Uzumaki Council Room – Late Morning
The great stone chamber buzzed with heated voices and the rustling of papers. Long, coiling tapestries bore the symbols of the clans under the Uzumaki's rule—red spirals, sharp wings, flowing water, and broken chains. The table was round and wide, with Aizen—still in his cloned body—sitting calmly at its center, pale hair tucked behind one ear, fingers steepled beneath his chin. His eyes lazily scanned the room while others argued.
"The Sanbi should go to Himuro of the Hoshigake. He's adapted to aquatic combat and already has the chakra reserves—"
"But what of the Yuki girl? She's shown compatibility through meditation. The Sanbi is calmer near her."
"The Hachibi is still undecided, and we're wasting time..."
Aizen tapped a single finger on the desk. Instantly, silence fell.
"...Have you all forgotten?" His voice was calm, cold. "The Bijuu choose their hosts. We can vet. We can prepare. But the final decision lies with them."
Those damn old men were speaking like they were the ones who chose who should go into who. As far as Aizen was aware, his promise to the beasts was for each of them to choose who their Jinchuriki would be.
So TL;DR, whoever vibed the most with the Bijuu got some power—whoever passed the vibe check.
"We understand, Lord Aizen, but..."
Aizen raised an eyebrow.
"But—"
She hesitated for just a split second before deciding to speak the truth and nothing more than the bare-naked truth in her heart.
"Why not keep the strongest hosts within the main Uzumaki clan? That way, we can maintain dominance."
Aizen's smile was faint.
"And become another Konoha?"
The room tensed.
"I have no intention of repeating the mistake of Tobirama Senju. Suppressing strong clans breeds rebellion. Favoritism leads to coups. We will not fracture from within simply to look strong from without."
He leaned forward slightly, his gaze sweeping over every single old man in the room. With Aizen here technically in lore being roughly like 24, if he were to do the math and find the average age in this room, shit would be 70+. He needed that shit to lower to at least 40+. Oh well, he didn't want old men in power.
He... didn't feel like they suited that spot. Someone who already had one foot in the grave should not be governing anyone, for that matter.
Anyway, time to make a grandiose-ass speech.
"Power must be distributed. Equally. Fairly. Let the Hyuga, Chinoike, Kaguya... all have the possibility to stand as protectors. That balance is the only thing that maintains peace. Not dominance."
The other clan elders present... goddamn, that Uzumaki woman was bold saying that shit in front of everyone like that. She must have had balls... hm, women don't have—she must've had the hymen of steel or some shit like that.
Anyway, the Iburi clan, trying to glaze the devil of the Uzumaki clan, began doing tricks on it.
"...Wise. The Second Hokage nearly destroyed Konoha before it began."
Another added, "And Danzo's Root... another symptom of that same rot."
Aizen nodded, folding his arms behind his back. "Exactly. I do not want loyalty born of fear. I want strength forged through mutual ambition. This village will not be a second Konoha. It will be something... greater."
The room fell silent once more. Then, slowly, the elders began to nod. One by one.
"...Your wisdom continues to guide us, Lord Aizen."
Goddamn, the tricks on it were crazy. But oh well, who cared.
He smiled faintly. "Now then... let's return to assigning training personnel to the candidates. Whether the Bijuu choose them or not, they must be prepared."
And so, the work continued—paper after paper, chakra profiles, lineage charts, compatibility notes, psychological evaluations.
Aizen's eyes moved across the sea of information with ease, his mind already ten steps ahead.
Seijuro had fulfilled his role.
Now, it was Aizen's move.
The Uzumaki did notice he looked more healthy than usual, like his vitality could be felt from here. Something was off—he had one foot in the grave a couple of weeks ago, but now he looked kinda healthy.
Oh... this was Seijuro.
The elders who knew of Aizen's deal with Seijuro assumed this was Seijuro acting as Aizen, as their great leader was currently sick and didn't want to show signs of weakness in front of everyone.
Hm. Yet, his power felt unmistakably like an Uzumaki. He just had to be an Uzumaki. He felt too much like one not to be one.
Hm, the boy was getting quite good at it—even managing to copy Lord Aizen's great Rinnegan, the most powerful Dojutsu there ever was.
Hm. Well, to be fair, they were right—heh, like half right. This was Seijuro... just a clone though. And also a piece of the Ten Tails.
The actual Seijuro, with the info he had, was looking for Shibai's body. He knew the man existed, and he died somewhere near the Land of Rain, and that the God Tree was planted in the Land of Wind—reason why shit looked so dry.
But he had no clue where Shibai himself was. Oh well, once he found the body, he would upgrade his cells accordingly and eventually ascend further into godhood. But before then, from what he knew of the future... Mikoto had to get pregnant at least twice...
So did Kushina.
Heh. He was like 20—in ninja years, that was way more than old enough for that shit.
Seijuro looked at his pale skin and the Byakugan that had now practically become a permanent part of his look.
He stopped sending chakra to it... his eyes returned to normal. Hm. Maybe he could use this to his advantage. The Hyuga clan was on decline right now, and Seijuro's Karma—while not much of public knowledge—he could share some info with Sakumo about it... and over the span of a couple months, reveal the Byakugan.
Like this, not only would he have the Hokage backing, there was also Tsunade and all that shit. Plus, if need be, he could have Aizen reach out—after all, he stole plenty from the Leaf.
BBL: Hiruzen was currently his best-selling book... don't ask why.
A/N....Yes....he ruining the third Reputation to the mud...for good reason...
If you ask chat gpt, here the answer.
He continues to tarnish Hiruzen's legacy through bestselling books (e.g., BBL: Hiruzen) and subtle cultural influence.
Why? To build a subconscious association between weak Hokage leadership and societal decay.
That way, any future Hokage would fear being the next "BBL Hiruzen"—a submissive, spineless leader whose failures became memes and cautionary tales.
So if Ai can figure it out, please tell me you did