Confused Hiruzen Sarutobi

The Third Shinobi World War ended today.

When Orochimaru ordered Minato to return to the village, Minato replied that he needed to guard against the Hidden Mist Village. Orochimaru then understood Minato's choice.

The two sides kept each other in check.

Orochimaru held the families and logistical work of their frontline ninja firmly in his grasp.

If Minato hid outside and truly refused to return, there was nothing Orochimaru could do to him.

The situation had grown this severe.

One dawn, just as the sky began to brighten, Masaichi quietly led the ANBU back to the village.

Konoha in November.

With the war over, taxes slowly began to decrease, but the inheritance tax remained in place to curb the growth of the ninja clans.

The infighting among the higher-ups did not affect the atmosphere in the village.

Ever since Orochimaru became Hokage, the villagers' lives had visibly improved.

Orochimaru moved everything from his former underground laboratory that could be brought into the open and called it the Konoha Experimental Office. He openly recruited people and drew experimental funding from the village accounts.

The villagers had been deeply dissatisfied with those costly, burdensome projects before, but once Orochimaru produced results, those complaints vanished instantly.

News occasionally came out of the laboratory.

Today, Orochimaru successfully bred dairy cows, greatly increasing the milk output of Konoha Farm.

Today, Orochimaru solved the problem of drowsiness. A bean called a coffee bean contained something known as caffeine. When ninja took it during missions, they could immediately perk up, regain their fighting edge, and reduce physical fatigue.

And so on...

At Orochimaru's suggestion, the people of Konoha often ate meat, eggs, and milk, along with various vegetables and natto according to their needs. They discovered that it really worked!

No wonder he was the Eternal Sister-Bringer!

Long live Lord Orochimaru!

"A bicycle? Something this simple still needed your teacher?" In the laboratory, Orochimaru listened to Masaichi's description and wondered whether this student of his was a little slow.

Put it together like this and then like that, and wouldn't a bicycle be made?

Add some chakra or use electricity, and wouldn't a bicycle that did not need pedaling be possible?

Though he usually did not say it aloud, Orochimaru could tell that Masaichi often thought he was stupid, believing that anyone who could be fooled by the Third Hokage for so long had to be an idiot.

Orochimaru could only say that dialectics was wonderful. Everyone had their own strengths. You could not use what others excelled at to compare against what you excelled at.

What he excelled at was seeking the truth of the Ninja World.

In less than half an hour, Orochimaru fashioned a bicycle by hand and gave it to Masaichi to play with.

Master and disciple were not afraid of Minato's army. At worst, both sides would suffer.

Orochimaru tossed out a bicycle, then went back to studying ninjutsu. Today's research subject was ninjutsu! He kept his schedule packed: fifteen hours for researching ninjutsu or technology, one hour for slowly savoring his meals, and the remaining eight hours for sleep.

"Ah! It's Lord Masaichi."

"Hello, everyone."

Masaichi rode a bicycle around Konoha, nodding to every villager who greeted him.

He felt that Konoha's style was deeply divided, half feudal and half modern.

That sense of partial modernization only existed because his teacher had become Hokage and made the people of Konoha start talking about science.

It was still far too difficult for Konoha to rely on his teacher's research alone.

One person's energy was limited.

His teacher had to research physics.

His teacher had to research biology.

His teacher had to research ninjutsu.

His teacher had to research everything, so Konoha's development was exceptionally slow! It was completely outside Masaichi's expectations.

Konoha should have been a place where a hundred flowers bloomed, where scientific and technological progress erupted explosively.

And so, the Masaichi Award was born.

The Lin Justice and Justice brands under his command had grown in scale. He planned to divert some of their profits to support Konoha's development.

As long as someone contributed research to Konoha and achieved a major breakthrough in an important field, they could receive money according to the circumstances.

There was also the Masaichi Literature Prize and the Masaichi Peace Prize.

These awards were not meant for Konoha alone. Masaichi intended to open them to the entire Ninja World.

It was just that his funds were a little tight.

They were not quite enough to cover the entire Ninja World.

The bicycle burst onto the scene and became wildly popular throughout the Land of Fire, becoming the favorite means of transportation for all its people.

It was faster than walking and less tiring than running!

They declared the bicycle to be the greatest invention in the world.

It was impossible to find one on the market.

It was said that the Land of Fire's daimyo loved it so much that he had the thresholds of the daimyo's residence completely sawn off just so he could ride it around.

As Masaichi watched bicycles become fashionable throughout Konoha's streets, a vibrant scene of flourishing life and fierce competition seemed to unfold before his eyes.

Village Celebration Day.

Some of Minato's people returned.

For such an important festival, Shikaku said they absolutely could not let Orochimaru find an excuse to strike first. It was better for them to return to the village voluntarily.

To prevent Orochimaru from attacking them within the village.

Minato's group marched through the main gate with gongs and drums, wishing for all of Konoha to know they had returned.

They succeeded.

"It's the Yellow Flash!"

"You're finally back! Home is still better, isn't it?"

People packed the entrance to Konoha Village to welcome their heroes, scrambling to step forward and offer Minato and the others their regards.

Orochimaru remembered that scene for a long time.

If Minato was not eliminated, how long could he remain Hokage? One year? Two?

But he could not make a move against Minato and the others during the Village Celebration Festival.

He had even prepared a banquet to reward Konoha's heroes.

They did not dare eat it. They simply did not dare.

At the dinner table, Minato only dared eat the rice balls Kushina had made for him.

That was Konoha's forty-seventh year.

Orochimaru and Minato were wary of and guarded against each other. Neither trusted the other.

No one knew what Konoha's future would look like.

The higher-ups were filled with unease, but the villagers knew none of this. They unanimously believed that life would only get better and better.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was kept under guard in a quiet rural area of the Land of Fire. Since Orochimaru had not recently done anything contemptible, the Third Hokage, weary after a lifetime of labor, decided to relax for a while.

He could only learn about Konoha through newspapers.

The recent papers had become increasingly mystical.

They claimed that following Orochimaru's diet could extend average life expectancy by twelve years.

Not only that, chakra declined rapidly once people reached a certain age, but eating as Orochimaru prescribed could reduce the rate of chakra loss.

"Was I right or wrong to firmly choose Minato as Hokage back then?"

During these quiet days, Hiruzen Sarutobi had been asking himself that question, but he seemed unable to find an answer.

Could Orochimaru do better?

He did not know either.

Konoha's former F4.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had been sent away to retire.

Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado had been given idle posts by Orochimaru.

Only Danzo had successfully chosen the right side and remained alive in Konoha's political world.

The absurd thing was that Orochimaru had brought that sinister fellow into the open.

Orochimaru simply did not have many people he could use. Picking the tallest among short men, Danzo was an old hand with sufficient ability, so Orochimaru could only make greater use of him.

The gloomy old man returned to the surface once more. Scorched by the dazzling sunlight, he actually felt somewhat unaccustomed to it.

With the sun above his head, Danzo felt uncomfortable no matter what he did. What he had once dreamed of was daylight, so why was it that now the day had come, he was afraid instead?