NARUTO SI: A Burdened Soul (Elder Brother to Itachi SI)

Chapter 19

MINATO NAMIKAZE

Days, not hours. Days of constant, high-paced, high-focus battles before he finally took some respite. Iwa's entire bomber squad numbered into thousands, and yet now nothing remained of the entire unit as Minato stood there above a hill watching the planes littered with Iwa's dead.

It was a slaughter, an absolute slaughter. One he had carried out with his own hands, and despite the remorse and the questions that lingered in his heart, Minato found solace in one single thought.

That their enemies would have done the same to them had they been allowed to live. What he had done may seem cruel or even loathsome to many. But it was necessary.

For his village. For his students. For Kushina. For all of them.

"Impossible," a fellow Konoha-nin gasped as he joined him up on the hill as Minato looked towards them, and saw them all looking at him with awe, reverence, and most of all fear.

Sheer unadulterated fear.

"What became of the reserves that we were set to receive," he asked as he scanned the numbers and found them lacking.

"We received a message from Jiraiya-sama a day ago. He is heading towards Iwa with his men and plans to attack the village directly," Minato was surprised by that move, but he should have expected such a thing from his sensei.

"Have you received any news from the team sent towards Kanabi bridge... " But before he could finish his sentence, he felt a burning sensation in his pocket, and fear gripped his heart.

He immediately reached for the sealing tag in his pocket, one connected to one of his kunai. A kunai that was in the possession of his student. His reserves were nearly depleted, and if his own estimate was anything to go by, he would hardly have any chakra after making such a long jump.

"Kaito!" he called out the commander, as he made up his mind and turned towards the older jounin.

"Gather the dead and hold the fort. I need to go," and the man nodded in surprise before Minato closed his eyes and felt his body vanish before he appeared at his desired location. As soon as he did, he pushed his senses to their limits as he immediately located and marked the all the Iwa-nin that surrounded his students.

As he did that, he pushed down his silver-haired apprentice's head slightly as the Iwa-nin's kunai passed right above it, grazing his own uniform. Kakashi plunged his hand, holding in it a literal lightning storm, into the chest of the Iwa-jounin.

"AHHHHH!" and it tore right through the man's body as Minato slashed the man's throat before he pushed himself up and threw half a dozen kunai all around him at the Iwa-nin, taking down three of them as he landed behind the blood-soaked and exhausted form of Kakashi.

"Sensei," he gasped weakly as he glanced at him. The absence of one of his precious students finally registered, and as his eyes landed on Kakashi, he noticed the massive wound running down his eye, an eye that was not his regular eye.

No. It was red, scarlet red with two tomoe spinning in it, and he felt his heart skip a beat as the implication of that dawned on him, and he looked at the broken state his student was in.

"Rest," he said as Kakashi's body wavered. Rin jumped to his side and steadied the eleven-year-old, her own eyes red and puffed from crying, and she watched him with barely concealed relief.

"I will handle the rest," he announced, for it was the least he could do for them. It was the least he could do to avenge his lost student, and as he turned towards the ten or so Iwa-nin that had now surrounded him. He saw them all gulp nervously as he got into his stance.

"That hair and that kunai. It's him, the Yellow Flash," they gasped as Minato saw them all pale in fear at that name.

"But it's impossible. He is supposed to be at the front line," but he did not let the man finish his sentence as he appeared behind him in a blur and plunged his kunai into his neck.

"SHIT!"

"IT'S HIM! IT'S REALLY HIM! WE CANNOT TAKE HIM! GET AWAY! RETREAT!" and they all began to run, as the Iwa-nin's lifeless body fell down as Minato whispered coldly.

"You can try to run..." in another second, he was infront of another Iwa-nin and then another as he told them the truth.

"...but it won't matter at all."

0000

HIRUZEN SARUTOBI

There was a time when many in Konoha had begun to doubt their survival, for Konoha faced three of the Five Major Great Nations all by itself, with little support from their allies in Suna.

They were outnumbered and had spent the entire war on the backfoot, and while many took that as a sign of weakness, it was more so because Konoha's strength did not lay with the quantity of its shinobi.

Konoha's strength lay in the quality of its shinobi. Despite many calls to revamp their village's training and other structures, he held strong, choosing to believe in his village and in the potential of the next generation, as the Nidaime-sama had done for him.

That belief had been answered, as for the first time in so many years, Hiruzen felt lighter than ever as the tides of war took a turn in their favor for the first time in years.

News from both the Iwa and Kumo front had come simultaneously, and Konoha had triumphed in both of these places. Iwa's entire bomber division had been slaughtered, and the Kanabi bridge now lay destroyed, destroying Iwa's most important supply line.

The mission had come at a cost, as Minato's team lost the promising Uchiha chunin—the boy named Obito had lost his life trying to rescue his female teammate. A great loss for the youngsters, but promising as well, for it showed that he had managed to foster the values of teamwork and camaraderie in the next generation, that he had succeeded in doing his duty as the Hokage.

And now Iwa's offensive force was decimated, and Jiraiya had chosen to take advantage of the situation had and had launched another attack straight at Iwa, causing great damage to the village before retreating back.

But now Iwa was in a precarious situation. Their village threatened from not just one but two sides, and that was not even the biggest of its worries.

On the other hand, Konoha had succeeded as well, decimating Kumo's second host. However, their forces were not in a state to launch any offensive, given the heavy losses they had suffered at the hands of a single shinobi.

Because of the efforts of Orochimaru, Fugaku, and Izuna-kun, Konoha's advantage was so great that the Third Raikage was forced to intervene himself as he gave his life to protect his men and his village.

And while Konoha could no longer attack Kumo, at least not without taking heavy losses, the war on the Northern front was over as well, and Kumo was also in no state to go on the offensive.

And it was finally here—peace at last. Hiruzen could almost feel it coming.

"We need to go on the offensive," came a voice from behind as his three friends and counselors gathered in the Hokage office to help him decide on the next course of action.

"Have Tsunade lead the reserve force and join Namikaze on the front lines for a final offensive against Iwa," Koharu added, as she agreed with Danzo's vision.

"Or better yet, you should lead the men yourself and attack Iwa and tear it down brick by brick," she added with vehemence, and it was sad hearing that from her—from them.

"We should have Orochimaru send the Raikage's deceased body back here; the man was a beast and a shinobi, unlike any other. Just imagine the secrets we could glean from his bo..."

"NO!" he cut in, stopping Koharu from uttering any more filth as he walked towards his empty seat. All three of his friends looked towards him with frowns.

"Do you not tire of all this death? Of this war? Do none of you have any desire for it to end? For Peace?" he asked, and there was silence at his words as Koharu and Homura, and yet it had little effect on Danzo. His cynical friend was not one to back down so easily, and he was not blind to whose words Koharu and Himura were spouting just now.

"War is a shinobi's true calling. One does not tire of it, and the only peace we shall ever enjoy shall come when all our enemies are destroyed. When no one in the land can dare threaten us," Danzo argued, and it was a tragic and cynical way of thinking.

Some would call it practical.

"That is not peace. That is servitude," and it was this very vision that the Shodaime had rejected when he had put down his dear friend and companion—Madara Uchiha.

"The true mark of strength lays not in the number of shinobi a person kills, but the number he spares, the lives he saves," he whispered the words Shodaime had written in his diary, the one he had been gifted by his late wife, the Lady Mito when he had taken over as Hokage.

And just as the Shodaime's vision had put his trust in the next generation, it was time for him to do the same. Not just for Konoha but the world itself, hoping that they would make better choices than his generation.

And it was his hope that, just as the promise of Konoha's next generation had held true, they would not let him down either. That the next generation would do better than them. Much better.

"You cannot mean..." Danzo gasped as he looked him in the eye as Hiruzen made his announcement.

"We will be handing back the Third Raikge's body back to Kumo as a sign of respect and offer them a truce, and we shall do the same for Iwa," he announced as Danzo rose from his chair in exasperation.

"I will not stand for this! You cannot do th..." and before his friend began to delude himself and utter words that they would both regret later, Hiruzen's chakra roared at his command, as Danzo's words halted on his tongue as both Koharu and Homura stilled as well.

"You forget which one of us is the Kage Danzo!" he reminded his friend. Despite their friendship and their status as advisors, they were just that—advisors. He was the Hokage.

"It is my decision, and you will all follow it," he answered, yet despite it all, Danzo refused to back down.

"Just because sensei chose you doesn't mean that you get to throw away an opportunity like this. Think Hiruzen. Think. We have a kunai pointed at both Iwa and Kumo's necks, yet your heart grows faint now. Now, you cower behind this guise of mercy and magnanimity! I cannot let you make this mis..."

"It is my decision, Danzo," he reiterated as his eyes narrowed.

"And you shall follow it," he threatened, and his friend gritted his teeth before he began to walk towards the door.

"This is a mistake," Danzo added as he opened the door of his office.

"Think of it what you may, but this is the best path forward for Konoha and the world itself. It is mine to make, for I wear this hat," and he pointed towards the Kage hat lying on the table.

"You are free to make your own if you come to wear it for yourself one day," Danzo stared at him with his sole eye as he scoffed.

"We will see about that. " With that, he closed the door with such force that the wood cracked. Hiruzen sighed as he reined in his chakra before turning towards Koharu and Homura.

"Prepare documents to formulize a truce with both Iwa and Kumo. Make sure that the terms are rather reasonable. We have all suffered enough. It is time for us to move on...."

0000

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