Dark Phoenix of Konoha by White Angel of Auralon

Part 8 - The Hokage Gets Serious

"You want to make Jiraiya your successor?" Danzo asked disbelievingly. "Do you think that is wise? While he is strong enough to take the position, I don't think he would be a good administrator."

"No, Jiraiya wouldn't even want to be Hokage. And it would be a shame to let his spy network go to waste. I had considered Tsunade, but with her dislike for the village because of her losses in the past, I doubt she would return, even if she would be the best choice. No, I called Jiraiya back to get his opinion on the candidate I chose." The Hokage said.

"Are you going to tell me who you chose?" Danzo asked now interested.

Especially as he wondered why Hiruzen was informing him. They had always been at odds with their opinion how the village should be led.

"Can't you deduct it yourself?" The Hokage asked.

Danzo thought about it. He went over all the jonin of the village. There were only a few that were suited. The most probable candidate was...

"Kakashi?" Danzo asked.

"Yes. If you think about it he is the only real option we have. He has orders to get back to his old strength. He also is tasked with taking care of our two most difficult new genin." He informed Danzo.

"Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki. I already heard that the Uzumaki boy was hiding his true abilities. Impressive if you ask me." Danzo said.

"Indeed. Both boys don't have many ties that bind them to the village. Sadly I haven't been able to really remedy that fact until they graduated from the academy. Now that they are ninja, I can correct the bad influence the civilian council had on them. I only hope that it isn't too late already. That's Kakashi's main task for now. But if I want Kakashi to take over for me once he is ready and his team has been promoted, I need to clean up the current mess as much as possible. Otherwise things wouldn't really change and from Jiraiya's reports I know that things will get troubling sooner than I like." The Hokage said.

Danzo had to agree. He knew from his own spies that there was a mercenary group that took many high class missions for some of the other villages. They consisted of S-rank missing nins, but their goals were unknown so far. Then there was the new village Oto. He hadn't been able to find out much about it. And he had somewhat lost sight of Orochimaru after he had finished the surgery he had hired him for on his arm. Thankfully Hiruzen didn't seem to know about the sharingans he had implanted in his eye and his arm. That wouldn't be tolerated in any way.

"So how do you want me to do this?" Danzo asked.

"I will go through the laws that were passed myself with a few shadow clones over the next few days. I want you to send me two of your ROOT agents that are skilled in administration. One will replace the current secretary and one will go through the jungle of paperwork that is put on my desk each day. I only want him to sort it in categories that make the most sense. Before we can confront the ones responsible, we need to know the whole picture. I want three of your agents to go through the decrees that have been passed since Minato's death. They are to write them down chronologically. I will go through them as soon as they are done. Five of your agents are to inspect the way business is done in the village without being seen.

"I have the suspicion that many businessmen are evading taxes. That and that they demand more taxes than what is legal. I know I have been too passive the past years, but I intend to rectify at least some of my mistakes before I let Kakashi take over. If everything goes well, I will announce him as my successor during the final round of the chunin exams in six months. Normally he should get his team ready to take them in the six months he has. The only shaky candidate is Sakura. I don't know if she will persevere in her choice of career. Kakashi has orders to put his team through the grinder." The Hokage said.