The Zero Tails Jinchuriki #37

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Hokage Tower, Land of Fire

–Hiruzen Sarutobi–

With a single twitch of his finger, he dismissed his ANBU, and with another, he ordered them to clear the room, as he waited for Kenta to come to his office, likely with a whole other set of problems that would just pile on top of his already near-overwhelming headache.

The meeting with Shikaku had gone well, and he had a hunch that it was not about to set the tone for the rest of the day, this meeting with Kenta was. With a chakra ping, he informed his secretary to let Kenta in, as the doors to his office swung open a moment later, Kenta arriving and standing in front of him.

He sighed internally. He knew he should consider himself lucky that his relationship with all the alive S-class shinobi was at least amicable, unlike the ones from the other Kage, but even so, he still felt a little irritation when his shinobi did something so out of the blue, he had no choice but to scramble some reason to show that he hadn’t lost control over the very scary, very powerful S-class shinobi.

Case in Point. Kenta Senju. A Sage, much more versatile than Jiraiya. Then, there was the Senju name. That was a whole other skillset in and of itself, especially now that he had somehow convinced Tsunade to stay inside the village, if only in a medical capacity.

Even that was more than enough for Konoha, as the atmosphere in the village for the past week had improved considerably, as merchants and tourists flocked to Konoha’s food markets just to get a glimpse of the famous Tsunade Senju.

Also, it was nice to see Tsunade milling about the village when she was not in the hospital, or preparing for the newest batch of medics about to be trained by the idol of almost every kunoichi in Konoha and many other villages.

“So,” he began, seeing that Kenta was perfectly content waiting for him to speak, “I see that you have brought more trouble to me. What happened?”

And then, Kenta spoke and more than once during the explanation, he felt like stopping Kenta multiple times, but going against what his heart was screaming at him, he listened intently to Kenta. 

He had already received detailed reports about Kenta taking charge of the outpost, imprisoning the current commander of the outpost, the confirmation of his fight with Orochimaru and some of his subordinates, and finally, the defeat and capture of one of Kumo’s up and coming elite Jounin squads.

It was telling of Kenta’s ability to gather trouble all around him that the fact of Kenta fighting Orochimaru and making him flee was of the same importance as the two other things he had just reported. Even so, he chose to focus on the biggest mistake of his tenure as Hokage, Orochimaru.

“Your report of your fight with Orochimaru was deliberately sparse. I would like to know the reason as to why you thought it prudent enough to only share it with me,” he prodded the Senju, who stood straighter at the question, not before retrieving a small folder from his vest and handing it to him.

He flipped through the pages, pausing only for a second to see the appearance of what were Orochimaru’s subordinates. Both, their before and after sketches, as they used some sort of forbidden technique to gain a truly remarkable boost to their abilities

His eyes widened as he saw a tentative multiplier in Kenta’s reports. Both of them exhibited not just new abilities but also displayed a massive increase in physical attributes across the board, including enhanced effectiveness of their earlier Kekkei Genkai. A multiplier of 4 was no joke, especially if Orochimaru could make someone of the peak of Jounin use that technique. They would become just as strong as an average Kage, which was terrifying to think of.

And then, as he flipped past the detailed, extremely so, reports on their abilities and how best to counter them, he finally reached the part that had worried him extremely, ever since he first heard of the fight between Kenta and Orochimaru.

Part of him was worried that Kenta would fall in battle against Orochimaru but thankfully, that was not the case. Kenta had not just dispatched and almost secured two of his subordinates but also had forced Orochimaru to flee, using a technique unique to his status as an artificial Jinchuriki.

The fact that he did not know much about Kenta’s current abilities and what little he did know was only because Kenta fought Tsunade out in the open, would have worried many other people in Konoha, including his old friends but they were not the ones who led a village which at, one point, had enough S-class shinobi to match the next three combined.

At some point, the stronger shinobi do get extra freedom from everything else, up to and including the secrets to their abilities.

His brows furrowed as he speed read through the entire thing, as he then regarded Kenta with an astonished look on his face. To force Orochimaru to summon Manda, a snake summons notoriously hostile to its summoners, only to flee, was nothing short of astonishing.

“I assume it was one of your unique abilities that allowed you to best Orochimaru?”

Kenta nodded, but did not elaborate, which was fine.

Sighing, he snapped the folder shut and slipped it into his drawer for later study, before leaving on his desk, “So, I would like an explanation as to why you thought it prudent to imprison the current command at the Border and how one of them died in your custody. Let me remind you that no matter your power, Konoha will not tolerate any injury to any fellow Konoha shinobi.”

Kenta nodded, and then retrieved another folder from his vest. He flipped through it as Kenta recounted the condition of the Uchiha shinobi in that outpost, and he stilled, only for a split second, before resuming flipping though the pages as Kenta recounted the means of death of Masato, a civilian Jounin supposedly climbing through the ranks of his own volition.

Oh, Danzo, how far have you fallen?

He smothered the brief rage that reared its ugly head when he realised that Danzo had taken command of that outpost and was feeding him partially false information, leading to unnecessary shinobi deaths.

The Uchiha will not take this lying down.

He looked up from the folder, only to be taken aback as Kenta looked at him with an emotionless look on his face, scrutinising his every expression.

“You know what happened,” Kenta stated with an air of finality, as he tried to deflect from that. It would seem that his slip was noticed by Kenta, as expected of a Sage.

“I don’t understand. Rest assured, I will look into–”

“You know who it is and you’re covering for them,” Kenta said, and for the first time in his life, he found himself contemplating Danzo’s advice on how he had cultivated his image into a corner, of how everyone thought him soft and cowardly, right up until they faced him in battle, obviously. Had he had an image akin to Tobirama-sama, no shinobi would have had the courage to insinuate what Kenta was implying here, no matter if it was true or not.

“I don't like what you are implying here, Kenta Senju.” He said, trying to put this matter behind him, only for Kenta not to take the hint.

“No, I don’t like the fact that you are somehow aware of what was happening there and are now choosing to either ignore it or protect the perpetrator. You know what? Fine. You are Hokage, and your word is Law but don’t think for even a second that I will forget this. This just means that somewhere along the way, the chain of command was compromised and that, Hokage-sama should terrify you.” With that suddenly passionate statement delivered, Kenta left his office, leaving him slumped in his chair, the burden of saving Danzo increasing day by day.

Sometimes, he wondered if Tobirama-sama would have cut his losses already and sacrificed Danzo to solidify his hold over the Hokage position. Oh, who was he kidding? Tobirama-sama would have killed Danzo the moment it was revealed that Danzo planned on making an attempt on a sitting Hokage.

He sighed, as the ANBU came back into the cabin, securing the entire place. After a minute or two, his finger twitched as Kakashi dropped from the ceiling, “Summon Danzo to me. Tell him that it is urgent, and refusal will only result in imprisonment.”

Kakashi nodded and left, reminding him of yet another one of his failures.

His inability to stop the boy from going on back to back S-class solo missions, with each successive mission succeeding by the shaking of his teeth, revealing an alarming fact that Kakashi intended to kill himself, haunted him in his sleep, however little he got it these days.