Chapter 30

After the debacle with Aiyuri and her lackeys, I went around the island searching for every Senju member they had captured.

After an intense search, I was able to recover seven children belonging to the Senju clan, although there were more missing Senju members out there, it would be impossible to find them considering they're still alive. The slave trade Aiyuri was running was large with thousands of people being sold yearly, with the vast amount of people sold, and with the size of the shinobi world, it would be impossible to track down any more members of the clan, so I had no other option but to give up.

I spent the next few days on the island waiting for reinforcements from Konoha. I couldn't be bothered to take charge of the other captives/victims on the island so I passed the responsibilities to Hiruzen.

Returning back to Konoha, I gave Hiruzen and the other clan heads an official report, and as I'd expected the reports sparked outrage among the clans of Konoha before rapidly spreading to the rest of the village. The Uchiha clan and Hyuga clan wanted remunerations from Iwagakure and it was understandable as they had more to lose from another action like this. During the warring states era, clans had the power so it was easier to protect themselves from enemies. But with the village system, a single clan being targeted by an entire village would most likely end up in the clan being eradicated.

With Konoha inhabitants demanding blood for the injustice done to one of the founding clans of the village, Hiruzen was truly out of depth. He had to balance appeasing the shinobi, and clans of Konoha while trying to avoid an all-out war with Iwagakure.

The next month consisted of a back and forth between Konoha and Iwagakure, with Onoki denying any involvement in the issue. Although most villages would carry out such an operation to weaken the other villages or strengthen theirs, it was quickly becoming a 4v1 against Iwagakure.

Under the scrutinising gaze of the other shinobi villages, pressure from within Konoha and the Daimyo of the Land of Fire, Hiruzen had no other option but to mobilise the majority of Konoha shinobi to the border between the Land of Fire, and the Land of Grass in a show of force. Within the first year since the First Shinobi War ended, Konoha was on the verge of starting another war.

.......

"Dammit Indra, this is all your doing," Hiruzen growled, slamming his palm on his desk. "You could have given me your report, but you insisted on doing so to every clan head in the village."

"What did you expect? knowing you, you'd have said something like: 'Konoha isn't ready for another war'... and then you'd end up burying the information due to your fear for war," replied Indra, a triumphant smirk donning his face.

"I would have settled it my way, but your rash action has forced the village into potentially starting the Second shinobi war. Do you think the other villages would sit back while we wage war with Iwagakure?....No, they won't!!!!.... The moment Konoha weakens from the war, they'd swoop in like vultures and rip apart the remainder of our forces," Hiruzen stated, his tone increasing in intensity with every word.

"Your thoughtless action would facilitate the demise of the clan you're trying to protect."

"Fine, I'll fix it myself," Indra replied.

"No, you won't. With how you 'fix things', you'd make everything worse. Go back to your house, you're not allowed to leave the village until I clean the mess you've made."

"You're joking right?! In what universe do you think I'd stay inside the village because you said so," Indra chuckled.

"I don't think you understand me, Indra. If you leave the village,..."

"Fine...fine...fine... I know what you're going to say next," Indra interrupted.

"Thank you," Hiruzen said, letting out a sigh of relief. If Indra hadn't acquiesced, he would have had to resort to threats that he probably knows he wouldn't have been able to follow through on.

With a sly smile on his face, "Since you're going to be staying in the village, why don't you help me out?" Hiruzen asked.

"What do you want?" Indra asked apprehensively.

"You know the academy had recent graduates," replied Hiruzen.

Indra nodded before his expression morphed into a frown. "I'm not taking a genin team."

"You won't be taking one, permanently at least. You'd be acting as a substitute leader on my team since I've not had the time for them."

"Why did you take a genin team when you knew you won't be able to handle their training and go on missions with them?" Indra asked.

"No particular reason, I wanted to train the next generation the same way the previous generation did for mine."

"Oh!!! you're already planning on grooming your replacement. It kind of makes sense, you're hopeless as an hokage so it's better to prepare your replacement," Indra chuckled.

"Are you going to do it or not?" Hiruzen growled.

"Fine...fine... what's the name of the trio?"

"Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru. You already know Tsunade, and you were in the first year of the academy with the other two," replied Hiruzen.

"Hmm, I do remember Jiraiya. He was the white-haired kid with the red lines on his cheeks right?"

"Yes he was," replied Hiruzen.

Hiruzen took out two bells attached together by a red string from his desk before passing them to Indra.

"This would be used to test them," he said, explaining the bell test to Indra. "There'd be waiting for you at the academy," he added.

"After I'm done with this bell test, am I supposed to spend the entire time as your substitute training them?" Indra asked.

"No, you'd supervise them on D-rank missions for a week, and if I'm not free before then, you'd then be able to lead them on c-rank missions outside the village," replied Hiruzen

"I thought I wasn't allowed to leave the village?" Indra asked with raised brows.

"I trust you won't do anything to place the lives of three genin in danger, not when Tsunade is accompanying you," Hiruzen replied.

"I see what you're doing, Hiruzen. But I'd accept it as the idea of teaching sensei's granddaughter is appealing to me," Indra replied before leaving the office.

.....

.....

An hour later, Indra strolled into the academy, using the chakra of Tsunade to find her exact location. Opening the door to the classroom Tsunade was in, he slowly stepped inside.

"Indra!!!!" Tsunade screamed, running towards him before jumping on him.

"I missed you," she said, wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

"Come down now, Tsunade. You're no longer a child," he chuckled.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I'd be your substitute teacher until Hiruzen is free to take over."

"The sandaime is our sensei?" Orochimaru asked, speaking for the first time.

"Weren't we in the first year of the academy together?" Jiraiya asked. "You're not even a jonin, how can you be our sensei?" he added.

"Shut up you egg-headed perv," Tsunade retorted, while Indra chuckled.

..............

[A/N:- It's obvious Naruto timeline makes no sense at times. Databook says the Sannin graduated at the age of 6-7, and during their bell test, Tsunade called Jiraiya a pervert, while Jiraiya called Tsunade flat-chested. I'm not sure if at the age of 6 they were supposed to even know what pervert and boobs were. So I somewhat scaled their ages, so they're all 9 instead of 6-7, which means Indra is 14.]

..............

"I'm not a jonin of the village, Jiraiya. I'm more of a free-lance shinobi," Indra vaguely explained.

"What does that mean," Orochimaru asked.

"I can basically do whatever I want."

"Enough talk," Indra said, shutting down any follow-up question.

"Meet me at the third training ground," he added, addressing Jiraiya and Orochimaru. "We'd be going together, Tsunade."

....

Taking out the bells from his pocket, "Hiruzen gave this to me for your genin test. You all have 30 minutes to take the bells away from me, whoever doesn't get one at the end would lose," Indra explained.

"Say! if I get one of the bells, would you go out with me?" Jiraiya addressed Tsunade.

"If you don't get one, don't bother me anymore," Tsunade replied.

"All right! I'll do it!!"

"I'd make the test more interesting," Indra said, drawing a circle around him. "If any of you can make me step out of this circle that person would have no need to take the bell away from me. Of course, you're allowed to work together," I added. Although the test was somewhat about teamwork, I didn't see a point in passing that message in such a roundabout way.

Your thirty minutes starts now."

*********

Five minutes later, I felt Jiraiya sneaking around, heading towards me. I summoned a chakra rod, making it drop in front of him.

"Stop sneaking, it's embarrassing for me to watch you do so."

I leaned to the side as a couple of kunai sailed past me. Using slight footwork, I dodge a surprise attack from Orochimaru, redirecting his body so he clumsily falls on the body of an approaching Tsunade. I then jumped, letting Jiraiya sail underneath me.

"You'd need more than that to force me out of the circle."

Probably due to my taunt, Orochimaru made hand-signs 'Fire Release: Fox Fire', creating five balls of fire around him before launching them at me.

'A c-rank jutsu, impressive for a nine-year old.'

Coating my right palm in chakra, I dodged the balls of fire before grabbing the last one as it sailed past me. Adding a small amount of my chakra to the ball of fire, I increased the intensity of it and threw it at Orochimaru.

*Boom*

Orochimaru jumped out of the way, the ball of fire striking the ground and exploding right where he previously stood.

While I was dealing with Orochimaru, I felt Tsunade behind me, with clear chakra coating her hands.

'Oh, a chakra scalpel, Mito-sama probably taught this to her.'

Leaning to the side, I dodged a swipe of her chakra scalpel before jumping up as she swung her feet at me. She then continued attacking for the next five minutes while I lazily dodged.

"Are you getting tired, Tsunade?" I asked as she fell to the ground again.

"No, I can still continue," she replied.

Getting back to her feet, she created the chakra scalpel again. Letting out a roar, she charged at me, releasing the chakra scalpel and concentrating more chakra around her hand right as she balled it into a fist.

*Boom*

The ground cracked around me as I grabbed her fist, letting the pressure from her punch sail past me, knocking back Orochimaru and Jiraiya that had decided to sneak attack me.

Gathering chakra on my fingers, I slammed it into her abdomen before dropping her limp body to the ground.

With the remaining 15 minutes, Orochimaru and Jiraiya attacked me. While Orochimaru showed elite chunin level skill, Jiraiya was absolutely hopeless, falling for feints an official shinobi shouldn't fall for while constantly getting in the way of Orochimaru.

***************

[Do you guys prefer chapters like this with more dialogues or I should cut back on the dialogues?]