Omake
The Council of Eight met for what had to be the first time in a long while. Well… ever since the start of the Academy. You didn't think Naruto decided to act like his natural self via a normal, sane method, did you? No, no. The Council of Eight refers to the mental gathering of all of Naruto's personalities; that means at one time it had been referred to as the Council of Nine. However, it had been near-unanimously agreed that the personality deemed 'Control' wasn't like the rest of them, and so was kicked out of the Council. And then they proceeded to wipe their memories of his existence, to rub more salt in the wound for Control.
Oh, those poor, deluded personalities… Control was still bitter and sore over that Council decision, considering he was older than seven of the personalities. That he was forced to become the 'manager' of sorts… But more on him later.
The Council of Eight was meeting to discuss a matter of great importance. Who would get control of Naruto's body for the month-long Survival Sabbatical with Team Seven. The Great and Beautiful Anko-sama was taking all three of her favorite brats into the Forest of Death to train them like there was no tomorrow… for a whole month. That meant their rotation schedule would be thrown off.
"I'm just saying… it's my turn," Nara yawned and sported a bored expression. He, like the rest of the various personalities, was seated in a levitating circular chair in a room that was completely white. The chairs were arranged in a neat circle. In addition, he was basically dressed like Shikamaru (albeit the color of the clothes was orange), while his blond hair was tied back in a Shikamaru-style ponytail. The rest of the personalities were styled after various classmates, save for Hyuga and Yamanaka, who were styled after Hiashi and Inoichi respectively.
"Yeah, if we were staying at the Nara's, maybe." Inuzuka scoffed, petting a mental projection of Kogan behind the ear casually. He grinned ferally. "Since we'll be in the Forest of Death, I say I get dibs! Kogan can have a homecoming!"
"The absolute last thing we need is you getting more time with the body, you uncultured, flea-ridden mongrel." Hyuga pointed authoritatively at Inuzuka while trying to show off his 'Byakugan'… Really, he was just rolling his eyes to the back of his head.
"Hn. For once Hyuga has a point about something." Uchiha sneered while leaning forward and his fingers interlaced in front of his face, imitating Sasuke Brooding Position Number Eleven.
Like any Uchiha, this facet of Naruto masterfully ignored Hyuga's hate-filled glare promising death and misery. Hyuga simply didn't have enough hatred, so why spare him any attention? Does a man pay attention to an insect while squashing it underfoot?
"Hey, hey! Can we not fight guys, please?" Naruto's natural persona, dressed in Hokage garb that was tinted orange, tried to quell the fighting before it began. They might all be different personalities, but in the end, they were all Naruto. That meant their first impulse was to fight in order to settle disputes…
It happened at the last damn Council meeting. The only reason that Naruto's natural persona got to have control of the body during the Academy was because he had the Hokage hat. All of them knew that he who wore the Hat would get to have the last say. Still, Naruto's natural persona wasn't sure if that would work this time, because Uchiha was getting some wily ideas… Natural persona could see it in his eyes.
"I propose we go with Origin. The rest of Team Seven doesn't know the rest of us all that well…" Yamanaka spoke up calmly. 'Origin' being the nickname for the natural persona… for obvious reasons.
"You just don't want a Yamanaka poking around in here! Coward." Uchiha accused.
"Would you want an actual Yamanaka poking around in here?" Yamanaka queried, motioning around vaguely. "This isn't exactly 'normal'. I think we would be locked away somewhere dark… forever…"
"I second Yamanaka's decision." Aburame finally spoke up, once again reminding the Council that yes, he was indeed there… "I would not have us jeopardize our chances of becoming Chunin."
Nara and Akimichi shared a look before nodding their heads. Akimichi was stuffing his face… as usual. No rhyme or reason to it; it was just mental projections…
"Akimichi and I third and fourth that decision. And seeing as how Origin is grinning away over there, that at least brings the vote to five… a majority in our favor."
Inuzuka scowled before looking off to the side stubbornly.
"I guess I gotta be loyal to the 'Hokage'…"
"I will also agree to this decision." Hyuga smirked at Uchiha's surly expression. Clearly he was not in favor of going the traditional route, and that was precisely why Hyuga cast his vote in with the rest. Hyuga would always side against Uchiha, they just didn't get along. At all.
There were a few moments of silence for Uchiha to accept his defeat gracefully and side with everyone. When there was nothing but clenched fists, the gnashing of teeth, and a gloomy, dark aura hanging about Uchiha, Nara decided to try and speed the meeting to a hasty conclusion.
"Okay, since there are seven votes, let's just…"
"I invoke Article Seventeen!" Uchiha roared in defiance, standing up in his chair and a hot fire burning in his eyes. All of the other seven personalities heaved a sigh at Uchiha's typical tenacity.
"Damn it, Uchiha! Just once can't you let it die?!" Nara groaned while certain personalities were gearing up for another Council battle to decide who would keep the Hat. Really, it was just reminiscent of the kinds of brawls you see in bars and the like, because they couldn't use Jutsu in Naruto's mental mindscape.
For those of you who don't know, Article Seventeen is an option left to the minority when Council decisions are being made. Because the persona who holds the Hat gets the last say in any Council meeting, he can overturn any decisions in that meeting no matter how logical they may be. Article Seventeen was designed for special emergencies, such as when some persona gets a crazy idea in his head, and the majority is foolish enough to go along with him; the saner minority could then invoke Article Seventeen and get the chance to overturn that decision before it's too late.
… Obviously Article Seventeen had not been used for that purpose yet.
The only rule about Article Seventeen battles? No alliances. You all have to fight one another to get possession of the Hat. And really, why wouldn't you want it? The Hat was orange. Dattebayo.
"Let's just get this over with…" Nara sighed dramatically before they all lunged at each other and kicked up a thick cloud of dust with their brawling.
- Hours later… -
Origin was clutching his Beloved while everybody else nursed their wounds. He'd won again, naturally, dattebayo. No one was ever going to take the Hat away from him. Ever. While most of them were bandaged up like mummies, Uchiha was in a full body cast while lying on a hospital bed and glaring heatedly at the other seven personalities. No, they didn't ally against him, but they used him as a damn doormat in their mad scramble to beat each other up to win the damn Hat.
It wasn't fair!
"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted…" Nara glared pointedly at Uchiha. Similar to Origin, Nara wasn't too badly off after the brawl. They'd both learned early on that if you wanted any chance at the Hat, you needed to let the other idiot personas beat each other up, and then swoop down on the weakened victor(s) like a vulture. Thankfully, Nara did not care much who wore the Hat so long as it wasn't Uchiha… or Hyuga. The others… or himself… ehhh. It was good in Origin's hands for now. "Let's move onto more new business. Updating the Sexy Jutsu, which we've somehow kept a secret for so long… Any thoughts on modifications?"
And just like flipping a light switch, all the personas seemed chummy with one another, eagerly sharing ideas instead of heatedly arguing with one another. They most certainly did not have perverted grins as they brought up mental projections of what they'd thought up… Nope. This was an Anti-Pervert Jutsu. Believe it!
Author's Note: It had to be done. It just had to be done. XD Treat this as an omake, or how Naruto really makes decisions in his head, I don't care. I had fun. The last bit was most certainly not inspired by checking out Fairy Tail for the first time in the past week or two… Nope. Nothing pervy about that show at all…
In all honesty, though, I might just write a Fairy Tail fic someday. If only for Erza, who's gotta be my absolute fav character… Sooo much like Kushina. XD
