"Leader of the 4th Squad—Aozora!"
As soon as Fugaku's voice fell, a wave of murmurs instantly swept through the entire meeting room.
However, everyone held favorable impressions of Aozora, and they deeply trusted Fugaku. Instead of directly questioning the nomination, they looked at him with confused eyes.
Their gazes clearly questioned whether Fugaku had misread the name.
Facing their stares calmly, Fugaku—who had proposed this appointment—maintained a composed expression while expectantly watching Aozora.
As clan leader, Fugaku understood very well how much Aozora had contributed, and he truly wanted to reward him properly.
His first thought was Ninjutsu, which is usually considered the best reward for a ninja.
Yet apart from Izanami, the three most useful Sharingan secret techniques had already been given to Aozora. Other than Sharingan-based techniques, nothing else would likely impress him.
Once Ninjutsu was ruled out, Fugaku shifted his thinking toward money and power.
Although money was valuable, it wasn't something that ninjas truly lacked. Therefore, the best remaining option was authority.
Though Aozora often seemed lazy, seasoned and perhaps a bit sly, Fugaku believed he must still crave some power. Otherwise, he wouldn't have accepted that earlier position as an investigation team leader.
After carefully considering all departments within the reformed Police Force, Fugaku decided on the Flying Tigers.
The reason he chose the Flying Tigers was because he wanted to cultivate Aozora.
The Flying Tigers would undoubtedly gather elite talents in the future. Becoming a squad leader there wouldn't only allow Aozora to accumulate experience but also build connections and assemble his own team.
Moreover, Hachidai was aging, and would eventually put in for retirement. By then, if Aozora achieved another major accomplishment, Fugaku could directly promote him to become the captain of the Flying Tigers—the second Uchiha after himself to hold such a high rank. Even if Aozora hadn't accumulated enough achievements by then, several years later he could transfer to another major unit based on seniority alone.
Truly speaking, this position was the ideal path Fugaku had carefully planned for Aozora's advancement.
Faced with Fugaku's unwavering expectations, Aozora was deeply conflicted.
He just wasn't all that into power, to be honest. Reincarnated into the Ninja World and having obtained the Heavenly Book, his only true wish was to cultivate powerful techniques and become unrivaled across the land. Such cultivation required plenty of time.
Yet he also knew the Uchiha still faced enormous danger, and even with current strength levels, the situation remained precarious. Therefore, Aozora wanted to find worthy and reliable Uchiha members to nurture.
Becoming a Flying Tigers squad leader would give him access to top clan members, giving him the chance to pick out promising talents to train.
However, the Flying Tigers were an elite force specially designed for handling emergencies. Although the workload wasn't heavy, members must always remain on standby. This would definitely cut into Aozora's cultivation time.
What's more, being a squad leader just sounded like way too much hassle. In the future, there would be no free time left at all!
After thinking clearly, Aozora stood up beneath everyone's gaze and politely replied, "With all due respect, Captain, I'm still quite young and not yet ready to lead others. Please choose someone more suitable!"
Aozora's words made the previously noisy meeting room instantly fall silent.
Several squad leaders and Kyudai stared at him with shock and disbelief.
Fugaku was equally taken aback. He looked Aozora straight in the eyes and asked, "Are you sure you want to give up the position of captain of the Flying Tigers' 4th Unit?"
Aozora gave a firm nod.
After a brief pause, Fugaku said, "In that case, appoint Shuichi as the new captain of the 4th Unit!"
Then, as if nothing had happened, Fugaku continued announcing appointments for other squad captains, most of whom remained unchanged from before.
Once he finished the announcements, Fugaku spoke calmly, "Inabi!"
Inabi quickly responded, "Present!"
Fugaku's expression turned serious, his tone sharp: "The proposal to recruit commoner ninjas last week has already been approved. Why haven't I seen any results after an entire week?"
Inabi began to sweat slightly as he replied, "Director, I've already posted recruitment notices across the village. However, very few people believe it. So far, only fifteen commoner ninjas have signed up."
"Out of those fifteen applicants, ten are considered unattractive in appearance, and eight barely qualify as Genin — though three fall into both categories."
Kyudai asked confusedly, "Didn't you say there were fifteen applicants?"
Inabi explained, "Three of them are both extremely weak and physically unattractive."
Everyone present felt a mix of amusement and helplessness.
Fugaku frowned deeply.
If within a week Kintai returned to Konoha and they still hadn't made progress with recruiting commoner ninjas, Kintai would likely try to block the plan.
Though Fugaku was the Uchiha Clan Head and Chief of the Police Force — unmatched in authority and prestige within the Uchiha clan —
Kintai's power, rank, and influence ranked just below Fugaku's (though Fugaku didn't know that Shisui had already awakened the Mangekyou Sharingan).
If Kintai convinced Aoki and Sekkou to oppose him, even if the plan got forcibly approved, integrating these civilian ninjas into the Uchiha police structure would be extremely difficult.
Fugaku asked, "Have you investigated why recruitment is going so poorly?"
Inabi nodded. "There are two main issues. First, our recruitment posters lack appeal. Second, commoner ninjas harbor many concerns and suspicions toward the Police Department. I've already had someone revise the posters, but villagers still lack trust in the Police Department."
As Inabi spoke, his deputy Keimei handed a draft to Fugaku.
Fugaku gave a slight nod, then instructed everyone to review it.
After receiving it and giving it a quick look, Aozora realized the new poster had indeed improved greatly, clearly listing benefits, treatment standards, and requirements. While Aozora believed there might still be room for improvement, its quality had reached a decent level.
When Fugaku asked for feedback from everyone, Aozora also mentioned that the poster was not problematic.
"Fugaku," Fugaku added, "rewrite and improve your notice one more time."
With that, Fugaku tapped the table lightly. "Now, the most important thing for this recruitment drive is making them understand that our Police Department genuinely wants to hire people! Everyone should think carefully and speak your opinions one by one!"
Fugaku knew just how critical it was for the Uchiha clan to integrate commoner ninjas into the Police Department, so he wanted to finalize the proposal before Kintai returned to the village.
Later, Fugaku started calling names one by one.
"Hachidai, what do you think?"
"Well... I think we should focus more on publicity, letting more commoner ninjas know about this opportunity!"
"Iron Blue!"
"Director, personally, I think not recruiting commoner ninjas at all would also work fine..."
"It's impossible to change commoners' perception of the Uchiha clan in the short term!"
"..."
Aozora observed each squad leader's response, noticing that although they might have ideas, deep down they were reluctant to recruit commoner-ninjas into the Police Force, so none of them seemed truly dedicated.
Soon Fugaku finished questioning all the squad leaders, but remained unsatisfied with their answers.
Fugaku skipped straight past Kyudai and turned his gaze toward Aozora.
"Aozora, do you have any good ideas?"
Aozora nodded. He had done research yesterday and thoroughly considered the issue of recruiting commoner-ninjas after returning home.
As everyone's attention fell on him, Aozora cleared his throat and spoke up confidently: "To solve this problem, we must first build trust between the commoner-ninjas and the Uchiha clan. Regarding this, my proposals are 'Trust Through the Unfavored' and 'The Weight of Inclusion!'"
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