Chapter 15: Policy Changes
"So, you're Chiyo."
"Chiyo is my name, yes."
"Are you a puppeteer?"
"I should think that was obvious."
"How do you make the puppets move 'n stuff?"
"Years of experience, boy. I've been trained by a hundred battles."
"I've been trained by Kakashi-sensei."
The two of them were hunched over Son, while Chiyo taught him the nature of the puppet's mechanisms. Son relied on a central system of gears that translated localized kinetic force from anywhere in the puppet to a large frame, giving it a degree of resistance to impact. It also connected the limbs to the internal frame and hosted engines, if the puppet was sufficiently large enough to need them.
"This is the Minoru Mechanism," she explained. "My great-grandfather invented it, and that was what made puppeteering a viable combat skill. Before then, puppeteers needed to be extremely skilled, lest their puppet break in battle."
Then she frowned. "Did you say your sensei was Kakashi? Kakashi Hatake?"
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, they say he's famous. I'd never even heard of him 'till they made him our sensei, but I'd never heard of you either. I guess I don't hear of these famous people."
Minato sneezed.
Chiyo looked sad for a brief moment, and then it was gone. "These puppets were made to look like real people," she said softly. "This one is my son, and the one who stopped you earlier is his wife. Your sensei's father, Sakumo, killed them."
"I– I didn't–"
"Don't concern yourself with it," Chiyo murmured. "Guilt by association is a vicious moral standard. If everyone sought revenge against those related to the guilty, we would have decimated ourselves long ago. Kakashi didn't kill my son any more than I killed the Third Kazekage."
"What?"
"But that is a story for another time," Chiyo said firmly. "Now, if you truly wish to learn puppetry, you must first study the puppet. Son and Daughter-In-Law are ideal for this, as I used many of the techniques you will need to learn in their creation. Pivot joints, gliding joints, framing styles, the Minoru Mechanism, and clockwork are all part of the design. Weapons are also critical. I can teach you how to make light shields, water shields, senbon launchers, flame throwers, and weapons so convoluted they would make your head spin."
If Tenten had been there, she might have fainted with joy. Naruto's eyes grew wide and sparkly. The chance to apprentice with a master was something he'd only dreamed of, and just by the way she spoke a famous kunoichi was offering it to him! He stuttered something unintelligible, but no words came out.
"Would you like to learn the Art of the Puppeteer?" Chiyo offered cordially. "It might help to pass the time."
"Yes!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Good. Pay attention, this is how you callibrate the limbs..."
.:.
The thing that irked him most about his opponent wasn't the immortality, or the teleportation, or the ninjutsu mastery. It was the silence. Tobirama Senju, a decrepit corpse brought back from the mausoleum, didn't speak at all. Banter was half the fun of battle, and the Second just refused to indulge him.
"YOU MAY BE ALIVE, BUT NOTHING CAN RESTORE YOUR YOUTH!" Guy thundered, kicking Tobirama's head clean off of his shoulders. It landed with a wet splat on a nearby wall. The headless body raised its sword and attacked anyways, prompting Guy to rip the katana from his grasp and plunge it into the dead Hokage's chest. The body ignored the injury... until Guy crushed his left thigh with a chamber punch.
He looked around, noting that most of Konoha looked deserted. With Minato working to keep civilians from fleeing, a series of invaders had rounded up the downed Konoha shinobi and dragged them off. Only he remained free, though he suspected his students were fine. None of them had clashed with the undead yet.
Tobirama's head regenerated, and without hesitating he pulled his sword out of his chest and advanced sluggishly, his left leg dragging grotesquely.
"Suiton: Suiryūdan no jutsu," he hissed, his voice like metal scraping ice. Guy was almost glad for the silence, but his minor irritation turned to worry as Tobirama vomited a steady stream of water onto the pavement. It bubbled into a massive font of chakra, unlimited by mortal constraints, and soon the taijutsu master was facing down a water dragon of epic proportions.
Never one to back down from a challenge, Guy drew his second wind and met the possessed man head on. Holding his breath, he allowed the water to crash down on him with the force of a thousand punches, but he held his ground with chakra and march through. The Second Hokage died today; that, he guaranteed.
"LEAF WHIRLWIND!"
.:.
Root headquarters were just as Kabuto remembered them: dank and hopeless. He scuttled by, his form all but invisible to the elite ninja that Danzō employed to undertake Konoha's... darker missions. Seduction. Political assassination. Men in direct service to the Hokage, working for the good of the Hidden Leaf. Not their guardians, for that was the job of the Uchiha's Military Police (when they existed). Hunters. Dogs, baying on a leash. Danzō's leash. Once, Kabuto had been one of them. He had been a loyal shinobi of Konoha (and Kumo and Iwa, for he had infiltrated both), but no longer. Not since the attempt on his life.
He took a sharp left, noting that many of the cellblocks looked emptier than he remembered. Kabuto looked questioningly at his companion, whose face was twisted with anger and disgust.
"Your thoughts?" the rogue medic offered.
"This place is sick," Minato Namikaze growled. "I never got around to organizing my portfolio, but even Lord Sarutobi didn't know about Danzō's methods."
"On the contrary, he approved of them," Kabuto refuted. "Who do you think funded Root? When Lord Orochimaru devised a training regimen to strip a shinobi of emotions, do you think he did it on Shimura's orders or Sarutobi's?"
He waved his hand for silence and got it. Despite his relative freedom, the Fourth Hokage was still a slave. Together, they vanished into the darkness, just as Danzō himself turned into the hallway.
When he passed, Minato burst from within a cell and slammed his heel into Danzō's face, so hard the man crashed into the far wall and slumped to the floor with a concussion. That lasted for all of three seconds, when he reappeared at the beginning of the hallway and turned to run away.
Kabuto, who had moved to cut him off, stepped from the shadows and sliced his right arm off with a chakra scalpel. Danzō grunted in pain and slid to the floor, his imminent demise a halting parody of Sarutobi's death.
The former Root agent picked up the arm. "I always knew you were a cunning bastard," Kabuto said fondly. "You can't use Izanagi while your arm is sealed off, so we just had to force you to use the unsealed sharingan. With only one eye and no backups, what else do you have?"
"The tools of a shinobi are not limited to ninjutsu, Yakushi," Danzō muttered. He used his good arm to shove a kunai deep into Kabuto's belly. Danzō's run for it was only interrupted by the Hiraishin carrying Minato directly on top of him and halting his escape.
Kabuto pulled the kunai out and waved a hand over the wound. When it passed, the blood was gone and the skin mended.
"Dispose of him," he ordered, turning and walking away. "I have some explosives to plant. This division has outlived its usefulness, no sense leaving its corpses behind."
Grimly, Minato knelt down next to Danzō's dying form and readied one of his signature kunai. One swipe and Danzō would bleed out in front of him.
"Wait..."
Minato cocked his head. He had in him to resist for a little while.
"Allow me... to serve my village... One... last... time..."
Minato moved in closer, and Danzō explained his plan.
.:.
When the Hokage summoned, all answered the call. Ninja, civilian, it didn't matter. Their rule was absolute, and their power little contested. Anyone who dared to employ thousands of shinobi was worth bowing to for protection. The world was harsh, and the benefits of a hidden village were great. The Fire Shadow spoke, and so the civilians of Konoha dutifully trudged to the plaza beneath their leader's balcony.
Strangely, no shinobi attended. A few of the adults commented on it, but none really cared. The village was still in a state of turmoil after the Sand-Sound attack, and Sarutobi's guidance was long overdue.
To the crowd's shock, the man in the white robe was not Hiruzen but Shibi. The pride of the Aburame wore the Hokage's white kimono, which was covered nearly as much as his casual clothing. His spiky black hair and tassled sunglasses were unmistakable to most of the crowd, who recognized him as the man who single-handedly defended Konoha's northern gate from a direct attack by the Nibi's previous jinchūriki in the Third War.
"Greetings," he called to the crowd. Although he spoke quietly, his voice carried perfectly.
"You have all noticed that Konoha has faced some serious changes over the past two days," he went on. "This is something that has disrupted businesses and made life difficult for many of you, and we apologize. Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, is dead. I have been chosen as his successor."
This was the most anyone had ever heard Shibi say at one time. Many had expected Kakashi to be named Hokage, and a few suspected it would go to Jiraiya. They prayed they were wrong, but for the Village's Shame to become its leader? What a travesty!
"From this day—"
A massive explosion rocketed out of a nearby building. Several panes of glass shattered from the force, leaving apartments windowless. The fireball cleared, and Shibi cleared his throat to continue.
"From this day onward, I swear to protect and guide the people of Konohagakure. I am the Fifth Hokage."
The crowd began to disperse, hushed whispers discussing Hiruzen's death. It was strange, because most of them could not remember a time when Sarutobi had not been Hokage, bar Minato's two-year reign. The Second had appointed Sarutobi when he was thirteen, and he'd been a guiding hand ever since. Now he was dead, and without acknowledging it out loud every villager knew what had happened.
Orochimaru won.
With a blast-like impact, Might Guy landed on his back on the pavement nearby, looking as exuberant as he had at the beginning of his fight. He stood up, just as Tobirama Senju came careening into the plaza with his sword drawn.
"I had hoped to escape you," Guy said, frowning. "Your sensory abilities are as powerful as the legends claim. No matter, for a zombie such as you cannot hope to match the POWER OF MY YOUTH!"
Two things happened at once then. First, as the civilians cleared away from the battling shinobi, Guy charges. The second, faster than even Might Guy, Minato Namikaze appeared directly between the spandex-clad ninja and his target, holding up Danzō's body.
Guy's fist ripped through Danzō's chest and came within inches of reaching Tobirama's throat. In turn, Tobirama shoved his sword through Danzō's body, but Minato grabbed his predecessor's wrist and ensured that Danzō would have another minute to live before his exsanguination.
"Ura Shishō Fūinjutsu," Danzō choked out. Minato evaded the reverse sealing's blast radius with the Hiraishin, but Guy and Tobirama were not so lucky. A black sphere engulfed the two of them, and together they were sucked into Danzō's corpse, along with a hemisphere of earth and pavement.
It was a testament to how strange shinobi villages were that none of the passing civilians even stopped to gawk.
.:.
By nightfall, all of the remaining jōnin and tokubetsu jōnin had been shuffled into the Hokage tower, where the Fifth Hokage was waiting to address them. That was what tradition dictated, although none of them held any doubts as to the real reason for the meeting. It probably had something to do with the three tomoe on all of their necks.
Shibi took the podium. "My fellow Leaf shinobi," he said hoarsely, "It is with great sorrow that—"
"Enough of that, Lord Hokage!" boomed a voice so chillingly familiar, many of the jōnin tried to run away on instinct. Without much ado, Orochimaru appeared in a flicker of flames next to Shibi, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere on earth rather than there.
"Our first order of business concerns chūnin selections," Orochimaru addressed them. "Specifically, Neji Hyūga and Sasuke Uchiha. Both are now chūnin, and no doubt we would know if Naruto or any of the other genin are fit for the title had I not interrupted. I apologize for that.
"Our next item of business is dissent. Anybody who wants to kill me, feel free to do so now."
There was no movement for a few seconds. Then, cries of "Tsūga!" and "Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms!" rang out, as a few dozen Hyūga and Inuzuka leapt forward with murderous intent. A few feet out from the man himself their curse seals flared with green light and they fell to the floor, unconscious.
"No takers?" Orochimaru asked rhetorically. "Now, after Minato finishes in ANBU, I'll get back to preparing Heaven Seals, but for now I'll be answering some questions you might have. Questions like 'can I leave Konoha?', or 'what will happen, now that I've been enslaved by a rogue ninja?' Fortunately, I am no longer a rogue ninja, if that helps ease any doubts you may have. Konoha is now entering a self-imposed quarantine until our 'dissident problem' has been solved. For the most part, business as usual!"
He stared back at a room full of helpless, pissed-off shinobi. "Also, you will be keeping your genin in line. I don't have the resources to give every ninja in Konoha the Anko treatment, so you'll be helping me along."
"Oh yeah?" someone shouted. "Make us!"
Orochimaru considered.
"If you insist," he said bemusedly. "Ten no Juin!"
Was that too fast?