The scorching sun baked the earth. The powerful shinobi, led by the Hokage, stood beneath the Hokage Building, waiting for the daimyos to arrive.
People loved watching a spectacle. The daimyos' convoy had yet to arrive, but the crowds had already gathered.
Sarutobi Sasuke hurriedly Body Flickered away from the group and took charge, directing the scattered crowds. He ordered the shinobi perched on walls and rooftops to get down and stand properly by the roadside instead of making fools of themselves.
A commotion rose from the crowd at the end of the road. The canopies held high above the horizon appeared in everyone's sight at once.
At the head of the procession, a red ox-drawn carriage rolled steadily toward the building. The unarmed samurai looked tense, warily watching the shinobi around them.
The smiles on the crowd's faces seemed strangely menacing to them. They could only lament that their weapons had been confiscated.
The pleasant jingling of bells stopped, and the leading carriage came to a halt. The attendants behind it planted their flags in the ground, the banners embroidered with the Flame Family Crest fluttering in the wind.
With their servants' careful assistance, the daimyos climbed down from their carriages and slowly made their way toward the Hokage.
A meeting of kings.
The leaders of the Hidden Villages and the daimyos of the nations, all part of a new era, held a historic meeting beneath the Hokage Building in Konoha.
The atmosphere was hardly friendly. The undercurrent of tension was common knowledge, an open secret.
At the meeting held in Daimyo City in the Land of Fire, many daimyos had expressed their doubts. They didn't believe the shinobi would dare lay a hand on them, men of such exalted status.
A bunch of killing machines who knew only