Sarutobi Hiruzen felt like a fish washed up on the shore for the first time in his life, his eyes bulging, gasping for air, clutching his heart, and desperately wondering if he would faint. And he had more than a serious reason for it — standing in front of his desk was none other than Mito Uzumaki herself, smirking predatorily!
No, not the Mito Uzumaki who had become a formidable old woman dried up by time, yet still possessed considerable power even at such an age, comparable to the best fighters of the village, but the Mito Uzumaki who could give a hard time to her husband, one of the strongest shinobi in the world, as well as his brother, not far behind in strength!
The one who effortlessly captured the hearts of even the most hardened veterans with her beauty! The one who single-handedly sealed away the mightiest of bijuu in just a few pitiful seconds! The one who could destroy her enemy with a single touch and with a light smile on her beautiful face, step over the fallen and charge back into the thick of battle!
Before him, in all her glory and peak of strength, stood the princess of the fuinjutsu masters' clan, Mito Uzumaki! And what added to his astonishment was the fact that extracting the Kyuubi was supposed to have a detrimental effect on the vessel, not restore youth!
"H-How?!" finally managed to utter the Hokage, snapping out of his stupor and tremblingly stuffing tobacco into his pipe — his nerves urgently needed some respite.
"As it turned out, the Nine-Tails accelerated my aging with its poisonous chakra, and with its removal, the process reversed, so now I look exactly as I should at my age," Uzumaki chuckled cheerfully, deliberately omitting any mention of assistance from her… grandson…? friend…? disciple…?
"I suppose the sealing into the new vessel went smoothly?" the Hokage finally asked, regaining his composure.
Unfortunately, it turned out to be the wrong move on his part, as evidenced by the sudden wave of intense killing intent emanating from the wife of the first Hokage.
Sarutobi suddenly found it very difficult to appear calm, and the ANBU agents hiding behind illusions on the ceiling couldn't withstand the pressure and fell to the floor in their desperate attempts to draw in much-needed air.
"H-How dare you call Kushina-chan like that?" Mito suddenly asked, her voice sickly sweet, losing all her joy.
"I… I meant to ask how the process of transferring the fox to your relative went?" stammered Hiruzen, suddenly vividly remembering a couple of harsh scoldings he received in his youth from this red-haired fury, as well as Hashirama's state when his attempts to flirt with other women were discovered by his wife.
After his words, the killing intent suddenly disappeared, allowing the noticeably trembling ANBU to return to their positions, and the Hokage breathed a sigh of relief. When he discussed the first jinchuriki with the head of "Ne," he didn't really believe that Mito would last long enough to prevent him from influencing the new vessel, even with Senju's involvement.
And, even more so, none of them expected the sudden return of the strongest kunoichi of Konoha in all her glory, preemptively writing her off the political arena. He had to learn about the criticality of this mistake firsthand. Hiruzen harbored no illusions about the outcome of a battle between him and Uzumaki.
Despite all his might and the admiration of those around him, even in his prime, he couldn't compare to Tobirama — the weakest of the brothers, as embarrassing as it was to admit. The same could be said for Danzo. So, in the future plans for the new jinchuriki, the huge factor of a lively and healthy Mito Uzumaki had to be taken into account.
"Remember once and for all, Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Kyuubi belongs not to you or Konoha, but to the Uzumaki clan, and only because of the agreement with Senju have I stayed in the village, protecting you from enemy jinchuriki. And if you think I'll tolerate treating my relative like a mindless weapon, a 'vessel,' then you better think again, or else the scoldings I gave you in your youth will seem like gentle pats!" Confirming her words with a new, even more powerful wave of killing intent, the princess Uzumaki cast a final glance at the Hokage and, ensuring that her warning reached its recipient, used Shunshin, disappearing in a whirlwind of leaves and flames.
Too shaken by the conversation that had just taken place, Hiruzen didn't notice the unnaturally thin figure of Uzumaki, barely hidden by clothes, barely noticeable dark circles under her eyes, or the almost imperceptible signs of poor chakra control in the kunoichi's Shunshin. All of this clearly demonstrated that the extraction of the Nine-Tails left its mark on her, as Mito sought to show.
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