Chapter 36: Chunin Exams (8): The God with Broken Wings.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto. Naruto is the work of Masashi Kishimoto.
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My hair flew to the side, the wind carrying a lavender scent. It reminded me of someone, but the smell seemed a little different, a little sweeter, rather than the strong, fresh smell she was used to. "Hiroko is my teammate, and that's all I know, Konoha ninja." I sneered. This guy is so arrogant, isn't he afraid of having his face slapped later on?
Benjiro laughed, the rays of sunlight illuminating his face and highlighting his bright blue eyes that mimicked the sky. "It's fine if Akemi-san doesn't know anything," Benjiro shrugged. "I'm sure Hiroko-san will be kind enough to tell us his real identity."
My heart dropped, and my eyes narrowed. "Is that a threat?" I asked, though I already knew the answer. My fingers were twitching. I'm already trying my best to restrain myself, otherwise, this bastard will already resemble a porcupine.
Wind against water, I'm curious who will win if we clash.
"No!" Benjiro hurriedly shook his head, his hair flying from side to side. "How could I threaten an ally? I'm merely saying that if we ask Hiroko-san directly," Benjiro smiled, his eyes curled like crescent moons, "then he will tell us who he is."
"You…" My blood was already boiling, and with this guy, I fear that my blood will turn into gas. "Ah!" From the side, I heard a voice, and the lavender scent became stronger. "If it isn't Benjiro-kun and Akemi-san."
I turn my head, and Benjiro did the same. We were greeted by Konoha's team 8, consisting of a Hyuga, an Inuzuka, and an Aburame. The Inuzuka had a lazy look, while the Aburame looked as if he wanted to turn into a sculpture. My eyes turned to gaze at Hinata, the one who called us.
"Are you two doing anything?" Hinata smiled. "If not, why don't you join us? We're going to a ramen shop that became popular these days. It's called Ichiraku Ramen."
"Sure thing, Hinata-san." Though I don't think I and Hinata had many interactions before, I'm not going to refuse an angel sent to lift me from hell. "Then, I'm going too," it would've been better if the devil didn't cling to my foot.
SLUUUUURP—! SIIIIIP—!
"Khu! These noodles are too good!"
"Fuck, this broth is made by angels!"
Hearing the other person's voice, I turned and saw Benjiro. He was also looking at me, and then I realized that we spoke exactly at the same time. My face started to heat up, and I quickly averted my gaze. 'Phew, that bowl of ramen was too good!' I was sweating all over from eating the steaming hot ramen as soon as it touched the table.
"Quite the eater, aren't you?" My ears twitched when I felt a hot breath brush over my ears. "What are you doing?!" I glared at the culprit. His bright blue eyes shone with untold intentions, and his smile crept up like a devil's grin, so why is my face getting hotter?!
Suddenly, Benjiro was pushed away by a hand, and I turned to see Hinata with a smile on her face. She waved lightly at me and then gestured toward her other teammates. "We're going now, goodbye, Akemi-san!"
"Goodbye, Hinata-san. The food was great," I waved back. Team 8 casually passed me by, and it was Hinata's turn to pass me by, she suddenly patted my shoulder and spoke like a ghost. "Beware of Benjiro, he's not as simple as he seems." Though I barely heard her sentence, I couldn't agree more. I looked at Benjiro, who was looking back at me. He smiled and waved his hand before following Team 8 and wherever they were headed.
"Does Hinata know something about Benjiro?" I narrowed my eyes and looked up. The sky was turning dark, and I barely realized.
The clouds loomed over the village that cradled ancient legends, blocking the bright sun that was about to dip into the earth, and hiding the bright moon that had just risen from the oceans.
"Haaa…" Hiruzen rubbed his nose, his eyes closed and his mouth agape from tiredness. "How did things come to this?" Lately, Hiruzen had been losing more and more hair on top of his head from the overwork he is forced to do.
'Danzo, since when did you become so power-hungry?'
Hiruzen had always known that Danzo's means were far from what you'd associate with good, but he didn't judge. After all, he was wicked in his own way, not too dissimilar from Danzo and his late student, Orochimaru. That's why he kept this evil by his side because the village can't grow without an adversary.
His only mistake is turning his back toward the starving hyena.
"Thankfully, my methods were swift enough, otherwise…" Otherwise, the village would've already turned into a cake for the other four, great ninja villages to take a bite out of. Danzo's tyranny is simply unbearable, and all he can do is act as an umbrella for the village he cared for.
Hiruzen caressed his throbbing forehead. He's already doing his best to keep Danzo at bay, but he's starting to get tied into a guillotine. He tied his ANBU together with ROOT, preventing Danzo from making other moves at the cost of losing most of his loyal and elite troops.
How could he know that tying down ROOT was just the beginning of everything? 'Truly,' Hiruzen thought, 'the wicked hide his dagger under his sleeve.' Danzo distracted Hiruzen long enough using his ROOT, and by the time Hiruzen realized, it was already too late.
During one of the meetings with the clan heads to discuss important village matters, Danzo suggested the idea that all children should be required to attend the ninja academy. Hiruzen thought about it and found that it was reasonable. The village is in need of ninjas, and the children could always choose not to become ninjas if they really didn't want to.
"Danzo! What is the meaning of this?!"
He still remembered the heated argument he and Danzo had when he found out that Danzo took the children into the ROOT division instead of the academy.
"Hiruzen, they will be better off in the ROOT rather than in that playground you call a ninja academy."
Hiruzen gritted his teeth. If only he was able to see through the hazy film wrapped around his eyes earlier, Danzo wouldn't have gotten this opportunity. Because of the sudden increase in Danzo's ranks, the ROOT division managed to equal the ANBU's manpower and strength, forcing Hiruzen to further let go of his personal elites.
Sure, the children may still be fresh and weak, but it meant that Danzo was guaranteed to have more ninjas after a couple of years. When those ninjas became capable enough... Hiruzen can already see the blade above his neck.
Now, both sides were back on equal footing. Hiruzen has his personal strength and a few loyal clan heads and ninjas, while Danzo has political power and lots of it.
After the fiasco, Danzo suggested letting the retired ninjas who can still work stand up and help the village. In short, he wanted to make the retired ninjas work again. Several clan heads agreed to the suggestion, while some didn't. In the end, Hiruzen couldn't force down the idea or he'll lose even more political power, so he suggested that the retired ninjas wouldn't return to their jobs, but instead would become teachers in the academy.
After he suggested that, all the clan heads agreed unanimously, and Danzo left with a wrathful scowl. "Sigh… I'm getting too old. Minato, why in the world did you die so early?" Hiruzen muttered a curse before letting out another tired breath.
"I didn't expect that there would be a day where I would use my ninjas not to deal with external enemies, but rather internal foes." Hiruzen's eyes widened a bit. "This reminds me of the Uzumaki clan's situation back then. Come to think of it, Danzo was involved in that matter as well."
Hiruzen cursed. 'Is Danzo tantamount to misfortune? Should I kill him?' He thought.
Back then, the Uzumaki requested help when virtually the entire ninja world declared war on them after a rumor that a civil war erupted within the red-haired clan. Hiruzen knew the dangers of having an unstable ally, especially a powerful one, so he wanted to avoid them for the time being.
He wanted to seize the chance to weaken the powerful clan, and after Danzo came up with a valid excuse, Hiruzen used it without hesitation. "Tell the Uzumaki clan head that the village can't help them because powerful bandit armies have appeared in the land of fire."
Hiruzen ordered. It was not a lie, there truly were a lot of powerful bandit armies that came out of nowhere invading the land of fire, and Hiruzen had to personally take care of them. The three legendary ninjas also had to help in defeating the bandit armies. He would never know where those powerful people declaring themselves as "bandits" came from.
'I remember there was a boy leading a team of Uzumaki who bravely volunteered to help the village,' Hiruzen lowered his head.
That Uzumaki team was definitely the geniuses of the Uzumaki clan, the future of their village. That group managed to cripple three kage-level bandit leaders and their armies, so their strength was nothing to scoff at. By the end of it all, those bandit leaders dropped from their kage-level throne and became measly elite jonins.
Unfortunately, from what was reported to him, when the Uzumaki team was returning to the land of whirlpools after the arduous battle, they encountered the army of Kirigakure and were promptly wiped out. 'How could I know that after hearing that intel, I would get another report about the Uzumaki clan's destruction?'
Hiruzen quietly recalled the events then.
"Who sent this report?"
"Sensei, that mission report came from none other than Jiraiya," on Hiruzen's side, Orochimaru said with a frown. Even he couldn't believe the scroll's contents. "Call Jiraiya…"
POOF!
"What's the matter, old man?" Before Hiruzen could finish the order, Jiraiya suddenly appeared in the center of the office in a puff of smoke.
"Jiraiya," Hiruzen said, his tone as heavy as mountains and as cold as glaciers. "Is this report accurate?"
"Sensei, do you doubt my abilities?" When his question was answered by another question, Hiruzen's brows twitched. "JIRAIYA!"
"Sensei, that report is accurate!"
If Hiruzen felt frustrated, then what about Jiraiya? He had some attachments with the Uzumaki, as they were the ones who introduced and thought him his fuinjutsu skills. If it weren't for them, then he and Orochimaru wouldn't be seal masters right now.
"The Uzumaki really got wiped out? Not even a single survived?"
"Who told you that no one survived? A few escaped from what I heard," Jiraiya sighed. "Although they seemed unable to recall what happened, and their potential had been… stripped away."
Hiruzen paused. "What do you mean by that?" Hiruzen was confused. Here he was, having a headache because his ally fell, and Jiraiya was dropping a bombshell out of nowhere.
"When I talked to and examined one of the survivors, they barely knew any fuinjutsu. They were adults, mind you," Jiraiya sent Hiruzen a "you get it, right?" look.
"That's impossible," Hiruzen refused to believe it. Every Uzumaki, even the worst Uzumaki, knew at least one advanced fuinjutsu. If they didn't, then they were impostors.
"Well, it's possible now. I triple-checked their chakra and blood, they are real Uzumaki."
Hiruzen went silent, and so were Orochimaru and Jiraiya. Soon after, Tsunade came through the door and Hiruzen spoke without giving her a chance to greet them.
"The Uzumaki clan fell."
"WHAT?!"
Hearing Tsunade's outburst, Hiruzen knew that he had a long day ahead of him. After reaching that point, Hiruzen shook his head to escape from his dreadful memories. 'To this day, I'm still perplexed at how quickly the Uzumaki clan fell.'
Hiruzen didn't believe the rumors about a civil war within the Uzumaki clan at first, but after they were destroyed? Hiruzen had no choice but to believe so. In fact, he was wondering how a civil war happened in the first place.
'Where the hell were their fuinjutsu masters? Where was their Beast Wave Sealing Formula? Where was their Space Barrier? How did the enemies even penetrate the defensive whirlpools around that damned island?' Few knew, but the whirlpools surrounding the Land of Whirlpools were actually caused by the Uzumaki clan. They used a seal to do so, figures.
Immediately after hearing the Uzumaki clan's downfall, Hiruzen sent many elites ninjas and the three Sannins to investigate the land of whirlpools, but the team soon returned with ashen faces.
"Sensei, we can't enter the land of whirlpools."
"What? Why?"
Hiruzen sent Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya a suspicious look. Was this a joke? These three were powerhouses, yet they can't even enter the land of whirlpools?
"The Beast Wave stopped us from entering. For some reason, the Beast Wave now consisted of more kage-level chakra beasts than before."
"And?"
Hiruzen didn't care about the chakra beasts. They had the world's greatest spy, Jiraiya, surely they can hide from them? Even if they couldn't…
"Have you tried using Kushina's blood to deter the Beast Wave?"
"We have," this time, it wasn't Jiraiya who answered. Orochimaru stepped up and spoke. "But it was useless. The chakra beasts would calm down after seeing and sensing Kushina-chan's blood, but the more intelligent chakra beasts would still attack," Orochimaru gave his sensei a knowing look.
"And most of the chakra beasts are intelligent?" Hiruzen asked and he didn't have to wait for another moment to hear Orochimaru's reply. "Yes."
"Damn it. You really did everything you could?"
"Se-n-se-i," this time, Hiruzen heard a sweet, feminine voice. "I believe we should stop. Let the fallen rest in peace," Tsunade suggested, her face pale and white like a ghost.
Hiruzen stared at Tsunade for a while before sighing and giving out an order. "All right, cover up the news about the Uzumaki clan. We will focus all our attention on getting rid of the bandit armies."
Hiruzen ordered, but someone interrupted him. A deep, hoarse voice sounded from behind him, "Hiruzen, I believe we should spare at least a few bandit armies."
"And why?" Hiruzen turned to face Danzo.
"We can use them like mercenaries," Danzo reasoned.
Hiruzen pondered it for a while before agreeing. When he nodded his head to agree, he didn't see Tsunade's darkening face and clenched fist.
Hiruzen sat back inside his office, his eyes closed and his hands laid softly on his lap. "This is tiring."
After Naruto went missing, Danzo refused to let go of him even for a moment. He can't even take a second to breathe, as Danzo utilized his ROOT, which somehow escaped from his ANBU's surveillance, to disrupt his ANBU.
The only saving grace is that Danzo's ROOT was also occupied with dealing with the ANBU, so neither of them had access to their elite troops at the moment.
After tying up Hiruzen's military power, Danzo moved to restrict Hiruzen's political power.
"Hmph, he underestimates my political power, this old coot," Hiruzen chuckled and wrote something inside a scroll before summoning a monkey.
"Sarutobi, why have you summoned me?" The small monkey asked.
"Deliver this to Mount Myoboku and tell the toads to deliver my message to Jiraiya," Hiruzen ordered and took out a scroll from his desk.
The monkey took the scroll that Hiruzen handed out and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Inside the training ground, Jiraiya and Naruto were sitting quietly. Naruto was trying to hide from Jiraiya's clone while wearing an orange jumpsuit, while Jiraiya's clone was leisurely reading an orange book while taking a pose that would remind you of a certain silver-haired ninja.
POOF!
Suddenly, a puff of smoke appeared in front of Jiraiya's real body, and his clone was dispelled. Confused, Naruto approached Jiraiya, who was reading a scroll with a helpless look.
"I'm sorry, Naruto, but it seems like I can't teach you for this month," Jiraiya apologized.
"It's okay, sensei. Received a mission?"
"Yeah. S-rank," Jiraiya sneered and gave Naruto a scroll before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.
Naruto scratched his head and opened the scroll. It was a storage scroll containing sealing tags that would remove the sealing charka coating his body.
"So you want me to focus on fuinjutsu?" Naruto smirked. "Fair enough."
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