Hokage Building
The meeting room had the same arrangement as before, just as spacious and bright.
Though quiet, it was unlike the eerie silence of the postwar commendation ceremony. The room teeming with people was now as still as the surface of water.
This was the first meeting since the Fourth Hokage, Shimura Danzō, had taken office. Konoha's Jonin were unusually well represented, with only Jiraiya and Takahashi Yū absent.
It wasn't that Takahashi Yū refused to show him respect. The wheat was ripe...
As for Jiraiya, Danzo was already preparing to strip him of his ninja status. The final ultimatum was probably still on its way.
The heads and pillars of the major shinobi clans, the members of the Undying Squad, and the elites of the Eastern Front all sat in the meeting room. Rather than clustering with those groups, however, they had returned to their respective clans' sections.
The civilian ninja were concentrated in the middle of the room. They didn't have to turn their heads to look sideways; they could meet the Hokage's gaze simply by looking up.
Utatane Koharu, Mitokado Homura, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Orochimaru, Sakumo, and Tsunade sat closest to the head seat, waiting for Danzo to arrive.
Tsunade was utterly bewildered. She had spent the past half month looking after her younger brother Nawaki, Konoha's second Jinchūriki.
She was still reinforcing the Nine-Tails' seal when someone notified her that the Fourth Hokage's meeting was about to begin.
She had stayed home for half a month, and by the time she came out, even the leadership had changed. Now she was looking at her teacher curiously.
Weren't you so good at playing politics? How did you lose your position?
Everyone else in the room also gave Hiruzen strange looks. Didn't a Hokage who stepped down just