Dark Phoenix of Konoha by White Angel of Auralon

Part 8 - The Hokage Gets Serious

The Hokage Gets Serious

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.