Once Pakura had been thoroughly consoled, Natsuki returned to the Hokage's office.
"Natsuki-sensei." Konan came forward to meet him — then paused fractionally, catching a trace of perfume that wasn't hers.
"What is it?" Natsuki asked, settling into his chair.
"The representatives from the Hidden Cloud, Hidden Mist, and Hidden Stone have all arrived." Konan collected herself. "The Hokage's Secretariat has people receiving them now."
"Who did each village send?" Natsuki was curious.
"The Cloud sent Furuka. The Mist sent Ao. The Stone sent Kitsuchi."
"So they're all taking this seriously." Natsuki chuckled.
Not that it was surprising. Anyone with eyes could see what the Alliance was going to become. Send a lightweight to represent you, and your village would be left behind inside a year.
"Konan. The Anbu will handle this." Natsuki produced a scroll and passed it over.
Konan unrolled it and read.
It contained a single directive: the Anbu were to seize control of three industries — banking, ninja tools, and transportation.
The significance of those three was self-evident. They were the arteries of every economy in the shinobi world, and up to now each nation had run its own.
Natsuki taking them meant development. It also meant a stronger Hidden Leaf.
His policy was narrow by design: the Leaf would hold only the industries that mattered. Everything else it had no capacity to manage anyway, so the nations could keep running those themselves.
The people staffing the key industries would be drawn from the villages. Natsuki simply had to cover wages and compensation.
To administer all of it, though, he intended to create a new department — a Ministry of Economy.
And the shinobi to run it was Kakuzu. Nobody else came close.
"Kakuzu will be working with you," Natsuki added.
"Yes, Natsuki-sensei." Konan took the scroll and left.
After a moment's thought, Natsuki wove a summoning seal.
Tagitsuhime appeared before him.
"Put White Zetsu on Uchiha Madara and Black Zetsu. I want them watched."
By every read of the situation, Madara and Black Zetsu had nowhere left to go with the Eye of the Moon Plan.
But Black Zetsu's abilities were a category of their own, and that demanded caution. The thing could hijack a Ten-Tails jinchuriki. If it moved on Nagato, Natsuki might not reach him in time.
There was a second reason, too.
He had his own plans for Madara and Black Zetsu. He needed both of them to unlock template abilities.
"Yes, Master." Tagitsuhime vanished.
Natsuki left the office, tracked down Namikaze Minato, and proposed a spar.
Minato, naturally, wasn't going to say no.
They took it to a training ground, and Natsuki won comfortably inside half an hour.
The single most difficult thing about fighting Minato was pinning down the Flying Thunder God technique. Against Natsuki, it was worthless. Forget the Door-Door Fruit — Observation Haki alone made an ambush structurally impossible.
[Congratulations! Host has unlocked Emiya Shirou's Template Ability 3: Projection Magecraft — Rho Aias.]
Natsuki read the line and gave a small nod. That one had gone smoothly.
"I'm not even in the same conversation as you anymore." Minato exhaled, half rueful.
He still remembered the Academy, when the two of them had traded wins evenly. The gap had widened every year since, and these days he couldn't put a scratch on him.
"If you want it, you could have the First Hokage's Wood Style transplanted," Natsuki offered.
"I'm not a Senju. I'll pass." Minato hesitated, then shook his head. "Besides, what I have is enough."
"If you change your mind, go see Sensei."
Natsuki didn't press.
"Mm." Minato scratched the back of his head, suddenly awkward. "I'm... getting married in two months."
"To who?" Natsuki's eyebrows went up.
"Kanae."
"Congratulations." He meant it.
Though honestly, it was the least surprising news in the world. With Minato's résumé, women would have been lining up whether he did anything about it or not. Uzumaki Kanae had presumably worn him down over years of proximity.
"That's genuinely good news. Make sure I'm invited." Natsuki clapped his shoulder. "I'll bring something extravagant."
"Gifts don't matter. Just show up." Minato was beaming.
"Get back to work, then."
Natsuki had spotted Uchiha Mikoto waiting a little way off. Minato nodded and headed for the Hokage's building.
"Natsuki." Mikoto came over. "Pakura wants to see you."
"Where is she?"
Presumably she'd been too flustered earlier to bring it up.
"Your office."
"Let's head back." Natsuki pinched her cheek, smiling.
"Mm." Her expression softened.
The two of them returned to the office.
"Ah, you're awake," Natsuki said, catching sight of Pakura.
"I'm awake. Thank you for your concern, Lord Hokage." Pakura's eyes flicked to Mikoto, and her tone dropped several degrees.
"What did you want to see me about?"
"Bunpuku. The One-Tail's jinchuriki," Pakura said. "I meant to bring him with me, but he's old. Traveling isn't realistic for him anymore."
Natsuki wasn't surprised. He remembered that Bunpuku had died not long after Gaara was born.
With the Third War over, Gaara should have been due to arrive this year under ordinary circumstances. But Rasa was dead, so neither Gaara nor Kankuro would ever exist.
Only Temari had made it into the world.
"Mikoto, wait here for me." Natsuki raised a hand and opened a doorway. "Pakura. Let's go."
They stepped through into the Hidden Sand.
"This way." Pakura set off at once. "Bunpuku's at the temple."
Natsuki followed her, and before long he was standing in front of the man himself.
Bunpuku was ancient, his beard gone entirely white. He said nothing when Natsuki entered, only pressed his palms together.
Pakura had clearly briefed him ahead of time.
Natsuki wasted no words either.
The Black Holy Grail rose out of his forehead. Light swallowed the old man, and the One-Tail was drawn out of him and pulled into the Grail.
Natsuki laid a hand on top of Bunpuku's head and poured chakra into him until his vitals steadied.
Then the two of them left the temple.
"I'm not going back to Konoha. Come see me. Often." Pakura's tone left no room for negotiation.
She'd only made the trip for Natsuki in the first place. Alliance business was Rasa's problem now.
Natsuki stepped in and pulled her against him. He ran a hand over her back, then rested his palm over her heart.
"I'll come often."
Pakura rolled her eyes at him, color rising in her face. He couldn't even leave without needling her.
He held her a while longer, then let her go — leaving her considerably less composed than he'd found her — and returned to the Hidden Leaf.
Mikoto was exactly where he'd left her. She came over as soon as she saw him.
And caught, faintly, a scent she recognized. Pakura's.
"Mikoto. Send word to the other villages. I want their jinchuriki here as soon as possible."
"Mm." She nodded and went.
Natsuki thought for a moment, then headed for a nearby training ground to start working on the Six Red Yang Formation.
Another week passed.
The Hidden Mist delivered the Three-Tails and Six-Tails jinchuriki. Natsuki absorbed both without incident, moving one step closer to unlocking the Hogyoku.
Around the same time, the Shinobi Village Alliance formally began operating.
Its first major undertaking was road construction.
The shinobi world was effectively his now. And the first step in developing it was shrinking it — which meant transportation.
The airships and railways he'd acquired in the Land of Snow, and the Angkor Vat from the Land of Sky, all had roles to play here.
Natsuki intended to build an integrated network across sea, land, and air.
Sea: shipping and maritime freight. Land: rail and roads. Air: airships and the Angkor Vat.
And beyond all of that, he wanted to develop something new. Portals.
He handed that project to Namikaze Minato, since the diluted form of the Flying Thunder God technique — the Flying Thunder God Formation — already produced a comparable effect.
The Formation required three people standing in position to teleport whatever they surrounded to a fixed destination. Those three could be replaced outright by chakra crystals.
And chakra was one thing Natsuki had in absurd surplus.
If portals could be made common, the effect on the shinobi world would be beyond calculating.
Natsuki pushed open the door to Tsunade's office.
She was reclined in her chair with both legs propped on the desk.
"Tsunade-sensei." Natsuki's gaze went to her bare feet. "Aren't you worried someone will walk in on that?"
"Everyone else knocks," Tsunade said. "You're the exception."
"So Tsunade-sensei is putting on a show specifically for me."
He shut the door behind him and walked over.
"Don't be ridiculous." She snorted. "Don't flatter yourself."
Natsuki caught her by the ankle.
His fingers moved, and he ran them lightly along the sole of her foot.
"Let go." Tsunade went rigid.
He didn't.
She held out for about three seconds before the laughter broke out of her, her whole body shaking with it.
"Promise me one favor and I'll stop." Natsuki was thoroughly enjoying himself.
"You bastard—" Tsunade got it out through gritted teeth. "Fine! I promise!"
He released her ankle, and she yanked her feet back and glared at him with real venom.
"What favor? Are you going to take advantage of me again?" She pulled her shoes on, thoroughly irritated.
What she hadn't noticed was how little resistance she actually put up when he did.
"Tsunade-sensei. You wound me. I'm not that sort of man." Natsuki blinked innocently. "I came here to discuss a new ninjutsu with you."
"...A ninjutsu?" She stopped, genuinely caught off guard.
"Overuse of the Strength of a Hundred technique causes premature aging," Natsuki said. "I want to invert that side effect. Build a technique that does the opposite."
"Good idea. Not going to work." Tsunade shook her head. "The aging comes from the Yin Seal running short on stored chakra. That's the whole mechanism."
"Then we solve the chakra shortage." Natsuki smiled. "By absorbing an enemy's chakra, for instance. Or their ninjutsu outright."
The idea had come from the Guardian Pendant — the tool he'd given Shizune, reforged from the Sage of Six Paths' Crimson Gourd.
"That's..." Tsunade slowed down. "That might actually be feasible."
"It would make supporting a teammate easier, too," Natsuki added. "If you use the Strength of a Hundred and the side effects hit, I can just give you my chakra."
Tsunade went still.
It was only then that she understood he'd been developing this for her.
"Thank you." Her voice was serious.
"Save it until the technique actually works." Natsuki laughed.
She nodded, and the two of them got to work on it.
January went by in a blur.
The Alliance's founding had made no visible difference to the overwhelming majority of people.
The effects were accumulating quietly all the same. Before long, everyone would notice that the Alliance reached into every corner of their lives.
February 1st.
Natsuki walked into Uzumaki Kushina's office.
Of the nine Tailed Beasts, only one remained outside the Black Holy Grail. The Nine-Tails.
"I hated it for years, you know," Kushina said. "Now I'm strangely reluctant to give it up."
"You'll see it again." Natsuki patted her head.
Once his strength reached a certain point, releasing the Nine-Tails would be trivial. Making a new one wouldn't be beyond him either.
"Mm." Kushina nodded. "Still. I'm glad to stop being a jinchuriki."
Being one had never brought her anything but bad memories.
At a thought from Natsuki, the Black Holy Grail rose from his forehead, and the Nine-Tails was gone in the space of a blink.
[Congratulations! Host has unlocked Aizen Sosuke's Ability 5: Hogyoku.]
Information came flooding in — an ocean of it — and in an instant Natsuki understood exactly how to use it.
He drew a slow breath and returned to the Hokage's office.
Then he turned the Hogyoku on himself.
A second later, he possessed a body on par with the Otsutsuki clan. Speed, offense, defense, regeneration, lifespan — every one of them pushed to the outer limit.
Unlike Aizen, though, his body didn't warp into something monstrous along the way. He was considerably happier about that.
At the same moment, his eyes shivered.
Both Mangekyo Sharingan evolved into the Rinnegan.
Natsuki blinked, and the Rinnegan gave way to the Byakugan.
In theory, he now possessed every bloodline limit and ability worth having — with a single exception.
The Rinne Sharingan. And for that, he'd have to eat the God Tree's chakra fruit.