Chapter 8: war preparations
The meeting had ended with all the Kages agreeing on battle positions, resources involved and trade alliances to strengthen the shinobi, they all said goodbye to Mifune and their other fellow Kages before leaving, Naruto was on his way to see his friends who had arrived at the summit without his authorization, he didn't know what was going on with them, if there was any important message for him or any attack on the village.
The rookies were about to arrive at the battle site when Neji appeared in front of them to stop them and tell them to wait outside the meeting place, but Sakura insisted that they had information that Sasuke could appear at the summit and if he did, how Naruto was after that battle, fortunately for Neji, Shikamaru calmed Sakura and so they listened to what the older Hyuga had to tell them.
After a few minutes of explaining Sasuke's interruption at the summit, and how Naruto fought him, and not only that, beat him without apparent serious damage, he also told them about Madara Uchiha's declaration of war, about how he saved Sasuke before Naruto killed him, and said that they would have to wait for Naruto as he finished the meeting.
Surprised is an understatement for what most of Naruto's friends were feeling when they heard Neji's statements, on the one hand, the fact that Sasuke attacked the five Kages in their meeting and tried to kill the Hokage, who was also possibly his closest friend, made it clear that any chance to convince him to return would be in vain, also the simple fact that Naruto was possibly going to kill him if not for the intervention of the subject Madara.
Tobi was to say it somehow 'thoughtful', he had to hunt two more biju, although this was not the problem, the really worrying thing was that one was the Hokage and now the commander of the shinobi alliance, which made him practically untouchable, he would have to go through the five most powerful villages, his best shinobi, the other Kages, and then face the container of the nine tails. In his mind everything was already clear, he could not face them head on, at least not for the moment.
He thought about sending Kisame for the eight tails, although he knew that the man would make it, it would be risky to be found by the shinobi of kumo who were looking for their jinchuriki, he needed to remove a worry and that the Hokage was his only problem, he was decided, he himself would go for the Hachibi, Kisame would take care of Sasuke while he was away and verify that his eye transplant was a success.
Naruto had talked to his friends once he arrived with them, he had reassured them regarding his battle with Sasuke, he had also talked about most things talked about at the summit before and after the interruption, while most of his friends, especially Sakura, were thinking about the Uchiha, the topic of the war and the new alliance cleared the topic of the avenger for a moment from their heads as they returned to the village.
Stop.
Naruto's voice rang out and immediately everyone stopped in front of the blond wondering what he had to say.
"Team eight, I need to ask you a favor, I will be tasking you with a mission of utmost importance that must be accomplished immediately."
Everyone was surprised at these words, they were not expecting such a sudden change of conversation, let alone a mission assignment just now.
Shino was the first to come out of his surprise and responded:
"What mission do you want us to perform Hokage-sama?"
Naruto cleared his throat before answering, he pulled out a scroll from his Hokage robe and handed it to the Aburame.
"I need you to hand this scroll to Sai, tell him it is of utmost importance, and once they complete their mission await instruction from Kakashi-sensei."
With a nod, and slight surprise still in their eyes, team eight bid farewell to everyone and departed at full speed.
"What was that?"
Came Sakura's voice towards Naruto.
"Due to my new duties, I have thought during the journey to the border what should be my next steps to take, evidently the village and taking down Madara are a priority, because of this I must make sure that village will be fine the moment the worst battles in the war begin, when I am not there, or someone I trust, so I must make sure no one harms the village."
A silence took over the moment, they were thinking about the implications of Naruto's words, the lazy Nara was the first to notice and frowned as the realization hit him.
"Danzo Shimura."
Most stared at Shikamaru with intrigue, but Naruto directed a nod at him assuring him that he was right.
"Who is Danzo and what does he have to do with what you said Naruto?"
Was the question from a puzzled Sakura, which also represented how her other friends besides Shikamaru felt.
Naruto was about to speak, but Shikamaru beat him to it.
"Look guys, Danzo is one of the village elders, he is possibly one of the most politically powerful people in all of fire country, not only that, it is rumored that he has under his command a secret organization that does missions without the Hokage's authorization, which basically translates to a personal army of assassins on his behalf."
Again on this day, surprise gripped most of those present, until the Hokage spoke.
"That's right, not only that, he was my main contender for the position of Hokage, he was also responsible for the events that would indirectly lead to the formation of Akatsuki."
If they had surprise before, now they were dumbfounded at this information and what it could mean.
"So you plan to assassinate him?"
The Nara's words were the conclusion they were all coming to.
"I hope it won't come to that, I just want him to dismantle his organization and whatever plans he has on controlling the village."
"If all the rumors about this Danzo are true, I doubt it will be as easy as you think."
"You're right, that's why I sent that scroll to Sai, and I want team ten to take this other scroll to Kakashi-sensei."
With that said, Naruto took out another scroll and approaching Shikamaru handed it to him in his hands.
The Nara again frowned and spoke.
"If you are sending us to carry this message I must assume that you are not heading to the village."
"Clever as ever Shika."
Was the reply from a smiling blond.
"No way will we let you do anything crazy alone, you may be the Hokage, but someone has to look out for you!"
Sakura said shouting rather angrily.
Naruto turned to see her and smiled at her, he approached her and said softly.
"Sakura, I know you care about me, and everyone here does, but the village needs you guys too, you're the people I trust, so I'm asking you to please trust me, okay?"
Tears threatened to come out of Sakura as she listened to her closest friend speak, she wanted to tell him that she would stay with him, that she wouldn't abandon him, but the now Hokage was right, he wasn't that silly boy anymore, he had changed so much, and she had nothing left to do but nod at his words.
"Thank you Sakura-chan."
After saying this, Naruto now turned to Yamato.
"Taicho, I also have a mission for you along with Tenten and Sakura, take this scroll to my anbu commander."
Again the Hokage took out a scroll from his robes, giving it to Yamato, to which Yamato nodded and left together with the girls, but before Sakura left, he said a few last words to her.
"Take good care of old Tsunade, if something happens she can be a target, I trust you."
Sakura smiled and directed him a nod, then she said goodbye to the blond and left for the village.
"I hope everything goes well, just take care of yourself Naruto."
With that said, team ten also left.
Now that there were only two people left in the clearing, Naruto addressed them before speaking.
"Lee, Neji, the mission I will give you can refuse it if you don't feel confident in performing it."
Before Naruto could continue, Lee shouted about how juvenile it was to refuse a mission from a friend, and how he would do whatever they asked, Neji also let him know that he would accept any mission, albeit in a more subtle way from the green clad ninja.
Naruto smiled, after all those were his friends, and he was happy to have them, then he put on a straight face again and continued.
"What will happen next is a meeting with Danzo, if you accept, you will accompany me to this meeting as my bodyguards, I want to remind you that we may be led into a trap and will have to fight at a numerical disadvantage against highly capable shinobi."
Neji and Lee gave their assent to Naruto, and with that they departed to the place where the meeting will take place.
Danzo was a rather cunning and suspicious man, so when his operative Sai sent him a message from the Hokage himself, he knew something was wrong, whatever the reason for the meeting, he already knew that they would try to take away the power that cost him so many years and sacrifices to obtain, so he put into action a plan he had been thinking since the demon boy took over, a coup d'état.
The whole plan was based on ambushing the Hokage, assassinating the other possible candidates for the position, and finally there would be no obstacles between him and his longed-for hat.
Danzo began his preparations to go to the meeting place, he would go with his best men, Fu and Torune, along with three squads of his best anbu.
When Kakashi received the message from the Hokage, he frowned, what Naruto was mentioning to him was that there could be a coup, so Naruto chose him to lead a raid on Danzo's operatives, apparently Sai was helping them in this, he would give them information about the bases and the identity of most of the root men, for it would be a joint operation between all the Hokage's anbu and the best jounin of the village to dismantle Danzo's organization.
According to Naruto's instructions, they had to start the raid in the morning hours, by which time Naruto would be meeting with Danzo away from the village, which left him with less than twenty-four hours to gather the jounin, talk with Sai, with the anbu commander, and strategize the attack. Kakashi was definitely starting to hate his student for making him work so hard, but he was proud of the leader he was becoming.
Forests of the land of lightning.
A rather cheerful figure was moving through the trees, he was rapping as he walked, he had to make the most of his 'vacation' time before his brother found him and gave him a legendary scolding, all was going well until out of nowhere he felt a presence behind him, and when he turned to see him this figure spoke.
"Hachibi, I've come for you."