Chapter 140 Hokage Tsunade
Time passed day by day, and more than three months had passed in the blink of an eye.

The Third Hokage and many Konoha ninjas who had been waiting for the return of Minato Namikaze gradually saw their anticipation turn into disappointment, and then from disappointment to despair.

Ninja is a very dangerous profession, and therefore, as long as the contact period exceeds ten days, it can be determined as missing. If it exceeds a month, it is basically either defection or death.

As the Hokage of Konoha, Minato Namikaze certainly could not defect, and he had not returned for three consecutive months, so the final result was naturally predictable.

The office of the Konoha Hokage was filled with smoke. The Third Hokage, who was temporarily stabilizing the village and handling affairs, was smoking his pipe, with a look of fatigue on his face.

The door opened and Tsunade walked in carelessly. She fanned the smoke with her hands and said:
"Old man, what do you want from me? Smoke less. How old are you? I don't want to have to give you first aid later."

The Third Hokage was silent for a moment, ignoring Tsunade's complaints, and said with a sigh:

"Minato has been missing for over three months..."

After hearing this, Tsunade's expression finally turned serious, and she spoke in a heavy voice:

"More than three months... The Fourth Hokage is a ninja who has mastered the ninjutsu of time and space. It is basically impossible for him to be trapped in a remote place. Even if it is far away, he can return to Konoha within a day..."

"He hasn't come back for such a long time... I'm afraid he's in danger!"

Sarutobi Hiruzen closed his eyes, a look of fatigue and pain appeared on his old face, and he opened his eyes after a moment:
"During this period, the three ninja villages of Kumogami, Mist, and Kotoigawa have all been very active. It seems that they have some ideas about Konoha..."

Tsunade frowned slightly:

"Although the Nine-Tails' rampage did not cause any casualties in Konoha, it made too much noise and it certainly could not be concealed. It is not surprising that the other ninja villages had some ideas."

"But they should also know my Wood Release, right? The power of Wood Release should be enough to suppress their ambitions."

The Third Hokage nodded slightly, but still couldn't help but speak:
"Even if Wood Release exists, there will definitely be tests from other ninja villages...especially the Mist and Rock Ninjas."

These two ninja villages suffered relatively little loss in the last Ninja World War, and it was entirely because of the deterrent power of the combination of Golden Flash and the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki that the war was finally stopped. Now that the Nine-Tails is out of control and the Golden Flash is missing, they naturally have the desire to test it.

They might not dare to start a war in the Ninja World. They might just be testing the waters, or they might want to take the opportunity to oppress Konoha to gain some benefits. If Minato Namikaze was still there, such a problem could naturally be easily blocked.

However, the most important thing is that Minato Namikaze has long disappeared and may even have met with an accident. Even with the Third Hokage coming out to take charge of the situation, the people of Konoha are still in panic and leaderless.

"Tsk... Trouble, it looks like they've confirmed Minato's missing."

"Then old man, why did you call me here today?"

The Kage of a village is already extremely eye-catching, not to mention after the Nine-Tails attacked Konoha. Logically, the Fourth Hokage should have appeared immediately to calm people and remain vigilant.

He hasn't appeared for three months, especially Minato Namikaze, who possesses space-time ninjutsu and is the fastest ninja in the ninja world. It is impossible for him to be unable to appear in two places at once.

Therefore, not only the Konoha Village, but other ninja villages have basically confirmed the news of Minato Namikaze's death.

"Now that Minato's affairs can no longer be concealed, the most important thing is to select another Hokage for Konoha, so that we can have the confidence to handle the relationship with other major ninja villages."

The Third Hokage tapped his pipe, looked up at Tsunade standing there, and whispered:
"And the person who is most suitable for the position of Hokage in Konoha right now is only you, Tsunade!"

Tsunade's face was calm, and she didn't show any annoyance, but she pondered for a moment:

"It's not a good idea to choose the Hokage so directly! After all, Minato's life or death has not been completely confirmed. What if Minato comes back?"

The Third Hokage seemed to have thought about this question a long time ago. Seeing that Tsunade did not object to succeeding Hokage, he looked relieved and continued:
"You will be the acting Hokage for three months first... If Minato hasn't returned in another three months, you will directly inherit the position of the Fifth Hokage!"

"If he doesn't come back in another three months, then Minato will have been missing for half a year. By then, everyone should have given up hope."

Hearing that the Third Hokage's arrangements were quite detailed and complete, Tsunade nodded. She knew, of course, that the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, had long been crushed to ashes and would never come back, so she was truly assured of being the Fifth Hokage.

Although Tsunade herself has no obsession with the position of Hokage, this is a task directly assigned to her by Uchiha Feiyu, and Tsunade herself certainly wants to become Hokage very much.

"In that case, let's do it according to your way, old man!"

"Well, I'll give instructions in a couple of days. Let's prepare for the nominations and the jonin voting. There aren't many ninjas in Konoha who can compete with you now, so this is probably just a matter of going through the motions."

"Once all of this is completed, you can go to the Fire Country Daimyo to ask for the appointment letter. The whole process will probably take more than a week."

"Is there anything I need to prepare?"

"It's nothing. The current Konoha Village is relatively stable. The main problem is the Uchiha."

"When Minato accepted Uchiha Obito as his apprentice, the Uchiha clan was much more stable... What a pity, in fact, Obito is not a bad kid, and he really has the potential to become Hokage."

Almost all the Hokage in history are from the same lineage. Many people even call the Hokage the master-disciple lineage. Being able to worship the Hokage as a teacher is one of the important conditions for becoming a Hokage.

Of course, in reality this should be said the other way around. After a person shows the potential to become a Kage-level ninja, the ninjas of the Hokage lineage will often want to take him in as a disciple in order to win him over. This is why there are so many geniuses in the lineage of Hokage masters and apprentices.

Just like it is not Tsinghua University and Peking University that produce geniuses, but geniuses who are admitted to Tsinghua University and Peking University, the essence of the entire ninja village is gathered, and the lineage of the Hokage's master and apprentice is of course full of geniuses. Uchiha Obito's talent was fully tapped after awakening the Mangekyō. He made rapid progress in a short period of time. Even without the Kamui Mangekyō, he has already approached the boundary of the Kage level.

The most important thing is that Uchiha Obito is completely different from ordinary Uchiha. He is a young man who grew up completely influenced by the will of fire!
In this case, there is really a slight possibility that Uchiha Obito will become Hokage - of course, first of all, Kakashi must not be willing to become Hokage, and secondly, there cannot be a ninja from the same lineage as Uchiha Obito whose strength is not much different from that of Hokage.

The possibility is very small, but for the Uchiha clan, this is already a huge progress. Even if Uchiha Obito cannot become Hokage, he can theoretically become a high-ranking official in Konoha.

No matter how close Uchiha Obito is to the Hokage lineage, he is still a member of the Uchiha clan. For the Uchiha clan, this is already a huge progress.

However, with the silent disappearance of Minato Namikaze, the hope of the Uchiha clan naturally vanished. Minato Namikaze's time as Hokage was too short, and he did not cultivate enough confidants, nor did he leave a profound impression.

Therefore, the label of Hokage on Uchiha Obito was naturally weakened a lot, and it can even be said that it had a negative effect.

If Minato Namikaze died again ten years later, Kakashi and Obito would definitely be qualified to be on the list of successors to the title of Hokage. Even if they did not become Hokage, they would become the backbone of the Hokage series and high-level members of Konoha.

Now...it will take at least another ten years for Tsunade to retire, and after a dozen years, Uchiha Obito would probably have been excluded from the core of Konoha.

After listening to the words of the Third Hokage, Tsunade touched her chin and sighed:
"That can't be helped... Isn't the real core factor of the Uchiha's instability caused by you, old man, and that guy Shimura Danzo?"

Upon hearing this, the Third Hokage's face darkened and he took a puff of his cigarette:

"Speaking of which, guarding against the Uchiha is a policy left by the Second Hokage, your second grandfather Tsunade!"

"It was through a series of studies on the Sharingan that Tobirama-sensei came to the conclusion that the Uchiha clan is extremely mentally unstable and that we must be on guard against them!"

So Tsunade had nothing to say, and finally could only sigh:
"That can't be helped... I don't want to take another Uchiha as my disciple!"

When he saw the Third Hokage's expression, he immediately knew what he wanted to say and blocked his request in advance.

So the Third Hokage could only smile bitterly:
"Are you really unwilling? In fact, there is indeed a good candidate in the Uchiha clan, who is the descendant of Uchiha Kagami."

"Uncle Jing? He is a descendant of his lineage... Then why don't you just take him in, old man? Uncle Jing is also your classmate, shouldn't you take care of the descendants of your old classmate?"

Uchiha Kagami was a disciple of Senju Tobirama, and also a fellow student of the Third Hokage. Tsunade was quite familiar with him when she was a child, but he died early. When Tsunade was about ten years old, there was no news about this Uchiha.

Speaking of which, the Uchiha clan is also unlucky. Occasionally, a ninja who is close to the Hokage system appears and has the hope of entering the upper echelons of Konoha, but some problems always arise. No one knows whether there is a mastermind behind the scenes or it is just fate.

After hearing Tsunade's words, the Third Hokage smiled bitterly and said:
"The Uchiha clan doesn't like me, the Third Hokage..."

"Alright, alright, I will find a way to solve the Uchiha clan's problem. At worst, I can find a female disciple to take in!"

"Uh……"

The Third Hokage opened his mouth, but thinking that Tsunade was a woman after all, and it was a bit taboo to have a male disciple, he finally kept silent.

After some discussion, the Third Hokage acted decisively and convened a meeting of jonin the next day and nominated Tsunade to be the Hokage.

In fact, in the current Konoha, there is no one who can compete with Tsunade for the position of Hokage. The troublemaker Danzo was killed by Feiyu long ago, Orochimaru defected, and Jiraiya left the village. Who else can be left in the village?
Apart from the old Third Hokage, the only remaining Kage-level strongmen in Konoha Village are Uchiha Fugaku and the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki Uzumaki Kushina who have been hiding themselves.

There is no need to talk about Kushina. It has only been three months since the Nine-Tails went berserk. Unless the memory of Konoha's Jonin has become that of a goldfish, there is no way they would choose such a big bomb as Hokage.

As for Uchiha Fugaku, firstly, he had always concealed his strength, showing only the strength of a quasi-kage level; secondly, as the head of the Uchiha clan, other ninja families and civilian ninjas did not want to have the head of such a big clan as Hokage.

Not to mention that Tsunade displayed the Wood Release Ninjutsu when the Nine-Tails went berserk. One must know that Wood Release has a very special meaning in Konoha. Combined with Tsunade's identity as the descendant of the Senju clan, it can be said that she is destined to be the one in terms of righteousness and strength.

After the Third Hokage was nominated, without even any voting or selection of other competitors, all the jonin raised their hands to agree that Tsunade would become the Hokage.

After that, they would go to the daimyo's mansion to report. Of course, this was just a formality and the daimyo of the Land of Fire would not object at all, because opposition would not have any effect.

The Hokage is only a subordinate of the daimyo in theory, and if there really were to be a falling out, Konoha would definitely not be the one to be afraid. Not to mention that Tsunade's fame among ordinary people is much greater than her fame among ninjas.

She is the best doctor in the world. No matter how powerful or wealthy someone is, they would never dare to offend a doctor of this level.

Therefore, Tsunade became Hokage at an incredibly fast speed. In less than a week, she was already wearing the Hokage hat.

Now he is just holding the title of acting Hokage, but now that almost all Konoha ninjas feel that Namikaze Minato will never come back, there is no difference between him and the official Hokage.

Three months later, Tsunade had almost inherited and sorted out the power of the previous Hokage - in fact, Minato Namikaze did not have much personal power at hand.

After all, Minato Namikaze is too young, unlike the three ninjas who have been working in the entire Konoha for decades and have gathered a group of forces at hand.

During the Ninja World War, because of the existence of the Flying Thunder God Jutsu, Namikaze Minato was not the kind of person who could sit in command, and even his subordinates and comrades were pitifully few.

This time, the Ninja World War lasted longer, which resulted in Minato Namikaze inheriting the position of Hokage in a shorter time, less than a year.

Without any foundation, Minato Namikaze was already busy and exhausted just trying to sort out the post-war situation in Konoha, and naturally did not develop his own personal power.

(End of this chapter)