French leader with clever story (5)
I believe the answer is:
fable
'story' is the definition.
(I know that fable is a type of story)
'french leader with clever' is the wordplay.
'leader' says to take the initial letters.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'clever' becomes 'able' (able can mean skilled or talented).
The initial letter of 'french' is 'f'.
'f'+'able'='FABLE'
(Other definitions for fable that I've seen before include "Short moral story" , "there may be a moral to it" , "It's not true" , "Mythological story" , "Old wives' tale" .)