"You can't be serious sensei, he's only a nine-year-old kid. He would never be taken seriously not to mention he still doesn't have the experience required for a political mission of this scale."
"Fine then, how about you take care of it and take him with you?"
"Sensei, why are you trying to make him stay when I've already told you that he'll be taking leave?"
"Sigh, how can it be so easy? This kid has the highest scores recorded for the academy and became a Chuunin at nine, giving him leave now would look bad among the other clans especially since he's an Uchiha."
Jiraiya thought about his words before also sighing "What do you suggest?"
"He pushes back his leave, for now, once things calm down he'll take his leave. And since we want to make use of the Uchiha's help he might be able to help us there as well since he is the cousin of the future clan head.
We'll also give him a couple of harder missions to build up more experience. As for the negotiations, I'll send the Hyuga clan head instead. He's shown that he knows when to hold back and is of sufficient status and rank."
"Agreed, I'll inform him of the situation."
~~~
Elsewhere, near the Uchiha district, Raiden and Itachi were walking towards Itachi's house since Raiden's mom was most likely at work right now.
Raiden looked to be in deep thought for a while before he looked at Itachi.
"Hey, Itachi, you...what happened in the finals? You still had enough chakra to go at least a couple more minutes before it all suddenly dispersed."
Itachi flinched at the question and was now forced to think about something he didn't want to. He had already realised that his loss wasn't just from chakra exhaustion as he would normally just stop and surrender instead of passing out.
He had a difficult expression on his face before sighing.
"I don't know what happened. After I used the Jutsu, I started feeling pain in my chest before my chakra dispersed to protect my lungs."
"Then shouldn't you have said that before, let's go to the hospital and have my mother take a look at you."
"No! There is no need, the pain has already subsided." Raiden tried multiple times to get him to go to the hospital, but Itachi vehemently refused and continued towards his house.
Raiden who stopped sighed before giving up for now, but he'll find a way to make him go to the hospital.
~~~
Upon their arrival to the clan head's house, they heard loud yelling and entered the house to find two children, four or five, yelling at each other.
"You're stupid, idiot Naruto!"
"What did you call me, bastard Sasuke?"
"You heard me."
Raiden facepalmed at their stupid conversation and Itachi just sighed at his little brother acting this way to his only friend.
"Sasuke, what are you doing? Where are father and mother?" Sasuke turned around and saw both Itachi and Raiden standing at the room's door.
"Brother, you're finally back! I've missed you." Sasuke ran towards Itachi and hugged him.
"Do I not exist?" Said Raiden to no one in particular. Naruto who also turned his head around did something comforting by going up to Raiden.
"Raiden-Nii-san, you're back, is the old man also back?"
"Sigh, it seems nobody actually cares about my comings and goings. Maybe mom missed me in the past month.
Yes, Jiraiya-sensei has also returned and is meeting with the Hokage. He should be here in a while. Now, down to business, what were you fighting about just now?"
Sasuke and Naruto both glared at each other again before trying to remember what they were fighting about. Naruto started scratching the back of his head and Sasuke gave a contemplative look.
Naruto was the first one to say "I don't remember!" before Sasuke said the same to Itachi.
Raiden and Itachi sighed before Itachi asked again.
"Where are father and mother, Sasuke?"
"Ah right, Father has a meeting and mother went out shopping and should be back soon, not tell me, brother, did you get the promotion to Chuunin?"
"Yes, we were both promoted to Chuunin." Answered Itachi with a smile towards Sasuke.
"As expected of you, the biggest genius of our clan." Said Sasuke with stars in his eyes.
"Oi, Sasuke, I exist you know. At least congratulate me, am I not your cousin?"Raiden said still annoyed at being ignored entirely for Itachi.
Naruto came in for the save again. "Congratulations, Raiden-Nii-san. I am sure you destroyed everyone else."
"What did you say, idiot Naruto? My brother destroyed everyone, not Raiden-Nii-san!"
With this, another round of children's quarrel started.
~~~
Mikoto came back a while and they gave her the news of their promotion and she insisted that Raiden come over with his mother for dinner tonight to celebrate. After Raiden agreed he took Naruto out for some ramen and left the clan head's house.
At Ichiraku's, during Naruto's Third bowl, Jiraiya showed up.
"One miso ramen, please." "Coming right up."
Jiraiya sat down next to them and waited for his order.
"Sensei, how did the meeting go?"
"The Hokage has decided to push your leave for now, until you gain more experience."
Raiden looked at Jiraiya and thought about it and then about Itachi's issue.
"Okay."
"I thought you'd be more upset since you've planned this for a while now."
"It doesn't matter, it'll give me time to learn more things and get some time to learn things I've been putting on hold for a while like medical ninjutsu and master more sealing techniques."
"Looks like you thought it through, good. There are some things that will happen in the village in the next couple of months so it'll be better if you're here than elsewhere."
"Really? What's going on?"
"You just need to know it'll involve most of the major characters of Konoha including the Uchiha clan so I might need your help later."
Before Raiden could ask further, Naruto cut in.
"Hey, hey when can I start training like Raiden-Nii-san?" Said Naruto who had just finished a couple of bowls of ramen.
Jiraiya looked at Naruto and smiled "You brat, always asking for training. Since you have already become four years old, I'll agree on training you, but nothing too excessive."
"YES, now I can finally beat that bastard Sasuke's ass."