The Hokage sighed as he read Inoichi's report. It would seem that his plans regarding the Chunin Exams would have to be scrapped. That left one minor issue though, and that was the missions that had been assigned to Team Tetsuo in preparation for the Exams. Because they'd been pulled off the regular schedule, they had been forced to scrabble to find last-minute replacements for the two missions that the team had been forced to cancel in order to return to Konoha, and there were issues with the remaining ones, such as the fact that he would have to completely re-work the entire border patrol schedule if the team didn't take that one.
Despite the fact that Shimura Tetsuo's students wouldn't be attending the Chunin Exams in Suna, it would appear that they would still have to complete the missions that had been assigned to them in preparation for those Exams, as the alternative would end up being a nightmare of paperwork for him as he was forced to stamp the forms rescinding the missions and re-file them in the general mission pool, which meant running through that paperwork again as well. Due to the young Genin's mental states, he'd almost been tempted to go that route. The reason he hadn't done so though was because of the fact that the re-training of the recent Genin and Academy failures, and the revamping of the Academy Curriculum had generated a great deal of work that he was already way behind on.
As he signed the forms that would send Team Tetsuo to their fate, whatever it may be, he hoped that he wasn't making a mistake sending them back out there so soon after such an incredibly traumatic mission, especially considering the number of things that could go wrong during even a routine caravan escort, border patrol, or bandit clearing mission.
On the other hand however, despite the number of things that could go wrong on those three basic C-Ranked missions, they were usually uneventful, which was why it had long ago been deemed safe enough to send Genin on them so long as there was a Jounin to supervise things and make sure the kids weren't slacking off. Team Tetsuo had two Jounin at this point, though Kakashi would be departing at the end of December when the final mission he'd signed up to take in conjunction with the team ended.
Both Sasuke and Sakura were in serious need of counseling, the sooner the better, but, a few easy and routine C-Ranks that had better chances of them dying of boredom than anything else shouldn't break them before they received said counseling. Considering the fact that the team had just had a mission go south on them in a way that was pretty much one-in-a-million, the odds against something like that happening again any time soon were good.
So, while he was afraid of what could go wrong, odds were that not much would go wrong, and Team Tetsuo would come home safe.
Naruto sighed when he received the summons from the Council. The Hokage's Council of Advisors wasn't exactly a governmental body but, they held a great deal of authority and power in the village, and not showing up when summoned by them was asking for trouble, especially since the Old Man usually sided with their decisions. Of the three, the one he had heard the most about and had run into most often was Shimura Danzo who was Tetsuo-sensei's grandfather. The two of them had something of an antagonistic relationship, and would often hurl thinly veiled barbs at each-other every time they encountered each-other.
The meeting with the council, in which he, Sasuke, and Sakura had been present, had been tedious and annoying, and he had been exceedingly relieved when they had finally been released. They still had to pack for the missions they'd found out only hours earlier were back on after all, and the meeting had cut sharply into his prep time, especially since he'd unpacked his entire apartment last night and would be forced to pack it again since Suzume and Kurosaki were out of the village, which meant that he'd have to ask Satoshi to watch his plants again. Hopefully Sakura, who had moved into his building that morning while her timid father had attempted to lecture him on something or other, had learned her lesson this time. If she hadn't, he wasn't loaning her any more clothes.
"Don't Sasuke, just don't." Naruto said when he saw the look in his teammate's eyes as they exited the meeting with the Council which had had something to do with his, Sasuke's and Sakura's mental evaluations.
Throughout the meeting, the Old Man's friends had asked a bunch of inane questions that covered the same ground over and over, either intent on getting the right answer so they could pressure the Hokage into changing his decision in regards to the Exams, or intent on tripping them up and finding a reason to agree with the Hokage that sending them to Suna was a bad idea. They'd eventually found the reason that proved to them that the Hokage's decision had been justified in this instance and, because of that, the team would be forced to wait until July at the very least before they could take the Chunin Exams.
"Why not? They're just a bunch of old..." Sasuke started, apparently having been looking forward to going to Suna so he could test his skills against those of ninja from other countries.
"Don't finish that." he said, hurriedly cutting Sasuke off when he'd seen the look that Danzo had given his teammate.
Tetsuo-sensei had once explained to him exactly how dangerous the Council were, especially Danzo, and he'd taken the lesson to heart. One didn't survive sixty years in a field where the average life expectancy was ten, maybe fifteen years of service at best by being incompetent. The reason that the Old Man was Hokage instead of his former teammates or Danzo was because he was just that much more awesome than his advisors. The fact that the Yondaime had been even more powerful than the Old Man just went to show just how incredibly awesome the Yondaime had been, and why everyone who wasn't from Konoha had rightly feared him.
Sasuke gave him that look, which was a habit that Tetsuo-sensei and Kakashi had tried in vain to break him of. There was only one thing for it. He would have to let Sasuke learn the hard way, which meant pitting Sasuke up aganst one of the "old farts" so he could see exactly where he stood in comparison. He was almost tempted to see how Sasuke would fare against Danzo, but he didn't want to see what would happen to his teammate if he needlessly antagonized the old man during their fight. Unlike Koharu and Homura, Danzo could and would disappear you like you'd never even existed. With that in mind, he instead chose someone who was just about as tough as the old man, and slightly more forgiving.
"Utatane-sama," he called out, causing the Councilors to pause in their tracks, probably shocked by how respectful he was being since he still called the Hokage "Old Man". "Uchiha Sasuke would like to respectfully request a spar in order to gain some of the wisdom you have earned through your valuable experience."
"Request granted." Koharu replied with a slightly sadistic smile that scared the hell out of him after a brief conversation with her fellow council members.
Based on the slight and rather arrogant smirk Sasuke gave after he'd gotten over his surprise at being volunteered for a spar with one of the Councilmembers, the boy wasn't going to be taking this seriously. More's the pity for him. He was getting along better with the other boy but, that didn't mean that Sasuke didn't grate on his nerves and bug the hell out of him. And, seeing him learn the sort of lesson that Koharu was about to teach...
The spar looked just as painful as he expected a spar between a Rookie Genin and a war veteran who had fought on the front lines and came back with all of their limbs intact would be. Koharu had been on the front lines during the first two Shinobi World Wars and lived to tell the tale, so naturally, despite the fact that age and inactivity were catching up to her, she was beyond tough.
Sasuke had opened with his usual stance that was a cross between the standard Academy form and something else that had probably been taught to him back when his clan was still alive. Koharu took a stance that he didn't recognize, which had very few if any holes in it, with any hole he may spot more likely being a trap than an actual hole in her defense. Both of them stood waiting for the other to make the first move, until Sasuke finally lost his patience and opened with a high kick which was promptly blocked before Sasuke was swiftly and brutally smacked down. Koharu, despite the fact that age had put some weight on her, still kept herself in something approaching fighting shape. This was to be expected considering the fact that one of her side hobbies was training her grandchildren.
Sasuke apparently hadn't learned his lesson, or the one Tetsuo-sensei had tried to teach him about not letting anger get the best of him, as he sprung up and flew at Koharu in a rage. This was the wrong move to make, and only resulted in Sasuke getting smacked down again and again without even once landing a blow on the Council member until Koharu had called an end to the spar and thanked Sasuke for the light workout. As he watched Sasuke watch the female member of Team Tobirama leave, Naruto kenw that the furious glint in Sasuke's eyes as he watched the Councilmember depart meant trouble
"There's a reason that the Councilmembers still hold the rank of Jounin, and it doesn't have anything to do with any honorary bullshit either." he said to his teammate who looked to be about to blame him for his humiliating defeat. "The reason none of them are Hokage is because the Old Man still has the hat. Any one of them could give Uchiha Itachi a tough time if they didn't outright kill him if he ever chose to go against them."
Sasuke turned and gave him a sharp and surprised look at that last statement. Mentioning Itachi was always a surefire way to get the boy's attention. He'd been sure to do it sparingly though, in order to not desensitize the boy to the mentioning of his brother's name.
"What did you expect would happen?" he asked with a shrug as he walked away from his defeated teammate who probably wouldn't absorb the lesson that Koharu had taken the trouble and time out of her busy day to teach. "The Old Man and his Councilors have been ninja for over sixty years. They've forgotten more things about being a shinobi than most ninja learn during a lifetime."
Sakura sighed as she packed her bag according to Academy guidelines, this time being sure to leave out any cosmetics or other frills that would just add unneeded weight. She didn't want a repeat of the incident at the beginning of her Genin career three weeks ago. Even though she knew that being a shinobi would be far tougher than her romantic dreams had led her to believe, she still liked to have at least some creature comforts, and she wouldn't be able to have any of those comforts if she couldn't carry them with her.
As she packed, the silence of her new apartment unsettled her. She wondered how Naruto was able to stand it. She hadn't spent more than an hour in her new apartment, and she was already going up the wall. She was so used to the distant sounds of her mother puttering about downstairs that not hearing them disturbed her. The decided lack of sounds from her nearest neighbors and the people who wandered through the outside street in the much busier district in which her former home was located which disturbed her as well. The silence seemed to be creeping in from every corner, and pressing down on her.
She had made her decision though and, as her father had pointed out the night before as he helped her pack her belongings, she would be forced to live with it. Her father had promised to visit as often as he could but, she knew that with work and all, that wouldn't be all that often, which meant that she would be left her alone in the silence for long stretches of time. Fortunately for her sanity at the moment, she would be getting out of here soon, and would be spending time in company for a few weeks. She wasn't too sure what she felt about the people she'd be spending the next few weeks with, but at least she wouldn't be left alone in silence.
Her mother, whom she was still very mad at, had been rather upset to discover that she was leaving again so soon. Even though she wasn't all that happy about the fact that she was going to be leaving the village after she'd just got back herself, she at least understood that there was nothing she could do about it since the team had made a number of prior commitments that they couldn't break. She just hoped that her mother would snap out of her Extreme Mode soon. The way she was going, she was going to say something that pissed off the wrong person, and there'd be a good chance that she wouldn't be there when she got back.
Edited 10-6-12