After the crowd gradually dispersed, only Hiruzen Sarutobi and Kiyohara were left.
Naturally, things like the Hokage's responsibilities, the village's assets, and all the other details had to be personally handed over by Hiruzen himself.
Kiyohara listened patiently.
After all, from now on, those assets would be his.
As for stepping down, unless he truly got tired of it, Kiyohara had no intention of retiring.
And as for his lifespan, even he himself had no idea how long it might now be.
With so many bloodlines in him, Kiyohara's vitality was overwhelming. He also carried genetic traits from toads and white snakes that prolonged life.
In a way, this was basically an ultra-low-budget version of a chakra fruit.
After all, a chakra fruit had two core components: one was an unimaginable amount of natural energy, and the other was the genetic information left behind by all life on the earth.
Because a chakra fruit gathered the genetic factors of countless living things, anyone who consumed it would evolve in a certain direction.
"Third Hokage-sama, what I want to know is where the village stores its sealing techniques."
Kiyohara spoke.
He wanted to know where the vault was.
He had never been to a place like that before. The techniques he had exchanged for through war merit had all been copied scrolls, not the originals from storage.
"Come with me."
Hiruzen simply assumed Kiyohara was eager to learn, so he motioned for him to follow.
Kiyohara nodded and went after him.
Not long after, Hiruzen led him into a basement.
The place was heavily guarded. After passing through a barrier, Kiyohara saw something that looked almost like a library.
It held a huge number of scrolls, and Kiyohara quickly noticed that most of them were Uzumaki sealing techniques.
Besides those, there were also ancient sealing arts from the Warring States era, along with sealing techniques developed by small clans and even civilian shinobi.
"This is Konoha's sealing arts archive."
Hiruzen spoke.
"Most of the sealing techniques collected by the Hokage over the years are stored here."
Kiyohara's gaze moved across the rows of scrolls.
The Warring States Sealing History…
Where was it?
With Kiyohara's powerful dynamic vision, even scrolls far away were clear enough for him to read their titles.
After searching for a while, he finally spotted an old-looking scroll tucked away in one corner.
The writing on it read, unmistakably: The Warring States Sealing History.
Kiyohara walked over and picked it up.
The paper was rough and the edges worn down, proof of its age.
He opened it slightly and glanced inside.
Those dense blocks of text, those complex sealing formulas, those records of secret sealing knowledge from the Warring States era…
This was it.
Kiyohara's heart stirred.
Power really was convenient. Once you became the one in charge, a single word was enough to get something like this.
If he hadn't become Hokage, even borrowing it would have required some effort.
Some things couldn't be obtained through merit alone. They had to go through layer after layer of approval.
"I want this one."
He turned and looked at Hiruzen.
Hiruzen glanced at the scroll and nodded.
"I never delved too deeply into sealing arts. If you want it, take it."
Then he asked, "Anything else?"
"No. Just this."
Kiyohara shook his head.
There would be plenty of time later to learn the rest. Right now, this was all he wanted.
"That's fine."
A trace of relief and satisfaction passed through Hiruzen's eyes.
"If only Orochimaru had been more like you."
In Hiruzen's eyes, Kiyohara really didn't seem like an Uchiha at all.
If anything, he was more like himself.
A shinobi so eager to learn was genuinely rare.
Once, Orochimaru had been Hiruzen's pride too—the student he thought resembled him most.
Sadly, Orochimaru had gone down the wrong path.
After hearing that speech about immortality earlier, Hiruzen truly felt Orochimaru had gone mad.
A perfectly good shinobi, instead of studying proper ninja arts, had become obsessed with immortality—something that went against the natural order.
"You flatter me, Third Hokage-sama. Orochimaru is brilliant too."
Kiyohara had dropped the honorific he used for Orochimaru.
When it came to status, Kiyohara now outranked him.
"He is brilliant. That's what makes it such a pity."
Hiruzen let out a sigh.
Kiyohara understood. Hiruzen was clearly still shaken by what Orochimaru had said earlier that day.
Which made sense.
The ninja world was, in a lot of ways, very conservative.
There were almost no people genuinely chasing immortality.
Even Sasuke, the one rare person who ever thought about extending his life, only did so because he wanted to shoulder all the world's darkness longer, cut away every bond, and keep the ninja world at peace.
"Let's go."
Hiruzen didn't continue that line of conversation.
Kiyohara stored the scroll away and followed him out.
After passing back through the barrier and the winding route out of the vault, Kiyohara returned to the surface.
"I'll have someone notify you of the date for the inauguration ceremony."
Hiruzen spoke as they walked.
"They've already begun preparations at the Hokage Rock too. The stonemasons will start carving your face beside the First, Second, and me."
His eyes turned toward the distant Hokage Rock, where the three giant stone faces stood silently in the cliff.
"From today onward, you are the Fourth."
Kiyohara followed his gaze.
Before long, there would be a fourth face there.
"I understand."
Kiyohara said.
Hiruzen nodded.
"The future belongs to the young."
Leaving that behind, he turned and walked in another direction.
Kiyohara lowered his head and looked at the scroll in his hands.
The Warring States Sealing History.
He had finally gotten it.
A faint smile tugged at his lips.
The next moment, his figure vanished.
The instant he used the Flying Thunder God Technique to reach an uninhabited place, Kiyohara felt something stirring inside his body.
Uzumaki Kiyohara's spirit floated out from him and hovered in midair.
The figure, which had already become almost transparent, was now giving off soft points of light.
"My past self…"
Uzumaki Kiyohara's voice had grown much softer too.
"You finally got The Warring States Sealing History. Hurry up and let me see it."
He merged into Kiyohara's body.
Then he flipped through the many sealing techniques recorded in the scroll, wearing a deeply satisfied expression.
Without Kiyohara, he probably never would have seen the contents of The Warring States Sealing History in his entire life.
"So I really did get my wish in the end."
Uzumaki Kiyohara said with satisfaction.
"That's good."
Kiyohara felt control of his body return fully to himself.
At the same time, more and more points of light appeared around Uzumaki Kiyohara.
They broke apart into countless tiny glowing fragments, drifting through the air like fireflies.
Those lights circled in the air a few times, then flew toward Kiyohara like birds returning to a nest.
One after another, they sank into his body.
Kiyohara closed his eyes.
At that instant, he felt a change unlike anything before.
First came chakra.
A warm flood surged into him from all directions, like countless tiny rivers pouring into the sea.
Under that force, his chakra pathway system continued expanding and strengthening, and the amount of chakra it could hold rose at an astonishing rate.
His chakra reserves had increased by at least five "cards" over what they had been before.
Then came physical energy.
On that side, the increase felt even greater than the rise in spiritual energy.
That power was refining his body. Asura's chakra seeped out from his chakra pathways and merged into his muscles, bones, blood, and organs.
He could feel his muscles becoming denser, and his blood circulating faster.
It was like a body that had already been strong to begin with was now being infused with even more vitality.
Kiyohara opened his eyes.
He lowered his gaze and looked at his hand.
It was long, pale, and elegant. Even the calluses that had formed from years of training were peeling away.
He tore off the dry old skin and found a new layer beneath it—fresh and pale.
Kiyohara slowly clenched his fist, feeling the fullness of the strength inside it.
"My strength increased quite a bit too."
He had the feeling he could punch a summoned beast to death in one hit.
And if one punch wasn't enough, then a second one would do it.
He casually swung one arm.
A burst of compressed air exploded through the space around him.
A white shockwave spread out.
"So I can casually exceed the speed of sound now?"
Kiyohara rubbed his chin.
Then he raised his other hand.
Wind Release chakra gathered at his fingertips, forming a blade as thin as cicada wings.
It was sharp enough to cut even through steel forged from chakra-conductive ore.
Kiyohara lightly sliced the back of his own hand.
A small wound opened, and blood slowly welled up.
Then he watched it heal.
The speed was even faster than he had expected.
The flesh at the edges began writhing, and newly generated cells visibly filled the gap.
Within only a few breaths, the wound had completely disappeared.
The only thing left on the back of his hand was a smear of blood proving there had ever been a cut there at all.
Kiyohara wiped the blood away.
The skin was smooth again, not a single mark left behind.
"So this is… a complete Uzumaki bloodline and complete Asura chakra."
Kiyohara felt a surge of joy.
Madara Uchiha had only achieved it by biting off a piece of Hashirama Senju's flesh while on the verge of death, then faking his own death and hiding himself away.
He secluded himself and, in a burst of inspiration, stitched the flesh of the man he regarded as his greatest rival and equal onto his own chest.
It was at that moment that Indra's chakra and Asura's chakra met, and after decades of slow fusion, Six Paths chakra was finally born.
Kiyohara now already possessed Asura chakra.
If he were to inherit Indra's chakra too, would he directly awaken the Rinnegan?
"Hm…"
Kiyohara lowered his hand again.
The odds seemed low, and he had no idea what the next possible future might look like.
Still, he could also study Sasuke's cells and try to extract the Indra chakra within them.
By this point, Naruto should be close to being born, and Sasuke's birth would follow after that.
The children of the new generation had already begun arriving one after another.
The postwar baby boom would become obvious around this period as well.
"I should go test whether my Wood Release affinity has grown stronger."
Kiyohara left the bedroom and stepped outside.
He closed his eyes and found that he could now sense even the rhythms of the plants around him.
The life force of the trees and flowers outside the window had become astonishingly vivid in his perception.
He raised a hand toward a tree in front of him.
Chakra flowed from his palm and wrapped gently around the trunk.
The next moment, the tree began to change.
New branches sprouted from the trunk, and tender green leaves unfurled from the tips.
Within just a few breaths, the old tree—which had already started to wither—was flourishing with life again.
Kiyohara withdrew his hand and looked at his palm.
Asura had fused with him another step further, and much more quickly than before.
He was only one step away from truly mastering Wood Release.
"Later, I'll have to ask Tsunade for some of the Wood Release ninjutsu Hashirama left behind."
Kiyohara thought to himself.
Hashirama must have left behind quite a few Wood Release techniques. What he likely never imagined was that after his death, Wood Release users in Konoha would become so vanishingly rare.
Just as Kiyohara was about to leave the backyard and return to his room, he noticed someone had come looking for him.
It was Uchiha Izumi.
Today she was wearing a dark-blue short-sleeved top and matching shorts, leaving a stretch of pale calf exposed.
Her long hair was tied into a ponytail that hung down her back and swayed with each step.
Her young, delicate face was flushed red with excitement.
"Kiyohara-sensei!"
She ran up to him and looked up.
Her black eyes were shining with the kind of adoration that looked as though they held stars inside.
"Congratulations on becoming Hokage!"
Her voice was light and clear, full of the joy she couldn't hide.
Kiyohara lowered his gaze and looked at her.
The beauty mark at the corner of Izumi's eye seemed to bounce slightly with her smile, making her look even more lively.
"So you heard?"
"Yes!"
Izumi nodded hard.
"Everyone's saying it! They're all saying you're the Fourth Hokage, and Konoha's hero!"
Her little hands clenched instinctively, as if she were trying hard to suppress the excitement bubbling inside her.
Kiyohara smiled.
He reached out and gently rubbed the top of her head.
"Then that means you're the Hokage's disciple now. You'd better keep working hard."
Izumi's face turned a little red.
But she didn't shy away. Instead, she narrowed her eyes slightly, like a kitten enjoying being stroked.
"I will!"
Izumi nodded.
"I'll definitely work hard and never embarrass you, Teacher!"
Kiyohara looked at her, the smile at the corner of his lips deepening.
This child really was likable.
"Oh, right."
He suddenly thought of something.
"How are you getting along with Shion and Guren?"
Izumi blinked.
"Really well!"
She looked up at him, those eyes full of the kind of pure innocence only children had.
Then she added,
"Shion is a little tsundere, but she's actually really easy to talk to. And Big Sister Guren takes really good care of us. She even teaches us how to refine chakra."
Kiyohara chuckled.
Relationships between girls really were easy to handle.
Now Guren and Shion were both students at the Ninja Academy.
And through Kiyohara's efforts, Izumi had gotten to know both of them too.
Kiyohara nodded.
"That's good."
He withdrew his hand.
"Come on. Let's go to the training ground. I want to see how much you've improved lately."
Izumi's eyes lit up instantly.
"Okay!"
She turned and ran straight toward the training ground.
After a few steps, she turned back.
"Hurry up, Teacher!"
Kiyohara smiled and followed after her.
…
Training Ground Three.
Kiyohara stood in the center of the clearing, looking at Izumi standing opposite him.
She took a deep breath, and her hands flashed through seals.
Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu!
Dozens of fireballs burst from her mouth and drifted in all directions like flower petals scattered in the wind.
Each fireball was noticeably larger than before, now about the size of a baby's fist, and the flames were a clean orange-red.
They hovered in midair for a good four or five seconds before slowly beginning to fade.
Kiyohara raised a brow slightly.
The improvement really was huge.
"Not bad."
He nodded.
"Your chakra control is much finer than before."
A smile bloomed across Izumi's face.
"That's because you taught me well, Teacher."
She ran over and stopped right in front of him, looking up with eyes full of worship.
Kiyohara reached out and rubbed her head again.
He had noticed that Izumi genuinely loved it whenever he did that.
Did she just lack a father's affection?
The thought crossed his mind for no reason.
Izumi's father was already dead.
In canon, he had died during the Nine-Tails attack, but this time it had been the war that took him.
Those extra years of war beyond the original timeline had created all kinds of butterfly effects.
"Keep it up."
Kiyohara said.
Izumi narrowed her eyes happily.
"Mm!"
…
After leaving Training Ground Three, Kiyohara returned to the Hokage Building.
He sat down in the office that would soon officially become his, his eyes drifting toward the white Hokage robe hanging on the wall.
He would probably be notified of the inauguration ceremony within the next few days.
By then, that robe would be on his shoulders.
But for now, there was still work to do.
Kiyohara pulled his gaze back and picked up a scroll from the desk.
It was the Ann roster.
He took up a brush and wrote a few lines on it.
A moment later, several figures emerged silently from the shadows and knelt before him on one knee.
"Hokage-sama."
Kiyohara looked up.
At the front was a female shinobi with purple hair. When she removed her mask, her clear and delicate face and straight posture were revealed.
Yūgao Uzuki wore the standard Ann uniform, but even with the animal mask on, that distinctive purple hair would have made her easy to recognize.
Beside her, Hayate Gekkō coughed a few times in his usual sickly way.
"You're taking people and carrying out a mission."
Kiyohara said.
Yūgao looked up.
"Please give your orders, Kiyohara-senpai… Hokage-sama."
Kiyohara picked up another scroll and handed it to her.
"This is the mission list. I need a batch of special materials—ores, metals, and crystals capable of holding enormous amounts of chakra."
He paused.
"Search the entire ninja world. I don't care what it costs. Find them."
Yūgao accepted the scroll and glanced through it.
It listed dozens of materials by name, with descriptions, identifying traits, and likely regions where they could be found.
"Yes."
She closed the scroll and looked back up.
"I'll see to it immediately."
Kiyohara nodded.
"Go."
The figures all bowed at once, then vanished into the shadows as soundlessly as they had appeared.
…
Outside the Hokage Building.
Yūgao Uzuki and Hayate Gekkō walked side by side through the street.
"Hokage-sama is amazing."
Hayate suddenly said, unable to hide the admiration in his voice.
"He became Hokage at such a young age."
Yūgao turned and looked at him.
"You should call him Hokage-sama now."
Hayate froze, then scratched his head awkwardly.
"Right, right. Hokage-sama."
He paused, then couldn't help adding,
"But he really is incredible. I still remember when he saved us back then…"
Yūgao didn't answer.
But she was thinking exactly the same thing.
Kiyohara-senpai…
No, Hokage-sama.
He really was extraordinary.
She withdrew her gaze and quickened her pace.
"Come on. The mission comes first."
Hayate nodded and followed after her.
The two figures soon disappeared at the end of the street.
…
After they were gone, Kiyohara went back to reading The Warring States Sealing History.
When should he go look for Uchiha Hikari?
~~~
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