Aftermaths #2: The Power Vaccuum
The purple barrier fell and Itachi was in, dodging past all the water and massive wooden structures, appearing immediately next to the only human form on the roof. Hiruzen Sarutobi was laying on the ceramic tiles, eyes closed. There was blood on his chest.
"Hokage-sama!" Itachi shouted, shaking the man by the shoulders, desperately.
Hiruzen opened one eye. "Itachi. Just a random thought, do you think perhaps exiling Orochimaru from the village was a mistake?"
Itachi didn't waste any time with banter, he picked the Hokage up immediately and dashed away, sprinting for the hospital.
"Don't bother." Hiruzen sighed, as the wind whipped at his uniform. "I've been stabbed, I'm old, and I just sold my soul to the Reaper. Or at least most of it; I'm not sure how much Death wants for two undead and a pair of arms."
Oh good, he's delusional. "With respect, Hokage-sama, that sounds like an excuse."
"Hehehe." Hiruzen chuckled, though it quickly turned into a cough. "Well, at least I can say I just beat the first and second Hokage in a fight."
"Oh really, not the fourth?" Itachi muttered.
"No." Hiruzen sighed. "He sealed himself into the Reaper already, so Orochimaru couldn't summon him."
"With respect sir, shut the fuck up while I take you to-"
"Enough with the hospital, put me down Itachi." Hiruzen sighed. "I should have died when the Kyuubi attacked twelve years ago. It looks like I'm out of borrowed time."
Grimacing, Itachi stopped his mad dash into central Konoha.
"Actually, if you could take me up the Hokage monument, that would be nice."
"Asshole." Nevertheless, Itachi did as instructed. Another few seconds, and he sat the old man down on the bust of Namikaze Minato.
"That's better." Hiruzen sighed. "If I'm going to die, I'd rather do it with a view."
"Your last seconds of life and you're using your guard as a valet service." Itachi rolled his eyes. "Is there any point in asking what happened in there?"
"I fought Orochimaru for six episodes. His arms are destroyed but he killed me."
"Fair enough."
Hiruzen gestured, weakly. "Look at it all, Itachi. What do you see?"
Itachi squinted. "Some smashed houses and one massive frog?"
"Your wit could cut the Susano'o, but let's be serious now, please."
The Uchiha sighed, and sat down next to his master. "I see my home. I see a lot of good people who are lucky to be alive, and a lot of good people who aren't."
"Quite so." Hiruzen nodded. "I cannot claim I die with no regrets, nor can I claim that there is nothing else I wish to do, but I can claim that I have always done what I believed to be right for this village. Yet even that was a double-edged sword, because of what it has done to some of the individuals under my protection."
"We're talking about Naruto aren't we."
"Among others. I'm also sorry for what has happened to your own family. To the Hyuuga, to Minato, to my students...I have made quite a few mistakes."
"I know, sir." Itachi replied. "Remember the part where I was responsible for roughly half those things?"
"True." Hiruzen sighed. His grip on the stone beneath him had gradually slackened, until he was mostly laying on his side, looking out over the village. "It's not mine." He muttered, mostly to himself. "It was never mine. Nor Minato's, nor Tobirama's, nor even Hashirama's. It belongs to the people. To every soul who lives within it's houses, walks it's streets. That's what the will of fire means, what it really means. Do you understand, Itachi?"
"Yes sir." He kept his face stoic. "I understand."
"Good. Then keep it safe, Itachi. And do a better job than I did."
"If I may ask, Hokage-sama." Itachi coughed into his fist. "There's one last thing you could do. If you had a recommendation for your successor, it would save a lot of drama."
"Of course, of course." Hiruzen closed his eyes. "But I...don't think there will be much contention...The obvious best choice...to replace me, has to be..." He trailed off.
"...Sir?" Itachi asked. There was no response. He reached forwards and put his hand to the third Hokage's neck. No pulse.
"...Motherfucker."
Some distance away, Kimimaro picked himself up from the charred, blackened remains of an empty house on Konoha's outskirts. He shook himself, and the outer layer of bone he had formed fell to the ground. Then he began walking off into the woods.
One hour later
The battle was over. The Sound ninja were all dead or missing, and the Sand ninja were all dead or had surrendered when they had learned their Kage was an imposter. For that reason the village was mostly quiet, and even from within T&I, Temari could hear the wingbeats and cry of some large bird outside. She looked up.
"Oh, that was my ride." The ice boy, Haku, spoke, standing up and heading for the door. "I'll go check they're okay. Prisoners, please remain prisoners. Sai...catch you later?"
The murderous treacherous lying bastard smiled and inclined his head as Haku left.
As prison cells went, it wasn't the worst Temari had stayed in. Her position as the Kazekage's child lent her some legitimacy, so when Sai and Haku had brought her and her brother in, battered and bruised, they hadn't been subjected to nearly as much abuse as she had expected. None at all, even. She looked across at Kankuro, sat in the corner of the room. He didn't raise his head.
The door opened a few minutes later and she jumped to her feet, shooting a glare at Sai when he put his hand threateningly on his sword.
Her brother walked in.
"Gaara-"
She started forwards, hesitated, and then froze as Gaara moved towards her and hugged her. It happened so suddenly and was over so quickly she barely had time to register it had happened.
"Wha-"
"Hello, sister." He stepped back and inclined his head. "Are you alright?"
Temari looked up over Gaara's shoulder. Team seven was stood in the doorway behind him, Naruto sending a cheerful wave.
"...I'm fine." She told her brother. "Nothing too serious. Kankuro though..." She gestured.
The eldest sand sibling finally looked up, though 'looked' may have been a misnomer. A white medical bandage was tied around his face, covering his eyes. Even since they had reapplied them ten minutes ago, more blood had seeped into the fabric.
"What is this." Gaara asked, calmly.
"Nothing much, bro." Sighed Kankuro. He pointed at Sai. "This sneaky motherfucker blinded me."
"I see." Gaara turned to the guilty party.
"He doesn't, though." Sai mentioned with a smile.
Cracks appeared in the gourd.
"Gaara..." Naruto warned.
"I am a prisoner-of-war, and wouldn't violate that protection with an unprovoked attack." Gaara assured him, not looking away from Sai. "That said, should we end up free...Kankuro, would you like me to avenge you or if would you rather do it yourself?"
"Oh, definitely involve me when the time comes." Informed Kankuro, smiling darkly.
"Excellent. Would you like a hug, brother?"
"Not right now, no."
"Very well."
"There is a lot of carefully contained aggression in this room right now," Sasuke stated, from the door. "And imma be honest I'm starting to get uncomfortable."
Sai stretched his arms and began to leave. "Well, I trust you three and the rest of T&I to keep them contained. Congratulations on apprehending them, team seven."
"You're not just an ordinary genin, are you?" Hinata said, looking at Sai carefully.
He smiled blankly at her. "Not quite, no. A word to the uninitiated; they may try to manipulate you. Ignore anything they say." He left the room.
Temari waited a good ten seconds before petulantly blurting out "Sai's working for Danzo who's working with Orochimaru who killed the Kazekage and betrayed the Leaf village."
"We know." The Konoha trio chorused.
Temari blinked. "You do?"
"Kakashi told us." Sasuke explained. "We don't know the whole story but basically Danzo is an asshat who's been plotting against the Hokage for years, but we can't just kill him because it would cause a bunch of political problems. Naruto's been trying to seduce Sai to the light side for like two months."
"I...think we may want to leave the seducing to Haku, actually." Mentioned Hinata, staring off into the middle distance.
"Really?" Naruto blinked. "Why?"
"Well I can see them with the Byakugan right now and-oh. Oh." The veins disappeared from her eyes and she blushed profusely.
"The Kazekage is dead?" Asked Gaara, quietly, completely ignoring team seven.
Temari grimaced, and nodded. "Orochimaru replaced him. Months ago, from what Sai said, but that might have been just psychological warfare-"
"No, in order to organise this he would have needed at least weeks of preparation time." Gaara corrected her. "The Kazekage has been dead for some time."
"You...don't sound upset." Temari tried.
"The Kazekage repeatedly had assassins sent after me to test my power and control." Gaara said, emotionlessly. "I have decided to try caring about people, and see how it works out. I will not attempt such with our deceased leader. He was no father of mine."
Everyone in the room (bar Kankuro) shuddered at that.
"Naruto, thanks for bringing my brother back." Temari said. "But now it's all over, I don't suppose you could do something about my fox?"
Ten minutes later
Shikimaru wandered, holding a large bag but looking as bored as ever, into T&I. After some talking with the guards, he was let into the room housing the three Sand siblings.
"Yo." He began. Temari and Gaara looked up. Kankuro tensed.
There was a squeak, and out of the bag jumped a small red fox that scampered over and jumped into Temari's lap.
"Uzu!" She squealed two octaves higher than a self respecting shinobi should have, and scooped it up into her arms.
"I also brought some food for him, and some more stuff from your apartment I figured you might need."
"Thank you!" Temari said, looking up at him and blushing. "I...Thanks a lot."
"Damn right, that bag was heavy." Shikimaru smiled a little, trying to convey that he hadn't meant it, and turned to go.
"Wait." Called Kankuro over his shoulder. "Did you know?"
Shikimaru turned, with a surprised face. "Hn?"
"About the attack." Kankuro extrapolated. "Don't fuck with me, there's no reason to hide it now. You knew, didn't you?"
Shikimaru waited. For loooong seconds. Then, with the most innocent expression on his face, "I had no idea. Don't you think if I'd known I would have done something?"
"You..." Kankuro made a strangled sound, and stopped.
"Sorry about him." Temari winced. "He gets...paranoid."
"Don't worry about it. See you later." Shikimaru waved, and left.
A few minutes later, Kankuro found his own planning map in the bottom of the bag, red string included. It was dotted with extra notes, helpful advice on deduction, and rationality book recommendations. He howled.
Another hour later
"No." Naruto gulped.
"Yes." Confirmed Jiraiya, sadly. "Itachi brought his body in about an hour ago."
"The old man..." Naruto clenched his fists. "Who the hell beat the Hokage?"
"Orochimaru did." Sighed Jiraiya. "I think Sarutobi would be proud it was his student who did him in, if it wasn't like this."
Team seven had (the Uchiha compound being off limits) congregated in Naruto's small flat, or more specifically sprawled onto his sofa that was nowhere near big enough for them. Sasuke was delicately perched on one arm, and Hinata had used the opportunity to squeeze particularly close to Naruto. Nobody called her out on it. Jiraiya was sat in seiza before them all, with Kakashi leaning on the wall in one corner, absently toying with a kunai and looking into the middle distance.
"So what do we do?" Asked Hinata.
"For now, nothing." Jiraiya admitted.
"What?"
"Don't get any bright ideas." Kakashi warned from the corner. "Remember last time Orochimaru ran circles around your whole team?"
"There's nothing we can do." Jiraiya explained. "Itachi's over with the council right now while they desperately try to figure out what to do next. Both us and Suna are down a Kage, dozens of ninja and civilians are dead and nobody has a clue what to do about the chunin exams. The last thing on our minds right now is going after a missing-nin we've spent a decade failing to track down."
"Fair enough...speaking of the chunin exams." Sasuke looked up. "What's happening about that? They better not be cancelled because if I went through all that shit and don't get promoted..."
"That's...a good question." Jiraiya crossed his arms. "The final decision generally falls to the Kage of the host village, with advice from the proctors and political pressure from the other villages. With Hiruzen dead...well, I can't imagine we'll get a replacement anytime-"
The door slammed open so fast the cheap rotted thing fell off it's hinges, revealing Itachi in the doorway.
"You three, with me." He pointed at them. "Hinata, Sasuke, game-face on. You will not believe what's going on in there."
One minute earlier
"We are in a time of crisis." Intoned Fugaku Uchiha, looking out across the clans' representatives. "Konoha cannot appear weakened by the invasion or we will invite reprisal; a new Kage must be chosen quickly."
"We are in agreement there." Said the head of the Aburame. "The problem? The lack of available candidates."
"One obvious solution would be one of the Sannin." Mentioned a Yamanaka.
"Except that Jiraiya is a bumbling oaf, Tsunade is a drunk, and Orochimaru just killed the last one." Drawled one of the Nara.
"Indeed. We need a ninja who is strong, wise, has a known reputation, and political clout." Fugaku summarised. "Fortunately, we have such a candidate."
"Is that so?" Asked an Akimichi. "Who?"
Fugaku kept his face perfectly blank. "Well, myself, of course."
The council meeting broke into chaos.
"You can't be serious." Said the shadow clone that had just replaced Itachi, stood against one wall.
"Now would not be the time for jokes, son." Fugaku replied, simply, before turning back to the crowd. "I am the head of the Uchiha. I'm the strongest among my clan." He ignored the Itachi clone's snort. "I'm more than experienced enough to deal with the responsibilities. I was a candidate for fourth Hokage, if you recall, though of course I deferred to Minato's brilliance."
"Lord Uchiha is also a veteran of the third great ninja war." Spoke up one of the politicians in Danzo's pocket. "The power of 'Wicked eye' Fugaku is unquestioned, even in the other villages."
That pre-planned statement removed the psychological block for most of the other clans, who began to mutter amongst themselves. They were considering it.
"A decision must be made soon." Fugaku added some pressure. "And there are no viable alternatives. Unless someone can come up with a valid complaint-"
"Oh, I'm certain I can wrack my brains for one or two." Echoed a commanding voice from the entrance.
Fugaku, along with the rest of the council, looked towards it's source. Then his eyes widened in genuine surprise.
Hinata Hyuuga entered the meeting hall with a purposeful stride. She hadn't had time to change out of her combat clothes, which were damaged and torn in places, but she liked the effect. Stood at her left hand was Naruto. He looked like absolute garbage, but he had managed to get the red glow in his eyes, and they were darting from noble to noble with a feral look.
Sasuke was stood on her right, and he at least had been taught proper posture. It very clearly indicated he was With Her.
"Sorry for my lateness." She called out, navigating her way towards the centre of the room. "Nobody thought fit to inform me of the meeting. I was helping my team restrain an enemy jinchurikki, but I assure you it didn't fatigue me so much that I cannot attend."
There was more mumbling amongst the crowd.
Hinata knew what must be on their minds:
First, everyone here had seen Shukaku on the skyline. Everyone here remembered what had happened last time a bijuu had been loosed on Konoha. But while twelve years ago the fourth Hokage had had to sacrifice himself, this time a genin team had successfully neutralised the threat.
Second, Sasuke. The fact that he was stood with her, and not with his father, wasn't something the room would fail to notice.
Third, Naruto. Everyone here knew who he was and what he was. There were rumours about his exploits already; Hinata had heard (among other things) that he had:
-Developed the mangekyo-byaku-rinne-Sharingan and laser-beam release due to being the reincarnation of at least the Sage of Six Paths' son Ashura and the first Hokage,
-Unlocked a separate ancient Uzumaki bloodline limit even though the Uzumaki weren't supposed to have one of those.
-Gotten into a rock-off with Itachi Uchiha, won, then used it as a ritual to form a summoning contract with Son Goku (not the bijuu, the comic book character)
-and then gone to fight the demonic ice dragon terrorising the land of Wave. He had then kissed the dragon, making it transform into the hidden mist's ice princess (or prince; the rumours here diverged) which he had promptly seduced and smuggled back into Konoha.
The fact that Hinata knew two or three of those things were at least partially true terrified her, and even the great ninja clans would be aware of Naruto's growing reputation. And here he was (having agreed to forego the collar, but still) looking very much under her control.
"I do not believe the council has need of your team's services at this time, miss Hinata." Fugaku told her, sternly.
"That's 'Lady Hyuuga' to you." Hinata tutted. "As I'm certain most of the assembled realise, I'm here representing my clan. It would be remiss to hold discussions on the new Hokage without me." She wrinkled her nose. "And unwise, I see, given the decisions being considered."
Fugaku stared her down. "We have already decided-"
"You have decided." Hinata cut across him, putting a finger in the air. "Are you getting in practice pretending to factor in the opinions of others? You apparently plan to do so a lot."
"I'm afraid I have no idea what you mean." He replied, probably attempting to lure her into a trap of some sort.
"I don't believe you, but if you insist." She turned away from him so her posture faced the wider crowd, who were currently shocked to silence by her sheer audacity. "The Uchiha clan are the largest in Konoha." She told them. "And unless my inheritance is gaining more interest than I've been told, they're also the richest and most influential. Now, suppose the leader of said clan were to become Hokage?" She turned back to Fugaku, giving him a flat stare. "He would effectively control the entire village."
"That is an exaggeration-"
"Tell me, how many clans do you need on your side to win a majority vote?" She interrupted again. "One or two?"
"Two smaller clans, one big one." Sasuke reminded her.
"Yes, thank you. And how many of those meets could the Hokage influence, or even overrule? Konoha's Hokage has a lot of internal power relative to the other villages, as so far ours have all been blessed with qualities such as basic morale principle. We have forgotten what would happen were we ruled by someone with nothing vaguely resembling it."
"I don't like your tone, girl." Fugaku almost snarled.
She smiled brightly at him. "Once again, 'Lady Hyuuga'. Watch your manners, Lord Uchiha. And I notice you have failed to deny any of my accusations."
"Because your points are moot." Fugaku ground out. "Strong leadership is what's needed; and it's needed now. In the absence of other viable candidates-"
"On the contrary, Lord-"
"Do not interrupt me again, 'Lady Hyuuga.'"
"My apologies." She inclined her head. "But you just made at least two incorrect statements. Primary among which is that we do not need to make a decision now. We don't even need to make a decision by next week."
"If we don't have a Hokage in a time like this the other villages will think we're weak!" Declared an Akimichi.
"No, they will think we're stupid." Hinata explained. "Pause, and think. If we announce our new Kage within days of this massacre we will seem hasty and foolish. We should probably have a Hokage should another village declare war on us, but other than that the only real concern is how much paperwork will build up." There was tittering among the crowd, and sensing her moment, Hinata raised her voice. "I counsel patience. Take time to mourn our old Hokage, assess the other candidates, and make a decision that won't ruin the entire village."
"I am in agreement with the Lady Hyuuga." Said the Nara rep. Hinata noted with some amusement it was Shikimaru's father. "Reckless action will lead to even more trouble."
There was mumbled agreement from the collected.
Fugaku glared across at Hinata. Naruto bristled at her side, but she held up a hand in front of him, and he stepped back. Another act (probably) but one that she should not have enjoyed so much.
"Very well." Said Fugaku. "We should all return to our duties. But this discussion will continue at a later time."
"Of course." Hinata agreed. "Hopefully with clearer heads." With that, she turned her back and walked away.
They made it halfway out of the building before Sasuke leaned over her shoulder. "So...are we staying at your place or Naruto's? Because I get a feeling I might not be welcome home tonight."
Do you hear that? Because it sounds like the butterfly effect.
Fugaku I-wanted-the-hat-too Uchiha enters the stage, as one clever reviewer already noticed, and is top dog for the Hokage job. Itachi, obviously, has one or two problems with that, and this is going to be a huge deal in the next arc. Stay tuned.
This chapter brings the Chunin exams arc to an end. Similar plot points played out (and will continue to, at least throughout part one) but with enough little extras that I hope you all enjoyed. Haku and Sai are loads of fun, the Sand Siblings have some actual character now, and Itachi's presence has it's own special influences. As for what's coming up...well...
I do think it's been a bit too long since we've met Neji, hm?
