IT WAS NIGHT.
The lights of Konoha's buildings dotted like amber stars amongst darkness. Naruto's eyes traced the almost hidden outlines of the city, then the faces of the Hokage beyond.
He frowned, looking at the stone face that idealized his personage.
Hokage.
Thoughts of shame threatened Naruto then, but the Hokage ignored them.
Now was not the time to entertain weakness.
I can do that later.
Naruto turned his eyes sideways back to the State Shinobi summoned to appraise Konoha. There was a strange air around them-
An aloofness. A distant grasp at power that while weaker than Naruto's..
Both were strong enough to nimbly prance about Naruto's own chakra reserves.
Especially..
Naruto lowered his gaze.
"Tangura-"
Tangura had grown.
Naruto's first pupil carried himself with a cold prominence, hands held behind the low of his back. His hair was a bright blonde, and he bore mismatched eyes- one brown.. one red.
Tangura was fourteen when he instigated the Konoha takeover. There were whispers.. that even then, he and his cabal had been secretly supported by the Daimyo.
Naruto grimaced visibly, causing Tangura's companion to break the facade of kindness, and give a disdainful grin.
Who's at fault here...
Naruto thought.
You.. or me, Tangura?
The Shinobi Naruto didn't recognize spoke first, gracing himself back to a diplomatic demeanor.
Black hair dipped with a slight bow, ponytail adorned in a tower-like fashion within a decorated headband, metal braces lining pale and blushed cheeks.
"Lord Hokage, it is an honor. Though I wish we were meeting on less tense terms." The unknown Shinobi said softly.
Naruto narrowed his eyes.
"There is nothing tense between us, nor the Daimyo." Naruto said.
He leveled blue eyes on the black haired one.
Onyx pools met Naruto's gaze unwaveringly.
"Itama Manjiro was a father. His daughter.. Kokomei, is nine months old now. Toshizo Hatamoto was already the head of a growing family"
The black haired Shinobi broke Naruto's gaze then.
"...The moment they lost their lives- the first of nearly one hundred within less than six months...it became tense, Lord Hokage." He finished.
So..Naruto thought, narrowing his eyes.
It seemed even Tangura's interest honed in, analyzing Naruto's countenance-
Curious if Konoha's great Hokage would react in a way that would betray discernible weakness.
They're both already trying to provoke me.
Naruto frowned, but kept his voice calm.
"I don't even know your name." Naruto sighed.
He gave a genuinely sad smile then.
"I don't want this to become harder than it has to be. Our purpose here.. is to make sure no one else dies. With everything that's happened..I know that I haven't made things easier. I know that I've failed." Naruto replied resolutely.
The black haired one smirked.
"Kai Xing, Lord Hokage." Kai seemed to instantly sense Tangura moving beside him- and immediately seceded his space before Naruto.
"I agree with you." Tangura said- his voice instantly brought Naruto back-
The training.. the missions. The way Naruto was entrusted with Tangura's survival- his worth as a Shinobi.
Despite being Hokage..
Did I fail you, Tangura?
As Naruto looked at his genin, he gave a rueful chuckle.
Is this how it felt.. Hiruzen..?
"But I know how you are, Naruto." Tangura lowered his head, offering a slight smile.
"How are you? Lord Chōjūrō.. Lady Shizune. And of course, Lord Inuzuka." Tangura's gaze softened.
Naruto couldn't hide the slight wince his body suffered.
Tangura had served under Kiba in the police force.
It may have been Shota. In fact- we're betting on that.
Shikamaru's voice rose within Naruto's ruminations.
"I'll miss him, especially him. But.. your daughter, Himawari, how is she?" Tangura ventured.
Naruto curled fingers into a bandaged palm.
"Shes.. fine, more or less. But.. she feels guilty."
Kai scoffed.
"Yes. A warranted emotion. Himawari.. her classmate.. In a fit of cruel irony, the dying girl now has to take up the very same hospital room your daughter just left. That girl.. Sumire.." Kai hissed.
Tangura's brows furrowed, shifting to regard Kai with a calm glare.
"Not now.. Xing." Tangura warned, red eye silently flaring.
Tangura returned his attention to Naruto.
Naruto's eyes fell to the numerous papers- reports, questions from various clan leaders- some of them from outside Konoha itself.
After the war, Konoha narutally assumed a leadership role within the world. But now.. especially after what happened In Kirigakure..
The Hokage met Tangura's mismatched eyes, while Kai loomed in the foreground, feigning disinterest and sulking by wide windows.
"Her parents were killed, that much is clear. Outside of Konoha. Most likely by a Shinobi." Naruto said quietly.
For a moment, Naruto retreated into his thoughts.
They're right.
Things have slowly grown out of my control.
"And she still hasn't woken, correct?" Kai pursued.
Naruto shook his head.
"No, she's awake now. She's speaking. She seems.. confused." Naruto met Xing's disdainful black glare, headdress glowing in the shade of the Hokage office's steadily constricting ceiling.
Kai nodded.
"Yes. They're saying when she woke..she didn't even know her name. Had even forgotten her parents. For such a tragedy to befall a child.."
The wind outside beat at windows- cadence of it almost in mockery of Naruto's growing anger.
Tangura offered no words. Instead, he turned to give Kai another glance, before moving to the side.
Kai sneered, eyes narrowing as his fine mouth pursed into speech. He spoke while slowly stalking forward, lithe figure akin to an insect.
"The Fire Daimyo knows of your intent. The Chunin Exams. He knows that you will not see reason. Thus.. under Article Thirty Four of the War Accords, the Daimyo has declared a vote of failed Confidence upon you, Lord Hokage. I am sorry." Kai bowed.
Tangura perked his head upwards. His voice still bore the same kindness, but suddenly it held an authoritative and disdainful tone, not unlike Kai's.
"We will remain here and oversee gathering of evidence related to all the deaths incurred within the past six months. Under Article Thirty Four, we also maintain the right to question every member of the Shinobi infrasturcture. These interrogations will become reports- reports sent to the Fire Daimyo directly. You may hold the Exams if you wish, Naruto. That freedom has not been taken from you."
Silence.
Tangura was the one who looked away this time.
Despite everything, it seemed Tangura was somewhat saddened-
Don't be stupid. Naruto's own thoughts surprised him.
He was beginning to sound like Kurama.
I can't afford to be sentimental. That sort of thing is what keeps getting me in situations like this. I have been a terrible Hokage- I won't refute that. But I'm not going to give up on everyone now. Not with what's going on.
Kai orbited closer, curling around Naruto's desk. as he spoke, his slid a gloved finger across fine wood.
"Tomorrow, we will speak with your Anbu, your village heads, and of course.. Lord Nara." Kai Xing purred.
"And until we depart.. we will meet nightly, to banter over our days.. as the Fire Daimyo decrees." Kai smiled with visible venom, eyes violently goading Naruto into arrogant reprisal.
This one… this Kai Xing..
Is dangerous.
Naruto opted to say nothing.
Instead, Naruto stood, then bowed before the two State Shinobi.
"I will ensure you have proper accommodations." Naruto offered.
As they turned, Tangura held onto his silence. However, Kai gave Naruto another hateful gaze as he bit into speech.
"We have our accommodations, Lord Hokage." Kai replied- his voice was hushed.. but he may as well have been bellowing.
Despite this, both State Shinobi left as quickly and quietly as they had come, black cloaks billowing behind tall strides-
Before curling around the slam of a heavy door.
"GLASS CANNON?" Boruto parroted.
Blonde hair crossed strange blue silver eyes as Sasuke loomed a shadow's dance away, resting underneath the shade of a tree hunched over and crippled by Boruto's Rasengan the days previously.
"Your Rasengan.. It's strong. If I had to gauge it- I'd estimate it's more powerful than the one Naruto used on me after I fought Danzo.." Sasuke trailed off.
Boruto crossed his arms.
"Danzo?" He asked.
Naruto had told Boruto some time ago some things about Danzo- one of them the fact that Danzo...admired Minato.
What does Danzo mean to them..?
Sasuke's voice broke through the shadowy truths that lurked within Boruto's life- and dominated the young boy's thoughts.
"You can't use it in a fight, to put it simply. You'd run out of chakra to the point of exhaustion, and be unable to move." Sasuke said, ignoring Boruto's obvious confusion.
Boruto looked down, eyes once again meeting bloodied and bandaged palms.
"Despite that, I can't imagine anyone surviving a direct hit from that sort of jutsu. The trick of it lies in its execution- once you form the sphere, it uses the chakra around it. Almost as if a sealing jutsu reacting to physical matter."
"So I need to learn how to infuse more chakra.. or maybe-" Boruto began-
Sasuke's visible eye snapped to meet Boruto's own. That action alone caused Boruto to pause.
"Do not misunderstand, Boruto Uzumaki. I'm not teaching you how to perfect your Rasengan." The Uchiha whispered.
Sasuke looked away- Boruto could tell his eye was retracting the wake of Boruto's own miniature rampage.
"It's far too volatile a jutsu. If you want to improve before the Exams.. which I know you do, your efforts are best spent on something else."
A shadow skipped behind Boruto's back- at the edge of his senses. He turned, eyes widening in surprise as Sarada landed before him.
She seemed.. different, somehow. Her face was stern, eyebrows drawn into a sharp furrow. It was then Boruto realized just how much Sarada resembled her father.
So.. you changed too. Just like Himawari. Just like.. me.
The echoes of that strange name- Ninurta-
They rang through Boruto, causing a chill to crawl through his bones.
"Is it that upsetting that I'm here?" Sarada smiled- Boruto remebered this Sarada.
Boruto gave Sarada a grin.
"No- I'm glad." Boruto straightened his stance.
"I'm sure you both know what happens next," Sasuke called from his tree.
"Test his defense, Sarada. Your movements are easily two times faster. Force him into the unorthodox.`` Sasuke's faraway direction vanished in a snap of rushing air-
Sarada's fist crashed against Boruto's crossed arms-
That..
Boruto went flying backwards.
That.. hurt! Boruto flipped in the air, bending his legs close to the tree the bottom of his sandals slapped upon.
A kiss of wind brushed against Boruto's nose.
No time-
Boruto scrambled up dark bark, before vaulting away from it, upside down as he flew from the air. Sarada laughed- it was the same laugh she always had..
But now, it set Boruto on edge.
"Come on.. Boruto." She chuckled.
"You can do better than that, right?" Sarada questioned. Then-
She vanished in a hiss of smoke-
Before a crushing blow sent Boruto flying back down into the earth below.
"WHAT HAPPENED HERE?" The masked one's voice demanded. Deepa's purple eyes nearly glowed, anger visibly crossing a pale visage. The pair walked through River's stolen chambers, which had been converted into a makeshift laboratory.
Jeishi's report.. was disturbing- Deepa had told Jeishi to delay the others-
but it seemed a Delay found Jeishi instead.
A creature covered in Sharingan..
Could that thing have something to do with Otogane?
Some time ago.. Boro and Deepa had been on a mission.
Boro, glutton he is, loved to drink.
And it just so happened.. on this mission, Boro was exceptionally drunk.
This had been nearly eleven years ago.. when Deepa was Boro's Upper.
You don't even know what I am, do you?
Boro's voice clawed through Deepa's memories.
I'm not like you. Any of you. I saw it, you know. The fall.. of the Kingdom.
Deepa shivered.
I was there.. four hundred years ago.. During the fall of the Gamou clan.. inheritors of Indra..
Boro's voice had adopted a boisterous yell then, roaring over their blazing fire.
And I was there.. when Jigen was reborn...I was there..when..the Gamou.. became the Uchiha!
Deepa never told anyone what Boro said that night. He would be a fool to. That information.. while dangerous..
was power. Besides..
He had little idea if he could even trust Boro's declarations. The man was insane, and power made him delusional in old age.
Boro can drink himself to deah..
I've got worse things to deal with now!
Deepa's glare fell upon a masked face that betrayed no emotion.
"You and your little troop interrupt our operations-" Deepa started.
The masked one-
Kashin Koji, ignored Deepa, walking ahead.
"You have been busy here, Deepa. Victor was enthralling."
Deepa's confidence sank by several degrees.
Victor..!
Deepa welled the chakra up within him- every ounce of it.
There's no going back now. I'll have to kill Victor too. I should've done it sooner.
Kashin Koji laughed.
"Amado warned me of this. Perhaps I should've gone with a friendlier approach after all." Koji turned.. and removed his mask.
Deepa was stunned-
Despite the dressings.. he was just a man. Young, handsome, clean shaven, and white haired. Two long red tattoos trailed down the corner of both of his eyes, adorning high cheekbones.
"Amado?" Deepa questioned. He lowered his defenses- but only slightly.
"He has need of you, and your men. It involves Kawaki." Kashin Koji's voice grew deeper as the man returned a heavy iron mask to his face.
Now, the only thing Deepa could see were Kashin's piercing eyes.
The man spoke, voice echoing through empty halls.
"Based on what you were doing here.. what I am about to tell you to do will be in your best interest."
