Old Friends Reunite

The gathering Fugaku had mentioned was not nearly as easygoing as he had made it sound.

First of all, this was not a small get-together, but a large-scale exchange event Konoha had organized for the outstanding young talents of the day.

The final deadline agreed upon by the villages was drawing ever closer, and everyone was doing everything they could to strengthen the cohesion of their own organizations before the last moment arrived.

Without question, Konoha Village faced the greatest difficulty. The coexistence of the Senju Clan and the Uchiha had made it powerful, but it had also made its internal conflicts the sharpest. It was no easy task to settle decades of disputes in just ten years.

For those old people who had been branded with different factional allegiances even before Konoha was founded, and who had spent half their lives guarding against one another, this was less a matter of great difficulty than something utterly impossible. But it was different for the younger generation. They had been born into Konoha Village, and had grown up listening to the Third Hokage tirelessly preach the Will of Fire. Their relationships were nowhere near as tense.

Thus, to Konoha's upper ranks, these young people were their greatest hope of forging the Konoha Ninja Army into a solid whole. Put bluntly, they were living off the Third Hokage's groundwork, merely hoping to harvest the fruits ahead of time.

Fortunately, it was not entirely hopeless. After all, the Land of Fire was about to enter an era of unprecedented external pressure. Even old enemies like the Senju Clan and the Uchiha could shake hands, so what did anyone else have to be so hung up about?

The gathering was being held in the largest reception hall of the Hokage Building. As Konoha's administrative