Chapter 16
For a week straight, people were afraid of even stepping outside their houses with the weight of duty being the only force motivating them to venture the outside world.
Who would have guessed that a shinobi village had so many ghosts?
Minato was not having a good time, by now he had heard Jiraiya’s frantic recalling of that night over a dozen or more times, he had a hundred or so complains and disputes to deal with and most of the clan’s council were traumatized.
The Yamanaka’s on the other hand were making money hand over fist.
And the Uzumaki where right up his ass, apparently his son’s demonstration of necromancy had caught their attention like nothing else, and they weren’t the only ones.
“Minato, you have to demand that jutsu to be added to the scroll”, Elder Koharu says, he himself looked like he hadn’t slept a single minute this last week, “it is too dangerous to be kept in the hands of a petty brat!!”.
Right now, the council was assembled, and nobody looked ok.
A few highlights include…
Fugaku Uchiha was trying to keep a façade of coolness, but the shaking of his knees betrayed his face, especially because apparently, the ghost of his father in law knew very well how to make him squirm.
Haiashi Hyuuga looked like he tried to match Tsunade drink for drink the whole week. He was actually still drinking, despite him being one of the few who actually got a nice visit from his twin who cleared the mood between him and Neji.
By the way, his father, the clan elder died that night and got a spectral ass whooping from a bunch of disgruntled Hyuuga branch family ghosts that should say something about how the clan desperately needed some changes.
The fact that you could get an afterlife ass whooping was a tough scary enough to throw any idea of tradition through the window.
Tsume Inuzuka, the head of the Inuzuka clan was shacking back and forth while muttering apologies, apparently seeing her firstborn again did not make her any good at all, apparently, the traditional Inuzuka way of dealing with a male first born while being a matriarchal clan did not sit well with her.
Tsunade on the other hand looked like she twenty years younger, she had a jovial air surrounding her, she felt like decades worthy of weight where lifted off her shoulders and she was all smiles while talking with her grandma, Lady Mito the head of Uzumaki branch in Konoha.
“or at least make him teach us how to do the same, we could use that… profane parade against our enemies”, Homura says, with a frown.
“in hindsight, we should have expected something like this”, Tsunade says, unbothered by the dirty looks of her fellow council man, “I mean, he kind of came back from the dead we should have presumed he knew how to raise them from the grave”.
Grunts of annoyance and realization spread all over the room.
“also, let’s be real here”, Tsunade continues, “we probably got off the hook easy, if anything else, we are lucky”.
“how so, Lady Tsunade?”, Haiashi asks, tossing away the empty bottle of sake and opening a new one.
“he could have unleashed zombies”, Tsunade points out and everybody groans, “like, use your brains a little, we all tried to dispel what we saw that night and we soon found out it wasn’t a genjutsu, those were real ghosts, all things considered, zombies aren’t off the table”.
“she is right and even if I somehow managed to convince him to add that… jutsu to the scroll, he still knows how to do it, what would stop him from doing it again?”, Minato says, he knew better, he knew he wouldn’t be able to make Naruto tell him the name of the jutsu, let alone allow him to have the necessary info to put into the Forbidden Scroll.
“then we bring him into the fold”, Fugaku says, “as much as I want to send him back to the Pure Lands, I can also see the potential asset he might be”.
“you are presuming he even can be brought into the fold”, old Lady Mito says, her wrinkled hands laying on her walking stick as she calmly looks around the room, “how that saying goes? Once bitten twice shy. If memory doesn’t fail me, he worked himself to the bone to prove himself and even managed to graduate the academy at the age of eleven”.
There was a tense atmosphere was engulfing the room, especially Minato as memories of his mistreatment came rushing back into his mind.
“a fact it was used against him, to have him punished like an adult”, Mito turns to look at Tsume, “you were sick your dogs on him even though he offered no resistance nor tried to run…”.
She turns to Fugaku.
“you arrested him and let your men go as heavy handed as they pleased”, Mito ten turn to Haiashi, “and you, petitioned for his death to be as slow and painful as possible”.
She turn to Shikaku, who was now feeling like he the Hokake Mnument had been placed on his head.
“you disregarded the proper protocol for evidence gathering and allowed biased statements to cloud your better judgment”, she says, her words cutting deep
She then turns to Minato her gaze stern.
“and you”, her tone became cold as iron, “you allowed it, despite evidence of his guilty being flimsy at best and downright fabricated at worse”.
Mito turns to look at everybody.
“I am not innocent on any of this, the only who can claim any sort of innocence here is Tsunade and even her won’t admit she had no hand in this shameful debacle”, Mito says, no one was going to question the widow of the First Hokage, “how can we, as a village, expect someone to give his loyalty back when the first time he trusted us with it we showed him how wrong he was on doing so?”.
At that, comes Jiraiya, screaming through the window and not in the dramatic Jiraiya way, in the ‘I just got yeeted’ way and splatters against a wall.
“fuck, that thing can throw like a pro”, Jiraiya says , with an icepack on his forehead, his nose which had been resettled in place filled with tissue and Tsunade healing him.
“sensei, what happened?!”, Minato asks, still worried sick.
“you son happened Minato”, Jiraiya says, with not a single hint of any negative emotion in his, actually he as rather impressed, “I’ll tell you that, I don’t know what kind of barrier did he used but that thing was a state of the art, top notch barrier”.
The white haired Sannin muses with dramatic gesticulations.
“like, I was standing two inches away from it and yet I couldn’t sense anything inside it and like, sue I was expecting not to be able to sense him, but he had his little friend over and I couldn’t sense her chakra either”, Jiraiya says, winching in pain, “and I should have sensed her, she was an Uzumaki after all, not even a gennin yet but it was like everything inside that barrier was invisible from a sensing perspective”.
The room grows silent.
“and there’s more, when I tried crossing it, the thing electrocuted me so hard I tough my balls had exploded!!”, he continues, “I spent six hours straight trying to cross that barrier with all my might and all my tricks, I almost passed out from chakra exhaustion and the only thing I got was get hit by lightning, fire and water!!”.
Just now, they notice he indeed looked a little charred.
“I wasn’t able to put a single scratch on that thing, I only managed to get in was because Naruto personally invited me in!!”, Jiraiya explains with excitement, “gosh, I almost begged him to take me as his apprentice right there and there!!”.
Now that piqued the interest of the council, Jiraiya was no slouch, he could get his way around almost anything, so to a barrier to be able to hold him back for six hour straight and not even bulk, now that was something worth looking into.
“and that’s not all, the second I set my foot inside the barrier, I felt my chakra being locked out”, Jiraiya explains, “like, I didn’t had much to begin with, but damn!!”.
There was more silence.
“that whole place is his now, there’s no way anyone will be able to set a foot there without his permission”, Jiraiya finishes, “ and like, I’m pretty sure that not even the beginning of what that barrier can do!”.
“sensei, what about Naruto?”, Minato asks, willfully ignoring the looks of the rest of the council.
“he’s fine, he’s not plotting the eminent demise of the village of you are worried about it”, Jiraiya says as the pain settles, “that prank he pulled did wonders to quench his thirst for chaos… he also said you need to get your shit together and work on a proper system to dispose of the aborted fetuses”.
That was shocker.
“he knows abortion is not illegal in Konoha, but you should put something in place to deal with the waste instead of throwing them down the river, it’s disrespectful and unhygienic”.
“point taken, anything else?”, Minato asks, there was another headache coming.
“yes, he’s not going to take back neither the Namikaze nor the Uzumaki surname, he would rather remain clan-less then to be hooked on whatever bullshit those names will bring”, Jiraiya says, “his words not mine”.
That was a hit to Minato and it surely would be one to Kushina too.
“in his own words, as it stands right now, you only have two children and he is none of them, whatever you, Kushina and the twins have at best is an acquaintance you hear bout once or twice a purple moon, nothing more, nothing less”, Jiraiya says, noticing the pain on Minato’s eyes grow, “he doesn’t expect especial treatment and in return he will also give none, but he expects at least a minimum of decorum”.
Minato wanted to cry, mostly because his heart was pounding against his brain, reminding him that predicament was his fault.
“he also said that if you try to put him in a gennin team with Menma and Nemuri that he will kneecap them”, Jiraiya continues.
“wait, gennin team… does it mean?”, Minato says, his eye widening.
“again, is his own words and I quote ‘the only instance I’m anywhere near fine with wasting my time is when I do it willingly, and I hate when my blood, sweat and tears are wasted. Make no mistake, I will become a shinobi, but as soon as the mandatory time of service is over, I’m fucking off!!’ and quote”, Jiraiya chuckles and painful chuckle, “I’ll give him that, he has some conviction. After that a twelve foot tall armored skeleton grabbed me and yeeted me here!”.
“did he said anything about sharing anything about his… abilities with the village?”, Homura asks.
“yes, he said that and again, I quote ‘if those holier than thou elderly assholes try to get their little grubby hands on any of my spells, they will soon find out how an explosive undead raccoon crawling up their asses feels like’ end quote”, Jiariya says, noticing the horror on the council faces, “I cannot say I disagree with him”.
“that brat wouldn’t dare!!”, Homura says, her face distorted in a mask of anger.
“he also told me you would say that”, Jiraiya says, “ and his answers to that is, and again, I quote ‘try me bitch!’ end quote”.
“what a drag, but at least he’s willing to work with the village”, Shikaku says with a sigh.
“well, a small victory at least”, Minato says, “one that we are not fucking up, if I get wind that any of you tried to coarse him into anything that I have personally approved, there will be consequences, did I made myself clear?!”.
All nod.
“good, now you are all dismissed and please, go get some therapy”, Minato finishes.