The returned official letter lay quietly on the desk like a block of ice.
Four words written in vermilion carried a condescending arrogance. In the morning sunlight, they almost hurt to look at.
Shikaku Nara felt the air in the office grow heavy.
He wanted to say something—"Lord Hokage, what do we do next?"—but at the sight of Baishi's calm face, he swallowed the words.
Baishi did not look at the letter.
His gaze rested outside the window. The statues of his predecessors on Kage Rock stood sharply outlined in the morning light.
"Shikaku."
"Yes?"
"Notify the General Affairs Section, the Logistics Department, and the Foreign Affairs Reception Office. I want the village's highest-level reception plan on my desk before this afternoon."
Shikaku paused.
A reception plan?
"Lord Hokage, do you mean...?"
Baishi drew his gaze back to the desk. Instead of looking at the letter, he picked up a report on the Konoha Academy's teaching plans for the new term.
"People from the Daimyo Residence are coming." He spoke as though it had been inevitable all along.
No sooner had he said it than someone knocked urgently on the office door.
An ANBU member slipped inside and dropped to one knee.
"Lord Hokage, an urgent report."
"The Daimyo Residence has just issued an order. A 'Joint Financial Guidance Group,' led by special envoy Ito Masamune of the Financial Audit Office, will arrive in Konoha this afternoon to 'guide' and 'assist' with the village's recent finances and major project expenditures."
The ANBU member relayed the encrypted intelligence word for word.
Shikaku Nara's pupils contracted.
What a way to seize the initiative.
Konoha's official request for assistance had barely been rejected, and the Daimyo Residence's "guidance group" was already descending on them. "Guidance" and "assistance" were merely the pretext. They intended