“Is there anything I can do?” Hiruzen asked.
He leaned forward, lacing his weathered fingers together on the surface of his desk.
“First and foremost, we must halt the border conflicts and allow the shinobi world to recover,” Minato replied, his voice steady and authoritative.
“Secondly, I need you to formally invite Rasa and the high-ranking council members of the Hidden Sand to Konoha.
Frame it as a diplomatic summit to discuss a formal alliance.”
Hiruzen’s brow furrowed.
“Are you planning a surgical strike on the Land of Wind?”
“No bloodshed,” Minato said, shaking his head.
“I simply need to infiltrate the Sand Village to meet with specific individuals and assess their future plans.
But Rasa is a highly capable sensory ninja.
Slipping past his detection grid while he is actively stationed in the village is inconvenient.”
“Understood.
I will draft the summons,” Hiruzen agreed.
“When do you plan to depart?”
“Within a week,” Minato calculated.
“Though I will likely make a detour to Kumo in a few days.”
Hiruzen pulled his pipe from his mouth, his expression tightening.
“Kumogakure?
The Third Raikage is a monstrous opponent.
His physical resilience is unparalleled.
Even I am not confident I could breach his defenses.
You must tread carefully, Minato.
If a high-ranking Konoha commander is discovered deep in Cloud territory, it will spark an international diplomatic crisis.”
The old man set his pipe down.
He looked Minato dead in the eye.
“Furthermore…
I want you to formally succeed me as Hokage.”
Minato stiffened.
“Lord Third, I—”
“Do not refuse,” Hiruzen interrupted, raising a hand.
“There is no shinobi more suited for the hat in this current era.
To the veterans who received those future memories, you are the father of the world’s greatest hero.
Your voice carries more diplomatic weight across the borders than an old man’s.” Hiruzen offered a frail, self-deprecating smile.
“Besides, you wear the hat in the future timeline regardless.
I am simply accelerating fate.”
Minato gripped the fabric of his pants.
He exhaled slowly, relenting to the tactical logic.
“I accept.
But please, do not rush the inauguration.
We must stabilize the fronts with Kiri and Suna first.”
“Agreed.
Now is not the ideal time for a transition of power,” Hiruzen said, shifting a stack of paperwork.
“But we must immediately prepare for peace talks with Iwagakure.
I will dispatch a report to the Fire Daimyo today.
Once we receive his authorization, I want you to lead the Konoha delegation.”
Minato gave a curt nod.
He recognized the political maneuvering; Hiruzen was deliberately paving the way for his succession, stacking his resume with historic peace treaties.
The tension in Hiruzen’s shoulders eased, a heavy sigh escaping his lips.
“I truly hope to see this world you described, Minato.
A world where the nations cooperate, where they truly understand one another.” The old man’s gaze drifted toward the window.
“In the future timeline you told me, Orochimaru takes my life.
With so many of our forces awakened to the future, history will inevitably fracture.
I only wonder if I will live long enough to see the sunrise of that new era.”
“You will,” Minato said, his tone leaving no room for doubt.
“If we unify our forces now, peace will arrive decades early.
We will not leave thousands of bodies in the dirt like the Fourth Shinobi World War.”
Shikaku Nara had remained perfectly still in the corner of the office, observing the exchange in calculated silence.
A faint, razor-thin smile touched his lips.
He stepped forward.
“There is another logistical matter requiring your immediate authority, Lord Third,” Shikaku drawled.
“I need you to recall Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya.”
Hiruzen’s eyes widened slightly.
“Very well,” Hiruzen agreed without his usual hesitation.
The apocalypse looming in the future demanded absolute military buildup.
They needed the Sannin.
“Additionally,” Shikaku said, his voice dropping into a colder register.
“There is the matter of the Uchiha clan.
And the Root Anbu.
How do the two Hokage intend to handle these internal threats?”
Minato and Hiruzen exchanged a heavy, loaded look.
Neither offered an immediate solution to the village’s darkest political ulcers.
Hiruzen broke the silence.
“Do you have a strategy in mind, Shikaku?”
Shikaku had spent the entire walk to the tower formulating this exact doctrine.
“Regarding the Uchiha, we divide and assimilate.
The clan members who trust the village hierarchy will be promoted and seeded into vital administrative and command roles.
Those harboring skepticism will be integrated into mixed-squad departments under the direct supervision of loyalist clan heads, slowly rebuilding their trust.”
Shikaku’s eyes narrowed.
“As for the hardliners—those prioritizing a coup over the village’s survival—we assign them to high-mortality frontline missions.
We ensure they ‘sacrifice’ themselves for the Leaf.
Furthermore, we prevent the relocation of the Uchiha compound from the village center.
We mandate their integration into the infrastructure and actively incentivize intermarriage with commoners and other clans.
Over a generation, the isolated clan mentality will dissolve.”
“And Danzo?” Hiruzen asked, his voice tightening.
Pure, unadulterated killing intent flared in Shikaku’s dark eyes.
“Execute him.”
Hiruzen flinched.
“Once he is dead, we apply the Uchiha division doctrine to the Root operatives,” Shikaku detailed coldly.
“We dismantle their psychological conditioning, sever their loyalty to a dead man, and reabsorb them into the standard Anbu forces.”
Shikaku held zero sympathy for the Shadow of the Leaf.
The future memories had revealed Danzo’s absolute cowardice during Pain’s invasion, hoarding his forces underground while the village bled, only to slither out of the rubble and claim the Hokage seat.
Danzo was a rabid dog.
Keeping him alive meant waiting for a knife in the back.
Rather than endlessly guarding against his betrayals, it was tactically sounder to eliminate him.
“Let me…
let me consider this,” Hiruzen murmured, his gaze dropping to the grain of his desk.
Danzo was his oldest comrade.
They had trained under the Second Hokage together.
Ordering an assassination on a brother-in-arms made the old man’s stomach churn.
Shikaku did not push.
He understood the emotional compromise crippling the Third.
But he delivered one final, chilling warning.
“This conversation does not leave this room.
If anyone with malicious intent catches wind of this shift in power…”
Shikaku let the sentence hang.
Minato and Hiruzen understood perfectly.
If Danzo suspected his oldest friend and the future Fourth were plotting his execution, he would not wait for the blade to fall.
Danzo valued the Hokage seat above the physical village itself.
If cornered, he would unleash Root in a preemptive strike against the Hokage Tower.
Talking to a fanatic about the future of the world was a tactical waste.
The only way to handle Danzo Shimura was a swift, silent decapitation.
Both Hokage read the absolute certainty in the Nara clan head’s eyes.