Temari had felt the terrible power flood the world around here, an icy cold chill followed that sickening power. It made her freeze in her spot, but her head still whirled around to see the large tress that had exploded from the ground, rising towards the sky begin to wilt. The lighter of the trees fell before the dark of the trees and the purple barrier that had surrounded the main fight disappeared. The trees hit the ground and large clouds of dust were kicked up.
As the barrier vanished, so did the coldness and the sickening power. Freed from her spot, Temari drew her fan. She spun around, unleashing a tornado of wind that pushed back everyone next to her. Stopping, she looked up and saw a squad of sound shinobi rushing away, the pale skin in the middle let her know that it was Orochimaru being forced to retreat.
Her stomach twisted, if the snake had been repelled by the forces of Konoha, what had happened to her father? Mere seconds after the sound ninja left, a squad of Konoha ANBU were seen fleeing as well, the body that they were surrounding was limp and lifeless. She was almost certain that it would be the body of the late Third Hokage if things had gone to plan.
Bending her knees, she pushed chakra into her legs as she slung her fan back onto her back, she launched herself up into air. Soaring up, she landed on the cracked damaged edge wall of the arena, her view filled with the slowly dispersing dust clouds.
Her lungs filled with chakra and she blew the cloud away as she pushed the chakra laced air out of her body. She looked around and she could immediately see the still form of her father, his body still draped in his formal Kage cloaks. It made her stomach twist even more as she was forced to take in that her father had really died.
They had not been close, her father had been cold and abrasive, But at the end of the day, the man was still her father. Jumping down from the top of the wall, she landed on the sandy ground and made her way towards the body of her father on the ground.
She ignored the stares of the Konoha shinobi around her as she single-mindedly made her way towards her dad's corpse. She had just made it there and taken a knee to touch his body when she felt the kunai that had already been thrown at her back.
She barely had time to turn around when the kunai was mere feet away. But much to her surprise, she was not stabbed by the flying knife. Instead a wall of mud rose up from the ground far faster than she could react to block the night. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Naruto on his knees, his right hand covered in mud as it was touching the ground.
"Naruto, how could you save her? She's part of the invading force" growled a Chunin, the man who threw the kunai based on his extended arm and hand.
"Because Old Man Hokage wouldn't want any more needless bloodshed. The invasion is over, Orochimaru has been driven away. The Kazekage is quite literally dead at her feet." panted Naruto
"Fine" spat the Chunin before he turned to Temari and said "Grab his body and leave now, I will not be so nice next time. Now scram before I think of taking my kindness back"
Temari nodded and scooped her father's body up and slung him over her shoulders before she gave Naruto a soft smile before she pumped chakra into her legs and pushed off, leaving in a blurry hurry.
Naruto dropped his hands and knees to face down on the ground, his body giving out from the punishment that he had received. Rolling over, he looked up at the clouds blanketing the sky, the rare spots of bright blue breaking through the gray blanket.
"Hiruzen-Sensei would be proud of you for that?" said Jiraiya as he emerged from someone in the arena.
Naruto didn't say anything in response right away, instead his eyes continued to stare up at the clouds that hung over his body.
"So now what Ero-Sensei?" asked Naruto
Jiraiya shook his head as he chuckled to himself "We do the same thing the village has always done. We rebuild, bigger and better than ever"
Naruto sighed "I think, I will take a moment to myself here on the ground first"
Jiraiya's eyes misted up as he saw another young teenage blond in a stripped tracksuit in Naruto's place, also pleading for a moment's rest.
"Take all the time that you need kid" said Jiraiya absentmindedly leaving Naruto by himself as he turned and looked around at the damage done to his home.
That night: Konoha Council Chambers:
The Clan heads were all present, a couple of them wearing bandages, but they were all still there. Important Jonin such as Kakashi, Gai, and Asuma were present as well, Kakashi had even shown up on time for once. The trio of Village Elders were present. The ANBU commander and all of the ANBU captains were there. Jiraiya was the one who had called the meeting. The civilian side of the council was the only people not present, the Shinobi side did not want nor need their opinion in this kind of matter.
Jiraiya sealed the chamber's door with a special seal and turned to face the rest of the people in the room.
"We all know why we are here" started Jiraiya "Hiruzen-Sensei has fallen in battle to Orochimaru who had the aid of the reanimated First and Second Hokage"
Danzo's lone eye was trained on Jiraiya but the Toad Sage ignored the man looking at him.
"Obviously we can't continue on without a Hokage, it would send a sign to the rest of the world that we are week" continued Jiraiya
"Then it sounds like we need someone to become our new Hokage. I am more than willing to fill the void" said Danzo
Kakashi rolled his eye and Asuma chuckled at the bandaged man's words, causing the older man to look at them sternly.
Shikaku Nara yawned loudly and said "You want us to replace an old man with another old man? That is not the kind of action that will tell the other villages that we are still strong enough not to mess with"
Danzo glared at the Nara clan head but didn't say anything, he knew that he would not gain support by arguing in front of the rest of the council.
"I agree with shadow puppets over there" said Tsume, her wild hair shifting as she moved her head "We have so many S-Ranked Shinobi on our roster, why not go with one who isn't going to die of old age in the next couple of years"
Danzo frowned, his lone sign of his emotional outrage at the Inuzuka clan head's words.
"So, who would you suggest? Kakashi?" asked Shikaku
Kakashi shook his head "I don't believe that I'm ready just yet."
Eagle, the ANBU commander, cut in and said "Isn't it clear? The only person who is qualified is Lord Jiraiya here."
All eyes turned to Jiraiya who shook his head "I don't want the job,but a Sannin isn't a bad place to start, Tsunade would be perfect. She would get to be close to her cousin Naruto as well as help improve the village's medical staff."
"Is it wise for us to really trust one of the Sannin with our village, when one of their own just laid waste to our village?" questioned Danzo "Is she not nothing more than a wrinkled corpse at the moment?"
"And that's somehow worse than you? She'll recover but you're nothing more than a crippled fossil with one foot in the grave" retorted Jiraiya
"I think we need to wait until Lady Tsunade is back on her feet. We can nominate her, but she still has to accept." said Eagle
"We do need to know our options" added Shikaku
"If we are looking for people qualified, I believe that my name should be in the mix" spoke up Hiashi Hyuga
"So the short list is simple, Tsunade, Kakashi's lazy ass, Hiashi, Danzo, and Myself" said Jiraiya
There was a round of agreement before the room grew quiet once more and Danzo asked "The boy, how long has he been practicing his Mokuton abilities?"
Kakashi answered that one "Several months now"
Shibi pushed his glasses up "That is most impressive, Naruto Uzumaki must be more talented than any of us could have guessed for him to progress so quickly with a fabled technique"
Danzo tapped his cane on the ground "As the Third Hokage said, our top priority at this point is to make sure that Naruto remains loyal to this village. With that type of power at his disposal, he could quite literally be the second coming of our First Hokage."
"Yeah and that is why you are to say away from him" glared Jiraiya
"You act as if I would do something to harm the boy" countered Danzo, a calm expression as always on his face
"You make a single move towards him and I will come down on you with all of my power. Orochimaru and a pair of reanimated Hokages were barely able to match me for mere minutes, do you think you would fair better?" spat Jiraiya
"This is outrageous, how dare you talk to a Konoha Elder like this" said Danzo in mock anger
"I am on Lord Jiraiya's side, you make a move on the boy and I will not hesitate to cut you done. Your backdoor moves are well known at this point." said Kakashi, his little orange book was nowhere to be seen and his single eye was trained on the bandaged elder.
The meeting was pretty much over at that point, and thus Jiraiya ended the seal that secured the room and the members of the meeting made their way out.
"Lord Jiraiya, I will be sure to keep an eye on Naruto in case Danzo tries to make a move on him with his Ne" said Kakashi as they were the last two in the room
"Don't worry about it, Naruto is going to become my apprentice soon. I will live him on your team but his training will mostly be handed by me at this point" said Jiraiya
"I didn't think that I did that bad of a job in training him these last couple months. What is the real reason that you wish to take over Naruto's training?" asked Kakashi in a serious tone
"There is a threat that has been lurking in the background for a minute now. I first picked up on them when I was trailing Orochimaru for months. They're not a normal threat like the Cloud building up their Shinobi reserves. No, this group is different as they have only nine members. But each member of this group is an S-Ranked Shinobi" said Jiraiya, equally as serious.
"Nine shinobi on the level of the Kage? That's unheard of." commented Kakashi
"I know, now imagine the leader, a man powerful enough to keep eight others who are that powerful in check. You might be able to handle a couple members, but Naruto needs someone like me who can not just match one of them, but make them think twice about engaging" said Jiraiya
Kakashi nodded his head "Ok then"
Two Days Later:
The bright sky, the beautiful warm weather, the birds chirping loudly. You would never think that the Third Hokage's funeral had just ended.
Naruto stood looking at the memorial with sadness, but there was no tears in his eyes.
"You were past your prime and you still had it in you to fight two former Hokage, unbelievable" said Naruto to nobody.
"You humored me when nobody else would, you believed in me when you had no reason to" continued Naruto "Even at your age, it feels like you were taken too soon. I have so many questions, so many things I wanted to experience with you there. I wish you were still here, I want to be angry that you got yourself killed, but that is what you signed up for, that is why you were the Hokage."
"He would be so proud to hear you understand that Naruto" said a voice from behind him
"I didn't see you here at the funeral" said Naruto, his eyes still trained on the stone that read Hiruzen Sarutobi: The Eternal Hokage
"I didn't want to come, it doesn't feel real that sensei is no longer with us, but at the same time, I know that he's finally getting that rest in retirement that he deserves" replied the voice
"You think so?" asked Naruto
"I know so" said Tsunade as she walked up to Naruto and pulled him into a tight one armed hug.
A/N: Short chapter just to update, next one will probably be closer to like 7K as we have to start moving the plot along.
As always, I welcome any and all questions, concerns, reviews on here or on my Twitter page. That handle is HKM_FFI have a Patr-eon, my username is HighKey_Mars on there, it is a dollar to read any non mature adult story, 2 dollars for access to all stories. If you want to support ya boy, that'd be dope. If not, that's also 's it, HighKey_Mars