Madara explained, "Izuna lost an arm, and that'll affect his combat ability..." His Sharingan hadn't been his own to begin with, and now he was missing a hand too. His fighting strength had taken a serious hit.
Whatever else the Hokage was, he was the head of a military organization. Even if he wasn't the strongest, his strength still had to meet a certain standard... Without enough power, he wouldn't be able to keep everyone in line!
Hashirama said, "With me around, does strength really need to be an issue?"
Seeing Hashirama's confusion, Madara continued, "Izuna plans to leave the village! Well... he said he found true love in Rōran. Since his strength has taken a hit, he's going to retire from frontline duty and settle down there!" In short, Izuna wanted to retire!
Huh? Was it really that simple?
Not quite. Izuna was also doing this out of concern for the clan's future!
At present, the Uchiha and Konoha had integrated perfectly, but who knew whether they would still get along this well in the future? If some "Uchiha bastard" showed up and slaughtered the whole clan, wouldn't that be the end of them?
So, after giving it some thought, Izuna decided to learn from Uzumaki Gamu: don't put all your eggs in one basket! He would take a few clansmen who wanted to settle in Rōran with him-all of them had helped him support Hashirama-and establish a branch of the Uchiha there. Even if something went wrong back in Konoha, they wouldn't have to worry about the Uchiha disappearing!
Well, Izuna really was one of the few clansmen who thought about the Uchiha Clan's future!
Back to the matter at hand. If Izuna was leaving, only one qualified candidate for Hokage remained. Knowing that Hashirama couldn't comfortably bring