So when the final choice ended up being Tsunade, Hatake Kakashi was not all that surprised.
Honestly, most of Konoha's mid-to-upper ranks had expected it. The village just did not have many heavy hitters left that could be put on the Hokage seat.
If anything, the real shock had been Shimura Danzo as the so-called "five-and-a-half Hokage." An old man forcing his body into a false prime through self-modification was hard to swallow. It rubbed people the wrong way on instinct.
Still, Kakashi caught a detail that stuck.
In Kaede Kitahara's diary, the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade, would send Uzumaki Naruto, Sakura, and Yamato to chase Mukade, the Sunagakure missing-nin.
So where did Sai fit in?
Was Sai there to fill the hole Uchiha Sasuke left behind?
Kakashi's mind flicked back to a previous video, the one where Naruto had chased Sasuke all the way to Orochimaru's hideout. He remembered the figure Naruto had met there.
And Yamato…
Yamato was probably replacing Kakashi's role.
The shape of it was starting to form in Kakashi's head.
Then, as if on cue, a video icon appeared on the diary page. Kakashi clicked it without hesitation, familiar with the routine by now.
The video opened on a battle. Yamato, Uzumaki Naruto, Sakura, and Sai fought a swarm of puppets, the four of them moving like a unit.
"Puppets, Sunagakure, Mukade," Kakashi thought. "That matches."
He did not know who this Mukade was, but the details fit what he understood. Puppet masters were a specialty of the Land of Wind, especially Sunagakure. If Mukade was a Sunagakure traitor, him using puppets was completely believable.
Judging by Naruto's height, his clothes, and the way Sakura looked older, the timing had to be around three or four years from now.
That lined up with what Kaede had written, that three years later they would be sent under Tsunade's orders to assist Sunagakure in hunting a missing-nin.
"…But three years from now, Konoha and Sunagakure are allies again?"
Kakashi frowned.
Earlier videos had shown Sunagakure teaming up with Orochimaru half a year from now, launching the Konoha Crush Plan.
They must have failed.
And after failing, Sunagakure likely backed down and renewed the alliance treaty. Not only that, they were asking Konoha for help tracking down a traitor.
That kind of request was rare.
Shinobi carried secrets. Training methods. jutsu signatures. Habits and weaknesses that could be studied. If a missing-nin's body was taken, you could pry a lot of information out of it.
That was why Kakashi had not doubted it back when that boy, Haku, had shown up pretending to be a Kirigakure hunter-nin, trying to take Zabuza's body away.
A jonin's corpse was a treasure trove. No village would let it fall into someone else's hands if they could help it.
So had Sunagakure's trust in Konoha reached that point?
Or had Sunagakure fallen into a situation where they could not even spare the forces to hunt a jonin-class missing-nin on their own?
Kakashi did not know.
All he knew was that the questions kept piling up.
"Three years from now…"
Uchiha Sasuke stared at the newly formed Yamato squad, and irritation pricked at him.
He understood the reason. If he left, then they would replace him. Of course they would. Sai was filling the empty spot that belonged to him.
Still, it annoyed him.
He acted like Uzumaki Naruto was dead weight. He acted like Team 7 was nothing.
But in the darkness of his life, it had been one of the few bright places he had ever had.
After spending time with them, he had started to accept Team 7, even if he would never say it out loud.
Seeing someone else standing where he used to stand made his jaw tighten.
This time, he promised himself, no one is taking my place.
In the video, their fight tore through the ground and opened a massive hole below.
As Yamato explained what they were seeing, the truth came out. Beneath the ruins of Roran, there was a sealed Dragon Vein. Endless chakra slept under the earth, vast enough to feel unreal.
That power was being contained by a sealing formula left behind by the Fourth Hokage.
When they reached the source, they saw him.
A shinobi with a long face, standing calm in the shadows.
Mukade, the missing-nin.
"You're late," Mukade said, voice smug. "My puppet technique is about to be infused with the Dragon Vein's power. Once that happens, forget the Five Great Nations. The whole world will be mine to command."
Off-screen, several people reacted at the same time with the same noise, a dismissive click of the tongue. After Kaede Kitahara's diary had kept peeling back the shinobi world's real face, no one believed this Mukade had the power to "rule the world."
Kaede's diary had not shown even a hint of fear or caution toward him.
And the fact that Mukade's rampage had been put down so easily in the past was proof enough.
"That's not happening," Yamato shot back. "You can't break the Fourth Hokage's sealing formula."
Mukade let out a cold snort.
"Of course I know that," he said. "Then I'll just swallow the seal along with it."