Chapter 7: Migoto, the wingman

"Hoho that was intense.." Akai said, but his voice didn't match his tone. He spoke as if nothing of importance had happened.

"Mm, You're right... Old man you can go without me, I feel like taking a walk." Oden said as he walked towards the dango shop.

He had eaten at almost every restaurant, and he fell in love with the dango. Although Ramen at ichiraku was really tasty, he found dango more to his liking.

He brought 3 sticks of dango and walked around before finally heading home.

"Young master, you're finally back, I found four candidates for the position of your wife, here's their profiles!" Migoto said excitedly as he handed three documents with information on his possible wives.

"Meimei Shimura..., Hana Inuzuka, Ayako Saratobi, and Tenten Siracha, " Oden whispered with uncertainty in his voice.

'Of all people, why them...' He couldn't help but think.

"Meimei is a distant cousin of Danzo, she's a talented chunin and 19 years old. Hana Inuzuka is 18 years old and has started taking over her mother's work. Ayako Saratobi is 15, and she retired from being a ninja after a year of service as all her teammates died. She became a doctor instead and has worked in the hospital for the last two years, she is also the one with the highest potential amongst these girls. All three of these girls have a noble lineage and are a good choice for someone of your status. And lastly, there's Tenten Siracha, she just turned fourteen and is the last kin of her almost extinct clan, she only has her parents. She's pretty and talented but her status won't bring much to our Clan, nonetheless, she has lots of potential as a ninja." Migoto spoke seriously, he had compiled a very thorough file.

Oden just stared at Migoto...

"Did you compile all this information in just one day?..." Oden said, his tone sounding like he understood that Migoto had kept these files for him for a while.

"Haha, young master... the truth is. I had twelve potential wives for you that I prepared, on the command of your father, since you became genin. Sadly, most of them either died, married, or for some reason, not available for marriage anymore." Migoto explained.

"I see, well they're pretty enough, but that Shimura girl, how close is she to Danzo?" Oden asked.

"Her parents and Danzo had very different opinions and views with each other, which made their relationship strained. There are similarities in their personalities, however, it only stops there. She is kind... Young master, it sounds like you're wary of Danzo-sama?" Migoto asked.

Migoto had been beside three generations of clan heads, so he was aware of most secret workings regarding Konoha. However, now it seemed like the young clan head also seemed to know things, which surprised Migoto.

"Hm... Danzo is not someone I want close to our Clan, let's leave it at that." Oden said.

"Then don't worry, Meimei might come from the same clan but that's the only relationship they have, she's not talented enough to catch the eyes of the higher-ups." Migoto spoke mysteriously.

"I see."

In the end, Migoto found girls that fit into 2 of 3 categories. Pretty, talented, and noble status. As long as she had two of these three, then she was a good fit.

The next day, after his training, Oden felt like seeing how the next generation was doing so he took a stroll towards the academy.

Soon Oden arrived outside of the academy that taught 5-12-year-olds, the art of killing, espionage, and Jutsu

In his past life, he would've considered this an immoral thing, but he had realized that a world without modern education doesn't need the concept of being an adult at 18.

Before the 19th century, when they didn't have education like the modern times, children started working with their parents when they reached 10 years old, and soon became self-reliant and adults, because their environment made them mature and grow up.

At the same time in, modern times, people were allowed to be 40 and still a child, living with their parents and playing video games all day.

The idea of being a mature adult is very subjective and depends on the environment, in times like these where nothing is stopping the young from maturing, they mature very fast.

But in modern times where there is a school system that educates people into becoming working ants for society, they become adults only when they are done with their education.

Oden had understood this fact only when he became a genin and met 12-year-old soldiers who lived on their own and took care of themselves.

Moreover, chakra seemed to affect speeding up the aging process and slowing the aging process in older age.

Oden jumped up a tree near an open window and looked inside. He found a teacher educating his students but Oden didn't recognize them so he started jumping from tree to tree.

He finally found the class he was looking for and sat comfortably on the tree while spying through the windows.

Oden couldn't help but to chuckle as he found most students not paying attention, some even sleeping.

'Oh that's Naruto... hmm that must be the fatty, is that Sakura?' Oden enjoyed seeing the individuals he once saw in anime and manga. But this time it was in reality.

It was odd, the anime and manga drew them perfectly, but it was animated so, in reality, they looked... more real, even though the biology in this world was different, leading to a more variety of hair, eye, and skin colors.

Oden soon became bored since the windows were closed, he couldn't listen in. So he laid back on the tree just enjoying the view. As he did that, Hinata that was also in the classroom came into view.

'Oh right, Hinata is also in this class' Oden remembered.

He found her sitting in the middle of the classroom and writing everything the teacher taught. Occasionally she would get distracted and start thinking about something, and her brows would furrow, then she would lower her head as her ears became pink.

Then after a minute she would raise her head once again and try concentrating even more.

Sadly, she failed miserably as it seemed like she had something on her mind. Then her face would become pink again as she lowered it trying to hide her face.

'Cute.. but is she thinking about Naruto? She hasn't even looked in the direction of Naruto so far... odd...' Oden speculated.

Hinata had a very hard time concentrating on the lessons, even though it was very important as it was the preparation for the last exam before graduation.

She needed to concentrate but her mind seemed to be preoccupied by the events that took place yesterday.

She suddenly felt like someone was looking at her. At first, she didn't care but she instinctively felt like someone was keeping a tab on her.

She had become more aware of her surroundings since she experienced a very traumatic kidnapping as a child.

She didn't want the person that was spying on her to know that she was aware of the fact that she had eyes on her.

So she lowered her head and activated her Byakugan.

Looking around, there was no one in the classroom so she kept looking outside.

There, on one of the branches of the trees outside the windows, lay an older teen. He looked bored but his eyes were kept on her as he had a goofy smile on his face.

Recognizing him as the one she met yesterday, and her potential husband, her face became dark red and she felt very shy and self-conscious so she deactivated her Byakugan in panic.

"..."

'I'm cute?' A simple sentence came into her mind as she remembered yesterday.