Chapter 2

The Secret Plot

Shizune was in utter shock after reading the contents of the scroll that had been delivered by the messenger, her hands trembling slightly as she held onto the edges of the paper. Her mouth was slightly agape, and she seemed as if she was struggling to say something, but to no avail as her words came out in a slur. Realizing she was at a loss, she looks towards the Hokage beside her, preparing to voice her opinion of the matter.

"Tsunade-sama, what is the meaning of this?!" She asked in a bit of a higher pitch than she intended, but at the moment she was cock sure that the blonde woman herself would not care if she stepped out of line a little, given the current situation.

To her further astonishment, however, the Hokage herself had her hands clasped on the desk before her, her hands covering her mouth partially. Her face was contorted into a small frown, as she regarded the messenger standing in front of her with her chocolate eyes. She seemed to be preoccupied with something else currently rather than the worries of her assistant, something which Shizune did not know what to make of.

"Where did you get this letter from? Which official in the Feudal Lord's office exactly handed you this letter?" Tsunade spoke up finally, breaking the tense air that had enveloped the room after the bombshell had been dropped.

The messenger seemed none the wiser over the blonde woman's current pensive state, answering in his usual monotone voice," Yes, Hokage-sama. I received it from the Feudal Lord himself."

Tsunade was not satisfied. "Who exactly pushed for the validation of this certificate?" Getting over her initial shock of the matter, the blonde woman had come to realize that she did not possess any knowledge regarding this matter at all, only being made aware a few minutes past. It must have been another of the incidences she missed when she was still in her coma, she figured with a feeling of dismay.

"I'm not exactly sure, Hokage-sama, but from what I've heard from talks in the Feudal Lord's office, it seemed to have come from one of the Hokage's advisors," the messenger responded in his usual monotone voice, keeping his gaze affixed on the Hokage's eyes, which seemed as if they were ready to pierce holes in him if her mood changed for the worse.

Luckily for the young man, Tsunade's mood did not change so drastically, evident from the way she arched one of her eyebrows to his reply just then. Waving her hand towards the door, the Hokage dismissed the messenger, but not before informing him that she would send a letter to the Feudal Lord once all the due preparations were made. Taking a stiff bow as he had in the beginning, the messenger exited the office without as much as a backward glance.

Once the young man left the office and the two women in it as he had found it, the dark haired assistant wasted no time in displaying her reaction over the entire conversation that had just cropped up. Slamming her hands on the desk in front of the Hokage, she immediately confronted the blonde woman," Tsunade-sama! Why do you seem so calm about all this?!" She had waited for the entire conversation between her master and the messenger to pan out; assured that she would immediately voice her opposition to the entire debacle, but seeing that she had voiced her affirmation had caused the anger in Shizune to boil over. There was no way she was going to stand for something like this.

Tsunade merely closed her eyes as if in meditation, before telling her assistant in a subdued voice," Be quiet, Shizune. "This seemed to do the trick, owing to the small gasp that escaped the dark haired Medic's mouth momentarily, before she fell into a queer silence. Tsunade continued, "That messenger just now…he wasn't lying when he told us everything, so that means this document is 100% genuine and not forged."

Shizune was taken aback further, momentarily releasing her hold on the table's edges and her body arching backwards by a little. A wave of realization hit her at that point, as she attuned the Hokage's questions to the messenger as a way of testing him. She was keenly observing his behavior as he dished out his answers, looking for any oddities or discrepancies in his demeanor to make sure that he was completely certain of everything he said. True enough, he had been telling the truth in everything he had said, and Shizune felt herself awed slightly at her Master's keen observation skills.

But still, there was something which bothered her a little. "Tsunade-sama, was there any need to do that when you already knew him? I mean he's the same kid who has always been sent here by the Daimyo in case of any messages, right?" Her voice was laden with uncertainty, and she had her hands folded across her chest and her head bobbed to the side slightly as she looked at her Hokage.

Tsunade nodded brusquely, "That is true, however with a document this preposterous, it wouldn't be stretching things by considering that someone may have forged the letter and sent the messenger to deliver it. Case in point," Tsunade took up the scroll that was lying on her table, unfolded it carefully, then pointed at the bottom where the information ended," there's only one seal on this document, belonging to the Feudal Lord. And the messenger just now said that someone pushed for this to be validated, right?" She asked her assistant with an air of presumption, already figuring that Shizune would join the dots. True enough, Shizune's expression voiced the realization she had come across, owing to how her eyes widened. The dark haired woman knew, as she had for a while now, that whenever there was an official document from the Feudal Lord that had not been decreed by his word alone, there would be two seals, one for the Daimyo and one for the other party.

Withdrawing the document from Shizune's sight and placing it on her desk once more, Tsunade then told her assistant in an air of seriousness," In a most probable case, the other party wanted to remain anonymous and not make anyone aware of their intentions."

Nodding, Shizune added," It must be someone who knows Naruto-kun and Sakura-san really well then, Tsunade-sama, since marriage," she made sure to place special emphasis on the word before continuing," is a pretty huge deal. The only time the Feudal Lord ever validates a marriage between Shinobi was when it was passed under the Clan Restoration Act."

The blonde woman knew full well what the Clan Restoration Act entailed. An act that was passed immediately after the Warring States Era in order to make up for the vast number of clans that were decimated during that time or reduced to only a few living members, it was a decree that was passed in order to bring the affected clans back into fruition. The Act itself was usually passed when the last surviving member of a particular clan in the village has come of age and is able to lead the clan properly, meaning it required them to marry a girl, either of their choice or a choice passed by the village heads, as a way to bring forth descendants to prolong the clan's existence.

Still, she could not help but be troubled; could the same thing be in effect in the present? It wouldn't be too far-fetched to consider. Naruto had definitely come of age and was the last Uzumaki clan member in the village. Sakura herself was also ripe of age, of course, and was already at an age where she could bear children. However, despite how well and dandy the matter looked, there was something that still nagged at the back of Tsunade's mind. The entire matter seemed a tad too convenient.

Shifting her gaze back to her dark haired assistant, who had not moved from the front of Tsunade's desk, Tsunade spoke up to her once more, "Shizune, the boy said that the validation came from one of the advisors, right?" She needed to confirm something first.

Nodding, Shizune replied," Yes, he did, but he also said that he got that information from rumors, so the information may not be entirely valid." Shizune felt as if it was the appropriate moment to voice her concerns over that piece of information.

Tsunade sighed in exasperation," At this point, we may need to depend on the rumors themselves if we want to get to the bottom of this matter." In her mind, numerous possibilities were working themselves out as she was deducing which of her advisors would have made such a shocking decision. Luckily enough for the woman, she only had two to ponder over; Koharu and Homura.

The two were well within the prime of their ages, and opted to seclude themselves from the village matters; choosing to leave that to Tsunade. The only time they intervened is when they deemed matters to be of dire importance, something that did not happen on a frequent basis in the village. Consequentially, by choosing to seclude themselves from the village matters, this meant that they did not care much about the individual faces of their citizens, or even much less, their names. None of them displayed any inherent knowledge regarding Naruto on a personal level, which included his relationships with the other shinobi. The only manner in which they recognized the blonde man was simply as the village's weapon, a Jinchuuriki, a prized asset that was never supposed to leave the village at any costs. Well, so much for that idea.

As if on cue, however, the blonde village leader remembered a third person aside from the two old fossils. He had served as one of her advisors as well till recently, before his demise in the Land of Iron.

"Danzo," she mutters absent mindedly to no one in particular. Shizune saw her master's lips part slightly, but was unable to catch wind of what she had just said.

"Tsunade-sama?" She asked in a tone of uncertainty.

Releasing a gasp, Tsunade looked at Shizune as if she were seeing her for the first time, owing to the dazed look in her expression. She then says, this time her words pouring out one after another in a manner of haste," Danzo's the one behind everything." The words sounded true even as she said them. She then mentally berated herself for not catching onto such a simple thing earlier. It all seemed to make perfect sense now. From the moment Danzo placed Sai in Team Seven, the ninja team had been kept under constant watch by the other members of Root, so it would be entirely plausible for Danzo to be informed of the dynamics between Naruto and Sakura, thereby picking her out as a suitable partner for him.

That, plus the matter of,

"The Feudal Lord was always scared of Danzo. It would be easy for him to intimidate him into silence and tell him not to include Danzo's seal in the scroll," this time Tsunade chose to voice her realizations, again to no one in particular as her eyes did not seem to be focused in a particular direction. There was a grim smirk on her face at the end of her narrative. She did not particularly like the idea of having been outwitted by the old fox, but she was glad she had caught on to this scheme early enough. There was no way she was going to let this ploy go through.

Turning to her dark haired assistant, who still looked befuddled over her master's reactions for the past few minutes, she addressed her, "Shizune, I need you to send a team of ANBU to Danzo's office right now. It doesn't need to be a large team, at most three will do. Then-"

Shizune could not help but interrupt her Hokage's statement midway," Hokage-sama, the office itself is currently under the watch of some members of Root. They won't allow anyone inside."

This did not perturb Tsunade in the slightest," Tell the men you send there that in case they find any ROOT members standing guard, they received the Hokage's permission to enter the premises. I want a full search of the area to be conducted, and any documents found should be brought here with immediate haste. Is that understood?"

In response, Shizune simply made her way to the door of the office, her instructions still fresh in her mind. Even if she had no idea what Tsunade was planning, in any case, she was pleased that there still seemed to be a way forward even after all that had transpired. Her hand was on the handle of the door, when Tsunade called her once again,

"One last thing, Shizune."

The dark haired woman paused, before Tsunade issued her final instructions," Go and call Naruto and Sakura for me."

A/N: There's the second chapter guy. A bit longer than the first, but well there is more content this time and things are finally making sense, so I think it turned out okay. This chapter was supposed to be longer than this, but I figured if I added more content it might be a bit too much and a lot has already happened here, so well the rest will be in the following chapters of course. Thank you for all the reviews, follows and favorites so far!