Chapter 37
“brats, I’m proud of all of you for making it to the finals”, Tsunade says, with a grin and her cheeks lightly rosy from the booze, “now, we have one month to wipe you three into shape, but today, you can relax, for tomorrow there will be hell to pay!!”.
As the team leaves the tower, Naruto stops for a second, letting his ears feel the summer breeze.
“something wicked this way comes”, Naruto says, remembering that he didn’t asked The Light what would be the death of this world, nor did he divinated what would cause the death of all things.
He’s an old wizard, master of all magic and wise in the ways of prediction, as such, he knows a bad omen when he sees, or in this case, when he hears one and as the old saying goes, a wise farseer can hear bad omens in the breeze.
“Naruto, can we talk?”, comes Minato’s voice from behind him.
“is that an official request or a personal one?”, Naruto asks.
“a little bit of both”, Minato answers.
“fine, my schedule is free anyway”, Naruto says.
Upon arriving at the council chamber, it took just one look at the geriatric windbags for Naruto to know what was about to go down and seeing Minato’s face, he knew he wasn’t the only one displeased.
“I’m not giving any of you any money”, Naruto says, sitting at the designated place for him.
“w-we didn’t brought you here to ask for any money”, Inoichi says, after recovering from the quick shock.
“gut you were thinking about it”, Naruto says, pointing to the advisors, “they need cash to save the mall they took money from the academy to build”.
He points to Tsume.
“she needs capital to expand the Inuzuka kernels”, he points to Inoichi, “you have some really necessary renovations to your clan’s flowershop sitting in the back burner because you are strapped for cash…”.
He then turns to Chouza.
“and you want to start an all you can eat buffet and needs a silent investor”, Naruto says narrowing his eyes, “forget it, I’m not giving any of you any free money”.
There’s a beat of silence, before he turns to Shikaku.
“yes, it is troublesome”, Naruto then looks back to Tsume, “also, 69”.
The feral woman lets out a snort followed by a chuckle.
“nice”, she says chuckling before her face turns dead serious, “wait a minute, can you…”.
“read minds?”, Naruto asks, not moving his mind, “amongst other things, yes”.
Completely freaked out after having Naruto speak to them through telepathy the council looks at him in bewilderment.
“impossible, my mind has…”, Inoichi says.
“a dozen or so Yamanaka special seals to keep intruders out of your mind”, Naruto completes, “yeah I know and bypassing them was child’s play, now did you all called me here to ask for free money or is there something else?”.
“Naruto it came to my attention that you have access to some…”, Minato says trying to find the correct words, “exoteric training tools”.
“I’m not landing any of you my private pocket dimensions”, Naruto says, “don’t try to deny it, I know you were about to ask if I was willing to let you use them to train, the answer is no”.
“goddammit!!”, Tsume exclaims, “come on brat, how can we using them to train be any worse then Inoichi’s kid using it as a motel?!”.
“hey!”, Inoichi screams.
“because one, I made a deal with Sakura”, Naruto retorts, taking a drag of is smoking pipe, “and two, I’m not particularly fond of any of you”.
“if you made a deal with Haruno, then you can make a deal with us”, Homura points.
“and what exactly do you have to trade?”, he asks and the elders go quiet, “exactly, you want something from me, but you have nothing that I want”.
“if you invest on my all you can eat buffet you, your family and your team can come and eat for free forever”, Chouza says, throwing his name on the hat.
“hmm”, Naruto hums in honest consideration, “that’s a nice proposition… but do tell, do you have laid out a plan to make the business sustainable in the long or is the cash influx I would be sending the only source of income?”.
“I’ve been working on a plan to make the business be viable”, Chouza says, admitting that he had half of a plan.
“ok, you finish your business plan and come back to me, if it is viable then I’ll consider investing”, Naruto says, puffing some smoke, “I may have infinite money, but I’m not dumb enough to throw it away carelessly just to stroke my ego”.
“that’s fair”, the robust man admits.
“sooo…”, Tsume says, “about the kernels”.
“I’m surprised you didn’t tried to strangle me after I sent your son to the hospital”, Naruto points out with a raised eyebrow.
“pfft, even I can admit that my brat need a bucket of cold water to his ego”, Tsume says, “hopefully, this will be the wakeup call he needs to get his training seriously”.
“good to know”, Naruto answers, “also, techniacally speaking, what you are asking of me falls under the shinobi affairs regulation, so you have to speak with Tsunade since she’s the head of the clan”.
“hey, how come that big bone there got a maybe and I got a straight no?!”, Tsume asks.
“Chousza’s business idea is civilian oriented in nature, thus it doesn’t fall under the shinobi affairs umbrella”, Naruto answers calmly while blowing another puff of smoke, “, so I can invest in it out of my pocket without involving the Senju’s name. Your kernels deals exclusively with ninken, in both breeding, training and treatment, thus financing it would count as inter-clan matters and those are dealt exclusively by the clan head. If you can come up with something that will benefit both the Senju and the Inuzuka and get Tsunade’s approval, I might consider helping”.
“so is your money her money?”, Haiashi asks.
“nah, our finances are separate”, Naruto says, “my money is my money and the Senju money is the Senju money”.
“then why do I have to go through all those legal hoops if you can just loan me the money?”, Tsume asks.
“because I’m petty”, Naruto says with a sly smirk, “I want to cause her some inconvenience after she turned our bedroom into a gas chamber that time she ate eight onions with her steak, despite I’m clearly telling her not to, but noooo… she had to take that bet from Lady Mito”.
“oof, I remember when I did that”, Kushina says nodding in agreement, “we had to renovate the toilet after I exorcized that demon”.
“I know, I was the one who had to scrub the walls, remember?”, Naruto points and both Kushina and Minato wince, “so, is that all, can I go now?”.
“yes, you can leave”, Minato says.
In a puff of smoke, Naruto was gone, back to the Senju compound and ready to start training for the finals, while he waited for whatever the wind was bringing to his doorstep.
“so… do you want to talk about the bad feeling you’ve got?”, Haku, the ever so sweet and scary woman she is, asks as she notices how Naruto looked troubled while they cuddled in bed.
“not really” he answers while Tsunade drunkenly snored, “it’s not the first time I’ve felt this way and probably won’t be the last”.
“huh”, Haku says, scooping closer to him, “it just makes me feel bad seeing you so distraught”.
“don’t worry babe”, Naruto says, kissing his wife’s forehead, “it’s gonna be fine, whatever it is”.
“I just hope is not a war”, Haku says, burying her face into his chest, “I hate wars”.
“you and me both”, Naruto says, “I’ve seen enough of those to last me a thousand life times, but if it is… then I’ll protect you”.