Notes: Another 'Naruto as Hokage' story to accompany "The Broken Bond." Finished in a hurry because I suspect poor Konan won't last much longer.

Summary: The Hyūga plan to rebel. Naruto planned ahead. Guess who wins?

Rebuild

A Naruto Oneshot by

Nate Grey (xman0123-at-aol-dot-com)

Naruto tells himself that there are only three in all of the Hyūga that are still loyal to him.

It is supposed to make things easier.

It really doesn't.

The elderly Branch Family maid that practically raised Hinata and Hanabi is still alive, if only just. She will not be spared, not through any fault of her own, but because Naruto cannot find a single reason other than compassion to keep her alive.

And this is a task where compassion cannot be considered. Naruto can only vouch for those three, and that is all the mercy he can afford to give.

Rock Lee has trained for most of his life to be an outstanding ninja. He has met that goal: there is no one else that Naruto has more confidence in, and that was something that used to make Lee proud.

Now it simply makes him feel dirty.

But he will do what Naruto has asked of him, not out of respect for the Hokage or their lifelong friendship, but for the sake of justice.

Lee was born with a natural, invisible seal, one that would restrict him from ever using any sort of ninjutsu or genjutsu. He has never understood why the Hyūga would insist on a visible seal that would not only weaken their kinsmen, but give birth to a hatred between them that has spanned several generations of their existence in Konoha.

He always suspected it would be difficult to see Hinata with her forehead covered, to know what she would be hiding underneath.

No one ever suspected that Hinata, inspired again by Naruto's courage, would finally surpass her sister in skill.

No one ever suspected that the Hyūga elder council, tired of waiting for either Hinata or Hanabi to outshine the other, would forcibly seize control of the clan and apply their seal to practically everyone but their own immediate descendants, Hinata, and Neji, though not for lack of trying.

Lee only had to see the seal on Hanabi's forehead once, along with the broken pride in her eyes, to know that Naruto's way was both necessary and right. But he had never expected that Naruto would hand the task to him. Still, even if it means the death of their friendship, Lee will do what has been asked of him. He may never look Naruto in the eye again, but somehow that is an easier punishment than being unable to meet Hanabi's eyes.

Konan is not a ninja of Konoha, but this is not the first time she has done a job for Naruto.

She never accepts payment, but Naruto always offers, and always far more money than is wise for someone in his position.

Really, it is almost as if he has completely forgotten that she is Mikage now.

Though he does not know it, Konan has watched Naruto grow into a man. He is so much like Pain that Konan is sure it would bother Naruto if she ever pointed it out. But she doesn't. She owes him that much, for allowing Nagato to die in peace. And because she does, she will eventually warn him, when he crosses the line. He hasn't yet, but she knew when Nagato had, and she is sure she'll know when Naruto does.

This time, he is awfully close.

This time, Konan suspects she will rather enjoy herself.

With so little left in her life that can bring pleasure, she will gladly slaughter any number of Naruto's foes for free. He is, after all, a fellow student of Jiraiya, trying to prevent a war before it can truly began, and that is something Konan can appreciate.

Hinata would never ask it of him. She would never have dreamed that Naruto could even imagine ordering such a thing.

She should have known better.

Naruto has watched her sweat, bleed, and cry because of and for her clan for years. The only difference now is that he actually has the power to carry out his promise of changing the Hyūga.

But Hinata knows there is no sense in changing the dressing on a rotting leg, only in cutting it off entirely.

Hanabi has never known what it meant, to bow her head and pledge her life to a man. But she did so with Naruto, without thought or hesitation.

The seal was only active on her forehead for five or six hours at most. And then Naruto, once known throughout the village as a total failure as a ninja, had deactivated it somehow. But despite his mastery of sealing jutsu, Naruto could not remove the seal without destroying her mind. Nor could he find any way to render it useless except by further scarring Hanabi's forehead.

Surprisingly, after the procedure was done, after she had spent several long hours staring at her ruined flesh in a mirror, Hanabi realized that she didn't care. For the first time in her life, she was completely free. Her father had been among the first to die during the elders' rebellion, and she had only followed his orders because of the power his position promised, once it was handed to her. But such things no longer mattered to her.

Naruto had freed her from the prison of her clan, and there were no words to accurately express her gratitude.

If he had asked it of her (or even ordered it), Hanabi would gladly had submitted to being his wife, or even just his lover. Naruto was not a cruel or unattractive man, so neither role would have been particularly distasteful for her.

But what Naruto did ask of her was somehow more difficult. Still, as it was the only thing he had ever asked of her, Hanabi found she could not refuse him.

The Hyūga are too proud to leave Konoha, so the only option left open to them is to take it over by force.

They assume, with their eyes, that it will be a simple matter. And in that respect, they are right.

Their deaths are fairly straightforward, and carried out in just under an hour.

Perhaps the greatest weakness of Byakugan is not so much in the doujutsu itself, but as in the case of the fallen Uchiha, the carriers themselves. Dependency on any one skill can lead to weakness, but with doujutsu it tends to lead to overconfidence nearly every time, perhaps because they can be so formidable when wielded by a master.

And just as with the Uchiha, Konoha had been forming weapons against the Hyūga for years, if only because certain people had learned from the mistakes of the Uchiha incident. So by the time Naruto came to power, he already had the tools needed to exterminate the Hyūga. He was one of them, after all, but ultimately decided not to take part in the attack unless it was absolutely necessary. If he did so, it would be rather obvious that he had (certain people just seemed especially sensitive to Kyuubi's chakra, and every use only restarted all of the old rumors), and he wanted to avoid that.

The attack is a flawless operation.

Rock Lee begins, charging into the compound and dispatching any guards he meets with swift, powerful knife hand blows to their throats. Sometimes he hears a muted crunch, but mostly he does not.

The opponents grow more skilled as he gets deeper into the compound, and it takes longer to put them down, but put them down he does. The simpleness of it shocks him, and now he truly appreciates how much of a genius that Neji is: none of the Hyūga he has encountered so far are anywhere near his eternal rival's current level, and for the most part, they are moving in slow motion to Lee, who is still wearing his weights.

Lee only runs into trouble when he reaches the meeting room where the elders await him, surrounded by the most talented ninja that the clan still has. There are just under a hundred left, and Lee is confident he can kill perhaps forty before they overwhelm him, perhaps sixty-five if he removes his weights before they can reach him, though that in itself would prove difficult.

Then the roof explodes, and suddenly the room is filled with falling debris and, inexplicably, thousands of small sheets of paper.

Lee drops his weights and wades into the group, taking full advantage of the distraction, but soon loses the element of surprise. Even then, he is not in any real danger.

But suddenly their numbers have been reduced by half, and realizing this, Lee's opponents increasingly begin to rely on Kaiten, both to turn back his blows and to remove the dead bodies from their path.

Instead of trying to break through their temporary shields, Lee falls back and waits, his eyes on the seemingly innocent paper planes that sail directly into the Kaiten whirlwinds, twisting about wildly in the powerful cyclones but never being torn apart. The very instant that the Kaiten winds began to die down, the planes suddenly become kunai that fall, with deadly accuracy, into the Byakugan's only blind spot every single time, and pierce their necks with ease.

They are all dead before Lee realizes it.

His hands are numb and drenched in blood. There is none on her that he can see as she reforms her body, and he isn't sure if he should envy that.

"Come, Lee-kun," Konan says calmly, walking past him. "Naruto-kun is waiting for out report."

Naruto goes public with the night's happenings the following morning. It is not as if he could hide the fact that all but three Hyūga are dead.

There is outrage, to be certain, but Naruto makes sure to explain what would certainly have happened if the Hyūga had won. Already there is a precedent (if only in a few special cases) for placing seals on otherwise normal people. Once the Hyūga had seized control of Konoha, it would only be a matter of time before every villager, civilian and shinobi, had a seal forcing their allegiance. To be blunt, there is a reason why there has never been a Hokage from the Hyūga, and why no one has ever even suggested such a thing.

There is a silver lining to this dark cloud, however, one that Naruto is forced to highlight to prevent another uprising: the Hyūga will live again, only with unquestioned loyalty to the village this time. Neji, perfectionist that he is, has already made plans for an elite training school to breed out the weaknesses (or oversights, as he insists on calling them) in the clan's taijutsu, with assistance from Lee and Tenten. Hinata, somewhat reluctantly, has begun her search for a suitable husband in earnest (and that she did not immediately ask Naruto has spoken volumes to everyone who knows her). Hanabi, very reluctantly, has already finalized plans to be wed into the Sarutobi clan via a bewildered Konohamaru (Moegi is predictably furious, until she realizes that she now has a clear shot at Naruto).

Less than a year after the Hyūga massacre, Inuzuka Hinata gives birth to the first truly free Hyūga child.

It was for the good of the village, and Naruto knows that. But he is rapidly becoming an old man before he can finally accept it as fact.

Naruto is assigning missions to the new genin teams when it finally happens. On one side of him sits an Academy sensei, one of Moegi's seven daughters, but they look so much alike that he can never tell one from another. On the other side is Kiba's firstborn, virtually a mirror image of his father save for the large, milky lavendar eyes that rarely move yet miss precious little. At his feet lies a jet-black hound the size of a small bear, and Naruto absently scratches the dog's head before Moegi's daughter discretely coughs into her hand, regaining his attention.

The next team has arrived, and for a moment, Naruto can only gape at them. Their faces easily give away their clans: Inuzuka, Aburame, and Hyūga. All with expressions of awe on their faces at being in his presence.

All with the same widened, milky lavender eyes.

Naruto is tempted to laugh. Instead, he assigns them a typical D-rank, which has become something of a tradition. Tora has long since passed away. But not without first leaving behind over thirty kittens, all of whom immediately escaped and have run wild through Konoha's forests ever since. Spotting even one is hard enough without the Byakugan, but trying to capture one while at least a dozen others hiss, spit, and rip at your clothes is another challenger altogether. One genin is rumored to have lost three of his fingers, though that has never been confirmed. That his sensei lost the use of a hand has, though.

The End.

Endnotes:

Mikage: divine spirit

I really hope Konan lives. But I hoped the same for a certain other Akatsuki member, too, so I'm prepared for the worst.

Oh, yeah, the Mikage thing. Well, there's already a Mizukage. Tsukikage was too close to Tsuchikage. And I wanted something that referred to Konan as God's Angel, rather than some wet person (especially since she wouldn't like it much, anyway). Just don't ask me what her village would be called. That would call for more thought than I can bother with right now, as I'm in mourning (or I suspect I will be in a few weeks' time, if I know Kishi like I think I do).

Every review donates a dollar to the mangled victims of Tora's demon offspring.