Naruto: By lying low and hiding, he eventually became the leader of the Legendary Sannin.

Otherwise, given his personality, he would never have led his companions into such a deadly place.

Upon hearing Kagura's question, the three people opposite her remained silent.

After a long while, Hiruzen Sarutobi finally let out a heavy sigh and said:

"Yes, you guessed correctly. Before sending Sakumo Hatake on the mission, we did conceal some information about the mission."

"why?

Are you planning to use this mission to get rid of Sakumo?

But why?

He never once showed any expression that could potentially harm the village!

Upon hearing Hiruzen Sarutobi's admission, Kagura did not become angry, but instead asked with a puzzled expression.

It's worth noting that, both privately and within Konoha Village, Hiruzen Sarutobi had praised Sakumo Hatake as his most admired ninja on more than one occasion.

If that's the case, why would they do it?

Judging from the scene before them, this was clearly a decision made jointly by these three high-ranking officials of Konoha.

After exchanging a glance with the two people beside him, Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly spoke:

"What you said... isn't the real reason."

Or rather, we never intended to harm Sakumo Hatake.

Our original plan was simply to make his mission fail.

Hearing this, Kagura's doubts deepened.

He didn't speak, but looked at the three people in front of him, waiting for them to continue.

Mitokado Homura spoke up from the side:

"As you said before, Sakumo Hatake is a model of Konoha ninja."

He's a good person, but the problem is, he's too good.

His fame was so great that even many daimyo in the Land of Fire knew of him.

Kagura's expression softened slightly; he seemed to have figured out the reason.

At this moment, Hiruzen Sarutobi gave a wry smile, picked up the pipe beside him, and took a deep drag.

Then he exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, as if he wanted to expel his troubles as well.

He looked at Kagura and said:

"Kagura, I'm getting old. It's time for the village to consider the Fourth Hokage."

Through these few words, Kagura finally understood their meaning. He stared at the three of them and slowly said:

"So, you don't want Sakumo Hatake to become the next Hokage?"

Based on Kagura's understanding of Hiruzen Sarutobi, she knew very well that her teacher was not the kind of person who coveted power.

As he said, Hiruzen Sarutobi is now almost 50 years old.

Although age does not necessarily mean a decline in strength, like Onoki from the Land of Earth.

In the original storyline, he was so old that he could barely stand up straight, but he still fought against Madara Uchiha as the Tsuchikage.

However, regardless of the circumstances, aging still has a significant impact on performance.

If it were like the Land of Water, where all the capable young people had died out, that would be fine, because then the Mizukage wouldn't be able to step down too early.

But Konoha is different. Now, Konoha is full of talented people, so they have a choice.

Therefore, in recent years, the question of who will be the next Hokage has been raised from time to time in Konoha Village.

Hearing Kagura's words, Koharu Utatane nodded and said:

"Yes, you're right. We don't think Sakumo Hatake is qualified to be a Hokage."

"But...didn't you always praise him as a dutiful and upright ninja?"

"That's right, we still think so now."

But because he was too upright, he couldn't become Hokage.

Hearing this, Kagura didn't ask why, but remained silent.

In fact, he could understand what these Konoha high-ranking officials meant.

As expected, Hiruzen Sarutobi continued the conversation:

"To become Hokage, one must be able to withstand darkness in addition to light."

Yes, it sounds ironic, but as Hiruzen Sarutobi said.

The reason they thought Sakumo was unsuitable to be Hokage was because he was too upright.

If he hadn't been so upright, how could he have committed suicide out of shame because of his companions' blame in the original story?

However, such a person is not fit to be a leader.

Even someone like Tsunade, after becoming the Fifth Hokage, knew how to make sacrifices and trade-offs in many things.

However, it would be difficult for someone like Sakumo to be as decisive as Tsunade.

That's why he's not suitable to be Hokage.

So, is it really true that there are no people in Konoha who can become Hokage without having to accept darkness?

Of course there are. People who are excessively upright are like Hashirama Senju and Naruto Uzumaki.

The problem is, these two were both excessively strong individuals of their time.

Let's not even talk about Hashirama Senju, after all, he's the man who can be called the "God of Shinobi".

Even Naruto, after experiencing the Fourth Shinobi World War.

With the ability to perfectly fuse with the Nine-Tails' chakra and possess Sage Mode and even Six Paths Mode, who in the ninja world could be his opponent?

Compared to Minato, who had to sacrifice his life to fight the Nine-Tails, the Nine-Tails was not something that could kill a person in Hashirama Senju's eyes.

Therefore, when you have absolute power, you naturally don't need to compromise, nor do you need to accept the so-called darkness.

Unfortunately, while Sakumo Hatake's abilities were quite good, they were still far from being comparable to someone like Hashirama Senju.

After a long silence, Kagura murmured:

"But you don't need to do this..."

At this moment, Koharu, who was turning over the door, interrupted him again, saying:

"The problem is that the daimyo of the Land of Fire has heard of the name 'Konoha's White Fang'."

In their view, Sakumo Hatake was a very good successor.

That's why we did it this time.

Chapter 96 Let's go, to save our companions!

After hearing Koharu mention Daiki's name, Kagura finally understood everything.

Some might ask, can the Daimyo of the Land of Fire really influence the selection of the Hokage in Konoha?

To some extent, it does have some impact.

First, we need to understand.

The Hokage is the leader of Konoha Village, not the leader of the Land of Fire.

In this world's system, a ninja village is a manifestation of a nation's armed forces.

However, the real leaders of the country are those big names who rarely appear in the public eye.

If we had to use an analogy, the Hokage would be similar to the military leader of a country.

But the country's true leadership is made up of those big names.

Therefore, although the Hokage wields great power, he still needs to listen to the opinions of the Daimyo.

Therefore, in some Naruto movies, you can even see scenes where the Daimyo forcibly order the Hokage to carry out orders.

Even in the original storyline, during the Fourth Shinobi World War, which faced the threat of world destruction.

The reason why countries still send elite Jonin to protect those Daimyo who seem useless is this.

Therefore, when the candidates favored by the daimyo do not align with the ideas of the Konoha leadership, the Konoha leadership can only devise other ways to interfere.

For example, causing the candidate to fail the task.

“We did not intend to really hurt Sakumo.”

The original plan was simply to make his mission fail.

"Once he fails his mission, we can use public opinion to remove him from the Hokage race."

Hearing this, Kagura finally understood the slight unease she had felt.

This is why Sakumo still faces suicide even though he himself appears.

Perhaps in the original timeline, Sakumo Hatake's suicide was also caused by the Konoha leadership?

Perhaps their initial idea was simply to influence his image through the words of those whom Sakumo rescued.

But they never expected that this action would become the trigger for Sakumo's eventual suicide.

In fact, as the current leaders of Konoha, they are indeed having a headache over the selection of the next Hokage.

Aside from Sakumo Hatake, the most renowned of the three ninja were the "Three Ninja".

However, Jiraiya was away from the village for a long time and had no intention of becoming Hokage.

Tsunade has completely turned to an office job, and is wholeheartedly focused on being a good mother.

As for Orochimaru...

Compared to the original storyline, he is indeed not as worrying to Hiruzen Sarutobi as he is now.

Unfortunately, under Kagura's guidance, he has gone further and further down a different path.