It was a quiet day in the village of Konoha as the sun they began to set; Tsunade looked out over the buildings from her office in the Hokage Tower as she quietly sipped some sake. It was one of the rare moments where she had actually finished her paper work, rather than just shove of it off to the side so she could drink herself into a stupor. As she looked out of the window she couldn't help but wonder how Naruto was doing, last she had heard from Jiraiya via toad summoning was about a month ago and simply stated he was doing well and still alive. It had been about a year since she had been convinced by Jiraiya that her son/brother/grandson figure needed to learn about the harsh realities of war and gain real life experience, it made her reluctantly give Naruto a mission that she had originally been going to throw away. She hoped he was ok, if he had been hurt or killed in Kiri she would never forgive herself for allowing Jiraiya to convince her to send the blond there. Of course if she found out that happened she would give Jiraiya a reason to regret convincing her to send Naruto as well.
A knock at her door interrupted her thoughts, "Come in!" she called.
The door opened to reveal Shizune walking in with a scroll; she walked over and put it on the desk for Tsunade. "It's a message from Kirigakure," Shizune said without preamble. The young woman did not know why they had sent a message out to Konoha since they were embroiled in a Civil War right now, but she assumed it was a call for help. Tsunade had not told anyone that she had actually sent help to them earlier when they had sent their first request; everyone had assumed that she had simply tossed the mission because of their policy involving foreign affairs.
Tsunade snatched the scroll from the desk as soon as those words left her assistants mouth and unrolled it, "Thank you Shizune," Tsunade said as she began to read. Shizune while curious decided not to ask as she bowed and left, closing the door behind her with a resounding click. Tsunade continued to read as the sun went down, by the time she was finished she leaned back against her chair with a shocked expression. She had just received a message from the new Mizukage Mei Terumi, apparently the war was over and Mei claimed that it was over because of Naruto. Of course given what she was reading…
"That little brat," Tsunade said with a smile as she turned back to look out at the village, "It looks like I'm going to have to call a council meeting soon…"
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"Is this information accurate?"
"Yes Danzo-Sama," said a kneeling figure, "both reports from our spies in Kiri and word going through the ranks of its shinobi have confirmed this."
Danzo Shimura frowned as he tried to think about what to do with this information. Danzo had always been a very shrewd and intelligent man, having once even been a candidate for Hokage because of his talents. Though he had been beaten by Hiruzen Sarutobi for the position Danzo had always been a player in the back ground, helping manipulate things along so that the village of Konoha remained safe from its enemies. His ROOT program was one such thing, having been originally created by the Nidaime Hokage to undertake missions from the shadows and train shinobi at a young age to be tools. Danzo was a man who would use any tactic no matter how underhanded if it meant he would be able to protect his home, taking missions that Tsunade and the other Hoakge's would have thrown away. Of course he refused to remain in the shadows forever; he had already hatched a plan to become the next Hokage. There were just a few problems that he needed to take care of first. One of them was Tsunade; the woman while powerful did not understand that to keep Konoha strong they needed to be more aggressive in their approach to foreign affairs.
Another problem was the information he just received, apparently Tsunade had done something he would not have expected her capable of and sent one of their shinobi to aid in the Bloodline Civil War in Kiri. That Shinobi was none other than Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, the Kyuubi Jinchurikki and son of the Yondaime. Danzo of course knew of the boy's heritage; it had been a simple matter to find the information by having one of his ROOT steal the blood test on the boy, which had merely helped confirm his suspicions. It made sense in a way; Minato had always been one of the more noble people he had known, even when at war. It would make sense that he would not use anyone other than his own son for the sealing; he was definitely a man that Danzo had respect for; even if he did not agree with his soft policies. The problem that Danzo now had was information that Naruto had been the one responsible for granting the Kiri bloodline Clans victory, while that in itself was not quite a problem the fact that the boy had apparently been able to recreate the Hiraishin was. Danzo had spent a long time plotting and planning for the day when the ROOT's of Konoha could rule, this boy could be a great hindrance to his plans with the power he was gaining.
Of course he could be a great asset as well… Danzo thought to himself as he tried to come up with a way to get the blond under his thumb. If he could somehow get the boy under his control it would make Danzo's plans that much easier to accomplish. He would bide his time, the boy was to come back in two years and in that time Danzo would start to make his move. The one eyed man looked over at his subordinate still in a kneeling position, "I want the boy's progress monitored and I want to be sent weekly reports, get it done!"
"Hai Danzo-Sama!"
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