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A little bit of time passed, a little coolness was added to the original heat, and the ears of rice in the fields were gradually pressed down on their heads.

The world was never a good place, it was, it is, and it will be.

But at the very least, the absence of war for an entire year made it easier for everyone.

Especially the people of the Land of Fire.

In this era of wildly expanding capital, even ordinary people had eaten some of the dividends of the times...

However it wasn't really that there was no more war, it was just that the place where the war broke out was more secretive and fiery...

After a period of frantic tugging and pulling, Terumi Mei and Takagi each received twelve votes, and the two parties were considered to be temporarily tied.

However, these last remaining twelve votes would inevitably become the centerpiece of the fight between the two.

But this last remaining twelve senior upper ninja, all very old... without a doubt, this is very unfavorable to Terumi Mei, who represents the young faction and the reform faction.

On the contrary, there was only a little over a month left before the final general election vote.

Such a short period of time made it impossible for Makoto and Terumi Mei to carry out some plans with slightly longer results...

"An open-air speech... huh, a conservative would do such a thing? It's quite an interesting opponent we've got this time around - but camp-wise, it's kind of a victory for us. After all, those old farts, they shouldn't be doing this kind of thing."

Even though the situation was already very tense, Makoto was still paralyzed in his white plastic chair, joking with Yagura who was beside him.

In response to Makoto's optimism, Yagura could only roll his eyes and wiggle his two short legs that couldn't touch the ground to show his protest.

Makoto didn't care about Yagura's attitude, he just looked at the calm lake in front of him, as well as the noisy crowd, quietly lost in thought.

That's right, this time, they didn't talk about things in the hospital as they did before, but rather in the forest surrounding Konoha.

The powerful and discreet Hokage's immediate guard had pulled out a restricted area in the forest for Hokage and his friends to play in.

This time, it wasn't just Makoto and Yagura who came out; Makoto's family and children, as well as some of Makoto's favored seedlings, and even their parents, had all come here.

This included the future Konoha twelve little powerhouses, as well as some of the younger generation who had already begun to show their talents, and even foreign students like Muku had also come along.

Because of Hokage's special opening, the children were not restricted in any way today, and could happily run wildly and play on the grass.

The adults who were traveling with them looked on and didn't reproach, at most telling the children to be more careful.

Some of the adults were bored, so they called their friends and made a barbecue. Some adults really can not help what help, simply on the side of the mahjong, the atmosphere can be said to be a happy.

Now that the heat of summer is gradually gone, the blue sky and white clouds make people feel happy. Some of the children with extraordinary talents even started to joke with kekkei genkai users using the ninjutsu they had just learned.

Among them, the most dazzling of course was Uchiha Itachi.

A beautiful ball of hot flames was enough to make him the king of the children.

Of course, Haku was also very powerful.

After all, the Hyoton kekkei genkai was an everlasting god during the summer. No little kid could resist the temptation of a popsicle - Yagura's eyes went green when he looked at Haku. The last member of the Hyoton clan that he had his heart set on was just cut off from his roots by Makoto.

Hokage's wife, no matter what, can not be pulled to the cold chain as hard labor... As for revitalizing the Hyoton clan... anyway, there is little hope in two generations.

Yagura turned his head, deciding not to look at the scene in front of him that made him so miserable that he almost wanted to stay.

Konoha had too many powerful people.

What killed him was that Makoto also focused on cultivation.

Nine years later, most of the children in the group in front of him will grow up and continue to thicken the backbone of Konoha... The gap between Konoha and the other four villages not only won't be narrowed, but instead, it will become bigger and bigger with the passage of time...

"You guys, are you really prepared to do nothing?"

"Do nothing? That certainly won't..."

Regarding the matter of the Mizukage campaign, Makoto had naturally been paying attention.

It had to be said that while there were certainly a lot of maniacs in the ninja world, these guys more or less had two tricks up their sleeves, and there weren't many true pure scrappers instead.

Like Nagato has super kage level strength, as long as he is willing to pay the price, completely can level a ninja village in a short period of time.

Hiruko himself is of average strength, but that Chimera jutsu of his can simply be described as ghostly to the extreme, with an extremely high theoretical ceiling.

If combined with the artificial human technology of Aunt Snake's or Iwagakure's, it would theoretically be possible for all people in the ninja world to have kekkei genkai.

Even the Chakra Armor that Kazehana Doto, the Sun Thief, had come up with was something interesting - the high cost of construction was indeed a big problem, but it didn't stop the thing itself from being of excellent quality.

It could fly, increase the power of jutsu, and even give ninjas a massive boost in ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu resistance.

Kage level and above might not be able to use it, but the boost to the Chunin and Jonin ninja was quite obvious.

If it is not that this thing is really no way to mass produce for the time being, Makoto has long gone to the long door to grab someone... to let this thing slowly study the chant.

Love may not be able to save everything, but hate is definitely a huge push. With his hatred for his brother as well as Konoha, Kazehana Doto is working in the genesis every day.

Predictably, after a few years, he should be able to complete the cheap remodeling.

It wouldn't be too late to grab it then.

Even this guy named Takagi was actually somewhat competent.

This person's battle strength was average, and he could only be considered an elite upper ninja. And he wasn't the same as last year's Makoto - at that time, although Makoto was also an Elite Jonin, he was superior because he was young. With enough resources, even without the system, it was still possible to move up a level.

But that wasn't the case with Takagi.

He was already too old and had long since exhausted his potential.

But it was also because of his average talent that he was able to get to where he was today, literally by taking one step at a time and fighting his way out alive with his life and blood.

He was different from those big shots who were high up in the world but didn't even know how many ryos an egg was worth.

He had suffered, been tired, and had had his share of credit and hard work.

He knew exactly what the bottom ninjas wanted, and gave his answer within his own wisdom and experience.

It couldn't be called perfect, but it was a way out in the end.

He had held an open-air lecture not long ago, and it had been extremely effective.

Ninjas were actually not very good at giving speeches because of years of tradition.

-Naturally, it was that damned ninja tool theory at work again.

Now that Takagi had set this precedent, the ninja, while surprised, couldn't help but respect him a little more.

After all, he was really trying to figure out a way to prepare to lead Kiri, which had been screwed over by Obito, to rise again.

-Putting aside the facts, if we just talk about Takagi as a person, he was actually a ninja with a very perfect resume.

He was never an invincible ninja, and in the course of his missions, he failed many times, and even he himself came close to death several times.

But of so many mistakes, none of them were caused by himself.

Or his superior's judgment was wrong, as a subordinate he could only carry out the order.

Or the enemy's strength is too strong, no matter how hard he tries, can not be defeated, and ultimately can only give as much as possible to the other side of the damage after the regrettable defeat...

The defeat was certainly bitter, but the sin was not his. Now he grabbed in front of Terumi Mei to buy people's hearts... In fact, from the political spectrum, Takagi this person is very much a little bit towards the reformists.

From Makoto's point of view, the reason why he was willing to accept some advanced things might not be that he really just wanted to be so, but that he had to take some compromises because his strength didn't reach the Kage level.

But regardless, he was still guiding the changes to spread through Kiri.

Black and red was also red, and a single bet was also a bet.

But unfortunately, even if he is willing to accept some changes, he cannot change his stubbornness - he will not accept alliance with Konoha under any circumstances.

For Konoha, that reason alone was enough.

"So, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to... No, they here."

Yagura followed Makoto Makoto's gaze and found that the two old acquaintances, Kakashi and Shikaku, were walking towards them with a great beauty with a thousand beautiful features.

This great beauty had a graceful figure, and her gaze was so radiant that one couldn't help but fall their eyes on her for a long time.

Yagura felt that this big beauty was familiar, just for a moment I didn't think of it... is this not Terumi Mei?

Terumi Mei, who had undergone professional make-up, made Yagura, who was incredibly familiar with her, not recognize her for a moment - the three major evil arts are really not just blown away.

T/N: the 'three major evil arts' refers to the "Three Evils of Xiangxi"; first being 'corpse driving', second being 'releasing poison', third being 'the girl from Luohua Cave', which is actually an interpretation of a poignant love story

Of course, this had something to do with the fact that Terumi Mei basically didn't wear any makeup and kept her face plain.

After all, this is not the secondary world, no matter how natural god face, there will always be some flaws after age. And a highly skilled makeup artist...

Yagura suddenly understood something.

"You are thinking..."

Makoto affirmed his guess.

"Well, actually, I do think that the speech is a good way to go. Times are changing, and the way shinobi are elected has to change as well. In the past, there was no channel of communication between the ninja at the bottom and the Kage at the top. What the bottom ninja were thinking, we Kagesdidn't really know - that's why rouge-nins were repeatedly banned. -

"But on the flip side, very often, the demands of the Genin ninjas aren't too high, and can even be considered reasonable. If you can harvest a lot of support from people with just a little bit of money, then why not do it... -

"Speech this way is very good, not only let both sides have a channel of communication, but also let the bottom layer ninja know the Kage's governance program as well as the thought process, it can reduce very much trouble in an invisible way. -

"That's why I've decided to help Terumi Mei with her televised speech, and after it's carried out to a certain extent, I'll even consider letting her and Takagi have a televised debate."

Ninjas were strong in individual combat, but hidden villages were, after all, small in number, and were actually much more manageable and much easier to campaign for compared to large, populous nations.

It was just that there was no previous precedent of this kind for a hidden village.

Yagura heard Makoto Makoto say that and thought it was an okay idea.

"A television set? We in Kiri aren't like you Konoha, we don't have that many televisions."

"Then find a way to distribute them. Anyway, with so many loans, for TV sets, you can buy as many as you want - think of your own ways and reasons, anyway, don't give them away for nothing, and don't say they're made in Konoha is all."

Yagura understood, and agreed that it was a good idea.

After all, no matter how effective an open-air speech was, there was a limit to the range of influence. And the television set as the most powerful means of communication at present, if it can reach out... Yagura of course knows that here there is Makoto this bastard to take advantage of the opportunity to promote the television set, but this kind of is just a small section, not too important...

But...

"Directly against the line? But if we're talking about governance experience, I'm afraid she's no match for Takagi."

Takagi couldn't be said to be an excellent Kage, and in the face of Kiri's current problems, the solutions he proposed were basically in ninja vision.

It was experience piled on experience, not wisdom in the true sense of the word.

If he were to go up against Makoto, Kiri would be played to death by him within ten moves.

In this regard, Terumi Mei's performance was much better.

But Terumi Mei is ultimately too young... This accumulation of close to twenty years of experience is not something that can be easily surpassed.

In Yagura's original plan, now was far from the time to let Terumi Mei go up.

He had originally prepared to raise Terumi Mei for a few more years, to accumulate a little more experience and prestige, and to be a little stronger.

When the time was almost right, at the cost of sacrificing his political life, he would take away those old undead and give Terumi Mei a clean Kiri.

You say that offline, they can still help the field. But online directly against each other, that is too eat individual ability...

This was a campaign that Yagura and Terumi Mei couldn't afford to lose.

"Yes, but Terumi Mei is pretty."

"...Because of that?"

"What else could it be?"

Throughout history, no matter what, humans have always looked at faces.

Those who look "pretty" have a huge advantage in society - this pretty is not necessarily white and thin.

If Zhong Kui looks a bit more handsome...

T/N: Zhong Kui is a Taoist deity in Chinese mythology, regarded as a vanquisher of ghosts and evil beings

No matter how deep Jack is, if he becomes like Quasimodo, he probably won't have any further development with Rose.

T/N: above, Jack and Rose from the Titanic; Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo

Seriously speaking, Le Zong can be regarded as a direct beneficiary of his good looks - after all, who doesn't like a sunny and cheerful boy like him who loves to laugh.

T/N: 'Le Zong' is a nickname given by the Chinese to the former president, Jogn F. Kennedy, the name was given to him because there is often the word "fun" (Le) included in his meme template

And Terumi Mei words...

If you want to say who has the first face in the Hokage world, then everyone must have their own opinion, after all, each has his own favorite radish and green vegetable. But no matter in which order, Terumi Mei is the first sequence.

Plate is straight and smooth also can fight, will be Terumi Mei's biggest advantage.

Think about it, in front of the TV, one is a youthful and beautiful Land of Water big girl, while the other is a sinister and cold face, not like a good bird Takagi...

"It can be my experience that even though many young male ninja, as well as some kunoichi, will vote because of their face value, or even recklessly, the ones who vote are those senior shinobi after all. They value a person's ability and virtue more than face value..."

"Indeed, the older generation of ninjas are indeed like that, or else someone like me would have been gotten killed ten thousand times already."

Makoto snapped his fingers.

"But what if... I mean is there a possibility that Takagi is an ultimate shoujo control, peeping tom, scumbag who spoiled Onii-chan's future and happiness but dares to do nothing?"

At this time Terumi Mei and Kakashi had already arrived in front of the two kages.

Hearing this, Terumi Mei directly shook her head.

"Even if Takagi and I don't get along and have different views on the future. But I also know that he is never like that."

Takagi was an ordinary ninja born without a kekkei genkai in his body, and because of the constant war, his original family and friends had died in battle one after another.

When he was young, he had also pursued girls, but he was quickly disheartened by the war. Later, when he got older, he even stopped thinking about getting married and took in an adopted son.

Now that he has turned to politics, I am afraid that some things have not been done less.

But this kind of thing everyone is the same.

As for Makoto mouth out of those...

At the very least, in the hidden village that emphasizes intelligence gathering per capita, a matter is covered up even better, more or less some wind rumors come out. Takagi has been in the village for so many years, never had any rumors in this regard, that is basically the same as never having done it.

Makoto ignored Terumi Mei.

Kakashi fished his notebook out of his arms.

"Don't they usually like little girls? After all, little girls can be examined for injuries, whereas in the case of little boys, it's just a matter of free heart evidence."

"That's what I thought at first."

Makoto answered Kakashi seriously.

"But we have to take some other factors into consideration when laying down the black material... Look at Yagura's guy's face, isn't he a total shota? We can take the conversation in that direction. The following is a forbidden area for shinobi."

Yagura frowned and finally shook his head.

"No, it's too deliberate."

"I think it's okay, right?"

"No, I mean, Takagi knows what kind of character I am. He likes me like that? That's too much of a taste, it's not very logical."

"If that's the case... then it's indeed an oversight on my part, so let's change it to a little girl. Ah, today's weather is so nice... Shikaku, I'm relying on you in this regard, I'm too lazy to think about it, make it a whole lot prettier."

Shikaku, who was on the side, hurriedly said yes.

"Yes, Hokage-sama!"

Countless tic-tac-toe characters appeared on Terumi Mei's forehead.

She began to sympathize with Takagi a bit.

Because she knew very clearly that this was just the beginning... For his enemies, Makoto would definitely drive them to extinction.