Lest you fade here all alone

Chapter 14: Nightmares roaming among us

Hiruzen leaned back in his chair with a weary sigh. Massaging his temple with one hand as he tried to soothe the quickly building headache, he stared at the scroll on the table. After a moment, he moved his hand over his eyes.

Not for the first time, the old Hokage wished that his student would have sent more information, not just a warning. What did he mean by not to deny Rei Uzumaki the guardianship over his nephew lest they wanted to avoid another calamity? But no matter how long Hiruzen stared at the message from the toad or how many times he read it, he didn't get any closer to the answers he wanted.

Or needed right now.

Because today was the day Rei agreed to finally meet. The elusive blond never specified the time of his visit, so the Sandaime cleared his schedule for a whole day and just waited. He hoped to have a proper conversation with the man this time.

Hiruzen had already made his decision about letting Naruto move to Uzushio, despite the protests of his advisors. His old teammates had access to all the known information about Rei Uzumaki, but they had never met the man himself in person. Unfortunately, one couldn't simply document the gut feeling. All instincts Hiruzen Sarutobi honed through his long life were telling him that being enemies with Rei was simply foolish. Jiraiya's warning only strengthened that notion.

Someone knocked on the door.

"Come in," the Sandaime said as he straightened up in his seat and rolled the scroll up.

The door opened and his secretary stuck her head in, brown ponytail bobbing in the air. "Hokage-sama, um..." she trailed off, shooting a nervous glance over her shoulder. "Rei Uzumaki, the leader of Uzushiogakure, is here for his appointment."

Hiruzen's hand froze mid-way towards reaching for his pipe. He stared at the woman, completely baffled. Rei Uzumaki was here for his appointment? The Sandaime fully expected the man to just appear in the middle of his office and was actually waiting for it to happen, not for him to adhere to formal procedures.

The secretary fidgeted. "Should I lead him to the meeting room?"

The Sandaime gave himself a good internal shake. "No," he exhaled, rubbing his forehead. "I'll accompany him myself." So unpredictable, even in this sort of matter, he thought as he stood and smoothed the wrinkles in his robe.

Rei Uzumaki leaned against the table of the Hokage's secretary, relaxed and unruffled. His posture was at complete ease, legs crossed and hands resting on the edge of the table. And yet, a small curve on his lips and the sharp cerulean gaze felt ominous.

Two Anbu guards on either side of the office door shifted subtly under that piercing scrutiny, feeling like mice in front of a too lazy cat, watching them purely for entertainment. One of them swallowed, another smothered the urge to wipe his sweaty palms.

When Hiruzen stepped out, his clearly intimidated guards were the first thing he noticed. Rei spooked his hardened elite with his presence alone, managed to get under their skin merely by looking at them, and his advisors wanted to somehow control this person? With a shake of his head, he said, "Please, do not agitate my ninjas, Uzumaki-san."

"H-Hokage-sama!" one of the Anbu bristled at the implication.

"Aww, but it's so fun!" Rei all but cheered at the same time. "Their overreaction is cute."

Yeah, of course, 'cute' was definitely the right word to describe the highly trained killers who could sometimes be a bit too happy-trigger when agitated.

Hiruzen suddenly felt way too old for this job. He should hurry up and find the replacement already. Hmm, who could be a good candidate? A certain young face emerged in his mind and the Sandaime thoughtfully stroked his beard.