As the caravan went about its normal business, a welcome change of pace, for everyone involved, an unexpected visitor for the Konoha group showed up, but not a hostile one this time.
Senju Kanata who had arrived with the Konoha reinforcements previously and headed back to the village with Tsunade, bringing their high value prisoner, Ay Junior, with them, had now shown up again, unprompted by their side.
"Kanata-san! Are there developments in the village?" Inori immediately asked.
Also not one to muck about with niceties, Kanata responded in kind.
"Indeed. Kumo has approached us to negotiate and, based on their words, you seem to have obtained another high value prisoner?" The Senju said with an inquiring tone.
"Yes. Dodai, a Lava Release user specialized in rubber jutsu." The Violet Rose replied.
The rest of the Konoha shinobi had gathered in the meantime, bringing a small cart with the sedated prisoner along with them.
"Exellent!" Kanata exclaimed with a smile.
"He should be transported to the village at the earliest convenience so that the negotiations can start in earnest." She declared.
Inori thought for a bit before replying.
"That's fine. Take Uchiha Fugaku and Hyuga Makoto with you. Since negotiations started, Kumo likely won't target us anymore but they might try to intercept the prisoner to reduce their major disadvantage at their negotiating table. Better be safe than sorry."
With that, the Yamanaka gave the two shinobi in question a look.
Fugaku and Makoto nodded, bringing up the cart behind as they joined Kanata's side.
"Thank you for the support." The Senju kunoichi spoke.
"It is our duty." Hyuga Makoto replied, with a grunt of affirmation from Fugaku, typical Uchiha behaviour.
Kanata nodded appreciatively and pulled out two thick scrolls.
"This is from Mito-sama for you, Shiki-kun." She spoke, raising one of them
"And this, I assume you recognize." Kanata extended her hand with the other.
"My capture scroll for sealing people." Shiki noted.
The boy stepped forward and received the unknown scroll with a few words of gratitude.
He did not take his capture scroll though.
"Best use it to transport the prisoner. It's safer and more convenient that way besides, I am not expecting to find a use for the scroll during the remainder of this mission." The boy offered.
Kanata gratefully accepted the proposal.
"Any message attached?" Shiki then inquired.
The kunoichi shook her head in denial.
After hammering out a couple more details with Inori, the Senju Kunoichi, now accompanied by Makoto and Fugaku, set off for Konoha with the prisoner sealed up in Shiki's scroll.
*
A while later, now with some privacy, Shiki checked out the scroll Mito had sent him, it was mostly a report of the village's situation and a retelling of the developments regarding his actions as well as the accompanying reactions of key individuals.
Essentially, it was a commendation of the boy's achievements, followed by a warning to be more cautious followed by an explanation of what he should expect upon his return to the village.
Expectedly, the continuation of Team 6's conflict with Kumo set off all manner of waves back in Konoha, after all, with war on the horizon, such skirmishes held a much more serious weight.
Not to mention that capturing the son of a rival Hidden Village, especially the second most powerful one, was a feat and a half.
Even good old Danzo was impressed, however, that did not prevent him from stirring up trouble.
Aware that Shiki's attitude towards him was deservedly negative and unfixable, the Darkness of Shinobi, now beginning to earn that nickname with his schemes in preparation for the war, wasted no opportunity to suppress the boy.
Hiruzen, despite not being nearly as pacifistic as his older self, did not like what he called "needless aggression" when the world was still at peace.
He preferred to counterattack harshly after the other side sets off the conflict, ensuring righteous cause and allowing him to outmaneuver the opponent using superior surveillance and battle planning.
As such, despite endorsing Shiki's actions, Danzo immediately admonished them to Hiruzen, knowing his old friend held the exact opposite opinion.
When Tsunade and Kanata brought Ay Junior back to the village and delivered the sealing scroll to Mito, the Uzumaki matriarch communicated the general situation to the Third Hokage.
Still, in shock, Hiruzen sent the Anbu to collect the prisoner and called his trio of advisers to deliberate before he talked further with Mito or the rest of the village's higher ups.
Hearing the details from his people in the Anbu before he was called, Danzo quickly thought up a game plan for this initial meeting.
"Hiruzen, the boy is destabilizing an already volatile situation. This could make many of our war preparations all for naught!" The one eyed man self righteously warned.
It was not any real advice, just an accusation and, though he was right, Danzo himself knew that holding such an important hostage more than made up for whatever trouble Shiki's actions may have caused.
Not that he would admit it.
But was Hiruzen?
'Isn't this exactly the sort of thing you would love to do yourself?' The Hokage internally questioned.
'If one of your own pulled it off, you'd already be extolling the numerous benefits over and over until my ears fell off.'
'Still . . . This does upset my war strategy significantly.' Hiruzen was deep in thought.
Homura and Koharu also took the opportunity to communicate their opinion on the matter.
"While this was an egregious overstepping of authority by the boy. His decision in and of itself, cannot be stated to be wrong.' The bespectacled advisor spoke.
"If we use this well, all disadvantages this conflict has created can be more than compensated. If we still admonish the boy after profiting from his actions, it will do more harm than good." The female advisor cautioned.
While Homura both endorsed and admonished Shiki, showing more conservative ideas in line with Hiruzen's thinking, Koharu was more neutral.
In her mind, if they failed to profit from Ay Junior and the situation only got worse, blame could be pushed onto Team 6, leaving themselves clean.
However, if they managed to gain an advantage against Kumo, then she believed admonishing any member of Team 6, Shiki especially, would only reflect poorly on their reputation.
"Hmm. We should ask for more details from Mito-sama, we'll call a war council to announce the next course of action after that." Hiruzen decided.
"Speaking of Mito-sama, there is something to be said in regards to that." Danzo interjected.
Homura and Koharu looked to Hiruzen for an explanation, clearly still unaware of the full situation.
The Third Hokage then explained how the prisoner had been independently collected by shinobi of the village at Mito's request and only after he was in her hands, was Hiruzen himself informed.
His two advisors sputtered with somewhat exaggerated outrage.
"This is an unforgivable abuse of the privileges you allowed Mito-sama!" Homura immediately exclaimed.
"Homura's correct! Disciplinary action must be taken! To do such a thing privately, it is utterly inadmissible!" Koharu echoed.
"I have to agree with them, Hiruzen. If we let such an abuse go unpunished, the Hokage's authority will be damaged greatly, perhaps irreversibly." Danzo calmly added.
"Hmph!" The Third Hokage shut his three advisors all up with a forceful snort.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
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 -