Danzo... what was he plotting? As Chiba left the Hokage's Office, his brow remained tightly furrowed.
With five votes in favor, under the rule that the majority prevailed, Orochimaru's stance no longer mattered. Chiba had smoothly obtained the authority of commander.
Yet no matter what, he could not bring himself to feel happy. His heart was already filled with doubts.
The reason was none other than Danzo's final vote.
To be honest, Chiba had already been considering how to make an argument based on four votes and fight for the commander's authority. After all, there was no way Danzo and Orochimaru—those two men who were clearly harboring ulterior motives—would hand him that authority.
The two of them might even have reached some private agreement to jointly wield the commander's authority and achieve their respective goals.
But he had never expected Danzo, who had always been irreconcilably opposed to him and had repeatedly tried to get rid of him, to cast the most crucial vote in favor at this moment.
No matter how he thought about it, Danzo should never have cast that vote.
Chiba had been somewhat surprised when Utatane Koharu agreed first, but it was still understandable. Perhaps she did not trust Orochimaru very much and, compared to him, leaned more toward Chiba.
That was only reasonable.
First of all, Utatane Koharu was someone with an extremely clear distinction between public and private matters. Although she had once threatened to retire in order to prevent him from becoming an assistant, and could almost be said to have opposed his appointment as an assistant out of intense dislike, that did not mean she would let that dislike determine whether he was qualified for a task.
Secondly, Utatane Koharu had discussed the plan with him while it was being formulated. They