Chapter 323: A Moment of Enlightenment Opens Up a Vast New World!

Inside the Hokage's Office in the Hokage Tower, Uchiha Ren and Namikaze Minato sat facing each other. Both wore smiles they could barely conceal.

"How does it feel to be Hokage?"

There had simply been too many things to deal with, and only now had Uchiha Ren finally found an opportunity to be alone with Namikaze Minato and discuss some matters privately.

"Mm... It's pretty good. But it isn't quite as... as..."

Namikaze Minato pondered for a long time, yet he couldn't find the right words to describe his feelings at this moment.

Happy? Excited? Thrilled?

Certainly.

But these emotions weren't nearly as intense as he had imagined they would be. Instead, there was even a faint sense of emptiness.

"That's perfectly normal. You always yearn for what you don't have. Sometimes, you only realize that the process of striving for something was more wonderful after you've actually obtained it."

Uchiha Ren could understand Minato's feelings.

That's simply how people were. The more they lacked something, the more importance they attached to it. Once they obtained it, they often cared about it much less.

It was like that famous saying, "I'm not interested in money." Only someone who had already become a billionaire could say something like that.

If you went back several decades, to when he was desperately going around asking people for investment, would he have been able to say something so shamelessly self-satisfied?

Namikaze Minato laughed and shook his head, sighing somewhat wistfully.

"Back when I watched the Third Hokage sitting in this office, buried under mountains of documents, I used to wonder what being Hokage actually meant. Did becoming Hokage really mean spending every day sitting in an office reading documents?"

"Now, I can finally understand that feeling."

"Don't be fooled by how every document is only a few thin pages. Every single word written on those pages concerns the interests, safety, future, and even lives and deaths of countless people!"

"Every one of these documents weighs as heavily as a mountain."

"That is the responsibility of being Hokage."

Uchiha Ren smiled and nodded.

"Good. The fact that you've recognized the weight of the responsibility on your shoulders means you're one step closer to becoming a qualified Hokage."

"But that's still not enough."

Namikaze Minato suddenly wiped the smile from his face and spoke solemnly.

"To be honest, Ren, what you said at today's jōnin meeting gave me a much deeper understanding of what we're trying to accomplish."

Uchiha Ren was slightly surprised.

"Oh? Which part?"

Namikaze Minato answered seriously:

"What you said when we were discussing the merger of the Konoha Orphanage and the Orphan Support Program. The distinction between ordinary orphans and the orphans of fallen heroes made me realize just how naive my teacher Jiraiya's ideals truly are."

After a pause, Namikaze Minato sighed.

"Teacher Jiraiya has always firmly believed that people can understand one another. He believes that, as long as we find a way for people to understand one another, wars will disappear and a peaceful world will eventually arrive."

"But it wasn't until today that I realized how fundamentally wrong Teacher Jiraiya's ideal is. It's not merely mistaken—it's completely wrong!"

Uchiha Ren became interested.

"Why do you say that?"

Namikaze Minato replied:

"People can indeed understand one another. There's no doubt about that. And there's actually no need to search for some special method to make people understand one another, because that's simply how things are. As long as someone is mentally sound, they naturally possess the ability to put themselves in another person's shoes and understand their perspective."

"Take most of the people in today's conference room. Did they not understand the suffering of the orphans in the Konoha Orphanage? Did they not sympathize with those children's circumstances? Did they not feel guilty about the things they had done in the past?"

"They knew! They knew everything!"

"But even if you gave them another chance to start over, they would still make the same choices!"

"People naturally have those who are close to them and those who are distant from them. When our positions are different, I can understand you, and I can sympathize with you—but that doesn't prevent me from killing you!"

"Because if I don't kill you, you'll kill me!"

"If I don't kill you, I can't answer to my village, and I'll be putting my wife and children in danger. You would face exactly the same situation if you spared me!"

"So mutual understanding alone cannot resolve the fundamental conflict!"

"Only by resolving the fundamental conflicts can we achieve true peace!"

The more Namikaze Minato spoke, the brighter his eyes became. His entire presence seemed to undergo a transformation.

As the saying went, once enlightenment dawns, the world suddenly seems vast and clear.

At this moment, Namikaze Minato felt that everything he looked at had become incomparably clear, and his convictions had grown stronger than ever.

Seeing Minato in this state, Uchiha Ren smiled in satisfaction.

"Exactly. It's just like how shinobi receive missions."

"We might receive a mission to escort someone, while a shinobi from an enemy village receives a mission to assassinate that same person. If either of us fails our mission, not only do we lose the mission reward, but we may also be punished."

"So even if both sides know perfectly well that neither has any personal grudge against the other, and that we're merely carrying out our assigned missions, what difference does that make?"

"We still have to carry out those missions."

Namikaze Minato continued:

"Therefore, if we want to eliminate fundamental conflicts as much as possible, the only solution is unification!"

"Everyone's interests and positions must be brought under a single framework. The higher authorities establish the order, keeping fundamental conflicts within manageable boundaries. Then the system itself provides a way to resolve those conflicts, just like the existence of the Court of Justice!"

"Exactly."

Uchiha Ren nodded.

"That's what we're going to do next."

Namikaze Minato's eyes shone like stars.

"According to our previous plan, the moment I became Hokage was also the moment our plan entered its second accelerated phase. What we need to do now is seize control of Konoha's forces as quickly as possible."

After a pause, Namikaze Minato pondered for a moment before continuing:

"Once you've taken control of the ANBU and the Konoha Military Police Force has completed its reforms, I'll truly have established myself in this position."

"Given the current situation, as long as the Third Hokage and the others don't interfere, we should be able to complete these arrangements within half a month at most."

"But we just received word from Konoha Hospital that the Third Hokage and the others have regained consciousness. They may already know about our relationship."

"With their personalities, they definitely won't sit back and wait for us to act."

"So we need to find a way to keep them occupied!"

Namikaze Minato's concern was not unfounded.

The reason today's jōnin meeting had proceeded so smoothly was precisely because Hiruzen Sarutobi, Tsunemaki Koharu, and Homura Mitokado were absent. Without their leaders, the people under them had been left without direction and could only go along with the proceedings.

Now that Hiruzen Sarutobi and the others had awakened, it would no longer be so easy for Uchiha Ren and Namikaze Minato to make their moves.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of it."

Uchiha Ren remained calm.

"Since they've awakened, we just need to find something to keep them busy."

"Shimura Danzō prepared quite a few pieces of evidence exposing the crimes of Hiruzen Sarutobi, Tsunemaki Koharu, and Homura Mitokado. He did it so that, once his coup succeeded, he could take over as Hokage with legitimate justification."

"As long as we release that evidence, it'll be enough to give them a massive headache for quite some time."

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