(Thanks for making first in the Power Stones ranking, it was my first time, enjoy three chapters today)
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While the Uzumaki clan was dutifully debating in their meeting, blissfully aware of the storm clouds gathering, Mito, who was already ten steps and a cleverly anonymous letter ahead, received a letter from Shinki just as she'd anticipated.
A slow, knowing smile spread across her face as she read. Two weeks, she thought. It took him two whole weeks to confirm the sky was falling before writing to say, "The sky is falling! Help!"
Still, she had to give the man some credit. Confirming that four major villages were gearing up to turn your clan into a historical note probably required some due diligence.
Her own letter, sent anonymously to both Shinki and Hiruzen two weeks ago, had been a perfect little test. And oh, what revealing results! Shinki, while slow, had at least stirred into action.
Hiruzen, on the other hand, had responded with the strategic silence of a rock. Konoha's network of spies was legendary, so he undoubtedly knew.
His inaction was an answer in itself: Konoha wasn't ready, or, more likely, wasn't willing to get its hands dirty.
She was just contemplating the complexities of political cowardice when the door burst open with all the subtlety of a rogue summoning.
"Grandma! Azula-nee and Tsunade-nee are here!" announced Nawaki, apparently under the impression that knocking was merely a suggestion.
Mito offered a helpless smile. "Nawaki, my dear, the knock is the opening act, not the entire performance. You're supposed to wait for the 'enter.'"
He just shrugged, the picture of innocent forgetfulness. Mito decided to let it go. She had a strong feeling that his big sister, Tsunade, would be providing a much more... forceful correction on door etiquette later.
Stepping out, she found Azula and Tsunade deep in a conversation that abruptly cut off the moment they sensed her. Tsunade, ever the blunt instrument, got straight to the point.
"Grandma Mito, what's wrong?" she asked, a furrow in her brow. She'd been pulled from their new private hospital, and if not for sensing Mito's perfectly calm chakra, she would have already been vibrating with worry.
The fact that Azula had also been summoned meant this was big. The kind of "big" that required their combined firepower, intellect, and possibly a very large cup of tea.
"Sit, all of you," Mito said, her expression shifting into the one that screamed 'World-Altering News Inside.' "Nawaki, you stay as well."
This got everyone's attention. Normally, important discussions were a trio affair. Including Nawaki was a statement.
He was ten now, nearly the age Azula had been when she made Jonin. Mito didn't expect him to be a prodigy on that level, but it was time he saw how the board was set before the pieces started moving.
Nawaki himself straightened up, a flush of pride on his cheeks, sitting at the table with Mito's usual, always-available tea. He was finally being let into the inner sanctum.
"Read this," Mito instructed, handing the letter to Tsunade.
Tsunade's face cycled through confusion, disbelief, and finally, simmering rage. She passed the scroll to Azula, whose eyes narrowed with cold fury and a hidden "as expected." Finally, it landed in Nawaki's hands.
His eyes scanned the page, widened to a comical degree, and then he blurted out what everyone was thinking, with the volume of a village crier: "WHAT? The Four Great Hidden Villages are uniting to wipe out the Uzumaki Clan?!"
His personal connection to the Uzumaki was limited to a few friendly aunts and uncles who visited, but his own mother and grandmother had been Uzumaki.
The blood in his veins was half theirs. The shock was real, and as he looked at Tsunade's thunderous expression, he completely understood it. This wasn't just politics; this was family.
Tsunade slammed her hands on the table, the wood groaning in protest. "Grandma! What's the play here? Does the old man even know? And when do we leave? I'm going to personally turn whoever's messing with Mom's clan into a fine red mist!"
Across from her, Mito Uzumaki took a serene sip of her tea, the picture of calm amidst the hurricane that was her granddaughter, because this was exactly how she expected her granddaughter to react. She placed the cup down with a soft click.
"My dear, if one moves at the speed of a startled deer, one only ends up as venison," Mito chided gently. "I received this letter precisely twenty-seven minutes ago. I haven't breathed a word to Hiruzen. You were my first call."
This wasn't just a rescue mission; it was a golden opportunity to gently but firmly sever the apron strings between her beloved granddaughter and the Hokage.
Honestly, what had Hiruzen ever truly taught Tsunade? How to dodge a kunai?
She was the one who'd taught Tsunade how to climb trees, walk on water, and punch a crater into a training ground. Hiruzen's greatest contribution was probably teaching her how to be a Ninja, something anyone can do.
Mito shelved her internal rant. There were more pressing matters than the Hokage's pedagogical failures.
"I called you here first so you could prepare," she said, her gaze shifting to the other formidable woman in the room. "Especially you, Azula. I am... requesting the assistance of you and the Uchiha clan under your command."
She then turned to her grandson, who was practically vibrating with youthful zeal. "Nawaki, my boy, while Tsunade and I go and notify the Hokage, I need you to rally every Uzumaki in the village."
As for the Senju? Well, they'd have to wait for the official request, but Mito had no doubts. Even stripped of their name, the true Will of Fire still burned in their hearts.
Her late brother-in-law, Tobirama, for all his meticulous, rule-loving paranoia, would never abandon family. He'd probably have six contingency plans and a sarcastic comment ready before you could say "Flying Thunder God."
Azula, who had been observing the scene with sharp, amused eyes, finally spoke. A confident smirk played on her lips. "Worry is for those without power, Mito-sensei. Consider the Uchiha mobilized."
She straightened, the very image of lethal elegance. "The Uzumaki have contributed more to this village's foundations than any clan save the Senju and the Uchiha. I am fully prepared to lead our finest to their aid."
In fact, she had a contingency plan for this very scenario since she returned.
It was, she reflected, a key reason for her meteoric rise to Clan Head. The Uchiha were a clan that respected strength, and while she loathed to admit it, they were also a bunch of drama-loving battle junkies.
The mere suggestion of a glorious fight against Four Nations would have them polishing their kunai and writing haiku about their impending glory.
Of course, she mused internally, she couldn't let them all charge off to die pointlessly. A glorious battle is one thing. A stupid one is quite another. She'd have to manage their... enthusiasm.
...
...
...
Azula's morning was usually a masterclass in absurd multitasking.
While one of her shadow clones was busy legally terrorizing the Konoha Tribunal and another was efficiently running the Police Force with an iron fist, the real Azula was training with another group of shadow clones. But after leaving Mito, she decided to grace the actual Police building with her presence.
To the citizens of Konoha, this was just another Tuesday. The woman had so much chakra it was practically rude.
She strode into the building, her destination clear.
"Hayate. My office. Now," she commanded, her voice slicing through the morning chatter.
The man in question, Uchiha Hayate—her newly minted second-in-command since her father's well-timed retirement—felt a single bead of sweat trace a path down his temple.
He was thirty, a top-ten powerhouse in the clan, a newly appointed elder, and one of Azula's most staunch believers.
But even the staunchest followers have a healthy fear of their deity.
He'd just been in the middle of a very important, highly speculative discussion with his comrades.
The urgent summons from Mito-sama's messenger had set the Uchiha gossip mill into overdrive. The prevailing theory? Something had finally happened to Azula's notoriously… teacher.
The conversation died a swift and silent death the moment she appeared. As Hayate rose, he caught the look in his best friend's eyes.
It wasn't sympathy. It was a full, dramatic, unspoken vow: "Don't worry, brother. We will take care of your wife and daughter." The friend even gave a solemn, clenched-fist salute over his heart.
'Traitors. The lot of them,' Hayate thought, his own sense of petty vengeance igniting. If he was going down for gossip, he wasn't going alone.
He'd sing like a canary and maybe add a few choruses about who started the whole "maybe the Mito-sama..." theory. After all, what are friends for if not to share a collective demise?
Puffing out his chest with the proud, doomed courage of an Uchiha who had accepted his fate, he knocked on her office door.
"Enter."
Azula was waiting, her expression unreadable. And just as Hayate feared, she had heard every word.
But contrary to his panic-induced visions of fireballs and demotions, she simply didn't care. Her mentality had never been that of a typical, emotionally stunted ninja.
She found Danzo's crew of silent, soulless tools dreadfully boring. She preferred her subordinates with personality, opinions, and a healthy dose of dramatics—it kept things interesting.
Still, discussing her teacher's potential demise, while creative, was not a priority today.
Before Hayate could launch into a pre-emptive, flustered apology, she cut him off, her tone leaving absolutely no room for argument or gossip.
"Hayate. War is coming."
Hayate's brain, which had been braced for a reprimand about workplace etiquette, short-circuited. He blinked. "I... pardon?"
"'The Four Kage are uniting. They're coming for Konoha.' That was the rumour circulating, but rumours are rumours; he never expected that things had really reached this point."
She looked toward the window, where one could see the prosperity of Konoha, before speaking. "Go. Gather every single Uchiha, from the greenest genin to the most jaded chunin. Pull them off patrol, out of the dango shops—I don't care. There will be a clan-wide meeting at the Naka Shrine. Every Uchiha ninja, no matter their rank, will be there."
(END OF THE CHAPTER)
How about it, guys?
Have you remarked change in my writing in the past two chapters, like I received many one stars reviews recently about the many metaphors and all, not they are gone, but what do you think?