Pre-Chapter A/N:First of all, Happy Holidays to all who celebrate. Gift yourself some good cheer with 10% off all plans on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) page. If you haven't already, I recommend turning on notifications for my stuff so you can see when new stuff drops right as it drops. More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio
"Hey," I said, walking into the room. I had run away from this for too long, I felt. There was no point in leaving a problem like this to fester. Not when I was determined to be the one Kage that didn't create a bunch of problems by virtue of their rule. In canon, Hiruzen might have been a passable steward of the village, but he had failed his family in turn. Naruto, by the time the Boruto series had rolled around, had done the same. Needless to say, I would do my best to be better than they had been. That was the goal. And one of the first steps to that was not being a fucking coward and confronting problems as they came.
"Ho-Hokage-sama." The boy jumped off his bed, attempting to bow. It would have been funny if it wasn't a perfect representation of my failings. My own cousin saw me so rarely that he called me 'Hokage-sama' and still felt like he had to bow. Those things were alright in public, but not in private, not within the family.
"You can relax, Nawaki. I'm not here on official business, and since it's just the two of us, you can call me Shori," I said. He looked somewhat skeptical. I could see his gaze travel to his mother behind me. The movement I could hear behind me indicated she made some sort of head motion. Considering he relaxed visibly after she did it, it must have been a sign that he was safe or something of the sort.
I didn't mind the caution. In fact, it was probably a good thing that he was so cautious, but I did mind having it directed at me. Because it showed once again what I feared I had done had come to pass. I'd neglected him and now that I was attempting to reach out a hand, he didn't trust me. Of course he didn't trust me. I wouldn't trust me either to be honest.
"So how have you been?" I asked.
"I have been fine, Hoka—Shorirama-dono," he said. That was some process at the very least. Less than I would have preferred, but at least we had been able to confirm that he could say my first name.
"Indeed. And your lessons at the academy? How have they been coming along?" I asked.
"It's fine, Shorirama-dono," he said. Hmmm. I looked down at the boy. He was about eleven or twelve if my memory didn't fail me. I was the oldest male with the Senju name kicking around after most of them—including his father—died in the war, so that meant I was the one in charge of his development by clan tradition.
"Come, I have something to show you," I said, turning to leave the room.
"Hokage-sama." His mother stepped in the doorway, looking hesitant.
"He's my cousin. There's no safer place for him to be than with me," I said, gesturing for her to step aside.
"He's my son. All I have left."
"And I have promised to keep him safe. I would think you would know better than to believe the rumors," I pressed. She looked off to the side and then stepped aside. The wise choice.
"Come, Nawaki." I gestured for him to keep following as I walked out of the home he lived in with his mother. The Senju clan compound was a shadow of the complex I had grown up in. It had never been all that large in the first place, only having a few homes as Hashirama and Tobirama after him had wanted the Senju clan to integrate with the newfound village better than any other. The civilian members of the clan had formed the backbone of the civilian district, and the shinobi had been married off into other clans.
There was a reason I had both Uraume and Shikahime as close cousins after all. If I went deep enough into the family tree, I knew I had relatives in every single clan that still existed in the village. That was no accident. It was the product of years, nay decades, of effort on the parts of both the First and Second Hokage. They had put village over clan and the Clan had suffered from it.
Nawaki would be the next Head of the Senju Clan, and beyond a name more powerful than any other, he was inheriting very little. The clan's purse was diminished quite heavily. Tobirama had dipped into the clan's accounts liberally for village expenses to avoid raising taxes and it turned out that the lack of inflows from tithes was going to prove disastrous. The few members that had survived the marriage apocalypse had given their lives in war after war. Two wars with Senju men forming the backbone of the Konoha military had not been kind to them at all.
Beyond their purse, there was also the issue of not having a loyal backbone of strong shinobi anymore. The other clans still maintained what were essentially private armies within the village. A luxury the Senju did not have anymore. Of course, by the time Toshiro and I were done with the academy, that would cease to be the case. If I had things my way, the Senju would just be the first of many clans to lose its power. Of course, it would be a project that would take the better part of multiple decades, but it would happen one way or another.
We arrived at our destination in a matter of minutes. I turned around to see Nawaki gazing about with his eyebrows furrowed.
"Never been here before?" I asked.
"No, Shorirama-dono."
"Hm. When you need to do your private training, you can come here," I said.
"Isn't this Uchiha land?" he asked, looking off in the distance. I could see why he would think that.
"Only so far as the other end of the river. You own the rest of it. Don't let the Uchiha bully you away if it comes to it," I said.
"I own this?"
"You're the Senju clan heir, are you not? When you become Jounin or turn eighteen you will become the Clan Head. But before that happens, you must become a man as far as the Senju clan is concerned," I said.
"What? Become a man?"
"You heard me right, Nawaki. Every clan has their own adulthood rituals. For the Yamanaka, you must complete your first mind walk, for the Akimichi, you must complete your first feast, and for the Nara, well, no one actually knows what those ones get up to. The Uchiha have two adulthood requirements. The first is much easier, learning the Great Fireball Jutsu. The second is… much more complicated. We can talk about that later. But for us Senju, we have a more straightforward, if difficult, ritual."
"What is it?"
"First, do you understand the significance of our name? Senju?"
"Not really? Is it that we are one of the founding clans of Konoha? That is what I learned in the academy. Mother doesn't really talk much about the clan," he said.
"Fair enough. The Academy curriculum doesn't cover the clans themselves beyond the roles they play in the founding of Konoha. For the clan history itself, I will be the one in charge of your education. And your first lesson is that the name Senju comes from the phrase Sen no te o motsu ichizoku. The clan with a thousand skills. We fought the Uchiha for centuries. What are the strengths of the Uchiha clan?" I asked him.
"Fire Release and the Sharingan," he said almost instantly. I nodded.
"Precisely. We fought that clan for so long and held them off because the strengths of the Senju were never so easy to pin down. The clan with a thousand skills, remember? Every member of our clan has their own special set of skills and oftentimes, there is very little through line. Our Grandfather was a master of the Wood Release Kekkei Genkai. The forests that cloak our village from unwanted eyes were his creation. Our Granduncle, the Second Hokage, was a master of Water Release and could invent his own jutsu at the drop of a coin. Your sister was the greatest medical ninja to ever live. Three great shinobi and nothing in common. That is what made us difficult to deal with. You never knew what you would be dealing with when fighting a Senju clan member, only that they would be strong and damn good at what they did. We produce ninjutsu specialists, genjutsu specialists, and taijutsu masters in near equal numbers. Our adulthood ritual takes advantage of this versatility, and don't tell anyone I told you this, but it's also partly to one-up the Uchiha. They learn one C-rank technique and we learn five," I said with a smirk.
"F-five?"
"Precisely. Now watch me closely, Nawaki. It is customary for those in the Clan Head's bloodline to only be shown this once," I said, and then began to weave seals.
It had been a while since I had needed more than a single hand seal for any of these jutsu, but I had beaten them into my own head with years of constant practice. My fingers might have been out of practice, but they still had no trouble forming the seals. Tiger, then Ox, then Tiger again, and ending with the Rat seal. "Water Release: Water Bullet Jutsu." I spat out a tightly condensed torrent of water that shot out over the river and towards the other end. It fell apart before either made it that far though.
I hadn't put in enough chakra to do something like that. If I wanted, of course I could tear apart the entire Uchiha clan compound with Water Release, but that wasn't today's purpose. I looked over at Nawaki to be sure he was paying perfect attention.
This one, I ran over the seals even slower. First was Bear, and then there was the Ram, followed by the Snake, Horse, and then ending out with the Dragon seal before I spread out my hands, allowing a net of lightning to form between my fingers. "Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder," I intoned before my voice was drowned out by the sound of sizzling and sparking electricity as it traveled between my fingers.
Once I was sure he had taken that one in, I moved to the next jutsu. The Bird seal was the only one needed for this jutsu as my chakra manipulated the air in my lungs. Shape and elemental manipulation came together as I spat multiple bullets made of wind at my target—for this one, facing the river would be useless as he would not be able to see the results of the jutsu if I did. So I aimed for the small outcropping of trees behind us. My bullets tore through a few of the trees, leaving perfect spherical holes across their surface. "Wind Release: Air Bullets," I said.
"And the fourth one we share with our Uchiha allies," I said before turning back towards the river. For this one, I held back a lot less. We had gained something of an audience since we had begun, so I might as well give them a show. Especially considering this was a technique both our clans had in common.
Snake first, then Ram, Monkey, Boar, and Horse followed before I rounded things off with the Tiger seal as I took in a massive breath. Then I spat out a fireball so large it blocked both our view of the other end of the river as it raced down the river, bringing the water feature to an instant boil. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu," I said, winking at my little cousin as the jutsu went more than halfway over the distance between the two ends of the lake. I was about to use my own Water Release to swallow it but I was beaten to the punch as it clashed against another jutsu of the same size, erupting into a massive conflagration. I sighed as I spotted Uzume standing before her clansmen with her trademark smirk on her lips. That woman.
"And the final one of the five is this," I said, drawing Nawaki's attention back towards me from where it had been plastered on the lake.
The Tiger seal I had formed for the Great Fireball transitioned into a Hare seal before Boar, then Ram, Dog, Ox, and ended with the Snake seal. After that, I slammed my hands against the ground. "Earth Release: Earth Style Wall," I said, forcing the ground before us to lift into a makeshift fence that shielded us from the prying Uchiha eyes.
"That one is the last of the five, and unlike the others is a B-rank technique. It's still easy to learn and has the rank more because of its innate versatility than because of it being a completely different level than the others to learn," I said. He nodded.
"I assume you've gotten your affinities checked already?" He nodded.
"Good. Now, there are three ways to approach the five. I won't say either is wrong. The most common approach is to start with the element you have an affinity for. You will learn that jutsu the fastest, and succeeding with that one will give you the motivation to keep pushing even if you hit a wall with the rest. Another approach is to start on the other end of the spectrum and start with the element most opposite your primary affinity. In that case, you can expect to spend a lot of time working with little to show for it, but when you do succeed with your first technique you'll find it even easier to go with the rest," I said, leaning towards him so we could meet eye to eye.
"For you, I would recommend the third way. Which is to say neither. Go with a completely neutral element. This means you won't be aided by a primary affinity to bridge bad habits, but then you also won't be punished by the element being the polar opposite of your natural alignment. This means you get to study the jutsu in the most neutral way, learning to combine shape and nature manipulation in the right ways, and whatnot," I said, reaching out to rustle his hair.
"Which did you do?"
"Me? My primary affinity is Earth Release. I started with Electromagnetic Murder. I wanted to prove a point," I said, watching a fire get lit in his eyes.
"I'll start with the Water Bullet," he said. I nodded. His primary affinity was fire. I wasn't offended at him seemingly ignoring my advice. Because it was showing he wanted to be like me, and that was a good thing, I guessed. It meant he wanted to be like me. And if he was trying to be like me, maybe he didn't blame me for Tsunade's death like some did.
"Good then. Do you want to practice here or you'd rather head back to the compound?" I asked.
He looked at the wall, and probably thought about what laid just beyond it. "I think I'd rather go back to the compound," he said. I nodded. That was the wise choice. I ushered him off and then allowed the wall I'd formed to crumble into sand. Right behind it stood the waiting form of my former teammate.
"Been a minute," I said in greeting.
"Five days. Have you been avoiding me?" she asked.
"Of course not."
"And yet every time I come by the office, you find somewhere else to be," she said.
"Konoha is a big village. Running it takes a lot from me, as you should well know."
"What I know is that you can make more clones than there are people in this village—"
"Not quite that many," I cut in, only for her eyes to pin me to my position as they glared daggers at me. If Amaterasu happened to have been one of the techniques in her Mangekyou, I would have worried for my life.
"Like I was saying, you have enough clones to handle everything. You just suddenly happened to need to be present for all sorts of things without your clones after I bring up a certain topic," she said.
"Well, when you put it like that..." I gulped.
"Why don't you want to marry me?" she asked. Whoa.
"When the hell did I say that?" I could barely shove the words out of my mouth fast enough.
"That is the only thing that makes sense. You don't want to say no to me, but you did begin avoiding me after I brought up the topic of us getting married."
"Like I said, I haven't been avoiding you per se. I just needed time to think."
"To think about what? I know you like me. I know you love it when I—"
"Please stop," I said, feeling a flush creep up my cheeks.
"So what is there to think about? The clan elders are already giving me strange looks. To have a courtship be public for as long as ours has been with no marriage announcement is worrisome. The fact that you are Hokage prevents tongues from wagging, but that can only shield us for so long."
"Like you wouldn't pluck out their tongues the second they suggested something untoward," I scoffed.
"Yes. Yes, I would. But that doesn't change the fact of things. We've been seeing each other as you put it for well over a year now and still there's nothing to show for it. So why are you hesitant?" she asked.
"I—you know I have secrets," I said.
"Yes?" she asked, tapping her foot against the floor impatiently. This wasn't a conversation I wanted to have so soon. And definitely not one I wanted to have in such a public forum.
"I won't be able to tell you about it," I said, letting it rip when her expectant look began to get more and more impatient. I expected her to explode, to demand an explanation. Something. Anything. She did none of that; instead, she seemed perfectly calm.
"Is it another woman?"
"What? No. Of course not. You're the only one I've ever even—"
"Another man, then?"
"We both know I don't swing that way," I said.
"Does it affect what you feel about me?" she asked.
"No, no, nothing like that."
"Then keep your secret for as long as you like. I'll have Uraume and Shikahime begin drafting the plans for a wedding. Of course, you will have to approach the Uchiha elders at a later date to secure a betrothal—maybe give it a week first so I can ensure they are all on their best behaviors by the time you visit."
"Are-are you sure about this? This secret. I can't tell you what it is, but I can tell you it's massive."
"Is it going to be a danger to you?" she asked next.
"No. It's not that kind of—"
"Then I don't really care about anything else. If it won't affect either of us or our relationship, why should I care at all?" she asked, turning to leave.
A/N: I suck with romance. Of course, with a timeskip, it stands to reason that Shori and Uzume would get together and do some dating. We just get to advance to the outcome of that sooner rather than later. Next five up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.