One of my more boring chapters, but I promise things escalate from here.
Naruto: Blades of Fate
Chapter 5: Resolution and Recovery
A day has passed since Pain’s Invasion. Naruto and Kiyoji have been named heroes in their efforts in defeating Pain. The Hidden Leaf is now on the road to recovery, but a threat looms over the horizon…
Kiyoji stood on a cliff overlooking the ruins of Konoha. Before him, near the cliff’s edge, a large sword was placed. Its shape was similar to that of Roku Tsurugi, except that it was one blade instead of an amalgamation of six swords. It was old, its edge blunt from overuse and the blade covered in rust and dirt. An old Leaf Headband was tied to the hilt of the blade.
“I promised to live both of our lives, I’m not sure I had any right to make that promise” he sadly said, “I’ll be back later, brother.”
Earlier that day…
It seemed surreal, that just a day ago that the Leaf was nearly brought to its knees. Now everyone was going about their business, not unlike any other day. Kiyoji leaned against stack of freshly cut building wood. He seemed to be waiting for someone. Naruto and Sakura walked by, conversing about whether or not the Hokage will ever wake up.
“There’s just so much I want to tell her.” Naruto said. Sakura tried putting on a happier face, attempting to reassure him. “Naruto, you idiot, I’m the one who needs reassuring.” Kiyoji stood there, still in what seemed to be a meditative state. A few minutes pasted and a man approached them. He wore a kimono and a green and white bucket hat. He approached the trio but Naruto and Sakura were clueless as to who it was.
“It took you long enough, Urahara.” Kiyoji blandly stated, “Naruto, Sakura, this is Kisuke Urahara. He’s an old friend.”
“I guess a simple “hello, how are you” is out of the question with you, eh?” Kisuke said with a smirk. Kiyoji shrugged it off as if he hadn’t just said that.
“Did you bring it?”
“Straight to the point as usual, I see.” In his possession was a large parcel. It appeared to be a sword that was wrapped entirely in a cloth. He handed it over to Kiyoji, who quickly disappeared with flash step.
“What was that all about?” Naruto asked bluntly. Sakura scolded him because of his rudeness to a stranger but Kisuke wasn’t too annoyed by it.
“It’s a memento, something that belonged to his brother.” Naruto was confounded by this.
“His…brother?” he asked perturbed. Sakura suddenly felt a pang of sadness, remembering events that transpired years ago. She quickly addressed Naruto’s confusion.
“Kiyoji had an older brother named Koji. He was a renowned swordsman. He tragically went missing during a mission eight years ago. No one knows what happened to him. Soon after his parents were murdered too.”
Back to the Present
“I promised to live both of our lives, I’m not sure I had any right to make that promise” he sadly said, “I’ll be back later, brother.” Behind him stood Urahara and Yoruichi Shihoin, whom had just arrived from Karakura Town.
“I’m surprised you’re both here.” He said, “May I ask why?” Yoruichi stepped forward. “We’re here because we want to pay our respects to an old friend.” She said with a faint smile.
“Thanks, sensei.”He nodded off a quick thank you and approached Urahara.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you, Urahara.” Kisuke motioned him to continue as they walked back to the village.
“Ever since my battle with Pain, I’ve been…hallucinating.”
“Hallucinating what exactly?”
“Not really a what, rather who. Kiyoji said while clasping his left arm. Kisuke was confused by this, it wasn’t normal for anyone to imagine spiritual pressures, let alone a Soul Reaper.
....
Later, Kiyoji and Rukia were walking through the site where the relief effort was being staged. They had just walked through the refugee camp, helping with the distribution of supplies to the villagers.
“Sorry about that,” Kiyoji said, “I didn’t mean to get you involved in the grunt work.” Rukia played it off as if nothing happened. She seemed to be concerned about something else.
“I didn’t mind that at all,” she replied, trying to hide her concern but failing to otherwise, “You seem a bit off, is something wrong?”
“Nothing, just something lingering in my head. It’s nothing to worry about.” He tried playing it off as his reserved self but there were cracks in the façade. Rukia was about to scold them when they ran into the rest of Team Kakashi and a group of carpenters. Among them were two familiar faces.
“Old man Tazuna and Inari, huh?” he said with a smirk, “It has certainly been awhile.” He explained to Rukia that when he was a genin and a member of Team 7, they were issued a mission to protect Tazuna and the bridge builders of the Land of Waves. They had toppled an entire criminal organization and the Land of Waves was freed. They were now here to return the favor and help rebuild the Hidden Leaf.
....
“What do you mean Danzo has been named the Hokage?” Naruto said exasperated.
“That’s not all,” Kiba stated, “Sasuke has been declared a criminal and a death sentence was issued.” Kiyoji couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Danzo was a right-wing extremist. Why would the Daimyo appoint him as the Hokage? And to top it all off, he’s ordered Sasuke’s assassination. Naruto was handling this even worse than he was. He was prepared to confront Danzo when Kakashi stopped him.
“Relax, Naruto, getting worked up is only going to make things worse.” Kakashi said calmly.
“He’s right, Naruto. What do you think will happen if you storm into Danzo’s office and antagonize him over this?” Kiyoji stated. Naruto knew they were both right but didn’t know how else to react. Though he was hiding it well, Kiyoji was also seething with rage.
“I’m sorry, I have to go. Something just came up.” He said before flash stepping away. “Something’s up” he thought to himself, “The council wouldn’t just abruptly decide to put Danzo in power.” He quickly proceeded to Danzo’s tent and attempted to calm himself before entering it. As he walked in, Sai had just been briefed by Danzo and was leaving the tent. Danzo certainly wasn’t pleased to see him because Kiyoji was one of his most vocal opponents. His ANBU guards stood tensely, prepared to attack should Kiyoji attempt to take matters into his own hands.
“I don’t suppose you’ve come to congratulate my appointment to this post.” Danzo said stoically. Kiyoji was taken aback by this.
“Hmm, you’re usually to not the joking sort.” Kiyoji replied, “But you can tell your dogs here to calm down. You haven’t done anything wrong to warrant me killing you, not yet anyway.” Danzo was losing his patience.
“Spit it out then, why have you come?”
“To deliver a warning: If you do anything to threaten the village or my friends, I swear I’ll cut you down.” The guards had gotten even more agitated but Danzo told them to stand down.
“I am the Hokage now. It is my duty to protect this village and its inhabitants.”
“Good, then you have nothing to worry about.” With his business with Danzo finished, he left the tent attempting to sort out what his next move was going to be. As he walked onwards, he noticed that he was being followed. Though he normally would be concerned, he personally knew who was trailing him.
“It is very unbecoming of you to be stalking me, Saeko.” Upon realizing that her fraudulence was discovered, she quickly showed herself. She was a member of ANBU and the heiress of the Busujima clan. She was a renowned swordsman in her own right; he learned that first hand when he was a member of ANBU for he was paired up with her. She removed her mask, revealing that she had hardly changed over the past year. She had long black hair and had bangs framing her face. She had pale skin and dark blue eyes.
“I don’t suppose that you’re one of Danzo’s lackeys now, are you?” he asked, somewhat concerned. It wasn’t like her to be trailing him without a reason.
“Of course not,” she replied “I heard you were back and I was going to look for you when I saw you storming out of Danzo’s tent.” She then added: “I also found some information that I thought would interest you.” His interest was piqued.
“The Raikage has called for a summit of the Five Kages. It’s going to take place in the Land of Iron.” Things were getting worse, far worse than he could have imagined. Akatsuki must have done a lot of damage to attract the attention of the other villages. Danzo’s appointment couldn’t have come at worst time. The village’s standing amongst the others was now at stake. Not to mention that the meeting itself was likely to attract the Akatsuki’s attention. He shrugged, now annoyed that the situation has now grown complicated.
“Well, it looks like I have a summit to crash.” He said contently. Saeko was not surprised by this; she was used to his impromptu decisions.
“Well, shall I accompany you then?” she asked “I couldn’t possibly live with myself if you were to hurt yourself because of intelligence I provided.” She was only half-sincere. She was looking for an excuse to find a situation to spend more time with him and as usual he fell for it.
“If you put it that way” he said half-heartedly, seeing that she wasn’t going to be taking “no” for an answer. “Meet me at the northern side of the refugee camp. We’ll leave from there. And please dress in something else, the last thing I need is Danzo thinking I’ve come to assassinate him with some rogue ANBU operatives.” She gracefully nodded and disappeared in a plume of smoke. “Now I remember why I left the Black Ops. I hated their flashy exits.” he thought to himself as he laughed. As he proceeded to the rendezvous point, he realized that he couldn’t tell Naruto or Sakura. They were more than likely going cause a fuss over Sasuke than to help anyway. He was going to need Rukia and others though; there was no telling if the Akatsuki were going to make their move on the summit. He found Rukia, and told her to round up the others and head to the appointed place. She complied and he proceeded to make sure Naruto wasn’t causing a commotion. Of course, Naruto proved that it was quite the contrary. Naruto, Sai, and Sakura were being confronted by a duo of Cloud shinobi. Both groups were about to clash. Kiyoji quickly stepped in between the two, easily blocking the Cloud ninja’s strikes with Ichi Tsurugi.
“What the hell is going on?” he stated angrily, “Last time I checked Konoha wasn’t at war with Kumo.” At first the two Cloud ninja regained their composure but upon further inspection of Kiyoji they grew even angrier.
“You look just like him, too!” The cloud kunoichi shouted as she raised her sword at him.
“I look like whom?” he asked, assuming a low guard. Sai quickly stepped forward in order to clarify the situation.
“They’re looking for information on Sasuke. Apparently, he killed their master.”
“We’ll sorry to disappoint. As you can see, though we may look alike, I’m not him.” He said nonchalantly, “though I wasn’t aware being an Uchiha was a crime now.” The two were startled by this statement.
“Yea, that’s right. I’m his cousin, though technically I’m his adoptive brother.” That didn’t calm their nerves; it only served to fuel their rage.
“That doesn’t change the facts; we spotted Sasuke Uchiha capturing our master for the Akatsuki.” Everyone else was startled by this. From what they knew, Sasuke had never been associated with the Akatsuki until now. This bit of info was bit too much to bear for Sakura; she broke down in tears at the thought. Naruto tried comforting her but to no avail.
“I’ll tell you everything about Sasuke…” Naruto said. Kiyoji was stunned by this but was running out of time.
“Please take care of things here, Naruto” he said as he began to walk way, “I have some things to take care of.” He quickly dashed off, heading to the rendezvous point. “If Kumo is here look for Intel on Sasuke, then things have really gotten worse.” He was regretting not staying and sorting things out with the others but there were more things at stake. “If Sasuke has to die in order for stability to be maintained, then so be it.” He shortly arrived at the rendezvous point, Saeko and the others waiting for him.
“Alright, everyone is here. To eliminate any confusion, we’re going to the summit to prevent any Akatsuki interference and if the case arises, stop Danzo’s scheming.” He said with determination. Everyone nodded in compliance to the task at hand.
“Let’s go”
Previous Chapters:
Spitting on your God (Invasion of Pain Remix)
United Front
Naruto: Blades of Fate
Chapter 5: Resolution and Recovery
A day has passed since Pain’s Invasion. Naruto and Kiyoji have been named heroes in their efforts in defeating Pain. The Hidden Leaf is now on the road to recovery, but a threat looms over the horizon…
Kiyoji stood on a cliff overlooking the ruins of Konoha. Before him, near the cliff’s edge, a large sword was placed. Its shape was similar to that of Roku Tsurugi, except that it was one blade instead of an amalgamation of six swords. It was old, its edge blunt from overuse and the blade covered in rust and dirt. An old Leaf Headband was tied to the hilt of the blade.
“I promised to live both of our lives, I’m not sure I had any right to make that promise” he sadly said, “I’ll be back later, brother.”
Earlier that day…
It seemed surreal, that just a day ago that the Leaf was nearly brought to its knees. Now everyone was going about their business, not unlike any other day. Kiyoji leaned against stack of freshly cut building wood. He seemed to be waiting for someone. Naruto and Sakura walked by, conversing about whether or not the Hokage will ever wake up.
“There’s just so much I want to tell her.” Naruto said. Sakura tried putting on a happier face, attempting to reassure him. “Naruto, you idiot, I’m the one who needs reassuring.” Kiyoji stood there, still in what seemed to be a meditative state. A few minutes pasted and a man approached them. He wore a kimono and a green and white bucket hat. He approached the trio but Naruto and Sakura were clueless as to who it was.
“It took you long enough, Urahara.” Kiyoji blandly stated, “Naruto, Sakura, this is Kisuke Urahara. He’s an old friend.”
“I guess a simple “hello, how are you” is out of the question with you, eh?” Kisuke said with a smirk. Kiyoji shrugged it off as if he hadn’t just said that.
“Did you bring it?”
“Straight to the point as usual, I see.” In his possession was a large parcel. It appeared to be a sword that was wrapped entirely in a cloth. He handed it over to Kiyoji, who quickly disappeared with flash step.
“What was that all about?” Naruto asked bluntly. Sakura scolded him because of his rudeness to a stranger but Kisuke wasn’t too annoyed by it.
“It’s a memento, something that belonged to his brother.” Naruto was confounded by this.
“His…brother?” he asked perturbed. Sakura suddenly felt a pang of sadness, remembering events that transpired years ago. She quickly addressed Naruto’s confusion.
“Kiyoji had an older brother named Koji. He was a renowned swordsman. He tragically went missing during a mission eight years ago. No one knows what happened to him. Soon after his parents were murdered too.”
Back to the Present
“I promised to live both of our lives, I’m not sure I had any right to make that promise” he sadly said, “I’ll be back later, brother.” Behind him stood Urahara and Yoruichi Shihoin, whom had just arrived from Karakura Town.
“I’m surprised you’re both here.” He said, “May I ask why?” Yoruichi stepped forward. “We’re here because we want to pay our respects to an old friend.” She said with a faint smile.
“Thanks, sensei.”He nodded off a quick thank you and approached Urahara.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you, Urahara.” Kisuke motioned him to continue as they walked back to the village.
“Ever since my battle with Pain, I’ve been…hallucinating.”
“Hallucinating what exactly?”
“Not really a what, rather who. Kiyoji said while clasping his left arm. Kisuke was confused by this, it wasn’t normal for anyone to imagine spiritual pressures, let alone a Soul Reaper.
....
Later, Kiyoji and Rukia were walking through the site where the relief effort was being staged. They had just walked through the refugee camp, helping with the distribution of supplies to the villagers.
“Sorry about that,” Kiyoji said, “I didn’t mean to get you involved in the grunt work.” Rukia played it off as if nothing happened. She seemed to be concerned about something else.
“I didn’t mind that at all,” she replied, trying to hide her concern but failing to otherwise, “You seem a bit off, is something wrong?”
“Nothing, just something lingering in my head. It’s nothing to worry about.” He tried playing it off as his reserved self but there were cracks in the façade. Rukia was about to scold them when they ran into the rest of Team Kakashi and a group of carpenters. Among them were two familiar faces.
“Old man Tazuna and Inari, huh?” he said with a smirk, “It has certainly been awhile.” He explained to Rukia that when he was a genin and a member of Team 7, they were issued a mission to protect Tazuna and the bridge builders of the Land of Waves. They had toppled an entire criminal organization and the Land of Waves was freed. They were now here to return the favor and help rebuild the Hidden Leaf.
....
“What do you mean Danzo has been named the Hokage?” Naruto said exasperated.
“That’s not all,” Kiba stated, “Sasuke has been declared a criminal and a death sentence was issued.” Kiyoji couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Danzo was a right-wing extremist. Why would the Daimyo appoint him as the Hokage? And to top it all off, he’s ordered Sasuke’s assassination. Naruto was handling this even worse than he was. He was prepared to confront Danzo when Kakashi stopped him.
“Relax, Naruto, getting worked up is only going to make things worse.” Kakashi said calmly.
“He’s right, Naruto. What do you think will happen if you storm into Danzo’s office and antagonize him over this?” Kiyoji stated. Naruto knew they were both right but didn’t know how else to react. Though he was hiding it well, Kiyoji was also seething with rage.
“I’m sorry, I have to go. Something just came up.” He said before flash stepping away. “Something’s up” he thought to himself, “The council wouldn’t just abruptly decide to put Danzo in power.” He quickly proceeded to Danzo’s tent and attempted to calm himself before entering it. As he walked in, Sai had just been briefed by Danzo and was leaving the tent. Danzo certainly wasn’t pleased to see him because Kiyoji was one of his most vocal opponents. His ANBU guards stood tensely, prepared to attack should Kiyoji attempt to take matters into his own hands.
“I don’t suppose you’ve come to congratulate my appointment to this post.” Danzo said stoically. Kiyoji was taken aback by this.
“Hmm, you’re usually to not the joking sort.” Kiyoji replied, “But you can tell your dogs here to calm down. You haven’t done anything wrong to warrant me killing you, not yet anyway.” Danzo was losing his patience.
“Spit it out then, why have you come?”
“To deliver a warning: If you do anything to threaten the village or my friends, I swear I’ll cut you down.” The guards had gotten even more agitated but Danzo told them to stand down.
“I am the Hokage now. It is my duty to protect this village and its inhabitants.”
“Good, then you have nothing to worry about.” With his business with Danzo finished, he left the tent attempting to sort out what his next move was going to be. As he walked onwards, he noticed that he was being followed. Though he normally would be concerned, he personally knew who was trailing him.
“It is very unbecoming of you to be stalking me, Saeko.” Upon realizing that her fraudulence was discovered, she quickly showed herself. She was a member of ANBU and the heiress of the Busujima clan. She was a renowned swordsman in her own right; he learned that first hand when he was a member of ANBU for he was paired up with her. She removed her mask, revealing that she had hardly changed over the past year. She had long black hair and had bangs framing her face. She had pale skin and dark blue eyes.
“I don’t suppose that you’re one of Danzo’s lackeys now, are you?” he asked, somewhat concerned. It wasn’t like her to be trailing him without a reason.
“Of course not,” she replied “I heard you were back and I was going to look for you when I saw you storming out of Danzo’s tent.” She then added: “I also found some information that I thought would interest you.” His interest was piqued.
“The Raikage has called for a summit of the Five Kages. It’s going to take place in the Land of Iron.” Things were getting worse, far worse than he could have imagined. Akatsuki must have done a lot of damage to attract the attention of the other villages. Danzo’s appointment couldn’t have come at worst time. The village’s standing amongst the others was now at stake. Not to mention that the meeting itself was likely to attract the Akatsuki’s attention. He shrugged, now annoyed that the situation has now grown complicated.
“Well, it looks like I have a summit to crash.” He said contently. Saeko was not surprised by this; she was used to his impromptu decisions.
“Well, shall I accompany you then?” she asked “I couldn’t possibly live with myself if you were to hurt yourself because of intelligence I provided.” She was only half-sincere. She was looking for an excuse to find a situation to spend more time with him and as usual he fell for it.
“If you put it that way” he said half-heartedly, seeing that she wasn’t going to be taking “no” for an answer. “Meet me at the northern side of the refugee camp. We’ll leave from there. And please dress in something else, the last thing I need is Danzo thinking I’ve come to assassinate him with some rogue ANBU operatives.” She gracefully nodded and disappeared in a plume of smoke. “Now I remember why I left the Black Ops. I hated their flashy exits.” he thought to himself as he laughed. As he proceeded to the rendezvous point, he realized that he couldn’t tell Naruto or Sakura. They were more than likely going cause a fuss over Sasuke than to help anyway. He was going to need Rukia and others though; there was no telling if the Akatsuki were going to make their move on the summit. He found Rukia, and told her to round up the others and head to the appointed place. She complied and he proceeded to make sure Naruto wasn’t causing a commotion. Of course, Naruto proved that it was quite the contrary. Naruto, Sai, and Sakura were being confronted by a duo of Cloud shinobi. Both groups were about to clash. Kiyoji quickly stepped in between the two, easily blocking the Cloud ninja’s strikes with Ichi Tsurugi.
“What the hell is going on?” he stated angrily, “Last time I checked Konoha wasn’t at war with Kumo.” At first the two Cloud ninja regained their composure but upon further inspection of Kiyoji they grew even angrier.
“You look just like him, too!” The cloud kunoichi shouted as she raised her sword at him.
“I look like whom?” he asked, assuming a low guard. Sai quickly stepped forward in order to clarify the situation.
“They’re looking for information on Sasuke. Apparently, he killed their master.”
“We’ll sorry to disappoint. As you can see, though we may look alike, I’m not him.” He said nonchalantly, “though I wasn’t aware being an Uchiha was a crime now.” The two were startled by this statement.
“Yea, that’s right. I’m his cousin, though technically I’m his adoptive brother.” That didn’t calm their nerves; it only served to fuel their rage.
“That doesn’t change the facts; we spotted Sasuke Uchiha capturing our master for the Akatsuki.” Everyone else was startled by this. From what they knew, Sasuke had never been associated with the Akatsuki until now. This bit of info was bit too much to bear for Sakura; she broke down in tears at the thought. Naruto tried comforting her but to no avail.
“I’ll tell you everything about Sasuke…” Naruto said. Kiyoji was stunned by this but was running out of time.
“Please take care of things here, Naruto” he said as he began to walk way, “I have some things to take care of.” He quickly dashed off, heading to the rendezvous point. “If Kumo is here look for Intel on Sasuke, then things have really gotten worse.” He was regretting not staying and sorting things out with the others but there were more things at stake. “If Sasuke has to die in order for stability to be maintained, then so be it.” He shortly arrived at the rendezvous point, Saeko and the others waiting for him.
“Alright, everyone is here. To eliminate any confusion, we’re going to the summit to prevent any Akatsuki interference and if the case arises, stop Danzo’s scheming.” He said with determination. Everyone nodded in compliance to the task at hand.
“Let’s go”
Previous Chapters:
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The Return
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Spitting on your God (Invasion of Pain Remix)
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United Front
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On the Precipice of Defeat
