Aside from that, there was also the Uchiha Clan's support to consider.
Judging from what Kaede Kitahara had written in his diary, Uchiha Shisui was soone who could be brought over from the Hokage's position. Add Uchiha Itachi to the equation, and even soone as calculating as Uchiha Fugaku would have no choice but to stand on his side.
With backing from these top-tier fighters, Minato would be able to suppress the Advisory Council and truly claim the authority of the Hokage.
Only then could he carry out his ambitions, root out the darkness within Konoha, and change the village's future.
To prevent the tragedies of the future from ever happening again, he would climb step by step, steadily making his way to the top.
He would beco Hokage.
People might see him as warm and radiant, like a little sun who could brighten anyone's day, but he was not so indecisive saint. On the battlefield, he had never once hesitated to kill enemy shinobi.
The only ti he had ever wavered in this life was when faced with the impossible choice between his wife and his son.
But all of this hinged on one crucial condition.
He had to survive the Night of the Nine-Tails.
That elusive figure known as Uchiha Kenji had placed imnse pressure on him. Even though he had defeated him in the original tiline, the destruction caused that night had been irreversible. In the end, Minato had even paid with his life, and this was not so hypothetical scenario where a future Seventh Hokage's son would appear to save him.
Still, as the saying went, battles between shinobi were battles of information. Now that he knew such a possibility existed, there was no way he would remain unprepared.
When the ti ca, he would call Jiraiya back. He could also have the Third Hokage remain in the village to oversee everything.
That would give them three complete Kage-level fighters. Even if the opponent truly were Uchiha Madara, Minato believed they would still have a fighting chance.
Beyond that, he needed to further strengthen himself. Sage Mode was undoubtedly the best path forward.
Before the Third Great Ninja War broke out, he had to make a trip to Mount Myoboku and master its Sage Mode. With that, his chances in the coming war would increase significantly.
Because of all this, seeing that Hatake Kakashi had found his proper path in the future filled Minato with a sense of relief. Compared to the flashy "Konoha Technician," the second coming of the White Fang of Konoha suited Kakashi's future far better.
If Kakashi continued to grow, then even the next generation of Hokage would have a reliable candidate. In the foreseeable future, Konoha would only beco stronger.
Just then, new lines appeared in the diary.
[But if he really manages to make a breakthrough in Hatake swordsmanship, then there's no need to keep arguing over who the weakest Hokage in history is. It definitely won't be him, hahaha. Honestly, there's no point arguing about it anyway, because Mr. Fifty-Fifty is about to face the biggest rival of his Hokage career—the Eighth Hokage, Nara Shikamaru. Compared to Shikamaru, Kakashi actually looks pretty solid.
Co to think of it, Shikamaru and Kakashi were both transitional Hokage. When it ca ti to choose the Sixth Hokage, the most suitable candidate, Naruto, was still too young. His head was full of reckless charge-forward thinking, and he hadn't received any formal Hokage training at all. He didn't have the mindset for leadership yet and was better suited as a spearhead.
Later, when sothing happened to Naruto and Konoha needed to urgently select the Eighth Hokage, the next generation's Sarutobi Konohamaru wasn't strong enough. The one who was strong enough, Uzumaki Boruto, was forced to beco a missing-nin. Uchiha Sarada couldn't pass the political review, hahaha.
Honestly, that kid's pretty unlucky. Her ancestor Uchiha Madara attempted a rebellion and was suppressed. Her grandfather Uchiha Fugaku attempted a rebellion and died at the hands of her uncle, Uchiha Itachi. Her uncle beca a missing-nin, and her father, Uchiha Sasuke, also spent ti as a missing-nin. With that kind of background, there's no way she's passing a political review.
On top of that, she was the sa age as Uzumaki Boruto at the ti, still too young to take on the role. In the end, they picked Shikamaru.]
When Namikaze Minato finished reading, his brows drew together tightly, his expression turning grim.
The first thing that shocked him was how Konoha had already progressed to selecting an Eighth Hokage. The turnover was far too rapid. In just thirty or forty years, there had already been four new Hokage.
That ant, on average, each Hokage in the future wouldn't even serve ten years. In fact, if it weren't for the Third Hokage's unusually long tenure stretching the average, most Hokage hadn't held the position for very long at all.
Nara Shikamaru was soone Minato recognized. He had appeared in one of Kaede's diary videos, fighting alongside Kakashi against Kakuzu and Hidan. With sharp intellect, he had outmaneuvered Hidan—who relied purely on brute force and lacked any real strategy—and buried him alive in a deep pit.
Hidan might not have died. Because of whatever ability granted by that so-called Jashin, he would likely remain trapped underground, suffering eternally.
It was a perfect reflection of Minato's impression of the Nara Clan: brilliant minds, truly brilliant.
Minato himself had once worked with Nara Shikaku, soone of his own generation, and had personally experienced his ability to orchestrate battles. Their approaches to combat were entirely different, with Shikaku relying on high-level strategy.
The Nara Clan had always been known for producing intellectual prodigies, which was why they often served as the Hokage's assistants.
The Ino-Shika-Cho formation also maintained close ties with the Sarutobi Clan, so the Nara Clan typically held high-ranking positions. Even now, the jonin commander of Konoha was not one of the Legendary Sannin, nor Minato himself despite his rising fa, but the current head of the Nara Clan.
Still, Minato had never imagined that in the future, it would be Nara Shikamaru who beca the Eighth Hokage.
Did that an Konoha would once again face a shortage of talent?
What concerned him even more was the condition for Shikamaru's rise: sothing had happened to Naruto, the Seventh Hokage.
Minato had seen Naruto's future strength in that IF-line video. It had been displayed in full, far beyond anything Minato could have imagined—even as his father. Naruto had surpassed the limits of Kage-level entirely, reaching what Kaede's diary referred to as "Super Kage Level."
With power like that, how could anything possibly happen to him?
Who could pose a threat to soone like that?
Almost imdiately, Minato thought of the godlike race Kaede often ntioned—the Otsutsuki Clan.
Kaede's diary had once noted that Naruto had been overwhelmingly beaten by Otsutsuki Isshiki in the future. That IF-line video had also shown a seventeen-year-old Naruto at his peak fighting alongside Uchiha Sasuke against that bald man with a braid.
The aura emanating from all three of them had been sothing far beyond what ordinary humans could even comprehend.
As a father, Minato felt a surge of anxiety.
Even though he knew he couldn't help the future Naruto, the unease in his chest refused to fade.
At the very least, in this tiline—one that might already have diverged—he could not allow such a future to co to pass.
And then there was his grandson, Uzumaki Boruto.
How could he possibly beco a missing-nin? What did it an that he was forced into it?
Did sothing happen after Naruto's incident? Had so dark force within the village pushed him into that path?
Minato had heard of such things before, and the thought only deepened his worry and ignited a flicker of anger.
Normally gentle and easygoing, his expression darkened at the idea of his grandson being cast aside in the future.
—
"Sothing happens to Naruto in the future?"
Jiraiya froze.
He knew exactly how strong the future Seventh Hokage, Naruto, was. The video had shown it clearly—Naruto could even subdue the Nine-Tails with ease.
And yet, sothing still happened to him?
Who could possibly be his opponent?
Who in the entire shinobi world could pose a fatal threat to him?
The legendary Otsutsuki Clan?
Suddenly, Jiraiya realized sothing. He recalled the words spoken by the seventeen-year-old Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke in that IF-line video Kaede had shown earlier.
They had said that this was the Naruto era, not the Boruto era.
In Kaede's understanding, ti itself seed to be divided into the Naruto era and the Boruto era.
Seventeen-year-old Naruto was unquestionably the protagonist of the Naruto era, so why did it later beco the Boruto era?
As a writer himself—and a bestselling one at that—Jiraiya instinctively picked up on the implications behind those words.
"So in Kaede's view, these years are the Naruto era, where Naruto is the sole protagonist. But after that period passes, the world enters what he calls the Boruto era… and the protagonist shifts from Naruto to Boruto?"
Jiraiya muttered under his breath.
Looking at it from an author's perspective, everything began to make sense. Naruto was the na of the protagonist in Jiraiya's own novels, and later, that na had been given to Minato's child.
In Kaede's worldview, once a second-generation protagonist erged, the original one—even if he had saved the world—would have to step into the background.
And the way that transition happened… was through Naruto's downfall.
Naruto encountered sothing, and his son, Uzumaki Boruto, was forced to beco a missing-nin.
So what exactly had happened in the future?
Jiraiya flipped back through the earlier diary entries and found the section ntioning Uzumaki Boruto.
It read:
"Standing before you now is Killing Intent Naruto, No-Pretense Sasuke, Go-Ho Minato, Intel Jiraiya, Healthy Itachi, Experienced Kaguya, Itachi's bounty notice, pain beyond Pain, Naruto's Talk Release, combined with Sasuke's temperant, Naruto's appearance, and Kakashi's composure—the ultimate villain, Otsutsuki Boruto!"
Among those lines was one detail that suddenly stood out—Itachi's bounty notice.
At the ti, Jiraiya had found it odd. Why bring up a bounty notice for Uchiha Itachi out of nowhere?
Now, the answer was clear.
The clues had been there all along.
Every seemingly offhand remark in Kaede's diary carried enormous amounts of information.
Only now, looking back, did Jiraiya truly grasp the seriousness of it.
Kaede had already hinted long ago that Uzumaki Boruto would be hunted as a missing-nin.
Jiraiya had simply overlooked it.
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