The Young Lady's Grand Dream

"Grandpa Hokage!"

Hinata called out sweetly. When you're under someone else's roof, you have no choice but to bow your head!

The Third Hokage wore a kindly smile. He had always been gentle and approachable toward children.

Hinata had mixed feelings about the Third Hokage.

From the village's perspective, the Third Hokage was indeed a qualified Hokage. He seemed moderate, but his political skills were exceptionally sharp. An old schemer like Shimura Danzō had never managed to outmaneuver the Third Hokage in his entire life.

But from the clans' perspective, some of the Third Hokage's actions were quite thought-provoking.

To suppress the ninja clans, Konoha had first established the Ninja Academy. The Third Hokage had even taken Orochimaru and Jiraiya as disciples, intending for a civilian ninja to become the Fourth Hokage.

Konoha now had more than thirty thousand registered ninja, fewer than ten thousand of whom were clan ninja. The rest were all civilian ninja.

A great clan of the ninja world like the Hyuga Clan now had only around a thousand ninja.

And the Uchiha had once been stronger than the Hyuga. To kill over a thousand ninja in a single night—Kekkei Genkai ninja who possessed the Sharingan, no less—Konoha must have deployed an unknown number of ninja to accomplish it.

Root alone had been far from sufficient.

Perhaps Anbu ninja had disguised themselves as Root members and taken part in the Uchiha Clan Extermination.

And Konoha's casualties had definitely not been small.

After the Uchiha Clan Extermination, the Third Hokage had continually soothed the ninja clans. But at that point, which clan would dare step out and oppose him?

The Uchiha's fate was still right before their eyes.

Hinata had been in the Naruto world for eight years now, and she had actually come to understand some of the situation.

Although the Hokage faction had always supported civilian ninja, hadn't the ninja clans also treated civilian ninja as cannon fodder?

Looking across all of Konoha, nearly every powerful ninja came from a ninja clan. Among civilian ninja, there were only a handful of strong ones no matter how you counted.

Yet most of Konoha's power was held by the Hokage faction, Konoha's elders, and the ninja clans.

Civilian ninja risked their lives carrying out missions for Konoha, but all they ultimately received was a tiny amount of mission bonus money.

Meanwhile, Hyuga Hiashi could stay home all day and do nothing, yet still earn enormous profits for the Hyuga Clan.

Just how many businesses did the Hyuga Clan own?

Even the mere tip of the iceberg that Hinata knew about was already astonishing.

That was the Hyuga Clan's accumulation over a thousand years.

When the First Hokage had first founded Konoha, he had promised the Hyuga Clan countless benefits in order to win them over.

This was a conflict between classes. As long as benefits were distributed unfairly, such conflicts could never be resolved.

And what the Hokage had to do was maintain the balance within it.

As long as that balance was not broken, no one would touch the Hyuga Clan.

Over the past year, Hyuga Hiashi had begun training Hinata—not just in strength, but in how to manage the clan.

The Third Hokage sat beside Hinata with a cheerful smile. He did not actually snatch her snacks away. He had merely said it as a joke.

Would a dignified Hokage really steal a child's lollipop?

Hinata was fairly familiar with the Third Hokage, not because she had read the Original Story, but because he often went to the Ninja Academy to give speeches and indoctrinate the children.

Looking at the Third Hokage with a face full of admiration, Hinata asked curiously, "Grandpa Hokage, I heard you're the strongest Hokage in history. Is that true?"

Though Hinata looked obedient and sweet, she was actually just making a joke.

The Third Hokage's face filled with smug satisfaction as he said happily, "That's all nonsense people made up. The First Hokage was the strongest Hokage. Little Hinata, have you heard the stories of the First Hokage?"

He spoke modestly, so why was his face full of smug pride?

Shameless old man!

The First Hokage had been dead for many years, and most people in the ninja world had already forgotten just how powerful he had been.

To many younger ninja, perhaps the First Hokage and Madara Uchiha had been very strong, but at most they had only been at the level of a Hokage—perhaps a little stronger.

The Third Hokage had actually been quite happy to accept the title of "strongest Hokage."

Hinata blinked and looked at the Third Hokage with an innocent expression, saying admiringly, "Grandpa Hokage is amazing. You really can't judge a person by their appearance!"

The Third Hokage smiled and stroked his beard. Being admired by children was what pleased him most.

Hm?

Wait!

What did she mean by "can't judge a person by their appearance"?

The Third Hokage always felt that Hinata was secretly mocking him.

Whether "can't judge a person by their appearance" was praise or an insult could no longer be verified.

The phrase had originally described someone whose strength was great, but it also subtly insulted their looks...

The Third Hokage looked down over the scenery of all Konoha. A peaceful and prosperous Konoha was his greatest pride in life, as well as his lifelong dream.

"Little Hinata, why do you always like sitting here and eating snacks?"

Hinata swallowed a dumpling and answered seriously, "Because the scenery here is nice!"

The Third Hokage nodded in satisfaction. If she liked Konoha's scenery, then didn't that mean she liked Konoha?

The Ninja Academy's indoctrination education had been quite successful. Though the ninja clans were powerful, they were still, in the end, Konoha's ninja clans.

In truth, looking across the entire ninja world, there were many clans with secret techniques, but very few Kekkei Genkai clans remained.

The occasional Kekkei Genkai ninja who appeared were only scattered individuals.

Yet the Hyuga Clan, as a Kekkei Genkai clan possessing the Byakugan, one of the three great ancient eye techniques, had remained standing without decline.

It had to be said that the Hyuga Clan's patriarchs throughout the generations had all been very wise.

The Third Hokage asked with a smile, "Does little Hinata have any dreams?"

Since it was Lord Hokage asking, Hinata thought about it very seriously.

Save the ninja world? Protect Konoha? Change the world?

Too dangerous, and too exhausting!

Those miserable jobs should be left to the Child of Destiny!

Hinata intended to tell the truth. The Third Hokage was old and cunning, and she could not be sure whether he would see through a lie.

Telling the truth was the safest option.

After pondering for quite a while, Hinata said somewhat shyly, "Lots of money, little work, close to home; high status, great power, light responsibility. Sleep until I wake naturally, count money until my hands cramp."

Hinata still cared about her dignity, so she had been too embarrassed to say that her dream was to loaf around and wait for death.

And wasn't that little rhyme describing the position of Hyuga Clan patriarch?

Just look at Hyuga Hiashi. He stayed home all day, sent the branch family members to carry out missions, managed the Hyuga Clan's inherited businesses, and spent most of every day idle.

The Third Hokage: "..."

In truth, the Third Hokage had always felt quite reassured about Hinata.

Hinata looked like the sort of person with no ambition at all. She did not even seem to have any designs on the Hokage Position.

Though she had been born into the Hyuga Clan, her appetite could rival that of the Akimichi Clan, while her temperament was much like the Nara Clan's.

Put nicely, she was detached from worldly strife. Put bluntly, she lacked all ambition and only wanted to coast through life.

And from the Hokage's standpoint, the Third Hokage liked people like that most—especially since Hinata was the Hyuga Clan's heir.

Originally, the Third Hokage had worried that Hinata's private contact with Naruto might lead to something undesirable. But after observing Hinata for more than a year, he had become much more at ease.

The Third Hokage said with a sigh, "That truly is a fine dream, but many people can only long for it!"