Sarutobi reclined in the Hokage's exclusive office chair. He had put off the postwar conference for days, but now he could delay it no longer.
The Jonin had already packed the conference room, waiting only for him.
He knew this meeting could be called Danzo's all-out offensive. Who knew how many motions to impeach him would come his way?
He gently stroked the chair's armrest, which his repeated caresses had polished smooth and rounded, giving it a lustrous patina, as though he could feel the traces time had left upon it.
Then he reached for the Hokage hat on his desk and carefully placed it on his head.
Next, he stood, walked to the mirror, and carefully studied his reflection, adjusting his hat to make sure it looked flawless from every angle.
Looks like I've been dealt the finishing blow...
According to his eldest son, the surrender terms Danzo had imposed on Kumogakure were nothing short of a humiliating surrender of sovereign rights!
Yet the reparations from the other defeated parties, which he had handled himself, amounted to so little that even the most basic task of paying pensions to the families of shinobi who had died heroically seemed beyond reach.
The contrast was enormous. Would the Konoha Neutral Faction really still support him?
With these thoughts running wild through his head, he nevertheless straightened his Hokage Robe, opened his office door, and headed for the conference room.
Sarutobi stood outside the conference room. Inside, it was unusually quiet, as though everything had frozen. Even the usual bustle of people greeting one another had vanished without a trace.
It seems they've noticed something unusual about this postwar conference too.
Unusual?
It certainly was unusual!
Inside, some civilian-born Jonin who knew nothing of the situation stared at the cluster of Eastern