The two of them understood perfectly well that Akira's strength had very likely already surpassed even the Fourth Hokage's. What was rare was that he showed almost no hunger for power.
In that, their thinking actually matched Tsunade's exactly. Both elders believed Akira was the best possible candidate to succeed as the Sixth Hokage.
Give Tsunade a few more years in office, let Akira's age and seniority catch up a little more, add in the reputation he had already built across the shinobi world, and the fit would be almost perfect.
More importantly, the boy was nothing like Danzō.
If anything, he resembled Tsunade far more.
So even though Tsunade had stripped away much of their authority, they felt no real resentment toward her.
As long as Danzō did not become Hokage, they could accept almost anyone else in the position, and Akira was clearly the most favorable option.
Those two might have been old classmates of Danzō, but on this point they were no different from the Third Hokage. Dirty work could be left to Danzō, but the Hokage's seat itself was something they would never allow him to touch.
The Third had kept Danzō around in order to maintain that balance of light and shadow, and also because the two sides kept each other in check.
The Third and the advisors belonged to the dovish side. Their focus was peace and stable growth.
Danzō, on the other hand, was a hawk through and through, radically aggressive by nature.
Tsunade, at heart, was also a dove. She despised war.
Konoha was in a period of recovery now. If Danzō ever took power, there was no telling what kind of chaos he might stir up. He might even drag Konoha toward something resembling the Bloody Mist era.
Kirigakure's misery had been manipulated from the shadows by Obito, yes, but the roots of that cruelty had already existed long before.
If Danzō became Hokage, Konoha would not be far from falling into a similar state.
That was why the two advisors had tolerated Root's existence while also doing everything they could to make sure Danzō never seized the top position.
And because Danzō understood that perfectly, he had eventually developed murderous intent toward the Third Hokage.
He knew that as long as Hiruzen Sarutobi lived, he himself would never be anything more than the "root" beneath the tree.
In fact, even if the Third had died, Hiruzen would still have preferred bringing Minato Namikaze back if he could, or even raising up Orochimaru, before seriously considering Danzō.
In the Third Hokage's eyes, allowing Danzō to become Hokage was unthinkable, unless Hiruzen Sarutobi had truly died beyond all help.
Unfortunately, the Third had died too suddenly to arrange the aftermath properly.
If he had lived, then in another three years, he likely would have handed the Fifth Hokage's position to Kakashi and retired into an advisory role himself.
In truth, from the moment the Third pulled Kakashi out of the cesspit that was Root, he had already begun grooming him as an heir.
And from the moment that remarkable boy first appeared, the Third Hokage had begun sketching out a long-term plan that stretched decades into the future.
The old man's calculation had been straightforward. First, let Kakashi serve as the Fifth Hokage for a transitional period.
Then, once Akira had fully outgrown his youth and reached the same golden age Minato Namikaze had once stood in, the Hokage's hat would naturally pass to him.
Back when Akira had only just graduated and received his forehead protector, the Third had already dared to throw S-rank missions at him. That had never been mistreatment. It had been the deliberate tempering of a raw jewel.
And after that harrowing trial, Hiruzen had clearly decided that the Sixth Hokage's chair belonged to Akira and no one else.
But plans never survive fate intact. Orochimaru's sudden attack had torn that carefully woven design to shreds.
Looking back now, though, bringing Tsunade-hime back to take charge had actually been the steadier choice.
At this stage, Kakashi's name carried weight, yes, but in terms of his roots in the village and the kind of authority that could truly hold the seat of Hokage steady, he still fell short.
If he had waited until after the Fourth Great Ninja War, and had the merit of helping save the world behind him, then his ascension would have been far more naturally accepted.
In this brutal ninja world, having military accomplishments alone was never enough to hold the office of a Kage. You also needed the kind of prestige that made others lower their heads without being asked.
After the Third Hokage died, the higher-ups had not chosen Kakashi simply because, at the time, his standing still was not strong enough to dominate the field, and his strength was still firmly within elite jonin territory.
If one looked only at his service record, Kakashi had more than enough achievements already. From the latter half of the Third Great Ninja War to those bloody years in ANBU, his record had long since become dazzling.
Dozens of S-rank missions carried out at the risk of his life. Hundreds of A-rank missions completed flawlessly. There was nothing wrong with the résumé itself.
His only real weakness was that he still lacked the kind of overwhelming presence that could make other hidden villages think twice simply because he was standing at Konoha's gate.
Sunagakure choosing Gaara as Kazekage had really been a case of necessity. They had been forced into it.
If they had still possessed another top-tier powerhouse in his prime like Rasa, there was no way the Kazekage's hat would have fallen to Gaara so soon.
Look at it from another angle. If Akira had been born in Sunagakure, then the Kazekage's position would have been his by certainty. No one would have been able to contest it.
Fortunately, Konoha was not in the same straitened state as Sunagakure. Its foundation was broader, and its reserve of talent was still relatively healthy.
Besides Kakashi, there was Jiraiya wandering the world, and Tsunade, mistress of medical jutsu. In terms of both qualifications and strength, either of them had been excellent candidates for Hokage.
That was precisely why the two advisors, despite constantly grumbling about Tsunade's style and temper, had never truly entertained the thought of removing her.
Of course, whether they wanted to oppose her was one matter.
Whether they had the ability to turn that opposition into reality was something else entirely.
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