The Nine-Tails' appearance had merely been a small interlude and did not affect anyone.
The group made their way grandly toward the Hokage's Office Building. As before, the conference room was packed with people.
Everyone qualified to attend was seated there. Even those unable to come had sent representatives in their stead.
Everyone who needed to be there had arrived, but once they were seated, they froze.
There was only one Hokage's seat. Ronglin was the Fourth Hokage, while Tsunade was now the Fifth Hokage. That created a problem.
Tsunade instinctively started toward the seat she used to occupy, which had always been kept for her, though it was not the main seat.
This girl...
Ronglin's mouth twitched as he grabbed Tsunade.
"Go back to your seat. Since the Fifth Hokage has already been elected, Konoha is yours to lead now. I'll just be an ordinary person."
"No!!"
Tsunade shook her head solemnly. "I took office as the Fifth Hokage because I wanted to manage Konoha and the Land of Fire well until you returned, not because I wanted to take your position."
"Sit down."
Ronglin pressed a hand onto Tsunade's shoulder and said with a smile, "There's no need to argue over something so pointless. I've been gone for ten years—far too long. I don't know anything about how things are now. Besides, you're Konoha's symbol at the moment. It's perfect; I can take a break too. Being Hokage is exhausting."
Sitting in the seat Tsunade had once occupied, Ronglin shook his head with a look of disdain. His words immediately drew a row of black lines across everyone's foreheads in the conference room.
The Third Hokage in particular looked at Ronglin with mixed amusement and exasperation, unsure what to say.
"All right."
Tsunade's first thought had been that,