A Restless Night

Danzo left the Hokage's Office looking refreshed and radiant.

The speed of the action and the smoothness of the negotiations were unexpected even by Utatane Koharu, who had refuted Danzo.

But the next second, cold sweat broke out on the consultant's forehead.

Knowing Danzo very well, she considered a possibility.

When Danzo reasoning with you, it means...

Mitokado Homura was standing nearby, also realized what was happening. He immediately jolted, his knees buckled, and he almost knelt on the ground.

Immediately afterwards, Shikaku noticed that the two aggressive consultants had stopped asking him for an explanation and left the office in a daze.

That night, the two consultants had an exceptionally difficult time sleeping.

The Anbu responsible for protecting them were very puzzled as to why the two advisors, who had just fallen asleep, would suddenly open their eyes and ask if they were still on duty.

This went on all night, leaving the Anbu no chance to slack off.

The Land of Iron.

Chōsuke, who was sent by Danzo to welcome the Hokage, finally met Kazashiro and his Danzo.

"Is that His Lord Hokage?"

From a distance, a samurai shouted loudly.

"Good."

Kazashiro stopped and waited for the others to come forward and confirm his identity.

"My name Chōsuke. I have been entrusted by Mifune to welcome you into the city."

After confirming everything was correct, Chōsuke led Kazashiro to the location of the Kage Summit, while simultaneously sending someone to notify the other four Kage.

"Have all the other shadows arrived?"

As they walked, Kazashiro asked Chōsuke curiously.

"Yes, Lord Hokage, the Kazekage, Tsuchikage, Raikage, Mizukage, and their guards have all arrived safely."

The four shadows moved pretty quickly.

Looking at myself, I have faced assassination attempts no less than dozens of times, with one day the number reaching an astonishing eight.

Damn it, all I did was kill your relatives and friends, is it really necessary to fight this hard?

He somewhat regretted holding the Kage Summit.

He had so many assassins that he couldn't distinguish who was whose subordinate.

Led by Chōsuke, Kazashiro entered the fortress, passed through a corridor guarded by layers of samurai, and arrived at the meeting place that had been prepared.

"Hmph, it seems the Lord Hokage's journey hasn't been so smooth. Did he encounter an assassination attempt?"

Upon finally seeing Kazashiro, Ōnoki immediately chose to mock him.

Unbeknownst to him, the reason he casually made up was precisely why Kazashiro was late.

What, you're one of the assassins?

Kazashiro's gaze toward Ōnoki was somewhat unfriendly.

However, he immediately remembered that the main purpose of this meeting was to get the five hidden villages to cooperate in order to fight against Jigen, so he did not react on the spot.

"Lord Tsuchikage is joking."

As he spoke, Kazashiro nodded to Pakura, emphasizing the relationship between Sunagakure and Konoha to the other Kage.

"Now that the Lord Hokage has arrived, I, Mifune, as the neutral party jointly elected by everyone, hereby declare the Mifune Kage Summit open."

Mifune himself was a peace advocate, so he naturally wouldn't stand idly by and watch the two Kage argue. He then announced the start of the talks.

The moment the words fell, the guards of the Shadows leaped up to the upper level, leaving space for the Shadows present.

Meanwhile, they were also observing the other guards from the shadows.

"That silver-haired guy looks like the Fourth Hokage's son, Hatake Kakashi."

Zabuza looked at Kakashi's signature silver hair and said coldly to Kisame.

"I've seen the little girl next to him before, during the Chunin Ninja Exams. She's clearly a Genin, yet the Hokage has her by his side..."

Kisame noticed Uchiha Hikari next to Kakashi.

"Well, and that blond kid too, hmph, the Tsuchikage and the Hokage, they must have a lot in common."

With the facts laid bare, Kisame could easily see what those two Kage were up to. He thought to himself how wicked those Kage were, while his own Mizukage was completely harmless.

At this moment, Yagura, Kisame first. "Since this meeting was convened by the Lord Hokage, please explain your reasons?"

Yagura's words displeased Ōnoki, who tilted his head slightly and said sarcastically, "As expected, this is the era of young people. Old folks like us are really not valued anymore."

"Tsuchikage, you might as well make your point clearer."

Yagura, despite being rebuked by Ōnoki, showed no change in expression. Instead, he pretended not to understand and let Ōnoki continue speaking.

"It's nothing, I just marvel at how formidable the younger generation is. Apart from Lord Raikage, the other Kage are all in their prime."

Ōnoki chuckled, fully utilizing his negotiation skills.

"What the Lord Tsuchikage said is true. The Lord Third also said the same thing. There are too many virtuous young men in the village, which makes him struggle a lot when choosing a successor to the Kage, so he sometimes can't make a decision."

"The Lord Tsuchikage is still sitting in this position, presumably because he, like Teacher Sarutobi, is facing a difficult decision."

Kazashiro feigned an innocent expression, but every word he uttered struck a nerve with Ōnoki.

"Pfft."

Deidara couldn't help but laugh after hearing this, "This Hokage is quite interesting. I like this kid, hmm."

In every argument with Ōnoki, he was always the one at a disadvantage. Today, seeing someone directly make the old man blush with anger, Deidara couldn't help but admire the person.

After his face turned visibly red, Ōnoki quickly calmed down.

Having dominated the Shinobi World for decades, even if he lost his composure for a moment, he could recover in the shortest amount of time.

But Kazashiro clearly had no intention of ending there. Seeing that Ōnoki wanted to make amends, he immediately spoke up, "Speaking of which, Iwagakure does have a lot of talented people. I remember during the Third Shinobi World War, Iwagakure used tens of thousands of people to wear down the Third Raikage."

Following this, they used Kusagakure as Minato Namikaze to declare war on Konoha, also dispatching a large force to fight against Minato Namikaze, demonstrating their expertise in talent cultivation.

That statement is even more malicious.

Everyone knows how many ninja Iwagakure sacrificed to wear down the Third Raikage.

Not to mention the battle against Minato Namikaze, Stone Ninja were almost completely wiped out.

If someone were to take out a blood pressure monitor and measure Ōnoki's blood pressure at this moment, they would be surprised to find that Ōnoki's blood pressure was rising at an extremely strange rate.

"It is precisely because of the lessons learned from the Third Shinobi World War that we yearn even more for the arrival of peace."

Seeing that Kazashiro was determined to continue pushing Ōnoki's neck, Mifune quickly intervened and forcibly stopped Kazashiro's actions.

"When the First Hokage convened the Kage Summit for the first time, wasn't it precisely for the peaceful development of the ninja world?"

Mifune's words make a lot of sense, Kazashiro himself came for this purpose as well.

But when he saw Ōnoki's face, he couldn't control himself. "Yeah, when the First Hokage distributed the Tailed Beast, he hoped to balance the fighting power of each village, but some shameless people actually sent Jinchuriki to the battlefield."

"Ah, Lord Tsuchikage, please don't misunderstand, I wasn't talking about you."

Kazashiro's words so enraged Mifune that he almost drew his sword to kill him.

Damn it, you're the one who convened the Kage Summit, yet you're just here criticizing the Tsuchikage. What, are you trying to drive him crazy?