Chapter 9: the shinobi of the dark
Naruto was camping together with Neji and Rock Lee around a freshly made campfire, they stopped in a small clearing for the night, the trip passed calmly and there were only a few small conversations between them, mainly initiated by the shinobi in green.
"Naruto!"
Came the voice of Neji who sat next to the blond Kage.
"Is something wrong Neji?"
Was Naruto's reply.
"It's nothing serious, I just wanted to ask you a question."
Before these words from Neji, the Hokage straightened up a bit surprised, it wasn't common for the Hyuga to start a conversation, let alone one where there wasn't something of utmost importance involved, so he gave Neji a signal to ask his question.
"Do you like my cousin?"
When Naruto heard those words he almost fell backwards from where he was, his face was a spasm of multiple emotions, of all the things he could ask, and of all the people he expected such a question from, he didn't think Neji would ask such a question.
"What do you mean?"
They were the only words out of the blond's mouth.
"I wasn't present on the day of the invasion, but word has spread fast among the Hyuga clan members that Hinata declared her love to you in the middle of the battle."
Neji's words came to Naruto like a bucket of cold water, he had completely forgotten about Hinata's feelings for him, remembering that made him feel bad for not giving the shy Hyuga an answer, but honestly he's had so many things on his mind that he didn't have time to think about it.
"I see, to be honest with you Neji, I haven't had time to think about it, my head has been in so much stuff these past few weeks that I can barely deal with it all, I know it's wrong not to have given Hinata an answer, but as soon as we're in the village I promise I'll talk to her."
There was a moment of silence until Neji decided to speak.
"I know, after all you are the Hokage, my intention wasn't to give you more to think about, I just wanted to know what you thought about it."
With that said, the Hyuga stood up and made to go to his tent.
The next morning the Hokage was at the meeting place, Danzo and two of his men flanking him on either side, and to be honest, Naruto wasn't at all confident in this room, he had a bad feeling about what was going to happen, and he was even more worried that he had dragged two of his friends into this.
"It's pleasure to see you in perfect condition Hokage-sama."
The words came out of Danzo's mouth in a monotone.
"Yes, fortunately no one was hurt."
Naruto replied as calmly as he could.
"That's a relief Hokage-sama, but I would like to know the reason for this meeting."
The cripple's pablaras came out like daggers cutting through the air.
"You see Danzo, the Fourth Shinobi World War has been declared, so we elemental nations are entering a period of instability about the immediate future."
The blond said each word in practiced businesslike voice.
"That's unfortunate to hear, but I still don't understand why you're calling me to a private meeting."
The war veteran's voice sounded like he already knew the answer, but he still wanted to hear it.
"I know about your little secret organization, I know about your unofficial affairs in other villages, I know about your aspirations for the position of Hokage, and it seems to me that it is time to come to an agreement that will benefit the village."
Naruto's words echoed in the room with sternness, something that tensed everyone present inside the room.
"I don't know what you're talking about Hokage-sama."
Danzo's words were interrupted by a rise in the voice of the Uzumaki's words.
"Don't play dumb!"
Naruto's voice upset the old man's guards, but a signal from Danzo stopped them from drawing weapons, to which Naruto continued speaking.
"I want you to disband root, end all your covert operations and put an end to your aspirations of obtaining the hat!"
The Kage's words sounded loud and clear, but Danzo was undeterred and spoke.
"Leaves cannot grow without strong roots, and as long as I exist, I will protect the roots of the tree, but sometimes threats are often within the tree itself, preventing it from growing, and they must be eradicated."
In an instant, a dozen masked men came into view, and Naruto's foreboding came true.
The village of the leaf was quieter than usual, if any spectator were to take a look he would realize that it was completely empty, all activities were stopped, the constructions were paused, and it was as if everyone had disappeared from the village.
You could only hear the sound of nature, but if you looked closer, it seemed that the village was suffering small tremors every so often, this due to the battles that occurred under the peaceful village, after all the Hokage's plan was based on attacking the root members in their subway bases, this in order to minimize the possible damage that could suffer the already devastated village of the leaf.
Kakashi considered himself a man who had been through a lot of death throughout his life, a great war, the attack of a tailed beast, an invasion, the death of most of his loved ones, the silent murders in anbu, and despite all that he still repudiated the idea of killing every time he knew he had to do it, Naruto's plan was pretty good, he had a general idea of what to do, surprise danzo's men and capture them to take them to the dungeons, it seemed simple having the elite jounin accompanying him in this task, but catching an organization of undercover assassins unawares was very difficult, not to say impossible, and even worse, the thought of capturing them also meant another problem, how do you fight with an elite shinobi without the intention of killing him? , definitely his student left him only one option, kill most of them in the first round, slaughter those who resisted and capture the last remaining ones.
According to Sai's information, Danzo was moving through secret tunnels under the village, which had four main entrances and two more bases outside the village, but the main task was to eliminate root of the village, so it was decided to cover their main base inside the walls, so to make the greatest possible impact in this offensive, five assault groups were created, half of the anbu led by Yugao who was in the cat mask, the other half of undercover operatives was led by Yamato, Shikaku led one of the jounin groups, and he himself was in charge of the last group, so it only remained to pray that the number of his fallen comrades was almost nil, or else they would not be ready for the impending war.
As soon as the masked men invaded the room the battle began, Danzo took advantage of this distraction to start running with his two bodyguards out of the chaos. While the odds were four to one in favor of the war veteran, Danzo forgot that Naruto could be a one man army, so it didn't take long for the Hokage and his escorts to eliminate and neutralize Danzo's personal anbu, it was enough to overwhelm them with Naruto's numbers and Neji's taijutsu and Lee took care of the rest.
Fortunately for Naruto, he and his friends came out relatively unharmed from this first battle, so they started a chase after Danzo, at the beginning they were interrupted by his escorts, but Neji and Rock Lee gave Naruto to understand that he should move forward and they would take care of the two shinobi, so after many years, he felt again in that mission of recovery of Sasuke, only this time he will fulfill his mission and will not let his target escape.
When Naruto arrived at a clearing, the sight that greeted him was sickening, before him, a supposedly crippled old man displayed his hand full of red blinking eyes on an arm that looked inhuman and the product of unhealthy experimentation.
"I knew you were a monster and had committed atrocities, but to do this to your body and the memory of the Uchihas is scum!"
Naruto's words echoed in the small clearing as he landed on the ground.
"He may be a monster, but he is no different than what you are, and there is no memory to honor for traitors who would have only harmed the village."
Was Shimura's dry reply.
"I see you haven't the slightest inkling of what the village and the will of fire means."
As he said this the blond clenched his fists until they turned whitish from all his pent up fury.
"Nonsense, those are idealistic lies implanted by an old man who in his tenure brought more misfortune to the village than good, I will protect the village no matter what sacrifices I must make, that is the way of the shinobi."
When Danzo finished speaking he could feel the Hokage's murderous intent directed at him.
"SHUT UP!"
Was the Hokage's shout before he continued speaking.
"I will not allow you to speak this way about someone who gave his life for village and forged the mentality for the new generation of shinobi, your ideals do not seek to protect the people of the village, they only seek to make you the leader of a lifeless place of land, the leaf is the people and every leaf is valuable to the tree, every inhabitant of the village is the village itself and all carry the will of fire inherited from its foundation, and for this your acts against the welfare of its inhabitants sentence you to death."
The Hokage's words came out with unwavering conviction, the fire in his voice and the passion with which they were spoken showed a man who loved his work and his people, but unfortunately Danzo did not share the same ideology, and with this someone had to die for the other to make his beliefs effective.
Tobi was immersed in his thoughts, the capture of the Hachibi had been a success, but he had received a proposal from Kabuto, to use edo tensei to win the war, the idea was simply perfect, but the problem was if he tried to revive the real Madara, he could not afford something so serious, everything he had done for his objective would be in vain if the ghost of Uchihas came back to life, but his war would be complicated without an army of undead at his disposal, it was definitely an important dilemma that would define his future, but he would leave it for after they had sealed the eight tails in the Gedo Mazo.
Author's note: I hope you are well, I was passing by to say thanks for the support you have given, I know there are mistakes and I'm trying to improve them, I will accept every constructive criticism in order to improve, I would also like to know what you think of the plot, if you would like to include more to some secondary characters or any questions you have, if nothing else to say thank you for reading.