Naruto : Monsters: Chapter 70

"He grows weary faster with each passing year, and his skill in combat has noticeably blunted. Another few years, a decade at most, and he would no longer be fit to lead the Leaf. Which is why we have already begun making preparations for when that day comes."

...

It was like having a bucket of ice-cold water poured down my spine as I understood where the conversation was going, and I jolted upright in my seat.

Wait-wait-wait-wait! Don't tell me-

"…you want to make me Hokage?" I asked, incredulity straining my voice.

These guys, just like they had planned with Itachi, they were planning to do the same with me.

'Were they freaking insane!?' I roared silently in my mind. 'What part of me looks like Hokage material? Did hey have even the slightest clue on what a dangerously stupid idea this was? I'd be a horrible Hokage and I sure as fuck didn't want to be one.'

Thankfully Danzo was quick to put that fear to rest.

"No." He said, and I got the impression that had I been dealing with anyone else he would have laughed, but the only reaction I received from Danzo was a microscopic lifting of his lips, "You are not suited to become Hokage."

Danzo turned in his seat to look out the window set in the far wall, the one that offered a glimpse of the Hokage Monument. "A Hokage is more than just strength, more than a skilled killer with a cunning mind. 

A Hokage must be more, strong in a way that the word 'strong' simply cannot convey. If the village is like the leaves of a tree, bathing in the sunlight, then the Hokage is the fire – the sun that shines down that light. Irrelevant to whatever power they possess, they manage to bring about miracles that no one else could through the force of their character alone. And people like us, who hide behind masks and lies, cannot hope to replace them."

Danzo kept staring through the window for a moment longer, "We already have three potential Hokage candidates to choose from, one of them even happens to be a member of your generation, but you are not among them." He said before turning back to look at me. "And let us face facts, someone as cold-hearted as you would make a terrible Hokage."

I cannot begin to tell how little that means to me when coming from you.

I, however, had more than enough wits about me to realise what a bad idea it would be to express that thought out loud and instead said, "So if you don't want me to become Hokage then what do you want?"

"Just because you lack the qualifications to become Hokage does not mean I do not have another role for you to fill. The Hokage cannot be everywhere nor do everything. Just as the leaves need to be bathed in the light, so do the roots need to be tended to. 

But fire cannot cast a shadow, they can only shine. And it is there in the dark, buried beneath the earth, where the roots that support the tree grow, a place where no light belongs, and only shadows remain. And so the Hokage needs a shadow - to tend to the roots, to go where the light cannot and sully his hands so the light will remain pure. So no, Hyuuga Hikaru, you are not meant to be Hiruzen's successor, but Hiruzen is not the only growing old."

Wait, he can't mean-

..oh God, please God no. I'm not supposed Sarutobi's successor, I'm-

"Yours," I said, feeling my entire body go numb. "You don't want me to become the Hokage's successor, you want me to be yours."

They wanted me to become the next Danzo.

This time Danzo did smile, and it was a dark thing.

Oh no! No-no-no, and Hell no! Over my dead body!

"Why me?" I asked, desperately stalling for time as my mind raced for a way out of this. "Even if I am qualified, I have no reason to support the Hokage more than anyone else. Less so, you read my psych elevations, I'm even less suited to becoming your successor than I am the Hokage's. You should understand better than anyone that even should I ever inherit your role, it would be meaningless as I wouldn't have a reason to be loyal to the Hokage."

Normally even hinting that you might not be completely loyal to your Village and its leader would be sacrileges, especially in front of this man, but this was far from normal circumstances.

"Are you quite certain of that?" Danzo asked lightly, "You may find it in yourself to show more loyalty than you give yourself credit for."

Having had more than enough of the cryptic comments and obscure hints, I ignored his latest statement and cut straight to the bone of the conversation.

"My father has already rejected your offer to have me trained." I pointed out. "And without his explicit permission, you have no authority to take over my training, not unless you somehow manage to get me to agree." Which I sure as hell wasn't about to do. I was the first to admit that I might have had a few screws loose, but even I wasn't that crazy. "And unless you're here to force me to train under you against both of our wishes-"

Which I didn't think was the case as that seemed to be an especially stupid thing to do. He may have been Danzo but even he couldn't abduct a Clan's Heir without repercussions.

"-then I see no reason for you coming here tonight."

Whatever response I expected from Danzo my denial, he didn't show it.

Instead, he just watched me calmly with his one eye, as if he had expected nothing else from me, and suddenly I was overcome with the sensation of a trap closing around me.

"Do you think me so crass as to resort to force, or foolish enough to expect to work? What point is there in an unwilling successor? No, if I do not have your loyalty then there would be no point in having you. I have no use in an heir that would betray me or abandon his duty the first time he got the chance to. Which is why it is quite fortunate that I managed to get a hold of a far more effective method to secure your loyalty."

"Which is?" I prompted, my body tense, ready to bolt.

"The truth." He answered, surprising me. "Shinobi are trained to be ever secretive, to use lies like tools and hoard the truth like the priceless treasures that they are. But there are times when you need to spend that treasure to achieve the result you want. 

And there are instances where you can win over a man's loyalty by doing nothing more than telling him the honest unadulterated truth; such is the case with our current predicament. I believe I have already told you that a candidate your age has already been selected. Would you venture to guess who it may be? It shouldn't be too hard, you two are rather close after all."

I frowned, unable to understand what he was implying. "What are you-"

-We already have three potential Hokage candidates to choose from, one of them even happens to be a member of your generation-

Like a bucket of water, the truth washed over me.

"Naruto," I answered, knowing I was correct as soon as the name left my lips. "You want Naruto to become the Hokage."

To my horror, Danzo only nodded. "That is correct. Uzumaki Naruto is a candidate for the position of the Fifth and Sixth Hokage."

That's right, I had forgotten.

This wasn't like in the show; Naruto wasn't the dead last anymore. She was the top of her class, a first-class kunoichi and Jinchuuriki to boot. Then there were other factors; the blood of the Uzumaki, the sole child of the Fourth Hokage, her insane amount of chakra along with her healing factor – she was all but destined to become one of the most powerful ninjas the Leaf had ever produced.

And then there were the more political factors to consider. She would one day become the head of the Uzumaki Clan – something that had little value in the practical sense, but had more than a little sway in the political field when you took her Clan's history into account – and she also had a strong link with Hyuuga Clan, which had become the most powerful Clan in the village since the fall of the Uchiha and Senju. 

She was close to all of the Hyuuga Clan Head's children, especially his heir, practically adopted by the Clan's matriarch and was all but raised in their compound. This gave her very strong links to Konoha and a reason to be loyal to the village she called home.

And they had even given her to Kakashi to train – a person who himself was probably one of the three candidates to becoming Hokage. So even in the event that Kakashi became the Fifth instead of her, all it would do was give her a better claim to becoming the Sixth.

All in all, it made her a near-perfect candidate.

And like Sarutobi had Danzo, Naruto had me.

It was history repeating itself.

Similar to Naruto and me, Hiruzen Sarutobi and Shimura Danzo had once been teammates and both were the personal students to the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama. The same Tobirama who had aided his brother Hashirama in founding the Leaf and led it to even further prosperity after his brother's passing.

But while Tobirama had been cunning and an excellent Hokage, he was no Hashirama. He lacked the innate charisma, the natural charm his brother seemed to exude that made men flock to him by the thousands, all ready to swear their everlasting loyalty. 

Tobirama could think of plans within plans, outsmart opponents in the political arena just as easily as in the battlefield, and invent Jutsu had even the Uzumaki look on with awe but despite the Leaf flourishing under his rule even more than it had ever done under his brother's, he could not make men love him like they had loved Hashirama.

He had understood that, like the spirit of men, the Will of Fire needed to be fed with more than just wealth or prosperity. It needed Ideals.

It was for this purpose that he had personally trained two students to succeed him rather than just one. One charismatic and beloved, while the other cunning and efficient. He had raised them to be like brothers, to share a relationship similar to the one he held with his own sibling and trained them to work in unison as a single unit.

It was Tobirama who had founded the Root long ago; while his brother had ruled the Leaf as the Hokage, he commanded the Root as its commander. 

And when the time came for him to pass on, he had given command of the organization he had founded to Danzo, the student who was most similar to him, while he appointed Sarutobi as the Hokage, the student who in many ways had reminded him of his lost brother.

Two successors – one to stand in the light while the other in the dark.

He had done this hoping to capture the same synergy, the same chemistry that made his brother and him such a dangerous pair, capable of rewriting the history of the Elemental Nations when they both stood together.

Just as two brothers working together had given birth to the Leaf, so too shall two make it flourish.

In that sense he had succeeded – Konoha had grown to the most prosperous Hidden Village in the Elemental Nations. Even after three wars followed by the Kyuubi attack, Konoha managed to retain its hold as the strongest Hidden Village.

By the looks of things they planned to do the same again, only this time it will be Naruto and me filling their roles.

"You…" For once I found myself completely speechless, my mind unable to form a single cohesive thought and I was left gawking at the man with what might have been a mix of incredulity and reluctant awe.

How long had they been planning this?

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