Chapter 33   - Negotiations

It has been a month since Yuna had her conversation with Shikaku and today was the date of the meeting. Hiruzen and Shikaku were currently inside Shikakus's office and were waiting for Yuna and her mysterious support to arrive. They both had rather conflicted expressions on their faces. The very next day, after Shikaku met with Yuna, he had some people analyze the sealing tag for traps and after finding nothing suspicious, Shikaku activated it with Hiruzen's consent inside his office. The result? An additional presence was found inside and the moment Shikaku wanted to move, the person had already killed itself with poison. Neither Shikaku nor Hiruzen had a single doubt who that person was working for, but had absolutely no way to prove it.

They waited another 5 minutes before someone knocked on the door. Hiruzen quickly told the person to enter and the door was opened. The first person to be revealed was naturally Yuna herself. She had a casual smile on her face, as she walked into the room, seemingly not the slightest bit pressured by the presence of the Hokage himself. The next person who entered was a very old-looking woman. Her face was marred with wrinkles and her steps were slow and careful. Despite being very old, however, she still had the Uzumaki clans' trademark red color. Her hair, however, had a much lighter color than Yuna's.

Shikaku really wanted to curse when she saw the old woman enter. He was hoping Yuna's helper would be someone much younger and easier to influence, this woman, however, seems to be even slightly older than Hokage-sama himself.

Then Shikaku met eyes, however, and immediately threw that motion out of the window.

'Slightly older than Hokage-sama? What a joke. Her eyes are beyond ancient. For just how long has this woman lived?'

Seemingly noticing his thoughts, the woman looked towards him and started speaking.

"It's rude to guess a woman's age."

Understandably, Shikaku was terrified out of his mind. His face had been kept completely neutral during his thoughts, yet this woman immediately understands what he was thinking.

Yuna saw that the performance had a reasonable effect, so she decided to initiate the next step.

"Now, now, grandma Chion, don't bully Shikaku. Let's start talking."

The old woman, Chion, immediately had a doting smile on her face as she answered Yuna.

"Haha, it is the privilege and enjoyment of the old to scold the young, princess Yuna, you should let an old woman have some fun."

Yuna only rolled her eyes before she answered.

"Fine, fine, Grandma Chion."

Hiruzen and Shikaku, meanwhile, were slightly disturbed by what just happened. To be more precise, they were disturbed by a single word: Princess. They both decided to shelf that for now and ask about it later. For now, they had to greet their guests.

"Greetings, I am Hiruzen Sarutobi, the current Hokage of Konoha and this is my aide, Shikaku Nara."

Chion slightly shook her head at that greeting.

"Oh my, kids nowadays are so stiff. Oh well, the name is Chion Uzumaki, an old woman that enjoyed teaching kids, when the land of Whirlpools still existed. You already know her, but I will introduce her anyway. Princess Yuna Uzumaki, eldest, still-living member of the royal Uzumaki bloodline."

Although Hiruzen was rather dissatisfied at being called a kid, he somehow knew why this woman was calling him like that. Besides, there were more important things to discuss right now.

"May I ask, why are you calling Yuna a princess?"

Chion only tilted her head in confusion at that question.

"Because she is? Well, the land of Whirlpools is gone, so I suppose it would be more appropriate to say that she was a princess."

"Nono, that is not what I had in mind. I would like to know, why are you calling her a princess at all?"

Chion seemed to get even more confused at that.

"Well, she is Kushina's daughter, right?"

Although reluctant to just reveal such a secret, it was obvious that the other party already knew about it, so he simply nodded.

"Didn't little Mito tell you anything about who Kushina actually was? Since the chakra of those from the Uzumaki royal family is the best at suppressing the Bijuu, it is only natural that one of them would be sent to Konoha to reseal the Kyuubi."

Hiruzen almost spat out blood when he heard the term "little Mito". If he had called Mito Uzumaki or rather Mito Senju like that, he certainly would have earned himself a beating, yet the woman in front of him did so casually. That means she is probably from an even older generation than Hashirama Senju himself. For now, however, there were other problems to solve. For example, how Konoha had a royal bloodline in their village, without anyone knowing about it. Chion, naturally, notices Hiruzen's distress and chuckles a bit.

"No need to think too deeply about it. The Uzumaki clan never cared too much about that anyway. How about we get to business already, my body isn't the youngest anymore, you know?

'Hehe, second step: Taking away all of Konoha's momentum before the negotiations even start. Successful. Now that Hiruzen thinks that Chion is significantly older than him, he will, out of instinct, be inclined to be more polite to her.'

Next, the negotiations for the re-establishment of the Uzumaki clan started. Hiruzen didn't even consider not doing so, which allowed them to skip the first past of the negotiation.

All in all, it was a rather boring affair. Yuna had created a seal that would react to members of her bloodline, while Hiruzen would tell a few trustworthy ANBU to carry the seal around when they were on a mission. If they found some Uzumaki clan members, they would explain the situation to them and if they were interested, they could enter Konoha after dyeing their hair in a different color. If a huge number of people with "Uzumaki" red hair suddenly enter Konoha, people would certainly get suspicious. For now, those people would only meet in small groups, but as soon as a certain amount of people is reached, the Uzumaki clan would return.

In return, the Uzumaki clan would sell their seals to Konoha's shinobi at a premium price. Hiruzen had no illusions that the Uzumaki seals would remain exclusive for Konoha. If pretty much every other nation on the continent demanded to be able to buy those seals as well, then Hiruzen would have no other choice but to agree. Because of this, he was more than satisfied at just receiving a good price.

The discussion took them about an hour and afterward, everyone left the Nara compound with a satisfied expression.

As soon as Chion and Yuna were sure that no one was following them, a similar-looking smirk appeared on their faces and, with a puff of smoke, Chion disappeared.

'Seriously, Minato, why did you hide a jutsu this useful in a scroll you labeled "Awesome ideas for combos and how I could name them".'

Yuna was truly satisfied with today's meeting. The trade conditions were appropriate and from now on, Uzumaki clan members would slowly gather in Konoha. That, however, wasn't even the best part. The best part was, without a doubt, that Yuna literally didn't expose any significant secrets about herself. All the abnormal things she did when she was younger would, from now on, simply get the "She got help from an adult" or the "She used a seal she got from her guardian" treatment.