Unlike Hiruzen, Fujin didn't think much and returned to training. His thoughts were, 'Though joining the Council is advantageous for me, I need to wait a long time to reap those benefits. For now, I don't need to waste my time on any council duties. I'll just send a Shadow Clone on Saturday to handle anything I want to.
My main focus has to be on training. Strength is the basis of everything in this world. Ignoring it and focusing on political influence will be beyond stupid. Even if I lose some reputation, it doesn't matter. With overwhelming strength, I can have my way in one way or another.'
With such thoughts, Fujin didn't bother thinking about the Council and instead focused entirely on his training.
Two days later, the Konoha Council began preparing to meet once again. This time, they will be having one additional member!
Fujin arrived in Hiruzen's office around a few minutes before the time of the meeting. Hiruzen looked at Fujin and asked, "Nervous?"
Fujin shook his head and replied, "Not really. It's just a meeting."
He chuckled and said, "If it was a fight between all the council members, then I might have been a little bit nervous."
Hiruzen chuckled as well and said, "A fight between all the council members… Now that would be a sight to see."
At the same time, he thought, 'Fortunately, he can't create a mess in the Council like he did in the Land of Wind. Still, he didn't say anything about those seals.'
Hiruzen instructed, "Meet me in the office after the meeting is over."
Fujin nodded. The two left the office and walked towards the Council Room. Since it was his first time in the Council, Hiruzen decided to introduce Fujin to the Council himself.
When the two arrived, everyone else was already present in the room. Everyone immediately looked at Fujin while Fujin observed them as well. The center of the room had a long table with 8 chairs on either side and one chair at the end of the table. On one side of the table, the 7 Clan Leaders, that is, Shikaku, Inoichi, Choza, the Senju Clan Leader, Hiashi, Shibi and Tsume, sat. On the other side were Danzo, Homura, Koharu and the 5 civilian council members.
As their eyes met, some of the members greeted Fujin with a smile.
Before anyone could say anything, Hiruzen said, "Fujin, take the empty chair."
Fujin nodded and took the seat next to Tsume. Hiruzen took his seat as well and said with a smile on his face, "Today is a joyous occasion for Konoha. By introducing a new position in the Council, we have increased the representation of the ninjas in the council to a great extent. In addition, our council also welcomes a very talented young ninja to join our ranks.
I know that several of you haven't met him yet. So I'll let you get familiar with each other."
Once again, every eye in the room focused on Fujin. Sitting next to him, Tsume said, "You brat. It has barely been 4 years since I saw you in the Chunin Exams. To think that you would join the council so soon. Congratulations."
Fujin smiled and said, "Thank you, Tsume-san."
Following Tsume, Shikaku lazily said, "Welcome to the Council."
With a smirk on his face, he added, "I'm looking forward to your performance here."
Everyone in the room was experienced at scheming. Shikaku's smirk didn't go unnoticed. Immediately everyone began thinking about the meaning behind his smirk and words. The one who analyzed it the most was none other than Danzo.
Right after Shikaku, Choza smiled at Fujin and said, "It's good to see you again, Fujin."
Fujin smiled back at Choza and nodded his head. Inoichi said, "I have heard a lot about you from Fumito. It's good to finally meet you in person. Welcome to the council."
Fujin smiled and said, "It's good to finally meet you as well, Inoichi-san."
The Senju Clan Leader looked at Fujin and said, "So you are Suzuki Fujin? It's good to finally see you. That brat Renjiro turned my hair white by telling me stories about how impressive you are. Hahaha."
Fujin looked at the Senju Clan leader. In terms of age, he looked to be older than anyone else in the room, even older than Hiruzen and the elders. His hair had long turned white and wrinkles could be seen on his face. Yet, he still still seemed very lively.
Fujin smiled and said, "Renjiro-sensei frequently talked about you very fondly as well, Hiromasa-sama. It's great to see you in person."
In terms of strength, Hiromasa had long regressed. Even at his peak, he was never known to have reached rank S. If Tsunade had stayed in the village, she could have claimed his position at will. However, as the Clan Leader of his sensei, Fujin decided to treat him respectfully.
Hiromasa smiled and said, "Good. Renjiro got lucky with his students. I wish my Senju clan would have a promising youngster like you as well. Then I can finally retire and live peacefully, hahaha."
He once again broke out laughing. Fujin smiled while wondering, 'Is he genuinely saying that or is it an indirect way of inviting me into the Senju clan? I can't say for sure… The Senju clan, after the creation of the village, has been weird.'
One by one, the remaining members of the council introduced themselves to Fujin as well. The only ones who didn't were Hiruzen and the three Elders.
With the introductions out of the way, Hiruzen said, "Though this isn't the time for our biannual meeting, since we are here, we might as well deal with the issues that have arisen recently. I believe all of you have something to discuss as well."
The council meeting began officially. Fujin didn't have anything to discuss. So, he merely paid attention to the topics that were discussed. A number of issues, ranging from food and trade to border patrols and clashes with enemy squads, were discussed. However, since nothing serious, other than Juzo's death, had happened in the last month, the discussions didn't get intense.
Around 3 and a half hours later, the discussion finally came to a halt. Hiruzen said, "If there is nothing else, I will end the meeting now."
Everyone was about to get up when Danzo said, "I have noticed something that is very important for the village recently. I'm afraid that if we overlook it, our village will fall in grave danger in the future."
Danzo's words caused a few members to frown. Everyone looked at Danzo. Danzo waited for a few seconds before continuing, "I observed some of the Academy students who will be joining the final year after the vacation. What I saw was just too disappointing. Compared to a few years ago, the standard of students has dropped drastically in almost every aspect.
I looked into the reasons behind it. I noticed that the teachers in the academy have become very lax. Another possible reason is that several experienced teachers resigned a couple of years ago. As a result, the quality of teaching and discipline has dropped severely. If we continue down this path, our future generation will be handicapped."
The frowns on the faces of Clan Leaders eased. Though Danzo had spoken big words, none of them felt it to be much of an issue. Their thoughts were in line with what Hiruzen had told Fujin.
Fujin looked at Danzo and thought, 'Weird… I don't think any such change had happened in the original story. Did Danzo bring this up because his spies observed Naruto more closely because I trained him? Or would he be shut down by others and the training process will stay the same?'
Fujin was interested in observing in which direction the debate would go.
Inoichi shook his head and said, "We can't maintain full intensity all the time. Doing so will cause our village to collapse due to exhaustion. It's the same reason why so many capable teachers retired. Our village is finally in a stable position. Our ninjas deserve rest."
Danzo replied, "How can you slack off when our future generation is at stake? Even if there is exhaustion, it won't affect the academy students. We need to make the academy stricter and raise the standards of our students."
He glanced at the clan leaders and added, "I know that you have plans for your children. So I won't interfere in the Elite Classroom. However, the teaching in the other classrooms has to be made stricter. Students have to meet certain standards even to be included in the reserve forces. Otherwise, none of them will have any hope of ever becoming Chunins."
Hiashi asked, "Who in the Genin reserve force even becomes a Chunin? The number of ninjas who manage to do so is too low to matter. Any talented ninja is identified in the academy and the village makes efforts to ensure that they gain strength.
Though your words sound good, forcing teachers to concentrate on hundreds of students for decades is unrealistic. We need to give them rest so that they can overexert themselves when the village needs them to."
Every Clan Leader nodded, agreeing with Hiashi's words. The 5 civilian council members didn't have anything to do with the conversation. Fujin, Hiruzen, Homura and Koharu just observed.
Danzo looked at Hiashi and others and said in a plain tone, "If the Academy can't do it, then let the Root be restarted. I'll take in the untalented ninjas and raise them to be strong enough to become Anbu."
[A/N : Bonus chapter on next Sunday if the fic gets 1000 Power Stones. Bonus chapter on next week's Saturday if the fic gets 2000 Power Stones.]
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