Chapter 84
Today marks Hiruzen's two years in this world. Though it was such a short time, it sure felt like an eternity had passed. Many things had changed; he didn't have any memory of how the village looked before the Nine-Tails attack, but he sure remembered well how it looked after it.
Now, everything was rebuilt. Many even praised that it was better than ever before. All Hiruzen cared about was that everything was functional and reliable. The streets were safe to walk in, and the buildings were sturdy and didn't take up too much space.
And most importantly, nobody complained about their rightful property. Every clan was settled in its separate residences. Every family had their own place to live in. And even orphanages had space to let children grow.
Hiruzen looked at the sky lanterns lifted into the air in remembrance of those who had lost their lives on that night two years ago. He didn't know whose idea it was, but it was a nice touch to say goodbye to the ones lost one more time. Or maybe it was to show that they still cared about them.
Either way, it was something that Hiruzen more than liked to see. He never thought of making today a special day. So, it was nice that people thought they should remember the people who were lost rather than the tragedy itself. And created such a beautiful sight.
Hiruzen honored the memory of his wife, whom he didn't even have a chance to know. Putting down the flowers on her grave and lighting a lantern for her too, so it wouldn't be so dark wherever she was.
He felt nothing but sadness for her. Death wasn't something he came to understand, even though he experienced it once. Now, it was even more confusing to him than it was before. It was all kind of messed up, but he was fine with it.
But he could only imagine what she must feel if she watched over him and saw that her husband was no longer here either. And someone else walked with his skin on. What she felt was only left to his imagination. But he didn't think it was anything pretty.
Though he didn't dare to dwell on it for long. There was nothing he could do just by thinking about it. And now he had completely accepted his situation and who he was. Fake or not, he was the owner of this body and the memories it once had, though he still didn't have them all yet.
Watching the sky lantern rise into the sky above his wife's grave, Hiruzen slowly turned away and left. He had nothing to say. And he didn't think she would want to hear anything from him. But he made a promise to her in his mind that he would take care of the family he was pushed into.
Though one of his sons had already left the village, no one knew when he would come back. And the other one was pretending not to be his son. There was nothing Hiruzen could do once he put on the owl mask. He just became the captain of the ANBU team.
In the end, he was just a sad old man. Who even wanted him? He could only imagine what it meant to fall in love and be loved. But even if it was a lonely path, it wasn't like he had any other choice.
No matter how many more years he had to live, he was still in his late fifties. And he was only growing older. At least his hair was no longer graying from stress. And his body was getting into quite good shape from all the strength training he was doing, even though it was only done to control his own strength.
"Hokage-sama."
Hiruzen turned slowly to the ANBU kneeling before him and sighed. If he was bothered on such a day and time, that meant something important was happening that needed his attention. It seemed his peaceful days were coming to an end.
It couldn't even wait until he returned to his office, either. How annoying. He really wished Kakashi could grow up faster. He still had that quest from the system to make him the next Hokage. That unknown penalty was quite scary.
Though at this point, he would like Kakashi to get the job because there wasn't really anyone else who could do it. Jiraiya had been avoiding Hiruzen for the past few months because he had asked him if he had any interest in the job. Tsunade wasn't over her trauma, so he left her be.
As much as he liked Fugaku to take over, he knew well that the Uchiha clan was getting a bit too much power within the village. Even without the Hyuga, there were plenty of clans who wouldn't just sit around and let another clan get all the control over the village.
Fugaku wasn't a person who instilled trust in others. To most, he was just a powerful shinobi and the leader of the Uchiha clan. He never sought out any friendship with other clans, and so, to others, he was just a power-hungry man whom they couldn't trust to have the village's well-being as a whole in mind.
…
"So that's how it is."
Hiruzen looked at the map, especially the territory around Kusagakure, and then at the territory of Tanigakure. Both villages were small, one neighbored the Land of Fire, the other the Land of Earth. But one of them was getting a bit richer and stronger because of Hiruzen's involvement with it.
"Are you certain that Tanigakure is affiliated with Iwagakure?"
"I checked the information myself," Jiraiya replied. "It was the first thing I did once I saw some suspicious movement with those two villages."
Tanigakure. Usually, it wouldn't even enter Hiruzen's sight, as it was even smaller and weaker than Kusagakure. But it seemed that it had entered someone else's sight. It seemed that someone took a dislike to Hiruzen's involvement with his neighboring hidden village.
"They're getting more brazen as we speak," Jiraiya continued. "Not only did they not contact Kusagakure when they were trespassing on their territory, but they also started to interfere with the local shinobi's missions. And taking missions on their lands. It is nothing but harassment at this point."
Testing the waters, aren't they? That was the first thing Hiruzen could think of. There was no way those kinds of actions were done without any purpose. They were really starting to piss him off, especially when he had just started to enjoy his peaceful days after Obito visited him.
"Does anyone else know of Iwagakure's involvement?"
"Only the people in this room," Jiraiya replied, looking at Hiruzen and the ANBU, as well as Shikaku and Fugaku, who stayed silent for now.
"Does anyone know that we know of Iwagakure's involvement?"
"Eh?" Jiraiya was confused by Hiruzen's question. "Not to my knowledge. I investigated it myself and left no traces. So, no, nobody should know about the information we have. But Iwagakure weren't really hiding it either, so they probably wanted us to know."
"Know what?" Hiruzen smiled. "I'm getting old. Why are we here again? Oh, right, two smaller villages are getting into a small disagreement. Well, as their ally, we should help Kusagakure resolve it quickly."
Peace was good. It was safe and calm. But as much as he loved peace, he knew that a price must be paid to maintain it. If Iwagakure wanted to test the waters, they shouldn't blame them if they got burned, since the waters they wanted to test were boiling up.
"We know nothing about Iwagakure's involvement," Hiruzen stated. "Capture every shinobi that is trespassing on Kusagakure's territory and the Land of Fire without permission. All of you will move out this time."
"All of us?" Shikaku was surprised.
"Yes, you will use every available jonin to sweep through the Land of Fire. Jiraiya will take my ANBU, and Fugaku his ROOT. Go in full force and capture every single one of them in Kusagakure's territory. But don't kill any of them. I have plans for them."
"Understood," Fugaku replied without hesitation, while Jiraiya only agreed after a sigh.
Shikaku looked at Hiruzen, probably trying to understand what he was thinking. It was quite a drastic move. But Hiruzen wasn't going to play games with Iwagakure; if they wanted something, they'd better come out and play themselves.
"As good as it would do, we can't simply do something this big," Shikaku, in the end, had to bring Hiruzen back to reality. "We need a justification if we don't want it to go overboard. Remember, every village is looking at us right now, just waiting to see any weakness we might show."
"Hmm." That was true, but Hiruzen wasn't too concerned with that. "Jiraiya, don't you think our shipping company should start spreading its business to the ground? And Kusagakure does seem like it needs some resources. Why don't we supply them with them at a discounted price?"
"Hokage-sama, we don't own any company," Jiraiya smiled back. "But we are friends with those who do, and their guards can sometimes look like just a bunch of bandits. But what can we do? Finding good guards is so difficult."
"And getting rid of bandits just so happens to be the most common mission," Shikaku finished their train of thought. "I will arrange everything. Once they attack the company transporting supplies to our allies, we have more than enough justification to get rid of all those pests."
Hiruzen had no intention of playing along with others' rules. At times like this, it was better to be decisive and get rid of the problem fast before it festered into something else. Still, it didn't mean it would end so easily.
Iwagakure did kind of hate Konohagakure. And seeing Konoha prosper so well probably irritated them. So, they wouldn't let it slide so easily. But they wouldn't do anything themselves. That Hiruzen was certain of.
And he could guess what they might use next. That's why Hiruzen wouldn't hold back anything either. He would crush them all and show Konoha's power to everyone else who was watching them.
If they didn't want to make peace while Konoha was being nice, they would have no choice but to ask for it when they were face-to-face with them. Iwagakure would be reminded why they hated Konoha, because they were powerless against it.
"Owl, choose two teams to leave behind in the village, and the rest will join you to support Jiraiya," Hiruzen said once he was left alone, well, alone with his ANBU.
"Are you concerned about something, Hokage-sama?" a voice in the shadows asked.
"Yes, always assume that nothing is as it seems and nothing goes as planned," Hiruzen replied. "Prepare for anything and everything."
Hiruzen didn't like that the system stayed quiet, too. Usually, it made noise over anything, but this time it didn't. So, he had no idea what this situation even entailed. He had to be even more careful about all of this.
That old man in Iwa was probably thinking he could use Hiruzen's passive nature to hold a grip on Konoha's expansion. It was good that people thought of him as a peace-seeking man; it opened a more diplomatic approach. But he would crush those who thought they could use it against him.
But there was this nagging feeling in his head that told him that all of it was just a distraction. Why else would they start harassing Kusagakure? There was little to gain. And it wouldn't do much damage to Konoha, even if they cut all ties with Kusa.
That old bastard of Iwagakure should know that. So, what was his plan? What did he want from all of this? It might be a trap, but Hiruzen had to act. So hopefully, no matter what trap it might be, brute force would be able to break through it.
What he was concerned about were the other villages. Suna was awfully quiet. Though Hiruzen didn't attempt to communicate with them after what they had done, the fact that they hadn't even apologized irked him. Were they still holding a grudge against them?
Or it could be Kiri. Maybe they found out about Konoha's involvement with them and were now trying their luck with Iwa. They were also a bit too quiet, suspiciously quiet. And he knew of Obito's involvement with them. Hiruzen will always have to be wary of them.
But then again, everyone was suspicious, since everyone was his enemy. So he couldn't figure anything out just by thinking about it; he had to act. If it comes to it, he might strike first rather than wait for them to take action.
A.N. As always, thanks for reading and supporting me, so I can continue writing without any concerns, and if you want more, up to seven more chapters, you can support me on pa treon. com \ ironwolf852.