The heavy doors of the council chamber shut behind them with a thud. All members of the high council have left, except for Shikaku, the advisor, and Hokage.
"You abstained from voting," Shikaku noted.
Hiruzen took a slow draw from his pipe. "I did."
"Earlier, you went above and beyond to help the boy." He looked at him out of the corner of his eye and said, "So much so that you even went against Danzo. There has to be a reason that you abandoned him now."
Hiruzen let the smoke leave him in a thin stream. "Ryu told me some time ago, even before this meeting was called, Ryu was expecting this meeting, and he expected exactly this result."
"That is very prophetic of him," Shikaku remarked.
Hiruzen nodded, his expression grave. "Yes, he has always had a way of seeing things before they happen."
Shikaku raised an eyebrow, intrigued by the mention of Ryu's foresight.
Hiruzen continued, "He knew he would lose the first… He also assured me that he already had a plan prepared and he would appeal the council's decision."
Shikaku's mouth twitched faintly. "So you decided to play along."
Hiruzen nodded. "I wanted to see how he would handle this."
Shikaku leaned back in his chair. "It seems Ryu always has a trick up his sleeve," he said. "And you trust him completely."
Hiruzen chuckled softly. "Yes, he is quite the strategist."
Suddenly a sharp vibration buzzed against Hiruzen's hip. He pulled the Hamura flip phone from his robe, opened it, and read the text message sent by the ANBU stationed at the estate.
His expression hardened instantly, the lines around his eyes deepening. Shikaku, who had been watching the Hokage without appearing to watch at all, noticed the change immediately and waited for the explanation he knew was coming.
"Nine-Tails' chakra has leaked during a training session," Hiruzen read aloud, his voice dropping.
Shikaku's lazy demeanour vanished. His eyes sharpened, and for a brief moment something colder slipped through the cracks—surprise first, then the hard edge of fear.
Hiruzen continued, "It happened at the Hamura Estate. My ANBU believes the seal may have weakened. It is contained for the moment, but if that changes, we may not get a second warning."
Shikaku replied, "If the seal is failing badly enough to leak, we cannot afford to guess what comes next. Dan is already there, and he is a grandmaster at fuinjutsu. If Naruto's seal had to malfunction anywhere, that estate was probably the best place for it to happen. But we had better hurry before our luck runs out."
Hiruzen checked the message again and replied that he is on his way and not to let this information slip.
He closed the phone with a sharp click. "We need to keep this a secret for now… I will not have a panic in the streets."
"Are you certain that is wise, Lord Hokage?" Shikaku asked quietly. "Others might use this event for justifing Naruto's custody matter."
"Which is exactly why I will not alert the others yet," Hiruzen said. "If this reaches the elders before we have the facts, it will become a political firestorm before sunset."
Shikaku nodded once, accepting the logic. "We go ourselves, then."
"Exactly," Hiruzen said, slipping the phone back into his robe.
For half a second the corridor was silent.
Then Shikaku let out a slow breath. "That boy certainly knows how to schedule his emergencies."
Hiruzen gave a tired sigh. "I am beginning to suspect that is one of his hobbies."
They moved.
At the Hamura Estate, the light vanished first.
The gold aura and all the chakra in the air had just disappeared. Everyone was still wondering if it was over. Kaori released [ReflexGuard].
The golden chains connecting him to Naruto dimmed, loosened, and slid back into Ryu's body link by link.
The chakra Ryu had taken from the Fox was already compressed, isolated, and safely stored within Ryu. His chakra pathways ached from the strain of holding so much power. Before this, he only used to overclock his mind only. But this time Ryu went full overdrive with body and chakra. But now it was over for good. This endeavour bore many fruits for Ryu.
When he finally opened his eyes, everyone was staring at him.
Kohinata Mukai stood near the edge of the courtyard, Byakugan already deactivated, his expression unreadable.
The older man's gaze rested on Ryu for a moment longer than usual. He had seen enough to know the important part: Ryu was standing, conscious, and in control, and Naruto too was stable.
Akihiro had gone very still. Without the crushing pressure in the air, his shoulders had eased, but only barely. Kaia was looking not at Ryu, but at Naruto. At the sleeping blond idiot who had somehow remained asleep through enough chakra to blow half the village. The irritation she usually wore around him was gone. In its place sat something quieter and sharper.
Jiyuu and Yasashii looked between Naruto and Ryu, piecing the truth together in silence.
Dan watched the children process the revelation, then turned his full focus to his grandson.
Ryu rolled one shoulder, felt the ache in it, and said, "I guess the cat is out of the bag... or the fox."
No one laughed. Ryu looked over the family instead, his voice softening without losing its weight. "I hope and expect all of you to treat Naruto with love and care, exactly as I have treated you."
Kaia responded first without speaking. She folded her arms and gave a small, irritated click of her tongue that meant yes.
Jiyuu and Yasashii nodded rapidly.
Akihiro signed once, clean and compact. Understood.
Only after that did Dan step forward.
His gaze moved over Ryu, then Naruto, then back to Ryu.
"Are you hurt?" Dan asked.
"No, a little exhausted," Ryu said. "But I will be fine."
Dan's eyes shifted to Naruto. "And the boy?"
"Stable. He slept through the worst of it."
Ryu made a single-hand seal. Somewhere around the perimeter, the barriers parted and opened.
A moment later, he felt a familiar presence approaching through the reopened perimeter.
Ryu spoke, "Itachi is coming."
One of the ANBU spoke. "Lord Hokage must also be coming any minute now."
Ryu nodded. "That is to be expected."
Dan then asked, "And what about the Nine-Tails? How did you..."
Ryu's mouth curved slightly. "Mr 9 will not be troubling us anymore. Chances of it happening are very slim… for now."
Dan exhaled through. "Of course. The outcome was entirely unexpected, but I suppose everything turned out fine."
The silence loosened by a fraction.
Ryu turned and crossed the short distance to Naruto. The boy was still sitting where the chains had held him, head slumped, breathing slow and, embarrassingly, peacefully.
Ryu crouched, slid one arm under his shoulders and the other beneath his knees, and lifted him carefully.
Naruto stirred, smacked his lips once, and went right back to sleep.
"Impressive," Mukai said quietly.
Ryu glanced at him. "He trained very hard today."
Mukai looked at Naruto's slack face. "That was not the part I meant."
Ryu pretended not to hear that.
He carried Naruto to the shaded area and eased him down against the tree.
He looked at everyone gathered there. "Please return back to training. There is no need for panic anymore. Keep what happened here a strict secret."
Kaia snorted. "Normal."
"For us," Ryu corrected.
That was fair.
Before the incident, he had assigned them advanced Yin and Yang release exercises, but given the circumstances, they silently agreed to fake standard ninjutsu training around the perimeter, keeping a safe distance from the centre of the yard.
Jiyuu and Yasashii moved first. Souji and Rina adjusted themselves in their wheelchair. Then Akihiro and Kaia took their position again.
Around the yard, the estate quietly rebuilt the illusion of an ordinary training afternoon.
The ANBU flickered away into the trees.
By the time Itachi dropped from the branches and landed silently in the centre of the courtyard, the children had already settled into motion. Dan looked like an old man supervising a noisy afternoon, and Naruto slept through all of it.
Yet something about the courtyard was off. It felt like a storm had just passed through and not fully cleared.
Then Itachi saw Ryu standing besides Dan.
Itachi offered Dan a respectful bow. "Elder Dan."
He looked at Ryu with a faint smirk. "Most busy kid ever."
"Itachi… welcome," Ryu greeted easily.
Itachi's eyes flicked to the veranda. The physical resemblance was obvious if you knew where to look, and Itachi did. "What is Lord Fourth's kid doing here?"
"He was here to train," Ryu said. "But this idiot fell asleep in the middle of it."
Itachi thought about it. How anyone managed that while training was beyond him.
That got a laugh from Itachi before he could stop it.
"Give Naruto a break," he said, his posture relaxing. "He is just a kid. But I wonder if what you said is true. How can one sleep during an active training session? Were you training him or torturing him?"
Ryu smiled and said, "Narcolepsy is a well-documented illness, my friend."
A/N:
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