The next day, negotiations between Konoha and Cloud Village resumed.
"After careful consideration, we've decided to accept your terms. In exchange for the 'fact' that Kinkaku and Ginkaku were killed, we agree to move our defense line toward the Land of Grass." Not long after the second round of negotiations began, the Raikage made this decision.
Mitokado Homura and Kagami Uchiha exchanged glances, both seeing delight in the other's eyes. In fact, when they arrived at this chamber and discovered that only the Raikage and the guard from the previous day were representing Cloud Village, they had already realized things might be heading in the direction they hoped. They just hadn't expected the Raikage to decide so quickly.
They had imagined that even if the Raikage accepted these terms, there would still be plenty of haggling between them. It really did come down to his personality. He might hesitate before making a decision, but once he had made up his mind, he had no interest in quibbling over the details.
Such decisiveness was certainly commendable. Konoha had gained a great deal from its trip to Cloud Village.
"Both sides got what they wanted from these negotiations. Our two countries can put an end to their mutual slaughter, and the situation between the Land of Lightning and the Land of Fire will be much clearer in the wars to come," Mitokado Homura couldn't help saying.
"Let's hope so," the Raikage replied. On the surface, these negotiations looked like a win for both sides, but he couldn't shake the feeling that Cloud Village had gotten the worse end of the deal.
Soon, the two sides drafted an alliance agreement. Mitokado Homura, acting as the plenipotentiary representative of the Third Hokage, and the Third Raikage signed their names to it, and the alliance between Konoha and Cloud Village was officially established. They then drafted a separate secret pact, which included provisions ensuring that Cloud Village would shift its defense line toward the Land of Grass. The details of this under-the-table deal wouldn't be put in writing, but there was no doubt that the pact would be honored.
Once the negotiations on paper were complete, the matter of Kinkaku and Ginkaku became urgent.
News that Cloud Village had renewed its alliance with Konoha was immediately announced throughout the village. The Konoha envoys had fulfilled their mission, and by noon they hurriedly set off from Cloud Village, as if eager to carry the news back to Konoha.
Not long after Hanyu and the others had left Cloud Village, its intelligence network "suddenly" discovered traces of the rogue ninja Kinkaku and Ginkaku. In haste, the Third Raikage A led three elite ninja out of the village, defying its opposition and setting off on a rushed pursuit.
The Raikage's four-man squad entered the Land of Fields at breakneck speed.
"Everyone, stay alert. We may be very close to Kinkaku and Ginkaku's location. There's no need to discuss how strong they are. We need to proceed with the utmost caution." When they reached the agreed-upon location in the Land of Fields, the Raikage said this, then gave Bee, who was with the squad, a barely perceptible nod.
Bee picked up the thread. "Yeah. But after fighting one battle after another, those two rogue ninja probably aren't in great shape, either, so there's no need to worry too much... Wait! What's going on over there?!"
As he spoke, he suddenly turned toward another direction, his voice full of shock and anger.
His sudden outburst prompted the other two in the squad to react quickly. Naturally, they turned to look where Bee was staring, and then... a pair of crimson Mangekyō Sharingan appeared before them.
As a trail of blood tears ran down Kagami Uchiha's cheek, the two ninja stood motionless, silently entranced.
"You're a little late," Kagami Uchiha said to the Raikage, slowly closing one eye.
"The old men in the village tried to stop me, so I was held up." The Third Raikage replied. The downside of becoming a village's leader was that, as the one bearing ultimate responsibility for the entire village, he could no longer come and go as he pleased.
"Enough talk. Take me to Kinkaku and Ginkaku. And... they won't wake up, will they?" the Raikage asked, pointing at his two companions.
"A custom genjutsu cast with the Sharingan isn't something they can just wake up from. In their minds, you're fighting Kinkaku and Ginkaku one after the other right now." As Kagami Uchiha spoke, he turned toward the Konoha group.
The Raikage left his two genjutsu-stricken companions where they were and followed Kagami Uchiha, with Bee at his side.
Less than five minutes later, the Raikage saw Kinkaku and Ginkaku, whom he had longed to find, along with the several crucial ninja tools beside their corpses.
"Those are them." As soon as they arrived, Bee confirmed Kinkaku and Ginkaku's identities.
"What about the barrier?" the Raikage asked.
"It's already in place," Mitokado Homura replied.
The Raikage nodded, then crouched beside Kinkaku and Ginkaku's bodies.
"We've returned everything they were carrying, but the Crimson Gourd and the Seven Star Sword were destroyed in the battle with the Second Hokage. We explained that earlier, and hope you understand." Seeing the Raikage staring at the fragments of the ninja tools, Sanshao had to speak up.
Hanyu, meanwhile, quietly shifted a little farther to the side, doing his best to make himself less conspicuous. Well, the Second Hokage had destroyed those two items. What did that have to do with Hanyu Yu?
The Raikage had no way to make an issue of something so trivial. He signaled Bee to collect the ninja tools and their fragments, then placed one hand on Kinkaku and the other on Ginkaku. A powerful surge of Lightning Release instantly coursed through their bodies.
It looked like an execution, and in fact, it was. But the Raikage wasn't doing it to punish the corpses. He was using Lightning Release to cover up as much as possible of the traces the Second Hokage had left on the two rogue ninja and obscure the time of their deaths. Only after their bodies were half-carbonized did he withdraw his jutsu.
"Everyone, give us a hand," the Raikage said after taking care of the bodies.
Everyone nodded and unleashed various jutsu, wreaking havoc on the surrounding area to create the appearance of a fierce battle. Since they had prepared a barrier in advance, even if a ninja or two were drawn to this remote place by the commotion, they wouldn't be able to break through it and see what was happening inside.
The trail of destruction extended all the way to the place where Kagami Uchiha had cast his genjutsu. Then the Raikage returned to the two companions still caught in it.
"You two, I'm sorry."
Though he said this, the Raikage didn't hesitate. He knocked both Cloud Village ninja to the ground with a single punch each, making it look as though they'd been taken out the moment they encountered Kinkaku and Ginkaku. That explained why, during the fierce battle, they had watched everything unfold from the sidelines.
After helping unleash a round of jutsu, the Konoha ninja had nothing more to do here. Hanyu and the others left the barrier and withdrew toward the Land of Fire. By then, their mission was complete.
"Bee, you can carry on," the Raikage ordered his companion once the Konoha ninja had left. The battle scene still didn't look convincing enough to him. Since they had decided to fake the whole thing, they had to make it look as real as possible.
Bee nodded, and a powerful, savage chakra surged out of him... Bee was the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki, a secret they naturally had to keep from Konoha. But now that Konoha's people had left, Bee began releasing the tailed beast's power.
Unfortunately, he wasn't a Perfect Jinchuriki. As the Eight-Tails' seal loosened and more and more chakra spilled out, he gradually lost control. The savage tailed beast fought the Third Raikage.
By the time the Raikage forced the tailed beast back into Bee, he was in a sorry state, while Bee was half-dead... Kinkaku and Ginkaku had been capable of transforming into tailed beasts, but this battlefield was now saturated with the Eight-Tails' chakra. Who could tell exactly whether the chakra was from the Eight-Tails or the Nine-Tails?
"Are you all right?" the Raikage asked his partner.
"Yeah, I'm fine." What could possibly be wrong with him? He'd only been beaten to within an inch of his life.
"Wake those two up, take down the barrier, and then... call the village," the Raikage said, glancing in the direction of Cloud Village.
This operation went against his wishes, but it would ultimately bring great benefits to Cloud Village.
Meanwhile, the Konoha group had no idea that the Raikage had continued working on the scene for a long time after they left. Having completed all the agreements, deals, and exchanges, they carried the news of peace past the front-line positions and returned to the Hidden Leaf Village.
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