Naruto: Legacy Undone

"My palace is enormous Sarutobi. Sixteen men are needed to guard it a reduction risks the safety of my family."

Sarutobi's eyes narrowed. Then it hit him. "This...isn't about you needing a guard."

The younger man stares at him, dead serious.

"What exactly are you intending with the Iwa girl?" He asked.

Koutou leaned back, lips pursed.

The pieces came clicking into place as Sarutobi read the younger man he had known as a child like an open book. "You don't want guards...you want Tutors."

The Daimyo's eyes closed, dipping his head with a sound that was half a grunt, half a groan half an affirmation.

Sarutobi leaned forward. "You want to have us teach her? What for?

The Daimyo took a breath, sighing before opening his eyes to look at him again.

"While in Iwa." He began. "There was something of a...remarkable experience really." He paused, opening and closing his mouth as though searching for the words. "I was attacked." He finally said. "At first, I believed it would be some foolish, disgruntled chuunin. Perhaps even a Jounin, someone who lost a loved one in our wars against Iwagakure but...imagine my surprise when, rather than a chuunin or a Jounin...the attacker was nothing more than a child of ten years old."

Sarutobi waited meeting Koutou's eyes.

"Aren't you tired of it all?" He asked. "This...seething hatred that gnaws at both our countries?"

Sarutobi shook his head. "Do you expect that...in the six years you have with her as your ward according to the agreement that you'll be able to...what...foster some kind of peace with Iwa?"

Koutou sighed. "Its a step in the right direction. I will open the door, and hope the next generation sees fit to walk through it." He smirked. "Myself and Kurotsuchi could only ever be acquaintances I'm afraid." He chuckled.

Sarutobi missed the joke.

The Daimyo sighed through his nostrils. "I need no more than four. Preferably the specialists of your nin, tai and genjutsu with another you feel would be fitting."

"I don't think any would be fitting." Sarutobi answered frankly. "You can foster peace without training her."

"True, but then there would be nothing gained. The only way people hold status in Shinobi villages is through their sheer strength on the field of battle. Once she leaves she must be able to achieve a high enough rank in Iwa otherwise all the effort will be as significant as if I'd fostered Onoki's pet fish."

"You want me to authorize granting you four experts in the varying Shinobi fields, Jounin to train a single girl who's then going to be returned to one of our most openly hostile neighbors, one that could very well declare war at any point in time, where she will be bound to fight us and turn our own teachings against us?"

Koutou smiled sadly. "I suppose I'd best become a very close acquaintance then..."

The Shinobi was about to answer when the door opened, one of the Samurai stepping inside. "Forgive me Sandaime-sama, Magojiro-sama- but there is someone here requesting to see Sandaime-sama immediately."

"Who?" The older man asked.

"I do not know. He wears a wolf mask."

"Send him in." Sarutobi demanded, standing up and bowing to the Daimyo. "Excuse me for a moment."

Koutou nodded.

Seconds later Sarutobi had turned, marched to the entrance of the large room to met the wolf maked Anbu where both began to speak to eachother in harsh whispers.

The words didn't carry over to him. But whatever was being said it was obviously something very agitating to the older man.

It was nearly ten whole minutes before the discussion ended and the older man sent Wolf away with his orders.

When the man returned, his face was severe, eyes ablaze with thought.

It prompted Koutou to ask-

"Is there anything I can help you with Sarutobi-dono?"

The man shook his head "No it-"

Then he stopped.

And looked at him.

Koutou could see the lines of thought converging, the answers clicking into place behind the man's eyes and the Daimyo felt the words he'd said to Orochimaru after the exam were about to be used against him.

Move your enemy. Do not be moved by him.

-0-

He found the head.

That was all that'd been left of his old friend.

Just the head.

Even that was left as a mocking taunt.

Roshi was dead.

The girl was gone.

In his report, he explained how he went after the Samurai before realizing it was a decoy.

He explained how, by the time he found the real trail, Konoha teams were converging.

He explained how they'd reacted far earlier than should have been possible. How they were still beyond Konoha's borders. Still beyond the sphere of influence and unless they had the greatest luck imaginable, there should not have been any interference, certainly not to the degree of having three or four teams converging on the Daimyo.

Onoki hadn't cared. All he knew was that his granddaughter was gone and his Jinchuuriki had failed in capturing her.

He'd refused to believe his explanations. Calling them excuses had accused the armored Jinchuuriki of having let them go as another of his rebellious acts of which they'd been getting more and more brazen whenever he was on a mission.

The reality here was that he wasn't lying. And while Onoki went on about his grandchild and the Bijuu. Han himself had lost an old friend, had carried his head back to the village; where it was, as he sat here, being disposed of like yesterday's garbage. While he was sitting in a cell for his...treason.

And the lies he used to try and cover it up...

…

...

He hated this place.

He hated them all.

In victory, they were ignored, in defeat they were blamed.

In...existing...

They were reviled.

It wasn't Roshi's death...that they complained about...it wasn't that the man was gone.

It was that they lost the Yonbi.

It was that they lost their precious little princess.

Roshi was barely even worthy of a foot note.

He hated these...creatures. These...cruel savage, selfish, deceitful, hateful parasites known as humans.

"I'll kill them all." He'd made the vow before...whispered it in those dark corners of thought when shadows closed in and the misery of his existence became such a palpable thing. But this time...

This time...

The air shifted.

His eyes opened, peering into the gloom of his cell. His hat was gone, most of his armor as well. Only his gauntlets remained. Even the steam container of his back was gone, they'd taken it.

But he was not defenseless, never defenseless infront of these cruel, weak little things. "Who are you."

"Just a friend Gobi-sama."

"You are not my friend human." He snarled.

"But I'm everyone's friend." The voice laughed before a face melted out of the gloom.

Han peered... "Who are you?"

The man tilted his head, child like voice deepening to something...sinister.

"Tobi is a Good boy..."

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