The Young Hokage

Chapter 1: October 10th

The Calm Before the Storm

Location: Konohagakure, Residential District

October 9th ended as most days did in the prosperous Land of Fire—peacefully, with the sun dipping below the horizon in a wash of amber and violet. Merchants closed their stalls, children chased fireflies through the streets, and the scent of miso soup and grilled fish lingered in the air. But in the shadows of the Hokage Tower, a young Chūnin named Ren Hikawa adjusted his wire-rimmed glasses, poring over a scroll of border patrol reports. His fingers trembled slightly. The Third Hokage had warned of rising tensions in the outer territories, whispers of rogue ninja and missing diplomats. Ren's instincts prickled. Something felt off.

Nearby, a Genin named Sora Inoue, barely thirteen and still reeking of fresh ink from her forehead protector, practiced shuriken throws in a dimly lit training yard. Her mentor, Jōnin Yasu Morimoto, leaned against a post, arms crossed. Yasu's face—scarred from a long-ago skirmish in the Land of Stone—betrayed nothing, but his eyes tracked Sora's movements like a hawk. "Again," he grunted as a shuriken clattered to the ground. "You're dead if that's a real fight."

Sora wiped sweat from her brow, her chest heaving. "Yes, sensei."

Location: Southern Gates, Konohagakure Perimeter

The first scream tore through the night at 23:47.

A sentry team of two Chūnin—Ren Hikawa and his partner, Kaito Shimura (no relation to that Shimura)—stood guard at the southern gate. Ren's glasses fogged in the humid air as he squinted at the treeline. "You hear that?" he muttered.

Kaito, a brash twenty-year-old with a knack for fire jutsu, smirked. "Probably a drunk stumbling home from—"

The ground shuddered.

A roar erupted, primal and deafening, as the village's colossal stone wall exploded inward. Splintered rock rained down, crushing a tea shop and a watchtower. Through the dust and debris, two crimson eyes glowed like hellfire.

"Kami-sama…" Kaito's voice cracked.

The Nine-Tails loomed atop the mountain, its nine tails thrashing like serpents. Trees were ripped from the earth and hurled toward the village, impaling buildings and pulverizing a squad of Genin scrambling to evacuate civilians.

Ren's training kicked in. He slammed his palm against the alarm seal etched into the gate. A piercing whistle echoed across Konoha, soon joined by dozens more.

Location: Uchiha District, Central Konoha

The Uchiha police force mobilized within minutes. Jōnin Takeshi Uchiha, a stern man with a permanent scowl, barked orders as his clansmen funneled civilians toward bunkers. A Genin tripped over rubble, and a tail the width of a train car smashed through a nearby apartment complex. Takeshi grabbed the boy's collar, yanking him backward as the structure collapsed. "Move!" he roared.

But the Uchiha's famed Sharingan couldn't stop the panic. A mother screamed as a falling beam crushed her child. An elderly man clutched his chest, collapsing mid-sprint. The streets ran red.

Location: Root Headquarters, Underground Facility

Twelve Root operatives stood like statues in the damp gloom. The air reeked of mildew and blood.

"Is it done?" Danzo Shimura emerged from the shadows, his cane clicking against stone.

"Yes, Lord Danzo," replied Agent Boar, his voice hollow. "The Nine-Tails' trajectory aligns with your projections. The Uchiha are distracted."

Danzo's lone eye gleamed. "Good. You will take no action tonight. Let the beast prune the weak."

Agent Boar's mask hid his disgust. Prune the weak. His niece lived in the merchant quarter. But loyalty to Root was absolute. "Understood."

Location: Mount Katsuragi, Seclusion Cave

Minato Namikaze paced outside the cave, his Hokage cloak fluttering in the wind. Inside, his wife Kushina Uzumaki screamed, her chakra chains rattling as medics urged her to push. The Nine-Tails' roar echoed across the valley.

"Minato!" Kushina's voice was raw. "The village—you need to go!"

He knelt beside her, gripping her hand. "I won't leave you."

A medic handed him a squalling newborn—Naruto. Seconds later, Naruko followed, her cries softer. Kushina's chains flickered, her chakra waning. "They're perfect," she whispered.

Minato kissed her forehead. "I'll protect them. All of you."

He vanished in a flash of yellow, Naruto clutched to his chest.

Location: Hokage Tower, Observation Deck

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, gripped the railing as the Nine-Tails leveled the Hyuga compound. Bodies littered the streets—Genin cut down mid-evacuation, Chūnin burned to ash by the beast's chakra. A Jōnin named Mika Abe dragged a wounded civilian into a bunker, only for a tail spike to impale her through the stomach. She gasped, blood frothing on her lips, before slumping over the child she'd shielded.

"Hokage-sama!" A mud-caked Chūnin stumbled onto the deck. "The western quadrant's gone! We've lost contact with Team 8!"

Hiruzen's pipe trembled. "Fall back to the central plaza. Buy time for the Fourth."

Location: Hokage Monument, Summit

Minato materialized atop his own stone likeness, Naruto swaddled in sealing cloth. The Nine-Tails turned, its snarl vibrating the air. The infant's wails synced with the beast's rage.

"Shiki Fūjin," Minato whispered. The Death Reaper's visage materialized behind him, scythe gleaming.

The sealing ritual was agony. Minato's bones cracked, his skin splitting as the Nine-Tails' chakra fought the pull. Blood streamed from his eyes. "For the village… For Naruto…"

The fox dissolved into a vortex of light, sucked into Naruto's tiny body. Minato collapsed, his last sight the ANBU mask of Kakashi Hatake streaking toward him.

Location: Council Chambers, Emergency Session

Dawn broke over a shattered village. The council—elders, clan heads, and Danzo—sat in tense silence. Hiruzen, now draped in the Hokage robe, addressed the room.

"Minato is dead. The Nine-Tails is sealed within his son. We must rebuild."

Danzo rose, his voice slick as oil. "Rebuild? Under your leadership? The village bled while you hesitated. The Uchiha were conspicuously absent—perhaps complicit."

Murmurs erupted. Fugaku Uchiha slammed his fist on the table. "My clan fought and died! This is slander!"

Hiruzen's chakra flared, crushing the room into silence. "Enough, Danzo. Your games end here. We mourn tonight. Tomorrow, we rise."

Danzo's eye narrowed, but he bowed. "As you command… Hokage-sama."

Location: Konoha Orphanage, Temporary Morgue

Kakashi stood in the shadows, watching medics line up bodies. Sora Inoue's corpse lay in the Genin row, a shuriken still clutched in her hand. Yasu Morimoto identified his students one by one, his stoicism crumbling.

In a quiet room upstairs, Hiruzen cradled Naruto, the seal pulsing faintly. "You'll carry the weight of the world, little one. But you won't bear it alone."

Outside, the village burned.

Location: Konoha Central Hospital, Post-Dawn

The dawn after the Nine-Tails' attack painted Konoha in shades of ash and blood. Smoke coiled from skeletal buildings, their beams jutting like broken ribs. The air hung heavy with the stench of charred wood, iron, and the acrid tang of spent chakra. Kakashi Hatake moved through the ruins like a wraith, his ANBU mask tucked under his arm. His Sharingan eye—a cursed gift from a friend buried years ago—throbbed beneath its bandage. He hadn't slept. He hadn't blinked. Every time his lids dipped, he saw Minato's blood pooling on the Hokage Monument, felt the fragile weight of Naruto's body in his arms, the seal on the boy's stomach pulsing like a second heartbeat.

The hospital loomed ahead, its walls cracked but standing. Inside, the corridors were a hellscape of sound: gurneys screeching over tile, medics barking orders, children wailing for parents who lay cold in the morgue. A toddler clutched a singed stuffed bear, its button eyes dangling by threads. Kakashi's gloved hand twitched. This is what survival looks like. This is what we've bought with Minato's life.

He found Kushina Uzumaki's room at the end of the hall, marked by two nurses arguing in hissed tones.

"—she's torn out her IVs twice! If she rips the sutures, she'll bleed out before we can—"

"You try restraining her! Those chakra chains nearly took my arm off!"

Kakashi shouldered past them.

The room was a tableau of defiance. Shattered IV bags dripped saline onto the floor. A heart monitor lay upended, its wires snaking like vipers. Kushina stood by the window, her hospital gown clinging to sweat-slicked skin. Her crimson hair, once a vibrant cascade, hung in matted ropes. In each arm, she cradled a newborn: Naruto, swaddled in a blanket embroidered with Uzumaki spirals, and Naruko, her tiny face peeking out from Minato's old Hokage cloak. The fabric dwarfed her, its gold trim brushing the floor.

"Kushina-sama," Kakashi said, his voice sandpaper-rough.

She didn't turn. "They tried to take them, Kakashi." Her chakra chains—dull and frayed at the edges—twitched at her back. "My own medics. Said I was 'unfit.' As if I'd ever…" Her voice fractured. Naruko whimpered, her fist knotting in Kushina's gown.

Kakashi stepped closer. The seal on Naruto's stomach pulsed, a venomous red. He's just a child. They both are. "You need rest," he said, the words ash in his mouth.

Kushina laughed—a raw, guttural sound. "Rest? While that thing festers inside him? While my husband's—" She choked, her chains rattling. Naruto stirred, his face scrunching as if sensing her anguish.

Kakashi reached out, slow and deliberate. "Let me take them. Just for a while."

For a heartbeat, her chains flared, a feral light in her eyes. Then, with a shuddering breath, she passed Naruko to him. The infant felt impossibly light, her warmth seeping through his gloves.

"You've held a baby before?" Kushina rasped, sinking onto the room's lone intact chair.

"No."

"Support the head. Yeah, like that." Her smile was a ghost.

Location: Hatake Compound, Three Years Earlier

The smell of incense.

Kakashi stood in the doorway of his childhood home, twelve years old and hollow. The funeral attendants had left hours ago, but the cloying stench of lilies and burning sage clung to the air. His father's tanto—still crusted with rust-brown blood—lay on the kitchen table.

She did it here, he realized. Right where we ate breakfast.

His mother's body was gone, but the tatami mats were stained black where she'd bled out. Kakashi's hands trembled. He hadn't cried. Not when the messenger hawk found him at the training grounds. Not when the Third Hokage gripped his shoulder and said, "She's at peace now."

Peace. What a joke.

He picked up the tanto. The blade reflected his face—pale, sharp-boned, alive. A scream clawed up his throat, but he swallowed it. Shinobi didn't scream. Shinobi endured.

A knock shattered the silence.

"Kakashi?" Minato's voice, soft through the shoji screen. "Can I come in?"

No. He sheathed the blade. "I'm fine, sensei."

"You don't have to be."

Kakashi froze. Minato stepped inside, his Hokage cloak absurdly bright in the gloom. Without a word, he knelt and began scrubbing the bloodstains with a rag.

"Stop," Kakashi hissed. "I'll do it."

Minato's hands stilled. "Let someone help you. Just this once."

The words cracked something in Kakashi's chest. He snatched the rag, scrubbing until his knuckles bled. "Why?" he spat. "She chose this. She chose to leave me—"

Minato's hand closed over his. "Grief isn't a choice, Kakashi. It's a storm. It drowns you until you forget how to breathe." His eyes were blue and endless. "But you don't have to face it alone."

Kakashi wrenched free. "Don't pretend you understand."

"I don't," Minato said quietly. "But I'm here."

Location: Konoha Central Hospital, Present

Naruko stirred in Kakashi's arms, her lips smacking. A bead of milk trembled at the corner of her mouth.

"She's hungry," Kushina said, her voice fraying. "The meds… I can't feed her."

Kakashi stared at the infant. What do I do?

"Formula in the cabinet," Kushina muttered. "Mix it warm. Test it on your wrist."

He moved mechanically, Naruko cradled in one arm. His gloves made him clumsy; the bottle slipped, clattering against the counter. When he pressed the nipple to her lips, she latched with a ferocity that mirrored her mother's.

"Natural talent," Kushina said, watching him. "You're not half bad."

Kakashi said nothing. Naruko's weight, her tiny fingers brushing his thumb—it dragged him back. To his mother's cold hands, the way they'd gripped the tanto. Love is weakness, she'd told him once. It's why your father died.

"Kakashi." Kushina's voice cut through the memory. "Look at me."

He met her gaze. The fire in her eyes had dimmed, but not died.

The door slammed open. A medic—harried, with bags under her eyes—stormed in. "Uzumaki-san! Back to bed now! You're tearing your stitches!"

Kushina's chains flared. "Try it."

The medic paled but stood her ground. "Your children need you alive. Now. Bed."

For a heartbeat, the room crackled. Then Kushina sagged, letting the medic guide her to the mattress. Her eyes never left Kakashi. "Stay with them," she whispered. "Just… stay."

He nodded, shifting Naruko to his shoulder. Her breath warmed his neck, soft as moth wings.

As he turned to leave, Kushina's voice halted him. "Kakashi."

He glanced back.

Her tears fell freely now. "I love you. Never forget that."

The words lodged in his ribs like shrapnel. He fled before they could draw blood.

Location: Hospital Rooftop, Twilight

Kakashi stood at the edge, Naruko asleep against his chest. Below, the village smoldered. Somewhere in the wreckage, Naruto would grow up bearing a burden no child should. Somewhere, Danzo schemed, and Hiruzen mourned.

Love is weakness, his mother's ghost whispered.

But as Naruko's tiny hand curled around his finger, he wondered if it might also be a kind of armor.