17. The successor to the role of Hokage may be established through any of these methods, so long as they adhere to the following list of requirements: Namely, to be a loyal citizen of Konohagakure in good standing with the shinobi forces of the village.
17.1 The Hokage may nominate a willing successor in front of two witnesses who themselves qualify as candidates.
17.2 If the Hokage cannot fulfil their duties, for any reason including death, a willing successor may be selected by the jounin of the village.
17.3 If the Hokage is defeated through the use of ninja skills, the role of successor will pass to the ninja who defeated them. This requires either the assent of the Hokage, or of two-thirds of the jounin of the village.
17.3.1 If the successor is defeated through the use of ninja skills, the role of successor will pass to the ninja who defeated them. This requires either the assent of the successor, or of two-thirds of the jounin of the village.
17.1 – 17.3.1 of the Konohagakure Legal Code, also known as the legacy clauses. They have not been updated since the founding of the village
-O-
Konohagakure had never had a contested transition of power. The line of succession was always clear, even when a Hokage fell in battle and a new leader was needed immediately. The 'duelling clause', as it was known, had never been used, and Hiruzen Sarutobi was happy about it.
Oh, Sarutobi understood the reasoning behind it. When Konohagakure was less than a decade old, there had been plenty of ninja who thought they could grow to surpass the Shodaime and seize the Hokage's hat. Giving them a legal path to power meant they stayed loyal to the village and waited until they were ready for their challenge. The alternative had been breakaway factions and internal power struggles that tore the nascent village apart.
And then Hashirama thrashed half a dozen clan heads over the course of a year, after which the duelling clause fell out of fashion. Tobirama's ascension revived interest but he put two challengers into hospital for ten months between them and that shut that down. Hiruzen had never heard so much as a whisper about the duelling clause from any of his shinobi over the years, and it had been the same for Minato. They had grown past such petty measurements of power, as a village and as a society, and he was glad for it.
Many scholars considered it outdated now, a mere relic of the past, but they missed the many ways it could be used. The many ways it could be abused, too. And it was this last point that Hiruzen Sarutobi, Third Hokage of Konohagakure, had in mind today. There was one key difference between the better-known 'heir' and 'council' clauses, and the 'duelling' clause. One requirement was missing, because at the time it had not seemed necessary.
Sarutobi was old and in an all-out battle there were perhaps four or five ninja who could take the hat from him – if any of them cared to do something so uncouth. There was one jounin in particular that he had his eye on, in fact. A man who could beat him, who had the pedigree and knowledge to be a fine Hokage, who was young enough to handle the strain of the job, who commanded respect among the village's jounin.
If only Kakashi wasn't so obstinate about not wanting the damned job. And so Hiruzen re-read the relevant section of the code and hatched a cunning plan.
"Iruka," he called, "have you finalised the genin teams yet?"
"Almost done," the chunin replied. Despite the nasty back injury he'd picked up earlier that evening, courtesy of the traitor Mizuki, Iruka refused to rest. His diligence was both his best and worst trait.
Hiruzen wondered for a brief moment if he would grow to regret this decision. "Make sure that Naruto is assigned to Kakashi's team."
"You're the boss," Iruka called back.
The Hokage smiled as he pulled out a successor nomination form and filled it in. By reason of triumph over the sitting Hokage of Konohagakure, he added at the bottom. Then he signed it, his signature reduced from the glorious swirling mess he'd learned as a genin to a near-flat line after so many decades of paperwork. "No longer," he whispered to himself.
-O-
Kakashi had been a jounin for over a decade. The rank was often misunderstood by civilians and even a lot of ninja – it wasn't about strength, or not only about strength. Kakashi was a jounin because he had an astonishing breadth of ninja skills, which meant he could teach any new ninja regardless of their speciality.
The key word there was 'could'. Kakashi had never taken on a team, despite the handful of attempts the Hokage had made to saddle him with some snot-nosed wet-behind-the-ears kids. It was that time of year again, though, so he had another trio of wannabe genin to send packing. It was annoying but he didn't expect it to take up more than half a day. That was far less time than he'd lose if he accepted a genin team.
They showed up on time, which was a good start. The training ground Kakashi had picked out was one of the lesser-known ones and he had hoped they would get lost and arrive late. His own habits wouldn't prevent him from failing them for a lack of punctuality, and then he could have spent the morning doing something other than glorified babysitting.
Instead all three new members of Team Seven – and it was a cheap shot to give Kakashi his old team number back, really – were present at the crack of dawn. By the time Kakashi had gotten over his annoyance it was halfway to noon.
He gave them the usual speech about how unready they were, then sent them off to plan some kind of attack. The more functional teams in the past had managed to set up a combined strategy, and only fell to infighting once they thought they had the bells. Not so for Team Seven. Naruto got himself thrashed one-on-one and Sakura lacked the initiative to do, well, anything. Sasuke waited for the other two to tire Kakashi out before striking, but as soon as the boy thought he had the upper hand, he lost all caution and was easy pickings. As a team they were entirely fixable, but that fixing was going to be someone else's job.
Setting Naruto and Sasuke up in a rivalry would push them both, especially if Naruto were given a discreet bit of help to close the gap between them. Sakura needed to build up some confidence so she could use her existing skills better before she learned anything new – pushing her into a mentoring role for Naruto would build her up, and also weld the three of them into a strong team with the resilience to handle problems that could break weaker units.
It wouldn't even be all that much effort, but it would take time. Kakashi had better things to do over the next few years.
"Time's up," he told them, winking at Naruto in particular as the alarm clock went off. Kakashi had been careful not to bruise the boy, but a little extra damage to Naruto's pride wouldn't be amiss. It'd make the work a bit easier for whoever got them next.
"Now all of you…" Kakashi trailed off as a pair of ANBU approached, followed by the Hokage himself.
"I apologise for the interruption," Hiruzen said. He stood in front of the temporary Team Seven, who hastily scrambled to attention. "This shouldn't take long at all."
Kakashi didn't like the look in his eyes. Nothing good had ever come of the Hokage appearing so mischievous.
"We're at your command," Kakashi said, leaving questions like Why are you here and How long have you been waiting unasked for the moment.
The Hokage smiled a gentle smile. "I just have one question for Naruto, and then I'll be out of your hair."
"Sure thing, old man," Naruto shouted, practically vibrating on the spot.
"Is it fair to say that Kakashi bested you in a fight?" the Hokage asked Naruto.
After a moment's confusion, Sakura leaned over and whispered in Naruto's ear. Kakashi caught most of it; it appeared she was translating the question to something along the lines of Did Kakashi beat you up?
Naruto looked unhappy about the question, and probably also losing in general, but after a moment's sullenness he nodded once.
The Hokage tousled Naruto's hair. "In that case I have some bad news. I know how much you want to be Hokage. Do you remember yesterday, when you used that–" he cut himself off, considered for a second, and then continued. "That advanced secret technique to briefly disable me?"
For a moment, Kakashi wondered what sort of powerful ninja skill Naruto had kept hidden throughout their fight, and whether it would have worked on him. If it had taken down the Hokage of the village… and then he froze. The infamous 'duelling clause' in Konohagakure's laws wasn't well-known among the senior jounin, but Kakashi had extensively studied the founding of the village. It was a cunning trap that the Hokage had laid. And Kakashi, fool that he was, had walked right into it.
"As a result I formally made you my successor," Hiruzen continued, and Kakashi's fears were confirmed.
Naruto leapt into the air, cheering, and Kakashi pulled him back down by the back of his jumpsuit. "Listen to what the Hokage has to say," he admonished him. Kakashi knew he needed to buy time. He had to think, to plan, to calm his racing heart.
"Due to your loss to Kakashi today, he is now the new heir to the role of Hokage," Hiruzen explained, an apology in his tone if not in his words. Naruto's face fell. "I'm sure he'll do a great job, and if you work hard you can be the next Hokage, once you've matured a bit."
The two ANBU guards behind the Hokage took on a new meaning. They weren't protection, they were here as witnesses. Kakashi wracked his brains for a way out of the role that was being thrust upon him. There had to be something sneaky he could pull in the next five seconds to escape a fate worse than death.
"Anyway, I'm feeling rather tired this morning." The Hokage yawned theatrically. "Perhaps it's time I took some well-deserved rest. I've been meaning to take up gardening, although I'd have to step down from my current job or I won't have enough hours in the day. No time like the present."
"Naruto, ramen sucks!" Kakashi interrupted, desperate for some way out. The boy scowled at him, but it wasn't quite enough to move Naruto to violence.
Kakashi spoke to Sasuke next. "You spend too much time on your hair."
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You should worry more about your own looks."
"I, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Third Hokage of Konohagakure, hereby do declare before these witnesses that, with immediate effect, I-"
"Sakura, your forehead is huge and ugly," Kakashi tried in desperation. She reacted on instinct, lashing out at him with impressive speed. Kakashi leaned into the blow and let it knock him off his seat.
"-retire in favour of my successor," the Hokage finished. "What was the point of that, Fifth Hokage?"
Kakashi waited another few seconds before standing up. "Let the record show that, as a result of a victory over the jounin Kakashi Hatake, Sakura Haruno was the Hokage's legal successor at the time of his retirement," he said, shocking the clearing into silence.
Sasuke's mouth hung open. Naruto had fallen over onto his side, shaking with silent laughter. The Hokage - or just Hiruzen now - let his pipe fall from numb lips.
"Congratulations," Kakashi told Sakura, smiling. She was about to burst into tears from the shock of the last minute's events. "You're the Leaf's youngest ever Hokage. Also I guess this means you all pass. Well done, and I'll see you at Training Ground 10 tomorrow at six am."
Before anyone had a chance to interrupt or reply, Konohagakure's laziest jounin left the clearing.