After parting ways with Sheng Shimon.
Tobitake Tonbo rested both hands behind his head.
"Just becoming acting Hokage has made even old acquaintances act like this.
What would happen if I became the real Hokage?"
He had never expected that merely becoming acting Hokage would make things between him and Sheng Shimon so distant.
It felt as though they had been separated by a hundred thousand miles.
The respect in Sheng Shimon's words felt, to him, like a curse that came with becoming acting Hokage.
Back when he had been the head of the Analysis Division, Sheng Shimon had been respectful too, but his pride had still been apparent.
They had been comrades who came out of the same trench.
But after becoming Hokage, that feeling... it did not sit well with him.
For someone like Tobitake Tonbo, it felt especially bad.
Only now did he realize that despite possessing great strength and holding a lofty position, he was still just an ordinary person.
Other than Kakashi's group, most people probably thought the same way Sheng Shimon did.
And this was only because he was acting Hokage...
No wonder the emperors of his past life all called themselves lonely ones. Fortunately, his position was not quite that extreme.
Only some people had changed.
His family, along with capable classmates like Kakashi, probably would not think too differently of him.
Perhaps, among the people who had once known him, he had merely become someone to brag about.
For example:
"I used to be teammates with Lord Hokage."
"I was once on a team with Lord Hokage."
Things like that.
Yet they were no longer teammates.
In a dark cave.
Multicolored light formed into human figures.
"Orochimaru really knows how to stir up trouble.
But Chief, Konoha suffered such heavy losses