Exaggerated Dramatics and Return

The next day, negotiations between the Hidden Leaf Village and Kumogakure resumed.

"After careful consideration, we have decided to accept your terms. In exchange for the 'fact' of killing Kinkaku and Ginkaku, we agree to shift our defensive line toward the Land of Grass." Shortly after the second round of talks began, the Third Raikage made this decision.

Mitokado Homura and Kagami Uchiha exchanged glances, both seeing joy in the other's eyes. In truth, upon entering the private room and discovering that the only Kumogakure representatives were the Raikage and his guard from the previous day, they had already realized that the situation might develop in the direction they hoped for. They simply hadn't expected the Raikage's decision to come so quickly.

They had imagined that even if the Raikage accepted such terms, there would still be more haggling between them. It was truly a matter of personality; the Raikage might hesitate before making a decision, but once his mind was set, he disdained getting bogged down in trivial details.

Such decisiveness was certainly commendable, and the Hidden Leaf's trip to Kumogakure had yielded significant gains.

"In this negotiation, we have both obtained what we wanted. Our two nations can be freed from mutual slaughter, and in the wars to come, the situation for the Land of Lightning and the Land of Fire will be much clearer," Mitokado Homura couldn't help but say.

"Let us hope so," the Raikage replied. On the surface, the negotiation appeared to be a win-win, but he couldn't shake the feeling that Kumogakure was the one suffering the loss.

Soon, both sides drafted an alliance agreement, which was then signed by the Third Raikage and Mitokado Homura, the plenipotentiary representative of the Third Hokage. Thus, the alliance between the Hidden Leaf and Kumogakure was immediately established. Afterward, the two sides drafted a separate secret treaty, covering details such as Kumogakure's commitment to shifting its defensive line toward the Land of Grass. The details of this backroom deal would not be put on paper, but the validity of this secret pact was beyond doubt.

With the formal negotiations concluded, the matter of Kinkaku and Ginkaku became urgent.

The news of the renewed alliance with the Hidden Leaf was immediately announced throughout Kumogakure. Having completed their mission, the Hidden Leaf envoys departed Kumogakure in a hurry at midday, as if eager to bring the news back home.

Shortly after Hanyu Yu and his group left, Kumogakure's intelligence network "suddenly" discovered traces of the rogue ninjas Kinkaku and Ginkaku. In a rush, the Third Raikage, A, led three elite ninjas and, ignoring the village's opposition, set out in haste.

The Raikage's four-man squad entered the Land of Fields at high speed.

"Everyone, stay alert. We are likely very close to Kinkaku and Ginkaku's location. Their strength goes without saying, so please be cautious in the coming operation." Upon arriving at a pre-arranged spot in the Land of Fields, the Raikage said this while giving an imperceptible nod to Bee, who was in the team.

Bee then picked up where the Raikage left off, "Hmm, but after consecutive battles, I imagine those two rogue ninjas won't be in perfect condition, so there's no need to worry too much... Wait! What's going on over there?!"

In the middle of speaking, he suddenly turned his face in another direction and let out a cry of shock and anger!

Startled by this, the other two members of the team reacted quickly. They naturally turned their gazes in the direction Bee was looking, and then... a pair of scarlet Mangekyo Sharingan appeared before them.

As a line of blood tears traced down Kagami Uchiha's cheek, the two ninjas stood frozen in place, silent and motionless.

"You were a bit later than the agreed time," Kagami Uchiha said, slowly closing one eye as he looked at the Raikage.

"Because of the interference from the old men in the village, I was delayed," the Third Raikage said. The downside of being the leader of a village was that, as the person bearing the ultimate responsibility, he could no longer travel as he pleased.

"Enough talk. Take me to Kinkaku and Ginkaku. Also... they won't wake up, will they?" The Raikage pointed at his two companions.

"This is a custom-made genjutsu of the Sharingan; how could they wake up so easily? In their minds, you are currently locked in a fierce battle with Kinkaku and Ginkaku," Kagami Uchiha said, turning toward the direction of the Hidden Leaf group.

The Raikage left his two genjutsu-stricken companions behind and followed Kagami Uchiha, with Bee in tow.

Less than five minutes later, the Raikage saw the Kinkaku and Ginkaku he had been thinking of, along with the crucial ninja tools lying beside their corpses.

"It's them," Bee confirmed immediately upon arriving.

"What about the barrier?" the Raikage asked.

"It has already been deployed," Mitokado Homura said.

The Raikage nodded and knelt beside the corpses of Kinkaku and Ginkaku.

"We have returned everything they were carrying, but the Crimson Gourd and the Seven Star Sword were destroyed in the battle against the Second Hokage. We explained this earlier, and we hope you understand," Sanshao said, seeing the Raikage staring at the fragments of the tools.

Hanyu Yu moved to the side, doing his best to minimize his presence. Well, those two items were destroyed by the Second Hokage anyway; does that have anything to do with Hanyu Yu?

The Raikage had no way to quibble over such matters. He signaled for Bee to collect the tools and their fragments, then pressed both his hands onto the bodies of Kinkaku and Ginkaku, and then... a powerful Lightning Release surged through their corpses.

On the surface, this looked like desecrating the corpses, and in nature, it was, but the Raikage's motive was not to desecrate them. Rather, it was to use Lightning Release to cover up the traces left by the Second Hokage on the two rogue ninjas, while simultaneously blurring the time of their deaths. Only after their flesh was half-carbonized did the Raikage withdraw his technique.

"Everyone, give me a hand," the Raikage said to the group after dealing with the bodies.

Everyone nodded and unleashed various ninjutsu, wantonly destroying the surrounding environment to create the scene of a fierce battle. Because the barrier had been set up in advance, even if a stray ninja were attracted to this remote area by the commotion, they would be unable to break through the barrier to see what was happening inside.

The traces of destruction extended all the way to where Kagami Uchiha had cast his genjutsu. The Raikage then approached his two companions, who were still trapped in the illusion.

"My apologies, you two."

Saying this, the Raikage did not hesitate; he punched both Kumogakure ninjas to the ground, as if they had been knocked out the moment they encountered Kinkaku and Ginkaku... This explained why they had been observing everything from the perspective of spectators during the intense battle.

After helping to cast a round of techniques, there was nothing left for the Hidden Leaf ninjas to do. Hanyu Yu and his group withdrew from the barrier and retreated toward the Land of Fire. At this point, their mission was successfully completed.

"Bee, you can continue," the Raikage instructed his companion after the Hidden Leaf group had left. In his view, the battlefield was not yet realistic enough, and since he had decided to fake all of this, it had to look as authentic as possible.

Bee nodded, and a powerful, violent chakra surged from his body. Bee was the Eight-Tails jinchuriki; this information was supposed to be kept secret from the Hidden Leaf, but now that the Hidden Leaf people were gone, Bee began to release the power of the Tailed Beast.

Unfortunately, he was not a perfect jinchuriki. As the Eight-Tails' seal loosened and chakra continued to overflow, he gradually lost control. The violent Tailed Beast clashed with the Third Raikage.

By the time the Raikage managed to stuff the Tailed Beast back into Bee, he himself was in a sorry state, and Bee was half-dead... Kinkaku and Ginkaku were capable of Tailed Beast transformations, but now that this battlefield was filled with the Eight-Tails' chakra, who could specifically distinguish whether this chakra belonged to the Eight-Tails or the Nine-Tails?

"Are you alright?" the Raikage asked his partner.

"Yeah, nothing serious." What could be serious? He had just been beaten to a pulp, beaten half to death.

"Wake those two up, dispel the barrier, and then... call for the village's people," the Raikage said, glancing in the direction of Kumogakure.

This operation had gone against his original intentions, but in the end, it was a major benefit for Kumogakure.

On the other side, the Hidden Leaf group did not know that the Raikage had continued to stir up trouble at the scene long after they had left. Having completed all the alliances, deals, and exchanges, they carried the news of peace, passed through the front-line positions, and returned to the Hidden Leaf Village.