Now We're in Trouble (Please Vote for Me!)

In the arena.

Watching Kakashi collapse to the ground, scorched by Amaterasu's black flames, Fugaku felt no pleasure at all. Instead, an indescribable oppressive feeling welled up inside him.

This kind of victory was simply too humiliating for him!

"Urgh..."

Suddenly, Fugaku, still beneath Susanoo, dropped to one knee and covered his eyes with a hand.

The stabbing pain from his Mangekyō Sharingan reminded him of the depletion of his ocular power. He had no choice but to force down the anger in his heart, calm his frustrated emotions, and dispel Susanoo.

The thought of taking the opportunity to kill Kakashi had indeed flashed through Fugaku's mind.

But in the next instant, he rationally dismissed it. Kakashi was not someone he could not kill, but he absolutely could not kill him now—not in front of the entire village.

Once he became Hokage in the future and took the position of Fifth Hokage, Kakashi's life and death would rest on a single thought from him.

Having made up his mind, Fugaku's gaze sharpened.

In an instant, all the black flames of Amaterasu that had spread across nearly the entire arena and were creeping toward the stands went out, including those on Kakashi's body.

On the main stand.

Looking at Kakashi, whose body was scorched into a miserable state and who lay on the ground, nearly unconscious, the Third Hokage bitterly thought, Now we're in trouble!

According to the Hokage faction's arrangements, Kakashi had to win this match.

As long as Kakashi won this round, Hyuga Kagami, who had accepted their money, would go through the motions in the next match and deliberately lose to Kakashi. That way, the Hokage faction could smoothly complete the transition from the Third to the Fifth Hokage.

But no one had expected such an accident to