After the New Year passed, the shinobi gradually returned to work.
After more than three years, the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, returned once again to the Hokage seat he had long faithfully held.
This did not come as a surprise to anyone. After all, he was still very much alive, and the official explanation had always been that he was recovering from injuries, with Sarutobi Hiruzen merely serving as acting Hokage. Even the old man himself knew that this acting period could not last too long.
Probably only the other ninja villages were deeply disappointed by this. With two generations of Hokage existing at the same time, how had their supporters not started fighting each other?
How could a transfer of power be this smooth?
It was neither very shinobi-like, nor very high-level, nor did it fit the usual logic of power.
But anyone in Konoha who actually had ambitions was not stupid enough to make trouble. With an absolute powerhouse standing over everyone's heads, who was reckless enough to stir things up?
Rather than waste time on that, it was better to keep an eye on the now-vacant advisor positions.
This time, Sarutobi Hiruzen truly retired. Aside from showing up once at the post-New Year work meeting, he stayed home in peace afterward, devoting all his efforts to pushing his eldest son and daughter-in-law to give him a grandson within the year.
At most, he would stroll around the village in his spare time, or occasionally visit the academy to give the children a bit of ideological guidance.
However, when he announced his retirement at the post-New Year meeting, he used his authority one last time as Hokage and forcibly dragged his old friend Shimura Danzō into retirement along with him.
Neither his three old companions, nor the Fourth, nor the jōnin commander, objected to that order.
No matter how hardline Danzō was, he could not stand against all of Konoha. He could only agree on the surface.
But in his heart, he believed this was only a necessary period of lying low.
When the ANBU took over Root's personnel and intelligence network, they discovered that some people had mysteriously vanished—most notably Danzō's most important and most trusted subordinate, Aburame Tatsuma.
When members of the Aburame clan came to demand an explanation, Danzō's answer was that Tatsuma had already died in the previous operation against a newly emerged organization in the Land of Rain that was hostile to Konoha.
Out of consideration for the Third Hokage, Minato did not drag him into the Intelligence Division for questioning. Instead, he quietly began investigating along the trail of Root's mission records.
The various powers within Konoha did not care much about Danzō's little tricks. That old man had already completely lost power. Even if he struggled on his deathbed, what meaning did it have?
What they cared about more were the advisor positions.
Unfortunately, on the advice of the jōnin commander, Nara Shikaku, and Higashino Makoto, the Fourth Hokage decided to abolish the position of Hokage advisor altogether.
Since no matter how those positions were distributed, it would provoke complaints of unfairness, they might as well get rid of them entirely and return to the power structure of the Second Hokage's era.
Konoha's structure had always been fairly complete to begin with. Every department already had its own head, each directly responsible to the Hokage. The so-called Hokage aides and advisors had only ever been special posts created under special circumstances.
Even the still-serving Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu voted in favor, acting very quietly and nowhere near as hardline as before. Now, they only cared about the work that personally fell within their own responsibilities.
This time, Minato truly gathered all of the Hokage's authority into his own hands.
Back when Hiruzen succeeded to the position, the circumstances had been unusual. The Second Hokage had died on the battlefield, and only the six members of his escort unit had returned alive.
That was bound to make people think.
So when the Third first took office, the situation inside the village was extremely complicated. Even with Uzumaki Mito's full support, he still had no choice but to disperse power and share the burden with several of his classmates.
But now, that was unnecessary. Minato's claim was legitimate from the start, and on his side stood someone like Makoto. There was no need to create any so-called advisor positions.
If anyone was dissatisfied, fine—then go complain to Flying Thunder God, the Nine-Tails, and Wood Release.
Although the various forces within Konoha were disappointed by this, they could still accept it.
As long as nobody got the positions, then nobody had really lost.
Probably the Uchiha clan were the only ones most dissatisfied with this. They had originally believed that Fugaku securing a Hokage advisor position was basically a done deal.
Step one: take an advisor seat. Step two: groom outstanding younger members of the clan into the Hokage's camp. Then in the future, would the Hokage seat not finally be within reach?
The Uchiha really did think in just that simple and direct a way.
The Hokage position had always been their obsession.
But just when it came down to it, they discovered that not only had the advisor positions disappeared, even the Police Force—long regarded by the Uchiha as their own reserved sphere of power—was showing signs of being shaken.
With the restraints of the older generation gone, Namikaze Minato, now holding absolute authority, began to implement his policies step by step.
However, after several years of tempering, his methods were no longer as aggressive as before.
After Danzō's Root was merged into the ANBU, the entire ANBU came under the command of Gekkō Kumomi, with its primary duties focused on external operations.
Internally, it was only responsible for the close protection of certain key individuals.
Security matters within the village were handed over to Fugaku. At the same time, the Police Force was no longer centered around the Uchiha clan, and began gradually recruiting non-Uchiha shinobi.
Any surplus members of the Uchiha clan could join regular mission teams, enter the ANBU, or go to any department they wished.
This was the result of discussions between Fugaku and Minato—an attempt to use time to gradually integrate the Uchiha into Konoha's overall system.
But many of the more straightforward Uchiha shinobi didn't care about any of that. They couldn't see that far into the future. All they knew was that not only had their clan lost the advisor position, but the village had even started making moves against the Police Force.
Minato didn't care about this. There would always be people whose shortsightedness would turn them into obstacles on Konoha's path forward. He had long anticipated this.
Fugaku, on the other hand, had a headache. Why were these idiots unable to understand something so simple? Couldn't they see that his authority and responsibilities were far greater than before?
...
Aside from abolishing the Hokage advisor positions and adjusting the Police Force, not long after taking office, Minato rewarded the Konoha shinobi who had participated in the battle against Kumogakure before the New Year.
Makoto was finally promoted to a registered jōnin of Konoha, becoming a member of the jōnin ranks.
Promotion to jōnin in Konoha was never easy. The fact that Hatake Kakashi was promoted at the age of twelve had special reasons behind it. Among his batchmates and even the cohorts that followed, he was still the only one to have become a jōnin so far.
Among the many familiar names, quite a few were still only Special Jōnin even by the time Naruto graduated in the original timeline.
At that time, even Yūhi Kurenai had only just become a newly promoted jōnin.
Makoto's cohort was even more so—at present, he was the only one who had advanced to jōnin. Without exceptional strength, merit, or background, promotion to jōnin was extremely difficult.
But Makoto himself didn't really care about the title of jōnin.
At this point, the only thing Konoha could reward him with was that title. As for any other ninjutsu resources—including the Sealing Scroll—he could access them whenever he wanted, and no one would say a word.
As long as he didn't, like Orochimaru, secretly conduct those experiments that violated basic human ethics.
The merits he had accumulated in the past, due to his young age at the time, had all been converted into benefits for the people around him.
His former team leader, Gekkō Kumomi, was now the head of the ANBU.
Higashino Jirō and Uzuki Yūya each commanded their own Konoha defense units, holding positions of significant authority.
Even Higashino Megumi had been promoted to the second-in-command position at Konoha Hospital. In a few years, once the old director retired, she would, in all likelihood, become the new director.
Konoha had never treated him or his family unfairly in these matters.
The current alliance of the three families was already deeply tied to the Hokage's faction, becoming an important force within Konoha.
Makoto didn't need to hold any official position. He only needed to continue training and grow stronger.
In the shinobi world, strength was the foundation of everything.
He had never once thought about becoming an advisor or Hokage. That was far too troublesome. The image of the Seventh Hokage in his memories—looking utterly drained and overworked—had left too deep an impression on him.
Right now, he wasn't the Hokage. He had even handed off the position of captain of the Fourth Hokage's Guard Platoon. He held no official post whatsoever.
But when he spoke, would those Konoha shinobi dare not listen?
Just like when February arrived and the Fourth Raikage personally led a delegation to Konoha to sign the peace treaty, he still had to begrudgingly bring his people to Makoto's dojo to pay a visit.
Did he dare not come?
If he didn't, then his subordinates would simply remain crippled. When the despair grew to the point that even the Raikage could no longer suppress it, he would face two choices: either ruthlessly kill them all at the cost of losing the people's support, or come begging Konoha anyway.
So this time, they didn't play any tricks. They honestly signed the agreement with Konoha.
The usually domineering Kumogakure showing submission made the entire shinobi world realize that the Konoha of the past—the one that had once dominated the ninja world in the era of Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara—had returned.
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