Interlude: Sarutobi Hiruzen
The old man, a fixture in one particular Konoha residence, sat at his desk as ever, shuffling through his eternal stack of paperwork. Nothing that day seemed to foreshadow trouble, until a certain jonin walked in.
A man somewhere around thirty. Still young, yet with the face of someone who'd seen everything this world had to offer. That was precisely what rubbed the Hokage the wrong way, because the shinobi standing before him had never looked like that before.
"Everything alright, Yuzu?" Hiruzen carefully asked the spy who had been embedded in Kiri's revolution long ago. The man had already weathered four waves of it and was, by all accounts, considered "one of their own" by now.
"I want to retire, Hokage-sama. If you'd please sign…" He produced a scroll from his pocket, broke the seal, and held out the paper.
"Ahem!" Coughing, Sarutobi accepted it, though he made no immediate move to decide its fate. "Right… Tell me everything. And where's Sora?"
The spy told him.
The Hokage was, needless to say, impressed.
"And Nara-san is with Senpai. They've gone on a bender…"
"So a new era has begun… Hmm-hmm-hmm," the old man drew out, drumming his fingers on the desk. Then, with a nod, he signed the paper. "Go on, Yuzu. You're a free man now."
The jonin seemed to physically brighten. He shrugged off his vest on the spot, pulled off his headband, left them on the chair by the desk, and without a moment's hesitation vaulted through the open window. Hiruzen sank deep into thought. He turned over in his mind the information about a certain Three-Named, who had declared himself ruler of the world, who had first cowed several thousand shinobi, then an even greater army of those same shinobi, and who had, for all practical purposes, already brought the Land of Water to heel.
"When I rule the world, you be my deputy?" The words surfaced on their own from a distant past.
Usually, when Naruto pulled some spectacularly massive stunt, Hiruzen panicked. But now an absolute calm had descended on Sarutobi. He had a clear, bone-deep understanding that no amount of "blub-blub-blub" would help here anymore. And so, as an elder who had truly seen this world, he thought about how to navigate this situation. The answer was already right in front of him.
That same day, a messenger hawk took flight toward the Daimyo. The very next day, a council of jonin and officials of the Land of Fire convened. With the aforementioned Daimyo present, naturally. There, the old man, deploying every ounce of his considerable eloquence, began arguing that after recent events in the Land of Water, Konoha had become the number one target for every spy and provocateur in the world.
"Well, it already was, because of Uzumaki," thought everyone else in the room, but Hiruzen pressed on. He declared that now of all times the Leaf needed a Hokage who could ride out to the front, conduct negotiations, and serve as a symbol, not a decrepit old man like himself.
The assembled audience wasn't particularly moved by this either, still having vivid memories of what that "decrepit old man" had managed to pull off on a certain rooftop during the attack on the Village.
But the Third wouldn't let up, and ultimately proposed for his position a hero of the great wars, a close personal acquaintance of "you-know-who," and a man universally respected among shinobi: Hatake Kakashi.
At that, the attendees, without much further deliberation, took pity on Hiruzen after all, and voted "yes."
The very next day, a certain silver-haired man, who also happened to have a talent for skipping meetings of exactly this kind, stood with an expression of absolute bewilderment on his face, accepting the hat with the kanji for "Fire" and improvising on the spot for something halfway intelligent to say so as not to look like a complete idiot during his own inauguration as Hokage.
As for the old man, now unburdened of his great responsibility… though retaining his post for life, as was tradition, the obligations had passed to another. He quietly slipped away to the far edge of the Land of Fire. There, in a small backwater village, he bought a little house by a pond, became an ordinary fisherman, and left all the rest of it behind.
In the Hidden Stone Village, in the Tsuchikage's residence.
"Aaaaaah!!!" Clutching his head, the small old man who served as the village's ruler was comically scurrying around his office. "We're all dooooomed!"
"…" Watching the spectacle with a complicated expression on her face, a dark-haired girl who was also in the office sighed. "Gramps… maybe cool it."
In private, she allowed herself considerably more liberties than she would at the council.
"This world," the old man stopped in the center of the room and, dropping to his knees, stretched his hands toward the ceiling, "is doooomed!"
"Weren't you the one who kept saying you'd outlive three generations? Maybe it's finally time to hand over the Tsuchikage position…"
"What do you know?!" he cried in a tone of theatrical despair, cutting Kurotsuchi off. "And another thing—"
He attempted to spring sharply to his feet, which sent a loud crack snapping through the office.
"Agh… My back!" The Tsuchikage grabbed the offending body part, instantly forgetting whatever point he'd been about to make. "Granddaughter…"
"…" Said granddaughter, saying nothing but conveying volumes with her face, walked over and, gripping him, straightened Onoki's spine with a single knee movement, which made him gasp and breathe deeply. Then the girl asked, "So what have you decided to do… after all that?"
"What is there to do…" His voice losing all its softness now that he no longer needed help, Onoki stated, "We sit tight and stay quieter than ever. Maybe if this bra—"
He cut himself off sharply, glancing around as though afraid someone might hear.
"Maybe then, if the Emperor is merciful, our lives won't change. And we'll be looking for a diplomatic channel with Water… or rather, the Empire."
"Right…" the girl drew out. "Smart. So when are you handing over the hat?"
"You and that damn hat…"
They continued to argue.
Ei, the Raikage, his lower face hidden behind clasped hands, sat in his residence and studied his subordinate with careful eyes. The man had told him… quite a lot. And Ei had no idea what to make of it. Because what he'd just been forced to sit through sounded less like the report of a sane person and more like the ravings of a lunatic.
"I hear you. Take a month off."
Being, on occasion, a reasonably levelheaded ruler, the Raikage decided not to jump to conclusions. Wait for the next batch of reports a few days out and compare the details.
Except when everything lined up…
"What the hell is going on?!" Ei erupted, bringing his fist down on the desk and splitting it clean in two. "What does this Uzumaki think he's doing?! How can he be stronger than Father?!"
Raging and rampaging, he laid waste to everything in the office while the latest messenger made a hasty exit.
Calming down only after a couple of minutes, the Raikage stood breathing heavily, fury still radiating off him, and summoned two operatives.
"You!" He jabbed a finger at one of them. "Tell Mabui to increase funding for those two projects. She knows which ones."
He was referring to the authorization of experiments targeting jinchuriki weaknesses, and Mabui's own lethal technique, Heavenly Transfer.
The first masked operative gave a quick nod and bolted off to find the woman in question, who also happened to be the Raikage's assistant.
"You! Where's Bee?!"
"Um…" The second operative hesitated, but seeing his lord's expression grow progressively less friendly, answered quickly, "At Teitsu Square! He's rapping."
"His garbage rhymes again?! Tell him to drag his ass to our spot! From now on, we train three times as hard!!!"
Uzumaki Naruto's POV
"Information warfare is paying dividends," I noted from my throne in the hall of my temple, watching the Stone shinobi take their leave. "They're already starting to butter me up. All the better."
I had ordered the people of the Land of Water to spread information about me. The same information I had personally delivered from the podium not long ago.
Right now, I had another meeting scheduled.
"How's life undercover, 'Spy'?"
At my question, the man who'd just entered broke into a dead-fish smile.
"Splendid, Uzumaki-sama…" replied Mittei, a man whose name, taken literally, meant exactly that: "spy."
"A mercenary who spent years witnessing the suffering of ordinary people in this country and decided to join the revolution." That was what the former revolutionaries knew about him. In reality, he was a Root operative. With, quite literally, the most brazenly constructed cover file I had ever read. Who could possibly be more suspicious and unsettling than a mercenary whose name literally meant "spy"? A man who had spent years wandering God knows where, doing God knows what. The absolutely perfect profile for a planted agent, because if you dug deeper, you'd find he was completely clean. "Mittei" was a name worn by several people, other Root operatives who had been leaving trails across the Land of Water for years to build a future alibi. And the current Mittei himself was, in fact, a native of the Mist, recruited the moment he graduated from the Academy. Danzo had spent several years cultivating a specialist like him. As one of the revolution's leaders, he would have stood at the very heart of the future hidden village. He had been responsible for nearly all the intelligence on the Water revolutions across multiple waves.
"What brings you here?"
"Umishio has returned…"
"That Hozuki? Yeah, I know."
"He's pushing his clan toward undermining your authority… Literally. Amateur."
"Oh, is that so. Alas, poor Yorick!" I exclaimed with deliberate theatricality, at which Mittei turned his head with a questioning look. "Shakespeare. Never mind. As for the Hozuki, neutralize him with Raiton. And take his head. Seems he did better without one."
"Hm…" Mittei appeared to think it over, as though trying to remember. "You're right. He talks less that way."
Shortly after, my agent left the temple with an Imperial edict in hand. I continued with matters of state. My reforms were coming along well enough. But to make this country run efficiently, a great deal more still needed to be set in stone. And so, going through the proposals submitted by various officials, I added my own thoughts and formed my own assessments. All in preparation for the next council session, where I'd throw everything into one pile and push through the best decisions.
Interlude: Haku
Late evening.
The Ice Ninja, sharing a meal with his Zabuza-sama at a tavern in the Village of the Mist, felt very strange. Even stranger than when they'd been released from prison and brought back home.
Two weeks had passed since a certain… arrival. And only now had he, and the swordsman too, grown accustomed to the fact that falling asleep in their home village, in their home country, they no longer had to dread a sudden attack by Hunter-nin.
"Mmh, damn good potatoes," Zabuza said blissfully, his smile evident even beneath the bandages as he patted his stomach.
"The food really is good. It's like going back to—"
"Don't," Momochi cut Haku off, his tone darkening by a full shade in an instant. Not that it did anything to dim the other's good mood.
The supply line for food from the Leaf had already started running. Neither of the two could fully appreciate the scale of it, but every other ordinary Mist shinobi was practically in ecstasy eating real food instead of the slop that less-than-wealthy ninja had scraped by on before. Under Yagura, the economy, agriculture included, had gone straight to hell. Now, Earth-natured shinobi were being mobilized en masse to fix that.
When they finally finished their meal and stepped outside into the dark, a pair of ninja with unfamiliar patches on their shoulders stopped the duo of the swordsman and the masked figure on the empty street.
"The hell are you two doing out here during curfew?" one immediately got in Zabuza's face, which earned him a raised eyebrow.
"What curfew?"
"Due to the elevated risk of sabotage, a curfew has been implemented to maintain order," the second one explained evenly, at which Zabuza's eyes went wide. He'd literally never heard of anything like that in his entire life. Haku, for his part, had a mask in the way of expressing anything.
"Let's take a little walk to the station, sweethearts," said the "bad cop."
"…" Momochi pulled a deeply unimpressed face. He didn't appreciate the label. Or the attitude.
"Zabuza-sama… maybe let's not?" Haku asked carefully, at which the first shinobi bristled, while the second, sensing trouble, started making frantic calming gestures at his partner. That one, apparently, had no idea who he was actually dealing with: none other than the Demon of the Bloody Mist himself.
"The hell do you mean—"
Neither the first nor his partner got to finish their sentences before both were seized by the throat. Then, with one wide swing, they were simply slammed face-first into the cobblestones.
"Easy," Zabuza rumbled, and the two of them walked on. Only to get chewed out by their superiors the next day for disorderly conduct.
"You're here too?" Momochi said, genuinely surprised. Arriving at the location designated for his punishment, the sewers, he found "the first one" there. The "bad cop."
"Yeah… They told me to work on my manners."
Zabuza snorted and headed to the utility closet to grab the tools. Then they both got to work.
Interlude: Haruno Sakura
The pink-haired girl leaned against the marble railing, looking out over the Village of the Mist.
It felt like a long time had passed, but given how densely events had been stacked, it wasn't quite that. Just two weeks. And already so much behind them.
Undeniably, many good things had happened. The kunoichi could watch the country coming back to life right before her eyes and couldn't stop feeling that quietly exhilarating sense of having contributed to something real.
But not everything was perfect.
The reforms were moving, but not overnight. There were still shinobi who had fled, and even professional Hunter-nin still operating. There had been two attempts on her own life… Not that the attackers had anything resembling a real shot. But still. The fact remained.
Sabotage on several islands had only compounded the supply problems, and that needed immediate attention. Smuggling had started cropping up in certain areas, and that needed handling too. Mei, Ao, and Sakura were dealing with real administrative headaches. Occasionally in a very shinobi-specific way: first, you have to punch someone in the face, and then you establish order.
And yet, all she felt was an even deeper gratitude toward the one who had given her the chance to build something this significant. Toward the one who had himself become something far greater than she could have imagined…
"Shh…" Mid-reverie about a certain blond, Sakura was interrupted by the appearance of a shinobi behind her. She'd sensed him long before, but now it was time to snap out of it completely.
"What is it, Josame?" the girl sighed.
Fear. Naruto had inspired far too much of it. Which was why someone like Natsuo communicated with the Emperor through her, relaying reports and such. This particular relative of Hoshigaki only dared approach the Emperor for the most critical matters. So her reaction was obvious: whatever this ninja wanted to say, it wasn't that important.
"I… It's… I'm really embarrassed to even ask."
"Just say it," Haruno prompted him, raising an eyebrow. The ninja in front of her wasn't usually one to stammer.
"Well. My dream… The truth is, I've always dreamed of a quiet life. Without all this… battles where someone's getting their guts torn out or strangled…"
"Get to the point."
"And so, it seems like that time might have come…" The man pressed on, then went silent, and to Sakura's surprised eyes, tears began sliding down his face. "We waited so long for this…"
"He was only speaking about his own dream, wasn't he?" Haruno noted oddly to herself, thinking that perhaps the swordsman had meant not just the other revolution leaders.
"Nobody among my people knows… But all this time, I've been seeing someone…"
Sakura was surprised again. This time, though, by the sheer sneaking-around skills of a certain shark-face.
"Her name is Hozami…"
"Fanged Shark? She's a Hoshigaki?" flashed through Sakura's head.
"And… Lady Haruno… Would you be willing to marry us?"
"…Wha… Um? Me?" She was completely thrown. "I mean. Why not Naruto?.. Well, the Emperor?"
"We… think the Emperor is too busy for something like this. But perhaps you'd have the time? You, as the messenger of a god, could bear witness…"
"Huh? Ha-ha." With every passing second that the full weight of what was being asked of her sank in, Sakura grew more visibly flustered. She started slowly backing away. "No, no. I actually think the Emperor can find a free minute for this. You go ahead. And I'll go, I'll talk to him… Maybe work something out…"
And, breaking into a run, Haruno bolted away, eyes wide as saucers.
"A wedding… Officiate someone's wedding. No. I did not sign up for this." She moved deeper into the temple, thinking furiously about how to gracefully dodge this embarrassing honor and quietly pass it off to the main culprit, the very reason the two of them had this honor in the first place.
At that very moment, somewhere in the Village of the Rain, a certain blue-haired woman sneezed. It seemed like if she and the pink-haired girl ever crossed paths, they'd find a very special understanding.
Uzumaki Naruto's POV
Another council session was underway. In a country changing as fast as this one, they'd become a daily occurrence. And with that kind of pace, things moved fast.
I wasn't in my ceremonial robes and laurel wreath right now, just a white t-shirt and black pants. Home clothes, basically. Comfort mattered more at the moment. Whereas not long ago I'd been stressed about having to sit or lie in specific poses during receptions so my biju wouldn't show through the fabric.
Having married off one colorful pair the day before, I was now working through another round of proposals and contributing my own. There were quite a few of us at the table: besides the former revolution leaders, Mei, Ao, a slightly jittery Natsuo, and Josame, there were also capable people from across the Land of Water, and one bald old man who had served as an advisor even under Yagura. Right up until Yagura had thrown him in prison for giving advice that was, in the late Mizukage's view, far too "sensible." Sakura, having completed the bulk of her work, had already departed for the Leaf.
"…lost track of the target at Sapo port. Two schooners were set ablaze by remnants of the opposition. In light of this, I propose reinforcing the—" Ao's report flowed on, and I listened with a thoroughly bored expression.
Things had grown considerably quieter lately, and the issues being raised sometimes got outright trivial, like the burning of two little boats. These thoughts were nudging me toward a realization: this chapter seemed to be closing, stability settling in. Which meant that before long, my presence wouldn't be needed at sessions like this, and I could pursue my own ideas within the growing system while having more time for a more varied and actually enjoyable personal life.
The only thing was… those thoughts about stability had clearly been premature.
The boredom vanished from my face when, at no great distance, someone materialized straight out of thin air.
A being carrying within itself an energy that was monstrous even by my standards.
It had more chakra than the Nine-Tails. Several times over.
"Well, that's… sudden," I thought, marveling at my own fate. "Like it's playing a cruel joke on me."
"Are you alright?" Mei asked me, when Ao went quiet and everyone noticed I'd raised my eyes to the ceiling.
"No…" I breathed in deeply, then out. "I don't know if it'll help, but announce an evacuation. There's a chance this country ends today."
And under gazes, some uncomprehending, some immediately flooded with terror, I stepped through a teleport to hang in the air before the being whose silhouette still lingered, dim but unmistakable, somewhere at the back of my memory from another life.
"He… I thought he'd come later. What made him turn his attention to this world?"
_____
You can support me and read up to 20 upcoming chapters ahead of release at –> patreon.com/Welydora