Nindō: Dominion

With Karin and Ino taken care of, Naruto sent a clone to deal with Tsunade and tell her about the proceedings for the day while his real self went to his office to talk to Shikamaru and prepare for the sitting.

By the time it was noon, the councilmembers were all in the meeting room on the top floor of the Administration building before Naruto entered, his presence being announced by Shikamaru.

As for the newly changed seat of the elder, that was empty for now, with Naruto having to invite Tsunade up later.

"Greetings, everyone," he looked over the faces of both the Shinobi and the Civilian councils. After some pleasantries, Naruto sat down.

"Let us move to the first agenda of the day. The position of elder councilman, as instructed by the daimyo, will be handed to Tsunade Senju, the Fifth Hokage. Does anyone have any objections?"

"Hokage-sama, are you sure about this?" One of the older Shinobi asked. "Her recent activities don't particularly make her seem like a reliable person in the face of such an immense responsibility."

"She was the same when she was appointed as the Fifth Hokage," he responded. "Her administrative capabilities were impeccable then, as they will be now when she is in an advisory role."

After dissuading a few more concerned conservatives, all of whom were from the Shinobi Council, Naruto prepared to call Tsunade in. The Civilian Council members were all too happy to see someone with a less-than-ideal reputation sitting in the seat since that would give them more leeway to control them. Of course, they were in for a rude awakening if they assumed that Tsunade Senju was someone whom they could buy off when it came to the village's administration.

Led by one of the Anbu, Tsunade walked in with a confident stride, looking far too young to be sitting in the seat of an elder. Many of the council members looked to be a generation older than her. As she approached the podium, Naruto shook her hand in a welcoming gesture before she addressed the members.

"Greetings. I bet some of you are pretty distressed to see me back. Well, your panic is well-founded. Especially now that our lovely elders aren't with us anymore, allowing me to have free rein. If I see any of you fucking around and trying to act against the village, you can expect a world of pain from my fists," she cracked her knuckles with an intimidating expression on her face as if to make a point.

Suddenly, most of the occupants were sporting expressions of fear or regret as a violent woman came in and promised to do exactly what she specialized in.

"Heartening as always, Elder Tsunade," Naruto smiled. "Let's leave your official inaugural ceremony for another day. You can supervise today's meeting and give me any suggestions that you have later on." Naruto's face showed exactly how much he was enjoying the expressions of misery on the faces of both councils.

As Tsunade took her seat separate from the two councils, Naruto also went back to his seat at the head.

"Moving to the next agenda of the day, we have the War Veteran Benefit Program proposed by the Hokage to provide veterans of our village with some special privileges. The details are all present in the meeting briefs that you can follow along with as I summarize the program. People who participated in the Fourth Shinobi War are to receive tangible benefits beyond just the honor. For one, according to their contributions, they will be provided with a monthly income beyond what they earn, regardless of their retirement status. The funds will come from our war investments …"

As Naruto continued speaking, there was some general outcry, but no one on the shinobi side was against it. They all were a part of the program, and it would benefit them as well. The Civilian Council wasn't pleased with the channeling of funds in such a manner. Unfortunately, not only were they currently in a weakened state, but this program also directly touched the prestige of the shinobi of the village. While they had some sway, they knew that, ultimately, Konoha was a military village, with the shinobi holding the true power. Ultimately, they stepped back and abstained from voting. With Tsunade, Naruto, and the Shinobi council voting in support, the bill was passed.

The next few agendas were mixed between a few shinobi clan heads and some of the civilian council members. Without the two elders, they were all much more restrained in their actions, not to mention the intimidating presence of the stunningly beautiful woman who not only threatened to beat them up in the middle of the council but was among the eldest and had the greatest prestige among all of them.

"The next agenda comes from the Yamanaka Clan Head. Please present your request," Naruto said as Ino stood up from her seat.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," she nodded. "I propose to take advantage of the damage that has been done to the communications infrastructure and, instead of rebuilding the same networks, use this opportunity to modify the system using the techniques of the Yamanaka clan in conjunction with sealing masters to establish a chakra-based communication channel across the village instead of the current electricity-based one that we are slowly developing. We have seen how fragile and difficult to repair the current system is. This requires an immediate rectification. Instead of wasting manpower and resources to rebuild the same flawed system, I propose that we work to innovate and build a new system from the ground up that is more robust and more reliable."

"Miss Yamanaka," a council member stood up with an almost furious expression. He had been one of the staunchest supporters in recent years regarding the village's technological innovations. "With all due respect, you don't know what you are talking about. We all know that technology is the future of mankind. We cannot regress back to inferior systems in order to provide efficient communication services to the masses—"

"Order," Naruto banged his gavel. "You can speak, but come up to the podium to speak your concerns directly."

The man quickly approached the stage before continuing. "Even if we consider your proposal, where are we going to get the necessary sealing masters who have the ability to set up and manage such a vast system? The current communication system allows easy and convenient communication throughout the village and, with the right resources, even outside the village. Does your system have the capability to manage such a vast infrastructure?"

"You seem to be forgetting, Councilman, that the village-wide barrier is a much more complex and intricate system," Ino said. "After the attack, we entirely repaired the barrier within the span of a few days after the budget allocations. As for the communications system, it is still down with very little visible progress in its repair. And that is after the budget allocated to the communications system was much greater than the barrier's repair. It is after observing the differences that I have proposed this improvised system. With the necessary manpower and money, it would only take us a little over a month to completely take over the communications infrastructure and integrate it with the barrier's foundation. At least, then people will be able to contact their loved ones within the village without any issues."

"Using the barrier as a medium would doubtlessly weaken the village's security in case of a breach. You cannot possibly be thinking that we are foolish enough to sabotage the village itself because you want more control?"

"Careful, Councilman," Ino's expression darkened. "I don't like what you are insinuating."

"I'm not insinuating anything," he said. "I'm just stating the facts as I see them."

The sound of Naruto's gavel banging echoed through the room, silencing everyone. "Return to your seat, Shin," he said, not bothering to put any address behind the man's name. "Unless you have a better solution than Ino's, you better watch your words lest you might need to be escorted out of this meeting. I have gone through the blueprints and plans and can confidently say that integrating the communications network with the barrier will not have any detriment to the village's security. If anything, it will allow us to monitor the communications with greater ease in case of an infiltration."

"Continuing from before I was interrupted," Ino smiled at Naruto before facing the rest of the councils. "As for the interfaces that will be used to connect to the network, we will integrate the current wire-based telephones with the network, but in time, if the system sees success, we will invest in the creation of special devices that can directly connect to the network without the need for any physical medium. Through the use of seals, as long as one possesses the interfacing device and is in the range of Konoha's barrier, they will be able to access the network from anywhere."

"The timeline and cost, Ino?" Naruto asked.

"As I said, we will have the communications system up within a month. As for the wireless interface device, that still needs to be researched and analyzed by our sealing masters. However, the estimated timeline is at least six months or more. Looking at the costs for the integration with the barrier, Konoha's Sealing masters will need to work overtime if we need it up and running within the month. So, for the time being, we need at least fifty percent of this quarter's budget."

Instantly, the room burst into an uproar.

"Order." Naruto banged his gavel with a frown on his face. "In the last meeting, the Civilian Council was assigned thirty percent of this quarter's budget for repairs. Adding in the other miscellaneous allocations, we currently only have forty percent of this quarter's budget free …" The way most of the people's expressions tightened at his words made Naruto feel a perverse sense of pleasure as he let them stew in silence for a few moments. "With another month to this quarter's conclusion, we will need to do some reallocation. Only ten percent of the Civilian Council's money has been released until now, and I haven't seen any progress in the repairs that were promised. If anything, we lost the honored elders because of their negligence. Let's do this." his gaze sharpened as he made the decision. "The remaining twenty percent of the Civilian Council's budget will be reallocated to the Barrier Corps alongside an additional thirty percent. Any objections?"

Every single one of the members of the civilian council stood up in protest.

"Hokage-sama, this cannot be done." "There are already contracts in place with builders." "We will be forced to pay more in penalties than we have already paid." "Elder Tsunade, please, we request to put this up for a vote!"

"Hm?" Tsunade heard someone call for her and responded with a faint grunt. "What? Do you think this is a joke? That I will let anything be put up for an individual vote? I completely agree with Naruto's assessment of the situation. I have been here for two days and have already seen the damaged buildings. If there hasn't been any progress over the past month, that means the money is useless in your hands."

"Then it's finalized. With the Shinobi Council abstaining, the Civilian Council voting against, and Elder Tsunade and me voting in favor, the majority decision is clear. Fifty percent of this quarter's budget will be assigned to the new project of the Yamanaka clan's head."

Before the Civilian Council could raise any further protests, Naruto finalized the decision.

***

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