AN: Just to clear up some confusion from a few comments that I've been getting for a while.
Antares and Mabui are not married as children. Their situation is a political betrothal/future marriage arrangement between noble and clan families, not child romance.
There will be no romance or adult content involving them as children. The point of the setup is to show how clan politics, noble houses, and shinobi villages place heavy expectations on children long before they are old enough to truly understand them.
Naruto itself is a setting where children are trained as soldiers, heirs, weapons, and political pieces. Itachi saw the battlefields as a child, Kakashi became a shinobi absurdly young, and clans constantly placed burdens on children because of bloodline, status, and or village politics.
Historically, noble and warrior families also arranged future marriages early for political reasons. That does not mean the children immediately acted as husband and wife. In many cases, the actual responsibilities came much later. There is a lot of indepth information on the internet about that specific topic.
That is the angle being used here. The relationship will develop slowly and appropriately over time.
WORD COUNT - 3k
ALSO DONATE SOME POWER STONES :D
Chapter 13 - questions and consequences
The report Danzo prepared for Hiruzen was not a complete lie and that was what made it useful.
A lie could be challenged and cornered by proof, witness, or mistake. A lie was something an enemy could grab by the throat and drag it onto the light.
Danzo did not need to lie.
He only needed to decide what truth deserved to be seen.
The brush moved across the scroll with slow, careful strokes.
Kumogakure had suffered a major 8 tails incident trying to contain it.
True.
The Third Raikage had returned to the village before total collapse.
True.
Misaki Uzumaki and her child had survived the chaos.
True.
Several intelligence assets near the Land of Lightning had gone silent during the aftermath.
Also true.
Danzo stared at the final line for a moment before dipping the brush back into the ink.
There would be no mention of the assassination order.
No mention of the Root operatives sent into the Kaminari estate. Danzo will absolutely not mention of explosive vests, suicide seals, poison capsules, or the possibility that one of his men was now lying unconscious inside a Kumogakure prison with BOLT circling him like wolves.
Most importantly, there would be no mention of the real purpose he had sent his operatives on that mission. Eliminating Uzumaki the remnants outside Konoha's control.
Especially ones protected by the strongest shinobi in the Land of Lightning.
Clank! That was the sound that was made in the empty spacious office as Danzo finished the last stroke and set the brush down.
The ink still glistened wetly on the scroll.
His visible eye narrowed.
"Send this to the Hokage's office," Danzo spoke out to the room, where there are no visible person other than Danzo.
The Root operative appeared from the shadows and started kneeling before him, the man bowed his head and responded curtly "Yes, Danzo-sama."
"And make sure the messenger had nothing to do with the Kumo operation," Danzo added. "If Hiruzen starts asking questions, I do not want the trail leading back to anyone useful." he stated the extra details where more so his operatives don't mess with his plans.
"Yes, Danzo-sama." said the Root ANBU, noting everything his lord stated to his mind as he retrieved the scroll from Danzo's desk and promptly left to issue orders.
Danzo's hand tightened around the head of his cane.
Clack.
The bottom of it struck the stone floor once.
The sound echoed through the underground chamber.
For a moment, he looked toward the sealed wall at the far end of the room. Old symbols covered the stone. Some were faded, others still carried traces of chakra from an era when Tobirama Senju's shadow had filled these tunnels.
Danzo had learned many things from Tobirama.
Suspicion.
Preparation and the need to act before enemies could and hold you by the proverbial balls.
But he had also learned something Tobirama never taught him directly.
The village did not reward the man who dirtied his hands. It rewarded the man standing clean in the sunlight.
Hiruzen.
Danzo's mouth tightened.
Even now, after all these years, the name still felt heavier than it should have after he was chosen over himself.
He had long ago stopped asking himself whether he hated Hiruzen or cared for him too much. The answer changed depending on the day, and Danzo had no patience for feelings that made him weaker.
Hiruzen was soft, hesitated and forgave where he should have eliminated the problem.
And yet people followed him.
Loved him.
Trusted him.
Danzo had never understood why that angered him more than all the rest.
"Leave," Danzo said.
The other Root operative guarding him vanished into the darkness.
Swoosh.
Danzo remained still for another moment.
Then he turned and walked toward the exit.
If Hiruzen wanted to sit in the light, then Danzo would continue standing in the shadow.
But the shadow would decide what the light was allowed to see.
The Hokage's office was quiet when the report arrived.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat behind his desk with his pipe between his fingers, the smoke curling slowly toward the ceiling. Outside the window, Konoha moved as it always did. Merchants called from the streets. Children ran past shops. Shinobi crossed rooftops without disturbing the peace below.
It was a normal day.
That made the scroll on his desk feel heavier.
Hiruzen opened it and began to read.
Danzo stood across from him after recently getting there, straight backed, one hand resting over his cane. He was younger than the man he would one day become, with both eyes still uncovered and his body not yet wrapped in bandages or old wounds.
But the darkness was already there.
Not in his body but in his thinking.
Hiruzen read the report twice.
Nothing in the report proved Danzo was hiding something, but Hiruzen knew him too well to believe everything had been included. The wording was careful, the details were useful, and the conclusion was convenient.
Kumo had suffered a disaster.
Misaki Uzumaki survived.
Her child survived.
Root assets near the Land of Lightning had gone silent.
Kumo's black operations division responded faster than expected.
All of it made sense.
That was exactly why Hiruzen distrusted it.
He lowered the scroll slightly.
"Several assets were lost," Hiruzen said.
Danzo's face did not change.
"Yes."
"No confirmed survivors?" Hiruzen asked again to his old friend in a questioning tone
"None that have reached our lines." Danzo affirmed
Hiruzen watched him closely.
That answer was not the same as no.
Danzo knew it.
Hiruzen knew it.
Neither man said it aloud.
Clink Clink, The Hokage tapped ash from his pipe into the ceramic tray beside him.
"Kumogakure will react poorly to this." Hiruzen stated offhandedly prodding Danzo
Danzo's grip on his cane shifted slightly "The Third Raikage, similar to you, is known for restraint."
"No," Hiruzen said. "But this is different. His wife and child were involved."
Danzo looked at him, "Which makes him more dangerous?" questioning Hiruzen in matter like he didn't care about the Raikage's mental state
"He was already dangerous," Hiruzen replied sighing after hitting on his pipe
"Now it is personal." Hiruzen said to Danzo puffing some smoke onto the air
Silence filled the room.
Hiruzen leaned back in his chair. For a moment, he did not look like the Hokage. He looked like an old teammate staring at a man he had known since childhood and wondering when the distance between them became too large to cross.
"Danzo," Hiruzen said.
Danzo's eye narrowed slightly "Yes?"
"Was this operation authorized by me?" asked Hiruzen
Danzo did not answer immediately.
That pause was small.
Not enough for most men to notice.
But Hiruzen was not most men.
"No direct operation against Kumogakure was authorized under your name," Danzo said.
Hiruzen's eyes hardened "That is not what I asked."
Danzo's jaw shifted "Hiruzen, Uzumaki remnants outside our protection are a risk. You know this. After Uzushio fell, any surviving Uzumaki became valuable to every major village. Their vitality, sealing knowledge, and compatibility with tailed beasts cannot be ignored."
Hiruzen took a slow breath from his pipe "And you believed that gave you the right to act without consulting me?" his face shadowed by by the afternoon shadow coming from the window
Danzo's face remained controlled, but something sharpened behind his eye "I believed the village needed action before hesitation cost us another asset."
"Hesitation," Hiruzen repeated quietly.
"Yes," Danzo said. "Hesitation."
The word sat between them like an old wound.
They had argued like this before.
Not once.
Not ten times.
For years.
Hiruzen saw the same boy from their youth for a moment. The one who had stood beside him under Tobirama's command, always a step behind, always burning to prove he could have stepped forward first.
Danzo saw something too.
Not the Hokage.
Not the professor.
Hiruzen.
The boy who had been chosen.
The man everyone looked toward when things fell apart.
The man Danzo had wanted to surpass for so long that the desire had twisted into something uglier.
"You are playing with war," Hiruzen said.
Danzo's mouth tightened. "I am preventing one." he said protesting against Hiruzen and his soft ways
"No," Hiruzen said, his voice starting to become colder. "You are creating one and hoping I clean up afterward."
Danzo said nothing.
For the first time in the meeting, he looked away.
Only for a second.
But Hiruzen saw it.
He folded the scroll and placed it on the desk.
"Increase observation on Kumo's border movements," Hiruzen said. "Quietly. I do not want the council panicking before we understand what the Raikage knows."
Danzo bowed his head.
"Understood." said Danzo reluctantly
"And Danzo."
The Root commander stopped at the door.
Hiruzen's voice lowered "If there is more to this report, I expect to know before Kumogakure forces the truth into the open."
Danzo did not turn around.
"Everything necessary is in the report." was Danzo's parting words as he left the room
Hiruzen stared at his back.
Necessary.
Not everything.
The door closed behind Danzo.
Clack.
Clack.
Clack.
The sound of the cane faded down the hall.
Hiruzen sat alone in the office for a long moment.
Then he looked down at the report again.
"Tobirama-sensei," he muttered, his voice tired. "You left us too many shadows."
Far away from Konoha, Antares woke up to the smell of medicine.
His first thought was that his body hurt.
His second thought was that everything was too bright.
His third thought was that he would rather fight the 8 tails personally than move his arms right now.
A soft groan escaped his mouth.
Something shifted beside him.
"Antares?"
The voice was quiet, but the emotion in it hit him harder than any jutsu.
Misaki.
He slowly turned his head.
His mother sat beside the hospital bed, pale and exhausted, with her hair loose over her shoulders. Dark circles sat beneath her eyes, and her hands were wrapped in bandages from chakra strain and small cuts.
But she was alive.
Antares blinked "Mother?"
Misaki covered her mouth with one hand.
For a second, she looked like she was trying to hold herself together through sheer force of will.
Then she leaned forward and gently pressed her forehead against his.
"My baby," she whispered. "You scared me." she said tears prickling on her eyes
Antares wanted to say something clever.
Something calm, Something mature. Instead, his throat tightened.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, looking away from his mother in this life.
Misaki shook her head immediately "No. Do not apologize for something not under your control"
His eyes moved past her.
Another bed stood nearby.
Unruly Ay lay on it, wrapped in bandages across his ribs, arms, and shoulder. His face was bruised, and one side of his hair had been singed shorter than the other.
He was asleep, breathing steadily.
Antares stared at him.
"He looks terrible," Antares said weakly, not better of himself.
Misaki let out a small broken laugh despite herself.
"He fought like your father."
"So, he fought stupidly?"
"Bravely," Misaki corrected, though her lips twitched at the jab.
Antares closed his eyes for a moment.
Memories came back in pieces.
The Root operative.
The pressure in his chest.
The white flash.
His chakra ripped through him like something had opened a door he did not know existed.
Then nothing.
His fingers twitched against the blanket.
Pain shot up his arm.
He hissed.
Misaki immediately placed a hand over his.
"Do not move too much. Amai said your chakra coils are inflamed from overchanneling. You are stable, but you will be under observation."
Antares frowned.
"Can my chakra coils get inflamed?"
"Yes it happens when you force too much uncontrolled chakra through your coils, they act like muscles and get a cramp.
"That sounds unfair, I didn't know that could happen to an Uzumaki."
Misaki stared at him.
Then, slowly, she shook her head in amusement, happy he was being himself after all that happened.
Only Antares would wake up after nearly dying and complain about the technical details.
The door opened.
Both of them turned.
Ay stepped into the room.
The Third Raikage looked like he had walked out of a battlefield and refused to admit the battlefield had ended. His chest was bandaged. His arm was wrapped. Small burns marked his skin, and his eyes were heavy from exhaustion.
But his presence filled the room all the same.
Behind him stood Ikazuchi, silent and masked.
Ay looked at Antares.
For a moment, he said nothing.
Then he walked to the bedside.
Step.
Step.
The floor seemed to complain beneath him.
Antares looked up at his father, "Father."
Ay's jaw tightened.
Then he placed one large hand gently on Antares' head.
"You are awake." Ay stated the obvious but in a relieved tone, something that everyone in the room noticed.
"Yes." said Antares feeling his fathers affection in an odd manner
"Good." Ay stated and that was all he said.
But Antares felt the tremble in his father's fingers.
Only once.
Small enough that no one else would have noticed.
But he did.
Ay pulled his hand back while ruffling Antares hair and then looked toward Misaki.
"You should be resting." he told Misaki in a rhetorical tone
Misaki's eyes narrowed. "So should you."
Ikazuchi silently turned her head away.
Antares almost smiled.
Even injured, his mother was willing to fight the Raikage from a hospital chair.
Ay grunted, wisely choosing not to argue.
Antares looked between them "What happened?"
The room grew quieter.
Misaki's hand tightened around his.
Ay's face became hard again "Enemy operatives entered the estate during the chaos after the 8 tails incident," Ay said while also adding after a pause. "They came for you and your mother."
Antares swallowed.
Even though he had already known part of it, hearing it said so plainly made his stomach turn.
"Why?" asked Antares in genuine confusion
Ay did not answer immediately.
Misaki looked down.
Ikazuchi remained still near the door.
Finally, Ay spoke "Because of blood."
Antares understood.
Uzumaki, Kaminari. Both, maybe.
His mind moved quickly, even through the pain.
Konoha.
Root.
Danzo.
He did not know all the pieces, but he knew enough to feel the shape of the danger.
"Are they dead?" Antares asked.
Ay's eyes sharpened.
"Three are dead. One is alive."
Antares went still, since they were why he was here in the hospital in the first place but none the less he asked his Father trying to get information "Captured?"
"Yes." Ay answered without giving any details to his young son
The word felt heavier than it should have.
A captured Root operative was not just a prisoner.
It was a problem for Konoha.
A weapon for Kumo.
And possibly the start of something much larger.
Ay leaned closer.
"You do not need to think about that right now."
Antares looked at him.
That was a lie adults told children when they wanted them to sleep.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, Antares was not only a child.
Not really.
But his body was weak, his chakra hurt, and his mother was holding his hand like she was afraid he would disappear if she let go.
So he nodded.
"For now," Antares said.
Ay stared at him.
Then his mouth twitched.
"For now," he allowed.
Misaki sighed. "He gets that from you."
Ay looked genuinely offended.
"He gets it from both of us."
Ikazuchi coughed once behind her mask.
It sounded suspiciously like she was hiding a laugh.
Unruly Ay groaned from the other bed.
Everyone turned.
His eyes opened halfway.
He looked around the room slowly, then focused on Antares.
"You alive, brat?"
Antares blinked.
Then he smiled weakly.
"You look worse than me."
Unruly Ay tried to sit up.
Pain immediately punished him.
"Gah!"
Misaki pointed at him.
"Do not move."
He froze.
Even the future Raikage knew when danger was real.
Ay crossed his arms.
"You did well."
Unruly Ay looked away.
"Tch. Of course I did."
But his ears turned slightly red.
Antares saw it.
He would remember that.
The room settled after that.
For the first time in what felt like hours, maybe days, there was no shouting. No explosions. No smoke. No killing intent pressing against his skin.
Only family.
Injured.
Exhausted and alive.
Ay looked toward the window.
Beyond the glass, Kumogakure stood among the clouds. Damaged, wounded, but still standing.
His voice became low.
"Konoha wanted silence."
No one spoke.
Ay's eyes hardened "They should have known better than to look for it in the clouds."
AN: Hope yall enjoyed. :D
Just a short chapter while i work on the future ones. You guys will get 3 chapters this weekend.
2 chapters for this story and 1 or 2 for my DxD Story!
Since i don't work on Monday lol