The Hokage He Might Not Become

"Jiraiya, looks like I won."

On Orochimaru's path toward immortality, his teacher did not understand him, nor did his closest friend.

Once, Orochimaru had asked Jiraiya, "If Minato and I competed for Hokage one day, who would you support?"

At the time, Jiraiya had laughed it off with a vague response.

It seemed like he had answered, yet it also seemed like he had said nothing. He chose to remain neutral.

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

After the Third Shinobi World War broke out, Orochimaru saw everything Jiraiya did. It was exactly as he had once expected.

Orochimaru had completely stopped believing in friendship. What had decades of friendship brought him in the end?

Sure enough, he was alone.

The only thing in the Ninja World that would not deceive him was page after page of data in his laboratory.

Although he spent all his time on experiments, Orochimaru still kept something in reserve. He did not fully trust Masaichi to handle the miscellaneous matters, so he hid summoned snakes on several Konoha shinobi. Through the little snakes' eyes, he learned of everything Masaichi had done.

Orochimaru fell somewhat silent.

Other than handing Masaichi a few ninjutsu scrolls and telling him to go play with them,

had he taught him so many things?

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

Perhaps... this was what a genius was.

Still, this indirectly proved that he had better judgment than Jiraiya.

Orochimaru was now completely at ease about Masaichi. He recalled the summoned snakes and completely washed his hands of the Konoha shinobi.

When he handled things, I was at ease.

Compared to Masaichi, no one was good enough.

"Jiraiya, it seems your judgment is not all that great."

Orochimaru decided that once he became the Fourth Hokage, he would assign Jiraiya the most difficult missions and make him complete them.

Because Orochimaru had not been paying attention, he did not know that Masaichi had killed Sarutobi Soku.

Masaichi had struck in his name. In the end, that debt would be placed on his head.

Orochimaru had shut his ears to the world outside, focused solely on experiments, and incidentally taught Anko ninjutsu.

Something this major happening in the Land of Lightning spread across the entire Ninja World within days.

"Ōnoki!!"

At the Hidden Rock Village front line, the Third Raikage's face was as black as charcoal.

He gritted his teeth in fury.

If that old bastard Ōnoki had not kept holding him back, he would still have been in the Hidden Cloud Village. Let that Masaichi try running then?

If he caught up, he would beat those skinny bamboo poles to death!

Damn it! Damn it!!

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

Of course he had to avenge such humiliation, but if he withdrew, Ōnoki would seize this route in minutes.

So he ordered an all-out assault, intending to quickly decide the outcome against the Hidden Rock Village.

But then,

before deploying, his eyes shifted, and an idea struck him.

Masaichi had used military tactics in the Land of Lightning. He had read Dodai's reports and roughly understood how those tactics worked.

Was there a possibility that he could imitate Masaichi's methods and do the same thing in the Land of Earth?

After all, the Hidden Rock Village's two Jinchūriki, Rōshi and Han, were both fighting Konoha.

"Tell A that the title of the Ninja World's number one taijutsu master should be mine."

"He wants to be the Ninja World's number one taijutsu master? Hahaha, he can wait until his father is dead."

Filled with lofty ambition, the Third Raikage led his shinobi out.

Then... he walked into Ōnoki's ambush.

He died before achieving victory.

To cover the Cloud Shinobi's retreat, the Third Raikage resolutely chose to sacrifice himself and hold the rear.

One versus ten thousand!

A no longer had a father.

Sigh.

The moment news of the Third Raikage's death arrived,

why did the daytime of a spring night feel so long? A walked beside the tents, his heart somewhat melancholy.

He was slowly no longer a boy. He was slowly learning to shoulder everything...

"Old man!!!"

A had grown. He had transformed, completely becoming a man.

Men who grew quickly had a period of benefits. They were especially calm, and calmness meant no difficulty could stump them.

Masaichi and a group of Konoha shinobi were driven out of the Land of Lightning by him.

Then A hurried back to the Hidden Cloud Village to take over the duties of the Fourth Raikage.

"Tch."

Masaichi and the other shinobi walked back to their camp looking battered and dusty.

There was nothing they could do.

Facing A and Killer B, a Perfect Jinchūriki, it was only natural that they were driven out.

But after the chaos they had stirred up in the Land of Lightning,

Konoha's northeast had gained at least several months of peace.

The Hidden Cloud Village to the northeast had fewer top-tier experts than Konoha, but the average quality of its shinobi surpassed Konoha's by far. Their regular diet consisted of meat, eggs, and milk; every one of them was tall and powerfully built, with an average height of over 1.8 meters.

After Masaichi returned, he busied himself with training every day.

After all, the war was not over, and the situation was still unclear. As for Masaichi killing Sarutobi Soku, once everyone considered Orochimaru's importance, they tacitly agreed not to mention it.

Nearly a week had passed, yet Orochimaru had shown no reaction. That proved that, at the very least, Orochimaru had tacitly approved of what Masaichi had done.

This instantly terrified all the Konoha shinobi.

Was the higher-ups' attitude to rectify military discipline?

"It's over, it's over. I killed people in the Hidden Rain Village before too, and they were even members of the Uzumaki Clan."

The speaker was panicked and uneasy.

When Hiruzen Sarutobi heard about it, he merely puffed helplessly on his pipe. "Masaichi and Orochimaru really are alike. Both are equally cold-blooded."

Rectifying military discipline was naturally impossible.

Could he possibly rent out the red-light district so the Konoha shinobi could have some fun?

With Konoha's financial revenue, without the daimyo's support, they would run a deficit in minutes.

Orochimaru... why could you not learn from Minato?

"Sigh."

Jiraiya was sighing at the same time.

Orochimaru and his disciple were too extreme.

If he were not tied down, he truly wanted to go see what Orochimaru was doing.

Boom—

Yes, the violent explosions came from the Tailed Beast Bombs of the Four-Tails Jinchūriki and the Five-Tails Jinchūriki, Han.

These extremely destructive, wide-area attacks had made Jiraiya suffer greatly these past few days.

"Damn it! Sensei, did our Konoha shinobi actually fight their way into the heart of the Land of Lightning?"

The newspapers did not say who had led them.

They only reported the good news, saying the credit belonged to all Konoha shinobi.

Perhaps it was prejudice.

Anyone associated with Orochimaru was destined to be disliked.

Obito had no idea that it was his romantic rival who had accomplished it. He looked at Minato with envy. "If only I were in that group. It's really getting unbearably noisy here. Those two beasts... if I had the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, I'd show them what for."

He covered his ears.

"Hmph, Sensei, Masaichi's side can't possibly be fighting as intensely as we are here, right?"

Nohara Rin froze for a while upon hearing Masaichi's name. Come to think of it, she had not seen Masaichi in a long time either.

"Even if things are more intense here, Jiraiya and Minato-sensei are the ones dealing with the Hidden Rock Village's two Jinchūriki. It has nothing to do with you."

When some people's fathers died, they chose to grow up. When others' fathers died, they chose to give up.

At this time, Kakashi was also someone no stranger should approach.

"What did you say? And what does it have to do with you? Aren't you just slacking off too?"

"Is that so? At least I'm not involved in some pointless rivalry over a girl."

"Bastard! You're even more hateful than Masaichi now! I'll tear your mouth apart!!"

"Kakashi, Obito, stop arguing already."