Mitokado Homura fell silent.
His proposal to strip Uchiha Mai of his position as director of the Mist Garrison Headquarters had simply been a gamble—a gamble that Uchiha Mai would not dare, or would not want, to fall out with Konoha.
Everyone knew that Uchiha Mai was very close to Tsunade, had good relationships with Jiraiya and Namikaze Minato, and was at least superficially on brotherly terms with Orochimaru.
The Naruto and Tsunade had already decided to strip you of your position. How could you possibly turn against them?
To some extent, they had intended to exploit the bond between Uchiha Mai and Tsunade. Feelings existed to be used, didn't they?
But if he were the one to deliver the order... he would most likely never return.
In fact, aside from Tsunade, Kakashi, and the others close to Uchiha Mai, anyone who delivered that order would most likely never return.
They had already used a cup of wine to strip him of military power, and now they wanted to put him on trial too. Were they not going to let him kill a few people to vent his anger?
They could kill them and pin it on Kirigakure deserters. Kirigakure had only just stabilized and was hardly peaceful yet.
Back then, when Tobirama had led people to Kumogakure for peace talks, he had been caught up in Kinkaku and Ginkaku's rebellion. It was perfectly normal for Konoha envoys to be killed by Kirigakure deserters.
Afterward, they could just drag out a few corpses. No matter—the deserters who killed the Konoha envoys had already been executed by him. Uchiha Mai would never allow a single Konoha shinobi to die in vain.
No one would be able to find fault with that.
Silence. Silence was tonight's Cambridge.
Tsunade turned to Utatane Koharu