Pre-Chapter A/N: Please do check out the first chapter of the novel I'm working on up on Patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)- it's completely free to access.
What can I say except you're welcome? Here we go. Lovely to have you all here, and I hope you enjoy this one. If you do, feel free to head over to Patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) and read the next three chapters- I update there on a daily basis so there's always something for you to read.
Dividing the flying thunder god into its components and trying to get each one to work separately had done wonders for his progress. In another week after his conversation with Uzume, he had managed to figure out the seal for creating a network that would allow him to sense the tags anywhere they were in the world. That alone was a fucking unit of the seal. It had taken three days of work and manpower from over a dozen shadow clones to create his own language, and another four to create the seal in that language. At least to create a working prototype of a seal. Working was a generous word for it. It was all theoretical. He still had to bind his language into reality, and that was what brought him here.
He'd sent letters to Grandmother Mito and received replies that gave him some guidance, but this was something he would have to do on his own. The Uzumaki sealing language was something known as a universal sealing language. That meant that anything written in that language could be used by anyone with the right training. It could also be read by anyone. What he was trying to create here was an Individual sealing language. Something bound to him by blood. He stared at the script he'd chosen.
He had to write down every letter of his sealing alphabet ahead of time if he wanted it to work and that meant he had to essentially completely invent a language. Or rather he would have had to invent a language and then have it mean something to hum, but he had a cheat code for that— Arabic. The Orphanage matron had taught him the language as a child, and she'd made damn sure that every one of the kids in her care could recite as damn near the whole Quran in Arabic. He'd hated the lessons in his first life, but at least they ended up paying some dividends.
He stared at the giant scroll. It would be the center of his sealing language, if it were destroyed, the language would stop working until he could create it again. He waited until the moon was directly overhead and then began to cut his hand open. He dipped his brush in the bowl that he collected his blood within, once there was enough for him to work with. He left his right hand suspended above the bowl as he traced every letter of the arabic alphabet with his blood. It was tedious, painful work, made even more annoying that he could only work on it with the dim moonlight for guidance. Fuinjutsu worked well with concepts. He was in a hidden grove within the forest, he was doing this at night, he was working to make sure his chakra was suppressed. All these things spoke to the concept of secrecy, which he needed to bake into his sealing language.
The purpose of that wasn't just to make his language harder to figure out, but it was needed to create it in the first place. Secrecy was needed because it meant that the language was only supposed to be understood by one person. If he didn't include the concept of secrecy, then he would essentially be hamstrung into teaching the language to others and spreading its use to make it powerful enough to have effects on reality. That was what differentiated languages like this from the Uzumaki sealing language. Of course, that also meant that this language could not be used to affect others— it was one of those conceptual things.
He couldn't use it in making traps or even a prison for others, but it worked for the flying thunder god when used to brand others because technically, it wasn't impacting them. It just allowed me to jump to the seal's location. It never did anything to the target. That was the answer to those who wondered why Minato hadn't just placed a seal to stop Obito's heart or whatever on him during the Nine-tails attack. Placing seals with one's chakra only worked with languages that one understood top to bottom— like a personalized script. And a personalized script couldn't bind others. Such was the way of things. Of course, you could understand a general language to that level as well, but it was fucking hard— the work of decades of practice.
With his mind on that, he was easily able to run through the 28 letters of the arabic alphabet in no time. He straightened his back and waited for the blood mixed ink to dry while weaving seals. His chakra flowed out of his body and into the scroll, cementing the place of this language in his personal reality.
XXXXX
"It didn't work" Uzume said as she walked into my lab without knocking. I didn't need to ask her what she was talking about. It had taken a while to convince Shika to sanction a scouting mission. Nominally, I was in charge of this lot, but I knew that forcing her hand and overruling her in something like that would have backfired down the line. I had to debate her into agreeing to Uzume's experiment. It had taken them a week to hunt down some stragglers from the Suna reserve— the rest had retreated to their village after every attempt to gain a foothold had failed.
"Then it's good that we know that" I said as I returned my attention to the seal I was working on. The first two components of the Hiriashin seal had been easy enough to figure out. But this one was much harder. It was both a summoning and a reverse summoning at the same time. My initial understanding that it was a reverse summoning was flawed. Something had to summon me to that gap between dimensions before I could reverse summon myself to the seal I was trying to jump to. It would all happen instantaneously, but it had to have the baseline secured.
"How's it going?" She asked.
"Terribly" I replied.
"What's the issue?"
"I don't even want to think about it. What's up?"
"A letter came for you. It's from the Hokage" She said. I perked up and caught the scroll she tossed in my direction.
The orders within were simple. I was to delegate command to someone of my choosing and return to Konoha as soon as possible. My heart skipped a beat. What had happened? Tsunade? Grandmother Mito? Kushina? Someone had to be hurt for the message to call me back like this. As far as I knew, people who were shipped out for war didn't just get called back home for no reason. To be fair, they also didn't get called back when they lost family, but maybe there was something there.
"What does it say?" She asked as I dispelled my clones, taking in the progress they'd made before forming a new set to pack up my stuff.
"I've been summoned back to the village" I said.
"Who died?"
"Doesn't say. Hopefully, no one. I'll be leaving now. Please inform Shika that she's in charge and tell the others of what happened if they ask." I said as I walked to the corner of the room and picked up the giant scroll, slinging it over my shoulder.
"Alright then. Stay safe" She said. My clone handed me a scroll containing all my notes and everything else. I slipped it into my pocket. The lab had been designed to be packed up in seconds if necessary. One never knee when they could be ambushed after all. He walked away and left the hideout, waving to everyone he passed as he did so. Once he was outside, he travelled to the West, moving three kilometers in that direction, and then two kilometers south before he was certain that he'd gone far enough from the hideout. He allowed his hold on his chakra to slip, sending it coursing through every cell and muscle. He pushed against the ground, displacing a ton of it and shooting off like a rocket aimed straight for Konoha.
XXX—
"Identify yourself" The gate guards asked as I walked towards them. Even at full speed, it had still taken me three hours to travel to the Village from the Land of Rivers.
"Shorirama Senju" I said.
The guard seemed shocked, before waving me in. The orders had been to report to the Hokage tower immediately, but there was one building close by I just had to check. It was still Afternoon, so Kushina was supposed to be within the academy. I body flickered to a rooftop, activating my byakugan and giving the building a scan. Sure enough, I could see the bright furnace of her chakra right there. I breathed a sigh of relief to see that she was fine. She wouldn't be at the academy if something had happened to Grandmother Mito either, so my worries for the both of them were settled even as the worry I felt for Tsunade skyrocketed.
I made my way to the office. Maybe if I was Jiraiya, I would have risked jumping in through the window, but I landed on the ground floor and made my way into the tower like everyone else. There was a consistent stream of traffic moving in and out of the tower even as the rest of the village seemed to be standing still. The War wasn't coming anymore. It was here.
I walked into the waiting room, and despite the fact that the room was full, upon seeing me, the Secretary directed me to move inside. I'd deactivated my byakugan outside once I'd seen Kushina. Having the doujutsu active while walking around Konoha was seen as extremely rude, and could land one in T&I if you had it active in somewhere with as much sensitive information as the Hokage Tower.
I had no idea what was waiting for me behind the door, so I took a deep breath and pushed it in. It was Hiruzen, behind the desk in his robes, and with his hat off to the side. Seated opposite hum was Danzo, the darkness of shinobi. I went on one knee and bowed as was custom.
"At your service, Hokage-sama" I said.
"Shorirama-kun, please rise. Congratulations on your successes in the Land of Rivers. If the world did not know your name before, they know it now." He said. I nodded even as I rose to my feet. What did he want? Could he just go straight to the point?
"I am sure you are wondering why I summoned you here. And you did well to arrive so quickly" He said. I nodded.
"The Council and I have come to a decision regarding the Kyuubi no Kitsune." He said, making me freeze in place.
"As you know, Kushina Uzumaki was slated to be the Jinchuriki after your Grandmother, but she already contains the Hachibi. One body cannot contain two tailed beasts, no matter how compatible it might be, so we have to move on with other options. You are one of them" he said. Me? At my age? That was dangerous.
"I'm Sixteen" I pointed out.
"You are compatible enough, and your Grandmother assures us that Uzumaki chakra networks become fully developed much later than with other shinobi" He said. Well, that was a point he had.
"Of course, we tried with other possibilities, but you are the most compatible for the beast. The second most compatible target is a young Uzumaki boy of twelve, and we are loath to bestow Konoha's greatest weapon on someone not raised within her walls." He continued.
"Has my Grandmother been consulted on this matter?" I asked.
"Your Hokage gives you an order, boy" Danzo cut in, but Hiruzen lifted a hand. I noted that he hadn't done it until Danzo had finished speaking.
"She has. She has given her consent" He said.
"Is this an order?"
"If you must see it as such, then yes. I would, however, rather you saw it as doing your duty to the village" He said. I nodded, taking it as the order it was in truth. He might have tried to dress it up and offer consolations, but I could see it now. I would become the village jinchuriki, and that was it.
"But what about my team?" I asked. Mito was the present Jinchuriki, and I knew exactly how Konoha treated their tailed beast containers during times of war. There was no chance I was getting let out again.
"With present casualties, realities within the village mean that we must reinforce the Kawa no Kuni front with another battalion. Nara Shikahime will receive a field promotion to Jounin as per your recommendation and will liaise with the present battalion leader. The rest of your team will return to the village and be redeployed as I see fit." He said. So that was it then.
"We won, though. We won, and you're punishing us" I couldn't quite stop the words from leaving my mouth, and when I did, I could see that they were a mistake. There was rage in Hiruzen's eyes. Real, abiding rage.
"What were your orders, Shorirama Senju? To delay. Delay. Instead, you went ahead to wage a guerrilla campaign in foreign territory. The Kawa no Kuni Daimyo has sent us multiple letters demanding we cease and desist waging war in his borders. He has accused us of doing something to dry out his rivers, ridiculous as that may sound." He started, and I so wished I could keep my mouth shut because I replied.
"Since when does the Hokage bow to foreign Daimyo. My Granduncle would never have" I said. Once again, I was slipping. Was it anger at him? At the loss of my teammates? At the fact that Danzo sat there by his side damn near smirking at me?
"I was not aware that you were stupid, in addition to being reckless. The Kawa Daimyo's son is married to the Fire Daimyo's daughter. In her, he has a hostage to wield against our throat. Letters have already been dispatched from the Capital warning me to put you on a leash or your head on a stick. Even your revered Granduncle knew that to enrage the Fire Daimyo was to court disaster." He was practically spitting the fire his clan was famous for.
"So this is a punishment then? Making me the jinchuriki? Dismantling my hold on Rivers? All this?" I asked. His rage vanished like it was a switch to be flicked on and off. Instead, he just looked disappointed. That made my own rage, previously an inferno, calm to embers.
"Your Granduncle saw a future where you would one day rule this village as Hokage. I thought I saw it at first. So strong you were. Barely had your ball dropped, but you could fight the best of my students to a standstill. You learned and invented jutsu at will. I have no doubt that you will at one point in your life be the strongest in this village. But mark my words, Shorirama Senju, you will never become Hokage. Even now, you still focus on yourself. Selfishness. To think that the Senju clan almost fell into the hands of one so lacking in the will of fire makes me shudder. Now leave my sight. I have given orders to the Uzumaki clan. You will be the Nine tails jinchuriki by the end of the week" He delivered the dressing down in a cool tone.
I did not flee from the office. I did not. I did not run with my tail in between my legs. I did not slam the door behind me as I body flickered through the tower, uncaring for the chaos I caused in my rage. No. Instead, I suppressed that urge. I bowed to my Hokage, and I spun around. I closed the door behind me softly. I nodded at the shinobi that nodded at me, and I stopped at the ground floor, set upon by one of the Uzumaki children. Kirito. He had a gleaming forehead protector atop his head. I wanted to tear it off and tell him to go home. Instead, I ruffled his hair as he told me all about his genin team and how good of a time he was having.
I allowed no hint of my rage to show as I met his teammates and their chunin-sensei. Jonin were in limited supply with a war going on, so Chunin were being given teams of genin. Seeing a member of my clan in that situation made me want to rage, but I swallowed the insult. I had swallowed many insults today. What was one more?
I made sure there was no expression on my face as I shook his hand. I waited for the very last second, before I bore down on him with the full weight of my presence, my innate desire to kill. Some called it a genjutsu, but that was a misunderstanding of what this truly was. Killing Intent, was ironically, one of the few uses of Ninshu that managed to survive the Sage and his sons. It was sharing your intention to kill someone in its purest form. At this point, he was probably seeing visions of me snapping his neck, or driving a kunai into his skull, or tapping his chest and scrambling his organs. I let off as I let go, warning delivered. He would take care of Uzumaki Kirito, or he would die. There was no middle ground. I would not tolerate that when it came to family.
I turned around and left the building. I took the long walk down to the clan compound. It was almost time for the academy to close. I took the chance to think. I knew I would never forget the insults. I had few things I cared about, but one of them was definitely my pride. This village was mine. My Grandfather built it. My Granduncle strengthened it. And that Monkey thought he could deny me my birthright? How ridiculous. I would become Hokage. When the time came, Hiruzen would have no choice. That would be the revenge. I'd be twice, nay thrice, the Kage he'd ever be. That would be revenge.
A/N: The cracks in Shori and Hiruzen's relationship have been building behind the scenes. Hiruzen never fully trusted Shorirama and didn't waste any time in allowing the stress of running a war to impact his actions and words. Losing two clan heirs and the Uchiha Clanhead's bastard son in a mostly unsanctioned action doesn't reflect well on Hiruzen at all and he's projecting some heat here. As always, the next three chapters are up on Patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga). If you just want to read complete chapters and not my work in real-time, then feel free to purchase this story as a collection on my Patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) page so you get to read each chapter after I finish it and not necessarily the daily updates available with a regular Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) membership- nice way to support this story and me while you're at it. Enjoy!