Naruto : Chapter 21

The next day at nine the Hokage arrived at his office, seeing that new amounts of paperwork had been placed on his desk. He grinned evilly and made two shadow clones and now three Sandaime Hokages were sorting through the paperwork.

What he found enraged him. Before he hadn't really noticed just how many useless documents he got on his desk. This looked like a conspiracy. After two hours he was sure.

Many of those decrees the civilian council wanted to have signed were only meant to increase their wealth and didn't help the village as a whole. Some that were slipped into his mountain of work were outright attempts to legally abuse Naruto.

Like the hot springs requesting to be able to deny people they think unsuited to use the premises entry. Or the grocers asking to set taxes for their goods themselves. No, this would stop.

The problem was that he had lost insight what was really happening in the village. But who could know the real circumstances? He had a second look at the documents that were the fishiest.

He would have to check the laws and decrees that had already been passed without him really noticing. Then he had an idea. It would be a bit risky, but he would have the information he needed.

"Crow, get me elder Danzo Shimura here." The Hokage ordered.

Crow vanished from his post and ten minutes later it knocked at the door.

"Enter." The Hokage said.

Danzo walked in, using his cane.

"You called me, Hokage Sama?" Danzo asked.

"Yes, thanks for coming so promptly, Danzo. I have some things to discuss with you." The Hokage said and activated the privacy seals.

Danzo wondered what had happened to have Hiruzen so serious. Did he find out about his ROOT? Improbable. He had erased his traces very well. So what could he want?

"Please take a seat, this will take some time." The Hokage said and Danzo sat down.

"Just this morning I came upon a serious problem with the finances of the village.

It seems that thanks to the amounts of paperwork I have to deal with daily, some decrees that deprive the village of funds have been passed. Sadly I don't know yet how much money was … displaced … that way.

We both know that the strength of our military depends on the proper funds. I have some suspicions where the funds went, but I need to investigate this without the culprits finding out about it. That's where you come in.

I want you to take your ROOT and find all the dirt the ones that embezzle our funds have hidden." The Hokage said.

"You know that you ordered me to disband ROOT years ago, Hiruzen." Danzo said, now dropping the honorifics.

"And we both know that you ignored that order and only took your ninja and went underground. Don't think I am stupid Danzo.

I let you get away with it, because you and your ROOT are useful for the village.

As long as I officially disbanded you, nobody could say anything against it. And if your training methods wouldn't be so despicable, I wouldn't even have had to do it. But we always differed in our opinions there.

Nonetheless. Your ROOT are a part of the military of Konoha. A well hidden part, but it is still financed by the village."

Danzo kept quiet. He wouldn't have thought that Hiruzen had known all the time. It seemed he had underestimated his old rival.

"What do you intend to do now?" He asked.

"Oh, as long as you follow my orders, nothing. As I said, you are useful. But if you go against me, I will end you. Simple as that." The Hokage told Danzo.

"Why now of all times, Hiruzen? What has changed?" Danzo asked.

"We both know that I am too old to be Hokage. I wanted to retire long ago and thought that with Minato leading the village the village would be strong and still retain the will of fire.

Sadly he died sealing the Kyubi away. I didn't really want to take back the hat, but did it because I saw it as my duty to protect the village.

The same is true for you; you are the same age as I am. We both are not really suitable candidates for the position.

We should only enjoy our retirement and give advice to the younger generation. But we both have still a duty we are fulfilling. I have called back Jiraiya to discuss with him my choice of successor." The Hokage informed Danzo.

"You want to make Jiraiya your successor?" Danzo asked disbelievingly.

"Do you think that is wise? While he is strong enough to take the position, I don't think he would be a good administrator."

"No, Jiraiya wouldn't even want to be Hokage. And it would be a shame to let his spy network go to waste. I had considered Tsunade, but with her dislike for the village because of her losses in the past, I doubt she would return, even if she would be the best choice.

No, I called Jiraiya back to get his opinion on the candidate I chose." The Hokage said.

"Are you going to tell me who you chose?" Danzo asked now interested.

Especially as he wondered why Hiruzen was informing him. They had always been at odds with their opinion how the village should be led.

"Can't you deduct it yourself?" The Hokage asked.

Danzo thought about it. He went over all the jonin of the village. There were only a few that were suited. The most probable candidate was…

"Kakashi?" Danzo asked.

"Yes. If you think about it he is the only real option we have. He has orders to get back to his old strength. He also is tasked with taking care of our two most difficult new genin." He informed Danzo.

"Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki. I already heard that the Uzumaki boy was hiding his true abilities. Impressive if you ask me." Danzo said.

"Indeed. Both boys don't have many ties that bind them to the village. Sadly I haven't been able to really remedy that fact until they graduated from the academy. Now that they are ninja, I can correct the bad influence the civilian council had on them.

I only hope that it isn't too late already. That's Kakashi's main task for now. But if I want Kakashi to take over for me once he is ready and his team has been promoted, I need to clean up the current mess as much as possible.

Otherwise things wouldn't really change and from Jiraiya's reports I know that things will get troubling sooner than I like." The Hokage said.

Danzo had to agree. He knew from his own spies that there was a mercenary group that took many high class missions for some of the other villages.

They consisted of S-rank missing nins, but their goals were unknown so far. Then there was the new village Oto. He hadn't been able to find out much about it.

And he had somewhat lost sight of Orochimaru after he had finished the surgery he had hired him for on his arm. Thankfully Hiruzen didn't seem to know about the sharingans he had implanted in his eye and his arm. That wouldn't be tolerated in any way.

"So how do you want me to do this?" Danzo asked.

"I will go through the laws that were passed myself with a few shadow clones over the next few days.

I want you to send me two of your ROOT agents that are skilled in administration. One will replace the current secretary and one will go through the jungle of paperwork that is put on my desk each day.

I only want him to sort it in categories that make the most sense. Before we can confront the ones responsible, we need to know the whole picture.

I want three of your agents to go through the decrees that have been passed since Minato's death. They are to write them down chronologically.

I will go through them as soon as they are done. Five of your agents are to inspect the way business is done in the village without being seen.

"I have the suspicion that many businessmen are evading taxes. That and that they demand more taxes than what is legal. I know I have been too passive the past years, but I intend to rectify at least some of my mistakes before I let Kakashi take over.

If everything goes well, I will announce him as my successor during the final round of the chunin exams in six months. Normally he should get his team ready to take them in the six months he has.

The only shaky candidate is Sakura. I don't know if she will persevere in her choice of career. Kakashi has orders to put his team through the grinder." The Hokage said.

"That is a sound plan. In six months of constant training he should also be back to his past strength and perhaps have got to S-rank level. If I remember right, he was close when he quit ANBU.

I will send my agents for the tower in one hour, Hiruzen, and send the ones for the village out as well. How do you want to organize the reporting?" Danzo asked.

"I want your agents to report back to me in three days. They should have a first impression by then. I guess we will need two or three weeks to get all the documents checked." The Hokage sighed.

Danzo nodded. It was good to see that the God of Shinobi intended to go out with a last major strike.

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