Chapter 105 - Chosen Hokage.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was happy.

His village was flourishing, it is economy the best it was in recent years, some new book and tabletop games have recently made popular he really Enjoy playing UNO, the card game being a great way to get closer to his family, even his somewhat strained relationship with his kids has become better, thanks to some family time while playing the game.

Even the next generation ahs show a lot of promise, but two people in that generation shine the brightest Minato Namikaze and Aizen Senju, well Aizen is older but from my perspective, they are good representants of the new generation. Aizen principally as he is a genius like no other, he easily can learn new things and jutsu, but what really makes him shine isn't his Kekkei Genkai or strange jutsu. No, what makes him shine is the speed he learns new elements, even having dog shit affinity for them he basically steamroll the process that would take decades in months, curiously I asked him one of these days just how he can do it? He simply answered that he used wooden clones.

That got me thinking, [Wooden Clone] is basically the predecessor of the [Shadow Clone] so its workings albeit different are in a lot of parts similar, so the basic requirements of having a f.u.c.k-ton of chakra and a sufficiently strong mind to handle the jutsu to apply to it, [Wooden Clones] have an even more rasher requirement than [Shadow Clone] as they are more resistant and made out of substance, in this case, wood.

I trying to do the same with [Shadow Clone] to help me in my activities and workload. I was met with a rough wake up call, for us normal Shinobi using a hight level clone technique like that is extremely demanding of both mind and body, so while I can finish my work faster I became tired both fiscally and mentally faster. With this info, I was able to deduce that Aizen can use clones in such quantity, thanks to his Heritage and Bloodline, Being a Senju comes with its perks, like having a stronger body, stronger chakra and a lot more, and then there is the legendary Mokuton, one of the most well rounded and useful bloodlines, but what can you expect mixing earth and water two of the most versatile of the elements.

While other elements like Fire, Wind, or Lightning have their strengths, I can confidently say with all my years of expertise that Water and earth have a lot more of flexibility, I good example is all the absurd things Tobiramma Sensei was able to pull off with just water, and with earth... Heck, that old fool Onoki somehow discovered how to affect gravity itself, to change the weight of things, I can think of very few jutsu that can reach such abstract concepts.

And me after seeing how talented Aizen was, I couldn't help but ask him to be the next Hokage, no matter how I look at this, if someone as talented as him becoming the next Hokage I could retire in absolute peace, he would surely bring prosperity to the leaf, even that paranoid teammate of mine can see this, and for Danzo to approve of someone as Hokage is somewhat of a miracle in itself.

Sadly the boy refused, says the position Is too much trouble and he doesn't like to deal with the responsibility the same thing he said when I tried making him my Anbu commander. Seeing as Aizen has refused I needed to find a new candidate to my successor, Orochimaru is a good option, but I think he would fit better taking Danzo mantle as the Leader of Root than the Hokage, as good as he is, you have to admit that Orochimaru isn't a people person, he doesn't have the charisma necessary to the position, and while neither I nor Aizen is the super charismatic type like Hashirama, we could make do with our accomplishments, but sadly it wasn't meant to be. And I know that most people can't handle the way Orochimaru acts.

Jiraya could be a good candidate, but sadly his interest is even less than Aizen if this was possible, he is more interested in writing philosophy books and wooing my other student than anything else, I was kinda sad in losing my Icha Icha, but I am happy that my disciple was finally able to get thought the love of his life. Besides losing Icha Icha isn't that big of a Loss as the some of the new best-sellers like One ChiChi, Taiman Asagi, and the best of all Elven Heaven. They are the best Smut you can find on the market, sadly its author is unknown, and I refuse to sent shinobi just to find the name of a civilian.

Tsunade I am not even considering, its already a miracle that she is still in the village, principally after losing everything, her brother and her lover, thanks to Kami for Aizen, I think if it wasn't for him she would be already long gone, sadly her loss didn't come without a price, she withdrew all but in name of the combative forces, deciding to focus solely on her medical career. As the opposite of what a lot of the council think, her dedicating her career to the medical field brought a lot of innovation to it, she invented a lot of new treatments and even some new medical jutsu, and after a long-winded talk with Aizen, she decided to start studying Hashiramma cells, who can be trusted to study its cells if not another Senju, according to Aizen words Hashiramma cells are the best method of cure in the elemental nations, and boy he was right, the sheer healing powers of just one cell of him was staggering, from just studying it Tsunade was able to devise a bunch of new treatments and find a cure to a lot of 'incurable' diseases, a good example was Itachi Uchiha, heir to the Uchiha clan, Tsunade easily detects some kind of lung disease earlier on the baby, and thanks to some studies of the Hashiramma cells she was able to cure the disease before it could proliferate.

Taking about Uchiha, Fugaku Uchiha has been considered to the post, he is a very strong shinobi, and when you add the [Sharingan] into the equation his power is something to be aware of, he still has room to grow, of course, all of us do, but you can't say the guy isn't capable. Sadly the demons of the Uchiha pursue them even in the most unexpected ways, their arrogant way of portraying themselves is sure to kill move on personal relationsh.i.p.s with other habitants of the village, and the fact that they need to experience traumatic events to awaken the power of their bloodline is of nos secret to me Tobiramma Sensei drilled it into his team how dangerous to the psyche of a person it could be, principally after awakening the [Sharingan] making it impossible them to forget the painful memories. Thankfully their Patriarch Fugaku is way more levelheaded than the rest of the clan, he appears to have his head straight and can command his clan with relative expertise, good indications for a Hokage candidate.

Sadly the council doesn't think the same, besides the unhealthy paranoia instilled by his sensei on his teammates that now are Elders, the rest of the clans don't have that good of an impression on the Uchiha either, only the civilian are immensely in favor of them, being the sole clan responsible for the police force does wonder for entering the good grace of the p[population, but everyone knows the civilians are just here as decorations, the ninja won't let them intervene in such an important matter like selecting the Hokage.

But there is something positive out of all of this, the Uchiha are a very prideful clan, and everyone knows that they hate the Senju to the bone. When one thinks about mortal enemies Uchiha and Senju come to mind, so they must be in complete hostility with Aizen right? wrong, its the complete opposite, they respect him to no end, apparently their ego was already satisfied seeing as there is currently just Two Senju in the Ninja force, they respect them a lot for it, even after losing almost all their clan both Senju still continue to up[hold their duties to the village, thus gathering the respect of the majority of the Uchihas, and this was a good sign, as the Senju serve as a deterrent to the evergrowing distancing of the Uchiha clan to the village, Aizen principally brought tom the light a lot of problems the clan was facing, and slowly the Uchihas standing in the village has been melding itself, this I think is another reason why they respect him so much, instead of using the situation to diminish the Uchiha his 'rivals' he chooses to help them, much to the displeasure of my one-eyed teammate, he didn't stop ranting about the Uchiha, right now it sounds more like bias or prejudice than anything else.

And now the candidate that I find the most promising, Minato Namikaze, what the boy lacks in the background he has in sheer talent and charisma, people can't help but be attracted to him, he is good looking, smart, talented.

His stay on the academy was a record on how smooth and fast he was, and don't think he finished the course like a lone genius either, the guy finished the academy with everyone having at least something positive to say about him, it was too good to be true, as I even investigated the boy suspecting some foul play, but came up empty-handed and very happy in the end, the leaf will always need talents like those. He even got the eyes of my disciple Jiraya, choosing the blond as a student, some bullshit about a prophecy he said, he could just say he wanted a talented student he didn't need to invent such bullshit reason for it, I can easily assign something like that to him.

And seeing all the progress Minato has made I finally decided to groom him as my successor, as much say the council has in this, at the end of the day the final say Is always to the Hokage, and for all the prospects candidates, choosing him was basically a no brainer.