Chapter 2: Part 2
It was October 11th, and Sarutobi Hiruzen was feeling his age. The Kyuubi had somehow escaped Uzumaki Kushina the night before during her labor, wreaked havoc upon the village and been resealed into the daughter of Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina at the cost of their lives, leaving newborn Namikaze-Uzumaki Natsuki an orphan and the container of the Kyuubi. He had a scheduled meeting at 12 sharp in order to discuss the Hokage position and the actions to be taken. He had just over an hour till that meeting started. He kept thinking about what he should do with little Natsuki, but everything he thought of would bring him grief.
11:03, and Hiruzen was still lost in thought, but was alarmed at a japanese sliding door appearing in his office, slightly off to one side, which opened up and a young man stepped out of it and looking around, showing slight confusion at seeing him sitting behind the desk. The ANBU in the room was slightly tense, except for Neko who recognized the door, and in order to avoid anything from happening, let herself drop from her hiding spot and walked towards the door holding her hand up in signal not to do anything. As the man finished closing the door behind him, he turned back around and saw Neko.
"Ah, Neko, good to see you again" he said with a smile towards the ANBU, to which she just nodded before responding "Welcome back, Shuhei Hisagi, though I wish I could say the same considering what happened just yesterday." she finished slightly lowering her head.
"Yesterday? Hmm, that should be October 10th, yes? I must admit, I will probably be slightly off on a few things, considering for you it's been a year, but for me it's been 19 years" he chuckled kindly in response before continuing with a serious look on his face "What happened?"
And so they filled him in about what happened, including the coming meeting. While he knew, he showed a shocked expression for most of it, while feeling genuinely sad about the loss of Minato and Kushina.
"The timing was terrible. Had I arrived yesterday, things would have been different" he regretfully said, while shaking his head. Hiruzen who had been mostly silent and just listening behind the desk quirked an eyebrow at his statement "You mean to say, you could have altered the outcome of the situation?"
Hisagi let out a dry chuckle "Old man, I've spent 19 years purely dedicated to training and studying. The place where I trained was a one-time thing, but it had the best environment for training. I would know. Considering I've been having life and death duels with replicas of Uchiha Madara, Senju Hashirama, Namikaze Minato, yourself, Ay the 3rd Raikage, Hagoromo Otsotsuki who is also better known as the Sage of Six Paths. When I grew bored sometimes, I would fight all of the Hokage at the same time with Madara helping them. I regret to tell you, that you are no longer the God of Shinobi, old man" he finished cheekily while they all were gaping at his statement, before Hisagi refocused back on Hiruzen "So, would you mind if I join in on the meeting you told me about earlier. Because, no offense Hiruzen, you are too old to properly be Hokage, they would go behind your back and your kindhearted nature would just let things play out. While not much, it would weaken the village which we can not allow to happen, and Danzo would have us waging war against everything and everybody in less than a year. Thank god I asked Minato for those books on politics!"
Hiruzen nodded hearing his words, and agreeing with him, his age was starting to make him take a bit of a backseat and just let things play out, so in next to no time he had finished his thoughts and worded them out "I agree. But what would you do with little Natsuki? I have pondered about how to handle her situation, yet every course of action I picture ends with regrets for me" he motioned to the little girl that was in the crib off to the side.
"You mean her being the Jinchuuriki of Kyuubi and the daughter of Minato and Kushina, right?" Hisagi asked plainly, getting a slightly shocked look from Hiruzen, as her parentage hadn't been said, and before he could voice this, Hisagi kept speaking "It's obvious, isn't it? Think about it. Red hair, same as Kushina, bright blue eyes, same as Minato. And Minato would NEVER ask another parent to do something he could not himself do. That is against everything he stands for. Do not worry, I have the perfect solution to the problem", the conviction and self-confidence was rolling off him in waves as he spoke.
As they finished speaking, it was already time for the meeting to begin, so they walked off to the council chambers, with Hisagi carrying Natsuki and baby speaking to her the entire way creating a peaceful feeling in this otherwise gloomy time.
When the meeting began after everyone had filed in and taken their seats, the one that opened the meeting was naturally Hiruzen "Let's get straight to the point and on topic, we all have much to see to. The first order up is deciding on the Hokage post. Anyone that wants to open the debate?" and as soon as he had asked the question, Shimura Danzo, one of the elders, spoke up "I believe we need someone strong to take the seat of Hokage. Someone that is willing to do what it take-" he was cut off by a male voice that was slightly lower due to the distance "Ohh, Natsuki-chan you're so cute, yes you are, yes you are. The cutest of them all in fact, yes! Oh my, such a strong grip you have with those little fingers, yes, that's fingers and you're holding mine. Ahh so cute" everyone turned to see Hisagi standing over the crib with his hand in it. Nobody had seen him move from the seat he took. Danzo was slightly annoyed, before speaking again "As I was saying, we need someone who is willing to do what it takes, and that someone is-" he was cut off once again by the same voice "Teehee, yes that's my hair, AH NATSUKI-CHAN! DON'T PULL DON'T PULL! Oh my not only a strong grip but also strong in general, I almost became bald you little rascal, but it's okay, because you're so cute!" all eyes once again turned to the giggling Hisagi holding up Natsuki in front of him letting out chuckles, and the chuckles only got bigger when they realized that he was interrupting Danzo on purpose. Hiruzen stopped his chuckling and coughed "I personally vote for Shuhei Hisagi to take the seat of 5th Hokage. While unknown to most due to his circumstances, he will be the most ideal for the position. Hisagi, you are willing to let Inoichi do a mind scan of you to give the green light, yes?" and before anyone could respond, a civilian councillor spoke up "Who the heck is Shuhei Hisagi?" and they all followed the eyes of Hiruzen towards the crib where Hisagi could be seen playing with Natsuki with a happy smile on his face, before turning his head towards Hiruzen and tilting his head "Whuzzat Hiruzen? Natsuki had my attention" he chuckled lightly "Are you willing to have Inoichi check your mind?"
Suddenly the room got tense, while Hisagi took a serious thinking pose, before chuckling after 10 seconds "Sure, no problem, though I will have to warn him that what he's going to see might.. change his thoughts about a few things. However most of it should be positive! I promise!" he finished with a smile.
Ten minutes later, Inoichi came back and settled his mind going over everything he just saw and learned before he spoke seriously "I agree. Shuhei Hisagi is the most ideal person to be the Hokage out of anyone, even compared to past Hokage."
Noting how serious he actually was, they realized that he was dead serious. Whatever he had seen had a massive impact on him. Thus a Q&A session began where they asked Inoichi a bunch of stuff about Hisagi and what he had seen, to which he responded to the best of his ability. It quickly dawned on them just what kind of person they were dealing with. They were dealing with the God of Shinobi. Granted, he was sitting on the floor playing with an infant who couldn't actually play at all. Not even crawl or move herself around, which could create a very misleading idea of his strength. He had the strength, the mind, the ability, the will and the desire to lead the village properly.
Thus, at October 11th, at 12:18, Shuhei Hisagi was named Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure, while not paying attention and playing with an infant.
"Next order is what we shall do with Natsuki, as she is both an orphan and the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. We need to decide how to go about this" Sarutobi Hiruzen continued to the next order of debate, and once again, Danzo was the first to speak up "Give her to me, I will make her the greatest wea-" he was once again cut off in his speech, as everyone once again heard activity from the sidelines
"My father said;
Don't you worry, don't you worry, child
See heaven's got a plan for you
Don't you worry, don't worry now"
This time, Hisagi had started singing lyrics from a song from his past life, though everyone in the room didn't know, and it was nothing like the original, as this was sung as if it was a bedtime song. As he finished, he put the sleeping Natsuki in her crib, and turned to the council.
"I'll be adopting her, and she will carry my name till she can take up her parents names. I do not belong to any clan, thus this will not skewer the power balance in the village. I can raise her, and train her. She will not be the weapon for the village. She will be whatever she wants to be." He had started in a shoft, caring voice, but ended in a strong voice that demanded they follow it. They saw his red tattoo, of the kanji for 'protect' turn to black. However, he was far from done "And the knowledge of her status as the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi will not leave this room. Should ANY knowledge, even the slightest glimmer, be leaked about her status from this room, I will personally investigate each and everyone so closely that I will be able to tell when you took a shit when you were 5, May 16th and how you wiped your ass. This would naturally mean, that EVERYTHING will be scoured should knowledge leak. Thus, any 'oversights' that anyone in this room has made for their own good, for their childrens good, for their clans good, whatever it is, will be found out, known, and will be posted all around the village. The people will not be able to comprehend how a seal works, so they will blame an innocent baby girl for being the reason they are alive. This is an S-class secret. The punishment for breaking this will be immediate death. Meaning, if you speak about it, I will come for you. And I do not care if you are with your spouse, children, parents or whatever. You will be a head shorter, even in their presence. None of this shall be spoken in public or behind closed doors bar this one in this very council with only councillors present. Understood?" he finished so strongly that everyone but Danzo nodded, which Hisagi noticed and commented on "Danzo. DO. YOU. UNDERSTAND?" to which the elderly man nodded "Yes, Hokage-sama."
"Good, for if you specifically try anything against her, I will not have you killed. Nay, I will literally go out in the world, find whatever animals I want, place a seal on them and have them rape you till you either die of starvation, dehydration or simply being raped to death. I know what kind of man you are. Therefore, your death shall not be an escape. It will happen in a room that will be visible to the public over the age of 18 through a tinted glass, in short, a deterrent. You want someone that can strongarm things in the position of Hokage. You got it."
Everyone was slightly afraid and fearful of Hisagi's specific method of execution for the elder, the elder in question in particular, that was not a death someone of his stature would ever want.
"I do not hesitate in taking out the trash, while also showing kindness to those that should be shown kindness."
The meeting went on for a while more, with Hisagi ordering the rebuilding of the village in the most efficient and cost effective way, before calling the meeting after a few hours of planning.
After this, the days quickly rolled by, and a lot of things happened in somewhat quick succession. Hisagi first changed the academy curriculum to actually train competent shinobi, and actually made the graduating test that was worthwhile. Now the students learned actual taijutsu, not just random sparring matches. They learned more than just the basic 3 jutsu, now they learned their affinities and basic C-rank jutsu for their elements. They still had history, but it was taught in a way that actually let the children know HOW and WHY it was relevant, no longer was it just to know how many hairs the Shodaime had on his ass. But to the public and the shinobi, the biggest thing was that...
he changed the entire system.
No longer did it go student -> genin -> chunin -> special jounin -> jounin.
Nay, now it had layers to it. This was to promote the will to progress properly. To strengthen the village long term.
Genin now had 3 ranks. Genin 1, Genin 2 and Genin 3.
Chunin was much the same with 3 ranks. Chunin 1, Chunin 2, Chunin 3.
To advance from Genin 3 to Chunin 1, you could do the chunin exam as previously, or do the test, though the exam was actually EASIER, and it quickly became apparant that simply doing 'okay' in the exam, did not mean you went from Genin 3 to Chunin 1. Nah, You had to do so well in the exam that for other villages, it was a definite promotion, and just then you would most likely just scrape the bottom requirements of the acceptance for the promotion.
Jonin was slightly different. It was rated by stars. Jonin 1 star, Jonin 2 star, Jonin 3 star, Jonin 4 star, Jonin 5 star.
Why did Jonin have star rankings and not just grades like Genin and Chunin? Simple. Prestige. If you told someone you were a Jonin 5 star from the leaf, and your headband did indeed have 5 stars glowing slightly, most enemies would piss themselves and run off or just dircectly faint. Why would being a Jonin 5 star matter so much, many had asked themselves. That was until people saw Hatake Kakashi with his headband with only one star active. Hatake Kakashi, a high A-rank nin, was given just one star. Some said it was because of his tardy personality, some said it was his lazy nature. That was until they saw something that actually slightly terrified them. Sarutobi Hiruzen, his headband.. was Jonin 4 star. Meaning that he did not qualify for 5 star. Many previously ranked Jonin, now found themselves sitting at Chunin 2 or 3. A lot of people saw this as a sign of weakness from the leaf, but that lasted only a very short while.
If you had surpassed Jonin 5 star, you would recieve the Kage headband. This level only had 1 grade. Kage. The way you could identify the people on this level, was because the leaf symbol on their headbands would have a very dim golden glow to it.
All of the jonin headbands and kage headbands were made with fuinjutsu, specifically set up so that even if they had a slight glow to them, it wouldn't take from stealth, in the sense that the glow would actually dim depending on the wearers intent, meaning if you wanted to be sneaky, the glow would disappear.
When this was first announced, many were outraged to say the least, thinking that their strength were questioned, but seeing THE Sarutobi Hiruzen, pick up his 4 star jonin headband and wear it with pride, made them realize that it wasn't that their strength was questioned, just that more were demanded from them if they wanted to reach a higher level. No more were reaching jonin a cushion to lazily sit back in and let yourself detoriorate. It was a constant battle against yourself to improve your own level.
Hisagi had commented that Hiruzen had once been at the Kage rank, but age and lack of activity and combat maintenance had reduced him to Jonin 4 star, to which the elderly man nodded in agreement while chuckling, and knowing fully well what the system intended to do. It was to strengthen the village.
After the change, people had actually started progressing again. And after a serious talk between Hisagi and Kakashi, he too had realized he had stagnated and begun training. Simple words such as "You stopped moving forward. Who will you watch be buried next because you spent all your time crying over not having enough strength to protect those you already buried instead of improving yourself?" could fix the broken Hatake, and he had in a short half year progressed to Jonin 2 star. This also showed people what to do, and a vast majority of people started improving, instead of just maintaining their level. When news got out about what ranking the Sannin were placed at though, people just shook their head, because they realized that they had overglorified the three slightly.
Tsunade, Jonin 1 star.
Jiraya, Jonin 3 star. And this was only because of his sage mode, otherwise he would be 2 star.
Orochimaru, previously S-ranked nuke-nin, was demoted to A-ranked nukenin, and his entry was changed from 'Highly dangerous yada yada' to 'His ranking is only because he is good at running away and having people fight for him, like his summon, as well as his crimes against humanity'. This had shocked people slightly, but when they started thinking about it they just laughed and saw the truth in it.
Speaking of the Sannin, Hiruzen had been tasked with an A-rank mission to bring Tsunade back. At first she vehemently refused, that was until Hiruzen summoned Enma, and had shown full intent of fighting Tsunade to capture her and bring her back. This had scared her slightly, because this was the first time her father figure didn't let her do what she wanted.
When she finally got back to the village, she was going to throttle the new Hokage she had decided, show him his place, let him know that SHE knew best. That had backfired. When she punched full force at Hisagi, he had just caught her punch, and broken her arm. The words he had told her following that, had been a massive punch in her face, it was like reality just suddenly showed up and sucker punched her, following it up with a drop kick. "Congratulations, Senju Tsunade. You, being a massive fucking pussy, have in the last ten years, allowed others to become like you, losing those they love, for the simple fact that you lost two people precious to you. You could have saved some, not all, but some. And those some, are now gone, buried, never to be seen again, while the tears of their loved ones were shed while they looked on, being unable to do anything to stop it, knowing that there is a person out there in the world that COULD HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE, but was too much of a pussy to do anything other than gamble, drink and run away from debts and their problems. You are a disgrace to the Senju name. A thorough disgrace. Nawaki and Dan have probably gotten motion sickness, wherever they are, because they didn't just turn in their graves, they literally spun at such a rapid pace because of your actions. Thus, I applaud you, congratulations" and he did just that. He applauded her. Slow claps. And each clap was like a slap in the face and for each one, realization sat in. She could have stopped others from feeling what she felt.
When she got back on track, she got what she wanted, and the medical classes in the academy was revised to a higher level. Though, in the first place, everyone had to learn how to sew a wound shut, cauterize a wound, bandage, disinfect, set a bone back in place etcetera.
However. The biggest things for Hisagi was the first time Natsuki took her first step, which was in his office. And once again when she had spoken her first word "Da-da". The ANBU still chuckled slightly when they remembered the strongest Kage they had ever had nearly faint in happiness with tears of joy streaming down his face while Natsuki tried her best to wipe the tears away thinking he was hurting. After telling her constantly that he was so happy he cried, she finally understood that he wasn't hurting. The little girl was rapidly becoming a true father's girl.
On the subject, he had actually made a seal that would permanently remove her whisker marks when she was still an infant. While he saw the marks as cute, he didn't want anything on his daughter others might consider a blemish, or that they could trace her to be the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. She was a lively little girl with bright red hair like her mother, bright blue eyes like her biological father, and a cute round face, which she also got from her mother.
The years had quickly passed, and it was October 11th again, 4 years after the Kyuubi attack. Hisagi was sitting quietly in his chair, finishing his paperwork when the doors to his office was flung open and a loud "DADDYYYY!" was heard, before a red blur flew into his arms which he happily reprocitated with a chuckle, while standing up and spinning around with his daughter, Shuhei Natsuki "How is my little princess? Did you play with your presents? And where is Hana-chan?" he asked her happily "I'm good daddy, I played LOTS with my presents they are so much fun, and the training kunai was suuuuuuuper fun!" he chuckled while patting her head gently after he sat down in his chair again with her in his lap "And what did you do to Hana-chan?" a light giggle was the response "Nothing daddy, she walked me here and after we got here she went to talk with a friend, she said she would be back soon to play with me more. But I want to train. You promised you would start training me to become a super strong and beautiful kunoichi like mommy was!" her words this time caused him to let out a kind laugh "I did promise, didn't I? Well, then daddy better do his work suuuuper fast so he can go train you how to become a super strong and beautiful kunoichi, neh?" he asked her with a kind and gentle tone, to which she nodded with an "Un!" while nibbling on one of the cookies he had in a jar. He always had a shadow clone make some cookies every morning, for any children that came into the room, so they didn't get bored or scared of being in the room with the Hokage himself. On a sidenote, this had given him bonus points with every parent in the village, that the Hokage personally made cookies every day just in case a child might be present in the room during the day.
And while Natsuki knew her mother was no longer alive, she didn't even know her name. She did want to know, but Hisagi had told her that her mother was a super strong and beautiful kunoichi, and the only reason he didn't tell her was because she was still too young to understand what it meant. He had further told her, that he would tell her everything when she was 6 years old, and she accepted that, knowing that her daddy only wanted what was best for her. It wouldn't be a far cry from the truth to say that she was the happiest little girl alive in the world.
The Hyuga incident had happened while Natsuki was 3 years old, and Hisagi had captured the nin, and returned Hinata to the Hyuga compound in peak condition, with a smile on her face and a jar of cookies in her hands, the incident while not forgotten, didn't leave any lasting mental scars.
One major change though, was that Uzuki Yugao and Gekko Hayate, did not get into a relationship with each other. This was predominantly because Yugao had developed a motherly attachment to Natsuki, which slowly trailed over to getting to know Hisagi on a personal level, thus leading to them becoming a couple shortly before Natsuki became 5 years old. Yugao had advanced in rank since the ranking changes, and gotten her Jonin 3 star headband. Though, her happiness of getting the promotion paled in comparison to the first time Natsuki called Yugao "Mommy". Hisagi could clearly remember the face of both of them when it happened. Natsuki looked like a deer in the headlights, while Yugao had a slight look of shock on her face, it was clear that the pieces in her head fell in all the right places and she felt like everything was right in the world. Natsuki had looked scared, because she didn't want to lose Yugao, and she called her mommy without realizing it, that was until Yugao swept her up in a massive hug while chanting "My daughter, my beautiful daughter" on repeat like a broken record. This had prompted the scared little girl to cry while responding to Yugaos chanting, with her own chant of "Mommy". Hisagi had watched it all from the sidelines with a genuinely happy smile, seeing his girlfriend and daughter get along so well. He had been prepared for a bit, since they had been together for 10 months at that point, and knew what he wanted. He had gotten the ring after the 8 months, and just waited for the right time. So when the mother and daughter pair had stopped crying happy tears and finished their chants, and just hugging each other he had spoken up "Well, since my.. sorry.. our daughter approves, I guess it's only fitting" he opened a drawer and pulled out a small box, before walking over to them and getting on one knee before them. "Uzuki Yugao, while we've only been together for 10 months, it's been 10 months of all kinds of right. Will you marry me?" which once again started the waterworks in the woman, and not trusting her words, she had just nodded her head repeatedly. "And what about you, princess, will you let daddy marry mommy?" he had asked Natsuki, and almost before he had finished asking she had nodded many times and said "Un! Daddy and mommy can get married!", to which he put the ring on Yugaos ring finger, and joined the hug. He didn't know it then, but he had gotten a whole lot of bonus points when he had asked Natsuki as well.
The wedding had been a month before Natsuki's birthday, and while it wasn't a massive gathering, the wedding had been perfect for the little family. Hisagi and Yugao had mutually decided that they would only have a child after Natsuki had been told everything at her 6th birthday, since it was important that she knew while she wasn't their biological child, she was their child none the less, and she was important to them and nothing would change that.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
P4TH
P4TH Part 2
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