Second Chance

Chapter 33

Chapter 33: The New Hokage
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The room was quiet as the occupants stared at the former nuke nin following his outburst. Even Kisame looked shocked at the yell that the Itachi had produced, having never thought that he could raise his voice like that. Naruto was smirking and Sasuke was trying and failing miserably to hide his smirk. All the while Itachi was looking like he would rather be anywhere but where he was. He quickly glanced to Tobirama hoping that the Senju would tell him it was all a practical joke but was met with that infuriating smirk that he was starting to hate.
"It's not that bad." Naruto snickered making Itachi glare at the blonde. For some reason that only made him lose control and start laughing once more. Looking over at Sasuke, Itachi felt his twitch worsen as he saw that his brother was desperately, and failing, not to laugh at his expression.

"Well Itachi you always did want to prevent anymore wars. I suppose this would be the best way." Kisame said hiding his own amusement.

"Seriously, why me?" He said in defeat.

"Proactive vs. reactive." Naruto replied vaguely.

"Explain."

"So far, in this time, Konoha has seen three wars and five in ours. Until now, Konoha would always use violence as a last resort even after it has been made clear that a diplomatic solution will not work. We needed a Hokage that understood that violence wasn't always the answer, yet that will use it before things get out of hand." At seeing Itachi's face, Naruto sighed. "Think of the Hyuga incident. Instead of calling Kumo out on their obvious scheme, the Sandaime instead sacrificed a shinobi needlessly. This in turn caused Neji to take the oath of hatred and vengeance that would have been avoided had he not caved to Kumo's demands. In this case he took a reactive approach to a 'what-if' scenario instead of a proactive approach. Neither Kumo or Konoha were capable of returning to war. So if the Sandaime had held firm the Raikage would have had no choice but to back down."

"I see." Itachi tilted his head and closed his eyes.

"In this case, you tried a peaceful solution to prevent the number of casualties but you also saw that diplomacy was getting you no where. So instead of continuously bartering with a steel wall you became proactive to prevent what would have started another war needlessly. That is what we need in a Hokage right now. I'll admit that I was even guilty of being to reactive at times. Perhaps, if I had been proactive Konoha wouldn't have fallen under my reign." Naruto whispered the last part but Itachi still heard it.

"Furthermore, consider it your punishment for trying to shoulder everything by yourself and dying on me, twice." Sasuke added getting snickers from everyone else in the room while he twitched in annoyance. After a few minutes he sighed and drooped.

"...Fine..." Nodding to themselves Hashirama beamed happily.

"You forgot the best part." Tobirama added getting Itachi to raise an eyebrow. "This is the ultimate 'fuck you' to your clan for being too impatient to let nature take it's course." Itachi felt his eyes widen before finding himself snickering in amusement.

"I guess so. When is the coronation and how much work do I have to do before hand?"

"The coronation won't be for a few days and as for the work, you really only need to catch up on the status of the village and familiarize yourself with the forces once more. The last thing we need to take care of is your health. We have been informed that you are ill and Tsunade will begin working on the treatment as soon as you have a physical and the necessary blood work is done. After which will we need Shishui's other eye for an ocular transplant." That got Itachi's attention.

"Why? Wait other eye? You got the one that Danzo stole back?"

"Yes. The reason is you are going blind and we know it. It would be a little hard for you to do your paperwork if you can't see now wouldn't it? Sasuke would do the transplant with you but he carried his original back with him and even he isn't sure whether or not it would work. So Shishui is our best bet considering what we have been told about your relationship with your father." Tobirama confirmed. Nodding to the reasoning behind it, Itachi looked out the window at the monument and tried to envision his face along with the others and groaned. This was going to take some getting used to.