If Itachi was the Godaime Hokage....

[DementedKirby]

Whether Shisui gave his eye to Danzou or Danzou took it forcibly from him is still a gray area, I think. The translations say that "...Danzou had already taken one eye."

To say that Itachi acquired the sword of Totsuka and the Yata Mirror on some of his travels is an assumption. It may be true, but his Susanoo having them from the very start may also be true.

Well, it can still be translation. You take things you are given just as you can take things by force. It is ambiguous, though. I don't know Japanese so I can't say if the correct verb was accepted or taken.

As for Itachi having his Susano'o from the very start, Orochimaru spend his entire life looking for the Sword of Totsuka - long before Itachi was born. How is that legendary sword going to exist in such a rare and complicated jutsu of someone who was born after the sword was even being sought after? It just makes no sense. Sorry. Just as you can keep things with summons or within your body (apparently, a ninja's stomach in Naruto doubles as a Mary Poppins style purse as well), Itachi kept those items with his Susano'o. If his enemy was strong enough for him to actually have to take out Susano'o, he might as well equip the greatest battle items or all time with such and epic jutsu .

[matsyes]

I think the whole thing comes down to the political situation more than Itachi, it seems Shisui also would have made a great hokage candidate. But clearly there was a strong enough bias against the Uchihas that they considered a coup. I think the best way to illustrate the point is the example of when one minority despite being very capable is stigmatized and discriminated against, this has happened all over history. Can you imagine an accomplished, smart muslim becoming President in the US. The situation is unimaginable but its exactly the same scenario with the Uchihas.

[Quantized]

Itachi didn't kill Shisui. He had actually killed himself for the sake of the village. Shisui probably knew of the impending massacre. So he probably gave an eye to Danzou (his superior who he trusted) and another to Itachi (whom he considered a little brother) before committing suicide.

As for why Hiruzen didn't choose Itachi:
remember, the Hokage doesn't simply choose an immediate successor. It has to be approved by the daimyou and then voten upon by the jounin. However, with the reputation he had already accumulated plus the fact that the Fourth was also pretty young might've helped him. Also, the daimyou seems to be very nonchalant and easygoing. Had he been convinced he would've probably given the OK. Hiruzen's support might've gained the support of the jounin, as well. To be chosen by the Third should be a great honor. The Third chose the Fourth, who not only gave his life but his soul as well for the village.

However, being Hokage means practically staying everlastingly in the village. No relentless traveling means no acquisition of the Sword of Totsuka nor the Yata Mirror. Relieving Itachi of two of his greatest assets.

Ah, so that was him, I never were good with the few less known Uchiha names xD
Thanks for clearing that up!

and great point, Sandaime could probably have convinced him. When Kakashi was nearly nominated, the daimyou seemed really fond of the Senju and their followers. So likely Itachi could have been accepted if he was supported.

Thinking about it, just how strong Itachi could have gotten, if Shisui really did sacrifice himself for Konoha, that means Itachi easily could have reached the top level he has now without killing anyone from his clan. Then at this age..?

It's really a pity, I used to see Itachi as any other ninja, but after he has shown just how knowledgeable he is about not only ninja arts, I really do love to have seen him stay in Konoha... DAMN YOU DANZOU!!

[M3J]

Where was it said Shisui killed himself? He could have been killed by Itachi for all we know.

Anyway, Itachi before the whole Massacre was too young to be a kage. Gaara became a kage because I don't think there was anyone else powerful enough and even then, there was some while before he became a kage. Minato, the youngest hokage at the time, was at least 21, and it was due to HIraishin.

And looking at it now, Itachi now would have been a better hokage because of the recent chapter where he told Naruto to trust his comrades. He may not have done that when he was younger, which would have harmed him as a hokage. Itachi definitely had the intelligence, foresight, insight, power, and talent to be the hokage, but did he have the ability to trust others?

[Quantized]

Where was it said Shisui killed himself? He could have been killed by Itachi for all we know.

Anyway, Itachi before the whole Massacre was too young to be a kage. Gaara became a kage because I don't think there was anyone else powerful enough and even then, there was some while before he became a kage. Minato, the youngest hokage at the time, was at least 21, and it was due to HIraishin.

And looking at it now, Itachi now would have been a better hokage because of the recent chapter where he told Naruto to trust his comrades. He may not have done that when he was younger, which would have harmed him as a hokage. Itachi definitely had the intelligence, foresight, insight, power, and talent to be the hokage, but did he have the ability to trust others?

In a sense Shisui killed himself, they both (Shisui and Itachi) agreed on it, however indirectly Itachi seem to imply that he helped Shisui to die peacefully (silently). So it depends on what values you play on, some would still call Itachi a murder, but others would call it suicide since they both planned it together (Shisui convinced Itachi). I doubt Itachi would have killed him without Shisui's consent, seemingly, he was the one affecting Itachi into the person he is today by the way Itachi speaks of him, "That is a true shinobi, Shisui taught me that".

Here is the page, http://mangastream.com/read/naruto/65686308/12
Go one or two pages back if you want all the details on Shisui.

[DementedKirby]

In a sense Shisui killed himself, they both (Shisui and Itachi) agreed on it, however indirectly Itachi seem to imply that he helped Shisui to die peacefully (silently). So it depends on what values you play on, some would still call Itachi a murder, but others would call it suicide since they both planned it together (Shisui convinced Itachi). I doubt Itachi would have killed him without Shisui's consent, seemingly, he was the one affecting Itachi into the person he is today by the way Itachi speaks of him, "That is a true shinobi, Shisui taught me that".

Here is the page, http://mangastream.com/read/naruto/65686308/12
Go one or two pages back if you want all the details on Shisui.

Exactly. Itachi practically said that Itachi killed himself. If we look back at his fight with Sasuke, he didn't simply let Sasuke kill him. Even after Ororchimaru was extracted he blocked all of Sasuke's attacks. If his sole purpose of pushing Sasuke was to get rid of Ororchimaru why not allow his ass to get roasted by Sasuke's explosive tags? He died falling two inches short of Sasuke's face. Did Sasuke actually kill Itachi to win? No. When he felt the mourning sensation and intense anguish over Itachi's death - after realizing his brother's true intentions, his Mangekyou awakened. Did Kakashi kill Obito? No. Did he awaken the Mangekyou? Yes. Itachi did not kill Shisui. However, Shisui's death must've impacted him the way his own impacted Sasuke. His father and everyone else must've come to the conclusion that Itachi had killed Shisui.

Itachi would've been the most broken of all Hokage. He would've made the same decision Hiruzen made when Kumo wanted Hizashi's corpse. However, Itachi's so badass that I doubt Kumo would've pulled that stunt with Itachi as Hokage. Did they do that with Minato as Hokage? Hell no. Minato had already gave a figurative bitch slap o' respect to A when they crossed paths. Hell, they were lucky to not die by Minato's hands. They were after the Kyuubi (which was in Kushina), afterall. They would've been viciously owned by the Yellow Flash.

[mattiaildivino]

according to the last chapter,Itachi has surely got the prerequisite to become hokage. he passed his life in the shadow,as shisui taught him,but if he had to be hokage he would be perfect. "he is too good,damn it!"

[Gats]

The thing which I find weird now is that Sandaime, even Danzou and the Elders didn't seem to have considered Itachi being Hokage before the Uchiha took action (so before the Uchiha massacre), it would solve everything, an Uchiha at the head of Konoha, a nice move against a rebellion. They knew that Itachi is a true Konoha supporter (I mean not influenced at all by his own clan), he even have the "right" spirit, and Minato was already dead, they needed a new leader since Hiruzen was so old.

edit : maybe because he was not famous enough (or at all), common people and ninja would not understand why he should be Hokage, but still, but even despite of that, this reason should not stand against a certain rebellion.

[kkck]

^Because itachi at the time was a 13 year old punk for the most part AND the leaf was overflowing with kage candidates at the time. Both tsunade and jiraiya were very much alive at the time and kakashi was in his 20s already meaning he was in an infinitely better position than itachi. Surely the sand has a young kage but at least he is almost done with puberty unlike itachi who would have still been capable of counting his pubes with 1 hand at the time. Seriously, it makes no sense whatsoever to make itachi hokage if there are people like jiraiya, tsunade and even kakashi around.

Also, on principle they shouldn't have made an uchiha at the time. What kinda message are they giving? That any clan can take control of the village if they plan a coup? That's plain dumb and not how a village should be managed. The uchiha were given a rough time but it is not like they did not did have their part in the whole thing. Madara tried to destroy the village twice, uchiha members followed madara after the first time he tried... The uchiha were ultimately not innocent. Madara claims that uchiha ended up as senju's dogs but does that even make sense? Even madara admitted the vast majority of the clans wanted hashirama as the hokage. Were those clans senju's dogs? Of course not, they were their comrades. Even with madara's story there are many wholes regarding the senju being the authoritarian dictators they were made out to be. How could they possibly be nearly as bad as they were made out to be by madara if they were selected by the rest of the clans which made the village? If anything, the uchiha were the only ones opposing the senju being the leaders of the village. If anything, the uchiha were pissed off because they were not in charge.

[Knatz]

The thing which I find weird now is that Sandaime, even Danzou and the Elders didn't seem to have considered Itachi being Hokage before the Uchiha took action (so before the Uchiha massacre), it would solve everything, an Uchiha at the head of Konoha, a nice move against a rebellion. They knew that Itachi is a true Konoha supporter (I mean not influenced at all by his own clan), he even have the "right" spirit, and Minato was already dead, they needed a new leader since Hiruzen was so old.

edit : maybe because he was not famous enough (or at all), common people and ninja would not understand why he should be Hokage, but still, but even despite of that, this reason should not stand against a certain rebellion.

He was too young and did not have the same reputation as an s-class ninja before he became a clan killer also I got the impression that there was a real bias against the uchiha so getting the support of the jounin council to agree would be tricky.There is a trend with most of the kages of nepotism(only people related to trained by or otherwise linked to a kage have become kage)

[kkck]

Just to add to the above, itachi had to avoid the last kunai with explosive tags in order to put his trap for madara in sasuke's eyes. He did that when he touched sasuke's forehead in his last breath.

[donyusufahmed]

^Because itachi at the time was a 13 year old punk for the most part AND the leaf was overflowing with kage candidates at the time. Both tsunade and jiraiya were very much alive at the time and kakashi was in his 20s already meaning he was in an infinitely better position than itachi. Surely the sand has a young kage but at least he is almost done with puberty unlike itachi who would have still been capable of counting his pubes with 1 hand at the time. Seriously, it makes no sense whatsoever to make itachi hokage if there are people like jiraiya, tsunade and even kakashi around.

Also, on principle they shouldn't have made an uchiha at the time. What kinda message are they giving? That any clan can take control of the village if they plan a coup? That's plain dumb and not how a village should be managed. The uchiha were given a rough time but it is not like they did not did have their part in the whole thing. Madara tried to destroy the village twice, uchiha members followed madara after the first time he tried... The uchiha were ultimately not innocent. Madara claims that uchiha ended up as senju's dogs but does that even make sense? Even madara admitted the vast majority of the clans wanted hashirama as the hokage. Were those clans senju's dogs? Of course not, they were their comrades. Even with madara's story there are many wholes regarding the senju being the authoritarian dictators they were made out to be. How could they possibly be nearly as bad as they were made out to be by madara if they were selected by the rest of the clans which made the village? If anything, the uchiha were the only ones opposing the senju being the leaders of the village. If anything, the uchiha were pissed off because they were not in charge.

What does age have anything to do with hokage? First of all, let me ask you how is hokage chosen? Everyone that has been hokage has had some sort of relation with the senju clan....I mean everyone. And you call that fear? I remember watching in the anime that Minato nominated himself. Jiraya and Tsunade were no where to be found. That does not send any kind of message, does the person have the requirement to be hokage, its a simple yes or no. Itachi would have been a great kage. If the higher ups of Konoha didn't want to give him the title of hokage, they could have given him a position of there to help cool down most of the uchihas and am pretty sure the rebellion would have lost its momentum. Does as you blame the uchiha, you should also blame the konoha higher ups for giving such an order.

[kkck]

Minato nominating himself in an anime is irrelevant. We also do know how the hokage are chosen, we have seen it first hand. There is a discussion of the higher ups in the village and someone is nominated (say, kakashi and danzo). Then a jonnin vote was mentioned, basically every elite ninja gets together and approve or disapprove of the ninja in question. With the system there is a limit as to who are candidates thanks to the board of higher ups however if it was such a terribly overwhelming thing to have a senju as a kage then they probably would have been able to avoid it (unless we talk about the voting being ridged but we have no evidence to suggest such a thing). Not to mention that kakashi, minato and sarutobi are at least not immediate senju clan members.

Jiraiya and tsunade not being anywhere to be found is irrelevant. As we saw in the tsunade arc, it is not outright impossible to find them (it is a matter of checking every pub, casino and whorehouse around).

Even if for some reason you think itachi met the requirements to be the hokage (I don't) it does not change that he was by far not the only one. Given that tsunade and jiraiya, who were extremely powerful, respected, experienced and notable war heroes, it would make no sense to give the position to itachi who was young, inexperienced, not a war hero, and largely unknown until he murdered his parents. Giving itachi, or any other uchiha, the title of kage would not have been the result of an uchiha being the most qualified but rather the result of the uchiha extorting the village for power. The uchiha threatening with a coup is by no means a reason to give then the title of kage, it is a reason to strike first, strike hard and avoid a civil and world war. It'd be like the republicans threatening to nuke the whitehouse and to avoid it the democrats hand every seat in congress, senate and the presidency to them. Its plain dumb and not how a country should be ran.

[Gats]

^Because itachi at the time was a 13 year old punk for the most part AND the leaf was overflowing with kage candidates at the time. Both tsunade and jiraiya were very much alive at the time and kakashi was in his 20s already meaning he was in an infinitely better position than itachi. Surely the sand has a young kage but at least he is almost done with puberty unlike itachi who would have still been capable of counting his pubes with 1 hand at the time. Seriously, it makes no sense whatsoever to make itachi hokage if there are people like jiraiya, tsunade and even kakashi around.

Also, on principle they shouldn't have made an uchiha at the time. What kinda message are they giving? That any clan can take control of the village if they plan a coup? That's plain dumb and not how a village should be managed. The uchiha were given a rough time but it is not like they did not did have their part in the whole thing. Madara tried to destroy the village twice, uchiha members followed madara after the first time he tried... The uchiha were ultimately not innocent. Madara claims that uchiha ended up as senju's dogs but does that even make sense? Even madara admitted the vast majority of the clans wanted hashirama as the hokage. Were those clans senju's dogs? Of course not, they were their comrades. Even with madara's story there are many wholes regarding the senju being the authoritarian dictators they were made out to be. How could they possibly be nearly as bad as they were made out to be by madara if they were selected by the rest of the clans which made the village? If anything, the uchiha were the only ones opposing the senju being the leaders of the village. If anything, the uchiha were pissed off because they were not in charge.

Actually I totally forgot he was 13...he just didn't look like 13 when you read the manga, it's like he didn't get old at all, this guy is definitively not human. Just forget what I said. ><

But the message they would send wouldn't be as you say, since no one but the elders knew about the Uchiha's rebellion. Besides they just didn't let the Uchiha having any advantage since Itachi was totally out of control from them, if it was someone else in the clan I wouldn't say this. And I just don't agree with the prime motivation of the Uchiha's clan, taking power is just the result of their discrimination. They didn't want the power for the sake of power to begin with. Only Madara wanted it in Konoha.

[kkck]

To be honest I have doubts about it being just the result of the discrimination.
http://www.mangafox.com/manga/naruto/v43/c399/13.html

For me this part is key. In the start, the uchiha were pretty much just another clan wanting a form of peace. It wasn't about uchiha vs senju. It was just a bunch of clans working together. Then senju were established as an important force in the village. The part were senju established itself as a major political force was by no means an accident however it was also not an attemp of the senju to impose itself over the uchiha. Madara made it clear, everyone chose hashira, everyone chose senju. It was the senju who started the whole village thing, it is their leadership which changed the ninja world. The uchiha were not chosen by everyone, hence you did not see an uchiha hokage but a senju. Even then, the uchiha rebelled (as by madara's admission). How could they not have the mistrust of the village in this scenario? In the begining they were not discriminated against, if that actually happened it was only because of the mistrust brought by both madara and those who followed in his footsteps.

I don't think it really matters if the whole village knew about the coup, even then the elders should outright not give the chance to an uchiha on principle. The village started with the ninja approving of someone, not by a clan imposing itself upon one another (which is what the uchiha were threatening to do). More so, there is actually the issue of the jonnin vote. If the sannin were around the is a very real chance they would not have voted for an uchiha, they could have actually not approved of 13 year old itachi or any other uchiha for that matter. In that sense, just nominating an uchiha for power did not quite solve the issue as the uchiha were very willing to take over the village without the consent of anyone before. Ultimately even merely nominating a potential uchiha kage to stop the coup is outright ridiculous.

Another issue is that actually making itachi the hokage would not have solved a few issues that some people seem to believe it would. Itachi for starters had a preference of the village over the clan. In this particular regard having itachi in power would not have put the uchiha in a position of power. In this regard the uchiha might as well have eventually just gone on with the coup.

Even then, I am rather skeptical of this discrimination thingy. How exactly were they discriminated against? Were their movements limited? Were they not a powerful and beloved clan in the village? Didn't they have the same benefits as any other clan? Madara told us the uchiha were given control of the police to keep them away from power and they were put in a corner of the village but I see two issues with this. How exactly were they stopped from advancing politically by being in charge of the police? Konoha does not trust them at all and think there is a real chance of them wanting to destroy the village and they hand over security of the entire village to them? Not the most sensible thing to do IMO. If the uchiha were so untrustworthy, would they have maintained control of the security in konoha for over 6 decades? That makes no sense AT ALL. Perhaps they were sent to the particular location they were at because it would have been simpler to spy on them but even under that scenario they were not actually treated any differently from any other clan. Ultimately, madara's story regarding the discrimination of the uchiha is full of holes and nonsensical stuff, perhaps it was his actual opinion or just him tampering with details to make the uchiha more simpathetic than they actually were (as he did with the detail that the kyubi was a natural disaster).

Now, I don't doubt the uchiha went through some rough stuff but that ultimately does not actually justify trying to take over the village.