In the Yamanaka clan's meeting room, the leaders of the Ino–Shika–Chō trio were closely following the Hokage election.
"These past three days have just been warm-ups. Starting tomorrow, the major clans will probably start stepping in, right?" Yamanaka Inoichi glanced at Nara Shikaku and asked.
"Probably," Shikaku replied absentmindedly.
His unusual demeanor caught Akimichi Chōza's attention. "Shikaku, is something bothering you?"
"Not really. I was just thinking about who we should support for Fourth Hokage."
"We fought side by side with Lord Orochimaru in the Land of Bears. Both emotionally and logically, we should support him, right?" said Inoichi.
"I think so too," Chōza agreed.
"What you say makes sense, but I still feel that the Hokage doesn't really want Lord Orochimaru to become the next Hokage," Shikaku remarked.
This caught both Inoichi and Chōza by surprise.
Shikaku looked at his two partners and explained, "Think about it. If the Hokage truly wanted Orochimaru to succeed him, he could've used his influence to eliminate Minato from the list of candidates.
Don't assume that just because Minato was a war hero in the Third Shinobi War, he had to be a candidate. The Hokage could've found a reason to assign him outside the village temporarily.
But he didn't do that. Whether for appearances or other reasons, it shows he isn't fully supporting Orochimaru."
After hearing this, both Inoichi and Chōza fell silent.
As the three debated, a Yamanaka chunin suddenly burst into the room in a flurry. "Clan head! Lord Shikaku, Lord Chōza—Lord Danzō is here to see you!"
The trio felt a headache coming. Things were getting complicated.
But since Danzō was a senior adviser to the Hokage, they couldn't just refuse him.
A few minutes later, in the Yamanaka clan's reception hall, the trio appeared together to meet him. Since it was their territory, Inoichi played the gracious host.
"Lord Danzō, it's been a while!"
"Likewise," Danzō replied curtly.
Once seated, Danzō got straight to the point: "Clan heads, I came to ask if the three of you would support Orochimaru in the Hokage election."
Danzō was fully prepared to pay a hefty political price, and given that he was facing Konoha's smartest man—Nara Shikaku—there was no need to beat around the bush.
Shikaku was stunned. He had assumed Danzō was here to solicit votes for Minato.
After all, Minato was a civilian ninja. It was extremely hard for non-clan shinobi to rise in Konoha. With no family resources or roots, a civilian Hokage was easily manipulated. From Danzō's perspective, helping Minato should've been the smarter move.
But instead, Danzō wanted their support for Orochimaru.
That was when Shikaku understood why the Third Hokage hadn't fully supported Orochimaru—because Orochimaru was already allied with Danzō.
With that realization, Shikaku was initially inclined to refuse, since the Ino–Shika–Chō trio had always stood with the Hokage.
But then he reconsidered. Given that they had fought alongside Orochimaru for so long in the Land of Bears, choosing him wouldn't be unjustified.
So Shikaku decided to take the opportunity to negotiate benefits for the trio. The Nara clan had income from medicine sales in addition to their shinobi salaries, but it wasn't enough to support all three clans.
He saw a chance to improve their financial situation: "Since Lord Danzō is being so forthright, let me be direct—we want our clans to be included in Konoha's medical system."
What followed was a long bargaining session, during which Inoichi and Chōza nearly fell asleep.
Eventually, a deal was struck: Danzō handed over the medical supply procurement rights of Konoha Hospital to the trio, and in return, they pledged support for Orochimaru.
Meanwhile, at Orochimaru's lab—
Ever since Hyuga Asana "disappeared" for three days, Uchiha Yuan had asked Orochimaru for his lab's address. This visit was prompted by the election.
In the original timeline, Orochimaru had allied with Danzō. Orochimaru wanted Hokage status to access more research resources, while Danzō wanted to control Konoha through him.
Even now, on the second day of the election, Danzō had again approached Orochimaru to propose cooperation.
However, the current Orochimaru was not the same. Thanks to his studies of Hyuga Asana's Byakugan and the White Zetsu body Uchiha Yuan had provided, he had enough research material.
He no longer needed Hokage resources and had little interest in a title that would interrupt his experiments.
That said, Danzō still held leverage over him, so Orochimaru couldn't outright refuse and agreed.
"Orochimaru-sama, do you still want to be Hokage?" Uchiha Yuan asked as Orochimaru dissected a Mist ninja's corpse.
"I had a little interest before. But now that I have what I need, I don't care who becomes Hokage.
If Danzō ends up placing the title on me, he can handle the village," Orochimaru replied dismissively.
Yuan frowned. Letting Danzō control the village was worse than letting Hiruzen continue ruling.
"You don't seem happy about that outcome," said Hyuga Asana as she sliced out the Mist ninja's heart.
"I'm not," Yuan admitted.
"Then you'll have to change it yourself," Orochimaru said as he took the heart.
Yuan sighed, watching the teacher-student duo lost in their experiments, then used teleportation to leave the lab.
Thanks to Danzō's efforts, most of Konoha's small and mid-tier clans supported Orochimaru.
The Aburame clan, due to Shibi Aburame's ties with Minato, supported him. A few small clans who'd received favors from Minato did the same.
For a time, Orochimaru surged ahead in votes.
Seeing this, the civilian ninja population mobilized to support Minato. Finally, a genius had emerged from among them, and they were determined to support their own.
There were more civilian ninja than clan ninja, but early on many had voted for Jiraiya, who was also a civilian. That vote split allowed Minato only to barely tie with Orochimaru.
Now, who would become the Fourth Hokage all came down to which major clans would choose whom.
(To Be Continued...)