"For that purpose," Hiruzen announced, "I hereby resign my post as Hokage after eleven years, and I pass the seat to Azula Uchiha, who from this moment forward shall be the Fourth of the name."
What he just did flew completely in the face of how a Hokage was supposed to be chosen.
The proper procedure was what happened with Hashirama and Tobirama, both selected by the village itself, with the whole feudal lord approval being more of a formality than anything else.
But if Azula took the hat like this, that made two exceptions back to back. At that point, rules were just suggestions people ignored when convenient.
And yet not a single soul had the guts to object. Not even Danzō, let alone the advisors or a mere nobody.
After a beat of stunned silence, the crowd lost its collective mind.
Hiruzen stood there, a little embarrassed honestly. 'Sure, you're all thrilled about Azula running things, but come on. I just quit. Couldn't you at least pretend to be sad for five seconds?'
Nobody paid his feelings any mind. Azula stepped forward until she stood level with him.
She raised a hand toward the sky, which only cranked the crowd's frenzy higher, and then out of nowhere a red kasa hat materialized in her grip. The kanji for 'Fire' blazed across its face, the very symbol of the Land of Fire itself.
The smile on Azula's face, the very thing her enemies found most unnerving, was exactly what gave the villagers below the biggest rush of confidence.
She set the red kasa on her head, sealing her acceptance of the position. The gesture marked, without a shred of ambiguity, the start of a new era for the village.
She raised a hand to quiet the crowd, and they shut up instantly. Unlike when Hiruzen had tried it. Everyone was dying to hear what the new Hokage had to say.
"Hiruzen-sama already said who I am," she began, letting chakra carry her voice across the village. "So I won't waste your time repeating it."
"Tomorrow, I will sign a peace accord with Kumo. The others fall in line in the next few days, not because I asked nicely, but because they know what happens if they don't."
Her smile didn't waver, but something sharp flickered behind her eyes.
"I'm not here to be liked. I'm not here to give speeches. I'm here to make sure that when someone outside this village thinks about crossing us, their first thought is 'not worth it.' And their second thought is the same thing."
Pretty much everyone was stunned.
Eleven years of Hiruzen's gentle, fatherly addresses had conditioned them to expect a certain kind of speech, and what just came out of Azula's mouth was about as far from that as you could get.
The ones who actually knew her, though? Not a flicker of surprise. They'd have been more shocked if she'd tried to play nice.
The crowd's astonishment lasted a few seconds before they exploded into screaming all over again.
Turns out people really liked this version of a Hokage. The kind who stood there like she already owned the whole continent and was just waiting for everyone else to catch up.
Especially after everything she'd pulled off during the war, her reputation spoke for itself.
For Azula, the real fight wasn't standing up there and winning over a bunch of villagers. That was the easy part.
The headache was what came next: figuring out who got which seat in the administration, how to handle the clans without stepping on too many toes, and generally making sure the village didn't implode from the inside.
After all, nobody actually believed she'd keep Danzō, Hōmura, and Koharu as her advisors.
Right?
•••
•••
Turns out she was wrong.
"Azu—" Koharu didn't even finish the name before Azula's stare pinned her in place like a bug on a board, forcing the words to die in her throat.
"Hokage-sama." The title came out tasting like humiliation, but Koharu had no other choice. "What exactly do you mean by 'renewal of the Hokage's advisors'? That's not how the rules work."
The atmosphere in the room was thick enough to make clan leaders not daring to breathe loud.
Nobody had expected a new meeting barely a day after the last one, let alone with Azula sitting in the leader's chair like she'd been born there.
"Rules? What rules?" Azula tilted her head, letting the question hang. "As the ultimate judge of Konoha, I'm not aware of any such rule."
She let them sit with that for a second. A reminder of exactly what authority she now held.
Koharu found her voice again. "The court cannot judge the village's administrative affairs. Every individual appointed as an assistant to the Hokage remains in their position until death. You cannot simply walk in and declare us stripped of our posts."
Azula just smiled.
"And yet, that's exactly what I'm doing. I am the Hokage. I make decisions for the good of the village. I have decided, for the good of the village, that I don't need a jealous madwoman or a man who only pretends to know what he's talking about. End of discussion."
If these two didn't represent their clans, she wouldn't have bothered explaining anything at all.
"Also," she added, like she'd just remembered something trivial, "you reminded me of something. Starting today, there will be written rules concerning the administration. The judge will handle judging. And depending on the situation, either the ANBU or the Police Force will handle the rest."
'Yeah, we're screwed.' That was the conclusion reached by anyone in the room with half a functioning brain.
Hiruzen and Azula were complete opposites. Even when Hiruzen played the 'dominant' card, he still cared about saving face, about letting people walk away with their dignity intact and about appearing benevolent.
Azula didn't do that. As expected from an Uchiha, she wasn't even pretending. This was full blown dictatorship, no chaser.
Not that she minded. Playing politics was exhausting. This was a thousand times more her speed.
She swept her gaze across the clan heads, the ones who theoretically could cause her the most trouble, and every single one of them dropped their eyes like scolded children.
Back when Hiruzen took the hat, his position had been way shakier than hers was right now. But on the surface, nobody dared disrespect him, not even the Uchiha.
Azula knew her rise had blindsided them all. They'd only found out today, same as the rest of the village. They hadn't even had time to huddle up and figure out a unified stance on her.
And she fully intended to keep exploiting that window.
"I assume you've all read my latest manga."
She brought up something that had absolutely nothing to do with the current situation, and everyone in the room blinked.
"Between your clan archives and the memories of your elders, everyone sitting here knows the origin of this village's founding. It was decided by two small children who had no clue what the future held for them. Just a bunch of ideals in a world where their families could live in peace without having to learn how to kill each other."
She delivered the verdict flatly. "And of course, that ideal was only half finished. Definitely not complete."
"Half finished because those two, once they came together, actually managed to enforce peace for a time. They gathered other families and created the first shinobi village. Konoha."
Everyone in the room remembered that chapter. The one where Madara and Hashirama sat down and actually talked about what they believed in.
"Half finished because they had different ideologies on how to get it done. One thought the future generations would carry the torch. The other figured since they had the power, they might as well end it for good right then and there."
She wasn't smiling now. Which made it worse, somehow. The smiling queen getting serious was never a good sign.
"I'm not here to criticize either of them. I'm just illustrating my own philosophy." She let her gaze drift across the room, slow and deliberate. "My philosophy is simple. My village first. The rest of the ninja world second. Yeah, I care about peace out there. But what's the point of peace outside if your own house is a warzone?"
"So first things first. Peace inside Konoha. I don't care about your thousand year old clan traditions. I don't care about seniority. And I definitely don't care about whatever privileges you've convinced yourselves you deserve."
Her eyes landed on the Hyūga clan head. She didn't bother hiding the hostility, and she let it sit there long enough for everyone to understand exactly what she was referencing. The caged bird system. That particular piece of clan "tradition."
"From now on, there will be basic, fundamental rules. I will abide by them myself. So I expect the same from everyone. You, your family, mine, his, every single person inside this village."
Then the pressure in the room eased, just a fraction.
"Of course, I know some of you won't like it. And I promise you this, on my name as Azula Uchiha and on the honor of the Hokage seat: if anyone feels this village no longer fits them, they're free to leave. I won't pursue them. Provided they don't force anyone who wants to stay, and provided they don't violate my laws on the way out."
She paused, letting that sink in.
"Now. Last point for this meeting." She pulled out a sealing scroll, unsealed it with a flick of her wrist, and a stack of books materialized on the table. "Here's a small preview of what the rules of this village are going to look like from today forward."
She started distributing them. Some of the clan heads didn't even have the nerve to reach for their copy. They only took one after her 'insistence' made it very clear that not taking one wasn't an option.
(END OF THE CHAPTER)
Waip, here's our little dictator thought seriously, this wasn't always how she is going to lead, it's just that first thing first, sometimes, you can only be forceful.