The ember at the tip of Hiruzen Sarutobi’s pipe glowed brightly.
He took a long drag, and the tiny flame flickered twice before dying out.
It seemed that the little spark could survive only so long as the elderly Hokage continued drawing breath.
The campaign to elevate Minato into a hero had concluded without disaster.
That outcome was acceptable to Hiruzen.
After all these years, the biggest difference between him and his old comrade, Danzō Shimura, had become increasingly clear.
Danzō always wanted absolute control.
He couldn’t tolerate anything happening outside his plans.
Once he devised a strategy, he expected everyone to play their assigned roles.
Hiruzen, on the other hand, had long since accepted a different truth.
Life wasn’t about everything going according to plan.
Life was defined by unexpected twists.
If you set a goal…
And somehow still reached it despite countless detours…
That was already a success.
This war served three purposes in Hiruzen’s mind.
First, to redirect Konoha’s internal conflicts outward by focusing everyone’s attention on an external enemy, using war to forge unity within the village.
Second, to address Konoha’s growing shortage of exceptional shinobi by creating a new generation of celebrated war heroes.
Third, to use the prestige of a great victory to pressure the ninja clans into integrating more fully with the village, forcing those clans that still refused to send their children to the Ninja Academy to recognize that Konoha now possessed the means to balance—or even surpass—them without relying entirely on the old bloodlines.
If they still clung stubbornly to their traditions…
Then Konoha simply wouldn’t need them anymore.
Even after all these years…
Konoha still resembled little more than dozens of ninja clans living side by side.
It wasn’t truly one unified village.
Every clan guarded its secret techniques more jealously than anything else.
That wasn’t healthy for Konoha’s future.
Hiruzen believed it was time for change.
It was time to show everyone the strength of civilian shinobi.
Large numbers of sustainably trained civilian shinobi were the true backbone of modern warfare.
Clan shinobi, raised with enormous investments of time and resources, no longer suited the changing era.
Hiruzen even understood one uncomfortable reality.
No matter how powerful a Kage might be…
Against ten thousand shinobi…
Even they would eventually collapse from exhaustion.
Training ten thousand civilian shinobi was difficult.
But not impossible.
And among those thousands…
A few extraordinary talents were bound to emerge.
Creating another Kage, however…
That depended as much on fate as effort.
Therefore…
Universal education.
Equal opportunity.
Selective advancement based on merit.
That was the proper path forward.
The clans, who wished only to cultivate their own descendants…
Were relics of an older age.
Unfortunately…
People were selfish.
If Konoha invested heavily in training clan shinobi…
The clans naturally welcomed it.
But asking those same clans to contribute manpower, money, and resources toward educating civilian children?
That was something they would never willingly accept.
Hiruzen had spent years considering ways to change that.
For example…
Assigning experienced clan shinobi as jōnin instructors to teams consisting of both clan children and newly graduated civilian genin from the Ninja Academy.
Time created bonds.
Groups might possess collective prejudices.
Individuals, however…
Were simply people.
People formed attachments.
And attachments only required time to grow.
Hiruzen believed that, given enough time, the clans would eventually recognize the strengths of civilian shinobi.
Once mutual respect existed…
Everything else would become easier.
Afterward…
Victories earned by civilian shinobi would naturally bring them prestige.
Perhaps one outstanding civilian shinobi could even become Konoha’s next great hero.
Then…
The village could introduce a new law.
Except under special circumstances…
Anyone wishing to become a Konoha genin would first have to graduate from the Ninja Academy.
In that way…
Clan and civilian shinobi would study together, grow up together, and forge bonds that lasted for years.
Eventually…
Those bonds would become unbreakable.
At present…
The major clans did send some of their children to the Academy.
But only as a formality.
Those heirs attended merely to establish connections before eventually entering Konoha’s political circles.
At home…
Their clans continued training them privately in their own techniques.
They contributed almost nothing to the village’s educational system.
And to convince the clans to fully embrace the Academy…
Hiruzen had already chosen the perfect symbol.
Minato Namikaze.
An extraordinarily gifted civilian shinobi.
He silently thanked the Second Hokage for creating the Flying Thunder God Technique.
In truth…
The First Hokage hadn’t been wrong to consider it a forbidden technique.
It was hardly a jutsu that ordinary people could ever hope to master.
Space-Time Ninjutsu simply wasn’t practical for widespread use.
If all one needed was to move rapidly from one location to another…
The Body Flicker Technique was already sufficient for most shinobi.
The Flying Thunder God Technique was vastly more difficult to learn, yet offered little practical benefit for the average ninja.
Under normal circumstances…
It simply wasn’t worth the effort.
But Minato was different.
He possessed a talent unlike anyone else’s.
He had developed the technique beyond its original limitations.
Instead of merely moving from one marked location to another…
He could instantaneously shift between countless marked positions across an entire battlefield.
His extraordinary reflexes allowed him to appear anywhere at any moment…
And respond perfectly to whatever situation awaited him.
That wasn’t something anyone else could replicate.
Perhaps…
Once Minato was gone…
The Flying Thunder God Technique would disappear with him.
To this day…
Hiruzen had never seen anyone else capable of using it that way.
Not even Tobirama Senju, its creator.
To Tobirama…
It had been little more than an exceptionally efficient transportation technique.
That was why Hiruzen had decided to elevate Minato.
He was a civilian shinobi of unmatched talent.
He had even married Kushina Uzumaki, a woman from one of the shinobi world’s great clans.
Surely…
That alone would make the ninja clans more willing to accept him.
At the very least…
The smaller clans would have difficulty openly opposing him.
Now…
Only one thing remained.
Prestige.
Prestige was the hardest thing to obtain.
A shinobi without famous accomplishments might still be incredibly powerful…
But no one would fear them.
And a shinobi whom no one feared…
Would inevitably find someone foolish enough to challenge them.
Sometimes…
That meant dying at the hands of someone utterly insignificant.
Was Hanzo of the Salamander truly so invincible?
Not really.
His reputation had been built because the Five Great Nations all wanted a buffer state between themselves.
Politics had created his legend.
And that legend had become his strength.
Back then…
The young Sannin had indeed been weaker than him.
Now?
Any one of Hiruzen’s three disciples had likely surpassed the man who had once bestowed that title upon them.
That…
Was the power of prestige.
It was invisible.
Yet it could shape reality in unimaginable ways.
Minato possessed extraordinary talent.
He possessed the right background.
The only thing he lacked…
Was fame.
Originally…
Hiruzen had hoped that fame would be built upon the efforts of countless civilian shinobi.
The civilian forces would serve as the backbone of the army.
Clan shinobi would witness those achievements firsthand.
And at the center of it all…
Commander Minato Namikaze would naturally become the face of victory.
Instead…
Things had gone terribly wrong.
The mass-produced civilian forces had not delivered triumph.
They had collapsed.
Their defeat had even dragged many clan shinobi down with them.
Had Minato not possessed the ability to reverse the tide of battle…
The entire plan might have ended in disaster.
Fortunately…
Disaster had been avoided.
The result differed greatly from Hiruzen’s original expectations.
But the ending remained the same.
Konoha had won a decisive victory.
And that victory had transformed Minato Namikaze into a legend.
The clan shinobi whom Minato had saved on the battlefield would naturally feel indebted to him.
In future matters…
Many of them would likely stand at his side.
Now…
Only one final step remained.
A grand performance…
For all of Konoha.
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