Hokage Tower

10:40

Anko holding Naruko in her arms, she reaches the door to the Hokage's office, she is accompanied by Asuma and Kurenai. If Anko wasn't nervous yet, she is now, because what happens next will decide her and Naruko's future.

Anko takes a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for what is to come, and exhales. "I'm ready." Said Anko trying to hide her nervousness, Asuma knocked on the door, they waited until they were told to enter, Anko holding Naruko enter the Hokage's office, followed by Asuma and Kurenai.

Naruko and the World Tree

Adoption Arc

Chapter 6 – The Third Hokage's Plan

Hokage's Office

After entering the Hokage's office and closing the door behind them, Hiruzen activates the privacy seals, prompting Anko to look around the room. {Why is he activating the privacy seals? I'm pretty sure my method of protecting Naruko and taking her into my home is common knowledge by now.}

"If you're wondering if I'm surprised to see you with Naruko, the truth is I'm not, I've received numerous reports of your violent actions to protect her, which of course prompted me to check on you through my crystal ball, I've been keeping an eye on you over the past few weeks to observe how your relationship with Naruko has developed." Said Hiruzen with a serious expression, not beating around the bush.

"Honestly, I suspected you already knew. I wasn't exactly trying to be subtle about how I protected Naruko, but if you're going to reprimand me for it, understand that you failed to prevent the information that Naruko has the Nine-Tailed Fox inside her from being leaked, I know you didn't leak that information yourself, but you still failed to prevent it, so I've every right to reprimand you for that, my violent actions were a reaction to your fuck up." Anko covered Naruko's ears as she cursed, Anko's nervousness evaporating and immediately replaced by her maternal instincts to protect Naruko, even from someone as powerful and high ranking as the Third Hokage.

{Perfect, that's the fire of a mother I wanted to hear and feel from Anko, the fire that will make her protect Naruko even if it costs her her own life, exactly what I wanted to feel and hear, that will make my decision all the easier.} Thought Hiruzen delightedly as he received the desired answer from Anko.

"Not at all, I've been watching you on and off for the past few weeks and I say that your actions to protect Naruko were more than reasonable, and I admit that it was my fault for not preventing the information from leaking out, at the next village council meeting I plan to give in my resignation and elect a new Hokage, one who can protect Konoha better than I can." Hiruzen knows it was his fault and cannot bring himself to scold Anko for her outburst and language.

"I know you have taken excellent care of Naruko, you two have obviously become very close, so as one of my last official acts as Hokage, I would like to help you obtain custody of Naruko Uzumaki." Said Hiruzen rather warmly.

"I'm not saying resign, Lord Hokage, if it was not for you and Lord Jiraiya, I would have been immediately ostracised by everyone else before Inoichi proved my innocence, I owe you so much." Anko actually feels bad now, she does not want the Third Hokage to resign.

"Anko, my inability to prevent that information from leaking out has plagued my dreams every night since, it means that Naruko will never have the chance to live a normal civilian life even if she wanted to, because inside and outside Konoha there are people who would do anything to gain power, even within this village, and Naruko may have to spend her entire life always being wary of such people. I was incredibly foolish to think I could have given Naruko the choice." Hiruzen feels great guilt at the thought of never being able to give Naruko the choice of how she wants to live, even though he actually wanted to.

"Who were the people who leaked the information? If you don't mind me asking." Anko asked quietly, feeling guilty that her words in defence of her actions had contributed to the Third Hokage wanting to resign.

"The only ones who knew about the sealing of the Nine-Tailed Fox in Naruko before the information leak were the other elders, Danzo, Homura and Koharu, besides me." Hiruzen gave Anko a straight answer.

"This could put Konoha in a very bad position if our enemies get hold of this information, which we must assume they already have." Asuma interjected with a serious expression.

"Personally I think it was more of an attempt to ruin Naruko's life than put Konoha in danger, they were probably hoping to turn her into a weapon they could control by destroying her emotionally which would make it much easier to control her, I am starting to wish my father had used them in his experiments." Anko explained her belief, as the daughter of Orochimaru and a member of the Torture and Interrogation team, she knows exactly how the human mind works.

"I think the same way you do, Anko, but that does not change the fact that the other ninja villages might try to use this information if they managed to get their hands on it." Hiruzen agrees with Anko, but fears that what Asuma said is true.

"There are three things I want to achieve at the next meeting of the village council, firstly to give Anko legal custody of Naruko Uzumaki by convincing the council why this is a good idea, secondly to humiliate the other three elders before I order their execution, I promise they will not get away with this information leak, and thirdly, to resign from the position of Hokage, we need a new, stronger Hokage who can deter the other ninja villages from doing anything against us, just as a precaution for the information leak." Hiruzen explained his goals for the next village council meeting.

"Naruko may have to watch her back all her life, I think the only way to protect her is to train her to be a powerful kunoichi, one that can surpass even Tsunade Senju, that may be the only way to truly protect Naruko from her enemies." Hiruzen laments the fact that Naruko may never be able to live a normal civilian life if she wanted to, and the thought of that choice being taken away from her makes him feel terrible.

"Well, Anko is a powerful kunoichi, she's the daughter of Orochimaru and Guren Mitarashi who both trained her, I'm pretty sure Anko could train Naruko to be a powerful kunoichi all by herself." Asuma is confident that Anko can train Naruko well.

"Of course I will, I'll be more than happy to train Naruko physically, mentally and academically, I may be hated in this village but I've enough friends that I know will help me train Naruko to become as powerful as Tsunade or more powerful, Naruko will need all the help she can get to reach that level." Said Anko with genuine enthusiasm at the thought of training Naruko to become great.

"Well, I don't think most of the shinobi clan heads will have a problem with Anko taking Naruko in since Anko doesn't belong to any shinobi clan, so they literally have nothing to stand on to stop her becoming Naruko's legal guardian or even adopting Naruko." Asuma believes the clan heads will have no problem, they're better people than most of the scum of Konoha.

"Anko isn't only a powerful kunoichi trained by Orochimaru, he himself was a very powerful shinobi from Konoha, despite his actions in the past, with the title of Legendary Sannin. so it should be easy to convince the Civil Council that Anko is powerful enough to not only train Naruko but also keep the Nine-Tailed Fox in check and under control, heck, tell them that Anko can turn the fox girl into a powerful weapon that can protect Konoha if need be, the Civil Council isn't the brightest light in the village so it should be easy to bait them into believing that." Added Kurenai, eliciting a laugh from the others as it's unusual for Kurenai to call other people names or insult them.

"Amen to the Civil Council being a bunch of simpletons." Hiruzen decided to take a swipe at the Civil Council as well.

"Anyway, I'll do all I can to help you, Anko. I'd be happy if Naruko had a chance to be happy in her life, and I owe it to Minato and Kushina to at least try to make that possible for Naruko." Hiruzen said sincerely. "However, I can't make any promises."

{I'll give you custody of Naruko no matter what, but Anko doesn't need to know that, at least not yet.} Hiruzen wants to make a little drama out of this whole thing, he can't do that if he tells Anko the truth right away, can he? Besides, it's the only thing that distracts him from his biggest and most terrifying enemy of all, paperwork.

The greatest enemy of any Hokage who ever lived, and one that will still come after Hiruzen's reign, towers and towers of thin, white A4 sheets of paper, Hiruzen had to summon incredible willpower not to torch them all with a fireball, but he could swear that all the paperwork piled up on his desk was laughing at him, like it was daring him to torch them all, but he couldn't, because anything less than an S-rank fireball jutsu wouldn't be satisfying, but that would only cause the whole Hokage tower to collapse, paperwork the greatest evil of all, not Madara, Kaguya or even any Dragon Ball Z level threat can match paperwork.

Anko began to hug Naruko tightly in a loving embrace. "I'll not give up Naruko without a fight, no matter what it takes, I will put my life on the line for her." There wasn't the slightest doubt in Anko's statement. Someone who is willing to put their life on the line for another without even a hint of doubt or hesitation is, in Hiruzen's experience, a person to be taken seriously.

Hiruzen chuckled heartily, he wanted to know how far Anko would go for Naruko, he knows Naruko had a positive effect on Anko but seeing it in person is so much better, for two years Hiruzen only saw an Anko who always looked depressed and unhappy, but now he sees an Anko who is full of life, joy and happiness, seeing it in person brought a special warmth to his heart and made him care even more for Anko and Naruko.

To Be Continued

Next Chapter - Chapter 7 - The Village Council Meeting Part 1

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