Categories > Anime/Manga > Naruto > Innocence From Ashes
Innocence From Ashes
Chapter 22
Hyuuga Hiashi was power hungry, it was true. That he wanted what he wanted was also true. But deep inside this cold and overly restrained man was a very large kernel of wisdom. And before him now, stood so much power, now realized, that he caught his breath.
He’d been aware of Naruto Uzumaki from the beginning. Knew the boy’s lineage and potential from the cradle. He’d never indulged in the little cruel and sadistic games so many other villagers had. When Hinata began her life long crush over the blonde boy, Hiashi did nothing to inhibit it. Even when the little fox child was playing alone in the dirt, he knew the day would come when the boy would grow up. And he could wed the boy to his own daughter, and have all that delicious but unrealized power at his command.
But things didn’t turn out his way. War interrupted, and Sasuke Uchiha, cursed relative, stepped in and took it all away. When Sabaku no Gaara came into the picture, he let his oldest daughter, weak link he thought her, to go to the other man. Naruto was gone, never to return. He turned his attentions to Hanabi, and Neji.
Neji had never forgotten the murder of his father, never forgotten and never forgiven. When Hiashi looked into the boy’s cold and hate filled eyes, he’d seen a ghost of Itachi within them, and grew chilled. What had happened to the Uchihas… could happen to them! So he welded the boy to his side by engaging him to his youngest daughter.
But now, things had changed. Naruto was back. Back and but a step away from becoming Hokage. Obviously, with the dark Uchiha beside him and in his bed, the blonde would never wed a Hyuuga. But the Uchihas were distant relatives…
The time was at hand to make Naruto look at him. Really look at him. And time to make the blonde boy, now all grown up and filled to the brim with scintillating and very much realized power, beholden to him. It was time to give up a particular Hyuuga habit, especially now that it had become common knowledge and public sentiment was so against it.
Yes, time to make Uzumaki Naruto really notice him. And gratitude, especially from someone like Naruto, went a very long way…
When the Hyuuga stood up in the meeting, and all eyes turned his way, he smiled inside. Showtime.
“Welcome home, Uzumaki Naruto,” he said smoothly.
Silence greeted his sentiment, but Naruto did smile faintly. The other council members watched him, obviously expecting some sort of denial, or negation to the blonde’s ascendancy to come from him, but they couldn’t be more wrong.
He bowed his head, fist to chest, and proceeded to give the boy not only the clan’s symbolic loyalty, but his own as well. Times were changing, and he was not going to be left behind.
Scattered gasps greeted this. But Hiashi noted the resistance in the blonde’s eyes. So the boy wasn’t all primed to accept this invitation to be the village’s highest seat of power, eh? Well, having learned what he had of the boy, he wasn’t surprised. All the loud obnoxious bravado of the boy had been tempered into a fine steel. Well and good. Perhaps this would make Naruto less malleable than if he was still the brash outspoken child warrior, but Hiashi would make do.
“I have a gift for you, Naruto,” he went on in the shocked hush, his voice soft. “To welcome home our lost light, our new Hokage…”
At a gesture, the great doors opened once more, and Hyuugas filed in, led by Neji himself. One after another after another, and took up ranks before the council, all of them standing shoulder to shoulder. And it escaped no one’s notice that they were all, to the last man of them, branch members.
He nodded to Neji, who now looked at his uncle with softer eyes.
Neji reached up, hands untying his headband, and the white fabric below it. There was a rising rustle, as every last branch member did likewise.
And every brow, from the tallest to the smallest, from the strongest to the weakest, from Neji to the child that had been branded less than a month before…
Every brow was smooth, unmarked. The poisonously green symbol that had stained Neji’s, indeed, every branch member’s brow from the time they were small… was gone.
It was a sore loss to Hiashi, but, now that everyone knew their dirty little secret, and made no bones about letting the Hyuuga know how poorly they thought it, it was time to let it go.
And little did Hiashi realize when he made the decision, just yesterday, how much it would soften Neji’s feelings for him, he was satisfied. Times were changing, and the blonde boy before him would change them even more. By this act, as great a sacrifice of power as it was, he was allying himself with the new demon lord. And the potential of so much more power.
Hyuuga Hiashi was a gambler at heart. With a small gesture, the branch members filed out as silently and quickly as they had filed in.
“Welcome home, Uzumaki Naruto,” he repeated once more.
Naruto was stunned. Well he remembered his promise to change this one thing in the Hyuuga clan so long ago. And he had meant it, down to his toes. But in the blood and pain and chaos of the last seven years, it had slipped from his mind, as forgotten as everything else in his memory had been. Since his rebirth, he hadn’t even remembered Neji, much less his promise. But he remembered now, and looking deeply into Hiashi’s eyes with his wiser, more mature eyes, he was undeceived.
The Hyuuga clan leader had not done this out of any sense of repatriation, or softening of heart or will towards his own ‘lesser’ kinsmen. No, he’d done it to impress Naruto. After all, the younger Uzumaki had never made any bones, publicly or privately, as to how heinous an act such ‘enslavement’ was. And in view of the last seven years of his life, he was unlikely to hold a kinder thought to it. No. Hiashi Hyuuga knew that change was rife on the wind, and sought to keep, nay, advance his position within what was surely to be the new Konohan hierarchy.
Well and good. Naruto had his measure, both then and now. And he could work with such a man.
“Thank you, Hyuuga Hiashi,” he responded with a firm voice. The two men regarded each other stolidly for another moment, both measuring the other. Then Naruto turned away, and let his eyes move from one council member to another.
“So,” he resumed slowly, his eyes unreadable. “How things have changed. I know you have all voted, and I think I know the way of it now. But I must tell you, I am no longer eager to assume the mantle of Hokage now. I have changed so much.”
Though his eyes appeared locked on Tsunade, in reality he was absorbing the unspoken reactions from each and every one of them. Several seemed to brighten at his apparent rejection of such a promotion. Others almost visibly drooped. Still others maintained a stoic and impassive demeanor.
“Do any of you realize what it is that you offer? Do you have any idea what I am now? I’m not your reviled demon boy, anymore. I’m not the unfortunate container for your greatest fears and ambitions. I am the Nine Tailed Demon now. I was ready to level this city to the very stone foundations just yesterday. And I could feel such an urge again.” Naruto was unsmiling.
One might think it rather unintelligent to lay such a thing at the feet of those that had the power to accept or reject him. Slowly, he held each man and woman’s eyes, daring them to accept him now, when he finally really was what they had punished him so unfairly for before.
When none spoke up to reject him, he was understandably bemused. “I find it complete weirdness that you were so cruel to me when I was only the container, and yet you accept me so willingly now that I really am the demon.”
More restless silence.
“Or is it that you’re all afraid of me? Now that I have the power, and the will, to defend myself against your bigotry.” He snorted, unimpressed. “Rest assured. I don’t care. I don’t need anyone to assure me of my own worth. I don’t need to be your hokage to know who and what I am. Not anymore.” He turned slightly, to smile at the only one who’s opinion really mattered to him now. The others, even folk like Tsunade and Sakura, who once meant so much to him, and still did, did not carry the weight that Sasuke always had and always would.
Sasuke smiled back, easily, freely, demonstrating how much he too had changed.
“Don’t be afraid of me,” Naruto turned back. “I will not lay waste to you or yours if I don’t become Hokage. I’m quite happy with myself the way I am. But know this… If I do become Hokage, if I do accept… I won’t be anyone’s puppet, anyone’s whipping boy. I don’t care how things have always been done. I will do what I think is right, what I think is good. And rest assured; I hold very little stock in what most of you say or think. I have experienced all the ‘wisdom’ Konoha has to offer, and I have always found it… lacking.”
Once more, he pinned them all with his eyes, and was met with stoic silence.
Finally, one by one, they rose to their feet and followed the Hyuuga’s lead. And when Tsunade stepped up to him, to drape the white Hokage robe’s around his shoulders, and gently placed the triangular hat upon his head, he did not gainsay her.
Naruto Uzumaki was now the Hokage of Konoha.
Chapter 22
Hyuuga Hiashi was power hungry, it was true. That he wanted what he wanted was also true. But deep inside this cold and overly restrained man was a very large kernel of wisdom. And before him now, stood so much power, now realized, that he caught his breath.
He’d been aware of Naruto Uzumaki from the beginning. Knew the boy’s lineage and potential from the cradle. He’d never indulged in the little cruel and sadistic games so many other villagers had. When Hinata began her life long crush over the blonde boy, Hiashi did nothing to inhibit it. Even when the little fox child was playing alone in the dirt, he knew the day would come when the boy would grow up. And he could wed the boy to his own daughter, and have all that delicious but unrealized power at his command.
But things didn’t turn out his way. War interrupted, and Sasuke Uchiha, cursed relative, stepped in and took it all away. When Sabaku no Gaara came into the picture, he let his oldest daughter, weak link he thought her, to go to the other man. Naruto was gone, never to return. He turned his attentions to Hanabi, and Neji.
Neji had never forgotten the murder of his father, never forgotten and never forgiven. When Hiashi looked into the boy’s cold and hate filled eyes, he’d seen a ghost of Itachi within them, and grew chilled. What had happened to the Uchihas… could happen to them! So he welded the boy to his side by engaging him to his youngest daughter.
But now, things had changed. Naruto was back. Back and but a step away from becoming Hokage. Obviously, with the dark Uchiha beside him and in his bed, the blonde would never wed a Hyuuga. But the Uchihas were distant relatives…
The time was at hand to make Naruto look at him. Really look at him. And time to make the blonde boy, now all grown up and filled to the brim with scintillating and very much realized power, beholden to him. It was time to give up a particular Hyuuga habit, especially now that it had become common knowledge and public sentiment was so against it.
Yes, time to make Uzumaki Naruto really notice him. And gratitude, especially from someone like Naruto, went a very long way…
When the Hyuuga stood up in the meeting, and all eyes turned his way, he smiled inside. Showtime.
“Welcome home, Uzumaki Naruto,” he said smoothly.
Silence greeted his sentiment, but Naruto did smile faintly. The other council members watched him, obviously expecting some sort of denial, or negation to the blonde’s ascendancy to come from him, but they couldn’t be more wrong.
He bowed his head, fist to chest, and proceeded to give the boy not only the clan’s symbolic loyalty, but his own as well. Times were changing, and he was not going to be left behind.
Scattered gasps greeted this. But Hiashi noted the resistance in the blonde’s eyes. So the boy wasn’t all primed to accept this invitation to be the village’s highest seat of power, eh? Well, having learned what he had of the boy, he wasn’t surprised. All the loud obnoxious bravado of the boy had been tempered into a fine steel. Well and good. Perhaps this would make Naruto less malleable than if he was still the brash outspoken child warrior, but Hiashi would make do.
“I have a gift for you, Naruto,” he went on in the shocked hush, his voice soft. “To welcome home our lost light, our new Hokage…”
At a gesture, the great doors opened once more, and Hyuugas filed in, led by Neji himself. One after another after another, and took up ranks before the council, all of them standing shoulder to shoulder. And it escaped no one’s notice that they were all, to the last man of them, branch members.
He nodded to Neji, who now looked at his uncle with softer eyes.
Neji reached up, hands untying his headband, and the white fabric below it. There was a rising rustle, as every last branch member did likewise.
And every brow, from the tallest to the smallest, from the strongest to the weakest, from Neji to the child that had been branded less than a month before…
Every brow was smooth, unmarked. The poisonously green symbol that had stained Neji’s, indeed, every branch member’s brow from the time they were small… was gone.
It was a sore loss to Hiashi, but, now that everyone knew their dirty little secret, and made no bones about letting the Hyuuga know how poorly they thought it, it was time to let it go.
And little did Hiashi realize when he made the decision, just yesterday, how much it would soften Neji’s feelings for him, he was satisfied. Times were changing, and the blonde boy before him would change them even more. By this act, as great a sacrifice of power as it was, he was allying himself with the new demon lord. And the potential of so much more power.
Hyuuga Hiashi was a gambler at heart. With a small gesture, the branch members filed out as silently and quickly as they had filed in.
“Welcome home, Uzumaki Naruto,” he repeated once more.
Naruto was stunned. Well he remembered his promise to change this one thing in the Hyuuga clan so long ago. And he had meant it, down to his toes. But in the blood and pain and chaos of the last seven years, it had slipped from his mind, as forgotten as everything else in his memory had been. Since his rebirth, he hadn’t even remembered Neji, much less his promise. But he remembered now, and looking deeply into Hiashi’s eyes with his wiser, more mature eyes, he was undeceived.
The Hyuuga clan leader had not done this out of any sense of repatriation, or softening of heart or will towards his own ‘lesser’ kinsmen. No, he’d done it to impress Naruto. After all, the younger Uzumaki had never made any bones, publicly or privately, as to how heinous an act such ‘enslavement’ was. And in view of the last seven years of his life, he was unlikely to hold a kinder thought to it. No. Hiashi Hyuuga knew that change was rife on the wind, and sought to keep, nay, advance his position within what was surely to be the new Konohan hierarchy.
Well and good. Naruto had his measure, both then and now. And he could work with such a man.
“Thank you, Hyuuga Hiashi,” he responded with a firm voice. The two men regarded each other stolidly for another moment, both measuring the other. Then Naruto turned away, and let his eyes move from one council member to another.
“So,” he resumed slowly, his eyes unreadable. “How things have changed. I know you have all voted, and I think I know the way of it now. But I must tell you, I am no longer eager to assume the mantle of Hokage now. I have changed so much.”
Though his eyes appeared locked on Tsunade, in reality he was absorbing the unspoken reactions from each and every one of them. Several seemed to brighten at his apparent rejection of such a promotion. Others almost visibly drooped. Still others maintained a stoic and impassive demeanor.
“Do any of you realize what it is that you offer? Do you have any idea what I am now? I’m not your reviled demon boy, anymore. I’m not the unfortunate container for your greatest fears and ambitions. I am the Nine Tailed Demon now. I was ready to level this city to the very stone foundations just yesterday. And I could feel such an urge again.” Naruto was unsmiling.
One might think it rather unintelligent to lay such a thing at the feet of those that had the power to accept or reject him. Slowly, he held each man and woman’s eyes, daring them to accept him now, when he finally really was what they had punished him so unfairly for before.
When none spoke up to reject him, he was understandably bemused. “I find it complete weirdness that you were so cruel to me when I was only the container, and yet you accept me so willingly now that I really am the demon.”
More restless silence.
“Or is it that you’re all afraid of me? Now that I have the power, and the will, to defend myself against your bigotry.” He snorted, unimpressed. “Rest assured. I don’t care. I don’t need anyone to assure me of my own worth. I don’t need to be your hokage to know who and what I am. Not anymore.” He turned slightly, to smile at the only one who’s opinion really mattered to him now. The others, even folk like Tsunade and Sakura, who once meant so much to him, and still did, did not carry the weight that Sasuke always had and always would.
Sasuke smiled back, easily, freely, demonstrating how much he too had changed.
“Don’t be afraid of me,” Naruto turned back. “I will not lay waste to you or yours if I don’t become Hokage. I’m quite happy with myself the way I am. But know this… If I do become Hokage, if I do accept… I won’t be anyone’s puppet, anyone’s whipping boy. I don’t care how things have always been done. I will do what I think is right, what I think is good. And rest assured; I hold very little stock in what most of you say or think. I have experienced all the ‘wisdom’ Konoha has to offer, and I have always found it… lacking.”
Once more, he pinned them all with his eyes, and was met with stoic silence.
Finally, one by one, they rose to their feet and followed the Hyuuga’s lead. And when Tsunade stepped up to him, to drape the white Hokage robe’s around his shoulders, and gently placed the triangular hat upon his head, he did not gainsay her.
Naruto Uzumaki was now the Hokage of Konoha.
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