HSU: Ch. 330

It was well known that the Uchiha clan's rise within Konoha began with the emergence of the Uchiha–Hyūga alliance.

From that alliance and its core, the Police Force faction was established.

Just like the Ino–Shika–Chō trio formed by the Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi clans, the four-man squad of Uchiha, Hyūga, Inuzuka, and Aburame became another unique sight in Konoha.

As a result, the Sarutobi faction and the Police Force faction's ninjas rarely worked together anymore, each group went its own way.

But Shidō was one of the few jonin from the Sarutobi faction who had once teamed up with Masashi. He was one of the Akimichi clan's strongest powerhouses. In addition to mastering the Multi-Size Technique, he was also highly skilled with the staff.

His relationship with Masashi was fairly good.

His personality, however, made him stand out a bit among the current Akimichi. He was very much like Torifu.

He was a tough one.

"If you haven't eaten yet, join me," Shidō said.

The smell of alcohol and grilled meat clung to Masashi.

"Alright then." He nodded, plopped down opposite Shidō, and called out to the waiter, "Hey, bring me two big drafts, ice cold."

"You're still drinking? And mixing it too?" Shidō gave a bitter smile. "Come on, quit it. If your wives find out, they'll think it was me egging you on."

"Meat without alcohol, that's just the wrong attitude toward life." Masashi grinned. "It's rare to run into you. This round's on me. You're not allowed to fight me over it."

"Why would I fight you for it? You're way richer than me." Shidō laughed heartily.

He decided to order another portion of meat.

No need for politeness, the two were already close, they'd fought side by side before.

Before long, the server brought the beer. Masashi poured two tall glasses, handed one to Shidō, and raised his own.

"Come on, bottoms up."

They clinked their glasses heavily and downed them in one go. But Masashi wasn't an Akimichi, while he was still halfway through, Shidō had already refilled his own glass.

"I can smell the booze on you. How many rounds have you been through today?" Shidō asked.

He did something most Akimichi would never do. He picked up a freshly grilled piece of meat and placed it on Masashi's plate.

"I went to see Tsunade and Jiraiya. Boring. Too slippery."

"And you actually say that to me?" Shidō shook his head, dipping his meat into sauce. "With matters like this, you've got to weigh things carefully. After all, your name is Uchiha."

"Exactly. I asked them, if the Hokage insists on stepping down, would they take the seat? Neither of them would say yes. Honestly, it's not like I'd spread it around."

"..." Shidō organized his thoughts before speaking. "The way you asked, anyone would give you that answer."

"So what about your clan? If the Hokage steps down, who would they support?"

"Personally, I'd definitely vote for you." Shidō wasn't just flattering, he meant it. "But with so many in my clan, it's not for me to decide."

Masashi's hand paused for a moment.

He popped a slice of meat into his mouth, chewed it quickly, then said, "I can't put you in a tough spot. You and your clan should vote for someone else."

What's going on? Does he not understand?

No, that's not like him at all...

"No, what I meant was, I can't be sure how many of my clan would not vote for you." Shidō decided to make himself clearer. Maybe Masashi had just drunk too much and was slow to respond.

He could understand that.

"That won't do. Your three clans are one, and you've been longtime allies of the Sarutobi. You absolutely mustn't vote for me, it would affect unity. Besides, this is all just hearsay anyway. The Hokage hasn't even said anything about stepping down." Masashi shook his head vigorously.

He really had drunk a bit too much, his fingertips were starting to go numb. But this pleasantly tipsy state was... rather comfortable.

Across from him, Shidō finally understood.

"You don't want to be Hokage?" His expression was one of extreme shock, as if it were absurd. "You really don't want to be Hokage? I'd heard people say that, but I thought it was just some rumor someone made up."

After thinking for a moment, he decided to persuade him.

Based on past experience, he knew Masashi could be stubborn sometimes.

But why?

Forget the votes, he even doubted that if the Hokage really did step down, there would be many nominations at all.

A freak like Masashi hadn't appeared in Konoha for decades. Now that one finally had, how could they possibly let him slip away?

"Just go with the flow," Shidō said. "If you're nominated, just accept it."

And then you become the Fifth Hokage, where's the loss in that?

That was how he thought of it.

The Sarutobi faction was disintegrating. The Ino–Shika–Chō bond remained unshakable, but the Sarutobi clan itself had already begun taking a low-profile route. The military leaders who had once leaned on the Sarutobi faction were gradually breaking away.

After all, the future trend was obvious.

The Uchiha clan now was unstoppable.

The Sarutobi faction still existed in name, but it no longer had the centripetal force of the past. The smaller groups were showing high degrees of independence.

With Tsunade and Jiraiya choosing silence, the Fifth Hokage would have nothing to do with the Sarutobi faction. And there really weren't many candidates they could accept.

He truly couldn't promise Masashi anything, only now he realized he'd misunderstood Masashi's meaning earlier. Which made it even more impossible to give any assurances. If he rashly agreed, who knew what kind of story might spread the very next day?

"Alright, I get it. You're just pretending to be drunk with me." Shidō waved him off. "Drink, drink. I didn't hear a thing tonight. You, just take it easy and let things happen naturally."

Saying that, he picked up another piece of meat for Masashi and poured him more beer.

Tonight, he'd play the waiter if he had to, anything to stop Masashi from circling back to that topic.

As for Masashi, seeing this, he had no choice.

People in the village really were getting harder and harder to fool, no, to guide. At this point, he could only return to his original purpose: focusing on the food.

Their conversation drifted back to normal, turning toward old anecdotes from battlefields past.

Shidō, happily chatting away, finally brought up a question that many people were curious about.

"When you captured Kumo, you must've hauled back quite a lot of good stuff, right?"

To fully encourage ninjas, especially jonin, to act with initiative on the battlefield, the ninja villages generally recognized private ownership of spoils.

Direct seizures from enemy ninjas weren't included in diplomatic negotiations either.

In other words, when Masashi broke through Kumo, anything he personally obtained, be it items or even jutsu, was his private property.

Still, he had always believed being a decent person mattered more than what you got. So when he returned to the village, he handed over a massive trump card: the perfected jinchūriki technique.

For himself, he kept the Lightning Release Chakra Mode and its related derivative taijutsu.

"The harvest was huge, no denying that." Masashi admitted he'd all but stripped Kumo down to the floorboards.

His greatest regret was failing to find the Amber Purifying Pot. Kumo had moved it out in advance, it hadn't been in the village at all.

The Kumo ninjas weren't stupid. They simply blamed it all on the so-called hardliners, and conveniently, those hardliners weren't in the village either.

"I heard you got your hands on the complete set of Lightning Release taijutsu techniques from Kumo?"

"Of course. If I let anything go, it certainly wouldn't be that." Masashi grinned.

"Lucky you." Shidō couldn't help but feel envious.

The Multi-Size Technique and the Gentle Fist were two of Konoha's most important taijutsu lineages.

As a clan specializing in taijutsu, the Akimichi could certainly see the value in the Lightning Release Chakra Mode system.

Its greatest worth lay in the training methods it offered for chakra output and bodily activation.

In this area, the Hyūga were the shining stars of the shinobi world, but even they wouldn't say Kumo's methods were without value to them.

In fact, the Hyūga clan already had thoughts of trading with Masashi. But of course, they wouldn't approach him directly, that would be too crude, and wouldn't reflect the elegance and tacit understanding of noble houses.

As a result, when it came to pushing Masashi as Hokage candidate, the Hyūga were more enthusiastic than even the Uchiha themselves.

Otherwise, could Masashi be sitting here like this today?

He'd really been spooked by the Hyūga's enthusiasm.

"There aren't many Lightning Release users in our village." Shidō ran through the list in his head. "Kakashi's probably the strongest."

"Right, so I gave him the basics as an exchange for the Mangekyō Sharingan." Masashi said. "If you're interested, you could trade too, I don't mind."

The Multi-Size Technique was amazing, after all.

He had always been curious about the true principles behind it, though he'd never had a clue. And he'd even offer a super discount, just help him split the votes.

"This isn't something I handle." Shidō quickly shut that down, his expression saying clearly: You stop right there.

Masashi: "..."

After probing this far, he finally realized this topic just wasn't coming back. And what's more, was it his imagination, or... did he actually have quite a lot of popularity?

Was it possible that suddenly every ninja in Konoha didn't want to be Hokage? Could that kind of attitude be contagious?

But if they thought they could just shove him onto the seat like a duck onto a perch, they were seriously underestimating him. He still had a way out.

During his first run through life, he'd learned one truth above all:

When in doubt, go find the Second Hokage!

Even if it was an Edo Tensei version, it was still him. He was bound to have a solution. No need to wait for another day, after finishing this meal and these drinks, tonight he'd go straight to him.

In the history of Konoha, Tobirama was without doubt a man worthy of being remembered. Strictly speaking, from the time the village was founded, he had already been acting as Hokage, even before the title "Hokage" even existed.

Whenever something came up that couldn't be decided, everyone's default was: Go ask Tobirama.

Because everyone knew that the official Hokage was really more like a neighborhood committee director and errand-runner.

As for the abilities of Tobirama, Masashi had always had complete faith. He decided to wait until the next day to chat with Tobirama. Because this time, it wasn't him pretending to be drunk, he was genuinely wasted.

Shidō could really hold his liquor.

What Masashi didn't realize was that Shidō had been afraid he would start "spouting dangerous nonsense" again, so he simply decided to drink him under the table.

Although Masashi didn't get completely knocked out, he was definitely drunk enough to shut his mouth obediently.

Drunkenness doesn't always lead to truth, but it always leads to rambling.

Under Shidō's satisfied gaze, Masashi finally quieted down and just focused on enjoying the feast.

This straightforward man even escorted Masashi home afterward, apologizing to Hikari at the door, saying it was his fault for getting him so drunk.

---

The next morning, when Masashi woke up, he was surprised to see the sun already up. After a bit of deep reflection, he washed up, had breakfast, doted on his wife and children as usual, then marched out the door with high spirits.

He had to build momentum, he was going to see Tobirama.

Right now, he was wearing the "skin" of an Uchiha. He didn't believe Tobirama would lay a hand on him. To hit him would be to destroy Konoha's unity, and if there was one thing he valued, it was collective stability. No way he'd do it.

Thinking of this, Masashi could hardly resist laughing out loud in the street.

Thanks to the hard work of the Chunin Exam's Three-Nation "Free Demolition Team" and a few Edo Tensei powerhouses, the North District road that had been stuck for decades finally got widened.

Now, in front of the Hokage Building, the scenery was much improved.

The once overly cramped and outdated North Main Street had been rebuilt into a wide four-lane road with brand-new pavement. The surrounding buildings were also refurbished and more orderly.

The workload of the Konoha Police Force patrols had dropped considerably, they no longer needed to squeeze into narrow alleys.

Most of the reparations Konoha received had basically been poured into renovating the old district.

The Hokage Building had even been refurbished along the way. When Masashi arrived, his smile nearly froze on his face.

Not because of Tobirama, but because the people of Konoha were too enthusiastic now.

Standing before the building, he massaged his face to relax his muscles before walking inside.

The newly renovated lobby was bustling with people. Improved lighting design made the space brighter than before.

People in all kinds of outfits bustled about. Many were even from the Land of Lightning.

It couldn't be helped. Unlike Konoha, Kumo was still in the middle of rebuilding. Their mission acceptance system wasn't fully restored, so many impatient clients from the Land of Lightning came straight to Konoha to commission work.

And Konoha, as a result, was absolutely raking in money.

As the root cause of it all, he once again dominated the war merit rankings of the recent ninja war.

That was even with part of the credit allocated to the Edo Tensei powerhouses.

Ninja wars weren't like wars between countries, the accounting of military merit was different.

Even though the Land of Earth had been beaten to a pulp, the combined military merits of everyone there still didn't add up to the few rounds of boulders Masashi had hurled at the Valley of Clouds and Lightning.

Only after the war did everyone realize that those who had followed Masashi's campaign had truly gotten the easiest ride of all.

And the favors people now owed him had piled sky-high.

This led to him, for no reason at all, gaining a whole flock of supporters who would wave flags and cheer for him at the drop of a hat.

He had barely stepped into the lobby when ninjas had already noticed him.

If outsiders suspected from rumors that he might be a Hokage candidate, then the ninjas who actually worked in the Hokage Building could swear with certainty that Masashi was the Hokage candidate.

There was no "one of."

Where would the "one of" even come from? In this generation, he was the only one.

The only candidate acceptable to all factions.

Unless Minato stayed in office for another twenty years, then maybe a few other names could appear as nominees. But even then, they'd just be token "runners-up."

Right now, Masashi was like Hashirama in his era, no one else could even line up to "run alongside."

Wait, correction. Even Hashirama had a "runner-up." He himself nominated Madara.

From the perspective of the Hokage's office, he had essentially received the recognition of the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Hokage all together. On that point alone, he was truly unprecedented, never before, never again.

Right now, saying that he could walk sideways through the Hokage Building unopposed was no exaggeration at all.

However, the Fourth Hokage had placed a very strict gag order on the matter. In his words: If anyone scares Masashi away, don't expect me to deal with it.

So from the moment Masashi stepped into the Hokage Building, he felt like the place was brimming with warmth and goodwill.

But that very atmosphere felt... wrong. When he reached the top floor, the layout was unchanged.

Of course it was, no one would ever add windows up here.

The entire design was meant to prevent infiltrators from escaping easily once inside.

Masashi walked straight toward the Hokage's office.

On the way, he passed a few clerks coming out of the secretariat.

The moment they saw him, they hurried to bow.

Excessively polite.

He had no choice but to step aside and let them pass.

When he reached the Hokage's door, he knocked.

"Come in."

The familiar voice came from inside.

Hearing it, Masashi thought, Sure enough, and pushed the door.

Tobirama was sitting in the seat that should have belonged to Minato, his expression focused as he furiously worked through stacks of documents.

This was Tobirama, the man who was born to be Hokage.

"Nidaime-same, where has the Yondaime gone?" Masashi asked in feigned surprise.

Too many eyes and ears around, it wouldn't do to just be casual outright.

"He had something urgent to deal with at home," Tobirama replied without changing expression. "What do you need?"

"Yes." Masashi hesitated, then said, "Lately I've felt my work isn't going smoothly. I can't pinpoint the problem, so I wanted to ask him Hokage for some guidance."

"Oh." That was Tobirama's only reaction.

Then he went right back to correcting documents.

Same old Tobirama, stern, aloof, and anything but approachable.

Masashi felt like he'd just wasted his breath.

As expected, still as difficult as ever.

"Ahem, ahem!" he coughed.

Tobirama's expression twitched slightly. He lifted his head.

"Masashi."

"Yes."

"I'm very busy right now. If you've really got nothing to do, no, actually, you've come at just the right time. The Yondaime isn't here, so help me review these."

Masashi accepted the stack of documents Tobirama handed him. Compared to the mountain on the desk, it wasn't much.

Judging by thickness, maybe two or three hundred pages, about a hundred reports if each was three pages. Not "a lot" at all.

"These are all foreign affairs reports," Tobirama said. "Many are related to the Association as well, you're familiar with that. Review them."

"This doesn't seem proper. Isn't this overstepping?"

"You're right. Here, take this." Tobirama pulled a seal from the drawer. "When you finish, stamp it with this."

Masashi: "..."

Good grief, even the signature seal? Minato, you really...

But for the sake of the greater plan, he decided to endure. He sighed, sat down meekly on the sofa, and began working at the coffee table.

The Hokage's office fell silent, filled only with the rustle of turning pages, the scratch of pens, and the steady thunk-thunk of seals.

Immersed in such an intense work atmosphere, he almost felt moved to tears.

He had managed to escape being roped into the ANBU Commander's office, only to be drafted for labor in the Hokage's office.

The standards in today's Konoha were way too low.

After some time, he finally finished processing the documents.

Foreign affairs were much simpler than domestic matters, not nearly as many pitfalls. And it wasn't like he didn't know the Hokage Building's general "tone" anyway.

"All done?" Tobirama's voice came from behind him.

"Is this really okay?" Masashi placed the stack of documents and the seal back on the desk. "Maybe we should mark them and let the Yondaime double-check when he returns."

"No need." Tobirama shook his head. "That seal was prepared for you in the first place. We're short-handed right now. You managed the ANBU well, spare some time here too."

"Huh?" Masashi balked. "But the ANBU is a huge organization now. I might not have much free time..."

"It's fine. We trust you. You'll handle it well," Tobirama said firmly. "The Yondaime won't be back today. As you can see, I'm swamped. Go on for now. When he returns, I'll have him find you."

"Ah, no need for that. I'll just report during my next briefing," Masashi said quickly.

Even knowing for sure Tobirama wouldn't hit him, actually being alone with him made his heart race nervously.

This wasn't good, his momentum was completely suppressed. At this rate, he'd definitely get saddled with more work.

"I'll take my leave then."

"Mm. Go."

After Masashi left with deep disappointment, Tobirama stared at the closed door and smiled.