Editing Gene Soldiers (section)

==Hidden Leaf==



Outwardly, /the Leaf is strong. It emerged from the Third Shinobi World War with relatively few losses, weathered the attack of the most powerful Bijuu without significant damage and still has a strong military.

On the inside, the Leaf village is facing a crisis. The current Hokage is old; while still a respected and powerful shinobi, he really isn't up to any kind of long term conflict. His chosen successor died shortly after taking the position, at the age of 25. And the list of candidates for his replacement is small.

Tsunade doesn't want the job, and neither does Jiraiya (although if there was a talented enough ninja who needed a few years to gain experience, he might take the position temporarily). Kakashi Hatake has the lineage and the skill, but there are concerns over whether he has the raw power a Kage needs to intimidate the enemy, and if he would be an effective leader. Danzo really wants the job, but there's enough concern amongst the clan heads about Root that he'd have difficulty even if the Third didn't dislike him.

The clans are also part of the problem. Konoha has a lot of clans, mostly Hiden rather than Kekkei Genkai based, and this gives Konoha a strong combination of tactical flexibilty with tried and tested combat capability. A lot have sensory based abilities that mean Konoha ninja are difficult to ambush and often must be fought head on.

But the corrolary to this is that the clans are fractious and divided, with their own rivalries and alliances (the Hyuuga-Uchiha split was the most prominent), which the Uchiha massacre exacerbated by removing the arguably most powerful clan.

After the Senju line dwindled away, there was an agreement that the Hokage would not be a member of a clan, to keep them neutral in clan politics and serve as a rallying figure for the entire village. Unfortunately, there is no obvious successor.

This wouldn't be a problem if the fourth had lived, because he could expect another 30 or 40 years of combat effectiveness wherein there would be ample time to cultivate new talent to be the Fifth. But since he died the only shinobi who appeared skilled enough was Itachi Uchiha, who would have been inelligible even if he hadn't massacred his clan (this is one of his suspected motives, in fact).

The Third is running out of time, and really hopes he doesn't have to give it to Danzo. He'd prefer Kakashi to that, but knows the man is unsuited to long-term leadership.

At the same time, while Konoha has lots of extremely skilled shinobi, it doesn't have very many heavy-hitters, the kind who can dominate a battlefield. The Fourth is dead, Tsunade is retired, orochimaru is a missing nin, the Third is old and Kakashi is more suited to stealth than direct combat.

Its an open secret Jiraiya is still on active duty and no-one wants to have to fight him up close, but the only other one is Might Guy. Admittedly, he's a big one; the only living user of the Eight Gates, whose last user managed to fight off all Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Contrast, say, Cloud, which in addition to the Raikage, has the Two- and Eight-tails jinchuuriki and a couple of other heavy-hitters.

Konoha is still a powerful village, and the various minor clans are stronger than ever; Konoha's combat doctrine helps make up for a lack of direct power. Also, high-ranking people across the Elemental Nations know they must have the Nine-tails jinchuuriki stashed away somewhere, although no-one outside the Leaf knows who it is (and they are desperate to find out). The prospect of him or her being groomed as the Fifth terrifies the other Kages.