"Sigh..."
Hinata sighed. Quite a few people in the hallway had heard Sasuke shout when he pushed open the door.
"Mami, step outside for now."
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
Mami Mizuta glared at Sasuke before leaving, but he pretended not to notice.
As Mami Mizuta left, she made sure to close the door behind her.
Then Hinata looked at Sasuke. "You're right. The Daimyo's orders are nothing more than scraps of paper to me."
"Then why did I hear from my father that the whole village is preparing for war?"
Hinata did not answer Sasuke's question. Instead, she asked, "Sasuke, what do you think of ninja?"
"What do I think?" Sasuke frowned, a little impatient, but he still kept his emotions in check.
Sasuke had never really given much thought to what a ninja was.
As the second son of the head of the Hidden Leaf Village's strongest clan, he had been exposed to ninja from the moment he was born.
To him, ninja had long since become part of everyday life.
But if he had to define what a ninja was, he could not come up with an answer right away.
"Let me ask you something else. What do you think a Hokage is?"
"The strongest person, who protects the village and leads it toward prosperity?"
"Haha, that certainly counts as an answer, but that isn't all I am."
Sasuke was right. To the Hidden Leaf Village, the Hokage was indeed such a figure.
And since Hinata had become Hokage, the Hidden Leaf Village's strength had undergone a tremendous transformation.
Some even felt that the Hidden Leaf Village was now as strong as it had been when it was first founded.
This had also brought Hinata's prestige in the Hidden Leaf Village to unprecedented heights.
"What... do you mean?"
Hinata walked