02 : foreboding

" Here, this will be your apartment from now on and you don't have to worry about the rent until your graduation from the academy. Just focus yourself on studies and become a strong ninja on which the whole village can be proud of" The man wearing a leaf headband and Konoha's ninja vest spoke as he showed Ryuma his room. 

Ryuma gave a big smile and thanked the ninja for showing him his apartment. After the ninja left, he quickly set his luggage according to the area where they were designated. With all of his work complete he finally rested on his bed and started munching on a nutritional bar.

Nutritional bar was a chocolate bar type snack which was said to provide all efficient nutrients to the consumed three times a day and was thus being provided by village authority for academy children for him. This was also an invention of the greatest healer of Konoha, Tsunade, in an attempt to make sure that all children will get every necessary nutrient for their best growth.

Maybe thanks to this Naruto was able to grow up on his own without facing any malnutrition. After all how could someone grow up without getting malnutrition, who only consumes pack food or spoil food in day to day life.

Finishing his nutritional bar, Ryuma woke up from his bed and stretched his body a little. Later sitting in lotus position on the floor he started his breathing technique which was something that he remembered from his past life. It was known as a 'dual breathing' technique in his past life and was pretty famous.

 It was said to increase oxygen ingestion when used and worked best when used while performing martial arts alongside. However, Ryuma never reached the realm in which he could use the breathing technique while performing his martial art. Maybe it was due to his inefficient focus or inept mastery over the breathing technique and maybe due to his less time given to train with it . 

But in this life, this technique and his martial art was the only thing that he could label as his cheat code, as after performing this technique for the past 5 years he saw great improvement in both his physical strength and chakra level. At one time he felt Maybe he was hallucinating and assuming his natural growth as benefits of breathing technique, however for the peace of his mind and some precious things of past life he decided to continue practicing it. 

After a few hours of practicing his breathing technique, Ryuma decided to go out for dinner in order to celebrate becoming independent. For the celebration he decided to use his monthly allowance instead of savings which were very few in comparison to them.

 Monthly allowance was something that the academy provided to all orphans in order to support them financially while they study in the academy, however in exchange they took all their wealth related inheritance. All in all Konoha wasn't that much of a great village if viewed from the modern world's perspective and this was a thing that Ryuma felt strongly after he regained his memories here.

With a few minutes walk Ryuma reached ichiraku ramen shop which was quite infamous in the story. Although he would have gone to a barbeque which he liked more compared to ramen but due to low cost and less traveling time, Ryuma decided to get his share of ramen tonight. 

Reaching the shop Ryuma only found a young couple sitting there in one corner so he quietly sat on another corner and gave his order. With the sun already going down the atmosphere was quite good which made his night's ramen much better.

With food filling the stomach and head fully refreshed, Ryuma decided to take a little walk before going back to his apartment. Walking towards the outskirts of the village which usually has more quietness , Ryuma traveled back to his apartment and after washing himself and changing into night clothes Ryuma decided to hit the bed early. 

****

In the Hokage office,

Hiruzen sitting on his chair watched over Konoha hoIding few papers in his hands. The housing lights of Konoha reminds him of fireflies, illuminating the surrounding and pleasing to his eyes. However the one unpleasant thing here was the papers that he was holding. Although it may look like normal paper, in reality it was the report that he gained from the Anbu, his personal ninja force. 

Carrying a helpless expression on his face, his mind was clouded with myriads of different problems. He knew the situation written in the report was nowhere near good as the Uchiha's were coming together and was very upset with the rumor going around all over the Konoha.

Hiruzen was no fool and he knew why all these things were happening and also who was behind all of this. But as he already had too much on his plate, he didn't know what he should do. At the current moment Konoha wasn't at its former glory due to it losing there considerable amount of manpower on the night of nine tails attacked and the Hyuga incident was a proof this. Alongside with this the reconstruction of Konoha, that cheap trick by Cloud and his star pupil going rogue made Hiruzen face too many things in a very short time when he wasn't even able to stir with the pain of his wife's death.

In this period of time Hiruzen felt helpless, his former friend and comrade were only looking at their own benefits without considering the village and their late sensei's teaching. Hiruzen looked at the mantle which had fire written on it and can only be worn by those who should be the best in the village and must care about the village and its people above all.

*sigh*

"Just a little longer... lets try to halt this matter a little. I am sure, I should find something so that all things should get worked out " Hiruzen said to himself, trying to cheer up itself meanwhile looking at the village which he gave more than half of his life protecting and raising. 

Amongst all the documents Hiruzen shredded one of them into pieces and on a new paper wrote something. After completing his response he called his shadow guard.

" deliver it to Danzo and say that this is my order that he has to compliance in all conditions. If he didn't then he had to face consequences " giving the paper scroll to the guard HIruzen gave some more additional command to it.

 'I won't let Danzo cut off the Uchiha clan. If he suppresses them anymore it can lead to dire consequences which will make the Konoha even more weaker . Now, its not same as what it was at the time of Senju's. Shifting Uchiha at the border of village is enough of a punishment' Hiruzen thought to himself as he picks up the other leftover documents.