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Chapter 266 - Ch266. Timeskip - Konoha: Shikaku Nara

It has been three years since Shikaku became the Hokage and he could proudly proclaim he no longer needed to work 16 hours per day. Nowadays, after the overhaul of the administration system, he managed to finish his daily dose of paperwork in just 10 hours!

\'Now that I think about it... Why am I still working so much?\' Shikaku despondently thought while putting the pen down and releasing a sigh.

"Shikaku Nara! Don\'t you dare to slack! Your approval on these documents is needed in two hours!" Resounded through the closed door to his office.

\'How does my wife even know when I am taking a break?\' Shikaku inwardly grumbled. \'No... the real question is... why is my wife still my secretary?\'

Then again, how does a proper husband fire his own wife without having to live through a hellish home life for the next few decades?

Honestly, Shikaku was stumped.

When he finished the improved administration system, he thought he would finally get his hard-earned freedom. Alas, he was so woefully wrong! Apparently, now that the administration of the village was no longer a mess, Tsunade thought it was time for rapid development.

Needless to say, Shikaku cursed the woman with all his mental prowess.

His paperwork that finally calmed down suddenly quadrupled as the development picked up the pace.

\'I can\'t really complain too much, can I?\' Shikaku wryly thought in distaste as he remembered the reports from Jiraiya\'s spy network.

Sunagakure started developing at an incredible pace and it was rumored their puppetry started to become a lot more dangerous. More and more Konoha ninjas, who encounter a Suna team, return from their mission with a report on the Suna team having at least one puppeteer in their midst.

That was weird in itself and Shikaku thought long and hard about where Sunagakure got so many puppeteers. Sure, it was their specialty but training a good puppeteer was hard and it was usually a skill that was kept in a family. If Sunagakure suddenly started training puppeteers en masse...

Shikaku didn\'t want to think about it. Even with their limited number of puppeteers, Sunagakure deserved a spot among the major five hidden villages. But now, there were rumors of the establishment of a Puppetry Department in Sunagakure that was spewing strong puppeteers one after another.

In these three years, Suna also gained fame through a few of their ninjas. Names like Wind Mistress, Shun Riku, or Scorch Princess... It was honestly weird. Three years ago, Sunagakure had so many problems and yet, now that the Kazekage changed, it was as if they were experiencing a miraculous recovery and sudden rise in power. They were picking up the pace and becoming stronger by the day.

Allies or not, that was a very worrying thing for Konoha.

Another cause for worry was Kirigakure.

\'If having a threat on the left side of the map was not enough, the hidden village on our right side also had to decide to become a pain in the ass.\' Shikaku silently groaned.

Unlike Suna, Kiri had no new famous ninja added in the last three years. That was not a relief though. After all, from the mostly useless reports of Jiraiya\'s spy network, Shikaku could piece together the fact that Kirigakure ninjas no longer sought fame. All of them now wore masks and actually acted like assassins. The only exception was the famous, easily identified people, like the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and the Mizukage.

That was frightening in itself, how the new Mizukage could enforce such obedience in her new troops that they would disregard their desire for recognition. If that was not enough, though, the overall improvement of Kiri troops was also noted. Yet… Konoha had no real way to ascertain to what degree did Kiri\'s military improve.

Kumo and Iwa picked up on this newfound development drive too and tried to emulate Kiri and Suna. Yet… their leaders were not administrators. They were a muscle-brained fighter and a geezer set in his ways. Needless to say, the rate of development in Iwagakure and Kumogakure was really slow and could be outright disregarded.

\'At least… Now that every village focuses on self-improvement, there is no time for war.\' Shikaku chuckled.

He really wondered how the two weakest villages could improve so much in just short three years when the supposedly strongest villages failed to follow their pace. The most maddening was the fact these villages not only improved in military matters but also in their economy. Three years ago, only Konoha could boast of being semi-autonomous thanks to the high rate of civilians present in the village.

Now?

Now both Kiri and Suna were completely fine on their own. Kiri no longer needed funds from the Water Daimyo and was actually strong enough to keep the man quietly satisfied with what he had left of his influence. Suna... the new Kazekage, Pakura of the Scorch, was a friend of the Wind Daimyo. Unlike when Rasa was in command, Pakura got whatever she asked from the Wind Daimyo. Not that Suna needed anything from the guy considering Pakura\'s affiliation with the Uzushio Trading Company.

\'Yet another concern...\' Shikaku wanted to cry.

In the last three years, a relic of the past started to rear its head. Uzushio ninjas...

Shikaku was ninety-five percent sure they did not originate from Uzu Islands though.

If it was just one occasion, it would be nothing suspicious but a massive number of missions being assigned and accomplished by an organized group of people without any identification? Clearly, there was a new major player present in the world.

This new party\'s troops usually wore no visible identification mark on their bodies and operated in remote countries so information about them was scarce but after a few years of activity, it was definitely noticed.

The leaders of the five major hidden villages were very curious about who was the new player. The smarter ones surely noticed that the rapid rise of Uzushio happened just a few years before the appearance of these new individuals.

Or, at least, that was the conclusion Shikaku came to after putting a lot of consideration into the matter. Not that he could actually accuse Uzushio of being a hidden ninja village when the fact they ceased all ninja activity was already established and proved by various inspectors from other countries. As far as international politics was concerned, Uzushio was untouchable.

If anybody tried to attack Uzushio... a supposedly civilian village that focused on trading... it would be the start of a new ninja war. Uzushio had too many connections with the foreign Daimyos. Too many profitable deals with other countries. Attacking them was a sure-fire way to give other nations a righteous reason and Daimyos\' permission to gang up on the poor idiot who would try.

\'Yeah, there is no way anything like Kumo, Iwa, and Kiri pulled off in the past happening again.\' Shikaku thought.

The new mysterious group of ninjas was not yet a threat and they did operate in countries that were quite far from the hidden villages. Shikaku felt something wrong about the entire situation though.

When even Tsunade forbade him to focus on them...

Well, let\'s just say he found something fishy going on in the world and his \'Daimyo\' was definitely involved. That only proved Shikaku\'s personal theory of these ninjas being from Uzushio. After all, Tsunade was a \'quarter\' Uzumaki and if there was one fact he knew about Uzumakis, it was that the Uzumaki clan did not believe in such a thing as a partial Uzumaki. If you had Uzumaki blood, you were an Uzumaki. Simple as that. And Uzumaki always stuck up for each other.

They were stubborn like that.

Then again, thinking about it would be too troublesome so he let it go. Hokage or not, Shikaku was aware the position lost most of its power when Tsunade took the reins. Even if he could prove that Tsunade did not work for the benefit of Konoha... What then? After all, she was the new Daimyo of the lands on which Konoha was built. Tsunade\'s interest WAS Konoha\'s interest. How could he actually accuse her of being a traitor when she was literally the person who decided the definition of the word \'traitor\' around these parts of the world?

It was easier and much more logical to accept Konoha now belonged to a Senju that just happened to be an Uzumaki too.

\'The world changed...\' Shikaku sighed as he signed another paper. \'What a drag.\' He added with a lazy grin.

He couldn\'t really complain all that much. Even if Tsunade was in some way betraying what Hiruzen Sarutobi would dub the \'Will of Fire\', Konoha was flourishing under her rule to a degree no other Hokage could boast of. Even a blind idiot would realize that. The village was wealthier, stronger, and... surprisingly more united.

The Nara clan was under Tsunade\'s command from the start anyway. The agreements signed upon Konoha\'s creation would ensure that. There was no reason for Shikaku to worry about Tsunade\'s political moves in the village. No way to really alarm anyone who did not realize what was happening yet. His clan was in the clear and that was what really mattered to him most.

Yet... Shikaku could only marvel at how quickly clans like Aburame, Inuzuka, or Kurama... clans that were not really Senju supporters, suddenly became more amiable towards Tsunade and acknowledged her as their ruler.

While he was slaving away under the heavy strain of the paperwork and his wife\'s nagging, Tsunade was clearly subtly moving her agenda forward, getting Konoha under her thumb.

Shikaku found it laughable, yet admirable.

For the first time since the creation of Konoha, the ruling concept of the village was followed to a tee.

A real dictatorship was slowly being established without anybody even noticing or saying anything.