Sarutobi sighed as he ambled through the doors into one of his least favorite rooms, the Konoha Council Chambers. Normally he disliked dealing with the civilians, but this time he was downright dreading it. It was the day after the Kyuubi attack and the accusations that were sure to be thrown around would almost certainty be far worse than normal.
The second Sarutobi entered the Chamber went silent, and a second after that it exploded again. Ignoring all the noise the Third Hokage, and current acting Hokage, made his way to the seat that was reserved for him and sat slowly. The chair was hard and cold, and it was only made more uncomfortable by the knowledge that he shouldn't be sitting there, a certain blonde Hokage should have been in the chair. Some things weren't meant to be, apparently.
"Shut up, would you?" one of the councilors asked. "Really, what are you buffoons achieving at the moment? Nothing, that's what. Now shut up and sit down, I have the upmost confidence that Hokage-sama will address your concerns."
The man was named Rei Kuzaki, and he was a very well-to-do merchant. He also happened to be one of the most influential members of the council, his power only rivaled by two others. After his statement the room quieted down significantly, but there was still the echo of murmurs reverberating around the room.
"Heh, gotta agree with him on this one. We're not getting anywhere at the moment, so if you don't enjoy sitting in these outdated wooden chairs, shut up and listen."
That was Nabuna Surai, a starch enemy of Rei's. They disagreed on just about everything, but when they did agree their goal was as good as achieved. He was also one of the two other councilors who had power that could rival Rei's. The room got even quieter.
"Seconded, or perhaps thirded," Gura Huruo said. He was the third of the three most powerful councilors, and with his added support the room was as quiet at the grave. He wasn't a starch enemy of either of the other two, but he was hardly an ally of them either. He usually just did whatever he felt like.
"Thank you," Hiruzen said as he nodded to all three of the men. Once they returned the gesture he moved on. "The most important issue confronting the village is reconstruction, the damage caused by the Kyuubi before it was sealed was extensive and. . ."
"Sealed?" Nabuna inquired, completely cutting Sarutobi off.
"Yes," Hiruzen replied. "Biju cannot be killed, but they can be sealed in living hosts. But the issue now is that. . ."
"Wait, the Kyuubi is in a human body now?" Nabuna asked, half curious and half irate. Scratch that, about ten-percent curious and ninety-percent irate.
"No," Hiruzen assured him, "Well, yes, but it's is sealed within a person."
"So the demon is now a human!" Nabuna yelled. Other civilian councilors roared their approval.
"No, it's just sealed in a human!" Sarutobi yelled, losing his temper. He really hated this part of the job of Hokage.
"Nabuna, be quiet for a moment," Rei said, which only increased the ire of his rival. "I'm not a shinobi nor do I pretend to be, so I can honestly say I don't understand what you mean by 'sealed.' Could you demonstrate it or explain the process?"
Sarutobi smiled at that, indeed he could. "Yes," he answered as he took out a scroll and a pot of ink. Opening the scroll he positioned it so that the council could see and then quickly drew up a basic storage seal with the ink. Once he was done he removed a kunai from his robe and promptly sealed it within the scroll. "As you can see, the scroll merely contains the kunai and in no way shape or form IS the kunai."
His demonstration done he unsealed the kunai before pocketing the scroll. The room was deathly silent. Looking up he blinked before registering what was wrong.
"So seals can be undone," Gura said, summarizing what was on everyone's mind. "Mmmmm. . . not that I really approve of this decision, but for the safety of the village I believe the host of the Kyuubi should be killed. If that happens the Kyuubi will die as well, right?"
Sarutobi's eyes widened as he remembered his successor, and more importantly his successor's son. The one that Gura had just proposed executing. A wave of KI washed over the council, and even the most hardened members shrank back. "You do realize that you're talking about killing an innocent child?" he asked, and then clarified, "The Kyuubi was sealed into a baby, who you just proposed killing, so that the seal would be more stable."
The KI didn't let up, but after a minute Nabuna spoke up. "You realize WE'RE talking about the lives of everyone in this village, right? If that seal breaks it's bye-bye for everyone near the host, and that probably includes a few babies."
The KI went up a notch. 'There's no way I'm allowing Minato's son to be killed,' Hiruzen thought to himself. "Are you doubting the seal that was crafted by the Fourth Hokage himself?"
Nabuna swallowed. "Yes," he croaked. Gaining confidence he continued, "Yes, I'm not willing to wager the life of my family and the lives of my friends on that seal. The Fourth Hokage DIED making it, that implies that something went wrong. Even if nothing did, I'm not willing to gamble with people's lives like you seem to be intent on doing. I thought it was the Hokage's job to make the hard decisions that benefitted the village. . ."
At this point his confidence had waned again and the KI in the room had continued to increase. He decided, wisely, to stop talking. Most of the other councilors were already cowering under their desks, and Nabuna decided to join them, it wasn't a half bad idea.
Over the next ten minutes the room was dead silent, and in that time the KI slowly abated. Once it had cleared the councilors stood back up and took their seats once more, each looking cautious. The only ones who hadn't been covering in fear were Gura and Rei, the latter of which decided that it was time to make his move.
"I agree with Nabuna when it comes to gambling with the lives of the villagers, but I have a different solution. I have heard of something like what you've been describing. Is the Kyuubi host what is called a jinchuriki?"
Sarutobi nodded, not liking where this was going. "Well, I have heard of villages that have managed to train their respective jinchuriki to control the powers of the demon sealed within them. I propose that the host be trained from birth to control the demons power. Danzo-sama, you would be able to do that, wouldn't you?"
"Of course," the aged man replied, fighting with all his might not to laugh at the look on Sarutobi's face. The Third Hokage was now even more pale and upset then when Nabuna had proposed killing Naruto.
"The Fourth wanted Naruto, that's the name of the child, to be looked upon as a her, not turned into a weapon," Sarutobi responded. Rei blinked, then smiled.
"That's perfect then! He doesn't need to be a weapon, he just needs to be able to control the Kyuubi's power. With the power of that demon he would be able to become the savior of the village, and while I and most everyone else in this room would prefer if the Kyuubi was dead I believe that we'd be willing forcing it to serve Konoha." Rei looked around the room at the other councilors, many of whom were muttering in approval.
"The village has recently lost the Fourth Hokage, who we all cared for dearly, but he has left us a jinchuriki who will be able to wield the power that can protect this village for generations! The power very demon that destroyed the our village will be added to the power of the Will Of Fire, and Konoha shall prosper!"
The mutters had now turned into a dull rumble, and the moment Rei was done speaking the room burst out in roars and yells of approval. It was a good solution, it both forced the Kyuubi to serve them and saved the life of a child. Despite this, Sarutobi ground his teeth. 'There's no way I'm giving Naruto to Danzo,' he thought.
"I don't believe that Danzo is fully qualified to train Naruto," he said aloud. Rei seemed to deflate a little at this, but then he perked back up.
"Well then, what about Jaryia, or one of the ANBU captains? Surely we have someone equipped to train him," Rei said, his confidence restored.
'We do, Jaryia would be fine and Danzo would work as well. Heck, most ANBU could train him to get the level of control over the Kyuubi's chakra that the council wants, but that would mean having Naruto's childhood stolen from him. No, I couldn't do that to Minato's son.'
"Unfortunately we have no one equipped to handle that job," Sarutobi said as he stood and strode out of the room. "This session is over, the council shall reconvene tomorrow at the usual time to discuss matters of actual importance."
Everyone's eyes followed the God of Shinobi as he exited the room, the doors swinging shut behind him.
"No matter how you look at it, that was a bad choice," Gura said to the silent room, "If there really is no one equipped to train him then the threat should be removed. It's cold, but people, even children, do die. He is allowing his judgment to be clouded."
Around the room the silence was broken by murmurs of agreement. "And," Gura continued, "The one who will suffer for his lapse of judgment is Naruto. I too have heard of how jinchuriki are treated, and knowing that Naruto is in no way able to restrain the Kyuubi should it break free I would avoid him like the plague too."
'Sarutobi, you poor bastard,' Danzo thought, 'By trying to make things better you just ensured that Naruto will be treated like the other jinchuriki, an outcast. Were you even thinking about the consequences of your actions?'
(A/N: Alright, to clarify this is a one-shot. Why did I even bother to write this? Well, the Konoha Civilian Council is a fanon concept that has merit, but most writers make them a bunch of idiots. If there really was a Konoha Council, this is probably what they'd look like. That was why I wrote this, and also to point out that Sarutobi was the main reason that Naruto was ostracized as he was, even thought he was never beaten. Even if the villagers believe he was the Kyuubi then that would just mean they were beating a demon that had the power to destroy the village; and that's one heck of a logic fallacy.)