Naruto - Minato Namikaze SI - Chapter 232 - The Dark Side of Konoha

[Chapter Size: 2400 Words.]
Third Person POV
Konoha, Year 42.
...

...

"I want some more! Dattebane!” Kushina shouted, raising her plate, while Minato was finishing cooking a homemade barbecue sauce for the meat he had prepared on the grill, moving toward the table.
He poured the sauce over Kushina’s meat and then placed the rest so the other girls could help themselves whenever they wanted.

He sat down at the table shortly after to eat. In the end, everyone gathered as planned, at Kushina’s house. While Minato had prepared the food, as they had agreed, they managed to get organized after Mikoto, Hanabi, and Tsuna arrived with the ingredients they had bought and went to Kushina’s house.

"Delicious as always! I always have to wait a few weeks to taste this food." Tsuna said cheerfully, as she grabbed a bit more.

Meanwhile, the others, Hanabi and Mikoto, ate calmly, enjoying the food. They also had a certain difficulty eating the meals made by Minato even during missions, after all, they barely had time for it, especially as squad leaders.

After spending a good part of the night at Kushina’s house, she asked to be visited the next day, Tsuna returned to her home while saying goodbye to them.
“Can we walk? I wanted to see the village.” Mikoto asked suddenly, and Minato nodded, going with Hanabi out of the Senju clan.

They went to the Hyuuga clan’s residence, and Hanabi returned to the clan. Mikoto ended up continuing with Minato, heading toward his apartment.

They walked together for a while through the village, watching the lives of other people out that night, while Mikoto looked at Minato and raised an eyebrow.

"You seem better than you were before...", she murmured and knew it wasn’t just because he had seen Kushina.

He smiled. "Let’s say I met some special people today," Minato said, but didn’t give many details.

She only raised an eyebrow but didn’t insist. As they walked through the village, everything followed its usual rhythm. People selling in their shops, civilians scattered through the streets with their families, undercover ninjas walking around or some on missions running across the rooftops, and of course, the village’s internal security, the Uchiha.

It didn’t take long for them to notice some Uchiha observing them. When Mikoto noticed the stares, she turned to Minato with a slightly suspicious expression.

Something like that had become quite normal after what had happened. Minato was rarely seen around the village lately, and the Uchiha kept a steady gaze on the two every time they saw them. Although they didn’t do anything, they seemed quite frustrated.

Either way, they continued on to Minato’s apartment and spent the night there.

The next day, Minato had to leave the girls behind once again, as he headed to his shops. He went to check the inventory and talk to his employees — civilians who assisted customers looking for all kinds of items he kept trading, which were ninja equipment.

"Lord Minato! It's amazing to see you!" said one of his employees, seeing him entering and walking past the morning customers.

“Good morning.” Minato just nodded and went to the back of the store, where the books with the inventory data were kept. He took them and began to carefully analyze the records.

There was all the data he needed about the activities and results of his stores. He now needed to be ready for what he was about to do. That’s why he had to carefully manage all the possible resources over the next few months.

Usually, he would seek resources from suppliers of the items he sold — many of them blacksmiths from the village itself or spread throughout the Land of Fire — who brought them to him. As for the explosive tags, he produced them himself, easily being the top seller of these items in Konoha. He made deals directly with the ninjas who sought them or through a contract with the Hokage himself, supplying the tags to be distributed for missions to the ninjas.

Minato was extremely wealthy because of this, being the only one who could create hundreds of clones to work on crafting explosive tags for his shops. As a master in fuuinjutsu and having the ease of creating so many clones despite not being an Uzumaki or a Senju, he even ended up harming the Uzumakis’ business, who previously supplied this type of item to the village and other regions, although they still sold other kinds of seals.

Minato now needed to prepare. He couldn't decrease the resource stockpiles too much, as that would raise suspicion about what he was about to do. But he needed to find a way to deceive the village.

However, the most important thing now was the money. He needed to keep everything to himself, not knowing exactly what could happen in the coming months. He quickly started writing some orders in the books.

After that, he left the store and went for another walk through Konoha. He didn’t know exactly why, since he had done that the day before, but some comments from customers left him unsettled — so he decided to stroll through the village.

It didn’t take long to confirm his suspicions. As he saw more and more people, he could hear them whispering in the streets.

"So, did you hear? They say the village will suffer a great loss because of this..."

"And to think he would do that..."

"What do you think the Hokage will do? He has to pay."

"Yeah! He must pay for this."

"He brings shame to the village!"

"He shouldn’t even be a ninja anymore!"

"We have to complain to the Hokage."

"He's the scum of the village."

People kept saying that kind of thing. The disgust for Konoha began to grow inside Minato, as he kept hearing it.

"Ungrateful people... One moment, they call you a hero, the next they want your head..." he muttered, lowering his head as he kept walking.

It was obvious what they were talking about — when Minato helped Sakumo and his team, whom he found returning from their mission to Konoha after Sakumo had failed. That was the mission that would condemn him, to the point where the great hero would take his own life after hearing the entire village criticize him.

It was frustrating... But, at the same time, suspicious. Sakumo’s team had returned yesterday — and suddenly, the entire village was already talking about it. Clearly, they were destroying his reputation at record speed.

"Danzou..." Minato muttered, knowing very well how Danzou's influence had grown in the past year.

Besides that, Minato had some suspicions very close to him... within his own team for a few months now, since his team had been linked ever since Alpha’s leadership, and some members seemed to have changed their behavior in recent months. He would have to check their tongues for the seal, but hadn’t had the opportunity yet.

Either way, Minato headed to training field 7 in the afternoon, after reviewing all his shops. He was going to meet Nawaki, just as he had said the day before.

"Hey, Minato!" that was when he heard the voice of Chouza Akimichi approaching, alongside Yamanaka and Shikaku.

Minato looked at them and smiled, as they chatted briefly.

"You’ve been pretty famous lately. The Ino–Shika–Chou team never fails a mission." Minato commented, his mood lifting a little upon seeing his friends.

They weren’t part of any special squad like him, but they had been completing several missions as regular teams. Minato ran into them now and then, although it had been rare over the past year. He knew they were standing out a lot in the village.

Shikaku, in fact, had taken over as team leader after their former sensei left the team. There wasn’t even a need to assign another jounin — it was one of the few teams with only three members, but that didn’t stop them from completing numerous missions with a success rate close to 100%.

After saying goodbye to his friends, Minato continued on until he found Nawaki, as expected.

"Minato!" Nawaki greeted, as the blond returned the greeting.
"How are you?"
"Ah, I'm fine. Today’s the only day you’ll be able to talk to me. I received a summons from the Hokage today, and tomorrow I’ll have to go on a mission with Master Duy." he replied.
"I see. I don’t need much time, just a few minutes." Minato said.

With the signal only the two of them knew, Nawaki understood. Minato just checked to make sure no one was spying before continuing.
"The time has come for us to start acting, Nawaki." Minato said in a serious tone.

Immediately, Nawaki narrowed his eyes.
"You think there’s no more time?" he asked in a serious tone.

"No. The village has started turning a blind eye to everything that happened with the Uzumaki clan. My last mission proved it. The villages are gathering information about the Uzumakis... and, if everything is right, in six months the attack will begin."

"So... you really intend to?" Nawaki murmured cautiously.

"Yes. I’ll try to overturn the village’s leadership. But it won’t be an easy task. That’s why I want to contact your sister the next time you see her. I’d like you to send a scroll in her name, so it doesn’t seem suspicious. It’s very likely they’ll change my team, and it would seem strange for me to seek Tsunade on my own," Minato explained.

"I understand... So it’ll be hard for you to act. But you can count on me. I’ll make them pay for what they did to me," Nawaki said with a tone of hatred.

"Yes. It’s time to start the reconstruction of your arm. But still, I want you to become the leader of the clan. If things really get ugly, I’ll have to take Kushina with me. I won’t leave her in the village. If the Third War breaks out, they’ll use her, knowing she’s connected to me and fearing she might use that against the village — so it’s very possible they’ll get rid of her at the first opportunity..." Minato said with a sigh.

"Mikoto and Hanabi will go with me too... Now, Tsuna..." Minato paused, uncertain. He still didn’t know if it would be better to take Tsuna out of the village — even if that made her a traitor — or leave her where she might be safe.

"I think you should take her. They’ll probably use her against you... or against us if things go wrong..." Nawaki said.

"Alright. Either way, let’s begin the plan. Remember: don’t take too many risks, because you’ll be safer here. Try to remain neutral. If we can gather all the evidence we intend to in the coming months, we’ll be able to corner the village leadership."

"But, if it doesn’t work... I’ll have to act on my own. And maybe, only a Third War can reverse this." Minato took a deep breath. "Anyway, I need to go somewhere else now. Take care, Nawaki." Minato finished, in a firm but calm tone, as they spoke in an isolated place, where no one could hear.

Nawaki simply nodded his head and watched Minato vanish in front of him.

His gaze then turned to the faces carved into the Hokage Rock in the distance. He stared especially at Hashirama’s, with a serious expression.

"Is this what you expected from your village, grandfather?" Nawaki murmured, without a trace of humor.

After that, he headed back to the clan. He needed to prepare as well.