All the Jonin of the village stood by the walls of the meeting room, watching as the ballots were counted slowly while talking to each other about the future.
"Kakashi… who did you vote for?" The only person who could ask such a question disregarding the secrecy around a vote, asked the question out loud.
"It's supposed to be a secret Kurenai." Kakashi said softly.
"But… it'd be so pitiful if Tsunade-sama doesn't end up winning!" Kurenai said without even flinching.
"I voted for Tsunade-sama too Kurenai." Asuma suddenly interjected.
"By the way, where's Tsunade-sama? How come we aren't seeing her here or Shizune?" Kurenai asked, ignoring Asuma entirely.
Kakashi wanted to say, 'She cares more about gambling to be here…' but couldn't find it in himself to demolish Tsunade's image in front of the innocents so he simply said something else made up instead.
"Tsunade-sama was given a classified mission, she's preparing for it."
"Huh? What?" Kurenai looked aghast.
"They seriously sent away Tsunade-sama on a mission so soon!?
How dare they! I bet they did this so that there would be no female Hokage… or I'm sure with Tsunade-sama's charm, she'd have gotten all the votes if she was here."
Kakashi felt tired of Kurenai's games so he simply nodded and continued to pretend Kurenai didn't exist by imagining that she was as transparent as thin air.
Eventually his patience paid off when Shikaku arrived at the front of the room and announced, "The counting has been completed! We will now announce the result of the votes!"
A few people carrying a stack of pages walked up to the front and after a nod from Shikaku, one of them stepped ahead and began announcing the result.
"In order from least to greatest the results are as follows."
"Hiashi Hyuga, twelve votes."
"Tsunade Senju, thirty seven votes."
"Nara Shikaku, sixty three votes."
"Fugaku Uchiha, eighty eight votes."
"The winner of this election to become the Fifth Hokage is Fugaku Uchiha!"
"Fifth?" Someone from the crowd asked.
Shikaku Nara stepped up to immediately address the question.
"As Danzo Shimura hadn't completed the Hokage Ceremony or even the formalities of becoming the Hokage by meeting with the Daimyo, it has been deemed that his tenure will be considered as a transition to the real fifth."
"But… his face was almost finished being carved on the Hokage Rock…" Someone whispered but Shikaku didn't answer them.
Instead he stepped back and let Fugaku come up to the front of the stage, "Now, let us please welcome Fugaku Uchiha."
People clapped softly, some more enthusiastically than others.
"Greetings…" Fugaku started.
"I have been watching our village since I was a child. Watching as it has grown from humble beginnings. My job as the Hokage will be to protect what was built and also turn Konoha into a behemoth that the rest of the five great shinobi villages will tremble before!"
"It is my wish that every shinobi in our village has ample missions to choose from."
"It is my wish that every shinobi in our village has the same opportunities as the others."
"Above all, it is my wish that Konoha as our village never has to bow down its head to those undeserved."
Fugaku stopped at that point while looking around to see a fire burning in the eyes of every shinobi around him.
He simply nodded and basked in the round of applause that was awarded to him by the jonin present.
***
Haruto looked at Tsunade as she was looking at him.
"So… you're the brat that Kakashi keeps yapping about having exceptional Medical Ninjutsu talent?"
Haruto felt a nerve show up on his forehead.
"What? Why're you annoyed? I literally just praised you."
Another nerve showed up on Haruto's forehead.
"Fine, have it your way." Tsunade huffed before grabbing Haruto by the collar and dragging him all the way to a table that was filled with seals of various kinds to the brim.
On the table was a fish, it looked dead but Haruto could tell it was still alive because its soul hadn't left its body yet.
'What magic did she use to keep the fish alive out of water?' Haruto wondered.
Tsunade looked at Haruto, "Do you know the scalpel jutsu?"
"No."
"Alright." Tsunade said, handing him a scalpel from a nearby drawer. "Your job is to fish out the eye from this thing without damaging it."
Haruto became dumbfounded.
This was far more difficult than anything he'd done before.
How was he even supposed to do such a thing?
He didn't know where the eyeball ended and where the brain began. And how was he supposed to even fish out the eyeball? With a scalpel?
So Haruto looked at Tsunade with the most deadpan face he could make.
"If you can't even do this with everything you've already been taught, then don't expect me to teach you anything." Tsunade bluntly said, causing Haruto's eyes to widen.
"Teach me?"
"Of course, what else do you think I called you for? A date!?"
Haruto looked at the fish, then at Tsuande and finally sighed and made up his mind. "Alright."
With a heavy burden on his shoulders Haruto began the operation.
He first injected chakra into the fish's head using the poison extraction jutsu while using yang dominated chakra to feel around the head in more detail.
"...I know where the eyeball ends now. I'm beginning the dissection."
"You also need to remove the nerves without damaging them."
Haruto froze. His hand hovering over the fish without moving as he glared at Tsunade for upping the difficulty all of a sudden.
"What? Can't even do something so easy?" Tsunade taunted.
Haruto sighed deeply, rubbed his eyes a little before forcing more yang dominated chakra into the fish's head.
It was only after an entire fifteen minutes that Haruto stopped and felt even marginally comfortable to do what he was about to do.
With a quick sharp slice with the help of the scalpel Haruto created a flap of flesh around the fish's eye.
Blood poured out and Tsunade froze momentarily, but Haruto never noticed, he was focused on his miniature operation.
Then Haruto carefully slipped his fingers into the eye socket of the fish from the flap he'd just created.
The eyeball deformed slightly since there was not enough space for his finger and the eyeball together.
But Haruto managed to keep it intact as he felt around for a few seconds before gripping the stocky bundle of nerves in between his fingers.
"I've got the nerves, I'll now use the scalpel to separate it from the body."
Tsunade simply nodded, her body still too frozen to speak properly.
Haruto slipped the scalpel into the eyesocket and with a quick cut, cleanly separated the nerve before fishing out the eyeball in its entirety.
"There you go." Haruto said, tossing the bloody eyeball right at Tsunade knowing that it would be difficult for her to deal with.
Only, as soon as the eyeball landed in Tsunade's hands she slapped it right into Haruto's slightly open mouth!
COUGH!! COUGH!!
Haruto choked on the eye for a second before swallowing it whole!
"EWWW!!! WHAT THE HELL WOMAN!!!"
***
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