After Konohagakure was established, Tobirama divided the Village's rank system into four levels: Hokage, Jonin, Chunin, and Genin. Aside from the Hokage, who stood at the pinnacle of the Ninja Village, the Jonin were the backbone of the Village. They could not only participate in high-level decision-making but also vote on the appointment of the Hokage, wielding immense power.
Given the power held by Jonin, Hashirama was very cautious in the appointment process. Considering the influence brought by clan status and to prevent any single clan from wielding excessive power, only the heads of some major clans were granted the rank of Jonin. Other smaller clans only attained the rank of Chunin at most—as they did not have the right to stand on equal footing with the major clans to begin with.
To avoid the perception that Hashirama intended to expand his own clan's power, after he became Hokage, only Tobirama was a Jonin. During his tenure, Hashirama always positioned himself as the leader of the entire Village rather than a representative of the Senju Clan. After he abdicated, he resigned from all his positions and appointed Senju Touka as the new Jonin. Apart from that, no other Jonin appeared.
Currently, those qualified to participate in decision-making in Konohagakure are Tobirama, the Second Hokage, and the leaders of other major clans. Although Uchiha Kagami lacked the qualification of Jonin, given the status of his clan, he could originally have participated in decision-making. However, because he was too young and due to the preceding events involving Uchiha Madara, the various clans unanimously vetoed the Uchiha Clan's opportunity to participate in decision-making. Once Uchiha Kagami obtained the Jonin qualification, he would be able to return to the upper echelons.
Although Fūmori Masaki was a disciple of Tobirama, his background was not prominent, and he did not receive Jonin qualification when the Village was founded. Now, to obtain Jonin qualification, he had to complete enough missions and receive the approval of half of the Jonin to be granted the rank. Therefore, he was currently only a Chunin.
Normally, Fūmori Masaki was not qualified to submit a proposal directly to the Hokage; this was the duty of a Jonin. Within the Ninja Village, the hierarchy regarding such administrative matters was quite strict, and Chunin were not qualified to meet with the Hokage casually. However, Fūmori Masaki's status as a disciple allowed him to meet directly with Tobirama. To say nothing else, within the Anbu, the team Tobirama saw the most was the one his disciples belonged to.
In his heart, Tobirama naturally wanted to treat his disciples as important pillars of the Village, cultivating them both openly and secretly. Why choose Fūmori Masaki and the others to protect Tobirama and Hashirama on their trip to the capital last time? There were plenty of experienced and powerful teams in the Village. The reason was simply to give Fūmori Masaki and the others an opportunity to gain exposure to major Village affairs while acquiring the credentials for Jonin qualification. When the time came, the Jonin qualification would naturally follow.
Fūmori Masaki decided to submit his proposal the next time he met with Tobirama. As for the future pillars of the Village, Tobirama would certainly read it carefully and consider its validity. Even if he did not believe it completely, given Tobirama's personality, he would still make preparations.
The only thing Fūmori Masaki needed to do now was to write his proposal well, ensuring the speculations within were well-founded and credible. He could not simply write down things like manga settings. Fortunately, as an Anbu member, he had access to a considerable amount of information, and after a few days of polishing, he was confident.
After the day's missions ended, Fūmori Masaki sat at the desk, spread the scroll out in front of him, pondered for a moment, and picked up his brush to start writing.
Satomi, who was preparing to sleep, saw Fūmori Masaki writing something but did not know what it was. She walked up, wrapped her arms around his neck from behind, and asked curiously, "Masaki, what are you doing?"
"Writing some important things," Fūmori Masaki said. "Preparing to let Lord Tobirama take a look at it later."
Satomi glanced at the table. Since there were no secrets between husband and wife, and Fūmori Masaki had already written half of it, she read the beginning and immediately exclaimed, "Masaki, do you really think so?"
Before, Fūmori Masaki had told her that he believed war would break out soon. She had originally thought it was just Fūmori Masaki's pessimistic thinking, but looking at the current situation, Fūmori Masaki was serious.
Fūmori Masaki gave a soft "hmm" and said, "Satomi, you should know that other Ninja Villages have recently changed leaders, and the attitudes of the second generation are clearly different from their predecessors; they are all taking action to increase their military might."
Satomi knew about these things. Hearing Fūmori Masaki say this, she also began to doubt whether war was about to arrive immediately, but she still felt it was all too fast.
"Sometimes things arrive faster than we imagine," Fūmori Masaki said, as if guessing Satomi's thoughts. "Especially since the Land of Fire has just inaugurated a New Ruler; both domestically and internationally, this will be considered a good opportunity."
If a young ruler wants to establish his authority, nothing is faster than a victory. Similarly, for other countries, when a New Ruler has just ascended the throne and has not yet fully controlled the country, there is no better opportunity to attack.
Fūmori Masaki felt that if The late Feudal Lord could have lived a little longer, perhaps the war would really have been delayed for a period of time, just as others thought.
Satomi's eyes were somewhat confused. Although she was smart, she had no accurate understanding of these national affairs she had never encountered before. This was also a common ailment among most Ninjas—honing combat skills every day naturally led to neglecting other aspects. How many geniuses like Tobirama were there? Even he had limitations arising from his status.
"Is war really coming?" Satomi asked herself in a low voice, her hands tightening slightly around Fūmori Masaki.
As someone who grew up in an era of peace, Satomi cared more about the peaceful situation and was willing to maintain it. However, reality did not seem to be the way she expected.
Fūmori Masaki gently patted the back of Satomi's hand and said, "Satomi, some things cannot be avoided. If someone does not want peace, then the only thing we must do is make them understand how great a price they must pay for starting a war, and force them to accept peace!"
Later, Tobirama came as usual to check on his disciples' training. After assuming the position of Second Hokage, he became increasingly busy, especially since the Village was currently in a development stage. He had to oversee everything, and new departments had to be established one by one to form a complete system.
After seeing the Hiruzen Sarutobi team and the Homura Mitokado team, Tobirama came to Fūmori Masaki's team. Watching the training of Fūmori Masaki, Uchiha Kagami, and Satomi, he nodded slightly. These disciples were all doing well; even without his personal supervision, they had not forgotten what they were supposed to do.
Perhaps, it was time to give them other missions to carry out, Tobirama thought silently to himself.
After speaking a few words with Senju Touka, Tobirama saw that Fūmori Masaki intended to speak with him. After thinking for a moment, he went to the side with him. He thought Fūmori Masaki had some questions about training, but he did not expect Fūmori Masaki to take out a scroll, saying it was his insights on the surrounding situation during these past days and hoping he could take a look.
Tobirama was a bit curious. Although Fūmori Masaki's behavior was a bit unconventional, Tobirama regarded them as future high-level officials, and it was a good thing for Fūmori Masaki to have ideas. Therefore, he only verbally reprimanded him, telling Fūmori Masaki to be careful, but still accepted the scroll and opened it to take a look.
After reading the first paragraph, Tobirama's expression became serious. He glanced at Fūmori Masaki and asked, "Do you really think so?"
Fūmori Masaki nodded.
Tobirama pondered for a moment, then put the scroll away, saying he planned to go back and read it. Seeing that Fūmori Masaki had nothing else, he immediately turned and left.
After finishing his office work that day, Tobirama took the scroll out again and read it word by word. After finishing the whole text, he pondered for a long time again. Although Fūmori Masaki's ideas were different from the mainstream thoughts in the Village, they were surprisingly reasonable, and some of the insights within were very novel, which even Tobirama had not considered.
"I didn't expect him to have such discernment," Tobirama murmured, his gaze returning to the scroll.
In the scroll, Fūmori Masaki combined current intelligence and shifted the topic to the Land of Lightning, believing that the Land of Lightning might be a dangerous target.
"The Land of Lightning?" Tobirama stared at those three words, his eyes closing slightly.