Disclaimer:  I don't own Naruto.  I wish I did. (Sigh).

Aftermath

By Betula

The Third Hokage gazed out over his broken village in the light from numerous burning buildings and felt the weight of grief and responsibility settling over him like a heavy, noxious gas.

The Fourth was dead.

Many of the Leaf's bright young warriors had fallen this night.  There were few in the Village who had not lost a friend, if not a family member.  Homes were damaged and spirits were broken.  It would take the Hidden Leaf many years to recover.

But worst of all, was the loss of the beloved Fourth Hokage.

It might have been better for the Leaf if this had been a war with another Village – a Village with powerful warriors and unknown techniques – terrifying and sickening and destructive in its own right, but still with human origins and human motives, and therefore somewhat understandable for the grieving survivors.

But their enemy had been a creature far beyond their comprehension.  The Nine-Tails Demon Fox was an ancient entity; its ageless malice had existed long before the oldest of human records, and within the creature's view, the lives of humans were of as much importance as vermin.  Its malevolent intelligence had been the equal of any human's, but it was still an animal, and the way it thought was a mystery to the Leaf strategists.  The Nine-Tails had been so completely alien to them, that the shock and disbelief that usually followed a battle had no outlet in rationalization.  The Nine-Tails Fox Demon had attacked the Leaf, and that was all.

Grief was now being compounded by guilt.  Every last one of the Leaf's ninjas had fought valiantly for their families and for the very existence of the Village, down to the newest Genins.  But for all their superb training, their powerful techniques that had taken generations to perfect, and their determination, their efforts had done little more than annoy the monster, like ants might defending their nest from the man kicking it down for idle pleasure.  There had been no way any human could have been strong enough to kill the Fox Demon – they could not even seriously hurt it. 

But they could trap it.

It was the last and often the only recourse for any human battling a demon – to seal it in some container, and hope that the container would be strong enough to hold it, and that the human would be strong enough to put it there.

The Hidden Leaf had had only one person with the necessary strength.

The Fourth Hokage was the Leaf's most powerful and gifted Hokage to date.  Young, charismatic and intelligent, he had earned the respect and love of every ninja in the village.  He had had no peer in battle, and had been a genius in creating new techniques unlike anything seen before.  He had been especially good at seals.

The Fourth had not told anyone except the Third the full price that would have to be paid to seal the Nine-Tails Fox Demon, and the Third had only been told because he would have to take up the reins of leadership once more and guide the Leaf through the aftermath.  Everyone else had only realized when it was too late, when their beloved Hokage had already sacrificed his life to complete the seal.

Then there was the container.

The Nine-Tails Fox was the most powerful demon known.  Nothing that powerful had ever been sealed before.  An inanimate container would never be strong enough to hold it.  The obvious solution was a terrible one – to use a living container, with a living will to help suppress the monster.  For the solution to work, though, no adult and no volunteer could be used.  An adult mind was too set in its ways, and even a child was too inflexible, as the personality was formed, even in a rudimentary way, in the paths it would take for the rest of his or her life.  Any attempt to use such vessels would result in a weak seal, and the vessel would be driven insane before the demon broke free and took their body for its own.  The only choice they had was to use a baby: the younger, the better.  The infant that now housed the Demon Fox was still damp and bloody from his birth.

The Third turned and entered the building he stood before, which was one of the few that had been left relatively undamaged.  Inside, lying on an altar and surrounded by ceremonial candles, was the child.  He looked like a sacrifice – and indeed he was a sacrifice.  He was crying loudly, from a combination of cold and hunger and fear, waiting for the comfort of a mother who would never come.  His hair was drying to a fluffy golden blond, and his tiny, stick-like limbs flailed.  Still naked, the seal was plainly visible as a stark black design on the pale skin of his belly.  It would fade from sight eventually, and would only be visible when he brought out his Chakra.  He had, however, been physically marked further than that, by the Demon Fox itself.  When it had realized that it was caught in a trap it could not escape, it had lashed out with a petty retaliation, which was all the revenge it had been capable of in that moment.  It had seared three marks into each of the baby's cheeks, so that the child looked as if he had fox whiskers, which would remind the villagers every time they looked at him what he carried inside him.  It was, added to their own deeds, merely a small cruelty.  They had used the child's mind and body as a prison, and his soul would battle the demon for as long as he lived.

The Third examined the seal closely.  The Fourth had been terribly torn over what he would have to do to the boy, and in the intricate seal he had offered some compensation, in the form of the Nine-Tails' Chakra.  If the child ever gained the strength and determination to master it, he would be able to use demon's Chakra as if it were his own.  This ability would also be a protection against those who would hate and fear him, and so try to destroy him, and also against ruthless men who might try to take the demon's power as their own.  He had the potential to be the most powerful ninja the Hidden Leaf had ever produced.  Heaven help them if ever he turned against them.  That was the gamble – but the Fourth had been good at gambling.

The Third gathered the baby and the blanket underneath him, wrapping him up and holding him close.  At the feel of a warm body and the sound of a soothing voice, his cries subsided, and with a tiny sigh he drifted off to sleep.  For the first time in many days, the Third felt a measure of peace.

That peace was shattered by a rock thrown through a window.  Angry murmurs could be heard in the background, with a louder voice audible over them: "Bring it out!  We know it's in there!"

The Third held the baby closer and went to the door.  Outside was every survivor of the battle not too injured to stand, and a number of the less timid non-combatants of the village, gathered in a tight knot and united for a single purpose.  No longer were they disciplined ninjas and rational human beings.  They were a mob.

"Give it to us!"  Was the shout that greeted him as he stood in the doorway.  "Let us finish it here and now, while we can.  Let us kill the monster!"  The rest of the mob roared in agreement.

The Third looked at his people and was horrified.  Their grief and guilt had turned to anger.  They had before been powerless against the demon in the battle, now the situation was reversed: the fox was vulnerable in his hole, and they intended to drag him out.

The Third turned is body slightly, shielding the infant from their eyes.  He knew that if he showed the slightest weakness here, they would rip the infant from his arms and tear his tiny body apart.

"I will not give him to you."  The Third Hokage's voice was like ice.  "The Nine-Tails Fox Demon may be imprisoned within him, but this child is an innocent.  He has done nothing to you.  Indeed, he is the one who has saved you!  You should be thanking him for his sacrifice, not condemning him for crimes he did not commit."

The people would not be reasoned with.  "You can't know that!  What if the demon takes control?  What if the seal breaks?  What if he turns on us?  Better to end it now!"  The mob took a step forward. 

"NO!"  The Hokage thundered, and they retreated again.  "Listen to me, all of you.  You will not touch this child.  Any person who attempts to harm him will be imprisoned.  Any person who succeeds in harming him will be executed!  And there shall be a new rule from this day.  Any person who tells this child what is inside him, or any of the children who are ignorant of how the Nine-Tails was sealed, shall be exiled from this village."  There was a mutter of protest, and the Hokage lowered his voice, but all still heard him.  "I shall be watching this boy.  I know I cannot watch him every minute of every day, but I shall watch, and you will never know when I am watching.  If any person seeks to harm him, I will know."  He looked at them, and one by one they dropped their gazes.  "Go," He said, gently now.  "Mourn for those you have lost, and comfort those whom you still have."  Slowly, slowly, they began to disperse.

The Third turned and went back inside.  "What shall I do with you, little one?"  He asked rhetorically.  He would have to place him in some kind of care until the boy was old enough to take care of himself.  As much as he would like to, he could not raise the boy.  His control over the village was tenuous, and if he kept the child, it would probably be enough to incite the people to a revolt.  The Hidden Leaf would be utterly destroyed.

They did not understand.  The child was the Fourth Hokage's final legacy, his last gift to the village.  It had been his desire that the boy would be cherished and revered for his sacrifice, and seen as a hero who had begun protecting his village from the very day he was born.

Recalling the looks in the people's eyes, the Third knew that the Fourth's last wish was a futile one.  The people's anger would not subside; it would turn to hatred and fear.  The boy would grow up an outcast, unwanted and unloved by everyone around him.  The only way he would ever gain their respect would be by using unparalleled determination to win them over one at a time, until he grew too powerful to ignore, and then there would always be doubters, unless he somehow proved to everyone that he was absolutely devoted to the Hidden Leaf.  Even if there was some way he could do all this, he would have to be a truly remarkable person not to grow up with his spirit crushed.

The baby moved, and the Third looked down at him.  The baby was awake and his unfocused eyes blinked trustingly up at him.  Holding the infant in the light, he saw that those eyes were blue – not the murky blue that would change colours as he grew older, but a bright, limpid blue that would remain his own.

The Third Hokage bowed his head over the infant, and let his tears fall, and whispered, "I'm so sorry, Naruto, so very sorry…."

The End