Welcomed Second Chance by Darashiko

Chapter 6: Rijuan

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. It belongs to Kishimoto-sensei.

OxoxO

'It's good to be a kage.' Hiruzen thought to himself as he blew a ring of smoke from his mouth.

For years after Minato's death, he cursed few times his successor for dying so early in his reign and leaving the workload of a kage in his responsibility. Not because of the amount it came in as he knew about how a kage can utilize shadow clone jutsu. After all before they made their retreat from the Kinkaku force of Cloud, Tobirama Senju bestowed him that bit of knowledge. His sensei thought that any kage's workload will increase day by day as his village progress. But the problem is, with old age, his vast chakra reserve has diminished and his vitality has also waned. The mental strain that comes with the accumulated experience from this jutsu has become more unbearable in recent years. In the last days of his first tenure, he could use up to 4 shadow clones to lighten his load. But after 3 years into his second tenure, he had to abandon the idea of using more than one shadow clone for that purpose for the sake of his health.

For years he thought about finding another successor to his office. But as usual Jiraiya refused, Tsunade was nowhere to be found and the less that can be talked about Orochimaru's stunt a few years back, the better. The thought of his third student's experiment on human bodies in his search for immortality made his blood boil to this day. He still regrets letting that scoundrel go for his hesitation.

His first choice beside his students was Shikaku, but he knew even though the Nara patriarch was overly intelligent for the role of Hokage, he was too lazy and content with what life has given him. He considered selecting Kakashi for the job but the copy ninja was too wallowed in his past. Not to mention, there is a joke going on that if he became Hokage, nothing in this village will be done before 3 hours.

And he knew his old teammate Danzo would take any opportunity to take the hat from him. The assassination attempt few years back proved that.

However, Jiraiya's new student's way of using water clones and his experimentation on shadow clones has provided the solution for his first problem. Naruto, or the newcomer, wrote down his findings of using his chakra absorption ability with these jutsus which his ANBU saw and promptly informed him.

One shadow clone absorbs chakra from another shadow clone.

The absorber receives the other clone's memory instead of the original.

Experience of receiving memory from after a shadow clone dispels is like drinking a bottle of cold water in one gulp. It causes brain freeze.

If a shadow clone absorbs chakra from 100 shadow clones that trained or studied for hours and the original absorbs chakra from that shadow clone, it gives a migraine. A 30 minutes nap while hearing meditative music is solution to that.

Now Hiruzen may not have a natural ability to absorb chakra like Naruto, but he wouldn't be called the Professor if he didn't have any knowledge about jutsus that could compensate for that. Proper utilization of water clone and shadow clone in combination of Chakra Leeching jutsu has allowed him time to relax. And to think it had been discovered and exploited by a new comer who didn't have any prior knowledge of chakra whatsoever.

Thinking about the boy, he felt a pain his chest. His student only knew about Naruto from his letters but he didn't know him in person. So he easily coped with his loss and decided to make the best of what he got. However Hiruzen didn't have that luxury.

Hearing about Naruto's change in character, he simply assumed it as a side effect of going into coma. A darker part of his mind whispered that his change was due to the Nine Tails' influence. He went over scenarios after scenarios of what could be the cause for his change and how he would act because of this change. A 19 years old teenager with the memories of his past life intact spiritually replacing an 8 years old boy wasn't one of them. Naruto was dead, spiritually speaking and there is nothing he can do about it.