A/N: Hi everyone!
Yeah this chapter took quite some time to be done, but I hope it's worth the wait. And uh, no, sorry, can't say how long it'll take to get the next one up or how many chapters this fic will have - I hope it won't take as long as this chap did though.
Please PLEASE keep your great reviews coming, your feedback is fantastic and I LOVE it. I answer them all either through private messages or here (in case the reviewer wasn't logged in ffnet when they made their review) :D
Sasuke had wanted to be far away from the city already, but at Teuchi's request he had obliged to stay and run over the evidence their small spying network, Shin, had amassed.
As of right now they had enough to pin the Konoha Council, almost all the clan heads in Konoha and many subordinate members of others, including members of the Nara clan. It made absolutely zero sense not to find proof against Nara Shikamaru or Naruto, especially with the current head of the Konoha Council, Hyuuga Hiashi, getting most of the bribes from the Yakuza organization, along with Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, who were still quite alive and in good health at 85 years old, and who Naruto had never demanded step down from their councilor duties.
Sasuke looked at the stained wall where he and Teuchi had pinned the pictures and documents to better see the correlations between players in the scheme.
He could plainly see where Naruto's actions had openly benefited the scheme, but for all they investigated, they couldn't find any actual benefit the blond could be getting from it.
The Hyuuga clan had rented him a house inside the compound, but that was the only concession for the former Hyuuga heiress's family. His kids were ostracized – according to Suigetsu, Hinata had even been physically punished by Hiashi over Bolt's misbehaving, and the other Hyuuga children were forbidden to interact with them - Naruto's children had not been included in the Hyuuga family registry due to not having the Byakugan and to top it off Hinata had been partially disowned, also due to her inability to produce children with the Hyuuga bloodline limit.
Naruto's earnings were only his salary as Hokage; he had even declined to receive the post-war pension he himself had created. Hinata received hers, and it was enough for them to live comfortably, but not luxuriously. Not that Naruto himself made use of the comfort: most of the time he was locked up on the Hokage Tower signing documents he never read and discussing pointless actions that were never implemented with the other Kage over the internet. The Hokage hardly even saw his family.
Nara Shikamaru was also not exhibiting any signs of the wealth he by all means should be accumulating from the massive money laundering schemes the Nara clan had been involved in.
On the other hand, the Hyuuga main family, the Aburame, Nara and Akimichi clans were swimming in money. The other smaller clans were also stupidly wealthy, with the one exception being the Yamanaka.
It made no sense at all that the two men most important for the entire scheme to work weren't benefitting from it. And it nearly drove Sasuke crazy.
The Uchiha was the first to acknowledge that yes, he did want to publicly humiliate and expose his former best friend as the fraud he had to be. He dreamed of having Naruto put in jail for letting the ninja world become this horrible travesty of "peace," where honor and loyalty meant nothing and privilege was even more of everything than it had been before the war.
Uzumaki Naruto had made him promise not to kill himself, had promised he'd change the system, clear the Uchiha name, get rid of the corrupt Konoha Council, and then betrayed him. He had cast Sasuke away as if he was nothing; to add insult to the injury, he had maintained the same Council that had ordered the Uchiha massacre.
And a week before he had become Hokage, the fucking Uzumaki had put the ultimate corruption scheme tool in motion.
He had convinced Hatake Kakashi that the Academy had to teach students more "useful" subjects for peaceful times, to become more like the civilian schools. That wouldn't have been a problem, if done right, Sasuke conceded. Problem was that the way it was implemented had eaten up the foundation of ninja training.
Teachers stopped teaching concepts like honor, and loyalty, and analyzing the history of ninja wars, all under the excuse of "preparing the younger generations for peace". Battle tactics and observational skills had become a side subject that didn't teach almost anything, leaving the actual training of future ninja to their clans alone.
That had led to the current situation, where no ninja under twenty years old had the skills to spot a maracas-playing, banana-costumed, lobotomized chimpanzee passing right under their noses, let alone fighting it, because the Yakuza was mostly comprised of criminals with no ninja skill but shitloads of cash, and the clan heads were more than happy to let most clan members go rusty, or not learn the basic skills at all.
Of course, the lack of training and consequent loss of skill by Konoha's ninjas had been very useful for Sasuke's organization – the fact that Suigetsu had access to the Hyuuga compound was key in getting information – but it was still a thorn on the Uchiha's side.
If only Karin had been able to escape at the end of the last war. Her talents as a sensor would've been invaluable.
Karin had been the only one in team Taka to be captured after the war. Suigetsu and Juugo had run off as fast as they could right after being released from the Infinite Tsukuyomi, but Karin had foolishly decided to turn herself in again.
She and Orochimaru had been killed while under custody even before the Konoha army had reached the village. No one had even tried to find out who the murderers were.
After that, Kabuto had quickly found a way to escape, never to be heard from again. Sasuke had suspected he would be the next to be disposed of, but no one bothered him.
It had taken him over a year of traveling to find Suigetsu and Juugo again.
He was distracted by a small polite cough, and turned his head to the door.
"Um, can I have dinner with Ayame-chan tonight?" Salad asked quietly, and gave him a small smile when he nodded, before quickly bowing in thanks and leaving.
Sasuke had to admit that the girl at least was much less bothersome than her useless mother. Despite her complete and utter lack of ability as a ninja, which she had confessed to and proven on the one morning her father had tried to gauge what she had learned at the Academy.
"So you have no chakra control at all, your chakra pathways are undeveloped, you can't use throwing weapons, or heal anything," Sasuke had counted on his fingers. "The Academy taught you nothing. How about your mother?"
Salad tried very hard to huddle by herself. "Mama didn't teach me anything about chakra, she said I wouldn't need it," she tried to explain, and shrunk even more when her father glared at her, "She said now that there's no more fighting I could find a good husband by just being a good, pretty and obedient girl, that I wouldn't have to pretend to want to be a ninja for real, like she had to, because the good catches weren't leaving the village anymore."
Sasuke's glare deepened, and his teeth gritted. "You might be only half-Uchiha, but you are still Uchiha. Uchiha women aren't supposed to be useless and weak. After we settle you'll learn a trade suitable to whatever talent you have, if you really have no use as a ninja, so that when you grow up you are independent and worthy of the Uchiha name," he declared, inwardly seething at Sakura's horrible parenting, yet another proof of her worthlessness.
He might have been stuck with Salad against his will, but now that he was, he'd at least make a decent Uchiha woman out of her. Uchiha women, ninja or civilian, although less privileged than men, were resilient and independent, and the clan respected them. His mother had proudly stood beside his father in life and in death, sharing the responsibility for the clan's fate, and he'd be damned if he'd let this child he had sired, physically defective or not, become as worthless as Haruno Sakura.
"If you think Mama is useless and weak, why did you marry her, then?" Salad had asked in a quiet voice.
"I made a mistake," Sasuke answered. "And to atone for it, I had to marry her so her honor would be restored. This mixed marriage only lasted this long because you exist. However, since your mother could not produce a viable Uchiha male heir, it is now over. You will learn a trade so that your future does not depend on marriage."
"You didn't love her, then?"
"No, Salad. Marriage often has nothing to do with feelings, and this was an example of that."
They hadn't talked about that subject anymore, for Sasuke's relief.
Half an hour later, Salad came back with a bento for him.
"Can I ask you something?" she asked quietly while he sat down to eat. "Why did you give the senbei recipe to Teuchi-san? If it's an Uchiha recipe, shouldn't you have given it to Mama?"
Sasuke gave her a thoughtful look.
"Teuchi-san was a friend of Uruchi obaa-san. And he's not only my friend too, but someone who shares my worries about how Konoha has been run. So I gave him the recipe, not only to help him and Ayame-san, but also because the senbei works as communication between me and the people who help me in the city."
"You're worried about how the Nanadaime made Konoha City grow and brought peace," she said.
"You have seen how most of the people in the city live by now. Do you really think that constitutes peace?"
Salad lowered her head in thought, and then shook her head. "Not really, because people don't have enough food and things. So there's a lot of robbing and fighting, and people are afraid of each other. But then, it's better than war, isn't it?"
"Salad, people being afraid of each other is what leads to war," Sasuke explained, and gave a pained sigh. "It's something I had a friend teach me a long time ago."
'Too bad the usuratonkachi forgot about that,' he thought.
Ino was opening the flower shop on Monday when Hinata passed by, and the Yamanaka heiress called out to her.
"Um, Hinata-san? Can I have a word with you please?"
Ino had been waiting for this moment for the past week, already. As secretive as Naruto's condition and the whole jutsu business was, she felt sorry for the Hyuuga, and believed the woman deserved at least a basic explanation of what was going on. Besides, if she was stuck on the same jutsu she herself had been, it would be in her and Naruto's children's best interest for Hinata to be released from it.
Hinata gave her a sheepish smile and entered the shop, following Ino to the back room, where Ino served them both some tea.
"So," Ino began after the usual pleasantries had been shared, "I've been meaning to talk to you about something important. May I count on your discretion please?"
"Oh, of-of course," Hinata stuttered, feeling cornered. Ever since she had last seen Naruto she had been feeling uneasy, for even with the Uchiha child's death, of which Konohamaru had informed her, Naruto hadn't talked to her anymore. It wasn't as if going days, or even weeks, without contact with her husband was a novelty, but something felt off.
Ino gave her a friendly smile. "So, I don't know if you remember any of it, I mean, it was such a long time ago, but remember when you guys went to save Hanabi and fell in a genjutsu or something? Um, there were apparently some lingering side effects from that, so Naruto asked me to see you about it."
Hinata blanched, and started to tremble. "Um, oh, uh… really? I… I don't remember anything out of the ordinary, really. What… what happened?"
"Well, it seems the genjutsu besides showing one's true memories included false events and false emotional associations in the psyche. Nothing major," Ino said with a reassuring smile, after noting the woman's reaction, "but something that might have, er, manipulated the personality. So the Hokage asked me to evaluate everyone that went under it. It really is a minor thing, but for obvious security reasons he has asked for secrecy."
A bead of sweat dripped from Hinata's forehead, and she gave the Yamanaka heiress a forced smile. "Um, sure, but uh, how and when would you want to do it? You know how it is with children, if it's something I need to be away from home..."
"Oh, don't worry, it's a very simple procedure," Ino said, waiving her hand and smiling, "I won't look at memories or anything, I just need to take a look at your mind's structure, it's not a big deal at all. We can do it whenever you feel comfortable."
"Oh. Ok. Um, may we do it in a more convenient time, then? I'm sure you are busy right now, and"
"Of course! Don't worry about it, just please contact me when you're free and I'll drop by your house."
After that, Ino steered the conversation to more domestic subjects.
'Poor woman. At least she won't be in the dark anymore,' she thought, watching Hinata leave twenty minutes later.
Salad adjusted her backpack and tried to remain as quiet as she could beside her Papa in the full bus.
Papa radiated frustration, and she knew it was her fault for not being able to travel through the trees like a real ninja could.
It's not as if she hadn't tried to learn: she had, often, but her chakra control was simply nonexistent. Everyone made fun of her, saying that even Rock Lee, who was unable to perform the simplest jutsu, could do it.
Well, at least she was honest about her complete lack of abilities, unlike stupid Bolt, who she had seen perform quite advanced jutsu since before entering the stupid Academy, but who'd simply lie through his teeth and pretend he didn't know much of anything.
It was the first reason for Salad's interest in him.
She had caught the boy teleporting once, while desperately trying to get up a stupid tree in the middle of the Valley of the End national park. Her eyes had gone as wide as saucers with that, and she had quickly hidden behind a bush, watching in secret as the boy spent two hours training ninjutsu and taijutsu like a full-grown man.
And then when classes started at the Academy, she watched in silence as the boy pretended shamelessly to not know anything.
Of course, having no friends at all since her father was the village outcast, Salad didn't have anyone to talk to about the strangeness in Bolt's behavior. Not even Mama, since, when she tried to talk to her, Mama had simply told her to stop thinking about him, because he wouldn't be "good enough for an Uchiha girl".
The second reason for Salad's interest in Bolt had been the simple fact that the other kids were just either uninteresting or Chouchou. Chouchou was interesting, if nothing else for the fact she didn't care at all about anyone's opinion about her, but she ignored Salad as much as everyone else did.
Considering that Chouchou ignored everyone, only interacting with her forced teammates Inojin and Shikadai when Inojin's mom demanded they trained the InoShikaChou formation, Salad didn't take it personally. In fact, she actually envied Chouchou's ability to let the other kids' mean attitude fly far over her head. However, she was a girl, an Akimichi, and black, all of which in Mama's opinion made her undesirable as a friend (especially being a girl, since, as Mama always said, there was no true friendship between women, because they would always want to steal their friend's man). And Salad didn't want to get Mama mad at her for pursuing someone who would never even look at her in the first place.
At least Bolt noticed when she was around. And he was a boy, which meant that if Mama complained, she could at least say that she had no choice and had to pursue him, after all Mama herself had said that girls were made to marry their first love, and Mama's first love had been the first boy that had caught her attention.
Sure enough, that had shut Mama up, though after a few more times trying to talk to Mama about Bolt's stupid (in Salad's opinion) behavior without response, Salad had just given up talking to her altogether.
The third reason for Salad's interest in Bolt had been the boy's frustrated attempts to catch his dad's attention. She had felt a kinship to him in that respect, since her own Papa was hardly ever home, and even when he was, he hardly looked at her.
Well, Salad had had an entire week with her Papa now, and if she ever met Bolt again, she'd be sure to laugh at him for being naïve enough to think fathers were all that special.
She could say that at least Papa was civil and tried teaching her a thing or two, but he wasn't interested in what she had to say in the least. Not that she actually felt like talking to him often, he was that intimidating. And she felt awkward as hell around him.
Salad much preferred to be with Ayame-chan and Teuchi-san.
The ramen stall owners had taken care of her all week, even teaching her how to make the Uchiha senbei and miso ramen, which she learned was her father's favorite (she leaned towards pork ramen herself, but since she couldn't eat a whole serving, she'd definitely settle for making miso, at least it had nothing to do with tomatoes). They had also told her a lot of stories about her family, stories that she had never heard from anyone.
Teuchi-san would talk about the times when her Papa was small, after the Kyuubi had destroyed the village, and how he and Teyaki ojii-chan would contraband wheat flour and sesame together to feed the people in Konoha, Teyaki using his Sharingan to put the border guards of the Earth nation under genjutsu while he pulled the huge carts, while Uruchi obaa-chan and Ayame's mom cooked for everyone for free.
Ayame-chan would talk about the time when her mom got sick, and Uruchi obaa-chan had taken her in so Teuchi-san could take care of her mom and the ramen stall, and how she had been the one to help run the ramen stall when her mom died and they were in mourning.
It was Ayame, too, that had gone into the Uchiha compound in the days when Papa was in the hospital after the massacre, to find out what Papa would be willing to eat. She had found a couple of tomato plants in the vegetable garden, with a little sign saying "Sasuke's favorite", and took the tomatoes to the hospital.
So it was that, when Salad's Papa came back to Konoha, he gave Teuchi-san and Ayame-chan the recipe for the Uchiha senbei, which he had found on Uruchi obaa-chan's belongings and kept with him, together with a picture of his family and Itachi oji-san's necklace.
There were only two other things that Papa kept with him at all times. He had never shown them to Salad, but she had once caught him looking at them one night, as she tiptoed to use the bathroom.
One was an old Konoha headband, the other a very small yellowish stone. Salad understood them to be extremely important, for Papa to be so distracted by them not to notice her moving through the small apartment they were using while in the city.
That, and he had been crying in silence.
Hinata entered her home and immediately went into her bedroom, locking the door after herself after briefly checking on Himawari, who was quietly playing with her dolls.
She sat on the bed and hugged her knees, memory playing out on her head.
"So, um, Sakura-san, did you talk to Naruto-kun? How did it go?" Hinata asked in a hopeful tone.
"Yes, I did. Unfortunately… Naruto kinda behaved like an idiot, as usual," Sakura said in a grim voice, but then smiled. "However, I've found something that can surely change his mind and make him acknowledge your feelings."
Hinata widened her eyes as Sakura sat beside her in the park bench and pulled a tiny scroll out of her skirt pocket.
"This is a very old forbidden seduction jutsu, I found it on the forbidden jutsu archive at the Hokage Tower," Sakura said in a secretive tone, "It's an Uchiha technique, so unfortunately it wouldn't work on Sasuke-kun… but it will definitely work on Naruto, I'm confident on it. It's also untraceable, so you don't have to worry about being found out or anything. And this is the best time of the year to use it, because it weaves into an object that the victim," she giggled, "must use on his body for an extended period of time. You're already thinking of making Naruto a scarf, aren't you? It's perfect for this jutsu!"
The Hyuuga heiress took the small scroll and hugged it close to her heart. This would be perfect… the key to Naruto-kun's heart! She only needed to know one thing.
"Um, Sakura-san… thank you so much, I don't know how I'll ever repay you for this… but… why was this technique forbidden?"
Sakura gave her a knowing smirk. "Probably because clan heads were afraid of mixed marriages. But that's none of our concern here, isn't it? Don't worry, it's perfectly safe!"
Hinata had taken the scroll home, after profusely thanking her newfound friend and ally again, and opened it.
The jutsu was deceptively simple: it wove the caster's wishes and dreams, not only of obtaining the victim's love, but of how the victim should behave and manifest that love (something Hinata thought very useful, since Naruto-kun unfortunately lacked in proper manners) through their chakra into a piece of clothing or some other little adornment that they'd use every day for at least a couple of months. It had a temporary effect: the more time the victim used the object, the longer the jutsu would work. After a determined time, say, a year after three months of continuous use of the object, another object must be made to substitute the original and re-cast the jutsu on the victim.
It was really, as Sakura-san had said, perfect for this season and Hinata's intention of giving Naruto a scarf. It was the beginning of winter, which meant if she could make him wear the scarf until the end of the season, she'd have him for an entire year. And she could always give him a new one for his birthday, as a memento of their mutual love. It was so convenient, it had to be fate.
And so Hinata had done just that. The scarf had to be redone during Hanabi's rescue - no way would the Hyuuga heiress leave it at home, gods knew how long they'd take in the rescue mission, time was of the essence; but then they fell on the genjutsu lake, and the scarf most conveniently - another sign that it had all been the gods of fate working on Hinata's favor - had enveloped Naruto, and Toneri's genjutsu had triggered and reinforced Hinata's own jutsu, so much so that Naruto had woken from it already in deep love with her.
Hinata had faithfully renewed the jutsu every year, and everything had been perfect up to now. No one could have been affected by that specific jutsu, and it was the only thing that had happened that could change someone's personality. Hinata herself had been caught in the genjutsu and nothing had happened to her, so the Yamanaka-hime's orders had to have been issued because Naruto-kun somehow had found out about the scarf's true purpose.
And if Naruto-kun had found out…
Hinata jumped on the bed. This year's scarf! He couldn't have found out, she had already given it to him… she gasped as she remembered the last time Naruto had come home.
Didn't he take the damn thing with him, after leaving with that little Uchiha monster?
Hinata ran out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, where she grabbed her maid by the shoulders.
"Yuka! Did you see a new red scarf on the living room these last few days? I might have dropped it and can't find it, it's very important!"
The older woman gave her a startled look, and then visibly calmed. "Oh, yes, Hinata-sama. I found it and took it to your bedroom, it must be in your closet with your knitting bag," she said, smiling.
Hinata whimpered and ran back to the bedroom, nearly demolishing everything in her desperate search, until she found the thing neatly folded on top of her knitting basket.
"Oh no… oh no, no, no..."
A/N: Shin means Truth in Japanese.