Konoha Children's Crusade Chapter 34 Part 2

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    The Inuzuka compound was in an uproar, and Sakura was the cause… Well, more accurately, her mother was the cause.

    A patrol had met her little group of shopkeepers and their families at the edge of the Inuzuka holdings. When they approached her on the run, she was at first worried that they had mistaken the bunch of them for some looters, and they were there to chase them off. But when they skidded to a stop in front of her, all of them, even the dogs, seemed to be smirking. “Your mother’s looking for you,” said the leading kunoichi, trying to suppress a giggle.

    Sakura didn’t say a word. She just took a deep breath, and solemnly marched back to the main clearing.

    “And just what was I supposed to think?!?” Mebuki screamed at her, frantically waving her arms up and down. “You vanished in the dead of night without leaving a word with anyone!”

    “I didn’t want to be a bother mom! I just needed to... go for a walk to sort some stuff out,” Sakura lied.

    “Not be a bother? Not be a bother?!?” shrieked her mother, her voice entering such a high register that several of the Inuzuka hounds that were attached to the patrol that Tsume Inuzuka had sent out to find her at her mother’s insistence, started to creep away with their ears back. “In case you hadn’t noticed young lady, there is a riot going on outside these walls! Telling your mother exactly where you are going is not a ‘bother’... it is a necessity!!!”

    “Sorry mom,” said Sakura as meekly as she could.

    Her mother let out a loud sniff. “It’s not only me you should be apologizing to… You should also be thanking these nice ladies and gentlemen who were so kind to go out and look for you.” There were definite signs of smirking amongst the gathered Inuzuka. Mebuki turned to the leather clad Sai and gave him a bow. “Especially you Inuzuka-san, I thank you for finding my wayward daughter and escorting her home. You and your clan are a credit to shinobi society.”

    “It was my pleasure madam,” he said politely, returning her bow. The whole of the Inuzuka patrol, including the dogs, looked at each other and broke into amused grins.

    Thankfully Tsume Inuzuka stepped forward before anyone could burst out laughing. “All right you bums! You heard the lady! It was just a little misunderstanding. Sakura’s found, safe and sound! We had no intruders inside the walls, let’s make sure we stay that way, get back on patrol! What are you waiting for? Go go go!” she said, clapping her hands. There was a grumble of assent before men and dogs scattered.

    She turned to the bunch of shivering shopkeepers that Sakura had led back. “As for the rest of you... you’re free to use what ever dry patch you can come up with. We got walls and guards. It should be plenty safe for the night… go to bed!” she said, dismissing them all.

    “A dry patch… Oooh! That’s so much better than my nice warm bed!” grumbled Mayuki, the female shopkeeper.

    “Oh give it a rest,” snapped Hiro. “At least you won’t be murdered on the ‘dry patch.’” They continued bickering into the night.

    Sakura was about to leave too, when Tsume clamped a hand down on her shoulder. “It’s been a long night for you Mebuki-san, why don’t you head off to bed as well? I want to have a quiet word with Sakura... if that’s alright with you?”

    It was after three o’clock in the morning, and her mother was most definitely not a night owl. “I can only hope that you’ll have better luck getting her to listen to common sense than I have had,” said Mebuki with a sniff.

    “I’m sorry about my mother Tsume-sama,” Sakura muttered after her mother had stormed moodily back to their guest house. “She has a tendency to be…”

    “I ain’t about to fault a mother for worrying over her cub. That’s every mother’s right,” said the Head of the Inuzuka clan in a quiet growl. “I’m also not going to chew you out for taking a late night stroll. The way I see it, you’re a big girl now and old enough to be knowing how to take care of yourself… What I am going to to say, however is that you and I are going to have a little chit chat about my clan and the goings on therein…”

    Tsume looked out over the group of shopkeepers stumbling through the trees and frowned. “I don’t mind opening up my territory to those that need medical attention, but most of that bunch wasn’t even wounded… What the hell are they doing here?”

    Sakura explained how she came across a shinobi squad from the the council trying their hand at extortion. When she got to the part about how she fought off the attackers, Tsume rubbed her temples and sighed. “Okay… I can see why you thought they’d need somewhere safe to go… and I can see why the clan’s land might just be one of the safer places around for anyone who doesn’t have a clan right now… But if you’re going to keep on wandering home with people like this, we’re going to need to establish some ground rules… Understand?”

    “Yes Tsume-sama,” said Sakura in a submissive voice.

    “Don’t whimper at me girl! If you’re going to be taking charge of this bunch, do it like you’re strong and sure… even if you have no idea what the hell is happening!”

    “Taking… charge?” Sakura asked.

    “Well I’m not going to do it! I’ve got my hands full with my own clan… bunch of lovable idiots that they are.” Tsume started to pace around the clearing. “First rule… anyone you bring here is your responsibility. You organize them, you listen to their grievances, keep them from tearing up the place and keep them out of my people’s way.  If there’s troubles or complaints… You deal with them, I don’t want to hear it. I’ll do what I can to help those that come in wounded and give you what food we can spare, but I’m going to warn you right now, if too many others start showing up, I’m not sure what they’ll be eating.”

    “Second thing, I want all of this lot vetted. Everyone who’s here needs to be vouched for. It’s up to you to figure out how you’re going to do that. I am not going to wake up in the middle of the night only to find that a bunch of Root agents have infiltrated us disguised as old ladies. I’ve already got one Root bastard wandering around the place and this Sai jackass is almost more than I can handle,” she snarled, glowering at Sai’s silhouette which was leaning against a tree.

    Sai stood. “Sai?” he asked innocently “Who is this ‘Sai’ of which you speak? I am just an average, nondescript member of the Inuzuka clan!”

    “Bugger off!” snapped Tsume.

    “Certainly Inuzuka-sama! I hear and obey the Head of my clan!” He bowed with a fairly fancy flourish before wandering away.

    “Does he think he’s being clever doing that sort of thing, or is he just a complete idiot?” Tsume Inuzuka grumbled.

    “It’s hard to tell sometimes,” said Sakura with a shrug.

    “Whatever,” said Tsume with a shake of her head. “But while we are on the subject of untrustworthy bastards… I’m going to bring up my third and most important point…” She paused and gave Sakura a cold look. “A dear old uncle of mine had one of his hounds bring me a message. He told me that while out on your ‘walk’ tonight… You tried to reunite with an ‘old friend’.”

    “Look I was just…” Sakura started.

    “I don’t need to hear your explanations… In fact Uncle Jiro said I would probably sleep better the less I knew about what was going on… But I am telling you plainly that the Uchiha boy will never be welcome here… under any circumstances. Are we clear about that?” she said with a vicious snarl.

    For the first time, she saw why Kiba told everyone his mother was ‘scary’. Sakura had to stop herself from taking a step back. “Yes ma’am.”

    “Good… Now go back to the house we’ve lent you, get some rest, and for the Gods’ sake never do that again!” Tsume gave her a broad smile. “I thought your poor mother was going to tear the whole forest apart looking for you.”

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    Her father was the one waiting for her at the small table in the kitchen. For once in his life he wasn’t smiling. “Usually when your mother gets upset like that, I can tell her to calm down and not overreact… I couldn’t do that this time,” he said quietly.

    “Sorry Dad,” Sakura mumbled.

    Father and daughter stared at each other, he trying to appear stern, while she kept her face looking guilty and contrite. Kizashi broke first, looking away and sighing. “I’m glad you’re safe Blossom… Your mother was a bundle of nerves ever since she heard about the council meeting this morning. She did an admirable job keeping it together all day. Then when you didn’t show up for dinner, and nobody knew where you had disappeared off to… well... she just assumed the worst.”

    “Sorry Daddy… It’s just been a very… hard day and I needed some time to think by myself… I should have considered what you and Mom were going through.”

    Kizashi gave her a quizzical look. “I can understand that, but what on earth possessed you to go back into Konoha tonight of all nights?”

    Sakura shrugged, playing innocent. “I was… trying to make sure everyone was okay.” Her father raised his eyebrows. “I was! I started this… this trouble! It’s only right that I try to take care of it!”

    Kizashi chuckled. “Noble hearted as always.” He leaned forward and dropped his voice to a whisper. “Please don’t tell your mother I said this, but I’m rather proud of what you did today… while we were trying to figure out where you had run off to, we took the time to chat with several of the people you helped… They had nothing but the highest praise for you…  I know you mother doesn’t look it right now, but she was quite impressed too.”

    He patted her hand and started to rise from the table. “I understand how you feel responsible Blossom… But trust me, you’re really not… You don’t have to take things all upon yourself. You’re a medic, and a darned good one… Just do what you can… You’re not the Hokage you know.” Kizashi turned and started towards the bedroom.

    “Hey Dad?” Sakura found herself asking hesitantly. “You were almost Hokage once… weren’t you?”

    Kizashi stopped and slowly turned back to the table, an annoyed look on his face. “l know your mother likes to go on and on about it, making it seem like I was just a hair’s breadth away from the seat, but in reality... I was only one potential candidate out of many… That’s all. And out of all those candidates, the one who deserved the position most was the one who got it, Minato Namikaze… why do you ask?”

    Why did she ask? Well, according to Tsume, she was going to have to start being in charge of this camp… And while she felt comfortable dealing with the practical matters, She wasn’t sure how to get people to listen to her. Sakura tried to make her shrug as nonchalant as she could. “I was just wondering… if you would have any... advice on what qualities you thought would make someone a good leader… that’s all.”

    Her father grinned teasingly. “My little girl… You’re not interested in becoming Hokage are you?” He laughed and slowly sat back down. “Following in your sensei’s footsteps! Well, that would be one way to get your mother to forgive you for this night!” He gave a little chuckle, and then his face grew serious again. “Honestly Sakura, it’s a thankless job. You get all the blame when things go wrong, but if you work your fingers to the bone making sure that everything runs smoothly, no one even notices. You have to work long hours, there’s no time off, no holidays, no vacations, or sometimes even no time to eat.”

    “Everybody wants something from you… and if you give it to them, nine times out of ten, they’ll just complain and ask for more or something different or say you got it all wrong… and if you refuse them, well then you’ve just made an enemy.”

    Kizashi sighed and shook his head. “Being Hokage doesn’t mean you lead and everyone will automatically follow. Its like… like…” He wrinkled his face in thought. “You know in the Land of Snow, how they use those sleds pulled by a huge mess of dogs? Its like that, only all the dogs each want to pull the sled in a different direction, and you have to somehow persuade them it’s in their best interest to go this one particular way… otherwise nobody ends up moving at all.”

    Her father had a far away gleam in his eye and a sad look on his face. “If ever there was a man who was born to be Hokage… It was Minato.”

    “What do you mean?” asked Sakura, genuinely curious.

    Kizashi leaned back in his chair. “The First and Second Hokage’s reigns happened well before I was born, but my parents and grandparents remembered and told me the stories. Hashirama-sama was a wonderfully charismatic idealist. It was his vision that founded the Hidden Leaf and the whole modern day shinobi system. But his idealism was his downfall. He trusted people to the point of foolishness. He loved to take chances. He signed sweeping huge treaties and trade agreements, hoping that they would pay off with peace and prosperity down the road. Time and time again he blindly led Konoha into betrayal after betrayal, losing territory and prestige.”

    “Long before he was killed in that battle in the Land of Rain, the people of Konoha were eager for a change, and when he died they almost immediately handed the title of Hokage to his brother. The second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, he did everything he could to protect the village. He married off what was left of his clan to build better alliances with other clans of the Leaf. He beefed up the production of shinobi, exponentially growing Konoha’s military might. He started the Academy system to standardize shinobi training, producing a better quality of ninja.”

    Sakura’s father leaned forward, an uncomfortable look on his face. “But when Tobirama-sama saw something he thought was a threat to the village, he dealt with it… swiftly and definitively and without an ounce of mercy. His decisions were final. He never learned how to negotiate.” Kizashi sighed. “He did a lot of good for the village, but in the end, his inflexibility was only what people remembered… Now Hiruzen-sama, you remember him of course.”

    “He always seemed to be… very happy… happy go lucky,” Sakura said casually, not willing to share with her father what she had learned about the Third Hokage.

    Kizashi nodded. “‘Seemed’ is a good word for him. Hiruzen Sarutobi was a master at hiding his true emotions. He would have been wonderful at playing poker if he had any interest in gambling… but the only game he wanted to play was politics. He was a masterful politician. He could smile and laugh and tell you humourous stories about all the antics of his children and his grandchildren… and diplomats would be so entranced by this charming man and his jolly tales that they would never notice he was hacking their trade proposal to ribbons in front of their very eyes.” Sakura’s father drummed his fingers on the desk. “There was only one moment I ever saw that facade of his fail…”

    “When his wife was killed in the Nine Tails attack?” Sakura guessed, remembering a comment in Mikoto Uchiha’s letters.

    Her father looked surprised. “You heard about that?”

    “I… read about it somewhere.”

    Kizashi nodded. “He was changed man after Biwako died. He hid it well, but for those of us who knew him closely… he was so looking forward to retiring, to spending time with his wife, children and his grandchildren, and then suddenly… When the Nine tailed Fox attacked, everything changed. He didn’t want to be the Hokage again, but when the village needed a leader, he stepped into the role.”

    “Why? Why didn’t they just try to find someone else after the Fourth Hokage was killed?”

    Her father spent a long moment looking very uncomfortable. “We were all so young during that first selection... Minato and I and the other candidates were being poked and prodded and having our files reviewed and our teeth checked to make sure we were fit to even be considered for the position of Hokage... there was this long interview process where we were hauled up in front of every elder and council member in Konoha, and they were allowed to ask us anything they wished.”

    “They fired off questions, one after the other. Some of them made sense, like our stances on the various peace treaties signed after the Third war… some were rude and invasive, like all the questions Minato had to suffer about his being in a relationship with a Jinchuriki… Some were just plain bizarre, like this one elder who asked every candidate if it was proper to serve green melon as a dessert course at a state dinner.”

    “Anyway, it was a venerable Nara elder with a frightfully long beard who asked us: ‘With one word, describe what quality makes a good Hokage?’ We all came up with the usual things. Bravery, honesty, kindness, strength, intelligence, leadership… but when it was Minato’s turn, he said: ‘Parenthood’.”

     “When asked to explain further he said: ‘A good parent must have a delicate touch when caring for a child. If they are too free, the child becomes wild and unruly. If they are too oppressive, the child never learns to take initiative and make their own choices… A child must be comforted when it is hurt, made to feel safe when it is scared, praised for its successes, and disciplined when it misbehaves… A good Hokage must be a parent to the Hidden Leaf… and like a parent… The Hokage must put the Hidden Leaf first in all things.’”

    Kizashi exhaled and pulled his hands through his hair. “After Minato was killed, the Hokage’s small council discretely came around to me again, asking if I might be interested in trying for the Hokage’s seat a second time… and all I could think was ‘Poor Minato.’ If he hadn’t been Hokage, maybe he and his wife and child would be alive today… and I wondered what his life would have been like.”

    Sakura’s father looked up at her and smiled. “I turned them down. I didn’t feel the need to be the parent of the whole village… I was the father of the most wonderful girl in the world.”

    Kizashi stood up and held out his hand to her. “Come on Blossom, it’s off to bed with you… I’ll even tuck you in... for old times sake.”

    Sakura hesitated as they reached the foot of the stairs. “Dad… people are talking about how those of us who… um… don’t agree with the council are disorganized and need a leader and... all that … Do you think that… someone should do… something?”

    “Of course I do Blossom.”

    “Would you?”

    Her father gave her a surprised look. “Of course I would! Well… If I could… The thing is…” He sighed. “Let’s be honest… I’ve been out of the field for almost fifteen years now… I’m out of shape and have no recognition…I am no one of consequence. My time has long passed. Who is going to follow some chubby, forty something year old, has been?”

    “Oh, you’re better than that Dad,” said Sakura earnestly.

    Kizashi smiled. “Coming from you Blossom, I can almost believe it.” He started up the steps.

    “But if you wanted to,” asked Sakura, forcing him to stop again. “How would you do it? If you decided that you were going to be the one to save the village, how would you go about getting people to follow you?”

    “Ah,” said her father nodding sagely. “A common misconception.”

    “Misconception?” Sakura said, confused.

    Kizashi nodded. “Too many people think that they can’t change anything unless they are in charge...  When in reality, anyone can make a difference, all they have to do is take action.” He chuckled to himself. “The really funny thing is, those that take action, are often the ones who end up leading.”

    “Yeah… But Dad?” asked Sakura still hesitating at the bottom step, “Who do you think should be in charge of the opposition? I mean… doing something like that is pretty… extraordinary.”

    Kizashi started back up the stairs. “Well… you know what they say Blossom: The only difference between doing the ‘ordinary’ and the ‘extraordinary’ is that little ‘extra’ bit!!!” He waggled his eyebrows gleefully and gave her a nudge. “Get it?”

    Sakura groaned. “Not helpful Dad,” she muttered pushing past him.

    “Oh come on!” complained Kizashi, his voice full of false hurt. “Even you have to admit… that was a good one!”

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