After hearing those words, the group exchanged glances, their expressions turning rather strange.
Root members could not participate in the Hokage election. Sarutobi Toru had never imagined there was such a rule. After all, hadn't Shimura Danzō in the Original Work become the 5.5th Hokage?
But thinking back, when one joined Root, there was indeed that saying about having neither a name nor a future. Being unable to run for Hokage was unexpected, yet reasonable.
As for Hatake Sakumo entering the Hokage election, Sarutobi Toru was not surprised in the slightest. It was politically correct, after all.
Unless there truly were no other opponents, the previous Hokage would still try to put on a fair appearance during the Hokage election.
Even if the outcome had long been decided behind closed doors, they would tacitly put forward an opponent to show that this was the result of a fair election. As for the predetermined choice and the hints involved, ordinary Chunin and Genin below would have no way of knowing.
To put it more bluntly, why did Konoha ninja have that strange rank of Special Jonin? Claims about incomplete combat ability or insufficient experience were unimportant excuses. The main reason was that only Jōnin had voting rights in the Hokage election. Special Jonin did not have that right.
Generally speaking, unless one's strength vastly surpassed that of an ordinary Jōnin and reached the level of an Elite Jonin, then without any political awareness, one could only become a Special Jonin no matter how strong one was.
This was especially true for clan ninja. (Uchiha, Hyuga, I'm talking about you two!) There were simply too many among them who could reach Jōnin-level strength. If they were all given the title of Jōnin, they might join forces and manipulate the Hokage election.
Thus,