Chapter 71: Naruto : Uchiha : Chapter 71
"May I ask why Lord Hokage is ordering us as such my lady?" the Yamanaka clan head was the one who had dared to ask while taking care of putting in all honorifics, himself becoming nervous when her slender eyebrow rose in silent contemplation for a few seconds that felt like an eternity to the man.
...
She had taken that pause on purpose…
"You may ask me." she answered simply, the corner of her lip twitching upwards ever so slightly in amusement seeing their stupefied expressions at realizing what she had just said. Every one of them released sighs of relief seeing her back to normal and not her 'noble' self anymore.
"Why is Lord Hokage ordering us this my lady?" Daichi Akimichi asked in a voice that reflected his own relief, and she tapped her index finger onto her chin a few times like before, thinking it through.
"That I do not know. He never deemed it to tell me and I never asked." her simple answer in her ever soft yet melodic voice made them all almost fall of their chairs.
Oh this was just too much fun for her, they were just too easy…
"Now I guess I'll take a leave. It's time for my afternoon tea and I wouldn't want to keep you gentlemen from getting back to your work." she pointed her sleek index finger at the stacks upon stacks of paperwork lying by each of their sides - that were replicating themselves each passing second to make their existence known to everyone.
Mito giggled softly in her sleeve seeing all their heads slamming onto the table in unison, reminiscing how her late husband used to do the same while Tobirama would then…
She stood up, turning to leave before she went further down the memory lane and drowned herself in the past sorrows she was so blatantly trying to escape from.
"My lady?" a call from behind her made her stop momentarily, and glance back to the man who had called her - surprisingly, turning out to be the same man she had just reprimanded a few moments prior.
"How is Tsunade-hime?"asked the Inuzuka clan head, concern and worry clear in his eyes. Mito's eyes softened hearing that, and seeing each of them eyeing her curiously - bar the Uchiha clan head who couldn't care less for the well being of a Senju, but still looked a tad bit interested himself mind you.
Mito remembered the talk she had just had with the girl just a while ago, she had teased the girl quite a lot. All the while pinching those adorable cheeks of hers until they were matching her hair, and subtly pointing out the fact of the direction the little blonde girl's feelings were taking her to.
It made her smile fondly in remembrance of her little girl, she really doted on her too much just like Hashirama had done before her. Tobirama was right, she let out a soft sigh…
"She's quite fine now, nothing to worry about." she answered the man in a gentle tone. A tone that made everyone's heart warm up seeing this motherly side of her coming out into the open.
The effect she had on each of them was truly incredible - a moment ago she was frightening, and now a few moments later she was endearingly calm and caring.
It was the primary reason why each of them respected her so much, not that any of them would admit it out loud.
Akio Inuzuka nodded silently while a small smile flashed across his own feral features. As much as they all tried to hide it, each of them doted on the girl as discretely as they could just as much as her grandmother did so herself.
The love and care their beloved Shodai had showered on her in her younger days was still fresh in everyone's minds, and his loss a few years prior to it made the whole village treat her as royalty should be, in nostalgic remembrance of the man once hailed as a god among shinobi.
Never was she asked to pay for any food at the Akimichi restaurants, or for any other clan's services for that matter whether she had the money or not. Though due to Mito's way of raising her up and how strict she was in such matters, there were only a select few times it had actually come to pass.
So, it was only natural that each of them showed a little concern to the well being of said princess who had just lost her family a couple of days back. Her strangely blank demeanor had worried each of them quite a lot, and they hoped that she would be back to her prior self just as quick.
She was the light of the village in everyone's eyes after all…
Every one of them kept their eyes on the elegant woman who gracefully made her way out of the silent room. Without another word or so much as a look while turning around to the participants of the tense ... yet now feeling a little relieved and uplifted room at the same time.
They really did wish she passed on parts of her same visage and noble character to her beloved granddaughter that she - no everyone - adored so damn much.
"Well-" once more Ensui became the moderator to break everyone out of their stupor as always. "-you heard the troublesome woman, let's get this over with." he drawled out in his usual laid back demeanor returning full force and each of them smiled with silent nods of agreement.
"Yeah, I don't look forward to another reprimanding…" muttered the Inuzuka clan head under his breath.
Not realizing he had said it out loud until he heard a round of chuckles from everyone beside him, and chuckled in humor himself while throwing himself into the work that was still piling on silently by their sides - probing to almost bury them in it if they ignored it any more.
Needless to say, while none of them realized what Tobirama had actually done by twisting the truth was pointing all of the said blame onto two loyal Cloud shinobi and actually proving them to be traitors by fueling the fire in their hearts when the Leaf would return an intact, yet mangled corpse of their beloved Raikage back safely without any resistance whatsoever.
All the while, the Leaf would cleanse it's own hands off the blame…at least in public and for the time being until further phases of the stone cold Senju's plans came to fruition later on down the line, there would be nothing the Cloud could do lest they ruined their image in front of the whole world.
Anyone would argue the point that turning a village against it's own shinobi - who were still loyal it - was completely unethical.
But that was just how Tobirama Senju was - uncaring of anyone's personal feelings. Cold, calculative, cunning, and a man who would do just about anything to see a situation as per he needed…or more like wanted to manipulate it as per his will.
He was just that kind of a man…
He was a true shinobi…
...
"Go on Naruto, kick that bastard's ass…" the colorfully lewd, yet joyful cheer of an unexpected yet welcome spectator cheered on the two boys who now stood in the middle of a lush green and lively training field.
Jiraiya let out a loud whistle, not looking to give up the chance to see his uptight teammates ass being kicked - uh… untimely and regretful loss was more like it to be put explicitly.
"How are we going to do this?" asked Naruto, hands still tucked in his pocket while he tried to pry off his flailing long locks from in front of his eyes without needing to put his hands to use, unless he absolutely needed to.
He wasn't lazy mind you - he was merely…well…Efficient! Yeah that was it!
"No ninjutsu, killing or crippling blows. Anything, bar maiming and lethal or fatal blows goes…?" Orochimaru asked more than stated, and got a nonchalant shrug from his opponent who could see no issues with said rules.
"Alright then, Jiraiya you can be the referee of our spar…?!" Naruto's voice trailed off from one of indifference to that of a petrifying one when he saw Jiraiya grinning like an idiot while rubbing his palms together, as if he wanted to light a fire from his palm rubs alone…
Orochimaru just tiredly sighed, quite used to his teammate's antics by now and didn't bother wasting his time and resources on pointing out the idiocy of said boy to his attention - not like it worked when he did point it out the first few times…
"Alright then, we'll begin in - three… two… one…" Jiraiya counted down to build up the suspense, eyeing the two boys like a serious referee while raising his arm high up in the air.
Both boys turned a bit serious, Orochimaru flexing his hands at the fight he had long since been looking forward to test himself with.
"And Naruto wins!" both boys shot forward, realization setting on their minds a moment too late and both fell down on the ground face first while sliding close to each other comically. A loud smacking noise was heard throughout the clearings a moment later…
"How can he win when he didn't even fight yet, you idiot!" a loud girl voice shouted. A fist bonking Jiraiya softly on the head, lacking any of it's usual power behind it while the boy rubbed the small aching lump childishly.
His form shrunk seeing his own female teammate and crush now standing by his side. A hand on her hips which were cocked to the side while an annoyed expression was plastered all over her face.
A pink hue still dusting her cheeks permanently that didn't escape the notice of said boy who was victim to her fist, while he mumbled stupid excuses like 'he would lose anyways' or that 'he was a loser' to calm the irate kunoichi down.
It did anything but that…
Her honey golden eyes turned to the middle of the clearing, looking on with an elevated eyebrow at the two boys who were dusting off their clothes while retaking their starting positions - again.
"And why haven't you two started yet? It's been quite a lot of time since I left you, you should have been done by now right?" she couldn't help but ask her little query out loud. It had indeed been a couple of hours in the morning since she had been with her grandmother - who was at her teasing again this morning.
Neither of the boys had sparred yesterday, both deeming it alright to rest first to make it a fair fight since Orochimaru had already had a gruesome training session the previous day that wouldn't have made his much awaited spar fair in his mind.
Naruto had no objections with another day of rest, those came few and far in between these days anyways. Who knows when he'd get another one like these?
"Well we were going to, but we then decided to have breakfast…" Tsunade rose an eyebrow seeing his sheepish smile while he rubbed his neck in his usual nervous tick she knew by heart by now. "… and we met them."
...
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