Prime Minister

The Prime Minister ( 宰相 , Saishō ) of the Land of Redaku assists the country's monarch.

## Background [ ]

The Prime Minister served the Land of Redaku's previous King for thirty years. Because he had no family of his own, he committed himself to serving his country and its people, a task he took on happily. When the King became ill, the Prime Minister travelled to the Land of Fire and its surrounding countries. While there, the Prime Minister witnessed the shinobi and jutsu that were regarded as fairy tales back in Redaku, the peace and technological innovations that became widespread after the Fourth Shinobi World War , and the abundance of food and other resources that Redaku always struggled to have enough of. Before returning to Redaku, the Prime Minister learned how to make heavy weapons.

The Prime Minister was impressed by the world of shinobi and desired to establish a private shinobi army back in Redaku. He hired fifty missing-nin to serve in this army and he hired Jiji to train them and improve their abilities; the Prime Minister gave Jiji his own room within the royal palace and assigned him a personal maid, Margo . At some point after this, one of the Prime Minister's allies, Zansūru , uncovered a way of reviving the dead and proposed using it to resurrect an army of immortal dragons . Zansūru would need the help of a ninja to accomplish this, so the Prime Minister approached Jiji: he'd learned that Jiji had fallen in love with Margo, and offered to permit their relationship on the condition that Jiji spend a year helping Zansūru. Jiji agreed. But when the year was nearly up, the dragon army was still not ready, and Zansūru could only secure Jiji's continued assistance by lying to him that Margo had died of an illness. To support the lie, the Prime Minister fabricated a death certificate and sent it to Jiji.

Around the same time that Margo's death was being faked, Redaku's King died. It was not the Prime Minister with his years of experience who replaced him, but rather the King's young daughter, Manari . The Prime Minister thought this was a travesty, that somebody unqualified could be chosen to lead a country simply by virtue of birth. In order to demonstrate her unsuitability, the Prime Minister decided to undermine her rule. He first had his allies within the royal palace convince Manari to send her younger brother, Nanara , away to Nagare Village ; the Prime Minister assigned Margo to go with him. Once he was gone, the Prime Minister began trying to devalue Nanara in Manari's eyes, characterising him as a "failure" who abandoned her and the responsibilities of leadership. Over the following months, he staffed the palace with people loyal to him, thus reducing the chances of Manari being influenced by anyone other than himself.

The Prime Minister also purposefully did not tell Manari how to control the Shuigu , so that her effort to provide rain to the capital city instead destroyed its crops and drowned its livestock; the Prime Minister explained this to the public as being due to a flooded river. This created a famine within the capital that, in addition to the water shortage that Manari was trying to solve in the first place, caused many of the city's poorer citizens to die. The Prime Minister privately speculated to Manari that her failure to use the Shuigu was because of her own inadequacy, yet was careful not to lose her trust, assuring her that she was not at fault. He indulged her unwillingness to use the Shuigu again, allowing the water shortage to worsen as a consequence. The Prime Minister at some point secretly signed the Shuigu's contract, which would allow him to control it properly whenever the opportunity arose.

Even before Nanara left for Nagare Village, the Prime Minister kept him marginalised, advising Nanara that it was better he have others read to him rather than learn to read on his own. Once Nanara went to Nagare, the Prime Minister would send tutors to teach him, but they would all quickly be driven off by Nanara's pranks. When that happened, the Prime Minister would send another tutor. The Prime Minister also ordered that the country's libraries be closed and sealed off, the explanation being that books were too precious to risk being dirtied by citizens trying to read them.

## Appearance [ ]

The Prime Minister is described as an old man with a crimson robe and a grey beard extending to his chest. In the anime, the Prime Minister has a short grey beard and wears a purple and black robe with a turban on his head.

## New Era [ ]

### Kakashi Retsuden: The Sixth Hokage and the Failure Boy [ ]

Main article: Kakashi Retsuden: The Sixth Hokage and the Failure Boy Almost a year after the King's death, the Prime Minister updates Manari about the rising death toll within the capital city, and warns that news of the water shortage will soon begin reaching the country's outlying settlements. He suggests that she try using the Shuigu again, but she refuses, worried she will cause another flood. She contemplates seeing if Nanara would have more success with the Shuigu, which the Prime Minister discourages, saying Nanara is too immature for the responsibility. Manari has no further ideas and, accepting that something must be done to save Redaku, she defers to the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister explains to Manari that the best course of action is for Redaku to take the water and resources it needs from another country; he recommends the Land of Fire, explaining that its newfound peace has made it vulnerable to invasion. Because the Land of Redaku has no formal army of its own, the Prime Minister assigns the fifty missing-nin he'd previously hired to carry out the invasion. He gathers the missing-nin within the capital city while preparations are made, creating an additional strain on the city's already limited food supplies. He also has a number of cannons produced, which he justifies to Manari as necessary defensive tools.

To mark the one year anniversary of the King's death, Nanara is recalled to the palace. The Prime Minister sends a messenger to intercept him before he reaches the capital city and takes him on a detour, so that Nanara will not witness the starvation rampant in the city's poorer districts. When Nanara finally reaches the palace, he is accompanied by his current tutor, Kakashi Hatake . Nanara requests a room for Kakashi within the palace, which the Prime Minister resists; Kakashi is not the tutor that he hired for Nanara, though he does not mention this. He does assent to giving Kakashi a small room in the palace's basement, but asks the palace's maids to be vigilant around Kakashi and report anything unusual to him, as he suspects Kakashi may be a shinobi.

During dinner, Nanara overhears a discussion about the planned invasion and demands an explanation. The Prime Minister tries to convince Nanara not to concern himself with it, but is unsuccessful. The Prime Minister explains Redaku's current predicament and how the country could benefit from taking some of the Land of Fire's opulence for itself. Nanara, who is already a fan of the Land of Fire because of stories he's heard about it, decides this opportunity to make Redaku more like the Land of Fire is reason enough. Nanara changes his mind by the following morning and becomes more critical of the planned invasion. He tries to persuade Manari not to go through with it, but she becomes upset and storms off. The Prime Minister suspects Kakashi as the reason behind Nanara's change and chastises him before following after Manari.

In truth, although the Prime Minister does wish to conquer the Land of Fire and thus bring its luxuries to the people of Redaku, he has no expectations that the cannons or the fifty missing-nin would be able to do so. For the invasion to succeed, he will need the army of dragons that Zansūru has been working on in secret. The Prime Minister sends his messenger, Fundaru , to the Astronomy Research Institute to get a progress report from Zansūru, but is careful to make sure that Fundaru doesn't actually know what the progress report is for. When Fundaru returns a few days later, he relays Zansūru's promise that the army will be ready within a few days.

With the day of the invasion approaching, the Prime Minister (with Manari) sets out for Nagare Village, the closest settlement to the Land of Fire and thus the ideal staging area. He brings the army of missing-nin with him to maintain the appearance that they are his sole invading force. Feeding the army during the few days of their stay will deplete the village's reserves and will likely push its villagers to rebel. In anticipation of this, the Prime Minister enlists two hundred and fifty men from the capital city to accompany the army, their assignment being to police the villagers and use cannons to put down any rebellion; the Prime Minister takes these enlisted men's families hostage, to ensure their loyalty. When the Prime Minister and the army arrive in Nagare Village, Nanara tries to dissuade him from allowing the invasion to proceed. The Prime Minister refuses.

An Earth-Style Wall is erected around Nagare Village, cutting it off from the army's access. The Prime Minister labels Nanara a traitor and orders the wall be destroyed, but neither the shinobi nor the cannons are able to even dent it. There is no change with the wall until a few nights later, when it suddenly vanishes and the villagers stage a counter-attack; in response, the Prime Minister changes into some armour and relocates himself and Manari to a high cliff, to watch the fighting unfold. The villagers gradually overwhelm the Prime Minister's army, prompting him to instruct Manari to use the Shuigu against them. She refuses, fearing the damage she might do. The Prime Minister wearies of Manari: he takes the Shuigu from her and uses it against her, ignoring her demands for an explanation. He notices Nanara scaling the cliff towards them, so turns the Shuigu against him in an effort to dislodge him.

Nanara is saved by Kakashi, who blocks the Shuigu's water with Fire Release: Water Mist and then carries Nanara up to the Prime Minister's location. The Prime Minister attacks with the Shuigu again, which Kakashi once again blocks with his Fire Release. As they repeatedly trade attacks, Kakashi questions the Prime Minister about his actions and motivations, accusing him of poor judgment for believing he could conquer the Land of Fire with only an army of fifty ninja. This prompts the Prime Minister to finally acknowledge he's expecting additional forces from the Astronomy Research Institute, though he does not go in to further detail. The Prime Minister is privately frustrated that Zansūru's dragon army hasn't arrived yet as was promised, unaware that the dragons have been stopped . Nevertheless, the Prime Minister remains confident that Kakashi, Manari, and Nanara will soon be dead by his hands.

From the prolonged fighting, the Prime Minister recognises Kakashi as the Sixth Hokage . Although he's disturbed by what he's heard of Kakashi's skills, he nevertheless expects the Shuigu will allow him to prevail. Kakashi doubts this, drawing the Prime Minister's attention to the sky above them, where the clashing of the fire and water has produced thunder clouds. The Prime Minister, with his armour and outstretched Shuigu, inadvertently attracts multiple lightning strikes down upon him. He collapses when the lightning abates, his heart stopped. Kakashi performs CPR and eventually resuscitates him. The invasion is called off and the Prime Minister is returned to the capital city to stand trial for his actions.