Nindō: Dominion

"We can have a little politics lesson over lunch today," Naruto said. "Let us order food first."

"Greetings, Hokage-sama. Madam. I am Tetsu, and I will be serving you today," a man in a waiter's uniform politely greeted them.

"What about Hana?" Naruto asked. "Is she not available today?"

"My apologies, Hokage-sama. But she called in sick today," he answered.

"Understandable. Do you know my usual order?" The man nodded.

"I do."

"Bring me two servings for now."

"Understood. Do you have anything to drink for your daughter?"

"Get her some soda lime. And for future reference, she's my apprentice. I'll bring my daughter here some other time."

"My apologies," the man bowed with an almost fearful expression on his face and stepped away.

Sarada was both conscious of the man's assumption and confused about what to order. She didn't pay complete attention to Naruto's order and was surprised to see him walk away without taking her order.

"The second serving is for you. I know you are thinking of ordering something cheap," Naruto said.

"I'm not …" She had her hands clasped in front of herself consciously.

"Hey," he spoke gently. "You are the Hokage's disciple. The person with the best prospects in the village to succeed me. I think you can afford to be a little confident in yourself, Sarada."

She nodded and smiled, putting on a confident expression, but it was far too forced to make her seem comfortable.

"Don't worry," Naruto sighed. "We'll slowly work on that. For now, let me get back to the politics lesson. What did you say to me before this?"

"T-that we don't really have any enemy nations, do we? We are at peace now."

"For the world, yes, we are at peace. But not for the higher-ups of the villages, the five major nations, and their daimyos. The only peace we have is the one that is brought about by Sasuke's and my deterrence. The rest of Konoha is still more or less comparable to the other villages. The moment they are confident that the Land of Fire and Konoha don't have their two pillars, most of them will gladly shed off all pretenses and declare war on us."

"But … there are peace treaties," she frowned. "They can't just violate those."

"For that peace treaty to be a violation, there has to be a higher authority to which they answer. Without that, they can twist the narrative any way they want," Naruto said. "If you think a common criminal or a murderous psychopath is crazy, just wait until you come into contact with power-hungry officials. Those people won't and don't hesitate to commit genocide as long as it serves their purposes. A simple piece of paper is nothing in front of tangible benefits to such people."

Sarada went silent at Naruto's words.

"The current status quo is present because the answerable authorities are me and your father. Even this took two years of implicit and explicit threats made during the reign of the Sixth to bring the other villages into line. My presence involved the more explicit and flashy threats, while your father was the one directly assassinating the core problem elements among our enemies. It might seem that we directly came to be at peace after the Fourth War, but the truth is far darker."

"The world is a very dark and dreary place…" It was visible on Sarada's face that her spirits were suddenly pretty low.

"Unfortunately, that is the truth behind peace. But it's not the complete truth," Naruto said with a comforting smile. "Peace cannot be achieved without the deterrence of a nuclear power, yes. But there is more to it. Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha — the Founding Fathers of Konoha — are the reason that the Warring States Period was concluded and the hidden villages were founded. They were the ones who allowed the formation of the five hidden villages despite holding enough power to unite the entire world under their banner. Why? Because they believed. They believed in the Will of Fire. They believed that instead of an eternal war in a bid for world domination, it was better to create a collective. And time and time again, their belief has been proven right by the continued standing of Konoha and its foundation. There have been rough patches many times in Konoha's history, but we have always stood strong and survived."

Sarada was deep in thought by the time Naruto's words concluded, to the point where she didn't even notice that the waiter had already served their food.

"Eat up; you will have time to ponder on this later. Tell me how the sushi tastes, and I'll tell you why Konoha has such flashy ninjas."

"Oh?" She looked up curiously and saw a wide assortment of dishes laid out in front of her. Seeing that Naruto was already eating, she felt her inhibitions loosen and hesitantly pulled a serving of sushi over to herself.

"Don't forget to try the lobster. It is delicious." Naruto pushed forward a plate toward her.

Sarada looked at the shell in the plate curiously, with slight confusion in her eyes that Naruto captured.

"Let me show you," he said and pulled the second serving closer to himself. Picking up a clamp, he broke open the shell to reveal the tender meat inside. "Go on, try it. Just make sure that you don't spill the oil on your clothes."

It wasn't difficult for Sarada to replicate his movements as he calmly guided her through the meal. Once she got the hang of things, he continued his previous lesson.

"We were talking about the flashy nature of Konoha's forces, right? Do you think all we have are the around thirty or so jōnin, elite jōnin, and some clan heads who are currently active and in the bingo book, Sarada?"

"I never thought too deeply about it …" She said.

"You should. If you want to be Hokage, then you should think beyond the stature of a soldier and try to think about the bigger picture as well. I have incorporated a significant chunk of our competent shinobi into the Anbu. They are the ones who make sure that the peace I have worked so hard for is maintained. They are the ones who gather information and manage subterfuge, among other things. The flashy jōnin like Konohamaru and Hanabi who went with you were there because this wasn't a politically sensitive mission. To put it bluntly, they are smokescreens. You should've noticed that none of the village's ninjas generally come into contact with the Land of Fire's internal administration. The only time it happened was when Boruto was put up with the Daimyo's son, which was a special case. That is because the Anbu manages the security of those high-profile people. Of course, some of them don't trust Konoha and decide to hire third-party forces. Dealing with those guys is a bit of a hassle, but as long as the third party is replaced silently enough, it isn't an issue. Ultimately, don't just look at the surface. If you think something doesn't match up or make sense. It's usually because the situation is designed that way. To make sure that people pay just enough attention to it to make the truth hide in plain sight."

Naruto continued telling Sarada about more things regarding things that were done in the shadows. She visibly perked up when he mentioned her father and what he generally did. Of course, he didn't get too into the details, giving her a censored version of what Sasuke's usual activities entailed to make sure she didn't end up scared of her own father.

By the time they finished lunch, Sarada felt overwhelmed both in her stomach and her head. The food was far too good, while the information that Naruto had given her would take at least a few days to be digested.

"You told me so many things, Master, but I couldn't tell you anything about my training or the mission …" She said, leaning lazily back in her seat.

"You can show me your results tomorrow morning when I transfer Matatabi's chakra to you. Now that you are back, I am expecting you to be punctual every morning. Not like the past few days, where you started training more than an hour late and finished early."

"You could tell?" She flinched.

"Of course. I didn't mention it at that time because I didn't want you to be distracted from your mission, but now, you can expect extra strictness. I want you there five minutes before me. Otherwise, I will go to your home the next day and drag you out to train an hour earlier."

"I-I promise I'll be on time …" She shivered at the thought of being forced to train at four in the morning. "Promise …" She repeated after gulping.

"Good girl," Naruto said, patting her head. He stood up after paying the bill, which he specifically didn't let Sarada see, not wanting her to make a fuss about it.

As they walked out of the restaurant, Naruto told her. "I'm going to go pick Hima up from the Academy — she had an extra weekend combat class today. You should go home. Spend some time with your mother."

"I would, but she has work …" Sarada said. "I would've come to meet you in the evening otherwise, like usual. I was bored at home."

"If you want to pass the time, you could come with me," Naruto casually offered. "It should still be half an hour or so until she's freed. We could hang out in that time."

"It's fine, Master," she smiled. "I'll go home and think about all the things you've just told me. I feel like I'll get a headache just recalling all of that information."

"Go to the library if you really want to do that," Naruto said. "There are many publicly available books regarding politics that will help you articulate your thoughts better."

***

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