Day 3
(*With Hinata*)
Like most days, Hinata was up early. All Hyuga's started day early, and had their breakfast at 6:30am. Hinata tended to avoid breakfast with her family, as it was very quiet and awkward affair. Often followed by lectures from her father. Therefore, unless her father specifically requested her presence for breakfast, she would get up at 5am, eat breakfast by herself, and be gone from the compound, before rest of her family is even awake.
Since she was having breakfast with her family today, she couldn't just bolt, so after finishing her morning routine, she went back to Tsunade-sama's file. Hinata finished with the profile information, and was now going over the most notable missions done by the female Sannin.
Truly, the kunoichi was awe inspiring. If Hinata was not born the heir of Hyuga clan, she would most likely been Iryo-nin. Helping and healing others was very appealing to her, but her father and elders forbid it, after learning about the healing salve she made.
It was 10 minutes into reading about one particular mission, that a piece of information stuck out to her. 'Could it be it?' she asked herself, and spend 5 minutes thinking it over. 'I have to try' she decided.
"A-Ano ANBU-san?" she asked the room.
"What can I do for you Hokage-sama?" asked a man, kneeling in front of her.
"C-Could you bring N-Naruto-kun here?" she asked with a massive blush. Just now realising, that she would be alone, with Naruto, in her room.
"Of course, Hokage-sama" responded the ANBU, before disappearing.
Like most of the Hyuga compound, her room was very spartan, with only bed, dresser and table. The only personal affect she had, was a photo of her late mother. While she waited, Hinata tried to calm down, as well as scanned her room for the hundredth time, making sure it was tidy. Even though she knew Naruto-kun wouldn't care, or even notice. Around 10 minutes later, ANBU returned with a very sleepy Naruto.
"Whoa Hinata, your place is HUGE! Yaaawn" greeted Naruto.
"A-Arigato N-Naruto-kun" she responded with renewed blush, while poking her fingers together.
"Soooo..., what did you, yaaawn, need in this ungodly hour?" he asked, ready to lie down and fall asleep right here, on Hinata's floor. 'How was Hinata so alert at this time? Even Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme were half asleep when they met at 6am, it was only 5:45am right now!'
"G-Gomenasai Naruto-kun" she bowed in apology. "I-I have been reading T-Tsunade-sama's file, and it mentioned, that she sent information to S-Sandaime-sama, on a mission, via her summon" Hinata looked down and poked her fingers.
"Yeaaahh?" asked Naruto, not quite sure what Hinata wanted.
"I w-was wondering, if toad summons c-could deliver a letter to T-Tsunade-sama for me" she asked with hopeful look.
"Uh?" responded Naruto, finally realising why Hinata needed him. He scratched the back of his head sleepily "I have no idea, yaaaawn, yaaawn, I guess we could ask?" he said. Going through the hand-signs, he gathering a good amount of chakra, bit his thumb, and tried to slam his hand into the ground. At the last moment, ANBU caught his hand, preventing the contact with the ground.
"Apologies Naruto-sama, can I suggest using less chakra for summoning? We are indoors" he explained the interruption.
Naruto looked around and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Heheheh, I guess this room is a bit small for Boss Gamabunta. That would have pissed him off" he concluded, making ANBU sweat drop and Hinata pale, imagining her father's reaction.
"Here goes nothing" he said, while repeating the summon, with significantly less chakra.
As the smoke cleared, in place where Naruto slammed his hand was a small orange toad, sleeping.
"Hey Gamakichi?" asked Naruto, seeing no reaction, he started to poke the toad with his finger.
"I am sleeping" the toad responded sleepily, without moving. After a few more pokes, a leg shot out and battled the finger away. "Go away Gamatatsu" he warned. After few more pokes, the toad got enough, and angrily stood up. "I said... Naruto?" he asked, finally seeing who was waking him up.
"Yo Kichi" greeted Naruto with foxy smile.
"Why did you, yaawn, summon me Naruto?" the toad asked with annoyance.
"Haha, we wanted to ask if you can deliver a letter?"
"And you woke me up for that?"
"A-Ano, gomenasai G-Gamakichi-san, it is very important letter" added Hinata.
Noticing the other occupant of the room for the first time, the toad looked her over for a few moments, before turning to Naruto. "Who is that Naruto? She is pretty. Is she your girlfriend?" making Naruto facepalm, and making Hinata sway on her feet, steam coming out of her ears.
"Eheheh, this is my friend Hinata, she is the Hokage now" corrected Naruto, looking at Hinata fearfully, afraid of being hit.
"What? No way..." reacted the amphibian, giving Hinata a second look, finally noticing the Hokage outfit she was wearing.
"Uhuh, so can you do it or not?" asked Naruto, getting annoyed with the summon.
"I guess... who is it for?"
"It is for... um?" confused Naruto turned to Hinata, who was frantically trying to get herself back under control.
"S-Senju Tsunade-sama" supplied Hinata.
"Hmm..., never heard of her" responded Gamakichi, after few moments to think about it.
"S-She is Summoner of the Slugs" added Hinata, really hoping that this plan will work out.
"Oh Slugs! Yeah, I can give them the letter, and they can give it to her" nodded the toad, happy to help the Hokage.
"A-Arigato Gamakichi-san" bowed Hinata, then rushed to her desk.
It took only a few minutes to write the letter. She then handled it to the summon, with additional thanks, and watched him disappear in a cloud of smoke. Wondering about Naruto's silence, Hinata turned to find him sleeping, with droll dripping from his mouth.
With a blush, she considered inviting him for the breakfast with her family, but could not see it going very well. 'Knowing Naruto-kun, he will end up fighting father.'
"A-Ano, ANBU-san?" she called.
"What can I do for you Hokage-sama" the same ANBU replied, kneeling in front of her.
"C-Can you please take N-Naruto-kun back home?"
"Of course, Hokage-sama" he replied, placed his hand on the sleeping blond and left via Shunshin.
The remaining of the morning was spent reading the Tsunade's file some more, until it was time for her to go for breakfast.
"Good morning Otou-sama, Hanabi-imouto" she greeted her family, entering the small dining room.
"Hinata" her father greeted back. "I trust you slept well?"
"H-Hai, Otou-sama" she replied.
Her sister greeted her only with a nod. Normally she would just stare ahead during the meal, but Hanabi was clearly trying not to stare at the Hokage outfit, that Hinata was wearing.
They were half way through the silent meal, when Hinata spoke. "A-Ano, Otou-sama?" when he looked over, she asked the question that burned her mind for the last few days. "W-Why me?"
As soon as she asked the question, her younger sister placed her chopsticks on the table, and turned to their father with interest.
"You know that Sandaime nominated you?" he asked Hinata, who nodded in agreement.
"What you may not know, is that with enough votes, The Shinobi Council can overturn the Hokage's choice of successor. In essence, your candidature was approved by both the Sandaime and The Shinobi Council" he explained.
"B-B-But why?" asked wide eyed Hinata. This was news to her.
"There were many arguments pro and against you. However, what sealed the deal, - was the Sandaime's track record."
"O-Oh...?" she asked uncertainly.
"Both of you learned about the Sandaime Hokage from your history lessons?" he asked. Getting nods in agreement, he continued.
"Among his many talents, there is one skill that was not widely publicised" his daughters leaned forward with interest. "He had an eye for a hidden talent" he said. Seeing looks of confusion, he decided to elaborate.
"As you may know, most of those who graduate from Ninja Academy, will not become Genin. Generally, it is known in advance, which students will become Genin and which will not. The teams are formed around that notion. It is possible to become Genin, even if you are placed on non-favoured team, but it is quite rare" he started.
"Everyone knows Sandaime trained the Sannins. What few know, is that only one of them was assigned to his team originally. The other two were assigned to the failing teams. The Sandaime argued and handpicked them to be moved to his team, over the more promising students he was given" seeing the looks of surprise, he added.
"The Sandaime had also ensured, that Yondaime Hokage was placed in an orphanage within Konoha Walls, despite being a no name outsider. He also helped him to enrol into the Ninja Academy" he finished, gave his daughters a few moments to process the information, before continuing.
"Those are just two of numerous examples, when Sandaime-sama saw a hidden talent, where no one else saw it, and took actions to ensure that talent had an opportunity to flourish. The Shinobi Council believes, that Sandaime saw something in you Hinata, which made him choose you as his successor, over more experienced and well-known Shinobi."
The rest of the breakfast was spent in silent contemplation of the earlier discussion. Then, Hiashi led Hinata to his office.
"I would like to speak with my daughter alone, about clan secrets" said Hiashi, once they were seated.
"Hokage-sama?" asked an ANBU, appearing to their side in a bow.
"H-Hai" she dismissed them.
Once the ANBU left the room, Hiashi pushed some chakra, to activate the privacy seals of his office. Then, he spent a few moments studying his eldest. They never had great father-daughter relationships. Even when his wife was alive, he struggled in his role, and things went downhill since her passing. Only recently, after the Chunin Exams scare, they finally started to make some progress.
Hinata didn't make things easier. From the uncharacteristic lavender tint to her eyes, to the dark blue hair and her kind personality. Everything about her was so unlike their whole family. It didn't help, that she was the heir, and had great many responsibilities and expectations placed on her. Expectations, that she was failing to meet.
Until few days ago, when she achieved what no other Hyuga could, - became the Hokage. And just like that, she went from clan's disappointment, to one of the most famous Hyuga's to ever live. It didn't even matter, how she performed in her new role. Her name will forever be associated with legends of the Shinobi World, like Senju Brothers, The Professor and Yellow Flash.
"Hinata, I hope you realise that as Hokage, there are high expectations of your leadership and battle skills. Expectations, that exceed even those, required of Hyuga Heir" he stated.
"H-Hai" she answered with her head down. Knowing very well, that she didn't measure even to be the heir.
"Your new position is already set, and there is nothing that will change it. You will have to manage as you are, and improve as you go."
"I-I will do my best O-Otou-sama" she said with a low bow.
"See to it that you do" he tried to encourage. "There is little I can do, to help you with yours day-to-day Hokage duties, it is something you will have to figure out yourself. However, I think it is best if I took over your Hyuga training once more" he suggested.
Hinata looked sharply at him, barely daring to hope. Father stopped training her years ago, focusing his efforts on her younger sister. Ever since then, Hinata didn't have any formal teacher in the Juken, or other Hyuga skills. What she learned, was from observations, scrolls, memory and, occasionally, when she gathered enough courage to ask for help, from Ko-san.
"It has been some time, since I was involved in your training. I would like to get an idea where you currently stand" he began. "What is your effective dome range?"
"32 meters" she answered with shame. Contrary to popular believe, the dome range has more to do with chakra reserves, than actual skills with the Byakugan. The effective range was the maximum range at which the dome was stable and clear, and usually could be maintained for approximately 10 minutes.
It was possible to push it further that that, but the dome will start to distort from its perfect circular form, and the image will start to blur in random areas. Additionally, the chakra expenditure increased exponentially, with bigger domes.
There were many variables that affected the chakra expenditure, like terrain, ambient chakra in the environment, chakra control and many more, but generally you could use the rule of cubed increase. To double the range of Byakugan dome, you need to spend 8 times as much chakra.
"Hmm..., it is a bit low for your age. You need to work more on increasing your chakra reserves. What about your long range?" asked Hiashi. For someone Hinata's age, expected dome range was 40 meters.
"3.7 kilometres" answered Hinata with pride. For long range, the determining factor was chakra control. The further you could narrow down the viewing cone, the better range you get. Similarly, the long range could be pushed outside of your effective range, but with similar side effects to the dome vision.
"Impressive" prized Hiashi, making Hinata blush. For someone her age, expected long range vision was 1 kilometre. This implied, that Hinata's chakra control was already high Chunin to low Jonin range. "And how many focus points can you maintain?"
Pushing her head down once more "five" replied Hinata. Focus points were, perhaps, the best kept secret of Hyuga clan. It was the closest indicator to the Byakugan mastery, that they had. It was true, that Hyuga could see everything in their range, but it was more akin to seeing area from a high vantage point, if much clearer.
If there were 100 enemies in your range, you could see all of them, and generally understand what they were doing. However, it was impossible to fight any skilled enemy that way. That is where focus points came in. Each focus point allowed Hyuga to choose an enemy, item or area of interest to follow with precision, similarly to how normal person focuses, but seeing more.
In essence, Hinata could see what 5 enemies were doing better, than her teammates could for just one. However, seeing more, didn't mean she could do more. In most cases, it just meant that she was harder to catch by surprise, and had better bearing about the state of her teammates in the midst of battle.
"I see..." replied Hiashi. For most Genin's, it was expected to maintain 4 to 8 focus points. With Chunin's reaching up to 12, and Jonin's - 20. Hiashi could maintain up to 30 focus points, but rarely did, as each one increased the chakra drain from using Byakugan. Additionally, numerous focus points were not much help in 1 vs 1, or smaller battles, but becoming increasingly more useful in bigger battles, like the invasion few days ago.
"We will see where you are with Juken and other techniques during our next training sessions. As your schedule is going to be fuller, I want you to find the best time for those sessions, and I will adjust my schedule around that. It would be best to meet twice a week, four hours each time. I know you are quite busy right now, so we will start next week" he told her.
"H-Hai" agreed wide eyed Hinata. She didn't expect to get any substantial amount of training from her father, much less be put in charge of scheduling it.
"Now, you had heard that Hyuga's are born to rule?" he asked, getting a nod he continued. "It is indeed true, that we have easier time of it, than about anyone else. What I am about to tell you is the biggest secret of the clan. Only passed from Clan Head to Clan Head" he told her, watching to make sure she was paying attention he continued.
"Not even the clan elders know this, but some of them may have figured it out. As a Hokage, you would greatly benefit from this knowledge. However, I must stress that you must keep it secret. If others learn of it, every Kage, Clan Head and Businessman in the Elemental Nations will want a pair of Byakugan eyes of their own" he stressed, waiting for Hinata to respond.
Hinata stared at her father wide eyed. She wasn't sure she could be trusted with such important knowledge. Gulping loudly, she responded "I-I-I understand, O-Otou-sama."
"Very well. Much like using focus points to keep track of multiple allies and enemies at the same time, you can use them to work on multiple pieces of paperwork at the same time!" he told her, with barely contained glee.
Hinata stared at her father with open mouth. Not sure if he was joking. Being a Hokage for less than 2 full days, she hasn't yet learned, what bane of leader's existence was the paperwork.
"A-Ano..., but there wasn't that much paperwork?" she asked her father uncertainly.
"Hmm... In your position, on a good day, I would expect you will be getting at least 500 pieces of paperwork per day. During this post invasion period, there may be 2000 or more pieces for you to handle each day" he told her in sympathy. "I expect, that most of the paperwork was held back by the secretary, to not overwhelm you."
Hinata lowered her head down in shame. Just yesterday she finished only 1 piece of paperwork, and it wasn't even from her 'unfinished' pile. 'And I thought I was doing great...'
"As I mentioned, you will have easier time than most. At your level, you should be able to do the paperwork nearly 5 times as fast, as any non-Hyuga in your position. However, you may want to start with only 2 or 3 focus points. Doing paperwork with focus points is a bit more challenging, than using them in battle, so it will take some time for you to adjust."
"H-Hai" responded Hinata in determination. Ready to take on as many pieces of paperwork today, as possible.
"As a Hokage, you will have very little time to yourself and for training. Therefore, you should use every opportunity to train. I would suggest you keep your Byakugan on as much as possible, in and out of the office. Even when you are not doing paperwork. This will help you to increase your chakra reserves, and hide the clan secret, under pretence of Byakugan training" suggested Hiashi.
"Arigatou O-Otou-sama" she bowed to him deeply.
"This is all I wanted to discuss today. We can discuss more during our next training session" he told her. As soon as he disabled the privacy seals, the ANBUs entered the room and took protective positions around Hinata.
Realising the dismissal, Hinata bowed to her father once more and left his office. The first thing she done, was to return to her own room to pick up the Hokage's Hat, as well as Tsunade-sama's file. As she left the compound, she activated her Byakugan, and was startled to see 12 ANBUs following her under camouflage Genjutsus.
"A-Ano, what are your codenames?" she asked them. They were here to protect her, and she felt bad for not even knowing their names.
(*With Tsunade*)
Tsunade has been sleeping off the excess alcohol she consumed the night before. Just a few days ago, they had to skip a town to avoid debt collectors sent after her. After full day on the road, she had to indulge in the vice, once they reached a suitably safe town.
The dawn was just starting, when there was a burst of smoke next to the sleeping Sannin. Once the smoke dissipated, it reviled a white slug with three blue streaks along its body, not bigger than a cat.
"Lady Tsunade?" it called to the sleeping woman. Seeing no reaction from her, the slug flopped up and landed on Sannin's chest. Moments later, it was engulfed in blue chakra aura.
"Urgh" groaned Tsunade, bringing hand to her head.
"Tsunade-sama, are you awake now?" asked the slug.
"Urgh" groaned Tsunade, the noise making her head explode in splitting headache. With difficulty, she opened her eyes. It took a few moments for the image to stop swirling and to process what she saw. "Lady Katsuyu?" she asked uncertainly, not sure if she was hallucinating.
"It is me Tsunade-sama. It is good to see you again" responded the summon.
With difficulty, Tsunade sat up and placed the slug in front of her on the bed. "What are you doing here?"
"I am sorry for waking you up Lady Tsunade, but toads had an urgent letter for you" she said. At the same time, her skin bubbled and a letter was pushed to the surface from within its body. With no further words, Tsunade grabbed the letter and opened it, while also focusing on fighting her handover.
Dear Senju Tsunade-sama,
You may not have heard yet, but few days ago, a combined ninja force of Sunagakure no Sato and newly formed Otogakure no Sato, led by Orochimaru-san, invaded Konoha. While the invasion was repelled, there were number of casualties and injuries on all sides.
I am sorry to inform you, but Sandaime-sama had been killed in the fight with Orochimaru-san.
The service for the fallen will be held later this afternoon, if you are close enough to make it.
Among the injured, there are 72 Shinobi, Kunoichi and Civilians, that, I am told, only someone with your skills can heal. Of them, 9 had already perished in the last few days, and 7 more are in critical condition and may not last next 24 hours.
Please come back to Konoha as soon as possible, to help with the injured.
Godaime Hokage,
Hyuga Hinata
Katsuyu watched as number of emotions played on the face of her summoner. After her eyes stopped flying over the letter, she stared into the space for a few minutes, before crumbling the letter in her trembling fist. "Is everything alright Tsunade-sama?" she asked with concern.
Tsunade glanced at the summon and tried to calm her raging emotions. "Sensei had been killed by Orochimaru" she summarized the most important parts of the letter.
"Oh Tsunade-sama, I am so sorry for your loss..."
"Yet another casualty of that cursed position" she said bitterly. "I hate to ask, Katsuyu-sama, but could you bring Jiraya to me? He must be somewhere in Konoha" she asked.
"Of course, Tsunade-sama" answered the summon, before disappearing in cloud of smoke.
Gathering her thoughts for a minute, Tsunade left her room and started banging on a door to a room next door. "Bang! Bang! Bang!"
It took only few seconds before the door flew open. "Tsunade-sama! You are going to wake up the whole inn!" complained Shizune.
"Gather your things Shizune, we are leaving" said Tsunade, then turned around and went back into her own room, to collect her own things.
"We just got here" complained Shizune, but went back into the room and started packing. Over the years she got used to her master leaving on very short notice, at any time of the day. Usually, to avoid debt collectors, and paying for knocked down walls, or excess amounts of consumed alcohol.
Less than 5 minutes later, they were on the road and leaving the town behind.
(*With Jiraya*)
Jiraya's day started much more exciting, than he would have preferred. The wake-up call came in form of a kunai, that pierced the pillow he was sleeping on a fraction of second earlier. As he rolled out of the bed, even before he hit the ground, he saw some snakes made of ink launching at him from under the bed.
Making a split-second decision, he punched the ground with an open palm and redirected his body upward. As the snake passed below him, a new danger made itself known, and he had to twist his body around in the air, to avoid his head being chopped off by a katana.
Even before he finished twisting in the air, his arms met in series of lighting fast hand seals. Suddenly, his hair spiked and shot out in all directions. Piercing everyone and everything in his bedroom. 'Crap! How did they get past my security seals?'
As he passed across the window, he had to dive down, to avoid being pierced by numerous kunai flying in. Carefully he studied the seal on his window, and had to conclude that it was not disturbed, they got in another way.
With great care, he moved across his house looking at how the assailants got in. Finally, he found that it was window in his kitchen that was tempered with. 'Damn, I will need to come up with another security array. Danzo had found a way to bypass my current one, probably using some Ink based Jutsu.'
As he studied the array, 4 more assailants tried to ambush him in the kitchen. They were all close combat specialists, and Jiraya found himself pressed, especially, since the kunai kept coming every time, he moved in front of any of the windows.
After about 10 minutes of back and forward combat, which destroyed most of his house, he had to resort to Swamp of the Underworld to gain advantage. This finished the destruction of his house, but gained him enough advantage, to finish off his opponents. Jumping out of one of the windows, while deflecting waves of kunai and shuriken, he had to do hasty Kawarimi Jutsu to avoid plummeting into pit trap. 'How the hell did they dig up that big ass pit? I would have noticed if they were using Jutsu of that size!'
As he ran away, he noticed at least 6 more long range assailants, trying to nick him with ranged weapons. Passing a big tree, he made a Shadow Clone and switched with it. Seconds later, he jumped from behind the tree right into the middle of 3 of his pursuers. Jamming the kunai into back of one of them, he kicked another one away.
The third one reacted quickly and unexpectedly. Jiraya just barely managed to jump away from the massive blast from a suicide jutsu, empowered by hundreds of Exploding Tags. Even before he managed to get his bearings back, he had to dodge weapons thrown by another team of 3 that was tracking him.
Jiraya just managed to get one more assailant, when 2 more teams joined and he had to bid hasty retreat. 'Where the hell are ANBU? We are making some massive ruckus here!'
For the next few hours, Jiraya had to play cat and mouse with the ROOT members in the forests around Konoha. Only occasionally getting drop on some of the members, but they had numbers and smarted out about it enough, that it was difficult to do, even harder to get away once he was exposed and surrounded. He didn't dare to go into Konoha for the fear of collateral damage. His assailants seem to be quite determined, and he didn't think they would care about civilians or ANBU.
He was hiding in indentation under one of the trees, resting after the latest encounter, when there was a movement in front of him. Reflexively, he brought a kunai in front of himself in defensive position, but then his eyes registered what he had seen.
"Katsuyu?" he asked in surprise.
"Good morning Jiraya-sama" she greeted him apologetically. Then, faster that he could react in his shocked state, she jumped at his face and they both disappeared.
One moment Jiraya was staring at the familiar summon, and the next, he was experiencing the disorienting filling of being summoned. Following it was feeling of being engulfed within Katsuyu's massive body, fully submerged in its slimy substance. Then, came feeling of being summoned once more.
As he appeared, Jiraya fell down to his knees and started to hack out the slime from his lungs. Then, unsteadily, he stood up, wiping the substance from his eyes. As he opened them, he came face to face with his old teammate. "Hime?" he asked in both confusion and happiness, glad to see her.
Moments later, a fist connected with his face, making him blow through 2 trees and dig a trench in the forest floor. All of the slime he was covered in, fell harmlessly to the floor where he previously stood, unable to keep up with his suddenly gained momentum.
"Tsunade-sama!" yelled Shizune in protest.
Tsunade ignored her apprentice, walking to the drowned Sannin with trembling fists. "What is the meaning of this?" she shook the crumbled letter in her hand.
Jiraya just looked at her dazed and confused.
Not getting and appropriate response fast enough, her temper flared even worse. "How... Many... Times... Do... I... Need... To... Tell... You... I... Am... Not... Going... Back... To... Konoha?" she screamed. Each word was punctuated with an earth-shattering punch to the drowned man.
By the end of it, Tsunade sat down in a sizeable crater, in the middle of the forest, trembling and taking shaky breaths. Bruised and bleeding Jiraya lay in the centre, barely holding onto his consciousness.
"Lady Tsunade! Stop!" yelled Shizune in alarm. Seeing her master have finally calmed down, without inflicting permanent injuries to the fellow Sannin, Shizune signed in relief. Then something caught her attention. "Tsunade-sama, your hemophobia?" she asked in concern, seeing Tsunade's fists covered in Jiraya's blood.
It took a moment for Tsunade to register the words of her companion. Then, she took a few moments to study her bloodied hands. "Huh!? Right now, my anger is stronger than my fear" she concluded, to the amazement of her companion. Shizune spend many years trying to cure her master of the phobia.
While the women talked, Jiraya started to regain some sense, and connecting the dots. Concluding, that Hokage have somehow managed to reach Tsunade, and piss her off at the same time. 'That Demon Spawn!'
"What did you call me?" asked Tsunade with narrowed eyes.
Realising that he said it out loud, Jiraya could only gulp and look at Tsunade in fear, before his world went dark.
After knocking out her old teammate, Tsunade just sat there for a few minutes, thinking. Finally, she made up her mind. Grabbed the ankle of the unconscious man, dragging his body out of the crater with her.
"Katsuyu-sama, I hate to ask again, but could you take us all to Konoha Gates? It is few days of travel from here, and we don't have time" she asked the summon. Knowing that reverse summoning was not easy on the summons. Doing it multiple times, with multiple people, was much worse.
"Of course, Lady Tsunade" agreed the slug.
"We are going to Konoha?" asked Shizune in hope. She liked traveling with her master, but at times, she really missed the village she was born in.
The summon shivered for a moment, splitting into 2 copies, each copy jumping onto the shoulder of the women. Moments later, the six of them disappeared to the summoning realm.
"Thank you, Katsuyu-sama. I may need your assistance with healings later today, please get some rest" said Tsunade, once they arrived to the clearing near Konoha gates.
"I am glad to help, Tsunade-sama" responded the summon, then disappeared in cloud of smoke.
Tsunade focused her chakra for a moment, and the slime that covered the Sannin studently slid down her body and clothes, leaving her spotless. Nearby, Shizune was focusing on calming down Tonton, who didn't enjoy their journey very much. Shizune didn't seem to be bothered by the slime sticking to her. Jiraya was still out, but the slime had some mild healing properties, so Tsunade left him covered.
"Come Shizune" she beckoned her apprentice, dragging her teammate by the ankle.
Shizune perked up, finally focusing on their surroundings. "Are we staying this time Tsunade-sama?" she asked with hope.
"No" responded Tsunade with finality. "We are here for funerals and to help with the injured, then we are leaving again. No matter what that stuck up Hyuga says."
"Funerals?" asked disappointed Shizune.
Tsunade stopped for a moment, glancing from the corner of her eye at her companion. "Sandaime had been killed by Orochimaru."
Shizune gasped and put her hand over her mouth in horror. "I am so sorry Tsunade-sama" she tried to comfort her mentor.
"Let's go" said the Sannin. Turned around and started walking to the Konoha Gates again, trying to hide her moist eyes.
(*With Gai*)
Since the Hokage and her party left, Gai went to work on the modifications to the repair bill. This time the changes were a bit more extreme, and he had to calculate lots of different scenarios and plot various routes to get the best possible result. It was well into the late night by the time he was done.
However, rather than getting well deserved sleep, he had another pressing issue to address. Namely, the holes in the current patrol routes. There was no way for him to shape up his subordinates in short amount of time. His only other option was to make the routes interweave more, so the patrol teams would cover each other deficiencies.
It was early morning by the time he was done, and had to run to meet with the Hokage.
"Good morning, Keno-san!" he greeted the secretary enthusiastically. "Is Hokage-sama already in?" he asked with interest.
"Good morning, Gai-san" he greeted back calmly. "No, Godaime-sama have not arrived yet. Would you like me to set up a meeting?" he asked.
"Yosh! No need Keno-san, we already agreed to meet this morning, to finalize the Wall Repair Bill" he waved the folder in his hand. "I will just wait for Hokage-sama to arrive, if that is okay with you" he said. Keno just shrugged and went back to sorting the new paperwork.
Not knowing how long the wait is going to be, Gai decided to use that time to catch on some sleep in the waiting chair. As any high skilled ninja, he has learned to sleep on command, while keeping his senses on alert.
"G-Good morning, Gai-sensei, Keno-san" greeted them Hinata, as soon as she entered the reception area. It was around 7:30am.
"Aha! Good morning Hokage-sama! As promised, I have the revised Wall Repair Bill ready. Would you like to take a look?" asked Gai enthusiastically.
"H-Hai" she responded with a smile and led Gai into the Hokage office.
Once they were seated, Gai decided to get a concern out of the way first. "Is everything alright Hokage-sama?"
"H-Hai" responded confused Hinata.
"You have your Byakugan activated" he elaborated.
"Oh..." responded Hinata, ducking her head with a blush. "I-It is for training" she added. As soon as she entered the reception, she spotted the piles of paperwork behind Keno-san. 'It is as father said...' she signed. Ever since entering her office, she already dedicated 2 focus points to the paperwork pile, while keeping another one on Gai-sensei. Trying to get a good start on her work today.
"Hmm... I can see how being a Hokage will limit the training time" he nodded in understanding. He already missed on his evening workout, night of sleep and morning workout, and Hokage has even less time. Putting his hand under his chin, he studied kunoichi for a minute. "Did you consider wearing some weights?" he finally asked.
"W-Weights?" she asked in confusion. She heard something about Lee wearing them from Naruto-kun. However, it was hard to understand from his descriptions what they did, beyond it being 'super cool'.
"Yosh! They are mostly used to improve stamina and speed, but also provide a moderate amount of workout at rest times" he explained.
"Oh..." responded Hinata. She did need to train a whole lot to become stronger, and it would help sell her use of Byakugan too! "A-Ano, where do I-I get them?" she asked.
"That is the spirit! Your flames of youth burn brightly indeed! However, weights are not something you can just casually pick up. Poorly matched weights will do more harm than good" he explained.
"Oh?" she asked uncertainly.
"Goken, the martial style I prefer, is heavily focuses on strength, mobility and kicks. Therefore, I use big weights on my shins" he stood up to show it to her. "However, in Juken, you almost explicitly use hands, and it is more about standing your ground and letting your opponent come to you. Using same weights, will likely just ruin your footwork, while contributing little to advance your training" he explained.
"Additionally, the size of the weights is very important. Use too little, and you will not get as much benefit. Use too much, and you may tear a tendon or ruin your balance. If you are serious about wearing weights, then I will need to assess your fitness level and your fighting style to pick up correct weights and placements for you. After that, we will need to reassess and adjust the weights on weekly basis, depending on your progress" he explained.
Hinata lowered her head down, and poked her fingers while thinking. After a minute, she finally raised her head. "Please help me, Gai-sensei" she pleaded with a deep bow.
"Yosh! Now we just need to figure out the best time" he exclaimed enthusiastically.
"A-Ano, is tomorrow morning fine?" asked Hinata. She didn't really want to wait till next week to resume training. The morning exercises were her times of thinking and reflection. In addition to being great way to wake up, it helped her to work through any issues she had with the day before. Starting new day with a fresh mind.
"Tomorrow morning is great! What time would you like to start?" he asked.
"I-Is 5:30am fine?" she asked with uncertainty. It sounded like this assessment will be harder, than her usual morning routine. Therefore, she decided to skip breakfast, and grab it after the training.
"Excellent! Tomorrow at 5:30am then! It will give me plenty of time, to finish my morning warm up before we start" agreed Gai, giving the Hokage a nice guy pose.
"Now to this wall repair. As I mentioned yesterday, using your earlier corrections, as well as assessing the damage in person, I was able to push the price from 300 million Ryo, to 220 million" he reminded her.
"After our meeting yesterday, I had completely revamped the delivery method. Normally, the stone blocks will be delivered by conventional civilian horse carriages, escorted by shinobi on long C-rank mission. Due to how the roads are built, and due to low speed, it takes over a month for each delivery to arrive. This makes delivery extremely expensive" he began.
"However, as you hinted yesterday, the stone blocks can be caried by a team of Shinobi. One of the big benefits, is that we can disregard the roads. Following this route" he showed it drawn on the map, "the 1000 kilometres route will become only 400 kilometres long. They will also be able to move much faster. I estimate 4 hours to the quarry, few hours of rest, and then 16 hours to travel back. It should wrap each trip into a single day C-rank mission" he explained the plan. Seeing Hokage was following along, he went on.
"Now, the wall repair is responsibility of the Village Security Department, and shinobi there are already paid on monthly basis. Using them for delivery will be even cheaper. They normally work 12-hour shifts, but since each journey takes 24 hours, they will get every second day off, for the duration of the repair."
"It requires 4 Shinobi to carry each of those blocks safely. However, to be on the safe side, I think it is best to send teams of 10. They will be able to carry 2 block per team, with 2 members left for lookout and to rest."
"Now, to the bad news. To keep Village Security up, while number of the members are away, it will require to temporary increase the size of the department to 300 ninjas, from current 200. However, even with the increased manpower, I estimate the wall repair will end up costing 167 million Ryo. Which is nearly 50% cheaper than the original bill" finished proudly Gai.
"I-It is amazing" praised Hinata. 'The amount of work Gai-sensei put in! And he saved Konoha so much money!'
However, there was something else she realised from her excursions yesterday, and the reading ahead she was doing with 2 of her focus points. In addition to the Stadium and the Village Wall, nearly all department buildings were explicitly targeted and damaged by the invasion. Most of which were build using the same special stone, that was used for the wall.
Picking pieces of paperwork from the 'unfinished' pile seemingly at random, she soon had a small pile in front of her. Then she took spare piece of paper and started tallying up all of the requests together. It took a few minutes, but she had her answer. Only for a few of the requests, the stone price was nearly as expensive as the original wall bill, however, none came close to the new price Gai was proposing.
None of the other locations suffered as much damage as the wall. However, those many smaller requests, added up to require twice as much material, as the wall itself. Looking up, she noticed Gai quietly studying her, as she done the calculations. Blushing at the attention, she pushed the stack of the collected paperwork, and her calculations to him.
It took Gai only a minute, to realise what Hokage had done. "YOUTH!" he screamed in approval. His respect to the new Hokage growing by the minute.
Over the next 30 minutes, they modified the Wall Repair Bill to collect all of the stone needed by rest of the Konoha. The increased volume also pushed them into next bracket of discounts, reducing the price even further. To account for the increased volume, the village security was also temporary boosted to 500 Shinobi, to help with the deliveries.
(*With Naruto*)
Waking up at 10 minutes to 8am, Naruto yawned. It was nice change of pace for him, not to have to get up at 6am for team meeting. Through he had the strangest dream of having meeting with Hinata at 5am or something. 'Probably all of that extra work is getting to me.' Shrugging the weird dream, he went to boil water for his ramen breakfast.
Over the last few days, his worldview had been shaken a lot. Starting with the death of one of his most important people, and ending with a close and personal look at what Hokage's job entailed. 'I hope we can go to some cool mission soon. I mean, being on the team with Hokage means we get all of the best missions, right?'
No one bothered to explain to him what exactly being Hokage Advisor meant. He assumed, he was now on the team with Hinata, Kurenai-sensei and Hanako-obaa. He was a bit sad leaving Team 7, but he kind of liked the new arrangement better, even if Sakura-chan was no longer on his team. None of them berated him, or called him names. In fact, they acknowledged and listened to him, which was balm to the starved for attention orphan.
At 8am he arrived to the Hokage Tower. Hanako-obaa and Kurenai-sensei were already waiting, but not Ero-Sage.
"Hehe" he scratched his head, when everyone turned to him. "Are we going to start or what?" he suggested.
"I am sorry, but Hokage-sama is in a meeting with Gai. You will have to wait for them to finish" said Keno.
Shrugging, Naruto took an empty seat. "Anyone seen Ero-Sannin?" he asked the room, but only got negative headshakes in return. 'Oh well, he probably peeping at girls or something' decided Naruto.
Naruto was just starting to drift off to sleep, when there was a loud shout of "YOUTH!" from the office, making everyone jump. It was another 30 minutes before the doors to the office opened, and energetic Gai walked out.
Soon thereafter, they were called in and started to work on finalising numerous repairs bills that Hinata started with Gai. Kurenai-sensei and Hanako-obaachan were very impressed with the work Gai and Hinata done to reduce the expenses.
Through the whole morning, Hinata kept her Byakugan active. Similarly, to how you could push your range with more chakra, you could also reduce the range, to spend less chakra. In the office, realistically, Hinata only needed to keep the range of few meters, to see it in full. However, she used bigger range, to use little more chakra, that was her recovery rate.
"Hokage-sama, the ceremony is going to start in 30 minutes" interrupted their work Keno.
"A-Arigato Keno-san" thanked Hinata.
For the first time since she left the compound this morning, Hinata deactivated the Byakugan, rubbing her eyes tiredly. She was not used to keeping her eyes active this long. There was also a headache building, from all of the information she consumed today. 'I may have to switch to only 2 focus points this afternoon' she decided. As much as she wanted to make progress, it was also important to know when to pace yourself.
The walk to the cemetery was a solemn one. As they travelled, numerous citizens and ninja joined their procession. Hinata was thankful, that she didn't have to do much during the proceedings. The organisation and most of the talking were done by the Village Elders, as those who knew the Sandaime the best. Thankfully, no one she knew well, was killed in the invasion. Her focus was mostly on providing moral support to Naruto.
Hearing a gasp, Hinata turned "Hanako-obaachan?" she asked her caretaker.
"I cannot believe it, it is Lady Tsunade" responded Hanako with awe. Indicating with her head to the pretty blond woman in her 30ies. Standing next to Jiraya-sama in full body cast. 'I hope Jiraya-sama is okay' thought Hinata. Seeing the woman looking directly at her, Hinata ducked her head with a blush. Mortified at being caught starring, but also pleased that Sannin agreed to return.
After the ceremony, their party returned to office to continue their work.
"A-Ano, where is Hokage vault?" asked Hinata. The question was on her mind ever since she saw the female Sannin.
(*With Tsunade*)
As she walked through the village, a sense of nostalgia hit Tsunade. The pain of remembering her loved ones was stronger than ever, but could also remember the good times she had in the village. Even after all of these years, the people seem to recognise her. As she walked, there were numerous greetings of 'Lady Tsunade' and 'Tsunade-sama'. Perhaps, dragging unconscious Jiraya by his ankle helped with the recognition.
"Get me the head healer" she commanded, to the wide-eyed reception nurse.
"O-Of course, T-Tsunade-sama" she stuttered, then run away.
"Tsunade-sama!" an elderly doctor called, half running in their direction.
"Is that you Io?" asked Tsunade, recognising one of the more talented doctors from her time.
"Hai, it is me Tsunade-sama. When Godaime-sama said she was trying to contact you, I didn't dare to hope she will success, and so soon! Bless her soul!" he exclaimed.
"Tsk, just show me your most critical patients" responded annoyed Tsunade, she still was angry at the Hyuga.
"Right this way" said Io, leading the Sannin to his office. "Is Jiraya-sama alright?" he asked with concern. For the first time noticing the other Sannin, from the noise he was making being dragged across polished hospital floors.
"He will survive" responded Tsunade dismissively.
When they arrived to the office of Head Healer, Io rushed to his desk, and grabbed a pile of the patient files, handling them to the Sannin. Tsunade read through the file quickly, before handling it to Shizune and starting on the next one. It took them only a few minutes to get through all of the critical patients.
"Tsk, half of those can be handled by a half-trained medic-nin" she accused her old colleague.
Io flinched, remembering what it was like working with Tsunade. "I am sorry Tsunade-sama, ever since you left, the standards have fallen" he apologized with a bow. "The few decent doctors we have, cannot be sent to deal with those who are not likely to make it anyway. There are many needing help, and we have to prioritize saving 10, over maybe saving 1" he finished with shame.
"Tsk, so nothing had changed" summarized angry Sannin. "Shizune, you take these, and I will deal with the rest" she quickly split the pile of files. "Stabilize them only, we will deal with the actual healings in the afternoon" she instructed.
"Understood, Tsunade-sama" responded Shizune, then left the office to attend her patients.
"Io, you patch Jiraya up, I think he may have a few fractures" she instructed the doctor, before leaving the office as well.
It took few hours, but all of the critical patients were stabilized enough, that there was no immediate risk of death in the next 24 hours. Therefore, Tsunade and Shizune were able to attend the funeral, with now conscious Jiraya in full body cast, carried on two-wheel trolley. 'Tsk, Io went over the top again' grunted Tsunade, remembering working with him before.
"What is that kid doing wearing the Hokage Robes?" she asked Jiraya.
"That is Godaime" he responded, glaring at the Hokage.
"Are the Hyuga's so influential now, that they could push for their own Hokage?" she asked in concern. It never ended well, when a single clan was too powerful. Clearly pushing a kid into the lifelong position, was a way to ensure it stayed with the clan for many years to come.
"It was Sensei's choice" he corrected.
"What?" she looked at him shocked. "Did he lost his mind in his old age?" she asked concerned.
"No, as far as I could tell, he was fine, if older and more tired than ever" responded Jiraya.
Looking at the Hokage, Tsunade caught her eyes for a moment, before the girl averted her eyes with a blush, nervously poking her fingers together. "Poor kid, being saddled with that cursed job" she lamented. Hearing a snort from her teammate, she turned to him with a questioning look.
"Don't let her fool you, she is a little demon in her own right" he said, glaring at the girl. He was not going to forget this morning any time soon.
Tsunade looked back at the Hokage for a few more moments, studying her. Then glanced at Jiraya from a corner of her eyes with concern. 'Maybe I hit him harder than I thought.'
Once the ceremony was over, their party returned to the hospital to start healing the critical cases. This process was much harder, requiring both of the medics, as well as taking good few hours. By the late evening, they were both exhausted, managing to heal only 2 of their patients. They were not ready to be released, but the regular doctors could handle them from here on out.
They were grabbing their late take away dinner, in one of the hospital rooms, when an ANBU interrupted them.
"Jiraya-sama, you have been summoned by the Godaime-sama" he told still in the casts Sannin.
Jiraya had been miserable last few hours, he was itching all over, and couldn't move at all. Tsunade had no sympathy, and actually took a perverse pleasure from his misery, dragging him with her all day. Even now, as the women dinned, he resigned to just watch. Unable to move a finger, he couldn't eat on his own, and from look of things, no one had any plans in feeding him either.
"One moment" said Tsunade with a smile. Licking her fingers clean from the dinner, she stood up and approached her wide-eyed teammate. Bringing her fist back, she wracked him in his centre of mass.
To Jiraya's relief, he barely felt the punch, but it was enough, to create multiple fractures in the cast restricting him. Giving his teammate a stink eye, he left the room to meet with the little demon.
"That was evil, Tsunade-sama" noted Shizune with a smile.
"Heh, he deserved it" she responded, pulling a fresh bottle of sake from under her chair.
It was another 10 minutes of relaxation, when another member of ANBU interrupted them again.
"Are you Senju Tsunade?" he asked the Sannin.
"Yeah" she responded with raised elbow.
"Senju Tsunade. The Godaime-sama have nominated you as Head of Konoha's Medic Corp. Congratulations. Please follow me to the Hokage Tower."
"Huh, since when does Konoha have a Medic Corp?" she asked in confusion.
"I do not know Tsunade-sama, I am just a messenger. I am sure all of your questions will be answered if you just follow me" he said.
Giving a look of confusion to her apprentice, who just shrugged, she unsteadily got to her feet and followed the ANBU.
"Senju Tsunade as requested" introduced her ANBU, before leaving.
"Tsunade-sama, please sign here, here and here" requested the clerk she was led to.
"Hold a minute, since when does Konoha have a Medic's Corp?" she asked the clerk.
He looked at his clock, before replying. "For 20 minutes now, Tsunade-sama. Here" he said, pushing a thick folder to her.
Opening the folder, she was startled to see her own Medic's Corp proposal from so many years ago, that was never approved. In a daze, she signed the forms and made her way back to the hospital.
"Are you okay Tsunade-sama" asked concerned Shizune, seeing her master in shock.
Wordlessly, Tsunade handled her the folder. Then, grabbed a bottle of sake, drinking from the bottle until it was empty. Silent tears running down her face.
(*With Hinata*)
"Hokage-sama, the Shikaku-sama and Jakkaru-sama are here" interrupted their work Keno-san.
"L-Let them in" responded Hinata. It was only 30 minutes since they returned from funerals.
Both men entered the office and exchanged greeting with everyone present.
"If we are going to open the Hokage Vault, then only Hokage-sama must stay. The vault contains information and Village secrets, that no one else is allowed to know. Secrets, that can start wars between Hidden Villages. Even I don't know what is inside the vault" stressed Shikaku.
"G-Gomenasai" apologized Hinata.
"Don't worry about it Hinata-sama. It probably going to take a while, so we can start on that Paint Guide, Naruto" suggested Hanako.
"I will check on Kiba and Shino. When you are done, just call on us Hinata, and we will be here" said Kurenai.
"H-Hai" bowed Hinata in agreement.
Once the Advisors left the office, Shikaku focused on the young Hokage. "Now, the first thing to do, is to activate the security seals. To do that, just push a fair amount of chakra into this seal" he pointed to a seal disguised as decoration on her desk.
Hinata's eyebrows shot up, when the seals took nearly half of her chakra reserves to activate. It was good, that she recovered most of her chakra while attending funerals. Not sure what else was involved, she reduced her Byakugan range to just cover the office. It was not like she could see past the security seals anyway. At this range, it only slowed down her chakra recovery rate by 5%, so was not a concern to her.
Shikaku raised an elbow at Hokage's choice to keep the Byakugan active, even after activation of the seal. "Since this involves Hokage secrets, the ANBU cannot be present, while the vault is open. They will guard the outside of the office and stop everyone from entering" he explained.
As he said it, the ANBU vacated the office, and Hinata no longer could see any of them. Nodding in understanding, she focused back on Shikaku-sama.
"Now, push a little of chakra into this seal" he showed her another disguised seal. "It will prevent entry into the office via windows or doors. This seal will also automatically trigger, when the Hokage Vault is open" he explained.
Nodding in understanding, Hinata pushed some chakra into the secondary seal. It took only small amount of her chakra, as she already powered the main seal matrix, and now was just activating additional functions.
"Typically, the access to the vault will be passed from Hokage to Hokage" continued the explanation Jonin Commander. "Obviously, it cannot be done in current situation, so we will have to key you into the vault the harder way" he continued.
"Now, you need to prepare the new chakra password, in form of moulded chakra. I would recommend at least 100 hand seals, ideally, you would also mould it internally, to make it harder to steal. It doesn't need much chakra, but the moulding must be very precise each time. Tell us when you are ready, take your time" he advised, while sitting down in one of the chairs.
Gulping loudly, Hinata ducked her head. She had only rudimental ability to mould chakra internally, without help of hand seals. She spent 5 minutes just thinking about it, before she remembered how she met Naruto the first time. How he distracted the bullies, by pretending to do a Jutsu with fake hand seals. Nodding with determination, silently thanking him yet again, she called out "I-I am ready".
"Good. Now, all of us will do our own passwords at the same time. We all must insert our chakra at the same time to override the old password. Jakkaru will do it here, this is my spot, and you must push your chakra here, through the Hokage Seal" he instructed, indicating the places on seemingly blank wall in the office.
Nervously nodding, Hinata retrieved the Hokage Seal, and placed in on the floor in front of her, to keep her hands empty. Then started a long sequence of hand seals without prompt, knowing that she would take the longest to complete it. Not all of her hand seals were used to mould the chakra, some were fake. Every now and then, she stopped do some limited internal mouldings.
Finally, 10 minutes and over 200 hand seals later, she finished and picked up the Hokage Seal from the floor. Exchanging the looks with the ANBU and Jonin Commanders, they all pushed their chakra into their designated areas at the same time. At first nothing happened, but 20 seconds later, the whole wall glowed with complex sealing design.
Stepping back cautiously, Shikaku nodded "I think it worked". Turning to the Hokage, he studied her for a moment. "To open the vault, you need to do what you just did again, and the door will open. To reactivate the protection seal, just close the vault doors, it will happen automatically" he instructed.
"Now, remember, the information stored in the Hokage Vault is very sensitive. If you take anything out, make sure you put it back in before you cancel the security seals" he stressed. Getting a serious nod in agreement, he went on. "Also, try to avoid sharing the information with anyone not directly involved. If you need to discuss it, make sure to do it in secure location, with all possible security precautions put in place" he advised.
"I-I-I u-understand S-Shikaku-sama" responded Hinata seriously. She didn't want to accidentally start any wars, that is for sure.
Looking at the girl for another minute, ensuring that she did indeed understand, he nodded in acceptance. "If you have no further questions, we are going to leave and you can look for whatever you needed from the vault."
"A-Arigato Shikaku-sama. A-Arigato Jakkaru-sama" she thanked the men.
Deactivating secondary seal, Hinata allowed commanders to leave the office, before turning it back on. Then she stood in front of the Vault for a minute, gathering her resolve, intimidated by the information the vault contained. Hinata was not sure why Tsunade-sama's Medic Corp reform was placed in the vault. It was likely just for sentimental reasons, but she decided to read it in full, before removing it from the vault, just in case.
Releasing a deep, calming breath, she started on the hand seal sequence once more. Pushing the revealed thick, solid steel door open, with difficulty, Hinata took her first look into the vault. It was not particularly big, maybe 2-3 meters to a side, full of shelves, filled with scrolls, books, folders and other items. Taking a cautious step into the vault, Hinata started to methodically scan the shelves.
It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for, but one other folder caught her attention with 'ROOT' on it. She remembered reading that Danzo-sama's led it, and was little confused, why they didn't visit the place during their excursion yesterday. Now it made more sense, either Jiraya-sama didn't know about it, or couldn't share it with others, as it was Hokage's Secret.
Taking both folders from the vault, she closed the door and sat at her desk for a long read. As much as she wanted to continue working through the piles of paperwork, this was more important, she felt. Anything she could do to help the injured, ranked higher in her priority list. Additionally, they spent all morning on paperwork, finishing record amount of it today, if still less than 50 pieces.
(*With Danzo*)
Getting up earlier than was his normal time, Danzo spend his morning preparing to confront the Godaime. He was still not sure what was going on, but was determined to find out as soon as possible. Things were simply moving too fast. He got comfortable playing these games with Hiruzen, where each move took weeks to unravel.
Now, he was blindsided by 3 major moves in just 2 days. He may have disagreed with his rival on how things should be handled, but he never questioned Hiruzen's intellect. There was some plan for all that was happening, with a goal in the end of it, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure it out. Cutting him from his positions of power, were short-term setbacks at best. Within a month he would have them back, with more political clout than ever. The Hokage being discredited to the point, that she could only stay in power, while under his full control.
The Godaime being just a mediocre Genin, he didn't even consider her a player in the game. Jiraya was smart enough, to run continent wide spy network. However, he was not a politician, that only left Hiruzen. It was game plan of his, that Jiraya and the Godaime were following. However, it was so unlike his rival of the last few decades, that it completely thrown him off his game. He had to figure it out soon, or he may be ill positioned to counter it.
He was just preparing to depart, when his subordinate interrupted him.
"Lord Danzo" he kneeled in front of him.
"Fu, report" he commanded.
"Senju Tsunade had been seen entering Konoha, Danzo-sama" he reported, startling Danzo.
"Are you sure?!" he asked in shock.
"Hai, Danzo-sama"
"Tsk" seethed Danzo. Another major move, by far the biggest. There is no way, that she just casually walked into the Village. She was part of the plan, and it was clearly already many months in motion, unbeknown to him. Many have tried to bring Slug Princes back to Konoha before, even him, all in vain. 'Why now? How? What have you planned Hiruzen?' he asked in his head.
"What about Jiraya?"
"We have failed to deliver the message Danzo-sama. He was last seen in company of Lady Tsunade" reported Fu.
"Tsk. Recall the teams, our window of opportunity, and element of surprise are gone. How many did we lose?" he asked.
"17, Lord Danzo"
"Leave me" he commanded. It was insignificant number for over 1000 strong ROOT, but still jarring, when they have nothing to show for it.
Tsunade being in the village changed everything. It was very unlikely, that they would try to assassinate him, but Hiruzen send some assassins his way before. Danzo did the same the other way on a few occasions. With just one Sannin, he was confident in his own ability to escape, or at least hold them off long enough, for his Root to reinforce him. With both of them together, his chances of winning or even surviving were very low.
He didn't get this old by being reckless. It was clear to Danzo, that Hiruzen's plan was targeted at him. Until he has better idea of what his rival had planned, it was safer not to wander too far away from his ROOT base. He will have to postpone his visit to the Godaime, for the time being. Sitting in his chair, he started to brainstorm the Godaime puzzle once more.
"Lord Danzo"
"What it is Torune?" he asked irritated. It was few hours later, and he was not closer to figuring out the puzzle.
"Teams 14 and 29 failed to report from their mission" reported Torune.
"Tsk, find out what happened" ordered Danzo. Last few days were not going his way.
"Lord Danzo" Torune returned only 30 minutes later.
"Report"
"Teams 14 and 29 had been intercepted by Konoha Security Patrol. Two members of Team 14 and one member of Team 29 had been captured by Miato Gai. I have ensured that they cannot be questioned. The other members managed to escape" he reported.
"Damn Gai! I didn't expect he would have found the corridor so fast" he scowled. "Send out a word, that the passage is compromised, and to report to the outer ROOT Base" he ordered.
"Hai, Danzo-sama"
During the funeral, he discreetly observed the Godaime. The girl didn't even pay attention to her surroundings, just offering support to the crying Jinchuriki. He scowled internally at the weakness shown by both of them so openly. No wonder Hyuga's were not happy with the girl. She couldn't even win against her cousin in the Chunin Exams, and it was all set up for her to win. Just a single hand seal, and she would have been in the finals. He contemplating getting rid of her once more, but switched to watch the Sannins.
Tsunade was hiding behind that ridiculous genjutsu of hers. While Jiraya was mocking him in that ridiculous cast. 'Just come and attack me again' it screamed. Like Jiraya couldn't just break out of it any time he wanted. It was like they wanted Danzo to dispose of them. 'Unless... it is exactly what they wanted!' Danzo's eyes widened for a moment, before he put his impassive face back on.
Returning to his base as soon as he could without causing suspiciousness, he started to explore the new angle. It took few more hours, but finally the pieces fit together.
Firstly, he was not playing against old and soft Hiruzen of the last few decades. It was the young and driven one, who earned his many titles, and was not afraid to get his hands dirty, when situation called for it. It explained the speed of the coming blows, few could keep up with the Professor.
Secondly, the girl was not some diamond hidden in a lump of coal. Not a pawn, destined to become a queen. No, she was just a pawn, but not a regular one either. She was sacrificial pawn, designated to take out as many powerful pieces of the opponent, as possible, before being taken out herself. 'And I very nearly fallen for the plot!' he scowled.
The girl burned her political capital like no tomorrow, pissing off many powerful players. If she were to be taken out, then her decisions were easy to revert. However, by doing seemingly impossible, returning Tsunade to Konoha, she solidified her prior actions.
If she were to be taken out now, no one will dare to undo any of her other changes, without suffering serious political consequences. Tsunade would just take over as Rokudaime, with no pressure to restore him or the other elders to their previous positions. Even Hyuga's would win from the situation, turning their disappointment of an heir, into a tragically short lived, but respected Godaime. 'Damn! Well played Hiruzen.'
'Now what could I do?' he contemplated.
He could just accept that he lost this round, and take out the girl or let the Sannins do it. However, if he left it to Sannins, they will milk the situation, and probably have the girl make some other changes, that will hurt him.
Alternatively, he could double down, and turn this short round into much longer one. The girl was the only one who could undo the changes without losing face. Another route was for her to make couple of big mistakes. It will shake her newly gained respect, and he could question her earlier decisions, without consequences. The coming war with Sound, and possibly Suna, would present plentiful opportunities for that. Either way, she had to live long enough for his plans to work.
'Did he play it safe, and take her out before she could do much more damage? Or risk losing even more, with a chance to gain everything back, plus a puppet Hokage, in time?' He spent rest of the day contemplating the options, before calling in his subordinate.
"Lord Danzo"
"Torune. I have reasons to believe that Godaime's life may be in danger. I want our best man on protection duty. She must live at any cost, even if they have to break the cover" he ordered.
"It will be done Danzo-sama."
"Don't fail me in this Torune" threatened Danzo.
"I live to serve, Danzo-sama" he responded, before departing to see to the new orders.
Danzo was not sure he made the right choice, but he was getting too old to play it safe. It would take many years to regaining his old powerbase, if Tsunade was to take the mantle.
(*With Jiraya*)
Jiraya was still annoyed at the Hokage, for the crappy day he had. Granted, it was not even in top 10 of his worst days. He went through war, and very few things can compare to its horrors.
Entering the Hokage office, he just took one look at her, and the annoyance bled out of his face, replaced by worry.
"Are you okay?" he asked in concern. The girl looked like she had aged in the last few hours, and not in a good way. Also, there were many signs that she was crying. 'What the hell happened? She looked fine during funerals.'
"H-Hai, J-Jiraya-sama" she responded tiredly. Then reached over, and pushed her chakra into the security seals. Making Jiraya's eyebrows rise. "A-Ano, ANBU-sans, it is H-Hokage Secret" she said. Once ANBU left, Hinata activated another seal, to prevent entry, then looked at wide eyed Sannin nervously.
"A-Ano, it is about S-Songbird" she said with her head down in sadness, poking her fingers nervously.
Jiraya, sighed, closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Why, of the numerous dark secrets of the Village, you dug up this one" he asked rhetorically. Sighing, once more, he looked at the Hokage seriously "what do you want to know?" he asked.
"A-Ano, your r-reports said he was becoming more s-sick. Can T-Tsunade-sama heal him?" she asked with hope.
"You want Tsunade-hime to heal Itachi?" he asked with incredibility, making sure he heard her correctly.
"H-Hai..., he s-suffered e-e-enough..." she replied quietly, with deep sadness, fresh tears gathering in her eyes. She couldn't even imagine going through 'that'.
Softening his features, he saw where the girl was coming from, she was truly too soft for the job. "He cannot exactly walk into Konoha Hospital, you know?" he replied.
"A-Ano" she said, looking at the security seals on her desk.
"Hehe, the Hokage Tower is too well watched, he wouldn't be able to get within 100 meters of it. I guess, I could setup a secure location in the out of the way part of the Hospital" he said, thinking about it.
"P-Please" she begged him with hope.
"I will contact him, but don't get your hopes up. It may be difficult for him to get away, without compromising his cover" he caved.
"A-Arigato, Jiraya-sama" she bowed to him deeply in gratitude. "A-Ano..., I w-want to meet him" she requested.
Jiraya looked at her in silence for few minutes, before sighing. "I guess you will need to be nearby anyway. In case Tsunade-hime discovers his identity" he finally agreed.
"A-Arigato, Jiraya-sama" she thanked him again. Deactivating the seals, she watched the ANBU flood back into the office.
"Get some rest" said Jiraya in farewell, the girl looked like she needed it, badly.
"G-Goodnight, Jiraya-sama" she replied.
"Hokage-sama, I took the liberty of getting you some dinner" said one of the ANBU, once the Sannin left the office.
"A-Arigato, Bear-san" she thanked him. With all that was going on, she completely forgot about dinner. Grabbing the takeaway onigiri with pork, she retired to the adjacent bedroom. She felt drained, and didn't feel like doing anything else today. Additionally, Hinata had to be up early, to train with Gai-sensei.
(*With Itachi*)
Lying on his bedroll, Itachi stared at the stars, a dying campfire emitting comforting heat nearby. Spotting a dark shape in the night, he sat up and held his arm. Less than a minute later, a black crow landed on his arm, piece of paper tied to its leg. Removing the piece of paper, Itachi unrolled it, quickly deciphering a hidden message from Jiraya.
Godaime wants to meet you, ASAP. Tell me when and where to meet you outside of the village, and I will take you to the secure area.
Glancing at his partner, who was studying him with interest he stood up. It was lucky that they were close to Konoha, and had no current missions from Akatsuki.
"You are leaving?" asked him Kisame.
"Something came up. It shouldn't take more than a day" he responded.
"Want me to come with you?" asked his partner, only to watch Itachi dissolve into murder of crows. "Guess not" he whispered, returning his attention to the dying campfire.
As he ran in direction of Konoha, Itachi wondered what it was about. The news of the invasion, as well as the child Hokage, had already started to spread. He really hopped that the Hokage was not one of his, or his brother's fangirls. Tremor running down his frame, just thinking about it.
There was no love lost between Hyugas and Uchihas, but he didn't think Jiraya would have passed message like this, if he didn't think it was important. That gave him some comfort about the meeting.
(*With Asuma*)
Entering the bar, Asuma spotted a familiar figure. Grabbing a drink at a bar, he skilfully slid into a seat across from her.
"Yugao" he greeted the purple headed ANBU.
"Asuma" she greeted back, then went back to sipping on her drink, like nothing happened.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, before Asuma finally cracked. "So had any guard duties recently?" he asked casually, making corner of her mouth twitch up, from her victory.
"I may have, or I may have not" she responded playfully. "Why?" she asked. Fully aware, that everyone in the village were very curious about the newest Hokage.
"No reason, just heard this ridiculous rumour, hoping you could clear it up for me" he replied.
"Do tell" she replied with a smile.
"Rumour is, that she has ridiculous chakra reserves, for Genin anyway" he casually supplied, making Yugao snort into her drink. When Choji mentioned it, he just dismissed it out of hand, but it sat in the back on his head ever since.
"Doesn't register as more than a Genin, maybe slightly above average" replied Yugao. As one of the better sensors in the village, she could get pretty accurate read on chakra reserves of other Shinobi.
"What?" asked Asuma, seeing her contemplating look.
"Now that you mentioned it, she has been running her Byakugan for hours at a time" she confessed.
"Really?" he asked sceptically, trying to see if Yugao was pulling his leg. Perhaps there was something to what Choji said.
Yugao gave him a shrug. "Hiashi gave her pep talk about need to train more, or something to that effect."
Mulling the answer for a while, he asked his next question. "And what do you think about her overall?" he asked with interest.
Yugao took a minute to gather her thoughts, before replying. "She is a good kid. Works hard, and tries her best. What else can anyone ask of someone in her position?" she asked. Being pulled into ANBU at young age was hard enough, but having Hokage title drop on you out of blue? Yeah, that was not something to be envious of.
"I guess, we will see where this will take us" agreed Asuma.