Chapter 83

"Hiruzen! My people reported seeing a woman in your office who looks a lot like a younger Mito Uzumaki! What bijuu is going on?"

The head of "Ne," bursting into the Hokage's office, did not look calm at all, despite all his composure. Sarutobi, who had stepped back a bit from the previous "visit" — not least thanks to his beloved pipe — enjoyed the sight of his long-time friend all riled up, then shook his head.

"It was indeed Mito Uzumaki herself," he sighed, "the transfer of the Nine-Tails turned out to be successful, as you can imagine, but with unforeseen consequences. Instead of quietly and peacefully passing away in bed, the former jinchuriki rejuvenated after the fox disappeared!"

He said the last sentence with a considerable amount of sarcasm and a hint of envy. Despite not being so old, his youth had already passed, and the weight of the years lived was felt more with each passing year, gradually undermining the power of the Hokage.

"So my people weren't hallucinating!" Shimura slapped his forehead. "Damn, how did she manage that?"

"I suppose the notorious resilience of the Uzumaki and the long lifespan of everyone from that clan played a role in the absence of the bijuu's poisonous power," Hiruzen puffed on his pipe, "and now we'll have to deal with the full force of Mito herself if we take too obvious actions regarding the new vessel."

"Damn, we should have dealt with her right after the ritual!" his interlocutor couldn't help himself, slumping into his chair.

"You wouldn't have broken through her barriers, and then it would have been too late," the village leader shook his head, "and you wouldn't have coped even with the support of your boys, or have you already forgotten how she beat you without much trouble, not even at the peak of her strength?"

"But we need to do something, otherwise the clans will only strengthen further, and our plans to shorten them will be thrown to the dogs!" 

"Perhaps, but you forget that we are already at war with at least three villages, two of which are great, and the small one is led by Hanzo," reminded the Hokage, "we should worry about coming out as the winners here, and postpone all other problems for a more peaceful future."

"We won't lose anyway," Shimura declared, piercing his old rival with his gaze.

"It's just that we won't have enough strength left if another war follows this one. And this time we won't be able to use Uzumaki as a scapegoat!" Sarutobi irritably replied. "I agree with most of your ideas, but now is not the time! Koharu and Homura think the same way, so use your henchmen for our victory, not to weaken our forces, and that's an order! The last thing we needed was half of Konoha destroyed because of a showdown with Mito, annoyed by your attempts to get rid of her!"

"As you command, Hokage-sama," grimaced the head of "Ne," "but we still have to deal with this problem, otherwise we can forget about influencing the jinchuriki!"

"Everything in its own time, and for now, prepare your forces for deployment," nodded Hiruzen, internally adding, as he watched the door close behind the visitor, "and then you can moderate your ambitions if you're unable to critically assess the situation, old friend. Seems like your recent failures hit you hard."

***

Breaking off a small piece of cake with chopsticks, I sighed. The ten-year anniversary in the new world unexpectedly turned out to be dull and bleak. Saya was on another patrol, catching bandits who had become even more active lately, as well as spies and saboteurs. Setsura and her husband went to the front, followed by Grandpa Ishar, who decided to shake off the rust and show the youngsters how to fight.

Considering that he went through the entire first World War almost without injury, he will clearly succeed at it. I think the opportunity to get away from the paperwork of the clan leader's deputy played a significant role.

Shikaku and Kodla had just graduated from the academy and were actively learning the basics of teamwork, crawling home completely soaked, so a couple of congratulations and a set of shurikens with kunai — that's all I got from them. Although we agreed to properly celebrate on the weekend, but still...

I've got more interesting stuff on patreon 

patreon.com/Chill76