Chapter 80: I Am the Hokage
With chakra empowering his voice, Yuu's calm words echoed in every direction.
Hearing him, the surrounding Uchiha clansmen fell silent for a brief moment.
Then a thunderous wave of cheers erupted.
"Kei! Kei!"
"Long live the Clan Head!"
Shout after shout rang out without end.
The young members of the Uchiha Clan looked toward the figure standing on the high platform, their faces filled with fervent excitement.
In their eyes, only that one person remained.
As for Kawaaki, he had long since been pushed to the back of their minds.
Even the few clan members who had originally supported Kawaaki could only sigh at the sight before them, and in the end, they chose to support this new leader of the Uchiha Clan.
Regardless of the past, now that Kei's had become the Clan Head, he represented the entire Uchiha Clan.
Whether for the clan's collective interests or for personal reasons, they had no choice but to support Kei.
This was their only path.
On this day, under the witness and support of many clansmen, Kei officially became the leader of the Uchiha Clan.
The former Clan Head, Kawaaki, was appointed as a clan elder and tasked with assisting Kei in handling daily clan affairs.
And this also meant that one of the major candidates in the Hokage election had effectively withdrawn.
Most people were pleased by this news.
Compared to Kawaaki's earlier performance, Kei's conduct inspired far more trust.
Most people were willing to believe that if Kei came to power, Konoha would remain stable and avoid turmoil.
Of course, there were naturally people who were unhappy with this outcome.
"For it to end up like this..."
Inside the Shimura Clan compound, Danzo quickly received the news.
Even now, he found it difficult to believe.
"Kei... he actually became the leader of the Uchiha Clan so easily?"
His mind was still in a daze.
Just earlier, he had been plotting how to use the Uchiha Clan to clash with Kei and make both sides exhaust each other.
Yet in the blink of an eye, Kei's had defeated Kawaaki and become the new leader of the Uchiha Clan.
The two forces Danzo had feared the most had now merged directly into one.
How was he supposed to fight that?
A sense of despair rose in Danzo's heart.
His strength and prestige had already been inferior to Kei's.
Now that Kei had become the head of the Uchiha Clan and inherited their influence, his position had only grown stronger.
What did Danzo even have left to compete with him?
Not long after, more news arrived.
Every piece of it was bad news for Danzo.
Word came from the Senju Clan that Kei would take Nawaki Senju, the grandson of the First Hokage and Tsunade's younger brother, as his disciple.
This undoubtedly represented an even closer tie between the Senju Clan and Kei, and it also signaled the Senju Clan's personal endorsement of him.
After that news spread, the Ino Shika Cho clans, who had still been hesitating, made their position clear without any delay and publicly declared that they would support Kei in the Hokage election.
As for the clans represented by people like Koharu and Homura, there was no need to mention them. They had supported him from the very beginning.
Even the Sarutobi Clan, which had always maintained a decent relationship with Danzo and was the clan of his friend Hiruzen, publicly declared their support for Kei.
The reason was obvious.
Hiruzen was indeed Danzo's friend, but at the same time, he was Kei's teacher.
One side was a friend of the clan head.
The other was the clan head's only true successor.
It was obvious which relationship was closer.
Even before this, the Sarutobi Clan had already leaned more toward Kei. Now that Kei held an even greater advantage, their choice became even more natural.
Looking across Konoha's strongest clans, the Senju, Uchiha, Hyuga, and Sarutobi, three had now openly expressed support for Kei.
Only the Hyuga Clan had yet to make a clear statement.
Danzo looked around and realized that aside from the Shimura Clan, he could not find a single reliable supporter.
Even if one ignored the influence of the ninja clans and looked only at civilian ninja and small clan ninja, Kei still held the advantage.
Compared to him, Danzo had no chance at all.
"Teacher..."
Standing there, Danzo could not help but smile bitterly as countless thoughts passed through his mind.
"Was this also something you foresaw long ago?"
"Fine..."
Now that things had developed to this point, he unexpectedly felt a sense of relief instead.
The gap between the two sides was so enormous that he no longer even had the desire to struggle.
He only had one thought left now.
He wanted to wait until the day of the Hokage vote.
He wanted to see exactly how many votes Kei would receive in the end.
Time passed slowly.
Soon, the day of the Jonin vote arrived.
On that day, several veteran Jonin with sufficient seniority served as vote counters, and Uzumaki Mito personally presided over the event, appearing in person at the venue.
"Let us begin."
She checked the time and announced the start of the voting.
One by one, the Jonin stepped forward with solemn expressions and cast their ballots.
Signed voting slips were placed into the boxes one after another.
In the blink of an eye, Kei vote count began to rise at a visible speed, surpassing one hundred votes in a short time.
On the other side, Danzo's vote count remained in the single digits and had not increased for a long while.
Soon, the final results were announced.
Kei received more than two hundred votes.
Danzo, meanwhile, received only nine.
The moment he saw the result, Danzo's face turned livid.
Nine votes...
The Shimura Clan was not a small clan, and there were also several ninja clans allied with them for many years.
The number of Jonin from those groups alone exceeded nine.
Nine votes meant that even within his own camp, some people had chosen to vote for Kei instead of him.
That result hurt him even more than watching Kei win.
But the results were already out, and in front of so many people, no matter what he felt, he could only accept it.
"It seems the result is clear."
At the front, Uzumaki Mito looked toward the ballot boxes and smiled.
In the next moment, under the surprised gazes of everyone present, she slowly stood up and, in full view of the crowd, cast her own vote into Kei's ballot box.
With the crisp sound of the ballot falling, everyone's minds blanked for an instant.
At that moment, they all understood that Kei's position as Hokage was now completely unshakable.
"Let us welcome our Third Hokage."
Uzumaki Mito personally stepped forward and draped the haori that symbolized the Hokage over Kei's shoulders.
From this moment onward, Konoha officially entered a brand new chapter.
Uchiha Kei formally became Konoha's Third Hokage.
"It is done, it really happened!"
Watching this scene, the Uchiha ninja could not help but feel exhilarated.
Even Setsuna, the representative of the radicals, was momentarily dazed.
"This is... our Uchiha Clan's Hokage..."
He looked at Kei wearing the Hokage haori, his heart pounding with excitement.
Not far away, Kagami, Homura, and the others were all smiling, pleased to see this outcome.
But for Kei, becoming Hokage was only the beginning.
The current Konoha was far from stable.
Externally, the ninja world had just gone through a Great Ninja War and was still far from peaceful.
Although most national conflicts were nearing an end, some fighting still remained, and another large scale war could break out at any time.
Internally, Konoha was also drained by the war. The major ninja clans had suffered heavy losses and urgently needed time to recover.
Taking power under such circumstances meant Kei had many things to deal with.
"The Daimyo has sent a letter congratulating you on becoming Hokage, Kei."
Inside the Hokage office, Kagami walked in and reported to Kei.
"In addition, the construction funds the Daimyo promised earlier have now arrived."
"I see."
Kei nodded.
"That is quite timely."
"Summon the representatives of the major ninja clans for me."
He looked at Kagami and spoke.
Kagami nodded and quickly left.
In a short while, representatives from the major ninja clans gathered.
"In this war, every ninja clan suffered heavy losses."
Kei looked at the people around him before speaking.
"I understand your hardships, so I plan to set aside a portion of the funds issued by the Daimyo this time and distribute it to you clan heads."
"You may arrange this sum however you see fit. The village will not interfere."
The moment they heard this, everyone present showed clear joy.
In this Great Ninja War, the major ninja clans had all suffered serious losses, and many clansmen had died in battle.
After all, this was not the future. The Ninja Academy had only existed for a few years, and civilian ninja had not yet become the main force of the village.
At present, Konoha's core fighting strength still came from the major ninja clans.
This also meant that in this Great Ninja War, the ones who suffered the heaviest casualties were precisely those same clans.
Of course, the village did provide pensions for ninja who died in battle.
But that did not mean the clans suffered no losses.
Many of the fallen ninja had been raised and trained using the resources of the entire clan. Once they died, not only were those investments effectively lost, but the clan also had to continue caring for their wives and children.
Only by doing so could the clan preserve its cohesion.
As for these hidden losses, the major ninja clans had originally been prepared to bear them.
After all, the ninja profession earned commissions by risking one's life. Dying on the battlefield was simply something they had to accept.
Compared to the older era of the warring clans, at least there were pensions now.
What they had not expected was that this newly appointed Third Hokage would be so considerate of their situation and provide additional compensation to the ninja clans.
That was undoubtedly a pleasant surprise.
Of course, Kei's decision to give subsidies was not purely out of kindness.
It was simply because he wanted the ninja clans under his command to recover their strength as quickly as possible.
At this stage, when civilian ninja had not yet fully risen to replace the ninja clans, maintaining the strength of the clans was still necessary if he wanted Konoha to function properly.
.....
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