Three days later, inside a secluded part of the half-rebuilt Konoha hospital, Kazuo Hyuga was lying on a hospital bed unconscious. Even after three days had passed, he had yet to awake from his coma. The large expenditure and overuse of military chakra pills and the forceful activation of his dojutsu had caused a complete mess of his chakra system as well as his physical body.
Meanwhile, whilst he was in a coma, the world didn't stop, in fact, it moved quickly.
The broken down Konoha had already started rebuilding itself, the roads and parts of the village were still damaged, however, construction was quickly ongoing to fix all structural issues.
Civilians who had lost their houses had been evacuated to a part of the village where they had been given tents to live in whilst their houses were being reconstructed. A process that was much quicker than in Kazuo's past world. Here, shinobi had much greater physical prowess and tired much less than regular civilians, and in this situation, they were being used as construction forces instead of simply using civilians.
Most would think of it as a waste of military manpower, however, Minato thought otherwise.
Konoha had to maintain the image of the strongest of the five great villages, meaning that they had to always appear unaffected, even when disaster had struck them.
The night of the nine-tailed attack had been a massacre, they had lost more than a hundred Jonin-level shinobi, that was the real loss, not the civilian deaths and not the structural damage done to the village.
Buildings could be rebuilt, however, training a Jonin-level ninja was much harder and required more than a little bit of luck.
Sitting inside the Hokage Office, Minato was currently facing the last two remaining elders of the village.
Sarutobi Hiruzen has died in battle and sacrificed his life, and it was later found out that Danzo Shimura had similarly been killed, and the entire root base had been completely annihilated by an unknown enemy on the same night.
"Minato, have you found out anything yet about the attacker?" Homura Mitokado, as he sat on the couch facing Minato.
"No, there's been nothing yet, they appeared out of nowhere whilst Kushina was giving birth, right at the moment when the nine tails seal is at its weakest, and managed to grab Kushina before I could stop him. He disappeared just as quickly. His abilities themselves were quite strange, and I have never heard of any known shinobi using similar abilities." Minato replied as he shook his head, a serious expression on his face. It wasn't the fact that he was standing before the elders, Minato frankly didn't care much about their opinions, however, even after days of wracking his brain, he still couldn't figure out three things.
'How did Fugaku not know the existence of a mangekyou sharingan user. How did the intel of the location of Kushina's birth get leaked, and finally, just what happened to Kazuo?'Minato thought to himself as he raised a hand and rubbed his forehead.
"Has Fugaku said anything? Everyone clearly saw the Sharingan pattern on the nine tails' eyes, they are clearly suspicious." Koharu Utatane interjected at this moment, her face scrunching up in distaste at the mere fact that she had to utter an Uchiha's name.
"No, Fugaku has no idea either, there isn't any Uchiha who currently possesses the mangekyou sharingan inside the clan. The only likely possibility is that it's a Uchiha from outside the village. And that in and of itself poses a lot more danger than if it were simply a Defected Konoha Uchiha clansman." Minato replied as he shook his head at her.
Minato Namikaze wasn't Sarutobi Hiruzen, he didn't bear the same unjustified hatred towards the Uchiha as his Hokage predecessor. If he had, then this talk would have developed much more differently, and the Uchiha might have already been excluded from the village or even charged as traitors of the village already.
"What interests me more, however, is that Danzo, whilst now dead, did something quite interesting before his death. Half of the root forces were found near the Uchiha clan compound, and Fugaku told me that they had been told that, by order of the Hokage, they were not allowed to leave their clan grounds and participate in the battle against the nine tails. This almost feels like Danzo knew of the upcoming attack. Thankfully, his head was intact when we found him, and I have ordered the Yamanaka head of clan to use any means necessary to extract all and any information from him." Minato said as he showed a soft smile that almost hid the sheer coldness emanating from him and his chakra and mere presence as he gazed at the two elders, who suddenly went still.
"You can't do this, desecrating an elder's body, this is pure disrespect, Minato, Danzo was a war hero." Homura instantly says as he rises up from his seated position.
"I do not care, the village has suffered a lot of damage from that night, I will reach the end of this, and I will eradicate any and all threats to the village. That is my duty as the Hokage." Minato replied, no longer even showing that cold smile, his expression a facade of glacial ice.
"You, you shouldn't be doing this! Minato!" Koharu said, outraged herself as she similarly stood up, her hands shaking frantically, her eyes wide.
"You two were close acquaintances of Shimura Danzo. The guards will escort you back to your residences. As of this moment until further notice, you aren't allowed to leave your quarters." Minato replied instead, completely ignoring their words as he simply motioned with his hand.
At the same moment of his hand moving, two anbu appeared before the elders in a flash. One bore a white hawk mask with white spiky hair, whilst the other had a fox mask with black spiked short hair.
The two anbu quickly motioned for the elders to move, offering no warmth, following orders coldly.
_________________________________________________________________________
The changes start multiplying, canon really is going to shit, eh? Well, it's only gonna go down the shitter even more now.
If you wanna read ahead and help support me further, then check out my Patreon at: Patreon.com/NarutoAuthor
Im pretty close to being able to do this full-time as a job, which is nice.
Thanks for reading, and thank you all for the support. It really has been immense even though I've taken so many months' breaks, it's astonishing. Truly, thank you! <3
Lots of Love
NarutoAuthor
