The Zero Tails Jinchuriki #12

Disclaimer - I don’t own anything. As the corporations say these days, you will own nothing & be happy. I don't, and have never claimed to, own Naruto or any of its characters. With that out of the way, let’s goooo!

Konoha, Land of Fire

–Kenta ‘Akimichi’ Senju–

He stood on the walls that surrounded Konoha, looking in the distance, markings over his face as he tracked the convoy of the Daimyo, coming to Konoha for the State Funeral. He scoffed as he sensed the barely hidden shinobi guard darting around the convoy, aside from the Twelve Guardian Ninja who were overly guarding the man with a rather youthful chakra signature, not what he had expected from the Daimyo.

He'd heard of the new Daimyo who had taken his father’s position just a few years before the Yondaime took office but, as was part with most indulgent people he met, he expected the Daimyo’s chakra signature, not wasting away, but weaker than average. It would seem that the new Daimyo took good care of his body, which was good.

No one wanted a weak leader, other than people who wished to puppet the leader. The Land of Fire was important, not just for Konoha itself but for all the other Great Villages as well. In a way, the Land of Fire is the balancing element between all the other villages. It has been so since the time of the Nidaime Hokage.

All the other Great Villages have a vested interest in making sure that the Daimyo of the Land of Fire did not tilt towards any single Great Village, including Konoha. All the other villages had members of their own within the Daimyo’s court, something of an open secret, which is tacitly allowed because it makes sure that the Land of Fire, the single largest, most fertile and as such, most important land did not do anything that tipped the scales in favour of any single village.

Which is why the Fire Daimyo, in particular, simultaneously had the most authority as well as the least because the structure of ruling in that particular court was very decentralised, with many ministers doing most of the heavy lifting while the Fire Daimyo either merely signing off on sound proposals or deciding the alliances with any particular village.

The Land of Fire was allied with every single Nation out there, not favouring any particular one, trading with everyone, even if any Great Village was officially an enemy of Konoha.

All of these factors, combined with the fact that Konoha’s treasury was going to take a massive hit in the future, forced Sarutobi’s hand, forcing him to make sure that Daimyo was firmly on their side.

They really needed those funds. It was nice that one of the Twelve Guardians was the son of the Third Hokage, which meant a lot as a symbolic gesture to the Daimyo, which should come in handy soon.

The Funeral was tomorrow, early morning with now being evening. There will be some pleasantries, the back door deals finished today with the Hokage and probably only the results will be declared tomorrow.

Politics was the same back then and it is the same now. It’s just a shame that Sarutobi was the Hokage then and he is the Hokage now. In a way, Sarutobi was best suited to handle the Daimyo, any Daimyo or politician. He was the most experienced Hokage after all. On the other hand, he was getting really old and he would rather that there not be any situation that resulted in Konoha having to bow in front of the Daimyo.

He stood on the walls, arms crossed, Sage Mode slipping away as he finally watched the Daimyo’s entourage cross the village’s walls and safely reach Konoha. He sighed and turned away, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, to reach his temporary boarding.

To be honest, he would have loved to live outside, in the forests, surrounded by Hashirama trees, working on his Sage Mode but Sarutobi had been adamant on him being inside the village. He was to make regular sweeps of the village, especially the area where the Daimyo was going to reside, with his Sage Mode no less, to make sure no incident happened at such a critical juncture.

Sarutobi was of the mind that Orochimaru’s supposed sighting, with a group no less, along the borders was a ploy from the Snake Sannin to draw away forces, to use that lull to strike at the village, finishing Konoha, or rather Sarutobi, once and for all.

Somewhat paranoid, if you were to ask him but the man did not become the only Kage to survive till retirement without being a little paranoid, so he was going to follow the orders and tolerate living beside so many people.

Jumping through the window, he instantly closed it behind him and sighed in relief as everything faded away in the background. The noises, the smell, the constant chatter, everything. Giving a grateful glance at some of the Fuinjutsu swiggling in the corners of the room, he mentally noted to himself to thank Jiraiya once they met, hopefully under peaceful times, and sat down on the ground, cross legged.

He stilled for a second, taking in a deep breath as his senses exploded and this time, under his careful control, it penetrated everything. Everything from the chakra weapons of the samurai with the Daimyo, from the lavish Fuinjutsu enhanced carriage disappeared as he peered into the man himself.

After almost an entire minute of inspection, he exhaled, as Sage Mode left him. He sighed in relief as the Daimyo was in fact the Daimyo, another thing that Sarutobi had him check and confirm. He waved his hand as his chakra pulsed in a specific pattern, only stopping when he received a confirmation pattern from the ANBU perched beside his house.

Lying on the floor itself since he was not used to sleeping on soft things yet, he looked at the ceiling and thought of what his next few weeks if not months were going to look like.

So far, according to Sarutobi, Konoha had barely stopped most spies from leaking any information back home. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, something happened in Konoha that made it pull back most of its forces but no one knew exactly why.

If they were to realise that the monster known as the Yondaime was dead, they would instantly begin sharpening their kunai in anticipation of a war, or at least, an isolated war between two or more Great Villages.

Konoha would find no allies in that fight so keeping it under lids was the best. Also, the time they had received as a result of keeping tight control over any spies they allowed in the village, Konoha has managed to gather all of the remaining S-class shinobi under its employ, bolstering the village’s might for the time being.

He knew however that it was only temporary and the rest of the world knew it as well. They knew that Jiraiya could not stay in the village at all times because he had to run the rather substantial spy network across the world. They knew that Tsunade would not remain in the village for long.

That left only Sarutobi, who cannot leave the village undefended if someone attacks Konoha’s borders.

That is where he comes in. 

The mission on the border was real, it just had the extra component of driving Orochimaru as well, who was probably there for the same reason as Kumo was. To provoke a reason out of Konoha to see if they could still field the same overwhelming might that Konoha was known for.

Sarutobi didn’t think that he could capture Orochimaru, which could be true because capturing someone alive was infinitely harder than just killing them outright. Over the few days that he had been back in the village, he had been keeping his eyes and ears open, listening to everything going on around him.

His already sensitive senses helped a lot. There was a subset of people who did not want Sarutobi back as the Hokage, which was nonsense because he was the only viable candidate at the moment, with the next one, likely Hatake Kakashi, being at least five years away from becoming a proper Hokage candidate.

These same people also suspected Sarutobi of letting Orochimaru escape, despite the horrific crimes that came to light. He always wondered why the Yondaime never went after Konoha’s most dangerous rogue shinobi, the answer to which was made clear when he just listened.

Most likely, Sarutobi asked Minato to do so and since Orochimaru remained under the radar for years, the Yondaime never did anything about it, probably pushing it to whenever the Snake Sannin would show up.

He never did because being a member of Konoha gave Orochimaru very good insights of how he would only be fighting a losing battle against the Yondaime.

Exhaling, he shook his head and lay down, closing his eyes and meditating, his body stilling every single hour to do a thorough swipe of his surroundings, which was right next to the official accommodation for the Daimyo.

He had a meeting with the Daimyo scheduled tomorrow, and right after that, he was supposed to leave. He was also supposed to escort the Daimyo back to the capital before going on his merry way.

So, there was that to look forward to.

Ugh, politics. He missed the days when he was a literal nobody, not even existing on any official records.