CAlmost a week passed since Ryo's group return to Konoha from the Sand Village.
Three days after their return, news of the “big mess" that Ryo and Kushina made in the Sand Village were placed on the 3rd's desk, and the same information was also delivered to Danzo by Root at almost the same time.
The news caused the 3rd a headache. Now, he started regretting sending Ryo and Kushina to investigate the Rokubi's appearance.
Yes, the hidden risk of the Rokubi Jinchuriki was dealt with, but the Kyubi's full appearance in the Sand Village was definitely going to have a great impact.
At the same time, after discovering about the incident, Danzo began to secretly gather support from the various clans in Konoha to exert pressure on the 3rd.
Eventually, at a high-level meeting, the 3rd publicly announced that he was to step down from his position, and at the same time carry elections to determine the Fourth Hokage.
Kushina felt great guilt hearing this; she hated the fact that the 3rd had to resign because of her deeds. Ryo, however, was surprised by how things went so similarly to the original timeline.
In the Anime, the 3rd was also shown to retire at about the same time, but for different reasons: it was related to the great losses the village had to endure during the 3rd World War.
Now, it seemed to Ryo that the 3rd just used Danzo's faction's "pressure" as pretext to step down from his position.
That was indeed the case! After being Hokage for so many years, the 3rd eventually became tired. Konoha had great younger talents, many of them fitting to be the village’s Kage. He felt at ease passing down the Torch to any of them.
As soon as the news spread out, the entirety of Konoha was boiling.
The 3rd had been in power for many long years, and most of the Ninjas in the village still regarded him highly and respected him greatly.
With him announcing his resignation, the villagers in Konoha felt surprised and quite reluctant.
However, none of them had any intention to influence his decision. The next day, the 3rd announced the list of candidates for the position of Hokage.
He actually announced a total of five candidates. The 1st was the Sannin, Orochimaru. The 2nd was yet another Sannin, Jiraya. The third was Konoha's Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze. The fourth was Konoha's White Fang, Sakumo Hatake. And the final one was actually our protagonist: Ryo Yamanaka!
Ryo was shocked when finding out that he was proposed as candidate by the 3rd. He felt that his qualifications, prestige and age were not fitting to such a position in any way!
The biggest hero emerging the 3rd Shinobi World War was Minato. The one who had most prestige in the village was Orochimaru. How would someone like Ryo even compete against such people?
"He's probably just filling the list!" In the end, Ryo came to this conclusion.
On the first day of the elections, Ryo went to the 3rd Training Ground just as he did every day. However, the ever punctual Shisui was actually late!
Ryo waited for ten minutes before actually beginning to worry about his apprentice!
Just as he was about to enter Sage Mode in order to locate him, he saw him running towards him in excitement!
"Sensei, Sensei! Look at this!" Shisui quickly gave a leaflet to Ryo, who picked it up just to be shocked by what was upon it.
On this leaflet were the statistics of the votes for the five candidates. Seeing the top three was what frightened Ryo.
The 1st was Minato, the 2nd was Orochimaru, the 3rd was actually Ryo, the 4th was Sakumo and the 5th was Jiraya.
Moreover, the top 3 were only separated by only a few hundred votes. Ryo could not understand this; how would so many people support him? Could there be someone manipulating the results in the shadows?
But that truth was that many people did have complete support for Ryo!
While Minato was indeed Konoha's biggest hero in this war, the one involved with the most battles was actually Ryo.
Ryo had appeared in almost every battlefield. His strength left a deep impact on his fellow Ninjas.
Not only that, Ryo wasn't just a fighter on those battlefield, he was head of the Medical Team!
Ryo had saved the lives of countless Ninjas in the 3rd War. Most of those Ninjas actually chose to support him with their votes!
Ryo was not interested in the position of Hokage. His dream had always been standing at the top of the World of Shinobi, and that hadn't changed.
He felt that by becoming a Hokage, his utmost responsibility would become protecting the village at all times. All his future plans would have to be centered on the village's interests, which was too much responsibility for him.
"How troublsome!"
"Sensei, you don't seem to be very happy?! You're getting great support already on this 1st day! It is very likely that you will be the next Hokage!"
"That's the troublesome part! Shisui, today, train on your own! Your Sensei has something to do; I have to go at once!" Finishing his words, Ryo disappeared immediately.
In the Yamanaka district, Inoichi Yamanaka, Shikaku Nara and Choza Akimichi were setting down together, discussing the matter of the elections.
"I've expected the current situation. My only miscalculation was Ryo's support rate. That kid has managed to get so many supports!" Shikaku said with a smile.
"Well, that's true. It seems that this time, it's very likely for him to actually become the next Hokage!" Inoichi nodded in agreement.
Choza said nothing. This whole brainstorming thing was never his jam.
Just as the two were in mid discussion, Ryo entered. He wanted to meet Shikaku as soon as possible after leaving the 3rd Training Ground.
Hearing the conversion between the two, Ryo who was outside the door directly pushed his way in saying: "I don't want to be the Hokage!"
His words made the two stop talking for a while. Even Choza dropped the fruit from his hand and glanced at Ryo in shock.
"Ryo, you don't want to be the Hokage? Why?" After a few minutes, Inoichi broke the silence.
"Because being a Hokage was never my dream!"
"Your dream? What's that? Can you tell us?" Shikaku was intrigued by Ryo's answer.
"My dream is to stand at the top of this world as the strongest Shinobi there is!" Ryo's voice was not loud, but it was very firm.
The room became silent again. After quite some time, Shikaku asked again: "The strongest in the world, like the 1st Hokage?
"No. Beyond that, even beyond the Rikudo Sennin!"
“Beyond the Rikudo Sennin… that sounds good!” Choza's 1st words in the meeting were his expression of his support of Ryo's idea.
The other two looked at each other for quite some time, and then also agreed with Ryo.
After reaching a consensus, the atmosphere in Inoichi's house was much easier.
Shikaku felt a little bad about Ryo giving up on such an opportunity, but Inoichi and Choza did not care.
"So, what do you plan on doing next? Should the clan directly announce your withdrawal from the elections?" Asked Inoichi.
"Well, yes, but not just yet! I've got a feeling that some people are even more eager to my withdrawal" Ryo said with a smile.
Translator Note: Hey there, J_Otaku here. I hope you like the story so far and are happy with the releases, I just posted chapter 234 in Patreon! If you're interested in supporting me and reading more chapters, feel free to join us there ^^