As the councilman spoke those words it was almost like the world started shifting beneath Mana's feet. The young genin even took a small half of a step back right after the news were delivered. Her first reaction was to deny it all, just yell from the top of her lungs that this must've been a stupid joke or that the councilman didn't have all of the information. Who could ever have killed sensei? Even if sensei had his arms tied down he still could've competed with the best of the best, he did so even as a teen, didn't he? He was the strongest Konoha had to offer, he was immune to death, wasn't he!?
Sugemi beat Mana to her first sensitive and sentimental reaction. "How do you know that? Sensei was the strongest ninja I've ever known so unless you've got a solid reason as to why he could've died I'm gonna pound you hard, just know that before you answer!" fist of the Nara shot forward and then up trying to touch the ceiling, sadly the boy lacked the needed height by a wide margin. The councilman was obviously prepared for all those inevitable questions, he looked tired and quite busy but he still took the time to reply the questions replies to which he'd been working out since he first read those fateful two letters.
"Another Sannin – Misu of the Vapor had betrayed the Hokage and Tanshu, we don't know much details but apparently Tanshu killed Misu but collapsed to his own injuries, the Hokage was killed in a battle with the Mizukage. That is all I can comment on that news for now, at least for you, please understand - children have no place in these matters even if they are ninja."
Shimo's stare dug down into the ground, he also looked like he was going through the denial stage, Mana wanted to comfort him but... She kind of was a mess herself. An ally died and she not only wasn't strong enough – she had absolutely no chance of stopping it. She lacked the age, rank, strength so that she would have been there. It was safe to say that there was no conceivable way for her to prevent those deaths from happening.
Lacking strength was not the painful part, one could always have grown stronger and smarter. Inevitability, being unable to change anything because things just happened sometimes was the most painful part. Even if she could travel at the speed of light and make the most powerful ninja explode upon impact she'd have been unable to save her sensei.
Mana turned around and started stumbling out of the office, she leaned onto her cane with all of her weight to the point where her shoulder just burnt up and her hand quickly started feeling numb. The emotional and psychological pain, combined with her own impairment almost made her let go of her cane, just slip and fall down, what did it even matter? If one was powerless to change all things. If one was unable to save their treasured ones from dying what did it matter? What was her life to the Universe if she just exploded right then and there into a wild mash of blood and guts? Tears started running down Mana's cheeks, the girl was afraid to admit it that those were very selfish tears.
This pain and misery in her heart were not because her sensei had died, it was because she just found out that her lifelong goal was pointless and completely out of reach, not only for her, it was out of bounds for anyone. Tanshu spent so much time telling Mana that it was all so pointless, that she could have never saved everyone and that heroes were just in fairytales, then perhaps this death of his was his final lesson – saving everyone was impossible, to have such a goal is to be doomed to fail.
Now Mana finally realized that her nindo was literally rigged to blow up in her face upon her own death. Her entire life would just be hearing about people close to her slipping away without her having any chance to change anything. It would hurt even more since she had made it her lifelong goal to change something about that.
Mana carelessly wiped her premature tear away and postponed her mental breakdown, she was in a middle of a mission briefing, after all, the magician turned around and crept back into the office. She noticed that Sugemi and Shimo were pretty angry about it too and that the councilman was waiting for the three of them to get over their first instincts.
Apparently, Mana's first instinct was grief and depression, her teammates had a shared one of anger. Almost instantly when Mana entered the office again the councilman jumped up from his chair gesturing that they can carry on. Obviously, this was not over, the balance of power has shifted and people lost precious and loved icons. Why was no one informed of this? Why did people cheer on Mana passing by instead of crying that the Hokage has died?
Shimo interrupted that train of thought, his lowered and husky tone managed to slip in a question. "Can we know for certain that the information is correct? I mean it's Star of Hope, the Fourth Hokage and Tanshu-sensei we're talking about." Councilman nodded as he was stroking his beard, his eyes suggested genuine sadness, something very few politicians managed to convey in such situations.
"Sadly so. We've been informed by a signed letter from all the other Kage, we've lost not only Tanshu and the Fourth but also a lot of Fourth's trusted men he took to the Summit. Very few have survived and those few will undoubtedly be unable to fight or perform in missions. What nails the final nail into the coffin is the date of the letter – the other Kage would've wanted for Konoha to know of this as late as possible so that they cut the juiciest pieces of Kirigakure... Don't ask about that... It just makes all the sense. Too much so to doubt it."
Sugemi's fists tightened and as pieces of his sleeves got caught in his crushing grip a strange tearing sound came from his side. The boy's face was turned and twisted with his teeth in a wide grinding mimic of sadness and his hair covering his enraged eyes. "W-What's our mission about?" Mana asked the councilman trying to get this over with as fast as possible, the less time spent here and less time given for Sugemi to lash out the better. She was in no condition to get the Nara under control if he broke out and if Shimo clashed with him the rivalry of the two would fuel their fire into an endless twisting inferno.
The councilman cleared his throat, he visibly appreciated that the girl had changed the subject making him speak less and less about things he didn't want the kids to know. Based from what he said an intelligent listener would've already guessed that Mizukage had also perished in the Summit and now the dominating forces were cutting the village into pieces and while the concrete picture was still unknown it was likely that even more horrors would follow.
A village which was ruled by tyrants, one worse than another, wouldn't have responded kindly to being split like a pie amongst the world's strongest. Which would, of course, lead to violence... At least war was postponed for several more years, Mana had some time to grow and develop and become strong enough to change it all one day or die trying. Knowing the inevitability of her failure did not shy her away from living that way, even if she would die failing to save her friends or even people she didn't know, such was the only way of life worth living.
The councilman confidently handed Mana the file which Shimo took from his hands because the girl was visibly struggling with maintaining her balance and reading the file. The councilman then decided to also talk about the mission out loud. "As you may know the famous Guru Ayushi will be finally arriving in Konoha, by our estimation he will reach the gates at least tomorrow morning. He is a famous ninja from a past era, some rumors claim that he had served our village under the Senju name long before the Second Great Ninja War, maybe even during the First one. He was the most famous medical ninja of his time, he could literally bring people back to life and he himself was considered to be immortal. Needless to say, such a shinobi reached twice the age upon which ninja retire and decided to leave the life of a ninja behind."
Shimo quickly skimmed over the file, offering it to Mana after finishing it but when the girl gently shook her head in shame that it would've been too hard to read it by herself he kept it. "So why is protecting him a task for three genin, two of which shouldn't be on active duty?" the Yuki prodigy asked. He was glancing at Sugemi's raging and shaking figure with a corner of his eye, visibly he was as worried about his friend as Mana was before. Knowing Sugemi, if he didn't explode in a fit of rage instantly, he probably won't at all. He was just that kind of guy. The councilman sighed.
"I know you three are young and don't know much about someone like Guru Ayushi but he is a hero to even my grandparents. After saving many lives during the war and helping establish Konoha as one of the dominant powers in the Ninja World, he decided to leave his life as a ninja behind. He now travels the world giving seminars of peace and wisdom to the villages and smaller settlements in need. That being said, he is still an unparalleled icon in the world. Despite him refusing to fight, even his presence in a settlement scares bandits and nukenin away. Some things just aren't questioned, everyone's grandparents either idolized Ayushi and his teachings or owe him for saving their entire families during the war. There is no one dumb enough on this Earth to lay a hand on that man. For that reason protecting him is mostly a symbolic duty, but that of great honor. Despite him never needing actual protection, his protectors are usually graced with a great honor of having a record of having protected the great Guru Ayushi at some point in their lives."
As Mana's heart started jumping more intensely, namely because meeting this Guru Ayushi would've lead to saving her father from his pain, if only she can ask him nicely enough for the man to provide his cells for her father's treatment, she was soon beaten out of these happy thoughts. Sugemi walked up to Shimo and violently took the file from him flipping through it. He then tossed it onto the office table and turned around.
"Fine, we'll protect your old man." his eyes then turned back and stared straight into those of the councilman right before he left the office. "I hope "great honor" includes being signed up for the Chuunin Exams, right?" The councilman slapped his forehead, he looked relieved as he thought that for a moment this child would have said something stupid and problematic.
"Ah... I assume one of your clan is included in organizing that and spilled the beans, right? Well, yes, I suppose even if your sensei spot is currently... Vacant... I could in theory sign you guys up acting as a higher power to those in charge of the exam. Until this evening I can still do that sort of thing and something tells me that even after, the Fifth won't give a crap about who signs what under her nose..."
The three were completely silent their entire trip down the stairs. Just as they nearly approached the exit of the building they saw a very special trio entering the Administration building. One of them was a woman of average height, looking in her mid-thirties and wearing a tight murky orange jumpsuit with an unzipped jounin west. Her jumpsuit was torn and burnt off in places, her body still had signs of exhaustion and immense bruising and her arms below elbows were completely bandaged with her knuckles still soaking the bandage in red. The woman's wild brown hair, reminding almost of an autumnal chestnut was by far the most impressive feature of the woman, the flow of the brown ocean was only restrained by her blue forehead protector which she wore on the top of her head as a hairband.
Together with her came two teens that were visibly older than the three of Team Oak but not by that much, still their mental and physical maturity as well as their puberty having started and done their work on the teens it was quite apparent that the duo had seen much more in life than Mana, Shimo, and Sugemi. The three just walked right up to the Hokage's office without registering or letting anyone know anything. The boy with the strange face markings and sharp fangs sticking from his mouth bumped his shoulder to Shimo, at least fate didn't make him bump into Sugemi. At this point, the Nara would've picked a fight for sure.
"So... Chuunin Exams, huh?" Shimo tried to spark up a conversation, the three of them had a free midday to morning until they had to go greet Guru Ayushi by the village gates. Sugemi nodded and looked at his shaking clenched fist. "Yeah. We've had enough of this dishwashing shit, maybe if we were given the real missions to start with we may have stood up to that Demon guy, maybe we would've been trustworthy enough to be by Hokage's side when he got murdered... We can pull it off, we're all strong enough. Those damn Kirigakure jerks. I hate them... As long as I remember all they did was abuse their people and pick on us, now this. Shimo was right all along, that shit can't be allowed to continue. Come on, you two, we've got business to take care of until the morning."
Shimo nodded, "I'm going to go keep my training up, you should go home and rest, Mana-chan, you've trained plenty already. What are you going to do, Sugemi?" The Nara looked at the Administration building and then at some unspecified point of the village. He could've been looking at the bakery that stood right where he was looking at but Mana could've sworn that it was more like some building further that direction.
"Probably the same, for now," Sugemi added. Just like that the Nara just split off and started walking, not to the direction he was staring so intensely at but where his home was. Shimo started walking on forward but then looked back at Mana and walked back placing his hand onto hers on the cane.
"You gonna be OK?" he asked, "Maybe you want me to walk you home?"
"Nah, I'm fine" Mana looked somewhere to the side worried, "I'm just not sure about this whole Chuunin Exam thing. I mean are we really ready? We've trained plenty alone but we had very little team experience, Tanshu-sensei always split us up and tried to raise each of us individually. Honestly, it feels like there has never been a time when there was NOT a hedge between the three of us."
Shimo smiled and rushed back to where he was before he rushed back to Mana, he then turned back and showed her a thumb up with a confident smile. "You worry too much about too many things. I fought a giant tiger, Sugemi fought a snake, you beat not one but two giant centipedes and we all had our butts kicked by a spy, except Sugemi who got his beat by a guy with glasses. What is there for us to fear?" The genin's confident reply really did break a smile on Mana's face. Perhaps she was developing fears and worries far too fast. They may have never had real teamwork training but they were friends who knew each other for quite some time now, right?
*****
Hanasaku and her two students entered the office without even knocking, the councilman stood up and walked up to the door leading the three to a hall much further down the corridor. He then looked at the woman's students and shook his head. "Oh, come on!" Kiyomi pouted but for the first time ever Hanasaku nodded and played by the rules, something in her guts told her that she may have known what all of this was about.
"Kiyomi, Tetsuzuki, please go home now and rest. This meeting isn't for you." Tetsuzuki pouted a bit and acted up. "I still want to leave the team, you know!"
The councilman cleared his throat, "Well the meeting of village's officials and the entire council is no place to do that. Please file your papers on the first floor." The man's voice was clearly irritated, even the noisy Inuzuka decided to obey the man's will and he turned around and started quickly marching downstairs. Hanasaku gently stroke Kiyomi's head and then poked the girl's forehead, "Go home, I can handle this." Kiyomi still continued to be worried.
"You always fall asleep during meetings of politics and briefings" she exclaimed.
"That's exactly why I can handle this, what I can't hear doesn't bother me" Hanasaku smiled with a confident full grin. Finally, even the second student relented and the girl turned around moving downstairs and passing through her teammate who was filing papers of his departure from the team. With a worried and sorry look, she tried to give him one final reason to reconsider but her eyes did not meet a reply. Just like that, Team Petal was dissolved completely!
*****
The councilman stood up and showed for Hanasaku where to sit, the woman just sat down and crossed her legs and arms closing her eyes. It wasn't that she was ignorant, it wasn't that she was disrespectful towards her basic suspicions. Howoku and Tanshu were dead, most likely Misu too. Only if all the other candidates for Kage would've died had the council approached her with this. She was pretty much the last person to be considered for this position. The councilman looked at her and asked for Hanasaku to pay attention but the woman kept her eyes closed, this time applying tension to that eye-lock. She somehow had to keep her tears inside, didn't she?
So what if that was Hanasaku's way of coping with loss? So what if she always made fun out of everything, so what if she always acted dumb and silly. So what if she always made people she liked hurt because she was clumsy and not too bright. But why did Howoku and Misu deserve to die? Why did her two brothers deserve to die alongside her younger brother? Why was her family now all alone again?
Just like that time when her parents died, she's all alone. The more things change the more they stay the same. It's a definition of insanity to do the same thing again, expecting things to change and while Hanasaku was stupid and clumsy, insane was one thing she was not. A family was something she could not have. The greatest curse of surviving everything was that you got to see everyone you love die before you...
"And that is why we need a Hokage suddenly. There is hope that a new leader can perhaps still salvage the situation, obtain more reliable information on what happened in the Kage Summit and maybe even still get some good puppet politicians of ours into the newly elected Kirigakure council. Maybe we can still push some of our candidates for Mizukage as well, as dickish as the late news were, I'm sure that the other Kage wouldn't have elected another Kage without our knowledge..." the councilman went on and on. Hanasaku's eyes shot wide open letting her tears run free. Her body leaped up making all the ignorant councilmen shouting that this was insanity itself sit back down in fear. After all, whenever Chestnut Hanasaku did something, everything fell apart...
"Silence! I, Hanasaku Senju, otherwise known as Chestnut Hanasaku, using my Sannin priority status accept the suggested title as the Fifth Hokage until the situation is stable and a viable substitute can be placed in my seat," she spoke, for the first time what she said were not words that revealed her clumsiness of her foolishness. Those were words of a woman ready to accept power. Power of being able to find out what happened to her brothers and power to prevent something like that from happening again. Also possibly punching people responsible in the face... Preferably the last one.
Even the councilmen who were opposed to Hanasaku's candidature initially started hesitantly nodding their heads. They then caught themselves agreeing to Hanasaku being chosen as the next Hokage, successor to one titled the "Star of Hope" no less. One of the most questionable leaders in history following undoubtedly the greatest. One that made economy blossom from peace and peace from economy, one who found balance and coexistence in those things. It could all either go very well or terribly wrong. Such decisions were best made when one had nothing at all to lose...