I know it has been a month since I updated. Work comes before life and the recent economy means I kept my job but I lost my part time help so I have less time to goof and write. But I hope the story is worth the wait.

A Hokage Rises

Kakashi rubbed his visible eye and looked over the mission requests that still came into Konoha. The bureaucracy in place at least had the knowledge to sort them by category. Nothing outside of the Fire Country was being accepted at the moment. Nothing higher than a B rank mission was being performed either. At least he did not have to assign the D rank missions. He would put out his good eye if that became necessary to avoid that headache. Even training Sasuke was better than that.

At least he was able to get out of consideration for the Hokage position. He shuddered to think what he would be like as a Hokage. A mental image of himself surrounded by stacks of reports that never got smaller while being unable to take time to read his books made the former ANBU captain pause and shiver. No, it was best he stay as far from the Hokage chair as possible.

He heard a noise at the door and saw Ibiki standing there. "The guards at the South Gate have not checked in on schedule. I sent a runner there already but it might be something else. Kotetsu and Izumo are normally good at their job if not a little boring."

"Why don't I go have a look around," Kakashi offered. "I need to move around some after looking at these mission requests all morning. I was never built for desk work."

Ibiki coughed lightly on the dust Kakashi raised as the masked ninja sped out of the building. He shook his head and chuckled. "Well, he is better in the field. Maybe he could get one of the new genin that signed on to replace that Uchiha. I wish old Sarutobi had taken my advice and just killed him a few weeks ago."

Itachi and Kisame made their way to Konoha's hospital at a leisurely pace. Both walked with a minor arrogance at passing undetected through hundreds of ninja. Itachi's genjutsu made anyone looking in their direction see nothing. Anyone who saw past the first saw a second layer that they were just manual laborers. Kisame's massive sword was given the appearance of a large wooden plank.

No one challenged their entry into the hospital. Itachi spoke to one nurse asking where Naruto's room was and thanked her before making the woman forget he had even been there.

The pair stepped out onto Naruto's floor and stepped to the nurse's station. The desk nurse looked up to see the red eyes of Itachi as she fell under his illusions.

"Call all the staff on this floor over here. I wish to speak with them."

Itachi worked quickly. Each staff member was placed under his illusions quickly and without fuss. Kisame chuckled at how easily the people fell under his partner's spell. Since no one had been expecting any trouble this deep inside the village, no one was mentally prepared.

Naruto was sleeping when Itachi entered his room. The Uchiha applied a jutsu to the blonde boy to keep him sleeping as Kisame lifted the boy over his shoulder. The pair walked out of the hospital without being challenged as the secondary illusion made Naruto look like a sack of supplies.

"Can I cut off his legs, Itachi? These casts on the brat are bumping my back and annoying me."

"No, Kisame. In his current condition, he would bleed to death long before we could get him back to Pein-sama."

Kisame just grumbled as the pair soon walked out the same gate they had entered.

Kakashi strolled up to the gate where Kotetsu and Izumo were standing guard. Both chunin greeted him with smiles.

"Good morning, Kakashi-senpai," Izumo greeted him.

"Ibiki-san said you two did not check in schedule," Kakashi asked in his normal lazy tone.

Kotetsu glanced at the wrong part of the sky. "But it is not yet halfway to noon, Kakashi-senpai. The day has been dreadfully slow. No one has even come through the gate today."

Kakashi immediately came to alert. He could see multiple footprints in the dirt entering the gate. He pointed, "Then who made those fresh footprints coming and going through your gate?"

Both Izumo and Kotetsu looked at the ground and saw nothing. "I see no footprints, Kakashi-senpai," Kotetsu told him.

Kakashi held up his hand in a sign and focused before touching each man, sending out a small bit of chakra, "Release."

Both chunin slumped for a moment before blinking quickly and looking around, "What? Those men!" Izumo nearly shouted out. "Kakashi-senpai, two men in black robes with red clouds on them were just here. I remember looking at them then nothing and you were here."

"Genjutsu. Did one have red eyes?" Kakashi said in a tone few heard out of him.

"Yes, the shorter one. He looked almost like an Uchiha,"

"Send back an alert! Uchiha Itachi is in the village!" Kakashi yelled as he ran off.

Kakashi ran towards the hospital. If it was Itachi, he would be after Naruto. 'Of course those two back there got lucky. If they wanted to get in and out with a minimum of fuss, killing them would have made too much of a hassle. A genjutsu by Itachi would keep them quiet and prevent any alarm.

The silver haired jonin ran up to the hospital and up the stairs to the floor Naruto was staying in. The staff all looked up and smiled at him before returning to their work. Kakashi hurried down to Naruto's room and flung open the door to see a blonde haired boy with casts on both legs lying there.

The jonin was confused for a moment before walking up to the boy and reaching a hand out and touching him. The solid feel of flesh under his hand was unmistakable. Something was not right here. Kakashi made the same hand seals as earlier at the gate and muttered, "Release."

The blonde hair faded to gray and the face of the boy was replaced by that of an elderly man. The casts faded from view as well. Kakashi growled as he turned and walked up to the nurse's station. "When were those men in the cloaks here?"

The duty nurse looked up puzzled, "There have been no visitors yet, Kakashi-sama. What is wrong?"

"Naruto is missing!"

The nurse got up and ran over to the patient's room and looked in. "No, he's right there!"

Kakashi flew through hand signs again and touched the nurse, "Release." He caught the nurse as she slumped over. She managed to get back up to her own feet after a few seconds and looked into the room again, "Why is the old carpenter in Naruto's bed? What's going on here, Kakashi?"

"Call an ANBU. Tell them that everyone on this floor of the hospital has been put under a genjutsu," Kakashi yelled as he ran for the stairs.

Kakashi got to Tsunade's office but the room was empty. A note on the door simply read 'Out Training'. The jonin sighed and made a single hand seal muttering "Shadow Clones". Three copies of Kakashi appeared and he just pointed at each in turn saying, "Tsunade, Jiraiya, Ibiki". Then he turned and ran outside.

Once he was in the open he again cast a jutsu to summon his favorite tracker, Pakkun.

The pug appeared from the small cloud of chakra smoke saying, "Yo" with his distinctive deep voice.

"Pakkun, Naruto has been kidnapped. We need to find him."

Pakkun nodded with a mild grunt and set to work sniffing the area around the door. "Got it" he said moments later. "He is being carried so it will not be the easiest track with this breeze. His scent seems to be mixed with someone that smells like bait."

'Hoshigaki Kisame.' "I understand, Pakkun. If you lose Naruto, keep with that one."

The pug nodded and ran off with Kakashi following behind.

Tsunade was in a gym having a grand time hurling racquetballs at Sakura. She was not going all out just yet but the smile on her face showed that she was enjoying herself. For her part, Sakura was already getting winded but her similar smile showed she too was having some fun.

The pink haired girl had been glad to be out of the hospital even for a little while. The place was just too depressing for her lately. All the ninja who were going to recover completely had already been discharged and the ones remaining were all crippled in some fashion or another. Even this training was a welcome diversion from dealing with those patients.

Sakura was tracking several different balls at once because the rebounds were just as dangerous to her as a direct hit. She learned early on that if she just dodged Tsunade would miss on purpose to nail her from behind with a double bank shot off the walls. 'Finally, that lop sided one took a bad bounce and lost a lot of momentum,' she thought as she leaped to grab the much slower ball out of the air and with a loud grunt of effort hurled it at Tsunade before a second could nail her in the back. Tsunade had to fall flat on the floor to get out of the way of the ball but came up laughing.

"Nice job with that one, Sakura. I knew that bad ball would mess up at some point but even better is that you managed to capture it and use it against me. Well Done."

Sakura blushed at the compliment and prepared to dodge again when Kakashi entered the gym at a run.

"Tsunade-sama! Naruto has been kidnapped from the hospital!"

"WHAT! Who did it?" Tsunade demanded.

"Akatsuki. The use of genjutsu indicates Itachi," Kakashi reported. "I am a shadow clone sent to warn you while my true self begins pursuit. Other clones are informing Jiraiya and Ibiki."

Tsunade nodded and looked to Sakura, "Training is cancelled for today. Go find Anko and get her to follow after. We will leave signs. Go."

Tsunade ran out of the gym behind the Kakashi clone.

Jiraiya was glad to be away from responsibility for a few hours. He had taken a few hours to himself for the first time in weeks. He needed to do his 'research'. His publisher was already making noises about the next novel in the Icha Icha series was going to be late if the author did not produce something quickly. He leaned back to his telescope when running feet sounded on the path to his viewing station.

"Jiraiya-sama," the voice of Kakashi sounded out. "Naruto has been kidnapped. Akatsuki seems to be behind it."

"Damn," muttered Jiraiya. "Which way did they go?"

"They left via the South Gate. Itachi is one."

Jiraiya nodded and bit his thumb. He wiped blood on his hand and went through the hand signs for summoning his toads. A man sized toad appeared with dozens of smaller finger sized toads clinging to its back. Jiraiya did not even waste time as he spoke in a commanding voice to the large toad. "Gamasekkou, my student has been kidnapped. I need you to drop off scout toads south of Konoha in groups starting at five miles out. I am assuming they are walking because running this close to Konoha would have attracted attention. Look for two adults carrying a boy with broken legs. He is Minato's spawnling so this is important."

"Yes, Jiraiya-sama," cried out Gamasekkou without question. He would have liked to tease the Sage but this was too important. Perhaps, next time.

The toad moved as fast as Gai without weights through the trees. Once he reached his first drop off point he spoke to the toads clinging to him, "Spread out. Do not interfere, just find them and report back. I am moving up several miles to drop off more."

Jiraiya grumbled as he left his telescope behind. 'That is a brand new scope. No one had better mess with it. I have to get the boy on the Toad Contract soon. They could track him and reverse summon him away from his captors if he was.'

Itachi walked calmly down the road while Kisame groused next to him. "I don't see why we are just walking along the road like we do not have a care in the world, Itachi. We could have already handed him off to Zetsu by now."

"First, if we ran it would attract attention. My genjutsu can make the patrols overlook us if we walk. Also, Konoha has a detection grid extending out almost 10 miles from the village. They would detect anything moving through the ground out to that distance. Zetsu would be noticed and give them enough knowledge to duplicate his jutsu," Itachi calmly replied.

"I still say we should just bust heads and make them fear us. No one there can match us."

"Actually, with a full effort, there are three currently in Konoha who could defeat us individually. That is why we did not merely demand the jinchuuriki."

"They couldn't defeat Samehada. It would suck them dry."

"Kisame, enough hyenas can down a lion. But perhaps you will get your fight soon enough. We have been detected."

Kisame looked around. "I don't sense anyone nearby."

"Jiraiya's toads are in the trees and I felt at least two dispel to report our position."

Kisame smirked, "Good, Samehada is hungry."

Pakkun led Kakashi down a little used path through the forest around Konoha. "The scent is getting stronger, Kakashi. It shouldn't be long now."

"Good job Pakkun," Kakashi responded. "Make sure you avoid trouble when we get there. These people are dangerous,"

Kakashi felt his shadow clones dispel and knew help was only minutes behind him.

"We are almost on top of them now, Kakashi. There is a clearing ahead," Pakkun told his master. The pug leapt into a tree and stopped on a branch without entering the clearing while Kakashi did the same. In the clearing stood Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame. A still Naruto lay bent over the shoulder of the larger Kisame.

"Hatake Kakashi, former ANBU captain, currently a jonin sensei and interim director of ANBU," recited Itachi in a quiet voice.

"You are well informed for a missing nin, Itachi," Kakashi replied. "Just leave the boy and depart and there will be no pursuit."

"You bargain from a position of weakness, Kakashi."

"I alerted others before I followed you, Itachi. The genjutsu was found and there will be a force coming after you soon. Again, leave the boy and you can avoid pursuit."

"Enough talk. I am gonna break you in half, Kakashi," roared Kisame. The large man nudged Naruto off his shoulder and the blonde boy fell to the ground with a dull thud. The blue skinned man rushed toward the tree Kakashi was in as he drew his massive zanbato, Samehada. The sword looked like it was made from shark's teeth.

Kisame swung at the branch and the sword tore chunks of bark as the teeth gouged the wood. Kakashi was already leaping over Kisame and pulling up his headband to reveal his implanted Sharingan eye.

Kisame turned and swung his sword once more. Kakashi was forced to leap away once more. "Don't tell me the man who beat Momochi Zabuza is afraid of little old me?" Kisame taunted.

"Oh, I'm not afraid of you, Kisame. But I do respect what your sword can do. Without it, you are not much of a threat," Kakashi replied in his normal lazy fashion. One of his clones had dispersed already, letting him know that at least one of the Sannin was still five minutes away. Five minutes was a long time in ninja battles.

Jiraiya was through the South Gate and moving at top speed when the first toad reported by dispersing itself. The one that remained with him whispered in his ear direction and distance. 'Damn, they were nearly to the edge of the detection area. Once beyond that, there is no way to track them without visual observation of some kind. Itachi is just too good to leave traces behind.'

Jiraiya noted a patrol in the forest nearby so he flared his chakra to get their attention. He never missed a step as he glanced toward them. 'Chunin only, they won't be a help.' Using hand signals he told them to spread an alert that enemy S class ninja were in the local area. Any ANBU patrols should get word quickly. The patrol leader acknowledged and the patrol dispersed.

Focusing back on the trail ahead, Jiraiya felt Tsunade and several others leaving the village in his wake. At his current speed, he was three minutes from the spot the toads had indicated.

Itachi stood next to the slumbering Naruto as he watched Kisame chase Kakashi around the clearing. The missing nin knew that the Leaf ninja was only playing for time but the situation was still under control. He would allow Kisame to play a little while longer.

"Hold still and fight you one eyed jackrabbit," shouted Kisame. The massive missing nin from Mist was beginning to lose his temper. He had not even come close to hitting Kakashi yet. Simple swordwork was not going to win this battle.

Kisame brought his hands together and shouted, "Exploding Water Shockwave" with water beginning to spew from his mouth in torrents. It formed a wave that rushed towards Kakashi. The copy ninja leapt back from the wave and into the branches to the surrounding trees as water flooded the local area. Itachi had picked up Naruto and done the same.

Kisame laughed as he stood on the mass of water. Now he was in his element once more. He made the signs and began firing water bullets at Kakashi. The need to dodge tree limbs as he evaded the water bullets gave Kakashi no room for error. Kisame laughed again as he bracketed Kakashi and saw one of his shots hit the man squarely. The bullet impacted on a tree and a limp Kakashi fell down. Kisame grinned like the shark he resembled until the fallen Kakashi transformed into a broken branch.

'Substitution! Dammit!' Kisame thought as he looked around. While he looked around, a water dragon rose up from his lake and came directly at him. Leaping backwards, Kisame made a sign, "Water Wall" A wall of water rose up and intercepted the dragon. Water sprayed in all directions at the jutsu cancelled each other.

"Very tricky, Kakashi. But water is MY element," Kisame bragged.

A voice boomed from off to the side, "Perhaps, Kisame but things can always change quickly. Yomi Numa, Swamp of the Underworld!"

All three ninja looked to see Jiraiya had arrived as the water drained down and vanished into a dark mass of a swamp.

Kakashi leaped over to the Sannin. "Good timing Jiraiya-sama," he said.

Kisame looked angry as his water was drained off and ended up standing on the surface of the swamp without sinking into it. "You took my water!" he shouted as he pointed at Jiraiya. He tried to form a water bullet but the muck only released a few drops of water. 'Danged Earth technique.'

'He is too powerful for the swamp to pull down but it also will draw in any water he summons. Best to leave it for now.' thought Jiraiya. "Kakashi, see if you can get Naruto away from Itachi. I'll handle this fish out of water."

Kakashi nodded and jumped at the renegade Uchiha. His Sharingan eye whirled at he focused his one on his opponent's two.

"Do you honestly think you can best me with something that fights your very use of it, Kakashi? You have done well with Obito's eye but now you face someone who is a master. Tsukuyomi."

Kakashi could not halt his leap in midair and could only try to resist the sudden genjutsu attack. For a heart beat he resisted then he was overwhelmed.

Kakashi found himself tied to an operating table. He struggled to free himself but found he could not. A ghostly voice from Itachi sounded and echoed in his ears, "I control this realm. For the next 72 hours, you will experience what I wish you to experience."

Bodies rose up on either side of Kakashi. The dead and decayed forms of Rin, Uchiha Obito, the Fourth Hokage and his father all stood around the table.

Obito's empty eye socket dripped worms as he spoke, "You're unworthy of my sacrifice, Kakashi. I want my eye back."

Rin reached out with her Mystic Palm technique to cut open Kakashi's face and yanked out the Sharingan eye whispering, "Unworthy." before handing the eye to Obito.

His father, Hatake Sakumo pulled out his prized sword and cut into Kakashi's belly seppuku style, "Unworthy of being my son and my sacrifice." The pain from the cut was pure agony.

The Fourth formed a Rasengan in his hand and pressed it into Kakashi's chest "Unworthy of being my student." The feeling of his chest being shredded was worse than his stomach.

But worse than the physical pain was the mental anguish of the ones he had cared for most in his life being the means of his own torture.

Kakashi closed his eyes and was letting the darkness take him when the scene reset back to the beginning.

"71 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds to go," Itachi's voice echoed in his ears.

In reality, Kakashi let out a yell of agony and loss before falling toward the swamp. A kunai thrown by Jiraiya caught his flak jacket and prevented his limp form from landing in the muck by catching a branch.

Itachi looked over at Kisame who was using his sword to bat away earth bullets fired by Jiraiya. "Kisame, we are leaving." Itachi started to bend over to pick up Naruto when the tree shattered underneath him.

Tsunade had arrived.

Itachi managed to jump away from the debris but Naruto fell into the swamp muck. The unconscious blonde began to sink into the slime and goo. Jiraiya was too involved in defending against Kisame to do anything so Tsunade ran to the boy to fish him out of the swamp.

The moment she touched Naruto, a trap laid by Itachi was triggered. The genjutsu flared around her as she was unprepared. Her greatest fear surrounded her. Instead of being in a swamp made of water, she was in a swamp made of blood. She had made great strides in overcoming her fear but this was simply too much at once. Tsunade screamed in horror as she tried to brush the blood away but her terror increased as it only smeared. The wetness of it was against her skin and that reinforced the belief that it was real. Tsunade lost all coherent thought and began to sink into the muck as well.

Kisame laughed as Jiraiya was distracted by Tsunade's scream. "Aw, guess she fell into Itachi's little trap. I wonder what she is so afraid of?" he taunted. With a growl of rage, Jiraiya cancelled his Swamp of the Underworld technique. The swamp vanished and both unmoving blondes were lying on the forest floor once more.

Kisame took advantage of Jiraiya's need to cancel the swamp to spew out additional water before running after Itachi "You are lucky I have to leave, old man."

Jiraiya ran over to the blondes and took hold of Tsunade while forcing some chakra into her to disrupt the genjutsu trap. "Tsunade! It was just an illusion. Snap out of it."

Tsunade shuddered as she looked around at the returned forest. Tears fell from her eyes after the stress from seeing all that blood. "I thought I was getting better. But … I couldn't … there was so much of it."

"Shhhh. Don't worry, hime," Jiraiya said as he held his teammate. He said nothing else as the woman he held cried.

Jiraiya saw a squad of ANBU arrive and used hand signals to tell them to pursue to the border but not to engage the fleeing enemy. The squad departed without having spoken a word.

Back in Konoha, Kurenai had been alerted by Ibiki due to the large number of genjutsu victims at the hospital. She was the most accomplished in the village in that art outside of ANBU and they were already busy. Shino and Sasuke both looked up from their tasks as she indicated they were to follow her.

"What's going on that is so important to disrupt my training?" Sasuke groused.

"There is much more going on in Konoha than your training, Sasuke," Shino replied to him.

"Hn. There is little more important than that. I need to get stronger."

Shino only shook his head in mild disgust at the hubris this Uchiha had and made the rest of the trip to the hospital in silence.

Kurenai moved quickly among the staff dispelling the genjutsu. Few had coherent memories of who did this until one of the older nurses murmured, "It was an Uchiha. Those eyes; I could never mistake those eyes."

Sasuke overheard that and got angry, 'Itachi was here and no one told me! I could have fought him and gotten my vengeance.' Sasuke turned and began to run off when Kurenai's voice yelled out after him.

"Where the hell are you running off to, Genin?" she said in a loud angry voice. "No one said for you to leave."

Sasuke pointed at the older nurse, "She said it was an Uchiha that did this. That means Itachi was here. I have to get him for what he did to my family."

Kurenai just looked at Sasuke for a moment before she said in a lower tone, "Are you so stupid and arrogant to think that you could defeat your older brother? He was ANBU level when he left here and he was not even an adult. Now he is at his full growth and even stronger than he was then. You on the other hand are barely a teenager and still a genin. Hell, you just got owned a few weeks back by Uzumaki because of your arrogance."

"HE DID NOT DEFEAT ME!" Sasuke yelled back. "He got in a few lucky shots! He played tricks and games and never fought me seriously once!"

Kurenai walked up to Sasuke who backed up from her anger. Once he had backed into a wall she got right up in his face.

"Seriously? Being a ninja is not about fighting seriously. You want that kind of fighting; go join the Daimyo's samurai. Think about this Uchiha Sasuke. If Uzumaki had tried to kill you, you would have been dead after that fight. You spent way too much time posing from your fireball, he could have been behind you stabbing you in the back instead of playing with a marshmallow; you're Dead."

"His paint bomb could have been acid or a real explosive; you're Dead."

"He used an unknown jutsu that you copied when he could have used one that surpassed your chakra reserves and exhausted you; you're Dead."

"He laid you out with a sucker punch on the same flawed attack you used against him back in your Genin Exam then he backed off instead of cutting your throat, you're Dead."

"The entire time he fought you he never once fought you seriously because he knew your weakness going in and he had you beaten before Hayate even said start."

Sasuke stood in shock as Kurenai told him off. The thoughts of what Naruto could have done were echoing in his head.

"Now think about this. Uzumaki is a GENIN like you. If he could do that to you, now think how much of a challenge you would be to an ANBU who could kill a clan of Uchiha. Alone. In a single evening."

With reality slapping him in the face, Sasuke realized, "I wouldn't be."

"That's right, you wouldn't be. You are so damn obsessed with POWER you neglect everything that does not give you more of it. You frown on learning how to properly USE that power you are so driven to get but Itachi didn't. He moved up in ranks in Konoha. We have tougher standards for advancement than any other village. That means to make ANBU you HAVE to be an elite in ability not in power."

"If raw power was the only qualification, Uzumaki could be a Hokage right now but he lacks the ability to properly use all of that power he has. Those shadow clones of his could kill a normal jonin with chakra exhaustion after a dozen clones but he tosses around dozens at a time. That fight of his during the Invasion, he made over one thousand."

"Now your brother is skilled enough to WALK into this hospital past ANBU patrols and walk out again with Uzumaki under his arm. Think about that little bit of information, Genin."

"MY NAME IS UCHIHA SASUKE, NOT GENIN!" Sasuke roared.

"Well, until you learn that your head is more than a place to store your headband, Genin is all you will ever be." Kurenai then turned and went back to removing the genjutsu from the remaining hospital staff.

Sasuke stood against the wall and trembled as he slipped a bit further from sanity. All that got into his head is that his brother was even more powerful than he thought and he was falling behind even further. 'I need more power,' was his final thought before he followed Kurenai.

Tsunade looked over at Jiraiya one last time. She knew that this might not be the best decision that was ever made but at this point in time it was the right one. She had a major weakness exposed to herself and the village as a whole. She was getting past it but right now the village had to come first.

Once more she heard the white haired man curse under his breath as he walked into a chair. Tsunade smiled softly at his nervousness but also in memory at how far the man had come. A knock on the office door pulled her from her thoughts. She opened the door and the messenger said, "It's time."

Minutes later, the crowd roared in approval as the person in the Hokage robes stepped out onto the balcony to wave to them.

Tsunade cried out, "May I present to you all, the Godaime Hokage; Jiraiya, the Toad Sage. May he defend us for years to come."

Jiraiya was about to step forward to speak but Tsunade felt he needed one last taunt before things got to his head. She whispered to him, "Screw this place up and I'll summon back Grandpa and Uncle myself to kick your butt."

Jiraiya roared with laughter as he stepped to the railing.

Next Chapter: Long Awaited Revelations

Review Notes

: I know my usage of the –kun and –chan is not entirely correct. I think like the American I am. My usage favors it at more intimate moments rather than at all the points someone who uses the suffixes in their normal speech. I do hope it does not detract from the story itself.

To AznPuffyHair, mental conditioning and hypnosis are two entirely different things. Cults are mainly known for mental conditioning but it exists in all parts of society. Hypnosis only creates a temporary mental state. Conditioning alters the way a person thinks long term.

To jgkitarel, I see Konoha a mainly a military base, not as a town that has some ninja in it. The majority of civilians there are generally retired ninja and family/clan members. The ones who do not fall into that category are the ones that provide the services a ninja would need, such as Teuchi and Ayame owning a ramen stand ninja eat at. That makes a much higher percentage of people being ninja but it also means that Konoha is not self sufficient. This could haunt them one day. (idly whistles and looks around)