Xia Yan had not taken the future Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke of to heart, nor would he.
After all, none of that was particularly important to him. He already held the upper hand completely.
He only needed to wait for an opportunity, to let time do its work, and he could obtain everything he wanted.
There was no need to rush. Besides, he had plenty of his own business to handle.
He had been away from Konoha for so long. Under his adjustments, the Anbu had mechanisms that ensured they could operate independently without problems.
But without Xia Yan, there were still many matters the Anbu simply could not handle or coordinate.
Ultimately, decision-making power remained firmly in Xia Yan's hands. The Anbu could handle minor matters themselves, but they could not make major decisions independently.
This was Xia Yan's safeguard against having his authority hollowed out, though it had quite a few drawbacks, as the current situation demonstrated.
Once Xia Yan lacked the time and energy to handle Anbu affairs, their major decisions could not be effectively implemented.
But Xia Yan had no intention of rushing to change anything. At least for now, there was no need.
"Fortunately, everything in the Anbu is relatively stable. Perhaps there isn't anything particularly important to deal with during wartime."
Although the Anbu had many outstanding problems, they were at least stable, and Xia Yan was very satisfied with that.
Nothing was more welcome than stability.
Sir Humphrey had said that any change introduced instability, so doing less was better than doing more, and doing nothing was better than doing less.
Xia Yan thoroughly agreed with the first half, but he could not quite agree with the second.
Perhaps their systems were different, or perhaps individual strength accounted for a substantial part of things