With everything he had to say out of the way, Yan Uchiha rose from beside the campfire and turned to go rest.
Once he left, the camp, which had still been somewhat lively moments before, immediately fell silent.
The campfire lit faces that glanced at one another. No one spoke. The gazes directed at Kakashi Hatake in particular held a mixture of shock and bewilderment, as though their minds had simply stopped working.
Team Minato was, of course, the most shaken.
Kakashi, who was usually as cold as a block of ice, was actually destined to become Hokage?
None of them had ever considered that possibility. Yet after hearing Yan Uchiha's explanation, they felt it might not be nonsense after all.
It was not necessarily Kakashi's own strength that mattered. The real factor was his father, Sakumo Hatake.
The man who had earned the name "White Fang of the Leaf," then ultimately chosen suicide for the village's stability, had left behind a political legacy that could not be ignored even after his death. Sakumo Hatake's former confidants and supporters were enough to carry Kakashi all the way to the top. Even the Hokage would struggle to stop that force.
Besides, Sakumo Hatake had died to keep the village stable. Once his son grew up, if he could not even secure the Hokage position, how could those supporters possibly let it go?
"No way..."
The corners of Obito Uchiha's mouth twitched, his smile uglier than a grimace. "What the hell is this? The Will of Fire is bullshit!"
His spirits sank completely. Rin Nohara was still alive and well, yet the shock of what he had just heard left him feeling as though a ball of fire had lodged in his chest.
Rin opened her mouth, wanting to comfort him, but