The Era of Uchiha Shingen (Continued)

Those who lived in the village since its founding, such as Sarutobi Hiruzen, are now few and far between. Those who are still alive are now in a state of genuine retirement and enjoying their retirement.

Those ninjas like Uchiha Shingen, who were born during the twenty years of peace following World War I and witnessed Sarutobi Hiruzen's golden age, are now all over thirty and have entered their own golden age, contributing to their villages and families.

Of course, according to Uchiha Shingen's original idea, Leaf Village was already at its peak, and the Uchiha Clan was doing quite well, so there was no need for him to work harder.

But the adult world always loves to surprise people.

After more than a year of forbearance, the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, finally unleashed his long-awaited ultimate move—he would become the first Konoha Ninja to enjoy internal retirement benefits.

However, this news had been circulating widely in the village for half a year.

This was precisely what the evil Fourth Hokage did specifically to ensure his successful retirement.

What's even more sinister is that this was actually handled by the ANBU —ostensibly to allow everyone time to adapt to the new system.

Regardless, it's a fact that Leaf Village's number one workaholic is retiring.

Knowing that he would definitely be dragged into the election, Uchiha Shingen didn't take the matter very seriously.

He devoted more of his energy to other things.

Nagato, Uchiha Madara, and the Ōtsutsuki Clan.

If Kaguya Otsutsuki is a misanthropic type, then the other Ōtsutsuki Clan are most likely arrogant types.

From this perspective, if he finds the Ōtsutsuki Clan, then Nagato and Uchiha Madara would actually be allies.

However, forget about the Ōtsutsuki Clan, they couldn't even find Uchiha Madara.

When talking about Uchiha Madara, one has to mention Black Zetsu, who abandoned Madara because he had a mother.

Now that more than half a year has passed, if Uchiha Madara doesn't suspect that Black Zetsu was captured by Leaf Village, then he should have deep suspicions about Black Zetsu himself.

Regardless, Uchiha Madara can no longer be viewed through the lens of the past.

Uchiha Shingen wanted to go to Rain Village again to see if he could get any information out of Nagato, but he didn't have the time.

Because the Hokage election has already begun.

Unsurprisingly, he was nominated by Namikaze Minato.

There were other nominees, but they were even less enthusiastic than him.

The people of Leaf Village these days have no ambition whatsoever!

Perhaps, as Uchiha Fugaku said, he is now the biggest risk to the village.

Having had to adjust his mindset, Uchiha Shingen went to work Amaterasu.

Running for office is running for office, and working is working; there's no conflict.

If I had to point out any difference, it would be that the work enthusiasm of those in the ANBU is exceptionally high.

On this day, as Uchiha Shingen walked to his office, he saw the same group of the Second of the administration department along the way.

This thing can actually be contagious...

"Brother Shingen."

Just as Uchiha Shingen was about to enter, he heard Lin's voice coming from behind him.

This sound shouldn't be here at this moment.

It's the eccentric number one in the ANBU.

"Itachi, didn't I tell you today was a day off?" Uchiha Shingen turned around, looking at his capable ANBU subordinate with a great headache.

"Brother Shingen, I'm fine." Uchiha Itachi stood before him, full of energy and enthusiasm. "I've thought about it carefully. Brother Shingen, you're now a nominee for Hokage, so I should work even harder to ease your burden."

You've lightened my load my ass; you've been making my workload heavier lately.

This is what Uchiha Shingen thought to himself.

Thanks to this cheerful contestant number one, he can't find a scapegoat now.

They were all happily tossed away by Uchiha Itachi.

The young man was so naive that even Uchiha Shingen felt embarrassed to tell him to leave some descendants behind.

Even with organizations like the ANBU, the Black Gloves are still indispensable for ninja villages.

They can also be called temporary workers.

The temporary workers were fake; they were just people temporarily pulled from the village.

Real temporary workers are recruited from outside the village. Those wild ninja organizations would be ideal, and if all else fails, they can be ninjas who joined the village halfway through and aren't very trustworthy.

Of course, unaffiliated ninja organizations are the best, since this way they won't leave behind a reputation for cruelly treating the village's ninjas.

Shimura Danzō was too blatant about this; he liked to train temporary workers through institutions such as orphanages.

There's no way around it, there aren't enough outside supplies.

Uchiha Shingen controlled the entire ANBU, so he wasn't short-handed and didn't need to target the villagers. But Uchiha Itachi had absolutely no idea how to maintain the sustainability of external resources.

"I'm so pleased with your enthusiasm." Uchiha Shingen smiled with gratitude and encouragement. "Keep up the good work, let's work together to make the village better and better."

"Okay! Brother Shingen! Do we have a mission today?"

"Nothing for now, don't worry. I'll let you know as soon as anything happens."

Watching Uchiha Itachi leave full of energy, until his figure disappeared from sight, Uchiha Shingen finally breathed a sigh of relief and went into his office.

Oh my god!

We need to check quickly; there aren't any temporary workers available around the Land of Fire.

If not, we'll have to send people to the Land of Earth and the Land of Wind to look for them.

Honestly, these ninja organizations are so slow! This place is practically a vacuum, and they don't even bother to come and fill in. Don't they know it's more profitable here?

Sitting down at his desk, Uchiha Shingen opened a drawer, took out relevant documents, and began to peruse them.

A map gradually materialized in his mind, revealing a shocking expanse of white surrounding the Land of Fire.

This shows Uchiha Itachi's achievements, but also his shortcomings.

Uchiha Shingen was truly at a loss for words, both amused and exasperated.

Overall, this was the only shortcoming of Uchiha Itachi's work in the ANBU; it wasn't really a problem.

While not using black gloves is somewhat inconvenient, the Leaf Village ANBU's deterrent effect on the outside world increases dramatically.

This made many tasks easier.

Uchiha Shingen organized the information and his gaze fell on the left side of the desk, where the office's compiled documents were located.

If he really does become Hokage, the number of documents he'll have to approve will only be greater than this.

Pshaw! That idea is completely wrong!

After giving himself a stern lecture, Uchiha Shingen calmed down and began to focus on reviewing the documents.

As the inventor of the Shadow Clone, Senju Tobirama once proved with a real-world example that you should never use Shadow Clone for batch processing documents.

That kind of doubled fatigue is something even the strongest man couldn't withstand.

After Uchiha Shingen finished reviewing all the documents, it was lunchtime.

He called the people in his office and asked them to take the documents away. Uchiha Shingen decided he wouldn't be staying in the office all day.

After becoming the head of the ANBU, if there was one major change in Uchiha Shingen's lifestyle, it would be that he had fewer things to do during the day and more things to do at night.

Honestly, as the top leader, I don't actually spend much time on work.

Uchiha Shingen has recently decided to postpone his start time to 9 a. m.

He found that there was little difference between starting work at 6 a. m. and starting work at 9 a. m.

The current ANBU is not the ANBU that he had when he first arrived.

It has been restored to its original state, the one that struck fear into the hearts of people from other villages.

After Uchiha Shingen divided the powers and responsibilities among the Anbu Ninja, there weren't many "projects" that he actually needed to personally control. As for the mistakes that might occur at the grassroots level due to poor intelligence, the Special Operations Team would cover for them.

The way Uchiha Itachi covered for his colleagues was very much ANBU).

He will eliminate the hidden dangers at their root.

Uchiha Shingen also seized the opportunity to release the news that he regarded Uchiha Itachi as his successor.

Otherwise, are you, the Hokage, allowed to use rumors to pave the way?

As for the effectiveness, it can be seen from the working hours of the staff in the ANBU office.

Uchiha Shingen wasn't strict about this; he only had one requirement—that no one arrive later than him.

Since the rumor was released, the clerical staff of the ANBU have been going to work before dawn.

Because Uchiha Itachi usually goes to work at six o'clock.

Giving Uchiha Itachi a break was also because Uchiha Shingen felt that these office workers were having too much of a hard time.

Stepping out of his office, Uchiha Shingen began "patrolling" the area where the ANBU headquarters) was located.

He wasn't a laissez-faire leader; he used this method to understand the working conditions on the front lines of the office.

Otherwise, if someone slacks off in the office, someone downstairs might die.

After taking a stroll around, Uchiha Shingen admitted with considerable embarrassment that these people were far too Will of Fire.

Feeling he was being superfluous, Uchiha Shingen went to the ANBU's outpost in the village.

Originally, the ANBU didn't have this thing.

It only has the likes of hidden sentries.

Stationing officers is something the Police Force does.

However, after the ANBU entered the era of Uchiha Shingen, the cooperation between the two departments has become increasingly close, and most of the Police Force are now open to the ANBU.

In addition to this, the ANBU has another very important function.

That is to maintain the continuation of the Wood Release experiments.

As the old saying goes, conducting Wood Release experiments is not a sin; the key is how it is done.

The biggest impact of Orochimaru's defection on Leaf Village was not that Shimura Danzō down, but that Hidden Leaf Village completely halted the project.

The "return" of Senju Hashirama and Senju Tobirama has led to the restart of this project.

The main one is Senju Tobirama.

Senju Tobirama demonstrated to future generations through his actions that there's never too much of a backup of materials.

It was only then that Tobirama's Tobirama Squad, led by Sarutobi Hiruzen, learned just how much of their older brother's "stock" their teacher had taken.

However, my death happened rather suddenly back then, and I didn't have time to tell them.

These materials, which have been kept secret for decades, have been well preserved.

The most profound impression left on everyone by this wave of Edo Impure World Reincarnation Joint Chunin Exams was not how powerful the previous generation of ninjas were, but rather their art of managing small warehouses.

It really can hide!

In any case, once the Wood Release experiments were restarted, the task of protecting the experiments was handed over to the ANBU.

As the head of the ANBU), inspecting the laboratory became one of Uchiha Shingen's daily routines.

For Uchiha Shingen, this was also one of the familiar sights.

It's just Senju Tobirama.

The rebuilt laboratory is the very place Shimura Danzō.

The facilities there are all readily available.

When Senju Tobirama learned of Shimura Danzō's ultimate fate, he could only sigh.

He did not mean to blame Namikaze Minato at all.

He was fully aware of Shimura Danzō's strengths and weaknesses.

If the next Hokage can tolerate this, it's not a duty, but a matter of loyalty.

When Uchiha Shingen entered the laboratory, he saw Senju Tobirama, who was completely absorbed in his work.

He was the only one in the lab.