Start of the Gathering

*Author Note*

As you have probably already noticed, my story has a proper cover now. I commissioned it from liilica on fiverr and I think it looks pretty amazing. You might also notice that Yuna's design is in some parts rather similar to the first fanart I got from hikari_izuki which is intentional. I especially liked the hairstyle.

Took a day off from work today, and after lazing around in my bed for the whole day, I am feeling much better and even got a chapter done. Here you go:

*End of Author Note*

The very next day, Danzo's men started spreading rumors inside Konoha about the Uzumaki clan, unfortunately for Danzo's men, this didn't work out that well.

"Have you heard that the Uzumaki clan illegally took over the old Senju compound for themselves?"

"The Uzumaki clan? There is no way that is true. I worked together with one of them and every time he lied to hide his identity his eyes started spinning like crazy. They are way too honest to do something like that."

"I heard the Uzumaki clan forcefully took over the Senju clan compound. I wonder what Tsunade-sama will do when she comes back."

"Haha, what Uzumaki clan are you talking about exactly? I know a few of them and the only way they would illegally invade the Senju compound is if the world's best ramen stall could be found inside it."

"Is your Uzumaki clan really fine with living inside Konoha? After all, Konoha abandoned your clan during the war."

"Oh yeah, I heard about that. The princess said that Hokage-sama had nothing to do with it so it's fine. But when I find who did that, I will definitely kick his ass, you know!"

"After what happened during the war, isn't the Uzumaki clan afraid that someone will try to get rid of them?"

"Haha, let them come, we will definitely kick their asses, you know!"

While Danzo almost had smoke coming out of his ears from all the anger when he heard about the total failure of the operation, Yuna almost died laughing when she heard what was happening.

She expected Danzo to start spreading rumors again, after all, that clearly was his favorite trick. What she didn't expect, however, was that the rumors would be repelled instantly without any input from her side.

'They sure are an interesting clan, huh. A lot of them lived in rather shitty conditions, but despite that, they are full of energy and hope for the future, while being ridiculously honest in their interactions with other people.'

[Most of them are like children with the bodies of adults.]

'Yeah, that's a rather fitting comparison.'

A few more days passed and it was finally time for the gathering. At first, Yuna wanted to make it a private meeting for the members of the Uzumaki clan only, but after thinking about it for a while, she decided to just make it a public event. One of the reasons for that was the interaction she has seen between the Uzumaki clan members and the people of Konoha. She expected there to be quite a bit of animosity due to what happened during the war inside the Uzumaki clan, but only very few people felt like that. Just a few words from here, that Hiruzen wasn't responsible for it, and the Uzumaki clan's anger seemed to evaporate instantly.

'I really hope they trust me this easily because they consider me to be from the same clan and not because they are naïve.'

Yuna scanned the crowd and nodded in approval. The composition was pretty much what she expected it to be. There were, naturally, a lot of people from the Uzumaki clan in the crowd, but the biggest group of people were those that were simply curious about the gathering.

She also noticed a few dozen people that clearly held animosity for her. Considering they still had their emotions, Yuna couldn't be absolutely certain if these people belong to Danzo or not, but she had little doubt that this was the case.

'Seriously Danzo, last time we met I gave you a verbal spanking you will never forget and now you think a few of your mouthpieces could rattle me in the slightest? Seems like you are becoming senile.'

Yuna also noticed that a group of skilled ANBU was hiding all over the place. She winked at the one that seemed to be the most skilled and nodded in approval when he didn't even flinch from being detected this easily.

The most important thing she noticed, however, was a total of ten completely emotionless people. All ten of them had toned their hair crimson red, making them look like an Uzumaki at first glance, and had barely any chakra, making them impossible to sense for a normal sensor, but for Yuna, who could sense emotions, they were incredibly easy to find. Their void of emotion made them stand out like a candle that was lit up in total darkness.

After looking at these ten a bit more, Yuna's anger spiked for a split-second, slightly decreasing the temperature around her for a moment, before she suppressed her anger again. The outburst was too short, so most people only noticed an unusually cold breeze. The reason for that outburst was that these ten people had massive amounts of explosive tags plastered all over their bodies.

'Danzo that bastard actually wants to detonate his own followers inside the crowd, while they look like people from the Uzumaki clan. Hehe, very good. Like such insignificant tricks could work against me.'

Without anybody noticing, ten ice clones appeared and dispersed into the crowd. Each one of them approached one of the ten emotionless people and silently waited near them, to disable them as soon as they acted up.

'Pathetic, Danzo. The game hasn't even started, and it is already a checkmate.'

A few more clones appeared and stealthily approached the hidden ANBU guards to inform them about the situation.

Yet again, Yuna scanned her surroundings to make sure she didn't miss anything and nodded her head. She noticed that Hinata, Naruto, and Anko, were not here and couldn't help but feel a little annoyed about that. When Yuna told them about today's gathering, all three of them mumbled some nonsense about suddenly having a stomachache and quickly disappeared in their respective rooms.

Truth be told, Yuna didn't blame them for that. If they were here, they would have to stand beside Yuna during her speech and maybe even say a few words themselves, something none of the three were really used to. Although Anko would occasionally direct the chunin exams, the current situation was completely different from that. Although Hinata and Naruto weren't exactly shy, they weren't great talkers either, so standing in front of such a huge audience might be a little too much for them as well.

As for Yuna, she really didn't care. Considering the status, she held in her past life she had occasionally held speeches in front of a massive number of people, even surpassing the total amount of people living in the Land of Fire, so she naturally wouldn't care about such a small gathering.

Yuna saw Akane gesture towards her to enter the stage and confidently walked towards it. Every step she took, her presence seemed to swell as the dignified aura that was radiating out of her increased. She decided that, if she were to hold a speech, she would at least do it properly.

The audience grew more and more silent as Yuna approached the middle of the stage and when she stopped her steps, total silence reigned over the whole crowd.

A kind and benevolent smile appeared on Yuna's face as she let her eyes wander over the crowd.

"Welcome, to the reestablishment celebration of the Uzumaki clan..."

'Haa, it's been a while since I got the chance to manipulate such a huge crowd. This will be fun~'

[DING! You feel your sins crawling on your back.]

'Mhh, I think you should skip the "DING" for this one.'

[You are not even denying it anymore?]

'Haha, oops.'