"It is with great pleasure that I announce, as Daimyo of Fire Country, that the Godaime Hokage of Konoha has been decided." Cheers chorused through the area as Akira greeted the crowd of nearly 200,000 people. "The decision process my colleagues and I went through, was a gruelling six-month process but we have come to a decision in which we believe will serve Konoha the best going into the future." Looking down at all of the patient people, Akira decided to get to the part that everyone was here for. "Without further ado, I will state that the person chosen to become the Godaime Hokage is one who has the Hokage title in his genetics. His mother is a member of the sister clan of the Senjus and his father was none other than the Yondaime Hokage. May I present to you, your new Godaime Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki."
As Akira said this, Naruto used the body flicker to appear on the platform.
Stunned silence filled the area before raucous applause erupted. The large majority of this was coming from the civilians in the crowd. They had seen Naruto win the most recent chunin exams and thought that he was very good.
The shinobi however, especially the jonin that weren't already aware of the decision making process were very sceptical. Sure, they knew that he had potential, he was a very promising shinobi but to give him the position of Hokage? Well that was definitely something that they did not see coming.
Hearing a colleague questioning if the people in charge had gone senile, one Anko Mitarashi spoke up. "Hey don't question the kid until you have seen him in action. I was one of the chunin exam proctors so I had to read up on his file and I have also done a few missions with him so I know him fairly well. The gaki is an absolute freak! 12 months ago, he was a genin without a team. Six months ago he won the chunin exams and killed a jinchuuriki. These days, he is already a jonin level shinobi who could hold his own against pretty much any shinobi in the village. It's clear that they are trying to play the long game with giving the brat the role. Just imagine, if he went from Genin to jonin in a year, just how strong will he be in a year's time, five years' time, a decade? Plus, also, the kid is just starting to hit puberty so he will continue to grow even stronger."
"Not that I'm not disagreeing with you but can't make someone Hokage with just potential. They need to be a highly skilled ninja before they take the role. How can he defend us if say Iwagakure come and try and start the next war? I'm sure those cunts will do anything to kill the son of Yondaime-sama." The Jonin replied back to the purple haired woman.
"I bet they are going to have Jiraiya hang around a fair over the next few years to be a threat to any villages who think we are easy pickings. Plus, we also have our jinchuuriki who is a master of all 5 elements and he has enough chakra blow up multiple mountains. Thanks to Naruto killing the jinchuuriki from the Sand village, we didn't lose as many people as we could have."
"True, I guess we will just have to see how this works out then huh? These next few months will definitely be interesting."
As this conversation was going on, one person in particular was cheering the loudest. That was none other than Rock Lee. "Yosh Naruto-kun! Your flames of youth burn brightly. I shall support you in your new role and if I cannot then I will to 1,000 pull ups and if I cannot do that then I will do 10,000 sit ups!"
Tenten had long tuned out of her teammates speech. Instead she focused on what was in front of her. Never in a million years if someone had told her in the academy that Naruto Uzumaki would become the Hokage would she have believed them. Naruto wasn't even the best in the class! That title went to Neji, plus he didn't even have a team for a year! She was happy for him but wondered whether or not there was someone else who was a bit more qualified for the role.
She was happy for Naruto but to be honest, it made her feel a bit inadequate about herself. Naruto had gone from Genin to Kage in the same space of time that she barely managed to go from Genin to chunin. Is the gulf in skill between the two of us really that much? I mean we haven't been on a mission together in a long time but he can't be that good can he? Oh well at least he is cute… I haven't been getting much luck from Neji so it might not hurt to ask out Naruto-san.
Much like Tenten, Neji didn't quite believe that Naruto had the skill required to become the Hokage. He saw the potential that Naruto had and noticed how much he had improved from the genin exams to the chunin exams but he was not at the level of what was required to be a Hokage. I must ask him to spar with me. I need to see how far off I am of that level.
A Hyuga of similar age on the other side of the area was Hinata. If she was completely honest with herself, she was a bit disappointed. She knew that it was Konohamaru-kun's dream to become the Hokage and with someone as young as Naruto taking over, it all but ended his chances of becoming the Hokage. She knew Naruto was strong however and hoped that he would lead Konoha into great prosperity.
Kiba who was looking had a large amount of jealousy flowing through his body. He wished he was the one up there, getting all that attention and fame. He didn't believe that the kid who was in the chunin exams was good enough to become the Hokage of Konoha. He had improved a lot over the past six months and just got the rank of chunin. The Inuzuka wanted to challenge Naruto and see how good he really was!
The Aburame clan heir was impressed that Konoha was willing to make such a progressive choice in Hokage. He was interested in seeing how Naruto as Hokage would play out. He hoped it was for the best.
Kurenai, unaware of what her students were thinking had her own opinion on Naruto becoming Hokage. When she tested Sasuke on his genjutsu, she was impressed but it was nothing remarkable. Naruto's was even worse she imagined given that the boy didn't have the sharingan. She wasn't exactly thrilled with the choice in the Hokage and that was not because she was going to never hear the end of it from Asuma.
Gai for his part was proud. Although Naruto was officially Asuma's student, he couldn't help but have pride in Naruto becoming the Hokage. After Naruto healed Lee of his career ending injury, Gai had been teaching Naruto on how to make his bloodline limit as devastating as possible. Within six months, Naruto was the second best taijutsu user in the village and the only reason Gai still held on to the top spot was due to the eight gates. In a pure taijutsu battle, the only people that he knew could go toe to toe with Naruto would be Hiashi and Kakashi.
You would be proud Minato-sensei and Kushina-sensei! Naruto has become a fine young man that everyone can rely on and I wish you were here today to see him stand on that platform. I hope Naruto gets the reign as Hokage that you should have had sensei. I'll do my best to guide Naruto to making the decisions that are best for the village.
x-X-x
After the celebrations had died down, Naruto quickly got back to business. The final term of the year for the shinobi academy had just ended and now was the best time to enact his first change as Hokage.
"Please bring the entire academy staff into the meeting room ANBU-san." Naruto stated, watching as the ninja went off and did their job. Shortly after giving the command, the newly minted Kage headed off into the same meeting room.
"Now you might be all wondering why I brought you here?" Naruto said to all of the teachers, giving a small smile to his own teacher Suzume from when he was in the academy. "Firstly, I just want to congratulate you all on doing a good job. I know a lot of people don't give teachers the credit they deserve for guiding the next generation as you're not just teachers but also role models. I know this from firsthand experience that I wouldn't be where I am today without the various role models I have had in my life."
As he said this, all of the teachers had a smile on their faces. It was no secret that many people looked down on teachers, the famous saying being, those who can't do, teach. If felt great for the Hokage to tell them how good they were doing at a normally looked down upon job.
"The reason why I have brought you here though is because I want to completely overhaul the academy."
Naruto let that sink in the air for a few moments and waited for someone to speak up. That was Suzume. "Hokage-sama, what do you mean?" Suzume bravely questioned.
"You can just call me Naruto-san, Suzume-sensei." The blonde kage said with a smile on his face, causing the shy woman to blush slightly; happy that the Hokage called her sensei still. It filled her with great pride.
"For too many years, Konoha has been far too reliant on individual brilliance to win wars. Whilst I definitely believe that the contributions of the larger military force were significant, as a hidden village, we rely more on our elite shinobi compared to our enemies. If we can raise the quality of each shinobi, we will become less reliant on creating the next Minato Namikaze."
"How do you plan on changing that Hokage-sama?" Iruka questioned, slightly hesitant to hear the answer.
Naruto smiled. "In a nutshell, I plan on redeveloping the curriculum at taught in the academy to focus less on theoretical knowledge and more on practical skills. I know that my appointment to Hokage will be seen as a weakness in the eyes of the other villages. As much as I don't want to prepare the students for war, I would rather prepare them for it and not require them to participate then to force them when they are not sufficiently prepared." The cold truth was a bitter pill for Naruto to swallow. He did not like having admit that he had to do this. The pragmatic side of him though knew that this needed to be done.
"To do this, my plan is to move away from one teacher teaching one-year group for the entire year. Instead, the model that we will be going towards is the secondary model for civilians where you have a teacher who specialises in one subject teach it for all year levels."
"But how would the children react to that? They have dependency issues and wish to have a single teacher."
"The younger the age of the person, the abler they are to adapt to change. There will be a few teething issues with this system but the end result will be better. The current academy system from my experience is flawed in the sense that it places too much emphasis on becoming a good shinobi on clans and the jonin-sensei once they graduate. For a child like myself who came from the orphanage and didn't have any form of shinobi background to call upon, I was at a severe disadvantage to the likes of Neji Hyuga who was the rookie of the year in my class."
They could not deny that Naruto was right. Children that came from a clan had a noticeable advantage over civilian children.
"Also, there are different learning styles that differ between children. So just like the elite civilian schools, you will be sent to personal development courses which will allow you to tailor your classwork for each individual student so that they can get the most out of their education."
Naruto, as he said this, noticed that Suzume and Iruka were smiling. It's obvious to see that they care about their students. Iruka seems like is going to take this challenge head on which is great to see. Hopefully the others will come around. If not…
"Are there any suggestions on how we should structure the curriculum Hokage-sama?" Iruka questioned whilst the teachers looked on, eager to see how things would change.
"Well teaching is not my area of expertise so I will leave it mostly up to you… but here is the base outline of what I would like. Remember, this is the initial consultation so we will have a few more meetings over the next month and a half before school goes back to finalize everything.
We owe much of our academy's material to the Senju clan as they had the largest private library of any ninja clan. At the time though, they didn't really have a budget to fund an expansive academy like what we do now."
"Sorry Naruto-san for Interrupting but did you mention something along the lines of a budget increase!?" Suzume questioned giddy with excitement. All of the other teachers in the room also looked on with eagerness.
Seeing the looks on their faces, Naruto smirked. He knew saying something like that was akin to saying free buffet right outside the Akimichi clan compound. "Yes, there will be significant increase in academy funding. Back to my main point though, the academy was funded on a smaller budget, therefore they had to cut some corners.
The Senju clan have five different taijutsu styles. One of them became the one you know as the academy taijutsu style. Each of the five taijutsu styles represent an element and it is why I found it very easy to learn the academy taijutsu style as it is based around the fire element. For someone who had a wind element, it would make it significantly harder to learn the something that would be much less effective than if they learnt the wind based taijutsu style.
I want to implement the five taijutsu styles to the curriculum and based on an elemental affinity test, teach the student their taijutsu. This would also Segway into ninjutsu training. I don't think it is out of the question for an academy student by the time they graduate with the proper guidance, to learn one offensive and one defensive C-rank ninjutsu from their respective element given I managed to do this one from leaving the academy without a teacher."
"Teaching elemental ninjutsu to an academy student? Isn't that a bit much?" one of the teachers in the room questioned. It seemed like quite a lot take in.
"Children at these ages are surprisingly adaptable to new forms of stimulus. The worst that we can do is trial this for a semester and realise that it is hindering their performances in other areas and revert back some of the curriculum."
The meeting went on for another hour, hashing out a few finer points of that would give the academy to work with. With everything finished up, and people looking to leave the room, Naruto spoke up.
"Just one last thing before you leave." He said, getting their attention before continuing on. "By the way, effective immediately, you are now on six-month temporary contracts at the academy. At the end of semester one, you will have a performance review and if you are not up to the standards Konoha expects, you will be removed from the academy and put into active duty. See ya!" Naruto said before using the body flicker jutsu to leave with a few embers left in his wake.
It was widely known that the academy was seen as a place where you could relax and slack off. Quite a few of the teachers started to panic. Iruka for one was the complete opposite. Bring it on!
x-X-x
Knowing what was going to happen that day, Jiraiya didn't bother sticking around to see Naruto get coroneted as the Hokage of Konoha. Instead, he headed off in the last known direction that his spies had reported his former teammate. Jiraiya agreed with Naruto in that Sarutobi-sensei had spent a lot of time giving Tsunade preferential treatment, spending time outside of the village.
With Konoha being hit recently by the sand invasion, they needed every bit of help that they could get to regain their position in the world. This was especially so with Naruto taking over as the Hokage. Sure, he had a lot of faith in the boy and knew that he had the potential to become a great Hokage but as of now, Naruto was jonin level material, not Hokage.
x-X-x
Naruto stood in the private Hokage training grounds, theory crafting his two new jutsus. A month ago, Naruto saw some civilian kids playing a video game through a shop front window and noticed that two of the kids that the two characters they were playing as were made up of bones. Always interested in new ways to potentially use his bloodline limit, Naruto walked in and came over and watched them.
After giving a quick introduction, the kids were happy to have him watch them play. Naruto then offered to pay for the next two hours of playtime as long as he could talk to them for about half an hour before hand about said two characters they were playing as. One of them was apparently called the skeleton king and the one was called the bone fletcher. This worked out well for Naruto as one was ranged shooter and the other was a melee ranged fighter. In tandem, he hoped that they could be a significant threat to an enemy.
A month later and Naruto had managed to do the easy part. That was creating the warriors externally out of his bone and using his chakra to make their bodies work. The hard part was the next bit. Naruto knew that he wouldn't be able to control this jutsu whilst also fighting an enemy. He needed it to become sentient. Naruto needed it to be able to listen to a command and then go off and do it without him having to oversee every move.
Thanks to a bit of help from his not girlfriend Ino Yamanaka, Naruto had a few new ideas that he wanted to try to get these jutsus working. Channelling the advice that Ino had given him, Naruto went through some hand seals and placed his hands on the ground. "Uzumaki Hijutsu: Sukerutonkingku! (Uzumaki Secret Style: Skeleton King!"
Much like the last few times that he had attempted the jutsu, Naruto watched on as the skeleton came to life. Naruto was giddy as he had even managed to create a cape for the warrior. Unlike the last few times though, Naruto noticed that there was fire behind the eyes of the skeleton.
"My name is Leoric and I am at your service my liege." Leoric stated as he bowed down, digging his sword into the ground.
"Fuck yeah! This is awesome! Alright Leoric-san, I want you to fight me and show me everything you have got." With that said, the Skeleton King charged.
x-X-x
"Well, it didn't take as long as I thought to find you again Tsunade-chan." Jiraiya commented with a grin on his face."
Grunting at the sight of her former teammate, Tsunade replied. "What is it that you want Jiraiya, have you come to buy more of the Senju compound with your riches from that stupid perverted book series?"
"Jeez can't you be happy for my success rather than be jealous…" Jiraiya replied back. He wasn't really in the mood to play these games.
Affronted by the comment, Tsunade had a look of disgust on her face. "As if I would ever be jealous of that filth."
Jiraiya shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes. "You're coming back to Konoha." Jiraiya said with a neutral expression on his face.
"Psshh no I am not Jiraiya! There's no way I am going back to that wretched village." Tsunade flippantly responded to Jiraiya, before turning around and giving her attention to the poker machine she was in front of.
"Alright then, I guess we will play this the hard way." Seeing that Tsunade was still not paying any attention to him, Jiraiya turned and faced Shizune. Said woman got fearful. This Jiraiya who was in front of her was different from the jovial one that she met up with months ago. This was one of the Sannin.
"Shizune, you are officially ordered by the Godaime Hokage of Konoha to return back to the village. If you don't return via your own choice, then I will make you return by force." Jiraiya said, laying down the threat.
This was enough to moderately sober up Tsunade and take an interest in the conversation "What the hell Jiraiya. Your problem is with me, not her so leave her out of this! Plus, what did you say about the new Godaime Hokage? I guess that must have got some new fool to take the hat huh? Who is it? I bet it's that gaki Kakashi."
Ignoring Tsunade, knowing that she was trying to redirect the conversation, Jiraiya focused on the easiest way he knew how to get Tsunade back to Konoha. That was through manipulating Shizune. "Look Nade, don't make this any harder than it has to be. We are still reeling from the blow dealt by the Sand invasion and we need to get as many qualified medics as possible to help out. Also Shizune, the new Hokage, is looking to change the curriculum at the academy so we will need some guidance from someone experienced like yourself Shizune on how to effectively incorporate medical Ninjutsu into the academy curriculum." Jiraiya, said, knowing that this was a trigger topic for Tsunade.
"You've got until 9am tomorrow morning to make up your decision and meet me at the edge of town heading towards Konoha. If you aren't there I will know that you have decided to become a missing ninja of Konoha and I will track you down and bring you back by force. Even if that means going through Tsunade to get to you." Jiraiya said before vanishing in a flicker of leaves.
The second that Jiraiya left, Tsunade's eyes turned and zeroed in on her student. Noticing this gaze, Shizune spoke up. "Look Tsunade-sama, I need some time to think for myself." Shizune said before vanishing much like Jiraiya did moments before.
A feeling of emptiness rocked the blonde haired woman to her core. Feelings of betrayal flooded through her body and her heart felt like it had been ripped out of her chest. Damn Jiraiya having to ruin everything! Why does he have to take the last bit of happiness away from me? Also who the fuck is the new Hokage and who do they think they are threatening us like that. If Shizune has to go back to Konoha then I will go back and rip their throat out.
x-X-x
News travelled quickly and the news that Konoha had made the ninja who had killed her little brother Kage hit Temari like a tonne of bricks. How can I gain revenge for killing Gaara if he is the Hokage!? Is he really that strong? Was he holding back when he fought against Gaara? There's no way one can go from genin to kage in six months!
"ARRRGGHH!" Temari screamed as she swung her fan in outrage as a desert mountain, nearly slicing the structure in two clean parts. If he managed to become a kage then so can I! I will just have to train hard and get the position when Baki-sensei is no longer the interim leader.
x-X-x
It wasn't just Sunagakure where the news of Naruto Uzumaki becoming the recent Hokage of Konoha. Kumogakure had also heard of the news. Ei, the Yondaime Raikage, was both impressed and curious as to how someone so young managed to become a Hokage. Sure he knew that the boy was the enemy of his rival but it was a stretch to say that this Naruto kid was as good as his father.
"Samui-san, I have a mission for you. You shall be the ambassador to Konoha. That Kaguya bloodline would definitely strengthen our village if Samui managed to get her hands on it. Ever the opportunist, Ei thought of the best way to increase the strength of the village.
x-X-x
"Curse you brat… why did you have to go and make my life so difficult." Onoki muttered to himself. He desperately wished that Naruto was not the Hokage. This was not out of fear that the boy knew the flying thunder god jutsu no, this was because he knew exactly what his retarded daimyo was going to do when he found out the information that Naruto was now the Hokage of Konoha, much like his father was several decades ago.
Might as well get this over with… Onoki thought to himself as he started writing down the names of ten jonin who he knew greatly despised the yellow flash. It was almost clockwork that by the time that the Tsuchikage had finished writing the names down on the paper, the earth daimyo entered the room.
"Just shut up and take this piece of paper. It will tell you everything you will need to know." The Daimyo was miffed at the treatment that Onoki was giving him but didn't question it.
Now how bad will this cluster fuck of a situation turn out to be?
x-X-x
Orochimaru was seething in anger. First, he had not yet managed to gather Sasuke back to his village. The boy apparently managed to fight and kill all of the sound four including Kimimaro. How that actually happened he was not sure but he couldn't look past the evidence. Secondly, he had finally just finished healing from his recent body transformation and in this time, Naruto had managed to become the Hokage of konoha.
I guess I am going to have to take Sasuke-kun by force and I might as well kill another kage whilst I am at it!
x-X-x
"Mei-sama, I have some recent news. It is in regards to Naruto Uzumaki." Ao said with frustration evident. It was clear to see that this was a sore topic for the man. Ever since Naruto managed to evade the byakugan with that cloud of chakra laced smoke, he wanted to redeem himself and capture the ninja for the betterment of Kirigakure.
"Oh, and what is that?" Mei questioned with a smile on her face. Ao had no idea though whether or not that smile meant that he was about to die though…
"I have just gotten word that Konoha has promoted him to Hokage. Nothing screamed that he was Hokage material earlier when I faced him though so I have my doubts to his skill level. He is fairly young and still a kid in my eyes to be a Hokage.
Kids, fairly young
A twitch appeared on the face of Mei. "Shut up Ao or I'll kill you."
x-X-x
Jiraiya was waiting at the spot he told Shizune about. He had not seen either of the two females since the day before. Tsunade for her part had tried to find Jiraiya but much to her dismay, she wasn't able to.
The blonde haired woman was beyond frustrated. For the first time in ages, she didn't drink any alcohol from the moment that Shizune left her. Thoughts had plagued her mind.
The paramount thought in her mind was that she was not going to influence Shizune's decision, no matter how much she wanted to. She knew that she put her apprentice through a lot over the past decade and a bit. She had to sacrifice a hell of a lot to over the time. Tsunade doubted that Shizune had even had experienced the joys of sex due to her having such a limited social life out on the road.
If she was completely honest with herself, she knew that the life that she was currently living was a shell of the one that she could have been living. One that both Dan and Nawaki would look down on her for. It was the reason why she said thanks but no thanks to Orochimaru a few months ago.
Whether or not she would return to Konoha, Tsunade was not sure. Her gut feeling told her that Jiraiya was not going to relax if she said no a second time. Speaking of her former teammate, he was acting completely different to the way how he normally acted. Normally, Jiraiya would do something perverted, in an exuberant manner upon meeting her. As much as she hated the perverted side of it, Tsunade privately admitted to herself that she enjoyed the enthusiasm and energy he showed. He was the only one out of the three that wasn't broken.
It was gone last night and when Tsunade saw Jiraiya, he instantly looked ten years older, despite having seen the man merely month ago. The woman was worried for her teammate. No matter what had happened in life, he was always jovial and happy.
What was it that made him change? She questioned herself the night before and she couldn't come up with an answer. Throughout all of the time she had known him, Jiraiya had seen her at points which were far worse and yet he stuck around and was still her friend. Now however… She was not too sure.
Tsunade, as she followed Shizune without the woman aware, she wondered what she was going to do. As she mentally said to herself, if Shizune was going to be forced back into the military, then she was going to go back to Konoha and pulverise the new Hokage. If her former teammate wasn't going to tell her who it was, then she was going to find out herself.