Naruto: The Senju Patriarch

The war at the Iwa front continued, but much more slowly. The Stone had already slowed down greatly, conserving strength as they seemed to anticipate the attack by Hanzo but now it had been crushed, their Shinobi had little hope left facing Konoha's full might. Only smaller skirmishes occurred at key locations and it seemed inevitable that the Stone would lose. They only held on by sheer stubbornness, born from being Iwa Shinobi. But without their surrender, the war couldn't stop. 

The Hokage seemed keen to try to start negotiations and to reach out for Onoki to surrender, and was responsible for Konoha also being somewhat quiet. But Katsuro saw the fire the Leaf Shinobi had in them, with momentum on his side, he pushed for action.

"Lord Hokage, we need to push harder here. The momentum is on our side and the Stone are on their backfoot. But they will not surrender - Onoki and the Stone are stubborn, and they still have over 7,500 Shinobi! We absolutely cannot let up here, a cornered beast will do anything to survive! Being passive here will only cause more needless Leaf deaths."

But even then, he knew the Hokage wouldn't listen, and Katsuro turned to the clan members and those in leadership positions, addressing those he actually could change the opinions of. "I know many of you, like me, are responsible for your clans - your people. Do you want to make an error here and suffer an ambush causing their unnecessary deaths? I, like you, want peace, but I also know my opponent! We must thoroughly crush any of Iwa's plans, let them see it is hopeless to fight us! We achieved a complete victory in Suna only because we had thoroughly destroyed them beforehand!"

Katsuro turned back toward the Hokage seeing the clan leaders nod at his words. His eyes swept over Danzo and he shot a sharp glare at him carrying the weight of his disdain for a man who was supposedly meant to have helped against Hanzo but was never seen on the battlefield once. The glare preemptively silenced the 'shadow' of the village, although Katsuro's current proposal would align with his own thinking. Coward.

"Lord Hokage, please, allow the Shinobi of Konoha to fight! We are not cowards! Let us fight for our peace, it is the only way!" 

Katsuro's words somewhat manipulated the Clan Leaders and Shinobi, implying not fighting here was cowardice, while also explaining the true method to win the war. Hiruzen's tactics to negotiate peace and surrender had not worked before, why would they work now? As such, he was forced to make a decision, granting Katsuro's request with some hesitation.

--

As decided by their meeting, Konoha started to ramp up their effort once again. Katsuro also made sure to distribute his Flying Raijin kunai and mark to his clan members and other Shinobi he trusted, so he could reach anywhere instantaneously and help them. With so many more high level Shinobi like Sakumo or the Ino-Shiko-Cho trio and Katsuro teleporting around, Iwa was losing completely. With the constant use, Katuso became more proficient with the Flying Raijin and he used it more proactively to orchestrate attacks to decimate squads of Stone Shinobi instead of just saving his clan members. Soon, the very sight of Katsuro would force Iwa Shinobi to flee, with Onoki issuing a shameful order that any and all Iwa Shinobi could flee on the sight of the Wind Emperor with no repercussions. The sight of his instant teleportation with the Flying Raijin and familiar flickering aura of Lightning created nightmares among Iwa with them, wondering why he was not named 'Thunder Emperor' or even 'Thunder God' instead. 

Inevitably, Iwa were completely pushed out of Amegakure, suffering devastating losses each day with Konoha having fewer and fewer deaths and injuries. Konoha even began making considerable progress in Stone territory before Onoki finally reached out to discuss a ceasefire clearly pressured by his Daimyo. Hiruzen took the opportunity in a heartbeat. 

--

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Katsuro exclaimed, frustrated and completely taken aback. He knew the Hokage was incompetent, but not to this extent. Rather than causing an uproar at the negotiation site between the Leaf and Stone, the Senju Patriarch had chosen to keep quiet. But now, back at the Leaf campsite, he expressed his anger and shock. Hiruzen had just thrown away an extremely viable opportunity to force the Stone to pay for their actions, which would also greatly help the Leaf, and Katsuro was seething.

Not only that, but Katsuro had been unable to speak up about his disapproval before the 2 sides had met, because the Hokage had accidentally forgotten to inform the young Senju about the discussion regarding negotiations with the Stone, while he was away, helping Leaf Shinobi with medical attention, replacing Tsunade who had returned to the village. He had only been informed of the negotiations suddenly while carrying out his duties. Unlike what Hiruzen had predicted, Katsuro made his way to the site of the negotiations in anger, ignoring anyone trying to stop him, but due to the timing, he was too late to change anything and was only able to witness the deal being concluded alongside displeased looks among the Konoha leadership and Onoki visibly holding back his excitement. His presence and anger almost made those on Iwa's side instinctively grab their weapons or prepare to flee in fear - even Onoki began to sweat before realising how much he had swindled Konoha.

"Katsuro, I can see that you are displeased with the negotiations that I proposed, however, try to understand, by driving up our suggested reparations, we would only be degrading our relationship with not only the Stone, but also paint a bad picture of our village to other villages. The most important thing is peace. Surely, you can understand my actions." 

The Hokage was known to be a good speaker, and now he had grabbed the attention of everyone around him, trying to force Katsuro into submitting. However, the Senju Patriarch refused to back down. He wouldn't allow some useless, stubborn, deceptive little monkey put Konoha at such a disadvantage, without pointing out his mistake in front of everyone. The rest of the Leaf Village were paying the price of the Hokage's inadequacy. 

"Lord Hokage, surely you understand the consequences of a war, being our Hokage and all," Katsuro coldly replied while the Third narrowed his eyes, but also suppressed his rage, "our village has been stripped of most of its resources. We can't - and shouldn't - have been so soft on both the Stone Village AND the Sand. It doesn't even seem like we're victors of this war, even after sacrificing so many Shinobi lives. We're left just like them, if not worse! The Stone has been given a slap on the wrist for starting this war against us, and not to mention you handed over the 4 Tails for NOTHING! They will just wait to build up their strength and start fighting another war! If we lost, do you think they would have done the same for us??! NO! WE WOULD BE LEFT LYING IN THE DIRT!"

At that, there were some mumbles and raising of voices in agreement with Katsuro. Even those who had their eyes covered by the promise of peace now saw how much Konoha had been ripped off. The Hokage, internally cursed him. 

Damn that brat! He always seems to try to undermine me in every possible way! I'm the Hokage. What I say goes! I can't allow him to just mouth off to me whenever he wants!

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