The Future: Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 29

REBIRTH OF THE LEAF – AN AMULET FOR AN APOLOGY

The Circle, One Week Later

It has been one long week since Shinki first attended the summit now known as The Circle. During the first meeting and following it, he instigated a heated debate about the proposed future of Clyde and his followers. Since then he has not attended another of meeting. This is not because of his argument though, instead it is because he has had other priorities. During this week, before becoming a permanent fixture of The Circle, his focus has been on seeing to the health and wellbeing of his fellow villagers. Even more so than the Leaf, the Sand has suffered a torturous fate at the hands of the enemy.

Shinki has also had other matters that have drawn his attention.

Shikadai takes his position at the centre of the table. Looking around, he is pleased to see that Shinki has returned, clearly the immediate needs of the villagers have been seen to. Even with an unoccupied seat, the gathering is impressive. Debatably the greatest gathering of warriors this world has ever seen. The one absence brings Shikadai to the opening of the meeting.

"OK, first thing on the agenda, I have to remind you that Lord 5th cannot attend the meeting today" he declares as he looks towards the empty seat marked with the number 5. "She has gone to the Shikkotsu forest for training".

Shikadai ponders the reason behind Tsunade's choice. She had never, to him, revealed any displeasure at her own level of strength. Thinking about it though, it would be understandable. During the contest, she, the 5th Hokage was completely healthy and was at the peak of her powers. Despite all of that, she performed an operation on Naruto and that was the sum of her contribution.

Shikadai knows the difference between his and Tsunade's situations. He is the Hokage's assistant, the Leaf's strategist and while his strategies had not worked, he had not been expected to contribute anything in raw power. No matter how much he wanted to contribute, it wasn't to be expected of him. Tsunade though, she is at her peak strength and is the 5th Hokage. She is in a position where it is expected of her to defend the village using her raw power and she had been unable to do so.

"Grandma Tsunade must be taking her training seriously if she is still gone" Naruto notes.

"She always has had a strong will, let's embrace it, it's good that she wants to get stronger" Kakashi offers.

This is high praise coming from Hatake Kakashi, the leader of team 7. A group containing Naruto, someone so determined he trained using a thousand clones, someone so determined that while everyone else did, he never gave up on Sasuke. A group containing Sasuke who stormed into the 5 Kage summit in pursuit of revenge, who was prepared to kill Naruto to take, what he assumed to be, the perfect Hokage role. A group containing Sakura, who for years watched as the Leaf's most promising two shinobi pulled further and further away from her, who chased them no matter how hard it was.

Shikadai looks to his list, on it now are questions and subjects put forward by the villagers, as had been agreed some time ago. He reads the first of these out. "We have had a request for an update on the construction works, Lord 7th, would you oblige us".

Of course, Naruto has been doing the bulk of the work in constructing a new village. It has been a quick learning curve for the young shinobi as his knowledge of housebuilding has increased. "I have finished building permanent homes for the people of the Hidden Sand" he explains, "So, my clones have left the village and begun to search for the portal".