4 The Second Ninja World War (1)

Amegakure is a small but highly industrialized hidden village and as its name suggests, it rains almost constantly in Amegakure and the surrounding area. All the water seemingly ends in a large lake that surrounds the village.

Amegakure shinobi are said to be notoriously short-tempered, while their village trains them to their fullest potential, resulting in the creation of many original techniques. Ame is frequently hired for assassination missions, an area of expertise prized by many countries.

However, the most important reason that this village is so famous for in this world is, in fact, not any of that, it's actually its very peculiar geographical location.

Because of Amegakure's unique location right in between the three of the Five Great Shinobi Countries: Land of Fire, Land of Wind, and Land of Earth; it has recently served as a battleground during the First Ninja World War, making most of its population war refugees at the moment.

And the same could be said about this war, the Second Great Ninja War, too. In fact, this war started in Amegakure as well.

Because of its special geographical location, all three of its big neighbors wanted to recruit this village as their ally, before the next inevitable war, Second Ninja World started, thus gaining an enormous advantage when it finally starts.

But, the Amegakure wasn't what it was before. The Amegakure now was being led by Hanzo The Salamander, a notoriously powerful and shrewd shinobi, also known as the "Demigod" to some.

At some point during Hanzo's childhood, he found a black salamander with deadly venom residing in his village. When it died, its venom sac was embedded into his body in the hopes of creating a venomous ninja who himself was immune to toxins. This required him to wear a mask constantly, in order to protect others from his venom-laced breath.

At some point after this, Hanzo became well known and renowned throughout the shinobi world, so much that enemies have been known to flee at the very sight of him.

He didn't want to ally or to bow to any of the big three shinobi villages before the war started, wanting to watch them fight between themselves, and then pick up the benefits and expand the Amegakure's territory while they were busy fighting against each other afterward.

He was also a very proud figure with a great deal of hatred towards the Five Great Nations, he wouldn't ally with any of them, unless absolutely necessary,

So the war broke out first in Amegakure. Outside of the shinobi of the said village, other actors also included Konohagakure, Sunagakure, and Iwagakure as well.

The other two great shinobi villages, Kumogakure and Kirigakure didn't start participating in this war, probably because they were waiting for the other three hidden villages to exhaust all their energy and resources and attack them consequently, getting all the benefits themselves.

Such a situation persisted ever since this war started about one year ago.

But, everything is about to change, because of one famous event and a subsequent battle.

During the usually chaotic and hectic war day in the Amegakure, the legendary shinobi, Hanzo the Salamander, decided to attack one of the Konoha platoons stationed in his village, for whatever reason.

He ended up wiping out that whole platoon, he wiped all but the three shinobi from Konoha forces, stationed there,

He dubbed those three shinobi, the "Three Legendary Sannin" after engaging in a fierce battle against them!

Being impressed with their current strength and their immense future potential. He decided to spare their lives that day, and ally with the Konohagakure in this war, making a gamble.

"With them here, Konoha will be the leading shinobi village through many years to come!"

That was what he thought, he decided to ally with the winner of this war, the winner he thought would be the Konohagakure,

He decided to ally with the world's leading superpower of the following decades...

The Konoha was ecstatic, every ally was welcomed during these hard times, not to mention the legendary "Demigod" of the shinobi.

But, that's not all. There was one more reason for the celebration in Konoha, in the following weeks.

Konoha's "White Fang", Sakumo Hatake, performed a top-secret mission alone on the Sunagakure's forces in one of the various battlefields opened right now, after Hanzo's alliance.

The White Fang executed nearly half of the Sunagakure's famous Puppet Brigade forces in one day, killing the majority of their leaders and exceptional shinobi at the same time,

In effect, delivering a really crushing blow to Sunagakure village!

His strength and reputation both confirmed once again. The whole shinobi world being very careful of his next move now. But Sunagakure's nightmares weren't over yet,

After being done with the battlefield in Amekagure, one of the now-famous, so-called Sannins, Tsunade Senju, would go on to make her own independent contributions in the war for Konoha's side.

She went to the Suna's battlefront and was frequently counteracting their Puppet Bridges' poisons, rendering them nearly completely useless.

With such major blows delivered to his strongest forces consecutively, the Third Kazegake, the leader of the Sunagakure village, had to reevaluate his position and the stance during this war,

Realizing that there is no more meaning in fighting against the Konoha, he focused all his efforts on fighting against the Iwagakure whom they still had an advantage while using poisons.

He simultaneously signed a peace treaty with Konoha, becoming their new ally in the process as well.

Tsunade still remained stationed on that front near Sunagakure to guard against their poisons or sudden attacks, just in case,

Not to mention, that she couldn't personally fight anywhere anymore now that she developed hemophobia, after her fiance, Dan Kato died some time back on the battlefield.

While all of this was happening, the leader of Konoha's hidden force Root, Danzo, went to the Amegakure in an effort to help their newfound ally fend off their enemies and rebuild their village, all the while cementing their new-found friendship.

Everything was going great for the Konoha, the war lasted for only one year, and it was already nearly finished in their favor.

The last piece of the puzzle was delivering a final blow to the Iwagakure forces before they managed to bring the other two great ninja villages into the war as well.

And who was the better one to do that job other than Konoha's White Fang, who already delivered a decisive rushing blow to Suna's forces earlier that month, in this exact way?

Sakumo Hatake, the Anbu commander was ordered by the Hokage to assemble a medium-sized shinobi attack group of his strongest and most trusted Anbu subordinates, while carrying out this attack to assure more chances for success.

They decided to attack and destroy Iwagakure's temporary bases in the Suna-Iwa battlefront, with Sakumo's strength and the surprise factor being on their side, at silent night.

They would attack a base fast, destroy it, and then move onto the next base before the information reach them.

They were the real elites, Sakumo, and his most cherished and strongest thirty subordinates of Anbu black ops.

But, as soon as they came towards their first target, Sakumo noticed that something was wrong,

The whole base looked like a mini-fortress. It was made out only of stone and hard soil. After getting even closer alone, Sakumo noticed something.

Those were the defensive type runes of the explosive release!

It seems like the Iwagakure learned their lesson from his attack on the Sunagakure before.

'To destroy this base, we would need to make many living sacrifices using them as baits...'

'Not to mention, there are other bases, like this one, that we have to destroy next...'

'It must've been the idea of that old geezer Onoki. He is ready to sacrifice his shinobi together with the enemy in the case of an attack, truly ruthless...'

He thought while looking at all of the subordinates behind him, who were wearing masks in Anbu black uniforms. He knew some of them personally too, even outside their work life.

'This mission isn't worth it, we should go back!'

He appeared back to their hiding spot, but something always being present in the back of his head, 'Why did the Lord Hokage order this mission? He must've known that this simply isn't worth it!'

But, soon he stated quietly, "We are falling back, for now, go!"

All thirty Anbu members swiftly followed his orders and dispersed back towards their village,

But, there was one Anbu member running beside Sakumo who had a very satisfied smile on his face, behind his Anbu mask,

His mask was that of a rat, so he was only known as the "Rat" of the Anbu black ops.

He was the so-called Vice Commander of the Anbu black ops in Konoha. Only Sakumo having a higher authority than him out of the whole organization.

'Everything is going as you planned, Lord Danzo!'

There was also some kind of seal mark engraved on the top of his tongue, but not many people knew about that.

- - -

In the Amegakure,

The rain was freely falling outside, and the sky was pretty dark.

A man was looking outside his window while thinking about something. His whole body atmosphere was very gloomy.

Soon a figure flashed in his room while kneeling on the ground.

"Lord Danzo, Sakumo Hatake, and the thirty other Anbu members went for the attack!"

"Good, very good. Remember to tell them to act quickly once the time comes, now go!"

"Don't disappoint me!"

"Understood."

When that person left promptly, Danzo started thinking again, a little proud of himself.

No one could imagine, that this man coordinated that whole plan out of the foreign village, in the midst of the war, towards his own village hero. But, such a man was Danzo Shimura.

First, he managed to distort the information the Hokage was getting regarding the strength of Iwagakure's bases, through his channels and Root personnel stationed in Konoha. This move was needed to trigger the Hokage's reaction to send Sakumo and his subordinates on that mission.

The second thing he will do is to start buying, coercing, or manipulating Konoha's general populace to start hating on Sakumo all the while spreading negative rumors about him.

He will then activate his spies in the Anbu forces, Daimiyo's office, and regular shinobi circles to start hating on him too, while spreading negative rumors about him, as well.

No one likes the war, it's bad for the economy, it affects peoples' livelihood and jobs, it kills people, it creates all kinds of negative emotions in the world.

And, he will channel all these negative emotions onto the Sakumo Hatake.

People also always need scapegoats to went their hatred to, it's in their basic human nature.

"This war could already be finished if only he didn't abandon his mission back then!"

"My loved ones died because of him!"

"I lost my whole livelihood because of him!"

Imagining all of this right now already brings a smile onto Danzo's crooked face, "You shouldn't have messed with me, Hatake..."

When they are under the influence of emotions, people don't care about facts. That's why Danzo Shimura is so sure about his plan, his many years of experience in dealings with human nature now come to play.

That coupled with Sakumo's personality type, Danzo could already predict his fate pretty accurately.

"Suicide, it is...?"

"Hahaha..."

And the third plan was, to after Sakumo's death, install his own man, codenamed "Rat", onto the position of the Commander of the whole Anbu Black ops,

Thus, effectively gaining control of the Konoha's whole dark side of the shinobi forces. Both Root and Anbu will be under his direct control by then. This was the first step of him realizing his dream of becoming the Hokage.

'And that Uzumaki boy? I heard he's pretty talented. It won't be too late to train him as my successor once the third step of my plan finishes...'

Danzo smiled contently, first time feeling this good in many years.

- - -

Seven days later, in the Konohagakure.

A piece of news dropped onto them like a bombshell,

The two neutral great shinobi villages from before, Kumogakure and Kirigakure, allied with Iwagakure now and declared a war against the alliance of Konohagakure, Sunagakure, and Amegakure.

Konoha's forces were already being allocated to the maximum potential. Tsunade and her forces remained to guard against the Sunagakure,

Jiraiya went to the battlefront where Konoha's remaining forces fought hard against the Iwagakure together with the Sunagakure,

And, Danzo and his Root were still in the Amegakure.

Only the Third Hokage himself and the other shinobi forces who remained to guard Konohagakure were ready for a war on a new battlefront right now,

Bu, those forces were certainly not enough to deal against the two great ninja villages, Kumogakure and Mizugakure, at the same time! Even the Konoha's civilian population somewhat realized that!

Kakashi, Anko, and Yoshi were currently coming back from the Ninja Academy.

They were all now seven years old!

The Academy continued to operate even in times of war like now.

"Do you guys think Konoha will win in this war?" Anko suddenly asked a little bit lower in spirit than usual.

"Of course, I'm one hundred percent sure of that!"

Yoshi smiled and consolidated her a little while patting her head lightly.

"Then, I won't worry anymore!" Anko also smiled, knowing the usual high success rate of the predictions that Yoshi makes.

"What!? What about him being a hero, a hero doesn't just wuss out of an important mission like that!"

Two Konoha chunins were passing by them while talking about something.

"Ssh, someone will hear you..."

"And what if they hear me!? Everyone can see that it's that bastard's fault that the war was prolonged!"

They continued forward after passing beside them while talking, but the trio of them soon stopped, it was because Kakashi stopped first!

His expression was frosty cold, his eyes looking very angry and fierce,

It was the third time that they heard a story like this today, but the first time someone had the guts to directly insult his father!

Anko looked at Kakashi worriedly, and Yoshi just remained silent as well.

"Are you talking about Sakumo Hatake by any chance?"

Kakashi suddenly turned around and asked abruptly, his expression was icy cold.

"Yes, we are kid, why?" The chunin who talked badly before replied. Thinking that this academy student probably thought badly of Sakumo as well.

Not all people of Konoha know what their two academy geniuses look like and who is Kakashi Hatake.

"Then, die!" Kakashi suddenly disappeared from his place fiercely and punched the chunin in his teeth, knocking some of them out in the process.

After they fell on the ground, he continued punching him in the face mercilessly. The chunin in question couldn't believe what was happening to him right now.

Anko from the side looked shocked, first time seeing anything like this coming from Kakashi.

"Yoshi, you stop him fast!" She yelled while holding Yoshi's arm.

Yoshi could stop Kakashi even before he jumped onto him, realizing his unstable aura, but why would he?

But now looking at the aura of the unlucky chunin through his Mind's Eye, he decided to step in, killing that insect right now would make quite a problem for Kakashi, he thought.

"Alright Kakashi, you already gave that idiot a beating of his life, no need to kill him now!"

He reappeared behind Kakashi, held his hands, and said seriously.

Kakashi's eyes returned to normal, he looked at the mercilessly beaten chunin by him, laying down motionlessly, and finally stopped.

"Thanks for not stopping me before, Yoshi," He said gratefully after standing up, then looked at the other chunin.

"Pick that dog up and then scram!" He ordered fiercely.

"Y-yes!" The other chunin did what he was told fast, and then disappeared quickly.

He looked really scared, never seeing someone being beaten in this way before, this badly, especially not by a little kid.

Anko also went towards them a bit hesitatingly.

Seeing this, Yoshi went forward and hugged her a little, saying while smiling.

"No need to be so scarred Anko, this is still the same old Kakashi in my opinion!"

"It's just that this dog crossed the line! If he didn't beat him up like this, I would!"

Kakashi nodded and said, "Let's go, I want to see my father now."

They all went toward their homes hurriedly after that.

Surprisingly, Sakumo was already in the Hatake's residence by the time they arrived.

After seeing them coming inside, Sakumo put an unnatural smile on his face quickly and asked lightly, "Oh, Yoshi, Kakashi, you came? How was the school treating you both today?"

Both Yoshi and Kakashi knew something wasn't right with him, especially Yoshi, who could see his aura clearly, 'So this time already came, huh?'

"Uncle I have something important to tell you now!" Yoshi said seriously, all of sudden, after some thinking.

Both Sakumo and Kakashi were surprised to see him being this serious.

Sakumo sighed, somehow guessing that they might've heard something outside too.

"Alright, let's sit down!"

They both nodded their heads and followed him to sit down soon.

"So, what did you want to talk about, Yoshi?" Sakumo asked seriously.

"Uncle, I presume you heard about those rumors outside about you too?" Yoshi began with his own question first.

"Sigh, in fact, not just the outside, I heard my own colleagues talking badly about me today, too!"

Sakumo sighed and replied feeling a bit lost.

Kakashi clenched his little fists, while Yoshi asked something again.

"Uncle, do you know about my ability?"

"Yeah, isn't that the sensory type ability you told us about before?" Sakumo replied then, him and Kakashi both wondering as to why he would ask that question, at this time.

"My ability is not just the sensory type, uncle, my ability can see the hearts of others too!"

"The hearts of others...?" Both Kakashi and Sakumo unsurely exclaimed at the same time.

"Yes, my ability can see chakra auras of various people through pretty vast distances. I can even cover this whole village, right now, with my mind perception!"

"But, it's not just that, uncle. Over time I learned to determine the moods and the personalities of other people through analyzing their chakra aura patterns."

"And not just that, I can see if someone is lying or has deceiving intentions or not. That means that I can see who is sincere and who is not in this world pretty accurately and easily now."

Both of them were really shocked when they heard about it; That was a really powerful ability to have...

However, Sakumo asked, still feeling unsure of how that relates to their current conversation, "That's really amazing, Yoshi! But, I'm sure that you didn't want to talk to me only about this right now..."

"Well, today, in this village, the total activity of people speaking with deceiving intentions or straight-up lying skyrocketed. This was the first time I sensed anything like that in this village, no, in my entire life!"

Sakumo's and Kakashi's eyes went wide open, they were both really surprised and frightened at the same time.

"As for why I brought this up with you here today. It's because, one of those people speaking with deceiving intentions and lying, that I personally saw today, was talking about you and your abandoned mission."

"In fact, you can ask Kakashi too, he was there with me. It was an ordinary granny on the street selling snacks."

Sakumo's eyes went even wider, he began to gradually realize something.

"Yes, father, I remember about that granny too!" Kakashi said angrily.

"Actually, uncle, I could make a bet right now that if we went outside now and checked those people who were speaking with deceiving intentions or lying, that in ten out of ten of those cases, they are talking about you and your previous mission."

"What...!?" Kakashi stood up from his chair feeling incredulous.

"Yes, it's true. Uncle do you have any enemies in the village? It's impossible for this many people in this village to start hating you all of a sudden overnight. This whole situation is really strange in my opinion!"

Yoshi finished giving his hints and started looking at Sakumo seriously thereafter.

Kakashi looked at Sakumo pretty worriedly as well.

Sakumo's whole head went blank at the moment.

'This, this...'

'Someone started spreading rumors and slandering me in my own village?'

"Who was it!!?"

Sakumo suddenly stood up furiously, literally throwing the table over.

But, fortunately, Yoshi and Kakashi moved away in time.

Kakashi looked at his father a little fearful at this moment.

Yoshi looked really relieved after seeing this.

'It seems that uncle is really not a fool.'

"Uncle, in my humble opinion, it must've been someone from the high-level position of this village. After all, hiring this many people at the same time requires some serious cash, if you understand what I mean..."

Sakumo looked at Yoshi, his words presently reverberating inside his head.

'High level, high-level, high-level...'

The only man who wasn't on good terms with himself during this time, in this village, from the high-level, no, his only enemy in this whole village, period, was only one person!

"Danzo!!!"

He suddenly yelled and then left his home residence like a furious lion!

Killing intention accumulated through countless slayings of his enemies before on the battlefield, suddenly exploded all at once right now!

He was a righteous man, but that doesn't mean that you could walk all over him!

He was an honorable man, but that doesn't mean that he will let himself be killed unjustly!

He was a good man, but that doesn't mean that he would allow his son to become an orphan!

Kakashi looked really stunned. His father never showed this side of him to himself before. He didn't even know his father was capable of being angry up until this very moment.

His legs started shaking, and he was about to collapse from all that intense killing intention his father released just now.

Yoshi went towards Kakashi and supported him swiftly, after successfully calming himself down with his great spiritual strength.

"Kakashi, don't worry! Uncle will find the right thing to do! Sometimes being too good to your enemies, means being too harsh on yourself!"

Kakashi nodded weakly while looking towards the direction his father previously left.

'Father, please be fine!'

- - -

The Third Hokage was currently working in his office. His eyes appearing bloodshot indicating that he hasn't slept for a few days already.

And judging by how things were developing, working from the office won't be enough anymore. He would have to enter the bloody battlefield once again in this life!

He already applied to enter the future Kumogakure battlefront with his disciple Orochimaru!

Their only hope is to achieve a fast victory there, and go and assist other battlefronts afterward, which he knows would be an extremely hard feat considering the famed strength of the Third Raikage, the one called the strongest Raikage in history!

He planned on sending Sakumo and his Anbu forces to future Mizu battlefront, but he knows that there's basically no hope in a quick victory there now that Sakumo's mentality took such a great hit today.

Actually, he was quite helpless about that. He was again tricked by his old friend Danzo in an attempt to damage his own forces and political standing in Konohagakure. He was also quite appalled by the way Danzo bought and threatened the villagers to slander Sakumo.

He promises, that if Sakumo is still alive by the end of this war, he would get justice for him. It's just that they still require Danzo's strength at the moment, and can't afford any infighting right now.

That's the gamble Danzo actually took as well. Danzo knows that living himself is more valuable than the dead Sakumo for the post-war Konoha. So in reality, Sakumo wouldn't get any justice served for himself if he commits suicide now.

But, if he remains alive, then that's a different story!

But, It still remains to be seen just how much would Hiruzen Sarutobi be willing to punish his old friend once the war is really over.

And, just while he was thinking about all of that, two black silhouettes suddenly appeared in his office, right behind him,

Sarutobi looked stunned and then turned to look into one of the shadows while asking quickly, "Shinsuke, what's happening, is there an enemy?"

"I don't know, father, Naomi sensed some kind of hostile presence coming our way right now!"

One of the shadows replied seriously. He was called Shinsuke and besides him was his wife Naomi, she was a sensory ninja. They were the personal guards of the Third Hokage, Shinsuke's father, Hiruzen Saruotobi.

Sarutobi nodded solemnly, then stood up and took his whole robe off, as if preparing for a battle.

Soon the Hokage's office doors were kicked open. Sarutobi was already prepared to fire hand seals on time.

But, once he looked at the furious white-haired man in front of him, he was at first shocked, but then just sighed and said next.

"Shinsuke, Naomi, it's all right, go back now!"

"What can I do for you, Sakumo," Sarutobi plainly asked the man in front of him.

"Did you know about it too, Hokage?" Sakumo asked his own question coldly, instead of answering.

"Excuse me, but what are you talking about Sakumo?" Hokage decided to test him a little first.

"You know very well what I'm talking about, Hokage. Don't play dumb, it's easy for you to realize something like that happening in your own village,"

He said while pointing at the crystal ball the Hokage's table, and then continuing his speech.

"Why didn't you alert me on that today, when we talked? Do you want my son to become an orphan, too?"

Sakumo asked two subsequent questions and his eyes became really cold once again, his killing intention slowly leaking then.

"What do you take me for, Sakumo? I planned to notify you of that as soon as I finished my investigation!" Sarutobi yelled angrily while changing tactics proficiently.

In fact, he really wouldn't notify Sakumo of that matter, had he not realized it himself.

He couldn't notify him about that because he didn't want infighting in the village at this time.

But, there was also one more subconscious reason, it's because he didn't want Sakumo harming his only friend, Danzo Shimura, in any way.

"What is there to investigate? Everything is already very clear. You know the specifics of that mission, you know that it wasn't my fault. And you also know who is my biggest enemy inside this village capable of something like this," Sakumo said indifferently.

"Sakumo, I..." Sarutobi wanted to say something, but Sakumo stopped him, in his tracks, again.

"I know that he's your friend Hokage, I'm not a fool. But I promise you if something like this happens ever again... If this man tries doing something against me or my family ever again..."

He said while looking at Sarutobi coldly and extremely seriously.

"...I will kill him and you won't be able to do anything to stop it!"

Sarutobi started sweating a little but he still asked.

"What about your duties, Sakumo?"

"I will still perform my duties during this war. But once this war finishes, I will resign from the Anbu black ops and become an ordinary jonin. I will also guide my two sons and their friend as their official shinobi teacher when they graduate."

"I won't fight for Konoha's interests again in this life."

"I will only shoot for Konoha again if the enemy is about to destroy the Hatake clan's residence in this village or my family one day."

'That's already very good, it also seems that he won't shoot against Danzo for now, looking at my own face,' Sarutobi sighed subconsciously and asked next.

"And, what about your kids?"

"That's their own choice to make, I won't interfere in their choice whatsoever. I will support them in the future, no matter what they decide," Sakumo replied seriously.

"Alright," Sarutobi replied and then sat down, looking like he aged ten years in a moment.

Sakumo also left the room promptly.

'Danzo, this man already left the political scene of Konoha now. You can only blame yourself if you continue to go against him now...'

'Sigh, and I lost my strongest subordinate just like that. Danzo your friendship is truly expensive!'

'It seems like I must increase my efforts in winning over Yoshi Uzumaki or Kakashi Hatake, as long as these two are on my side, Sakumo will be as well!'

'Sigh, truly a tiresome day...'

And, Yoshi Uzumaki, actually changed history today once again.