Danzo remarked the village with with a look of growing regret. Regret for what? For not being strong enough to take the position of Hokage, for failing in his endeavours to make the village the strongest and mightiest. But as he stared at the village, a part of him was drawn back to simpler times, times when he and Hiruzen would play around and jump for joy as they thumbed their headbands.
He and Hiruzen messing with their teammates and cackling madly when they pranked Koharu or Kagami. Those were better days. Days where the horrors of shinobi were not introduced to them, days where their innocence shined brightly.
Part of him almost felt like ripping out the eye that laid dormant in his bandaged socket as a way to apologise to Kagami for what he did to his son. Shisui was ever more talented and devoted to the village as Kagami and he had destroyed his old friends legacy and betrayed him.
He sighed, he couldn't be thinking like this. The good of Konoha outweighs all others. He smiled a ghost of a smile when he remembered the meeting that took place moments ago.
A miracle had happened, both the Civilian and Shinobi council were both agreeing with each other. They were both outraged about the attack form the new village, The Hidden Light. An attack that Danzo had staged pointing all the evidence to the hotel by the far reaches of Konoha that housed the majority of their forces in their safe haven.
Many civilians were demanding war but the shinobi were more calculating and less eager to fight but they would eventually have to bend down to the will of the Hokage who, as weak as he is, would bend down to the will of Koharu, Homura and the civilian council.
He began spinning the cane in his hand as he walked away 'I love it when a plan comes together'
XXXXXXX
Jounin commander Arashi Kazami was currently very busy. Ever since the mishap in leaf and the Village being discovered sooner than expected he had been swamped. ANBU squads were sent out to patrol the borders alongside Jounin.
The brown haired, middle-aged man sent a hand through his hair. The Kage of the village would be arriving soon and he'd have to make sure he went through as little trouble as possible. He sighed to himself as he looked out to the marvelous village which was the hidden Light.
It was built right on top of the old Uzushiogakure in the Land Of Whirlpool but their Tsukikage had gotten the old daimyo of the land to rename it into The Land of Light and built a ninja village in accordance to the name. Everything had been rebuilt. The houses, the shops and the many magnificent structures which served as the villages defence. They weren't going to make the same mistake as the old inhabitants. Those specific buildings had seals that would spew fire and wind jutsus at any foreign chakra signature not verified by a chuunin or jounin guard.
The pristine lake which ran across it wasn't all so innocent as well. In the lake were several seals which would release a magnitude of water jutsus at any enemies that were capable of entering the village.
Arashi sighed before he turned to the ANBU captain that was in his office. With a nod, the ANBU stiffened before reporting "Sir a letter from Konohagakure has been sent to us, it seems the village is getting aggressive towards the incident in their village. They may go to war with us in the worst case scenario, best case scenario a few skirmishes between our villages but no direct confrontation"
Arashi nodded slowly, having already thought of that but accepted it nonetheless. The brown haired boy sighed, whatever that happened in Konoha, had to have been big if the Tsukikage and alongside the spies in the hotel were engaged in combat. A part of him knew it had something to do with ROOT, the organisation that his village leader had been so eager to learn more about.
"Right Get the ANBU commander in here, he needs to be informed of this as well." Nodding the ANBU swiftly left right when a chuunin burst through the door. "Arashi-san! Tsukikage-sama has returned with what's left of The DEN operatives we sent to Konoha!" Arashi didn't waste any time and quickly Shunshin out of the office.
XXXXXX
"Damn it, I was so stupid!" Naruto berated himself as he continued to lead the men by his side. "No you're not Naruto, you had no way of knowing it was a trap and you couldn't have stopped it any more than we could." Hikari tried to console Naruto as Gaara and Temari were watching after a charred Kankuro and Yang alongside Tayuya were doing what they can for the rest of the shinobi with what little medical knowledge they had.
"She's right Tsukikage-sama, we were all tricked and blindsided by that man, it was unfortunate yes but remember we live the life of Shinobi which mean death is a part of our life" Kaguma informed his kage while walking in step beside him.
Kaguma was a man of average build and had black hair that was styled to slick back into spikes. He wore the standard Hikarikagure uniform with his sleeves rolled up to reveal his DEN tattoo showing everyone that he was a member of Hikarikagure special forces division of the ANBU, Defence and Espionage Network, their training specifically encircles around Infiltration and Spying alongside low level assassination. Though they were far from weak, since their job forces them to be behind enemy lines, they were extensively trained and taught to resist the harshest of tortures to the point where they'd reach insanity before they would ever spill any information of Hikarikagure.
"I know but still I can't help but feel it was my fault" Naruto stated with slumped shoulders and a sigh. Kaguma nodded solemnly, the job of a leader was always a hard one, in the end you'd blame yourself more than anything else.
Naruto didn't know how to feel though, he had practically trained most of them. The young men and women under his command could all say that they were given some training under their Kage. Even then Naruto had extensively trained the ninjas in the Konoha contingent especially Daisuke. One of Naruto's more prominent students, though people would find it odd that grown men and women who were ninjas be trained and accepted a child as their superior.
Simply speaking, Naruto saved them all. Most if not all were missing-nins or orphans and would-be soldiers and samurais from burnt and pillaged villages. Naruto had brought them all in, civilians and shinobi alike, and gave them a home and I place to stay. Trained them to defend their new home and was overall a shining beacon for all of them.
They would gladly be led by the blonde boy after everything he did for them.
"Tsukikage-sama!" Naruto was knocked out of his musing when he looked up to see Arashi, the Jounin commander calling out to him.
"What's the situation?" Naruto asked as he stared into the eyes of his appointed commander. "Not good, Konoha has become aggressive, worst case:War, if not then at least some skirmishes and bad thoughts about each other when we go to sleep" The brown-haired man stated and watched as his leaders calculating eyes began staring up into the sun. Showing all there his powerful doujutsu eyes.
Arashi noticed how the middle tomoe expanded and took the shape of three intersected scythes. He immediately noticed how the seals glowed for a moment before they settled into an eerie blue, indicating that they were set on stand by.
Arashi's mouth was set into a thin line before he looked back at his Kage. "We can't risk war, though I may be powerful, I cannot fight an army myself, and our forces and village is still relatively new. Our ninjas may be exceptional strong and borderline prodigies but they still have yet to gain proper experience."
Nodding the Jounin commander knew his job already and went out to try and negotiate peace with Konoha. The blonde sighed before he wiped his face "Well...shit" He walked up to the gates before addressing the chuunin guard "Get genin team 7, they're heading to the chuunin exams"
XXXXXX
Off in the distance, Jounin Kakashi Hatake was staring at the hotel with some level of seriousness but really he was itching to jump back into his book. But had to restrain himself in the presence of Kurenai, lest he wanted to be trapped in a genjutsu for the rest of his life.
"So this is the place where the Light shinobi were hiding at?" Asuma asks as he examined the area, everything was completely scrubbed clean except for the battle that took place. No tracks, no identification, no clothes, everything was gone. "These guys are pretty good at covering their tracks" Asuma stated as he eyed the room with a scrutinizing gaze.
Kurenai nodded, looking at the place with a frown "How did they even get into Konoha anyways shouldn't that be impossible?"
"Should be, but it seems not" Kakashi drawled but the two other jounins could see, just how stiff and alert he was. It was subtle but they had known him for years. He was taking everything with a scrutinizing gaze and making sure not an inch was left uncheck by his eyes.
"I hear the civilian council are fighting for war" Asuma stated and he was met by the grim expressions of his companions. "War" The white-haired copy nin said nostalgically.
"Fools, the lot of them" Kurenai muttered as she went up the stairs to find anymore clues. Both males sighed before they returned to searching for clues and what not.
XXXXXX
"This is an outrage Hokage-sama! For them to attack us, one of the strongest hidden villages!" This was what HIruzen Sarutobi had to sit through as he rubbed his face wearing an almost pained filled expression. A part of him felt like throwing a kunai into the hags face but refrained against.
"Enough!" The Hokage bellowed. "Any and All matters of shinobi are to dealt with by me, the Hokage or have any of you forgotten that?" The Third let out some of his impressive KI into the room, silencing the civilians and stiffening the shinobi.
"But Hokage-sama what they did is a great offence to the village!"Tsume cried out and several of the clan heads nodded, but a few, mainly the Nara and Hyuuga, remained silent.
The old man sitting behind the desk, gave a long hard stare at Tsume who was squirming under his gaze. In one fell swoop, the Hokage slammed his palm onto the desk and said out, his voice eerie calm "And what?! Are you so eager to go to war? Have you forgotten the blood, the screams, the howls of war that you want it so eagerly!" Many people flinched at his tone while the advisors remained impassive.
"This meeting was put forth to deal with our security breach but instead there are people preaching to me about the offence it is to attack our village and send spies into our midst?" His voice rose by just pitch, one could hardly hear it but it was there and it was meant as a warning "We are ninjas, this is our life and work, this is a ninja village, THIS is to be expected! But THIS, what is going on here is not meant to be in any village of our stature" Many people flinched at his statement, but the Hokage didn't stop, no it was far from over.
"All of you are but spoiled ninjas and civilians in a time of peace! A time where your minds have forgotten what it was like for us during the Third great war! And you are all willingly walking back into it! This new village may be small, but they would surely have allies, and their allies would have allies. And we would later be plunged back into the bloodbath that is WAR"
The Hokage stood up from his chair and leveled everybody a stare for the ages "This meeting is adjourned" His voice was grave and disappointed, dramatical but it got the job done. The Hokage left the council chambers with his advisors by his side.
"Hiruzen, Hikarigakure has sent us a message saying that they would send their own genin team to the chuunin exams" Homura reported as he stood by his old teammate.
Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded and grew a thoughtful look "Allow them entry, and ask if their Kage would like to join us, I don't trust them but right now their extended us an arm for peace, I have no need not to accept"
Short chapter yes but next one will be longer, next one a genin teams heading o the chuunin exams and some little confrontations here and there, let's see what happens, heheheheh!