Naruto : Uchiha : Chapter 93

His father had never liked Naruto in the first place, but had never invaded his personal life seeing he was progressing as per the man's expectations each-day everyday.

But today was an exception.

...

"Yes, Father." Sakumo answered in defeat. Looking for any signs of lies, Masumoto gauged his son for a minute with critical eyes, but upon finding nothing but truth in his words, he nodded curtly.

"Good. Now it's time for your training. Go and train with your sword, I'll be with you shortly." he said.

Getting up, Masumoto left the room without even so much as glancing back at his son. Sakumo sat there, his eyes as troubled as they could be. But right before leaving, Masumoto decided to speak from the other side of the door.

"Friends are hindrances to a shinobi Sakumo, remember that. Do not get attached, friends will betray you when it truly matters; and you must be ready to betray them too if need be. Emotions will make you hesitant.

Remember, the only things that matter in an assassins life are objectives and survival..." Sakumo clenched his fists tightly, flashes of memories from his last mission and all the time he had spent with his friends brimming up in his mind.

Turning around and leveling a glare,"What truly matters Sakumo? Tell me." asked Masumoto. The question came in a strict voice that absolutely demanded an answer, and not too keen on incurring his father's wrath Sakumo answered as diligently as he possibly could,

"Objectives and survival father. Everything else is just a hindrance to our way of the shinobi." he answered dutifully. Watching his father's shadow walk away from the door, Sakumo sat back down with a tired plop.

He didn't feel like training too much today to be honest…

...

Hokage Tower

Council Chambers

"Naruto Uchiha is here as per his appointment." the sudden announcement caused all work around the U-shaped table to halt temporarily. All eyes turned up to the chunin who had been the cause of said interruption in the first place.

And he was getting quite nervous seeing all these councilmen stare at him so coldly.

"Shall…" he gulped for a second to calm his nerves down. "…I send him in?" his voice came out much more meeker than thought possible, and got a stiff nod from them all. Sighing in relief, he scurried away from the deadly silent room like a panic-stricken hare.

He, for one, definitely didn't want to be in front of them right now…

The whole council sat silent as a rock, each of them pondering over the same damn thing at the same damn time.

All except one.

Quite frankly, most, if not all of them were looking forward to this day. A chance to corner the outcast in their web of words, poke all his buttons and enact severe punishment over him with no fears of impending doom from anyone above their pay grade.

They were 'the power' in the village right now, to pass on such a golden chance that had presented itself to them on a metaphorical silver platter certainly wasn't in the works. Everything was in their favor, well everything except one thing;

Stifling a soft yawn in her palm, Mito tucked a small lock of hair behind her ear. Crossing her slender thigh over the other, she placed her elbow on the table and used her free palm to plop down her cheek on it. Her eyes remained locked on the open doors to the chambers in slight anticipation. She was bored beyond belief…

Her presence had been a surprise, not even the most thoughtful of them had guessed that she of all people would be the first one to show herself here this fine morning.

But she had.

And that caused a plethora of problems for every single one of them.

No one was foolish enough to think she was here to indulge herself in the pleasure they all were blessed with, a pleasure the world dictionary called 'paperwork'.

No, certainly not.

She was here just for this moment.

And every - fucking - one of them knew that.

It was no secret to the villagers that she was close to the boy. She had never officially taken him on as an apprentice or anything close of that sort, but the close relationship the village pariah and the first lady of the Leaf shared was known by one and all within the walls of this village.

But her presence alone made this situation much more complicated than the simple one sided cornering assembly they had wordlessly planned on holding their charge with beforehand.

The main problem being the woman herself. She was a master in political matters; her expertise going so far as to her being the primary adviser to both the Hokages in dire times. And her reputation didn't just stop there. Everyone - them included - respected her quite highly.

Not only due to her heritage and noble blood, well that was a major part nonetheless, but not the sole reason. Her accomplishments could be regarded as one of the most any shinobi had ever achieved in pushing the newly budding major village to thrive towards even greater heights of prosperity.

Her sealing skill being the first.

She was the top tier seal master they currently possessed, Tobirama Senju - the Hokage for crying out loud did not hold so much as a candle to her if it came down to the small yet revered arts that were the seals. She had been the primary hand, the first one who had devised that the village needed protection which seals could establish like no other means could ever hope to achieve.

Designing, constructing, even so far as to putting the finishing touches on the barrier - the same one that they still used - was done under the critical eyes of this woman herself.

Even now, after so many decades of it being functional no one had found a point that could be called it's weakness. And more so, there were still many times she was consulted when it came time for maintenance of the main array of the great matrix they used.

It's primary matrix was still so intricate, that many seal masters of their own village had failed to even comprehend the basic and smaller segments of the barrier; let alone tinker with the primary matrix that held it all together. The sealing corps of the village looked up to her as a goddess of sorts, even when she didn't so much as visit them until it was absolutely necessary.

She wasn't revered as the Sealing Mistress in the Bingo books for no reason, after all.

That wasn't to say she was the unofficial heiress to the entire fortunes lying within the Land of Whirlpools and had inherited the family fortunes after the death of her husband as his direct nominee, the rights granted to her by her being his legal wife.

Shinobi rules were quite different for nominees; since so many shinobi never married instead pertained to being faithful to a single lover but never being tied down in holy matrimony so as to avoid their enemies targeting their families out from their eyes.

Thus, most of the times the village leader decided whether to declare it down to the nominee or their spouse, absolve it into the village's treasury or part it two ways and give the split parts to both sides according to the percentages the Kage deems it to be right for the welfare of the entire village as a whole.

These rules were null and void if the demised soul had left a will behind him before his death, and then only the rules laid down by him were officially acceptable; and nothing else.

These laws were concretely laid down by Tobirama himself to avoid internal clan conflicts of the numerous clans that were quite prominent before the formation of the organization, the organization that the world now looked up to as the Hidden Leaf.

He had laid down that fear to rest altogether by taking matters into his own hands, and the law had been passed and accepted by each clan equally as a sign of trust they were handing over to their new leader - all done back in the early years of Konoha.

That brought us back to the point that even though she was only acting as a diplomatic clan head in the council; Mito's power and influence in these chambers was still immense. And with Tobirama out of the picture, she was the substitute clan head for the Senju clan as well.

She could rumble up whole nations with just a simple signature if she so needed to with just a small flick of some ink and paper and that in itself did not bode well for anyone who dared cross her; or anyone she cared about that is.

But they still had the upper hand here.

For, Naruto was the one who had placed himself under heavy scrutiny by rushing out of mission parameters and making rash decisions by himself. He would be punished, that was for sure. But to what extent, only time would tell. Though it would be quite lenient than what they had planned, that fact was intangible.

The silent tension was broken like a pin-prick when the doors to the sacred chambers screeched themselves ajar, the long shadow of today's guest of honor shortened in as the crown of golden and orbs of blue finally flickered to light and just to melt her heart, seeing the most beloved lady of his life seating oh-so gracefully in her chair;

Naruto gave her a charming smile that was mirrored adoringly on her own lips.

...

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