17 Chapter 17. A walk and talk
"My daughter... had business with you, I'll excuse myself first." Hiashi said, wanting to leave these two for themselves.
Hiashi stood up and got ready to walk out.
"Hinata, I'll wait outside, don't take too long." Hiashi spoke with his regular cold tone.
"And Oden... thank you..." Hiashi said as he walked outside.
Hinata looked confused at her father thanking Oden, but Oden knew what Hiashi meant.
The relationship between the daughter and father duo had been many times better since Oden spoke to Hinata in the Forrest, and Hiashi understood why.
"What business did you have with me?" Oden simply asked as he turned his sight towards Hinata.
He saw her cheeks become slightly pink as she started to fidget.
She didn't have the best sense of clothing, or hairstyle but it did have its own charms Oden noticed.
"I.. wanted to say that I'm happy you're back safe!" She said nervously as she handed him a small little box.
Oden reached for the box and opened it, he found an ointment, it looked homemade.
"Did you make this yourself? Oden asked as he noticed that she was looking down totally shy.
"Y-yes." She confirmed.
"Then do you know how to take care of herbs and plants?" Oden asked.
"Yes." She said, this time with more confidence.
"Then... do you know how to garden, do you enjoy it?" Oden asked finally.
"Y-Yes... I used to garden with my mother when I w-was younger." She said, confused why Oden asked her if this as it seemed like he had his agenda.
"Good, My garden is disastrous, I'd like your help to tidy it up whenever you're free. You should come here and help me whenever you have the time." Oden said as he looked outside towards his garden.
Hinata followed his sight and also saw his garden. It looked good, but there were a few unwelcome weeds that grew here and there.
Realizing that he was asking her to come to his home and work on his garden with him, she became beet red.
'A date?!' Hinata thought in realization.
"Y-y-yes!" She said as she hurriedly stood up and walked out of the room.
Oden chuckled as his eyes followed her out.
Hiashi was 0utside the mansion waiting for his daughter, it didn't take long for her to hurry outside and he saw her looking down with a red face.
Hiashi didn't say anything and just started walking back followed by his daughter, however as they walked back, many from the Zaraki clan and Zaraki district seemed to recognize them.
"Ehh Isn't that the Hyuga princess that's about to marry the patriarch?" An elderly lady said.
"Hmm you're right, how cute she is, good match!" She said loudly while giving a thumbs up to Hinata.
Hiashi didn't show any emotion but Hinata became more nervous.
"Eh, your right, so it wasn't just rumors, our head has rizz!" a teen girl said happily.
"Young mistress, please take good care of our young master in the future!" A middle-aged man said. His wife also looked very happy.
"He might seem cold and aloof but he cares deeply about his people, please take good care of him!" The wife said as Hinata and her father walked by.
"Yes!" Hinata said, trying to speak with confidence.
"You can come by my shop anytime you want, I'll give you half price on everything!" a shop owner shouted.
As they walked through the Zaraki district, Hiashi became more assured of the choice he had made for his daughter as the people of this district seemed very caring and welcoming of Hinata.
Hinata started to get dizzy, she had never had so many people look up to her, and have never been welcomed like this before so she didn't quite understand what was going on.
After they finally left the compound, Hiashi looked back at the gate, where the guards were still waving at Hinata with a smile on their faces.
Seeing the sign with the kanji for eternity and a red circle around it, Hiashi was happy that he had come today.
"Oden seems well-liked by his people." Hiashi simply stated.
"mhm," Hinata mumbled.
"This is a good choice for a husband." He said.
"mhm," she mumbled again, this time more shyly.
As for Oden, things continued as they were, he woke up, trained, worked, trained, and occasionally took on a mission.
Three months later, something irregular from his normal schedule happened as Oden received a letter to come to the Hokage tower as the Hokage had important matters to discuss with him.
"Mina, can you bring the files on our genin?" Oden said.
Suddenly, from the shadows walked out a middle-aged maid.
"Yes, young master." She said as she flashed away for a few seconds before appearing again with files in her hands.
"Thank you, Mina, you can take the rest of the day off." Oden said as he took the files and started reading through them.
"Yes sir... Young master, I have a question before I leave." She said, but she did sound somewhat strained.
"What's wrong Mina?" Oden asked.
"Sir, you have no maids left except for me, don't you want me to train a few for when your family becomes bigger?" She asked.
She is similar to Migoto... She is a big fangirl of the Zaraki clan. She wasn't content with Oden not having more maids than one, but she hid her concerns well and acted very professionally. After all, she was the head maid of THE Zaraki clan, she couldn't act willfully, at least according to herself.
"Don't worry about that, the maids we used to have didn't quit, nor did I fire them, I put them on paid leave, If I need them I'll call for them." Oden explained.
He wasn't surprised by her ignorance on this matter, since different responsibilities regarding the household were delegated between both Mina and Migoto, and Migoto took care of most economical and political matters.
While Mina was responsible for teaching and education, so she wasn't aware of what had happened to the previous maids.
"If you find the workload too heavy you can call back a maid to help you." Oden stated as he continued to read.
"No need sir, I was just afraid there weren't enough maids to take care of your future family, I'll take my leave then." She said as she disappeared.
Oden read through the files
His clan had around 400 shinobi, and amongst them, 43 were genin. Genin are usually students in training, and it isn't until they are experienced and more capable that they become chunin.
His clan had about 300 shinobi of the chunin class. which is a formidable force. Not all of them were active shinobi that took on missions, most of them had "retired" and worked as guards for the clan.
In Konoha, the Zaraki clan was one of the bigger clans, but that's only because Senjuu and Uchiha had disappeared, they had bigger forces.
Most people in the Zaraki clan district weren't even Zaraki clan members, they were civilians, and amongst the civilians were civilian Zaraki clan members as well.
"43....9 of them are ready for the Chunnin exams..." Oden whispered to himself, then he picked the ID of those 9 people, ready to send them to the next exams.
The day after, the Hokage was in a meeting with 19 of the Clan heads of Konoha.
"Do you recommend any genins from your clans to participate in the chunin exams?" The Hokage answered.
"I have 3!" The first spoke as he put forward three papers on the big table.
"I have 6."
"I have none"
"I have 14."
"I have 9."
Each of the clan heads took turns to speak. Some had many genins ready to participate in the exams, some had none.
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