Although Torifu would soon retire as Hokage, he would continue to pay attention to the village's newly emerging ninjas. This was one of the few things he truly enjoyed doing. Watching child after child grow into excellent ninjas gave him a strong sense of pride. This current batch of ninjas was just reaching maturity, and a new batch of children was already being born. With this continuous stream, Konoha would remain prosperous forever.
More importantly, this batch of children included the protagonists of Naruto! Being able to personally cultivate the protagonists into outstanding ninjas would add considerable fun for Torifu.
However, it would still take another five or six years before the new generation of ninjas formally began their training. During this period, Torifu could only supervise the batch of ninjas who had just graduated. They were all the children of Torifu's old friends, such as Yūhi Kurenai, Sarutobi Asuma, and Hatake Kakashi. This made Torifu's guidance seem perfectly natural.
After retiring, he would enjoy a peaceful life, but life still needed some enjoyment. A life that was too bland or monotonous held no interest for Torifu. He always had to find some fun for himself.
"The inauguration ceremony is the day after tomorrow. Why did he choose this time to go execute a mission?" Naori shook her head.
Torifu laughed heartily. "Who cares? We'll just enjoy our own lives, and leave the rest to the young people." Torifu stretched lazily in the rocking chair.
Naori thought about it and felt he had a point. In any case, Konoha would soon be managed by Minato. Why should she worry?
"You mustn't interfere with Minato's decisions in the future. Giving him advice is fine, but don't start criticizing his work," Naori stated to Torifu seriously.
The latter opened his eyes upon hearing this. "The way you put it! I'm retired! Why would I still care about his affairs? Do you think I enjoy controlling everything from behind the scenes? Don't be ridiculous." Torifu wasn't that bored. If he truly craved control over the village's power, he wouldn't be abdicating. Given Torifu's strength and lifespan, he could easily outlast everyone in Konoha today. Even if he served as Hokage for a few hundred years, no one would oppose him. So why would he bother with the 'puppet emperor' routine, pretending to retire while secretly manipulating the Hokage? It was pointless; Torifu wasn't that inwardly dark.
He genuinely intended to retire. In the future, he would, at most, oversee the Aquaculture affairs in the Land of Rain, the guidance of the village's new ninjas, and the various holiday celebrations. He would focus on things that brought him happiness and joy. As for the village's other matters, he only needed to be aware of them. How to solve them, and what impact they would bring, were not his problems to consider. In any case, Konoha had such a solid foundation that it was enough for Minato to figure out his own method of governing the village.
"I have no intention of being the 'Emperor Emeritus'," he said.
"Huh? What Emperor?" Naori didn't understand what Torifu meant, and Torifu had no intention of explaining, merely shaking his head.
"I'll just teach him how to handle official business and how to manage various tasks, big and small. The rest I'm too lazy to bother with." Naori thought it over. Her husband's personality—preferring to sit rather than stand, preferring to be lazy rather than work—made it unlikely he would secretly manipulate anyone. With that, she was reassured. Naori did not want Torifu to ruin his reputation in his later years, and since the Fourth Hokage was Minato, whom they had gotten along with for so many years, it would be a shame to create any bad feelings.
"Alright, I know you aren't that kind of person. Can we drop the subject now?" Naori said gently.
Seeing Naori speak like that, Torifu immediately turned the page and did not bring up the matter again.
The couple lounged leisurely in their rocking chairs; the afternoon sun was at its warmest. Everyone who needed to leave had gone—some to train, others to work. Only Amado remained at home, tinkering with his various inventions.
The sense of technology in Konoha was growing stronger. It was estimated that in a couple of years, they could try to manufacture more advanced modes of transportation. Currently, the villagers' primary transportation tools were electric bicycles and regular bicycles. Electric bicycles were clearly more popular; when emergency communication was needed between villages, riding an electric bicycle got one there quickly. Unsurprisingly, these items quickly became popular in other countries as well. Even the daimyo's mansions in various countries had one on standby, albeit a specially made version.
In terms of electronic products, there were tablet computers and desktop computers, but their performance was quite mediocre. They could barely handle some small games, so desktop computers weren't very popular. Tablet computers, on the other hand, which were pre-loaded with the Naruto mobile game and various mini-games, were a huge hit across the Ninja World. They were earning a hefty profit.
However, as the variety of electrical appliances increased, they couldn't continue constructing more factories. Firstly, they were too difficult to manage; secondly, they produced too much noise; and thirdly, they caused environmental pollution. Therefore, factories generally only produced the new inventions of the current year. All other products were left entirely to the Replicator machines. As long as enough raw materials were fed in, any item, no matter the quantity or size, could be replicated at will. This greatly alleviated the factory pressure in Konoha. It was worth noting that there were now two Replicator machines. Torifu had unintentionally refreshed one in the System Store a few years ago. Both were currently stored in Amado's backyard laboratory. Whenever goods were needed, Torifu would instruct the puppets to operate the Replicators.
The puppets, which previously had no purpose, were now employed; it was better than them just collecting dust. After all, once Torifu reached Six Paths level, these original puppets were of little use. They hadn't advanced to the Six Paths level with Torifu and would definitely be phased out eventually.
The changes in Konoha were far from limited to this, but it was impossible to explain everything in a short time. Konoha's technology was now completely at the forefront of the Ninja World. The village's Technology Department could independently develop various practical inventions. This indicated that Konoha could now cultivate its own researchers, putting them far ahead of other countries.
Even if other countries intended to develop technology, the various inventions from Konoha had raised their technological understanding to an impossibly high level. This led them to be overly ambitious but incapable of execution. Instead of trying to research from the most basic level, they attempted to disassemble the inventions. The result of this approach was inevitably failure, so the technology of other countries remained slow to develop. Only the Land of Water seemed to have settled down and focused on research. In the past year, their procurement of low-end products had significantly decreased, suggesting they had made some progress in their research.