Tobirama and Hashirama

Inside the Hokage's Office, files were stacked in orderly piles like small mountains all around the room.

Suddenly, a pair of large hands swept aside the documents that were blocking the view on the desk.

Hidden within the mountain of books, Hashirama revealed his honest face. Black bandages were wrapped around his forehead, and his bright eyes shone with a strange light as they darted around, sneakily observing Tobirama, who was diligently flipping through documents to his front-left.

"Tobirama, do you remember where the battle armor is kept?"

Tobirama, having his train of thought interrupted, reluctantly flipped over the proposal document titled "Ninja Strength Classification Proposal" he had been holding and placed it face-down on the desk. Without hesitation, he replied, "The battle armor is being kept by your wife."

"Oh, right, Mito. I remember now."

Hashirama, tapping his chin with a pen, said with a sudden realization. He offered a slight smile at Tobirama's look of disdain before standing up to move the processed files from the desk to the corner.

"What do you think of this proposal?"

Hashirama, dressed in his white robes, paced over to Tobirama's desk and pointed at the document in his hand, asking curiously.

Tobirama shifted his gaze from the document, took a sip of tea, and looked at the end of the file to see that the proposer was right in front of him. Understanding the subtext, he offered a word of praise without even lifting his head.

The internal conflicts within the village currently revolved primarily around ninjas from established clans versus ordinary ninjas, with the core point of contention being mission assignments.

Although the number of conflicts had dropped significantly over the past few months of cooperation, they still accounted for the bulk of all incidents.

They were understanding about being broken up and reorganized into new squads; after all, everyone had gathered together to form the Hidden Village, and after so many days, the concept of being a Konoha ninja had long since taken root in their hearts.

They could endure other things, but missions were their source of income!

Upon arriving at the new village, although the land was free and building materials were readily available, constructing houses cost at most some labor fees, which those who were diligent could handle themselves.

The furniture brought from their old clan lands could barely suffice, but after settling in and carefully calculating their daily expenses, their costs in every aspect had increased significantly.

Unlike when they were in the old clan lands, where they could simply go hunting in the deep forest or buy supplies from the clan when they ran low on meat, now the only option was to purchase it. The animals around the village had long since been hunted clean by the hungry, wolf-like ninjas.

There was no shortage of vegetables, as they could plant them in the large open spaces of the new clan lands just as before, and the village market even featured specialties from other countries, which actually increased the variety of vegetables available.

At night, the lights went out early and there was nothing to do, and many households were about to have another mouth to feed.

The village was crowded with people from various clans, and they had to buy more clothes to keep up appearances. The consumption and maintenance of ninja tools and battle armor during missions also required large sums of money.

These were just the ninjas from established clans who were living slightly better; the desire for money among the ordinary ninjas was likely even more intense.

When it came down to the issue of money, Tobirama, as the second-in-command of the Senju Clan, was well aware of the tricks involved.

"Dividing ninjas into upper, middle, and lower tiers based on strength—this is a good idea." Tobirama picked up his pen and added to the new document: "The criteria for classification, as well as what kind of missions each tier of ninja can accept, can also be negotiated."

Hashirama pulled over a chair and plopped down onto it, leaning forward to look at the handwriting on the paper.

He admired his younger brother, who had always been resourceful, from the bottom of his heart.

With a hint of indulgence in his red eyes, Tobirama glanced at his Elder Brother, who looked nothing like a Hokage, and continued: "This alone is not enough. We must also create a file for every single ninja, recording all their individual abilities and specialties to better group them into various squads."

"That might be difficult. Just arranging the personnel responsible for auditing the ninjas is a headache."

If they built a file for every ninja, those ninjas would inevitably make excuses; wouldn't leaking their abilities be the same as handing their trump cards to others? Hashirama certainly knew these hidden concerns, and he rubbed his chin in distress, searching his mind for suitable candidates.

They lacked people; the village was truly lacking in people.

There were capable ninjas, but very few who didn't have their own selfish motives, and relying on discovering and cultivating talent was too slow.

"The reforms within the clan should be about finished, right?"

Tobirama suddenly remembered the difficult decision that had been accompanied by opposition within the clan since the village was founded.

"Most have already quietly hidden themselves within the village, except for those clansmen who once made a name for themselves on the battlefield."

Hashirama stood up and rummaged through the files against the wall for a while until he found a brown scroll marked with the character "Senju," and brought it over.

The scroll slowly unfurled on the desk, revealing a dense list of names. Although they had changed their surnames, Tobirama recognized them at a glance. He smiled, nodded, and said, "Now, the compensation promised to them has arrived."

Seeing Tobirama squinting his eyes, Hashirama understood his thoughts and said in tacit agreement, "Now we shouldn't be short of manpower."

"Indeed. Quietly hidden in various departments, everything in the village will be under our control."

Tobirama, head bowed, spoke in coordination while his pen never stopped moving. He recalled their personalities and abilities in his mind, writing down suitable positions for them on the paper with a flourish.

Those with steady personalities would be responsible for ninja grading, while those with quick minds would deal with the clans and be responsible for filing.

Hashirama quietly moved his chair back to his own spot. They had to take advantage of these few days to finish the urgent matters so they could head out to capture the Tailed Beasts.

Hashirama picked up the document and paused for a moment, recalling the foolish words Madara had once said about being able to handle the Nine-Tails all by himself. He curled his lip, disagreeing from the bottom of his heart.

The Nine-Tails was too strong.

It would definitely require the two of them to join forces; the idea of leaving him behind to go out and roam the village was impossible.

Twilight crawled softly into the sky, the heavy night and the afterglow echoing each other. The chirping of cicadas wantonly disturbed the midsummer of Konoha, but fortunately, as night fell, the cool Summer Wind carried away the heat of the day, making people feel quite refreshed.

Walking in the shade, Rikusei tried his best to avoid the sunset. When he passed the Hokage Building, he took a careful look, only to find that nothing could be seen from the outside. He withdrew his gaze and continued to stroll along the street shrouded in the evening glow.

Because of the mission to capture the Tailed Beasts, the school had given the students on the list a few days of vacation to return home and prepare.

Let some students attend class, and let some students go on excursions.

As the big boss of the Ninja Academy, Tobirama Senju was just that cold-blooded.

Nine Tailed Beasts; dealing with the number of students in the school twenty at a time was more than enough.

As for Rikusei's vacation, on the first day, he almost burned down the clan land, his custom-made pot was swiped by Madara, and after today's training, the recipe for his seasoning was swindled away as well.

Putting aside the unpleasant memories and convinced that his craving for hot pot had kicked in, Rikusei headed toward the ninja tool shop. Beneath his bright and flashy clothes were hidden the scars of "love-filled" training. Fortunately, he had applied ointment in time, so there was no intense pain, and the bruised skin would return to normal by tomorrow.

The giant iron Shuriken hanging above the ninja tool shop had its surface polished until it was spotless, reflecting the light of the setting sun. Rikusei shielded his eyes from the dazzling light and walked forward with practiced ease.