In just a few short days, the entire Hidden Leaf Village was like a pot of water that wouldn't stop boiling—utterly roiling.
First, rumors spread that Hidden Cloud might tear up the alliance. Then, out of nowhere, news arrived that the Hokage had died.
Along with that news came the Shadow Guard survivors who had escaped with their lives.
But before anyone could finish being relieved that Sarutobi Hiruzen and the others had made it back, another explosive scandal swept the village: the Shadow Guard had abandoned the Hokage and fled back on their own.
It didn't stop there. While people were still doubtful, the Uchiha suddenly stepped forward, publicly blocking Sarutobi Hiruzen on the street and demanding to know Uchiha Kagami's whereabouts.
"Why did six leave Konoha, yet only five return?"
"Why is the only missing member of the Shadow Guard conveniently the one from our Uchiha clan?"
Hiruzen's answer was that they became separated while being pursued by Kumo.
Pursued! He said "pursued," pursued by shinobi of Hidden Cloud!
Soon, certain parties "interpreted" Hiruzen's words and spread them through the village like wildfire—
Not only had the Shadow Guard abandoned the Hokage and run, they scattered and even lost one of their own!
Is the one who went missing alive or dead?
No one knew!
No one could say where the rumors started, but they spread like a forest fire, impossible to contain—so much so that even Hiruzen started feeling as if the rumors hadn't started because of him, only waited for his return.
An illusion! It had to be an illusion!
As the outcry swelled, Hiruzen, newly returned, was forced to gather a crowd of shinobi—mostly chūnin and jōnin—in front of the Hokage Building to personally refute the rumors.
They hadn't abandoned the Hokage. The Hokage had ordered them to withdraw while he stayed behind. And the Second had designated Hiruzen to inherit the title of Third Hokage.
"Guarding the Hokage is indeed a duty the Shadow Guard cannot shirk. We never wished to evade it."
"But the situation was critical. We were not only Guard members; we were the Hokage's disciples and subordinates. Our first duty was to obey the Hokage's command…"
On the plaza, Hiruzen patiently explained their position. It did sound somewhat reasonable.
But, well…
Viewed alone, his account wasn't impossible. Senju Tobirama wasn't the sort to cling to life; in a crisis he might indeed make that choice.
Yet in the current atmosphere…
Faced with a formidable enemy, the Hokage, to save the Guard, chose to stay behind alone, was killed by enemy shinobi, and even his body was missing.
Then, once the five returned in disgrace, their first claim was that they would "carry out the Hokage's last wish" and inherit the title of Third Hokage?
Listen to yourself—does that sound human?
Do you still have a heart?
Are you even human?
And since when did Konoha have "designation by the predecessor" as a succession method?
Even Hashirama, the founder, properly followed the election process.
By the procedure Tobirama set, shouldn't it be nomination of candidates, then a jōnin confidence vote by all village jōnin, and finally reporting the result to the daimyō?
To be blunt, wasn't it precisely that vote that kept Uchiha Madara from the seat, allowing Hashirama and then Tobirama to become First and Second Hokage?
Those brothers respected systems and process—fair, just, and open—both in rising and in passing the mantle.
So how does it become, for Sarutobi Hiruzen, that a dubious "last will" is enough to take the office?
After Hiruzen publicly recited the "last words of the Second Hokage, Lord Senju Tobirama," what greeted him was unified silence.
Even several chūnin and jōnin of the Sarutobi clan kept quiet. Even they felt this was going too far.
The Second's body wasn't even cold…
At last, Jōnin Nara Shikatsune stepped out to smooth things over, saying the Second's words were not a designation but a nomination of Hiruzen.
Hiruzen reacted swiftly. Though he didn't know all the causes, he immediately promised to assume the office through the full formal process.
He said this gathering was only to relay the Second's last words. He did not intend to bypass a jōnin confidence vote. He expressed grief over the Second's death and hatred of the shinobi of Hidden Cloud.
He pledged that, after the Hokage election—whether or not he became the Third—he would go to the front and avenge the Second against Kumo's shinobi.
Yes, "Kumo's shinobi."
Kinkaku and Ginkaku had not called themselves rogue-nin; they had launched a formal coup d'état.
Had it succeeded, Kinkaku might already be the Third Raikage.
Thinking of those monsters cloaked in crimson tailed-beast chakra and wielding the so-called tools of the Sage of Six Paths, the young Hiruzen could barely imagine anyone defeating—much less killing—them.
After Hiruzen's quick pivot and solemn pledge, most jōnin acknowledged him as a Hokage candidate, and set a jōnin confidence vote five days hence.
Any jōnin of Konoha, including Hiruzen, could nominate themselves or be nominated to become a "Hokage candidate" and take part in the election in five days.
Hiruzen then hurried down from the Hokage Building's roof, packed his personal effects he had just brought in, even sealed the door with a talisman, and—without looking back—dragged Nara Shikatsune straight into the Nara compound.
He needed to know what had happened while he was gone.
How had his teacher's personal "designation" for the Third Hokage been devalued into merely a "candidate slot" in half a day?
Why did not a single Leaf shinobi accept the "Second Hokage's final words" he had repeated verbatim, and why did so many wear looks of doubt?
None of this matched what he had imagined.