Naruto: The Phoenix Sage

Chapter 10: Chūnin Exams: Preliminaries

Hokage tower

The atmosphere inside the Hokage office was tense and the cause of this tension is when Ibiki morino and Sai's ink bird come to the office with news of Orochimaru being present in the exams, naturally this put Sandaime, Yoriichi and Jiraiya on high alert. Sandaime immediately ordered two anbu teams to go inside the forest to make sure that Orochimaru didn't do anything to the participants.

Also they got the news from one of the proctors that they have found three bodies with kusa shinobi headband on them with all three bodies having their face skin missing, and that anko mitarashi also went inside the forest to confront her former sensei.

After anko and the anbu returned, while anbu team leader told Sandaime that they weren't able to find Orochimaru they did find Anko who was attacked by her traitor sensei, apparently from what anko told them is that she fought Orochimaru and he defeated her by using the prototype curse mark he planted on her before going rouge. He also threatened to destroy the village, if the Chūnin exams were cancelled.

After hearing that Sandaime first ordered the anbu, jōnin and Chūnin to increase their security around the tower in the middle of the forest of death as well as increasing the patrolling around the village. Also he called Jiraiya to put a seal on anko to stop the curse mark functioning.

Now with Sandaime where Yoriichi and Jiraiya were inside his office having discussions, about how to prevent the damage from happening to the village as they knew that invasion was inevitable so they were going to be prepared for it, the best they could.

Jiraiya then questioned his sensei. "What are we going to do now that we have increased the security of the village?"

Sandaime looked at Jiraiya for a second before responding "I am going to make sure that the village is protected at all cost Jiraiya. It's because of my mistake that we are in this trouble. Had I just captured or killed Orochimaru when I had the chance. I should have done it but I can't because I hesitated and that one mistake is coming back to haunt me." Hiruzen finished solemnly as he still blamed himself for this situation he has put konoha in. He is the Hokage! leader of the village for god's sake!! he is supposed to protect it dammit!! But he has done the exact opposite by not dealing with his former student sooner.

Jiraiya said nothing because what could he say he himself wasn't able to deal with Orochimaru and when Minato died and when Naruto disappeared he had almost lost any hope he had in himself, believing he failed to prevent Orochimaru from going down the wrong path, believing he failed Minato in protecting his son Naruto and most of all he was ashamed of himself of being able to help his sensei when he needed him the most.

Yoriichi in an attempt to support Sandaime said "It's neither your fault Lord Hokage or your Jiraiya-sama," both Sandaime and Jiraiya looked at him "You two can't be blamed completely for Orochimaru's action, what he has done in the past and what he is doing in the present is not your fault, both of you did their best and were their to help Orochimaru when he joined danzi but he didn't see it and if someone is to blame is it's he himself, not you two. So please stop blaming yourself and do the right thing." He told them.

After hearing that made Sandaime and Jiraiya relax a little indicated by their little dropped shoulders and release some of the tension they have. It also has an easy atmosphere surrounding the room.

"Thank you, Yoriichi-kun for your words." Sandaime said gratefully to Yoriichi smiling at him as now he felt less guilty.

Jiraiya on the hand said to Yoriichi good naturally "Though I must say Yoriichi you have grown to talk more and even encourage someone like this. Who did you learn to talk like that?"

Yoriichi smiled at both and told them "Who else Jiraiya-sama, from Naruto of course that boy had a knack for making people feel better and through his words, he can break almost all people out of their delusions. One such example is Uchiha Sasuke."