An Orchestrated Coup [Exemplary]

[Kakashi Hatake]

Kakashi furrowed his brow as the woman approached, flanked by her small squadron of bodyguards. The ambiance of the room still felt quite tense to the silver-haired shinobi, but the portly woman seemed oblivious to the glares from the other officials in the room. She strode forward, smiling with the same questionable grin the scarecrow had noted earlier.

“Yes, what’s the matter?” Minato inquired, doing his best to maintain an air of formality. His protege didn’t need his sharingan to tell that he was growing weary of the meeting. 

The Makhel matriarch paused, watching as the last of the gathered families filtered out into the hallway. Satisfied that they would not be overheard, she turned back to her shinobi arbitrators. “I don’t want to stir up any trouble, but I feel as if I should say something.”

Minato blinked once, giving a small nod. “Okay, go ahead.” 

“Well, I don’t want to get everyone worked up over nothing…” the woman trailed off, her hands playing absentmindedly with the sash on her kimono. 

“Please,” Kakashi blurted out. “What’s the issue?” Minato shot the ANBU captain a look  of something between amusement and surprise. 

“If you insist,” the Makhel woman said, shrugging. Though she seemed to be trying to play it off like she didn’t care, Kakashi could tell that she was all-too-eager to share. “It’s just that before you three arrived, I overheard some talk from those elves.”

The silver-haired shinobi cocked his head, thinking back to the meeting they had just endured. “The Windforge clan?”

“Whatever they’re calling themselves, yes. Their leader is that tall, blonde man -such a rude one he is.” She shook her head solemnly, as if to pity the shinobi duo. “He was sitting across from you.”

“Yes, I remember him,” Minato stated, nodding. “What did he say that bothered you?”

“Well, it’s not so much what he said as how he said it,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at her bodyguard. “We weren’t close enough to make out every word, but it doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together.”

Kakashi stared blankly at the Makhel officials, the intricacies of the village’s gossip mill a mystery to him. “You’ll have to spell it out for us; what is your concern?”

The portly woman met his gaze, a smile once more playing at the corners of her mouth despite the apparent effort at maintaining a solemn expression. “It’s no secret that the Windforge want to overthrow Tsunade.”

“What?!” Minato exclaimed, his eyes narrowing. “Why would they want that?”

“Well, you see,” the Makhel matriarch said, taking a seat in one of the now-empty chairs around the meeting table. “The elves have been in the Tangled Green since before Mokugakure was even founded. They occupied most of the land in which we now stand. They allied with the ninjas shortly after Tsunade founded the village...some have speculated that it was more out of necessity than choice, however.”

“So you think they want to take control over the village because they feel like the land belongs to them?” Kakashi inquired, thoughts spinning in his head.

“Something like that,” the woman said, nodding. “I imagine Galoon, or whatever he calls himself, feels slighted for not being considered for the position of Village Leader. And today my companions and I overheard him in conversation with his kin, talking about how this village was in need of change and that they would be the ones to do it.” 

Ominous, Kakashi thought, casting a gaze out the open window of their meeting hall. He spied the slight figure of Galan among the procession of clans, marching nobly back toward the center of the village. The elf did seem somewhat perturbed during the meeting, and, if what he had just heard of the elves’ past was true, it was not hard to believe that the Makhels’ fears were true.  

“And you think it is more than just idle threats?” the blonde Kage inquired, now laser-focused on the woman’s every word and movement. 

“I do,” she replied, nodding sagely. “That is part of the reason that I would like one of my clan to work under Tsunade’s tutelage. My clan are all very skilled, it would not hurt to have another set of eyes on her on the somewhat likely chance that she might be attacked...”

“We appreciate the concern,” Minato responded. “We’ll look into it and let Tsunade know of your thoughts.”

“Very well,” the burly woman replied, a hint of a smile evident on her face. “Thank you.” With a final nod, she and her companions took their leave.