Chapter 17: Small Lesson, Confrontation

"I NEED AN EXPLANATION."

Hiruzen read those words aloud, as his facial crumpled from curiosity to suspicion to disappointment.

He was disappointed in his friend for attacking Izuryu. It was almost a betrayal to Hiruzen.

The fact that his best friend and comrade from the war actually ordered his troops to attack two young and promising shinobi of the leaf had broken his heart.

Hiruzen's face looked as though the man had aged 10 years. He put the note away and burned the heads, leaving 5 piles of ashes neatly around the table.

He leaned back on his chair. Exhaustion had spread within the man, leaving him in no mood to continue working.

He brought out his pipe and placed it in his mouth and took a deep breath.

The feeling of smoke entering his lungs as the nicotine spread within his lungs was the feeling that slightly alleviated him from his pain.

Hiruzen pushed a button on his table.

An Anbu flickered in front of him and kneeled down.

"Call Councilman Danzo to my office."

Hiruzen waved his and as the Anbu flickered away.

Smoke started floating around the room, Hiruzen not bothering to clear it.

***

"Why have you called for me Hiruzen?"

Danzo's cold voice sounded in the smoke covered room.

Danzo, who wasn't expecting such smoke; was hit by a wave of nicotine infused smoke.

He frowned and waved his hand. A gust of wind blew within the room, clearing the area around him of smoke.

"Ah, you're here my friend."

Hiruzen's weak voice sounded from the rapidly clearing smoke.

"Hiruzen, what is the meaning of this?"

Danzo frowned as he quipped towards Hiruzen's direction.

As the smoke cleared, Danzo saw a head and 5 piles of ashes on Hiruzen's table.

His face became livid as the man shouted with all his voice.

"WHO DARED TO KILL MY ROOT SHINOBI, HIRUZEN?"

Yet instead of a reply, Hiruzen said something that made Danzo's face pale.

"While returning from the mission of bringing supplies to the border base and bringing back the intel that has been collected, Genin Shinobi Izuryu Tsukisumi and Katomo Senju were attacked by 20 masked shinobi. After fighting the 'unknown' shinobi and upon unmasking them, it was revealed that the shinobi that attacked the two shinobi were actually veterans of Root."

Danzo's face changed into a variety of colors.

From pale white to blue to green to purple to finally sickening white.

"It seems my warning didn't drill into your brain properly the last time, my friend. Sit down Shimura Danzo, we have a lot to talk about…"

***

Within the Civilian Compounds of Konohagakure.

Knock! Knock!

"Coming!"

A male voice sounded from within the house as a man opened the door.

He had above average features but not too good-looking. His body was well-built and his hands were wet, perhaps due to the chores he was performing. The man looked like he was in his late-twenties somewhere around 27-29 years old.

He looked at the shinobi out the door. The shinobi was dressed in Anbu attire and was holding an urn.

The urn had the picture of a man. He looked to be in his mid-early twenties, 23-26 years old.

The shinobi handed the urn to the man, who received it with shaking hands.

'I-It can-can't be…'

"I am sorry to inform you that your little brother, Asaki Miyajima has passed away. Within this urn are the remainder ashes of your brother's corpse."

The shinobi handed the urn and flickered away after bowing towards the man.

The man's legs stopped working and he fell to his back. Yet as though protecting his brother, the man protected the urn instinctively.

His legs closed as tears started flowing out the man's eyes.

Immense indescribably sadness and despair flooded into the man's psyche.

The man's eye's which were originally brown changed.

His irises turned blood-red as three tomoe surrounded the pupil.

Yet the change hadn't stopped.

The three tomoe started spinning with great speed, turning into a circle.

The man opened the urn's lid with shaking arms.

The urn slowly opened, revealing a pile of ashes within the urn.

In there was however, something else too.

A green locket with a silver chain shined from within the urn.

The man pressed lightly on the back of the locket, to reveal a picture,

It was a picture of the man and his little brother, both smiling as they hugged each other…

The final thread broke within the man's heart. He gripped the urn tighter as though wanting to feel his brother's warmth again yet all that there was, was a cold urn.

The urn cracked under his immense force, spilling the ashes on the man.

He looked with despair upon the pile of ash on his hands.

His tears slowly dripped onto the ashes.

The man slowly collapsed; his eyes having turned into a pinwheel shape.

***

"How did you do in the Academy today?"

Izuryu asked Kushina, who was happily eating bites of chicken.

She slowly chewed the meat and savored the flavor and finally swallowed it with a sigh of satisfaction.

"It was fine, we learned about basic mock-shurikenjutsu, and performed some of it with wooden ones in the training ground.

"So, did you do good?"

Izuryu asked with a smile on his face, putting in a piece of Takoyaki in at the same time.

"Of course, I did! Who do you think I am?"

Izuryu chuckled at her childish behavior.

"Well… you're the girl who always loses to Minato, aren't you?"

Izuryu slightly mocked her by the fact that she always came behind him in every area other than brute force, not something that she could be prideful about.

"Huek-"

Her prideful face froze in place, as red took over; making her go into her "Mini Red-Hot Habanero Mode".

It was not nearly as destructive as the future one, but her Uzumaki physique had enhanced her strength, giving her punches quite the force.

"You-"

Kushina raised her little fist, but before she could strike down, a Takoyaki had been placed within her mouth.

"Huh?"

The little girl was ambushed by the Takoyaki's sudden appearance. But her newly discovered foodie side quickly chomped it down and swallowed it down. Her face started regaining its normal shade as a satisfaction was released from her round face.

'So easy to calm her down…'

Izuryu felt weird at the sight of Kushina calming down so quickly.

The future Red-Hot Habanero had awakened a foodie side to her personality, making anything related closely to good food make her drool.

While he was thinking this, a small hand had slipped into Izuryu's Takoyaki plate, instantly picking one up and stuffing it into her mouth.

Izuryu quickly glanced at the red-head who was chewing his Takoyaki. His eyes narrowed down as he opened his sharingan and put her in a daze for 5 seconds.

His hands slithered towards her chicken meat skewers and he stuffed them into his mouth.

He removed the genjutsu and Kushina woke up.

Her brows furrowed for a moment but she shook head and looked down at her 'meat' skewers.

Her eyes widened in horror.

Her chicken had disappeared!

All that were left were 5 naked skewers, with no hint of chicken on itself.

She looked around as her eyes set on Izuryu's slightly bulging cheeks.

The smell from his mouth couldn't be hidden as the aroma of chicken floated from his mouth.

"You ate my chicken!"

Izuryu cackled in delight as he looked at Kushina's pouting expression.

Kushina grabbed all five skewers and flung them towards Izuryu.

"This brat…"

Izuryu's brows arched.

He picked up a toothpick from his Takoyaki plate and flung it towards Kushina's skewers.

The toothpick grazed into the first skewer.

While it didn't break it or completely destroy it, the force within the toothpick changed the direction of the skewer's force.

The skewer, now instead of going in a straight line, moved to the right, colliding with the skewer next to it as its tail smacked into the skewer on its left.

This turned into a sort of domino effect, making the skewers go into different directions instead of hitting Izuryu.

One of the skewers, which had changed the direction it was moving in, collided it's body with Kushina's forehead.

"Ouch!"

She pressed a hand on her forehead and closed her eyes.

Her little hands rubbed against the spot the skewer had landed on, trying their best to stop a welt from forming.

It miraculously worked!

Her forehead had a small swell and a shade of red but nothing like a full bump.

"Kuh- Why did you do that?"

Izuryu raised his eyebrows and spoke.

"Hm? Who threw their skewers at me first?"

Kushina made an aggrieved expression.

"Couldn't you just dodge?!" spoke the little red-head.

"Why?!"

"Because I just taught you something!"

Kushina's face had a surprised, yet unbelieving expression. All he had done was throw a toothpick, but it was something big?

"By throwing a projectile in a certain angle, one can change the direction of where a weapon flies to, turning it into that could effectively save you life in certain situations and harm your opponents at the same time.

Got it?"

Kushina nodded in realization.

This guy had actually taught her something good!

Just as Izuryu was about to speak, he saw a dog running towards him.

It was a small dog no more than 1 feet in total height. It had a blue headband with the Konoha symbol on it and it was wearing a blue vest.

Indeed, this was Pakkun, currently Sakumo's summon and in the future, Kakashi's.

He was holding a simple green colored paper in his mouth, which meant that Sakumo was calling for him.

"Well, I would like to talk more but it seems like I'll have to go for now. See you later~"

Izuryu ruffled Kushina's hair and walked away.

***

"It seems you were looking for me, captain?"

Izuryu, who was now in his Anbu uniform asked Sakumo.

"Yeah, we'll be going to Kusagakure. It seems Iwa shinobi have started to attack Konoha's territory and have been moving closer towards Tenchi Bridge."

Izuryu nodded as the two moved out.

"By the way, I heard that you were attacked? What happened back then?"

"Well…"

Izuryu described the events truthfully, he avoided the part that they were troops from Root however.

"To think 8 Jonin and 12 Elite-Chunin were sent to steal the intel…"

Izuryu nodded as well.

"Then, did Hokage-Sama find out the identities of the attackers?"

"Yes! He even called me the other day about it."

***

4 days ago.

"May I come in?"

"Ah. Yes, do come in."

Izuryu walked in to see Danzo sitting on the side of the meeting room, his face looked uglier than ever.

Izuryu greeted Hiruzen with a bow.

The man looked like he had aged a few more years due to the incident. His gray hair having been increased in quantity even though he was many years away from completely being an old man.

"I presume that I've been asked to come here to talk about the identity of the 'unknown' attackers?"

Izuryu took a glance at Danzo but quickly moved his gaze away.

This didn't go unnoticed by Hiruzen, who looked at Danzo, then Izuryu.

"Indeed, we are."

Izuryu was surprised at Hiruzen's decisiveness so he too wouldn't mince his words.

"Then tell me Danzo, who the hell gave you the guts to attack me with troops from Root?"