As the Uchiha and the Sarutobi shake their hands in a rather peculiar manner, the blond with a scowl on his face stands on the rooftop of a run-down shop.
He takes a deep breath and puts his fingers together in the only hand sign he trusts.
With the burst of a single massive chakra, he summons an army of "Naruto."
Naruto dangles the piece of paper that Sakura left him in front of hundreds of restless clones, ready for some action.
Their aura paints the surrounding area in red as if the chakra of the Nine itself has leaked out.
The paper flaps with the evening wind, showing off a rather smiley person's face.
"Find this guy!" he commands.
The clones nod in unison.
Each of them goes through three hand signs.
Suddenly the area fills with smoke, and once it clears, the view blows the lid off the heads of quite a few passersby, rendering some of them unconscious with bleeding noses.
Even the 90-year-old senile could feel his spirits reaching the skies.
A huge group of women of various colors and hair stood there in order.
Not a single one of them looked like the other.
Lips red as blood, hair curling like the clouds, eyes as green as the leaves, skin as fair as the sand.
Bosom and bottom as shiny as the sea.
"Almighty Sexy Jutsu!" Naruto breathes in. "The plague of whores."
That's a jutsu with two lines of names.
For a moment there was heaven on earth, but now it fluttered away like flowers along the rainy wind.
The army of fake whores spread across the village into every red-light district shop.
Every inn.
Every dorm.
Every street.
Every alleyway.
The grand honeypot to capture the one fly.
Jiraiya.
########
Raindrop drips through the ceiling of the underground cell.
It's dark and musty, the kind of place you would expect a lifeless body to be found.
No, instead there is a man doing push-ups constantly.
A man accused of treason.
A man stripped of a promise.
A man who was betrayed.
He was promised power, only to end up a criminal.
"And 3000," Mizuki finishes his daily push-up.
The 26-year-old academy instructor flexes his muscles with a satisfying smile.
"Coming up nicely! Ye, Masamoto!" he lightly taps his biceps.
"You too, Takato," he massages his other biceps.
That's a guy talking to his own muscles.
He gets up and licks the dripping water off the ceiling.
"You know that's poop water, right?" a kid's voice.
Water sprays out of his mouth as he backflips into a wall and takes a defensive position.
"Enough with your mind games! I don't know shit about Orochimaru!" he screams.
"Hush," the voice commands.
A short figure wrapped in a dark raincoat simply appears out of thin air.
She unveils her hood, lightly shaking her head to shake off the rainwater.
"Sakura?" Mizuki drops his guard ever so slightly.
She was his favorite student after all.
"What are you doing here?" he asks in his teacher voice. Years of being an academy teacher have become a habit at this point.
He squints in disgust at his own voice.
Sakura drops the coat. With a single jump and flop she literally embraces her sensei.
"I'm simply here to help my sensei," she says sweetly.
Mizuki feels again… more disgusted.
Of his own stupidity this time.
If he had even a shred of honor left in him, he would do the right thing.
Turn her away.
Alas, there was none. He was aware of Sakura's gift.
Sakura would've made a far greater tool, but there was no leverage for him to use.
If he had known of Sakura's fondness sooner, Mizuki would've never relied on that bastard fox.
He would've used Sakura, just like he will use her now.
With her help, this imprisonment will be but a past and he will acquire the power Orochimaru had promised him.
"You've done well, my child," he pets.
"You are my most beloved student after all," a curl appears on Mizuki's face.
The girl smiles as well.
But something is off.
That smile almost looks like someone he rather despised.
Or it might just be his imagination.
#######
The Hokage takes a long drag of his pipe as he flips through the paper.
With a worried look he signs away papers.
Even the chunin who brought the papers shuffles nervously at his restlessness.
"Here, be sure to run it by Aoba first," Hokage orders.
"Hai!" With a slight bow, the chunin leaves.
As the door closes, a shadow lurks out, who has been hiding behind the door.
"Aren't you acting a bit too obvious?" the man with one eye and a shoulder sling says sarcastically.
"Can you blame me? Danzo?" the Hokage huffs.
"How long do I have to man this post?" he asks.
"As long as it takes for me to take over," Danzo replies.
The Hokage scoffs.
"Heh… why don't you just announce that Hiruzen is missing? They'll put you in charge in no time," he flaps his hands in the air.
Danzo can only huff at the lunatic in front of him.
He is hardly used to having subordinates as vocal as that.
Most of his Root agents don't dare look him in the eye.
"It's his will. Sarutobi has left a will to hand over the village to Tsunade once he retires. A Hokage's will is absolute," he says with a sigh.
Why does he have to explain it to this nobody?
"And what are you doing about this absolute will?" the Hokage asks with a very uncharacteristically scowl on his face.
Danzo feels the vein in his head pop like bubble wrap.
"Just do your fuckin' job," he loses his patience.
The made-up Hokage simply shrugs and gets back to signing documents.
Root is scraping the piggy bank with this one.
Buying the cooperation of the Kedoin clan was a hassle and exposure that he didn't want.
Like many others like-minded clans he had to come to similar interest with.
Danzo can only stomp with hunched back.
It's not like he didn't want to be a Hokage.
Everything has its place and time. And he HAD a long-term plan.
But things went out of hand.
Orochimaru was sealed by Sasuke Uchiha.
How could a genin learn such a jutsu and simply survive??
This is absurd!!
The Sharingan can't learn sealing jutsu like that.
"Or maybe they can," he thinks while sweating bullets.
So, the other guy has now stepped in.
Someone as strong as Madara if not stronger.
Danzo can only bow down like some street dog, cowering in the presence of an alpha.
That person is obviously an Uchiha.
That much is obvious.
Danzo spits on his way to headquarters.
All of his fucking problems lead to Uchiha.
But the question is… which one…
"I'm too old for this," he thinks to himself for the first time as he massages his left hand which seemed to be full of bumps.
Empty bumps.
#######
Hinata looks around anxiously while her sister helps her walk out of the hospital.
"Are you okay, Nee-chan?" Hanabi asks.
Hinata smiles at her ever-growing sister. It almost seems like yesterday that she used to hold Hanabi in her arms.
"Never better," she says cheerfully.
Hinata lets go of her sister. She walks straight on her feet as if her heart wasn't punctured by her own ribs.
She looks around.
Hiashi Hyuga is on the other side, by the road, standing below the electric pole.
Hanabi waves her hand.
The father doesn't respond. He simply stares at her.
Hinata bows deeply. But she straightens right after.
The Hyūga leader winces. She never stops bowing until he responds.
Hinata crosses the road normally, yet to Hiashi… it almost looked like she was floating in air.
"You've grown stronger," the words come out of his mouth without his own consent.
"Where is Neji-niisan?" she asks. As if the complement she has been waiting for her whole life didn't just drop out of the blue.
Hiashi's jaw tightens. She didn't even acknowledge it. Why would she? Hiyashi would complement the likes of her. It's probably the wind's howling. It's a rainy day.
The sky seems rather upset.
"He is in custody," he answers instead.
Hinata goes into a full bow again.
"Please, release him," she requests.
Hiashi couldn't believe his ears.
"He… he tried to kill—"
"That was an honorable battle between me and Neji. Please, DO NOT disrespect it," Hinata says firmly.
Hiashi is at a loss for words.
Hinata again stops bowing before her father could deny.
She turns around and starts walking away.
"Where do you think you are going?" Hiashi asks with anger in his voice.
"A friend of mine needs help," she says without turning.
Hiashi felt anger with his whole body.
Then he noticed at last.
The hunch in Hinata's back is gone.
Her bangs no longer covering her cheeks anymore.
Wearing the hitai-ate on her forehead, pulling back those hairs.
That is not the Hinata he knows.
What happened in the hospital!! What happened during the Chunin Exams!!
His fingers curl involuntarily at his sides. The anger surges again—hot, familiar—but it doesn't hold. It slips. Like sand through open hands.
Anger turned into desperation.
"Hinata!"
His voice cracks—too loud, too raw.
Hinata stops. Turns.
Hiashi Hyuga—the head of the Hyūga, the man who has never begged—chokes on his next words.
As if this is the last time he will ever see her.
"Be back before dawn," he manages.
He doesn't know what his face looks like. He doesn't know how broken he sounds to the daughter who has spent her life trying to earn a glance from him.
"Yes, Papa," she says cheerfully.
Hiashi nearly exhales in relief.
Then "poof," as she burst into smoke.
A clone?
How could Hiashi not notice?
He stumbles forward one step, hand outstretched toward empty air.
No elemental chakra residue. No Byakugan trace.
Shadow Clone?
Such an advanced technique.
Hinata—of all people.
His daughter was a clone all along?
Then where is the real one?
Kidnapped?
If so, she is outside the country by now.
Hiashi's breathing stutters. His composure fractures.
After all the sacrifice of his brother.
After every calculated disappointment, every lesson in strength, every time he turned away—
The image of her standing there resurfaces.
Straight-backed. Hitai-ate forward. Voice calm.
That Hinata looked like someone who could do anything.
His mind calms down—slowly, reluctantly.
"Father! Sister! She is gone!" Hanabi follows behind Hiashi. Clearly stressed at the turn of events.
The clan leader places a hand on her head—gentler than he has in years.
"She's fine," he says.
"What?" Hanabi, visibly bewildered by her father's words.
"She will be back before dawn."
"But father... she just got out of the hospital....", Hanabi protests.
Hiyashi ruffles her hair very much unlike his usual self.
"Call me, Papa", he says with a smile.
Hanabi almost felt a chill in her knees as she attempted to put her ruffled hair back on.
She almost went "bleh" at the sudden request.
Hiyashi burst into laughter.
Hanabi could only watch with wide eyes as her strict father loughs with his whole body.
"Aren't you in a good mood?", Hanabi couldn't help but ask.
"Ha ha ha .... I am....", Hiyashi gets a hold of himself.
"Say, Hanabi.... ", he holds her head again.
"You wanted to be a ninja right?", he asks.
Hanabi processes the words for a solid few seconds.
Her father who forbade her from ever stepping foot in the academy, is asking her if she wants to a ninja!!
Is this somekind of test?
She looks at her fathers face. He hasn't looked this gentel in ages. Maybe.... just maybe....
"Yes...!", she almost screamed.
Hiyashi brings his face closer.
"Then you gotta call me Papa", he declares.
"Deal!!!", Hanabi says with her fist curled around her chest.
Hiyashi loughs again.
Hinata has reached a certain point in life today. From where she will only move forward.
She didn't need her father's approval .
She didn't need her father's disappointment.
What she needed, was herself .
Her own approval, her own failures, her own success.
So, henceforth .... Hiyashi decided to drop the act. The mask of disappointed father he had been wearing ever since that day.
He takes a long and deep breath . Taking in the fresh air of konoha. Was it ever this refreshing?
"That's a promise then", he says.
"Don't worry, father! I will as strong as sister!", she flexes her arms in the arm.
Hiyashi feels amazed again. Even Hanabi can tell the difference.
He mightve been blessed with 2 geniuses.
"Then you better get to it", he starts walking towards the compound.
"You sister won't be waiting for you", he says with a strict face.
But a curl in the side of his lips remain.
She is still calling her father though.
Guess, he also got something to work around.