Uchiha Yorin: "…"
Seriously? He actually left. Just like that. Left me here to work?
So even good bros aren't reliable anymore, huh? The ninja world has really gone downhill.
After a few seconds of silence, Yorin let out a helpless little "aaah…" and started processing Minato's paperwork.
It wasn't that he'd suddenly grown a conscience—if his three main girlfriends really shut him out, there was still that bespectacled nun at the orphanage next door.
It was just that Konoha really did need serious work right now.
Why?
Because Konoha's current situation wasn't just good. It wasn't merely "pretty good." It was full-on spectacular.
With the war completely over and reparations pouring in, Konoha had become the capital's favorite investment destination.
The mega commercial districts and mega industrial zones Yorin had planned—once just a couple of shopping streets and some tiny prototype workshops—were now a serious blueprint.
Crowds of merchants surged in. Just selling land lots alone, Konoha's land-finance income was enough to fill its mouth with oil. And future taxes and admin fees? Those would make Minato so happy he could hang flags.
At the same time, more and more outside laborers were pouring into Konoha. Yorin's mega industrial park was finally graduating from "Schrödinger's cat torture test site" to an actual industrial complex.
From basic textiles, to precision machine tools, to heavy metallurgy, all the way up to high-tech R&D zones—it was all on the table.
For now, most of this existed only on paper.
Konoha had money, but not enough people—especially not enough skilled personnel. Even if Uchiha Yorin was a once-in-a-generation genius, he couldn't conjure engineers out of thin air.
Plans to massively expand Konoha's schools and establish technical academies to train specialists had been drafted and approved.
Now that Konoha was rich, it would recruit more kids into school. It wouldn't be like in Naruto's timeline where only a handful of brats could even attend the Academy.
But even if you start feeding them calculus in first grade, it'd still be years before they'd be truly useful.
So Konoha's development speed sat in this weird zone of being both fast and slow.
"Fast" relative to everyone else: from a feudal world's point of view, going centuries without meaningful progress—or even regressing—is normal.
But Konoha was already halfway into industrialization. Once you're in the industrial era, everything must accelerate.
"Slow" relative to Yorin: he still thought it wasn't nearly fast enough.
He won wars—that was the key. All problems begin when you can't win.
And what he was building wasn't a Grand Canal, but a mega industrial complex.
"Sure enough, I still have to rely on imported talent," Yorin thought. "Are there any technical people in this world… oh, right, management talent too."
Modern Konoha had already swelled into a metropolis with over a million people, and would soon be a city of several million.
You couldn't manage something that big with the old "military camp village" mindset.
Civil servants. Civil servants. And more civil servants.
What Yorin needed was not one overworked Hokage and one overworked advisor who couldn't even properly ravish Tsunade, but a modern, complete civil service system.
Even if that system later ballooned into some kind of Humphrey-esque bureaucracy, it was still better than running a modern city like a clan-run barracks.
Konoha used to be like the other big villages: a pure garrison town of shinobi and their families.
But now it had transformed.
"So yeah, we also need to think about separating the military from civil governance," Yorin mused. "The role of 'Kage' needs a redefinition.
Beyond being the military commander, the Hokage should be the head of state. The Kage's aide should be the head of government.
We can't seriously expect everything to be run by just me and Minato forever."
He thought this while staring at the stack of documents in front of him that only seemed to grow and never shrink, and sighed.
"I'm supposed to be a warlord, not a regent," he grumbled inwardly.
"One bald Hokage is enough. We don't need a bald advisor on top."
And while we're at it, it'd be nice if a cute girl came in to comfort him at a time like this. Even if it wasn't one of his three leads, some random pretty girl would still fill half a favor bar just by showing up. If it were Tsunade, that'd be like unlocking 15 new CGs at once.
Unfortunately, Tsunade hadn't even managed that low bar tonight. Frankly, Yorin was very disappointed in her performance as a heroine.
…
What he didn't know, though, was that while he was muttering to himself in the Hokage's office, something like a small-scale standoff was happening right outside the building.
The participants in this showdown were—of course—the very same girls Yorin had just been complaining about for "not coming to see him."
Each of them was carrying a basket or a food box, filled with late-night snacks prepared for Uchiha Yorin.
From Tsunade to Kurotsuchi, from the earliest to the latest in terms of meeting him, everyone was there. And they were all very suspiciously on the same wavelength with their menu choices: turtle soup, mutton stewed with goji berries, ginseng chicken…
If Yorin saw this scene, he really wouldn't know whether to feel touched or unsettled.
And the stalemate proved one thing: too many monks, no water.
They were all shinobi, all lovestruck girls, and one whiff was enough to tell what the others had in their boxes.
Once they realized that all these other "little sluts" had brought the exact same kinds of supplements as them, their hearts collectively twisted into knots.
Weren't they supposed to be united in "ostracizing Uchiha," to make him deeply reflect on his sins?
And now these traitors had snuck out behind everyone's backs, trying to gain bonus affection points by playing the "soft-hearted" card?
You can't be this shameless and still call yourself kunoichi.
What are you, ninjas or doomslayer battle maids?
…Wait, I'm doing the same thing?
Oh. Then never mind.
Actually no—there is a problem. What about me?!
Now that everything's out in the open, forget it—no point pretending. I'm going to charge right in, drag him into bed, and whoever agrees or disagrees can settle it with their fists!
Fortunately, they still had some rationality left and didn't start brawling right in front of the Hokage tower.
Otherwise, next day's New Konoha Times front page would be… interesting, to put it mildly.
And would Yorin pass on that scoop to preserve his own dignity?
Not a chance. He was a professional.
…
So the forest outside the village took the blame yet again.
Moments later, massive trees were being flattened by Monster Strength punches and Heaven's Kick heel drops. Then came blasts of Scorch Release and Lava Release—the works. It was a wild show. Yorin would have absolutely come to watch if he wasn't stuck doing paperwork.
He loved watching girls fight.
…
First to go down was Temari. Pure Fūton plus brains was nice and all, but it didn't cut it against actual monsters.
Next to fall was Kurotsuchi. Spitting cement may be great for construction, but it really wasn't built for this kind of brawl.
Then Mabui and Samui went down together. The plan had been "tag-team, one guy two girls," but Mabui was, after all, more of an office ninja than a frontliner. Samui's kenjutsu was decent, but she wasn't old or skilled enough to fully replicate Killer B's swordsmanship.
…
After a while longer, Pakura and Mei also faceplanted.
By the time the dust settled, only Yugito and Tsunade were still on their feet.
After such a long beating, both of them were exhausted, chakras drained, barely standing.
"So? Gonna give up?" Tsunade tried to sound confident as she asked Yugito.
"Don't be ridiculous," Yugito snorted. "You're the one who should give up, grandma. You're already that old and still fighting little girls over a man—don't you feel ashamed?"
You don't hit people in the face and you don't poke their age—Yugito did both in one sentence.
Tsunade froze, instantly furious and ready to lunge in to tear that mouth off for saying the absolute truth.
Yugito, of course, wasn't just mouthing off. As Tsunade shunshined in, she immediately synced with Matatabi and entered partial Tailed Beast Mode.
"Ke-ke-ke—let me smash you to bits with the power of a bijū!"
With a villainous cackle, Yugito's fist met Tsunade's head-on.
…
A few minutes later, Tsunade staggered back to the Hokage building.
In the eyes of the Hokage guards, she was wobbling like she'd been hit by a truck, but still stubbornly forcing her way to the office.
"Yorin, I brought you a late-nigh—oh, for fuck's sake."
She opened the door, and there was Uchiha Yorin, comfortably seated, with Nun/Dean Yakushi Nonō in his lap, happily eating the late-night snacks she'd brought.
For Tsunade, that was… a bit much.
She got one word out, "Fuck—" and then her eyes rolled back and she collapsed straight to the floor.