Naturally, Azula never forgot her real goal: getting stronger. The Hokage role was just a means to an end, more resources, less hassle, fewer people getting in her way.
So she never stopped chasing power wherever she could find it, and the Adamantine Sealing Chains she'd just pulled out were proof of that.
The project had been kicking around in her head for a long time, but awakening her Mangekyō finally gave her what she needed to complete it.
Her version was different from the Uzumaki's, of course. Theirs leaned hard on suppression through massive Yang Chakra. Hers was built on Yin.
And Yin Chakra meant mind control, sensory illusions, messing with what people saw and heard. Which was exactly what the barrier she'd woven with those chains did.
Inside this space, if she wanted, she could craft an illusion so clean that anyone on the outside would only see or hear what she allowed.
Thanks to that, they could walk and talk freely, strolling through the streets of Kumo without worrying about spies. Not even those Zetsu she hated so much.
For Azula, it seemed simple. For A, it was nothing short of terrifying.
'If we fought right now... there's a damn good chance I'd lose in under an hour.' The thought hit him like a punch to the gut. He felt old in an instant.
Whether it was this technique, the fact that she could pop into his village whenever she felt pleased, or even the fact that her chakra now rivaled the tailed beasts in both quantity and quality, it all spelled the same thing for A. Azula was not the same woman he'd fought not that long ago.
"It's been a while since my last visit to Kumo," Azula said out of nowhere. "But apparently, nothing's changed."
That made A ask. "A while? I don't remember you ever visiting Kumo."
He could at least wrap his head around her appearing via the Flying Thunder God Technique. All it took was someone smuggling in a kunai or something with her mark on it. But apparently that wasn't the case.
"Obviously it was in secret," she explained. "If the other villages knew I'd mastered the technique back then, things would've gotten a lot more complicated. I did it when no one was paying attention. But it's fine. That's all in the past now."
She said it with total confidence, because she knew even if they tore the whole village apart, they'd never find all the places she'd planted her seals. Besides, she was almost at a level where she wouldn't even need them soon anyway.
A, not knowing any of that, just filed her words away in his head, already mentally assigning his ANBU to sweep the village top to bottom.
They kept walking, filling the air with small talk. A asked about the barrier's effects, offered some advice here and there from one Kage to another, and of course poked around at her intentions without ever quite having the nerve to be direct about it.
But of course, Azula wasn't about to play that kind of game.
"I came to discuss an agreement with Kumo. Basically, to wipe out every misunderstanding between our two villages."
In her grand plan, eventually all the other villages would end up under her thumb, but for now, just managing Konoha was giving her a headache.
She explained, clearing up his confusion. "Every conflict in the ninja world comes down to misunderstanding."
A nodded without even thinking, because yeah, that tracked.
"If our future ninjas grow up together, they won't look at each other as enemies." That was her goal.
"What do you mean?" He kind of understood and kind of didn't.
"It's nothing complicated," she answered. "Kumo's students will be sent to Konoha, and ours to Kumo."
She was laying the groundwork for her future academy right there. "The adults of the ninja world are already broken by their prejudices. But innocent kids? They're not there yet. They can still be taught right."
No one had ever tried cooperation like this before. Not even a basic exchange program, even the joint Chunin in the future was far less cooperative.
A took a moment to really let it sink in, running the scenario through his head from every angle.
"Hahaha," he laughed. "Hokage, I don't know whether to call you brilliant or naive. Brilliant, because I guess nobody ever thought of a step like this. And naive, because how can you even think this could work?"
Azula just raised an eyebrow. "And why not?"
'Why not? Because...' A's mind scrambled for a thousand reasons, and suddenly every single one of them felt kind of stupid. When he opened his mouth to lay them out, nothing came.
Azula was, without a shadow of a doubt, the strongest person in the ninja world right now.
Her arrogance, her pride, those had always been her trademarks, especially as an Uchiha.
The last person who'd held her kind of power had managed to build a village out of two clans that had been at war for the entire bloody history of the ninja world. Now the Uchiha and Senju were solid allies, with Azula and Tsunade practically joined at the hip.
'It's not that hard when you really think about it,' A admitted to himself. That thought pushed him to ask the next question. "How do you plan to pull it off?"
"It's very simple," Azula replied. "If I say so, and you say so, who's going to argue? Besides, Konoha's academy will soon be open to everyone, no matter what country they're from. But first, I'll start with a partnership between the Land of Lightning and the Land of Water. It's a solid first move, don't you think?"
A nodded slowly. "Sure, nobody's going to stand in your way. But I still have my doubts."
"Like the 'loyalty' of students who studied outside the village?" Azula finished his sentence for him.
After that, they locked eyes and both of them smiled, knowing the deal was as good as sealed. All that was left was ironing out the small stuff.
•••
•••
"Is Tsunade-nee not sleeping at home again?" Nawaki asked, once he was sure it was just him and Mito left. The house felt emptier without Tsunade's loud laugh or Azula dropping by to argue with Mito about some obscure sealing theory while Tsunade rolled her eyes in the background.
Deep down he already knew the answer, and he figured Mito had access to the same information he did. Tsunade has been 'busy' a lot lately.
Ever since Azula took the hat, really. It was like both of them had vanished into their own little world of responsibilities and late night meetings that probably weren't just meetings.
He wasn't stupid, he was almost eleven (nine), not five.
Mito shook her head, a benevolent smile on her face that didn't quite reach her eyes. "No, she's busy again today and will be spending the night out."
At least, that was the excuse Tsunade had given today, thinking her grandmother hadn't noticed a thing.
She'd dropped by in the afternoon, kissed Nawaki on the forehead, told Mito she'd be working late at the hospital, and then vanished with a little more bounce in her step than a paperwork all-nighter really warranted from someone with Tsunade's personality.
Nawaki sighed, the sound heavy for a kid his age.
"Azula-nee has been busy ever since she became Hokage, and even my big sister, who's only in charge of the hospital, is busy all the time too." He propped his chin on his hand and stared at the empty cups on the table. "Does that mean when I become Hokage, I'll be buried in work too?"
At almost ten years old, Nawaki was facing an existential crisis that most adults never bothered to consider until they were neck deep in it.
Mito thought back to the days when Hashirama was Hokage, how he'd dump every scrap of paperwork onto Tobirama with a laugh and then go off to train or garden or bother the neighbors.
Her husband had been many things, a visionary, a force of nature, a man who could make trees grow from barren rock, but an administrator he was not. Tobirama had done all the real work while Hashirama got the statue.
"Not necessarily," she said, and there was a glint of mischief in her voice that made Nawaki look up. "As long as you can convince your big sister to work for you, you can throw all the papers her way and focus entirely on the action."
She teased him, knowing full well that was never happening. Tsunade would sooner gamble away the whole village treasury than do Nawaki's paperwork. And Azula? Azula would laugh in his face and then double his workload just for having the audacity to ask.
Nawaki tried to picture it, marching into Azula's office and telling her she'd be handling his Hokage duties while he went off to train.
The image lasted about half a second before he shook it off fast. If he even dared... just thinking about it sent a shiver down his spine.
He'd seen grown men, veteran jonin, walk out of Azula's office looking pale and shaken. He was not about to join their ranks.
It was in that comfortable bubble of just the two of them that they finished eating, the conversation trailing off into small talk about Nawaki's training and whether Fugaku was still being too serious all the time.
Nawaki had a mission tomorrow, an escort mission, nothing dangerous, just long, so he headed to bed.
He knew well that if he showed up late, Fugaku would never let him hear the end of it. That guy was a stickler for punctuality in a way that made Nawaki want to show up early just to see the look on his face.
But it wasn't the case for Mito. The moment Nawaki's door slid shut and his breathing evened out into the rhythm of sleep, she stopped 'pretending', her face going pale.
"Mito..." A voice reached her, even though she was the only one in the room.
"I never thought that in my old age, you'd be the one worrying about me," she said, her voice faint but steady. "Kurama."
"Hmph." Kurama answered her from the inside inside her soul, his tone as gruff as ever. "Who's worried about you, old woman? I just hope you don't drop dead all of a sudden and drag me along with you."
The words were harsh, but the feeling behind them was anything but.
They both knew Mito's time was running short, and the reason was her status as a Jinchuriki. She'd been one since the battle between Madara and Hashirama, decades ago now.
She'd tried to control the beast, which meant that once Kurama was sealed inside her, she'd left a window open, just a crack, letting the Nine-Tails' chakra seep through while she worked to master him.
The constant flow of corrosive chakra had taken its toll over the years, wearing down her cells, aging her faster than nature alone could account for.
If she weren't an Uzumaki, and one with an especially strong constitution at that, she wouldn't have survived more than a decade, let alone all this time.
"You don't plan on telling Azula and Tsunade," Kurama stated after a stretch of silence.
"Tell them?" She repeated the words, letting them settle. "No need. Those two little troublemakers are probably having their fun right now, thinking no one's noticed the special relationship between them."
A soft laugh escaped her, barely more than a breath. She could picture them, Azula pretending to be annoyed while Tsunade draped herself over her shoulders, both of them stealing quiet moments in the Hokage's residence after everyone else had gone to sleep.
She said it, but there wasn't a single trace of reproach in her eyes. After all, those two were among the three precious people she still had left in this world.
What else could she do but bless them? What else could she do but let them be happy, even if that happiness meant they weren't here as often as they used to be?
"If you're going to get sentimental on me, I'm going to stop talking," Kurama grumbled from the depths of her mind. But he didn't stop talking. He stayed right there, a presence she'd carried for so long that she couldn't imagine silence anymore. "Just don't wait too long. They'll figure it out eventually, and then they'll be angry you didn't say anything.