Hiruzen Sarutobi shifted his gaze to the portrait of Tobirama Senju on the office wall and smiled faintly.
He even raised a hand in a small, respectful gesture.
The key reason his talk with Danzo Shimura had gone so smoothly was simple: he'd put the honor of being "Lord Tobirama's disciple" on the table as collateral.
In a way, he'd just borrowed the Second Hokage's credit.
But borrowing credit alone wouldn't cut it. He still had to give Danzo a taste of sweetness, and more importantly, make him believe he'd come out ahead…
When it came to internal conflict, political trust mattered more than anything.
"Those fan-made videos focused on using the Hokage as a metaphor for history. There wasn't much real substance."
Hiruzen sorted through the advantage he had in information.
"Right now, the things I can confirm are these. First: the way people judged me in those past-life videos was sharply divided, but both sides agreed that if I'd handled things better, a lot of tragedies could've been avoided…"
"That means there are plenty of angles to approach my work from. Most people can be won over."
"Second: this world seems to have a problem where sudden miracles can drop out of nowhere. I can't afford to let my personal strength slip."
While he analyzed the situation, he also studied the five major sections of that red-headed document in his mind.
Authority. Diplomacy. Economy. Military. Education…
Aside from sharpening and integrating his combat instincts, this was the core of where his strength would come from.
What kind of help it could provide wasn't clear yet.
But judging by the memories he'd digested while he was sick, compared to his old self, the difference was obvious. His hidden ailments were gone. His body was visibly healthier. His energy was overflowing…
It was reliable.
Staring at those five sections, Hiruzen let out a relieved smile.
This was far too familiar.
It was a stripped-down performance evaluation sheet.
It was forcing him to push Konoha forward in every direction.
All five areas had to improve. Every finger on the hand had to be strong.
And for Hiruzen, that was a blessing.
A body that could leap through the skies and move through the earth, a chance to live in a new world…
So what if he had to put in some work for the village?
"Let's see what Danzo left behind." Hiruzen read the scroll carefully.
This was obviously Danzo's attempt to smear Orochimaru. Hiruzen didn't believe it was a perfectly honest record.
Still, even dirty water had truth mixed into it. It was useful as a reference.
All it really proved was that the old man had slid into his role as a Hokage candidate fast.
And now he was already trying to trip up a rival.
In the current Konoha, most people still believed Orochimaru would one day succeed Hiruzen.
In the past, Hiruzen's favoritism toward Orochimaru had been obvious.
But some at the top had already noticed something subtle: ever since the Second Great Shinobi War, the relationship between the Third Hokage and his favored student seemed to have shifted…
"Trading with tribes inside the Land of Fire that never joined Konoha to obtain test subjects?"
"The Iburi Clan. The Tsuchigumo Clan…"
"Foreign shinobi abducted by the Foundation…"
When Hiruzen saw that the subjects included children, a wave of discomfort rose on instinct.
He smoked half a pouch of tobacco, then forced himself to accept reality, reminding himself:
This was a world where, just a few decades ago, children fought and died on the battlefield.
The "geniuses" of today, teenage boys, having dozens of lives on their hands wasn't unusual at all.
This was chaos, through and through.
And besides, the Second Hokage he'd just used for credit was, in a sense, one of the pioneers of shinobi experimentation.
At its core, it was a trolley problem.
To maintain strategic advantage in a world where war could erupt at any time, other villages might be conducting similar research. If Konoha stopped, it meant falling behind in the arms race.
He couldn't gamble the village's safety on someone else's morality. Especially when morality was practically nonexistent here.
"But it has to be brought under oversight. We can't let ninjutsu development become a runaway horse!"
"At the very least, we can't prey on people inside the Land of Fire. Even if you ignore ethics, that would shatter the village's cohesion…"
"And Orochimaru is absolutely valuable. A rare research-minded genius."
"Technology is the primary driving force of productivity."
Hiruzen thought quietly.
Orochimaru had been his treasured student since childhood. Back then, their bond had been close enough to feel like father and son.
But after Hiruzen became Hokage, his extremely conservative style of governance began clashing with the Orochimaru who'd grown into himself.
To the point that after the Second Great Shinobi War…
Orochimaru had actually preferred working under the Foundation, with Danzo Shimura, where things were rougher and far less restrained.
That was a failure on Hiruzen's part, both as Hokage and as teacher.
But it wasn't too late. There was still room to salvage it.
From what he remembered, he and Orochimaru hadn't had an open break yet. It was less "irreconcilable politics" and more like a sulking son leaving home to start his own path…
Hiruzen mapped the direction ahead.
The problems in front of him were a tangled knot: power shortfalls exposed in the Second War, an outdated system, the shadow of the next war creeping closer;
internal financial shortages, division at the top, tension between the major clans and the Hokage.
"The best way is to make the cake bigger, then use new benefits to fix old flaws. But making the cake bigger is the hard part."
Hiruzen understood the core of being Hokage: the village had to be able to fight, and it had to have money.
Combat strength couldn't be rebuilt overnight.
But getting money? He already had a plan.
Konoha's finances depended on daimyo funding and mission payments.
He'd once considered taking over the daimyo's court by force, but after digesting his memories, he shelved it for now.
Too much risk. Too little reward.
By rough estimates, the Land of Fire had tens of millions of people at minimum. Shinobi had the advantage in violence, but they had no administrative system. They couldn't replace a bureaucracy of millions.
And if you had shinobi collecting taxes, you'd be bleeding combat strength.
The Land of Fire's tax system was outdated. Without war, after generations, shinobi might gradually seize power like shoguns.
But right now, shinobi were too few. Acting rashly would only drive nobles into exile and give enemy villages an excuse to intervene.
Hiruzen organized the documents in his hand.
This was the money bag he was preparing for Konoha.
"Taking taxes from nobles is hard."
"But getting them to spend willingly is easy."
"To harvest rent-seekers, you sell anxiety, sell health, and throw in something that draws eyes: virility."
When it came to virility, men were always willing to spend absurd amounts of money on even the slightest chance.
Longevity. Health. Virility. Combine the three into a "Konoha Special All-Cure Pill," and it would become a hit across the shinobi world.
How could nobles not throw money at it? They'd be shoving silver into his hands while shouting, "Hokage-sama, I need more!"
And Hiruzen was confident no one else could copy it.
He had the "top-tier IP" backing of Hashirama Senju's legendary self-healing, Tobirama's reputation as a genius inventor of jutsu, and Mito's Reserve Seal.
With Orochimaru and Tsunade refining it in real time, Akimichi and Nara medicinal texts as reference…
And him—looking younger—serving as the living advertisement.
Who cared if it was a cheat ability or a pill?
As for the actual effects…
As long as it worked a little, didn't kill people, and gave them something to believe in, placebo plus a bit of real substance would be more than enough.
"Plenty of ideas."
"Actually making them happen is the hard part…"
Hiruzen sighed inwardly.
And the first step was this:
Rebuilding a solid teacher-student bond with Orochimaru.
Hiruzen's gaze returned to the black material Danzo had provided.
This was an important tool.
---
Sarutobi Clan compound, Hokage residence.
Hiruzen returned to a spacious, bright home.
The moment he stepped inside, Biwako Sarutobi came forward with the servants to remove his hat and ceremonial robes.
At a glance, the house was spotless.
"Hiruzen, you worked hard today. What do you want for dinner?"
Biwako's voice was gentle.
Normally, when he came home, dinner was already prepared. If he returned late, Anbu would deliver the meal to the Hokage Tower.
But today, he'd left work early for the first time in forever, and she hadn't had time to arrange everything.
The old Hiruzen had worked late almost every night, coming home so exhausted he barely had an appetite. Sometimes he couldn't even finish a single bowl of rice.
"Tonight, I'm having Orochimaru come over for dinner. Six o'clock."
Hiruzen thought for a moment. "He likes hot food. Have apples and eggs ready. The rest can be whatever. Warm up two pots of sake."
"Thanks for the trouble."
Biwako looked up, surprised. Seeing the Hokage looking younger, standing straighter, she smiled shyly. "What are you even saying?"
As she left, her steps lighter, Hiruzen felt a quiet sense of emotion.
So easy to cheer up.
More than a wife, Biwako was the head steward of the Sarutobi household. She never defied his decisions. She handled everything in daily life with careful, considerate precision.
Even in the bedroom, it had always been Hiruzen's word that decided things…
He could only say it: the feudal shinobi clan structure really did have its advantages.
Hiruzen walked to the back of the house, changed into training clothes, and headed for the training grounds.
Numbers were one thing, but reactions and execution mattered too.
A top-tier account in a skilled player's hands versus a clueless one could produce completely different results.
Training couldn't slack, not for a moment.
On the grounds—
"Senju… Uchiha…" Hiruzen murmured the two names while he warmed up with a steel staff. The staff split the air, producing a low hum.
He kept thinking as he moved, letting his combat instincts fuse into place.
In his memories, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha—those two legendary shinobi—had left him deeply shaken.
In the present shinobi world, Hiruzen Sarutobi should be a first-rate fighter…
But compared to those two, he wasn't in the same category.
Studying history was one of the best ways to understand the world.
"Since ancient times, every few decades to a century, the Uchiha and Senju produce another era-defining shinobi, and that person leads the shinobi world into war…"
He spun the staff once in his palm, the motion sharp and clean.
"And somehow, it always happens in matching pairs, neat as if it's scripted. The Warring States era stayed locked for nearly eight hundred years, until Madara and Hashirama did the unthinkable and made peace, finally breaking the stalemate."
Was that coincidence?
The Sarutobi clan records claimed the Senju and Uchiha were descendants of the Sage of Six Paths, but the language was mythic and floaty, like legend more than fact.
Was this world's protagonist fated to be Senju and Uchiha?
But even if it was—
So what?
The problems in front of Hiruzen weren't things that could be solved by waiting for a savior to fall from the sky.
It was obvious to anyone with eyes: another shinobi war would break out within a few years. Who knew when the next pair of Senju and Uchiha would appear?
And besides, other era-defining Senju and Uchiha recorded in history didn't always look as invincible as those two.
They were extraordinary, sure, but not the kind of strength that left people in despair.
"If a god really shows up, the Senju side is easier to handle. The Second Hokage broke the clan apart and merged them into Konoha. They'll stand with the village."
"But the Uchiha?"
Just thinking about the Uchiha Clan gave Hiruzen a headache.
You were telling him there was a clan like this?
Naturally sensitive, capable of deep love, but extremely prone to drastic personality shifts after trauma—those changes reflected in their eyes as the Sharingan. And then they'd drown in power and arrogance…
It sounded like a nightmare. Like a clan with some kind of inherited, dangerous mental illness.
Worse still, the Uchiha were original shareholders of Konoha and invaluable in military unity, but politically they always managed to step on landmines.
First, Madara Uchiha left the village for reasons unknown and fought Hashirama to the death, leading to the First Hokage dying early.
Luckily, the clan hadn't followed Madara into rebellion and stayed in Konoha.
Then under the Second Hokage, Setsuna Uchiha pushed a coup attempt. Tobirama suppressed it.
But now, under Hiruzen's rule, the coup faction were stirring again.
The Uchiha were a real problem, but Hiruzen was Hokage. He couldn't bring himself to handle it the easy way—by shutting them out or simply eliminating them.
The performance sheet was right there.
If he could make the Uchiha Clan truly develop loyalty to Konoha, Hiruzen was sure his performance would jump significantly…
"The strongest fortresses are usually broken from the inside…"
"If only I could find someone inside the Uchiha Clan who could carry out my will."
"But that's the hard part. They'd need to understand the Uchiha, have enough strength to suppress the rest, and also grasp my way of thinking…"
Hiruzen sighed, aware he was drifting into idealism, and refocused on his staff work
And then—
Orochimaru appeared at the entrance of the training ground.
He stared at that ferocious figure, both familiar and unfamiliar, and froze.
This… was the teacher who'd called him over for dinner?