"Shadow Clone Technique!"
Akira's sudden move made Nawaki stiffen in place, unease shooting through his gut.
"Uncle, you-"
Neither had time to react. One original body and one clone snatched Nawaki and Fugaku off the ground and-
Clap! Clap! Clap!
"Ah-!"
Their screams bounced against the inside of the barrier. Outside, no one could hear them, but the silhouettes cast through the chakra shell gave enough indication of what was happening.
Nobody said anything. Everyone waited where they stood, silent and watchful.
When the barrier finally dropped, Nawaki and Fugaku reappeared looking dazed. They covered their asses with both hands and wore matching expressions of violated dignity.
"Alright!"
Akira clapped both palms together with force. All eyes turned to him instantly.
"I called everyone here today to announce that from now on, Nawaki and Fugaku will serve as your commanders!"
Outrage stirred at once. Murmurs broke out across the crowd. The Uchiha clan head glared daggers into Fugaku before snapping his focus toward Akira again.
"Lord Akira, if Fugaku made some mistake-"
"Absolutely not," Akira said with barely restrained amusement. "There's no mistake here. The reason I'm appointing them as head coaches is twofold: first, we've placed serious expectations on them. A future Hokage must know how to fight. And second, tactical reasons."
"Tactical reasons?"
Silence fell again. Every senior officer leaned in without realizing it.
They had been there. They knew just how cleanly the previous battle ended, how they'd annihilated five hundred enemies without fielding even one high-rank ninja.
Three of those enemies had been recognized jonin.
And none of them made it within combat range before being obliterated by area-of-effect detonations.
Akira's tone remained casual as he continued speaking.
"The tactic we used was taken straight from the old-era Whirlpool country playbook. We've already used it twice. The Mist has taken heavy losses. They'll be adapting by now. If we use it again without change, we'll suffer for it."
He reached over and yanked Nawaki and Fugaku into position in front of him.
"So here's the trick, the Mist ninjas now think our commander's some kind of genius tactician. If we put these two rookies as the face right now, then they'll… well-"
Akira didn't finish that sentence. He just smiled instead. A slow grin that curled higher than needed.
It worked. Laughter started to rise in waves.
"Jeez..."
"Ohhh... I get it!"
Nawaki and Fugaku's eyes lit with understanding-only for the weight of realization to crush them in the next breath. Their shoulders dropped immediately, faces turning grim.
"But we don't know anything…!"
"Doesn't matter," Akira cut in flatly. "Worst case? People die. That's part of being Hokage too, you think it's fine to learn on the job? More people will die if you wait."
"I..."
Nawaki shrank back under that statement's weight. He and Fugaku had heard too much in the last few days-intel that could get them killed... or wipe out their clans... or bring Konoha to its knees entirely if it ever leaked.
And they were just fresh grads from the Academy this year.
Gulp.
Nawaki panicked first and tried to climb out of responsibility with both hands raised.
"Uncle-but I'm just a Genin!"
"I'm… pretty sure I'm not even officially on the roster…"
Fugaku's whole stance dropped in defeat after admitting that.
Akira tilted his head slightly. "Too bad," he said without sympathy.
Fugaku sighed once and stepped forward first, chewing his words out slowly.
"Isn't this kind of… irresponsible?"
"What-you don't want to be Hokage anymore? You don't want to fix Uchiha's place in the village?"
In most cases, Uchiha were tolerated because of Senju protection. If that wore off, their clan would slide back into its old corner fast-and hard.
Fugaku stared at him for half a second and saw no retreat available. He glanced at Nawaki.
Both bit down on their nerves and answered at the same time.
"Fine!"
"But Lord Akira, please help us."
Fugaku's request drew approving flicks of heads from those watching off to the side. At least these two were smart enough not to run blind.
"Nope!"
Akira raised both arms dramatically and crossed them into an "X".
"There's only one head coach post, and I'm giving that to you two now. As for me? I'll swing by in one month for results."
And then-he vanished before they could ask anything else.
Everyone stared at the empty space where he'd been seconds ago.
"...Son of a bitch."
It was the same thought on every face present. They'd assumed Akira was just trying to toughen up some new guys-but he'd just dropped two kids onto the battlefield, left them in charge, and walked away clean without even blinking once at their lives-or theirs either.
Especially now that their detonating tag strategy-burning through cash like water-was no longer viable.
They were being thrown into hell without boots on their feet or maps in their hands.
"What do we do now?"
One by one, looks started shifting toward each other-but the Uchiha leader near the front stepped out first with clarity in her stride. She gave both boys a deep formal bow.
"Commander-in-Chief."
Her declaration broke the silence. Others looked to her, hesitated for only half seconds, then followed suit after exchanging quick glances again.
"Commander-in-Chief!"
Nawaki and Fugaku stood rooted as everyone they respected-including family-utterly serious now, bowed toward them one after another.
Their mouths opened wordlessly in panic-
"It's over…"
...
Flying Thunder God made long-distance travel stupidly easy when used by someone like Akira. It took him mere minutes to arrive back at Konoha from the front lines several thousand miles away.
Sunlight peeked through clouds lazily over rooftops as Mito stood outside on her porch sipping morning tea when she felt his chakra signal approach from afar.
Rather than flinch or rush over, she set her cup down calmly and stepped slowly toward Akira's lab entrance down the hall like nothing had changed at her core.
"Back?"
"Mm."
Akira didn't waste time sitting down, already pulling open scrolls and dropping destroyed schematics on his counters one after another while talking over his shoulder casually.
"I left Nawaki and Fugaku to manage things on the front lines. I'm back now because I've had new ideas, I think I might finally have found their base."
"I see…"
Mito stood there watching him-not moving-but somewhere inside herself she wasn't sure if she was sighing or smiling this time.
Akira had always said once he found Madara's stronghold, they could attempt edo tensei again-which also probably explained why he wanted to locate her so badly in the first place... even if he wouldn't say it aloud himself.
For only one second-a tiny bitter moment opened inside her-
-and closed immediately afterward without leaving scars behind.
"I don't believe you'd leave me after everything," she said softly under her breath before refocusing herself entirely again.
Heartbeat by heartbeat-a huge puff of red chakra streamed out from around her chest before taking shape beside her-
Two ears-and nine tails-a fox-shaped mass now floated behind her shoulder silently.
"I'll count on you again this time too… Kurama."
"Hmph."
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