kun?" she asked with a suddenly serious mood.
Her answer came in the form of silence and the boys looking down at their feet.
Yugao's eyes got wide and she put her hands over her mouth as realization struck her. Immediately she felt the tears coming on, and she wanted to be comforted. She got up and shared a group hug with the boys, who were surprised but accepted it happily.
They felt somewhat weird at first, as she just held them close and cried over them, but soon they started to break down too. Naruto went first after her, unable to hold it back any longer. He had been hesitant to cry in front of everyone again but the grief of the moment overwhelmed him. Then Itachi, to his own surprise, felt his chin shake and the tears begin to fall, and soon they were coming in full force as well. After watching his cousin go, and feeling the gravity of the moment, Shisui released his tears, despite his best efforts. So there stood four shinobi of Konoha, holding each other and bawling their eyes out. The memory of Hayate weighed heavily upon them all.
It took a very long time before Yugao broke it up and was able to hold back her crying. She backed up and took a seat on the chair, while all the boys wiped their eyes and tried to pull themselves together. A minute or two later, she resumed her questions.
"How did he go? I have to know."
"An evil man named Gato was monopolizing the economy of the Nami no Kuni. Zabuza-sama had been working for this man, but after his daughter died, he abandoned his mission and turned on Gato. Hayate-sensei decided that we go beyond the scope of the mission and help Zabuza-sama since he was an honorable shinobi, as well as save the people of Nami no Kuni, but didn't want us to risk ourselves, so he had us stay behind. While he was taking on Gato's countless thugs, he was overwhelmed," Itachi quickly and convincingly lied. Naruto and Shisui glanced at him but said nothing.
"Oh that's so like Hayate…he was always so kind and caring, even for people he didn't know. I'm so glad he died so honorably."
"So are we." There was a bit of an awkward silence before Shisui spoke up.
"We should probably be going now," Shisui mumbled and started for the door.
"Wait, I want to tell you one thing." She paused as she thought through exactly what to say. "Hayate was a great man. We will all miss him. All of us loved him, in different ways obviously, but we loved him nonetheless. That said, please don't blame yourselves for what happened. Hayate would have wanted us all to live the happiest lives possible. This is the best way to honor his memory- think of what he would have wanted for us and try our best to do exactly that."
Itachi nodded, as he had already reached this conclusion, while the other two boys thought deeply about this advice. "Thank you very much, Yugao," Itachi responded after some time. "This helped a lot."
Now the boys went to the door and opened it, dismayed to see that the rain still fell just as heavily as it had when they entered. With a final goodbye, they stepped out.
Yugao watched softly as they exited. No, thank you. Thank you for caring for Hayate as much as I did.
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Although none of them would dare admit it, that had been exactly what they needed- closure and an answer to the question of how to move on.
"Alright guys, you know what this means," Naruto addressed his friends. "We just have to train way harder and get way stronger so that we can honor Hayate-sensei's legacy and protect our loved ones so that this never happens again!"
"Damn right!" the two Uchiha chorused trying to move beyond the pain together as a team…no family.
"Hayate-sensei might be gone, but his spirit- his students, his ideals, his beliefs- are still here with us, and it's our duty to walk in them and pass them on."
"Great point, Naruto-kun. We'll always have each other too," Itachi added.
Shisui smiled. His cousin was right- they would never abandon each other. "Well, it's been a while. We should probably all head home now," he said.
"Yeah, you're right. See you guys later." Bro hugs were exchanged and Naruto headed off to see his tou-san.
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Jiraiya was still wondering exactly how he should handle the situation with Naruto. Hiruzen had sent for him to let him know; unfortunately, the old man had no advice for his old student on what to say, or what not to say. As the sage was still meditating on this, the boy casually strolled through the door.
"Tou-san, I'm home!" he called.
Shit, what do I say? "Hey, buddy!" He leaned down and hugged the blonde. "How you holding up?"
"Did you hear?"
"Yeah, the old man told me…listen, Naruto-kun-"
"Actually, can I talk first?"
This worried Jiraiya. "Sure you can."
"At first when we got back, it really hit me that he was gone forever. I was in despair, I didn't know what to do. Then the three of us went to talk to Yugao. She really helped us realize where to go from here. I'll always miss Hayate-sensei and wish he was around, but I'm not going to sit around and just wish things were different. I'm going to get way stronger so that I can protect my loved ones so this never happens again, and I can change this world for the better."
The Toad Sage was very surprised. He had never imagined Naruto would be so mature and wise about this. I'll have to thank Yugao… "I'm very proud of you, kid. I know Minato-kun would be too," he said with a smile.
Naruto beamed. Any mention of his biological father being proud or happy made him incredibly happy. The Yondaime had always been his biggest hero.
"Well tou-san, I'm really tired, so I'm going to sleep. I'll tell you all about what happened tomorrow."
"Alright, kid, see you tomorrow."
Both father and son left with pleasant smiles. Jiraiya noticed on Naruto's back an ornate and beautiful sheath holding a katana, which he could tell by the hilt was of the highest quality as well, all of which was unfamiliar to him. He was about to voice a question but stopped himself. He'll tell me tomorrow.
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Shisui and Itachi stood before the Uchiha clan head and Itachi's father, Fugaku, as well as Shisui's father and Fugaku's brother, Riyuki. A young Sasuke sat in a corner with stars in his eyes after just having been regaled with the magnificent adventures that his two heroes had experienced. The two men maintained a stoic composure.
"I am sorry about your sensei. It sounds like Zabuza is an honorable shinobi, not to mention a very strong one. He will have my vote for him to become a ninja when we have the council meeting tomorrow," Fugaku began.
"Thank you, tou-sama, for supporting Zabuza-sama. In the matter of Hayate-sensei, we know that it is the way of the shinobi world. We are now far more motivated to increase our excellence as shinobi. The intensity of our training will increase greatly."
Riyuki nodded. "That is very good to hear. It is a great quality to be able to turn a negative experience into something positive. Go on now and rest."
"Arigatou," the two boys said unanimously as they bowed.
Sasuke caught Itachi on the way out. "Nii-san, will you help me with my shuriken jutsu?"
Itachi chuckled and poked his little brother's forehead. "Sorry, Sasuke-kun, but I'm exhausted. Maybe next time."
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(Next day)
Zabuza Momochi stood in the center of the Konoha council room. All eyes were on him as many civilian councilors and clan heads, along with Hiruzen and Jiraiya, had taken their seats.
"Glad you could all make it," the Hokage began. "Today we will be voting in the matter of whether or not to admit Zabuza Momochi, formerly of Kirigakure, as an active jonin of Konoha. Allow me to begin with how he happened to arrive here." The old man proceeded to relate all the events of the Wave mission, making sure to stress the parts where the missing nin went out of his way to protect the genin. However, he left out the part about the Iwa ANBU as he wasn't quite ready to drop that bomb on the council.
Once he had finished, all the council members were a bit less noticeably afraid of him. The man's reputation clearly preceded him. It was this very reputation that led Shibi Aburame to inquire, "The Bingo Book is rife with mentions of atrocities that you've committed, Zabuza. Do you have a logical reason for those?"
"I assure you that all these have been 100% fabricated. After my two assassination attempts of Yagura, the twisted Mizukage, and subsequent desertion of the village, those were added to my page in order to encourage other villages to distrust and hunt me down as well. The only thing I am sad to say is, indeed, accurate, was the academy ritual, if I may, of killing one's own classmates. However, those days are far behind me, on top of the fact that I was forced to."
The Aburame clan head nodded, pleased with how very logical the response had been.
"Any more questions?" the Hokage gauged the room. Those present shook their heads no. "Very well, it is time we put this to a vote. All in favor of admitting Zabuza-san as a shinobi of this village?"
All the hands of the clan heads shot up immediately, along with Danzo's, who just wanted another strong ninja in the village. A few of the civilian councilors raised them as well, but the rest of them were still too scared of the muscular man. Homura and Koharu kept their hands down as well, as they still couldn't trust the man. Jiraiya's vote and Hiruzen's own sealed the deal.
"With a majority over two-thirds vote, Zabuza Momochi is now a jonin sensei of Konohagakure. Congratulations, Zabuza, you are now acting sensei of Team 7."
Zabuza bowed to his new Hokage. "Thank you so much, Hokage-sama. I swear to serve you unwaveringly until death, and to train my team to the best of my abilities."
"I appreciate your loyalty, Zabuza-san. Now go put those words into action."
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Hey everyone! I haven't left any AN in a long time, just because I haven't felt the need, but NOW I DO.
Coming up very soon (probably not the next chapter, but the one after) is the BEST AND AWESOMEST CHUNIN EXAM ARC IN THE HISTORY OF NARUTO FAN FICTION! I won't give everything away, but here's what I can say:
1. It will be a complete exam, including a winner at the end of the finals!
2. It will be the most exciting and epic finals yet, with easily the strongest opponents ever imagined! Granted, some serious stretching of the AU will be required for this, but don't worry, it'll be totally worth it (and it won't sacrifice the plot of the story.) In any case, this will be a MASSIVE upgrade from some Naru-Hina-Kiba-Shino final or something like that. I mean, come on, really? Couldn't pick a more boring lineup there.
3. Not only will it be the most epic and exciting chunin exam arc, but far and away the funniest! I have BarelySage (the funniest author on this profile for sure, and if you ask me one of the funniest authors, period, although his work ethic may be a bit lacking) on board to help me a lot with this. Our heroes will trash talk CONSTANTLY, and it will be the most accurate and condescending trash talk you can dream of! All your favorite and least favorite characters will be bashed nonstop in the funniest way possible!
In conclusion, I'm very excited to write this arc and see your comments.
Speaking of Sage, he recently redid the second chapter of his fic, Adventures of an ANBU Trainee, and now it's even better. Please check that out. Also take a look at my other project, Ill-Fated, if you're looking for a darker, more thought-provoking fic.
Rate and Review.