"Thank you for your help this time, Lord Raikage."
Inside the Konoha encampment.
Yotsuki Sora, the Raikage, sat squarely in the seat of honor, his indifferent gaze sweeping over the Konoha ninja inside the command tent.
A and Killer B flanked him like a pair of bodyguards.
Fugaku Uchiha, Konoha's commander, willingly sat off to the side, looking at Yotsuki Sora with warmth and gratitude. "If not for you, Lord Raikage, Hidden Mist would probably have destroyed our position on Eastwood Mountain."
"Konoha has already submitted to Hidden Cloud. Helping you is only natural."
A glanced at Sora beside him and said gravely, "No need for more thanks. Just increase the reparations by thirty percent."
"Well..."
At those words, many of the Konoha ninja present stiffened.
Konoha had agreed to pay Hidden Cloud three hundred million ryo in reparations. Thirty percent of three hundred million was a full ninety million ryo!
With interest, that meant at least another hundred million!
"Not enough?"
Yotsuki Sora's voice sounded slowly. The air throughout the tent seemed to freeze, and every Konoha ninja felt-
-
a suffocating pressure.
"N-no." Cold sweat beaded on Fugaku Uchiha's forehead. "It's just..."
"Just what?"
Sora slowly rose, his towering figure radiating suffocating pressure. "And then there's that experimental subject."
"The wood release bloodline and the Mangekyō Sharingan. To think both powers could appear in a single person."
"What, is Konoha breeding monsters to see which one survives?!"
"Lord Raikage, that man really isn't one of ours!"
Minato Namikaze, who had yet to return to the Iwagakure front, hurriedly spoke up.
"We're just as puzzled about where he came from, but he absolutely isn't one of our people. Otherwise, why would he attack Konoha during this Hidden Mist invasion?"
"Konoha has never conducted any human experiments involving Wood Release!"