Naruto - Azure Awakening

Maki and the rest of the council were gathered inside the chamber, but the atmosphere was far from their usual composed formality. The polished elegance that often defined them - gleaming uniforms, immaculate hairstyles, composed expressions - was absent. Today, their clothes were wrinkled, hastily thrown on, and their faces showed the wear of sleepless nights and unspoken concern.

This wasn't a planned session.

It was a crisis meeting, called in the middle of the night after Shin and Akane returned - alive, but only just.

The tension in the room was so dense it could have been cut with a blade. No one spoke at first. All eyes were fixed on Shin, seated at the far end of the table.

"So what you're saying is… you and Akane barely escaped with your lives?" Mei asked finally, breaking the silence. Her voice trembled, not from weakness, but a volatile mix of fury and helpless concern. Her hand gripped the armrest of her chair tightly enough to whiten her knuckles.

"Yes," Shin answered, his voice calm, almost detached. He raised the porcelain teacup to his lips and took a long sip, savoring the warmth. The familiarity of hot tea grounded him, it reminded him he was home.

"But he wasn't human. Not fully," Shin continued steadily as he recalled the man's appearance. "He moved like something… altered. I believe he was modified with countless experiments."

"Modified by who?" Mei pressed, her tone sharp, too sharp… then she caught herself. Her shoulders sagged as she exhaled and bowed her head slightly. "I'm sorry, Shin. Go on."

"There isn't much else to say," he said after a pause. "Akane struck him down. It was a clean blow, one that would've killed anyone else. But he didn't stay down. He started regenerating… slowly, but I'm sure he was coming back to life. Then we sensed another presence approaching."

"You retreated," Ao said, more a statement than a question.

"We had no choice," Shin admitted, after a pause. He was still frustrated that, for the first time, he had failed his mission. "We could have stayed and died, or escaped and reported what we saw."

Ao gave a quiet nod, unsurprised. He had seen too many enemies slip through the cracks. "We sent Oinin teams after your report came," he added, glancing toward the others. "But the place was already cleared out. Not even residual chakra. Clean sweep."

"That fast?" Illumi Noda muttered, arms crossed, eyes narrowing. "They knew you'd send someone."

"Of course," Ao replied. "I'd be surprised if they didn't."

"If that man was as mentally unstable and disconnected from reality as you say, someone must've been controlling him," Akura said, after analyzing the information thoroughly. "Or enabling him. This… 'father' he kept referring to might be the key. A leader. A creator. Unless that's part of his imagination…"

The conversation stilled for a moment.

Then Luna turned her head, her gaze falling on the silent woman seated at the head of the table.

"Lady Suikage," she said softly, "what are your thoughts?"

All eyes shifted to Maki. She had remained silent throughout, unmoving in her chair. Her hands were clasped, elbows resting on her thighs as she leaned forward ever so slightly, staring down at the floor.

But then she looked up, and the shift in the room was immediate.

The faint hum of chakra in the air trembled for a second.

Her eyes, normally calm and focused, were stormy now, heavy with restrained fury. Her brows had knit together, and her jaw was clenched in a way that made her cheek twitch with the tension.

When she spoke, her voice was low and firm.

"We can't let them live," Maki said. "If Shin struggled against that man, then such a powerful and unhinged person isn't just dangerous. He's a catastrophe waiting to happen if we leave him unchecked."

Her voice began to rise with each word, emotion surging past her new, usually cold restraint.

"If we let this go, he will kidnap more children. He will take more from us. And I…"

But she didn't finish.

A single glance from Ao was all it took.

It wasn't a harsh look, not scolding or cold, but grounding. A reminder.

Maki inhaled sharply, then exhaled, forcing herself to dial back the heat in her words.

"I'll send multiple Oinin squads," she continued, quieter now but no less resolved. "And when they find where he's hiding, I'll go myself. I'll end it."

There was a beat of silence afterward, because everyone understood that this wasn't just a mission. This wasn't just about preventing a threat to the Land of Water. Maki wanted to punish the one who dared to harm people she loved.

And while some around the table found it vaguely amusing, perhaps even comforting that the hotheaded, unfiltered side of Maki still lived on beneath the polished mask of a Kage, for one man in that room, it was nothing short of torture.

For Shin, her words didn't soothe, they carved deeper into wounds that hadn't yet begun to close.

He had failed.

Failed his first mission since joining Takimura, and not just any mission - he was supposed to save children. It was a task he should have handled. But instead, he and Akane had barely escaped with their lives from a single enemy. Not a war hero. Not a legendary shinobi. Just a man. Unknown. Unranked. Unfathomable.

And now, here Maki was declaring openly in front of everyone that she'd move personally to avenge him. That she would right the shameful wrong that should never have happened in the first place.

It was unbearable.

Shin's jaw tightened, his fingers twitching against the fabric of his uniform, and for the first time in a long while, his expression cracked. Slightly. Just enough for the closest to him to notice the storm raging behind his otherwise calm façade.

Then, the unmistakable crack of teeth grinding together, loud enough to pierce the room's heavy silence.

All eyes turned to him.

"If that's all," he muttered without raising his head, "I'll take my leave. I'm tired. I need rest."

He stood stiffly, not waiting for approval. His steps were steady, but his posture was rigid, carved from frustration and wounded pride.

Maki watched him go. Her gaze, normally commanding, softened into something unspoken. She knew Shin. Knew the discipline behind the silence. Knew that he wasn't going to rest.

He was going to train. Alone. Obsessively. Recklessly, perhaps.

Because he hated that she was so much stronger than him. He would rather bleed alone than have her shoulder his battles.

The door hadn't even fully closed behind him when Luna stood up, catching the room's attention again.

"Since we are already gathered," she said, smiling behind her fan, "I might as well report this now, Lady Suikage. I had originally planned to bring it to you in the morning."

She reached into her sleeve with slow elegance and withdrew a sealed scroll, presenting it to Maki with an exaggerated bow that bordered on theatrical. Then, just as quickly, she raised her fan and covered the lower half of her face, leaving only those golden eyes exposed, watching every reaction with quiet satisfaction.

Maki took the scroll, glancing up with narrowed eyes. "What is this?"

"My clansmen discovered a deposit. Rich in chakra crystals."

The moment those words were spoken, tension rippled through the room.

Everyone present knew what that meant - raw chakra condensed into solid form. Rarer than gold. The kind of resource that entire nations would go to war over.

Luna didn't need to see their expressions. She could feel them - those immediate, burning stares that all screamed the same accusation:

'Then why didn't you report it earlier?'

She was ready for it.

"I wanted confirmation before making it public," she said, shrugging like she was the most innocent person in the world. "I received the final analysis just a few hours ago. We don't yet know the elemental type, but the energy signature is unmistakable. It's definitely chakra crystal."

Even Maki's fingers froze slightly over the scroll's edge as she opened it. Council members in the room had the same question on their minds now, so when Maki finally asked where it was, everyone's intense gazes landed on Luna.

"It's located on the border with Kirigakure," she said plainly, then added with a knowing smile behind her fan, "but they still don't know about it."

"Are you suggesting we keep this a secret?" Illumi Noda's voice cut through the tension like a blade. His arms remained folded, brows drawn low, his sharp tone directed squarely at Luna.

Luna tilted her head with a graceful shrug, as if the weight of his question rolled right off her shoulders. "I'm not suggesting anything," she said lightly as she folded her fan and let it drop to her side, revealing her white teeth. "I simply reported the facts as I received them. What you do with them, what Lady Suikage decides, is entirely out of my hands."

She let the silence settle for a beat before slowly scanning the room, taking in the council members one by one. Then she turned, locking eyes with Maki.

"I'm merely a humble merchant, Lady Suikage," she said softly, though her words struck like a blade sheathed in velvet. "I don't pretend to understand the ripples this kind of discovery could cause across the political waters. But I do understand numbers. Wealth. Resources. And this crystal deposit…" she paused, like trying to increase the weight of her words, "...will not only enrich our coffers, but it will increase the strength of every shinobi in Takimura."

A long silence followed.

Everyone knew what she was doing. She wasn't being subtle. By focusing on the one topic that would matter most to Maki - strength - she had cornered her. Delicately. Respectfully. But undeniably.

The room shifted, their gazes landing on Maki now.

No one said it aloud, but the pressure was suffocating. Luna had said just enough. No suggestions, no demands - just cold, persuasive reality dressed in sweet words. The kind Maki could not easily ignore.

"I think…" Ao began, stepping forward slightly. He wanted to intercept the decision before it could land on Maki's shoulders. To protect her from having to speak first.

But Maki raised her hand.

Not quickly. Not harshly. Just enough to silence him.

'She didn't ask for the council's opinion - she went straight to me.' Maki kept analyzing Luna's moves. 'Is she trying to undermine my position? Or does she think that after Shin's incident, I'll be easier to steer?'

Maki was already angry, and Luna playing mind games only added fuel to the fire, but she didn't show it.

"We don't have to tell Kiri anything. The deposit lies on our side just as much as it does on theirs. We'll begin extraction without informing them," Maki said calmly. "If they find out, we'll share the deposit."

"What if they accuse us of withholding it?" one of the newer council members asked.

"We can't stay hidden in the shadows just because it might be hot outside. Takimura is strong enough to assert its dominance."

**

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