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

On the way back, Uchiha Shingen had already thrown away the headband from Sunagakure, but its distinct appearance and attire compared to those of Konoha still occasionally attracted the attention of others.

After all, her every move showed that she was a ninja. It's not strange to see foreigners in Konoha, but it's not so easy to see a foreign ninja.

When she arrived at the Uchiha clan's territory with Uchiha Shingen, she was first shocked by the sheer size and orderly layout of the Uchiha clan's territory.

The Uchiha clan's territory, which is almost integrated with the police department, is a ninja clan complex of this scale that cannot be seen in Sunagakure.

She would believe it if you told her it was a small ninja village.

She wasn't shocked by the wealth of the Uchiha clan, but rather by the fact that in this era, there was still a ninja clan that could create a village within a village.

They've gotten this far, and they still haven't started fighting. What's going on with the Konoha ninjas?

"Don't overthink it." Uchiha Shingen could tell what she was imagining just by looking at her expression. "The largest clan territory in Konoha isn't the Uchiha's."

"There are even bigger ones than you?" Yekura said, expressing disbelief.

"Of course, the Hyuga clan's territory is larger than ours."

"So... so the ninja clans of Konoha all live alone..." Yekura could only sigh inwardly, "As expected of Konoha."

Really rich.

Sunagakure has the worst environment and the weakest financial resources among the five great villages. None of the other ninja clans in Sunagakure have such favorable conditions.

From a distance, all the buildings there look like piles of sand dunes pieced together, the same color as the desert. All social activities take place indoors, the buildings are connected to each other, and the streets are simply used for the movement of people and goods.

A surface commercial street? There's no such thing.

Due to its developed mining industry, the Land of Wind has advanced underground space technology. Sunagakure also supports the village's economic activities by constructing underground cities. The complex underground cities themselves can deter any intruder.

Getting caught because you got lost is just too awful.

But humans are terrestrial beings, and no one really likes being cooped up in underground spaces all day long; it's too oppressive.

Yekura suddenly felt that joining Konoha was not a bad idea.

After all, the residents of Sunagakure would rather brave the sandstorms and wander around the surface as much as possible.

The environment in Konoha is much better than that in Sunagakure.

No wonder the First Kazekage was almost beaten up by a mob at the Five Kage Summit.

Leaving aside the demand that all countries allocate funds for purchasing tailed beasts to Sunagakure, the demand that Konoha cede a portion of its fertile land to Sunagakure truly hit a nerve with the other three villages.

Damn it! It's not like we don't want it; it's just because we can't beat them!

If you can't beat Hashirama Senju, you can't beat Retsuto?

Yecang now completely understands how the First Kazekage felt back then. It wasn't that he was out of his mind, but any Kazekage would be envious of the environment of Konoha Village.

Unfortunately, she didn't know that Uchiha Shingen was spouting nonsense again.

In the entire Hidden Leaf Village, only the Uchiha and Hyuga clans have their own separate clan territories. The Uchiha clan's territory is large because it includes land under the jurisdiction of the police department and prison, while the Hyuga clan's territory is larger than the Uchiha's because they not only have a larger population, but also have to be divided into the main family and branch families.

In this respect, the Hokage Building still showed some humanity, allocating a large area of ​​land for them to explore and develop.

Upon entering the clan's territory, the Uchiha clan members on the street greeted Uchiha Shingen warmly, as he was now indeed a prominent figure in the clan.

As for Yekura, the clan members with Sharingan are very traditional and will first activate their Sharingan to check.

This is a traditional Uchiha clan etiquette. It's a bit embarrassing not to have prepared any gifts for our first meeting, so I'll just show you my Sharingan.

Being stared at by so many Sharingan eyes made Yekura feel extremely uncomfortable.

Until she was led by Uchiha Shingen into Uchiha Fugaku's house.

Fugaku Uchiha is increasingly fond of handling clan affairs and calling small meetings at home.

He received Ye Cang in his study.

But he didn't write anything today; his desk was spotless.

Uchiha Shingen was pleased that, under the influence of public opinion, Uchiha Fugaku finally realized that he was not cut out for calligraphy.

His efforts were not in vain.

Fugaku Uchiha treated Pakura with great kindness, like a patriarch.

He kindly stated that he had already arranged accommodation for Yecang, and that once she was familiar with the environment, he would be formally hired as a member of the police department, starting as a secretary.

Uchiha Shingen listened to the address and found it was next to his own house, which was where Uchiha Obito's family used to live.

After Obito's grandmother passed away, the house became empty.

However, let's put it this way: if Yecang suddenly had a brain fart and tried to run back to Sunagakure, she would be surrounded by dozens of security team members the next moment.

As for working as a secretary in the police department, that's even easier to explain; it's just a matter of observing from nearby.

Since the secret service couldn't conduct the investigation, the task naturally fell to the police department itself.

After finishing his conversation with Pakura, Fugaku Uchiha dropped his friendly, middle-aged demeanor and became a serious man.

The serious-looking middle-aged man looked at Uchiha Shingen with an extremely serious expression.

"Shingen, do you want your clan to form an alliance with the ninja clans of Kirigakure?"

“Yes.” Reflecting on the different treatment of beautiful women, Uchiha Shingen began to lay out his thoughts, “Always leave yourself a way out, clan leader.”

Yekura, after the Hokage's office, has once again begun practicing the pestle technique.

She felt she was getting more and more proficient at it.

Chapter Three: I Will Be Stronger Than Anyone Else

As the conversation between Uchiha Shingen and Uchiha Fugaku deepened, Yōkura's impression of Uchiha Shingen changed.

The image that Uchiha Shingen was displaying at this moment was not the one she had begun to get used to.

He was, in fact, a young man whose mind was full of serious thoughts.

Yekura was a little unaccustomed to seeing Uchiha Shingen so serious. After all, although she hadn't known Uchiha Shingen for very long, the process had been quite eventful. Most importantly, he had never actually been very serious.

If Yekura hadn't witnessed his skillful methods of using fake reports to earn bonuses in the Hokage's office, she would have actually thought he wasn't very reliable.

After all, she had only acknowledged that Uchiha Shingen was a genius as a combat ninja, but political maneuvering was another matter entirely.

Now it seems that he does have an idea, but it's a rather far-fetched idea, which she finds utterly absurd.

He even came up with the idea of ​​opening a new branch after leaving the mist.

Of the five great villages in the ninja world, Kirigakure is the most closed off and xenophobic.

Of course, this is also related to the Blood Mist Village policy.

Yekura never expected that Uchiha Shingen would have such an idea, even though he said it was a method that would only be implemented as a last resort.

This young man displayed a pessimistic view of the Uchiha clan's future in Konoha.

Clearly, his suggestion did not receive the approval of the Uchiha clan leader in front of him.

“Shingen, an alliance is possible, but the idea of ​​splitting up the family is too pessimistic,” said Fugaku Uchiha. “The family’s environment has never been better. You are the greatest contributor and should have more confidence in the family.”

It's not that I lack confidence in the family, it's that I truly lack confidence in you all...

Uchiha Shingen almost blurted it out.

I held back.

The Uchiha clan's clinging to the economic benefits brought by the police department is not a matter of greed, but rather a practice that completely isolates them from the mainstream political environment of Konoha.

Regardless of whether Tobirama Senju originally set up this thing to trick the Uchiha clan, the Uchiha clan's actions at this critical juncture are indeed digging their own grave.

Given the Uchiha clan's strengths, the right path for them to develop is not through a watchdog organization like the police department, but rather through a regular army, specifically the Jonin class.

Even from an economic perspective alone, the benefits one can gain once they enter the mission system are far beyond what the police department can offer.

Of course, Uchiha Shingen also knew that there was nothing to criticize about this. Habit itself is one of the most powerful forces in the world, and the resistance to risk is natural. Rejecting risk is the first reaction of most people.

The problem is, the Uchiha clan still has the obsession with becoming Hokage...

If this obsession is not eliminated, the Uchiha clan will sooner or later become diametrically opposed to the Hokage Building again.

Kirigakure was the best escape route that Uchiha Shingen could think of. Although the Kirigakure ninja clan was xenophobic, they did not actually reject the joining of powerful ninja clans from outside, because the power of the commoner ninjas in Kirigakure had entered a stage of accumulating strength. The Third and Fourth Mizukage were both not from ninja clans, so those ninja clans were already under a lot of pressure.

Hopefully, the Uchiha clan's confidence is genuine.

Uchiha Shingen stopped dwelling on the topic and focused on doing what he could.

After finishing his discussion with Fugaku Uchiha and receiving a good pep talk from him, Shingen Uchiha, acting as Pakura's guide, led the scorching ninja away from Fugaku's house.

After taking Pakura to the former residence of Obito Uchiha and making proper arrangements, Shingen Uchiha bid farewell to Pakura and entered his free time.

In other words, he's off work.

Back home, he tidied up and had a good rest. When it got dark, he went out of his room and headed to his comrade's house.

A group of buddies who hadn't seen each other in a long time decided to get together for tea.

Everyone's been holding back for so long.

It's not that the tea is really that good, it's just that everyone has been working themselves to the bone lately, and there's no better way to relax than enjoying tea. Otherwise, what's the point of a group of people just drinking and barbecuing?

Uchiha Shingen wanted to invite Shisui, but his friends refused.

"No, Shingen-nii," Uchiha Tetsuka earnestly advised him, "The point of going out to have fun is to be open and cheerful. Shisui is too serious, which makes everyone less enjoyable."

Uchiha Shingen thought about it and realized that it made perfect sense.

Even though all the young ladies are pillars of society, and Uchiha Shisui was also a pillar of society, in the end he covered up his pillars as if he were guarding against fire, theft, and young ladies.

This really made everyone feel awkward—the girls were awkward too.

After all, their motto is to perform, not to sell their bodies. They're not asking you to actually do anything. It's one thing to make plans after you've had sex, but the key issue is that doing this on stage makes everyone feel very restrained...

Uchiha Shingen still vividly remembered the resentful look in that young lady's eyes; it was truly chilling.

So, having reached a consensus, everyone headed to the izakaya together.

It was the same street, the same boss, but this time Shimura Danzo wasn't there to spoil the fun.

The person is dead, so there's no point in trying to spoil the mood.

Out of consideration for his past as a benefactor, Uchiha Shingen will offer incense to him on the anniversary of his death next year.

The boss's eyes lit up when he saw Uchiha Shingen.