42 Lets have a good old fashioned festival! (1/2)

It's hard to believe I'm a Kage now... Also, apparently to make someone kage, it doesn't require anything special. Like Sarutobi told me that the leaf's Hokage is able to choose their successor without any input from the Daimyo, those two people showing up yesterday was just a formality.

Oh yeah, today some people from the land of... What was it, rock? Stone? Earth? Yeah earth! Some representatives showed up from their seeking to speak to the Hokage, and since Sarutobi was still the Hokage he decided to make this one of his last acts as Hokage (A/N: Hokage this, Hokage that. Jesus if he starts saying believe it too then he'll just be Naruto, just appearing sooner in the world).

I sat in on it, and to be honest, even with my memory being improved, I completely forgot that I asked them for reparations, though it was pretty obvious considering what the Tsuchikage did to me and that he was an arrogant prick. Didn't like him in the anime and I don't like him now. They tried to be firm about not paying the reparations that I set forth and, after the Hokage sent me a glance I shrugged my arms. I completely forgot about this so, my bad, heh.

The rest of the meeting was the Hokage trying to make heads or tails of the situation until, eventually, both parties agreed to meeting in a month to discuss terms. Now if you think about it, this means he's pushing it off onto me. Dammit. Well I guess it was my fault anyway, so it's only fair.

After having the Hokage finish that I was told by him that later today he was going to make the official announcement of passing the right of leading the leaf over to me. Though he told me it was going to be in a week's time so that the village can make it into a celebration and other areas can send over their representatives if they wished to partake. I figured screw it, may as well have fun before I become Hokage.

When the Hokage announced that he was giving up his seat everyone was in shock since he had been the Hokage for so long, many of them didn't know any other Hokage but him, so they were concerned about what this newcomer would do, especially since they had no clue who he was. By he, I mean me. To be honest I have no clue what I'll do either, so not only is the collage flying blind, but so am I. Doesn't seem like a recipe for disaster, right?

There were, however, many people that were excited hearing that it would be treated as a festival in a week's time, and though I was off to the side, I could already hear several people going and discussing their plans, which excited me since it was food. Oh! I should have the Orphanage run a stall of food! I'll give them the ingredients and let them use everything I showed them. Heh, that sounds like fun, hmm this world does need more cooks seeing as ichiraku ramen is pretty much the main restaurant here that doesn't cost an arm and a leg... Hm, I should work on agriculture so we can have better food...

Wait, I'm already working! Shit, no you stop it Joe, this can wait till after you become Hokage!

Good idea Joe, this can definitely wait. For now, I'll just go and help the Orphanage and get myself ready for the festival!

That's pretty much how this whole week went, on the first day I went and told all of my summons that we were going to have a festival in a week, and that all of them were able to go about and explore, I'd even give each of them some money to go and buy food and what not. I mean I have plenty of it left, actually I don't remember how much money I have left, it's just a lot is what I know.

Then I went to the orphanage to tell them about my idea of having them run a stall of food to earn some money, now naturally I didn't go and tell them about me becoming Hokage, that's a surprise that I can't wait to see on everyone's face. The only people who know my face and name are, as far as I know, the three sannin (are they still the sannin since I joined their ranks and Well, they didn't kill Hanzo? Eh, whatever) and Sarutobi. Oh yeah, Minato knows my face and name, but I don't​ think he'll spread the word around too much, maybe since he's a kid he'll go and say something like he knows the future Hokage or something like that.

Well, anyways, the orphanage as a whole agreed to it so long as I buy the ingredients for a relatively simple dish and show the kids how to do it. That's some easy shit so I agreed. Maybe I should have them make cookies, people like cookies and I feel that sweets would sell well, plus it shouldn't be too hard for them to go and make on their own.

So for the next week I was teaching about 10 kids how to make cookies, gave them enough ingredients to go and feed a nation a dozen cookies each (All for 10 SP. I think the system has OCD), I also taught a few kids how to handle the money and what not, I think they decided on a cookie was 2 Ryo, which I have absolutely no clue is a good price since my sense of economy in this world is all over the place. I mean I have enough money to just throw it at my problems currently since it's not like I'm spending it on anything.

When the day of the Festival came I decided to sleep in later and enjoy the relaxation of having my bed to myself since, I didn't think about it, but my summons each take up their own bed... I had enough for Olivier, Ezio, and Alucard. I even had one for Darkness too since I made sure to have extra, but well... Esdeath decided to grab my bed. So I got booted to the couch. I have had the worst crick in my neck and eventually discovered I could just sleep in a bed in my dimension, but since it's so, well void like, it gets dull fast.

Last night though, Esdeath decided that she wanted to go about and explore the town so she let me have my bed back! I know I'm being weak willed and it's my summon blah blah blah, but you try telling a pretty girl that you aren't going to give her the comfortable bed! I know for sure I won't.

I was actually pleasantly surprised, Tsunade apparently got into the house (again, fucking ninjas. They can get anywhere they want apparently) and made me some breakfast. It was only a light one though since she wanted to go and walk around the festival with me a bit. It was a bagel that she toasted lightly with the stove, then put some butter on it. She had improved a lot from the but that I've shown her, I don't even mind letting her be in the kitchen alone anymore! It's great not having to worry about burning the place down!

After I ate the bagel I put on a slightly fancy outfit. That's right, no jeans or T-shirt for me today! Today, I am going to be rocking some khaki's, a button up shirt, and a tie. Now you may ask, Joseph, what the fuck? My response would be something Alucard has stated before, 'Because fuck you that's how'. Heh, but for real, well I don't mind going and getting this dirty or shredded, plus I want to show people that I can look fancy, especially on a day when I'm being, well not really elected, but put into a government position.

After trying to put my tie on for like, the 20th time(it's been years since I've done this shut up) I finally figure out that I was doing it for an extra time, and got it put on correctly finally. Now to take it off! Kidding, kidding. I've already forgotten how I did it honestly. Definitely not because I don't want to remember...

After getting all dressed up I walked out to the living room and seeing everyone pretty much in their usual attire, save for Tsunade, Darkness, and Olivier. Is this a blonde thing? Going and dressing up for events? I sigh and pass out 1k Ryo to everyone, ”Alright, go and have fun with this money. I don't really care how you spend it, but I would like you not to bring back any pets. That means no pet vampires either Alucard.”

Alucard scoffs and grabs the money, ”You know I only revived her because she had big tits. So don't worry, I won't bring back any girls that are dying... Unless they have big tits. And are Hot. A man has standards.” He then goes and disappears with the money. God help whoever runs into him...

I turn to the three who are wearing kimono's? Yukata's? I can't tell. I watched anime's but both kinds looked exactly the same to me... shit! I walk up to the trio with a smile on my face, ”Glad to see that you are all dressed up! You guys looking forward to the festival?”

Darkness speaks up first so I turn to look at her first, she is wearing her hair tied back into a bun with a long pin going through it, ”Um, I am. I just hope... nobody goes and tries to feel me while wearing this... it is really thin and they'll be able to feel everything.” Yeah... we all know what it is that you want darkness. My god, she is so masochistic it honestly hurts me too, just by being near her. Is this what Kazuma felt? I mean almost everything about her is great, then you add in the personality... my god. Not a good my god either. It's too damn much, the sadist Esdeath had to escape from her in less than a week. She just couldn't keep it up and then started to get genuinely concerned for her.

I sigh and turn to Olivier, ”How about you Olivier?”

She scoffs, ”Oh, so now you care? I thought you wouldn't care about me after getting me but better? Don't pretend to care, I don't appreciate people who pretend to care about others. They are nothing but scum in my eyes.” She then grabs the money I was holding out and walks away.

You know, that is my bad. Not entirely since I don't control the draws (A/N: damn straight. I do. *Random chooser breathes down my neck* I mean uhh, man, you got dealt a bad hand! haha...), but I do control how I act with all of my summons... I've been basically neglecting everyone that isn't Tsunade... I sometimes forget that they are people too, I mean this is just so close to a videogame to me too, I even used to think of Tsunade and the others in this world as NPC's as well honestly. They just seemed to go along with whatever, it was like I was playing a VR game honestly...

I really wish that it didn't take me getting tortured for me to actually go and start realizing that they are real people, that are really concerned about me. I even keep going and treating all of my summons as just that, summons. They aren't just summons, and I know I should've known that sooner but I think we can all agree I don't have the best track record with smart decisions now, do I?

I just need to learn from it, do better, and not make the same mistakes again. Easier said than done right? I need to fix this now rather than later. I look to Tsunade and give her a wry smile, she then nods to me giving me permission. I flash off to Olivier, only to start falling midair. I freak out for a minute and throw a kunai with a tag of mine at a nearby roof. When I look around I see that she is jumping towards the heads of the Kage, wondering what she's doing I go and start following her. (A/N: I'm taking some creative liberties since she hasn't learned any abilities, and I don't know if it has or hasn't been said explicitly in fullmetal that she can do this, but with her armstrong blood she is strong as shit, so I am making it that she can do this after training.)

After about 5 or 10 minutes of trailing her she stops and rests on the top of the 2nd Hokage's head, then turns around towards me, ”Is there a reason that you are following me? We both know that I am only useful during combat, and even for that you got me, but stronger as a summon. You don't even spend time with any of us. You asked for my trust, but you haven't given me any reason to give you my trust yet. You make delicious food, that is a definite, but that is not enough to goad me over to be blindly loyal to you, or even go and give you the same amount of trust that I put in one of the privates I would command. So I ask you one more time. Why are you following me, your answer makes the difference between your life and death.”

Well leave it to her to make an otherwise fun occasion turn dark with such a crazy speech. I sigh and sit down on lord 1st's head, I then look to her and give a wry smile, ”Because honestly, I'm a fuck up. I don't like being a fuck up, but I know I am one.”

She scoffs and sits down beside me, ”That isn't enough to convince me, try harder.”

I nod and look at the clear blue sky above me, it's about 10 or so AM and the festival should be starting soon. I look back to Olivier, ”Did I tell you what I did when I first got here? I mean on this world.” She shakes her head, I look into the distance, ”Well put simply and in a short amount of words, I revealed by whole hand that I could hold over people and keep me safe in this world. To make everything worse, I wasn't strong enough to go and back up this in the slightest. I was like a normal citizen from your world, not smart, no alchemy, no strength of my own, and basically no family. Then I was put into this world that I had idolized when I was young.”

She looks over at me, ”So, what do you mean by your whole hand?” So that is what she grabbed onto...

I nod, ”Well, I told them basically some future events that would happen, some soon, some later. I regret it a lot, but I can't change the past. All because I was so excited to be in a world I loved. It was also because of this that I got tortured.”

I lay back, ”If you want to kill me, honestly go ahead. If I'm being honest since my last world I've wanted to die. Not to the point of me acting on it, but to the point that if it happened, I probably wouldn't mind. My life fell apart around me so many times, then I actually almost died of alcohol poisoning as I tried to forget everything... just like a fuck up. So really you'd just be doing the world, actually worlds, a favor if you just went and killed me. I've been clinging on to my life by sheer willpower if I'm being honest.” I sigh and look at a cloud passing by, it looks like a small 4 leaf clover.

I then continue, ”I don't know what anyone else has suffered through in life, and I know I don't have it as bad as some others, which is why I don't complain much, honestly, as much as I have been negatively affected by it, I would go through it all again just to keep another person from suffering and becoming like me. Does that make me a hypocrite maybe? Not caring if I die, but caring about others? I don't know anymore, it's been how I functioned for years, and that was before getting tortured.” I start going and watching some of the clouds that are rushing by faster and enjoy the breeze on my face when I suddenly feel a sharp pain in my gut.