Five Kage Summit

"I feel like I was called back to be your shield and work assistant!"

Tsunade rolled her eyes as she spoke, dripping two drops of medicine into the Laboratory chamber.

A hissing sound rang out, and the White Mouse in the experimental box began to rapidly become thin and withered. On the contrary, a human ear grew out of the back of the White Rat, which looked very irritating.

Tsunade deftly grabbed the White Rat, sliced off its ear with a flick of her wrist, and handed it to Shizune, who was standing nearby. "Go check it out and see if there's any rejection reaction!"

Vegapunk, standing to the side, chuckled, "If you really enjoy being Hokage, then I can have those AI robots hand over the job to you."

"No thanks, no thanks!" Tsunade's body trembled slightly as she thought of the large amount of documents and the intricate family relationships, and she suddenly felt a headache coming on. "I'll just be your lab assistant! At least it's a nine-to-five job, and I can even have a few drinks!"

"Besides, your AI robot is way better than me at handling Konohagakure's administrative affairs! I remember that Sand Ninja Village in the Wind Country also uses Administrative Robot to handle its affairs, right?!"

"If this thing even exists, why did you make me come back? You could have just chosen anyone as Hokage!"

"Konoha is far more complicated than other ninja villages!" Vegapunk shook his head. "Without your prestige, it would be impossible to get those clan ninjas to obey the orders of the Administrative Robot!"

While the Sand Ninja Village certainly had its share of darkness, its internal power structure was far less complex than that of the Konoha. Furthermore, the entire village was terrified of Vegapunk at the time, and with Pakura being the only young Kage Level in the Sunagakure, the other ninjas naturally dared not object even if robots were used to handle government affairs.

In Konoha, if Tsunade's banner isn't invoked, Vegapunk doesn't think those clan ninjas would obey the orders of the Administrative Robot.

"Ha, it seems I still have quite a bit of prestige!" Tsunade said with a hearty laugh.

As the last descendant of the Senju Clan, the founder of medical-nin, and having saved countless ninjas during several Ninja World War, Tsunade enjoys immense prestige in Konoha, which is precisely why Vegapunk needs her help.

"Oh, right, there's one more thing," Vegapunk said to Tsunade as if he had just thought of something. "Logically speaking, the Five Kage Summit should have been held a month ago. Now that you've officially taken office, shouldn't it be about time for you to set off?"

"The Five Kage Summit, is it to discuss the issue of the Tailed Beast?" Tsunade murmured, then suddenly looked at Vegapunk: "Tell me honestly, does this have anything to do with your original body?"

"There must be a connection!" Bejapunk raised an eyebrow and admitted without hesitation. "Otherwise, how could Nagato have obtained the Tailed Beast of the Sea Country Wind Country? With his Rinnegan? Let alone him, even the Sage of Six Paths, with his main body's setup, would have been able to crush the Sage!"

"So... you just admitted it like that..." Tsunade's expression was a little strange. "By the way, this clone of yours isn't also related to the original, is it?"

"There is indeed a connection... To be precise, I shouldn't call it a clone, but rather an avatar!"

Vegapunk cut open the White Rat, looked inside at the mycelium-like structure of White Zetsu skin cells injected into it, and said calmly.

With a whoosh, Tsunade and Vegapunk turned their heads and saw Shizune, who had just returned after examining the ears on the backs of the White Mouse.

At that moment, Shizune dropped everything she was holding and stared at Vegapunk in astonishment.

However, Vegapunk shrugged. "Why be so surprised by something like this? I reckon the clan leaders and the like in Konoha probably already had some suspicions about it, right?"

"Then you overestimate them. Apart from Shikaku, no one else has ever thought that you are the original clone, such an outrageous thing as an absurdity! They just suspect that you may have some connection with the original Vegapunk!"

"Also, Shizune is a really good kid. She's been wandering around with me all this time. Unlike those dirty politicians in the ninja village who have seven or eight twists in their hearts, it's perfectly normal for her to be simple-minded!"

As she spoke, Tsunade glared fiercely at Vegapunk again. "Did you support Konohagakure's attack on Nagato?"

"No, no, no, that's something he was supposed to do anyway. You know, the Akatsuki he belonged to was destroyed because of Konoha's Root. Even his comrades who had always depended on him were forced to their deaths. Do you think he would let Konoha go?"

Vegapunk shook his head. He was very clear about what he should and shouldn't admit. Moreover, even if Nagato wasn't controlled by Vegapunk, he would eventually attack Konoha, not only because of the existence of the Nine-Tails, but also because of the hatred between him and Konoha.

In reality, Tsunade might not have cared much about the deaths of figures like the Third Hokage Danzo, but Konoha had lost over 1,000 ninjas at the time, and Tsunade would not have ignored the deaths of these ordinary ninjas.

"The Konoha Village's Root?! What have those old man and Danzo done now?!" Tsunade said angrily.

Vegapunk kindly explained what had happened to him, "I remember you met Jiraiya Nagato then, right? Didn't he have two friends with him at the time?"

"The matter is actually quite simple. Danzo and Hanzo the Salamander of the Rain Country conspired to capture Konan, the girl in their trio, and then forced Nagato and Yahiko to kill each other in order to release Konan. As a result, Yahiko directly crashed into Nagato's Kunai."

"After that, Nagato was greatly stimulated and became extreme and cynical. Having experienced the war years, you should know what kind of people are like after being stimulated, right?"

"Damn it! It's that Danzo guy's doing Danzo! What's he doing, running around the Rain Country causing trouble?" Tsunade said angrily. Danzo from her furious expression, if Danzo came back to life and reappeared in front of her, there was a possibility that he would be beaten to death by Tsunade again.

"Who knows? Maybe they discovered Nagato's Rinnegan." Vegapunk shook his head; he didn't care about the reasons behind what happened back then.

"To be honest, Nagato not going on a killing spree is already giving me face! Given his condition after the modifications, he could easily wipe out the entire Konohagakure!"

"Modification?" Tsunade gave Vegapunk a strange look, vaguely realizing that Nagato was probably also an experimental subject created by Vegapunk. During this time, Tsunade had discovered that Vegapunk's favorite thing to do was to make ninjas come to him for experiments, and the more rare the ninja's abilities, the more Vegapunk liked them.

Thinking about it this way, Vegapunk would naturally not let go of something like the Rinnegan, which only exists in one pair in the Ninja World.

"Alright, I'll attend the Five Kage Summit, but what exactly do you want to do? You'd better tell me clearly!"

"I don't want Konoha to be unknowingly dragged into this and become cannon fodder in your hands!"

Hearing Tsunade's words, Vegapunk rolled his eyes. "Whatever, just do what you want! I can guarantee that Nagato won't be able to cause any trouble this time!"

"He had gathered all the plans executed by the Tailed Beast, which were already part of everyone else's schemes. The person I wanted to scheme against was just the one behind the scenes!"

Tsunade didn't know much about Vegapunk's plans, but she didn't think Vegapunk would really harm her or Konoha —it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Konoha was now Vegapunk's possession, and no one would really harm their own property.

Therefore, Tsunade still went to the Land of Iron as usual and participated in the Five Kage Summit.

"Wow, so much snow! Is this the Land of Iron? The environment is really harsh!"

Standing behind Tsunade, Shizune walked on the snow and said with some emotion.

"Although the Land of Iron has a cold climate, it is rich in metal minerals. It is precisely because of this harsh climate and abundant metal minerals that the samurai class has been able to continue to exist in this country!"

It was Kakashi Hatake of Land of Iron, he was reminded of the Snow Country. The two countries were quite similar, except that the Land of Iron was located in the center of the continent, while the Snow Country was much more remote.

Clearly, the three of them came to the Land of Iron, a permanently neutral country, to participate in the Five Kage Summit.

Each village leader participating in the Five Kage Summit can bring two bodyguards, and Tsunade brought Kakashi and Shizune.

Needless to say, Shizune has been taking care of Tsunade throughout her many years of travels, and the bond between Tsunade.

As for Kakashi, he is the candidate for the Sixth Hokage. When he participates in the Five Kage Summit, he will be accompanied by the next leader of the ninja village as his bodyguard, which is also a long-standing tradition of the Five Kage Summit.

As they approached a strange-looking mountain peak, Tsunade and her companions finally encountered samurai who had come to greet them.

To Shizune's great disappointment, these so-called samurai were dressed in full armor and wore face shields that looked like gas masks, which were quite different from the samurai in the novels.

Of course, only Shizune had this feeling; both Kakashi and Tsunade had obviously anticipated it.

The samurai of the Land of Iron are said to be able to compete with ninjas using only their swordsmanship. Of course, they can only compete briefly; whether they can actually win is another matter.

Although samurai, who also use the Supernatural Power of Chakra, can be considered a variant of ninjas to some extent, without the power of Ninjutsu, samurai are clearly far less powerful than ninjas.

To compensate for their lack of Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, samurai had to rely on external forces. They wore solid iron armor and masks that could resist Genjutsu and poison gas, which narrowed the gap between them and ninjas somewhat.

"Are you the Lord Hokage from Konohagakure? Please come this way, this is the venue for the Five Kage Summit!"

When several respectful Samurai of the Land of Iron led Tsunade into the venue, the ninjas from the other villages had already arrived.

As soon as Tsunade entered the room, she looked around.

Directly in front of him sat the Third Tsuchikage in a wheelchair. It was said that he would have retired by now if it weren't for the Five Kage Summit. One of his bodyguards was his son, a tall man named Kitsuchi, and the other was a young ninja of about eleven or twelve years old who was sculpting clay. At that moment, the young ninja was muttering something to himself.

According to the information Tsunade received, it was Deidara, a rare young genius from the Earth Country, Explosion Ninja Deidara. Based on the information, he was a boy with exceptional talent in explosions.

Beside Ōnoki stood the Fourth Raikage of Kumogakure. Compared to Ōnoki, who was already in a wheelchair, the Fourth Raikage, who was in his prime, had already recovered from his injuries, though his face was gloomy and he seemed lost in thought.

Beside him was his Sworn Brother Killer B, and the other was Strategist Dodai of the successive Raikage.

The remaining two are Kazekage Pakura and Mizukage Suikazan Fuguki. Both of them sat there with a calm expression. The guards beside them looked ordinary, like ordinary people, but their faces were indifferent and they wore Badge 1234 on their chests.

Judging from the mechanical aura emanating from the four guards, Tsunade guessed they were probably some kind of Androids invented by Vegapunk.

"Hokage, you're too late!"

As usual Fourth Raikage slammed his hand on the table and shouted, "You, have you been in office for a month before you finally arrived?!"

However, Tsunade wasn't going to tolerate this guy. She crossed her arms and said coldly, "Speak your mind, or keep your mouth shut! I'm the Hokage of Konoha. Whether I arrive early or late is none of your business in Kumogakure."

"This is the Five Kage Summit..."

"Ridiculous! I have no recollection of the Five Kage Summit ever discussing any truly meaningful issues!"

Although Tsunade's words were somewhat sharp, they were indeed the truth. The most successful Five Kage Summit was probably the one where Hashirama Senju divided the Tailed Beast! However, as it turned out, the agenda of that Five Kage Summit was ultimately just wishful thinking on Hashirama Senju.

The Five Great Shinobi Villages did not become peaceful because of the Tailed Beast. On the contrary, the intensity of the battles increased in the later stages because of the Tailed Beast. Even the brief peace was due to the deterrence of Hashirama Senju, not because of the Five Kage Summit.

"Hmph, what kind of attitude is this?! Could it be that you're in cahoots with that Rinnegan brat?!"

At this moment, the Third Tsuchikage said something that was neither a nose nor an eye, but his gaze not only encompassed Tsunade, but also swept over Pakura and Suikazan Fuguki.