In Renya's view, Danzō retiring ahead of schedule would be a good thing!
That way, he'd finally have time to travel with him.
It was said that the dragon vein of the ancient kingdom of Rōran possessed tremendous power, even capable of letting people travel through time.
That was exactly how Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Naruto met in the movie…
He had even been thinking that when the time came, he'd bring his close friends along to check out the situation in person.
As long as Danzō decided to retire, there would be someone to go with him.
Who knows—maybe they really could cross into the future.
Unfortunately, Renya had overthought it…
Shimura Danzō had only developed the idea of retiring, but he wasn't in any hurry at all when it came to finding a successor.
He was just asking on a whim.
"Retiring is still too early for me. I just wanted to ask what you think first."
Danzō's thinking was very simple—have Renya name a few candidates.
He could observe them for a few years first, then make the final decision on the Hokage, just like how Tobirama-sensei had chosen the Hokage from between him and Hiruzen back then.
"So that's all?"
Renya felt utterly speechless about it. So it turned out he just wanted to start looking for suitable candidates early.
Danzō wasn't retiring right away after all—he'd gotten excited for nothing earlier.
Looks like their wish to travel together was temporarily dashed.
"You seem very disappointed?"
Seeing this, Shimura Danzō asked subconsciously.
He always felt that Renya was unhappy about him not being in a hurry to retire.
Could it be that something he'd done during his tenure had made his friend dissatisfied?
But that shouldn't be the case…
Every important decision he'd made had been approved by Renya first.
There was no way this guy would be unhappy about that.
"No, there's nothing wrong with looking for suitable candidates early. You could say it's planning ahead—very forward-thinking!"
Even though he knew Danzō had no plans to retire for now, Renya decided to respect his choice.
After all, the man had finally become Hokage—it was possible he hadn't had his fill of it yet.
They could talk about it again in a few years; it wouldn't be too late.
Shimura Danzō: "…"
This guy gave him the distinct feeling that he was being sarcastic.
He couldn't figure out what he'd done to provoke Renya—why did he suddenly seem like a completely different person?
"So, do you have anyone you'd recommend?"
Shimura Danzō asked the question he cared about the most.
He wanted to know from Renya whether there were any suitable candidates among the younger generation to take on the role of Hokage.
As for Sarutobi Hiruzen?
They could talk about that later.
The position of Hokage should be passed on to the younger generation. By the time he retired, Hiruzen would already be in his forties or fifties.
At that age, in his view, he was no longer suitable to serve as Hokage.
Even if Sarutobi Hiruzen really did become Hokage, given his age, he wouldn't be able to hold the position for many years.
They'd still have to choose a new Hokage afterward.
Rather than going through all that trouble, it would be better to directly pass the position to a younger person.
And in his view, Renya's three disciples were all pretty good choices.
"Recommended candidates?" Hearing this, Renya fell into deep thought.
Right now, there were many people in Konoha Village with the qualifications to become Hokage…
Sarutobi Hiruzen, Hatake Sakumo, Uchiha Kagami, Jiraiya, Orochimaru—plus other elite jōnin with major contributions.
All of them were fairly good options.
But qualifications alone weren't enough. What mattered most was whether they had the ability to properly manage the village.
And it also depended on the individual's own willingness, as well as how the other clans in the village would react—whether they could command respect.
Take Uchiha Kagami, for example. His qualifications and abilities were excellent, but the rest of the village wouldn't agree to let a member of the Uchiha clan become Hokage.
The reason was simple: the Uchiha were already a major clan in Konoha. If they also became Hokage, there would be no one left in the village who could keep them in check.
Especially after what happened with Uchiha Madara, the Uchiha clan had essentially been cut off from the Hokage position.
Given Jiraiya's personality, he probably wouldn't want to be Hokage.
That guy was immersed in writing and gathering material every day—he was most likely not interested in being Hokage at all.
As for Orochimaru, he spent every day doing research with that old fellow Senju Tobirama—he simply had no time to serve as Hokage.
That left only Sarutobi Hiruzen and Hatake Sakumo.
Both of them had impeccable qualifications and contributions.
If Danzō really wanted to retire, he could consider choosing between those two.
"Hiruzen and Sakumo, huh?"
Listening to Renya's analysis, Shimura Danzō murmured softly, deep in thought.
He had originally thought Renya would consider his own disciples, but now it seemed he'd overthought it.
That guy had no intention whatsoever of letting his disciples become Hokage…
You could only say that they truly were Renya's disciples. To put it bluntly, if the upper beam isn't straight, the lower one will be crooked.
Renya didn't have the Will of Fire, and his disciples probably didn't either.
What a pity—three decent seedlings, all ruined by someone.
One spent every day with their partner, one spent every day lying around peeping into the women's bathhouse, and one spent every day obsessing over research with Tobirama-sensei.
Not a single one of them wanted to become Hokage.
"I'm just making a suggestion. Who you choose in the end is still up to you."
Renya reminded him.
This was only his own thinking—it wasn't necessarily useful.
He didn't want Danzō to directly follow his advice and choose one of the two to become Hokage.
Something like this had to be decided based on the actual situation.
Shimura Danzō nodded and didn't say anything more about the matter.
With Renya's words, he felt reassured.
He had always believed that by the time he retired, Hiruzen would be too old—truly not suitable to serve as Hokage.
Back then, he had indeed thought that when he retired, he'd make Hiruzen one of the Hokage successors.
But times had changed, and people changed with them.
He couldn't possibly ignore Konoha Village's future development just because of an unknown promise, could he?
After all, that was something he'd only thought about in his own mind.
Sarutobi Hiruzen knew nothing about it at all.
As long as he didn't say it himself, who else could possibly know?
"If there's nothing else, I'll head back."
Renya stayed in the office for a while longer, then got up and left.
Before leaving, he glanced at his friend who was buried in paperwork and said half-jokingly,
"Danzō, retire early. When the time comes, I'll take you out traveling."
With that, he turned around and walked out of the office—closing the door behind him for once.
Shimura Danzō paused mid-review, then looked up in surprise at the closed door.
This guy wants me to retire just so he can take me traveling?
At that moment, he seemed to understand why Renya had been a bit unhappy earlier.
So it was simply because he wanted to take him traveling?
This guy really is something… why didn't he say so earlier?
Shimura Danzō stood up, walked over to the window, and looked down at Renya leaving alone on the street below, falling into deep thought.
After a long silence, he turned back toward the mountain of documents piled on his desk. Seeming to have made up his mind, he gave an order to the ANBU hidden in the shadows.
"Call Sarutobi Hiruzen over."
Sarutobi Hiruzen, who had just resigned and was at home enjoying life, suddenly had a very bad premonition.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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