The Water Kage : Hiruzen I

Commissioned by [Tyrone Coleman Jr] on Patreon

A take on what would have happened if Tobirama had survived that ambush, along with all his students.

Disclaimer - I don’t own nor claim to own any of the IP of the giant multi Billion Dollar companies that might appear here. I just own any OCs that you see.

Konoha, Land of Fire

–Hiruzen Sarutobi–

He sighed as he felt yet another chakra disturbance in the distance before there was a scream that spoke of bloody murder somewhere in the village, a voice that roared, “NARUTOOOOO!”

Sometimes, he really wished that Tobirama-sama had not improved on the barrier sensing jutsu and amplified it for the Hokage Tower, allowing him to monitor most, if not all chakra disturbances in the village, especially ones on the level of Naruto-kun.

Leaning back into his chair, he looked at the wall, his face softening as he looked at the portrait of the man who was supposed to be his successor, his retirement and his better in virtually every aspect, and the man was better. He shone like the brightest star, albeit for a brief period of time, saving Konoha from the biggest tragedy that had managed to strike internally, preventing more death and destruction, albeit at a massive cost to the village.

Sighing, he straightened up, sensing the rather strong chakra signature headed his way, one of earth and water. The door slammed open, revealing a middle aged man with spiky hair and a broad build, with scars on his face, evidence of years of harsh battles fought in the war.

He smiled at an attempt to disarm the tension, “What can I do for you today, Nawaki-kun?” 

Evidently, his feeble attempt was not successful as Nawaki-kun huffed and sat in the chair, and he had to restrain himself from smiling at the orange patch right on his vest, styled properly with two whiskers at the bottom, a symbol that was becoming more and more synonymous with Naruto and his constant pranks around the village.

“You know, Hokage-sama,” Nawaki-kun began, leaning back into the chair, tired and weary, as they all were of Naruto’s pranks, “When I first offered to take in Naruto, I never thought he would turn out to be so–”

“Energetic?” he offered, trying to hide his smile.

Nawaki-kun huffed, “A menace is what that kid is. I mean, I thought being the son of the Yondaime would mean that he would be a serious, focused, capable shinobi but–

“You forget that he is the child of Kushina as well and…”

Nawaki-kun had a far-off look in his eyes at that as he nodded, “Yeah, you’re right. I should have expected some of the menace to be inherited by Naruto but I just expected it to be balanced by Minato’s saneness.”

He leaned back, a rare moment of relaxation for him in the village as he talked with Nawaki, one of the S-class shinobi of Konoha, a strong pillar from the Senju Clan and the current Clan Head. Nawaki-kun was one of the few people who understood the burdens of being Hokage, which is why he repeatedly refused to wear the hat, despite doing his utmost to lighten the burden that came with sitting on this chair.

It was not like no one else understood. Tsunade tried, Jiraiya most certainly did but he chose to ignore the darker aspects of it. Nawaki-kun was the only one who understood both aspects of being Hokage, just like his granduncle. Which is why they remained in comparable silence for the next minute or so before he sighed, in exhaustion, drawing a pitying look from Nawaki, before he chose to speak.

“So, what happened? You did not just come here to complain about that,” he gestured at the vest and Nawaki-kun huffed before his eyes narrowed in concentration, a ball of water coalescing out of the atmosphere, washing over his vest, leaving behind a clean vest as the ball of orange was tossed out of the window.

It was always fascinating to watch the direction Nawaki-kun had taken. There had been an uncountable number of assassination attempts on Nawaki-kun because of the off-chance that he could inherit the Wood Style and when it became clear that he would never inherit the legendary Kekkei Genkai of the Shodai Hokage, they lost interest in him, writing him off as a low importance target.

Alas, that turned out to be one of the bigger regrets of their enemies. Nawaki-kun did not or rather, could not take the path of their grandfather but there was another legendary figure that the world seemed to have forgotten, and that was the Nidaime-Hokage.

The Water Kage, as Nawaki-kun had taken to calling him, was not someone who could be considered any lesser to any of the shinobi alive today. Having received personal tutoring from Nidaime-sama had turned Nawaki-kun from a decent Water Nature user to the foremost expert on Water Chakra and its uses in the Elemental Nation, turning him into a fearsome S-class shinobi.

Once the window was closed, his hand shot out to the underside of his table, activating a specific seal that took in his chakra, verified it three times, before a full spatial seal was activated around his office, displacing the entire room slightly out of their native space, creating a full isolation that could only be broken by another Space-Time Ninjutsu, the users of which could be counted on one hand.

Nawaki’s face turned serious as he took out a folder from his vest before handing it to him. It was one of the monthly reports that Nawaki-kun had to compile on the activities of the greatest enemy of Konoha.

The Mysterious Uchiha and his hidden organisation. The Akatsuki.

He could still remember the humiliating defeat they suffered at the hands of the person who attacked Minato and unleashed the Kyuubi onto Konoha, forcing Minato to sacrifice himself so that the Kyuubi could be released and Konoha could be saved from the Masked Uchiha. Tobirama-sama was not in the village that day and it was a mistake on their part because they never thought they would need his help since he was still not healed completely, partly due to his age and partly due to the Kinkaku brothers’ chakra burning through his coils. 

He and Minato both never thought something like that would happen, especially with all the security measures already taken. Jiraiya and Tsunade were both inside the village at the time. Nawaki, himself, along with Danzo, everyone was on standby, not to mention all the ANBU. Despite that, they lost and it was only due to the fact that their enemy had a space time ninjutsu.

“Any movement from our mysterious spy?” He asked Nawaki, whose fists clenched at the reminder, one free hand going to his eye, which Tsunade had been barely able to save because of the attack from a white and black plant like creature that managed to slip past even Sensei’s senses, whilst Nawaki-kun was being trained.

Thankfully, that little slip had been enough to raise alarm bells and new barriers, just like this one had been developed. Unfortunately, something like this could not be used for Kushina because of the Nine Tails chakra and its sheer corrosive nature, which would destabilise this small space and kill them all.

“No,” Nawaki-kun replied, frustration evident in his tone. He had taken it upon himself to track down the creature responsible for injuring Tobirama-sama even further, delaying his full recovery. 

At this point, Tobirama-sama was over 76 years old, his age and vitality having been sapped away due to the multiple battles in his youth and then having to recover from the Nine-Tails chakra in his old age. Even that would have been fine but his sensei was not the type of person who could sit still so the man worked, even above and beyond what was necessary, ushering in a new age of Fuinjutsu and specialised Ninjutsus for the Senju clan as well as for Konoha, further delaying his recovery.

Tsunade wouldn’t outright say it but they all knew that Tobirama-sama would most likely die before making a full recovery. A tragedy for everyone but Tobirama-sama who shrugged off the news as if it didn’t bother him, continuing his experiments in hidden labs around the Land of Fire and beyond. 

He didn’t even know about most of them, except the fact that Orochimaru had tried to force his way into one and had come out a completely changed man, resulting in his defection and then his consequent elimination by the hands of the Nidaime Hokage. Another failure on his part because killing Orochimaru definitely took a lot out of Tobirama-sama’s aging body, further reducing his chances of recovery.

“Oji-sama’s seals have not detected any entry from that accursed creature into Konoha or in Oji-sama’s main lab, though I don’t think anyone can get into his main lab,” Nawaki’s tone turned thoughtful at the end, which was true because no one knew where Tobirama-sama’s main lab was, and how to enter it.

Another headache piled on top of his head. 

That same creature was seen by the masked Uchiha’s side when they ambushed him with the full might of Konoha.

Tsunade, Fugaku, Jiraiya, him, and Tobirama-sama, with Nawaki-kun staying behind in the village just in case, had used the Flying Thunder God seal that had been placed on the Masked Uchiha who called himself Madara, by Minato to fight and end him, only to be stymied at every turn by the special ability of that Uchiha.

To turn intangible, turning all of their attacks invalid and fleeing from the area with explosive tags under the ground had led to a hasty retreat from their side. Tobirama-sama had been able to use Minato’s network to track Masked Uchiha before but after that day, something was done to mask that seal, turning their one lead ineffective.

They knew that the masked Uchiha was not Madara because they took with them an advanced sensor who had fought Madara, and according to Tobirama-sama, he sensed conflicting chakra in the body of that Uchiha, with the Mangekyo Sharingan flaring brightly in his senses.

That day had led to some tensions with the Uchiha clan but after a covert as well overt search throughout the clan, approved by Fugaku himself, they had concluded that no one in the clan had been the perpetrator, something that he knew in his mind but had required the approval from Tobirama-sama, to convince the hawks, like his friend, Danzo.

Sighing at the thought of his friend, and his current condition, he folded the file, burned it to ashes before returning to his office.

“Don’t worry, I am sure we will find them and if not–”

“We will just have to train the next generation to be strong enough to do so,” Nawaki-kun finished his saying for him, drawing a bright smile on his aged face. Like he said, Nawaki-kun was someone who understood, which is why it was such a damn shame that the man avoided the Hokage hat like the plague, instead choosing to focus on educating the next generation of shinobi, someone who they both hoped to have the necessary skills to become Hokage.

Speaking of hope, “How is your team? I hope young Shisui is not being a bother,”

Nawaki-kun snorted at that, “Shisui does not come without menace, hokage-sama. As for Itachi, I have high hopes from him. Already, he can match Shisui in Genjutsu and is not far behind in speed. Though, comparing him to Shisui would be a bit unfair.”

Ah, yes. It would most certainly be unfair for anyone to be compared to Shisui when it came to speed. The now 23-year-old Shisui was a feared name through the elemental nations, having brought entire elite squads to their knees with his speed. Already, there were talks of him matching the Raikage himself in speed, though it would be a different thing when it came to power since no one bar Tsunade herself could match the Raikage in sheer strength.

“Still,” he continued, “To match Shisui in genjutsu? I assume Tobirama-sama’s training guides helped him?” That was the thing with Tobirama-sensei. Despite his well known and inherent dislike for anything Uchiha, he was not beyond helping anyone he deemed worthy.

Both Shisui and Itachi, despite not having received formal training from the Nidaime-Hokage, had both received plenty of instructions from either Nawaki-kun himself or from the various jutsus and scrolls that he regularly sent them, containing methods to train themselves even further, creating two very fearsome shinobi from the Uchiha Clan.

Honestly, aside from their top-tier combat prowess and their ability to carry out S-class missions with ease, it was their willingness to do anything for the village that won over both sensei and anyone else who might have been hesitant to see two rising stars from the same clan that birthed the one that killed the Yondaime.

“Yes,” Nawaki-kun confirmed, with fondness in his voice, “Though I can confidently say that only hastened their rise. I had full confidence that they would have become just as strong, given enough time.”

He nodded, "That is true. But we can’t deny their dedication to becoming as strong as possible, can we?”

Nawaki-kun nodded solemnly at that, their rash but inspiring actions coming to mind.

See, Shisui and Itachi both admired the previous Hokage with passion and when they, as was their right once they became Elite Jounin, realised that the Nidaime-Hoakge was still alive and could potentially teach them, they had stopped at nothing to try to get his sensei's attention.

Despite being outright denied dozens of times, Shisui never stopped. In the end, they made such a ridiculous offer that his sensei had to come out of his healing and meet both the prodigies.

“Still,” he began, his voice still tinged with faint disbelief, “To think they would propose doing that to themselves. It just speaks volumes of the Will of Fire that burns brightly in them.”

Nawaki-kun nodded, “Yes, to willingly volunteer to brand themselves with the Flying Thunder God Seal? That takes guts. I mean, I did it with ease but I know Oji-sama. He would never hurt me but for them? Two Uchiha with their entire life ahead of them? That was–still is a surprise to me.”