The Door Was Blocked Again

At the routine Kage Summit,

the Third Tsuchikage and Fourth Raikage arrived at the venue first and began chatting.

"What's going on with Konoha lately? It's just a Chunin Ninja Exam, but they've turned it into a complete mess!"

Ōnoki chuckled, his tone full of mockery.

The Fourth Raikage snorted. "Didn't they claim their new generation was overflowing with geniuses? They've only got themselves to blame!"

No doubt about it.

The ones happiest to see Konoha take a hit were Iwagakure and Kumogakure.

After all, compared with the relatively weaker Kirigakure and Sunagakure, those two had sharper conflicts with Konoha. Their disputes involved both old grudges and the question of who would control the interests of the Shinobi Village Alliance.

Before long, the Third Hokage, Fourth Mizukage, and Fourth Kazekage arrived in turn.

Once all Five Kage were present, the meeting officially began.

Naturally, they first shared the intel their respective villages had gathered about the Akatsuki Organization.

The Third Tsuchikage was the first to speak. "Over the past week, Iwagakure launched surprise attacks on more than a dozen targets suspected of being Akatsuki Organization hideouts. We still came up empty-handed."

The Fourth Kazekage said, "Same here!"

The Fourth Mizukage followed suit, shaking his head with a grim expression.

At that, the Fourth Raikage slammed his fist on the conference table with a bang. "Those bastards in the Akatsuki Organization—have they all gone underground?"

The Five Great Shinobi Villages had spent so long mobilizing their forces, yet they hadn't managed to gather a single useful lead. It was no wonder the Kage felt frustrated.

Just as the mood in the conference room grew oppressive, the Third Hokage spoke up. "Our Intelligence Squad has compiled a large amount of intel and rumors and uncovered an important lead: over the past year,