On the forty-fourth anniversary of Konoha the village was flooded.
The Daimyo was there, as well as almost every noble, and by all accounts most of the other samurai besides.
The monks arrived at the same time, from just about every religion that saw a smattering of followers within Fire's borders.
The religious folk and nobility from other nations were there, too; the Minor Nations especially, but also the Land of Wind, and even a small Delegation from the Land of Corn far in the west.
Konoha was about to have its first ever formal transition of power from one living Kage to the next—all the previous transitions occurring in a rush, while the current Hokage lay dying and doctors and guards acted as the only witnesses—and everybody wanted to be there for the momentous occasion.
Sakura, standing in her Yamanaka formalwear towards the front of the Yamanaka area of the crowd, watched on in awe.
Dawn had broken over the mountain to reveal the structure nearly completely covered in ninja, and less than a minute ago they'd all vanished into the tree line, disappeared to reveal no change—
And then the Hokage had handed over his hat, the official ceremony had concluded, and then everyone heard the rumble and turned to watch hundreds of tiny rocks fall at once, a perfectly curated avalanche, to reveal Namikaze Minato's face.
The crowd roared, the Will of Fire racing through them as they chanted out Namikaze's name over and over again, and then the Sandaime Hokage took his bow and the crowd roared again for their now former leader.
And then the party began.
Theoretically, and according to planning, there were actually dozens—probably hundreds, really—of parties. One for each clan compound, one for each department, one for each apartment, one for each neighborhood, one for each visiting nation, and so on, and so on, and so on.
In practice no one even tried to delineate where one celebration stopped and the next started; people raced everyone, took part in everything, tried food at the Akimichi then went to the Uchiha to watch their fire art displays then joined in a raucous free-for-all at one of the training grounds then relaxed and played go in the Nara compound.
Sakura lost track of just about everyone she was close to within the first fifteen minutes, and spent the next two hours enjoying the party anyway.
By noon, however, even a twenty-year-old needed a break.
Fujio was lying in their back garden, staring up at the kites that crisscrossed in the sky, when Sakura finally forced her way into their family home—the Yamanaka were giving away plants, and the compound was very busy.
She flopped next to him, watching alongside.
The kites were a Suna thing, apparently—they used special string, and special kites, and had battles trying to cut each other out of the sky.
Sakura picked one to root for, and watched as it fell.
She hoped the kites would stick around.
Fujio began snoring.
Sakura rolled over to stare at him instead.
Sakura was the eleventh of twelve siblings.
Ren was doing well, both of his children working their way up the ranks.
Sayuri had never bothered with children, but she was well-respected, too, and led her own tracking team.
Aoi…
And Kaede, for that matter.
They were both gone, were both mourned.
Kamui was still alive, though, had a child and everything, and no matter how anti-ninja he got—and every year only seemed to increase his vehemence—he never stopped dropping off food, listening to Sakura and any (every) other sibling complain about their day.
Akina and Arato were rarely home, but at least they sometimes managed letters. Managed to, when they were falsely reported dead, send proof that they were alive. Sakura couldn't imagine remaining undercover for so long, staying away from Konoha, from everything and everyone, but—well, it seemed to be in their veins.
Not Ayame's, to be sure; she was still frontline, still popping in and out of Konoha every month as she patrolled borders now that the war was over.
Fujio had followed in their mother's footsteps, both in terms of Department and frequency of home visits; he'd once told Sakura that he found the noise of Konoha overwhelming, liked the relative silence of the documentation work he did for T&I instead.
Kohana was—
Well, she was happy.
Only one year older than Sakura, but already settled in for the long haul with their Clan Head, and happy with her initially temporary wartime transition from plant nursery to people nursery too.
Himari…
Himari might never be able to live by herself, not with her seizures, but she was great with kids, and she always seemed to be busy, to be out of the house now that it was usually empty of inhabitants.
Sakura wondered if it was time to move, too.
Ibiki was in his second semester of Year Five, now, would graduate in a year and a half, and Juro had been going on steady dates with a neurologist for almost two months, now—
She could get an apartment, an apartment nearer to Research.
Empty, but, well, the house was already empty—Juro worked long hours, Kohana stayed in the main house, Ibiki was always visiting friends, Himari was usually with Ren or Kohana…
The desire, suddenly, to fall back in time until she was two years old, again, not even in the Academy and always with someone to talk to—
It came over her in a wave, in a flash, with a sudden strength she hadn't expected.
Sakura closed her eyes.
She ignored how they burned.
Fujio snorted himself awake, shuffling as he tried to gain his bearings.
"Kamui's restaurant for lunch, do you think?"
"Yeah, sounds good."
.
The rest of the power changes had, months ago, been penciled in for the very next day.
Then someone had asked about hangovers.
Three days after Hokage Namikaze took office, Yamanaka Sakura and Uchiha Hotaru stood side by side as, in front of Research's Deputy Heads and the Hokage himself, (Former) Research Head Aburame's beetles lifted the ceremonial robe from his shoulders—and the identical one, made the day before, as well—and placed it over the shoulders of the two new Co-Heads.
Sakura controlled her breathing, feeling rather like she was in a dream.
She might have agreed to this, weeks ago, but—she'd gone so long, thinking she wasn't going to be head, and now—
Hokage Namikaze grinned, his teeth—and they really were unnaturally white—gleaming. "And so a new generation takes control."
Research was, after all, the last ceremony of the day.
Of the 13 Departments of Konoha, 10 had new Heads. In addition to the Hokage and Research, Commerce's Head had passed his title to his son, Infrastructure promoted a Nohara (according to rumor, solely because he was a Nohara, but Sakura trusted that a man who'd been in the office thirty years knew his job), Education went from a Shimura to an Utatane, War and Security to a different Nara, Diplomacy to, of all people, an Aburame, Utilities to a civilian Sakura hadn't previously heard of, and Services to a different Uchiha.
Only three Departments—Finance, Health, and Justice—actually kept their previous heads.
The average age also dropped from sixty-eight to forty-seven.
(Sakura was no small part of that, though Hotaru's age of sixty helped even it out somewhat.)
This would be the first time, really, that most of the Government was being run by people who only remembered Konohagakure, only remembered the time of Hidden Villages.
Sakura smiled back.
.
The paperwork was killer.
.
The meetings were too.
.
Sakura's head had been thrumming for almost a full hour now, and the meeting was no closer to being over.
It wasn't that she disagreed with her Clan Head (actually, she was in full support) but it had been hours.
She wished she'd bartered with Hotaru so that he was here, instead, but he thought she had a better rapport with the Hokage, and so all of those meetings fell on her plate.
It felt very unfair, as the hours stretched on and Inoichi kept trying, and trying, and trying.
The only thing that kept it going was that Minato seemed interested too, and the only thing that kept that from being enough was Education Head Utatane.
"No."
She said.
Again.
Just as she had to every other education suggestion Clan Head Yamanaka had put forward.
She'd stopped even bothering with explanations after the first three.
She just let him talk, explain his argument, and then—
"No."
Sakura hated that the meeting room didn't have a clock.
Someone had broken it, apparently, and it had never been repaired.
"It's good practice not to have one, anyway." She had been told. "Always handy to be able to gauge time, and this gives you a nice way to train."
Bullshit.
"No."
Sakura hadn't bothered to listen to any of Inoichi's latest proposals. She doubted anyone else had, either.
It was hard to muster the energy to care, when—
"No."
Finally, the Hokage cleared his throat. "As… productive as this meeting has so far been, I believe it is time to actually accomplish something."
Well, that was pointed.
"Inoichi," the Hokage addressed the Clan Head first, "the vast majority of reforms you are suggesting require an incredible amount of change, and are not the sort of thing that can be imposed absent evidence that such drastic measures will be sufficiently useful."
Education Head Utatane nodded, satisfied.
"Misaki," the Hokage turned to her, "the Academy does need significant reform. We are not in a war anymore, and yet the Academy seems hell-bent on getting kids out of the door as quickly as possible, instead of teaching them as much as possible. I know you've only recently taken position, but the number of children, as young as two, promoted early is—not acceptable."
Education Head Utatane swallowed.
"Here's what we're going to do. Inoichi, the Academy for Uzu is currently being built—you will be put in charge of that, and every three years we will reconvene to decide what of your Academy should be brought to the Main Academy, and what of the Main Academy should be brought to yours.
Misaki, there will be no more genin younger than ten."
Sakura blinked. Ten? She certainly supported the mandate, but the majority of students started the Academy between four and six; ten would virtually ban any early graduations, and extend the period that children who started early like her beyond the traditional six years.
"What?! Do you know—"
"I am very aware of what I mean, Education Head Utatane." The Hokage said. "We are not in a war, we do not need child soldiers. Teach the children in safety, in Konoha, so that when they begin working for Konoha they have even more to offer before they have to start worrying about things like survival and missions. In addition, I will be banning the promotion of any genin to chuunin unless they are at least thirteen years of age."
There was a lot of murmuring.
Sakura considered Ibiki.
He was seven, in year five.
He wasn't going to take this well.
"And what are these children, who are perfectly capable of being graduated and promoted early, to do?"
The Hokage inclined his head towards Inoichi. "I like the concept of additional elective courses. We will send out a call for any shinobi, or civilian, interested in passing on their skills to submit a description of a course. You will be in charge of creating a short lesson on how to teach, and each student can enter as many additional electives as they have time for."
Sakura cleared her throat. "Research will supply two instructors, one for an advanced science course and one for an advanced math course."
Hospital Head Hyuuga nodded. "We'll supply two instructors as well; an advanced field medicine course, and a course on anatomy and physiology."
Utatane Misaki hadn't been surprised when Sakura spoke up—her support was anything but a mystery—but for the Health Department to also support the proposition was new; they hadn't said one word about Inoichi's applications since they started.
And then it was Diplomacy's turn, volunteering an additional course on international relations, and then a small hesitation.
Diplomacy and Health's support was surprising, sure, but not—not unexpected. The Hospital had been asking for more medics for years, and Diplomacy was being run by the Aburame, who the Yamanaka were known to be close to—Office 40 still existed, after all, and both Sakura and Inoichi regularly took trips there to compare notes with the others' research.
When War and Security Head Nara shuffled his papers, however, everyone's eyes jumped to him in an unmistakably shocked response. The Nara might be historical allies of the Yamanaka, but War and Security was the Department most negatively impacted by the Hokage's orders. "I believe we can spare an instructor, as well; perhaps for an elective on leadership. I will have to talk to our Deputy Head of Tracking, but I believe she would be interested in submitting a proposal for a Tracking elective as well."
And then, right to the Education Head's right, Commerce Head Mitokado spoke up.
The Mitokado, Utatane, and Shimura never contradicted each other.
Never went against the other's will.
Not at the level of the councils, anyway.
"I believe we can spare a member to instruct on the economy, and the role shinobi play."
Sakura blinked at him.
Everyone blinked at him.
Education Head Utatane looked… well, she looked like her brain was refusing to process what was happening.
What was happening?
A second passed, a hesitation as everyone wondered whether the immediate shows of support were over, and then perhaps the least expected Head of all leaned forward.
It was, after all, the former Hokage who had refused to change the Academy so drastically in the years previous, who had supported the early graduation of a 'select qualified few.'
Justice Head Sarutobi inclined his head towards the current Hokage. "My Department will supply an instructor to teach an elective on law. I will meet with the MPLF shortly; if they agree, then they will supply an instructor on Konoha's laws and the general Justice instructor will focus on international laws and Fire laws that might come up in the field."
The Hokage inclined his head back.
Everyone waited.
Would anyone else speak up?
It seemed unlikely that Infrastructure or Utilities would, or really any of the remaining Departments, but one never knew, and there were the Clan Heads to think of besides; given that this was only the third meeting since the Hokage took office, just about every Head was in attendance.
For now, though, the room remained silent.
Any additional electives would have to wait for more discussion.
Minato nodded once, sharply. "That's done, then. Misaki, Inoichi, I will set up individual meetings with the two of you later this week to hammer out the additional details. Now, I believe Utilities is next?"
Utilities Head Maeda blinked, surprised. Sakura supposed he hadn't expected that they would get to him today; between Education and the preceding War and Security review, no one probably expected to get any further on the docket.
"Oh, yes." He cleared his throat, coughed. "Well, the construction of the sewage system on Uzu is proceeding as expected…"
