The atmosphere in the Hokage Building's emergency conference room was even grimmer than in the hospital's isolation zone. The storm here was silent, yet far more deadly.
Tsunade sat at the head of the table, still carrying the faint medicinal scent of the hospital and a lingering trace of smoke. She had not changed out of her somewhat disheveled Kage Ceremonial Robe, which was itself a silent indictment. Spread before her were the incident report Kakashi had hastily compiled, complete with footage recorded by his Sharingan, and the Anbu's preliminary findings on the conduct of Mori no Suke's squad.
Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura sat across from her, their expressions dark. They had not expected Tsunade's counterattack to come so swiftly or so fiercely, much less for events to spiral almost out of control.
"I assume both advisors are already aware of what happened." Tsunade went straight to the point, her voice calm but carrying undeniable pressure. "An order issued without my approval and carried out at an utterly inappropriate moment caused the sealed energy to run out of control, left the key witness Uchiha Itachi in critical condition, injured several medical ninja, and severely damaged the hospital's facilities. More importantly-it caused Sasuke Uchiha, who possessed vital intelligence and was in an extremely unstable state, to escape!"
With every sentence she spoke, the two advisors' expressions grew uglier.
"Tsunade, you're shirking responsibility!" Utatane Koharu could no longer restrain herself. She slammed the table and rose. "Sasuke Uchiha's loss of control was his own problem! The instability of the sealed energy was already an established fact! Mori no Suke and his men were merely following orders. What did they do wrong?"
"Following orders?" Tsunade gave a cold laugh, her gaze sharp as a blade. "Forcing their way into an isolation zone