Chương 53: An End With New Cards.

Haruto stood silently in a blank kimono along with hundreds of other people in the shinobi memorial ground. Today was the burial day of the Third Hokage and his eldest son Shinnosuke. Haruto's mind weighed terribly at what had passed, but he had gathered himself up after leaving the hospital.

In the strict silence as Hiruzen and Shinnosuke's bodies were lowered in front of Asuma, most wept silently, even Asuma himself, after all the last time he'd spoken to his father the conversation had devolved into an argument that led to Asuma leaving the village to join the Daimyo's guard. The famous Jiraya was present at the funeral too. Tsunade was absent. Soon the silence was disrupted by loud clacking of wooden sandals. Haruto looked at the source of the footsteps and froze just like everyone else present.

'Danzo…' Danzo arrived with a white flower, and placed it on the grave in silence. He was accompanied by his ROOT ANBU who didn't even send a glance at Hiruzen's grave as they stood by his side. The blatant disrespect got to the nerves of several shinobi but they all restrained themselves. They couldn't provoke Danzo's wrath. Not when he had just declared himself the Fifth Hokage.

There had been no ceremony, Danzo had just simply walked into the office and taken the seat without even consulting the other advisors Homura and Koharu. His reasoning was that it was a time of emergency with tensions on the borders of Kumogakure having just been resolved so no one could question him. Haruto stood there silently, waiting for the smallest changes in Danzo's passive expression that might betray his true thoughts.

But it was almost as if Danzo had gone through the same conditioning of his ROOT agents, he appeared as emotionless as a rock. Standing in front of everyone, Danzo turned his back on the graves and looked at everyone with his lone cold eye. After verifying that everyone's gaze was fixed on him, he began speaking.

"Hiruzen was the Third Hokage. A great Hokage who had to take up the mantle twice in his life. He spent most of his life serving this village that we all belong to and never felt spent. Hiruzen was a friend, a father and a teacher, but most importantly of all, Hiruzen was the brightest carrier of the Will of Fire among us all!" If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Today if he were here he would remind us all, when the tree leaves dance, one shall find flames. The fire's shadow will illuminate the village, and once again, tree leaves shall bud anew."

"But he is not! So I am here to remind you! This fire burns in all of us! And today I have decided to put my old self to use! Burning for the village so that tomorrow when the new leaves sprout, they have a future to live under!"

"And to do so I will need the help of the capable shinobi of our village! I will need them to lay down their lives to give the shinobi of the future a village hidden in the leaves that lives beyond their imagination!"

"A village hidden in the leaves that lives beyond the imagination of every great shinobi nation in the world!"

"A village hidden in the leaves that lives beyond the imagination of even the Daimyo's of the various countries of the world!" Silence took the reins after Danzo ended his speech. His cold lone eye looked over everyone once again before he began his march back, back to the Hokage office from where he would begin his reign. Fists clenched, teeth grit, but no one dared to say a word. The dark clouds far above thundered before the sky began to express its sorrow in the form of rain.

Light at first, causing people to scatter, before turning into a downpour that Asuma tried to drown himself under. Jiraya stayed beside Asuma, placing his hand on the young boy's shoulders that were trembling, giving him silent company so that he wouldn't do something impulsive. Haruto left along with everyone, making the silent walk home as he wondered what the future of the village that Danzo had promised would look like. Lying down in his bed after changing clothes, Haruto blankly stared at the ceiling.

'Haruto…' Megumin called out. The uneven surface of the ceiling looked like the spinning galaxy to Haruto as he let himself be lost in his imagination for a few minutes.

'I'm fine…' Haruto responded and then proceeded to close his eyes.

'I guess I should pull new cards from the deck…'

'That's the only way for me to grow stronger quickly…'

'And with Danzo at the wheel… that's going to be my only hope for a long time.' With his eyes on the Roulette Template Deck, Haruto entered the dealer's den. The same white gloved hands appeared in front of him once again. He gave the mental command for the dealer to begin and she threw the cards from right hand to the left in a spring flourish waiting for Haruto to pick a card. Haruto observed carefully. And right when he spotted a platinum card he yelled stop in his mind!

The cards froze mid air this time, flying in slow motion, as the gloved hands picked out the card that had been in the centre of the spring flourish when Haruto had indicated a stop.

'Damn it… it's only a bronze card…'

'I swear I picked the Platinum card…'

'I guess the house always wins…' The gloved hands separated the card but let it remain face down for now before picking up the floating deck once again as time unfroze. Seeing the cards flying in the air again Haruto quickly understood that he would have to pick the other template card now too and both the cards would be revealed at once. Haruto focused on the cards once again, watching like a hawk, and just when he noticed a platinum card leave the gloved hands once again he yelled stop!

The gloved hands picked the card from mid air before collapsing the flying cards into a neat deck and placing it on the side of the table.

'A silver card…' Haruto lamented.

'Not bad… but not the best either…'

'I guess Edward-sensei was a silver card… he turned out pretty good with his seal-less jutsu knowledge, I guess this one might help me out too.' The gloved hands slowly approached the two cards lying on the centre of the table causing Haruto to gulp.

'What's with all the suspense! Just flip the damn cards!' The gloved hands swiped above both the cards and with a quick swish, flipped them. Haruto's breathing hitched as he noticed the figures in the cards. He recognised both the characters. One was a lovable big blue headed genius who was, in his opinion, the best villain ever.

And the second character card, with its heterochromatic eyes, caused Haruto's breath to freeze, because in his opinion this character too was one of the best villains ever at least when it was acted by Johnny Depp.

'Megamind!'

'Grindelwald!' Haruto quickly exited the Template Roulette Deck space before launching into the Template Inventory Space. Almost as soon as he appeared there, the first words he heard were.

"Holo."

"My friend."