Konoha: Offer your heart to the Hokage!

He was probably the first in F3 to have his spine broken and surrender.

The fantasy of being assisted by a Hokage and wielding great power was shattered the day he was bullied and hanged himself.

...

After the Third Generation Election Ceremony, Konoha was engulfed in a nationwide frenzy.

After enduring the hardships of war brought by Tobirama the Second, someone finally stepped forward to offer the villagers a rosy picture, promising that Konoha would become great again. And the one who uttered these words happened to be Zenin Jinji, the person with the highest credibility in Konoha.

Everyone is looking forward to the day when the Third Hokage will fulfill his promise.

The commercial street was decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations.

The villagers spontaneously organized various celebrations.

The most popular of them all is Ichiraku Ramen.

To show his approachability, the Third Hokage, along with Jiri and Tsunade, took the yellowed, permanent free meal voucher to the restaurant for a bowl of ramen, attracting a huge crowd to Ichiraku.

And coincidentally, on this very day, Yi Le's child was born and named Shou Da.

It's been born now, even the hand-typed version.

Shen Er smiled, wiped his mouth, bid farewell to Ichiraku, and returned to the Hokage Building, which remained loyal to him.

He sat in the Hokage's office, which used to belong to the Third Hokage but now belonged to him.

He sat in the chair, holding Zhili in his arms, gazing out the window at the bustling Konoha street scene that belonged to him, and smiled inexplicably.

After the initial excitement subsided, Shinobu released Jiri and decisively exercised his rights as Hokage.

He summoned his secretary, Nara Taro, and began appointing advisors for the Hokage.

"The following appointments are hereby made: Jonin Uchiha Chisato will serve as an elder of Konoha, taking over the work I previously held; Jonin Senju Takayuki will serve as the Hokage's assistant."

Nara Taro paused slightly in his note-taking, but continued writing without saying a word.

The Third Hokage broke with the Second Hokage's tradition upon taking office, restoring the Uchiha clan's status to that of the First Hokage.

Madara Uchiha was originally an elder of Konoha. After his defection, the Uchiha's status in Konoha plummeted... Is this a case of restoring order or a return to its former glory?

Shinji noticed Nara Taro's reaction, but he offered no explanation.

First of all, he will not keep this glory to himself.

Secondly, his power as Hokage is limitless!

Just like when Hashirama first became Hokage, Shinji now possesses unprecedented power.

No one is holding him back!

Tobirama had the checks and balances of Mito and Danzo; Hiruzen had the checks and balances of Danzo and Mito; Minato had the checks and balances of Hiruzen and Danzo...

Although he is nominally the leader of Konoha, he still needs the approval of others for many things.

The Anbu, which should be directly under the Hokage's command according to regulations, has a complex web of internal factions, with former subordinates from several generations of Hokage intertwined. Konoha's matchmaking system is excellent, always selecting equally matched opponents for the Hokage.

Not only Konoha, but the other four major ninja villages are probably the same.

Ambitious individuals prefer their own shadow to be highly malleable, flexible, easy-going, lacking in firm stance, without prominent viewpoints, not sharp in thinking, incapable of changing the status quo, generally easy to manipulate, and able to accept guidance, leaving important national affairs to assistants and experts.

However, none of these conditions apply to Shen!

He is the most ambitious man in Konoha and even the entire ninja world.

Who can keep him in check?

The only one with higher seniority than him, Mito, trusted him; Tobirama died. Of his ninja successors, one was killed by himself outside the village, one chose to surrender, one attempted suicide, and only Danzo remained, mysteriously plotting something.

He was the husband of the former Uchiha clan head; the godfather of the granddaughter of the God of Shinobi and the princess of the Land of Fire; the entire Gospel Hospital was his student; the police force was his relative's; the Anbu was trained by him...

Every aspect of Konoha has been eroded by Shen's tentacles.

All internal resources and power were integrated by Shen'er, and all conflicts had to give way to his existence.

"Announce to the public the news that Konoha has selected its third generation."

"Yes!"

Nara Taro personally sent out a notice to the entire ninja world announcing that Zenin Jinji had become the Third Hokage.

The daimyo's mansion in the Land of Fire, and the ninjas from other villages, will all learn of this situation in the next few days.

This is a dramatic change for the ninja world.

The other four major ninja villages all need to make targeted plans and deployments in response to the situation where Zenin Shinji becomes the Third Hokage.

After assigning the trivial tasks, Narataro emphasized the most important tasks at hand.

"Once the daimyo receives the message, you will need to go to the daimyo's residence to report to him."

"Ah."

He gave a lukewarm response.

Reporting to the daimyo? How many ninja does the daimyo command? Why isn't it him who comes to see me?

The idea that ninjas with extraordinary powers had to bow down to ordinary secular nobles seemed utterly absurd to Shen Er. However, he wasn't planning on breaking ties with the daimyo and overthrowing the system at the moment.

He still needs to use Tsunade's identity as the princess of the Land of Fire.

"The second thing... you need to restart peace negotiations with the Axis alliance."

This is of paramount importance.

When Tobirama was alive, the Axis Alliance was considering negotiations, and the battlefields were essentially at a ceasefire. Now that Tobirama is dead and replaced by the "mediocre" Zenin Jinji, they might feel that "the advantage is on our side" and change their minds.

The specific direction in which things will develop depends on the methods demonstrated by the Third Hokage.

Shen Er was well aware of this.

In the original timeline, a combination like Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo Shimura, Koharu Utatane, and Homura Mitokado was enough to end the war. There's no reason why replacing these four with Uchiha Chizuru would give them the courage to continue the war.

Although the Axis Alliance gained Iwagakure and Sunagakure, Sunagakure's poison ninjutsu was broken by their own attacks. Iwagakure and Kumogakure also suffered heavy losses due to Uchiha Yanagi's continued attacks.

Therefore, the war will definitely end, and Konoha will be able to gain a lot of benefits from it.

“Tell the Axis Alliance that they are willing to negotiate. But this time, come to Konoha to talk.” Shen Erke will not make the same mistake as Tobirama, risking his life to negotiate in someone else’s home.

He can't fly like Thor.

Despite possessing the physical attributes of an ultimate life form, even a large number of ants can kill an elephant.

When it comes to Uchiha Yan, Shen'er has a lot to say...

Even as the Third Hokage, he convened his first high-level meeting at the Hokage Building.

The topic of discussion at this meeting was the death of Koharu Utatane.

When Koharu's shattered body was sent back to the village, Shen Er did not issue any strong orders to track down the murderer. Instead, he ordered the Anbu and the Fukuin Hospital to conduct a joint investigation, examining the cause of death on one side and collecting traces left at the scene on the other, thus sorting out the clues along two lines.

This matter can be big or small.

Shen Er's plan was to use Koharu Utatane's death as a pretext to establish a target, so that he could use this incident as a pretext to start a war no matter which side he wanted to take action against in the future.

The dead are more useful than the living.

Even though he had done so much beforehand, he had made ample preparations to smear Tobirama.

Now that he has died as expected, these methods will not be used for the time being; let him die as a hero. The same applies to Koharu Utatane; since she died outside, let her be considered a dutiful protector.

"According to the autopsy report from the Anbu and Fukuin Hospital, what killed Jonin Koharu Utatane was pure power rather than taijutsu... The only one with this power is Uchiha Kaname's Susanoo."

"Uchiha Yan has begun to show deadly hostility towards Konoha!"

Listening to the report, Shen Er understood perfectly.

For Konoha, although Uchiha Yan was a rogue ninja, he had only killed Uchiha Bin in the past and had never taken the initiative to be an enemy of Konoha or do anything to harm Konoha's interests.

Now that she has ruthlessly killed the Shadow Guard, the threat to the village has increased dramatically, and no one can guarantee that she won't attack other Konoha ninjas.

The presence of a rogue ninja with Kage-level strength who is hostile to Konoha is enough to instill fear and panic in all Konoha ninjas.

He even intended to exploit this panic, designating Uchiha Yan as Konoha's hypothetical enemy during peacetime to justify all his decisions. Under the guise of "bandit suppression" and maintaining stability, he would expand his military and gradually satisfy his ambitions.

It was clearly Shen who ordered Uchiha Yan to kill people, but not only did the former have to take the blame, the latter also used the name of bandit suppression to make money.

"Compared to the four great nations, rogue ninjas like Uchiha Yan, who form their own faction, are actually more dangerous to Konoha."

"Konoha will conclude a new peace treaty with the Axis Alliance, but we must not underestimate the threat posed by Uchiha Yan. We must be prepared for unforeseen circumstances; the village needs to place greater emphasis on the Anbu, the Police Department, and the Evangelismos Hospital, and simultaneously increase the budgets for each department..."

Done.

Shen Er asked kindly, "Who agrees and who disagrees?"

The senior executives in the conference room looked at each other in pairs, and the entire room was silent.

The fact that the great battle was about to end, yet the village was actually increasing its funding for the secret service and police department, was strange in itself. However, the Third Hokage's argument for being prepared for danger in times of peace was so logical that no one objected.

"very good."

Shen Er nodded in satisfaction, then continued, "I will travel to the daimyo prefecture tomorrow to meet the daimyo..."

End of the meeting.

Upon returning to the Hokage's office, Hyuga Kotone and Yamanaka Yuki, members of the Anbu, immediately emerged from the shadows and knelt on one knee.

Kotone reported, "My lord, I followed your orders and kept an eye on Shimura Danzo with my Byakugan. After he went home, he secretly met with seven ninjas."

"After the meeting, five of them left Konoha. We didn't follow them for fear of revealing our whereabouts. Yuki used a secret technique to interrogate one of them and unexpectedly discovered that the target had the Root of Tongue Calamity Seal buried in the root of his tongue. We had no choice but to erase that person's memory and then leave."

The village rules state that Hyuga is not allowed to use the Byakugan within the village territory without special permission.

However, once Shen Er came to power, this rule naturally became a mere formality for his own people.

Even if he hadn't planted the Seal of Tongue Disaster and the Earth Grudge Curse on the two of them, he wasn't worried at all that they would reveal his dark side to others, not even the Hokage's wife, Chiri.

Both women are close friends with Matsumoto Waka, having grown up together, and are now both Jonin. Because of this bond, they have received considerable resources and support from him, and are among his most trusted confidantes in the Anbu.

One person used the Byakugan to keep watch, while the other used a secret technique of the mountain clan to conduct a covert interrogation; their cooperation was seamless.

After listening to the report, Shen Er nodded thoughtfully: "You handled it very well."

He looked at Kotone and instructed, "Continue to keep an eye on Danzo with your Byakugan, and record all the people he has been in contact with recently. Report to me immediately if there are any special circumstances."

"Understood, Lord Shen!"

After the two left, Shen was left alone in the office, and he fell into deep thought.