Chapter 16: Aftermath

Konoha won.

Suna who allied itself with Oto had been defeated by the might of ninjas of the leaf. Less than a third of the village had been destroyed and the casualties were in the few hundreds. A very low number compared to the Kyubi’s attack thirteen years prior. The massive counter attack had been led by Hiruzen who, while missing an arm, looked as fresh as ever with a spring in his step. Gai even said that the old Hokage was the symbol of youth in that moment, a comment that made the man chuckle when he heard about it later. To everyone, Hiruzen had appeared like the God of shinobi when he was in his prime. He was sure that Iwa and Kumo would revise any plan they had against Konoha knowing that despite his age he had no foot in the grave. Of course that was a big fat lie.

‘Wasn’t it for young Karin’s kekkei genkai, I would have died.’

He kept quiet of course, his image of invincibility was more important to maintain than the truth of the matter. After everything calmed down, Hiruzen could say with his head held high that he was proud of every single villager, be they ninja or not for how they dealt with the assault. The only thing that soured the victory was his student’s escape. He was quite bitter about it but it could have been worse so he wasn’t complaining. His predecessors had been sealed and will remain so until Jiraiya or perhaps Riku could find a way to undo the Jutsu that Orochimaru used to call them back from the Pure Lands.

‘Sensei, the Edo Tensei was your greatest mistake. Such an awful jutsu should never have seen the light of day. The dead should rest in peace in the pure lands for eternity.’

“I still don’t understand how you can be alright, sensei. For Kami’s sake, you lost an arm! You should be in the hospital!”

Turning his head to the side, Hiruzen saw his student entering his office by the window. Jiraiya liked to call it the ‘ninja door’.

“I may be old, Jiraiya but I’m still awesome.” Hiruzen replied with a knowing grin.

“Bah!” the tall white haired man grunted at the answer he got

“Some things are better left unknown. It was… a one time opportunity.”

“... Sensei, you’re sure you-”

“Yes, I’m fine. Never been better actually. Not since a decade or two at least.”

“You’re not gonna die or crash when whatever you did stops, right?”

“No. It’s permanent from what the doctor said. My body just healed so much that it went beyond its normal state and fixed some things. No more arthritis, which I’m glad for. It didn’t extend my life though which honestly I’m fine with. I can’t have a fight like yesterday anymore.”

“You’re not thinking of…”

“I’m..”

“Giving you the hat?”

“We certainly hope so.”

Looking up towards the office entrance, they saw Hiruzen’s old teammates coming in. As elders of the village Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu were part of the council. Their job was to advise the Hokage and make sure that the decisions the leader of the village took was in the best interest of the village. As such, after what happened the previous day they needed to speak with Hiruzen.

“Me? Did dementia finally get you, you old coots?”

“Always so rude towards your elders.”

“Maybe if you weren’t such an annoying hag I-”

“Jiraiya!” Hiruzen reprimanded his students.

“Sensei, you know I’m not fit to wear the hat! I have my spy network to take care of and I’m too much of a free spirit to sit behind a desk all day.”

“The alternative is Danzo.” said Homura in a contrite voice. While he and Koharu had been leaning more towards the missing third elder politically wise, they were well aware that him in power would spell disaster for Konoha. Shimura Danzo was an old warhawk who believed that peace was only possible after Konoha dominated all other villages through war. A notion that they did not share. Far from it.

“Absolutely not!” Hiruzen interjected vehemently.

“At least we all agree on that.” Koharu commented with a nod.

“I’m still not-”

“I wasn’t thinking about you, Jiraiya.” confessed Hiruzen.

“Who else?” inquired Homura.

“Kakashi? He’s too busy being content in his depression and he doesn’t have the strength.”

“No, Tsunade.”

“Are you mad?! She has not set foot in the village in twenty years!”

“Hiruzen! It’s only thanks to you that she has not been put in the bingo book as a missing-nin!”

“That’s a good idea, actually. She has the blood and the name. She’s still popular, both among the old and the young.” mused aloud Jiraiya.

“We don’t even know where she is.”

“I’ll search for her.” Jirayia stated with conviction.

Homura and Koharu looked at each other and had a silent conversation. Once done they turned back to Jiraiya.

“A month. You have a month to find her and bring her back.”

“If you don’t, you take the hat.”

“Fine!”

“Make it two.” Hiruzen cut in. “I can still lead for a while though I’d like for her to deal with Suna and the chunin promotions. It will be a good test for her.”

““Acceptable.””

“I’m taking Naruto with me, sensei.”

“Absolutely not! The jinchuriki must stay in the village at this crucial time.” protested Koharu.

“I’ll need him to convince her.” explained Jiraiya, looking at his sensei. That wasn’t enough for Homura however.

“Why? He’s a dunce!”

“Had you taken the time to get to know him, you’d know that his personality is very close to-”

“Nawaki.” said Hiruzen in realization. “It’s a dangerous game you're playing.”

“You know me sensei. Danger is my middle name.”

“I thought it was ‘idiot’.”

“I thought it was ‘pervert’.

Koharu’s words, unlike Homura's, had stung a bit and Jiriya hung his head and muttered nasty words at her.

“Fine, take him with you. You’re going to have to wait though. Between the use of the Kyubi’s chakra and his fight against the Ichibi, he’s suffering from chakra exhaustion. The doctors say he will wake up during the day but should not do any strenuous activity for a couple more.”

“He’s awake, Hokage-sama.” Neko said as she appeared kneeling in front of Hiruzen. “And Genin Warudo is here.”

“Thank you, Neko. Let him in. Jiraiya…”

“I’m on my way.” said the white haired man as he got out through the window.

“Hiruzen, Warudo?”

“The stig…”

“I don't care who his mother was or what she did and for who. If I’m still alive today it’s thanks to him. He has proven to be loyal to the village and that’s all that matters. I will not hear any nonsense about him as for the political stigma, I remind you that I’m stepping down so it won’t matter.”

Koharu took a deep breath and sighed deeply. “Very well. Though I’m offended that you think I would blame him for his mother’s deeds. He was a child of four at the time, of course he knew nothing about it. The villagers do though and that’s the problem but you’re right, you’re stepping down so it doesn’t really matter.”

At that moment Neko opened the door and let the dirty blonde genin enter the office. He nodded at her for a greeting then made his way towards the desk.

“Hokage-sama, Elders.” he greeted with his usual short but respectful bow. “What do you need, Hokage-sama?”

“Here.” Hiruzen opened the middle drawer of his desk and tossed him his book of seals. In the meantime Homura and Koharu took their leave. “I removed pages 88 and 89 for reasons I’m sure you understand.”

“I do. Just out of curiosity, do you have a way to release them?”

“Not yet and there are so many more important things to do that it’s on the backburner for a while. At least time is frozen in there so that won’t inconvenience them too much.”

“True. What about page 87?”

“87? What’s in it?”

“The sand siblings’ sensei.”

“You captured him?!” exclaimed Hiruzen in shock, wondering how Riku could have done so. Sure Riku was strong and definitely a chunin but the man was a jonin.

“That idiot stood right where I sealed Gaara in a barrier. I put it back on and dealt with him like I did the Oto-nins during my first A-rank.”

“That’s good. He’s an important jonin of Suna. Why though?”

“Because I believe he’s the one that killed Hayate-senpai.”

A wave of killing intent washed over the whole room. That gave Riku the confirmation that Neko was none other than Uzuki Yugao.

“Neko.” Hiruzen warned and the killing intent subsided. “Riku, why do you think that?”

“It’s a bit far-fetched but… at the time of the murder the only Suna-nins in the village were team Suna and their sensei. Out of the three siblings only Gaara had the power to win against senpai but from what I heard there was no sand left in the area. That left only…”

“Their sensei. Hum… It makes sense though it’s speculation.”

“Yes, but I’m sure some time with T&I will help find the truth. As far as Suna knows that man he’s MIA.”

Hiruzen nodded and took Page 87 that Riku handed to him. The genin also handed him page 78.

“What’s inside?”

“Seals that increase the nerves’ sensitivity by ten fold. A gift for T&I.”

“I see… I’ll be sure to pass it along with their new prisoner.”

“Anything else, Hokage-sama?

“Yes. With everything going on, the promotions to chunin are delayed. However, yours will not. Konoha needs every shinobi out there to show that yesterday's battle didn’t weaken us at all. Out of all the examinees you’re the only one who is a sure thing. The second stage alone proved that you were ready for it. In any case, that's why I’m promoting you now.”

Opening the drawer again, Hiruzen pulled out his own book of seals. He opened it to a page and unsealed a chunin jacket which he tossed to Riku who caught it.

“Congratulations. You deserved it.”

“Thank you.” Riku whispered looking at the jacket in his hands. “Would you mind… If I take a picture of you giving it to me?”

“Not at all.”

Hiruzen stood and got around his desk. At the same time, Riku unsealed a polaroid and asked Neko if she could take two pictures. The female Anbu appeared from her hiding place, took the camera and aimed at Hiruzen and Riku holding the chunin jacket between them. After she handed him back the camera and the pictures (and disappeared). Riku gave one to Hiruzen.

“I’m going to call it: ‘Getting promoted for disarming the Hokage.’ which made Hiruzen snort on the spot.

“Get out of here! You’ve got work to do!” he ordered with an amused smile.

___________________________________________________________________

As soon as he was out of the Hokage’s office, Riku wanted to put his new jacket on but decided against it. Instead he sealed it and went back to the cheap hotel he was staying in, his home having been destroyed during the attack. He didn’t care much about it in truth. The only memories he had of it before being an orphan was his father killing himself. Not a great memory to remember which had the effect of Riku not caring about the house at all. It was just a place to sleep and eat and nothing more. What he cared about was his inability to offer Karin a place to live but that wasn’t much of a problem with all the money she had made with her bets. Still that posed a problem. With how the villagers thought of him, finding a new place to live would be difficult and his stay at the hotel was only temporary. Sure, he had the money to buy a new house but he refused to pay twice or thrice the normal price for it because an asshole villager didn’t like him. Already he had heard and seen people thinking that he had something to do with Orochimaru’s attack on the village. As if because his mother had worked for the snake, he was automatically working for him too. Such stupidity sickened him to no end but he couldn’t really do anything about it. Not until he was Hokage.

When he arrived on the floor of his hotel Room he saw Karin knocking on his door. She was staying in the room next to him, courtesy of Anbu.

“Hello!” He greeted her warmingly.

“Hello to you too, Riku. Where have you been?” she inquired after turning to the side to face him.

“I was summoned by the Hokage.”

“Can I ask what for?”

“Sure. He just gave me back my book of seals, and gave me my chunin jacket.”

“You got promoted!” she shouted with glee and went to hug him tightly for a whole two seconds before realizing what she had done. Quickly she disengaged with an embarrassed blush on her face.

“It’s fine. It was quite nice. I Haven't gotten a hug since… Well, I wasn’t an orphan yet. I won’t mind many more.” he replied with some cheek.

“In your dreams!” she shouted and tried to punch him but he dodged her fist without any problem.

“There is some development.” he said solemnly, changing the mood drastically.

“In what regards?” she wondered worriedly.

“My house got destroyed. I can’t host you anymore. Can’t even host myself since it’s just a pile of rubles now.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, oh. I don’t think you’d have any problem finding yourself a palace with all the money you won.”

“What about you?”

“I don’t know. For now, it’s the hotel until-...”

“Why? You won even more money than I did!”

“Oh! Well… I’m not really liked by the villagers for something my mother did. So either they refuse me service or increase the price to an indecent level and I refuse to give those assholes my money in return no matter how rich I am.”

“What did your… Can I even ask?”

“Sure. I’ve no problem with it. It’s been almost a decade so it’s water under the bridge. See… When I was four, my mother was caught working as a spy for Orochimaru.”

“Oh. And the villagers are blaming you for it? Like she was a spy so you’re a spy too?”

“Pretty much.” he replied with a shrug. “It’s mostly the civilians, though there are some retards in the shinobi corps too. Since they can’t make my mother pay, I’m the next best thing.”

“Self-righteous pricks then.”

“Yeah but don’t worry, the last one who acted like that towards me, I broke his hand and his nose, and dragged him in front of the Hokage. He got the right to visit the T&I division and a demotion.”

“Good! Got what they fucking deserve. I can’t believe that people…”

“There are idiots everywhere.”

“Well, I guess that settles it then. I’ll find a two bedroom flat and I’ll be hosting you.”

“That’s kind of you, Karin but I’m okay.”

“Nu-huh. The least I could do is offer you the same you offered me. That’s what friends do!”

Riku looked at her with an unreadable expression then smiled warmly.

“Thank you. It’s going to have to wait.  Suna and Oto infiltrated the village through the residential district. I doubt there are many flats available and if there are, the price would be too high for what it's worth, because of the need. I think it’s better if we stay at this hotel a bit. The prices increased too but not by much.”

“Good idea. Still, I’ll keep my eyes open for a good deal. Now I just have to find something to pass the time.”

“How so?” inquired a curious Riku.

“The hospital is overworked so the medic program has been put on hold. Since I can’t take missions outside the village I don’t really have anything to do.”

“With the day we had yesterday, I presume training is off the table…”

“Uh-huh.”

“Interested in fuinjutsu?”

“... Eh, why not. Your shurifuins are really cool and the Hokage said that Uzumaki are usually good at seals.”

“In that case step inside, youngling. I will teach you the basics of the greatest shinobi art.” Riku said, opening the door to his room and inviting her in.