Chapter 391: ~ The Source

Silence hung over the council chamber like smoke after an explosion.

Ryu had stopped talking a handful of breaths ago. Ryu had laid out this ancient story but kept a few details out to keep the descendants of Hoki Yoshimura safe from Danzo Shimura.

A few of the civilians stared at the polished table. Others watched Danzo with poorly concealed curiosity.

Danzo himself sat perfectly still, hands folded before him, his expression carved from stone.

Others may not have noticed, but his fellow elders could see the tension in the way he stared at Ryu. They have guessed from Danzo’s stare that there was some truth in the story.

Suddenly a clap was heard.

“Wow… what a story… but it is nothing more than an entertaining fabrication,” Koharu said. “A story invented to discredit the Shimura clan. Can you prove any of it?”

Ryu laughed. It was not a pleasant sound.

“You brushed aside Naruto’s wellbeing and decided the Hamura clan had an ulterior motive for him without a single piece of evidence,” he said. “You refused to collect a scrap of proof about who spread a jinchuriki’s status through this village. And you have the gall to point fingers at me.”

He let that sit.

“Listen, you old fart. You have no credibility, no integrity, and no authority to demand anything from me. In my eyes, you are even less than the gentleman sitting beside you.”

The words struck the room strangely. For half a heartbeat, several people thought Ryu had complimented Danzo.

Then the meaning settled in.

Homura’s expression darkened. Koharu’s face reddened. Hiruzen slowly lowered his pipe.

Ryu did not stop.

“At least he is doing something. He genuinely believes that what he does is right.” Ryu glanced toward Danzo and then back to Koharu. “Sick in the head, certainly. But not completely useless like you.”

Koharu slapped a palm against the table. “Enough!”

The civilian ninja flinched. The shinobi clan leaders did not.

Ryu turned toward her with a mild expression. “What? Did I say something inaccurate?”

“You are insulting a founding elder of the village!”

“I’m describing what I think of you.”

“You—”

“If you want the truth about his origins,” Ryu said, cutting across her, “then ask him directly or the person who witnessed it happening.”

The chamber quieted again, but this time in confusion.

Ryu smiled and said, “I mean the non-paying tenant of my brother Naruto.”

For an instant, nobody understood. Then the chamber stopped breathing.

They could not believe the source. Of course — of course it was the nine-tailed fox. There was no other way. The boy had not uncovered the story in a library or a sealed archive. He had gotten it from the thing that had watched the whole thing happen.

The entire council, even his family and guards behind him, were in shock.

Dan’s head snapped toward Ryu. “You’ve been in contact with the Nine-Tails?”

“Mr 9,” Ryu said, “has been in touch with me since I suppressed him last time. We had a very nice chat about the old Shimura clan after I told him the committee of this village has been bothering me with their greed and stupidity. When he heard that old fart’s family name—” he tilted his head at Danzo—”he told me the story of his clan.”

A ripple of confusion. Someone murmured, “Mr 9??? Did he use a nickname for that monster?”

“If you want proof, go ask him yourself. But just like your ancestor, I doubt any of you have the balls to stand before him either.”

The laughter that followed was small, frightened, and quickly smothered.

Ryu said cheerfully, “You know what else he told me … your ancestor named Manasuri Yoshimura … he ran like a bitch …”

Danzo’s reputation had always been built on distance. He was a man of secrets, restraint, and ruthless purpose. Even those who despised him were forced to acknowledge his willpower. He had cultivated the image of someone who could endure anything without bending. That dignity was now being peeled off him in public, one layer at a time.

“It was funny as hell. I wish I could see it also,” Ryu went on. “Mr 9 said he believes he smelt shit too. So there’s a high chance your ancestor shit his pants while he was running. Can you believe it?… hahaha…”

Ryu was making this up now, but he doubted anyone would be willing to confirm it with nine tails.

Dan spoke quieter. “How do you even talk to it?”

“After I suppressed him, I somehow maintained a link to Naruto’s seal. Maybe because I possess Uzumaki chakra, I can enter the seal space anytime when Naruto is not awake.”

Hiruzen asked, “And the Nine-Tails allows this?”

“If you’re wondering that Mr 9 is upset about it. I think he likes intelligent people who aren’t after his power. And aren’t cowards.”

He said the last word, looking directly at Danzo, with a smile that did not reach his eyes.

Hiruzen let the moment pass, then moved the meeting forward. “We have heard enough argument and facts on the custody matter. It is time to decide. Let’s vote.”

He looked around the table. The seated members nodded, one by one. The decision was already forming.

“Wait.”

Koharu’s head came up. “Brat! What more could you possibly have to say?! I have had more than enough of your disrespect and your fantasy stories!”

“There’s one more person who needs to vote before this council decides anything.”

The shock was evident on every face.

Homura Mitokado spoke. “Who?”

“You’ll see.”

Ryu reached into his coat and withdrew a smooth, palm-sized sphere of black metal. It was no larger than a plum. He placed it at the centre of the table.

The device made a soft click.

Thin seams opened across its surface. Blue seals ignited along the edges, casting cold light over the council chamber. A column of translucent liquid rose from the sphere, twisting like water caught in an invisible wind.

The liquid gathered in a shape.

First came the robes. Then the shoulders. Finally, a face formed above the table—a carefully rendered projection of the Fire Nation’s Daimyo.

The Daimyo blinked and looked around.

“…wow,” the Daimyo said, and his voice came through clear and amused. “Ryu-kun. This is unbelievable.”

Ryu smiled. “Yes, Lord Daimyo.”

“This device is amazing,” the Daimyo went on, turning his head to take in the whole chamber. “I can attend all the meetings from my own home. Work from home — your concept is wonderful.”

“Thank you, Lord Daimyo.”

Ryu looked at the stunned faces of the council and let the moment breathe before he spoke.

“If I’m right — and I always am — the Lord Daimyo is the de facto chair of any committee meeting he attends. And he gets to vote.”

No one spoke. He was right, and every elder at the table knew it in the same instant. They had assumed the device was a one-time trick, a showpiece. But the mention alone had done the work: from this sitting onwards, there was a man above them who could be in every room, at any time, without ever leaving his palace.

“They have poked a bear,” was the thought that passed through more than one head.

Every member of the council understood the consequences at once. The Daimyo’s attendance today could be dismissed as a one-time intervention. His ability to attend future meetings through the device changes the dynamics of politics now.

The elders had spent years shaping village policy behind closed doors. They had treated the council chamber as a private kingdom, one where they could pressure, bargain, and manipulate without interference from the distant court. Not anymore.

Koharu’s jaw tightened. “If the Lord Daimyo attends every meeting, we can no longer exert influence the way we always have. This brat…”

“Ryu has already told me about everything, you know,” the Daimyo said mildly, almost proudly.

Koharu bit down on the curse. “Of course he has. The boy reached the Daimyo first, buttered him from one end to the other, and now he is doing the boy’s bidding while smiling about it.”

The Daimyo turned to the matter at hand. “about your proposal to bar the Hamura clan from contact with the boy and also about the treatment the boy was receiving by the entire village”

He did not wait for an answer.

“And I was told by Hiruzen — about the incident with the weakening of the seal. The disaster that was averted by young Ryu here.”

Koharu’s blood went cold. “Damn it. He knows about that too. This is not looking good.”

She looked at Hiruzen.

“It was my duty to report the incident, Lord Daimyo,” Hiruzen said.

“I have my doubts,” the Daimyo said, “but I never guessed that the Uzumaki lineage was more than speculation. It seems everything turned out for the good.”

His tone cooled.

“But I am disappointed in how this village has handled the boy. I hear everyone in Konoha knows what he is.”

The elders were sweating now.

“If there was a lead, it should have been investigated thoroughly and contained. Now that is impossible.”

Ryu spoke up, quiet and certain. “I suspect it was done deliberately. To make him psychologically weak. Easy to control.”

“And I agree with Ryu.” The Daimyo’s voice was flat. “You have all disappointed me.”

The elders hung their heads. Even Hiruzen, who carried his own share of guilt for it.

Koharu tried. “We did not want to prosecute civilians. Our image—”

“Image!” The Daimyo repeated the word like it was a dead thing. “You were appointed elders to run the village, not to cultivate an image. Tell me — when have you ever refrained from prosecuting civilians when it suited you?”

She had no answer.

Hiruzen spoke, “We have no excuse, Lord Daimyo.”

“I do not wish to pursue this matter further,” the Daimyo said. “But this stops now. Let’s vote. I vote in favour of the Hamura clan on the matter of Naruto.”

The civilians looked left and right, then nodded to the Daimyo. “Lord Daimyo is entirely correct! The Hamura compound has a grandmaster in the immediate vicinity at all times… and Ryu-dono is an Uzumaki capable of suppressing the Nine-Tails’ chakra should an emergency arise!”

“Yes, it is by far the safest option for the village!” another civilian member chimed in eagerly.

Koharu watched them sweet-talk the Daimyo and wanted to spit. “Look at them. If he attends every meeting, no one will vote against him, especially those five… Curse this brat.”

“Everyone in favor,” Hiruzen said, “raise your hands.”

Hiashi Hyuga had not spoken a word, but his hand was already moving toward a raise.

“If I do not support his claim,” he thought, “I will set a precedent that weakens inheritance law for every clan. My clan members could find themselves in the same position tomorrow. I cannot set that wrong precedent.”

His posture hardened. Not from hostility. From calculation. He would support the boy regardless of how the boy conducted himself against his clan.

The hands rose. All of them — except one.

Danzo kept his hand on the table.

Koharu, in order to save face, said, “With Dan there and his uzumaki blood… this is the best decision for the good of the village… even if I don’t like his big mouth.”

Hiruzen paused. “Anyone against?”

There was no need to call for it. But he did anyway.

A single still figure against the tide. Danzo made his defeat into a bigger picture than it needed to be, sitting back and refusing the vote — the neutral party, making himself the one man who would not bend in front of the Daimyo. Every other elder voted for the Hamura clan, if only to save face before the higher authority now seated at their table.

The Daimyo smiled. “It was fun. I love unanimous decisions. I should attend more meetings from now on. Please coordinate with my secretary before any meeting.”

Hiruzen nodded.

And Ryu smiled, at last, because he had gotten everything he came for. He had seen Danzo again, face to face, and this time he had not been afraid of him. He had gotten to verbally thrash the elders who had spent months trying to bury his family.

And he had handed the council a permanent leash in the form of a Daimyo who could now appear in any room they tried to close — which meant they could no longer do whatever they felt like whenever the doors shut behind them.

A/N:

How do you like Naruto’s custody battle storyline?

And how do you like this backstory of the Shimura Clan? Please tell me in comments.

Thank you.

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