[Closed] Politic, cautious, and meticulous

[disgruntledmountain]

Who: Uchiha Obito and Uchiha Fugaku
When: April 12th (backdated)
Where: Obito's office
Notes: Fugaku pays Obito an official visit.

Generally, it didn't look good to make the Hokage wait on an official summons, but Fugaku tended to...over schedule himself. Just a little.

But, Obito wanted to speak to him on a very important matter, so Fugaku made time. He hurt a few feelings that were mostly soothed by the phrase "meeting with the Hokage." Fugaku tried not to look too much like he was going to an execution.

Fugaku made his way through the Hokage's tower, the various security measures, watching the ANBU carefully out of habit. In part he did it to see if he recognized anyone by their build any scars or mannerisms they might show.

"Uchiha Fugaku, here to see the Hokage. He's expecting me."

Also, Obito sitting begind that desk was probably something he would never get used to. Hopefully the next Hokage would be someone he hadn't known as a child. Maybe he'd be retired by then.

Comments

[thebestuchiha]

It worked out given that Obito had to put out a quick emergency which saw him half buried in papers when Fugaku was shown in, which as a result meant that he didn't realize how much the man had been delayed. He pushed it all to the side as soon as he found out who had arrived though, lunging to catch the stack even as the door swung open and saving it from heading to the floor.

He sat back like there was no way anything had happened, giving the man a slightly tired smile. "Fugaku-san, thank you for coming."

[disgruntledmountain]

Obito obviously needed a better method of paper control. At this age, Fugaku had his filing system down to an art, but he didn't think lecturing the Hokage and his lack of effective paper management would set the right tone for the meeting.Nor was saying he didn't really want ANBU to show up and escort him to this meeting, so he tried to come in a timely manner.

". . .if you've had an emergency, I can come back later." Fugaku suggested, hoping the pile of papers wasn't the normal state of Obito's desk these days.

[thebestuchiha]

He looked around his desk and this expression went from tired but cheerful, to just plain tired. It didn't hold long though, the moment of seriousness passing quickly as he pulled a brilliant smile from somewhere to present him with.

"Nah, nothing out of the usual for... a while now. Half of these things are stuff I'm needed to go back over so it's not as bad as it seems, honest."

[disgruntledmountain]

Fugaku didn't understand Obito's cheerfulness. It wasn't as if anyone expected the Hokage to always be smiling. Actually they didn't. Fugaku personally knew how much work and general pull-your-hair-out stress was involved in running a clan, let alone a whole village. It would be better, he thought, if Obito didn't waste his energy on vapid smiles when they both knew he was tired.

Fugaku wasn't going to ask about the issue, as it might likely be something Obito didn't want to tell him. If the Hokage wanted him to know something, Fugaku would wait to be told it. He did doubt it wasn't "as bad as it seemed." Fugaku's frown deepened a little.

[thebestuchiha]

"So, the police force has been doing really good since I had my flaming row over the whole Milani kidnapping situation. Can you tell me in more detail what's going on? I... admit that I haven't been keeping up as well as I would prefer and if I need to expand the MP budget then I need to know about that too."

[disgruntledmountain]

Fugaku doubted Obito wanted a three day long recounting of what the police force had been doing. Fugaku could do it. Maybe. Fugaku tried not to feel patronized by Obito's wording. They were "doing good." Like gennin or a dog told to fetch, but Obito was offering more funds, and they always needed more funds.

"We're completely updated the way reports are filed now. It's more streamlined, and information reaches higher ranks more quickly. We've also has several retraining sessions on intelligence gathering and distributing." That had made everyone as happy as wet cats, but getting a multi-generational task force all on the same page when it came to how to share information and what information needed to be shared first took more work than it should. It seemed everyone had learned a different way from their mentor, and they honestly should have done this a long time ago. It was just so difficult to get everyone down to re-training and before that getting everyone to agree on how to retrain people.

"Hopefully you will see a more efficient handling of information, Hokage-sama," Fugaku finished, hoping he didn't sound patronizing or bored.

[thebestuchiha]

The look on Obito's face was pure relief. "Oh good, good good. Information has been hell this last year so someone getting their issues sorted is the best news ever. I need to get my commander for ANBU back in motion, and then maybe he and you can work out something to make sure both sides aren't missing vital information the other needs. Yeah, I know there's some feud but I never really got it. Sorry if it sounds like I'm planning to stomp on toes but way too much is falling through the cracks. As is, a few months back I had to beat Shisui over the head with clearance and a kick in the rear to help sort out the world political situation because me just saying something was going on was so not getting through. Not that he and I always understand each other, but it was the right choice I think."

He rubbed his temple. "That's why he's been out so much when he's not with his genin by the way, so I'm sorry about that, I know he's pretty important to the clan too." He shook his head and collected a stack of papers, rifling through them quickly. "Okay, so, Sasuke's been on a pretty intense mission since January, and it should be more or less concluding soon from what he tells me. It's really serious and as soon as he gets back from his current part of it and lets me know his findings, I'll get back to you with them too. It's... a mess."

He was rambling, and not in particularly linear fashion. He was sure Fugaku's already low regard was dropping like a stone here. "Could you give me an idea what's going on with the Fire civilians please? You'd be the one who'd know. Also, with the information restructure has there been any other retraining I need to be aware of?"

[disgruntledmountain]

Whenever Obito started talking like this, Fugaku always felt like he needed to be drinking. Or Obito should be drinking. It was almost like watching something unravel, honestly as Fugaku carefully stored away the barrage of information for later dissection. Maybe he should just bring a ream of paper and take notes so he and Mikoto could piece them into coherency later. Fugaku held onto the rather barbed comment that he was glad Obito found Fugaku's children so indispensable to Konoha's continued safety, Shisui included in that number.

Obito probably didn't want to know that Izumi-san thought Iwa was using hophers to spy on her. Unfortunately many of the civilians he'd first befriended as a rookie cop were now in their elderly and not so astute phase of life. Not all of them remembered Fugaku wasn't still a rookie cop they could detain for trivial emergencies.

Fugaku cleared his throat. "Things have been better. There's some resistance to the escalated security measures we've taken recently, but nothing more than grumbling. There's also some complaint about the price of imported goods recently." But when didn't people complain about that? "There's no serious tension right now." Rising tides and uneasiness trickling down from the shinobi of Konoha and the events outside the village walls. Konoha civilians tended to have a better sense of security than most, given where they lived.

"There are some people looking over our current policies and procedures and deciding whether or not anything else needs updating. I'll let you know if anything major comes up," Fugaku was sure something would come up. He didn't know when they'd last done an overhaul of those things. Fugaku hesitated.

"...have you spoke to Itachi recently?" That probably counted as restructuring.

[thebestuchiha]

Obito had looked... worried about the things that Fugaku had relayed about the civilians. It wasn't the right reaction for something that should be trivial, he knew, but that those complaints lined up with things that were a concern for wider intelligence was something like a confirmation of rising trouble.

Another one rather.

"Not unofficially. He's been working on Sasuke's project so he's been out of the village more." He looked over at him, honestly a bit surprised that he'd been asked. "Why? Is something wrong?"

It was no mystery that Obito was highly attached to Fugaku's sons. That had always been the case.

[disgruntledmountain]

"He's fine." As far as Fugaku knew, anyway. The great irony here would be that Obito would know if Fugaku's kids were unwell before Fugaku would Fugaku cleared his throat and decided he probably shouldn't put this off any longer.

"Itachi has decided to step down as heir," Fugaku admitted. For some reason he thought Obito would have been told. "But I'm not announcing this until I've found a replacement and spoke to Sasuke." It seemed polite to let the Hokage know that the assumed heir was no longer the assumed heir and Fugaku didn't know who'd be taking over after him. He was hoping Sasuke would agree to take on the task, but he had yet to really see Sasuke in more than passing.

Also, he had yet to decide how he was going to ask Sasuke without ending up in the same position as Itachi--with a child who felt he had no choice to take up the role but didn't really want it.

[thebestuchiha]

He seemed to still then, visibly surprised... before sighing. "I see. I knew he wasn't content but I didn't realise it was that extreme." He ran his fingers through his hair, then nodded once, considering the matter for a moment before saying anything further.

"Sasuke is better for it. I love Itachi, but he's too peaceable to take control like the clan probably needed so... it will be good. Sasuke won't let you down, if he knows you really mean it. Once he's completed his current project I'll work out keeping him closer to home, should he accept."

He flashed Fugaku a bright smile, feeling like at least something was going right this morning, even if this wasn't what he was expecting. "How about you? Are you taking this okay?"