38

Chapter 38: thirty-seven: of gods and monstersSummary:

Regardless of people's wishes, time passes - and, in the blink of an eye, the inevitable falls upon them.

Notes:

Disclaimer: I am most definitely not suited to talk about economics. Don't take any of what I say seriously. I do not own Naruto. I do, however, own Chiyuki, any original characters, and this story's plot.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Becoming Hokage 101

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Section Seven

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Chapter Thirty Seven

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Summers in Ame are hot and humid, the kind that sticks to your skin and makes you feel even hotter. However, for some reason, it always seems to be freezing inside the meeting rooms.

"-it'd be a great idea to invest in things you can only find in Ame, I believe. Perhaps you can train more people to work with pottery-"

"-you may not be aware of this as Konoha's situation is very different from ours, Princess, but-"

"-and I understand that is a big concern of yours, Tanba-san. Your turn to speak will come soon. I ask that you do not interrupt me."

Chiyuki stares deep into the eyes of the Ame elder that drew the short straw for the day, and allows a small amount of her heavy iron chakra to leak into the room and exert its pressure. It works like a charm, and the middle-aged man backs down without another word, a sour expression on his face. The message has been received.

'I will not stand to be disrespected here.'

The girl exhales, and the air becomes light again.

"I'm not here to tell you how to run your village, because I don't know it as intimately as you do. Only you, as its residents, would know that. I'm here to show you things that have worked for Konoha and might work for Ame as well - but it is up to you to do the right adaptations, of course."

"Of course, Princess." She ignores the slight sarcasm in his voice, although she grins inwardly at the way the man flinches under Nagato's heavy gaze.

"Since we're on the topic," Yahiko barrels on, ignoring the mood completely, "I looked into bringing merchants and investing in young talents, and I think pottery and painting are safe places for us to finance. We're also looking to give the daimyo some furniture made of Stonewood to improve relations and entice the nobility into investing in Ame."

Next to him, Konan nods. "We have been working on making our village a safe and attractive place for outsiders to settle in, and the alliance with Konoha has been of great help, but we had two major issues arise with that."

"The shortage of shinobi inside the village and Ame's infrastructure." The thirteen year old finishes the thought, receiving four nods in return. "As for the infrastructure, I recommend dealing with things like building sewers and roads as soon as possible."

"Would you say it's a priority?" The blue-haired woman asks, watching as Nagato makes calculations on a separate piece of paper.

"Definitely. Big repairs and constructions are most certainly a lot of work, but believe me when I say it's much better to do it properly now than to have to fix it later on when the village grows bigger."

"We're finally starting to receive some of the reparation money from Iwa and Suna. It'd be good to start working on it during the next few days, then." The orange-haired shinobi says, resting his fist on his chin and getting murmurs of agreement from the people inside the room.

"Shall we mobilize the genin to help with the construction work?" The rinnegan user asks the Konoha ambassador. "They've done a good job helping with the orphanage, and this way, we can make sure we always have shinobi inside the village."

Chiyuki thinks back on one of her first suggestions, when Ame's orphanage had been too tiny and understaffed to house all the children that became orphans as a result of the war. Being orphans during the last war themselves, the three leaders of Ame had considered their personal goal to give the children of the village a safe and healthy environment they could grow in, and she honestly couldn't find any fault in that.

"Temporarily send the children somewhere else and rebuild it properly." She'd suggested that very first meeting, after seeing how frustrated Yahiko was at the state the orphanage was in. "If there's not enough staff, hire genin teams to help take care of the children. In that way, you can have both the children and the genin interact safely with more people and make money circulate within Ame."

"Won't it be considered propaganda for the children to become ninja?" Hiro had asked with a furrow on his eyebrows, but had received a shrug in response.

"Some might see it that way, but it depends on you on whether you want it to be real propaganda or not. Personal judgment aside, genin are great bridges between the civilians and the ninja population. The civilians understand genin are trained ninja, but they are much less intimidating than a chunin, for example. They seem more approachable, I suppose."

The three young leaders had agreed to think about it alongside the Council, but whether the population would consider it propaganda or not, the fact was that genin are a huge help when it comes to heavy lifting and talking to civilians.

Besides, the girl knows she has no right to make judgements when she knows the effort it takes to keep a village running strong.

(How can she possibly judge them when Konoha has been brainwashing orphans into becoming child soldiers for decades?)

In the end, they'd planned the construction of the new orphanage and hired genin to both help with the heavy work and take care of the children, and it'd been a great success - in more ways than one.

With that single move, she had successfully won the trust and respect of half the Ame Council, as well as the civilian population and the genin. Furthermore, as Ensui and Takuto take turns guarding her, one of them is always helping out with training shinobi to defend the village's borders - a show of 'good-will' that gets a good portion of the ninja population on her side.

In addition to that, Chiyuki has bought more chopsticks, spoons, bowls, and cups in three months than she has during both lives combined. When the shopkeepers ask just what she plans on doing with so many utensils, she smiles and answers-

"They're gifts."

She becomes a treasure for Ame artisans and merchants, as any self-respecting shop owner knows the kind of people the kunoichi has in her social circle, and that her bringing gifts to Konoha means that Ame products will become widely recognized amongst clan people and nobility.

The blonde, much to her horror and mortification, becomes Ame's Angel after only a few months of living there.

(Regardless of what they call her, her mission might as well be accomplished already. She promised Minato great results, but although she's achieved her goals already, there's still too much to be done.)

"That's a good idea. It's also a good way for newly graduated genin to get some field experience." She nods at the rinnegan user, and receives a nod from both him and Yahiko.

"Alright. Next on the agenda-"

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Autumn comes like a punch in the gut.

"Get up, Chiyuki."

A muffled groan.

"I will not repeat myself."

"Yes, Nagato-sensei."

And she'd thought training with Gai had been brutal.

Every single muscle in her body hurts, and she feels that even some bones ache. Doing her best to ignore the way her trembling body begs for rest, the girl grits her teeth and slowly gets up from her sprawled position on the ground.

From a safe distance, Takuto watches her training session with a carefully blank expression, having kept his mouth shut since that first day in Ame.

"Do it again."

"Yes, Nagato-sensei."

Without any further warning, Nagato launches an earth jutsu at her, one he'd altered especially to look and feel like wood, and Chiyuki tenses her legs in preparation.

The bulky column comes at her at high speed, and she grits her teeth as she envelops her hands in a thick coat of iron chakra, the small drain on her nearly depleted reserves making her head spin. Small spikes form in her palms just as the makeshift-wood reaches her, and her body is violently thrown back as she attempts to hold the jutsu back with her chakra infused hands and bent knees.

Sweat drips down her face as the ash blonde finally breaks the 'wood' column with her hands with a grunt, and splinters fly around as the rinnegan user dashes at her, arm raised in a punch. The iron chakra covering her hands immediately slides down and thickens around her forearms just as she raises them to block his attack, making the man step back when long, thin iron spikes launch from her armor plate.

The chakra covering her forearms easily answers her call and melts back into her palms, where she quickly forms iron binds and throws them at the shinobi sprinting towards her. He swiftly dodges them, but after a simple call from her, the binds form into boomerangs and fly towards the man's turned back.

Nagato side steps to dodge them, and Chiyuki turns them into giant shurikens, spinning rapidly thanks to their momentum. He's forced to physically block them with two kunais, and now that he's in contact with it, it becomes much easier for the girl to turn both the shuriken and his kunai into a blob of iron chakra that latches onto him with minimal effort.

It's quick to tighten around his forearms, hindering his circulation, and she takes advantage of the momentary distraction to focus on the iron inside the blood vessel within his feet. She's forced to kneel down as her body threatens to give out from sheer exhaustion, but still manages to make his blood cells stick to the inside of the blood vessels, effectively preventing circulation for a little while.

The Uzumaki finally gets rid of the iron chakra on his forearms with brute strength, and as he prepares to do a shunshin to get closer to her, he's hindered by the poor blood circulation in his feet and trips slightly. She takes advantage of those few, precious seconds and calls on her chakra one last time to expand the broken pieces of iron chakra into her favorite technique.

'Iron Release: Iron Maiden.'

The metal expands in an instant, forming the shape of the medieval object of torture around the shinobi. The technique, however, lasts an entire two seconds before Chiyuki's legs finally give out, and she flops down dramatically on the ground with a drawn out groan.

It doesn't take long for the red-haired man's face to pop up in her field of vision again, his face full of amusement as his chakra, deep and soothing like a dead calm ocean, brushes softly against hers.

"You've done well today."

"Hnngf."

"You're getting better at manipulating your chakra without hand seals. Good work."

"Mhmf."

Ever so gently, Nagato picks up his student and adjusts her on his back, starting the trek back home with a silent Takuto behind them. The girl hangs nearly limply in his hold, hiding her dirtied face in his shoulder with a dramatic groan.

As the day gets darker behind a curtain of thick rain clouds, the villagers start to close their shops for the day. For them, it's become part of their routine to look at the teacher-student duo with fondness and mirth in their gazes as the three ninja make their way back to the administration tower, with him carrying her back more often than not.

Some say the Uzumaki is working her too hard, and that it's not healthy to push her so far - and normally, Nagato himself would agree with them. Contrary to what some people might think, he's no sadist, and he most certainly does not enjoy pushing the thirteen year old to her limit so often, but they can't afford to be lax in their training when their enemies might strike at any moment.

"Madara and Black Zetsu would be fools to not take advantage of the fact that you're not inside the safety of Konoha. They will try something while you're here, and we will be prepared for that." The rinnegan user had told her during her first month in Ame, and she'd nodded in agreement.

"I think so too. Do you still plan on luring them here?"

A nod. "It's better to fight on our terms rather than waiting for them to strike."

"That doesn't sound too bad, but while I'm sure you're more than capable of holding your own against them, I'm nowhere near that level."

"Yet."

The way Nagato had said it felt ominous in its finality, as if there were no ifs or buts. The fierce look in his gray rinnegan eyes had made a shiver run down her spine, and she'd suppressed the urge to swallow.

She really should have realized then that the Ame shinobi would be no pushover when it came to her training.

"Do they have any weaknesses?" He'd asked in his usual no-nonsense tone of voice, gaze having turned calculating.

"Madara's old, but we shouldn't underestimate him. He's a versatile fighter with ridiculous strength. Taijutsu is his weakest point, but it doesn't mean he's lacking in that area. He's also quite delusional and overconfident in his abilities. Although… our biggest issue might be Black Zetsu, actually."

"A humanoid creature who manipulated Uchiha Madara and is Kaguya's will personified… which now has a personal vendetta against you and knows about your ability to manipulate the iron inside someone's blood cells."

Chiyuki had made a face and flinched, knowing that was on her, and her only. In her defense, she'd been desperate back then, but she should've expected that wouldn't be enough to end Black Zetsu.

"No matter. His knowledge of it will not make him immune to it. In fact, we can use that to our advantage." The red-haired man had continued with a shake of his head, and it'd earned a puzzled look from her.

"How?"

"You shall see."

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Winter in Ame means snow - heavy and thick, it falls incessantly everyday, but the novelty of it quickly wears off as it starts to fill up the roads and hinder construction work. Thanks to the recently built heating systems, however, all the buildings in the village are well prepared for the harsh winter, and its leaders see an increase in productivity thanks to its residents being in good health.

'Speaking of which, Chou told me the medic-nin from Konoha arrived a couple of hours ago.'

'She did. Since she arrived in the late afternoon, I told her you were meeting up with her tomorrow morning.'

'Thanks.'

In an unspoken agreement, Nagato and Chiyuki meet up weekly in her room to play shogi - and, naturally, talk without any unwanted attention. By this point in their stay, not even Ensui tries to listen in on any conversation they might have anymore, since they rarely talk outloud.

The man's ringed gray eyes narrow down at the shogi board, and his student immediately knows it's got nothing to do with the game itself. Through her mental connection with Chou, she sends a question through the butterfly's swirling eyes on its wings, and the insect relays the message to the rinnegan.

'What's wrong?'

The shinobi doesn't answer right away. After two more moves from each player, he finally answers her question, but does not meet her eyes.

'The Council is… unhappy with how much we've been relying on Konoha.'

'Ah.'

Not an unexpected outcome, if she's honest with herself. Ame has been receiving a lot of help, but it's also giving back much in return. Aside from Nagato (an unofficially recognized Uzumaki), an extremely powerful shinobi, taking Chiyuki under his wing for training, the rainy village hands over a rather big share of its raw profit to Konoha, so even though there's a reasonable amount of money being made, Ame only gets to keep about ⅓ of it.

It's not such a huge problem as long as they keep on receiving reparation money from Iwa and Suna, but what will happen after that?

Aside from the money, Ame must give a free pass to Konoha citizens if they ever want to pass through the rainy village, and if they want to stay there, the process is made a whole lot easier. On top of that, half of Hanzo's scrolls and belongings were sent to Konoha, and Ame also signed a defensive pact - which means that if someone attacks Konoha, the village must come to their aid.

The two ninja spend some time in silence, each lost in their thoughts, until the blonde girl meets his gaze almost hesitantly.

'I'd recommend you don't let the Council have too much say in things. Konoha did that, and look how well it turned out.'

She expected him to frown at her, to say that it's preposterous she even suggested a thing, but instead of that, he turns interested gray eyes to her.

'That's not such a bad idea. Yahiko might grumble a little bit about the fairness of it, but even he's tired of the Council's complaining.'

The girl nods, although she has a frown on her face. 'That's an internal affair, though. Sorry I can't help much in that regard.'

'Do not be, for it's not your fault. Besides, it's true that Ame cannot rely on its alliance with Konoha forever.'

'No, but there's nothing wrong with making the most of it while you can.'

'No, there isn't.'

Silence. Then-

'When you're Hokage, what do you plan on doing with Konoha's Council?'

It's something she's thought of many, many times, and the answer is out of her before she can think better of it.

'Ideally, I'd find a way to get rid of half of them.'

He raises both eyebrows, urging her to continue. There's not a single hint of judgment in his expression, only interest, and her heart squeezes, because, see, this-

-this is why he's her favorite. Not because he's her teacher in Ame, or because he treated her the best he could when she was kidnapped, or because he listened to her tell the story of how she had a life before this one.

The rinnegan user looks at the shadowy parts of her and accepts it. He stares into her cold, calculating eyes, listens to her plans that have little to no regard for people who don't matter to her, and agrees with her when she speaks about manipulating people.

Nagato looks at her ruthless self and praises her, and really, when he encourages her to spare no expense to get what she wants, how can Chiyuki not adore this man?

'Each clan head has a seat at the Council, but they don't worry me too much. They almost never come to an agreement amongst themselves, and I got six of them on my side already.'

'Six?'

'Tsunade-sama assumed the Senju clan's seat when she came back. She's been great at keeping the elders on a tight leash.'

'Ah. As expected, the problem lies within the elders.'

The blonde clenches her jaw. 'My father gave them too much power, and now they think they've actually got a say in things, although they've been keeping a low profile since my father stepped down.'

The red-head nods, finishing the thought. 'They realized they don't hold much power now that the Sandaime Hokage has retired.'

'Yeah. But they're still alive and annoying, and I know they aren't loyal to the Hokage. Hells, I'm not even sure if they're loyal to the village. In addition, they're all 50+ years old, which means they don't get sent to a lot of missions outside the village. I can't even send them away and stage a tragic accident.'

'If you send them over to Ame, I am sure I could think of something.'

Chiyuki bites her lips to stop herself from snorting out loud, and her teacher looks as smug as the cat that caught the canary. 'Really?'

'Of course. I imagine Konoha has it tougher with its Council, since it's something that has already been long established.'

'Yeah. The Shodaime thought it would be a good way to build trust within a newly-built Konoha like this. Although the Council lost some of its power when the Nidaime took over, they made a comeback with full force during my father's reign.'

'And now they've lost their power once again.'

'Mhmm. But I'm not sure how things are gonna go; they know I'm not their biggest fan, but I don't think they realize I plan on taking them out of the picture completely.'

'Remember to keep it that way. It's a big advantage you have over them.'

'Of course.'

Nagato makes his final move, and the game is over. Without giving his student time to pout over her defeat, he produces a small box from within his jacket.

'Speaking of advantages, I have a present for you.'

It's the girl's turn to raise both eyebrows, looking on with surprise and curiosity. 'My birthday is tomorrow.'

'I know. I wanted to be the first to give you your present.'

A silly grin spreads over her flushed face, the warmth in her chest spreading to the tips of her fingers and toes. She accepts the box with both hands, holding it gently against her chest.

'Can I open it?'

'Of course.'

The black velvety box opens with a muted click, and nestled on top of a white cushion is a pair of black piercings, their size and shape similar to what the three Ame leaders have on their lips. Chiyuki delicately grabs one and stares mesmerized as the metal glints in the moonlight, pausing when she sees a minuscule seal in the back of it.

'Oh?'

If Nagato looks especially smug, she chooses not to comment on it. 'There's a special chakra conductive seal in each one. It has already been infused with my own chakra, so if you lightly channel your chakra to it, we will be able to communicate through morse code.'

Her brown eyes light up and a grin nearly splits her face open, and somehow, her teacher looks even prouder.

'This is brilliant!'

'Aa.'

'Put it on me!'

'No. We will go to a proper establishment to get it done tomorrow.'

She can't even be mad at his protectiveness. Her heart feels so warm and so full it might just burst, a precious and delicate kind of happiness that makes her feel invincible, as if she's able to do anything she puts her mind to.

Nagato sends her a small, fond smile, and the blonde has the urge to burst out in a fit of happy giggles. Yes, she's far away from home, and there are many issues to be worked on, and her job is still far from done, but she's found herself a home away from home, and for a brief moment, all her problems look comically small.

"Happy fourteenth birthday, Chiyuki."

The girl can't help but tackle her teacher in a hug, and he is unable to do anything but return it gently.

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They actually celebrate her birthday.

Between Ensui, Takuto, and the three Ame leaders, they manage to distract her during the entire day, surprising her with a nice dinner and a birthday cake in the evening.

Chiyuki gets a butterfly hairpin with a small compartment for poison from Yahiko, and no one dares to say a peep as the orange-haired man puts it on her hair with the utmost look of concentration on his face. Konan gives her pink nail polish made of a poisonous flower, and helps her paint her finger and toe nails. She gets a leather notebook from Takuto, and a nice fountain pen from Ensui. Konoha sends letters from her friends and family, and although Obito does concern her a bit, Rin says he's been kept so busy that he's often too exhausted to worry too much about her.

The new year comes and goes, and the blonde suddenly realizes that she only has four more months in Ame. Her time in the rainy village is closer to its end than she'd like it to be, and although she misses Konoha terribly, she's become so accustomed to Ame and its people that her chest feels hollow and cold whenever she thinks about leaving.

Regardless of her feelings, time continues to pass, mostly in a peaceful manner, and before she knows it, February is upon them. Melted snow mixes with dirt underneath their shoes, and the crisp, morning air reminds her spring is well on its way.

"Yahiko-senpai wants to restore the temple?"

"Aa. People in Ame are quite religious, and now that their basic needs have been met, they've been petitioning for the old temples in the outskirts of the village to be rebuilt."

As always, Ensui remains silent as he trails behind the teacher-student duo, content to (mostly) leave them to their own devices. When they're not training, they're talking about politics and economics, and he quite frankly has zero interest in those, thank you very much.

They soon arrive at an old wooden construction, which clearly has seen better days. Nagato checks the perimeter, then the inside, for any traps there might've been in the temple grounds. He nods at the two Konoha ninja, and they enter the abandoned building full of dust and spider webs, watching out for any scrolls or documents left.

"The importance of the scroll doesn't matter; just grab everything you might find, and we'll check it later." The rinnegan user reminds them, and they nod.

"It's a shame, but there's really no way but to destroy it and build it again, right?" Chiyuki asks, sending out a few butterflies to aid in their search.

"Aa. The temples around Ame were built a long time ago, and unfortunately were never properly maintained-" The red-haired man pauses and narrows his eyes, looking outside the open doors. At the same time, Chou warns their summoner of a breach in their 7 km perimeter.

'Child, they're coming.'

The blonde girl turns anxious eyes to her teacher, who has a hard set to his jaw. "Nagato-sensei."

"I know. Get ready, and remember all that I've taught you."

She forces herself to swallow her nervousness down and nods. Then, she turns to Ensui, who's been watching the exchange with curious, if slightly worried eyes, and the man immediately stands up straighter.

"We're about to face two S-class shinobi, one of which is Uchiha Madara. I know, don't give me that look." The Nara turns an incredulous expression to Nagato, who merely stares back at him. "Ensui, focus."

He clears his throat and schools his expression back into an emotionless one. "Of course. Pardon me."

"We'll let Nagato-sensei deal with him. You and I will focus on the other one, but be careful; they're both incredibly strong and versatile ninja. Don't let your guard down for even a second." Before she can say anything else, a warm, comforting hand falls on her head, and she looks up at the unusually soft gray eyes of her teacher.

"I'm proud of you. Show them Hell."

Just as she opens her mouth to answer, a huge explosion outside makes the old building shake violently.

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