59 Naruto : Chapter 59

It had been two months since the mission to Wave Country and by now rumours were spreading slowly around in the neighbouring countries of Wave. Many traders had gone to the newly freed country and seen the impressive bridge. Tazuna loved praising team seven, especially Naruto.

So the story about the new sealing specialist, Naruto Uzumaki, spread around the elemental nations. By now the Raikage and the newly appointed Mizukage had heard about the young Uzumaki. But there was nothing they could really do and the Mizukage honestly had others things to concern herself with.

She had to rebuild her village after the years of bloodline purges of the former Mizukage. Their military was in a desolate state and she would need years to get it back to the level that they could rightfully state they were one of the five major villages. But the isolation of Kirigakure now showed advantages.

She was sad that Zabuza had been killed by Kakashi Hatake. If she could have managed to convince him to return, he would have made a strong ally. And he had had five strong minions, three of them with a bloodline limit if her information was correct. Such a waste of resources.

The reports stated that Konoha had arrested four of the minions; one of the demon brothers had been killed in a fight with Kakashi's team, and had collected the bounties for a lot of ninjas.

Three Iwa ninjas, one Ame ninja and Zabuza and Meizu. That was not to her liking, but there was nothing she could do.

She had given out a general amnesty for those who had committed crimes against Yagura's regime. Otherwise many of her most trusted supporters would have to be persecuted.

But that meant the ones in Konoha custody were out of her reach. She could only offer them to return, but with how they had interfered in a mission of Konoha, the Hokage would decide what would happen to them.

And just this morning a messenger had brought the news that the Hokage planned to retire again. This time for good. She pondered who would be his successor. There were some strong ninjas in Konoha's ranks.

The most probable choice would probably be Jiraiya of the Sannin, though Kakashi Hatake had been quite active with his team the past few months as well. The man was reclassified as S-rank now.

...

The Raikage was frowning over the report of his spies. Konoha was planning something big. The old Sandaime Hokage was retiring again and a new Hokage would be announced for the chunin exams.

Then there were the stories about a new seal master and an Uzumaki in the village. What was his first name? Ah, Naruto. He only had found out about the boy a week ago when a caravan of traders had come to Kumo.

They had told stories about his great deeds in Wave Country two months ago. Obviously the boy had been a key factor in liberating the country from the business tycoon Gato.

Now the former Gato Company was run by Konoha. Of course they had righted the wrongs that Gato had committed and were loved for it by the people that had been suppressed by Gato. And the worst part was that he couldn't do anything about it.

The change in leadership had been legally performed with all the necessary documents and contracts. Kakashi had done good work there.

Additionally Kakashi was the jonin sensei of the team that was doing many missions that normally chunin teams would get. He knew about two other C-ranks that had been important. Who knew how many others that team had done? It had taken a bit of investigation, but he had their names.

Sasuke Uchiha, last survivor of Konoha's most infamous clan, but the boy was not like most of his relatives. Kakashi seemed to have managed to get the arrogance toned down and had trained the boy to not be dependent on his eyes. He was dangerous to anybody below high chunin level from the reports.

Sakura Haruno, while of civilian background was said to be a promising medic nin with a knack for genjutsu. With only four months of being a genin the girl was able to treat most common injuries of her team. Additionally she was a high level genin kunoichi which definitely was due to Kakashi's training.

Last Naruto Uzumaki. The boy that no spy got a proper picture of. It was as if he didn't want to get known by his looks too early on. Just why would that be? All those older than thirty five knew about the former Uzumaki clan and its specialization in seals.

From what his own seal experts that had investigated in Wave Country and had returned yesterday had found out, he was a high level seals expert. The seals on the bridge were really impressive.

Additionally he had killed at least Ichikawa Sansetsu. It wasn't known if Mikiko Kamizuri had died by Naruto's or Kakashi's hands. The one thing he wondered about was how Konoha had managed to hide the boy for this long.

...

The Hokage sat in the newest meeting of the village council and looked at the members of the council amused. Four months of intensive house cleaning had definitely borne fruit.

He didn't have to deal with as many useless tasks anymore, the merchants that evaded taxes or thought up taxes by their own estimation had been forced to pay heavy fines.

The academy was on a good way to teach the students properly again and the civilian part of the council was reduced to deal with civilian affairs and couldn't meddle with ninja affairs any longer.

"Hokage Sama, is it true that you intend to retire after the chunin exams?" A civilian councillor asked calculating.

"Yes, it is true. I have done enough in my life and I want to finally enjoy my time in retirement. I have found a good successor and will present him shortly before the chunin exams." The Hokage stated.

"Why aren't you telling us now?" Isami Haruno asked.

"I have my reasons. My successor needs to get some things done before he can take over and all the publicity would only hinder his current job. He expects to be finished by the time the exams come along." The Hokage vaguely said.

With how he worded it, nobody who wasn't in the know, meaning, Danzo, Shikaku and Cat, the ANBU commander, would know if he meant Jiraiya or somebody else. Many would think he had chosen his student.

Jiraiya was a sannin and well-known all around the elemental nations. And it was common knowledge that he ran an extensive spy-network that he probably needed to get transferred to a successor.

"As you mentioned the chunin exams, will the new teams participate in them?" Danzo asked, giving the Hokage a bridge to distract the civilian councillors from being too nosy.

"From the reports I saw from teams seven, eight and ten they should be ready by then. Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma are reporting a massive increase of the genins' abilities in the important areas of their training.

We should be able to present a lot of members of our most important clans and families to the public once the finals come along. There are a lot of talented genin this year.

Gai also informed me of his intention to let team nine participate this year." The Hokage answered.

"That's good to know, Hokage Sama." Hiashi said. He only hoped his daughter wouldn't embarrass the Hyuga clan.

"I have heard rumours about Naruto Uzumaki being an expert with seals." The representative for the Kurama clan spoke up. "Is that true?"

"It is. Naruto's level was confirmed by Jiraiya a few months ago when he was in the village. It's no real surprise he is talented in the art. He is an Uzumaki after all." The Hokage answered.

"But how did he get to that level? He was the dead last of his class." A civilian councillor asked annoyed.

"Secret self-study. It isn't really hard to get the materials to get started. The academy has the basic books for fuinjutsu in its collection, but most genin aren't interested in learning such a complex art when they start their career.

They keep to nin-, gen- and taijutsu, perhaps a few weapon skills as well."

Shikaku informed them. "But Naruto had to clean several rooms after a prank, so for him to find the books is very probable. He only needed to borrow a few and he could have studied without anybody noticing.

It's not like fuinjutsu couldn't be used in pranks, which I guess would have been a massive motivation for him. Understandable with the treatment he got over years."

Many of the ninja council nodded. They knew how good Naruto was. He had really hidden all his abilities well. Many by now knew that his promotion was only a question of time until he had the necessary experience.

And all the ninjas kept a close look at the bingo books. Naruto had an entry by now after news about his involvement in the fall of Gato, the death of Zabuza and the Iwa ninjas had got out. He was a C-ranked ninja in Kiri and B-ranked in Iwa's books.

Probably because nobody really knew which opponents he had taken out and which ones were accounted to Kakashi. Only the Hokage really knew and he kept quiet.

The three captured ex-Kiri nins were in the final phase of interrogation and so far it looked like them joining Konoha.

It would be great to gain three new bloodline limits for the village. Though the civilian councillors didn't know that yet. They would stupidly try to force the three into a breeding program, which wasn't at all what the Hokage wanted.

Not that they had that power anyway, but they too often fell back into their bad habits and he didn't want that Kakashi would have to bother with that kind of nonsense when he took over.

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