Director Yamada was not sure how long Black Zetsu would continue agonizing over the matter, but he had never been in the habit of standing around waiting foolishly.
While the dutiful son did everything he could to refine his own script, and Lord Sarutobi struggled over whether he should personally lead the campaign, Director Yamada had already begun making further arrangements.
—As a pragmatic politician, Soji clearly understood that empty words alone could never decide the choice of the next Hokage, or even the one after that.
Though broadcasting speeches through loudspeakers was also a proven path to success, Soji's identity as a sickly man and his consistently low-key manner ultimately led the two academy directors down a nation-building path of "prospering the country through practical work."
So, in this grand performance of stealing the nation, what exactly needed to be done to bring Konoha completely under his control?
Yamada Soji eventually laid out a three-step strategy for those who came after him.
First, build an image.
No one said a common chicken could not fly onto a branch and become a phoenix, but first, it had to catch the wind—and it had to actually be able to fly!
Going from an ordinary civilian to the Court of Owls sounded rather fantastical, but on closer thought, some of its principles had a faint resemblance to the god-making campaigns of the online world—if Soji wanted to catch the traffic dividends granted by the era, he first had to transform himself from transparent cannon fodder at the bottom into that chicken capable of flight!
Thus, from the moment he graduated from the Ninja Academy, the youth used every possible means to gild his once-ordinary life with a dazzling golden sheen!
A prodigious youth, hospital director, hero of Konoha, commoner's rise to power...