Shinhiko Kōzuki watched Hokage Madara walk toward the Royal Palace surrounded by nobles, and his thoughts drifted back to his first meeting with the young Fifth Hokage.
Back then, although Hokage Madara was a genius of the prestigious Uchiha Clan, Shinhiko had seen him as nothing more than a wet-behind-the-ears ninja who depended on supplies from Shinhiko's subordinates to survive.
At the time, he had even fancied taking the boy into his service as a ninja bodyguard for his descendants. Who could have imagined that, just a few years later, he himself would have to prostrate himself before that same youth?
Uesugi Genshin and Shinhiko Kōzuki represented the Uesugi Family and the Kōzuki Family respectively, the two most powerful factions in the Land of Fire.
With Hokage Madara's advance warning, they had led their closest followers to safety, escaping the massacre planned by Kabuto and Orochimaru. As a result, apart from losing its Daimyo, the Land of Fire's entire political system had actually suffered little damage.
After all, nearly every key position in the Land of Fire was held by protégés and former subordinates of these two men.
Of the Five Great Nations, the Land of Fire's leadership had the least need for ninja to enter its Capital. Yet at the joint request of Shinhiko and Yuanxin, the Hokage became the first ninja to lead an army into the Capital.
That was just how easy it was to work with clever people.
Yuanxin and Shinhiko were more than capable of keeping the Land of Fire stable, but the country urgently needed a new Daimyo.
No matter how smoothly Yuanxin and Shinhiko worked together, neither would allow someone from the other's faction to become the new Daimyo. With the former Daimyo's relatives slaughtered to the last, choosing someone both sides accepted