The new Commerce Department had been perhaps the easiest sell of them all. The current Commerce Department was doing most of what the new one would, but with a lot less structure and clarity—and, given that the Department dealt with a lot of civilians, there was a lot of motivation to make that change. So the new structure—four bureaus and a Research Office—was welcomed easily.

.

Inspections & Regulations Bureau:

Internal – set business standards and rules, including safety rules; make sure that businesses are in compliance with Konoha standards and rules

External – offer missions to investigate businesses

Yamaguchi Shigeru stared at the provided paperwork, the man in front of him, and his father.

This would be their fourth store and in all three previous stores it had taken them years to get settled in, make sure they were compliant with local laws, figure out who to bribe and how much to spend.

And here it all was.

Shigeru's grandfather swore it had been easier back in the day, before all the 'nonsense rules' had been put in place, but Shigeru didn't mind so much; he'd grown up with it.

What he did mind, what he'd found very annoying as his father had started bringing him along, started training him up, was how hard it was to figure out if you were in compliance.

His father told him that most times you didn't know if you'd screwed up until you pissed off the wrong person, until they decided to go after you.

And—

And now Konoha was just handing them all the documents.

"All Konoha businesses are entitled to one introductory meeting, this one, as well as one meeting a year upon request. If the business is locally-owned, you would be entitled to additional resources—though I understand that is not currently in your plans."

"…not yet, no," his father murmured. Shigeru knew his father was worried about the coming war, had almost postponed opening his store—

But Konoha's storefronts were filling up fast, and he'd worried that there wouldn't be one available if he waited.

But his father said 'not yet', not no.

And Shigeru wondered.

.

Product Security Bureau:

Internal – set labeling and content standards for products including food

External – offer missions to test the makeup of products

Keito bounced next to his grandmother as they went to the market. His haha and chichi were working very hard, and so he spent days with baba, and she took him wherever she went.

They started with the produce, because baba thought it was really important to see all the fruits and vegetables before anybody else.

Then they went inside baba's favorite shop to look at the canned foods. Grammy didn't usually feel up to shopping, so they had to eat canned food in between.

"Oh, are these the new labels?"

"They are, yes."

"Oh, that's nice…"

Keito squinted up at the words, but he didn't know how to read, yet.

He could recognize his name, though! And the word for welcome—that was on the mat outside baba's house.

"What does it say? Can I see?"

His grandmother bent the can in his direction, pointing to something on the side. "This says that it was made in the Land of Fire, and this says it was canned just this week."

"Is that good?"

She laughed. "I think so, yes, my little firebug. Very fresh. It will last a while."

"Oh, good!"

.

Vendor Bureau:

Internal – renting vendor spaces

External – sell vendor spaces to non-Konohans

Kenta was kind-of surprised when they applied, but also—why not? It made sense, for both economic and political reasons.

Having a Suna puppet shop was good for Konoha, too, though, so he wasn't surprised that their vendor application was approved.

Really, though, it was still surprising.

Everybody was treating it like Konoha would be at war by the end of the year, Iwa and Kumo were nipping at the borders, and—

And Suna was applying for a puppetry shop within Konoha's borders.

He wished he was higher ranked, was allowed to know more about why they might be going against the grain—

But he was a lowly bureaucrat, and all he did was make sure everything was filed correctly, make sure that everybody was where they expected them to be.

So he'd just do his job, and hope that this was a sign that the future might be a bit less bleak than the rumor mill assumed.

.

Resource Distribution Bureau:

Internal – ensure wartime food and resource security, support agriculture

External – sell resource surpluses when the world is otherwise experiencing a shortage

"I didn't realize we'd be so far behind," Nara Shikaku murmured. The other Clan Heads made noises of agreement.

Now that wartime was coming—and it really did seem to be coming—they needed to be ready.

But they weren't.

They hadn't even inched towards recovering from the resource deficit during the Kiri war, and—

And now they knew it.

Now they had all the information consolidated into one place, and it was so, so obvious.

What were they going to do?

.

Another Department that was reorganized with relatively little pushback was the Diplomacy Department. Historically, people ignored the Diplomacy Department until it was relevant, and between Mitokado Supaku and Nara Shin there was plenty of support within the Department (and, especially, its new Research Office).

And then the demands came.

.

Public Diplomacy Bureau:

Internal – propaganda. This is the propaganda bureau.

External – propaganda for Fire nobles. This is the propaganda bureau.

Trying to hype people up when everyone knew most of the combat force was on the border was… difficult.

But Inohana was a Yamanaka, and she could make this work.

She would make this work.

She'd listened as Sakura explained her 'confidence' theory, she'd seen its effects after the Kiri destruction—

She was a believer.

Sakura had also emphasized the importance for planning if confidence failed, but that was someone else's job, not hers.

Her job was making everybody a little bit more confident, a little bit more willing to trust Konoha.

She smiled as she walked past a group of Academy kids practicing their lines for a play about the founding of Konoha, smiled as she walked past a bar full of men singing the new patriotic drinking song the Public Diplomacy Bureau had disseminated.

But it wasn't enough.

She needed to do more.

.

International Relations Bureau:

Internal – monitor international politics, work to improve international relations; monitor compliance with existing trade agreements, work to form new trade agreements.

External – offer missions to act as mediator between nations.

It had taken years of work, years as Suna clearly leaned away, clearly didn't like Konoha's growing power, clearly didn't like their own waning business, and now with the finish line in sight there was the reorganization to deal with, but Akimichi Rintaro was no slacker.

It was done.

They'd agreed.

A five-year contract, trading food and wood for metals and sand, promoting civilian trade too by reducing import taxes.

The Hokage had signed it, the Kazekage had too, and now it was done.

On paper, at least.

The finish line was in sight, but they weren't there yet.

Now they just had to make sure everyone was complying, was delivering the promised products.

Was reducing the import taxes, which was, by far, the most contentious part of the agreement.

It would be a constant process, would take all five years, but now the gate security team had a new booklet, carefully sorted to comply with each Department, with each Bureau.

Diplomacy no longer needed someone at the gates, checking products—people more trained in the tasks were doing it, and there was less running around, less disorder.

Rintaro had been less than pleased when the reorganization had been announced, but he had to admit there were benefits.

Especially given the enactment of largest trade agreement Konoha had had in years.

.

Daimyo Relations Bureau:

Internal – monitor Capital politics, work to improve Konoha/Daimyo/noble relations

External – offer missions to act as mediator between nobles.

Shin was rather removed from most of the reorganization going on in the rest of Konoha's government, but he did know he was officially within the Daimyo Relations Bureau, now, and only had one boss to report directly to (as well as the Hokage, when he had time), so that was nice, but beyond that…

He had other concerns.

It wasn't that he'd seen whatever had happened coming.

He still had no idea what had occurred, what had transpired.

What he did know was that about a dozen of Konoha's most powerful were just barely getting off bedrest, and it had taken all of Konoha's energy to keep Fire's borders intact—while, of course, dealing with the governmental restructuring.

And Shin was still busy helping with that.

The good news was that his years of work had paid off; when he sent telegrams to the nobles whose land bordered Kumo and Iwa, they'd immediately sent their samurai to support Konoha, treated the encroachment as a threat to Fire and therefore themselves rather than just 'some ninja nonsense'.

That had kept them alive.

That had kept them fighting.

And now—

Now Shin had to figure out how to keep the momentum going.

What did Konoha want?

Minato hadn't been able to send Shin any notes on that, was probably too busy by far.

But Shin still had to figure something out.

Figure out a goal, because 'defense' wasn't exactly motivating.

And figure out a way to repay the nobles who had come to their aid, without making it seem as if there was any chance they'd have done anything else.

At least his goal didn't have to work for Konoha—it just had to work for the nobles.

That was something.

Still tricky, though.

Maybe…

Maybe something about the Uzu? There had been rumors for years that they'd kidnapped some people, some children, in its destruction…

.

Electoral Bureau:

Internal – monitor and run elections for Konoha's new district structure, run census

External – offer census missions

Konoha was having elections.

Normal, ordinary, everyday citizens were getting a say in their governance.

The Hokage would get final say, but the three councils—elders, departments, and assembly—would each get a say, get to draft laws, pass laws, be involved.

The Elder Council was not for ordinary citizens, but it was for every shinobi who served at least twenty years. Whoever was at the meeting and met that requirement could vote; it was the largest council by far, in theory.

The Department Council had the Department Heads.

The Assembly would have each 'major' clan represented, as well as representatives from each district within the city.

Nagato—

It wasn't something he'd seen before.

He knew that town leaders tended to be selected from their peers, ousted from their positions if they grew disliked—but those weren't official positions.

Those didn't have power like Konoha had power.

Here, here people would get a say.

Nagato was still so, so wary—

But that was something he could watch.

Something he could measure.

Yahiko was excited about it, was happy for it—

Was willing to give this a chance.

Nagato was just a little more wary.

It was weird; when they'd met, Yahiko had been reluctant to accept Nagato into his group, was wary.

And now it was Nagato that hung back, waited for the other shoe to drop.

But this—

It was such a small thing, this election.

And yet it meant so much.

.

Intelligence Bureau:

Internal – spies, informants; information extraction from prisoners; analysis

External – none.

Ibiki was so bored.

So incredibly bored.

He'd worked with the fireflies already today—the ones who'd grown into their adult forms in this world were improving at a rapid rate—so he couldn't do that, needed to give them time to rest.

He'd cleaned his cell, again. Shaved, because he liked that he had to start shaving.

(And okay, maybe the guys in the neighboring cells laughed at him, and said he didn't have enough to bother with, but that's just because he kept on top of things. That's it.)

He'd practiced origami by folding his blanket, because he'd seen one of the other prisoners do it and thought it looked interesting.

Blankets were not nearly as willing to do anything as paper, so that had kept him busy for some weeks.

He'd done push-ups, and sit-ups, and lunges, and burpees, and just about every other exercise he could figure out how to do.

He'd chatted with his new neighbor to the left of his cell, who had apparently not taken getting fired well and thought arson was the appropriate response.

He'd slept.

But he'd done all those things—more or less—for weeks, now, and there were far too many hours in the day, and—

And he was bored.

So incredibly—

A guard had just entered.

Ibiki sat up, moving to the door to try to see who was being pulled out. There was little else to do, so watching other people—even watching them be pulled for doctor's appointments—was at least something more to break up the monotony.

And then the guard stopped in front of his cell.

Several hours later, Ibiki sat, freshly showered and changed, in front of his new boss, Yamanaka Fuyuki.

"Alright, to tell you the truth, we're both going to be learning. You—and I—are now part of the Intelligence Bureau. It's just T&I, but, you know, rebranded."

"Huh," Ibiki said. He—why did T&I rebrand?

"Now, you're going to start in analysis. First you'll just be, basically, an information gatherer—someone will ask you for information and you will dig through all our records to find any seals that might contain the requested information.

"Eventually you will begin writing drafts…"

Ibiki's heart sank.

When he'd imagined working for T&I, he had not considered paperwork.

He'd thought about talking people into saying things they didn't mean to, learning all sorts of cool stuff—

Not digging through stacks of seals.

His aunt had warned him.

He hadn't believed her.

But, well, he'd gotten through his stint in prison—he'd get through this, too.