Dissolution~

Sitting around a floor table, the Haruno family along with Tsunade and Shizune were discussing Sakura's birthday celebration as Megumi was trying to avoid looking into Sakura's eyes.

'Who knew I was trying to tame a tigress…'

'Awww… My Megi is so cute and innocent he can't look at me after….everything we did.'

To distract himself from what happened last night, Megumi diverted his attention by asking Sakura a question.

"Rura, why do you think the finance minister wanted to betrothe his son to you? Just money?"

"No, the betrothal would've pushed for a notion where any successful business started by the shinobi of the leaf would be brought back under the daimyo's domain, either through a marriage or other means if that wasn't successful."

"But how did the finance minister take such a decision on his own without consulting the daimyo?"

"I think the decision to allow shinobi to deal in businesses was taken solely by the daimyo without the consultation of his minister's, but that is unlikely. What is more likely is that the finance minister intended to do this from the start, to find a way to earn more money by just taking over their businesses."

"If he intended to do that, then wasn't everything a little too rushed and unplanned?"

"No not really, as long as my ever so amazing fiance had not stepped up, I'd have been forced to marry that kid."

Ignoring the round about praise, Megumi continued, "Why? Wouldn't the Daimyo have stepped in anyway once he realized he was being used by the minister?"

"He might, but that is only if I hadn't spoken the words about my fiance's gift to me being more valuable than the gift from the daimyo himself. As soon as I said that, the daimyo had to defend himself. Although in a private setting such words wouldn't mean much, in a public one they held a lot of weight, especially since he wasn't in the capital but in the hidden leaf village."

"Hmm…I still think there was something else that was involved in this entire situation to make it like this."

"..? Which part is bugging you?"

"Even if the plan of the finance minister might have worked it wasn't something someone of his caliber should mess up or attempt so poorly when they could've just brought up some other bogous charges to force you. And no one in such a high position would go behind the daimyo's back, they should all be people who trust the daimyo and who the daimyo himself trusts very much, especially an important person as the minister of finance. And even if he did, the daimyo should've known about it long before he was caught in such a silly trap."

"That….makes sense?"

"I have a feeling the finance minister had to do it as an urgent necessity regardless of his earlier motives."

"You mean someone threatened or manipulated him into achieving this?"

"Yes. Hey, do you know anything about what is going on in Amegakure? Or Kirigakure?"

"I do, but Tsunade-sensei should know better."

Megumi turned towards the adults who were talking and interrupted them when he found the right time to talk.

"Tsuna-nee do you have any idea about what is going on in Kirigakure and Amegakure? Did you get news about any movements from them?"

"No, but not in the way you're thinking about…Shizune has been keeping track of them and their movements. With the help of the fourth Hokage, Trumei has even succeeded in keeping a large number of clan members from the kekkei genkai clans safe. In fact, until last month, right before you came back, Shizune was in Kirigakure, with a team of special ninjas, working with Trumei to help them replace the Mizukage."

"Has the Mizukage been replaced already?"

"Yes, he has, he was killed last year. It took so long just to gain proper political support."

"Oh…I see."

"Why? Have something on your mind?"

"I think…that either Danzo is meddling with the daimyo's court or the Akatsuki is. I think they want to sow discord so it doesn't matter to them how exactly the result of the plan goes as long as it sows discord. But if the daimyo is sensible enough to ask to be forgiven as he did, his life will be in danger."

"Danzo…?" As soon as everyone heard that name from Megumi's mouth they all shared a glance.

"What happened? Did Danzo already die or something?"

"No…well we managed to trap him by baiting him out into a trap, but he managed to escape."

"Escaped? How? I doubt for a second there weren't many skilled people who went along in the mission to see him captured and dead."

"Well.. It was because he used his connections to join and help the Akatsuki."

"...so now Danzo is part of the Akatsuki?"

Tsunade nodded as she carried on, "And that's not the extent of our losses either, Danzo managed to take a large part of root with him. The Akatsuki have been using the root to interfere with the other countries as Danzo is using his connections and business in the village to help fund them."

"...that's a little hard to believe."

"...hard to believe? Why?"

"Because Danzo was the reason the Akatsuki turned out to be the way it is."

"...? What is this about? What did he do to them?"

"Danzo wanted leaf to reign supreme during the third great shinobi wars, but the Akatsuki during that time wanted to by means of peace talks help Iwa and Leaf stop the war between them. So he framed them for being first aggressor in a situation where root was killed by them which caused Hanzo to fight against the Akatsuki and kill their then head."

*sigh*

Sakura had a scrunched up look on her face as she heard Danzo's name brought up again, which Megumi noticed.

"Why are you so angry with Danzo? As if he did something to you personally?"

Tsunade along with Kizashi And Mebuki smiled slightly, trying to hold back their laughter as they all averted their eyes and looked at random objects in the room that they deemed more interesting.

Sakura with an ever growing seriousness to her eyes and expression said in a cold tone.

"He asked people to spread rumors that working at our stores was tantamount to working under a crybaby who was brainless and useless…"

"....?" Megumi tilted his head backwards in confusion.

Since Sakura hadn't explained the whole story, Mebuki carried on.

"One random day, after all his efforts to curb our businesses went down the drain since your book sold like wildfire and was super popular in the entire country raking us millions of Ryo. Danzo, as what we thought was the last resort, himself came to our store and proposed that we stop cooperating with the Hokage and work under him, 'For the betterment of the village and for the betterment of the world' he said. It was really early in the morning and dark and Sakura had just finished helping us set new painting machines in the store since we had expanded that day to meet the new demand we were facing sooner. But just as Sakura entered the store front to light a lamp, she screamed in a shrill voice, 'Mommmyyyyy!!! There's a monster here!!!!'" Mebuki said as she did an impression of child Sakura screaming.

"Don't tell me!?"

"Yes, it is exactly what you think it is."

"Hey the dark light in the store made him look creepy alright! Which rational human comes up with an eye covered and stares down on you and if he's going to devour you whole!!? Hmpf!"

Everyone in the room just snickered at Sakura, but when she saw Megumi also laughing at her a metaphorical flame lit up in her eyes as if promising something to Megumi for laughing at her misery.

That was when Tsunade continued even further, "After Danzo left once everyone came out with weapons to confront whatever it was at the door that scared our dear little Sakura, he spread rumors the next day about the store being run by a crybaby, since I rejected his proposal as I was there in the store at that time."

Sakura felt even angrier at being reminded of the incident.

"I might have a plan to control our situation, but… I think we would have to expand our stores a little more first."

"You're referring to the plan about creating those false rumors using the communication devices?"

"Yes, but using a simple communication device wouldn't be as effective as what I'm going to make next."

"...."

Everyone became slightly depressed when Megumi said that.

"What happened? Why the long faces?"

"Because that means all the books we sold till now were meaningless since you're going to introduce something new anyway."

"Huh? What? Oh! You're worried that you'll have to sell the new item again? Don't worry about that. The way I built the communication seal was meant for it to be expanded upon, so no you won't have to popularize the entire thing again, I'll just have to create the new seal once, which can then just be printed and combined with the pre-existing seals again. They'd just have to come to our stores with their books and we could modify the seal for them."

"Oh.. so that's why you wanted to expand our stores physically?"

"Hm~m!" Megumi nodded.

"But wouldn't that still take a lot of effort and money? We've sold the books to nearly thirty million people already. But to have to edit all their seals will take an enormous amount of effort."

"Yeah it probably would for the entire thing, but we only need about three million of all the thirty. And for even those we can just set up smaller stores nearby that will be catering solely for the purposes of modifying the seal and not be selling anything extra. As far as training people to do such things goes, I'm sure I can make the process such that no one will need to know anything more than having to supply chakra."

Getting into business mode all of a sudden Sakura became focused as she intertwined heer fingers and rested her elbows on the table as she Looked at Megumi and began speaking to him.

But Megumi seemed to be in a trance, as everything Sakura spoke from that moment on seemed to fly in and out of his ears without ever finding its way to his brain.

'Rura….she just… just looks so pretty right now.'

Snapping her fingers in front of his face, Sakura looked at Megumi with a faint blush as everyone else in the room laughed at Megumi's expense.

*cough* *cough* 

"As I was asking, how long do you think you can get this done? Since I've got to arrange everything according to that time frame. We could do a promotion event with Mito-sama's books so that we reach the most people at once and don't have to spend further extra on advertising our new products."

As soon as he heard this, Megumi's eyes brightened up with an idea which he voiced. "You don't need to print Mito-sama's books again, but still use her name for the advertisements and make sure to ask them to get their earlier books with them."

Everyone was confused by Megumi's idea but before they could ask him about it, he just said, "Give me two weeks and I'll have the product ready, I'll also give you a bunch of slogans that can describe the product and help create mystery around it for the people to get intrigued about it by tomorrow."

They all looked at each other to confirm If they were alright with the time frame Megumi had told them about and then nodded with Sakura formalizing the deal by saying, "That works for all of us, but you'll have to make sure we have a workable prototype for the product before we go ahead with any of the slogans you give us."

Megumi nodded as both he and Sakura shook hands with Sakura relaxing after that.

"By the way Megumi, about the sword you gave Sakura…" Tsunade asked 

Suddenly Sakura sat up straight once again as she looked at Megumi, as if she remembered something, who looked at her wondering what had gotten her so eager all of a sudden, but went back to focusing on Tsunade.

"Do you want one too Tsuna-nee? Of course I won't be making you the same one Rura has since that was my gift for her, but I could make something similar for you…?"

"No! No! I wasn't asking about that, although I'm not saying I won't keep it if you give me one, I wanted to tell you to be careful since a lot of ninja were there at the part and will soon want to know about the sword. I worked with Minato to make sure everyone thinks it was just another of the lost legendary swords, but still be careful since people are irrational and might target you because they might think you know the whereabouts of the other lost swords."

"Haha, thanks Tsuna-nee. But don't worry, I don't think there's a person remaining on this planet that can even harm me as long as I don't want them to. Well as long as I have chakra in me."

"Don't get cocky just because you can use a few jutsu you brat."

"Hehe, Tsuna-nee then would you like to try it out? I can even place a bet if you want me to."

Tsunade had a few veins pop out on her forehead as she stood and dragged Megumi by his collar and threw him into the yard.

"If you dodge a single blow of mine, I'll agree to do anything you want me to do for you, you brat. And if you fail to, then you'll owe me a favor that I can call on at any time."

Megumi thought about it for a second as he nodded his and agreed while he taunted her by calling her using his hands as the remaining members of the family watched.

Mebuki and Kizashi looked a little worried but Sakura just looked on with a faint smile on her face.

"Get ready to get pummeled you brat!"

Tsunade said as she shot like a lightning bolt at Megumi. His eyes had long lost track of her as Tsunade arrived in front of Megumi and spotted his smiling face which she mistook for arrogance as she brought her fist down with all her speed just to scare him a little as she wanted to tone down his arrogance so that she wouldn't lose him for a second time due to his overconfidence and arrogance.

Tsunade then saw Megumi's eyes move over to her, but she couldn't understand how he had found her as she should've been much faster than him, yet due to years of her experience she immediately observed him fully anticipating a retaliatory action that never came.

And that was when she realized something was terribly wrong as her eyes fell on her fist.

To her it felt like her fist was moving with the same speed she had begun moving with, she could feel it, yet she couldn't see it. To her eyes it looked like her entire fist was frozen in air, frozen in space and frozen in time.

Widening her eyes Tsunade attempted to leave but found her arms stuck to the area around Megumi, unable to believe her eyes she flared up her chakra in the system trying to escape any genjutsu Megumi might've trapped her inside of. But when it didn't do anything she just became confused as Megumi suddenly vanished from in front of her and appeared behind her placing a metallic cold object that was not in his hands earlier on her neck.

"That was fun! Wasn't it Tsuna-nee? Thank you for giving me the opportunity to command you to my pleasure! I will make sure to make the best use out of it! Thank you."

Megumi bowed as Tsunade turned around with resigned eyes but then just shook it off as she decided to concentrate on improving herself further.

The fight felt more like it was more a rude awakening for her, than Megumi as she had planned for it to be in the beginning.

Megumi just walked back to his room as he said, "I'm going to my room to meet the demands of my esteemed investors! Don't disturb me for a while."

Sakura began following Megumi but stopped for a second when she heard her mom comment, "Oh dear, look how Sakura is behaving like a newly wed! I hadn't thought I'd see such a scene so soon." And then rushed behind Megumi faster than ever to hide her blush.

….

Upstairs when Sakura reached Megumi's room.

"Megi! Why can't I do that again?"

"Do what?"

"The 'Scatter, Senbonzakura' thing."

"Ah! That? You could only do that before because I let you by performing the work for you, now you can't do it anymore since I'm not doing the work for you, and you haven't earned the respect of the weapon you're holding."

"Respect?"

"Yep, the weapon you're holding is alive. And only once you earn her respect, will you be able to use her fully, and let me tell you, what you saw was not even its final form!"

"Oh..!"

Megumi watched as Sakura unsheathed the blade a little and admired it with excitement in her eyes.

Walking up to her, Megime locked his lips with hers as he stole a kiss but Sakura moved back a little confused as it ended and then her eyes widened as she realized what Megumi had just done to her.

She closed her eyes and found the familiar Sakura tree she had built inside her rudimentary mindscape, but turning around she found Megumi looking at her from his mindscape as he waved at her.

Carefully stepping around and making sure this wasn't a hallucination, Sakura walked over to him and hugged him with a squeal of joy.

"Megiiii!!! What's this!!!!! How come our mindscapes are connected!!!??"

"Don't you want some privacy as well? So that not everyone knows you're meeting me and so that you can meet with me in secret?"

Sakura blushed a little as she admired Megumi and then whispered in his ears. "You know just how to press my buttons the right way don't you? But I still want to tell you something, Megi I don't care what happens to the world, I don't care what happens to us and the things around us in the future, please just remember that always, always, my love for you will be undying. I dont think I've ever felt loved the way you make me feel and I've never been happier than when I'm with you so make sure to always find me, no matter what."

"You don't need to ask, I've already dissolved my entire existence to become solely yours."

Sakura gushed with happiness, but she hadn't realized the capacity, the depth, the reverence and the truth behind what Megumi had promised to her then in those few words.

But both kissed each other anyway with just as much love as they had for the other.

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Thank you for reading!

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