The Two Fawns:
Chapter 4: A Normal Day and a Less than Normal Lesson
3 years later...
Months passed and the now eight year old Yoshiko found that Academy life was as plain as drinking water and as dry as the deserts in Suna. Granted she hadn't fell asleep like Shikamaru during every single lesson, but Yoshiko can feel herself feeling sleepy during the theory lessons. It was a matter of when she will collapse on the desk while on a date with the Sandman. The only lessons she looked forward to were lessons with Iruka, where he would be teaching them military strategy, weaponry (cause she still one of the last at shuriken throwing) and chakra control.
Yawning for the umpteenth time that day, Yoshiko stretched from her seat while Mizuki-sensei's back was turned from her. It was another lesson on the History of Konoha, total bullshit aka propaganda for the eighteen year old Jean present in her. Had she not been born with an eighteen year old mind, it would be so easy for her to subscribe to whatever they were saying. Many things were fundamentally wrong in the Rules that they were told to follow. Rules were meant to be broken anyway hence she had not seen the reasoning behind teaching them those rules.
It was similar to the way how her teachers in middle school used to teach American History, droning on and on like a buzzing bee. Yoshiko was quite surprised that Mizuki-sensei hadn't grown wings, feelers and become yellow and black; his voice sure sounded like one. She could pass her test well above the average of the class hence she saw little need to pay attention.
Turning to her partner and friend; Hinata looked just as bored but at least she was sitting upright and trying her best to listen to the buzzing. Sasuke was in the exact same position, the classic I'm-not-listening-but-I'm-doing-it-for-grades look. Sitting up, Yoshiko allowed her mind to drift to the private lesson she was going to get tonight with her tutor. Genma-sensei had been a really interesting teacher with his rather quirky sense of humor and he would sometime drag along another one of his specialist Jonin pals when teaching her in the forest near her clan compound. She regretted not sitting beside Naruto and Kiba.
~Page Break~
Time flies when one is dreaming. When the familiar bell rang for lunch time, Yoshiko trotted over to her brother's place where the latter was still asleep on his desk. Chouji was there, smiling at her and offering her a chip, a gesture of friendship from an Akimichi is when they voluntarily share their food with another.
Smiling back, she accepted the chip. It means she accepts the friendship. Chouji and her had a friendship due to him being Shikamaru's best friend. In a way, Chouji too considered her a friend and stood up for her when the popular girls Ami and her gang made fun of her obsession with reading and her apparent weakness at Taijutsu. She was dreading the Taijutsu lesson later that day.
Continuing her journey to her favorite tree had been a quiet one. Taking one of the forest trails that led to the back of the Academy, a large ancient tree sat there in all its glory. The tree was supposedly older than the village with it being around since the time of the First Hokage. Climbing the tree had been relatively easy with her chakra to avoid the thorny vines that grew on the trunk of the tree.
Opening her bento, she sat down on her usual quiet spot on the tree branch after climbing the tree like a cat. Setting her book bag on another nearby branch, she grabbed her book on various poisonous flowers and started to eat. Hinata would be eating with Shino as she was a lot closer to the Aburame heir than to the Nara heiress.
Sensing the raven haired boy's chakra, she gave him a slight wave in acknowledgement of his presence. Sasuke frowned at her being so high up on a tree. That tree was especially difficult to climb with its thorny branch, not wishing to end up with multiple scratches, Sasuke resigned to sitting on a log next to the trunk of the tree to eat his lunch. At least that spot was extremely peaceful as compared to the area where most of the Academy students were flocking at, he was not a social butterfly. Plus he found most of his classmates noisy and annoying.
Evading the fangirls had been a lot harder than usual. After several tracking lessons, those bunch of giggling girls had been a lot harder to shake off. The usual evasion tactics hadn't worked very well. Plus Yoshiko would have a fit where he becomes a target if he allowed any of those girls near her tree. That girl could scratch worst than Tora the demon cat according to Itachi when Sasuke had arrived home looking a lot like a scratching pole but not injured after a sparring session between the two. (He won in the end.) His mother had laughed at him saying how a woman's greatest weapons were her fingernails while his father had been rather amused at him. Those scratches were relatively harmless and light but it was embarrassing for him to be covered in all that red marks.
They both relaxed on their various spots, glad for the blanket of comfortable silence. Yoshiko sitting on a tree while Sasuke was resting on the soft grass.
Their peaceful bubble was disrupted when Yoshiko felt the chakra signatures of a group approaching them in around five minutes. Must be those girls from the fanclub with Ino Yamanaka leading them. Yoshiko had nothing against Ino but that girl took the fangirling a step too far if she is going to be one of the unfortunate collateral damage in their pursuit of the Uchiha boy. Feeling unusually kind that day, Yoshiko decided to help the rather flustered Uchiha boy who had quickly hidden himself amongst the bushes.
"Hey Sasuke, you can climb up the tree if you want." Knowing Ino's abilities at sniffing out anything Sasuke; she would be able to find him in those bushes within an estimated ten minutes. But on a tree that she believes only Yoshiko knew how to climb; she would be inclined to think that Sasuke was not hidden among the branches.
"How?" The boy replied dryly. Yoshiko signed, she had been rather selfish about the methods on scaling the tree. No doubt any trained ninja would be able to climb the tree, they were talking about Academy children who hadn't thought that chakra control was important unlike her hence her ability to have excellent chakra control. An advantage would have been her mature mental age giving her an unfair edge over anyone else. Still it was relatively easy to muster for anyone with a half decent chakra control if they put their minds to it.
It was a miracle that she could even put her mind into mustering how to climb a tree using chakra. Possessing eighteen year old mind does not mean possessing an eighteen year old attention span unfortunately. Her pool sized attention span of three hours had been severely reduced into the attention span of a teaspoon worth of fifteen minutes. Alas she digress. Looking back at the raven haired boy, she held out one of her hands to him that he quickly took. Focussing her chakra on her feet and hands, she dragged both himself and lunchbox that he carried with him to the spot with her book bag. That was easier said than done. She had to try to drag him up multiple times with him pushing a little chakra onto his feet. It require cooperation and proper timing on both parts. It was difficult when she was half falling out of the tree when he grabbed her too hard or when she grabbed him too lightly, he was falling off the tree. Yoshiko bet her year worth supply of dango that if his fangirls see him holding on to her hands like that, no explanation will be needed and she will be royally screwed over by Uchiha Junior. Well it would look romantic to them, but for the two of them, it looked like a particularly tough game of vertical see-saw with a lot of yelping when a thorn scratched them and a lot of hissing to keep quiet.
That took a lot out of her as she sat back down in exhaustion. Chakra wise she was fine, but God that boy was weighed like a ton! Grabbing a few fern leaves, she hissed at him to be a fern. While Sasuke grumbled and tried his hardest to get himself comfortable to make a believable fern out of himself; Yoshiko propped herself back on the branch, grabbed her book with one hand and discreetly rubbed her sore muscles with the other.
As she said, Ino and almost all the girls of the class ran over to the tree upon sighting her on the tree. Tricking Ino will be hard under normal circumstances with the Kunoichi being extremely level headed and clever, however when the issue is about Sasuke, it seemed like all logic has been thrown out of the window for the blonde girl.
"Hey Yoshiko-san have you seen Sasuke-kun around?" She yelled up the tree with the rest of the fan club keeping their eyes peeled for the any sign raven hair or the Uchiha signature fan symbol.
"Umm... Not really. I'm kind of caught up in my book. You know I wouldn't see anything or hear anything once I'm reading." Okay that was a slight exaggeration. She can clearly hear some things but seeing was almost a nil with her bumping into walls, pillars, trees and the occasional person when she read while taking a walk. Embarrassing but the notes on the various plants had interest her so much that she kind of forgot to keep track of her surroundings.
The blonde haired girl definitely knew that from Shikamaru's frequent complaints about having to hold her hand, steady her, direct her when she is walking with her tendencies to be as blind as a bat if her hand is holding onto a book. Hence believing the other girl's words and running off to look for Sasuke in a different part of the Academy.
Now that she thought about it; Shikamaru could have just allowed her to walk into that wall but he often grab on to her and redirect her, hence Yoshiko sensed that was his weird way of caring for her.
She too often covered Shikamaru when he cut class with Naruto, Kiba, Akamaru and Chouji. She simply distracted Iruka by asking a particularly difficult question with Iruka not wanting to make her feel lost by dumbing down his answers to be as easily understood as possible. Or sometimes she would volunteer to help her favorite classroom teacher bring in the assignments before the lesson with him accompanying her. Iruka will be extremely glad at her enthusiasm and would try slowing down his pace to prevent her from tripping on as she cannot see the stairs with books obstructing her view; hence buying her brother and his gang a window time of five minutes. Something they will always make full use of.
Of course Iruka might not have associated her actions being linked to the acts committed by her brother and his group. She was the bookworm, the quiet and dreamy student who liked asking questions in class and a helpful pupil to her sensei. He would never think to link her, the few white sheep of the class to the mischief makers. Well the good ones are those that never get caught, that saying rang true in this case.
Hmm... She is letting her mind run wild again. Looking back at the issue at hand, she could see Sasuke now putting away the fern leaves at his side and is now eating his lunch. Grabbing her lunchbox, she too started to eat and giving her tomatoes to him while he gave her the sweets in his lunchbox.
~Page Break~
"Hey Yoshiko-chan, how about visiting my house for dinner?" Sasuke asked his friend. Mother had been quite curious about his little lady friend at school and had wanted to meet her. The spring festival was coming up in the Uchiha District in a week's time. He had asked his father for permission to bring along Yoshiko to the Clan District and was granted permission. Strangely enough his father was quite pleased that he was becoming close to a Nara.
"Hmm... Maybe. My dad or mom will have to come along though and I have to ask for permission from my sensei. Can Hinata and Shikamaru's group come too?" She asked him, now putting away her book. She had wanted to get Ino too or even Sakura if Ino wanted her best friend to come as well; but she knew that would be pushing it. Knowing Sasuke's aversion to the fan girls, she didn't try push it.
"Then I got to ask mother or father tonight." Sasuke replied. Lunchtime was almost over and they had to get off the tree quickly before class starts. Again the twisted game of vertical see-saw begin, with a occasional curse from the two children at each other.
~Page Break~
Why must it be Taijutsu training after lunch? Yoshiko whined in her mind. No doubt, she will once again be the laughing stock of the class for not really landing a hit on any opponent or her hits don't tend to hurt.
Now they were all lining up and facing each other; guess who was she partnered with again? Ami, one of the populars and fangirl of Sasuke who hence dislike her for sitting next to Sasuke. Taijutsu lessons when paired with her were always a way for Ami to attack her without consequences. Why didn't she come after Hinata one would ask. Well that is due to the fact that Hinata is the top of the class amongst the girls for Taijutsu. Hinata may not like to fight but when she fights, a sweeping hit can hurt like a punch.
Catching Hinata's eye, she mouthed good luck at her and got a good luck back from the other girl. Hinata was facing the top Kunoichi of the class-Ino. Yoshiko knew that Hinata would win hands down in a Taijutsu fight even while trying to be as gentle as possible with her opponents. She agreed with her need to protect rather than hurt.
Iruka gave them the begin signal. Giving her opponent a quick bow and taking a defensive stance, she dodged Ami's punch to her face by ducking down. When Ami's leg swing up to kick her, she sidestepped on instinct, causing the other girl to stubble slightly. What she made up for lack of strength and stamina would be her agility and speed.
Ami was getting impatient, her hits becoming harder and heavier, her movements less controlled. Well she hadn't sparred with Ami for at least six months, hence she has definitely improved with her lessons at home like all clan children who have private tutors.
Once she noted that Ami was catching her breath from wasting her energy at trying to hit her, well a couple landed and it hurt a lot. She had gotten a few bruises from the barrage of kicks, swipes and punches from her opponent. Ami played dirty, but Yoshiko refused to do the same, as that would be swooping to her levels. She aimed a low swipe to Ami's already shaking legs causing the other girl to fall with a thud on the floor. Sasuke gave her a slight smile when he saw Ami on the ground and her standing. Yoshiko grinned back at the Uchiha before motioning at him to concentrate on his fight against his opponent earning herself a shrug that seem to say he didn't need 100% against a weak opponent. Typical Uchiha arrogance full stop.
She grinned when the boy Sasuke was sparring with managed to punch him in the arm hard due to his distraction. Ha. Take that. Sasuke had stumbled momentarily before regaining his composure.
"What are you smiling at?" Ami demanded.
"Nothing that you should know about." Yoshiko replied coolly, still holding a grudge against the other girl's unfair ways of fighting.
Catching her breath shallowly, she reluctantly made the Reconcilement Seal with Ami, Ami glowering at her throughout before walking to the shady spot under the tree where her brother was already lying there and looking at the clouds with Chouji snacking next to him.
"Your dodging definitely improved," Shikamaru remarked with Chouji nodding in agreement.
"Yeah and her hitting got harder." Yoshiko rubbed her tender arms painfully. It will be leaving purple bruises that will stay for at least a week.
"Yoshiko-chan you did improve dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed with Kiba agreeing and Akamaru giving a loud bark in response. It was hard to see why Naruto was so sunny after getting floor wiped by Sasuke. I told my raven haired friend to go easy on Naruto, but he had shrugged and said dead last was just bad. Sasuke was currently sparring against other students who came out to challenge him;
"Y-yoshiko-chan... Here... It will help your bruises heal." Hinata had came over from her spot with Shino. Her hands were clasped around a jar of ointment that she held out. She offered some to Naruto and Kiba who took it quickly with grins on their faces.
Yoshiko took a tiny bit for herself and applied it on her aching arms. Hinata was really sweet with her helping others and being extremely gentle with her opponents to not hurt them excessively. Hinata was not soft as others saw her, but rather she had a gentle and firm nature with deep rooted principals against hurting people for no good reasons, something that not many ninjas possessed, this made Yoshiko develop a deep respect for the other girl.
~Page Break~
Dinner passed quickly with little incident except their mother nagged at the two siblings for sleeping and not paying attention during classes. That had resolved quickly with their father coming to their rescue. Currently, Shikamaru was being dragged by the elders of the clan for his nightly training as the future head of the clan. Troublesome old men, her brother had complained.
She, on the other hand being the spare was spared from all that boring clan head training. Instead she was waiting for her sensei to arrive. The tell tale spike in chakra from the Body Flicker Technique told her that her sensor was here.
"Genma-sensei?" She asked. By helping training her sensory abilities, Genma-sensei had told her to cover her eyes with a piece of blindfold and sense out his chakra signature.
"Close." The much deeper voice replied before her blindfold was taken out. A tall man with spikey brown hair and a large scar across his face -Raido-sensei.
Raido-sensei was a lot stricter as compared to Genma-sensei from the sessions where he covered her normal teacher when he had to go on missions. He led her to the clan training grounds that they often used.
"Have you made that poison and antidote?" He asked her before they begin. He always had homework for her, either research on a poison or prepare a poison. Raido-sensei often told her what properties of the poison he required her to have: in this case, he wanted the poison to cause diarrhea and a stomach ache.
She passed him the mixture of broom and aloe for the poison along with its antidote that was made of plants that were supposed to counter the effects of broom and aloe. In its own way, the antidote is a poison that causes constipation.
Raido-sensei took the glass vial up and viewed the poison carefully. It was time for him to give his critic and advice for the poison.
"It's a good one. However due to the addition of too much water in an attempt to disguise its smell and taste, this poison will only take effect a few hours after contact. My advice to you would be to try extracting the toxins in these plants and add it to the water rather than the plant itself. Extraction will require a distillation process if possible make use of the chakra extraction method with pure water. Your control of chakra should enable you to do that." Yoshiko hang onto her sensei's every word and taking notes on her toxicology book. While she was writing, suddenly Raido-sensei almost dropped her vial of poison when someone slapped him hard on his back.
"Back from your mission so soon, Genma?" The scarred man remarked dryly at his teammate. As usual Genma would always finish his mission quickly and hurry back. That was his style. Another B rank completed I guess... Raido thought. Better than that assassination attempt that I had to do... That A rank mission hadn't gone that well and he had to flee the scene to avoid detection; resulting in one more addition to his tiny list of failed missions.
"Yeah, you know the usual stuff. So how about lets get my little cute student ready for some combat training?" The other man who was busy chewing on his senbon asked.
"Fine, I guess. Her poison is well made. We'd be having a little Shizune with us, seven and already brewing poisons. Well not that her poisons are fatal, but a good achievement for a kid." Raido replied. Since there were two of them with that kid today, a rare occurrence, they can get down to combat training without dumbing down their skills too much.
"Cute Little Fragrance, pick a teammate. And don't split your pretty little head apart when doing so." Genma grinned at his student when he see her scowl at him for the ridiculous nickname before turning becoming a tomato once she realized that she had once again lost her cool. That head joke had been quite funny, an inside joke shared amongst her tutors after Anko had called her that when she fell and landed on her head several times on a roll after a training session with the snake summoner.
Ever since Kotetsu called her that horrendous nickname; most of the Chunins and Jonins had caught wind of it and it riled her up when someone called her that. Anko had jokingly warned him that his student may poison him in his sleep once her poisoning skills increase. Genma had laughed it off, Yoshiko was quick and nimble for her age but in terms of being sneaky, that kid have a long way with tripping on her feet while trying to sneak itching powder into his pants. Granted she had been successful due to Anko's help by restraining his movements with her snakes, but he would have ran circles around her if she was alone. Genma still felt the phantom itches till this day.
"Raido-sensei." The girl replied in a heartbeat, grabbing the other man's hands before childishly sticking her tongue out at him and blushed again once she realized her actions. Raido seemed to be quite surprised by her choice. Often her choice would be Genma since he is her main trainer and knew her fighting style best.
"Heh, picking the guest sensei over me. Naughty Little Fragrance." Genma taunted before continuing, "Fine by me. The objective of this mission would be to successfully poison me with this new poison of yours with at least ten senbon. Meanwhile you have to keep your teammate and yourself from being hit by ten senbon of mine. You have a time limit of an hour. Raido-sensei cannot help in the planning. I will give you three minutes to plot with Raido-sensei since it will be your first time working with him. Don't worry your pretty little mind too much." Genma enjoyed teasing her a little too much, he had to admit it himself. Little kids tend to become amusing for a ninja with their little antics.
He had to give the prospective medic ninja a support role, knowing most field medic supplement their team's attack. "Okay. Begin!" Genma said to his student.
~Page Break~
Smart. Genma thought when he saw her tapping codes into his teammate's palm. Her taps was concealed by her long sleeves. Hence her holding his hands, he concluded. It must be the Morse Code. Genma had made her memorize the whole code order before he even taught her anything two years ago. It will prove invaluable one day when she needs to communicate with her teammates when she becomes a field medic.
"Raido-sensei now!" Genma found himself surrounded by black feathers. A signature of Raido.
"Kai." He said firmly, dispelling the Genjutsu. Raido was already next to him, swinging his black sword dipped in poison at him. Genma's senbon shot out like a projectile, deflecting the sword and knocking it far out of his teammate's reach. Grabbing three senbon between his fingers, he quickly avoided the shadow that was reaching out for his. He avoided the shadow prompting a barrage of Taijutsu attacks from Raido.
Sneaky. Using Raido as a distraction. Let's see if she can defend her teammate against this. He flung the senbon point blank at Raido who was still in mid-air. Raido moved back immediately, missing the senbon narrowly. Genma smirked at the tell-tale too dark shadow of Raido. Shadow Possession Technique, the insignia of a Nara.
"Shadow Possession Technique, success."
He could see the girl panting slightly at using the Shadow Possession to fling Raido out of the way. Knowing Raido's large stature, it takes a lot more chakra for her to move him. Not bad for a little girl. They were both fighting at twenty percent capacity with no showy ninjutsu, just basic Taijutsu or Genjutsu in the case with Raido's fondness for them.
The fight continued on, with Genma managing to nick Raido with nine needles and himself with nine needles from the little girl as well. She will be quite low on chakra now, the specialist Jonin noted. Grabbing the last senbon, he was about to throw it at his teammate when he was stopped in his steps. Shadow Possession.
"Shadow Possession Technique success. Game over." She said panting, exhausted. Yet her shadow held true. It was like she was struggling to make it hold him in place. Genma knew at full capacity, he will be able to break from its hold, but he was fighting at a beginner Genin level skill. Hence he did not try to resist it.
"Why? We both have nine senbon on each other. The last senbon would be the decisive one." He knew what her strategy was once he was caught but he rather she explained what was going in her little mind.
"No. Not when you are right-handed and I am left handed. Even if I throw that senbon at you, you will not be able to launch this senbon at me." True to her word, the senbon from her hand hit his left arm, marking her tenth senbon. Once she released her technique, she knelt over and caught her breath in shallow pants.
Two Shadow Possessions in a span of thirty seconds each was still her limit. Genma smiled at her proudly before taking the antidote to the poison. Raido too took the antidote. Lesson was over.
"I will see you tomorrow Little Frangrance." Genma dismissed his student where she walked sluggishly back home.
"She chose to miss all the vital spots." Raido remarked while the two were pulling out the senbon attacked to their bodies.
"Hmm... If Yoshiko hadn't done that, she will not be the same Yoshiko I know." Genma replied owlishly back at his long-time teammate.
~Page Break~
A familiar suppressed chakra signature came from Shikaku Nara who was looking at his daughter from the cover of the trees. Given Yoshiko's current skills at being a sensor ninja, she won't be able to sense her father but the two special Jonin could sense the Jonin Commander's presence. Unknown to that little girl, Shikaku Nara had been very up to date with her progress. To the little girl, her father only trained her in the clan techniques.
When Genma asked the older man about joining in, Shikaku had said it would too troublesome for him to join in and that little Yoshiko would have a big problem pelting her father with those poisonous needles of hers. This will make her hold back; something that Genma experienced when he first started teaching her combat after all that theory knowledge and target practice. She was almost reluctant to hit her family or friends that she knew personally fatally. Something that seemed ingrained in her being, too deep for it to be changed. Too deep for the mental conditioning that the Second Hokage had designed to sink in.
A dangerous belief for a ninja to have especially against some missions that involve killing of innocent people to ensure its success. She may be seen as weak. Genma had too much experience with that kind of missions. Guilt often eat at him when he has to cut down defenseless children in the way of the mission, something that was considered human. He knew he is not one of those who can switch their humanity on and off in different situations. However, Genma didn't bothered correcting the little girl's belief. He hoped to keep that child's heart pure for as long as possible in this chaotic ninja world of violence and blood.
Though Genma had to admit, her rather short fuse had to be worked on for her to not lose her head in the middle of a battle. Sure it would provide light entertainment for him when she is so easily worked up; and cute when she feels embarrassed about it but it would not do well for her to have that quality in battle.
~Page Break~
That night while the entire village was resting, the Uchiha Massacre took place. Besides the blood and death; it destroyed a piece of a child's innocence, leaving behind a bitter and vengeful boy.
That event left the whole of Konoha shaken once the news was released by the Hokage. Many were shocked by the extermination of the largest and the supposedly strongest clan in the whole village. They were all killed within a span of a single night, by a boy who was not yet a man, a boy who was their next leader.
The Uchiha were supposed to keep the village safe from crime and catch the wrongdoers; the Uchiha were not that popular with the villagers with their distant attitude towards the village, their absence was soon felt by the people of Konoha.
The very security of Konoha was at stake. Without the military might of the Uchiha Clan, other hidden villages were soon all too aware of Konoha's shortage in manpower. The very deterrent for the warmongers were all but gone with a span of a night. This caused an emergency deployment of Jonins to be on high alert and the recalling of all active ninjas out of the village to turn back.
Shikaku had been forced to leave his home at midnight when the Hokage sent for him for a private audience. Shikaku himself had difficulty believing the accounts of that genocide. A single boy ANBU or not is definitely unable to take out a whole clan filled with many of Konoha's elite ninja. Itachi Uchiha may be a prodigy, but he is no Madara Uchiha.
"Lord Hokage, I believe this matter is not as simple as it seemed to be. Uchiha Itachi has no reason to-" Shikaku's words were interrupted by the door of the Hokage office opening.
"Danzo." The Third's voice held a steel edge to it.
"Seem like Hiruzen has figured it all out." Danzo strode into the room. Shikaku tensed up. The two men had often butted heads with each other over Council decisions. The elder had been an extremist with little concern over the loss of human lives; something that Shikaku disagreed with on a very fundamental level.
"I ordered Itachi to do it." Danzo continued in a flat disinterested tone. To any outsiders, they could be talking about the weather but the tension in the room was thick enough to be sliced with a butter knife. The anger from the calm Hokage was nothing that Shikaku had seen over his ten years in service to the Hokage as his personal adviser.
"The Uchiha are part of Konoha! Which part of no did you not understand? I vetoed that order. Talks were supposed to be scheduled between the Uchiha and the Council! A peaceful method without bloodshed, that is the way Lord Hashirama would have done to a clan who was with us from the very formation of Konoha!" The Hokage hardly raised his voice. It was bad but Shikaku felt that even he was not supposed to step in yet.
"It was for the safety of the village and the prevention of another war. That sacrifice was justified. Should we not deal with the Uchiha strictly, the other clans would follow." Danzo pointed stressed on the other clans.
Shikaku felt rather insulted by the elder. Plus the village elders had always tried to isolate the major clans from the inner workings of the village. They had been extremely subtle about it with most of the clans but their most balant attempt at alienation was to push the Uchiha to the outskirts of Konoha. A move that took place after the Kyuubi attacks when they rebuilt the new prison and the new clan district for the Uchiha.
Shikaku and all the other clan heads had protested against it but the Elders had prevailed in their tough stand against the 'culprits' of the Kyuubi incident by lobbying with the civilian council.
"Indeed it was. You have ruined the lives of two innocent boys for the sake of your paranoia against the Uchiha!" The Hokage yelled in righteous fury.
Danzo seemed indifferent to the fact that he had just sentenced an entire clan to death. Instead he appeared to be rather proud of doing that. Shikaku felt nothing but disgust for the man. Clearly diplomatic measures could have worked out fine; the Uchiha had simply felt let out and not respected in the village. They are also denied a voice within the Council with the Elders often blocking their petitions. A simple solution would to give the Uchiha more say (something that they had been continuously denied despite their efforts in the security of the village) and involvement in the village affairs. Shikaku suspected that Danzo had an ulterior motive but what it was had been unclear to the Nara Clan Head.
"You have gone too far Danzo. Too many a times have I, the Hokage gave you allowances. You shall discontinue the Root and you will have no place in the Council for your betrayal against the village." The Hokage said gravely. Shikaku had told the Hokage that should he choose to punish Danzo with death for the genocide, he would be further dismantling the fragile state of stability in the village. Plus if the knowledge of the Uchiha Clan coup be known, the young Sasuke Uchiha may not be able to live peacefully in the village in dignity. The Uchiha name would be tarnished forever.
Shikaku resist the temptation to groan out loud when the Elder was escorted out of the office by one of the Hokage's guard. One troublesome thing after another. It seemed like the world was bent on making his life as advisor miserable. He couldn't wait for Shikamaru to take over his job while he retire into a lifestyle of playing Shogi and relaxing.
How was it?