So he never used the fear-based poison of the bat-clan near Konoha shinobi. Kagami, Kushina, Duy no one knew about it… unlike genjutsu which can be broken when someone was near a bat and was hit by a lethal dose of fear toxin. He would be in big trouble, even if he was medical nin.
Cause in mid-battle even one second of losing focus could be deadly. Honestly in these four years he had gone out of the village only twice and both of the times Kagami and Kushina was with him, so he honestly didn't know how his enemies would react to his bat's fear toxin.
When the bats started training him in their clan jutsues, Obito was randomly attacked by fear bats, and he had to build up a tolerance against it. He had the first-hand experience of how horrifying the gas was…
Not gonna lie, he shat his pants a couple of times. So he felt kinda bad for his enemies, mainly those who would want to fight close range with him.
Obito was actually sitting on his chair, white tables filled with ninja gear, gloves and other stuff that he was tweaking after fighting Minato.
Obito gained two notable abilities from the bat clan. The sonic scream and how to produce fear toxins out of his own chakra. The first jutsu being a derivative of wind release with the mix of yang release in it. While the other was a non-elemental jutsu.
Anyhow, the reason he was inside his bat cave was because of some of the flaws that he found out in his Fuinjutsu weapons. Some of the weapons were rarely used while others needed more tweaking. Fighting a speed-star like Minato cleared out a lot of things. He didn't need to be flashy… okay not that flashy. What he needed was practically.
As Obito was tweaking the seals on his gloves, he stopped and looked up. A few dozen bats came down in silence, forming his clone. And it had a scroll in its hand.
"It's done already?" He asked. "Something came up didn't it…"
The clone only nodded, throwing the scroll in towards him before scattering away. The scroll had a unique title, The Root Files, report 46.
"This month's reports came in early." Obito said, that only meant the bats found something noteworthy.
Bats being very good at hiding and spying, Obito had used them to sneak inside a few of Danzo and Orochimaru's laboratories and steal their research. The bats were no joke when it came to hiding, they did hide from not one but two Uzumaki jincchurikis without getting found out. But even with how good they were at hiding, they still needed time and rooms and places that had high level summoning in them needed to be hacked into manually by Obito. So it wasn't all that easy, when you consider some of the seals, if broken , could alert the roots, Danzo or even Orochimru.
But anyhow he started reading the files. And he sighed it was mostly about human experiments.
'It's disturbing that Hiruzen is allowing this kind of thing to happen behind his back.' Obito thought as he read the research papers. Human trials, Kinjutsu research… most of it was done on low-level bandits or thugs, but the trails on children bugged him quite a lot.
'Well, I can do nothing yet… But I will keep an eye on them… it's good that the bats can do a lot of spying work and not get caught. Even good sensors and Byakugan users are useless against their hiding skills… But then again, there are sealed rooms that they can't enter… and as far as I know, the bats didn't pick up any nature chakra from Orochimaru… so he's not training senjutsu yet… it will be tough keeping an eye on him after he learns that.'
After fully maturing his Sharingan with his unique breathing he could see Nature chakra in air, with his so called 'glitch vision'.
Obito had experimented on Jiraya with his bats, the toad sage was peeking in the woman's bath house then. And the moment one of his bats was in his range, Jiraya caught onto their signature, and he had to reverse summon the bat before it got caught.
And that was the only reason why the few rooms that had seals with senjutsu in it, like some of the Anbu quarters that were enhanced by Jiraya's or Minato's sealing, Obito made a note to avoid them. But it was good that Jiraya or Minato wasn't working with Danzo or the roots making it easier for Obito to send his bats to spy on them. Other than a few Uzumaki barriers and senjutsu sealing, Obito could pretty much bypass any security.
The only bat he knew of that could avoid any and all detection was the old grumpy one. She didn't even stay in the cave, most of time around Kushina, without her knowing. Guarding the fox seal. And she wasn't going to help anytime soon.
"Nightwing's not back yet…" he mumbled, in the darkness of the caves, bats hanging about on the ceiling of the cave, as he read the reports on experiments Danzo and Orochimaru were doing.
Honestly, after getting all of their research files doing any Keke Genkai research was easy for him. Of course, he was mostly trying to merge the dna of Senju and Uchiha. Why experiment on low-level clans, when you could get the golden stuff. Medical nin with sealing arts was a good way for that… but he wasn't going to get any further without human trails. It made his stomach twist a bit that he would need to do this stuff… but the researcher and shinobi in him said otherwise.
'Hmm, I shouldn't only focus on the two clans either… if there is no outsutsuki in this world that means other clan kekegenkai were just as useful. The Kaguya clan, Yuki clan, Stone's unnamed explosion clan… all of them are quite useful if they can be evolved to the next step like the Sharingan.' Obito thought. Another of his pet projects was to find out why some bloodlines evolved or mutated.
He had sent Nightwing away a few months ago, to the Valley of Hell in the Land of Hot Water. Odd name for a place, but he wanted someone with good spying skills sent there to keep an eye on the Chinoike Clan.
Obito had searched the Uchiha clan archives and got very little info on them. Madara's father was the one who had forced the Chinoike clan to take shelter in the harsh environment of Vally of Hell. Something to do with Land of Lightning daimyo and politics.
Anyhow the other red-eye ball clan, Ketsuryūgan was quite powerful. Being able to cast powerful genjutsu like the Sharingan and control iron in blood. In theory, you could even learn magnet release as that was related to iron. Magnet release wasn't fully inherent as one could learn it like the third Kazekage. There were even some theories that Ranmaru's Kekkei Genkai was the Ketsuryugan as well, but the anime changed things from the novel.
All in all quite the powerful eye. And what did they do with it, become a passive clan, and later get killed by Itachi 2.0 or for other whatever reason. Obito purely sent a few of his best bats to go there and collect data on that clan.
He wanted a few strongholds in the Naruto world. Not by accident, like how people will fall on their knees and beg them to be their leader. No, he wanted a few strongholds with powerful shinobis under him so that he could do stuff later on. To have freedom and power to change things.
Obito wanted to influence, and there was no way they would let an Uchiha be the Hokage right now. Neither did he want to… Itachi or even Shishui could have it.
Obito had quite a lot of plans, some didn't involve Konoha. After all, with Madara still being alive, it would do him better to be careful. He didn't know if the old man would kick the bucket or not, like the original.
'I also want a pair of Byakugan… to experiment with their abilities myself, but I can't just walk up to my neighbors and ask them for a pair… can I?" he mused.
The Uchiha clan had Hyuga and Akimichi clans as their neighbors, why… cause Tobirama wanted to keep an eye on them by one, and overpower them by the other if they got any funny ideas. Smart man, but a dead man. He shrugged.
And it's quite funny as Kakashi is Tobirama's grandson. In the original series, many people came up with theories on the basis of white hair. Cause of the hair color, many believed that either Jirya or Sakumo was Tobirama's love child. But one came to be true here.
Nothing like this happened in the original, it just goes to show how different this world was.
But then again Obito was a quarter Senju himself. There wasn't anything about that in the series. And along with that, he had also been able to meet the Famous Uzumaki Mito. Granny Mai was the one who arranged that meeting, and Kusina was there as well.
Even though he was an Uchiha, he did gain some Uzumaki scrolls due to his Senju league. And for that, he was thankful to Mito. And she was also the reason why he had visited Uzushiogakure back then.
Anyhow one of the Uzumaki seals that Mito gave him was the eight trigram seal. And that gave him a lot of ideas into advanced levels of sealing.
'Also, my research in non-living sealing arts isn't going anywhere… so even taking the Byakugan or other eyeballs won't help much.' Obito thought. After learning quite a lot about sealing arts from Kushina, Obito had an idea.
He wanted to seal other eyeballs into his Sharingan. Same way as tailed beasts that are sealed into Human hosts. That way, his original Sharingan will be the jinchuriki of other eyeballs.
But it's not easy as putting the four symbol seal or the eight seals that were specifically made for living creatures to be sealed. Sealing living things in a living vessel is easy.
While sealing non-living things in a living vessel is quite hard. And when he looked into Uchiha clan archives, it was quite odd that suddenly the Uzumaki clan pooped up from the Senju clan.
Having more vitality than the Senju, chakra chains that if you get entangled in you are dead dry of chakra, mind's eye, and medical kekegenkai. Such powerful abilities popped up from a brunch of Senju gave quite the shock to Uchiha that were enemies of the Senju. Many theories were made, and Obito liked one of them. That's where he came up with the idea.
As he was reading the Root files, and when reading between the lines a named clan caught his eye. He blinked a few times, before face-palming himself. "How can I forget that clan."
It was the Iburi clan. From the report, Roots were doing research on the clan to make the clan an official shinobi clan. Their abilities were like the Hozuki clan, and like that water clan, their abilities were learnable but very hard to learn and control.
Danzo wanted the clan's technique to be more stable, and to have control over their abilities so that he could merge the clan into his roots organization. And it seems his dear Hirzuen didn't know about this as well.
Orochimaru had few ideas, and one of them involved another clan that lived on the border of the Land of Fire. A clan that was full of unstable lunatics, that could transform into monsters. A name popped up in reading the description of the clan, it was… Jugo.
Obito grinned, 'So, the snake will find Jugo's clan and then Reyuchi cave… it seems that I won't be able to spy on you anymore snake, but I will take your first version of curse mark as research as a parting gift. And the Iburi clan… it seems that my dream of being a ghost isn't quite far.'
Obito already could blend with earth pretty well cause of his earth chakra mastery. But you are no ghost unless you can pass through your opponents.
Others might shit on the Hozuki clan, cause of Suigetsu's comedic relief. But unless put against a lightning release user, Suigetsu's water body ability was quite amazing. It was a mini version of kamui, with a small drawback from lightning release.
Sure he couldn't teleport with that jutsu. But this world was quite different already, he wouldn't be surprised if he didn't get kamui as his Mongakyo ability. Also, the bats would love to get anything related to the lost arts of Senjutsu. Mainly the old bat that still refuses to acknowledge him.
They might even come up with a stable and more functional version of Senjutsu before Orochimaru.
Obito wanted a few people dead. And the snake sanin was one of them… sure things aren't like the canon, and he could turn out a great asset for the village. But when did he care for the village again, Orochimaru in the long run would be a hassle and he would make sure not give him a chance to run.
He's a shit bag that does Keke Genkai research on children… and that kind of man is better off dead, if you read how many poor kids he killed... But he was nowhere near as strong for that.
And there was also Kabuto, the kid wasn't in the orphanage yet. But he would keep an eye on it. Maybe he couldn't kill Orochimaru, but he could take something else from him.
Anyway, the Iburi clan shouldn't have any weakness if their ability could be stabilized. And for that Orochimaru used the curse mark…
Obito is good at fuinjutsu with his creative approach to things. But he wasn't sure if he could do this alone. It was a good thing there was one grumpy bat who might be able to help him with that.
So first things first. Obito whistled looking up at the ceiling, where hundreds of bats hung down from. His whistle made the already silent cave, more silent before a few of the bats came flying down making an exact clone of Obito.
"You know what to do…" Obito said grabbing his clone by the shoulder and pushing almost three-quarters of chakra into it. "This should be enough for a week. Go and place a reverse summon there."
Honestly, the reverse summoning was a very good way to teleport to other locations. But that only happened if you were trusted by your summoning clan enough and they had the ability to pull it off. And unlike his bats or the toads, other summoning animals weren't too trusting of their summoners. Like for example, Orochimaru was a snake summoner and yet didn't know the location of the Ryuchi Cave.
The bat nodded, before bursting into a flock of bats going out. He wouldn't let Orochimru get Jugo either. If get could get Jugo before he does, then he might even delay the snake more in his path to becoming a sage. But then again the 'Root report' said a whole clan of lunatics, not one. So he wasn't sure how that would go…
Anyhow the report didn't exactly say where the clan was located, only the general area. So it would take time.
'If the old bat did help, creating a curse seal from scratch shouldn't be tough. But if she couldn't I could always look into the curse seal after Orochimaru puts it on Anko. Poor girl… but then again she won't die… so I don't need to be a goody two shoes. And even if she did… why would I care. I just need to seal, not her.'
Obito blinked before he laughed, staying in the world for only four years changed him quite much. Now he was willing to turn a side-eye if someone was in trouble. Oh, how cruel the Shinobi world was. It even changed him. It wasn't just a cartoon where you have the power of friendship and whatnot.
Speaking of seals, he looked at another drawing in his table. It was a marking of tri-bladed kunai.
'Hmm… I should also focus on more Fuinjutsu. I'm getting nowhere with complex formulas,' he sighed.
The Harishin no jutsu. First of all his sealing arts weren't up to that level where he could make it from scratch, and also because he didn't have lighting affinity…
Obito had mastered yin and yang release from the bats, which wasn't tough if you are practicing advanced chakra control and medical ninjutsu from an early age. But the bat clan didn't have many jutsu related to them, so he had to look elsewhere.
After four years he had mastered Wind, Fire, Earth, Yin, and Yang release. And that's even admirable if you consider that he couldn't create multiple shadow clones and hax his way through things. Honestly being a Jincchuriki was a Hax. Not getting headaches or brain damage from the clone's memories, was truly one of the broken abilities to have.
There was a reason why people didn't spam that jutsu, even with large chakra reserves. So he opted for a substitute instead. The bat clones, each clone had three of four bats in them.
The good thing about the bat clones was they would only send the valuable memories without entirely canceling the jutsu. With the added benefit of being partially intangible from physical damage, it was quite overpowering. The only downside was that Obito could only make ten of them at once.
It wasn't cause of him, not all bats could transform into clones. Nightwing and his team made two of clones, and this clone now was another of his clone, so Obito could only make seven more clones. He sighed and looked up, he hoped that the new recruit of bats would at least give him one or two new clones.
Seven was an okay number if he didn't go against someone like Minato. But even with ten, things won't change much. The man was way to fast. Thinking about the Blondie…
The Harishin no jutsu, or lightning rod jutsu used Yang to summon and lightning to connect one point to the other.
Elemental releases could be learned even if you weren't born with it… after time it could even turn to chakra affinity. If Obito used chakra paper right now. It would show three elements, Wind, Earth, and Fire.
If you master an element to a certain extent, your body starts to adapt and make it part of your chakra affinity. Chakra paper didn't show Yin or Yang, but if it did, maybe it would show as well.
And also mastering an element cuts of the necessary signs for a jutsu by half. More so if you practice that jutsu even more. And of course, Obito figured out how to make hand signs with hand, actually, Kagami taught him that. But honestly, casting jutsu with one hand could sometimes be quite tough, his control wasn't there yet.
So learning lightning release… nah… it would take at least two years to learn an element to the extent of affinity. Obito could only do it with fire cause of the hundreds of different methods of fire release training that were in Konoha, not to mention in the Uchiha compound. And lightning was quite rare here, there were a few documents by Izuna Uchiha, but that was it. So there were few training methods. And he couldn't just ask Minato or Kakashi… those kinds of knowledge were kinda kept secret.
And there was tension amongst the villages, a war would break out soon. He would rather hone his skills and focus on other things rather than learn Lightning jutsu. Like for example adding already created jutsus with Yin or Yang release to add more power to them, now that he was good at it.
Even if he mastered the lightning release to that extent, he would still need to figure out his very own Harishin formula from the scratch, he already had looked at Tobirama's formula. And it was way too complicated for him, Minato's was much easier… and looked nothing similar to Tobirama's.
Yet he could see similarities in it. And when he looked into Tobirama's formula in the Hokage's office he knew it didn't go into details of how it was created.
Some might wonder how he got to learn about Tobirama's secret jutsu… well, sneaking bats into the Hokage's office to peak at the Forbidden scrolls isn't tough, when Kagami is out of the village. I mean a kid like Naruto flashed his man boobs and got it from Hiruzen.
The lightning rod jutsu or Harishin no jutsu was quite the odd one. Usually, an element was summoned or generated. You couldn't just create something out of nothing. Even this world had some universal laws.
For example, Fire and Wind release jutsu generated the elements, while Water and Earth release jutsu would summon the elements if there wasn't any adequate source. But Lightning was an element of speed, it was generated, and how the fuck did Tobirama manage to add it with the summoning jutsu to make it, was over his head.
The Harishin no jutsu would need to wait a few years. And that's not the fact that it wasn't the most complicated sealing jutsu he saw. In these four years he had gone outside the village only twice.
And both of the times it was in Uzushiogakure. And there he saw it… the village was a work of sealing arts. Walls were erected and augmented with sealing jutsus, shinobi gear that had at a minimum of ten active sealing formulas in it. But all of that couldn't compare with the Uzumaki elemental mask he saw there.
Even though Kusina had a bit of bitterness towards the Uzumaki kage. But the man wasn't that bad, and even let him enter his personal office where the mask was stored. Of course, Kushina being a princess and him being his disciple —who was an Uchiha prodigy— also helped with his case.
And man that mask was great. He didn't see the shinigami mask, but the elemental mask was a piece of art. Created by the late Uzumaki-kage Ashina Uzumaki. After wearing the mask one could use three elements Fire, Water, and Lightning like a pro. All three elements were known for their destructiveness. And after wearing the mask one could use the elements without weaving a single hand seal. The only drawback was it needed a stupid amount of Uzumaki chakra to use it. It was even better to work than Tobirama's Harishin no jutsu.
And yet the late Kage deemed it a failed experiment. Only the current Uzumaki head has access to wear the mask in battle. The sealing masters in the Uzumaki village wanted to mass produce it even with one element.
Honestly, the mask was like showing candy to Obito. And for that, he was spending almost half of his time practicing complicated Uzumaki formulas. So that he could create one. And also he had tons of ideas to use sealing in other areas.
Honestly, if he was helped by either Kushina or even the old bat. His dreams of making half of the stuff would be already over. Yet one was too grumpy to even acknowledge him, while he couldn't share everything with Kushina.
She was an airhead sometimes. And he couldn't let his ambitions be known to guys like Hiruzen or Danzo. His bats had gathered what happened to Sakumo and it taught him a lesson to not trust anyone who had patriarchy lighting up his ass. So his fuinjutsu dreams had to wait.
But what didn't need to wait was Yamanaka's Mind jutsu and Nara's Shadow jutsu. Did he send his bats to sneak up on the clans to steal their family jutsu? Yup… he sure did.
He kinda already had a version of a gentle fist under his belt cause of training and seeing Mukai Kohinata fight. So he didn't need that. Also, he already had a formula for the Akimichi clan pills, but he didn't have the Naras and Yamanaka yet.
It takes years to perfect Yamanaka and Nara technique. But Obito wanted to do them in one year. Nara's shadow position cause of the flexibility of their jutsu… and Yamanaka cause, he wanted to make a seal that would make him immune to those mind fuckers.
Now that Kagami was going on missions, he would sometimes find root shinobis spying on him, while he trained Shisui. And roots had quite the number of Yamanaka in their ranks and he didn't want any accidents happening.
The tension between the village and the Uchiha was down but that didn't mean things could get bad in the future. He would rather be safe than sorry.
Also about other bloodlines, the war would give him more time to gather samples on them as well. For now, he would focus on a few things.
He might have learned a lot of things in the few years. And he could probably take on a few low-level Jonins himself if he pushed himself to it. But Anbu Jonins or High level jonins would be too much for him. And being Kage level took strength and raw chakra reserves.
Honestly, how did Minato have so much chakra? Oh, he was a sage. Maybe the toads had something to do with that. For Senjutsu one does need to have big chakra reserves.
Being a Jonin was nothing compared to a Kage-level Shinobi. In the original Minato took down ten thousand Iwa rock humpers, and Raikage held off ten thousand men for three days straight against enemy Shinobis so his Kumo Shinobis could escape.
So Obito still had much to go for.
Almost three weeks later,
"So… you think this team is up for real missions?" Hiruzen asked as he looked up from his paperwork, his pipe-smoking on his lips.
"Yes, Hokage-sama. They are quite capable." Minato said, looking at his team who almost all had a look of excitement on their faces. "Even though they didn't do the standard D-rank missions for all genin team. Their teamwork is quite good and they can handle themselves pretty well against me… that's why I believe that they are ready for it."
The Hokage nodded, "Well, we don't have any good field C-rank missions… oh, Minato why not take them on your mission."
Minato nodded, "I was thinking the same thing."
"Well, they did specifically want you for the mission. Bringing along some genin backup won't be disliked by the employer." Hiruzen said again as he took out the scroll, "Well, just be safe… especially as you will be outside the village."
Obito yawned, "Don't sweat it old man." He said boringly, making Rin and Minato frown with the lack of honorifics. "It will be done in a flash."
Rin spoke, "Obito-kun, you don't speak that way towards the Hokage…"
"Yeah." Kakashi agreed, "Don't annoy the old man. He's just worried about a new green leaf-like you."
Hiruzen just laughed, while Minato and Rin sweatdropped. They were way too formal to be speaking to the Hokage this way.
"You wanna repeat that dog boy…" Obito said in a challenging voice. "The last beating wasn't good enough eh…"
"Please, you barely won the fight, cause of your stupid gloves."
"Yeah, yeah… sore loser. Fight without your chuwawa. "
Rin just sighed as she stepped forward before both of them started fighting. It's almost as if both of them enjoyed getting injured. It was a good thing Obito also knew medical ninjutsu, or it would have been tough.
Hiruzen was amused at the display. A Senju and an Uchiha in the same team… well isn't that what the first Hokage dreamt off.
Minato had somehow been able to quiet them down, before leaving the room. But Hiruzen didn't mind, he was rather thinking about something.
Obito an Uchiha that Kagami taught himself, a prodigy in Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Fuinjutsu. Kagami even expressed highly of Obito's odd style of incorporating unusual taijutsu with his ninjutsu.
The boy had already mastered the Sharingan to the third tomoe, and that wasn't his all. He was very fast on his feet as well.
No one could beat Kagami in using the Body Flicker, Hiruzen still remembered how Tobirama-sensei praised Kagami's speed when he was a genin. And as Kagami's student, Obito didn't fall back either.
He had seen the boy fight or train Kagami's nephew, Obito was very fast on his feet. The only thing keeping him slow was his physical body, that boy would gain speed the more older he got.
Kagami really went overboard with his student. Even training him in Anbu drills or even stay-put during torture sessions to kill off any hesitation in real situations. Even Hiruzen didn't push Orochimaru that hard and the boy was much older back then. For a nine-year-old, that kind of talent was only seen in Madara himself.
But there was just one slight problem. The boy was too much attached to his friends or families, not to Konoha or even the Uchiha clan. He had deep trust issues, Kagami had noted. But Orochimaru was kinda similar, and he is a great shinobi.
Minato was arguably the fastest shinobi Hiruzen knew off also added that about Obito's speed.
Speaking of Minato, Obito had shown interest in the Harishin no jutsu. Hiruzen might not be a fuinjutsu expert like his students, but if the Uchiha was given the full Harishin formula he would be able to make the jutsu his own. And at that time Danzo had convinced him otherwise… to not let an Uchiha get the jutsu. And he had agreed.
Also if Obito could reach S-class or Kage level without that jutsu. Then giving him that after he takes the hat won't be a problem. But for that Obito needed to be at least twenty years old, and the boy was only nine now.
Anyhow if the boy did manage to figure out the Harishin no jutsu on his own, he wouldn't protest. He had seen his flawed way of thinking. And stopping a speed star like Obito won't do anything good to Konoha.
Honestly what was about Konoha and its speed starts.
Tobirama, Kagami, Sakumo, Orochimaru, Minato… it was just funny with how much importance Kumo gave to their speed and yet Konoha already was blessed with them. And now shinobis like Obito and Kakashi… the future would have a lot of speed starts.
Thinking about Kakashi. The boy looked like a mini version of Tobiraman, every time he glared. And he was strong as well, Sakumo had taught him well in swordsmanship and utilizing his summon with the lightning release.
Kakashi might not have many things going for him like Obito. But as an experienced shinobi, he knew focusing on particular areas one at a time could make a Shinobi very deadly.
Like for him example, he almost knew all of the Jutsues that were in Konoha. Including clan secret ones, —they didn't call him The Professor for nothing— yet he didn't use them much, mostly relying on his summon King Enma and his bo-staff transformation. So he could see Kakashi go on a similar route.
And Sakumo did gain his fame as the White fang in the same way. Using his while adamantium blade to cut down his enemies, holding off the sand on his own.
All in all, it was a good decision to put Kakashi and Obito in the same team. Even though they bickered most of the time, Hiruzun couldn't see any enmity in them.
After a lot of consideration, Hiruzen wanted to pass off the hat to a non-claned shinobi. And he wasn't going to make Orochimaru his successor. Even though the boy was his favorite student, he wasn't meant for it. And as a village leader he had to put aside his personal feelings.
The boy was way too dark and was doing a lot of black water research behind the door. Even though he permitted the research due to persuasion of both Danzo and Orochimaru… but doing experiments with Hashirama DNA, when Tobirama completely forbid it.
It didn't go well for him. And others like Kagami and Torifu hand the same thing in mind. And not to mention that Orochimaru wasn't very good at working with people, mainly planned shinobi.
That's why he decided to take Minato as the next Hokage. Jiraya believed in that boy… quite a lot. A perfect sage, creating a new jutsu at his age like the Rasengan and mastering the Harishin no jutsu. He would be a good Hokage to keep in line all of the clans in check.
Clan politics were seeping into Konoha, and as a Shinobi village, he didn't want that. Torifu and Kagami had shown him how Danzo, Koharu, and Homura were manipulating it to their favor. And Hiruzen didn't like it at all.
As the Hokage for two decades, Hiruzen didn't favor his Sarutobi clan in the slightest. Yet the Shimura and other clans were getting benefits cause of being connected elders in Konoha. Sometimes he could be such a blind.
Hiruzen wanted to stop it. Now that Uchiha was a bit calm after giving young Obito the highlight, they would also be a bit controllable if Minato became the Hokage.
Fugaku Uchiha was another Hokage candidate. But the other clans won't like it having an Uchiha be the Hokage… not yet at least. So the Uchiha clan won't be too upset if Minato —who is also officially Obito's sensei— became the Hokage.
Hiruzen thought quite a lot about it. And after Minato, if the Uchiha clan wanted they could make Obito the next Hokage. Of course that if he doesn't get outshined or unfortunately killed.
Hiruzen had seen many young rising stars die off, due to politics. Sakumo was a victim of it… and Dan Kato died for it. So that is why Hiruzen was playing his cards right.
The Uchiha was a big clan and was arguably the strongest in Konoha. The Uchiha and Senju were always blessed with talent. And while Sakumo, and Tsuandade stood out from the Senju side. The Uchiha had quite a lot.
Kagami Uchiha, Fugaku Uchiha, Obito Uchiha, and Kana Uchiha were the primary talent. And not to mention Ken Uchiha (Fugaku's brother) and Shisui Uchiha who would also be quite formidable. So he wanted the clan the be pleased as well. Honestly, he would have made an Uchiha the Hokage and cut off any enemies that they had in the village, if it weren't for the instability that it would cause among other clans.
That was why after Minato, Hiruzen believed Obito would be a good candidate.
And even if something happened to Obito. Kakashi was a good Hokage candidate as well. Sometimes he wondered why his son Asuma wasn't even noteworthy.
.
"Our Mission will be to escort these Yugakure Shinobies back to their village," Minato said as his team started following behind the four shinobis. "This Mission might be a low C rank mission. But things could escalate quickly… so be ready to use lethal means necessary."
All three of them nodded. Minato was dead serious about this, there wasn't his usual carefree smile on his face, nor was there any amusement in his eyes. It was all cold and blank, they were on a mission. And things could go bad quickly if they are not careful.
"Okay, team. Go formation B4." Minato commanded as he speed up, taking the front while Kakashi, Rin, and Obito took the flank of the four Yugakure shinobi.
After some time, Obito broke the silence. "Wanna bet if this mission will go south in the next hour?"
Kakashi snorted, while focusing on keeping a steady speed.
But Rin looked a bit off, "uh… Obito-kun it isn't nice to say stuff like these in our first mission." She said, "and… I'm sure that Minato Sensei will get us out of any trouble if that happens…"
"You don't get it, do you?" Kakashi scoffed, "The Uchiha here is a battle maniac. And wants to get some action in his first mission."
"Oh, come one Senju… don't tell me you are scared of some random shinobi. And the only enemies that Yugakure has is from land of tea… what are they gonna do, threaten us to drink tea." Obito mused, "And here I thought that Tobirama's piss ran through your veins."
Kakashi gave his usual glare to Obito. Who pulled down his glasses and made a face. The Hatake was about to say something, but stopped himself and sighed. Why was he getting tangled in this again… he is just going to ignore him.