Hiashi had barely stepped through the gate, mind still turning over everything the war council had just laid on his shoulders, when the elders descended on him before he'd made three steps past the entrance.
"Hiashi-sama, this cannot wait," Hoheto said, still visibly rattled days later, flanked by the rest of the main house elders in various states of lingering indignity. "Neji has become entirely unmanageable. Disrespectful. Dangerous."
Hiashi's stern face from the earlier war council became even more tightened. This was the last thing he wanted right now. Kumo had declared war, and his clan elders were complaining about his nephew like wronged children. What possibly could Neji have done? Surely, nothing to warrant this kind of reaction, first thing coming back to the clan grounds.
His mind spun; often, what it seems at first is not exactly that. Perhaps they are trying to put pressure on Neji this way, most likely because of what he showed in the Chunin Exam and then the invasion. Most likely after whatever technique his nephew had created, or that barrier technique, or how that helped him defeat that Uchiha girl.
He himself wondered what that was but never asked.
"Dangerous how?" Hiashi asked, already bracing himself for whatever exaggeration was about to follow.
"He struck all five of us without warning," the pinch-faced elder said. "Unprovoked."
"He also," another added, practically vibrating with outrage, "had the audacity to demand the clan provide him with personal attendants. Multiple. With very specific... physical requirements he insisted on listing in detail."
Hiashi's expression flattened. "Neji said that?" He couldn't believe it. He was expecting exaggeration, but this was too much, wasn't it?
"In those exact words," Hoheto confirmed, though something in his tone suggested the retelling had grown noticeably more scandalous with each repetition since the actual incident.
"But that is not the real issue. Hiashi... we have a clan-level problem on our hands. It seems somehow your nephew has learned how to undo the Caged Bird," the third elder pressed on, clearly deciding this was the detail that actually mattered.
That, at least, made Hiashi pause. "That's... impossible."
"We know. We are just as shocked as you, if not more, when it happened," Hoheto confirmed. "We demand action, Hiashi-sama. Severe punishment. Perhaps even—" he hesitated only slightly, "—execution, given how dangerous it would be if he can lift the Caged Bird from other branch members as well. We have to act now..."
Hiashi's eyes hardened... that was going too far. And as if expecting that reaction from him, another elder stated.
"Now, now... execution is too much, a harsh punishment should do. He is still young."
"Yes, yes... that's right," another elder added quickly, "the clan should claim whatever technique granted him that speed. Whatever it is, it belongs to the Hyūga, not to one insolent branch member."
Hiashi studied all five of them for a long moment, weighing exaggeration against whatever kernel of truth was actually buried underneath it.
He knew they wouldn't lie about something like the Caged Bird. So, this became harder to identify what the truth was and what was made up. Ultimately, he had to talk with her nephew to find out.
"I'll speak with him myself," he said finally. "Send for Neji."
Neji arrived within the hour, and it took perhaps thirty seconds of conversation for Hiashi to realize the elders, for once, hadn't been exaggerating nearly as much as he'd assumed.
"You struck five main house elders," Hiashi said slowly.
"Correction," Naoya said, entirely unbothered, "I disciplined five main house elders who thought a seal on my forehead gave them the right to order me around. And I assume that number reduces to four. I'd rather not have that woman in there..." He sneered.
Hiashi's eye twitched. For a minute, he just ignored the woman comment Neji made and asked the important matter first, "And the seal itself. They said the Caged Bird didn't work."
"Who knows, they might be telling the truth, or perhaps they are lying," Naoya said, almost proud of it. "Try it yourself, if you want to find out." He grinned with a shrug that raised Hiashi's temper.
This was the last thing he wished to face after coming from a war council, a rebellious teenager.
Hiashi didn't try it, of course. He simply stared at the branch member in front of him, his nephew, a boy who was supposed to be respectful, restrained, quietly resentful at worst — and found instead someone entirely unrecognizable, radiating a confidence that had no business existing in someone the clan had spent his whole life keeping firmly in his place.
"What happened to you?" Hiashi finally asked, more to himself than to Neji.
Naoya just smiled and said nothing useful at all.
"Misogyny, try it, you might like it."
And then he left. Leaving Hiashi completely speechless at that answer.
-x-
The Hokage's Office
Sukuna had barely stepped through the office door before Tsunade was on top of him, her voice already climbing toward a shout.
"WHAT DID YOU DO THIS TIME, YOU BRAT!!!"
On impulse, he felt like slamming the door back down and walking off from there, but he reluctantly entered.
"I did several things this week," Sukuna said. "30 missions ranging from B ranks to even an S-rank one. And then hospital duty after that. And somehow, when I found myself still breathing after that, I had you call me out for some sort of lecture I don't even know about." He said with equal irritation in his tone, just not as loud as the old lady.
Tsunade blinked, 'He really did all those in a week. That was just a prank...'
"Ahem... Killer Bee," she snapped to the topic. Yes, she was the one who was supposed to be angry right now.
"Killer Bee?" He raised his brows in confusion.
"Yeah... explain. Killer Bee, Kumo. Explain. Now."
"Have you lost it? Did those elders finally rot your brain to the point you can't even hold a proper conversation or what?"
Tsunade felt her blood pressure rising. This is why she doesn't like this brat; no matter how much she shouts or acts angry, he shrugs it off. And she can't actually use force; she knew better than that.
So, what was she to do with this troublemaker...
She ignored his comment and then quickly dismissed the Anbu lining the walls with a single sharp gesture, waiting until the room emptied before rounding on him fully, and by then Sukuna's own patience had started fraying at the edges too, his usual composure slipping into something colder.
"Did you come in contact with Killer Bee recently?" She asked again, seeing the building irritation. Last thing she wanted was her office cut open in half; that would be much more expensive than a smashed table.
Kami knows Konoha can't afford those luxuries right now.
"He found me while I was training," Sukuna said, flat. "Accused me of causing the Raikage's disappearance because I happened to be training nearby where it took place. Tried to force me to come with him."
Tsunade blinked... "Wait, that place is about three days' distance from the village. How did you..." Her question died in her throat when she recalled the little demon knew Flying Thunder God.
'This brat is leaving the village unannounced, with no permission. Why am I not surprised...'
She took a deep breath and reined in her anger before finally motioning him to continue.
"I declined, of course... He didn't take that well." Sukuna shrugged, "You know how it goes. Fight broke out, I cut off one of his arms and nearly finished him, but slippery bastard got away before I could end him like his useless brother."
Tsunade stared at him, momentarily too stunned to keep shouting. "You nearly killed the Eight-Tails jinchūriki."
"He started it."
"That's not the point, brat!" Her fist came down on the table in front of her, finally unable to bear it anymore. It simply exploded, taking away some of her anger so she could function properly again.
"Then what is the point?" Sukuna didn't even bat an eye at the table, if anything, his voice rising to match hers now, something sharper than his usual detachment bleeding through. "He attacked me first. I defended myself. What did you have me do, run off from there like a weakling?"
Tsunade opened her mouth, closed it, and visibly forced herself to breathe instead of continuing to escalate. She recognized that look on his face — the same one that preceded him cutting rather than punching, and unlike her own habit of putting fists through furniture, his temper tended toward considerably more permanent solutions.
Raikage learned firsthand what an angry Haruno male looks like.
"Kumo," she said instead, tightly, "has formally declared war on Konoha. Partly justified by exactly that incident."
That landed hard enough to actually still him. "...War."
"War," Tsunade confirmed. "Because apparently a jinchūriki losing a fight and an arm to an unidentified attacker, in the Land of Fire."
Sukuna exhaled slowly, some of his anger finally giving way to something more like disbelief. "And what proof do they have... I doubt they can even recognise my face if they saw my image in the bingo book."
Tsunade grimaced at that, it was frustrating because the brat was right. There was no direct proof given by Kumo, let alone an underground bounty of this little devil's head.
Meaning, most likely, they can't recognise him.
There was silence from both sides before Sukuna said this...
"How about this... give me one night and tomorrow morning, there will be no Kumo to go to war against... what do you say?"
Tsunade looked at him as if she saw an alien. 'Was this brat for real...'
xXx
A/N : Haha... I completely see Sukuna acting that way, "War... sure, tell me when and where, or should just visit them at their home turf..." hahaha.
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