51. Will of Youth

Itachi's eyes widened as Kakashi aimed his hand at Hiruzen, who was standing on the podium.

Before he could stop the madman, Kakashi started molding his chakra and forming a Rasengan.

Itachi quickly activated his Sharingan. "Wait!" he tried to say as he watched in slow motion, fire chakra enveloping the Rasengan and transforming it into a crossbow-like shape.

This all happened within a second, so Itachi had no way to physically reach Kakashi to stop him from releasing the jutsu. But even if he had reached him, he wouldn't have done anything to harm him.

The adult ninjas and more experienced ones, who were Jounin or above, sensed a massive amount of chakra coalescing in one corner and became immediately tense.

However, before they could turn their heads to locate the source of the chakra, the jutsu fired and sped toward Hiruzen with lightning speed.

The experienced ones caught a red streak from the corners of their eyes, aiming for the podium.

Hiruzen, who had already sensed a massive amount of chakra being used in a jutsu, immediately started molding his chakra. He ran through all possible scenarios and jutsus he might need to minimize casualties.

This all happened in less than a second in his mind.

'Who dares attack me when more than half the council, including Elite Jounin and one other S-rank besides me, are present?' Hiruzen thought as he turned his eyes toward the source while weaving hand seals for a water-based jutsu, sensing fire chakra.

His eyes widened as he identified the S-rank ninja he thought would handle the attacker was, in fact, the attacker himself.

Had Hiruzen been given one more second, he might have deduced it was Kakashi by his chakra alone. But in this case, he saw Kakashi before fully sensing his chakra, so he initially didn't know it was him.

Hiruzen changed his hand seals mid-way upon seeing the jutsu.

Despite Kakashi having a head start in forming the fire-based jutsu, Hiruzen wasn't called the "Professor" for nothing.

'A fire transformation of Rasengan? No, it's a pseudo one; otherwise, I would have felt its heat from here,' Hiruzen instantly deduced.

Kakashi had aimed the jutsu in a parabola, clearly sane enough to avoid harming the children nearby if Hiruzen countered.

Hiruzen released a fire jutsu of his own, which traveled in a straight line, directly colliding with Kakashi's jutsu mid-trajectory.

Kakashi's eyes widened as he saw the counter. 'Damn that old geezer; he copied my jutsu despite its speed.' He noticed Hiruzen's fire jutsu, shaped similarly and traveling with the same speed, collide with his own.

The impact of the collision dissipated after a few meters, as Kakashi had designed it to ensure no harm came to the students.

To be fair, even for Hiruzen, copying an A-rank jutsu this quickly would usually be impossible. However, his experience experimenting with nature transformation on Rasengan allowed him to instantly replicate it.

Freshmen, bored of Hiruzen's speech that initially excited them, regained interest upon seeing the old man perform a fire jutsu at lightning speed.

Most didn't register what Hiruzen had done until they looked up and heard the explosion.

Naruto and Sasuke, who had been arguing and getting physical, paused their fight upon sensing the collision of two massive chakra constructs.

Having frequently been near Elite Jounin sparring, they were naturally sensitive to such events.

Itachi, standing near Kakashi, felt a lot of eyes on him.

He broke into a cold sweat as he sensed the killing intent of the Elite Jounin present, many of whom were clan heads attending the ceremony with their children.

They did not take kindly to a stunt that could have endangered their kids.

"Nii-san, I think you're in trouble," Itachi awkwardly said.

Receiving no reply, Itachi shifted his gaze to where Kakashi had been standing.

Three-Tomoe Sharingan met empty air.

'Fuck, he ditched me,' Itachi internally cursed.

Every Elite Jounin had noticed Kakashi entering the field and standing in that position, so Itachi wasn't accused of the act.

They knew Kakashi was an S-rank, but this jutsu solidified that reputation in their minds. Many were even impressed by Hiruzen's quick copying of the jutsu.

At first, they suspected this might have been planned. But recalling Kakashi's reputation and previous encounters, they dismissed the idea.

The kids, meanwhile, were thrilled. Some had doubted the old man's claim as the strongest ninja in the village, but now they looked at Hiruzen with newfound reverence.

Hiruzen, ever the schemer, capitalized on the moment to promote his Will of Fire.

Using fire for the jutsu only added to the effect.

"Did Itachi-nii actually use that jutsu?" Naruto asked, looking at Itachi's stoic expression.

He didn't realize Itachi was sweating bullets.

"Nah, Kakashi was standing with him. I don't think Nii-chan's at a level to release such a high-level jutsu," Sasuke said, dismissing the idea.

If Itachi had learned such a jutsu, their father would've gloated about it during dinner.

"Woah, Kakashi-nii-chan can use such awesome jutsu? Did you see the old man use a similar jutsu to counter it?" Naruto said, stars in his eyes.

At least this stopped their fighting for the moment.

A few days later:

A council meeting was called, attended by all the clan leaders and advisors of Konoha.

"Didn't we have a meeting last month? Isn't it too soon to call another one?" Tsume Inuzuka, head of the dog clan, asked.

Others in the room shared the same thought.

"It's time to select the next Hokage," Hiruzen announced, dropping a bombshell.

While they'd expected this sooner or later, the suddenness of it, without prior notice, caught them off guard.

"Very well. Recently, new S-ranks have emerged, giving us plenty of options," Homura said.

"The candidates among the S-ranks are Jiraiya, Tsunade, Kakashi, Miyuki, Yukio... and Might Guy," Koharu said, hesitating over the last two names.

"I think it's wise to eliminate Might Guy from the list. I doubt he's interested in leading the village, and... he's quite eccentric," Shikaku said carefully.

For a moment, everyone imagined Guy as Hokage, replacing the Will of Fire with the Will of Youth.

They unanimously agreed to rule him out.

Danzo gritted his teeth. As long as Hiruzen lived, he'd never have a chance to become Hokage.

He had to delay the decision or discredit the other candidates.

"Tsunade has been away from the village for too long. I believe she's unfit to be Hokage," he argued.

No one objected, as this was true, and there were plenty of other options.

"Jiraiya has already declined the position," Hiruzen added.

"So, we have Kakashi, Miyuki, and Yukio to choose from," Choja said.

"Yukio has also declined," Hiruzen informed.

Everyone sighed in relief.

If Yukio had vied for the post, they would have felt coerced into supporting him. His antics during Minato's reign were still fresh in their minds.

Even Danzo had been powerless during that time.

"So, Miyuki or Kakashi?" someone asked.

Everyone's eyes widened as they realized both had close ties to Yukio. Their leadership might mirror Minato's tenure, during which Yukio wasn't even a Jounin, yet caused the council so many headaches.

Now, as an S-rank, nobody wanted to imagine how Yukio might "convince" them to follow the Hokage's decisions.

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A/n- Elite Jounin refer to A-rank

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