(7 months after this story was first published)

Hello and welcome. This story was originally called Shinobi Politics, and I had plans to make it a political thriller. However, it very quickly devolved into something much different. That being said, I've had a ton of fun writing it, but the title change needed to happen. I decided to change the title a couple months ago, and yet didn't actually go through with it until now.

This is a much more light hearted story than a political thriller, and focuses around Naruto being put into an arranged marriage and attempting to rebuild the Uzumaki Clan. Meanwhile, many other members of the Konoha 12 are also put into marriage contracts. Sasuke tries to rebuild the Uchiha (he doesn't leave for Orochimaru), and Tsunade works on rebuilding the Senju, though through a different method than Naruto and Sasuke use.

Anyways, please enjoy.

-I don't own Naruto. Naruto was created by Kishimoto, please support the official release.-

Italics are thoughts. -Italics inside hyphens are the setting-

After the 9-Tails destroyed much of Konoha and killed the 4th Hokage, Minato Namikaze, Konoha was a mess, both literally and politically. A sad, grieving Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, reluctantly took up the position of Hokage once more. But in his grief he was distracted, and unwittingly was manipulated by Danzo. Danzo convinced him to give up much of his political power through the establishment of a civilian wing of the village council, and giving the council far reaching oversight in Konoha. A change from the Quasi-military dictatorship the village had been prior to the attack.

The new council's power was over all things civilian, and even over various aspects of shinobi affairs and clan life as well. The new, heavily civilian council, changed many laws in regards to the shinobi system and the relationship between the village and clans. The council even thwarted several attempts to adopt a boy they viewed as a demon. Including adoption attempts by council members such as Shibi Aburame and Shikaku Nara, along with an attempt by a young, up and coming ninja named Kakashi Hatake. Only the direct intervention of the 3rd Hokage saved the boy's life and allowed him to become a shinobi. Unbeknownst to the civilian councilors, and Danzo, but beknownst to us, that 'demon' boy would go on to do great things, and the 3rd's replacement would make it her mission to right all the wrongs the council had made.

-Konoha, The Hokage's Office. 1 week after Tsunade became Hokage-

Tsunade clenched her fists in frustration. That was not how she expected her first council meeting as the 5th Hokage to go. She knew that after the death of the 4th Hokage, Minato Namikaze, her sensei, Hiruzen Sarutobi, had resumed his old position as the 3rd Hokage.

In his old age he had allowed civilians to take seats on the council, and as the years went on they consolidated a great deal of political power. Too much political power if you ask her. Not only that, but it was clear that the Shinobi on the council were not a unified front. It was a mess. *sigh* How did I let the pervert and that blond brat talk me into this?, she thought, I need some sake.

Sitting on the other side of her desk was the village's second in command, the jonin commander, Shikaku Nara. As head of the Nara Clan he was one of the most senior members of the council, and after the disastrous meeting Tsunade had pulled him into her office for a debriefing. Tsunade herself had once held the Senju Clan's seat on the council, but she had been gone from the village for around 15 years, and clearly lots of things had changed.

As Tsunade activated a privacy seal, fuinjutsu that prevented anyone from spying on or overhearing the conversation, Shikaku began the debriefing. "Lord Third gave the civilians lots of influence over their own affairs. Danzo and the other elders had suggested this, supposedly because of their concern for his old age, but in reality as a way to gain their own political power. They courted the civilian members of the council and won them over, so the civilians, while influential on their own, are nothing more than puppets for Danzo and his anti-Will of Fire Faction." "Right, I can see that, Shikaku, why do they have more influence on the council than the shinobi?"

"Pretty simple Hokage-sama. There are 10 seats on the council for the 10 shinobi clans of Konoha, 10 for the various civilians, most of whom are either the heads of merchant guilds and labor guilds. Some are ministers governing the civilians, which by the way keeps some paperwork off your desk. Then there are the three seats for the elders, all with yourself as chairwoman.

Theoretically this puts the clans and the civilians on even footing, with the elders leaning towards the clans since they are retired Shinobi themselves, thus giving the Shinobi a slight edge over the civilians. However the Senju, Uchiha, and Uzumaki seats have been vacant for some time, meaning there are only 7 clans represented right now.

Even then we have our own internal divisions. Akimichi, Nara, Sarutobi, and Yamanaka are a very united front and essentially vote the same way on everything, completely in line with the philosophy of the Will of Fire. Aburame and Inuzuka generally side with us, but not always. They want to be loyal to the Will of Fire, but will vote against it for something that is clearly in their own interests.

Hyuga will sometimes side with us, and sometimes not, really it's 50/50. They don't have any particular loyalty to the Will of Fire faction, and often join Danzo's faction in the voting, depending on the issue of course.

When you factor in that the elders have coopted the civilian council members into their Anti-Will of Fire faction, very rarely does Lord Third's Will of Fire ever shine through in council meetings. It's often outvoted 13-7 or 14-6, and sometimes, though far less often, 16-4."

Tsunade frowned, "Ultimately this is a shinobi village, civilians should just be grateful to live under our protection, their political power should be very limited. The Elders are just supposed to be advisors, nothing more. Danzo is very dangerous. We need to curb their political power and reassert Sarutobi-sensei's will. How do we make that happen Shikaku?"

"I'm glad you feel that way, Hokage-sama. Even the clans that don't always side with the Will of Fire agree that the civilians hold too much power. That being said, this is going to be a very long game, it's not something that can be done in months. This will take years, possibly even a decade or more.

In order to do this we'll likely have to manipulate the elders and/or the civilians into voting against their own faction and interests, and shore up the shinobi clans into a unified voting block. Any grand stroke would fail. Slowly, little by little, we have to claw our way back to reasserting complete Shinobi authority. It would also help if we start to fill the vacant clan seats."

"You know very well that I'm the last of the Senju, and I can't hold the clan seat while serving as Hokage. As for those other two seats, well there is the requirement that one must either be a jonin or married and a chunin in order to take their clan seat. While both those clans have heirs that are promising genin, one is a moody arrogant kid who is considered a flight risk, and the other doesn't even know he is part of a clan."

"All that is very true, Hokage-sama, but I do have some suggestions..." The conversation lasted well into the night as Shikaku outlined a few things Tsunade could do to start to turn the tide in her favor. At the end of the night Tsunade was both motivated and frustrated. Shikaku's suggestions had been very good, but Tsunade could tell that she was going to be in for a very long, drawn out, subtle battle to win control of the council. She didn't really like being subtle, she'd rather just punch something, but she was smart enough to know that if she was going to reassert the Hokage's authority she would have to be subtle. Just the thought of it made her want Sake, lots of Sake.

-The Next Day-

The Konoha 12 and their Sensei stood in front of the Hokage's desk, facing Tsunade, who looked out over them and couldn't help but feel a sense of pride at the next generation. "Thank you for your patience. I know promotions from the Chunin Exams should have been announced a couple of weeks ago, but between settling into this job, trying to repair our relationship with Suna, trying to track Orochimaru, trying to keep up appearances to the other villages, and rebuilding the village there hasn't been a lot of time. First off there is only one promotion based off the actual Chunin Exams themselves. The judges unanimously voted that this shinobi showed the skills of, and especially the mental capacity to think like and strategize like, a chunin, so congratulations to Shikamaru Nara."

"What a drag, so troublesome." muttered the young, lazy, Nara heir as he stepped forward to receive his vest. "What?! But he got lazy and gave up, how did he get promoted?" Yelled Ino in frustration.

"Ino, while it may have looked like he gave up Shikamaru realized he couldn't win, and so he quit. In the field that would have translate to saving the lives of the people under his command. Remember Chunin can lead teams, and therefore are responsible for the lives of their subordinates. What Shikamaru did was very mature, and that is why he was promoted," came the response from Asuma.

The newly appointed Sarutobi Clan head was proud of his Nara student, and hoped that hearing the explanation would help break the Yamanaka heiress of her 'fan girl' mentality.

"Hokage-sama, is that really the only promotion from the exams?" asked a somewhat surprised Kakashi. "Yes, however since the exams were cut short I've decided to use Sarutobi-sensei's notes, and reports filed by our shinobi about the invasion to make a few more promotions." This got the assembled ninja to calm down, eager to see who else would be promoted.

"My sensei had his vices, but was not a betting man, so when he did bet, it was something he was absolutely certain of. Over the years I learned to absolutely trust Sarutobi-sensei's instincts, so when I found a betting ticket stub in his notes from the Chunin Exam finals I knew the person he bet on to be promoted was someone who was very worthy. As such I'm promoting Shino Aburame to Chunin."

The whole room was stunned. The Third Hokage had bet money that Shino would be promoted? High Praise indeed. "Thank You, Hokage-sama. I will endeavor to not let you down. That's because, I don't want the late Lord Third's trust and confidence in me to have been misplaced." said the stoic Aburame heir as he accepted the vest. For everyone not on Team 8 this was the most they had ever head the boy speak, only adding to the stunned silence in the room.

Shino's teammates broke the silence "C-C-congratulations, Shino-kun. I knew you could do it." was the response from Hinata Hyuga. "Hell yeah man, I still can't believe Lord Third bet on you and not me, but this is fantastic!" yelled an exuberant Kiba Inuzuka as he slapped his best friend and teammate on the back.

"Kiba-kun, Lord Third could not have bet on you, that's because you lost to Naruto in the preliminaries, but your congratulations are appreciated." was Shino's response. "I'm very proud of you Shino, even though you are a chunin now you can still come to me for help or advice anytime." Came the word of Team 8's leader Kurenai Yuhi.

Through all of this Shikaku Nara stood off to the side, in his capacity as Jonin Commander. After taking a minute to be proud of his son, he began thinking of how he could use the promotions for political purposes.

Asuma is new to the council, and unmarried. The council will almost unanimously vote to force him to get married and get working on a Sarutobi Clan heir. He seems to have a thing for Kurenai, and will most likely propose to her. Because of her position as Shino's sensei, she has a good relationship with the Aburame Clan. Shino is the son of Shibi, head of the Aburame Clan and member of the Council. Shibi votes with the Will of Fire faction 70% of the time, and is far more friendly with us than with Danzo's faction, but there is still that 30% where he sides with Danzo. Perhaps something like this would be enough to firmly bring the Aburame into our block?

Konoha's 2nd in command and greatest strategist had been delighted when Tsunade was appointed Hokage, finally he would have a boss willing to reestablish the proper order for a Shinobi village, quasi-military dictatorship. Giving the civilians just enough political power to feel like the mattered, but not enough to have a say in anything important. Now, he was willing to go to any length to see this happen, and his mind was always thinking about how he could turn anything, and everything, to his political advantage.

As Shikaku was lost in his scheming, Tsunade continued. "I also have two promotions to make based on work in the field. These two tracked an unstable enemy who was critical to the enemy's plan. Sasuke lost, but he bought enough time for Naruto to arrive, and wore Gaara down enough for Naruto to defeat him. I now announce that both Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki are promoted to chunin."

"Yes, we did it Sasuke!" yelled an exuberant Naruto "Hn, was there ever any doubt idiot?" came the response from the Uchiha heir. After his run in with Itachi, Sasuke was much colder to his companions in team 7, and was beginning to have his doubts about Konoha. Still, he thought of Naruto like a brother, and also had a close relationship with his sensei, Kakashi. Even Sakura, as annoying as she was, was now considered a friend, maybe with this promotion there was no need to leave...yet.

Tsunade couldn't help but smile at Naruto's excitement, she had already started to view the boy almost like a son or a grandson.I'm so happy for you, Naruto, still your promotion is only in part because of your actions during the invasion. It's also politically motivated. Sasuke's is entirely politically motivated. I'm wary of him, but the council wants him promoted, and I may be able to turn it to my advantage.This next one also has more to do with politics than the exams, but at least he was more helpful during the invasion that Sasuke.

"Alright, we have one more promotion to give out. Someone who fought hard in the exams, and then, despite his injuries helped prevent the kidnapping of one of our Kunoichi. Neji Hyuga is promoted to chunin."

I know she doesn't like it, but she needs to gain some favor from the Hyuga, promoting their clan genius won't win them over right away, but it will get them to look upon her favorably. Hokage-sama may have a brash exterior, but she's actually much better at the political game than Lord Third was,thought Shikaku Nara, as a smile broke out on his face after he realized what Tsunade had done.

Meanwhile Neji had donned his vest, and then did something unexpected. He went over to where Team 7 was standing and bowed to Naruto. "You have my thanks, Uzumaki-san, I owe my promotion to the fact that you opened my eyes to a few things." "Huh...but I beat you. Didn't I hurt your chances?" said Naruto, scratching his head in confusion.This might be a problem. Naruto is going to inherit a clan seat one day, but he's an idiot. We'll have to fix that,observed Shikaku.

"Alright, that's all for promotions. For now I'm going to keep all of the Teams together, but once we've finished rebuilding the village you can expect new assignments. You're dismissed."

The room emptied, leaving Tsunade, Shikaku, Shizune, and surprisingly, three young Kunoichi. The three girls all stayed behind to make requests of the Hokage, but upon seeing that others had stayed behind to they had surprised looks on their faces. "It's pretty clear by your facial expressions that you all have individual things you wanted to ask me about, not one group thing, so when I call on you state your name and what you want. You first Hyuga girl."

"Hinata Hyuga, Hokage-sama. I'm weak. I'm a liability to my teammates, Kiba-kun and Shino-kun. I need to get stronger, and not just for them but for N-Naru-someone else. Now that your apprentice is a jonin, I was hoping you could take me as your new apprentice?"This girl clearly lacks confidence, this must be Hiashi's eldest daughter that Shikaku told me about. Maybe another opportunity to curry favor with the Hyuga?

Tsunade looked at the other two girls to find them both glaring at Hinata. "I take it you two wanted to ask me the same thing?" They both nodded. "Ok then, Hinata's reasons are clear enough, but why should I pick you over her, and don't forget to introduce yourselves. You first, Pink Hair."

"Sakura Haruno, Hokage-sama. My father is the head of the Haruno Merchant Guild and sits on your council. My reason's are similar to Hinata's. I'm a liability for my teammates, and I'm tired of following in their footsteps. I want to be helpful, not a weakness."

"Ok, and you bun girl?" "Tenten, Hokage-sama. No last name, I was orphaned by the Kyubi attack and no one knows who my parents were. In the orphanage I would hear stories of your exploits, how you were the strongest Kunoichi ever. You're my hero, Hokage-sama, the reason I became a Kunoichi. I wanted to be just like you, unfortunately I'm not the greatest when it comes to medical stuff, but Gai-sensei helped me learn weapons. Now I want to learn Taijutsu from you. I think your style would go great with my Kenjutsu and Nina Tool skills. It's been my dream to study with you ever since I was a little girl."

Tsunade studied the three young Kunoichi.They seem eager enough. The village needs more strong Kunoichi. I don't really want to have to manipulate the younger generation anymore than I already have today, but if push comes to shove all three of them could be of some political use to me, even the orphan.

"Here's what I'll do. When I trained Shizune, I had a lot more free time. Now I'm Hokage. I can give you some time each day, but not enough. I do however have plenty of assistants, so I don't need Shizune to attend to me all day. If you're all willing I'll have Shizune take you on as her apprentices, and I'll help out when I can. Is that acceptable?"

For Sakura and Hinata, this was more than enough as it would help them get stronger. Shizune was a well respected jonin. They readily agreed and left. Tenten however was torn. Her heart was set on Tsunade, her hero, her inspiration for becoming a shinobi in the first place. Tsunade couldn't help but smile, at how much the girl seemed to worship her. She decided to take the girl to lunch. Tenten readily agreed to this, and Tsunade, Shizune, and Tenten went out to eat.

Tsunade quickly grew attached to the young Kunoichi. In part this was because she knew Tenten was the one actually competent Kunoichi in her generation, in part because of how much Tenten seemed to adore Tsunade, and in part out of sympathy for this seemingly nice girl who was stuck on Might Gai's team, a fate Tsunade wouldn't wish upon her worst enemy.

She was also sympathetic to the fact that Tenten lacked a family, and it just so happened that Tsunade could politically benefit from expanding her own family. By the end of lunch she had made up her mind to modify one of her plans to include Tenten, and conferred with Shizune on the walk back to the tower. Shizune had also taken a liking to the girl, and readily agreed to Tsunade's plan.

Sitting back down at her desk she addressed her apprentice and her wannabe apprentice. "All right, here's what I'm thinking. As you know in addition to being Hokage I am also the last member of the Senju Clan. The Senju clan is a very important clan for Konoha, and having the clan reborn, even if not with the same bloodline, would be an important propaganda tool for the village. To that end I have filled out adoption papers for Shizune. I've viewed her as my daughter for some time, so this is just making it official. She'll take the last name Senju and take over as head of the clan so I can focus on being Hokage. However, I like you girl, so I'm willing to adopt you into the Senju clan as well."

Tenten's eyes grew wide at Tsunade's words.Tsunade-sama...wants to adopt me too?...My hero wants to adopt me?! I'd have a mom and a sister?! A Family! Tenten Senju?!The 14 Year Old weapons loving kunoichi bowed low, and tears flowed from her eyes as she spoke. "Tsunade-sama...I'm honored. I-I-I've always wanted a family...Thank You!"

"I won't lie to you Tenten, while I have taking a bit of a liking to you, and want to give you a family, one of my primary motivations for this is my own political purposes. The Senju Clan needs new members in order to gain influence in the village. You'll have Shizune and I as your family, but you'll also be somewhat of a pawn in my greater political ambitions. It's possible that in a few years I may just end up marrying you off to another clan, especially if Shizune ever gives me some grandkids. Those kids would be higher in the clan line of succession than you."

"That's ok, I'm willing to do anything to have a family. Meeting you, getting a family, Tsunade-sama, Shizune-san...Thank You, this is the best day of my life." Shizune smiled and embraced the crying girl "Shh, we're here for you Tenten, and please, call me nee-chan." Tsunade got up from behind the desk and joined in the hug. "I'll be taking all of this to the council for approval at the next meeting, so for now neither of you are members of the Senju Clan yet, but I'm pretty sure the council is desperate enough to revive the Senju clan that they will go for this. Hell, they'll probably spend the rest of the meeting trying to get you both married. The Civilian members of the council seem to take great delight in playing shinobi match maker."

This got a few chuckles from the two younger women before the three finally broke their embrace. "Shizune, take Tenten to the Senju Clan compound. Just because it isn't official yet doesn't mean she can't start to settle in."

-End of Chapter-

A few business things to take care of.

This is one of three other story ideas I got in the process of writing Yotsuki Naruto. Naruto is going to be a main character eventually, but in order to truly set up the story the way I want, the first few chapters to focus on Tsunade, Shikaku, and a couple of other characters. Once the story gets to a certain point it will shift to being much more focused on Naruto and a couple of other characters than anyone else. At this point people like Shizune and Tenten, while they will appear quite a bit in the first couple chapters, are not main characters. Could they be later? possibly.

I learned with Yotsuki Naruto that people seem to be obsessed with pairings, so I'll say this. I've already figured out Naruto's pairing, as well as a couple of others, though some of the other pairings are yet to be decided. There will be arranged marriages. Pairings will stay with people close to their own age. I don't really like stories where a 14 year old Naruto is in a relationship with a 50 year old Tsunade or a 16 year old Naruto is in a relationship with a 29 year old Yugito. That's just weird, and creepy. It is possible Naruto will end up with two people, but there will not be a mass harem. If he does end up with two people it will be clearly explained why. (I'm not planning on this at the moment, but I'm also not ruling it out.) No I'm not telling you any of my pairings in advance, patience young ones.

Yes, according to Narutopedia there are more than 10 clans in Konoha, but I've limited it to Aburame, Akimichi, Hyuga, Inuzuka, Nara, Sarutobi, Senju, Uchiha, Uzumaki, and Yamanaka. I was tempted to include the Shimura Clan since Danzo is one of the main antagonists here, but I like the idea of Danzo not having a clan, just his own shadow empire. Narutopedia may list a Hatake Clan, but I'm going to be treating the Hatake as a Shinobi Family, but not a clan.

The difference being a Shinobi Family, while still a family of shinobi, is smaller than a clan, and doesn't really possess secret techniques or Kekkai Genkai. As for the other listed Clans, I don't really know enough about them to be comfortable writing about them, so for now they don't exist in this universe. I reserve the right to retcon one or two in later, but I doubt that will happen..

I'm not gonna put easter eggs in here as much as I do in YN, in fact I initially wasn't planning on any, but I couldn't help myself and threw a Spaceballs reference into this chapter. "Unbeknownst to them but beknownst to us" is paraphrased from the opening crawl of that movie. That being said I really do intend on keeping references to a minimum in this story.

Thanks for Reading

- Col. Bogey.