In The Village, Once Again

It was in the middle of the night when he finally managed to get right on track towards Konoha. See, he didn't exactly remember the route he and his team took when they went to the Wave Country. So he wandered around, walking, for hours until he was able to see the walls of Tanzaku Gai.

After asking some of the people there for directions towards Konohagakure, someone gave him a map of the fire country. But first, he decided to have some fun there since they have great gambling dens, wines, and women.

After that, he set out to his village.

As he traverses the road leading to Konoha, he thought about his fight against Gato almost 3 days ago. He berates himself for being so stupid back there because he didn't conserve any energy in his reserves, and just went wild. At the end of the battle, the arcane energy remaining inside of him was a meager 10 percent.

If another shinobi had ambushed him back then, he would've been seriously injured, or worse, dead. Next time he won't be as reckless.

He noticed that he had gotten a bit rusty when he was fighting those ninjas but it can be fixed once he starts to fight more and more again. Since he'll be going to missions outside of the village from now on, he should be able to fight a decent opponent or two.

And he can feel the World Gate guarding his path to the Demigod Realm, almost breaking down from all the attacks he's been dealing with. A week from now, he should be able to completely destroy the gate and enter that realm again.

Once that happens, his mindscape will transform into a lake full of Arcane Energy, at least 10 times as much as his current reserves, and along with that, his physical strength would also increase 4 times as much, making him capable of lifting up to 240 tons. And on an island in the middle would be his next World Gate to break, which would lead to level 2 of the Demigod Realm.

Many cultivators back in his old world were never able to reach this realm due to their limitations but for someone like him, that's just rubbish. He has reached this realm before and he'll reach it again. The strength it grants is just way too useful for his goals.

Soon, hours passed and dawn rose while he walked on the side of the road, never stopping. People walked past him. He saw some merchants on their wagons, and some nobles on their luxurious carriages. And as he saw the forests getting thicker and thicker, he took that as a sign that Konoha is near.

But as he kept walking, a dozen meters away, he saw another luxurious carriage but this time, it was different. There were numerous guards around it and he saw the emblem of the land of fire's royal family; a red jade rock sculpted to be shaped like a flame, with spirals carved in the middle.

He was alarmed. His interactions with royalties were never good to begin with since one of them would be dead in less than a minute, and it's usually the royalties. He just hoped this one won't talk to him, though with the way he's dressed, there's no way a feudal lord or a prince would even strike a conversation with him.

But he can't take any risks.

He sighed. Even though he wanted to take things slow today…

With that, he disappeared in a blur, and the guards didn't even notice a thing.

Inside the carriage, 2 women were sitting right in front of each other. One of them merely wore a white kimono but the other one is obviously royalty. A princess at that. She has bright green eyes, long, silky black hair, fair white skin, and a face that's shaped like a heart. She wears a pink uchikake kosode with big and long sleeves, loose and unbelted but inside anyone can see another kosode belted with an obi.

She glanced behind her, a bit frightened by something, and her servant then asked, "What's wrong, Fuyumi-sama?"

She turned her head to her, and just said, "Nothing. Just the wind."

When he reappeared in front of the gates of Konoha, the guard was immediately startled, and raised his weapon at him.

He looked at them, and pointed at his forehead protector, saying, "Don't worry, I'm a leaf shinobi, too." Well, not exactly since he's not using any shinobi skills or whatnot.

Kotetsu, a man in his twenties, who has long, spiky black hair and dark eyes. He has a strip of bandage running across the bridge of his nose and a light-colored marking on his chin. He wore the standard Konoha shinobi attire, with a chunin flak jacket and a black forehead protector.

The guard sighed in relief, and said, "Don't scare me like that, man. You nearly gave me a heart attack."

He shrugged, and replied, "I was in a hurry since I just saw the carriage of the feudal lord's family coming towards the village."

"Hmm, that's probably because of the chunin exams. Feudal Lords from different countries are coming here to witness the exams. I hear two of the major villages' kages are gonna come to this village, not counting our own,'' He helpfully informed his junior shinobi.

Helel nodded, and said, "Wow, I guess the peace negotiations are coming along quite well. Which of the major villages are gonna come here anyway?"

"Suna and Kumo, if I remember correctly," he answered.

"Kumo, huh?" He muttered, and then smiled at the man, "Well, I gotta report back to Hokage-sama now. See ya," and he disappeared.

Kotetsu sighed again, and said, "Rude punk."

Minato couldn't help but let a tear drop from his eye as he stared at his desk. The amount of paperwork on top of it could all be done in less than 2 hours, and there weren't any more coming from his secretary, Kana.

Many of these papers are about the wealth of the previous civilian council, which he had just killed a day ago. Once he signs them, all of their assets and money in the bank will be turned over to him, the Kage. Even if their families tried to take it, they wouldn't be able to.

The members of the previous civilian council have already been painted in the village as criminals. Unexpectedly, once the Uchiha Police Force started investigating them, they managed to find so much evidence of misconduct and criminal activities pointing towards them, to the point that they didn't even need to fabricate it.

Child prostitution, murder, illegal gambling dens, stealing from the monthly tax, bribing academy teachers to give their children good grades, countless sexual assaults towards women, mostly minors, enslaving and selling people, and many, many more.

Seeing this, he decided to instead find puppets, not only for the civilian council's vacant positions, but also for other big associations in his village. For example, the Merchant Association. He'll install one of his brothers, a fellow orphan that he met back in the orphanage, and have him act as the chairman, replacing the dead one.

Even though his paperwork has drastically lessened, he still has much work left to do.

Suddenly, somebody knocked on the office door but this is quite unusual. This isn't the usual knocking pattern of his secretary, yet he still said, "Come in."

And as it opened, a familiar red hair took his attention. It wasn't Kushina but it was someone else. A child around the age of 12, wearing the hitai-ate of Konoha, a dark cloak and a black, long-sleeved turtleneck. He slowly widened his eyes when he saw the face of that child because it was his son's.

"Ren…?" He mutters subconsciously but he's able to organize his thoughts and calm down.

Lazily, the genin lazily looked at him, and said, "Yes, Hokage-sama?"

"… How are you alive?" He asked, now more confused than ever.

He sighed, and said, "I knew this was going to happen," then he replied, "When I was almost dead, surrounded by the enemies, I managed to tap into the power of the kyuubi and I blacked out. When I woke up, I was being treated by some person that told me that I slaughtered many of those ninjas. They said that I had four tails, two long ears, and a dark red body."

That is rather… unsettling. But even then, he did make the seal like that so his children could use the fox's immense power. Then, suddenly, the realization hit him.

"You entered four-tails!?" At that state, Ren would've been very dangerous. It's even a miracle he managed to turn back into a human without any outside help!

Helel smirked inwardly. Just as planned.

He nodded, and replied, "Yes. When I was unconscious, I think the fox was trying to talk to me, trying to make me remove the seal but I did not heed its words."

Now, he was more alarmed than ever. For the kyuubi to talk to his son like that means it is already trying to escape the seal. Thankfully, his son's will power was strong and ignored it. Otherwise, a disaster would've occurred.

But even then, he thought about the other thing in his son's words. He almost died fighting those mercenaries, and he could only imagine the fear, the loneliness he had as he stood in front of hundreds of enemy shinobis.

To think he fought them off until his comrades were able to escape the perimeters of the area is truly admirable. He stayed there knowing that he'd die, just to let his friends live. A true shinobi of Konoha.

He couldn't be any more proud.

He smiled softly at his son, and said, "In any case, I'm just glad that you're alive and well. At the moment, stay in the office. I'll call for your team to gather here."

Helel nodded but inwardly, he could only wonder what kind of things his 'father' is thinking about behind that stupid smile of his.

He bowed slightly, elegantly, and said, "Thank you for your concern, Hokage-sama. I'm honored."

Minato hummed as a response, and then called, "Anbu, get team seven."

One of them appeared at his side, a purple-haired woman wearing a cat mask, kneeling, as she said, "Hai, Hokage-sama," and disappeared in a blur.

He moved near the wall, put his back against it, and just stood there for less than 10 minutes, until someone knocked on the door.

"Come in," the blonde Hokage said.

The door opened as Itachi walked in, along with Azumi. Sasuke wasn't with them, and Helel immediately took notice of it. The reason for that, he theorized, is that the heir to the Namikaze name must've healed faster than the heir of the Uchiha since the former has half of the Kyuubi sealed into her.

The moment the former anbu captain saw him, he visibly saw the Uchiha widen his eyes. For a moment, Itachi stared at him in shock, confusion, and… relief.

Helel took a look at the raven-haired man's overall appearance, and noticed that he looked a bit... off. His hair hasn't been combed that much, he smells a bit like liquor, and he looked tired.

It's really strange to see Sasuke's brother like this, at least for him. In the anime, he was much more stoic, a man of few words, and always seemed so cold. But that's not true, as later shown in the series. So this must be what would happen if he didn't massacre his entire clan, excluding his brother, and was never influenced by Danzo.

Helel walked over to his team, and when stopped to turn to the Hokage, he felt Itachi ruffle his head a little. He glanced at the Uchiha, and he saw a warm smile on his face.

"I'm glad you're well, Ren."