(2 Days After The Arrival of One of The Twelve Guardian Ninjas... The Leaf Village Gates...)

The Aged Third Hokage was waiting at the village gates to receive The Fire Daimyo cause today is the day of his arrival. Soon he spotted a Royal Horse Drawn Carriage being pulled by two pure white horses. The carriage was surrounded by nearly 50 samurai and the remaining 11 of The Twelve Guardian Ninjas were following the carriage with extreme caution from the tree tops.

The Carriage then stopped beside Hiruzen and The Fire Daimyo stepped out of the vehicle. The Fire Daimyo has small, circular eyes and dark pupils. He was also wearing the standard daimyo headpiece with the symbol of fire etched on to it. He was also holding a costly hand fan which he uses to fan himself.

"It's been a long time Daimyo-sama..." Hiruzen said extending a hand.

"Indeed, it is Hokage-sama..." Daimyo replied and took the offered hand and shook the Hokage's hand.

"Shall we proceed to your stay...?" Hiruzen offered.

"Yes..." The Daimyo replied and then they started their walk towards the hotel along with the samurai and the guardian ninjas who are now following the Daimyo from the roof tops and the group fell into a comfortable silence. The Daimyo was the first to break the silence and said, "Oh, and Hokage-sama... While I settle down at my stay here, I would like you to arrange a meeting with only the shinobi council within the next hour and tell me..." That request made Hiruzen to get a little surprised, but he didn't let it show on his face and he replied, "It will be done Daimyo-sama..."

After dropping The Fire Daimyo at his hotel Hiruzen summoned all shinobi clan heads for the meeting. Hiashi, Tsume, Shibi, Shikaku, Choza and Inoichi were among them and Tsunade also attended as she is now the Senju Clan Head. Every one noted the absence of the village elders and almost all of them knew why they were summoned because word travels fast and it's been already 5 days since The Senju clan called justice for Sakumo Hatake.

Murmurs started among the clan heads like Why only now, why not earlier...? What does the Daimyo has to say now...? Will Sakumo finally get the respect he deserves...?

"I know you all need answers but lets wait patiently for The Daimyo to arrive..." Hiruzen said out loud causing the murmurs to stop.

As if on que, the Daimyo arrived inside the council chamber with all 12 of his Guardian Ninjas. He took the seat reserved for him beside the Hokage and his Guardian ninjas took all sides of the room to ensure the safety of the Daimyo.

"Daimyo-sama... Now that you're here... Let us discuss whether you intend to agree or not to the condition set by The Senju Clan Head demanding the proper respect for Sakumo Hatake – The White Fang of The Leaf, with their clan's allegiance to the leaf village being at stake...?" Hiruzen asked respectfully referring to Tsunade's message to the Daimyo.

"I'm not here to say whether I agree to Senju Clan's condition or not..." Daimyo started saying while fanning himself which made Tsunade to get furious but before she can lash out, he continued again, "I'm here to discuss why I was not informed all those years back that Sakumo Hatake was wronged... Why was this hidden from me..?"

That one statement left the entire Council Chamber apart from the Daimyo and his 12 guardian ninjas to be shocked to their core.

"What are you saying Daimyo-sama...? I wrote a personal letter to you when Sakumo was denied the proper respect after his death... I plead to you in that letter that during the war time civilian council had the funds that the village needed, and they denied the proper respect for him as they considered him the cause for major losses of The Leaf Village and they said they would cancel funding needed for the war if we give him a place in the memorial stone. I plead to you in that letter to lend some help from the capital city, so we can cancel the Civilian Council as we would no longer need their funds to win the war and we will be able to give proper respect for each and every shinobi who fell in battle."

This time it was the Daimyo who got wide eyed and he said, "Hokage-sama... In the letter I received from you, you said that you have all the funds needed to win the war and don't need any additional funding from the capital..."

The room was filled with murmurs again and Tsunade started suspecting that someone must have been intercepting the messages between Hokage and the Daimyo.

Hiruzen couldn't believe it, If the Daimyo was to be believed then someone intercepted the messages between him and the Daimyo and the Daimyo didn't even know about Sakumo until now.

"With all due respect, can I see the message that was delivered to you Daimyo-sama..?" Tsunade asked to which the daimyo nodded and Asuma approached Tsunade and handed her a very worn and old looking scroll that has the Hokage seal on it.

Tsunade unfurled the scroll and started reading through the contents of the scroll. After a few moments she closed it and said, "It seems that Daimyo-sama is indeed saying the truth, this scroll says that the Leaf village has enough funds to carry out war for 5 more years and does not need any additional funding. There is no mention of Sakumo Hatake anywhere in this scroll. And also, this is not Hokage-sama's hand writing. No offence for suspecting that you could be lying Daimyo-sama." She then handed the scroll to her sensei.

"None taken..." Daimyo replied fanning himself. When Hiruzen started inspecting the scroll, he found out that even though the hand writing is not his, the Hokage seal was genuine which means someone within the higher ranks of the village had intercepted the message sent by him to the Daimyo. He had a suspicion who might have done it.

"Sorry for this mistake Daimyo-sama... I think our messages were being intercepted..." aged Hokage said with a regretful sigh thinking that for all these years Sakumo could have gotten the respect he deserved.

"It doesn't matter anyway... Now, will The White Fang of The Leaf – Sakumo Hatake be given the proper respect he deserves and be treated as a hero he is, or should the Senju Family start packing their bags and leave the Leaf village forever...?" Tsunade asked.

"He will absolutely be given the respect he deserves and if the Leaf village denies him that respect this time too, then Fire Nation will withdraw all of its funding to the Leaf village and I will then erect a monument myself in respect for Sakumo Hatake in the Capital City to honor his great deeds." Daimyo made his point clear by giving an underlined threat.

"I don't think it will come to that Daimyo-sama... We can finally show the respect to our own fallen comrade, without the fear of lack of funding from Leaf's civilian council..." Shikaku Nara asked trying to find out if the Daimyo will help or not if the Civilian Council decides to pull back their funding to the village.

Daimyo caught on to what Shikaku is trying to ask and laughed, "Nara clan members are geniuses indeed. No need of worrying about the funding, as long as The Leaf Village walks on the path set by The First Hokage – Hashirama Senju, funding will be given from the Fire Nation capital whenever it is needed."

"Then it is settled... We will give the proper respect for Sakumo Hatake's final resting place and etch his name on Leaf village's memorial stone and erect a monument in his honor in the training ground 44 to show our acknowledgement for all the great deeds he did for the village." Hiruzen said feeling genuinely happy and the entire council chamber was filled with joy at the long-awaited acknowledgement being given to their fallen comrade.

A spiky silver haired anbu hidden in one of the corners of the room, who was stationed there for the security of the Hokage, let some happy tears to fall from his eyes and he was thankful to his anbu mask, cause his image would be damaged if someone saw him crying. Father... Your Will of Fire is finally being acknowledged... "Thank you Tsunade-sama, Thank you Shizune-san and Thank you Naruto-kun..." He said lowly, which Tsunade heard even among all the cheers in the room and she nodded in his direction letting him know that she heard him which made him smile genuinely behind his mask after so many years.