A week after Tsunade became Hokage
Another council meeting. Another hour and a half listening to ambitious morons try to rule her village for her. Another giant waste of her time.
Tsunade glanced over at Jiraiya, who was sitting at her right-hand side. The rest of the Village Council sat below and around them, in a circle. A small section to her left was compromised of the Clan Heads of the various ninja clans. The rest of the seating was filled with "important" business leaders and owners. They were generally ignorant, ambitious, and idiotic. They were convinced of their own importance, and their own natural ability to make the best decisions possible.
What they were really doing was wasting her time while she tried to explain to them exactly the reason why she was Hokage and they weren't: she actually knew what she was doing.
Jiraiya seemed to feel her eyes on him, and he turned his gaze to hers. He gave her a long, suffering look. For a split second, she was amused. It must be even more torturous for him; Jiraiya had never been one to sit still. Then she sobered. They were the sannin, and yet here the council was; wasting more than an hour of their time because of their ridiculous egos.
Suddenly, Tsunade couldn't take it anymore. She stood, and turned to Jiraiya, who immediately caught on and stood too. The man with the insufferably nasally voice who had been speaking previously gaped at them in surprise.
"You know," Tsunade said conversationally to Jiraiya. "I remember when people used to fall all over themselves just to do what we wanted."
Jiraiya grinned. "I remember those times."He tapped his chin in thought. "Although, it seems that these days we just don't get the same respect that we used to."
"It's like people have forgotten the legendary sannin." Tsunade agreed.
"Like they've forgotten what we can do." Jiraiya continued.
"Like they've forgotten everything that we have done. We've done more than any other living ninja for this village." Tsunade said.
"And I'll tell you a secret, Tsunade. It pisses me off that people have forgotten."
"We've earned that respect." Tsunade agreed. "Maybe it's time that we reminded people who exactly we are."
"You know," Jiraiya grinned. "I was just thinking the exact same thing."
Tsunade held out her hand, and Jiraiya clasped her hand in his.
They turned to face the council at the same time, and Tsunade released her seal, gathering all the chakra she could.
Beside her, she could feel Jiraiya gathering his chakra as well.
"We." The building shook slightly, dust raining down from the roof."Are." The ground was shaking slightly, the boards on the walls and ceiling creaking as they shifted. The various members of the village council were running for the exit. Tsunade and Jiraiya's chakra was visible now, forming a hazy, giant cone hovering upside down in the air.
"THE SANNIN!" They roared, forcing the chakra downwards in a massive strike on the floor.
The floor rocked, then split, and the building started to fall around their heads.
xxxx
Naruto reached out to grab his counter as the floor shifted, throwing him off balance.
"What the hell was that?" He asked. Was the village under attack?
He quickly grabbed his kunai pouch, belting it around his waist, and jumped out the window.
Only to realize that it was closed.
"Ow." He said, rubbing his very red forehead, his butt on the floor. He got an icepack out of his freezer, then tried again, this time after opening the window.
He laughed midway in between two roofs, picturing enemy shinobi seeing him running off to fight with an icepack pressed to his forehead.
Then he started conjuring ideas for using his icepack in a fight. After all, he was Konoha's Number One Most Unpredictable Ninja. He had a reputation to keep up.
xxxx
Tsunade walked out of the rubble laughing. She nonchalantly tossed a hunk of concrete from the ceiling behind her. She had been using it as an umbrella.
She turned to face the Clan heads, her sensitive ears picking out a "troublesome".
All of the Clan Heads were watching them. Chouza and Inoichi were hiding smiles behind their hands. Several more were suppressing their grins, their faces twitching. Tsume was openly laughing, clutching her stomach as her fangs flashed white in the sun. Hiashi may or may not have had the slightest smirk on his face, which quickly disappeared, if it had existed at all. Shikaku just stared at them, his gaze, as ever, calculating.
Aburame Shibi was as impassive as ever, his hands still on the collars of three of the civilian members who had been too slow to escape.
He saw her look at him, and he dropped them on the ground.
"Well." Tsunade said. "It seems we have enough people to meet the quorum."
Shikaku smirked slightly; if they had had one less person they would not have been able to vote.
"Does anyone else have anything else to say?" Tsunade asked sweetly. "Or shall we vote?"
"All of those in favor of Hokage-sama's proposal?" Shikaku asked. All the Clan Heads plus Jiraiya raised their hands, while the civilians were still laying on the ground.
"Perfect." Tsunade said. "While we're at it, I have another proposal. It is this: From now on, when the Hokage summons the Village council, the civilian members will no longer be required to make an appearance. And we will lower the quorum by three people, to eighteen members."
Shikaku raised an eyebrow again. Somehow he doubted that the civilian members would even be receiving summons. They would have to call their own meetings; but it would be impossible for them to have an influence on ninja-related matters without the Hokage's seal of approval.
All in all, it would save an extreme amount of time. "All in favor?" He asked, raising his hand.
All the other clan heads followed, some grinning, some deadpan.
"Wait!" One of the civilians said, standing up. Shikamaru recognized him as a rather influential merchant. "You mean..." He trailed off as Tsunade turned to look at him.
"Yes?" Tsunade asked innocently.
"Nothing." The man responded, his face white as a sheet.
"Excellent." Tsunade purred. "You are dismissed." She informed the group, and Shikaku decided to vanish before she did something even more dangerous.
xxxx
Naruto landed next to Sakura and Lee. "What the hell is that?" He asked, still holding the pack of ice to his forehead.
"It appears that Hokage-sama and Jiraiya-sama got impatient during a council meeting." Shino said, pushing up his glasses, causing them to flash in the light.
Naruto flinched; he hadn't even seen Shino.
"And they did that?" He asked, pointing to the large rupture in the earth, which led to a rather devastated building.
"With pure shape manipulation." Shino responded.
"Cool!" Naruto laughed.
"What happened to your head?" Sakura asked.
Shino and Lee turned to look at him as well.
"Window." Naruto explained.
"Ah." The three shinobi chorused, turning back around.
Naruto blinked. Was it really that common?
xxxx
Tsunade and Jiraiya smiled, then dumped back the sake.
"Well that was fun." Tsunade laughed.
"Yeah." Jiraiya agreed. "Just like old times."
A/N
This was my first one-shot that was actually meant to be a one-shot. Pretty fun to write, actually. Maybe I'll do more of these...
Whaddja think?