For a few moments, absolute silence reigned in the room before Hiruzen broke that silence with his stern voice.
"You ran from the battlefield Chunnin Kazuo."
"I was given a mission to..." Kazuo started before he saw Hiruzen lift his hand up to stop him from talking further.
"You were not given a mission. Minato here can attest to that." Hiruzen said as he nodded to a corner of the room.
Turning his head, Kazuo saw the yellow flash of the leaf looking at him in what looked like disappointment.
'This...' Kazuo felt shock go through his mind.
Minato had actually responded to the kunai being thrown and had arrived in time for the battlefield.
That meant that the whole journey had been pointless.
In fact, he had lost everything he had built up so far simply because of this bullshit.
Kazuo felt furious, furious at himself for his own error.
"What happens now, lord Hokage?" Kazuo asked as he turned to look at Hiruzen.
The previous look of grief and subservience was completely gone from his face.
"You will face jail time, you will first get interrogated and tortured before you either get executed or work for the rest of your life in the mines or somewhere similar," Hiruzen answered, his words stern as he looked at Kazuo.
"I see, well I don't agree with that," Kazuo said as a small smile appeared on his face.
Hiruzen looked at the young shinobi with a surprised face, this wasn't what he was expecting in terms of a reaction.
"You think that you can escape from here? In front of me, the Hokage and Mintao Namikaze?" Hiruzen questioned, his tone appearing genuinely curious about Kazuo's next move.
Kazuo stared at him for a while before nodding his head with a light smile.
"Of course I can you old mother fucker." Kazuo said with a light laugh.
His words caused the expression on Hiruzens and Mintao's faces to crumble slightly.
At this moment, in the silence, a slight sound was heard.
It was the sound of explosion tags about to go off.
The Hokages and Mintao's expressions quickly changed once more as Minato teleported to Kazuo and proceeded to teleport him away.
Kazuo's last moments were him looking at a random field before he exploded.
'Fucking hax' Kazuo thought.
The scenery quickly changed once more as Kazuo found himself back at the border of the land of Hot Waters and the land of fire once more.
'I am royally fucked.' Kazuo thought to himself as he sat down on a large stone in the middle of the forest.
'Think, think you dumbass, how do I fix this.' Kazuo thought to himself however at the moment no plans went through his mind.
'I can try returning to the camp once more and fabricate some lie that I was put under a Genjutsu and kidnapped.' Kazuo thought before nodding his head.
There wasn't much he could do besides give it a try, there was nothing to lose and everything to gain at this point in time.
'If only I could return farther back in time.' Kazuo thought to himself before shaking his head.
'Let's just do this.'
Turning around Kazuo used the bodyflicker to run at incredibly high speeds through the dense forest.
If before he had cared to not use a lot of chakra then now he didn't at all.
His most important task was to arrive as quickly as he could back to the camp.
The faster he did come back the more chances there were of his lie actually working.
It had taken him almost the entire night to arrive where he had been however with him using his entire chakra reserves like a reckless man, Kazuo managed to shorten that time significantly.
Arriving at the location where the battle had taken place, Kazuo saw that completely destroyed forest.
It didn't resemble what it had once been even slightly.
Signs of jutsu use were all around him however most importantly, there was no leaf camp here.
'They must have continued on toward the border.' Kazuo thought before taking out his last soldier pill and popping it inside his mouth.
'When these wear off, im going to go on my damned death bed.' Kazuo thought however he didn't care at the moment.
Using Shunshin again, he disappeared from his previous spot.
It took four hours however he could finally hear the sound of shinobi using the body flicker jutsu.
Arriving close to them, He quickly saw the group stop.
It was the leaf ninja.
As they observed him, shock went through their minds.
Kazuo looked completely ruined, his body covered in blood and dust with countless scratches and slices covering his body.
'I had to fucking do this to myself so I don't seem suspicious.' Kazuo thought to himself as he Shunshined into the middle of the group.
No one stopped him as he arrived next to Shikaru.
"Im back commander," Kazuo said as he bowed lightly to the man.
"Where have you been? I heard that you deserted us at the start of the battle." Shikaru said as he looked at Kazuo, his facial expression was furrowed as he looked at the twelve-year-old ninja.
"I don't dare desert the leaf, I was dragged away using a Genjutsu and had to fight my way back, it was a team of young Gennin from the cloud," Kazuo answered, his breath rough as he kept his head down.
"I live and breathe for the leaf sir, I would give my life for it gladly. I could have run away however despite these injuries I wanted to come back and help inside the battle as soon as I could, it seems that I was too late however." Kazuo announced loudly as lifted his head and turned to look around him.
"Im sorry my fellow comrades!" Kazuo practically screamed his apology out as he looked at the shinobi all around him.
For a moment silence engulfed the forest before almost the entire shinobi camp started giving words of encouragement to Kazuo, telling him that it was all right and that he had already done enough for them.
Kazuo's words of patriotism had lit a fuse in them, and his obviously damaged condition gave them something to feel sorry about, his image as a kid only intensifying this fact.
Meanwhile, Kazuos lips curled upwards slightly.
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