After saying his goodbyes to Sakumo and Kakashi, Hikari made his way through the iconic Hokage Rock, heading towards the outskirts of Konoha to rendezvous with his team. As he walked, a sense of regret washed over him; he wished there had been time for one last serious spar with Sakumo.
Over the years, their training sessions had evolved significantly, reaching a point where Sakumo deemed Hikari skilled enough to face him when he wielded his legendary short sword—a mark of high respect and acknowledgment of Hikari's abilities.
Hikari had always found these intense sparring sessions and instructions both challenging and incredibly rewarding. They pushed him to the limits of his skills and allowed him to gauge his progress against one of Konoha's legendary shinobi. Recently, he had even 'felt' a further remarkable increase in Sakumo's power.
Despite already being one of the village's most formidable ninjas, Sakumo seemed to have found a new reservoir of strength, likely driven by a mix of resolve and the abundance of time he now dedicated to refining his techniques.
This growth in Sakumo's abilities made Hikari all the more regretful that they couldn't have one final duel before his departure. Such a spar would have been the perfect way to test his readiness for the battles to come and to gain further insights from one of the best alive.
Nonetheless, with the pressing demands of the war and his responsibilities to his team, Hikari knew that such personal desires had to be set aside today.
With a deep breath, he focused on the path ahead, steeling himself for the challenges he would face as he approached the assembly point where his team awaited.
The entire Eastern Division didn't travel uniformly to its destination; instead, it divided into many smaller teams, one of which Hikari was the leader.
As Hikari moved toward his team's meeting point, his mind was busy strategizing about the broader implications of the war and his faction's long-term objectives within Konoha.
He was well aware that the Anti-Hokage coalition, despite its strength and determination, faced significant obstacles in its quest for power due to Hiruzen's firm control over the village's administrative and commercial interests.
Not to mention control over Konoha's budget, collected from taxes and other internal revenue sources in addition to the Daimyo's financial allocation for Konoha and the further allocation of finance to various clans.
That was also another strong advantage clans in Hiruzen's factions had over the other clans. They simply got allocated more of that money secretly through various channels on top of what was supposed to be the equal percentage for every shinobi clan based on their size.
Therefore, with all those inherent 'top-down' advantages, Sakumo's success in securing the position of Jonin Commander was an exception rather than the rule, a rare victory in a landscape dominated by the current Hokage's faction.
Understanding this, Hikari recognized that their current tactics of confrontation and attempting to wrest control incrementally were inadequate and inefficient.
The coalition needed a more decisive approach: a top-down strategy that would involve overthrowing Hiruzen, installing a leader from within their ranks as the next Hokage, and then making easy adjustments to the lower levels of positions and finance.
Everything came down from top to bottom in terms of Konoha's executive, legislative, and judiciary powers, as Konoha itself was some kind of city-state led by a collective shinobi dictatorship, in Hikari's impression.
It would be a futile job to try and wrestle influence from the bottom-up. You instead needed to defeat the existing dictator with preferably kinetic force if you wanted to shake things up and change the status quo at the end of the day.
This new leader would be crucial in realigning Konoha's policies and power structures to favor their coalition. Every higher-up leader of their faction already understood that, more or less, the point of contention was who that would be at this time.
Once they succeeded in placing one of their own at the helm, they could begin the process of regaining lost ground and expanding their influence, potentially reversing the losses they had suffered and even usurping interests from Hiruzen's faction instead this time around.
For now, the public perception among many in the Anti-Hokage faction was that Sakumo Hatake would be the next logical choice for Hokage after Hiruzen.
However, Hikari was privy to more confidential aspirations within his circle. His clan, the Hyuga, had quietly thrown their support behind him as a future candidate for Hokage.
They believed that through his experiences and growth in power and reputation during the war, he would mature into a leader capable of running for that office.
Meanwhile, Hikari also speculated that the Uchiha clan, for example, also likely harbored similar aspirations for one of their members. It even wouldn't be surprising for Hikari if Kiyomi was that person, as she had similar characteristics as he himself had within the Hyuga clan.
Additionally, Hikari was well aware of the complexities involved in changing leadership, especially considering Hiruzen's current position and vigor. In his mid-forties and still close to his prime, without much gray hair, Hiruzen was unlikely to step down without significant cause.
Hikari understood that in the original series, Hiruzen's resignation was influenced not just by the negative outcomes of the Third Ninja World War but also by his confidence in his ability to exert influence even after stepping down as Hokage. However, the current circumstances were different.
In this altered timeline, Hikari recognized that for Hiruzen to consider resignation, favorable outcomes during the ongoing war would be required again. Therefore, this was a clear demonstration that a change in leadership was in the best interest of Konoha's future, both for the general shinobi and the civilian population.
However, there was something else. Replacing Hiruzen would require more than just political maneuvering; it would necessitate substantial kinetic force. The anti-Hokage faction would need to amass enough powerful elites to decisively overcome Hiruzen and his core supporters.
This wasn't just about winning a political argument; it was about having the kinetic force to back their claims and compel Hiruzen's faction to accept a new leadership paradigm.