Utatane Koharu spoke with a face full of anxiety. "It's ridiculous. That Vegapunk isn't even a Konoha Ninja; he can only be considered a clone! The Daimyo actually wants him to be Hokage! And those Konoha Ninjas actually agreed?"
Hearing this, Jiraiya immediately felt a massive headache. He had left Konoha back then specifically to get away from these political struggles, but he never expected to be dragged back in the moment he returned. "Uh, I think Vegapunk is doing a pretty good job! Konoha can't do without him nowadays..."
"Jiraiya, how can you have that view too? Who knows what Vegapunk's true intentions are? After all, he didn't start as a Konoha Ninja!"
Looking at the nagging elders, Jiraiya only found them noisy. In the end, he shook his head flatly. "Anyway, I'm not becoming Hokage. Just find someone else. Konoha is full of talent now, right? I think Kakashi is pretty good; even I'm almost no match for him!"
"Kakashi already rejected our request long ago..."
So I'm just a backup! Jiraiya didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Then go find Hyuga Hiashi or Uchiha Fugaku! Their strength is definitely enough, right?"
"No, those people are clan Ninjas to begin with, and they all have favors to ask of Vegapunk. They won't come out to compete with him!"
In the beginning, when the Third Hokage and Danzo were around, Konoha could treat Vegapunk as a pure tool. But now that the Third Hokage and Danzo have both died in the attack, there is naturally no one to check and balance Vegapunk. No single clan could truly manage Vegapunk; doing so would only invite an attack or turn them into a tool for other clans to curry favor with Vegapunk.
Without being able to form a united front, Vegapunk could naturally manipulate these clans with ease. As for the ordinary Ninjas, although they hadn't seen Vegapunk much, they knew clearly that their increase in strength was mostly due to Vegapunk's inventions, so their impression of him couldn't be bad.
This also led to the two Advisor elders discovering, to their shock, that when Vegapunk stepped out of the lab, he had a massive following and had become the most popular candidate for Hokage. Not to mention that the current Fire Daimyo had already become his man.
However, Jiraiya had long been disgusted with politics. He knew all about Konoha's dirty laundry and didn't want to be used as a pawn by these two old fogies.
Me as Hokage?! How many divisions do I even have under me? Although Jiraiya had a good reputation in Konoha, it was just that—a reputation. Because of his casual personality, he had almost no true confidants or subordinates; he relied on his toads for gathering intelligence. How could someone like him manage Konoha? Wouldn't he just end up relying on these two old fogies?
On the contrary, in Jiraiya's view, letting Vegapunk be Hokage was better. He had no complex interests involved and could use his technology to mobilize the entire village's power. Maybe he could actually revitalize the decaying Konoha!
"Two old geezers, how boring."
The Vegapunk clone slowly pressed his glasses. The screen projected onto his retina inside the glasses immediately switched. The original Jiraiya and the two Advisors disappeared, replaced by the current state of the Uchiha Clan compound. A group of Uchiha were standing there, secretly holding a clan meeting.
"The Uchiha... also a bunch of guys who are respectful on the surface but harbor ambitions... This carriage called Konoha looks glamorous, but in reality, the horses pulling it each have their own ideas, and the whole carriage is rotten from the frame to the parts."
"If it weren't for the fact that the other great Ninja villages more or less have the same problems, and Konoha has a deep foundation where a hero always descends from the heavens to save the day whenever things get desperate, the entire Konohagakure would have probably been leveled by other villages long ago."
"I don't want to spend my time bickering with these things... It's a total waste of my research time!"
The negotiation between the two Advisors and Jiraiya was like talking to a wall. Jiraiya just gave non-committal 'mm-hm's and 'right-right's to brush them off for a while, then prepared to pat his butt and leave.
He had originally been afraid that the now-weakened Konoha would be attacked by other villages, which is why he returned directly to Konoha after Kakashi found him.
However, he had now realized that although Nagato had taken out the Hokage, stolen the Jinchuriki, and killed many Ninjas, Konoha's own power hadn't decreased much. At the very least, it was more than enough to defend itself.
In this case, why stay here? Besides, Konohagakure had plenty of strength now; one more of him didn't add much, and one less didn't hurt.
Just as he was about to leave, however, he was called out to by an unexpected person.
"Dr. Vegapunk, do you need something from me?"
Jiraiya spoke somewhat awkwardly, shifting his body as if fleas were crawling on him.
How should he put it? He had just heard the two Advisors' discussion behind the man's back. Although it was those two old things who were talking bad and it had nothing to do with him, facing the person involved directly now still made Jiraiya feel a bit embarrassed.
"I do have something. Jiraiya, did you agree to the request of those two Advisors?" Vegapunk sat in a chair and asked leisurely.
"Uh... Dr. Vegapunk, I don't know what you're talking about?" Jiraiya cried out internally, while also being very angry at the two Advisors. Were those two senile? How did word get to Vegapunk's ears so quickly?
"Don't worry, I really do want to have a good chat with you. As for those two Advisors looking for you, I could guess that with my toes. After all, it's not like they haven't looked for others before."
"Jiraiya, do you actually want to be Hokage or not?"
Jiraiya scratched his head, looking at the blond youth before him. He felt like the other's mental age was even greater than his own. Despite appearing only sixteen or seventeen—and if you counted the time since he was cloned, probably only three to five years old—how did he feel so mature?
If the clone is this monstrous, then what kind of person is the real Vegapunk?
Since Vegapunk had asked, Jiraiya didn't want to lie and spoke directly: "Indeed, the two Advisors hope I will become Hokage, but I refused!"
"Why? If it's because of me, you don't have to be like that. I actually don't care about the so-called Hokage position."
Vegapunk spoke. Jiraiya becoming Hokage was an acceptable outcome for Vegapunk. After all, this guy had no desire for power and was very attached to Konoha; he would make a perfect tool.
"It has nothing to do with you. It's mainly because I don't like being tied down!" Jiraiya shook his head. "And right now, I have other things to do!"
Jiraiya used to travel for the Child of Prophecy, but after Vegapunk crossed over, the Great Toad Sage's ability to predict the future in dreams had basically failed. So now, Jiraiya was instead investigating the reason why the Great Toad Sage's ability had failed.
However, with the changes in the Ninja World, Jiraiya already had a faint premonition that these things were likely related to Vegapunk's main body. But seeing that the changes Vegapunk brought to the Ninja World were relatively positive, Jiraiya didn't want to interfere. He just planned to observe Vegapunk's main body more and didn't want to waste time in Konoha.
Besides these, there was one more important thing... "Your so-called 'other things' wouldn't happen to be peeping, would it?!" Vegapunk said with a squinted eye and a look of disdain.
"Cough, cough, cough, cough!" Jiraiya suddenly coughed, patted his chest, and said with a flushed face, "Research! That's just research!"
"Right, right, research for your little smut books. Just like your teacher always using a crystal ball to peep, which could also be called 'protecting the safety of the women's bathhouse'!"
Leaning back with his hands behind his head, Vegapunk put his feet up on the table and said disdainfully.
"Vegapunk brat, be serious. That's not the issue we're talking about!"
Though his words were serious, Jiraiya's eyes were darting around and his face was red; no matter how you looked at it, he lacked conviction.
Curling his lip, Vegapunk said, "By the way, I found the Third Hokage's Telescope Crystal Ball and the matching Telescope Jutsu in his office. If you're willing to be Hokage, I can leave them for you!"
"Eh!?" In that instant, Jiraiya truly felt a bit tempted. But after seeing Vegapunk's half-smiling expression, he calmed down and said with a serious face, "Do you think I'm someone who is so easily tempted?"
"Tch," Vegapunk clicked his tongue, then said, "It seems neither of us wants to be the sucker who takes the Hokage job! You want to go do 'research,' and I want to do my own research. Who has the time to do the work of a Hokage?"
"In that case, which sucker should we find to be the Hokage?"
"Hey, hey, what do you mean by'sucker'? Being Hokage is the ultimate pursuit of all Konoha Ninjas!"
"Give it a rest. I'm not even a Ninja! Not to mention you, a dyed-in-the-wool Konoha Ninja, aren't you also constantly looking down on it?"
"I'm not looking down on it! I just... I just... have other more important things to do!"
"Peeping!?"
"I told you it's research, not peeping!!"
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded 70 chapters of this story on Patreon!
If you enjoy it, come check out the latest chapters in advance.
Here's the link:
[email protected]/Rexlent
Thank you so much for your support!!!
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"