How were you supposed to describe that look?
Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado had talked about it before, in private.
They called it merciless.
When Tobirama Senju made decisions that affected the village, he didn't weigh family, friendship, morality, or even ethics. He ran pure logic. Cold deduction. Gains and losses.
As if everything in front of him was just a problem waiting for the optimal solution. Even his own life could be discarded as an unnecessary variable.
No rule was sacred. No restriction was absolute.
If it benefited the village, then you executed it with everything you had.
And now, when they looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi, the face was completely different…
But the resemblance was terrifying.
It was like their teacher had stepped into his skin.
Hiruzen didn't bother with the three of them standing there stunned. He simply lifted his pipe again, eyes half-lidded, and drew in a slow breath.
Yes.
After going over it all again, he was more convinced than ever that he was right.
Reviving Tobirama Senju in an Uchiha body didn't just give him a hidden piece on the board, an inside-outside lever that could finally bring the Uchiha under control.
It also gave Konoha a researcher, a scholar who could push their development forward.
And it gave them a powerful combatant.
Most importantly, it removed the one threat Hiruzen couldn't accept.
There would be no chance of Tobirama returning as a "higher Hokage" sitting above him.
If the benefits were that huge, then the only thing left was overcoming the difficulty.
If he tried to revive Tobirama in his original body, Hiruzen honestly didn't have a good method in mind.
Plenty of people in the shinobi world had tried. The only things that were said to work at all were rare techniques that transferred life force, and even those only had a chance right at the moment someone died.
There was an old line recorded in the Sarutobi clan chronicles, passed down from ancient times:
If the long-dead wish to return in their original flesh, only a sage's power can make it so.
But Hiruzen didn't need Tobirama to return in his original body.
He didn't even need that body to be strong.
As long as it wasn't weak to the point of uselessness, Tobirama could train it back up over time.
What Hiruzen wanted was Tobirama's mind.
His genius.
His understanding of research… and of the Uchiha.
"Summoning Jutsu: Reanimation can pull a dead man's soul back," Hiruzen thought, his gaze sharpening. "That alone clears the biggest wall."
"The rest is simple, in theory."
"How do I move that soul into a living body, and how do I make it fit?"
His thoughts turned to a name that hadn't surfaced in Konoha's politics in a long time.
The Kato Clan.
Their secret technique, Ghost Transformation Jutsu, had enormous value as a reference.
"If I can create something similar to possession," Hiruzen thought, "prepare a body for sensei, then he can return."
"Even if soul and flesh don't match perfectly, Tobirama-sensei will find a way to force it into working."
He almost smiled.
After all, this would be a carefully prepared gift.
A chance to live as an Uchiha.
Hiruzen was sure Tobirama would want it.
Then another layer clicked into place.
Tobirama had left behind countless notebooks of forbidden research. Notes on jutsu, notes on experiments, notes that brushed up against the soul itself.
In the past, Hiruzen had sealed all of it away, locked up the lab along with the notes.
He'd been afraid.
Afraid those half-finished forbidden techniques would ruin everything.
And he'd been exhausted, too, worn down by the endless weight of being Hokage.
Now, the same sealed work felt like a key waiting in his hands.
"Sensei," Hiruzen murmured, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly, "you left those behind to hint at this, didn't you?"
"In the smoke, light fell across his profile, splitting it into bright and shadow.
Koharu and Homura felt their stomachs drop.
He really does look like Tobirama-sensei.
What is he thinking?
Danzo Shimura, on the other hand, had a very different reaction.
He was jealous.
In Root, in private, Danzo had stood in front of a mirror and practiced that exact expression. He'd even had someone secretly take pictures so he could compare them later.
A fanatic copying his idol.
So you're going to get ahead of me even in this? Danzo thought, bitterness and stubborn pride tangling together. Fine. I haven't lost.
Just looking like him isn't enough.
The one who truly inherited Tobirama-sensei's will is me.
Hiruzen finally pulled his mind back from the cliff edge.
His face shifted in an instant, like someone flipped a mask. Warmth returned. The familiar, gentle smile settled back into place.
"Sorry," he said, voice easy. "I got caught up thinking about the Uchiha."
"Today, I called you here to discuss reforms to Konoha's shinobi system."
He set the pipe down and folded his hands.
"You've all noticed it. The current structure doesn't fit our situation anymore. The biggest problem is the gap between jonin and the leadership."
"There's no real path up for our jonin, and we have over a hundred of them. We need a layer of management so the village's work is clearer and more efficient."
Hiruzen had noticed the imbalance long ago.
Konoha had four people at the top, on paper, but Koharu and Homura's roles as advisors were mostly political. They participated in policy decisions and handled the Administrative Department.
The Administrative Department was the bridge between the Land of Fire and Konoha. It received the village's budget from the nation, and it reported village conditions back to the daimyo.
They didn't directly manage the jonin.
As for Danzo…
Danzo had controlled Root, yes, but he'd turned it into his private force.
That was exactly why Danzo could never be given authority over appointments and personnel again.
And Koharu and Homura weren't suited to it either, not because their character was rotten, but because the Hokage had to keep the jonin, Konoha's core strength, as firmly in hand as possible.
And the current reality was simple.
One Hokage couldn't directly manage more than a hundred jonin.
It was impossible.
And the consequences were already visible.
Management, at its core, was limited by how much attention the manager could sustain, and how complex the things being managed were.
Even with Danzo shouldering part of the load in the past, Hiruzen had almost worked himself into the ground.
They needed a buffer layer.
A middle tier.
With that layer in place, Hiruzen's control would become easier and more efficient. It would free up an enormous amount of time, time he could spend on new work… or on training.
And it would give Konoha's shinobi something else, too.
A reason to strive.
A ladder they could see.
"The plan is to establish twenty core jonin," Hiruzen said slowly. "For now, I'm calling the position Konoha Commissioner."
"Selection will be based on merit and overall ability. Each Konoha Commissioner will oversee five to six jonin and answer directly to the Hokage."
Koharu and Homura both frowned on instinct.
It wasn't that they existed to oppose him.
It was that, like the old Hiruzen, they had always believed in the idea that the founders' system shouldn't be altered. That Tobirama Senju's structure was flawless, not something to change lightly.
But Hiruzen saw it differently.
If something had a flaw, you cut it open and fix it.
And Tobirama himself hadn't managed a hundred people alone back then.
Tobirama's guard unit, the Senju Clan's veteran jonin from the Warring States era, had essentially served as this same layer.
They'd been doing the work of "Konoha Commissioners" in practice.
They'd just never had the time to formalize it in peacetime before Tobirama died.
In a way, the fact that Hiruzen had held the village together for this long really was… monstrous.
The man could endure.
Koharu and Homura exchanged a glance, about to speak.
Hiruzen's expression went flat.
"Think first," he said quietly. "Then talk. I want to hear something meaningful."
Both of them shut their mouths again, forced into actual consideration.
Only Danzo spoke, voice low and heavy.
"Hiruzen," he said, "you'll regret this."