Rally

"Good evening, esteemed guests. Young mistress Eina, young master, please follow me."

At the doorstep of the biggest and fanciest house of the town, Haru and Eina were politely welcomed by a branch family middle aged servant, who understood their identities and purpose without needed them to introduce themselves.

In the end Haru decided against going in with his eye band, as he didn't want to be taken for a branch member or any other troubles.

Haru wasn't surprised, as he supposed that they were not the earliest white eyed kids to arrive and the butlers and maids were certainly made aware of the event. The fact that he was accompanied by Eina who was already a regular spared him any eventual identity hurdles.

Going through the Japanese style manor's corridors, the two friends entered a spacious living room busy with a few tens of people of all ages. The only branch members that could be seen were servants, and Haru guessed that most of the adults that were chatting, exchanging pleasantries were either important figures with elevated social status, relatives of the family, or both.

But even though many of the other guests were adults, most were other children. Numbering to nearly twenty, their ages were diverse, ranging from barely crawling toddler playing on the floor next to their mothers or fellow student warriors as old as ten or twelve.

Noticing their arrival, the pink haired figure of Aizen interrupted her conversation with her friends to greet them.

"Eina !" She smiled at her. "I'm glad you came. The Fujisuke is here too. I was wondering why didn't come together but I suppose I know the answer now already…"

Her gaze fell upon Haru, who didn't flinch at her impoliteness and merely stared back at her indifferently.

Actually, Aizen did not dislike Haru. If anything, her objective assessment of him was that he seemed like a decent talent worth befriending.

But on the other hand, the little staunt her mother pulled on her that day triggered a mild but irrational dissatisfaction about him even though it wasn't actually his fault.

Moreover, most of the boys she met who were aware of her identity have always tried to bootlick her. Even though she despised those people for their lack of pride and backbone, in truth she still enjoyed it as it was flattering her ego.

The fact that this guys who was even younger than her by a year or two held no worship towards her, and even dared to stare back at her left her a bit frustrated.

"Anyway," she looked back at the blond girl, "I'll introduce a special guest to you later. As usual, we will have supper first, then there will be a conference and at last the friendly spars. It will be fun."

Eina nodded, with her usual joyful mood. Aizen went back busy herself with her friends and left the two alone in the spacious hall.

Haru's curiosity was picked at her words. As it was a bit impolite, Haru did not review every person in the room with his Byakugan previously but when he let his sensory abilities scan the place, his eyes widen at the sight of a man standing not too far from the matriarch.

It didn't take long for him to identify who the special guest was. A brown haired young man, about eleven or twelve years old a good head or two taller than him. Even though he was not particularly handsome, his appearance was refined and delicate.

But what was especially eye catching was his very lackluster amount of chakra, by far the smallest Haru had ever seen since ever he was reborn in this world. And most importantly, his brown eyes.

He was an outsider.

In other words, he was not a member of the clan, and most probably came from the shinobi world. Two bodyguards of the branch stood by his side, and it seemed like he was treated with much respect by many of the clan's most reputable folk.

For Haru this was an absolutely astonishing news, that brought very significant informations. Judging by his chakra and his demeanour, this kid clearly was a civilian of a high status.

"So it seems like the main family has some dealings with the world beneath, in the end.." he muttered quietly.

Even though Haru was vaguely aware that Shirogakure was not entirely cut off from the world, as some ressources that were in circulation in Shirogakure such as the materials required to produce some alchemy panaceas could not be found on the moon, it was an entirely different matter to have a direct relationship with a local power of the shinobi world.

To the extent that their envoys were even allowed on the lunar soil as guests.

"Hayao-kun, has your father shared any prospects for the delivery of Genmaicha tea from the land of the tea ?" Straightforwardly asked an middle aged elder next to him.

"You may expect it to be delivered in a week's time alongside the ginseng roots and the jujube seeds, as it was scheduled." The amiable young man replied with a polite smile. "The mudra-less fireball technique you've provided us with has proven very popular among our forces, even though only a handful of our men have achieved an initial mastery of it. We do hope to deepen our trading relationship in the future."

"Haha that's only natural." Laughed the elder. "Even though our ninshu is not so easy to master, their are indeed superior skills to the various ninjutsu stuff the world's shinobi powers use. I'm sure some your men have come to realise this."

As Haru expected, this Hayao guy was indeed a trading partner of the main family.

Although he still had to figure out which country he was from, he should not be hailing from any major shinobi village bu the nobility of a minor country, or a private mercantile power.

Otherwise he would have heard about it at some point in the canon, and no shinobi village would send out a civilian as their spokesperson.

Even though he was not a trained shinobi, Hayao was a very attentive and sensitive person. It didn't take long for him to notice that a young kid was staring at him. 

Born in the wealthy household of the Matsumoto, Hayao was the third generation heir of the Matsumoto company, a conglomerate spanning all over the Land of Fire and its neighbouring areas. Originally specialised in the printing industry, the company grew and diversified tremendously in the last two decades under the leadership of his father, trading all sorts of retail products ranging from military hardware like shurikens and kunais to daily groceries and pharmaceutical drugs.

Hayao had two other siblings. As one sought to become a shinobi and the other was a female, Hayao naturally became the most suitable of his children to inherit the company's leadership in the eyes of his father, which recognised his remarkable intelligence.

From an early age, he has been taught in the ways of affairs. Diplomacy, marketing, etiquette, accounting… His entire upbringing was dedicated to make of him a great salesman and manager, worthy of his future's position by virtue of his practical qualifications.

As such, he was privy to many secrets of his father. Secrets that none of the other executives and shareholders of the Matsumoto group were aware of.

The collaboration between the Matsumoto group and the Ōtsutsuki clan was relatively recent, only dating back to a few years ago.

Not even Hayao was aware in details of how that came to be, but he knew that his father has been well aware of these people prior to their first contact for a long time.

It could be said that for many years, a considerable amount of means had been deployed all over the shinobi world, thanks to the power of the company, in order to find the passage way leading to Shirogakure located in a remote and mysterious place within the Land of the Moon.

And this was not the only strange fact that surrounded his father's mysterious figure. When he inherited the business from the hands of its founder, Hayao's grandfather, the Matsumoto company was nothing more than a small workshop operating in a major city of the Land of Fire.

In the eyes of others, the mind blowing growth the company experienced since the end of the second Great War was merely the result of the business genius of his father, and maybe some good luck.

But as a smart person, trained in the ways of affairs and an insider, although Hayao recognised the brightness of his father's mind he was also quite clear that there was certainly more to the story than what meets the eye.

When Hayao first sat foot on the moon about a year ago, he felt that no words were suitable to describe how amazed he was.

The distance that separated astral bodies was astronomical in the literal sense. Who would have thought that on the soil of this world, whom every single person could see and dream about but not touch, lived an entire clan of people, bearers of the Hyuga clan's Byakugan and the Kaguya's famed Dead bone pulse. Had any sane person been told such a ridiculous fantasy, no one would believe it.

Yet it was true.

Gaining the Ōtsutsuki clan recognition had been almost a decade long battle. Gifts were given, and their senders were almost systematically murdered at first. Gradually, these people realised that the Matsumoto group could provide many ressources they've been gathering in a very inefficient manner before, sending waves of gatherers down the surface when the need arose.

Matsumoto Group had since proven to be a indispensable channel for the Ōtsutsuki clan to acquire rare medicinal plants, commodities, or information.

Haru was not any diffferent than any of the other main family seeds of the Ōtsutsuki clan in Hayao's eyes. A pure unrivalled bloodline, a strange otherworldly appearance, a talent that would make others green with envy. Many other kids have given Hayao this look before, as he was probably an even more foreign existence to them than they were to him.

At least, he had seen all kinds of people in the Shinobi World.

So he just smiled back at Haru with a nod, being a polite person. Leaving a good impression upon any people who may become heavy weights of the clan was part of his strategy.

"Haru, follow me I'll show you around and introduce you to some people."

It wasn't until Eina got bored of his absent mindedness that he snapped out of his silent exchange with Hayao. She dragged him around the buffet first, as she was hungry. Many dishes that strongly reminded Haru of Japanese traditional food were disposed here, in much wider varieties that what he had come to eat at home since he stopped breastfeeding in this life.

Eina was a naturally refined person, and even as she ate to her fill like a hungry wolf she did not look out of place and lacking manners.

Haru ate a bit too, and soon they were rejoigned by a handsome blond haired boy, looking a few years older than both of them.

"So here you are, Eina." He started in a bit unkind tone. "So he is whom you ditched me for earlier ?"

"Yup." She replied, cheeky. "I'm sure you'll be friends soon enough, Fujisuke-nii."

A little smirk appeared on his face. "I'm not so sure about that."

Haru was a bit surprised by the encounter, and ignoring the somewhat disrespectful tone this boring guy dismissed him with he turned toward Eina.

"This clown is your brother ?" He asked, aloof. "What a joke."

"Hey… Don't be mean, both of you please ?" Eina said, a bit nervous.

Fujisuke who's face had taken a green shade at Haru's blatant disdain refrained from saying any nastiness in the end.

Eina who feared that he would cause a scene so early in the rally exhaled a sigh of relief. Haru sure has a talent to piss of people…

"I won't argue with someone who still wear diapers," struck back Fujisuke, in a very unconvincing show of feigned indifference. "Listen, my sister is not someone that a punk like you can lust after. You're just a rando blessed with a bit of luck to meet the standards of the main family. She is the great granddaughter of the previous generation patriarch. She is a proud swan and you're a nasty duck. No hard feelings man, but you've got to face the truth. I won't acknowledge you."

"FUJISUKE !!" Roared Eina, "YOU STUPID MORON !" She kicked him on the legs a few times out of rage.

"I see." Haru replied coldly. "Are you done ? You may piss off then."

Actually Haru didn't really hate this guy. It was good that he cared for his sister, but Haru was not someone to casually make buddies with those who've been disrespectful to him even if they had a good reason. He was a bit spiteful deep inside.

"You have such a big mouth Fujisuke." Lamented Eina, aggrieved.

"Tsss." Fujisuke hissed. "Don't worry I'll go. But here's the thing. If you do not stop leeching on my sister, I promise that you'll earn yourself an humiliation that you've never experienced before. It'll make a good show for the others later at the sparring matches, and a proper warning for the little mongrels like you."

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Hard chapter to write, really. I still do not like it very much, but anyway. I've had to rethink some things about the plot because I've had some very good ideas lately.

Anyway ! Thanks for reading have a good day !

Powa !! :D thanks a lot