"Calm yourself Inuzuka." Gaara spoke to the raging boy. "I only said it is a possibility and it is the truth, while I would like to grant you citizenship, I have very little say in the matter since the council are the ones that mainly deal with civilian matters."
Kiba glared but huffed and looked away. "Of course you have very little say. Your just a gennin."
"Actually." Temari spoke, getting sick of Kiba's attitude. "He's going to be taking the title of Kazekage in two weeks."
The blood drained from Kiba's face as the entire group of former leaf gennins glared at him.
Shikamaru looked to the Kazekage. "So…are you willing to give us the citizenship?"
Gaara took a sip of the herbal tea they had just served him before he spoke. "At the moment I am undecided. On one hand, adding the famous Ino-Shika-Cho clans to our village would be a great asset, as well as the fact that Chiyo has reported miss Haruno here having a rather rare talent for medical ninjutsu and the Inuzuka clan abilities cannot be underestimated either. All of these could add great strength and prestige to our village…"
"But…" Shikamaru continued. "Your not sure if you can risk open war over this especially not with this…Demon of Konoha character."
Gaara nodded silently sipping some more tea. "Indeed." He looked to Shikamaru as he spoke again. "This...Uzumaki…is not someone I would like to count as one of my enemies."
"You'd prefer to have him as an ally." Shikamaru stated simply.
Gaara sipped his tea, his whispered words not reaching anyone but Temari next to him. "No…that I would want even less."
The shouji screen door slid open silencing the occupants on the other side as Naruto stepped in.
His red eyes scanned the room the scrolls, maps and other documents were littered over a table in the center of the room. Shibi and Shino sat out in the balcony in meditative positions as they listened to the messages their respective hives of Kikaichu relayed back to them and then they relayed the messages to the chuunin couriers who then relayed it to either Kakashi, Kurenai, Hinata, the Kiri woman, Mitsuko Ginchiko, or her second in command, Hidetada and then they would relay it to him.
That was quite an intricate and, on normal circumstances quite foolish, but this, as many things he did, served a purpose, while Shino and Shibi both had the majority of their respective hives sweeping the enemies camps and headquarters gathering information, a small portion of each of their hives were crawling around this very base and listening in on conversations the Kiri nin might be having that would indicate a conspiracy against him.
So far, there were only two individuals of any real importance.
Ginchiko and Hidetada, the two most powerful of the remaining four swordsmen.
If he could eliminate one or the other, then neither would ever really have the strength, politically or physically to defeat him. He just had to do it…quietly.
The other two remaining swordsmen, a man named Guan Suo and his apprentice, an aggressive girl, worthy of Zabuza, named Tachibana Mika, were not on good terms with either Ginchiko or Hidetada, and while they did not particularly like his takeover, they were mainly keeping to themselves leaving Ginchiko and Hidetada to conspire and fend for themselves.
So…the next order of business, was to eliminate either Ginchiko, or Hidetada.
Now then, how to do it.
"Naruto-sama."
The blond haired youth turned and found Shibi. The Aburame clan head looked emotionless as usual but by his body language Naruto could tell he was anxious which was alarming in and of itself.
"What is it Shibi?" He spoke rounding in order to face him fully.
"I believe this information, you may want to hear yourself before it reaches the other's ears." He placed a hand on the blonds shoulder and leaned in whispering the information into his ear.
As Shibi pulled back he could swear Naruto was smirking beneath his mask.
"Thank you Shibi, you may return to your duty."
The Aburame clan head bowed before he turned and left.
Naruto turned to one of the Kiri ninja in the room and spoke. "You there, bring me Ginchiko, Hidetada, Guan, his apprentice Mika and Hyuuga Hinata, now. They are needed.
The chuunin hastily bowed. "Yes Naruto-sama." Before he scurried away.
.
.
.
‼️If you want to access to more than 400 advanced chapters, wait no more and subscribe to my Ko-Fi, where you can buy books in completely downloadable PDF format.‼️
☕️ko-fi.com/skyarc☕️