At that little quip to the Third, the head of Nara concluded his speech.
- Anyone else wishing to nominate a candidate for office? - Homura asked, and after waiting for a few moments, he moved on to the main part. - In that case, it's time to vote.
At a gesture of his hand, one of the Anbu quickly scattered forms with very sparse contents in front of the seated people. Each one already had the name of the voter written on it and required the name of the candidate to whom the vote was cast. Quick, simple, efficient and in plain sight, with no possibility of tampering.
After writing Sakumo's name in the box, I gave the paper to the same Anbunin, and after a couple minutes, the elder put all the sheets into two rather different sized stacks.
- Congratulations, Hatake-san, you have won the vote," Mitokado corrected his glasses, "by a huge margin.
All eyes turned toward the Daimyo.
- I confirm the appointment of Hatake Sakumo as the Fourth Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato," the man did not hesitate to smile, "especially since I know him well from the time Sakumo-san spent as a bodyguard in my father's retinue.
- Thank you, Daimyo-sama, and thank you all for your support," the head of Hatake stood up and bowed to those present, accepting the ceremonial hat with the kanji for "fire" from Koharu and taking his seat.
- Congratulations, Hatake-san! - Shenesu was the first to clap.
- Congratulations, Sakumo-kun," Uzumaki Mito grinned, squinting her eye at Hiruzen's disgruntled face, a long-awaited appointment that had been too long in coming.
Even those who had voted against him were congratulating the new leader of the Leaf, and the coalition heads were rejoicing that Sarutobi had finally been removed from power and would no longer be able to influence decisions.
- Let's move on to the discussion of the tension between the great villages on the global political arena and everything related to it, - after a couple of minutes, the Hokage took the floor, - but first, I ask all uninvolved to leave the room, - when all the civilians obediently left, he continued. - According to the latest intelligence reports, the Kumogakure are concentrating their forces on the border, with relatively small units of three or four teams, which are difficult to track by conventional means, but they are the elite of their armed forces, and everything suggests that preparations for war are in full swing," Sakumo told the crowd. - From our side, it is necessary to keep enough fighters at all times to slow down unexpected troop movements for a while and give time for general mobilization ...
What followed was a specific discussion of all the precautions available to the village in anticipation of another great war over territory and resources.
They discussed the feasibility of mobilizing the Daimyo army with Konoha's quick reaction units to protect the country's main crops - sabotage of food supplies had happened in past wars, as well as the destruction of those who grew the food, despite any treaties made by the first Kage - as well as warehouses with provisions.
Ninjas are hungry, too, and without plentiful food, they fight much worse. Logistical issues, likely bases, the distribution of the main forces across the country and how to help Daimyo, as Konoha will inevitably have to reduce the number of orders and limit the territory of action to border countries. It was also about allies that could be relied upon. All in all, it was a normal meeting, where vital issues were brought up and immediately resolved.
It was very interesting to hear about battle planning from the command staff rather than a rank-and-file participant who was given instructions, but not very useful to me personally - S-ranks usually act as a heavy strike force, rather than sitting in the command stakes - except for the data on the deployment of our forces. I may have to go to one of the key defense nodes mentioned, and knowing at least the rough layouts will come in handy.
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