Standing high above, Hashirama watched the excitement shining in everyone's eyes and felt almost overwhelmed.
He had never expected the tailed beasts to hold such enormous appeal in everyone's hearts.
Before this, he had assumed that ninjas would avoid these terrifyingly powerful tailed beasts at all costs.
His ingrained beliefs had made him realize—
He had been wrong.
His gaze shifted, and he glanced at Rikusei, who was taking the opportunity to slack off below.
Just as Rikusei had said before, ninjas had their own ideas about such matters.
"Hokage-sama, it's been organized."
An Anbu flashed onto the stage, gathering the legal provisions that had been negotiated and spreading fresh sheets of paper across the wooden board.
"Good work." Hashirama nodded at him. "Now, everyone may speak freely. If you have any thoughts, raise your hand and speak."
Whoosh!
The conference hall instantly filled with the sound of arms slicing through the air as everyone stared intently at the Hokage, who had picked up his pen.
Hashirama clearly felt what it meant for enthusiasm to burn like fire.
He pushed the wooden stand toward the floor below, meeting their fervent gazes head-on.
As Hashirama walked below the stage, he wrote the names of the tailed beasts one by one on the board behind him.
The Seven-Tails' special operation last time had already spread the tailed beasts' names throughout the village.
"First is Shukaku. Third row, third from the left—you go first."
Faced with countless eager gazes, Hashirama randomly selected one lucky ninja.
Everyone's eyes moved with Hashirama's voice, and many looked enviously at the first person chosen.
"Me?"
The utterly unremarkable chunin asked his neighboring seatmate in wild delight.
"Yes, you!"
"If you don't speak up now, I'm forcing you to switch seats with me!"
His companions' gritted-teeth voices convinced