Chapter 86.1- One Thousand Hands

“Have Uraume Hyuga, Shikahime Nara, Uzume Uchiha, Toshiro Takehada, and Inoken Yamanaka brought before me at once” I ordered the first shinobi I saw on poking my head outside my tent. The man turned to me, seeming like he wasn’t sure I was speaking to him, before he noticed that I kept staring at him and my eyes did not move. He took a step backwards first. What was that about? And then he knelt. Huh?

“At once, Hokage-sama” He said, and body flickered away. My eyes tracked his movements, and if I didn’t know better, I would have thought he was being chased by something. I turned to look at the rest of the shinobi about, only to notice none of them were meeting my eyes, and the broad majority of them were trying to disappear as quickly as they could. What was that about? I wondered.

Hmph, I shrugged, and headed back inside. I’d ask Uraume later. She was the one with a pulse on the gossip and whatnot. It took only about three minutes for the names I had asked to be arrayed in front of me.

“You were right” I said, and the shock on their faces was a sight for the ages. Well, of course it was. I wasn’t one to admit being wrong often. And that was because I rarely was. But Kurama was right. Chiyo was the one I wanted. And as long as Suna did not try to hide her from me when the time came, then they could continue their pitiful existence for a while.

“Don’t celebrate yet. When Chiyo shows her face again, I will skin it myself and none of you will interfere.”

“We wouldn’t dream of it”

“Good. Now how goes the process of finding the civilians?”

“The Aburame are still searching, but our next plan is for Inoken to interrogate the Tsuchikage with his mind-walk”

“Onoki’s wife, yes?”

“Yes”

“Then that shall not be necessary. Take me to her, and she will talk” I said.

“No need. We brought her to you instead” Inoken replied, taking out a scroll from his pocket.

“Excellent. Unseal her then”

He gave a wary look at the surroundings before spreading the scroll and tapping the centre. There she was, the interim Tsuchikage. In all her glory— or lack thereof. I had no idea how the people of Iwa had allowed a non-shinobi rule them. Even if it was only for a small period of time.

“Wake her up please” I said. And then Shikahime moved to unseal what I suspected were some chains. I lifted a hand to restrain her. This would be a civilized conversation at the very least. There wasn’t much of a point in restraining her, was there?