Takikage

"This matter..." Takikage hesitated for a moment, then forced a smile and said, "What does the Akatsuki have to do with our Takigakure?"

He looked at Sakura Haruno and added, "Shouldn't this be something that your Five Great Shinobi Villages consider?"

That's what he meant by "if it collapses, there are tall people to hold it up."

Sakura Haruno gave him a half-smile before speaking seriously, "Takikage- sama, have you forgotten? The Akatsuki's purpose..."

"We need to collect Jinchūriki!" Sakura stared into his eyes and said, enunciating each word clearly.

Takikage's expression changed, and he took a deep breath, forcing himself to remain calm as he asked, "What does that have to do with our Takigakure? Our village is weak; where would we find any Jinchūriki?"

Takikage vehemently denied it, but the girl had already seen the answer in his eyes.

The Seven-Tails Jinchuriki is most likely in Land of Waterfalls, the Takigakure!

"Really not?" Sakura Haruno stared intently at him, her eyes like knives piercing his face, and asked in a deep voice, "Then why is Akatsuki in your country? Are they here for tourism?"

Cold sweat beaded on his forehead and nose. Takikage quickly wiped his face and chuckled awkwardly, "Heh, heh... maybe they have other motives? Or maybe they're just using this as a smokescreen, deliberately drawing everyone's attention to our country while secretly carrying out their real plans elsewhere?"

In Takikage's view, what's the difference between Akatsuki and Konoha?

Regardless of who discovered that Takigakure Jinchūriki, the result was the same for the Waterfall Ninja: the Tailed Beast was taken away.

The difference is that Akatsuki, as an underground organization, should only operate in secret; while Konoha might launch a war against the Land of Waterfalls in order to seize the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki!

From this perspective, Konoha is even more ruthless than Akatsuki.

Takikage could instantly come up with several reasons to start a war, such as accusing Takigakure of stealing the Seven-Tails from Konoha through unfair means... He didn't even need an excuse. He just needed to tell everyone that a weak ninja village possessed the powerful Seven-Tails Jinchuriki.

The Jinchuriki of the Tailed Beasts have always been the exclusive domain of powerful nations, who are not allowed to touch them; for a ninja village to possess a Tailed Beast is as dangerous as a three-year-old child carrying gold in the marketplace. A common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure is a crime!

If it weren't for a stroke of luck, the Land of Waterfalls would never have had the chance to capture the Seven-Tails. The power of the Tailed Beast was too tempting. Although he knew that if the news leaked, the Takigakure would be in extreme danger, the Takikage was determined to protect such precious power at all costs!

Takikage stubbornly refused to admit it, making the conversation difficult to continue.

Sakura Haruno sighed, having no interest in beating around the bush, and said directly, "The Seven-Tails Jinchuriki is right here, isn't he? There's no point in denying it!"

"If Your Excellency insists on pinning baseless accusations on our Takigakure, then as the Takikage, I have no choice but to firmly deny it," the Takikage said, feigning helplessness.

"You can lie to us like that, but can you really lie to Akatsuki like that too?" Sakura frowned. "They already knew about you. Akatsuki's power is something you can't contend with! At this critical moment, are you still unwilling to accept Konoha's help? Would you rather watch Jinchūriki?"

"Assuming we really do Jinchūriki," Takikage countered, "Your so-called help is just taking her back to your village, right?"

"Our Konoha has no intention of taking your village's Jinchūriki as our own! After overcoming the Akatsuki crisis, your village's Jinchūriki are free to return to your country at any time. However, if you continue to be so stubborn and refuse our help, you will regret it when Akatsuki arrives!"

"The Seven-Tails isn't in our village." Takikage ignored the girl's pleas and simply shook his head in denial.

He sneered inwardly. What good were sweet words? He had witnessed countless times in the Shinobi World how someone would use flattery to extract crucial information and then immediately turn their back on you!

Moreover, the more powerful the Five Great Nations are, the more adept they are at such rogue behavior; otherwise, why would they be called the five major rogue states in private?

He insisted that the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki was not in Takigakure.

If they admit that Takigakure truly possesses the Seven-Tails, what is Konoha's so-called help? They'll likely use the pretext of threatening the Jinchūriki to force her back to Konoha for protection. Then, it will be difficult to determine whether the Jinchūriki belongs to Takigakure or Konoha! Konoha has a million ways to Jinchūriki with them.

Moreover... thinking about the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki's personality gave Takikage a headache.

Given Fu's personality, she might not even need Konoha to pull any tricks; she'd simply stay in Konoha and be completely absorbed in the place...

"Thank you for your concern," Takikage said, having regained his composure, shaking his head. "It's just that our village truly lacks Jinchūriki, so we're not worried that the Akatsuki will actually attack the village, nor will we regret it."

Sakura Haruno couldn't glean anything from his resolute gaze.

She bit her lower lip, unsure of what to say for a moment; how could Takigakure have such a deep distrust of Konoha, preferring to risk confronting Akatsuki rather than accepting Konoha's help, as if Konoha were a greater threat than Akatsuki.

This really surprised her.

What are the Waterfall Ninja thinking?

In fact, this isolated ninja village had always been skeptical of the information provided by Konoha.

In their view, besides what Konoha claimed, there was another possibility. That is, the so-called "Akatsuki" organization might just be a decoy, or even Konoha manipulating them behind the scenes to scare the other ninja villages and test whether they possessed the Seven-Tails. Upon closer examination, this possibility seemed unlikely. In the more than sixty years since Konoha was founded, how many battles have the five great ninja villages fought for the Tailed Beast? They had never heard of any underground organization being able to snatch the beast from the jaws of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

From Takikage's perspective, Konoha's sudden announcement that an unheard-of organization existed in the Shinobi World, inexplicably collecting Tailed Beast and possessing nearly a dozen "Kage"-level ninjas, making them capable of rivaling the Five Great Shinobi Villages, naturally aroused Takikage's suspicion. If the Five Great Shinobi Villages could be so easily rivaled, how could Takigakure, which also possessed Seven-Tails Jinchuriki, remain so weak?

Takikage could believe in the existence of Akatsuki, but he absolutely refused to believe that Akatsuki was stronger than the major ninja villages. Perhaps there were indeed criminals plotting against the Seven-Tails, but he believed that with their hidden location and the village's strength, they could protect the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki's power from an underground organization.

The Takigakure has been living in its own world for too long, lacking sensitivity to changes in the outside world, and still believing that the Shinobi World is still the same as before. This is the root of the Takikage's unbelievable thinking.

In short, no matter what, Takikage refused to admit that Jinchūriki in their village.

Faced with such an unyielding person, the girl didn't have many options. She couldn't very well arrest them all and check if they Jinchūriki, could she? That would completely destroy the alliance with Konoha.

She turned around and exchanged a Sasuke.

Sasuke nodded slightly.

It seems the Sharingan might come in handy.

Of course, they weren't so reckless as to cast Genjutsu on Takikage in front of so many people. Sakura Haruno came to negotiate, not to wipe out Takigakure.

When faced with a problem, you should first try to solve it, rather than trying to find the person who caused it.

The ensuing talks became tedious and routine. Once sensitive topics were no longer discussed, the atmosphere relaxed considerably, and Waterfall Ninja, who was sitting next to me, would occasionally chime in with a few words.

After several rounds of meaningless chatter, Sakura Haruno realized that Takigakure was indeed quite isolated; they had only vaguely heard of many of the major events that Konoha had been famous for in recent years.

They had heard about the Uchiha Clan Massacre, and they had only heard rumors about the war between Sand Ninja and Konoha a couple of years ago. As for the latest events, such as the conflict between Konoha and Akatsuki, and the cooperation between Konoha and Mist Ninja, they were completely in the dark.

"The world changes so fast," Takikage remarked after listening to Sakura's explanation.

"Yes, if Lord Takikage is interested, you can take advantage of this Chunin Ninja Exams to travel abroad, visit Konoha, and see how the world has changed. Konoha will welcome you with open arms!" the girl said with a smile.

After gaining a deeper understanding, Sakura gradually came to comprehend the psychology behind Takigakure's resistance to contacting the major ninja villages. These were ninjas who hid themselves away from war, living a life of seclusion, and harboring a strong distrust of the major ninja villages. Perhaps this was the reason why Takigakure had been able to survive in the cracks of world wars over the years.

Waterfall Ninja hopes that everything in the outside world is irrelevant to them and rejects any change.

If Takikage were willing to open his eyes to the changes in the world, perhaps things could turn around? Sakura tried inviting him.

"Hmm..." Takikage hesitated for a moment, then said, "I'll think about it."

"We're heading back to Konoha tomorrow. If you've made up your mind, there's one last chance," Sakura Haruno said.

"Shibuki, take the Konoha envoy to rest." Takikage shook his head noncommittally, not answering the girl, but turning to one of his Taki Ninja Way subordinates.

"Yes, Shibuchi!" A young man with short, messy hair bowed and led Sakura Haruno and Sasuke outside.

Takikage watched the two figures disappear, lost in thought for a long time.

Watching the girl disappear into the distance, until the sound of her light footsteps faded from his ears, he asked one of the Waterfall Ninja beside him, "Suien... where's Fu? Where did she run off to again?"

"Uh..." Waterfall Ninja hesitated for a moment, looked around, and answered cautiously, "It doesn't seem to be in the village."

"What?" Takikage's face immediately darkened. "That wild girl! I've already married her, don't leave the village so easily, she never listens!"

His face flushed with anger, he turned and snapped, "Didn't I tell you to keep an eye on her? You can't even handle something this simple!"

Waterfall Ninja, his face beaded with cold sweat, hurriedly replied, "Lord Takikage, Lady Fu can fly, and her strength far surpasses ours. We simply cannot stop her!"

"Useless! You can't even do one thing right!" Takikage yelled. "Go find her! And, under no circumstances can she run into the envoys from Konoha!"

"Yes, Lord Takikage!" The Waterfall Ninja knelt on one knee, nodded in agreement, and then asked worriedly, "The envoy from Konoha seems to have discovered our secret... What should we do?"

Takikage glared coldly at Waterfall Ninja: "This is none of your business!"

He knew what his subordinate meant by asking that question!

(Making up on the previous few missed updates. I fell asleep halfway through writing and woke up after 3 a. m.)