Naruto: Cultivating to Immortality

Chapter 100 The Hokage Position

at the same time.

Inside the Hokage's office.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, who should have been off work, was still sitting in his office, his brows furrowed and his face extremely grim. Today's events had caused him to lose face as Hokage and had affected his authority.

dong dong dong-

He took out his pipe and tapped it three times on the table.

brush!

A dark figure appeared and knelt on one knee in front of the Hokage's desk.

"Lord Hokage, what are your orders?" A ninja wearing an Anbu mask asked respectfully, bowing his head.

Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't even glance at his opponent, but instead gave the order directly:

"Go and find me all of Hyuga Kanan's information."

A few minutes later.

The ANBU ninja placed several documents on the Hokage's desk and stood aside again to await further orders.

With a wave of his hand, the ANBU ninja disappeared. He lit his pipe and began to focus his attention on Hyuga Kanan's file. However, Hyuga Kanan's file was very sparse, consisting of only a single sheet of paper.

Name: Hinata Kanan

Ninja ID: 0

Identity: Member of the Hyuga clan's branch family. Father was the deceased former head of the Hyuga clan.

He entered the Ninja Academy at the age of six, but showed no ninja talent during his time there. He never interacted with his classmates, always keeping to himself. He never participated in combat drills, always admitting defeat, which earned him a reputation as the worst student. Most of his classmates graduated early and became ninjas, but he remained at the Ninja Academy until the Second Shinobi World War broke out. He was forced to graduate and become a ninja, joining the war effort.

During the Second Shinobi World War, he displayed astonishing taijutsu skills. Upon entering the Land of Rain, he immediately engaged in battle with the retreating Rain Ninja, single-handedly defeating a Rain Ninja Chunin and surviving a Rain Ninja Jonin. Later, in a battle against the Iwa Ninja, he single-handedly killed the Iwa Jonin Takanoda, becoming one of the few survivors of the Iwa Ninja blocking the retreat.

Less than three months after returning to the village, he was sent to the battlefield against the Mist Ninja. He then served three months on patrol duty before being forcibly recruited into an intelligence reconnaissance team by Elder Danzo Shimura. After deserting during a battle, causing heavy casualties to the team, he was stripped of his ninja status and disappeared within the Land of Fire. His whereabouts were never discovered again.

The more Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the document, the more his brow furrowed. There were too many discrepancies in the document, especially since he had just participated in a war mission and had only been in the village for less than three months before being sent back to the battlefield against the Mist Ninja.

However, he has not received a ninja rank promotion from Konoha Village and remains at the Konoha Genin level.

"Is this all the information we have? What about his information within the Hyuga clan? Didn't the Hyuga clan provide any relevant information?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi put down his pipe and searched through the documents, but he couldn't find any information about Hyuga Kanan in the clan.

I also thought about the actions and behaviors of the Konoha ninjas today.

Hiruzen Sarutobi's pupils shrank to pinpoints. At that moment, he understood why Kanan Hyuga was completely indifferent to the Hyuga clan, even when fighting within the clan.

The request to send Hyuga Kanan to join the blocking force during the Second Shinobi World War was made by the main branch of the Hyuga clan. It was also their request to suppress the advancement of enemy ninjas' ranks and to send him to fight against the Mist Ninja.

Therefore, Konoha did not refuse when it was short of ninjas.

The Hyuga clan has always been short of ninjas on the battlefield, so sending clan members to the Konoha forces is very welcome.

Hiruzen Sarutobi recalled Hyuga Kanan's attitude towards the main family elders. Given Kanan's personality, he probably wouldn't care whether the other party was a main family elder or not, and would dare to ignore the threats from those elders.

It was because the elders of the Hyuga main family realized that they could not deal with Hyuga Kanan that they secretly arranged for Hyuga Kanan to be sent to the battlefield, hoping to eliminate him through battle.

Since the other party couldn't personally eliminate Hyuga Kanan, the main family likely knew Hyuga Kanan's strength and that the Caged Bird Seal couldn't deal with him, which is why they wanted to use this method.

Furthermore, if Hyuga Kanan can break the threat posed by the Caged Bird Seal, then the entire Hyuga branch family might turn to his side, making it much more difficult for the main family to control the branch family.

"What a pity! I didn't realize that the other party's genius level had grown to this point. Such a restless factor is now beyond our control. I hope they won't develop hostility towards Konoha."

He could already sense the turmoil in the ninja world. All the ninja villages felt that they had not achieved their strategic goals in the Second Shinobi World War, and now there was a renewed sense of unease. Konoha could not afford any more turmoil.

In his heart, he had already labeled Hyuga Kanan as disobedient.

Furthermore, the attitude of the Fire Country Daimyo also made Hiruzen Sarutobi feel somewhat troubled. It was clear that the Daimyo didn't particularly like him as Hokage and wanted Sakumo Hatake to replace him.

Many clans in Konoha are currently adopting ambiguous stances, observing the situation and making Konoha's politics somewhat unstable.

The reason he didn't let the Konoha ninjas take direct action to capture Hyuga Kanan was because he was worried about causing further turmoil in Konoha. If the Hyuga branch family members found out, Konoha would probably be in even more trouble.

The daimyo's attitude is now quite clear: he wants me to hand over the Hokage position to Sakumo Hatake. If I make any wrong decisions, the daimyo will have an excuse to make me relinquish the Hokage position.

But how could Hiruzen Sarutobi possibly relinquish the Hokage position? Having tasted the power of the Hokage, how could he possibly lose it again? Furthermore, preventing the Daimyo from interfering in Konoha had always been Hiruzen Sarutobi's strategy. He wouldn't allow the Daimyo to divide his power.

Put Hyuga Kanan aside for now and send people to monitor his actions. What I need to do now is deal with Hatake Sakumo, the person the daimyo has his eye on. After all, I've cut off a lot of the daimyo's influence over the past few years, and I can't let Hyuga Kanan become a factor that threatens my position as Hokage.

Danzo has also become increasingly restless lately, and his attitude today was very strange. Does he really think he can subdue Hyuga Kanan? It's laughable.

"You think you can subdue Hyuga Kanan without even knowing him? Danzo, you're too naive. You dare to covet the Hokage position? You should be thinking about how to manage your Root organization!"

He already had a successor for the Hokage in mind.

Of course, it's not Orochimaru, who is exceptionally talented and skilled. Even if the other person is his disciple, he cannot hand over the Hokage position to them.

Orochimaru is not someone I can control. Both his temperament and methods make him a very suitable candidate, but if I hand over the Hokage position to him, then I will no longer be able to control the situation in Konoha.

Jiraiya would be very suitable to succeed me as Hokage, but someone with his personality probably wouldn't accept the position. He had no interest in becoming Hokage; he only wanted to find the savior prophesied about him by Mount Myōboku. Only someone like Jiraiya would believe in such a thing as a savior.

As for Tsunade, it's even more impossible for her to inherit the Hokage position. If Tsunade becomes Hokage, Konoha will revert to the Senju clan's control, rendering all my years of efforts to eliminate the Senju clan's influence on Konoha futile. Moreover, Tsunade couldn't possibly be unaware of my suppression of the Senju clan over the years, yet she has tolerated it all. It seems that in Tsunade's eyes, Senju Nawaki is the best successor to Hokage, and Tsunade's continuous elevation of her status is paving the way for her younger brother.

It seems that Tsunade also exchanged information with the Daimyo, wanting Sakumo Hatake to become Hokage first, while allowing Nawaki Senju to continue growing and eventually succeed Sakumo Hatake as Hokage.

It seems the Daimyo truly desires a Hokage from the Senju clan, and their chosen candidate is likely Senju Nawaki, the grandson of the First Hokage. Both nominally and in terms of prestige, someone with the Senju surname has a greater chance of becoming Hokage than others. It's likely the Daimyo and the Senju clan had already made arrangements, as all other Senju clan members relinquished the Senju surname, allowing only Nawaki to retain it—perhaps to facilitate his succession to the Hokage position.

Hiruzen Sarutobi has completely forgotten the trouble caused by Kanan Hyuga. Now his mind is entirely focused on those who covet the Hokage position. After all, no matter how strong Kanan Hyuga is, he is not even a Konoha ninja, so it is difficult for him to have a chance to covet the Hokage position. Moreover, judging from his attitude and behavior, it is clear that the Hokage position has no appeal to him.

I'm afraid those people will try to use Hyuga Kanan to make me make a mistake, giving them a chance to earn something.

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed softly. He felt that the situation in Konoha was very bad. Many people coveted his Hokage position, but he wouldn't let it go. He had spent so much effort to secure the position, and now the returning Hyuga Kanan had given these people an opportunity to compete for it.

Orochimaru is still on my side. The fact that he made a move today proves that he doesn't intend to become Hokage right now, but who knows what will happen after that.

Tsunade and Sakumo Hatake are in a very troublesome situation. After they arrived there, they just watched quietly, clearly waiting for them to make a mistake, damage their prestige as Hokage, and prepare for their future succession as Hokage.

I was too impulsive today; I shouldn't have acted directly.

Winning or losing, he was in a disadvantageous position. If he won, the other ninjas in Konoha would think he lacked tolerance—that he had taken down Hyuga Kanan as soon as he returned to the village, without any charges whatsoever—and all the benevolence he had cultivated over the years would be destroyed. If he lost, it would be even more troublesome. As the Hokage, how could he lead Konoha if he couldn't even defeat a young member of the Hyuga clan?

Clearly, his actions today will bring him a lot of trouble.