"Nice work out there." Mito spoke with a smile as soon as she laid eyes on Shiki.
"Eeehhh? How does obaa-chan even know if Shiki did good?" Nawaki spoke from the side with suspicion.
'Did obaa-chan have people secretly watching!?' He internally questioned, comically looking around as if it would allow him to spot hidden observers.
"Obaa-chan is always watching Nawaki. Always." Mito replied, her eyes narrowing as she smirked accusingly.
Nawaki and even Tsunade trembled in place, the former had not even done anything worthy of reprimand and he was scared.
Imagine the terror Tsunade felt as the weight of her guilt pressed on her shoulders like a mountain.
Underage drinking, secret gambling, threatening mission clients because they annoyed her . . . The list went on and on.
"Gulp." The blonde tried to appear as innocent as possible but her sweating face, fake whistling and shifty eyes, showed she was doing a terrible job.
As an accomplished Jonin, the Senju princess naturally knew how to act and put on fake expressions but doing so in front of her grandmother always felt impossible.
It was not anything to do with familial ties, it was as if the Uzumaki matriarch had an aura that just destroyed others' ability to be dishonest and forced the truth out of them, it was part of the reason certain elders in the clan completely avoided her.
"Run along you goblins. I need to speak to Shiki about his performance." The redhead spoke and as if they had been pardoned from a death sentence, the Senju siblings bolted out of the living room and ran to the kitchen to find comfort from their terror in food.
"So how were the reactions, Mito-sama?" Shiki inquired, genuinely curious if he managed to fool all the high ranking individuals watching.
"I'd say the clans and the Hokage bought what you were selling without even questioning it." The redhead replied.
"The clans and the Hokage . . . That's not everyone. So someone sniffed me out after all." Shiki made an annoyed expression.
"Don't be like that." Mito ruffled the boy's white hair.
"Like what?" He pouted.
"You always make this cute pouty frown everytime something goes less than perfectly for you." The redhead replied.
"There is no such thing as true perfection Shiki." She lectured.
"You honestly did far better than I predicted." The Uzumaki matriarch pinched the boy's cheeks.
"Th**ks f** th* v**e o* co*i*en*e!" (Thanks for the vote of confidence) Shiki quipped though the pinching made it all come out garbled.
"You should know there were a lot of old hands in there that lived their lives playing this game of scheming."
"The foremost reason for your success is your young age. No one in their right mind expects a four year old to be scheming against them so meticulously." The older woman cautioned not wanting the boy to grow overconfident.
"So who figured me out?" Shiki asked.
"That brat Danzo did not realize anything but his paranoia will compel him to do some destructive testing, be ready. I doubt he will try anything in the village with me here but he is definitely shortsighted enough to do so outside." Mito informed.
"As for the only one that truly figured out something was wrong . . ." The redhead paused for dramatic effect, she knew Shiki hated it when she did so.
"Grrrrr" Shiki held back from speaking, shutting up would be the quickest way to get the conversation moving.
"It was your Jonin Sensei." Mito finished her sentence with a pleased smirk.
"I provoked a bit of suspicion since I located her with Chakra Sensing which she noticed as a much better sensor than me but I shouldn't have triggered any further alarms." The boy thought out loud.
"I never really hid my chakra capacity or tried to underplay its potency either . . ."
Unable to come to a conclusion, Shiki turned back to the source of wisdom before him.
"Can't figure it out?" The redhead questioned with a teasing smile.
"Let me tell you, she was quite terrified by the time the exam ended, though she held back from sharing her discovery because it was just too outlandish and hard to believe." Mito revealed.
"I'll tell you a bit about your sensei then, maybe that will help." She declared.
'Of course, rather than just giving me the answer, Mito-sama will turn it into a lesson.' Shiki thought with annoyance.
He said nothing about it though, because he knew it was for his benefit and he was not one to waste his mistress' good intentions.
"The jonin in charge of you, Yamanaka Inori, is a rather famous, or maybe I should say infamous, kunoichi. Now there are various reasons for that but the one most important for you right now, is her immense talent for sensory jutsu." The Uzumaki matriarch started.
"You see, by perfecting an innate talent of the Uzumaki, the Mind's Eye of The Kagura, to the limit and further enhancing it with the Nine Tails' ability to sense evil intent, I cemented my spot as this village's best sensor type."
"However, when it comes to sensory talent, your jonin teacher far surpasses me and I have no doubt that, should she live long enough to do it, that she might develop sensory jutsu that rival the Uzumaki's."
"Maybe the girl will even master such abilities to a high enough degree that her descendants will be born with an innate inclination towards it, that's how innate abilities of clans are passed down and sometimes they evolve into actual kekkei genkai that are deeply tied to one's bloodline."
'She definitely did not live long in the original timeline then, otherwise such a bigshot would probably be mentioned, maybe to give Ino a desperately needed powerup or something since they are from the same clan and all.' Shiki casually thought.
It was more than likely that such a high value target like a powerful sensor would be targeted and killed by enemy villages in a war after all.
And the boy made the deduction not knowing about and infamy as an infiltrator, master spy and assassin, something which would lend further credence to his theory of early death.
Konoha prodigies showed a tendency to die young after all.
Minato, Sakumo, Kushina, Itachi, Shisui and who knows who else that went unmentioned in the series.
Either that or defect like Orochimaru.
Forcefully pulling himself back to focus before the Uzumaki matriarch could notice however, Shiki heard a critical piece of information.
"Although Inori has developed a few sensory jutsu that are most definitely worth learning, her best one is, without a doubt, the Ninja Art: Sixth Sense which, among other things, allows her to read emotion and general intent, perhaps even better than me." Mito revealed.
"Ah!" Shiki came to a complete pause.
"Figured out the issue, have you?" The redhead inquired with the ever present smile, at least ever present for the white haired boy in front of her.
"I have Kukyo permanently active . . . If this Yamanaka Inori can read emotion and intent . . ."
+++++
Hey, Author here!
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -