Shin's smile lay politely across his face as the summit regarding the situation in Tea reached its fourth hour.

Sometime between hour one and hour two all progress had stopped, any momentum pulled away by the powerful motivator of noble politicking, and sometime between hour two and three it became clear that there was no way anyone was able or willing to force the meeting back on track.

And Tea was a major issue.

The civil war was bad enough—if it was that alone then Fire would let Water's continuing targeting of the weakened land continue until peace was all but forced.

The real issue was the religious sect; the 'false worshippers' of Yamabushi Tengu. There were always a few cults running around trying to bring the downfall of society—it was rather inevitable, with just how much of modern-day humanity was caught up in violence—but usually they could be tamped down, suffocated without much issue.

But the most recent Great Shinobi War had distracted everybody, allowed for new sects to fester, to grow underneath surface attention until it was too late.

And now the cult was taking advantage of the war they'd caused in Tea. They were even taking advantage of the Fire Monks sent to stop them; martyrdom was a well-known way to increase a cult's prestige, and the Tengu-Calling knew how to use it to best effect.

The Tengu-Calling was growing in power, was beginning to reach into Fire, would soon become a major security threat at a time when Fire couldn't afford to have one –

And all the nobles cared about was how their own social status might benefit.

It was an age-old problem, one Shin had studied and understood, but it wasn't helpful.

His smile, just the slightest one—the barest of politeness—masked his true emotions, but he was well practiced in that. He could keep this up for several more hours, if need be.

He just didn't want to.

He wanted to deal with the cult.

Get rid of the danger.

He wanted to handle things so Tea, their largest neighbor, didn't lose all of its local significance—if things kept going as they were Fire would have a much harder time controlling the islands—

Shin's mind, which had been jogging comfortably along the well-worn path of thoughts he'd been having for at least an hour, stopped.

And then began jogging in a different direction, one he'd been diverted from some time ago but suddenly found very relevant.

It took another ten minutes before he'd put together his plan well enough to voice it.

He waited for an opportune moment, monitored the faces of everyone in the room with him, and then took his chance.

"As you know, the Great Daimyo is currently considering the plan Konoha has put forward to recolonize the Land of Uzu that the Great Daimyo. Assuming the Land of Tea continues to struggle, and given that we currently are in a détente with the Land of Water, this may be the time to put such a plan into action—allow us to control the Seas through our own land instead of a neighbor's."

Voices erupted, talking over each other in one serious faux-pas after another, as the nobles began to take in the sudden shift in focus, in the new opportunities the new topic brought. Uzu a much better way to increase their standing—a literal increase in land—and it had just been proposed as a 'quick' solution; if it were to accomplish the goal of maintaining naval power, Uzu would have to be noticeably settled within a year instead of the decade or so the Daimyo had previously been leaning toward, and that meant the nobles had to act fast.

Unlike the Tea situation, where most could convince themselves that doing nothing wouldn't be that bad so long as no one else got anything either, Shin had dangled a limited time offer in front of their faces, and implied—honestly, even—that the strategic importance of Uzu would motivate the Great Daimyo into acting quickly, into dealing with empty land and desperate nobles instead of crowded land and desperate people. That, combined with the motivator for more land, a different climate—safety, in other words, from drought…

The Great Daimyo hadn't said a word, yet, but the nobles weren't willing to take that risk: they had to figure out how to secure more land, and they had to figure it out quickly.

Shin's smile didn't change perceptibly, but suddenly it felt a lot less fake.

.

Ibiki scrambled up the side of the structure, eying the line at the entrance of the slide with interest. Clan Head Inoichi had installed the climbing gym on one of the Yamanaka training grounds a week ago, and it had specifically built for children—slides, swings, hemispheres of bars, bars to swing from –

The Clan Head had sold it to the adults of the clan as a way for children to exercise more rarely used muscles, become more aware of 3D space—something usually postponed until one was able to walk on walls through chakra.

He'd sold it to the children of the clan as fun.

He was right.

The ground fairly teemed with children from dawn to dusk—even when the Academy was in use children who were too young or already dropped out took their turn.

This afternoon Ibiki was playing ninja with most of the other students, and the slide was 'medical'—if you 'killed' an opponent you went down the slide to heal and fight again.

Because of this, just about half of everyone else had been at the bottom of the slide, ready to kill whoever had just been healed.

They'd adjusted the rules slightly, but that just led to a few less people standing a bit further away.

Still, it was really fun, and while Ibiki was a bit of a target—in a swarm of blond hair and lilac eyes he tended to stand out a bit—that just led him to get increasingly creative in how he escaped grasps.

Just before Yamanaka Takashi caught up to him (his hand was already reaching up, ready to slice a fake cut with his stick) Ibiki leapt, flying from one structure to the next.

"Ibiki!" Takashi cried. "I'll get you!"

Ibiki laughed. Takashi always held grudges, but he wasn't mean about it—a perfect playground playmate.

Takashi didn't have time to go for a second attempt, though; the Akimichi (most of whom had had to go home to drop off their things after school) had arrived.

Yamanaka Kaito and Yamanaka Sakura (the eight-year-old, not his aunt), who had nominated themselves as the two Daimyo, shouted out as each new player arrived, a fast-paced and wildly confusing draft that left each with about half of the newcomers.

The grounds were now full, everyone within arm's reach of at least one other player—the only thing that was keeping people alive was confusion over who was on which team.

Again, Ibiki's distinctiveness caught him out.

Again, Ibiki didn't mind.

"Ibiki!" Kaito (his Daimyo) shouted. "You're the kage!"

And suddenly everyone who knew Kaito was their Daimyo was in front of him, protecting him.

And Ibiki had power.

They took over one structure, Eight-year-old Sakura's team took over the other and nominated a Kage of their own, and orders were shouted, battlelines drawn, and kata of various accuracy were demonstrated as each team vied for a few feet of territory.

Aunt Sakura stared at him when he finally came home for dinner. "Were you mauled by multiple tigers?"

"No!"

"Do I need to get you to the hospital?" Was Uncle Juro's question.

"No!" He hadn't broken anything, or even hurt much—he just had a few scrapes and bruises.

"Alright, then. Get cleaned up and come back down for dinner." Aunt Sakura said. He hadn't even made it halfway up the stairs before he heard her question to Uncle Juro: "Did we ever end up looking like that?"

"There was that time that a bunch of you thought it'd be a good time sparring on top of a fence. I never bothered, but you certainly came out of it more than a bit roughed up."

"Oh, that was fun."

Ibiki grinned. Fence fighting did sound interesting.

.

The Infrastructure Head—who had been trying, desperately, to make the increasingly dire situation of Konoha's sewage system clear—had just realized the futility of his mission and begun wrapping up when a thump was heard from down the table.

The Hokage turned from Utilities Head Hyuuga to Elder Danzo, perhaps the least popular man out of everyone on the table (not that that convinced him to be any less vocal.)

"I assure you, Danzo, that we are doing what we can to mitigate the situation with sewage, and as soon as the civilian population moves back to their farms and the war is over we will pursue a more permanent solution."

Danzo was not in the mood to pretend he cared about waste.

"Have you read Head Yamanaka's petition?"

"I have, yes, however I believe we have Commerce Head Akimichi slated to speak first."

"This–" Danzo froze, staring at the Hokage.

The Hokage stared back.

Danzo, who had been half out of his seat in outrage, sat.

"Utilities Head Hyuuga, I do believe you were interrupted. Are there any additional points you wish to make?"

"Just that I fully believe that our current system will not last for the rest of the war."

"Noted. Commerce Head Akimichi?"

Research Head Aburame felt a migraine coming on, as usual. He agreed with future Hokage Namikaze's outburst several weeks ago about the state of meetings—nothing, so far, had been new information. Even Utilities Head Hyuuga's dire warnings he'd heard before; the man was at Research at least once a week, pushing desperately for a solution which simply did not exist. They'd come up with a few stopgap measures, of course, but anything more effective than that required major infrastructure changes, and that sort of thing didn't happen during war, not unless it was well past due and beginning to actively affect military efficiency.

Aburame was so bored, in fact, that he found himself actively wishing that the Hokage had allowed Danzo to keep going—at the pace they were on, they might not even make it to the Elder's complaint and whatever the petition was it seemed to be the only interesting thing that might happen today.

It took him a half second longer than usual to realize that both the the Commerce and Justice Heads had finished and it was his turn, but he recovered smoothly.

"Most projects continuing as projected," he began rattling off, "Orochimaru's project is due to resume tomorrow. Efficiency Sciences has identified unusually low birth rates, and have transferred the problem to Human Research, who will work with the Hospital to identify any and all possible causes. 10 new proposals this week—unusually high. Most notable is Yamanaka Sakura and Nara Kimi's water dilution proposal as well as Uchiha Shuji's second moving picture proposal. Will update you when more information is known."

The Hokage blinked. "… okay. Next up, I believe, is clan petitions—" He sighed. "Yes, Danzo?"

"The Yamanaka intend to destroy every semblance of technological advantage that Konoha has over its enemies!"

Research Head Aburame watched as the insects in front of him shuffled his papers around, finally landing on the relevant proposal: a Public Library, to be placed on Yamanaka land but open to all. A quick scan informed him that the information contained within the library (intended to act as an educational supplement) would be sectioned off, with civilians having the least access. The library would also have "private" rooms to be rented out as needed and staff to assist civilians in filling out tax forms, invention proposals, marriage certificates, and any other paperwork as necessary. The Public Library was to be jointly run by Ino-Shika-Cho and Konohagakure.

"I rather like this plan." He said. He might as well—at the rate his body was going he only had a handful of years left, so there wasn't any worry about making enemies or stepping on toes.

Danzo did not seem appeased. "You would."

"Danzo." The Hokage might not have dismissed his dear friend from his position, but every meeting showed he hadn't forgiven the man for his treason either. "You will speak carefully."

Danzo hesitated, then pointedly relaxed. "My point remains. We just fought back a Kiri incursion—whose to say that they, or anyone else, haven't managed to slip in a mole or two?"

"The library wouldn't give additional access, merely allow material to be more readily available to those who already had clearance to learn from it."

"That's true," The Hokage said, turning to look at the proposal again. "Research Head Aburame–"

Danzo wasn't to be deterred. "My. Point. Still. Stands. This is a giant goodie bag for any infiltrator—"

"All the better;" War Head Nara said, "with Ino-Shika-Cho staffing the Library we can even have an intended function to be to flush out intruders."

"—and even the civilian and Academy student level material might give spies enough information to mimic our technological advantage—"

"The risk of that is no greater than what already exists, as I said." Research Head Aburame countered. "And my Department has been getting an increasing number of proposals from those outside our office; perhaps this library will continue that trend and allow our advantage to grow."

The Hokage hummed. "We'll leave it for a week to allow for proper consideration, but I like the idea of it. Ah, I see here Inoichi has a second proposal, about… the orphanage."

"You'll remember, Hiruzen, that I made my own proposal for orphanage improvements two months ago. The discussion continues to be tabled."

"We'll have you and Inoichi work on a joint proposal, then. When you've completed it the two of you can resubmit. And finally, a proposal from the Uchiha—they would like to expand the Police Force."

"Makes sense," the Land Use Head said, "with the increased population."

"It would be expensive, however, and then there would be the question of descaling it after those displaced by the war and drought return to the country. Again, we'll table this to next week—please consider each proposal thoroughly and we'll discuss then."

"Hai, Hokage."

"Next up, I believe we have an update from… yes, the Justice Department."

.

Kushina—back for only three days between deployments—glared at Tsunade.

Tsunade glared back.

"Can't you—I dunno—fix this?"

"That's what I'm planning to do. You're a kami-damned jinchuuriki, Kushina. It's going to take time."

The two stood for a second longer, locked in silent battle, and then Kushina slumped.

"I didn't think having kids would be this tricky."

Tsunade snorted. "For most, it isn't."

"Thanks for rubbing it in."

"No problem." Tsunade returned to Kushina's stomach, grimacing between it and her notes once again as she tried to figure out how it could be modified to allow for the incredible body changes pregnancy brought, and Kushina let her eyes wander, tracing the 'calming' paintings Tsunade had covered the walls with, the multitude of rugs on the floor, the pile of stress balls in the corner of the desk, the papers on the desk…

"There's low birth rates? I need to worry about that too?!"

Tsunade glared at Kushina. "Stop looking at my things."

"I'm bored! And this feels relevant!"

Tsunade shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. There's a million reasons birth rates might change—we're in the middle of a drought, for instance, and a war—"

"But those are all expected. You wouldn't be spending time on something expected."

"It is… unusually low. But, again, drought and war. I'm just double-checking that it's not something else. I'm also writing up a report on the effect of a sewage backlog, and whether chakra type and blood type are connected—I do a lot of stuff. Keep busy. Don't worry about it. We're done today, anyway; I'll analyze your latest bloodwork and we'll talk next steps again the next time you're injured."

Kushina snorted, but it wasn't her business anyway; her job was on the frontlines, taking down dozens of opponents at once.

"Any chance you can get the trauma doc to let me back early?"

"No."

.

Sakura had fully intended to only pop by Office 40 before work. Orochimaru was back, finally, and she needed to interrogate him as soon as possible as to why he'd disappeared, where he'd gone.

Her hopes for a quick exit—and perhaps a quick chat with Taro before their official day began—were dashed with the arrival of Bokuso.

"These were on the table." Sakura glanced down.

"Yeah, I asked Aiko to get those for me."

"I know: she left a note."

"I was planning on reviewing the data after dealing with Orochimaru."

"I read it over. Aiko didn't notice, but there's a trend. I—can I help with this? Why were you looking into this to begin with?"

"I—I had a suspicion. No way to know it had any teeth, though."

"I know: it does."

"Bokuso, are you okay?"

"No," Bokuso said, "I'm not."