24 Chapter 23

A heavily breathing shinobi with an x-shaped scar on his chin crouched, hidden within a cluster of shrubs. The shinobi was forced to jump out as a barrage of kunai, followed by an explosion assaulted his hiding spot. Jumping out of the cloud of smoke the explosion caused, the shinobi was assisted by another shinobi with the Konoha headband on.

"Are you okay, Danzo?!"

"That's overdoing it, Hiruzen," the scar-chin shinobi exclaimed, pushing his helper away from him.

With a smile on his face, Hiruzen replied. " Don't be like that. At a time like this, we can't afford to lose any comrades, right?"

Danzo frowned in return but was forced to look ahead as two Konoha shinobi entered his view.

"Are you guys ok...Kagami, Torifu?" he asked, addressing the newcomers.

"Yes, we are fine. There's too many of them," Torifu replies, alluding to their pursuers. "What do we do, Hiruzen?" he added.

"Everyone, let's join up with the Second Hokage," Hiruzen replied, increasing his jumping on tree speed.

"Tch!" Danzo hissed but didn't hesitate to follow.

Crouching between a cluster of trees, the Second Hokage placed his fingers on the ground to sense the chakra of their pursuers.

"We're surrounded... There's... Twenty of them. Judging from their skill of pursuit, I'd say they are from Kumogakure. Most likely the highly skilled Kinkaku unit."

"Counting you, Hokage-sama, there's only seven of us," Homura said, baring his weak will for everyone to see.

"Homura, where do you think such a weak attitude would get us?!" Koharu, the weakest of them said. Although she had a relatively strong will, she'd only survived so far due to luck and by aligning herself with strong people. "The enemy still doesn't know of our exact location. Right now, we should break through and find a means of escape by ambushing them," she added.

"That's impossible Koharu. We don't have any choice but to have someone act as a decoy and draw their attention away from the rest," Kagami interjected.

"A decoy?! That's suicide. Who is it going to be?" Torifu exclaimed.

Danzo stuck in his own head clenches his fist, wanting to volunteer but too scared to do so. His inner-monologuing was cut short as Hiruzen spoke.

"I'll do it," Hiruzen declared.

The other shinobi exclaimed upon hearing what he'd said, but he laughed it off, assuring them of his skill at being a decoy.

Placing his hand on Danzo's shoulder, Hiruzen tried to assure his friend he'd be fine but Danzo snapped and told him off.

"My father and grandfather both died on the battlefield like true shinobi! Self-sacrifice is the duty of a shinobi!" Danzo said.

"I'm going as the decoy, obviously," Tobirama stated. "You're the young flames that would continue to protect the village with your Will of Fire," he added, with the usual calm and collected expression on his face.

Tobirama then proceeded to lecture Danzo on his apparent competition with Hiruzen, giving him one last piece of advice as the Hokage.

Getting back to his feet, "Saru, starting tomorrow, you will become the Hokage," Tobirama said to the wide-eyed Hiruzen. "Saru, I'm leaving Konoha to you," he added.

**************

The day after the death of Tobirama, an oblivious Indra entered the village through one of the various hidden Anbu entrances. The moment he got to the streets of Konoha, he sensed the somewhat sombre mood emanating from the shinobi of the village. Theorising something must have happened to stall the war efforts, he ignored it as that had almost nothing to do with him.

'Right, I should go report to Tobirama,' he muttered to himself, changing his direction and now heading towards the Hokage tower.

A few minutes later of what would be described as a slow walk, he arrived at the entrance of the building.

"Huh, there are more shinobi guarding the building than usual. I wonder what's going on?!" he whispered.

His Anbu gear appeared on his body the moment he stepped into the building. Although it didn't matter what he wore while inside Konoha, he still preferred the anonymity the Anbu gear provides.

Walking up the stairs amidst the scrutinising gaze of the shinobi guarding the building, Indra got to the door to the office but was forced to stop as some jonin decided he couldn't enter.

"No one is allowed to see the Hokage," the jonin stated, staring down at the masked Indra.

"Boy move, before you become the first Konoha shinobi to get killed inside the village," Indra replied, not without letting his irritation at being stopped seep into his voice.

Having told off the over-eager jonin, Indra walked into the Hokage's office, but it was empty.

'Why did they increase the security here if Tobirama isn't even in the office. I should have just searched for his chakra instead of walking all the way here. Would have saved me a lot of stress,' he thought before actively trying to find Tobirama's chakra in the village.

'He's not in the village, but the chakra of his students are in the meeting room with the other clan heads. What's going on?' Indra wondered.

Without a slight application of the body flicker jutsu, Indra left the hokage's office.

"Hokage-sama, what are we going to do about Kumogakure?" Indra heard the moment he appeared in front of the meeting room.

He was shocked, hearing someone being referred to as the Hokage when he confirmed Tobirama wasn't in the village. 'Are they planning a coup? is that why they summoned so many shinobi from the village?' he thought, anger already clouding his mind.

*Bang*

The door to the meeting room shattered before crumbling, with a pissed-off Indra stepping into the room immediately after.

The shinobi in the room rose to their feet, tensed at the suspected attack.

"How dare you barge in here?" An older looking clan-head demanded upon seeing the form of Indra.

The tense atmosphere relaxed slightly upon seeing Indra in his Anbu gear but it didn't diminish completely.

"What's going on here Sarutobi?" Indra demanded, slowly walking to where Hiruzen was seated. "Your answer would determine if you keep your head or not," he added.

"Hokage-sama?!" one of the shinobi exclaimed, looking at Hiruzen on what to do. Although they don't know who Indra was, they all noticed while Hiruzen was slightly tensed, he had a sad expression on his face.

Hearing them refer to Hiruzen as Hokage, Indra appeared in front of him. He then lifted him up by the scruff of his neck. "What is the meaning of this Hiruzen? Where is Tobirama?" he demanded.

Everyone in the room brought out their weapon and pointed it at Indra. Chakra rods appeared around Indra, floating dangerously around him, readying to create a new hole inside the highest echelons in Konoha.

Seeing the room descend into chaos, Kagami tried to diffuse the situation, "Calm down, it's not what you're thinking," he said. "The Second Hokage is dead, he named Hiruzen as the third before dying," although he had no easy way to say it as he knew the relationship between Indra and the Second Hokage.

"And I'm supposed to believe that because you said so. It smells like a coup here," Indra retorted, tightening his grip on Hiruzen.

"Look at Hiruzen, he isn't even fighting back. If it was a coup he would be trying to extricate himself from your grip, and we would be trying to kill you by now," Kagami said, trying to reason with him.

Indra activated his Byakugan and intensely stared at Hiruzen, scrutinising the state of his chakra. The chakra rods disappeared as it became increasingly true that Kagami was right.

'Tobirama is dead?!' his heart raced as he let go of Hiruzen.

"How did he die?" he asked, his voice almost muted.

Kagami went on to tell Indra of the circumstances that led to Tobirama's death. By the time he was done, the tense atmosphere had completely dissipated and now it was replaced by a feeling of pondering. Everyone wanted to know why the new Hokage was rather resigned around this random Anbu operative.

Indra clenched his fist as he listened to Kagami, he could understand why Tobirama would sacrifice himself for his students, but that didn't mean he didn't think it was a stupid thing to do.

'Is this the same thing the shinobi in Sunagakure felt when they saw the body of their Kazekage?' He wondered.

He was conflicted, he wanted revenge on Kumogakure for killing Tobirama, but it made him feel like a hypocrite since he just killed the Kazekage. As a shinobi, you're supposed to be loyal to the village, but Hashirama thought him to be a shinobi means the entire village was your family.

Kumogakure wasn't Suna, they wouldn't be cowed by the death of their Raikage. If anything, it would make the ongoing war more intense than it already was.

"What are you going to do?" Indra mumbled, addressing Hiruzen. His thoughts still jumbled.

Hiruzen didn't reply which was more of an answer to Indra.

"So nothing," he said, still not sure on what to do himself.

He shrunk himself and left the room, not before dropping the hat of the Kazekage.

...........

A few hours later, Indra was seated on the dead of Tobirama's statue when someone appeared behind him.

"What do you want, Danzo?"