15

Chapter 15: fourteen: back on trackSummary:

It's a checkmate.

Notes:

I do not own Naruto.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Becoming a Hokage 101

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Section Three

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Chapter Fourteen

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"So how long until you recover again?" Genma asks, panting slightly from the taijutsu spar he's just had with Gai.

"Kushina-oneechan says a couple more days should be enough." I reply, chin resting on my hands.

"That's good, then. I'm surprised you haven't started tearing your house apart." He drawls, leaning back on his elbows and watching as Kakashi gives our teammate a workout.

"Me too." I say honestly, scooting over to give Obito, the newcomer, a place to sit. "Hi, Obi."

"Hey, you feeling better?"

"Yeah, thanks for asking."

The days are getting colder as winter rounds the corner. The war still rages on, with no signs of stopping, and Minato is once again back at the frontlines. I didn't really think he'd be here for the sealing, but Kushina apparently can be very convincing.

It's been about five days since my parents plus Kushina and Minato re-did the seal on my forehead. It had not been fun, because they'd had to undo the previous seal, and apparently I kind of fainted from the sudden onslaught of unfiltered chakra and the Kyuubi's power without the seal to block it. The monster that lives inside my head very nearly escaped, and I still dream about a place I no longer belong in, but it was thanks to Minato's quick thinking that the new seal was swiftly placed and connected to my chakra system. Kushina had been responsible for the most delicate part, the finishing touches, and ensured everything worked as it should, while my parents secured the place with protective chakra.

All in all, it was an awful experience and I hope I never have to go through it again.

I touch the new seal on my forehead before I can stop myself, a self-conscious act I've been doing since I could think properly without the headaches.

The new seal is shaped like a thin eight pointed star, all black like the other one. Half is supposed to be for the yin balance, and the other half is for the yang. Minato had said it basically worked just like the previous one, the only difference is that now I had a seal that worked like four of the one from before; if one yin-yang part can't handle whatever chakra input is being thrown at me, there are still the other three pairs to make do.

"Stop that. It looks fine." Rin swats at me from her place between my knees, sticking out her tongue at me when I frown. "You've touched that thing twice in the past half an hour. Your headaches have stopped and you have no problem being around Kushina-san, right?"

I nod, allowing myself to pout in front of my friends. Genma ruffles my hair and Obito snickers next to me, a light-hearted feeling in the air.

There are still a lot of things on my mind, and the fact that someone knows I have Tobirama's diary scares me, but Minato had said he'd look into it, and at least for now there's nothing I can do but wait. He did tell me to never be by myself for long, and while normally I'd argue, I really don't want to find out what might happen if I'm caught unaware.

Kakashi and Gai are apparently finished with their spar, both of them panting slightly but in a happy mood nonetheless, and the sight makes me smile. My best friend has noticed my unease, because of course he has, but thankfully he's been a lot better since he started going once a week to the Inuzuka compound. He feels a lot more centered and calm than before, and I try to go see Mayu and her ninken as often as possible - which isn't very often, but I do try.

As idle chat and teasing fills the air, I remember Minato's advise to keep things between us for now. He said he might mention something to Kushina, but she does tend to be a bit short-tempered, so I'm not sure he did. I do wanna talk to other people about it, but the fear that I might be considered a traitor, a paranoid one, or a crazy one stops me from uttering a single word about it. I'd almost had a heart attack telling Minato, telling my parents is absolutely out of the question - especially because the monster hisses and growls whenever I think of it.

Choza-sensei's familiar hum of iron enters my field and I turn to look at my teammates, grabbing my cheeks with one hand and sliding it down to my chin. It's our code for 'Choza-sensei is coming/nearby', and the two immediately look ready and alert.

"Well, this has been fun and all, but duty calls. You guys still gonna hang around here?" Genma asks, lightly stretching his arms as we prepare to go.

"Yeah. Minato-sensei gave us exercises to work with, and Kushina-san is going to help us with teamwork today." Rin replies, a curious look in her eyes from our interaction just now. I wink at her, a silent 'I'll tell you later', and she giggles.

'Ah, so cute.'

"Bye guys, good luck."

We all bid our goodbyes, and Kakashi's is a silent brush of his nose against my cheek. I grin at him and the red on his ears, but say nothing.

As we cross one training field to go to another, Gai is nearly vibrating in curiosity while Genma tries to be cool about it but fails.

"So… I knew you were close, but aren't you two a bit young to be dating?"

I whip my head to look at our oldest teammate, shocked. My mouth is hanging open and the only reason I don't snap at him is because of Gai, who nods enthusiastically next to him.

"Indeed! However, if the Springtime of Youth has come to you, I shall give you my blessings!"

"What? No, no, you've got it all wrong!"

"What is?"

All three of us shriek when Choza-sensei appears from out of thin air in front of us, a jovial look on his face.

"Sensei, Chiyuki and Kakashi are dating-"

"We are not!"

I tackle Genma to the ground, trying to stop that infuriating laugh. Sometimes he reminds me of Tooru, and although I am slightly miffed, I can feel myself grinning as well.

Sensei decides enough is enough and grabs us by the scruff of our neck, one with each hand.

"Now, now, this is very amusing to watch, but we do have a schedule. Chiyuki, dear, what is this about you dating?"

There's a glint in his normally kind eyes that send shivers down my spine, and I start to flail around in the air, suspended by his hand.

"No, I'm not dating, sensei! It's just that Kakashi comes from a clan with canine dynamics, and they greet each other with-"

"He kissed her cheek!"

"He did not! He pressed his nose against it!"

"It looked like a kiss to me."

"Genma if you don't shut up I swear-"

Choza-sensei bursts out laughing, a loud but nice sound that warms up my chest and makes me chuckle as well. He puts both of us down, messing up our hair and grinning.

"So that's what it was! Mayu did tell me something about that. I see, I see."

It was the first time in all those weeks that he'd done it in public, but I counted it as a victory. Kakashi has never been touchy-feely, but ever since his talks with Mayu he's been more comfortable in his own skin, and I'm sure that soon enough he'll start greeting his teammates with nuzzles as well.

I turn to Genma with a 'really?' type of look, one eyebrow raised as I cross my arms.

"Teasing me is fine, but I won't let you make fun of Kakashi for this."

We're back to clan dynamics and how delicate they are, and even though both Gai and Genma are orphans, they do have an idea of how untouchable the inner workings of a clan can be. I won't let them - or anyone else - make fun of Kakashi for finally finding himself and his origins.

My oldest teammate raises his hands in a surrender gesture, an unusually serious look suddenly in his eyes, and even Gai looks solemn.

"I won't, don't worry."

"I will not do that to my Eternal Rival, my most Youthful Chiyuki! You can be sure of that! If I don't keep this promise, I shall run 500 laps around Konoha everyday for the rest of my life!"

Choza-sensei laughs again, thoroughly amused by our antics, and musses up Gai's hair.

"I see you're all better at being a team, huh? Which is great and takes us to our meeting today!"

Sensei takes a scroll from his back pouch and shows it to us. It's a normal looking scroll, and even this close I can't sense any chakra coming from it. It probably contains a report, or info on our next assignment.

"Using all you've learned in the past weeks, you'll need to get this scroll from me - all three of you. You'll have to use all the teamwork you've worked on, as well as the code you've developed."

"Do we have a time limit?" I ask, nervous but excited at the same time.

'You've progressed. Perhaps not at the speed with which you'd have liked, but you have gotten better, and so have your teammates. You've got this.'

"Half an hour." He replies merrily, and I thank the heavens for having eaten before meeting up with my teammates and friends.

Another thing the new seal improved was my problem with my stamina. Since I still have the monster inside my head that won't let me forget about memories that aren't quite my own anymore, I probably won't ever have regular stamina. Still, the new seal has managed to work around that and seal the monster in tight, and I don't dream or remember things as frequently as I did. Even so I need to eat double of what a normal shinobi would, but at least it's not the triple like it was before. If I manage to time it right and look carefully at my chakra reserves, I should last about twelve minutes in a full on 1x1 fight, which is a big improvement from the previous five.

"And if we can't do it?"

"My child, you don't want to know." Choza-sensei smiles at us, and I feel all three of us shiver. "Any other question? No? Then, start!"

In perfect sync, the three of us jump back a good distance from him and hide up in the trees, where the foliage is thick. I keep a careful eye on sensei's iron flowing throughout his body as we start to silently discuss our strategy in the code we developed.

"Alright, everyone ok with this?" Genma asks lowly, as the appointed leader of our team in Choza's absence. Gai and I nod firmly, and then we all disappear to opposite sides of the training grounds.

"Three minutes have already passed, kids." Sensei drawls, a joyful smile on his chubby face, and I can tell he's excited to see what we've come up with.

For a little while, everything is eerily quiet, and not even the leaves rustle. Then, all of a sudden, Gai strikes with a flurry of attacks, free of his weights for once. From my spot in the bushes, I can't track him with my eyes as he continuously blurs in and out of existence.

'Honestly, it's crazy to think he's only going to get faster and stronger…'

Choza-sensei blocks all of his attacks almost effortlessly, until he blurs out one last time at the last second. Before a single second is up, Genma is up with a deadly dance of senbon and reinforced earth-covered fists. He's unpredictable in his movements as he alternates between punches and throwing senbon. When the earth covering his fists crumble to the ground, it's my turn.

From my position in the bushes, I form blocks of iron in my palms and throw my arms in a whip-like motion towards Choza, aiming for his ankles. He sidesteps just in time, and a moment later avoids the ones I throw at his wrists.

"C'mon now, children. You can do better than this." He says as he grabs one of my blocks with his hands and crushes it, and it makes me grind my teeth.

'Calm down, he's just insanely strong. He's trying to get to you. Focus on the plan.'

In a symphony we've been practicing for weeks, Genma goes back to launching attacks with well-placed earth ninjutsu, even attempting the Flying Thrown Stones Technique and almost succeeding. I keep on throwing blocks at Choza, aiming to at least handcuff one of his hands. At the same time, the choker around my neck, made of round iron beads, separates carefully under the command of my chakra manipulation and wobbly floats in the foliage, slowly circling our sensei.

During the sealing, in between that moment I had nothing to filter the chakra input, the monster showed me something. I don't know whether it was something real that happened Before or not, but there was a man who could manipulate any kind of metal around him. It didn't seem to be chakra manipulation, although I assume it followed the same principles. At one occasion, the man had a helmet around his head, also made of metal. In another, he carried around little metal balls that he threw around like there was a string attached to them - only, there wasn't.

I struggle to keep forming blocks of iron in my hands as well as focusing on the small iron balls, wobbly and at danger of falling to the ground at any second. We keep on distracting him while I do my work behind the scenes, and it looks nothing like the smooth manipulation the man did, but it's a start.

The beads turned into a choker are actually the metal ball mother had gotten me in the beginning of my training, in what feels like ages ago. It still responded to my chakra like bees to honey, and was actually easier to maintain because it wasn't made of my chakra, just embedded in it. This way, I don't have to constantly keep thinking about manipulating my chakra outside of my body; I just have to keep it stuck to me, like in the leaf exercise.

As the iron beads get further away from me, making them bend to my chakra's will gets progressively harder. Sweat forms on my forehead and if we don't end this soon, we won't have the element of surprise anymore.

The beads finally circle him and I hold my breath. Genma catches my gaze and I form an L with my thumb and index finger, putting it just below my chin. It's the sign for 'run like hell', and he disappears in a flurry of leaves.

'Here we go.'

I launch the beads at sensei all at once, and a look of shock comes across his face as he gets hit by a few of them. I stop making blocks of iron in my palms and focus on making the beads float and hit him in odd intervals, not giving him the chance to figure out a pattern.

Gai starts his relentless attacks once again, this time impossibly faster. Choza can't really avoid his attacks and mine at the same time, and Genma uses the Hiding like a Mole Technique in a flash of distraction.

The next thing anyone knows, the three of us are huddled together in front of him, across the field. Sensei looks a little worse for wear, but there's a bright smile on his face. Genma and I are panting, and I do feel hungry, but it's nothing like what I used to feel.

I look at my teammates and they are grinning as well. In his hands, Genma holds the scroll victoriously.

"Well done, children! Well done. I'm impressed!"

"Yes! It's all thanks to our most Youthful Training on the Springtime of Teamwork! I shall do 100 push ups for our victory!"

Gai sets down to do just that, and Genma and I just snort.

"Go on, open up and see your next assignment."

"...it's at the hospital." Genma deadpans, and I bite my lower lip.

'Well… it could be worse, I suppose.'

"Another assignment for our Youthful Teamwork to flourish like-"

"How do you even manage to say shit while doing push ups?!"

"Language, Genma."

"My bad, sensei."

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My eighth birthday comes and goes, and somehow I manage to convince everyone that the last thing I want is a party. I do end up having a sleepover with my friends and my brothers, which is extremely nice and better than anything I could've asked for.

The three weeks Team Choza spend at the hospital are frankly uneventful. We don't learn much aside from first aid, because without Tsunade that's all we can do. From what I could tell, they're basically making the genin teams tidy up and deal with problematic civilian patients, and I can't really blame them. All the doctors and nurses are busy with the patients, and the few that could be teaching medical jutsu are always busy with procedures and surgeries. Genin do end up changing sheets and cleaning up bodily fluids, but the whole situation just makes me upset.

"Your next assignment is at the hospital, right? Well, at least you'll get to see Rin in action, which is nice."

"We already have a medic-nin on our team. I don't get why we need to learn first aid."

Kakashi grumbles as he moves a shogi piece on the board, entirely at ease in my room. There's no one else inside the house but us, and it would have been a problem if the entire clan didn't know Kakashi by now.

'Hell, he even spent a while here after his dad died. I don't think anyone could say shit about him being here anymore.'

"Now, that's such a close-minded thought. What if for some reason Rin is unavailable? What if you and Obito are the only ones in the battlefield with that knowledge? You need to hold down the fort until a medic-nin can come, you know."

My third brother hums, but says nothing, and we both know he sees the logic in my statement. We continue to play silently, a comfortable air around us.

As my turn ends and I walk closer to suffering a checkmate, I think about the hospital once again.

'Things would be so different if Tsunade were here… I don't know exactly where she is, but I'm sure she's not actively participating in the fighting.'

Kakashi moves another piece, and I spend a minute pondering over my next move.

'Let's imagine for a minute that I do find her. What am I gonna say? Hi, I know Konoha took everything from you and that you don't have anything left there, but won't you please come back and become the director of the hospital? Oh, and if possible, do find some time in your busy schedule to sit down with me and change our health system completely. Yeah, that's gonna go wonderfully.'

"You're thinking too loud." The boy in front of me says as surely enough I lose spectacularly. I can't even find the energy to be moody about it. "What is it?"

He looks at me with hooded dark eyes, and although it might seem like a sign of disinterest to anyone else, I've known him for five years now. He's paying attention to my every word, my every gesture, and I struggle to not fidget.

"I want to bring Tsunade back."

Kakashi doesn't scoff and he doesn't snort. He straightens his back and looks at me like Mayu's ninken did - sharp, intense, and penetrating.

"Because of the hospital." He states, and he's not wrong.

"Yes and no. The hospital is understaffed and Tsunade would be a huge help, but we need to look at the bigger picture. Right now the fighting is far away and most of the injured shinobi are treated on the battlefield, but what's gonna happen to our health system once we start receiving more serious patients? The civilians who are left aside in favour of the shinobi? Everyone's mental state, PTSD, anxiety, suicidal thoughts?"

The boy says nothing and just keeps on looking at me the same way. He's processing my words and letting me gather my thoughts at the same time, and not for the first time I'm thankful for him never interrupting me whenever I go on my 'rants'.

"When this war ends - and it is gonna end, there's no doubt about that - who's going to hold up Konoha together? Who's going to calm everyone down and say 'hey, we can do this'?"

'My father?' Is a mocking question that goes by unsaid, but we both hear it.

"The next one?" Kakashi asks after a little while, and I know he's talking about Minato. I shake my head.

"The next one is in fact trustworthy… but it's not gonna be enough." Minato's gonna rule Konoha after the war in the only way he knows how: by instilling fear in the other villages through his sheer, raw power, but that's not peace. Fear turns into resentment and anger, and once Minato died, father struggled to keep that fake peace up. He ended up making a lot of mistakes, some worse than others, and it was only when Tsunade became the Godaime hokage that Konoha truly flourished once again.

"Explain." He continues in that serious tone of his, and it's kind of comforting how calm and centered he is whenever I get so worked up.

"Tsunade made a name for herself even before the Second Shinobi War. She took the Shodaime's healing techniques and made them better, made them her own. She inspires trust wherever she goes not because she's a Senju, but because she's herself. She's full of tough love and she gambles a lot more than she should but at the end of the day there's no one else that instills such safety as she does. Tsunade crushes mountains with the same hands that heal broken bones, and she does it all confidently."

"She's someone everyone knows about, both because of her power and her healing." Kakashi nods, finally starting to see my point.

The monster gurgles about eyes and ears, but I yell at it to shut up. Nothing of what I said is a secret, and it's not like I can just up and leave the village to look for her.

"Exactly. My point is: she's made a name for herself and people respect her for it. If she were to come back to Konoha, the villagers' morale would go up in a flash. She'd take care of the health system and we'd probably get through this war a lot more smoothly than we would without her."

"I see your point. But what are you gonna do? Leave the village and look for her yourself?"

I flop down on my back, my futon making an 'oompf' sound as it cushions my fall.

"I don't know. I really don't."

"Your next assignment is at the Police Force, right? They might know something."

"Maybe." I agree without much conviction. It's very unlikely they know anything about Tsunade, and I have no idea where Jiraya is. Orochimaru is in the frontlines, and I do worry about when that particular bomb might go off.

Asuma's agitated iron enters my sensing range. His pulse races a lot faster than it usually does and he seems upset about something as he rushes home. Kakashi senses him as well, and we're both in the living room waiting for him when he slides the door open violently.

"Niisan?" I ask, nervous with how wide his eyes are, and how pale he seems.

"Tooru-niisan is in the hospital." Asuma blurts out after a second, and my world crumbles down.

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Constructive criticism is more than welcome, but if you're gonna be an asshole about it, then just don't bother.