Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-2143336-20171001221219/@comment-33156423-20171001222054

After Pains Assault Naruto was a celebrated hero in the village, and after the war there was no doubt he was the strongest and everyone wanted him to be the Hokage, the only reason Kakashi became Hokage was because Naruto still needed to learn a few more things as he was not ready on a professional and maturity level, so it was literally decided Naruto would be the Hokage, and we also saw Kakashi giving him the papers to study to be a Chunin, but a Hokage can make you a chunin regardless of the exam, so I believe he did not have to take the exam but given a direct Jounin rank like Neji just days before he was made Hokage.