Several days later, the Hokage election in Konoha officially began.
Senju Tobirama and Uchiha Izuna jointly oversaw the vote counting, strictly guarding against any possibility of favoritism or election fraud.
In the end, though, such precautions proved unnecessary.
Whether it was Senju Hashirama or Uchiha Madara, both possessed the pride of true powerhouses. They held cheating in utter contempt.
"Clan Head Sarutobi, who does your clan intend to vote for?" Hyuga Tennin asked with a smile.
Sarutobi Kirisu chuckled lightly and answered without hiding anything, "Naturally, we're voting for Lord Hashirama. As for the Hyuga Clan, I assume you'll be supporting Lord Madara?"
Hyuga Tennin nodded.
"No matter who we vote for, we're still serving Konoha. There's no real difference."
While chatting casually, the two of them cast their ballots into the box one after another.
Soon after, the Shimura, Kurama, Shiranui, Haruno, Namikaze, Hatake, as well as the Ino-Shika-Cho clans and the other various ninja clans also arrived to cast their votes.
———
The voting process moved quickly and was completed within a single day.
Because of Arisu's influence, the Fire Daimyo had no authority to interfere in Konoha's internal affairs, so there was no need to wait for the Daimyo's approval.
In truth, the Daimyo didn't dare interfere with Madara or Hashirama anyway.
Because he couldn't be sure whether the two of them had tempers as good as Arisu's.
Everyone knew how terrifyingly strong Madara and Hashirama were.
The Fire Daimyo had no idea whether the two would still show him respect.
After all, Arisu was gone now. There was no one left capable of restraining them.
If he accidentally said the wrong thing and Hashirama or Madara got heated and came directly to him, he'd be finished.
Madara: 'I see you're tired of sitting behind that Daimyo desk, huh!?'
———
"The election has concluded. The new Hokage has been decided!"
"The Second Hokage is...", Hyuga Tennin's voice slowly rang out.
Below the stage, Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara both raised their heads simultaneously. Their hearts tightened in unison as their eyes locked firmly onto the figure standing above.
"Senju Hashirama!"
The moment those four words fell, the entire Konoha plaza erupted. Cheers surged like crashing waves.
Hashirama slowly rose to his feet, standing tall and straight. His expression was solemn, though deep in his eyes lingered a faint trace of complicated emotion.
Beside him, Uchiha Madara remained silent for a long time...
In that instant, it felt as though his entire world had gone mute...
A moment later, he looked toward Hashirama. His voice carried both relief and unmistakable disappointment.
"Hashirama... congratulations."
"Madara..."
Hashirama met Madara's gaze. Catching the loneliness hidden in his eyes, it felt as though something lightly squeezed his heart, filling him with indescribable emotions.
Truthfully, even before the voting began, he had already vaguely guessed the outcome.
When it came to popularity, he far surpassed Madara, whose personality was withdrawn and unsociable.
Back then, Arisu had repeatedly advised Madara not to keep everyone at arm's length all the time, telling him to interact more and build relationships. But Madara had always acted alone and never cared about such things.
Madara was the type who silently got things done, rarely mingling with crowds.
Hashirama, on the other hand, had a gentle personality. He could lower himself to laugh and mingle with clan members and ordinary villagers alike.
With such a stark contrast between them, it was only natural that Konoha's people favored the approachable and friendly leader more.
"Madara!"
Suddenly, Hashirama strode forward and firmly grabbed Madara's wrist. Under the gaze of the entire crowd, he declared clearly, word by word, "From this day onward, Madara will be my Hokage advisor! Madara's standing is equal to mine in every way!"
Looking at him like this, the helplessness in Madara's eyes gradually turned into a faint smile. He lightly patted the back of Hashirama's hand.
'Fine then. I'll let you have the Hokage position today.'
'But someday, I'll compete with you again and win that seat back!'
Nearby, Izuna and Tobirama both let out quiet sighs of relief upon seeing this scene.
Compared to who became Hokage, what the two of them truly cared about was internal unity.
If something like the Hokage position caused division within the village, that would be disastrous.
———
Several days later, the Second Hokage inauguration ceremony began.
A few more months passed.
Second Hokage Senju Hashirama convened his first high-level meeting.
The topic of discussion was Konoha's grand strategy going forward.
While Arisu had been alive, Konoha had always maintained a philosophy of peace. No conquest, no domination. The village had quietly remained in the center, keeping to itself.
But Hashirama, Madara, and the others who rose to power did not think that way.
Their goal was the unification of the ninja world.
Even Hashirama himself wanted to unify the ninja world.
The reason things had developed this way was still because of Arisu.
First of all, the Tailed Beasts no longer existed.
That naturally meant Hashirama's idea of balancing the nations through Tailed Beast distribution no longer applied.
Secondly, Hashirama had been educated entirely under Arisu's guidance. His ideology had been deeply influenced by Arisu.
Even so, disagreements still emerged internally.
The issue was one of speed.
"Personally, I think we should gradually unify the ninja world through economics and culture. Once every ninja village uses products from Konoha, wears clothes from Konoha, then we'll naturally achieve unification."
"At the same time, we can control the various nations by raising tariffs."
"To put it simply, Konoha possesses overwhelming military strength, but we choose economic and cultural victory instead!", Hashirama spoke calmly.
Having inherited Arisu's thinking, Hashirama excelled at controlling other villages through economics and culture.
Using force was too crude. Economic sanctions were the better route.
But very quickly, Uchiha Madara voiced his opposition.
"Hashirama, you're too naive. That approach is far too slow."
"We can't give those people time to develop!"
"I believe we should immediately issue ultimatums to every nation and ninja village. Either they join Konoha, or we conquer them!", Madara declared.
"Madara, war only creates suffering. There are better methods."
Hashirama frowned as he tried to persuade him gently.
At that moment, Senju Tobirama also spoke up.
"I support Advisor Madara's proposal! I, Senju Tobirama, also believe we should fight!"
"The ninja world will inevitably become unified eventually. Just like the Land of Fire itself, which once suffered constant warfare before becoming united. Over time, disorder always moves toward order."
"If we don't fight now, future generations will. Since we're strongest now, we should strike!"
Tobirama looked calmly at Hashirama as he spoke.
Hearing Tobirama agree with him, Madara gave him an approving glance.
At this point, because Tobirama and Madara shared similar ideals, and because Izuna was still alive, the relationship between the two was actually fairly harmonious.
"Hashirama, even your brother thinks we should fight. Stop being stubborn."
Madara said, "I disagree with going to war."
Suddenly, Izuna voiced his opposition.
Madara froze in surprise and stared at Izuna in astonishment.
The others were equally shocked. None of them expected Izuna, whose presence among the four had always been the weakest, to suddenly step forward.
"Everyone, let me make this clear. Present-day Konoha does not desire war."
"I'm responsible for Konoha's ninja academy and grassroots affairs."
"A month ago, I conducted a survey. The question was, If Konoha launched a unification war, would you be willing to fight for Konoha on the battlefield?"
"The result was that most people said yes."
"But then I changed the wording of the question."
"I asked, Would you be willing for yourself, your family, your children, or your friends to go onto the battlefield?"
"And the result was that most people said no.", Holding the survey documents in hand, Uchiha Izuna spoke calmly and seriously.