Konoha.
The Hokage Building.
Uchiha Setsuna, the veteran leader of the Uchiha hardliners, paced restlessly around the Hokage's office.
He had never imagined that the Uchiha's long-cherished wish would come true just like that, after Lord Danzo led the Eastern Front troops deep into Rōran...
His weak-willed clan head, Uchiha Fugaku, was sitting openly on the sofa reserved for the Hokage.
The Hokage!
Acting Hokage, of course...
Orochimaru was supposed to have taken the position, but he was so engrossed in researching the Mangekyo that he had no desire to serve as Acting Hokage.
As things stood, even removing the word "acting" might not have earned Orochimaru's agreement.
So Lord Danzo had settled for his second choice, appointing Fugaku, who was still resting and recovering after successfully receiving an injection of Hashirama cells.
Naturally, this famously weak-willed clan head, who had left countless clansmen beating their chests in regret, had immediately invited the clan's living fossil-Setsuna himself-to help "advise" him on governing Konoha.
Setsuna had seen through Fugaku's thinking at once. Wasn't he simply afraid something would go wrong?
His weakness was laughable!
A few days later, even the formerly confident Setsuna had begun to squirm. If that Nara boy hadn't offered timely "suggestions" and patiently explained things to them over and over,
the two of them would have already made a mess of Konoha's affairs.
"Uncle..."
Fugaku spoke rather timidly from the sofa reserved for the Hokage.
"Don't call me Uncle, my Lord Hokage!"
Setsuna was getting rather touchy. On their first morning, Fugaku had still insisted that Setsuna address him properly, demanding to be called Lord Hokage.
By that afternoon, he had already caved. If not for the Uchiha's innate concern for saving face, he might well have handed the Hokage's sofa over to that half-grown boy, Shikaku.