A week later, Uchiha En successfully took over the position of Captain of the Third Squad of the Police Force, becoming one of the high-ranking members of the Uchiha Clan.
After taking over as the captain of the Third Squad, Uchiha En obtained the training methods for the Uchiha Clan's two forbidden Ninjutsu: Izanagi and Izanami.
Uchiha En was quite interested in these two techniques; whether he would use them later was irrelevant, but learning them certainly wouldn't hurt.
Moreover, the difficulty of learning these two techniques wasn't high, and Uchiha En mastered them without expending much effort.
After learning these two life-saving Ninjutsu, Uchiha En began recruiting personnel for the Third Squad.
Currently, all squads in the Police Force, except for the First Squad, had to recruit Ninja from outside the Uchiha Clan to supplement their ranks.
The Second and Fourth Squads chose civilian Ninja; these Ninja had no clans or foundations, making them easy to control, ensuring they wouldn't affect the Uchiha Clan's standing in the Police Force.
However, Uchiha En went directly to the Aburame Clan, visiting his teacher, Aburame Shibi, who had already become the clan head of the Aburame Clan.
Uchiha En didn't hide anything from his teacher, directly stating that he wanted to invite the Aburame Clan to send a few people to join the Third Squad of the Police Force.
Aburame Shibi was very surprised to hear this; he hadn't expected the Uchiha Clan to be willing to give up authority within the Police Force.
However, at this time, this authority was a hot potato, not easily accepted.
Uchiha En understood his teacher's concerns and immediately stated that he was in charge of the Third Squad of the Police Force, the Uchiha Clan would absolutely not interfere, and even if things ultimately went wrong, the Aburame Clan would not be implicated.
Since Uchiha En had been so direct, Aburame Shibi naturally didn't refuse. He decided to help his disciple out, dispatching one Special Jonin and three Chunin from the Aburame Clan to join the Police Force.
Then, Uchiha En went to the Yamanaka Clan and brought Yamanaka Kagetsu over.
When Yamanaka Kagetsu heard Uchiha En invite him to join the Police Force, he agreed without hesitation, because he trusted Uchiha En.
Furthermore, leveraging his relationship with Yamanaka Kagetsu, Uchiha En met with the Yamanaka Clan Head, Inoichi Yamanaka, and stated his intention to have the Ino-Shika-Cho Three Clans send people to join the Police Force.
The Ino-Shika-Cho Three Clans had always been closely connected. After Inoichi Yamanaka learned of Uchiha En's idea, he immediately informed Shikaku Nara and Choza Akimichi.
Shikaku Nara had interacted frequently with Uchiha En on the battlefield in the Land of Bears, and honestly, he had a very good impression of Uchiha En.
In his view, Uchiha En was completely different from typical members of the Uchiha Clan.
But this could not be the reason for the Ino-Shika-Cho Three Clans to step into these troubled waters.
Yamanaka Kagetsu going was one thing, as he had been Uchiha En's teammate for many years, but the Ino-Shika-Cho Three Clans couldn't get too close to the Uchiha Clan.
Just as Shikaku Nara was about to refuse Uchiha En, Aburame Shibi personally came to visit. After talking for over an hour, Shikaku Nara finally decided to give his good friend face, and the Ino-Shika-Cho Three Clans dispatched an Ino–Shika–Choji squad to join the Police Force.
A total of eight members from the Aburame Clan and the Ino-Shika-Cho Three Clans joined the Police Force, causing quite a stir both within Konoha and among the Uchiha.
What was even more outrageous was that Uchiha En granted these eight individuals significant law enforcement authority, virtually indistinguishable from that of regular Uchiha Clan members.
This action was completely different from the situation in the Second and Fourth Squads.
The Uchiha Clan members in the Third Squad had all been tempered by war alongside Uchiha En in the Land of Bears; they had, in fact, watched Uchiha En grow up bit by bit.
Therefore, they all had great trust in Uchiha En and did not voice any complaints about his action.
Coupled with the fact that Uchiha En had already settled things with the high-ranking Uchiha Clan members beforehand, his bold move failed to cause much of a stir within the Uchiha Clan.
Meanwhile, the Konoha higher-ups didn't have time to deal with the Uchiha Clan's affairs.
Because the Third Hokage was about to retire.
Although the Third Great Ninja War had ended, Konoha suffered devastating losses this time, and the Third Hokage could not escape blame. Danzo took the opportunity to make trouble, repeatedly holding meetings aimed at forcing Hiruzen Sarutobi to step down.
In the original work, the Third Hokage also retired around the same time, citing the same reason: the failure in the Third Great Ninja War.
However, in Uchiha En's view, the Third Hokage's resignation was somewhat of a tactical retreat; the Third Hokage was actually using the "pressure" from Danzo and others to step down from the position.
The Third Hokage's actual thoughts were indeed along these lines. After serving as Hokage for so many years, he was tired.
Konoha's new generation had now matured, and he felt confident handing the Hokage position over to the next generation.
While he still had energy, he could assist the new Hokage from behind the scenes for a while, and once the new Hokage was firmly established, he could officially retire.
As soon as the news of the Third Hokage's impending retirement broke, all of Konoha was abuzz, and no one had the mind to pay attention to the Police Force reform anymore.
Having governed for many years, the vast majority of Ninja and civilians in Konoha still recognized and respected the Third Hokage.
Now that the Third Hokage suddenly announced his retirement, the villagers of Konoha Village were surprised, but mostly regretful.
The villagers' reluctance did not affect the Third Hokage's decision. The next day, the Third Hokage announced the list of Hokage candidates jointly decided upon by the Village Jonin.
There were three Hokage candidates in total: the first was Orochimaru, one of the Sannin; the second was Jiraiya, also one of the Sannin; and the third was Minato Namikaze.
Members of the various major clans were "naturally" excluded from the list of candidates.
But truth be told, this list was quite reasonable, and no one could find fault with it.
Minato Namikaze was the greatest contributor to the Third War, and Orochimaru currently held the highest prestige among Konoha Ninja. It was expected that these two would compete for Hokage, while Jiraiya was probably just there to make up the numbers.
This proved to be true. The next day, Shisui arrived at the Uchiha Clan early in the morning and handed Uchiha En something resembling a flyer.
"En-senpai, the voting results for the first day are out!" Shisui said excitedly.
Uchiha En picked up the flyer and glanced at it: Minato Namikaze was ranked first, Orochimaru second, and Jiraiya third.
Furthermore, the difference between the first and second place votes was only a few hundred.
This was similar to Uchiha En's prediction. Sure enough, the Fourth Hokage, just like in the original work, would be chosen between Minato Namikaze and Orochimaru.
Unknowingly, the week-long Hokage election had been underway for three intense days.
Over these three days, the vote counts for Minato Namikaze and Orochimaru remained extremely close.
On the second day, Uchiha En and Orochimaru briefly surpassed Minato Namikaze to take first place, but Minato Namikaze later overtook them again.
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