It had been 9 long years since that fateful day he sent Naruto away from the village, and without the constant reminder of things lost, little by little the village started to forget about him.
Now it was time to bring him back.
One of the conditions he had to put up with in order to send Naruto away was that he had to come back in order to become a Gennin.
A wasted effort on the part of the council, since even at the tender age of four Naruto wanted to be an awesome Shinovi and become Hokage.
Pointless political games aside, Sarutobi was a little worried, not even the painting he was currently making could get the nagging feeling out of his head.
Over the years he exchanged a good deal of correspondence with Naruto, and something just didn’t sit well with him.
Maybe it was the deliberate vagueness he purposefully went in to whenever he started writing about his activities, or how he never got more in to more detail than: the exercises are hard, this one guy is mean or I’m learning some really cool stuff. Small tings, that, even if not of much importance, they sent his Hokage senses tingling.
The only reason that kept him from pulling the plug on the whole ting was that Naruno never wrote any of the trigger phrases that he was made to memorize as a safety measure.
If even one of those phrases were to make his way on a letter from Naruto, he would have immediately retrieved the boy and made a thorough investigation most likely followed by a slaughter depending on what he found.
He shook his head and continued to paint It is pointless to dwell on what might have been In a few months the latest batch of academy students would become Genin and Naruto was already on his way, what could possibly go wrong?
“What do you mean he’s not there!?”
The Hokage tower started vibrating slightly while birds and other animals outside quickly scampered for some kind of cover from the killing intent radiating from it.
The ANBU standing in front of the Hokage’s desk had no such luxury and felt as if he was drowning just by being that close, it took all of his training and years of experience as an elite operative of the leaf to keep from fainting or having a hear attack, he had a feeling that if any of that were actually directed at him his head would have exploded, god of Shinovi indeed.
After his short outburst his tone became unnaturally calm “Explain it to me, slowly” even the killing intent flickered off as if it had never happened “so I’ll know who to execute” His eyes told another story.
The ANBU swallowed the fear that maybe he would be the one to get executed and started his report.
“Upon arriving at the temple I spoke to the head monk and was informed that the target never arrived in the first place, the monk expressed no surprise over it, he told me he believed that the whole ting was a ninja political move on the part of the village and that he refused to become involved by investigating why the boy never appeared”
Sarutobi stapled his hands together and the ANBU could have swore the temperature dropped a few degrees “You will go to the mission archives and find who was in charge of making sure Naruto got to his destination. Bring him to me”
The ANBU never moved so fast on his life.
Taking a deep breath Hiruzen tried to calm himself, that poor ANBU had no idea of the number of times he had come close to dying. He doubted his next conversation would be as pleasant as the last one.
Manabu Akado, special Jounin of the leaf made his way to Hokage’s office after being summoned by an ANBU that for some reason seemed to have trouble holding in his laughter. Manabu didn’t mind, The ANBU probably tough he had no business being summoned by the Hokage.
Had this happened years ago he would have been right, it did took him about sixteen years to attain the rank of Chunin after all, but that was hardly his fault, the Chunin exams were primarily a physical affair and his strengths lay elsewhere, and if the Hokage himself had not given to him a special test he would most likely still be a Genin.
Once he became Chunin, becoming special Jounin was a piece of cake, his accounting and managerial skills were second to none and he could balance a budget like nobody’s business, and wile some thought that those were poor grounds for special Jounin status, he knew that without his contribution they would never get paid.
Entering the Sandaime’s office he was greeted to the sight of the Hokage facing away from him, painting the Kanji for peace of mind and not giving any indication that he was even aware of him being there, the special Jounin knew that wasn’t true and waited until his Kage acknowledged his presence.
Do you remember the mission I assigned you as a Chunin exam substitute?”
Manabu frowned. He remembered that mission, escorting the fox across various countries had not been fun. Wile the kid wasn’t dangerous, he was annoying as hell, and traveling with him had tested his patience to the max.
“Yes Hokage-sama I remember”
The Hokage did not turn from his calligraphy “Do you remember the place were you took him?”
Manabu shrugged “It was nine years ago Hokage-sama all I remember is that it was a temple”
“Would you recognize the temple if you saw it again?”
Manabu nodded “I would indeed Hokage-sama” and he would, after months of traveling with a hyperactive child, the sight of that temple would be forever burned in to his memory.
The Hokage absently threw him a brochure without turning from his painting “Is that the temple you took him?”
Manabu shook his head “No Hokage-sama, it is not”
Sarutobi sighed, he had been afraid of that; the brochure in the special Jounin’s hands was of the temple he had picked for young Naruto. Turning away from the calming sigth of his painting, he pulled a small scroll from his robes and took a out a box from it. “Find it”
Manabu brightened; he was going to have the rare honor of looking at the Hokage’s secret pamphlet collection. He found the picture he was looking for and gave it to the Hokage.
Hiruzen took the pamphlet and studied it for a moment before throwing it out the window were it suddenly disappeared when a blur passed by. “As of right now you are demoted to Gennin, report to Hibiki for a debriefing and your new security clearance, dismissed”
Manabu slumped “Yes Hokage-sama”
Of the many things he had expected this was not one of them, barely a week before the latest batch of rookies came out of the academy and Naruto who had just arrived, stood in from of him. Aside from the obvious changes that marked his growth and his strange new appearance he could still see the Naruto he once knew underneath.
“I can see that you are tired but I wanted to see for myself that you are alright, I am glad to see you after all this years. I know that what you are about to go thru is a radical change from what you have known so far”
Naruto said nothing.
“You still have to attend the academy for a week before we put you in a team. Do you think that you are ready?”
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Sun, 09 Sep 2012 08:50)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.