The enormous circular conference room reserved for Iwagakure's highest ranks was completely empty at the moment.
The massive ventilation duct overhead rattled loudly, blowing out cold air laced with the pungent lime smell of freshly painted walls.
The room had only been renovated a few days ago, and the putty in the corners had not even dried yet.
Raikage A sat in a specially custom-made oversized leather chair, every muscle in his body taut as cast iron.
His crippled right arm was wrapped in thick plaster and hung from his neck by a filthy white cloth sling.
It had been sealed beneath the cast for days, and his fury during the journey had left him drenched in hot sweat.
Now it gave off a strange stench of iodine, blood, and sour sweat.
The smell made Mei Terumi, seated below him, frown constantly.
Mei Terumi still wore her blue gown today, but its hem was smeared with the Land of Earth's distinctive yellow mud, which had dried into hard crusts.
Her hands, their nails painted bright red, nervously picked at the edge of the table, scraping off a small patch of varnish from the solid wood surface.
She wanted to speak and break the suffocating atmosphere, but when she opened her mouth, her throat was dry as if it were smoking. She swallowed hard, yet failed to force out a single word.
Across from them, the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, had it the worst.
He could not sit up at all and could only lie on a battered wooden stretcher like a crippled invalid.
The stretcher had been placed in the open space beside the conference table.
Two transparent oxygen tubes were inserted into his nostrils. Every time he breathed, they made wheezing noises, like a broken bellows on the verge of