The Zero Tails Jinchuriki #14

Disclaimer - I don’t own anything. As the corporations say these days, you will own nothing & be happy. I don't, and have never claimed to, own Naruto or any of its characters. With that out of the way, let’s goooo!

Konoha, Land of Fire

–Kenta ‘Akimichi’ Senju–

“What’s wrong?” He ended up asking after Sarutobi kept staring at the scroll for over a minute, with a blank look in his eyes. His question brought the Hokage back to the land of the living.

Sarutobi carefully stored the scroll on his table before putting his hands on the table, leaning a bit forward, “The Daimyo’s scroll, it was backdated, already approving everything we asked for, days ago.”

“Huh,” he leaned back at that, having taken a seat in front of Sarutobi, “That’s good, right?”

Sarutobi looked at him and replied, leaving back into his chair, “Could be. I haven’t dealt with this Daimyo for long, having dealt with his father for most of my time as the Hokage. I hadn’t expected him to be so…agreeable?”

“Or honest?” He supplied, alluding to the part where the Daimyo frankly agreed about the importance of Konoha to the Land of Fire and how a weakened Konoha would just spell doom for the Land of Fire.

It was true and everyone on both sides of the party knew it but to be so blunt with it, to begin with, that was a little unconventional when it came to negotiations.

“Yes, that as well. Be that as it is may, I am very glad that we don't have to scramble for funds for many of my schemes. Raising the clan taxes to do so would have made me very unpopular with the people who I rely on to run the village on a day to day basis.”

“Huh,” He said out loud, amusement colouring his tone, “The first time a Kage is impeached by their people, now, that would be the first and probably only time it would happen.”

“I am glad that this situation amuses you. But do not forget that the Daimyo can still do a lot of things that will end up harming us. So, we have to do as he requested. He has insisted on you accompanying him back to the Capital, before you can leave for your border mission.”

He shrugged at the order, “Sure. I do hope that hazard pay is added for that part though.”

Saruotbi snorted before sliding the massive stack of paperwork at the edge of the table towards the centre, and whipping out his quills to begin working on them. 

“No wonder Jiraiya rejected the position. That looks…tiresome.” He said out loud, raising his hands in surrender when the Hokage began glaring at him, slowly stepping out of the office backwards.

The door apparently closed on its own, so they had a seal for that as well as he smiled at the receptionist who just pointed at the exit of the floor with her face before burying herself back into the avalanche of paperwork that she seemed to have on her desk, far more than what she had when he entered the Hokage's office.

She was a bit rude but then again, what can you expect from someone who had to deal with all that paperwork with one hand?

____xx____

Nightfall had arrived, as he was, once again, back on the streets, doing his round, something of a routine that had established itself when he found himself back in the village.

He would begin with the Hokage Rock, do a thorough sweep of the village with the Sage Mode, then jump down to walk through the streets, keeping in mind not to steer too close to the Clan compound.

Then, he moved to the southern part of Konoha, the red light area which was usually the most rambunctious part of the village at night, with fights between shinobi all too common. Law enforcement, predictably, turned a blind eye towards this area and the fights did not get too grisly. Maiming was done on a regular basis but nothing fatal, and there were ninja present but they just did not care about every single fight.

It made sense since it was the night shift and if they tried to stop every single fight, they would never get the chance to patrol other areas.

That's where he came in. The added benefit of being the host of an emotion eating parasite turned symbiote was that he could use the Zero Tails’ energy to generate minor emotions across people of all walks of life, especially those who were already drunk.

So, creating a minor scary aura around himself worked most of time as he did a couple of laps around the southern district, and broke up fights or rather, scared both parties into compliance, creating an all around safer area for the poor people who lived here and had to deal with all the noise and violence every single day.

Then, he moved to the second most important part of his day. The orphanage. Specifically, the one orphanage that housed the Jinchuriki, the son of the Yondaime.

He was going to suggest at least a civilian household to adopt the boy because he understood the fact that handing over the single strongest deterrent of the village to any shinobi clan would tilt the balance of power in their direction but there was no reason why the son of the Yondaime should have to live the life of an orphan.

Making sure that the Jinchuriki was nice and healthy, he waved at the hidden ANBU keeping a watch on the baby before moving onto the last step of his routine, which was going to be the hardest part of today.

Konoha General Hospital.

He usually made this trip because it was in the way of his walk to the forest of Hashirama trees, where he meditated every night but tonight was different.

He expected a lot more physical violence today, because tonight was the night he was going to have to pound some sense into Tsunade Senju.

The fear of blood? He shook his head in disdain before walking right into the front lobby. He had already secured a late night appointment with her disciple beforehand so there were no complications that Tsunade would have to suddenly deal with/.

“Yes, I am here for my 8:00 appointment. Yes, with Shizune-san. Yes. Thank you.”

He walked up three slights of stairs, the time allowing him to gather his thoughts, as he finally reached the consultation area, the place where no medical jutsu is used, just a place for patients and doctors to talk or more like doctors to relax but also do some work.

Such was the way the medical industry worked here. Overworked doctors whose entire value is extracted every day.

Opening the door, he smiled at the young Doctor, “Hi, I am here to meet Tsunade.”

Before she could voice any protests, he continued, “My name is Kenta Senju.” Making Shizuen choke on her words.

“Yes, I would like to meet my coward of a clan Head, please.”