NARUTO SI: A Burdened Soul (Elder Brother to Itachi SI)

Chapter 24

HIRUZEN SARUTOBI

Peace had come. At last, the continent was at peace. Not entirely, of course, given that Kirigakure refused to back out, and yet the scale of the battles and engagements with Kirigakure were minor, and with a truce signed with both Iwa and Kumogakure, the bulk of the fighting had come to a stop.

The village around him celebrated the news, and relief could be felt all over the continent. The populace felt that Konoha had been soft on Iwa and Kumo, that it had made the terms of peace far too lenient, but this was expected.

And he could have perhaps even pushed for much, much harsher terms, but then there would still be a war going on, battles going on, more and more shinobi dying with more funerals arranged every day.

As a kage, this was his burden. His last burden as the Third Hokage of Konoha, for after the elation would die down, he knew that this anger and hate would become more pronounced, though it would not matter much for he planned to retire then.

It would be a good enough opportunity for him to hang up his hat and let the next generation take the lead.

And it was one of the hopefuls of this next generation that sat opposite to him, as he found himself staring at his most troublesome student.

"You are leaving already?" he asked, as Tsunade nodded without much care.

"I am. The war is mostly over, and I must continue on with my journey," and it was no journey. They all knew that. No, it was just an excuse to get out of the village. An excuse born out of too much pain and loss.

He remembered the times when she was young and full of life. She was the glue that held his team together, a shinobi unlike any, filled with promise and ambition.

Now. She was a shell of herself, lazy, lethargic, and dead. Her reasons to live, to fight—her brother, her family, her lover. All of them were taken from her, leaving her with only grief and rage.

He sympathized with her, for even now, as he looked at her, he saw not the weak and failure of a shinobi that she had become but the young, bright, and hopeful kunoichi he had trained.

"Do you hate the village so much?" he asked and saw her raise a brow as she answered.

"I came back, didn't I? " Yet you did nothing. You did not fight.

Yes, she may have treated the patients in the hospital, may have trained a few iryo-nin and so forth, but this was not the power nor the expectation from her. From a Senju.

She was perhaps the best field medic, and he knew in his heart that if she had participated in the war actively, their casualties would be reduced to half their numbers.

"The village is at peace again. You could stay here, lead the medical corps, or restructure...."

"No," she denied him sharply as he clicked her tongue.

"I am done!" her answer was firm.

"I will not be spending another day here," she said, and her tone was hateful as she looked into his eyes.

"These walls, these streets. They haunt me. I cannot stand being here any more than necessary," and his lips thinned as he heard those words come out of her mouth, given that it was her own grandfather who had built it all. And then it had been her clan and family who had protected this village, and now they were all gone.

"Will you not even take part in the selection of the next Hokage?" he asked, and she scoffed, shaking her head.

"I don't care about that anymore," she answered, yet they did.—Your brother. Your lover. They both had cared.

"There was a time I had hoped that you would one day succeed me," and it was true. Of his three students, she was the most suited for the job, and on top of that, her lineage and name gave her an edge over both Orochimaru and Jiraiya.

Even now, with the clan being reduced to a shell of itself, the Senju name carried much sway in the village. Especially hers, given that she was from the lineage of the Shodaime himself.

"Me? A Hokage. That would be a disaster," she scoffed, dismissing the very thought so easily. But he knew that he was right.

Yet it seemed that it would not come true.

"Will your apprentice be leaving with you as well?" he asked, for Kato Shizune was trained by Tsunade herself, and while not her equal, the girl was an iryo-nin second only to Tsunade.

If she stayed back, it would do much for the village, which lacked proficient and skilled iryo-nins. For while the academy produced a fair number of skilled shinobi, training and being an iryo-nin was an entirely different task.

He, being the Professor and the God of Shinobi, lacked the talents and perseverance needed for this task. The skill took years to learn and decades to master, and it required resilience and persistence that few had.

"Yes," she answered, and that was expected, and he sighed, finding himself in another dilemma.

"The medical corps will again fall into disarray after you leave. You and I both know that there is no one capable of leading it in your absence. Perhaps you could reconsider Tsunade," he asked, and she shook her head.

"My mind is made sensei," and then her eyes dulled as she turned away from him, looking to the side where the photos of the previous Kage were nailed to the wall.

"I have to go," and he sighed, knowing that he was helpless.

"But I do have a solution for your problem," she added, surprising him as he raised a brow. Had she trained another iryo-nin suitable for this, someone who could act as her replacement?

"I know a person who could lead the medical corps in my absence. Hell, I would go so far as to say that he could even lead it better than I," and he was surprised by such praise and, most importantly, how he could not recall such a fine shinobi.

Perhaps they were not a shinobi?"

"Who?" he asked and found himself surprised by her answer.

"Izuna Uchiha," and that was an unexpected name.

"The Uchiha clan heir," he asked, and she nodded.

"Yes," and that was a surprise.

"But the boy only spent half a year training in the hospital," and she shrugged.

"Yes, but he is the most skilled iryo-nin in the village apart from me and Shizune. He has talent and would be the best replacement for me," and that was a surprise, but he didn't doubt her judgment.

"But the boy is the Uchiha clan heir, and the Uchiha clan usually leads the Konoha Police Force. I don't think it would be possible for him to take up the position," and with the war ending, the boy would soon be joining his father in the Police Force as was tradition.

A shame that they would have to lose him to that.

"And he is still too young," and Tsunade scoffed.

"His age is irrelevant. He is a chunin who will be made a Tokubetsu jounin within months, and as for his position as the Uchiha clan heir, I don't think it will matter much," and she stood up as she began to walk towards the door.

"Regardless, why don't you offer him the position and see where it goes? Let him handle the clan," she suggested, which was a bold suggestion, but he was set to retire.

What was one more gamble to play in his last moments?

"I will see what I can do...."

0000

KUSHINA UZUMAKI

Kushina rejoiced along with the entire village at the end of the war. The prospect of peace filled her with joy and hope as she realized that all those around her would be safe and no longer in danger.

Well, they were ninjas and were still in danger, but regular shinobi duty and wartime duties were entirely different things.

"I cannot believe that it is over," she whispered as she sat beside her godson and apprentice on the training ground. She had dragged him here because she was getting rather bored with no one to train with her.

"I can," Izuna remarked as he healed his injuries from their little spar. The little brat had held back against her in their last fight, and only now that she faced him at his full power did she realize just how strong he had become.

"Still, war is what all my friends and I have known ever since our graduation from the academy," and this was indeed a very long and arduous war, lasting more than half a decade. It had seen them age from their teens to adulthood and cost them so many friends and so many memories.

And now it was over.

"I just pray that the peace lasts longer than it did last time," and it was a genuine prayer for the peace that had come at the end of the Second Great War. It was barely peace; it was just a descaling of the conflict, which simmered and simmered until it turned into the Third Great Ninja War.

"I think it will be better this time," Izuna-kun added, and she looked at him with a raised brow.

"What makes you say that?" she asked.

"The casualties," he answered, and she should have expected such a cynical answer from him.

"Both Iwa and Kumo have taken heavy casualties in this war, and Konoha's new generation of shinobi has matured. One could say that Konoha's strength is only set to increase further while Iwa and Kumo will need years to reform their ranks after the sheer volume of losses they suffered." It may be cynical, but it was right.

"I had hoped that you would be more hopeful of the world," she lamented as he looked at her and shrugged.

"Now that the war is over, do you have any plans?" she asked him and saw him quiet down at her words before he finally answered.

"There is one thing that I need to do," and one of her skills as an Uzumaki was her ability to feel emotions, and right then, she felt such unadulterated hate ooze out of Izuna-kun that it stilled her, reminding her of the rage of the monster locked up inside her.

"What is it?" she asked and saw his fist ball up as he answered.

"I need to kill someone," and she was taken aback by those words, more so because they were coming out of his mouth. Because, through the years that she had known him, she had never heard such words come out of his mouth.

He was not prone to emotional outbursts like this, he had never been so even as a kid.

"Who?" she asked and saw him look into her eyes.

"I cannot tell you. Not yet," and she frowned at that, surprised again by his answer. But as shinobi, it was not polite to pry into such matters. And so, she nodded.

"You know you can always come to me for anything, right, Izuna?" she offered, and he nodded.

"I know," and there was silence afterward before she remembered something.

"I believe you must have heard about Obito-kun," she added as a pang of sadness and regret hit her as he nodded.

"I did, and I am sorry for your loss," he added as he looked into the skies.

"I know he was your favourite," he added, and she was surprised that he had managed to guess that.

"Yes," and his was the only major loss she had suffered in this war, one that she still to this day had trouble coming to terms with.

It had been so sudden. And yet, he had died as he had lived trying to save his friends. Kakashi and Rin had returned a few days earlier to much celebration and fanfare for the completion of the mission, even though she knew that both of them would happily give all that up just to have their teammate back.

But with their return had come another set of problems.

One regarding his eye. His Sharingan that was now in Kakashi's left eye.

"Has the Uchiha clan made its decision about Obito's eye?" she asked him, and Izuna kun shook his head.

"There are grumblings about it. The elders are furious and want to have him arrested for bloodline theft," Izuna-kun remarked, and given his tone, it seemed that his own opinion seemed to differ from the old coots.

"But a letter from father came and put all such discussions to rest. He has forbidden the Police Force from making a move against Kakashi-kun, at least until his own return," he added, and that was somewhat reassuring.

"What will he do?" she asked, and Izuna-kun sighed.

"You have to understand that it is quite troublesome. To have your clan's kekkei genkai used by an outsider, it is not ideal. It is something that the clan will not tolerate, at least not easily," he added and she should have expected this.

"So, they will take it back?" she asked, and he sighed as he shook his head.

"I cannot say with certainity, but I don't think so. Father will have to intervene; he might ask for concessions and seek some other assurances from Kakashi-san, but I don't think he will force the matter." That was good.

"I wish for you to re..."

But before she could say anything, a hawk began to circle them and began to caw.

CAW.CAW.

And a scroll landed in her hand as she opened it.

"You have been summoned to the Hokage office...."

0000

On the edge of the village, Orochimaru found himself sifting through the files given to him by the Kage office as he decided who to take on as a student. Despite his reconsiderations of his arrangement with Danzo, Orochimaru knew that it was not possible to end it all so soon.

Neither did he want to. He had just gotten his hands on a new batch of kids, all of whom he planned to inject with Hashirama cells to replicate his special Mokuton.

It would be the next step in his goal of achieving the immortality, and he would pilfer all that he could from the war-hawk until the last moment.

Regardless, he knew that his alliance with Danzo was already near its end, not just because of the war-hawk's unreasonable delusions, but more so because of Izuna Uchiha who had set his eyes on the man.

And while Orochimaru could not be sure, his instincts told him that the war-hawk's days were numbered. That Danzo Shimura might just have found his match.

And if so, then he needed to make an ally of the boy or simply neutralize his threat against himself.

And as he stared at the file of a particular academy student, he found himself just the way.

"Saiko Uchiha," he whispered the name of the kunoichi whose file was amongst the one's considered to be suitable for an apprenticeship. He had already selected one candidate from the pile, another girl, and one Mitarashi Anko, a peculiar little girl with an affinity for poisons and animals, especially snakes.

But this—this one would be quite a leverage against Izuna Uchiha. And the girl was talented as well, her scores were nothing to scoff at as well.

"Yes. You will do just fine..."

0000

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