The Fifth Hokage's Choice for the Sixth

This is a desert; with water, how could it not attract life?

According to Sunagakure's idea, if even one-tenth of the village's population can ultimately remain at the village entrance, they will consider it a success.

Uchiha Shingen, who had rested well in Sunagakure for a day, did not express any opinion. After he informed Rasa that he was about to depart, Rasa decided to hold a banquet for him.

Moreover, it was in his personal capacity.

Uchiha Shingen thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

After all, Rasa's personal identity is that of a representative of the Kazekage, which has been passed down from the First Kazekage through a master-disciple relationship. This Kazekage lineage is similar to the Hokage lineage from Leaf Village to the Third Hokage.

The democratic election of Hokage didn't truly begin until the Fourth Hokage's era. The Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, was directly appointed by the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju.

Because there was a war at that time, there was simply no time for any democratic elections.

However, the Hokage will eventually be democratically elected. This is based on the political program of the Will of Fire, which has been consistently implemented and continuously updated by successive Hokage. Sunagakure did not have this foundation, so when the Rasa family, with its exceptionally high genius index, appeared, the Kazekage lineage would inevitably become the Kazekage Clan.

The same applies to the emergence of the Raikage clan in Kumogakure.

Therefore, Rasa's personal identity in Uchiha Shingen was that of the head of the Kazekage Clan, a position far more important than the Kazekage himself.

So Uchiha Shingen agreed; they had to give him face.

The next morning, Uchiha Shingen and Uchiha Itachi received a meal from Rasa.

The banquet was held in the Kazekage Building.

For the first time Rasa displayed his kinship power in front of Uchiha Shingen. Although Uchiha Shingen had a concept of the Kazekage Clan, which had already taken shape, he was still somewhat surprised to see the real thing. He knew that Rasa had many relatives, but he did not expect there to be so many.

Rasa has a large family. Not counting his own relatives, his wife's side also has many relatives. By the standards of Sunagakure, his wife's family is quite talented.

The Kazekage Clan is already taking shape.

Most of these people were actually beneath Uchiha Shingen's notice.

There's nothing that can be done about it. Due to the demands of his work as Hokage, Uchiha Shingen has to devote more of his energy to high-net-worth individuals; otherwise, he wouldn't be able to finish all that work in a day.

At the banquet, Uchiha Shingen maintained a neutral attitude towards Rasa's relatives, neither rejecting nor actively engaging with them.

However, Uchiha Shingen clearly showed his respect for Rasa and his two sons and daughter.

Rasa's children are all very important; they are high-net-worth individuals.

For example, Temari is the strongest Wind Release ninja among the new generation of Sunagakure, and she is also one of the important factors that enabled Sand Village and Leaf Village to maintain a long-term alliance in the original timeline.

Kankuro is essentially Sasori of the Red Sands's successor, and naturally became the leader of the new generation of Sand Village Puppet Technique, although he didn't touch Human Puppet Technique.

Gaara is the successor of the Sand Magnet Release and was originally the Fifth Kazekage in the original timeline.

In the original timeline, thanks to the old woman from the village who extended his life, he was able to unleash his full potential after losing Shukaku, becoming a true Five Kage- level fighter.

Moreover, even if he loses Shukaku, Gaara's sand will continue to protect him, because it is originally caused by the Chakra left by his mother Karura before her death. The name "Love Shadow" is well-deserved.

However, in the timeline where Uchiha Shingen lived, Gaara had not grown to that level.

In front of Uchiha Shingen, Gaara and the Shukaku inside him were very well-behaved.

Gaara even made a great effort to maintain a blank expression rather than giving people a cold look.

That's really polite.

After all, both the human and the beast knew very well what it meant that Uchiha Shingen was able to stop Uchiha Madara.

However, from Uchiha Shingen's perspective, he was more interested in Temari and Kankuro.

It wasn't that he wasn't interested in Ai-ying, but when Uchiha Madara returned, Ai-ying would definitely be powerless to resist if she didn't have another powerful backer to rely on.

If Ai-ying wanted to curry favor with Uchiha Shingen would refuse.

Although it's unfair to Ai-ying, Shukaku falling into Uchiha Madara's hands might not necessarily be a bad thing.

Therefore, unless Gaara is strong enough to run to Leaf Village on his own, Uchiha Shingen will not protect him.

Rasa tried to steer the conversation toward this topic several times, but as soon as he revealed his intention, Uchiha Shingen would immediately change the subject.

After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Uchiha Shingen, without any hesitation, took Uchiha Itachi and embarked on their journey home.

After Uchiha Shingen left, Rasa immediately summoned his children.

"You must go to Leaf Village immediately." Rasa took out a prepared scroll from his robes. "Inside is the village's appointment letter, appointing you as the village's envoys to Leaf Village. This is a long-term assignment. The appointment letter has my signature, and there's also a letter from me. Once you arrive in Leaf Village, don't come back unless I come to fetch you."

"Father..." Temari began, but then she saw Rasa's gaze. "Lord Kazekage, what are we supposed to do after we get to Leaf Village?"

"You don't have to do anything," Rasa said. "If you're bored, you can take on missions and work over there. The village won't consider it a betrayal. After this storm has passed, I'll bring you back."

Chapter 85 The Fifth Hokage's Choice for the Sixth

When Uchiha Shingen returned to Hidden Leaf Village, he was immediately greeted by a large crowd.

Everyone agrees that Leaf Village cannot live without the Fifth Hokage.

If you don't come back soon, Fifth Generation, we'll be back to the Fourth Generation era.

Although one of the fourth generation leaders, who was conscripted into the army, didn't seem to think that way.

"I only missed a few meetings," the Fourth Hokage said to the Fifth Hokage in the Hokage's room, where the Fifth Hokage had returned shortly after he left. "You're being too petty."

Upon hearing this, Uchiha Shingen almost couldn't resist writing his own leave note on the spot.

But he held back; after all, he was already a mature fifth-generation leader.

A mature Hokage must inspire people to work for him willingly.

"It was purely by accident that I ran into Uchiha Madara," Uchiha Shingen said. "The Kazekage can't be harmed, so I stayed a little longer."

"Oh~~" Namikaze Minato a rather emotionless "oh," far less spirited than usual, probably because he was truly exhausted.

Although Uchiha Shingen couldn't understand how Namikaze Minato managed to achieve the same work results as before, given the current workload of the Hokage, without any debt.

Regardless, with the handover completed, Hidden Leaf Village has returned to the era of the Fifth Hokage, a cause for celebration.

The administrative staff went out for a barbecue that very night.

This also led Uchiha Shingen to suspect that the reason the matter of appointing Hokage had been delayed for so long was likely due to trouble caused by the administrative department—they were afraid that Namikaze Minato would return to work.

But this isn't anything very important.

After resuming his normal Hokage career, Uchiha Shingen's daily life returned to its familiar rhythm.

The daily life of Hokage is dull and monotonous.

After becoming Hokage, there is no longer a distinction between working hours and regular hours. As the leader of the Ninja World, every action of the Hokage is magnified Infinite, and every word spoken, whether intentional or unintentional, will be interpreted by a large number of people.

The morning after Uchiha Shingen returned to the village, someone came looking for trouble.

"The Sand Village is going to send envoys there permanently? Is it Gaara and his group?"

When Uchiha Shingen heard this, his first reaction was that Rasa was trying to blur the lines between public and private matters.

"Yes, they sent this message through the liaison frog we previously stationed there. The person is already on their way."

The report concerns Aburame Torune.

Aside from the contractors of Mount Myoboku, only he, as the head of the Leaf Village ANBU, has the authority to use the Contact Frog.

"What's going on?" Uchiha Shingen complained. "Isn't this misusing public resources?"

Aburame Torune said nothing.

Uchiha Shingen criticizing Rasa is perfectly fine.

It's normal for Hokage to criticize Kazekage.

However, as the head of the ANBU, he did not participate in such discussions.

Aburame Torune never expresses personal opinions casually while at work, regardless of their truthfulness.

"It's been about a day now," Uchiha Shingen tapped the table. "Then we'll see how lucky he is. If he can escape Uchiha Madara's search and get into our territory, we might be able to protect him."

It's understandable that Rasa felt overwhelmed by the pressure from Uchiha Madara and wanted to preserve the village's talent pool.

But sending your own cub? Isn't that a bit much? Does Sunagakure have no talent left? So unconcerned about unity?

Then Uchiha Shingen thought about it carefully.

It seems... it appears... it's probably true... there are only these three people in Sunagakure who can be considered truly talented.

Okay, they just happen to be Rasa's kids...

"That's settled then. Keep a close eye on them. We won't interfere until they enter the Leaf Forest." Uchiha Shingen set the tone for the matter.

If Sunagakure were to offer him the right to use the One-Tail, he would have no reason not to accept it, and he would have to accept it, otherwise it would damage Leaf Village's reputation.

"Yes." The Aburame Clan nodded, having completed her work report, and prepared to leave.

"Wait a minute," Uchiha Shingen called out to him, "Call Itachi over. I noticed he was acting all coy yesterday, like he had something to say."

Aburame Torune, seeing Uchiha Itachi's hesitant and awkward manner...

He found it a bit too much to bear.

He nodded to indicate that he understood and left.

Uchiha Shingen then picked up a pen and began to review the documents.

This unexpected encounter with Uchiha Madara made him even more certain that he would spend less and less time in the office reviewing documents in the future.

Times have changed. Currently, the older generation of strong figures are actually in an awkward situation where they are better at defending their homes than at launching offensive attacks.

Once the Ōtsutsuki Clan appear, everyone will realize this.

Therefore, although Uchiha Shingen has not been Hokage for long, he really needs to start considering future Hokage candidates.

Actually, there's not much to consider; it's just Uchiha Sasuke and Naruto Uzumaki.

Just considering that their strength far surpasses that of their contemporaries, the Sixth Hokage could only be chosen from these two.

To reiterate, democracy is democracy, but the leader of the ninja village has a bottom line.

Strong power guarantees effective leadership.

After Uchiha Shingen had approved about three or four documents, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in."

Uchiha Shingen picked up the next document without even looking up.

The door was pushed open, Uchiha Itachi walked in.

Uchiha Shingen pointed towards the sofa, indicating that he would sit down first.

After a while, Uchiha Shingen finished reviewing the documents and looked up to see Uchiha Itachi sitting quietly on the sofa, looking quite composed.

Overall, this person is actually a very qualified family member of the Hokage.

And he does genuinely possess "Hokage" thinking, although it's only the kind that the general public perceives.

After all, the Hokage mindset instilled in the Uchiha Clan during the Third's era was a targeted version.

As the Fourth Namikaze Minato most likely learned the same version initially, but as a disciple of the Legendary Sannin, he would learn the true Will of Fire from Sarutobi Hiruzen after becoming Hokage.

"Come on, tell me." Uchiha Shingen put down his pen, darted to the sofa, and sat down. "Don't keep it to yourself."

"Brother Shingen, you figured it out?" Uchiha Itachi seemed a little embarrassed.

"After your contact with Uchiha Madara, your thoughts will definitely be affected, you can guess that." Uchiha Shingen took the already heated teacup out of the hot water container, took out the tea leaves and put them into the teacup, and began to brew tea.

"If I'm not mistaken, it's about the Will of Fire." Uchiha Shingen put the kettle back down. "What? Haven't you always considered yourself an expert? Why are you so easily doubting yourself?"

Uchiha Itachi wasn't the type to be coy; the only reason he was acting so strangely was that his Will of Fire had been challenged.

Most people couldn't do it, but Uchiha Madara, the one who formulated the outline, could.

"Yes..." Uchiha Itachi accepted the hot tea that Uchiha Shingen handed him with both hands, carefully organizing his thoughts. "I never imagined that the Will of Fire was like that at the beginning. I don't think the clan head would lie to a junior like me, but how could such an idea have been approved by the First Hokage back then?"

Uchiha Itachi couldn't quite understand it; his chat with Nagato was, in itself, a way of venting.

He didn't really expect Nagato to come to him for "clarification".

He's not even Leaf Village resident; he's not qualified to learn the Will of Fire from him.

They deserve only to be slain by the Will of Fire.

"Itachi, I've witnessed the changes in you over the years. Let me put it this way," Uchiha Shingen said, taking a sip of tea and looking at his student. For the first time, he shared his thoughts with someone. "I hope Sasuke can become the Sixth, and you, as a member of the Hokage's family, absolutely cannot let your thinking falter. I think it's time for you to understand the full scope of the Will of Fire."

Uchiha Itachi, who was enjoying his tea, suddenly looked up.