Nindō 0066: Agreement
The sun had already set completely, with the moon hanging high in the sky when Naruto reached the Yamanaka Flower Shop. As he entered, he noticed Ino comfortably sitting on her chair as she worked on some documents.
"Evening, Ino," Naruto said as the blonde woman just grunted and raised a finger, continuing to work on her document. Naruto couldn't help but smile at the stark contrast in her treatment of him after the previous night. "While I believe your cold shoulder is warranted considering the circumstances of the previous night, you are in the presence of the Hokage, Ino."
At his words, she couldn't help but turn up to meet his eyes with an annoyed expression, "Damn you and your authority. You left me tied up and exposed like some street whore for the entire night. Do you think I'm going to thank you for the experience?!" She snapped at him.
"Yes, it must have been a devastating thing to endure," Naruto approached her and towered over her as she sat on her desk. "Still, you should be more prudent with your words, Ino. You never know when the Ōtsutsuki in me might decide to take offense to your words and snap you out of existence."
Ino sighed defeatedly, "There is no Ōtsutsuki in you, Naruto," She said with a weirdly stubborn conviction, "Can you get rid of this collar now? We got lucky that no one attacked the village during this time, but seriously. Without me, the first responders in case of an invasion will all be crippled."
"Despite how beautiful you are, your competence is the most attractive thing about you, Ino," Naruto praised her, and with a wave of his palm, the collar on her throat disappeared into nothingness, freeing her chakra completely.
"Please don't hit on me, Hokage-sama," Ino stood up, crossing her arms under her chest. "I'm a married woman."
"Says the one who was offering to have sex with me just yesterday," Naruto pointed out as Ino grumbled about her having made a dumb decision.
"I apologize for my previous actions, Naruto," she said. "I know that they must have rubbed off on you in the wrong way. Can we get to the crux of the situation now?"
"Sure," Naruto put his hands in his pockets as his posture got slightly casual. "Tell me what you want, exactly."
"The first thing that I need is for you to bring up a minor agenda in this month's Council Meeting that will be held in three weeks," Ino said. "With those two old fogies gone, both councils will be scampering to please you for a little while. I want you to take advantage of that."
…
After his talk with Ino, instead of going home, Naruto's next destination was Shikamaru's home.
As he knocked on the door, a familiar young face greeted him.
"S-Seventh-sama …" Shikadai was a little startled at the Hokage's appearance.
"Good evening, Shikadai," Naruto smiled.
"Please come in," the genin stepped aside. "I'll call Dad." He all but ran to the backyard to call Shikamaru.
After the slightly awkward minute or so of Shikadai's confusion and panic, Naruto was calmly sitting with Shikamari in the Nara Clan Head's backyard. One man had a smoking blunt in his hand while the other just held a glass of water.
"Is there an emergency?" Shikamaru asked while sitting lazily on a lawn chair.
"Not exactly," Naruto said, taking up a similar position as his deputy. "But something that will change the foundation of our administration over the village."
"Ino was off the grid today," Shikamaru didn't need too much information to deduce what was going on. "She tried to seduce you, didn't she?"
Naruto snorted. "You better hope that wasn't your idea," he said with a blatant threat.
"I told her it was a stupid idea," Shikamaru shook his head. "She somehow got it in her head that it would be a viable action. I was too lazy to try to convince her otherwise."
Naruto hummed thoughtfully. He could tell that something was wrong with Ino.
The best course of action would be to give her the Dominion Mark. That is the only way I can trust her with the kind of political power she wants, but that will come with its challenges. Naruto thought to himself before dismissing the thought for now.
"I need you to perform your duties as my advisor," Naruto said.
"What do you need me to do?" Shikamaru spoke reluctantly.
"Advise me," Naruto said dryly. "If I show my full support for Ino's plan, not only will she take absolute control over the Yamanaka clan, but her position in the village will also become incontestable. In essence, she will only be second to me."
"And what is this plan?" Shikamaru asked.
"If her current role as the core operator of the barrier communication system is considered a B-rank Jutsu, then her new position will be beyond S-rank," Naruto said.
"Weird analogy, but I get it," Shikamaru said. "She wants the entire village's communication to go through the Yamanaka clan's network system."
"And I can't allow that," Naruto said.
"Because it would consolidate too much power in the hands of a single clan. I get it," Shikamaru said. "I assume that you two came to an agreement to make that network something that is free from the Yamanaka clan and is only controlled by yourself and her."
"Precisely," Naruto nodded. "My concern is whether I should keep the control between just myself and Ino, or if I should bring in another party to balance things out."
Shikamaru grunted in thought before speaking up, "I don't see any reason for you to add in another party. It would only complicate things unnecessarily. Even under the circumstances that Ino goes rogue, you have enough strength to suppress her without any problems. The only thing to be wary of would be the Mind Transfer jutsu, but with your jinchūriki status, that isn't a concern either."
"That's what I was thinking as well," Naruto nodded.
"But it has to be rolled out slowly," Shikamaru said. "While we can run things in any way we want with the public, the councils are a different matter altogether. There are some competent people in both councils in their respective domains, and we need to spin things in a way that they don't realize what's truly going on."
"That's the main reason that I came to you," Naruto said before standing up. He patted Shikamaru on the shoulder. "I'll be off. Make a plan that I can present to the council in this month's council meeting."
"Hold up," Shikamaru said. "I've talked to Shizune, but this time even she has no idea of Tsunade-sama's whereabouts. Try to look for her if you can. It would be best if you could convince her to show up for this month's meeting as well. I will try to weave the proposal in a way that the core of the situation hides behind her appearance."
"I'll see what I can do, but no promises. You know how much of a testy old grandma she can be. I need to deal with Urashiki's situation as well."
"Sasuke can't come back to help?" Shikamaru asked.
"No, he's still busy in Ame, looking for the traces of that Kara organization," Naruto said. "Take care."
...
Once home, Naruto made sure to spend enough time with both his children during dinner before they went to their respective rooms.
"You go take a bath first, Naruto-kun," Hinata said, sitting beside her husband on the couch. "I'll go in once you're out." Her words made Naruto turn to her with a playful smile.
"I have another idea," he said, and a blush slowly appeared on Hinata's face.
"It's not good with the kids here …" Hinata whispered while looking down.
"One would think that you'd stop feigning modesty after so many years, my love," Naruto whispered in her ear before holding her hand. "After all, I know best how freaky my wife really is on the inside." Hinata whimpered weakly and tried to bury her face in her bosom.
Despite the surface resistance, she stood upright as Naruto held her hand. She was trying to hide her excitement but was failing miserably in front of her husband, only melting in his embrace as he wrapped an arm around her waist and led her upstairs to the bathroom.
Behind Naruto, she saw familiar black orbs appearing out of thin air and felt a jolt in her stomach.
"N-Naruto-kun …" She spoke up with a high voice as Naruto released a questioning hum. "Are these black orbs the same ones from back in the war? They can only be used by the jinchūriki of the ten-tails, no?" She decided to ask something that she'd been curious about for the past few days.
"Yes, they are the same ones," Naruto nodded. "They are the same Truth-Seeker Balls that I received from the Sage of Six Paths."
"Then how are you able to create them?" She asked him curiously.
"Because of Momoshiki," Naruto said. "It's a complex situation, but you know how we universally refer to Kaguya's abilities as kekkei mōra, right?" Hinata responded with an affirmative hum. "That's not very exactly correct or clear even because mōra, in a literal sense, refers to all-encompassing. Kekkei mōra means refers to bloodline abilities and can encompass all of reality. That doesn't give much of an insight into the make of those abilities. These Truth-Seeker Balls are technically a kekkei mōra ability, but they are far from encompassing all of reality. They are the simple melding of all seven chakra natures into a single construct with Yin and Yang as the container and the five elements as the contents."
"So anyone can make these balls?" Hinata asked. She wasn't looking directly at the constructs, but Naruto could tell that she was closely focusing on them with her Byakugan.
"No," Naruto refused. "That's where the bloodline aspect comes into play. The Ōtsutsuki have a special energy in their blood called divinity, which is required to cast such abilities. That is why their abilities, in general, are considered Shinjutsu, or divine abilities. Because their blood has divinity."
"So they truly are gods?" Hinata asked without showing her emotions on her face.
"Far from it," Naruto said, a slight sense of derision toward them. "They are merely pretending to be gods."
"My husband is using godly abilities like sex toys …" Hinata mumbled, shaking her head as if disappointed in Naruto.
"What are you talking about?" He asked with a light smile. "I'm training my use of these abilities with the help of my wife." The four balls floating behind Naruto disappeared from Hinata's vision, and she immediately felt one restraining her wrists behind her back in the form of ropes, one doing the same with her legs, one on her throat, forming a collar, and the last one slipped into her leggings and put some pressure on her entrance.
"Naruto-kun~" Hinata gasped as Naruto tore away her clothes and pulled her into the bathroom.
***
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