Second Chance

Chapter 31

Chapter 31: Dark News
___

The village was relatively quiet with minor noise the only disturbance as the excitement of the chunin exams began to die down and the minor damage to the village was repaired. Mostly the damage was cosmetic as buildings were either clipped by stray jutsu or grazed by the occasional weapon. True to Naruto's predictions and Kakashi's hope there was minimum casualties and those only came from the stubborn shinobi and villager that refused to leave when they were asked to head to the shelters. Thankfully, the total deaths and wounded paled in comparison to the first time around and Naruto couldn't be happier. Sighing as he sat up in bed he glanced towards the clock and groaned. He had thirty minutes to get ready and arrive at the council meeting for a debriefing of what happened. He still didn't know how anyone found out that he was the one that gave the forewarning but the council was beginning to ask questions.

"Dobe, are you awake?"

"Barely. I'm tired. Why did I agree to train with Kimimaro yesterday?" He whined as he climbed out if bed. Even with his advanced healing and Kurama he was still sore.

"You wanted to improve your taijutsu and kenjutsu and asked him since you remembered how good he was the last time that you fought."

"Right. Don't let me do that again." Sasuke merely laughed as the blonde quickly changed and grabbed a quick breakfast before heading out to the tower.

Inside, the noise was almost deafening as the civilians and shinobi snapped at one another and the first two kage glared at the third as they waited for him to regain control. Hiruzen, on the other hand, was crying mentally. The massive beatdown he had received the previous day at the hands of both of his previous senseis still hurt and he was certain that the shodai had only healed him enough to be functional today. Just before Tobirama lost his patience the door slammed open as the four rookie teams walked in calmly and quietly. They were relaxed and yet alert, their jonin following them in a look of pride in their eyes.

"Is this what Konoha has become? A bunch of squabbling infants that can't speak in an inside voice or like civilized human beings?" Naruto snapped making all the noise die at once. The silence was deafening as he bowed to the Shodaime and Nidaime in respect.

"Watch your tone boy, and show us some respect."

"Elder Utatane, respect is earned not given and any respect you earned was from the older generation. As things stand now you have yet to do anything to earn the younger generation's respect and have only lost what you may have had with your arrogance. Any shinobi can live to old age simply by avoiding the battlefield. Many kunoichi live to old age because they retire from active duty and never return as soon as they have a child. So don't even go there." Sasuke snapped at the older kunoichi making her recoil from shock.

"Furthermore, we were under the impression that this meeting was technically being held under wartime protocol so why are the civilians here?" Naruto added angrily making more than a few people flinch.

"How dare..." Saikiri started only to be cut off.

"Well done. It seems that the genin have more than just a stable head on their shoulders. I must echo their statements why are the civilians here? Why is there even a civilian council to begin with?" Tobirama said appraisingly.

"I...formed the civilian council to take some of the work load off of the shinobi side during the second war.." Hiruzen admittedly almost timidly.