Chapter 64 - 64. Naruto's Conflicts

Konohagakure,

Things looked normal in the village, but that was only on the surface. In reality, something much troublesome was looming. ​​

For starters, people didn't have much respect for Hashirama Senju anymore. Then there was also the village's elder council.

They lacked any kind of vision and common sense. And just because of that, a heated meeting was in session. "I am the Hokage of the village and without my permission, no one is allowed to even think about Dama Country.

"Seriously, have you all lost your minds? Didn't you read the warning from the 1st Hokage and still want to mess with him? And Danzo, don't think I don't know about your unlawful activities. If you three come in my way of keeping this village safe, then I will show you no mercy, remember that."

"A-Are you threatening us, Lord Hokage?" Koharu proudly questioned.

"No, but it'd be better if you considered it that. I'm tired of all that's happening, I don't need any more mess." Hiruzen sternly replied.

His warnings were clear. He was not going to tolerate being pushed around anymore. Spreading the word about Hashirama was already doing badly for them and hurting the integrity of the village.

"But if you don't do anything, their voices will increase. They are demanding Lord First's face be removed from the Hokage rock." Danzo asked him. He looked all bandaged and weak.

"Then we will remove it. What matters is the existence of this village. Lord Hashirama believed in the survival of the village at all costs."

"And that's what brought us into this mess." Homura Mitokado barked.

*BAM*

Hiruzen lost his temper and slammed on the table, "What else do you want? Destruction of the village?"

"We can take the war to them directly." Koharu foolishly suggested.

Frustrated, Hiruzen sat back down, "And? Then what? Die? Dama Country has no village, they are one single entity, the whole country is unified. And they have the Uzumaki clan, Nidama clan, that woman with Mangekyo and then Shiroken Dama, their leader himself. Hashirama wrote it down himself that he feared he couldn't defeat Shiroken alone. What gives you the confidence you can?"

Danzo, who was silently sitting, had his visible eye shine as soon as he heard the mention of Mangekyo.

"Can't we send someone there to spy?" Danzo asked, of course, with ulterior motives.

"No, he has warned that any spy found in his country will be dealt with. No people from Konoha are allowed there." Hiruzen replied.

"Don't they have their spies here?" Danzo questioned.

Hiruzen looked at Danzo's face in wonder, "Shouldn't you know that better than me?"

*Sigh* "Then I guess they are much better than we can imagine." Danzo sighed and looked at the other elders, "We should hire someone from a different village to send their spy, even a non-shinobi will do. We need to know what goes around in that country. Jiraiya confirmed he has 2 tailed beasts. We need to come up with a contingency plan."

For this, Hirizen agreed, "Yes, we do need to come up with a plan to counter them if a war does happen."

The four planned all along, unknown to them what storms were erupting in the mind of a little boy that had too many questions and nobody to answer him.

...

Naruto sat in his room and read the book about Lord First. It was not entirely what he expected it. He was expecting there to be stories of glories and triumphs of the 1st Hokage.

But instead, there was nothing but darkness. How the First Hokage could end all the wars, make sure no war ever occurs but decided to gift the tailed beasts to the other villages.

Now, those same beasts are used for damaging each other. He read about how Hashirama didn't put more faith in humanity and chose to enslave the tailed beasts inside humans called Jinchuriki.

"Jinchuriki? What's that?" Naruto wondered.

*BAM*

He closed the book and jumped out of his bed. "I will ask Pervy-sage about this."

He had met the old man a few days ago, the old pervert was supposed to be someone very powerful. And he also told him he was his Godfather.

He ran out and went straight to the nearest bathhouse. But instead of going inside, he went to the backside of it. And there he found his "Godfather".

*BAM*

He kicked as hard as he could, "Pervy-Sage, I WILL REPORT YOU TO THE POLICE."

Jiraiya frightened and grabbed Naruto's mouth. "Ah, Naruto, shhh... this is the forbidden fruit that you will find tasty when you grow up."

"Eh... I don't want it. I came to ask you some questions. Do you know what a Jinchuriki is?" Naruto asked all of a sudden.

Jiraiya was taken aback. Gone was his horny mood, he became serious. "Perhaps this isn't the right place to talk about this. Come with me."

Jiraiya brought Naruto to the Forest of Death. There, he took a seat on a boulder, "Who told you about Jinchuriki?"

"Nobody, I read this book about the First Hokage," Naruto said and showed it to Jiraiya.

A deep frown appeared on his face. Surely, he knew what this was, he was responsible for spreading it according to what Hiruzen had decided. But, he had never thought Naruto would read it so soon, considering Naruto was somewhat dense when it came to reading.

"Jinchuriki are people in whom Tailed Beasts are sealed. There are 9 such beasts, each with enough power to destroy a whole village. They are mighty old beings, older than the formation of any country, by centuries." Jiraiya explained.

"Then... why did they capture them?" Naruto asked back.

*Sigh* "To Lord First, this seemed the wisest option, but he was wrong. The tailed beasts should have been left alone. By distributing them, we ourselves weaponised them." Jiraiya explained grimly.

"Then... this Demon Fox that killed my parents... what that a beast too?" Naruto nervously asked because he was reaching a conclusion he didn't want to be real.

"Yes, it was the nine-tailed fox. The supposed strongest of all the nine siblings." Jiraiya replied.

"Siblings? They have a family?" Naruto wondered.

"Yes, for a long time we thought they did not, they were mindless beasts. But, it turns out, they were not mindless, instead, they were just like us, being who could talk and feel emotions, they were just bigger and different looking. They even had their own village. Naruto, the book you are reading is an attempt to right the wrong. The negative image of the tailed beasts in people's hearts is a demon of our own creation.

"And we must solve it, we can't afford not to." Jiraiya cryptically replied, deep in thoughts of his own.

Naruto fell silent, ~This... I should be the Jinchuriki then. Why else would everyone hate me so much? That mask shop uncle also called me a plague. I... is that demon fox inside me? The one who killed my parents?~

"I'll go home now, pervy-sage." Naruto dejectedly left.

"Oye, don't forget to come here tomorrow, I will train you... don't you want to learn a new Justus?" Jiraiya tried to cheer him up.

Naruto nodded and left. He got home and just laid down on his bed, in the small cramped apartment. Dozens of empty ramen bows lying around, dust taking over the furniture.

That night, he did not sleep, he just stared at the ceiling with an empty mind.

...

Takigakure,

The procedure to get Chomei out was a success. Fu was alive and well, she was just tired and still unconscious but her heartbeat and pulse were normal.

Chomei was grooming himself, stretching his body and looking around at the greenery, or what was left of it. He took long breaths to feel the soothing air.

"Ah... this is the best. I was getting claustrophobic in there." He muttered.

Shiroken smiled and immediately ran to Chomei's helmet-like head and hugged him tightly. "Welcome back, Chom-Chom. We missed you."

Chomei giggled uncontrollably. "Hehe, me too. Oh, you said Saiken and Isobu are also at home? Let's go then, quick quick."

"We will, but first let's deal with this village." He said loudly.

Everyone felt on edge, they had already given back the beast, they thought Shiroken was going to kill them all now.

But, he instead plunged his arms into the ground again.

"NO! PLEASE! Don't destroy the forest." Shibuki and the villagers cried to him.

But instead of Shiroken, Chomei's happy chirp came, "Dummies, look around you, the forest is getting restored."

And indeed, like a magical show of powers, the dying trees grew back, and not just grew back but also started to grow fruits on them. All ripe for the plucking.

They knew Shiroken's name and where he came from, but they were still shocked and in awe of his powers.

"Chomei, the seven-tails here is out, he is strong enough to destroy this village and kill you all in a matter of minutes. He was enslaved, caged by you all for decades. Won't it be justified?" He asked, making them look down in shame, though a few crazy ones looked at him in anger.

"But you saw him, his personality. He's won't kill you, do you know why? Because he's not YOU."

A few of the people felt his words pierce their hearts. But Shiroken was not going to do anything with them, the whole country was going to be under him anyway.

"Tell Fu, if she wants to see Chomei again she can come to Dama Country. She was a Jinchuriki, her body has developed differently and she is bound to become strong. But only with good training, that only I can provide. Goodbye," he told the village leader, Shibuki.

Then without wasting a minute, he jumped on top of Chomei's giant head and sat down.

"Let's go, Chomei," he said.

*WOOSH*

Just as Chomei was fluttering his winds and flying up, under the curtain of dust, Shisui also jumped on and reached Shiroken. After that, they headed back to Dama Country.

[A/N: Huh, take that, all those who said the story is just like the canon. Major Naruto development is incoming. Also, the whole story will be changing soon. You saw what's going on this Hashirama.]

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