"The selection ceremony for the Fourth Hokage officially begins now."
"Next, we will introduce the outstanding Hidden Leaf Village shinobi qualified to participate in the Fourth Hokage election."
"The first candidate: the head of the Inuzuka Clan, Inuzuka Ryoha. He has fought in both the Second and Third Shinobi Wars, making tremendous contributions to Hidden Leaf Village in its conflicts with other villages. He is one of Konoha's finest talents."
Inuzuka Ryoha stepped forward and waved.
The crowd below burst into applause, especially members of the Inuzuka Clan and their business partners closely tied to Inuzuka Logistics.
"The second candidate: Hyūga Hiyasu, a leading young figure of the Hyūga Clan. He has participated in both the Second and Third Shinobi Wars and rendered great service to Hidden Leaf Village."
Hyūga Hiyasu stepped forward and waved.
The applause below was just as thunderous.
Members of the Hyūga Clan clapped especially hard, particularly the retired former clan head.
"Our clan will be honored, truly honored. At last, someone from the Hyūga Clan has a real chance to become Hokage. After so many days of negotiations, most of the ninja clans should vote for Hiyasu."
The old Hyūga clan head stared intently at the dozen or so leaders of smaller and mid-sized clans sitting diagonally behind him.
His meaning was clear:
"We've given what needed to be given. You'd better know what's good for you."
Those clan leaders responded with reassuring looks.
After all, no one from the Senju Clan was running. Whoever offered more would get their vote—no pressure at all.
"The third candidate: Namikaze Minato, disciple of one of the Three Sannin, Jiraiya. Known throughout the ninja world as the 'Yellow Flash,' he fought in the Second Shinobi War and rose to great fame in the Third. In a single day, he moved across three battlefields, leading troops to repel attacks from the Hidden Cloud Village, Hidden Mist Village, and Hidden Sand Village. This is Konoha's future!!!"
The host shouted himself hoarse with enthusiasm.
Minato looked a bit embarrassed, but still stepped forward with a bright, sunny smile and greeted the crowd.
Applause followed, mixed with murmurs of discussion.
"I know that kid—he delivered food to me before."
"Oh right, he's that delivery guy!"
"I've seen him."
"Me too."
"No wonder the 'Yellow Flash' delivery shop was closed today—turns out he's running for Hokage. That delivery guy is seriously something."
...
"Finally, the pillar of Hidden Leaf Village. During the Second Shinobi War, he fought alongside Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-sama against the Rain Village forces led by the 'Demigod of the Shinobi World,' Hanzo, achieving an epic victory for Konoha with zero casualties. In the Third Shinobi War, he led forces alone against Hanzo, laying the foundation for Konoha's ultimate victory. Now, let us welcome with the warmest applause—Orochimaru!"
Inuzuka Ryoha, Hyūga Hiyasu: Hey, hey, we tolerated how you introduced Minato, but isn't this too much? And wasn't that zero-casualty battle in the Land of Rain commanded by Aburame Shiken and Nara Shikaku together? How can you just take all the credit?
Orochimaru, however, didn't seem to care.
Right now, he was thinking: should I dissect that bloodline ninja corpse I got yesterday… today, or tomorrow?
After stepping forward and giving a brief wave, the host announced:
"Voting begins now. Each person has one vote, but that vote may select two candidates simultaneously. The one with the highest number of votes will become the Fourth Hokage. The runner-up will automatically become the captain of the Hokage Guard, responsible for the Hokage's personal safety."
Hiruzen Sarutobi: Haha, with one vote there's little room to maneuver, but with two votes? Plenty of flexibility. Sixty thousand ballots all marked for Orochimaru and Namikaze Minato—I'd like to see how we could possibly lose.
The planners, the host, the vote counters—they're all my people. Tell me, how could we lose?
Not to mention, many of the voters are also on my side.
To prevent the clans from analyzing handwriting, the ballots were designed as fill-in dots.
A foolproof setup.
Orochimaru will become the Fourth Hokage, and Minato will smoothly enter the training pipeline for the Fifth Hokage.
Hidden Leaf Village will continue along the correct path I, Hiruzen Sarutobi, have laid out.
Seeing the voting nearing its end,
Hiruzen quickly shot a glance at Mitokado Homura.
Time to act.
The vote counters exchanged looks—these were the ones in on it.
As the ballot count approached sixty thousand, a small hole suddenly opened inside the ballot box. The ballots inside instantly dropped through it before it snapped shut again.
One of the workers then quietly mixed in a batch of pre-prepared fake ballots.
Flawless.
...
Underground,
Aburame Shiken's true body—currently replacing his own heart—watched the scene through a projection insect, clearly stunned.
What is this?
Wasn't this supposed to be a democratic vote?
Why are they doing this kind of thing?
He shook his head.
"So-called democracy… it's all just manipulation behind the scenes. If a clan wants to survive and thrive, it needs to stay far away from this filth."
What he witnessed only strengthened his resolve to transform the Aburame Clan.
Being a shinobi is a dead end.
At the same time, he looked at the writhing artificial heart in his hand, formed from blood-supply insects bound together with senjutsu chakra.
"This still needs improvement. This method is too outdated."
...
The voting continued from morning until night.
Minato even took the opportunity to handle quite a few delivery orders.
Some people didn't want to go home.
Some didn't want to miss the announcement of the Fourth Hokage.
So they chose to wait quietly near the Hokage building.
Minato saw it and thought: business opportunity.
There wasn't much for him to do up there anyway.
He didn't think he had much of a chance in this election.
Orochimaru-sama had far more experience, and both Ryoha and Hiyasu had greater achievements.
He might as well take the chance to earn more money.
He'd heard from many seniors who were already married:
Before marriage, you never run out of money.
After marriage, you never have enough.
Better start saving now.
A good man of the ninja world had sworn to give Kushina a happy married life.
"Now we begin counting the votes."
"Inuzuka Ryoha, Namikaze Minato."
"Orochimaru, Namikaze Minato."
"Orochimaru, Namikaze Minato."
"Hyūga Hiyasu, Namikaze Minato."
"Inuzuka Ryoha, Namikaze Minato."
"Orochimaru, Namikaze Minato."
...
Then came a huge wave—
Orochimaru and Namikaze Minato.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was initially pleased, but once the count passed halfway, everyone listening to the tally began to look uneasy.
The old Hyūga clan head, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Mitokado Homura, and Utatane Koharu all looked especially grim.
Something was wrong.
Every ballot followed the same pattern:
No matter who was listed first, the second name was always Namikaze Minato.
A truly random first pick… and always Namikaze Minato second.
Aburame Shiken, Inuzuka Ryoha, Hyūga Hiyasu, Uchiha Kamito: We didn't even help him, and he can still become Hokage? That's ridiculous. Hiruzen Sarutobi, didn't you rig this?
Hiruzen Sarutobi: Don't ask me—I have no idea either.
Konoha villagers voting: The first choice should definitely be the most suitable person. But the second choice usually isn't that important, right? Let's just pick that delivery guy. He's pretty nice—always fast, polite, and quite handsome. Ah, I shouldn't think too much about it, or I might end up picking him as my first choice too.
Because of a major loophole in Hiruzen Sarutobi's plan—there was no distinction between first and second choices—the final tally could only count total selections.
"Congratulations—Namikaze Minato has become the Fourth Hokage."
Namikaze Minato: ??? I haven't even finished delivering this order yet.