Chapter 137: When the Guardian Speaks, the Tower Shakes

Chapter 137 - When the Guardian Speaks, the Tower Shakes Naruto who had finally freed himself from the bug abomination panted slightly as he felt a water drop on him and looked up, just to see that rain had begun once again so he quickly ran back to him home. Suddenly he stopped, as if remembering something and shouted, "AH! I don't his name." ~~~ Hokage Office Late Evening Rain drummed softly against the windows of the Hokage Tower, but inside, the tension was suffocating. An impromptu meeting had been called, and seated in his usual place was the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. Before him stood two of Konoha's most powerful and controversial protectors, Danzo Shimura, the leader of Root, and Yoru, the commander of the ANBU. Danzo began, his voice cold and sharp, "Why was Chunin Ren Takahashi in contact with the jinchuriki?" Neither Hiruzen nor Yoru responded. Danzo frowned ever so slightly at their silence. "It was agreed and even approved by the Daimyo, that the jinchuriki would not be approached by high-profile individuals or specific persons of interest." His voice turned colder. "Now that the precedent is broken, does this mean the jinchuriki is open to contact? Are we to expect others to approach him as they please?" A few seconds of silence passed before Yoru finally spoke. "Looks like hiding in the dark for too long has rotted your brain, Danzo." The temperature in the room dropped as the air turned hostile. The unspoken pressure between Danzo and Yoru became almost tangible, but Yoru remained composed and continued. "What you people decided," he said, eyes flicking between Danzo and Hiruzen, "in a 'secret' meeting with the Daimyo, without the presence of the ANBU Commander, the Sannin, or the clan heads, was this: That the jinchuriki, who has a name, Naruto Uzumaki, shall not be approached by the following groups until he becomes a Genin, members of Minato's team, the Sannin, any of the elders, any clan head, and any 'clan member'." Yoru tilted his head slightly. "So, tell me. Which of those conditions were broken? Ren isn't part of Minato's team. He's not a Sannin. He's not a clan head. And..." he scoffed, "he's not a 'clan member' either." Danzo's eyes narrowed. "How noble of you, Commander Yoru. Twisting words to protect your subordinate. Was it not discussed that even the families of Minato's team should refrain from approaching the jinchuriki?" As if anticipating that very line, Yoru casually pulled a folded document from within his uniform and placed it lightly on the desk before Hiruzen. "You should really take better care of your memory, Danzo. This is the original agreement, copied and sealed the same day the Third informed me of that so-called 'secret' meeting. It contains no such mention of family members." Danzo picked up the paper and scanned it. His face remained expressionless, but his silence betrayed the truth. The chakra seal on the paper unmistakably belonged to Hiruzen. He turned and handed it to the Hokage, who frowned slightly as he read. 'Has he been preparing for this all along?' both Hiruzen and Danzo wondered simultaneously. Yoru retrieved the document and carefully tucked it away. "Of course," he added with a casual tone, "you could always bring it up to the Council." It sounded like an invitation. But both Danzo and Hiruzen knew what came next. "You could argue that a clan member approached Naruto Uzumaki," Yoru said with mock openness. Then his tone dropped. "But are you ready to acknowledge his true lineage as a Senju?" Danzo tensed, and Hiruzen's face grew more serious. Yoru didn't stop. "I know you don't care for Sayaka's words. But are you willing to let him bear the name Ren Senju? Are you ready to return the Senju heritage you've 'safeguarded' all these years?" "Yoru." Hiruzen warned. But Yoru pressed on. "Are you willing to hand back the land deeds, the property, the rights that belong to one of the last living heir of the First Hokage's bloodline?" "YORU!" Hiruzen's voice thundered, and his chakra surged. But Yoru didn't flinch. His chakra surged just as fiercely, matching Hiruzen's pressure point for point. Their power weighed on the air like a vice. "SARUTOBI!" Then the room cracked. Literally. The four ANBU guards stationed in the rafters dropped from their perches, gasping for air under the overwhelming pressure of the two titans. Even Danzo was visibly sweating, gripping his cane more tightly than usual. Yoru leaned forward, his hand pressing on the Hokage's desk as it splintered under the pressure. "Third Hokage. Hiruzen Sarutobi." His voice was low and steady but the anger in it was palpable. "I commend you for the decades you've served this village. For that, I have turned a blind eye to your failure to stop this man from the deeds he does in the name of the village and even colluding with your rogue student." Danzo's eye twitched. "But I, too, have my limits." Yoru stood tall now, fully erect, as his chakra flared to its peak. The chairs, table, the furniture, the office and even the whole tower trembled faintly. "Do not forget my title as the Guardian of the Leaf. Bestowed upon me by Hashirama Senju and Uchiha Madara themselves. I was tasked by them, to protect the village, to guard it's future, even when the Hokage fails, I shall do my duty for the village. The only reason I've stepped into the light again is because the village that my mentors built is being degraded from within." Hiruzen's chakra began to withdraw, and he leaned back in his chair with a weary sigh. Yoru didn't stop. "Clean the disease, Sarutobi. Before someone else does it for you. The roots of the tree have begun to rot." Then he turned around and made his way toward the door. As he passed by Danzo's chair, he gave it a casual push. The old warhawk stumbled slightly, catching himself, then shot a hateful glare at Yoru's back as the commander disappeared into the corridor. However, Yoru once again entered the room and spoke, "By the way, your friend here tried to get Kakashi Hatake's ANBU squad, which invludes Itachi Uchiha and Yugao Uzuki, killed, that too by joining hands with the head ninja of Cloud Village." With that he slammed the door shut. Silence fell over the office. Only the faint sound of rain remained. Hiruzen sat motionless, his hands steepled under his chin, staring out at the darkening sky beyond the window. After a long silence, broken only by the patter of rain on the windows, Hiruzen spoke softly, his voice heavy with age and weariness. "Danzo, my old friend. How much further are you willing to go?" His eyes remained fixed on the storm outside. "Colluding with Orochimaru, attempting to eliminate three of this village's talents, and you got caught doing it." Danzo responded immediately, tone unyielding. "Hiruzen, Orochimaru's research still holds great value for the village. As for Kakashi's squad-" "Stop." Hiruzen cut him off firmly, finally turning his gaze on the other elder. "I'm not interested in your justifications. Cease Root's activity by sixty percent, for at least one year." Danzo's eye twitched. "Hiruze-" "Wait," Hiruzen interjected again, voice sharp. "Just wait. Wait until Yoru cools down. You saw it, Danzo. You felt it too." His expression turned grave. "He was truly angry this time. Angry enough to invoke his title as the Hidden Guardian, something he hasn't done since the day the Nine-Tails was sealed into Kushina." Danzo fell quiet. His gaze fell to the side and looked at his arm which was wrapped in bandages, though it was different now, the original reason his arm got broken and twisted and mauled was due to what he had done at the time of sealing. Yoru was angry that time too, just like now, and he suffered the consequences. He didn't deny the weight of Yoru's warning. After a moment, he stood and walked to the office door. Just before leaving, he spoke without turning around. "Don't pretend you're above all this now, Sarutobi. You've benefited far too much from my presence to push me away. If anything, instead of distancing ourselves, we should be planning together, on how to handle him. Only once we deal with Yoru can either of us truly rest." Hiruzen didn't reply. He merely exhaled a slow puff of smoke and said flatly, "Get your affairs in order by tomorrow, Danzo." Danzo glanced back at him, nodded once, and offered a shallow bow. "As you command, Hokage-sama." With that, he turned and exited the office, closing the door behind him with an eerie quiet. Left alone, Hiruzen remained seated, staring out at the rain-soaked village. The smoke from his pipe curled upwards, the lines on his face deepening as his thoughts weighed heavier than ever. In that moment, the Third Hokage looked not like the God of Shinobi, but like a tired old man bearing the burdens of a legacy which had decayed in his hand. ~~~ Ren, completely unaware that his superior had just unleashed a storm fiercer than the rain clouds soaking the Hidden Leaf, lay flat on his bed, arms tucked behind his head, eyes blankly tracing the wooden ceiling above. The room was silent except for the soft patter of rain outside, a rhythm that seemed to echo the slow tide of his thoughts. He sighed, just a whisper of breath escaping his lips. 'I wonder" he thought to himself, 'was it really too soon to talk to Naruto?' He turned his head slightly and stared at the ceiling, lost in thought. The interaction still played over in his mind, Naruto's confusion at something as basic as a gift, his awkward smile, the desperation masked behind excitement, the snot-filled tears of gratitude. 'It was sad enough watching it through a screen in my last life,' Ren thought, 'but meeting him face to face, it hit differently.' He closed his eyes briefly and let the weight of it settle. Naruto Uzumaki. A child who should have been cradled by warmth and love, instead abandoned by circumstance, hated by ignorance, and starved of human connection. Ren had seen glimpses of this reality in the anime, but that was fiction. This was real. Too real. He clenched his fist and slowly raised it above his head, staring at it, motionless. 'I guess I was better off than him in my last life,' he thought. Back in his previous world, he'd known loneliness well. The constant silence of an empty house, the glow of the monitor in a dark room, the warmth of imagined friendships on a screen that never reached into the cold reality he lived in. Friends? None. Family? Gone. Being ignored was his default state. People didn't look at him, they looked past him, like he was just a background NPC in their lives. But being hated, that was worse. And that's what Naruto had to endure from the day he was born. "No kid should be treated like that," he said softly, the conviction threading through his tone. "Especially not someone as young as him." He exhaled heavily and thought back to Naruto and Sasuke, two sides of the same coin. Both had more than enough reasons to become villains, to destroy, to lash out. The only difference was how long they could keep holding on. 'Sasuke couldn't hold out long enough,' Ren thought, 'and Naruto just kept holding on.' He rolled over and lazily opened the system panel, half-expecting some minor stat notification or clone update, but what he saw made him freeze. [CONGRATULATIONS, HOST, FOR CHANGING THE CANON: MAKING KID NARUTO TRULY HAPPY FOR THE FIRST TIME.] [REWARD: SPECIAL STAT UNLOCKED : CHARISMA (CHA)] (Note: This stat does not increase with system points. It increases based on the host's reputation, interpersonal influence, and ability to attract others through words, deeds, or presence.) Ren blinked. Then blinked again. He didn't even look at the stat itself, his eyes remained glued to the notification's first line: [Making kid Naruto truly happy for the first time.] Those words hit harder than he expected. Slowly, he sat up on his bed, his feet hitting the wooden floor as his hand loosened and fell into his lap. "Truly happy..." he echoed aloud. His thoughts began to spiral, not out of control, but deeper. Beyond missions. Beyond stats. Beyond his goals of being free, reaching s-rank, unlocking kekkei genkai, mastering techniques, or building the perfect shinobi arsenal. This was something else. The image of Naruto laughing, beaming through his tears with puffy red eyes and stained sleeves, Ren didn't know why, but that image stuck. It lingered longer than the rewards, longer than his training, longer than even his own ambitions. It left a mark. He didn't realize it yet but something inside him was shifting. Quietly. Subtly. The kind of shift that begins as a seed and grows into something vast. Maybe, just maybe, his goals were going to change. Maybe it wasn't just about survival anymore. Not just about power, or outgrowing the story, or breaking free of canon. Maybe, he thought... it was also about people. He didn't know yet what kind of path this change would lead him to. But for now, as the rain softened into a gentle drizzle and the darkness of the night pressed against his windows, Ren felt a faint warmth in his chest. A new goal had begun to take root. One he hadn't planned for. And for the first time in a while, Ren smiled, not for power, not for planning, but for something else entirely, something that was still unknown to him. ~~~~~ {No notes for this Chapter. You can just ask anything you want.} {Also, there was some confusion regarding Shizuka in the previous Chapter, so let me clarify. She was intended to be the one Kurenai ruined (her name was Yakumo apparently), I didn't remember she was actually shown in the anime and just thought it was worded backstory so I added a new name and parents, it'd be a problem to change the future direction I have planned if I follow the canon so I'll be taking the liberty and changing her parents and age.} {If you want, you can support me on pat-reon} {Thanks Hassan, Joshua, Kyle and Rabbit of Caerbannog for becoming members on pat-reon.} { h t t p s : / / w w w . p a t r e o n . c o m / Z e e n o n } {You know what else} {200 Stones = Extra Chapter} {STONES!!!!}