Hiashi Hyuga calmly sipped his tea, his back straight as he sat dignified at the table. In contrast to Hiashi's formal posture, the other three nin seated around the table were either leaning into the table or slumped in on themselves.
"This whole thing was a nightmare." Inoichi Yamanaka said, sounding dead tired, his head angled back to stare up at the ceiling.
"At least they're gone now." Choza said, munching away at a bag of nuts. This was his fourth that Hiashi had observed. He knew the members of the Akimichi Clan possessed a high metabolism, but he hypothesized Choza's current calorie intake was as much due to stress as it was due to his Clan's need for greater food consumption.
Hiashi could not blame him for being stressed. Hiashi himself was not entirely calm, but he was forcing himself to remain so. The situation had nearly ended gravely for himself and his clan. Hitomi, his cousin's daughter, and Hinata, his daughter, were nearly taken by Kumo's 'rogue agents'. The village allowed this polite fiction in order to maintain the peace and secure more concessions from Kumogakure.
When Hiashi first received word that there may be an attempt on his clan during the peace talks, he had not expected the prediction to come true. It was common knowledge that Kumo coveted the byakugan, but to attempt to strike at his Clan during negotiations seemed impossible. Even before he was warned, he had tripled the guard around his compound and told his Clan's defenders to remain vigilant. With their eyes, they should have been able to perceive any attack.
That hubris nearly cost him his daughter.
Kumo came prepared with techniques that allowed them to shield their presence from the byakugan and had nearly made it free of the compound with Hinata in their arms. It was only thanks to the presence of the ANBU that she was recovered and the villain was not killed. Had any other ANBU been guarding the gate, the ease with which his daughter was recovered would have been impossible, and the attempted kidnapper would likely have died. Only a medic with great experience with poisons could have prevented the kidnapper from killing himself. Hiashi doubted that any other ANBU could have performed as well as the one present did.
Hiashi was thankful that HInata was not conscious during the attempted kidnapping. The med nin determined she'd been placed in a genjutsu the moment the kidnapper took her and was only awakened from it in the hospital. She did not remember what happened. She had been told, but that was not the same as experiencing it. His daughter was…reserved. Hiashi was glad she would not bear the mental scars of this encounter.
He was also grateful that the Kumo nin remained alive. If the man had died… It was best not to dwell on what ifs. He had lived, and Inoichi had helped him admit to his crimes, securing greater compensation from Kumo.
Konoha received much from Kumo for approaching under the guise of peace with the intent to betray that peace, but that was not all Kumo was forced to pay. For wronging his Clan, Kumogakure was forced to compensate the Hyuga Clan independent of the village.
At first, they offered the heads of the captured man's family, but Hiashi had no interest in decomposing body parts. Rather, he saw this as an opportunity to secure something his Clan had been lacking for some time now, lacking to the detriment of one of its greatest beacons. Hiashi graciously allowed Kumo to keep their nin's heads attached to their bodies in exchange for jutsu scrolls, Raiton jutsu scrolls.
The Hyuga received three C-rank jutsu – Overdrive, Lightning Rod and Lightning Ball – two B-rank jutsu – Thunder Bind and Thunderbolt – and the A-rank technique Lightning Dragon. These techniques were copied and distributed to the rest of the village to increase Konoha's strength, but that was not the only way they would make Konoha stronger.
Hiashi had personally made a single copy of each scroll and given them to Misaki to learn. It was both a way to thank her for her role in saving his daughter and to foster her growth. For some time, her library of lightning jutsu had been severely lacking when compared to her potential. While he did not expect her to learn every technique, he trusted her to determine which ones would be the most beneficial for her and master them as she had the chidori.
"Events could have unfolded much worse than they did." Hiashi said as he set his teacup down. "Inoichi, once more you have my thanks for your role in securing compensation for my clan."
Inoichi waved him off. "It's my job. I serve Konoha the same as the rest of you."
"Doesn't change the fact that you prevented the war from continuing." Choza said. "Shikaku said… Shikaku?"
The three men turned to look at the Nara Clan Head. His head was resting against the table. His breathing was slow and even.
Choza sighed, reaching over to smack Shikaku on the back. "Wake up!"
Shikaku jolted, his eyes snapping around. When he saw Choza's grinning face, he frowned, his shoulders slumping back down.
"Up late doing paperwork again?" Inoichi said with a sly grin on his face.
Shikaku grunted. "I was free last night. First time since the war started. Yoshino wanted to make up for lost time."
Choza wolf-whistled. Shikaku sighed loudly.
Hiashi hid his amused smile behind his teacup as he took another sip. He would never admit it, but he enjoyed Shikaku's reactions as Inoichi and Choza continued to pester him about his love life. Konoha's Jonin Commander had a fearsome reputation, but strip that away and he was just a man, same as any other. It was refreshing to see this side of him.
X
"Are you certain you can enter undetected?"
"With the war winding down, both sides will be recalling their forces. Provided we do not move from an obvious direction, we will make it."
"Do not be overconfident. Approach from the north. Hot Water suffered greatly in the war. Their patrols will be more sparse."
"And when we reach our destination?"
"Create a problem. Chunin will be sent to investigate. When they do not return, ANBU will be sent. It is just a matter of time until the right ANBU are sent."
"Respectfully, there is much more we could do with the opening presented by the ending of the war."
"Nothing that is as important as this. That bloodline is like the rest. See to it that it cannot start again."
"As you wish."
Author's Note: Really long word wall.
TLDR: Updates are going to slow to a crawl.
I don't like leaving these story-unrelated updates without a story update attached, so I waited until I had this chapter done to say all this. The last month has been awful for me. I've had deaths in the family and other family members are in hospice care. To add to that, I now need to move across the country for a new job. I've been busy.
I've also been thinking a lot about my writing. I've reached a point where I'm not really benefiting from this like I once was. I was learning a lot when I first started writing, and that isn't really the case any more. I still enjoy it, but most of the issues I have are with story direction which can be ironed out by planning. The stories I have that were outlined well don't have the issues that the ones that weren't planned have.
So really, I'm doing this without getting anything from it. The only people who really benefit are the sites I post to and the readers. I can't legally make money off a fanfiction, and I'm dedicating too much time to these stories to justify continuing putting them out at the pace I am without reason, so I decided to choose the simple solution. I'm not going to.
My stories won't be dead, but their updates will be drastically slower than they were previously. Think a month or so between chapters. I know this isn't what you want to hear, but I need to take a step back to deal with life stuff and to reclaim my free time.
I'm also thinking about starting an original book I've been planning for years. The reason I initially started fanfic was to improve my writing to the point where I could get published, and I saw a book the other day that somehow got published despite some…interesting grammar. I'm not the best writer I've seen on the sites I frequent, but I want to put out something I can legally profit off of. If I keep focusing on fanfic, sooner or later I'm going to wonder why I wrote another 100K+ story when I could have wrote my book.
Bottom line, I put this stuff up for people to enjoy at no charge while getting nothing from it for myself. I'm not doing that any more. I still plan to finish everything, but it will happen when the mood strikes me and no longer be my main focus. Thanks to everyone who has pointed stuff out that helped me improve, and I hope you continue to enjoy my stories at the snail's pace I'll be putting them out. If not, no hard feelings. :)
Have a good one.