Naruto: Distorted Daydream

20. Milk and Sake

The 3rd Great Shinobi War hadn't ended. There was a running tension between the nations. The two years of ceasefire was almost coming to an end.

Hiruzen smoked his old lungs out heavily. The Kage summit was the very next day at dawn. There were so many heart stroke inducing matters he had to take care of all at once. All the elders broke their old backs keeping up with the various matters of their jurisdiction.

Danzo made sure to weed out all the enemy nation's spies with his Root and hand them over to get interrogated. Despite his extreme views on ruling with violence, he was an extremely reliable ally in times of chaos.

All of Konoha's scattered citizens were quickly brought under control with his guidance.

His old teammates, Homura and Koharu ran around constantly providing him support with the occasional discussion on the topics to be brought up in the summit.

Homura and him did argue a lot but at this moment, he only had a little time to engage in it and hence dismissed his insistence.

The clan elders of the Hyūga, Yamanaka, Akimichi, Nara, Arubame shinobi families took over logistics and trade. While he and his two old friends worried about diplomatic relations and the treaty with the other nations, everyone else worked to keep Konoha and the Fire Nation safe.

He poured over hundreds of documents of imports, exports, water supplies, territorial and topographical maps, millions of fine-printed laws and numbers.

Koharu sat beside him scribbling away at anything he dictated and Homura revised her notes.

The various established teams carried out exercises and replenished their supplies for the first escort mission of the Hokage after four years. Minato had just become Hokage after destroying the Kannabi bridge, giving Konoha the advantage for his term at office. But he's dead.

There were two hours until the summit. Hiruzen donned his formal battle gear and sat in the palanquin. He closed his eyes to rest his mind and was escorted out of Konoha before the sun rose.

He could hear indistinct screams from the far off forest. Those were the cries of the assassins being killed by the Twelve Guardian Shinobi and some young clansmen.

Some smoke drifted into the sky, reminiscent of a very familiar breath igniting jutsu.

It was reassuring to know his son was alive and still fighting. He didn't want to lose any more family members. Biwako... he would get her some of her favourite flowers on his way back to colour her grave.

............................

Itachi hoped the summit went well. He was tired of watching the dead eyes haunt him. He hoped for peace.

Today, he was tasked with guarding his mother and brother. It was something he did regularly but today was special. All of Konoha was on high alert due to the absence of the Hokage. And his family were one of the very important targets due to their relation with Fugaku.

He traced the perimeter of his new home, the Uchiha Compound, sipping on a pack of strawberry milk. In a matter of a week, his entire neighbourhood shifted to only have distant cousins and strange, old, Uchiha matrons.

There were a lot of smiles being thrown around when anyone made eye contact with anyone. They were relatives, afterall. His little nuclear family suddenly found itself becoming a wonky joint family. Everyday, his house was filled with guests coming with housewarming gifts. So, he had to escape.

And that escape, was "guard" duty.

It was peaceful at home now. But that was just a mask. Those housewarming gifts were them trying to build closer relations with his family because they were segregated from the rest of Konoha. A covert attempt to group up and strengthen their uneasy hearts. It wasn't wrong. But it felt bad to see such strained smiles.