Sword of God -- A Naruto Fanfiction

| 33 | Sloth

A Week Later (Since the Previous Chapter):

Naruto sighs in relief, sinking into the soft bedsheets of his bed as he reflects on the events following his 'friendly' spar.

I got to train...

This thought had been recurring for the past hour or so, with Naruto starting down the problem, albeit with a dopey grin and a lazy glint in his eyes.

I got to train...

The sentence would often be spoken in a drunken, lazy slur within his mind, a reflection of his personality.

During the week, he had expanded his strength tremendously in regards to his kenjutsu prowess.

It had been a long haul, a strenuous trek to the progress he had made since the alleviation of the great burden placed upon all active Konoha shinobi.

A burden created by one Danzo Shimura, who had established a law that had made shinobi the caterers of the civilians, by doing so gaining a huge margin of favour towards him from them whilst reducing that of shinobi, well, those who aren't as naive as to believe the lies he had spouted, anyway.

The excuse he had created was fallible, obviously flawed and recognisably so.

Such drivel such as the infamous: 'civilians take priority in this economic crisis, so shinobi need to guard them with their lives.'

Honestly, if he really wanted Konoha's economic sector to take priority, then he should've sent out all available shinobi at the expense of the village's  mass fortification, as well as not reclined in the Hokage's Office all day whilst pondering on how better to screw over the militaristic aspect of the village whilst savouring his slim chances of winning the next election for Kage once the reigning one died.

But thankfully, a miracle had risen to power to become the saviour of his responsibilities, his charges and his loved ones.

A beacon of hope in the great depression placed upon both stressed civilian workers and ninja.

The God of Shinobi had returned, bringing with him a primordial force that is responsible for some of the most drastic but enlightening and inspiring events to ever occur, hope.

He had swept the pretentious Danzo off his feet, rallying support from all shinobi and a minority of civilians to his cause as they fought a political war until he regained his mantle of Kage, albeit with a few benefits.

One was that his 'recovering' body needed to rest and hence he had been offered a great number of interns, most of which had been rejected genin back into the boredom that is academy training, though a select minority is experienced, real-world experts.

Hiruzen had gladly shifted around he layout of his office with a prankster grin on his face as he dumped stacks of paperwork on the desks of shocked genin and experts, though the latter had seemed unimpressed; this is what it takes to run a village, after all.

And the supervising Hokage? Yeah, just a shadow clone that retains all knowledge on anything concerning paperwork down to the last detail.

But enough of that.

With the demotion of the tyrannical Danzo, freedom had been accessible, especially after the completed reconstruction of the village, and Naruto had gotten one of the better benefits; release from shinobi duty for as long as he wanted.

In other words, training until he got bored. A sign that Hiruzen trusts in him.

And Naruto isn't one to disappoint.