Akatsuki

It's been a busy couple of days, with everyone helping out with the recovery process. Konoha also started overworking its shinobi forces by maintaining the same level of missions as before the invasion, even with only half the amount of ninjas.

It was the same today, with me lending a hand to anyone who needed one. Until I was called to the Hokage's office by a chunin messenger.

I flash-stepped over to the Hokage Tower, pondering why I was getting called. I arrived at the tower and walked over to the secretary, who just nodded at me. Guess that's my cue to enter.

I opened the doors to the Hokage's office, seeing the Hokage smoking his pipe while talking to Jiraiya.

"Sorry, sensei, but I won't do it," Jiraiya said.

Hiruzen sighed, "I thought you'd say that…" He looked over at me.

I bowed, "Lord Hokage," I addresses.

He just waved his hand at me, "No need for the formalities, Kaen. Not with what I'm about to ask you."

I straightened my back and looked at him curiously.

"How would you like to be the Hokage?" He asked.

"Huh?" I said intelligently.

He just kept looking at me, waiting for an answer.

I just grimaced. No way was I taking a glorified desk job.

"I'm honored, Lord Hokage, but I don't think I'm fit for the job. I'd rather be out in the field, not behind a desk all day."

He just sighed again, "Somehow, I was expecting that. Well, it was worth a shot. Now, onto the other reason I called you here." He said as he took a more serious expression.

"By the merits of your exceptional strength, I am promoting you to a jonin of Konoha." He reached under his desk and pulled out a jonin vest.

"I wanted to let you develop more leadership skills first, but Konoha is not in a good position right now." He grimaced, "We need all the strength we can get."

I went over and accepted the vest, "Thank you, Lord Hokage."

He went back to smoking his pipe, "I'll have some missions for you soon. For now, you are dismissed."

I just nodded and left the room, not noticing Jiraiya eyeing me curiously.

////// Hiruzen POV /////

I sighed again as I took another smoke.

"Would you have really given him the hat?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yes," I said, "I would have guided him at first, but he has a fire to him that most don't."

I sat up straighter in my chair.

"Now, onto the matter of my successor. I think it's about time Tsunade came back to the village."

Jiraiya just nodded, probably expecting this.

"And you want me to go get her?"

I nodded.

"I will on one condition," he said, "Let me bring my Godson with me."

I slumped at that. "He does look and act rather similar to Nawaki, doesn't he? You have my permission. Leave within the next day. You are dismissed."

Jiraiya nodded and hopped out the window.

I leaned back in my chair. My thoughts wandered to an old friend I should have dealt with a long time ago.

I know that Danzo still has some Root members active and that he's been amassing forces for a while now, but I was too soft on him. Many things went on behind the scenes in the invasion. Such as the assassination of multiple shinobi that were meant to be patrolling and the lack of protection around the Uchiha clan.

Now, some might think that it was the Oto and Suna shinobi that assassinated the patrols; but I knew Danzo's work when I saw it.

I, personally, was too deep in his schemes to back out now, which is one of the reasons I even asked Kaen if he wanted the hat. Mostly because I knew he wouldn't care about politics and would go straight after Danzo if knew what he planned for the last of the Uchiha. The village would be destabilized for a bit, but I would be there to help pick up the pieces.

Now, I'll just have to hope Tsunade takes action when she becomes Hokage.

///// Kaen POV /////

"Gah! Brat, let go!"

"Nope!" Haruki said, pulling on my hair some more.

I knew it was a mistake to let it grow out to my shoulders.

Ayame and Isamu just laughed at me.

"You wouldn't be laughing if it was YOUR hair being pulled on…" I grumbled.

"Stop whining and keep stirring," Isamu said.

I glared at him but kept stirring. It's been about two days since I saw the Hokage, and I still don't have any missions. This is why I can be found making lunch for a bunch of ungrateful Uchiha brats with Ayame and Isamu.

What I was stirring? Tomato soup… Again…

And it was while I was stirring, that I felt a huge chakra source pop up on my senses. And if even I can sense it, it has to be pretty damn big. I was shocked though, that whoever this person was had even more chakra than I did, which is saying something. I mean, I have Kage-level chakra reserves. It felt like they were in a battle, as well.

Shit. I stopped mixing the tomato soup.

"Haruki, get down. Now." I said in a voice that brokered no dissent.

Haruki immediately got down, and looked up at me with watery eyes, "What's wrong, Big Bro?"

"It's nothing, Haruki. Why don't you go play with Yuko and Ren." Ayame interjected.

Both she and Isamu were pretty tense. They weren't necessarily weak, but they were far from the level of whoever was fighting right now.

I glanced at them, "I'm going to go check it out. Stay here with the kids."

Ayame nodded and muttered, "Be careful," as I flash-stepped out of the house and towards that conflict that was taking place.

I arrived at the scene seconds later, just in time to witness Kakashi fall to the ground on one knee. Yep, I knew it. It's Itachi and Kisame.

I landed down in between them and the other jonin.

"Having a party without me?" I asked, turning towards the Akatsuki.

Kisame put a shark-like grin on his face as he looked me over.

"Fancy yourself as a swordsman, huh? Why don't we test that?"

It was at this moment that Guy arrived as well.

Itachi just shook his head at Kisame, "We should go, it's obvious the boy isn't here. We don't want to start a war."

Kisame just groaned, "Fine! You never let me have any fun…"

With that, they retreated at a fast pace, assumingly to go after Naruto.

I just grinned before turning towards the other jonin.

"I'm going to chase after them; you guys take care of Kakashi," I said.

I then flash-stepped away, ignoring their protests. I was out of the village in seconds, before following them down the road.

A couple of minutes later, I entered a clearing, where it looks like they stopped to wait for me.

I smirked, "Thanks for waiting."

Kisame grinned back, "And here I thought I wouldn't get to have any fun. Did you not bring any of your friends with you?"

I shook my head, "Don't need 'em to deal with you."

Kisame laughed at that, "We'll see about that, brat. I can kill this one, right, Itachi?"

Itachi nodded, "I'm going ahead; finish up quickly." He flickered away.

"It's just you and me now, brat. You ready to lose your head?" He said as he pulled Samehada off his back.

I unsheathed my sword as well and charged him, engaging in a fierce kenjutsu batlle.

He had more physical strength than I did, but I was much faster, allowing me to deflect and dodge most of his attacks.

Kisame's grin widened, "You're not bad for a brat! Why don't I take it up a level?" As he said that, he tore off Samahada's bandages, allowing the scaled sword to appear in its full glory.

I thrust at him with an Onibi, which forced him to block. The force of the attack wasn't enough to break Samehada, but it did push him back, his feet digging into the ground.

"That's a good technique you got there!"

"Thanks."

I jumped back into the battle, this time flash-stepping behind him in an attempt to catch him off guard. He just swung his sword behind him without even looking, forcing me to dodge.

"You're a fast one, aren't you? Let's slow you down a bit!"

He made a couple of hand seals before releasing a huge amount of water onto the battlefield, filling the entire clearing with 10-foot-deep water.

I hopped onto the surface while Kisame went under.

"Water Release: Five Feeding Sharks!"

Immediately five sharks formed in front of his fingers and started circling me. I took a defensive stance as they lunged, slicing the first four in half while the last one managed to bite my leg.

I winced as he tore off a small chunk of flesh.

"Okay, this is already getting old."

As the sharks I slashed reformed, my palms lit up with pale blue fire.

"Hado #73: Soren Sokatsui!"

I blasted a torrent of flames from both of my palms, evaporating the sharks and a good portion of the water.

At this, Kisame rose out of the water taking his cloak off as he did so.

"You're full of surprises." he complimented, "I wonder how long you'll last without your breath or fire."

The edges of the water pool he formed started to rise, encasing me as Kisame started merging with Samehada, somehow becoming even more shark-like.

I smirked. This is what I had been waiting for.

Kisame shot through the water, preparing to tear me to pieces.

'Shikai!'

And suddenly, I wasn't covered in water anymore. The water around me instantly evaporated from the heat of my flames. A look of shock came over Kisame's face before I smirked and swung my sword, sending a wave of flames toward him that evaporated all the water he was swimming in.

Realizing that the flames of my Shikai were bad news, he jumped out of the water over the flames. But I was ready for that as I jumped up towards him and slashed him with my sword. He screamed as it bit deeply into his side, instantly cauterizing the wound at the same time. We both fell to the ground at the same time.

He unmerged from Samehada before he grinned as he looked behind me.

"Itachi! It's so good to see you!" He exclaimed.

Itachi sighed, "I left you alone for less than ten minutes, and you've already bitten off more than you can chew. Let's finish up quickly so we can go after the Jinchuriki."

I knew that this fight just took a turn for the worse as I prepared myself to defend. Itachi, with hand seals too fast to keep track of, created three shadow clones that all drew shuriken.

Kisame launched towards me just as Itachi coated the shuriken with fire and threw them at me. I deflected a couple of the flaming projectiles before I had to put my focus on the angry shark that was swinging at me with Samehada. I deflected the blow but winced as a few of the shuriken nicked me.

Said angry shark just grinned and pushed me back further, while I could hear Itachi exhale a large amount of fire towards me. I decided to ignore the fire, as my fire resistance was much higher than the strength of his flames.

I re-engaged Kisame in a battle of kenjutsu as I danced around his sword, taking extra care to not cover my sword with flame since it would just be absorbed.

I immediately realized I made a mistake when a handful of shuriken dug into my back. Itachi had hidden the weapons inside the fire. I felt like such a dumbass. My momentary distraction allowed Kisame to get a glancing blow, shaving a bit of flesh and chakra from my right arm.

We continued fighting, me dancing around Samehada while at the same time launching kido at Itachi. But I was starting to lose, badly.

There was still shuriken stuck in my back and My flash-step was slowing down as I lost more and more blood.

Finally, with a move I wasn't expecting, Kisame landed a kick on my chest, bruising my ribs. I flew back and crashed onto the ground, coughing up blood.

I shakily stood back up, planting my sword into the ground to support my weight.

I was too arrogant. I felt so confident after stalling the Nidaime and Shodai Hokages that I thought I could take on the powers of this world.

I coughed up more blood.

"Ayame, Isamu, Mom… I'm sorry, but this is probably it for me." I looked up at the sky for a minute before turning my attention back to Kisame and Itachi, who were just observing me.

"What are you waiting for? I'm not done yet!" I barked out.

Kisame's grin widened, "You've got a big pair of balls on you, brat. It's almost a shame I have to cut off your head."

As they started approaching me and I accepted my probable death, information from the system suddenly flowed into my head.

"Heh… Hehehe…. HAHAHA!" I started laughing like a madman and looked off into the distance.

Kisame looked a little confused, "Did the stress finally get to him?"

But little did they know, I wasn't just looking off into the distance, I was looking at my stats. Specifically, my Fire Release.

[Fire Release

Skills:

Sword: [Shikai, lvl 15 (max)] [Ennetsu Jigoku, lvl 10 (max)] [Jokaku Enjo, lvl 5 (max)] [Taimatsu, lvl 5 (max)]

Bankai: [Zanka no Tachi, Higashi: Kyokujitsujin, lvl 1]

Kido: [Itto Kaso, lvl 1 (max)] [Haien, lvl 1] [Soren Sokatsui, lvl 15 (max)] [Sokatsui, lvl 10 (max)] [Shakkaho, lvl 10 (max)] [Fushibi, lvl 10 (max)]

Progress: 61%]

Adrenaline flooded my veins as all the flames around me suddenly disappeared. The clearing suddenly became a furnace as all the moisture evaporated. The flowers lost their color as the grass and trees shriveled up.

Kisame's grin came back full-blast, "So you still have some fight in you after all!" he shouted, not even paying attention to what was happening in the surroundings.

Itachi did, though.

"Kisame, wait!"

But it was too late, he was already in my range. I flash-stepped forward and swung my sword at a speed surpassing anything I'd ever done before. Kisame's eyes widened and didn't even have time to block.

"Susanoo!"

Suddenly, a huge shield formed in between me and Kisame; the Yata Mirror, said to be able to nullify any attacks.

My bankai apparently didn't care, because I sliced through it regardless and carved a line through Kisame's chest.

The shield did stop most of my momentum, though, so I didn't injure him fatally. He fell back, gritting his teeth in pain.

"You brat!" He yelled.

I completely ran out of strength at that moment, my bankai dissipating. I flopped down onto the ground, the world around me spinning.

I think I finally lost too much blood…

But before Kisame could finish the job, Itachi stopped him.

"We need to leave," he said, "Reinforcements are on the way."

Kisame scoffed, "You're one lucky brat. I'll remember this the next time we meet."

They got up and flickered away.

I turned my head over and saw a couple of recognizable faces coming my way; Guy, Asuma, and Kurenai had come to my rescue.

The last thing I felt, was Guy picking me up before they started rushing back towards the village. The edges of my vision darkened, and I let unconsciousness take me.

///// A/N //////

Hello guys. I got some comments talking about how fast-paced the story is. I agree, the pacing is definitely not something I am good at yet and I was kind of desperate to get the chunin exams over with so I could start changing canon. I don't want this story to just be regurgitating canon with an extra OC or two. I decided to change the system format a little bit so it's not as chunky. Also, I am changing the cover to what Kaen looks like. I generated it through AI so that's the best you're getting. Anyways, leave a review, please!