Subtle Threats

Both Araki and Danzo kept observing each other. Danzo had an emotionless look on his face which made it exceedingly hard for Araki to guess what he was thinking.

"You are the inheritor to Mokuton, huh?" It didn't seem like a question from Danzo, but he said that anyway.

Araki narrowed his eyes. For some reason, Araki felt that Danzo stared at him as if he was staring at a piece of tool. Araki intensely disliked this feeling. He was about to respond when Kushina approached them.

Danzo turned his gaze from Araki to Kushina before speaking, "The Kyuubi, huh? I didn't expect to meet you at the same time."

Araki's pupils narrowed at this statement from Danzo.

"And I didn't want to meet with a one-eyed cyclops like you," Kushina said with some annoyance in her eyes. She had just met that hypocritical Hokage, and now she was meeting someone even worse. Just great…

Meanwhile, Kurama inside of her mind shouted at Danzo 'Meet me? Come here, and fucking meet me. I will show you who the Great Kyuubi-sama is. It's such a pity that a great being like me was compared to this brat…'

Kushina's brows twitched upon hearing Kurama's last line. It felt like she had been insulted by the Kyuubi.

"Get out of my way," Araki said while staring at Danzo, who was seemingly blocking their way.

Danzo continued to stare at Araki while saying, "There is so much untapped potential in both of you. Train under me, and you will become the strongest in the world."

Araki snorted at his words and replied, "Go and become stronger than the Hokage before giving out empty promises. I don't need a one-eyed cyclops help to become the strongest."

Danzo didn't seem to care about the insults hurled at him. He turned towards Kushina and said, "I can make you utilise the full power of Kyuubi. You will be a great weapon of Konoha once you master that power."

"Your assistance is not needed, Shimura Danzo." Araki coldly replied to Danzo's words.

"If you don't accept my training, you will find yourself under-attack every day until you do accept my training. I do control Konoha's ANBU after all." Danzo gave out a subtle threat while they were still standing in the hall-way.

Contrary to what he believed, Araki smiled, "Since you are so kind as to give us a warning, let me respond in kind. While I live in Konoha, if there is an assassination attempt on me or on any Senju Clan Member, and I have even a slight suspicion that it was because of you or the Hokage. I wouldn't think any more and just unleash the Kyuubi in Konoha. Go and have him all to yourself then. I promise I won't lift a finger to help either side." Araki gave his own warning to Danzo before taking hold of Kushina's hand and walking away.

This time, Danzo didn't dare to stop them. He could sense that this boy was speaking the truth, he wouldn't bat an eye before unleashing the Kyuubi upon Konoha. It seemed that he just needed a puny reason, and he would erupt in anger. The first one to face his rage would naturally be Konoha.

"This is all that woman's fault. If only I had taken this boy under my command a year ago, this situation wouldn't have occurred. But that woman…" Danzo seemed to be cursing Uzumaki Mito for her interference a year ago.

~~

While they were returning to Senju Clan Manor, Kushina asked Araki, "Why did you speak like that to Hokage or Danzo? Maybe we should have hidden our discontentment…"

Araki shook his head at the question and replied, "If we had shown a slight weakness, they would have controlled us and forced us to dance in the palm of their hands. Especially that monkey… That is why we needed to show them that we are utterly disappointed with Konoha so that they won't dare to take any action which would aggravate the situation even further."

"The Hokage would probably start thinking of schemes to make us loyal to Konoha. While Danzo would be looking for an opportunity when I am separated from you and attack me. As long as he holds me captive, he could make use of you." Araki said to Kushina with a smile. Kushina had spirals in her eyes as she didn't understand all this.

Araki continued speaking, "Our trump card is that they don't know that Kurama is our ally. Moreover, once they hear the information that I used Mokuton, and you used Kurama's power to kill tens of thousands of Shinobi of the Three Great Villages, it ought to restrain the Hokage and this Danzo guy even further. They will understand that we aren't completely helpless against them."

With that, Araki finished speaking. He had more or less dealt with the Hokage and Danzo with this move. Now, as long as he remained cautious against them, there shouldn't be an issue in protecting himself and Kushina.

However, staying protected wasn't his main objective. His main objective was the destruction of the Three Great Villages… For that, the forces under him were far from enough.

He needed more allies. And he knew the first one he must recruit…

For now, he and Kushina returned to the Senju Clan Manor.

For the next 2 months, all these two did was continue to train.

Kushina started training her own Water Jutsus with the Shadow Clones. While Araki created 50 or so Wood Clones. 10 of them worked on Water Jutsu, 20 on Wood Jutsu, and 20 on another Chakra Control Exercise. It was the Kunai Balancing Technique. The difficulty of this exercise was entirely on another level as compared to any other chakra control exercise.

Meanwhile, Araki created another 10 Wood Clones before fighting against them with all his might.

Every day, they would be dead tired and would sleep as soon as their bodies fell on the bed. However, Araki was still unsatisfied with his progress.

His chakra control had significantly improved, his chakra was much larger as compared to before. Yet, the progress was too slow. Especially regarding his sword skill…

He lets out a sigh and decides that training like this wouldn't be that effective anymore.

However, a question appeared in his mind 'Should I return to the Academy or not?'

After thinking for some time, he shook his head. The Academy wouldn't be able to train him. The people there, other than Namikaze Minato didn't seem to have the potential to even keep up with him.

'Is it time to contact that clan?' He mused in his head, wondering if he should do it now or not.

Finally making up his mind, he said, "Alright, I guess I will contact them." He didn't inform Kushina about this and started heading towards this clan.

He was walking towards the Uchiha Compound…