NRaO Chapter 26

Ami walked into the orphanage like she owned the place. “Hello all! I’m back!” Without stopping she walked through the front doors and sat down at the table. I sat down in a chair that ominously creaked beside her. An older woman walked over with a small bowl of thin soup and a hard-crusted piece of bread. What she had been eating since I began training her was so much better.

It wasn’t anything special most of the time. Just a piece of meat and some potatoes, or curry and rice, maybe a specialty from my restaurant every few days… This just looked sad. A thin watery soup and half a loaf of bread. Why were the orphanage’s meals so much worse than when I lived here? To be fair it was almost a decade ago but we didn’t have a sudden flood of new orphans.

My eyebrows furrowed as I had to get to the bottom of this as the old lady looked at me warily. I raised my hand to say “I’m good, don’t want any food.” and watched Ami eat. “Oh boy, one of my favorites. Imagination soup!” I questioned. “Imagination soup?” She tore off a chunk of the bread and answered. “Yeah, you eat the soup and imagine it’s something better.”

I had to stifle a laugh before she looked at me in pho outrage. “Well, it’s better than the half-bread sandwiches we get besides this.” I once again looked at her puzzled before she answered. “It’s what I’m eating just without the soup to dunk the bread in. A bread sandwich is two pieces of bread so half of that is just a piece of bread.”

I looked at the caretaker for this orphanage. It wasn’t the one I had gone to, so it could be embezzling. I asked her. “It’s been about a decade since I was an orphan. I don’t remember things being this bad.” She gave me a defeated look before answering. “It wasn’t until a few years ago. Someone higher up thought without the war going on, the village could reduce the budget of all the orphanages in the village.”

Yes, because that makes perfect sense. Starve the children of the parents who died in your stupid wars. It wasn’t her, I’d have to look into which clan head suggested that and fuck up their clan. Over the years I’ve been slowly dismantling the Shimora clan to the point that if they weren’t an original they’d have had their power stripped by now. A clan needs to have at least twenty-five members and they were down to half of that.

It started slowly, stealing from their businesses making them need to close them down. Ramping up to accidents that could cripple or even kill their members. Everyone directly related to Danzo had to die, you don’t just come after me and not expect retaliation. They were very close to falling apart. It was in such a precarious position I didn’t have to do anything now. Another clan will see their weakness and pounce eventually.

That still meant I had to find out who pushed through that stupid rule, how it got past Hiruzen, and then start systematically destroying their clan after murdering them as well. I watched as two other orphan girls came and started talking with Ami. They kept glancing at me assuming the worst. Especially because Ami made it seem like that’s why I was here.

“My sensei here takes such “good” care of me. He has me doing “back-breaking” work all day and night. I get a tasty “treat” for all his hard training every once in a while. I just wish you girls could join in.” What I hadn’t expected was for the two girls to start fawning over me like what Ami said wasn’t complete dogshit. “Oh, such a strong man. I bet you can handle more than one girl. You can have the both of us for a few dango balls. Aren’t you getting sick of Ami by now?”

Ami got mad and dropped the pretense. “I was joking girls. He is my actual sensei and he pulled me out of school early.” I was viscerally disgusted by their attempt to solicit me. I handed them the money as I spoke. “Please go enjoy a meal.” I could feel my stomach turn as they walked away happy. Little girls like that should be playing house or training to be a ninja. They shouldn’t be prostituting themselves to an older man for a chance to have their bellies filled.

They were rail thin like Ami used to be, painted with charcoal eyeliner, ash makeup, and blood or berry lipstick. They were entirely unattractive to me. I knew I had to bump up the murder of the stupid fucker who thought crippling your future workforce to save a few dollars was a good idea. I could hear Ami mutter under her breath “Jealous bitches…” before giving me a big smile and asking. “Alright so, what do you think of my place sensei? Pretty nice right?”

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Going to Fugaku’s home was not very good. The looks from the Uchiha were pretty unnerving. The only thing giving me comfort is I could flatten most of them if they did try anything even as a clone. When they saw who I was walking with they either looked surprised then away or looked even madder. Entering his home it was nice. The sort of extravagance you’d expect from a clan head’s son.

His father died during the war but the interim head knew his son would soon take his spot. He didn’t want it in the first place, otherwise, there would be a war happening to determine the next leader. No, as soon as Fugaku became a chunin he’d be eligible and take his position as the head. His mother was a conventionally attractive woman but I got the vibe she didn’t much care for me as we spoke.

She had served her purpose to the clan and fraternizing with someone outside would just put a stain on her name. Or that’s what I think she thought. I still needed to find an Uchiha who wasn’t a complete fucking mess of a person and would go against their clan's wishes to marry into mine. I think this is the best way to do that. “Do you mind if I beat the shit out of the members of your clan who were looking at me in contempt earlier?”

Fugaku looked at me in surprise before he laughed and answered. “Sure. Just don’t kill anyone. Who knows, with the sharingan active they might pick up a move or two from you while you bounce their head off the ground.” His mother looked shocked at what both of us just said as I stood up gave my goodbyes and left. I shouted. “Any fucker who isn’t happy I’m your next clan head’s sensei. Come and discuss things out in the open like men.”

More than a dozen started walking towards me. Good, even with this clone body I should be able to handle this many. Another seven came out of the alleyways between buildings and I could see more coming… Well, I’ll beat the shit out of as many as I can until someone lands a lucky hit.