I felt my eyebrows shot upwards and for a second I felt cold, then the first cover followed the suit of the piece of paper that had kept it closed, crumbling and letting me read the first page.
He worded a lesson we had months ago to have me open this book now. I speculated, my brain hammering on the coincidence too hard for me to ignore it.
...
Shikamaru, next time, check your bed Before jumping on it, carelessness kills.
Each page will fade after twelve seconds, memorize each one.
What follows is for your eyes and your eyes only.
..
..
The page crumbled, revealing the following one.
..
..
The Sandaime Hokage had his memories sealed away after giving me my orders, placing their secrecy above S-rank. If such a rank officially existed, it would be SS.
In short, the next Kage must not be made aware of my actions.
..
..
I felt my eyebrows trying to jump off my forehead and run for the hills.
The page crumbled, and what I assumed was a shitload of state secrets started writing itself on each following page, my eyes burning each word into my mind.
Distractedly, a part of me was realizing the sheer Troublesomeness of the situation, while another held back the titanic migraine that was trying to kill me.
...
( 2 August- Year 13 AK )
The room was dimly lit, why, I had no idea, but the people in it were of the dangerous sort. Mitokado Homura and Koharu Utatane were sitting at the sides of the one and only Shimura Danzō.
Seated at the long table, there were Tsunade Senju, who was laid back and sipping some sake, Jiraya himself.
Kakashi Hatake was reading his smut without any kind of shame, an Anbu in a black mask with a dragon pattern, who I believed was the Anbu commander, and Shikaku, master tactician and whatnot.
I sighed, being summoned by the higher-ups in what looked like a shady meeting was Troublesome with a capital T, and I was acutely aware that Shikaku wasn't my dad, not in this setting.
The real question was why I was sitting at the same table. And why half of them were just sitting there without doing anything, and the other half squabbling over bullshit of every kind.
I coughed heavily, dragging several eyes on me. "Excuse me, but why am I here?" I asked. "I'm not really one of you higher-ups..."
Jiraya laughed out loud: "Ha! He has his sensei spunk, I like him."
"The reason is irrelevant, we will ask questions, you will answer." Homura explained in a blank tone.
I narrowed my eyes, they had let almost a month pass since the Betrayal, they clearly didn't call me to discuss a strategy on how to react.
Or did they?
Why they are acting then? I wondered.
Shit, is this the war council?
They want to see what I am capable of, tactics-wise. I concluded.
My reasoning had taken less than two seconds, so I rolled with it.
I chose to cut the pleasantries, my eyes trying to gauge their reactions, even if I was aware that I would only be able to see what they wanted to show.
"This is a war council yes?" I asked, building up momentum. At their nods I went forward, guiding the conversation.
"Or at least, a mock-war council to see if I had half a brain to go along with what the Jonin Commander told you." I amended.
Dad snorted, and it was dad doing it, not the jonin, while Jiraya let out a delighted laugh and Tsunade smiled sharply at me, before downing another cup of sake.
"Firstly we account our pieces then." And I turned towards Tsunade: "Which is the condition of Sandaime-sama?"
She grunted, giving me a harsh glare that didn't affect me at all. We stared at each other in the eyes for several seconds, finally, she moved her eyes away.
"He died a week ago." She answered, "But we kept it quiet, high morale and whatnot."
I nodded gravely, hiding my surprise and keeping silent for a second in respect of the man.
How the hell did sensei know? Well, he didn't know, he listed it as a highly likely, but still...
"What's your opinion on who should serve as Godaime Hokage?" the gravelly voice of Shimura Danzō brought us back on track.
Do they want my opinion? What can they hope to understand about me based on my preference? I frowned.
"Strenght-wise, the next Kage should be Guy-sensei." I said with a deadpan tone.
Jiraya spluttered, Kakashi giggled (not perversely), Tsunade coughed, her sake going down the wrong pipe.
Danzō simply raised an eyebrow, clearly asking for an explanation.
"Daiki-sensei always said that Guy is the strongest since the Sage of Six Paths." I said confidently, an image of him with shit-eating grin flashing in my mind. "However, I don't think he has the... temperament, to be a Kage."
There was some random chattering about my answer, and even some shaking heads, but it soon faded. I rose from my seat and started walking in circles around the table, my arms crossed and a frown on my face.
"Sandaime-sama granted us a victory, removing Onoki from the picture. The logical successor, is Tsunade-sama. She can keep running Konoha and hammer our med nins into shape." in my mind, I refused to use sama, but out loud it was strictly necessary.
I really want to kill Danzō before he can go all power-hungry, but with a war on our doorstep... I thought about my following actions carefully, comparing what sensei had written in that bullshit book of his.
I kept my eyes washing around the room, my footsteps echoing across the room.
My mind was running furiously, stringing together tactics and adapting them to what I knew first hand from the world I was living into. How does Root fall into this?
I fluctuated my chakra wildly, randomly checking for genjutsu: "Now, Suna is in disarray, Chiyo will probably hold together their council, we should either leave them alone and cut them in the moment they cross the borders, or hit them and instate a puppet as their Kage after having pacified the country."
"We do have two of the Kazekage's children in our cells." Homura offered me.
I blinked, taking in the information and rolling with the other things I knew.
"Is Gaara one of them? Is he... saner?" I asked.
Jiraya grunted an assent: "I wrapped him up after sealing back in the Ichibi, his sister too is in our cells." he informed me.
"The Wind Lord will likely keep sending work our way. I voice for the second option, unless someone has a peaceful way to deal with Suna?" I looked around hoping in an answer. Nobody said anything.
"I will take care of it." Danzō uncharacteristically offered. I nodded in his direction. He was a sneaky bastard, but we were really short on capable people, and sensei believed that in case of war I could trust him to be unrelenting against the outsiders.
Jiraya raised an eyebrow: "I played around with the Gaara-kid seals, he's better, but it will take some time."
Tsunade butted in: "The girl isn't S-rank material." she explained to me.
I shrugged, not that I actually cared, but considering the shit most S-rank shinobi were capable of at sixteen, she would likely never reach the fabled rank.
Hell, considering the shit Daiki-sensei was pulling, he was redefining what the rank meant.
Besides, every jinchuriki ended up S-rank, a kage had to be S-rank, so it made sense to bet on the Gaara.
Sure, betting on him meant to brainwash him in a sappy friendship-bond between Konoha and Suna, but I was past caring at that point.
And we could keep the other as hostage of some kind.
Danzō's eye reached again the toad sage: "There will be resistance, I'll deal with the clean up before the jinchuriki is ready."
...
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