Hiruzen's face showed a heartfelt, blessing-filled smile.
Though Minato isn't his student, he has grown up under Hiruzen's watch as a Konoha ninja, more familiar to him than others.
Believing in and implementing the Will of Fire's meaning, Minato will surely guide the village well into the future.
However, before that, the remaining voices within the village need to be silenced.
Otherwise, he won't feel secure in truly handing over the village's leadership burden to Minato.
The task of balancing the various forces in the village is exceedingly difficult for Minato.
In any case, let Minato gradually build up prestige and power through the work of a Hokage first.
Once Minato's wings are fully grown, by that time, Hiruzen will have resolved most of the village's sharp conflicts, allowing him to truly retire and entrust everything to Minato, enjoying his retirement years.
Therefore, at this moment, Hiruzen feels a sense of apology towards Minato.
On one hand, he does not want Minato to be a puppet, while on the other, he wishes Minato could surpass his expectations, allowing him to freely develop Konoha.
This contradictory and complex feeling is where Hiruzen's entanglement lies.
Looking at the sky, the Third stared vacantly.
If at that time, Teacher Fujima had not died, the village might present a different appearance now. Hiruzen thought, reminiscing about the scenes from back then.
The Uchiha, it's time to genuinely deal with them; continuing to delay might severely threaten the village's stability. A flash of sternness appeared in Hiruzen's eyes.
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In early August, after hosting the Fourth Hokage's inauguration ceremony, Konoha officially announced to the Ninja Realm countries that Yellow Flash Namikaze Minato had succeeded as the Fourth Hokage.
In a certain sense, this event was entirely predictable.
The succession to the Fourth Hokage would only occur between the Yellow Flash and the Sannin.
And the Yellow Flash becoming the Fourth Hokage signifies that this immensely powerful ninja, under normal circumstances, wouldn't appear on the battlefield.
As for whether the Yellow Flash as Hokage would further advance Konoha or lead it down a decline, it's currently not apparent.
The Yellow Flash's strength lies solely in combat power, and his leadership abilities remain to be seen through his upcoming actions.
Regardless of external turmoil, Minato is caught in a mix of distress and happiness.
Though it may seem boastful to say, becoming Hokage is indeed a joyous event.
The distressing part is that under Minato's command, there aren't many trustworthy confidants.
Those experienced Jonin are mostly in a wait-and-see mode, rarely directly expressing their stance. Like outsiders, they trust in the Yellow Flash's personal power, but the leadership capabilities remain a topic of deliberation.
Therefore, given this awkward situation, Minato can only seek talents from the new generation of ninja.
For instance, both the Shadow Guard and his own Anbu are self-established.
In light of this awkward situation, the previous Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, selected four teams, totaling sixteen people from his direct Anbu, to act as Minato's foundation, joining Minato's direct Anbu to alleviate Minato's pressure.
As expected, a week after Minato succeeded as the Fourth Hokage, Kakashi joined Minato's direct Anbu as a Jonin, assisting Minato's work, and eventually, over time, becoming a sub-captain, vice minister, and chief minister is only a matter of time.
Everything is developing in a positive direction.
What's interesting to Kakashi is that the Third Hokage's command to him was simply to assist Minato well, listening to Minato's instructions.
Orochimaru wanted him to pay more attention to the Ninja Techniques collection inside the Hokage Building, like Forbidden Techniques.
Danzo instructed him to monitor every move of Minato, to see if any dirt could be found, applying pressure through public opinion.
Fortunately, Hakushi didn't give any orders, allowing Kakashi to freely exert himself; otherwise, the burden would be exceedingly heavy.
The Third Hokage, Fourth Hokage, Root Leader, one of the Sannin... none of these individuals are easy to deal with, each one being stronger than him.
However, joining the Anbu isn't without benefits for Kakashi; namely, Minato, using his Hokage authority, opened access to some vital Ninja Techniques information, allowing Kakashi to read at will, thus rapidly increasing his strength.
The Ninja Techniques data Konoha has compiled over many years is greatly beneficial to Kakashi.
Though not part of the more mysterious Sage Art System, the pure use of Chakra is not easy.
After completing an Anbu mission, Kakashi, as the captain of a four-member Anbu squad, needs to go to the Hokage Building to report the mission.
This mission was straightforward, needing to deal with spies infiltrating Konoha from enemy ninja villages. This enemy spy stole confidential information in Konoha and escaped to the Land of Fire's border, where Kakashi-led Anbu squad tracked down and eliminated him, successfully retrieving the stolen secret scroll. The spy ninja's corpse was also recovered, handed over to the interrogation department to identify the ninja force from which country.
Placing the recovered secret scroll in the ninja tool bag, Kakashi, now dressed in Anbu attire and wearing an animal mask, headed towards the office where the Hokage was, ready to have the scroll's authenticity confirmed by the Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato.
Before reaching the office, a ninja emerged from the front room. This ninja was carrying a large box full of files, moving it along the corridor, with a senbon resembling a toothpick in his mouth.