Chapter 158: The New Hokage and the Council

A few days later, Tsunade took over the seat of Hokage, and just as Yuna had expected, the whole event was incredibly boring. Just a bunch of old people telling the audience how great everything was inside Konoha and how great Konoha itself was. All of that was topped off, by Hiruzen giving another speech about the Will of Fire, before it was finally time for Tsunade to take over the position.

Truth be told, Yuna half expected Tsunade to cause a commotion or at least hold an outrageous speech, but it seems like she was either reined in by Hiruzen or actually knew what she was doing to some degree. She WAS Hashirama’s granddaughter after all, so having at least some education in regards to being a leader shouldn’t be weird.

Most people went home after Tsunade finished her speech. Yuna, however, stealthily followed her back to the Hokage office. She felt like something interesting was about to happen. Yuna was looking forward to seeing how Tsunade would react to all the paperwork and, as expected, not even ten minutes after sitting down behind the Hokage’s table, Tsunade’s roar could be heard.

“WHY THE F* DO I HAVE TO READ REPORTS ABOUT GENIN TEAM’S PEELING POTATOES AS A MISSION?! I DON’T GIVE A SHIT!!!”

Hiruzen, who was currently lazing around in the Hokage’s office as well, chuckled a little as he took a deep drag of his pipe. Although he claimed that he was here to “advise the new Hokage”, in truth, he was here to gloat at Tsunade’s misfortune.

“ANBU!!! GET ME THE COUNCIL MEMBERS HERE, RIGHT NOW!!!”

Hiruzen chuckled yet again. He already knew how this conversation would end, he had, after all, tried out the same approach a few times. Unfortunately, the members of Konoha’s council were shameless beyond belief. There is a law in Konoha, that requests and reports that were deemed to be of critical importance by the council can be handed over to the Hokage for processing. That might sound reasonable at first glance, but Konoha’s council members were shameless enough to look Hiruzen straight into the eyes while proclaiming that a random D-rank mission report is of “critical importance”, while the other members would unanimously agree to that. Hiruzen did not doubt that the same would happen with Tsunade.

Half an hour later, the council members left the Hokage office, and just as Hiruzen had expected, they shamelessly piled up all their work onto Tsunade, before leaving the office again. Truth be told, Hiruzen was a little surprised that Tsunade managed to hold herself back and not attack any of the council members directly.

Hiruzen was just about to speak some calming words to Tsunade when a shiver of terror went through his body. The anger that was pouring out of Tsunade was gone within an instant and was instead replaced by coldness and indifference.

“Very good! If this is how they want to play, then they really can’t blame me for what I am about to do.”

Without another word, she pushed the button under her desk that called for an ANBU, who opened the door moments later and kneeled in the middle of the room. Before the ANBU could say anything, Tsunade gave him a command.

“Invite Yuna Uzumaki to the Hokage’s office without being noticed. I have a mission for her.”

Hiruzen couldn’t help but look at Tsunade with disbelief on his face. He had told Tsunade a little bit about Yuna while the Hokage ceremony was being organized, but he still wasn’t sure what Tsunade was planning. He couldn’t help but get a bad feeling about whatever Tsunade was planning to do.

“That won’t be necessary. I am already here.”

Without the slightest chakra fluctuation, Yuna appeared in the middle of the room, causing Tsunade and the ANBU to flinch while Hiruzen only chuckled a little.

‘Tsunade got surprised just because Yuna appeared in the middle of the room, huh? Seems like she has a long way to go before getting used to her new position if something like that can surprise her.’

“Why are you here already, Yuna? Are you spying on the Hokage office?”

“Well, obviously. Actually, I was hoping to see how you would turn one or more of the council members into blood-mist, but you somehow managed to hold yourself back which was kind of disappointing.”

Tsunade sighed in annoyance but decided not to say anything about Yuna blatantly admitting to spying on the Hokage’s office. She had, after all, something important for her to do. After sending away the ANBU that was still looking at Yuna, while being unsure of what to make out of the current situation, Tsunade started speaking.

“As far as I have heard, you completely ignore any and all forms of decorum, seniority, and rank, while ruthlessly using blackmail and bribery to get what you want.”

“Correct.”

Tsunade could feel her eyebrow twitch a little when Yuna casually admitted to Tsunade’s claim but ignored it since this was exactly what she was looking for.

“In that case, I have a mission for you. An S-Rank mission. I want you to gather blackmail material on all members of the council and give it to me.”

While Hiruzen paled when he heard that, Yuna thought about Tsunade’s mission for a moment and then shook her head in denial.

“One S-Rank mission isn’t enough. You want me to gather specific information about multiple high-ranking individuals inside one of the 5 major hidden villages. Even if it is my own village, there is no way that is only worth one S-Rank mission.”

Hiruzen paled even further when he heard that the problem wasn’t that Yuna had to spy on high-ranking members of her own village nor that the mission was too difficult, but that she simply wanted more rewards.

“What else do you want?”

A crafty smile appeared on Yuna’s face when she heard that question. If it was a few weeks ago, then there wouldn’t be anything she wanted. Although there was still nothing she wanted for herself, the Uzumaki clan could use their own personal healer, and she found the perfect candidate for that role a short while ago.

“I want you to teach one of my Uzumaki clan members, Karin Uzumaki, medical jutsu. She has good chakra control, is reasonably talented from what I can tell, and has an interest in learning it. How about you teach her for… three years?”

A frown appeared on Tsunade’s face as she started thinking about Yuna’s offer. Although it would take some of her time away to teach someone medical jutsu, considering how much time she would save by having the council members actually do their job, she would still come out positive at the end of the day. After thinking about it some more, a crafty smile appeared on her face.

“Fine, but this won’t happen if you don’t get some material on all the council members. There is no way I can teach someone while being flooded with paperwork.”

“Haha sure. See you soon.”

Without saying another word, Yuna turned around and left the room. Tsunade couldn’t help but chuckle a little as soon as Yuna was out of the room.

“Didn’t you say that tricking her wasn’t easy, sensei? She walked right into my trap. There is no way she could get blackmail material on ALL of the council members, so I won’t have to teach anyone either.”

Hiruzen, however, only shook his head.

“If you make a deal with the devil, you will never achieve total victory. At the end of the day, the devil always takes the biggest piece of the cake.”

“What do you m…”

“Mission successful, oh great, and crafty Hokage-sama!”

Without waiting for anyone’s approval, Yuna casually reopened the door and walked back into the room. Tsunade, meanwhile, could only look at her completely dumbfounded, while Hiruzen shook his head at Tsunade’s misfortune.

‘She probably could have haggled it down to just one year, but Tsunade became greedy and tried to trick Yuna and now she is stuck with the three-year deal. Oh well, not my problem.’

Yuna, meanwhile, approached Tsunade’s desk and started depositing scrolls on it. Each scroll had the name of one council members written on it. Although Tsunade was still skeptical, she picked up one of the scrolls and started reading through it. The more she read, the paler her face became. Multiple accounts of cheating on his wife, coercion of people of lower ranks, bribery, blackmail, fraud. Every single case had either photos or official documentation added to it, to eliminate any doubts that this was faked. She picked up the next scroll, and her expression became even worse. Tsunade planned to siphon maybe one or two percent of Konoha’s funds for herself, but this person was actually claiming almost three percent for himself.

Tsunade decided not to bother with the other scrolls for now. If she were to read more of this right now, she might actually die of anger. Although she wasn’t a huge supporter of Konoha in general, it was still her grandfather’s legacy. After seeing it being run into the ground by a bunch of greedy old men and women, how could she not get angry?

‘Seems like it is time for a purge. But first, there are a lot of questions that Yuna needs to answer. She was clearly aiming for this, so let’s see where she wants this to go.’