Snow Country

As the original story showed, although Snow Country was constrained by its geography and climate, it still had tremendous potential for development. While other places were still transporting goods by horse-drawn carriage, Snow Country already had the national strength to complete its industrialization. It had things like trains, Chakra Armor, and, finally, that Climate Control Device that could change the weather!

Snow Country's geography and climate were much like those of the modern world's Bear, and not just any Bear, but an industrialized one. Of course, its land area might have been far smaller, but Snow Country also had an advantage the Bear lacked: it was isolated overseas, making it perfect for John Bull's policy of splendid isolation!

And if Snow Country already had trains, how far behind could steamships and warships be? In the original story, more than a decade later, when Naruto and the others escorted Kazahana Koyuki to Snow Country to film a movie, they rode in a wooden sailing ship! Can you believe that?

With train transport, steamship routes, steel warships, and Chakra Armor, even the climate was no longer a problem. Kazahana Sōsetsu had developed a Geothermal Heating Device to solve that!

A Snow Country like this could rival the Land of Fire, ranked first in national strength. Add its perfect location and the fact that it didn't have to worry about being invaded by other nations—tsk, it was practically a combination of the Bear and John Bull! If it really got the chance to develop, even the Land of Fire might not be able to beat it! Of course, that was assuming Konoha didn't send a Genin after it!

Given the Ninja World's current trajectory, the gap between Snow Country and the other nations was like the difference between a feudal dynasty and an industrial power. If not for the unreasonable power of chakra, Snow Country's foundation would have made its place as the Ninja World's sixth great nation a certainty!

Snow Country's potential had now been fully unleashed. All it needed was some lucky soul to come along and inherit it! Whoever managed to get together with Kazahana Koyuki could inherit a Great Nation. And given her current circumstances, there was no need to worry about the opinions of other nations' lords.

First, in the eyes of the other lords, Snow Country was still a barren land isolated overseas!

Second, the current lord of Snow Country was Kazahana Dōtō!

Third, Kazahana Koyuki was currently going by the alias Yukie Fujikaze, and Yukie Fujikaze was the person he was publicly courting.

And if, after everything was settled, it came out that Yukie Fujikaze was Snow Country's heir? Huh? What a coincidence! I really am lucky. But by then, the deed would already be done, and our kid would be old enough to run errands. The other nations' lords wouldn't be thinking of meddling in Snow Country's internal affairs, would they? Care to find out how sharp my sword is?

Even if a war really broke out then, Snow Country could wear down the Five Great Nations with its geographical advantage and navy alone. That settled it. After all, you couldn't put all your eggs in one basket. That leaky ship called Konoha had already been rocked to the point of collapse by the Third and his lot!

Namikaze Minato was a good person, but character and governance were two different things. Having been raised in Konoha from childhood, Minato's perspective was still too limited! I wouldn't go so far as to say that Minato would definitely become as incompetent as Hiruzen Sarutobi in old age, but as a ninja grew older and his strength declined, there were some things he couldn't control.

This was a world where power belonged to the individual. Without strength, even your words carried less weight. In the eyes of Second Hokage Tobirama Senju, Hiruzen Sarutobi had been fit to choose as Hokage. That alone showed that Hiruzen had been an outstanding young man!

But as he aged and his strength waned, more and more promising newcomers appeared. At that point, if Hiruzen wanted to keep sitting securely in the Hokage Position and keep Konoha running smoothly, he had to use schemes and other underhanded methods to compensate for the imbalance caused by his declining strength!

Look across the Ninja World. Hiruzen Sarutobi wasn't the only one. What about Hanzo, the Demigod of the Ninja World? If every leader had the strength of the Third Raikage, who would want to go to such lengths to ruin his reputation by scheming?

In a world where strength reigned supreme, no leader could avoid this. It didn't change based on a person's character or will. Even someone as sunny and cheerful as Minato could be pushed to cross his own lines, step by step, by internal and external pressures—unless he was willing to be left behind by the times and step aside for someone more capable.

You could say that the only exception among the Ninja World's leaders was Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki! The main reason was that Dust Release didn't depend on physical fitness. Dust Release was all about technique. Even with a body like Ōnoki's, which left him throwing his back out every now and then, he could still use Dust Release without any trouble. Naturally, he didn't need to resort to the sort of filthy methods Hiruzen Sarutobi used to harm Konoha's next generation of pillars!

But thinking about it, it seemed Namikaze Minato might follow in Hiruzen Sarutobi's footsteps too!

Minato's signature technique, Flying Thunder God, relied heavily on physical fitness and neural reflexes! As an old man, Minato might not have dementia, but his reflexes would definitely decline sharply. Of course, that decline wouldn't affect his everyday life, but it would absolutely weaken him considerably! It might even leave him worse off than Hiruzen was now! After all, Hiruzen was a master of all five nature transformations and still had decent overall strength!

Minato, on the other hand, was the kind of person who relied on one trick to win every time. If that trick stopped working, he'd have no choice but to charge in with a Rasengan, just like Naruto did in the original story. Minato had incredible combat instincts and battlefield reactions, but without Flying Thunder God, those talents could at most make him a pseudo-Kage! He'd still be a formidable shinobi by Ninja World standards, but that kind of strength was clearly not enough for the leader of a top nation like Konoha!

And an old Minato with that level of strength would have to face a powerful, unruly Uchiha Clan that had Izanagi at its disposal. Tsk, he'd probably use even harsher methods than Hiruzen Sarutobi! Of course, all of this assumed Minato didn't retire while he was still at his peak! If he could keep a level head and step down to choose the Fifth Hokage, none of this would happen!

The problem was, after sitting as Hokage for more than a decade and tasting the sweetness of power, could Minato really step down? Even if he could, who would get the Fifth Hokage Position? His son, Naruto Uzumaki, was extremely talented. With the right maneuvering, Naruto might well become the Fifth Hokage!

After all, the Ninja World had no such thing as avoiding the appearance of favoritism. The First died, and the Second took over. The Second died, and one of his students took over! The Third stepped down, and his grandstudent took over. His grandstudent died, and the Third shamelessly came back himself. After the Third finally lasted another decade and died, one of his students took over again. Then the Fifth ran into trouble! The Third's teammate became the Fifth-and-a-Half. All right, the Fifth-and-a-Half was killed, so the Fifth woke up and took over again. Finally, when the Fifth stepped down, who did they find as the Sixth? Well, well... a student of the Fourth... No need to guess what comes next: the Seventh would definitely be from the same crowd. The outcome was already obvious.