72 A Necessary Evil

The next few weeks went by quickly for the residents of Konoha.

The research teams were still performing their full investigations of both the hidden tunnels under the Hyuga compound and Orochimaru's base. Both cases had opened their own cans of worms for the village's leadership to deal with.

During his meeting with Hiashi, Minato simply asked his family to remove the seals binding the man. After that, they were asked to leave, having the sensitive parts of their conversation left private between Hiashi and his Hokage.

Although it was hard to notice, Minato had been livid at whatever he heard from the man. The results of the following investigation had led to many council sessions to discuss the legalities of the situation. Since this fell somewhere between violating village law and clan business, the lines were blurred; the deadline for a final decision was coming up though. If the council couldn't come to a consensus in the next couple of days, Minato would push forward with his own course of action, understanding that the council's opinion was too scattered to matter.

Needless to say, tensions between the Hyuga Clan and the rest of Konoha were extremely tense. It certainly didn't help that these events sparked the radical elements in other clans to start making moves. For the clan heads both big and small, it wasn't fun.

In the case of Orochimaru's base, the investigation was going well. The intelligence department was still running on all cylinders trying to sort everything out. It wasn't just the information on Orochimaru's plans specifically. He had data on his own medical discoveries, jutsu theory, intelligence on other villages, previously unknown security gaps in Konoha's defenses, etc.

Then, there were the various specimens that were now being considered for citizenship in Konoha. The whole ordeal itself was expected to take a year. They had to convert parts of the village's training grounds into temporary housing for the different hybrid species. For example, the Kiri simulation zone was useful for the aquatic-based hybrids.

For all species, Uzume had to schedule time to examine them and try to stabilize their bodies. Luckily for them, her scientific subject of focus when working on that side of the fence was bloodlines. With that being the case, she fully expected to create the process to regulate the new animal traits on their bodies and have most of them looking mostly human within the next six months. Of course, she didn't know how long it'd take to implement it; she hadn't created it yet after all.

As for the Kocho, rather than having a new compound built, they requested to have their old village brought to the now-mutated leaf simulation zone. They even created an A-rank mission for it, which Kamui happily completed. She still had flying thunder god marks left in that area so it was really just a question of chakra cost. Without the time constraints of the last mission, she just waited a couple of days for the scrolls to charge and completed the mission in one go.

Of course, she didn't just have that mission; her squad also took a joint mission with the Kocho to escort the Aburame through the islands. With Kamui having marked various locations throughout the island, the mission was pretty simple. She also made sure to send her clones to mark other places on the island and to visit one of the contingencies that wasn't needed during their initial venture; it could still be of some use. Plus, it would make a great welcome gift to the Kocho.

Lastly, having an idea for creating a separate biome replica of this island for the Kocho, Kamui spent half of her earning from the last mission on buying mass quantities of chakra-conductive paper. She made sure to have her shadow clones collect both vast quantities of Kocho Island's nature energy and as many samples of plants as she could find. She categorized the different specimens by sub-biomes.

After the Kocho Island revisit events were complete, Kamui and Yugao were given two weeks off. Yugao used that time to increase her proficiency with the lightning steps technique and using advanced nature transformation streaming techniques, seeking advice from Mikoto during the process. Kamui spent it training her combat ability without the use of her eyes, mimicking lightning steps, practicing fusions, and working on her space-time manipulation, trying to find ways around the new counter seals. By using Jirobo's barrier knowledge, she had her father recreate it and worked to circumvent the restrictions; her father joined those particular sessions often. It was still a work in progress, but she was working through it.

Naga and Himiko were expected to join Kamui and Yugao's team soon. They had spent the last few weeks going through Konoha's long vetting process; they went through the most comprehensive variety Konoha could employ without using the Yamanaka's mind dive due to being slated to be on the Hokage's daughter's team. Mind dives would be too dangerous for the diver due to these twos' unique conditions. Aside from that though, their time was boring for the most part.

Tayuya was in a similar boat. She was slated to join Kurenai's team due to her proficiency with genjutsu and was put on the fast track for the ANBU program. Unlike Kamui and Himiko though, the Yamanaka did gently raid her mind to mine for all the intelligence they could find on Orochimaru, while confirming that she was sincere in her desire to join Konoha. While the results weren't the perfect level of desperation they normally preferred with redeemed criminals, it was enough for the probationary period.

Aside from the infrequent, short C-ranks that Team Seven went on after Sakura's recovery, the rest of their time was spent training. Sakura had almost completely withdrawn from her pursuit of Sasuke, believing herself to be unworthy of his love in her weak state. Instead, she spent most of her time off missions with one of Uzume's shadow clones. Having succeeded in the woman's challenge, Sakura had been receiving basic lessons. She wasn't an official apprentice though; it was too early for that.

Naruto and Sasuke were too busy themselves to notice, having been pulled into non-stop training by their parents. Sakura was too early in her new training for her improvements to be noticeable.

For his punishment from his former sensei, Kakashi was forced to spend at least 3 hours a day on his off-time training seriously with a certain green-jumpsuit-wearing jonin.

Overall, these weeks were busy and the chunin exams were closing in. While Konoha was busy dealing with the aftermath of the last month, Iwa was about to have their own share of changes.

Councilor Hagane's Residence (Iwa)

Deep within the Stone Village, Councilman Hagane was hosting a party to celebrate the accomplishments of the recently graduated genin class.

In collaboration with a mysterious backer, they had created an elite class that would secretly go through a similar-length training as Konoha's recent class. It was mainly a pride concern as every major village knew Konoha had most of their clan heirs in this generation. Therefore, they needed a competitive team of similar or greater quality to maintain Iwa's prestige.

This was that class. By implementing new, brutal training methods designed by this 'Dodomeki' character, this new class was able to all reach the combat level of some introductory level jonin. It wasn't just a couple trainees either; it was a class of thirty.

The class had long separated into ten squads and had been conducting B-ranks for the whole month. By all metrics, it was a resounding success. However, that wasn't the real purpose behind this party; only a reason to gather.

In a sealed, secret room close to the party's venue, five men cloaked in shadow gathered away from prying eyes. Their forms were concealed by special-black cloaks, inscribed with genjutsu that made it challenging to focus on them. To others, they were just part of the scenery, nothing worth focusing on.

It was another gift from 'Dodomeki.' They never met the man in person, but he had improved Iwa considerably over the years. Aside from training methods, materials, special strengthening serums, etc, he also provided Iwa with special intelligence that helped them expand into the outskirts of the land of Iron and even assassinate young talents from Kumo (The Village Hidden in the Clouds).

In fact, the reason they were here meeting in secret was mainly due to Dodomeki's latest intel drop.

"*Ahem*" An old, raspy voice clears his throat, grabbing the attention of everyone in the room. "Let's begin. We don't have much time before the more astute visitors realize we're gone. Hagane, considering you organized this gathering, I'm assuming you have news from 'Dodomeki'?"

"Right." A young man spoke. His voice was deep and imposing relative to his age; the shadow's large, bulky figure only enhanced the effect. "Here." The man placed four burgundy folders, one for each councilman, on the table and gave them time to pick their own up and skim its contents.

He continued, "You all have the complete intel, so I'll keep this short. Konoha's added quite a few clans to their roster. One major clan and quite a few minor ones with never-before-seen bloodlines. It's light on the details, but apparently, even the existing clans have been growing at absurd speeds. Bottom line, Konoha's getting stronger, fast." His tone was steady, a mountain whose emotions were firmly under its control.

"What!? How did this happen in only a month!?" A shrill feminine voice screamed out, fear dripping in her deafening tone.

"For this meeting, it doesn't matter. If we knew that, it would be in this folder. The question is, what are we going to do about it?" The old, raspy voice from earlier asked.

"*Sigh* Is that even a question? There is only one option for dealing with a rapidly strengthening power." A bored sounding, middle-aged voice replied.

"War." Hagane stated firmly, not an ounce of fear or hesitation in his tone.

"A necessary evil." The old voice solemnly commented.

"B-but h-how are we going to c-c-onvince the old man? W-we all know how s-scared he is of the flash." A skittish, young feminine voice stutteringly asked.

"Hmm… Hagane." The old voice called out.

"Yes?" The steady young man asked.

"If… something was to… happen to the Fence Sitter, would you be willing to carry his legacy?" The old man slowly asked, sounding as if every word aged him five years.

The room was silent. There was no one foolish or green enough to miss what was being implied.

Iwa's sat on the fence for too long. From the old man's perspective, it could only regain its former glory by ripping the fence from its hinges and plowing through enemy lines.

Hagane was silent for a moment, deep in thought.

After a minute of waiting, his gaze constantly shifted, making sure to look everyone in the eyes.

"If we go through with this, would anyone be opposed? If I'm in charge, you know what I will push for, what I will demand." The man steadily asked, polling the group's loyalty.

Truthfully Hagane didn't seek power. He has and always will be an instrument for increasing Iwa's power and prestige. He was loyal to the village, not necessarily the Tsuchikage. As such, while he wouldn't normally consider regicide, he wouldn't shy away from it if it were the will of the people and with the village's general outlook toward Konoha, they all knew it was.

Silence. Not a single objection was brought up.

"Fine then, I will replace our weathered foundation with one built of the strongest steel, one capable of shattering the backs of our oppressors." His voice crescendoed with passion, announcing his decision to the room.

"Good." The old man nodded. With his right hand, he unsealed a folder from a hidden roll of sealing-paper wrapped around his left arm and placed it on the table. On the cover was the face of a certain young-looking man with slicked-back gray hair. At the top of the folder were the words 'Cult of Jashin.'

Seeing the confused faces of the group, the old man let out a tired smile.

"If we are resolved to commit evil to destroy an even greater evil, then we may as well use all the cards at our disposal, even the unsavory ones." The man tiredly, but steadily explained.

It was time for his old teammate to retire, permanently. Iwa needed new blood and he would pave the way, even if it killed him.