What If You Became Hokage?

Outside the arena.

"...Terrifying!" Uchiha Fugaku's eyes were grave. "Shinji has trained his Body Flicker Technique to this level..."

Uchiha Itachi froze.

He suddenly remembered someone's famous title—Body Flicker Shisui.

Wasn't there...

Something wrong with that?

"Shingan, what do you have to say now? If the Clan Head wanted you dead, one Ninjutsu would be enough!"

Shingan looked at Shinji in the arena, his expression conflicted. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. "It's just the Body Flicker Technique... I'll surpass him!"

In the arena.

"Oh?"

Shinji's Body Flicker Afterimage vanished. He looked at Kakashi in surprise. "You haven't even finished warming up, have you, Kakashi? Giving up already?"

Kakashi nodded and wiped away his sweat. "There's no point in fighting."

"..."

Shinji dropped his playful attitude and frowned at Kakashi's listless face.

He glanced around. "Captain Fugaku, have everyone leave."

Before long.

Only Kakashi and Shinji remained in the Training Ground.

They gazed at the still lake before them.

Kakashi sighed. "Incredible. That Genin brat I met once on the battlefield has grown this strong..."

"Haven't you grown too, Kakashi?"

Shinji gave him a knowing look. "When we met at Kannabi Bridge, you were a Jonin who'd risen quickly because of the war. I've spent all these years fighting out there. Why couldn't I grow stronger?"

With that.

Shinji bent down and sent a stone skipping across the water.

Tap, tap, tap, tap—

Under his precise control and tremendous strength, the little stone shot across the lake and disappeared into the grass on the far shore.

"I heard you asked the Third Hokage for the Flying Thunder God Technique."

"Oh, right."

Kakashi paused. "I hope you use it well... Protect the people you want to protect. Don't leave yourself with regrets."

"..."

Shinji crouched and stared at the lake. "Do you resent your teacher for not arriving in time?"

"No. It had nothing to do with my teacher. I was just... thinking back." Kakashi was unusually talkative today.

But.

Clearly, none of that was what he truly wanted to say.

Shinji did not respond.

After a long silence, Kakashi raised a hand and took off his mask, then pulled down the cloth covering his face.

"The bet's settled... And don't pick up gambling as a bad habit. You're still young. Remember the Three Shinobi Prohibitions..."

"Wow! I call you my senior and you start acting like it? We're the same generation, you know!"

Shinji laughed theatrically.

Then he looked up.

Well, would you look at that!

What a face...

Shinji smiled and shook his head. "All right, Kakashi. Stop trying to change the subject. Ask whatever you want to ask."

Kakashi said, "Shouldn't that be what you want to tell me? You've been dropping hints ever since you returned to the village."

"All right."

Shinji spread his hands. "Then tell me, Kakashi. What do you think caused White Fang's death?"

"..."

One sentence from Shinji silenced Kakashi.

Straight to an old wound. What an obnoxious brat!

"I'll tell you. It happened because the Hokage did nothing. Because this twisted place called Konoha lacks a wise leader with the courage to protect its heroes and their children—to keep their blood from being spilled in vain and their descendants from being reviled by everyone."

Kakashi frowned. "What are you trying to say? Do you really want to become Hokage?"

"Oh! You've got it wrong!"

Shinji scratched his head. "I mean... what if you became Hokage, Kakashi?"

"?!!"

Kakashi stared at Shinji in shock. His calm face showed no sign that he was joking. "Are... are you serious?"

"Yes."

Shinji shook his head. "I'm not joking."

"That's... that's impossible! Besides, I don't want to be Hokage!" A flicker of disgust crossed Kakashi's eyes.

"So you just don't want to. It isn't that you can't."

Shinji fell silent for a moment. "Kakashi, how long are you going to keep living like this?"

Kakashi said nothing.

"In this damned Shinobi World, countless people have lost their parents. The Land of Rain is full of orphans and beggars. They don't have enough to eat or clothes to keep them warm. Today, one of them might find a stale, foul-smelling rice ball. Tomorrow, that same child might die beneath a shinobi's merciless Shuriken, thrown by someone who kills for fun."

"What are you trying to say?"

Kakashi could not muster much interest. He knew a little about conditions in the Land of Rain. Things seemed to have improved somewhat in recent years.

Because...

Of some mercenary organization called Akatsuki?

"The Land of Whirlpools was wiped out. The surviving members of the Uzumaki Lineage were penned up like livestock and subjected to endless torment. They were treated as 'living Soldier Pills,' stored away like supplies. Bought, sold, slaughtered... drained of blood until they died. No one knows how many descendants of the Uzumaki Lineage are still alive today, but there probably aren't even ten."

Kakashi frowned.

He could not remain unmoved by what had happened in the Land of Whirlpools...

Because Kushina had been so very good to them...

"And the Land of Water is even more absurd. A Mizukage controlled by Sharingan Genjutsu. A Bloody Mist Village that makes no sense at all. People killing for fun, blood everywhere, darkness hanging over everything. Year after year, no sunlight gets through. The blood of the dead could nearly dye the sea red."

"The Land of Water..."

Kakashi jolted. "Wait! You said the Mizukage is being controlled by Sharingan Genjutsu?"

He remembered what Shinji had told him on the way here: some Uchiha who should have been dead had somehow come back to life.

Shinji ignored him and continued. "How many people died in the last Shinobi World War? People from Kumogakure, Kirigakure, Konoha—killed by Explosive Tags, by Kunai, by Shuriken, by Ninjutsu, by plots, by... The point is, this world has never lacked heroes driven to their deaths by rumors and slander. Never!"

"I'm disappointed. You, Kakashi Hatake—the thing you should have tested against me today wasn't any of those shitty Ninjutsu. It was Swordsmanship!"

"Hatake Swordsmanship!"

"Shinji! What did you just say?! The Mizukage is being controlled? By whom? What do you know?!"

Kakashi could not take in anything else. He desperately wanted to confirm the vague suspicion flashing through his mind!

Shinji glanced up at him.

"After everything I said, that's all you want to ask? What, are you going to report it to Lord Hokage, claim the credit, and get yourself promoted in ANBU?"

Shinji's face burned with anger, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I...!"

Kakashi froze.

"Forget it. Pretend I never said any of this. I thought you were someone I could respect, Kakashi."

"I was wrong."

"Leave!!! Get out of the Uchiha Compound!"