"Wait! Tsunade, you—"
Seeing Tsunade about to leave, Sarutobi Hiruzen immediately moved to chase after her.
The matter at the daimyo's palace hadn't been fully settled yet!
Called out like that, Tsunade paused, turned her head, and shot back in an utterly blunt tone:
"Sarutobi Hiruzen, not everyone is as cowardly as you. You're afraid of trouble—but we're not."
"I did all that for Konoha!"
Hiruzen knew very well that he had acted like a coward in some situations.
But as long as he could say it was "for Konoha," he felt no real weight in his heart.
"Heh! And that's exactly why you've been ousted now."
"…"
There's a line you just don't cross—you don't slap a man in the face, and you don't tear open his biggest wound while you're chewing him out.
Being driven out of office by all the Konoha clans acting together could be called the biggest stain on Sarutobi Hiruzen's entire life.
Tsunade didn't want to waste another breath on this topic with him.
She simply turned around and left.
If Hiruzen wanted to stop her again, he couldn't bring himself to speak at this moment.
Around them, many of the villagers had already noticed what was going on.
They had also seen Shiki leading his people away earlier.
"What do you think Golden Lion-sama is doing, taking so many shinobi with him?"
"Maybe it's some big mission?"
"Either way, as long as Golden Lion-sama is here, Konoha's gonna be fine for sure."
"Yeah, no matter how dangerous the mission is, if Golden Lion-sama goes, it's nothing to worry about!"
Even though Tsunade had become Hokage…
Shiki's prestige was in no way inferior to hers.
But no one found that strange. After all, Tsunade and Shiki were a couple—so what did it matter who had higher prestige?
The villagers of Konoha now had a mysterious sort of confidence in Shiki.
It was as if, so long as Shiki was here, Konoha would definitely be safe.
That kind of talk left Sarutobi Hiruzen standing there in silence for a long time.
Speechless for a long time.
Because during his own tenure, words like that had never once been spoken about him.
"…Did I really make a mistake somewhere?"
He let out a deep sigh, as if he had aged ten more years in an instant.
Lowering his head, Sarutobi Hiruzen quietly turned and left.
Meanwhile, in the Land of Fire—
Inside the daimyo's palace, a place of picturesque scenery and extravagant architecture…
The one-armed Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu were kneeling in the center of the grand hall,
Facing the daimyo of the Land of Fire.
To put it nicely, he was corpulent.
To put it less kindly… he looked like a pig stuffed into luxurious robes.
There was also a woman inside the villa whose weight was only slightly less than the daimyo's.
This was the daimyo's daughter,
The so-called Princess Chiba of the palace.
"So the new Hokage refuses to serve as a mere bodyguard for my palace's princess… and she dares to deny me this much face? Is that what you're telling me?"
After finally slipping past Konoha's guards, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura had made their way to the daimyo's palace.
Once there, they spared no effort in slandering Shiki and Senju Tsunade in front of the daimyo.
To be a daimyo did not mean one was a fool.
It was just that, for decades, Sarutobi Hiruzen had been too timid and accommodating.
Over time, the daimyo had come to believe that Konoha was nothing special.
That the so-called Shinobi World Wars were nothing more than "minor skirmishes."
So now, upon hearing that the new Hokage dared to ignore the will of the daimyo's palace, the daimyo was truly enraged.
At his side, Princess Chiba wore an even more arrogant expression.
"I am Princess Chiba of the Land of Fire. Having the Hokage serve as my bodyguard is me doing her a favor!"
Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura both had the urge to laugh.
Not at the daimyo's palace itself,
But because they both knew that while it might be barely acceptable to send some jōnin as bodyguards…
To have Tsunade act as Princess Chiba's personal guard— even if Tsunade herself agreed, that man of hers, Shiki, would never accept it.
Those two hot-tempered monsters would explode in anger before they agreed to something like that—unless they were already dead and haunting the place.
This was precisely why Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura had come to the daimyo's palace in the first place.
They wanted to use the power of the daimyo to put a collar on Tsunade and Shiki.
Hmph. No matter how strong you are, in front of the daimyo of the Land of Fire,
You still have to bow your head and obey obediently.
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