Chapter 40: So, this happened

Hiruzen felt a bit nostalgic of the scene before him.

Pipe in mouth, smoking it? Check. In the Hokage office? Check. Two teammates ‘done with Riku’s shit’ ? Check. A simple messaging B-rank mission turned into A-rank or dare he say, S-rank Mission? Check. Finally, Riku with his now familiar smile that said ‘I did it again and I’m not even sorry one bit’ ? Check.

The only thing that did not check was that he wasn’t the one sitting behind the desk and wearing the hat. And he was very very glad for that.

Tsunade looked at Team Yukari with an unreadable expression for a moment. She then opened the right drawer of her desk, pulled out a half full bottle of sake and checked the content with a diagnostic jutsu. It apparently yielded no results when she opened it and served herself a drink and one for her sensei who gladly took it.

“You killed Orochimaru.” she stated.

“Yes, Hokage-sama.” answered Kakashi.

“On a simple diplomatic mission to the Land of Iron.”

“Yes, sensei.”

“And also killed Yakushi Kabuto and brought back an alive Uchiha Sasuke.”

“We did, Hokage-sama. He’s sealed inside Taicho’s BoS.” This time it was Yuago’s turn to answer.

Tsuande gulped down the drink she poured to herself, then let out a long sigh.

“Alright. How?”

Team Yukari members looked at each other and had a silent conversation. Whatever it was, Riku seemed to have been chosen to report in detail the happenings of their mission. He signed to Tsunade to put the office in lock-down and she immediately did so. Clearly, with Orochimaru involved there were bound to be some nasty secrets that shouldn’t be heard by anyone. She was glad Karin had upped the seals because they were not as good as both she and Hiruzen thought they were.

“Well… On our way back to the village, we decided to cut straight through the Land of Sound instead of making a bit of a detour to avoid it. We used the Botib to take some rest. Kakashi had put a genjutsu on it to hide it. Anyway, just as he was exiting it, he noticed a team of Oto-nin hurrying, going somewhere. Thinking that we may have perhaps a lucky lead in finding Otogakure or at the very least an underground complex that the interrogation of the two Oto-nins we captured during the failed Sasuke’s retrieval mission didn’t reveal, we stealthily went into pursuit. It proved fruitful when we arrived at a hidden entrance right under the roots of a giant tree. Right there we decided to infiltrate it not wanting to perhaps miss a great opportunity to find some information about Orochimaru. It hasn’t been easy but we successfully did, eliminating along the way and discreetly any Oto shinobis by using multiple Katusyu-chan to spy and give us an advantage. She found out that Orochimaru, Kabuto and Sasuke were there. The first two were in Orochimaru’s private quarters. From what we gathered it was nearly time for him to switch bodies and was quite in a weakened state thus requiring Kabuto’s constant help and monitoring.

I put a barrier around the room, locked and secured the door then finally I added a Time seal to it. I accelerated the time inside greatly. One second outside was a week inside and we waited thirty seconds. When we got in, both were dead. Just to be sure we separated their heads from their shoulders. After a quick examination I determined that Orochimaru took possession of Kabuto's healthier body and fed on his former one to survive and find a way out. I sealed them in my BoS and we went to look for Sasuke. With Katsuyu-chan it didn’t take long. This time I put a vacuum seal on the barrier surrounding his room to make him lose consciousness by asphyxia. It worked and Kakashi sealed his former student inside his own BoS.

Afterwards, we abandoned the furtive approach a bit and eliminated every Oto-nin and Orochimaru’s horrendous experiments leaving no survivor. With the base cleaned up we took our time to look for all the information we could find and sensei… we found a damn lot.”

Riku put out his BoS, and flipped the pages until he found the one he was looking for. He unsealed what was in the storage and two files came out of it. Tsunade, with Hiruzen having a look above her shoulder, released a lot of killing intent when they saw the content of those files.

“You should have killed him decades ago, sensei.” the blonde woman said, gritting her teeth in anger. “Once again your sentimentality…”

“If I may, sensei. The reason Konoha-nins work in a team is precisely for this kind of situation. Nobody is perfect and that’s why we have teammates to do what we can’t, just like we can do what they can’t. If anything, it’s elder Mitokado and Utatane’s fault, most of all, to not have dealt with the man when Sandaime’s sama couldn’t. It’s also his sentimentality that allowed you to not be declared a missing-nin when you were away from the village.”

That cut short Tsunade’s rant. Hiruzen was grateful for the intervention and began to think about when did his teammates begin to fail him? As years went on, they less and less supported him in his decisions and put the blame on his head when he failed. Most notably dealing with Orochimaru all those years ago.

“... How are we approaching this? Multiple counts of high treason, bloodline theft and who knows how many more crimes…” the Hokage wondered aloud more to herself than anything but was open to ideas.

“My take on it is, you summoned the elders for an urgent meeting and have him killed on the spot.”

“I like this idea.” Kakashi voiced his opinion.

“Not like I don’t agree but he’s an elder of the village, I can’t…”

“Genin or Hokage. It doesn’t matter, Tsunade. We’re all Shinobi of the leaf and we’re all equals under our laws. Had it been a genin, he would have been executed on the spot.” Hiruzen commented. “If you give him time for a trial he will get away one way or another.”

“It will also remind Sandaime-sama’s teammates that they can be replaced at any time. They still have their jobs because you never bothered to choose someone else, Hokage-sama.” Yugao gave her two ryo.

After thinking about it for a bit, Tsunade agreed with the plan.

“Alright but I want him restrained first for a Yamanaka to mind dive and get everything they can out of him.”

“I can put chakra restrictive seals under his seat. He won’t be able to move or mold chakra.”

“Alright. Yugao, go find me Inoichi and tell him to drop anything he’s doing. I want him to be ready.”

“That left root to deal with.”

“Kakashi, you’re in charge of that. I want Team Yukari leading the assault. You’re free to recruit any shinobi you know you can trust to capture or wipe out any root Anbu.

“Root?” Inquired Riku from the side.

“It’s a separate black ops operation who obey only him.” Hiruzen forwarded. “I ordered him to disband it years ago but he did not.”

“And you didn’t… nevermind.” the dirty blonde dismissed quickly, knowing the answer to his question already.

“Alright. We’re doing this two days from now. I want Root to be rooted out during Danzo’s interrogation. That way, they won’t see it coming. The news that Orochimaru is dead will be contained until then. So is the knowledge of Uchiha Sasuke being retrieved.”

With her final words on the situation, Tsunade deactivated the lock down seals and Team Yukari separated. Riku stayed behind a bit to talk with her.

“Just out of curiosity… What’s going to happen to him?”

“Sasuke, you mean?” She asked more to verify it was the person Riku was talking about.

“Yes.”

“A meeting with Ibiki then one with Inoichi then execution.”

“No sperm sample? No sharingan removal?”

“We may remove his sharingan and give it to someone else. However it’s a bit tricky because of the laws pertaining to the clans and I don’t think it will pass because it would create a precedent. The Hyuga sure won’t agree to it. As for the sperm sample… Do we want the Uchiha back?”

“More sharingan users is always a plus, except most of them are instinctively… Well born with a stick up the ass. The problem is the weight their name carries and the privilege they have. Better take all the fortune and knowledge of the clan before they make a comeback. And the children should be raised into a proper environment, the mothers carefully selected…” Hiruzen commented.

“Hmm…It’s a lot to think about.”

“Your uncle would have let them rot.”

“Of course he would have, he hated them.”

“He did not, actually. He was wary of them, yes but he didn’t hate them.”

“Really?” Tsunade asked for confirmation in surprise.

“Yes. They were power hungry and entitled, that’s why he gave them the responsibility of the Military Police. To placate them and make sure they couldn’t have a member of their clan as Hokage. No one would have accepted an Uchiha at the head of the village while the clan was leading the MP. Too much power for one clan. The other clans would have opposed it.”

While he found this history lesson fascinating, Riku wanted to go. So he bid them goodbye and left. He visited the Yamanaka flower shop where Ino worked but it was closed. That surprised him a bit and left him with only one more place to check to possibly find out where his girlfriend was. Shushining away, he arrived at Hinata’s and his secret training spot and was happy to find his moon princess there. She wasn’t training but simply enjoying nature, with her bare feet inside the river’s cool water.

“Enjoying the calm and quiet?” he asked as he came behind her slowly.

“Yes. A rare occasion with Ino and Krain.” she japed as she turned her head around to look at him.

He approached her and gave her a kiss. Positioning himself behind he put his arms around her lower abdomen.

“How is it going? Took over your clan in the month I was gone?” he asked, making her huffed in amusement.

“I wish but no. That will take a few more years. I wish for Hanabi to be seen as an adult when that happens so that the elders would face a united front without them using her as an excuse for being a child.”

“Conveniently forgetting she’s been a full fledged kunoichi for the past two, almost three years. From what I heard, she’s kicking the Sandaime’s grandson’s ass pretty regularly.”

“She does.” Hinata confirmed with a giggle, finding the relationship between her little sister and Konohamaru amusing. It was a routine at this point. The young man pissed Hanabi off and she hit him in return. On and on. It was obvious to everyone around them that they liked each other but were either too dense or too proud to admit it. Her father openly frowned at that, his daughter was ‘too young to frolic with boys’ and that she should ‘stay away from them like her older sister’. Hinata nearly broke out laughing when she heard that. If her father only knew what she got on with Riku, he’d be frothing at the mouth at the very least. Thinking about her private activities with the man she loved led her mind to think about the changes in their relationship, Most notably regarding Karin.

“We talked, you know. The girls and I.” was how she breached the topic trying to hide her nervousness.

“Girls? So Ino went to you to play mediator, like I suggested?”

“She did and I did. I… love Karin. As much as I love Ino but… Where does it end, Riku? How many more women will I have to share you with?”

That Riku accepted her feelings had made her happy, despite the situation at the time. Ino had staked claim on him years ago and she had been nice enough to include her into the relationship because their friendship meant a lot. Hinata had been happy at that development, not completely of course because she would have to share him but it was with Ino and somehow it was fine. It became more and more fine as Ino did wonderful things to her and her body when Riku was not in the village or too busy. The addition of Karin to the mix had complicated things. With Ino she only had to ‘compete’ with her. Ino was a daring extravert and she was a soothing introvert. The problem at hand was that Karin was as extraverted than Ino and as demanding. Hinata, while accepting of her, was worried she’d be left out and more importantly, was worried that more girls would put their claws in Riku, making him even more distant and leaving her even more behind.

“None. I can count on one hand the women I have strong feelings for. There is of course you, then Ino, Karin, Yugao and sensei. Yugao is off limits and sensei is sensei. There is no one else and there will be no one else. No matter what anyone says. I already feel blessed for being with one of you and would have been fine with that. You and Ino decided to share and apparently Karin too and I will do my very best to keep deserving your interest and love. That means, I will treat all three of you with equity. If you’re worried that you will be left behind, then be reassured that it will not happen. One reason among other is because I don’t think I will be able to keep my mind intact with the onslaught of Ino and Karin. Not without you by my side to do it. Another reason is…” he began to say then leaned against her ear to whisper “You taste the best.”

Hinata rolled her eyes but she blushed at the inappropriate compliment. She didn’t protest when his hands found themselves under her jacket and shirt to rest just below her navel.

“There is no one else, Hinata. Can you even name a girl or a woman I’m close to like I’m close to you or our friends?”

She took a moment to think about it and only found Shizune. The woman was more of a big sister to Riku though from what Ino said, they had some sexy time after each night shift. They weren’t dating, they weren’t spending time together romantically so it was… She was accepting of it. For now. Otherwise there was really no other woman in his life but the ones he named.

“The only female that would count would be our daughter if we have one.”

“You’re really serious about children?” she asked, turning her head to look at him for confirmation.

“I am. I really want a family. For you to be one day our children’s mom.” he replied,

burying his head in the crook of her neck.

“... Then… I suppose we’ll need to practice a lot if we ever want those children.” he suggested, grabbing the back of his head with her hand. Understanding what she meant, Riku pulled back his head to look at her.

“Hinata, are you…”

“Yes. I’m ready.” The smile she gave him could have lit the whole Senju manor for a year.

“I hope you’re not saying this because of Karin.”

“I… am not. Though, I would be very upset if she gets to have you before me.”

“Then prepare yourself, my moon princess, because I'm taking you on a date that you-.”

“Right now.” she cut in.

“... Right now?” he asked, blinking in confusion.

“Right. Now.” she insisted. “So you better bring me back to your room before I change-...”

Riku picked her up in his arms and shushined away. There was no way he would miss the opportunity to bed the bluenette. Not on his life.