Nindō: Dominion

Two weeks quickly passed after the unfortunate demise of the Two Elders as Naruto slowly brought things back to order. Slowly taking over most of their shady side businesses while also taking the dirty money they had hidden away. He left only the legitimate things for their descendants, who didn't even live in Konoha, instead choosing to live in the capital of the Land of Fire, closer to the Daimyo.

The one thing that he had done right in the past was to prevent the Elders from putting any of their descendants on the Shinobi Council. They had obliged, confident that they still had some years to go. Now that the two were gone for good, Naruto made sure that none of the descendants were able to use the political influence of their respective elders to worm their way into Konoha's inner circle. After curbing their futile attempts, he sent them back to the Land of Fire's capital, where they could peacefully live free from the influence of the village.

"Any ideas of her whereabouts?" Naruto asked Shikamaru as the two had a meeting in his office.

"One of our spies finally spotted her in the Land of Hot Water, close to our border. She should be making her way back to Konoha if nothing delays her," Shikamaru said.

"I'm sure she's just run out of money and is coming back to try to get some more money somehow," Naruto shook his head. "Honestly, she could've single-handedly revived the Senju clan with the kind of money she used to have, but ultimately, she squandered it all on gambling."

"I could talk about how it was ultimately beneficial to the village since she sold all of her inheritance to the village for money to gamble with, but I would rather not comment on the constant downward spiral that is the Fifth Hokage's life," Shikamaru seemed done with the woman's shit. "On another note, the Scientific Ninja Weapons Division has now lost all of their funding. The division can be officially disbanded once we put it to a vote at the meeting in two weeks."

"Good, and the personnel?"

"They will be back in Konoha next week. Some of them voiced their concerns, but since Katasuke is still serving time in prison for his stunt at the chūnin exams, his subordinates' resistance has been perfunctory at best."

"That's good," Naruto nodded. "We now finally have the necessary personnel for Ino's special project. I want you to personally coordinate the logistics and help her set up the new labs of the Konoha Research Division in the old base of the Root. Make sure that the contractors are aware of the situation beforehand. Neither they nor their workers will be allowed to keep any memories regarding the construction site or the details regarding the construction. The architects, builders, manual laborers, material providers, and anyone who comes in or goes out have to go through Ino directly. Have her use some of her trusted people from the Sealing Corps to create a barrier around the perimeter of the location, leaving a single entrance that goes through no one but her. We can't leave a single loose end in this."

"Do you really need to take such heavy precautions?" Shikamaru asked with a frown. "We could just use separate contractors for separate things and have our trusted Anbu overlook the coordination."

"After Katasuke's situation? I'm not risking it, Shikamaru. Our enemies are both hidden from us and possess unknown abilities. The only way for us to make sure that they can't infiltrate us is if they don't even know that there is something to infiltrate. Not only will the location of the site be completely secret, but only a select few people like you and Ino will have permission to come and go as they please. The normal researchers have to stay there full-time."

"That doesn't sound very humane, Naruto," Shikamaru said with a raised brow. "These people are our citizens, not enemy-nin."

"I'm not telling you to imprison them. The benefits they receive will be far beyond what they can imagine. And they will have a choice of whether to join or not. Ino can wipe their memory of the conversation if they choose to refuse. Plus, they will still get a certain number of yearly vacation days where they can return home."

Shikamaru hummed in thought, frowning for a few seconds before speaking up measuredly.

"While extreme at first glance, this is a viable course of action," he came around to Naruto's plan. "You really treat this Kara organization like serious business, huh?"

"We know too little about them, Shikamaru," Naruto sighed tiredly. "But we have barely glimpsed their capabilities and they have been ahead of us every step of the way. It was like they were already aware of the arrival of those two Ōtsutsuki and planted Katasuke with the sole intent of pouring fuel on the fire."

"We'll get through this," Shikamaru said with an uncharacteristic determination. "I don't want to dishonor my father's legacy by fumbling the ball at such a critical time for our village."

"Oh, also. For now, this research center talk will only stay between you, me, and Ino. No one else. Understood?"

"Not even the council?" He asked.

"Not even them. The budget of the disbanded division will be redirected toward a new emergency fund for the village that is under the sole jurisdiction of the Hokage and the Advisor."

"They won't be happy about that," Shikamaru said.

"On the contrary, many of them will be very happy when they see me showing greed," Naruto said. "I might just get certain members to bribe me to support them for the nomination of the new Civilian Council head. Which means, more money for us to invest in the research center. And if they protest, they are free to appeal to the newly appointed elder for a collective vote."

"You've already planned everything out, huh?" Shikamaru said.

"I've been thinking about this for a while," Naruto said. "Oh, one other thing. The base will not have any physical entry or exit. Make sure that the contractor knows this. Going to and from the base will be done exclusively through the use of a teleportation formation located in my office."

"You're releasing the Flying Raijin?" Shikamaru said, surprised.

"The Second's version," Naruto shook his head. "We don't need to optimize it for battle. And the specialist who sets up that teleportation formation won't have any memory of ever working for us." Shikamaru understood from Naruto's pointed look that only Ino and he were to know about the construction.

"I understand. I should be off. I have to schedule a meeting with Ino to brief her about this," Shikamaru said. "Your disciple might be arriving soon."

"Keep me updated on everything. If Ino has any issues, you can set up a meeting for tomorrow for the three of us."

"Got it."

…

"Sensei …" Sarada tiredly burst into Naruto's office, all her past reservedness having gone out the window. She dragged her feet on the ground before plunging down onto the couch. "I hate this training."

"It's for your own good, my disciple," Naruto said just as he finished the document he was working on and stood up from his seat.

"Can't I do something else?" She said with a whiny tone. "I want to learn some new jutsu."

"Come here," he said. He sat at her side and had her put her head on his thigh. "Didn't Sasuke already teach you multiple different fire-style jutsu? You should master them first."

"It's been four days since Dad left. I can already cast the jutsu he taught me proficiently. I want to learn new ones," she mumbled, closing her eyes comfortably.

"There's no point in learning hundreds of different jutsu when you take care of everything with perfect mastery in a scant few ones. For example, look at me. I barely use any other jutsu than the Rasengan."

"But you still know about the others," she said.

"I learned all of that after the war. And only because the Hokage must have a rudimentary familiarity with every single chakra nature and every single category of jutsu. Not to mention the different kinds of disciplines that we ninjas follow. If I want, I can use Kenjutsu, Genjutsu, even some basic Fuinjutsu stuff, but I'm no good at any of it," Naruto said. "You will also learn these things, but only when you are a Kage-level powerhouse, with an instinctive level of familiarity and confidence in your own abilities. That is why we recommend to potential ninjas from the academy level that they should choose a singular or at most two disciplines at the start."

"But it's boring without Dad there to guide me anymore," she whined. "I had much better progress when he was guiding me."

"Just say that you miss him," Naruto shook his head with a little smile. "If you are bored training alone, I can send a clone to your training ground."

"You're going to make training much more intense, aren't you?" she asked.

"That's what you sign up for when you look for one-to-one tutoring from someone like me or Sasuke. Every day you trained with him, he brought you in, fainted, and exhausted. That's going to be a regular thing if you want me to supervise your training."

"Fine, let's do that. It's better than training alone. And dragging myself all the way here—" she stiffened. "If I agree, we won't be having ramen every evening, will we?" she asked, a little sad.

"You are still welcome to drop by whenever you want, my disciple," Naruto said. "But no, you won't have a reason to drag yourself all the way to my office after training every day."

Sarada flinched at Naruto's teasing tone. "I guess it's better that way."

"What? Did it make you feel special to be called to the Hokage's office every day to have ramen with him?"

"What?! No!" His words made Sarada defensive. "I'm grateful for the opportunity you've provided, Sensei. I know it's all because of you that I've even —" Naruto interrupted her with a flick of his head.

"Stop undervaluing yourself," he said. "I chose you because I saw potential in you. And you have given me every single reason to believe that my decision was the correct one. You've shown me determination, discipline, and best of all, the spirit of teamwork. These are integral for someone who wishes to become the Hokage."

***

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