Chapter 57.6- One Thousand Hands

“Okay then. I’ll be ready” I said with a smile. A good fight might just be what the doctor ordered. It meant all of tomorrow morning would be gone in terms of productive time but from what Uraume was saying, then it was going to reap enough dividends to be worth it.

—

With my activity for tomorrow decided, I decided to spend the rest of the day crossing as many things off my agenda as possible. That meant clones, and a lot of them. One clone sent to the Uzumaki compound to speak to Uzume about the relay project. The chunin planters had been sent out days ago and assuming everything went according to plan to plan, the last of the relay rods would have come online by now. The map would have to be moved from the Clan Compound to the Hokage tower. But then I would have to sign documents stating that tit was uzumaki property being lent to the office for my tenure in power to prevent Hiruzen waking up and claiming it, or something like that.

That was only one of the things I had to do. I had another clone training my team of three now. He was working them through elemental manipulation. The team of prodigies that they were had made easy work of both tree and water walking. Rather, both Kushina and Mikoto had learned the skills from their respective clans while Minato had taken one look at what they were doing and went, ‘aiit…bet’, before copying it so perfectly, Mikoto began searching his blue orbs for glints of red.

Another clone was stationed with the barrier team, working with them to upgrade the detection matrixes around the village, ensuring that we’d know damn sure who was entering the village at any time. And me? Well, I ended up being saddled with the duty of welcome our ‘surprise’ visitor. From the corner of my eye I could see Danzo’s smug face as I waited at the gate for the Fire Daimyo’s procession to come to an end to reveal the man in his grand palanquin.

Two servants appeared from the sides, assembling a set of steps that the man used to dismount from the monstrosity of cedar and gold he moved around in. As he turned to me, I fell into a bow. Not to my knees of course, just a respectful bow.

“Konoha is yours, my Lord” I said.

“Is it?” He asked with an arched brow, stunning me. That wasn’t the script. Still, I was nothing if not adaptable.

“Always, my lord.”

“Then why does Konoha sit idle while my lands are razed and peoples put to the sword?” He asked. Fuck.

“Perhaps we should retire to the Hokage tower for this conversation” Uraume cut in, stepping to my side. It felt like she was an anchor in a storm I hadn’t seen coming.

“Yes, yes. We must” I said, while trying to hatch a plan to get this man onside.

A/N: Did Shori go ahead and think he could just do whatever he wanted? Yes