章 38: Naruto : Chapter 38
Over the next week they stayed in the village, doing training and some D-rank missions as Jiraiya was expected back any day to evaluate Naruto's skills in sealing and nobody wanted to risk Naruto being on a mission when Jiraiya returned. It happened on Friday.
Of course Jiraiya had been in the village since Thursday morning, but he had used the chance to get some research done. He visited his sensei on Friday shortly before lunch.
"Hey, Sarutobi sensei, did you miss me?" He called out loudly.
"Jiraiya, it's good to see you. How was your travelling?" The Hokage asked and sent out his ANBU and activated his privacy seals.
"It was good. I'll soon have enough material for my new book. Icha Icha Violence. You said I had to come back to evaluate a potential seal master. Who is it? Did Kakashi go up in his level?" Jiraiya asked.
"No, it's Naruto. I have him supply our armoury and the shinobi equipment shops in the village under the pseudonym Dark Phoenix already. Naruto managed to deceive everybody until after his graduation exams from the academy a bit over a month ago.
I had Asuma test him in disguise and Naruto is easily jonin level overall. The only thing he lacks is experience. All the reports I sent you about Naruto's development can be forgotten.
I didn't even know he was that good. I thought that while he had some talent, he didn't use it well enough, but I couldn't really do anything about it. With Naruto being a civilian until he graduated, he was under the jurisdiction of the civilian council.
And I didn't have the man-power to get him secretly trained except I'd have handed him over to Danzo, which I wanted to avoid at all cost." The Hokage said.
"Damn that is an impressive feat to get to that level so young and additionally keep it a complete secret. How did he get all the training done and got the knowledge? You wrote that you had to exchange the teachers in his class repeatedly to get him some theoretical skills." Jiraiya asked.
"Yes, until I placed Iruka Umino in that class, who, while not liking Naruto, didn't let his personal feelings cloud his professional attitude, Naruto was actively sabotaged.
We now found out that as the teachers couldn't keep him out of class all the time, they didn't teach the whole class properly. When he was present they concentrated on topics that while they can be useful for a ninja, aren't vital.
Many students failed their genin tests because they didn't get the information that was the most important. I have already initiated some long overdue changes in the village.
The academy is now the responsibility of the shinobi council, all ninjas are instructed to ignore the orders of the civilian council as they are not part of the chain of command and I have had some of Danzo's ROOT agents help me looking through the decrees that were passed in the twelve years since Minato died." The Hokage informed his student.
"Do you think it was wise to involve Danzo?" Jiraiya asked.
"It was the only valid option. I can't be sure that the council doesn't have spies of their own in the ranks. While I can order them to not follow orders from the civilian council anymore and can enforce that, I can't be sure that some of them don't give them information.
While Danzo and his ROOT are not an openly acceptable part of our military due to Danzo's training methods, you know as well as I do that you sometimes have to have ninjas in your village that take care of threats in ways that wouldn't go over well with our customers.
I knew since two months after I ordered ROOT to disband that they didn't but only went underground, literally.
There is a system of tunnels under the village where their base is located. I simply put Danzo on the spot. He was informed that I had him in my hand and could easily end him, but as his ROOT were useful, I didn't.
While Danzo enjoys the thought to become Hokage through his machinations, he also knows that it's unrealistic to think he could be Hokage long enough or even be considered with his state of body to make a difference in the village." The Hokage explained.
"So you are cleaning house. About time if I may say so. You let the council get away with too many things." Jiraiya said, sitting down on the couch of the office.
"I know, but you also know how instable the political situation was after Minato died. We had lost a third of our shinobi, a quarter of the civilians and on top Minato himself.
The clans were fighting for dominance in the village, the civilians were taking over businesses that had lost their owners, dozens of orphans needed to be placed somewhere and people were calling to execute Naruto to kill the fox. The Uchihas were the leaders in all areas.
So letting the civilian council have a bit more power at the time seemed to be a small price to not have the village falling apart. If I had shown favouritism towards Naruto, I would have been out of office faster than I could have blinked. And I was his only real line of defence.
With not having a suitable successor for Hokage anymore, after all, the only sannin that wanted to have the job turned traitor on us, I needed to keep the office for as long as I could and find a new successor. Which I have now and don't worry, I'm not talking about you. I know you don't want the job." The Hokage said.
"Oh, that sounds interesting. Who is it?" Jiraiya asked.
"Kakashi Hatake. He is at the moment the jonin sensei of team seven, consisting on Sakura Haruno, the daughter of a civilian councillor, Sasuke Uchiha, the last survivor after the massacre Itachi committed and Naruto Namikaze." The Hokage said.
"So he knows about his parents and the fox?" Jiraiya asked for confirmation.
"Yes, he knew about the Kyubi since shortly before the Uchiha massacre, he overheard two Uchihas that had beaten him up and left him bleeding in an alley talking that he should die for being the container of the fox, and about his parents he found out coincidentally while cleaning the storage after a prank.
He was cut by a falling nodachi in the arm and some blood spilled on the box Minato kept his important documents and a few memorabilia in.
I know Naruto has a secret hideout where he lives and trains, but I don't know where it is and he refuses to tell me anything, stating that it is the only safe place in the whole village for him and he had worked too hard to keep it a secret to give it up now.
From the test Asuma put Naruto through, he is low jonin level in using weapons, jonin level in taijutsu, high jonin level in ninjutsu, we guess jonin level in genjutsu, but as he is immune to lower level genjutsu, we can't be really sure about it, we need to have a genjutsu specialist test him there.
His fuinjutsu is high class, but the last evaluation you should do and he is about solid chunin level in the area of poisons.
We give him half a year of missions and training by Kakashi to make chunin, then half a year of leading experience with teams under his command for jonin." The Hokage said.
"Does he know I am his godfather?" Jiraiya asked.
"I haven't told him and he didn't mention it. I don't know if that information was in Minato's or Kushina's journals at their home.
Naruto found it after he found the contents of the box and got his family's jutsus, sealing knowledge and some other things from there, but he didn't move in there as it is too well known that his father lived there. He didn't want to have the villagers after his head more than they already were.
You'll have to see how he reacts to you. If he knows and holds you responsible for his hellish childhood for abandoning him, you'll have to try to work on your relationship.
I know he respects you for your skills in sealing. And if you explained to him why you couldn't take him with you out of the village he'll probably understand it. Naruto is smart and knows to weigh arguments against each other." The Hokage informed Jiraiya.
"Okay, so where would I best meet Naruto?" Jiraiya asked.
"I can either send a messenger to get him here or you could go to training ground seven and watch his team train until they have lunch break. Normally that is around half past twelve. Though it can vary depending on Kakashi's training exercises. He doesn't let his team rest much. That is another point you should know.
While Kakashi is getting back to his old strength and will train to surpass his level from his time in ANBU to get ready to take over as Hokage, he is trying to connect both Sasuke and Naruto more with the village.
Naruto is a flight risk due to the treatment of the villagers. If they attack him, we'll have to let the medics in the hospital go extra shifts. He won't let them treat him like their punching bag anymore.
And you know that attacking a ninja is a punishable offence and the ninja in question is allowed to retaliate. He told me that if he hadn't been sure he would have been hunted by the ANBU and brought back soon after we noticed him missing, he would have left years ago."
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