Returning to Konoha
Back in Konoha team seven was debriefed by the Hokage this time. The mission was too high ranked to just give a short report to a chunin in the mission office and hand in a written report. Though Kakashi would still have to hand in the report, together with his students as they all had done parts of the mission that were at least B-ranked. Kakashi gave the first report, then Naruto filled in the part of the assassination of the camp and the base where he had been doing the killings and in the end Sasuke and Sakura reported on their part in the village of taking out the thugs.
Then Kakashi reported about the behaviour of the three chunins that had been sent to be back-up for his team which made the Hokage frown. He hadn't thought that chunin would go against his orders like that. Even if the team they had to support had Naruto in it. They would face disciplinary measures. There was no way he would tolerate that kind of behaviour from his subordinates.
The last thing Kakashi informed the Hokage about was the amount of money and the documents he and Naruto had confiscated from Gato. He also handed over the three prisoner scrolls that held Haku, Sanae and Kimie.
"In these three prisoner scrolls are three ninjas of jonin level that Naruto and I caught. I think the T & I department of the ANBU should interrogate them for information. If they are willing we might want to consider for them to join our ranks. Haku isn't in the bingo book, Sanae and Kimie are. All three have a bloodline limit. Haku has ice release, Sanae has steel release and Kimie has poison touch. Haku is in stasis and has injuries that would need to be treated and the other two have just been drugged." Kakashi informed the Hokage.
"That's indeed fortunate for the village. If we can convince them to join our ranks we would have three powerful ninjas to support us. I will also make sure that the bounties for the Iwa ninjas and Aoi will be transferred to your and Naruto's accounts. Sasuke and Sakura, you will receive the equivalent of the payment for an A-rank mission and a recommendation for performance above your level for your files. Additionally you are forbidden to talk about the details of this mission with anybody that doesn't have the clearance for A-rank missions, meaning the jonin and ANBU. This mission could have given Konoha a lot of problems if it hadn't gone like it did. There is information that could harm the village if it gets into the wrong hands." The Hokage said.
Both genin nodded.
"This is about the Iwa nins and how they reacted to finding out that Naruto is an Uzumaki, isn't it?" Sasuke asked.
"Yes. Not many people know this today anymore, but the Uzumaki clan was once our strongest ally. And Naruto is well on his way to regain the knowledge of his clan. In some way you can compare the importance of Naruto not being exposed too soon with yourself Sasuke. The Uchiha and the Uzumaki were very close in skill level and strength in the past. It was as much thanks to Uzushio's support that we won the second ninja war as it was to our own ninja's strength." The Hokage said.
Sasuke nodded and looked at the four pictures of the Hokage's on the wall. He noticed a certain similarity between the fourth and Naruto. He filed that information away for later consideration.
"I need to talk with Kakashi and Naruto about some things in private, so you are dismissed, Sasuke and Sakura. You have the next three days off then you will restart your training." The Hokage informed them.
They both bowed and left the office.
When they were outside Sakura turned to Sasuke.
"What do you think they are talking about that we can't hear?" She asked.
"I guess it is about the Iwa nins. There is more going on than they are telling us. One piece of advice, Sakura; don't get on Naruto's bad side. You have just heard what the Hokage said about his importance. We have both seen how strong he is and as much as I hate to admit it, at the moment he is stronger than me. I will catch up to him as soon as I can, but I also have realized that Naruto and I are more similar than I thought. You will regret it if you don't treat him properly." Sasuke said and left.
Sakura was wondering why he had told her that. It was also one of the longest talks she had had with him. But he was right. Naruto was strong. This mission and what she had had to do had really opened her eyes to her chosen profession. And she knew she needed to find a way to do more for her team. She had learned a lot over the two months she had been a genin now and she had massively improved. Seeing how horrible things had been for Wave Country and how the skills especially Kakashi and Naruto had had helped freeing a whole country from a despot had set her views straight. Things weren't as her mother had told her. The world outside was dark and if nobody did something against it, things would stay that way.
But how could she do more for her team? What skills did they need most that weren't covered by the other three? Kakashi and Naruto were extremely strong and skilled; Sasuke was also a good fighter. They had been extremely lucky as Kakashi had pointed out in the debriefing that their stronger opponents had either totally underestimated their strength or that they had surprised them in their sleep by their quick actions. Otherwise her team would have had to take serious injuries. She stopped in her thoughts. Perhaps that could be an area for her to help. Neither Kakashi nor Naruto nor Sasuke had any medical jutsus. She knew there were techniques medic nins learned and being skilled enough to treat the more common wounds in the field would be very useful for her team. She would have to talk to Kakashi sensei what he thought about it.
In the Hokage's office meanwhile Kakashi and Naruto discussed with the Hokage what steps needed to be taken next. The ANBU had left again on orders of the Hokage to give the group privacy. As that was quite normal by now, they didn't wonder.
"We just avoided more suspicion regarding you, Naruto. I also think Sasuke suspects something with how he looked at the pictures of the Hokages." Kakashi said.
"Yes, I noticed that. But for now he only has suspicions. I also think he has come to realize that he isn't as alone in his situation as he thought he was. He finding out about how the Uzumaki clan died has put things into perspective for him." Naruto replied.
"I think it has. But we need to make sure nobody finds out too soon. We can be pretty sure Iwa won't know how their ninjas disappeared for a while. And they can't do anything openly as we didn't attack and the whole of Wave Country is backing us up. The neighbouring countries of Wave will soon find out about what Konoha did for Wave Country and it will give us very good publicity. I think we won't be able to prevent the news that we have an Uzumaki in Konoha from spreading. Especially not considering that the bridge is covered with your seals. But as long as nobody knows more, it will be easy to keep going like we are until the chunin exams in four months. Wave is small and I don't expect the news to spread fast into the regions we don't want them to go for now." Kakashi said.
"Yes, I think you are right, but just in case I will send Jiraiya a message to keep an ear open for that happening. What I wanted to inform you about is that thanks to the new seals our ninjas are using out in the field now, there are rumours about us having a new seal master in Konoha. Though nobody knows more about it. I will do nothing to distract the information in the village, but all the chunin and jonin are informed to not speak about the source of them outside their ranks. They only know about your alias Dark Phoenix anyway." The Hokage addressed Naruto. "We have very good results from the teams we had on missions that used your seals. They praised the variety of new seals they got and described the ways they managed to use them. I'm very satisfied with how much they improved the success rate for our missions."
"Thank you, grandpa Hokage." Naruto said smiling.
"You earned it, Naruto. Next, you said you got sensei's sword back from Aoi Rokusho when you killed him?" The Hokage asked.
"Yes. I didn't mess around in that fight at all. I used the Flying Thundergod jutsu and Rasengan to quickly kill him. The sword is a family heirloom and it angered me that somebody like him had it." Naruto said.
"That's good to know. I will keep that part out of the official report. Try to not openly use the sword in Konoha before the chunin exams. I don't want more paperwork that is so unnecessary." The Hokage requested.
"I will do so. I want the sword to be a surprise in the exams." Naruto agreed.
"Good, Naruto, you are dismissed, take the next three days off and relax." The Hokage said.
Naruto bowed and left the office.
"How is your opinion of their development, Kakashi?" The Hokage asked.
"I'm very happy with how the mission helped them all to develop. Sasuke seems to have realized that not everything is always about him; Sakura has been given a reality check when she saw the misery of the people of Wave Country and Naruto finally got some recognition for his achievements. His team-mates also know now that he is jonin level and have taken a different approach to him; Sasuke especially. I think he has realized that he was too short-sighted in his goal to kill Itachi. Seeing how strong Naruto got gave him an idea how much stronger he needs to get before he can face Itachi. I also sat him down after his sharingan awoke and told him just what danger depending on the eyes poses to him. I think he understood. I will keep an eye on him. He is on a good way now, but I will need more time to be completely sure about his psyche.
"I will see how Sakura now behaves in training. She was the one most influenced by the situation in Wave Country. To have seen the misery and see just what we could do to change it and why we were able to do so had a huge impact on her. If we are lucky this mission was enough to finally break her fangirl mentality. I don't expect her to give up her feelings for Sasuke, but perhaps she will put them on hold to first get stronger. Her training definitely showed when she and Sasuke were tasked to take out the thugs in the city. Having her first kills has shaken her, but she got over it and I think she could then appreciate just how much the assassination mission during the night had cost Naruto, who had to deal with about seven hundred kills during that night.
"I wish there would have been a way to not have Naruto do that part of the mission, but there was no other way as I can't produce that many shadow clones and transform them into mice or squirrels to not stand out. He dealt with the guilt as it was to be expected from a rookie. He was sick to his stomach that night and solemn over the next few days. He understood why it was necessary and didn't let it influence his performance during the rest of the mission. I talked to all my genin about their first kills and I think they dealt well enough with the fact. I think continuing our training routine with the occasional C-rank missions will work perfectly for the time being. I want to keep my team as isolated as possible for the next month to give them time to get used to the new situation. So if you have a C-rank that will take us out of the village for some time that would be great. I can train them during the mission in some physical exercises; they train with the resistance seals the whole time anyway even if we don't do training explicitly." Kakashi said.
"Yes, I can see the need for that. We have indeed a C-rank that I can hold back for your team to take in four days. How is your own training coming along?" The Hokage asked.
"Very well, Hokage Sama. I have finished my work to get more variations of my raikiri for two of them. I have some more ideas to expand my jutsu repertoire with lightning based jutsus and have mastered a hundred of my copied jutsus that before were only kept to a normal knowledge level. I will see to it that over the next two months I get to three hundred jutsus on mastery level. Physically I am back at the level where I was during my ANBU days. I will have to talk to Naruto for a method to seal off the use of my sharingan. If I was able to use the eye consciously like Sasuke can with his eyes, it would save chakra for me. Perhaps with a seal I could get the same effect. I have come to the conclusion there is very little Naruto can't do with seals if he puts his mind to it. In that way he is very much like his father." Kakashi commented.
"That he is. Continue your work there, Kakashi. I intend to spread the news that I intend to retire again in two months. I won't give your name, but many will suspect it. I will only tell the jonin and ANBU just before the chunin exams. These exams will be the stage for you to present your team. You know that the ability to train strong ninjas is somewhat a requirement for a Hokage." The Hokage mentioned.
"Yes, I do and I don't fear anything with how my team is developing right now." Kakashi stated confidently.
"Good, then you are also dismissed for the next three days. Just hand in your report when you report back for duty." The Hokage said and Kakashi bowed and left the office.
Sakura listened to the rants of her mother annoyed. What did she think she was doing criticising how her team had done the mission, well, the little she had been able to tell her which was that they had freed Wave Country from Gato and that the mission had been more dangerous than formerly expected thanks to wrong information. How she wanted to shout at her that the civilian born ninjas that had been their back-up could have caused their deaths because they had not gone full speed to back team seven up. How she wanted to tell her to stop talking badly about Naruto. That he had sacrificed so much to make sure their team wouldn't have to fight hundreds of thugs.
Really, her mother made it sound as if only Sasuke had done all the work. No, she had also fought and she had killed. She fully understood now why Kakashi sensei had trained them so harshly from the beginning. Being a ninja wasn't a game, it was deathly serious. Having to realise that because they got bad information they could all have died drove home the warnings better than Kakashi sensei's lectures could have ever done. Their team was extremely lucky that they had such a strong sensei like Kakashi. They were lucky that Naruto was already jonin level and only lacked experience; otherwise they would have been overwhelmed.
Sure, Sasuke was good, even much better than he had been at the academy but that wasn't due to his sharingan. It was due to having worked really hard every day since they became team seven. It was strength that had been won in hundreds of hours of hard work. Hours she had suffered through but she could now fully appreciate having been forced to do so. Had she been like she was at the academy she didn't doubt that she would have been severely injured or even killed. In any case she would have been a burden to her team. No, her mother's ideas were really wrong and she would ignore her wishes in the future. She was a kunoichi of Konoha and she was proud what she had achieved so far already. She would find a way to better support her team in the future playing to her strengths. She had looked up famous kunoichis in Konoha and the most famous one was definitely Tsunade of the Sannin. If she had managed to become super strong as a medic nin, why shouldn't Sakura manage to do the same? She had perfect chakra control, it was one thing Kakashi sensei had praised her for from the beginning, the one thing she had lacked was chakra reserves but they were increasing every day.
Sasuke was reading through some scrolls he had inherited from his clan. He had remembered that his mother had once mentioned that many of the Uchiha ninjas that learned new jutsus by copying them with their sharingan had written down the handsigns and the way you needed to mould your chakra for the jutsu. His father had scoffed and declared most of those jutsus inferior to the jutsus that the Uchiha clan had invented themselves which were mostly fire jutsus. Now Sasuke fully intended to round up his jutsu repertoire with those inferior jutsus. What use was a flashy fire jutsu when stealth was the only choice you had? Why should he waste loads of chakra on small fry? Just to make it look impressive? That thinking could get you killed he had learned.
He knew that he couldn't have sneaked into the base or the camp like Naruto had done. He would have had to use powerful jutsus to kill the thugs and that would have depleted his reserves quickly. He might have been able to kill one or two hundred with luck but more wouldn't have worked. So he needed jutsus that worked with less chakra but were really effective. Stealth was something he had only learned the basics of. But why not learn a camouflage jutsu that had been copied in the third war from Iwa ninjas? Why not learn the hypnosis part of his eyes? Genjutsu also allowed you to surprise your opponent and strike unexpected. There were lots of ways to improve his abilities and as the mission had shown perfectly not always were the big guns the best ones.
He also had to think about Naruto probably being related to the Fourth Hokage. The picture was too similar to Naruto's looks to be a complete coincidence. From Naruto's age and what he knew about the blond's birthdate he had been born when the Fourth had died. And for some reason the adults hated Naruto massively and called him names like monster and demon brat. The only demon he could think of was the Kyubi. Was Naruto used as a scapegoat for the attack of the fox because he had been born on the day it attacked? He could understand that if Naruto was the son or nephew of the Fourth the Third would have kept Naruto's identity a secret as children of powerful clans and families were always targets for kidnapping or assassination. Without parents to protect him this action might have been the only way to prevent Naruto's death. Even if it came at the cost of not telling Naruto about his heritage.
He knew that Kakashi sensei had been the student of the Fourth so he being responsible to teach the last remaining family of the late Hokage would make sense. Kakashi would feel obliged to teach his sensei's family. And Naruto was strong at a young age. Stronger than all others in their age group. He would take a wait and see approach from now on. He was on a good way to achieve his goals; he only needed to be patient. Kakashi was teaching all of them equally and they were getting stronger fast. He felt it in the team competitions against the other teams. And the late arrival of the chunin team that had been sent to back them up had also shown that the civilian council couldn't be trusted. If they had made sure that the support came too late just because they hoped that Naruto would die without the backup they were traitors. It was as simple as that. And if Sasuke hated one thing it was a traitor. Itachi had seen to that.
TO BE CONTINUED...