"I understand."
He nodded solemnly, then Water Gate suddenly smiled.
"I'm glad my Shadow Guard consists of you and Yakuwan. You haven't reported any intelligence to your clans, have you?"
"That's the Shadow Guard's duty." Hyuga Hane set down the documents and replied calmly.
Water Gate shook his head. "If you hadn't reminded me, I might never have grasped the rules of the ninja clans. Some things are impossible to understand unless someone points them out."
The ninja clans... Strictly speaking, they held Konoha in their hands!
The two advisors... even the Third were from ninja clans.
Setting aside the matters he couldn't handle yet, Water Gate asked with a smile, "Hane, you're basically the third clan head of the Hyuga Clan now, aren't you? Is that why you know so much about clan affairs?"
The Shadow Guard had plenty of opportunities to meet with the Hokage, making it a position with access to Konoha's core affairs.
As members of the Shadow Guard, Hane and Uchiha Yakumaru naturally held a certain amount of influence within their clans. And given the Hyuga Clan's unique circumstances, wouldn't those yearning for freedom seek out Hyuga Hane?
"Some of my clansmen came to me, but I ignored them. It was Clan Head Hizashi who talked to me about this."
Though Hizashi's main purpose had been to forbid him from sharing the Main Branch's secret techniques...
"Support from your clansmen is still important. It can make your path smoother."
Water Gate shook his head with a smile and looked out the window. Under the shadow of war, Konoha was quiet even during the day, no longer bustling as it had in peacetime.
Neither of them spoke, and the room fell silent.
After a long while, Water Gate said quietly, "I plan to head to the battlefield in two days and put an end to this war!"
The troubles within the village were far greater than he had imagined. Staying here as Hokage to stabilize the situation wouldn't accomplish much. In that case, he would first deal with the threat from outside!
The fighting at the front was nowhere near as favorable as the villagers believed, even with two of the Sannin there.
Seeing the confusion in Hyuga Hane's eyes, Water Gate took out another report and handed it to him.
"Take a look."
Hyuga Hane spotted several familiar names in the report, and his eyes narrowed.
"So the Mist Village is planning one last gamble."
"That's right, which is why I have to go." Water Gate nodded.
"Are you planning to leave the village in the advisors' hands?"
"Yes. I also wanted to ask the Third to take charge, but it seems he has other plans, so... would you be willing to stay in the village?"
At Water Gate's gentle words and gaze, Hyuga Hane froze.
Leave the Shadow Guard in the village to help manage Konoha's affairs?
That wasn't how one treated someone merely as a bodyguard and promising junior to be groomed...
With that in mind, Hyuga Hane replied in a low voice, "The Branch Family can't be placed in the upper ranks. Besides, as a member of the Shadow Guard, I should naturally go to the battlefield with you. Please understand."
"Is that so? What a shame."
Water Gate sighed, but didn't try to persuade him further.
There was plenty of time. Some things were best handled gradually.
"Lord Hokage, Hyuga Tokuma has come to report that he killed Raiga Kurosuki of the Mist Village!"
An Anbu appeared just then and delivered the news.
Water Gate glanced at Hyuga Hane, thought for a few seconds, then said to the Anbu, "Record the achievement as usual, and take the body and Ninja Blade to the advisors."
There was no point investigating this now. He still couldn't do anything about the rules those ninja clans followed.
"Yes, sir!"
After the Anbu left, Water Gate seemed to have been reminded of something. He looked at Hyuga Hane. "Some of those Ninja Blades are your spoils. Is there one you want?"
"I'm a Taijutsu ninja. They wouldn't do much to improve my strength. Besides, you'll have another use for them after the war, won't you?"
He phrased it as a question, but his tone was certain.
Water Gate smiled without answering, feeling a little wistful.
It was a shame you were only a powerful ninja, Hane.
"Is that so? Water Gate didn't do anything. That's good, too. Given his situation, leaving the ninja clans alone is the best choice."
At the Sarutobi Clan compound, Sarutobi Hiruzen listened to the report, tapped his pipe, sighed, and said to the two people before him, "Water Gate is an excellent Hokage, but he's not suited to this era—or rather, he was born at the wrong time."
"The era best suited to him would have been when the Second had the ninja clans gasping for breath, and a gentle Hokage was needed to grant them favors. That was the position I held."
"When I first became Hokage, I was nothing like the gentle man I am today. To exercise the Hokage's authority, I promoted many ninja I could trust, including members of the Sarutobi Clan."
"I continued the Second's policies toward the various ninja clans, promoting civilian ninja, developing the Ninja Academy, and suppressing the clans."
"But I soon realized... I was wrong. Terribly wrong."
Sarutobi Hiruzen's shadowed gaze settled on the two people before him.
"I developed the Ninja Academy on a large scale, even serving as its headmaster myself, training civilian ninja in the hope that they could balance out ninja born into clans."
"But the clans soon realized that confirming the Second's death wouldn't change anything. They came up with a new plan, infiltrating every department, instructing Jonin and new Ninja Academy students, becoming teachers at the Academy, and infiltrating the Interrogation Department..."
"They gained power in more subtle, less conspicuous ways, yet I failed to notice in time because of the Second Shinobi World War."
"Now it's easy to see. Most of the ninja in the Interrogation Department are from the Yamanaka Clan, and quite a few ninja in the sensory unit come from the Hyuga and Aburame Clans. Some of this has to do with their abilities, but an important department in Konoha should never have been controlled by a ninja clan!"
Apart from the Military Police Force, which was a dead end, the various clans had taken control of other departments. If the Hokage didn't want a direct confrontation with them, he had no choice but to compromise on certain matters.
"Under these circumstances, what could the Hokage do if they refused to cooperate and secretly sabotaged things? Hiashi, what would you do?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen directed the question at one of the two people before him.
"Lord Third, I... wouldn't know what to do." Hiashi's breath caught, and he lowered his head as he answered.
How could he possibly answer that?
The Hyuga Clan had a presence in those departments, too. Although the blame for infiltrating Konoha's foundations probably fell on his father, and had nothing to do with him, he was the clan head now.
"That's right. There's nothing you can do."
Sarutobi Hiruzen closed his eyes wearily. "Because my own authority comes from the ninja clans—and the largest ninja clan in Konoha is the Sarutobi Clan!"
"After serving as Hokage for so many years, I promoted many of my trusted men, allowing the clan behind me to grow beyond anything it had ever achieved. Gradually, I found that I needed their support to exercise my authority. But if I moved against the clans, would they still support me?"
"Danzo has always kept his eyes on the Uchiha, but has he ever considered how many ninja the Sarutobi Clan has?"
"Even excluding those killed in the war, we still have two thousand five hundred!"
The two people before him stared wide-eyed in disbelief.
How many ninja did the Hyuga Clan have?
Counting both the Main Branch and the Branch Family, no more than eight hundred, right?
The Sarutobi Clan had more than three times as many!
By sheer numbers, it really was the most powerful clan in Konoha now.
"Only then did I understand why the Second had the Senju Clan intermarry with Konoha's residents, until the Senju name was all but wiped out."
"He was eliminating Konoha's largest ninja clan!"
"The political capital left behind by two Hokage, together with the prestige the Senju Clan had earned through its bloodshed in the First and Second Shinobi World Wars, could have allowed the Senju Clan to control Konoha indefinitely."
"To prevent that from happening, the Second used a relatively gentle approach to quietly wipe out the most prestigious ninja clan in Konoha!"
The Third's words turned Hiashi and the other man's understanding of the world upside down.
Had Senju Tobirama personally turned the Senju Clan into a thing of the past? Could that be true?
Hyuga Hiashi glanced at the Third, but couldn't tell whether he was telling the truth from his somewhat gloomy expression.
Still, after what the man had said at the Hyuga Clan earlier, Hiashi found it difficult to trust him...
Sarutobi Hiruzen gave them a little time to take it in, then continued, "The Second's approach also greatly increased the potential of civilian ninja, laying the groundwork for later policies to suppress the clans."
"But I failed to understand that, and the Sarutobi became the new Senju."
Sarutobi Hiruzen took a puff of his pipe, his expression impossibly complicated.
"If I'd started out more gently and offered the clans some benefits, then let civilian ninja gradually grow until they could stand alongside the clans, Konoha wouldn't be what it is today."
"Because of their vastly greater numbers, civilian ninja make up half of all Konoha's ninja, but most of them are only Genin and Chunin."
"Among Jonin and Special Jonin, the ratio of civilian ninja to clan ninja is... two to eight! The clans also occupy many essential positions, even if they're only basic ones!"
What did that mean?
It meant that if the Hokage made a policy that disadvantaged all the clans, they could remove him from office!
They could even... make the Hokage a rogue ninja!
Ridiculous, wasn't it?
The leader of a village could actually become a rogue ninja?
Ridiculous... but it could really happen!
Before you continue