2 Chapter 2

Chapter 2

HIRUZEN SARUTOBI

Being a Hokage was the dream of every shinobi, yet few understood the weight of the hat. The sacrifices that the position demanded. The burden it carried. He was reminded once more of that burden as he stared at his student's disappointed and enraged face.

"How could you let this happen? How could you!" Jiraiya screamed, his face filled with anger as he stared him straight in the eyes, and Hiruzen could see the damage this had done to his image in his student's eyes. Jiraiya had always been the idealist amongst his students, a trait he shared with the First Hokage, yet this very trait had been the source of the man's ultimate demise.

"You allowed them to vilify him for saving his comrades! YOU ALLOWED THEM TO MAKE HIM THE VILLAIN! SAKUMO!" Jiriaya screamed, and Hiruzen tried to intervene.

"It can not be denied that the man broke the rule…." yet Jiraiya was having none of it.

"FUCK THE RULES! IF THOSE RULES WERE SO FUCKING IMPORTANT, THEN THE SANIN WOULD HAVE DIED THAT DAY IN AMEGAKURE!" Jiraiya screamed, and Hiruzen was reminded once more why his stubborn student often reminded him of the Shodaime.

"JIRAIYA!" Hiruzen let go of his chakra and felt it fill the room. Yet Jiraiya did not relent as he did not cower as he would have years ago. He continued to glare at him.

"One word! You could have prevented this with ONE WORD! Yet you chose to do nothing and let everyone vilify him. Gods, if he weren't covering for those incompetent bastards, the mission wouldn't have been a failure. Yet they blamed it all on him to hide their incompetence! BASTARDS!" his student said through gritted teeth cursing the incompetent teammates of Sakumo.

"Debating over the past is useless. We cannot change what has already happened, Jiraiya," Hiruzen replied to Jiraiya as he reeled in his chakra though Jiraiya's temper did not change. He had always been close to the Hatake clan head, having a unique friendship.

"You could declassify the mission report and let the whole village know what went wrong! Then those bastards will learn exactly what Sakumo went through," and Jiruzen shook his head.

"You know I cannot do that. Doing so would lower the morale of our forces. In these trying times, it would cost us greatly in the war," Hiruzen reasoned. He was not happy with those shinobi as well. Yet he couldn't public the report. Though that did not mean they would get away scot-free, neither them nor the one behind all this mess.

"And Sakumo's loss will not! He could easily rival you in strength. The man's very name made our enemies tremble. The White Fang was a name to fear. Are you saying that to you he was just a regular shinobi?" Jiraiya said through gritted teeth, and Hiruzen shook his head. Standing up, facing the window, and looking over the village.

"NO! Jiraiya. I did not mean that. But Sakumo is gone, yet the war rages on. We are on the back foot. We cannot have our forces face a second morale collapse. However, I assure you that I will deal with them. I promise," and he would. He definitely would.

"You better, or I will, and you will not like what I will do to them," Jiraiya said as he turned and walked out of his office, though he did stop at the door, his eyes glaring at a certain corner of the room before he closed it behind him with a bang.

Hiruzen brought his pipe to his mouth and took a huge puff, savoring its effect for some moments before he exhaled it out.

CRACK!

And then he let go! His chakra roared as he finally let his eyes focus on the shadow in the corner.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, DANZO?" and his old friend walked out of the shadow, his body bandaged, his cane clicking into the ground. And not a shred of remorse on his face.

"Your student has improved. He seemed to have sensed my presence," Danzo remarked casually.

"If the next words out of your mouth aren't the answer to my question. I will cut off your tongue!" Hiruzen said, focusing his chakra on his bandaged friend. He saw Danzo gulp before he spoke.

"I did what was needed. What was necessary. War is won by following orders and respecting the chain of command. Not with compassion and love," Danzo snarled derisively as he continued.

"With Sakumo's death, all of the force will learn to follow orders to the letter lest they suffer a similar fate! This will make Konoha stronger. Plus, I did not kill the man. It's all his fault if he couldn't even handle such pressure. I would say it's a net positive, for his name was thrown out as the next Hokage. Imagine what would have happened if such a man had gotten the hat!"

"You don't fool me, Danzo. The rumors, the propaganda. I know exactly what you did, and from the look, Jiraiya gave you, he knows as well," Hiruzen said. Danzo simply snorted.

"So what? As I said, I did not push the knife into Sakumo's heart. The man did that to himself," and Danzo shrugged. A part of Hiruzen wanted to strike down Danzo right there. Kill him and be done with it.

Yet a smaller part of him saw the sacrifice the man was willing to make for his village. The extent he was willing to go for his village. In the end, he decided not to deprive Konoha of such a devout leader out of sheer ideals.

So, he reeled in his chakra, his face softening as he sighed.

"You may be right, but the cost is too great. Too great, old friend," and it was. It truly was. Even with the benefits, Danzo pointed out, losing the white fang, losing Sakumo Hatake was a huge blow for Konoha.

"Yet it is only temporary. The man left two children. And if the rumors are to be tru…."

"NO!" Hiruzen immediately cut down that conjecture, gazing at Danzo again.

"You will stay away from both Hatake children. I forbid you from recruiting them into it. And don't test me on this, Danzo. DON'T!" Hiruzen clarified the threat, and Danzo gave him a nod, backing off.

"All right, but I am right in saying that his children are prodigies. The elder is on the border holding back Kumo under Fugaku's command. There have been many recommendations to promote him to Toukubetsu jounin. Some even propose a direct promotion to jounin," Danzo finished, and Hiruzen thought about the elder Hatake son. Hiruzen still remembered the whole debacle surrounding his living circumstances. How a child like that had been placed into the orphanage had been a mystery though he had his suspicions.

"Maybe we could have him return. He could even train his own team a couple of years later," he mused, and that would be good. There was a mark in the boy's file about being a good teacher.

"Maybe, but the younger one is even more promising. Sakumo has trained him and is extremely skilled for a six-year-old," mentioned his friend, and Hiruzen lamented the fate of the young kid. Perhaps he would have to call back the older one to the village for some time.

"I will have the boy apprentice under someone before putting him onto a team. He is set to graduate early, right," that would help round out the boy's skill set, and hopefully, the mentor would be able to help guide the young Kakashi.

"A sound idea. May I suggest Orochimaru? I believe he would be a suitable mentor," and the suggestion didn't fool Hiruzen. Jiraiya would never agree to something like this, not that he thought that Orochimaru was suitable for this.

Kakashi needed someone more human than his student. Someone who couldn't just turn the boy into a deadly shinobi but someone who could act as a role model. Sakumo's son deserved that. And thankfully, he had someone quite suitable in his mind. However, he wouldn't mention it to Danzo.

"I will need to think about it. Now, about Sakumo's team. I want you to take care of them. Throw them to the wolves and leave no loose ends!" he commanded seriously, and Danzo nodded.

"It will be done. Though, I believe I have heard a received a rather interesting piece of information," muttered Danzo with a smirk, and Hiruzen could feel a headache coming.

"I believe there are rumors that Princess Tsuande is coming back," and those words took Hiruzen aback. And suddenly, he remembered the middle name of Sakumo's elder child and sighed.

It was going to be a big headache.

0000

UCHIHA FUGAKU

Uchiha Fugaku watched the young Hatake crouch before closing his eyes, as he placed his hand on the ground. An action reminiscent of the Second Hokage's special long-range sensing technique. Though from what he knew, the boy had yet to master this but was proficient enough to outclass any long-range sensor in his platoon.

Minutes passed in silence as the boy remained still before he finally opened his eyes and stood up.

"There are three platoons surrounding us. It's a pincer attack. We need to act immediately," and the whole platoon became queasy at this. This was an intelligence failure. Their movements had been leaked beforehand. That was the only explanation.

Fugaku frowned as he scanned his own platoon and thought about the numbers. There was no time to focus on the intelligence failure now. There was nervousness in the shinobi. Though the environment was favorable to them, with the forests giving them an advantage, they were still outnumbered three to one.

"Three platoons!"

"We need to retreat! Perhaps we should move back to the border outpost and then ask for reinforcements!" spoke one of his subordinates, yet Fugaku did not respond as he thought up any other plan.

Retreating would not be a good option. They would be letting enemy shinobi into their territory, something which should never be allowed. But facing three platoons being outnumbered three to one wasn't a good option either.

Perhaps he would have to use those eyes finally.

"Permission to speak, commander, Fugaku," spoke out the young Hatake, and Fugaku nodded.

"Commander, I believe instead of retreating, we should attack one of the platoons," and everyone was stunned by these words, including Fugaku himself.

"Explain!" he ordered, and the silver-haired chunin rolled out a map on the ground.

"The three platoons are at our North East, East, and South, respectively. Their movements make me suspect that they have just landed and plan to encounter us as soon as we enter the Land of Hot Water, hence losing our advantage from the terrain."

And Fugaku nodded. That was his assessment as well. But that still did not answer his earlier question.

"Indeed. But you are proposing that we attack them ourselves, heading straight for them. Why?" he questioned once more and could see that the commanders under his command were also intrigued.

"Indeed. I propose that we send one small unit to distract one of the platoons and attack the other one with the rest of the force. I can give you pin point locations of their commanders and their strongest membered, and we could try and attack them as well. Since they have yet to detect our movements, we would have the element of surprise."

And the plan was sound. But the issue was that they weren't facing two. They were facing three platoons.

"But what about the other one," Fugaku began pointing towards the one at the North that had been left unmarked. That was the one platoon that was further inland than the rest but still near enough that it could overwhelm their forces.

"After you have defeated one platoon, we simply retreat back into our territory. We can lay the traps right now, and then if the two remaining corps join up and attack, we could take them out with the trees as our cover and already prepared traps. It would be easy."

Fugaku nodded and looked towards Nara at his side. Ensui Nara was his second in command and probably one of the smartest shinobi in the whole platoon. The Nara clan jounin seemed t be in deep thought before he shook his head.

"The plan is solid. But we don't have someone to engage the second platoon while we ambush the first with our main force. Unless?" the man said, looking at the chunin, who nodded.

"Yes, I would be able to do this. Give me a team of ten shinobi well versed in genjutsu and fire release, and I can distract the second platoon for enough time for you to annihilate the other one."

Fugaku looked at the Hatake again, examining him from head to toe. This was a huge risk, and Fugaku was tempted to end this plan. Yet it was also the most viable option they had.

"Hatake, stay. Rest of you leave us," he ordered, and his commanders vanished with a nod leaving him alone with the silver-haired shinobi.

And Fugaku sighed as he looked at the young chunin once more.

"I know you are skilled, Ohashi, but this could go wrong at any second. Holding back a hundred shinobi with merely ten is no easy task," he told the young kid, who nodded slightly.

"Of course, you are right, but this is the only option," the boy said, pointing at the map, and Fugaku nodded, sighing again.

"Ok. But I want you to understand this, Ohashi. If things go awry, you retreat instantly. Understood!"

And the boy nodded. "Understood, commander."

And Fugaku hoped that the boy would listen to his orders, for if anything were to happen to him, Mikoto would kill him. After all, the boy was her student.

"So, tell me your plan. How do you plan to keep them occupied?" Fugaku questioned, and the boy seemed hesitant before he finally replied.

"I believe you must be aware of Mikoto sensei's special genjutsu technique," and Fugaku's eyes widened. Of course, he was aware. So, he nodded, already dreading the next words of the young Hatake.

"Yeah, so I have somewhat replicated it. It's different, of course, but the base idea is the same."

And Fugaku nodded, shaking his head at the outrageousness of the kid in front of him.

"Well, that will be good enough. We need to time this to perfection."

0000

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