While I was looking at reports about an explosion at the training grounds caused by some lunatics trying to power up a C-rank jutsu to an S-rank, I heard a knock on my office door.
"Come in," I said, only to hear the door open and close and nothing more.
After 10 minutes, I finally looked up to see an equally disturbed Itachi; all I could do was sigh.
"No, I don't have a genin team that wants the misfortune of wanting to take the Chunin Exams with you," I said, leaning back in my chair.
The truth is, I haven't had the time, and whenever I did, someone was always missing, and when someone showed up, the other was already unavailable.
Itachi couldn't help but frown.
"From what I understand, there are other ways to become a Chunin, Hokage-sama. If I could, I'd like to take those exams, given the unfortunate fact that something always seems to happen to those who are willing to team up with me," he told me with a hint of reluctance.
"Denied," I exclaimed, making an X with both arms. "Those exams are for people who fail the regular exams, and after an evaluation, they're assigned a couple of missions to see if they truly have what it takes to be a Chunin."
Itachi, upon hearing this, could only sigh; he was smart enough not to ask why I couldn't, since the reason was already there in my own words.
"So, what can I do?" the little Uchiha asked.
"How about having a social life? That'll give you the chance to make friends and meet people who might, just maybe, want to take the exam with you. You already have one, right? That girlfriend of yours who graduated from the academy this year, maybe she'll make a friend and convince him to take the exam with you." At the mention of Izumi, Itachi just looked away.
"Izumi isn't my girlfriend," the young Uchiha declared.
"Heh, yeah right, and Suna is going to become the most powerful village in the elemental nations next year," I replied. "Look, you need to meet more people; if you want to be a jonin someday, you need to command ninjas, and for that, you have to project confidence and delegate responsibilities. If you stick with the social skills of an unfriendly person, you'll never achieve anything; being friends with Shisui, Izumi, and your brother isn't enough."
I saw Itachi's dismay falter. I don't think I've ever seen him so sad, and his expression hasn't changed at all during our conversation.
"Look, if you're so keen to advance in the ninja ranks, then I can make an exception for you if you do something for me," I explained, making him look me in the eyes again.
...
"Who is he?" The first to ask was, obviously, Hikari, who pointed to Itachi, already promoted to Chunin for "exceptional achievements." Something I'd come up with in a week and managed to convince the ninja council to go along with in a small meeting.
It was based on the idea that if an individual fulfilled duties for the village or the Hokage that prevented them from undertaking missions or being promoted, and this individual met the requirements for promotion but for some reason failed or couldn't take the Chunin Exams, they could be promoted through this method.
I managed to get several people to accept this through my great charisma, arguing that it helped clans conceal their secret weapons or keep individuals hidden, perhaps those who were better off not being exposed during the Chunin Exams.
Similarly, the Chunin Exams are on par with a World Cup, as the idea is to showcase the most promising genin ninjas with incredible abilities. For this reason, there are always two or three groups of two or three ninjas, generally three chunin or sometimes two chunin and one jonin, to reduce the competition and highlight Konoha's glory to others.
This also ensures that few people advance to the finals, avoiding the need for additional rounds to narrow the field.
Now, with this "exceptional achievements" aspect, clans or some genin-ranked girls can complete certain missions or duties, which allow them to advance to chunin while concealing their secret techniques or special abilities.
Also, I mentioned that if they are offered the chance to take the Chunin Exams in another village, they must go, even if they are already chunin. For this, his promotion will be kept secret for a year, so the ninja will technically be a chunin, but on paper he'll still be a genin for a while.
Now for the important question. Why did I do this? Easy, so Itachi would babysit Yami, Naruto, and Hikari, allowing me to do what I had planned: expand my business empire without any problems.
She quickly slapped Hikari's hand without thinking.
"Pointing is rude," I scolded her.
"But you always do it," Hikari complained, her eyes watering, rubbing the hand I had slapped.
"Because I am me, and because I am me, by default I am the strongest person to ever walk the earth, and because I am the strongest in the world, I can be as rude as I want, since I can defeat you with one blow, but since you aren't, you must be polite," I explained proudly.
I saw a bead of sweat appear on Itachi's forehead at my outburst, but he didn't say anything about it.
At that moment, I glanced to his side, seeing Naruto with star-shaped eyes.
"Are you going to train us?" he asked hopefully.
Itachi coughed, covering his mouth as he spoke.
"Hokage-sama, given the situation of having to move from one place to another, asked me to look after you, keep an eye on you, and at the same time train you," he explained, as if he were an ANBU for some reason.
"Oh, incredible!" exclaimed Naruto. "I can just imagine myself making a giant fireball, splitting lightning with my hands, opening the earth with my palms, and creating a huge tornado!" As he did this, he began making strange movements.
"Pfft, how childish," Hikari said, as if looking down at Naruto.
Obviously, he heard this, so he stopped and turned to face her.
"That's what the person I play with dolls says: 'Oh, save me, my prince charming,' 'Don't worry, my love, I'll save you so we can travel to the ends of the earth and get married,'" Naruto said, reenacting a scene where he played with invisible dolls.
In less than a second, Hikari lunged at Naruto, striking him roughly as he defended himself as best he could.
"What did I tell you about mentioning that, Bakaruto?" the redhead exclaimed angrily.
"You started it, red gorilla!" Naruto exclaimed as they began exchanging some pretty serious blows.
While I watched all this without intervening, since kids' problems should be resolved by kids, I glanced at Yami, who was sitting bored, watching the whole thing.
Before, I would have gone to intervene and separate them, but after talking to him about his responsibilities and how his life wasn't entirely about being the older brother, he understood that he shouldn't always get involved in Naruto and Hikari's problems, and should only do so if he was alone and things escalated badly.
"How's it going with what I asked you to do?" I asked, to which he drew something from his sword to work on a clay sculpture of Katsuyu.
This is also part of his ninja training and social life skills, to teach him patience and not be a brute.
"You can teach him more advanced things, but be careful, they're only 5 and 4 years old," I told Itachi, who stopped watching the two brats fight to look at me.
"What should I do about that?" he asked, referring to Naruto and Hikari.
"That's your problem now; that's why I hired you. besides, you're a chunin and, not to mention, you're also an older brother; you should be able to handle these things. If not, I can still demote you." With that said, I left with a shunshin, leaving Itachi with a heavy burden, but I know this will help him grow both as a ninja and as a person.
...
As I prepared to travel to the Land of Iron, where I planned to establish a base to facilitate trade with other countries, ideally the Land of Water, which is currently in the early stages of its civil war, there was a knock at the door.
"What do you want now, Fugaku?" I asked without looking at the door, only to be met by his usual serious and unpleasant expression.
"I hope I'm not bothering you," Fugaku announced, entering and standing before the desk.
"You're always a nuisance, you, Hiashi, Shikaku, Inoichi, Tsume—especially Tsume with her ideas, particularly the one about creating a Dog Day—but as Hokage, I must welcome you with open arms and a smile," I said, still looking at the documents I needed to have ready today.
"I heard you're making other people's children babysit these days," he remarked, searching for a chair to sit down.
"This just happened today; how did you find out?" I complained.
"We're ninjas," he said simply, offering a smile, but I imagine Itachi somehow told him.
"Don't tell me you came here just to talk about your son, because if that's the case, I'll give you a split second to get out of my office; otherwise, I'll kick you out," I reprimanded him.
"Wait, I didn't come here for that, well, partly. I came to ask if it's possible to include Sasuke in all this." Hearing that, I raised an eyebrow as I looked at him. "Since Itachi is, in a way, training your sons, I thought I'd ask if Sasuke could be present."
I stopped what I was doing just to look at him.
"What do I get out of all this?" I asked, to which Fugaku looked wearily, his shoulders slumped.
"For you, it's all about profit and gain?" he questioned.
"That's the business world; if you don't like it, you can leave," I said, continuing to read the reports.
"This is a ninja village, not a commercial village," Fugaku complained.
"That's debatable to a certain extent," I said without looking at him.
Seeing that the conversation wasn't going anywhere, Fugaku could only sigh.
"Tell me what you want," he said with a sigh.
At that moment, I stopped looking at the reports and looked back at him.
"Give me a copy of how to train the Sharingan," I said without thinking.
"Don't tell me..." Fugaku exclaimed, and I stopped him with the palm of my hand.
"He hasn't woken him up yet; at least, if he has, he hasn't told me, but I'm not going to wait for him to wake up to train him on that side," I explained, to which the Uchiha clan leader relaxed.
"As long as you're the only one who has him, I can accept it," he finished, to which I nodded.
"So be it, it's a deal," he declared, smiling. "Well, what else do you want to talk about?"
"Well, the other thing I wanted to talk to you about is the situation within the Uchiha clan," Fugaku began in a serious tone, which made me do the same.
At Fugaku's voice, I knew immediately that the situation was serious.
"What's happening now?" I asked, putting the documents aside.
"Lately, the village elders have been making certain decisions that have begun to create discord within the clan," the clan leader explained. "Mainly two points in particular: first, the hatred the village has for the clan, and second, the fact that no Uchiha has been Hokage since the village's founding, even though we are one of the founding clans."
"I see," I said, resting my hand on my chin.
I see that preventing the Uchiha from being unanimously blamed for the Nine-Tails' attack and being deployed at the village's expense doesn't stop them from complaining.
"Tell me what you think?" I asked Fugaku.
"Regarding the first point, we've been doing everything we can, but after so many years, it's difficult to change some people's behavior and thinking," he said.
The truth is, since becoming Hokage, I've been hearing complaints about how the Uchiha police treat people, leading to several meetings with Fugaku to try and resolve this issue, without much success, since you can't perform a vasectomy to change someone's way of thinking, or at least they haven't allowed me to yet.
So Fugaku already knows perfectly well what's going wrong here, and as much as it bothers me, it's not entirely the Uchiha's fault; there's also the other side that prevents the police from doing their job properly, which is why these past five years have been a battle of very slow progress.
I've considered reforming the Uchiha police force, but if I want it to work, I need the clan leader and the elders to agree, and it's the latter who refuse to budge, so there's not much that can really be done.
I could do it by force, but that would only increase the Uchiha's discontent with me, perhaps even sparking a rebellion. Obviously, they would lose, but that doesn't change the fact that the consequences of all this wouldn't be ideal, which is why I've been postponing these matters until now, as I have other more important things to do.
"And what about the second point?" I asked Fugaku.
"As much as I dislike agreeing with some of them, I think you're right," he said with complete honesty, something I appreciate.
"It's not that simple, since everyone should know it's not random, nor can I create a major war to make an Uchiha you choose shine so they become the best Hokage candidate, and you know it," I retorted, to which Fugaku only sighed.
"I know perfectly well," he replied.
"Look, the Uchiha currently have good candidates who could eventually take the Hokage position; the best example of this is Shisui himself. In a few years, I wouldn't be surprised if he's on par with the greatest in this village, so there's no need to rush this matter, since, apparently, he'll be here for several more years," I explained.
"I understand, I'll see what I can do," Fugaku finished, getting up to leave.
"Also, check if those people who are sowing discord within the clan are truly trying to help the clan or if they're only thinking of themselves," I added, to which he simply nodded and left the office.
Once he was gone, I could only sigh.
I thought that, by avoiding what would happen to the Uchiha clan in the Nine-Tails' attack, they wouldn't think about rebelling, especially since I exist, a war strategist, but I see that's not the case.
But I'm not worried, because if I handle things well, this shouldn't get any worse.
While thinking this, I picked up the document, which deals with the reform of Uchiha politics.
"I think I'll have to take some homework with me on my trip to the Land of Iron."