Chapter 18

Chapter 18

HIRUZEN SARUTOBI

Hirzuen Sarutobi had been Hokage for more than a decade now. A feat that spoke volumes of hi skill as a shinobi. He had served the village to the best of his abilities, trying to carry further the legacies bestowed onto him by both the Shodaime and Nidaime. It was a big ask for any man, given that both of these men held nearly a god-like status in the shinobi world.

They were visionaries who had carved out the very village system era out of the turmoil and turbulent age of the warring state period. Their vision had been one of peace and prosperity, yet that vision could never truly come to fruition. Wars had erupted, and lives had been lost, in numbers lesser than the warring state era. Yet the number wasn't insignificant.

Hiruzen had been charged to lead the village through this era, a duty entrusted to him by his sensei. It was a monumental task to fill the shoes of the man he once called his sensei, yet thankfully he was not alone in carrying this burden. There were people beside him, peers who had once fought by his very side, companions who could help him to fulfill the duty he had been bestowed with.

The Third Great War, which was in truth just a continuation of the Second Great War, had simmered down now. The colossal loss of human lives had hampered advances by all villages, and there were forces pushing for peace talks. Yet Hiruzen knew in his heart that the war wasn't over yet. There would still be a final dance. Both Kumo and Iwa had been quiet for too long and would be preparing for the final push, a final gambit to enforce their will on the Land of Fire.

Perhaps he would have to go to battle himself, especially if Ay or Ohnoki were to show up. It had been some time since he had faced a foe as mighty as the Third Tsuchikage and the Third Raikage. Yet the chances of that were low. Konoha had been blessed with a talented young generation. A generation that was littered with prodigies and geniuses who could go toe to toe with the Kages of Iwa and Kumo.

"Are you certain that this is accurate?" he questioned the man sitting opposite to him, hoping that the man would shake his head and say that this all was a farce. Yet to his dismay, Danzo nodded slowly.

"It is. Hatake is extremely cautious and well-trained, it took my best agents months to gather this much," Danzo remarked, and Hiruzen sighed. He was quite aware of Hatake's mastery over the ninja arts. He was amongst the few rising stars of the next generation, a shinobi who could have one day worn the Hat of the Hokage.

Alas! It seems that would never come to be. Danzo had made outrageous allegations against the young jounin. Hiruzen had been skeptical about his old teammate's words, especially given the stellar reputation of the jounin in question. Yet it seems there was perhaps some truth to these allegations.

"These are only marked chakra signatures, Danzo. This isn't conclusive, and given the liaison, you speak of is a kunoichi from Kiri, it could be something far more trivial than the treason you speak of," Hiruzen began as he placed down the report. And a part of him hoped that his words were true. That it wasn't treason, hoped that the young man had just been caught by a honeypot operative.

"Are you listening to your words Hiruzen?" spoke Danzo. His eyes narrowed, and Hiruzen saw his grip over his cane tighten. Hiruzen's eyes narrowed at that tone.

"I am, and I will not have one of our most decorated jonin whole life ended due to an inconclusive report," Hiruzen spoke clearly.

"He is a traitor just like his father, and we must eliminat…"

"NO!" Hiruzen thundered, his chakra roaring at his command, and he saw his friend stiffen as the room reverberated with his presence. Hiruzen had already made a mistake when he allowed Danzo to destroy Sakumo's life and career, and he owed it to the man to at least give his son a chance.

"You will not take any action against Ohashi Hatake, and I shall deal with this as I see fit!" Hiruzen spoke coldly, his voice sharp and laced with his chakra. Yet Danzo didn't back off; he had always been like that.

"He is a trai…"

"YOU WILL DO NOTHING! AND THAT IS AN ORDER!" Hiruzen roared once more, yet his voice never got loud. It was controlled much like the chakra simmering across the room. Danzo glared at him, his eyes filled with a mixture of anger and contempt, yet in the end, his friend simply got up.

"Do as you please then, yet I still stand by my words. Ohashi Hatake is a traitor to the leaf and needs to be put down immediately," and with those words, Danzo walked out of his office, leaving him alone once more as he carried the burden of this decision.

Was Danzo right? Could Ohashi really be a traitor? But how? And why would he even turn his back on the village? And if he was a traitor, then why hadn't Jiraiya reported anything to him? Had Jiraiya missed it all, or was Danzo making a mountain out of a mole?

There were so many questions plaguing his mind, and Hirzuen was inclined not to make a move before having some answers. Ohashi Hatake had a stellar record and was a once-in-a-generation talent. Hiruzen hoped that the report in front of him was a lie, and if it was true, then it was nothing more than a lapse of judgment from a young man.

Yet one thing was clear. He needed answers, and he needed them quickly.

So, he tapped his finger on his chair, and in an instant, an ANBU appeared in front of him.

"Send for Orochimaru. Tell him I want to see him immediately!"

0000

MINATO NAMIKAZE

Minato stood side by side with Ohashi as their respective teams discussed their strategies. Having the two teams fight against each other was a good idea. It would promote comradeship and competition between the genin. Minato had been hesitant about the idea given that his team had Kakashi, who was miles ahead of his peers, yet Ohashi had been rather nonchalant about this, insisting that his team had a prodigy of their own.

"So, is there any progress about the issue we discussed?" Minato asked Ohashi about their little Danzo's problem. The fighting in the war had cooled own quite a lot, and that meant that this could be a window that they could use to bring down the man.

He saw Ohashi grimace at his words, making him frown.

"It's a bit complicated," Ohashi replied as he continued.

"I was able to track down the location of a couple of their bases," Ohashi began, and Minato was surprised since, despite being good news, Ohashi's tone seemed to speak otherwise.

"But I believe that the things being carried out at those bases, if they come to light, would shake the very fabric of this village," and he stilled at those words.

"What do you mean?" he asked, his tone sharp and grave, and the young jounin sighed before he slowly began.

"The bases were located outside Konoha territory, with most of them just outside the village boundary…"

"You can sense beyond the village boundary!" Minato screamed in awe. That was impossible. Even Nidaime-sama didn't have such range, given that Minato had read the man's notes when he had been working to master the Hiraishin.

Though Ohashi shook his head, "No, that would be impossible," remarked Ohashi cutting him off.

"Then how did you locate these bases?" Minato questioned, intrigued by his skill. Ohashi sighed and gave him a simple answer.

"Clones, I have stationed clones at a perimeter, and I use them to expand my sensory range, but I believe we must get back to the main topic," Ohashi added in a stronger tone, and Minato nodded, motioning him to continue.

"The chakra signatures coming from these bases weren't normal, there were chakra signatures belonging to various clans, but the most troublesome one was that I was able to sense multiple signatures of chakra that were clearly related to the Senju clan!"

And Minato stilled at those words, the implication behind those words clear. He could also understand Ohashi's hesitancy in disclosing this, especially with how close he was to Lady Tsunade.

Speaking of her, she would be distraught by this, the village that her ancestors had sacrificed their very lives for was repaying them by desecrating their bodies.

"This is worse than we imagined," Minato spoke after a while, and Ohashi nodded his eyes focused on the ground ahead where the two teams stood opposite to each other.

"We need to be discrete with this. With the war slowing down, I believe we must strike now," Ohashi began and Minato nodded. He had reasoned so as well.

"So, what do you propose?" Minato questioned.

"Espionage," began Ohashi, "I plan to break into one of the labs and gather evidence, and then we can use that to force Hokage sama to act. With the evidence in hand, Hokage-sama will be forced to prosecute Danzo and his supporters."

Minato shook his head. The plan was good but it was too dangerous.

"That is too dangerous….!"

"There is no other option, you are set to leave for the Northern border in a day and others cannot leave their posts without raising suspicion. And we cannot involve Tsunade-sama into this due to obvious reasons, I am the most suitable person for this," Ohashi argued.

"Plus, espionage is my specialty. Out of all of us, apart from you, I am the only person who can do this without getting sighted," Ohashi concluded, and Minato sighed as he walked forward.

"We will need to discuss this later!" he said as he walked up to the two teams.

"Ok, are both of you ready?" he asked, and the two teams nodded as Minato raised his hand.

"Begin!" he shouted, and then the competition began.

0000

OHASHI HATAKE

Ohashi watched as the two teams took their positions. For the team Minato, Kakashi and Obito took the vanguard position as Rin stayed back, his team took a similar stance with Asuma and Ebisu in front as Kureani hung back.

"Begin!" Minato-san shouted, and the genin sprang into action.

Obito and Asuma were first to react, both of them cycling through a similar set of handseals.

"KATON: FIRE BALL JUTSU!"

"KATON: FIRE BALL JUTSU!"

Both of them shouted in unison, as they spewed out a massive torrent of fi at each other. The two fireballs met each other in the center of the field, as the flames from one tried to overpower the other, yet neither managed to get an edge.

Kakashi was quick to take advantage of the ruckus and rushed forward, moving behind the cover of his teammate's attack before he finally jumped into the air, thankfully, Kurenai had sensed this and had warned her teammates.

Asuma was quick to react as he moved his face up, aiming the torrent o flames at the form of his younger brother. Meanwhile, Ebisu cycled through a set of handseals and struck his hands on the ground.

"DOTON: MUD WALL JUTSU!" an earthen wall erupted in front of his teammates, blocking the fireball from the young Uchiha.

Kakashi saw the attack rushing towards him, and took out his tanto, and pushed chakra into the blade, which began to glow with a white hue.

He slashed at the fireball, expertly cutting it into two, as he continued to head straight for Asuma and Ebisu. Ohahsi watched as Asuma took out his own chakra blade knuckles and began to engage Kakashi with help from Ebisu. The ground was filled with sounds of metal clashing against metal as Kakashi and Asuma engaged each other yet even after such a small exchange, it was quite obvious that Kakashi was better than the young Sarutobi and was overpowering the two older genin.

"I told you, didn't I? Kakashi is quite ahead of his peers," Mianto-san added, his tone a bit smug at his apprentice's performance. And it should be, for Kakashi was attacking both Ebisu and Asuma at the same time, and was overpowering the two vanguards from his team.

"Asuma Sarutobi is good, yet I still believe that Kakashi is way ahead of him," remarked Minato-san referring to his earlier statement about his team having a prodigy of their own.

Ohashi smirked in response to that and saw Minato-san stiffen as he felt the chakra in the air thicken as the real prodigy of his team showed their true colors. And the only warning they all received was a small whisper from the budding genjutsu mistress of his team.

"NINPO: OREGANON!"

"When did I ever say that Asuma Sarutobi was my little prodigy," Ohashi remarked and in an instant, he saw Kakashi stiffen before he suddenly jumped back, much to the surprise of his teammates.

"What are you doing, Bakashi!" Obito Uchiha screamed, for he had just stepped in and had hoped to put down both Ebisu and Asuma with Kakashi.

"Jumo back!" Kakashi simply shouted, yet the enthusiastic Uchiha was in no mood to listen and continued to race forward.

"ARGH!" when suddenly he fell to the ground, grunting in pain as he curled into himself.

Minato-san's eyes widened, and he failed to make the announcement forcing Ohashi to step forward.

"Uchiha Obito is out!" and with those words, team Minato was the first team to lose a team member. Ohashi watched Kurenai standing there, sweat dripping from her forehead as she used the technique he had taught her.

Rin had been smart enough to listen to Kakashi and had jumped back, and now the remaining two members of team Minato were eyeing the black-haired kunoichi with quite a bit of trepidation.

"You taught her that! You're a-rank technique. You taught it to her," Minato-san spoke out in a perplexed tone, making him smile.

"Didn't I tell you you weren't the only one with a cute little prodigy!" Ohashi teased and watched as Minato Namikaze shook his head and focused his gaze on his young protege.

"Consider me impressed, but I wouldn't count my team out just yet," remarked Konoha's yellow flash as his gaze shifted to his team's ace.

"I know. After all, he still hasn't used the little present I gave him."

0000

Quite a bit of development. The Third war is nearing its end. Minato is going to the North, and I believe we all recall who he will meet there.

Danzo manufactured all that evidence through white Zetsu's unique ability to copy chakra signatures.

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