Second Chance

Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Proactive vs Reactive
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"Jiraiya?" Shikaku suggested after mulling over the question.

"He would never accept, plus while he is getting better now, he doesn't take things seriously enough. Furthermore, like the Sandaime he prefers to be reactive. We need a proactive kage. Some one willing to move first not react to the first move. That was what we had the last time." Sasuke countered.

"Tsunade?" Hiruzen nearly squeaked.

"Again to reactive, plus all of her focus needs to be on the hospital. Besides while she was a good kage, she has a bad habit of brushing things off to the side to do later and then procrastinate about doing them." Naruto sighed getting everyone's attention.

"Tsunade was the Godaime in your time?"

"Yes. Like I said she was good but not suited for the position." Naruto hummed and then got a mischievous grin. Turning to Sasuke was methodically removing each sharingan as slowly as possible he snickered.

"Hey Sasuke, you know how you said you wished you could get back at Itachi for shouldering everything by himself?"

"Yeah?"

"How do you think he would react to be Hokage?" Sasuke faltered unintentionally slicing Danzo's arm open as he spun to look at his kage.

"You would...dobe...that's brilliant!" He said while beginning to cackle manically.

"It would also be a kick to your clan for trying to start a coup when they just had to wait a few years to get what they wanted."

"I love the way you think sometimes." Nodding Naruto looked at everyone else in the room and smirked.

"What? Itachi has had the mindset of a kage since he was a child. He knows the outcome of war and will do everything that he can to prevent it but he also knows that diplomacy isn't always the solution. He has a bad habit of shouldering the weight of the village's safety naturally as a kage does and it will teach him to think of other alternatives instead of one extreme or the other."

"What do you mean?"

"The whole clan didn't need to be massacred. Just the supporters/leaders of the coup. An assassination prior to things getting out of control to make the elders appear to have died naturally from old age or illness would have delayed the coup. Afterwards send those that refuse to drop the topic on missions where they "die" by the hands of "nuke nins" while being executed by Konoha shinobi along with said nuke nin, or even blaming Orochimaru would have sufficed."

"Eh? How would that work? Wouldn't it be obvious if Orochimaru did it?" Tsume asked.

"Nope. Think of it this way. Everyone knows of Orochimaru's obsession with learning all the jutsu and immortality right? Well, the fastest way to learn every jutsu is with the sharingan. So if a team familiar with Orochimaru's work were to say "come across" the remains of several Uchiha, and one that wouldn't survive the trip home, who destroyed their eyes at the last minute to "keep them away from the rogue sannin" then the clan wouldn't be able to argue against their deaths. Well they could, but it would make them look stupid. Besides I'm sure that we have samples of Kusanagi's poison that could be planted in a sword wound that matches the dimension of the blade to prove a point. From there, the Uchiha that want the coup have to redirect their focus to staying safe on missions while Orochimaru gets the blame. He would be angry that he was framed and make a mistake which would make it easier to find and kill him."