One week later, Uchiha Yuan officially took over as the captain of the Third Division of the Konoha Police Force, becoming one of the high-ranking members of the Uchiha clan.
After assuming leadership of the Third Division, Yuan obtained the training methods for the two forbidden Uchiha techniques: Izanagi and Izanami.
Yuan was very interested in these two jutsu. Whether or not he would use them in the future remained to be seen, but learning them certainly couldn't hurt.
Fortunately, the learning difficulty wasn't very high, and Yuan quickly mastered them without too much effort.
With two powerful life-saving techniques in his arsenal, Yuan began recruiting personnel for the Third Division.
Currently, aside from the First Division, all other divisions of the Police Force needed to recruit non-Uchiha members for reinforcement.
The Second and Fourth Divisions recruited civilian ninja—those without clan backgrounds, easier to manage, and less likely to challenge the Uchiha's position in the Police Force.
But Yuan took a different approach. He went directly to the Aburame clan and paid a visit to his former teacher, Shibi Aburame, who was now the clan head.
Yuan didn't beat around the bush—he directly stated that he wanted the Aburame clan to send members to join the Third Division.
Shibi was visibly surprised; he hadn't expected the Uchiha to be willing to give up power over the Police Force.
However, at this time, that power was a political hot potato—not so easy to accept.
Yuan, understanding his teacher's concern, clearly explained that the Third Division was under his complete control. The Uchiha would not interfere, and even if things didn't work out, it would not implicate the Aburame clan.
Since Yuan had laid it all out, Shibi naturally didn't refuse. He decided to support his student and dispatched one Tokubetsu Jōnin and three Chūnin from the Aburame clan to the Police Force.
Next, Yuan visited the Yamanaka clan and brought in Yamanaka Kagetsu.
When Kagetsu heard Yuan's invitation to join the Police Force, he agreed immediately—because he trusted Yuan.
Through Kagetsu, Yuan also met the Yamanaka clan head, Yamanaka Inoichi, and expressed his hope that the Ino–Shika–Chō trio clans would send members to the Police Force.
The Ino–Shika–Chō clans had always been closely allied. Upon hearing Yuan's request, Inoichi immediately notified his peers, Nara Shikaku and Akimichi Chōza.
Shikaku, who had fought alongside Yuan on the Bear Country battlefield, honestly had a good impression of him.
To him, Yuan was clearly different from most Uchiha.
However, that alone wasn't enough to justify the trio clans jumping into such political waters.
Yamanaka Kagetsu could go—it was personal. But the Ino–Shika–Chō clans as a whole couldn't afford to get too close to the Uchiha.
Just as Shikaku was about to decline, Shibi Aburame personally paid him a visit. After a long discussion lasting over an hour, Shikaku decided to do his friend a favor. The trio clans agreed to send one Ino–Shika–Chō team to join the Police Force.
Altogether, the Aburame clan and the Ino–Shika–Chō trio sent 8 members to the Police Force, sparking no small stir both within Konoha and among the Uchiha.
What was even more outrageous was that Yuan granted these 8 individuals significant law enforcement authority, nearly equal to that of Uchiha members.
This was in stark contrast to the approach of the Second and Fourth Divisions.
The Uchiha members in the Third Division had all fought alongside Yuan in the Bear Country—they had seen him grow through war and hardship.
Thus, they fully trusted him and did not object to his bold move.
Moreover, Yuan had already smoothed things over with the Uchiha high council in advance, so even such a radical action stirred little resistance among the Uchiha.
Meanwhile, the Konoha leadership had no time to deal with the Uchiha at the moment—
Because the Third Hokage was stepping down.
Though the Third Great Ninja War had ended, Konoha had suffered heavy losses. The blame fell on Hiruzen Sarutobi, and Danzo seized the opportunity to hold multiple meetings calling for Hiruzen's resignation.
In the original story, Hiruzen also stepped down around this time, citing the war's failure.
To Yuan, it seemed that Hiruzen's resignation was somewhat of a graceful exit—using Danzo and the others' "pressure" as an excuse to pass the position along.
That was indeed Hiruzen's intention. After so many years as Hokage, he was tired.
Now that the younger generation had matured, he felt comfortable handing over the role. While he still had energy, he could support the new Hokage behind the scenes. Once the successor was stable, he could retire fully.
News of Hiruzen's retirement spread quickly, causing a frenzy across Konoha. No one paid attention to the Police Force reform anymore.
Hiruzen had ruled for many years and remained respected by most ninja and civilians alike.
Now, hearing of his sudden retirement, villagers were shocked—mostly sad to see him go.
But their sadness didn't change his decision. The next day, Hiruzen announced a shortlist of Hokage candidates selected by Konoha's Jōnin.
There were three: Orochimaru, one of the legendary Sannin; Jiraiya, another Sannin; and Minato Namikaze.
Members of the major clans were "naturally" excluded from consideration.
To be fair, the list was reasonable—nobody could find fault with it.
The biggest contributor in the Third Ninja War was Minato, and the most respected ninja was Orochimaru. Logically, the next Hokage should be between them. Jiraiya seemed to be on the list just for formality.
And that was exactly what happened. The next morning, Shisui came running to the Uchiha compound, excitedly handing Yuan a flyer.
"Yuan-senpai! The first day's voting results are out!"
Yuan took the flyer and glanced at it. First place: Minato Namikaze. Second: Orochimaru. Third: Jiraiya.
The votes between Minato and Orochimaru were close—only a few hundred apart.
Just as Yuan had guessed, the Fourth Hokage would likely be chosen between Minato and Orochimaru, just like in the original timeline.
Unknowingly, the week-long Hokage election had already entered its third day.
Throughout these three days, Minato and Orochimaru's votes had been neck-and-neck.
On the second day, Orochimaru even overtook Minato at one point—but was soon overtaken again.
(To Be Continued...)