Disclaimer:

Tsunade doesn't belong to me? no Naruto i this chap hahahaha.

Chapter 9

TSUNADE

It was another boring day as usual, whatever possessed me to take up this endless job of stamping and signing like a mindless robot working without enough grease in its joints. The hours seem to be elastic, the days never seem to end. Like a planet in orbit forever and ever and ever and ever…. I wish Naruto was back to break me out of this zombifying cycle.

At least that was what I was thinking before a near literal trio of meteorites landed in the middle of my office and screwed up the rest of my day's schedule. By the time they finished explaining why they decided to drop in through my roof and send me rebounding across my own working space, I realized that some one up there has the weirdest taste in wish fulfillment. I'd gotten what I wished for, in abundance.

The three children from Hiruzen's scrying crystal ball, that I'd mistakenly assumed to be the children in Konoha's future (seriously, what was I thinking? This is Sandaime's legendary peeping crystal after all.) had constructed an A-class genjutsu, melted through two feet worth of stone using an S-class

fire jutsu so quickly and quietly I only had a split second notice for their intrusion, then managed to propel me six feet across my office with one mere warding seal. As explanation for their break-in, they come up with a crazy story about four legendary god-beasts that control the balance of the Earth sealed in 4 magical stones which they had been commissioned to retrieve from a top secret facility that experimented on humans. Apparently this is the best kept secret in the ninja countries, with fifty-eight of the world's top-ranking feudal lords across the five elemental countries contributing money and political influence to this one facility to keep the ninja villages out of the loop. The aim - Power, the feudal lords involved want to boost their military powers by having their troops gain powers like the shinobi to eliminate the hidden villages and overthrow their countries' respective Shoguns.

Their story was so outlandish it wasn't even funny. However, despite the apparent implausibility, I could not summon the confidence to deny their story altogether. There has a been a string of tragedies happening to many of the big wigs from the various elemental countries, but mostly they happened to the eccentrics and shut-ins with a lot of old money in the family. Everything from unexplained disappearances, manslaughter due to internal strife, to suicides.

"The three of you claim to be responsible for the deaths of 58 of the worlds' leaders, you claim that they have been committing treason, do you have evidence of their activities, or even anything to prove that this mysterious experimental facility exists?"

"Of course we do, Hokage-sama." The blond girl paused to eye the boy with a curious shade of reddish brown hair. "We have compiled the reports documenting the feudal lords' treasonous activities as well as the circumstance of their deaths."

"If I may, Hokage-sama. Please let me use your desk."

"You may."

The boy retrieved a scroll from his belt and unfurled it across my desk table. He bit the thumbs from both hands then place his spread palms within the two circles drawn in black ink on the parchment. He whispered some syllabuses and a large pile of documents along with six huge scrolls and three hefty books appeared on my desk. Great, more paper work, maybe I'm asleep right now and this is merely a nightmare I'm having.

The blond girl spoke up again, "The documents to the left are the original resources obtained from the residence of the feudal lords, ledgers where there have been suspicious movement of money, letters and correspondence they have with dubious characters and such, to the right, the scrolls, are the in depth profiling of each target, detailing their character traits and their familial relations, they also record the targets' social and political activity along with photographic evidence to prove them, and all target profiling include a write up on the circumstance of their death. Lastly, the three books you see in the centre are the reports the three of us have compiled over the stages of our mission they are our personal recounts of our activities and others. All these should be sufficient proof that what we are saying is true." She paused for a little while with a slight frown that reminded me of Minato when he was trying to remember something. "Oh yes, we also have the collections of the legends and some of the ancient documenting of people claiming to have come in contact with the Shijin." She turned to the taller boy who had been silent throughout the entire time they had arrived, he looked the oldest of the three, but it was obvious the girl is their leader. The boy opened the bag he had slung over one shoulder and pulled out a file as thick as my head, oh boy. More reading.

With every word coming out of the blond child's mouth, their story had seemed to be a little more believable. But I would have to go through all the documents to be convinced further, and there's a lot of material to go through. Also, they have not said anything of their motive of divulging all these to myself, and mentioned nothing about themselves. What they claim to be offering would very tempting indeed, to a hidden village struggling to rebuild itself. However as to the characters of the children, I could not sense anything but sincerity in their recount.

The three had fallen silent as I considered their story, they seemed a little restless. Especially the one with the weird hair color, they seem like any other of our own young shinobis, it would be easy to manipulate children to believe such a far-fetched story though, someone might be behind them pulling their strings. The entire setup has too many loop holes! Firstly, what they are claiming to have done is near impossible to be carried out successfully. Assassinating fifty eight feudal lords with their own military guard squadrons, yet not stir up the political world at all and manage also to escape any detection of their activities. If what they say it true however, then I would be facing three very cunning and skillful shinobis that could easily be a greater threat to Konoha then Orochimaru.

"I have to say, with these amount of paperwork you present me, it seems to make your story a little more plausible. However, it could also easily be a means of distraction from your true motive of telling me all these. You have provided no information about yourselves or your allegiances nor any justification for your very action of revealing yourselves to me. I find it very hard to approach the idea of accepting all this, that's very close to bullshit."

I had intentionally slipped in the provocation to unsettle them a little, they might reveal some things about themselves to me. The two boys had the most obvious reactions, the red-head seemed to swell a little, and he looked to be vibrating, it was obvious that he was trying to contain his emotions. His attempt was failing, terribly. This one is easily agitated.

The tall one had straightened visibly his hands twitching as though tempted to reach for the sword hilt on his hip, his eyes moved to the girl almost immediately, protective over the blonde, romantic relations might be it. The blond seemed mostly unaffected by the comment, as though she had expected it, instead she flashed looks between the boys and the two abated moments later.

The blonde must have a lot of control over the other two, so the sign of leadership was not for show.

"I understand your reason for doubting us, I apologize for not introducing ourselves first but I felt that our position was secondary to the explanation for our circumstance seeing as to you were so eager to spill my brains over your lovely parquet floor a few minutes earlier-" It seems she's not as unaffected as she appeared to be. She's disciplined enough to control her body's surface reactions but not enough to control her tongue. She caught herself before saying more, seems she must have realized how childish it sounded, the red-head was grinning. "Then let me formerly introduce ourselves. My name is Shieien Asami, to my left, Shieien Nowaki, and he is Shieien Ichirou-"

"The three of you are siblings?" The boys seemed to balk at my question, Asami kept her pokerface. I'm starting to see a pattern here.

"No, however under unique circumstances we have come to share the same last name. As to our allegiances, it's another long explanation. Nowaki?"

The red head kid stepped forward and produced four Konoha hitai-ates. "This mission was commissioned by the previous Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. He sent four jounins for this retrieval mission along with three children, us. We don't really know why we were sent along but it turned out to be for the best. They were killed in an ambush seven years ago, only the three of us survived and we picked up where they left off and eliminated the rest of the targets to

completed this mission. I suppose that was our purpose all along."

"Impossible! The Sandaime did not keep any records that supports your claim that he commissioned this mission. The method of sending children in case of a mission fail has never been practiced either. Do you think these hitai-ates will prove anything? You could have scavenged them from a Konoha corpse!"

" Check your records, from what Kaoru told us about Sandaime, the Professor would have kept some sort of documentation. There was another person present when Sandaime ordered the mission, Danzo. Is he still alive? He can support our claim. "

The old snake Danzo knew about such a potent power source and do nothing? This is getting more and more suspicious. However, if this were to be a ploy plotted by the old war hawk I doubt the story would be so shaky. After all, was he not a master manipulator of children? No, I must have a better understanding of what's going on before I allow him any knowledge of this.

"The names of these four jounin?"

"Our leader was Hatake Kaoru, Morinozuka Minasuke and his sister Morinozuka Minami, and lastly Suzumura Sano."

"Hatake?"

"Kaoru-oto-… Kaoru was in Anbu before this mission so his records might not be within the normal jounin ranks."

This day just gets better and better, I need time to actually process all these. And the documents, I need to go through them to be sure of their recount. I need to be alone to think this through.. But I can't let them stay in Konoha while I do this, if this is intended to be a distraction, this would be exactly what they want. But if they are speaking the truth, then I can't risk them outside the village either. What to do?

ASAMI

While we explained everything to the Godaime, I couldn't help feeling extremely annoyed, It was really hard to muster up some self control at this point in time, we were so close to be completely free of this mission. And yet this woman, here is taking her own damned sweet time to decide. It's true that I did expect it to be difficult to convince her, in fact I was prepared to have to spend a few days to earn her trust, at least I thought I was. Those long intervals as she fell silent and frowned, I couldn't help feeling the tick in my shoulder that urged me to grab her damned hair and SOMEHOW convince her that it was all true, no matter how ridiculous it may seem to her, an outsider.

To be honest I expected, I wanted an outburst of some kind, that she would ignore our explanation all together and try to overcome us with violence or something along those lines, in fact, compared to her cold, silent brooding, I would have preferred some physical action. I always hated the thinkers more than the fighters.

She had been reasonable, perfectly composed and polite despite the proverbial bomb we'd dropped on her. Rejecting our story and yet taking it in at the same time. It was just plain ANNOYING. While she acts like that I have no true gauge of what she plans to do next, being unsure just pisses me off. Just make up her fucking mind already. AT LEAST SAY SOMETHING!

"Hokage, may I interrupt your thoughts?" using polite speech even now is excruciating, I'd rather someone amputate my leg. "Would you like us to hand the Shijin over to you now?" She continued to be silent, her eyes moving to my own. Her gaze was piercing, like she was determinedly intruding unto my soul, it freaked me out. Her amber depths held the proof of age and wisdom, alien on her own youthful face, but I dared not look away and I forced myself to stare back resolutely, well, as resolutely as I could manage.

"Very well. " I could almost feel a vein jump at that. Were we forcing them on her now? Damn it.

Nowaki looked to me for confirmation then performed the summoning seal. This is the moment of truth, the moment we hand the stones over, we will be free from this mission and more importantly, no longer be under the employ of Konoha's Hokage. If the Sanin decides she wants to rough us up, we'd be free to retaliate. If anything screws up now, I'm going to kill something later.

The four stones appeared as expected like the documents we had summoned earlier. Phew, nothing out of the ordinary, yet.

ICHIROU

I can't help feeling so restless on my feet. We've been standing in the spot for at least three hours as the Hokage just sat back and listened with that masked expression, only speaking to ask some brief questions. Nowaki was shifting his weight from one foot to the other, it was obvious his patience was wearing thin. Asami, was as usual, calm as the sea in quiet weather, but there's probably some treacherous undercurrents there.

The genjutsu I'd placed around the office had been undisturbed so far, I can keep it up for twenty four hours, no sweat. But If we stay in here for too long the assistant in the tower might realize something is up when she realizes she cannot hear any sounds from the Hokage's office. In case of that, I'd pulled up another genjutsu that fools the mind, it would cause her to explain away anything out of the ordinary on her own, but that's only enough to buy us some time to bust out of here in the event she calls for the guards or something.

Well, technically we can just disappear after we summon the stones for the Hokage. After all the mission ends when the Hokage receives the Shijin stones and we would be free of it at last. The only thing stopping us from doing just that is Asami and her attachment to Kaoru and the hometown he loves so much. Initially, I was in agreement with Asami to settle down in Konoha after everything was over, but after some information gathering from the other towns, we'd heard rumors that Konoha had suffered a second attack and was in devastated right while they were recovering from a previous invasion attempt. Which simply means that this village is weak. After knowing that, I don't think this would be the ideal place for us anymore.

Simply put, what I want for us after the mission's over is a quiet life. But knowing Asami's ambition and Nowaki's restlessness, we have no chance in hell to achieve that. But the least I want is that we don't end up sacrificing ourselves in a war between shinobi villages defending a half-dead population, because that's exactly the situation that Asami would put herself in, if she does end up placing down some roots here. She wouldn't ask us to follow her, but we would anyway. Besides, even if it doesn't get to the extent of a war, we'd probably be worked to the bone because of their lack of shinobi and that, would suck.

As Nowaki summoned the stones, I could feel the atmosphere in the office tense. The Hokage eyed the stones through slitted eyes, then deigned to pick up on of them, the Suzaku stone. She stared at it for a few seconds, and her eyes widened. One hand flew to her touch a spot just below her collarbone. The Hokage's eyes flicked back to the three stones still resting on her desk.

"Hokage-sama, is there a problem?" It was Asami.

"No…. Now that you have completed your mission what do the three of you plan to do?"

"Well, to be honest, I'd like to requ-"

"We haven't decided anything yet, Hokage-sama." Asami flashed me a dangerous look when I interrupted her, but the last thing I wanted was for her to declare that we wanted to stay and settle down in the Hidden village as Konoha shinobi, firstly, the Hokage might decide that we meant to infiltrate their village using our shaky story as a means of diversion from an ulterior motive, secondly I realize that the Hokage is likely to invite us to stay in Konoha anyway, after all she would need time to decide what to do do about us as well as to go through the material we'd given her. She'd probably want to learn more about the Shijin through us. So I'd rather she make the request so that we would have room to decide otherwise in the future.

When I looked back to the Hokage I caught a flash of her startled expression as she smoothed her face the next instant. Oh yeah, I hadn't said anything before this, maybe she thought that I was a mute. I chuckled inwardly, until I met eyes with Asami again, hers were blazing. Yikes, she's probably going to give me a good one later.

"Well, then as the Hokage, I extend my invitation for the three of you to stay here, in Konoha for a few days. I'll provide the lodging for the three of you. Feel free to take a look around Konoha."

"Yeah, with a complementary gift of a team of ANBU shinobi trailing behind us the whole time we're here, lovely." Great, trust Nowaki to act up again.

"Who asked you to speak, Nowaki?" Asami was frowning disapprovingly at Nowaki but I could see she wasn't really upset. The Hokage was unperturbed by Nowaki's comment. Well, unless you count her lifting an irate eyebrow.

"Does this mean you turn my offer down?"

"No, we'd be glad to cooperate of course, we won't do anything to your ANBU if they don't provoke us." Asami was smirking faintly, to me it looked more like she was itching for them to do just that. After all, we haven't gone up against any Konoha shinobi before, it would be interesting to see how we stand against them in a fight.

Author's note:

Sorry if this chapter was tedious or boring. I just want to get this part out of the way. If you skipped the entire thing here's a summary:

the 3 of 'em landed in homage's office, explained their mission, try to convince her they aren't quacking. Hokage is doubtful but let them stay in Konoha , but intends to keep a good eye on them. Tada! done, you've just been updated in about 15 seconds.