The Hokage Might Not Be His to Become

"Jiraiya, looks like I won."

On Orochimaru's path toward immortality, his teacher didn't understand him, and neither did his friend.

Jiraiya had once asked Orochimaru who he would support if Minato and Orochimaru ever competed for the Hokage position.

At the time, Jiraiya had laughed awkwardly and dodged the question.

It was as though he'd said something, and yet as though he hadn't. He had chosen to remain neutral.

To Orochimaru, neutrality was betrayal. It meant Jiraiya had chosen Minato.

After the Third Shinobi World War broke out, Orochimaru watched everything Jiraiya did. It was just as he had once imagined.

Orochimaru no longer believed in friendship. What did he have to show for decades of friendship in the end?

As expected, he was alone.

The only thing in the Shinobi World that wouldn't deceive him was the data in his laboratory, page after page.

Although he spent all his time on experiments, Orochimaru had still kept a hand in reserve. He hadn't fully trusted Zhengyi to handle everything properly, so he had hidden summoning snakes on several Konoha Ninja. Through the little snakes' eyes, he had learned what Zhengyi had been doing.

Orochimaru was a little speechless.

Aside from giving Zhengyi a few scrolls of ninjutsu and telling him to go play somewhere, had he really taught him that much?

One Point Two Sides, guerrilla warfare, psychological warfare...

Maybe this was what it meant to be a genius.

But this also proved that he had a better eye than Jiraiya.

Now Orochimaru was completely at ease about Zhengyi. He recalled his summoning snakes and stopped keeping tabs on the Konoha Ninja altogether.

If Zhengyi was handling it, he had nothing to worry about.

Compared to Zhengyi, nobody else measured up.

"Jiraiya, looks like your judgment isn't all that great."

Orochimaru had made up his mind. Once he became Fourth Hokage, he'd assign Jiraiya the most difficult missions and make him carry them out.

Because Orochimaru wasn't paying attention, he didn't know that Zhengyi had killed Sarutobi Hayate.

Zhengyi had struck in his name, so the blame would ultimately fall on him.

Orochimaru really did shut himself away from the world, focused solely on his experiments and, as a side project, teaching Anko ninjutsu.

It took only a few days for news of the major incident in the Land of Lightning to spread across the entire Shinobi World.

"Ōnoki!!"

At the Iwagakure front, the Third Raikage's face was as black as charcoal.

He was gnashing his teeth in fury.

If that old bastard Ōnoki hadn't kept him tied down, he would still be in Kumogakure. Let that Zhengyi try escaping then!

He would have caught them and beaten those skinny bamboo poles to death!

Damn it! Damn it all!!

"Rock Ninja! Get the hell out of here!!"

Of course he wanted revenge for such a humiliating disgrace. But if he withdrew now, Ōnoki would overrun this route in no time.

So he ordered an all-out assault to quickly settle things with Iwagakure.

But before sending out the troops, he rolled his eyes and had a sudden idea.

Zhengyi had used those tactics in the Land of Lightning. The Third Raikage had seen Dodai's reports on how he'd put them into practice and understood the gist of it.

Was it possible that he could imitate Zhengyi and try something similar in the Land of Earth?

After all, Iwagakure's two Jinchūriki, Roshi and Han, were both fighting Konoha.

"Tell A that the title of the Shinobi World's greatest Taijutsu master should be mine."

"He wants to be the greatest Taijutsu master in the Shinobi World? Hahaha! He can wait until his father's dead."

Full of grand ambition, the Third Raikage set out with his Ninja.

And then... he walked straight into Ōnoki's ambush.

His campaign had barely begun before he died.

To cover the Cloud Ninja's retreat, the Third Raikage resolutely chose to sacrifice himself and hold off the enemy.

One against ten thousand!

A had lost his father.

Sigh.

When news of the Third Raikage's death arrived, A was walking beside the tents. The spring nights were long, and his heart felt heavy.

Little by little, he was no longer a boy. Little by little, he was learning to bear everything...

"Father!!!"

A had grown up. He had changed, becoming a real man.

Men who matured quickly enjoyed a period of particular calm, and calm meant that no problem could stump them.

Zhengyi and the group of Konoha Ninja were driven out of the Land of Lightning by him.

Then A hurried back to Kumogakure to take over the duties of the Fourth Raikage.

"Tch."

Zhengyi walked back toward the camp with a group of Ninja, looking utterly dejected.

There was nothing they could do.

Against A and Killer B, a Perfect Jinchuriki, getting driven out was only natural.

But their disruption in the Land of Lightning had bought Konoha's northeastern front at least a few months of peace.

Kumogakure's top fighters on the northeastern front were fewer than Konoha's, but the average Cloud Ninja was a cut above Konoha's. They ate meat, eggs, and dairy every day, so they were all tall and strong, with an average height of six feet.

After Zhengyi returned, he was busy training every day.

After all, the war wasn't over, and the situation was still unclear. Everyone considered how important Orochimaru was and tacitly agreed not to bring up the fact that Zhengyi had killed Sarutobi Hayate.

Nearly a week passed, and Orochimaru still hadn't made a move. That proved he at least tacitly approved of what Zhengyi had done.

This time, all the Konoha Ninja were alarmed.

Was the higher-ups' message that they were going to crack down on military discipline?

"We're done for. I killed people in Amegakure before too, and they were members of the Uzumaki Clan."

The speaker sounded terrified.

When Hiruzen Sarutobi heard about it, he only sighed and drew on his pipe. "Zhengyi and Orochimaru really are alike. Both of them are so cold-blooded."

Of course, there was no way they were going to crack down on military discipline.

He couldn't exactly rent out the whole pleasure district so the Konoha Ninja could enjoy themselves, could he?

With Konoha's finances, they'd be in the red in no time without the Feudal Lord's support.

Orochimaru... why couldn't he learn from Minato?

"Sigh."

Jiraiya sighed at the same time.

Orochimaru and his student were too extreme.

If he weren't tied up here, he really wanted to see what Orochimaru was doing.

"Boom!"

The deafening explosion had come from the Tailed Beast Bombs fired by the Four-Tails Jinchuriki and Han, the Five-Tails Jinchuriki.

With their immense range and destructive power, those attacks had made Jiraiya's life miserable these past few days.

"Shikouyi! Sensei, did our Konoha Ninja really make it into the heart of the Land of Lightning?"

The newspaper hadn't said who had led them.

It had only reported the good news, crediting all the Konoha Ninja.

Maybe it was prejudice.

Anyone associated with Orochimaru was bound to be unpopular.

Obito had no idea that his romantic rival had led the mission. He looked enviously at Minato. "I wish I'd been on that team. It's so noisy here. Those two beasts... if I had a Three-Tomoe Sharingan, they'd be sorry."

He covered his ears.

"Hmph, sensei, things must have been much less intense where Zhengyi was than they are here, right?"

Rin Nohara froze for a moment when she heard Zhengyi's name. Come to think of it, she hadn't seen him in a long time.

"Well, no matter how intense things get here, it was Jiraiya and Minato-sensei who went to deal with Iwagakure's two Jinchūriki. It has nothing to do with you."

Some people grew up after their fathers died; others just gave up.

At this point, Kakashi was someone who kept everyone at arm's length.

"What are you talking about? Does it have anything to do with you? Aren't you slacking off too?"

"Is that so? At least I'm not wasting my time on some childish competition for a woman."

"Bastard! You're more infuriating than Zhengyi now. I'll rip your mouth off!!"

"Kakashi, Obito, stop arguing."