Sand Delegation

Time flew by, and half a month quickly passed. The date agreed upon for peace talks with Sunagakure had arrived.

Tobirama had taken the time to visit the three Gaara siblings in Konoha Prison. Aside from the frightened Temari and Kankuro, Gaara had acted as though he did not see him.

Having just opened his heart to Naruto Uzumaki during the Chunin Ninja Exams, Gaara was still in a confused state of mind. So Tobirama Senju had also called Naruto over to counsel Gaara.

During this time, Tobirama had asked the system whether collecting the Tailed Beasts meant taking the Jinchuriki as well, or only the Tailed Beasts themselves.

The answer had left him fairly satisfied. Gathering the Tailed Beasts simply meant bringing them all together; it did not matter whether they still had their containers.

This spared Tobirama Senju a difficult problem. He did not have the Rinnegan and could not seal all these Tailed Beasts into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.

With that being the case, the peace talks with Sunagakure were doomed to fail unless they were willing to give up their village's Jinchuriki. But that was clearly impossible. After all, to a village, Tailed Beasts were like nuclear weapons in his previous life. They might not be used, but they could not be absent.

"Lord Hokage, Ebizo of Sunagakure in the Land of Wind has arrived in the village as a peace envoy. He wishes to discuss the Konoha Crush Plan with you."

An ANBU ninja interrupted Tobirama Senju, who had been lost in thought at his desk.

"Ebizo?"

Tobirama Senju nodded slightly, recalling Chiyo's younger brother, who had played a minor role in the original story.

"Good. Have someone take them to the reception hall first. I'll be there shortly."

As soon as Tobirama Senju finished speaking, the ANBU ninja looked up and discovered that Tobirama Senju had already vanished.

"Lord Hokage is so strong!"

The ANBU ninja drew a breath and silently marveled to himself.

From Tobirama's resurrection during the Konoha Crush Plan until now, exactly thirty days had passed.

With the various Earth Release ninjutsu of the ninja world, the reconstruction work had long since been completed. Konoha had returned to its pre-disaster prosperity, with towering buildings packed tightly together.

"Konoha really is prosperous..." Several young Sunagakure juniors following behind Ebizo sighed sincerely.

Sunagakure was backed by endless yellow sands, with nothing but desert around it. Its only sources of income were ninja missions and the gold dust that the Fourth Kazekage had unearthed with Magnet Release to subsidize the village.

Now, the Fourth Kazekage responsible for mining the gold dust was dead. Sunagakure had lost a major source of income.

Ebizo, walking at the front, trembled slightly at those words.

Yes, Konoha had always been the strongest ninja village, with the best land and resources. They had intended to join forces with Orochimaru to besiege Konoha and profit from it, but they had never expected Tobirama Senju to be resurrected. Not only had Sunagakure gained nothing, they now had to compensate Konoha to ransom back their Jinchuriki—and worry about facing the wrath of the Second Hokage.

Yet deep down, Ebizo hoped Tobirama Senju would make trouble, even if it meant war breaking out.

After all, what was more terrifying than poverty?

Sunagakure was so poor that they could not even afford shoes. At worst, they would fight Konoha to mutual destruction. Barefoot people were not afraid of those wearing shoes; at most, they would have to pay more reparations after defeat.

Besides, Ōnoki of Iwagakure had already given his reply. So long as Sunagakure was willing, they could join forces to wage war against Konoha.

"Guests, please come with me."

The Konoha ANBU in charge of receiving them had already moved to the front of the Sunagakure delegation.

Ebizo glanced over, and the sight shocked him.

The Copy Ninja, Kakashi Hatake! He silently assumed this was Konoha's attempt to intimidate them. He had not expected the one receiving them to be an elite Jonin.

Seeing Kakashi Hatake's youthful face despite the mask, Ebizo turned to look at the younger generation of Sunagakure behind him, who were absorbed in Konoha's prosperity, and sighed softly.

"Damn it, why does Konoha have so many geniuses?" The old man with bandages wrapped around his head gritted his teeth, fury rising in his chest. He turned back and loudly berated several juniors before following the Konoha ANBU into Konoha's reception hall.