In Root Division.
"Danzo, now that Minato Namikaze has become the Fourth Hokage, do you have any plans?" asked Homura Mitokado, to Danzo.
"Minato is too young and lacks political experience. I don't think he's capable of managing the village properly," Danzo replied.
"There's only the two of us here, so I'll be frank—are you planning to seize power?" Homura continued.
"Hiruzen may have stepped down as Hokage, but he hasn't relinquished control of the village. Now is not the time for us to act."
...
Minato had just become Hokage and still had much to learn, but he was diligent. Every day, he studied how to become a good Hokage under the guidance of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.
As Hokage, Minato kept his promise and began influencing Konoha's leadership, doing his best to improve Uchiha's relations with the villagers.
At the same time, Minato also launched several policies benefiting civilian shinobi.
Overall, Konoha was beginning to thrive under Minato's leadership.
Meanwhile, in the "good neighbor" of the Land of Fire, the Land of Waterfalls, was staging a grand operation to capture a Tailed Beast.
The previous jinchūriki of the Seven-Tails, Chōmei, was nearing death. After careful selection, Takigakure chose Fū as the new host for the Seven-Tails.
However, Takigakure seriously underestimated the intelligence of the Seven-Tails, who was known for being the most cunning of the Tailed Beasts.
Not to mention, it was the only one among the nine Tailed Beasts that could fly.
When they unsealed the previous jinchūriki, they made a mistake and allowed the Seven-Tails to escape.
Being extremely cautious, the Seven-Tails immediately entered a cocoon-like state to hide after regaining its freedom.
Takigakure dispatched all their ninja— even the village leader joined the search—scouring for the escaped beast.
But what they never expected was that the Seven-Tails never left the village at all; it had been hiding underground the entire time.
Taking advantage of the ninja being out of the village, the Seven-Tails emerged from underground to wreak havoc. Once the Takigakure ninja returned, it would hide again.
Through repeated harassment and destruction, the Seven-Tails threw the civilians of Takigakure into a state of fear and chaos.
In fact, not just the civilians—even the ninjas found themselves increasingly helpless against such a cunning enemy.
Eventually, unable to cope, Takigakure had no choice but to seek help from Konoha, offering a huge reward in exchange for assistance in capturing the Seven-Tails.
Inside the Hokage's office, a young man in his early twenties was anxiously explaining the situation to the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen and Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato.
After finishing his explanation, the young man handed a scroll to Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Hiruzen's expression was grave as he listened, but upon opening the scroll and reading its contents, his face broke into a brilliant smile.
Minato took a quick glance at the scroll and also smiled.
"Hokage-sama, you've seen our sincerity. When can you send someone to our village?" the young man asked anxiously.
The Third Hokage pondered for a moment and then said to the Anbu behind him, "Go find Orochimaru for me."
"Wait a moment!" Minato's brows furrowed when he heard who Hiruzen had in mind and quickly interrupted.
"Minato? What's the matter?" Hiruzen asked.
"Hokage-sama, I suggest we send Yuan on this mission," Minato said as he pointed to his own eyes.
Hiruzen paused and then understood. The Sharingan of the Uchiha clan could suppress Tailed Beasts to some extent, and Uchiha Yuan had even forced back Kitsuchi before. With the Sharingan, he should be able to subdue a Tailed Beast without a host.
Thus, Hiruzen changed the order and told the Anbu to summon Uchiha Yuan instead.
Moments later, Uchiha Yuan arrived at the Hokage's office.
"Yuan, I have a mission for you. A few days ago, when the Takigakure ninja were transferring the Seven-Tails from its previous jinchūriki to a new one, it escaped due to an oversight.
The Seven-Tails is now hiding near Takigakure and is taking revenge on the village that imprisoned it for so many years. I'd like you to assist Takigakure in capturing it," Minato explained briefly.
Yuan's eyes lit up at those words—what perfect timing!
He had been looking for a way to gather Tailed Beast chakra, and now Minato was handing him the mission to help capture the Seven-Tails. It was like having a pillow delivered to someone falling asleep.
With the chakra of the Seven-Tails, he would possess the chakra of three Tailed Beasts.
Thinking this, Yuan readily agreed to the mission.
Minato nodded in satisfaction and officially handed over the S-rank mission to Uchiha Yuan.
What surprised Yuan was how shockingly high the reward for the mission was. Konoha, usually stingy, was offering such a large payment that even Yuan was caught off guard.
What Yuan didn't know was that the reward he received was only one-tenth of what Takigakure had promised to pay Konoha.
To be honest, Hiruzen originally didn't want to accept such a dangerous task as capturing a Tailed Beast, but the offer was simply too generous to refuse.
Afterward, Yuan left the Hokage's office with the young man from Takigakure.
The young man followed nervously behind Uchiha Yuan. The Uchiha were infamous in the ninja world—and not in a good way.
So the young man was a bit afraid of Yuan and dared not speak.
Yuan didn't try to make conversation either. The two walked in silence to the Police Force headquarters.
In the end, the young man couldn't hold it in: "Um, Lord Yuan! My name is Shigeru. I'm a Special Jōnin from Takigakure. Please take care of me!"
"Shigeru? What's your relation to Shibuki ?" Yuan asked, recalling the timid new leader of Takigakure from the original story.
"How do you know Shiki, my lord? He's my nephew. He's only four years old right now," Shigeru asked, puzzled.
"No reason. I was just asking casually. I need some time to prepare. We'll depart from here in an hour, alright?"
"Yes, Lord Yuan," Shigeru immediately agreed.
Though the situation in Takigakure was dire, it was common knowledge that ninja needed time to prepare for a mission, so of course Shosui had no objections—nor did he dare raise any.
In fact, Yuan didn't have much to prepare. He returned to the Uchiha clan to delegate some matters of the Third Squad to Uchiha Icarus.
Then he paid a visit to Uchiha Shisui's home and brought along the crow-obsessed Shisui.
(To Be Continued...)