Konoha's Hokage Election

At such a momentous time as the Hokage election, no matter how busy things were on the front lines, the jonin had to take turns returning to vote.

Outside of a special situation, electing a Hokage required a recommendation from the village leadership. The winner was then decided by combining the votes of the jonin, chunin, genin, and villagers.

Going by the votes alone, Orochimaru was bound to lose.

So he forcibly changed the rules of the contest: the winner would be whoever had the greater backing, with votes counting for only a small part of what it took to become Hokage.

Minato had been troubled ever since he returned from the Country of Roran.

The Nine-Tails Incident might have been deliberately engineered!

The Nine-Tails' birth was a closely guarded secret in the village. Only the higher-ups could have known about it. Among Konoha's leadership, the one with a direct conflict of interest with him was... The truth could only be...

In the Hokage Office, Hiruzen Sarutobi asked Minato if he was determined to become Hokage.

He was genuinely afraid that after paving the way for Minato, Minato might yield to Orochimaru out of concern for their friendship as fellow villagers.

Minato had already made up his mind. He slowly closed his eyes. "I'm determined."

Orochimaru.

You can hurt me! But you must never hurt my family! My Kushina.

Disaster shouldn't befall one's family!!

Why did you hurt Kushina?

Hearing from Yamato, who had come from the future, that the Fourth Hokage and the Fourth Hokage's Wife had both died in battle on the Night of the Nine-Tails, Minato had felt his heart sink.

If Naruto was his child...

Then everything Naruto had been through all these years...

Orochimaru!!!

When Zhengyi heard about the Hokage election, he handed the army over to Hayakawa Rin, Kurosaki Ren, and Tsukishima Yoru, then rushed toward Konoha.

He also brought back thirty jonin and seventy chunin, in case they were needed.

He thought Hiruzen Sarutobi had grown desperate and planned to have Minato face off against Orochimaru right away.

He hadn't expected...

Konoha was plastered with announcements declaring that the two candidates for Hokage were Jiraiya and Orochimaru.

Now this was a problem!

Inside Root Base.

The three men fell silent.

They had expected to face Minato Namikaze, but had never once considered Jiraiya.

"What do we do now?" Danzo felt the situation was thorny.

Jiraiya was the sort who could overlook small courtesies for the sake of the greater good. He had plenty of support and a solid base, and even Homura and Koharu were both pleased with him. That made things difficult.

Originally, the two of them had stayed neutral in the contest between Minato and Orochimaru.

Now both of them had joined Jiraiya's camp.

Zhengyi was deeply troubled. In the face of overwhelming strength, schemes and tricks were useless.

Aside from the support of Konoha's native forces,

Jiraiya also had Mount Myoboku's full backing.

As for Teacher Orochimaru's Ryūchi Cave, those were a bunch of opportunistic snakes. How much would they have to offer to win their support?

What Zhengyi lacked now was time. Given enough time, he had plenty of ways to make Orochimaru win.

But the other side had pulled off a clever move: rather than backing Minato, they had first helped Jiraiya secure support.

"Let's wait and see, Teacher Orochimaru."

Since even Zhengyi had said that, Orochimaru knew they were in danger this time.

But they had long planned to flee and establish a ninja village if they lost the Hokage contest.

He would invent technologies to make the village powerful! Zhengyi would steer its development and earn him funding for his experiments. Then, more than a decade later, they would return and take revenge on Konoha. They had discussed all this in secret behind Danzo's back.

If Danzo was willing to go with them, they could even offer him a high-ranking position!

But Danzo was too set in his ways. He only wanted to become Konoha's Hokage, so there was no way he would leave with them.

It was just as well if he didn't flee with them.

Their only fear was that just as the village began to grow and attract talent, Danzo would wreck it all.

Danzo was full of worry. Minato was so young...

But he noticed that Orochimaru and Zhengyi didn't seem worried at all.

Could they have come up with a sound plan?

Then he wouldn't worry either.

The day of the Hokage election.

Jiraiya had been pushed into the spotlight, forced to face Orochimaru.

In the jonin meeting room.

Today's agenda was the position of Fourth Hokage.

Jiraiya had never imagined that one day things would come to this between him and Orochimaru.

"Orochimaru." He had so much he wanted to say to him.

But Orochimaru felt nothing but disdain for Jiraiya. Just like Teacher Sarutobi, he was always hesitant, wanting this and that. What could he possibly accomplish in the end?

"Ah..." Jiraiya opened his mouth, then finally chose to stay silent.

The Child of Prophecy, who the Great Toad Sage had said would bring peace to the Shinobi World, clearly wasn't Orochimaru.

"I nominate Jiraiya for the Hokage election." x3

The Hokage and his two advisors exchanged glances. Then they stood and nominated Jiraiya.

"I nominate Orochimaru for the Hokage election."

After the three of them sat down, the last advisor, Danzo, stood up alone, with little support behind him.

Orochimaru had been at a disadvantage from the very start.

Countless ninja supported Jiraiya.

Shikaku Nara put aside his last remaining concerns and let out a heavy breath. If all went smoothly, Jiraiya could become Hokage today. They could ask Orochimaru to leave the office, then throw their full support behind Minato.

His instincts had been right. Making Jiraiya Hokage had caught Orochimaru's faction completely off guard.

He secretly glanced at the reluctance and helplessness on the faces of those in Orochimaru's faction.

Everyone thought Jiraiya had it in the bag.

After Jiraiya held the position for a year or two, he would hand it over to Minato Namikaze. Orochimaru would be shut out of the Hokage position for good and cast out of the political center.

"I also believe Lord Jiraiya would make a good Hokage!"

"Taxes have been too high lately. They're crushing us. Lord Jiraiya will surely take our needs into greater consideration."

One after another, people declared their support for Jiraiya.

Those who supported Orochimaru didn't dare speak up.

Was fleeing the village really their only option?

But Jiraiya just had to start playing humble. "Now, now, I'm grateful for everyone's esteem, but what have I done to deserve it? I've got a decent face, that's all. I don't think my personality is all that suited to being Hokage."

"You should find someone more virtuous to fill the position."

"You want me to be Hokage? I don't think I'd do a good job."

He meant every word.

He truly didn't want to be Hokage. He was only planning to force himself to do it for a couple of years for Minato's sake.

With his personality, he couldn't bring himself to shamelessly take the position outright.

So, in Jiraiya's mind, the Third Hokage, his student Minato, and the village leadership would soon plead with him to take the position. After they'd persuaded him a few times, he would finally agree.

And another thing!

He didn't want to become a puppet of the higher-ups.

You'll be the ones begging me to become Hokage, not me asking for the job. So if you go against my policies later, just you wait.

Jiraiya wasn't as foolish as he seemed.

Even if he only served as Hokage for a year or two, he would make sure to pass every bit of the Hokage's authority on to Minato.

Hiruzen Sarutobi chuckled. This little rascal was just as clever as he'd been as a child.

Then he would do as Jiraiya wished and join Koharu and the others in pleading with him.