On the first day after the four nations fully withdrew their troops, more than half of Konoha's jonin received the Hokage's order and collectively returned to the village with their teams.
On the second day, Konoha convened a full jonin assembly meeting. During the meeting, the Hokage announced the dissolution of the original Konoha leadership council and the removal of all duties from Danzo Shimura, Homura Mitokado, and Koharu Utatane.
The three reacted intensely at the full jonin assembly. Unfortunately, any struggle or dissatisfaction was completely suppressed by the Third Hokage's authority.
After dissolving the Konoha leadership council, Hiruzen Sarutobi directly initiated nominations for the Fourth Hokage election.
With these actions, everyone knew the Third Hokage intended to step down and make way for a successor. However, the jonin did not expect the Hokage to act so quickly and with such decisive resolve.
This full jonin assembly lasted the entire day. After open discussion, Konoha finalized Orochimaru, Sakumo Hatake, and Minato Namikaze as the three Hokage candidates. The village wide election vote would officially begin five days later.
As one of the Hokage candidates, Orochimaru did not have much expectation for the position of Hokage at this moment, but he did not outright refuse the nomination like Jiraiya did.
This attitude was strange. Not only did Ryun fail to understand his teacher's true thoughts, even Orochimaru himself was not clear about what he wanted.
Become Hokage? Orochimaru actually had some desire for it. After all, the largest ninja village in the world was undoubtedly much stronger than Otogakure, and the Third Hokage had already removed many obstacles. If he took the position, he could control a completely renewed Konoha.
The temptation of such power was great, so great that Orochimaru, who had secretly established Otogakure, still did not want to refuse this Hokage nomination.
"You really want to be Hokage..."
At Orochimaru's residence, teacher and student rarely gathered together.
"I hadn't considered this idea before, but the Hokage has handed over a significant portion of his authority today. That position is indeed somewhat tempting to me..." Orochimaru said with a smile, expressing his thoughts.
Now, anyone with clear eyes could see that without the constraints of the Konoha leadership, the position of Fourth Hokage would truly hold great power.
It could be said that the entire Konoha would completely be under the Hokage's command. This level of centralized authority was already comparable to the era of the Second Hokage's rule.
"Alright... I respect your thoughts and decisions. But I probably can't help you secure that position. At most, I can have Kushina come forward to cast a vote for you." Ryun said with a smile.
He truly could not interfere with this election. But Orochimaru being his direct teacher was itself a huge political resource that no one could ignore. The Third Hokage was very likely to choose Orochimaru because of this.
Currently, Orochimaru had the highest popularity and the greatest chance of being elected Hokage. The combined popularity of Sakumo Hatake and Minato Namikaze was less than that of Orochimaru, one of the Sannin.
If nothing unexpected happened, even without Ryun's interference, his teacher could successfully become the Fourth Hokage.
"If you want to be Hokage, you can no longer go to the human experimentation lab. When necessary, you must completely destroy all evidence. Otherwise... you won't be able to sit in the Hokage's seat." Ryun gave a serious reminder.
He remembered that in the original story, Orochimaru's failure in the election was due to this very point.
"Destroy? That's impossible! I went through great efforts to obtain those devices and many experimental subjects. How can I just destroy them? I still need to continue many of my research projects..."
Compared to the position and power of Hokage, scientific research was clearly more tempting to Orochimaru.
"..."
Ryun was truly somewhat helpless, but he didn't say more about it. He had already advised. Whether Orochimaru listened was his own business. Perhaps deep down, he didn't necessarily want to be Hokage?
After discussing Orochimaru, one of the three Hokage candidates, it's necessary to mention the other two candidates.
Sakumo Hatake, a tragic figure in the original story who should have died not long after, had his fate trajectory altered due to Ryun's existence.
In this world, the Third Hokage should not have stepped down so quickly, nor should the Fourth Hokage election have started so soon.
At this time, Kakashi was only 3 years old. There were still a few years before Sakumo Hatake's suicide in the original story. So at this stage, his strength and reputation absolutely qualified him to run for Fourth Hokage.
In fact, Sakumo Hatake's current popularity in the Hokage election was much higher than Minato Namikaze's. Minato was only somewhat famous at this time, and hadn't even earned the title 'Yellow Flash' yet...
If not for his teacher Jiraiya strongly recommending his disciple, Konoha might only have two Hokage candidates at this moment...
In the original story during this period, Sakumo Hatake's fame and reputation ranked above the Sannin. Konoha had even granted him the privilege of wearing the 'Hokage half-sleeve,' which actually indicated that barring any accidents, Sakumo Hatake would be the next Fourth Hokage.
Without Ryun's existence, during this time period, Orochimaru's influence overall was inferior to Sakumo Hatake's.
Because of Ryun's existence, the Third Hokage currently leaned more towards making Orochimaru Hokage.
Even though his beloved student was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with him, even to the point of impatience... Hiruzen Sarutobi still had full confidence and expectations for him.
On the day after the full jonin assembly ended, Hiruzen Sarutobi announced to all Konoha villagers that he was officially stepping down from the position of Third Hokage.
The villagers were not surprised by this decision because years ago the Hokage had promised to step down immediately after the war ended. Today was merely fulfilling that past promise.
After announcing his resignation, the Third Hokage used his resignation speech to encourage Konoha villagers to vote actively and jointly elect the new Fourth Hokage.
The voting would take effect the next two days, the result would be confirmed on the third day, and the Fourth Hokage would officially take office five days later.
Late that night.
Danzo Shimura personally appeared at Orochimaru's residence. The two held a secret conversation for a long time.
Danzo Shimura first offered Orochimaru many research results and materials related to human experimentation. He then presented many benefits and promises that greatly tempted Orochimaru.
He wanted Orochimaru to help him once he became the Fourth Hokage, preferably by allowing him to continue controlling the 'Root' organization.
Unfortunately, Orochimaru ignored his request, even stating that he would not help Danzo in the slightest even if he became Hokage.
Simply because his beloved student deeply disliked the other party. Although Ryun had told him that Danzo was not the one who captured Asuka that year, after that incident, Orochimaru still could not feel any goodwill towards Danzo Shimura.
After the negotiation broke down, Danzo Shimura unhurriedly produced numerous pieces of criminal evidence. This evidence could fully prove that Orochimaru was a wicked individual with malicious intentions. It contained extensive evidence of him abducting and harming citizens, even clues and evidence of Orochimaru's involvement in human experiments.
It could be said that if Danzo Shimura made this evidence public, not only would Orochimaru lose any chance at the Hokage position, but it would even be questionable whether he could remain in Konoha afterward.
Orochimaru's record was indeed very unclean. Root could easily find clues if they put effort into collecting them. Danzo had always held onto these things, intending to use them to negotiate with Orochimaru someday. This was also one of his backup plans.
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