I woke up the next morning to another day wondering how to fix my relationship with Tsunade. I didn't want to tell her anything but I felt guilty not doing anything at all. Not saying anything made me feel like I was an accomplice to the attack on Minato and his family. I think because of how this week has gone I've felt even worse about it. The more I thought about it the more I couldn't pinpoint why I felt this way. Was it because I should have tried to prevent it? I no longer know how Obito's plan is going to go. Did I feel obligated to stop this attack? Should I have spent time and brainstormed about other plans he could have done. Was that why I was feeling guilty? Every time I thought about this my thoughts just ran in circles. In order to feel a little bit better about it I decided that in the end Minato and his family were alright. I should be happy about that.
Another problem that I was thinking about this week is why Obito let that information slip. Is removing Fugaku as head of the Uchiha Clan part of his plan? Maybe he's thinking that he could easily manipulate Itachi to do what he wants. Itachi may or may not have already met him but I don't know for sure. At this point Itachi should have already awakened his sharingan because of Obito killing his teammate. I don't know if it did happen the same way because this is the kind of thing that is hard for me to find out unless I ask Tsunade or Shizune. Also why would Obito expose Fugaku directly to the village. Is he still trying to get Madara's revenge on the clan? If he is then it gives me nothing to work with. I've already been working under that assumption. Without the ninetails attack like in the original story it will be hard to push them into a corner like that. Minato has treated every clan fairly from what I've seen. The Uchiha's condition right now was better than what it was in the story. Other than the failed attack for the nine tails I think the village was in much better shape than the original story.
I was playing with what little food was left in front of me while my thoughts continued. I was using this mess to distract me from my problems with Tsunade. Both of them were huge problems to me but one was easier to approach for me than the other. I realized that I needed time for both of them. For the Uchiha time needed to pass before I could assess whether I needed to do something for them or not. If I go in without knowing anything I might create a problem that doesn't exist. I needed time for Tsunade because I needed the courage to face her. I finished the last of my breakfast before noticing that the compound was relatively quiet. I looked up to see Tsunade entering the room so I quickly escaped to the training grounds. I still didn't know what to do so I decided to run from her. I got up from the table and dropped off my plate in the kitchen. I was out of the room before Tsunade could even say a word to me.
It wasn't like I was running away aimlessly. I wanted to go to the Endless Plains to learn from the Nightwalker Clan but getting away from here was my first priority. I was also eager to get my chakra under control. In the training ground I decided to summon Benji to tell me how to get to the endless plains. The wolf appeared right in front of me as the smoke settled around him. From behind me I could hear Koko's voice. I didn't even know she was here.
"This is your summoned beast?" I turned to see her already next to me.
"Yeah I'm want to go to the Endless Plains to train there today. I was asking Benji here how to get there from here."
"If that's what you want to do I won't stop you. But I should tell you that you really should make up with her. I don't know what happened but she was looking for you a couple of minutes ago." I looked at the ground. Koko was right but I wasn't sure what she wanted of me. Honestly I was scared of our relationship getting worse than it was right now.
"I want to but I'm scared." I said trying my best to put a smile on my face. "Benji is it possible for me to be summoned to the plains?"
Instead of answering me the wolf cancelled his summon turning into a puff of smoke. Koko ended up laughing at me as I had blank expression on my face. Before I could even make a retort to her my surroundings changed. I was in the cave that the Nightwalker Clan lived in.
"It's nice to see you again." Said the patriarch, Roku.
"Thank you for letting me come here." I said trying my best to show gratitude.
"Haruka can you go get your mother for me?" He called out to the white wolf from last time who wasn't that fond of me. She took one look at me filled with disdain before leaving for Roku's part of the cave.
"Did I happen to do anything that would upset her? Her expression is worse than the other day."
"Don't worry about her for now. She's just being a little rebellious right now. Also Benji told me that you have an interesting companion with you."
"Oh yeah I brought him with me today. Is it alright to let him out here?"
"Sure let's see what he's like." With that I let Arcanine out of his ball.
"Interesting. I can tell that he's stronger than a few of my children but his chakra capacity is small. Even a newborn pup would have more than he does." Arcanine let out a few roars in his defense. At least that's what I thought they would be.
"Is there any possibility that you could train him as well?" I asked hoping that it might be possible. Roku looked at him for a bit before answering me.
"If he's willing to work hard then I might make him an honorary member of the clan. I usually don't take in strays but it's difficult to fight off the other clans without any support. When Haruka gets back I'll have her test his abilities. I can't promise anymore than that." He said as he looked in the direction of his part of the cave. "Your teacher will be here in a moment."
Out of the cave came two white wolves. The first one I recognized as Haruka who was slightly smaller than the second one. The second one had a more dignified aura around it compared to Haruka. The two of them walked up to us and stopped at Roku's side. He looked at them and then down at Arcanine.
"Haruka please see if this young one can keep up with the other children." Haruka looked at me briefly before turning towards Arcanine. She acknowledged her father and moved towards a part of the cave I haven't been to before. She looked back at Arcanine and indicated he should follow her. The three of us watched her leave before Roku decided to talk.
"Don't worry about her for now. I'm sure she'll come around in a little bit. Asta can you help young Tobi here?"
"What does he need help with?" She asked looking down at me.
"He wants to learn how to feel nature chakra." With that Asta brought her head closer to me. She inspected me for a brief minute before laying down in front of me.
"There's only one way I know to help him is that alright dear?" Roku looked at her and nodded. Once he did he started to walk away but he lingered around long enough to watch Asta start.
"Alright. I don't really know how to teach a human how to feel nature chakra but let's do our best." She said as I stood there not knowing what to do.
"I'll need you to sit down with your back towards me. In order to feel the chakra surrounding you…" She started on her explanation about what she wanted me to do. It was honestly pretty simple since I could already unconsciously use nature chakra. She told me to try and isolate that chakra inside of me and she will take care of making sure that it isn't too much for me to handle. The first few hours were quiet with Asta giving me the occasional hint in how to find the chakra I was looking for. Some time passed before Arcanine came back and I could tell he was proud of himself. Noticing that I was in the middle of something he laid down off to the side out of the way.
A few hours later and I was reversed summoned back to the Senju compound. The first thing I wanted to do was find the nearest bath. The one thing Asta neglected to mention was that the method she knew was the method they use to teach their own young. She spent a few hours grooming me so I was covered in her saliva. Apparently it has an effect in allowing their pups to feel the chakra around them better. She held off at the beginning to see what I could achieve by myself. Since I wasn't having much progress she tried her way. I'm going to have to prepare myself for the next time this happens. I looked at my hands that still felt gross. Giving myself a once over I realized that it was worse than I thought.
"I see that you've come back." I heard from behind me. Immediately I forgot about taking a bath and thought about how to not be here. I wasn't ready for this yet since the training I had been doing earlier didn't allow me to think about what I wanted to say to Tsunade. I was still in the same situation as this morning. Only it should be worse since I've been trying to keep my distance from her and she knew it. I turned around to see her sitting in a chair. She must have really wanted to talk to me if she's sitting there like that.
"Hi Auntie" I said trying my best not to sound scared. Tsunade got up from the chair she had been sitting in and walked over to me. As she got closer to me she looked me over and her face showed her confusion.
"Are you alright?"
"I just need a bath, I think. It was part of the training they showed me and uhh…" I answered on reflex rather than thinking. Eventually though I realized what was going on and I started to lose where I was. Tsunade tried to put her hand on my shoulder to calm me down but I was drenched so she took it back.
"I'm going to go." I said as I turned to run to the bath.
"Be back here in fifteen minutes. The two of us should talk for a bit." She yelled after me. I stopped and looked at her while nodding. Once she knew I heard her she sat back down in the chair from before. The fifteen minutes went by a lot quicker than I wanted them to and before I knew it I was standing back in front of her. She leaned forward in her chair causing me to try my best at standing tall. My fists tightened by themselves while I thought about having another argument like the other night. I decided to do my best to withstand her scolding. I could feel her gaze on me before she started to speak.
"I want to apologize to you. I did something I'm ashamed of to you. It was in the heat of the moment and I got carried away. I shouldn't have done that to you and you didn't deserve it." Tsunade told me. I thought I was prepared for a few different things but I wasn't exactly prepared for this. I'm sure it showed on my face at this moment too. It must have been quite the spectacle since Tsunade let out a little chuckle.
"You look like this was the last thing you expected today."
"Yes." I barely stuttered out. I was bracing for an argument not an apology.
"What did you expect?" She asked
"That you'd demand that I tell you more. That you'd scold me for holding back on telling you things. That I was a bad kid that should listen to their parents. That you'd punish me if I didn't talk. That you might send me to be interrogated by the intel division." I listed a couple more things before Tsunade cut me off with a look that I said a lot more than I should have.
"You sure have a lot of strange ideas. A few of those come from your stories right?" I nodded to her question. "I'm going to say this now. So make sure you don't overthink things alright? Tobi I think of you as my child. It might not say that in our clan's lineage but it is how I've felt since I've met you. It is because of this fact I want you to know that I will never lock you in a cage inside of the storehouse."
"I'm sorry too." I wanted to leave it at that so I wouldn't say anything unnecessary trying to finish our apology to each other.
"You don't have anything to be sorry about. I've thought a lot about what happened the other night. I also put a lot of thought in about your story too. When I thought over a few things I came to some ideas. Is it okay to ask you some questions? I don't need specific answers but it might help me try to understand why you don't want to say anything to us." I thought about it for a minute and decided to see what she wanted to ask me. If there is something I can say I probably would say it.
"I know you've used your knowledge to help us. Because of you there have been a lot of good things that have happened to this village. A lot of people are still alive and a lot of people don't have to suffer through a civil war. I can understand there is a reason to not tell us some things now. The problem that I'm having is that I don't know the reason that you're holding so much back. I realize now that you know a lot about what happens outside of this village too. Is it okay for me to guess that reason?" She said waiting for my reaction. I didn't respond right away as I thought about it a little. If I answer her wrong and she runs wild on her suspicions then I won't be able to stop her. On the other hand she might understand why I'm not telling her and I could avoid fighting with her again. I could tell she was starting to get a little concerned about whether I might answer her. Eventually I decided to see where this might go so I nodded to her. She smiled before asking her next question.
"The things you have told people are only about this village?" Once again I nodded since the only thing I've told her outside the village was about Konan and about Karin and her mother. She took a deep breath like she was getting ready to ask something that she didn't already know.
"Things have happened outside of this village that you know of and we haven't been told about." This wasn't so much a question as she wanted me to say that it was the truth. I couldn't just say yes or no to this one. This was something I'd have to answer or otherwise she wouldn't be happy. Judging by her tone she already knew the answer.
"Yes. I know a few things outside of this village that have happened. I know plenty of other people's secrets." I could see Tsunade processing it like she expected this answer.
"Do you know about things that happen outside of the village in the future." Since this was a follow up question I didn't really need to think about giving a verbal answer. I once again nodded.
"I think I have a good enough idea now. I'm going to explain an assumption I have. Can you tell me where I'm wrong?" Tsunade asked me. Her voice told me how serious she was with this so I unexpectedly stood straighter.
"I'll do what I can." She chuckled a little as she put her hand on my head. She smiled at me before telling me her thoughts.
"I think that you know about the situations about the other villages just as much as you know about Konoha. I think that I've been ignoring the fact that you know what happens outside of the village because the war you talked about was against another village. I think that you're not telling me because you want us to be protected from what happens next." I immediately cut my eye contact with her. None of it was off the mark but I didn't want her to know that right now. It took some time but I decided to speak up.
"It's okay. You don't have to admit it if you don't want to. There is another thing I'd like to know. Do you know about the political situation of the villages in this area in the future?" I nodded to her question since it was an easy guess on her part.
"Is part of the reason you don't want to talk about it because you're afraid of something changing?"
"Yeah. I am scared of it changing. I don't want someone to change the possibility of what I know. Once it's gone then I won't be of much help in preventing something. In the future I am going to protect this family. Along with our family I'll take as many people into the future with me as possible." I told her with complete confidence. It probably wasn't the answer she was looking for but it was how I felt. I knew that in the future I'd be able to protect myself well if I could learn to use senjutsu as well as using wood style. That combination should be able to let me hold my own against pretty much anyone that might appear. The only problem I'd have is making sure that Naruto and Sasuke were strong enough to win the war like they would have in the first place.
"That's the right attitude. You can't protect anyone if you're scared or doubting yourself. However I'm not done with my questions." She said making sure she could continue. "Going off the assumption that I was correct earlier you should know the state of some or most of the other villages. If that's the case then there is a way to avoid this war?"
"I think the best I could do is delay the start of it. The more time to prepare the better it should be for us." Tsunade paused when I said that thinking about her next words.
"Does the war have anything to do with a group of people wearing black coats with red clouds on them." How? How does she know about them already? As far as I know the robe the Akatsuki used wouldn't show up until a few years from now. My face might have given her some information but I wasn't going to confirm it for her.
"No it doesn't." I said lying to her. I didn't know if she would believe me or not but I needed to do it.
"I guess I was wrong. In that case let me ask my next question. In the future are there events that will benefit the leaf if we are to stay passive? Will there be events that affect our relationship with other villages in the near future?" To my surprise Tsunade didn't try to press me on my answer. It caught me off guard and her questions were just as serious as the one before. She must have decided to ask the questions she really wanted to know about. Just like I've been thinking about this all week she might have been doing the same. That thought caused me to feel a bit of happiness. Of course hearing I mattered to her made me happy but for some reason this made it feel real to me.
The problem with her question right now was that I didn't know how to answer it. If I talked about the events outside of the village there is the possibility that they might be changed. The last thing I want was to ruin the chances with The Hidden Sand assuming they still invade in the future. It would allow me to get my revenge on Orochimaru for treating me as his experiment.
"Yes there will be and it is better to not do anything since it will be for the next generation to deal with. I think that's why I was made the age I am so I could be a little older than some of the others. At least that's what I think. I never did get a chance to ask her." I wasn't sure if I was able to help her that much. Tsunade got up from the chair she was sitting in. She looked at me before looking into the distance for a bit.
"I think I have everything I wanted to ask you. Don't worry I won't do anything to ruin the plans you have for the future. I just hope you tell me about them before they start so we can help you prepare for them."
"I'm not in trouble?" I asked wondering what just happened.
"No you're not. Like I told you earlier it was my fault and I've felt terrible about it since then. However you do have to tell me some of the stories you know with a positive view on family. I still can't believe half the things you suggested earlier." We both laughed at what she said. In the end I was worried for nothing since Tsunade decided not to pry anything specific. I'm not sure what caused her change but I wasn't going to question it. Once she was done with the important things we spent the next few hours talking about stories that I haven't shared before. About an hour into my stories Koko showed up with Tsuna and they listened in for a bit as well.
The moon was high in the sky before I had a chance to finally relax. I managed to fix my relationship with Tobi once I forced him to talk with me. Listening to his stories once again reminded me that he still needs to be shown a lot of things that life has to offer. I need to work with him so that he can rely on his own experiences instead of those from the stories he knows. In some ways he needs a lot more attention than Tsuna does. His values are from those stories but the problem is that those won't work here. Each time I heard a different setting in those stories it sounded like he'd be able to adapt to those places easily. I was worried that if he spent too much time in one of those rifts he might view that place as his home.
Recently I've been a little worried by some of Koko's reports. His behaviour outside of the compound is a little strange to me. In her reports about his time spent it looks like he doesn't care to socialize. She's noted to me that each time he does go out there is a clear goal for it. He tends to avoid areas where he might run into children from the other clans. The only time I recall him actually spending time with other children outside is when we attend events or parties. Even then he often doesn't initialize conversations with others. What I've heard about his time in the academy is that he doesn't mind socializing. Thanks to the conversation earlier I can eliminate some of the possibilities but if I had to guess it was because he knows what they're like in the future. It's also thanks to that conversation that I have a better idea of what the threat in the future is.
"Lady Tsunade is it alright if I come in?" Shizune asked from the otherside of the door. I told her it was fine and she entered.
"How did today go with Tobi?" She asked.
"It went well but I got some reminders that I need to spend more time with him. I often forget how impressionable he is to things. When I asked him about what he thought I was going to do to him do you know how many ideas he came up with before I had to stop him?" Shizune let out a small laugh as she heard my summary of what happened earlier.
"He certainly is a very interesting child. I'm glad that the two of you made up after his bath." She told me but it looked like she wanted to say something else. I gave her the okay to talk about what she wanted to ask.
"Are we really not going to do anything about that masked man? The village is still in an uproar about it."
"I thought I said that we weren't going to talk about that night." I said as Shizune reacted to my voice.
"Yes I remember but.." I interrupted her before she could let her reason out. It didn't matter to me.
"That problem will solve itself if we stay out of it. Let's not make the future any worse right now." I turned to look out the window while Shizune digested my answer. I couldn't talk anymore about it than this. Even getting out that last part was a little painful. I was also surprised that I could talk freely with Tobi but I think she expected that I wouldn't say anything to him.
"You know that Lord Fourth will ask you about it in your meeting."
"I do. I plan on telling him a few things that we've also been holding onto for a while. We might as well make our own preparations while we can."
"I understand. Do you need me to prepare anything for tomorrow?" Shizune asked once she understood there wasn't anything else to talk about.
"No I don't think there is. There is something I've been thinking about for a little bit though."
"What is it?"
"I think we should do something as a family soon. What do you think?" Shizune didn't respond right away. Everytime I see her like this I know she's already lost in thought. I hope she's including herself in this.
"I think that would be great. If anything it might improve Tobi and Konan's relationship. Maybe you should take the three of them to eat out." She said and like I expected she already took herself out of it.
"That's not a bad idea but you're coming as well Shizune. We've been through enough together and I know how much you like Tsuna and Tobi."
"Lady Tsunade"
"I'm not taking no for an answer. Can you help me plan something fun for us?"
"Yes." Her answer was much better this time.