Chapter 8 : Blatant horseshit
This was, undoubtedly, the most awkward I've felt in this life so far.
Don't get me wrong: I had my fair share of 'oopsie' moments before landing in the Elemental Nations, so the feeling wasn't what you could call new to me.
Still, I think nothing quite topped off being in the same room as Hiashi Hyuga, his daughter and an unnamed servant from the branch family for a cup of tea after the Academy was done for the day, considering how stiff the whole affair is.
But, well, when the patriarch of one of the most prestigious clans in the Leaf himself invites you to his house because he 'coincidentally' -yeah, I don't buy it either- saw you walking out of the school's premise while merilly chatting with his daughter and you're 'only a nameless orphan', well, you can't simply say 'No', even if you really fucking want to.
So, here I am, valiantly enduring the stiffness of the situation, Hinata doing her best not to fidget next to me, as the patriarch silently waits for the servant to be done.
Did I mention that it was for some green tea, the one that takes a long ass time to be ready, that I had been invited to?
Because, yes, I had been offered some green tea.
I'm not going to lie, the only reason I wasn't yet bored to death and still maintaining perfect poise was because I had recently successfully managed to get accustomed to the mental gymnastic of being in two places at the same time and had started to abuse the absolute fuck out of the 'Mokuton: Moku Bushin no Jutsu' to get shits done.
Eighteen hours a day wasn't nearly enough for the amount of preparation I needed to do to overcome the challenges ahead of me while I still had the time, and merely doubling those was a game-changer.
"Thank you, Tamamo, you may leave." the patriarch intones as soon as the servant finishes her task, prompting her to give us all a bow nearly as stiff as the general mood, before promptly leaving.
If I wasn't any less trained, I would've sagged in relief that this little show was finally on the road.
The patriarch does me the honor of fixing me a cup, that I take respectfully.
"Thank you, Hyuga-sama." I politely thank him as he serves his daughter.
"Think nothing of it," he waves my thanks away, indicating that this isn't as formal a meeting as I think it'd be, "You and my eldest are friends, it is the least I can do after seeing with my own two eyes the…" he trails off consideringly as Hinata thanks him in turn, before starting to fix a cup for himself, "Positive influence you had on her."
Ah, I think I understand where this is going.
"Please, enjoy." the patriarch gestures for me to take a sip.
I turn my cup exactly one half of a turn to the right, provoking a minuscule quirk upward of his eyebrows, before dipping my lips.
I hum appreciatively.
Oh, did I mention that I hate green tea?
Because I absolutely hate green tea.
"This is an excellent brew." I compliment the master of the house politely.
"I am glad you enjoy it, Buto-san." he instantly answers, immeasurably pleased with himself, "Now, my daughter told me about your situation…" he starts leadingly, and I see in the corner of my eyes Hinata perks up and gives me an awkward glance.
"She told you that I was orphaned." I 'guess'.
"Quite so." the white eyed man nods, "A tragedy, to be sure, considering how talented you are."
And I was right.
It was expected, to be honest, after my recents showings at the Academy, that the denizens of the Leaf start to take notice of me.
Not like it takes a particularly gifted genius to grasp that I would have deserved an early graduation if the practice was still a thing.
Though, I admit that the first to give a shot at a good old fashioned talent poaching attempt is the Hyuga Clan comes a bit out of left field.
Maybe it is because the Uchiha got their hands on the 'last' Uzumaki and they feel the need to catch up to them?
Clans politics, everyone: a constant game of one-upmanship that keeps on giving.
I hum consideringly, pondering how I should react.
I drop my cup on the lacquered low mahogany table we are seated at with a measured, yet resonating, click.
"In the respect of not wasting each other's time any more than necessary, Hyuga-sama, allow me to speak frankly." I preamble, startling the patriarch a little and making him frown almost imperceptibly.
The long haired man appears to mull over my words for a beat -a power play, no doubt- before nodding his assent.
"You may." he graciously answers, a hint of interest in his normally bland tone.
"Thank you, Hyuga-sama." I bow from the waist in thanks, once more prompting him to quirk an eyebrow at the display of good manners, "I am going to give you three reasons why I won't be accepting the offer you were about to give me, please," I gesture cautiously, "Allow me to finish first before giving me your own counteroffer."
"Firstly, I happen to be well read," I start, and Hiashi imperceptibly nods at that, "Which means I am familiar with your clan's history and its customs." I give him a pointed look, and something flashes through his otherwise nearly unflappable complexion and makes his daughter stiffen and give him an anguished, almost pleading, look.
Is it grief or is it shame that I just saw? I wonder.
"I mean no offense, Hyuga-sama, but even if you were to give me your most sincere guarantees, I sincerely doubt that your elders would allow an outsider to be left, let's say, without a leash." I elaborate neutrally, and it's only because of my Venenum Assassin's 'past' that I do not miss the minute grimace distorting his lips for but a moment.
"Secondly," I pause, eyeing the low table consideringly and eyeballing its dimensions, "Do you like your table, Hyuga-sama?"
My segue -understandably catching him off guard- breaks the rhythm of the discussion and the patriarch gives me a slow blink, Hinata looking at me weirdly from the side, a sliver of her previous distress still showing on her face.
"I do, yes, it belonged to my father." the white eyed man answers a bit stiffly, not really getting where I am going with this.
I hum in answer, before extending my right hand to the side.
My hand shifts, prompting the two Hyuga to startle, the patriarch even tensing, until a smooth, whitish wood starts to flow out of my palm.
Less than ten seconds later, as my hand shifts back, a smaller, nesting table of a smaller size than the first one in the opposite color sits next to me.
I gesture calmly at my creation under the absolutely flabbergasted looks of the two Hyuga in the room.
"My gift, to you, for your invitation." I drop back my hands into my lap, before carrying on my point, "I'm afraid you'll have to contact a professional craftsman for the finish, but please, accept it in the spirit it is given."
I pause, letting my hosts digest what the fuck I just did.
"As you can infer after this short demonstration, Hyuga-sama, I'm already spoken for." I drop with a little smile.
"The Senjus." the long haired man instantly realizes.
"You are correct, Hyuga-sama." I confirm with a nod, before grimacing a little, "Admittedly, getting hold of Senju-sama to confirm the proceeding isn't going… smoothly, but Hokage-sama is confident that she'll accept the creation of a branch family to my name when she finally hears of it."
Or when the old man gets finally fed up with Tsunade's avoidance tactics and sik Jiraya on her.
"What would it make you, then? Senju-Buto?" he conversationally asks, visibly intrigued.
Guess all you have to do to shatter the Hyuga's mask is to drop the equivalent of a diplomatic bomb in their lap, eh.
"Once again, you'd be correct, Hyuga-sama." I nod once more.
He hums consideringly, his eyes occasionally darting toward his new table, Hinata still gaping at me from the side.
"Thirdly, and that is the most important to me: I do not think it'd make your daughter happy." I end with a soft smile, before turning my attention to Hinata proper, "I won't pretend that I know her well enough to anticipate her desires and wants, but I think I can at least wager that she appreciates having someone outside of your clan to speak with freely."
As if it was the signal she had waited all along to finally reboot, the bob cut haired girl's jaws clamp shut and she whirls on her seat to face her father.
"S-She's right, father." the white eyed girl admits haltingly, wincing a bit, before carrying on once she has confirmed that the patriarch is merely looking at her expectantly, "Even if there wasn't…" she trails off, and I can only infer that she refers to the previous points I made, but particularly about the elders and their little 'customs', "I'd rather just keep being friend with Tori-Buto-san," she precipitously catch herself, before soldiering, "She's my first, real, friend outside of the clan and… I'm afraid it would taint our relationship."
"It wouldn't," I interject calmly in a bid to reassure her of the genuineness of my friendship, "But that isn't how you would see it and I understand that."
She gives me a little smile even as her cheeks flushes minutely, and I turn myself back toward the patriarch.
"For all of these reasons, Hyuga-sama, I must respectfully decline your generous offer." I end with another formal bow, before straightening up and taking my cup in my hand once more, dipping my lips in undiluted bitterness while hiding my distaste.
Hiashi looks at me in silence for a long while, his demeanor stiffness incarnate, until he does something that I would have never pegged the man doing.
He sighs, a drawn out kind of exhale, as his shoulders sag.
"I must have made quite a fool of myself, Buto-san." he apologizes, looking more genuine in this instant than at any earlier point in this conversation, "I hope you understand…" he trails off a bit awkwardly.
"Clans politics, you had to take the chance." I commiserate.
Which he is still doing, in a way, what with him volt-facing instead of getting angered or something in that vein, making the judgment that befriending me now instead of taking umbrage to my rejection is to his advantage.
Admittedly, it is working, since my estimation of the man just raised a few notches now that he proved that he could think on his feet.
"The matter is settled, then." he swiftly brings an end to the previous topic, before continuing more conversationally, "I can't help but notice that you are remarkably well spoken for your age."
"I spent more time in the library than at the orphanage growing up, I'm afraid, Hyuga-sama." I offhandedly joke.
"You have wonderful results to show for your dedication, then, Buto-san." he congratulates me pleasantly.
And for a bit, the Head of the Hyuga clan and I exchanged polite pleasantries as I tried to swallow the disgustingly bitter brew.
But, at least, I made a rather positive impression with him.
One down, so many more to go.
"-and that's the gist of it." the jade black haired girl seated next to him at the ramen booth concludes her tale.
Hiruzen hums, stroking his beard in an idle gesture.
"You handled yourself well, Torika-chan." the old man ends up saying after going over the situation in his head once more, "You managed to make an ally by showing respects and politeness, while you could have simply refused to elaborate."
"Please, Sarutobi-san," the purple eyed girl drawls as she rolls her eyes, "Hyuga-sama isn't dumb. He caught the significance of having another tailed in the same cloth as the First as soon as I ended my little show. Even if it is just an accolade to my birth name, the Senju's name is powerful: everyone in Konohagakure and the rest of the world remember the tales of the God of Shinobi."
Once again, the girl wasn't wrong: the opportunity to show to the world at large that the Leaf was stronger than ever and not just a paper tiger, even after the Kyuubi's rampage, was a serendipitous blessing.
At the weight of expectations the girl was, knowingly or unknowingly, readying herself for, Hiruzen's heart can't help but ache.
But it wasn't yet time for her true debut on the national scene, and so she could keep enjoying her peace for a time.
…Not like she enjoyed it that much, considering the grueling training the girl was putting herself through anyway.
As he eyes her sleeve while palming his smoking pipe from the inside of his yukata, Hiruzen gets an idea.
Maybe she will have an insight into this rather particular situation, he muses.
"Say, Torika-chan," he starts, making the girl drop her chopsticks before turning to face him properly, "How did you get your ideas for your little 'experiments'?"
The jade black haired girl slowly blink, before understanding what the Professor is exactly asking when she sees his eyes still locked on her arms.
"Ah, that." she starts, pursing her lips for a beat, before sighing and making an all-encompassing gesture, "The plants, the world, they… speak to me, in a way. They told me what would be good for me and how to do it."
Hiruzen squints at the girl minutely, but she keeps looking at him innocently.
In his humble opinion, this is blatant horseshit.
He had learned to smell those quite nicely while taking care of Jiraya.
Nonetheless, it didn't necessarily mean that she didn't have a solution to the issue he just remembered.
After all, it's not like the Kuramas had many avenues left to them.
"If I was to introduce you to a young girl that is in a rather complicated situation, physiologically speaking, would you mind lending a hand, Torika-chan?" he probes instead of speaking his doubts out loud.
The girl blinks once more, before giving him a slow nod.
"I'd at least try, Sarutobi-san." she tells him confidently.
And that is good enough for the Hokage.
For now, at least.
[AN: Torika is a sussibaka!
We start seeing some direct consequences of the MC cementing herself as a talented orphan and the clans moving in answer, we flex a little, and Hiruzen shows he isn't born yesterday, even if he's willing to take a gamble because Mokuton users don't grow up on trees (eh.).
Hope you enjoy, xoxo]