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Chapter 41: Forty-OneChapter Text

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE:

It was difficult to command the attention of a hall filled with self-important figures of authority when you were a small child amidst a sea of adults, but Sansa swept into the hall where the Council was gathered as if their attention was her due and they couldn't help but turn to her, the volume in the room lowering as she made her way over to a empty seat, settling herself upon it with all the regal poise as if it were the Iron Throne itself.

There was silence in the hall. Sansa let it sit. To break it first was to be the one to break and neither Sansa Stark or Uzumaki Fuyuko were women inclined to break.

"Why is there a child here?" The Hyūga Clan Head didn't even bother to address her, his voice dismissive as he turned to the Hokage, demanding his answers.

"As a genin, Fuyuko-chan has claimed the responsibility of acting clan-head of the newly recognised Uzumaki Clan until her older brother is of age or officially recognised as an adult by Konoha law," the Hokage said calmly and Sansa didn't let her irritation show at the lack of respect in the Hokage's chosen address for her. It was all part of the game, after all, and to show annoyance at the lack of a respectful title would only paint her as an immature child in the eyes of those around her.

"A child is hardly responsible or knowledgeable enough to oversee the matters of laws and taxation this Council requires of its representatives," an older man sitting by the Hokage, his face lined with age, accused. Sansa almost laughed. They thought she knew nothing of how to run a village as contained as Konoha? The entire Elemental Nations would fit within the sprawling, ancient lands of the North and she had ruled it all. She knew taxation, she knew laws, she knew ruling– and she knew it better than most sitting in this room.

Sansa met the old man's eyes and smiled, ensuring that her sharp teeth were visible. "How strange," she said, tilting her head slightly in mock confusion. "I can't seem to recall any of this well-meaning concern over my age when two four-year-olds were sent to live on their own."

She took a moment to revel in the discomfort of those around her before continuing. "Regardless of that, your protests hold no legal weight, as I'm sure you're no doubt aware. By Konoha's own laws, I am an adult and I was one from the moment the Hokage named me genin. By the legislation written into Konoha's own charters, I have the right to be here, to represent the interests of my clan," she said and she smiled at him, just another in a long line of old men who had tried to take the power that was her birth right from her. "So please, most august body," Sansa made a sweeping gesture with her hand, "let us begin this session."

There was a pause, as if everyone was waiting for someone else to protest, to come up with a reason why she was surely wrong, that she surely could not sit on the Council.

Nobody did.

"Very well," the Hokage said, and the meeting commenced.

The vast majority of the meeting was dry. Unimaginably so. Sansa presumed it was intentional, intended to dissuade her from returning, judging by the discontent on many faces around her. She kept her own face trained in what Arya had called her 'court mask', an expression of carefully trained polite interest without seeming either condescending, grovelling or over-eager. It was a delicate balance, but one Sansa had had decades to perfect.

For most of the session, she was content to remain quiet, instead listening to others speak and taking the time to pick out where the alliances lay, who opposed who, where the more neutral parties sat.

Her attention sharpened when the topic of Root came up. The main interest of the Council, it seemed, was the process of integrating the Root forces into Konoha's main shinobi forces– the investigation itself into Root's existence and its actions was 'classified', of course.

The issue with the integration, Yamanaka Inoichi explained, was that the Root agents were so deeply conditioned that the team he had put together for the purpose of de-conditioning the agents for integration had met little success, even a month later. Only the youngest of the agents showed any signs of true progress. Jiraiya's progress with the seal binding their tongues had been similarly stalled, as it seemed 'incomplete'– Sansa carefully kept her face clear of guilt– so they couldn't even determine if the conditioning was all psychological or if the seal was involved.

"With such a risk, why take the risk of integration at all?" The Hyūga clan head demanded.

"Pah!" The Inuzuka clan head spat scornfully before Inoichi could answer. "Like it's any different from running a mission with one of your branch family– unknown seal, unknown capabilities, all hush hush, could go off like a fucking exploding tag for all we know!"

The Hyūga clan head reared back, a look of outrage on his face. "How dare you compare–" he started to say.

"Enough," the Hokage intervened then, flaring his chakra through the hall, a heavy enough presence that Sansa doubted even a chakra-blind civilian would have been able to miss it. "We decided to integrate the Root agents into our forces and we will continue our efforts in doing so. Jiraiya has remained in the village to work on the seal to ensure that there will be no issues for those who will eventually work alongside the agents. Whatever else they have been forced to do, under... corrupt leadership, the Root agents are and always have been loyal shinobi of Konoha."

Corrupt leadership. That was certainly one way of dressing up Danzo's actions.

With that, the meeting moved on from the Root integration efforts and Sansa waited until it was drawing to its conclusion, where the members of the Council had their turn to speak if any of them had an issue they wanted to be heard, to stand up.

"Yes, Fuyuko-chan?" The Hokage asked, his face soft, his smile kindly and his eyes hard as stone, chakra threaded through with agitation and annoyance.

Sansa looked back at him, donning a grave expression on her face.

"I have an issue I would like to raise," she said. "I wish to bring up the matter of Root again. Not the investigation, which I understand is ongoing, or the reintegration of the agents, as we covered that earlier, but I wish to discuss the steps we must take to ensure such a horror will never occur again. I don't speak as a shinobi now, but as the civilian orphan I was when I myself was taken by Danzo to be inducted into Root against my will."

There was a stirring around her, murmurs and whispers from the various clan heads; the hissing sounded like a hive of bees, one that she'd just kicked.

The Hokage looked like he'd just sucked lemon. When he didn't invite her to continue, Sansa decided to invite herself. She was a Queen; she didn't need him to give her permission to speak.

"There exists a balance of power between the shinobi and civilians of Konoha," she said, "and the Elder Shimura's actions has upset that balance most grievously. There must be a means of reassurance that such an upset cannot repeat itself, of powerful shinobi taking advantage of the civilian population."

"And do you have any thoughts on how this could be accomplished?" asked one of the clan heads she didn't recognise, the man's tone barely skating the edges of civility in his sheer condescension. Sansa smiled serenely at him.

"Why, of course," she said. "What use is there in raising a problem without a solution? I believe we need to increase civilian representation on bodies of authority such as this Council. Increasing civilian representation will provide a wider platform through which their concerns and needs be given voice, as well as serve to reduce the segregation that exists between shinobi and civilians, allowing each population a greater awareness of what is occurring within the community of the other.

"Elder Shimura took advantage of the divide that exists within Konoha and because of it, his treasonous actions went unnoticed for decades in which he stole civilian and clan children alike. If shinobi and civilians were united, if the shinobi were aware of the disappearance of exceptional children in the orphanages and of suspicious disappearances of civilian children from their loving homes, and if civilians had heard of missions gone wrong where young shinobi with rare bloodlines had gone missing in action, or the young clan children who had gone missing after the Kyuubi attack, well– perhaps the pattern would have become clearer and Elder Shimura would have been caught earlier. We will never know."

"I agree," one of the two lone civilian representatives on the Council spoke up. The woman appeared lovely and delicate in her many-layered kimono with its intricate embroidery and her amber-orange hair piled atop her head, held in place by jewelled pins, but her eyes, green as seaglass, were sharp and her face was hard. She met the Hokage's eyes, unflinching and straight-backed, her mouth set in a thin line. "We are owed restitution for the crimes Elder Shimura committed against us, for our children who were stolen and abused and murdered.

"Since Elder Shimura's crimes have gone public, many families have come forward whose children have gone missing, most of them with either shinobi heritage or who were the result of a liaison with a shinobi, as well as relatives of entire families who were murdered, only for no bodies of children to have been recovered at the scene– or families whose children were lost in the aftermath of the Kyuubi attack, their bodies never found. These crimes have been ongoing for decades and they were committed in Konoha, by a shinobi of Konoha– an Elder who presided on this very Council. An Elder who was counted as a very close friend of yours, Hokage-sama."

"Watch your tongue, Haruno-san!" Snapped an older woman who stood near to the older man who spoke earlier and the Hokage.

Haruno looked coldly back at the woman. "It is you who should watch yours, Elder Utatane. Everybody in this room knows how close you were to Elder Shimura. I'm certain I am not alone in my doubts as to your innocence in his crimes," she said and Utatane went pale with fury as Haruno turned back to the Hokage. "Uzumaki-sama is correct," she said, and Sansa very carefully did not react to being addressed by the correct title as acting clan head to the Uzumaki Clan for the first time since she'd stepped foot in the hall. "Civilians are under-represented on bodies of power in Konoha," Haruno continued, "and that is no longer acceptable, not when the shinobi of Konoha have proved they cannot protect us within the walls of our own village. Not when Konoha's governing body of shinobi have proved they cannot protect us even from themselves."

The silence that followed Haruno's declaration was heavy. Her accusations were not without merit and everyone was aware of it.

"What do you suggest, then, Haruno-san?" Yamanaka Inoichi, the man working closely with the Root agents in the attempts to de-condition them, asked.

"All the clans have representation on this council," Haruno said coldly. "As do the Hokage's genin team, though the reason why escapes me. I am putting forth that for each shinobi on the Council, there be a civilian Council-member to match."

"That is ridiculous!" Protested one of the Clan Heads, another who Sansa could not name this time but would be able to by the next meeting.

"How so?" Haruno asked, arching a perfect eyebrow. "We are just as vital for the continued survival of Konoha as you. Without us, there would be no Konoha. And we are not without other options. We joined Konoha because it promised us safety for our families and demand for our businesses. If we are not guaranteed safety, then we can and we will leave and ply our trades elsewhere. We may not be shinobi, but that does not mean we are powerless."

As the Clan Heads and the Hokage wavered under Haruno's threat, Sansa couldn't help her thrill of delight. She could not have hoped for a better outcome to her gambit and as she met Haruno's eyes and the other woman dipped her chin slightly, she knew she had gained a tentative ally amongst the Council. Only time would tell if that alliance would lead to anything greater.

Sansa–

Paused.

Where had that thought come from?

She had had the Uzumaki declared a Clan for the sake of eventually legally seceding from Konoha. She had very little interest in Konoha's internal politics, other than seeing to the safety of her loved ones. What had driven her to start making waves, and at her first Council meeting too?

You are the heiress to my empire. You are the heiress to my ideals. You are the heiress to my Will of Fire.

It took everything Sansa had not to flinch, to keep from paling as her entire body felt as if it had been plunged into ice. She had barely given the Kotoamatsukami any recent thought, but its poison had been lingering, affectingher without her even realising. She had never had any interest in Konoha's politics– but Danzo had.

Sansa kept her breathing even, despite having lost the feeling in the tips of her fingers. Itachi had yet to get back to her, but she had to trust in him. To trust that he would find a way to help her. He had warned that he was involved in a dangerous mission, trying to infiltrate a dangerous organisation with an unsettling interest in the Jinchūriki. As a Jinchūriki herself, Sansa had a vested interest in his success and had agreed that he should commit to the successful infiltration first, to gaining their trust before seeking her out in order to avoid any suspicion falling upon him. She regretted that now. She had thought that her knowledge of being under Kotoamatsukami's influence would somehow mitigate its effects on her.

She had been wrong. Dangerously wrong. Arrogantly so.

Forgive me, she prayed, begged, to all those who trusted and relied on her.

But in her first Council meeting was not the time to have a breakdown, so Sansa focused her attention back outward, to where Haruno was easily holding her own against multiple Clan Heads. The Hokage simply looked exhausted as he watched everything devolve before him. Seeming to sense her eyes on him, he glanced over and something flickered cross his expression she couldn't quite read before he dipped his head in slight acknowledgement of a move well-played.

Gracious in her victory, Sansa dipped her head in return.

At least if she had to become involved in Konoha's politics, she had ensured she was a player in her own right, not a piece to be moved by others.

She was nobody's pawn and she would never be a pawn again.

~

"Oh my," Inoichi had murmured when Uzumaki Fuyuko walked in to the hall where the Council met and Shikaku had not been able to help but nod his agreement.

He'd had a vague idea of what Uzumaki Fuyuko looked like before that day, had heard that she had Kushina's colouring and remembered the jewel-bright red hair of the Uzumaki, but that was nothing compared to seeing her in person. Oh, she was a pretty thing, all porcelain fair, with deep ocean-blue eyes and brilliant red hair, but it was more than that.

It was the bright, bold streaks of paint she'd lined over her cheeks, daring people to remember the Sacrifice she carried within her and tremble in fear. It was the Uzushio spiral she'd streaked over her forehead where a hitai-ate traditionally sat in the colour of fresh-spilled blood, forcing all of Konoha to look upon it and flinch away in shame. It was the effortless mantle of authority she wore as she glided across the room with the sort of elegant poise the Fire Daimyō's own wife would be jealous of, commanding the attention and respect of the hall as if it was her birth-given right.

She acted as if she'd been raised in the Shogun's* own court, instead of an overcrowded orphanage, the streets of the Yūkaku and the deepest, darkest depths of Konoha's underground special forces, Root.

Except, he had read the classified reports that Tenzo, Kakashi and Jiraiya had given. He was one of about three people who had. Fuyuko had spoken about having 'tea' with Danzo, while repeatedly discussing events she should have had no knowledge of– talking freely of highly classified events she should have had no knowledge of. Something no Root agent should be capable of.

'She has no seal,' Tenzo had concluded in his report.

'He was grooming her,' Jiraiya had written in his.

Grooming her for what, the question had been. Seeing her now, Shikaku didn't have a doubt left in his mind.

Danzo had been grooming her to be his successor. And why would he silence his successor?

Shikaku suspected that the Hokage could see it too– he had known his old friend best, after all. Sarutobi and Danzo were two sides of the same coin; they had different faces, but they were melded from the same metal. He could see it and he was afraid of her potential, of what she could become. Perhaps he was right to be afraid. Fuyuko had reason to be angry, to see Konoha razed to ashes as Uzushio had been left as little more than rubble. But Shikaku saw what Danzo must have, when he was given a Jinchūriki to turn into a human weapon.

Potential. Sheer potential for so much more.

His opinion only grew further as Fuyuko finally made her move after staying silent, her expression calm yet attentive enough that none could possibly accuse her of not paying attention to what was going on.

She brought up Root, of course. But not in a way he could have predicted. Not in a way he thought anyone could have predicted. And in one simple move, she had completely destabilised the entire balance of power within the Council.

It was ingenious in its simplicity. Having just two civilians on the Council had always made them largely a non-entity when it came to important matters regarding the governing of the village. They were there to be courted for votes, not to make votes themselves. But if there were enough civilians on the Council, they would be able to propose their own legislation, make their own votes, and potentially have their own laws passed.

Konoha would always be ruled first and foremost by the Hokage, a shinobi that was selected by the previous Hokage, usually because they were the most powerful shinobi in the village. The Fire Daimyō had to approve the previous Hokage's choice, of course, but the Fire Daimyō had never had an issue with a selection before. That didn't mean the Council didn't have an important role in the running of the village, however, and if the civilians were given a larger say on the Council... Konoha was primarily a shinobi village and despite calls for demilitarisation in the past, it had remained primarily a shinobi village, prioritising its resources on its shinobi forces and that was in no small part because of decisions made by the Council.

Shikaku wondered if Fuyuko even realised the potential extent of her proposal. Haruno Ayaka, the sister of the Head of the Konoha Branch of the Haruno Merchant Clan certainly did, if the way she'd gone after it like a shark who had scented blood in the water was any indication. Because Fuyuko and Ayaka were right– the civilians of Konoha were owed restitution and a means of assurance that something like Root wasn't about to happen again. And now that Fuyuko had given Ayaka the idea of more civilian representatives on the Council, she wasn't going to let go of it– neither was the Banking Guild representative next to Ayaka; no matter how quiet Kichirō Masahiro was being, there was a familiar gleam in the representative of the Banking Guild's eyes that spoke of trouble anyone who'd ever made an error when filing their Clan's yearly taxes would recognise.

"I'm going to invite Uzumaki-chan over to dinner," he mused out loud to Inoichi and Chōza as he watched the other Clan Heads panic.

"Of course you are," Chōza said, amused.

"Don't forget to invite her brother," Inoichi said idly, his eyes trained on the chaos around them. "It'll put her more at ease."

"I'm not inviting her over to interrogate her," Shikaku protested.

"No, you're inviting her over because she's made you curious and you want to pick her apart, to see how she works," Inoichi said, not even bothering to look over at him. "And normally I'd tell you off for doing that to a child, but in this case I'm just going to warn you."

"Warn me?" Shikaku asked and Inoichi finally deigned to face him, smirking slightly.

"Yes, warn you that if you pick her apart, she's just going to do the same to you– don't forget, I've read the same reports you have."

In other words, Inoichi was aware of just the sort of tutelage Fuyuko had had.

"You agree though, don't you," he said, looking back over at her, to where she sat on her seat, where she had been sitting for the last almost four hours now, having barely shifted, straight-backed and regal, head held high, like she was sitting on a throne. "She's something special."

"With her parents, how could she not be?" Inoichi said, so softly that Shikaku and Chōza had to strain to hear him. "But yes, I agree. I think she is special. And if she survives the Chūnin Exams, I believe she will become legendary."

~

Gathered in his office, seated across from two other members of his old genin team, their faces just as lined with age as his own, Hiruzen felt impossibly weary.

Koharu and Homura were outraged, he could see it in their expressions, in how they held themselves. It had been an unpleasant month for them; they no longer enjoyed the benefits they once did as their power and influence in the village had been severely limited in the wake of Danzo's exposure, the suspicion that Haruno Ayaka had so bluntly voiced in the Council meeting today now an unspoken ghost that haunted their footsteps. Hiruzen wondered how long it would be until one of the Council members petitioned for them to be removed from the Council entirely.

He wondered if Fuyuko would be the one to do it. She had already destabilised an institution as old as the village itself, in her very first Council meeting. Oh, it had been raised before, the idea of more civilians being on the Council, but the shinobi had always been able to suppress such notions. In the wake of Root's exposure and the official version of the Uchiha massacre, however, the civilians had a weight behind them they'd lacked before, a cause for their lack of faith in the shinobi governance. There would be no suppressing such a petition this time. No bribery, no threats, no outright denial would stop what Fuyuko had started.

He wondered if she realised what she had done; he thought she did, or that she at least had an idea. Fuyuko had never concealed the fact she thought little of shinobi. That she would use what influence she had for the sake of Konoha's civilians should not have surprised him. He should at least be grateful there was one part of Konoha's population she did care for, that she would defend, when she looked towards the shinobi forces and leadership with so much scorn.

The weight of the mistakes he had made with Minato's children weighed heavily on his shoulders. Leaving them to be raised in the orphanage, among civilians, had been a mistake– they should have been raised by a shinobi family from the beginning, acclimatised to the lifestyle from birth.

At least Naruto had embraced being a shinobi. After the first disastrous few years at the Academy, where he'd been systematically sabotaged by his teachers, he was finally starting to make friends and learn. Iruka had reported that Naruto was a good student when he set his mind to it, that he learned better by doing, and if a practical demonstration for a skill was shown then Naruto was quick to master it. It made Hiruzen proud to read those progress reports, so different from the sick feeling he'd gained reading the progress reports Danzo had sent him of Fuyuko's training.

Progress reports he now suspected were a lie.

"She is out of control," Koharu said tightly, as if reading his mind. "Danzo was supposed to have trained her." 

"He did," Hiruzen said quietly. "We just never thought to ask what he was training her for."

"What he was training her for?" Homura asked incredulously. "She's a Jinchūriki! A weapon!"

"She's also a daughter of a Hokage and a direct descendant of the last Uzukage of Uzushio," Hiruzen said and he could see the dawning realisation on the faces of his old friends. "Her potential for leadership is... quite astonishing. You both saw her today– who did she remind you of?"

Koharu and Homura looked at each other with troubled eyes. "Minato," Koharu finally murmured. "Minato– and Danzo."

"Exactly," Hiruzen said grimly.

"Then what do we do?" Homura demanded. "She's dangerous– she's already destabilising the government we've spent decades building up!"

"We can't make her disappear," Koharu pointed out. "She's an acting clan head– and the person publicly known for exposing Root. People will ask questions if she disappears, questions that can't be suppressed."

"I know," Hiruzen said with a heavy regret. "That's why I'm sending her to Kiri for the Chūnin Exams."

Koharu and Homura turned to look at him, astonishment in their eyes. "Hiruzen," Koharu said, "I'm– surprised."

"That I would be so ruthless?" he asked quietly. "I love this village, Koharu. I will always place Konoha first– before everything and everyone." And he had– his family, his morals; everything of value to him, he'd always put Konoha first, before it all.

"You think they will kill her," Homura said. "It will cost us a Jinchūriki."

"We'll still have the brother," Koharu dismissed, "and he can be controlled." 

"She may survive," Hiruzen warned. "I'm sending her with a team slated as career genin, but Danzo did train her– and she is smart. My hope is, however, that if she does survive, the Chūnin Exams will help open her eyes to both the benefits of her training as a shinobi and the peace and strength of Konoha, compared to a village such as Kiri."

"So we win either way," Koharu summarised. "And when her team is killed off by the other village genin, she is offered a common enemy of Konoha." She looked approvingly at him. "You thought this through." Hiruzen smiled faintly.

"I am the Hokage," he said and both his old teammates smiled back at him, the expressions softening the lines on their faces; for a brief moment, they looked younger and Hiruzen could almost imagine they were a team again, years before he'd ever had the responsibility of an entire village placed on his shoulders; the weight of it unimaginable.

But, as he'd just said, he was the Hokage and he did bear that weight; for the good of the village, he had to make the hard choices, the monstrous choices, such as sending a precocious seven-year-old to her probable violent death.

Forgive me, Minato, Kushina; he thought. But he would not change his mind.

For the good of Konoha.

*The Shogun is the title of the military dictator of Japan during a period of their history. Originally appointed by the emperor, the shogun was in charge of the armed forces and basically took over. Daimyōs were the feudal lords in shogunal Japan– they were large landowners and vassals of the shogun. In the Elemental Nations, I kind of picture it that the Shogun has a city in the Land of Iron that he rules the Elemental Nations from with his samurai and the daimyō are all his vassals.

A/N: Just as something to note, Haruno Ayaka is not Sakura's mother (that will be Haruno Mebuki). She's actually Haruno Kizashi's (Sakura's dad's) OC sister. I subscribe to the fanon that the Haruno family are Merchants and relatively important ones at that, considering Sakura is in a class full of Clan Heirs.