Naruto: Tango with Death

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Unlike his parents, Takeshi had grown more and more important with the passing months. Fact is, I had been grooming him.

I may have turned into the popular leader of the city and pretty much the country, I couldn't ascend the throne. Nor did I want to.

However, I couldn't let either the current Daimyo, who was incompetent, his wife, who was corrupted, or the rebellion, who sought to destroy and no more, at the head of the country.

And the best candidate to take over was Takeshi. He was righteous, he was a strong warrior, and he was the rightful heir to begin with. That's why I planned for him to be the next leader of this country.

That's why I had made sure that his reputation wouldn't get tainted by either of his parents, having him make many apparitions around the city, and giving him serious matters to manage.

Anyway, back to my enemies, the war had also slowly halted to a stop. All the battlefields had disappeared, and although we were officially still at war, the fighting had pretty much stopped, allowing for many to finally go back home.

This included my eleven officers from Kiri, although Kurenai, Tekuno, Hayama and Kunugi were still in Konoha, while the others were quite vital here to help me.

And this brings me to my sour point, Konoha.

I do not regret in the slightest everything I have done, but it has become painfully obvious to me that my relations with Konoha have degraded to rock bottom.

Through the months, not only had they taken back their Anbu personal, they also tried to take back the medical staff. That had angered me quite a lot, and despite Tsunade's strong disapproval, I offered great terms to any of them who wanted to stay here.

And most of them did, as the doctors were among the most respected members of the city, now that nobles were a thing of the past.

My reputation through the country, or should I say the world, also wasn't as good as in Sendai, as rumours of me truly being a bad and tyranny leader who oppressed her people had spread.

Minato had also basically stopped corresponding with me through letters, and so did most of my friends. And I didn't have many to start with…

It was saddening to see everyone around me drift away, but I couldn't stop now, nor did I want to. Everyone was starting to relax because the war was ending, but only I knew that a much bigger threat was hanging over our heads, and we wouldn't be able to deal with it as we were right now.

Just one member of the Otsotsuki had taken the entire world to defeat in the canonical world, so now that possibly the entire clan was coming, and that the Sages also wanted to resurrect, I couldn't just let go of my responsibilities.

Besides, the Sages were much more vicious than the Otsotsuki in the way they worked, as they appeared to be the friends of humans.

That's why I'm actually pretty convinced that the reason my reputation has turned so bad is because of the Sages. After all, Jashin had already warned me in the past, the Sages had become my enemies the moment I took him in.

Then, facing and almost killing the body of Shinigami surely painted an even bigger target on my back, and I had turned into the number one enemy to take down. And knowing that Minato had mastered Sage Mode from Gamamaru, the Toad Sage, him taking his distances from me maybe wasn't entirely out of his own initiative.

But I now had the opportunity to make things clear. As I already said, I am 12, have been for a few months, and while to me it was a year like another, for a certain group of people, it was a pivotal one.

That's right, my academy class, Naruto's generation, had finally graduated to Genins!

To be fair, from what I heard, they've been ready for a long time already, but with the war going on, none of the clans wanted their heirs to join the battlefield.

But now that the war had practically come to a stop, they had been allowed to graduate.

Unfortunately, that was about everything I knew, since I couldn't get any information out of Konoha. Once again, I was no longer treated as one of their own, as I found several times the counter spy network of the village to be dressed against me.

Thankfully, I had found a reason to return to Konoha, one that wouldn't mean quitting as the Shogun.

The Chunin Exams.

Normally, I wouldn't attend any Chunin Exams, as you needed to be invited, if you didn't take part in it, and Konoha hadn't invited me to either this one, or the one last year.

In response, I had practically stopped all the funds that went to the village, that was something else they didn't like. One of the final nails in the coffin, I believe.

But this wasn't just any Chunin Exams. Instead, all five hidden villages from the Great Nations would participate, something even grander than any other Chunin Exam held.

And for this occasion, the Five Kages would be gathered in Konoha, where the exam would be held, along with some of the elite Jonin.

That was a dangerous situation on paper, and so I could excuse my presence with the safety of the nation, to keep in check the four other Kages.

In reality, the chances of them attacking were close to zero, they had lost as much, if not even more than Konoha in this war, and the other Daimyos had already ordered to put a stop to the war. So if they attacked, they wouldn't be welcomed back home as heroes, but as traitors instead.

That's because the Land of Fire wasn't only made of a Konoha, there was also the army, and since last year, me. There were at least three Kage level fighters within the nation, and striking Konoha would only, at best, take out one of them.

And based on Minato's reputation, they very well might not be able to stop him from leaving, and that would only be making themselves an enemy who can teleport. And destroying Konoha with only the four of them and a few Jonins wasn't possible.

Anyway, the point is, I had found my excuse to get there, and that is exactly what I wanted to do. Not only would I find answers from the village, but I was also curious about how much the ones I once called friends had grown. Who knows, maybe I'll get surprised.

Well, I'll see how it goes next week.

However, what I didn't expect, was for precious information to reach me in the following week.