I believe if the council had decided to declare Itachi or Shisui as successor to the 3rd Hokage there would have been a cessation/ending of the Uchiha uprising. Both Itachi and Shisui were looked upon as being the strongest of the Uchiha and qualified. Picking such young ninja I don't think would have been unusual either considering that they previously chose Minato over getting Jiraiya or Tsunade. Those are my thoughts, what are your guys thoughts?:ice:
I've been saying this for months!
The third hokage had already appointed the fourth hokage, retired, then come back out of retirement to be hokage again. He was obviously getting older and was ready to be retired. He could have and should have found and appointed a younger ninja who was talented and respected to become hokage. Itachi is a perfect candidate: Itachi was extremely talented. He was very well respected by the Uchiha and the other clans. He was recognized (even later by Kakashi and people of his level) as being extremely powerful. He became not just a jonin but even a leader in ANBU when he was still extremely young, and had the potential to grow much more powerful over time.
PLUS, and this is the biggest factor, by appointing an Uchiha to be the hokage it would have helped to alleviate the feelings of disrespect and disenfranchisement that the Uchiha were feeling. In short, the leaf would have gotten a great new Hokage and the Uchiha would have gotten the respect and recognition that they felt they deserved.
The fourth hokage was young when he became Hokage. Itachi was young too. He would have had plenty of time to become more powerful, would have been able to be trained and guided by the third hokage during his retirement, and would have prevented the Uchiha uprising and the subsequent massacre. Plus, Danzo, the evil jerk, wouldn't have been able to get his hands on any new sharingan.
The only problem is that Itachi's deal with Madara wouldn't have happened, and Madara may have come in for his revenge much earlier. And without Itachi there, Akatsuki might not have avoided the leaf so much while Naruto was still a young boy and relatively defenseless. Hiruzen wouldn't have known either of these things, however, when making his decision.
