Happy Naruto

Early the next morning.

The Uchiha family had the rare chance to gather around the table for breakfast.

And Naruto was there too.

"Naruto, is that enough? If not, Auntie can get you more."

"It's enough, thank you, Auntie."

Naruto grinned as he accepted the bowl piled high with rice, lowered his head, and wolfed it down. Every so often, he looked up and caught Sasuke's resentful glare, only to return a baffled expression.

It made Sasuke want to hit someone.

"Hmph, I'm full!"

The more Sasuke thought about it, the angrier he became. After only a few bites, he was full of rage instead. He set down his bowl, grabbed his schoolbag from the sofa, and rushed outside.

Seeing that, Naruto hurriedly shoveled several mouthfuls of rice into his mouth. With his cheeks stuffed full, he mumbled, "I'm full too, ja na!"

Then he hurried out after him.

The moment Naruto stepped outside, he saw Sasuke vanish around the corner at the end of the street. His eyes lit up, and he chased after him with all his might.

"Sasuke, wait for me!"

Naruto shouted energetically first thing in the morning.

His shout drew the attention of the Uchiha civilians on the street.

With so many people looking at him, Naruto suddenly became timid. He lowered his head and started walking with the same arm and leg, afraid they would curse at him like the villagers did and throw vegetable leaves and rotten eggs at him.

But the scene he imagined never came. Some elderly people even smiled and greeted him. "Good morning, Naruto. Off to school?"

Naruto looked up in shock. Friendly gazes and smiling faces met his eyes, instantly clearing away the worry in his heart. He flashed a huge, brilliant smile and nodded hard. "Yeah! Good morning, uncles and aunties! Ja na!"

The Uchiha Clan civilians recognized Naruto because the clan head had informed them the previous night.

Uchiha Ryoichi had conveyed the clan head's order: if they saw Naruto in the morning, they were to greet him warmly.

Naruto had no idea someone had set this up for him. His heart was filled with excitement and happiness as he ran faster and faster. He felt that coming back with that uncle last night had been the right choice!

This was where he belonged! He should have come here long ago!

He even felt a little annoyed at himself for not discovering this secluded place sooner.

There was an uncle who looked a little scary but treated him very well, gentle Aunt Mikoto, and cool big brother Itachi. The people here were just too nice! He loved this place!

Naruto was so happy he felt like he could fly.

Meanwhile, Fugaku brought up the move at the breakfast table. He did not follow the rule of not speaking while eating or sleeping.

He said he would make arrangements today and would notify them of the exact moving date.

Then he left for work.

Although, now that he was Hokage, he could arrange his own work hours and no longer had to slave away like a corporate worker in his previous life.

Still, it was only his second day as Hokage, so he could not be too lazy.

Even if he was putting on an act, he had to keep it up for a while.

The Hokage was generally quite busy, with a mountain of official and administrative matters to handle.

For example, all S-rank, A-rank, and some B-rank missions had to be reviewed by the Hokage first. He would then decide whether any required urgent handling. If so, he would select reliable people from Konoha's ninja ranks and assign the missions to them. The non-urgent ones would be passed to the Mission Department, which updated its missions daily. Anyone who wanted to take a mission would naturally go there and choose one.

Takuya intended to streamline this workload further. For instance, he only needed to review missions of S-rank and above, while A-rank and below could be handed to the Hokage's assistants.

Hokage assistants were Hokage assistants. Of course they had to properly assist him.

Besides that, he handed all trivial matters to Nara Shikaku, the Hokage's assistant.

After a whole morning of cutting and trimming, his workload as Hokage was far lighter than that of the previous Hokage.

Naturally, he still kept important matters firmly in his own hands.

During that time, Takuya sent people to the Uchiha Clan's former territory.

After the Nine-Tails Uprising seven years ago, Sarutobi Hiruzen had soon forced Uchiha Fugaku to move his clansmen to a remote corner of Konoha—the place where the Uchiha Clan now lived.

Sarutobi Hiruzen had quietly seized the former territory for himself. The Sarutobi Clan took the largest share, while the rest was divided among the ninja clans of Utatane Koharu, Mitokado Homura, and Shimura Danzo.

With such a large piece of Konoha's prosperous district, the Sarutobi and other clans had made a fortune over the past few years.

Now it was time for them to spit it back out.

The Sarutobi Clan and Shimura Clan had been wiped out, while the Utatane Clan and Mito Clan, two small ninja clans that had only risen in recent years, had also been destroyed one after another the night before last.

Now, the land of the Uchiha Clan's former territory had been cleared out.

A few hours later, the clansmen sent to handle the matter returned to report that all unrelated personnel had been removed from the former territory.

However, after several years of renovations by the Sarutobi and other clans, the former territory had changed quite a bit from what it used to be.

That was within Takuya's expectations.

He was in no hurry to move.

He had someone inform the Great Elder and tell him, as an advisor, to handle the moving arrangements.

He estimated that they would not be able to move within less than a week.

But a week was not long. Soon, he would no longer have to travel so far to work every day.

The Uchiha Clan's former territory was only a few minutes from the Hokage Building, incredibly close. Going to work in the future would be much more convenient.

Besides, he had delegated most matters anyway. Whenever he wanted to slack off, he could simply have a Shadow Clone come to work in his place.

When the time came, he could either laze around at home or free up his hands to do other things.

In short, the future looked promising.

Takuya leaned back in his chair, happily planning out the good days ahead.

Over the past two days, thanks to arrangements made by Nara Shikaku and the others, the Third Hokage's death had not affected Konoha at all.

First, the Sarutobi Clan and Shimura Clan had been eliminated too quickly. Second, the major powerful clans had all sided with him. Third, Root had submitted to him.

Most of Konoha's Jonin came from the major powerful clans. In truth, there were very few civilian ninja in Konoha who could become Jonin through hard work alone.

Think about it: children from powerful clans were born with all sorts of resources. Not only did clan members teach them ninjutsu in advance, they could also access countless techniques that civilian ninja could only dream of seeing.

Their starting lines were different from birth. They had been left far behind from the outset—how could they compete?

Once the major powerful clans had pledged themselves to him, the small handful of remaining civilian Jonin could not accomplish anything. Their voices were too weak, practically nonexistent.

Faced with Takuya's overwhelming strength, they could only choose to submit.

There was no helping it. The major powerful clans had all joined him—what could they possibly do?

Might Guy had originally intended to open the Eight Gates and fight Takuya to the death, but after Kakashi stopped him that day, he temporarily gave up on that idea.