Chapter Ten - "Of Replacements and Bedtime Stories"
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Nice to see I got 15 reviews in one day after submitting the last chapter! (hint, hint) A big thanks particularly to Orange-Fuzz-Ball for a bunch of reviews at once, as well as matrice for another in-depth high-quality review!
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As the alarm clock went off, the figure in the bed next to the clock tossed and turned for a bit, before reaching out his arm to turn off the clock.
What am I doing up at this time again?, Kakashi thought to himself as he covered his eyes against rays of light coming through the window from the rising sun. Oh, right, he realized, remembering his meeting with the Hokage the day beforehand.
*Flashback - The Day Before, Hokage's Office*
"The Hokage shall see you now," was all the secretary had to say to Kakashi shortly after he had come into the waiting lobby. Kakashi took the initiative, gave a light nod to the secretary, and opened the door she had just come out. Walking in, he closed the door behind him, and observed his leader.
Surveying the situation, Kakashi didn't like what was in store for him. The Hokage was out of his desk, standing up and looking out the window, back to Kakashi. He had never seen the wizened leader do that for a meeting, indicating that he was in hot water.
Deciding that now was the time to pay respects, Kakashi merely said, "Hokage-sama," and went down on one knee, his hand at his chest palm-facing up in a motion of submissive respect for his leader.
The minutes passed by, as Kakashi steadily became more nervous. It seemed that the Sandaime was really angry with him. The tension was thankfully broken shortly thereafter as Sarutobi finally spoke. "Sit, Hatake." Kakashi took the order and dropped himself into one of the visitor chairs kept in the office of the Sandaime.
Sarutobi spun around, surprisingly with no pipe in his mouth. Glancing at the desk, the Fire Shadow picked up a folder, and opened it up, leafing through the papers present. "Do you know what this is, Hatake?" It was meant to be a rhetorical question, so Kakashi waited for the Sandaime to continue, which he did. "This is an extensive file that Akasuna no Sasori sent me detailing the skills and techniques possessed by Shirosuna no Hakko shortly after he went nuke-nin five years ago. At that time, you were in the ANBU, and rated quite highly by those few targets you clashed with that escaped, almost cracking the S-Rank barrier." Dropping the folder back onto the desk surface, he steeled his eyes and pierced Kakashi's mental defences with his gaze. "On the other hand, Hakko Awai, as a ninja on the run, would never have time to sit down and develop his skills. You have gotten sloppy since you left ANBU, Hatake, and it shows. Your tardiness has become an issue, you waste hours a day looking at that Memorial Stone, and you still haven't taken the advice of many to refine your Chidori and Raikiri." Taking a look at the Konoha headband that covered Kakashi's now-empty eye socket, he had to restrain himself from spitting. "Two techniques you won't be able to use anymore, unless you finally eliminate your problems with tunnel vision." Taking a brief break from his tongue-lashing of one of his Elite Jonins, Sarutobi sat down in his chair, and adopted a posture in which he rested his head on his hands. "The Uchiha clan is not as miserly in sharing their knowledge as they used to be." That was obvious; they knew they were indebted to Konoha not having completely annihilated them. "The Uchiha harvested plenty of Sharingans from those who Itachi killed four years ago. Because the Sharingan is a heavy part of your reputation, the Uchiha Clan has indirectly benefited from your exploits as they are still feared for what the Sharingan can do. Mikoto may be willing to part with another Sharingan eye to keep that the case. Properly transplanted by an experienced medic as opposed to a battlefield job, you should be able to deactivate it as well. If not, you will receive a normal eye. I will not have one of my Elite Jonin going around with an empty eye socket."
Kakashi felt himself become numb. He had carried around his former teammate's eye for fourteen years now, and had done all that he could to repent for his behaviour before that fateful mission in Kusa. It had crushed him when he had to destroy that eye in Wave. To have to replace Obito's eye, whether with another Sharingan eye or even a regular one, was just so...just so...realizing his throat had become parched, he pushed his tongue around in the cavern of his mouth to produce some saliva, then swallowing, before nodding weakly in response to the Sandaime's words.
"That said, even if you did get another Sharingan eye, it would take you some time to fully adjust it. Additionally, you need to get back into shape, moreso considering you have just recovered from a toxin, and you need to be in top form for when the invasion occurs. As you may have expected by now, you will be relieved from your duties as the jonin-sensei of Team 7."
That hit Kakashi like a bag of rocks to the stomach. He had in fact been expecting it, but to hear it be said was still a real gut-wrencher. Still, what was done was done. "H-hai, Hokage-sama," he said shakily.
Sarutobi frowned. Kakashi was practically sweating underneath all the tension that was present in the room. Deciding that he had finally laid into the man enough, he changed postures. "You will tell your three genin that you have been shuffled back into ANBU, and that they will meet their new sensei in two days at Training Ground 7 at 7am. You, on the other hand will report to ANBU HQ tomorrow morning at 5am for physical conditioning. Understood, Hatake?"
Kakashi stumbled over his words again, repeating himself from earlier. "H, hai, Hokage-sama."
Feeling satisfied with himself, Sarutobi got up from his desk, yearning to stretch out his legs again. "Dismissed." As he turned around to look outside his window again, he heard Kakashi leave the office, nearly tripping on a couple of occasions in a nervous outbreak.
*Flashback end*
Right, he had to go report to the ANBU now. He shuddered at the thought of the conditioning he would have to go through. It was ruthless and demanding, and the will that he had cultivated to keep up with the rigorous exercises had tapered off over the years as his laziness became a domineering part of his psyche. He knew he needed to break the habit, but it most definitely would not be a pleasant process.
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"As the smoke cleared, the villiainous Yami-nin stood over his wounded opponent, a knife pointed at the blonde's head. 'Give up!' said Yabun to the Ame-nin, as his face contorted into a wild grin at the thought of subduing his foe.
'Can I just say one thing...?' the Ame-nin said, arm pressed down onto his knee.
Yabun didn't hesitate in his next action, as he slammed his arm into Naruto, pinning him against a tree. 'I don't want to hear it...now die!'
What he didn't expect was for his sworn enemy to start in a cocky manner, saying 'You should give up...' and then disperse in a cloud of white smoke. Paralyzed in fear, he was unable to respond to a voice that started talking right next to his ear, 'Trying to make me give up.'
Kage Bunshin?! was all that Yabun had time to think as he felt a blow to the back of his head and saw the surface of the branch they were standing on quickly approaching him. Knocked out, he would be tied up by Naruto to later be interrogated."
"Tou-san?"
"Yes, what is it, Saisei?"
"What does 'intewwogahted' mean?"
Naruto, currently sitting in a chair while reading to his son who was tucked into bed, couldn't help but smile, amused at the cute face his adopted son had made as he scrunched his nose up in confusion at a big word. Kitsunes were unnaturally quick at understanding language, which was why Saisei already knew such words as 'subdue', 'hesitate', and 'paralyze', but there were still many words he would trip over. "It means that you ask somebody else questions, in a forceful manner. "
"Oh." Was all Saisei had to say, before his ears twitched, and he went onto another question. "Why does that man in the story have the same name as you?"
The lemon-haired boy held back a frown and a breath at that, not wanting to worry the former demon lord reincarnated. He had already figured out that his parents must have used Legend of the Gutsy Ninja as a basis for his name, with his father honouring his sensei Jiraiya. Too bad that faith had been misplaced. However, he didn't want to explain this to Saisei now, especially after he had gotten back from being away for nearly a month. Instead, he smoothly lied. "Ah, that's just a coincidence, Saisei. Lots of people share the same name in the world."
"Wow!" was what Saisei had to say in response with an energetic tone, envisioning the world. He hadn't met very many people in his lifetime; Naruto only let a few members of the Akatsuki that he trusted in on the secret of Saisei's existence (most believed he had just extinguished the Kyuubi when done absorbing his yokai), and even fewer meet him. When Naruto snuck him out the last time he had gone to Ame was the first time in his life that Saisei had seen the outdoors, something which Naruto took great pleasure in showing his son.
Ruffling the red hair and ears on top of Saisei's head, Naruto leaned back, "Well then, ready for some more Legend of the Gutsy Ninja?" Seeing his son's head snap back, he took the cue to continue reading.
A few minutes later, Naruto looked up from his book, and saw that the kitsune had fallen asleep. Letting a genuine smile cross his face again, he left the book on his chair, turned off the lights and locked the door behind him before exiting out.
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The next morning, Naruto was out and about early, his clone living in his apartment on the surface having gotten a visit from Kakashi two nights beforehand, who explained that he had been put back into ANBU, that Team 7 was getting a new sensei, and when and where he was to go. The clone had passed the info along the psychic link that Naruto had mastered between himself and enhanced Kage Bunshins, giving him some preparation time.
Walking through the bustling city, Naruto thought over the info he had received from the ANBU Kawauso on who his new sensei was. What was surprising was the unique ability that Tora-28 possessed. Doubtlessly it was a failsafe measure meant to be used to keep Naruto under control if required.
Naruto wasn't quite worried about that. He had already absorbed all of Kyuubi's yokai, but actually converting it to chakra was an entirely different thing altogether, and could take another couple of decades. It was still useful, however; he could pull out yokai tails, though the corruptive effects of the yokai would still feed him bloodlust even without Kyuubi's soul. However, without the Kyuubi in the seal, Mokuton (or any chakra seal) would simply not be as effective.
Moreover, he was worried about how observant his new sensei might be. If this 'Tenzo' thought Naruto was acting suspicious, he would more than likely begin to investigate, which would force Naruto to cut back on his Akatsuki activities out of fear he would be discovered, and activate a fallback measure to temporarily delegate some of his responsibilities to other members. This close to the invasion it was a dangerous possibility.
Blinking, Naruto slowly brought his spatial awareness back to the world around him, away from the heavy thinking in his head. He found that he was already in Training Ground 7. Surprisingly enough, Sakura was training hard, trying to master her chakra control by walking on the small body of water the grounds had to offer. Sasuke, who seemed confident that this new sensei of theirs would be punctual, was sitting with his back up against a tree, in a brooding pose, conserving his energy.
Naruto walked over to the dark-haired Uchiha, and sat himself down next to his teammate. "So," the whiskered genin drawled, "What do you hope our new sensei will be like?"
Sasuke, never one to mince words, simply said, "I hope he's strong."
Any further conversation they might have had was broken as the sound of a snapping twig was heard. Turning their heads around, they saw a man walking towards them. He was tall, just about the height that Kakashi was (if one didn't count the goofy gravity defying-hair that the scarecrow-like Hatake had), with brown hair and a green jonin vest on. The oddest thing about him was his hitai-ate; instead of the standard metal band that most people had, he seemed to wear a half-mask that covered the forehead, and went down covering his outer cheeks, resembling the style of the Nidaime Hokage's own hitai-ate. The first thing one noted about him, truly proving that first appearances could be deceiving, for this man possessed the power of the legendary Mokuton.
"Team 7?" he asked, although it was clear that it was not a question. "I am your new sensei, Yamato. First I need to get to know you. After that, training will begin."
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In his office, Hiruzen Sarutobi was mulling over a report that he had recently received from Jiraiya, who himself had gotten some important intel from Itachi, regarding the group of elite bounty hunters that Itachi had joined for the unproclaimed purpose of becoming a mole. What had initially been thought to just be a group of missing nin banding together to make some money seemed to be far more dangerous; rather, it was just a front for an even more powerful criminal organization, one tentatively named the Hakubo. An ominous name, 'Nightfall'. To round off the intimidation brought on by the title was the list of high A-Class and S-Class ninjas that Itachi had so far discovered; there was of course, Kakuzu of Taki, who had gone toe-to-toe with the Shodai Hokage and killed the entire ruling council of Taki off before going nuke-nin. However, there was also Deidara Kurei, a demolition's specialist from Iwa, Fuchi Ankoku, a bear of a man known for his legendary swordsmanship who was a former member of the Pillars of Iwa, and Kisame Hoshigaki, another well-renowned swordsman who had fled Kirigakure after killing several minor lords of Water Country.
Rounding off the known list were Zetsu of Kusa, a wildcard as far as his strength went but was known to have taken Earth manipulation to another level, damaging his psyche and altering his body in the process, and Kasumi Yume of the nomadic Yume clan, the runaway genjutsu prodigy princess of one of the few clans that didn't join a shinobi village that was renowned for their naginatajutsu. And that was not including some of the members that Itachi had been unable to get any real info on, such as the leader and his two subordinates. Additionally, they were still recruiting – Sarutobi had earlier given Kakashi a lecture about how Hakko would not have had much time to develop his skills, being on the run all the time. The possibility of somebody who had been on the run but still capable of defeating Kakashi being recruited by Hakubo and given a chance to further develop was disturbing.
But it was Hakubo's goals that disturbed the Sandaime Hokage. They wanted to capture all of the jinchuuriki and extract the bijuu from their hosts into a sealing statue of sorts. With the power of the bijuu behind them, they basically could control the Elemental Nations, if not the entire world.
That threw a wrench into Sarutobi's plans, however. When his successor (and predecessor) Namikaze Minato sealed the Kyuubi no Kitsune into his son Naruto, Sarutobi had quickly had Jiraiya place a pair of seals on the newborn blonde; one was to impair his development emotionally, physically and mentally, while the other was to be used on the occasion to install suggestive impetus. The reasoning behind it was simple; as Naruto grew up, odds were that he would face many enemies due to his being the vessel of the Kyuubi. More likely than not some of these enemies would be far beyond Naruto's abilities (no matter how hard the flaxen-haired child trained with or without an impairing seal), and to bring the fight down to par Naruto would have to summon Kyuubi's yokai to fight. However, if Naruto lost himself too his emotions or his enemy was too strong, the boy might overdraw on Kyuubi's yokai and turn on Konoha. An unskilled Naruto that simply tossed around Kyuubi yokai was something that they could defeat, whether it was with the Mokuton or through the use of chakra seals such as those Jiraiya had developed. A Naruto who had been trained and was competent on his own that turned on Konoha could lay waste to them, or at least cause a significant amount of damage before he could be stopped. There was no bearing for trying to get him to control his emotions – the possibility that he would naturally be induced to bloodlust simply by the Kyuubi's influence was far too great to risk.
But now, Hakubo came along. Sure, Naruto would have probably gone up against opponents that far outstripped him in skill, but to face off against an entire organization composed of A-rank and S-rank missing nins? The only way to keep Naruto from them was to keep him in the village, and that simply wouldn't do; for one, Konoha needed the intimidation factor of having the strongest bijuu on their side, and secondly, by the time Hakubo might come to retrieve Naruto, it was entirely possible they could have the first eight bijuus under their control, and able to channel their power.
So no, now Sarutobi would have to reject the plan that he had of leaving Naruto untrained, and get Naruto up to speed and develop him, in the hopes that when Hakubo finally came for Naruto, Naruto's training combined with the Kyuubi's power would be able to stop any offenders. He had assigned Tenzo to take over for Kakashi primarily to fast-track Naruto's training; Sasuke had his clan to turn to (not to mention he could ask most jonin in the village for private training and get it), and Haruno Sakura had yet to show any signs of real commitment to being a kunoichi. Naruto meanwhile would benefit from the focused training, Tenzo could keep Naruto under control with the Mokuton if it came to it. When Jiraiya came and started training Naruto as Sarutobi had sent a reply back ordering him to, doubtlessly it would reinstall an iron fealty to Konoha in Naruto, who would be glad that he was getting specialized training, from a Sannin of all people.
Of course, Naruto could never know about his heritage. If the boy should find out who his father was, he might become too bitter towards Konoha for not treating him well during his childhood, breaking free of the restraints that had been planted in him by the suggestions through use of the hyperawareness seal. And again, that would be bad. Even now, finding out about the Kyuubi had already caused him to become somewhat more introverted and far more serious, as reports from Kakashi had been suggesting. Soon enough that impairment seal would begin to dissolve, the small size of the seal leading to its relatively short lifetime (at least in comparison to the Kyuubi seal, which would hopefully last for all of Naruto's lifetime, considering it had been enforced by the power of a Shinigami). He highly doubted that it would be reapplied.
Setting the files down on his desk, Sarutobi didn't even need to muse about whether he should release these files to other nations, allies or enemies. He simply wouldn't. First of all, even one other country having these documents increased the chances of Hakubo finding out about said documents, and they would then begin to suspect a spy, which would make it significantly harder for Itachi to gather information. Secondly, if he could keep Naruto's training on the downlow, Hakubo wouldn't feel pressured to capture Naruto as quickly as if they knew he was becoming talented at a fast pace. Third, every other jinchuuriki that was removed from another village was another jinchuuriki that couldn't pose a threat to Konoha. If a bijuu got extracted, then when the Hakubo was finally stopped, Konoha might be able to grab a bijuu or two from the sealing statue mentioned in Itachi's report. Already sealed, it would take little energy and no sacrifice to seal a captured bijuu into a newborn infant. Even if the previous village retrieved their bijuu, they would still have to raise a newborn and train him or her.
In the end, Sarutobi would do what benefitted Konoha. It had been a mistake of his to step down as early as he did to let Namikaze take over the Hokage spot during the dying days of the Third Great Shinobi War – he should have stayed on just a bit longer, and wait until Konoha marched right into Iwa, so he could have wrung more concessions out of Iwa. Instead, Minato had called for a peace only a few weeks after he took office, leaving Iwa plenty of time to rebuild. If not for Akasuna no Sasori and his mediating skills, Iwa could have easily invaded Konoha after the Kyuubi attack and destroyed the Village Hidden Amongst Tree Leaves.
Even though they had backed off then, they were coming for revenge now, in cahoots with his former student. Sarutobi gripped his hand on a staff he kept nearby him at all times, his fingers tensing and turning white with the pressure he was applying. If his former student thought he would have an easy win, he would be in for a surprise. The monkey summoner had been training during the last few months, getting back into shape, taking nutritional supplements to strengthen his muscles and bones. Oh yes, Orochimaru would be in for a major surprise.
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So...in the latest chapter Sasuke survives again. Seriously, Mifune could get everyone to evacuate the building and drop a nuclear bomb from that the Land of Iron discovered from an excavation from ages past on the building and Sasuke would still survive, and the radiation would somehow mutate him to become even more powerful with no side-effects, except he would get a third eye, which would allow him to use Amaterasu, Tsukiyomi, and Susano'o...AT THE SAME TIME. At this rate Sasuke will start summoning cockroaches. (I hope Kishi doesn't read fanfics or else I might be giving him ideas!)
A Sarutobi POV that makes him out to not quite be a total bastard, you can see where he's coming from, but he's still a bastard. The scene at the beginning is mostly Kakashi POV. I hate being so harsh on him, especially since I know at least one thing that I still have to do to him in the future (no, not his death or anything. He'll survive for Part II, but I haven't really planned ahead any specific character actions in Part II yet, just the general gist of what'll happen). A pure fluff scene between Naruto and Saisei that I enjoyed writing (as well as small excerpt from 'Legend of the Gutsy Ninja', with the descriptions being from Naruto's POV), and a short 'Team 7 meets Tenzo' scene.
Deidara joined earlier than in canon so he doesn't have the same confrontational attitude towards Itachi, who never forced Dei to join. Even with my alterations towards the situation in Kiri, Kisame still leaves. Fuchi Ankoku and Kasumi Yume are both OC missing nin's. Hakubo is clearly a second front to cover up the Akatsuki.
Alright, I promise the next chapter will be the last chapter before the chunin exams start! (though I might end up breaking that promise...) I'm hoping I don't break that promise because if I don't then the chapter right after that one will be goddamned AWESOME!
Finally, my end-chapter plea for reviews, but this is slightly different; I was going through my reviews history lately (the reviews I submitted, not the ones I got for my fics). Going through, I see that there are a lot of reviews that I write that usually go for upwards of four or five paragraphs, and two or three isn't that uncommon either. Even the one-line or two-line reviews still try to bring up a point from that chapter (or the whole story overall) and mention something about it. I would prefer that if you do review, if you are one of those who just do 'nice chapter', or 'awesome please update soon!' that you try to add in a little bit extra, even something as small as 'wow Sarutobi was absolutely ruthless in this chapter'. I'm not afraid to take criticism either. Thanks ;).