Nindō: Dominion

Once Naruto made dinner, Himawari woke Hinata up, and the three of them ate dinner together. As directed by Naruto, both father and daughter kept a tacit silence about their previous conversation. Hinata wasn't particularly sensitive toward the matter and just enjoyed eating dinner with her family with a slight longing for her son's presence, who hadn't joined them for a few days now because of his mission.

After finishing dinner, Naruto took Himawari out for some ice cream, and the two had a long and exhausting conversation regarding Himawari's actions. Naruto patiently explained to her that she had to be responsible with her use of the Byakugan and respect people's privacy. He wasn't planning to leave it at a single conversation, either. He planned to spend the next two days occasionally quizzing Himawari regarding the things that he'd talked with her about. She still wasn't in her rebellious phase and was more than willing to listen to her father. As long as Naruto could foster the habit of being considerate toward other people's privacy promptly, it would save his innocent Himawari from veering down the wrong path.

After the solemn conversation, Naruto fed Himawari ice cream, which naturally had the girl in a cheery mood on the way back as they packed some for Hinata as well.

Once back, the three of them spent some time together before Himawari went to bed, leaving Hinata and Naruto alone in the living room.

"Give," the busty wife crossed her arms as she sat beside Naruto on the couch. "What was it that you needed to talk to Hima about separately?"

"It's a secret between us, father and daughter," Naruto said, raising a spoon from the tub of ice cream in his hand. "You should just eat your ice cream."

"Tew me …" Hinata mumbled with ice cream in her mouth.

"Don't worry about it. It's nothing too serious. She just asked me what we were doing in the living room after she left," he said, leaning closer to her as he ate a bite of the ice cream.

"And that warranted a talk?" Hinata raised her brow.

"She was using her Byakugan to peek."

Hinata's eyes widened, "What?!" A deep red blush appeared on her face. "Are you serious?"

"She didn't see anything per se; I always prepare for some inadvertent Hyūga or, god forbid, your sister. But I've taught Hima a little trick that she ended up using to see our faint silhouettes," Naruto said.

"Tell me you're messing with me …" Hinata wanted to crawl into a hole at this moment.

"Don't worry so much. I already explained to Hima that you were getting cramps, and I helped ease out some of the pain," Naruto said.

"Still …" Hinata was still in a panic, but Naruto seemed as nonchalant as ever as he shoved a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth just as she parted her lips to speak.

"What are you worrying so much about?" He chuckled. "I've already told her about respecting people's privacy and all that stuff. Take her to the Hyūga compound on Saturday to have your father talk with her about this. He will be able to give her some concrete things to think about, hopefully breaking her from the cycle of voyeurism that your clan is famous for, well, infamous for."

Hinata's intense glare with her mouth filled with ice cream as Naruto fed her another spoonful made her look like an angry squirrel.

"Don't worry so much," Naruto couldn't hold himself back and kissed her lips, taking in her taste mixed with the ice cream.

…

As another day passed, Naruto made sure that Himawari remembered all that he'd told her about, occasionally quizzing her as he dropped her at the academy or as he brought her back home. Hinata was still a little concerned, but seeing her daughter act the same way as usual, she also calmed down. Still, she didn't delay in letting her father know that she would be bringing Himawari to the Hyūga compound on that day.

On the other side, there was still no information regarding Tsunade despite Naruto sending some of his clones out to search for her. While his manpower was mostly focused on training the Flying Raijin, he still had enough bandwidth to send a significant number of clones to search for Tsunade.

Ultimately, it took him until Friday night to locate the ex-Hokage. Even that seemed like a premeditated move on the woman's part, considering that she was on her way to a very special place at the moment.

The search had given him a newfound appreciation for his late mentor, who was able to locate her within days after Orochimaru killed the Third. Considering that Jiraiya had neither the kind of chakra capacity that Naruto did to create nigh-limitless clones nor could he sustain such a large consumption for a long time, his information network was something to be admired.

After bidding Hinata and Himawari a small farewell, saying that he needed to talk to someone important tonight, Naruto left his house. He didn't send a clone to talk with Tsunade on principle, wanting to show some respect to the woman who had sacrificed so much for the village. After all, he was planning to have her rejoin the maelstrom of Konoha's politics. Of course, without the two elders interfering with most decisions and undermining him, he would slowly gain complete control over the village's administration, allowing him to be in control of that maelstrom.

As Naruto exited Konoha, he calmly walked through the main road and turned into a narrow path that led into the forests. Another turn, and he was in the thick of the forest on the outskirts of the village.

The path got calmer and calmer as he slowly walked forward. Even the sounds of the crickets and the occasional chirp of the nocturnal birds died down as Naruto kept moving forward. Eventually, he found himself in a small clearing that was still maintained very well, with slightly overgrown grass that came up to the ankles. Just as he stepped inside, his eyes were attracted to a large stone that had the word teacher etched into it. It had two smaller stones at its sides, with kunai impaled atop all three of them, connecting them by a wire. In front of the main stone, Naruto saw a well-preserved copy of his teacher's first book — Tales of a Gutsy Ninja, alongside a memento from another of Jiraiya's students — the flowers of hope given by Konan.

Seeing the virtually everlasting bouquet made of paper origami made a certain feeling well up inside Naruto. He had suppressed the aftereffects of the events that Cronai's willful time-slip adventure had led to as she exposed him to countless possibilities in the most impactful manner possible. He had spent multiple lifetimes with Konan and was that much more aware of just how many feelings the woman had infused into those flowers. Jiraiya's death had impacted her and Nagato just as much as him. It was just that their convictions were too strong, and they had sacrificed too much to back down by then. He had been just as much of a teacher to them as he was to Naruto. He may not have taught them a lot of techniques, but he had taught them how to survive. He had taught them how they should live and how they should act upon their beliefs.

'No alternate realities and timelines anymore. He's truly gone in reality … I haven't sent a clone to clean this place up in a while .' Ever since Naruto had come back, he hadn't visited the shrine, and the signs were visible.

"What do you want, Naruto?" A woman's voice entered Naruto's ears just as he stepped into the clearing, clearing the myriad thoughts that had appeared in his head after looking at his teacher's grave.

"Nice to see you too, Granny Tsunade."

"Your mother's a damn granny," The last alive Senju mumbled under her breath.

"She would be," Naruto nodded. "Were she alive right now, she probably would've loved Boruto and Himawari."

That left Tsunade speechless.

"Have you thought about donating your eggs? Sakura has made some strides in terms of IVF treatments. The Senju clan doesn't need to go extinct with you," Naruto spoke as the woman stepped into the clearing, finally coming to face him.

"Die!" She punched in his direction.

"Not here, Granny," Naruto smiled a slightly dark smile and grabbed her fist, instantly negating the force of her compressed chakra by dispelling the technique directly. This was another benefit of Cronai's shenanigans. Naruto was now intimately familiar with the techniques of so many women that it wasn't even funny. He had, after all, essentially lived multiple lifetimes with those women.

Tsunade frowned at Naruto's casual dismissal of her technique, "It seems that you are prepared for more of those Ōtsutsuki to show up. Is the village fortified?"

"Once a Hokage, always a Hokage, huh?" Naruto smiled. "How's squandering the fortunes provided to you by the selling of the Senju Clan's land been going for you?"

"I still have a billion or so Ryo left," She answered casually. "Now, why have you been looking for me?"

"Take a seat, Granny," Naruto said. "Now that I'm finally here, I'm going to spend some time cleaning this place up."

***

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