Inheritance

The Chunin Exams I

Too much of course, for anyone to be able to accuse him of attacking the blond, as Naruto hadn't actually seen his assailant.

"He was my team mate, friend, and rival to the seat of Hokage all at the same time. When I attained the position over him, he became increasingly militaristic and dark in his worldview, disagreeing with the views and teaching of the Shodaime. He started an organization called 'Root', an off-shoot of ANBU under his own control, initially with the remit of undertaking 'black' missions for the benefit of the village that as he was an independent force, we could not be blamed for.

"They went against everything I believed, everything your Father believed, and everything the Shodaime had taught; and yet, I let him continue. Continue with the missions, continue building Root's strength. Even now, I'm not entirely sure why. I suppose I believed him to have the village's best interests at heart, the way he saw best to protect the village. I still saw him as my friend.

"However, it became increasingly clear that Danzou's motives had at some point, changed. He begun to plot to usurp me as Hokage, to establish Konoha as the dominating force in the world. He intends to conquer the rest of the elemental nations, with Konoha at the head of course, by any means necessary."

Naruto felt slightly ill at that. The sheer loss of life such a campaign would exact upon Konoha, on his friends - hell, on the world - was utterly staggering. But it was the idea of a Konoha with the Hokage as some kind of oppressive tyrant, was what really disturbed him. The idea of the position his Father held, the position he aspired to, being used to rule over people with an iron fist sickened him to the very core.

"This Root... It's gotten too big for you to take down with force, hasn't it; and obviously Danzou is too influential for you to have him taken out and get away with it, and too careful to be caught doing something to damage his reputation?" Naruto asked slowly, running over possibilities and facts in his mind faster than he could even process them properly.

"On the money, gaki." Jiraiya interjected from his position at the back of the room, arms folded, with a similar serious expression to the Sandaime on his face. "Essentially, we're stuck waiting for him to make his move, with very little we can do to directly counter him."

"Assassination is out of the question. Danzou is too well protected, too damn paranoid and frankly, too good to be taken out of the game like that. Obviously I could simply have Root removed and Danzou killed.." Sarutobi started, leaving Naruto with an opportunity to fill in the rest.

"But you can't move without evidence because he has so much support from within the village; and that aside, fighting against a force of Black-ops trained shinobi would be horrific in terms of casualties and structural damage, as well as being impossible to hide from enemies on the outside." Seeing the Hokage nod in confirmation, Naruto pressed on. "So what can we do?"

"We watch, Naruto. Gather a circle of those you trust absolutely around yourself, and work to monitor Danzou's movements and actions, and counter them as often as is possible. Then it's just a case of waiting for Danzou to make his move. In most cases, under the radar battles for control of a village such as Konoha are long term, and rest on the swaying of the influential young of the village - the heirs to the most prominent people and clans - onto your side before any real conflict can break out... However, we have something on our side this time that could be instrumental in that particular battle - something Danzou would never be able to acquire for himself."

Naruto racked his brain trying to reason out what Sarutobi was hinting at, but in the end, the elder Kage put him out of his misery.

"I have somebody already integrated into the current crop of major clan heirs - somebody they all trust, but more importantly, somebody I am absolutely certain I can trust absolutely. We have you Naruto." Sarutobi sighed as he finished his sentence. Involving a Genin, a freshly minted one at that - not to mention one he cared for as though he were family - was deeply disturbing for him. But he was being honest. Naruto would be invaluable in ensuring that as many of the heirs as possible remained on his side, the side of the Will of Fire.