Pre-Chapter A/N: Finally managed to get an upload in on time. Small wins! More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio. Experimenting with two chapters a week, we'll see how long I can keep this up for.
XXXXX- SHORIRAMA SENJU
"And so I call this first meeting of the Hokage's advisory council in order," I said, feeling the robes as they weighed me down as well as the comforting weight of the hat as I rose from my seat.
We were in one of the many meeting rooms that dotted the Hokage tower. Having it rearranged into a semi-permanent meeting space for this council of mine had been the first thing I'd tasked myself with this morning. In some ways, you could call it my first post-war act as Hokage. Well, that and making the appointments of the people that filled this room.
I looked around them now and realised that avoiding allegations of favouritism was going to be near impossible. Good thing I was a military dictator and that went par for the course with military dictatorships.
"I assume most of you should be very familiar with each other. You are more than familiar with me, after all. But for the purpose of this meeting, can we have introductions? Just your name and your role in the new Konoha government will suffice," I said, turning first to my left-hand side. They would move in a half-circle and then return to the person on my right-hand side, the most important role of them all.
"I am Uraume Hyuga. Head of Anbu," she said, rising and then returning to her seat. She was the first Head of Anbu not to be promoted from within the division, and thus the first Head of Anbu to not actually be a member of the organisation. It was going to ruffle a few feathers for sure, but I wouldn't have appointed her if I hadn't felt that she was suitable for the role at the very least. She would keep things in order.
Next in the line was one of my genin teammates.
"I am Toshiro Takehada, Head of the Academy and Shinobi Education," he said. That was another area where I was promoting one of my people over the existing apparatus. It was going to go better than Uraume's appointment into Anbu, at the very least. For one, the clans gave fewer fucks about the Academy than they did about the Anbu. They did most of their training in-house. Of course, over time I would see to it that that would no longer be the case. But for now, they could ignore the academy. That worked well for my plans.
And continuing the theme of the council being made entirely of my people, the next person to rise was Shikahime. Where the others had done so crisply and sharply, she rose with a sort of lazy lean that suited her even for all it was out of place in the cold discipline of the room. "Nara Shikahime. Intelligence, Counterintelligence, and Strategy," she said. And that was another invention of mine.
The goal there was simple. Put the Nara mind towards spying. Well, not spying per se. The Anbu were still going to be in charge of that no matter what. Her job was just going to be putting together the results of what they gathered and what we got from the next ministry together and turning it into actionable things I could work with. She was the one in charge of separating the signal from the noise.
"I am Inoken Yamanaka, Head of Torture and Interrogation," he said, and I nodded. He was the second half of the group that would report their intelligence gathering to Shikahime. And in his case, I didn't even have to circumvent anything when it came to getting him promoted. He had already been the next in line, apparently. His grasp of the Yamanaka clan techniques meant no one, not even his elders in the clan, were better at getting information out of a target than he was.
The four of them made up the left-hand side of the table, and I turned my head to the last seat on the right-hand side.
"Nara Kagame, Head of the Hospital," she said, and I nodded, leaving that aside. She was also the one in charge of my kekkei genkai transplant efforts, but that was not something I was going to be advertising here and now.
"I am Uzumaki Reiji, Head of the Barrier Corps and Fuinjutsu Research and Development." The red-head stood up, snapping to attention and offering me a bow. I had offered the position to Grandmother—the second one, that was—but she had vehemently turned me down and suggested merging the roles. The Barrier Corps at present was basically filled with Uzumaki already. So having them do fuinjutsu R&D while they were at it was a no-brainer. If they managed to make enough shit, we could see a splitting of roles, but the present outfit would work for now.
"Shiba Aburame, Head of Root." Was it a mistake? Maybe. But like it or not, Danzo had had a point. There was a need for better spies. Better shinobi trained from the ground up to act in the shadows and with loyalty to Konoha being their only priority. The place where he had gotten it wrong was when he began to see himself as the only path forward and believed working against the village would somehow help the village. Shiba was nowhere near arrogant enough for that, and as his position on the table showed, I would be keeping a very close eye on him and what he did. I had faith in him, though. And faith in myself not to repeat Hiruzen's mistakes. That was why I chose Shiba partly. He was my friend, yes, but he was not one I would hesitate to put down if it became necessary.
"The name's Uchiha Uzume. Chief Enforcer," she said, not bothering to stand up. I gave her a look before sighing and turning to the rest of the room.
"Now that we all know what we're doing here and what our individual roles are, we can get to the first order of business. Which is?" I prompted.
"The war," Shikahime filled the silence.
"Indeed. We wiped Iwa off the map, so they won't matter. But Kumo, Suna, and Mizu remain standing. What are we going to do about that?"
"Your letter to Suna hasn't received a response yet, so we can't tell if they want to proceed with the war or not. Mizu has stopped their attacks on our coast. Either because they have decided the pushback they were receiving made it not worth it, or because they have abandoned the war effort as a whole once they realised that Iwa and Kumo were going to be pulling back one way or the other. Kumo is dead silent. Chances are they should have received some information about their Kage's demise, either from those we were unable to capture or from the lack of progress updates," Shika said, and I nodded.
There was still one piece on the board unaccounted for, though.
"And Ame?"
"I have gone through the reports from the survivors of the Battle of the Rains," she said, and I liked how she avoided mentioning my cousin or her teammates by name. They were the only survivors, after all.
"From what they were able to notice, the Land of Rain still remains fractured into split clans. If this Amegakure you anticipate has been formed, then it will still be in its early days."
"I see. That gives us an opportunity there. What do you suggest?" I asked.
"The Land of Rain is a key buffer state between us, Stone, and Sand. The fact that Stone is off the table means that it and Rivers are important because they are our buffers with Sand. Allowing the rise of another power there could prove beneficial. But only if it is a power we can either influence or, preferably, control entirely."
"And if it is a power entirely hostile?" I posed.
"Then it would be a threat. An alliance between them and Sand would give another of the Great Five a straight path to attacking our territory, which has never been the case. Even without an alliance, the Land of Rain possesses a strong industrial base. Steel, electricity, machinery, technology; their civilian populace produces all in droves. And then there is the large food potential. The only thing preventing Rain from rising to one of the Five is their size."
"Tell me what you would have me do, Shika. In plain words."
"Hanzo the Salamander must either be eliminated or brought to heel. The latter would be preferable as a compliant Rain would be a useful ally, but the former would still be better than having a hostile but united Rain."
"Then it shall be done. Give me a month and I'll bring you his head. Now on to the next order of business. Kumo. What are we going to do about that can of worms?" I asked.
"I say we kick it further down the road. We can worry about what they do next, or we won't. But we won't know what they do until they do it. And by the time they move, we will have strengthened ourselves to the point where it will not matter," Shika said almost immediately after. Uzume made a noise of disagreement.
"I say we crush them now. Give them the same treatment we gave Iwa. Destroy the village and salt the earth that remains," she said, her smile as sharp as a dagger.
"I'm not really in the business of destroying whole villages," I instantly refuted.
"If we want peace with either Suna or Mizu, who would both be harder to destroy than Kumo, we must show that there is some value to negotiations with us. If we just destroy everyone we defeat, then they could either become all the more likely to surrender, or they would fight to the bitter end most ardently. If the latter happens, then this war will cost us even more. A cost we cannot afford," she said.
"When you say 'cannot afford,' what do you mean?" Reiji asked.
"We lost hundreds to either death or injury during the taking of Iwa. Our battle-fit population stands at just over four hundred. Suna are the least populated ninja village, and even they can field thousands more. We have won more victories than anyone else in this war, but that has meant that we've done the most fighting in the war so far. Suna and Mizu are both relatively fresh," she said.
"And what stops them from fighting us either way? If we let Kumo crawl back to their feet, what stops the three of them from coming at us again?" Uzume pushed.
"Because by the time Kumo is even close to being ready, we will have either secured terms with Mizu and Suna or removed them as threats. What we did in Iwa will matter for a long time. Not since the great villages were founded has one been destroyed. The entire First War passed with not a single village having to endure combat within its walls. The world is watching now. If we want to avoid being torn apart while we are weakened, now is the time to step back, not to press an attack with strength we do not have," she said.
Uzume's lack of reply was basically her conceding the point, so I nodded.
"Have terms sent to Mizu. Offer them peace and say we will not retaliate for the attacks they waged along our coast and will accept those attacks as their just reparations for the death of their Jinchuriki at our hands in the battle of Uzu," I said with a sigh.
"That seems unnaturally generous," Kagame pointed out, speaking for the first time since she'd given her name.
"In ten years, I'll see to it that they pay the price of their actions when we can actually punish them. For now, we will say we cede the right to vengeance when in truth we can't do anything either way," I said.
"So your terms of peace are to tell them we will not be doing something which we couldn't even do if we wanted to?" she clarified.
"Precisely."
"Your relationship with the truth is just as interesting as your Granduncle's," she said and left it at that. I'd push her on that in a more private setting lest she divulge something best left buried.
"And what if they know we are lying?" Toshiro asked.
"Uraume?" I asked.
"We've found what I suspect to be the last of the spies belonging to the other ninja villages," she said. I nodded.
"Bring them in. It's about time we move on them. Have Inoken get us everything he can from them, and treat as necessary," I said.
"You've been hunting the spies? How did you even get close to finding them? And if you've found them, why didn't you do something sooner?" Uzume asked.
"Yes, to the first. As for the second, Danzo did know who most of them were, and he left records to that effect behind. Finding the rest was just a matter of leveraging the incredible talents of the clans we have here. And then there were a few false flags here and there to see who would bite on what bait. We can't say for certain who was spying for whom, but I do believe Uraume when she says she's found the last. And as for why we didn't do anything sooner, moving too early would have made the others go to ground. Even bringing one spy in could have made all the others too cautious for us to catch," I explained, giving the hints of what Uraume and I had been working together on for months.
"So that's what we do then? We give terms of peace and hope they get accepted?" she pressed, switching tacks.
"If they know what's good for them, they'll accept the terms. I am not my Grandfather. If the other Kage refuse to behave, then I will bring them to heel."
"I thought we didn't have any army to do anything with."
"If push comes to shove, I am more than an army," I said, and it probably said something about how the fight against the Raikage had changed how my closest friends saw me that none of them said anything about the objectively arrogant statement.
"Then let's hope it doesn't," Kagame snarked from her seat.
"Now moving on to other matters…"
—
"How are things looking for him?" I asked, staring down at the body of the last of my cousin's surviving teammates.
"He'll live. And somehow without permanent damage. The healing he was able to receive on-site was nothing less than miraculous," Kagame said, running her hands over his body. And wasn't that the kicker? Having looked through the site of the attack and tried to piece things together, both Uraume and Shika were in agreement that Orochimaru had been the first to get hurt. The remnants of Katsuyu's skin that had been grafted to him from his burns left little guessing as to how he survived.
Tsunade had been healing him. She'd probably been healing him even at the time she died. In some ways, he was her last act. And that was why I could not do what the wise thing would be in this situation and get the threat off the table.
"See to it that he makes a full recovery," I ordered, closing my eyes and letting out a breath. For better or worse, Orochimaru was all that remained of the Sannin.
"Are you certain about that?" I heard Kagame's insidious whisper. This old hag.
"Absolutely," I said, perhaps more sharply than I should have. But her smile just widened like she'd gotten something out of me.
"Your Granduncle would consider this a mistake. He was the one pushed as the alternative to you for the position, was he not? Whenever you make a mistake, whenever things go wrong, whenever you seem even the slightest bit unpopular, people will start whispering in his ear again, propping him up. Allowing him to live is a clear and persistent threat to your reign," she said, but if she wanted to convince me of something, then she had taken the wrong tack.
"Then I must be perfect then. I will be perfect. I will be, because I will have no choice but to be. Let him live to see how much better I will be than him at doing the job. Let those who supported him realise that they backed the wrong horse. Let my doubters have the means to speak, and nothing to say," I said.
"Confident."
"Can't be Hokage without a bit of confidence," I cut in.
"And arrogant too," she continued, similarly uncaring for what I'd said.
"Perhaps you are right and you are less like your uncle than I thought. I see it now. You are no Hashirama, not by a long shot. Instead, you remind me more of his friend, Madara."
"Madara Uchiha? Now I know you are crazy," I scoffed.
"Madara thought he was unbeatable too. He thought he could do no wrong. Don't forget how Madara ended, though. Because he went alone, while your Grandfather went with his brother. No matter how it might seem for now, you are not alone, and you do not have to act like you are," she said.
"I know I'm not alone."
"Then let us pray you do not forget it," she said, and then was silent for a few seconds before she perked up again.
"Just say the word though, and we can paralyze him from the neck—"
"Kagame. Please. Just heal him. Get him back to fighting fit, please," I practically begged.
"Only because you grovelled for it."
A/N: Chapter ends with a look at how things are going for our favourite snakity snake snake. Next six up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.