Chapter 9: Procession

= In a dark den =

"So scar-face failed?" A figure in the dark spoke.

"Yes master, it would seem that he and his group were arrested and are being imprisoned being cuffed in magic suppression cells." A man in a black coat spoke.

"Hmph, given him one job and he utterly fails." The figure spoke. "In hindsight, we should've probably anticipated their failure, now there will be no way we can get that lantern."

"Yes I believe you are right, the royal guards will be here, the hero is probably on the lookout for any shady characters now as well, I believe we should lay low until the heat dies down." The man in black suggested subserviently.

"I guess we will have to delay the plan then." The dark figure sighed.

= Uchiha Residence =

Yohan had decided to take it easy for the day and play some video games like 'Adventure of Adlez' for the whole day. Before sleeping he released his shadow clones in his kamui dimension, immediately all the fatigue that the clones experienced were transferred, knocking him out.

- Next day -

However there was an unknown energy mixed in within the chakra flowing back into Yohan. When he woke up, he felt his body was a bit sluggish, but his senses sharpened by more than two fold. He lazily got up when he heard footsteps followed by knocks on his bedroom door.

"Yohan! are you there?" Amber was knocking. It was the next day and the day of the procession. Almost everyone in Hakono would be lining the streets to see princess Sylvie. Amber opened the door to a crawling Yohan. "Have you been up all night playing video games?" She looked towards the console.

"No, I'm just extra sleepy this morning." Yohan denied.

"Okay, but you've been messing around with mom's makeup kit haven't you?" Amber asked while drawing closer to his face

"Uhm, no?" Yohan was confused.

"Explain the maroon markings on your face then!" Amber demanded.

"Hmmm?!!" Yohan ran to the bathroom and looked into the mirror, there was maroon pigmentation around his eyes and lines running around and under his eyes and a dot surrounded by a circle on his forehead. It was sage mode with markings strikingly similar to Hashirama's. 'I-Is this sage mode? how did I end up with this?!' After a few seconds of scavenging through memories of his clones, he saw that those shadow clones which were practicing wood release felt a weird energy enter them, like they became in tuned with nature. Yohan felt that his [Wood Release] had something to do with this, so he named the state [Wood Sage]. With his kekkei genkai for wood, Yohan is able to almost instantly absorb nature energy from his surroundings and enter sage mode. When he tried to inspect more into it, the colors faded. "Well they're gone now." Yohan came out of the bathroom, pretending as if he had washed it off by getting his face wet.

"Well, get ready, mom said we're going to the procession after breakfast." Amber was getting impatient. Yohan took a bath and got in a casual outfit. The Uchiha family had breakfast and set out.

= Procession =

They arrived to a packed street where people were crowding on the footpath, behind metal barricades, in front of which mages were guarding.

"Dad! Can I see? Can I see?" Yohan was sluggishly pestering his dad. Amber was already at the front of the barricades with some other children. Yohan couldn't get a good view, behind the other kids, so his dad happily let him ride on his shoulders. "Weee!" he lazily exclaimed.

The procession was a spectacle to watch, the cavalry escorted a roofless carriage with mages stationed beside and at the reins. There was a girl with long green hair and slightly elongated pointy ears waving next to a girl with red hair to her shoulders also waving along, they were both the same age. Yohan didn't think he would see her here.

"Princess Sylvie looks pretty." "Who's that riding next to her?" "That's Tiana Reeves! the hero's daughter!" "There's also Arthur and Valerie Reeves!" "Why are they here?" The crowd were talking amongst themselves as they watched.

"Wow! The hero's daughter looks so noble!" A few of the young girls commented as they looked towards her on the carriage.

They saw their oval faces with some baby fat, their big round eyes and small adorable nose all of which made them cute. 'They will definitely be beauties when they grow up.' Everyone commented in their minds. Yohan just yawned, the exhaustion from the shadow clones hasn't seem to have gone away, he felt a bit sleepy, so he decided to take a quick shut-eye on his dad's head. His cheek pressed on his dad's head as some drool leaked out.

"Hmm?" Tiana looked closer into the crowd when she felt a familiar presence, she began to scan the area, arriving to a clump of white hair among them. She stared hard at it, feeling deja vu; she thought of the childish white haired figure that night, but was afraid that she would be mistaken.

"Tiana why'd you stop waving?" Princess Sylvie woke Tiana from her stupor. Arthur and Valerie were also concerned of her impassive stare.

"I-it's nothing. I was just lost in thought." Tiana covered up. Sylvie didn't think that was all but, decided to leave it for after the procession. They exited the town ending the parade.

= Outside of Town =

They arrived at an extravagant estate just outside of town. In the estate was a chateau, they rode up the gravel road noting the shrubbery and topiary, they even saw a hedge maze. They made a round-a-bout at the fountain in front of the chateau and were greeted by lines of maids and butlers of almost every humanoid race.

"Welcome Princess, Welcome Reeves family." The servants welcomed in unison. A female elf, who had blue hair was standing in front of them. The escorts have gone to the guardhouse to integrate.

"Aunt Linda!" Sylvie got off and ran into the elf's arms. She was Sylvie's aunt, Duchess Linda.

"Aww Tia, you're here, I missed you so much!" They hugged very tightly. They all went inside and chatted, they had a lovely lunch and the girls played all sorts of games. The adults were chatting most of the time, going hours on hours talking. Linda offered to provide them a place to stay, since the people of Hakono would most likely be on the lookout for them, which they accepted graciously.