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****** ° ° ° ****** ° ° ° God Shinobi ° ° ° ****** ° ° ° ******
"What do you think of this, Weasel?" Minato pointed at the scroll Mei had given him.
This made weasel look at the scroll, and one could hear the clogs turning in his mind.
"Neither of the options is advisable for now, Hokage-sama." Said Weasel after a bit of thinking.
"Why is that?" asked Minato curious to know Weasel's thought process.
"Yagura has shown that he will walk his village in the direction his previous leaders have. Any form of helping him because of avoiding war would tarnish our reputation as his shinobi has attacked ours."
Reputation is crucial to a hidden village as it runs on the commission of other people. If a village is too passive, it will lose its customers because of appearing weak.
If it appears too strict, people will avoid it because of fear of a twisted sense of morality. Hence, it is necessary to appear friendly but at the same time powerful enough not to be defeated.
Like a tiger that pounces on the enemy only when it is hungry or attacked, or like an elephant which is powerful enough to reform land by its mere step while still being a herbivore.
"While helping Mei would be the most morally sound thing to do, but it will shed needless blood of our Shinobi and agitate other villages if we officially participate in another village's internal strife"
Because most villages have their own internal problems.
The Hidden Stone has an internal dispute in which one side is arguing for an attack on Konoha because they lost all their family members,
While the other side is opposing because they have already lost enough family members and can't afford to lose more.
"That is what I thought as well. Then how should we retaliate against the Mist." Minato had already thought of all this, but he wasn't the one to take any attacks and stay quiet.
Though Minato is a person who likes peace, he is not a spineless person.
"I suggest that we demand them One of the Seven Swords while at the same time taking full control over all the other neutral ports using this reason." Said Weasel
This would have devastating effects on the hidden Mist if Konoha took full control over the ports, they would be in control of both the imports and the exports of the Mist.
And if Konoha and the mist went to war, Konoha would be in control of the strategic positions and could make Mizu no Kuni starve by blocking imports and exports.
Effectively causing a shortage of food and other amenities, their only hope would be to get food from the Land of Lightning which doesn't even grow much food crops.
This would cause inflation in Mizu, every food crop other than homegrown would be too expensive. This could cause revolts.
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
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This was effectively grabbing the enemy by the balls and then demanding one of their iconic swords was a slap on the said balls.
And to fuel the flames, they already had the Nuibari, which was known only by the leader of the Resistance, who had accepted it to show their assurance of goodwill.
'.........For a pacifist, he sure is devious' thought Minato as he looked at Weasel.
But Minato was also a person of extreme intellect even rivaling a Nara, so he had asked this question to Itachi for a different reason.
'I have decided.' Thought Minato with resolution.
"Weasel, take off your mask"
This caused Weasel to tense. An Anbu never takes off his mask on duty. What Minato had asked Weasel was to stop being an Anbu.
"From today you are no longer an Anbu"
Weasel took off his mask and then came into view a handsome face with onyx eyes and a fair complexion.
Weasel was now gone forever and in his place was now Uchiha Itachi.
"You have to take on a team to train. This is my order to Uchiha Itachi"
'I hope this helps you in achieving your dream, Itachi-kun.' thought Minato with kindness as he knew about Itachi's dream of becoming Hokage.
One of the key requirements to become a Hokage was to train a team. It was a way of knowing if the person was capable of leading other people, this was a rule set by the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama.
Of course, even this could be circumvented during wartime, or if the person has proven himself capable enough to lead other people.
But Itachi was an Anbu, and even though he has been an Anbu captain, all his achievements in leading his team are not considered.
An Anbu has neither fame nor achievements, all of it is dissolved in the shadow of secrecy.
Itachi stood a few seconds in deep thought, his recent retirement from the Anbu plaguing his mind. Minato did not speak a word and let Itachi process his thoughts.
Finally, Itachi seemed to have processed all his thoughts and then spoke up.
"Hokage-sama is it possible to pick a member of my team from the shinobi corps?" Itachi asked as he thought of an interesting boy who had seen through his stealth.
'Why would you wan-' Initially Minato was confused as to why someone would pick from the shinobi-corps, which were deemed unworthy to spend their jonin on. But Minato quickly realised it.
"Are you talking about Kiyoshi Ren, Itachi-kun"
Itachi just nodded his head and waited for Minato's answer. Which caused Minato to chuckle.
"I was going to talk about him next, but are you sure you want to take him?" asked Minato ending his chuckle though he looked a little relaxed for some reason.
"Yes, Hokage-sama"
Itachi had asked for Ren because somehow ren was able to sense him when he was hiding his chakra and for the reason that Itachi was curious.
'People who can stand up for themselves even during extreme odds are rare.' Itachi had a good opinion of Ren and, because of this, he was willing to take Ren into his team.
"I am grateful, Itachi. I was about to ask you the same thing you asked me." Minato was grateful because he could now clear one of the things he felt regretful about.
Minato took a file from his desk and gave it to Itachi.
Itachi opened the file which had Ren's photo on it and started going through it.
"Ren was one of the few survivors of the Frenzied bandit attacks."
The Frenzied Bandits were a band of groups which are followers of 'Majin' or 'evil deity' and coveted nothing but destruction. Jashin, the deity of the notorious Jashin cult was one of the famous Majin.
"Because of his resolve to grow stronger, I had him take the Graduation test after two years of self-study"
Minato had done this to know if Ren had the actions to prove his words. It might have been cruel to ask a boy with a broken body to complete the entire syllabus in 2 years which took 6 years for normal students.
But Ren's achievement dwarfed in comparison to a genius like Kakashi or Itachi. One graduated at 5 and the other at 7 years old, respectively.
There were special circumstances such as a war during that time, but the point still held.
In comparison to those, Ren's achievement wasn't much, especially since he was older than them when he graduated.
Itachi was looking through the file as he saw detailed information about Ren. Minato was not the type of guy to give a child hope and then abandon him.
Minato had kept an eye on Ren, but after each test, it became increasingly clear that Ren was just a normal, although above-average shinobi, and not a prodigy.
So when Indo Abe, one of his jonins had failed Ren, Minato had accepted it as fate. Though he was sorry about it, Konoha does not have infinite resources.
'His theory is excellent, but he falls at the physical aspect of Academy due to being injured.' Thought Itachi as he looked at the evaluation of each semester's test.
But another thought came to him as he looked at it. 'His physical body was weak due to injury but he still held on and continued.'
And the results of that were clear as Itachi looked at Indo's evaluation of Ren.
'Good physical strength and speed. Shows Leadership quality and has the ability to think through deception.' Itachi then compared this report to the Ren he had recently seen and decided on one thing.
"When can I form the team, Hokage-sama?"
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****** ° ° ° ****** ° ° ° God Shinobi ° ° ° ****** ° ° ° ******