Naruto: Chronicles of a Fire Ninja-Chapter 336 - 332: Mission

(A.N: Sorry for the repeat, I was a little too sleepy at that time :P)

***

Aside from using two Uzumakis for their gains, Kusagakure was also having another meeting.

"Konoha has left us to fend for ourselves for so long. Why do we have to keep depending on them? This is a once-in-a-lifetime offer, Kusakage-sama, please consider it," Ryoshi Kageyama, the first elder of Kusagakure, said with a highly compelling tone.

"But allying with Iwagakure will mean we are betraying Konoha. With its recent resurgence, it will be a risk I don't want to take," Seiryu Nazama, the Kage of Kusagakure, said.

"But lord, it is not like we will be against Konoha, and we can always say that it was Iwagakure who forced us into this alliance if things go south," Tsubasa Uchimura, the second elder of Kusagakure and head of one of the strongest families in Kusagakure which contained 20% of jonin of Kusagakure, said.

His word carried quite a say in Kusagakure, just below the Kage and the first elder, who was the only other person in their ninja force powerful enough to be considered an elite jonin in a major village, the first one being their Kage.

It was apparent to Seiryu that both of the elders had taken Iwa's side, and some deal had already been made between them, but there was little he could do in this matter. He had asked Konoha for help multiple times by now, but they had turned down his requests multiple times as well.

With both his village and Takigakure allied to Konoha, there was little they could actually do. Even though Takigakure was their recent ally, whereas Kusagakure had been allies with Konoha from its foundation, still Konoha decided not to involve them in this matter.

Even though he could understand their reasoning for this, by no means did others in his village share his thinking. With two of the major forces already planning on defecting from the alliance, it was getting harder and harder for Seiryu to manage things on his own.

At last, he decided to fold in because this time the intention of the elders was clear: either he sided with Iwagakure on his own, or Kusagakure would get a new Kage who would form an alliance with Iwa.

But there was one thing he didn't take into account—Konoha, who had been allies with Kusagakure, was bound to have some spies in it, and some of the spies might be part of the council as well.

When Seiryu decided to ally with Iwa on these ministers' requests and persuasion, a report was sent to Konoha with full details about the events.

A mission was posted on Konoha's mission board, though details about the mission were hidden and only location and type were mentioned. The rest of the information had to be collected by ninja who wanted to take this job from the Hokage himself.

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...

(Two days before...)

After the two of his clan ninjas were promoted to jonin rank, and they were both among the youngest ninja to become jonin in the clan—though not the record holders but still in the top 10—Fugaku himself threw a party, inviting all of the clan. Obviously, Kaida and Itachi were the stars of the show.

"So how are you feeling?" Kaida asked as he inhaled his second plate of the most expensive beef available in Konoha.

"Shit. Do you know how it feels to not use chakra for so long? I am falling behind so much," Itachi said.

"What are you talking about? Who are you falling behind from? You know how many people are jealous of your strength-gaining speed? Just 11 and already a jonin—there is literally no reason for you to hurry," Kaida said.

"Your brother was more powerful than me at this age, also you are younger than me and already so close to my level. He doesn't want to be the clan head, and Dad has high expectations of me. If I have to be clan head, shouldn't I be the best? And how can I be the best if I don't train regularly?" Itachi asked.

Listening to that, Kaida could only look toward Itachi.

'I really should forget about the anime. The boy in front of me is not a spy of Konoha in Akatsuki but a young ninja who has too much burden on his shoulders—burden of clan, burden of village, burden of peace—and he is carrying it on his own.'

Seeing Kaida looking toward him in a strange way, Itachi frowned and asked, "What?"

"Nothing, you just sounded so childish. Who said you have to be the best among the clan to be the clan head? Until Uncle Fugaku had shown his Mangekyo, many people considered brother to be a tad bit stronger than uncle, but does that in any way change the fact they respected uncle as a clan head?

No, all of the Uchiha clan members respect him dearly. A leader doesn't have to be all-powerful. Sure, strength is important, but what's more important is respect from the ones you have to lead, understanding their needs, their emotions—and that will be enough for you to be a good clan head," Kaida said coolly.

"And how do you know the requirements of being one?" Itachi asked.

"Because I am smart," Kaida replied proudly.

"Hahaha, well said, boy!" Fugaku laughed as he made his way toward the duo along with Mikoto, Hae, and Shisui.

"You don't have to burden yourself, Itachi. I am already proud of you, son," Fugaku said, placing his hand on Itachi's shoulder.

"Also, don't compare yourself to him—he is just... not normal," he continued, pointing toward Shisui.

"I will take that as a compliment," Shisui said with a smile, getting a chuckle from the crowd.

The party concluded on such a lighter note, and everyone went back to their daily life. Kaida waited two days for things to settle, going to the hospital in the meantime to have some work to do as well. But after waiting for two days, he went to the Hokage building to search for any mission he could get regarding Kusagakure, and lucky for him, there were many present. But most of them were about helping the villagers so that the ninja of Kusagakure could focus on the war.

While these were present before his promotion as well, there was a new mission present as well, one that intrigued Kaida a lot. It was a low-rank A-rank mission, which he understood was low-rank from the reward money, which was comparable to a B-rank mission.

'This should be something related to the village itself and not the civilians, but the only problem with this one is this,' Kaida thought, focusing on the last line of the mission card:

Head to Hokage office for further details: required rank Jonin

If this was not the case, things would have been much better, but with getting a mission related to the infiltration of the village, it would be tough to explain how he found out about the Uzumaki family.

So with this as his last option, Kaida picked the mission card and went toward the Hokage office.

"Lord Third is busy, please wait for some time. I will call you as soon as he is free," the receptionist said, directing Kaida toward the sofas.

After half an hour, he was called into Hiruzen's office.

...

"Why do you want to take this mission?" Hiruzen asked. He was actually happy that this task could be handled this fast because most of his ANBU jonins were already out, and the ones who were not were busy with tasks which couldn't be transferred to others, so he had to wait for them to come back.

But it was the person who was asking for this mission that worried him a little. He had the necessary strength to handle this problem easily—there was no doubt about that—it was the experience that was the problem.

"Lord Third, I have been doing many C and B rank missions these couple of months, and even though I have myself tried to increase the difficulty by completing them as fast as possible, they're still not enough training for me. So I decided to give A-rank missions a try, but I don't want to bite more than I can chew.

That's why I chose the easiest one on the board, and since for this mission I had to consult with you as well, I thought it was perfect since if it is out of my league, you would stop me anyway," Kaida replied with the perfect answer he had been preparing for the past 2 months—an answer which was enough to satisfy Hiruzen's curiosity.