Hiruzen Sarutobi returned to the Hokage Building with the two advisors and Nara Shikaku.
The atmosphere remained exceedingly heavy.
Back in the office, Hiruzen Sarutobi slowly removed his Hokage hat and set it on the desk.
He did not sit down immediately. With his back to Utatane Koharu, Mitokado Homura, and Nara Shikaku, who had followed him in, he gazed out at Konoha through the window, his eyes filled with worry and anxiety.
Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura still wore expressions full of confusion, tinged with panic.
The two looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi's back, wanting to speak but hesitating.
In the end, Mitokado Homura spoke first, his voice unable to suppress its doubts. "Shikaku, tell us. What exactly happened just now?"
Only then did Nara Shikaku provide a somewhat more detailed explanation. Naruto could freely wield the Nine-Tails' incomparably vast Chakra, and neither Shimura Danzō, the Third Hokage, nor the Root and Anbu behind them had any ability to fight back against that power.
"A perfect Jinchuriki?!" Utatane Koharu blurted out. "How is that possible?! Since when... how could the Nine-Tails' Chakra be controlled so perfectly?!"
Mitokado Homura shuddered, abruptly turning toward Hiruzen Sarutobi's back as though hoping for him to deny it.
Yet Hiruzen Sarutobi remained standing there in silence.
That wordless response was more convincing than any words could have been.
At that moment, the two advisors finally understood.
They understood why Hiruzen Sarutobi had seemed so weak and humble just now, and why, despite having so many Anbu behind him, he had been unable to stop two "genin."
It was not that he did not want to, but that before such absolute power, the cost of forcibly stopping them might have been more than any of them could bear—and might even have affected the entire village.
Danzō's