(LIFE IN THE HIDDEN LEAF) CHAPTER SIX

The next few days continued in such a mundane fashion that, before Naruto knew it, it was time for the next meeting.

He had almost forgotten about it.

The village had been busy enough to keep his attention elsewhere. There were still people coming to him with questions that probably could have been answered by someone else, reports that needed signing, and the occasional problem that seemed to have existed for weeks before anyone thought to mention it to him. Meetings, reports, and decisions that would once have gone straight to the Hokage’s desk were gradually finding their way onto Naruto’s. He’d gotten used to it, mostly.

He’d been in a good mood that morning, too. He’d spent the walk to the office thinking about Hinata and the children, still carrying the easy warmth of breakfast with him.

He stopped smiling when he saw the meeting chamber.

There were more people than last time.

“That’s never a good sign,” he muttered under his breath.

Kakashi, already seated at the head of the table, glanced up.

“You’re late.”

Naruto looked at the clock and saw that he was early, but didn’t bother pointing it out. Instead, he gave Shikamaru a nod as he took his seat, finding him already absorbed in the papers spread out in front of him.

The Daimyo’s representatives were there again, although they had brought someone new this time. Naruto didn’t recognize the man. He was older than the others and dressed plainly enough that he might have been mistaken for another civilian representative, except that Naruto noticed how often the others glanced toward him, almost automatically, whenever he moved.

Naruto leaned toward Shikamaru, slightly. “Who’s that?”

Shikamaru glanced over. “No idea.”

“Oh.”

That seemed to settle it.

The room gradually quieted as everyone took their seats, and Kakashi waited until the last few conversations had died down before looking toward the representatives.

“You said you had something to bring before the council.”

The older man nodded and reached for the folder in front of him. Rather than launching into an explanation, he opened it and passed the first set of papers down the table. Naruto took his copy when it reached him and glanced over the first page, his eyes catching on the heading: Proposed Administrative Framework for Postwar Konoha.

He read through the first few pages, slowing down as he realized just how much had been packed into the proposal. Military deployments, reconstruction, finances, treaties, civilian oversight; there was more here than he had expected, and a lot of it seemed to overlap with things they had already been discussing. He understood the basic idea behind most of it, even if some of the details were complicated enough to make his eyes glaze over. 

The people who had written it had clearly spent a long time thinking about how the village should be run, but Naruto couldn’t help wondering how many of them had ever had to make those decisions on short notice.

He let out a loud breath and rubbed at his cheek as he turned another page. There was a brief cough from somewhere down the table, and when he looked up, Kakashi was watching him with what looked suspiciously like amusement. 

The older representative cleared his throat. “The framework is meant to clarify where the authority of the village ends and the Daimyo’s begins now that the war is over.”

One of the clan representatives looked up from his copy. “And you think that’s unclear?”

“At the moment, it’s based largely on precedent.”

“Which has worked for us.”

“For the most part.”

The older man looked at him for a moment, his expression making it clear that he thought the answer was obvious.

The clan representative glanced back at his papers.

Kakashi’s gaze moved across the table. “Some of this is going to cause problems.”

The older representative smiled politely. “We assumed there would be some disagreement.”

“That’s not really what I meant.”

“I know.”

Shikamaru had been reading in silence. He turned another page, stopped, and went back a few lines before resting his finger against the paper.

“This.”

The representative looked toward him. “The deployment section.”

“Yes.”

Shikamaru read it again. “You want approval before a deployment can be authorized.”

“For planned deployments.”

“I can see that.”

“Then what is the concern?”

Shikamaru looked at him. “The exception.”

The representative glanced down at the document.

“For emergencies.”

“What counts as an emergency?”

“A threat to the village or its immediate interests.”

Shikamaru frowned. “That could mean almost anything.”

“The Hokage would have to determine whether the situation qualified.”

“And then?”

“The office would notify the Daimyo’s representatives as soon as possible.”

Shikamaru leaned back in his chair. “So the Hokage decides first and explains it afterward.”

The representative’s expression tightened slightly. “That’s a rather cynical way of putting it.”

Shikamaru tapped the paper again. “I think the wording needs work.”

Naruto looked at the document.

That sounded about right.

Kakashi spoke before Shikamaru could continue.

“Shikamaru.”

“What?”

“Let him finish.”

Shikamaru leaned back with a sigh. “Fine.”

The representative took a breath.

“The intention is to make sure that military action taken outside the village remains accountable to someone other than the person ordering it.”

Naruto looked up.

“So the Hokage can still act if there isn’t time to ask.”

“Yes.”

“And the Daimyo gets told afterward.”

“Yes.”

Naruto nodded slowly. “That makes sense.”

Shikamaru glanced at him.

“It still needs work.”

“Obviously.”

The representative nodded. “Then we’ll work on it.”

The discussion moved on.

It was slower than the previous meeting had been, partly because there was more to argue about and partly because nobody seemed interested in pretending the proposal was going to be accepted as written. They crossed things out, changed wording, added exceptions, and occasionally wandered into arguments that had very little to do with the section they had started with.

At one point, two of the clan representatives got stuck arguing over whether one of the provisions applied to agreements made before the war.

Naruto tried to follow it, but after a while, he gave up and looked out the window.

The village was carrying on below them with none the wiser. People moved along the streets, shopkeepers called out to customers, and a pair of Academy students came tearing around a corner near the market, chasing each other until one of them nearly ran into an old woman carrying a basket.

Smiling softly at the sight, Naruto looked back at the table.

The argument moved on to reconstruction, a subject Naruto understood a little better. There were buildings that still needed repairing, families who had lost their homes, land that had changed hands during the war, and a dozen other problems that weren’t going to disappear simply because the fighting had stopped.

The Daimyo’s representatives wanted greater control over how the money was spent, while Kakashi wanted the village to have enough freedom to decide where it was needed. Shikamaru kept asking for numbers, and the clan representatives wanted assurances that their interests wouldn’t be forgotten in the process. Naruto mostly wanted them to stop talking in circles.

Eventually, though, they reached something everyone could live with. It wasn’t perfect, and Naruto doubted anyone in the room thought it was, but at least they had something they could agree on. The Daimyo’s office would have oversight of the larger reconstruction funds, while Konoha would decide how those funds were distributed once the projects had been approved. Military construction would be reviewed separately, which led to another argument that Naruto only half followed.

By the time they finally moved on, the sun had shifted across the windows.

Naruto glanced at the clock.

“Are we almost done?” he whispered.

Shikamaru shook his head, and Naruto sighed.

The meeting dragged on for a while longer. By the end, a stack of amended documents sat in the middle of the table, and the original proposal had been changed enough that Naruto wondered whether anyone would recognize it anymore.

The representatives began gathering their papers, and Kakashi leaned back in his chair.

“I think we’ve done enough for today.”

There were a few murmurs of agreement.

Then, the older representative stood.

“There is one other matter.”

Naruto looked at the ceiling.

Of course there was.

The man reached into his folder and pulled out another document.

“This concerns the other villages.”

That got Shikamaru’s attention.

Kakashi held out his hand, and the document was passed to him. He read it once, then went back to the beginning.

By the time he finished, the other representatives had gathered their papers and left the room, leaving only him, Naruto, and Shikamaru behind.

“What is it?” Naruto asked. 

Kakashi didn’t answer.

Shikamaru leaned over. “What does it say?”

Kakashi handed him the document.

Shikamaru read it, his expression growing more serious as he went.

Naruto looked between them.

“What’s wrong?”

Shikamaru read through it for a moment.

“They’ve invited the other villages.”

“For what?”

“A Five Kage Summit.”

Naruto waited.

“Postwar relations,” Shikamaru added.

Naruto looked at him. “That’s all it says?”

“That’s what it says.”

Naruto turned toward Kakashi. “And you believe them?”

Kakashi folded the document and set it on the table.

“We’ll need more information before we know what they’re actually planning.”

Naruto leaned back in his chair. “Great.”

Kakashi looked at him.

“We’ll find out.”

Naruto studied him for a moment, then looked back at the document.

“Soon?”

“Probably.”

“That’s not very reassuring.”

Kakashi’s eye curved slightly. “I wasn’t trying to reassure you.”

Shikamaru gathered the papers in front of him.

“Either way, we’re going to have to prepare.”

“For the summit?”

“Yeah.”

Naruto looked at Kakashi. “Do I have to go?”

Kakashi considered him for a moment.

“You don’t.”

Naruto relaxed slightly.

“Of course, if you’ve changed your mind about becoming Hokage, you’re welcome to stay out of it.”

Naruto’s shoulders dropped again. “Right.”

Shikamaru snorted, and Kakashi laughed out loud. 

Naruto shook his head, doing his best to ignore them, as he gathered his things and stood. Then, he headed for the door.

“I’m going home.”

“You’re not staying to talk about this?” Shikamaru asked.

Naruto stopped.

He looked back at the document in Shikamaru’s hands, then at Kakashi.

“No.”

Kakashi smiled with his eyes.

“Good choice.”

Naruto left them to it.