Elders (Working Behind the Scenes)

[rune_of_luna]

 Cleaning Up Political Messes Since Team Tobirama

(really, Hiruzen and Danzo were bad enough, but et tu Tsunade-hime?!)
 

“Tsunade-hime ordered what.”

Homura measured out each word carefully, only the slightest bite hidden near the end betraying his true feelings. Koharu kept her face calm and collected, even as she started to compose a list of possible placations to offer the Yamanaka as well as who to approach to best avoid the completely accurate accusations of a quick cover-up.

“Yamanaka Fuu was ordered to search the mind of the unidentified Nara, resulting in the incapacitation of the former agent. The damage done is unspecified and prospects of his recovery remain to be seen.” The kunoichi flatly repeated herself once more, and Koharu suppressed a sigh as she dismissed the girl.

It really was quite useful, she mused, that most former operatives of the now disbanded organization still tended to keep an eye on each other. No doubt habits of self-policing had been encouraged by Danzo, or at least as much as her the sour old friend former-comrade-turned-traitor could ever encourage subordinates. Then again, she refocused on Homura, whose face was carefully blank in the way that meant he wanted to throw a tantrum except he knew his poor joints wouldn’t survive it.

“Would you rather deal with the Head or the Seeds?” She asked, already knowing he would choose the latter. For all that Homura had usually taken the lead against both Hiruzen and Danzo, he preferred to leave clan politics alone. Which meant she had to deal with a no-doubt pissed off Head of the Yamanaka, but without Hiruzen to throw under the boss summon, someone had to step up and smooth things over.

“Definitely the Seeds, they were riled up enough before this mess. And we’ll need to keep an eye on Hikaku Uchiha, he’s likely to consider rash action after such… provocation against the doppelganger.” While Koharu was slightly doubtful that ‘rash’ was a good descriptor for anyone who had survived under Danzo, it was better to be safe than sorry. Also, Homura was far better with children than the rest of the three of them put together - not that it was a hard feat per se, but Hiruzen had learned his kindly grandfather act from somewhere and it definitely wasn’t Sarutobi Sasuke the-loyal-shinobi-yet-shit-father.

“He has always been suspicious of any former agent, and we can’t afford to have the Seeds exposed,” she pointed out.

The Seeds were a precious resource, shinobi they could command with far more freedom than they would dare with any average Konoha nin. She and Homura had long since subverted a number of Danzo’s oh-so-loyal agents pathetically easy, really, so many traumatized and affection-starved children, the smallest amount of kindness could buy astounding loyalty to tip them off on noteworthy matters and run some side missions, ‘for the good of Konoha’ of course. And really, what with all the guilt the general forces felt towards the ‘poor brainwashed children’, most shinobi were quite willing to support any ‘independent’ action, especially those unrelated to official missions, from the former Root operatives.

Unfortunately, them all having once belonged to the Foundation meant that most were aware of enough other Seeds that having one exposed would likely lead to the rest, and that way lead to Danzo’s fall.

“Oh no, in this case, what we need is a simple tip to the Jounin Commander - he would likely be quite interested in the unauthorized mind search and has already witnessed the Uchiha boy’s obvious attachment towards the girl. He would either stop any too obviously treasonous activities or support them subtly. Either way, we not only already have Seeds on him but have valid reasons to have the general forces watch him as well.” Homura was massaging his temples, as he was wont to do in contemplation. “After all, the Nara Clan Head turning a blind eye to suspicious activities around the mysterious Nara is quite plausible. We will have to be quick, though. Any impulsive action will most likely be done within the day.”

“I’ll leave you to it, then. It would be preferable for the Yamanaka Clan to hear the news at the same time as an official apology, as well as an offer of concessions and negotiations, rather than from the hospital or Sage forbid, the rumor mill.” She murmured, smoothing out the creases in her clothes as she stood up, her swift actions hiding her disgruntlement. 

Really, it seemed Tsunade-hime had not quite grasped that the mantle of Hokage no longer commanded the respect it once did. Hiruzen and Danzo had already used up quite a bit of political goodwill, and what little was left was barely enough to still demand the respect of the clans.

But then again, they will have to make do with what was left. After all, making do was what they did best.

Notes: This fic can also be found on ao3
Great thanks to frolic, who both inspired the fic and encouraged me to try writing scenes instead if I'm not confident about writing plot.
So basically, this is just background headcanons that were hanging around my head that somehow ended up in actual writing.
It feels so weird to post this, I haven't written an actual ficlet in literally 6 years or so?
Also, marking this as complete for now but for all I know I might end up adding stuff later on, I actually like my not-actually-useless elders.

Additional notes (Dec 5, 2018): Crossposting some of my fics from ao3 because I may as well make some actual entries, and besides may be translating/crossposting some of my Korean Digimon fics as well, so... Also, anything to help promote the latest attempt to archive our fandom content.