"The Fifth Hokage is Kakashi Hatake."
People who were anticipating what the Third Hokage would say forgot to breathe for a second.
Then they cheered.
Kakashi's reputation had been slowly increased by the Third Hokage in the last few years.
The fact that he had been doing a lot of S-ranks and clashing with popular figures made this easier for him.
So, everyone knew Kakashi as a popular figure, and his recent fame of being S-rank had solidified that.
Danzo had tried to put mud on Kakashi's reputation, and the fact that stunts he pulled like the one done a few days during the academy induction made it easier for him to have opportunities.
Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one in the village with the capability to spread believable rumours.
Soon, people started to believe that Kakashi had done this to motivate young students by seeing a clash between two S-ranks and how a Kage of a village is powerful.
This not only increased the reputation of the Third Hokage who clashed with Kakashi's fearsome jutsu but also prevented any student from getting harmed.
Stuff like this had happened over the last year, creating the direct opposite effect of what Danzo wanted. The previous academic incident only helped in solidifying the fact that Kakashi is the most benevolent, wisdom-full, strong, loyal, and hot ninja in the entire Konoha.
So, people naturally accepted him as the next Hokage.
"Woah, I wasn't expecting that of all things," Yumi didn't expect the pervert senpai of all people to be the Fifth Hokage.
Unfortunately, if she had known that the Third Hokage was a closet pervert, she would have thought that it was only logical for the next Hokage to be a pervert.
"Yeah, this is really shocking. I was expecting either one of the clan heads, most specifically Shikaku-san or maybe Tsunade-san to be the Fifth Hokage previously," Itachi also voiced his own opinions.
"Woah, Kakashi-nii-chan is the new Hokage?" Naruto was speechless at this new revelation.
He didn't think that the silver nii-chan who always giggles weirdly while reading his book and always teases him or messes with him is the new Hokage.
It really doesn't fit with the description of how he used to think a Hokage should be.
"I also didn't expect this," Sasuke was shocked that Kakashi had become the Hokage.
They didn't know the current political structure of the village nor all the candidates and their motivations, so it was natural for them to not have an idea. Even if they did know that they would still be shocked like Itachi.
Kakashi walked to the railing, and the crowd's cheer grew more. If they had whispered before, then now they were roaring.
'Damn, that old lady is so unreliable, not able to complete the robe on time,' Kakashi thought while maintaining his transformation jutsu for the cloak.
He, like all the Hokages, had gotten his robe not on time, all made by the same lady, who was also alive to make a robe for the Original Story's Seventh Hokage's cloak and possibly Eighth Hokage's too.
Kakashi waved his right hand while his left hand went to his hat, removing it.
He would rather have the wild look of his hair than wear a hat, which restricts them.
He is also not comfortable with something on his head.
Kakashi then signalled the crowd to stop cheering by using his hand.
They surprisingly did just that.
"Hehe, I wasn't expecting people to quiet that quickly," Kakashi started with an informal tone.
This earned looks of surprise from various people in the crowd. Even if Kakashi has the demeanour of being easygoing and has a reputation as a "bad boy" in the village, they don't expect him to continue doing that.
"Let's see, where should we start with... To be honest, I was supposed to say a script, but I lost it," Kakashi sheepishly said while rubbing the back of his head.
This earned disbelief from the crowd and a quiet number of giggles.
"What an irresponsible man! I hope Konoha will be fine," Jiraiya said jokingly.
"Better than you being the Hokage. You would probably keep the rule of having a shinobi standard uniform to be a swimsuit or something along those lines," Miyuki quipped back, defending Kakashi.
Jiraiya prepared to retort, but he was left speechless when he imagined a village with such rules.
"I- Can I still become the Hokage if I try now?" Jiraiya asked, now regretting his decision not to become the Hokage.
He had missed the jackpot.
"Hmm, now I think about it that's not a bad idea. Maybe we could convince Kakashi to employ such rules," Yukio giggled.
"Hehe, maybe we could even make a rule of everyone having to wear some kind of 'cosplay'," Miyuki supported his notion while giving recommendations.
"Maybe I should visit the village more often in the future," Jiraiya nodded like he was the responsible guy who was concerned about Konoha and had done the most missions in Konoha since its founding... which is true.
Yumi and Itachi were disturbed and concerned about the village's future when looking at the lecherous faces and drools which the "adults" who were supposed to be responsible.
"Oh, wait, no way, is that the script he was supposed to say?" Naruto said out loud while taking out a crumpled paper and opening it.
He didn't know that he was carrying materials of a speech of a freaking Hokage all this time.
His loud voice attracted the attention of ninjas other than his other group.
They were also stunned by this, as they were under the delusion that the new Hokage was just joking to break the ice, not expecting that he literally had lost his speech.
"Should we give him now?" Sasuke asked unsure. He didn't know what they would give him.
Yukio took the paper out of Naruto's hands suddenly, making the latter protest.
He then folded it into the initial state and then from his hand, a very fast beam of water headed towards Kakashi's head.
Only a few people in the crowd could follow the movement of the water beam, and only Elite Jounins were confident they could dodge that without getting a fatal hit.
It was just that fast.
Kakashi just sidestepped with lightning oozing out of him, and his hand just blew the area where the water beam passed through it.
The water beam then exploded in the air behind Kakashi, giving it an awe-inspiring look for the crowd.
Ninjas in the crowd were put on alert due to the attack coming from the crowd and looked at the source with killing intent, intending to catch the culprits.
Their heart had almost gotten out of their body when they felt that chakra spike suddenly and the chakra moving so fast.
They discarded all those ideas when they saw two S-ranks along with a Sannin standing there, along with Uchiha Heir looking at them with Sharingan rotating in his eyes.
They pretended that they were not the ones who released the killing intent while subtly going away from the position of the trio.
The crowd only saw a blue flickering, an explosion of blue colour behind Kakashi, who was standing a few meters away from his initial position with a piece of paper in his hands.
They cheered again due to seeing this display. Most of them thought it was staged, but nonetheless, it was impressive.
Meanwhile, the previous Hokage who hadn't even passed his position for five minutes had a black line on his forehead.
'What's with youngsters these days, attacking Hokage while they are giving a speech? Is Konoha changing this fast?' Hiruzen was baffled and not for the first time experienced that he had grown old with times.
'It seems times are changing,' Hiruzen thought while looking at dead leaves flying in the air.
"Ahem, it seems I have gotten my script. Thank you for that," Kakashi winked at Naruto while giving his attention back to the crowd.
"Without this, I was wondering about giving a speech on how a ninja could strategically use 'Icha-Icha Series'," Kakashi said with a chuckle.
People gasped in shock. Those who had read Icha-Icha or knew the true essence of it blushed when hearing that.
They all thought that Kakashi was joking.
Only people who know Kakashi well can tell that he wasn't lying.
A shout of "YOUTH" could be heard in the crowd, but most people ignored it deliberately.
Back to Kakashi, he opened the paper, intending to speed-read, but he paused when he saw that the paper was blank.
'Right, I forgot that I was supposed to create a speech,' Kakashi finally understood the feeling he was getting yesterday of forgetting something important.
'Maybe I should go with a strategic plan about how to use the "Icha-Icha series",' Kakashi mused.
***
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