Naruto: Kage of Kages

It was 6 in the morning sharp.

Team 6 was all packed up and ready to go at the village’s north gate when Inori arrived.

“Good to see you’re all on time, however . . .” She started, looking at Shiki, the only one not wearing a backpack of supplies for a multi-day mission as their sensei commanded.

“One of you seems a bit underequipped.” The blonde added with a not so amused look on her face.

“No worries, I got everything in a storage scroll.” Shiki informed.

‘Ah right! A ward of the Uzumaki. Of course that’s how he carries stuff around.’ Inori thought to herself with an internal shake of the head.

Storage scrolls, especially those with seals of great capacity, were not cheap, not in the slightest, even in wartime, only the most critical of supplies were transported in such a way.

Based on how Tenten fought in the original series, one could be sure she was not lacking in the money department, either that or she was always bankrupt, one of the two.

‘A rich kid eh? I guess I can see it.’ Mei casually pondered with an internal shrug.

It was not like her family could not afford it but that it was simply wasteful and unnecessary thought with Shiki being sponsored by a clan of sealing masters, it was actually quite reasonable in his particular case.

Shinka on the other hand, was not at all interested in the conversation, her focus seemingly elsewhere.

“Right then! Let us depart. We’ll go full speed until we are close to the mission area after which we’ll slow down and recover our stamina while making our final approach. Move out!”

And with Inori’s orders, Team 6 simultaneously activated the Body Flicker jutsu as they set off towards their destination.

*

The journey was uneventful, so much so that the unwilling protector that followed them was getting bored.

‘I should have never let that brat goad me into a bet.’ Tsunade grumbled as she followed from a distance.

Shiki was linked to the Senju princess so that so long as both of them were close enough, they would be able to feel each other’s location.

It had a generous radius of 10 km so it was more than enough for Tsunade to follow from a safe distance.

The Chakra Cloaking Tag could hide her from Inori’s wide area sensory abilities granted by her Ninja Art: Sixth Sense but if the Senju princess got too close, it would not hide her from the Ninja Art: Sensory Boost.

That simple sounding jutsu enhanced the user’s natural senses to a massive degree while making them extremely sensitive to chakra, enabling the Yamanaka to literally hear, smell, taste, see and feel chakra through her skin.

Due to the possible sensory overload, Inori usually kept it quite toned down and focused on the senses most useful according to the situation.

That made it plenty possible to follow her without detection so long as one had the means to track her from enough of a distance.

But while these jutsu intricacies fascinated Shiki, they could do nothing to attenuate Tsunade’s boredom.

The poor princess became a target for immediate vengeance after repeatedly dismissing the boy’s much trusted intuition, just because he was petty.

Shiki’s thoughts at the time were simple.

‘With the stakes being a single irrefusable command, within reason of course, I’ll either win and get a free ticket to screw with Tsunade-sama or I’ll have to follow one of her unimaginative and uninspired commands which are really not that bad.’

‘Either way, it means Tsunade-sama has to follow me around, for a possibly days-long mission, as my protector and that alone is enough payback.’

The village where the intermediary for the request awaited Team 6 was big enough to see frequent travelers so fortunately, Tsunade did not find herself needing to camp out in the forest.

So long as she did not use jutsu, even if she entered Inori’s sensing range, the Chakra Cloaking Tag would make her register as just another civilian, something she could not do while following the group as she needed to mobilize her chakra to keep pace.

Waiting for about two hours after the Team went in, the Senju princess casually entered the village, her appearance and figure slightly altered to look more plain and unassuming using medical techniques as the Transformation Jutsu would trigger alarms.

*

Back to Team 6, the village head, a greasy old man with receding gray hair, who had put quite a few unnecessary pounds, was the intermediary.

“Welcome shinobi-dono of Konohagakure. The Autumn Valley villages are most thankful for your speedy responses and favorable rates.” He greeted with a fake fawning smile while rubbing his hands together.

Meanwhile, he eyed Inori up and down, a drop dead beauty with a phenomenal figure and clothes that were just revealing enough to provoke all manner of thoughts while not being indecent enough to make her shameless.

Add to that the allure of a kunoichi and one famous for being charming and seductive yet untouchable and infamous for her deadly and manipulative abilities . . .

For someone whose skill made her a practical empath, the village head’s gaze felt dirty and slimy in the most revolting of ways.

‘Disgusting worm.’ Inori thought.

She was sadly very used to it however, it was one of her best weapons as a spy after all, her beauty, though her name spreading ended that career . . .

“But of course! Autumn Valley has long been a regular customer of Konoha, so this much service is all but expected.” The blonde jonin responded with a smile.

Shinka just remained quietly in place while Mei barely managed to hide her disgust.

Regardless of a shinobi’s personal opinion of their client, there was a clear protocol to follow and politeness had to be maintained so long as the client did not cross certain lines.

Since he did not have the slightest bit interest in following those rules, Shiki pretended to be air and let his sensei handle all the talking or he might have to leave a little surprise behind for the old man before leaving.

‘If for nothing else, for the crime of soiling my eyes and ears with his existence.’

Thankfully, since there was a regular agreement between Konoha and the surrounding villages, the talks were just a formality that ended swiftly.

“We’re done here, the operation will start at nightfall, let’s head to the inn the village head prepared for us and discuss our plan of attack with the updated information in mind.” Inori declared and the group followed.

‘Updated information?’ Caught up in his role play as the atmosphere, Shiki had entirely missed the conversation as he had erroneously assumed it would be nothing important.

‘No matter, I’ll just pretend and pick the info up during our revision at the inn.” The boy thought.

Seated in a tatami room surrounding a table where four cups of hot tea sat, the discussions began.

“First I’ll review the new information since one of us was not paying attention.” Inori started.

Knowing he was caught, Shiki just fake whistled to annoy his sensei.

“If you’re gonna pretend to be innocent, you better make sure I don’t notice you committing the crime.” The blonde jonin sent a verbal jab the boy’s way.

‘So she was paying attention to me during the talks . . . Figures, ugh!’

He showed no expression in particular but Inori smirked with satisfaction.

She knew the boy was displeased, not with her but with himself at being caught lacking.

That was the best way to mess with him that always guaranteed results in her experience.

And yes, Yamanaka Inori, elite jonin, seasoned spy, responsible (looking) adult, was compiling the best ways to bully a child (Was he really?).

It was all going great and casual but it only went downhill from then on . . .

+++++

Hey, Author here!

Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.

I’m trying to become a full time Author now and I’m not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.

Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -