A Senju Tale: Change of Fate - 25 The Fate of a People

Nawaki sat down in front of the floor to ceiling window and entered the lotus position. Usually he wouldn’t have to meditate but due to him being in the middle of a city, there wasn’t enough energy for an instantaneous transformation. After about 30 seconds, the olive colored markings appeared on Nawaki’s face as he entered sage mode.

Ashina’s eyes widened as he saw an image of his old friend Hashirama flash before him. He then said, “You remind me of my old friend. It is not surprising that you two are related.” Nawaki smiled as he stood up with the yellow hue in his eyes. He took out one of his kunai and placed it down on the Uzukage’s desk. In a brown flash, Nawaki vanished.

Back in Konoha, Hiruzen was having the most boring day of his life. Every time he would process one request, two more would replace it. The stack of paperwork was seemingly endless. He sighed and said, “I swear, this stack of paper could go to the moon and back and still have some leftover.”

Hiruzen had recently taken up smoking to cope with the stress of his day to day duties. He reached into a desk draw and removed his pipe. He packed it with tobacco leaves. He took a large breath as he ignited the leaves with his lighter. He sighed as he let out a cloud of smoke.

Hiruzen missed being out in the field. Nowadays, the only excitement he gets is when someone knocks on his door unexpectedly. He would do anything for someone to do just that right now.

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door. Hiruzen perked up with excitement but calmed himself before saying, “Come in.” The door opened revealing none other than Nawaki panting from exhaustion.

Hiruzen got concerned and quickly said, “What happened? Where are the others?” Nawaki lifted his hand and waved it in an effort to dispel Hiruzen’s concern. He then stumbled over and plopped down on the couch. Through his heavy breathing he said, “Just a moment… need to breathe…”

Hiruzen got up from his desk and poured a glass of water. He went over and handed it to Nawaki who finished it in one gulp. Hiruzen then sat down in a chair across from Nawaki and said, “Catch your breath and then tell me what is happening.”

After a few minutes of recuperating his energy, Nawaki said, “The Uzukage wishes to meet. I told him that I would see if you could meet today.” Hiruzen let out a sigh of relief. He was concerned that their mission had gone wrong. In actuality, it was the opposite. It couldn’t have gone better.

However, one question remained. Hiruzen then asked, “How did you get back here so quickly? The journey should have taken around 4 days.”

Nawaki smiled and just took out one of his kunai. Hiruzen nodded since he now understood. Hiruzen then said, “I will give you two hours to recover your energy. In the meantime, I will send word to the Uzukage and gather the necessary people.” Nawaki nodded as he went to sleep. He would nap for a bit to recover his energy for the upcoming task.

Once two hours had passed, Hiruzen returned to his office with a few people in tow. With him was Toka, Koharu, and Mitokado Homura. Toka was there to represent the clan heads. As a Senju, she was best suited to do so. Koharu and Homura were Hiruzen’s aides and most trusted advisors.

As they entered the office, they laughed at what they saw. Nawaki was sleeping soundly on the couch just as he was left. Toka walked over to her son and bonked him on the head saying, “Wake up idiot.” Nawaki flew into the air as he woke up and fell onto the floor. He stood up scratching the back of his head and said, “It’s time already?”

He let out a cheeky smile and Hiruzen said, “Indeed it is. We are ready to go.” Nawaki sighed through the tired expression on his face and said, “Alright, here goes nothing.” He then sat down to prepare himself.

In Uzushio, Ashina had just finished reading the letter that was sent by Hiruzen. As per Hiruzen’s request, he had a large pitcher of water with a full glass ready and waiting. In a brown flash, 5 people appeared in the office. As they did, Nawaki collapsed to the floor and passed out. Jiraiya rushed to Nawaki and carried him off to get some rest.

Seeing this, Hiruzen quickly wrote up a letter and handed it to Koharu before saying, “Please send this back to Konoha. We will need an escort for our return journey.” Koharu nodded before leaving the room.

Ashina smiled and said, “Hokage dono, it has been a while.” Hiruzen chuckled and then said, “Oh please Ashina, spare me the formalities. It is good to see you old friend.” They walked up to each other and shook hands. They talked for several minutes and filled each other in on some recent occurrences in each other’s lives. They gladly avoided the issue at hand as they caught up.

Hiruzen then said, “Once Koharu returns, shall we get this started?” Ashina nodded and said, “I’ll bring you all to the conference room.” He led the group out of his office and down the hall. As they approached the conference room, Ashina turned to Hiruzen and said, “It is unfortunate that Nawaki chan can not join us. I’ve witnessed his insight and wisdom first hand. He could make some valuable contributions to this meeting.”

Hiruzen smiled and said, “That boy really is special. If he wakes up soon, he can join us.” As if on cue, footsteps could be heard down the hall. Nawaki and Jiraiya rounded the corner. Toka smiled seeing that her son was okay and said, “How funny, we were just talking about you!” The group chuckled and then filed into the conference room. Once they were inside, Ashina’s advisors joined them and they sat around the table.

The Konoha representatives sat on one side of the table and the Uzushio representatives sat on the opposite side. Jiraiya and Minato stood behind Hiruzen. At the request of Toka, Fugaku stood behind Toka to represent his clan. In addition, Ashina invited Nawaki to take a seat as well. Once everyone was settled, Ashina opened the discussion.

He turned to his advisors and said, “Have you all been briefed on the situation?” They all nodded so he continued, “It truly is unfortunate that this meeting must take place. I am just glad that we have a chance to get out in front of this. Working together is the only way to devise a solution to this problem. I look forward to hearing what each of you has to say. Hiruzen, what is your take on this?”

Hiruzen nodded and said, “Thank you Ashina. From the intelligence report, Suna, Kumo, Iwa, and Kiri are preparing for a joint operation to eliminate Uzushiogakure. This appears to be an effort to reduce the strength of the Land of Fire in anticipation of war. After some careful thought, it occurred to me that the Land of Fire is in part responsible for this situation. As such, we want to explore the various courses of action that can be taken to avoid the impending tragedy. That is all I have for now.”

Ashina sighed and said, “You are correct. Both the Land of Whirlpools and the Land of Fire share the blame. I appreciate you reaching out. Now I will open this discussion up to the advisors. Before I do, I would like to say that the people present from my village include Hondere Toneri, the Civilian Council representative, and Uzumaki Akane, the Uzumaki clan head. That is all.”

Hiruzen then introduced his advisors. Ashina commented when he heard about Toka and informed her of their connection. After this, their discussion commenced.

As the current jonin commander, Koharu said, “We must be careful in what we choose to do. As it stands, Konoha does not have the military strength to defend Uzushio from a combined assault from the other four great nations. Even with our combined strength, I doubt that we could hold them off. In addition, the Daimyo of the Land of Fire would never approve of the forces that would be needed to even stand a chance. Due to this, confronting their assault is off the table.”

Everyone sighed but nodded in agreement. They all knew that the combined strength of four great nations was nothing to be trifled with.

Ashina then spoke up and said, “It is unfortunate that you must go through the Daimyo for any major decisions. As the Uzukage, I also am the acting Daimyo of the Land of Whirlpools. As such, I have the authority to approve any decisions made today. Since military action is off the table, does anyone have any ideas?”

The room fell silent. Everyone was deep in thought but at the same time felt nervous to break the silence. Aside from trying to solve the problem, none of them wanted to be the first to make a suggestion. Through the silence, the tension in the room was slowly rising. Everyone was tensing up and none of them could come up with anything.

A few minutes passed. To those in the room, it felt like hours. Having run out of patience, Kensho scoffed and said, “You goddamn idiot. I know you have an idea. I can hear your thoughts, remember? Stop being a dumbass and speak up. Ugh, why do I even need to tell you this. You have got to be a special kind of stupid if you didn’t realize why that old man invited you to sit at the table.”

Nawaki sighed as he listened to Kensho bitching in his head. He knew that Kensho was right so he broke the silence, “If I may…” As if an angel was coming down from the heavens, everyone turned to Nawaki. They all looked hopeless as the child was the only one in the room with the balls to speak up. Homura then said, “Boy, know your place. You do know who you’re speaking to, right?”

Toka scoffed at hearing this. Hiruzen then shot Homura a glare before turning to Ashina and saying, “Ashina, do you mind?” Ashina laughed and said, “Of course I don’t mind. There was a reason that I wished for him to join us. I am eager to hear his thoughts. From what I have seen, his wisdom is too great for him to only be just a child.”

Nawaki nodded and stood up. He bowed and said, “Thank you. I know I am out of place and I apologize for that. Speaking before all of you is a great privilege.” He raised his head and continued, “I just could not bear the silence any longer. On that note, I have an idea.”

All eyes in the room were on Nawaki. He felt the pressure but stood tall. He was thankful that he was used to working under pressure due to his medical training in his past life.

Nawaki then continued, “As it stands, Uzushio is set to be attacked in the near future. Intelligence suggests that it will not happen in the next month. Aside from some reconnaissance squads, none of the villages have mobilized any notable forces. Thus, it is not safe to remain in this village. To this, I have two ideas for what we can do. The first one would involve relocating the village to somewhere else within the Land of Whirlpools. This would avoid the coming assault. However, the other nations would most likely do the same thing again and we would be back at square one.”

Everyone nodded in agreement so he continued, “The second idea would be a merge of sorts. Essentially, all of Uzushio would relocate to Konoha. On the surface, this would seem quite complicated. However, several factors greatly simplify the process. Firstly, the friendly relationship between our two villages would avoid most opposition on both sides. Secondly, the only clan in Uzushio is the Uzumaki clan. If the order comes down from their clan head, there will be no issues having them move. The last factor comes from the usage of seals. The Uzumaki clan is famous for their powerful and useful seals. They can potentially be used to store entire buildings. This would reduce the amount of construction time and expense necessary to accommodate the new residents. I wish I could say more but that was as far as I got.”

Nawaki scratched the back of his head as he finished. The two kage and their advisors looked as if a bomb was dropped on them. Hiruzen could only sigh. He could only imagine the literal mountain of paperwork that would come with the second option. Ashina was blown away. He had thought about both of those possibilities but did not have the audacity to say it out loud.

Toneri (Civilian Council Representative) then said, “No way. Both of those ideas are ludacris. There has to be another way.” Akane then scoffed and said, “Toneri, there is no other way. Unless you have any ideas, there is only one choice.”

Ashina nodded and said, “Thank you Nawaki. I am glad that I had you join us.” He then turned to Hiruzen and continued, “I think that the most logical course of action is the merge. We will have to discuss the specifics but what are your thoughts?”

Hiruzen sighed, “It will be a lot of work for me but I agree. Lucky for me, I do not need to seek approval from the Daimyo for this as this only concerns the village. I doubt that he would have any issues with it anyways. All that is left is to establish the conditions of the merge.”

After a few hours, the meeting concluded for the day. There was still much to be done so they would meet again the next day to finish up. Following the second meeting, the merge was finalized. The Uzumaki clan would move to Konoha in its entirety. They would be joining the Hyuga, Uchiha, Senju, Akimichi, and Aburame clans as a noble clan. As for the remaining Uzushio civilians, the Uzukage would announce the relocation of the village. They would not be forced to follow it but they would be made aware of the dangers of not doing so.

A few days later, the escort team arrived from Konoha. Hiruzen and his two advisors left to return to the village. Toka stayed behind as a representative to help facilitate the move. Team Jiraiya also remained to support her. As such, the process began.