Konoha was about to elect its Fifth Hokage.
Among the Five Great Nations, the Land of Fire and its Konoha—the most prosperous in terms of economic trade—were about to replace their Hokage.
The news swept through the entire Shinobi World like a whirlwind.
Konoha's trade and Mission System were highly developed.
There were also many outsiders in Konoha.
In just a few days, the entire Shinobi World had learned the news.
The list of candidates had also spread.
Anyone with even a slight understanding of Konoha could hardly believe that an Uchiha was running.
And it was Uchiha Shamu, who was currently at the height of his fame.
The other two candidates were both reasonable, yet unexpected.
It was reasonable because Orochimaru and Tsunade were both disciples of the Third Hokage, so it made sense for them to run for Hokage.
But it was unexpected because Orochimaru had once been forced to defect.
Tsunade had been away for many years, and was now even working for the Uchiha Clan.
Orochimaru had the confidence to run because he had developed cloning technology with a very high success rate.
It could save disabled elite shinobi and had made an enormous contribution to strengthening Konoha.
Every Konoha shinobi praised it.
And every shinobi from other villages envied it.
In the chaotic Shinobi World, every Shinobi World War saw large numbers of shinobi leave the ranks of active combatants.
Most of them had lost limbs or suffered disabling injuries.
If Orochimaru could heal all those disabled shinobi, how much stronger would Konoha become?
Fortunately, Orochimaru's cloning technology was currently expensive, beyond the means of ordinary shinobi.
The number of shinobi who could recover was limited.
Otherwise, every village would already be unable to sit still.
Even so, every shinobi village feared that Konoha would