"Jin."
Night had fallen. In the Uchiha District, Fugaku, dressed in a long robe, looked at his second son perched on the courtyard wall. He squeezed the document in his hand, then decided to speak.
"There's news from the daimyo."
The daimyo?
At that, Uchiha Jin raised an eyebrow and casually asked, "What news?"
"Ahem... The daimyo says we should... let, let them go."
"Oh? Go on."
Hearing that, Jin nodded without surprise.
Let them go?
That sounded like something a head of state would say. After all, they had to consider the international situation.
Of course, whether to release them depended on the reason and the compensation.
"He just said this would be bad for harmony among the Five Great Nations and demanded that we release them as soon as possible." Fugaku shrugged.
"Anything else?"
"No."
"Nothing else?" Jin's voice suddenly rose.
Uchiha Fugaku was also at a loss for words. He nodded.
When he received the document, he hadn't expected that the daimyo of the Land of Fire would actually order their village, Konoha, to release people from another village!
What was this supposed to be?
Playing cat and mouse?
He rolled his eyes and waved a hand. "What do you think?"
By "you," he meant Fugaku and Shikaku specifically. Oh, right—the reanimated First Hokage counted as half a person, too.
"Uh... I mean, maybe we could discuss it with the daimyo."
Fugaku hesitated, then said,
"After all, the daimyo has to issue and approve the appointment of the Hokage."
That was the real reason Fugaku had come to speak with his second son.
They couldn't let their relationship with the daimyo get too bad. Otherwise, if Jin wanted to become Hokage one day, what would happen if the daimyo refused?
Would they just leave him without a