Chapter 62

[A/N: I had a hard time with this chapter, mostly the second half where I scrapped a whole idea I had because it might have been too dangerous, not for the Mc but for the fanfiction as a whole, which made me choose what you will read instead.]

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*Two years later*

"What do you think about your respective teams?" I asked as I was sitting behind my desk in the Hokage's Office, a bunch of papers stacked around me

"Mine exhibited quite the teamwork during the bell test, and it made me remember the past... An arrogant genius, a hardworking dreamer, and a kind yet prone to anger girl because of a certain someone." a spiky blond hair young man said with a smile but it was quickly replaced by a painful expression as a red-haired girl said "Who're you calling prone to anger uh?" while pinching Minato's side

"Let the boy go Kushina, you're only illustrating his words..." I said as I waved my hand and sighed at her childish attitude

She stopped and started pouting as she replied "Hmpf! Even Kurama is agreeing with you, traitor!" seemingly blaming the poor fox as well

Coughing, Minato added "Anyway... I think that Kakashi will become an exceptional shinobi, I already felt Sakumo's training when they faced me during the test, he used his father's Tantō well, and his talent with Ninjutsu is surprising."

That's true, even though Kakashi did not graduate as early as he did in the canon, mostly because both of his parents are still alive so he didn't become someone angsty, he had the time to be trained by Sakumo and his Kenjutsu abilities were on point.

"Then I have that boy, Obito Uchiha, he's... Average in terms of skills and do not think before acting, however, he demonstrated a strong driving force to push himself forwards, and it's most likely related to a rivalry with Kakashi Hatake." Minato added as he surely remembered something funny happening during the test considering his smirking expression

True to be told, I did not know who Obito's parents were, but when I learned about him, I found out that his parents were already dead and that he was taken care of by his grandmother.

Scratching my chin, I asked "He didn't awaken his Sharingan did he?" which made Minato nod in agreement so I suggested "An Uchiha's true potential is always appearing when they awaken their Dōjutsu... I believe that this boy can become exceptional as long as I give him a 'little push'."

Minato raised his eyebrows as he exclaimed "You want to forcefully awaken his Sharingan?"

"In a way, yes, but I will not help him for free, instead, I will put him under a Genjustu that will test his will... Like I did to you back then." I replied with a smile and Minato shivered when he remembered the test I gave him when he told me that he loved Kushina

"Lastly there is that girl, Rin Nohara, she's physically weak, I can't deny that, but she proved to have a strong will, kindness, great thinking abilities, as she stayed calm during the whole test no matter how stressful it became." he continued to which I hinted "Might as well try and make her learn Medical Jutsu, she has the requirements."

"I think so too, but I am far from being able to teach her... I will have to ask someone competent in the subject." Minato said as he faked a pondering expression while Kushina was starting to proudly puff her chest

"Tsunade might not be able to help you on that one, at least for now." I said with a smirk to which he teasingly replied "Then I r-e-a-l-l-y don't see who could help her."

"STOP BULLYING ME-DATTEBANE!" Kushina shouted as her hair started to float with fire bursting from her, while her face was red

Both Minato and I laughed when we saw how 'mad' she was from being teased, but Minato defused the bomb by exclaiming "Are you sure you can afford to help one of my team members while you have to take care of yours?"

Calming a little, Kushina replied "None of my team members are likely to learn Medical Jutsu, so if I can have my own student and prove that I am worthy of being moth- Tsunade's pupil, I won't let the chance escape my grasp." as she slightly coughed when she talked about Tsunade

Minato stopped arguing and finally accepted Kushina's proposal.

"And you Kushina, how's your team?" I asked as I was still doing paperwork the whole time we conversed

Snickering, she replied "You gave me three training junkies! They only want to work and do not even protest when they have to do D ranked missions, and none of them complain when I pun- I mean, scold them, yeah scold them during training." as she scratched her cheek embarrassedly

Facepalming, I was glad that I choose those kids since they would be able to withstand Kushina's behavior.

The first one was Maito Gai, Dai's son, and his abilities were the same as you expected, coming from a green-suited hairy boy who was terrible at Ninjutsu, unlike his father who could but wasn't interested in it, at least not until he became the Four-Tails Jinchūriki and added some subtle Ninjutsu moves in his arsenal.

Dai and Gai had their training every single day at 4 a.m, and although people kept calling them weirdos, Dai was still one of the strongest Taijutsu Jōnin, and so would be his son.

He was an extremely 'youthful' boy and I couldn't help but pray for his teammates since I knew what it was to be with someone like that as a Genin and a Chūnin.

The good part though was that having someone like that as a friend was frankly great, and you end up enjoying their antics, or maybe get used to them, I still don't know.

I then put Yugito Nii under Kushina, a choice that was obvious considering that Kushina taught, and still teaches, her how to use and control her Tailed Beast's powers, all while keeping a good relationship with Matatabi.

Yugito was proficient in Taijutsu as well, though she was largely capable of using Ninjutsu, fire, and lightning in particular.

She has a wild battle style and although I didn't put her with Kakashi, her crush who she trained with when she was still at the Academy, she did not ask to change team, as Gai was also her training buddy since he and his father stayed in the Senju Compound from the day Dai came back with his son.

The last Genin was an Uzumaki girl who was born in Konoha and did not experience Uzushiogakure's destruction.

She was proficient in Fūinjutsu and loved Taijutsu as well, while Kushina was her idol and her role model... As bad as it sounded.

"Considering the current situation of Konoha, I will let you decide what kind of mission you want to take with your teams, but no matter what, I do not want any of them to confront Iwa and Suna at the frontline, they are too young and inexperienced to face the horror of war, and we are not in dire need of shinobi." I said, which made the couple in front of me reply "Yes, Hokage-sama!"

After that, Kushina left first and before Minato could leave, I asked him "So, when are you going to ask her?" which made him think about it just for an instant before he replied "Ah you're talking about that... Honestly, I will do it once the war is over."

Smirking, I nodded in agreement and allowed him to leave the office.

Back to the main topic, Suna and Iwa did start another war, against us exclusively though, but neither Kumo and Kiri are taking part in it, meaning that it couldn't be called the Third Shinobi World War.

As much as I could do what I did at Kiri and Kumo to them, it wasn't so simple.

First, I am now the Hokage, and no matter the village, a Hokage isn't someone who should go in the frontline unless truly needed or even infiltrate an opposing country, the only exceptions were the Third Raikage and the Second Mizukage who were shameless enough to directly assault Uzushiogakure, thought they were 'only' leading their troops, in a way.

Second, although I am respected and loved by almost everyone from Konoha, doing everything by myself in a war would be far from appreciated by our shinobi.

After all, they learned all their life that they had to protect their 'family', to protect Konoha, the Will of Fire is so deeply rooted within them that simply watching me do all the work while they have no contribution whatsoever would not just tarnish their honor but their existence as Konoha's shinobi itself.

And honestly, making this war a bit longer will be useful for me since they are not deploying their Jinchūriki from the start and keep them well hidden for now, while their arrogance will grow with time, allowing me to not only get my hand on two out of the three Tailed Beasts' chakra but also get rid of certain targets while making one particular woman an ally.

The moment I learn about the One-Tails or Five-Tails Jinchūriki's presence on the battlefield will be the moment of their death.

Sensing someone coming, I inquired "What's the matter, Shikuro?" as the Aburame appeared inside of the office while kneeling

"I found the trace of the missing-nin you asked me to find, and as you expected, he killed a Kekkei Genkai user at the frontline before 'vanishing' from everyone's sight." Shikuro informed me which made me smirk while he gave me a scroll containing more information

'So he killed the Swift Release Kunoichi from Suna huh' I thought before looking back to Shikuro to order "Keep on watching his every movement, we will not hunt him down for now unless he tries something against Konoha... The more powerful he gets by killing our foes, the better it will be for us in the end."

"Yes." Shikuro said before vanishing with a puff of smoke, back to his duties

The man in question was named Hiruko, a frail and thin white-haired man that was actually with us at the Academy but graduated later.

He was supposedly the Sannin's friend in the 'canon' but my presence caused this to change, making him a nobody... To the point that I only remembered him when I learned about the Swift Release kunoichi back in the Second Shinobi World War.

I mean, there was also Dan Katō who was our age but started the Academy later than any of us, so we never interacted and I only heard about his deeds against Suna, without any other interaction between us.

'Except that I technically NTRed him' I thought as I chuckled

Nevertheless, I will need to talk with Orochimaru about Hiruko because his 'Chimera Technique' would become useful for us if we want to create a perfect artificial body for Kaguya.

And if I remember correctly, he only got the idea for the technique once he saw Kakashi with Obito's Sharingan... But my presence might have given him the idea before intended since I can use many different Kekkei Genkai for seemingly no reason.

Not that I complain, because even though I know about such Kinjutsu from the anime, I cannot replicate them since there is near to no information about their creation, and it could be too dangerous to try it myself.

Talking about Kinjutsu, I am also interested in Kakuzu's 'Earth Grudge Fear' since it might be useful for our experimentation as well, but this will be for later.

I then felt something and with a smile, I continued to work like usual while feeling the original's current state of happiness.

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"-And then Shisui-niisan made all of them shut up in a single move!" Tsugumi cheerfully said as she was sitting on my lap while I was rubbing her hair with a dumb smile on my face

"Language young girl." Tsunade said as she looked daggers at Tsugumi, making the young girl flinch

"Coming from you, how ironic." I said as I rolled my eyes before snickering, only to be rewarded by a strong pinch from her

"Please, don't be too hard on father or Tsugumi, it's my fault if she learned such rude words from those children." the young Shisui said as he was sitting with us in our garden to enjoy the evening

Some peaceful family time after their first day of physical training at the Academy… Which happened to be a bit special, for Shisui that is.

Both Tsugumi and Shisui were four, although Shisui was soon hitting five, and their classmate happened to be filled by children that would never make a name for themselves.

Now don't get me wrong, some known people are born the same year as them, such as Yamato, Umino Iruka, and Gekko Hayate.

But the rest was truly not of interest, and like any average child, they badmouthed Shisui because he was an 'orphan from a noble clan who take advantage of the Hokage's kindness'.

Honestly, I couldn't understand how stupid you had to be to say such a thing, even more when he's far from being the only orphan in their class... The only reason I could think of to be like that however is some sort of jealousy since all of them look up to me and surely associate the fact that he comes from a noble clan, the Uchiha Clan, with the only reason for his adoption.

As such, they taunted him by saying that he wouldn't be able to beat them in all the tests they had to go through today, that him coming from a Clan meant nothing in terms of skill.

Needless to say that Shisui proved them wrong since he was trained early by yours, truly, even if it wouldn't have made any difference considering how smart he was.

After all, Shisui is one terrifying genius, and a child with a mind growing faster than his body for sure.

When he was nearly two years old, I used Kunitokotachi on him and 'discovered' the Genjutsu he was put under from Black Zetsu, or technically his mother.

I was able to override the Genjutsu but when I realized how it worked, I had to do something a bit unethical.

See, the Genjutsu used on him was not only making him completely loyal to Black Zetsu but was making Shisui capable of thinking or acting as if he was already an adult, but only unconsciously, whenever Black Zetsu asked him for something.

And getting rid of the Genjutsu meant that Shisui wouldn't be capable of tricking Black Zetsu,

therefore, I decided to reverse the order he received by making him loyal to me instead, but would only work whenever Black Zetsu order him something.

He would essentially be a double spy as he would be put under the same trance Black Zetsu expected him to be, but all for my own profit.

'I may be able to get rid of Black Zetsu sooner than I intended now' I thought as I smiled inwardly before saying "Don't blame yourself either Shisui." to which he nodded but I knew that he wouldn't stop blaming himself every time Tsugumi does something stupid or reckless

He was overprotective of her and even asked me for training sooner than expected, which I gladly accepted.

Talking about Tsugumi, she was a hyperactive child, she loved fighting and challenge like me and inherited Tsunade's gambling addiction as well as her crappy luck... Yeah, she lost a gamble against Tsunade herself.

Nevertheless, she had silky white hair, although they were denser than mine, looking more like Tsunade's, her eyes were beautifully golden, slightly different from Tsunade's amber eyes, she was still small in height compared to children her age, and had the same complex Tsunade had at that age.

Power-wise, she had the same absurd physical strength, stamina, and self-healing as us, which may be related to her being Asura's reincarnation... Yeah, since the last known one was Hashirama and the next one would have been Naruto, she seems to have become the current reincarnation.

She revealed signs of being capable of using Wood Release, had the same affinity with natural energy as Hashirama but couldn't use it yet, has a great innate sensing ability, and could potentially become a great medical-nin as well.

All in all, I was extremely happy to know that my daughter could become extremely powerful, enough to defend herself in case I couldn't be there.

Looking back at my daughter, I saw her take out a lollipop and asked "Where did you get this?"

Tsugumi looked up at me as she was going to eat the candy and said "Eikichi-sensei gave it to me and said that he was pleased to have taught the Hokage back then and could now teach his daughter."

'I didn't expect this old man to still teach children at the Academy' I thought as I remembered that he was now 62 years old, and surely kept his antics of presenting himself too much

"Don't eat too many candies Tsugumi, or you will become like your mo-" I tried to say but was sent flying away by Tsunade while Tsugumi somehow stayed in place and simply fell with her butt on the ground, with a surprised look on her face as she didn't understand how it was even possible

"Geez, you'll never change, now Tsugumi will think that's how you get a husband." I said as I cracked my neck and was glad to be so tough

"Isn't that the case?" she declared with a smirk but I quickly retorted "I could tell you many reasons as to why I fell in love with you but you would become too embarrassed before hearing them all... But getting punched in the face isn't one of them, it simply does not bother me since I'm tough enough to not feel any pain from it, and might be one of the few who can withstand them since you never hold back with me."

"Weren't you the one that told me to resolve any problems by punching?" she asked with an oblivious expression as I barely finished talking

My mouth was still opened from my previous dialogue and stayed hanging for a while before I replied "...Fair point, I did tell you to do that." which earned Tsugumi's giggles

'Being a father is truly great after all' I thought with a smile as I saw my cute daughter's cheerful expression

And it was an even bigger reason for me to get rid of Black Zetsu and the Ōtsutsuki Clan.