Chapter 201: Shocking Council Meeting

"Any idea why this meeting was called, Hiruzen?" Danzo asked in his emotionless tone but an underlying curiosity was unmistakable in his eye. Every clan head had a right to call for a council meeting if they had a serious issue to be discussed. Such a call, however, needed the approval of two more clan heads since it was not the Hokage calling it. This rule was actually a nice little way to get around the Hokage.

"I have no idea, my friend." Hiruzen answered as he walked towards the council chambers without a worry. Hiruzen knew the laws of Konoha by heart and as such, he was aware that whatever would be discussed would not be overly important in the grand scheme of things. While the clan heads could bypass him in this way, they would still need his approval for any major change. "My guess is either some dispute between clans or an announcement of a new business venture of the Nara clan." Hiruzen shrugged.

Danzo, though, was very nonplussed by that answer. The whole problem was that it was the Nara clan calling for the meeting. The Nara clan never did things like that. Not once since the founding of Konoha. 'Announcement of a business venture my ass.' Danzo mentally grumbled. 'The whole clan is so lazy they would wait however long until the next scheduled council meeting to announce something like that.' He rolled his eyes, not even deeming it necessary to mentally comment about the stupid idea of the Nara clan being in a dispute with someone else.

It would take a murder or kidnapping of their clansman to get them motivated enough to move their asses. Danzo knew. After all, that was the reason why he purposefully avoided recruiting any Nara into his ROOT. He had enough problems without the motivated Nara clan on his ass. No amount of intelligence and strategic brilliance was worth that.

Entering the council chamber, both Danzo and Hokage were greeted by the entire council already seated. Shikaku Nara, the man who called the meeting, was slouching in his seat with droopy eyes, around him Inoichi Yamanaka and Choza Akimichi, the two clan heads who granted their approval for the meeting. Around them were the clan heads of the Hyuuga, Aburame, Inuzuka, and Uchiha clans.

It pained Hiruzen to see that sorry state.

At the start, there were no less than seventeen clans in Konoha, all with a healthy population. Now? Most clan seats on the shinobi side of the council were empty. Some, like Senju, out of choice, others, like Kurama, out of necessity. While the Senju clan had only one member and thus wouldn't normally qualify for the council seat by normal rules, they were rich, and most importantly, a founding clan. Tsunade could sit on the council if she so wished.

The Kurama clan, however, wasn't nearly as important and because of their abysmal numbers in recent times, their privilege to sit on the council was lost. But the Kurama clan was only the most recent one to lose this privilege. There were Hatake, Mitarashi, Sarutobi, and many other clans that didn't fulfill the membership quota to sit on the shinobi council.

As such, from the initial seventeen, only seven clan heads now sat on the shinobi council. A pitiful state, really.

The civilian side had ten members. Five seats were taken by rich merchants entrenched in very important business fields that provided the village with weapons, food, and other necessities. These seats were quasi-hereditary since the merchants usually gave the seat alongside their business to their progeny when they retired. The next five seats were voted in by the people of Konoha.

Enlarging the civilian council was one of the follies Hiruzen agreed on to lighten his burden during the third war. At first, it was only five seats with the important merchants but now... now Hiruzen actually had a hard time finding a proper excuse to dismiss the five voted-in civilian members.

It certainly was not a fun time, having ten civilians and only seven shinobi on the council.

Not when the last set of seats belonged to the Elders, Homura Mitokado, Koharu Utatane, and Shimura Danzo. That was yet another can of worms that usually gave Hiruzen a headache. The elders' support was very fickle. On one issue, they could support the shinobi council, on another the civilian one. Thankfully, the Elders were quite limited in their influence.

And lastly, there was him, Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Hokage. Twenty-one people in total if one didn't count all the ANBU skulking around the shadows in the room.

'So then... what is she doing here?' Hiruzen's eyes trailed towards the cheerfully humming Anko Mitarashi sitting in a guest seat as she waited for the start of the session and suddenly, Hiruzen no longer felt all that worry-free about this meeting.

...

The council meeting started and Anko restlessly waited through all the inane procedures, all the meaningless talks, and making sure everybody was present despite clearly seeing nobody missing. Yup, she really didn't like politics and the formal procedures that needed to be followed. She was dying of boredom despite the patience brutally instilled in her by Orochimaru.

Finally, thirty minutes after the start, Shikaku was given the word. Anko watched the man lift his head from the table and confusedly look around after Choza nudged him before the gears in Shikaku's head started working as he lethargically stood up.

"I called this meeting on the insistence of my clan's long-time allies, the Senju clan." Shikaku slowly let out in a measured drawl that gave everybody ample time to realize why Anko was present. At least, the ninjas did while the voted-in civilians were as clueless as it gets. Anko straightened her back, not due to the clueless and disgruntled glances from the Elders and the Hokage, but due to what was coming next. "The Senju clan asked me to present a case of custody for one, Uzumaki Naruto, to the Senju clan because of his heritage as a scion of the Uzumaki clan and his blood ties to Tsunade Senju through her grandmother, Mito Uzumaki."

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The second Shikaku stopped talking and flopped back into his chair, a deafening silence engulfed the room. Not even the ANBU guards dared to breathe after hearing that.

The topic of custody of Naruto Uzumaki was a frequent one a few years back. The clan heads wanted a boy, either to strengthen their clans or simply to give him a home. Even the ever-isolationist Aburame clan tried to gain custody of him, if only because they knew the burden the boy carried. Alas, Hiruzen Sarutobi was the Hokage, and with the help of his Elders and using the hatred the civilian council had for the boy, he made damn sure to block any and all such proposals.

Hiruzen was blindsided by this. He spent the last few days trying to figure out Tsunade's angle. He knew her. She would not be appeased so easily. At the very least, the second she got to know about her birthright, he expected her to storm her way into Konoha and try to yell his brain out while also causing an unhealthy amount of collateral damage to vent her frustration. This... calm and collected letter with a working threat and set of reasonable demands was so far out of his apprentice's modus operandi, Hiruzen was really worried.

'She baited me.' Hiruzen understood. 'She made me waste time on her knowledge of the Konoha Creation Act while...' His eyes coldly stared at Anko Mitarashi, the viper who slithered under his feet without him noticing.

Hiruzen was not stupid. He knew well that Tsunade was the only one who could take care of Naruto even if he disapproved. They shared blood and that meant something. That was yet another reason why her absence in the village didn't bother him much. Unless she was in the village, she couldn't get custody.

But now...

Anko watched with an expertly hidden glee as the Hokage's eyes swept through his fellow councilmen and his lips set in a concerned frown. She felt proud of herself for pulling this off. Especially since it was so obvious neither of the Elders knew what was going to happen in the meeting.

'Maybe this manipulation and blackmail stuff is not all that bad. The process is dull and boring but the result is sweet!' Anko inwardly grinned while outwardly she projected a sweet innocent smile that fooled nobody.

She watched as Hiruzen sat in his seat, most likely mulling over the situation and what he could do to prevent it but in the end, the old man simply sighed and called for a vote.

And so, the council voted.

The five civilians from the important merchant families voted for giving custody to the Senju Clan. Tsunade had far too much blackmail on them for them to not give their vote in her favor.

As expected, the Hyuuga, Yamanaka, Nara, Akimichi, and surprisingly even the Aburame clans voted in the Senju clan's favor.

But the Hokage, the elders Homura and Koharu, the remaining five voted-in civilians, the Uchiha, and Inuzuka clans voted against the proposition.

Only Danzo abstained with a small knowing and calculating smirk.

Which meant it was a tie. Ten versus ten with one neutral. Oh, Anko knew why Danzo abstained. He did the math after careful observation of the room. Now that it was a tie, the vote would be postponed and that would give him a chance. He would probably try to approach her and scout out what he could get by supporting her. According to Rei and Tsunade, the man always wanted the jinchuuriki in his grasp.

'Unfortunately for the cyclops wannabe, Tsunade put the matter into the most dependable hands in the entire Konoha.' Anko amusedly observed the relieved looks on Hiruzen's face.

Shikaku stood up and actually smiled. "Naruto Uzumaki is a civilian with a clan heritage. He is not yet a shinobi of the village, hence the votes of the Elders hold no value according to the laws of the village. As expected of Elder Shimura, you know our laws by heart." Shikaku said in a voice laced with amusement as Koharu and Homura flushed, Danzo's smirk froze, and Hiruzen's pupils dilated. "As such, the vote is eight to ten in favor of the proposition. Since the child is not yet a shinobi, the Hokage can not overrule this." Shikaku glanced at Hiruzen before turning towards Anko, "Congratulations, Anko Mitarashi. Your and your clan's guardianship of Naruto Uzumaki was approved."

Anko simply hummed and comfortably leaned back into her chair as the screaming contest started as the unhappy civilians realized that the Snake Whore, as they called her, was the only 'member' of the Senju clan present in the village.

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