I have a bunch of relatives who want to become Hokage.

What brought this power together was the Will of Fire created by the two best buddies, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha.

The person now sitting in the Hokage position explaining the Will of Fire is Uchiha Shingen.

The current Fifth Hokage smiled and strode in.

Chapter 144 The Future is Already a Smooth Road

When Uchiha Shingen personally pushed open the conference room door, everyone's expressions were complicated.

The person before me is the Fifth Hokage of Konoha, the one who completely steered Konoha onto a different path.

Every person here is someone whose life and fortune are completely tied to Konoha Village.

They all have their own selfish motives, and they will bargain with the Hokage Building or outwardly comply but inwardly defy it for the benefit of their family or themselves.

But if Konoha Village faces a real threat, it is this group of people who will fight the hardest.

The Hokage is the Hokage, and the Konoha is the Konoha; they keep these distinctions very clear.

That's why they thought Uchiha Shingen was really amazing.

From their perspective, this person started with a hellish start and then played a winning hand.

To be able to do that is simply superhuman.

Even for such a powerful figure, while some disagreed with the idea of ​​bringing a legend like Uchiha Madara back into Konoha, most were simply curious.

I'm very curious how this fifth generation leader will handle this matter.

Uchiha Shingen walked confidently to his seat and sat down. Uchiha Inahime walked up behind him and stood there, exchanging a glance with Uchiha Shisui who was not far away.

Uchiha Shisui is no longer working at the Hokage Building. As the current head of the Uchiha clan, he now focuses his energy on clan affairs.

This Konoha ninja, known for cherishing his comrades, has been highly regarded within the clan despite not having served as clan leader for very long.

When he worked at the Hokage Building, compared to Shingen Uchiha, everyone felt he wasn't up to par. Now that Shingen Uchiha has become Hokage, most of the Uchiha clan's original problems have disappeared, and Shisui Uchiha, this kind-hearted man, has become the clan head. Everyone sees only his shining qualities in him.

Without needing to fight the Hokage Building, Uchiha Shisui was a perfect clan leader.

Among the people present, Uchiha Shisui was one of the few who was worried about Uchiha Shingen.

As a descendant of Uchiha Kagami, Uchiha Shisui's feelings toward Uchiha Madara were complex.

He admired Madara Uchiha's achievements in leading the Uchiha clan forward during the war, but felt uneasy and threatened by Madara's later actions of parting ways with Konoha.

It's precisely because of the Uchiha surname that people know how powerful Madara Uchiha was; it has nothing to do with whether or not he had the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Obito Uchiha was Madara Uchiha's "outstanding achievement".

While Konoha has never officially declared Madara Uchiha a rogue ninja, this does not mean that Konoha ninjas other than Hashirama Senju truly considered Madara Uchiha to be a member of Konoha.

Shingen Uchiha noticed everyone's expressions, grinned, and said, "I called you all here today because there's something I need to tell you."

The entire room remained completely silent.

Uchiha Shingen didn't mind and continued, "Around today, Konoha Asura Uchiha Madara will be a living person, not an impure resurrection."

Clang!

The sound of a teacup being knocked over rang out, and everyone looked over to see Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Ren Xiong, his eyes wide open.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was clearly an elderly man, looked more like a frail old man than ever before.

Of all those present, he was the one who had once lived in the shadow of Madara Uchiha.

Whether as the leader of Tobirama's small team or as Hashirama Senju's disciple, Uchiha's team put immense pressure on him.

After Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju turned against each other, Hiruzen Sarutobi was so frightened that he didn't dare to close his eyes and sleep for several nights.

He was afraid that Madara Uchiha would pick up the traditional craftsmanship from the Warring States period and chop him up, a young man from the Senju clan, to reminisce about his youth.

The thought of spending the rest of his life in the same place as this super strong man at his age made Hiruzen Sarutobi feel uneasy.

This made his face scrunch up.

"Fifth Hokage..." Hiruzen Sarutobi carefully chose his words, "...wouldn't it be a bit inappropriate to bring the dead back to the mortal world...?"

Everyone: "..."

You've already spilled your teacup, and this is all you're saying?

How afraid are you of Madara Uchiha?!

Have you forgotten that your name is Renxiong?

"Third Hokage, you're overthinking it," Uchiha Shingen said with a smile. "The current Uchiha Madara is quite different from before."

Yes, I've heard Lord Hashirama say that more than once.

Hiruzen Sarutobi forced himself to smile.

Then he turned to look at Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, and the meaning was quite clear.

However, the remaining members of Tobirama's team, who represented the previous era of Konoha, are now as old as Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Mitokado Ero and Utatane Koharu have also reached the age where living even one more day is considered a bonus.

Most importantly, their fear of Madara Uchiha was not as great as that of Hiruzen Sarutobi. After all, Hiruzen Sarutobi was the leader and the one who directly confronted the conflict between Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha.

Therefore, they are more concerned about the current Hokage's opinion.

It's impossible for them to give a statement now; even old friends can't change that.

Didn't you see that no one else present said a word?

"It seems no one has any other opinions, so I'll share my own thoughts." Seeing that these old hands were all silent, Uchiha Shingen was quite pleased and continued, "According to the village's ninja registration information, Uchiha Madara is still a Konoha ninja, but he was put on the missing persons list a long time ago. His salary is also included in the reserve fund every year. Now that he's back, remember to transfer his file to the administration department and reinstate him to the Jonin class."

The Minister of Administration and the leader of the Jonin class both changed their expressions.

The Minister of Administration is doing this because he sees a lot of small sums of money about to slip away.

The Jonin squad leader felt that he was having a run of bad luck.

The current head of Konoha's administrative department is from the Nara clan, and the Jonin class leader...

It's Kakashi Hatake.

Kakashi Hatake now felt that even Icha Icha Paradise didn't look good anymore.

Chapter 145 The Old Man's Worries and Helplessness

When Hiruzen Sarutobi walked out of the Hokage Building, the sun in the sky was warm and gentle.

Everyone on the street had a smile on their face.

He never tired of this scenery, but today he had little interest in appreciating it.

Unlike others, he did not walk with his Tobirama squad, but instead walked all the way to the Sarutobi family's settlement.

"Third Generation Leader, you're back so early today?"

"Elder, you're back."

Hearing the greetings from his clansmen, Hiruzen Sarutobi snapped out of his reverie, and a smile returned to his wrinkled face.

Hiruzen Sarutobi is the strongest member of the Sarutobi clan, even now—this fully illustrates the tragic state of affairs of the Sarutobi clan.

However, the Sarutobi clan already has a promising young man like Konohamaru, and given time, it's only a matter of time before they have another Hokage-level member.

But Hiruzen Sarutobi knew very well that the innate mastery of all five elements, like Konohamaru, himself, and his father, represented the upper limit of the Sarutobi clan's talent.

The Sarutobi clan will never produce ninjas like the Senju and Uchiha clans, ninjas who would deter others from even daring to pursue them.

It wasn't just Sarutobi; the other families were the same.

No matter how each ninja village uses the theory of hard work to motivate its ninjas, in reality, being a ninja is still a profession that requires talent, and the higher the rank of a ninja, the more they will understand the cruelty of this.

Such a powerful individual, without another to restrain him, would be a disaster, whether to his enemy or his own; the history of the ninja world has already made that clear.

But what could be done? Despite his efforts, the Uchiha clan still produced Uchiha Shingen.

Hiruzen Sarutobi firmly believed that this family, which had enjoyed a thousand-year-old reputation and was one of the founders, was an important guarantee for the continued strength of Konoha, as long as no one like Madara Uchiha appeared again.

An overly powerful ninja is prone to mood swings, and such a person often harms their own people more than their enemies.

Leaving aside the history of the ninja world, the history of Konoha has already proven how capricious such a person can be. Back then, Madara Uchiha could leave whenever he wanted, and then turn around and take the Nine-Tailed Fox and Konoha with him.

Why don't you try someone else? You'd be lucky if you could even escape!

Overly powerful individuals often have an unstable impact on an organization.

It's already a blessing that this ninja world has ever had a ninja god; we can't expect such a saint to appear in every emergency.

but……

Hiruzen Sarutobi realized that even the moon could be taken away now, so Madara Uchiha's whims were nothing in comparison.

What a terrible thing to do!

At his age, he has to experience again the feeling of being in the midst of a once-in-a-millennium upheaval; it's really too much.

Hiruzen Sarutobi walked through the streets of his clan's territory and returned to his house.

The Sarutobi clan's economic glory was during the reign of Hiruzen Sarutobi. The once financially well-off Sarutobi clan began to experience financial difficulties during the reign of the Fourth Hokage.

In this respect, it is completely inferior to the Uchiha clan, whose two consecutive Hokage were in a period of political depression. The Uchiha clan did not have many friends in the village for decades, but it never lacked money and became richer and richer.

When a ninja clan enters a period of financial strain, it will directly affect its infrastructure. The Sarutobi clan's territory looks rather old now, which is due to insufficient repair and maintenance. After all, Sarutobi is a large clan, and its labor costs have always been relatively high. Once the clan's treasury is not strong enough, there will be less money available for maintaining fixed assets.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, who served as the Third Hokage, still lives in an old house, but it is well-maintained and all the facilities are functioning properly.

Entering the deserted room, Hiruzen Sarutobi took off his shoes, changed into casual clothes, and went into his study.

His daily hobbies were largely the same as those of Fugaku Uchiha; both enjoyed writing calligraphy.

But Hiruzen Sarutobi wasn't in the mood today. He just sat at his desk and picked up a book to read.

Quite a coincidence, it's his biography.

He was the first Hokage to have a biography, probably because he ruled for a relatively long time and had many disciples.

Hiruzen Sarutobi has read this book many times. Without a doubt, the author is a fan of his. You can hardly see the other members of Tobirama's team in this book; if there are any, they are just background characters.