Hiruzen Sarutobi's Ambition

"Dad, how's Kazan?"

Shinku Yuhi soon returned.

He hadn't refused his daughter's request. Besides, he wanted to see what the prodigy who had beaten both the Uchiha and the Hyuga looked like.

"Don't worry, he's fine." Shinku Yuhi ruffled his daughter's hair.

Young love?

That sort of thing was nothing unusual in the ninja world.

Their profession was far too dangerous, with one of the shortest life expectancies of any occupation. That was why ninja often settled down and started families very young.

No one could guarantee when they might die in battle.

Shinku Yuhi had been young once, too. He didn't see what the big deal was.

"Is he really okay?"

"Yes. Lord Hokage seems to think very highly of him. The Uchiha and Hyuga clan heads both demanded that Kazan be punished, but the Third Hokage protected him."

Geniuses always received special treatment.

Besides, the Third Hokage's intentions weren't actually that hard to guess.

A knowing glint flashed in Shinku Yuhi's eyes.

From Orochimaru and Jiraiya to Minato Namikaze, and now Kazan.

It was clear that Hiruzen Sarutobi wanted to raise a commoner Hokage and truly unify the village.

The previous two Hokage had both belonged to the Senju Clan. That had given the clan its supreme standing in Konoha.

The Second, Tobirama Senju, hadn't passed the position down to his descendants. Instead, he had chosen Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Presumably, the Second had already realized that if the village was to develop, Konoha couldn't remain the Senju Clan's Konoha.

Now, the Third Hokage was merely carrying the Second's Zhi through to its conclusion. He wanted everyone to see that Konoha belonged not to the ninja dynasties, but to everyone.

If everything went according to Hiruzen Sarutobi's plan...

The very concept of shinobi clans would gradually blur in the Konoha of the future.

Even clans like the Uchiha and Hyuga might intermarry with other shinobi clans, or even civilians.

"That's great! I'm heading out, Dad. Tell Mom I won't be home for dinner."

"Where are you going?"

"To help Kazan fix houses!"

What the hell do you know about fixing houses?

Shinku Yuhi shook his head, but didn't call his daughter out on her real intentions.

Elsewhere.

Unsurprisingly, Kazan had once again been sentenced to repairing streets and houses.

He found himself getting better and better at it. If he ever quit being a ninja, he could go into renovations.

With those skills, he certainly wouldn't starve.

After beating Asuka Hyuga, he had once again been protected by Hiruzen Sarutobi, just as expected.

It probably isn't as simple as him seeing potential in me. That old man Hiruzen Sarutobi likely wants to weaken the other shinobi clans' power in the village.

In both the manga and the anime, Hiruzen Sarutobi had always been a kindly old man willing to give everything for the village.

But that was only the surface. Too many things couldn't be explained.

Take the Senju Clan, one of Konoha's founding clans.

Konoha had come into being largely because the other shinobi clans had been drawn to Hashirama Senju's strength and charisma.

While he lived, the entire village loved him, Konoha flourished, and he alone was enough to keep the whole shinobi world in check.

Yet as soon as he died of illness shortly after his decisive battle with Madara Uchiha at the Valley of the End, the First Shinobi World War broke out.

His successor was his younger brother, Tobirama Senju. Though he lacked Hashirama Senju's power to sweep through the shinobi world, his ideas on development and administration benefited Konoha for decades.

And yet.

This very Senju Clan, which had produced two Hokage, swiftly disappeared from the stage of history after the First and Second fell in battle.

Although the Senju Clan hadn't been wiped out and had merely withdrawn, the fact that they had been forced to abandon their lofty standing in Konoha already spoke volumes.

The Senju clan head at the time had probably realized that unless they withdrew, they might very well become history for good.

Once the Senju Clan left Konoha's center stage, the village's other "founder," the Uchiha, was next.

Unfortunately, the proud Uchiha hadn't known when to back down. They had even plotted a rebellion, only to end up being exterminated.

It might have made sense if Black Zetsu had been pulling the strings, but to resurrect his dear old mother, Kaguya Otsutsuki, he needed the Rinnegan to appear.

That made him one of the last people who would want the Senju and Uchiha to go under.

So it was hard not to suspect that Hiruzen Sarutobi had been driving all of this from the shadows.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was a true-blue inheritor of the Will of Fire.

But his excessive emphasis on protection and peace had led him to tolerate the darkness time and again.

His Will of Fire stressed sacrifice and passing on one's legacy, trusting the next generation, and breaking down clan divisions to create a Konoha for everyone.

In short, aside from not being tough enough, Hiruzen Sarutobi knew a thing or two about playing politics.

"Kazan!"

As he mulled things over, Kurenai Yuhi's voice rang out in the distance. Kazan looked up and saw her jogging toward him from the other end of the street.

When she reached him, she complained, "Why did you get into another fight? You're not hurt, are you?"

"No, I'm perfectly fine."

"Don't fight anymore, okay? Dad said the Uchiha and Hyuga are both really unhappy with you."

How could they not be? I stepped on their geniuses to make a name for myself.

"Probably won't happen again."

After thrashing the Uchiha and Hyuga, Kazan had completed another hidden achievement.

But it wasn't "Famous Across Konoha." It was "Sweeping Through the Otsutsuki Descendants 1."

Another hidden achievement chain.

Most likely, completing the whole achievement would mean beating up all the other Otsutsuki descendants as well.

Kaguya Otsutsuki was the Progenitor of Chakra. Before she was sealed away, she had given birth to two sons.

Hamura Otsutsuki and Hagoromo Otsutsuki.

These two were the ancestors of the Uchiha and Hyuga clans, as well as Kaguya Otsutsuki's direct descendants.

Afterward, Hamura Otsutsuki and Hagoromo Otsutsuki had continued their family lines, producing other descendants as well.

Among them were the nearly extinct Uzumaki Clan, Kirigakure's Kaguya Clan, the brothers Kinkaku and Ginkaku of Kumogakure, and the Byakugan clan living on the moon.

This achievement wasn't exactly easy, but it wasn't exactly difficult, either.

The easy part was that, with Garp's combat prowess, thrashing the Otsutsuki descendants would be a breeze.

The difficult part was that quite a few of those descendants were already pushing up daisies.

He could no longer remember when the Kaguya Clan had been wiped out. He only remembered that, later on, they seemed to have all died except for someone called Mei Maro... no, Kimimaro!

As for Kinkaku and Ginkaku, the Second, Tobirama Senju, had long since sent them off to meet their ancestors. He didn't even know whether they had left any descendants.