I Want to Be Hokage Too

Konoha, Year 32.

November's post-autumn chill had no effect on Konoha, where every season felt like spring.

The morning sun was as blazing as ever. Golden rays filtered through sparse clouds, piercing down like streaks of sword light and adding a touch of grandeur to Konoha.

"I'm leaving, Dad."

"I'm leaving, Mom."

"I..."

Outside every home, neatly dressed little kids emerged, each carrying a smaller lunchbox.

After waving goodbye to their parents, the children headed toward the same place.

It was the Ninja Academy of Konoha, located beside the Hokage Building and beneath Hokage Rock.

In Konoha, anyone with the aptitude to become a ninja attended the Ninja Academy until they graduated as genin, devoting themselves to Konoha's growth and development.

"Grandma, I'm off to school."

"All right, walk carefully, little Minato. Don't fall."

"Got it."

Outside a detached courtyard, Minato Namikaze, a blond boy with a cherubic face, carried a lunchbox big enough for an adult's meal. Walking backward at a brisk pace, he beamed and waved at his grandmother, whose face was full of affection.

Minato's parents had died early, and his grandmother had raised him.

By now, he was the only one left in the Namikaze family.

Fortunately, the Namikaze family had once been prosperous and had also been among the earliest ninja clans to join Konoha.

So even though they had fallen into decline, the Namikaze family still owned several houses, and Minato's life was still fairly comfortable.

"Morning, Minato."

"Morning, Yuta."

On the way to school, classmates who knew Minato greeted him, and he responded to each one with a smile.

His nickname, Little Sun, was well deserved. Though still young, Minato was already as well-liked as the future Fourth Hokage. He got along with everyone at school.

But if it came to who he was closest to...

That could only be Kimura Yao.

"Minato, why has your appetite suddenly gotten so big?"

Seeing that Minato was still carrying a lunchbox noticeably larger than everyone else's, someone asked curiously.

A few days ago, Minato had suddenly switched to a larger lunchbox.

At first, everyone thought his family simply didn't have a smaller one on hand.

But when lunchtime came, they discovered that Minato's oversized lunchbox was packed with rice ball bento. Even an adult might not have been able to finish it all.

Over the next few days, Minato continued bringing the large lunchbox.

Naturally, everyone grew curious. Why had Minato's appetite suddenly become so huge?

They were all six years old, so why was his appetite so exceptional?

"Has it? I don't know."

Minato narrowed his eyes and smiled without explaining further.

When they reached the school, Minato jogged toward his classroom. To get there as quickly as possible, he did not even enter through the front door. The moment he reached the back door, he pushed it open and walked in.

The first thing he did upon entering was look toward the window seat on the left side of the third row. His eyes immediately lit up, and the corners of his mouth rose slightly.

The seat that had been empty for seven days finally had someone in it today.

It was a boy about as tall as him, with short black hair.

"Good morning, Yao."

Minato sat down and greeted his friend as usual.

He knew his friend was sensitive inside. Showing concern too obviously would only make him feel worse.

Still, his eyes quietly watched for his friend's reaction.

And that reaction... well, for a moment, it felt a little strange.

"G-Good morning."

Li Yao instinctively turned around to answer, then realized that the other boy was not greeting him. No, that was not right either. He really was greeting him.

Because he was now Kimura Yao, a six-year-old boy from Konoha in the world of Naruto, no longer the thirty-year-old Li Yao from Earth.

He had transmigrated. From somewhere on Earth, he had crossed into the world of Naruto, an anime he had once loved, becoming the six-year-old Kimura Yao, son of a pair of chunin in Konoha.

Perhaps the couple had triggered the orphanage buff, because they had died on a mission the very night Li Yao transmigrated.

Thanks to their sacrifice, Li Yao, who had suddenly arrived in an unfamiliar environment and was at a loss due to not inheriting all of the original body's memories, had an excuse to stay hidden at home and avoid people. That allowed him to get through the period when he was most likely to give himself away.

Still, when he saw the blond boy in front of him, Li Yao recognized him at once from the original body's scant memories. This was the future Fourth Hokage—the Yellow Flash.

"Yao, are you... all right?"

Minato placed his large lunchbox into the drawer beneath his desk, then turned to look at his friend with both concern and confusion.

For some reason, just then, his friend had felt unfamiliar. The way he looked at him was like... like he was seeing him for the first time.

How strange!

Could it be...

No, no... his parents' deaths must have left Yao unable to recover yet.

Thoughtful as always, Minato instantly swept the frightening suspicion that had flashed through his mind away.

"I'm... fine."

"Thank you for your concern, Minato."

Li Yao smiled faintly.

Minato was so young right now!

He looked like a little kid you could squeeze water out of.

But despite looking like a little kid, Li Yao did not dare underestimate how thoughtful he was. He could not treat him too much like a child.

Or rather, in the world of Naruto, one could not treat children too much like children.

Uchiha Itachi, who could consider problems from the Hokage's perspective at the age of five, was one of the most outstanding examples.

Li Yao quickly searched through the original body's remaining memories of interacting with Minato, doing his best to avoid arousing unnecessary suspicion.

"It looks like you've moved on."

Seeing his friend's familiar smile, Minato was delighted. He thought he must have been mistaken earlier. His friend was still his friend. He had changed somewhat, but after such a family tragedy, no change at all would have been more worrying.

This was good.

Li Yao shook his head along with Minato's words, his eyes carrying a trace of sorrow over never being able to see his parents from his previous life again. He said softly, "People always have to move forward. The only thing I can do now is live well while carrying Mother's and Father's wishes with me, become a powerful ninja, and then..."

At that, Li Yao deliberately looked at Minato and said firmly, "I want to become the strongest Fourth Hokage in history."

If that monkey could be Hokage, if that gambler could be Hokage, then he, a transmigrator, could be Hokage too.

Although he had said it to fit the original body's character, Li Yao truly felt a surge of excitement in his heart.

Since he had come to the world of Naruto and started in Konoha, he wanted to try sitting in the Hokage's seat too.

Hearing his friend's declaration, Minato seemed to take it as a challenge. His expression immediately turned serious as he replied without yielding, "I'm the one who will become the future Fourth Hokage recognized by everyone."

Ever since he could remember, becoming Hokage had been Minato's dream. Even if it was his friend, he would not back down. He wanted to be Hokage.

Li Yao smiled. "Then let's see who becomes Hokage first."

Minato nodded, looking completely confident. "It'll definitely be me."

Heh... Li Yao smiled without speaking, but inwardly thought, I should have gotten through that. From now on... I am... ding ding ding ding.

Just then, the school bell rang, interrupting Li Yao's thoughts.

The sounds of playing and chatter in the classroom quieted as well.

Soon, a man appeared wearing a Konoha ninja forehead protector and a standard ninja flak jacket.

He was the ninja instructor for Class 1-B, responsible for their ninja education.

"Everyone's here today."

The ninja instructor stepped behind the podium and quickly swept his gaze across the classroom. When he noticed Li Yao, a relieved smile appeared on his face.

The kid had finally emerged from the shadow of his parents' deaths.

Not bad. He had not given up the ninja path.

In the future, he should be able to become an outstanding elite chunin like his parents.

"Quiet. Class is starting. Focus your minds and meditate to refine Chakra."

The ninja instructor withdrew his gaze and began the lesson without wasting words.

For every lower-grade class in the Ninja Academy, the first lesson was Chakra refinement.

One of the most important standards for determining whether someone had ninja talent was whether they could refine Chakra.

This one step had dashed the dreams of countless children who wanted to become ninja.

Do not be fooled by all those dead-last students in the anime.

Anyone who could refine Chakra was a genius.

Just think about how Chakra was formed.

It was created by combining Spiritual Energy and physical energy in a one-to-one ratio.

The very step of making Spiritual Energy and physical energy fuse was not something an ordinary person could accomplish.

Those who could do it were not ordinary people. They were ninja.

Even Might Guy and Rock Lee, who lacked talent for ninjutsu and genjutsu and could only use taijutsu, were capable of gathering Chakra.

Otherwise, without Chakra, with only an ordinary human body, no matter how hard they trained in taijutsu, a strong adult would not be a match for a six-year-old child with Chakra.

Whether one possessed Chakra made an enormous difference in strength.

This was also why, during the Third Great Ninja War, every village would rather send six- and seven-year-old children still studying at the Ninja Academy to the battlefield than send ordinary adults.

At least children with Chakra could serve as cannon fodder, complete some simple missions, and when they encountered an absurd genius like Kakashi, perhaps even play some role.

Ordinary people, however—even the strongest adults—would be nothing but sacrifices on the battlefield. And even setting that aside, they could not handle basic supply transport missions.

That was because ninja used Sealing Scrolls, similar to storage space, to seal and unseal supplies for transport.

And those without Chakra could not use Sealing Scrolls.

So, whether someone possessed Chakra made a tremendous difference.

Li Yao was very glad that he had the talent to refine Chakra. Otherwise, having finally arrived in this world of Naruto would have been far too boring.

It was just that, according to the original body's memories, his talent seemed rather poor.

He had only managed to gather Chakra shortly before turning five, barely meeting the Ninja Academy's minimum age requirement for enrollment.

The earlier someone gathered Chakra, the better their talent.

If one still could not gather Chakra after turning five, it meant they would basically never be able to do so for the rest of their life.

Kimura Yao's talent left Li Yao feeling rather awkward.

He wondered whether his transmigration had improved this body's ninja talent at all.

Too bad he had not transmigrated into one of the ninja clans.

The children and geniuses of those families seemed born able to refine Chakra. They did not even need to focus much, naturally gathering Chakra at a very young age.

Of course, gathering Chakra was one thing; being able to control it was another.

With Chakra but no control over it, the paths of ninjutsu and genjutsu were basically closed. One could only take the pure taijutsu path.

Chakra control was necessary to use ninjutsu and genjutsu. That was fundamental.

As for talent in Chakra control, Li Yao estimated that Minato possessed the highest talent in the class, and it was extraordinarily high—far beyond ordinary people.

And just as Li Yao had thought, Minato possessed exceptional talent for Chakra control.

Because of that, Minato had an extremely rare Chakra sensory talent. He could sense the temperature of other people's Chakra.

And while Minato was focused on refining Chakra, this ability to sense Chakra temperature was at its most sensitive.

"Yao's Chakra temperature?"

"Why... did it change?!"

Not long after entering the state of Chakra refinement, Minato suddenly sensed the temperature of his friend's Chakra changing rapidly.

Unable to help himself, Minato slightly turned his head and glanced at his friend beside him. In his perception, his friend's Chakra emitted threads of coldness that seemed capable of freezing the soul, making his body shiver involuntarily.

That alone showed just how low the Chakra's temperature was.

This was the complete opposite of the faint warmth that had always radiated from his friend's Chakra.

"How could this happen?"

A small frown appeared on Minato's smooth forehead as he rapidly pondered why this was happening.

Ever since awakening this special Chakra sensing ability, he had found every person's Chakra temperature to be constant.

So far, he had never sensed anyone's Chakra temperature change.

But now, Yao's Chakra temperature had not changed merely a little. It felt like... like he had become a completely different person.

"Hm... wait, could it be..."

Minato's expression suddenly changed slightly. He remembered that when he had greeted Yao earlier, there had been a moment when Yao looked at him as though he were a stranger.

"That wasn't an illusion!"

"Has Yao been controlled by genjutsu? Or had his memories sealed?"

Thinking through the possibilities, Minato could no longer remain calm. Instinctively, he wanted to get up and quietly explain the situation to the teacher.

But then he remembered his friend's family tragedy. Yao had missed school for seven days and stayed hidden at home, refusing to see anyone.

Perhaps his parents' deaths had caused some unusual change in his Chakra during that time. That was not impossible.

Besides, even if his friend really had been controlled by genjutsu, he could not act rashly now. It would be terrible if his impulsive actions caused something to happen to his friend.

So Minato calmed down and continued sensing his friend's Chakra temperature. Once he had fully determined what was going on with Yao, he would decide what to do.

At that moment, Li Yao had no idea that Minato already suspected his identity.

He believed that with some of Kimura Yao's memories, their earlier conversation, and the excuse of the family tragedy, he could conceal the fact that he was not Kimura Yao as long as he was careful around Minato in the future.

After all, so many protagonists had transmigrated into Naruto without any trouble. There was no reason he would run into trouble.

But Li Yao had forgotten what kind of world this was.

It was a world with supernatural abilities.

And what Chakra was composed of.

Chakra was formed by fusing Physical Energy and Spiritual Energy.

Physical Energy came from this body and remained unchanged from the original owner's.

But the Spiritual Energy was now supplied by the soul of Li Yao, who had transmigrated here.

Naturally, the Chakra Li Yao now formed by fusing Spiritual Energy and Physical Energy would also be different.

Thus, after Li Yao used his Spiritual Energy to fuse with Physical Energy and condense Chakra, Minato immediately sensed that its temperature was completely different from Kimura Yao's original Chakra.

Li Yao knew none of this yet.

At that moment, he was already overwhelmed with ecstasy.

This time, it seemed he could truly compete for the position of Fourth Hokage.

Before, when he said he wanted to become the Fourth Hokage, he had only been catering to the original Kimura Yao's character setting of wanting to become Hokage.

In truth, he knew his own limits.

In this world where bloodlines mattered, only Kaguya Otsutsuki's family could make it to the end.

The limit of ordinary people was someone like Minato.

As for the original Kimura Yao, his talent as a ninja had been utterly abysmal. His desire to become Hokage had merely been the result of being misled by the Will of Fire.

Li Yao knew very well that without a cheat, the limit of this life would be chunin at best—qualified cannon fodder in the Third Shinobi World War.

But now, things were different.

His cheat had arrived.