Chapter 21 : Exceptional awards

The day of the Godaime inauguration ceremony arrived and Jiraiya was presented to the crowd as the 5th hokage of Konoha.

All the higher-ranking ninjas were present to salute the new protector of the village, the one who carried the weight of the will of his predecessors.

Jiraiya had adopted a new appearance by shortening his hair, it was of medium length to his shoulders like when he was younger and he had worn a white coat of the same type as Minato's but it was completely green with red markings with flames . 

 That day, Obito didn't attend the ceremony but he was in a training fight against Lee. No Ninjutsu or Genjutsu but pure Taijutsu and the fight was intense to the point where Lee had to open the gates to win the fight against Obito.

Lee didn't come out of this fight unscathed because Obito had broken several bones despite the gates opening.

Gai had not taught him this technique but Obito had other assets in Taijutsu. If it was a life or death fight then the outcome would have been different.

 He and Lee knew how to use Gai's style air compression, the Jonin had taught it to Lee very recently but he had also taught it to Obito and Karin before taking charge of Lee's team.

They had used compressed air attacks but Lee had gone really hard unlike Obito who held back for fear of killing him. Both were injured but were relatively well.

 "It looks like I lost again, that's 81 victories for you compared to 84 victories for my sidéré in a month and a half. I'm starting to get scared ahahahah..." Obito said while lying in a crater while Lee sat breathing heavily next to it.

 "You clearly held back, it was me who lost my temper for nothing. I can't consider this a victory." Lee said shaking his head apologetically.

 "It's still a victory so shut up and enjoy. If ninjutsu was allowed in this fight then you wouldn't even have touched me. With the gates opening you catch up to my speed pretty quickly without the weights on me, it's really a scary technique.

Well, it'll be good for today with the Godaime finally chosen. I suppose that we'll be rewarded during the week for the exam and especially our contributions during the attack .

Let's go get treatment so we'll be in good shape when it happens" Obito said getting up and Lee did the same, the rivals with smiles on their lips joined their fists before going their separate ways.

 As Obito had said, the awards and graduation ceremony has arrived, the different genins who shone and impressed during the Chuunin selection received the rank of Chunin but also participated remarkably in the defense of the village.

Those who were promoted were Sasuke, Karin, Lee, Shikamaru and Shino but that was not all, there was a double gradation for those who had massively contributed to Konoha's victory, genins with skills superior to those of the strongest chunins.

 Genma was proven worthy of the rank of Jonin by confronting Baki as well as several other Suna's ninjas at the same time without much difficulty but he wasn't the only one, Naruto Uzumaki for having stopped the attack of a bijuu by himself also rose to the rank of Jonin.

Obviously, many were surprised, the rank of Jonin was no joke and ninjas of that level compared to the population of the village were rare and the cases of appointment were delicate but no one could dispute the power and the Naruto's skill, they witnessed his fight against Neji and now they know that he neutralized another bijuu to protect the village.

 The problem was the direct access to the Jonin rank from the genin rank, never had this been done before even for geniuses like Kakashi or Itachi but the problem was that the ranks had demonstrated a power that even some Jonins didn't have.

Yakumo was also ranked Jonin, she had average physical prowess but she had caused nearly 200 enemy ninjas to kill each other thanks to an extremely powerful genjutsu attested by Kurenai herself who admitted to being inferior to Yakumo in term genjutsu even though it was his specialty.

The crowd was shocked as they listened to the girl's feats, Yakumo was calm and quite discreet but the power of his genjutsu was just scary. 

 Finally, the last gradation is the one that didn't surprise but impressed and it was Obito. The role of Obito's clones was extremely important not only for victory but also to reduce collateral damage and civilian casualties.

He had saved several villagers but also helped the village ninjas with his strategies, each of his 100 clones had Chunin level chakra but Jonin skills so each of them gave the impression that the village had very competent reinforcements .

 In addition, he had mastered Iraishin the signature Jutsu of the Yondaime which made him an extremely powerful and competent Ninja, his clones had deployed Anbus and Chuunins in important locations for the defense of the village.

The audience applauded while Obito's face remained emotionless, he hated almost all of them and few were the people he really liked.

Genma shook his shoulders telling him that he needed to relax a little and that made Obito smile and shake his head at Genma's teasing.

 This completely unique grading ceremony caused a huge stir in the other major ninja villages, Konoha had powerful ninjas and they began to be suspicious.

 More than a week later, a delegation from Suna arrived led by Lady Chiyo to negotiate the release of the prisoners and after a discussion and agreements with Jiraiya, he agreed to release them to the great relief of the sand village envoys.

Upon their release, Temari came across Shikamaru and thanked him for not killing her and for ensuring that they were not mistreated.

Indeed, Shikaku and his son came to see the prisoners to question them undergo the surveillance of Ibiki and his men.

 Mistreated prisoners would've given a gruesome image of Konoha so they made sure that didn't happen unless it was really necessary.

Shikamaru because he was of the same generation as Gaara and his brothers used to see them to ask them questions.

Because they learned that they had been manipulated from the start by Orochimaru, they were quite cooperative on certain subjects but none of them had chosen this mission, it had been imposed on them.

 However, Shikamaru had not been the only one to talk to them because Naruto had and after the search for Tsunade sometimes came to talk with Gaara, it was him who had changed his way of seeing things and had even helped him find the sleep again so he felt a little responsible of Gaara .

 While things were pretty much back to normal for everyone, there was someone who was feeling a lot of frustration and that was Sasuke.

Seeing Naruto, whom he considered his rival, stop a bijuu and pass Jonin when they were the same age frustrated him in the highest way.

As for Sakura, she was going through some depression, Sasuke is Chunin now and Naruto was now a fucking Jonin but she had proven to everyone that she was the weak link, she tried to find Kakashi for special training but the latter was in mission all the time.

 Indeed, the village was overwhelmed with missions and the recent gradations have created some team reshuffles.

Obito and Naruto had become jonins and no longer had to belong to a team, they were high level ninjas now who had the ability to accomplish solo missions.

Obviously, their first missions will be carried out in the company of an experienced Jonin who will observe them to judge if they can really do it alone, otherwise, they will be sent to Anbu to gain solid experience. 

 On Tsunade's side in her business with Orochimaru, she had managed not to heal his arms but to make them less painful while restoring certain sensations to the great relief of Orochimaru who, to reward her, reanimated Nawaki and Dan.

He told her that he would keep them revived as long as she cooperated with him and if she completely healed him then he would leave them revived permanently.

 If during the first moments of reunion there were emotions, reality caught up with everyone. The dead were aware that they were dead, if Dan wanted to know why and especially how he was there, Nawaki was in panic.

The child remembered his death vividly and it put him under stress but it was nothing compared to the way he felt. This body had no sensations, it couldn't feel heat or anything. Dan looked at the child's cracked face and knew something had been done to bring them back and demanded accountability from Tsunade.

 (elsewhere)

 In a large coastal city in the Land of Fire, Obito arrived there for his mission under evaluation with a hidden anbu who was in charge of monitoring him and with them, there was a procession made up of several soldiers on horseback escorting a carriage.

It was a small delegation assembled to accompany Mayuri, the young daughter of the Daimyo of the land of fire.

 Taking into account the village's defense against Suna, this mission was the second S-rank mission given to Obito. It was was an escort mission and the sponsor was the Daimyo himself.

His daughter wanted to watch the filming of a movie she was a fan of so he wanted a powerful and effective ninja to protect her .

It was a mission given directly by the Daimyo so it was anything but a joke and Jiraiya could have delegated it to much more experienced Jonins but he entrusted it to Obito as an S-rank close guard mission.

This decision had caused quite a stir among the council but the Godaime didn't care.

 Luckily, this mission coincided with another B-rank escort mission. Indeed, the assistant of the main actress of the film The Snow Princess requested the services of Konoha for a close escort mission on the actress Yukie Fujikaze during the filming of the next movie in the Snowland saga.

 "When father told me that Konoha was going to send an elite Ninja to protect me, I didn't know that you would be the same age as me. What's your name again ?" Mayuri sitting in the carriage asked Obito sitting across from her with his eyes closed and arms crossed.

Next to Mayuri was her chaperone, it was Ojo and the man looked at Obito with suspicion and disdain.

 "Obito Uzumaki..." He replied in a dull tone as with his eyes closed he observed the surroundings with his Kagura mental eye. He noticed that Mayuri's guards had a certain amount of chakra in them that they were trying to hide.

 "Your guards, they seem really well trained. How long have they been in the service of Daimyo-sama ? " He asked Ojo calmly.

 Ojo: This is not information that concerns Konoha, our guards as you have noticed are very well trained and your presence isn't necessary, however this is what I told Lord Daimyô.

 "I like it that he's here, Ojo. Having someone my age who is already an elite Ninja is pretty interesting. ( to Obito) Do you know Kakashi with the Sharingan? Does he really master 1000 techniques that he has copied ? Do you know any interesting techniques? It seems that you defended the village against invaders from the land of the wind, is that true ? Have you ever killed people ?" She peppered Obito with a series of questions while the latter had to let out a sigh of exhaustion.

 They arrived at the meeting point with the film crew who were making preparations for boarding and loading the film equipment onto the boat.

Obito came down alongside Mayuri and Ojo while the film director came to warmly greet Mayuri, emphasizing that it was a great honor for them to be assisted by the daughter of the Daimyô.

 "Hello Kinoe-san, where is Karin?" Obito approached Yamato who greeted him in return and told him that Karin had gone to find the actress she had to protect with her manager who was the sponsor of their mission.

Mayuri saw them talking and approached Obito with great enthusiasm before asking them questions.

Yamato greeted her respectfully and introduced himself properly while Obito just shook his head in irritation.

 Mayuri wasn't going to board the movie group's ship, she had booked an even bigger ship where she started to board her things and Ojo organized everything while Mayuri visited the ship with Obito by her side.

About 40 minutes later, Karin came accompanied by a wooden clone of Yamato who was carrying actress Yukie Fujikaze over his shoulder while the young woman was unconscious.

 Sandayu explained that they found her completely drunk and that she said she wanted to stop filming so as not to go to the land of snow, Sandayu had insisted but in vain so Yamato knocked her out thinking that she didn't know what she said because of alcohol. They installed Yukie in her cabin inside the boat and now that everything was ready, the two ships set sail for the land of snow.