Dark Phoenix of Konoha by White Angel of Auralon

Part 14 - Jiraiya Returns

Jiraiya Returns

Over the next week they stayed in the village, doing training and some D-rank missions as Jiraiya was expected back any day to evaluate Naruto's skills in sealing and nobody wanted to risk Naruto being on a mission when Jiraiya returned. It happened on Friday. Of course Jiraiya had been in the village since Thursday morning, but he had used the chance to get some research done. He visited his sensei on Friday shortly before lunch.

"Hey, Sarutobi sensei, did you miss me?" He called out loudly.

"Jiraiya, it's good to see you. How was your travelling?" The Hokage asked and sent out his ANBU and activated his privacy seals.

"It was good. I'll soon have enough material for my new book. Icha Icha Violence. You said I had to come back to evaluate a potential seal master. Who is it? Did Kakashi go up in his level?" Jiraiya asked.

"No, it's Naruto. I have him supply our armoury and the shinobi equipment shops in the village under the pseudonym Dark Phoenix already. Naruto managed to deceive everybody until after his graduation exams from the academy a bit over a month ago. I had Asuma test him in disguise and Naruto is easily jonin level overall. The only thing he lacks is experience. All the reports I sent you about Naruto's development can be forgotten. I didn't even know he was that good. I thought that while he had some talent, he didn't use it well enough, but I couldn't really do anything about it. With Naruto being a civilian until he graduated, he was under the jurisdiction of the civilian council. And I didn't have the man-power to get him secretly trained except I'd have handed him over to Danzo, which I wanted to avoid at all cost." The Hokage said.

"Damn that is an impressive feat to get to that level so young and additionally keep it a complete secret. How did he get all the training done and got the knowledge? You wrote that you had to exchange the teachers in his class repeatedly to get him some theoretical skills." Jiraiya asked.

"Yes, until I placed Iruka Umino in that class, who, while not liking Naruto, didn't let his personal feelings cloud his professional attitude, Naruto was actively sabotaged. We now found out that as the teachers couldn't keep him out of class all the time, they didn't teach the whole class properly. When he was present they concentrated on topics that while they can be useful for a ninja, aren't vital. Many students failed their genin tests because they didn't get the information that was the most important. I have already initiated some long overdue changes in the village. The academy is now the responsibility of the shinobi council, all ninjas are instructed to ignore the orders of the civilian council as they are not part of the chain of command and I have had some of Danzo's ROOT agents help me looking through the decrees that were passed in the twelve years since Minato died." The Hokage informed his student.

"Do you think it was wise to involve Danzo?" Jiraiya asked.

"It was the only valid option. I can't be sure that the council doesn't have spies of their own in the ranks. While I can order them to not follow orders from the civilian council anymore and can enforce that, I can't be sure that some of them don't give them information. While Danzo and his ROOT are not an openly acceptable part of our military due to Danzo's training methods, you know as well as I do that you sometimes have to have ninjas in your village that take care of threats in ways that wouldn't go over well with our customers. I knew since two months after I ordered ROOT to disband that they didn't but only went underground, literally. There is a system of tunnels under the village where their base is located. I simply put Danzo on the spot. He was informed that I had him in my hand and could easily end him, but as his ROOT were useful, I didn't. While Danzo enjoys the thought to become Hokage through his machinations, he also knows that it's unrealistic to think he could be Hokage long enough or even be considered with his state of body to make a difference in the village." The Hokage explained.