The Fourth Hokage Keeps Coming Up with Ridiculous Names

A note before you start: This is a million-word novel. For the first installment, please visit the author's works page and read The Third Hokage Is Talking Nonsense Again Today.

Not reading the first installment may affect your enjoyment.

Thanks to @Hina for the hand-drawn cover!

Blurb:

Fugaku (drawing in the dirt with a branch): "Basically, the situation between x Small Country x Ninja Village is like a piece of lamb that everyone wants a bite of. Everyone's fighting over the land, and our job is to quell the unrest. Taking it over would be easy, but keeping the place stable would be hard. If you were the daimyo, how would you carve up this piece of meat?"

Kushina (hands on hips): "Isn't it obvious? Just seize it first, then figure out what to do with it!"

Jiraiya (laughing heartily): "Kushina, you agree with Teacher Sarutobi!"

Fugaku (disapproving): "All brawn, no brains. What do you think, Minato?"

Minato (pondering for a moment): "We should take our time and plan carefully."

Reader's guide:

1. This is not a crossover! The author is a longtime fan of the original work and this is purely a Naruto story. I'll do my best to stick to the original's style.

2. The first installment, The Third Hokage Is Talking Nonsense Again Today, is available on the author's works page!

3. [About the plot]: A lighthearted, no-romance comedy. This is not meant for nitpicking (please take note). When I started writing, I hadn't researched every detail, and the early Naruto timeline is very inconsistent. For the sake of the plot, I may rearrange some events, change certain details from the original, or have characters born earlier. Overall, please treat this as a parallel world to the original.

4. [About whether the protagonist has a love interest]: The canon pairing, Minato and Kushina, stays together.

Theme: Growing amid a complicated and shifting world, and gradually becoming someone with unshakable convictions