Since business was more or less taken care of and the Hokage could tell that if he did not leave soon, Mito would kick him out, leaving him no dignity whatsoever.
And so, he quickly but politely said his goodbyes and prepared to leave but his company was not so eager just yet.
"If I may Hokage-sama." Inori spoke up.
Hiruzen turned towards the Yamanaka with a questioning gaze.
She had managed to go through the whole conversation without having any flak tossed her way so it seemed like a stupid idea to speak up just as she was about to leave practically unscathed.
"What is it?" The Hokage asked.
"I would like to stay behind and talk with Shiki." Inori requested.
Before Hiruzen could even formulate an answer, Mito spoke up from the side.
"That's perfectly fine, I wanted to talk to you either way." The Uzumaki matriarch declared.
And with that, the Hokage sent a prayer to the Yamanaka in his thoughts and left before Mito could speak up again.
"Look at that Monkey so eager to scurry away." The redhead derisively spoke before turning towards Uchiha Fukutsu.
"I imagine that what you wanted to learn by coming here has already become evidently clear." The Uzumaki matriarch suggested.
"Indeed Mito-sama. Though I am not quite sure how to approach the matter." Fukutsu replied.
In truth, he just wanted to know Mito's intentions so that he could adjust his own plans accordingly.
After all, with the Hokage and his people tossing his daughter into the meat grinder with no forewarning or preparations whatsoever, Uchiha Fukutsu had no intention of taking it lying down.
The Uchiha clan was not the weakened and supressend shadow of its former self shown in the original series under Fukutsu's son, Fugaku's leadership, it was Konoha's strongest shinobi clan, feared across the whole world for their might and skill in battle.
"Well, let us discuss this particular issue in my office shall we?" Mito suggested, bidding Fukutsu to follow her along with her granddaughter which she summoned through a subtle look.
The Uchiha patriarch cautiously looked at Inori, wondering if making their discussion known to her would be a problem.
There was also the fact that he did not feel at ease leaving his daughter with her anymore, recent events taken into consideration.
Ultimately however, he deferred to Mito's judgement and followed her, leaving Team 6 alone in the room.
Inori looked over at her students, unsure of what to say.
"So, does anyone have anything to say to your saviour?" Shiki asked with a punchable expression.
Much to his distress however, Mei finally shook off her utter disbelief and lack of strength due to relief at seeing him alive, proceeding then to leap at the boy and holding him like a plushie while sobbing.
She was twelve and girls tended to develop faster around that age so to the bespectacled girl, the much smaller four year old Shiki was the perfect size to hug and carry around, her shinobi physical abilities making his weight negligible.
And so did the boy have to deal with being smothered by an overzealously apologetic girl that was beyond happy to see him alive.
Honestly, Shiki knew he was partly at fault since his plan involved getting stabbed through the heart right in front of the girl, leading to her getting splattered with his blood, a rather traumatic event for the young Uchiha.
Little did he know however, his choices and actions had a far more profound impact upon Mei then he currently realized.
Meanwhile, Shinka just stood awkwardly in place, unsure of what to do as Inori sighed with a wry smile on her face before adopting a more serious expression.
"Tell me Shiki. What do you think will become of team 6?" The Violet Rose asked.
Truth be told, Mito would have the main say on the matter of Shiki's future activities as a shinobi considering the suspicious actions of the village leadership towards him.
Mei finally gave the boy some room to breathe.
"What do you mean sensei?" The bespectacled girl asked but immediately after, she realized that considering their teacher's actions, it would be more surprising if their Team members were not shuffled.
'At the very least, our sensei would be someone different, probably someone Mito-sama and otou-sama would have more trust in.' She internally theorized.
"I actually don't think there will be much change at all." Shiki responded, his reply coming as a surprise to the three.
Noticing their reaction, he added a few comments.
"After all, as the saying goes . . . Better the devil you know than the devil you don't. That and allowing the Team to remain as is will give Mito-sama even more advantages in the upcoming negotiations."
The others were tactful enough not to try and discuss the negotiations so the conversation moved on as nobody seemed willing to broach the obvious subject.
Especially since they now knew they would probably continue to spend time together as a team and so, possibly destroying their currently fragilized relationship was something all of them wanted to avoid.
In the end, nothing meaningful ended up being discussed as even Inori lost her nerve. The veteran kunoichi felt the weight of her past decisions finally start to catch up with her.
It was temporary.
She knew that to be the case.
Everytime Inori had made a particularly bad decision, followed a particularly questionable order or some other such circumstance, it was like the accumulated weight of her entire life made itself known.
But even then, the Violet Rose endured and moved on, performing her duties as a kunoichi with the utmost excellence.
Mito too ended her discussions with Fukutsu and the man left with a rather reluctant Mei who clearly did not have enough hugging plushie time to be satisfied.
Shiki felt her gaze to be intense enough to be called abnormal and dangerous.
'As expected, no Uchiha turns out a normal and socially well adjusted individual.' The boy thought to himself.
Inori tactfully excused herself at the same time, leaving only Shinka who made to moves nor any attempt to communicate.
In fact, the Aburame girl had been constantly shifting between a dazed state of confusion to nervous state of guilt and back for the whole duration of her visit, possibly even earlier.
One might wonder why Mito even bothered to have her come considering she did not participate in any of the conversations that took place.
Even the casual, avoidant talk Shiki had with Mei and Inori was something Shinka stayed out of.
In truth, it was Shiki that suggested calling her and his goal had been perfectly achieved, so perfectly the boy himself was surprised.
And so, before sending the Aburame girl on her way, Shiki had a private talk with the human bundle of clothing, a very productive one at that, thus bringing the day to an end.
Their side's set up was complete, now it was time to wait for the leadership's move before the next phase of the political game could begin.
Until then however, it was time for Shiki to finally get started on integrating the powers and skills of the Ryumon clan with the modern shinobi system to create a legacy the likes of which this world had never seen.
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Hey, Author here!
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -