The two "brains," Uchiha Kin and Ōnoki, had settled the terms of the agreement. The rest was up to their subordinates.
"General Kin, would you care to take a walk with this old man?" Ōnoki rose into the air and changed how he addressed Uchiha Kin, calling him "General Kin." There was a hint of provocation in his tone. Uchiha Kin laughed. "Ha ha, sure. Let's take a walk..."
Leaving the personnel responsible for drafting the agreement on each side behind, Uchiha Kin and Ōnoki went outside the fortress.
Ōnoki said, "I was stationed at this fortress for ten years when I was young. I never imagined it would fall into your hands... Young man, Qingshi Town won't be easy to take!" His words carried an ulterior meaning.
"It won't be hard to take!" Uchiha Kin naturally knew what he was getting at. "It's just a town! If we lose, we get nothing. If we win and still get nothing, then what was the point of winning? Do you think the Third Hokage will object to the Land of Earth taking this town? Or the advisors? Or the Land of Fire?"
Ōnoki abruptly stopped and hovered directly in front of Uchiha Kin, staring at him with wide eyes.
Uchiha Kin said, "At this point, Qingshi Town is no longer just an ordinary town. It's a political issue!
"From now on, anyone in the Hidden Leaf who dares tell me not to accept Qingshi Town, or to abandon this agreement—he can die. And he'll die branded a 'traitor to his country.'
"I'm expanding our borders, and they're not only refusing to help; they want to hand back the land I've won. People will die over that.
"And me... From now on, the Hidden Leaf shinobi can call me Uchiha Kin in private. I won't hold it against them. But in public, they must call me General Kin, and show the proper respect to a general of another great nation, the Land of Earth.
"Lord Tsuchikage, don't you agree?"
Ōnoki said, "With a member of the Uchiha Clan becoming a vassal in a foreign country, the Hokage will surely be wary. Your Uchiha Clan won't have an easy time of it."
Uchiha Kin said, "Why spoil the mood with talk like that, Tsuchikage? This arrangement suits you, and it suits me. Isn't that just fine?"
Ōnoki felt a little sick at those words... What did he mean, "This arrangement suits you, and it suits me"? Still, he understood that he couldn't gain even the slightest advantage over Uchiha Kin, either in their verbal sparring or in the negotiations.
The two stayed outside only briefly before returning to the negotiating table. After reviewing the agreement, Uchiha Kin had one clause slightly amended!
He added a clarification to the clause, "Rock Ninja will be hired first when prices are equal," specifying that transportation costs would be excluded when calculating "equal prices."
Here, Uchiha Kin had pulled a little trick: the comparison price would be the standard hiring rate for ninja from other villages, minus transportation costs.
Ōnoki glanced at the change without arguing over it, then promptly signed the agreement. Once it was finalized, Ōnoki said, "Wait here. The decree conferring your title will be issued soon." With that, he led his team away.
Ōnoki didn't want to stay there any longer. Every extra minute made him feel more irritated...
After returning to his camp, Ōnoki issued two orders in quick succession. First, he had someone contact the Daimyo and arrange for Uchiha Kin's title to be conferred. Second, he wrote a letter and sent a messenger to the Hidden Leaf to coordinate troop deployments with the Third Hokage.
By now, he no longer expected Uchiha Kin to "send troops" and let him and the Raikage cripple each other while Ōnoki reaped the rewards.
He only wanted to irritate Uchiha Kin and make things difficult for him, while also driving a wedge between the Third Hokage and the Uchiha.
It might not work... but it never hurt to try. Maybe he'd get lucky.
Uchiha Kin was writing a letter too.
First, he reported on the situation on the western front, explaining how he had been given command in an emergency, defeated the Rock Ninja, and negotiated a peace agreement. Second, he enclosed a slim medical handbook on battlefield first aid and asked the Hokage to have it printed and distributed on a large scale.
He assigned the delivery to Minato Squad. Minato Namikaze left behind a kunai. "That'll make it easier for me to pass on messages when I come back."
Minato set off with Kakashi and Nohara Rin. They ran with their arms extended behind them like airplane wings, picking up speed as they went.
As they traveled, Minato flipped through the medical handbook Uchiha Kin had written.
Its contents shocked him!
They were simple and crude, even seeming almost unbelievable...
Wounds could apparently be sealed with glue. For a kunai puncture wound, you could roll up some clothing and stuff it into the wound. If someone went into shock, you could open their chest, reach inside, grip their heart, and manually pump it.
There were also little Fire Release tricks—breathe a jet of flame onto a wound to cauterize it and stop the bleeding, or temporarily stitch it closed with wire, and so on.
There was nothing advanced like the "Mystical Palm Technique" or a "chakra scalpel," but every method was targeted, simple, and effective.
"Medical techniques like these..." Minato was deeply shaken. Nohara Rin asked, "Sensei, are the treatments in there really that astonishing?"
Minato handed her the booklet. After reading it, Nohara Rin was just as dumbfounded... Could a person really come up with these methods? They were downright devilish. But she had to admit they could save lives.
Minato said, "With medical techniques like these, we could reduce our casualties by thirty percent. Out of ten thousand shinobi, at least three thousand could survive because of them."
He couldn't imagine how the handbook could be rejected. No one opposing it would have any valid reason.
When they returned to the Hidden Leaf, they found the village in a state of desolation. Everyone able to fight had already gone to the front, and few people remained in the village. The Ichiraku Ramen sign swayed in the breeze. Inside, Ichiraku sat idle, waiting listlessly.
Minato looked toward the ramen shop and thought, It's been ages since I've had a steaming-hot bowl of ramen. He remembered the last time he'd eaten ramen with Kushina. It had been the last time.
They crossed straight through the main street and entered the Hokage Building. In the mission hall, Minato saw the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. Standing on either side of him were the two advisors, Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura.
The hall had been turned into a military-style mission dispatch center, and those three were its brains.
"Lord Hokage! Advisors... Minato Namikaze reporting!" Minato saluted, then handed over his mission report.
"Hagane... What a shame." After reading the first part, the Third Hokage sighed. Hagane's full name was Mimura Hamaki, the former commander of the western front and an expert at defense. Unfortunately, he had died on the front lines. Then Hiruzen saw that Uchiha Kin had become commander and abruptly raised his head. "Uchiha Kin?" He looked at Minato in disbelief.
Before you continue