Clash at the Negotiating Table

"Lord Raikage certainly kept me waiting. The scenery of the Land of Iron is quite nice, but after these past few days, I've grown a little tired of it." The Third Hokage opened with a broad smile, lightly calling out the Raikage for his late arrival.

But the Third Raikage did not play along. "The one in a hurry naturally has no patience. It wasn't Kumogakure that had people captured, so of course I'm not in a hurry."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's expression fell. What a brute. He was already the Kage of a Village, yet he did not know how to exchange veiled barbs. Why be so blunt?

Then, the Third Hokage shifted his gaze to Dada, who stood obediently behind the Raikage. He estimated that this was the child who had caused this entire chain of events—the Third Raikage's Second Son.

According to the intelligence Jiraiya had provided, that child had erupted with astonishing speed at the end, so fast that even a taijutsu expert like Tsunade had been unable to restrain him and had instead been hampered at every turn. He was suspected of possessing an entirely new Kekkei Genkai.

It was foreseeable. A genius belonging to Kumogakure...

Hiruzen Sarutobi knew nothing more, because everyone who knew had been locked up by Kumogakure. If he had known that Dada had also played a part in the capture of Danzo, Sakumo, and the others, he would likely have taken him even more seriously.

"Your Konohagakure ninja entered Kumogakure's sphere of influence without permission and attacked my son. Fortunately, I arrived in time to rescue him. Later, Konohagakure pretended to negotiate but actually launched a sneak attack. That is even more despicable. I am only willing to negotiate because I am giving you face. How does Konohagakure intend to resolve this matter?"

"The attack was merely a misunderstanding caused by a conflict between missions. Furthermore, we only entered the Land of Soup, not the Land of Lightning. As for what happened afterward, Elder Danzo was simply too eager to save people and misjudged the situation." Although Konohagakure had lost both face and the battle, they still had to put up a verbal defense.

To Dada's surprise, he had assumed the Nara clansman among the Hokage's guards would play an important role. Yet that pineapple-haired man kept his eyes on his nose and his nose on his heart throughout, saying nothing at all, as though the fierce verbal sparring at the negotiating table had nothing to do with him.

Dada thought it over briefly and guessed that, with matters having reached this point, Konohagakure's ninja clans were unwilling to take the blame and bleed for the Hokage faction.

After all, it was the Hokage faction that had started the trouble, and those captured were all members of the Hokage faction. If they jumped in now, they might be tied together when the time came to pay the price.

After all, the relationship between Konohagakure's ninja clans and the Hokage faction was extremely complicated. Even supporters of the Hokage faction had to carefully weigh the pros and cons.

Dada silently looked down on Konohagakure's political atmosphere. Perhaps this Nara ninja had only come for Torifu Akimichi's sake. He might offer Hiruzen Sarutobi advice in private, but openly, he probably intended to remain invisible.

The Third Raikage and the Third Hokage were old acquaintances. Their early verbal exchanges had merely been meant to apply or relieve pressure. Both sides understood that the real focus was the division of benefits to be discussed afterward.

"I have the people. It's simple—Konohagakure must compensate Kumogakure for its losses before it can redeem the prisoners." As he spoke, the Third Raikage handed Hiruzen Sarutobi a list.

"Anything on this list can be used as compensation. Every item has a corresponding point value. Kumogakure demands a total of one thousand points. Once the payment is made, the prisoners will be released. It's that simple." The Third Raikage appeared calm and composed, while inwardly giving Dada a nod of approval.

This proposal had also been put forward by Dada, and everyone had jointly assessed the point values.

They used points rather than money because many ninja-related items never circulated on the market. Judging them by money would inevitably be inaccurate.

Only once five hundred points had been paid would Kumogakure begin releasing prisoners. Tsunade, Danzo, and Sakumo—the three most important captives—would only be released once the full one thousand points had been paid.

This approach could effectively prevent Kumogakure from being cheated on items with unclear value. It also stretched a one-time transaction into an ongoing process, giving Konohagakure time to slowly scrape together sufficient value while allowing Kumogakure ample time to verify whether each form of compensation was reasonable.

And whose reasoning did it have to follow? Naturally, Kumogakure's.

Hiruzen Sarutobi opened the list. Even after years of deep calculation, he nearly lost his composure.

Not a single type of material needed by a ninja village had been left out. Explosive Tags, Soldier Pills, kunai, senbon—each had a different value, but they all had one thing in common: their values were extremely low.

Five thousand Explosive Tags only counted for ten points. Did they know how much Explosive Tags cost?

All kinds of secret techniques were also within the scope of the list, such as the secret techniques left behind by the Second Hokage. No specific names had been listed, because no one besides Hiruzen Sarutobi knew how many secret techniques the Second Hokage had left behind. It merely listed a broad category, stating that Kumogakure would verify whatever Konohagakure provided and assign different values accordingly. If the two sides could not agree on an item's value, no deal would be made.

That was equivalent to kicking the ball back to Konohagakure. Konohagakure had to prove the value itself.

There were also special categories.

Successful Summoning Contracts with Ryūchi Cave, Mount Myōboku, or Shikkotsu Forest: one hundred points each.

Successful Summoning Contracts with the Enma Clan: one hundred and fifty points.

Declare that no more missions would be accepted in places such as the Land of Frost, the Land of Soup, and the Land of Sound: one hundred points for each country declared.

Hiruzen knew that Ryūchi Cave, Mount Myōboku, and Shikkotsu Forest were precisely the places where his three disciples had their Summoned Beasts. Yet they had only signed their Summoning Contracts recently and could not even use them in actual combat. Hiruzen Sarutobi found it strange that Kumogakure knew about them.

Of the three, Hiruzen Sarutobi only attached particular importance to Shikkotsu Forest, since it had been the location of the First Hokage's Summoning Contract. He did not know much about the other two. He only knew that Jiraiya and Orochimaru had each encountered their own opportunities and successfully signed contracts there, and that both places possessed considerable combat strength.

Still, Kumogakure truly lacked capabilities in the area of Summoned Beasts, so it was only natural for them to have such a demand.

As for why the value of his own Summoning Contract with the Enma Clan was higher than the others, Hiruzen felt that was perfectly normal as well.

Overall, this list made the old one-time compensation agreements more workable, while also kicking the ball back to the defeated or disadvantaged side. No matter how displeased Hiruzen Sarutobi was now, he had already decided that if the need arose in the future, Konohagakure's compensation agreements would use this method as well.

From the current situation, if Konohagakure wanted to settle this through compensation in materials or money, its economy and finances would suffer severe blood loss. If it did not want that, it would have to bring out some of its foundations for exchange.

"They will definitely choose a combination of both methods. They may even proactively add new items to the list, and Konohagakure will dispute the values of certain entries. We can negotiate! We can compromise! There are only two core objectives: a Summoning Contract from any one of Mount Myōboku, Ryūchi Cave, or Shikkotsu Forest, and the Uzumaki Clan's Fuinjutsu records. Every other compromise is meant to push forward the items we will not compromise on. Even the value assigned to the Enma Clan's contract was deliberately inflated by me to mislead Konohagakure. The Second Hokage's secret techniques are the same. They are Konohagakure's lifeblood, and Konohagakure will never hand over anything good. But they may not care as much about the Uzumaki Clan's Fuinjutsu."

That was what Dada had told the Third Raikage the day before.

A was somewhat puzzled. "I understand the Fuinjutsu, but why do you care so much about those three Summoning Contracts?"

Dada gave a vague answer. "I read in a book that those three places are called the Three Great Sage Lands. They contain many secrets of the Shinobi World, and they do not merely have one or two Summoned Beasts, but entire races. There are countless benefits. Kumogakure does not have any respectable Summoning Contracts to begin with, so we definitely will not lose out."

Dada's true goal was still a ticket leading to senjutsu. But even Jiraiya, who had only recently signed his contract, probably did not understand that concept, so it was not appropriate to reveal it now.