"He's a practical man. As long as our interests align, cooperation is possible."
Silence settled over the office for a moment.
"One more thing," Jiraiya said. "About Tsunade and Orochimaru..."
"Find them and bring them back," Minato said. "We urgently need Tsunade's Medical Ninjutsu and Orochimaru's research expertise.
Sensei, I can only entrust this to you. I'll send two Anbu teams with you, but how you persuade them is up to you."
Orochimaru was now serving under Las Noches. Minato wondered whether his teacher could manage it.
Jiraiya nodded, his expression solemn.
"One last question." Shikaku set down his pen and looked at Minato. "What do we do about Las Noches?
Uchiha Ryūha also aims to unite the Shinobi World against the Ōtsutsuki, but his methods are far more extreme than ours. Do we cooperate with him or oppose him?"
Minato remained silent for a long time.
"Neither," he finally said. "We follow our own path. If his path succeeds, we'll welcome that.
If his path threatens to destroy the Shinobi World, we'll stop him.
But when it comes to the Ōtsutsuki, our goals align-so we'll share intelligence and coordinate tactics to a limited extent, but we will never merge with him, and we will never submit."
"A delicate balance," Shikaku remarked.
"But it's our only choice." Minato rose and walked to the window, looking at the sun already sinking toward the west. "We are Konoha. We are the inheritors of the Will of Fire.
We can compromise. We can cooperate. But we must never abandon our own path.
Otherwise, even if we defeat the Ōtsutsuki, we'll no longer be ourselves."
He turned to look at the four advisers.
"Starting today, Konoha is on a wartime footing. All resources will be directed toward war preparations, all missions will prioritize increasing