"Koharu, what exactly were you thinking? Why did you suddenly agree? Weren't you unwilling...?"
Watching Chiba, who had already gone some distance from the Hokage Building, Mitokado Homura glanced at Utatane Koharu beside him and frowned. By now, he could no longer understand his old friend.
She had clearly been strongly opposed to Chiba taking part in Konoha's high-level decisions, yet in the end, she had still acknowledged him.
And she had even been the first to make her stance clear, pushing the matter toward Chiba.
It was far too contradictory. He simply could not understand what his old friend was thinking.
"Chiba is simply more suited to this plan."
Utatane Koharu answered decisively.
More suited to this plan—so she was considering it from an official standpoint.
Given Koharu's personality, she would indeed do that...
But why did I feel like something was off?
Hearing this, Mitokado Homura nodded instinctively at first, but then doubt crept in. Something felt wrong.
"Is that so?"
That was all Mitokado Homura said.
After that, the two did not speak again. Once they had watched Chiba leave, they departed the Hokage Building together.
Yet along the way, Utatane Koharu's brow gradually furrowed. Her mind was filled with the words Hiruzen Sarutobi, the previous Hokage and also her old friend, had suddenly said to her before she sought Chiba out to discuss this response plan.
No! I still can't tell him about this. If I told him, what would all these years of persistence amount to? If I could have told him, why would I have needed to persist?
In the end, however, she rejected that thought. Although she had helped Chiba this time, that did not mean she was willing to help him with such matters.
Everything had merely been forced by circumstance.
Everything