Hokage Building, Jonin meeting.
After nearly four years of war in the Shinobi World, the number of Jonin had fallen considerably. Excluding the ninja clans, Konoha had had nearly a hundred and fifty Jonin before the war, but now only eighty-odd remained. Among them were Jonin like Kakashi, who would most likely have failed the regular assessment but had been provisionally promoted during wartime.
This Jonin meeting had almost the fullest attendance of any held in Konoha during the war. Even Tsunade and Orochimaru had emerged from the casino and the laboratory.
That included Kushina Uzumaki, who had also had to set aside supervising the renovations of her new home and spare some time for this boring meeting.
Hiruzen Sarutobi glanced irritably toward Kushina, who was now sitting beside Tsunade. Kushina had exposed her identity as the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki on the Land of Hot Water battlefield, but with her strength, she no longer needed ANBU protection.
Although her fellow Konoha ninja were glad Kushina had helped them win the war against the Cloud Ninja, they also feared the Nine-Tails' power. Even ninja from the same village feared that power, which could easily destroy a town. They did not understand anything about perfectly controlling a tailed beast's power; they only worried whether the Nine-Tails might go berserk one day.
Kushina did not care what the Konoha ninja thought of her, either. They were all idiots who understood nothing anyway.
What irritated Hiruzen Sarutobi, however, was that Kushina was actually preparing to live with Karn. All their relationship lacked now was a wedding.
Hiruzen Sarutobi very much did not want the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki becoming close to an outsider. Even if Konoha lost a jinchūriki capable of using a tailed beast's power, he still did not want to see the Nine-Tails fall into