Ch191. Konoha Creation Treaty and its results

"Autonomous Country of Konoha?" Rei did almost a double-take, understanding what Tsunade was telling him. Konoha basically didn't belong to the Country of Fire. But... "How? That's not how things are now. Hokage is definitely under the command of Daimyo... well, figuratively speaking, at least."

Tsunade gave Rei an awkward smile and shrugged before giving Toyotomi a meaningful glance, urging him to explain.

"Right," Toyotomi sighed in exasperation, "There is no freaking way Tsunade would pay enough attention in her studies to know this 'political bullshit', as she would claim." He mockingly shook his head before stiffening as Tsunade leaked a bit of her killing intent at the poor guy. To be honest, the amount Tsunade leaked betrayed that she was at most quite annoyed. She really didn't like having her embarrassing moments revealed in front of her husband.

"Anyway..." Toyotomi coughed and averted his eyes from Tsunade to Rei, trying to ignore her. "The Hokage is basically something like a Regent." Seeing how dubious Rei looked, Toyotomi gave him a knowing smile, "I have no doubt people who actually know this could be numbered on one hand. That's why it works and why Konoha can 'elect' their own Hokages as if they were like every other village. But 'elected' Hokage is under the Daimyo of the Fire country in the proverbial food chain. To be honest, the land on which Konoha stands belongs all to the Senju Clan whereas other clans only rent it for free as was decided in initial negotiations when new clans became a part of Konoha while most of the land is rented for a ridiculously small fee. That's why Konoha is such a good place to live in for civilians, and especially merchants. The cost of land there is very low. Alas, the Senju accounts are very fat due to collecting a part of the rent from the whole village while the other part goes to the treasury of the governing body. Mito was really one scarily smart woman." Toyotomi snickered.

"Oh... so that's why it was so easy to relocate the Uchiha clan to the outskirts after the Kyuubi incident. They simply did not own the land on which their residential area stood so they could be ordered to clean it up and get the fuck out of there by..." Rei stopped for a second before promptly facepalming. "ah, Hokage is also overseeing the usage of the land, right?"

Toyotomi could only shrug in a 'what can you do' kind of way and started explaining.

"Hashirama was naive but my grandfather often said the man was not stupid. He could see the mess in his own clan when Elders tried to grab more political power. And they said the Senju clan was very family-oriented and friendly. If it was bad in the Senju clan, Hashirama knew it would be worse in other clans. He made sure to have his wife, Mito Uzumaki, right next to him when they were creating the treaty document. The woman was supposedly quite fiery and wouldn't give a quarter no matter what." Toyotomi said, taking a sip from his tea, "Hence, the final treaty was made. The Konoha was to be run as it is today, with their Hokages and stuff, and the other hidden villages copied it. What is secret though, is that Senju Mito made damn sure to add a fail-safe clause into the treaty, saying that the Head of the Senju clan can declare himself a Daimyo of Konoha if the ruling body was corrupted, seizing the proverbial reins. After all, the Senju clan already owned all of the Land. They already were Daimyo in all but name and power, of which, neither would be hard for the clan to quickly acquire. Not when the Hideyori royal family would support them." Toyotomi finished the history lesson.

"But nobody ever approached me with problems with the land when I was in the village during the third war. If I owned it and nobody needed anything from me..." Tsunade mumbled, narrowing her eyes.

Toyotomi glanced at Rei, "Your husband is correct, Tsunade. Hokage has the right to oversee the usage and distribution of the land if the Senju clan head doesn't want the duty. Considering you never signed up for it..." He trailed off. "I think the Hokage hopes you have no idea about the treaty since your clan died off so fast. He knows how disinterested you are in politics. Plus, you never really showed any knowledge of its existence, did you?" Toyotomi remarked, causing Tsunade to still as memories flashed through her eyes. Memories of her sensei asking questions... She remembered what she told him. She said she would definitely not want more responsibilities on top of running the hospital.

"That son of a bitch. He basically confirmed I don't want to do it without even mentioning what exactly 'it' is." Tsunade clenched her jaw in disbelief. "He tricked me." She added, her eyes wide.

"Konoha's higher-ups must have been over the moon when they got to know you can not have children." Rei carefully stated, not liking where this train of thoughts is leading them.

"I... wh-, what?" Tsunade stammered, caught off guard by the suddenness of that statement since she was still in the process of accepting that she was tricked by her own sensei. Despite her initial surprise, she lived with Rei for well over a decade and that, for a skilled kunoichi, meant she at least somewhat knew how his mind worked. It didn't take her long to understand what he was insinuating. "Ah." Her eyes dimmed and her fists clenched as anger flooded her. Sure, it was a baseless suggestion but it made a disgusting amount of sense. Especially with the new revelations.

Rei gave Tsunade a side-glance and squeezed her hand in a reassuring manner, getting a weak, extremely fake smile in return. "We have no proof of it yet. Don't be so down. Maybe we are wrong."

"What are you talking about?" Toyotomi asked, frowning at being left out.

Tsunade and Rei looked at each other, and Rei gave her an uncaring shrug, meaning it was up to her if she wanted to tell him. Sighing and rubbing the bridge of her nose, Tsunade started in a somewhat sullen manner, "Sarutobi told me he knew somebody was hunting the surviving Senju clansmen in the period between the first and the second war but he had no way to counter it. I gave him quite the scolding for not telling the Senju clan that it was happening. For all we knew, we were simply unlucky and fate had it for us. But... I understood that it might have started panic or whatever reason he threw at me. I understood his reasoning why he didn't tell and focused on investigating, why it was all so secretive."

Hearing that, Toyotomi showed a baffled expression but deep down, he was angry. Not many knew that the Senju clan was very close allies to the Hideyori family in the past. To think they were hunted down until only Tsunade was left... To think the Hokage didn't do anything meaningful to prevent it. To think they would even conceal this fact...

Toyotomi suddenly stilled as realization hit him and his rage instantly subsided. His face turned pale and his eyes darted from Rei to Tsunade, getting what they were not telling. "You... you actually think somebody from Konoha was responsible for the Senju demise." He summed up the unspoken thoughts, his eyes wide from disbelief.

"There is no other way. We know somebody from Konoha had a hand in it." Tsunade bitterly shook her head. "It's fishy as hell once you start to look at it as one incident rather than multiple unfortunate accidents spread through the years. Every other clan was fine, just the Senjus suffered. While others had close to ten failed missions per year, and even then the ones who failed usually returned, the Senju clansmen had also around ten failures but most of them were fatal. Sure, the Senju clansmen were very skilled and sent on dangerous missions but... you know." Tsunade sighed. "I just never even in my wildest dreams thought Sarutobi-sensei would have any reason to cover it up on purpose."

"Or directly have a hand in it." Rei quipped, causing Tsunade's shoulders to slump even lower. Realizing his mistake, Rei winced and scooted closer to the downtrodden woman, embracing her close to his chest. "He had no motive. We... er, I knew that Sarutobi is a right bastard." Rei spoke towards Toyotomi while caressing Tsunade's hair. "But we never could think of any motivation why he would support the Senju purge. After all, he was Tobirama's pupil..."

"So was Danzo." Tsunade spat.

"... and he truly cares for Konoha." Rei finished, not minding Tsunade's interruption.

"But with this new revelation, it became self-evident why he, as the Head of the Sarutobi clan, would not want the Senju clan alive. The clause in the treaty is simply a preventive measure if the village became corrupt. The Senju clan had every right to do this and every clan head of that time accepted it, knowing the honorable Senju would not abuse it. But..." Toyotomi sighed.

"It would be awfully convenient if the Senju clan disappeared and nobody could usurp Konoha's leadership on a whim, wouldn't it?" Rei continued. "Why stop somebody helping get rid of the problem, no?"

"But Tsunade is his pupil. Someone he loves like his own daughter. After confirming she knew nothing about it..." Toyotomi nodded.

"But Danzo has no such problem. Once Tsunade started digging in the old files and even got the blood samples proving that somebody purged the Senju blood from Konoha... all bets were off."

"Hence the numerous assassination attempts when I was in Konoha. And here I thought it was because of me blocking his bills. I... I still don't think that Sarutobi is directly responsible. I wouldn't be surprised if he knew about it and knew exactly who was behind it but... I don't think he had a hand in it." Tsunade added, having enough for the day. She nudged Rei, "Let's end this here. I need my cuddly time to get my head away from..."

Rei instantly leaned forward and kissed Tsunade the second she started speaking in that depressing way. "That's fine." He smiled.