Under the witness of the envoy sent by the Daimyō of the Land of Fire, Orochimaru completed the final ceremony of becoming the new Hokage.
The handover between the old and new Hokage on top of the Hokage building drew cheers from the watching villagers and shinobi alike.
For the villagers who had been living under the heavy pressure of the recent Shinobi World War, this transition of leadership gave them a renewed sense of hope and anticipation.
After all, the Third Hokage's decisions during the aftermath of the war had caused some dissatisfaction, but a newly appointed Hokage—especially at the beginning of their term—was usually seen in the most favorable light, almost untouchable in reputation and expectations.
In the days that followed, Orochimaru began swiftly and decisively restructuring the village leadership.
Although Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu remained in their positions as advisors, it was clear that once Tsunade and Minato Namikaze became more familiar with their duties, the handover of power would take place.
The two elder advisors understood this well. Even though they were reluctant to give up their authority, they had no better options aside from delaying the inevitable.
Nara Kagetsu's father, Nara Shikakichi, stepped down from his role as Hokage's assistant.
But another member of the Nara clan—Nara Kagetsu, who had a strong friendship with Minato and had made great contributions during the war—took over both as the Hokage's assistant and as the head of the Jonin squad.
As for Shimura Danzo, both he and his Root division had come under intense scrutiny in recent days.
Members of the Uchiha clan, their eyes glowing red with Sharingan, kept a close watch on Danzo and Root—dedicated and relentless, just as Root and the ANBU had once done to the Uchiha district.
This enraged Danzo. At one point, he even stormed into the Hokage's office and slammed the table, launching into a furious argument with Orochimaru.
In the end, Orochimaru reminded Danzo exactly who the Hokage was now—and made sure he felt the weight of that authority.
In the past, Sarutobi Hiruzen would often give Danzō some face, out of consideration for their shared past as comrades.
After stepping away from the battlefield, he had grown increasingly indecisive with age, and that tendency made him prone to compromise.
But Orochimaru, as the Third Hokage's student, was nothing like that. His sharp tongue and ruthless methods always managed to pierce Danzō deeply—especially now that Danzō had once again lost his chance at becoming Hokage.
Uchiha Fugaku had watched the entire scene unfold from the sidelines. Following the Hokage's orders, he politely asked Danzō to leave the office.
Even with all his usual restraint, he couldn't help but let the corner of his mouth lift slightly.
Danzō shot him a vicious, icy glare in return, but Fugaku no longer felt the pressure he once did.
The man who had once cast a dark, suffocating shadow over the entire Uchiha clan had now lost that invisible power.
After the drastic changes in the village, that oppressive aura seemed to vanish like smoke in the wind.
Fugaku had also been given a position in the Hokage's office—as assistant to the future advisor Tsunade.
Though the idea of an Uchiha working under a Senju might sound unpleasant, neither he nor most of the clan members—aside from a few radicals—had any objection.
They all knew Tsunade had no real interest in village matters outside of the medical division.
She had only agreed to become an advisor to lend her name and reputation to support Orochimaru in removing the old, stubborn conservatives from power.
So while Fugaku was technically Tsunade's assistant, he was essentially someone entrusted with handling village affairs—a position very close to the center of power in Konoha!
Even Hyūga Hiashi, the head of the Hyūga clan, another powerful dōjutsu family on par with the Uchiha, hadn't received such treatment.
Fugaku glanced at the quiet, almost forgotten Hyūga clan and felt no resentment at all.
Watching Orochimaru make bold and sweeping changes to personnel across the village, Minato Namikaze felt both envious and somewhat at ease.
If he had become the Fourth Hokage instead, he could never have done what Orochimaru did—seizing control of the village's core authority as easily as moving his own arm, and stripping that power away from the elders to redistribute it.
Even with support from his teacher Jiraiya, it wouldn't have been possible.
After all, Jiraiya never really cared about village politics. His status was high, but he didn't have many truly loyal subordinates under him.
Although his fame spread far and wide during the war, he mostly worked alone in the latter stages as part of the battlefield support team.
At most, he would bring along his squad for missions that didn't require strict time constraints.
Among the jonin, he had many good relationships, but there were very few who would truly stand by him no matter what.
And just the situation of Uchiha was already enough to cause him headaches when dealing with the village.
Even if the Third Hokage was willing to hand over power and support him, he didn't have enough trustworthy people to place in the village's key departments.
So even if he had become Hokage, he would most likely have to rely on time—slowly adjusting and training his personnel, and resolving the village's internal conflicts through gentle, gradual influence.
Not just him—even if Jiraiya or Tsunade had taken the position, they wouldn't have been able to do much either.
But with the support of both Jiraiya and Tsunade, as well as many Kekkei Genkai and secret technique clans, Orochimaru was able to stabilize his position quickly—provided that the Third didn't get in the way.
After all, the number of jonin among the ninja clans made up half of Konoha's strength.
"A mission from the Land of Wind?"
After sending Danzo away, Orochimaru continued handling the village's affairs. A mission request from the Land of Wind had piqued his interest.
The alliance between Sunagakure and Konoha still existed.
But due to the severe lack of ninja in the Land of Wind, and their poor performance in recent battles, the daimyo of the Land of Wind seemed dissatisfied with Sunagakure—at least, according to the intel gathered.
Not long ago, through the noble delegation from the Land of Fire, Orochimaru received some news: after discussions between the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire, the daimyo of the Land of Wind was considering redirecting a portion of the funding originally meant for Sunagakure to Konoha instead.
The plan was to have Konoha's shinobi complete missions on behalf of the Sand ninja.
When he first heard this, Orochimaru was a little surprised by the daimyo's unusual idea.
Now that he had come across a mission issued from the Land of Wind, his curiosity was piqued, so he flipped through it to take a look.
Hunting down the rogue ninja and killing him?
After reading the mission details, Orochimaru didn't seem very interested.
Missions to track and eliminate rogue ninja weren't uncommon, and weren't limited to the village the missing-nin once belonged to.
Sometimes their bounties even appeared on the underground black market.
Even allied villages could cooperate to carry out such missions.
What Orochimaru was really thinking about was whether this mission had been influenced by the daimyo's intervention, or if Sunagakure was truly too short-handed to handle it themselves.
Still, a joint mission between the Sand and the Leaf...
"Assign this mission to Kagetsu. Let him take a team and handle it."
After a moment of thought, Orochimaru decided to pass the mission to Kagetsu. The mission was ranked quite high, which meant it carried some importance.
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