When Habara returned home, he also discovered that he had received medals from the Evaluation Committee. Unlike Kakashi's situation, which involved a whole clatter of them, he had only received two.
One was the second-class "Senju of the Forest Honorary Medal," awarded because Habara had dealt with both the Nine-Tails and the Eight-Tails.
The other was the third-class "Konoha Guardian Medal," awarded because Habara had been the first to protect Konoha during the Nine-Tails incident. He was the first to confront the Nine-Tails. Regardless of what techniques he used, even if he had just used a leg sweep to trip the Nine-Tails, he had still objectively protected Konoha. Otherwise, who knows how many civilians would have died? So, he deserved this medal.
And that was it.
Lower-class medals essentially required accumulating seniority to obtain. Habara had only participated in the war for a little over a year and hadn't participated in any significant battles, so it was reasonable that he didn't receive the most common type of medal.
Habara certainly wasn't dissatisfied. Firstly, the Third Hokage had directly copied the medal names that he had "painstakingly" designed in five minutes. Secondly, the two medals he had received were definitely the extremely rare and prestigious type.
Setting aside the engraved designs on the medals, Habara flipped them over and saw that these two medals, one round and one square, slightly larger than coins, had two types of fastening methods. After a glance, he understood how they were to be used... They could be hung on the chest or pinned to the forehead protector's headband.
Putting the medal on his forehead felt a bit silly, but it would certainly ensure that no one would miss seeing it.
Habara tried gesturing in front of his forehead and then had a strange expression. Putting aside whether this behavior was embarrassing or not, he felt that this action was like a Kamen Rider inserting a card into his belt... Damn it, could it be that there was a tokusatsu fan among the people who designed these medals?
The Konoha Guardian Medal represented that Habara had protected Konoha; the Senju of the Forest Honorary Medal represented that Habara could fight against Tailed Beasts (whether he really could or not, at least it looked like he could). These two medals were incredibly weighty. Even if Kakashi offered five of his in exchange, Habara wouldn't trade.
In this medal system, second-class medals were basically the highest level that a ninja could receive. The first-class Hokage Honorary Medal would generally not be awarded to others, but according to Kushina, the Third Hokage had still given out three Hokage Honorary Medals this time, and the recipients were...
Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru.
The Third Hokage's intentions were obvious.
Jiraiya and Orochimaru's contributions during the war didn't need to be elaborated on. As for Tsunade... Although Tsunade had long since left the village and hadn't even participated in the Third Shinobi World War, almost no one in the Evaluation Committee opposed the Third Hokage awarding the highest medal to his female disciple.
Although Tsunade was currently going through a rebellious, menopausal phase, wandering around the ninja world, if she returned to Konoha now, even if the Third Hokage immediately announced Tsunade as the Fifth Hokage, no one in Konoha would oppose this decision... The granddaughter of the First Hokage, the number one medical ninja in the ninja world, a disciple of the Third Hokage, there was no helping it, Tsunade's status was too special.
As long as a Konoha ninja wasn't brain-damaged, they couldn't possibly prevent Tsunade from becoming Hokage. Oh, there would be someone who would obstruct it, Danzo Shimura, but he didn't meet the criteria of "not brain-damaged."
But even the brain-damaged Danzo could only obstruct secretly when facing Tsunade... This auntie's halo was too bright, bright enough to blind everyone.
Therefore, the special nature of the "Hokage Honorary Medal" was instantly revealed. It represented the status of "Hokage candidate." Clearly, the Third Hokage wasn't very good at hinting; his hints were all blatant announcements.
Returning to the Evaluation Committee, although everyone knew that the influence of the ninja clans might further decline after the implementation of the medal system, the clan heads still had to fight for more medals for their clan members... There was no helping it, Konoha's honor naturally superseded clan honor. This was determined by the legitimacy of a ninja village, and the clan heads were powerless to resist.
After learning the meaning represented by the medals, basically no ninja didn't want them.
Previously, Konoha's honor hadn't been tangible, but clan honor had been instilled since childhood, so some things were reversed. Now, it was considered righting the wrongs.
The emergence of the medal system had a certain impact, but conversely, it wasn't completely opposed to clan honor. The two might even complement each other.
In the future, if anyone claimed to be the number one ninja clan, this issue could be quantified. Everyone could bring out their medals and compare.
Everything had advantages and disadvantages. For example, even if Habara could improve the status of civilian ninja, which meant a decline in the status and privileges of ninja clans, it also meant that they would no longer have to bear such a heavy responsibility in war, and no longer have to make so many sacrifices.
And the sacrifices of civilian ninja wouldn't increase, and might even decrease, because in previous wars, civilian ninja had already died in large numbers... Lacking strength, they could only be cannon fodder.
While the Konoha populace was still celebrating the end of the war, the Meritorious Service Evaluation Committee was working overtime to the point of vomiting blood, continuously distributing medals.
Afterward, the Third Hokage would have to choose an appropriate occasion to officially introduce the medal system.
...
The day after receiving the medals, Habara pocketed them and went to the small earthen building. This time, Kushina Uzumaki was also there... As mentioned earlier, the work of the Evaluation Committee was enough to kill a person, and Kushina didn't have the same utilitarian mindset as the clan heads, so she naturally started skipping work.
There was a cradle in her office, and Naruto was babbling inside.
After the war ended, a considerable number of people fell into a state of idleness, and Habara was clearly one of them... He felt that he needed to find something to do.
After thinking for a while, he suddenly remembered something... He remembered that he had previously wanted to strengthen this organization. And as a "good doctor," he needed to find an opportunity to cure the ailments of certain patients. A doctor's benevolent heart, you see.
Then he dragged Kakashi in front of Kushina.
"Lady Kushina, I think we can study this special sample... Senior Kakashi is not an Uchiha, but he has a transplanted Sharingan. Let's set aside how the Sharingan is hot-swappable, let's not mention whether there's an immune rejection, and we don't need to worry about how the optic nerve, as the main nerve, is reconnected. In short, after a non-Uchiha body receives an Uchiha eye, some problems have occurred, causing Senior Kakashi's Sharingan to remain constantly activated, which significantly impacts his strength."
"Is that so?" Kushina didn't seem to be aware of this, because Kakashi had never told her.
Since Kakashi had been caught by Habara, he could only nod at this point.
"Chakra drain, right?" Kushina identified the crux of the matter, and her expression became strange. "You're troubled by such a problem? Just cut off the chakra supply to that eye, wouldn't that solve it?"
"Uh... huh?"
That seemed to make sense... right?
What do you do if a balloon is constantly leaking air? Don't overthink it, just pinch the leaky part, and then tie it off with a string a little further in, right?
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