Naruto- Secret Sage

Harsh loss and Bounty

I arrived at about the same time as the four fueling the barrier did and what I found was not good at all. The old man was dying and I could tell immediately that there was no saving him. it's hard to describe but it was as though his soul was slipping away to somewhere else and I don't mean in a normal manner either. The four fueling the barrier took Orochimaru who for a lack of a better word looked broken. Not dead but like something critical to him had been stolen and he lost some of his will to live.-

I didn't try to stop them as my full focus was on trying to keep the old man alive for as long as possible but it was an uphill battle that I was badly losing.

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"*Cough* You are wasting your time Kenzo *cough* The reaper will have his prize, theres no denying it now." the old man sucked in a raspy breath. "Listen, I have long prepared for my death. *Cough* In my home I left a envelope hidden in a secret place next to my bed *Cough* Above the picture of my wife. Open it and give it to whoever becomes Hokage next and as a final warning, beware Danzo. He will act against you now that I am gone but I believe that you will do what is best for the village. It has been my honor to watch you and Naruto grow up*Cough* A shame I'll not see the great men you'll become." and like that the third Hokage breathed his last.

With his death the monkey king Enma disappeared with a silent mournful look as the summoning ended. I won't lie it stung at my heart to see the old man go and tears filled my eyes. As though the world felt the same rain began to fall from the clouds overhead as more and more shinobi arrived after subjugating the Suna forces in the village. The entire village mourned the man and the losses we suffered on this while Shikaku took over temporarily as the acting Hokage until a new one could be appointed. I did as the old man asked of me in his final moments and went to his home in secret to retrieve the envelop as he said and what I learned from it disgusted and disturbed me.-

Within it held the evidence and list of crimes that Danzo had done over the years as well as the information on the true motivations of Sasukes brother Itachi. I could understand why the old man would keep this stuff out of the other information in his office, it was dangerous. It was also likely to cause a civil war within Konoha since depending on who became the next Hokage Danzo was going to get outed and possibly turned into a missing nin. The matter of Itachi however needed to be buried for the good of the village because it was far too divisive.-

It was discovered that the fourth Kazekage had actually been killed and replaced with Orochimaru and so Suna accepted unconditional surrender. The village didn't press the matter further than that as it was clear to all that Orochimaru had manipulated them without their knowledge. I ended up getting dragged into the politics of the matter of the next Hokage for one simple reason, I was there when the old man died. The sheer amount of weight that gave my opinion on the matter can not be underestimated.-

Not that I really had to say anything as it was all but unanimous that one of the old mans students would take over as Hokage and Jiraiya directly said my sensei was the only option that made sense. Really the only input I had to add was the last known place her infrequent messages to me said she was. Danzo also tried to make a move on me but failed as I had already packed up my whole house and moved it to a different location in the forest. I was willing to bide my time against the man until the next Hokage was officially appointed.-

It wouldn't be too late the deal with him at that point when I had the full support of the village behind me. He seemed to realize this as well if the glares he sent my way every time I was summoned to the council chamber was anything to go by. The third Hokages death wasn't all bad news though as we struck back against Orochimaru with a vengeance and easily must have cost the snake a massive amount of resources lost as we ripped through the land of fire and even further for any sign of him and his bases.-

None of the other great villages wanted to get in our way as they had learnt from experience that we were most dangerous when recklessly motivated like this. The man hunt for the snake sannin led to a very large amount of missing nin in the land of fire getting killed in the crossfire which funneled a large amount of funds into the village from the bounties on them. That was the interesting part about the bounty system, anyone including the village that posted the bounties enemies could cash them in.-

The reason for this was mostly because in exchange for some money the other villages could get a heads up if a dangerous shinobi appeared in another village. It was actually one of the reasons I never went bounty hunting as while all the villages knew I was the student of Tsunade Senju they didn't know what my combat strength was. Hell most of Konoha didn't know how strong I was or even had a guess for that matter. That all changed on the day the Hokage died as the spies in the village as well as the villagers themselves had witnessed the power I had at my disposal.-

It came as little surprise then to learn that I now had an entry in the bingo book(book of bounties, gets updated every month). I was given an A-S ranking and a bounty of two million ryo in every village other than Suna and of course Konoha. They had my information on my known feats and skills as , chakra beast taming, massive chakra reserves, extreme strength, extreme Iryonin jutsu and sensor type ability. They even had an entire page dedicated to all my known beasts and their threat level, abilities and even individual bounties for each beast if someone somehow managed to kill one and bring proof.-

The bounty for shiro was ironically WAY higher than my own at a staggering fifty million ryo and his ability was listed as a highly suspected kekkai tota. It came as little surprise that literally none of the other villages wanted to see such an ability show up in Konoha. I found it a bit funny where they couldn't even agree on whether I was an A or S rank threat shinobi so they just put both.