The Chosen One: Hatake SI (Naruto)

Chapter 22

Initially after the Uchiha clan massacre, he had found himself loathing Sasuke Uchiha but as the days passed he realised that the boy was innocent of his brother’s crimes. One could argue that even Itachi could not be blamed for this entire affair.

For all his talents Itachi was only a teenager who had been forced into an impossible choice. He should have known better, but in a world where multiple people and powers were conspiring against their clan he was not left many choices.

He sat on the roof of Sasuke’s new home, and could see the boy twisting and turning in his sleep as he was haunted by the tragedy of his clan. He had fallen asleep in the yard outside, while training which was quite dangerous.

In some ways, his situation was even more precarious than Gojo’s for while he had his brother, friends and mentors to rely on. Sasuke Uchiha was all alone. He pitied the boy. He pitied his predicament.

Suddenly, another figure joined him on the roof. A very familiar figure, and one who bore much of the blame for this tragedy.

“I do hope I do not have to fear for the boy’s life,” Sarutobi Hiruzen asked, as he came and stood beside him as Gojo looked up at the Sun.

“No,” he answered easily.

“I am not like your dear friend. I do not harm children....”

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DODAI—Advisor to the Raikage

Dodai froze the second he heard that familiar tone, as he tried to push down those nightmares and haunting memories from nearly a decade ago.

His head snapped towards the source of this voice, and he found him sitting there, nonchalantly on the roof of one of the abandoned buildings. Even now years later, he was able to recognise those white hairs at a glance, and why would he not.

There was a time in history when those white hairs had become a symbol of fear and death within their village.

“Wha....” the men reacted at once, as they threw kunai and shuriken towards him on instinct but he did not even bother to move at all, and the weapons aimed at him were suddenly pushed back hitting the very people who had used them in the first place.

Some were able to dodge the weapons, some parried them. But some were not so lucky and screamed in agony as their own weapons cut through their skin, as the shinobi quickly surrounded the newcomer hoping to bring him down.

“Stop,” Dodai commanded before his men had sealed their fates, and so the men all stopped as Dodai looked at the Konoha nin with a hint of nervousness.

“It is you,” and the years had changed him, and now he wore a bandage over his eyes. But that was not all that had changed. He had heard rumors that Konoha had appointed a new Hokage after the death of Sarutobi Hiruzen, and that their new Hokage was none other than the Invisible Blade himself. But the cloak and the hat confirmed it.

The aged Sandaime Hokage was a legend of many decades, and with their village getting attacked in the way that it had been Konoha needed a very capable man at the helm, and they had made perhaps the most troubling choice.

“You have gotten old, Dodai?” the young shinobi teased, not caring at all that he was surrounded by some dozen Kumo nin. Rightly so though, for Dodai knew that he could slaughter them all in the blink of an eye if he so desired.

“What are you doing, Dodai-san?” Atsui questioned, and he was too young to know about the man who faced them.

“We have him surrounded. We can kill hi...”

“Shut up,” one of the older shinobi spoke harshly, surprising Atsui.

“Why! There is just one of them. We can take him,” he argued again, but Dodai sighed.

“Do you not know who he is?” he asked, and Atsui frowned as he shook his head.

“No. Should I?” he questioned, and he should. They all should.

“You are looking at the shinobi who was single handedly responsible for the Border Massacre seven years ago,” and they all knew of that, as most of them grew pale at his words.

The Border Massacre was one of the most humiliating tragedies in Kumo’s recent history. The conflict had begun with a botched attempt of kidnapping Konoha’s Hyuga Princess, when they had hoped to take advantage of disaster that had been the Kyubi incident to further their own agenda.

But, they had not just stopped the kidnapping but they had also refused to back down from the threat of war, as their village began incursions along this very border. Konoha could not spare an army, so they sent only a small unit to defend the border but that small unit was able to decimate some thousand of their shinobi over the course of the next three years.

The most troubling member of this group was a young shinobi of white hair, and middling height. A shinobi whose name was etched in their memories with blood of their comrades.

Gojo Hatake, of the Invisible Blade.

“He is the Invisible Blade,” he told them, while he stepped forward, and it seemed to him that their incursion was over.

“Not just that he is also the Godaime Hokage,” he announced, and that complicated this entire matter even more for killing a Kage was no small step, though even with the combined power of every shinobi here they would not be able to take him on.

“Hokage?” Atsui gasped, and Dodai had to protect his men.

“It is unusual for a Hokage to stray so far from the village,” Dodai commented, and the young man pushed himself to his feet.

“Well when I heard that Kumo had lost their senses once more, I could not help myself and came running to see if you lot had forgotten the lesson from back then,” and he had not.

“We were not the one’s to start this,” Dodai protested.

“It was your people who crossed the border first, and torched our settlements. We are simply retaliating,” he defended their actions.

“Funny for I have heard a similar tale about your village from my people,” and that could not be the truth.

“Liars!” one of the Kumo nin’s screamed, but Hatake simply ignored him.

“So we are at an impasse,” he spoke while rubbing his chin.

“It seems like we are,” he agreed, and Dodai knew that he had to avoid a conflict here at all costs.

“I will look into the matter, but I believe neither of our villages desires a war with one another. So, let me make you an offer,” and the smile vanished from his face.

“Leave our borders in the next five minutes and this entire conflict can end right here right now,” and then he slowly reached for the bandages around his eyes and loosened them slightly, as a wave of chakra rushed off of him oppressing the very air.

Few of them fell to the ground because of the sheer power emanating from him, as Dodai caught a hint of a brilliant blue hidden under those bandages.

“Stay and I will to repeat the massacre from Seven Years ago,” and the choice was obvious.

“How dare you!” one of the idiots reacted before Dodai could do anything.

“Wait,” he ordered, but this young chunin had jumped already with his sword as he tried to cut him down with a single swing of his blade.

“You are done!” he screamed.

“Wait,” Dodai shouted, but it was too late.

Without even glancing back at the chunin, Gojo Hatake simply raised his hand and a small red orb formed at the tip of his finger.

“Ninpo: Hanten...” and the orb shot forward, and blew apart the chunin in the blink of an eye.

“...Aka,” and the chunin’s blood rained down on him, while all they could do was watch in silence as he looked down at them with sheer indifference.

“The clock is ticking....”

0000

PAIN—Nagato

The plan had been simple. With Jiraiya, the Sanin residing in Konoha, attacking the village directly was not an option. The man was a Sage, and even for Pain, facing him came with great risk.

But it was not just the Toad Sage he feared. No. There was another shinobi within Konoha that he feared. One he had never faced himself, but he had been warned about him by Madara—Gojo Hatake.

He would have thought that Madara had been exaggerating when he had warned him about this shinobi, but he still remembered the feeling from years ago. He was resting in his usual confinement when he had felt a burst of his chakra from near the border.

Yet even at such a distance, it had felt as if his gaze could pierce through his very being. Ever since that day, Nagato had held up a barrier around the village to protect himself and the Akatsuki against that probing gaze.

It took much out of him to maintain such a thing all the time, but he was an enemy he could not underestimate.

Soon enough, the entire cave was filled with all the members as Pain found himself addressing the assembly.

“It seems like our plans in Konoha have failed,” and they had hoped to destabilise the village, by inciting a war with Kumo yet their new Hokage was able to put an end to their ambitions by walking to the border himself.

Many within Kumo still remembered their last confrontation with the S-ranked nin, and so his presence had deterred further violence, and the border dispute was resolved without becoming a war.

Suna had also renewed their alliance, and their Jinchuriki had been taken back to their village as well. Targeting the Kyubi was impossible, for the Toad Sage stood guard over him.

“The Kyubi is out of our grasp for the foreseeable future, so we must turn our gaze towards the rest,” and they had already captured some.

“We shall leave the Kyubi for the last and gather up the rest in the meantime,” and so he would be sending them out towards Kumo, Iwa, and Kiri to gather up the rest of jinchuriki.

“But that is not the only reason I have called on you,” he began, for the actual reason was something far more troubling than the Bijuu.

“The attack on Konoha was led by none other than Orochimaru. A former member of this group,” and the Snake Sanin had defected years ago, and had now been replaced by Deidara from Iwa.

“For years now he has evaded our retaliation, but this attack is a mockery of this organization,” and its defection became so easy, Akatsuki would fall apart. It would have been easier if the man had died facing the Sandaime Hokage, but he had won his battle against him, turning him into perhaps the most notorious criminal of the continent.

His very existence was an antithesis to their organization, and as the leader of the Akatsuki, it was his duty to put an end to him.

“This ends now,” he declared as his Chakra filled the room.

“While we will continue to gather the Bijuu, it is time for Orochimaru to pay for his betrayal,” and he looked at them all as a warning.

“You are all to be on the lookout for any information regarding him. All such information is to be relayed to Konan,” he pointed towards his most trusted companion.

“She will be the one to dole out judgment on that traitor....”

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Back in Konoha, Karin was becoming used to her new life. The village had provided her with a House and a guardian. Yamato-san had been kind enough to show her around the village and teach her about its history.

She was staying at the former residence of Lady Mito, a Uzumaki Princess who had married the founder of the village, Hashirama Senju. Upon her death, she had bequeathed the place to any and all Uzumaki refugees, though none were able to reach the village.

There was another Uzumaki kunoichi here, one named Kushina, though Yamato-san was not so forthcoming about her life. The only thing she knew was that she had been the wife of the Yondaime Hokage, and had died during the Kyubi incident.

She had been cautious at first, but slowly the walls began to crack. Yamato-san was kind to her and treated her like a kid. She had an allowance that she was able to draw on, and had few obligations.

All in all, she liked her life here. A week had passed, and it was time for her regular Hospital visit. The Iryo-nin who had examined her on the first day had gone pale after seeing the state of her body, with all its bite marks.

Most of them had become scars, but they were trying to reduce them as much as possible. She did not mind them, though, for they were a part of who she was.

“Yamato-san,” she asked, as they sat in the room waiting for the Iryo-nin.

“Yes,” he answered dutifully.

“Would you help me train?” she asked, and before he could answer, the door to the room was pushed open rather violently.

“Where is the girl!” a stranger screamed, and her heart sank for a moment as Yamato-san quickly rushed to her side, as two strangers entered the room alongside her Iryo-nin, who seemed to be cowering in fear.

One of the women was an older blonde, and wore a green cloak over her uniform. Her hair was fashioned into twin ponytails, and a young dark-haired girl followed behind her desperately.

“Tsunade-sama, please be calm,” the dark-haired girl begged as the blonde’s eyes landed on her. Her expression shifted as she saw her look at her hair, before her gaze finally descended to the arms where various bite marks could be seen.

“Tch,” Karin saw her click her tongue as she cursed under her breath.

“Tsunade-sama!” the dark-haired girl chided her, but she did not apologize.

“You are the Uzumaki kid that the idiot gave asylum to?” and it took her a second to realize that she had just called the Hokage an idiot.

“Yes,” Yamato-san answered.

“She is Karin Uzumaki, and Gojo-sama has granted her asylum,” and now she turned towards him as her eyes narrowed.

“You must be Tenzo,” she began, and she saw him still for a moment before he answered.

“Yes, indeed. I am also called Tenzo, though I also go by the name Yamato,” and the woman named Tsunade rolled her eyes.

“Choose one name, kid,” she then pointed towards her.

“You! Uzumaki girl! You are coming with me,” and she had read that name before.

Tsunade. Tsunade.

“Who are you?” she asked, and the woman glanced towards Yamato-san sharply before she sighed.

“I am Tsunade Senju. He should have told you about Mito baa-san by now,” and now it clicked together.

“Baa-san. You are her granddaughter,” she realized, and the woman nodded.

“Yes, and that makes us cousins of sorts...”

0000

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