Konoha: Offer your heart to the Hokage!

[Anbu members are selected from the village's elite ninja. Their main duties are to protect the Hokage and high-ranking elders, defend against foreign invasions of Konoha, and also to conduct reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, and the detention and guarding of special criminals...]

He accurately predicted that Hashirama Senju disliked proactive killing and pointless conflicts, so he deliberately downplayed the Anbu's killing nature and emphasized their passive defense and stability maintenance functions throughout the story.

In Shen Er's evasive description, the Dark Division doesn't seem like a violent organization, but rather like some kind of "religious knightly order."

Yes! The Will of Fire Ninja Group.

After carefully reading the entire proposal, Hashirama Senju couldn't help but remark, "This Anbu plan is quite good, but it must be quite expensive, right?"

"It does cost quite a bit of money."

Shen Er admitted, "Anbu ninjas don't take on regular commissions from the Hokage Building; all their income comes from village grants."

"In addition, they need to carry out high-risk, secretive, and tedious special missions year-round, so their treatment and remuneration must not be lacking."

"A rough estimate is that the annual funding will start at 50 million taels."

"Fifty million taels..."

Hashirama began to calculate in his mind.

Konoha has clear regulations on commission fees, with a minimum of one million taels for a single S-rank commission. The Anbu's annual budget is equivalent to the fees for fifty S-rank commissions. However, considering the Anbu's special functions and risks, this expense is actually worthwhile.

Hashirama Senju was somewhat intrigued: "Have you considered the source of the Anbu ninjas?"

"Any ninja who is loyal to the village and the Will of Fire is under consideration. However, in the early stages of the organization, considering the uneven quality of the personnel, we will first select elites from various ninja clans. Once the ninja academy system becomes more complete and ordinary ninjas begin to show their talents, we will gradually recruit outstanding individuals from among them."

"The Senju, Uchiha, Hyuga, Sarutobi, Shimura, and the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, along with a host of other ninja clans..."

Shen Er emphasized, "After these ninjas are recruited, they cannot be used directly. They need to be re-educated to understand the importance of secrecy and loyalty to the village."

"That's true, you've thought it through very thoroughly."

Hashirama Senju's brows relaxed, and he fully approved of the Anbu project in his hands.

Shen Er was indeed well-prepared.

Just like with the Ninja Academy and Konoha Hospital before, he once again offered such important and constructive suggestions to the village.

"You just mentioned training. Has someone been chosen as the chief person in charge of the training?"

When the question was raised, Shen Er knew that Hashirama had already agreed to his plan.

Regarding his question, Shen Er suddenly thought of...

The infamous Konoha Root, which would later become notorious, initially functioned as an ANBU training department. In other words, Danzo was responsible for training the ANBU. And Danzo, as expected, continued to expand his power, eventually becoming the Dark Lord of the ninja world.

At this moment, Danzo is merely an insignificant special Jonin, his power still waning.

Shen Er regained his composure, feigning retreat, and calmly asked, "How about handing it over to Tobirama?"

“Tobirama?” Hashirama shook his head. “No, we can’t hand it over to Tobirama.”

“He spends most of his time handling Konoha’s political affairs for me now. Furthermore, regarding Tobirama’s principles of conduct… I believe he is not inherently bad, but some of his thoughts are impure and not suitable for spreading within a special organization like the Anbu. I fear that the Will of Fire of some Anbu members may become impure.”

After a moment's thought, Hashirama came to a brilliant conclusion:

"How about this: the training of the Dark Division will be jointly handled by you and me!"

"what?"

He pretended to be surprised, but inwardly he couldn't help but laugh.

Hashirama, with a confident expression, explained earnestly:

“I have now stepped down to the second line, and I have handed over most of the political affairs to Tobirama. I don’t have much to do on weekdays, so I can take the lead in teaching the members of the Anbu practical and specialized skills. As for you, you are the chief architect of the Will of Fire in the village, so it is most appropriate for you to take the lead in ideological education. No one is more authoritative than you in this regard.”

Although in battle, Hashirama was used to using his strength to send bricks flying.

But this does not mean that he is careless or has limited abilities.

He was proficient in everything from reconnaissance and infiltration to the detention of serious criminals, the security of the base, and close protection. In terms of overall ability, he could confidently tell Tobirama: "Your older brother is still your older brother."

"I'm fine here."

She reluctantly agreed.

"You've worked so hard, Shen'er. I'm adding more burdens to your shoulders."

"It's not hard work, it's all for Konoha."

After Sasuke left, Hashirama Senju called out to the door, "Sasuke, go and call Tobirama over here."

...

Tobirama Senju carefully read through the entire Dark Side plan, his eyes gleaming.

He is adept at seeing through appearances to the essence.

On the surface, the covert operations are specialized agencies with defensive capabilities.

But this is because Shen and his elder brother are both naive idealists.

With just a slight change, this elite force directly under the Hokage can transform into a hidden blade at any time to carry out assassination missions that cannot be seen in the light but can bring benefits to the village.

“I don’t object to this plan. It’s fine for you and Shen to train the members of the Dark Division.”

Tobirama stated his position: "But I think it is inappropriate to recruit ninjas from the Uchiha and Hyuga branch families into the Anbu."

Hashirama was taken aback: "Why is that?"

Tobirama said in a deep voice, "The Uchiha are an inherently evil clan that has always coveted the fruits of Konoha's peace. Allowing Uchiha ninjas into the Anbu will only fuel their ambitions."

"As for the Hyuga branch family, they have the Byakugan, which gives them a unique advantage in intelligence gathering. However, they can easily infiltrate the Anbu and uncover the village's secrets. Furthermore, under the Caged Bird Seal, when faced with a choice between two options, they can only obey the main family, not the Hokage."

A fairly rational analysis.

However, the way of the ninja is never something that can be achieved solely through reason.

Back then, Madara Uchiha once suggested to Hashirama that the two of them join forces and use overwhelming power to crush the entire ninja world. They would eliminate all the Kage of each ninja village and seize all their precious treasures and bloodline limits for Konoha, thus bringing peace to the ninja world.

Hashirama was well aware that, given his and Madara's strength, this extreme approach was indeed the fastest way to achieve a semblance of peace.

But that kind of peace is a shackle built on blood and violence, not the true tranquility he longed for, which stemmed from mutual understanding and trust.

Therefore, he resolutely rejected Ban's suggestion.

At this moment, just as at that moment.

If the Anbu truly refuses to recruit Uchiha clan members and rejects Hyuga branch family ninjas, from a purely "village interests" perspective, it might be the safest option and the one that best avoids potential risks.

But is doing this really the right thing to do?

Even the core message of the Will of Fire, which Hashirama initially proposed, remained etched in his heart.

Everyone in the village is one family.

The Anbu are like a communal kitchen; no matter how noble the reasons, what will happen if the Uchiha and Hyuga branch families are left out? How will they view the village? What will the other ninja clans say?

Is this kind of differential treatment, this kind of exception outside of "family," really appropriate?

Does it truly align with the Will of Fire that I have always sought?

The human heart is not always warm; it can grow cold!

Hashirama Senju's eyes hardened. "No! Everyone is equal. As long as you meet the Anbu's recruitment standards, whether you're from the Uchiha or Hyuga branch family, you're welcome!"

Hashirama knew Tobirama's personality.

If I can't enforce this standard with the strongest stance while I'm still alive, I can forget about it later. I can't even control my second brother.

"Big brother!"

"Tobirama, I am the Hokage."

"Sigh... Brother, you'll regret this."

Tobirama Senju sighed helplessly.

He essentially did the work of the Hokage, but the man who sat in the Hokage's seat and made the final decision was still Hashirama Senju.

No matter how he analyzed the pros and cons, once his elder brother made up his mind, all his opposition and concerns became useless.

Just like during the first final battle at the Valley of the End, he saw through Madara Uchiha's threat and wanted to eliminate the future troubles, but his older brother stubbornly stopped him.

It's the same this time.

He wanted to "kill the Uchiha," but was stopped by his older brother once again.

They could only watch helplessly as this hidden danger, like an explosive tag, remained buried in the shadows.

...

At Hashirama Senju's insistence, the Anbu project was ultimately approved unanimously.

However, the detailed rules still need to be supplemented.

As the initiator of the Anbu project, he naturally became the chief designer of Konoha's Anbu, finalizing various organizational details.

The Hidden Leaf Village's Anbu consists of 70 members, ranked from highest to lowest as follows:

There is one captain and one deputy captain, who are in charge of all affairs of the Anbu, report directly to the Hokage, and have the highest command and mission scheduling authority of the Anbu.

The Dark Division comprises four squads, each with an authorized strength of 17 personnel. Each squad is headed by a squad leader who is fully responsible for the squad's training, task allocation, and personnel management.

Each squad is further divided into four teams, each consisting of four ninjas, with one team leader and three members. The team leader reports directly to the squad leader and is responsible for coordination and cooperation during mission execution.

They must wear white animal masks to conceal their identities when carrying out missions.

Hey! This is what we call professionalism.

Compared to Danzo later on, he did even better.

In addition to the four divisions, he established an independent "Root" unit, which is positioned as a special mobile force for the Dark Guard. It also has the function of providing specialized training for Dark Guard members and supervising the daily training of the Dark Guard and any violations of discipline.

The Root currently only has one leader, Shen'er, but it can gradually expand its scale by recruiting elites as needed for the development of the Dark Division.

This is the end.

Following his roles as Dean of the Evangelical Fellowship, Medical Instructor, and Elder of Konoha, Shen Er has now acquired another title: Root Leader.

Once all the details were finalized, the next step was to recruit members.

Recruitment for the secret service is not open to the public, and there is no open selection process.

Using a targeted invitation model, bypassing the ninja clans, Hashirama Senju and Jinji directly screened the village's elites and sent out recruitment invitations one-on-one, only recruiting ninjas whose temperament, strength, and loyalty were suitable for the Anbu's special missions.

This is a tedious task.