Published at 14th of December 2024 10:25 am

Chapter 851 The Only Option

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Hokage Office

After taking a few puffs of smoke from his tobacco pipe, Sandaime Hokage took a deep breath, and asked, “How is Kakashi’s condition?”

Tsunade sighed, and answered, “Kakashi’s body… it was burnt too much. All his muscles are damaged, and several bones aren’t intact either because of the burden that they had to endure. But well… I did use everything I know in treating him so he is out of danger, and will make a full recovery… but…”

Jiraiya asked in worry, “But what?”

“It will take some time for him to recover,” answered Tsunade.

“How much time to be exact?” questioned Sandaime.

Tsunade spoke, “I can’t say for certain, but normal recovery should take at least two to three months under proper care.”

“Two to three months?” exclaimed Jiraiya in shock, and added, “This time is a bit…”

Tsunade shrugged, “His injuries are serious… the fact that he can recover is already a miracle.”

“Hmm,” nodded Hiruzen with a complicated expression.

Elder Koharu sighed, “We really underestimated Uchiha Fugaku.”

Hiruzen nodded, “Yes, I was shocked too… For a moment, I couldn’t even believe my eyes and thought that perhaps someone had put me under a Genjutsu! Who would have thought that Fugaku would hide something so important for so long?”

Considering the arrogant and domineering personality traits of the Uchiha Clansmen, deliberately concealing the existence of one’s Mangekyou Sharingan is indeed surprising, after all, Mangekyou Sharingan represents power… The Uchiha revere power.

After a while of thinking, Jiraiya spoke, “If you ask me… I think Uchiha Fugaku probably awakened his Mangekyou Sharingan before Uchiha Shisui… perhaps during the Third Great Shinobi War?”

“We can’t know for sure… but it is possible.” nodded Hiruzen, and added, “But unlike Shisui and Shinichi, Fugaku chose to conceal this fact… I have reports from Anbu that even the Uchiha Clansmen were surprised when Uchiha Fugaku used Susano’o… they were not aware of this information either… which means that not just from us, Fugaku probably concealed this fact from his clansmen too!”

Jiraiya nodded and thought about the reason why Fugaku chose to conceal this information, ‘Maybe because of Orochimaru and Minato?’

By the end of the third great shinobi war, although, Konoha barely managed to win and lost a lot of manpower, Minato and Orochimaru shined a lot in it. The high-end combat power of the Hokage Faction was just too much… and considering the prejudice the two sides have against one another, it is not a surprise that he chose to keep his Mangekyou Sharingan a secret.

Then came Kyuubi’s attack on the night the previous Jinchuriki-Uzumaki Kushina-gave birth to Naruto.

The people in power were aware of the fact that Kyuubi did not break the seal on its own, there was someone behind the incident and someone controlled the fox to create havoc in Konoha that led to the death of hundreds of shinobi.

Although no one spoke about it openly, internally, everyone was suspicious of the Uchiha Clan, after all, Uchiha is capable of controlling tailed beasts.

In such a situation, if Fugaku had revealed his Mangekyou Sharingan, he would have been under suspicion and held responsible for the death of all the people. So, he chose to keep his secret a secret.

But now the situation is completely different.

Not long ago, the real culprit behind Kyuubi’s attack was revealed, it’s none other than ‘Uchiha Madara’ from the Akatsuki Organization.

The current Uchiha Clan is thriving, and their strength and reputation are at their peak, moreover, the Hokage Election seems to be the right opportunity to reveal the existence of his Mangekyou Sharingan in order to demonstrate his strength and show that he is capable of protecting the village so that people would pass their vote to him.

While everyone was thinking of Uchiha Fugaku and his Mangekyou Sharingan, Asuma suddenly spoke, “I don’t think we need to worry about how, why, when, and where Uchiha Patriarch awakened his Mangekyou Sharingan… currently, we need to worry about the Godaime Hokage Election… what are we going to do about it?”

In the face of Asuma’s question, everyone became silent and sighed. Nobody seemed to have any idea.

Elder Koharu looked at Sandaime Hokage, and asked, “Hiruzen, are we really going to allow Uchiha Fugaku to become Konoha’s Hokage?”

“This is really troublesome,” muttered Hiruzen with a helpless expression.

Despite being the longest-serving Hokage of Konoha, and having rich experience in dealing with all kinds of problems, Hiruzen is really stumped at this moment as he has no good solution to their current predicament. This is the main reason why he hurriedly postponed the next stage under the excuse of the Colosseum’s damage.

“Uchiha Fugaku or Hyuga Kuroto?” muttered Jiraiya, and shook his head, “Neither of them is a good option huh?”

“Hyuga Kuroto would have been acceptable if not for that damned Cursed Seal on his forehead,” spoke Tsunade as she shook her head.

“And Uchiha is not completely unacceptable… but there are certain requirements… and Uchiha Fugaku doesn’t fulfill those requirements,” added Elder Koharu.

At the very least, the Uchiha that become Hokage must value Konoha over Uchiha.

The Hokage Faction is currently facing a multiple-choice question, with Uchiha and Hyuga as the answer, the problem is, neither option is correct for them!

Asuma spoke once again, “Even if neither of them is unacceptable… we don’t really have any say in the matter. We have to make do with what options we have… Since Uchiha Fugaku is completely unacceptable, it has to be Kuroto… although that Cursed Seal is problematic, what other choice do we have? It’s either him or the Uchiha!”

Jiraiya shook his head, “It’s not so simple… Considering the current state of the Shinobi World… how can the position of Hokage be entrusted to someone whose life and death are in someone else’s hands? The safety of Konoha can be compromised… the safety of Naruto might be jeopardized! Making him Hokage is too risky!”

“If it’s the main family of the Hyuga Clan… I don’t think we need to worry. They are already afraid of him… and I doubt that would change once he becomes Hokage… and we can try to negotiate things with the Hyuga Patriarch… even if the Cursed Seal cannot be removed from his forehead, we can try to make them give up the control on him…” spoke Asuma with a thoughtful expression. He didn’t think that they have to worry about the main family of the Hyuga Clan.

“I doubt whether it’s really possible to make them give up the control, moreover, Hyuga are not the only ones we have to worry about. Even if they dare not do anything to him on their own accord, there is always a possibility that someone else will coerce them,” spoke Tsunade as she shook her head.

Elder Koharu nodded, “Yes, the life and death of Hokage should not be in someone else’s hands.”

Asuma sighed, “I know… I know… but as I said, do we really have any other option? Kakashi has already lost! So, we have to make do with what we have in front of us!” and added, “The next fight is between Kuroto and Uchiha Fugaku… I don’t know whether he will be able to defeat the Uchiha Patriarch the way he defeated Uchiha Shisui, so we must make our move while we have time, otherwise, it will be too late, and what everyone fears the most might happen!”

In the face of Asuma’s reasoning, everyone was left speechless.

At this moment, Sandaime finally spoke, “Asuma is right, we have to make do with what options we have and compared to Uchiha Fugaku… Hyuga Kuroto is the only option to go.”

Tsunade asked, “Even if that’s the case, there is still a possibility that he might not be able to win against Uchiha Fugaku… I doubt that the same method will work on him, that man will definitely take precautions against poisons.”

Hiruzen nodded, “I know.” and spoke, “But there is nothing to be worried about because the two of them won’t be fighting each other.”

Elder Koharu asked in confusion, “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know whether Hyuga Kuroto can win against Uchiha Fugaku, but I know that he cannot lose. If he loses, then nothing can stop the Uchiha from becoming Hokage… so Hyuga Kuroto cannot lose, at any cost.” and added after a pause, “Therefore, I will make sure that he doesn’t lose.”

More confused, Elder Koharu asked, “And how are you going to ensure that he doesn’t lose?”

“By making sure that there is no fight between them!” answered Sandaime with a smile.

Tsunade immediately understood the meaning behind Hiruzen’s words, and asked, “You mean to say that you want to skip the next fight and directly move to the voting phase?”

Sandaime smiled, “Indeed.”

Uchiha Clan may have caught them by surprise with their strength and beat the Hokage Faction in the first stage of the Hokage Election, however, politics is not their stage and has never been their field of expertise.

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