October 10th, the day their beloved Yondaime died. The day a child was possessed by a demon. At least that's what the majority of people in Konohagakure no Sato, the village hidden in the leaves, believe. It's true the child carries a demon within her, but she is merely the container stopping it from wreaking havoc upon the world.
The demon was unlike anything they've ever seen before, hell they'd never heard of anything like it. With ten long tails that seemed to destroy all in it's path. If not for the beast seemingly being weak from appearing they surely would have died. But the Yondaime Hokage appeared and sealed the beast away. Those who bore witness to the sealing saw as the baby girl with red hair and violet eyes undergo a change as her hair turned white and her eyes seemed to develop an odd sort of sharingan, though only the toad sage and third Hokage recognized the eyes for what they truly are, the eyes of samsara, the rinnegan. Not long after the transformation had faded and she was normal again, but the people knew, the demon had possessed her and now pretended that it was an infant.
The Sandaime had ordered those who bore witness to never speak of what happened on that night. His efforts were for not however as not even an hour after the sealing the citizens of the village were loudly clamoring for the girls death. He of course would allow no such thing, and kept a careful eye on her in order to prevent any would be assassins, and although he would never admit it, for it went against everything Minato had stood for and spat in the face of his skill, he too was afraid of the girl. The only semblance of knowledge on the creature dates to a legend involving the sage of six paths himself. The creature had never been seen since then. So why did it reemerge now? And could a young girl truly contain the beast? But he's the Hokage for a reason and he's not going to let his fear of the unknown make him harm an innocent child, he's not like his rival. He's just going to have to trust in the Yondaime's abilities, as the greatest non Uzumaki seal master to live in the past 100 years.
Their destruction is perhaps his greatest failing as Hokage, save perhaps the disaster that is his students. They were destroyed during the Second Great Ninja War under the combined forces of Iwa, Kumo, Suna, and several other smaller villages. They had petitioned weeks in advance for Konoha to make good on their treaty and to send aid, but he did nothing, Still with nowhere else to turn Uzushio sent the then child heiress to Konoha seeking asylum. It was the only thing they did for Uzu when it fell. And now sitting in a crib merely five feet away is the last of the Uzumaki, sleeping peacefully.
He can still hear the roar of discontent from the populace outside. Seeing nothing to be done about it he calls an emergency meeting of the greater council hopefully the heads of the clans will be able to at least get the ninja in the village on the young girls side.
Not ten minutes later does Hiruzen find himself sitting at the head of a long table. To his left sits his female teammate, Koharu, followed by his rival, Shimura Danzo. After Danzo sits the head of merchants guild, Satou Jin, and beyond him the chief justice of civilian law, Rokudo Matsushi, the civilian councilmen sits next Ayakawa Fuu, She's largely in charge of civil planning and immigration for civilians.
Next to Fuu is Mebuki Haruno, a civilian born ninja of the rank of tokubetsu jonin, She sits as the representative for ninja without clan affiliation. Finally sits Kazuto, he like so many others in the village has no surname, he is in charge of the ninja academies spread throughout the village. There are two currently empty seats, for civilian education and The head of the hospital on this side, the owners of which are likely heavily injured or dead, though the head of the hospital could have very well ignored the order to come given the sheer number of patients in need of treatment, he'll let it slide for now should that be the case.
To Hiruzen's right is his male teammate Homura, followed by the head of the Uchiha clan. Uchiha Fugaku. A stern man with an expression forever locked in his displeasure, and owner a the sharingan doujutsu, infamous for it's ability to copy ninjutsu and taijutsu, along with casting ocular genjutsu.
Next to him sits Shikaku Nara, the head of the Nara clan and jonin commander, perhaps the smartest man alive, though he has a son a few weeks old that might just surpass him one day. Beyond Shikaku is his close friends and teammates Choza Akimichi, the rotund head of the Akimichi clan, and Inoichi Yamanaka, the current head of T&I and the head of the Yamanaka clan, the only blondes known to Konoha now that Minato Namikaze is deceased. The three of them together form the second most legendary team in the history of Konoha, the Ino-Shika-Cho combo.
Beyond them is the Matriarch of the Inuzuka clan, Tsume Inuzuka. A feral looking woman known for her ability as a tracker and her prodigious strength with her ninken, Kuromaru. After her is the Shibi Aburame, the head of the Aburame clan known for their use of kikaichu insects that drain chakra, and their tendency to hid the majority of their body.
The last of the Clan heads is Hyuuga Hiashi, a master of the gentle fist, or jyuken, and his doujutsu the Byakugan, which grants it's users the ability to see chakra and see through objects in a nearly 360 degree view.
The last seat is held by the Anbu commander, known only as Ryu. He like all Anbu carries a tanto strapped to his back along with a mask, his depicting a dragon, thus his code name.
These are the representatives chosen from the two lesser councils (although both are actually larger, than the greater council) of Konoha, the civilian and shinobi councils respectively. Only meeting as they are when the greater council is called to order. Homura is the shinobi adviser and will head their meetings when the Hokage is otherwise unavailable. Likewise Koharu does the same with the civilian council, both then reporting to the Hokage upon the requests of the council and submitting paperwork for him to decide whether to pass or not. These councils elect nine members to represent them at large when the greater council is convened.
The members wait with bated breath to hear their Hokage speak, by now they're all aware of the events that transpired to night so they know exactly what the topic will be when he walks in holding the red headed infant. After a moment he speak, his voice tired. "Before we begin I'd like to take a moment to mourn our fallen comrades and loved ones." He says bowing his head to the those who gave their lives. It only takes a moment for the others sitting at the table to do the same, for while they might all have wildly different ideas about what is good for Konoha they all know that a lot of good people died tonight, including their beloved fourth Hokage.
The moment ends and they all raise their heads as Hiruzen begins speaking again. "As you might have noticed I've come in with a child." He raises a hand seeing Satou Jin start to speak. " Please hold your concerns for now. I'm sure you've all heard things about her and I want to know before we begin what exactly has been heard before we attempt to decide her fate." They seem calmed by this, and after a moment Mebuki speaks.
"Supposedly she's been possessed by the demon, and is waiting for a chance to destroy us once more." Hiruzen grimaced upon hearing that.
"I've heard she is the demon out right." This time it's Choza who speaks.
"My sources tell me she was spotted briefly possessing a rinnegan," Multiple gasps come from the ninja's upon hearing Danzo speak but he continues "And it was red with tomoe much like a sharingan." He says while looking straight at Fugaku. "In fact I think we all saw the beast had it as well." Multiple heads are now staring at Fugaku who is quietly simmering in rage but before he can speak the Hokage steps in.
"Now is not the time for accusations Danzo, it could have been a coincidence."
"Hiruzen, you know there is no such thing in our world."
"Perhaps, but now is not the time to be sewing more unrest into the village based off speculation. Now has anybody else heard anything."
"It's not a rumor I've heard but more what I can tell from seeing her, is this Kushina daughter?" Tsume asks, looking at the girl. She says asking the unspoken question. Is this Minato's daughter as well? Something all the clan heads pick up on, having been friends of the couple to varying degrees.
Hiruzen ponders for a moment before answering. "Yes this is Uzumaki Naruko." The order went unspoken, her father is to remain a secret. The Yondaime had been careful to hide his involvement with Kushina a secret outside of his closest friends, the majority of civilians had thought him an eligible bachelor, much to Kushina's ire. They had planned on revealing all this to the village today, when their first child would be born. He hates to strip her complete heritage away at birth, but with no direct family to protect her he feels this to be necessary.
"Would it be possible for me to adopt the girl?" It's the head of the Hyuuga clan who speaks this time. Many share looks of surprise as he speaks not having expected him to care. But many forget his wife is Kushina's best friend and that he and Minato had been on the same genin team along with Tsume.
"No we should turn her into a weapon, even if she is the demon then she will be a demon loyal to Konoha," Danzo says, eager to have a weapon not seen anywhere in the elemental nations.
"No if she truly has a sharingan like eye then we Uchiha should have her, to teach her how to use it," Fugaku says with some greed sparking in his eye.
Jin speaks up and says, "I think we should kill it and be done with it!" No small amount of fear in his eyes. After he says that the council quickly erupts into chaos as the clans are trying to adopt her and earn her loyalty while the civilians are campaigning for her death. The only ones not trying to adopt her out of greed being Hiashi and Shikaku who's currently taking everything into consideration as he thinks on how best to proceed. His musing are interrupted as the aged Hokage speaks.
"Enough!" He says while lacing chakra into his voice, amplifying it. " I regret to say but I cannot allow any of you to adopt her, or turn her into a weapon, nor will I allow her to be killed." Turning to one of the Anbu he says "We will call for Tsunade, she's the girls godmother." He missed the subtle twitch of Danzo's finger, as he called the meeting for the day, all while a hidden root agent takes off after the Anbu agent. The agent would never be seen again, and Tsunade would remain ignorant. And in the chaos he missed his chance to truly make the civilians and shinobi sure the girl is no demon
After a year had gone by and the girl had nearly died by assassination attempt as many times as he had during his 59 years of life. He knew something had to change and change soon. He had Inoichi personally doing the screening of the girls wet nurses now, along with all her other caretakers. When she reached the age of three he'd put her in the Orphanage. Likewise everyone who is in contact with her has been screened so that she isn't in danger, but it's not perfect, but now he largely has trustworthy Anbu protecting her.
The citizens have only grown more upset with her existence however, and he can't convince them for the life of him that she isn't a demon. Of course he still wonders deep in his heart, but those thoughts usually disappear when he sees the happy little girl giggle at his hat or any number of things really. Perhaps she is a demon in disguise, but maybe she can learn to love humanity.
A/N: So this is my first fic, well kind of. I wrote like five thousand words of a RWBY fic a while back before deciding not to publish it and stopping. Anyways I, like probably every other author on this site, would love to hear feedback as to what you guys think. Does it seem interesting? Does it seem boring? Should I suck a dick and go kill myself? All valid responses and I encourage you to respond with your thoughts, even if they're just flames. I'll take any and all critique even if it's not super helpful. Btw without the author's note this chapter is 2151 words long, I know long A/N's bother people so I'll try to shorten them as time goes on. Updates may be irregular I don't really know yet. This doesn't have a beta yet so it's probably going to be a little rough. The next chapter should be longer, if only cause I'm likely going to cover most of the childhood and academy days so it will be less set up. Just because this is something I always wished authors would do I'm going to post the date I post each chapter so you can get a general idea of how frequently I update, since as of now I have no schedule. Once I get one I'll also give dates for when to expect the next update. Lastly while I know the whole council business is cliche I do plan to use it for something more than mindless bashing. That's all for now so hope you enjoyed, till next time.
-CM 10/24/2018