Disclaimer: How much did we learn about the government structure in the Hidden Leaf Village? Not much? Then Naruto does not belong to me, his story belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

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"Did you know the Village Council tried to have you banished for failing to retrieve Sasuke?" Kakashi didn't look up from his book while Naruto gawked at him. "Don't worry, no one was able to take it seriously. I think Lady Hokage herself is still cracking up over it."

Naruto didn't appear to hear him. "B-B-BANISHMENT?! BUT I WASN'T THE ONLY ONE ON THE MISSION! WHAT ABOUT SHIKAMARU AND KIBA AND CHOJI AND NEJI AND ROCK LEE?! WHY WAS I THE ONLY ONE GETTING PUNISHED!?"

Kakashi whacked him on the head with his book and continued reading as if nothing had happened. "I just said no one took the suggestion seriously. The idiots who suggested it were laughed out of the meeting. When word got to the Clan heads of everyone else involved in the rescue mission, they threatened retribution for attempting to punish a ninja for a mission failure. Your name wasn't even mentioned, the mere concept was enough to incite rebellion.

"And that's not mentioning how Danzo tried getting the Daimyo's backing…"

"What."

"Oh yes, the Daimyo didn't even want to be bothered with something that was considered minor, something about it being "not worthy of his attention and time". And I think Danzo almost got executed for mentioning your name?"

"Why?"

"Because of the decree that forbade people from talking about you in connection with the Nine-Tailed Fox."

"…"

"The law that meant death if it was broken?"

"…"

"Danzo said the reason for wanting to banish you was because you were the Nine-Tailed Fox and the ninja that went on Tsunade's behalf to talk the Daimyo out of it almost executed him for telling the Daimyo, who didn't even know about that little piece of information."

"…"

"Danzo was an idiot."

"Ohhhh…" Naruto nodded reluctantly. "I get it."

"Not really."

Naruto scowled.

"Tsunade is supposed to answer to the Daimyo, who lords over the entire country. She only controls the Hidden Leaf Village, which doesn't really cover a large area when you think about it. Therefore, we are essentially the biggest militia within the area."

"What does that have to that ol' fart, Danzo?"

Kakashi closed his book and looked up, "Danzo has had years of experience under his belt and has made more connections than Tsunade had in the first few months as the Fifth Hokage. Danzo attempted to utilize these connections he made with not just the clans in this village, but businesses and other lords across the country. He also had the backing of Root, in case you don't remember. Imagine an underground force of soldiers raised from near infancy at your command. More people like Sai, and not as likely to go against Danzo, either. Compared to that, what did Tsunade have behind her? Shizune, Jiraya, and maybe a few clan elders and Jonin, myself included. On paper, it sounds like Danzo had all the chips on his side.

"So…what went wrong?" Naruto perked up and leaned in, suddenly interested in what had happened without his knowledge.

"The Civilian Council simply declared they voted for your banishment and were laughed out by Tsunade because of how stupid it sounded. Even taking away the whole being the 'vessel' for the Nine-Tailed Fox, they were just saying they wanted to kick out a ninja for no good reason. The Hyuga clan head, Hinata's father, was the first of the Ninja Council to protest."

"He was?!" Naruto gaped. His opinion of Hinata's father was low and based on his conversation with Neji during the match in the Chunin Exams. And Hinata's talks about wanting to make him proud wanted to make Naruto pound some sense into that guy.

"In his mind, the Civilian Council were throwing out someone that helped repair a tense relationship with his nephew and gave his eldest daughter more confidence as a shinobi – which, as I have been told, was getting him to respect Hinata more – and supported the Fifth's protests. He also added that, by that logic, Neji would have to be banished too, since he failed the mission as well."

"I KNEW IT!" Naruto shouted in triumph. Kakashi glared at him and Naruto quieted down.

"And that's when the Clan Heads of the ninja on the failed mission spoke up as well, angrily demanding to know if their children or relatives were going to be punished despite their critical injuries that came from it. After all, they said, it wouldn't be fair to shoulder the blame on one person from a five-squadron group. Shikamaru's father even pointed out that the plan wasn't even yours to begin, since that's what it sounded like. I think Kiba's mother even tried to rip someone on the Civilian Council apart when she realized that Kiba could very well be banished for the same reason. It helped that she didn't hate you, too. At least, to my knowledge, she didn't protest when you interacted with Kiba at the Academy."

"She…didn't care…?" Naruto grew a little teary-eyed.

"You do realize that she runs a clan that allies itself with intelligent dogs. Her clan would know what it was like to be called an animal.

"Anyways, then the other heads started protesting, too, when it clicked that the 'punishment' that the Civilian Council wanted to use on you might apply to them one day. Meanwhile, Tsunade had sent a high ranking ANBU to meet with the Daimyo because she suspected Danzo would try getting support from the man, therefore, going over her head. He even tried to blackmail her with some information, but I think Tsunade threatened to kill him and even ordered the evidence destroyed in front of him."

"And that's when Danzo almost got killed for breaking the law about that dumb ol' fox?"

"Pretty much. Oh, and his allies couldn't be bothered with something like that, either. Especially when they knew that they would be going against two of the Legendary Sanin. And then Tsunade asked the Civilian Council why they thought she would actually listen to them in the first place. It wasn't like we have a democracy, after all. So, she pretty much told them if they tried it again, she would execute them for wasting her time like that again.

"And that's the story of how you almost got banished without even knowing it."

Naruto frowned, "Okay, let me get this straight; the Civilian Council tried to use the Sasuke Retrieval Mission as an excuse to get rid of me."

Kakashi nodded.

"But no one would take them seriously."

Kakashi nodded again.

"And then Hinata's dad pointed out that if I was being banished for failing the mission, it would have to apply to everyone else on the mission too and that's when things started getting out of control."

Kakashi nodded a third time.

"And then Danzo tries getting the Daimyo and everyone else on his side to approve this, but it doesn't work out 'cause they all think it isn't worth the effort and almost got killed because he was breaking that decree that forbade mentioning that I was the vessel to the Nine-Tailed Fox at all?"

A fourth nod.

"So what happened to the guy that almost killed Danzo?"

"I think Danzo was able to talk himself out of it, but the Daimyo listened to Tsunade's representative in the end, too. Oh, and Tsunade laughed in his face when he came back."

"Wow," Naruto looked out in the distance, watching the trees shake and rattle against the wind. He sniffed and wiped his eyes, amazed at how many people came to his defense when he was still a rookie. Naruto blinked and looked at Kakashi with a frown.

"Why the hell did you decide to bring this up now?!" Naruto waved his fist furiously as Kakashi.

Kakashi shrugged, "It just came to me. One time, I recalled something completely out of the blue and told Guy about how I had lost my virginity to –"

Naruto covered his ears and sang loudly,

"LALALALALALALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

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Author's Note: This is what happens when you shelve an idea after reading a Crack fic on "Naruto gets kicked out by the Civilian Council for failing/succeeding the Sasuke Retrieval Mission" and simply wanted it to be referenced in passing. This was meant to be a fic dealing with the aftermath of the Blood Prison film, but my friend looked at what I had the other day and wanted me to expand upon it.

Now to write a scenario where the Civilian Council is mocked and hated for wanting to banish Naruto for succeeding the Sasuke retrival mission.

Also did a little research on the Daimyo in the Narutoverse and he can be swayed pretty easily. I also don't think he would want to waste his time on something so stupid as that, even if Danzo had him under his thumb.