In a vast conference room, the Kage of the five great ninja villages sat around a circular table, with the Land of Iron's general, Atsumori, who was acting as the meeting's moderator, also occupying a seat… The Land of Iron did not participate in the Shinobi World War, maintaining a neutral stance, and only they could host such a meeting.
Although the five Kage seemed to be sitting equally, the distance between them was actually quite significant. After all, they had been trying to bash each other's brains out not long ago; it was unreasonable to expect them to be buddy-buddy now.
Each Kage sat in their seat, with two guards standing on either side of them. The rest of their entourages stood against the wall, a good distance from the circular table. On Konoha's side, Hyuuga Hiashi and Yamanaka Inoichi stood beside the Third Hokage.
Undoubtedly, these two were powerful sensory-type ninjas, one specializing in visual reconnaissance and the other in chakra perception. If anyone tried to pull any tricks during the talks, Konoha would certainly be able to detect it immediately. And after detecting it…
The Third Hokage of this era wasn't incapable of fighting, either.
Habara's gaze swept across the room, and he noticed that a few villages were particularly "militarily robust."
The Third Tsuchikage, Onoki "of Two Scales," was skilled in the Dust Release Kekkei Tota, and his Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique was arguably the ninjutsu with the highest attack power and destructive force in the ninja world at this time.
Among the guards Onoki brought were two giants over two meters tall and a middle-aged ninja who was only one and a half meters tall. These three were the Third Tsuchikage's son, Kitsuchi, the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, Han, and the Four-Tails Jinchuriki, Roshi.
On the Hidden Cloud side, the A-B brothers were naturally present, along with the Lava Release ninja Dodai, whom Habara had encountered before.
As for the Hidden Sand, since the Fourth Kazekage had unfortunately died due to various reasons, the person attending the meeting was Chiyo, who was temporarily exercising the authority of the Kazekage… The Hidden Sand lacked successors, so the old lady had to step up herself.
Speaking of which, when the Third Hokage began to be active on the battlefield, Chiyo was already famous in the Hidden Sand. Later, when Tsunade began to be active on the battlefield, Chiyo was still a pillar of the Hidden Sand. And even later, when Naruto had grown up, the Hidden Sand still needed Chiyo to sacrifice herself.
To put it nicely, Chiyo was strong and resilient in her old age. To put it less nicely… how did the Hidden Sand even become one of the Five Great Ninja Villages?
As for the Hidden Mist, the person attending the meeting was the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, and his guards were, unsurprisingly, the new generation of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. But regardless, the Hidden Mist's situation was better than the Hidden Sand's.
Because there had been no news of the Three-Tails' revival, Yagura was probably not yet a Jinchuriki at this time. But even so, there were already four Jinchuriki in this conference room, making it a truly high-energy gathering.
However, Konoha was absolutely not afraid of such things, because Uzumaki Kushina was present.
On the one hand, Kushina was from the Uzumaki clan, inherently possessing a "Tailed Beast Buster" buff. On the other hand, she now had better control over the Nine-Tails' power.
If Kushina's mastery of the Nine-Tails' power had seemed a bit unrefined before, now she could use the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode without any problems… Before, she had to control the entire Nine-Tails, but now she only needed to control half of it.
With Kushina's sensory abilities, even if she didn't know the other villages' Jinchuriki, she should have noticed the several exceptionally powerful chakras in the room by now. Consequently, she seemed to be getting eager for action.
Her state made Habara, who was standing beside her, a little apprehensive. What did this lady want to do? Did she realize she was a postpartum mother? Okay, actually, Habara wasn't much better. Wasn't he just calculating the fighting strength of each village and thinking about what he should do if something unexpected happened?
While those standing behind were considering all sorts of messy things, the moderator, Atsumori, was already halfway through his opening remarks.
"…Therefore, the devastating Shinobi World War has reached this stage. Regardless of your war aims and not discussing the reasons for prior responsibilities, the Kage gathered here today should discuss how to end this meaningless war, which all parties are also unable to continue.
Here, on behalf of the Land of Iron, I would like to express my gratitude to Konoha, Hidden Sand, and Hidden Mist for putting aside their differences and proposing the Five Kage Summit."
The samurai Atsumori's meaning was very clear: you shouldn't talk about why the war started, don't pursue responsibility for starting the war, and don't think about what results you want to achieve. Let's all take a step back and directly talk about how to end the war.
However, as soon as he finished speaking, the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, immediately snorted coldly, "That's easy to say, directly letting the culprit who started the Shinobi World War off the hook. In the end, this Shinobi World War began brewing from the Hidden Sand. Does the Hidden Sand not need to take any responsibility?"
Chiyo glanced at the little old man, then said unhurriedly, "The Hidden Sand only wanted to investigate the truth behind the Third Kazekage's death. However, the Hidden Stone brazenly moved south, attempting to invade the Land of Wind."
"Hmph, did investigating the truth behind the Kazekage's death require mobilizing troops to invade the Land of Rivers? You know best what your true intentions were," Onoki retorted sarcastically.
That's why samurai Atsumori had just said not to pursue responsibility. The Shinobi World War was a messy affair; how could it be sorted out in a short time? Talking about that aspect would only lead to endless arguments, or first arguing, and then fighting if they couldn't win the argument.
Before a conclusion could be reached here, the Fourth Raikage joined the "battlefield." Although personally he wanted to怼 the Hidden Stone more, since they had killed his father, from a strategic perspective, he had to怼 Konoha first. The Hidden Stone would have to wait.
"Even if we don't discuss the cause of the war, what about Konoha's sudden false accusation against the Hidden Cloud, leading to the Fourth Hokage's death? This was a serious frame-up. The war had already begun to subside, but Konoha used this as an excuse to brazenly send more troops to the front lines, and then launched a surprise attack while we were unprepared, forcing our Hidden Cloud to withdraw from the Land of Rice Paddies… It was undoubtedly Konoha that disrupted the strategic balance again and attempted to prolong the war. And now you hypocritically hold this Five Kage Summit. You are the obstacle to peace!"
Habara blinked. So the Raikage's brain wasn't completely filled with muscle. Look at how he laid on those accusations, that blame, that whitewashing of the Hidden Cloud's defeat… Wow, truly worthy of being a village leader.
The Third Hokage simply ignored the Raikage's nonsense. Composure, he needed composure. Don't be like an old lady, babbling on and on. Didn't you hear Atsumori say that the topic of discussion now was how to achieve peace?
Of course, the topic was peace. The attitudes of the various villages were interesting, it was clear that everyone was slapping a gun on the table, and loudly declaring "Peace, everyone needs to have peace, and I will take down anyone who disturbs the peace."
Disagreements were simply unmanageable.
At this time, Habara glanced at Kushina again, and he noticed that the more intensely the argument at the conference table became, the more excited this lady seemed to get.
______________
patreon.com/Shinobi_Scrolls