What Do You Mean Danzō Became the 5.5th Hokage?

"He's still updating his diary while on a mission?"

Within the Hatake Clan's territory, Hatake Kakashi noticed that the diary beside his desk had been updated.

As an Elite Jonin, he went on missions far less frequently than ordinary Genin and Chunin. After all, there simply were not many missions that required an Elite Jonin; they generally started at A-Rank, or were even S-rank missions, and such assignments were rare to begin with.

The Chunin and Genin, on the other hand, had to handle a great number of trivial D-rank and C-rank missions—often things like picking up trash or catching cats and dogs. They worked themselves to death every day and did not earn much money either.

Still, they were relatively safe.

Moreover, he had already received word from the Third Hokage that he would serve as the Jonin instructor for the new class of Ninja Academy graduates, though it had not yet been specified which students he would be responsible for.

But Hatake Kakashi already had a good idea.

"So it really is Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and that girl named Sakura." Hatake Kakashi had already figured it out.

He knew what to expect from Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke. Both had extraordinary backgrounds and were targets of much attention.

Only Sakura, the pink-haired girl, had been unknown to him before. He had made a few inquiries recently and found that she was another child from an ordinary civilian family, though she excelled in the theoretical courses.

Although Uchiha Sasuke ranked first overall in the year, he only ranked second in theory, behind Sakura.

"A genius ranked first in the year, a Dead Last, and a civilian ninja ranked first in theory... Konoha still likes this kind of lineup after all these years. Is it for balance?"

Hatake Kakashi considered it. This team was astonishingly similar to the makeup of Minato Namikaze's squad back then.

The difference was that he had been the genius back then, while Obito Uchiha had been the perennial Dead Last, with Rin, who had been highly talented in medical ninjutsu.

Thinking of that, Hatake Kakashi could not help feeling a little melancholy.

But this further confirmed one thing: everything updated in this diary was likely true. This Kitahara Kaede probably really could foresee the future.

Yet he recorded his diary day after day without ever stopping, not even while on missions. What did that mean?

Could keeping a diary itself benefit him somehow?

Hatake Kakashi instinctively thought of it, but then immediately dismissed the absurd notion and opened the diary to read.

Right at the start, he saw Kitahara Kaede viciously cursing Danzō, making Hatake Kakashi pause. Kitahara Kaede's diary had always been mostly jokes, mockery, and complaints; it was rare for him to rage and curse like this.

But after reading the details, it was not hard to understand.

Danzō actually wanted to send a Root Squad to hunt down Kitahara Kaede just because he had come into contact with Naruto.

Hatake Kakashi had once spent time in Root, so he naturally knew exactly what kind of place it was and what sort of killing machines it produced.

If the Third Hokage had not personally pulled him out of Root, he would probably have become a cold and merciless Killing Machine by now.

And now Danzō had specifically sent a Root Squad to kill Kitahara Kaede. Could it be that Kitahara Kaede really had some kind of problem?

No. If Kitahara Kaede truly had a problem, Anbu should have been deployed, not Root.

Besides, he knew perfectly well that Danzō often used Root Squads to do things he wanted done himself.

He simply did not understand why Danzō was so sensitive about Kitahara Kaede. From Kitahara Kaede's diary, it seemed that he did have some secrets, but he was definitely not a spy planted by another village.

His secret should be his ability to foresee the future, along with the matter of these mysterious diary copies.

But among so many ninja, who did not have a secret or two? Did Shimura Danzō not have secrets of his own?

And by that standard, if he was going to become Uzumaki Naruto's teacher in the future, would that not put him on Danzō's kill list as well?

Using Anbu to intercept and kill a ninja from his own village without the Hokage's permission—Danzō truly was being far too brazen.

But Danzō rising to become Hokage?

That was a development Hatake Kakashi had never considered. Shimura Danzō and the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, were the same age. In fact, the Third Hokage had already retired once more than a decade ago. Although that retirement had been due to his poor performance during the war, and as the overall commander, he had stepped down to give the whole village an explanation.

But even then, he had already been nearing the end of his prime.

Not to mention now, more than a decade later. The Third Hokage was already advanced in years, and in recent years, calls to select the Fifth Hokage as soon as possible had never ceased. Everyone realized that the Third Hokage truly was old. If they did not choose a successor soon, no one knew when he might suddenly drop dead.

The Third Hokage was already in such a state, let alone Shimura Danzō, who was the same age. In the Shinobi World, that counted as an extremely advanced age, considering how worrying the average lifespan was.

Especially for ninja, making it to old age was no easy feat.

Furthermore, Danzō had spent all these years overseeing Root. He had never truly appeared in the public eye, much less served as the commander-in-chief of any battle. He had no real prestige in the village at all.

The Third Hokage's principle in using his old friend had always been this: power could be given to him, status could be given to him, but prestige? Not even a little.

Not to mention that Root's very existence and establishment had harmed the interests of countless Ninja Clans. Who knew how many members of those clans had been taken into Root and trained into emotionless killing machines?

How could the major Ninja Clans possibly have no complaints? They merely dared not provoke the Third Hokage, so they endured it.

If Shimura Danzō stepped forward to run for Hokage, leaving everything else aside, his age alone would allow the Jonin Council to reject him easily and openly.

On top of that, he had neither prestige nor accomplishments impressive enough to show. What right did he have to run for Hokage?

Because Root used people for live experiments?

And the diary said that Danzō became the 5.5th Hokage?

Why was there even a decimal involved? But Kitahara Kaede had written it in the diary, so he had no choice but to believe it.

That meant Danzō truly would become Hokage in the future. He simply did not know why he was called the 5.5th Hokage. Yet this also meant that Konoha would choose a Fifth Hokage, and Danzō would become Hokage only after the Fifth Hokage.

Given the current situation, if the Fifth Hokage chosen now had to serve until retirement before Danzō had a chance to succeed them, how old would Danzō have to be?

A hundred-year-old man?