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End of Year 8 in the Hidden Leaf – the calm before another storm in the shinobi world.
Several months had passed since the battle at the Valley of the End. Even the villages with the poorest intelligence networks had now received confirmed reports: Konoha's two pillars—one dead, one injured. The other villages, unspoken but unanimous, began expanding their military strength.
"Granduncle, is peace really that hard to achieve?" Hashirama had caught wind of the situation from Tobirama recently. He'd been unusually downcast, not even interested in playing dice anymore.
Akio gave a soft smile and shook his head. "Peace will come. You'll see that day for yourself."
Hashirama fell silent for a moment, then murmured under his breath, "Madara..."
Akio frowned slightly. Hashirama had been murmuring Madara's name frequently lately. If this were his past life, he might have happily joined forums shipping Hashirama and Madara—but after getting to know them in person...
"Could something have happened at the Valley of the End that I don't know about?" Akio muttered to himself. "Madara must've noticed I was being controlled that day. And even if Hashirama didn't realize it fully, he must've sensed something—but he's never brought it up."
Akio felt something was off but couldn't pinpoint it. It never occurred to him that Black Zetsu had appeared before Madara earlier than expected.
While he was still lost in thought, a clansman knocked on the door and entered. "Elder Akio, the Second Hokage requests your presence."
Akio sighed and looked over at Hashirama. "You don't even keep Tobirama in check. Ever since he became Hokage, it's like he's been glued to the Hokage building. He doesn't even come to see me—just sends someone to call me."
Hashirama snapped out of his daze and gave a helpless smile. "As his older brother, I feel like I have less and less authority over him."
Akio shot him a look. "Since when did you have any authority over anyone?" Shaking his head, he walked out.
At the Hokage building, a guard led Akio into the meeting room.
The moment he entered, Akio frowned. It wasn't just him and Tobirama—four other elders were present too.
"What's going on?"
Before Tobirama could speak, Uchiha Izma blurted out, "Akio-sama, you're just in time! Please talk some sense into the Second Hokage. Konoha already has our Uchiha clan managing security—why form some so-called 'Special Assassination Tactical Squad'? What's the point?" As he spoke, he kept shooting Akio pleading looks.
Akio's grandnephew, sitting nearby, stared at him wide-eyed. Since when was he so chummy with the Uchiha?
Akio was equally baffled. He hadn't expected someone from the Uchiha to be so… familiar.
"First off, we're not close," he said bluntly. "Second, it's 'Second Hokage-sama,' not just 'Second Hokage.' Only I get to call him that. Isn't that right, dear Second?"
Tobirama gave a strained smile. "Granduncle, I've just been too busy lately. The peace in the shinobi world won't last much longer."
Akio gave a slight nod, letting him off the hook. "So, about this 'special ops assassination unit' you want to set up…"
"It's the Special Assassination Tactical Squad," Tobirama corrected.
"Too much of a mouthful. Just call it the ANBU…"
"Huh? ANBU?" Akio blinked, confused.
Seeing the other five people equally lost, he added, "Good idea setting it up! Oh, wait—it's not formed yet. So what am I here for?"
Tobirama glanced at the four elders and shook his head. "They can't agree on it…"
Akio turned to the Nara and Hyuga clan heads. "Which of you decided to cozy up to the Uchiha?"
An awkward silence fell.
Tobirama sighed. "Let's talk outside, Granduncle…"
Outside the meeting room, Tobirama explained the situation in more detail.
The Uchiha clan opposed the formation of the ANBU because it would be a unit reporting solely to the Hokage, outside the jurisdiction of the Police Force they controlled.
Surprisingly, the Hyuga clan also opposed it.
With the Byakugan being such a powerful tool for reconnaissance, the Hyuga had a near-monopoly on intelligence gathering in Konoha. The formation of the ANBU would reduce their influence significantly.
Akio frowned. "That's not like you, Tobirama. If you really wanted to form the ANBU, who could stop you?"
Tobirama sighed. "Things aren't like before. I estimate that within three to five years, conflict might erupt again. The Hyuga and Uchiha…"
Akio cut in with a glare, "So you're leaving it to me to offend both clans?"
Now he understood why Tobirama had called him over. But honestly, Akio didn't mind. In fact…
"You're not planning to include some Hyuga members in the ANBU?"
Tobirama hesitated slightly. Akio immediately caught on—perhaps the Hyuga were eyeing the Hokage position too.
"What a mess…" Akio sighed. Without waiting for Tobirama's reply, he marched back into the room and began verbally tearing into both the Uchiha and Hyuga clan heads.
There were perks to age and status. Akio was starting to enjoy throwing his weight around as the elder.
Before retiring, everyone had called him Elder Akio. After retirement, it became "Akio-sama." To his face, anyway.
Faced with the relentless "old man," neither the Hyuga patriarch nor Uchiha Izma could do anything. Ten minutes later, they stormed out of the Hokage building in frustration.
Akio flashed Tobirama a triumphant "victory" hand sign, only to be completely ignored.
"Thank you for your help, Granduncle. Take care," was all Tobirama said before turning to the Nara clan head and his grandnephew. "Now, let's discuss candidate selection for the ANBU."
Akio stood there stunned, feeling like he'd just been used as a cranky old bulldozer.
"…Whatever, not worth arguing about." He muttered to himself, "Konoha's starting to look more and more like what I remember from my previous life—Police Force, Academy… and now even the ANBU?"
Akio didn't get involved in the later stages. Within half a month, Tobirama had the ANBU up and running.
Akio didn't know the exact list of members, but Tobirama seemed to favor recruiting from the smaller clans. None of the major clans had any representatives.
Once established, Tobirama immediately deployed all ANBU operatives, not even keeping one for his own protection. Akio hadn't seen a single one.
"Is the shinobi world really this tense now? Does he need that many operatives out on recon?" Akio didn't believe war would erupt within a few years. He suspected Tobirama might have another agenda.
However, the reports trickling back made Akio chuckle and sigh.
After the battle at the Valley of the End, Konoha had clearly drawn attention. The other four great shinobi villages—and even some smaller ones—had simultaneously begun forming their own "Academies" and "ANBU" units.
"If I hadn't established the Konoha Academy, Tobirama probably would've done it anyway. Still, I didn't think his decisions would get this much recognition…"
Akio glanced at Hashirama, who had once again latched onto him to learn dice games. He couldn't help but sigh.
"No wonder you've got no authority left as an older brother…"
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