Morning
Mmm...
After a long while, their lips finally parted. Faye's cheeks were flushed, and her neck carried a faint pink tint, whether from shyness or from being kissed too long and running short of breath.
A good-morning kiss.
For a tiny and harmless request like the one Haru had made, Faye and Lynn had naturally agreed without much difficulty.
Next was Lynn's turn. Looking at her rosy lips, Haru lowered his head...
Their lips parted again.
"Come back early, okay?"
"Mm."
Haru nodded, then left the house and headed for the Hokage Building, beginning another day of work.
Office
"Now that the funding has arrived, the Ninja Academy needs to continue enrolling students. How is this year's admissions plan coming along?"
Haru looked at Nara Shikaru in front of him and asked about this year's enrollment for the Ninja Academy.
The continuous wars had nearly wiped out an entire generation from the ninja clans. It was not sustainable to keep relying on the clans to fill the ranks forever.
The original purpose of the Ninja Academy was to train civilian ninja on a large scale.
In the future Konoha, civilian ninja would become the mainstream. Their average quality might not match that of clan ninja, but they had strength in numbers.
With a large enough base, exceptional ninja would always emerge. Orochimaru and Jiraiya, for example, both came from civilian backgrounds.
They had not yet made their names famous across the ninja world, but their future achievements were limitless, and they would nearly suppress the clan ninja of their generation.
By the time of the Third Great Ninja War, there would even be monsters like Minato.
They had to invest heavily in civilian ninja.
And the Academy's principal had always been the Hokage. Every student who graduated from the Academy could technically call himself a student of the Hokage, though very few people actually did that. Most people still had some shame.
Unless, of course, the Hokage had personally accepted them as disciples and taught them directly at his side. In that case, they could naturally say that the Hokage was their teacher.
As Hokage, those civilian ninja who graduated from the Academy would naturally belong to Haru's faction.
Since this would be his future power base, Haru naturally cared about it deeply.
"Hokage-sama, in previous years the annual enrollment was around eight hundred students. Because funding had been stretched thin, it was reduced to five hundred."
"In view of how rapidly Konoha's ninja numbers have been reduced by the war, I believe enrollment needs to be expanded. The current tentative number is fourteen hundred."
"..."
Shikaru held the proposal in his hand as he explained the future enrollment plan for the Ninja Academy, the resource allocation, and the rest. Most of those issues were easy enough to solve.
It all came down to money.
Throw enough money at it and it could be handled.
"There is only one point that is very difficult to solve, and that is the Academy's teachers..."
Shikaru's face showed helplessness.
The most precious thing in any school was naturally its teaching staff.
But the teaching quality at the Ninja Academy right now could only be described as difficult to discuss.
Anyone capable had already been thrown onto the battlefield. Those left behind were mostly the old, the weak, the wounded, and the disabled.
The strongest among them were only chunin, and even those were damaged goods.
A new batch of strong teachers had to be reassigned.
The problem was where to find them.
The best option would naturally be to draw from the ninja clans. Their quality was reliable, and most of them were veterans withdrawn from the battlefield with rich practical experience.
But the clans were not well off either. Their numbers had already suffered losses, and many of them were frantically pushing their clansmen to have children. The children born would naturally be taught by the clan itself. If Haru wanted them to place their children into the Academy system, there would definitely be a lot of tugging and pulling.
Not to mention that Haru had already skimmed a large portion of their funding for Konoha's development. If he then asked them to place their best ninja in a place like the Academy as teachers, they would probably curse him out.
"Later, I'll have the Uchiha send a batch of ninja to the Academy. As for the remaining vacancies..."
"Send someone to tell Hyuga Takuma that I'll be appointing four Hokage assistants, and one of those seats will be his. He'll understand what to do."
Haru decided to hand over part of his authority to Takuma as a reward for being an ally.
There were too many things happening in Konoha. Haru could not possibly handle them all himself. He also needed to leave himself time to train, so many matters could only be delegated to Hokage assistants.
That naturally included mission assignments, personnel transfers, war command, and budget use. The authority involved spoke for itself. Takuma would not refuse.
"And send word to Senju Toma as well. One of the Hokage assistant seats is his too. Tell him to send some people over from the Senju clan."
The Senju still had to be used. Haru also wanted to ease his relationship with Toma somewhat.
"Inform Tomita that one of the Hokage assistant positions will also be his. Have him reorganize Konoha's Anbu and completely reshuffle the old structure and team assignments..."
As the Hokage's direct force, the Anbu had to be firmly controlled by Haru himself. Every tree and blade of grass in Konoha fell under the Anbu's surveillance. Nothing could go wrong with intelligence.
In the past it had always been controlled by the Senju. Even after Tobirama's death, Mito had still been able to command Anbu ninja with her personal orders. That was supposed to be a power belonging only to the Hokage.
That situation could not be allowed to continue.
Haru had no intention of letting the Senju control his every move.
"As for the final Hokage assistant position, I've decided it will be you, Nara Shikaru."
Shikaru, who had been standing beside him taking down Haru's orders, was left dizzy by this sudden windfall.
"Me?!"
"Hokage-sama, are you serious?"
Shikaru's eyes widened. Over the years, the Ino-Shika-Cho clans had developed steadily in Konoha, but they had never been involved in Konoha's real core power. Tobirama had been a political powerhouse who kept all major and minor authority in his own hands, fully accustomed to the life of a tireless workaholic.
Haru had no interest in becoming that kind of workaholic.
"Naturally, I'm serious. Nara Shikaru, I have high expectations for you. I know very well what your clan is capable of. Konoha's daily administrative work will still need the help of your three clans."
"I..."
Shikaru's face flushed red, moved by Haru's sudden trust in him.
"Hokage-sama, rest assured. The Ino-Shika-Cho clans will devote themselves completely to Konoha!"
"Action is more persuasive than words. Prove it to me with your actions. I won't misjudge people."
Haru smiled as he spoke to Shikaru.
"The Ino-Shika-Cho clans will assign elite members as teachers for the Ninja Academy, and we will also send core clan children to enroll in the Academy."
Shikaru understood the situation well. He immediately used action to show his loyalty.
"Then I'll be counting on you."
After most of the day had passed in busy work, Haru finally finished handling all the documents that needed attention.
As evening approached, Haru ate dinner outside and then came to a secret chamber in the Uchiha clan grounds.
This was a core secret chamber known only to the head of the Uchiha clan. It was used to store the clan's most important documents, including the techniques Izanagi and Izanami.
But he was not here today to study jutsu.
Inside the chamber, two death-row prisoners had been tightly bound and thrown onto the floor. Special markings had been drawn across the ground.
Haru knocked one of them unconscious and dragged him into a side room, then used Reanimation Jutsu on the remaining prisoner.
"Rise again, my Hashirama!"
Haru shouted loudly.
(End of Chapter)
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