"Are you sure about this, Naruto?"
The whole room went silent as soon as Sarutobi Hiruzen uttered those words. Waiting patiently for the momentous answer, the people in the room turned their eyes over to Naruto, who was sitting silently between his brothers.
"Y-yes, Hokage-sama." The pain and fear in Naruto's voice didn't go unnoticed by the Uchihas in the room as they immediately tried to argue with the Hokage, but a simple gesture from Hiruzen was enough to stop dead in their tracks before they could even open their mouths.
"It's Naruto's own decision, and we all have to respect it. Right, Fugaku?"
The man in question, Uchiha Fugaku, looked away to hide his face from the prying eyes of his leader. He did not want him to see the anger flaring deep within his ruby-red eyes. It was getting uncontrollable with each passing second and only needed a slight thrust to break out and consume the man that was sitting in front of him. "You are right-" His voice cracked a little, and so did his will to remain calm. A slight glance at his son and Shisui told him that they were feeling the same resentment towards the man, but unfortunately, just like him, they couldn't do anything but agree with everything being proposed to them. "You are right, Hokage-sama." He finally finished his answer.
"Hmm… As expected-"
'Sniff…'
Fugaku's anger reached its peak as the faint muffled cries of Naruto finally entered his ears. The boy was trying his best to keep them as low as possible, and he could tell that just by listening to them. Naruto was suffering a lot more than they could ever imagine. The little boy was trying his best to appear brave so that they won't feel bad because of him, and that fact alone was enough to break Fugaku's heart into a million pieces.
"Crying won't change your inevitable future, boy. All you can do is muster up the courage and face it like a true shinobi."
Danzo's cold words amplified Fugaku's anger even more. "Stop!" As expected, he couldn't handle it anymore, and the anger inside him finally burst out with full force. "Nothing is going to happen to Naruto." His ruby red eyes turned even darker and began to flicker ominously, waiting for the right moment to show the world their wretched form. "He will not be going anywhere alone with you two." The room began to shake by the sheer volume of the chakra that he was exuding. It was both a mesmerizing and chilling site to witness. "He will remain here… with us!" He turned toward Naruto, and his eyes immediately softened when he saw his innocent face covered with tears and fear.
"Fugaku!"
"Hiruzen!" It was the first time Fugaku had ever called the old man by his name, and that fact alone was enough to silence the Hokage. "If you dare lay a hand on this child, this entire village will face severe consequences." His warning was genuine, and anyone sitting in the room could tell that.
"Are you trying to go against the Hokage's decision, Fugaku?" Danzō knew there was no better time to create a rift between the village and Uchihas than that moment. If he wanted his plans to succeed, he needed to utilize this opportunity. "Do you know what that means?" His eyes shifted a little to catch a glimpse of Hiruzen's face, and he couldn't help but smirk ever so slightly when he saw traces of anger and disappointment there. His friend was feeling it, he noted.
"I know…" The room went silent again, and tension rose to unimaginable levels as Fugaku raised his right hand and placed it on top of Naruto's head. "Naruto is a part of the Uchiha Clan," His words were followed by a warm smile, something that people barely ever see on his stoic face. "And you both are trying to take him away from us for doing what a shinobi is trained to do from the beginning. I don't care what happened there in front of that shop. The only thing I care about is that Naruto did all those things just to save himself and his friend. It was all in self-defense." Scarlet eyes of doom began to spin menacingly in his eye sockets when they saw Danzō was about to utter something again.
"It wasn't self-defense. He let Kyūbi take over him."
Fugaku disregarded the statement with a blank look on his face. "And? What did you expect a child to do in that situation?" He asked the old men. "No one can handle the burden of Kyūbi at his age. It was bound to happen sooner or later."
Hiruzen decided to join in the conversation at that very moment. "That's why we are proposing to take that monster out of Naruto-kun. With Kyūbi out, Naruto-kun will be able to live a normal life, a far more normal life than the one he is living right now." Words laced with honey and a smile doused in warmth, Hiruzen was trying his best to come across as the kind Hokage that people knew him as. He then looked at Naruto and sighed. "Don't you want to live a normal life, Naruto-kun?" His smile widened when the boy nodded his head gently. "Then follow us, we will make sure you are not constrained to being that monster's vessel anymore."
"Naruto don't-" Fugaku tried to warn Naruto about the facade Hokage was using to lure him but the boy didn't listen and decided to open his mouth.
"I want to live a normal life," Naruto whispered, his eyes still glued to the ground as he didn't have the courage to face his brothers after what he had done a while ago. "I want to live a life where I can spend my entire life with this family without worrying about what people might think of them for spending time with me." Shisui, who was sitting beside him, stiffened as soon as Naruto finished his statement. "I want to play and grow beside Sayuri… beside Itachi and Shisui-nii." Tears began falling from his eyes, and before he knew what was happening, he was crying in front of everyone. "I want to help Mikoto-san with her work in the kitchen and want to be trained by Fugaku-san in our backyard…" He finally looked at Hiruzen with tears-filled eyes. "Will I be able to do these things if I accept your suggestion, Hokage-sama?" His question rendered Hiruzen silent for a good amount of time.
"Of course-" Hiruzen paused, no doubt a little rattled by the words he had just heard. They were powerful and sad, especially because they came out of a child's mouth. In his pursuit to tarnish his wife's killer's life, he had completely forgotten that the vessel that was carrying that murderer was nothing but an innocent child. He was someone who had never seen what his parents looked like, just like his own grandson. 'Konohamaru…' His heart ached as his mind began to think of a scenario where Naruto was replaced by his grandson. 'No… I have to do it.' He collected himself. It was a much-needed sacrifice for his village's security. "Of course Naruto. You will be able to do everything. All you have to do is follow us." His smile faltered a little when the boy didn't say anything in return.
"Ok…"
-oOo-
"Naruto."
The silence of the room and the gloomy aura of the night, both were terrifying. Sayuri, who had been sitting all alone in her room for the entire day, was getting anxious because of it. Something was very wrong, she could feel it inside her. Although she couldn't see anything, her senses were enough for her to discern that something bad had happened to Naruto.
"Hmm?"
Her heart skipped a beat when his broken sad voice entered her ears. "What happened?" She asked him, hoping to extract some information out of him. If there was anyone who couldn't lie to her without her noticing it, then it was him. Naruto lacked the ability to lie in front of her.
"Nothing, Sayuri. Everything is fine."
His voice was a lot calmer than before but it was still not sounding normal to her. If she was not sure before, then she was sure now. Naruto was hiding something from her. "No, it's not," raising her right hand a little, she nudged it towards his face. "See, you are crying too." Her small fingers caressed the wet skin of his face as she tried to get the truth out of his mouth.
"I-I'm not crying," Naruto turned his eyes away from her to hide his shame. Even though he knew she could not see him, he was still afraid that she might catch sight of it somehow. She always did after all. "It's because of sweat. I was training with Shisui nii." His excuses were foolish; he knew that, but a part of his mind still wanted Sayuri to fall for them. Why? Because he did not have the courage to tell her the truth.
His life was coming to an end, everyone, including him, could tell that by just looking into the cold eyes of their Hokage. If that was not enough, the way his whole family was behaving was a bare giveaway of the fact that he had just accepted his inevitable death in that room a while ago. 'It is necessary for their safety.' And yet, Naruto was not afraid of it. According to him, he did what he was supposed to do.
The tragic deaths of his sister Ayame, and his friend Hinata were the main reasons he had accepted Hokage's offer. When they were alive, he had promised to protect them with his life as they were a part of his family too, but unfortunately, he could not do that. He failed to keep his promise, a promise that he had made to the entire Uchiha family too, including Sayuri.
If the beast that was living inside decided to overwhelm him again and unleashed its fury on the Uchiha family, then who was going to save them? No one. If the Hokage was to be believed, no one could do anything to Kyūbi except for the first Hokage. He was the only one who could tame that powerful creature. Sure Uchihas could control it for a while like his brother did with his eyes last night but they have their limits too. His brother, who was hailed as the most powerful Uchiha of his generation, could only restrain that beast for a while before Hokage and some other people had to intervene and subdue the beast with seals.
'The extraction is necessary, even if I have to die for it.' His eyes shimmered with tears again as he began to recall all the memories that he had spent with his family. They were the best moments of his life, something that he had never thought he would get to experience a few years ago. The things that his family had done for him were out of this world, and he could never thank them enough for the life that they had given him. Instead, all he could do was die for their safety.
"Liar!"
Sayuri's sweet voice brought him out of the world of his thoughts. "Huh?" Looking at her, he tilted his head in confusion when he saw that she was glaring at him in anger. "I'm not lying, Sayuri." He retorted, hoping that the girl would just stop the argument. Right now, he just wanted to spend his last moments with her in peace with nothing to disturb them. His eyes and his heart wanted to relish this moment to its fullest.
"Hmph, fine. First, you ruined my birthday last night and now you are trying to hide something from me. It's not fair, you know?" While Sayuri just wanted to poke fun at Naruto's weird behavior, her words had the opposite effect on him.
"It was your birthday last night…" Naruto whispered, his eyes staring at her with inconceivable sadness within them. "I did ruin it completely I think huh?" His lips quivered when fits of silent cries began escaping from their confinement. "I-I'm sorry for that, Sayuri." Within those silent cries, his broken voice was finding it hard to escape his mouth but fortunately for him, Sayuri heard him.
"Oi!" Sayuri wasted no time in scooting closer to him. "Are you ok, Naruto?" Her concern-filled voice and narrowed pale eyes were not doing justice to how worried she was about Naruto at that moment. They never could if you asked her. There was no way anything, be it an action or a thing, could describe just how much she adored him. It was impossible.
"Y-yes."
Her cold hands met his warm skin as she began caressing his right cheek gently, making sure to wipe the tears that were running down his face. "No. You are not ok, Naruto. Something is troubling you, I can feel it." That she could. She did not need eyes or the presence of another individual to know what was going through Naruto's mind. Her heart was enough to decipher that when needed.
"I'll be leaving you alone, Sayuri."
Just like that, an eerie wave of silence engulfed the entire room, rendering both Naruto and Sayuri speechless for a while.
"W-what?" Sayuri could not believe what she was hearing. 'I must have heard it wrong.' She reassured herself. There was no way her Naruto would even think about leaving her for a moment. He was her best friend, and if there was one thing that Naruto had always told her then it was that best friends don't leave each other alone. "Are you joking with me, Naruto?" She asked him, hoping that he would say yes.
"N-no…"
Unfortunately, he did not. Sayuri would have argued back saying that he was still trying to fool her but she didn't. The amount of honesty he had in his voice at that moment was enough for her to understand that he was not joking. "What happened?" Her glazed eyes moved towards him, yearning to see something there but just like every other time, they could not see anything. All that was standing in front of them was a wide endless void.
"I-" Naruto paused, taking a moment to contemplate whether telling her about everything that had transpired in the last few hours was right or not. "I'm going on a training trip outside of the village for a few years." In the end, he could not find the courage to tell her the truth. He knew if he did then she would start hating him too, and it would not take long for that hate to turn into fear. He had experienced that very well in the past.
"Training?" Her eyes scrunched up in confusion. "With whom?" As far as she knew, no one in their village was interested in training Naruto other than his brothers, and both of them would never leave the village for such a long time. So she was very skeptical about the whole thing.
"Jiraiya of the Sannin."
Sayuri's eyebrows rose in surprise as soon as she heard that name. "Him?" She immediately asked Naruto, not believing him a bit. People like that man were barely interested in Naruto unless it involved something crucial for the benefit of the village.
"Hmm."
"Why is he interested in training you?"
"Oi, what do you mean by that? I'm a very good ninja. Of course, people will flock to take me under their care. I'm the next big thing, you know?"
Naruto's attempt at that joke was futile. Sayuri could clearly sense sadness and fear lingering beneath his voice. "Naruto… What are you hiding?" She was getting more worried with each passing second. Something big had happened to her friend and she wanted to know what. If it was something unimportant then her family would have never stopped her birthday party all of a sudden. The worry and fear in their voice after hearing the message that Hokage's assistant had brought was pretty easy to notice.
"Nothing," Naruto finally found the courage to smile at the girl. The way she was looking at him with her worry-filled eyes was heartwarming as it meant that she cared about him and that was all he ever wanted in his life. 'A person who cares about me.' He got what he wanted and now, he did not mind doing whatever he could to keep that person safe, even if it meant dying for her. "It's nothing, Sayuri. I'll be gone for a while, and then I'll return to you." He would not, and he knew that. There was no coming back from the path he had chosen for himself.
"Liar–"
"Shh." Raising his finger, he placed it in front of her lips, sealing them shut gently. "Now don't ask any more questions… please." He whispered, his eyes still lingering on her face. He was going to miss her. Her smile, her eyes, her voice, and most importantly her presence, he was going to miss everything about her. But compared to him, who was going to die shortly after their separation, she was going to suffer a lot more. Naruto was not naive. He knew what he meant to her, and how much she adored him, but if he decided to stay just because of that then there was a good chance she would end up with the same fate as Hinata.
"B-but–"
"Oi, what did I say? No more questions."
Sayuri closed her mouth, her lips pursing in defeat.
It did not take long for the familiar silence to return again as both of them began to stare at each other, one with his eyes while the other with her heart.
"Y-you will return, right?"
Naruto didn't answer for a while. "You are asking questions again, Sayuri." He whispered, tears falling freely from his eyes.
"I-I know. Just answer me."
"I-I will."
"Ok."
Traversing over the cracks of his face, the translucent liquid of sadness finally left his face and stained the cold wood beneath.
-oOo-
In his long and memorable life, Jiraiya had seen many types of spectacles, ranging from downright horrifying to outright tragic. But never in his life had he seen a scene this painful to watch. "Just stop it, sensei." He begged his teacher, his eyes gazing at the glowing orb of light that was illuminating the room in which he was standing.
"But I thought you wanted to see him, Jiraiya."
Jiraiya clenched his fists in anger. "I did but now, I don't. Seeing him talking to that girl like that is saddening. It's only going to deteriorate my resolve." He was not lying. Before watching the scene, his resolve to do anything for the safety of his village was rock solid but something in that sweet yet sad exchange struck his heart in a wrong way. It struck the chord that handled the rationality of his thoughts and now, he did not want to do what he was brought to do that much.
"I see," Hiruzen stood from his seat and turned over to gaze at the village from his window. It was one of the most beautiful views in the world according to him as it held everything that Hiruzen wanted to protect. "Then you must remember what Minato did to protect this village and its people, Jiraiya," he knew he had said the right thing when Jiraiya unclenched his fists immediately. "He sacrificed him, his wife, and most importantly the happiness of his son for the sake of this village." His wrinkled eyes gleamed with mirth when a ray of moonlight entered the Hokage room and adorned everything with its radiance.
"But he didn't do what you are asking me to do, sensei!"
Hiruzen gripped the window sill gently and hovered his head outside to bask in the cold breeze that was skimming over his beautiful village. "It's the same thing, my dear. When Minato sealed that beast inside Naruto, the Naruto who was supposed to be his child died at that very moment. All that was left behind was a boy waiting to be utilized for the security of our village."
"No–"
"Do you think Minato didn't know what he was doing, Jiraiya?" Hiruzen asked, his voice as calm as ever. "If you think he didn't, then you are completely wrong. Minato was a very smart person, Jiraiya. He knew what he was doing and did what he thought was right for his village. It's the duty of a Hokage to make sacrifices for the village and he did just that." A small smile made its way to his wrinkled lips as he recalled the words of his teacher, something that he could never forget. They were like a beacon of light that would always be there to guide him in the darkest of the paths.
"I see," Jiraiya pondered the words he had just heard from his teacher's mouth. They were no doubt emotional and motivating, but a part of his heart could not help but feel indignant at the amount of hypocrisy that was oozing out of them. "Ok then, I'll do what is needed, sensei." Yet, he made no argument about it whatsoever. The atmosphere around the village was already depressing and he did not want to raise another crisis with his words.
"I expected no less from you, Jiraiya," Hiruzen mumbled, his lips still supporting that smile from earlier. "Your sacrifice will never be forgotten, just like Minato's." He closed his eyes and allowed the cold breeze to soothe his face.
Now that irritated Jiraiya even further. Initially, he did not want to raise any conflict with his teacher, but the words that were coming out of the man's mouth were full of hypocrisy and entitlement. "You know, you are sounding just like that stupid Danzō right now, sensei." He knew his words spurred something inside his teacher because the man immediately turned around and began to stare at him with curiosity.
"How so?"
Jiraiya smiled at the man, a smile full of disappointment and disdain. "Talking about sacrifices while making none on your own," His smile turned wicked when the old man began to shake a little. "Sometimes when I'm free, I wonder whether Minato and Kushina would have been alive if they had stayed under Orochimaru's care. That man, if you ignore his shortcomings, was a spectacular teacher, and adored both of them more than anyone else, even me. His teachings were vastly different from yours too. So I can't help but feel Minato and Kushina would have better–"
"Jiraiya!" Hiruzen exclaimed, no doubt surprised by what he was hearing. His student, his dear student, was talking back to him and was questioning his teachings too. "Do you even know what you are uttering right now?" He asked him, hoping that Jiraiya would reconsider what he had just spoken. It was preposterous in every way possible, mostly because it suggested that he had made no sacrifices for his village.
"I very well understand what I'm saying, sensei," Jiraiya responded with a face showing nothing but disappointment. "It's you who don't understand what nonsense you are uttering. You have no right to speak of sacrifices, sensei. You have made none for this village. All you have done is hold the virtuous sacrifice of your wife as your own. If that's how it works, then I'm sorry to say but Naruto has made more sacrifices than your whole group of friends combined." His voice and demeanor were gleaming with anger, and they only needed one more push to turn rogue and engulf everything in their fury.
Unfortunately, Hiruzen did just that. "Have you lost your mind, Jiraiya?" The Hokage yelled in desperation, trying his best to diffuse the situation as soon as possible. He could not risk turning Jiraiya against him at this moment. He was necessary for the extraction. "See, if you don't want to do the extraction, then it's fine. I will ask someone else to do it instead of you. But please stop making these ridiculous claims, my dear child." He decided to turn his voice more calm and fatherly, something that he knew had worked wonders in the past.
"I'll do the extraction. You don't have to worry about it, sensei," Jiraiya's statement soothed Hiruzen's worries a little. "But that doesn't mean I can't call out your hypocrisy when needed," and just like that, the tension returned. "You and your friend Danzō are failures. Hell if I have to be honest, I would say that if Tobirama sama was alive he would have been disappointed with both of you. You both turned an innocent concept such as Will of fire into something eerily similar to what other villages use to manipulate their shinobis." Jiraiya would have continued further but his teacher decided to intervene yet again.
"Jiraiya… stop. You are being ridiculous right now–"
But Jiraiya did not listen to him this time. He wanted to pour his heart out before doing something as terrible as that extraction. "In the past few years, I have traveled from village to village in search of peace and have realized one very important thing. As wrong as they might seem at first, Orochimaru's teachings weren't that incorrect. He was an orphan, sensei, but unlike me, who never had any parents, to begin with, he had a lovely family who was killed shortly after. He understood what it meant to have a family and how significant it was for an individual's overall growth. That's why he always emphasized protecting your family first, then the village." The sage paused for a while, allowing the words to sink into the mind of his teacher.
"But the village is our family too."
As soon as Hiruzen uttered that argument, a small dry chuckle escaped from Jiraiya's mouth. "Really?" He asked and clenched his fist when Hiruzen nodded his head in response. "Then why doesn't this family treat Naruto with kindness? Isn't a family supposed to do that? Tell me sensei."
Hiruzen was in turmoil. Never in his entire life had he been presented with these kinds of ridiculous yet somewhat true statements. Whatever Jiraiya had just spoken was genuine, no matter how outrageous it sounded to him or others like him. "They would have, Jiraiya," Hiruzen finally opened his mouth. "But the beast that is sealed inside the boy took the lives of their precious people. So, it's natural that they would hate him too in their pursuit of hating the beast."
"And that includes you, right Sensei?"
That did it for Hiruzen. The chakra inside him went berserk and began flaring around him like a wild beast. "You are making assumptions without any evidence to back it up, Jiraiya. So I ask you to close your mouth and leave my room immediately." It was the first time Hiruzen had done this in front of his student, and he hoped it was the last time too. Angry as he might be at Jiraiya, he was still his beloved student, and he did not want him to leave him too, just like his other two students. He was the sanest of the three and he hoped it stayed like that.
"Sure."
The room went silent and so did Hiruzen's chakra.
"Haa!" The old man fell into his chair due to exhaustion, mental exhaustion to be precise. After so, someone had dared to oppose his teachings and Hiruzen did not like it a bit.
' You hold the virtuous sacrifice of your wife as your own.'
He clutched his head to ease the pain that was surging through it.
'You changed the concept of the will of fire into something terrible.'
The naive yet cold words of Jiraiya began to echo inside his mind, trying to break it completely.
" Biwako!"
His eyes went blank as they began to fade deep into the abyss of the memories of the past.
-xXx-
"Will she be alright, Hiruzen?" A gentle warm voice asked the man who was sitting on the other side of the glass table.
"Of course, she will be alright, Biwako," Hiruzen answered with certainty. "And even if something does happen to her, then Minato will be there to do the needful." His voice took a sharp turn and got doused in the shadow of authority.
"Hiruzen!" Biwako shouted, her face looking not so pleased with what she had heard just now.
"What?"
Biwako continued to stare at him for a while before looking away in dismay. "You are sounding so apathetic right now. I don't like it." She whispered, her voice as low as a whisper.
Hiruzen smiled at the lady. "Aah. So that's why you got so angry all of a sudden huh?" He let out a small chuckle. "I was being honest, Biwako. We both know how difficult it is going to be for Kushina, so we need to take precautions at every turn. The thing that she holds inside her is very important for our village. We can't let anything happen to it."
"It?"
The old man nodded. "The beast I meant."
If she was not angry before then she was absolutely furious right now. "Hiruzen…" She murmured, regarding the man with concern and resentment. "Please don't be like this." Her lips curved downward as a sad smile began to bloom on them.
"Don't be like what?"
"Him."
Now that made Hiruzen a little worried. Who was his wife talking about? He needed to find out. "Like whom?" He asked her, intrigued to know the answer.
"Danzō."
An uncomfortable silence fell upon the two as soon as Biwako uttered that name.
"Him?" After a while, Hiruzen finally opened his mouth.
"Yes. You were sounding just like him. I didn't like it."
A sad yet warm smile made its way to Hiruzen's lips. "Biwako…" He whispered her name with as much love as he could muster at that moment. "I would never turn out to be like that man." His smile widened when he saw sadness leave the face of his wife.
"Promise me then."
Hiruzen shook his head at the childish antics of his wife. She was still the same Biwako he had fallen for in his youth.
"I promise."
-xXx-
'You were sounding just like that man, sensei.'
Hiruzen's wrinkled brown eyes snapped open in shock, filled with tears and despair.
"Have I failed you, Biwako?"
His question went unanswered as the ray of moonlight that had been illuminating the room got covered by the clouds, leaving nothing but a miserable Hiruzen and a heart-wrenching silence behind in the dark room.
-END-
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