The great hall of the Hokage's Tower was drenched in tension. Scrolls lay open, ink still glistening under the amber lamps. The air smelled faintly of paper, sandalwood, and unease. The Hokage had just concluded his address — a speech meant to settle the fate of the Fūinjutsu Control Act.
But the silence that followed was sharp enough to cut through chakra itself.
Councilors leaned back, robes whispering, eyes narrowing toward the center of the room where the clan banners loomed — Uchiha, Hyūga, Aburame, Nara... and the lone silver emblem of the Hatake, unassuming yet commanding respect.
It was almost time for the vote.
That's when I shot up from my seat.
"I call the Right of Review!"
The declaration echoed through the chamber like a thrown kunai.
For a heartbeat, no one moved. Then came the murmurs — low, rippling, scandalous. The Right of Review was an old clause, rarely invoked, allowing a clan to suspend a Council vote once per cycle for further deliberation — effectively a political stall, a weapon used only when stakes were personal. But it had consequences. If a middling clan used it, it also promised to take responsibility for anything that went wrong during this time. Basically, if the Hokage did a simple sabotage issue in anything related to Fuinjutsu in Konoha. We will be held responsible. It was giving him the authority to charge and convict us without trial.
But the key thing was, it bought us time. Precious time.
At the center dais, the Hokage's brows lifted. "You have no seconder and no grounds."
"The Hatake seconds them."
And just like that, the motion carried. I had one month to certain death.
I met his gaze evenly. "On grounds of partial inquiry and procedural omission. The matter of Fūinjutsu regulation involves entities and personnel under the Special ANBU Division, whose records are incomplete in this session."
A hush. Every clan head in the room knew what that meant — the Hatake were backing me, the controversial sealing specialist accused of operating outside authorized oversight.
"You still have no grounds."
"The Anbu division you are placing us under is Lord Danzo's division. It has been renamed for the purpose of reinstating him legally. But this is the very team that participated in human experiments against the members of my clan, along with many others. Potential conflict of interest in a draft outside of wartime warrants review."
Gasps. Someone muttered, "That law hasn't been cited in decades."
The Hokage exhaled slowly, his voice calm but heavy. "You realize, Ren, that invoking the Right of Review grants an extension of one council session only. After that, the vote proceeds — regardless."
The reviewing committee is not gonna find fault with the Hokage's faction. Because it will be made by people in the Hokage's faction. All it bought me was time.
I bowed slightly. "That is sufficient, Lord Hokage. One meeting is all we require."
From across the table, the Kurokami head gave a lazy smirk. "Always playing the long game, aren't you, brat? Delays buy time… time buys influence. But time will not help you this time. It's the end of the line."
I ignored him. In truth, he wasn't wrong. I had nowhere to turn. But he did not know of my plans.
The Hokage nodded slowly. "Very well. The Right of Review is granted. The vote is postponed for one month."
The hall was silent. Most because it had nothing to do with them. The rest were studying me for tells about my plan.
As I sat back down, the Hokage's gaze lingered on me — not angry, but measuring.
The monitoring will be doubled. That was fine.
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I could not test making that tag in the village. And I couldn't take my clan members with me outside. Or they might think we're defecting.
So I took only a few people out. My Lotus-leaf squad. Daichi, Hotaru, and their best squad under Hikari. Taku was also a part of this squad.
11 of us took various missions and left the village towards the Land of Wind. We needed a desolate place for our objectives. What I didn't know was that the men following us also needed a desolate place for their objectives.
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A few miles behind them. "Did you all really need my help to deal with a bunch of genins and a chunin?" A tall middle-aged man with a distinctive Pineapple cut hair was rubbing his neck while Kurokami Gen'ei, along with several Kurokami Chunins.
"My lord, the Kurokami top brass is under watch right now. So we could only rely on you. After all, since your son is to wed Lady Shiori next month, we are almost family. You won't begrudge your family this small favor, right?"
"I guess I can't. But let's move fast. I don't want this becoming a drag."
------
Motivated and determined, the Kurokami were. Stealthy they were not.
I picked up their signatures with lightning sense. I knew we would be followed. But I also knew that once the tag goes off right. It won't matter.
"We're being followed."
"How many?" Daichi drew his weapon.
"Too many. 6 Genins 2 Chunins, and 1 Jonin from what I can tell."
"What's different about these followers?"
"They have a Kurokami elder I met before. They are not here to see, but to silence us."
"Why haven't they attacked yet then? They have us outnumbered."
"We're too close to the village. And there are others following and monitoring us. Someone could happen upon the fight. My guess is they are all from the Kurokami. Only they would want me dead. As the head contractor, Danzo and Hiruzen would want me for experiments.
But since they are Kurokami Fuinjutsu masters. So those genins are Chunins, and the Chunins are elite Chunins with the tags they must have. They want us dead without alerting Konoha that they assassinated fellow shinobis."
"What do we do?"
"We change direction. Take the busy road to the port."
And we did. Instead of the desert. We went towards the ocean.
The busy road kept any ambushes from happening. I guess they did not want to take any chances. Or maybe they thought that we might defect. The pressure was certainly that high. Then they'll have reason to rightfully kill us. I could feel the eyes on us reducing as the distance increased. Maybe that squad was making sure others did not follow us to report what happened.
I decided to play into that. We acted suspiciously. As if hiding our tracks in our own country.
"Lord Ren, are we going to circle back to Konoha?"
"We can't. They won't let us."
"We could go towards the Daimyo or one of his lords."
"The reason they are not attacking is to see if they can kill us legally. If we make a move that says anything except defection. They'll attack. We need to hope that they allow us to reach port.
On the port, if we hire an international boat. We become fugitives. We don't have permission to leave the country. They are hoping to catch us there. Defection will take me out and give them an excuse to do whatever they want with the clan.
"But then how do we win?"
"I said we needed a wasteland. Who said the experiment site needed to be a desert? The ocean, too, is a wasteland."
Thankfully, they did not hunt us before we reached port.