Canon Side-Story: Necromancy, Due Diligence

Disclaimer: I think I've been misled by fanfiction about who Tsume and Kiba and Hana are, I've always thought they were very important to the clan, if not at the top, but I actually can't find anything official stating that at all. So, because I'm on a deadline, I'm writing this scene as if that's true. But uh, do understand I'm definitely working on fanon here. Since I'm already working on fanon, I'm not gonna bother doing two hours of research to figure out Tsume's personality, just gonna write her as I've seen her written a thousand times.

This is PT 1 of a probably 2 or 3 PT side-story series. When those come out depends on the votes I imagine.

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A trip to the Hokage’s office wasn’t particularly in her docket for the day, but there’s only so much one can do when they begin working on trying to understand a scroll about Necromancy of all things, and the very first line of the scroll says “everyone around with any experience with essence will more than likely pick up on your experiments immediately,” the older man reads out, looking it over.

“I’m worried it means sensors,” Sakura explains, poking and prodding her knees from her chair. She feels small every time she’s in here, even if she is allowed to see him whenever - assuming he’s not busy - and is always met with a polite smile, “that could be bad.”

“It could.” he agrees with her, stroking his chin and contemplating the scroll, it makes sense he’d have no problems understanding it. Her Mind isn’t high enough yet, but his surely is, and she’s not about to question a ninja so smart he’s nicknamed The Professor.

“So what do I do about it?” She asks. “I could put off the beginning experiments until later, but I kinda figure when the system says I can’t understand it, it means like, the actual execution? I figure the words aren’t going to get all jumbly and jump out at me or anything.” She also figured that experimenting with it might help raise her Mind, which would somewhat fix the problem on its own. Working with complicated issues is supposed to be helpful for growth, right?

“They might indeed jump at you,” he says, “but no, I imagine this is fine. Even if sensors do pick up that you are doing something strange, no Konoha ninja is going to break into your house or anything. Well, besides Anbu, but if Anbu is in your house it likely has to do with Naruto and you can safely go back to sleep or work…”

“And if a spy notices?” She asks with a gulp.

“Then maybe they’ll give themselves away, and we can catch them,” he suggests, “or maybe they’ll think a Konoha ninja is doing something strange. That is not abnormal.”

He sets the scroll down on his desk, pushing it back over to her, “how about this. Schedule your experiments with my secretary outside, use the code word ‘making friends.’ That way I’ll know to put someone on watch when you’re doing this.”

“Understood.” She sighs in relief, that’s nice to have. Here she was worried he might take it, or tell her not to mess around with forces beyond her comprehension.

“And keep Naruto away from your experimentation area, at least while you’re working on this, even ignoring the Kyuubi there’s been a lot of powerful death in his life and I don’t need some of them rising from their graves on a whim to come smack me around.” The older man shivers at the thought.

“Is that a real concern, Hokage-sama?” Sakura can’t help but wince at the idea.

“You bet it is.” He looks so serious!

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“Did you say necromancy?” Tsume Inuzuka asks, sitting across from the Hokage with a very stern expression on her face. She’s always a bit like that though, it’s not particularly indicative of her mood or thoughts, and as Hokage, he’s always been pretty good at understanding her anyway and moving past that. “As in, eternal soldiers, serving after death, transcending tragedy, Necromancy?”

“From what she’s told me, it’s unlikely the souls used maintain their memories from life,” he says, folding his hands on the desk in front of him, fingers intertwined to show how serious he is, “it is more than likely akin to recycling.”

“But the theory is there.” The strong willed woman leans forward, a clawed finger scratching at her tattoo’d cheek. “Those that have been nobly sacrificed can be allowed to serve Konoha again.”

“Currently, she believes it would be more, serving her directly. Let us not forget that she is a land owner of some size, she does not yet realize how big a deal that is.” That statement on its own lingers in the air. No one in Konoha owns land in Konoha, not really. The entirety of the village very distinctly belongs to the government, more specifically, the current Hokage. People purchase the right to construct, live in, and co-exist on buildings constructed on that land, and sometimes unused land is leased with very low to no cost to Jonin or others that they need to keep away from the public areas.

Functionally it’s the same as owning land, as the government rarely does anything that would contradict that, and in his lifetime the only real use of this difference has been giving him the final say in land disputes instead of needing to use a lengthy process.

Some own land outside of Konoha, but even that’s under the jurisdiction of the Fire Lord.

To say Sakura Haruno might be one of the only land owners in Konoha at all, would be very accurate, and to say she’s the biggest landowner that resides in Konoha bar none, is somewhat of an understatement. Wave may not be huge, but it is not small, and the second place runner up is a farmer to the north that descends from the rulers of the fire nation, his ancestors given the land generations ago to shut up and go away after a succession dispute. He also doesn’t live in Konoha, which sorta makes the comparison moot.

“That girl is loyal to a fault, and you know it.” Tsume almost allows herself a snicker, shaking her head at him. “Serving her is serving Konoha. My question is, could she get it to a point where they could operate away from her?”

“You mean reunite your clan members with their lost Ninken, allowing a retirement?” Hiruzen asks. The unfortunate reality of the Inuzuka clan is that Ninken are still dogs, and no matter how well they’re trained, no matter how much chakra they are fed, one day they will die and the clan members will retire and form some other role in society.

“Even if they can’t fight, even if they’re not quite the same, to allow them the same reward for service their partner is allowed…” She trails pointedly.

“I do not know, is that something you would find worth investing your resources in?” He asks, “perhaps you should speak with her directly?”

“Perhaps? That’s my next stop, I’m going straight from here to her.” The shaggy haired woman rolls her head back and lets out a laugh. That’s good news at least, he was worried she might find the idea horrifying. He’ll admit, he only told her because he was worried the Ninken might react to this ‘essence’ thing, and the least he needs is the Inuzuka clan storming Sakura’s house after he just told her it’d be fine. “Serving after death? Hokage-sama, my clan would like nothing more.”