Days later, Sakura was back at home.
Their house was intact since the Nine Tails had caused the most damage in the center of the village, and their house was a bit further from the center.
This incident marked him a bit, not because it happened; he already knew about it. It was because of how he felt in front of the Kyuubi: like an ant, extremely weak, like an insignificant speck of dust that did not matter.
This motivated him to meditate harder and try to sense natural energy faster. However, progress would not skyrocket just because of this, so in just a few days, one couldn't expect anything.
Sakura just hoped he had some talent in it because of whatever made him have memories of a second life.
One thing that surprised him was the fact that Minato and Kushina survived. He heard it from his parents when they talked. When he went to the market with his mother, he also heard some other housewives mention how the Hokage's daughter and wife were the heroes of the village, now containing the Kyuubi so that it would not hurt the village anymore.
Daughter? Not son? This was Sakura's first thought, but knowing his gender was not like the original Sakura, he accepted the fact extremely fast. Now he was even more curious to see who else was a different gender from the anime.
He also heard something about how Orochimaru became an S rank rebel. From what he knew, Orochimaru's experiments were exposed a bit later after the Nine Tails attack, not so fast. But maybe Orochimaru decided to leave when the village was in chaos after he learned Minato was still alive and thought he could not escape from him like how he did with Hiruzen.
Maybe this was also the reason he stayed a bit more in the village after Minato's death.
There was also something about the Kumo trying to make some friction on the border to test Konoha after hearing about the Nine Tails rebellion and Orochimaru's defection. However, after seeing that Konoha did not suffer much and that Minato did not get injured gravely or die, they gave up trying to ignite more war between them.
Now, aside from these events, his baby life was extremely boring.
In the Hokage office, besides Minato and his secretary, Shikaku, the patriarch of the Nara clan, there were also the rest of the patriarchs of the other clans together with the Konoha F4: Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo Shimura, Homura Mitokado, and Koharu Utatene.
There was also Jiraiya, but he was downcast. Hiruzen was the same; his wife had died, and the student he liked the most defected and became an S-rank missing-nin.
"Now that everything is resolved after the Nine Tails incident, I have an announcement to make."
Everyone looked a bit curious, but the F4 had a bad feeling.
"The brown leaves that fall from the tree burn brightly for the fresh green leaves."
Huh? The will of fire philosophy? Everyone was confused about Minato bringing up the will of fire.
"I am very grateful that those brown leaves burned so brightly for us, but their fire is dimming, and I think it's time for them to take a rest and let others burn for the next generation."
All in the room understood what was happening.
Danzo was shaking. Does Minato want to dismiss him?
The patriarchs also understood. Most of them smiled a bit. If that old fox Danzo, who comes and takes members of their clans who are promising and they can't see them from then on, would be dismissed, they would be happy.
The only ones who were not happy but neutral were Yamanaka and Aburame. They had some interests and deals with Root, but they would not butt heads with Minato, who is still young, strong, and looks very promising.
The old fox Danzo could be dropped.
The happiest one was Fugaku, who still had his stern face that almost everyone believed got blocked like this from how much he kept it on. But inside, he was like a volcano. Finally, these four could kick the bucket from Konoha's political landscape and not try to make the Uchiha look worse and target them.
Now he only needed to resolve the issue in his clan. His clan really had a bad attitude and arrogant temper that made villagers not like them, together with the fact they were the ones enforcing the law and sometimes being too severe, rising even more dislike.
There was also the hawk faction that was bent on trying a coup to become Hokage, delusional Madara fans. With Minato as Hokage and the rest of the clans being on such a good Hokage side, such a thing was impossible. Fugaku may have the Mangekyo Sharingan, but against Minato, he knew he would get beaten.
And he did not even want to rebel and become Hokage.
"Sarutobi-sensei, Shimura-san, Utatene-san, and Homura-san, please retire and make place for the younger generation."
"I will gladly retire. I felt the stress was a bit too much from still working on the administration of the village," said Hiruzen. Minato was right; he had already worked many years as Hokage and did not need to have a say anymore or influence Minato's decisions, just as his teacher, the Second Hokage, did not have the chance to influence him.
In that moment, his old friends wanted to strangle him to death. With Hiruzen taking the lead, they also had to follow. If they tried to argue, they would look extremely bad.
Next were Koharu and Mitokado, who said they would retire. They also left first.
Danzo gripped his cane hard. He could do nothing; he was weak. This Danzo did not have the Shin hand with Sharingan and Hashirama cells he would get in the future from Orochimaru, and the Mangekyo Sharingan he had was close to blindness.
Root also could not do anything against the whole village, so a coup was never happening.
And defecting? He believed it was beneath him, even though he had done despicable things till now. He still thought he did them in Konoha's name and was loyal to Konoha.
This act would surely disappoint his teacher, who was also the Second Hokage, Tobirama, if he were here. About the other things, he was not sure, as his second teacher was a pretty dark character who also did some things the First Hokage had no knowledge of.
So he had no choice but to accept it.
"I will retire. But what about Root..."
"Don't worry; Root will get absorbed by ANBU and reformed. The Root operatives who want to return to civilian life will be able to after some reformation. And no need for a key to the Root tongue seal; Kushina made one a long time ago," said Minato.
Danzo clicked his teeth, a bit angry that this shrewd Minato had already made a key to break his Root seal. Maybe now there were already ANBU members in the Root base, picking everything up and taking his operatives to destroy their tongue seals.
It looked like everything he had built till now was destroyed by Minato. Curse you, Minato.
Danzo did not stay much longer and stormed out of the room, slamming the door, with Hiruzen following after him.
"Sarutobi-sensei, before leaving, how do you feel about teaching at the academy and becoming the dean? It would be a waste for you not to do it, considering your title of professor."
"A good idea; I would do it. Now I need to go calm Danzo and maybe buy some fishing rods to fish when I have free time, my old ones are not in good condition," said Hiruzen before leaving.
After the Konoha F4 left, Minato looked at the rest in the room before saying, "Now that this has ended, I will tell you who will be on my council. These will be Fugaku, Hiashi, and Teacher Jiraiya."
This was not the council he envisioned; the perfect one would have been made of the Sannin. However, Orochimaru had defected, and Tsunade was wandering outside the village, gambling and drinking.
Jiraiya was the only one he could still include. He had to convince him, but Jiraiya only accepted it after Minato assured him that he could still travel outside. If he was needed, Minato would teleport to him using the Flying Thunder God technique and bring him to Konoha, after the problem was resolved he would bring him back where he was.
He needed Jiraiya because he was the only one of civilian background like himself. He wanted the full council to be of civilian background, but he could not ignore the clans' interests. There were no other civilian ninjas with as much prestige and experience to take these posts.
He thought of Fugaku because he was the patriarch of the Uchiha and could calm the Uchiha. Fugaku was also a powerful jonin with experience on the battlefield in two ninja wars and had experience in administration because of being a patriarch.
Hiashi was chosen because he was the patriarch of the Hyuga, the second clan in Konoha, right after the Uchiha, who were now its equal with the fact of the Senju dispersing through the civilian population and giving up their names. If he did not make Hiashi part of the council, he would have alienated the Hyuga clan. Hiashi also had experience in two ninja wars and had experience in administration.
Fugaku and Hiashi, hearing this, were happy. Minato had already visited them and asked if they were interested, and they happily agreed. Fugaku could use this to make the voices in the clan for more influence quieter until he fully resolved it. Hiashi, also hearing that a future colleague would be Fugaku, could not deny it and have the Uchiha gain more power than them in Konoha.
The other patriarchs expected this. Compared to Fugaku and Hiashi, they were weaker in strength as individuals but also as clans compared to them. Most of them did not have ambitions like being the best clans or the most powerful; they only wanted to protect their interests, not bite off more than they could chew.
fter that, the patriarchs were dismissed, and only Minato, Shikaku, and Jiraiya were left.
"Teacher Jiraiya, you were pretty absent-minded and did not talk during the meeting."
Jiraiya, who was looking out the window, woke up as if from a dream and said, "Sorry, Minato. I was thinking about Orochimaru and Tsunade."
"I see," said Minato. "My ANBU found a child still alive in Orochimaru's base. We learned the experiment was for wood release. My ANBU taught him to form chakra, and after learning, he was able to create a small tree out of his hand."
Jiraiya looked shocked. Maybe this could produce a ninja as strong as the First Hokage. "Really? That's huge news. Maybe Tsunade would be interested, or maybe not. It would probably provoke some bad memories."
"It's huge news, but not that huge. After taking a look at his wood release and the tree made by the First Hokage in the Senju compound, I noticed they don't match. His is dead without life, while the First Hokage's is alive. And from the looks of it, he will not have huge chakra like the First," said Minato.
"Oh," said Jiraiya, pretty disappointed.
Minato was also disappointed when he noticed the difference in wood release, but he got over it fast. This also explained his theory: the First Hokage was not strong because of wood release; wood release was strong because of the First Hokage.
"Maybe he could be a good builder. From what I saw in the wood scroll jutsu, there are some house-building jutsus."
Jiraiya laughed before saying, "Not a bad idea. It would have been nice if he was grown up and we had him right now to rebuild."
Minato nodded. Jiraiya, who was trying not to think of Orochimaru, asked, "How are Kushina and Naruko feeling?"
Minato made a sign with his hand, and four ANBU who were hiding left the room.
After they left, Minato answered, "Well, good. There is no problem with Naruko. But also a bit bad. Kushina recovered almost completely, but the medical ninjas said she remained infertile from all that happened."
Jiraiya winced. "Oh, I imagine it hit pretty hard."
"Yeah, lucky she has Naruko, and it's helping her. Now I have Kakashi to help her with things. He is still depressed, but maybe he can get better by spending more time with Kushina and Naruko. He said he wanted to join ANBU, but the darkness will bring him more into the abyss," said Minato. He was worried for Kushina and even Kakashi. Lucky he or Kushina did not die; this would also have been a hit to Kakashi.
"Let's hope Kushina gets better and that kid Kakashi. He is a good and talented kid. It would be bad for him to get stuck by depression. He is already limiting himself with that Sharingan," said Jiraiya.
Minato nodded. Kakashi's Sharingan was draining his chakra too much, and he did not have enough to train or even fight more prolonged battles. Maybe Kushina could make a seal for it that could be turned on and off by Kakashi so he would not need to give it up.
"I had thought of something. Talking about Sharingan, the man who freed the Kyuubi had a Sharingan. When you are wandering outside, keep an eye out for someone with only one Sharingan outside Konoha. He said he is Madara, but I think it's not him after some thinking. Also, he has some space-time ninjutsu from his Mangekyo Sharingan."
"I will keep an eye on it."
Time flowed like a powerful and vigorous river, breaking everything in its path. Young men got old, and young girls got old. People died, and people were born. With some people, it had patience, and with others, it did not.
Three years went by.
In the forest of Konoha, a three-year-old boy with pink hair was sitting next to the trunk of a tree.
Since being able to move pretty well, Sakura started going into the forests inside the village that were safe compared to the ones outside. He had a feeling that natural energy would be easier to sense when encircled by more nature.
And he was right. Since being able to come here, he had been able several times to feel something for a short time. It was like very refreshing air but also powerful and unstoppable.
And these feelings, as time went by, happened more and more.
Another thing that happened is that he was able to sense his spiritual energy and physical energy. As you can guess, his spiritual energy is off the charts compared to the physical one. Pretty amazing to be able to do this without guidance from an adult. If he tried right now to form chakra and refine it, he could do it. But he decided to do it at four years old to not destroy his foundation by exerting his very young body too much.
He was extra cautious.
Sakura is also now able to sense movement around him within a few meters without even using chakra, so meditation really paid off.
As Sakura was zoning out and not thinking, he started to feel something. But this time, after previous experiences, he did not jump in surprise or start thinking wildly.
After some thinking, he came to the conclusion that he failed the previous time because, after feeling it, he always broke the tranquil state he was in.
So now he kept it, and the natural energy started being felt more thoroughly. It was really refreshing against the skin, like swimming in warm but not too warm water on a hot summer day.
Even when feeling it more and more, he still kept this state.
He did not know how much time had passed, but without thinking, his body absorbed just a really small amount of natural energy.
In that moment, Sakura jumped up, scared.
"Damn it! Get out of me!" he shouted. He freaking did it; he would become stone.
Such a shameful way to die for a reincarnator.
"Get out!"
"Wait..." said Sakura as he noticed nothing happened. He only had a refreshing feeling throughout his whole body, like drinking a cold glass of water on a hot day.
Nothing, no change like becoming something else, really nothing. Trying to sense inside his body to see where it was, he noticed the natural energy he absorbed became even smaller. But instead of getting out of his body, it went through his meridians and became even smaller until it disappeared.
It did not go out but dispersed inside the body.
"Did my body absorb it?" Sakura asked himself.
Getting on his butt and entering meditation again, he noticed his physical energy became a really minuscule amount bigger and even somehow better in quality, but a minuscule amount. Thanks to his massive spiritual energy and its better quality than his physical one, he was able to sense such minor changes.
Also, from what he understood, the benefits of big amounts of spiritual energy are higher chakra control from the start and even higher limit to improve it, more resistance against genjutsu, stronger genjutsu, more powerful sensing abilities, more efficiency and power in all yin techniques. But there are chances for some mental problems, like split personalities being an example.
"What the fuck? Did I become something like a cultivator in the world of Naruto?" muttered Sakura.
Inside Sakura's mind, another Sakura appeared with shining eyes and brought his punch into the sky. "Hell yeah! We are going to fly on swords and pick up jade beauties while face-slapping young masters!"
"Shut up!" shouted Sakura in his mind.
Since some time ago, he understood why anime Sakura had a inner Sakura in the first part. It was a freaking split personality because of her more spiritual energy.
Now that he had even more spiritual energy, it appeared even faster. The only way he could get rid of it was for him to grow up and have more physical energy, which would offset the spiritual energy and bring a balance.
Lucky he was not like that Kurama girl who had a freaking monster able to affect reality as a split personality.
Getting up, he realized he needed to go home as the sun was going down. He could worry and speculate at home about what happened.